banner by Anniepoo98!
by Chione
Category: Max/Liz
Rating: MATURE
Disclaimer: I don't own Roswell.
AN: This takes place during Departure. Pretend Alex died in November, and so that would make this December, and Future Max still appeared in October. Everything in Season Two happened as it did in the show, except for the obvious, only it took place in those three months.
I guess most of you by now realize that I tend to give song titles to my stories. And I know I shouldn’t start another story while working on one already, but I couldn’t resist. This idea was driving me nuts. And this is just the prologue. I’ll hopefully have chapter 7 of Children of Eden up before the weekend, or Friday night.
Prologue: One Blaze of Glory
As the door closed behind her, Liz Parker felt the strength drain from her legs, her feet stopping just inside the small cafe her parents ran with the tacky alien theme their desert town seemed permanently attached to. Not that it wasn’t good for business, not that there wasn’t some truth to the rumors. The dark haired boy she’d just left, still sitting in his familiar, battered jeep and drudging up the courage to drive away, was proof enough. The simple fact that she knew he still sat there, felt his dark, brooding gaze through the door, the glass, and the blinds, the fact that he was just as aware that she’d stopped, of the tears stuck on her cheeks, was proof enough.
The cool metal pendant in her hand weighed her thoughts.
Going back.
Everything they’d been through in the past year rushed back, suddenly too real.
She’d never see him again. Because he was leaving with her. His blonde, young bride and their unborn child who couldn’t survive in Earth’s atmosphere.
His presence moved away; he was leaving.
Panic. Tears forgotten, anger forgotten, grief forgotten. How could she just let him go without telling him? If she hurried, she could just catch him before he got to the Valenti’s. She shook her head viciously. Even if he believed her, there was no time to explain everything. And there was so much at stake. Her feet showed more restraint than her heart, staying firmly planted on the floor.
There was so much she’d kept from him since Alex’s death but the rift between them had been too large to bridge with secrets and her own doubts. He’d been the one to end their friendship! she wanted to scream. He was the one to lose faith in her!
She snapped her head back and forth, dragging her toes as she walked to the counter, fingers strumming the smooth surface. I betrayed him first, in his mind, she mused, and now he knew the truth about Kyle. But the future was irrevocably changed now, Future Max never had a child with Tess. Future Max never left Earth or her.
She froze, half standing, half sinking to the floor.
No, it wasn’t possible, she shouted internally, not possible! She was just grasping at invisible straws, she assured herself, hand sliding down to rest against her stomach. Invisible hopes.
Things don’t add up, the treacherous voice in her head, the one that got her into this mess in the first place, piped up. Max is half-human and perfectly capable of surviving on Earth; Tess, the same. And the child, the child you’re carrying, the child with Max’s genetics as much as your own, is thriving on Earth. A different, older Max, but still Max.
So why was the child of Tess and Max dying?
There were only two explanations for the discrepancy that she could see: one, Tess was lying somehow, or two, because Tess was a hybrid herself, their child was different. Too alien.
She shook her head, chasing the thoughts from her consciousness. She’d stew over them later, once Max was gone and her parents had thrown their fit over having a pregnant, teenage daughter. If she ever got around to telling them. Sometimes the idea of running away was only too tempting. She could start over, no aliens, no disappointed parents, no dead best friends, no end of the world. Just Liz. And her little baby who’d look just like her father, but have her mother’s hair or face or manner. The perfect Max and Liz mesh.
While her half-brother was born and raised on another planet, father perfectly unaware of her existence.
Her fist closed, pressing lightly against the slight hardness of her belly. She was only three months along, three months since she’d found Future Max on her balcony, been warned of the end of the world, broken the man she loved, and lost her virginity to the future version of himself after pretending to lose it to Kyle. What kind of a person was she? She insisted she wasn’t ready, when he’d first told her what would happen on the night of the concert. And it hadn’t happened that way, not after she messed with time. But it had happened anyway with Max’s older self, and now she was pregnant with a child that shouldn’t exist.
Maria. She needed her best friend right now. Desperately. She’d hidden her pregnancy for too long, and it was killing her. Maria wouldn’t tell anyone. She’d be supportive, if not overjoyed. Together, the two of them would figure everything out. They didn’t need the Czechs, they’d survive and be happy without them!
Mind made up, Liz packed an overnight bag and tossed it over her shoulder, making her way down the silent streets to the DeLuca household. She’d face her parents in the morning.
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The alarm blared in her ear, upsetting the delicate balance she’d achieved in sleep that kept her stomach from rebelling during the night. With every agonizing bleeeeeeep of the clock, her stomach lurched, sending waves of nausea up and down her throat. She clenched her eyes shut, praying the feeling would subside shortly so she could get on with things. It was a futile effort, she knew, as the past four mornings had ended the same way: her hunched over the toilet, looking pale and drawn, her already empty stomach heaving.
She hadn’t been this sick since she’d had the flu in fourth grade. Except then, she mused, throat tightening involuntarily against the rising bile, then she’d been so sick it didn’t matter if she threw up or not, she couldn’t possibly have felt worse. Now it seemed the only thing wrong was her stomach, and she would attribute it to bad food if it weren’t for the fact that she had hardly eaten in a week. Nothing appealed to her taste, and nothing would stay down if it did.
Something was seriously wrong, and as everyday passed the feeling grew.
She was late, too.
Late.
And not just for school.
The only thing that filled the gaps was a condition she couldn’t fathom much less test her theory.
He was supposed to disappear! He was supposed to cease existing, which meant all of him! But some little piece of him had stayed behind, and she feared it was currently growing within her, ready to enter the world in nine months.
“Oh god,” she groaned, choking back a sob and her body’s feeble attempt to retch as she lay on her stomach. Her head shook back and forth as she cried, rubbing her forehead raw against her pillow. “No, no, no, no, please, God, no!”
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It was a good thing Max was in New York, Liz realized as she slouched down the isle, careful to avoid being seen. Her hood was pulled up and around her ears, hanging over the sides of her face to cover them from passerbys. The last thing she needed was some do-good neighbor alerting her parents that she was in the drugstore buying a pregnancy test.
Pregnancy test. She shivered, eyeing the row of pink and blue boxes, all colored in light pastels and situated right next to the condoms. Wonderful. Rub it in, why don’t they?
She grabbed one at random, knowing that despite the packaging they were all essentially the same. As long as it served its purpose, she didn’t give a damn what the box looked like.
Avoiding the eyes of the cashier, she placed the money on the counter and waited to be handed her change and the bag. Of all the things she never thought she’d do, it was this. And alone, it was so much worse. She was so stupid! Of course everything in her life that can go wrong, does! She should know that! She should never have seduced Future Max, because that’s exactly what she’d done. She’d taken advantage of his guilt and her hurt and put her life on a permanent spin cycle. If only her life would come out all soft and fluffy like the blankets her mom used to pull from the dryer.
Oh, what were her parents going to think?
One thing at a time, she told herself. Make sure you’re pregnant first, then you can worry about people’s reactions. Get step one over with first.
An hour later, she found herself wishing step one would never come. The timer blinked at her, informing her that time was up and her answer was an arm length away. It was her hand that refused to follow commands and pick up the little stick. One glance and everything she knew as her life would change. Her dreams of Harvard, of Molecular Biology, and of patching things with Max would vanish at one tiny sign.
Max. Just his name weighed on her thoughts. He would think the baby was Kyle’s. After all, the dates matched with what he knew as the night she betrayed him. She would never be able to tell him it was his child. His genetics, at least.
Alien genetics. Another fear gripped her heart, tugging on everything inside of her until she was sure her body would come apart at the seams. God, she’d screwed everything up! What if her child had alien powers? What if the pregnancy wasn’t normal? What if Max was able to tell it was his? What if she wasn’t capable of carrying an alien baby? She’d gotten herself into a mess way over even Max’s head. None of them had any experience with what would happen, and she’d be facing it all alone.
Deep, full breaths served to calm her immediate panic, and she scolded herself mentally. One at a time, Liz, one thing at a time. Find out if you’re pregnant at all. Everything else can wait.
Trembling fingers closed around the white stick, her eyes closing automatically as she brought it into her eyesight. One blink, and she’d know.
Her eyes wouldn’t budge.
Oh, for crying out loud, if you’re really pregnant, you’ll still be pregnant even if you don’t look at the test. Get it over with. It isn’t changing anything, just confirming it.
Liz opened her eyes.
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As she stared at her friend’s ceiling, Liz stroked her rounding belly with her thumb absently. She was entering the second trimester, and she would be showing soon. The world would know that Perfect, Straight-A Lizzie Parker got herself knocked up at seventeen.
Max was gone.
“I can’t believe this is really happening.” Maria murmured, startling Liz and coming to lay beside her. “I can’t believe they’re really leaving.”
Liz looked over at her, sympathetic. “I know.” She took in Maria’s rumbled clothes, mused hair and vanishing make-up and knew where her friend had been all evening. They were a hopeless pair. Turning her eyes back to the ceiling, she held back tears and tried valiantly to come up with the single, simple sentence that would make everything so much worse, but so much easier to handle. “Maria--” she began, pausing to wet her lips and swallow. “Maria--”
“I slept with Michael.” Maria blurted.
Liz nodded, grateful and annoyed at being interrupted. She’d known, but was glad Maria was able to tell her. That meant she wasn’t ashamed. She wasn’t hiding anything.
“Maria, I think I could tell by the look in your eyes and the fact that you’re missing your bra.” Liz said with a small grin and a giggle. “But Maria, there’s something I really have to tell you, now, before anything else happens.”
The blonde narrowed her eyes, turning serious and reaching over to hold Liz’s hand. “Whatever it is, you can tell me. I got your back, chica. You know that.”
“I know, I--”
“Larek! He says his name is Larek, and he’s an alien!” Amy DeLuca’s voice filled the room, a hysterical note stirring both girls from their bed. “He’s threatening my daughter! He’s pointing a gun at my daughter!”
The girls shared a look, bolting from the room in unison.
