Roswell Fanatics

"What?" Liz asked, turning her big doe eyes up to him and making his heart skip an unexpected beat.

"I think you're crying too much here, honey… and I just can't stand to see you cry… do you think you could work on that?… For me?" he almost pleaded, his thumbs tracing her cheekbones, talking to her like he would talk to Janelle if he had to convince her to do something really important for him.

"Only if you help me!" she replied, closing her eyes when he rested his forehead against hers and his hands went and settled on her waist. How could anyone resist this man?

"I will! Don't worry, if it depends only on me, you won't ever cry again!" Max all but promised before pulling her for a sweet kiss.

And then another. And another hungrier, until the only thing they could think about was how much they had indeed to make up for. And at that instant none of them could see why they shouldn't start right now. No matter how late it was, and even knowing that they would probably regret the lack of sleep when their sweet little daughter would come and wake them up with the larks.
"Mom, yeah, hi… no, no… everything's okay… I'm fine… I-I'm sorry… I know… it's just…" Max stammered into the phone, cut almost every time by his mother's rushed out questions.

If he had thought that this conversation was going to go smoothly, he had highly been mistaken, obviously. He loved his mother dearly, but maybe calling her almost first thing in the morning when he was barely awake -and moreover with the night activities- had not been the most clever thing to do.

Getting back to bed and to Liz again felt suddenly even more tempting than it had been a few minutes ago when he had come down only to find the living room a complete mess. Their clothes were scattered about everywhere, the clear reminder of what had happened between Liz and him, and even if the sight had made him smile fondly, he had known then that he had some serious cleaning up to do before Janelle woke up and started wondering what exactly they had been doing there.

He had actually been on his way to do just that when he had picked up his jacket and remembered that his parents had called yesterday and he had not answered. A quick check at his missed calls had even shown that they had tried several times again this morning, and he had immediately decided to call them back, wanting to reassure them, only to face the inquisition his mother had obviously decided to put him through.

"Where were you, Max?… you got us worried sick… we tried to call you I don't know how many times…" he heard his mother fire quite disapprovingly and he couldn't help but feel bad for having scared them.

Considering the message he had left them, and that so late, it was little wonder if his over-protective mother had panicked some. He could be 28 years old and be a father himself, he was still his mama's boy.

"I know, mom… and I didn't mean to worry you…" Max apologized right away, but his mother was obviously in a roll and barely let him talk at all.

"What happened, Max?… we've got your message and you sounded so… I don't know… tired and… and scared…" she pressed on, remembering how hollow his voice had sounded, and how terrified it had left her feeling, even if she had done her best to convince herself that he was alright.

"It's a long story, mom… too long probably to go over it on the phone… I-I just… I just wanted to let you know that everything was alright now!" Max replied, sighing wearily and knowing that he would certainly have some explaining to do later, and just thinking about that conversation was enough to make him shudder involuntarily again.

He didn't want to think back about how lost he had felt when he had thought he was about to lose the two most important people in his life, but he knew that his parents would probably want to hear the whole truth.

"Now?" Diane queried almost apprehensively, sensing that apparently whatever had happened was still affecting her son some.

"Yeah… I-I know you probably want to know everything… and I'll… stop by later if you want and we'll talk… I just… I kind of have some things to do right now… I…" Max told her, bending down to pick up Liz's clothes now, a stupid grin tugging at his lips as he reached for her panties.

"Where are you now, Max?" she asked then, wondering what her son could have to do so early in the morning, but most of all, who he was doing it with.

"Home." Max answered before he could think about it, and only when he noticed the suspicion in his mother's voice, did he realize that it was most likely not the thing to say.

"Home?… Max, I called you there not half an hour ago and you didn't answer… in fact, I was quite surprised to recognize the voice of your secretary when she did take the call the second time… it looked like I was waking her up!" Diane informed him not so pleasantly, making Max cringe even if she couldn’t see it. "Is there anything I should know about that, Maxwell?"

It was the use of his full name that did it, and he knew he would be in deep trouble if he didn't clear things out and fast.

"No… I-I… no… mom, it's not what you think… I wasn't there…" Max replied hastily, not wanting his mother to have the wrong idea.

The last thing he wanted to discuss with her however was Tess and her manipulative nature, or just how easily she had fooled him all this time. Not so early at least, he didn't even want to just think about her now, so he hoped that his mother would content herself with the little he was ready to divulge right now.

"Yet you just said you were home, Max… are you lying to your mother now?" she returned indignantly almost right away.

The last thing she wanted was to tell Max how to live his life of course, but she would lie if she said she would approve if he indeed told her that he was having an affair with his secretary. Not that she could say that she had anything against the woman, but there was just something about Tess Harding that rubbed her off the wrong way. She was just too… sweet to be honest.

"No, of course not, mom, I… I'm just… I meant… not that home…" Max winced even before she answered, knowing that this had probably not come out right and that it wouldn't take her long to figure out what that meant.

"Home, but not that home… what does that… wait a minute… you don't mean…" she started confused, before stopping mid-sentence, almost afraid to hope.

She had always liked Liz, from the very first time she had seen her there at the hospital so many years ago, scared and devastated because of what had happened to Max, and she knew all too well that her son was still crazily in love with his wife, even if he tried to act like he didn't sometimes. She had never really understood why things had turned out the way they had in fact, the only thing she knew was what Max had been willing to reveal, which wasn't much. She knew that Max was definitely working too much and that it had impacted severely on their relationship over the years, but despite how useless it had seemed at times, she had never really lost hope for those two. They had just lost sight of what was really important somewhere along the way, but maybe now they had managed to work things out finally.

"I… yeah… like I said… I'm home…" Max repeated awkwardly, not seeing very well what else he could tell her.

"Is something wrong, Max?… Are Janelle and Liz okay?… Nothing happened to them, right?" she couldn't help but ask as an afterthought when she remembered that whatever Max had wanted to tell them yesterday night, it had been important.

"No, no, mom… they're fine... I just… I…" he was quick to reassure her, and then just blurted out the truth. Or as much of the truth as he could, considering that this was his mother he was talking to. "I… spent the night."

If Diane could have seen him then, she would have certainly laughed at the sight of him blushing like a little boy the second the words were out, but she was just too exited at the news to pay much attention to his sudden embarrassment.

"You… oh, my… " she shrieked the instant she understood what he meant, probably as thrilled at the news as Max could be himself. "Oh, Max… are you two back together?… Tell me you finally talked to the girl!"

"Yes, mom… and yes… I did… we did… talk… everything's fine!" Max confirmed, pleased to see that his mother obviously approved.

Not that he had ever had any doubt that she would, it would have been hard to, considering how many times she had tried to make him open up to her and given him advice, even when he sometimes didn't want to hear it.

"Oh, Max… I'm so happy for you, honey… you so have to stop by the house with her… and Janelle of course… it would be so good to see you three together again!" Diane demanded almost right away, not even recalling when the last time was that she had seen Max and Liz in the same room at the same time.

"Sure, mom… I'll talk to Liz about it… but now I should really just… " he tried to tell her that he was going to have to hang up now if he wanted to finish everything he had planned to do before Liz woke up, but before he had any opportunity to do so, he heard her yell, the sound nearly leaving him deaf.

"Phillip… Phillip, come here… talk to your son… he finally came back to his senses and got his woman back!… I need to go and clean up a little before they come!" the words carried through the house and over the line and he couldn't help rolling his eyes. Leave it to his mother to alert the whole neighborhood about what was happening in his life, and work herself in a frenzy just because he was bringing Liz home again. You would think she had never been there before with the way she reacted.

And now his father would have his turn as well, he thought, as he heard him picking up the phone and ask his mother what had her so overjoyed suddenly.

"Max? Hey… what's up, son?" Phillip greeted, smiling into the phone as he saw his wife run around like she was suddenly about to receive the Queen of England.

"Nothing much… I just was telling mom about… about Liz and I… I… we worked things out… and I guess… she just got a little carried away…" Max tried to play it off at that moment, but he was pretty much sure that he would got a similar reaction from him.

"You did?… that's fantastic… and it was about damn time, too!" he heard his father exclaim, and he truly prayed that he wouldn't have to answer to as many questions as he had to with his mother. "No wonder we couldn't join you… I guess you made up for lost time, huh?" he said teasingly then, understanding better why Max hadn't been able to take their calls.

"Dad, please…" Max blushed to the roots of his hair once more, even if what his father had said was nothing but the truth. That didn't mean that he was ready to talk to him about what he and Liz had done or not, or to admit that he had indeed been quite busy when they had called him and that was why he hadn't answered.

"Hey… not that I could blame you… I mean I know how you two were… I remember that time I cau-" Phillip started much to Max's mortification, and he certainly couldn't have been quick enough to stop him.

"I would rather not… thanks, dad!" he growled, not wanting to have to remember how humiliating that particular memory had been.

Being caught by your father when you were making love to your girlfriend, even if you were already twenty, wasn't exactly something any boy wanted to see happening, and even less be reminded of. Their only luck had been that they had been partially covered, at least where it counted, and that his father had been kind enough to beat a discreet retreat before they realized that he had seen them. But that didn't mean that they hadn't heard about it later. It had taken Liz months actually to be able to stay in the same room as Phillip and look at him in the eyes without blushing furiously after she had known.

"Look, I'm just gonna hang up now… I have to take care of the breakfast before Liz and Jay wake up." Max said when he heard his father chuckle into the phone at his embarrassment, and he just knew that he should better cut the conversation short, or this was going to turn ugly very soon.

"Oh, so whipped, so soon again… some things never change!" Phillip joked and this time Max could even hear his mother laugh as well in the background, obviously having heard her husband's comment.

"Yeah, you're one to talk, aren't you?" Max threw back, finding that rich coming from him when his dear mother had him completely wrapped around her finger. "By the way… where were you yesterday night? I tried to call you I don't know how many times… and there was no way to join you!" he reminded him, even if at that moment he didn't really care about that anymore, other than for the fact that it helped him turn the tables on him.

"I wish I had something interesting to say about that… but the Jeffersons were having a reception, and your mother insisted to drag me there… was a last minute thing apparently though." Phillip almost immediately sobered up, remembering how awfully boring that reception had been, even if Diane had seemed to have fun herself.

"So whipped as well… and for so long! "Max snorted before he could stop himself, his dad's answer only confirming what he had already been thinking. "Anyway, tell mom that I will call her as soon as I've talked to Liz!"

"Okay, son… we'll talk some more later." Phillip replied, as eager as Diane had been to see them all together again.

"Sure, bye, dad!" Max said, ready to hang up at last, when his father stopped him once more.

"Bye… and Max… don't screw things up this time!" he warned, even if Max could hear that there wasn't any real reprimand behind the words.

"I won't, don't worry." he assured, before he finally put the phone back down into its cradle with a small smile.

Man, if this was what he had to go through on the phone, he could only imagine what his father would want to talk about some more later, like he had said. But well, today he was happy for the first time in what seemed like ages and there was probably nothing that could ruin that, so it didn't really mattered.

It didn't even take him that long to tidy up the living room after all, and after having gotten back upstairs to drop their clothes into the linen basket, and checked that Liz was still peacefully asleep, he made his way into the kitchen and started looking for everything he would need.

A little more than half an hour later, he was pretty proud of himself and all he had managed to accomplish, but he wasn't finished yet when he heard the first sign of life in the house.

The sound of the television carried over to the kitchen, soon followed by footfalls coming his way and he couldn't stop his heart from skipping a beat, knowing that soon his little girl would pass that door.

"Daddy?…" Janelle padded into the room not long after what he had predicted, but what she found there was apparently something she had not been expecting, if her face was any indication. She had known he was somewhere there since she had seen his jacket thrown over the living room couch and then heard him move around the kitchen, but that didn't mean that she wasn't stunned by the sight of him standing there in an old tee-shirt and some sweatpants. "What you doing?"

"Well, good morning to you, too, sunshine!" Max greeted her, a smile on his face as he noticed how surprised she was to actually see him there.

"Good morning!" she said back as he lifted her up in his arms the second she joined him and peppered her face with little kisses. "What you doing?" she repeated nonetheless once he stopped, not really used to see her father in the kitchen, at least not so early in the morning, and definitely not lately.

"Making you the breakfast of your life!" Max answered good naturally, as he held her high on his hip, and at the same time reached for the salt.

"Smell good!" she told him as she rested her head on his shoulder while Max continued to work on the eggs he was scrambling. "You staying?" she then couldn't help but add, somewhat fearing his answer. It had been way too long since he had had breakfast with them, so she wouldn't be surprised if he had to leave before he had any opportunity to eat it with them.

"Would you like that?" Max questioned instead of responding directly, and smiled brightly when he saw her nod eagerly in answer. "What does this sound like then? How about having me here every day when you get up and every night to get you to bed? … just like before?" he pursued then, almost sure of what would be her reaction to that. It was only a morning ago that she had voiced her desire to see them be a family again, and he was pleased beyond belief to be able to give her that now.

"Really?" she wondered out loud, biting her lip, like she was afraid to really hope.

"Yes, really, sweetheart!" Max confirmed, feeling something tug at his heart nevertheless as he realized how insecure she still was. Nothing could have wiped the smile off his face though, when what he said registered in her mind and her face literally lit up.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Janelle exclaimed immediately, bouncing in his arms elatedly, this being the best news she had heard in a long time.

"Glad to see you like the idea so much!" Max chuckled as he nearly dropped her in her excitation, and then whispered conspiratorially : "Don't go and tell anyone, but I like it, too!"

"So it worked!" Janelle pondered, remembering that he had told her everything would be alright the night before and had obviously succeeded.

"Didn't I tell you I'd make it work?" Max queried, not the least offended by the slight trace of wonder he still could detect in her voice.

"Yeah!" she conceded immediately, not admitting that at least a small part of her had not been so sure that he would be able to keep that promise, no matter how much she had wanted him to. It was complicated after all, he had said so himself. "Daddy?"

"Uh?" he answered absentmindedly, pouring the eggs in a small dish after having turned off the burner, and covering them so they wouldn't get cold while he took care of the rest.

" 'This' is the bestest day of my life!" she revealed with the largest smile he had seen on her lips in a very long time.

"Bestest than the Disneyland Day?" he wrapped his arms completely around her and teased playfully as he remembered their conversation of the previous morning.

"Yes!" she nodded right away, sure that nothing could top this one. Her daddy was coming back home, her mommy wouldn't be so sad anymore, what could be more wonderful than that?

"Well… you know what?… it's one of mine, too, sweetheart!" Max concurred, hugging her tightly a brief seconds, until he spotted Liz in the entrance, a pair of his boxers and one of his shirts on, watching them with a small trembling smile on her lips.

"Hi" he mouthed softly, seeing as she made no effort to interrupt them. He didn't miss her misty eyes though as she answered just as quietly, and his breath immediately caught in his throat.

"Look who's here!" he whispered to his daughter, pointing to the door, and frowning when all she did was wave at her mother.

"Hey? Don't you have anything else to tell her?" he asked gently, not wanting her to think he was scolding her or anything, but still. He thought she would be more thrilled to see her mother, she usually was.

"I've already see her!" Janelle said for all answer, tightening her grip around his neck, and Max understood that they had obviously had their moment together before she had joined him in the kitchen. Apparently this was daddy time.

"Well… I haven't… Can I go and say hello?" he questioned playfully as he lay her on the kitchen counter top, knowing that he for one, wouldn't be able to content himself with just a wave and a soft hello.

"Yes!" she giggled, thinking that her father was being way too silly today, but he could be silly everyday from now on if he wanted, if that meant that he would stay with them and she would get to see him every morning just like he had said, and she would honestly be more than fine with it.

"Hey, you!" Max breathed out as he reached Liz, kissing her softly before pulling her into his warm embrace.

"Hey, yourself!" she replied, immediately burying her face in his hard chest and relishing in the feeling of being in his arms again. She knew they had only been asleep a few hours, but she had missed him all the same and it felt good to be there, so close to him again. Oh, how she loved this man.

Unconsciously, she tightened her grip on him, holding him so strongly that he was afraid she would suffocate him. He didn't mind however, enjoying the feeling as much as she did, until he heard her sniffle slightly and tried to pull away. Only she hugged him tight and had obviously no intention to let him go just yet.

"Don't cry, baby… no more tears, remember!" he whispered to her and caressed her back soothingly, only slightly relieved when he felt her nod against his chest.

"Feels so good having you here!" she murmured once she was calmed down, her fingers threading through the hair at the nape of his neck and making Max acutely aware of how much he wanted her.

"God, yes!" he concurred right away, nuzzling her neck tenderly and losing himself once more in the feel of her.

It wasn't long before he was nipping at her skin gently and the only thing that stopped him from forgetting about the rest of the world, was Liz's soft voice reaching his ears.

"Max?"

"Uh?" he answered, distracted and concentrating more on licking a trail up her throat than on the fact that there was apparently something important she wanted to tell him.

"Your daughter!" she pointed out to me, sure that he had obviously forgotten about her, or he wouldn't be getting so carried away with her there now.

"What about her?" was all he said, reaching her ear now and taking her earlobe between his lips, the feeling making Liz all but forget about any idea of stopping him. At least momentarily.

"She's here… she's… uh… looking at us!" she stuttered, closing her eyes briefly, her head spinning with the things he did to her.

It took a few more seconds to clear his clouded mind, but when Liz nudged him slightly, he knew he had to control himself and stop before this got out of hands.

"Well love… your alien daughter is a fun spoiler!" he joked after having taken a deep needed breath, but it was still reluctantly that he let go of her at last.

"Must have inherited it from her father!" Liz threw back teasingly but not before having kissed his lips lightly, just enough to let him know that they would get back to this later… if they had any opportunity of course.

"Wait until I get my hands on him then!" Max retorted, still referring to that crazy story Liz had blurted out yesterday when she had been so upset. He still thought it was funny that she could have come up with such a thing, even if he should probably not let her know that, considering how she had reacted then.

As soon as the words were out, he noticed her look and couldn't help but smile all too innocently, following her as she reached for their daughter and then lowered her into a chair.

Liz herself was ready to take a seat at the table as well when Max stopped her, handing her the plate with the eggs, before he deposited the dish with the pancakes down on it as well. She looked at him quizzically then when he made a tsking sound when she tried again, and gasped when he sat just where she had intended to. She didn't understand what he meant to do in fact, until he pulled her to him.

"Come here!" Max just said once he was settled, and before she could even answer or protest, Liz found herself on his lap, one of his arms around her waist, holding her tightly to him.

It was all too new yet, even if considering that they had been married for over six years now it could sound ridiculous, but he needed to feel her close to him, and he couldn't let her get anywhere too far away from him just yet. He needed to touch her, to keep some kind of contact with her, however insignificant that contact could be.

Liz surely didn't mind at all, needing that as much as he did, but obviously someone wasn't sharing her parents' enthusiasm.

"What?" Max chuckled, seeing as Janelle raised an eyebrow at them before frowning and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Why mommy's not sitting on a chair?" he heard his daughter ask instantly when she saw she got their attention, and he almost laughed out loud at her way of voicing her obvious disagreement and jealousy.

"Uh… because your daddy is more cozy!" Liz answered when she saw that Max wasn't going to be of any help here, even if this was actually his fault if they had to answer to her in the first place.

"I want that, too!" Janelle pouted, her bottom lip trembling for good measure, knowing by experience that at least her daddy couldn't resist when she did that. And now was no different apparently.

"Okay… but why don’t you let your mother stay a little while first and then you two will trade places, okay?" Max tried to negotiate, not wanting to let go of Liz just yet, but not strong enough to deny his daughter anything when she turned that cute little face up to him.

He would give her an arm if she asked him to and without the slightest hesitation, he loved her that much, but even that couldn't be enough apparently when Liz decided to wiggle on his lap as they started eating. Then he just knew that there would be no way he could let Janelle sit on his lap after that. At least not any time soon.
TBC…

Author: RebeccaBehrEvans

Title: Before it's too late.

Rating: ADULT

Disclaimer: Roswell is mine. Jason Behr is mine. Roswell is mine. Jason Behr is mine. Nope, even auto-persuasion doesn't seem to work, so I guess we all know what that means. (next time I'll try hypnosis and maybe then I'll succeed in convincing at least myself, lol. )

AN: Hey guys… here it is, a brand new part, after many, many problems … I'm not sure about it, but well, I guess I made you wait long enough already, didn't I?

Thank you all for your feedbacks! As always I loved them and it definitely helps to know what you think. Oh, and thanks of course to those who still thought about nominating me even when my stories and I went MIA

Alana, sorry girl… guess you didn't win (y que es eso de Jesus Vazquez? No me digas chica? … este tio, no me lo creo, y ni siquiera me invito! Capullin! )

Well, there isn't much in this chapter… expect Max and Liz … so this is to all the dreamers out there (except for that lopsided grin, that's only for you Tiph )… and to Angie, who is far, far away now… miss you girl … hope you'll all enjoy it, let me know!

Posted in three due to length.


Chapter eleven.a

Saturday came and went faster than they could have predicted but by the time they went to bed, Max and Liz were strangely more exhausted than they remembered having ever been in their whole life.

Janelle had been restless all day, but that had not really been the hardest thing to handle. The true problem had been that for some reason she had been even more clingy than usual where Max was concerned, refusing to leave his side for any reason if she had any other choice, and consequently her parents had barely gotten any moment to themselves.

As much as they loved their daughter, it had been really hard at times to make her understand that Max wasn't going anywhere and that she could let go of him without fearing he would just disappear, or be patient with her when all they wanted was to find themselves a few minutes alone even just to talk without her overhearing.

There had been so many things that still needed to be said aloud, talked about and Janelle's behavior had not really helped with that or left them the opportunity.

Seeing that they wouldn't be able to have a conversation that would last more than five minutes without being interrupted by their overexcited daughter, Max and Liz had then eventually decided that they would leave the long and strenuous talks for the nights when they would be away and Janelle would be asleep, knowing that she would be too exhausted then after her day activities to cause much problems.

Liz had managed to get a hold of Jim on Saturday morning, and without giving him too many details, she had explained that although she was feeling better, she would still need a week off nonetheless, but like Max had predicted he had accepted right away. His only condition had actually been that she tried to provide him with some work or tests for her students so he would have something to give them during her absence, and when Liz had told him that it shouldn't be a problem, he had just asked her to take care of herself and enjoy her time off, and hoped that she would come back fully rested and feeling even better.

Liz suspected of course that he knew she wouldn't be spending that week alone and that she would probably 'reconcile' with her husband since he knew they had been having problems, but since he hadn't asked where she planned to go or what she planned to do, she hadn't given him more information.

In the end, when Max and Liz had seen that they couldn't come up with any place they wanted to go, they had decided to let Janelle choose and hadn't been more surprised than that when it ended up that their destination would be Orlando, Florida, hometown of Mickey.

Apparently she was all ready to relive the 'bestest' day of her life, and when Max had pointed out that if they went there now, they wouldn't be going again for her next birthday, she had just said that she didn't care and wanted to go now, and that had settled it.

Liz and Max themselves had not really cared one way or another anyway, as long as they were together, so reservations had been made and a flight booked as soon as Liz had gotten Jim's consent, and one little girl had been even happier that day than when she had seen that her father was cooking breakfast in the morning, if that was possible.

The only dark point of the day had actually been when Tess had dared call Max, though at first neither Liz or Max had known why she would. She had no reason to considering she wasn't working that day and wouldn't be for a while, but Liz had suspected that she probably only wanted to know what was happening given how Max had left the office the previous day.

They hadn't gotten the answer since Max had refused to pick up no matter how many times she had tried, but he had truly nearly exploded when she had had the nerve to leave a message on her last call, telling him that she was worried but hoped that everything was alright, and to call her back since she would like to talk to him before she left. At that moment it had really taken all he had to not go and take care of her once and for all, but Max had felt Liz tense instantly at the suggestion and had quickly renounced. For the time being at least.

Most of the rest of the day had been spent at his parents', and later at the beach, and Max had been truly glad when his mother had offered to come with them, ensuring that way that he would manage to spend a few minutes with his wife without worrying about leaving Janelle alone.

It hadn't been for long but Diane had managed to pry her granddaughter off his side when she had suggested they made a sand castle while mommy and daddy went for a quick bath, but Max had enjoyed the moment thoroughly.

A little too much maybe actually, since the sight and feel of Liz in nothing more than a skimpy two-piece swimsuit had nearly driven him crazy and forced him to take her there in the water, but who cared… beside his mother of course. Let's just say that Diane had not been particularly thrilled or amused when she had heard a few kids snickering about the two people who were all but going at it in front of everyone, and she had looked up only to find her son devouring his wife like that would be the last thing he would be doing. Even if she had probably been more upset because they weren't even able to behave when their child, among many others, was near and could perfectly witness what they were doing, than because she didn't understand them.

There was no need to say though that she had given them both a piece of her mind when they had parted and gotten out once they realized how many people were actually looking at them, some clearly less amused than others, and from then on Max had done his best to not stay too close to Liz or touch her too much.

At least until the night. Then, once in the privacy of their bedroom, he had given free reign to his needs and desire, and worked out all the frustration of the day, and there had been no stopping them. The least that could be said was that it had been… explosive in every way… and they had only stopped when they hadn't been able to move at all.

They had both been worn out afterwards, and the only thing they had managed to still do was to dress up again, for Janelle's sake and just in case, and had almost right away drifted off to sleep.

That was most likely why Max fought so much when someone tried to pull him out of the beautiful dream he was having, not ready yet to face the real world.

If only they would let him be of course.


"Daddy?… Daddy!" the soft but insistent sound reached his ears once more and eventually aroused him completely from his sleep, but it took Max still a few seconds to get his bearings back and realize where he was.

"Uh?" he grunted sleepily, his eyes opening slowly, and the next second he couldn't suppress a grin when the first thing he saw was Liz plastered to his side.

"Max?" he heard her mumble softly, clearly disoriented herself, and he placed a tender kiss on her forehead when a gentle hand on his shoulder caught his attention and he understood what was going on. More or less.

"Shh, sleep love… I've got her." he murmured lovingly, disentangling his arms from around her and turning to the little culprit who had wakened them up.

"Janelle? What are you doing up, baby?" he asked, his voice just above a whisper so to not disturb Liz, who he could see had gone back to sleep almost right away.

"You said we were going to grandma and grandpa." Janelle declared as an explanation, and Max nearly rolled his eyes at that.

Why wasn't he surprised?

Yesterday, when she had been ready to go to sleep, he had all but promised her that he would take her to his parents' so she could play with her new friend, a little girl who was about her age and had just moved a few houses down his parents'. Apparently they had hit it off immediately a few days ago, when Janelle had been over there playing in the garden, but it had only gotten worse when his dear daughter had learned that she had a little puppy dog that was barely a few months old.

She had nearly hit the roof then, and had been talking non-stop about how cute the little thing was, only to beg Max afterwards to let little Tanya and her puppy come and live with them, that way she would be able to play with the dog whenever she would want, but she wouldn't be responsible for it since it wouldn't really be hers.

Yeah, he had had a talk with her about that and the need to be older to take care of an animal, after Janelle had attempted to convince him to get her a dog and tried to make him believe that it was okay with Liz as long as he agreed.

Anyway, Max had laughed at her suggestion of course, which apparently had not been the reaction Janelle had been expecting, and as a last resort to get her to sleep -what? he had some other… needs to take care of, and was in kind of a hurry- he had had no choice but to explain that that was not possible but that if she wanted, he would take her back the next day and she would play with Lucky some more.

He hadn't regretted his words until that second.

"Uh, yeah, I-I did… but it's too early yet, honey." Max told her as a quick look at the alarm clock made him realize that it was even worse than what he had thought.

No wonder he felt so tired, he and Liz had barely been asleep for a few hours that their daughter already wanted them to get up and be ready to face another day.

"But you said we'll go when I wake up!" Janelle reminded him, pouting exaggeratedly, which of course succeeded in making Max feel bad.

Yet probably not enough for once to make him get up when it was clear it was still dark outside.

"Yeah, I know… but I didn't think you'll wake up so soon." Max explained, though it was evident from the look on his daughter's face that said explanation wasn’t satisfying enough.

"But I wanna go… I wanna see Lucky and Tanya!" Janelle whined, and Max nearly laughed at how much she looked like her mother when she used the same trick to make him do whatever she wanted. Yeah, a perfect imitation, right down to her little hands on her hips.

"Honey, it's really too early right now and I'm sure that grandpa and grandma are not even up yet… nor are Tanya and Lucky… besides, we should wait for mommy to wake up first as well!" Max suggested, hoping that at least the mention of her mother would make her a little more patient, but it didn't take him long to understand just how wrong he was.

"Then make her wake up!" Janelle argued stubbornly, thinking that if that was the only thing they needed, it was quite easy.

She wouldn't see her new friends for a week, couldn't her daddy see that it was important she made the most of the time she still had left to see them now?

"Okay, Janelle… come here… " Max coaxed her and took hold of her hand to bring her even closer. "We can't right now, sweetie…" he started, smiling when Janelle hopped on the bed and straddled his chest.

"Why not?" she interrupted almost right away, catching Max slightly off guard since he hadn't expected to hear her questioning him on that.

"Because mommy needs her sleep." he said simply, judging that that was reason enough, but no, not for the inquiring mind of his child.

"Why?"

"B-Because she's… tired…" he stuttered awkwardly, wondering why he was suddenly feeling so stupid… and guilty.

Oh, maybe it was because he knew exactly why Liz was so tired, but he didn't really feel like explaining the real reason why to his five years old curious daughter.

"Why?"

"Uh… because… she went to bed… late!" Max continued even more lamely if that was possible.

This had to be some kind of sick way to punish him for something.

"Wh-"

"Janelle, sweetheart… why don't we just wait until she wakes up on her own, huh?" he suggested hopefully, if not desperately, knowing that there wasn't much more he could take of her questions.

It felt like forever to him until Janelle seemed to finally consider what he had said and agreed, but he could have honestly almost jumped from joy when she did.

"Okay." she shrugged at last before lying on top of Max, obviously having understood that there wasn't much more she could do for now.

"And in the meantime, we should get some more sleep, too!" he tried, admitting that he would definitely not mind a few more hours of rest himself.

"I'm not sleepy anymore!" Janelle whispered out almost right away, but didn't make any effort to move from her position like he had expected her to.

"But I am… don't you want to take a nap with daddy?" he questioned softly, stroking her hair and smiling when he heard her yawn despite her earlier protests.

"Okay, but not long!"

"Not long, sweetie!" he repeated, feeling his eyes quickly growing drowsy again as well.

Not long, no, but it would surely not take much more for him to start that nap.

"Can I stay here?" Janelle demanded sleepily but fighting to stay awake a little more nonetheless.

"Sure, baby… do you want to lie between me and mommy?" Max offered, already shifting a little away from Liz so he could settle their little girl between them.

"No, it's okay here…" she refused and Max couldn't help the silly grin that crept upon his lips when she moved a little to get more comfortable on top of him, and he felt one of her tiny hands drift under the sleeve of his tee-shirt.

"Okay, honey." he whispered back, apparently satisfied with this arrangement himself.

"Soo cute." he then heard from next to him suddenly, and as he turned to look at Liz, he saw her with her eyes still closed, but an amused smile was playing on her lips.

"Traitor!" he growled when she cut the distance he had put between them seconds ago and he understood that she had most likely been awake during all his conversation with Janelle… and had let him manage alone.

"I love you, too!" Liz just murmured, one of her hands joining the one he had laid protectively on the small of Janelle's back, their fingers meeting and immediately lacing together.

Max was just ready to answer, when he realized that he didn't need to. It was already perfect as it was. They were perfect like this, a family again.

And as that last thought drifted through his mind, Max knew that he couldn't ask for anything more than that. He had his girls in his arms again, and he couldn't feel happier than at that moment.
The soft warmth of a hand gently caressing her stomach was what woke Liz up again a few hours later, and she immediately snuggled into the hard body pressing behind her, sighing blissfully at the feeling.

"Morning, beautiful wife of mine!" was breathed softly into her ear and she smiled now, thinking that there could be no better way to wake up than in the arms of the man she loved.

"Morning, sexy… n-naked?… husband of mine." she replied a little surprised when one of her hands came into contact with his naked hip.

"Glad you noticed!" he murmured back, the smirk and desire evident in his voice.

He had barely gotten back from his parents' and the first and only thing he had done was undressing and getting back into bed with her, one and only thought in mind… taking full advantage of their moment of privacy.

"Max? What about Janelle?" Liz couldn't help mentioning, as enjoyable as the way he was nibbling at her skin and strumming his fingers on her flat stomach was.

"She's not here." he let on, teeth working her earlobe now and causing Liz to growl huskily.

"She's not?" she sighed, wondering nonetheless where her daughter could be if she wasn't there, and when she would come back.

The last thing they needed was to have her walking in on them about to make love, and she had no doubt this was where they were heading.

"I just took her to my parents' " he informed her, chuckling softly when he realized that she obviously had already forgotten, or just been too out of it to remember.

Janelle had waken her up before they had left, or at least tried, and Liz had even mumbled a soft goodbye to them before rolling over and going back to sleep again. Guess she hadn't known what she was doing at that moment.

"You did?" Liz frowned, having some recollection of Max telling her they were leaving, and Janelle kissing and hugging her, but nothing real clear. Apparently she had been just too tired to really pay attention.

Well, she would have to make up for that later with her daughter.

"Yes, and now that I've taken care of that… turn around, and let me take care of you!" he murmured already rolling her on her back, the husky timbre of his voice leaving little doubt about what kind of 'care' he was willing to provide.

"What? Do you plan to play doctor?" Liz teased, moaning softly when he settled between her legs and she noticed how aroused he already was.

"Why not… tell me where you hurt, and I'll see what I can do." he whispered slyly, the mischievous glint in his eyes showing just how much the idea of playing doctor indeed appealed to him.

"Well, now that you mention it… I've been feeling this ache for months now doctor… and it won't just go away." Liz played along and pouted, rubbing suggestively against him, delighted when she heard Max groan in response.

"Really? Where?" he demanded, his voice cracking slightly as his groin tightened even more at the contact.

"Everywhere and all over!" Liz panted, already breathless since Max was teasing her neck with his tongue in that particular way he knew drove her insane.

"Like here?" he whispered, biting lightly on her skin, to which Liz could only nod mutely. "… and maybe here?" he added after having opened her shirt, and slowly let his lips trail down to her chest.

"Huh-uh!" Liz purred as he reached her aching breasts and twirled his tongue around one hard nipple, her hand gripping at his hair, hoping to keep him there just a little longer than what she was sure he planned to.

It didn't seem to matter though, because a few seconds later, he was already parting her shirt to expose her completely to him and making his way down her stomach.

"What about here?" he asked her while he dropped moist kisses on the taut skin, making Liz shiver when he blew warm puffs of air on it afterwards.

"Yeah… but the worst is definitely…" having reached her limit point already, Liz caught one of Max's hands and brought it between her slightly parted legs, his eyes nearly rolling to the back of his head when he felt just how wet she was, even through the lace of the panties she was wearing for once instead of his usual boxers. "… right here!"

"Well, I guess I'll have to take a look there then!" he commented, his hands already making quick work of getting rid of her underwear. He couldn't do anything with clothes on his way, right?

"Oh, yeah, I see… open wide and say 'ah' for me!" he drawled out when they were gone, and almost right away spread her legs wider, her scent already driving him half out of his mind before he even had any chance to touch her.

"Hmm-aah!" Liz whimpered the second his fingers traced her nether lips, and then he probed her entrance with one of them, giving her a foretaste of what was to come.

"Yeah… I see exactly what the problem is and there is only one way to cure it." he affirmed with professionalism, working his finger in and out of her, his eyes drifting from the task at hand to Liz's beautiful and expressive face.

God, how much he had missed seeing her this way.

"H-How?" Liz sputtered croakily, her stomach contracting in pleasure already as her hips moved of their own accord.

"Lot of rest… and some oral prescription." was his guttural answer and Liz could only moan in anticipation. "Now I could administer it myself… unless you prefer another way… but personally I think…" he continued only to be brutally interrupted by Liz who just couldn't take it anymore.

"Doc… shut up and get to work!" she commanded and one look at her was all Max needed to see how serious she was, and who was he to upset his favorite patient, huh?

"Gladly!" he growled throatily, a millisecond before he obeyed her and sucked directly on her clit, causing Liz to nearly bow off the bed.

Fingers still stroking her warm moist depths, he worked the small nub between his lips, his tongue coming to help when he felt Liz getting closer.

Her moans grew louder after only a few minutes of that 'treatment' and he was suddenly even more glad for Janelle's absence, knowing that they wouldn't have had such liberty if she had been there. God, he loved to hear Liz cry his name like this, with abandon and passion, without caring about who could hear or not, and he had had too rarely the occasion to hear those breathy sounds lately to not enjoy them fully now.

He felt her tremble under his touch then and sucked even harder, ignoring the fact that she was all but leaving him bald, and relished in her grunts and gasps of pleasure when she eventually exploded. Then and only when she seemed to calm some down, he slowly crawled up her body.

"Feeling better Mrs. Evans?" he breathed out, kissing her tenderly and groaning himself when Liz sucked on his tongue the instant she felt it trace her lips softly.

"Not yet doctor…" she responded, letting one of her hands drift between them and squeezing gently when she found exactly what she was looking for, Max hard and ready for more. "I think I need something stronger!"

"And I think I have exactly what you need!" he answered back just as meaningfully, his lips seeking hers once more at the same time he let himself sink into her softness with the intention to give her the best healing he could.

Hours later Max emerged from the bedroom, very satisfied and proud of himself, the shittiest grin he could muster on his lips.

One distracted hand scratched his naked chest while the other tousled his hair even more, and he yawned, realizing that this last round of intense lovemaking had tired him more than what he had thought.

They were only taking a break though, because he planned to go back to his lovely and passionate wife as soon as he would have found something to snack on and sustain them. They needed their strength if they wanted to still enjoy each other some more before they had to go and fetch Janelle.

It didn't take him long to find what he needed, grape, cheese, bread and some orange juice, but he was only half way through the hallway when he heard someone calling at the front door and was stopped in his tracks.

He seriously considered not answering at all, and would have most likely just climbed the stairs to go back to Liz if the person hadn't obviously been so insistent and eager to be invited in.

Not giving any second thoughts to the fact that the only thing that covered him were the jeans that clung to his thighs and hung low on his hips, he threw the door open without even looking first and checking who it could be, and his jaw nearly hit the floor when he came face to face with the very last person he had been ready to see.

"N-Nancy?" he blurted out her name, his pulse quickening when his mother-in-law picked up her own jaw and gave him a look that could have disintegrated him on the spot.

"What are you doing here?" she spat out, not hiding her disdain or her anger at finding him there, though he could tell she was just as shocked with the situation as he could be himself.

"What are you doing here?" Max recovered quite quickly and retorted, cocking an eyebrow at her, which could as well have meant 'isn't it obvious?' or just 'you have some nerve to ask considering this is my house.' "Nice to see you, too!" he then added with an ironic smile, when Nancy ignored his question and just pushed past him and into the house.

"Yeah, whatever! Where's my daughter?!" she grumbled before asking him where Liz was, the way she accentuated the last word almost sounding like she was telling him that she was her daughter first before being anything to him.

Before Max had any time to come up with a valid lie that would buy him some time then, she started yelling Liz's name almost at the top of her lungs, and he could only hope that it wouldn't be enough for Liz to hear her and come see what was happening. Something told him that that wasn't something he wished to see happen.

Unfortunately, luck didn't seem to be on his side and it didn't take Liz more than a few seconds to appear at the top of the stairs, a simple sheet wrapped around her otherwise naked body.

He wasn't sure then if he should laugh at Nancy's appalled expression or simply run for cover as fast as he could so he wouldn't be anywhere near her when she would sure explode. In fact it was only seeing how clueless Liz still was that stopped him from doing so, conscious that he couldn't really leave her there to face Nancy when he knew that he was just as responsible of this situation, if not more, as she was. If only he hadn't gone and opened the damned door.

He could also clearly see that Nancy was just too astounded to react for now, that seeing him behind the door when she had knocked had probably been the last thing she had been expecting, but he suffered from no delusion that she wouldn't soon get herself together, and when that happened… he was a dead man.

"Max, baby… come back, it's getting cold without you… up here!" Max could tell the moment Liz noticed her mother's presence, certainly more because her face took on an horrified expression than because of the way she trailed off when she spotted her.

"Mom?" Liz squeaked out suddenly, clutching the sheet closer to her body, and Max felt even more sorry for her when he saw the disbelieving look Nancy threw her when she obviously understood what they had been doing before her impromptus arrival. "What are you… I… oh, my… wait there… I-I'll be d-down in a minute."

The instant those few words were out, Max saw her scurry away, and it took all he had to not just run after her like he so wanted to.

"If you'd excuse me as well." he told Nancy with a calmness he was absolutely not feeling, and then did his best to walk up the stairs as normally as he could, not waiting for Nancy to give him permission however, her muttered curse drifting to his ears but not stopping him for all that.

He couldn't, not if he wanted to make it upstairs before any of them had a chance of saying something they would regret afterwards, but he wondered nonetheless why he was feeling like a seventeen years old horny teenager being caught doing something he shouldn't have again, when he had long gotten past that stage.

Like he had already predicted, he found Liz pacing the bedroom like a mad woman, obviously very near a nervous breakdown, and it only took him a few quick steps to join her.

"Oh, my god… I can't believe this… why is she here? what is she doing here?… what the heck is she…" Liz babbled out the instant she noticed him, her voice bordering on hysterics now and only increasing Max's own nervousness.

"Liz, calm down…" he soothed gently, knowing that as embarrassing as this was, it was already too late to do a thing about it, and even less work herself in such a frenzy.

Whatever she could be thinking, Nancy was definitely not stupid and she had most likely already drawn up her own conclusion. The only thing they could do now was to try to do some damage control and work from there. Max knew well that it wouldn't be a small fit considering that it was no secret anymore to him just how much Nancy despised him now, but it didn't change anything for him at this point.

He wanted to be with Liz, he needed to be with her, and it would certainly not be his mother-in-law who would prevent him from doing just that and be happy again.

"Calm down? Calm… Are you fucking kidding me?… my mom is downstairs, Max!" Liz all but shrieked, confusing Max with the force of her outburst.

So clearly it could be quite upsetting to have her parents finding out about them in such a way, but that didn't mean that it was the end of the world, did it?"

Deciding to not dwell too much on her reaction for now, Max reached out to her and drew her to him before she had any chance to react or pull away from him once more.

"Hey, come here…" he whispered softly, cradling her face between his hands before forcing her to meet his eyes. "Breathe… and calm down, okay?" he insisted, sure that she would just suffocate and keel over if she didn't start to take deep breaths.

"There…" he breathed out when he saw her do as he had instructed, and when he was sure her breathing had become more regular, he pulled her into a tender kiss.

Gently he nibbled at her lips until Liz lay boneless in his arms, only to stop when she started to get into it and moaned at the sensual contact.

"That's not fair, Max!" Liz scolded, but this time there was none of the animosity her previous words had held.

"Maybe, but it worked, didn't it?" Max answered with a teasing smile, the sure sign that he had known exactly what he had been doing.

"Maax… my mother is downstairs!" Liz reiterated quite miserably, burying her head into his hard chest, like she was trying to hide from all this and what she knew was yet to come.

"Liz, it's okay… we were going to tell your parents anyway… right?… I mean…" Max trailed off when he realized that they had not really discussed how they would break the news to the Parkers.

Given that he was person non grata in their eyes now, he had just assumed that Liz would tell them over the phone, when they would have been miles away and not close enough to come and hunt him down, but what if Liz had just thought she would just delay it until she wouldn't have had any other choice but to tell them.

Or worse, what if she had never had any intention to tell them at all? Suddenly the craziest scenarios popped into his mind and he wasn't so sure that he was ready to go through this.

"Oh, Max…" Liz moaned out when she realized that her reaction had only increased Max's fears.

She knew well what could be going through his mind because she had had the same fears regarding his parents' reaction. Only the Evanses had been all too thrilled to hear about their reconciliation to not greet her back into their family gladly, while she was almost sure that her parents would be another story altogether. She doubted they would take their reconciliation with as much philosophy and enthusiasm, no matter the fact that this had been what she and Janelle had wanted all along.

Yet despite the fact that she knew that Max had all the reasons to dread how her parents would take the news, she didn't want him to think that it changed anything for her or that she regretted, even just for a second, having him back.

Her lips sought his almost desperately then, eager to show him just how much she loved and needed him, and she didn't let go of him until she had made sure she had driven her point home.

"You're right… I… I'm sorry… it doesn't matter… I just…" she whispered when they came up for air, her arms still tightly wrapped around his neck, needing him close now more than ever.

"… wish you didn't have to do this now… I know…" Max finished for her, his forehead against hers while his fingers kept caressing her face, giving her all the support he could.

"Yeah… but… it's okay…" Liz conceded easily, knowing that it would be no use trying to deny that she would have preferred waiting some more to face the wrath of her mother.

She should have anticipated this however. Given how she had broken down on the phone not two days ago, it was surprising her mother hadn't gotten here sooner actually, but she guessed that she had just not been able to get a flight sooner. Knowing her she had probably planned this as soon as she had hung up, and she guessed she was lucky it had happened that way, because she didn't know what would have happened between Max and her if they hadn't had that night alone two days ago. It had changed everything between them, but she could bet that if her mother had been there, they wouldn't have gotten that far.

"It will be… and I'll be with you all the while!" Max said confidently, even though if he were honest, he would rather face an entire battalion of ruthless lawyers, than to have to say two words to his mother-in-law at that second.

"Actually, it would probably be better if I did this alone…" Liz mused, despite the fact that it wasn't really something she was looking forward to.

Yet she knew her mother, and she would probably not hear a word of what she had to say if Max was in the same room when they had that conversation.

"Are you sure, Liz?" Max asked uncertainly, already picturing how it would go and wanting to be there to support her if need be.

It didn't matter that he wasn't Nancy's favorite person in the world right now -that was a serious understatement actually- but he would do whatever he had to, to be there for Liz.

"Yeah… and maybe it would even be better if you weren't in the house… you know…" she continued with a frown, sure that there would be many raised voices and not wanting him anywhere near if it get too ugly.

Max seemed to hesitate again at that, not so sure himself about the idea, and Liz had to insist some more for him to finally relent.

"Okay… I'll just go out for a few hours then!" he agreed at last, thinking that he would just use the opportunity to do what he had planned to do later anyway.

He had yet to go and see Alex and talk to him about Tess and the fact that he would soon need another secretary and see how they would take care of that.

Besides, even if he hadn't said more to Liz about it so to not give her any false hope, he also wanted to bring up to Alex the fact that he would like to be exempted from traveling around for the firm from then on, and since he didn’t really know how his friend would take it, he would rather have that conversation somewhere more private than the office.

He didn't know yet how they would work that out, but he and Alex would just have to think about it and find a way while he was away because he knew there was no way he could be anywhere but with Liz and Janelle from then on. Which reminded him that he would have to inform Alex that, though everything was alright with them, he wouldn't be coming for a week nonetheless. Well, if they managed to still go of course, since he didn't know yet how long Nancy planned to stay and her presence might put a serious damper to their plans.

"Where will you go?" Liz questioned him, even if she had been the one suggesting it, she didn't want him to have to wander aimlessly around while she talked to her mother.

"Don't worry about me… I'll just go and see Alex now… and I'll also have to go and pick my things from Michael's anyway." he revealed, thinking that he would stop by Isabel's and bring some things from there as well, a few in particular he just couldn't wait to finally give her.

Satisfied with his answer, Liz moved and grabbed for her sweatpants to add to her outfit that still consisted only of a shirt thrown quickly over her shoulders when she had come up, and urged him to do the same, knowing her mother and her patience, and that she wouldn't wait much longer for them to get back.

It was already a miracle she hadn't barged in there and demanded to have a explanation right away.

Five minutes later so, Max and Liz made their way downstairs, hand in hand and offering a united front, and though they could both see Nancy pacing the living room and glowering at them when she spotted them, for a few more seconds they chose to not pay her much heed.

Liz walked Max to the front door, and although she was sure that her mother had to have followed and could perfectly see them, she stood on tiptoes and kissed Max tenderly, drawing much needed strength from the short contact.

"Call me if she's too much… and I'll come back immediately!" he felt the need to whisper as they pulled apart, checking in his pocket to see if he had taken his cell phone.

He then kissed her forehead softly when she nodded wordlessly, the loving gesture not going unnoticed by Liz's mom, and left throwing a 'Later, Nancy!' over his shoulder, even when he knew it would most likely not be answered.

Liz didn't even need to turn around then to know the second her mother had stepped directly behind her, the chill that run up her spine being warning enough of her looming presence, and she almost called Max back, calling herself ten times an idiot for not having taken him up on his offer after all.

Well, it was too late for that, wasn't it? she thought as she turned around and tried to make her way to the living room.

"Care to tell me what I just walked in on?" Nancy Parker attacked as soon as her daughter had closed the door, the angry glare she sent her leaving little doubt about how furious she could be.

She was seething in fact, having a hard time conceiving that while she had been concerned and all but flipping about her daughter and what she could be going through, when she had run and left her husband and everything behind to catch a flight to Los Angeles to be by her side during such a rough time, Liz had been playing the lovely, but stupid wife with her cheating husband again. Well, if she didn't see what was wrong with that picture, she would make sure to open her eyes once and for all.

"Nothing!" Liz huffed, trying to delay the inevitable, even when she knew there was no use. Not that she had any illusion that this would stop her mother from telling her exactly what she had in mind, but one could always hope.

"Something obviously!" her mother countered right away, arms crossed over her chest and looking at her like she would do every time Liz was in serious trouble when she was little.

Only Liz wasn't a little girl anymore, and as intimidating as she could still clearly be, she refused to back off now and show any weakness. Not at the cost of her happiness.

"Mom! I don't have to justify myself in front of you… and I don't have to explain what I do with my husband, in my house!" Liz reminded her, meeting her stare squarely, and hoping that it would be enough to set things straight.

She should have known better though, considering that this was her mother after all and she had never been one to make things easy for her.

"Oh, I see… was the make up sex that good, huh?… so good in fact that it made you lose your mind again?" she all but spat out disdainfully, and Liz, despite her efforts, couldn't help the blush that crept and colored her cheeks, causing her mother to snort with disgust. "Obviously… but it is not worth it, Liz… no sex is worth what he's going to put you through again… don't you see… all he wants is to have the cake and eat it… the lovely wife at home and the mistress on the side… is this what you want for yourself? What you want for your daughter?" she threw angrily, not believing that Liz could be so clueless and not see what was happening.

No matter how sincere Max could have looked again all of a sudden, it just seemed too convenient to her to see him come back and seduce Liz again just on the same day or only mere hours after Liz had asked him for a divorce. Of course he had probably finally realized all he could lose if Liz went through with it, understood what it would mean for him between having to lose his house and pay alimony and everything that went with an official separation, and he had certainly not wanted that.

She wasn't surprised in fact, she just didn't know who she should want to strangle first, Max for being so vile and manipulative, or Liz for being stupid enough to not see that she was being used and fooled once more.

"Don't… bring my daughter into this!" Liz growled through gritted teeth, the rage in her voice barely controlled at all now.

The last thing she needed was to see her mother using Janelle in this and as much as she wanted to stay calm and not let her mother get to her, if she started hitting so low, Liz wasn't sure how this was going to end but it wouldn't be good in any way, that was an evidence.

"She's also my granddaughter, and I won't let you jeopardize her future and her happiness because you're too weak to stick to your decisions! I will knock some sense into that thick head of yours before that!" Nancy all but shouted back, leaving Liz gaping at her for all but two seconds before her blood started boiling again.

The nerve of her mother would never cease to amaze her. And not necessarily in a good way.

"How dare you, mom? She may be your granddaughter but I am her mother… me, and no one else and you're seriously deluding yourself if you think that I'm gonna let you decide what's best for her or not!… no one but me and her father will, do you hear me?!… As for her happiness, my daughter hasn't been happier than since she understood that her father would be here with us again and forever… now Max and I are together… so deal with it… it's easy in fact, either you accept it or you get the hell out of this house!" Liz exploded, having finally reached the end of her patience with her mother and her constant grievances concerning Max.

Of course she knew that she had only herself to blame for that, after all if she had been stronger, she wouldn't find herself in such a situation. She realized now that she probably shouldn't have said a word about Max and what was happening to her mother, but at the time, she hadn't known who to turn to and her mother had seemed like the most logical choice with her best friend so far away.

She had caught her on the phone one day when she had been particularly depressed and Liz had finally broken down and poured out what she had then believed to be the truth, that Max was cheating on her, not realizing then what would be the consequences of her action months afterwards.

Now that she knew how wrong she had been, she regretted even more having talked to her mother at all, but there wasn't a thing she could do to take it back now. No, the only thing she could do was try to make her understand that this was her life and that, as much as she had appreciated her constant support and the fact that she had truly always been there for her when she had needed her the most, she refused to let her dictate her existence or ruin her chances with Max.

As grateful as she was, her mother would have to accept the fact that Max was part of her life again, and this time she had no intention to let anyone come between them. Not another woman, and certainly not her family, as much as she loved them. And from the look on her mother's face, she had just understood now just how serious she could be about it.

"Liz!" Nancy gasped, her eyes wide, obviously shocked to hear her daughter talking to her like that.

They had had their moments and their fights, like in any normal mother-daughter's relationship, but it had never gotten as far as Liz basically telling her that she wasn't welcome into her house if she didn't agree with her.

"No, I mean it, mom… " Liz pursued before Nancy could even give her a piece of her mind and remind her who she was talking to. "You don't know the first thing about what happened with Max, you don't know what he has been through… yet you're here and you've just tried him and sentenced him already and all at once… and I can understand considering the elements you had… I truly do… but couldn't you just trust me for once?… trust the fact that I know what I'm doing?" she then intoned, the trembling of her agitated arms showing just how affected she truly was.

She knew that her mother had no reason to trust Max again or even to want to see them together given that she had still no idea about what had really happened, but she thought that she knew her better than that and was aware of the fact that as much as Liz could love Max, she wouldn't have fallen back into his arms and be ready to start again with him if she hadn't been sure that it would work this time, if he hadn't given her all the reasons to believe in him again. In them.

"Your judgment isn't always the wisest, Elizabeth, do I need to remind you that?" Nancy scolded her condescendingly, and if that weren't already enough, the use of her full name only served to infuriate her even more.

"No, you need not, mother… I'm perfectly aware of that… I've gotten the proof not a day ago, thank you!" Liz retorted, feeling a monstrous headache coming. Like she needed her mother to keep treating her like a child.

"What is that supposed to mean?" her mother asked, making Liz realize that she had probably said too much, considering that she had not wanted to give her all the details about what had transpired between her and Max since he had barged into the house after having thought that something had happened to her and Janelle.

"Nothing!" she huffed and turned around, not wanting to say more.

There was no reason for that anyway, was it? Either her mother accepted the new changes in her life or she didn't, the rest was between her and Max. It was private, even if obviously her mother wasn't seeing it that way.

"Liz? You want me to understand you, then talk to me!" Nancy insisted, apparently realizing that there was more to the situation than what she was getting. If only Liz wouldn't be so damn stubborn sometimes.

"No, mom!" Liz all but cried out, albeit she knew well that her mother wouldn't make it easy for her and leave it at that.

"Liz!" Nancy uttered sternly, blocking Liz's path when she tried to pass by her.

"Fine… you want me to tell you the truth?" Liz hissed out furiously as she yanked her arm from Nancy's grasp, her ire finally getting the better of her. "Max never had an affair, okay… never… and the only reason I found myself in this situation is because I was fool enough to believe some lies instead of trusting my husband and trying to look at the facts objectively… o-or just talking to him… it was my fault, mom… mine, do you hear?… so if you want to blame someone, blame me… blame me for the seven months I've been through… blame me for depriving my own daughter of her father's constant presence all that time… blame me for everything you want but leave Max alone and out of this!" once she was finished Liz had a hard time keeping breathing normally, but she couldn't have stopped the flow of words even if she had wanted to.

Those thoughts had been on her mind ever since she had understood what had really happened and she had only now found the strength to voice all of them out loud. As much as she knew Max wouldn't approve of her thinking that way, she knew that she was the only one truly responsible for their momentary separation.

Max after all would have stayed with her even thinking she had an affair, he loved her that much. He would have shared her with another man if he had had to and that as much as that thought killed him, as long as she wouldn't have left him, and what had she done? She had made him leave the second she had had a doubt, without giving him any opportunity to explain himself, without even really talking to him. How could she blame him then or not admit that this was mainly her fault?

"I d-don't understand!" Nancy stammered dumbfounded, honestly as disturbed by Liz's vehemence as by her need to defend Max so much once more.

And was that even the truth anyway? Could she believe her now or was she just trying to protect him again? Could she have been so wrong about him after all?

"You're not supposed to… and I don't even want to talk about it… I just want you to leave Max… alone… that's all I'm asking of you… he did nothing wrong, and you will just have to take my word on that!" Liz told her, some of her anger deflating nonetheless now that she had finally gotten that out of her chest. She definitely felt better now, at least a little bit, even if she wasn't stupid enough to not realize that it wouldn't be enough an explanation for her dear mom. "Are you ready to accept that?"

"Liz… I don't know if… "

"If you're not, just leave my house!" Liz cut her off before she could say more, leaving no room for discussion here, even if obviously that was the last thing her mother had expected her to do.

"I won't leave without seeing my granddaughter, Liz… I haven't made all this trip to just leave like this!" Nancy threw back quite indignantly, her arms crossing stubbornly in front of her once more.

She knew that Liz was pissed, but that didn't mean she was anywhere ready to leave. Granted when she had booked her flight, she hadn't been far from losing it herself and the only thought she had had in mind had been to come and comfort Liz, sure that she would find her near a nervous breakdown and hysterical, but the fact that everything had apparently been solved before she could even help didn't mean that she would just turn around now that she was here. If Liz didn't need her she at least wanted to use the occasion to spend some time with Janelle.

"She's not here right now, but you're more than welcome to stay and wait for her… but I won't hear another word coming from you and concerning my husband or you're in the next flight to Roswell!" Liz warned decisively, not backing off when Nancy looked at her like she had finally lost her mind.

For a long moment they kept staring at each other, obviously trying to see who would crack up first and when eventually Nancy understood that she didn't have the upper hand here and that she would have to do with Liz's will if she really hoped to stay, she felt her shoulders sag and gave up at last.

"Fine!" she grunted, clearly not pleased with the turn of events, but having no choice left.

"Good!"

"Great!"

"Yeah, great…" Liz repeated before eventually lowering her eyes and huffing a little more quietly, obviously ashamed nonetheless with her behavior even if it would have been hard to tell a few minutes earlier with how sure of herself she had seemed to be. "… and I'm sorry for yelling at you!"

The soft statement apparently caught Nancy by surprise because it took her a moment to react herself.

"I'm sorry, too, sweetie!" she whispered after a brief hesitation and then, unable to stop herself, took her daughter in her arms.

She might not need as much comfort as she had thought she would have to provide, but she was still her little girl and she had truly been scared for her until she had finally seen her. After all the last time she had talked to her, she had been crying her eyes out and in so much pain it had very nearly broken her own heart, and that wasn't something any mother wanted to have to witness.

"I love him mom, and he's going to make me happy again… I know he's going to!… and he needs me just as much as I need him!" Liz murmured as she hugged her back, knowing that despite all her flaws, her mother meant well.

She knew that she wasn't trying to be mean to Max on purpose and that she was only trying to protect her. And if she was honest, she didn't really know how she would react herself if she saw anyone trying to hurt her baby girl, she would probably hate them and want them to suffer as well in fact, but her mother just needed to understand that she didn't need to shield her from Max. After what had happened the last few days, Liz knew that he would rather die first before letting anything happen to her or causing her any pain again.

"Okay honey, I-I trust you!" Nancy said still a little hesitantly, but she couldn't deny any longer that Liz indeed looked better than she had seen her in a very long time. No more than she could deny that her daughter had never stopped loving Max Evans and that the only thing she had been wishing for the last past months, was for the chance to work things out with him, so she guessed that she should be happy for her now that her prayers had apparently been heard.

"Thank you!" Liz replied softly, unable to express just how much those simple words could mean to her. "And you will learn to love him again, too!… I know you will… you'll see." she added when they finally parted, seeing her mother approving of Max again being more important to her than what she had been ready to admit till then.

She knew her mother wasn't a bad person and that until the day she had realized that Max was neglecting her because of his job, and later when she had thought that he was cheating on her, she had always appreciated Max, so she could only hope that she would realize that nothing had changed, and that despite what they had believed, he was still the same man. A man who, even when he had forgotten how to show her, had always loved her, and more than any other man could ever pretend to.

"I don't need to, Liz… as long as you love him and you're sure he loves you, too… that's all I'm asking… I-I'm going to be okay with that!" Nancy sighed before telling her what she was sure Liz needed to hear.

Trusting Max Evans again wouldn't be an easy task, but if Liz thought he was worth the risk, if she was willing to put her heart in the balance again, what was she supposed to do? With how determined Liz seemed to be about it, she knew she wouldn't win whatever she could say, and she wasn't willing to lose her only daughter just because she couldn't accept the man she loved.

"He does, mom… so much… and he certainly had more reasons to stop loving me than I had… because just so you know… he suffered just as much as I did! I hurt him, too, even if I didn't mean to!" Liz replied as convincingly as she could, hoping her mother could understand just how much Max indeed loved her, and how hard this had been for him as well, no matter what she could have thought.

When she thought of those images of her and Kyle in each other's arms, about that supposed loving kiss he had had in mind for so long, she couldn't help but cringe again. She knew that they had talked about it and that even if he still didn't know all the facts, Max understood that there had never been anything between them, but she wasn't naïve enough to believe that those images would disappear just like that. It would probably take him some time to forget about them, and that was her fault, too.

"You will talk to me about this one day?" Nancy demanded, even if from the tone of her voice, Liz could see that as much as she wanted to know, she wouldn't push her to say more if she didn't want to, at least for now, as surprising as that could be.

"I will… but give me some time, okay?" Liz assured her, conscious that she would have to some day soon, but definitely not now.

Right now she was feeling rather weary, and she just wanted a few minutes to pull herself together.

"Sure, sweetie!" Nancy relented easily, seeing that this would be the end of the discussion, at least for the time being.

"Okay, why don't you go and get settled in the guestroom… and I'll just go and make some coffee meanwhile?" Liz then proposed, already moving in the direction of the kitchen before her mother could object or really answer.

As soon as she passed the door, she couldn't help but expel a tired sigh, rubbing her temples slightly before leaning against the kitchen countertop and taking deep breaths to calm herself.

The next instant though she gasped loudly when she felt strong arms circling around her waist and pulling her into a hard body, but despite the small shock she didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

"I'm sorry, baby!" Max murmured against her ear, holding her as tightly as he could and giving her just exactly what she had needed at that moment. The comfort of his presence.

"Max? What are you doing here?" Liz leant into him but couldn't help questioning nonetheless, considering he was supposed to have left a while ago and she had not realized he had evidently come back sometime during her talk with her mom.

"I forgot Isabel's keys so I came back through the kitchen back door… I just… I couldn't help but overhear you and I'm sorry you had to go through that because of me." Max turned her around and explained, not wanting her to think that he had deliberately spied on them.

He had really meant to leave and let Liz take care of everything with her mother, and when he had realized he hadn't taken Iz's keys, he had tried to come back as discreetly as possible as he could, but he had certainly not expected to see Liz and Nancy engaged in a yelling contest, or hear some of the things Liz had had to say.

He had known that she felt responsible for most of what had happened already, but he hadn't thought that it was to this point and it had truly taken all of his willpower to not barge in there and just tell Nancy to leave her alone and get the hell out of there himself. Of course he wished that things were different, but he wouldn't let his mother-in-law make Liz feel bad for something she hadn't had any real control over. If she didn't want to see him and she spent the rest of her life hating him, so be it, he was ready to live with that as long as Liz didn't have to suffer from it.

What was sure though, was that Liz certainly didn't deserve some of the things her mother had thrown at her, and if it weren't because he knew it would only make matters worse, he would have surely gone and given her a piece of his mind.

"It's not your fault, Max… if anything it's mine!" Liz said, burrowing into his warmth, definitely glad that he hadn't left, for whatever reason that had been.

Once more she couldn't help realizing how stupid she had been in all this though. At least Max had been smarter with his parents and hadn't told them much about the situation beside the fact that they were having problems and would take a step back for a while, ensuring that way that they wouldn't react any differently to her, or put the blame on one of them more than the other. She just wished she had had the same presence of mind, her mom would have certainly been easier to deal with that way.

"That's so not true, baby, and you know it…" Max contradicted tenderly, hands stroking her hair and the small of her back in what he hoped was a soothing manner.

"Do I?… If I hadn't told her…" Liz started, ready to voice her previous thoughts out loud but a gentle finger on her lips stopped her from going further.

"Hey… you told her because you needed someone to talk to… and I'm glad she was there for you when I couldn't!" Max cupped her face so she would be forced to look at him and whispered honestly, knowing that at least Liz hadn't been alone in this and that he had Nancy to thank for that.

As much as he hated the situation and how hostile she could be to him now, and probably would be for a while, he wouldn't have wished Liz to do things any differently because he knew that it would have certainly eaten her inside if she hadn't been able to confide in someone she knew she could trust and would hear her out.

He would have preferred that person to be Maria or any other of her friends, but he wouldn't complain about it, knowing how much of a help Nancy had been all those months while he had been too blind to see a thing and pick on Liz's own distress.

"Still, I hate that she thinks that you're the bad guy here!" Liz admitted, sure that no matter how many times she would tell her mother that Max had never been unfaithful, no matter if she even related what had really happened in excruciating long details, she would still see him that way for a while before being able to forget.

"Liz, as much as I appreciate you defending me, you don't have to… I don't care what your mother or anyone else thinks of me… as long as you believe in me!" he let her know, wanting her to remember that she was the only one whose opinion truly counted for him. Everything and anyone else was secondary.

"I do, Max… you know I do!" Liz vowed instantly, looking at him with her heart in her eyes, hoping that he would see just how much she meant the words. She had doubted him once, she wouldn't make the same mistake ever again.

"Then that's all that matters to me… " Max responded, thumbs caressing her cheekbones before he placed a gentle kiss on her soft lips, and added almost joking, "… and in the meantime, I'll just do my best to not stay on your mother's way!"

"You shouldn't have to!" Liz moaned out dejectedly, cursing herself once more for having led them to this.

"Liz, stop blaming yourself for everything… none of what you told her is true… the only one to blame here is Tess Harding… and for that she'll pay when the time is right!" Max gritted despite himself as he remembered exactly what Liz had said, when he knew that only the blonde psycho bitch that used to be his secretary was responsible for this.

Nevertheless, he understood where Liz was coming from since he had taken the same guilty trip before realizing that it would do them no good to continue that way. He would have to live with it and what he had done himself for the rest of his life, but from then on he would put all his energy in trying to find a way to make Tess regret having ever messed with him and Liz for the rest of her life.

Yet obviously that was the last thing he should have mentioned in front of Liz for now, he realized as he heard her groan almost as soon as her nemesis' name passed his lips.

"Max… are you sure she left?" she couldn't help asking him after a short while, hating that she was still feeling so insecure when it came to Tess.

Not that she feared anything concerning the fantasy-like relationship she had conjured up in her deranged mind, but the less time Max would spend anywhere near her, the better she would feel.

"Yeah… she's probably already enjoying her last paid holidays!" Max guaranteed her with a clear hint of satisfaction in his voice, thinking that once he would be done with her, Tess Harding would be lucky if she could just pay herself a night in the cheapest hotel of town.

"Okay… so you won't see her?" Liz insisted nonetheless, even if she knew she was just being ridiculous at this point.

"No, Liz, no… and even if I did, you know I'm not the one who should be scared… she should be!" he swore, glad once more that he wouldn't have to face Tess for a while, or he would have probably tried to kill her already.

"I hate her!" Liz blurted out before she could think twice, and though that was certainly no big news there for Max, he didn't think he had heard her say so, so sincerely and directly so far.

"I know!" he acknowledged and as much as he wanted to tell her in colorful words just how much he could hate her himself, he knew it would get them nowhere. Instead so he decided to change the subject and concentrate on something else. "Hmm… anyway… I don't think I thanked you properly yet for what you did out there."

"No, I don't believe you did!" Liz confirmed invitingly, seeing exactly what he was doing and loving him even more for that.

"My bad… come here!" he drawled out huskily, just before pulling her flush against his body and covering her lips with his almost right away.

As his mouth slanted over hers, his hands did some exploration of their own and Liz couldn't suppress a throaty moan when she felt them caressing the bare expanse of her back.

"No bra?" forehead against hers now, Max groaned when they parted for air, his fingers keeping on their sweet torture of her warm skin.

"Uh-huh… didn't have time for that." Liz panted as he pressed his lower body into hers and she noticed how the thought of her without underwear under her clothes turned him on.

"Too bad I don't have time to take advantage of that!" Max growled, his hands moving to her front now and playing with her soft breasts.

"Later?" Liz asked hopefully, lamenting just as much as he could her mother's bad timing, though she had to wonder where they still found the energy with all they had already done. Probably from all the months of abstinence.

"Definitely later!" Max assured her, promising himself that he would find a way, no matter how, and kissed her once more in anticipation.

"So… you're okay? I can leave you here alone with your mother?" he asked her minutes afterwards when the shutting of a door reminded him that they weren't alone and that he most likely shouldn't let himself get so carried away.

"Yes, go, we'll be okay!" Liz answered, wondering nonetheless how she would occupy her time with her mother in the meantime.

"Good… I'll stop by my parents on my way back and take Janelle home!" he informed her then, though he had no idea when exactly that would be given all he had to do.

"Yeah, I'm sure my mother will appreciate." Liz thought, knowing how eager her mother could be to see her considering that it had been months already since she had had the opportunity.

"I'm sure she will, yeah… at least she loves my daughter… I guess I did something right after all!" Max joked, conscious that Janelle was probably the only thing he had for him in the eyes of the Parkers now.

"Max!" Liz growled, hating that he could just think that way, no matter if he were serious or not.

"I'm kidding!" he kissed her softly in response, but when he was ready to deepen the kiss, they both heard Nancy calling for Liz and they were quick to part.

"Go now!" Liz whispered, pushing him in the direction of the door before her mother had a chance to see him.

Why did she suddenly feel like the teenaged girl she had once been and who used to help her boyfriend sneak in and out of the house so they wouldn't be caught by her parents. It was so ridiculous.

"Okay sweetheart… I'm gone… Love you!" Max stole one last kiss and after having playfully pinched her ass, walked through the door.

"Love you, too!" Liz murmured back, and after having closed the door behind him, shouted back to her mother. "Coming, mom!"

So that was it. Taking a deep breath, she exited the kitchen and prayed for the strength she would need to face the music, realizing only once she was out that she had completely forgotten about the coffee she was supposed to have made.

God, here went nothing.
End of chapter eleven.b


TBC...

Okay, there is a little more to this chapter but I don't have time to edit it right now since I'm off to see one of my friends who's pregnant and ready to pop ... but I'll come back with the rest later tonight... and in the meantime, let me know how this was

Author: RebeccaBehrEvans

Title: Before it's too late.

Rating: ADULT

AN: Hey, again

As promised here is the rest of the chapter. I hope you already liked the beginning, and enjoy the rest as well. Thanks for your feedbacks guys!

Bixie, my computer is more or less fixed At least it lets me work on it again, but I'm still having a few pbs… I didn't lose anything per say, but there's some files I just can't open anymore… my fics files being one of them… fortunately, my friend showed me how to get access to them without having to open the general file and I'm gonna do with that for now, until I can buy another comp.

Strawberry88, Yes, I'll deal with Kyle and Liz's embrace… Max will learn more about that in the next chapter… you'll soon know everything, too

Harroc83, yeah, Liz should probably tell the whole truth to her mother… and she will, she just didn't feel like having that conversation with her mother at that moment. She probably shouldn't have handled that that way, but well, she's Liz

Cocopucks, I'm glad you liked Nancy here you're probably the only one though Thanks for your feedback!

Erina, and Dreamer_Dreaming, thanks, too… I'm sure you'll like more dreamers' moments… well, here they come… and sorry about the 'mothers shouldn't know so much about their children' sex life'… I tried to relay the message to Max… but he just wouldn't listen

And Frenchkiss Why am I not surprised? Of course you'd like to wake up near a naked Max… who wouldn't, huh?

Just loved all your … I was like, yeah, you're saying that because you know what that horny Max is going to do … what can I say, a horny Max is definitely too sexy to pass! Thanks, too! And yeah, I feel your pain… Je renonce definitivement à la campagne… les fermes ça craind trop

Okay, here goes! (if you haven't read it yet, chapter 11 started on page 10 and was posted earlier. Don't miss it. )

Posted in two, due to length.

Chapter eleven.b


It was way past lunch time when Max got back, and he had probably never been so glad to be home again. The only thing he wanted then was to sit down, forget about the rest of the world, and not do a thing for the rest of the day unless he was forced to.

His talk with Alex had taken way longer even than what he had predicted, but he didn't regret it though since it looked like they would find a way to work everything out, or at least Alex had been willing to try.

It hadn't been easy to relate to him everything that had happened the last months and then more recently considering how personal some things had been, but Max had known he had no choice if he wanted Alex to have all the facts and understand him, and then want to go with what he was asking.

To say he had been shocked to learn what Tess had done and just how devil she could truly be would have been an understatement -poor Alex had thought he was hallucinating at that moment- but Max had gotten a huge surprise of his own when his partner had admitted that he had always more or less known that Tess felt more than kindred friendship where he was concerned. Apparently he was the only one who was too blind to see what was just right under his nose.

When Max had asked him why he had never said a thing then if he had figured out what he couldn't, Alex had just replied that it wasn't his place, and that beside, he had truly thought Max knew but just didn't want to make a big deal out of it, which was completely understandable.

Not that it really mattered anyway since Max knew that he could curse himself to no end and talk about it till he was blue in the face and it wouldn't change a damned thing, it was too late for that. The only thing he could do now was to deal with Tess, get her out of his life and then forget that she had ever existed.

Alex had made him realize though that it would probably not be as easy as he wanted it to be and that she would most likely sue them for abusive lay-off if they had no more motives than the fact that she was a crazy psycho to fire her, but Max had been adamant that it needed to be done and that there was no way he would keep working with her. Once faced with the possibility of losing Max if they didn't get rid of Tess, Alex had of course chosen the former, and it was decided that he would already start searching for a new secretary for Max while he would be gone.

Convincing Alex that he and Liz needed that had really not been difficult once he had known the truth, and Max had once more had the opportunity to see what a good friend Alex truly was when he had even suggested that he took more days if he wanted, and he would take care of everything meanwhile. Max had just said that he would think about it however, since he didn't know if Liz would have such liberty and facility herself.

Concerning his desire to not travel anymore if he could avoid it, Alex had said that there wasn't much he could promise right now, since he didn't know how they would manage that, but he had accepted to think about it and be okay with it if Max found a solution that would be satisfying for the firm and not prejudicial in any way to their business.

What Max had not dared say, was that he was so serious about it, that he was truly considering quitting, as much as he hated the thought, if there was no other way because he didn't think he could continue like that, and even less impose on Liz again what he had for years now. Regardless of what had happened with Tess, Max had nearly lost Liz already because of his work and he didn't plan to let it come between them again.

The only thing he could come up with himself right now however, was to keep taking care of the cases that would force him out of town but not long enough that he wouldn't be back home and in Liz's arms at night, and maybe hire someone else who could help them with the rest. If the firm could afford it of course, which as far as he knew shouldn’t be a problem.

His stop at Michael's had been more relaxing, even if he had had to explain a few things to him as well, but Michael had been too glad when he had told him that he and Liz were okay again, to care about anything else or about the details as to how. Now that he thought about it, Max didn't remember having seen him so exited about anything actually, or saying so much in so many words.

He hadn't been surprised when he had invited them all over to dinner, knowing how much Michael had always cared for Liz and loved seeing Janelle, and moreover considering that he had rarely had the opportunity to see both lately. Yet as much as Max had appreciated the offer and wanted to take him up on it, he had known that that would have to wait after their return.

He didn't know yet how they would do this with Nancy here, but he was ready to leave a little later if he had to if that meant leaving at all. The only thing he really didn't want was to have to cancel their trip completely if there was another way. He would just have to discuss that with Liz.

Hands charged with packets now, he discreetly made his way into the house, not wanting Nancy or Liz to see what those were about, and he frowned slightly when all he was met with was silence.

Depositing the bags against the wall in the hallway, he took a few steps into the living room, and stopped almost right away, admiring the way his wife, seated on a pouf and clad once more in shirt and boxers, concentrated on the notes and books spread in front of her on the coffee table.

"Hey." Liz whispered when the slight movement he made caught her attention and she noticed him standing there.

"Hey!" he greeted back, steeping closer and bending down slightly to drop and kiss on her head when he was near enough. "What you doing?"

"Trying to wrap this up for Jim." she answered, an arm coming around his waist and placing a reciprocating kiss on his hip. "Where's Janelle?" she then questioned as she didn't see their daughter.

"Well, when my parents heard your mother was here, my mom insisted to have us all for dinner… and I couldn't really say no, you know her… and well, since Janelle didn't want to leave Tanya just yet, I left her there." Max explained and squatted down to her level now. "Your mother?"

"Mrs. Petersen saw her outside apparently and asked her to come over." Liz told him, her cheek nuzzling the side of his head when he dropped it over her shoulder. "She should be coming back any minute now though, so don't get any idea!" she warned almost immediately afterwards when she felt his lips on the side of her throat and the hand that slid down her back.

"I wasn't getting any." he lied trying to look innocent but thinking that there was something else he wouldn't be getting right now apparently, and then asked again, "How did it go?"

"As expected." she turned more to him and whispered against his lips.

It hadn't gone bad per say, but things had definitely been better between her mother and her. They hadn't really talked more about Max or the situation, but the ambiance had been rather cold despite their attempts at conversation, and Liz had almost been relieved when her mother had gone back to her rental car and had been spotted by their neighbor on her way back. The old woman had always liked her mom and couldn't help showing her all the new pictures she got of her own grandchildren every time her parents visited. Today had not been any different, but at least it had permitted Liz to get a good start on her lessons for her different classes.

"You okay?" Max couldn't help asking, brushing a few strands of hair behind her ear, eyes strained on her face and looking for any sign that she wasn’t.

"We will be." Liz murmured, appreciating his concern but knowing there wasn't anything more they could do for now.

"Okay… I'm gonna go change… I'll be back in a second." he then said to her, seeing that she wasn't obviously in the mood to have another discussion or opinion on her mother, and after having pressed his lips to hers once more, stood up and took the direction of the stairs.

Checking to see if Liz wasn't looking at him and satisfied when he saw her with her nose in her books again, he quickly grabbed his bags and just as fast made his way upstairs.


"Scoot forward." he instructed ten short minutes later when he joined her again, dressed in sweatpants and a gray wife beater that left nothing to the imagination, and sat right behind Liz when she obeyed and made room for him.

The second he was settled, he wrapped his arms around her and held her like his life depended of it, sighing contentedly at being near her again. He had only been away a few hours, but that had been the most he had had to be apart from her for the last two days and they had already felt like hell.

"Did you eat?" Liz questioned him suddenly, thinking that she would just go and make him a quick lunch if he hadn't. After all as far as she knew he hadn't eaten anything in a while.

"Yeah, I did…" he replied, having had lunch with Michael when he had seen that he wouldn't be able to get back in time to eat with her.

"Good!" she said simply and gently squeezed the hand that rested on one of her knee now.

"Do you think your mom would be okay with tonight?" Max pondered a second later, knowing that her hatred stopped at him and wasn't extended to his family, but not sure nonetheless if she would want to have dinner with him and his parents for all that.

Of course when he had pointed that out to his mother she had told him to stop with his non-senses and that Nancy would be fine with it, but that didn't mean that he was more convinced now than he had been before.

"About?"

"Dinner… at my parents'!" he reiterated, wondering if Liz had been listening to him at all earlier.

"Why wouldn't she be?… you know she just loves your mother." Liz retorted, knowing how well their mothers had always gotten along and still did surprisingly, even when things had gotten from bad to worse between them.

"Okay." Max just shrugged, deciding to trust her on that, after all she knew Nancy better than he could, and just because she probably still wanted to see him dead, or at least castrated, didn't mean that she wouldn't behave in front of his parents.

"Max? What are you doing?" Liz demanded a moment later when Max, having obviously already forgotten about his earlier preoccupations, started to run his fingers along her thighs and nuzzled her neck in the most distracting way.

"If you have to ask, obviously something wrong!" he answered as his tongue trailed leisurely up to her ear before he bit gently on her earlobe.

"No… I… It's just… if you want me to take this week off, I need to do this right and concentrate! And right now… you're definitely not helping! " Liz told him even if she could easily admit that she would rather let him do whatever it was he had in mind than having to do this.

Unfortunately she was already way behind on her schedule as it was with her mother being here, if she hoped to finish this on time and be free for the rest of the day so she could enjoy his company later, she couldn't afford to waste any more time.

"I'm sorry… but I just can't stand being away from you right now!" Max breathed out and by the husky tone of his voice Liz could tell that sorry wasn't exactly what he was.

Aroused would probably suit better, but as much as she wanted to give in, she knew she couldn't. Not now at least.

"Max… this is really important!" Liz reminded him, throwing a look over her shoulder that should have frozen him on the spot if he hadn't read the same desire in her eyes he felt himself.

"I know!" he conceded, nipping at her jaw line before stopping and sighing when Liz pulled slightly away from him and regarded him even more sternly this time. "Okay, okay… I promise to not bother you, but please don't send me away… I need to be close to you!" he relented in a whiny tone that would have melted Liz's heart if she hadn't found that almost comical coming from her twenty-eight years old husband.

"You sound like your daughter when she's afraid I'm gonna send her to her room!" she teased before having to roll her eyes when Max added a cute pout and a slight trembling of his bottom lip at his already crestfallen expression. "Okay… fine! Stay close to me then!"

At this point she didn't think that she would be able to get him to move anyway even if she tried to with an iron bar with the way he was holding on to her. And if he let her work, she guessed that she had no reason to complain, after all she loved having him near her as much as he could.

For a few minutes, Max was happy with doing just that so, watching as she wrote and prepared her lessons, admiring once more just how brilliant his wife could be, but soon he had other ideas running through his mind again and wasn't able to stop himself.

"Hmm… what to do, what to do with my time now?!" chin on her shoulder, he whispered matter-of-factly, hoping that she would pay more attention to him if he made his presence known from time to time.

"I thought you just wanted to be close to me!" Liz argued back but much to Max's disappointment, she didn't stop what she was doing for all that.

Okay, so he would have to push this up another notch.

"Right… but you're busy… so… " he shrugged slightly before smiling broadly like he had just had the best idea of the year. "Oh, I know!"

"Max? What now?!" Liz asked as she felt him opening a few buttons to her shirt, or his actually, and once more she wondered if she would ever finish this for Jim.

With Max behaving like he was, things looked pretty compromised, and she was ready to scold him once more when his next words stopped her dead on her tracks.

"I love you… I love you… I love you… I love you… " he whispered tenderly, placing a kiss between each little utterance, on her bare shoulder, her shoulder blade, higher on her neck, everywhere he could reach from his position.

"W-What are you doing?" Liz questioned, voice quivering as much from the sensation of his lips on her as the sweetness of his words.

"Making up for each and every day I couldn't tell you just how much I love you… and for each little good morning kiss I couldn't give you!" he explained like it was the most natural thing in the world and continued with his ministrations. "I love you… I love you…"

"Max… that would be something like what… two hundreds and ten 'I love you's' and kisses at the very least, you realize that?!" she pointed out even if that was probably the most inane thing she could have come up with in answer to his declaration.

Yet it was that, or crying her eyes out in reaction and she didn't think that was what Max was going for.

"I know… now shush, you're going to make me lose my concentration!" Max answered playfully, adding a slight bite in punishment for the interruption. "I love you… I love you… "

"Don't tell me you're really counting them!" Liz asked incredulously, obviously realizing that Max was more serious even than what she had first believed.

He was far from being finished though if he really meant to go through with that many 'I love you's'. Or more, considering that her estimation was only accurate if they only counted the last seven months. Who knew how many he really planned to whisper to her.

"Eleven... I love you… Twelve... I love you… Thirteen... I love you… " Max enunciated, the smirk evident in his voice, and Liz knew it would be no use asking him to stop when he was like that.

Not that she really wanted him to, she had missed those words too much for that.

"You're completely nuts!" she just told him, thinking that for now she would just let him be… and reward him later for his tenderness. "Oh, well… just do whatever you want!"

She rolled her eyes once more at his behavior but didn't protest any further when he continued and intertwined their fingers together, one of his hands following hers each time she moved it over her papers and only relishing his hold on her when she needed to reach for a book or something else and she gently asked him to.

Max kept on with his profession of love and his tender kisses so, while Liz continued working, even more motivated to finish now so she could take care of her husband, and that was how Nancy found them when she came back not twenty minutes afterwards.

They had obviously not heard her enter but that gave her a few minutes to just observe them together. As much as she hated to admit it, it was like looking at Max and Liz at their best, just like they had been for most of their relationship before all went to hell, unable to be away from each other, unable to stop touching even for a minute, and though she couldn't hear what Max was murmuring from where she was, she had no doubt about the nature of the words.

Not wanting to feel like a voyeur however, she cleared her throat after a moment, making her presence known and barely hiding a satisfied smile when she saw Max and Liz pulling apart like two teenagers caught in the act.

Well, at least she still had some effect on those two.

"Oh, mom?… hey… how… how long have you been here?" Liz acknowledged her and asked, trying her very best to keep her voice as normal as possible and not have it squeak out.

It was ridiculous since after all she and Max weren't doing anything wrong, but the way her mother was looking at them would have chill out even the bravest.

"Long enough!" Nancy stated, still eyeing Max a little suspiciously, even if he did his best to not cower under her gaze. She had learned to hate him so much during the last months it was hard to forget or completely let go of the feeling in a day. "I'm going to make myself a tea… do you want some?" she added after a moment when it looked like none of them was going to comment and she considered she had made them squirm in their seat long enough.

"No, thank you… we've got everything we need here!… uh, do you want me to help?" Liz proposed after having refused her offer and pointed to the grape juice bottle she had on the table.

"No, it's okay… I think I can still find my way around the kitchen and make myself a tea… just… continue whatever it is you two were doing!" she told them with a slight wave of her hand, before disappearing through the door that communicated between the living room and the kitchen.

As soon as she was gone Max seemed to breathe again, but Liz was surprised nonetheless when she felt his hands creep up her sides, just under her shirt this time.

"Max? Stop! My mother is just a room away!" she hissed out through her teeth, her eyes darting to the door like she expected her mother to come back any second and see exactly what Max was doing to her.

"Well, she's not here… and you heard her… she told us to keep going!" Max answered cheekily while he nuzzled her neck, his breath hot on her skin, acting like he had just not been scared shitless not two minutes ago. Oh, how easily they forgot.

"This is… hmm… not what you were doing before!" Liz replied, voice hoarse, as one of his hands cupped one breast and the other descended dangerously close to her heat, and as enjoyable as it was she wondered nonetheless what game he was playing now, or why he had just chosen her mother's return to start this.

"No, but I was dying to!" Max threw back sincerely, knowing that Nancy or not, he had been heading this way.

There was only so much he could take, being this close to Liz, before wanting more. Much more.

"Max!" Liz moaned out despite herself when, after having passed the slim barrier of her shorts, deft fingers caressed her clit and parted her folds.

Oh, god! And just what the heck was she supposed to do now?

"I love you!" Max growled hoarsely in response when he felt just how wet she already was. And he had barely touched her yet.

Well, that wasn't exactly true, but she had not seemed all that affected until now. Not that he could tell at least, given the way she had kept working like he hadn't even been there, gently taunting her.

"MAX!" Liz all but cried out his name again, as he now inserted two of his fingers into her receptive core.

"I love you… do you want me to stop, baby?!" Max demanded even if he had no intention of stopping before he would have gotten her exactly where he wanted her, his husky voice sending torturous shivers down Liz's spine.

Of their own volition her arms came up around his neck and she forgot all about her mother and the hell there would be to pay if she caught them like this, married or not.

"God, no!" she whimpered as Max's fingers picked up pace, making it near impossible for her to concentrate on anything else.

"I thought so!" Max growled back, not very far from losing it himself at this point.

Sucking on the pulse at her neck, he worked his fingers steadily in and out of her, and though he had lost the count as soon as she had arched into his arms, all along he kept repeating his litany of 'I love you's', until finally Liz came apart in his arms, and only stopped to quell her cry of pleasure into his mouth.

Breathing uneven, Liz closed her eyes, relishing in Max's soothing kisses afterwards, while she did her best to bring her heart rate to a more normal pace.

"Hmm, delicious!" Max praised as he pulled his fingers out and sucked them into his mouth, licking them clean, still oblivious to the fact that his mother-in-law was standing by the doorframe now again.

Liz saw her however the instant she opened her eyes back, and instead of the saucy remark she had had in mind, she couldn't help the gasp that escaped her lips, causing Max to follow her gaze.

"Uh… I… L-Liz spilled some of her j-juice on my hand!… and uh, I d-didn't want to waste it!" he stuttered lamely at Nancy's less than thrilled expression, having at least the grace to blush, even if he clearly didn't feel ashamed for what he had done.

This was his wife after all, and he could please her any way he wanted, right?

"Oh. God… shoot me please!" Liz muttered miserably, falling face first against the table and banging her head on it.

And what was he going to say next, huh? 'Hey Nance, want some?'. This was even worse than that time Phillip had caught them making love, if that was possible!

"Oh, dear Lord… I think I'm gonna be sick!" Nancy brought a hand to her heart and grunted in disgust herself, clearly having seen where Max's hand had emerged from even with the table in front of them, and if she had still had any doubts, Liz's totally embarrassed and crimson face had given him away.

She had come back to ask when Janelle would be home since she obviously wasn't here yet despite what Liz had told her earlier, but there was no way she would stay with them now, she thought, rushing out of the room once more. Her daughter could be married all she wanted, there was just some things she didn't feel the need to know, least of all see, and that had already been a eyeful.

"I so know you didn't just say what I think you said to my mother!" Liz turned around and shrieked as soon as her mother had left, whacking Max on the head and wondering what would be the penalty for killing her husband. Being a widow didn't sound so bad suddenly.

"What?" Max asked with a sexy chuckle that only served to unnerve Liz more, and rubbed the spot where she had smacked him. "Wasn't this the truth?… would you like me to lie to your mother?" he tsked then, like he had been the one on his best behavior, and Liz the one with a problem.

"God… what got into you today?" Liz nearly pulled her hair out at Max's casualness, even if she couldn't say that she was really angry with him at this point.

She just had a hard time believing that this was really happening at all. This was her mother for crying out loud, didn't he see that this was wrong on so many levels? Besides, wasn't the situation already horrible enough as it was to have him adding even more fuel to the fire?

"You should better think about what could get into you right now, baby!" Max bracketed her hips and whispered suggestively into her ear as he pulled her closer to him so that she could feel exactly what he was talking about.

Now that Nancy had caught them once, he doubted that she would venture anywhere near them any time soon, and even if she did, too bad for her, but he didn’t really care. He needed his wife and he would be damned if he didn't show her how much, right now.

"Oh, my… but you're completely obsessed!… okay, who are you and what have you done with my husband?!" Liz didn't know anymore if she should laugh herself into fits, or just strangle him at this point, although there was no denying how promising what she was feeling could be.

Very promising… hmm… Okay, maybe she would worry about her mother later.

"Your husband, honey, hasn't gotten any in nearly a year… so please bear with him and excuse him if he can't help but wanting you so much!" Max defended, mouth working her jaw line again and making Liz lose the battle little by little.

"Seven months, Max… seven months are n-not a year!" she countered weakly, distracted by the alluring things his hands and lips were doing to her body.

"They surely felt like years to me!… and so that you know… I have every intention to make up for each and every lovemaking session I missed, too… just after I finish with the 'I love yous!" Max warned slyly, even if he knew that they would have to stay behind closed walls for weeks on end for that to happen.

Well, maybe next holidays they could leave Janelle with his parents and work on that.

"You're going to kill me!" Liz retorted, eyes going wild, already picturing herself dying from an overdose of hot steamy sex. Oh well, she guessed that there were worse ways to leave this world, right?

"Oh, my… I surely hope not! What would I do without you then?" Max threw back all too dramatically, turning her completely around now so she was forced to straddle his lap.

"You're insane!" was Liz's answer and though she shook her head at him, there was nothing but affection behind the words.

"I'm in love!" Max vowed sincerely, but when she looked at him with an eyebrow raised, he felt compelled to add, "Fine, insanely in love if you want... Does that qualify?"

And that did it apparently because the next second he was rewarded with the most beautiful smile he could have wished for.

"I love you, too!" Liz breathed out, arms around his neck now, seconds before she kissed him breathless.

"Oh-kay love… that's a start… now just keep the other two hundred and nine coming, sugar!" Max coaxed with a slap on the ass and a strange southern accent that only made Liz giggle at his craziness.

"I will… but for now, you really need to let me work!" she promised and reminded him once more, ready to leave his lap, but Max pulled her down again before she had even time to stand up completely.

"And what if I don't want to?" he challenged throatily, running his hands under the legs of the boxers she was wearing and cupping her behind.

"Then we'll have a problem!" Liz informed him, though the only problem she seemed to have right then was to stay calm and not ravish her handsome husband right there, right then.

"A problem we could easily solve!" Max remarked huskily, bringing her even closer to his heat and sucking her bottom lip between his own.

"And how, please do tell?" Liz wondered, getting caught in his game and grinding into him before she could stop herself.

"You know how!" Max growled, opening her shirt and looking down at her breasts with a bright wicked smile, before kissing her exposed skin.

"Max… my mother is here... We can't possibly just… " Liz lamented as much as she hated it, gesturing wildly like it was supposed to make him understand whatever she meant.

"Of course we can… it's not like she doesn't know we're married… I'm pretty sure she already figured we… do the deed, too, you know!… besides, I think she needs to understand how much I love you and how much I want you!" Max pointed out, trailing his lips even lower now and finally suckling one taut nipple into his mouth.

At this point he didn't care if Nancy pulled out a cam and filmed them, there was no way he was going to stop.

"I b-beg to differ." Liz moaned out, eyes tightly closed now, briefly wondering how she was even able to still line up two words.

"I'm telling you, she needs a reminder… have you seen how she looks at me? If she were an alien and her eyes could shoot Death-Rays… I'd already be six feet under!" Max momentarily paused and told her, though the last part was whispered a lot lower, like despite all of his bravado, he was afraid nonetheless Liz's mom would hear him, enter the room and just zap him into oblivion.

With her you never knew. After all she was born and raised in Roswell, alien capital of the world. He wouldn't be surprised then if he one day learned that she had been in that ship that had -not- crashed in 1947. It would definitely explain a few things.

"She's not that bad, Max… she'll probably just hold some small grudge for a while of course, but it'll pass!" Liz sobered up some at that, and cradling his face in her hands, she punctuated the statement with a tender kiss.

She had known that her mom wouldn't welcome Max back in the family on sight, but she thought she was behaving pretty decently so far, considering the situation and the fact that she had probably thought about finding him and emasculating him all the way from Roswell to here.

"I know, but since this is partly her fault anyway!" Max responded just too casually and tried his best to hide a smile when he saw Liz frown at his words.

"How can it be her fault?"

"She's your mother… she shouldn't have made you so beautiful and sexy… and I wouldn't have such a hard time resisting you!" he declared silkily, his hungry gaze undressing her and only increasing her need for him.

"Oh, so now you can't resist me?" Liz gulped thickly before she could say anything else. Was it awfully hot in there or what?

"Never could, never will!" Max stated with a slight shrug and an exaggerated sigh like that was something that was supposed to bother him, and Liz all but melted in his arms.

He was just too cute to be true.

"You know what Max, I'll make you a deal!" she announced at last, body already quivering in anticipation.

Why was she surprised, she should have known she wouldn't win this one.

"What kind of deal?" Max demanded, clearly interested and eager to know. He just hoped it was what he wanted.

"I grant you a quickie in the bathroom if you promise me to let me work afterwards." Liz proposed and nearly hit Max when he cocked his head on a side and acted like he had to think it over.

Damn that man and his control sometimes.

"How long the quickie?" he asked then with a lopsided grin that would have made Liz fall in love if she weren't already so crazy about him.

"Max… be serious!" she almost whined nonetheless, itching with the need to feel all of him now more than ever.

"I always am… c'mon, let's get naughty… before you change your mind!" Max threw excitedly, and before Liz could say more, he had her up and in his arms, ready to get that show on the road.

"I won't… god, I'm sopping!" Liz growled herself as she clung to him, finally admitting out loud that she wanted this just as much as he did.

"Saturated I'd say, honey… god, believe me, I can feel it… and I'm not sure I'm gonna make it to the bathroom!" he told her and kissed her passionately before pulling slightly apart and raising an eyebrow mischievously, " Do you think your mom would mind the live show?"

"MAX!" Liz could only cry out, as much in reaction to the horrid suggestion, as to the fact that he was now running up the stairs and barely missed dropping her in his haste.

God, her mother was so going to kill her for this.
Much to both Liz and Max's delight, the quickie turned into a full session of mind blowing sex, first on the bathroom counter because they just couldn't wait a second longer and Max slid home as soon as he had managed to get rid of her shorts, and then on the shower because they still wanted more and couldn't get enough of each other.

Much to Nancy's horror… caught in the feeling, they weren't exactly quiet or discreet about it, and it didn't take her long to figure out precisely what they were doing and want to flee the house.

After all there was only so many 'oh, yeah, Max… right there… yes, Max!' a mother could bear to hear before she was completely scarred for life.

Fortunately the opportunity presented itself when Diane Evans called to ask Max and Liz to stop on their way and bring some wine, and after she informed her that they were all invited over for dinner, Nancy used the occasion to ask her if they would mind if she came over herself right away, that way she would be able to see and spend some time with her granddaughter.

That was why when Liz came down a good hour and a half later, without Max of course who suddenly was feeling like staying upstairs and taking a nap, all she found was a note from her mother letting her know about her whereabouts and what Diane had required.

Now as much as she hated the fact that her mother had felt the need to leave like that -and she wasn't naïve enough to not know why exactly she had- part of her was grateful nonetheless because at least that way she hadn't had to explain why her eyes had been puffy and red, and why it had been evident that she had been crying. Again.

Her mother would most likely have concluded right away that Max had found a way to hurt her again, despite her protestations, but she wouldn't have been further from the truth.

No, once more he had only proven to her just how wrong she had been about him, and once more she had felt her heart burst near the point of explosion with love for him, the feeling leaving her nothing short of breathless and emotional as well.

When he had pulled her into the bedroom when they were just out of the bathroom, she had first thought that he wanted to get at it again, as crazy as that seemed, and nearly called to have him committed, but never in her wildest dreams could she have only imagined what would be expecting her in there.

She had almost lost it already when Max had started to remind her how much he could love her and how miserable he had been all those months when he thought they had lost each other, but when he had continued by saying that even with that, part of him had never managed to stop hoping for all that or thinking about her wherever he could go, she had really thought that she would just pass out from the lack of air and he would have to reanimate her.

Her throat had been so clogged with emotion by then, it had taken all of her willpower to force herself to just take in her next breath, and yet she had still somehow held strong, knowing intuitively that that had been important for Max. There had been nothing else she could have done while he was talking to her.

But then… then he had gone and grabbed a few bags from their walking-in wardrobe, bags she had learned he had kept at Isabel's till then, and all her good resolutions had gone right through the window.

Tears had trickled down her cheeks almost on instant when he had explained what they were, and it had only gotten worse as he had presented her with seven months worth of gifts coming from his various trips, one more beautiful and meaningful than the other.

Each time she had opened one he had let her know where they were coming from and suddenly she had felt even more stupid for having felt jealous of her daughter all those times he had come back with a little something for her and she had thought he had completely forgotten or cared about her.

Some of her gifts were way more extravagant of course than a few dolls or stuffed animals, but just like Janelle had before her, Liz knew she would treasure them like they were the most precious things in the world, whether it were the silky scarf that she was sure had to have cost even more than what she could imagined, the painting of one of her favorites but not really well known yet artists and that she never thought she would ever see in her house, or the gold earrings she would wear as frequently as she could from then on. Among other things.

She loved them all, yet the one that truly touched her the most was the silver charm bracelet that she swore would never, ever leave her wrist from that moment. It was simple in its beauty, and yet the most amazing thing she had ever seen or been given, four perfect hearts, entwining all their initials, L-M-J.

It was probably not the most expensive of the things he had already offered her in the ten years they had been together either, but it meant so much more to her than anything he could have come up with considering what had been their situation when he had bought it.

Hours later as she kept fingering it on their way to Max's parents', Liz still felt the same urge to cry, but this time at least she managed to control herself. Like Max had said, of joy or not, he had seen enough of her tears to last him a lifetime, and she knew that losing it again just wouldn't do it, no matter that he hadn't been better off himself earlier.

They had made quite a pair in fact, sitting on the bed, all but crying into each other's arms, sobbing and laughing stupidly between tears and soothing kisses. It was no wonder it had taken them so long to calm down and at least look somewhat more presentable, even if in the end it hadn't mattered much since her mother had already cleared the place by the time Liz had gotten back to work.

"You okay?" Max interrupted her musing, smiling tenderly when her gaze snapped to him and she seemed to realize where she was.

"Yeah… just thinking." Liz responded with a soft smile herself, appreciating once more just how he seemed to be in tune with her emotions and concerned about her first before anything else.

"About?" he asked softly, bringing a hand over hers and giving her a gentle squeeze.

"You!" Liz whispered naturally, her eyes boring into his and telling him all he needed to know.

"Good things I hope?" he questioned nonetheless, a teasing hint in his voice. Like he didn't already know.

"Very good things, yeah!" Liz admitted easily, her smile broadening when he brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.

"Well, that's great for me, right?" Max continued like nothing, but this time he couldn't help licking suggestively between each digit, and Liz barely stifled a moan at the sensation.

"Huh-uh!" was all she could say, and she was almost grateful when he had to momentarily let go of her hand so he could open the electric gate and maneuver the car into his parents' long driveway now that they had reached their destination.

"Okay… don't move!" Max instructed as he quickly parked the car, and the next second he was out, making his way around it to open the door for her.

His eyes didn't leave hers as he moved though, and he nearly tripped over his own feet when he noticed the way she followed his every step hungrily. If he didn't know better, he would think that despite everything they had already done in the last couple of days, and how many times they had done it, she still wanted more.

Well, he was more than ready to provide her with what she needed, it was just too bad they would have to wait for that… and find a way to pass under Nancy's radar this time later. But that didn't mean of course that they couldn't get a little something in the meantime. Just a foretaste of what would come hopefully.

Taking her hand as soon as he had the door opened, he helped her out, and almost right away pulled her into his arms, not wasting any time to caress her sweet lips with his.

He didn't mean to get them particularly far however, and that was probably why he was quite surprised when Liz cradled his face when he tried to pull away, and crashed her lips to his more forcefully, deepening the kiss before he had a chance to react or protest.

He tried, but no amount of self-control could have stopped him from groaning when Liz tangled her tongue with his, and moaned herself into his mouth.

His hands gripped her hips almost painfully, caught between the furious urge he felt to take her just where she was, and the necessity just as intense to stop her while he was still able to, but in the end it was the urgent need for air that took that decision for him, making them separate eventually.

He was almost convinced that the problem was solved then and that it was the end of it for now, when Liz attacked him once more.

"Liz, shouldn't we g-go inside?" he stuttered as she made her way up his neck, leaving there hot little moist kisses that threatened to drive him crazy.

"Not yet… I feel like being naughty again!" she bit on his earlobe and he only understood just how naughty she indeed planned to be when he felt her small hands unbuckling his belt.

She didn't know herself what had suddenly gotten into her, but she was too exited to care.

"Liz, baby… we're… oh, god… we're in my parents' driveway!" he reminded her like she could have forgotten, and swallowed thickly when her fingers worked on his zipper the next second.

"Shh… if you keep quiet, no one we'll know… no one can see us!" Liz silenced him with a soft nibble of his lips and tried to reassure him, knowing that what she was saying was true.

They were almost in the dark, surrounded by trees, hedges and a huge gate, and unless you watched from the first floor windows of the house, they were pretty safe as far as she could tell. Or so she thought.

"I'm not sur-… oh, shit!" Max hissed out when cool air hit his aching member and then Liz unexpectedly slid along his car, taking him in her mouth in one quick swift move.

It didn't take him long to grow completely hard again, and despite his earlier protests, for a few minutes all he could do was enjoy the feeling as Liz worked his length in and out of her mouth like she couldn't get enough of it… and pray that they wouldn't get caught.

Yeah, like he had ever been so lucky.

"Oh, god… HE-EY Mrs. Ro-Robinson!" Max moaned out in absolute pleasure before realizing that his parents' neighbor was on her own driveway, looking at him from behind her smaller hedge and he had no choice but to greet her, the words rushing out in a high squeal.

If it weren't for the car in front of him and that hid him partially from her gaze, at least where it counted, she would definitely have a very clear view of what his lovely wife was currently doing to him.

Unsuccessfully, he tried to move away from her and stop her there before this had any chances to get even worse, but said wife had apparently other plans and very nearly killed him when she chuckled at his obvious embarrassment, the vibrations running all along his throbbing hardness that she had yet to release from the hot confines of her mouth.

"Maxwell… how are you?" the old lady asked, genuinely interested since with the way he always rushed in and out of there, it had been a very long time since she had had any opportunity to talk to him, and Max truly wondered why the hell she couldn't see that he was in no state to hold a conversation.

"F-Fiine!" he all but shrieked as Liz chose just that moment to fondle his sacs and suck even harder on him.

Oh, boy, he was really only one second from losing it. And he would, right there, in front of his parents' almost seventy-year-old neighbor if she kept that up. No pun intended.

"Great… that's great!" she said awkwardly and eyed him suspiciously now. What was wrong with him, and what was he waiting for outside anyway? she wondered. His parents were home, she knew she had seen them not an hour ago.

Instead of hearing him answering though, she saw him grimace and bit on his lip, and when he braced himself against his car, she truly thought that he had to be sick or at least not feeling very well.

"Are you sure you're alright, Maxwell?!" she couldn't help but press, and even considered calling his parents because he really didn't look okay to her now and that was scaring her a bit.

"Y-Yes… yeess!… oh, fuck, yes!" having endured all that was humanly possible, Max screamed at last as he eventually lost the battle and emptied himself into Liz's hungry mouth, and the only thing the still clueless woman could do was open big saucers eyes as she saw him repeatedly bang his hand against the roof of his car.

Merely seconds later, a beautiful brunette that she recognized as his wife seemed to appear out of nowhere, or more precisely it looked like she was coming from under the car, and turning to her, she wiped the corner of her mouth and smiled at her like she didn't have a care in the world.

"Hey, Mrs. Robinson… pretty hot night, huh?" she greeted, wiggling her eyebrow suggestively, not the least ashamed with her behavior since she had never really liked the woman anyway. Maybe this way she would mind her own business from then on.

"OH. MY. GOD!" the woman yelped as she finally understood what had been wrong with the Evans's kid, and she rushed back inside like her life depended on it.

Oh, god! That young generation, they were all… perverted and depraved. Oh, god, doing… that… in an almost public place and where everyone could see them, she shuddered as she quickly ran from room to room closing all the windows on her way like she was afraid they would follow her and enter her house even from there if they could, and pervert her, too.

"You know my parents are so going to hear about this now, right?!" Max remarked as he saw a still giggling and proud Liz turn to him and pop a gum into her mouth, looking all innocent despite what she had just done.

Oh, yeah, his parents would know… and surely give him an earful.

"Well, Maxwell, it's not like they don't know we… do the deed, right?… but who knows, maybe they need a reminder, too!" Liz threw mischievously, and left swaying her hips, causing Max to groan low in his throat.

That little minx. Why hadn't he known then that she would make him eat his words sooner or later, he wondered as he readjusted his clothes, grabbed the two bottles of wine they had gotten, and followed her to his parents' house at last.


No sooner had Liz knocked on the door that it was opened by a smiling Phillip and she wasn't surprised to see her daughter hot on his heels, Janelle all but barreling into her the instant she saw who it was.

"Hey, sweetheart… how is my baby today?" Liz squatted down to her level and hugged her tightly, this being the first time she had really seen her in the day.

"Fiiine!" Janelle kissed her mother and was quick to answer, but the next second she seemed to not care about her that much anymore, and not seeing her father immediately couldn't help asking, "Where's daddy?"

"Hey, honey!" handing the wine to his father, Max said from behind Liz before she even had any chance to reply herself, and as fast as that Janelle left her mother's arms for her father's much stronger ones, causing Phillip to chuckle and Liz to roll her eyes.

"I miiiss'd you!" Janelle told Max when he picked her up, hugging him like she hadn't just seen him a few mere hours ago.

"I missed you, too, Princess!" Max declared back and all but poked his tongue at Liz when he caught her mocking him behind Janelle's back.

"Yeah, she missed her daddy alright… but did she miss the one who had to carry her for nine long months?!… of course not… daughters!" Liz exclaimed when Phillip couldn't hold it any longer and laughed openly at both their attitudes now, and she only noticed her mother behind them when she heard her snort at her remark, as if to say 'you're one to talk.'

So, okay, she had probably been as bad as Janelle when she had been little herself, but it seemed quite incredible to her nonetheless that her daughter could be so eager to see Max when she had seen him this morning and later this afternoon, and she had been the one to barely get a glimpse of her. Shouldn't it be just the opposite?

Yet despite everything, she guessed that she couldn't really blame her, given that Janelle most likely felt still a little insecure about the situation, and she probably needed to reassure herself that Max was really here, and would still be, after every time they were separated, no matter the amount of time that that could be. Normal indeed, but that didn't mean that Max had to flaunt it into her face.

"Max, Liz, hey… where were you? I could have sworn I heard your car at least ten minutes ago!" as they moved into the living room, Diane joined them and nearly caused Max to have a heart attack just where he was.

Before he could find a good excuse that could somehow justify why they hadn't entered right away when they had indeed arrived ten good minutes earlier, he caught the mischievous glint on Liz's eyes, and that was all he needed to know that he was even in more trouble than what he could have predicted.

"Oh, yeah… that was us!… It's just that I plan on taking and driving that big thing of his regularly from now on, and Max was showing me how to… handle the stick, you know… those gears are so hard for me… I mean so hard to change, for my tiny hands… But I think I'm getting the knack of things pretty fast… aren't I, honey?" Liz provided with a natural that not only scared the hell out of Max, but caused him to chock on his own breath and nearly cough his lungs out.

"Honey?" she then called all too innocently to be honest when he was apparently not quick enough to answer to her liking, and if she saw the 'you'll-pay-for-this-later' look he gave her, she didn't let it on.

"M-Most definitely!" he finally concurred when he recuperated. "You'll be… able to drive the jeep in no time, don't worry…" he felt the need to add just to be safe, but just one look at Nancy told him that if there was still a slight chance that his parents didn't suspect a thing, she at least had not believed a word of what he had just said.

God, she was probably thinking that he was some kind of sex-starved pervert now.

Apparently satisfied with their answer herself however, his mother excused herself almost right away and moved back to the kitchen where she apparently had still a few things to take care of before dinner.

"Diane, wait… I'll help!" Liz called after her and with the pretense to peck Max's cheek, whispered into his ear, "Payback is a bitch, love!". And of course, all he could do was gawk at her.

"Daddy, what's a b-…" having obviously heard her mother since she was still in Max's arms, Janelle was on her way to ask aloud when Max clamped a hand over her mouth, smiling forcedly at Nancy and his own father who still seemed to wonder what was suddenly wrong with him.

Well, his father seemed… Nancy looked more like she was debating with herself if she could kill him and get away with it. Thank God he knew she wouldn't try anything as long as Janelle would be there with them. And no, he wouldn't feel any remorse hiding behind his little girl.

"Shh, no… you didn't hear a thing!" he whispered to his daughter before kissing her and lowering her to the floor, and after having shrugged, Janelle sauntered away to go and play with her dolls again, understanding that that was apparently one of those things she wasn't supposed to ask about.

Oh, well, grownups were so weird sometimes.

End of chapter eleven.b


TBC… but closer and closer to the end

Author: Rebecca

Title: Before it's too late.

Rating: ADULT

Disclaimer: See first parts.

AN: Hey, guys,

I know it’s been such a looong time, but yeah, I’m finally here again Sorry again for the long wait … I know it’s no excuse but seriously, you don’t even want to know how hard it was to get back to things, knowing that I already had like two third of this chapter dialogues done and I had to do everything again… It was really a hard blow to have to lose everything but I hope you will still be satisfied nonetheless with what I was able to come up with after that

Another reason it took me so long was because I had to practically read everything I had written so far again (and man, I hadn’t realized it was this huge moreover when I first intended to make of this a ‘short’ fic ) just to make sure that I wasn’t leaving any loose end… I think I haven’t forgotten anything, but if that’s the case, well I’m sorry… I might have missed some points I still needed to clear, but if that’s the case, feel free to let me know, and I’ll make sure I get back to that before the end of this fic.

Anyway, this part picks up three weeks after where I had stopped last time, so I hope it won’t be too confusing

I’d also like to thank you all for your feedbacks but also for your kind words and concern about my health problems… I’m doing better although going through physical therapy is a bitch and I feel like I’ve been run over by a mack truck every time I get out of session, but I guess that’s life

Well, I think I’m done with my babbling, or almost

This is actually dedicated to Milla… you promised to come back if I posted a new chapter… well, here it is… I’ll be waiting for you

LairaBehr4, because apparently you never give up (and thanks, Best Wishes to you, too!)

… and Smac, because even when ‘I was being a very tricky lady with my writing techniques’ like you told me once, you still figured everything out

Angie and Tiph… do I still need to say how much your support means to me? Nah, that’s what I thought … let me just tell the other guys here then, that if it weren’t for you regularly kicking my butt on MSN or letting me ramble and vent when things just don’t go like I would want them to, they would have certainly not seen this coming to an end (Vous le caillou *LMAO*)

Now, that said… *sighs*… I thought their reconciliation would be the hardest part to write, well, let me tell you how wrong I was… this was actually a million times worse… and Tiph all but cried when she read it the first time … so be warned. If you’re not exactly in a happy mood lately, maybe you should wait to read

If you still decide to venture there… enjoy nonetheless… or at least try

And for those who don’t remember where we left off (and how could I blame you? ) Chapter eleven can be found here.

Posted in six due to length.


Chapter twelve

“Max… we can’t…” the protest was weak, spoken between soft sighs, and had little effect, if any at all, on the man it was meant to.

“Mmm… says who?” came the answer as lips kept nibbling on skin everywhere they found enough to torture and tease.

“Max… stop it…” the words were stronger this time, but Liz understood as Max’s fingers crept over her thighs that it would still not be enough for her horny husband to do as he was asked.

If she had known this was what he had in mind, she would have probably declined when he had suggested she went with him this morning since one of her classes was out on a scholar trip and she wouldn’t start working until much later.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time, since spending extra time with Max was definitely something she didn’t feel like refusing, at least until Max had pulled her down on his lap not long after they had arrived and had started to do his very best to have his way with her, right there, in his office, on his leather chair.

Now she wasn’t usually one to say no when the urge struck but recent experience had shown her that something always happened when they were being just too impulsive and she wasn’t in any hurry or even eager to reiterate the experience, as enjoyable as she knew it could indeed be.

“Can’t…” Max denied her request once more, attacking her neck with a vengeance and causing Liz to moan aloud this time, the sure sign that what he was doing to her was definitely not leaving her unaffected.

“Max… y-your secretary is going to be here, soon…” she reminded him since he had apparently forgotten that even though Alex wouldn’t come into the office today, they wouldn’t be alone much longer, and there was simply no way she could do this knowing that the young woman Max had hired a couple of weeks ago would be out there and able to listen to everything they would be doing. Or could she?

From what she knew of Courtney Banks, or the little she had learned about her in the short time since they had been introduced, she probably wouldn’t blink an eye if she knew that her new boss was in there, having his way with his wife since she was definitely not one to stick her nose where she had no business, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t feel bad herself or that she would be able to look at her in the eye afterwards.

In all honesty Liz could say that she had not really gotten a good first impression of the woman, although she would lie if she said that it hadn’t had more to do with the fact that she strangely reminded her of Tess Harding than with her character and personality.

The first time she had seen her in fact, Liz couldn’t help wondering if she was cursed or if it was just that all the secretaries in Los Angeles had to be big breasted, blue-eyed blondes who could easily turn the head of any husband if they weren’t careful, but she had quickly revised her judgment on the woman once Courtney had started talking about herself.

Originally it had been Michael who had introduced Courtney to Max once he had known that his friend was searching for a replacement for Tess, telling Max that she was a friend of his as well and that he responded for her. Courtney had been working for a huge LA firm until recently but she had been jobless ever since said company had bankrupted a couple of months ago and Michael had been convinced that with her experience, she could be exactly what Max needed.

As much as Max usually trusted Michael and his judgment however, he hadn’t wanted to do anything without consulting with Liz first and if his friend had perfectly understood that considering what had happened with Max’s previous secretary, there was no saying how surprised Courtney herself had been when she had been called for an interview with her potential new boss and his wife who didn’t even work with him. That had definitely been a first and surely not what she had been used to until then.

She hadn’t really understood what the deal had been with that until half way through the interview Max and Liz had briefly excused themselves and Michael had used the opportunity to explain to her, in broad outline of course, what had happened to the couple with Max’s former secretary.

After that she had perfectly gotten why Liz seemed kind of wary of her and why Max had insisted to have his wife present. And she had also gotten that if she wanted that job, and yes she had and badly, it would be Liz Evans she would have to impress and not her husband and possibly new employer. She had known then that even if Max would be the one she would be working for in the end, he wouldn’t agree to anything, not even when she came with Michael’s recommendation, if his wife wasn’t okay with this. If she wasn’t okay with her.

Now Courtney wasn’t normally one to like to divulge information on her sexual orientations if only because like most people she was quite protective of her private life, but looking at Liz during the interview she had sensed that if her curriculum spoke for herself and her ability to do this job and do it well, she would need more to convince Liz Evans that she could be trusted with her husband.

Making a split decision then, she had asked if she could have a few minutes alone with Liz and when her request had been granted despite Max’s reluctance to leave his wife’s side, she had gotten right to the point.

At the risks of ruining her chances, she had bluntly asked Liz if she was satisfied with what she had read of her resume and if she would have already suggested Max indeed hired her if she had been older and maybe less pretty.

Liz had seemed taken aback by the bold question of course, and how could she not, but when Courtney had insisted she answered nonetheless, Liz had confessed that she was indeed quite impressed with what she had read and Courtney had known she was on the right track.

The next second she had told Liz that if the only reason she hesitated was because she feared a repeat of what had happened with Tess, even if she had admitted to not having all the details about that, she could rest assured that it wouldn’t happen again because as attractive as Max could surely be, she could never find him of any interest since he simply didn’t have what she usually wanted when looking for a new potential lover.

Liz had not gotten her meaning at first however, but when Courtney had clarified that point and made her understand quite unequivocally that she was more into women than men, Liz hadn’t been able to stop the blush that had crept upon her cheeks.

They had talked some more then and Liz had even tried to apologize for looking so judgmental and maybe having been a little rude with her, but Courtney had not wanted to hear any of it, assuring Liz that she perfectly understood where she was coming from and that she would definitely do the same thing if it had happened to her.

Then she had managed to make Liz blush once more when she had told her that if she indeed got the job, maybe she shouldn’t stop by the office too often, but her ‘kidding’ at Liz’s appalled expression had been enough to make them both burst into laughter and win Liz over in the end.

That was actually how Michael and Max had found them when they had entered his office again, laughing together like they were old friends, but if they had asked what had them nearly in fits, none of them had been willing to answer.

Max had just taken Liz aside then and asked her again what she thought of Courtney but instead of answering him, Liz had simply asked back what he would do if she weren’t there and he were the only one taking that decision.

Max had of course been honest with her and confided that even if she hadn’t been a friend of Michael which was certainly already a point in her favor, with her resume she definitely had the qualifications required for the job. Yet that hadn’t stopped him from pointing out once more that he would just look for someone else if she didn’t feel right about the other woman.

Liz hadn’t needed more to know what she had to do then and with a smile, she had turned to Courtney and told her that she had a new job if she really wanted it. And from what Max had told her so far and what she had seen herself the few times she had come and seen him, she had definitely made the right decision when she had decided to take a chance with the blonde secretary.

“Max, please… didn’t you hear what I-I just told you?” Liz groaned now when Max ignored her once more and went on like he didn’t even mind if Courtney indeed stumbled upon them.

The door to his office was closed of course, but still, it didn’t mean that the other woman couldn’t come looking for her boss and see them putting on a show instead.

“I don’t care…” Max confirmed Liz’s thoughts but when she was ready to tell him off once more, he cut her reply off with a heated kiss that momentarily left her breathless.

“I-I do…” she stuttered when they came up for air, even if she wondered how she was still coherent enough to speak. “I… y-you’re not getting into my pants here… so get your m-mind out of the gutter!” she added quite sternly but more because she was realizing that she was slowly but surely losing that battle and that seemed to be her last resort, than because she really meant the words.

“It’s a good thing you’re not wearing any then I guess…” Max countered huskily then, his hands making their way under the short skirt she was wearing, skirt that had already ridden up enough to drive him insane when he had pulled her down on him.

“Max!... seriously!” Liz whimpered, trying to ward those hands off but not encountering more success with that than she had with the rest.

“This is as serious as it can get, trust me!” Max breathed out suggestively as he cupped her bottom now and brought her even closer to him so she could feel exactly what he was talking about.

“We c-can’t do this here…” Liz moaned feebly now and Max stifled a laugh –or was it a groan- when at the same time she couldn’t help rubbing against the bulge in his pants nonetheless.

Apparently her mind and body were pulling her in two different directions and Max knew now he wouldn’t need much more to get her exactly where he wanted her.

“We can and we are…” he nibbled her jaw before whispering in her ear words that he was sure would finish to convince her. “Practice, honey… practice is the key… you know that, right?”

“I-I do… but we don’t have to do this… everywhere!” Liz croaked out helplessly, feeling her resolve wearing thin.

She didn’t even know why she even bothered protesting, she knew she wouldn’t win that one anyway. When had she ever won when it came to Max in fact, huh? Never, that was when. He could make her do about anything and he knew it.

Oh, yes, she was totally hopeless.

“Liz, come on… you know you want to…” Max continued to drop moist kisses along her jaw but before she could reply and maybe deny his affirmation, one of his hands crept up her inner thigh, only stopping when his fingers found what he was looking for. “Don’t you?” he groaned himself as he traced her slit through her panties and found her wet and more than ready for him.

Her gasps and soft moans only urged him to continue and he stroked her relentlessly until she forgot all about why she had wanted to stop him in the first place.

“I-If we get caught again… I’m so k-killing you this time!” she felt the need to point out nonetheless to which he only chuckled, which proved to Liz once more how much he had not minded their little misadventure of a couple of days ago.

What had happened with her own mother that first day a few weeks back had been bad enough, but Liz had discovered that it could get even worse when it was your sixty-something neighbor catching you in the act, in the pool, when she had graciously stopped by to offer them some of the cookies she had baked.

And even if she couldn’t say that she hadn’t been a willing participant herself, Liz blamed it all on Max who had managed to turn an innocent late afternoon swim into a grope-and-fuck fest. And although Max had argued that it was all Mrs. Petersen’s fault and that at least that way she would think about it twice before coming around the house and taking a look at the garden without invitation when someone didn’t answer her call, it hadn’t made Liz feel any better for all that.

Even if Mrs. Petersen had not seen much and had actually found the situation more funny than embarrassing, Liz was still too mortified to speak to the woman… and still trying to find something to make Max pay for that as well.

“We won’t, don’t worry… Courtney knows better than to enter if I don’t call her in…” Max assured her, sucking on her bottom lip before he smiled like a kid in a Christmas store and scooped her up into his arms.

One step was all he needed to take her to his desk and after having pushed away the files he had barely glanced at before the need to be with his wife again had become too strong, he gently laid her down on it, stepping between her smooth thighs as soon as she was settled.

“If you say so…” Liz sighed against his lips, her own tongue teasing his when she felt it trace her mouth sensually.

“You won’t regret this… god, I want you so much… I can’t wait until tonight…” Max breathed out hoarsely, having had her once already having definitely not been enough, considering what they had gotten used to during the weekend or the fact that he knew that once she would leave here, he wouldn’t be seeing her for long –too long- hours.

Liz knew exactly what he meant of course and was certainly feeling the same way. It seemed that lately she needed him like every minute of every hour, and she knew she was powerless to stop that feeling. They needed each other more than ever fact iafter the hell they had been through during months and if they had definitely been making up for that for the last three weeks, everything had not been a walk in the park for all that, to say the least.

First of all, due to Nancy’s presence in Los Angeles, they had had to delay their trip to Florida, even if after talking it with her, they had agreed that they would leave on Tuesday only instead of Monday like it had been originally planned.

Nancy had wanted to spend some more time with Janelle before she had to fly back, which both Liz and Max had understood of course, despite the fact that her attitude toward her son-in-law had still been as frosty as that iceberg that had sunk the Titanic and that even when she had known the truth, or as much as Liz had been ready to disclose at the time, about Max and what had really happened.

Liz had not been more eager than that to reveal the whole sordid truth to her mother but she had been left with little choice when on Monday afternoon she and Nancy had come back from shopping for the little Liz had thought they would need for their trip and they had found both Janelle and Max asleep on the couch.

Max had had their daughter laying on top of him, his arms tightly wrapped around her like he was trying to protect her even in her sleep, the video of Finding Nemo he had finally purchased when Janelle had asked once more for it still playing in the background, and Liz had nearly cried at seeing father and daughter so close and looking so cute.

She hadn’t thought anything could look more perfect than the two of them together in fact, but her mother’s sarcastic ‘funny how he can look so innocent when he’s asleep’ had just ruined it all and fed up with her little insinuations and barbs, Liz had pushed her into the kitchen for a long overdue talk.

With as much patience as she could muster considering her mother’s attitude, she had poured out the whole story, ignoring Nancy every time she had tried to interrupt her. She had told her about Kyle and what Max thought had happened between them, Tess and what she had done, how she had reacted herself, everything in fact, minus one detail she had known she couldn’t share with anyone before sharing it with Max first.

Afterwards, all Nancy had been able to do for a while had been to sit there, looking obviously stunned to hear as much, until Liz had asked her if she understood then why she had no reason to act like Max was some criminal or was the only once to blame for what had happened.

Nancy had only nodded then, but of course once she had found her voice again, she had been unable to help lecturing Liz about how monumentally stupid they had both been and how they should have really known better than to let things fester up between them to the point that it had nearly destroyed their marriage. Liz had clearly had no argument to contradict her on that, but she had promised her nonetheless that she would definitely not let anything like that ever happen to them again.

After that, Nancy had at least stopped looking at Max like he was some murderous psychopath she didn’t want to see anywhere near her daughter and grandchild, but Liz knew she couldn’t help giving Max a piece of her mind for all that before they had left.

Nancy had accepted Philip and Diane’s invitation to stay a couple more days with them before she left herself and when they had all accompanied them to the airport on Tuesday morning, Liz had seen her mother take Max aside with the pretence to hug him as well after she had said her goodbye to her and Janelle, but from the look on his face at the moment, Liz had known that she had said more to him than ‘have a nice and safe trip’.

When she had questioned him later however, Max had replied with an enigmatic ‘trust me, you don’t want to know’ and had only promised her that everything was alright and that her mother and he had come to an understanding when he had seen her ready to insist nonetheless.

‘I was wrong about you apparently, and while it kind of makes me happy to know that you’re not the cheating, lying asshole I thought you to be for a while… if you ever hurt my daughter again, voluntarily or not, I’ll come back, slice your balls into tiny, ridiculous pieces and serve them back to you for dinner… treat her right or you will deal with me!’

For as long as he would live, Max didn’t think that he would ever forget those words and if Nancy had said that she was happy to hear it when he had told her that she didn’t have to worry because he would surely do worse to himself if he indeed ever hurt Liz again, he knew better than to not take her seriously.

Still, even if he had well known that his answer had only intrigued Liz more than she probably already had been for having witnessed the scene, there had been no way he could have repeated to her what her own mother had said. He couldn’t even believe himself that that had really come out of his mother-in-law’s mouth and had quickly chosen to push it to the back of his mind once they had left for Florida.

He hadn’t wanted to see anything mar their trip, knowing that some moments would already be hard enough for them as it was despite the fact that they were leaving for their first vacation together in such a long time. They had both known there had been a few things they still needed to discuss before they could really let go of the past and that there wouldn’t be any better opportunity to do so than while they were away.

Max had also known that they couldn’t be anything but completely honest with each other if they wanted to make it work this time and not repeat the mistakes of the past, but that didn’t mean that it had been in any way easy to face Liz once he had revealed to her some of the information he had preferred to hide from her when they had first talked about Tess.

Hearing Max telling her that while she had been staying with him, Tess had tried to slip into his bed and seduce him had definitely been a sour pill to swallow for Liz, but if she had wished for a few seconds that she hadn’t had to hear about the details, in the end she had guessed that she could only be glad and grateful that Max had not been tempted by the offer for all that, despite how willing Tess had obviously been to make him change his mind, or how less than idyllic their own relationship had still been then.

Many men would have probably not thought twice or felt any kind of remorse about getting some action themselves while they thought their own wives were cheating on them anyway, but Max had spent long minutes assuring her again that no matter what could have happened between them or what he could have thought, he would have never looked twice at Tess. That he could have never felt an ounce of desire for anyone if it weren’t her.

What Liz had insisted to know about however, was why he had turned to Tess in the first place? Why he had confided in her? Why he had not only revealed to her so many things about himself, but about them as well, yet it had nearly broken her heart to hear Max admit that at the time it had seemed like she was the only one he could turn to. He knew he had made a huge mistake, considering how untrustworthy Tess had turned out to be, but back then she had seemed like the only one who gave a damn about him or what he could be feeling.

She was there every time he was feeling down, offering her comfort and understanding and willing to hear him out, and he had let himself believe for a while that she was sincere, that she had no hidden agenda and that that was what he had needed. Someone he could freely talk to and someone to tell him that it was not all his fault, that he hadn’t been the one to royally ruin everything with his wife, with his family.

If he had known then just how wrong he could truly be. Tess’ deception had been even worse than what he had originally thought, as he had realized before they had left.

After having been out a couple of hours to see Alex and look into a few things at the office to ensure that he could leave without worrying, Max had come home to Liz with a single white rose, but while she had thought it was the sweetest thing, it had also made her remember the bunch she had received a couple of days earlier and that had left her curious about the identity of their sender.

When she had asked Max if they had come from him, too, he had looked surprised she hadn’t known for sure and had asked her if she had not even read his card.

When Liz had revealed that there had been none then, he had still wanted to believe it had been a mistake on the florist’s part, but one call and a small talk with the woman who had received Tess’ instructions had proven to him, once more, how truly naïve he could still be when it came to her.

Tess had specifically said that there was no need for a card from what he had been told and while it had barely surprised Liz to hear about it, he had cringed once more at his own stupidity.

Then, as if that weren’t enough, Max had also discovered when bringing back what little Tess had managed to leave at Isabel’s apartment to her landlord and speaking briefly with him, that there had never been any flood in her complex building and that she had played him for a fool once more with her little distraught act.

Max had sworn however, that it would be the last time and he had probably never been happier so than when he had talked on the phone with Alex a couple of days after they had left and his friend had told him that he had sent Tess her letter of dismissal and that it wouldn’t be long before she would be out of their lives for good then.

Much to Max’s pleasure as well, he had also confided to him that after having brought it up to his father, Charles Whitman had agreed that it would indeed be time they expanded their LA branch and hired a third man to help them, considering that each week brought them their lot of new clients.

Alex had then said that he would look into the few resumes his father had sent them while Max was away, but had asked Max nonetheless what he thought of his own suggestion to hire Jesse Ramirez, a young lawyer they had both gone to College with.

For having run into him not long ago, Max had known that Jesse had been looking for a higher position and more interesting job than what he was doing at ‘Jensen and Patterson’ and therefore could only give Alex his approbation, moreover when he had also remembered that Jesse was single himself and apparently not in any hurry to settle down.

Max had had no doubt then that he wouldn’t mind the traveling as much as he could himself, and Alex had promised anyway that if it came to that, he would handle himself the trips Jesse wouldn’t feel comfortable taking if they indeed hired him.

Of course there was no saying that it would be tough for all of them for a while, but as far as Alex was concerned, it was always better than seeing Max quit, which he knew he would do in a heartbeat if he felt that was the only option he had to preserve his family.

When Max had wanted to thank Alex for all he had done and been ready to do for him however, Alex had simply told him that it was the least he could do for him when he himself had taken a chance with him years ago and left everything behind when he had asked him to, without even knowing if they would make it. Apparently Alex thought it was time he gave something back as well and was all too happy to be able to do that for Max now.

Once that had been settled and with the knowledge that everything would indeed be alright in the end, Liz and Max had truly been able to enjoy their vacation to the fullest, even if they would most likely not take another trip to Mickey’s hometown any time soon.

If Janelle would probably become the happiest girl in the world if they left her to live there, Max and Liz had had enough of DisneyWorld to last them a lifetime. Janelle had simply been exhausting and would have certainly made them wander through the whole site the six days they had been there without even tiring, but Max had drawn the line at three. After all there was only so much of the merry-go-rounds, theme parks and visits to the Cinderella’s Castle a man could take before he went completely insane.

The rest of their daytime there had been spent visiting the city and enjoying the sun at the beach once they had driven up to Daytona Beach, but as amazing as that had been, being a family again, enjoying life without a care in the world, for Max and Liz, it had really been the nights that had been the most memorable of all.

Behind the closed doors of their hotel room, once alone, they had talked, they had made love, they had healed, creating new memories that they hoped would be enough to erase those of the many lonely nights they had had to spend away from each other.

Yes, the nights had really been magical. Except maybe one, even if that had certainly been the most important of all in the end. The one none of them would ever forget, since as hard as it had been, that night had marked even more than any other moment they had shared since patching things up, that new beginning they had both been waiting for.

So many things had changed already because of that night.
“God!” eyes fixed on the ceiling, Max groaned loud enough for the whole hotel to hear him, yet the dreamy and satisfied smile on his face couldn’t have been wiped away with a stick of dynamite. “We keep that up and I don’ think I’ll still be there to celebrate my thirtieth birthday.” It was said as a joke, but it didn’t stop him from wondering, if only for a few brief seconds, if it were indeed possible to die from too much sex.

Ever since their reconciliation, things had been ‘intense’ to say the least between them, and if he knew well why they behaved as they did around each other, he couldn’t deny that it was sometimes scary to see how much they needed each other.

For the past week, they had practically lived glued to the hip and had been unable to keep their hands off each other, bare the times when Janelle demanded their undivided attention of course, and if it would definitely not be the first time they were that close in their relationship, it had been a very long time since it had happened that way.

“Are you complaining?” Liz demanded teasingly as she pressed her still naked body against his side and looked at him with a smile that certainly proved she didn’t mind in the least herself.

“Are you kidding me?... not at all!” Max snorted like it was the most ridiculous thing she could have thought about saying, before he gathered her even closer and whispered sincerely. “Why would I?... I missed you… I missed this too much for that.”

“I missed you, too…” Liz replied with a sweet kiss on his lips, but then couldn’t help raising an eyebrow at him when he kept staring at her for interminable seconds. “What?”

“Nothing… I guess I’m just… sometimes… you know… just wondering if I’m not still dreaming…” he tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear and said quite nonchalantly, but Liz knew exactly how he felt.

No matter how many times they made love, and there had been quite a lot ever since they had cleared up all the misunderstandings between them, or as many as they could for the time being at least, she still had a hard time believing herself that they could be so carefree again, and express their feelings or their needs so easily.

“You’re not, or if you are… I’m having the exact same dream…” Liz commented, no more able to hide how happy she was with the turn of events than he obviously was himself.

This week off had probably been the best idea Max could have had. It was like leaving for a second honeymoon. Only this time they had their daughter with them of course, and they had to wait for the night to come and for her to be in bed to give free reign to their desires, but even with that and how agonizing it could be at times to have to wait to get Max all alone, Liz was certainly the most serene and contented she had ever been in her whole life.

“Well, I guess what we have to do now, then… it’s to never wake up.” He sighed contentedly himself, smiling softly when Liz settled more comfortably on top of him and burrowed her face into the crook of his neck.

“Definitely.” She murmured, barely stifling a moan when she felt Max’s hands running up and down her back, stroking her flesh and causing goose bumps to break over her still heated skin.

If she weren’t so tired, she would have probably taken advantage of her ‘position’ and shown Max what kind of effect those simple caresses could have on her, even if they looked innocent enough, but she didn’t think that after that last, third, time she would still be able to move a muscle.

Max was definitely keeping on his promise to make up for all those lovemaking sessions they had missed during the long months of their separation and the months before that, when their relationship had been a little too awkward for them to realize what they were missing.

He seemed to understand, and maybe even share, her tiredness this time however and didn’t try to push it further, therefore they just lay there for long minutes, enjoying their closeness, until Max’s voice broke through the silence of the room again.

“You know… there’s just… maybe one thing… that could make all this even better…” his tone seemed thoughtful, like he wasn’t so sure he should bring this up just now, yet couldn’t help himself and just had to say it.

“And what’s that?” Liz asked, clearly interested since at the moment she could hardly think of anything that could top this or make it any more perfect, whether it were the way she felt or the way they were together.

“I’ve been thinking about us and all… about what you asked me… a long time ago…” Max admitted after a while and when Liz thought that he would not say anything in the end.

“What I asked you?” Liz queried tentatively now, trying her best to not sound alarmed by his tone, and she lifted herself slightly up so she could see his face.

“Yeah… I know that maybe it’s too soon… I mean, we just got back together after all… but this has been on my mind for a while now… and I… I don’t think I want to wait any longer… I mean I-I was stupid to even think this was not what I wanted before… I thought we weren’t ready but…” Max rambled on uncharacteristically, and though he kept caressing her face then running his fingers through her hair, she could definitely sense just how nervous he was.

“Max? What are you talking about?” Liz interrupted him and demanded softly, although she had a pretty good idea of where this was going and she could already feel her heart beating quicker in her chest at the thought.

Not that she hadn’t known that they would have to talk about it eventually, but why now? They had been so happy together. So at peace. She didn’t want to have to burst his bubble just now.

Unaware of what was going through Liz’s own mind, Max only expelled a huge sigh when he saw her sit almost completely up now and straddle his chest, apparently uncaring of her nakedness, and then he decided to just blurt it out. There was no need or reason to drag this on, was it?

“I-I want us to have another baby…” the words were whispered softly, like he was afraid to scare her off if he said them any louder, and yet even with the possibility clearly on his mind, he wasn’t anywhere near prepared for her reaction. “ I mean, if you want that, too… if-if that’s still s-something you want…” he was quick to add as he felt her tense on top of him almost right away after his declaration.

He knew he was taking her by surprise since that was the first time he had mentioned it himself or even hinted on the fact that that was something he was considering since they had patched things up, but still, that was clearly not how he had expected her to react and he couldn’t help wondering if she had changed her mind since the last time they had had this conversation months ago.

Back then he had known how much she had wanted to try for another baby and he had stupidly refused her and if he had had time to think about it over and over again after he had left their house and it was clearly something he wanted now, he knew he wouldn’t pressure her in any way if she was the one not ready for more now. They were definitely happy as it was, and if Janelle was the only child they would ever have, that would be fine, too, of course but he would lie if he said that the thought of Liz growing round with their baby again wasn’t something he envisioned in their future.

“Liz?” he uttered her name worriedly when she failed to answer him and his anxiety only grew stronger when he heard her mutter a strangled ‘oh, god’.

“Okay… maybe it is too soon…” Max deduced, thinking that maybe she just needed more time and that she would be more open to the idea when they would have spent some more time together again.

There was no rush after all, they could wait as long as she felt the need to. He could definitely give her that considering how he had behaved in the past. In fact he owed it to her.

“No, no… it’s not… I… it’s… god…” Liz stammered miserably, feeling like there suddenly wasn’t enough air in the room to fill her lungs.

She didn’t know why she was so surprised, she had known that sooner or later this particular topic would be brought up and that she eventually would have to tell him all the truth. They had planned it that way and this had been as well about getting away from the rest of the world as giving them the opportunity to be together to talk freely and finally clear all the misunderstandings, and one more in particular, that still subsided between them.

She had just naively thought that she would have a little more time, that they would save that talk for their last night so it wouldn’t spoil their short vacation.

She had thought wrong apparently, because as ecstatic as she could be to know that Max could feel that way, that he could be ready now and want them to try and have that other baby she had desired so much, she knew he had no idea the can of worms he was about to open and she knew that she was going to hurt him, when that was the last thing in the world she wanted.

No, she couldn’t even rejoice over his declaration, not before he knew everything. She didn’t see herself telling him that that was something she wanted as well, more than anything else in fact, when there was still this huge secret between them. It just wouldn’t be honest or even fair to him. The only problem was she wasn’t sure he would feel the same way once he would know.

“What is it, Liz?... what’s wrong?” Max sat up as well now and was even more concerned when he gathered her up against his chest and he noticed just how much she was trembling.

“Why now?... I can’t… I don’t think I-I can do this now…” Liz stammered painfully, though it seemed to Max that she wasn’t even aware she was speaking the words aloud, and her reaction confused him even more.

He couldn’t even tell if she was saying that she couldn’t talk about this now, or if she just couldn’t picture herself having another baby. She made barely any sense to him, the only other time he had seen her reacting this way being when he had brought Tess up when he still hadn’t had all the facts and she thought he was having an affair with his secretary, or later on when he had asked her about Kyle and what it was exactly he had seen.

“What can’t you do now?... Liz, what’s going on?... talk to me…” he pressed on before he could stop himself, but then couldn’t help sucking in an audible breath when he met her tear-filled eyes.

“You’re gonna hate me.” Liz whispered in an agitated breath, making Max frown as he remembered her saying those exact words not only the previous week but that day she had been talking with Kyle Valenti as well.

Again he found that thought completely ridiculous of course, but obviously from the look on her face, Liz truly believed that it could happen and he knew he had to reassure her.

“Hey, what have I told you before?” he demanded quietly, cupping her face in a gentle grip. “Nothing you could ever do, could make me hate you… nothing!”

“You say that now!” Liz countered despite how sincere it was obvious he was being.

Deep in her heart she knew, too, that he was telling her the truth and that if he hadn’t hated her when he had been convinced that she had been cheating on him, he surely thought that he wouldn’t be able to do so either now, no matter what she could tell him, but knowing what she was about to reveal herself, she wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

“Look at me… tell me…” he insisted, directing her gaze to him when she stubbornly looked down to his chest and refused to meet his eyes. “Does this have anything to do with that day in your classroom?” he queried then when she still kept silent, looking at him with tears brimming her eyes and like she was convinced she was going to lose him if she answered to his plea and told him what was obviously eating her up inside.

Yet even as he asked and he saw her nod afterwards, he couldn’t see how that day could be linked in any way with what had brought this up, namely his suggestion to have another baby. It just didn’t make any sense to him. Not yet at least.

He already knew there had been no kiss, contrary to what he had thought for months. It had only been a false perception, a trick of his mind, due to their positions and the angle they had been standing at from him. That was the only thing he had asked to know right away once they had started discussing Tess, Kyle and all that had come between them at the beginning of their trip and he had promised her that he would give her all the time she needed to tell him what exactly he had witnessed that day, but the rest of the conversation was still over his head and remained a mystery. Though it wouldn’t be for long now apparently if he managed to convince her to talk at last.

“Okay… look, I know that I said I wouldn’t pressure you and that you could tell me when you were ready… but Liz, I hate to see you like this… and you’re scaring me… so do you think you could try and tell me… like now?” his tone was whisper-soft, like he was afraid he was asking for too much too soon and feared she would just bolt out of there in reaction, but it was obvious to Liz that she had used all the patience he was capable of and that there would be no postponing this anymore.

She knew that she was lucky he had waited so long without hounding her already, moreover when it was clear to her that he had many questions about that day and what he had seen and heard, and that if he hadn’t voiced them out loud since that first night a week ago, they had never been far from his mind nonetheless.

She could do little more so than breathing a shaky yes in answer and praying to God that she was wrong and that he wouldn’t think any less of her once he would know.

“Alright… do you want us to get dressed?” Max proposed when she acquiesced, thinking that they would certainly be more comfortable for the long conversation he was sure awaited them if they did, but Liz shook her head almost right away, convinced that she would just lose her nerve if they moved at all and suddenly started searching for clothes.

“No… it’s fine… I just… I just don’t know where to start...” she confessed in an uncertain murmur and just pulled on the upper sheet to wrap it around them both so they would at least feel less naked, the gesture almost automatic, yet Max could once more see how nervous she could be and tried again to alleviate her fears.

“The beginning is always the best place I’ve heard…” he said almost jokingly, rearranging the sheet himself so it would cover them where it seemed to matter the most, and then he stilled her hands when it seemed they wouldn’t stop moving any time soon if he didn’t do something about it.

“Max…” Liz all but groaned out his name, like what he was doing was definitely not helping contrary to what he could think, but she was prevented from saying anything else when he grabbed her hips to bring her even closer, and resting his forehead against hers, he cut her off.

“Hey, whatever it is… I’m sure it can’t be that bad… and it won’t make me love you any less, trust me!” he promised earnestly before pressing a tender kiss to her lips.

“I trust you…” Liz replied right away, though it didn’t make her feel any less scared or nervous, no matter how true such declaration could be.

“Okay then, just start whenever you’re ready… and I’ll just hold you meanwhile… okay?” Max offered and did just that, wrapping his arms around the small of her back, uncaring of how much bare skin was coming into contact with more nude parts.

Of course he was very much aware of the fact that it was there and that his precious wife was naked in his arms, but he was able to momentarily force himself to forget about it since he knew well that what she really needed at that instant was his comfort and closeness.

Just like he knew that he needed her just as close for whatever she was about to divulge. As calm as he appeared on the outside, inside his heart was triple-hammering and ready to burst out of his chest, and seeing Liz looking so young all of a sudden, so fragile and vulnerable, was definitely doing nothing to help with that feeling.

“Okay… the beginning, huh?” Liz sighed heavily after a while, but Max could clearly see that it hadn’t calmed her down in the least, if the way her voice tremble as she spoke again was any indication. “Do you… do you remember last summer… when… when we went to visit my parents…” she questioned, surprising Max who hadn’t been expecting her to start that far back or even just with that.

He remembered of course, it would have been hard to forget considering all that had happened during the few days they had been there. The Parkers had been celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary and they had made the trip to join them and that was probably the last time that Max recalled their relationship looking like anything ‘normal’ before all really went to hell.

“Sure.” he just replied, not having much to say for the moment since he didn’t know yet where exactly she meant to go with that.

“We hadn’t been together in a while… I mean really together… you were always working and I… I wasn’t exactly the most pleasant of company either… we just kept fighting for one thing or another back then… well, for one thing in particular…” Liz pursued emotionally, remembering how strained their relationship had been prior to that trip.

Between the long hours Max pulled up at work and the scenes that ensued whenever she brought up the delicate topic of another baby, they had barely had time to ‘love’ each other and not be at odds. But those few days away had been like a breath of fresh air for them.

Back in Roswell, they had momentarily forgotten all their problems and differences. Back in Roswell, it had been like the good old times, when nothing and no one, not Max’s job, not her desire and near obsession for another child, not even their communication issues, could come between them. For a little while they had just been Max and Liz, in love again, and everything had been as close to perfect as it could ever be.

“Yeah, I remember… and I’m so sorry for that…” Max told her, grimacing slightly as he recalled that time and how he had noticed the growing distance between them but had still been convinced that it was nothing to worry about. That it was just a rough patch like any married couple could have them but that they would get through it because they were different.

God, how delusional and wrong he could have been!

“And do you remember what happened the night just before my parents’ party?” Liz ignored his apology for now, knowing that there wasn’t much to be done about it then, moreover when she knew they were both as responsible for what they had let their relationship become.

“Yes, I do… we drove to the desert and…” Max trailed off with a fond smile this time and Liz picked up just where he had left off in the next second.

“…we made love almost all night…” she followed quite shyly but her smile matched his nonetheless.

That night was forever imprinted in her mind, for so many reasons, and she had thought of it many times during the last months. It was one of the only things she had had left to get her through the agonizing moments she had had to spend away from Max and she had clung to it like a drowning man to his lifeline.

It had actually been a spur of the moment thing, something neither of them had really planned. Her parents had called it an early night and since Janelle had already been in bed herself, they had been left to themselves with no desire to join her just yet but no idea of what to do to pass the time, until Max had asked her if she wanted to go for a drive. When she had accepted, they had left almost right away, their destination clear in both of their minds.

They had driven there many times when they had been younger and still living in Roswell, the desert being the place they always ran to when they wanted to be alone, and somehow it had only seemed natural to choose to go there that time as well.

Like old times, they had spread a blanket and gazed upon the stars for a while. And just like old times it had all started with an innocent kiss, a gentle brush of lips that with one look had soon grown into something more. Something none of them had been willing to deny then.

Before they could think about it twice, they had been shedding clothes and joining as if they had never been apart, as if they had still been those two teenagers, naïve about the world and how much effort you had to put into a relationship to make it work, the first rays of sunshine and the knowledge that they had a daughter who still didn’t like waking up anywhere but in her own bed and with both her parents near being the only thing that had managed to make them part and forced them to go back to a reality none of them had been too eager to face.

“It had been so long since I had felt this close to you… yeah, how could I forget?” Max admitted, his tone hoarser than he would have wanted it at the moment, but then he couldn’t help adding, “… but what does this have to do with the rest?”

As cherished as those memories were, he had still no clue of why or how they could be linked in any way with that scene he had witnessed months afterwards when things had gone from wrong to worse between them. He needed answers and wished he could have them right away, but much to his surprise, Liz continued her tale like he hadn’t even talked at all.

“The night after that… I drank too much and I got so sick you had to carry me upstairs…” it was as if she knew that if she stopped and acknowledged his question she wouldn’t be able to go on.

“And I stayed up most of the night… trying to make sure that you wouldn’t need anything…” Max added his part, clearly remembering how worried he had been that night.

He had never seen her drink that much in fact, nor being so ill afterwards, and consequently he had not left her side or gotten a wink of sleep until he had made sure she was really okay.

“I must have thrown up my pill that day… and I had already forgotten the one of the day before… when… when we went to the desert…” she informed him at last, but wasn’t surprised to see him still looking at her in confusion.

As bright as Max could usually be, he had evidently no idea of what was about to crash into him, and her heart tightened in her ribcage just at the thought of what it would do to him.

“Okay…” Max just uttered with a frown, like he didn’t know how else he was supposed to react, still his body seemed to know that whatever she was about to say could very well shatter his world because he suddenly seemed unable to stop it from trembling.

“I… I-I got pregnant that night, Max…” the words were blurted out so softly that Max would have probably not heard her if he hadn’t been holding her so closely, but as soft as they could have been they had the impact of a punch to the gut, leaving him momentarily breathless.

Liz saw him shake his head, like he couldn’t quite believe what had just passed her lips, his face a mask of incomprehension and she felt her eyes sting again at seeing him suddenly so lost.

“No, you d-didn’t… you… did you?” he half-chuckled, half-whispered, as if he thought it was all just a bad joke, but the sight of the silent tears now rolling down her cheeks was enough to sober him up instantly. “But how… wha-… you… we didn’t… there was no…”

He was unable to form a coherent sentence, yet Liz didn’t need him to, to know exactly what he meant.

How was it possible that she had been pregnant and he had not known about it?

How could she have been with child, but there had been no baby after all?

God, she wished more than anything else in the world that she could take the words back or just not say anything else, because she knew just how much she was going to hurt him in a few seconds, but there was no going back. He needed to know and she needed to tell him.

“I found out a few weeks later... and I just... I didn't know what to do... I didn't know how to tell you... I...” she stammered brokenly, the fragile hold she had on her emotions being harder and harder to maintain.

"What happened, Liz?" Max wasn't feeling any calmer than she could herself, but if one had to be, he knew that it had to be him.

He could see that Liz was barely holding it together and that it would most likely get worse before it got any better, but he would lie if he said that part of him didn’t want to shake her up and beg her to just spit it out already and end there the torture. A million questions were running through his mind at the moment and he wasn’t sure of how much longer he could still be kept in the dark before he lost it himself.

“I wanted so much to be happy about it… and part of me kind of was I-I guess… I just… I was so scared…” upon her answer Max realized that as eager as he could be to hear everything, he would have to tread carefully with Liz because she was clearly in no state to answer even the simplest questions.

It seemed like she had already had this conversation a million times before in her head, like she had it all rehearsed, and wasn’t going to be able to tell it any other way.

“Why… why didn’t you tell me?” he whispered as softly as he could nonetheless, cradling her face in his hands, but nearly breaking down himself at the sight of her obvious despair.

Still, even as he said the words, Max already knew part of the answer. He couldn’t believe that Liz wouldn’t have at least tried, and if that were the case, it meant that he hadn’t been there for her, he hadn’t been there to listen to her when she had needed him.

“I tried to tell you… or-or at least I tried to see how you would have reacted to the news but… y-you kept saying that it was not the right moment… and you were probably right… but I wanted that baby s-so much, Max… even if it were for all the wrong reasons…” she sobbed out, only confirming Max’s suspicions, yet she clung to the hands that were still framing her face like she was convinced he would let go of her now while she would just collapse if he did.

She couldn’t afford to feel him pull away. She needed him, more than she had ever needed him in her whole life probably, but she didn’t know how he would bear the thought of being this close to her once he would know what had happened.

She remembered all too well the way he had been, the way he had looked at her every time she had broached the subject, like he couldn’t believe she was still trying to persuade him when he thought he had made it more than clear that he didn’t want to hear about it for now, and she had chickened out every time then. Refusing to tell him that it was already too late, that she had been careless and gone and done exactly what he hadn’t wanted her to do… before lying about it for weeks.

“I know…” was all that could pass Max’s suddenly dry lips at the moment, as he tried to brush her tears away and calm her some down before she lost it completely.

He didn’t know what else to tell her anyway. He had been a jerk about it back then, but so sure he knew what he was doing. He had been convinced that waiting a little more was the right thing to do, but not once had he doubted how much Liz could have wanted that baby, or how much she would have loved it.

What he realized now though, was that just as he had denied her the right to choose when they would have that child, he had also denied her the right to be truly happy about it when it had apparently happened nonetheless.

He remembered all too well how when they had found out about Janelle, they had been both scared out of their minds at the thought of being parents, but nothing could have tempered the joy and excitation that news had brought to them as well. Beside, they had been together back then and they had known that they would get through it, no matter what.

This time, Liz had been all alone.He had left her all alone to face this, and not only had he made her fear him and how he would react so much that she had thought that she had no other choice but to hide it from him, but he had deprived her of the opportunity to at least rejoice some over the fact that she was going to give birth again, and that was his only fault.

She seemed so scared he wouldn’t be able to forgive her once he would know what was still left to be said, but he was more and more convinced he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself once he would.

“I didn’t know what to do… I thought… I thought you would be so angry with me… that maybe you would think I had done it on p-purpose… or that…” she went on between painful gasps of air and Max felt his heart breaking just thinking that she could feel responsible for anything that could have happened, whatever that was.

Not for a second could he think that she had gotten pregnant on purpose or against his wish. If it had happened nonetheless it was only a matter of circumstances, because it was meant to be and just couldn’t have been prevented. Liz was no more responsible than he could have been and he knew, without the shadow of a doubt, without her needing to tell him so, that she would have never gone behind his back willingly. She just wasn’t that type of person and she would have never gone to such length to get what she wanted, no matter how pigheaded he could have been himself or how much she could have disagreed with him.

“No, god, Liz… I was being an idiot back then but I would have been ecstatic nonetheless… I know I would have been…” Max all but cried out with as much desperation as she had mustered herself.

He needed her to understand that as stubborn as he could have been then, he would have never resented her or their child, not in a million years. Even when they were at odds, Liz was all that mattered to him and a child with her would have been a precious gift he would have cherished and loved unconditionally, because no matter what, despite their problems or how distant they could have been from each other, it would have been a part of them and it would have been created in love.

“I-I think… I think I knew that, too… I mean, p-part of me did… but for the rest… I thought… I thought I would lose you…” she gasped out, pressing her fingers to Max’s trembling lips when she saw him ready to protest. “Every time I brought it up… I felt you drifting a little more away from me… I felt so lost… so confused…” she finished, new fresh tears welling up in her eyes when Max’s forehead came to rest against hers while he grabbed both her hands and brought them to his mouth.

“I definitely didn’t help, huh?” his voice broke as he spoke and placed a few apologizing kisses on her knuckles. It was definitely not enough, but he knew that whatever promises he could make in his heart at the moment, wouldn’t help her in any way for now.

Still, it literally killed him inside to see how much he had hurt her. To realize that she had thought that what was usually one of the things that could bring two people as close as they ever could be, could be the reason they would lose each other, or that she could therefore have seen it as a mistake or a burden she wouldn’t have been able to bear. And he really didn’t need to be a mind-reader to know how much that could have broken her inside.

“It wasn’t just you, Max… it wasn’t you… I should have told you, no matter what… I just kept telling myself that I would… that it was just a matter of time… soon… but there never seemed to be a right moment…” she brushed at her tears almost frantically, aware that she had not even reached the hardest part yet, but there seemed to be no use. “Then one day… I guess… it just all became too much and I kind of lost it at school… Kyle… K-Kyle was there and I ended up telling him… god, Max, I hated… I absolutely hated that he knew before you… you should have been the first…” the words seemed to be wrenched from her throat, like it had indeed nearly killed her to confide in anyone before she could tell her own husband that he was going to be a father again, but even if he had wanted to, Max couldn’t have found it in him to be angry.

How could he, when it was all his own doing?

“It’s okay… shh, it’s alright…” he promised tenderly, refusing to even think about how that felt.

It hurt of course to know that Kyle Valenti had had that honor, that he had been there with his wife, listening to her, helping her, supporting her, when he hadn’t been, but considering the circumstances, it would be hypocritical to hold it against her. Not when he knew he had been the one to back her into a corner, that he had left her with little choice and consequently had only himself to blame for that.

“Kyle… he just… he just didn’t understand what the big deal was and he… he kept s-saying that you would probably be happy nonetheless and that I should just tell you but… I-I don’t know… I…” she continued tremulously, remembering the few conversations she had had with Kyle and how adamant he had been that she told Max everything before it all got even more complicated.

She had joked of course, at least at first, about the fact that it was probably a guy thing and that that was why he insisted so much over the fact that Max had the ‘right’ to know, that she couldn’t make any decision without talking about it with him first, but deep down inside she had well known that it was a good advice he was trying to give her. One she had taken too much time to follow unfortunately.

“He was right, you know…” as much as it galled him to admit that much, Max breathed out soothingly nonetheless, smoothing her hair away from her face and favoring her with a small smile that he hoped would reassure her.

“Yeah… but I just kept procrastinating… he never gave up, though… moreover when he saw how indecisive I was about what to do…” she choked out, trembling anew when she noticed the second her words registered on Max’s mind.

“What… what do you mean?” he croaked out himself, fighting the dreadful feeling that suddenly seemed to unfurl in the pit of his stomach.

Whatever it was, he wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that ‘ how indecisive’ she could have been.

“God, I’m so sorry… I should have told you right away… I-I wanted so much for y-you to know…” Liz hiccupped once more, making Max’s anxiety grew another notch.

“Liz?” his voice cracked on her name, no matter how hard he tried to keep it steady.

His heart was thundering against his ribcage and he knew it wouldn’t be long before he started breaking into a sweat but there was nothing he could do to control himself.

“That day in my classroom…” Liz started throatily again, taking in a huge gulp of air before she could say more. “… that was one more attempt of Kyle to convince me to talk to you… and he did… m-maybe not at first… but the whole way home… I kept telling myself that he was right… that you would eventually figure out something was going on… I mean it wasn’t as if I could have hidden it indefinitely… but…”

“I didn’t come home… at least not until late…” Max cut her off and said dejectedly, cursing himself once more for his own stupidity.

So many things, so many misunderstandings could have been avoided if he hadn’t been such a damned coward and had just gone home directly.

If he had confronted her right away, she would have explained herself and she would have told him about the baby that same night and all would have been cleared out before it got out of hands.

How stupid he had been and how much time he had wasted!

Even now he still remembered Kyle’s words to her: ‘You didn’t mean for this to happen, but it did… no one is really responsible… you’ll just have to make sure he understands that…’, ‘you have to tell Max… it’s not fair to him… it’s not fair to hide the truth from him, you know that…’ He had thought then that he was talking about telling him that she was having an affair, that she and Kyle had been together. He had thought he was talking about them when he was trying to convince his wife to be honest with him and just tell him that she had been expecting his child. A child he had somehow managed to make her think he wouldn’t want. The cruel irony of it all was that he had hated Kyle for being there and telling her what she should do or not, when he had only been trying to help her, help them.

“And you didn’t sleep in our bed…” Liz added, recalling the morning after and how she had found out he had slept on the couch instead. “I know why now… but then… it just didn’t make any sense… I mean, no matter what could happen between us, it had never gotten that far… and then you were saying that you were leaving for God knew how long… and… god, I needed you… I just… I knew we couldn’t go on like that… I knew I had to tell you and just face the consequences…” Max heard her explain and he cringed visibly as he remembered just how mean he had been to her when she had tried to talk to him.

God, the things he had said to her, even now he couldn’t believe he had dared talk to her in such a way. She had needed him and he had let her down once more and for what? What had he gained by treating her so callously and with so little respect? Nothing. Nothing at all!

“But I didn’t listen… oh, god… Liz, I’m so sorry…” he knew he could tell her so a million times and it would still not be enough.

Crushing her to him, he swore nonetheless that he would make it up to her somehow, that he would find a way, and that he would never, ever give her any reason to fear coming and talking to him, for whatever it could be.

“I didn’t understand why you were so angry then… and I don’t know… when you left… I started wondering if maybe somehow you knew and that was why… but I just… I d-didn’t see how you could… and then I just… I kept telling myself that if you didn’t know yet then, if I told you… it wouldn’t only make it worse between us… instead of getting us closer, it would just drive us further apart and I would lose you… I c-couldn’t lose you, M-Max…” she all but wailed as she clung to him, and for a few seconds Max regretted having started this conversation if only to spare her this pain and anguish, even when he also knew that they both needed to go through this if they wanted to move forward without any baggage holding them back.

“You wouldn’t have, sweetheart… you wouldn’t have…” he vowed fervently despite the fact that it had very nearly happened.

But it had only been because he hadn’t gotten all the facts. If he had only known then the real reason behind her behavior the few weeks prior to that day in her classroom, if he had known what that had been about as well or known about Tess’ treachery later on, he would have definitely done things differently and nothing could have made him leave her side.

All in all it had all been a matter of circumstances, one they had let drag them into a vicious circle: Liz had gotten pregnant and had not dared telling him because she had been sure he would hate her for it, and in reaction had kept her distance so he wouldn’t suspect a thing. Max had thought she was having an affair with Kyle and recalling how distant she had been for a while had only reinforced his theory. Then Tess had entered the picture as well, and Max’s behavior that was only a consequence of what he thought was true, had finished to convince Liz as well that he had been the one cheating on her.

Talk about fucking things up big time. And to say that all of that could have never happened at all if they had just communicated instead of hiding behind their fears.

“I know that now…” Liz uttered, trying to concentrate on the way Max’s fingers were softly stroking her back in the hope to relax her some, and not on how much it still hurt inside.

He kept on until it seemed that her breathing was again more regular, but when he pulled slightly away from her and regarded her with a broken expression on his face, she almost wished she never had to leave the safe cocoon of his arms… and that she never had to destroy his illusions either.

“Liz, wha-what… what happened to o-our b-baby?” as much as it cost him to have to ask, he didn’t think he could wait any longer to know, not when he could see just how affected Liz still was.

He knew there were only two possibilities, only two answers to that question, and from where he stood none seemed more appealing than the other, but he needed her to say it, he needed to hear the truth once and for all.

He wasn’t sure what would tear him more apart anyway. Learning that Liz could have decided to voluntarily terminate her pregnancy, even when there was no way he could even really resent her for that when he had done nothing to let her think he would be happy about it if she kept the baby, or even if she had only done it later when she believed that he had abandoned her, abandoned the family he had already had with her for another woman… or hearing her say that she had had no control over what had happened to their baby.

He couldn’t ignore the fact that Liz indeed looked ‘guilty’, but he just didn’t know what to make of that yet.

“After you left, I could barely keep it together… but I tried… for Janelle’s sake… I knew I couldn’t just fall apart… and so I-I ignored the signs…” she whimpered out at the memories of how hard it had been to keep the smile on her face that day and those that followed if only to not alert their daughter that something was wrong.

How hard it had been to pretend that she was not dying inside after their fight and after having seen how he had looked at her, like the simple thought of her disgusted him and there was nothing between them anymore.

She had been carrying his child, and despite everything it entailed, she had wanted him to know, she had wanted to tell him and see him reacting as happily as he had years before when she had told him about Janelle, even when part of her had been convinced that there would be none of that this time.

Little had she known then that, in a few hours, there wouldn’t be anything to say anymore anyway.

“What signs?” Max barely rasped out, trying to recall any event, anything about that time that could answer his question before she could, because suddenly he wasn’t so sure he had what it would take to actually hear what he now knew was coming.

“For the last few days… I-I had been having cramps… and they just seemed to have amplified that day… I just… I just chalked it up to being stressed out… more than normal…” looking at him when he looked so lost and seemed to be begging her to stop this nightmare was probably one of the hardest things Liz had ever done, but she knew she had no choice. She had gotten too far to stop now. “I remember… I-I remember barely sleeping that night… so after having taken Janelle to school… I came back and laid down for a while… and when I woke up… when I-I…”

“What?” Max urged her on when she stopped there, tears welling up in his own eyes when Liz broke down again.

“I-I guess I knew… I knew something wasn’t right as soon as I did… I-I just… I didn’t want to b-believe it… I c-couldn’t believe it…” he could barely understand what she was saying with the way she was crying again, but in his heart he already knew what it meant.

“What happened, love?” he sobbed out even though the answer was clearly written all over her face.

He just knew now what she was going to say before she even said it, yet as prepared as he thought he was for that, never would he have thought it could still hurt so much.

“I-I didn’t… I couldn’t even m-make it to the bathroom before I realized that I-I was bleeding… and that it was… i-it was too late…”

“Oh, god…” Max moaned out but Liz seemed to be in some kind of trance now and it seemed like she hadn’t even heard him, her voice cracking even more as she kept telling him what she had been through all those months ago, and if she was certainly not aware of what she was doing, the more she talked, the more she broke his heart.

“You weren’t there and I didn’t know who to call so… I-I called Kyle since… since he already knew… and he took me to the hospital but… it was too l-late…” by the time she finished her sentence Liz was crying so hard it felt as if her insides were being shred into pieces and Max didn’t know what else to do beside momentarily forgetting about his own pain and cradling her close while he did his best to not burst into tears himself just yet.

He remembered that time all too well. He remembered when he had called a few days after having left her with no idea of when he would be back, and how Janelle had told him that ‘uncle Kyle was there because mommy was sick’. He had been so close, holed up in Michael’s apartment, consumed by his pain and jealousy, when he could have been with her.

God, he could have been with her in a matter of minutes.

Of course, there were probably a dozen times Liz could have told him about her miscarriage afterwards, too, and she knew he would have comforted her then. She had even thought she finally would after that last time they had made love, just before Tess had knocked on their door with her lies, but once she had thought that Max planned to give Tess what he had refused her, what she had had at her fingertips during a brief instant but had lost in the end, she hadn’t been able to think about anything but the tremendous pain that had consumed her for weeks, months even thereafter. There hadn’t seemed to be any point in telling him anyway after that, it wouldn’t have done any good to either of them. Not in the situation they were in at the time at least.

“Shh, shh… don’t cry…” he whispered urgently, aware that it wouldn’t help but at a loss for words for the moment.

What exactly was he supposed to say to her anyway? He didn’t know how to soothe her pain because at that instant he was feeling it just as vividly, as intensely and just didn’t know how to make it go away.

And it wasn’t only because he now knew that he had lost a child he hadn’t even suspected the existence until a few minutes ago, but mostly because it was amplified a million times since he realized that he had not been by her side during the most traumatic experience a woman could go through, leaving another man that as much as he could have wanted to, could have never brought her the comfort and support that her own husband could have, should have, because as supportive and considerate as Kyle could have been, Max knew there was no way Kyle could have really understood or shared what she was going through. He couldn’t have felt it in his bones like he knew he would have himself, like he did now.

“I l-lost our baby, M-Max… I-I lost it…” she wailed into his ear and Max had a hard time just holding her as her body shook almost violently in his embrace.

“Shh, sweetheart… i-it’s okay… it’s gonna be o-okay…” he promised as he closed his eyes to ward off the rebellious tears that tried to escape despite his efforts and he rocked her gently, one of his trembling hands massaging her scalp while the other ran up and down her spine.

“It was m-my fault… I’m sorry, Max… I’m so sorry…” Liz whimpered next, hugging Max for dear life, like she was afraid he would really be repulsed and push her away once he would understand that she was responsible for their baby’s death.

“Oh, no, god, Liz… what are you saying?... no, it was not your fault… it wasn’t…” Max had a hard time prying her arms away from around his neck but he needed her to see that not for a second had it even crossed his mind that it could have been her fault.

That was the most ludicrous thing he could have ever heard in fact. It hurt like hell, there was no denying that, but nothing could have prevented this from happening, he knew that. For whatever reasons, this was meant to be as well.

“Yes… yes, it was… you… you don’t understand… for a moment… just a short moment… I… God… I was so scared of what it would do to us… to our m-marriage… I was so scared of losing you that I-I… god, I wished it away… I-I wished it hadn’t happened then… and then, it was just… it was gone… it’s my fault, Max… I’m sorry… I a-am so sorry…” she clung to the hands that were now framing her face again, like she was begging for some forgiveness Max knew she didn’t need to receive, at least not from him.

It was so clear to him that she had yet to forgive herself for those maybe misplaced thoughts she could have had back then. But he didn’t care how many times she could have actually told herself that it would have been better if she hadn’t gotten pregnant at that moment, he didn’t even care if she had, if only for a fleeting moment, indeed considered the possibility of an abortion, Max knew her and he absolutely knew that she would have never done anything to hurt their baby in the end, no matter what she could have thought. No more than her being overjoyed that it had actually happened could have changed anything to what was meant to occur.

“Baby, look at me…” he cajoled as she looked anywhere but at his eyes, as if she felt suddenly unworthy of the love and understanding she knew, deep down, she would still find there. “How can you say that?... of course it wasn’t your fault… miscarriages…” he had to stop to swallow past the huge lump in his throat for a few seconds and wish away the images that assailed his mind all of a sudden. Images of Liz waking up in their bed or lying on the bathroom floor, alone, in a pool of blood, with no one to hold her hand and tell her that everything would be alright. Now was really not the moment to lose it. Liz needed him and he would be damned if he weren’t there for her this time. “… miscarriages are horrible, I know... but they happen and there wasn’t a thing you could have done to prevent it…”

“No, maybe I could have… m-maybe I could… have done s-something… maybe I didn’t take enough care of myself… I don’t…” Liz went on nonetheless, almost frantically, giving Max the impression that she still needed to understand what she could have done wrong, still needed to blame someone for something that was otherwise not explicable.

In her mind, she had to have done something to have her baby taken away from her before she could have even really felt it growing and living in her womb. Before she could have even held it and loved it. Before she could have even shared the joy of the miracle they had created with its father.

“Liz, please… don’t blame yourself, none of it was your fault…” Max murmured achingly, like he had somehow read her mind and knew exactly what she was thinking. What she had convinced herself of for months now apparently. And more than anything else ever could, it tore his heart to pieces to realize the hell she had been through because of it. “It happened… and it’s not f-fair, I know… but there was nothing you could have done… no one could… and, god, Liz… I don’t blame you either, if that’s what you’re thinking… I could never blame you… I-I don’t…” Max swore, but only understood how close to the truth he actually was when he saw Liz’s face contort in pain seconds before she sagged almost in relief against him and then she started to cry in earnest like the dam had broken and it was all too much.

“Shh… let it all go… it’s over now… let it go…” Max suspected that there was a lot of things she had kept locked up inside and was only now grieving over and he let her cry to her heart’s content, offering the little support he knew he could.

“It hurts… I-I don’t know why it still hurts so much…” Liz lamented hoarsely, the words muffled since she kept her face hiding into the crook of his neck, but Max heard her all the same and could only concur.

It hurt worse than anything he could have imagined. In fact, even knowing from experience how much that hurt, at this point he would rather be shot a thousand times than to have to go through this or see Liz suffer this way.

“Shh… I know, sweetie… but I’m here now… you’re not alone…” he murmured soothingly, gathering her even closer and wishing he could absorb her into his body and keep her there, protected, forever.

Seconds turned into minutes, but neither of them was in any hurry to relinquish their hold on the other, at least until Max groaned out shamefully, “God, Liz… I should have been there for you… I should...”

Max didn’t even know how Liz could still have kept breathing after having had to face this. How she could have been strong enough to not fall completely apart, or even just enough to hide her misery so well from him that he hadn’t even suspected a thing during the time they had still been living together. And he didn’t doubt that she had been miserable and all but dying inside. He just had to look at her now and see how deep that wound still cut, or to feel himself now how suffocating and heartbreaking that feeling was to know.

“No, no… you didn’t know, Max…” Liz shook her head and for the first time since she had started bawling her eyes out, she met his gaze willingly, hoping he would see that she didn’t blame him more than he apparently could her.

They had both made mistakes, they had both done and said things that had brought them to the point where neither was able to speak to the other, and it would have no meaning to start pointing fingers now or see who was more at fault.

“Just to think of all you had to go through… all alone… god, Liz, I’m so sorry…” Max pursued nonetheless, ignoring the fact that she was trying to stop his protests the only way she knew how.

Repetitively, desperately, she pressed her lips to his, only pulling away to repeat, “You’re here now, Max… you’re here…” And that was all that seemed to matter at the moment.

“You won’t ever be alone again, Liz… I promise you… never again…” he whispered to her, the words getting lost into her mouth as her kisses became more and more urgent.

Tears mingling and locked into each other’s embrace, they tumbled back into the bed, seeking comfort into each other now that the last secret that could have kept them apart was out in the open.

They didn’t need to say anything else at the moment, their regrets, their sorrow, their pain, were the same and they knew there was only one thing that could somehow make them ebb away if it couldn’t make them disappear entirely. Maybe they would never go away completely, maybe they would always been there, buried in the deepest part of their hearts and they would never be able to forget all that had happened, but at least now they were together, and Liz was still convinced, like she had been at one point before she lost faith in them, that together they would be able to go through this. Together they could do anything.

Max only hesitated briefly then when Liz worked on getting rid of the sheet that had tangled around their bodies, his need to lose himself into her as strong as hers to see him complete her again, but one whisper-soft plea from Liz was enough to brush away that single, brief instant of doubt he could have had. Whatever else that still needed to be said, would have to wait, he realized as he let himself sink into her depths and made them momentarily forget that there were some things you probably could never repair completely, no matter how hard you were willing to try.

Sometimes the best way to heal anyway wasn’t to analyze everything or even to try to find solutions, but to let completely go and only look forward.


A few hours later, Liz woke up to the feel of cold sheets beside her once more, just like she had the week before.

This time however, she wasn’t seized by a near panic attack, knowing instantly that Max couldn’t have gone too far.

Muffled sounds coming from the bathroom reached her ears and for a moment she thought that maybe Janelle had woken up, crossed the door that joined their rooms and woken up Max so he could take her to the bathroom.

It had happened a few nights back already, so it wouldn’t have surprised her, yet when after having donned on one of Max’s shirts she reached the other room door and opened it to offer her help, it wasn’t the sight of her daughter and husband that greeted her.

Sitting on the bathroom floor only in his boxers, knees drawn to his chest and fingers gripping his hair so hard it looked like he was trying to pull it all out, was Max, alone, and Liz’s heart about stopped when she heard the sound of his painful sobbing.

“Oh, Max…” she whimpered, a hand coming to cover her mouth before she could let out the pained cry that threatened to escape her own lips, but then the next second she was dropping to her knees and reaching out to him. “M-Max.”

He looked up suddenly, like he had only just realized that he wasn’t alone any longer and for a second Liz expected him to pull away from her, but much to her surprise he did just the opposite.

His crying seemed to grow even harsher as his head fell to her lap and he held her for dear life, nearly crushing her bones with the force of his embrace.

She didn’t feel like letting him know about that or even telling him to ease up a little however, because she knew it wouldn’t do any good. Whatever could have caused Max to break down like he had, and she had a pretty good idea of what that could be for having gone through the same thing herself months ago, she knew that he just needed to let it all out and cry until he couldn’t cry anymore.

“It hurts…” Max sobbed out, his face buried against her stomach, and Liz didn’t need him to say more to have her earlier thoughts confirmed.

While he had been there trying to comfort her and calm her down, he had not let himself think too much and grieve over what he had lost himself and Liz knew that just because he hadn’t carried their child in his womb or felt its life slip through him without being able to do anything to stop it, it didn’t mean that it hurt any less.

Max hadn’t even wanted to think about how much it did in fact, until he had woken up about half an hour ago.

For a few minutes all he had done was lie there, looking at Liz while she slept peacefully.

Watching her then, no one would have ever guessed all she had been through, the tragedy she had had to face all on her own. No one would have ever guessed all she had had to carry on her own shoulders, alone, because her more than lousy husband had not seen a thing and been by her side when he should have.

He had tried to push that thought away, knowing that he would probably lose it if he didn’t, but the more he had stared at her, the less he had been able to think about anything but that.

It had started slow, with a stinging in his eyes and the trembling of his hands, but when he had felt the lump of tears clog his throat, he had known that he couldn’t stay lying there any longer, not if he didn’t want to wake up Liz.

In the confines of the bathroom, it seemed that it had all come crashing down on him. Not only the fact that he had lost a baby, too, though that was already enough to make him feel like his heart was breaking into a million pieces every time he let himself think about it, but that he had failed the one person he had sworn long ago that he would always be there to protect and support.

Regardless of what their relationship had been back then, he should have known that something was wrong, he should have somehow felt it. And he would have if he hadn’t been so wrapped up in his own pity-party and wondering how she could have gone behind his back with Kyle Valenti when it wasn’t even true.

He had always been able to read Liz so easily in the past, how could he have suddenly been so wrong about her? How could he have not seen how much she was hurting and not sensed her despair? How could he have been so blind to everything that was going on around him?

And it wasn’t just about her. It was about everything in fact. From the way he had treated her or how he had taken her for granted and how that had impacted on their marriage, nearly ruining everything between them, to the way he had let Tess worm her way into their lives without realizing what chaos she would bring with her.

No matter how sure he could have been about his actions at the time, Max could only curse himself when he thought of all the time he had wasted with Liz and his family. The efforts he had put in bringing them everything they could wish for materially just couldn’t make up for all he had deprived both her and Janelle of emotionally. He knew that now more than ever. No matter how he tried to justify it back then or if it stemmed from a good intention, it just wasn’t worth it in the end, not when he saw just how much they had lost because of that. Or what more they could have if he hadn’t woken up in time.

The damage Tess herself had caused had fortunately been reparable to some extent, but Max didn’t think he would ever forgive himself for all the hurt and pain she had caused Liz because of him.

He had already thought so the first time when he had first heard the truth, but if he had not even thought about this right away when Liz had told him about her miscarriage, it was made even worse now that he understood just how heart-wrenching it could have been for Liz to hear Tess insinuate they were planning on having a baby, whether that had been revealed to be true or not in the end, when Liz herself had lost theirs not so long ago.

Thinking of the torture it must have been made him cry even harder. He just couldn’t fathom just how much that could have devastated her. It was little wonder so if she had not wanted to have anything to do with him anymore after Tess had come to her and if she had asked him to leave their house.

Even now he didn’t know how she could bear to be this close to him, how she could touch him so lovingly, and still be trying to comfort him. He had probably never felt so unworthy of her or of her love as he felt at that instant, and yet at the same time he knew he would just die if he were to ever lose her. Worthy or not, he just couldn’t live without her.

“I’m sorry, Liz… I am so s-sorry…” he moaned out when her soothing caresses and promises that everything would be alright were eventually enough to calm him some down.

Liz had of course predicted that sooner or later Max would break down, they were both alike after all and they often felt and reacted intensely about things, but even suspecting the proportion it could take, it still tore her heart to pieces to see him like this.

“Shh, Max… it’s alright…” she replied softly, not really understanding what exactly he was sorry for since she had been convinced he was crying over their baby mainly and he was surely not responsible for what had happened to it.

No more than she was. Of course she had been told before that there wasn’t a thing she could have done, that it had been meant to happen even if it made no sense, not only by Kyle but by the doctors she had seen when she had miscarried, and also later on when she had returned and seen her gynecologist for a checkup, but it just hadn’t had the same impact as hearing Max saying it could have, even if he wasn’t the one with all the medical knowledge here.

She guessed that even when she had been scared to tell him, she had still needed to hear that he indeed didn’t blame her for what had happened and knew that it hadn’t been her fault. It was probably the only way she could convince herself that it was true in fact, as stupid as that could look.

“No… no, it’s not… how could it be?” Max whimpered and Liz felt her own throat clog with tears when he suddenly sat up and their eyes met. Whatever it was Max was thinking about it was obviously tearing him apart. “Why… how… how come you don’t hate me?” he rasped out a mere second later, the expression on his face caught between incomprehension and what looked like anger.

“Max…” Liz barely started before he interrupted her vehemently.

“I hate myself...” he whispered fiercely, making Liz wince as she understood that the anger she had discerned in his gaze seconds ago had been directed at himself. “You have no idea how much I can hate myself… I hurt you, over and over… I-I took you for granted instead… instead of simply loving you like I should have… and I abandoned you, Liz… I-I abandoned you when you needed me the most… how can you not hate me?”

She should, for everything he had done to her, she should there was no doubt in his mind, yet when he looked at her all he could see was the pure, unadulterated love she felt for him and made no effort to hide now.

He had deserted her on many, many occasions and had hurt her even more times and yet she still loved him. How was that even possible?

“Max Evans, I love you… so much… I have since I was a teenaged girl and nothing… nothing could change that… I could never hate you…” she confirmed what he already knew in his heart, repeating almost to the letter what he had told her himself mere hours ago, but if the words brought comfort to his tortured soul, he knew it was still not enough. It couldn’t be.

“Forgive me, please… Liz, please, baby… c-can you forgive m-me?” he begged brokenly, knowing that he surely didn’t deserve it, no more than he probably deserved her in fact, but as selfish as it could be, he needed her to say she would nonetheless.

He wasn’t sure he would be able to go on if she couldn’t find it in herself to forgive him after the way he had behaved.

“Only if you forgive me, too…” Liz whispered emotionally herself. They were both just as to blame. Maybe not for the same things, but they both shared equal part of responsibility in what they had let their marriage become. And they both needed just as much to make peace with the past and their own deeds.

“For what?” Max protested right away. “There’s nothing to forgive you for… you didn’t…” … do anything I didn’t force you to. Those were the words that would have surely passed his lips in the next second, but Liz didn’t want to hear them.

“For not talking to you… for not coming to you when I should have… for not trusting you when Tess came to me…” she cut him off and confessed in a trembling murmur, cupping his face when he immediately started to argue once more.

“I’m guilty of just the same thing…”

“This is why this needs to stop… we have to stop… I don’t want to hurt anymore… I don’t want you to hurt either… and I don’t want to blame you for everything when it’s not myself I blame… I love you, Max… I love you and I just want… I only want to be with you…” she breathed out shakily, silent tears rolling down her cheeks. Tears that Max was quick to brush away.

“You have me, Liz… I was always yours… always…” his lips caressed her face, his fingers stroked her hair, but it was the way he was looking at her with his heart and a million promises in his eyes that made her melt in his arms.

“That’s all that matters now, Max… you and me…” Liz hoarsely said as she held him as strongly as was humanly possible without hurting him.

“You and me…” Max repeated just as huskily, his own arms encircling her waist with just as much strength she mustered herself.

It would probably take him time before he could look at himself without self-disgust or self-loathing, but he guessed Liz was right, they wouldn’t go anywhere if he didn’t at least make the effort to try and push that aside. He couldn’t undo what he had done or change his past behavior anyway. He couldn’t just magically erase the pain he had caused her, voluntarily or not, no more than he could make her forget about all the times he should have been with her but actually hadn’t. He could only promise himself that it wouldn’t happen again and that he wouldn’t ever give her any reason to be disappointed with him again. And if he had to spend the rest of his life making it up to her, he would do just that. And gladly.

“I love you so damned much… so, so much…” he murmured to her a few minutes later when they parted and their misty gazes met again.

“I know…” she cradled his cheek as she exhaled the words and couldn’t help the tremulous smile that crept upon her lips when he naturally leant into the soft caress.

She knew she didn’t need to tell him that she loved him as well again, because he could feel it in her touch, just like he could in the way she gazed amorously down at him.

“Liz… about the baby… and what I said… what I suggested… m-maybe we should wait some mo-…” he started after a moment but couldn’t help wincing when he felt Liz go rigid right away.

“What? Why… I thought… no, Max… are you… you don’t…” she cut him off and stammered incoherently before he could say more, the thought that he could have changed his mind again because of what he had learned tonight being more than what she thought she could bear.

“No, wait… hear me out, please… I’m not changing my mind, okay… I am not, trust me…” he countered quickly, not wanting her to panic, and wanting even less to hurt her again. “I want that with you… there’s probably nothing I want more than giving Janelle a little brother or sister in fact…” he continued with a shaky smile when he saw her relax some. “But I just… when we started this conversation there was a lot of things I didn’t know… and I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything… I want a baby with you now and I’ll still want it in six months, nine, or how much time it will take us to get there… I just want you to really think about it… I want you to be ready for this just like I am… and when you are… when you are, sweetness… all you’ll have to do is come to me and say the words and I’ll be there, more than willing and ready to do my part, okay…” he finished in a long sigh before frowning when he realized how what he had just said could sound.

“Okay, maybe that didn’t come out as I intended it to…” he grimaced slightly, but Liz was quick to reassure him, even if she had no idea how she still managed to speak.

“No… no, I g-get it…” she croaked out, hoping she wouldn’t start bawling like a baby again.

She got what he was saying loud and clear. Max was giving her the opportunity to make her own choices this time. And not because he was feeling guilty and was trying to somehow compensate for how he had deprived her of that choice before. But because he understood her pain. Because he knew what she had been through and knew that maybe she wasn’t ready yet after the trauma that losing the child she had carried even if only for a short while had caused.

The truth was that until that second, Liz had not even asked herself if she was really ready to take that next step again, knowing now that miscarriages didn’t just happen to others, but that it could happen to her, too, again, and knowing how much that could destroy you.

That hadn’t even been a possibility until a week ago anyway, since she had been sure that the chances of a reconciliation with Max had been slim if not non-existent, and she had known that she would never be able to share such a huge commitment with anyone if it weren’t him.

Now it was again however, but she realized, just like Max already had apparently, that she just couldn’t throw herself head first into this without thinking it some first. And not because she wasn’t sure she wanted another baby, because she did, with every fiber of her being, but she had to be sure she wanted it now. Had to be sure she could have it now. Without maybe regretting it afterwards if it had been too soon, or without holding on, all through her new pregnancy, to the fear that history would repeat itself and she would end up even more heartbroken that she had the first time.

She knew that for that, she needed to get over what had happened and never look back. The real question was, had she already reached that stage?

With today for evidence, Max seemed to think she hadn’t, but time would give her the answer. Liz was convinced in fact that she would know when she would be ready if she weren’t yet, that she would feel it. In the meantime so, she would do as Max had asked, and give herself the opportunity to think about it.

“Okay… good…” Max just whispered in answer and kissed her softly when he saw that she seemed to agree with him.

The last thing he wanted was for her to think that just because he could want another child now, she had to bid to his wishing right away. Never again would he force her to do something she didn’t want to or wasn’t ready for, or stop her from getting exactly what she did want or need when she would ask for it.

“We’re gonna be okay now, Max.” Liz said then with such conviction that Max would have believed her right away if he hadn’t already been sure of that himself.

No matter what they decided to do now, they were together, Max and Liz, and like she had said earlier, that was all that mattered.

“More than okay… we’re gonna be forever…” Max promised as he stood up and after having scooped her up into his arms, moved them both back to the warmth of the bed they should probably never have left.

Laying her down, he joined her right away, spooning behind her and holding her close, a soft sigh escaping his lips when she laced her fingers with his over the place where, hopefully, one day not too far away, would rest their baby, and then he couldn’t help smiling contentedly when he heard Liz’s own quiet whisper.

“Forever.”

Merely two weeks later.

Leaning against the doorframe, he smiled softly at the sight of his two girls lying on Janelle’s bed, obviously engrossed in ‘The Little Mermaid’ once more it seemed.

They hadn’t noticed him yet apparently and he drank his fill of them, like he often did when they weren’t looking. They were beautiful and sometimes he still couldn’t believe himself that they were really his. That they were his family and that there was nothing standing between him and the happiness he knew he could only find when they were by his side.

For the first time in a very long time, Max could say that he was deliriously happy in fact. He and Liz had been living in marital bliss again for a few weeks now, he could see Janelle every day, every single minute even if he wanted, and all seemed to be for the best in the best of all possible worlds. At this point he really didn’t know what more he could ask for.

Well, maybe that wasn’t entirely true. Maybe there was still one thing, but he knew it would come soon enough.

“Daddy!” a joyful cry pulled him out of his reverie and the smile on his face only grew wider as he eventually stepped fully into Janelle’s room and sat down on the other side of his daughter.

His little girl was quick to throw her arms around his neck and plant a sound kiss on his cheek, happy to see that he had come back home before she could get to sleep.

“Hey, sweetie.” He hugged her back just as tightly, before he let her lie back down again and concentrated on his gorgeous wife.

He had only been out a couple of hours with Michael but they seemed like an eternity already. Moreover when he had had to go to San Francisco yesterday and had only gotten back in the middle of the afternoon.

He had taken longer trips out in the past of course, but this had actually been the first ‘overnight’ one he had been forced to go to since they had hired Jesse.

Most of their clients had had no problem with the change and had accepted the idea of a new partner easily, maybe because they knew that Max would keep supervising everything and that the twenty-seven years old new lawyer would only be the intermediary in most of their cases, but a few had been more comfortable with Max being the one staying on theirs nonetheless, at least until they could have some time to get to know Jesse and see how good he was at his job himself.

Max had understood their reticence of course, but that hadn’t stopped him from cringing just at the thought of having to face Liz and telling her that he would have to make that trip.

Her reaction had surprised him however. When he had almost expected her to tell him that he was already breaking his promise to her when it hadn’t even been a month, she had smiled that beautiful smile of hers, kissed him tenderly and told him that she was going to miss him dearly but that it was okay. That she wasn’t naïve and had known from the start that he wouldn’t be able to avoid all the trips, no matter how much he could actually want it, but what was even more important, that she knew without the shadow of a doubt that he wouldn’t go if he could do otherwise and that was enough for her.

Max had probably never been more conscious of just how lucky he was or been more grateful to have her as his wife than at that instant.

As he looked at her now, he felt nearly overwhelmed again, the thought of how much he could love this woman causing a huge lump of emotion to burn his throat and before he could stop himself, he was leaning over Janelle and grabbing the back of Liz’s neck and bringing her to him, his lips taking hers in a tender but full of promises of more for later kiss.

When they pulled apart they were both dazed but Max couldn’t help but notice the way Liz was looking at him, the way she was biting down on her bottom lip. Like she had some secret she couldn’t wait to share with him.

“What?” he breathed out against her sweet lips since he had yet to let go of her.

“Hmmn-nothing.” She whispered with a teasing smile before pulling away before he could kiss her again, more because her daughter was making strange noises between them, than because she actually didn’t want him to continue.

“What?” Max looked down and couldn’t help laughing when he saw Janelle with her hands on her eyes, like the sight of her parents kissing wasn’t something she was willing to see.

“Ugh… you’re a’ways kissing mommy now!” she said like it was a bad thing, but Max knew by her tone that she was smiling behind those hands nonetheless. It wasn’t like she wasn’t getting used to it by now anyway, they had been that way since her daddy had come back home.

“Are we jealous?” he asked teasingly but before Janelle could answer, he was tickling her and blowing raspberry kisses on her stomach like he had done a million times when she had been younger.

The sound of her rich laughter filled the room instantly and Liz herself couldn’t help giggling at the sight of the two persons she loved the most in the world looking so happy together.

“S-Stop… daddy, stoooop!” Janelle hiccupped between fits of laughter but Max kept attacking her relentlessly, until Liz thought she had to intervene if she didn’t want Janelle to pee her pajama bottoms.

“Max, stop… don’t get her all hyper!” she advised, sure that it would take her an eternity to get her to sleep if he didn’t, and that wasn’t exactly something she wanted to see happen.

She had plans for Max and her tonight and the sooner she got Janelle to sleep, the sooner they could get started on those. She had missed him yesterday night, even if they had talked for hours into the phone to make the separation a little easier, and if the way he had kissed her a few minutes ago was any indication, so had he.

“Don’t get her… oh, you’re telling me what to do?... now you’re gonna get it, too!” Max groaned a mere second before he launched for her as well and had both Janelle and her writhing under him.

For interminable minutes, he tortured them both, relishing in the joyful sounds they emitted and warding off their ineffectual attempts at retaliation, until they all moved around so much on the small bed that Max found himself on top of Liz, barely aware that Janelle had crawled over his back herself once he was between the legs of his barely clothed wife. She was only wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts, so it was little wonder if that was the only thing he could think about all of a sudden.