There had indeed been a child witnessing the melodrama.
Because all the while, Callie had been listening to the whole conversation as she was only pretending to be sleeping. So not to make her mother more nervous as the darkness was setting in, and especially since she had woken up when Max had approached the vehicle. And could not help but listen in.
And therefore, listening to her mother and the strange man had been amusing to the eight-year-old as it was contrary to anything she had experienced since she had been living with her mother.
Mommy has been a self-described celibate the eight-year-old could not help but think.
Of course, she did not say that to me, she thought to herself. [iI don’t even know what celibate is[/i] ‘I heard her say
that to Molly’s mother,’ she thought of her friend back home.
So, to open her eyes and see how her mother was reacting to this strange man was an eye-opening experience for the child. She knew enough not to say anything.
But she could see the panic in the man’s eyes as she looked between Callie and her mother.
*
And it was a panic that was very adult and something Liz was witnessing firsthand.
Damn it, she thought to herself.
I forgot that I was not alone, she would tell herself as she also sighed as she knew how easy it was for her and Max to feel like they were in their own universe where it was hard for anything to break through and so she had to remind herself that she was
not alone. And she could see what Max was thinking, and exactly what he was thinking. Because she remembered what she and Max had done before she left him, and this town.
A month of doing exactly what they should have been doing all along but they were too into being upstanding All American teenagers who would not even think of it,
oh, we did think about it but we always got busted but there came a time when he had put a ring on her finger that they had finally fallen to their urges and they managed some hot passion, and it was hot both would agree. But eventually Liz would walk away, and now Max was looking at the blonde-haired little girl in the car, and there was, yes, panic in his eyes.
She does not look like me Max muttered and does not look that much like Liz at all either he thought, but there looked to be some familiarity between the child and his former girlfriend. “Liz, who is this child?”
“My name is Callie,” the child smiled. “Mommy, who is this man?”
Mommy Max wordlessly said to himself.
God…
“Max, this is Callie.” Liz said softly. “And Callie, this is Max Evans. He is an old friend from my old life here in Roswell,” she said as she knew Max was almost choking at the
old friend label.
Yeah, old friend my ass she was thinking. Because Max had been more than a friend.
Much more they both knew.
But the child was too young to know how close her mother had been to this man, and Liz did not want to have to explain it.
One day, I might, she sighed. “We ran into trouble with the car, you remember, right,” she said softly. “You were sleeping, and this man came to help us out.”
“Hello, Mr. Evans,” Callie said softly.
I was sleeping, yeah right, when I could see exactly what was happening, she smiled, but did not say the words. Still, ever the polite young girl. “Were you able to help us out?”
“Unfortunately, the car needs some help” Liz said softly as by the silence that Max was exhibiting, she knew he was accessing and trying to come to a logical conclusion to explain Callie presence in her car, and he was still clearly too stunned to clearly think.
“Which means?” Callie asked.
Yeah, what does it mean? Liz asked as she was looking at her former boyfriend and could see the stunned expression, and she knew he was going to erupt in some fashion. “Max, can we take this outside,” she said softly as she opened her door. “You stay in the car, okay, we won’t be far,” she sighed.
“Sure,” Callie nodded. Unsure what was happening between the adults.
“Promise me okay, don’t leave this car” Liz murmured.
“I promise, okay” Callie murmured,
why would leave? When I have a show here to watch, she said of the entertainment as she saw her mother finish opening the door and getting out of the car and walking to the other side after shutting the car door.
Forgetting that the passenger window was slightly open.
*
“What is going on here Liz?” was all Max could ask as they took a few steps away from the car, but neither was wanting to go far from the car. “Is that child your daughter?” he asked, as his mind was thinking of the other reasons why the child would call his former girlfriend
Mommy he said as he was trying to convince himself that he was going down a rabbit hole for no good reason.
He was…
“Yes,” Liz said simply and without any elaboration as a way of explaining.
Bristling at the simple answer. “No one told me you had a child,” he said softly as he thought of the many times he talked to Michael, or Maria, or even the Parker's, and while
Liz was a subject he tended to stay away from,
for obvious reasons he knew. Still, the topic could not go unsaid at times. Especially when you live in a town for ten years, and the prodigal daughter had not come to town in that time to see her best friend or most of all, her parents.
Although he was aware that Jeff and Nancy had gone to see Liz.
Where, he did not know. But he knew there were visits, but those visits were not reciprocal, and Liz did not come to see her parents. Now, he was looking at the situation with different eyes.
Does Jeff even know that he has a grandchild? he wondered to himself. As if it was his place to be asking that kind of question. "What is going on Liz?" he asked.
"Is it any of your business?" Liz asked, and knew she was walking into quicksand with what she was
not saying about Callie's situation.
"Is it?" Max asked.
Is it? he pleaded with his eyes.
"No," Liz said simply. "She is not yours' Max."
"She is not?" Max wondered as the pin busted the balloon of hope as he glanced over at the car. "Whose is she?"
"That is none of your business," Liz said with a glare that told him that he was treading on dangerous ground, which is something he did acknowledge of course, but one could never knew for sure, therefore he felt that he had a right to ask, did he not? I
know what Liz and I was doing before she left town; he muttered to himself. "I left a decade ago” she would continue on to say.
You don't have to remind me of that fact; I know that Max muttered to himself. And kept it at a simple, "I know," he sighed. "So?"
"Callie is 8 years old" Liz said simply. "So, yeah, I would say she is not your child."
Aliens are capable of a lot, but not a gestation of nearly two years.
That does not answer my question, whose is she? Max muttered to himself, but he knew enough to know he might get a slap or a punch if he tried to say that to his former girlfriend once more. Even though he hated the idea that she had been with someone else and had a child with them. Forgetting for a moment, that he had been with other women and had three children to show for it.
Two that I am raising, one who was put up from adoption and has lived a whole other life that I am not involved with he sighed of his firstborn son. He knew enough of the home that formerly named Zan lived, to know the child was happy, and healthy and lived away from Roswell. Acknowledging this, he simply nodded. "Do your parents know they have a grandchild?"
"Of course, they do,” Liz bristled at the mere notion,
because there is a so much more to the story than he knows but it did make her wince at the thought he would think her family would not know.
Just because you might not know she sighed “Why would I have kept it from them?" Liz asked as it rattled around her brain just how her parents would have known about the child's existence, but it was something she was not going to share with her former boyfriend.
Or not tonight she sighed.
"Well, you stayed away all this time did you not?" Max muttered. "So, it is a reasonable question to ask?"
It was and Liz knew it.
At least from Max's perspective I imagine she sighed. "I still saw my parents Max. I just did not come back here to Roswell to do it," she muttered. "They came to me."
Put back in his place. Max simply nodded.
Because he did not know what to say.
And from Callie's place in the car, she was having a good time watching a
live soap opera.
Wow she whispered. Because nothing on the television for the child could be this vivid, and imaginative and passionate when they were only talking and she was hearing what her mother was saying, and she knew the truth of what her mother was saying,
if only Max knew what the truth was, she was thinking. She at eight knew enough of it, even if her mother kept some of the grittiness from her, because of her age. But she could see the emotion on Max's face, and the same on her mother's face.
She saw the man looking over, and staring at her and wondering, and she knew what she was wondering because she had overheard much of their conversation. She had watched too many soap operas on television with her babysitters not to know some of human nature with adults,
I am old for my age I am often told she sighed.
Liz now looked over and frowned because she saw that they were being watched. "This is not getting us anywhere Max," she sighed. "I have to get to town."
"I know," Max said softly. "I am still on duty," he muttered knowing he was taking too much time on the job,
not that I am being called anywhere. "I can have someone come for the car Liz, I am serious about that," he sighed. "I can take you and Callie wherever you are staying."
"We are staying with Maria," Liz said softly. "We will be staying at her place while she and Michael go off on their honeymoon."
"You will?" Max wondered.
Why did I not know this he sighed. "How long are you staying?"
"I don't know," Liz said softly. "I guess it now depends on my lemon of a car, and how soon it can be fixed up enough..."
Max nodded, as he tried to figure out how to get a handle on this situation that was clearly spinning out of control. And he needed to figure out how to get more of a control of it, but it was clearly spinning, just as he was spinning, And it was not he did a good job when he was spinning,
sometimes I make the biggest mistakes of my life when I am spinning, he thought, and it was not something that had stayed with his years of high school.
Nope, it continued well after he muttered to himself as he looked at the woman he once loved and
still do but he wanted to believe their past was the past, and the present was a whole different thing.
Which it was, but the past had a meaningful allure to it. And having Liz in his sight made him want to go back in time, but he did not, because he had needed to stay in the present.
There is no good going back into the past he would think as he glanced once more at Liz, and his former girlfriend felt the glare of his eyes, and she was struggling how to deal with it because he knew that coming back to Roswell meant he would have to get a handle on lot, but she did not think it would be this quickly.
"Liz?" Max asked.
"Yes," Liz asked right back.
"Can I give you a ride back to Roswell?" Max asked, wondering where all this was going to go.
"I guess I don't have much choice," Liz sighed. "I have to get to town," she allowed. "There is no way I can miss the wedding," she put in, and Max nodded. As they looked over at the car once more,
Callie cannot stay in the car forever.
"Then let us go" Max said softly as they walked to the car, as Max got on his phone and called into the station. "Need a tow to pick up a car on the side of the road, out by the old diner, you will see it" he muttered into the communication device. "Take it to the Garage on Main Street and have them call Elizabeth Parker at 555-0134 to discuss the vehicle," he was muttering into the phone as he and Liz walked silently over to the car.
"Thank you, Max," Liz said softly. Unsure of what to say.
Max nodded, accepting the gratitude from his former girlfriend, even as he was unsure how to manage the situation. "No problem, I was on duty."
"Would you have come to my rescue, if you were not working?" Liz asked.
Would he have Max asked of himself.
But he knew the truth, and there was no question of it.
Of course, I would Max muttered to himself.
If she needed me, I would come.
It might have been ten years, but it could be ten minutes, and he would have come running.
But would she have called me he muttered to himself. Owning the fact that it had taken Maria to call him, to come to his former girlfriend's aid. "If you need me, I will be there" he said softly.
She knew the truth of the situation because Liz believed him.
And if you ever need me, I will be there but still she did have the courage to say anything. So, she did her own nodding at the implications of his words, and what they could mean because she had no idea of what kind of man he was today, and what kind of life he was leading. Nor did he know what kind of life she had been leading, and she had already giving him some surprise, and she sensed that her stay in Roswell would be full of them.
As they arrived at the car, "Come on Callie," she said as she opened the door. "Mr. Evans will be giving us a drive into town," she said. "Let us grab our stuff," she said as Max wordlessly opened up the trunk and got out the suitcases.
"Sure," Callie said as she got out of the car. "Mr. Evans? she sighed as she was unsure of how to handle the situation. Because she was not used to it.
"You can call me Max," Max said softly.
"Max," Callie said a smile even though she looked at her mother a little uncertainty, but her mother nodded so, she relaxed as they walked to the car that Max drove, and soon the car was packed, and they were driving towards town.
and an uncertain future.
*
Meanwhile,
"Take care Aunt Eloise," Maria was saying at the door of her house. Once she closed her door, she looked at her mother. "She is always good for a laugh," she said of her aunt. Someone she did not see a lot of over the years, in fact it had been a long time but because of the wedding. Long lost family was in town for the ceremony. It was good to see them. But it was also a reminder of how much had changed in the last decade when her life was going one way, and then it was changed completely in ways she had never imagined in any way.
And now, she would not have her life any different.
My Space boy changed my life she would mutter as she turned back and headed into the living room. "What are you still doing here Sean," she muttered to her cousin. Someone else who she had not seen in a long time,
more like more than a decade she thought. Who had surprised her by accepting an invitation to the wedding. Why she had invited him she did not know when they were like oil and water,
we do not mix well she thought.
The last time he had been here, he had been trying to figure out how to rescue himself from admittedly a low point. And got tangled up in some drama with her best friend, and he had left town to get away from it, and over the years, he had gotten his life together, except that he was single.
"I was spending time with Aunt Amy," Sean said eyebrow raising. "Why?" he asked.
"It's nothing," Maria muttered. "I thought you would have gone off with your mother, who just left." she sighed.
"I'll meet Mom back at the motel," he said of his mother. "So, you are finally getting Guerin to commit, huh?" he asked about his cousin. Because it still amazed him that his cousin was getting married, especially to Michael because it did not seem like they jived together,
but I have been wrong before...
"That is the plan," Maria smiled. "In some twelve hours, give or take" she sighed as she looked at Sean. "Why did you come?"
"I was invited," Sean said with some amusement.
"I know you were," Maria said as she wanted her extended family here at the wedding because Michael did not have anyone coming except for Max and Isabel, and therefore, she wanted it to feel big and grand even in its simplicity,
now if only my best friend would get here, she sighed of her maid of honor. Fashionable late she muttered, and she did not know why it was taking Liz so long to get here... But she also knew why Liz was likely late.
Because I sent Max to her...
And therefore, she had known she was asking for trouble. But it was a spur of a moment impulse.
Therefore, she did not like that her cousin was newly in town.
Even though she had invited him to her wedding.
She had never imagined he would have taken her up on it, because he had spurn any other invitation,
mostly out of a sense of force because we are family she thought, but still, she had put the invitation out there, not thinking he would take her up on it, and actually come town. She supposed she had her Aunt Eloise to thank for it.
Sean's mother.
"I don't need you causing trouble okay," Maria asked.
"I am only in town for your wedding," Sean reminded his cousin. "Why do you think so badly of me," he muttered. "I turned my life around, and do I remind you that it was
your friend who caused some of that drama the last time I was around these parts," he muttered as a sudden thought of Liz came to his mind. And why he had left town all those years before, suddenly he would mutter, and without a thought of where he might go.
Because dealing with Liz was turning out to be too much drama he muttered. "So, is Liz going to be at the wedding?"
Of course, she is. "Leave her alone."
"Why would I want to go there?" Sean muttered. "She was into some other guy, so why put my time into something that will not work out."
We ask that of ourselves all the time Maria would think. Of those who were, were not her cousin. As she could only sigh and hope that drama did not come from the Sean wing of the story. "Liz does not need you interfering with her..."
"Your friend is a big girl, isn't she?" Sean asked of his cousin.
I know, Maria muttered. "I want my wedding to be fun, and I don't need drama" she sighed even though she wondered if that was possible because it was not like she was marrying into some stale family,
nope, I am marrying into a diverse and unique family she told herself,
and I know what I am getting into but it still did not mean she wanted a memorable wedding, which is something she did want.
"Something tells me that is going to be hopeless," Sean said with a smile. "Don't look at me like that, because I am not going to rain on your parade here Maria," he muttered. "I came here for a wedding, and not anything more. Although it would be good to see Liz..."
"Sean," Maria muttered as she watched her cousin only laughed and walked away, leaving her to huff and mutter. "I know there is going to be trouble," she sighed a little bit out loud and to herself.
Would there be, and if there was, from what corner of the room would it come?
*
Was there going to be trouble? Max and Liz hoped not, as they silently drove into town. It was a long forty-five-minute drive, after they waited for the tow truck to come and get the car. Liz had not wanted to leave the car without knowing that it would be taken into Roswell. So, once on the way, neither adult knew how to handle being the same car together. Callie was watching it all with amusement before the tired young girl fell asleep, and Liz could see Max watching through the driver's mirror, at the child, and knew what she was thinking. "She is not yours Max" she muttered.
She was annoyed that he would not believe her. She supposed she had history with telling Max one thing, for the opposite to come true,
but not this time, and not about Callie she thought of the child who was sleeping peacefully in the back of the car.
"Are you sure?" Max muttered.
"I am sure," Liz said. "You are capable of a lot, but Callie was not born until well after the standard nine months."
"Then what is her story?" Max asked softly, as he was not sure how to classify anything this night had brought him. As he did not know how to handle any of it. So much of the last ten years was about moving on and finding a way to deal with life's disappointments and those life disappointments were not all involving Liz,
she does take a lot of those slots he would mutter, but still he had found a way forward, and now that was all crumbling down.
"It's complicated," Liz sighed. "A very long story."
Max nodded. "I would like to know some of that story," he sighed because he was well aware that he did not know much of Liz's life. Only that she had gotten her degree and was working in the science world. He knew Jeff and Nancy boasted about her success, but when they saw Max come into the Crashdown. They also closed up and kept quiet, and he had wanted it for so long because he had needed it to survive.
To move on.
He had built a wall. Which had allowed him to marry Edie, and to have his children, twins
Ella (named for his sister), and a son
Noah Michael. After Edie's brother who had died when she was a child. He had told himself he was happy, and he was but then Edie had died too young, and he was alone.
And he found himself in a relationship with Yvonne,
probably way too fast he thought, but he had entered it with no regrets.
Until now, that was.
Now…
"I know you would, but I am not ready to talk about it" Liz said softly. "Callie's father is a dear man, but he is not in the picture anymore, and that is all you need to know" she said softly. "You are definitely not her father."
"So,
you say?" Max muttered.
"I
do say" Liz muttered. "If I had
your child, I would never have kept it from you" she sighed. "I would have come back,” she murmured with a disagree of certainty in her tone, but it was met with a lot of skepticism in Max…
"Would you?" Max asked with a tone that said he had his doubts
I am not so sure she would have come back he thought given what having child would have meant for her. "You would have left your great new life to come back to me, when you did not want to stay in the first place."
"Max," Liz sighed and knew the shot of skepticism in his eyes was warranted but she knew she would have. "It was not
you. It was the situation. I needed to go out there in the world, and I needed to see what I was capable of. Those last six weeks scared me, and everything before it, and I needed to figure out what I wanted for myself and see what would come from it. If there had been a child, regardless of what it meant for the two of us. I would have let you know,” she thought.
"I hope you would have," Max said softly. "But you went
there with some else,” he thought as if it was the same thing.
When it was not.
"Callie's father is a wonderful man," Liz sighed as she knew full well the impression she was leaving with her former boyfriend, but she was not ready to get into the story of Callie, and what meant for the two of them. So, she was satisfied with the story she was spinning to Max, and the implications that was being left with him.
But Max did not want to hear how wonderful Callie's father was, because it meant that Liz had found someone soon after they had parted and had a child and that was not what he had gotten to have with Liz. So, he concentrated on the drive into town. "Whatever," he muttered. "As long as you are happy."
"Yes, I am Max" Liz said softly.
"I am glad," Max sighed as they were now close to Maria's house. The house where she lives with Michael, but Michael would not be there tonight as the pending bride and groom were upholding tradition and Michael would be at his house. While Maria would be alone.
Not alone totally, he would think now.
Liz would be with her.
"How long are you planning to stay?" Max wondered as he glanced over at his former girlfriend. "You did not answer me before?"
"I don't know the answer," was all Liz would say and cut off any more of what she could say to shine some light into her situation. So, she changed the subject completely. "Max, I do want to thank you for helping me. I don't know how I would have handled it on my own."
"You would have found a way," Max said softly with confidence.
You don't have to keep thanking me he would mutter. Still though, the one thing he did have confidence in was that his former girlfriend would have found a way to handle any situation.
She obviously has so far, he muttered to himself
as she did stay away for all these years before she came back to Roswell he elected to think and knew that it was not him who had brought her back.
She never came back to me Max muttered as he pulled into the driveway of the Deluca/Guerin household,
which is why I moved on he thought because she came back to me.
And so, I moved on... Max said, but as he turned down the engine to the off position even though he had to get moving. He knew he would be eating himself on a lot of scores. "You needed the help, and it's my job as I said" Max said as he got out of the car, and Callie rushed out of the car. Just as the door opened, and Maria and someone they both had not seen in many years came out of the house.
Sean Deluca they would think.
Damn one would think. And that was Max of course.
"Petunia you are finally here," Maria cried as she saw the car, and Max and Liz getting out of the car. It was now the dead of night. "Finally."
"Sorry for the delay," Liz said revelling in the embrace. "My car decided to have a say in when I got here to town," she sighed. "And how,” she said as she acknowledged the car, she was being driven in. “But I am here now," she said as she nodded to the other person staring at her, "Sean" she muttered as she would know Maria's cousin anywhere.
This is so not what I need Liz sighed.
"Parker," Sean muttered as he looked at Callie and then Max. "Assuming that is still your name?"
"Yes, it's my name" Liz said as she walked as far away from Max as she could because she knew if she did not, then she would risk getting drawn close again,
and that is the last thing I need she murmured to herself.
"Nice to see you again," was all Sean would say.
Maria did not care for the tone in her cousin's wording, as she kept repeating to herself,
he is only here for the wedding and will be gone on Sunday morning she muttered because the last thing she needed was for her reformed bad boy cousin to cause more trouble now that her best friend was back in town.
But she tried to have it fall of her back and glanced at the same child whose presence Maria had launched a million questions in Max, with the way he was looking at the child, and then at Liz. While Liz could only shake her head.
"Callie" was all Maria said. "Good to see you again. It's been a while, my how much you have grown" she said as it was clear she knew the child well, and it only made Max wonder more because there was something about the child that told him that there was more to this situation, and it was nagging on him.
"Aunt Maria," Callie smiled of her honorary aunt. "You have a cool town."
"I am glad that you approve," Maria laughed at the small child. "You will get to see the sights after the wedding. But come on in and get some food because you both must be famished" Maria asked.
"Cool," Callie said as she looked at her mother. "Mommy, can I?"
"Sure," Liz said as Max had finished getting the bags out of the car for her and carrying them to the porch. "Again, thanks Max."
"No problem," Max said softly, and briefly as he was not looking forward to leaving his former girlfriend back here at the Deluca/Guerin homestead with Sean Deluca still around. But he knew his time was coming to an end. Because he had to call into work and see what else had transpired since he was transported into the bubble that was the last couple of hours. "I guess I better be going."
"Yes, thank you Max," Maria said as she stood on the porch with Callie. "Tell Michael I love him, and he better show up at the church tomorrow?"
"I will keep the love thing to you two," Max said with a laugh. "But we both know that Michael will be at the altar, assuming you are there."
"I am finally getting him to the altar, so yeah, I will be there" Maria smiled and they all laughed, because both Maria and Max knew that Michael was not the only reason why it had taken ten years to get to this point, and to the altar for the two high school sweethearts because Maria had put some of those barriers up as well.
But those barriers were now down, and the wedding was on.
And it was happening.
No matter the ensuing drama.
Max could only feel envious about the idea of marrying the person who was your person.
That is not what was in the cards for me he sighed. "So, see you tomorrow" he said acknowledging the group. "Assuming I will see you tomorrow," Max said of his former girlfriend.
When they
all knew he would.
"You will see each other," Maria said with a smile that told them that she had a lot of plans for the next day. "Both of you will be up there at the altar," she said with the knowing glance at Sean Deluca, who was getting the idea that his cousin was going to take this weekend to push the former lovers together.
Hell, or high water.
Current attachments no matter Sean thought. Because he saw the glimmer in his cousin's eyes. And knew Maria would be up to her old tricks.
The knowledge that both would be there in the same proximity gave them both flutters in their stomach, and neither of them knew if that was good or not.
Because neither of them knew the other in the current day, and what their lives were like. Although Max had a closer insight of Liz’s present circumstance more than Liz did of Max, but she would get
that wakeup call when Amy Deluca approached the front door, and saw the gathering outside, and she could not help but smile at the new arrivals in Liz and the small child. She knew enough to know the
full story on the story of Callie Parker. So, it was not a shock to see the child even though she had not met the child before as she walked of the front door and down and adult. "I assume you are Callie," she said to the young girl. "Are you hungry?"
"Yes, she is" Liz piped up to Amy. "Thank you, Mrs. Deluca,"
"I think we have known each other long enough to know each other by our first names," Amy said. "And the name is not Deluca anymore," she said softly, as she looked across the yard at Max who stood with his hat and badge on.
Max nodded at the sight of his boss’s wife.
Someone who had made it to the altar years before her daughter but was still together with her new husband Jim Valenti.
The town Sheriff.
"Right, sorry" Liz said. "I did hear of your marriage. Congratulations once more" she said softly as she looked at Max.
"I am going back to the office, if Jim should call" Max asked of his good friend and boss.
"Before you do, you should know your wife called. Max, she is upset you have not returned her calls," Amy said softly because she knew what she was opening up when this statement, but she could not have stopped Yvonne's call to the house because they had been plentiful to the house. No matter how many times Max told his wife not to call his boss's home.
Yvonne chose to ignore that directive.
But the fact Amy had said it now, stopped everyone in a paralyzed motion. And no more than Liz.
Max winced.
"I will deal with it," Max said softly. "I have told her not to call you. She chooses to ignore me," he muttered out loud as he turned with the knowledge that he had been allowing his personal phone to ring and ring and not answering them, because he knew it would be his wife, and he walked to the car. Leaving the words that Max was now married hanging in the air.
As Liz watched as Max got back into his car and start and she watched as she drove off.
Max is married.
Yes, he is.
