Complications (CC,M/L,mature) A/N - 05/08/06[WIP]

[hoLLyBEHRy]

I know you guys have a lot of questions. The "Max/stranger" issue will be explored in a future chapter. So you'll get your answers. Don't worry. And sorry for all the cliffies, but I gotta do them.


Chapter 27

[Maria]

“I can’t believe she’s pregnant,” Mrs. Parker cried. “She’s my little girl.”

I smirked sympathetically, letting my tears gather in my eyes.

Where does the time fly? 20 years of our lives passed by so quickly. Can you remember when you first learned how to walk? Or talk? Can you remember that far back? You know, I think I can. I see myself sitting in a walker, crying my brains out. I’m wailing and I’m covered in tears. My parents, when things were good, are kneeling in front of me, taking pictures. See? I can still remember.

I recall a lot of things—My dad teaching me how to tie my shoes…Meeting Liz and wishing, on the day we met, that we were sisters…The first day of kindergarten and knowing instantly, after witnessing a group of boys eating paste, that men were going to be difficult…Falling asleep under the slide during recess in third grade because I wasn’t feeling good…Piercing Liz’s ears and getting in so much trouble…Becoming best friends with none other than Alex Whitman…Going off to band camp the summer after seventh grade and meeting, and kissing, Billy Darden… Tripping over a trash can on the first day of freshman year…Running out of Liz’s apartment screaming after learning the truth about Max, Isabel, and Michael…Kissing Michael…Falling in love…Witnessing Max and Liz’s marriage…Graduating…Moving to Boston…Sitting here in the hospital…

Twenty years doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you think about what’s happened, especially in my life, it’s been a long time. I’m not saying I’m old, because I’m still young.

I don’t really know what I’m saying. Things are just moving too fast. Liz is pregnant. She might have this baby—Maybe not. None of us know. As I sit in the waiting room surrounded by people I love, all I can do is picture Liz and I, as little girls, coloring in her coloring book and singing along to “Faith.” That seemed so long ago. How did we get to this point now? Where’d time fly?

“My baby’s so grown up, she’s having a baby of her own.” Mrs. Parker continued shaking her head in disbelief.

I smiled again and comfortingly rubbed her back. “She’s having your grandchild.”

Mrs. Parker managed to laugh. “Grandchild,” she repeated. “I’m a grandmother.” And, although the mood wasn’t the greatest, I could hear the happiness in the woman’s voice.

“I’m so glad you’re happy about this baby,” I replied, relieved.

“Why? Who isn’t?”

I looked over my shoulder, scanning the small hallway for Liz’s father. “Mr. Parker,” I answered, but I didn’t see him anywhere.

“Oh, sweetie,” Mrs. Parker laughed. “I’m sure Jeff is thrilled about the new baby. He’s just going to kill Max first.”

I gave a little chuckle and continued looking for my best friend’s father. “Where is he anyway?”

And then, I knew…

“I’m going to kill you!” I heard Mr. Parker growl.

I raced to the end of our small corridor and then out to the main one where it was definitely a show. I could hear and feel the rush of people behind me; Kyle, Jesse, the Evanses, and Mrs. Parker, whose husband was burning red, kind of like extremely painful sunburn red. He now stood in a puddle of coffee with a few semi-empty cups near his feet.

Mr. Parker stared down his son-in-law. It was Max, he was here. I couldn’t have been happier to see him, but I didn’t know if I should run to hug him. It looked like Mr. Parker was going to get to him before I could anyway. He would grab Max by the lapels of his jacket and pull Max into his fist.

Max would go down so fast, because already he was trashed. You could tell that he rushed here. Max was an absolute mess already. The knot of his silk blue tie was loose and pulled down and his dress shirt was wrinkled and almost untucked completely. His glasses were nearly coming off his ears. In addition to his muddled apparel, Max was sweating and panting for air.

I’m so glad we were in a hospital. Once Max gets his nose broken, we won’t have to take him far.

Mr. Parker lunged after Max, and if Michael didn’t have reflexes like a cat, Max’s father-in-law would have had his neck. Mr. Parker fought against Michael, who was trying his hardest to keep the man back, but Mr. Parker was determined. Max was backed up against the wall and Michael was backed up against Max, holding off Mr. Parker at an arm’s length. Jesse, Kyle, and Mr. Evans rushed right over and pulled Mr. Parker away, and held him against the opposite wall.

“What the hell is going on?” he growled. “Why didn’t you tell me my daughter was pregnant?!”

With fear instilled in him, Max eased off the wall. “Mr. Parker, I know you’re angry…” he said, doing that thing where his tilted his chin down at an angle.

“Angry?!” Mr. Parker scoffed. Do I need to tell you that three men still needed to hold him back? I’m telling you, he’s fuming. “I get a phone call. Maria tells me to come to Boston right away. There’s something wrong with Liz. She says that they’re all here at Boston General. So we call in some favors and manage to fly here right away. My wife and I get here and we find out that our daughter’s pregnant. Now that can’t be, because my son-in-law would tell me something like that. Much to my chagrin, he’s not even here. You’ve got your cronies here telling me that it’s best if you explain everything to me. So I waited for you…and waited. Five hours, Max! And I waited those five hours out in that hallway with everyone because the hospital wouldn’t let anyone see Liz. Why? They wanted to wait for you, and they wanted to wait for you to release any information. You son of a bitch! My daughter’s been alone for the past five hours. Where the hell were you?”

Mr. Parker tried to lunge forward again, and he managed to fly forward a feet or two, but Kyle, Jesse, and Mr. Evans forced him back against the wall. No need to worry though, because loyal Michael was standing in front of Max acting as a sort of shield or, better yet, bodyguard. He was facing Mr. Parker as he stood in front Max, holding his king at a distance behind him with just one arm.

“I’m going to kill you, Max!” Mr. Parker threatened.

Michael only laughed. “You see, I can’t let you do that, Mr. Parker,” he chuckled.

And then what Michael did next scared us all. Like a two-faced, psycho villain in a twisted horror movie, Michael whipped around and shoved Max against the wall. He pressed the outer side of his forearm across Max’s throat and leaned forward.

“Michael!” I screamed.

“Where the hell were you?” he growled.

Max’s cheek was almost touching the wall as he stood on his tiptoes to relieve the pressure Michael was placing on his air supply. “Mich—” he tried to say.

Michael leaned forward again. “You knew this was going to happen,” he said, and I couldn’t help but have this confused look on my face. “You knew,” Michael accused. “So you ran. You ran away like the little boy you are.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, taking a step forward.

But Michael ignored me and went on torturing and interrogating Max. “You weren’t in Albany,” he said to him, explaining to us also. “You ran away so you wouldn’t have to deal with this.” I could see the tears in Michael’s eyes. I don’t know what the reason behind his tears were, but Michael was definitely emotional. “You left me to pick up your mess,” he went on. “You thought it was going to be simple. Simple enough for me to take care of everything while you hid out until it was over, but something’s happened. Your mess has turned into a landfill.” Michael had lowered his arm slightly, so that no longer did Max have to pressed the side of his face against the wall, but look into Michael’s eyes. He wanted Max to see the torment he had been putting himself through because of all of this. Michael leaned his arm forward slightly. “Do you know how scared I’ve been the past twelve hours?” he said to Max, not looking for an answer. “Do you know what I went through? What we all went through? What Liz is going through??? Huh, do you?” He pulled Max off the wall just a smidge and then slammed him back against the wall as his eyes completely filled with tears. I waited for a drop to fall to trickle down his cheek. He was so terrified. “You failed us again, Maxwell.” Michael shook his head in disappointment, and disgust, actual disgust, but didn’t stop staring into Max’s eyes. “Where the hell were you?” he asked a final time, placing emphasis on each word.

But Max couldn’t answer. He was turning blue from the lack of oxygen and tried coughing for some air. I definitely wanted to hear what he had to say now that we knew the truth. Everything was out on the floor. Max screwed up. I know we were all anxiously waiting for an answer, but I’m not sure if any of us were going to be able to believe Max.

“Ease up son,” Mr. Evans suggested to Michael. I had realized that neither of Max’s parents were objecting Michael’s interrogating skills.

Michael lowered his forearm to Max’s collar bone, but continued to pin his best friend against the wall. “Answer me,” he ordered.

Max coughed up a storm for air and as the coughing gradually ceased, he started taking deep breaths. “I really was in Albany,” he insisted. He tried reaching up to soothe his throat, but Michael slapped his hand down. “Let me go, Michael. Don’t make me do something I’ll regret.”

We all started to witness the staring contest between the two. Michael glared angrily into Max’s eyes and Max was somewhat calm. He didn’t seem afraid. It was because he knew Michael wouldn’t do anything to him. We all knew Michael wouldn’t hurt Max in a threatening way. He might punch our leader, but that was the extent of things, and a punch was a last resort kind of thing. Though, I remember it did happen quite often when we were a few years younger.

After a few seconds, Michael eased up completely on Max and backed away. Finally, Max was able to soothe his throat. He tilted his head down to the right shoulder and then left shoulder, cracking his neck.

“I was in Albany,” Max said again. “I was picking up a present for Liz and the baby; a surprise.”

If that wasn’t a load of bullshit, I didn’t know what was.

“Where is this surprise?” Isabel skeptically asked her brother.

Max exhaled sharply and started tidying up his appearance. “It’s parked outside.”

Everyone in the hallway exchanged glances. Was he telling the truth? I think we all came to the same conclusion: Maybe he was.

“I got your pages,” Max went on. “I got the voicemail.”

“So why didn’t you call back?” I insisted on knowing.

Max shook his head. “My phone died.”

“Wow,” Kyle replied without the slightest bit of enthusiasm. “Isn’t that a coincidence.”

“It’s the truth,” Max insisted.

Catching my eye was Isabel, looking to Michael. He looked her way and for a brief second they just stared at each other. Michael then nodded and turned to Max.

“Let me see it,” he ordered.

Max’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

“Let me see your phone.”

Max grinded his teeth and reached into the inside of his jacket. He pulled out his phone and handed it to Michael. Suspiciously glancing at our supposedly fearless leader, Michael snatched the phone out of Max’s hands. He flipped it open and attempted to turn it on. Michael started laughing.

“What?” Isabel wondered.

“It’s dead,” Michael reluctantly admitted.

Kyle chuckled. “I’ll be damned.”

He, Jesse, and Mr. Evans were still holding poor Mr. Parker against the wall. Mr. Parker was no longer putting up a fight. They kind of just forgot him, until he tried to step forward.

“What’s wrong with my daughter?” he demanded. “Why won’t they let us see her?”

He was looking to Michael for answers and then Max started looking at his second-in-command in the same way. I think all of us looked at Michael. He was the only one Dr. Crosby talked to.

Michael turned to Max, ready to have what looked like a private conversation for all of us to see. “Max,” he said calmly. Now he seemed to be regular Michael. “Max, we counted wrong,” he continued, looking down at the floor. He hesitated to speak and spoke regretfully. “Liz isn’t nine months like we thought. She’s only 27 weeks along.”

I shook my head and continued shaking it. There was no way we counted wrong. Two months. That’s what Liz said.

I looked to Isabel and it looked like she already knew this news. She stared down at the floor, avoiding everyone’s stares. I assumed that Michael told her. Next to her, the huddle of men stood. They were no longer holding Mr. Parker back. All of them were too shocked. Right beside me, Mrs. Evans had to grab a hold of Mrs. Parker to prevent her from falling to the floor.

And Max. Seconds ago, we were all fuming at him, but you can’t hate a man whose world just fell to pieces, whose heart was excruciatingly torn, and whose soul had disappeared. The tears in Michael’s eyes, earlier, were nothing like the ones in Max’s.

“What?” he asked softly.

“Liz was going into premature labor,” Michael elaborated.

Max sniffled and swiped the back of his hand under his nose. “Is she ok? Where is she now?”

Michael looked down the hallway where we were waiting earlier. “In the room,” he said. “She’s resting.”

“So everything’s ok?” Max wondered.

There was doubt in Michael’s face. It was mixed in with fear and uncertainty. “I don’t know,” he answered shaking his head. “Since she was premature, the doctor asked if they could go ahead and administer a drug to stop the contractions before her water broke.”

“Did you say yes?” Mrs. Parker asked, demanding to hear a “yes”. “The baby won’t survive if it’s born now.”

“I said yes,” Michael replied.

I heard Mrs. Parker’s sigh loud and clear.

“What happens now?” Isabel asked.

Max immediately looked her way and he stared at his sister for a moment. After that moment, Max turned around and started marching my direction and eventually he walked right past me. I looked to Michael wondering what to do, and Michael just started Max’s path. So then all of us went after them. Our little cluster of people caught up with Michael, who was a few feet behind Max. He kept that distance and so did we.

“Max, listen,” Kyle urged. “We had to tell the doctor that you and Liz were separated.”

We hoped that Max was listening, but we weren’t sure. He was on a mission to get to Liz’s room. Once we reached 2A, the door opened and Dr. Crosby emerged again.

“Paul,” Max greeted.

The tall doctor with the blonde hair smiled. “Max.” Crosby walked forward and hugged him. “Where the hell have you been?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Max insisted. “I’m here now.”

“And good thing,” Paul nodded. “You and I need to talk.”

While Michael watched the two men, the rest of us looked at each other.

Dr. Crosby looked over Max’s shoulder at us and smirked. “I want to talk to Max for a second and then I’ll give him back.”

Then Dr. Crosby turned around and walked back into Liz’s room, which was dark and silent. The door remained open, but we nothing more than what looked like an empty room. Max’s shoulders rose as he took a deep breath.

Into the room he went without looking over his shoulder.

The door closed behind him.

[hoLLyBEHRy]

Chapter 28

{Max}

None of the fluorescent lights were turned on, so it was only the setting sun that dimly lit the room. Two nurses casually scurried around the labor suite, going about their business while Paul and I stood staring at a curtain that blocked off about a fourth of the room.

The room was fairly empty. To the left was the crib and the balance and a station for the equipment needed. A portable defribulator, I noticed, was sitting on the bottom shelf. To my right, next to where I stood, was a door leading to the bathroom and next to the door, a single hospital issue chair and an end table with a few parenting magazines just resting on top. To the far left corner was a couch and just above it, a TV was attached the wall, but it wasn’t turned on or anything. The remaining fourth of the room was the far right corner. A sky blue curtain divided it from the rest of the labor suite and although the lighting was dim, I could see the silhouette of a bed, and Liz lying on it.

To me, the room was frightening. It was too quite and too clean. That really wasn’t why I feared being in the room. It was what was behind the curtain that was scaring me the most. I wasn’t scared of having this baby. I was scared that maybe my worst fears would come true, that maybe something had happened to Liz and the baby. Based on what I learned from the others, it seemed like maybe something did happen.

“So how are you doing, Max?” Paul asked as he was going over Liz’s chart. He flipped through pages, scanning over readings and forms.

I stuck both hands in my pockets and continued staring at the blue curtain and the faint silhouette of Liz. “I’ll be doing much better once you tell me how my wife’s doing.”

Dr. Crosby sighed heavily and bobbed his head up and down. “She’s sleeping now. Once she wakes up and we give her the ok, you can take her home.”

“So, she’s fine,” I realized.

Paul continued nodding his head up and down as he watched the curtain with me. “The contractions are slowing down and we’ll be able to get Liz out of here. She’s healthy and so is your baby.”

I put on a smirk. I was so relieved to hear that news. Liz and the baby were fine. My heart swelled with happiness. I finally turned to my colleague with a smile on my face. “Any chance of you telling me what the sex is?”

Crosby laughed and shook his head, giving me a solid pat on the back. “Sorry, Max, Liz told me not to tell you.”

I sighed heavily. I never knew how hell bent she was on not finding out. This was really important to her. I could only smile, happy at that, happy that they were ok, happy about everything. “Thought I’d try,” I shrugged.

For a moment, the two of us continued watching the curtain and the shadow of Liz. From the corner of my eyes, I watched Paul turn towards me.

“Why didn’t you tell me your wife was pregnant? Where have you been taking her, Max?”

I still stared at the curtain and swallowed the lump in my throat. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to explain that for the past two months we had a med student check the progress of the pregnancy. I couldn’t tell him that. So what do I tell him? Then I remembered Kyle telling me something about Liz and I being separated. I didn’t know what he was talking about at first, but I think I got it.

“We’ve been separated,” I lied.

It worked. Dr. Crosby embarrassedly nodded his head. “Oh,” he replied, eventually, looking down at the floor. “Sorry about that.”

I gave a small smirk. That was one less problem we had to worry about. Now all I had to do was focus on Liz and wait patiently until she woke up. She was going to be fine. I was reveling in that fact. Liz was ok. The baby was ok.

“Max…”

And we were so close to stepping out of the woods. I could tell that what I was about to hear wasn’t good news. Slowly, I looked at Paul, and I tried my best to prepare myself for whatever he had to say, but how do you do that when you haven’t the slightest idea, except that it had to be bad news?

“Yeah?” I calmly replied.

Paul cleared his throat and leaned to toss the clipboard onto the chair beside me. He stood in front of me, not as my co-worker or as my friend, but as my doctor. "Here’s the deal, Max. We shot some Brethine into the drip and that's stopping the contractions. In effect—”

“It’ll postpone labor until Liz is actually ready,” I nodded. “I know that.”

“So you know the risks?” Paul asked. ‘You know that it may cause heart failure in either Liz or the baby and it might cause future heart complications for both your wife and child.”

It’s not the most pleasant thing you want to hear, but since I wasn’t told of any of the prior occurring, I was ok with it. So I bobbed my head in understanding. I guess it wasn’t bad news after all.

"Problem is," Paul continued.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest as I stood before the doctor.

"Max, I'm sorry,” he started apologizing.

I swallowed the large lump that had formed in my throat in a matter of seconds. Suddenly, Paul's tone had went from a hopeful, good-news one to a tone that doctors use when they're ready to deliver bad news. I knew the tone. I spoke in that tone almost everyday and I never once expected to hear that tone used with me.

"What the hell is it?" I demanded to know. There was no use in him dragging it out, it would lead me to fear the absolute worst.

Paul sighed heavily, glancing at the curtain and then back at me. "Liz won't be able to deliver this baby vaginally. Your baby won't be able to pass through her pelvis.”

I stared at Paul with confusion and I gathered that he noticed.

“It's not a problem though,” Paul assured me. “When Liz is to term, we'll do a Caesarean. I've already scheduled to induce labor in a couple of months."

I heard what he was saying. It was protocol to describe to the patient's family the measures we doctors were going to take to care for a patient. Once again, I never expected to be on this side of the conversation.

I bit down hard as I bobbed my head in understanding, but now there was a problem. There was a big problem. I needed to think this over and I needed to discuss it with the others.

“Ok,” I said calmly, although I was panicking inside. “I should probably tell my family.”

Paul nodded in understanding and went ahead and opened the door for me. The moment the door opened, I could see Michael anxiously standing just outside the room, waiting for someone to come out. His eyes widened with curiosity when he caught my attention, but he quickly lost it when I began glancing around the small corridor at the support we had out there—My mother and father standing together in the corner, Isabel and Maria holding hands as they sat next to each other, Jesse and Kyle leaning against the wall, conversing with each other, and Mr. and Mrs. Parker sitting in the other chairs, eagerly waiting for news and more importantly an explanation about everything.

I stepped into the hallway and listened for the thick door to close. I smiled at the group, but not too much to get their hopes up, and cleared my throat. “Liz is fine,” I announced, and it was amazing to see their happy grins. “They gave her a drug to prevent premature labor and the contractions are gradually stopping. Right now, Liz is asleep, letting everything run its course.”

I glanced over at the Parkers, smiling at Mrs. Parker who sat with her hands clasped after clapping once in joy. “That’s great news,” she sighed in relief.

I let my eyes drift down to the floor.

“Maxwell,” Michael said. “It is great news, right?”

With great resistance, I shook my head. “When Liz and the baby are to term, she’s going to have to have a Cesarean. They’ll induce labor in two months.”

Everyone who was in the know stared at me in fear. Isabel stood up from her seat, tightly gripping wooden armrests of the chair. Michael had taken a step forward, but didn’t move any closer to me. Maria was grabbing onto his arm, once hugging it, but now barely holding on. Kyle was off to the side, kind of by himself, looking to the others and then to me.

Meanwhile, the Parkers couldn’t understand why everyone was reacting to devastating news when the news was somewhat hopeful. They had no idea. Now they began to worry after seeing everyone’s faces and especially mine, but I tried to look emotionless. I tried to have a stone cold demeanor, but I doubt it was working. I’m sure I looked as horrible as I was feeling inside.

“What’s going on?” Mr. Parker wondered.

I didn’t have time to explain everything to them. A quick rundown would have to do. “Mr. and Mrs. Parker…Mom, Dad…” I said to them, chuckling nervously. I turned to look at Michael once again and made sure he followed my eyes as I looked around the area.

“On it,” Michael nodded. He started walking out of our little hallway, grabbing Kyle’s shoulder as he left. The two of them disappeared after turning the corner. They jogged back ad bobbed their heads. “It’s all clear,” Michael replied. “Go ahead and spill.”

“Sorry,” I apologized to the Parkers. They didn’t really respond much. Mr. Parker just continually stared me down. I cleared my throat and prepared to recall my whole life in minutes. “I need to rush this,” I explained. “So please don’t interrupt.” I tried asking as politely as I could. I cleared my throat again. “In 1947 a real spaceship crashed,” I explained. “Michael, Isabel, and I were on that ship. We were in these eggs and emerged in 1989 as six-year-old humans. Weird, I know,” I laughed. The Parkers didn’t laugh back. I coughed and went on. “We’ve grown up as normal humans until that shooting in the Crashdown. Mr. Parker, Liz told you that she wasn’t shot, but she actually was, and it was bad.”

Mr. Parker had this menacing look on his face as I felt the sweat seeping through my pours. I definitely didn’t feel at ease when I looked to Mrs. Parker.

I cleared my throat and continued on, remembering that I need to say all of this and then get back to Liz. “As an alien,” I reluctantly admitted, “I was able to heal, Liz. She was fine. Except that a few years later, Liz inherited some alien…Well, she became somewhat alien.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Mr. Parker growled.

I wiped the sweat off my face. “I don’t have time to explain it to you,” I told him, giving him the hand. “Basically, Liz is about a fourth alien. The rest of her is still human, but she’s gotten some powers and her body functions almost like an aliens. I know this all sounds really stupid and unbelievable.”

“You’re right,” Mr. Parker laughed. “It does sound stupid.”

His wife gripped onto his arm, tugging it down slightly. “Jeff,” she scolded.

I was running out of patience. Little was done to tick me off, but I needed to get back to Liz before the contractions stopped completely, and so I was trying to rush. “I don’t care if you believe me or not,” I said, “but you’re going to have to believe me right now because we’ve got a more pressing matter to discuss. Liz’s pregnancy lasted two months, not the usual nine. So we had to keep everything a secret, do you understand?”

I instantly knew I was offending the Parkers by speaking down to them, but I pressed on anyway. “We must’ve miscalculated the alien to human pregnancy ratio,” I continued to explain, “but the plan was for me to deliver the baby at home.”

“Are you insane?” Mr. Parker laughed. “I wouldn’t trust you to deliver my grandchild.”

And now I knew how Mr. Parker really felt.

“We had no other choice,” I spat back. “If people found out that Liz had a two month pregnancy, do you know that she would literally be placed under a microscope? Those stories you hear back in Roswell about the government and alien testing…That’s all true. You wouldn’t want that to happen to Liz would you? Or your grandchild?”

Mr. Parker gritted his teeth as he glared up at me. “This is all your fault.”

“Jeff.” Now it was my father scolding my father-in-law.

“We can’t pass blame,” my mother agreed. “Max, explain to us what’s going on with Liz right now.”

And I nodded nobly. “Liz is scheduled for a Cesarean in two months, but by then, the baby will be way overdue.”

Michael moved his hands from his hips and crossed his arms across his chest. “So what are you proposing?” he asked.

And I had thought this decision through. I did. Since Paul first told me the news, I had run every possibility through my mind. There was only one functional plan.

“We have the baby today,” I revealed.

And I definitely caused a ruckus. Isabel and Maria instantly started verbally attacking me. They wondered if I was hit over the head, if I was suicidal, if I was even thinking, and etc. Meanwhile, everyone else just stared at me in disbelief and shock, except Michael.

“You’re kidding,” he laughed.

“What do you expect me to do?” I asked. “Do everything as planned? Have Liz come home today and deliver the baby when it’s to term? That would mean I’d have to perform a C-Section.”

Michael only stared at me.

I read his suggestion in his stare. I scoffed. “You’re crazy, Michael.” I shook my head in disgust. “I will not perform surgery on my wife. The baby’s small enough now. It’ll pass through. I can cover up everything that’ll happen.”

Isabel fiddled with her wedding band and shook her head worriedly. “Max, how sure you about this?”

I smirked at my sister, not being able to give her an answer, and turned around to walk back into the room.

“Max!”

I ignored my sister’s plea and grabbed the doorknob, turning it and pulling it to open the door. But the door slammed shut and I found an arm in front of my face, preventing me from getting back into the labor suite.

“Michael, move out—”

It wasn’t Michael who closed the door.

“Dad?” I questioned, shocked and confused. “What are you doing?”

The corners of my father’s mouth stretched out, not into a smile, but into a kind of grimace. He took in a deep breath through his teeth. “Son, we need to talk.”

“I—I need to get back to Liz,” I stuttered. A second ago, I was addressing the group like the leader I was meant to be and now I was just my father’s little boy.

My father looked over his shoulder to see some faces encouraging him to go on with whatever he was about to do. He nodded back at them and returned to me. “We need to talk to you about where you’ve been.”

I cleared my throat and shook my head. “What are you talking about? I told you,” I said to him, and to the others, by tilting to see around my father, “I was in Albany.”

“You couldn’t have called?” Isabel wondered.

“My cell phone was dead,” I quickly snapped.

My sister scoffed, shaking her head. “What about a payphone?

Betrayal is one of the worst feelings. I couldn’t handle what they were doing to me right now. It was like an intervention. Add attack to betrayal. It’s like a vise around your chest.

“I—I don’t have time to deal with this,” I told them as I turned.

But my father grasped both my shoulders and turned me back to face him and the others. “Fact of the matter is, Max, based on what the others have told me, I don’t know if I can trust what you say.”

And now I really felt like a little boy.

“You’ve been missing for nearly—what is it?” he asked, looking over his shoulder.

“Eight hours,” Michael answered, leaning forward.

My father looked back at me, nodding. “You’ve been missing for eight hours, son. Let’s do the math.”

“Dad, I—”

“According to Michael,” my father went on, “you left the house around five. Kyle found Liz in the nursery around eight. Maria called you around that time. Now, you said you received the pages and heard the voicemail.”

I bobbed my head as I followed along. “Yes, and that’s when my phone died and I started heading back here.”

“When?” Michael demanded to know. He moved closer to me and my father stepped to the side so Michael could get through. Honestly, I was scared Michael was going to throw me back against the wall. Instead, he stood in front of me with his arms crossed in front of his chest. “When did you listen to the voicemail? It should have been right away.”

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t hear my cell phone.”

‘You didn’t hear your cell,” Michael laughed. “Here’s the deal: Maria called your cell phone first. She called your hospital pager and I’m guessing if you didn’t hear your cell phone, then you didn’t hear your pager.”

I nodded in agreement and Michael went on.

“What about your conscience pager?” he asked. “That one’s set on vibrate. You had to have felt that one. Unless you took it off again.”

“I didn’t,” I insisted. I opened my jacket, showing everyone the two pagers attached to my belt.

“Good,” Michael nodded. “So you felt that one. I hope you’re following me, Maxwell. What did you do when you felt it? You must’ve noticed it the second Maria called you. If you did, then you must’ve checked your other pager and your cell phone, because what was our agreement, Maxwell? You’re supposed to give us a call the moment you feel your conscience pager. So you had your phone in hand. I’m guessing that’s when you noticed you had a message in your voicemail. So you must’ve checked it. Therefore you heard Maria’s distressed phone call. Now, you said that you started driving back when you heard the voicemail. Did I get any of this wrong?” he asked.

I shook my head.

Michael nodded satisfied. “So that means you left around eight. Let’s go ahead and assume that there was ‘traffic’, because we’re sure you were going to say that you were stuck in traffic,” he grinned quickly. “Ok, so that means it should be about noon time. Kyle, what time is it?” he asked, not even taking his eyes off of me.

Kyle nervously cleared his throat. “A quarter after one.”

But Michael knew what time it was. “Where’s that one hour?” he wondered.

For the first time, I looked at the others and saw their determined faces. They were determined for answers.

“You know, Michael,” I chuckled, “you’re taking what I said too seriously.”

“You rather I not?” he asked me. “If I didn’t, no one would take care of Liz, because you sure as hell haven’t done anything.”

I turned around as I opened the door.

“We’re not done, Maxwell.”

I regretfully closed the door behind me. The room was still dark. Nothing else had really changed except now Dr. Crosby was standing on the other side of the blue curtain, standing at the foot of Liz’s bed.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped deeper into the room. “Paul,” I said, clearing my throat.

Paul stuck his head out from behind the curtain and disappeared. He came back out after a second. He strolled over with a smile on his face. “The contractions have almost stopped. She’s awake now.”

I faked a smile and stared at the curtain. "Can I get a moment alone with her?"

Paul patted me on the back. "Not a problem. Press the buzzer twice when you're ready for us to come back in." He signaled to the nurses and they began to leave the room after he made a gesture.

I nervously stared at the curtain surrounding Liz's bed. I could see the silhouette of her beautiful figure made and that magnificent bump that protected my child. For weeks, Liz kept that baby safe, but now safety was beyond her control and it was my turn to step in, to protect our child and her.

"Don't worry," Paul chuckled. "Liz will be fine. Your baby will be too."

I put on another smirk and watched the doctor leave the room. He closed the door and I turned back to Liz. I marched to the curtain, stopping just at the edge to take a deep breath before I made my presence known. I finally managed to walk around the curtain and saw Liz. Her beautiful brown hair tied into French braids courtesy of Maria. The sweat on her face made her skin shine and her blushing red cheeks glow. The bed was propped up so that she sat up at a forty-five degree angle. She was dressed in those hospital issued gowns and was covered by a wool hospital blanket.

Liz blinked her eyes open. She must’ve known that it was me. “Hi,” she smiled.

I grinned back at her as I walked towards her, taking off my jacket and placing it at the foot of the bed. I dragged a stool to her side and took a seat. “Hey, baby, how you doing?” I asked.

“Better,” Liz replied, bobbing her head.

I gave a little laugh, looked at Liz and pointed to her belly. “I was actually talking to the baby.”

Liz slapped my shoulder.

“You’re really doing better?” I wondered.

Liz nodded.

“Good,” I sighed. I smiled and grabbed one of her hands with both of mine. Our bundle of hands rested on her hip. “So, what happened? When I left you this morning you were fine.”

“I don’t know,” Liz sighed, shaking her head. “I was in the nursery—and I know, I wasn’t supposed to be in there, but I just wanted to sit in the rocking chair.”

I smiled. “It’s ok. What happened next?”

Liz smirked back at me and went on. “I started having contractions again,” she said. “I wasn’t in that much pain in the beginning. So I just assumed it was false labor.”

“But it wasn’t,” I commented.

Liz nodded in agreement. “The contractions didn’t stop and then they were getting worse. Luckily, Kyle came in. He went to get Michael and they decided to take me here.”

I listened curiously, needing to know more. “Do you remember what happened when you got here?”

Again, Liz nodded. “We went to the emergency room first,” she answered. “They evaluated me and then decided that I needed to be taken here. They did an ultrasound and then they gave me some drug. B—Bre—”

“Brethine,” I told her.

“Yeah,” she replied. “That’s what Paul said. He said it was going to stop the contractions and then I fell asleep.”

I bobbed my head in understanding while I kept my eyes fixated on Liz’s hand just resting in mine. I think she was looking at the same thing too as I played with her wedding band, spinning it around her finger.

Clearing my throat, I prepared to speak and a word came out of my mouth at the same time a word came out of Liz’s. We chuckled at the awkwardness and lowered our heads smiling.

“You go first, I told her.

Liz nodded and started playing with my wedding band. “I just wanted to know how Albany was,” she said softly.

I shrugged my shoulders, tilting my head to one side slightly. “It was ok. Same old Albany,” I replied. “I would have rather been here with you. I’m sorry you had to go through this alone.”

Liz shook her head. “I was ok,” she smiled. “Michael took care of me.”

I gave a little smirk and rested my chin on Liz’s bed. She ran one of her hands through my hair, causing my eyes to roll to back of my head in delight. Her touch was like ecstasy. Her hand grazed down toward my face where she rested her hand, cupping my cheek.

“What did you want to say?” she wondered.

I opened my eyes and took Liz’s hand off my cheek, moving it to my lips to kiss her palm. I sat up and sandwich her one hand in both of mine, then leaned forward to kiss her belly. “I love you,” I smiled.

Liz knew something was wrong and she asked me flat out. “What is it?” she said.

They say childbirth is the closest thing to dying. How could one miracle bring so much risk? I guess that’s why they call it a miracle because at the end of all of it, you’ve got the greatest gift in the world, a product of love resting in your hands. But so many things can go wrong and I had seen many of those things happen before. I couldn’t let any of those things happen to my wife or my child.

“Max, are you ok?”

I slid my hands underneath my glasses and rubbed my eyes to get the tears out. I cleared my throat and nodded. “Look,” I said softly. “We have to have this baby.”

Liz laughed. “We will, Max. Paul said the baby’s fine. The drug’s working and I’ll be able to carry to term.”

There was a problem with that. I’d have to explain it to her.

I nervously cleared my throat again. I didn’t want to have to break this type of news to her. My heart raced. “Liz, when the baby is to term, you won’t be able to have this baby naturally. It’d be too big to pass through.”

“So I’d have to have a Caesarean,” she realized.

Despite skipping through high school, Liz was way smarter than I was.

I nodded. “Paul scheduled to induce labor in about nine weeks, when the baby’s nine months.”

“That’s fine,” Liz insisted, but I think she forgot how special she was.

“Liz, just how long is your term?” I asked her. “It’s not nine months, it’s two.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat and started to realize the truth I had just thrown in her face.

“If they send us home today,” I started to explain, “they’ll be expecting us in two months with a nine month old baby, but because of what we are, that baby’s going to be nine months not in eight weeks; in two weeks, Liz. Do you understand me?”

Liz bit the inside of her bottom lip in worry and fright and watching her put the tears back into my eyes.

I took a quivering deep breath and released it sharply. “So we have to have this baby, Liz,” I told her. “Right now.”

She turned away not being able to look into my tear-filled eyes. I was asking a lot of her, of our child. She understood this but couldn’t accept it. I watched her look up to the ceiling and then slowly turn her head towards me. “I can’t,” Liz cried softly. A tear escaped her eye and ran down her cheek. She quickly swiped it away and shook her head. “Max, I—I can’t. The baby won’t be able to survive. I can feel it.”

I pulled off my glasses to wipe my tears away. I folded my semi-frameless glasses, slid them into my breast pocket and let my hands nervously play with my necktie. I was bobbing my head the whole time, pretending to accept Liz’s answer.

“I just can’t, Max,” she said again. “I can’t do what you’re asking me to do.”

I grabbed her hand again and stared down at it. If I looked up, I’d start crying like a little baby. I had to keep looking down.

“I’ll lose you, Liz. If we go home and you go into labor when it’s time for you to go into labor, I’m not going to be able to deliver the baby.” I sniffled a bit as I continued to stare down. I cleared my throat once again, stalling to speak. “If that happens, Liz, you’ll die and the baby will die. If we go home, and you go into labor, and we decide to take you back here, to the hospital, they’ll know what we are, Liz. They’ll know you’re different.” I skipped a beat to swallow hard and stop my tears. The truth was too hard. I didn’t want to have to admit to it. “They’ll take away our baby,” I said softly, “then they’ll take you away from me. They’ll take us all away from each other because they’re still out there, Liz. I’ll lose you.”

I rested my forehead on my hands that were clasped together with Liz’s hand still in between mine. I felt her hand squeeze one of mine and slowly I began to cry, feeling the tears run down my cheeks with speed. I cried knowing that there was so much at stake. I cried knowing that either way, there was a chance that I could lose Liz and our child. I cried knowing that already, I had failed my family. I put them at risk and now I had to save them.

I raised my head, and wiped away my tears. Liz started to cry, forcing me to look away to prevent me from breaking down completely.

“If we don’t have this baby today,” I continued, “then I know that there’s a good chance that we’ll lose our child, that I’ll lose you.” I turned to Liz with tears in my eyes. I tried not to weep but I was about to anyway. When I saw Liz, and her eyes red and filled with just as many tears as mine, mine flowed, running down my face. “They’ll find out who we are. It’ll be hell all over again, not for just the three of us, but everyone. Michael, Maria, Isabel…our parents…everyone. All of us.” I emphasized. I wiped both cheeks with the back of my hands and cleared my throat. “The last thing I want to do is put your life or our child’s life in danger, so you know I’d only ask you to do this if this was the only way, and you know I’d rather risk my life before yours, but this time I can’t. It’s up to you.” I lowered my head. “I—I can’t make any promises,” I said, shaking my head, “except that suspicions will rise if we don’t have this baby today.”

Liz looked up to the ceiling again. She stared at it for a good minute. Her eyes glistened and shimmered as what little light there was reflected off the pool of tears. Liz looked back at me and closed her eyes. A drop from each eyes escaped, slowly falling down the center of both her cheeks. “Are you sure this is only way?” she asked, taking a deep breath.

As I stared at a spot on Liz’s bed, I continuously shook my head. “I’m not sure of anything.”

Liz began staring out the window. I could tell that the sun was closely reaching the horizon as the sky turned pink and orange. Liz watched the sunlight disappear and I watched Liz. She was looking for hope somewhere. She’d have to realize that despite my record, I was it. I was the only chance we had. I didn’t want that to be the case, but we had no other choices. She was going to have to trust me.

“Ok,” Liz nodded. “What’s the plan?”

I kissed the back of Liz’s hand, letting my lips linger on her knuckles for a second. “I’m going to dissipate the Brethine they gave you,” I explained. “The contractions will start again, almost immediately.”

Liz closed her eyes tight in fear.

“But it’ll be ok,” I told her. “I’ll be here.”

Holding back her emotions and tears, Liz nodded short little nods. It didn’t take a genius to tell that she was scared and full of doubt. She couldn’t look at me, that’s why she kept her eyes closed. The others wouldn’t agree with me doing this, and yes, I knew Liz didn’t either, but I had to push her to be on my side.

“Liz, have faith in me,” I begged. “Have faith that I can protect you and our baby.” I need her to have that faith in me, because I know that no one out there did, and I didn’t believe in myself either. If I had Liz, that would be more than enough.

She squeezed my hand and nodded. Finally, she opened her eyes. “Ok,” she sighed. “Let’s do this.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Just do it,” Liz ordered, “before I change my mind.”

I nodded in understand, smirking sympathetically. Liz’s left hand rested in my left hand, and my right hand rested a little above her left breast, near her heart. I watched my fingers shake as they hovered in the air.

“Do you trust me?” I asked her.

Liz closed her eyes to prepare herself for the contractions. She took a couple of deep breaths and replied. “Of course,” she said with a nod.

I leaned forward and kissed Liz’s lips, feeling her return the gesture and the passion. I looked back at my hand. It was steady as a rock. Then I took a deep breath.

“I love you, Liz.”

[hoLLyBEHRy]

To:
out of this world
roswck
Jason’s Lover
taressa05
hazz
IzzyEvans2201_PuertoRico
tanglepants290
chinablueeyes
g7silvers
icequeen
Timelord31
Emz80m
tequathisy
Itzstacie
extingman
and to those I missed (I'm sorry if I forgot you. )
I cannot say it enough: Thank you so much for the FB. I love it all and I really appreciate it. It helps me and motivates me. So thank you very much.

-hoLLy


Chapter 29

{Michael}

I stood directly in front of the closed door. It was an orange-ish tan color. You can describe it as a bright door, but right now, the mood wasn’t bright or sunny or happy or any shit like that. Fuck the door for being bright. This wasn’t a good time and seeing the door made me want to drive my fist through it.

“What the hell is he going to do?” I heard Mr. Parker say.

I couldn’t really tell what his reaction was. I didn’t look over my shoulder. I stared at the closed door in front of me. No longer was I pondering the color, I was wondering what was going on. Well, not wondering, because I knew what he was going to do. I guess I was picturing it.

What I see in my mind is Max sitting on or next to Liz’s bed. I know that his heart is torn because of this decision and despite what just happened, despite my lack of trust in him, I have to admit that he was right about one thing. He was right about this decision and I wouldn’t blame him if he was crying right now, because it put the people most important to him in danger. If we took Liz home to wait until the baby was to term, who would do the C-section? Max wouldn’t be able to. We would most definitely need to take her to a hospital. Thing is, Max knows the people here. They’re his colleagues and he trusts them. Not only that, he knows this hospital inside and out. With his knowledge of the hospital, we’d be able to cover our tracks without complications. We wouldn’t have that advantage at another hospital.

There is a “but”. We can bring go ahead and bring Liz back here when she’s to term, but there’s the fact that Liz will be to term before the hospital plans to induce her. They’ll definitely wonder how the hell the baby matured so fast.

I can’t believe I’m siding with Max, but I understand his reasoning. I figured all of this during my attack against Maxwell. We all saw his vulnerability and I realized that, right there, he was acting as a father and a husband. He wasn’t a leader of our group. Max was thinking about the future of his family.

I haven’t gone soft, alright? Because at the end of all of this, we have to sit Max down and figure out who the hell he’s become.

I don’t know what made him the way he is right now. He’s a damaged guy. Really think about it. Think about what he’s been through. It’s a lot; physically, mentally, and emotionally. What makes matters worse is Max is a perfectionist. You wouldn’t think that by what’s happened, now and in the past, but if you really look back, all that’s happened is because Max wants it done to a tee. He wants it done the perfect way, the right way. In his opinion, his way is the way to achieve perfection. When he doesn’t reach that immaculateness, he beats himself up. So imagine how many times he’s beat the shit out of himself, because he definitely hasn’t been perfect.

Fuck, what the hell has happened to me?

I know what it is. It’s the baby Liz is carrying. What matters the absolute most right now is the baby. Amidst all the chaos and the conflict, that child, our future, is the only important thing. It’s just a baby. It’s defenseless and it needs us. We’ve got to push all things aside and focus on the baby.

So by focusing on the baby, you’ve got to have some trust in its father. That baby and its family are in a tough situation. I’m part of that family and we’ve all got to work with each other.

Seriously, what the hell happened to me? I shouldn’t have picked up that damn Buddhism book. Once I opened it, I couldn’t put it down.

“Michael, you’ve got to go in,” Maria pleaded, tugging on my arm.

Finally, I turned around as I began to shake my head. “No,” I stated firmly.

Isabel scoffed aloud as she started approaching me. “No?” She rolled her eyes. “Michael, we can’t do this. You have to put—”

“Isabel, Max is right,” I interrupted.

My reply was followed by about six “Whats?” of disbelief and before the uproar could continue, the door to Liz’s room opened. I whipped around and took a step back.

Two nurses walked out of the room, excusing themselves as they passed right by me and through the group. The second those nurses walked right past us, we all brought our attention back to the door, staring at it, waiting anxiously for another person to exit.

“What’s going on?” Jesse, I think, wondered.

The door slowly closed and we continued to stare. I don’t think any of us moved. We just stood there until after a while we realized that no one else was coming out.

“Why did the nurses just leave the room?” Mrs. Evans asked as I turned around to face the group once more.

I could only shrug my shoulders.

“Michael, go in—”

I could hear the doorknob turn and I watched everyone’s eyes lift off me and move to the door. I turned back around to witness Dr. Crosby exit the room. He coolly and casually stepped out of the room and turned to face the door to politely close it.

“Dr. Crosby—Paul, what’s going on?” I asked.

The tall man turned around and lifted a corner of his mouth, smirking sympathetically. “Max just wanted a moment alone with Liz. Both mother and daughter are doing fine.”

“Daughter?” I grinned. It was the first thing that came into my mind. I think that’s when it hit me, that Max and Liz were parents. Yeah, I knew they were going to be a mom and dad to a kid, but realizing they were having a daughter, it really hit me, you know? I couldn’t stop smiling. “Th—That’s great,” I laughed.

“Liz said it was ok to tell you guys,” Dr. Crosby smiled. “But she still doesn’t want to know and she doesn’t want Max to know either.” As he walked past me, he gave me a comforting pat on my shoulder.

I watched him leave the hallway and my eyes fell upon the faces lit up with happiness. Their eyes were as wide as I’m sure mine were. They all had the same revelation that had struck me. Max and Liz were parents of a girl. We were all grinning from ear to ear.

“Did you hear that?” I watched Mrs. Parker say to her husband. “We’re having a granddaughter.”

And Mr. Parker smiled happily in response and took his wife into his arms. Mr. and Mrs. Evans embraced as did Isabel and Jesse. Kyle and Maria turned to each other and shrugged their shoulders and then hugged as well. I chuckled as I watched the celebration.

“A daughter,” Mr. Evans said proudly. He took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. “…Wow…”

I think we were all quite speechless or maybe the stupid crazy-happy grins on our face were preventing us from speaking. We kind of just stood around. Some of us were looking to the floor really thinking about it and others were shaking their heads in disbelief, in happy disbelief.

Where did we go from here? We were all overjoyed. We couldn’t go back to feeling contempt towards Max.

“I bet she’s going to look a whole lot like Liz,” Mr. Evans smiled.

Isabel nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I can really see it.”

“She’ll be one hell of a kid,” Mr. Parker said. It had to be the calmest thing he’s said since he got here. “With Max and Liz’s brain, alien or not, she’s going to be a genius.”

Hearing Liz’s father say that…I don’t really know what it did to me. I guess he accepted the truth—that we were alien. I’m not sure if I was happy or I don’t know. It was just a weird feeling. It was kind of nice one.

“Is the baby going to be alien?” Jesse wondered aloud.

And we all took a moment to ourselves to ponder. I hadn’t even really thought about it. Yeah, when we talked to Langley, we knew that there was a possibility that maybe this baby was going to be special, but that’s as far as the talk went. We had never really spoken about it in terms of what it actually meant. If the baby was alien, was it going to have powers? Would it look alright? Was it going to have alien blood or human blood?

So I shook my head as I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know,” I replied. “Whatever she is, she’s special.”

Maria wiped the tears of joy from her eyes. “A daughter,” she said to herself. She was still in disbelief. “I always thought they’d be having a daughter first.”

“She’s going to be gorgeous,” Kyle realized. He stared at the ground, really thinking about it, really picturing it.

I agreed by nodding. “Max’s eyes, Liz’s nose…”

“Beautiful,” Mr. Parker smiled.

And then we all ceased speaking. We took some time to think about the whole thing. The same image kept on popping into my mind—A beautiful little girl with brown hair matching her mother’s, eyes like her father’s, a cute little nose from her mother, shyness and quietness acquired from her father, and a mind and soul like her mother’s. Really, whatever that little girl was, human or not, she was going to be something special. She was going to change our lives.

The silence was broken as the two nurses and Dr. Crosby rushed back into our hallway, heading straight for the door. Our attention went directly to them as they were about to zoom right past us.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

But the three hospital personnel barged into Liz’s room, leaving the door open. The sun was barely past the horizon that much I could tell. The room was almost blue since the lights weren’t turned on and that’s how I could tell that we were pretty late into the day.

None of us dared to enter the room. So instead, all of us stood around the doorway, peering into the room, trying to get a good look. Dr. Crosby ran to the end of the room, which was mostly concealed by a curtain. He had run behind it, disappearing from our line of sight. We didn’t see much else except for the nurses running from one side of the room that we couldn’t see and back to the curtain. They did this routine a few times, bringing items like a plastic smock, gloves, and some utensils behind the concealed part of the room.

We watched the curtain in fear as we heard medical terms float around the labor suite and then ordinary, understandable words like “Damn it” and “Shit” were audible. The curtain made a quick jerk when someone backed into it. Looking at the shoes, it was Max who had jumped back against the curtain.

I could feel Maria’s nails dig into my arm.

“Ok, that’s it,” I heard Dr. Crosby say. “We need to get her out of here.”


{Max}

“Wait!” I ordered. They proceeded to wheel Liz’s bed out the room anyway. “Wait! Where the hell are you taking her, Paul?”

The doctor stopped as the nurses went on without him. “Max, there are some complications,” he said gently. “Liz is going into premature labor. We’re taking Liz to surgery. She’s going to need a Caesarean.” All the while he spoke, Paul glanced down at the floor or off to the side. He pretended that little things had grabbed his attention, but it was because he couldn’t stand to look into my eyes.

I had made a mistake…

“No, no. You just said that the baby wasn’t going to be able to pass through so you were going to do a C-Section,” I argued, “but that was if it was full term. The baby’s premature, it’s small enough. She doesn’t need a Caesarean.”

Paul finally took his eyes off wherever he was looking and looked into my eyes. “Now the baby is in distress, Max,” he regretfully informed me. “We need to go to the OR now.”

He turned around and started following Liz’s bed as it pushed through the small crowd outside. I watched them rush off. This wasn’t reality. Reality isn’t supposed to be this bad. This is what you see in movies and tv, not in real life.

Liz’s bed and the nurses pushing it from behind turned the corner as Paul ran after them. I stared at the now empty end of the hallway while everyone remained huddled around the door, but all I saw were the back of their heads as they stared down the hallway also.

I needed to get to Liz. I picked up into a sprint and sped out of the room, stopping abruptly at the door when Michael grabbed my arm.

“Michael, I—”

“What did you do???” he growled.

I looked to him and then back to the end of the hallway, wanting to be with Liz. I grabbed Michael’s wrist and pulled his hand off my arm. “They’re going to give Liz a Cesarean. I have to go.”

I was ready to jet off, but Michael stepped in front of me. “You better pray to whoever’s up there that Liz and the baby are going to be ok,” Michael threatened.

The way he spoke to me, the words he said, I finally understood his level of distrust in me. So I stared back into Michael’s eyes with the same fire he had in his own eyes. “If it’s in my power,” I growled back, “I’m not going to let anything happen to them.”

I pushed him away and ran down the hall, turning at the corner to see Dr. Crosby, the nurses, and Liz, in the bed rushing across the floor. I ran as fast as I could while the group ahead of me jogged. I caught up to them and starting jogging alongside of the bed.

“Liz, I’m here,” I said to her.

Earlier, the bed was slightly propped up, but now, it was straight and parallel to the ground. Liz was lying back with her eyes closed tight. She had one hand gripping the railing of the bed with the other tightly grasping onto her gown. I grabbed that hand and squeezed it tight.

“Liz, I’m here,” I repeated. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave you.”

I watched her head bob as she grimaced and winced. She growled when another contraction came. I had brought pain upon my wife and possibly my child.

The bed turned, forcing me into the wall as it was pushed into an operating room. I lost grip of Liz’s hand and unsuccessfully tried to grab it again. She was moved to the center of the room where the two nurses were joined by a third and what looked like an anesthesiologist. They were all moving at lightening speed to prep Liz for surgery. They grabbed plastic smocks, latex gloves, caps, and masks and put them on. Once they did that, they handed Paul the same items and gave me a smock.

“Suit up,” Paul ordered. “She’s going to need you.”

I nodded my head obediently and hurried to put the protective clothing on and rushed over to Liz’s bed. It was a new bed without the thick plastic railings. She was now laying on a surgical table. The whole thing was so surreal. It seemed fictional, but I touched Liz’s hair with my ungloved hand and felt her silky strands at my fingertips and I knew that this was real and it was now.

One of the nurses came up from behind me and slid a stool toward me, hitting my knees, forcing me to sit down. I looked over my shoulder and she smiled at me. It was such a gentle and kind smile. It was fake, but the thought behind it was nice.

“Max…”

I looked back at Liz. Her eyes were wide open now. She wasn’t grimacing or wincing anymore, but she was panicking. The worry on her face and the terror in her eyes told me so.

“It’s ok,” I told her as calmly as possible. I ran my hand through her hair. “Everything will be ok. We’re about to become parents.”

Liz managed to giggle through her tears. “I’m ready. Are you?”

And I really thought about it. In a few minutes, our child was going to be breathing this air, hearing every sound, seeing the world. To be honest, though, I still didn’t feel like a father. I knew I was going to be one, but I didn’t feel like it. I already had these fatherly instincts, but I still felt like Max Evans, a son, brother, friend, and husband. I felt like any other twenty-one year old. Well, not like every other twenty-one year old, but you know what I mean.

I might have not felt like a father yet, but I was ready. I was ready for my life to change, for my future to change.

“Yes,” I nodded firmly. “I’m ready.”

Liz looked up to me, smiling. She was scared, but she was happy at the same time. Seems impossible, I know, but that’s what I was seeing. The tears in her eyes weren’t ones stemming from fear. Liz was so excited and happy and I swear to the powers that be that I was feeling the same way.

“Ok, Liz,” I heard Paul say. A blue curtain was placed at Liz’s chest, obstructing our view of her torso. I sat with Liz on one side of the curtain and about three nurses, Paul, and the anesthesiologist were on the other side. “Can you feel anything?” Paul asked.

I watched Liz shake her head, but she didn’t say anything. I spoke for her. “No, she’s fine,” I said.

“Good,” Paul nodded. He was fully equipped for the surgery. He wore a cap covering his hair, a protective visor with a shield to protect his eyes, a mask over his face, a smock over his scrubs, and gloves on his hands. Any second now, they were about to cut Liz open, and there wasn’t any one else I would trust to do that. “We’ve just cleaned up her abdomen and I’m about to make the cut. She’ll feel some pressure and some pulling. Tell her not to worry.”

I looked down at Liz who nodded in understanding as Paul disappeared behind the curtain. She started biting the inside of her bottom lip and her fear was overpowering her feelings of excitement and happiness.

“So…” I grinned. “You were in the nursery.”

Liz breathed out a laugh. “Yeah, sorry.”

But I shook my head, forgiving her for entering the forbidden area. I had this plan of bringing Liz into the nursery for the first time with our child in her arms. “It’s ok,” I told her. “What did you think?” I asked, not having ceased combing my hand through her hair while my other hand grabbed one of hers and squeezed tight.

“I love it,” Liz sighed. “It’s so perfect.”

“Almost there,” Paul announced.

And for a second, I had managed to make Liz forget that they were cutting into her stomach. “You’re doing so well,” I told her. “See? Everything’s ok. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Liz’s head bobbed as she began blinking her eyes slowly.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she replied, albeit, weakly. “I’m just a little…tired.”

I leaned forward and placed a kiss on her temple. “Hang on a little longer,” I told her. “They’re almost done and we’ll have our baby.”

With what strength she had, Liz smiled. I held her hand tight, rubbing the back of it with my thumb. Her eyes were closed lightly, but still, a few tears had escaped and ran down her temple. “Something hurts, Max.”

“No,” I insisted. “It’s just uncomfortable. It shouldn’t hurt.”

“But it does.”

So many thoughts were running through my mind. Mostly, I tried thinking about what Liz was going through. I tried empathizing, but I would never know how she was feeling or what she was thinking. Once again, she sacrificed herself for me. I couldn’t believe what an incredible wife I had. I never knew I could be this lucky. But I wasn’t lucky enough.

“Shit…”

I jumped to my feet and peered over the short curtain. “What is it?” I demanded to know.

I looked over and witnessed as Dr. Crosby pulled my child right out of Liz’s abdomen. “Congratulations,” he said, looking at me. He held up my baby and smiled. “Say hi to your daughter.”

A daughter. She was so beautiful. She absolutely took my breath away. Tears of joy came to my eyes as I stared at my gorgeous daughter. But she was so small and still.

“Why isn’t she moving?” I questioned. “Why isn’t she crying?”

Paul turned away with my baby still in his arms. As I tried looking over his shoulder, I think I saw a nurse cutting the umbilical cord, but it was supposed to be the father that cut the cord. It was supposed to be me. Paul placed my daughter into the nurse’s hands. Dr. Crosby brought his attention back to Liz and started sewing her up while the nurse took my baby away.

“Where are they taking her?” I continued asking, but everyone moved about as if I wasn’t there. “Answer me!”

“She’s premature, Max,” Paul answered as he focused on his task at hand. “She’s 27 weeks, underdeveloped, underweight…She’s going straight to the NICU. She’s not breathing on her own. They’ll put her in an incubator and hook her up to a ventilator…You know the drill, Max.” Not for one second did Paul look away from Liz’s stomach as he frantically worked. He had sensed a nurse walk behind him. “Call up a couple of units of O positive!” he shouted.

“Blood?” I asked.

Paul bobbed his head, continuing to focus on Liz and what his hands were doing. “Liz has lost lots of blood. I’m trying to clamp off the uterine artery.”

“No, she’s fine,” I insisted, but I looked down at Liz. She was blue, a pale blue, and she wasn’t awake. I fell to my knees to lower myself to her level. “Liz, wake up!” I pleaded. Now my tears were ones of absolute terror and fear. “Liz, please…Please, wake up.” I jumped back to my feet and leaned over the curtain. “Do something, Paul! She’s not waking up!”

“Max, I’m trying!” Paul shouted back at me.

A nurse ran into the room and straight to the IV stand where he hooked up unit of blood to Liz’s arm. She was going to be fine. Her blood was human. She’d be fine.

“Pulse is dropping,” another nurse announced.

My eyes shot towards the monitors. The signs weren’t good. The beeping was getting faster and louder.

“Grab the crash cart!” Paul ordered.

And I immediately tore down the curtain to get to Liz’s chest. I was ready to grab the paddles to the defribulator, but Paul had other plans.

“No, Max,” he said. “I need you to leave.”

“You’re kicking me out?” I scoffed.

I really didn’t need an answer as two of the nurses started pushing me out of the room. I couldn’t leave Liz. I didn’t want to leave her anymore. So I fought back.

“Get him out of here!” Paul shouted.

The two male nurses linked their arms around mine and carried me out of the room. As they forced me toward the door, my life lied before me, in the crib and on the surgical bed. My daughter was lifeless. My wife was lifeless. If they died, I was going to die, but I felt as though I already had.

[hoLLyBEHRy]

Chapter 30

{Isabel}

Four or five years ago, I can’t even remember right now, we discovered what we are. We had learned about our past, present, and our supposed future. Then, we believed that we would one day be ready to return back to Antar. That day came and we didn’t go back. We decided that this was our home. We were going to make new futures and new destinies. We decided to live as humans.

None of us use our powers much anymore. Once in a while I’ll heat up some coffee without the use of a microwave and Michael will blow up something in the backyard just to relieve some stress, but I don’t dreamwalk and Michael doesn’t destruct anything larger than a child’s bicycle. We spent some time with Liz to teach her about her powers and how to use them, but she never uses her mindwarp. As for Max, he tries to avoid using his powers all together.

The only “alien” thing in our life is the conscience, but we treat it as if it’s not that big of a deal, even though it is. Aside from that, we’ve lived as human as humanly possible. We live in a nice, quiet, and safe neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My husband and I own a three bedroom house across the street from my brother and his wife who own a four bedroom home and live with our three best friends. See? We’re like a normal family. We’ve thought about future and a possible family. We bought houses with more than enough rooms because we had intended that one day we’d have children.

Now that two of us actually have a child, it was surreal. It didn’t seem real. In some ways, we didn’t feel old enough. In other ways, it seems like we weren’t meant to have kids, like they just didn’t suit us. Yet, we all thought about it and dreamt about it, but I think these types of thoughts and dreams were classified with ones of being the President of the United States and wondering what you would do to change our country or dreaming of being a millionaire and wondering what you were going to do with all the money. We thought about the next step in our lives—children—but we never thought that it would actually happen. It’s hard to explain. It’s just we don’t know what to do now, now that it’s a reality.

We never actually thought about the process of becoming parents. When we dreamt about kids, they magically appeared out of no where; in our arms, running around the yard, playing with the dog, etc. We never thought about the pregnancy, the term, the actual labor and birth, raising a child, and protecting it from all our enemies whether they exist now or not. We hadn’t thought things through. Now Liz was having risky surgery to save her and my brother’s baby.

Everything should be ok though. As long as Max keeps an eye on whatever the doctors and nurses do to the baby everything should be fine and all Max really has to do is check if the baby is human or not. If the little one is running red blood, then all is fine, but if there’s a speck of green in the baby’s bloodstream, then Max and all of us would have to keep an eye on what the hospital does to the baby. It wouldn’t be too hard. One of us would just have to stay with the baby at all times. Ok, then, it’ll all be—

“Max!”

My brother came running down the hallway toward us. He was tired and exhausted, at least that’s what it seemed like when he stood hunched over trying to catch his breath, but then he stood up straight. He placed his hands on top of his head to help air flow into his lungs. He was exhausted and tired, but he was more than that. Max’s face was so distressed and distraught and completely soaked with tears.

“They took me away from Liz and the baby,” he panted, on the verge of completely breaking down.

“What do you mean?” Michael asked. He grabbed my brother by the arm and helped him sit down.

Max took deep breaths and wiped his palm over his mouth. “The baby came out, but she wasn’t breathing. They took her to the NICU and then Liz lost blood. I wanted to help, but they kicked me out.” He leaned forward placing his elbows on his thighs and then buried his face in his hands.

“What did you do?” Michael asked Max calmly, yet very intensely.

My brother just might have lost his family. I stepped forward and grabbed Michael’s arm. I shook my head. “Not now, Michael,” I said to him. I turned to my brother, crouched down, and placed my hands on his knees, giving them a little squeeze. “Max…” I said soothingly. “You need to pull it together. We need a plan to protect Liz and the baby. What do we do?”

I listened to my brother’s muffled sigh and waited for his reply. After a moment, Max let out a little whimper. “I don’t know,” he replied. I could tell that he was crying. I couldn’t hear his sobs, but you could just tell by his voice. “I don’t know.” He stressed each word, placing emphasis on his state of complete loss.

Then out of no where, Mr. Parker sat in the chair next to Max’s. I watched him placed his hand on my brother’s back. “You saved my daughter once before,” he whispered into Max’s ear. “You have to save her again, and your daughter too.”

Struck with absolute shock, Max took his face out of his hands and turned to his father-in-law with his mouth gaping open and his strained eyes very wide.

Mr. Parker nervously cleared his throat. “You can do it,” he nodded. “You have to do it.”

“He’s right,” Michael added. He was being supportive. “I don’t want to have to rush you, Maxwell, but you’ve got to think of something quick. Right now your daughter is sick and unsupervised by one of us. We need to get to her.”

I stood up and gave my brother my hand to help him up. He looked up at each one of us, studying each of our expressions, and concluding that Michael was right and that we all wanted Max to help us help him.

Max grabbed my hand and pulled himself up, all the way into me for a hug. He held on tight. “I can’t lose them,” he said softly.

“I know,” I nodded as we let go of our embrace. “And you won’t.”

Maria stepped forward, gently grabbing my brother’s arm. “What do you want us to do?” she asked.

Max looked at each of us again, ready to assign us vital duties. “I need some of you to find out where Liz is and then I need you to stay with her,” he ordered first.

“I’ll go,” Maria volunteered.

And then both sets of grandparents volunteered also, as did my husband.

Max bobbed his head in approval. “Kyle, I’ll need you to go with them.”

Taking his place as an alien representative assigned to lead the group of humans, Kyle nodded nobly.

“Wait, don’t we need you to heal her?” our mother wondered.

“Find her first,” Max answered. “After that, you all won’t have to do much. I just want someone to watch her and be with her if she’s awake or when she wakes up…Whatever the case,” he said regretfully. “Isabel, Michael and I will head to the NICU to find my daughter.”

“What’ll you do?” our father wondered.

Max stared at empty space as he shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I’m not sure what they’ve done to her. I’ll figure it all out when we get there.”

“We’ll call you once we find Liz,” Mrs. Parker said.

And then our somewhat large group split in two and moved in different directions. None of us—Michael, Max, or I—looked over our shoulder at the other group to find out where they were going. They were going to do their thing and we were going to do ours.

Max led the way through the hospital halls. Michael and I followed behind. My brother was determined. He was marching by the rooms and the offices. His eyes were focused at the end of the hallway. When we turned into another hallway, his was focused on that end, and then the next one.

Finally, when we walked across the whole floor, we came to what seemed like the end of the floor. We ran into large room with the foremost wall completely made of glass. Inside the room were a few cribs. It wasn’t the nursery because there would have been more cribs than there were in this room. Here, there were only a few. Maybe ten, and they weren’t lined up next to each other like in a nursery. They were scattered around the room and they weren’t cribs exactly. These were incubators with two holes on the wall of each incubator to slide your hands through to touch the baby inside.

Max picked up into a jog and ran to the glass wall. My heart raced as Michael and I jogged after Max. I was scared to enter the NICU, fearful of what I would see. Seeing the incubators was frightening enough. I couldn’t even see the babies inside.

We were met at the entrance of the NICU by Dr. Crosby. He stood at the door, looking at a bar, and used his index finger to punch at a number pad. After he was done, the door slid open. “Max…” he greeted us.

“Where’s my daughter?” my brother demanded to know.

“She’s here,” Paul nodded.

I stood off far enough to the side to see my brother’s face. The glare of brightness in my brother’s eyes was magnified by his tears. His eyes were so watery, I wondered how he was able to keep it all in. Not a single drop fell, but the tears surrounding his eyes still had an intense impact on me, hitting my core.

“Can I see her?” he managed to whisper. He was fighting hard to hold it together.

Paul nodded again. “She’s really small, Max; barely four pounds. We inserted the feeding tube through her nose and hooked up the ventilator.”

I couldn’t even picture that. I’m not sure if it was because I didn’t want to or if it was because I just couldn’t process it.

“I…uh…” Paul stammered. “I can only let you in right now, Max. You’re family will have to wait.”

Max looked over his shoulder, not wanting to go in by himself.

“It’s ok,” I insisted. “We’ll be out here waiting.”

Michael agreed by bobbing his head. My brother smirked thankfully as he started to walk inside the metaphorically chilly room.

“Wait,” Michael ordered. He was looking straight at Dr. Crosby. “Aside from being underdeveloped, is there anything else wrong with the baby?”

I knew what Michael was waiting to hear.

“We drew a small amount of blood,” Paul answered. “And we’re waiting for the test results.”

And that’s what Michael wanted to hear.

That’s what the three of us wanted to hear.

And that’s what we were afraid of.


{Kyle}

I had no idea where the hell I was going, but I was determined to find out. I led my small group through a system of hallways, swearing that the Labyrinth had nothing on this hospital. I tried my best to retrace my steps back to the other lobby where we were before Liz was taken into surgery. I passed by places and things that seemed familiar, but then I’d look down a hallway and find the same places and things there too.

“I think we’re lost,” Maria sighed as she walked next to me.

I shook my head. “No, it’s just down this hallway.”

“What is ‘it’?” she asked. “We don’t even know what we’re looking for.”

I didn’t know what I was exactly looking for or where exactly I was going, but I didn’t want to stop walking. Something was telling me to go here and turn there and etc.

“I have a feeling,” I told my sister. “Call it alien intuition.”

“What does that mean?” Maria scoffed.

There was no way in hell she would understand, but I thought I’d give it a try anyway.

“I’m hearing things,” I said. It was a lame explanation, but I didn’t know how I would explain it.

“You’re saying your special power is super hearing?” Maria laughed.

I told you she wouldn’t understand.

After a second or two, Maria really thought about it. “Shit, you don’t have ESP, like telepathy, do you?”

I just gruffed and kept on walking.

“Stop listening!” Maria demanded, repeatedly slapping my arm. “You are not to listen to my thoughts!”

“I don’t have ESP!” I shouted at her.

“Then what is it?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s like I have an all-knowing conscience,” I explained, “and no, not like the one that’s hurting Max. It’s like I have an angel on my shoulder telling me what to do.”

“And you’re going to listen to it?”

“It’s an ‘angel’!” I continued to yell at my sister. “You want me to listen to my little devil friend? I’m sure I can find him somewhere. Oh, you know what? He’s right here and he’s telling me to kick your ass!”

Maria looked at me and did this weird thing with her face, making a face at me. “Peace is its own reward,” Maria grinned, quoting Gandhi.

“Would you and Michael please stop going through my shi—”

“Hey!”

Maria and I whipped around, finding that we were a good ten feet away from the Evanses, Parkers, and Jesse as they stood at a doorway, looking into its room.

“Is it her?” Maria wondered.

Jesse looked at us nodding his head. Maria and I rushed over and barged into the room. The second we stepped foot inside, I could feel the coldness of the room. The little hairs on the back of my neck stood up and chill ran down my spine. Adding to the surroundings was the darkness of the room. I’d say that we were early into the night. It was maybe seven or eight and it hadn’t even bothered me when I realized that we didn’t eat dinner.

Right now, we’d be at the dinner table. Our plates are empty and dirty. The dishes on the table are the same. We’re all just sitting around, letting the food settle in. We’re talking and laughing talking about times back home about times now; anything.

Instead, we were here in the hospital, standing in Liz’s recovery room. She was lying in a bed, hooked up to monitors that rhythmically beeped. Beep. Five seconds of silence. Beep. Another five seconds. Another beep. She had a little air tube hooked up to her nose and in her arm was another tube, not clear, like the one around her head, but red, deep red. It was connected to a squareish bag hooked onto a stand next to her bed. In the bag was blood to replenish into her body the blood she had lost during surgery. And of course, she was hooked up to another IV, but the most important fact was that she wasn’t awake.

Well, good, I thought to myself, because she didn’t have to know that she was alone. When she wakes up, we’ll be here. She’ll see us.

“It’s like she’s sleeping,” a very teary-eyed Maria said softly.

I placed my hand on her shoulder and nodded. “She is.”


{Michael}

Max walked in and the glass door slid closed. From the outside, Isabel and I watched as Max put on a plastic smock. He followed close behind Dr. Crosby and the two men walked to the farthest end of the room.

They passed by other incubators and I saw a small group of people huddle around each one. These people all peered inside the little glass boxes at their babies that fought to live. It was unfair that things had to be this way.

I had to turn away.

“Michael, what do we do?” Isabel asked.

But I remained silent as I leaned back against the wall with my arms tightly crossed in front of my chest.

“They drew blood,” Isabel reminded me. “You know what that means.

“Isabel, just—” I stopped, swallowed the lump in my throat and calmly shook my head. “Iz, let’s just not worry about that right now. Max will evaluate his daughter and get back to us. Then, we can worry.”

“Wait, what just happened?” Isabel questioned. “You and I switched roles.”

I rubbed my eyes and shook my head as I sighed. “No, Iz, I just prioritized, that’s all. Right now, everything comes second to this moment.”

Isabel stared at me in disbelief and I wasn’t surprised. My feelings are all conflicted and contradictory. I was angry at Maxwell and then I was sympathetic for him. I was fuming again a few minutes ago and then after arriving here at the NICU, everything changed once more. Just standing outside the room was so hard. It scared the shit out of me. I didn’t care about why Maxwell wasn’t here earlier. I was thinking about the baby. So nothing mattered. We’d deal with the blood when Max came back to us. Right now, I’d rest.

“You’re right,” Isabel agreed. “But, Michael, we have to think about this. Our niece’s blood is in the hands of complete strangers. It’s about to be examined, or, hell, it might have already been examined.”

I could have easily gotten worked up and panicked, but I didn’t. I remained calm and continued leaning against the wall. “I know your brother, Isabel. Liz and their daughter are the most important things to him in the universe. He’ll think of a solid plan to protect them. He feels the need to redeem himself when he’s failed, you know that, Iz. He’s always got to make things right.”

“That’s what got us all in this position,” Isabel sighed. She leaned into the wall, dropping against it. “But you’re right. Max needs this moment. We won’t press matters unless absolutely necessary.”

I bobbed my head and continued staring at the well-polished floors. Not a lot was happening. This section of the floor was quiet and pretty unoccupied. Inside the NICU, there were a good handful of people, but they weren’t busily moving around the room like in other areas of the hospital, and most of the people that were in there were family members, quietly keeping vigil.

“She’s going to be ok, right?”

I lifted my head and looked at Isabel as she stared down at the floor also. “Who?” I asked for clarification.

Isabel shrugged. “Liz. The baby. I guess I meant ‘they’. They’re going to be ok, right?”

Liz lost blood. The baby was way underdeveloped.

“I have no fucking clue,” I honestly replied.

“You could lie to me, you know.”

But I shook my head. “No, I couldn’t.”

Isabel nodded her head in understanding and the two of us went back to staring at the linoleum floor. I was dead tired. I hadn’t slept the night before because of the bad feeling I had about all of this. Then this whole day was just absolute chaos and a strain on myself. I was exhausted. In about five hours, the day would be officially over, but not for us.

The door to the NICU slid open and Isabel and I leapt off the wall. Max slowly stepped out of the intensive care unit as he took off the plastic smock, which he placed in a trash bin right next to the door. Isabel and I eagerly waited for Max to speak. He continued to take his time as he approached.

“What’s the verdict?” I asked.

Max looked up and rubbed his entire face with the palm of his hand. He tilted his head to one shoulder and then the other, releasing a few pops, and then took a deep breath. “She’s human,” he smiled.

[hoLLyBEHRy]

And FINALLY, the new chapter. I apologize for the delay. I thank you all for sticking with me. All of your FB is greatly appreciated.

-hoLLy


Chapter 31

{Michael}

She’s human.

Those had to be the greatest words in the English language.

Isabel jumped into her brother’s arms and squeezed him so tight that he let out a little squeak. “Oh my God!” she breathed out.

“What a relief,” I sighed happily. Now it felt like only one of my lungs was in a C-clamp and although the other one still felt compressed, I smiled goofily. “She’s human.”

I continued watching Max and Isabel as they hugged. I could only see Maxwell’s expression as he rested his chin on his sister’s shoulders. His face was totally relaxed with his eyes closed lightly and this small smile on his face. Max was so relieved.

He pulled away from his sister and cleared his throat. “Um…ok.” He took a deep breath and kind of looked in his own brain for the list of things to do. “Liz,” he said.

And I bobbed my head, pulled my phone out of my back pocket and called Maria while we started walking away from the NICU. As I held my phone to my ear and listened to the repeated ringing, I could see out of the corner of my eye as Max walked behind me, looking over his shoulder at the NICU as if he could still see his newborn daughter.

I patted Maxwell on the shoulder and smirked. “She’s human,” I reminded him. “She’s fine for now. We’ll come back to her and take care of her.”

Max nodded his head and picked up his pace, walking slightly in front of me.

“So what is it, exactly?” Isabel wondered. “What’s wrong with the baby?”

“She’s underdeveloped,” Max said. “Too underdeveloped.”

While I wanted to further explore what that exactly meant, I was otherwise occupied.

“Hello?” The ringing had stopped and Maria finally answered.

“Hey! Where are you guys?!” I demanded to know.

I took notice to Maria’s breathing, noticing that they were more like sniffles. “Um…I actually think I can hear you guys. Let me step out…”

The three of us continued walking down yet another hall of doors. One particular door was left open and through that doorway, out popped Maria. Her eyes were lined with pale red circles.

“What is it?” Isabel questioned.

Maria sniffled and wiped the tears off her cheeks. “She hasn’t woken up.”

Max pushed his way through and disappeared into the room. Isabel was the next to vanish into the room. Maria wiped her cheeks again and was about to follow after the two who preceded her, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her into me.

I placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and helped her with drying her tears. “No more crying,” I ordered in the nicest way possible. “Everything will be ok, alright?” I believed in that so much that I was going to make sure that everything would be ok by any means necessary.

As her forehead rested against my breastbone, Maria nodded. She sniffled into my shirt, leaving, I’m sure, remnants of a soggy cry. She turned her head and continued resting it against me, this time, her temple and the rest of the side of her face. ‘Why is this happening to us…again?” she mumbled.

I could barely make her out through her tears, but I knew Maria. I knew all of her. So I kissed the top of her head and ran my hand over her hair. It calmed her down, put her in a different place. “I can’t answer that,” I told her. “We’re just unfortunate.” And it was the sad truth. We did nothing to deserve this.

Maria gave her face one quick swipe and pulled away. “Is this it?” she asked me, looking straight into my eyes.

I shook my head in confusion. “Is this what?”

“If we have to go through so much for this one child, is that all we get? Is this one child the only one we’re all going to have? I mean, I’m going to love and spoil that girl like my own, but that’s the thing, Michael, I want my own.”

I never saw myself being with anyone else other than Maria. It was always going to be me and her. I never really factored in kids. I never thought they were for me, or so I assumed. I don’t know, I never really thought about it I guess. As subtly as I could, I swallowed the lump in my throat. “No,” I shook my head. “This isn’t it.” And the words had just come out of my mouth. There was no thought processing in there anywhere. Maybe I wanted kids after all. “But let’s stop thinking about that, ok? We need to focus on Liz and the baby.” I stared at the door and then back down at Maria. I was still on the outside of the room. I hadn’t seen her yet. “How is she?” I wondered.

“Not good,” she said solemnly and with confidence because it was the fact of the matter.

All the while we stood out in the hallway, no one had walked by or even walked into the corridor. But then the scraping of shoes brought my attention off Maria and to the end of the hall. With a chart held in his hand and a colleague at his side, Dr. Crosby started approaching us.

“Is Max in there?” he asked, pointing to the room.

Maria and I could only nod our heads and then the two doctors swooped past us and into the room. “Do you mind if we all talk outside?” I heard Paul say.

So soon enough, Maria and I were backing up to make room for the horde of people exiting the room. The two men in white labs coats were the first to exit the room, and once they did, they moved to the opposite wall and patiently waited, watching each person step into the hallway. The two men greeted my family with their lips pressed together in an attempt at a friendly smile.

Max walked out of the room holding his mother’s hand. His doe eyes focused on his co-workers and his mouth hung open as he waited in anticipation for any news. He broke away for a second to glance over his shoulder, making sure Liz was still there? Or maybe if she was ok? He didn’t want to leave her, not even for a second. He turned back to the two doctors. “What’s going on?” he demanded to know.

Dr. Crosby smirked sympathetically, though I wish people would stop doing that. He tilted his head toward the short brunette man next to him. “This is Dr. Kelly. He’ll be Liz’s and Baby Evans’s neonatalogist.”

“Abby,” Max said.

Every pair of eyes glued onto him as he spoke with a hint of anger.

“Her name’s Abby.”

I smiled proudly and looked back at the embarrassed faces of the two doctors. Paul cleared his throat and started staring down at the chart. “So here’s what’s going on…” he began. “During labor, Liz suffered from eclampsia.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Kyle questioned.

Paul took a deep breath. “Liz had a seizure during the pregnancy.”

And I knew what it felt like to be kicked in the chest. How the hell did Max feel upon hearing that?

“It put her into a coma,” the doctor continued.

And I wanted to look at Max to see his reaction, to see if he was going to be ok, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at him . I thought it’d be rude to stare at him, which I know I’d be doing. So maybe I’d listen to a reaction, but I didn’t hear a peep from Max.

“She’ll wake up, right?” Isabel asked.

“We’ll monitor her constantly…” Paul replied and of course he answered without really answering. It’s because they didn’t know. They don’t ever fucking know.

Looking out the corner of my eye, I could see Mrs. Parker lean further into her husband as he tightened his grip around her.

“As for Abby,” Dr. Kelly started. He was a middle-aged man with a husky, yet, soothing voice. I guess he was good to have around in this type of situation, to make families feel at ease as they listened to the bad news he delivered cleverly. “She’s a premature baby,” he said so simply. “She’s underdeveloped.”

Fuck. How many times was I going to hear that today? We get it. She’s not matured. Give us something more, but instead of demanding more information, I just remained silent.

“We’ll leave her on the feeding tube and the ventilator,” Dr. Kelly continued. “But I don’t want her to become dependent on them.”

I shook my head in confusion. “What does that mean?”

The two doctors exchanged glances and slowly, the older one turned his head back in our direction. “At some point in time, we’ll have to take her off the ventilator.”

“What if she can’t do it?” Mr. Parker wondered. Actually, he demanded. “What if she can’t breathe on her own?”

Dr. Kelly cleared his throat and brought his stare down to the floor. What the hell did that mean? Why was he hesitating?

For the first time since everyone gathered in this hallway, I looked over at Max. He stared at the doctors long and hard, but he wasn’t angry or ill-tempered. He was looking at these doctors with complete understanding.

“When we take her off the ventilator to see if she can do it on her own,” Dr. Kelly started to explain, “we’re hoping she struggles.”

“What?!” Isabel exploded. “You’re going to cut her life support and just watch her fight for her life?”

From behind her, Jesse placed a hand on each of his wife’s upper arms and pulled her back slightly. But there was still fire in Isabel’s eyes. I’m sure we were all glad that her husband was holding her down.

“We need her to struggle, to strengthen her lungs,” Dr. Crosby said.

“And again,” Mr. Parker said with agitation. “What happens if she can’t do it?”

And once again, the two doctors went silent and we became victims of their torture.

“It means she just can’t.”

All our glares moved from the doctors to Max. Every shocked expression in the hallway pointed to him as he lowered his head and swallowed the lump in his throat. He turned slightly and stared into Liz’s room. He didn’t say more.

So I looked back to the doctors. “Can we choose to keep her on the ventilator?”

Paul nodded. “It’s up to Max and Liz,” he said.

But one half of the couple lied in a coma while the other half stared into her room with decisions on his mind and the power to heal at his hands, literally.


[Maria]

“Jeff, we better call a hotel,” Mrs. Parker whispered into her husband’s ear.

But she wasn’t quiet enough as Max, who was sitting at Liz’s bedside across the room, shook his head. “I don’t want any of us to be too far away from each other. You’ll stay at the house,” he insisted. “You can have the master bedroom.”

“Mom, Dad,” Isabel said. “You can stay with Jesse and me.”

And then the parents all nodded in understanding. The four of them sat in the little sitting area of the room. On the couch where the mothers sat, Isabel leaned on the armrest. She leaned back against Jesse who started combing his hand over her hair. I don’t think I could imagine the fear that was running through Isabel’s mind and the worry Jesse felt about their future family, if it was still a possibility for them. And I had my own fears, but right now, none of that matters. The future doesn’t matter because right now Liz and Abby were fighting for their own.

I continued sitting on the end table in the farthest corner of the room, watching Max. He was just sitting in a chair at the side of Liz’s bed. He sat on the edge of his seat, leaning forward with his elbows on his thighs and his hands resting on the bed with Liz’s hand concealed in his. That’s all he was doing, but I couldn’t stop watching him.

“Maxwell,” Michael called.

And then Max finally stopped staring at Liz and looked at our side of the room. We had pretty much given him half of the room, giving him his space. “Yeah?” he wondered.

Michael slowly started approaching Max and the bed. “We should probably stop keeping vigil and do something to help Liz and Abby.”

Mr. Parker stood up from his seat and was bobbing his head in agreement. “Why are we just sitting around?”

We waited for Max to reply and I continued watching him, studying his every move. He leaned farther forward and kissed Liz’s hand. He stood up and leaned forward again, this time, to kiss Liz’s forehead. She was so still, lying slightly propped up…asleep. That’s what I keep telling myself. She’s asleep.

Max started walking our way. “What do you want me to do? Wave my hand over Abby?”

“Why not?” Isabel wondered.

Her brother stopped his line toward us and turned. Max started heading for the door, which eventually, he closed after peeking out into the hall. “You know it’s not that simple, Isabel,” he said as he started walking back toward us. “Abby doesn’t have a disease that I can just cure or a broken bone I can mend together. She has to grow and mature on her own.”

Max was right. Even if he could, we can’t have Abby magically grow to a healthy size with matured organs.

“Then what about Liz?” Kyle wondered.

Max looked over his shoulder at the bed. “I’ve spent the last hour sitting at her bedside thinking about it. I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” he said with a shake of his head. “I don’t know what to heal, but there is something to heal. It is possible. So I’m going to try.”

That had to be thee best thing I’ve heard all day.

“Do it,” I urged.

He just stared at me for a moment, then he looked at everyone else and I’m sure we all had the same look on our faces. We wanted Liz to wake up. We wanted Max to heal her.

With his jaw practically locked shut, Max started for the bed. He walked slow, taking his time. By the time he reached the chair where he was sitting a few minutes ago, the rest of us had risen to our feet. Some of us stepped forward, but didn’t cross over the imaginary line dividing Max’s side of the room from ours. Mr. and Mrs. Parker watched with great interest since it was something they had never seen before. Max sat on the bed and so some of us stood on our tips toes, hoping to look over Max’s shoulder for a better look, but the way he positioned himself, his right shoulder obstructed most of our view. From what I could see, I assumed that Max raised his hands and placed them on each side of Liz’s head. I watched him lower his head and listened to his breathing. The staring at his back and the sound of his heavy breathing went on for maybe a couple of minutes. Max’s breathing started to break up. No longer were they long lines of breathing, but more like dashes of panting. After the breathing seamed to peak at high speed, Max stopped and let out a heavy sigh.

We waited with great anticipation for Max to move out of the way. We could have moved forward or run to Liz’s side, but we were rendered immobile. Max would eventually move. His arms had fallen back to his sides and gradually started to slide off the bed. Liz appeared and she was still so beautiful. One thing bothered me though. Her eyes were still closed.

“Did it work?” Mrs. Parker wondered.

Max looked at us with softness in his eyes and the boy I knew sophomore year of high school was standing in front of me. He regretfully shook his head and his quiet reply was, “No.”

“What?” Michael exclaimed. “Why not?”

Max continued shaking his head and started looking down at his hands. “I don’t know.”

And then I knew what Max was feeling. I knew that the whole thing with Alex popped back into his head. He failed to heal Alex and now he felt as though he failed to heal Liz. But the reason why it didn’t work with Alex was because he was already dead. Did that mean…

“Max, no,” I started to cry. “She’s not dead.”

“No, she’s not,” Max agreed. “But I can’t reach her. I can’t make the connection. So it didn’t work.”

“You’ve got to try again,” Michael insisted.

And Max bobbed his head. “Another time…but right now, can I be alone with her?”

Jesse nodded as he stepped forward. “Yeah, maybe we should get out of this hospital for a little while,” he suggested. “Come on, Isabel, let’s take your parents and the Parkers to the house.”

Isabel nodded and walked with the two grandmothers. They stared at Liz while they walked past her bed, all the way until they turned out into the corridor. The two mothers had made a stop at the bed to kiss the mother of their granddaughter on her forehead. Mrs. Parker cried a little bit while Mrs. Evans was strong and grabbed Mrs. Parker’s hand, squeezed it tight, and gave it a comforting little pat. The grandfathers were next. Mr. Evans strolled up to the bed, did the same thing the grandmothers did and gave Liz a little peck just above her brow.

“We’ll be back,” Mr. Evans smiled to his son and then he walked out of the room.

I watched Mr. Parker slowly walk to the bed. He looked down at his daughter having never been prouder of her. If only she could see the smile on his face and that look in his eyes. He kneeled down and grabbed her left hand while on the other side of the bed, Max was sitting back in the chair and holding Liz’s right hand.

“You have a family now, Max,” Mr. Parker went on. “They are your life. Family first and you last.”

Even though Mr. Parker didn’t look at Max and wouldn’t see him nod, Max was bobbing his head anyway.

Mr. Parker brought Liz’s limp hand up to his lips and placed a kiss on the back. He got back onto his feet and finally looked at Max. “She’s my daughter,” Mr. Parker said, “but she’s your wife and it’s your job to protect her now.”

Max and Liz have already been married for a couple of years, but it was just now that Mr. Parker was relinquishing his title as Liz’s knight in shining armor, handing it over to her husband. The two men stared into each other’s eyes for a moment and then Mr. Parker nodded his head slightly and finally left the room.

“I should probably call my dad and let him know what’s going on,” Kyle announced. “I bet he’s waiting for a call and I’m sure your mom wants to talk to you. You coming?” he asked me.

“Yeah, I’ll see you out in the lobby,” I nodded.

Kyle left the room, leaving just Michael, Max, and myself in the room with Liz.

“Max…” Michael said as he cleared his throat.

“Whatever you have to say,” Max interrupted, “don’t. I can’t deal with you and your interrogations right now.”

And the big shocker: Michael didn’t argue. He just obediently nodded his head. I’m not sure what Michael was going to say, but even if he wasn’t going to question Max again, he didn’t defend himself and tell Max that he was just wondering if he needed some coffee or whatever else Michael was going to say.

“I need your help, Michael,” Max continued. “You’ve been helping me so far, and I appreciate that, but I need you to stop being against me and be with me. We’re not enemies, so please stop treating me like one.”

Michael bobbed his head and with each nod, he brought his stare down to his feet. “I know and I’m sorry.”

Max gave Michael a small little smile and then went back to looking at Liz.

“I’m going to call Langley,” Michael said. “Get him up to date and see if Serena can get here as soon as possible. Maybe she can help us in some way and give us information the doctors don’t tell us.”

I nodded and accepted his kiss to my cheek. He walked to Max, patted his best friend, his brother, on the back and then placed a hand on Liz’s thigh. He looked down at her for a while and was kind of hesitant to leave. Eventually, though, Michael left the room. At the doorway, he had stopped and looked back at Max and Liz. One corner of his mouth lifted up, creating a hopeful, yet sad, smirk on his face. He lightly tapped the doorframe with his knuckles and went into the hallway.

I walked to the foot of Liz’s bed. “Is there anything I can do for you, Max?”

He glanced up at me and smirked, but shook his head. “Thank you, Maria, but I’m fine. Just make sure mine and Liz’s parents are taken care of?”

It was a small job, but I wanted to help in any way. “Of course,” I told him. “Don’t you worry about anything else besides Liz and Abby.”

“Thank you,” Max smiled up at me with a little twinkle in his eyes. He crossed his arms and placed them right along the side of Liz’s thigh on the bed and rested his head. He still stared up at Liz.

I walked to the other side of the bed and kissed Liz’s temple. I grew up with this girl. That made her my sister regardless of who our parents were. I loved her and would do anything for her and I knew she loved me and would do anything for me. Yet here she was, half alive, half…gone. What the hell was I going to do without her if things didn’t work out as we hoped? I quickly glanced over at Max, noticing the tears in his eyes as he thought the same thing.

But I didn’t bother Max and remain in the room to comfort him. Right now, what he needed was to be alone with his wife. I quietly left the room with intentions of walking down the hall to the lobby where I could hear Kyle speaking to my step-father and Michael yelling at Langley.

“Don’t you think we know that!” he shouted. And things like: “We are trying!” Or “We’ve got it under control!” And my favorite was, “Shut up! You’re just like Ed Harding! (He remembered to not use “Nasedo.”) Where are you when we need you? You really suck at your job!”

I was ready to enter the lobby to see the spectacle but realized I had left my jacket and a chill had run down my spine. Ok, so I’d go back to the room, walk in without saying a word, grab my jacket, and then sneak right back out. But I came to the door and stopped before entering the doorframe, stopping at the sound of Max’s voice.

“I don’t know what to do…” I heard him mumble.

I peered into the room and watched the display and the confession.

“I don’t know what to do,” Max said again. “Liz, please wake up.”

His voice was fragile, practically broken already. It quivered and shook. Each sentence was followed by a sniffle or a heavy breath.

Max buried his head into his arms, smothering his face into the bed. After a moment, he lifted his head back up and I watched the fight that it took for Max to keep in his tears. He winced hard, managing to push some tears back down. When he had control of his emotion, Max looked up at the ceiling. He dropped his head and chuckled.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he scoffed. His eyes moved back up to the ceiling and he cleared his throat. “I don’t believe in You, but other people do and they say You help them…So help me,” Max demanded. He was definitely growing angry. “This is Your world!” he growled. “You created these people. You created half of me! So I should get at least some help. Why did You let this happen?”

Max looked at his wife and grabbed her hand to quickly bring up to his lips. He placed her hand on the side of his face and kissed her palm.

“What’s going on?”

I nearly jumped to the ceiling and whipped my head around to see Michael. “Jesus!” I breathed out. “You scared the shit out of me.”

Michael shook his head in confusion. “Couple of questions: Why are you on this side of the room and why are we whispering?”

I brought my index finger to my lips and pointed into the room. Michael cautiously peeked around the doorframe and I did as well. I crouched down while Michael stood on the tips of his toes to tower over me and point his ear toward the room. It was wrong that we were eavesdropping, so wrong, but I couldn’t stop listening. It broke my heart, but I just couldn’t stop.

“She doesn’t deserve this!” Max said softly. The tears he pushed down resurfaced with more volume. “Help me! Tell me what to do.” His eyes were pointing back up. “I don’t believe in You, but I believe in her…I can’t lose her…”

With her hand still sandwiched between both of his, Max brought it to his mouth and let the back of her hand rest against his lips. He stared at Liz with a wall of tears in front of each eye. And then the walls broke. His tears rushed down his face and Max could no longer fight against them.

Michael took a deep breath, rubbed my upper arms, and then walked around me to get into the room. But I snatched his arm and pulled him back.

“What the hell are you doing?” I wondered. “He needs to be alone right now.”

Michael shook his head and politely and gently took my hand off of his arm. “I just want to make sure he knows.”

“Knows what, Michael?” I asked with the shake of my head.

He walked in without answering my question and I quickly pressed myself against the wall to watch the inside of the room once more.

Max buried his head back in between his arms as he held onto Liz’s hand. I could hear his sobs and I watched his body jerk as he took rough and quick breaths. He made no attempt at wiping away his tears. And Michael continued walking into the room and around the bed to get to Max’s side. He glanced at Liz and looked at her long and hard. Michael then looked down at Max and slowly placed his hand on our fearless leader’s shoulder.

Max jumped and stared up at Michael with his face completely soaked with tears.

“We’re not going to lose her,” Michael said, stretching out the corners of his mouth, giving a small, sympathetic smile. “You’re more than enough to help her and you will be able to help her and maybe someone up there will help you out.”

Max wiped away his tears with the back of his hand.

[hoLLyBEHRy]

A/N: Can you believe it? A new chapter? I THINK SO! Ok, so it's been almost five months since I've updated and I'm so sorry that my absence was so long. I'm going to try harder this year to manage everything better. Anyway, I have to say thank you to my wonderful beta, Deb (lovalien). She's stuck with me and I'm glad that I have her. And...

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and to everyone else who has left feedback and to everyone that reads, THANK YOU!

Now, go on and read the new update.

-hoLLy


Chapter 32

{Michael}

“Liz went through this phase when she was younger,” Mr. Parker chuckled to himself. “I had given her a basketball to play with, hoping that she’d be my little jock. The first thing she did with it was stick it under her shirt and started playing house. I gave her a volleyball and she tucked it away. A soccer ball and the same thing happened. I gave her a football for Pete’s sake and it still became her belly.” He looked down and smiled to himself. “You know, at first, it scared the shit out of me. I mean, what father wants to see that, right? It’s adorable, yes, but your little girl trying to grow up too fast? Shit…” He took a deep breath and shook his head. “I’m not ready for this.”

Mr. Evans just chuckled, patting Mr. Parker on the back. “I think all girls go through that phase,” he said to him. “Isabel was the same way.”

I smiled and continued leading the way back to Liz’s room.

“Everything will be ok, you know that,” Mr. Evans said to Mr. Parker.

“I don’t know, Philip,” Mr. Parker regretfully replied. “I know he’s your son and everything, but with all due respect, he got my daughter in this mess in the first place.”

I stopped marching toward Liz’s room and whipped around to look Mr. Parker in the eyes. “Max will take care of her,” I said confidently. “Liz is the reason he wakes up each morning, and every thing he does, every decision he makes, whether it be the right one or not, he has Liz’s best intentions in mind and at heart. He won’t let anything happen to her or their daughter.”

Mr. Parker stared me back. “But can he help them now?” he asked me.

And the answer to that was, no. Right now there was nothing Max could do to help Liz or Abby. There was nothing any of us could do. We were playing the waiting game and leaving it up to chance. We’d have to wait and see if Abby was strong enough to breathe on her own and we’d have to wait and see if Liz was strong enough to wake out of her coma. Max nor any of us could give them strength.

“They’ll be ok,” I answered Mr. Parker.

My former employer bobbed his head. I could see that he wanted to believe me and he was trying to, but he couldn’t. I didn’t even believe myself fully. Mr. Parker walked around me and finished leading the way to Liz’s room. Mr. Evans and I followed.

About a couple of days had passed. Nothing had really changed. The day after Abby was born, we all took the day off, but after that, Isabel, Maria, and Kyle went back to class, Jesse went back to work, and I went back to the club. The new grandparents commuted between the two homes and the hospital. As for Max? I always knew where he was or what he did.

Max wasn’t allowed back into the NICU. The doctors wanted Abby to mature a few days to gain some strength before anyone was allowed to see her. They were scared that she would contract something because she was so frail. Even though he wasn’t allowed to hold her, Max still made the trip across the hospital to the NICU a few times every day. We all let Maxwell go by himself the day after Abby was born, and he’d gone every day by himself, but I went with him once. We made the walk quietly and once we got to the glass room, all we did was stand on the outside and stared in. We couldn’t even see her, but Max was staring like he could. We stayed for an hour or so and when we started to leave, Max placed his hand on the wall/window and walked away letting his hand linger on the wall until his body pulled his hand away. After we got back, Max went right back to his chair next to Liz’s bed. That was Max’s routine. He only got up from his chair to go to the NICU, to the bathroom, or to lie on Liz’s bed, which he never did for long because he was scared that he might hurt her. Most of the time, I saw Max on the chair, and that’s where he was this evening.

Inside the room, Isabel, Jesse, Maria and Kyle were quietly talking in the sitting area, and on the other side of the room, Liz was sleeping peacefully. Her husband, on the other hand, looked like he could have used some sleep. I know that I could use some too, but I know I wasn’t under the same stress that Max was and I know Max, he was beating himself up more than he should be. Add starvation to all of that. I’m not sure if the guy was eating. He was looking a little pale and for a second, I had wondered how it was that he was still going on, but it didn’t take an idiot to realize that Liz and Abby were his driving force.

“Hi,” I smiled as I walked in.

Max glanced up and barely let one corner of his mouth lift up. “Hi,” he replied back softly. He went back to looking at Liz and continued to hold her hand between both of his. Max then leaned forward and let his head rest on the bed. His eyes closed slowly.

Not only was he sleep deprived, stressed, and starved, but Max was literally drained of energy. Every day, three times a day, Max tried to heal Liz, or at the least, make the connection with her. Every day he failed. We knew that the only reason Max couldn’t heal someone was because they were dead, but Liz wasn’t dead, just asleep. I know that several of us began to wonder if Liz wasn’t doing her part to make the connection.

And that’s what Maxwell was up to for the past few days. As for the rest of us, we all played our favorite game, the Waiting Game. I don’t know about the others, but I’m sick and tired of just sitting and watching on the sideline. Almost everything we’ve been through so far, I’ve kept my distance as ordered and I’ve remained the loyal little soldier I am. When I needed to take charge, I took charge, but I’ve always known who the leader is. So when it was time to hand the reins back over, I did. I tried to take charge when a leader wasn’t needed and I was aggressive once I was put in the position. I was wrong, but I hate just watching things go on before me when I know that I could do something to help Liz, in any way, meaning I, at the least, wanted to find out the truth for her and get answers from Max.

A knock on the door prompted all of us to bring our attention in that direction. Dr. Crosby stood at the doorway. He wasn’t wearing his white lab coat. Instead, it rested on his arm along with his stethoscope and in his other hand was a briefcase. I think the guy was ready to go home.

“Max, I need to talk to you,” he said.

First, Max looked to us, as if he needed our permission, but I realize now that he was looking at us to make sure that we’d look after Liz while he was away. He kissed Liz’s hand, carefully placed it on the bed, kissed her forehead and finally got out of his chair and followed Dr. Crosby out the door. It wasn’t even necessary for them to leave. We could hear their conversation.

“You’re not looking too good, Max,” Paul noted.

Max gave a little chuckle. “I don’t feel too good either. What’s up?”

There was a slight pause before Paul went on. “Max, I’m sorry,” he started. “I’m going to be honest and let you know that things are grim. I honestly don’t know if Abby will survive and I don’t know when Liz will wake up. Now, as far as Abby’s concerned, you have a decision to make and you’re going to have to make it on your own.”

“What is it?”

“Abby’s becoming dependent on the machines that are keeping her alive,” the doctor began to explain. “If she stays on them, she could be on them for a long while with no change. It won’t improve her condition the least bit. I need you to decide if you want to keep her on the life support or take her off, with the hope of her being able to survive on her own. Now, if you decide to take her off, there’s no going back. We’ll just have to take whatever comes.”

And I couldn’t imagine Maxwell’s thoughts right now. He had to decide whether or not his daughter lived or died.

“No…” Max argued. He couldn’t believe it and I don’t think any of us could. “It’s not fair,” Max went on. “I’ve been here before, Paul. It’s not like I haven’t seen this type of thing. I mean, one pound babies fight and they make it. Why can’t my daughter?”

“You’re right,” Paul agreed. “You’ve been here before and you’ve seen one pound babies make it, but how many don’t? Abby’s four pounds, not one. So, you’re right, it’s not fair. Four isn’t one and one isn’t four, but you’ve got to look at the big picture: It’s not a whole lot. She’s struggling, Max. I can’t tell you anything you don’t know.”

I leaned forward to look into the hallway. Max stood in frustration and anger with his hands on the top of his head. He sighed heavily. “When can I finally see her?”

“I’ll take you right now,” Paul informed him. It didn’t seem like he was acting as a doctor. He was more of a friend right now doing a favor for another friend.

The two of them didn’t leave right away, though. Max came into the room first and went straight to Liz’s bedside.

“I’ll be back, Liz,” he said to her. “I’m going to see Abby, ok? I’m going to take care of her.” Max kissed Liz’s temple and wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. After that, he still didn’t leave. Instead, Max turned to us. “Will guys come?”

I don’t think there was any hesitation. Maria, Isabel, Kyle and Jesse jumped to their feet while the grandfathers took a seat.

“We’ll stay behind and watch Liz,” Mr. Parker said. “Go see my granddaughter.”

Max nodded appreciatively and then looked to us, waiting for us to join him. So we went ahead and stepped forward. Isabel rushed up to her brother and linked arms with him, spending the whole journey to the NICU glued to Max’s side.

Paul had led our small group all the way to room with glass walls. There were quite a few nurses inside, paying giving all their attention to the frail new souls. A few families were inside as well. Moms were sitting in rocking chairs next to their baby’s incubators while their family members stood around them and admired the gorgeous little bundles.

At the door, Paul punched in a few numbers and a large section of the wall slid open. Paul didn’t just walk right in and straight to Abby’s incubator. He grabbed a few things off a shelf at the door. To each one of us, he tossed a plastic smock. “Put those on,” he had instructed and once we were all suited up, he finally walked through and we all followed.

The minute we stepped into the room, Maria grabbed my hand. She stuck close beside me and looked all around the room. It was a frightening place. Little ventilators were making the pumping actions sounds and repetitive beeps with moments of time between the next beep eliminated the silence.

It seemed as though Abby’s incubator was at the opposite end of the room. The trip brought us past several families and weak babies. Some families smiled and others cried. The families that smiled never flashed big grins, but small little smirks. There was one group that was overjoyed and ready to celebrate, but I noticed that they held it in because they didn’t want the other families to realize that their baby was going home.

Finally, we made it across the room to an incubator fairly isolated from all the others. Honestly, I was a little scared. A whole lot scared. The moment I saw an index card labeled “Evans” on the incubator, I froze. I didn’t want to move closer. I kind of didn’t want to see her. I was scared to see her and I think Maria felt the same way. She had stopped the moment I did and even squeezed my hand in fright, I think.

Paul was the only one to walk all the way up to the incubator. Max, with Isabel still by his side, was just a little in front of us. Jesse and Kyle flanked both sides of me and Maria.

After placing his briefcase on the floor and his white lab coat and stethoscope on his briefcase, Paul opened the clear plastic lid of the incubator. He carefully reached inside and pulled out a little bundle. The doctor turned to Max and lifted up a corner of his mouth. “Are you ready to finally hold your daughter?” he asked.

From behind Max, I watched his shoulders rise as he took a deep breath. Isabel finally left go of her brother to let him step forward and take his daughter in his arms. So Max took that step and kept his eyes glued onto his little girl while Paul transferred Abby from his arms into Max’s. The two men were careful to not disturb the tubes attached from the incubator to the baby. They moved slowly and after Abby was securely in Max’s arms, I think he finally let go of his breath.

Paul smiled proudly and exhaled sharply. “She’s beautiful, Max.”

Max held Abby so gently. He was totally smitten. There was this goofy smile on his face and his eyes were so bright and glimmering. I loved it, and Abby must of loved it too. I took her faint gurgle as an attempt at a giggle. Her tiny little hands wavered in the air while Max tickled her chest with his index finger until his daughter’s hand found its way on her father’s finger.

Max chuckled happily and took notice of us. He gestured for us to come closer with a tilt of his head. At that moment, we all caught a glimpse of the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen. You could already tell that Abby took after Liz. She had Mom’s chin, mouth, and nose. When the little tyke managed to open her eyes, I noticed that she got those from both parents. The shape, Abby got from Liz. The color, belonged to Max. Oh, and poor kid, she had Max’s ears.

After instructing us to come closer, Max brought his attention back to Abby, and waved his finger from side to side with Abby’s hand still curled around it. “Don’t you just love it when babies grab hold of something, they hold on for dear life?” As soon as the words left his mouth, Max stopped smiling and regretted the words he spoke.

We hung our heads low in the awkward silence, which was quickly broken by Max, who cleared his throat. He looked at his daughter and a smile was back on his face. Abby made him so happy.

I didn’t even have to look around the room, but I knew that we were all smiling as we watched Max hold Abby asleep in his arms.

Actually, Abby slept peacefully on his arm. She was so small that she could rest on Max's forearm alone. Nonetheless, she was still gorgeous. Abby was the most beautiful little girl and the biggest little gift Max and Liz could ever receive.

Inside, I was laughing to myself, which, as a result, exposed a smile on my face. In a matter of mere seconds, Abby was able to find a way into my heart. She had a piece of my heart already, and she was only a few days old. I instantly knew I was going to love the girl.

As for Max…Max fell in love with his daughter before she was even born. At this moment, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. He grinned from ear to ear and his face just glowed. Since marrying Liz, Max always glowed, but as he stared into his daughter’s eyes, Max was a blinding light. “Caden,” he said out of the blue.

Everyone snapped out of their gaze on Abby and stared at Max.

“What?” I was the first to ask.

“Caden,” Max repeated with his eyes still fixated on his little girl. “It’ll be her middle name.” Then he ignored us and smiled at Abby again. “You are Abigail Caden Evans, my daughter.”

My eyes narrowed. I knew that. I knew that name. Caden. It sounded so familiar. I continued to say it over and over again in my mind, trying to remember where I had heard it before, trying to remember what it meant, because I knew it had some kind of definition.

“What does it mean?” Isabel asked before I could. I glanced over at her and I knew by the expression on her face that she was thinking exactly what I was thinking.

“It means fighter,” Max replied. “Caden means fighter.”

That’s what it meant, I thought to myself. “I know that, Maxwell. How do I know that?” I asked him.

He still hadn’t taken his eyes off Abby, but when he placed her back into her incubator, he finally looked up. “In Antarian,” Max began to explain, “Caden means fighter.”

Both Isabel and I shot each other glances of shock and confusion.

“How did you know that?” Maria asked.

I knew that that was question also on the minds of Isabel and I, and probably everyone else.

Max just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “Just a memory, I guess.”

“Well, it’s beautiful,” Isabel nodded. Jesse agreed as he wrapped his arm around his wife.

“Abigail Caden Evans,” I said, bobbing my head. “Absolutely perfect.”

[hoLLyBEHRy]

Hey everyone! Look, it's a new update. This one only took a month to spit out. LoL. It's better than the five months it took the last one. Anyway, thank you for all the feedback and the continued interest.

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Thank you so much.

-hoLLy



Chapter 33

{Max}

“Max…Max…”

The days were long, and I don’t know what day it was, but I’m pretty sure a lot of them had passed since Abby was born. And yesterday was the first day I ever laid my eyes on her. I know that all parents think that their children are the most beautiful things in the world, but I knew for sure that Abby’s the most beautiful thing in this universe and any other universe. The first thing I saw her do was smile at me. I saw it for a second, maybe even faster than that, but I think she had my smile. Other than my ears, I’d say Abby looked like Liz.

Abby belonged in my arms. It just felt right. This was my daughter; a product of mine and Liz’s love for each other. I replayed yesterday’s moment in my head because I knew that I wasn’t allowed to see her again. Not for a little while. Not until I made a decision.

I blinked my eyes open and looked to my right, at the group of people holding vigil for my wife. It was never just me and Liz in the room and I didn’t mind, because I needed someone there with me. I didn’t want to be alone. Even though I was with Liz, I would feel lonely if no one else was there. Every day, at least one member of my family was here, my large family. A lot of the time, it was the Parkers and the reason why is obvious. This was their little girl lying on the bed in front of me.

“Max, why don’t you go home?” Mr. Parker suggested.

I watched my mother nod in agreement. “You should go home and get some rest, sweetie.”

I shook my head and looked back at Liz as she slept “I’ve rested,” I replied. “I don’t want to leave them.”

Out of the corner of my eyes, I witness Isabel rolling hers. She walked toward me and grabbed me by the arm. “Closing your eyes while sitting in a wooden chair with paper thin cushions doesn’t constitute as resting,” she sighed. “It’s torture.

I exhaled heavily and shook my head as Isabel pulled me out of my seat. “It’s kept me awake,” I told her, “and I want to stay awake.”

My sister continued pulling me away from the bed and toward the door. She handed me my jacket off of the coat rack and playfully shoved me out into the hallway. When I turned around, she was blocking the doorway.

“Go home,” she ordered. “Go home, clean yourself up while you’re there, rest and then you can come back. Michael, Maria and Kyle are home. If you need anything. They’re there for you.”

I put on my jacket and gave a nod before kissing Isabel on the cheek. She was right. I needed to rest up; eat and sleep to reenergize myself. Maybe I’d be strong enough to make a connection with Liz next time I tried to heal her.

Once I reached the parking lot, I remembered that I didn’t drive here in my Chevelle. The day of Abby’s birth, I had gone to Albany to trade in my convertible and then pick up a car I had gotten a great deal on. It was supposed to be a surprise for Liz. A brand new BMW X5, an SUV for our growing little family. I wanted to show her how ready I was for our future. I wanted her to know that I was committed and ready to protect our family.

As I got into the car, I glanced into the mirror. I looked like hell. My eyes were surrounded by dark circles, I was pale and my five o’clock shadow was turning into a beard. I got what Isabel was saying about cleaning myself up.

I drove home as fast as I could. The faster I was there, the faster my stay would be and then the sooner I’d be back at the hospital. I didn’t want to be away from Liz and Abby for long. I didn’t want to be away if something happened. I just didn’t want to be away from them.

I pulled our new car into the driveway and didn’t bother parking it in the garage. I’d be out of the house soon enough.

It felt like it had been so long since I had been in my own house. Our home was the ideal place to raise a child, a family. It was in the safest neighborhood with the kindliest neighbors around. The school district was superb and it was just perfect. I think our only problem was that our home was occupied by five adults instead of just two, the parents. We had one of the four bedrooms set aside for the nursery, but Liz, Michael, Maria, Kyle and I couldn’t continue living in this house like some fraternity or sorority.

The moment I walked into the house, I noticed how quiet it was. The grandparents were at the hospital with Isabel and Jesse, but Michael, Maria and Kyle were supposed to be here. You wouldn’t know it though. It was eerily quiet.

I climbed the main staircase, glancing at each step and the mess that covered each one. Our house was no where ready for the baby and I’m pretty sure that the nursery wasn’t completely done either. I had slacked off. I’m not ready, but since I was home now, I figured maybe I could get something done.

I walked down the hallway toward mine and Liz’s bedroom, but instead of turning right, I turned left and into the nursery. To my surprise, it wasn’t vacant, but occupied by Michael. He was kneeling on the ground, peering over a mess of tools and parts to read the instructions to assemble the crib.

“Hi,” I smiled.

Michael’s head shot up and he nearly dropped the screwdriver in his hand. “Hi,” he replied surprised.

I gave a little chuckle and jolted my chin forward. “What are you doing?”

Michael looked down at his hand and the crib that was in pieces on the floor. “Uh, well, Abby should be coming home soon,” he said hopefully, “and I know that we already assembled the crib, but, um, that was with…you know…” Michael lifted his free hand and shook it in the air. “If something on the crib broke, none of us would know what it was or how to fix it. So I took the crib apart and started over from scratch. I needed to do it the right way…the human way,” he reluctantly admitted with a smirk.

A proud and extremely satisfied grin stretched out across my tired face. “Michael…you don’t have to do all of this.”

“I know,” Michael nodded, “but I want to, and I needed to do something to occupy my mind and kill the time.”

I looked around the room and at all the furniture that we had originally assembled with our powers. I squinted my eyes slightly as I pondered. “How many times have you reassembled the crib?” I wondered skeptically.

Michael chuckled. “Four times.” He looked over his shoulder at the rocking chair and pointed at it with the screwdriver. “Twice,” he informed me and then pointed to the changing station. “And just once.”

“Well, is everything to your liking, Inspector?” I joked.

“When I finish this,” he said looking at the pile of wood, “I’ll let you know.”

I smiled and walked to the rocking chair. I took a seat and eased into a soft-paced rock. The chair was perfect. I trusted Michael’s handy work. As I closed my eyes, I took a deep breath. I could already smell the baby shampoo and the baby powder. I imagined the scent of a used baby diaper and then didn’t let it faze me.

“Any new news from the hospital?” Michael wondered.

I struggled to open my eyelids and felt dizzy as my eyes refocused on the world in front of me. “Huh?”

“Any improvements?”

I shook my head.

Michael pretended to look back down at the instructions with interest, but I know he was looking down regretfully. Every day we all heard from some sort of source that there was no change in Abby or Liz’s conditions. I know that any improvement in Liz was going to be on her terms. She was going to be the one to make the comeback. As far as Abby was concerned, it was up to Max to determine whether a change in her condition was possible.

“What do I do, Michael?” I asked.

“Maybe you should get some sleep,” he suggested without even looking up.

I leaned forward, placing my knees on my thighs and shaking my head. “I mean, about Abby. Do I wait until Liz wakes up so that we can make this decision together or do I go ahead and tell them to take Abby off life support?”

Michael looked up definitely bewildered. “Max, you can’t ask me a question like that,” he said worriedly. “I can’t give you my say. It’s all up to you, but really, do you have any other choice? If you wait for Liz, who knows how long you’ll wait and Abby’s going to end up living off those machines for the rest of her life.”

“At least she’ll be alive,” was my argument, but it wouldn’t be much of a life if Abby needed aides to live the rest of her life. “If I tell them to take her off, she might die.”

“Or she might not.” Michael took a seat on the ground and put the screwdriver down. He dusted his hands off and held his knees up to his chest. “You can’t go into this decision thinking that you’ll be able to heal Abby later in life, because you won’t be able to, Max.” Michael cleared his throat, reluctant to tell me the truth. “If she stays on all the life support now, she’ll have problems when she’s older. Problems that you’re not able to heal. You know that.”

And I nodded. No hesitation or reluctance on my part because I knew what Michael was saying was true. Whatever problems Abby would have in the future due to her premature birth and current life support situation would be developmental problems. When she grows up, that’s who she’ll be. That’s how she’ll be built and I can’t be God and change her. I wouldn’t want to, because Abby will always be perfect to me.

“You think I should tell them to take her off?” I sighed.

Michael barely nodded, but it was still a gesture of affirmation. "It’ll be ok,” he assured me. “And you know why? Because we've risked our lives saving the planet. Granted, we were saving people from our mistakes, but still. We deserve the best, Max. You deserve the best."

I looked up with an eye squinted. "Did you have a life-changing moment I’m not aware of?" I wondered with a grin.

Michael shrugged boyishly and smiled. “Abby is a life-changing moment.”

After I smiled at his remark, I shook my head. "Even if we deserve the best, that doesn't mean we'll get it."

I sighed heavily as I glanced down at a spot between my feet. I believed in my daughter. I didn’t give her the middle name of Caden because I felt like it. I gave it to her because she really was a fighter. She was going to fight through this. She was going to fight to survive. I knew she could do it. So why was I wasting time?

I got out of the rocking chair and started walking out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Michael wondered.

I looked over my shoulder and smirked. “I’m going to shower and then head back to the hospital. I’m going to tell them to take Abby off the machines.”

[hoLLyBEHRy]

A/N: Wow, I can't believe it's been so long. I really apologize. Things have been crazy. My first year of college is almost done and I've realized that, unfortunately, I didn't get the hang of balancing everything even when I didn't have a whole lot on my plate. As a result, Complications, and my grades , suffered. I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to keep up with this like I did with its predecessor Simplicity/Beginnings. Good news is, like I mentioned, school's almost done. Only 8 days are left, which means that I'll have time to write, hopefully. I do have things planned for the summer, but it's not like I'll be as busy as I was during school. So I'm really hoping that I can focus on my writing and get some new chapters for all of my stories up. I really appreciate all of you. I'm sincerely grateful. I don't just write for myself, I write for you. There were so many times when I thought of scrapping this whole story altogether, but then that notion would quickly fade away when I thought about those who read. It's not fair to take something away. I know the feeling. I'm sure we all know the feeling. Roswell was taken from us and now, to those who watch the show like I do, One Tree Hill might be taken away as well. I pray that it doesn't. Anyway, so yeah, I just want you to know that you guys really matter because otherwise, this story would have been in the Dead and Buried thread a long time ago. So THANK YOU!

Hope to see you soon.

-hoLLy