The early hours came much too quickly for both of them as
eyes opened and they were Liz’s and she was feeling protected in the arms of Max as they had succumbed to 10 years of implausibility and passion, aching for each other and never being able to get quite there until the night before when they lost all inhibitions and common sense because both were too knowledgeable and smart to know this was a good move for them. Especially when it had an expiration date.
And yet
it was destiny.
But destiny had a morning after, and Liz could not be sure of how to react to it. Because common sense told her this was a literal nightmare for her, and she should be getting out of this bed, and running, and going back to her life. Grab her bags and leave town and never come back. Because she had changed things. And by changing them, she had made it impossible to be the person she was just the day before. But the other side of her. The one who had longed for this for 10 years, that side was weak, too weak.
It is Max that personality told her overly cautious side.
Max, the one who worships you, and loves you. Max, she thought, and someone who she had finally gotten to the place they both should have been able to get to years before, so she could not move from this bed.
She felt content, and her eyes closed once more and then Max’s eyes opened, and he smiled to see her still in his arms.
Something rare and something beautiful.
She did not run he thought as he took in her beauty, and who was in his arms.
Even if he knew that something this rare and beautiful had to have some kind of consequences down the line.
We always something that gets in the way.
Max knew this but he did want to deal with those when he had his dream girl in his arms, and she was not leaving. She was not sneaking out. She was staying.
Yeah, hell with the consequences Max thought.
I can take them.
But could he, but he knew he had lived through seven years ago, so he felt he was battled tested to take what was coming now.
So, his eyes closed, and both continued to sleep.
And then before long he felt the sensational fingers of warmth coming down his arms as he found her on top of him. “Mornin’” came his response as he never knew his sexy, she could be.
If only we had been able to be together, back then. So much could be avoided.
“Morning,” Liz said softly as he leaned into her as they kissed and they began to roll around the bed forgetting their world that existed outside the door, or that she was planning to leave these arms and head back to her cold reality.
“Liz” Max tried.
“Nothing about feelings or anything like that,” Liz said as she went for a kiss. “I do not want to feel anything more than what we have right now…”
“I am game for that,” Max murmured.
“Because I am leaving Max,” Liz said. “I cannot stay…”
“I know, but you are not leaving
right now, are you? Max murmured
yeah; I will take whatever I can get he thought as he saw the sexiness in her smile as she was on top of him and acting like she wanted to stay in their bubble.
“No, I am not” Liz confirmed. “But…”
“But nothing. Let us not talk anymore when we have now,” he smiled as they kissed some more, and stayed in bed…
…and made use of that bed.
*
“Where is Maria?” Amy asked her husband as she put a plate of pancakes in front of her grandson. It was early, and Charlie was up early. While there were no more disturbances during the night. Still, the echoes of the dreams stayed with Charlie. And he could not stop thinking about the man he had seen in his dream, or in the bedroom where he had spent the night. But hearing his mother’s name, he looked up, and saw the concern on his grandmother’s face. Something was not right, “Mommy?”
“She did not come back here last night,” Jim confirmed as he sat and read the Sunday newspaper. “Maybe she went to Liz’s place?” he wondered.
“Was that not her original plan? he asked as he did not get the concern because Maria was now an adult. Sure, maybe he should worry given old events, but he was going to be in denial a little while longer until he was told to wake up.
“The plan changed because it was that she would come back here?” Amy thought as she knew her daughter had accepted the offer come back here and spend the night here at the house once Liz had disappeared with Max. She had made the offer and her daughter had accepted so that they could some spend time together, but she had not seen her daughter since she left the wedding reception with the blonde who she had last been talking,
Serena.
Amy knew Serena was a doctor focusing on some special project of Max and Isabel’s. That they were only privy to with the only exception being that Jim knew
some of the specifics. Even if Jim did not know at the same time. But Serena passed the check Jim had done when she had come to town, and she was hired, and she had been around these parts for the last couple of years. She did not know what was going on, but suspected it had to do with Michael.
Michael Guerin Amy thought.
She could not be sure because she had not seen Michael in many years. She had been told the same story most of town had. That he had relocated out east.
Which is odd one because if he had relocated,
why not seek my daughter out? she wondered. And it was obvious Michael was not in New York. Not knowing what was happening. She had not elected to not to tell her daughter because of course she did not want her daughter to come back unless she wanted to come back. Even if she knew that if Maria had known than something was off with Michael’s situation that she might have come back, so she had not told her daughter, and as a result Maria had not wanted to come back.
Because she had found her career, and a lot of success and had stayed.
So, Amy had been proud of her daughter even if she longed for her daughter to return. But now her daughter was back, even if it was for a visit. She was cherishing it and worrying because her daughter had now disappeared. And it was bring back memories of a time that existed over a period of three frantic years for her daughter. She had been oblivious. But not too oblivious not to know that something was going on, and to have a clear understanding that it was why her daughter had not even chosen to finish her senior year and vanished before the completion of her final term. Graduating barely, and in absentee.
Not even coming home for the ceremony, or to pick up her diploma.
“Maybe there was a change in plans,” Jim asked as he could read his wife, and knew when she was distracted, and it was usually about her daughter. As he knew the feeling because he had the same look over his son. But thankfully his son had found his way in life, and was now happy, and secure in his life.
“Maybe,” Amy thought but did not know. “But I did not see Liz and Max last night which is why I know my daughter changed her plans. The thinking of was they had gone off together, so I doubt my daughter would have gone back to the original plan. And head over to Liz’s place she has rented for the weekend?” she muttered. “But then I saw her going off with the Serena women…”
Serena Jim thought. Someone who had come to town and stayed. A newcomer to their ranks although she had made a home here, and he had done his search of her when she first showed up, hired by Max and Isabel for some mystery project that they did not even tell him about, but he knew they had come into a bundle of money, and they were using it for some project. It was not something they wanted to talk about. And given his history of finding himself in one of their messes after another, he was not anxious to revisit that time. All he knew it was perfectly legal. Serena had some skeletons in her past
but who did not he thought. But none of them warranted any concern, and even now, he was not especially concerned.
Maria is famous for living her own life.
On the other hand, Maria’s son did not have the same experience with his mother, and he was going to pick up on any concern his grandmother showed, as he who was ignoring his grandparent’s conversion peaked up some interest. “How come?” Charlie asked, pipping into the conversation of his grandparents. And Amy and Jim were forced to remember that they had to deal with sensitivity of a six-year-old who loved his mother and would be hypersensitive to any mention of intrigue involving his mother.
“It’s grown-up stuff,” Amy smiled as she was trying to dissuade anything untoward from her grandson.
“Oh,” Charlie said as his smiles turned into a frown when a vibe across his mind “Is Mommy alright?” he whispered because he was quick to brush aside the assurances of his grandmother and wonder if something was indeed happening.
“I am sure she is alright.” Amy said in assurances to her grandson because she did not want to start something, but she knew well enough she had…
Charlie could not help but remember his dream. Or how he remembered feeling being watched and he did not like knowing that feeling, and now his mother was not around, and she never not came home. After all his mother had been single all these years. Charlie had not been exposed to another man, or any of next morning kind that developed after a date.
Sure, his mother had gone out. But with his Aunt Liz, or with friends. Never with some man. And if she did, they had been friends, his mother would assure him and would come home afterwards.
And she had.
And if his Aunt Liz behavior with Micah’s father was any indication
No Mommy never was like that he though as he remembered how he saw his aunt interact with Micah’s father.
“She’s fine Charlie,” Amy said as she knew she was lying but she needed to tamp down any concern that her grandson might have. She knew she started something as she looked at her husband who mumbled, “fine” as he got up from the table and went to get changed. And before long, he was on the way to the station to make sure mayhem had not break out in the middle of the night.
“Thank you honey,” Amy called out as she saw him get into his truck as she went back to her grandson and worked to keep his mind of any mischief that might be going down.
*
A couple of hours later,
Isabel and Kyle were off on their honeymoon. Phillip had driven them to the airport himself. Diane was off with friends meeting for lunch. And now Phillip was stopping by to see if he could help Jeff and Nancy clean up, but he found it all done by the time he arrived. Jeff was at the counter, talking to one of his waitresses. Lunch service had just begun, and the doors were open. The open sign was hanging on the door “Phillip?” came the greeting.
“Good day,” Phillip acknowledged as he walked into the establishment and saw the bustling of people around the successful restaurant. A place beloved by tourists and townsfolks. Phillip was not known to come in here often but knew it was loved by his children, and his son for one particular reason.
Who he had met here he thought? “I came by to see if you needed any help cleaning up. I would have been here earlier, but I needed to drop the kids off at the airport.”
“Hawaii is it not?” Jeff asked.
“Yes,” Phillip murmured. “Which means I do not have to worry about them for two weeks…”
“I am glad,” Jeff smiled. “It really wasn’t too bad. Just moving stuff around and picking the trash of the plates and stuff” he said of aftereffects of hosting the wedding reception the night before, and really, there had been nothing of any concern. So, we managed it fine on our own. We did not need any help.”
“We also wanted to express our thanks for hosting it,” Phillip murmured as he remembered that Jeff had catered, the last wedding reception. “We know it can be costly to close for a night, and lose the business,” he allowed as he though of his daughter and her new husband. “Hopefully, this will be the last time…”
“I think it will be,” Jeff smiled as he remembered the bride and groom, and how he saw happiness within them, and how they were at peace with each other.
“Maybe it will be
our kids next” Phillip asked with a lack of seriousness because he knew his son and Liz were a long way from that, were it to even happen at all and he had his doubts because like he had told his daughter the night before. Max and Liz were different people today than they were back in high school. Liz had her career, and his son had his daughter he needed to raise, and concentrate on, and therefore he had no idea where that would take them. But as long as his son was happy, he could handle it.
Jeff could only laugh at the comment because he longed for his daughter to settle down and provide him and his wife some grandchildren so they could love and see often.
Grandchildren that would be something he thought but he doubted his daughter would get there anytime soon. So, he laughed, as the door opened, and they turned to see Jim walking in. “Good morning Sheriff.”
“Today, it’s just Jim” Jim smiled. “I am off duty although Amy doesn’t know that…” he laughed.
“What’s up” Jeff asked.
“I was curious if you have seen Maria?” Jim asked. “She did not show up at home last night, even though that was the plan, and so Amy and Charlie are now worried…”
“Maria is a big girl; I am sure she is fine” Phillip murmured allowed as he looked around the restaurant and he did not see the blonde who had spent so much time here in high school along with his son, and Michael.
Michael, he thought. Someone he had a combative relationship over the years. But had helped when the boy needed to get out on his own. And therefore, he knew he was basically a second brother to his daughter, and family, and so his absence was noticed. And he never truly had bought the excuse his children had passed around town.
Something they would say about Tess too he thought. He had come along way and knew a lot more now than he did at the time, but he did know how they explained away Tess’s disappearance. So, he knew something was up there, but he did not know what… Given how secretive his children were known to be, and still were to an extent. And he knew how much Michael had rebelled after Maria left town.
Until he disappeared completely.
Jim sensed the confusion in Max and Isabel’s father. “I am sure she is, but then Charlie claims he got visited by someone last night. And now we cannot account for his mother, so it makes me a little curious” Jim murmured.
And makes my wife curious more like it because Jim knew his stepdaughter had her own life, and she was leading it quite well but then there was always something about Roswell that attracted the angst and the drama and Maria had long been apart of it…
Thanks to who she chose to love.
“Really?” Jeff asked as his eyes shot up.
Jim did not seem worried or let it show.
I am not worried. I know the signs of something that should be a concern, and this is not it “I am sure it was just a bad dream that looked too real when he woke up, but now Amy gotten worried, and so I was hoping your daughter was around for breakfast or even an early lunch, and I could ask if she knew where Maria might be off to?” he sighed. “I doubt she would have returned home without mentioning it to Amy, or letting his son know?”
“Sorry,” Jeff shook his head. “We just opened. I have not seen her. Nor have I have seen my own daughter this morning,” Jeff confirmed. “We kept it closed for the breakfast service to clean up from last night, so we just open, and since we did, we have not seen Maria. Nor Liz. In fact, I tried to call her this morning, but I have not heard anything?” he said as he looked at Phillip who looked amused, and the men could only smile. “Micah was at your place last night, right?”
“Right, and now she’s at a friend’s house for an all-day birthday party” Phillip confirmed s
ince my son did not show up to drive her to the party, we did the honor. “I have not spoken to my son since the party…”
“Anyways, I was hoping…” Jim murmured.
“If I see her, I will tell her that her mother is looking for her” Jeff said. “And to reach out.”
“Thank you,” Jim said as he left the restaurant.
“Well,” Phillip asked.
“Could it be something to do with Michael?” Jeff asked as he handed Phillip a menu. Because Phillip was going to stay with a burger.
“I have not seen him in years,” Phillip commented. “I have been told he relocated?”
“We were told the same, but you never know with the kids, right?” Jeff asked.
We often were not told the straight story…
*
“I want a baby” were not the words Max had been expecting to hear as they were out of bed, and now in the in the living room portion of the apartment. Max was shirtless but in his pants. Liz was wearing his shirt. Because her dress was too in disarray to even attempt to wear the garment next door so she could change into something more sensible. She had stayed and they had eaten eggs in silence as neither of them knew what to say as reality was slowly coming back to the situation as they just stared at each other, and neither approaching each other with anything more than a simple smile.
To Max. He did not care because as long as he had his dream girl in his vicinity than he was good to go. And he did not even need words. As long as she was here, and he could see her. And Liz had not wanted to leave even though she knew this was a situation that had no good ending because their story always had an ending that had rough edges around it. And yet she did not get up and actually leave and go back to the coldness of an apartment that was not even hers.
Instead, they sat on the couch. Reality was returning.
Ever so slowly they were finding. And so, Max knew that despite the rush, they had used protection once back within the constraints of the apartment. But they had not on the roof, and they both knew it, and they both knew Max had overheard what he did the day before when Maria blurted out what she did. Neither had said the words. But Liz finally admitted she was not on the pill because she was undergoing testing, and he was concerned, and so he asked, and she finally admitted that she was planning on becoming a mother.
Using a sperm break, she was quick to assure him. She was just trying to figure out the right approach. A scientist to her very core.
The mere revelation of a baby had shocked him and sent him reeling.
A baby Max thought. He had not heard wrong. He had not thought he did, but it was the last thing he had expected.
“You do?” Max said as he did not know what to say so he was trying to come some type of comprehension.
“Yes,” Liz murmured and knew that some part of him was thinking that she might have been using him. “I was not planning on using this weekend against that goal. Because I have been abstaining recently. And I was going through testing and everything. And using the time to really think whether I want to go through with it. So, regardless of what Maria said, I was
not using this weekend for that goal. But I do want a baby, and I am planning one of these days. When I do not know. But I wanted to know that it is possible. Still, do not think I was trying to use you…”
“Why would I think that?” Max asked as his mind was still coming to terms with what she was saying.
She is not Tess he thought. Now that was a woman who had used him and used sex to get what she wanted from him.
A baby. Not thinking of the ramifications of such a decision on him, or their child. Although given the child was out there, somewhere in this world
hopefully he thought. He knew he was to blame for falling for those lies. If only he had wised up sooner. But he had not because it had been a weak time between him and Liz, and for their whole group and little did he know that Tess had engineered the events, whether they were intended or not or just a result of the carnage that she inflicted on them. Still in comparing his former girlfriend with his one time
something with Tess.
Liz was nowhere near as diabolical as Tess. And he knew she would never use him like Tess did.
Unless he wanted to go there…
And maybe he did, came into his mind as he was spacing out
where did that come from, he wanted to ask himself of his thoughts as Liz quickly brought back to reality as she started to speak once more. “Last night, this morning?” Liz wondered.
“Last night was not expected, and same with this morning” Max murmured and got a look from Liz,
I would never think you were using me he thought even if a part of almost wish she was “What?”
“I knew coming back I would see you. I might not have known exactly what would have happened, but I certainly had my chances to not go there, and we could have stopped ourselves but still I was not looking at you for that…”
“Because of whom I am?” Max asked, slightly twinged. “Of course, you would not want my baby?”
I would love your baby Liz thought, because it was the truth. Max was an ideal candidate to be any potential father. Gorgeous, loving, and compassionate, and perfect… “I would never discriminate like that…” she though of any potential father for her baby. Even if she knew from the baggage even if she had not walked the shoes of Max or Isabel. Still, she had experienced enough of it by being on the outside, and just watching back when they were teenagers. But she knew Max being the father of her baby would be opening a door that neither of them should be opening.
She wanted her baby to happy and healthy. She would not knowingly discriminate on the basis on what could happen. Because they knew nothing really about the genetic code and as far as she knew, Max was perfectly healthy. Only Michael they had sketchy information about, and even then, she saw in Charlie that he was a healthy little boy. Maria had done as much genetic testing as could be feasible without it telling her
everything about her unborn baby, so they knew on that front Charlie was normal.
How normal he was is another matter to find out one of these days she thought. Since he knew Max was very much human to his very core. His genetic material coming from his status came through him, in other ways.
“Why, would you not?” Max asked. “I bring a lot of baggage to any baby?”
“You do not know that” Liz sighed as she felt the burden in Max. “We do not know exactly what we would be getting in any potential baby from the two of us” she thought
as if that was going to happen, and she knew it was not going to. “And that goes for the general population as well. Any new parent would not know what they would be getting within their child. I mean you did not know what you would be getting with Micah. It was a worry which is why you decided to step in, but you did not know. She could have been human, so no, there are no guarantees. I only meant that we are over, and why do we want to complicate that with a baby?”
Why could we not he Max thought without actually saying those words. “Do you consider us over, after last night?” Max asked as he knew it was true that they did not know how any child would turn out. Still, it was a weighty discussion to be having and one he did not like having, because it meant having to look at who he was, and what it meant for the next generation. So, he chose to concentrate on that other matters between him and his former girlfriend.
“Max,” Liz sighed as she hated to say the words. Which is the reality of this morning. “I am leaving. You are Roswell. You have a life here with your daughter. This is not my life anymore. I am not our hometown anymore. I move around so often; I do not have a home base. I suppose I guess I should have one if I am going to have a baby. But I guess the closest one I have is New York because of Maria and Charlie. Life is different for me because of the jobs I take, and those projects can take months and even years depending on what is going on with them. I move back and worth between them, which is why I am often rootless. You and I are complicated.”
“I know that Liz, after all we were complicated at sixteen. And certainly now, would be even more so because we are older and wiser…”
“I doubt you could call us wiser,” Liz muttered. “I mean just look at last night?”
“Right,” Max nodded with a slight smile
Look at last night?
“I want a baby, but I do not want the relationship…” Liz sighed as she voiced the truth of the situation. A relationship was not her goal. She knew she would be terrible within a relationship that was not with someone she loved. And she had not loved anyone since those days in high school. And even now, she knew her heart was taken. So, why would she do that to some guy. Give him her second best. So, all she wanted was a baby.
A baby she could handle. A baby she could love. Someone who would love her, and be there for her, and she could guide in this life.
A man would want more, and she did not have more.
She wanted to be a mother.
“That is good to know,” Max said with a sexy smile because the idea of Liz being with any one after the experience they had, which had been downright memorable. Sure, he knew she was not a virgin, but the idea of her being with anyone other than him, and then to have someone else’s baby. He could not handle it.
“Max,” Liz muttered.
Max could not help but laugh, and Liz did not know how to take his reaction. Because this had not been the one, she had expected when she had said those words about wanting a baby. She assumed it would scare him away. Tell him to leave her alone. Allow her to go back to her new life and focus on the possibility of the future. But he had not reacted like that, instead he was taking it as a challenge. And she did not know what that meant for her, because she did know they could not work.
Could they?
“The idea of you with anyone does not go down well with me Liz,” Max thought. “The idea of you having someone else’s baby…” he said in the softest of voices. “I hate the mere thought of it, Liz. I know it is the life you could have had these years. And certainly, I know you were not alone, and celibate…”
“No, I was not” Liz muttered.
And Max hated to acknowledge it. “I was…”
“Max…” Liz sighed even though a secret part of her liked it. Most of the town would not believe it since he was raising a little girl. But she knew the truth. So, the knowledge that he had not moved on was almost thrilling even though it was wrong…
“I was wait…” Max murmured but Liz stopped him with a mere touch of her fingers against his lips.
“Stop Max,” Liz said. “Because it does nothing…”
“Maybe it does,” Max murmured. “You are here for a reason Liz. You walked away years ago. But you are back. We are back. I know we have our challenges…”
“This is not that I was trying to get you to say when I told you what I told you?” Liz asked. “I only came back for a simple weekend.”
“Nothing is simple with us or our town,” Max murmured. “You were trying to scare me away were you not?” Max asked as he could sense her motivation behind her statement. “But regardless of whether you were, I know you will be an amazing mother Liz…” he smiled, and she felt weak to hear those words coming from the man she had wanted at one time to be the father of her child. But he was not, he was someone else’s father. Someone else had gotten that opportunity. She ended up alone. “Whenever you choose to have a baby, and no matter in whatever way you do conceive that child.”
“I do not know what kind of parent I will be, but I want a chance” Liz asked as she still could not believe the reaction hearing him speak gave her. “I know I am still young, and anything can happen. But…”
I wish you would have my baby Max thought for the briefest of seconds but did not say it, and before he might have blurted it out. They got interrupted by a knock on the door.
Damn he thought and she thought it as well, but she knew it was only right that someone was trying to interrupt the insanity of their discussion.
“Saved by the bell?” Liz asked out loud at the announcement of their visitor because she knew leaving them alone to their own devises could be not that advisable.
Max laughed as he got up, not caring that he was still shirtless, or that Liz was in his shirt because as long as she was in it, it meant she was boarding a flight to wherever she called home. Opening the door, “Jim” he said, surprised because he had been half expecting his daughter which would have led to another awkward conversation.
“Hello Max” Jim smiled as he could see that he was interrupting some kind of moment. One he knew that had a level of intimacy attached to it. But he had a reason to be here. “I knocked on Liz’s door, because I know she is staying next door?”
“Yes, she is” Max said but he chose to turn his head to see that Liz was standing behind him. “But you will find that she is right here…”
“I gathered,” Jim said with a smile. “Hello Liz…”
“Hello Jim,” Liz murmured as she had to laugh at the absurdity of this moment. Being interrupted by the town Sheriff.
Only us she thought as she came back to the reality of this day. “Jim, can I ask, what is the matter?” Liz asked as she was surprised that Jim was at the door because she like Max, she almost expected it to be Micah because after all this was Max’s apartment, and his daughter lived with him, which is something we have not gotten to, she thought.
“I have to ask if you have seen Maria?” Jim asked,
“Not since last night,” Liz thought as she and Max remembered that they saw their friend going off with Serena.
“Do you know where she went off to?” Jim asked as it was a not a surprise to him that Liz or Max would know where his stepdaughter might be. “She did not come home last night, and therefore Amy and Charlie are getting worried…”
“I am sure she is fine Jim,” Liz tried because she had checked her phone, and gotten some texts from her friend that were short and to the point,
you knew, and I cannot lose him and by him. Liz knew him referred to Michael, and that Maria knew the truth. But she had not a chance to talk to her friend and give her the support that her friend would need because she was in the middle of her angst and complicating what she was sharing with Max on this morning. “I have not talked to her, but I do know she was fine when I last heard from her?”
“Do you know where she went off to?” Jim asked.
“Yes,” both Max and Liz thought.
“Can I ask, does this have to do with Michael?” Jim asked because he could only think of one way to get Maria away from her son. After all that was why he was sure she had stayed away all these years because of Michael, and because of Charlie.
*
Yes, it did Maria thought as she was dreaming a good sleep. She had not gone anywhere. She did not care that people were looking for her, because she was not going anywhere. Not until Michael woke up. Unfortunately, as much as Serena downplayed it to her bosses. She knew it was likely at this point, to be a lost cause, and she knew it, but Maria was not seeing it.
She is too new to this Serena thought. To her, this had been years. Even if Max and Isabel did not want to acknowledge the likelihood but still down deep, they had experienced the depressive wait of hoping, and having that hope fall outside their grasp.
Maria did not have the years of waiting. She was new to this. So, she had all the hope in the world even though she had walked away, years before.
And now she was back and hoping against all hope. As she stayed by the bed and waited ever so patiently for Michael to wake up. Until she had fallen asleep with her head in her hands on his stomach,
While Serena went to her own bedroom off the floor, for those nights where it was late. And now she was coming back on duty, and not surprised to see Maria asleep. “I figured as much” she told herself.
As she checked the vitals of her patient.
And she found changes. Subtle changes. Nothing that would change the long-term viability of the patient she felt confident to tell herself and the chart. But subtle ones, because after many years on the case. She knew the case. And knew when to notice changes and nothing had changed in years.
But now it had, and she made notes of it in the chart, and then walked back out of the room and allowed Maria to continue to sleep.
*
As outside in the parking lot. As they waited for Jim to finish with a phone call from the station that he had been asked to partake in. Max and Liz were standing by the car they had driven in because they had been sure Maria would be here. After dodging Jim’s questioning about Michael. Liz had gone back to her apartment and gotten changed and came back to join the men looking so different from the seductress she had been the night before. In her jeans, and blouse, and jacket. So professional and so grown up. It made Max think again about her idea about using a sperm bank to be a mother. Because she was walling herself off from a true relationship. Not that he should be advocating of her trying to find love because he did not want her to fall in love, if it meant it was not going to be him. And yet she had gone there with him the night before, and then this morning.
So, the fact they were on this mission was a diversion that they needed so they did not talk about the elephant in the room. Still, she was standing next to him as they waited. The knew Maria was here because he had called the facility. And Serena had answered and told him that Maria was fine. Emotionally beaten up but was accounted for. Which was what he figured. Back during their high school years. Maria had a hard time walking away.
She might have ultimately succeeded in doing such a thing but today was a different story, and it was an entirely different to see Michael in his apartment, in some kind of funk when he was now in a hospital bed unable or unwilling to wake up.
Max did not know if it was one or both. And he knew Serena had been largely placating him and Isabel over the years because they had not wanted to pull the plug. Any scientist or doctor would have a long time ago. But Michael meant something to them, and he could not do it. And now Maria was back and getting an eye-opening view of it.
Jim had wanted to make sure with his own eyes that his stepdaughter was fine so he could go home and assure his wife even if he knew it was something tied up with Michael. Despite Max and Liz’s claims to the contrary.
But a call from the department had stopped their movement into the facility. So, now he and Liz waited. And could not go in because he knew it was a nightmarish technology dream to get inside, and only with someone with access could get through it.
Only Serena, Isabel and he had the keys for that ability.
So, as they waited Max and Liz just stood next to each other. “I guess you did not expect what I laid on you this morning?” Liz asked softly. “I am sorry for it, but I had to tell you…”
“Yeah, it was indeed a surprise,” Max allowed.
“Only Maria knows what I want to do, I mean I have not even told my parents. They probably think they will never have grandchildren because I refuse to bring anyone home to meet them,” she said a laugh, and Max could only smile. “Telling them would only make me doubt that I could do it. So, it has been only Maria, and even then, she does not know exactly how I am going about it” Liz sighed. “So, when you heard her comment…”
“It did throw me for a loop,” Max sighed.
“I am sorry for that,” Liz sighed. “But you needed to know. Okay, maybe not everything I did lay on you but usually I protect myself, because you never know…”
“No, you do not know,” Max sighed
although I have not put myself in any situation for it to happen, so I do not know he thought
since Tess.
“I only want you to be happy,” Max sighed. “That is only what I have ever wanted for you,” he allowed as he though back to over these past ten years. “Which is why I stepped in that day, you know, because I wanted you to have a chance to live your life and take advantage of everything you have dreamt of…” he said of what he had started a decade before when he had jumped in and saved the day and brought her into another world.
“And I thank you, because if it was not for you…” Liz sighed. “Then I would not have had the chance of these years,” she sighed of all she had experienced with her second chance. Even if circumstances had robbed her of the only man, she had ever truly loved. Still, she had gotten a chance these years to experience all that life had to offer. The good and all the bad of humankind. Still, she had a chance.
Because of Max.
I only wish I could have spent these years with you Max sighed to himself but that was his own private little rant at himself. Because she had a chance to make a life for herself, and it would not have been possible if only he had let that bullet succeed. “You have had a chance…” he smiled. “Maybe I can help you again in gaining something you deserve?” he was said but got interrupted by Jim approaching them. B
usted again before it gets interesting, he thought to himself. “Is everything alright at the station?”
“Everything is fine,” Jim acknowledged as this was his chance to look at
Meta Medical “You really have financed this place?”
“Yes,” Max said. “Isabel and I both.”
“And it was because of your inheritance?” Jim asked, and it did surprise Liz who was still dealing with the insinuation within Max’s last words to him as if he was going to offer her something and got cut off because of Jim’s approach a
nd she knew what it was going to be, and it made her lose her breath at the mere thought. And now she was forced to wonder who could have died because she knew Phillip and Diane were still alive, and his grandparents definitely not having the money for their grandkids to finance this kind of operation because as a scientist she had experienced her share of highly secure medical labs in her career.
“Who died?” Liz asked.
“Liz does not know?” Jim asked, surprised by the fact Liz would be in the dark when he knew the details, or some of them at least.
“No,” Max admitted as he turned to his former girlfriend. “And it’s not like it was some great loss. But it was
Kal Langley” he allowed, and it did surprise Liz. “I know, I know, he left me something in his will which was a shock, because of how we left things,” he allowed because he had told Liz the whole story when he had come back groveling from California. “But I guess his attorneys told him that he had to leave the money to someone otherwise the government would take it and given his distrust of the government. That meant we qualified and since he did not show any love for the others…”
or us for that matter.
“You mean Ava and her friends” Liz asked as she remembered their very memorable encounter with the basically clone versions of Max, Isabel, Michael, and Tess. Under the identities of Rath, Lonnie (short for Vilondra) and Ava which were the Antarian identities of alien four. As they would find out when they sent them down to earth. They had duplicated them with another set ultimately ending up in New York. While Max, Isabel, Michael, and later Tess would settle in Roswell. Although Tess would spend her life outside the circle. Until Lonnie and Rath decided they wanted to go back to Antar. And they were thinking Roswell was the way it would happen because the Granolith had been left with Roswell grouping and they needed to go to a Summit of the Planets y
eah, sci fi alright and they needed Max. But those in New York were truly a different breed, and it was only Ava who had any moral compass within her, which was upgrade from the version that they got to encounter here in Roswell. Once the dust settled. Ava had been one to survive, and she had gone off years before, while Rath and Lonnie disappeared and were thought to be dead or at that was insinuation. But no one really did know…
There was something decent in her she thought.
“Yes,” Max murmured. “Anyways, the wealth in his will came to us, and we used it finance the creation of this place…”
“You never mentioned why,” Jim asked as he glanced over at Liz. “Before they greenlit the money. The attorney’s contacted me to make sure Max, and his sister and Michael were on the up and up” he said.
“Naturally,” Liz said as they walked into the doors. And she looked around, and it was so sterile, and so like the many labs she had been in over the years. She had not known what to think and now she did.
As Max guided through the many barriers and layers to get into the facility and before they were walking down the hall that took them into Michael’s room.
And Maria was still asleep…
“Whoa,” Jim whispered as he walked into the room and he took it all in as they were entering, and he saw the short hair blonde nearby. Someone he had seen at the wedding festivities the day before and seen around town but did not know her. Although he did know she was close to Max, and Isabel, and now he knew why. Serena spotted the activity as she had been in the corner of the other room and she saw the crowd building and she sighed and came over.
“Max” Serena murmured.
“Can I ask. What do we have here?” Jim asked as if the sound in the room echoed through it, and suddenly Maria woke up, and she rubbed her eyes and looked and saw that Michael was still the same way he had been when she fell asleep, and she turned and saw Max and Liz, and her stepfather Jim.
“Max, are you sure there is not anything more you can do?” Maria asked.