Title: What Could Be
Author: Mikaela
Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.
Pairings: Liz/Max mostly but there might be some Maria/Michael and some Isabel/Alex scenes later.
Rating: Mature, might have some Adult scenes later.
Feedback: Feedback is not reccommended but it is nice to see if I am doing a good job. Hopefully, I will get some.
Summary: The End of the World episode already happened when Future Max told Liz she had to break up with Max, so she faked sleeping with Kyle. Max and Tess have not slept together yet but they are getting closer when Tess tells Max of their past together. Liz is torn and Tess stays long enough to help Isabel, Max, and Michael face the skins, Liz is relieved. It’s been a few weeks since the skins are gone. Will Liz finally get the courage to tell Max the truth or will it be too late? What happens when Max finds out that Liz isn’t the same girl she was many, many weeks ago?
-1-
Liz wasn’t even sure what to do anymore. Max hated her guts because he thought she slept with Kyle but that was the last thing she would ever do. Kyle was more like a big brother than someone she would ever sleep with but Max did not need to know that. Or did he? The look on his face when he looked at Kyle and her in bed raced through her mind each and everytime she went to that night. She had cried for hours, while Kyle held her. Even though he tried to question her, she just brushed him off.
When Ava, her new friend, who was also Tess’s twin or look alike… whatever you would even call it came back in town, she was so happy because so many things were happening to her, especially with the whole green, electric sparks surging over her arms. Ava had calmly told her everything would be all right and she took care of Elizabeth.
The fact that Elizabeth Parker had powers and was part alien now, it only made her feel like Max and her belonged together. Maybe her getting shot that afternoon at the diner was only a symbol that Max and Liz’s love was meant to be. Maybe… if she had told Max the truth of the skins and Tess needing to stay, maybe everything would not have been in jeopardy.
Seeing Max and Tess together, so close, almost like intimately, it was killing her more and more to see the two together. While rubbed it in her face, she didn’t pay the girl any attention. She tried to stay away from Tess Harding, especially those mind-warping powers that Tess had. Becoming jealous of seeing the two made her think what would Max have done if he knew about Future Max coming to see her? It terrified her so much to what could possibly happen.
Now, here she was, standing outside the Evans’ household, and she wasn’t even sure if she was making the right decision right now. What if what she was doing right now was only going to make Max hate her even more?
When she was about to knock on the door, the door flung open to reveal Max Evans, who looked like he was just about to go somewhere.
“Liz?!”
“Uh, I’m sorry I just showed up, Max,” Liz said softly, as she shuffled her feet nervously, and she licked across her bottom dry lip. “I should just go and –“
“No, wait! Don’t go,” Max breathed, as he took a glance at her, and that’s when he knew something was up, especially to how nervous she looked. “Liz, are you all right? Are you in trouble? Did someone hurt you? Liz, did –“
“Max, I’m fine… physically,” Liz managed out, as she looked over at Max, as she took a step back. “Do you think that maybe… we can talk?”
“Well, I was about to go see Tess, but –“
“No, that’s all right. I should have called. Go and see Tess. We could talk later,” Liz said to Max, as she took another step back away from Max, and she looked up into his eyes. “I just… should not have came here unannounced. I don’t –“
“No, Liz, Tess can wait. Come on, we can talk.”
Liz shook her head, as she grabbed her keys from her belt loop, and she started towards the car. “No Max, just meet me at the Crashdown whenever you are ready.”
Before Max knew, Liz was taking off in her car to the Crashdown.
***
Liz sighed, as she rubbed her temples over her face when she looked over at Maria. Now that Maria knew the truth of what and why she did what she did, she was hoping that her best friend would not be too angry at her. Then again, she was not sure what was running through her best friend’s mind.
“Wow Liz,” Maria said, as she took a deep breath, and she sat down on the bench of the locker room in the Crash Down. “So… Max from the future came to you, making sure that you broke up with him to save the world?”
Liz nodded her head, as she looked at Maria, while she bit down on her bottom lip. “As crazy as it sounds, it’s true. Tess left because she knew Max would never break up with me, so I had to sacrifice my love for Max to… have them save the world, Maria. Now, just the sight of seeing Max and Tess together, it makes me nauseous each and every, single time I see them together.”
“Oh chica,” Maria frowned, as she looked over at her, and she inhaled a deep breath. “I wish that there was something that I could say or even do to make you happy.”
“Don’t worry about it. Max is coming over and I think this is going to be a lot harder when I tell him the truth,” Liz sighed, as she rubbed her stomach in circles over her shirt. “I mean, really Maria – what is he going to say when he finds out his future self came to the future to talk to me?”
“I don’t know, Liz, but maybe it won’t be so bad as you think it will be. Maybe – just maybe Max will realize that you love him that much?” Maria suggested with a grin upon her face, as she licked across her bottom lip when she took a deep breath. “That boy is still madly in love with you even though he looks upset all the time when he’s around you.”
Liz sighed, as she placed her head in her hands, and she inhaled a deep breath. “I am not going to lie and say that I don’t, Maria. Max Evans means so much to me… more than I ever though I could ever feel.”
“Oh Liz, maybe you should have talked to Max about this whole Future Max before you did anything drastic,” Maria sighed, as she looked at her heartbroken best friend.
“I think you may be right…”
Suddenly, there was a knock at the backdoor, and Liz stood up to her feet. “I think that’s Max. I will let you know if anything goes wrong or not.”
“Please do, chica,” Maria said, as she gave her a friend a hug, while rubbing her back, and then stepped away where she walked through the door to the Crashdown to finish up her shift.
As Liz watched her best friend taking care of the customers, she heard the knock at the door come again, which surprised her. She knew it was Max and she could feel her heart racing, basically skyrocketing at this point. She dusted some lint off of her black tee that was hugging her torso and she placed some hair from her face behind her ear.
“Liz, are you there?” came Max’s muffled voice through the door, as she inhaled a deep breath.
“I’m coming!” Liz called out, as she walked to the door with a sigh leaving her lips, and she looked over at Max when she opened it. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine, Liz. Is this a bad time?” Max asked, as he looked over at Liz, noticing that she looked like she had some stuff going through her mind.
“Oh… no, Max,” Liz said, as she stepped aside, so that Max could come inside.
Max walked inside of the Crashdown and it brought back so many memories in this certain room where they would be kissing. He shook that thought away and he saw down on the bench and he watched Liz take a seat next to him.
“I am really glad that you could come over here,” Liz said softly, as she held the tears back, and she didn’t realize how hard this was for her until now.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Max managed out, as he looked into her eyes, and he took a deep breath when he looked over at her. “So… can I ask why I am here, Liz? We’re not exactly… each other’s favorites right now.”
‘Actually, I am not your favorite, Max,’ Liz thought, as she looked over at Max. “I need to talk to you about why I did what I did when we broke up.”
“Liz, I really don’t think that’s –“
“Max, I need to,” Liz sighed, as she looked down at her feet, avoiding eye contact with him. “You might hate me even more, but if I don’t, I just feel like I am going to lose my mind, Max. I need to do this.”
“All right, fine,” Max said a little glumly, as he looked over at her, and he rubbed the back of his neck.
“So, let me tell you what happened…” Liz began, as she rubbed her knees when she took a deep breath, and she focused her eyes on Max’s the whole time.
~Flashback~
Liz was sitting in the chair across from the psychic that Maria had dragged Alex and her too. This was something she just wasn’t into at the moment. She just hoped that this psychic, Madame Vivian, knew what she was doing, but Liz just thought that she was a full of crap, anyway.
Madame Vivian was flipping the cards, as shock was written across her face, which only interested Liz.
“I've never seen the cards fall like this before. The boy, he's different.”
Liz nodded her head, as she looked over at her. “Yeah.”
Madame Vivian raised an eyebrow. “He's very important, this boy… a leader.”
Liz slowly nodded her head, as she shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, he has this whole other destiny...one that doesn't include me.”
“No. He chooses love.”
Not being able to help herself, Liz smiled. “What?”
“He chooses you,” Madame Vivian said with a confident smile on her face.
Liz wasn’t sure if she believed this psychic or not. “No, no, no, no, see, that's impossible.”
“The reading is clear. You marry your true love. You have happiness. The card here? Intimacy, sex. You will not be left wanting.”
***
Liz picked up the curtain from her bed and then placed it over on top of her head. “I, Liz Parker, take Max Evans to be my...”
Suddenly, there is the crack of thunder and Future Max lands outside Liz's window. He walks to the window and crouches so Liz can see his face where shock is definitely written across her face.
“Liz.”
“Max?”
“No, no, I don't...I don't know who you are, but you...you're not Max,” Liz said in a frightened voice, as Max was coming towards her, and she was simply backing away from him.
“Liz, I know this is all hard to believe...” Max began, as he reached out to her to grab her, but she fell back against the bed.
“Wh-what? You expect me to believe that the...the granilith is like some sort of time machine?” Liz asked, as she was crawling around her bed, and then got the courage to stand up on it, staring down at him.
“It wasn't intended to be, but it does have an enormous amount of power, and we were able to modify it to artificially create a tear in time space.”
As Liz didn’t believe him, she pointed her finger at him, shaking it at him. “No! No! There is no such thing as time travel, ok...because it is against every rule of physics, of reality, of everything.”
“Look, I realize this is overwhelming.”
“No, you're not Max, ok? You...you're like a shapeshifter. You are like some other kind of alien, with, like, the ability to look like Max with that beard and those...and those grey hairs.”
“Do you really see grey?”
“This isn't funny, ok?” Liz screamed, as she hopped off the bed, but Max grabbed her arm from letting her leave his sight.
“Hold on.”
“No! Let go of me!” Liz begged, as she tried to loosen her arms, and she held her hands up to her chest.
“Liz...Liz, it's me,” Max tried again, as he looked over at her, wanting her to believe it was truly him.
“Please, just let go of me.”
“If I were a shapeshifter, there's no way I could tell the future. In approximately 10 seconds, I will show up outside your window and begin singing to you...accompanied by a mariachi band.”
“A mariachi band. Max wouldn't do anything that cheesy,” Liz said, as a sarcastic laugh left her lips, and she seriously did not believe him.”
Three...two...one.”
“Well?” Liz asked, as she looked out the window, and then back at Future Max.
“I said approximately.”
“I spent a week learning the lyrics from Mr. Delgado at the hardware store.”
Liz looked towards the window where she hears faint music, which seems to be getting louder and louder. A small tinge of interest floods her and she inhales a deep breath. When she gets outside when she goes through her window, she looks down below where she sees Max with the mariachi band behind him. Suddenly, she watches Max take off the hat where Max and his band begin to sing in Spanish.
“Wow, that's really embarrassing.”
“ I know...but I had to do something to get your attention. You had shut me out.”
Max continues to sing and he throws a bouquet or red roses up to Liz.
“As I threw the flowers up to you, I remembered you preferred white roses.”
The roses change from red to white as they are in the air where Liz catches them.
Liz smells the roses, as she knows that the future Max is still here. “Why are you here?”
“I can't tell you too much, Liz...only what you need to know...but fourteen years from now, we are taken over by our enemies.”
“Uh, who's taken over?” Liz asked, as she ran a hand through her hair.
“Everyone. Earth. I need you to help me keep that from happening. We need to change the future. What we do here has to be precise and surgical. No one can know I'm here, especially not me...that is, my younger self.”
“Uh, what is it you want to...”
“Not now...your dad's coming,” Future Max said, as he slid beside the plant that was beside her bedroom window, hiding away from Jeff Parker.
Jeff Parker knocks on the door and enters Liz's room to find out what all the noise is about.
“Lizzie? What the hell is going on out there? Is that Max again? Max, is that you again? It's 11:00. Tomorrow's a school day…” Jeff Parker said, as he climbed out the bedroom window, and he moved to stand beside Liz. Mr. Parker looks down and sees Max and his mariachi band singing, who start to walk away. Future Max also leaves through the bedroom window.
“Aw, jeez.”
---
The next day, Max from the future was looking over some of Liz’s pictures that Liz and Max took together not too long ago.
“That's private. Ok, I have some questions,” Liz said, as she approached him when she walked into her room, and he placed the pictures back down.
“I understand.”
“If you need Max to do something different, why don't you just go to Max directly?”
“It's complicated...but if a person encounters himself in another time period, there could be a...a reaction,” He explained, as he took a seat on her bed.
“A reaction…”
“I don't entirely understand it myself, but Serina said...she's gonna be a friend of yours one day. It has something to do with quantum mechanics, but in essence, Max and I would both be destroyed if we actually came into contact.”
“Oh.” Liz looked so afraid at that very moment.
Max then stood up to his feet, approaching Liz. “Liz, what's about to happen over the next few days is critical to the history of this planet. Things between us are about to change...grow deeper. We become inseparable, and nothing comes between us ever again, until…”
“The...the end of the world?”
“That's right.”
“ What happened?”
“The closer that you and I grew, the worse it got with Tess, and eventually she left Roswell.”
“Because of me?”
“Because of me, and how I treated her. And it turned out Tess was critical to our survival. The four of us - Michael, Isabel, Tess, and I...we made a complete unit. We all had different gifts, and with one of us missing, we weren't as strong, and everything fell apart.”
“So, um...you want me to help you and Tess get together?”
“Yes.”
“Why don't you just go to Tess?”
“It's you I trust. It's you I have faith in, and because it's not just about getting me close to Tess. I need you to help me fall out of love with you.”
***
Liz and Future Max are at Whitaker’s office where they are both looking across the street at Tess, who is waiting for Max.
“Good, you got her to wear that top.”
“Yeah, so you like that top?”
“Well, we have to...play every card we have.”
Max arrives promptly and sits down at Tess' table.
“Here he comes,” Future Max said, as he then looked over at her.
“What?”
“Nothing. It's just...seeing you at seventeen again is making it all come flooding back to me. How my stomach used to rumble every time I saw you.”
“So, um...did we get married?”
“Liz, you know I can't…” He said, as he continued to look at his younger self and Tess across the street.”
“You...I know, you can't talk about it. I'm sorry. I know.”
“We eloped. We were nineteen.”
Liz gasped, as she looked over at him. “We were 19? Wow, that is so young. That is too young.”
Future Max moved away from her and sat down on the desk in the office. “That's what I said, but you said that Romeo and Juliet were even younger than us, so we drove to Vegas. Got married at the Elvis chapel. Congratulations, kids.”
“So we didn't have a real wedding.”
“Oh, we had a great wedding. You called Maria, Michael, Isabel, and Alex, and had them meet us halfway. We spent the whole night singing and dancing in some dive outside Phoenix, and at the end of the night, "I Shall Believe" came on the radio.”
“I love that song,” Liz said with a small smile on her face.
“I know. Everyone else was exhausted, but not us. Oh, we danced...just the two of us. And ever since then, it's been our song.” He said, smiling, and then moved back to the window.
“If this works...I'm not gonna have that day.”
“No, you won't.”
“Then what happens to you if we succeed? I...I mean you. The future version of you?”
“If we succeed in changing history, a different version of the future will take place. All the events that led to who I am 14 years from now will be different. The man I am now will cease to exist.”
***
Future Max climbed through Liz’s bedroom where he definitely was not happy with the outcome. “You're supposed to be breaking up with him, not kissing him.
“You...you kissed me. I mean...you know, he kissed me.”
“You're only making me love you more.
“I just said no to Gomez.”
“You said no the last time, too. I didn't take no for an answer.”
“So we went to the concert.”
“No. The night of Gomez I came to your room. That's the night that things between us were cemented.”
“Cemented. So when you say cemented, you...”
“We made love.”
“No, no, we...we didn't,” Liz said, as she shook her head in disbelief.
“Liz...”
“No, I have no intention of making love to you or...or anyone else at this particular stage of my life.”
“I beg to differ.”
“No. Making love to you is the farthest thing from my mind. I...I don't even have protection.”
“I did.”
“Oh, that's great. There you are, Max the Saint, just walking around with a condom in his back pocket. I...I...I don't even care what happened in your reality. I am not making love to you or anyone until I am ready, and I am just not ready.”
“Liz, I am telling you what happened, and we have to change that. We have to. And so far, we've failed. Liz, it's not just Max that's the problem here. You are. You are not letting yourself change. Now you have to do something...before it's too late,” Future Max said with a little more sternness in his voice.
***
Liz and Future Max were outside of Liz’s room on the balcony. Liz was sobbing her eyes out in the lawn chair and Future Max was sitting on the chair beside her. He looked at the box of tissues, wanting to somewhat help out. As he reached for a tissue, his hand goes right through the box.
“What...what's happening?” Liz asked, as she looked down at Future Max’s hand, which was invisible.
“This must be it. What you did must have worked. I'm leaving.”
“What, so you're just...you're going back to where you came from?”
“No. There's nowhere to go back to.”
Future Max is silent for a moment, then attempts to grab the box again. This time, his hand doesn't go through it like it did a few moments ago.
“It didn't work. We have to do something else.”
“No, I...I can't.”
“You have to.”
“Do you know how hard it was for me to tell him that I didn't want to die for him? He's the only reason that I'm alive right now. You...you've...you gotta come up with another plan. Please go to someone else. I...I just...I can't do this anymore,” Liz said with tears in her eyes, looking like she was going to cry at that very moment.
“Just twenty-five minutes before I came here, I held Michael in my arms...dead. Isabel died 2 weeks before that. Now you have to do this. You have to find a way. All of our lives depend on it.”
“How? What can I do that's gonna make you turn away from me?”
“I don't know.”
***
By now, Liz and Future Max were in Liz’s bathroom where Liz was going to go with her plan of pretending on sleeping with Kyle. Kyle was in Liz’s bedroom, not even sure what he was doing.
“So...we haven't really, uh...talked much lately.”
“Yeah! How's it going?”
“Not bad. I found Buddha.”
“I don't think this is a good plan.”
Liz looked over at Future Max. “What are you talking about?”
“You really think this is gonna work? I would never be jealous of Kyle.”
“Can you turn around?”
Liz begins to undress.
LIZ responds to Kyle. “So that's like meditation, right? Incense, that sort of thing?”
“It's really about approaching life through a spiritual place and becoming in tune with different planes of existence.”
“What a line of crap,” Future Max said in sarcasm to Kyle’s words.
“Am I taking my boxers off?”
“No. Undergarments stay on.”
“Right.”
“If he tries anything…”
“I've got it under control. Please stay out of earshot,” Liz said seriously, as she looked at Future Max in the mirror.
***
“I've fought a thousand battles...but watching you do that was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.”
“The look on his face...on your face.”
“Maybe it's for the best. For you, too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I saw you with Kyle. He's turning out to be a...a great guy. Maybe it would be better for you to be with a human.”
“Don't you realize what you are to me...and you're always gonna be? You're the love of my life. Everyone else is gonna be second best. There'll never be another you,” Liz said, as she shook her head, letting Max know how she truly felt. “So Max and...Tess are going to be together now.”
“I don't know. I don't know anything now. This is a different world.”
“I'm gonna be alone.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. From now on, the future is to be determined. It's what I've always said to you, Liz. We create our own destiny.”
Liz then smiled over at Future Max. “Could you dance with me?”
“What?”
“I wanna have my wedding dance.”
"I Shall Believe" starts playing. Liz dances with Future Max. Future Max twirls Liz and she spins around by herself. When she stops spinning, she realizes that Future Max has disappeared. Liz then looks upwards at the night sky and sees a shooting star.
