The Jackpot Question (CC, M/L, TEEN,1/1) [COMPLETE]

[Midwest Max]

Title: The Jackpot Question
Author: Karen
Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.
Pairings/Couples/Category: CC – M/L
Rating: Teen
Summary: This takes place after A Roswell Christmas Carol, near New Years Eve.
Author's Note: This fic was inspired by the song “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve”, which was written by Frank Loesser. This fic contains quotes from that song, as well as from the screenplay of When Harry Met Sally, which was written by Rob Reiner.


“So I invited Amy Deluca over for dinner.”

Max Evans snapped his head up, his mouth dropping open in surprise. Across from him, Tess Harding looked rather proud of herself, blue eyes sparkling.

“You didn’t,” he managed.

Tess nodded. “Yep. I mean, Max, you wouldn’t believe the two of them. Just squatting in front of the tube while the holidays just whizzed right past them. Like they didn’t even care.”

Of course, she was talking about the Valentis, Jim and his son Kyle. A few months prior, she’d taken up residence with them after her guardian had been killed. Max had an inkling that living there was the first exposure she’d had to a family unit, depleted as it was.

“Maybe they don’t celebrate Christmas,” Max offered, always willing to give his fellow man the benefit of the doubt. It was possible – though unlikely – that at one time the Valentis had had a Christmas Nazi of their own to make their holidays miserable. Max definitely had one in the form of his perfectionist older sister Isabel.

“Oh, I think they did at one time,” Tess retorted. “They had an old plastic Christmas tree in the garage.”

Max shuddered just considering Isabel’s reaction to a fake tree.

“I went out and bought a real one,” Tess announced proudly. “And some new decorations for it. I found some lights all tangled up in a box in the garage loft, but I was afraid of catching the house on fire if I used them.”

Max gave her a small smile. He knew that Nasedo had left plenty of money in a trust for her and that buying those things for the holiday probably hadn’t set her back too much. Not that she seemed to be worried about the money – it was the Valentis’ paganism when it came to decorating that was bothering her.

“So what happened when Amy came over?” Max asked, picking up his burger and taking a bite. The juices from the grill filled his mouth and he barely stifled a groan of pleasure – there was nothing like a Crashdown burger.

“Well, the sheriff was horrified, of course.” Tess laughed and Max realized that he’d never really heard a true laugh from her. She was always so intense, so serious about being an alien and having a mission. The sound threw him off for a moment. “But then, I think he was more than happy I’d invited her.”

“That right?”

“Yep. They had some wine, ate some dinner, reminisced about him busting her a couple of times.”

Max nearly choked on his food. Swallowing quickly, he said, “What?”

“Oh, yeah. Apparently she was tree-hugging or something.”

He chuckled to himself as he dipped a fry in ketchup. He could see Amy Deluca fighting for the life of a tree or whatever the cause of the moment was. Even though she was too young to fit the bill of the originals, she had hippie written all over her.

“But I think I’ve reformed those Valenti boys,” Tess was saying when Max tuned back in.

“How’s that?” he asked. From the corner of his eye, he saw movement, a streak of dark hair behind the counter that he would recognize even from his peripheral vision. The bite of burger he’d just swallowed did a little flip in his belly and he suddenly lost his appetite.

“We’re going to Reno for New Year’s.” It was all Tess could do not to squeal her announcement.

Max’s thoughts were firmly fixed on not looking in Liz Parker’s direction; it would be rude to do that while Tess was trying to tell him something. However, concentration on not ignoring her had caused him to do exactly that. He looked up into her disappointed eyes and realized he needed to cover – fast. He settled on acting startled, as if he’d been surprised into silence.

“Did you just say Reno?” he asked, hoping that’s what she’d said. He pasted on a look of disbelief, going for an air that he’d been listening all along and was truly surprised.

“Yep! Can you believe it?” Tess seemed about ready to burst at the seams.

“Well,” Max said, wiping his hands on his napkin, appetite effectively squelched. “I believe you’d do it. And Kyle. But seeing the Sheriff going to Reno is what I’m having an issue with.”

Tess laughed again, the sound still foreign. “He’ll have a great time, Max!”

He gave her a skeptical look. Jim Valenti was hardly a party animal.

“We’re taking Amy with us.”

For the second time in only a few minutes, Max’s mouth dropped open. It wasn’t so much that the sheriff was running away to Reno with Amy, it was that Max doubted Maria was going with them. Which meant that Maria would probably have the house to herself.

Without looking directly at her, Max followed Liz from the corner of his eye, aching to look at her. Was there a party in the works? Would there be a ton of guys there vying for Liz’s affections? Although Max had always found her beautiful, she’d really blossomed in the year since he’d healed her, and other guys were starting to notice. A sharp stab of jealousy hit him right in the gut, spinning his lunch in a direction he didn’t care for at all.

“Hey, you okay?” Tess’s voice was as soft as her hand as she put it over his.

Max looked down at her small fingers, her flawless skin. His wife, in some other life. Why was it then that in this life he could feel nothing for her?

“I’m fine,” he said, patting her hand with his free one so that he could pull the other one away without appearing obvious. “I think I ate badly over Christmas and my stomach’s revolting is all. Too many of my mom’s cookies.” He smiled as punctuation, hoping that it was convincing.

“Oh, I know what you mean,” Tess agreed readily, putting a hand to her flat belly. “I ate like a pig!” She rummaged around on the seat beside her and pulled her coat around her slim shoulders. “I’ve gotta go,” she explained. “I want to pick up a new bathing suit for the swimming pool.” She giggled and Max found himself grinning at her. It was so rare to see her happy; it warmed his heart.

Tess slid from the booth and slung her purse over her shoulder. “We’re leaving tomorrow,” she explained as she was leaning toward him. He had a sudden burst of fear that she’d kiss him here, in the Crashdown, with Liz looming somewhere in his periphery. But she only gave him a peck on the cheek, which was damaging but definitely not as bad as a kiss on the lips. “Happy New Year, Max.”

He smiled up at her. “You, too, Tess.”

He watched her leave, his smile fading away as guilt raced through him. What if Liz had seen Tess kiss him? All of these months of professing his love for Liz could be erased with one misplaced gesture of affection. The guilt was followed by self-admonishment – why was he feeling guilty for something he hadn’t even initiated?

Still, Max couldn’t help stealing a glance toward the counter, where he’d seen Liz only moments ago. But now she was gone. Relief and disappointment stirred a strange cocktail within him.

“You done with that burger, cowboy?”

Max looked up and saw Maria at the end of the booth, pointing toward the barely-touched burger. Immediately, he wanted to ask her about New Year’s, but blurting out a question like that while ignoring hers was just rude. He resorted to nodding.

Maria sighed and flopped into the spot Tess had just vacated. “Max, there is still a good two-thirds of a burger there.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you seriously going to lecture me for not cleaning my plate?”

She pursed her full, perfectly-glossed lips. “No. But I will tell you what will happen. If I take that back to the kitchen, I’m going to have to listen to the cook bitch and moan all night about his cooking being unappreciated, comprende?”

Ah, Michael. The egotistical grill master. “I’m just not hungry,” Max confessed. Unable to stop himself, he turned as soon as the door to the kitchen swung open. His heart leapt, stopped a beat, then pounded as his eyes settled on Liz.

“Uh huh,” Maria said knowingly.

Max flushed slightly as he returned his gaze to his friend. He didn’t even try to deny it.

“Tell you what we’re going to do,” Maria offered, gesturing toward a table that needed cleared. “I’m going to split the burger between your plate and that one. Then I won’t have to hear it all night.”

Max gave her a small smile. “Okay.”

“And you’re going to grow some balls and go talk to Liz.”

Max blanched and physically withdrew into the cushions of the booth. “Maria, I don’t think so.”

“Oh, come on.” She folded her arms over her slight body. “Less than a week ago she was your confidante and now you can’t even go over and ask her how it’s hanging?”

Max laughed uneasily, not sure how to tell Maria that girls weren’t supposed to have anything “hanging.”

“You’re too literal,” she pointed out, apparently reading his mind. “You know what I meant.”

Max struggled to put his feelings into words, his eyes settled on his half-eaten food. “It’s complicated,” he finally said.

“Of course it is, Max. Everything with you is complicated.”

He looked at her with a soulful expression. She hadn’t seen what he had. She hadn’t seen another guy in Liz’s bed, naked. She hadn’t been told to beat it, to move on with her life. She hadn’t been told that the person she loved couldn’t be with her because they wanted “normal”, something she could never be.

Simply put, Maria couldn’t understand.

“Is your mom really going to Reno?” Max asked, switching subject so quickly that it nearly gave her whiplash.

“Yes,” Maria scowled.

Max lifted his eyebrows. “You don’t approve? I thought you liked the sheriff.”

“I do.” She was still grimacing, anger in her eyes. “And I like Kyle. It’s that bitch Tess that I can’t stand.”

Max felt a jab of pain at that comment. He knew that Maria would never forgive Tess for the games she’d played with all of their heads when she’d first come to town, but he felt that she at least deserved a chance. Neither Maria nor Liz seemed to be willing to do give her that.

“She’s not so bad,” he said softly.

Maria’s gaze whipped to his. “I’m going to forget you said that,” she said. “I’m sorry, Max. Maybe you have to welcome her into the fold, but I don’t. And I won’t.”

Her words were so vehement that Max hung his head, scolded.

Maria sighed heavily. “Sorry, dude. I have to be honest about it.”

“I know,” he said. Inside, he felt defeated. Why was it always up to him to be the peace-keeper? Why did he always have to run to Tess’s defense? When would it ever end?

“She’s looking at you,” Maria whispered, leaning over the table conspiratorially.

“What?” Max’s head jerked up and before he could check himself, he looked directly into Liz’s dark eyes. She was still on the other side of the café, but it was like the space between them didn’t really exist.

Liz looked equally as startled, then a small smile curved her lips and she gave him a little wave. Stunned, Max waved back, realized he must look like a dork, and dropped his hand back to his lap.

Maria laughed lightly as she stood and retrieved his plate. “I don’t know how you manage it, Max, but you’re sickening and pitiful all at the same time.” With that, she gave him a wink and departed.

As Maria disappeared, Max looked back to the counter, where Liz was taking a customer’s order. His whole being ached just taking in the gentle slope of her neck; with a jolt, he remembered kissing her there, on her soft skin. If he concentrated enough, he could still hear her sighs against his ear, the sudden intake of breath as he’d reached a particularly sensitive spot. What he wouldn’t do to hold her again…

Before he could work up the nerve to ask her out for the New Year, a scene from When Harry Met Sally raced through his head, a conversation between two estranged lovers -

What do you want, Harry?

Nothing. I just called to say…What are you doing for New Year’s? Are you going to the Tyler’s party? Do you have a date? ‘Cause I don’t have a date and if you don’t have a date, we always said if neither of us had a date on New Year’s –

Harry, I can’t do this anymore. I am not your consolation prize. Goodbye, Harry.

Max’s jaw set as his resolved snapped firmly into place. Even though Liz had been there for him through the whole Sydney Davis event, even though he’d shown up at Christmas Eve service to thank her, some things were still painfully the same.

Liz had still slept with Kyle. But, more important than that, Liz had asked Max to leave her alone. Just because he was dateless and lonely on the holiday did not give him the right to ask for a consolation prize, or to volunteer to be hers.

Unable to face her, he dropped money onto the table to pay his tab instead of taking it to the register, then hastily grabbed his jacket and made for the door. He couldn’t turn around and look at her, and he didn’t have to – he knew that she was staring after him in confusion.

The outside air was brisk and welcoming. Max drew in a couple of deep breaths, trying to regain his composure. At times like these, he wondered why he ever went back to the Crashdown, why he subjected himself to the torture. Liz Parker was out of the picture. Period.

Unwelcome tears stung at the back of Max’s eyes. To avoid them, he started walking quickly. He’d run if he had to. He’d run from her, from the hurt, from the feelings in his heart that he just couldn’t ignore.

Ahead of him, a ways down the street, he spotted his parents getting into their car, which was parked in one of the diagonal spots that lined the street. They had shopping bags and his mother was wearing a new coat. They were both laughing, their cheeks pink from the bite of the air. Max slowed to a walk, not wanting to catch up to them, wanting to watch from a distance.

The Evanses had been married for twenty-five years. In a quarter of that time, many couples grow tired of one another, the luster long worn off. But here was a couple that after all their time together still enjoyed after-Christmas bargain shopping with one another. Perhaps they had had lunch. Maybe they’d seen a movie. What struck Max was that they were very happy, and not surface-happy like some people were. His parents didn’t know anyone was watching them, they were putting on a show for no one. Their affection was genuine.

As the car backed out of its spot, Max stopped in his tracks, the fight gone from him. He wanted what his parents had. And he only wanted it with one person – Liz Parker.

Gloom settled over his soul. It was possible that he was never going to have what his parents had. If Liz was the only person he felt he could share that kind of happiness with and she didn’t want to share it with him…

The door to a shop near where Max had stopped swung open as customers exited and music filled the street for a few moments while the door slid shut lazily.

Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight
When it’s exactly twelve o’clock that night
Welcoming in the New Year
New Year’s Eve

Maybe I’m crazy to suppose
I’d ever be the one you chose
Out of the thousand invitations
You received

Ooh, but in case I stand one little chance
Here comes the jackpot question in advance:
What are you doing New Year’s
New Year’s Eve?

The sting of tears returned to Max’s eyes. He’d heard that song a million times in his life, and yet the words had always been hollow to him. He hadn’t understood until now. Whoever had written that song knew that he wasn’t the first choice, that the person he loved could have any number of people with her at midnight, but he had to take the risk and ask her anyway. Just on the outside chance he could be that lucky.

In Maria-speak, that songwriter had grown balls and done what Max was scared to death to do.

Max pivoted slowly in the other direction, his knees suddenly wobbling. His heart was starting to pound, his body starting to feel warm. He was scared half to death. Like a man headed for a root canal, he took tentative steps, retracing his path back to the Crashdown. It seemed like it took forever – he must have been hauling ass to have covered so much distance so quickly.

As he walked, he tried to come up with an explanation for his actions, why he’d raced out of the café like he had. His mind was whirling, but he could come up with nothing that wasn’t going to sound stupid or fabricated. Maybe he should just turn around and go home…

But he was already at the Crashdown window. Gulping past his fear, he peered through the plate glass, found Liz still behind the counter, serving coffee to a patron. She was so pretty she made his heart hurt.

Almost like she knew he was there, she lifted her head toward the window, her eyes searching. Max bit his lip and pushed open the door. As he crossed over to her, he glanced at his table, wondering if he could use paying his check as an excuse to talk to her; too late, some diligent waitress had already taken care of it.

There was nothing to do but confront her honestly.

Stopping at the end of the counter, he slid one of his hands into his back pocket and waited for her to come to him, which she eventually did, her eyes darting away self-consciously. Clearing her throat, she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear; Max remembered the feel of it and his fingers ached to touch it.

“Hi, Max,” she said in a small voice.

“Hi,” he managed.

“Did you forget something?”

“Yeah,” he heard himself say, mortifying himself in the process.

Liz looked surprised. “Oh. You did?”

“Yeah. I, um, forgot to ask you something.”

He could see her swallow back her nervousness. “What did you want to ask me?”

The jackpot question, he thought to himself. Everything depends on this.

Liz was waiting patiently, her dark eyes round and curious.

“I was wondering,” Max began, felt his cheeks start to flush. “What are you doing New Year’s Eve?”

Liz’s mouth dropped open and for one second Max felt like fleeing. Stupid whim that brought him here! But then she cleared her throat and answered him. “Maria’s mom is going to be out of town.”

“And she’s having a party,” he finished, resigning himself to the fact that he’d been right – there would be many there who would be seeking her affections.

“No,” Liz said, shaking her head. “Not really.”

Max looked at her quizzically.

“You see, I didn’t have anywhere to go, so Maria invited me over.”

“Oh.” Still on the hot seat, he shoved his hands into his coat pockets. “A girl’s night kind of thing.”

“No,” she repeated. “Michael’s coming, too.”

“Oh.” Max waited a beat, then realized that the plans that had been made didn’t include him. Maria hadn’t mentioned the gathering and neither had Michael. “Okay then.” He started to back up, to get out of there as fast as he could, but Liz stopped him.

“I’d like it if you came, too,” she said, her voice so soft he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. He stopped, cocked his head in confusion. “I would,” she affirmed. “I mean, if you wanted to…”

Liz looked at the countertop, her cheeks flushing slightly.

Max blinked. It was too easy. It was too good to be true. “Um, okay,” he said dumbly.

“Around nine,” Liz said, started to move in the direction of her latest customer.

“Okay,” he repeated, ordering the grin to stay hidden until he got outside.

Liz gave him one last, bashful smile and turned to her patron. As Max was moving for the door, he caught Maria’s gaze at the back of the restaurant – she was grinning like the Cheshire cat and in that moment he knew that she’d been engineering this whole evening.

As Max stepped into the air again, he felt alive, invigorated. For the first time in too many months, he had a “date” with Liz. True, it was not an official date, but it was still a holiday and he still got to spend it with the one he loved. And if he played his cards right, maybe it would be his arms that would hold her good and tight when it was exactly twelve o’clock that night.

The End