Moments later Diane could barely stand straight as Max had to keep his mother up right, “Max” she whispered as tried to comprehend the miracle that was occurring right of her eyes. “Max,” she whispered once again.
“Hello Mom,” Max said as he took her hand in his… “I am sorry if I am shocking you. I was hoping, but I didn’t know if you would be home but then I saw some cars at the front of the house.”
“Your sister and Kyle are here for dinner,” Diane said as if her voice was somewhere else… “You are here… you really are here…” she repeated.
“I am,” Max said as he could see his return had shocked his mother, and he was sorry for that, and wished he had given them some warning but it had been a pure spur of the moment egged on by his partner, and because he was being forced onto vacation he elected to pull the band aid right away. He also knew he couldn’t come back and not see his parents, and, well, he was scared to see Liz. So, to prevent the heartache that would come with that kind of visit. He went with door number two of the nightmares he was delaying in visiting his parents. “Mom,” Max said softly as he smiled as he took in his mother while faced that she had gotten older over the last ten years and he hated to see the years he might have put on her with his actions.
“Max,” Diane said again as reality hit as she struggled to come to terms with the blast of the past starting right at her. “Come in, come in.”
“Only if it’s alright with you and Dad. I don’t want to intrude,” Max said quietly as much of his conduct and choices over the last decade had been not to intrude, even when he should have… “I am sorry…”
“Come in,” Diane insisted to her son. “You are our son, whether you have been away a day or more than that…” she insisted with a wide smile, not wanting to say the words that he had been gone a
decade.
“Okay,” Max said as he stepped inside the house for the first time in a decade. So much of the last weeks he spent in Roswell was mired in difficulty in terms of his relationship with his parents in the wake of his actions with Liz in Utah. In so many ways, he missed it as it had given him a foundation over the decade and more of growing up in this house.
The house was different Max viewed as he followed his mother. It was obvious it was remodeled, and now different so they had they walk a bit to get to where everyone else…
“Phillip,” Diane called as they walked into kitchen. “Look who I found…”
Max revealed himself to the residents of the kitchen, as jaws dropped.
*
Inside the kitchen, Isabel and Kyle were dancing around Phillip’s persistent questions. They had wanted to wait until Diane came back to the kitchen, but they hadn’t expected who she came back as Max revealed himself and came into the kitchen.
Isabel and Kyle jaws dropped, but none more than Phillip who looked in amazement to see his son. “Son…”
“Hi Dad…” Max smiled but it was tentative because he knew the weariness of the room was warranted.
“Max,” Phillip asked. “When did you arrive?”
“I came from the airport,” Max acknowledged. “I am sorry Iz, for no advance notice but I made the decision to come after I finished work, and it was very spur of the moment.”
Isabel looked at her brother as she had seen a ghost, as she tried to come to terms with the idea her brother was finally in the room, and the silence between the two was very evident. Kyle knew his wife was confused, so he broke the silence. “Max.”
“Kyle,” Max nodded “Congratulations on the wedding…” he said as they both knew that there was more unsaid, about
Liz. It was safer terrain to speak of the newest developments.
“Thank you,” Kyle nodded. “We would have loved for you to be there, but the wedding very short notice…and…”
“You didn’t know where I was,” Max acknowledged.
“Yeah,” Kyle nodded.
“Max, why come back now?” Phillip asked as he observed his son as he was no longer the teenager who left their home so long ago, and he was now a man coming home as he was facing the music.”
“I decided it was time…”
“Why now?” Isabel asked as he looked at her brother with conflicting emotion and some thinly concealed contempt that was only possible because they had once been so close.
“I figured it was time.”
“Time for what?” Kyle asked his brother-in-law as he took his wife’s hand who took it and held tightly as she sent out a
SOS message to the gang via her phone, which would be instantly known because she and Michael had a code for what if the incredible happened and Max returned.
“To put some demons to an end,” Max revealed as he saw the wariness of his family and could tell it was warranted.
*
Meanwhile Liz was sleeping. The medication was making her sleepy, and so she went for the ride and did not fight it, but her sleep was restless as she was tossing and turning as memories of her Max mixed with calls from Bella to find her, and it was only the medication keeping her asleep, and not waking up an emotional time bomb. Maria spotted her sleeping when she came for a visit, so she was close to leaving when she saw her husband walking up the hallway with a frown on his face. “What?” she asked.
“Max is back…” Michael revealed as softly as possible because he knew what it meant to say those words.
“WHAT!” Maria cried softly as possible so not to interrupt Liz’s sleep as she was only nearby. “How can that be possible?”
“I don’t know, but Isabel just called me after I got a text from her that indicated the news, and she filled me in by telling me that Max just showed up at Phillip and Diane’s tonight.”
“Out of the blue, with no warning?” Maria asked with eye brows raised.
“Yup,” Michael acknowledged.
“How like him,” Maria muttered as dark thoughts came to her mind and Michael only shook his head. Maria’s opinion was not unwarranted but still it was a chance maybe for a thaw if Max really had come back for the greater cause. “She wants us to meet at her place in about ninety minutes. Max will be there…”
“He will?” Maria asked.
“Yes, he’s staying with her and Kyle.” Michael said. “He doesn’t want to put out his parents.”
“Right,” Maria muttered as she glanced through the mirror window of Liz’s room and saw her friend sleeping, restless, but sleeping and she worried that Max being back would add to the pressure Liz was under…
“Maria, he came back. He’s giving it chance. Maybe it’s time we give him one too, maybe, huh?”
“Space boy, you stayed. He didn’t…” Maria muttered.
“I know,” Michael of the time he almost left Earth, and almost left Maria but he stayed and never regretted that decision. “I understand the anger and I do have some of it. And I know Isabel does too, but he still came back, and maybe it’s finally a chance to put the past to rest for all of us… okay?”
“Yeah, maybe…” Maria said as she had doubts but if Max could help her friend, she would take it and deal with any other emotions that come with it, on her own. “We will have to take Betty with us. Mom and Dad have a dinner date tonight.”
Michael nodded. “She can meet Max.”
*
Back at the Evans home, Phillip and Diane didn’t know what to make of their son being home. Things were still tentative and tense, and Isabel and Kyle were sitting in the middle of it. Isabel finally removed herself to the living room under the disguise of checking her messages and called Michael and once she finished Kyle made his appearance “Unbelievable,” she muttered.
“Are you okay?” Kyle asked as he knew his wife had been too quiet since Max had arrived.
“For a decade he stayed gone, and now he’s back and it’s like he’s never left with Mom and Dad.”
“Maybe tonight, but tomorrow is a different story” Kyle offered.
“Yeah, maybe,” Isabel muttered.
“It will work out honey,” Kyle said softly with a small kiss for his wife and she kissed him back. “This was always going to be the easier stop for him, than going to Liz.”
“God that is not what Liz needs,” Isabel muttered as she thought of her friend in the hospital.
“Maybe not today, but they both will need it to move on. Obviously, Max is still haunted by everything that happened” Kyle asked as he it was obvious to anyone in the room where Max stood or now sat. Max was not the same guy he was a decade before…
While Max was never a free and easy guy or that smooth… he still had an ease with himself, and it was obvious time had darkened him and made him hard; and whether that was his experiences, or the constant memories Kyle didn’t know nor did Isabel who yearned for her brother back in her life. She didn’t know the man inside, she knew her brother from when they were kids and were teenagers.
“Isabel, I have missed you.” Max said as he had overheard the discussion as he came into the room that held his sister and brother-in-law. “Look I never wanted to hurt you. I didn’t leave to hurt you, or Mom and Dad. I wish none of it had happened, but I stayed gone because I didn’t want to burden you guys.”
“We’re family Max, and that doesn’t change in the good or the bad times” Isabel muttered. “You left and stayed gone and didn’t give us a chance to know you.”
“I am sorry about that,” Max conceded. “I do appreciate all you did for Mom and Dad while I was gone.”
“Well someone had to, and you obviously didn’t want to” Isabel muttered.
“I did, but I needed the time. Things were tense for good reason before I left you back in 2001. A lot of it was by my own choosing, but I never imagined when I left that I
wouldn’t come back. I had every reason in the world to want to come back. But fate stopped me.”
“You went into your pity party after finding out about Tess and the baby, and you didn’t trust us to help you recover.”
“You didn’t want to know me back then, honestly Isabel” Max said softly. “I didn’t want to know me, so how could I put you through it. Or Mom and Dad, when they didn’t know. And especially not Liz.”
Liz was the unspoken word in the room.
“You didn’t have to go there…” Isabel said, speaking of Antar.
“Yes, I did,” Max said. “I needed to know.”
“We all knew she was a con, and you should have trusted that…” Isabel said as Kyle flinched at the memory of his culpability in the whole Tess mess. Something that would always stay with him.
“I needed to know,” Max repeated. “I just never imagined she would have done what she did…”
“Guys lets pause this and continue another time,” Kyle asked. “Your Mom and Dad probably would like to see more of Max.”
The brother and sister team nodded, and they walked back to their parents… as Kyle wondered how it would all go…
*
Molly slept peacefully for once. She didn’t know how everything was changing for her, as dreams came to her mind and they always ended up in her drawings. She didn’t know why the images were coming to her,
or why she saw two brunettes; one man and one woman. The woman was calling out to her, but not calling her Molly. She was calling her another name, a name that was not coming to her yet.
Molly’s eyes opened as she wondered why her dreams weren’t telling her she was Molly Davidson.
*
Back in Roswell, as a car pulled up in front of their house shortly before Maria and Michael. Max sat in the backseat. He had known his parents were disappointed by his decision not to stay with them, but he didn’t want to put them out and so he accepted the offer to stay with his sister and Kyle. “How long have you had this place?” he asked of the house they stood before as they got out of the car.
“I bought it a couple of years ago with my trust fund,” Isabel nodded. “When I got access to it and elected to move out on my own after university. Kyle moved in last year.”
“It’s speaks of you, sis.” Max smiled.
“It felt like it was calling out to me,” Isabel nodded as they walked into the house. “I called Michael, and he and Maria should be here anytime.”
Max nodded as he looked around and saw the touches that Isabel had made to the house. “Beautiful sis.”
“Thanks,” Isabel nodded.
“What does your place look like?” Kyle asked.
“It’s not as fitted like yours, but it was something I found after I started work at the LAPD, and it’s suited me” Max said,
until now he thought as he didn’t like the feeling he was getting by being back in Roswell… after so much time in California or even that time he spent in Washington.
“I can’t believe you’re actually a cop?” Isabel muttered as they went into the kitchen, while Kyle went to the phone to call his assistant coach to talk up and coming recruits for the next season.
“It found me, I didn’t go looking for it.”
“After all the FBI did to us, you go and become one of
them” Isabel asked as she poured some tabasco in some chocolate milk and drank it.
“I needed the money, and I saw a recruitment poster back in the day and because I had bills to pay. I thought why not, and it’s not like I didn’t see the humor in it given who I was… and I was trying to join the FBI.”
“Michael told me you had a tough time,” Isabel asked.
“It makes the White Room pale in comparison,” Max said briefly, and Isabel was stricken by the memory of that time. When they had gotten him out of there, he was not the same. And thankfully Liz helped, but then she went and disappeared for the summer and he had a tough time coping to such an extent that he ended up with him seeing a shrink.
Max couldn’t help but think that his seeing a shrink back in high school was one of the ways they tried to get him committed when he was a loose cannon in the wake of his time on Antar, and how when his powers did start to return, well, they were making him unhinged in some ways. The authorities got a hold of his records in Roswell and found out about his time as a patient at a shrink’s office back home, and they tried to use them. He rebuffed the attempts and successful stayed out of the mental hospital they wanted to send him to, and eventually the powers balanced back out and he seemed to get some control back.
Sighing and getting back to reality, he smiled. “Sis, I am fine.”
“He also says you’re drinking.”
“Not any more than I usually do?” Max lied. “Michael found me in a weak time, and now I am different.”
“Are you?” Isabel asked wearily.
“I promise.”
“And if you see Liz again?” Isabel asked as there was a doorbell ring, and Kyle had elected to answer and brought in the guests they were ready for… “Great, hello you three.”
Three, Max thought as he turned and saw Michael and Maria along with their daughter walk in. Stunned…
“What?” Maria asked by Max’s strange reaction. “What’s wrong”
“Nothing,” Max said as he looked at their daughter and struck by the resemblance to Molly’s drawing… “Nothing…” he said. “I am glad to see you…”
“We are too,” Michael said as Maria glared…
Betty stood back and watched the reunion with wary eyes. She had never met this man, and yet he felt familiar. “And you are?” she asked.
“An old friend of your parents. Max Evans, and you are…” Max asked.
“Elizabeth Deluca Guerin,” Betty smiled as Max’s face went pale at the name… “But everyone calls me Betty.”
“Hello Betty.”
“Oh…” Betty said, and then suddenly it dawned on who this man was… “Whoa, you are that man Bella had in that picture…”
“What picture,” Maria asked her daughter with Michael’s interest was heightened. The room was silent as they sought out the girl’s answer.
“Just some picture Bella had in her room, she showed before she went missing. It was of her mother, and some tall guy, neither of who are her dad’s she currently has…” Betty muttered as she spoke of both Sean and Kyle. “I remember, you fit that picture. You and Bella’s mom.”
Max’s eyes shot up to both Michael and Maria, who only shrugged. Neither had seen the picture or heard the either girl talk about it. “Where did she get the picture.”
“I don’t remember,” Betty answered.
“What did Bella say about that picture,” Michael asked of his daughter.
“Just that ‘he was her mom’s dream guy’,” Betty said quietly as Max’s eyes and then added. “’you meant something to her too,’”, and both Michael and Maria were quick to react to that statement and Max couldn’t help but notice too…
The room grew silent.
*
“We have a problem?” came the forensics scientist to Serena Franklin back in Los Angeles. She had just come from the hospital and seeing Molly on Max’s behalf as he finally took her advice and went on a duly needed trip to his hometown, and she didn’t know if she would see the man she knew when he came back.
“What is it CJ?” Serena asked as she sat down at her desk, as the CJ Baker came to the detective after hearing she was back in the building. “How is the kid?”
“Doing better. Must say her drawing talent is pretty damn eerie, as it’s almost like she has a secret power…” Serena asked.
“Interesting,” Dr. Baker smiled, as she passed some papers to the detective. “I was hoping to find Max.”
“Max is on vacation,” Serena smiled. “I am not exactly sure when he’ll be back.”
“Really?” CJ asked as she looked around and saw Max nowhere to be found. “I have been here the whole time he has, and I haven’t seen him take vacation before now…”
“Yup, the department is forcing it on him and therefore he’s gone to face the past…” Serena muttered.
“What does that mean?” CJ asked.
“It’s not important, so what do you have to tell me” Serena asked.
“I was doing the paperwork in the Davidson case, and doing some blood work tying it into Molly’s case and I found a problem.”
“What?” Serena asked as she looked up with interest.
“I couldn’t find any birth certificate listed for Molly Davidson,” CJ revealed as Serena’s eyes shot up. “I found the other kids, and the paperwork to go with it. But not Molly.”
“What does that mean?” Serena asked, confused.
“Molly’s birth is not registered with the State of California,” CJ sighed as Serena’s eyes went wild. “She doesn’t exist.”