Michael stood there and watched as Finn arrived to pick up his daughter. He couldn’t fault the guy. He didn’t look sleezy like Tommy Ellis did and got a general good vibe off the guy but still he didn’t like his little girl going out on a date. Especially knowing what guys were capable of doing or being with a girl. He wasn’t happy with his behavior at times with Maria when they were younger, and it was true he did have a chip on his shoulder and treated Maria badly in those early days. He was still amazed she wanted him and was wanting to settle down and raise Jake with him.
He thanked god every day for being that lucky but still he didn’t like seeing his daughter growing up and rushing so far into the world. He knew his daughter was very much like her mother and was very sure of herself and could control the situation if need be but still the idea of her wanting to go out with a guy was foreign to him.
Maria just laughed. She had her nerves, but she was generally amused by the tough dad routine Michael was giving Finn. Finn was holding up very well. “We know your parents,” Michael warned Finn.
“Yes, I know that sir,” Finn nodded. “They speak highly of you too…”
“I am glad,” Michael said. “It’s just burgers at the Crashdown and West Side Story, right?” he asked to confirm the plans.
“That is what Elizabeth wanted to do,” Finn nodded.
“Dad,” Elizabeth glared as she didn’t like the interrogation it felt like her father was putting her date through.
“I am just being thorough” Michael said as Maria and Elizabeth only shook her head as she tried to get out of the house. “We have to be going, otherwise we won’t be able to eat before it starts.”
“Right,” Michael murmured. “Elizabeth indicated that she didn’t know you were interested in her, why so suddenly?”
“Dad!” Elizabeth glared.
“It’s alright. I have always seen Elizabeth around. I didn’t think she would be interested in me. She’s fun, and exciting to be around and I am glad to be able to get to know more about her. I like that she knows how fight for what she believes in,” Finn said of the rumors around school that Elizabeth had gotten into Tommy Ellis’s face before his accident and before his vanishing. “I am sure we will have a good time together.”
“Which we might as well get started,” Elizabeth murmured as she wanted the interrogation to end. “Let’s go Finn,” Elizabeth asked as she glared at her father. “Dad, we will be back later…” she tried with her father who could only grunt as a response with great relish to get under the skin of Finn, but the young man was letting it flow off his back; much to Maria delight but then her amusement faded as she too gave the boy a firm look.
“Her curfew is 30 minutes after the production ends,” Maria reminded the teenagers. “And we know what time it ends.”
“Yes Ma’am,” Finn said as he took Elizabeth’s hand and they walked out of the front door and the slam shut behind them as it only left Maria and Michael to shake their head and turn and face each other.
“Sir, and Ma’am” they said in unison with a laugh.
“That boy knows how to impress” Maria said and saw Michael’s frown. “Space boy, she is going to fine and it’s not like she won’t be in the same place as Jake and I am sure he can keep an eye on them if there is a reason to…”
“Why do we have teenagers?” Michael cracked as they walked into the living room as he got the bottle of bourbon out of the liquor cabinet and poured him a small glass and a bigger glass for his very human wife.
“I ask you that every day,” Maria murmured. “At least we have three younger ones…”
“Two who will very like Finn in a span of a few years,” Michael murmured.
“Then we have Belle,” Maria reminded her husband who laughed and then smiled as they kissed each other with a passion that reminded each of them that they had gone through the thick and thin over the last twenty years and they would regret nothing if it meant being together.
“I guess we did something right in having an age difference between those kids” Michael commented.
“God was giving us something, alright” Maria snarked. “When there is Jake!”
“Who we can trust,” Michael warned his wife.
“About most things,” Maria murmured as they kissed.
“I think we can trust he will make the right decision for himself,” Michael muttered. “He isn’t us, and never has been…”
“I know,” Maria murmured and knew she could trust in that because their son was his own man, but she didn’t like knowing that he was bound to make mistakes or make choices that were so different than ones she made or wanted.
*
“Is this alright?” Max asked as they arrived at
Senor Chow. An old favorite, and a recent restaurant he and Beth had gone to with the kids. Isabel was right there wasn’t that many fancy restaurants in Roswell, and this was really the only one that he felt confident about, so he took the gamble. “We could go somewhere else…”
“No, it’s alright” Beth smiled as she looked around and saw it was fuller on this night than it was when they last were in the establishment. “I liked the food here, and the atmosphere is friendly.”
“Good,” Max said as they took seat at a table.
“It’s weird to be out without the kids,” Beth conceded. “I guess I don’t do it too often.”
“Yeah, it’s not something I did much or at all over the years since I lost you…” Max acknowledged as he thought of his own lack of a social life. “Sometimes if it was a family event, but I didn’t go out if it was just me.”
“You didn’t date?” Beth asked a little surprised that he wouldn’t have put himself out there since it had been almost fourteen years. “I know you said there wasn’t anyone, but I would think over the years, there would be something”
“Nope,” Max shook his head as he thought of his life, and how much he had missed Liz over years. “As I said, it was ‘only you’ and I meant it.”
“You must have been lonely,” Beth asked as he mused about it. “I know raising kids can be a full-time job of course and raising a little girl as a single daughter must have been doozy but I am surprised you didn’t put yourself out there or the others didn’t try to force your hand.”
“Oh, they did, but I never bit on what they wanted to try to set me up with it” Max conceded. “I was fine with my life. Once I picked myself up over losing you, I realized that Grace needed me to be here for her, and to concentrate on how we were going to go on without the love of my life, and her mother.”
“Max,” Beth sighed.
“It’s true. There was no one else, and when I lost you. It was almost like my heart closed, and all I could do was concentrate on our daughter and my career needed my attention as I figured out what I wanted to do with my life, to be able to there for Grace. Thankfully my father had his practice and so I ultimately joined it, and it grounded me but in terms of my love life. I was completely fine just concentrating on my career and Grace.”
Beth nodded.
“What about you?” Max asked.
“With my memory the way it was, I didn’t think it was fair to put that on anyone else. I didn’t know what I left behind or if my memory would come back tomorrow, and if I was with someone else, well, that wouldn’t be fair to them so I had the twins to concentrate on and my medical career that I had to rebuild from the beginning because no one could tell me who I was, or what I might have done before…”
“That has to be rough,” Max marveled. “I can’t even imagine it as I am only thinking of me if I had to do everything all over again, and being a lawyer isn’t as involved as being a medical doctor. I’ve got to be up to date on all the laws. But being a doctor; that is very time involved with a lot of knowledge to gain and to think that you had to do it all over again for a second time.”
“It wasn’t easy,” Beth conceded.
“I wouldn’t imagine it to be,” Max sighed. “And to do with two small kids, all by yourself.”
“I had some help from Serena but she had her own studies so I could only lean on her for so much, and while she was further ahead than I was… still, it was nice to have some friendly support even if I was fortunate for the fact that the twins grew up pretty trouble free despite the chaos of their births.”
“You were in a coma, right?” Max asked.
“Yeah,” Beth nodded. “Two months after the crash. They didn’t think I would survive but because I was a Jane Doe, they had no legal recourse besides going to court and yet I kept hanging on and so they kept me going, and fortunately I woke up.”
“Thank god,” Max sighed at the mere thought that she could have been lost to them without even knowing there was a possibility for a miracle.
“I wish my memory hadn’t vanished along with my coma,” Beth thought of what could have been. “To know that we all missed so much…”
“But you have a chance now” Max encouraged.
“But I am going back tomorrow,” Beth acknowledged. “And my medical training does tell me if my memory isn’t back by now, then I doubt it’s ever going to come truly back.”
“You remember more than you did before you came to Roswell,” Max asked.
“Yes, but still I don’t have the story behind most of those memories. I need you or Maria to tell me what happened because the flashes only are flashes and I don’t have pain and angst or even the happiness that come with them.”
“Sometimes that is a blessing,” Max asked because sometimes he wanted to be able to forget all the pain they went through in the beginning, even if he knew they were better for it, in the end.
“Or a curse,” Beth asked right back. “You remember the circumstances of most of those memories that come from our shared experiences but there are events I don’t remember, and I know that kills Jeff and Nancy to know they remember more than I do about my childhood.”
“But they thought they lost you, so they will take it if we have a chance to remake some of those memories” Max asked. “Same with me. We can’t take go back to the past as it’s done and gone with, but we have a chance to create some new memories.”
“That is not the same thing,” Beth wondered.
“That is better than the alternative. We all thought you were dead and buried, with no hope but our memories. So, maybe it’s good you’ll be able to develop new memories. Sometimes those lost memories only hold you back.”
“We were married Max according to you…” Beth asked.
“And according to the State of New Mexico,” Max laughed at the memories of their wedding day. “20 years come June”
“20 years, wow” Beth thought at the mere idea of knowing that and yet not remembering. “We had a relationship full of ups and downs, and I don’t remember it.”
“Truthfully, you’re better forgetting the pain, and angst and as much as I hold onto those memories… still there was only short sliver of time where we were truly happy and pain free, and you are better off forgetting the truly horrible times because they weren’t pretty” Max sighed at the flashes of those memories.
“I don’t remember Grace as a baby,” Beth asked as they finally took a menu and checked it over to what they wanted to order. It was largely the same menu from their last time at the restaurant, but she wanted to try something new.
“And I don’t have the time you spent with the twins. I have missed most of the last thirteen years,” Max asked. “We both are without those memories. Of course, you have a shot at regaining some of your missing time even if you’ll never experience Grace’s formative years and can only know her now. I don’t, and I need to start from now…
“I am sorry,” Beth nodded “And I am taking them away again tomorrow.”
“Only because it’s safer for you to” Max sighed as he didn’t like thinking of the fact she was leaving. “They will come back over the summer, and we’ll figure out where to go from there… and hopefully you’ll decide to come back.”
“I can’t promise you that,” Beth sighed.
“I know,” Max said as they placed their orders and tried to get away from the sadness of the situation.
“I wonder how Grace is handling the big date?” Beth asked.
*
“Will you stop it,” Grace was laughing as she sat on a blanket near the stage where the musical would be starting any minute. All the seats were taken by the time they had gotten to the park, and so they went with Plan B and were now sitting on the grass. Finn and Elizabeth were nearby, away from their piece of grass because there was lack of space when they arrived. Dinner had gone well, but Jake was paying an eagle eye on his sister much to Elizabeth’s irritation. Grace was amused by it.
“I wish they were closer to us,” Jake muttered.
“They aren’t on the other side of the park Jake, let them be. Finn is a good guy. He is more a gentleman than most of the guys in school. She is very fortunate,” Grace laughed. “Not many are…”
“Even me,” Jake said turning his attention back to Grace.
“Of course not,” Grace giggled. “I am just saying you should be happy that your sister actually has a guy who is interested in her, for who she is, and who isn’t pushing her into anything she is not ready for.”
“Oh, I am,” Jake murmured. “I just not sure Finn is that guy.”
“Trust me okay,” Grace smiled. “I like this big brother jacket on you Jake but trust me that Elizabeth is in good hands and she knows how to defend herself. Which we both know, not everyone does, so it’s one night.”
“One night can lead to anything,” Jake murmured.
“Exactly,” Grace smiled. “So, let her concentrate on her own date and why don’t you focus on what is going on with us…”
“I can do that,” Jake smiled.
“Good,” Grace said as she leaned in and he leaned in too and they exchanged a simple kiss that grew into something more passionate. ‘Way to go Guerin’ they heard in the crowd. They stopped as they both knew what it meant to their classmates as they all saw them arrive together. Jake also knew he would hear it when he went back to school on Monday, but this was what he wanted. One night of fun with Grace.
Grace needed it and he needed it.
Moments later the orchestra started with the opening notes.
*
“Thank you for this,” Beth was saying as Max and she walked back into the house. The kids were all dispatched for the night and it was just them. The had a lovely dinner, and it almost made both forget what the following day meant as they had tried during the evening to forget about the tension that existed below the surface.
Max turned on some music that was left in the music system in the living room. He wasn’t very techy and knew while Grace had upgraded him over the years. He enjoyed the old fashion system most days.
“This is lovely,” Beth said as Max joined her on the couch. “I will miss this when I go back…”
“I don’t make a habit of it. Most of the time I am working or dealing with the fact Grace was working or with Jake and Elizabeth” Max commented as he thought of how limiting his life had been but then he wouldn’t have had it anyway else because he knew he had his own grand love and was content with his daughter and career, and yet knew how much he missed just being able to relax with someone he truly loved.
“As I have said, I work too many nights” Beth said honestly so it’s rare to really have a night where you can relax and just feel the music. “Because it’s always about the twins or catching up on my case load.”
“I am glad we got this chance…” Max murmured.
“I am glad too,” Beth said honestly. She didn’t know how she could go back to Madison and pick up her old life or is it my new life she wondered to herself. She sensed Max and knowing about Roswell and all it meant was changing her.
“I do hope you come back sometime,” Max asked honestly.
“Max,” Beth said. “I told you that I can’t make any promises.”
“I know you can’t, and I am not asking you. I am just hoping you will take a chance on what we could have…” Max asked.
“I not the woman you knew Max,” Beth declared as she got up and paced as Max sat and stared at her. “I don’t know who I am. I go by Beth, but I have memories of your wife, Liz. I missed nearly fourteen of Grace’s years. You missed the twin’s first thirteen years. I don’t know Max; I don’t know how I can go back.”
“I am not asking you to go back…” Max asked as he got up and touched her arm, and she stopped in a trance, but she tried to break back to reality.
“Yes, you are. You want Liz back. I am not Liz…”
“I know you are not or at least not yet…”
“There you go. You want Liz back…” Beth asked as she continued to pace before Max. “I am not Liz, and I don’t know if I will ever be again…”
“Beth…” Max asked as he touched her again and Beth stopped pacing and just stared. “I know you’re not Liz. You’re different. I am different. I am not the same person you would have known fourteen years ago if you were to instantly get your memories back and become Liz again. I just know when I look into your eyes, I see the woman I have loved since third grade when I first saw you on the playground when you were playing Maria. In that
cupcake dress and the woman, I went to hell and back in high school just to have a chance with…”
“Max, I don’t…” Beth tried but Max stopped her with pull into his arms and sweeping and intimate kiss that got
extremely passionate kiss with flashes coming through both…
“Max, we can’t…” Beth tried but the
searing kiss cut her off as she found that she was placing her arms around his head as she leaned in for more of the kiss as flashes of that day back when she was sixteen played in her mind as a
heat wave broke, and she and Max had been doing their dance and kept having their moment missed, and then presto… it broke open with a memorable moment that would define them. “I can’t be that person you remember.”
“But you can be someone, so much more…” Max asked as they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. “I’ll always love you as Liz” he said softly. “But I want to know the woman you are today if you will let me, will you Beth” he whispered as he kissed a train down her neck as she couldn’t believe the intoxication feeling she was feeling. She wanted to say
No, to stop this and go back to Madison and live her life and focus on what she knew, but she couldn’t and didn’t want to vocalize the words, so she stayed with
Yes and let insanity rule.
Because she couldn’t say the words that he wanted to hear as his touch of his hands came down to the strap of her red dress and she felt it being pushed over her shoulder, and then the next one and before she knew it, the dress was on the floor and she didn’t stop him as he picked her up in his arms and walked up the stairs to the master bedroom and the door moments later shut loudly.