I'm alive! With the amount of work I had these past three weeks, believe me, it's nothing short of a miracle
ken_r, ah, doesn't it seem like yesterday when you helped me out plotting Dave's past before he was 6 years old?
Timelord, yep, not much longer before we get to the ending. But oh, so much to say still...
Natalie, thanks! The muse was generous with book 2
xmag, I don't think Dave knows for sure what would happen, he's just assuming the worst. On the other hand, we haven't met the resistance as he has, so... The plane question is brought later in this book, so I won't spoil it for you. Although if you do want to know, send me a PM
keepsmiling7, I'm always rooting for Max! But Zan is kind of sneaky...
trulov, good grief, The Offer was endless to write... I love book 2 so much! It practically wrote itself
(if only I could say the same thing about book 3 ¬¬ )xilaj, Dave is indeed a complicated character. He would say he isn't, but yes, he is...
Now, let's go back to the past for a little while
Part 10 – Lost
May 15 - May 18, 2005
1 : Dave
1:29am Paris
T minus 6 years, 5 months, 15 days, 23 hours, 31 minutes
Dave quietly watched Liz looking out the window. Almost all the window shades were drawn since it was the middle of the night according to their inner time; still, since they were flying counter clockwise, they were actually chasing the sunset. The sun was shining, but no one wanted the glare inside except Liz. There were two pilots, one steward, and four passengers, counting himself, and yet he felt as if Liz was the only one in that plane who mattered.
He was watching her for practical reasons. If Liz got another “shut them off” moment, the plane would go down, down, down to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
He was watching her for personal reasons. If Liz could channel Max’s energy to that point, being thousands of miles apart, that was impressive. But she had admitted that was only partly because of Max. That meant it was partly because of her, that she could do her own show. He was dying to know what exactly that entailed.
And lastly, he was watching her because she was his link to Max. And by extension, to Jake. He’d seen when she had hugged Maria and Isabel, reassuring her sister-in-law that Max wasn’t dead. She didn’t say anything about Max getting shot, or any of the other nonsense she had shouted at him when they had been in the car. But watching her now, he knew she was thinking about it, and whatever meaning it really held.
“Does it happen often?” he quietly asked, still staring at her. Somewhere, behind her, Maria and Isabel were facing each other, whether dozing or doing something else, he wasn’t able to tell. He had made sure he was sitting right in front of Liz for the sole purpose of having this conversation. It had only taken him seven hours, fifteen minutes and six seconds since Liz’s outburst in the car to build up the courage and find the right questions.
Liz shook her head twice, her eyes still looking out the window.
“Does Max know?” he pressed. This time, Liz turned to look at him, startled.
“Of course he does,” she said in the same quiet tone. “He… I… It had never been like this… Max was really scared. I don’t think he’s ever been more scared in his life…”
Try him seeing you shot four years ago… Instead, Dave nodded. They had gotten little information regarding what was going on before boarding, and even now, with the pilot on alert to any news, nothing was coming. Either Jake was too busy, or he was too unsure of the outcome. Neither explanation soothed his nerves.
“What about Maria?” he asked, slightly looking past her.
“I… I don’t know… Michael has never been this afraid.” She didn’t like to talk about it, Dave knew by the way her body instantly tensed. She looked torn, her eyes lost. Whatever she had felt had truly frightened her.
“Jesse?” Dave pointedly asked. Liz looked at him, frowning. She had obviously not thought about her former brother-in-law, probably not for a couple of years.
“I… I wouldn’t think… Isabel has never said anything about him…” Liz trailed off, slightly turning to her left as if she wanted to look at the blond girl.
No, Isabel didn’t mention Jesse, but she had been mentioning anything less and less. She was withdrawing, both Jake and Ray had pointed out. Lately, Dave had been keeping a closer eye on Jesse. He had once offered Isabel to bring him on board, and she had never completely said no. Maybe now was the time to take the choice from her, and offer it to him. Quietly, discreetly, and if Jesse answered no, well… Dave would think what to say to her if she ever changed her mind and wanted to see Jesse again.
“Who is going to shoot Max?” he calmly asked. Liz looked surprised for two seconds, and then was impassive again.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, escaping to her window, trying to dismiss it. Was that one of the things she had been thinking? What would she say if he asked?
“Let me remind you then. You said you never wanted to come. That if you kept him away, he was not supposed to get shot.”
She wasn’t looking to the window anymore, more like at some point between her seat and the plane’s walls. “So I’ve drawn a few conclusions here: Max was going to get shot in Paris. Or France. Maybe even on a plane… I haven’t really figured it out all the way. I know Max knew he was going to get shot, that’s why he refused to come. But Max being Max, he convinced you to come, because who would deny his wife seeing Paris?”
A tear ran down Liz’s cheek. It was all the confirmation he needed.
“You knew, and you fought him, but in the end… if he wasn’t here to fulfill this… vision, I guess… then he would be safely tucked away. Let’s add Maria and Isabel… Company? Protection?”
Liz closed her eyes, restraining her tears.
“I would have never suggested you two coming here if I had known. Did that even occur to any of you? Whatever this… however this information just happened to land on you, I would do everything in my power to prevent it. That’s part of my deal.”
“You would use it for your own gain,” the reply came instantly, Liz’s words harsh and sharp, her eyes trying to burn him.
“Damn right I would,” he said back, returning her angry stare. “And that would mean using it to protect Max. And you…All of you. Goddamn it Liz, it’s been two years now. I don’t want your trust, but I don’t want your idiocy either!”
She looked both hurt and offended, with good reason. “What if Max got shot right now, huh?” he said, pressing Liz’s wounded mind. “And all because Allan and I agreed it was a good idea for you to come to Paris? You wouldn’t be here if I had known. Max wouldn’t be hurt if you had told me.”
“This isn’t about you!” Liz said, her angry voice starting to rise.
The hell it isn’t! he wanted to shout, but they both were getting volatile right now, and Dave hated being volatile. Hated being out of control. Hated not knowing what was in the dark lurking to mess up his plans. He took a deep breath.
“What else do you know?” he asked, all business now. In front of him, Liz remained stubbornly silent. He thought for a second about telling her the truth, and then let it go. When that time came, it wouldn’t be in the middle of the ocean, when it would sound like a too-convenient explanation to gain information.
“Is Max responsible for this?” Is that even possible? But this, too, went unanswered. He was going to lose his temper again if he was not careful. “Would you at least warn me in the future if what Jake or I, or whoever, is doing, places you in danger?”
Her eyes lost the angry edge, replaced by doubt.
“Listen, Liz. I don’t care how it works. But I do care what it says. Right now we are flying blindly, here. We don’t even know what happened, you don’t know what happened. But something else would have happened if Max had come, am I right?”
She broke their staring contest first, calmer now than a minute before. He took that as a yes. “Is there anything else… anything at all that you think I should know?”
Sighing in defeat, Liz closed her eyes. And then shook her head. Was she telling the truth or just denying him the knowledge he had just asked for? He sighed in defeat along with her. He thought for a minute. Or thirty-six seconds to be exact.
“How about this?” he said as he moved forward. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll never ask about this. Ever. But you will never withhold anything from me. Anything like today. No matter how bizarre your request, or how farfetched, I will believe you.” Everything depended on Max being alive so Antar wouldn’t destroy the Earth. If she could make that happen, he would give her anything. Anything.
He extended his hand. Liz stared at it, a storm of emotions going through her brown eyes. From uncertainty, to confusion, to defeat… to hope. Unconsciously, she bit her lower lip. And ever so slowly, inch by inch, her hand extended to shake his.
2 : Michael
7:58pm US
T minus 6 years, 5 months, 15 days, 20 hours, 2 minutes
Michael was pacing. He didn’t know when he had started, but now he couldn’t stop it. Up to the farthest wall in his living room, back to the door to the hall. And again. And again. And again. It was almost 8 pm, but far from being hungry or exhausted, he felt ready to blow up the entire compound. Something had happened to Max eight hours ago. Something bad enough that their connection had been severed.
Dozing on his couch, Kyle lightly snored. He had been with him since Michael had been released from the confinement in the cafeteria to the confinement in his apartment. Ray had lost his temper to the point of yelling at him that if he didn’t move it to his apartment he would not allow him any means to communicate with the outside. Meaning Maria. The bastard. Kyle had convinced him to leave the place peacefully before Michael had a chance to blow up Ray instead of the damn walls.
Just as he couldn’t go out, nobody could come down. And not knowing what the hell was going on was as upsetting as knowing the main doors and hallways in this place were reinforced with depleted uranium. Dave didn’t want them to go, certainly not escaping. His military mind suggested that Dave might rather want to keep someone out than someone in, but Michael dismissed the idea.
His phone rang, shattering Michael’s train of thought, and startling Kyle into wakefulness.
“Yes?” he curtly answered.
“Michael,” Jake’s voice came, “he’s stable.”
Relief that almost threatened to sink him to his knees flooded him. “I want to see him,” he said, sounding so calm he amazed his inner self.
“Not until I know what happened to him,” Jake replied in the same calm voice.
“The hell you don’t know. What did you do to him?!” he all but shouted on the phone, eight hours of pacing frying the last of his nerves. Silence met his request.
Finally, “I need you to help Ray re-trace Max’s last twenty-four hours, if not longer,” Jake clearly said as if Michael hadn’t exploded just two seconds before. “Whatever happened to Max, it happened somewhere in the compound. Ray will tell you what I’m looking for. He’s on his way to your apartment right now.”
“When will I see Max?” Michael growled into the phone, barely under control.
“As soon as I know that whatever happened to him is not going to happen to you.” Jake hung up just as Ray knocked on the door. Michael almost fried the phone. Almost. Kyle got the door.
“Why can’t anyone see Max?” Michael interrogated as soon as Ray was in and the door was closed. “What are you hiding?”
“You can see him through the monitors. You just can’t leave this area. Not until we are certain whatever happened to Max—”
“Is not going to happen to me, I heard the excuse already,” the light briefly flared as Michael could barely restrain himself now.
“Listen, the girls are on their way back with Dave. It’ll take them another couple of hours to get here, and Isabel won’t be able to go see him either. Not until we know what’s causing this. So you two can either help me out and see what Max was doing all day yesterday, or you can sulk in the dark in here. It’s your choice.” It really wasn’t a choice, but Michael managed to stay still while Ray loaded a DVR with the footage from the security cameras that had followed Max through the maze of halls that was the compound. Somewhere, in there, was the answer to this whole mess. He just had to look carefully. Really carefully.
3 : Liz
9:57pm US
T minus 6 years, 5 months, 15 days, 18 hours, 3 minutes
But I lost it. She had wanted to say those four little words for hours now. Dave knew. At least knew enough. He had even called it a vision, to name it somehow. And he was right. She had seen Max getting shot in a French restaurant. She just didn’t know if her trading Max’s trip to Paris had meant Max getting shot somewhere else. It didn’t make sense. She had changed her visions before.
None of it mattered right now. She didn’t have visions anymore. She had dreams. For all the good that was doing. Through all the flight she had been thinking about it. She didn’t know if Max had been shot—she didn’t know what had happened to Max—but she had recognized that sunset painting in Paris. So what was it? Her vision from the French restaurant or her dream about petals and sunsets and symbolic things like that? I used to have a useful power, but I lost it. The one thing that could have kept them away from the Unit and Dave. The one thing that would have meant a world of difference. She had lost it.
She knew it wasn’t logical. Max had healed her because she was having terrible migraines. Her precognition had not come without a price. And even if she were willing to pay, there was no way to get it back.
Dave stopped the car at the gate. He had been trying to get a hold of Jake, but had repeatedly failed. Ray hadn’t been much help. Now, barely a few hundred feet from her husband, Liz couldn’t wait to get out of that car, and down to Jake’s lab.
“Sir,” the guard quietly said, “we’re on lockdown.”
“I know,” Dave said with the same tone. “We’ll stay above level until we have the all clear.”
“Yes, sir,” the man said with a tip to his hat.
Dave drove slowly, as if he were dreading the same as she was, but instead of wanting to race his heart out like she wanted to do, he was bracing himself for bad news. He parked, and before he had turned the motor off, all three girls were out.
Liz went first, followed by Maria and Isabel. Behind them, Dave closed his door and came into the building. As much as Liz wanted to run down the hall and press the elevator button to go down, she knew better than to try. She wasn’t wearing her White Card—that had been left with all her things at her hotel in Paris—so they needed Dave to key in the proper codes to get to Max.
Except he didn’t. Dave went straight to his office, and all three of them followed him. He lit the room, and waited for them to enter before closing the door. Liz had seldom been in that office since her first meeting with Dave, but the place had never looked so cold, so void of life. The grand, black, wooden desk was covered with a white sheet, a clear sign Dave had not been intending on coming back for a long time. Outside, it was raining. Inside was not feeling much warmer.
Dave took his cell phone out, fast dialed, and waited. They all waited.
“We’re here,” he said to whoever had answered. Nodding to his invisible interlocutor, he frowned a second, and then turned to look at Isabel. “Is Michael okay?” he asked into the phone a second after. Maria barely suppressed a gasp, and Liz put an arm around her shoulder. Dave looked at her best friend then as he was listening for his answer, and then curtly nodded to Maria, as a way of saying that her boyfriend was okay. “Let me talk to them, and I’ll call you back.” He hung up, and rested his hands on his desk, his back to the windows. He looked tired, Liz noticed for the first time. Even if it was 5:00am in Paris, Dave never looked tired. It sent a chill down her spine.
“Max had some sort of reaction, either to an allergen or to a toxin. Jake is not sure. It was serious, but Max is resting now.” Dave said it so calmly, it seemed absurd that she felt as if the world had moved from under her feet. Max was resting. She could hardly get a sense of him, but that was all she needed to hear right now. “What Jake is sure of is that he doesn’t want to risk any of you three,” Dave continued, looking directly at Isabel, meaning the three hybrids, “so he asks you to stay out of the compound until they have figured it out.”
The three of them talked at the same time.
“Where’s Michael?”
“What do you mean ‘stay out’?”
“They?” she said louder than Maria and Isabel. Until they have figured it out. It should have meant Jake and Ray, but she didn’t believe that was the case.
Dave looked at her, and she knew the answer was something she wouldn’t like. “Michael is restricted to your apartment,” he acknowledged Maria first. “‘Stay out’ means staying up here, in my office.” His hazel eyes looking at Isabel. “If we reach midnight, we’ll move to the huts for the night.” Then he turned to look at Liz, barely pausing to gather his thoughts. “‘They’ means Jake and one of his colleagues. Greg was present when the incident happened, and Jake had to tell him something. Jake needed his help, so there was really no option.”
Dave wasn’t happy about it, and Liz wasn’t either. Part of their agreement was that he would never reveal their identity. No exceptions. It seemed they had found the one and only.
“What did Jake tell him?” she asked in a voice as calm as his, which surprised her.
“I don’t know. Jake hasn’t been chatty. I’m going to stay here with Isabel, and…” Dave trailed off, and slowly turned to look at Liz, something in his mind. “How different…?” he whispered, trailing off again, frowning. Liz understood his meaning a second after. How different are you? He blinked, his composure back. “Maybe you shouldn’t go down either.”
None of them said anything, the three of them silently standing in Dave’s office. Liz had already told them about the lights, about the outburst in the car. Honestly, she didn’t know how different she was. If something had sickened Max, who was to say it wouldn’t sicken her?
“I’ll go see Michael, then,” Maria said after a minute when neither Liz denied nor Dave affirmed. Dave nodded to Maria’s request, going to the other side of his desk. He slightly removed the white sheet, and opened the middle drawer. A small laptop was inside, and in no time was he typing away, granting Maria access to go into the compound. They watched him work in silence, and when he looked at Maria, she simply turned and went out.
How Liz wished she could go out with her as well.
Dave kept pressing keys, a hum sounding from the left wall signaling heat was being generated. She looked at Isabel, feeling awkward at not having anything to do but wait. “Maybe we should wait outside,” Isabel said, turning to leave. Dave distractedly nodded as he kept typing.
Okay… Liz thought, following Isabel out, her thoughts on that plane, on that car… on that sunset. By the time she joined Isabel by the black couches outside Dave’s office, she wished she knew if she should have said anything at all.
4 : Michael
10:11pm
T minus 6 years, 5 months, 15 days, 17hours, 49 minutes
They went backwards in time. Painfully slowly at times, and dreading fast forwarding the digital video, Ray, Kyle and Michael watched the images that showed Max’s movements throughout the compound. It was distressing to see Max collapsing on the floor. It was weird to see him with the roses. It was the sneeze that tipped Michael that something in there wasn’t right. He wasn’t exactly sure why, because they sure as hell sneezed at random times, but something just wasn’t right. Ray texted Jake, and they kept watching. And watching. And watching.
They’d gone through all twenty four hours when Maria entered his apartment, and fiercely hugged him.
“Are you okay?” she whispered, still holding him tight.
“Yes… just… worried about Max.” He didn’t let her go either.
“Liz is barely holding on. Isabel is not much better,” Maria said, finally letting him go, and turning to hug Kyle.
“Where are they?” Ray asked, the monitor frozen.
“Didn’t Jake tell you?” Maria asked, first to Ray, and then to Michael and Kyle. “They’re not allowed inside. They are up there in Dave’s office. Until Jake gives the all clear, I was the only one who could come down.” Michael frowned. Isabel he could understand, but Liz?
“He…” Maria said, looking defeated, “he already knows…” they looked at each other, and understanding hit him like a train wreck. Dave already knew Liz was different. At least different enough to not risk her coming down. Michael hugged her again, this time placing his chin over her head. What would Dave do now that he knew they had been blatantly lying to him all this time? Worse, what would he do to Liz or Kyle? Or Max?
5 : Jake
2:07am
T minus 6 years, 5 months, 13 days, 13 hours, 53 minutes
It had been the roses.
Sitting beside him on the couch, Liz was contemplating the picture of her would-be present with a sadness that was hard to watch. Max had cultivated them for her, spent countless hours working on this gift, hoping they would be just perfect. And in return, they had almost killed him.
Alone with Liz in the hut’s living room, Jake felt a million years older. Dave had been anxious, but he had nothing on the stress levels the kids were living with. He hadn’t seen Michael personally, but he’d seen Isabel. No matter how much he reassured them Max was out of the worst part, until they talked to him, they wouldn’t trust any of Jake’s words.
“And this—this spray is harmful to all of them?” Liz asked, trying to gain some composure. In front of him, Jake had the chemical composition of the spray, and the hybrids’ blood. They were still waiting for the final results on Liz’s blood tests. A little vial of blood was all he was going to ask from Max’s wife right this moment. He’d agreed on that with Dave.
For now, the only thing they knew for sure was that the spray was harmless to humans. Max, Michael and Isabel, on the other hand…
“It’s particularly toxic to Max, but it might have to do with the fact he spent months exposed to variants of it. What he went through was an extreme allergy reaction. The last batch, though, wouldn’t take much longer to affect Michael and Isabel on a toxic level.”
She nodded, her eyes still on the rose.
“We estimate it’ll take another three hours to wipe it out of the compound, a little bit longer from the lab where it was created. Once it’s a safe place for them, we’ll let them come in.”
“I don’t want him alone…” she whispered, a lone tear barely making a descent before she wiped it out. “Can I ask Maria to be there?”
“Of course,” he said simply. Staring at her for a minute, Jake finally managed to ask, “How is he?”
She frowned. No longer looking at the picture, her tired eyes looked at him in confusion.
“What does your connection tell you? How is he?” he repeated, anxious himself. He had all the hard data, but even with a couple of years of studying them, he was barely grasping the tip of the iceberg. Any information was welcome.
Her lips parted slightly. She had not been expecting this kind of question. Her eyes unfocused for a second, and then she sighed. “He’s deeply asleep. I can’t—I can’t really tell. When you drugged him… it felt as if he had died.”
This time, the tears did come freely, silently.
He tentatively hugged her, and when she didn’t resist, he pulled her to his shoulder. “It was my fault…” she whispered in a desolate voice, the picture in her hands crumbled inside her fists.
He told her that she was wrong, that there was no way she could have known, that anyone could have known, but all the time he felt she meant a far deeper meaning than just the roses.
6 : Max
6:37am
T minus 6 years, 5 months, 13 days, 9 hours, 23 minutes
He felt heavy. Even breathing seemed to weigh him down every time he filled his lungs. He didn’t want to move. Frankly, he didn’t want to be thinking about how heavy he felt. He was groggy, and confused, and…
“Hey…” someone said by his side.
“Liz?” he whispered, trying to open his eyes. She didn’t feel like Liz, but then again, he was far from feeling like himself either.
“She’s nearby,” she said in a low voice, getting closer to him. He tried harder to wake up and look at her. “Take it easy, girlfriend, you gave us one hell of a scare.”
Girlfriend. The only person in the world who called him that was…
“Maria?” he asked, finally able to focus. Wherever he was, was dark. She was barely a silhouette in a world of more silhouettes.
“Hey… How are you feeling?” she quietly asked, tentatively reaching for his hand, but stopping. Her question forced his mind to take inventory on what his body was feeling.
“Heavy…” he said, trying to smile, but not really managing. Either way, she was not going to see it.
“Hmm… Jake said you might feel funny when you woke up.” This time she did reach for his hand, and hold it with a feathery touch.
“What… what happened?” Now that the strangeness of the situation was sinking in, Max started to get scared.
“Remember when Michael got drunk and everything was really, really high?”
And I had to drag him to Liz’s room? He wanted to say, but his mind was stuck with Liz’s rose. Where was his rose?
“You got that, ten times worse,” she kept explaining. “Jake is keeping the lights out so they won’t bother your eyes and you don’t start exploding things.”
He remembered then. He gripped Maria’s hand as the intensity of knowing what it felt like to have his throat closing crashed into his memory.
“Max?” she asked with alarm. He made himself calm down and released her hand. He started to feel the IV on his right hand, and heard the distant hum of machines.
“Sorry…” he whispered. “Sorry…” he apologized again, trying to piece together how he had ended up here.
“It’s okay. We were all worried about you. Jake is actually sleeping on his couch right now, he couldn’t stay awake any longer. Dave is not much better, go figure.” There was amusement in her voice, but too many blanks in Max’s mind to fully appreciate it.
“I got… drunk?” he asked, centering on Maria’s explanation that he’d gotten ten times worse than Michael on New Year’s eve.
Maria chuckled. “I would have loved to see that,” she said, holding his hand. “They think you had an allergic reaction to some herbicide or something. You were in Jake’s office when it happened. Your senses overloaded and you exploded the lights of the entire lab, burned half the sheets on your bed, and scared the hell out of us. Greg sedated you before you brought the entire thing down.”
“Greg?” Him Max didn’t remember. Although he remembered little after his clothing started to ignite his skin to the point Max thought he was going to spontaneously combust.
“A guy who is helping Jake taking care of you. If he asks, you’re psychic.” That was easy to remember. They were psychics for everyone but Jake. He’d always viewed saying that as an incomplete truth. They were psychics. It just happened that they were also half-aliens.
“Can I get you some water?” Maria asked, and Max nodded. Since she didn’t move, he remembered that she probably had as poor a view of him as he had of her. “That would be great.”
She stood and slowly reached for something on his side. She was probably lightly touching the objects on the table in order to get him the water. In that moment, Max was deeply grateful for Maria’s friendship.
Somewhere close by, Liz’s joy filled him so strongly he caught his breath. It was almost as having her tackling him to the bed in a fierce hug. He wanted nothing more in the world than to get out of here and hug her for real.
That reminded him of her roses.
Which in turn reminded him of Paris.
“Why aren’t you in France?” Max asked as she was pressing some button and the bed started to rise to get him into a sitting position.
“Why would we be?” she asked, placing the cup on his left hand. “Liz thought you were dying. You think a little inconvenient thing like the Atlantic Ocean was going to stop her? We just came along for the ride. Can’t have my favorite girlfriend dying across the world.” She was trying to make light of it, but Max heard the anxiousness behind the words. He didn’t drink the water.
“Why isn’t she here, then?” he slowly asked. He wasn’t offended she was not by his side, but if she wasn’t, it meant some major force had managed to get her out of his room. If the Atlantic Ocean was not enough to keep her away, what was? “Maria, how long have I been here?”
“About three days, a little less I think…” she answered, completely skipping his first question. “I’ll get you Jake. He wanted to know when you were awake.” Her evasion tied knots in his stomach. Nearby, a cell phone rang, and Maria left his side with a quick squeeze on his hand.
Alone in the bed, his eyes adapted better to the poor light. He still was at Jake’s lab, on a hospital bed. Holding the cup of water on his left hand, he started to slowly sip the slightly sweet water. With his right hand, he felt the circular electrodes on his chest. He noticed by then that he wasn’t wearing any clothes under the sheet, and that embarrassed him momentarily. You burned half the sheets on your bed, Maria’s words echoed in his mind. He had done it as an outlet to the maddening sensation that he was himself on fire, he vaguely remembered that. He clearly saw himself taking his jacket off. If he hadn’t been able to stand the touch of fabric, that would explain his lack of clothing, and he was immensely grateful he didn’t have the need to strip in front of Maria right now. It reminded him of what she’d told him years ago, Girlfriend. Like, I know that we bonded over the summer, but I'm not quite ready to show you the bod just yet. Indeed.
His right index finger throbbed, but besides that, he was feeling okay. Tired, groggy, and still plenty confused, but okay. He tried to concentrate on that so Liz would get a better reading on her side of the connection. Having her back from her trip was a relief in itself, but not knowing why she wasn’t coming in had him nervous. The bad kind of nervous. At least the rose was finally a success. The one he’d been carrying was probably dried and dead by now, but there were plenty more where that came from.
Unless…
“Welcome to the land of the waking,” Jake said, barely above a whisper.
“It’s okay… I’m not… overloading any more.”
Jake stopped. “Are you sure?” he still said in a low tone.
“Positive. I’m not whispering right now,” he said to prove his point. Turning around, Jake walked to the wall.
“Close your eyes while I adjust the light.” Max complied, and the lights came on, strong enough to make Max see pink through his eyelids. Then they faded.
“There, that’s much better,” Jake said, signaling Max could open his eyes again. He did, and everything looked bluish, the light more soothing than harsh. Jake let go a deep breath when Max didn’t started exploding things. But Max did stop breathing. Jake’s face had a dozen little cuts on the left side of his face.
“What… what happened to you?” he asked, deducing an instant later he’d somehow caused that.
“Nothing a few days of care won’t be able to erase. Maria told me you’re your usual self, but humor me with the basic tests,” Jake said with a smile, wiping away Max’s question. Max didn’t let it go.
“What happened?” he commanded rather than asked, Zan’s impatience igniting Max’s already guilty conscience. Jake looked at Max with both curiosity and astonishment.
“It’s quite interesting to see it happening,” he murmured as he came closer, taking Max’s wrist. They had been talking about Max recovering Zan’s memories for a few months now, and Jake had not missed the change. Max inwardly cringed. He had to get a hold of it or Liz would notice it, too.
“Do you remember exploding the lights?” Jake asked, his attention on Max’s pulse.
“Yes. Vaguely, but I do.” Jake nodded, and took his penlight from his pocket. Besides the cuts, Jake’s eyes had dark circles under them, and he wasn’t wearing a lab coat. He usually was when he was in doctor mode.
“I covered you as the debris rained on us. That’s how I got the cuts,” he simply explained, moving the light to Max’s eyes. It stung for a moment. “I’m sorry, I should have listened to you when you asked me to turn them off,” Jake apologized as he moved the pen to the side, waiting for Max to follow. He didn’t.
“I’m sorry,” Max said, “You got cut trying to protect me from something I did.”
“Follow the light,” Jake sternly said, and Max did it with no little amount of annoyance. “Let’s call it even, then.” Jake turned the light off, put it on his pocket, and grabbed a stethoscope that was lying on the bedside table, along with the water. As Jake reached for Max’s chest, Max held his hand high.
“Let me fix them,” he whispered, looking at the longest gash by Jake’s ear. “It’ll make me feel better,” he added with a small smile. Jake hesitated for a moment. Then nodded.
“The minute you feel something off,” Jake admonished as Max placed his hand above his cheek to avoid the silver handprint, “you stop.”
Max smiled. The cuts were all superficial, but he did feel better healing them. It took Jake longer to warn him than for Max to heal him.
“Okay,” Max said, taking his hand away. It took Jake a few seconds to realize it was over that fast.
“Amazing…” Jake whispered, his eyes shining as he placed his hand on his face. It was the first time Max had ever healed in front of Jake—let alone Jake himself—and Max sincerely hoped it was going to be the last.
“Where’s Liz?” Max asked, as much to change the subject as because he wanted to know. Liz’s joyfulness was now full of wariness. Jake’s eyes followed a strikingly similar path. He, just like Maria, didn’t want to answer that question. Except Jake had nowhere to run.
“She’s not allowed in here right now…” Jake said as he sat on the bed. Max didn’t notice. All he knew was that Liz was singled out. And there was only one reason for that. “Michael and Isabel too. We think we found what triggered this reaction in you. We are clearing it off the compound, but I want to make sure it’s just you and neither of them. It’s a long shot that it would affect Liz, but better thorough than going through what you went through, right?”
Jake placed a comforting hand on Max’s shoulder. Max stared at him, his heart beating too fast.
“Max, it’s okay. They’re okay. You’re okay.” Jake’s hand tightened to make a point.
“Did Dave…?” he didn’t even know how to ask that.
“He arranged something with Liz. You can talk to all of them over the phone once we’re finished here. Now, I’ll run a physical examination so I can finally sleep well tonight, hmm?”
Jake went on, and Max tried to be a nice patient and endure Jake’s inquiries and exploring hands. He’d been unconscious for the better part of three days while his body had been fighting to regain control over the overload that was assaulting his senses. All this Jake explained to him in detail, but the only thing Max’s mind was centered on was Liz. And Dave.
He knows. Oh God, he knows.
T minus 6 years, 5 months, 13 days, 9 hours, 3 minutes.
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The story certainly took a life of its own the more I realized I wanted to explore their thoughts. Book 1 was all about settling the past. Book 2 is about bridging their past, present and their future. Book 3 is about the conflicts they have to resolve in order to get their happily ever after, and that's assuming they actually can get a happy ending, or what would be the price for it, as you pointed out.
