Couple: Max/Liz AU
Rating: Mature
Summary: This is the first story in my new short story Lost and Found series about the many ways loves enters and changes lives. There will be a Candy one, Stargazer and other stories to come.
I can’t really say much about this one without giving much away, so here’s all I can give:
Max and Liz have a history together, a history that changed lives and which will continue to do so now that history forces itself into their present separate lives.
Disclaimer: ‘You’re beautiful’ lyrics belong to James Blunt
‘We belong together’ to Mariah Carey
‘I love you’ to Sarah Mclachlan
AN: This is a side bar project to my other fics: You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me and The Promise, which I should be updating sometime this week, and so I’m not sure how often I’ll update. Oh and if anyone wants to make a banner for this, feel free
I should also give a major angst warning but since it won’t be a long fic, it should be bearable,
Xx willow
Chapter 1
* What’s past is prologue - Shakespeare in THE TEMPEST *
My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man…
“I remember the blistering heat, commuters all packed in like a can of irritable sardines. Heat does that to people. Makes them more likely to frown and cuss you out than to smile. More like to punch first and not even ask questions later.
Heat stirs up the blood. It also stirs up the heart. Passion, in its unpredictable form burst forth and changes you…”
****
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
As the train jolted and bodies braced and adjusted to the new pattern, a gap cleared, my head turned, my eyes following its movement about to dismiss the faces and moments I saw- and there she was.
My oasis in the desert. Sharing something that made her laugh with - I’ll be fair - a handsome guy. Their bodies brushed, lips touched, in a way that only lovers do, they fit in that familiar and well practised way, that had me sighing in disappointment. There was nothing at first look that made her watch-worthy yet that was the appeal. Her beauty wasn’t obvious, but soft, subtle and unassuming. Didn’t matter, She was obviously taken.
The train stopped, bodies shuffled, blocking my eye-line. When a new pattern had been set, she was gone. A beautiful mirage in the blistering heat.
Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.
The past became the background on which my future became my present. Years spanned filled with her. Passion, unexpected, unpredictable, flared.
Our eyes held, in that timeless moment before the train doors separated us forever.
****
I nearly missed my stop after that brush with eternity, I spent the rest of the day illuminated by a warm glow that originated from my heart. I felt alive, every sense more acute, fuelled by the vision of her imprinted on my mind.
I didn’t think I’d see her again, some power had let me glimpse true beauty. For what purpose? I knew not. I didn’t waste much time thinking about the why. Thankful for the experience, I just enjoyed it for what it was - A Glimpse Of Beauty: in the animated and inanimate - the title of my free range English essay that week. After getting an A on it, I later decided that thought it didn’t waste too much time thinking about it, that was the answer to the why.
Another week later, when I bumped into her in Zane’s Crib, that same power pulled back the curtain again for another longer glimpse. I was doing my random pick a c.d. ritual, when a finger tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and there she was - hair still in a pony tail like before, eyes still sparkling with fun, secrets and adventure, body…still good.
“Hey, I’m Liz Parker.” She introduced herself with a self-knowing confidence that slightly surprised me until I heard the click of recognition.
“Liz Parker.” My tone of voice communicated the unsaid.
She smiled amused with a feline grin. “You’ve heard of me.”
“Your reputation precedes you,” I told her honestly.
I’d heard of Liz Parker. I didn’t go out much and when I did, I didn’t stay long enough to see her, but I knew about her. Everyone knew about Liz Parker, the girl worshipped by most of the male student body even the ones she’d burned and envied by most of the female population.
She was looking at with a keen interest that he me instinctively wary. “Is that a good or a bad thing?”.
“I don’t know, “ I returned evenly, “You tell me.”
She pursed those inviting glossy lips of hers and angled her head slightly considering me.
“Psych major?” she guessed.
I could have laughed in her face, but that wasn’t first meeting behaviour. I wonder if even then, I subconsciously knew that this wouldn’t end the way it logically should have.
“My mother is, I’m not following those footsteps.”
She smiled, I smiled back and that was it.
She helped me pick a c.d. and I left the store knowing Liz Parker a bit better - well her views on music and sex at the very least.
“What’s you opinion on casual sex?” she’d asked me halfway down the K’s in the indie section.
“For others, their choice. For me, not interested.”
“One night stands?”.
“Same goes.”
“Friends with benefits?”.
I paused browsing and fixed her with a look that communicated my sentiments.
“You’re a good guy Max,” she grinned.
“Thanks.”
“Need a friend?”.
I shrugged. “You can never have too many if they’re the right ones.”
“I’m a right one,” she’d confidently declared and I believed her. Because she was beautiful, because she exuded energy that made her irresistible to me. She threw in that she had a boyfriend - yes the guy I saw her on the subway with. Would that be an issue in our brand new untested friendship?. To bask in the glow of seen and unseen beauty? Of course not.
****
“…Three weeks before my senior year at NYU, passion flared and burned for Liz Parker. That unseen force that dictated our paths to cross, led me to love, which I lost - but most precious of all, gave me you.”
In a house chosen by instinct, the living room occupied by family made by choice, in his bedroom decorated for the future yet influenced by the past, Max Evans finished the tale he sporadically told when the sentiment struck him and kissed the tiny forehead of the child he knew would grow to have her mother’s brown sun-kissed hair and eyes blended with two shades of brown. One from him and the other from the woman whose blend had sparkled with secrets, fun and adventure. His miracle Rose.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
He had glimpsed beauty and had been left with a permanent gift to nurture and help blossom, so that passion could find her or be found. And flare and burn to reveal a love that would produce a gift as she was to him and more than that, a love that wasn’t beauty fleeting as it had been for him, but beauty enduring.
****
She had let the doctors examine her. She had answered all their questions. She had taken it relatively well when told that she’d spent two years of her life in a comma. She had been overjoyed when her family and friends had come to see her, but Liz was frustrated and irritated that they hadn’t even expressed interest or concern that the one person she now would really like to see, wasn’t there. No excuses for his absence, no word about contacting him. They all pretended as if he didn’t exist, that he wasn’t a huge part of her life.
Almost afraid she’d burst if she didn’t say anything, she asked the question that unbeknownst to her, they hoped she didn’t ask.
“Where’s Max?”.
Eyes panicked, alarmed, concerned widened at her. In the corner of her eye, she saw Kyle turn away and amid the silence uttered a slew of curses that had her jaw dropping.
“What’s going on? What’s happened to Max? Was he in the accident too?”.
She was gradually finding it hard to breathe. Isabel who had been talking quietly to Kyle met her eyes. A fist grabbed her heart and squeezed.
“What?” she choked out.
I didn't mean it
When I said I didn't love you so
“You and Max aren’t together anymore,” her friend gently told her.
The fist lessened its hold as the heat of anger took its place.
“He broke up with me in a coma?!”.
“No.”
I should have held on tight
I never should've let you go
“Then what?”.
I didn't know nothing
I was stupid
I was foolish
I was lying to myself
“Your memories of the two of you are two weeks before your accident, when things were good,” she explained.
Eyes clouded with confusion and memories refusing to resurface, focused on a muttering Kyle.
“What happened?” she asked him.
He blinked at her, clenching his mouth to restrain the vile from spewing out. Then he spoke without emotion. “You broke up with him.”
“Why would I do that? I love him.”
That declaration sent Laurie into a frenzied moment of cursing which panicked her.
“I want to call him,” she demanded.
It had to be mistake, Liz decided. Maybe they had had an argument which spiralled and her accident had denied them to chance to make up.
“That’s not possible honey,” her father gently told her. “He’s moved away.”
A breathless panic seized her. “To where?!”. Her eyes accusing betrayal roamed the faces of her friends. “You must know where he is.”
“Leave it alone Liz. It’s in the past. You guys broke up. He’s got a new life now with you-”
“Lor, that’s harsh,” interrupted Taylor.
“It’s the truth,” Kyle defended. “You’ve got a second change at life, Liz. Take it.”
Liz gritted her teeth. “I’m trying to. I want to talk to him.”
“That’s not a good idea, sweetheart,” her mother consoled.
Honey, sweetheart?! Sure she’d been in a coma and her family had missed her and loved her but they were grating on her temper when treating her with such kid gloves when it came to Max.
“You’re not telling me all of it. I want the truth.” And for that, she went to Kyle who bitterly obliged.
“You broke his heart.”
“No. That’s not possible.”
“It is and you did. Like it was nothing.”
“I wouldn’t.” She looked to Isabel for a second opinion. She shockingly got it.
“You did. So don’t track him down. You wanted him out of your life, Liz. Done deal. Now live with it.”
The faces of the people around her, told her that the truth had been told. She had broken her love’s heart and banished him from her life. She didn’t remember the Liz Parker who could do that knowing who Max Evans was to her. She couldn’t understand it.
I couldn't have fathomed that I would ever
Be without your love
Never imagined I'd be
Sitting here beside myself
After more talk about her accident, what they were allowed to tell her and what she had to remember on her own, her loved ones left her in turmoil to contemplate the existence of this present day Liz Parker who was to live a life without Max Evans.
Who was she?
****
He was buy drafting the outline of his next project when his cell rang. Because it was her, he picked up.
“Hey Iz.”
He expected family talk or a reminder to do or send something. Instead with two words, Isabel made his present some faraway dream replaced with the bitter sweetness of the past.
“She’s awake.”
When air was finally freed from his lungs, it came out slowly tinged with the relief of closure.
“She okay?”.
Again, with more words than two, his sister shifted time. The faraway dream became the complicated present.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
The love created through the scorching of passion’s flames he always carried for her locked in a lead box he allowed out on occasion? It soared to freedom for several frantic beats before falling back, nursing the burns from the chilling waters imprisoning it.
“Nothing. I’m living my life now. She can live hers,” he answered.
“And if she remembers it all?”.
“Tell her where to find me and I’ll deal with it. I’ll have no choice but to.” The idea terrified him, but with that loved which could b his greatest strength and weakness locked away, he’d face it head on.
“I’m sorry Max.”
“Don’t be sorry for me. You’re glad she’s awake. So am I.”
He changed the subject. Didn’t want to talk about her anymore, it would be a waste of words. He’d tell Maria and Charlie after work though, they needed to know. He needed them through this with him. And Rose, he had Rose to ease the cutting stings of Liz Parker. Past, present or future.
His beautiful daughter Rose, who once had a mother who didn’t want her. But she had one now who had chosen her and had a father who had loved her when her real mother hadn’t and who would love her still, never fleetingly, never wavering in this life or the next.
My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure
She smiled at me on the subway.
She caught my eye
We shared a moment that will last till the end
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.
****
TBC
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thanks for your support. 'Nice to meet you...' was such a fun fic to write. I hope you enjoy this one too