Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 62 Pg 22 - 12 / 29 [COMPLETE]
Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Hunter, Island Breeze, Forum Moderators
Re: Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 60 Pg 21 - 6 / 12
Can’t wait for more of this story! Love the plot and characters and the simmering romance between Max and Liz (sorry, I mean Parker!). Please post more soon!!
-
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2019 12:12 am
Re: Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 60 Pg 21 - 6 / 12
Just discovered this story and I am in love with it, I can't wait to read more. I'm sad that Frank can't see past his own views to realize just how hard it was on Max being raised and treated like he was, to be more sympathetic, and I really want to know more about Maggs. I'm looking forward to seeing how they escape the base, but I just bought The Librarian so at least I have something to keep me occupied during my wait.
- Misha
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 425
- Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 10:44 am
- Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Re: Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 60 Pg 21 - 6 / 12
So, let's all thank dreamon for nudging me into coming back to the story. There are still a couple of chapters left, but let's see how this escape plan finally pays off
Journal entry #28, September 10th, 2011
I’ve never been one for magic tricks. I’ve never enjoyed watching a magician openly tricking my mind because it feels a lot like paying someone to show you how easy your brain can be fooled with a few distractions and some misdirection.
Worst of all: he won’t tell you how he’s pulling off the trick, to begin with.
Waiting for Max and John to pull their own brand of magic tricks feels a lot like watching a magician on a stage: you know incredible things will happen—but only if the magician is skilled enough to fool you.
Chapter Sixty-One
Now You See Me
From inside the car, two pairs of binoculars centered on the base’s entrance, waiting for something to happen. Max had not known what kind of diversion John could create with this “mindwarp” thing, and so, both Liz and Anne kept looking for something unexpected.
On her cellphone speaker, Alex had a sense of what was going on in the base. He’d turned off all main cameras, but he was still using some peripheral ones to keep an eye on things.
“Everybody is gathering around the ship, looking scared,” Alex told them.
“Any sign of Max or John?” Anne asked, binoculars firmly in place.
“Nothing. They’re still inside the building, that much I can tell you. I have eyes on the ship and the outside, so whenever they reach the last stretch of the escape plan, we’ll know.”
Seconds passed in tensed silence.
“You sounded surprised to hear about John’s mindwarp skill,” Liz said, finally giving the binoculars a rest. Alex would tell them the moment they were coming out, after all.
“John doesn’t like doing it. He’s rather…inexperienced with it. Molecular manipulation, telekinesis, fire-starting, he loves those things. Can do them in his sleep, I bet. Healing, shielding, dreamwalking…those drain him. So he does them when necessary, but it’s not something he has to practice on a daily basis. Maybe if he did them more often, they wouldn’t be so tiring.”
Anne sighed, placing the binoculars down as well. “But then there are things that scare even him. If he gets really angry, things tend to explode around him, so he keeps a tight leash on his negative emotions. And making people see whatever he wants? That’s a big no. You see, he was controlled all of his life while he was at that base,” she said, pointing with the binoculars forward, “so he despises everything that has to do with controlling what people think or what they should do. He told Max he could sustain it for twelve minutes, but he has no way of knowing that. He’s never been that good with it because he never uses it.”
“He might be good at it because he’s good at the others,” Liz said, hopeful.
“Yeah, I’d believe that when he’s here, safe and sound.”
“They’re coming out!” Alex shouted over the phone, and both Liz and Anne raised the binoculars again. They couldn’t see beyond the first checkpoint, and those black doors remained as closed as ever. If it had been nerve-wracking to watch Max being handcuffed and taken away less than thirty minutes ago, it was downright terrifying to wait for his escape.
“No, wait, I only see Max—or John? I can’t tell them apart. But one of them is coming.”
“What do you mean just one? Where’s the other?” Anne frantically asked.
“I don’t know. Soldiers are running past him, though.”
“John,” Anne breathed. “It has to be John who’s misguiding them.”
“What about the cameras? Do you see anything going on with the ship?” Liz asked, feeling her soul sink. There was only one reason why John would be coming out of the base alone: if Max was dead or captured beyond rescuing.
I can’t do this again. I can’t keep rescuing one just to lose the other.
“Something’s happening,” Alex said. “I think…I think not all of the soldiers are going back into the building? They’re standing looking around as if they have no idea what’s going on.”
“It’s falling,” Anne said with sudden clarity. “The mindwarp is falling apart. John can only keep it up for a few minutes, and that’s with just me. He has to deal with dozens of minds here.”
“I’m sure he’s going to come up with something else,” Liz said, placing a hand on her shoulder, while they kept watching the front doors. Their car was ready to go. They just needed for Max and John to reach it.
Shots rang in the air a moment later. A mix of hollow handguns and rapid machine guns.
“No,” Anne whispered, “Oh, God, John, please don’t die. Please.”
“Alex! What’s happening?” Liz demanded, her heart in her throat and her stomach sinking like rocks in the sea.
“They’re shooting to empty air. I mean, Max-John-whoever he is, he’s walking right behind them. They’re not shooting at him. I repeat, they’re not shooting at him.”
“It’s not going to last,” Anne said, her knuckles white as she held onto the binoculars. “He has to get out of there before the whole sham collapses, and everybody sees reality once again.”
“Okay, guys?” Alex said, “He’s picking a car. He’s—he’s in. I think he had the keys. Oh, he’s moving. He’s moving! He’s—wait, what the hell? He’s going back to the building entrance.”
“Max is still alive,” Liz breathed out. “John is going back for Max. He has to be. I bet that—”
She never finished that sentence.
The car’s floor rumbled under them, making the vehicle vibrate more and more until, finally, an explosion erupted from the base, black smoke and fire filling the air above the entrance to the base.
More explosions followed as both Liz and Anne left the safety of the car to see what was going on. Angry flames leaped into the air, and ashes started to rain on them. She could hear shouts but no more shooting, and she desperately willed the doors to open so Max and John could come out to safety.
“Alex?!” Liz asked the phone, her eyes not leaving the fire.
“I don’t know. The whole system went up in smoke—I mean, I’m blind. All the cameras are out. I have no idea what exploded or where Max or John is.”
“This wasn’t part of the plan,” Anne said, “It can’t be. John would have warned us. This is going to call attention to this place. This—John? Where the hell are you?”
Please, be fine. Please, be fine, Liz chanted in her mind as they both waited for the doors to open.
How long do we wait? the rational side of her asked when ten minutes had already passed with no sign of anyone coming from the front door. They could hear sirens in the distance now.
“Anne?” Liz tentatively asked, fearful. “Do you feel anything at all coming from John?”
Anne shook her head. “He’s concentrating too much on this, so I haven’t felt anything from him in days. One more reason to strangle him when he finally comes out of that damn base.”
They had a back-up plan. The plan where everything went to hell, and they had to return to Liz’s apartment to regroup and basically accept defeat. It had always been a real possibility that neither Max nor John would come out of there alive.
It can’t end like this. After everything, they can’t just die in the place that imprisoned them for so long.
The doors finally opened, and a dozen soldiers came out, maybe escaping from the inferno behind them, maybe securing the area so no curious onlookers would come by. Firefighters were coming, followed by police and ambulances.
“There’s no way they’re going to allow non-military personnel into a base that houses a spaceship,” Anne said. The soldiers seemed to think the same, as they argued with first respondents, while smaller yet potent explosions kept happening in the background.
And then, the most unexpected sound came from behind them.
“A little help here, please?” Max asked, panting while half-dragging an exhausted-looking John.
“Max!”
“John!”
Anne and Liz said at the same time.
“We better leave,” Max said as Liz opened the backdoor, and Max helped John getting inside. Anne had opened the opposite door and was helping him settle in. “We created way more chaos than we wanted, but it’s not going to last forever.”
She picked the driving seat. Max was beside her in no time.
“What happened?” she asked him, looking first at the base to make sure no one was paying attention to them, and then putting the car in reverse to get away as fast and quietly as they could.
“He couldn’t keep hiding the car. The noise, even the smell of it was going to tip the guards off. It was too much. So he directed everyone to blow up the ship. Once that was done, we walked here by a backdoor no one was paying attention to. It was the path of least resistance for his mind.”
“John? What’s wrong?” Anne asked as Liz hit the back road into the forest.
“I just need to sleep,” John said with a wicked smile while Anne held his face, inspecting him. “That and a kiss from you.”
For a moment there, Anne’s incredulous look was comically frozen in time, but before she could act on it, John’s head swiftly moved forward to steal a kiss—and then promptly fell asleep on her shoulder.
“He’s completely wiped out,” Max said, turning to look behind. “But he did it. I think he was able to pull the last part of the plan off.”
“The last part?” Liz asked.
“He made them think we were boarding the ship before it blew up. They think—if he pulled it off, then they think we’re both dead.”
“A disappearing act,” Liz whispered with a broad smile.
“A disappearing act like no other,” Max said, nodding.
Liz accelerated. She couldn’t wait to celebrate the best magic trick of them all: disappearing into a life of freedom.
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
Journal entry #28, September 10th, 2011
I’ve never been one for magic tricks. I’ve never enjoyed watching a magician openly tricking my mind because it feels a lot like paying someone to show you how easy your brain can be fooled with a few distractions and some misdirection.
Worst of all: he won’t tell you how he’s pulling off the trick, to begin with.
Waiting for Max and John to pull their own brand of magic tricks feels a lot like watching a magician on a stage: you know incredible things will happen—but only if the magician is skilled enough to fool you.
Chapter Sixty-One
Now You See Me
From inside the car, two pairs of binoculars centered on the base’s entrance, waiting for something to happen. Max had not known what kind of diversion John could create with this “mindwarp” thing, and so, both Liz and Anne kept looking for something unexpected.
On her cellphone speaker, Alex had a sense of what was going on in the base. He’d turned off all main cameras, but he was still using some peripheral ones to keep an eye on things.
“Everybody is gathering around the ship, looking scared,” Alex told them.
“Any sign of Max or John?” Anne asked, binoculars firmly in place.
“Nothing. They’re still inside the building, that much I can tell you. I have eyes on the ship and the outside, so whenever they reach the last stretch of the escape plan, we’ll know.”
Seconds passed in tensed silence.
“You sounded surprised to hear about John’s mindwarp skill,” Liz said, finally giving the binoculars a rest. Alex would tell them the moment they were coming out, after all.
“John doesn’t like doing it. He’s rather…inexperienced with it. Molecular manipulation, telekinesis, fire-starting, he loves those things. Can do them in his sleep, I bet. Healing, shielding, dreamwalking…those drain him. So he does them when necessary, but it’s not something he has to practice on a daily basis. Maybe if he did them more often, they wouldn’t be so tiring.”
Anne sighed, placing the binoculars down as well. “But then there are things that scare even him. If he gets really angry, things tend to explode around him, so he keeps a tight leash on his negative emotions. And making people see whatever he wants? That’s a big no. You see, he was controlled all of his life while he was at that base,” she said, pointing with the binoculars forward, “so he despises everything that has to do with controlling what people think or what they should do. He told Max he could sustain it for twelve minutes, but he has no way of knowing that. He’s never been that good with it because he never uses it.”
“He might be good at it because he’s good at the others,” Liz said, hopeful.
“Yeah, I’d believe that when he’s here, safe and sound.”
“They’re coming out!” Alex shouted over the phone, and both Liz and Anne raised the binoculars again. They couldn’t see beyond the first checkpoint, and those black doors remained as closed as ever. If it had been nerve-wracking to watch Max being handcuffed and taken away less than thirty minutes ago, it was downright terrifying to wait for his escape.
“No, wait, I only see Max—or John? I can’t tell them apart. But one of them is coming.”
“What do you mean just one? Where’s the other?” Anne frantically asked.
“I don’t know. Soldiers are running past him, though.”
“John,” Anne breathed. “It has to be John who’s misguiding them.”
“What about the cameras? Do you see anything going on with the ship?” Liz asked, feeling her soul sink. There was only one reason why John would be coming out of the base alone: if Max was dead or captured beyond rescuing.
I can’t do this again. I can’t keep rescuing one just to lose the other.
“Something’s happening,” Alex said. “I think…I think not all of the soldiers are going back into the building? They’re standing looking around as if they have no idea what’s going on.”
“It’s falling,” Anne said with sudden clarity. “The mindwarp is falling apart. John can only keep it up for a few minutes, and that’s with just me. He has to deal with dozens of minds here.”
“I’m sure he’s going to come up with something else,” Liz said, placing a hand on her shoulder, while they kept watching the front doors. Their car was ready to go. They just needed for Max and John to reach it.
Shots rang in the air a moment later. A mix of hollow handguns and rapid machine guns.
“No,” Anne whispered, “Oh, God, John, please don’t die. Please.”
“Alex! What’s happening?” Liz demanded, her heart in her throat and her stomach sinking like rocks in the sea.
“They’re shooting to empty air. I mean, Max-John-whoever he is, he’s walking right behind them. They’re not shooting at him. I repeat, they’re not shooting at him.”
“It’s not going to last,” Anne said, her knuckles white as she held onto the binoculars. “He has to get out of there before the whole sham collapses, and everybody sees reality once again.”
“Okay, guys?” Alex said, “He’s picking a car. He’s—he’s in. I think he had the keys. Oh, he’s moving. He’s moving! He’s—wait, what the hell? He’s going back to the building entrance.”
“Max is still alive,” Liz breathed out. “John is going back for Max. He has to be. I bet that—”
She never finished that sentence.
The car’s floor rumbled under them, making the vehicle vibrate more and more until, finally, an explosion erupted from the base, black smoke and fire filling the air above the entrance to the base.
More explosions followed as both Liz and Anne left the safety of the car to see what was going on. Angry flames leaped into the air, and ashes started to rain on them. She could hear shouts but no more shooting, and she desperately willed the doors to open so Max and John could come out to safety.
“Alex?!” Liz asked the phone, her eyes not leaving the fire.
“I don’t know. The whole system went up in smoke—I mean, I’m blind. All the cameras are out. I have no idea what exploded or where Max or John is.”
“This wasn’t part of the plan,” Anne said, “It can’t be. John would have warned us. This is going to call attention to this place. This—John? Where the hell are you?”
Please, be fine. Please, be fine, Liz chanted in her mind as they both waited for the doors to open.
How long do we wait? the rational side of her asked when ten minutes had already passed with no sign of anyone coming from the front door. They could hear sirens in the distance now.
“Anne?” Liz tentatively asked, fearful. “Do you feel anything at all coming from John?”
Anne shook her head. “He’s concentrating too much on this, so I haven’t felt anything from him in days. One more reason to strangle him when he finally comes out of that damn base.”
They had a back-up plan. The plan where everything went to hell, and they had to return to Liz’s apartment to regroup and basically accept defeat. It had always been a real possibility that neither Max nor John would come out of there alive.
It can’t end like this. After everything, they can’t just die in the place that imprisoned them for so long.
The doors finally opened, and a dozen soldiers came out, maybe escaping from the inferno behind them, maybe securing the area so no curious onlookers would come by. Firefighters were coming, followed by police and ambulances.
“There’s no way they’re going to allow non-military personnel into a base that houses a spaceship,” Anne said. The soldiers seemed to think the same, as they argued with first respondents, while smaller yet potent explosions kept happening in the background.
And then, the most unexpected sound came from behind them.
“A little help here, please?” Max asked, panting while half-dragging an exhausted-looking John.
“Max!”
“John!”
Anne and Liz said at the same time.
“We better leave,” Max said as Liz opened the backdoor, and Max helped John getting inside. Anne had opened the opposite door and was helping him settle in. “We created way more chaos than we wanted, but it’s not going to last forever.”
She picked the driving seat. Max was beside her in no time.
“What happened?” she asked him, looking first at the base to make sure no one was paying attention to them, and then putting the car in reverse to get away as fast and quietly as they could.
“He couldn’t keep hiding the car. The noise, even the smell of it was going to tip the guards off. It was too much. So he directed everyone to blow up the ship. Once that was done, we walked here by a backdoor no one was paying attention to. It was the path of least resistance for his mind.”
“John? What’s wrong?” Anne asked as Liz hit the back road into the forest.
“I just need to sleep,” John said with a wicked smile while Anne held his face, inspecting him. “That and a kiss from you.”
For a moment there, Anne’s incredulous look was comically frozen in time, but before she could act on it, John’s head swiftly moved forward to steal a kiss—and then promptly fell asleep on her shoulder.
“He’s completely wiped out,” Max said, turning to look behind. “But he did it. I think he was able to pull the last part of the plan off.”
“The last part?” Liz asked.
“He made them think we were boarding the ship before it blew up. They think—if he pulled it off, then they think we’re both dead.”
“A disappearing act,” Liz whispered with a broad smile.
“A disappearing act like no other,” Max said, nodding.
Liz accelerated. She couldn’t wait to celebrate the best magic trick of them all: disappearing into a life of freedom.
"There's addiction, and there's Roswell!"
Re: Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 61 Pg 22 - 12 / 8
I am soooo glad you posted an update to this story! Thank you. I have really enjoyed the plot and getting to know the characters. I can't wait to see how it all turns out for Max and Liz (and Alex)!
Re: Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 61 Pg 22 - 12 / 8
Wow
A new chapter!!! You make my day!! (Well it’s night time here in Europe)
Excellent disappearing act!!
I really hope it works and they are finally free
{doing a happy dance}
I can’t wait to read the next chapter![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
Thank You!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
A new chapter!!! You make my day!! (Well it’s night time here in Europe)
Excellent disappearing act!!
I really hope it works and they are finally free
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
{doing a happy dance}
I can’t wait to read the next chapter
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
Thank You!
~~~~~~ ###### Smiling is a Gift ###### ~~~~~~
-
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2019 12:12 am
Re: Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 61 Pg 22 - 12 / 8
Yay! I'm new to this board and this fic and I just love it, and I'm so enjoying this update. Here's to hoping everyone gets their happily ever after.
Mom, Nerd, Complete and Total Disaster.
Re: Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 61 Pg 22 - 12 / 8
Well I’m glad my pestering worked lol! Thanks for the part, I can’t believe that this is coming to an end
I have a few dreamer challenges in mind if you are looking for ideas so pm me!
-
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 2649
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:34 pm
Re: Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 61 Pg 22 - 12 / 8
Love that disappearing act.......and welcome back to this story. When will we get more?
- Misha
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 425
- Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 10:44 am
- Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Re: Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 61 Pg 22 - 12 / 8
September 14th, 2011 – Day 1796
Hope is such a dangerous thing.
It’s been 1796 days since I started counting each and every day since the moment I became a slave to them, to the drug, to this life. That’s almost five years to the date. I don’t know why I started counting, really. I certainly don’t understand why I keep doing it. But for the first time since Day 1, I feel like I can stop adding to the count.
I think—I hope—that I might be finally free.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Last Count
Three days was a long time for someone to be constantly looking at every shadow, jumping at every sound, and hoping for things to be over.
It was also how long it took for John to wake up for good. He’d been drifting in and out of a deep sleep, and as Max helped him to sit down in the kitchen pantry of his house, he couldn’t help but wonder at all the things John could do and he couldn’t—and at the perils they had just escaped from thanks to those powers.
They had changed cars five times and driven all the way to Portland despite the fact that he wanted to leave Parker and Whitman at her apartment. She needed to go back to work and pretend everything was normal in her life once more, and so did Alex. Neither listened to him.
Max needed to lie low and hope no one was looking for them. As much as he wanted to believe he’d had a clear exit, he knew better. Surely, someone would know they weren’t dead. Surely, someone was already on their track.
Surely, this wasn’t over.
Beside him, John tried to get his thoughts together while Max updated him on their situation. Besides, John needed to give one hell of an explanation to his wife.
“Where’s Anne?” John asked as he tiredly ate some broth. He had dark circles under his eyes and had lost some weight. His powers were utterly wiped out, just like Max’s.
“Grocery shopping with Parker.”
“Right, right,” John said, passing a hand over his hair, and then over his three-day beard. He winced. “I need to shave.”
“Having no powers sucks,” Max said, filling a glass with water and then sitting beside him.
“Tell me about it,” John grumbled.
“Speaking of which…I need to learn what you can do. I mean, if my powers come back.”
“Give your body a chance to properly heal. It’s been what? Ten days since you got off that drug? And you’ve been under constant stress and no proper rest ever since. We’re not Superman, you know?”
“Who’s not Superman?” Whitman asked as he entered the kitchen, laptop in hand.
John raised a hand.
“Oh, well, you do kind of look like hell,” Alex said, staring at him for a little too long. “Does this mean your powers don’t come from the sun?”
“I doubt it,” he answered, going back to his broth. “Though I think I now know how dealing with kryptonite feels like.”
“Sounds like fun stuff,” Alex said, sitting in front of them.
“What’s going on at the base? How much has happened since we left?” John asked.
“They’re still going through the collapse of the building,” Alex explained. “There are more than twenty accounts of how they saw you two going into the ship before it blew up, so the alibi is sound.”
“How did you manage to blow it up, anyway?” Max asked John, confused.
“I made them think they were under attack from the ship and made someone shoot some sensitive, volatile containers,” John shrugged. “It was always my plan B, to blow it up to pieces, but I had no idea if it would really destroy the ship. I mean, it survived an interstellar trip and a horrendous crash.”
“So? Was it destroyed?” Max asked Alex.
“Nothing I can find right now. There’s plenty of blaming going around, and a lot of people are trying to piece the whole thing together. Two dozen investigations have been opened. No one wants to take responsibility.”
“Destroyed or not, I wiped out the main control system,” John said, serious for once. “No one is coming for us. At least no one from outer space.”
Well, at least that’s one less thing to worry about.
“I will keep an eye on things,” Whitman promised, “but it’s going to take a few months if not a couple of years before anything is concluded and buried.”
“That sounds about right,” Max said, sipping his water. A couple of years of fearing someone, somewhere, would tip them that he was still alive.
“Don’t look so grim,” John said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve been out of their chains for a couple of decades. It really might be over now, Max. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
The three of them looked up at hearing a car parking nearby. Parker and Anne were back.
“Ok—ay,” Whitman said, taking his laptop and standing up, “It was nice knowing you, man,” he said, looking at John—and then scurrying away.
“Coward,” John muttered, glaring at Alex’s retreating back. Max had a similar idea of escaping because nobody but nobody ever wanted to see two lovers quarrel.
“Don’t. You. Dare,” John told him, the hand on Max’s shoulder becoming a grip. “She can’t kill me if there are witnesses, right?”
“I don’t know, John. You haven’t heard her rant for three days straight about the things she will do to you like the rest of us have.”
John winced. The door flew open before Max had any chance to leave, and in stormed one furious Anne Herschel. “You have any idea what you’ve put me through?”
“I missed you, too,” John said, heartfelt.
“No. You don’t get to puppy-eyed me and make me fall in love all over you in ten seconds, you hear me? You can’t just make these decisions and go get possibly killed while your clone rings my bell in the middle of the night. You just don’t.”
“I’m so, so, sorry,” he said, standing up. She went to him before he could falter, but Max could also see the waves of anger and worry colliding in Anne’s eyes. She wanted to forgive him and be happy, but he’d broken her trust and there had to be consequences.
Relationships were so weird.
By the door, Parker remained as silent as Max was. For a moment, he wished so much he could become invisible, to no avail.
John went down to one knee, and Anne followed him so he wouldn’t fall to the floor. Max moved to help, and so did Parker—not that John needed any of them.
“Anne Serena Herschel, would you marry me?” he asked out of the blue—as if they weren’t already married.
She punched him on the shoulder for an answer, glaring at his hazel eyes and his sweet, innocent smile. “You’re lucky I’m not killing you right this moment.”
“So romantic,” he said, standing up.
“Could you take this seriously for once, please?” she asked, looking tired. After days of worrying about John escaping and then fully recovering, she was finally letting go of her worries, having nothing but exhaustion left.
Max took this as his cue to leave and quietly moved out of the kitchen and into the porch, where Parker had chosen to go as well.
“I think they—” Max started.
“—need their space?” Parker said, nodding.
“And to talk. I can’t imagine what it must be like to care so much about someone just to see them running back into danger.”
“Yeah, it kind of sucks,” Parker said, glancing away. “But they’re going to be okay,” she said, smiling. “They’ve earned their happily ever after.”
Max turned to look back, imagining a lifetime spent with someone who knew him and loved him despite what he was and what he’d done.
“So, what are you going to do next?” Parker asked, bringing his thoughts to the here and now.
“Lie low. Make sure they’re not looking for us. I mean, John made them think he was dead for almost twenty years. They’re not going to fall for it so easily this time around.”
“Right, right. Any plans on how you’re going to lie low?”
“No idea. But I imagine somewhere far from here. John and Anne are great people, but I can’t stay living in their basement indefinitely. I don’t know, I haven’t really thought this through. I’m still expecting for snipers to show up out of nowhere.”
She laughed, and he frowned.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said, “It’s just—you’ve been plotting and planning how to escape that base for five years, and did a whole lot of scheming in the last nine months alone. It’s kind of ironic that you don’t have a plan anymore, that’s all.”
“Freedom is a scary thing,” Max said, half smiling. “I’ve been told what to do for so long that I’m not really sure what I want. What I’d like to do in the years to come.”
“Didn’t you mention something about teaching?” Parker asked.
“Maybe. I feel so out of my league right now,” he confessed. “Did you always know you wanted to be a molecular biologist?”
“Oh yeah. I knew right away that I wanted to work in a lab the first day I walked into one. But…I’m kind of the exception. No one really knows for the longest time. Besides, you don’t have to stick to one thing. I mean, look at me: not only a molecular biologist but an accessory to crimes against national security and your escape. That takes far more skills than looking into a microscope if you ask me.”
He laughed, and it felt good and natural and like the one thing he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
She smiled, blushing. “It’s so nice to hear you laughing.”
“It is?”
She nodded. “You used to have this black cloud around you…” she said, trailing off.
“I did?” he asked, unsure where this was going.
She nodded again. “Every time you showed up at the lab, I pictured it above your head, sometimes it even was raining on you. You had so much to worry about, it was only natural.”
“But it’s not there anymore…” he slowly said, narrowing his eyes in mock suspicion.
She smiled sheepishly.
“So, I’m officially cloudless?”
“Max Evans, I don’t think it was ever your destiny to be under one of those clouds for the rest of your life,” she said, and then thoughtfully added, “You’re going to be okay, Max. John is already proof of that.”
“If he survives,” Max said, turning to look at the house.
“If he survives,” she agreed.
“What about you? You’re going to go back to your lab in Washington?”
Parker wrinkled her nose. “Anne made me a better offer. There’s a lot I discovered while working with your cells, and she has the means of getting the research out there without giving you away.”
“I feel so used,” Max said, jokingly.
“In any case, I don’t think I could ever go back, you know? To work and routine? At least with Anne, I have someone who understands what we’re doing.”
“I bet you two are going to be great friends.”
“Yeah. I’m sure being around John will also help you get better with your powers.”
Max looked at his hands—at his powerless hands—and sighed. “Even if my powers don’t come back, I’m just happy to be out. There will always be a chance that they will find me, but…they can’t take this away from me,” he said, looking at the blue sky. “I’ve known freedom now, I’ll never jeopardize it again.”
He turned to look at Parker and quietly said, “Thank you. You should’ve said no the first time I went into your lab. You shouldn’t have helped me, had no reason to do so, and yet I am here today because you decided to help a stranger. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay you, Dr. Parker.”
“Just—start over, Max. Leave these memories behind and have a life. It’s the only thing I want as payment, really.”
“Start over?”
“Yeah. Clean slate. Be anything you want. Be everything you want.”
Max thought about it. About the choices ahead and the fears he needed to leave behind. Most of all, he thought about what he wanted to keep in his life—the people he’d come to known and cared about.
“In that case,” he said, straightening up and clearing his throat. “Hi. I’m Max Evans.”
“I—what?”
“I’m starting over, remember? So, I’m Max Evans,” he repeated, extending a hand to shake hers.
“Oh—oh, of course! Hi, I’m Liz Parker.”
“May I call you Liz?”
The question hung in the air filled with all kinds of meaning to both of them. Their twin grins grew so wide they could have lightened up the whole neighborhood.
“I think I’d like that, yeah.”
“I think I’d like that, too.”
September 14th, 2011 – Day 1 of the rest of my life.
Hope is such a dangerous thing.
It’s been 1796 days since I started counting each and every day since the moment I became a slave to them, to the drug, to this life. That’s almost five years to the date. I don’t know why I started counting, really. I certainly don’t understand why I keep doing it. But for the first time since Day 1, I feel like I can stop adding to the count.
I think—I hope—that I might be finally free.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Last Count
Three days was a long time for someone to be constantly looking at every shadow, jumping at every sound, and hoping for things to be over.
It was also how long it took for John to wake up for good. He’d been drifting in and out of a deep sleep, and as Max helped him to sit down in the kitchen pantry of his house, he couldn’t help but wonder at all the things John could do and he couldn’t—and at the perils they had just escaped from thanks to those powers.
They had changed cars five times and driven all the way to Portland despite the fact that he wanted to leave Parker and Whitman at her apartment. She needed to go back to work and pretend everything was normal in her life once more, and so did Alex. Neither listened to him.
Max needed to lie low and hope no one was looking for them. As much as he wanted to believe he’d had a clear exit, he knew better. Surely, someone would know they weren’t dead. Surely, someone was already on their track.
Surely, this wasn’t over.
Beside him, John tried to get his thoughts together while Max updated him on their situation. Besides, John needed to give one hell of an explanation to his wife.
“Where’s Anne?” John asked as he tiredly ate some broth. He had dark circles under his eyes and had lost some weight. His powers were utterly wiped out, just like Max’s.
“Grocery shopping with Parker.”
“Right, right,” John said, passing a hand over his hair, and then over his three-day beard. He winced. “I need to shave.”
“Having no powers sucks,” Max said, filling a glass with water and then sitting beside him.
“Tell me about it,” John grumbled.
“Speaking of which…I need to learn what you can do. I mean, if my powers come back.”
“Give your body a chance to properly heal. It’s been what? Ten days since you got off that drug? And you’ve been under constant stress and no proper rest ever since. We’re not Superman, you know?”
“Who’s not Superman?” Whitman asked as he entered the kitchen, laptop in hand.
John raised a hand.
“Oh, well, you do kind of look like hell,” Alex said, staring at him for a little too long. “Does this mean your powers don’t come from the sun?”
“I doubt it,” he answered, going back to his broth. “Though I think I now know how dealing with kryptonite feels like.”
“Sounds like fun stuff,” Alex said, sitting in front of them.
“What’s going on at the base? How much has happened since we left?” John asked.
“They’re still going through the collapse of the building,” Alex explained. “There are more than twenty accounts of how they saw you two going into the ship before it blew up, so the alibi is sound.”
“How did you manage to blow it up, anyway?” Max asked John, confused.
“I made them think they were under attack from the ship and made someone shoot some sensitive, volatile containers,” John shrugged. “It was always my plan B, to blow it up to pieces, but I had no idea if it would really destroy the ship. I mean, it survived an interstellar trip and a horrendous crash.”
“So? Was it destroyed?” Max asked Alex.
“Nothing I can find right now. There’s plenty of blaming going around, and a lot of people are trying to piece the whole thing together. Two dozen investigations have been opened. No one wants to take responsibility.”
“Destroyed or not, I wiped out the main control system,” John said, serious for once. “No one is coming for us. At least no one from outer space.”
Well, at least that’s one less thing to worry about.
“I will keep an eye on things,” Whitman promised, “but it’s going to take a few months if not a couple of years before anything is concluded and buried.”
“That sounds about right,” Max said, sipping his water. A couple of years of fearing someone, somewhere, would tip them that he was still alive.
“Don’t look so grim,” John said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve been out of their chains for a couple of decades. It really might be over now, Max. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
The three of them looked up at hearing a car parking nearby. Parker and Anne were back.
“Ok—ay,” Whitman said, taking his laptop and standing up, “It was nice knowing you, man,” he said, looking at John—and then scurrying away.
“Coward,” John muttered, glaring at Alex’s retreating back. Max had a similar idea of escaping because nobody but nobody ever wanted to see two lovers quarrel.
“Don’t. You. Dare,” John told him, the hand on Max’s shoulder becoming a grip. “She can’t kill me if there are witnesses, right?”
“I don’t know, John. You haven’t heard her rant for three days straight about the things she will do to you like the rest of us have.”
John winced. The door flew open before Max had any chance to leave, and in stormed one furious Anne Herschel. “You have any idea what you’ve put me through?”
“I missed you, too,” John said, heartfelt.
“No. You don’t get to puppy-eyed me and make me fall in love all over you in ten seconds, you hear me? You can’t just make these decisions and go get possibly killed while your clone rings my bell in the middle of the night. You just don’t.”
“I’m so, so, sorry,” he said, standing up. She went to him before he could falter, but Max could also see the waves of anger and worry colliding in Anne’s eyes. She wanted to forgive him and be happy, but he’d broken her trust and there had to be consequences.
Relationships were so weird.
By the door, Parker remained as silent as Max was. For a moment, he wished so much he could become invisible, to no avail.
John went down to one knee, and Anne followed him so he wouldn’t fall to the floor. Max moved to help, and so did Parker—not that John needed any of them.
“Anne Serena Herschel, would you marry me?” he asked out of the blue—as if they weren’t already married.
She punched him on the shoulder for an answer, glaring at his hazel eyes and his sweet, innocent smile. “You’re lucky I’m not killing you right this moment.”
“So romantic,” he said, standing up.
“Could you take this seriously for once, please?” she asked, looking tired. After days of worrying about John escaping and then fully recovering, she was finally letting go of her worries, having nothing but exhaustion left.
Max took this as his cue to leave and quietly moved out of the kitchen and into the porch, where Parker had chosen to go as well.
“I think they—” Max started.
“—need their space?” Parker said, nodding.
“And to talk. I can’t imagine what it must be like to care so much about someone just to see them running back into danger.”
“Yeah, it kind of sucks,” Parker said, glancing away. “But they’re going to be okay,” she said, smiling. “They’ve earned their happily ever after.”
Max turned to look back, imagining a lifetime spent with someone who knew him and loved him despite what he was and what he’d done.
“So, what are you going to do next?” Parker asked, bringing his thoughts to the here and now.
“Lie low. Make sure they’re not looking for us. I mean, John made them think he was dead for almost twenty years. They’re not going to fall for it so easily this time around.”
“Right, right. Any plans on how you’re going to lie low?”
“No idea. But I imagine somewhere far from here. John and Anne are great people, but I can’t stay living in their basement indefinitely. I don’t know, I haven’t really thought this through. I’m still expecting for snipers to show up out of nowhere.”
She laughed, and he frowned.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said, “It’s just—you’ve been plotting and planning how to escape that base for five years, and did a whole lot of scheming in the last nine months alone. It’s kind of ironic that you don’t have a plan anymore, that’s all.”
“Freedom is a scary thing,” Max said, half smiling. “I’ve been told what to do for so long that I’m not really sure what I want. What I’d like to do in the years to come.”
“Didn’t you mention something about teaching?” Parker asked.
“Maybe. I feel so out of my league right now,” he confessed. “Did you always know you wanted to be a molecular biologist?”
“Oh yeah. I knew right away that I wanted to work in a lab the first day I walked into one. But…I’m kind of the exception. No one really knows for the longest time. Besides, you don’t have to stick to one thing. I mean, look at me: not only a molecular biologist but an accessory to crimes against national security and your escape. That takes far more skills than looking into a microscope if you ask me.”
He laughed, and it felt good and natural and like the one thing he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
She smiled, blushing. “It’s so nice to hear you laughing.”
“It is?”
She nodded. “You used to have this black cloud around you…” she said, trailing off.
“I did?” he asked, unsure where this was going.
She nodded again. “Every time you showed up at the lab, I pictured it above your head, sometimes it even was raining on you. You had so much to worry about, it was only natural.”
“But it’s not there anymore…” he slowly said, narrowing his eyes in mock suspicion.
She smiled sheepishly.
“So, I’m officially cloudless?”
“Max Evans, I don’t think it was ever your destiny to be under one of those clouds for the rest of your life,” she said, and then thoughtfully added, “You’re going to be okay, Max. John is already proof of that.”
“If he survives,” Max said, turning to look at the house.
“If he survives,” she agreed.
“What about you? You’re going to go back to your lab in Washington?”
Parker wrinkled her nose. “Anne made me a better offer. There’s a lot I discovered while working with your cells, and she has the means of getting the research out there without giving you away.”
“I feel so used,” Max said, jokingly.
“In any case, I don’t think I could ever go back, you know? To work and routine? At least with Anne, I have someone who understands what we’re doing.”
“I bet you two are going to be great friends.”
“Yeah. I’m sure being around John will also help you get better with your powers.”
Max looked at his hands—at his powerless hands—and sighed. “Even if my powers don’t come back, I’m just happy to be out. There will always be a chance that they will find me, but…they can’t take this away from me,” he said, looking at the blue sky. “I’ve known freedom now, I’ll never jeopardize it again.”
He turned to look at Parker and quietly said, “Thank you. You should’ve said no the first time I went into your lab. You shouldn’t have helped me, had no reason to do so, and yet I am here today because you decided to help a stranger. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay you, Dr. Parker.”
“Just—start over, Max. Leave these memories behind and have a life. It’s the only thing I want as payment, really.”
“Start over?”
“Yeah. Clean slate. Be anything you want. Be everything you want.”
Max thought about it. About the choices ahead and the fears he needed to leave behind. Most of all, he thought about what he wanted to keep in his life—the people he’d come to known and cared about.
“In that case,” he said, straightening up and clearing his throat. “Hi. I’m Max Evans.”
“I—what?”
“I’m starting over, remember? So, I’m Max Evans,” he repeated, extending a hand to shake hers.
“Oh—oh, of course! Hi, I’m Liz Parker.”
“May I call you Liz?”
The question hung in the air filled with all kinds of meaning to both of them. Their twin grins grew so wide they could have lightened up the whole neighborhood.
“I think I’d like that, yeah.”
“I think I’d like that, too.”
September 14th, 2011 – Day 1 of the rest of my life.
"There's addiction, and there's Roswell!"
- Misha
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 425
- Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 10:44 am
- Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Re: Of Journals & Journeys (AU M/L, YTEEN) Ch. 61 Pg 22 - 12 / 8
.
Epilogue
.
Epilogue
.
Journal entry #29, December 29th, 2019
The thing nobody tells you about earning your happily ever after is that it’s never a sure thing. It’s never a static thing. It’s most definitely not a destination, but a constant journey you work for day after day after day.
Some days are filled with anxiety or fear about the government finding out Max is well and alive. Some days are filled with dark clouds over our heads over some fight. Some days are dull, waiting for Max to come back from some trip, or for my conferences to be over so I can go back to him.
Some days are filled with firsts, like a picnic out in the park, or watching a movie in our new home. Some days are filled with sunshine and birds chirping and wedding vows.
Some days I still wonder why I looked into that microscope and didn’t run away. Days when I still wonder why he picked me, Liz Parker, the smallest girl from the smallest town.
Yet every day I know I made the right decision. Every day I get to wake up and feel him next to me, sleeping peacefully, out of the invisible chains that once tied him down to a miserable life of tests and missions.
Our happily ever after is full of little details, of memories both great and dark. A reminder that we should never take it for granted.
As I read through the pages of this journal of mine, as I picture the long days and years of what Max endured, of the immense risk we both took, I’m delighted to reach the end knowing we made it. We were able to start over, get to know each other. What started in such a dark place has blossomed into the most precious flower.
This journey that started so unpredictable changed us both for the best, and the amazing thing is that I can tell you, with all confidence, that I’m Liz Parker, and I’m happy.
The End
"There's addiction, and there's Roswell!"