Roswell Fanatics

Hours later, Maria woke up beside her boyfriend, and smiled as she looked at the time and knew she had to get up, so she could drive to her first class at Las Cruces. She was only taking a few classes this semester because they didn't have the money for full tuition, and so she was still working at the Crashdown while she did her studies. She hoped to have amassed enough to go full time for the fall semester.

Michael was still sleeping when she grabbed her robe and got out of the bed and tying it up as she went into the bathroom and then out into the kitchen to grab something for breakfast before she finished getting ready for her drive to the university. Pouring some coffee, her brain clearing after the cram session for her mid-term she had done after she finished her shift, and then spent time with her boyfriend.

As her eyes cleared, she viewed the couch and saw that it was empty, and alarm filled her as she expected to see her best friend passed out after one of her sessions at the bar, which she was most nights. She knew Jeff and Nancy had given up and told Liz not to come home if she laid one on, and so most nights lately Liz had been an unofficial roommate. A roommate who usually was passed out on couch and who then went straight to the bar when it opened.

"Michael," Maria yelled.

"What!" Michael asked as he staggered out of the bedroom as he had his own shift to get ready for while Maria commuted to school on this day.

"Where is Liz?" Maria asked frantically.

"Who knows," Michael asked as he was little fed up with his friend. He knew why Maria worried about Liz. They all were worried about Liz and the downhill spiral that Liz had been under since she came home from Vermont having lost Max.

The gang knew the true story about Max's demise. How he died in Roswell after some mad men forced him to help bring back the glory health of Clayton Wheeler and his wife Maris had engineered some serious criminal activity to get Max to help, and it led this death or, so they thought as he helped save Jim Valenti. Wheeler woke up in best health of his life, but with Max memories.

Max forced himself to take over but not before the wife Maris tried to get her now younger husband to kill Liz. Max fought to break through and tried to save the day, and he did by sacrificing his attempt at a new life by saving Liz from dying. She tried to be Juliet and will her Romeo back to life, and it hadn't worked, and the spiral began even before she got the final word on whether he would live. When he at first was believed to be dead, the first time, Liz went hardcore bad girl and started drinking and had nights of immoral behavior or enough in the constraint of a girls boarding school would allow to the point that it unnerved Maria and then of course when she lost Max again after so briefly getting him back when he sacrificed his life to save hers.

She went down the rabbit hole, and never came back to them.

"Maybe she's in a jail cell drying out?" Michael asked only partially hoping he was wrong because he knew that is what Liz was destined for if she wasn’t careful.

"Michael, really?" Maria glared.

"Seriously Maria, she needs help. And until she does get that help, we aren't helping by enabling her."

"I agree that she needs help, but her parents have lost faith in her and she's lost Max Michael, and that is a big loss, so I am not about to abandon her. She wouldn't if it was me who was reeling through losing you."

"I know," Michael said because it was the truth and he knew it. As much as he was gruff about life and love but heck, he knew he would be goner if he lost Maria and knew if there was vice versa then were no saving Max if he lost Liz to death.

"If I lost you to forever, and you couldn't come back well, I don't know if I wouldn't be the same as Liz. This isn't the Liz we all knew, but she also would have been dead twice over if not for Max's heroics and that eats at her. She feels that it's unfair that we had to lose Max, and yet she lives to feel the pain that cuts deep over losing him."

"I know," Michael said quietly as he went to the phone and handed it to his girlfriend. "Call Jim, and see if he knows anything?"

"Thank you," Maria smiled as she did a quick kiss on Michael's lips and grabbed the phone and started dial the Sheriff's department because she knew what a blowout of a fight her friend had had had at home, so Liz wouldn't be have gone home so she had to look elsewhere. "Can I speak to...um, Deputy Valenti" Maria asked as she was aware that Jim wasn't yet Sheriff. "I will wait, thank you."

Michael didn't want to hear the same old story, so he went into his bedroom to get ready for work.

"Hi Jim, do you know where Liz is? She didn't come here last night to sleep," Maria asked.

"Yes, I am aware that she could have had a sober night and gone somewhere else but there was something about how I saw her the other night, and it was Max's birthday yesterday which makes her actions more dangerous and any option of a night of sobriety not in the realm of possibility so I have this feeling she was headed to the bar last night. So, was she picked up? Is she there with you, sleeping it off?... No… well, that's a relief." she sighed she was told they hadn't arrested Liz for intoxication. "Can you please check into it for me. I need to get ready and head to school. Phone me if I have to do something about it."

Maria hung up and went to get dressed as she could only sigh as she looked at the calendar hanging up while she was talking to Jim and saw that yesterday had been Max's birthday and therefore, she knew her friend would have gone looking for trouble, and likely found it.




While at the same time Liz was passed out in a motel room across town, as the sexy bartender who called himself 'Rob Roy' woke up and found his partner sound asleep, as he shook his head and got out of bed, "I am so sorry Liz" he said as he stared at the passed-out girl who was sound asleep. He all along knew the identity of his 'Shirley Temple', and in the light of day with the sun billowing in from outside, he saw the ramifications of what they had done or what he allowed to have happened in the hours that passed their encounter at the bar. Sighing as he whispered his apologies, while leaning down to kiss her on her forehead, and then bended down and pulled on his clothes, and vanished from the room.
Leaving Liz to sleep it off.




At the same time, memories invaded Liz's mind as she slept, and they were memories of kisses... memories of touches that boarded on erotic... memories of unbelievable passion and heights of being pushed and coming together in a combination of unique chemistry and unmatchable passion and the blissful tenderness.... as her eyes opened at the pounding of the door, and she didn't know if it wasn't also the pounding of her head as she was coming up from under a massive hangover. "Oh god," she whispered as her brain registered where she was and then tears came to her eyes as recognition of the memories that plagued her, as she heard the pounding again and this time it filled the room and she knew it was the door and yet she didn't crawl out of bed because she knew she was naked, and because the memories that filled her head weren't of her love for Max.

But of the night before, the hours before she finally passed out.

Of another man who was not Max.

Max was dead. She was alive, and she had been with someone else, who was not Max.

She cried and wondered if she had finally hit her rock bottom.

The pounding continued on the door as Maria stood behind it and almost wished she could walk away and let her best friend sink or swim on her own. But she knew she had to do this because it was Liz. She couldn't lose someone else she loved. Not after how they lost Alex. Or even Max. To let Liz sink would be too much, and she couldn't do it. She knew her friend was running out of chances and very few people were willing to give her sympathy at this point because they didn’t know why Liz was drowning.

Michael had gone the other direction after losing Max and after watching Isabel relocate to Boston to save her failing marriage. Instead of being a companion to Liz's self-destruction, he had decided to commit to Maria and they had moved into his apartment after graduation. And she had the feeling they were moving towards a more permanent commitment any day now.

Yet here she was trying to save her friend from herself when she should be on the road to Las Cruces, so she could focus on her future. Pounding again, she discovered the door was unlocked and so she elected to open it and enter the motel room, unprepared to find what she did...

"Liz?" Maria asked as she entered the room and had to step around the bottles, and the clothing and she saw that one figure was passed out on the bed, and her eyes were closed. "Liz?" she saw... "Oh god Liz, what did you do?"

"Max's dead, isn't he?" a small voice asked, quietly as she broke the silence in the room as eyes opened and tears were evident on her face.

"Yes, he is petunia," Maria said carefully.

Liz burst down crying, as hysterics filled her for the first time in a long time. She couldn’t stop herself, and she didn’t know if she could even try at this point as it all came pouring out.

"What did you do?" Maria asked even though she had a pretty good guess at just what Liz had done by the fact her friend was in bed, naked, and looking liked she tied one on last night and wasn't showing it that morning.

"I got drunk," Liz admitted. "I mean very drunk."

"Naturally," Maria asked. “That is all you seem to do these days."

"Maria," Liz said as she didn't want to hear on the nose snark about her conduct over the last year.

"Sorry," Maria sighed as she stood know as she knew to cool down her disapproval. "What else did you do?"

"I slept with someone that wasn't Max," Liz said as she burst down crying again, as Maria sat down on the bed, and hugged her friend as she was covered in the sheets. "What am I going to do?"

"Learn to live without the love of your life?" Maria sighed as she gave her shirt and bra to put on, and she looked around the room and saw the disarray in the room. "How did you end up here?"

"He was the bartender from Cow Patties," Liz admitted as brief flashes ran through of her mind of the night before...

"Jeez really Liz," Maria asked hurting for her friend as Liz got dressed, and then pulled on her pants. "Who is he?"

"Someone new," Liz said. "I hadn't seen him before last night."

"What's his name?" Maria asked as Liz got off the bed and walked into the bathroom and only shook her head when she looked in the mirror and saw the pale and hungover face stare right back.

"He said, Rob" Liz said from the bathroom. "Rob Roy"

"Excuse me!" Maria asked as the name brought her back to their one night in Vegas two years before, the one night of happiness for Max and Liz before it was back to their dysfunctional relationship that had never really had a chance of happiness when Max got taken from them.

"But then I don't know if that is his real name since I lied about who I was too."

"Who did you say you were?" Maria asked.

"Shirley Temple," Liz remembered as her fuzzy memory cleared. I didn't have anywhere to go, and he offered to drive me, and we came here, and you know, well, you know happened."

"I gathered," Maria sighed. "Shirley Temple Liz really?"

"I couldn't help myself," Liz sighed. "I didn't want to have to go into the whole story of who I was, and why I was there drowning my sorrows. I already said too much, and since he was new, well, he didn't know me."

"You could have come to my place, you know” Maria murmured. “I expected to see you this morning and I got nervous when I didn't see you asleep on the couch."

"I didn't want lecture," Liz admitted as she thought of the almost daily routine, she went through most mornings. "From either you or Michael."

"We just want you happy Liz, and we fear you're far from being happy and that hurts us, and it would hurt Max to know you're so unhappy."

"Max is gone," Liz said quietly.

"Yes, he is," Maria nodded as she weeded through the crap in the room and found her friend's purse. "He would want you to be kicking butt with your future and not to be stuck on not having him."

"I miss him," Liz admitted. "It's so unfair. He saved my life twice, and I lost him."

"He saved your life so that you can lead it. Not so you can destroy it out of some need to be with him," Maria reasoned.

"I know you're right," Liz admitted.

"Let's go," Maria asked, and she and Liz walked to the door, and left the motel room behind and she had hope that maybe her friend had finally hit her rock bottom and maybe it would be the start of a new beginning.

And it was... for about three months at least...




Meanwhile, the two men were arguing again in lands unknown…

“Are you goddamn stupid. I gave you twenty-four hours to get her under control, and push her into a new life, not to add to the pain.”

“I didn’t look for it to happen,” the other man protested. “I tried my best to convince her to turn a new leaf, but it failed and there was only so much she was going in listening to someone who looked like a stranger which is exactly why she was talking to me in the first place. One thing led to another, and I hate it, but I am not going to feel sorry for it because it’s something I did want.”

“Well you didn’t try hard enough Einstein as you had twenty-four hours before I turned her over to the police to stop her… Now you have given her more of a burden, and in ways you may not even know yet. We made a deal remember and trying to get her under control was part of that deal you made, and you are to live by it otherwise there will be no more second chances, and we have the means to make sure you don’t get another shot”

“Please cut that crap you’re spewing because I think I realize I made a deal and I will of course honor it, and I have so far to the detrimental of my own life, so I may not like it, but I do know what I could stand to lose here. I miss her and unfortunately for my ego; she likely won’t remember me or really sense the truth since she didn’t recognize me otherwise you would be trying to clean up an even bigger mess today. So, how could I stop myself when she’s screwing up her life? Yes, I took it further than I should have but I am not going to be sorry for it because for one night it allowed me to be of some help for her. Plus, I would like to remind you that you promised me you would look after her, and well you lied. So, don’t get mad at me for not living up to the letter of our deal when you barely have done anything to help your side of our agreement. So, screw it because Liz matters a whole more than any agreement or my safety” he ranted as he vanished…

“You just have to deal with this a little while longer,” the other man murmured into thin air in case the air had ears as he reached for the phone.

OH MY GOD is Rob Roy Max? It seems like he is Max. What the hell is the deal they made? Who is the man calling? Come back with more soon?

From:
L-J-L 76

Liz is really digging a hole for herself. Who are these people fighting about Liz?

Did Rob and Shirley use protection? Maybe a baby would give Liz a purpose for her life. Who has Rob/Max? Why does he have to stay from his life.

I hate seeing Liz so deep down that rabbit hole.....
And what does Rob Roy have to deal with just a little bit longer????
Great mystery here.

Three months later,

Liz woke up in the bed above the Crashdown as she had been home for a month after spending a month drying out in a rehab in Las Cruces, and then another month with Maria and Michael residing on their couch which only brought memories of Max because of his year living with Michael and sleeping on the same couch even though Maria now residing with Michael had allowed for more feminine touches for the apartment, and because of the combined salaries, they were able to paint and make it more homey and yet Liz still felt like she needed to go home to try and move on.

Jeff and Nancy weren't sure whether to believe that their daughter had turned the corner, but they still loved their daughter and allowed her to come home once she walked through the door and told her parents that she was sorry. So, she slept in her old bedroom and started to believe that she could move on from Max. And learn to live a normal life, despite the oddities of her life. And the fact she wasn't normal and couldn't be normal anymore. Not since that day she was shot, and almost died in this very establishment, downstairs.

She still had her acceptance at Northwestern for that September and she had been planning on attending the university as a way of getting out of Roswell, so she had a chance of recovery, and moving on from her memories of Max and then a week before, that all changed, and she was on the cliff and ready to spiral again and she had to figure out how to stop herself as her newly fought sobriety tried to hold strong as she started to feel faint, and queasy and so she went to the doctor and instead of being told she had the flu or some consequence of all her hard living with her liver or other organs... She instead was told she was pregnant, which had shocked her and she very nearly relapsed.

Only Maria kept her from straying from her sobriety as she was immediately scheduled for an exam, because she had confessed to her doctor that she had a year of heavy drinking before going to rehab three months before to stop and how she had tried to say sober ever since with a few slips.

She had brought Maria to her appointment because she had yet to be honest with her parents. And she worried for the safety of her baby due to the abuse she had put her system through for the past year, and then the abuse her body went through in getting clean.

"It seems Ms. Parker that you're at least six months along, which puts delivery sometime in the middle of September" the doctor was telling Liz and yet didn't notice how pale Liz went at the news as she sat on the table of the exam room. "It looks like you got the dates wrong."

"That's impossible," Liz said out loud. "Simply impossible" she repeated.

"The baby?" Maria asked as she knew her friend was in a daze.

"She looks healthy," the doctor smiled. "We might want to a more extensive set of tests and amio to make sure since you were heavily drinking during this period but right now, nothing stands out except that you would be further along than you calculated."

"It's a girl," Liz asked through her haze.

"Yes, congratulations" the doctor said as printed off picture of the sonogram and handed it to her patient. "I want you to schedule your next appointment with my secretary, and I'll let you change" she said as she got up and left the room, which only left Liz and Maria in the room and moments later, tears came her face as Liz stared down at the picture she was holding in her hand, and then she burst out crying.

"It's going to be alright Liz," Maria sighed as she took Liz's hand and they hugged. "You will be an amazing mom if you choose to keep the baby."

"Maria...." Liz asked. "This can't be true, I can't possibly pregnant."

"You are, we saw the sonogram," Maria said. "So, six months?"

"Maria, no..." Liz through her haze as Maria helped her off the table, and passed her clothes to change back into... "That is impossible, and I mean it."

"Are you sure?" Maria asked.

"Maria, I was a virgin until three months ago... you know... the motel"

"Are you sure?" Maria said as she sighed because as much as she wanted to believe her friend, she also knew her friend's tough year and many wild things she was purported to have done during her nights of drinking. "How can you be sure Liz, because as much as I love you and believe you, well, there were nights where you didn't stay with us and you were nowhere to found. How could you be sure?"

"I know Maria how it looked all those months, and the hours I was putting at that bar and how I was even flirting with a handful of guys, but none really turned my head until that night, and even then, I was pretty drunk and wasn't looking at the situation how I should have, and I paid for it. But Maria, I know how it feels not to be a virgin, and I wasn't one three months ago. I was for the prior 19 years Maria, but not after that night, three months ago. As much as I should have slept with Max, I didn't, and I will always regret it. So, I would have known when I finally gave it up. Even when you take my drinking habit into consideration."

"I am sorry," Maria sighed as some disturbing ideas came to mind. "What are you trying to say?"

"How can I be six months when I lost my virginity three months ago?" Liz asked as she stared to snap up the buttons of her jacket and took her purse from Maria, and walked out of the room, and stopped by the secretary where she made another appointment for the following week, and she thanked the receptionist and they left the office where her life had changed forever.

"How are you doing?" Maria asked they got into her car. When she left home to move in with Michael. Her mother gave her the family car, and she had gotten a new one and because the family car held so many good memories for her and Michael, she chose to make it work as it had its charm.

"I don't get it," Liz muttered as she could only stare out of the window as they drove. "I was this close to getting out of this town."

"You can still go Liz," Maria encouraged. “You can start over, away from here…”

"Not if the baby is due in September. Maria, I wanted out of here, I wanted to be away from the memories, and this happened. So, what I don't get, is how?"

"Is it possible you forgot?" Maria asked as felt for her friend because when she hit her rock bottom it did seem like Liz wanted to leave and get out of this town once she was on her feet, and now this had to happen to slow her down. "There were many nights you were flat out drunk?"

"Are you calling me a slut?" Liz asked hurt that her best friend wouldn't believe her in her declaration that she had been a virgin until three months before...

"God No," Maria said. "I am like you, I am just trying to figure out how the baby could be further along?" as she drove.

"I know I have given you enough pause with my conduct and I am sorry about that, but I do know until three months ago, I never went there with a guy once Max died. Most nights I admit I was flat out drunk. So flat out drunk, I couldn’t possibility of done anything like that with any guy, even Max if he were alive. But, three months ago, I wasn't... for some reason, I was still partially sober or coherent enough to look for trouble and obviously I found it."

"Then how?" Maria asked pulled into the parking lot across the street from the Crashdown.

Liz was quiet as her brain worked to sort out all the confusing emotions, and Maria had to look over to see her friend was still awake. She was, but only thinking and then she sighed and wondered. "The only time I remember anything like this is when Tess was pregnant."

"Excuse me" Maria asked as she turned to face her friend.

"You know how they had to get off Earth so quickly. It's because Tess was pregnant, and she was going to deliver much sooner than would be possible if she had stayed here in Roswell."

"I remember that Tess also lied and was a killer," Maria muttered as she flashed back to that time, and how it had started a turning point in her and Michael's relationship and how against the odds, it marked one for Max and Liz despite how short-lived it proved to be.

"But she was pregnant, and the baby wasn’t fake, and the pregnancy was discovered early... and yet the only difference would be, and it’s pretty significant in that I am human. And Tess was you know what, and she was with another alien."

"Liz, you've also changed... so it might because of you."

"No Maria, my brain chemistry might be different, and I am more gifted than I was a few years ago, but I am still, well, me... Max and Tess were always different and as annoying it was, that was a part of the attraction for Max and why he would have gone there with Tess despite being in love with me."

"What are you trying to say?" Maria asked confused as they stopped in front of the cafe and talked.

"The only way for me to be this way is if I was with you know, alien. If I was with another human, then wouldn't I be having a normal human pregnancy?" Liz whispered as they stopped talking when she realized where they were and knew she didn't want to consider the implications of her fears over the biological father of her unborn baby.

They walked into the cafe and sat down at a booth as she continued to think about her newfound situation. “Look I know I am talking crazy Maria and that it doesn’t make any sense for me, and I am trying to come to terms with it,” she muttered.

“You will make it, no matter what happens” Maria smiled. “But know, we are all here for you, and you will figure it out.”

She was still trying to figure it out a week later as Liz awoke in her bed and she was forced to figure out what she was going to do. As today was the big appointment, and she would know one way another how damaged she was...

Getting out of bed, she got dressed, and looked in the mirror and really looked at it and knew she had to move on and get on with the reality of living in the world without Max in it.




"What are you saying?" Michael asked as sat down at the table in their apartment to enjoy a breakfast as it was the first time in a week that they had seen each other as Michael had just gotten home after spending the last week in Boston moving Isabel back to Roswell after her marriage went up in flames. Isabel and Jesse mutually had decided it was over, and that they were too different and so she asked for Michael's help in moving her back home, and therefore she was staying with her parents until the apartment she rented was ready for her to move into.

"I am saying that something is odd, and I don't know how to explain it" Maria sighed as she treasured her chance to spend some time with Michael as the week apart was the longest that they had spent away from each other since they moved in together. She had spent too much time on her own, with her mother at her old homestead and with Liz and now she relished having her soulmate back.

"Isn't it possible she could be wrong?" Michael asked as he poured tabasco sauce on his eggs. "We know she went wild, and was known to blur the lines?"

"She was wild, but a girl knows." Maria sighed as she thought of her friend. "I think she would love to pin it on a moment where it wasn't so destructive as the depths she went to that night. She knows it had to be that night."

"Then who?" Michael asked.

"I have no idea," Maria sighed.

"I am the only male left of our group and I wouldn't have done that with Liz, and especially not with you in my life."

"I know where you were that night Michael," Maria reminded her boyfriend. "I am not accusing you and wouldn’t, because I would kill you if you were unfaithful to me," she warned. “I know you wouldn’t do anything with Liz, and especially not because of Max.”

"I know you weren’t," Michael said as he sighed over his fear of where this might lead. “I would never hurt you like that,” he muttered as she remembered back to high school and the mess he had gotten in with Courtney, and while he hadn’t done anything with her, still it had been a wakeup call to him that he stood to lose Maria and he did for a time before they finally made it work. "If not me, then whom?"

"Kyle has not changed," Maria sighed. "And he wouldn't do that with Liz, despite their history back in high school and especially not since we know he's still so smitten over Isabel."

"Max is dead. Therefore, there is no one else Maria."

"What about the Dupes," Maria asked of their uncanny replicas who were more hardcore than the Roswell gang ever could think of being. “Have we heard from Rath and gang?"

"Wasn't Liz friendly with Ava?" Michael asked. "I have had no contact with them. Zan was dead, so it was only Rath and Lonnie and they disappeared when everything went down in New York with the Summit."

"Right, and no way would Liz do anything with Rath as he grossed her out the first time," Maria sighed. "Kal Langley is too old."

"Nascedo is dead," Michael recounted as they batted around candidates of outer worldly fathers-to be.

"Then who is the father of Liz's baby?" Maria asked as a headache was forming, as she knew she had to get ready for her shift, and yet she worried for Liz because today was the big day and she knew her friend didn’t have it in her to go solo... so she hoped she had the courage to go to her parents for moral support. "Some guy who called himself 'Rob Roy'?"

"Why would he take that name?" Michael asked sensitive to any illusion or memory of his deceased best friend as it amazed him to this day that he could still be dealing with life, without his best friend in it. "That name belonged to Max."

"She used 'Shirley Temple'," Maria sighed. "It's almost like she was living in that night what we had in Vegas. And yet it wasn't Max she was attracting..."

"It's funky if you ask me," Michael admitted.

"Yet he's the baby's father, and who is he?" Maria asked. "And why is Liz further along than she should be as Liz says it reminds of that one other time with Tess."

"Tess was alien hybrid. Liz is human, with some gifts" Michael admitted.

"Then who is this 'Rob Roy'? Maria growled as she hated the idiot already, for the position he put her friend in, and to sabotage her ability to move on. "I better get going, as I think I'll stop by Cow Patties on the way to work.”




"Mom and Dad, can I have a moment with you before you go downstairs to start work,” a chasten Liz asked as she came out of her bedroom. She still had a few hours before her doctor's appointment, and she needed to talk to her parents. While she had been at home a month, things were still a little tense between her and her parents as she knew that her parents didn't know whether to take her behavior as something real because there had been too many false chances where she seemed like she was getting better, and then she would slip badly. And coupled with the rebellious turn she took during senior year and how she came back from Vermont a different person she couldn't blame her parents for lacking sympathy when she seemed to want to go down the rabbit hole.

She also knew they needed answers, and she needed them. She couldn't do it alone anymore and she couldn’t only rely on her friends. She needed her parents. She needed help.

"Yes Liz," Nancy asked her daughter and she was alarmed at how pale her daughter was and thin. She knew Liz had been keeping away from them for the last week and she feared she had slipped and was drinking again. And seeing how withdrawn their daughter was that morning, it only added to Nancy’s fear. "Are you okay?"

"No, I am not," Liz admitted as she hated the suspicion in her parent’s eyes and knew she had put it there with her past conduct. "Before you ask, no I am not drinking. I simply couldn't sleep."

"What's wrong?" Jeff asked cautiously because he shared the same fear along his wife of what was going on with their only child.

"Liz, please tell us, are you okay?" Nancy asked as they zeroed in on their only child.

"Mom and Dad, I am sorry for how I have treated you both over the last year. I wish I didn’t have to stand here this morning and tell you this because I will always regret how much I hurt our relationship, when I could have used your help, but I hope that is in the past. Because I do love you, and I want to start over.”

“We love you too Liz,” Nancy said as she looked over at her husband who had fears playing out on his face. “You can tell us anything.”

“I know I can,” Liz sighed quietly. “I just wished I didn’t have to tell you this…”

“What do you have to tell us?” Jeff asked.

"Mom and Dad, I am pregnant." Liz admitted to the shock of Jeff and Nancy whose jaws dropped.

"Excuse me, what" Nancy asked as her husband remained silent, eerily silent which scared Liz. "You can't be serious?"

"I wish I could joke about this," Liz admitted as she felt numb as she tried to make sense of it on her own as she was saying the words to her parents. "I didn't know I was until a week ago, and I have spent the last week trying to come to terms with it."

"How long?" Nancy asked as she took a good look at her daughter. Liz was still too skinny after months of drinking and barely eating, and so an idea a baby was involved, it seemed at odds with the how their daughter looked

"6 months," Liz admitted. "And before either of you ask, I truly didn't know. I was drinking heavily until three months ago, and I am sorry about it, but I was and then I was trying to recover, and as you both can see, I have lost weight not gained it. So, I didn't know..."

"Whose is it?" Jeff asked as he looked at his daughter in a new light, and Liz could sense it.

"I don't know," Liz admitted to the shock of both of her parents. "I wish I did, but I don't. I have no memory of anyone past three months ago when I realized I couldn't go on anymore, and I needed to get help. "I am sorry."

"And?" Nancy asked.

"It's a girl," Liz said quietly as she tried the grasp the reality of her situation. "I am sorry if I have disappointed you."

"What do you want from us?" Jeff asked, to the glare of his wife.

"I want nothing but support Dad," Liz said quietly. "I am not asking for money, or anything. I am sorry about this, but it's happening and all I need is your support. And Mom, I was hoping you could come with me because I have a doctor's appointment because my doctor knows I was drinking heavily until three months ago... and she wants me to go under some additional tests to make sure that my baby is okay, and I need someone to come with me and Maria has a class and is working. "

"Of course, I will come sweetheart," Nancy smiled. "So, you know that it's a girl?"

"Yes," Liz confirmed.

"Is it Max, Liz," Jeff said as he looked at his daughter, and really looked at her and wondered how he and his miss the clues given that their daughter had been wearing oversized tops for weeks now. "Is that why you won't tell us who it is," he asked. "Since you know we disapprove."

Tears glistened her eyes as she looked at her parents and prayed, she could stay calm and deal with telling her parents the news. Any memories of Max even all these months later still brought instant tears and even a year later, she wasn't ready to come to terms yet, so she focused on her father and tried to will herself to say the dreaded words. “Please Dad when I tell you how I wish it could be Max. But it's not, how I wish it was but it's not. Max is not the father."

"Liz," Jeff asked as if he didn’t trust the words coming from his daughter.

"Dad, how would I love to name him as the father and to tell you that he was indeed the father, but I can't” Liz cried as tears came down her face, causing Nancy to come and sit by her daughter as both her parents could see visible pain on their daughter's face. "Believe me."

"You're in so much pain Lizzie," Jeff crumbled at the emotion on his daughter's face. "Because of him!"

"Dad," Liz cried as she knew it was time for the truth, not only for her own sake but for her parent's sake. The time had come. “It is not because of Max that I have screwed up my life this past year or why I am in pain. I am in pain simply because Max didn't leave me like I told you that he did last year. I am in pain because Max is dead!"

"What!" both Jeff and Nancy asked as their jaws dropped as the room descended into silence, and Liz burst down in tears.

"Mom and Dad, he's dead!" Liz cried with a degree of honestly, she hadn't been able to come to terms with in over a year as tears came down her face as memories of the love of her life flashed through her brain. "Meaning he's not coming back, and I am facing my life alone… without him in it."

So Liz is pregnant. That has to really throw her. But I think it will be a bigger surprise when she finds out that "Rob Roy" is really Max and he is alive so to speak.

Everyone is trying to figure out who is the father of Liz's baby. So Liz is 6 months pregnant not 3. That is interesting. So glad Nancy is going with Liz to the doctor.
Now the Parkers know that Max is dead and they are in shock. Guess that is understandable.

From:
L-J-L 76

The mystery continues.
It appeared that Liz was back on the right track with rehab and acceptance into Northwestern.
Now 6 month pregnant........how can that be........has to be alien related.
I'm anxious to see what happens next!

It was his first day on the job as the newly appointed Sheriff, and Jim Valenti was sitting at his desk and admiring how this day was long and coming and he was going to relish it as Hanson had departed the day before to take a position in California after his wife had been offered a job at a university there... and therefore, Jim was offered his old job, and he took it and now it was official, and he couldn't wait to get going, but he didn't expect when the door open and saw Maria walk in. "Hey!"

"Congratulations on your first day,” Maria smiled as she saw Jim sitting proudly in the chair that was made for him, and the chair that was his destiny.

“Thank you. It’s weird but rewarding. Your mother has said you’ve been very busy yourself” Jim asked as he glanced at his girlfriend’s daughter. He and Amy were finally making a go of a relationship, and they have been very happy so far and he prayed it stuck this time because he did truly love Amy Deluca, and he knew he was privilege to have her, and Maria join his family with Kyle. Although he knew his return to the job could test things but also knew life was simpler and yet less fulfilling when he was Deputy, and this was his calling, but he didn’t want to lose Amy because of his job.

“It’s been one thing after another,” Maria smiled as she thought of how life had been since she moved in with Michael post-graduation. “Thankfully Michael is back to help me,” Maria sighed.

“How did Isabel’s move back go?” Jim asked.

“Smooth I am told. I haven’t seen her yet, but Michael indicates that she knows it’s the right move for her even though the memories of returning to Roswell have been overwhelming for her to deal with…” Maria admitted.

“For all of us,” Jim admitted. “We all miss him. How is Liz doing?”

“Unfortunately, she’s the reason I am here…”

“What is it now?” Jim asked warily. “She hasn’t relapsed, right?” he sighed as he thought of how hard it had been to see Liz so destroyed, and the hopefulness of the last three months as she worked to clean her life up. He hoped it stuck.

“I am sorry about this Jim, as I know you would want to ease into the job again, and this is probably too simple anyways for you, but I need your help to run down someone and see who he is, and if he’s on the up and up.”

"Who?” Jim asked.

Maria sighed, and seethed inside at the fear that her friend had been taken advantage of when she was down and out and in the worst of all conditions, and unable to stop herself. “It’s someone who worked as a bartender at Cow Patties about three months ago because I went by the bar and they said he stopped after only that one night.”

“Why do you need to find him?” Jim asked as she took out a pad of paper and started to take notes and jotted down the name of his old haunt.

“For Liz,” Maria said honestly.

“Why?” Jim asked, and he envision the drowning and troubled ex-girlfriend of his son. It truly hurt both Kyle and him to see how much Liz was impacted by losing Max as it was a love story for the ages, that while it had so much angst… it had tremendous love, and it was obvious Liz wasn’t to be able to move past it anytime soon even if she cleaned her life up. Max had been her true love, and everyone in town could see it. Which made it even more painful to witness to see the pain in the previously sunny girl.

“It’s a long story and it’s her story to tell when she feels up to it but in the meantime, we need to find him” Maria admitted. “I was hoping you could help out and I know it’s a meaningless job, so you can give it to a Deputy, but I need to know whether this guy can be found and is on the up and up, for Liz’s sake.”

"Give me a name and I check on it," Jim offered. “So far today it’s been on the slow side, so it will be something to deal with in the meantime.

"It might be an alias," Maria warned. "Liz lied about her name also... as it was one of those kind of nights"

"What is it?" Jim asked as he picked up his pad and wrote the information he would get from Maria.

"Rob Roy," Maria smiled and smirked when she got back the frown on Jim’s face. "Yes, I know, Liz gave 'Shirley Temple'!"

"You have got to be kidding. Weren't those the names you and your friends gave each other in Vegas?" Jim asked of the one-night trip the gang had gifted themselves. He had found out they had skipped school and the state and gone off to bring them home. "Kyle tells me you guys picked some crazy names."

"You can blame Michael on that one," Maria smiled as she flashed back to their eventful night in Vegas. “I don’t know what he was thinking either, but yeah, 'Rob Roy' was the one Max took on, and Shirley was Liz's."

"So, what does this ‘Rob Roy’ look like?" Jim asked.

"I haven't got a clue, and I am not sure Liz even knows." Maria said honestly. "He was seen only once, on the night of March 15."

"Wasn't that Max's birthday?" Jim asked suspiciously as he focused on Maria.

"It was a reason why Liz was so out of sorts that night," Maria admitted. "Like she really needed an excuse, but that night did seem be her rock bottom to be honest with you but yes it was Max's birthday and I didn't realize it until the next day."

"He only worked at Cow Patties that one night?" Jim asked.

"So, they say," Maria snarled.

"I'll let you know," Jim smiled as he waved Maria off as she had to get to the Crashdown to start her shift.




With memories flooding her mind as she remembered back to the night in which Max died for real this time, and before her very eyes. All because he wanted to save her and atone for what he had done in the past, so he sacrificed his chance of a new beginning with Liz, and she had to watch him die, and she looked out the window of their apartment over the Crashdown as she turned and faced her parents after his admission, which had blown away the room."

"He's gone," Liz was saying as she wiped the tears away from her eyes. "So, Dad how I wished he were the father of my unborn baby, but he isn't because he's been dead a year. He died because he saved my life and sacrificed his life for mine."

"My god Liz, why didn't you tell us?" Nancy asked as she stared at her daughter, and then her husband who was speechless. "Why did you take this all on yourself."

"Because I have had to learn to live my life without him in it or that I should be dead, twice over but I am not because of him. I couldn't accept it, and I still can't... but I need to because Max wouldn't want me to fall apart any more than I have because of him and he would be disappointed in me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Mom and Dad, there is a lot you don't know about Max. About Max and me, and I am sorry about that..."

"Liz," Jeff asked.

"We both made mistakes when we were together. We were young and in love, and that was going to bring a lot of choices that would regret or would do differently together and I will always hate that Max never got a chance to have a do-over."

"I know this is hard for you sweetheart," Nancy asked.

"It is Mom, and I am sorry about all I have done to hurt you and Dad over the last year."

"We always want the best for you sweetheart," Nancy said. "We want you happy, and you have been so sad and upset and now we know why."

"Why honey did you make it seem that he ran off," Jeff asked.

"Because I almost wanted to believe he left," Liz admitted. "And that he could come back to me one day if I willed it hard enough or screwed up my life enough that he had to come back to me, but I knew it was all a pipe dream and a false narrative I was telling myself as I drank to cover the pain, and it was easy to use leaving as an excuse because there is something you both don't know Mom and Dad. You know he was with someone else..."

"Yes, and had a child?" Nancy asked.

"We were trying to move past it, and it was tricky and there was a lot of pain mixed in and then he died because of a set of circumstances that went down when I was in Vermont that is too complicated to explain to you today. I was in danger and he tried to save the day, and in the process, he lost his life."

"That makes no sense," Jeff asked.

"It does Dad," Liz sighed. "To me it does, but I need to get going to prepare for my appointment, and we can talk further about the past… later... but I will say that this all started over four years ago, downstairs when I was shot, and would have died. But Max saved my life that day and from then on, I was changed..."

"WHAT!" Nancy and Jeff's jaws dropped again but this time Liz knew she couldn’t continue because of the burden it would place on her parents, so she turned and walked off, leaving her parents to weigh the news and the impact of the information they had just been told about their daughter. "Liz..." but she was gone.

"What is going on with our daughter?" Nancy asked her husband once their daughter had vanished from their sight. "I never imagined any of this."

"What shooting?" Jeff asked as he remembered back nearly four years and an image sprung on him, as he remembered there had been shot fired downstairs as both his daughter and Maria worked their shift. But Liz was quick to assure that it was ketchup spilled on her and she was fine. While the Sheriff had some suspicions about it being something more, but it was quickly extinguished, or he was told it was extinguished. "Oh my god," he murmured as he remembered his daughter with blood on her uniform. "Is it true?"

"I don't know," Nancy asked. “I remember you telling me of some shots being fired downstairs, and Max was pinpointed as being in the vicinity but our daughter and Maria who also witnessed it, clamed up.

"Right, Maria was there that day... she would know" Jeff asked only himself as he hugged his wife, "I know it seems crazy, but we will be there for our daughter".

"I will go get ready," Nancy sighed as she thought of the appointment she would be attending with her daughter.

"I guess we're going to be grandparents?" Jeff asked as he sighed as he thought of his daughter. "She's only 19."

"We will help her, no matter what is decided" Nancy promised as she left to get ready, while Jeff looked at the now empty room and murmured to himself, what is going on with my daughter. She died, but didn't and Max saved her life and now she's going to be a mother at age 19?

"What is going on?" Jeff asked as he left the apartment and went downstairs with heavy worries on his mind. As much as he wanted to believe his daughter was going to be alright, and she had stopped drinking... he also knew from personal experience demons have a habit of taking you down and even though you try to keep afloat. Being a mother at nineteen will bring heavy responsibilities and as she is already emotionally burdened over Max's absence from her life, so he feared for his daughter.

"Jeff," Maria smiled as she saw him walk down the stairs from the apartment above the cafe, and then noticed the worry lines on her boss's face. "What's wrong?"

"Nancy and I just talked with our daughter, and she had some major bombshells to tell us."

"Oh," Maria frowned and then smiled because she knew it would be a weight off her friend’s shoulders and Liz might now truly be able to move on to whatever life was destined for her in the future. "I am glad she told you."

"What's going on with my daughter Maria," Jeff asked. "The last year has been one thing after another with Liz and now she tops it by telling us she’s pregnant."

"She's been trying Jeff," Maria sighed as she thought of her friend. "This latest development did knock her for a loop."

"She doesn't even know who the father is?" Jeff sighed.

"She remembers but there is some dispute over that fact, so in the meantime we need to support her."

"I will always support her," Jeff demanded.

There was a time when you didn't support her Maria wanted to say but didn't because she knew that Jeff had been laid with a lot regarding his daughter and Liz hadn't been the dutiful daughter for much of the last year. "I know you do," she said instead.

"What's going on Maria!" Jeff asked.

"She's trying to lead her life," Maria said.

"I have to ask, is Max dead?" Jeff asked as they didn’t realize the back door open, and they had an audience.

"WHAT!" a scream sound, and they turned and saw Phillip Evans, but the scream had come from his wife Diane.




"I had legal papers to deliver to you," Phillip Evans said ten minutes later after they had gotten Diane calmed down as he looked at both Jeff Parker and Maria Deluca. "Diane wanted to come with me because we were going to go out town for dinner, and the evening as we haven't had much time of being alone since Isabel has been home and so we came in the backway."

"How is Isabel?" Maria asked trying to divert from the original topic. "I haven't seen her yet since she's been back."

"Adjusting to the end of her marriage," Phillip said as he looked at Jeff and Maria again as he tried to comprehend what he had just heard. "She just wants to be by herself for a little while, and we're giving her the time. She has a month before her place is ready."

"Tell her to call me some time," Maria smiled as Diane reentered the room from going to the bathroom to collect herself. "Mrs. Evans."

"I thought I said you could call me Diane."

"Sorry for what you interrupted earlier," Maria murmured. "We never wanted for you to hear like that..."

"Who is we?" Phillip asked.

"Michael, Isabel, Liz and I" Maria admitted as she was forced to confront the fact that Max’s parents were so oblivious to the true events of the last year.

"Isabel knows?" Diane asked hurt that her own daughter would keep something so monumental from her, when it was about her son.

"Yes," Maria confirmed with a tremendous sigh. "We felt it was better for you guys to believe that Max left to go find his son, and that he couldn’t stay."

"His baby?" Phillip asked. "That is true then?"

"To the detriment of his relationship with Liz, yes it's true. But we don't know where the child is today because Tess vanished while she was pregnant," Maria citing the well-crafted lie which was part truth.

"How is Liz?" Phillip asked Jeff because it well known how badly Liz had spun in the past year, and how it was constantly testing her parents and now he could see why. "Is it true that she's getting better?"

"In a manner of speaking," Jeff allowed.

"Max's gone, he's dead?" Diane asked, breaking the silence of well-crafted talk as she tried to reconcile the new reality that her son might be truly gone for good. They always hope he would return, and now they were being shaken of that belief.

"Yes," Maria confirmed to tears coming down Diane's face. "I am sorry, we never wanted to hurt you. It was better for everyone if everyone believed he just went searching... But maybe it wasn't, because Liz hasn't been the same and it was delaying acceptance of the truth."

"Where is Liz?" Diane asked.

"Doctor's appointment," Jeff said and left it at that as he looked at Maria who also nodded. "She's trying to recover, and it's taking time."

What happened?" Phillip asked. "How did he die?"

"He was trying to save Liz's life. It's hard to explain, and its more Liz's avenue since she witnessed it with her own eyes to the detriment of her mental health over the last year. I only came in at the end and missed it all, but Liz was in danger on this occasion, and Max died trying save her life. He died a hero."

"When, where?" Diane asked.

"Last February, in Vermont."

"Wasn't Vermont where Liz went to boarding school for a brief time," Phillip asked. "I remember calling the school for you Jeff to see whether they would give your deposit back, and they refused, citing damages done to the property but they didn't want to give up too much about what happened."

"I remember," Jeff sighed.

"Liz had a stalker at the school," Maria lied. "And things went a little too far and Max who was visiting in trying to win her back, stepped in and it got bad" she continued, and was impressed by the quality of the lie and Jeff only glanced at her, and she stopped.

"He saved her?" Diane asked.

"Yes," Maria confirmed. "She would have been dead too if not for Max's sacrifice."

"Where is his body?" Phillip asked. "We would want to bury him here in Roswell."

"Um," Maria stalled. Damn it. Why didn't I think of that? and she didn't know how to get out of this one except maybe to tell the truth in a manner of speaking. How was she going to get out of this one she wondered?

"Maria," Diane asked.

"There isn't a body," Maria confessed.




Liz sat on the exam table as Nancy sat next to her, as she waited while the doctor consulted with the technician, and some of the blood work was already in from the last appointment, and now Liz awaited word. Nerves raced through her. "Mom, thank you for coming with me. I know I gave a lot for you to take this morning. I couldn't come alone, so thank you."

"We want to help you, support you" Nancy smiled as she tried to process the stunning news she had been forced to deal with on this day. "All want is for you to come to us if you need our help."

"I am glad I did," Liz sighed.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Nancy asked again as she saw the confusion her daughter was under, and the pain underneath. "About Max?"

"I couldn't accept it and have only begun too, and I couldn't come to you guys about it because we were trying to keep the truth in the dark. But I couldn't do it anymore and it was taking me down dangerous roads, and I needed to stop and take ownership and live the way my life is today, and not what I had hoped it to be at sixteen."

“What does that mean?” Nancy asked.

“I have no idea. I had all my hopes pinned on going to Northwestern in the fall, and now that seems to be not in the cards at least for the fall semester, and I am not sure they will let me defer it another term or another year.”

“Do you want this baby? Nancy asked as she thought of her grandchild on the way. It was not ideal time to become a grandmother when her daughter was needing to find her way to starve off a complete breakdown.

“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Liz admitted. “The reality of it and I haven’t even gone down that road, but I do know what I have to come to terms with regarding the baby. I never imagined this would be my life. Even when I was with Max, and I let myself dream, I never imagined this.”

“You will get through this,” Nancy smiled with some encouragement for her daughter.

“I am having the baby as it’s too late to do anything about it,” Liz sighed as she thought of the dual conflicting information she had about this pregnancy, and how she had to instantly accept it whether she wanted to or not. “It’s just not what I thought my life would be like right now.”

“Your father and I will help you,” Nancy smiled. “If you come to us for that help, we will always help you, you know, right?”

“Dad can’t look at me,” Liz sighed as she flashed to the heartbreak and pain on her father’s face, and how much it hurt her to know she put it there with everything she had done over the past year.

“He’s just upset that you’re in so much pain and we weren’t able to help you. So much of it doesn’t make sense to us and still doesn’t” she thought of the incredible tale her daughter had told her. And to her, it still rang as a tale and she didn’t know if she could accept that even half of it could be true.

“I am sorry about that,” Liz said. “It’s why I wasn’t honest with you because so much of is so damn complicated, and that only covers a small portion of it. Max is gone, and I’ve got to deal with it… I didn’t want to mess your life.”

“We are your parents, we want to help you.” Nancy said quietly as the door opened and the doctor appeared. “And we’re this baby’s grandparents, and we will be there for you and for her, if you choose to keep the baby.

Liz nodded as she patted her stomach as it was becoming real to her for the first time that she was going be a mother. At nineteen, and she didn’t know if she could understand how this was the fate her life had set out to be on that September day back when she was fifteen and she was changed forever when she saw Max in a new way. When he saved her life.

“Ms. Parker,” the doctor smiled as she came into the room and settled her glaze on her patient a she looked at the chart in her hand. “How are we today?”

“Better,” Liz sighed. “Which is a mile from where I was last week.”

“Good, very good. I know you were shocked to hear the news,” Dr. Klinger smiled. “You’re young, and it must have been a shocker.”

“It was,” Liz admitted as she thought of the shock she had been when she heard the stunning news. “Dr. Klinger, this is my mother. Nancy Parker,” Liz acknowledged.

“I am glad Liz has family by her side,” Dr. Debra Klinger smiled. “Well, all tests so far have been encouraging Ms. Parker.”

“They have, how is the baby?” Liz asked as she patted her stomach and Nancy noticed it was for the second time in the last few minutes.

“How is my granddaughter?” Nancy asked as looked straight at her daughters’ doctor.

“Your daughter has told me of her troubles, and I just want to say that I do admire you Ms. Parker for realizing you needed help and getting it. Because the pregnancy is advanced when it was discovered, we ran some preliminary testing and all the tests came back normal. Or as normal as baby can be at this stage. So, we have all the confidence that the pregnancy can precede normally. We will continue to monitor it, but nothing has been odd at this time.”

“Really?” Liz asked if she didn’t want to believe it. “I was drinking heavily until three months ago and the baby is fine?”

“Sometimes babies don’t show the affects. Just like humans. We can surprise the experts. You stopped, and maybe it was in time. You said you have had a few slips, but you recognized it, and stopped yourself from slipping into any further relapses.”

“So, the baby is fine?” Liz asked.

“As far as we know today. Of course, some difficulties don’t show up until the baby is born and functioning on its own and so I can’t rule out that your daughter might not have some effects of that hard time in your life. But you recognized you had a problem and got help. Sounds like you have a strong daughter already.”

“She has a strong mother,” Nancy said. “You never can rule her out.”

“That’s the spirit. You’ve filled the prescription for the vitamins, right?” Dr. Klinger asked her patient as she made a notation in the chart.

“Yes,” Liz nodded.

“Good,” Dr. Klinger said. “See my receptionist and make an appointment for next month, and we’re do some more monitoring and if you experience any difficulties in the meantime, call me, or go to the Emergency room, okay?”

Liz nodded.

“Take care Liz and take care of that baby…” Dr. Klinger said as she left the room.

“I’ll let you change,” Nancy said as got up and turned to her daughter and for the first time really thought she might have her child back. That Liz was turning her life around, and maybe everything would be alright.

“Thank you again Mom for coming with me,” Liz said softly. “It’s becoming real to me, and I appreciate that you’re supporting me.”

“I’ll always be here for you,” Nancy assured her daughter and left the room and Liz looked around the room, and for the first time thought that it might work out. Patting her stomach, “I just wish I knew who your father was…” she whispered out loud.




Coming out of the building, Liz was talking to her mother about something restaurant related when out of the corner of her eye she saw something. “Oh,” Liz said a little too out loud as she saw a figure watching her with assessing eyes. She stopped her discussion and could only stare.

“What?” Nancy asked as she saw the ghost look that her daughter suddenly got and wondered what was wrong with Liz. “Is it the baby?” she murmured.

“It’s nothing,” Liz was quick to say but she was wrong. It was something. When in front of her stood a man leaning against a dark blue convertible, echoing a memory from the past Please no, I am trying to get over Max she cried to her inner self. “No, I am fine Mom and the baby is fine” she murmured as she tried to make a quick decision on the spot on what she was going to do. She was seeing a ghost it felt like… now that she was sober and could see the truth…

“Hello Shirley,” said the man as Nancy looked startled as she saw her daughter stop where she stood frozen.

“Liz,” Nancy asked. “Do you know him, honey.”

Liz wanted to say no, but she also knew she couldn’t say no, because she knew this man and yet she didn’t know his name and didn’t want to admit that to her mother because she didn’t relish having to explain it, at least not yet as he watched as he leaned against the car, all sexy like, and imposing.

“Liz,” Nancy asked.

“Mom, I am okay” Liz said. “It’s someone I know,” she murmured barely being left out of the question. “I promise I will be fine. I can take the bus home, why don’t you go home and tell Dad that everything is okay, okay Mom?”

“If you’re sure,” Nancy said as she wasn’t sure whether she should be leaving her daughter alone with this strange man. “Are you sure you know this man Liz?”

“Of course, his name is Rob…” Liz smiled although she was amazed that she did remember even that after all this time. While she had her pregnancy as proof, she had begun to think that night was a mirage and a product of her descent into drinking because he was such a mystery man. “I promise Mom, I will be home shortly.”

While Nancy wanted to take it at face value, but she wondered if she would be seeing her daughter anytime soon… as she looked at the man who stared at her daughter with powerful and quickly assessing eyes like he knew exactly what he was doing and she sensed her daughter was going to be powerful to stop this force in her life. She just prayed it worked out as she saw her daughter walk towards the mystery man.

Liz feared her mother was right as she saw her mother leave the area, but she stood in front of ‘Rob’. “You…”

“Me…” the mystery man asked.

“Is your name really “Rob Roy” Liz said carefully as she did her own assessing of this man who could very well be her baby’s father.

“Yes, it is,” the mystery man said with a sexy smile. “Come with me as we have to talk…” he said softly and it felt like music to her ears, and she got into the car that echoed a scene right out of her life months before… when she had her life together, even if she was on the collision course with the end of what she always dreamt of for herself.

Having Max in her life.