Roswelllostcause - Max's dad inside Liz's mind? Yeah, not a good thing. But - take a deep breath and - read the next chapter
Thank you for the feedback!
Ashley (Morning Dreamgirl)
Right now I want to jump through the screen and smack Philip. Liz could have been an ally instead of him turning her into an enemy. A little hypocritical really.
Yes (I agree), yes (she would be a valuable asset) and yes (very).
I'm going to remember the chocolate trick.
Chocolate always works. Even imaginary chocolate
I've read this more times than I should probably admit to.
Oh, I'm so happy to hear this. Read it as many times as you want, I won't mind
As of now I'm holding you to the "good stuff" you promised was coming soon on chapter twenty-two. Of course your definition of good stuff and mine might be completely different.
I thiiiink my definition of "good stuff" is slightly different from yours. Based on your example of "good stuff"
So I'm curious as to why Dr. Evans didn't just drag Liz upstairs and show her what happened to Max and forcibly remove her memories. Instead he attempts to play nice even when he obviously has very strong opinions on the relationship between Liz and his son (or rather the lack there of, if we're being technical).
Yes, why didn't he? Maybe he was trying to figure out the situation. Maybe he wasn't really sure where he had Liz and what her relationship to Max
really is (because last time Mr. Evans met Liz, she vehemently told him of her disgust of Max's stalking tendencies and asked him to keep his son away from her, and now she's showing up outside of their house). Maybe glances/interactions etc. throughout the dinner between our dreamer couple gave him clues to what to think of the whole thing. Or maybe Mr. Evans is just playing cat and mouse, instead of cutting right to the chase.
My other question (well, one of many really) is why he wants to keep his son away from her at all. If her mother was special and she is special (and he obviously took his son along during his night visits, etc.) I can't imagine why he wants Max to stay so far away from her.
There
is a reason. And believe it or not, the answers are not that far away now.
And what was up with Diane and Isabel? I mean why are they playing nice to Liz all of a sudden? They've rarely been openly hostile but it was still felt out of character for them to be so friendly and neighborly (as Liz called it) when they hadn't acted like that previously. Of course their interactions with Liz were usually during high stress times so who knows what their actual personalities are like.
Every other time Liz has met Isabel (because she has only really met Mrs. Evans when she dropped off injured Max a couple of weeks back) - at school, at occasional odd parties - Isabel has been in her element. She knows her role and what to do; how to act. But Isabel (as well as Mrs. Evans) were probably a bit thrown by Liz's visit. And maybe even a bit thrown by the fact that Mr. Evans gladly would invite Liz for dinner even when they all knew this would mean that Liz would see an injured Max. Maybe they couldn't understand Mr. Evans' actions in this setting and hence decided to soften the blow, do some damage control beforehand, and try and make Liz as comfortable as possible so that she wouldn't run out the door screaming 'Monsters' at the top of her lungs.
If this keeps up though I'm pretty sure it's not Max who is going to need healing but rather whoever Liz can get her hands on.
Loving this comment
The one thing that throws me off is the sentence you have about why "we" keep finding her in these "odd situations". Who is "we" and why are the situations considered odd?
Okay, let me clarify this. Mr. Evans' reference to "odd" in this case are to things that doesn't add up. Things Mr. Evans can't explain and circumstances which shouldn't have happened or been a problem in his well-structure world, i.e. Liz seeing Max healing Isabel, Liz just showing up as her house was burning up with her mom inside (which was a coincidence, I promise you - but just see it from Mr. Evans' side instead; it looks "suspicious/odd"), Liz dragging home an injured Max that she happened to find on the side of the road, Liz lying on Max's bed early in the morning (when he healed her)...
And "we" - well, that's everyone on Liz's list (and your list of people to drag off to the desert too, I presume...)
Thank you so so much for all the hypotheses and reflections
L-J-L 76
Wow it seems like Isabel, Mrs. Evans are afraid of Mr. Evans.
That's one way to look at it. It could also be that they were a bit surprised by Liz's visit and were looking to Mr. Evans for guidance... (translating into timidness)
Will Liz fight to keep her memories?
She most likely would if she could.
Thank you for the feedback and the bump
AlysLuv
I'm getting tired of Liz acting so weak and broken. I mean I know she's broken, her mom was murdered. ...I'm so angry right now lol don't mind me...
I think Liz is as tough as she possibly can be in a situation where she believes that she's amongst aliens (and whose powers she has sort of witnessed) - alone - in front of a man that is extremely intimidating. But yes, I understand your frustration and anger and it's easy to just wish that Liz would get some powers of her own and shot Mr. Evans into the next month with laser beams shooting out of her eyes or something.
And like you mentioned yourself; there's been a lot of messing around with her and her mind lately. It's taking its toll on her to remain strong... Thank you so much for the emotion
and the feedback!
Eve (begonia9508)
But Max saying 'adieu' to Liz, because his father was going to erase her memories, it doesn't mean that she won't remember because we all know that they tried once and she still remembered!
Well, not completely true. Liz only remembered Max healing Isabel because she had been so drunk that she'd suffered momentary memory black outs. When Max noticed that her memory of the event was coming back, he
then altered her memory and those memories have not resurfaced yet.
However, there is a large possibility that a memory erasing process won't work every time on Liz.
Thank you for the feedback!
Carolyn (keepsmiling7) - Liz's sneaking around days are really over
Thank you for the feedback!
Alien_Friend
But wait if Sean can't use his powers on Liz maybe Philip can't either.
Aaaah... hold onto that thought.
I love the moments when Max is there for her and she's not sure how. I want more those beautiful moments.
Thank you <3
This gets better and better.I am surprised Max hasn't kissed Liz. I thought he was about to a second there.
No, Max is staying away.
Great to hear that you're feeling better and I hope it's still moving in that direction. Thank you so much for the feedback!
From TWENTY-THREE:
“What will he do?” I asked thinly.
Max turned serious. “He’s going to look through your mind. Your memory. And then he’ll remove the ones that are connected to me - the atypical memories concerning me.”
No. No. I shook my head. I didn’t want him to remove them. He was going to make me forget? Everything that I’ve learnt? I would go back to thinking that mom’s death had been an accident? That Sean Carter was harmless?
That Max Evans was an arrogant jock?
“Don’t let him,” I repeated.
The pad of his thumb repeatedly brushed against my cheek. “Thank you for these last couple of weeks.”
____________________________________
TWENTY-FOUR
More tears were rolling down my face now. A waterfall of involuntary goodbyes.
He broke my heart as he leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. My hands circled around his wrists, not wanting him to let go.
I couldn’t forget him. Not now.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Mr. Evans said and added succinctly, “Maxwell, you can always rekindle things with her later. Just
without all the extra details.”
“Sure,” Max said tightly and took a step back, letting his hands fall away from my face.
I let my hands fall away from his wrists, closed my eyes, and stepped backwards until my back was molded with the wall.
I felt his presence loom over me as Mr. Evans came to stand in front of me.
“Ms. Parker. I need you to open your eyes.”
Of course. He needed to look me in the eyes. I shivered. I didn’t want anyone else to do that except for Max.
I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.
With Mr. Evans, there was no warming-up. No slow fall into his eyes. I felt him in my head the second my eyes opened; the connection instantaneous.
This obviously wasn’t Mr. Evans’ first time.
It didn’t hurt. Wasn’t even unpleasant. I could just feel that he was in my mind. But there were no visions. I didn’t access any memories from Mr. Evans’ head.
Thank God.
But I could tell that the act took energy. Maybe more than Mr. Evans’ himself had anticipated. He was growing increasingly bothered, his face showing a marked strain and sweat droplets running down his temples.
With a groan, he pushed backwards, releasing me.
“Dad?” Max asked worriedly, shooting me a quick glance before looking to his dad for guidance.
I still remembered.
I still remembered.
“You okay?” Max asked his father, who was running his hands through his hair.
Max wasn’t looking at me.
He thinks I don’t remember.
Mr. Evans looked at me, straightening, his face hardening for a second before he, “Pardon me for asking a personal question, Ms. Parker,” his empty face changing eerily to one of the polite doctor. “Have you had sex with my son?”
I felt Max’s shock reverberate through my system along with my own. At least, I
thought I could feel the shock in his body as clearly as it was written across his face as he whipped his head towards me.
Mortification and embarrassment quickly followed in the footsteps of the shock and I defensively wrapped my arms around my body.
“No, she hasn’t,” Max answered in my place, shock giving way to confusion. I noticed the redness to his face and how he no longer could look me in the eye.
“That
is a very personal question,” I rasped. “And none of your business, I might add.”
Max frowned at me, probably wondering why I was making it sound like we actually
had been intimate with each other. Well, we had. Not just in the way Mr. Evans’ was implying.
I flushed at the memory of Max’s hands running across my body intimately, removing my pain.
“Oh, Ms. Parker,” Mr. Evans said with a chuckle. “You’ve always been a strong-willed spirit.”
I flashed to Max’s memory of him and his father visiting me in my bedroom, taking blood samples from me when I was a young girl.
“If you haven’t had intimate relations with my son,” Mr. Evans continued, amusement wiped cleaned from his face in the blink of an eye, “then he must have healed you.”
My eyes immediately jumped to Max’s face and Mr. Evans tsk-ed as my hasty reaction probably confirmed his suspicions.
“I presume you were burned in the fire?” Mr. Evans guessed simply, as though talking about the weather.
I nodded mutely, trying to gauge Max’s face for a reaction. There was no reason to lie now, was there? But Max’s face was closed off. He had taken a step back, physically distancing himself from his father and me.
This made me nervous.
“He formed a bond with you, Ms. Parker,” Mr. Evans said.
A bond?
“A very strong bond,” Mr. Evans continued and looked over at Max. “And now only Max can access your mind.”
My knees shook and I pressed myself harder up against the wall. The relief was immediate.
Only Max could access my mind.
“Which means,” Mr. Evans looked back at me, “that only he can make you forget.”
And just like that, the relief had evaporated. In a way, it was worse. Worse that it had to be Max that selected out ‘unwanted’ memories from my mind and removed them.
But apparently, he had already done so. Both his father and Max had insinuated that I had witnessed something (the healing of Isabel?) that I didn’t remember.
I hadn’t had time to reflect over what I felt about that, and I probably wouldn’t even have to. Since everything would be gone in a couple of minutes.
“Max,” Mr. Evans called, his eyes on my face. “Get to work, son.”
I hated him. I really hated Mr. Evans. Didn’t he care? Didn’t he care that he was destroying something? Or maybe he was only concerned with keeping his secret. So much so that he didn’t bother to even investigate if I would keep my mouth shut or not. He just assumed that I couldn’t be trusted with a secret like that.
Be it aliens or whatever they were.
Max’s steps were hesitant - emphasized further by his injuries - as he slowly approached me.
“Liz…” he started regretfully.
I bit my lips tightly together and raised my chin in defiance. I felt like I was being treated like a slave, like someone that didn’t have a say about her own mind or body. They were just standing around and ordering what was supposed to happen with me. And it was hurting me beyond comprehension.
And I took it out on Max.
“Just get on with it, Max,” I practically sneered.
“Liz, I-“
“No,” I interrupted. I didn’t want to hear. I was going to be robbed of that excuse or explanation or whatever he was planning to say, soon enough.
He looked nauseous as he swallowed his words and once again framed my face in his hands.
He appeared almost ashamed as he asked me to, “Look into my eyes and try not to blink.”
I didn’t say a word, biting my lower lip. His eyes flickered from my eyes to my mouth and my breath caught as his right thumb suddenly brushed over my lip. I stared at him, confused and to be honest, aroused, as he looked back up at me and locked our eyes together.
Slowly, comfortably, and warmly, I fell into his eyes.
I know you’re a good actress, Liz. I need you to use those acting skills now.
I blinked. Was that Max’s voice? Inside my head? But his lips hadn’t moved.
That’s not acting. I could hear the admonishment in his objection.
He can clearly see your emotions on your face. You need to keep your face blank. Emotionless.
He was talking to me in my head!
Yes. There was laughter in that one-word ‘thought’.
I’m talking to you in your head.
How could he do that? Is that even possible?
With the bond it is.
I decided to address him directly. Why not?
You can hear me?
Every confusing thought. He was amused and I instantly blushed as - of course - my mind immediately wandered to the type of thoughts that shouldn’t be heard by anyone but myself.
Max. The way his body felt underneath my fingers. The way I pictured him without clothes-
Yeah, yeah. I could hear his laughter freely in my head now and the blush burned brightly on my cheeks.
I’m pretty sure that’s not the way to keep your face blank.
How come I couldn’t see anything in his head; hear anything else but the instructions?
Practice. A lot of practice.
His instant replies to my unspoken thoughts were unnerving. This would definitely take some getting used to.
He didn’t comment on my reflection, instead getting straight to the matter at hand.
I’m not gonna make you forget.
Why not?
I don’t want to.
Why not?
Has anyone ever told you that you ask too many questions?
Yes. You.
There was a chuckle in my mind and I refrained from letting my answering smile show outwardly on my face.
But we have to fool my dad. It’s not safe for you to know about these things.
I considered this. Max was basically inviting me into the alien club and-
Alien club?
I froze at the horror in his mind.
Oops.
At the last second, I managed to control the expression on my face. Don’t show any emotions. Don’t show any emotions.
I’ve figured you out.
I felt his hands tighten around my face, his fingers digging into the softness of my heated cheeks. The response of his body was the answer I had anticipated. I had been right. They
were aliens.
So you just have to explain the details to me now.
You figured out that I was an alien and still you came here?
His eyes blinked, his pupils dilated in fear and confusion. It was probably a good thing that he had his back to his father. There was no way he could have hidden that expression.
As if hearing my thought (Duh. He
could) Max relaxed his face, pulling down his mask.
I’ll answer all of your questions. You just have to act confused and like you don’t remember what you are doing here.
I swallowed. Okay. Shouldn’t be too hard.
This is the performance of your life, Liz.
Okay.
Okay?
Yeah.
I felt his hands start to pull away and I screamed out in my head,
Wait!, probably a bit too loudly because Max cringed.
Sorry.
What is it, Liz? His amusement had returned.
Yeah, yeah. The confused human girl was so amusing in her lack of knowledge concerning the finer points of telepathy.
I could feel his mental eye roll, before I directed my question at him,
Can you always read my thoughts?
No. His voice was reassuring, trusting, truthful.
Only when connected like this.
Good.
And then I got a mental image of my own lips, glistening with innocence, sensually curved as my bottom lip was slowly pulled between my teeth. Hot deep desire struck me and I gasped just as Max pulled back and removed his hands from my face.
The telepathic connection was broken.
I tried to collect myself, lust thrumming through me, and I knew from the grin on Max’s face that he had deliberately sent me that glimpse into his mind just before cutting the connection.
I wasn’t the only one with fantasies…
“Ms. Parker?” Mr. Evans asked as I blinked, and I was reminded to fall into the role of the confused ignorant human.
“What? What I’m a doing here?” I frowned, blinking, as I looked around the room, pretending to not recognize it.
“You needed my father’s help, remember?” Max hinted, his face displaying the perfect mix of confusion and tentativeness.
“How are you feeling, Liz?” Mr. Evans asked, taking a step closer. There was an unfamiliar warmness to his manners, one I presumed he normally reserved for his patients.
Since I had never really experienced this side of Mr. Evans, one can only assume that he and I had gotten off on the wrong foot from the get go.
I put my hand to my forehead, letting my knees grow weak as I leaned heavily against the wall. “A bit dizzy.”
“Here,” Mr. Evans pulled out a chair and gestured towards it. “Take a seat.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, doing my best to hide my surprise at his behavior. He was almost pleasant (!).
I walked carefully towards the chair, seeing Max reaching out for me in assistance as I passed him. But I batted his hands away weakly, noticed the hint of an amused smirk in the curve of his mouth, and sank heavily into the chair.
“What happened?” I mumbled, brushing errant tendrils of hair out of my face.
“You pointed out that you felt faint,” Max replied, stepping closer to my position, but keeping his distance. “And then you fainted.”
“Huh,” I mumbled, incomprehensible surprise seasoning my complete ignorance.
“What can I help you with, Liz?” Mr. Evans asked, kneeling in front of me.
I fought the impulse to shy back from his presence and forced myself to relax.
As far as Mr. Evans knew, I wasn’t supposed to know of his less charming manners any longer. In fact, I had supposedly barely met Mr. Evans. I now only knew what the rest of the population of Roswell knew. That in front of me was a well-respected, competent surgeon with an extremely good reputation.
I couldn’t let my disgust and fear of him show.
“Um,” I breathed hesitantly and the confusion on my face was real this time. Why was I here again? Maybe Max should have gone through his plans with me, a little bit more in detail…
“You have a burn wound on your stomach,” Max stepped in, clarifying.
My whole body grew cold. My first instinct was to glare at Max, but I couldn’t very well do that. I knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted that wound on my stomach healed (had wanted to from the second he found out that he had ‘missed a spot’) and since I wouldn’t let him, this was his chance.
I felt his eyes burn into the back of my neck as I struggled to control the anger that was blotching my cheeks in red.
“Can I see?” Mr. Evans asked softly, rising his hands towards my abdomen in silent request.
I really really wanted to leave right then; push the chair backwards and aim for the door.
But I couldn’t. In order to keep our secret, in order for me to be part of Max’s secrets, I needed to do this.
I needed to allow Max’s father to touch me.
I nodded mutely and grabbed the hem of my shirt. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Max move around me, probably wanting to see for himself what it looked like.
Mr. Evans face was - as anticipated - devoid of emotions as I revealed the angry burn to my spectators. It had started to heal some, but my skin would never be the same in that area.
I made the mistake of glancing up at Max as my hands stopped just below my breasts, tightly holding onto the shirt.
Darkness (was that guilt?) was blackening his features, dilating his pupils, tightening his jaw and clenching his fists.
Why was he so affected by this? He had - obviously - seen much worse injuries to my body.
“Oh dear,” Mr. Evans’ quiet voice brought my attention back to the doctor, moving his hands towards my abdomen. Stopping just before making contact, he looked up at me and asked gently, “May I?”
Stunned by his sudden kindness, I nodded silently.
My whole body tensed in anticipation of his touch. But it was not as bad as I had feared. His hands were practiced in their movements of gentle prodding around the edges of the wound. The only element that really hurt was when he pressed rather firmly to the top of the wound, trying to see if any fluid had collected in the wound.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled as I flinched. “There’s some inflammatory fluid, but that’s normal during the healing process. It doesn’t appear to be infected.”
My relief was real as I asked, “That’s good, right?”
He gave me a brief smile, before getting to his feet. “Yes. That’s very good, Ms. Parker.” He looked over at his son. “Max, could you get some acticoat, chlorhexidine, compresses, tape and bandage?”
Max’s eyes briefly shifted to mine and I tried to not let it show that the thought of being left alone with Mr. Evans unnerved me. Max must’ve been satisfied with what he saw on my face, because he left the room - slowly and gingerly.
Mr. Evans returned curious eyes on me. “How did this happen, Liz?”
A second of panic shot through me as I considered if the fire was something Max would have made me forget in his mock memory erasing process. I quickly realized that he couldn’t erase those memories. How would they then explain that I didn’t know that my home had burnt down?
“In the fire. I was afraid for my mom, so I went too close to the house.”
Mr. Evans’ eyes turned sympathetic. “Yes. I heard about the fire. I’m truly sorry about your loss, Liz. Your mother was a wonderful person.”
I dropped my eyes, uncomfortably twisting the shirt in my hands, and spoke under my breath, “Thank you.”
How well had he known my mother?
“You should have sought medical help sooner,” Mr. Evans pointed out.
“I didn’t think it was that bad,” I noted, pouring honesty into my widened innocent eyes as I looked up at him.
“Well, I’m gonna take care of it,” Mr. Evans assured me and patted me fatherly on the knee. My breath hitched. I hoped he didn’t notice.
“Don’t worry,” he added with a smile, just as Max walked through the door, carrying various medical supplies.
To my surprise, Mr. Evans was very gentle in cleaning and covering my wound in bandage. As he had applied the first layer of bandage, there had been a soothing feeling to the constant dull pain. Had I not been healed previously by Max, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the feeling. Or at least - I probably wouldn’t have paid it much attention. But I was positive that Max was not the only one with the ability to heal, as his father obviously had applied some alien magic to my wound. Probably just enough to facilitate the healing, without it hastening the process in a suspicious way.
I was sent home with a box of pain killers and an extra set of dressings to be changed in three days.
I desperately hoped that Max and I had been successful in fooling Dr. Evans.
TBC...
I hope you're happy with yourself!! 
