Author's Note: I promise you all they are leaving Roswell! I know you all are anxious for them to get up to Canada (believe me, I am too!) but Liz and Maria need some serious girl talk. I also wanted to thank everybody that nominated this fic. I had no idea that many people had nominated it until Scottie said she had seen it on the Awards thread. Thank you all so much! You have no idea how much that means, faithful readers! I've strung you all along for *years* with this fic and you still remain loyal. Thank you so so much. Okay, next part...
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There was too much to say and too little time. Even if she had an entire week Liz doubted she’d be able to explain everything to Maria. The range of emotions she’d gone through with Max in a span of two weeks, even two days, was more than she’d experienced in her entire life. But in the short time they had she tried to tell Maria as much as she could. She glossed briefly over the initial attraction and intrigue; she touched on Max’s initial deception and his desperate confession on the side of the highway in Canada. She told Maria about her failed attempts to leave him after their two nights together and the heated arguments that followed both. Then there was their two day holiday in New Pine Creek and subsequent getaway, their journey to Moon, Montana and then to Corvallis, Oregon. Liz related how the truth was finally revealed to her and how she’d only truly accepted it following a frat party in which she’d almost hooked up with Max’s former best friend. Maria listened to it all with wide eyes, interrupting only every now and then to inquire details about what the ice fisherman in Canada had looked like and what they did for showers while on the road if they didn’t stop at hotels. They were insignificant things to Liz, but details that clearly mattered to Maria.
“So is he really as amazing in bed as you claimed he was? Or was that all just part of your lie too?” she inquired with a mischievous grin, getting down to the real details one could truly only discuss with a best friend. Liz closed her eyes and recalled their night together in Corvallis. He’d been distraught after his encounter with Matt and had poured all that pent up emotion and passion into her. It was sorrow and grief, but it was about need to. Needing her and loving her, whether he realized it or not. Amazing didn’t even sum it up, yet that’s all Liz could say.
“Yeah, he’s pretty amazing.” She could only shake her head and laugh. “But that’s not – I mean we don’t – he’s got this thing about having sex,” Liz sputtered in exasperation.
“Another thing? Boy, this space boy comes with some baggage, huh?” Maria whistled.
“You’re being ridiculously good about all this, you know?” Liz couldn’t help but comment on how rational Maria was being about all this earth-shattering information. She had taken Max’s revelation right in stride. The best friend Liz remembered in high school would have run screaming from the room at such a revelation. Either that or she would have had Liz committed.
“Well, I’m telling you, part of me still thinks you and your boy are just tripped out on some massive hallucinogens,” Maria laughed, “and when I stop and think about all of it – it’s all just so ridiculous! He has magical healing powers and he came out of an incubation pod in the desert? I mean, come on,” she snorted.
“But?” Liz knew there was more coming and indeed Maria’s eyes softened as she spoke the next words.
“But when he was telling me,” she shrugged, “I couldn’t not believe him. It is ridiculous, but it is…who he is. I believe that.” Liz smiled at the simple words and reached out to hug her friend, but before she could even get her arms around her, Maria threw her hands up and returned to girl talk. “So this no having sex thing?”
“He doesn’t think it’s safe since he’s - ”
“ - a completely different life form?” Maria completed Liz’s sentence. “He might have a point there.”
“But he’s not!” Liz argued. “He’s a human being! I swear, he’s just…like a different more evolved species.”
“A different species of human?” Maria could hardly say the sentence and keep a straight face. Laughter, Liz noted, seemed to be Maria’s main coping mechanism with all this.
“I’m serious, Maria,” Liz replied with a straight face.
“Serious about what? Max being a different species? I would be too if I slept with him.”
“But that’s the thing, Maria, interspecies breeding - ” Liz seemed suddenly impassioned, but Maria halted her.
“Whoa!! You’re talking about breeding!” she declared and held up her hand as if to stop Liz in her tracks.
“I mean from a biological perspective,” Liz sighed in exasperation, reminding Maria of the science phenom she had once been. “My point is it’s relatively safe. I mean, our children would be sterile, but - ”
“Whoa! You’re talking about children!” Maria interrupted again.
“I’m just saying from a scientific viewpoint,” Liz sighed and then gave a hapless shrug of the shoulders.
“You’ve given this a lot of thought, huh?” Maria chuckled, but it only made Liz sink lower to the bed. It was like beating a dead horse with Max. He was steadfast in his resolution not to put her in any danger. “I probably would too,” Maria mused. “It would kill me to go home with that every night and not get any.”
“Maria!” Liz’s mouth fell open at the blatant remark. It had been years since she and Maria had gabbed like this about boys. The last time they had they were still using euphemisms like ‘second base’ and ‘going all the way’. Gone were the days of such innocence, Liz realized.
“He’s like an…Adonis, Liz. You don’t have to be humble. Half the population of Roswell has been
drooling over him since you guys came to town,” Maria reported with all the candor she knew.
“He’d die if he knew we were having this conversation, you know that?” Liz just imagined poor Max downstairs readying the bike for their imminent departure, completely unaware of the fact that she and Maria were discussing his good looks and sexual prowess just up the stairs.
“Oh, he’s completely oblivious, that’s obvious,” Maria scoffed, “which naturally only makes him hotter.”
“Should I be worried?” Liz teased as she raised herself up off the bed and looked to her friend, who continued to shoot compliments Max’s way.
“Oh, please. Serious dark-haired mystery man from an exotic place? So not my type,” Maria dismissed with a wave of her hand. “Hot, but just not for me.” Laughter filled the room as Liz and Maria reminisced about past crushes, former boyfriends, and present hook-ups. Liz couldn’t help the laughter she tried to stifle when she referenced the odd pairing that was Kyle Valenti and her best friend. Even Maria confessed that their getting together was based more around mutual loneliness than any real attraction.
“Whatever makes you happy.” The smile fell from Liz’s face as she said the words, suddenly growing serious. “I really mean that. I might be out of touch for a while after we leave, but whatever happens,” she brushed the hair out of her face and smiled, “just try and follow your heart.”
“You know you sound like Grandma Claudia when you say that?” Maria reflected and Liz could only smile at the comparison. Her dad’s mother had been an incredible woman. She was strong and independent, honest about who she was and what she stood for.
“I never really knew what she meant when she talked about all that,” Liz confessed. “I never really believed it either. She’d sit me down and tell me all this stuff about finding your soul mate and following your heart no matter what the consequences. It all sounded so…big, so much bigger than anything I’d ever be involved in,” Liz sighed, recalling just a few of Grandma Claudia’s famous life lessons. Most of them came right before she had passed away, not long after the shooting that had changed her granddaughter forever.
Liz had still been recovering from her surgeries and was somewhat housebound when her grandmother came to visit for the last time, her social life reduced to movie marathons and Scrabble games with her mom. Grandma Claudia’s arrival offered a temporary respite from such monotony. Like always, she tried to impart on Liz all the wisdom she had learned in her travels, but she could see the dramatic change in Liz even then. Her granddaughter, always so excited about life, was an empty and bitter shell of the girl she had once been. Liz couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness now at the recollection of that last visit with her grandmother. If she could only meet Max, she would see that all her advice had not gone unheeded. She would see her granddaughter had indeed trusted her heart, she had found her soul mate, that other person that made her whole.
“Well Kyle’s definitely not the be all and end all,” Maria finally spoke, jarring Liz from her daze, “but it’s definitely nice to have someone to have fun with.”
“Grandma always said that too,” Liz reflected, “everybody wants to find their soulmate. I just got lucky and found him early,” she mused, all the while thinking that if not for a stupid coyote in the road she could have found him sooner. “And speaking of,” she looked to the doorway and rolled off of her bed. “I should probably bring my stuff down.”
“I can’t believe you have to go,” Maria just sounded dazed as she remained on the bed. “I mean I understand and I believe it, it just sucks,” she folded her hands in her lap.
“It’ll be okay,” Liz assured, but it felt like a lie coming out of her mouth. She didn’t know when she’d be back, she didn’t know if she could even keep in touch with Maria while she was on the road.
“Well, let me help,” Maria hoisted herself off Liz’s bed and began helping her sort through the bag that Max had already packed for her. Liz was already swapping out sweaters and switching the jeans Max had just tossed in the pile. She was pulling out clothes she hadn’t worn since high school, plain fleeces and button down shirts, non-distinguishing clothes that screamed of normalcy. She knew that was what they needed on the road, to blend. “I think the last time you wore that was the tenth grade when it snowed,” Maria motioned to a sweater set Liz added to the stack of clothes. She couldn’t pack too much onto the back of Max’s little racing bike and she found herself eagerly looking forward to the car they would be buying in the future. It took both her and Maria to zip up the bag and she wondered what Max would think of the considerably larger bag.
“Is it time?” Maria sounded miserably as she watched her friend take one last lingering look at the bedroom. Liz nodded her head, a shimmer of tears she hadn’t expected suddenly blurring her vision. Maria gave her friend a squeeze. “Hey, you and Max on the road! It’s going to be fun,” she pulled her close, “like that dumb Chris O’Donnell movie we watched when we were ten.”
“The one with Drew Barrymore?” Liz sniffled and Maria just nodded her head, “she tried to kill herself at the end, Maria.”
“Well, without that part obviously,” Maria parried Liz’s attempt to be depressing. “The point is it’s romantic and exciting and you should definitely not worry about us back here. Those alien hunters come, I’ll knock ‘em dead,” Maria assured with a smile and a simulated punch and Liz managed a laugh.
“You stay away from them, okay?” Liz poked her friend in the chest protectively. ”Please.”
“You too,” Maria poked her right back. The two stood in front of the door like it was some kind of threshold, a barrier neither of them wanted to cross. “It’s go time?” Maria asked and taking in a deep breath, Liz reached for the door handle.
“Yeah, it’s go time.”
Same Old Life (AU,CC,MATURE) *PART 23* - 5/25/09 (WIP)
Moderators: Anniepoo98, ISLANDGIRL5, truelovepooh, Forum Moderators
Author's Note: Sorry that I've been gone so long and that this is such a small part. I unfortunately haven't had too many creative juices flowing since Jon left and this is all I've written in the last month. I want to thank you all so very much for voting for this story. It was a wonderful honor and a bright spot in what has otherwise been a rough couple of months for me. Thank you all!
There was no crying or hysterics, just a small forlorn crowd gathered on the pavement outside the Crashdown Café and standing silently on the pavement beside Max’s bike. Liz was glad to see that while nobody seemed happy that she was leaving, they didn’t seem angry with her either. They just accepted what had to be.
“Now if I get up to the Maritimes,” Alex looked to Max with a broad grin, “I’ll expect a tour guide.”
“The Timbits will be waiting,” Max affirmed with a nod of his head and an outstretched hand. Alex shook it firmly, then drew Max to him for a brief, but earnest hug.
“It was awesome meeting you,” he sounded so genuine in saying the words Max felt an unexpected pang of sadness at saying goodbye.
“Likewise.” He couldn’t help but think about Isabelle as he hugged the lanky young man and, of all things, a smile actually crossed his face. Nancy Parker gave him an equally embracive hug and promised him there was always a place for him here in Roswell anytime.
“I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful it was having you,” she beamed from ear to ear as she took a step back and looked Max over once more. Smart, grounded, handsome, and painstakingly polite, he was everything a mother hoped a daughter to find. “I only wish you could stay longer.”
“Sometime,” Max tried to offer positively and he could see Maria’s face tighten at the comment. She knew now after their conversation up in Liz’s bedroom that the reality was Liz was likely not going to be returning to Roswell anytime soon. Liz gave her mom a hug goodbye and made a promise she hoped she wouldn’t have to break that she would call from Canada.
Jeff was next in line and he extended his hand to Max and clapped him on the back in one of those man hugs that always made Liz laugh. Her father wasn’t much of a hugger and she smiled at the action.
‘Be safe’ was at first all he could say as he eyed the motorcycle behind them. Then he chanced a few more words to the young man who already felt like family to him. “It was a real pleasure meeting you.”
“For me too,” Max affirmed. “Thank you for - ”
“Lucas, it was our pleasure,” Mr. Parker assured before Max could even finish and Liz couldn’t help but wince at the usage of the alias. She saw Maria too cringe ever so slightly and felt a warmth course through her at the knowledge that at least one person she left behind would know the truth, would know Max.
Liz stepped forward and hugged her dad, wanting to thank him for about a million things – for welcoming Max and accepting so readily what an important part of her life he was, for making him feel so comfortable and not asking too many questions, for answering her own inquiries and though he didn’t know it, helping to piece together a part of Max’s life that otherwise would have probably remained a mystery.
“I love you, dad,” she told her dad, squeezing him tightly. “And I’m sorry I didn’t come home for Christmas.”
“You’re safe and you’re happy, Lizzie,” he stepped back and watched as Liz rejoined her boyfriend by the curb, beaming with pride. His daughter was back. She might not be home in Roswell, but the angry and bitter young woman that had taken hold of her for so long was gone he could see. And it was evident to everybody standing on the curb that it was the young man standing beside her that had brought her back.
“You guys take care of yourselves,” Maria suddenly rushed forward, unable to contain herself any longer. She threw her arms around Liz first and then Max, an action that caught everyone off guard, especially Mr. Parker, who had been witness to her initially cold greeting to the young man. “Please let me know if there’s ever anything I can do,” she whispered to Max. “I’m so sorry I - ” she began to apologize to Max, but he shut her up.
“Don’t. Liz is lucky to have a friend like you,” he insisted, keeping his voice a low murmur so that none of the other bystanders could hear.
“Take care of yourselves,” Maria repeated again, her voice shakier than she expected as she hugged her best friend one last time. The reality of everything began to hit her. The reality she hadn’t quite accepted completely up in Liz’s bedroom. Liz and her oh-so-perfect boyfriend weren’t just going for a sightseeing trip through Canada to visit family, they were going on the run. And when she said goodbye to her friend she had no idea how long it would be for or when she would hear from her again.
“It was great meeting you all,” Max gave a wave to the small crowd and as he climbed onto the bike to start it, he couldn’t help the words that followed because he wanted to believe them more than anything. “I hope I get to see you all again soon.”
Everybody smiled and waved and tried their hardest to be happy to be bidding goodbye to the couple and Liz wondered if they knew just how much she wished she could stay.
“I love you guys,” she waved one last time and the helmet she pulled on muffled the words as they came out of her mouth. “I love you all so much!” she raised her voice so they could hear her now over the din of the motorcycle that suddenly roared to life. They echoed the sentiment and smiled and waved and then they were gone.
They weren’t even out of Chaves County yet before Liz told him to pull over.
“We gotta get out of New Mexico,” he sighed in frustration after stopping the bike on the side of the dusty interstate. And though she knew why he was so eager to get out of the state and leave her hometown behind she couldn’t help herself. A dull ache had settled over her almost as soon as they’d pulled away from the Crashdown, an ache that came with the realization that the friends and family she’d taken for granted for so long she now had to leave behind.
“Tell me we can come back?” she pleaded even though she was all too sure of Max’s answer.
“Liz,” Max’s voice softened as he looked to her red rimmed eyes and realized she’d been crying the whole time out of Roswell.
“Please, tell me we can come back?”
“Of course we can come back,” he managed to smile, despite the fact that it was hardly a lighthearted matter. Every day they came back to Roswell would be just like every day he returned to Sept-Iles Quebec and waited for the ferry from Port Menier. It was dangerous and stupid to keep returning to the same place, but it was a danger he undertook anyway. Family was family and he knew all too well that family was what helped keep him sane. Protecting them was what made this ridiculous life on the road worthwhile, but it was a paradox he had yet to find an answer to. Because every time he stopped he led ‘them’ one step closer to the only people left in the world that mattered to him. “Just not for a while is all,” he gave Liz the only answer he could.
“I didn’t want to say goodbye,” she stated the obvious.
“I know you didn’t,” he sighed.
“Neither did my parents.”
“I know,” Max repeated forlornly. He didn’t want to be a jerk about all this. He wanted more than anything to stop and talk with her, but he wanted to get the hell out of New Mexico and as far away from Roswell as they could first. The last thing he wanted was to lead ‘them’ to Liz’s family because then going back would never again be an option. “I know, but we have to. We have to go, Liz. We have to go now.” And it was Liz’s turn to echo the meek reply that so adequately summed up their resignation about the whole situation.
“I know.”
There was no crying or hysterics, just a small forlorn crowd gathered on the pavement outside the Crashdown Café and standing silently on the pavement beside Max’s bike. Liz was glad to see that while nobody seemed happy that she was leaving, they didn’t seem angry with her either. They just accepted what had to be.
“Now if I get up to the Maritimes,” Alex looked to Max with a broad grin, “I’ll expect a tour guide.”
“The Timbits will be waiting,” Max affirmed with a nod of his head and an outstretched hand. Alex shook it firmly, then drew Max to him for a brief, but earnest hug.
“It was awesome meeting you,” he sounded so genuine in saying the words Max felt an unexpected pang of sadness at saying goodbye.
“Likewise.” He couldn’t help but think about Isabelle as he hugged the lanky young man and, of all things, a smile actually crossed his face. Nancy Parker gave him an equally embracive hug and promised him there was always a place for him here in Roswell anytime.
“I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful it was having you,” she beamed from ear to ear as she took a step back and looked Max over once more. Smart, grounded, handsome, and painstakingly polite, he was everything a mother hoped a daughter to find. “I only wish you could stay longer.”
“Sometime,” Max tried to offer positively and he could see Maria’s face tighten at the comment. She knew now after their conversation up in Liz’s bedroom that the reality was Liz was likely not going to be returning to Roswell anytime soon. Liz gave her mom a hug goodbye and made a promise she hoped she wouldn’t have to break that she would call from Canada.
Jeff was next in line and he extended his hand to Max and clapped him on the back in one of those man hugs that always made Liz laugh. Her father wasn’t much of a hugger and she smiled at the action.
‘Be safe’ was at first all he could say as he eyed the motorcycle behind them. Then he chanced a few more words to the young man who already felt like family to him. “It was a real pleasure meeting you.”
“For me too,” Max affirmed. “Thank you for - ”
“Lucas, it was our pleasure,” Mr. Parker assured before Max could even finish and Liz couldn’t help but wince at the usage of the alias. She saw Maria too cringe ever so slightly and felt a warmth course through her at the knowledge that at least one person she left behind would know the truth, would know Max.
Liz stepped forward and hugged her dad, wanting to thank him for about a million things – for welcoming Max and accepting so readily what an important part of her life he was, for making him feel so comfortable and not asking too many questions, for answering her own inquiries and though he didn’t know it, helping to piece together a part of Max’s life that otherwise would have probably remained a mystery.
“I love you, dad,” she told her dad, squeezing him tightly. “And I’m sorry I didn’t come home for Christmas.”
“You’re safe and you’re happy, Lizzie,” he stepped back and watched as Liz rejoined her boyfriend by the curb, beaming with pride. His daughter was back. She might not be home in Roswell, but the angry and bitter young woman that had taken hold of her for so long was gone he could see. And it was evident to everybody standing on the curb that it was the young man standing beside her that had brought her back.
“You guys take care of yourselves,” Maria suddenly rushed forward, unable to contain herself any longer. She threw her arms around Liz first and then Max, an action that caught everyone off guard, especially Mr. Parker, who had been witness to her initially cold greeting to the young man. “Please let me know if there’s ever anything I can do,” she whispered to Max. “I’m so sorry I - ” she began to apologize to Max, but he shut her up.
“Don’t. Liz is lucky to have a friend like you,” he insisted, keeping his voice a low murmur so that none of the other bystanders could hear.
“Take care of yourselves,” Maria repeated again, her voice shakier than she expected as she hugged her best friend one last time. The reality of everything began to hit her. The reality she hadn’t quite accepted completely up in Liz’s bedroom. Liz and her oh-so-perfect boyfriend weren’t just going for a sightseeing trip through Canada to visit family, they were going on the run. And when she said goodbye to her friend she had no idea how long it would be for or when she would hear from her again.
“It was great meeting you all,” Max gave a wave to the small crowd and as he climbed onto the bike to start it, he couldn’t help the words that followed because he wanted to believe them more than anything. “I hope I get to see you all again soon.”
Everybody smiled and waved and tried their hardest to be happy to be bidding goodbye to the couple and Liz wondered if they knew just how much she wished she could stay.
“I love you guys,” she waved one last time and the helmet she pulled on muffled the words as they came out of her mouth. “I love you all so much!” she raised her voice so they could hear her now over the din of the motorcycle that suddenly roared to life. They echoed the sentiment and smiled and waved and then they were gone.
They weren’t even out of Chaves County yet before Liz told him to pull over.
“We gotta get out of New Mexico,” he sighed in frustration after stopping the bike on the side of the dusty interstate. And though she knew why he was so eager to get out of the state and leave her hometown behind she couldn’t help herself. A dull ache had settled over her almost as soon as they’d pulled away from the Crashdown, an ache that came with the realization that the friends and family she’d taken for granted for so long she now had to leave behind.
“Tell me we can come back?” she pleaded even though she was all too sure of Max’s answer.
“Liz,” Max’s voice softened as he looked to her red rimmed eyes and realized she’d been crying the whole time out of Roswell.
“Please, tell me we can come back?”
“Of course we can come back,” he managed to smile, despite the fact that it was hardly a lighthearted matter. Every day they came back to Roswell would be just like every day he returned to Sept-Iles Quebec and waited for the ferry from Port Menier. It was dangerous and stupid to keep returning to the same place, but it was a danger he undertook anyway. Family was family and he knew all too well that family was what helped keep him sane. Protecting them was what made this ridiculous life on the road worthwhile, but it was a paradox he had yet to find an answer to. Because every time he stopped he led ‘them’ one step closer to the only people left in the world that mattered to him. “Just not for a while is all,” he gave Liz the only answer he could.
“I didn’t want to say goodbye,” she stated the obvious.
“I know you didn’t,” he sighed.
“Neither did my parents.”
“I know,” Max repeated forlornly. He didn’t want to be a jerk about all this. He wanted more than anything to stop and talk with her, but he wanted to get the hell out of New Mexico and as far away from Roswell as they could first. The last thing he wanted was to lead ‘them’ to Liz’s family because then going back would never again be an option. “I know, but we have to. We have to go, Liz. We have to go now.” And it was Liz’s turn to echo the meek reply that so adequately summed up their resignation about the whole situation.
“I know.”
Last edited by kippy on Mon May 25, 2009 6:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"And we that have lived in the story shall be borne again and again..."
Re: Same Old Life (AU,CC,MATURE) *NEW PART* - 3/18/07[WIP]
Author's Note: Oh, my readers...how can I even begin to thank you for hanging with this fic for, my gosh, I think we're approaching a decade. I can vividly remember when I started it in high school. I was heading to a track meet and I remember leaning out the window, looking at the interstate, listening to the song "Same Old Life", and thinking, 'hey, you know what would be a neat story...' Anyway, I'm now 25 and fresh out of grad school, jobless and with way too much time on my hands. I have to say I feel an explanation is needed here for my last most lengthy hiatus, but I'll spare you all the details. To make a long story short, my boyfriend came home after 15 months in Iraq and shortly after, I got to experience my very first heartbreak. 
Needless to say, up until the last few months, I really have just not had the muse to write my favorite couple. But my broken heart is finally on the mend and I really just missed this story too damn much. It has so many places it still needs to go and so much I want to write. It might take me a while to get back into the writing groove (it has been over 2 years since I last wrote a new part), but bear with me. You all are wonderful. Thank you for hanging with this. I hope I don't let you down!!
She gripped him tightly as they flew past familiar New Mexico landmarks: signs for Albuquerque and Portales, advertisements for Carlsbad Caverns and the hottest chili in the Southwest. As they neared the border, Liz tried not to focus on what she was leaving behind, but to fix her thoughts instead on the journey ahead of them. She wouldn’t be sorry to say goodbye to the bike and found herself wondering what kind of car they would get. She had always driven her mom’s sedan in high school and had never had a car to herself before. It excited her at the thought of being on the road for the next week with a car to themselves, one that they could make their own. She’d feel almost normal.
The Texas border flashed by in a blur and Max kicked the bike into a higher gear as they sped towards Amarillo. He was in a hurry like she hadn’t ever seen before. The road sign indicated Amarillo was less than one hundred miles away, which comforted her. Then they would be able to say goodbye to this silence on the bike forever.
She had never been to Amarillo before, but she could tell by the way Max navigated the city that he had. He flipped up his visor at the first stop light they got to and indicated for her to do the same.
“First used car lot you see, let me know,” he shouted over the noise of the traffic flying through the intersection. Liz just nodded her head and looked out on the expansive strip of shopping centers and fast food ahead of them. Liz smiled and pressed her head against his back, giving him a squeeze as the light changed to green and they began cruising through the outskirts of Amarillo. She saw more than a few places she would have liked to stop to eat, but knew that getting rid of the bike was their primary concern. Food would come later.
‘Honest Abe’s Used Car Lot’ beckoned to them from half a block away, the sign stretching high above the expanse of road. Liz’s eyes immediately scanned the parking lot full of cars, eyeing the sad selection of aged vehicles. Max didn’t seem to mind the sorry looking cars as he carefully backed the bike into a parking spot and climbed off.
“Welcome to Honest Abe’s, I’m Abe Giacomo, what can I do for you today?” the proprietor looked much too excited to see customers in his lot as he extended his hand to Max.
“I’m Lucas,” Max shook Abe’s hand and Liz did the same, introducing herself for the first time as Victoria.
“What are you folks looking for today?”
“We want to trade in this bike,” Max stated, hoping that the lack of motorcycles present in this man’s lot wouldn’t deter him.
“Well, son, I don’t really do too much business with motorcycles. Don’t know a darn thing about ‘em,” Abe laughed.
“Here’s all you gotta know. This is a two year old Katana 750, obviously made by Suzuki,” Max motioned to the giant Suzuki logo on the side. “It’s got a retail value of about $6,000, but I’d be willing to trade it in at $4000 ‘cos it’s got so many miles on it.”
“How many miles?” Abe inquired.
“Getting up on $100,000,” Max confessed and Liz saw Mr. Giacomo’s eyes widen.
“Son, what are you doing that’s putting 100,000 miles on a two year old bike?”
“I like to ride,” Max stated simply. “I promise you, it’s still in great shape and can really fly. I’ve gotten all the way up to 150 mph on highway no problem.” Liz’s eyes widened as she wondered what possibly could have been chasing him to make him reach such speeds. Max looked towards Liz then, adding that it seated two comfortably and could even hold a limited amount of luggage. Liz could hardly believe the scene in front of her. Somehow Max had turned into the salesman here. Abe looked like he didn’t know what to think.
“It’s best for highway riding, but you can definitely make good time on back roads. It gets pretty awesome gas mileage, between 45 and 55 miles per gallon,” Max continued to prattle on and on about the bike and Liz had to do everything she could think of to suppress the smile that threatened to cross her face. Abe just scratched his head as Max finished his sales pitch for the Suzuki. “Like I said, $4000.”
“And you want to trade in for what kind of a car?”
“Nothing in particular, just something we can travel cross-country in,” Max shrugged.
“But, I just don’t normally do sales with motorcycles,” Abe continued to murmur over and over, but Liz could see he was considering it. And if Max could play the fast talking salesman so could she.
“You know this shiny thing sure would look great parked right up under your sign there,” she piped in and suggested coyly, leaning back against the bike. “A bike’s got sex appeal, you know,” she continued, toying with her tongue ring, and now it was Max’s turn to suppress a grin. She was turning into the Liz Parker from weeks ago. “You advertise this bike for sale, you’ll get a whole bunch of new….clientele,” she reached out to run her hand along the frame of the bike, carefully exposing the belly ring. “And $4000, well, that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.”
“But I don’t deal in bikes,” Abe maintained.
“Don’t you think it’s time for a change, Abe?” Liz replied coyly. “$4000,” she repeated the price she thought was ridiculously low for such a nice bike. Abe looked around the lot.
“Well, for a trade-in, $4000’s not gonna get you much here, least not what you’re looking for. Most of these cars have a lotta mileage on ‘em anyway and that’s not really what it sounds like you’re looking for.”
“What do you have with less than 100,000?”
“Well,” Abe left the motorcycle and began walking around the lot carefully. “The Geo there,” he pointed to a rusting Geo Prizm in the corner of the lot, “that Chevy Tracker and uh, this old station wagon are about all we’ve got under 100,000 for what you want to trade this in for.”
“What else you got with not a lot of miles?” Max looked around the sorry looking lot. Abe pointed to an old jeep that looked like it had been driven off a cliff, a conversion van that was about five different colors, and a sandy colored pickup truck that looked as if it had been through Desert Storm. “What about that minivan over there?” Max eyed a maroon minivan near the entrance of the lot that appeared in better shape than all the others.
“Yeah, that’s only got about 55,000 on it, but it’s selling for $5000, not a penny less,” Abe crossed his arms. Liz looked to the minivan Max had his eyes on. Of all the vehicles in the parking lot it was hands down the least flashy and most unassuming one there. She wondered if that was exactly why Max had his eye on it.
“So if we traded in the bike at $4000, plus another $1,000, we’d be good?” Max pitched. Abe paused for a moment as a frown crossed over his face. He couldn’t tell if he was being swindled or not. This young man seemed to have an honest way about him.
“Well – I – you see,” he began stuttering over words and a smile flashed across Max’s face at how easy this was going to be. He was already caving.
“That sounds like a pretty good deal for you. We take this old van off your hands and you get a shiny new bike plus $1,000?” Liz chimed in.
“Come on, Abe, I’ll even include the helmets,” Max offered with a grin.
Thirty minutes later, Max and Liz were pulling out of the lot in the maroon minivan and Abe Giacomo had a new used vehicle on display where every passerby could see. Liz wanted to laugh and call Maria and tell her that she and Max would be making their getaway in a Dodge Caravan.
“I can’t believe this is our car!” she laughed deliriously and climbed back to the second row of seats as they rolled east on interstate forty towards Oklahoma City. “I can’t believe of all the cars in that lot that we traded in a motorcycle for a minivan.”
“It was the best looking car in the lot,” Max gave a shrug, “it had the least miles and it’s even got all wheel drive.” He seemed proud of his purchase. Liz continued to chuckle to herself as she climbed around the inside of the van, pulling out cup-holders and compartments in delight. She was ecstatic to discover all the seats in back could fold into the bottom of the van, creating a completely flat surface. “We could fit a whole mattress back here!” she exclaimed.
“Well, if we’re going to be living in our car it might as well be comfortable, right?” Max offered cheerily. Liz murmured something in agreement before letting out a delighted shriek as she discovered the VHS player
“Oh my gosh, we’re stopping at Blockbuster!” she exclaimed.
“I think Abe said that doesn’t really work,” Max was sorry to damper her spirits.
“Can’t you fix it?” Liz inquired, climbing back up to the passenger seat. “You know like…fix it.”
“Can’t say I’ve ever tried,” he confessed.
“I bet you don’t even know the half of what you can do,” Liz leaned her head against the window and looked towards him, her voice a strange combination of admiration and curiosity.
“Probably not,” Max sighed dismissively.
“It’s all about heat,” Liz stated matter-of-factly. “That’s what I decided.”
“What’s about heat?”
“You know…what you can do,” Liz phrased. “I think it’s all about heat.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, you can create heat, that’s why you can do so many things.”
“Okay,” Max chuckled.
“You generate heat and energy and that lets you manipulate the molecular structure of things. That’s how you do stuff.”
“Oh?” Max laughed again at the technical statement, remembering the West Roswell librarian’s fond memories of Elizabeth Parker, the scientist.
“Like electromagnetic radiation,” Liz posited, “that’s how you can heal.”
“How do you know so much about everything?” Max gave her an admiring look and she just gave a playful shrug of the shoulders.
“Well,I was a mathlete back in the day,” she bragged and gave a sultry shake of her shoulders, which just made Max chuckle some more. He was glad he could make her smile after their teary departure from Roswell earlier in the day. The purchase of the minivan seemed to raise her spirits, as did the prospect of the cross-country journey ahead of them. She kept talking about how many CDs she wished she’d brought with her and how they should stop to see the St. Louis Arch and the biggest ball of twine somewhere in Missouri. Today was all about making good time though and getting as far away from New Mexico as they could. Liz understood that. They had already agreed to switch drivers by Oklahoma City and to try to get to Missouri before attempting sleep. It was an ambitious goal that included over fourteen hours of driving into the night.
Liz was genuinely excited at the prospect. It reminded her of the very first time she’d climbed into the truck with him, those first few days of driving in Max’s rig when she had been so afraid to fall asleep with him, unsure of who he was or what he was doing.
“Anything else you’ve figured out about me?” Max teased.
“Believe me, there is a lot the scientist in me would love to know,” Liz confessed with a laugh, but the playful atmosphere vanished suddenly at the mention of the word 'scientist'. Max shifted uneasily in his seat. “I don’t mean…I don’t mean like I want to like conduct experiments on you,” she tried to backpedal.
“I know,” Max nodded his head in understanding, but Liz sensed something more behind his eyes. “It’s just…”
“It’s just there’s people out there that do,” she finished the sentence and the thought sent a chill down her spine. There were people out there, an entire organization of people out there whose life’s purpose was to find and study Max, to poke and prod him like a lab rat. She felt sick to her stomach as she thought about all the horrible sci-fi movies she’d seen growing up in Roswell that ended with an alien being opened up like a frog in biology class.
Echoing what he had promised her in her bedroom back up in Roswell just days ago, she moved her hand across so it rested on his leg. She might not have the physical gifts Max had, the ability to heal and who knows what else, but that didn’t mean she was helpless.
“I’ll never let anything happen to you,” she whispered suddenly to him, lifting the silence that had suddenly filled the van. Max just licked his lips and gave a forced laugh as he looked to her, trying to lighten the mood, hating so much that every time they were having the tiniest bit of fun, the conversation suddenly came back to this. To the dark and serious realities of his life on the road.
“I know,” he just nodded his head and looked her way, but she wondered if the boy who couldn’t say ‘I love you’ really knew the lengths she would go to protect him.
“I will die before I let anybody lay a hand on you.” The words tumbled from her mouth as she fixed her eyes on him. He was as uncomfortable as ever to hear her declaration of love and the only visible response Liz could detect was him reaching up to scratch the side of his face.
“You can drive in a little while if you want.” His voice was a low murmur.
“Max,” her voice sounded in protest to his dismissive reaction. Despite how casually she’d brushed his intimacy issues aside with Maria this morning, it bothered her more than she could begin to say. Not so much for her sake, but for his.
“My back’s starting cramp up a little,” he elaborated.
“Want to pull over, I can rub your back for a bit?” she proposed, but he just shook his head firmly.
“We need to keep driving.”
They kept driving through the night. With Liz behind the wheel, they made Tulsa by 9 PM and were into Missouri before midnight. Signs for St. Louis began to dot the inky night landscape, the green road signs looked eerie in the dark, lit up only by the headlights of the minivan. Liz sensed her plans to wander around the St. Louis arch would have to wait for another vacation through the Midwest. She sensed all Max wanted to do right now was drive and get out of the States as quickly as possible. He stayed awake with her through the night, refusing to rest his eyes even a bit as he sat in the passenger seat, but he said little. In fact, despite how much had been revealed to them both in Roswell, they both said very little for most of the drive. He did eventually suggest pulling over in the small town of St. James, Missouri sometime around 3 AM.
Unwilling to drive around any longer looking for a hotel with vacancy, she simply pulled the van into a vacant and unlit parking lot and quickly stowed the seats away like she’d discovered earlier in the day. They crawled casually into the back like they’d done it a thousand times before. She thought momentarily about the parents she had said goodbye to back in Roswell that morning as Max stretched out and bundled a sweatshirt beneath his head. She wondered what they’d think if they knew they had driven for fourteen hours and were spending the night in a Walmart parking lot. Liz curled towards Max, resting her head in the crook of his arm. “Tomorrow, we’re buying some pillows,” she declared as she moved around trying to get comfortable.
“Okay,” Max agreed, shifting his body also, but keeping his arm around her. “I’m sorry today was so…” his voice trailed off, knowing the day had been less than what Liz had imagined. Bathroom breaks had been minimal and the McDonalds bags and candy wrappers littered in the front of the van showed how often they had stopped to sit down and have a meal.
“It’s okay,” she assured him in the darkness, sliding a hand to his chest as the lights in the van went off, leaving the two in complete darkness.
“Tomorrow will be better,” he promised. “If we push we can probably get to Canada.” No sooner had he said the words than he realized he had just contradicted himself and Liz came to the realization that Max didn’t know how to slow down. He was always pushing to drive as far as he could in a day and trying to put as many miles on the road as he could. “Sorry,” he apologized for the umpteenth time.
“It’s okay,” she assured again, hardly believing how frequently he felt the need to apologize to her. “I think it's a good idea to try to push for Canada,” she agreed. “Besides, I can’t wait to try Timbits.” She snuggled up closer to him and moved in to kiss him once before attempting sleep. “Where are you?” she laughed, trying to find his lips in the darkness of the van. She groped blindly, feeling for his cheeks and his nose.
“I’m right here,” he couldn’t help from laughing at the comical action as her finger poked him in the gums.
“I can’t see anything in here,” she laughed, but the laughter quickly fell away as she felt Max’s hands gripping either side of her face.
“I’m right here,” he said again, his voice slow and serious this time. She had simply wanted to give him a goodnight kiss, but as she slid her own hands to either side of his face, she sensed he suddenly didn’t care much about sleep at all.
As their mouths met and they fell back together in the darkness against the makeshift bed of the van floor, Liz couldn’t help but wonder what exactly had come over Max. He was a guy, she knew he had urges. Despite the lengths he often went to hide them, she could often feel those urges whenever they were together. She could feel it right now between his legs as they rolled around in the dark of the minivan. But despite such urges, he was rarely the one who ever instigated anything physical between them. In more than two weeks spent entirely together, she could count on one hand the number of times he had initiated a kiss with her.
His kisses now were hurried, frenzied even, more like their first few times together than any kiss since. They had been in such a hurry to drive, they’d hardly touched each other all day, and while she loved the urgency behind his actions, as he worked off her bra and toyed with the button of her jeans, she couldn’t help but be confused by the sudden 180.
“Max,” she murmured his name as his mouth worked hungrily at her neck. She craned her head away from his searching mouth. “Max, what happened to not knowing….to being safe?”
“Nothing is safe anymore,” he commented breathlessly and Liz’s mind suddenly jumped back to their conversation in the car today and to their conversation with Maria this morning about the people in pursuit of Max.
Liz suddenly realized that despite the 873 miles they’d put between themselves and Roswell, New Mexico, everything that had taken place there was suddenly crashing down on Max. Not just the people after him, but the memories, the car crash, Diane and Philip Evans, and the tale of abandonment.
“I want to,” his breathing was ragged as he said what Liz had wanted him to since that afternoon in the field in New Pine Creek, Oregon when he’d pushed her hands away. He lowered his mouth to take comfort in her again, but she edged away, knowing this was hardly the way to deal with any of what he was feeling.
“It’s not safe, Max,” she resisted, relying on his typical standby reason for halting things, hardly believing she was assuming the voice of reason here.
“Of course it’s not,” he snorted. “None of this is safe,” he remarked with an unusual devil-may-care attitude. Liz sat up abruptly then at the out-of-character response and reached overhead in an attempt to shed some light. “What are you doing?” he hardly seemed pleased at the reaction.
“Talking about this,” Liz finally found the button and switched it on in a hurry. The sudden light caused both to shield their eyes suddenly. In the darkness of the van, Liz hadn’t been able to see that Max had already removed his shirt and she was surprised to see his bare torso. He had been in quite the hurry.
“Talking about what?” he ran a hand through his hair, seeming more agitated than Liz could ever remember him being. “I just wanted to - ”
“I know what you wanted to do,” Liz buttoned the jeans Max had unworked and straightened out her shirt. “You don’t just get to make love to me and forget that anything happened. We have to talk about things,” she maintained. It was exactly what he had done in Corvallis following his conversation with Matt. He had broken down in her arms and then kissed her and removed all her clothes in record time. Max said nothing in reply and just crossed his arms in frustration. “If you’re upset about something, you need to talk to me, not just…” she eyed the bulge in his pants as her voice trailed off.
“What am I upset about?” his voice had an accusatory tone to it Liz had never heard before and while she was surprised at the hostility behind it, she didn’t retaliate. She knew this was over a decade of pent-up emotion inside Max so she made an effort to refrain from raising her voice when she confronted him.
“About the fact that you could have grown up in Roswell,” she spoke calmly with a shrug of the shoulders. “The fact that you have a horrific memory somewhere inside your head that you cannot make yourself remember. The fact that this morning you met the people who gave you your name and you still can’t make yourself remember them.”
“Well, I don’t remember,” Max shrugged simply, leaning back against the inside of the van.
“How does that make you feel?” Liz queried.
“Jesus Christ, Liz, I don’t need you to be my psychologist!” he growled, throwing up his hands in exasperation and at the denial, Liz sensed that deep down Max knew just how truly messed up he was from all this. He was reacting the way he had last night in Roswell and the frustration was all too evident.
“I’m not trying to be your psychologist,” she offered plainly, still refusing to raise her voice back at him, “I’m just trying to get you to talk about it.”
“Well, I don’t want to talk about it,” he fired back and gave a weary sigh as he reached for his shirt. He jerked it over his head and let out another loud sigh, well aware that what he wanted wasn’t going to happen inside the minivan tonight.
“I know you don’t. We spent all day in the car together and you didn’t say one thing, not about the Evans, not about Roswell, not about anything.”
“Life screwed me,” Max shrugged simply. “Not much more to talk about it.”
“What happened to ‘it’s all about where you end up?’” she echoed his words in the Crashdown this morning after meeting the Evans clan. She knew it had been a façade.
“I lied,” he dismissed, collapsing back to the floor of the van. Liz said nothing at his juvenile behavior, she just stared at him. “Why can’t you just leave it alone?” he sighed.
“ ‘Cos it’s a part of you, Max, don’t you get it?” her voice sounded small. “It’s part of what makes you you…and I love you,” she gave a simple shrug as she said the words.
He didn’t speak for a long time and Liz could see he was trying to gather himself. She had to admit, she was shocked at how quickly his emotions could turn. She had seen a frustrated rage in him just now she couldn’t recall ever seeing in him. She could see the lines in his face softening now though, as the anger passed as quickly as it came.
“All I know,” his voice sounded small and meek as he spoke and he cleared his throat once before he continued. “All I know is that it hurts me to talk about it,” he admitted quietly. “In my head, in my gut…I just – I don’t know what it is, I don't know what happened, but I feel sick when I start to think about it. About the accident.” At the confession, Liz finally laid down next to him then. “His eyes were fixed on the ceiling of the van. “I’m sorry…I know it’s not your fault,” he uttered apology #12 for the day.
“I just want you to be able to talk to me,” she admitted quietly.
“I’m just not used to talking,” he finally admitted after a long pause. “You know, it’s just…”
“I get it,” Liz nodded her head before he could finish. She had picked up in their weeks together that Max was more of the silent type to begin with, but it hadn’t occurred to her until his last confession that for over a year Max hadn’t talked much to anybody at all. He had been all alone on the road since leaving Oregon State. “I’m sorry if I…you know…pushed,” Liz apologized.
“I’m sorry if I pushed,” he echoed, embarrassed at his own sexual urgency moments ago. “I just…everything feels so much…simpler when I’m with you,” he glanced over to her then cast his eyes downward. “It’s like, when I’m kissing you nothing else matters,” he admitted without raising his eyes. “I just felt so bad about…making you leave Roswell and how…rushed everything was today and then...I couldn’t stop thinking about the Evanses and the stupid car crash and Maria and your parents and…the fact that I might have led some really dangerous people to your home," he ran his hands through his hair and let out a deep breath. Liz just stared at him, hardly believing so many things had been rattling around his head all day without him saying a word. “I just want to stop thinking all of it, I want it to go away…I’m sorry.”
“Okay, first off, of all the things to apologize for,” Liz combed the hair he'd ruffled off his forehead delicately, "that is not it. Second, you didn’t make me leave and last…I loved every minute of just being able to be with you today.” She chewed on her lip as she reflected back on the day. It had been hurried, it had been rushed and they hadn’t talked much at all the entire day. But they had been together. “Being able to sit with you and…listen to music with you and talk with you and touch you whenever I want…that’s a good day for me, okay? Know that,” she assured, sliding her hand down to his face.
“I promise you tomorrow we’ll sit down and have a real meal,” he avowed, “and not at Burger King.”
“Hey, I love their French toast sticks,” Liz offered, “I’m easy to please.” The comment managed to make him laugh, an action Liz was grateful to finally see.
“We should probably get to bed, got a lot of driving to do the next couple of days.” He reached overhead to switch off the interior light she had turned on earlier, but he halted suddenly before doing so, knowing there was something more to say. “I’ll try to get better…you know, about talking more.”
Liz smiled at the simple statement and reached up for his face before she lost it in the darkness. She pressed her lips against his gently as he laid back down beside her in the darkness, giving him the goodnight kiss she had initially intended.
“Goodnight, Max,” she murmured into his chest, blissfully thinking about the days ahead with just the two of them. And seeming to echo her thoughts, Max just wrapped an arm around her and uttered the same promise he’d been making all night.
“Tomorrow will be better.”
Needless to say, up until the last few months, I really have just not had the muse to write my favorite couple. But my broken heart is finally on the mend and I really just missed this story too damn much. It has so many places it still needs to go and so much I want to write. It might take me a while to get back into the writing groove (it has been over 2 years since I last wrote a new part), but bear with me. You all are wonderful. Thank you for hanging with this. I hope I don't let you down!!She gripped him tightly as they flew past familiar New Mexico landmarks: signs for Albuquerque and Portales, advertisements for Carlsbad Caverns and the hottest chili in the Southwest. As they neared the border, Liz tried not to focus on what she was leaving behind, but to fix her thoughts instead on the journey ahead of them. She wouldn’t be sorry to say goodbye to the bike and found herself wondering what kind of car they would get. She had always driven her mom’s sedan in high school and had never had a car to herself before. It excited her at the thought of being on the road for the next week with a car to themselves, one that they could make their own. She’d feel almost normal.
The Texas border flashed by in a blur and Max kicked the bike into a higher gear as they sped towards Amarillo. He was in a hurry like she hadn’t ever seen before. The road sign indicated Amarillo was less than one hundred miles away, which comforted her. Then they would be able to say goodbye to this silence on the bike forever.
She had never been to Amarillo before, but she could tell by the way Max navigated the city that he had. He flipped up his visor at the first stop light they got to and indicated for her to do the same.
“First used car lot you see, let me know,” he shouted over the noise of the traffic flying through the intersection. Liz just nodded her head and looked out on the expansive strip of shopping centers and fast food ahead of them. Liz smiled and pressed her head against his back, giving him a squeeze as the light changed to green and they began cruising through the outskirts of Amarillo. She saw more than a few places she would have liked to stop to eat, but knew that getting rid of the bike was their primary concern. Food would come later.
‘Honest Abe’s Used Car Lot’ beckoned to them from half a block away, the sign stretching high above the expanse of road. Liz’s eyes immediately scanned the parking lot full of cars, eyeing the sad selection of aged vehicles. Max didn’t seem to mind the sorry looking cars as he carefully backed the bike into a parking spot and climbed off.
“Welcome to Honest Abe’s, I’m Abe Giacomo, what can I do for you today?” the proprietor looked much too excited to see customers in his lot as he extended his hand to Max.
“I’m Lucas,” Max shook Abe’s hand and Liz did the same, introducing herself for the first time as Victoria.
“What are you folks looking for today?”
“We want to trade in this bike,” Max stated, hoping that the lack of motorcycles present in this man’s lot wouldn’t deter him.
“Well, son, I don’t really do too much business with motorcycles. Don’t know a darn thing about ‘em,” Abe laughed.
“Here’s all you gotta know. This is a two year old Katana 750, obviously made by Suzuki,” Max motioned to the giant Suzuki logo on the side. “It’s got a retail value of about $6,000, but I’d be willing to trade it in at $4000 ‘cos it’s got so many miles on it.”
“How many miles?” Abe inquired.
“Getting up on $100,000,” Max confessed and Liz saw Mr. Giacomo’s eyes widen.
“Son, what are you doing that’s putting 100,000 miles on a two year old bike?”
“I like to ride,” Max stated simply. “I promise you, it’s still in great shape and can really fly. I’ve gotten all the way up to 150 mph on highway no problem.” Liz’s eyes widened as she wondered what possibly could have been chasing him to make him reach such speeds. Max looked towards Liz then, adding that it seated two comfortably and could even hold a limited amount of luggage. Liz could hardly believe the scene in front of her. Somehow Max had turned into the salesman here. Abe looked like he didn’t know what to think.
“It’s best for highway riding, but you can definitely make good time on back roads. It gets pretty awesome gas mileage, between 45 and 55 miles per gallon,” Max continued to prattle on and on about the bike and Liz had to do everything she could think of to suppress the smile that threatened to cross her face. Abe just scratched his head as Max finished his sales pitch for the Suzuki. “Like I said, $4000.”
“And you want to trade in for what kind of a car?”
“Nothing in particular, just something we can travel cross-country in,” Max shrugged.
“But, I just don’t normally do sales with motorcycles,” Abe continued to murmur over and over, but Liz could see he was considering it. And if Max could play the fast talking salesman so could she.
“You know this shiny thing sure would look great parked right up under your sign there,” she piped in and suggested coyly, leaning back against the bike. “A bike’s got sex appeal, you know,” she continued, toying with her tongue ring, and now it was Max’s turn to suppress a grin. She was turning into the Liz Parker from weeks ago. “You advertise this bike for sale, you’ll get a whole bunch of new….clientele,” she reached out to run her hand along the frame of the bike, carefully exposing the belly ring. “And $4000, well, that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.”
“But I don’t deal in bikes,” Abe maintained.
“Don’t you think it’s time for a change, Abe?” Liz replied coyly. “$4000,” she repeated the price she thought was ridiculously low for such a nice bike. Abe looked around the lot.
“Well, for a trade-in, $4000’s not gonna get you much here, least not what you’re looking for. Most of these cars have a lotta mileage on ‘em anyway and that’s not really what it sounds like you’re looking for.”
“What do you have with less than 100,000?”
“Well,” Abe left the motorcycle and began walking around the lot carefully. “The Geo there,” he pointed to a rusting Geo Prizm in the corner of the lot, “that Chevy Tracker and uh, this old station wagon are about all we’ve got under 100,000 for what you want to trade this in for.”
“What else you got with not a lot of miles?” Max looked around the sorry looking lot. Abe pointed to an old jeep that looked like it had been driven off a cliff, a conversion van that was about five different colors, and a sandy colored pickup truck that looked as if it had been through Desert Storm. “What about that minivan over there?” Max eyed a maroon minivan near the entrance of the lot that appeared in better shape than all the others.
“Yeah, that’s only got about 55,000 on it, but it’s selling for $5000, not a penny less,” Abe crossed his arms. Liz looked to the minivan Max had his eyes on. Of all the vehicles in the parking lot it was hands down the least flashy and most unassuming one there. She wondered if that was exactly why Max had his eye on it.
“So if we traded in the bike at $4000, plus another $1,000, we’d be good?” Max pitched. Abe paused for a moment as a frown crossed over his face. He couldn’t tell if he was being swindled or not. This young man seemed to have an honest way about him.
“Well – I – you see,” he began stuttering over words and a smile flashed across Max’s face at how easy this was going to be. He was already caving.
“That sounds like a pretty good deal for you. We take this old van off your hands and you get a shiny new bike plus $1,000?” Liz chimed in.
“Come on, Abe, I’ll even include the helmets,” Max offered with a grin.
Thirty minutes later, Max and Liz were pulling out of the lot in the maroon minivan and Abe Giacomo had a new used vehicle on display where every passerby could see. Liz wanted to laugh and call Maria and tell her that she and Max would be making their getaway in a Dodge Caravan.
“I can’t believe this is our car!” she laughed deliriously and climbed back to the second row of seats as they rolled east on interstate forty towards Oklahoma City. “I can’t believe of all the cars in that lot that we traded in a motorcycle for a minivan.”
“It was the best looking car in the lot,” Max gave a shrug, “it had the least miles and it’s even got all wheel drive.” He seemed proud of his purchase. Liz continued to chuckle to herself as she climbed around the inside of the van, pulling out cup-holders and compartments in delight. She was ecstatic to discover all the seats in back could fold into the bottom of the van, creating a completely flat surface. “We could fit a whole mattress back here!” she exclaimed.
“Well, if we’re going to be living in our car it might as well be comfortable, right?” Max offered cheerily. Liz murmured something in agreement before letting out a delighted shriek as she discovered the VHS player
“Oh my gosh, we’re stopping at Blockbuster!” she exclaimed.
“I think Abe said that doesn’t really work,” Max was sorry to damper her spirits.
“Can’t you fix it?” Liz inquired, climbing back up to the passenger seat. “You know like…fix it.”
“Can’t say I’ve ever tried,” he confessed.
“I bet you don’t even know the half of what you can do,” Liz leaned her head against the window and looked towards him, her voice a strange combination of admiration and curiosity.
“Probably not,” Max sighed dismissively.
“It’s all about heat,” Liz stated matter-of-factly. “That’s what I decided.”
“What’s about heat?”
“You know…what you can do,” Liz phrased. “I think it’s all about heat.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, you can create heat, that’s why you can do so many things.”
“Okay,” Max chuckled.
“You generate heat and energy and that lets you manipulate the molecular structure of things. That’s how you do stuff.”
“Oh?” Max laughed again at the technical statement, remembering the West Roswell librarian’s fond memories of Elizabeth Parker, the scientist.
“Like electromagnetic radiation,” Liz posited, “that’s how you can heal.”
“How do you know so much about everything?” Max gave her an admiring look and she just gave a playful shrug of the shoulders.
“Well,I was a mathlete back in the day,” she bragged and gave a sultry shake of her shoulders, which just made Max chuckle some more. He was glad he could make her smile after their teary departure from Roswell earlier in the day. The purchase of the minivan seemed to raise her spirits, as did the prospect of the cross-country journey ahead of them. She kept talking about how many CDs she wished she’d brought with her and how they should stop to see the St. Louis Arch and the biggest ball of twine somewhere in Missouri. Today was all about making good time though and getting as far away from New Mexico as they could. Liz understood that. They had already agreed to switch drivers by Oklahoma City and to try to get to Missouri before attempting sleep. It was an ambitious goal that included over fourteen hours of driving into the night.
Liz was genuinely excited at the prospect. It reminded her of the very first time she’d climbed into the truck with him, those first few days of driving in Max’s rig when she had been so afraid to fall asleep with him, unsure of who he was or what he was doing.
“Anything else you’ve figured out about me?” Max teased.
“Believe me, there is a lot the scientist in me would love to know,” Liz confessed with a laugh, but the playful atmosphere vanished suddenly at the mention of the word 'scientist'. Max shifted uneasily in his seat. “I don’t mean…I don’t mean like I want to like conduct experiments on you,” she tried to backpedal.
“I know,” Max nodded his head in understanding, but Liz sensed something more behind his eyes. “It’s just…”
“It’s just there’s people out there that do,” she finished the sentence and the thought sent a chill down her spine. There were people out there, an entire organization of people out there whose life’s purpose was to find and study Max, to poke and prod him like a lab rat. She felt sick to her stomach as she thought about all the horrible sci-fi movies she’d seen growing up in Roswell that ended with an alien being opened up like a frog in biology class.
Echoing what he had promised her in her bedroom back up in Roswell just days ago, she moved her hand across so it rested on his leg. She might not have the physical gifts Max had, the ability to heal and who knows what else, but that didn’t mean she was helpless.
“I’ll never let anything happen to you,” she whispered suddenly to him, lifting the silence that had suddenly filled the van. Max just licked his lips and gave a forced laugh as he looked to her, trying to lighten the mood, hating so much that every time they were having the tiniest bit of fun, the conversation suddenly came back to this. To the dark and serious realities of his life on the road.
“I know,” he just nodded his head and looked her way, but she wondered if the boy who couldn’t say ‘I love you’ really knew the lengths she would go to protect him.
“I will die before I let anybody lay a hand on you.” The words tumbled from her mouth as she fixed her eyes on him. He was as uncomfortable as ever to hear her declaration of love and the only visible response Liz could detect was him reaching up to scratch the side of his face.
“You can drive in a little while if you want.” His voice was a low murmur.
“Max,” her voice sounded in protest to his dismissive reaction. Despite how casually she’d brushed his intimacy issues aside with Maria this morning, it bothered her more than she could begin to say. Not so much for her sake, but for his.
“My back’s starting cramp up a little,” he elaborated.
“Want to pull over, I can rub your back for a bit?” she proposed, but he just shook his head firmly.
“We need to keep driving.”
They kept driving through the night. With Liz behind the wheel, they made Tulsa by 9 PM and were into Missouri before midnight. Signs for St. Louis began to dot the inky night landscape, the green road signs looked eerie in the dark, lit up only by the headlights of the minivan. Liz sensed her plans to wander around the St. Louis arch would have to wait for another vacation through the Midwest. She sensed all Max wanted to do right now was drive and get out of the States as quickly as possible. He stayed awake with her through the night, refusing to rest his eyes even a bit as he sat in the passenger seat, but he said little. In fact, despite how much had been revealed to them both in Roswell, they both said very little for most of the drive. He did eventually suggest pulling over in the small town of St. James, Missouri sometime around 3 AM.
Unwilling to drive around any longer looking for a hotel with vacancy, she simply pulled the van into a vacant and unlit parking lot and quickly stowed the seats away like she’d discovered earlier in the day. They crawled casually into the back like they’d done it a thousand times before. She thought momentarily about the parents she had said goodbye to back in Roswell that morning as Max stretched out and bundled a sweatshirt beneath his head. She wondered what they’d think if they knew they had driven for fourteen hours and were spending the night in a Walmart parking lot. Liz curled towards Max, resting her head in the crook of his arm. “Tomorrow, we’re buying some pillows,” she declared as she moved around trying to get comfortable.
“Okay,” Max agreed, shifting his body also, but keeping his arm around her. “I’m sorry today was so…” his voice trailed off, knowing the day had been less than what Liz had imagined. Bathroom breaks had been minimal and the McDonalds bags and candy wrappers littered in the front of the van showed how often they had stopped to sit down and have a meal.
“It’s okay,” she assured him in the darkness, sliding a hand to his chest as the lights in the van went off, leaving the two in complete darkness.
“Tomorrow will be better,” he promised. “If we push we can probably get to Canada.” No sooner had he said the words than he realized he had just contradicted himself and Liz came to the realization that Max didn’t know how to slow down. He was always pushing to drive as far as he could in a day and trying to put as many miles on the road as he could. “Sorry,” he apologized for the umpteenth time.
“It’s okay,” she assured again, hardly believing how frequently he felt the need to apologize to her. “I think it's a good idea to try to push for Canada,” she agreed. “Besides, I can’t wait to try Timbits.” She snuggled up closer to him and moved in to kiss him once before attempting sleep. “Where are you?” she laughed, trying to find his lips in the darkness of the van. She groped blindly, feeling for his cheeks and his nose.
“I’m right here,” he couldn’t help from laughing at the comical action as her finger poked him in the gums.
“I can’t see anything in here,” she laughed, but the laughter quickly fell away as she felt Max’s hands gripping either side of her face.
“I’m right here,” he said again, his voice slow and serious this time. She had simply wanted to give him a goodnight kiss, but as she slid her own hands to either side of his face, she sensed he suddenly didn’t care much about sleep at all.
As their mouths met and they fell back together in the darkness against the makeshift bed of the van floor, Liz couldn’t help but wonder what exactly had come over Max. He was a guy, she knew he had urges. Despite the lengths he often went to hide them, she could often feel those urges whenever they were together. She could feel it right now between his legs as they rolled around in the dark of the minivan. But despite such urges, he was rarely the one who ever instigated anything physical between them. In more than two weeks spent entirely together, she could count on one hand the number of times he had initiated a kiss with her.
His kisses now were hurried, frenzied even, more like their first few times together than any kiss since. They had been in such a hurry to drive, they’d hardly touched each other all day, and while she loved the urgency behind his actions, as he worked off her bra and toyed with the button of her jeans, she couldn’t help but be confused by the sudden 180.
“Max,” she murmured his name as his mouth worked hungrily at her neck. She craned her head away from his searching mouth. “Max, what happened to not knowing….to being safe?”
“Nothing is safe anymore,” he commented breathlessly and Liz’s mind suddenly jumped back to their conversation in the car today and to their conversation with Maria this morning about the people in pursuit of Max.
Liz suddenly realized that despite the 873 miles they’d put between themselves and Roswell, New Mexico, everything that had taken place there was suddenly crashing down on Max. Not just the people after him, but the memories, the car crash, Diane and Philip Evans, and the tale of abandonment.
“I want to,” his breathing was ragged as he said what Liz had wanted him to since that afternoon in the field in New Pine Creek, Oregon when he’d pushed her hands away. He lowered his mouth to take comfort in her again, but she edged away, knowing this was hardly the way to deal with any of what he was feeling.
“It’s not safe, Max,” she resisted, relying on his typical standby reason for halting things, hardly believing she was assuming the voice of reason here.
“Of course it’s not,” he snorted. “None of this is safe,” he remarked with an unusual devil-may-care attitude. Liz sat up abruptly then at the out-of-character response and reached overhead in an attempt to shed some light. “What are you doing?” he hardly seemed pleased at the reaction.
“Talking about this,” Liz finally found the button and switched it on in a hurry. The sudden light caused both to shield their eyes suddenly. In the darkness of the van, Liz hadn’t been able to see that Max had already removed his shirt and she was surprised to see his bare torso. He had been in quite the hurry.
“Talking about what?” he ran a hand through his hair, seeming more agitated than Liz could ever remember him being. “I just wanted to - ”
“I know what you wanted to do,” Liz buttoned the jeans Max had unworked and straightened out her shirt. “You don’t just get to make love to me and forget that anything happened. We have to talk about things,” she maintained. It was exactly what he had done in Corvallis following his conversation with Matt. He had broken down in her arms and then kissed her and removed all her clothes in record time. Max said nothing in reply and just crossed his arms in frustration. “If you’re upset about something, you need to talk to me, not just…” she eyed the bulge in his pants as her voice trailed off.
“What am I upset about?” his voice had an accusatory tone to it Liz had never heard before and while she was surprised at the hostility behind it, she didn’t retaliate. She knew this was over a decade of pent-up emotion inside Max so she made an effort to refrain from raising her voice when she confronted him.
“About the fact that you could have grown up in Roswell,” she spoke calmly with a shrug of the shoulders. “The fact that you have a horrific memory somewhere inside your head that you cannot make yourself remember. The fact that this morning you met the people who gave you your name and you still can’t make yourself remember them.”
“Well, I don’t remember,” Max shrugged simply, leaning back against the inside of the van.
“How does that make you feel?” Liz queried.
“Jesus Christ, Liz, I don’t need you to be my psychologist!” he growled, throwing up his hands in exasperation and at the denial, Liz sensed that deep down Max knew just how truly messed up he was from all this. He was reacting the way he had last night in Roswell and the frustration was all too evident.
“I’m not trying to be your psychologist,” she offered plainly, still refusing to raise her voice back at him, “I’m just trying to get you to talk about it.”
“Well, I don’t want to talk about it,” he fired back and gave a weary sigh as he reached for his shirt. He jerked it over his head and let out another loud sigh, well aware that what he wanted wasn’t going to happen inside the minivan tonight.
“I know you don’t. We spent all day in the car together and you didn’t say one thing, not about the Evans, not about Roswell, not about anything.”
“Life screwed me,” Max shrugged simply. “Not much more to talk about it.”
“What happened to ‘it’s all about where you end up?’” she echoed his words in the Crashdown this morning after meeting the Evans clan. She knew it had been a façade.
“I lied,” he dismissed, collapsing back to the floor of the van. Liz said nothing at his juvenile behavior, she just stared at him. “Why can’t you just leave it alone?” he sighed.
“ ‘Cos it’s a part of you, Max, don’t you get it?” her voice sounded small. “It’s part of what makes you you…and I love you,” she gave a simple shrug as she said the words.
He didn’t speak for a long time and Liz could see he was trying to gather himself. She had to admit, she was shocked at how quickly his emotions could turn. She had seen a frustrated rage in him just now she couldn’t recall ever seeing in him. She could see the lines in his face softening now though, as the anger passed as quickly as it came.
“All I know,” his voice sounded small and meek as he spoke and he cleared his throat once before he continued. “All I know is that it hurts me to talk about it,” he admitted quietly. “In my head, in my gut…I just – I don’t know what it is, I don't know what happened, but I feel sick when I start to think about it. About the accident.” At the confession, Liz finally laid down next to him then. “His eyes were fixed on the ceiling of the van. “I’m sorry…I know it’s not your fault,” he uttered apology #12 for the day.
“I just want you to be able to talk to me,” she admitted quietly.
“I’m just not used to talking,” he finally admitted after a long pause. “You know, it’s just…”
“I get it,” Liz nodded her head before he could finish. She had picked up in their weeks together that Max was more of the silent type to begin with, but it hadn’t occurred to her until his last confession that for over a year Max hadn’t talked much to anybody at all. He had been all alone on the road since leaving Oregon State. “I’m sorry if I…you know…pushed,” Liz apologized.
“I’m sorry if I pushed,” he echoed, embarrassed at his own sexual urgency moments ago. “I just…everything feels so much…simpler when I’m with you,” he glanced over to her then cast his eyes downward. “It’s like, when I’m kissing you nothing else matters,” he admitted without raising his eyes. “I just felt so bad about…making you leave Roswell and how…rushed everything was today and then...I couldn’t stop thinking about the Evanses and the stupid car crash and Maria and your parents and…the fact that I might have led some really dangerous people to your home," he ran his hands through his hair and let out a deep breath. Liz just stared at him, hardly believing so many things had been rattling around his head all day without him saying a word. “I just want to stop thinking all of it, I want it to go away…I’m sorry.”
“Okay, first off, of all the things to apologize for,” Liz combed the hair he'd ruffled off his forehead delicately, "that is not it. Second, you didn’t make me leave and last…I loved every minute of just being able to be with you today.” She chewed on her lip as she reflected back on the day. It had been hurried, it had been rushed and they hadn’t talked much at all the entire day. But they had been together. “Being able to sit with you and…listen to music with you and talk with you and touch you whenever I want…that’s a good day for me, okay? Know that,” she assured, sliding her hand down to his face.
“I promise you tomorrow we’ll sit down and have a real meal,” he avowed, “and not at Burger King.”
“Hey, I love their French toast sticks,” Liz offered, “I’m easy to please.” The comment managed to make him laugh, an action Liz was grateful to finally see.
“We should probably get to bed, got a lot of driving to do the next couple of days.” He reached overhead to switch off the interior light she had turned on earlier, but he halted suddenly before doing so, knowing there was something more to say. “I’ll try to get better…you know, about talking more.”
Liz smiled at the simple statement and reached up for his face before she lost it in the darkness. She pressed her lips against his gently as he laid back down beside her in the darkness, giving him the goodnight kiss she had initially intended.
“Goodnight, Max,” she murmured into his chest, blissfully thinking about the days ahead with just the two of them. And seeming to echo her thoughts, Max just wrapped an arm around her and uttered the same promise he’d been making all night.
“Tomorrow will be better.”
"And we that have lived in the story shall be borne again and again..."
Re: Same Old Life (AU,CC,MATURE) *PART 24* - 6/10/10
Author's Note: Bet you never thought you'd hear from me again? I do apologize for my sudden return and then abrupt disappearance last year. I had every intention of having a lazy summer where I could write more, but shortly after I posted the last update I got a teaching job and my life got crazy. However, I have a beautiful 8 weeks ahead of me with (almost) nothing to do but relax in California. So I'm (hopefully) back until August. I want to thank those that left feedback to my last update.
Dreamon, extingman, begonia 9580, clueless, MP, Araxie HRH, twilight, Jason’s Lover, DaleStateShorty, Michelle in Yonkers, AJK001 – new readers and old readers alike, I thank you so much for the wonderful words you left me!
I cannot believe this story has taken me almost TEN YEARS to write (seriously, ten years!). I've had the whole thing mapped out forever and really *want* to write it, I just never can seem to sit down and finish it. I probably would have given up on finishing it a long time ago if it weren't for you. So pat yourselves on the back. YOU are what has kept this fic going. Hope this update isn't too boring for y'all. It's not much, but it's something!
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Liz’s head spun as she lay there and attempted sleep inside the van. Rain had started to fall and the loud tinny sound of the drops plinking on the roof echoed throughout the interior. She wondered how Max was able to sleep so soundly through it. She kept a hand on his chest as she rested, comforted by the normal rise and fall that came with each intake of breath. She couldn’t deny that the scientist in her wanted to know more about him and what made him different.
It had dawned on her today, in their hurried day of driving, that the people who were hunting down Max would probably want to study her just as much as they wanted to study Max. She’d been with him how many times now, three? And she recalled all too well the sharp pain that had taken hold of her after their first night together, the only night they’d failed to use any protection. Max had mentioned it in Roswell and she knew, despite how quick she had been to dismiss it, that he hadn’t forgotten it either. The more she thought about it, the more the memory disturbed her. That hadn’t been a simple bellyache. It had been a sharp and violent pain. As they’d driven along today in silence and Liz’s mind had wandered, thinking about the heat Max could create and all that made him different, she had convinced herself that there was nothing human about the morning episode at all. She had, in fact, decided that there only were two things that could have caused it and neither helped her sleep.
She decided one option, which was the most likely cause of the pain, was her body simply reacting violently to a very foreign substance inside of it. She had never heard of such a thing occurring before, but found it perfectly plausible that Max’s semen could cause a chemical reaction inside her. The mere fact that something from Max could cause such a painful reaction was beyond disturbing. It reminded her, as she lay there against him, feeling his heart beat and his chest rise and fall, that he wasn’t like her. Despite the all too human story of being found by the Evans, of their rescue in the desert, and the car ride, and the Chef Boyardee, there was another part of his story they had hardly talked about. The part of the story where he hadn’t even been born, but had hatched out of an incubator. Liz snuggled closer to Max as she wondered what that could possibly have felt like.
He had said they knew how to walk and talk like any six year old, but she wondered how it possibly could have felt to crawl out of an incubator and be all alone in the world. Had he known what he was? She wondered what it was like to hatch first and be all alone in the world. God, the word hatched alone made her cringe. It was so unnatural, so…alien.
The rain continued to fall, but a bit of light started to peek through the windows of the van. Liz groaned at the realization that it was practically morning and she hadn’t had any sleep. Every time she tried, her mind drifted back to that painful morning in the hotel. To the other option she refused to accept, but couldn’t stop herself from considering.
She was no stranger to pregnancy tests or the morning after pill. Even though she was almost always safe, her reckless life at NYU caused its fair share of scares. The fear that gripped her now was different from any time before. The stakes were greater here, slightly more terrifying than the thought of simply carrying some frat boy’s baby. Whenever that had happened, she’d hardly even given a thought to actually having the baby. Part of the fear that gripped her tonight was that with Max, not having it was the option that was unacceptable. She looked to his face, softly alight in the morning sun. He’d be a good dad. Intimacy issues aside, she knew he would be a loving father.
No sooner had she thought it then she wiped her hand with her face, like she was trying to wipe the thoughts away. The fact that she was even considering Max’s potential as a father made her head hurt. It didn’t even factor in all the insanity of dealing with a possible alien pregnancy. Did the normal rules and warning signs even apply? Could she go to a normal doctor? What was the gestation period for an alien pregnancy? How would they ever deal with it when they were always on the run? The thoughts made the pulsing in her temples even worse. Was this just her overactive imagination? Could she really get pregnant so soon after their coupling? That pain had hit her no more than ten hours after they had been together. It didn’t even seem medically possibly. Could she really have felt it that fast? She lowered her hand to her abdomen. And why hadn’t she felt any discomfort since? Because you’re not pregnant, a voice insider her head spoke rationally. She tossed and turned as the thoughts continued to tumble around her head.
Considering her restless movements throughout the rest of the morning, Max slept surprisingly well beside her. She lay next to him, feigning sleep and waiting for any sign that he was awake. She realized as light continued to stream into the van that only about six hours had passed since they bedded down for the night. It was hardly the full night’s sleep they would both need for another day of driving, but she knew that Max would want to leave the parking lot before it began to fill up. She finally contemplated waking him herself, but before she could shake him, he turned over to greet her with a shy and sleepy smile.
“Morning,” he offered and Liz could detect a bit of embarrassment behind his eyes at his behavior last night.
“Morning, you,” she reached out and poked a finger into his chest. She doubted she’d ever get tired of waking up next to him, no matter where they were sleeping.
“What time is it?” he groaned sleepily as he stretched his arms up over his head.
“Time for Walmart to open,” she hinted and at the words Max immediately rose up and began gathering himself.
“We alright?” he looked out the windows worriedly to scan the parking lot, knowing the last thing they needed was being discovered by a disgruntled store manager.
“I think we’re fine,” Liz rifled through her bag and pulled out a fresh set of clothes for the day. “But maybe we could go shopping when it opens?” she suggested as she struggled to wriggle into a new pair of jeans in the confines of the van. Max looked surprised at the suggestion, but he smiled after a beat, seeming to remember his promise last night.
“Sure,” he followed Liz’s model and began changing into new clothes.
“We’ll get some food for the road, maybe take you clothes shopping too,” she laughed at the dirty black shirt he pulled on as he climbed into the front of the van. Liz followed suit and crawled into the front, leaving the seats down and the back of the van a mess. “Also, I uh…” she licked her lips and took in a deep breath before voicing the concern that had kept her up all night, “I want to buy a pregnancy test.”
As expected, the words hung in the air a beat. Liz said nothing, but simply looked to him curiously and awaited his reaction. He stared at her for a beat, then looked down at the gas pedals, then back up to her.
“Why?” his voice sounded plainly.
“I think you know why,” Liz’s voice wasn’t much more than a whisper.
“You really think…” his voice drifted off and his mouth grew dry as he couldn’t even finish the phrase. “You don’t think that morning at the hotel was just….a reaction or something?” He swallowed loudly, and Liz had to laugh at the fact that, despite not mentioning it once in the past two weeks, neither of them had forgotten the strange incident.
“I think that’s probably what it was,” she nodded her head in agreement to which Max gave a grateful sigh. “But I also have to know. I mean…” It was her turn to stammer over words. “That obviously changes everything.”
Max let a loud breath out through his nose. They already had so much to deal with. If last night’s argument had been about anything it had been about that. Layer after layer of something new, one more unexplained mystery, kept piling up on top of them. Everywhere they went, it seemed there was something more to deal with. And all he wanted was to get lost on the road with her.
“Max?” she called his name, unsure of what to make of his expression. He looked exhausted.
“We were safe most of the time,” he signed wearily, knowing full well that was hardly a solid argument.
“Yeah, but we don’t even know if condoms work with you,” she raised yet another issue that had plagued her sleep last night.
“We don’t know if pregnancy tests will work either,” he looked to her helplessly. He had thought about this all before, ever since that morning. He ignored it for a long time because she had seemed to, but deep down the episode plagued him. He thought it was just her body’s way of rejecting him, which was hardly a pleasing possibility, but it was certainly better than the alternative. He hadn’t seriously entertained the thought of a pregnancy simply because Liz hadn’t seemed to either.
“It might not,” she admitted, knowing full well that their answers couldn’t be found at the local library. Their life together was just one ongoing experiment, uncharted waters she knew the people after them would love to be documenting. “But the way pregnancy tests work…” she let out a loud sigh as she ran her hands through her hair. “I can’t be pregnant without this hormone, the hormone that the test will pick up. There’s no way that…even if we…“ she chewed on her bottom lip and forced herself to get the words out, “even if we…conceived,” she chose her words carefully.
“Conceived…” Max seemed to be struggling with it too.
“If there’s no HGC, if the test shows there’s no hormone,” Liz continued, “there is no….baby.”
“…baby…” he murmured.
“ ‘Cos without the hormone it means it hasn’t …y’know,” she shifted in the passenger seat uncomfortably, “implanted,”
“How do you know all this?” Max looked to her in disbelief.
“Former science nerd, remember?” Liz managed a laugh.
“So that’s how pregnancy tests work in a normal pregnancy, but how do we know…”
“We don’t,” she admitted with a shrug. “I mean, we don’t ‘cos we don’t really know anything about you.” He cast his eyes downward at her words, but she just reached for his hand. “And that’s okay,” she assured suddenly. “But I know what I know about my body and taking the test will give me some peace of mind.” She remembered suddenly how much science used to comfort her. How much she loved being able to figure out all the incredible mysteries of the world with science. How there was an answer to everything. She knew that despite the scientific argument she had formulated to assure her during the night, there were hardly any proven facts when it came to Max. There were still so many mysteries that would surround them. Their life would just be one huge experiment. She didn’t know if pregnancy tests worked with him or not, but they would find out one way or another. And they would deal with whatever consequences came their way.
Max seemed to be turning over the same notions in his head. He couldn’t argue with her scientific reasoning as he lacked any real knowledge on the matter. All he knew was that they’d had sex and within a few hours the next morning she had been in very brief, momentary pain. It could be a million things. It could be completely unrelated to him. But the more they both ignored the possibility, the more it ate away at them.
“Okay,” he took in a deep breath and gave a positive nod of the head. He reached for his wallet and unlocked the door. “Let’s go get some peace of mind.”
Dreamon, extingman, begonia 9580, clueless, MP, Araxie HRH, twilight, Jason’s Lover, DaleStateShorty, Michelle in Yonkers, AJK001 – new readers and old readers alike, I thank you so much for the wonderful words you left me!
I cannot believe this story has taken me almost TEN YEARS to write (seriously, ten years!). I've had the whole thing mapped out forever and really *want* to write it, I just never can seem to sit down and finish it. I probably would have given up on finishing it a long time ago if it weren't for you. So pat yourselves on the back. YOU are what has kept this fic going. Hope this update isn't too boring for y'all. It's not much, but it's something!
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Liz’s head spun as she lay there and attempted sleep inside the van. Rain had started to fall and the loud tinny sound of the drops plinking on the roof echoed throughout the interior. She wondered how Max was able to sleep so soundly through it. She kept a hand on his chest as she rested, comforted by the normal rise and fall that came with each intake of breath. She couldn’t deny that the scientist in her wanted to know more about him and what made him different.
It had dawned on her today, in their hurried day of driving, that the people who were hunting down Max would probably want to study her just as much as they wanted to study Max. She’d been with him how many times now, three? And she recalled all too well the sharp pain that had taken hold of her after their first night together, the only night they’d failed to use any protection. Max had mentioned it in Roswell and she knew, despite how quick she had been to dismiss it, that he hadn’t forgotten it either. The more she thought about it, the more the memory disturbed her. That hadn’t been a simple bellyache. It had been a sharp and violent pain. As they’d driven along today in silence and Liz’s mind had wandered, thinking about the heat Max could create and all that made him different, she had convinced herself that there was nothing human about the morning episode at all. She had, in fact, decided that there only were two things that could have caused it and neither helped her sleep.
She decided one option, which was the most likely cause of the pain, was her body simply reacting violently to a very foreign substance inside of it. She had never heard of such a thing occurring before, but found it perfectly plausible that Max’s semen could cause a chemical reaction inside her. The mere fact that something from Max could cause such a painful reaction was beyond disturbing. It reminded her, as she lay there against him, feeling his heart beat and his chest rise and fall, that he wasn’t like her. Despite the all too human story of being found by the Evans, of their rescue in the desert, and the car ride, and the Chef Boyardee, there was another part of his story they had hardly talked about. The part of the story where he hadn’t even been born, but had hatched out of an incubator. Liz snuggled closer to Max as she wondered what that could possibly have felt like.
He had said they knew how to walk and talk like any six year old, but she wondered how it possibly could have felt to crawl out of an incubator and be all alone in the world. Had he known what he was? She wondered what it was like to hatch first and be all alone in the world. God, the word hatched alone made her cringe. It was so unnatural, so…alien.
The rain continued to fall, but a bit of light started to peek through the windows of the van. Liz groaned at the realization that it was practically morning and she hadn’t had any sleep. Every time she tried, her mind drifted back to that painful morning in the hotel. To the other option she refused to accept, but couldn’t stop herself from considering.
She was no stranger to pregnancy tests or the morning after pill. Even though she was almost always safe, her reckless life at NYU caused its fair share of scares. The fear that gripped her now was different from any time before. The stakes were greater here, slightly more terrifying than the thought of simply carrying some frat boy’s baby. Whenever that had happened, she’d hardly even given a thought to actually having the baby. Part of the fear that gripped her tonight was that with Max, not having it was the option that was unacceptable. She looked to his face, softly alight in the morning sun. He’d be a good dad. Intimacy issues aside, she knew he would be a loving father.
No sooner had she thought it then she wiped her hand with her face, like she was trying to wipe the thoughts away. The fact that she was even considering Max’s potential as a father made her head hurt. It didn’t even factor in all the insanity of dealing with a possible alien pregnancy. Did the normal rules and warning signs even apply? Could she go to a normal doctor? What was the gestation period for an alien pregnancy? How would they ever deal with it when they were always on the run? The thoughts made the pulsing in her temples even worse. Was this just her overactive imagination? Could she really get pregnant so soon after their coupling? That pain had hit her no more than ten hours after they had been together. It didn’t even seem medically possibly. Could she really have felt it that fast? She lowered her hand to her abdomen. And why hadn’t she felt any discomfort since? Because you’re not pregnant, a voice insider her head spoke rationally. She tossed and turned as the thoughts continued to tumble around her head.
Considering her restless movements throughout the rest of the morning, Max slept surprisingly well beside her. She lay next to him, feigning sleep and waiting for any sign that he was awake. She realized as light continued to stream into the van that only about six hours had passed since they bedded down for the night. It was hardly the full night’s sleep they would both need for another day of driving, but she knew that Max would want to leave the parking lot before it began to fill up. She finally contemplated waking him herself, but before she could shake him, he turned over to greet her with a shy and sleepy smile.
“Morning,” he offered and Liz could detect a bit of embarrassment behind his eyes at his behavior last night.
“Morning, you,” she reached out and poked a finger into his chest. She doubted she’d ever get tired of waking up next to him, no matter where they were sleeping.
“What time is it?” he groaned sleepily as he stretched his arms up over his head.
“Time for Walmart to open,” she hinted and at the words Max immediately rose up and began gathering himself.
“We alright?” he looked out the windows worriedly to scan the parking lot, knowing the last thing they needed was being discovered by a disgruntled store manager.
“I think we’re fine,” Liz rifled through her bag and pulled out a fresh set of clothes for the day. “But maybe we could go shopping when it opens?” she suggested as she struggled to wriggle into a new pair of jeans in the confines of the van. Max looked surprised at the suggestion, but he smiled after a beat, seeming to remember his promise last night.
“Sure,” he followed Liz’s model and began changing into new clothes.
“We’ll get some food for the road, maybe take you clothes shopping too,” she laughed at the dirty black shirt he pulled on as he climbed into the front of the van. Liz followed suit and crawled into the front, leaving the seats down and the back of the van a mess. “Also, I uh…” she licked her lips and took in a deep breath before voicing the concern that had kept her up all night, “I want to buy a pregnancy test.”
As expected, the words hung in the air a beat. Liz said nothing, but simply looked to him curiously and awaited his reaction. He stared at her for a beat, then looked down at the gas pedals, then back up to her.
“Why?” his voice sounded plainly.
“I think you know why,” Liz’s voice wasn’t much more than a whisper.
“You really think…” his voice drifted off and his mouth grew dry as he couldn’t even finish the phrase. “You don’t think that morning at the hotel was just….a reaction or something?” He swallowed loudly, and Liz had to laugh at the fact that, despite not mentioning it once in the past two weeks, neither of them had forgotten the strange incident.
“I think that’s probably what it was,” she nodded her head in agreement to which Max gave a grateful sigh. “But I also have to know. I mean…” It was her turn to stammer over words. “That obviously changes everything.”
Max let a loud breath out through his nose. They already had so much to deal with. If last night’s argument had been about anything it had been about that. Layer after layer of something new, one more unexplained mystery, kept piling up on top of them. Everywhere they went, it seemed there was something more to deal with. And all he wanted was to get lost on the road with her.
“Max?” she called his name, unsure of what to make of his expression. He looked exhausted.
“We were safe most of the time,” he signed wearily, knowing full well that was hardly a solid argument.
“Yeah, but we don’t even know if condoms work with you,” she raised yet another issue that had plagued her sleep last night.
“We don’t know if pregnancy tests will work either,” he looked to her helplessly. He had thought about this all before, ever since that morning. He ignored it for a long time because she had seemed to, but deep down the episode plagued him. He thought it was just her body’s way of rejecting him, which was hardly a pleasing possibility, but it was certainly better than the alternative. He hadn’t seriously entertained the thought of a pregnancy simply because Liz hadn’t seemed to either.
“It might not,” she admitted, knowing full well that their answers couldn’t be found at the local library. Their life together was just one ongoing experiment, uncharted waters she knew the people after them would love to be documenting. “But the way pregnancy tests work…” she let out a loud sigh as she ran her hands through her hair. “I can’t be pregnant without this hormone, the hormone that the test will pick up. There’s no way that…even if we…“ she chewed on her bottom lip and forced herself to get the words out, “even if we…conceived,” she chose her words carefully.
“Conceived…” Max seemed to be struggling with it too.
“If there’s no HGC, if the test shows there’s no hormone,” Liz continued, “there is no….baby.”
“…baby…” he murmured.
“ ‘Cos without the hormone it means it hasn’t …y’know,” she shifted in the passenger seat uncomfortably, “implanted,”
“How do you know all this?” Max looked to her in disbelief.
“Former science nerd, remember?” Liz managed a laugh.
“So that’s how pregnancy tests work in a normal pregnancy, but how do we know…”
“We don’t,” she admitted with a shrug. “I mean, we don’t ‘cos we don’t really know anything about you.” He cast his eyes downward at her words, but she just reached for his hand. “And that’s okay,” she assured suddenly. “But I know what I know about my body and taking the test will give me some peace of mind.” She remembered suddenly how much science used to comfort her. How much she loved being able to figure out all the incredible mysteries of the world with science. How there was an answer to everything. She knew that despite the scientific argument she had formulated to assure her during the night, there were hardly any proven facts when it came to Max. There were still so many mysteries that would surround them. Their life would just be one huge experiment. She didn’t know if pregnancy tests worked with him or not, but they would find out one way or another. And they would deal with whatever consequences came their way.
Max seemed to be turning over the same notions in his head. He couldn’t argue with her scientific reasoning as he lacked any real knowledge on the matter. All he knew was that they’d had sex and within a few hours the next morning she had been in very brief, momentary pain. It could be a million things. It could be completely unrelated to him. But the more they both ignored the possibility, the more it ate away at them.
“Okay,” he took in a deep breath and gave a positive nod of the head. He reached for his wallet and unlocked the door. “Let’s go get some peace of mind.”
Last edited by kippy on Thu Jun 10, 2010 6:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"And we that have lived in the story shall be borne again and again..."