Part 21
“Max,” Isabel said as she met her brother at the hospital entrance, pulling Kyle behind her. “Thank God. Kyle thinks Tess -”
“Bring him tonight,” Max replied, avoiding Isabel’s face as he dug into his front pockets for the keys to the Jeep. Isabel watched, her hand still grasping Kyle’s arm, as the Jeep sputtered to life and screeched out of the parking lot.
“Isabel, honey,” Diane called, picking up her pace as she stepped through the automatic glass door. “Max! Max, wait!” She waived her arms as she reached Isabel’s side but the attempt was futile. “Oh, Max,” she sighed as Philip joined her side, placing his arm on her shoulder.
“Where’s Max going?”
“I don’t know, Philip. Isabel?”
“I don’t know where Max was going,” Isabel admitted, Michael, Maria and Alex quickly arriving at the scene just behind her father. “He didn’t tell me.” Isabel glanced at Michael, who nodded, and her eyes passed from Michael to Alex to Kyle.
“Let’s go home, sweetheart,” Diane said, she and Philip stepping from the sidewalk onto the crosswalk leading to the parking lot.
Isabel glanced at Michael again and after his strained look, ran after her parents. “Actually, Mom, Dad, if it’s okay, I’d like to stay and sit with Liz for a little while. Alex can bring me home.” She fanned her arm backwards over her shoulder to where Alex stood.
“Are you sure, Alex,” Diane questioned, raising her voice so Alex could hear.
“Oh, sure,” Alex replied with a wide smile. “My car’s at the park. I don’t mind bringing Isabel home. We’d all like to stay here a bit longer, I think.” He looked from side to side at Michael and Maria and Kyle, all of whom agreed with Alex. “It’s no problem.”
“Be home by 10:30,” Philip remanded as Isabel kissed his cheek. “Tomorrow is still a school day, no matter what’s going on.”
“Okay, Daddy. I won’t be late.”
“If you hear from Max -”
“I’ll tell him to go home, Mom. Promise.” She waved to her parents once they began walking toward their car parked five rows away from the hospital entrance and after watching them drive away, she turned back to her friends. “We’ve got a problem.”
“Yeah,” Alex agreed. “We all can’t fit in Kyle’s mustang.” He pointed to the car then looked back at his friends.
“We’ll fit,” Michael barked as he lead the way to Kyle’s car.
* * *
“That is a problem,” Alex said quietly, a plate full of pizza in his lap as the five teens sat in Michael’s apartment. “Much more serious than getting all of us into Kyle’s car.”
“Max should be here soon,” Maria said, wiping the corners of her mouth with a napkin. “He’ll be able to tell if something is wrong with you, Kyle.”
Prefacing his entrance with a staccato knock, Max appeared inside Michael’s apartment before anyone had a chance to move, the door slamming closed behind him. He helped himself to the remaining pieces of pizza and deposited himself onto the closest chair, his friends watching as he began to eat.
“Max,” Isabel began, after surveying her friends’ shocked expressions. “Where have you been? Mom and Dad are worried. We were worried.”
“I went to the pod chamber,” he replied between bites. “I tried to read some of the destiny book to see if I could help Liz.”
“Could you understand it?”
“No,” he said, his face lowering to his lap. He looked at the remaining pieces of pizza on his plate but instead of eating them, he pushed the plate onto the coffee table. “I couldn’t read any of it. Then I thought about the healing stones -”
“So did Alex,” Maria interrupted. “Alex came up with a great plan.”
“Well, it’s not great,” Alex admitted, waiving Maria’s praise away with his pizza-filled hand. “An okay plan, a suggestion really.”
“Let’s hear it,” Max said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, his attention fully focused on Alex.
“There’s something more urgent that needs your attention,” Isabel announced as she sat up onto her knees and blocked Alex from Max’s view.
“What could be more urgent that Liz?”
“Me,” Kyle responded sheepishly, his hand raising as if he were in class. “I am.”
Brave New World (CC; M/L; Mature) COMPLETE -- 7/13/05
Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Forum Moderators
Part 22
Part 22
“I’ll deal with you later, Kyle,” Max growled, his fists involuntarily clinching in his lap. He felt a twinge of anger bubble to the surface and tried very hard to control it or he knew he would do something to Kyle he would regret.
“No, Max,” Isabel interrupted by standing up from the floor, her own voice raising in agitation. “Kyle thinks Tess mindwarped him. You need to make sure he’s okay.”
“Why?”
“The other Alex died because of the effects of Tess’ mindwarp. You have to help Kyle. We can’t lose anyone else.”
“You heard the things he said to Liz,” Max argued, his face flushing in anger as he stood from his chair. “He was arguing with him when she collapsed.”
“Look, Max,” Kyle began, purposefully avoid Max’s stare. “I realize I’ve been a first class ass about this entire thing and I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to Liz.”
“I want to. I will. And it would be extra special nice if I could live to see you two get married and raise loads of alien babies. I’m practically begging here. What else do you want me to do?”
Max stared at Kyle then surveyed the room, taking into account the expressions his friends and family wore on their faces. Part of him wanted to ignore Kyle’s plea, to pretend the entire apology never happened and leave it up to fate. But what would Liz say, a little voice in the back of his mind echoed. Kyle was her friend and Liz had cared enough about Kyle to try and maintain their friendship, despite Kyle’s actions toward her and his opinions about Tess. Liz’s happiness was worth the effort because Max wanted nothing more than for Liz to be happy. “Let’s go into Michael’s room. I’ll need to concentrate.”
* * *
“What do I do,” Kyle asked as Max partially closed Michael’s bedroom door. Max stared at Kyle and at once noticed his hesitancy. “Is this going to hurt?”
“I don’t think so,” Max replied with a shrug. “I’ve never done this kind of this before.”
“God,” Kyle muttered under his breath just before he fell onto Michael’s bed. “I...I’m gonna be your guinea pig.”
“I guess I should connect with you.”
“Huh,” Kyle asked, almost jumping away from Max. Fear was etched across his features, his blue eyes wide in shock. “What does that mean?”
“I need to get inside your head, Kyle,” Max said, sitting beside Kyle on the bed. “It will be awkward for me too.”
“Okay,” Kyle shouted after a moment’s reflection, his hands knotted into tight fists. “Work your voodoo.” He shut his eyes tight, his knuckles turning white from his clinched fists and his entire body tensed.
Max exhaled slowly and cautiously moved his hands to either side of Kyle’s head. “Okay. Just try to slow your breathing and let your mind blank out.”
“Blank.”
Max closed his eyes in concentration, his hands still framing Kyle’s head, while he searched within Kyle’s mind for any signs of Tess’ interference. His own mind was quickly bombarded with memories from Kyle’s mind.
If some chick's gonna be yelling at me about keeping the toilet seat down, she better at least be doing me.
You look really great when you're pissed.
Yeah, right.
No, I'm serious. I feel, like, all this energy coming from you right now. In order to trim the lamp of wisdom, we must attend to our bodily needs.
Let me tell you something, Buddha-boy...I got a lamp that needs some serious trimming.
Yeah. Kyle...when he healed you, um...did...did you see things?
See things?
Flashes. Images.
No. But since he healed me, I keep getting these flashes of Max Evans naked.
This was a horrible idea.
If Liz and Maria are in trouble -
Oh, who cares about them anyway. They’re just in the way.
I need your help, Kyle.
Sure.
That’s my Buddha Boy. You’re the only one that can help me now.
Max made his choice. I need you to help me remind him it was the wrong one. Max needs to remember his destiny is not Liz Parker.
I love you, Tess.
I’m sorry, Kyle. I can’t love you back. I belong to Max.
You’re a means to an end, Valenti. You won’t remember any of this when I’m finished with you.
Max is my destiny. I’ll make him remember.
Max dropped his hands, his body worn from maintaining the connection for so long. What little information he had gathered about Tess plan gave him every indication that he had moved forward with whatever plan she and Nasedo had devised before coming to Roswell. Immediately, Max remembered those final horrible moments of guilt he had felt when Tess disappeared in Copper Summit. That guilt was gone, replaced by anger and sadness for what Tess could have been had she changed her way of thinking.
“Good as new?” Max nodded, a half smile forming on his face at Kyle’s joke. “Thank God,” Kyle exhaled. “And Buddha too. Any idea on what she was planning?”
“It doesn’t matter now but she always had a plan.”
“Well, damn her.”
“Yeah,” Max replied, rubbing his temples with his index fingers. “Damn her.”
----------
dialogue taken from Surprise and End of the World
“I’ll deal with you later, Kyle,” Max growled, his fists involuntarily clinching in his lap. He felt a twinge of anger bubble to the surface and tried very hard to control it or he knew he would do something to Kyle he would regret.
“No, Max,” Isabel interrupted by standing up from the floor, her own voice raising in agitation. “Kyle thinks Tess mindwarped him. You need to make sure he’s okay.”
“Why?”
“The other Alex died because of the effects of Tess’ mindwarp. You have to help Kyle. We can’t lose anyone else.”
“You heard the things he said to Liz,” Max argued, his face flushing in anger as he stood from his chair. “He was arguing with him when she collapsed.”
“Look, Max,” Kyle began, purposefully avoid Max’s stare. “I realize I’ve been a first class ass about this entire thing and I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to Liz.”
“I want to. I will. And it would be extra special nice if I could live to see you two get married and raise loads of alien babies. I’m practically begging here. What else do you want me to do?”
Max stared at Kyle then surveyed the room, taking into account the expressions his friends and family wore on their faces. Part of him wanted to ignore Kyle’s plea, to pretend the entire apology never happened and leave it up to fate. But what would Liz say, a little voice in the back of his mind echoed. Kyle was her friend and Liz had cared enough about Kyle to try and maintain their friendship, despite Kyle’s actions toward her and his opinions about Tess. Liz’s happiness was worth the effort because Max wanted nothing more than for Liz to be happy. “Let’s go into Michael’s room. I’ll need to concentrate.”
* * *
“What do I do,” Kyle asked as Max partially closed Michael’s bedroom door. Max stared at Kyle and at once noticed his hesitancy. “Is this going to hurt?”
“I don’t think so,” Max replied with a shrug. “I’ve never done this kind of this before.”
“God,” Kyle muttered under his breath just before he fell onto Michael’s bed. “I...I’m gonna be your guinea pig.”
“I guess I should connect with you.”
“Huh,” Kyle asked, almost jumping away from Max. Fear was etched across his features, his blue eyes wide in shock. “What does that mean?”
“I need to get inside your head, Kyle,” Max said, sitting beside Kyle on the bed. “It will be awkward for me too.”
“Okay,” Kyle shouted after a moment’s reflection, his hands knotted into tight fists. “Work your voodoo.” He shut his eyes tight, his knuckles turning white from his clinched fists and his entire body tensed.
Max exhaled slowly and cautiously moved his hands to either side of Kyle’s head. “Okay. Just try to slow your breathing and let your mind blank out.”
“Blank.”
Max closed his eyes in concentration, his hands still framing Kyle’s head, while he searched within Kyle’s mind for any signs of Tess’ interference. His own mind was quickly bombarded with memories from Kyle’s mind.
If some chick's gonna be yelling at me about keeping the toilet seat down, she better at least be doing me.
You look really great when you're pissed.
Yeah, right.
No, I'm serious. I feel, like, all this energy coming from you right now. In order to trim the lamp of wisdom, we must attend to our bodily needs.
Let me tell you something, Buddha-boy...I got a lamp that needs some serious trimming.
Yeah. Kyle...when he healed you, um...did...did you see things?
See things?
Flashes. Images.
No. But since he healed me, I keep getting these flashes of Max Evans naked.
This was a horrible idea.
If Liz and Maria are in trouble -
Oh, who cares about them anyway. They’re just in the way.
I need your help, Kyle.
Sure.
That’s my Buddha Boy. You’re the only one that can help me now.
Max made his choice. I need you to help me remind him it was the wrong one. Max needs to remember his destiny is not Liz Parker.
I love you, Tess.
I’m sorry, Kyle. I can’t love you back. I belong to Max.
You’re a means to an end, Valenti. You won’t remember any of this when I’m finished with you.
Max is my destiny. I’ll make him remember.
Max dropped his hands, his body worn from maintaining the connection for so long. What little information he had gathered about Tess plan gave him every indication that he had moved forward with whatever plan she and Nasedo had devised before coming to Roswell. Immediately, Max remembered those final horrible moments of guilt he had felt when Tess disappeared in Copper Summit. That guilt was gone, replaced by anger and sadness for what Tess could have been had she changed her way of thinking.
“Good as new?” Max nodded, a half smile forming on his face at Kyle’s joke. “Thank God,” Kyle exhaled. “And Buddha too. Any idea on what she was planning?”
“It doesn’t matter now but she always had a plan.”
“Well, damn her.”
“Yeah,” Max replied, rubbing his temples with his index fingers. “Damn her.”
----------
dialogue taken from Surprise and End of the World
Last edited by JO on Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
Part 23
Part 23
Max and Isabel sat across from their parents, both of them absently playing with their food and exchanging periodic glances. “Mom, Dad,” Max began but quickly found himself choking on his food. He grabbed his throat while Isabel vigorously patted his back.
“Max? Oh, Philip, do that...choking... maneuver on him.” Philip stood and was half-way around the table to Max’s side when Max picked up his water glass and slowly drank from it.
“I’m okay, Dad,” Max replied after swallowing a large sip of water. “I’m okay.” Philip returned to his seat and Max glanced at Isabel again for prompting and she once again nodded her consent. “I...we...need to talk to you.”
“Max,” Philip began, “I don’t think the dinner table is the proper place to discuss what’s been happening with you lately. I’m sure Isabel doesn’t want to hear about you and Liz.”
“I know about Max and Liz, Dad,” Isabel interrupted. “They love each other and the baby was an accident. I’m supportive of Max and his relationship with Liz.”
“I’m not discussing...sex...at the dinner table,” Diane said, her tone short as she spooned more casserole onto her plate.
“This is about more than that,” Max corrected. “I lied to you about my relationship with Liz and I’m sorry but I’ve lied to you about a lot more. We both have.”
“What are you two talking about,” Diane questioned, dropping her fork onto her plate. “You’re scaring me.”
“I’m talking about who we are, Mom, what we are.”
“Which is?”
“We’re aliens,” Isabel said calmly, glancing between her mother and her father. “Max and I are aliens.”
Diane and Philip exchanged shocked looks with each other before looking back at their children. Diane sighed loudly, a slight smirk lining her face and Philip returned to his casserole as if nothing unusual had been said. “Oh, you two don’t look like aliens. Honestly, Max, if this is some ploy to get yourself out of trouble, like in Steel Magnolias when someone pretends to have cancer when they’re really gay -”
“I’m not gay, Mom, and this is the truth. You’ve always known I was different and last year, when we had the fire in the kitchen, you thought as much. You even started looking at old home movies and saw me heal a bird.” Max paused to try to collect his thoughts. “Isabel has always wanted to tell you and I’ve always wanted to keep it hidden from you.”
“So why tell us now?”
“Now we need your help, more than we have before.”
“I think you’d better start at the beginning,” Philip said, his plate clean and his fork resting neatly in the center.
* * *
Michael and Maria sat in the Jetta in the parking lot outside Roswell Memorial Hospital, nervous energy bouncing between them. The previous evening at Michael’s, the six of them had taken Alex’s plan and applied it. It hadn’t taken much convincing for Max to agree, and each of the teens had a responsibility before meeting in Liz’s room at the hospital. Maria sat in the driver’s seat, her fingers drumming nervously on the steering wheel. “You’re sure?”
“There’s no metal detector, nothing. Just put them in your bag and we’ll walk right in.”
“Positive?”
“Well, no,” Michael admitted, dropping the bag of healing stones onto his lap in frustration. “But if someone tries to stop us, I...I’ll just blast them.”
“Oh great,” Maria said her fingers still twitching nervously. She pulled up the sleeve of her fuzzy orange sweater and glanced at her watch. “Almost time. God, Michael. What if something goes wrong?”
“It won’t. It can’t.”
* * *
Alex checked his notepad one final time as he waited for Sheriff Valenti to arrive. Their scheduled ‘tour’ of the hospital security room would begin in ten minutes, and Alex’s palms were already sweaty. He bent at the knees to wipe his hands on his jeans, narrowly catching his lap top case by the strap before it crashed to the ground. He exhaled slowly, new beads of sweat forming on his brow. Once inside the security room, Alex’s only job was to disrupt the closed-circuit monitoring signal to the camera in Liz’s room long enough for some other worldly healing to occur.
Sheriff Valenti rounded the corner and tipped his hat to Alex before he turned left and began his walk up the seven flights of stairs to Liz’s room. Alex’s breath caught in his throat as the metal door closed behind the Sheriff. He glanced at his watch and hoped everyone else was in their positions. It was almost show time.
* * *
“Oh, God. Max, Isabel, why didn’t you come forward with all of this sooner? I...I just thought you two had an unusual love of the outdoors.”
“We were scared, Mom,” Isabel said as she gripped Diane’s hands in her own. “When Liz was shot and Max healed her, it just opened a whole new can of worms, so to speak.”
“Who else knows about this, Max,” Philip asked, his legal mind keen and open.
“Sheriff Valenti is the only other adult that knows.”
“You mean the Parkers don’t even know Liz was shot?”
“No, and they don’t know that Liz isn’t quite human anymore either. I think that’s why she lost the baby.”
“Well, she can’t stay in that hospital any longer, not if your lives are still in danger.”
“So you’ll help us,” Max asked, his eyes darting back and forth between his parents.
“You’re still our children, and we will help you in any way we can. What do you need us to do?”
Max and Isabel sat across from their parents, both of them absently playing with their food and exchanging periodic glances. “Mom, Dad,” Max began but quickly found himself choking on his food. He grabbed his throat while Isabel vigorously patted his back.
“Max? Oh, Philip, do that...choking... maneuver on him.” Philip stood and was half-way around the table to Max’s side when Max picked up his water glass and slowly drank from it.
“I’m okay, Dad,” Max replied after swallowing a large sip of water. “I’m okay.” Philip returned to his seat and Max glanced at Isabel again for prompting and she once again nodded her consent. “I...we...need to talk to you.”
“Max,” Philip began, “I don’t think the dinner table is the proper place to discuss what’s been happening with you lately. I’m sure Isabel doesn’t want to hear about you and Liz.”
“I know about Max and Liz, Dad,” Isabel interrupted. “They love each other and the baby was an accident. I’m supportive of Max and his relationship with Liz.”
“I’m not discussing...sex...at the dinner table,” Diane said, her tone short as she spooned more casserole onto her plate.
“This is about more than that,” Max corrected. “I lied to you about my relationship with Liz and I’m sorry but I’ve lied to you about a lot more. We both have.”
“What are you two talking about,” Diane questioned, dropping her fork onto her plate. “You’re scaring me.”
“I’m talking about who we are, Mom, what we are.”
“Which is?”
“We’re aliens,” Isabel said calmly, glancing between her mother and her father. “Max and I are aliens.”
Diane and Philip exchanged shocked looks with each other before looking back at their children. Diane sighed loudly, a slight smirk lining her face and Philip returned to his casserole as if nothing unusual had been said. “Oh, you two don’t look like aliens. Honestly, Max, if this is some ploy to get yourself out of trouble, like in Steel Magnolias when someone pretends to have cancer when they’re really gay -”
“I’m not gay, Mom, and this is the truth. You’ve always known I was different and last year, when we had the fire in the kitchen, you thought as much. You even started looking at old home movies and saw me heal a bird.” Max paused to try to collect his thoughts. “Isabel has always wanted to tell you and I’ve always wanted to keep it hidden from you.”
“So why tell us now?”
“Now we need your help, more than we have before.”
“I think you’d better start at the beginning,” Philip said, his plate clean and his fork resting neatly in the center.
* * *
Michael and Maria sat in the Jetta in the parking lot outside Roswell Memorial Hospital, nervous energy bouncing between them. The previous evening at Michael’s, the six of them had taken Alex’s plan and applied it. It hadn’t taken much convincing for Max to agree, and each of the teens had a responsibility before meeting in Liz’s room at the hospital. Maria sat in the driver’s seat, her fingers drumming nervously on the steering wheel. “You’re sure?”
“There’s no metal detector, nothing. Just put them in your bag and we’ll walk right in.”
“Positive?”
“Well, no,” Michael admitted, dropping the bag of healing stones onto his lap in frustration. “But if someone tries to stop us, I...I’ll just blast them.”
“Oh great,” Maria said her fingers still twitching nervously. She pulled up the sleeve of her fuzzy orange sweater and glanced at her watch. “Almost time. God, Michael. What if something goes wrong?”
“It won’t. It can’t.”
* * *
Alex checked his notepad one final time as he waited for Sheriff Valenti to arrive. Their scheduled ‘tour’ of the hospital security room would begin in ten minutes, and Alex’s palms were already sweaty. He bent at the knees to wipe his hands on his jeans, narrowly catching his lap top case by the strap before it crashed to the ground. He exhaled slowly, new beads of sweat forming on his brow. Once inside the security room, Alex’s only job was to disrupt the closed-circuit monitoring signal to the camera in Liz’s room long enough for some other worldly healing to occur.
Sheriff Valenti rounded the corner and tipped his hat to Alex before he turned left and began his walk up the seven flights of stairs to Liz’s room. Alex’s breath caught in his throat as the metal door closed behind the Sheriff. He glanced at his watch and hoped everyone else was in their positions. It was almost show time.
* * *
“Oh, God. Max, Isabel, why didn’t you come forward with all of this sooner? I...I just thought you two had an unusual love of the outdoors.”
“We were scared, Mom,” Isabel said as she gripped Diane’s hands in her own. “When Liz was shot and Max healed her, it just opened a whole new can of worms, so to speak.”
“Who else knows about this, Max,” Philip asked, his legal mind keen and open.
“Sheriff Valenti is the only other adult that knows.”
“You mean the Parkers don’t even know Liz was shot?”
“No, and they don’t know that Liz isn’t quite human anymore either. I think that’s why she lost the baby.”
“Well, she can’t stay in that hospital any longer, not if your lives are still in danger.”
“So you’ll help us,” Max asked, his eyes darting back and forth between his parents.
“You’re still our children, and we will help you in any way we can. What do you need us to do?”
Last edited by JO on Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Part 24
Part 24
Max waited around the corner from Liz’s room, his presence blocked by the swinging doors but he could see everything that was taking place down the hallway. Isabel, Michael and Maria sat together in a set of chairs close to Liz’s room because, Max assumed, Liz’s parents were still in the room. He ducked behind the wall as he saw Sheriff Valenti and the Parkers leave Liz’s room, heading in the opposite direction toward the stairwell. Glancing at his watch, he counted to ten before making his next move.
The seconds ticked by slowly and Max tapped his foot on the tile flooring, watching and waiting for something to go awry in their plan. It was not the best plan; part of his mind seemed to think that everything was moving too fast, but Max trusted his friends and his family, willing for once to let them help him rescue Liz from the hospital.
“Maxwell,” Michael whispered, and Max stuck his head around the door, surprised to see Michael waving him into the hallway. “Let’s go.”
Max gave a quick nod and all but ran down the long hallway to Liz’s room. He followed Michael inside and locked the door with his powers, Maria and Isabel standing on Liz’s right side. Michael dimmed the lights in the room but not before Max had had an ample opportunity to look at Liz. Numerous tubes and wires were connected to her small frame, monitors beeping their approvals. Michael accidentally bumped him from behind, and Max used the back of his hand to wipe the tears from his eyes.
“She’ll be fine soon enough, Max,” Isabel said as she offered Max a healing stone, a smile on her face. Max nodded in agreement. “Everything is going to work.”
“Where’s Valenti,” Michael grumbled after accepting his stone from Maria, his groan immediately followed by a series of five knocks, the pre-determined code they had agreed Kyle would use. Michael stepped past Max and opened the door, Kyle quickly stepping inside the hospital. “You got the samples?”
“Yep,” Kyle replied, holding up a brown paper bag for everyone’s inspection. “Changed some of the charts too, and I only had to make out with Susan Taylor.”
“Hope you had one of those bags to go over her head,” Michael mumbled.
“It was dark,” Kyle admitted with shrug, placing the bag on the floor underneath his jacket. Isabel shoved a healing stone into his hand, an appropriate glare on her face which caused Kyle to shrug again. “How does this thing work,” he asked as he carefully held the healing stone between his two palms.
“We restore the balance with them,” Max replied, his eyes never leaving Liz’s face. “We each drink from the bowl.” Maria took a small sip of water from the bowl then passed it to Isabel.
“What’s in the bowl?”
“Water. It’s the element common in all of us.” Kyle nodded and took a sip from the bowl, passing it to Max who drank then passed it to Michael.
“Now we concentrate,” Max said, his head bowed and his eyes closed. “We concentrate on Liz.” Michael, Maria, Isabel and Kyle quickly followed Max’s lead and within moments, the healing stones they held began to glow.
* * *
Alex watched his laptop monitor, his fingers typing fast and furious against the keys. It had been fairly easy for him to hack into the hospital’s security system, almost surprising himself. He had even waited before continuing once he was in the system for fear of a booby trap alerting the security main frame of tampering but no silent alarms were tripped and no armed guards rushed into the security room.
He alternated his glances between the cafeteria where Sheriff Valenti sat with the Parkers and Liz’s room, where the healing had just begun to take place. Between those glances, he checked the other monitors for signs of security that might actually be doing their job. As luck would have it, one of the two security guards on duty was flirting with the gift shop attendant, the other stuffing his face full of pudding in the cafeteria.
“It can’t be this easy,” he mused to himself, taking his eyes off the Sheriff and the Parkers for a split second to pop his knuckles. With his head lowered, there was no way for him to notice the Sheriff and the Parkers had left the cafeteria until it was too late.
* * *
Liz strained against the bright light, shielding her eyes with her hands as she stepped onto the desert floor. She squinted and absently placed her hand on her flat stomach, expectant. Her mouth opened slightly, she weaved from side to side, craning her neck as she weaved. Five figures appeared in the distance but Max’s was the only face she saw. “Max! Max!”
The second Max saw her, he was in a dead run. He tripped two times in his efforts to get to her, both times popping almost instantly back to his feet as quickly as he had fallen. He reached her easily, not caring if the others kept up with his pace or not, and swept her into his arms. “I knew I’d find you here.”
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she whispered, pressing her lips to his jaw. “I knew you’d come.”
“You can’t stay here, Liz,” he said, placing her feet down on the ground as Kyle reached his side, out of breath, the others not far behind. He firmly held onto Liz’s hand, watching her reaction to Kyle. Kyle noticed it too and turned his back on the two lovers.
“I lost Meg,” Liz said, her voice tinged with sadness that hit Max squarely in his heart. “I don’t know what happened.”
“We’ll find her again. Maybe now just wasn’t the right time.”
“But I wanted her. I wanted her so badly. Didn’t you?’ Liz stepped into Max’s arms again, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. “Didn’t you want Meg?”
“Of course, but I want you more.” He pushed Liz away from his chest, his shoulders in his hands as he stooped slightly to look into her eyes. “Come back to me, Liz. I need you. I love you.”
“What do I have to do,” Liz asked in a hushed voice, a slight smile appearing on her face. “Tell me and I’ll do it.’
“All you have to do is wake up,” Max replied, hope bursting through his chest as he watched Liz’s face brighten. He felt Michael, Maria, Isabel and Kyle behind him, supporting him and silently urging him onward. “Just wake up, Liz.”
And she did.
Max waited around the corner from Liz’s room, his presence blocked by the swinging doors but he could see everything that was taking place down the hallway. Isabel, Michael and Maria sat together in a set of chairs close to Liz’s room because, Max assumed, Liz’s parents were still in the room. He ducked behind the wall as he saw Sheriff Valenti and the Parkers leave Liz’s room, heading in the opposite direction toward the stairwell. Glancing at his watch, he counted to ten before making his next move.
The seconds ticked by slowly and Max tapped his foot on the tile flooring, watching and waiting for something to go awry in their plan. It was not the best plan; part of his mind seemed to think that everything was moving too fast, but Max trusted his friends and his family, willing for once to let them help him rescue Liz from the hospital.
“Maxwell,” Michael whispered, and Max stuck his head around the door, surprised to see Michael waving him into the hallway. “Let’s go.”
Max gave a quick nod and all but ran down the long hallway to Liz’s room. He followed Michael inside and locked the door with his powers, Maria and Isabel standing on Liz’s right side. Michael dimmed the lights in the room but not before Max had had an ample opportunity to look at Liz. Numerous tubes and wires were connected to her small frame, monitors beeping their approvals. Michael accidentally bumped him from behind, and Max used the back of his hand to wipe the tears from his eyes.
“She’ll be fine soon enough, Max,” Isabel said as she offered Max a healing stone, a smile on her face. Max nodded in agreement. “Everything is going to work.”
“Where’s Valenti,” Michael grumbled after accepting his stone from Maria, his groan immediately followed by a series of five knocks, the pre-determined code they had agreed Kyle would use. Michael stepped past Max and opened the door, Kyle quickly stepping inside the hospital. “You got the samples?”
“Yep,” Kyle replied, holding up a brown paper bag for everyone’s inspection. “Changed some of the charts too, and I only had to make out with Susan Taylor.”
“Hope you had one of those bags to go over her head,” Michael mumbled.
“It was dark,” Kyle admitted with shrug, placing the bag on the floor underneath his jacket. Isabel shoved a healing stone into his hand, an appropriate glare on her face which caused Kyle to shrug again. “How does this thing work,” he asked as he carefully held the healing stone between his two palms.
“We restore the balance with them,” Max replied, his eyes never leaving Liz’s face. “We each drink from the bowl.” Maria took a small sip of water from the bowl then passed it to Isabel.
“What’s in the bowl?”
“Water. It’s the element common in all of us.” Kyle nodded and took a sip from the bowl, passing it to Max who drank then passed it to Michael.
“Now we concentrate,” Max said, his head bowed and his eyes closed. “We concentrate on Liz.” Michael, Maria, Isabel and Kyle quickly followed Max’s lead and within moments, the healing stones they held began to glow.
* * *
Alex watched his laptop monitor, his fingers typing fast and furious against the keys. It had been fairly easy for him to hack into the hospital’s security system, almost surprising himself. He had even waited before continuing once he was in the system for fear of a booby trap alerting the security main frame of tampering but no silent alarms were tripped and no armed guards rushed into the security room.
He alternated his glances between the cafeteria where Sheriff Valenti sat with the Parkers and Liz’s room, where the healing had just begun to take place. Between those glances, he checked the other monitors for signs of security that might actually be doing their job. As luck would have it, one of the two security guards on duty was flirting with the gift shop attendant, the other stuffing his face full of pudding in the cafeteria.
“It can’t be this easy,” he mused to himself, taking his eyes off the Sheriff and the Parkers for a split second to pop his knuckles. With his head lowered, there was no way for him to notice the Sheriff and the Parkers had left the cafeteria until it was too late.
* * *
Liz strained against the bright light, shielding her eyes with her hands as she stepped onto the desert floor. She squinted and absently placed her hand on her flat stomach, expectant. Her mouth opened slightly, she weaved from side to side, craning her neck as she weaved. Five figures appeared in the distance but Max’s was the only face she saw. “Max! Max!”
The second Max saw her, he was in a dead run. He tripped two times in his efforts to get to her, both times popping almost instantly back to his feet as quickly as he had fallen. He reached her easily, not caring if the others kept up with his pace or not, and swept her into his arms. “I knew I’d find you here.”
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she whispered, pressing her lips to his jaw. “I knew you’d come.”
“You can’t stay here, Liz,” he said, placing her feet down on the ground as Kyle reached his side, out of breath, the others not far behind. He firmly held onto Liz’s hand, watching her reaction to Kyle. Kyle noticed it too and turned his back on the two lovers.
“I lost Meg,” Liz said, her voice tinged with sadness that hit Max squarely in his heart. “I don’t know what happened.”
“We’ll find her again. Maybe now just wasn’t the right time.”
“But I wanted her. I wanted her so badly. Didn’t you?’ Liz stepped into Max’s arms again, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. “Didn’t you want Meg?”
“Of course, but I want you more.” He pushed Liz away from his chest, his shoulders in his hands as he stooped slightly to look into her eyes. “Come back to me, Liz. I need you. I love you.”
“What do I have to do,” Liz asked in a hushed voice, a slight smile appearing on her face. “Tell me and I’ll do it.’
“All you have to do is wake up,” Max replied, hope bursting through his chest as he watched Liz’s face brighten. He felt Michael, Maria, Isabel and Kyle behind him, supporting him and silently urging him onward. “Just wake up, Liz.”
And she did.
Last edited by JO on Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Part 25
Part 25
“What the hell is going on in here,” Jeff Parker yelled, his hand firmly on Max’s left shoulder. Max’s eyes popped open and he turned slowly, half-expecting smoke to be billowing out of Jeff Parker’s ears. Nancy Parker and Sheriff Valenti stood in the doorway, Mrs. Parker’s eyes full of tears. “I thought I told you to stay the hell away from Liz, Max. Didn’t I make that clear?”
“Liz needs me,” Max responded, pocketing the healing stone, his gesture compelling Michael, Maria, Kyle and Isabel to do the same. “She needs all of us.”
"She doesn’t need you. You’re the reason she’s in this condition in the first place. I thought you were different, Max, but now I see you’re just like every other teenage boy. You don’t care about Liz. You don’t care what you’ve done to her.”
“I am different,” Max argued, prepared to go further with his argument until Alex burst into the room.
“Liz’s parents are....here,” he sighed as Mr. Parker jerked his head in Alex’s direction. Alex’s eyes widened and pointed toward Isabel and Maria. “I’ll be....over there.”
“Was this all some kind of plan to get us out of the room,” Jeff continued. “Was everyone in on it, except us?” He looked at Sheriff Valenti and Max turned his attention to the Sheriff as well. There stood the man who had protected them for so long, had done everything in his power to shelter them. Looking over his shoulder at Isabel and after receiving a warm smile from his sister, Max knew he had to tell the Parkers the truth.
“Mr. Parker, there’s something you should know about me, something that both Liz and I have been keeping from you.”
“Don’t tell me,” Jeff replied, waving his hands in front of his face. “There’s nothing that could make this any worse for you. I warned you to stay away from Liz, Max, but you just don’t seem to understand. When the doctors say it’s okay, we’ll be moving Liz to a facility in Boston and when she gets better, she’ll be living on the East Coast permanently.”
“Mr. Parker, I love Liz and I never intended for this to happen, but I think I know why her body is having this kind of reaction. If you and Mrs. Parker would just let me explain, I could finally make you understand.”
Jeff Parker stepped toward Max, his face flushed in anger and Max took a step backward, brushing against Michael in his attempt to maintain distance between he and Mr. Parker. “There is nothing you can say to make me understand, Max. There’s nothing you can do to make me forgive what you’ve done to my daughter, to my whole family.”
“Jeff,” Sheriff Valenti began, calmly stepping behind Jeff and placing his hand on Jeff’s shoulders. “I think you should hear Max out. He’s had good reason for everything he’s done, for everything they’ve all done. Just hear him out.”
“He endangered Lizzie’s life,” Jeff countered. “Aren’t you sworn to protect the innocent citizens of Roswell? Liz was innocent until Max got a hold of her.”
“Jeff, just calm down.”
“Mr. Parker, please.”
“Stay the hell away from my daughter,” Jeff shouted, the veins in his forehead and neck bulging wildly. Everyone in the room jumped, startled by his reaction.
The decree had not startled Max; it had only made him more determined and he lowered his head, desperately trying to come up with something to say in favor of himself. He felt something rub against his wrist, a faint tickling of fingertips, and shot a questioning glance at Michael. Michael shrugged, both of his hands visible to Max when he felt the tickling again.
He looked down to his left, his hand close to the hospital bed railing, and watched through tear-filled eyes as Liz’s hand reached for his. He turned toward her and despite the tape covering her mouth to secure the tube down her throat, he saw her smile. “Liz,” he whispered, taking her hand into his, kissing it as he fell to his knees beside her bed.
“Lizzie,” Jeff questioned, stepping past Max so that he was closest to Liz’s head. When, she tilted her eyes upward at her father and smiled, Jeff immediately crumbled, throwing his right arm across Liz’s shoulders. Nancy stepped between Max and Mr. Parker, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. “How...how is this possible? How did this happen?”
Liz slowly pulled her left arm across her body and touched Max, her right hand still clutched tightly between Max’s fists. Max pressed his lips to the outside of her left hand, releasing her right hand, slowly standing to his feet. They locked eyes again and Max smiled at her then followed her eyes to the awed faces of her parents.
“Thank you,” Nancy whispered, wrapping her arms around Max’s shoulder, giving him a tight hug as Jeff watched.
* * *
“You okay,” Michael asked Maria as he opened the Evans refrigerator door, Maria sitting alone at the kitchen table. The Evans had arrived at Liz’s hospital room just as she woke up. Mr. Parker had been adamant in his desire to learn what Max had done, but Mr. Evans refused to allow Max to explain the truth at the hospital. To satisfy everyone, Mrs. Evans had invited the entire group to their house for a discussion, and Mr. Parker had agreed. Now, they were simply waiting for the Parkers to arrive.
“I guess,” Maria replied with a shrug and Michael sat down opposite her, taking her hands into his. A small cry escaped from her throat, tears falling down her cheeks, and Michael squeezed her hands tighter. “I just can’t believe she’s okay. I mean, I felt us heal her, just like when we healed you, but I...I just can’t believe it.”
“Yeah.”
“I wonder how the Parkers are going to feel when they learn the truth?”
“Probably just how you felt,” Michael said with a laugh and Maria promptly slapped his hands, heavily rolling her eyes. “Valenti was pretty cool about it.”
“I guess it’s different for parents. The Sheriff almost lost Kyle and he seemed okay. I just think the Parkers are going to be pissed because they’ve been in the dark for so long. Maybe Liz can smooth some of that over.”
“Yeah,” Michael said as the doorbell rang, and both of them jumped to their feet. Michael placed his hand on the small of Maria’s back, slowly walking into the Evans living room. Once there, they exchanged glances with Isabel, Alex, Kyle, Sheriff Valenti, Mr. Evans and finally Max.
Diane exhaled and opened the door, Jeff and Nancy Parker on the outside threshold. “Come in,” Diane said with a smile. “I think we all have a lot to talk about this evening. Would you like something to drink?”
“What the hell is going on in here,” Jeff Parker yelled, his hand firmly on Max’s left shoulder. Max’s eyes popped open and he turned slowly, half-expecting smoke to be billowing out of Jeff Parker’s ears. Nancy Parker and Sheriff Valenti stood in the doorway, Mrs. Parker’s eyes full of tears. “I thought I told you to stay the hell away from Liz, Max. Didn’t I make that clear?”
“Liz needs me,” Max responded, pocketing the healing stone, his gesture compelling Michael, Maria, Kyle and Isabel to do the same. “She needs all of us.”
"She doesn’t need you. You’re the reason she’s in this condition in the first place. I thought you were different, Max, but now I see you’re just like every other teenage boy. You don’t care about Liz. You don’t care what you’ve done to her.”
“I am different,” Max argued, prepared to go further with his argument until Alex burst into the room.
“Liz’s parents are....here,” he sighed as Mr. Parker jerked his head in Alex’s direction. Alex’s eyes widened and pointed toward Isabel and Maria. “I’ll be....over there.”
“Was this all some kind of plan to get us out of the room,” Jeff continued. “Was everyone in on it, except us?” He looked at Sheriff Valenti and Max turned his attention to the Sheriff as well. There stood the man who had protected them for so long, had done everything in his power to shelter them. Looking over his shoulder at Isabel and after receiving a warm smile from his sister, Max knew he had to tell the Parkers the truth.
“Mr. Parker, there’s something you should know about me, something that both Liz and I have been keeping from you.”
“Don’t tell me,” Jeff replied, waving his hands in front of his face. “There’s nothing that could make this any worse for you. I warned you to stay away from Liz, Max, but you just don’t seem to understand. When the doctors say it’s okay, we’ll be moving Liz to a facility in Boston and when she gets better, she’ll be living on the East Coast permanently.”
“Mr. Parker, I love Liz and I never intended for this to happen, but I think I know why her body is having this kind of reaction. If you and Mrs. Parker would just let me explain, I could finally make you understand.”
Jeff Parker stepped toward Max, his face flushed in anger and Max took a step backward, brushing against Michael in his attempt to maintain distance between he and Mr. Parker. “There is nothing you can say to make me understand, Max. There’s nothing you can do to make me forgive what you’ve done to my daughter, to my whole family.”
“Jeff,” Sheriff Valenti began, calmly stepping behind Jeff and placing his hand on Jeff’s shoulders. “I think you should hear Max out. He’s had good reason for everything he’s done, for everything they’ve all done. Just hear him out.”
“He endangered Lizzie’s life,” Jeff countered. “Aren’t you sworn to protect the innocent citizens of Roswell? Liz was innocent until Max got a hold of her.”
“Jeff, just calm down.”
“Mr. Parker, please.”
“Stay the hell away from my daughter,” Jeff shouted, the veins in his forehead and neck bulging wildly. Everyone in the room jumped, startled by his reaction.
The decree had not startled Max; it had only made him more determined and he lowered his head, desperately trying to come up with something to say in favor of himself. He felt something rub against his wrist, a faint tickling of fingertips, and shot a questioning glance at Michael. Michael shrugged, both of his hands visible to Max when he felt the tickling again.
He looked down to his left, his hand close to the hospital bed railing, and watched through tear-filled eyes as Liz’s hand reached for his. He turned toward her and despite the tape covering her mouth to secure the tube down her throat, he saw her smile. “Liz,” he whispered, taking her hand into his, kissing it as he fell to his knees beside her bed.
“Lizzie,” Jeff questioned, stepping past Max so that he was closest to Liz’s head. When, she tilted her eyes upward at her father and smiled, Jeff immediately crumbled, throwing his right arm across Liz’s shoulders. Nancy stepped between Max and Mr. Parker, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. “How...how is this possible? How did this happen?”
Liz slowly pulled her left arm across her body and touched Max, her right hand still clutched tightly between Max’s fists. Max pressed his lips to the outside of her left hand, releasing her right hand, slowly standing to his feet. They locked eyes again and Max smiled at her then followed her eyes to the awed faces of her parents.
“Thank you,” Nancy whispered, wrapping her arms around Max’s shoulder, giving him a tight hug as Jeff watched.
* * *
“You okay,” Michael asked Maria as he opened the Evans refrigerator door, Maria sitting alone at the kitchen table. The Evans had arrived at Liz’s hospital room just as she woke up. Mr. Parker had been adamant in his desire to learn what Max had done, but Mr. Evans refused to allow Max to explain the truth at the hospital. To satisfy everyone, Mrs. Evans had invited the entire group to their house for a discussion, and Mr. Parker had agreed. Now, they were simply waiting for the Parkers to arrive.
“I guess,” Maria replied with a shrug and Michael sat down opposite her, taking her hands into his. A small cry escaped from her throat, tears falling down her cheeks, and Michael squeezed her hands tighter. “I just can’t believe she’s okay. I mean, I felt us heal her, just like when we healed you, but I...I just can’t believe it.”
“Yeah.”
“I wonder how the Parkers are going to feel when they learn the truth?”
“Probably just how you felt,” Michael said with a laugh and Maria promptly slapped his hands, heavily rolling her eyes. “Valenti was pretty cool about it.”
“I guess it’s different for parents. The Sheriff almost lost Kyle and he seemed okay. I just think the Parkers are going to be pissed because they’ve been in the dark for so long. Maybe Liz can smooth some of that over.”
“Yeah,” Michael said as the doorbell rang, and both of them jumped to their feet. Michael placed his hand on the small of Maria’s back, slowly walking into the Evans living room. Once there, they exchanged glances with Isabel, Alex, Kyle, Sheriff Valenti, Mr. Evans and finally Max.
Diane exhaled and opened the door, Jeff and Nancy Parker on the outside threshold. “Come in,” Diane said with a smile. “I think we all have a lot to talk about this evening. Would you like something to drink?”
Last edited by JO on Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
Part 26
Part 26
“I’d love some coffee, if you have any,” Nancy replied as Diane closed the door behind she and Jeff and Philip lead them to the sofa. Max smiled at Nancy and Jeff, the other teens and Sheriff Valenti seated around the room.
“I’ll be right back,” Diane said, Isabel jumping to her feet to help her mother in the kitchen. Once the two women were out of the room, the remaining occupants sat in silence until Diane and Isabel returned several moments later. “Here we go.” She placed the coffee tray on the table in front of the Parkers and sat on the arm of the sofa beside Philip. “Well, where do we want to start?”
“How’s Liz,” Max asked, glancing at his mother first before looking at the Parkers.
“She’s awake,” Nancy said. “She can’t talk because they left the feeding tube down her throat in case she has a...a relapse, but’s she’s alert and awake, which is good.” Max nodded his head and exhaled slowly, leaning back against the chair that Maria sat in. Jeff nudged Nancy with his elbow and Nancy took the small piece of paper he offered. Max looked around the room at his friends, all of whom looked just as confused as he did about what was on the mysterious piece of paper.
“Because she can’t talk,” Nancy continued, Max focusing on her instantly, “Jeff asked Liz to write down how you was able to bring her out of the coma.” She nervously toyed with the paper, smoothing its creases before she handed it to Philip and Diane. “And what she wrote, well, it’s a little confusing so we wanted to ask Max about it.”
“What does it say,” Max asked as he pulled himself up onto his knees while his father read Liz’s note.
“It has to be the medicines they gave her. That’s the only explanation we can come up with for such a....hallucination. Liz has never been prone to fantasies.”
“What does it say?” Max moved across the floor to the sofa, Philip presented him with Liz’s note the second he was upright. Max read it quickly, recognizing Liz’s familiar script although it was quite shaky and trailed off the paper.
Max saved me because he is an alien. He’s saved my life before.
“It’s crazy, I know,” Nancy said, a nervous edge to her voice. She laughed slightly then wrapped her hands around the mug of coffee, taking generous sips as the note was passed around to the room’s occupants.
“It’s true, Mrs. Parker,” Max admitted once his father held the note again. “What Liz wrote is true.”
“What did she mean that you’ve saved her life before,” Jeff asked, speaking for the first time since he and Mrs. Parker arrived at the Evans home. He leaned toward Max, his elbows on his knees, his tone even.
Max looked up at his parents for reassurance. His mother smiled and nodded at her son, his father nodding as well. Max lowered his head and cleared his throat, attempting to sort out his speech in his mind before he began talking to the Parkers. “Liz was shot last year,” Max began.
“When,” Nancy interrupted. “When did Liz get shot? Who would shoot Liz?”
“September 19th, the day the gun went off in the Crashdown. The reason the police couldn’t find the bullet was because it was inside Liz. She was shot when the gun accidentally went off.”
“If she was shot,” Nancy interrupted again, “how did you save her?”
“I healed her,” he said. “I put my hand over the wound and healed her.”
“I’m sorry,” Jeff said, leaning back against the couch. “You...you healed her?”
“I changed the molecular shape of the bullet. Dissolved it,” Max replied. “It’s the main ability I have.”
“You have more than one ability?”
“I can create a shield.” He stretched his hand outward toward the kitchen, his green shield illuminating after several seconds. All the parents jumped in response to the show of Max’s power. “Healing is my main gift.”
“Are you the only...one of your...kind?”
“No,” Max admitted. “There were four of us but now there are only 3.” Jeff pointed to Michael, going from Michael to Isabel slowly, Nancy following his finger. “Right. Tess was the fourth.”
“When did you come to Roswell?”
“The 1947 crash. We were housed in incubation pods. When we broke through, we looked like normal human six-year-olds.”
“This is incredible,” Nancy muttered to herself as she covered her mouth with her hands. “Have you always known you were -”
“Different? Yes. Liz was the first person I ever told.”
“Ever,” Jeff questioned. “You never told your parents?”
“We didn’t tell anyone. It was our agreement, our secret. After Liz was shot, she had a lot of questions and I just told her the truth.”
“Why,” Nancy asked, leaning forward toward Max. “Why reveal your secret to Liz? Why even save her at all if it was such a risk?”
“I loved her,” Max replied with a shrug, amazed by the Parkers’ questions. “I’ve loved Liz from the moment I stepped off the school bus and saw her on the playground. I didn’t want to lie to her. I couldn’t lie to her.”
“How did the rest of you find out,” Jeff asked Alex, Maria, Kyle and Jim.
“Liz told me,” Maria admitted, “then she told Alex.”
“Kyle was shot and Max healed him,” Sheriff Valenti said. “I gave the kids a lot of grief about the secrets they were keeping after Liz’s shooting. I chased them. I gave Liz’s uniform to an FBI agent. Once Max healed Kyle, I swore I’d do what I could to protect them instead of exposing them.”
“Does Amy know?”
“God, no,” Maria said with a laugh.
“The sheriff was the only adult that knew the truth until Isabel and I told our parents,” Max said. “We didn’t think it was safe to let too many people in.”
“You said the FBI knew,” Jeff asked, the concern in his voice unmistakable. “They know about Liz?”
“Our protector destroyed most of the records the FBI had on us over the summer. He had the ability to shapeshift,” Max said, “to look like someone else. He impersonated the FBI Special Unit Director.”
“What happened to this...protector?”
“He died.”
“Why couldn’t you heal him if that’s your primary ability,” Jeff continued.
“We tried to,” Max explained, “using the same stones we healed Liz with but he was too badly damaged.”
“Did someone attack him? Who would attack him?”
Max sighed and hesitated before answering Mrs. Parker’s question. If he told the truth, the Parkers could react very badly. His parents didn’t even know the specifics of the past year and he hated for them to learn the truth in such sketchy details. “He was killed...by an enemy alien race.”
“So the late nights, the secrecy, all of it was to protect you,” Jeff questioned. “Liz lied to her parents and abused our trust...for you?”
“We lied to our parents too, Mr. Parker.”
“I’m not concerned about you, Max, and what you did or didn’t do to your parents. I’m concerned with my daughter who is in the hospital right now because of the secrets she kept from me.” Jeff paused and ran his hand across his forehead before dragging it down the length of his face. “I don’t think this is going to work out.”
“What do you mean,” Max questioned, his worst fear coming true before his very eyes. His parents had accepted the truth relatively easy, as had Liz, but Liz’s parents were reacting just as he had imagined everyone would.
“I don’t think Liz can see you anymore. I realize that you’re going to see her at school and at the Crashdown and I know enough about the law to know that you haven’t done anything to warrant a restraining order -”
“Wait a minute now, Jeff,” Philip interrupted but Jeff continued as if he had not heard him.
“So I’m telling you that I won’t allow Liz to see you again, socially speaking.”
“Mr. Parker -”
“I’m sure you think this is harsh, Max, but I’m doing this for Liz, for both of you actually. It’s obvious that if I gave Liz the choice between her mother and I or you, she would choose you.” Jeff cleared his throat to try and disguise some of the emotion overtaking him. “Liz is seventeen years old, and I’ve already almost lost her once...more than that, it would seem. I’m not ready to lose her permanently because I don’t agree with the dangers that you place her in because of what you are.”
Max glanced at his parents, silently begging them to do or say something as Mr. Parker stood up from the couch, his hand clutching Nancy’s tightly. “Phil, Diane, thank you for the coffee but we need to get back to the hospital. Max,” Jeff began but broke off as Max stood to his feet. “Thank you for saving Liz’s life and caring about her enough to risk your own life to do it. I...I can’t tell you how much that means to both Nancy and I but I’m going to ask that you please respect our wishes and stay away from her, at least until your life becomes a little safer. Then, we’ll see what happens.” With one final look around the room, Jeff turned around and walked out the front door, pulling Nancy behind him.
“Is he serious,” Max questioned as the door closed behind the Parkers, looking at all the occupants in the room. “He...he can’t be serious. I love Liz. I would never do anything to hurt her.” He shot nervous glances around the room again. “Mom? Dad?”
“Maybe it’s best if you don’t see Liz for a while, son,” Philip began, standing up beside Max. “This has been quite an ordeal...for everyone.”
“Dad!”
“Just for a little while, sweetie,” Diane amended. “Just let Liz’s parents adjust to the idea of who you are. Everything will be fine in a month or two, you’ll see.”
“I’d love some coffee, if you have any,” Nancy replied as Diane closed the door behind she and Jeff and Philip lead them to the sofa. Max smiled at Nancy and Jeff, the other teens and Sheriff Valenti seated around the room.
“I’ll be right back,” Diane said, Isabel jumping to her feet to help her mother in the kitchen. Once the two women were out of the room, the remaining occupants sat in silence until Diane and Isabel returned several moments later. “Here we go.” She placed the coffee tray on the table in front of the Parkers and sat on the arm of the sofa beside Philip. “Well, where do we want to start?”
“How’s Liz,” Max asked, glancing at his mother first before looking at the Parkers.
“She’s awake,” Nancy said. “She can’t talk because they left the feeding tube down her throat in case she has a...a relapse, but’s she’s alert and awake, which is good.” Max nodded his head and exhaled slowly, leaning back against the chair that Maria sat in. Jeff nudged Nancy with his elbow and Nancy took the small piece of paper he offered. Max looked around the room at his friends, all of whom looked just as confused as he did about what was on the mysterious piece of paper.
“Because she can’t talk,” Nancy continued, Max focusing on her instantly, “Jeff asked Liz to write down how you was able to bring her out of the coma.” She nervously toyed with the paper, smoothing its creases before she handed it to Philip and Diane. “And what she wrote, well, it’s a little confusing so we wanted to ask Max about it.”
“What does it say,” Max asked as he pulled himself up onto his knees while his father read Liz’s note.
“It has to be the medicines they gave her. That’s the only explanation we can come up with for such a....hallucination. Liz has never been prone to fantasies.”
“What does it say?” Max moved across the floor to the sofa, Philip presented him with Liz’s note the second he was upright. Max read it quickly, recognizing Liz’s familiar script although it was quite shaky and trailed off the paper.
Max saved me because he is an alien. He’s saved my life before.
“It’s crazy, I know,” Nancy said, a nervous edge to her voice. She laughed slightly then wrapped her hands around the mug of coffee, taking generous sips as the note was passed around to the room’s occupants.
“It’s true, Mrs. Parker,” Max admitted once his father held the note again. “What Liz wrote is true.”
“What did she mean that you’ve saved her life before,” Jeff asked, speaking for the first time since he and Mrs. Parker arrived at the Evans home. He leaned toward Max, his elbows on his knees, his tone even.
Max looked up at his parents for reassurance. His mother smiled and nodded at her son, his father nodding as well. Max lowered his head and cleared his throat, attempting to sort out his speech in his mind before he began talking to the Parkers. “Liz was shot last year,” Max began.
“When,” Nancy interrupted. “When did Liz get shot? Who would shoot Liz?”
“September 19th, the day the gun went off in the Crashdown. The reason the police couldn’t find the bullet was because it was inside Liz. She was shot when the gun accidentally went off.”
“If she was shot,” Nancy interrupted again, “how did you save her?”
“I healed her,” he said. “I put my hand over the wound and healed her.”
“I’m sorry,” Jeff said, leaning back against the couch. “You...you healed her?”
“I changed the molecular shape of the bullet. Dissolved it,” Max replied. “It’s the main ability I have.”
“You have more than one ability?”
“I can create a shield.” He stretched his hand outward toward the kitchen, his green shield illuminating after several seconds. All the parents jumped in response to the show of Max’s power. “Healing is my main gift.”
“Are you the only...one of your...kind?”
“No,” Max admitted. “There were four of us but now there are only 3.” Jeff pointed to Michael, going from Michael to Isabel slowly, Nancy following his finger. “Right. Tess was the fourth.”
“When did you come to Roswell?”
“The 1947 crash. We were housed in incubation pods. When we broke through, we looked like normal human six-year-olds.”
“This is incredible,” Nancy muttered to herself as she covered her mouth with her hands. “Have you always known you were -”
“Different? Yes. Liz was the first person I ever told.”
“Ever,” Jeff questioned. “You never told your parents?”
“We didn’t tell anyone. It was our agreement, our secret. After Liz was shot, she had a lot of questions and I just told her the truth.”
“Why,” Nancy asked, leaning forward toward Max. “Why reveal your secret to Liz? Why even save her at all if it was such a risk?”
“I loved her,” Max replied with a shrug, amazed by the Parkers’ questions. “I’ve loved Liz from the moment I stepped off the school bus and saw her on the playground. I didn’t want to lie to her. I couldn’t lie to her.”
“How did the rest of you find out,” Jeff asked Alex, Maria, Kyle and Jim.
“Liz told me,” Maria admitted, “then she told Alex.”
“Kyle was shot and Max healed him,” Sheriff Valenti said. “I gave the kids a lot of grief about the secrets they were keeping after Liz’s shooting. I chased them. I gave Liz’s uniform to an FBI agent. Once Max healed Kyle, I swore I’d do what I could to protect them instead of exposing them.”
“Does Amy know?”
“God, no,” Maria said with a laugh.
“The sheriff was the only adult that knew the truth until Isabel and I told our parents,” Max said. “We didn’t think it was safe to let too many people in.”
“You said the FBI knew,” Jeff asked, the concern in his voice unmistakable. “They know about Liz?”
“Our protector destroyed most of the records the FBI had on us over the summer. He had the ability to shapeshift,” Max said, “to look like someone else. He impersonated the FBI Special Unit Director.”
“What happened to this...protector?”
“He died.”
“Why couldn’t you heal him if that’s your primary ability,” Jeff continued.
“We tried to,” Max explained, “using the same stones we healed Liz with but he was too badly damaged.”
“Did someone attack him? Who would attack him?”
Max sighed and hesitated before answering Mrs. Parker’s question. If he told the truth, the Parkers could react very badly. His parents didn’t even know the specifics of the past year and he hated for them to learn the truth in such sketchy details. “He was killed...by an enemy alien race.”
“So the late nights, the secrecy, all of it was to protect you,” Jeff questioned. “Liz lied to her parents and abused our trust...for you?”
“We lied to our parents too, Mr. Parker.”
“I’m not concerned about you, Max, and what you did or didn’t do to your parents. I’m concerned with my daughter who is in the hospital right now because of the secrets she kept from me.” Jeff paused and ran his hand across his forehead before dragging it down the length of his face. “I don’t think this is going to work out.”
“What do you mean,” Max questioned, his worst fear coming true before his very eyes. His parents had accepted the truth relatively easy, as had Liz, but Liz’s parents were reacting just as he had imagined everyone would.
“I don’t think Liz can see you anymore. I realize that you’re going to see her at school and at the Crashdown and I know enough about the law to know that you haven’t done anything to warrant a restraining order -”
“Wait a minute now, Jeff,” Philip interrupted but Jeff continued as if he had not heard him.
“So I’m telling you that I won’t allow Liz to see you again, socially speaking.”
“Mr. Parker -”
“I’m sure you think this is harsh, Max, but I’m doing this for Liz, for both of you actually. It’s obvious that if I gave Liz the choice between her mother and I or you, she would choose you.” Jeff cleared his throat to try and disguise some of the emotion overtaking him. “Liz is seventeen years old, and I’ve already almost lost her once...more than that, it would seem. I’m not ready to lose her permanently because I don’t agree with the dangers that you place her in because of what you are.”
Max glanced at his parents, silently begging them to do or say something as Mr. Parker stood up from the couch, his hand clutching Nancy’s tightly. “Phil, Diane, thank you for the coffee but we need to get back to the hospital. Max,” Jeff began but broke off as Max stood to his feet. “Thank you for saving Liz’s life and caring about her enough to risk your own life to do it. I...I can’t tell you how much that means to both Nancy and I but I’m going to ask that you please respect our wishes and stay away from her, at least until your life becomes a little safer. Then, we’ll see what happens.” With one final look around the room, Jeff turned around and walked out the front door, pulling Nancy behind him.
“Is he serious,” Max questioned as the door closed behind the Parkers, looking at all the occupants in the room. “He...he can’t be serious. I love Liz. I would never do anything to hurt her.” He shot nervous glances around the room again. “Mom? Dad?”
“Maybe it’s best if you don’t see Liz for a while, son,” Philip began, standing up beside Max. “This has been quite an ordeal...for everyone.”
“Dad!”
“Just for a little while, sweetie,” Diane amended. “Just let Liz’s parents adjust to the idea of who you are. Everything will be fine in a month or two, you’ll see.”
Last edited by JO on Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
Part 27
Part 27
April 26, 2002 -- One Year Later
Liz stood on the foot stool, her mother on her hands and knees below her, several straight pins sticking out of her mouth. Liz twitched from side to side, unable to keep herself still.
“Ke ste,” Nancy muttered, her lips taut to keep from dropping the pins out of her mouth.
“I’m anxious, Mom. Max will be here soon and I don’t want Dad to corner him downstairs.” Liz stared at her reflection in the mirror on her parents' dresser and carefully pushed her curls off her shoulders. She was wearing a dress that had been stored in her closet for almost a year. It was a black open-backed, spaghetti-strapped dress, its neckline a low scoop at the swell of her breasts, its a-line frame flowing outward from her waist, the same scoop in the skirt. She wiggled her toes up and down on the stool, the red nail polish visible in her peripheral vision. “Mom!”
“Done,” Nancy replied as she rolled back onto her knees then used the dresser as leverage to stand to her feet. “Oh, you look beautiful.” She helped Liz step down from the stool and pulled her daughter into her arms.
“Thank you for letting me go to the prom with Max.”
“Well, your father has reservations about it.”
“At the end of the summer, I’ll be going to Harvard and Max will be in Las Cruces. We can’t be together. I get it,” Liz snapped, stepping into the black strappy shoes she had bought for the occasion. “Dad won. Max and I aren’t together and probably will never be a couple again.”
“You really love him, don’t you, honey,” Nancy asked, brushing Liz’s hair behind her ears as Liz straightened and sighed.
“Sometimes, when I’m around him, it’s like I can’t breathe and the entire world around us just stops. There’s only Max. He makes me feel alive, Mom, even by just looking at me.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” Liz replied, a wistful smile on her face. “But that’s over,” she said, her tone now one of regret and grief. “I mean, we love each other and we made a mistake with the pregnancy and by keeping secrets but you and Dad have been pretty firm in your decision. Max and I will probably never be a couple again.”
“You’re going to the prom with Max, aren’t you?”
“Please don’t tell me there’s a chance. Don’t...don’t even joke about it.”
“Honey, there’s something you don’t know about your dad,” Nancy began, sitting on the edge of the bed, patting the corner beside her for Liz to sit down. Liz looked at the clock on the night stand and glanced at her mother again. “Your dad won’t kill Max in five minutes. Sit down.” Nancy patted the bed again and Liz sat down beside her mother.
“When your father was your age, he had a girlfriend he was just crazy about, kind of like you and Max. They were inseparable. Well, accidents will happen, as you well know, and the girl got pregnant. Your dad asked her to marry him.”
“Dad was married before?”
“Anyway, the girl’s father hated your dad and made a lot of the same accusations toward him that he made toward Max. Something happened, I’m not sure what, but the baby was born early.”
“What happened then?”
“Both the girl...and the baby died,” Nancy replied softly. “That may be why he reacted so strongly once we found out you were pregnant. He was just scared, Liz, scared of losing someone he loved all over again.”
“I...I never knew that. Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“It’s not something your father likes to talk about,” Nancy said and with a smile, she kissed Liz’s cheek and patted her leg. “So now you know.”
“Do you think Dad will let me see Max during the summer?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Nancy replied. “I’ll bet Max is waiting downstairs. Let me get my camera and we’ll go down together.”
* * *
“You okay, Max,” Kyle asked as he slapped Max’s shoulder, Max almost dropping the plastic container that held Liz’s corsage. “You look like hell.”
“You’d look like hell too if the love of your life’s father was staring at you like that,” Max replied, Kyle immediately glancing to the kitchen where Jeff Parker stood, giving Max death glares.
“Yikes,” Kyle agreed. “I’ll be praying for you, man.”
Max opened his mouth to respond to Kyle as the swinging door opened from the back room of the cafe. Liz stepped into the main dining area, her mother hot on her heels with a camera strapped around her neck. Liz saw him immediately and paused at the corner of the counter, a wide smile cresting across her lips. In two steps, Max was in front of her.
“You look...amazing,” Max said breathlessly as he clutched the plastic box containing Liz’s wrist corsage. “Amazing,” he repeated, a slow smile creeping across his lips as Liz almost ran to his side.
“Thank you,” she whispered, the residue of a faint blush creeping across her cheeks. “You look wonderful too.” She fingered the lapel of his tuxedo jacket, a spark igniting between them as a camera flash momentarily blinded him. “Here’s your boutonniere.” She expertly pinned the small white rosebud onto Max’s jacket, another flash brightening the room.
“And your corsage,” Max said, fumbling with the plastic container and the shredded packing. Once he had successfully retrieved the corsage, he gently slid it onto Liz’s wrist. Her skin felt so smooth and he ached to continue his path upward to her arm and down to the small of her back.
“Midnight, Max,” Jeff growled from behind the counter, startling Max from his lustful thoughts. He caught Liz’s eyes after nodding his understanding to her father, and noticed the identical lust mirrored in them.
“Okay,” Nancy called, the three couples, Kyle and his date Vicki Delaney gathering in the center of the cafe. “Let’s get some pictures.” Michael groaned, followed almost immediately by Maria’s elbow into his chest. “Huddle up.”
Liz pressed her right shoulder against Max’s shoulder and rested her left hand on his chest. She felt Max’s left hand creep to the small of her back, unable to suppress the moan that escaped from her throat as his fingertips touched the bare skin of her back. Alex must have said something funny; she felt Max’s shoulders heave and his laughter fill her ears but she couldn’t concentrate on anything other than Max being this close to her in the presence of her parents.
“Midnight, Max,” Jeff boomed again as everyone scattered from the cafe on their way to the prom.
“Yes sir, Mr. Parker.”
“One more picture, Liz,” Nancy begged, staring at Max and Liz through the camera lens. Max pulled Liz into her arms, Liz’s face bright with a smile, and Nancy snapped the picture quickly. She lowered the camera from her face, Liz still in Max’s arms as the exited the cafe, and looked at the confused expression on her husband’s face.
“Midnight,” Jeff said to an empty cafe, Nancy looping her arms around him as the door shut behind Max and Liz.
April 26, 2002 -- One Year Later
Liz stood on the foot stool, her mother on her hands and knees below her, several straight pins sticking out of her mouth. Liz twitched from side to side, unable to keep herself still.
“Ke ste,” Nancy muttered, her lips taut to keep from dropping the pins out of her mouth.
“I’m anxious, Mom. Max will be here soon and I don’t want Dad to corner him downstairs.” Liz stared at her reflection in the mirror on her parents' dresser and carefully pushed her curls off her shoulders. She was wearing a dress that had been stored in her closet for almost a year. It was a black open-backed, spaghetti-strapped dress, its neckline a low scoop at the swell of her breasts, its a-line frame flowing outward from her waist, the same scoop in the skirt. She wiggled her toes up and down on the stool, the red nail polish visible in her peripheral vision. “Mom!”
“Done,” Nancy replied as she rolled back onto her knees then used the dresser as leverage to stand to her feet. “Oh, you look beautiful.” She helped Liz step down from the stool and pulled her daughter into her arms.
“Thank you for letting me go to the prom with Max.”
“Well, your father has reservations about it.”
“At the end of the summer, I’ll be going to Harvard and Max will be in Las Cruces. We can’t be together. I get it,” Liz snapped, stepping into the black strappy shoes she had bought for the occasion. “Dad won. Max and I aren’t together and probably will never be a couple again.”
“You really love him, don’t you, honey,” Nancy asked, brushing Liz’s hair behind her ears as Liz straightened and sighed.
“Sometimes, when I’m around him, it’s like I can’t breathe and the entire world around us just stops. There’s only Max. He makes me feel alive, Mom, even by just looking at me.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” Liz replied, a wistful smile on her face. “But that’s over,” she said, her tone now one of regret and grief. “I mean, we love each other and we made a mistake with the pregnancy and by keeping secrets but you and Dad have been pretty firm in your decision. Max and I will probably never be a couple again.”
“You’re going to the prom with Max, aren’t you?”
“Please don’t tell me there’s a chance. Don’t...don’t even joke about it.”
“Honey, there’s something you don’t know about your dad,” Nancy began, sitting on the edge of the bed, patting the corner beside her for Liz to sit down. Liz looked at the clock on the night stand and glanced at her mother again. “Your dad won’t kill Max in five minutes. Sit down.” Nancy patted the bed again and Liz sat down beside her mother.
“When your father was your age, he had a girlfriend he was just crazy about, kind of like you and Max. They were inseparable. Well, accidents will happen, as you well know, and the girl got pregnant. Your dad asked her to marry him.”
“Dad was married before?”
“Anyway, the girl’s father hated your dad and made a lot of the same accusations toward him that he made toward Max. Something happened, I’m not sure what, but the baby was born early.”
“What happened then?”
“Both the girl...and the baby died,” Nancy replied softly. “That may be why he reacted so strongly once we found out you were pregnant. He was just scared, Liz, scared of losing someone he loved all over again.”
“I...I never knew that. Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“It’s not something your father likes to talk about,” Nancy said and with a smile, she kissed Liz’s cheek and patted her leg. “So now you know.”
“Do you think Dad will let me see Max during the summer?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Nancy replied. “I’ll bet Max is waiting downstairs. Let me get my camera and we’ll go down together.”
* * *
“You okay, Max,” Kyle asked as he slapped Max’s shoulder, Max almost dropping the plastic container that held Liz’s corsage. “You look like hell.”
“You’d look like hell too if the love of your life’s father was staring at you like that,” Max replied, Kyle immediately glancing to the kitchen where Jeff Parker stood, giving Max death glares.
“Yikes,” Kyle agreed. “I’ll be praying for you, man.”
Max opened his mouth to respond to Kyle as the swinging door opened from the back room of the cafe. Liz stepped into the main dining area, her mother hot on her heels with a camera strapped around her neck. Liz saw him immediately and paused at the corner of the counter, a wide smile cresting across her lips. In two steps, Max was in front of her.
“You look...amazing,” Max said breathlessly as he clutched the plastic box containing Liz’s wrist corsage. “Amazing,” he repeated, a slow smile creeping across his lips as Liz almost ran to his side.
“Thank you,” she whispered, the residue of a faint blush creeping across her cheeks. “You look wonderful too.” She fingered the lapel of his tuxedo jacket, a spark igniting between them as a camera flash momentarily blinded him. “Here’s your boutonniere.” She expertly pinned the small white rosebud onto Max’s jacket, another flash brightening the room.
“And your corsage,” Max said, fumbling with the plastic container and the shredded packing. Once he had successfully retrieved the corsage, he gently slid it onto Liz’s wrist. Her skin felt so smooth and he ached to continue his path upward to her arm and down to the small of her back.
“Midnight, Max,” Jeff growled from behind the counter, startling Max from his lustful thoughts. He caught Liz’s eyes after nodding his understanding to her father, and noticed the identical lust mirrored in them.
“Okay,” Nancy called, the three couples, Kyle and his date Vicki Delaney gathering in the center of the cafe. “Let’s get some pictures.” Michael groaned, followed almost immediately by Maria’s elbow into his chest. “Huddle up.”
Liz pressed her right shoulder against Max’s shoulder and rested her left hand on his chest. She felt Max’s left hand creep to the small of her back, unable to suppress the moan that escaped from her throat as his fingertips touched the bare skin of her back. Alex must have said something funny; she felt Max’s shoulders heave and his laughter fill her ears but she couldn’t concentrate on anything other than Max being this close to her in the presence of her parents.
“Midnight, Max,” Jeff boomed again as everyone scattered from the cafe on their way to the prom.
“Yes sir, Mr. Parker.”
“One more picture, Liz,” Nancy begged, staring at Max and Liz through the camera lens. Max pulled Liz into her arms, Liz’s face bright with a smile, and Nancy snapped the picture quickly. She lowered the camera from her face, Liz still in Max’s arms as the exited the cafe, and looked at the confused expression on her husband’s face.
“Midnight,” Jeff said to an empty cafe, Nancy looping her arms around him as the door shut behind Max and Liz.
Last edited by JO on Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
Part 28
Part 28
“Do you think I could still be the valedictorian if I skip school for the last two weeks?”
“Why would you want to skip school?”
“So we could be together all the time, just like this.”
“I don’t think it’s technically called skipping if you’e sitting in the school parking lot.” Max stretched his legs underneath the steering wheel, Liz beside him in the passenger seat.
“Oh, you’re hopeless,” Liz mused, heavily rolling her eyes. She playfully slapped Max’s right shoulder and Max captured her wrist before she dropped her hand back into her lap. Their eyes locked, Liz biting on her lower lip, unwilling to stop staring at Max. “Can we go somewhere?”
“You don’t want to go to the prom?”
“Do you,” she questioned, not surprised when Max’s facial expression answered for him. “Then let’s go out to the desert,” she continued as she leaned toward him, the scoop of her dress lowering slightly.
“We haven’t eaten yet. I wanted to take you to that new French restaurant.”
“I’d be happy with Senor Chow’s and a wool blanket.”
“What about prom pictures?”
‘Mom took enough of them at the Crash Down. Are you stalling because you don’t want to be alone with me?” Liz arched her eyebrow at him, her tone accusatory yet playful.
“Let’s go to the desert,” Max replied as he started the Jeep and placed his hand on top of Liz’s, already positioned on the shifter.
* * *
“You’ve got a little soy sauce,” Max began, wiping at the corner of Liz’s mouth with his thumb. Liz closed her eyes at the contact and clasp both of her hands around Max’s wrist. “Got it.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m glad your parents decided to let you go with me to the prom.”
“Me too. This year has been hard for them, for all of us. Last week, I couldn’t get the right formula for an equation and I caught the dining room tablecloth on fire.”
“I’m sorry, Liz,” Max whispered, a sorrowful note in his voice as he picked through the container of noodles with his chopsticks.
“Why?”
“I did this to you. I changed you.”
“You saved me, Max. If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead. My parents are having a hard time adjusting to the fact that I’m...different, but they’d much rather have me alive and different than dead.” She smiled, cupping Max’s cheek with her palm, almost forcing him to look at her.
“Then I’m really glad they let you come with me.”
“What’s done is done, Max. We’re here now.” She placed her carton to the side of the blanket, brushing her hands against each other once she was on her feet. “Do you realize this is the first time in a year we’ve been alone together? I want to dance.” She smiled as she jumped off the blanket, her bare feet a stark contrast to the desert floor, her curls bouncing while she twirled around.
Max stood slowly, captivated by her movements, the desert sun setting behind her. He placed his hands in his front pockets, his jacket thrown on one of the nearby rocks, his tie loose around his neck. Part of him wanted to step in and join Liz in her dance, the other part simply content to watch her graceful turns, her skirt lifting off the ground as her momentum increased and changed.
“Do that again.”
“What,” he asked, Liz’s question startling him from his thoughts.
“That look?”
“What look? What do I look like?”
“You look like you did the night of the Crash Festival.”
“Oh,” Max replied as he nodded his head in understanding.
“I never got to thank you...for saving my life,” Liz said, cautiously stepping toward him, their eyes locked on each other as the distance between them closed.
“Thank you.”
Liz crashed into his open arms, looping her arms around his neck. Their mouths joined in feverish short kisses, their hands roaming over each other, reconnecting to the previous paths they had traced over their bodies.
“I can’t...stop...touching you,” Max admitted in between breaths and kisses.
“A year in a long time to wait.”
“Before, when I just watched you, I used to imagine what it would be like to touch you. To run my hands through your hair.” He methodically ran his fingers through her hair, Liz closed her eyes as she allowed her head to fall backwards, her mouth open in a slight moan. “To brush your face with my lips.” He ran his lips along her jaw, Liz’s choppy breath hitting the sensitive part of his neck.
“And now,” she questioned, pressing her body as close to Max’s as possible.
“And now that I’ve done all those things, I can’t imagine how I lived without it for a year.”
“It was a long year,” Liz said honestly, looking Max directly in the eye. “Too long.” She pressed her lips to Max’s neck, her hands expertly weaving up the back of Max’s shirt, her nails flexing into his shoulders.
“Liz,” Max hissed, wrapping his arms tightly around Liz’s waist, struggling to keep them standing. “God.”
“What about next year, Max,” she questioned in a breathy whisper. “I...I can’t not be with you and -”
“You’re going to go to Harvard, Liz,” Max commanded, pushing Liz away from him so he could look in her eyes. “Harvard’s what you’ve wanted for a long time.”
“But you’re what I want now.”
“We’ll see each other during the summers and I’ll only be a phone call away.”
“And two hours time difference.”
“We’ll e-mail.” Liz glared at him, heavily rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest, cold now that she was void of Max’s warmth. “Instant messenger?”
“It’s not instant enough,” Liz replied, burying her head against Max’s shoulder and wrapping her arms around his waist. “I want this. I want to come home to this.”
“I know but that just can’t happen right now, no matter how much we both want it.”
“Why does this feel like good-bye,” she asked, her lower lip already trembling. “Why does it feel like that we’re ending?”
Once again, Max pushed her out of them embrace, forcefully taking hold of her shoulders, almost stooping so they would see each other eye to eye. “This is not the end of us, Liz Parker. Do you hear me? There is no way that Harvard and two thousand miles is going to keep us apart. I love you -”
“And I love you.”
“Then that’s all that matters,” he whispered, pulling her back against his chest, snaking his arms around her petite frame. “We’re in this together and we’re going to have our happily ever after.” He tenderly pressed his lips to hers as a loud thunderclap echoed through the desert.
“Make love to me, Max.”
“Liz,” he began as Liz lowered herself onto the blanket. Once she was settled, she wordlessly offered her hand to him. He swallowed and placed his hand into hers, joining her on the blanket. “I don’t have anything -”
“I do,” Liz replied as she rose to her knees, pressing her body tightly against Max’s. “A year is a long time to wait, Max.” She dropped her hands to the buttons on Max’s shirt and she cautiously began unbuttoning them as Max’s hands crept up and down her back.
“Promise me something,” Max said and Liz felt his fingers struggling with the zipper of her dress.
“Anything,” she replied with a smile as she pushed the shirt open, revealing his sculpted chest to her greedy eyes. She traced her fingers across his collarbone, sparks of silver trailing behind. They exchanged a knowing glance as Max lowered the straps of Liz’s dress down to her biceps.
“Promise me that no matter what happens from here on out, you’ll marry me the day after you graduate from Harvard. You can pick the place.”
“Is Vegas okay with you,” she questioned, her dress slipping down to the blanket, their bodies falling to the ground. “Maybe in the Elvis Chapel?”
“Vegas is perfect.”
“Do you think I could still be the valedictorian if I skip school for the last two weeks?”
“Why would you want to skip school?”
“So we could be together all the time, just like this.”
“I don’t think it’s technically called skipping if you’e sitting in the school parking lot.” Max stretched his legs underneath the steering wheel, Liz beside him in the passenger seat.
“Oh, you’re hopeless,” Liz mused, heavily rolling her eyes. She playfully slapped Max’s right shoulder and Max captured her wrist before she dropped her hand back into her lap. Their eyes locked, Liz biting on her lower lip, unwilling to stop staring at Max. “Can we go somewhere?”
“You don’t want to go to the prom?”
“Do you,” she questioned, not surprised when Max’s facial expression answered for him. “Then let’s go out to the desert,” she continued as she leaned toward him, the scoop of her dress lowering slightly.
“We haven’t eaten yet. I wanted to take you to that new French restaurant.”
“I’d be happy with Senor Chow’s and a wool blanket.”
“What about prom pictures?”
‘Mom took enough of them at the Crash Down. Are you stalling because you don’t want to be alone with me?” Liz arched her eyebrow at him, her tone accusatory yet playful.
“Let’s go to the desert,” Max replied as he started the Jeep and placed his hand on top of Liz’s, already positioned on the shifter.
* * *
“You’ve got a little soy sauce,” Max began, wiping at the corner of Liz’s mouth with his thumb. Liz closed her eyes at the contact and clasp both of her hands around Max’s wrist. “Got it.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m glad your parents decided to let you go with me to the prom.”
“Me too. This year has been hard for them, for all of us. Last week, I couldn’t get the right formula for an equation and I caught the dining room tablecloth on fire.”
“I’m sorry, Liz,” Max whispered, a sorrowful note in his voice as he picked through the container of noodles with his chopsticks.
“Why?”
“I did this to you. I changed you.”
“You saved me, Max. If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead. My parents are having a hard time adjusting to the fact that I’m...different, but they’d much rather have me alive and different than dead.” She smiled, cupping Max’s cheek with her palm, almost forcing him to look at her.
“Then I’m really glad they let you come with me.”
“What’s done is done, Max. We’re here now.” She placed her carton to the side of the blanket, brushing her hands against each other once she was on her feet. “Do you realize this is the first time in a year we’ve been alone together? I want to dance.” She smiled as she jumped off the blanket, her bare feet a stark contrast to the desert floor, her curls bouncing while she twirled around.
Max stood slowly, captivated by her movements, the desert sun setting behind her. He placed his hands in his front pockets, his jacket thrown on one of the nearby rocks, his tie loose around his neck. Part of him wanted to step in and join Liz in her dance, the other part simply content to watch her graceful turns, her skirt lifting off the ground as her momentum increased and changed.
“Do that again.”
“What,” he asked, Liz’s question startling him from his thoughts.
“That look?”
“What look? What do I look like?”
“You look like you did the night of the Crash Festival.”
“Oh,” Max replied as he nodded his head in understanding.
“I never got to thank you...for saving my life,” Liz said, cautiously stepping toward him, their eyes locked on each other as the distance between them closed.
“Thank you.”
Liz crashed into his open arms, looping her arms around his neck. Their mouths joined in feverish short kisses, their hands roaming over each other, reconnecting to the previous paths they had traced over their bodies.
“I can’t...stop...touching you,” Max admitted in between breaths and kisses.
“A year in a long time to wait.”
“Before, when I just watched you, I used to imagine what it would be like to touch you. To run my hands through your hair.” He methodically ran his fingers through her hair, Liz closed her eyes as she allowed her head to fall backwards, her mouth open in a slight moan. “To brush your face with my lips.” He ran his lips along her jaw, Liz’s choppy breath hitting the sensitive part of his neck.
“And now,” she questioned, pressing her body as close to Max’s as possible.
“And now that I’ve done all those things, I can’t imagine how I lived without it for a year.”
“It was a long year,” Liz said honestly, looking Max directly in the eye. “Too long.” She pressed her lips to Max’s neck, her hands expertly weaving up the back of Max’s shirt, her nails flexing into his shoulders.
“Liz,” Max hissed, wrapping his arms tightly around Liz’s waist, struggling to keep them standing. “God.”
“What about next year, Max,” she questioned in a breathy whisper. “I...I can’t not be with you and -”
“You’re going to go to Harvard, Liz,” Max commanded, pushing Liz away from him so he could look in her eyes. “Harvard’s what you’ve wanted for a long time.”
“But you’re what I want now.”
“We’ll see each other during the summers and I’ll only be a phone call away.”
“And two hours time difference.”
“We’ll e-mail.” Liz glared at him, heavily rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest, cold now that she was void of Max’s warmth. “Instant messenger?”
“It’s not instant enough,” Liz replied, burying her head against Max’s shoulder and wrapping her arms around his waist. “I want this. I want to come home to this.”
“I know but that just can’t happen right now, no matter how much we both want it.”
“Why does this feel like good-bye,” she asked, her lower lip already trembling. “Why does it feel like that we’re ending?”
Once again, Max pushed her out of them embrace, forcefully taking hold of her shoulders, almost stooping so they would see each other eye to eye. “This is not the end of us, Liz Parker. Do you hear me? There is no way that Harvard and two thousand miles is going to keep us apart. I love you -”
“And I love you.”
“Then that’s all that matters,” he whispered, pulling her back against his chest, snaking his arms around her petite frame. “We’re in this together and we’re going to have our happily ever after.” He tenderly pressed his lips to hers as a loud thunderclap echoed through the desert.
“Make love to me, Max.”
“Liz,” he began as Liz lowered herself onto the blanket. Once she was settled, she wordlessly offered her hand to him. He swallowed and placed his hand into hers, joining her on the blanket. “I don’t have anything -”
“I do,” Liz replied as she rose to her knees, pressing her body tightly against Max’s. “A year is a long time to wait, Max.” She dropped her hands to the buttons on Max’s shirt and she cautiously began unbuttoning them as Max’s hands crept up and down her back.
“Promise me something,” Max said and Liz felt his fingers struggling with the zipper of her dress.
“Anything,” she replied with a smile as she pushed the shirt open, revealing his sculpted chest to her greedy eyes. She traced her fingers across his collarbone, sparks of silver trailing behind. They exchanged a knowing glance as Max lowered the straps of Liz’s dress down to her biceps.
“Promise me that no matter what happens from here on out, you’ll marry me the day after you graduate from Harvard. You can pick the place.”
“Is Vegas okay with you,” she questioned, her dress slipping down to the blanket, their bodies falling to the ground. “Maybe in the Elvis Chapel?”
“Vegas is perfect.”
Part 29
Part 29
“What time is it,” Max questioned as he stood up to pull his boxers over his hips. Liz lay on the blanket, his white shirt draped over her body, almost swallowing her whole.
“It’s 11:00,” Liz replied with a sigh as she wrapped Max’s shirt around her shoulders and buttoned two buttons. “Let’s go to Vegas right now,” she said, pressing her body against Max’s. “We don’t need to graduate first.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Max replied, his voice light, a wide smile on his lips. He kissed Liz then bent at the waist to retrieve his pants. “It would be very easy to change the color of your dress from black to white.”
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t make my midnight curfew,” she mused, stepping into her dress.
“You don’t regret missing the prom?”
“Not at all,” Liz replied, her voice strong with conviction. “I’m sure Isabel was the prom queen and Kyle the prom king. I’ll bet Michael didn’t dance with Maria once. No,” she paused to remove Max’s shirt, her body covered once again by her prom dress. “I don’t think I regret it at all.”
“Good,” Max replied, taking his shirt from Liz. He put it on quickly, buttoning a couple of buttons while Liz picked up their empty food cartons. He grabbed the blanket and shook of the dust and sand, Liz placing his jacket over her shoulders, their food cartons in her hands. “Let’s get you home,” Max said, and with a smile offered his hand to Liz which she immediately accepted.
* * *
Promptly at midnight, true to his word, Jeff Parker burst through Liz’s closed bedroom door and sighed when he found her snuggled underneath the covers. “Hey, Dad,” she replied, her voice semi-drowsy.
“Hey, Lizzie,” Jeff said as he stepped further into her room. “Did you have a good time?”
“Yeah. Thanks for letting me go with Max.”
“Liz, honey, about Max, I...I realized something tonight when I saw you with him. You have to understand what your mother and I were going through last year when we said you couldn’t see Max anymore.”
“I understand, Dad,” Liz replied as she sat up in her bed, pulling her knees to her chest. “You and Mom were scared and confused.”
“Right, but when you become a parent, Liz, every goal and dream you have for yourself goes out the window. All you care about is keeping your child safe and happy.”
“Max makes me happy. I love him, Dad. Max would never let anything happen to me.”
“I know that now but,” he broke off and sat on the edge of Liz’s bed. “What I really wanted to say was that if you want to stay here, you should. Your mom and I just want you to be happy.”
“What are you saying,” Liz questioned, leaning closer to her father.
“Harvard can wait...if you want to stay here.”
Without hesitation, a smile broke on Liz’s face. “I want to stay.”
“Okay,” Jeff replied with a nod of his head. “We’ll call the admissions office Monday morning and talk to them about your scholarship.”
“Oh, thank you, Daddy,” Liz squealed as she threw herself into her father’s arms. “Thank you.” She placed a series of kisses on her father’s cheek and felt him smile. She squeezed his neck once more for good measure, Jeff released her and walked to her bedroom door.
“‘Night, Lizzie.”
She waited what she considered a safe amount of time after her father left her bedroom. Throwing the covers off her legs, she proceeded to stand on her feet and jump up and down on her bed. She hadn’t jumped on her bed in almost ten years but such a victory for both she and Max deserved some kind of immediate celebration.
She plopped onto the bed, the fringes of her hair damp with perspiration, and reached for her cordless telephone. She immediately dialed Max’s phone number then settled back into her bed as the phone rang in her ear.
“Hello?”
“Hi,” Liz whispered, stifling a giggle at Max’s drowsy greeting. “I have some wonderful news.”
“You’re graduating from Harvard already?”
“I’m staying here.”
“What? Really?”
“Yes, Dad came in and we talked, and he said that if I wanted to stay here, we’d call Harvard admissions Monday morning.”
“I’m so happy I think I could kiss your dad.”
Liz laughed. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea, but his daughter would greatly appreciate such a gesture.”
“Okay,” Max replied after a yawn. “I’d better go. I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”
“First thing,” Liz replied, a smile on her lips. “I love you, Max.”
“I love you too. Goodnight.”
“Night,” she whispered, holding the phone receiver to her ear until she heard him hang up. She placed her phone on the floor beside her bed and rolled onto her back, willing herself to go to sleep, knowing that her entire life would change in the morning when she awoke.
“What time is it,” Max questioned as he stood up to pull his boxers over his hips. Liz lay on the blanket, his white shirt draped over her body, almost swallowing her whole.
“It’s 11:00,” Liz replied with a sigh as she wrapped Max’s shirt around her shoulders and buttoned two buttons. “Let’s go to Vegas right now,” she said, pressing her body against Max’s. “We don’t need to graduate first.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Max replied, his voice light, a wide smile on his lips. He kissed Liz then bent at the waist to retrieve his pants. “It would be very easy to change the color of your dress from black to white.”
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t make my midnight curfew,” she mused, stepping into her dress.
“You don’t regret missing the prom?”
“Not at all,” Liz replied, her voice strong with conviction. “I’m sure Isabel was the prom queen and Kyle the prom king. I’ll bet Michael didn’t dance with Maria once. No,” she paused to remove Max’s shirt, her body covered once again by her prom dress. “I don’t think I regret it at all.”
“Good,” Max replied, taking his shirt from Liz. He put it on quickly, buttoning a couple of buttons while Liz picked up their empty food cartons. He grabbed the blanket and shook of the dust and sand, Liz placing his jacket over her shoulders, their food cartons in her hands. “Let’s get you home,” Max said, and with a smile offered his hand to Liz which she immediately accepted.
* * *
Promptly at midnight, true to his word, Jeff Parker burst through Liz’s closed bedroom door and sighed when he found her snuggled underneath the covers. “Hey, Dad,” she replied, her voice semi-drowsy.
“Hey, Lizzie,” Jeff said as he stepped further into her room. “Did you have a good time?”
“Yeah. Thanks for letting me go with Max.”
“Liz, honey, about Max, I...I realized something tonight when I saw you with him. You have to understand what your mother and I were going through last year when we said you couldn’t see Max anymore.”
“I understand, Dad,” Liz replied as she sat up in her bed, pulling her knees to her chest. “You and Mom were scared and confused.”
“Right, but when you become a parent, Liz, every goal and dream you have for yourself goes out the window. All you care about is keeping your child safe and happy.”
“Max makes me happy. I love him, Dad. Max would never let anything happen to me.”
“I know that now but,” he broke off and sat on the edge of Liz’s bed. “What I really wanted to say was that if you want to stay here, you should. Your mom and I just want you to be happy.”
“What are you saying,” Liz questioned, leaning closer to her father.
“Harvard can wait...if you want to stay here.”
Without hesitation, a smile broke on Liz’s face. “I want to stay.”
“Okay,” Jeff replied with a nod of his head. “We’ll call the admissions office Monday morning and talk to them about your scholarship.”
“Oh, thank you, Daddy,” Liz squealed as she threw herself into her father’s arms. “Thank you.” She placed a series of kisses on her father’s cheek and felt him smile. She squeezed his neck once more for good measure, Jeff released her and walked to her bedroom door.
“‘Night, Lizzie.”
She waited what she considered a safe amount of time after her father left her bedroom. Throwing the covers off her legs, she proceeded to stand on her feet and jump up and down on her bed. She hadn’t jumped on her bed in almost ten years but such a victory for both she and Max deserved some kind of immediate celebration.
She plopped onto the bed, the fringes of her hair damp with perspiration, and reached for her cordless telephone. She immediately dialed Max’s phone number then settled back into her bed as the phone rang in her ear.
“Hello?”
“Hi,” Liz whispered, stifling a giggle at Max’s drowsy greeting. “I have some wonderful news.”
“You’re graduating from Harvard already?”
“I’m staying here.”
“What? Really?”
“Yes, Dad came in and we talked, and he said that if I wanted to stay here, we’d call Harvard admissions Monday morning.”
“I’m so happy I think I could kiss your dad.”
Liz laughed. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea, but his daughter would greatly appreciate such a gesture.”
“Okay,” Max replied after a yawn. “I’d better go. I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”
“First thing,” Liz replied, a smile on her lips. “I love you, Max.”
“I love you too. Goodnight.”
“Night,” she whispered, holding the phone receiver to her ear until she heard him hang up. She placed her phone on the floor beside her bed and rolled onto her back, willing herself to go to sleep, knowing that her entire life would change in the morning when she awoke.
Part 30 -- Conclusion
Part 30
A blinding light flashed in her eyes, voices that she didn’t recognize spoke above her in hurried whispers. She stirred, exhaling as she stretched, pulling the sheet over her face. “Dad,” she murmured as the sheet was ripped back from her face.
“She woke up.”
“Way t’go, Ava. Khivar’s gonna be pissed.”
“Why?”
“Cause we may hafta kill her.”
Liz felt someone grab her wrists, jerking her forward. She sat up in bed, unable to make herself fully wake up and open her eyes, though something within her urged her to.
“She’s knocked up,” a girl with a harsh accent exclaimed, and Liz’s upper body fell backward onto her bed. “Ain’t that the shit.”
“Is it Zan’s -”
“His name is Max. Zan is dead, cornball. Zan ain’t gonna kick it to nobody again.” Someone seized her ankles and pulled her down the length of her bed and Liz landed with a thud on her backside. “Hey! Be careful. She’s valuable property.”
Liz felt a small pair of hands grab her shoulders and she opened her eyes enough, consciousness finally returning to her, to recognize a face she’d thought was long dead. “Tess?”
“Ava,” the girl corrected, her shoulder length predominantly pink hair streaked with black and blonde. She had a silver ring through her eyebrow, a nose stud, and a spiked dog collar around her neck. Despite her appearance, her hands were tender as she lifted Liz to her feet. “She needs some clothes,” Ava called to someone in the hallway, her arm wrapped around Liz’s waist to support her.
“Yeah, grab something,” a harsh voice replied, a tall woman with short dark hair stepping out of Liz’s bathroom, zipping her camouflage pants. “Ain’t gonna matter ‘cause she’ll be too big to wear ‘em soon.” The unknown woman raised her face, looking at Liz for the first time.
“Isabel,” Liz questioned as Ava walked with her toward her closet, Liz’s face never looking away from the woman who could be Isabel’s twin, her eyes widening with each step she took.
“Lonnie,” the girl replied with a mischievous smile, her hooded eyes partially masked by her lowered head and bad posture. “We gotta go, Ava.”
“Where are we going,” Liz questioned as Lonnie grabbed onto her wrist, pulling her toward her window and balcony. “I...I can’t go with you.” She glanced over her shoulder at Ava who was zipping one of Liz’s small luggage pieces. She heard several thuds from the hallway and tried to stop to see what was going on when she saw her father’s body fall. She screamed loudly, Lonnie quickly clamping her hand over her mouth.
“Shut up, bitch. Don’t make me hafta hurt ya.”
“You don’t gotta hurt her,” Ava replied as she stepped to Liz’s other side, a man that looked like Michael streaking past Lonnie and out of her window. Lonnie glared at Ava then stepped out of the window. “Khivar don’t want them. He just wants you.”
“Why?”
“To get to Zan,” Ava said as she stepped through Liz’s window onto the balcony, Liz’s arm firmly in her grasp. “C’mon. You don’t want Lonnie to come back. You gotta think of the baby. Lonnie don’t care ‘bout nothing ‘cept herself, no matter what Khivar said.”
“What baby,” Liz questioned, following Ava because it appeared she had no choice.
“Yours,” Ava said as the man that looked like Michael appeared at Ava’s side, a menacing smile on his face. He placed his hand on the side of Liz’s head and Liz’s world went black.
* * *
Max arrived at the Crash Down early on Sunday. He had risen with the sun and despite the late night he and Liz had shared, he felt refreshed and wide awake. He had showered and dressed quickly, kissing his mother good-bye on his way to the Crash Down. He parked the Jeep in its usual parking spot and walked across the street to the cafe. It looked relatively deserted which was odd for a Sunday morning, especially the Sunday following prom. Most Roswell students that stayed out all night arrived at the cafe at 7:00, still wearing their prom dresses and tuxedos, but no one was in the cafe. Max jiggled the door and grimaced, finding the restaurant still locked.
He walked around to the entrance of the Parkers apartment, and was just about to knock when Sheriff Valenti opened the door. “Morning, Max.”
“Sheriff. What’s going on?”
“Come on inside, Max,” Jim insisted, opening the door wider for Max who stepped through it and climbed the steps to the Parkers living room. The conditions that he saw hit him straight in the stomach and he immediately reached for Liz through their connection. Furniture and clothes were strewn about the living room as if a tornado had touched down inside the apartment. Mr. Parker sat on the sofa, holding a coffee mug, the left side of his face badly bruised. Max tried again to reach Liz, hoping she were just in the bathroom, but his attempt was met by silence.
“We’ve been here since 4:30,” Jim said, snapping Max from his thoughts. Jim motioned to a nearby chair and Max all but fell backwards into it. “Jeff called the office because there had been an intruder, several intruders.”
“Where’s Liz,” Max asked, his hands starting to shake as he sat across from Jim in the living room, Jeff Parker on the sofa to his right.
“There’s something that we need to talk to you about, Max. I was going to wait to call you but I’m glad you’re here now. The sheriff’s office has investigated and searched the entire apartment. We’ll be filing an official report sometime within the next couple of days but there are some...things I won’t be putting into the report.”
“Where’s Liz,” Max repeated.
“Liz is....missing,” Jim admitted, he and Max jumping from their chairs at the same time; Max to go to Liz’s room and Jim to stop him. “Whoever did this wanted it to look like a robbery. Nothing was taken.”
“Except Liz.”
“That’s where you come in,” Jim said, indicating to Max that he should return to his seat. Max did so reluctantly and the sheriff turned his focus to Jeff Parker. “Okay, Jeff. Tell Max what you heard.”
Jeff nodded as he took a quick sip of coffee, placing the mug on the coffee table. “I don’t know many there were. It felt...it felt like a lot.” He touched his left cheek then noticeably winced. “I never got a good look at them. They did something to Nancy, knocked her out or something, but I fought them. We were in the hallway when I heard them in Liz’s room. They were talking to her, telling her she had to come with them. They said a word - keblar, kiptar - I can’t remember.”
“Khivar,” Max questioned.
“That’s right,” Jeff responded with a nod. “That’s what they said. Do you know what it meams?”
“I do,” Max admitted, lowering his head to his lap. It didn’t feel right for him to explain everything about his alien heritage to Mr. Parker before explaining to his own parents. If Khivar had taken Liz, he knew he couldn’t wait very long until he told his parents, all the parents the entire truth about the Royal Four. “He’s our enemy.”
“Any idea why he would take Liz,” Jim asked, his voice low but full of concern.
“To try and hurt me,” Max replied, a new confidence building within him. He felt strangely alive at the prospect of facing Khivar, but he knew that Khivar’s invasion and abduction of Liz had signaled something he and Liz had fought against in several lifetimes - the beginning of the end of the world.
“If this is an otherworldly matter, Max,” Jim continued and Max heard a slight trace of fear in his voice.
“I’m going to get Liz back, Mr. Parker,” Max interrupted, standing up from the chair. “I love her and I’m going to fight for her.”
“Do you really know what you’re up against,” Jim questioned, both he and Jeff standing up with Max.
“I know I’m going to win, Sheriff, whatever it takes. I’m going to find Liz and bring her home.”
A blinding light flashed in her eyes, voices that she didn’t recognize spoke above her in hurried whispers. She stirred, exhaling as she stretched, pulling the sheet over her face. “Dad,” she murmured as the sheet was ripped back from her face.
“She woke up.”
“Way t’go, Ava. Khivar’s gonna be pissed.”
“Why?”
“Cause we may hafta kill her.”
Liz felt someone grab her wrists, jerking her forward. She sat up in bed, unable to make herself fully wake up and open her eyes, though something within her urged her to.
“She’s knocked up,” a girl with a harsh accent exclaimed, and Liz’s upper body fell backward onto her bed. “Ain’t that the shit.”
“Is it Zan’s -”
“His name is Max. Zan is dead, cornball. Zan ain’t gonna kick it to nobody again.” Someone seized her ankles and pulled her down the length of her bed and Liz landed with a thud on her backside. “Hey! Be careful. She’s valuable property.”
Liz felt a small pair of hands grab her shoulders and she opened her eyes enough, consciousness finally returning to her, to recognize a face she’d thought was long dead. “Tess?”
“Ava,” the girl corrected, her shoulder length predominantly pink hair streaked with black and blonde. She had a silver ring through her eyebrow, a nose stud, and a spiked dog collar around her neck. Despite her appearance, her hands were tender as she lifted Liz to her feet. “She needs some clothes,” Ava called to someone in the hallway, her arm wrapped around Liz’s waist to support her.
“Yeah, grab something,” a harsh voice replied, a tall woman with short dark hair stepping out of Liz’s bathroom, zipping her camouflage pants. “Ain’t gonna matter ‘cause she’ll be too big to wear ‘em soon.” The unknown woman raised her face, looking at Liz for the first time.
“Isabel,” Liz questioned as Ava walked with her toward her closet, Liz’s face never looking away from the woman who could be Isabel’s twin, her eyes widening with each step she took.
“Lonnie,” the girl replied with a mischievous smile, her hooded eyes partially masked by her lowered head and bad posture. “We gotta go, Ava.”
“Where are we going,” Liz questioned as Lonnie grabbed onto her wrist, pulling her toward her window and balcony. “I...I can’t go with you.” She glanced over her shoulder at Ava who was zipping one of Liz’s small luggage pieces. She heard several thuds from the hallway and tried to stop to see what was going on when she saw her father’s body fall. She screamed loudly, Lonnie quickly clamping her hand over her mouth.
“Shut up, bitch. Don’t make me hafta hurt ya.”
“You don’t gotta hurt her,” Ava replied as she stepped to Liz’s other side, a man that looked like Michael streaking past Lonnie and out of her window. Lonnie glared at Ava then stepped out of the window. “Khivar don’t want them. He just wants you.”
“Why?”
“To get to Zan,” Ava said as she stepped through Liz’s window onto the balcony, Liz’s arm firmly in her grasp. “C’mon. You don’t want Lonnie to come back. You gotta think of the baby. Lonnie don’t care ‘bout nothing ‘cept herself, no matter what Khivar said.”
“What baby,” Liz questioned, following Ava because it appeared she had no choice.
“Yours,” Ava said as the man that looked like Michael appeared at Ava’s side, a menacing smile on his face. He placed his hand on the side of Liz’s head and Liz’s world went black.
* * *
Max arrived at the Crash Down early on Sunday. He had risen with the sun and despite the late night he and Liz had shared, he felt refreshed and wide awake. He had showered and dressed quickly, kissing his mother good-bye on his way to the Crash Down. He parked the Jeep in its usual parking spot and walked across the street to the cafe. It looked relatively deserted which was odd for a Sunday morning, especially the Sunday following prom. Most Roswell students that stayed out all night arrived at the cafe at 7:00, still wearing their prom dresses and tuxedos, but no one was in the cafe. Max jiggled the door and grimaced, finding the restaurant still locked.
He walked around to the entrance of the Parkers apartment, and was just about to knock when Sheriff Valenti opened the door. “Morning, Max.”
“Sheriff. What’s going on?”
“Come on inside, Max,” Jim insisted, opening the door wider for Max who stepped through it and climbed the steps to the Parkers living room. The conditions that he saw hit him straight in the stomach and he immediately reached for Liz through their connection. Furniture and clothes were strewn about the living room as if a tornado had touched down inside the apartment. Mr. Parker sat on the sofa, holding a coffee mug, the left side of his face badly bruised. Max tried again to reach Liz, hoping she were just in the bathroom, but his attempt was met by silence.
“We’ve been here since 4:30,” Jim said, snapping Max from his thoughts. Jim motioned to a nearby chair and Max all but fell backwards into it. “Jeff called the office because there had been an intruder, several intruders.”
“Where’s Liz,” Max asked, his hands starting to shake as he sat across from Jim in the living room, Jeff Parker on the sofa to his right.
“There’s something that we need to talk to you about, Max. I was going to wait to call you but I’m glad you’re here now. The sheriff’s office has investigated and searched the entire apartment. We’ll be filing an official report sometime within the next couple of days but there are some...things I won’t be putting into the report.”
“Where’s Liz,” Max repeated.
“Liz is....missing,” Jim admitted, he and Max jumping from their chairs at the same time; Max to go to Liz’s room and Jim to stop him. “Whoever did this wanted it to look like a robbery. Nothing was taken.”
“Except Liz.”
“That’s where you come in,” Jim said, indicating to Max that he should return to his seat. Max did so reluctantly and the sheriff turned his focus to Jeff Parker. “Okay, Jeff. Tell Max what you heard.”
Jeff nodded as he took a quick sip of coffee, placing the mug on the coffee table. “I don’t know many there were. It felt...it felt like a lot.” He touched his left cheek then noticeably winced. “I never got a good look at them. They did something to Nancy, knocked her out or something, but I fought them. We were in the hallway when I heard them in Liz’s room. They were talking to her, telling her she had to come with them. They said a word - keblar, kiptar - I can’t remember.”
“Khivar,” Max questioned.
“That’s right,” Jeff responded with a nod. “That’s what they said. Do you know what it meams?”
“I do,” Max admitted, lowering his head to his lap. It didn’t feel right for him to explain everything about his alien heritage to Mr. Parker before explaining to his own parents. If Khivar had taken Liz, he knew he couldn’t wait very long until he told his parents, all the parents the entire truth about the Royal Four. “He’s our enemy.”
“Any idea why he would take Liz,” Jim asked, his voice low but full of concern.
“To try and hurt me,” Max replied, a new confidence building within him. He felt strangely alive at the prospect of facing Khivar, but he knew that Khivar’s invasion and abduction of Liz had signaled something he and Liz had fought against in several lifetimes - the beginning of the end of the world.
“If this is an otherworldly matter, Max,” Jim continued and Max heard a slight trace of fear in his voice.
“I’m going to get Liz back, Mr. Parker,” Max interrupted, standing up from the chair. “I love her and I’m going to fight for her.”
“Do you really know what you’re up against,” Jim questioned, both he and Jeff standing up with Max.
“I know I’m going to win, Sheriff, whatever it takes. I’m going to find Liz and bring her home.”