Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE) Final Chapter 31st of Dec

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Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE)Chapter 49 July 11th p. 16

Post by max and liz believer »

Thank you

keepsmiling7
Eve
mezz
Kris
roswell3053
yayaliens
Destiny
Natalie
Laira
Coccy
kismet
Ms_BuffyAnneSummers
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sunrise102
Sara
twilight
Dreamers_fan_believe
Alien_Friend
spacegirl23
Roswell Fan Forever


and special thanks to Elizabeth for editing and LairaBehr4 for making sure I continued writing yesterday.



This chapter is fairly short (by my standards anyway), but I felt like it needed to be told. We're now moving a long way back in time. And since this is fairly short, I have another update waiting which I'm gonna get up in the close future.

Updated Timeline




50. Hit by Reality
The Parkers’ Residence
(1995) Max is 10, Liz is 9


The frightening sound of brakes being hit too hard, of tires burning against the concrete, cut through the suburban summer day. Liz’s hand slipped at the sound, the red nail polish she had been aiming to put on her toe nail sliding down the side of the arch of her foot like a trail of fresh blood.

The awful sound ended abruptly, followed by an eerie silence when even the birds seemed too stunned to sing, until a boy’s desperate cry brought it to an end with his anguish.

A chill raced down her spine as the voice she knew so well broke in all the wrong places as he screamed at the top of his lungs and her breath got stuck in her throat as she listened. Her hand was trembling, still holding the forgotten brush covered in nail polish, having the dark red color touch against her skin.

Troooooper!

As if in trance, Liz replaced the brush into the jar with nail polish and screwed it tight. Getting to her feet, she walked up to the window and brushed the white curtain to the side.

Her large shiny eyes silently absorbed the scene on the street. A red-haired man, most likely the driver, stood next to his white Volvo, his hands on his head, his stance appearing tense even at this distance. Her gaze flickered to the front of the hood of the car, where a boy was kneeling, half of his body blocked by the large car. She caught movement in the corner of her eye and, willing herself to look away from the kneeling boy, she watched the familiar shape of her brother come running up to the car.

Max!

Michael’s voice was loud and clear as Max’s wailing had now dropped several octaves into a constant painful sound.

Like a wounded animal.

Liz swallowed, not wanting to give into any of her hypotheses. All of them entailing Max being hurt in some way.

But for some reason none of those theories were particularly high on her list.

Trooper

The name of Max’s black Labrador kept on ringing through the air as people came out from the safety of their houses to see what had happened.

And Liz knew that the dog had been hit. The realization hit her like a ton of bricks and she jumped in shocked surprise as a horrific hollow sob entered the silence of her bedroom. Her hand clamped over her mouth when she realized that the sound had come from her.

Stepping away from the window, tears running down her cheeks, she could still hear Max’s sorrow and she wanted to go down there and comfort him. But at the same time, the idea of seeing Max as upset as he sounded frightened her. He had always been this down-to-earth, solid entity in her life. He always managed to keep his cool and even though he usually spent most of his time trying to drive her nuts, she had always felt that she could turn to him in a crisis.

To hear him fall apart on the street outside her house was like a really bad dream.

Then she heard the front door slam downstairs and Michael’s agitated voice rushing through a thousand words a minute as he tried to explain to a puzzled Gabriela what had happened. Next she heard Gabriela on the phone, asking for a veterinarian.

Having the sense to pull a sweater over her tank top, Liz grabbed the closest one and pulled it over her head before heading downstairs.

Gabriela gave her a look that probably meant something along the lines of Don’t go outside, but as she was busy describing what had happened to the vet she couldn’t stop Liz as she opened the door and entered the war zone.

Or at least, that’s what it felt like.

Adults were running around trying to stop their curious kids from getting too close to the accident site, while they themselves couldn’t quite deny that they weren’t just as curious. The driver was trying to communicate with Max on the ground, throwing helpless glances around him. Trying to get some help from someone.

Could someone please get a hold of his mother?

Michael was standing behind Max’s crumbled figure, his body stiff and his face expressionless. Like a quiet solid support system; literally having Max’s back.

She noticed how her brother heard her approach, almost instinctively, and turned to watch her. She was semi-aware of him reaching out to stop her, but she just pushed his hands away. She felt his hands enclose around her upper arms, starting to pull her backwards, but not before she had seen the still body of the once so lively Labrador on the ground.

Trooper didn’t look hurt at all. Besides some blood visible in his nostrils, he almost looked asleep.

But the way Max was clutching the dog against him, his fingers buried in Trooper’s thick fur, told Liz magnitudes of what was really going on.

Trooper was dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Liz took a deep breath.

Michael tugged on her still body and this time she gladly stepped back into her brother’s warm embrace. His arms enveloped her, encasing her in warmth as the heat of his body spread into her back.

Her eyes remained trained on the dog, but as the constant crying from Max softened, her attention drifted from the dead body to the one that was very much alive. The one that was still hurting.

Her hand reached out to touch Max’s shoulder and she felt Michael’s grip loosen around her body as she bent forward.

If Max had felt her touch, he didn’t acknowledge it. His crying resumed, his tears wetting the black fur as his hands convulsively held onto the fur.

So she sank down on her knees, moving up to him. Letting her hand slide down to rest on the ground behind Max’s back, she moved the weight of her body so that her head came down on his shoulder; her cheek pressed against his trembling shoulder.

She had no concept of how long they sat like that. It felt like a long time, waiting for the veterinarian or whoever would come and sort this out, but it was only about ten minutes. In that time, Max’s crying turned into sobs, which then turned into hiccups. In that time, Max straightened, red eyes looking away from Liz’s worried ones as he scanned his surroundings.

“He’s dead,” he whispered.

Liz bit her lip, almost surprised when he finally spoke. “I know.”

“We’re just playing and suddenly he just…took off.”

Liz swallowed and said softly, “Okay.”

“And I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Yeah,” Liz said quietly, not really knowing what to say.

“Hey sweetie, what’s your name?”

Liz and Max looked up in unison at the owner of the soft voice.

“This is Max,” Liz answered, when Max seemed to have lost his ability to speak.

“Is this your dog?” she wondered and Liz frowned at the woman.

Of course it was Max’s dog. Would he be clutching a strange dog like that?

But before she could open her mouth, Max nodded a reply.

“What’s his name?”

“Trooper,” Max whispered.

“Are you the vet?” Liz asked.

The woman nodded and answered quietly, as if to not disturb Max’s shocked feelings, “Yes, I’m Tracey.” Addressing the shocked boy, Tracey added, “Max, I need to take a look at Trooper.”

Max nodded again and the woman sat down next to the dog. Something told Liz that the vet already knew that Trooper was dead, but Liz could feel Max’s hope, his lingering trust in an adult’s capabilities.

Liz had a more realistic take on the world. As the vet started the search for a pulse and put the earpieces of a stethoscope in her ears, Liz attention was on Max. On how he would react when the optimism and hope would leave him.

It felt like forever while the vet ascertained if the dog was dead before she looked up with an apologetic face that had Max’s tears start anew even before she uttered the words.

“I’m sorry,” Tracey whispered.

Warm tears running down his cheeks, Max nodded his understanding as his eyes closed against the cruel reality.

“Max?!”

At the sound of his mother’s worried voice, his head snapped up, inadvertently pushing Liz away.

With a broken, “Mom,” he stumbled to his feet and buried himself into his mother’s consoling arms.

Liz watched them from her position on the ground, the emotions prickling her heart. Even though Max had just lost his dog, he had more than Liz would ever have. He had a loving mother, who cared about him.

Feeling the ugly sting of jealousy, Liz pushed off the ground and started to brush her shorts off.

In the midst of her tidying herself up, someone took her hand. She looked up at her big brother who was looking at her sadly. “You okay?”

Liz nodded. “Yeah.”

Michael followed Liz’s glance as she looked to her left at the dead dog. She watched the vet put her stethoscope across the back of her neck. Liz’s eyes followed the vet as she went to speak to the driver about the incident and by the time Liz looked back in Max’s direction, he was taken to the car by his mother.

And just like that, Max lost his dog.
------------------------------------------------
The next day

“What do you need the money for?” Jeff asked.

“It’s a gift,” Liz answered.

“That’s a lot of money, Elizabeth.”

“I can pay you back later,” Liz said, her lips turning into a tight line of impatience and annoyance.

How come they could always buy her lots of expensive dresses (that she didn’t even like to wear) but when she really asked for something, they wouldn’t let her have it.

“With what?”

“My allowance.”

Her father sighed. “Who’s this gift for?”

Looking down at the floor, Liz answered evasively, “A friend.”

Mr. Parker’s eyebrows rose in mild amusement. “Does this friend of yours have a name?”

Sighing, Liz looked up. “Why can’t you just lend me the money?”

“Because with money comes responsibility. You have to learn how to save your own money and then buy what you want with that money.”

Liz pouted. “But that’s gonna take foooorever.”

“That’s the way it is.”

Liz stomped her feet. “But I need the money now!”

“What’s it for, Elizabeth?”

“Aaargh,” Liz exploded. “Fine! Keep your freaking money.”

Jeff frowned. “Elizabeth. Language.”

Groaning dramatically, Liz stormed off. No way she was telling her father where the money was going. It was not like he was more likely to give her the money if he knew and if he knew he would just be asking even more questions.

Running up the stairs to her room, Liz Parker wished that she was a grown-up and that she was allowed to make her own decisions. That she had her own money and could spend them however she wanted.

If she wanted to buy a dog for Max, she should be able to.

Slamming the door to her room she fell on her bed and screamed into her pillow.

Punching her fists into the soft mattress, she eventually cooled off and spun around. Staring up at the ceiling she vowed to herself that one day she would get Max Evans a dog.

If that was what it took to get the strong, stable, teasing Max back, that was what she would do.

She missed the annoying Max Evans with his drooling, barking dog. The one he’d insisted on taking with him everywhere, even into her bedroom when Gabriela wasn’t watching, so that there was dog saliva and black hair all over her white bedding.

She never wanted to see Max that sad again and she figured the solution was to get him another dog so that things could go back to normal as soon as possible.

Getting up from her bed she pulled out her “To Do”-pad and her favorite red pen. In neat block letters, she wrote;

1. GET NEW DOG FOR JERKFACE

Feeling satisfied that she at least had written it down she found a punch pin and pinned the paper on the notice board over her desk next to the photo of Michael, Max and her posing in front of the Evans’ house. Max was only partly visible (which is why she originally had liked that photo) due to a thick blurred black line coming from the side. Trooper, coming in from left field.

“Bye, Trooper,” Liz whispered.


TBC...
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Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE)Chapter 50 July 21st p. 19

Post by max and liz believer »

So...I'm back. Again :)

Thank you to everyone letting me know their thoughts about the previous chapter. It means a lot!

And you are...

behrluv32
Laira
Roswell Fan Forever

Roswell Fan Forever wrote:1. Why didn’t you name the nice lady veterinarian Josephin or Jo, huh? :wink:
2. Did Liz ever buy Max that replacement dog? Or will she be doing so in the future? And can I just say GRRR to Jeff Parker for being such an ass yet again. :x But kudos to Liz for not telling him why she wanted the money. So sad that she already knows the score with her so-called father at just 9 years old. :(
3. And I’m already looking forward to the next update you say you’re already in the midst of working on, and hoping you’ll be able to post it sometime later this week? Maybe? Hopefully? :)
Ah, some questions. Cool :D
1. Hmm...good question. I think I would get stage fright if I myself suddenly were to appear in this story. And on top of that, interact with Liz and Max. I think that would make me into a stuttering freak...not a very level-headed vet :wink:
2. Did Liz ever buy Max that replacement dog? Well...I guess only the future will tell that. Also, Liz always wanted a dog as well (she wished for it for her birthday in one chapter), so really they should get a dog.
3. Oh..that wasn't a question :P Thank you! :)

Kate
Kris
roswell3053
Kismet
nibbles2
Alien_Friend
Alison
- Hey, I've started reading one of your fics (finally, I've been meaning to for sooo long). It's "Hiding Beneath" and it's sooo good. I'm not finished yet, so I'll write you some fb then. And that was just some free advertisement for your story there :wink: But seriously, people should read that story. They really should.
Natalie
yayaliens
Destiny
coccy
sara


and

Elizabeth - Your comment about smothering - classic. And the "blow under the belt" thingy. Haha, I really was on a roll. I can be a bit dense sometimes when it comes to this language :wink:


And...we've jumped way ahead of ourselves - from the previous chapter. We're now at the day after the wedding.

Updated Timeline

51. Afterglow

La Jolla, California
The day after the wedding
(2010) Max is 25, Liz is 24


“Let’s make a deal.”

Max squinted down at Liz. “What deal do you want to make?”

She snuggled closer into his side, her bikini-clad body melting against his equally dressed-down state. Her lips lingered at the sharp angle of his jaw, adoring his skin with small butterfly kisses. “Let’s stay like this forever.”

As the comfortable summer breeze stroke through her hair, a smile of pure contentment grazed Max’s lips. “Deal.”

She smiled back at him and tightened her grip on the beach towel that they were using as a blanket since the sun had started to set, taking the majority of the early summer heat along with it.

His fingers lazily traveled up and down her spine while his ears were deaf to the surrounding sounds of families packing up their beach gear and trying to put clothes back on their playing children.

Liz’s eyes drifted closed and she fell into a sleepy half-slumber with his heartbeat sounding in one ear and the waves from the ocean in the other. His sandy toes brushed against hers as he moved his leg and let it fall over hers, trapping her lower tanned body under his. A content sigh slipped from her lips, memories from their wedding drifting slowly behind her closed eyelids as the heat from his body encased her in a protective cocoon.

Brushing her wind-swept hair off her face, he marked the skin of her forehead with a gentle kiss.

“Mrs. Evans?” he asked, smiling through the words.

Her eyes remained shut as she smiled her answer, a thrill of deep joy rushing through her. “Yes?”

His smile widened as he whispered the obvious. “We’re married.”

She sank deeper into his embrace, nuzzling her nose against his hard chest, sighing happily, “I know…”

The tip of his fingers trailed underneath the string holding her bikini top together at the back. “Can you believe it?”

She slowly shook her head. “Nah-uh.” Placing a kiss next to his nipple, she added, “It’s like a dream.” She draped herself more fully on top of him. “And I hope I’ll never wake up.”

Looking down at him there was a twinkle in both her smile and eyes as she said, “You belong to me now, Evans.”

Putting a finger under her chin and angling her face to make contact with his lips, he kissed her lovingly, slowly and thoroughly. “I’ve always belonged to you, Parker.”

In reply, her body eased up his so that her face was level with his. Their eyes met and two pairs of anticipating red lips moved within a breath of each other. Her sandy feet were almost at his knees as she pressed her breasts against his chest and her hands brushed his hair away from his face.

“Can you believe how much we used to fight?” she murmured, almost reflectively.

His laughing eyes met hers. “Let’s be honest now; you started it most of the times.”

Her mouth fell open in defensive indignation. “Yeah, right!”

His expression turned more amused as she dug her elbows into his chest and rose up to tower more fully over him.

But her act completely failed to intimidate him into some type of silence. “You would walk in with your miniature shorts and sway that pretty ass of yours in front of my face.”

Her eyebrows rose in disbelief. “Either you have a very skewed perception of reality or your memory sucks.”

“Come on, Parker,” Max winked. “You’re not trying to tell me that you didn’t wear any of those things.”

She lowered her upper body onto his again, her fingers absent-mindedly trailing along his collarbone. “They’re called pajama bottoms and for the record, you were in my home when I was wearing that. I should be allowed to wear whatever I want in my own house.”

Max smiled. “So you weren’t at all conscious of the possible effect you might have on the opposite sex?”

Liz in contrast looked one hundred percent serious. “That’s right. I was wearing it because I liked it and because it was comfortable.”

“Liar,” Max whispered, his voice lowered to a huskiness that sent goose bumps trailing across the expanse of Liz’s skin. “We both played games.”

I didn’t play any games,” Liz blatantly denied.

“Really?” He didn’t believe her pretty face for a second. “So all that teasing was just part of your personality?”

“What teasing?”

She was so appropriately innocent that Max felt love bubble up inside instead of the irritation which previously would’ve been a certain emotional response. Her innocent question was followed by an immediate attack on Max’s part as he flipped them both over, positioning him on top.

She looked up at him, her breath stuck on her lips, breathless anticipation in her eyes.

His eyes narrowed playfully in response and he briefly brushed his lips across hers. “You’re really gonna stick by that lie, huh?”

Her expression was skillfully hidden, except for a single twinkle in her eyes as she met his firmly. Max felt his heart skip a beat, as it always did in anticipation of what direction she would take another round of their lifelong arguing in.

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

“So all the banter, all the looks…” Max raised a dubious eyebrow. “That was intentional?”

She rolled her eyes nonchalantly. “As if I would bother to tease you…”

She bit her lip to control the smile that tempted to pull at the corners of her mouth but as she watched Max’s eyes drop to her lips she knew that he noticed. As his tongue licked his lips, longing to taste her again, she added, “You could have any girl you wanted. I never really stood a chance.”

Her words might’ve taken on an insecure tone, something that Max would have treated completely different, but the mischief in her eyes told him that everything was still fair game.

“True,” he mumbled and felt a thrill rush through his veins as her expression darkened.

Even though she still had the ability to surprise him, the irritation in her voice following his words was one of the most predictable aspects of his lifelong friend and nemesis.

He wouldn’t want it any other way.

On some days, before they confessed to have certain mutual feelings for each other, his sanity would be relying on Liz Parker’s predictable annoyance. If he could say something and watch her face redden, her eyes turn dark and her fists clench at her sides, he felt strangely safe.

It was the turbulent life in Liz Parker’s shifting emotions that prevented him from drowning in bleakness and apathy in the long months after his mother’s death and his father’s abandonment.

Now, as he laid there, his body pulled flush against his wife’s, he still craved her responses. She remained his anchor, even though she might never know how she had saved him in those darkest months of his life by yelling at him and challenging him. She had time and time again pulled him back to reality.

His hands brushed through her hair, which was tangled from the salt water into which he had unceremoniously dipped her before, his thumbs caressing her cheeks. Slowly. Reveling in the response of her body beneath his as she tensed and relaxed, quickened her breaths and stopped, shivers continuously racing through her petite body.

“But you were so much more…” picking his word carefully, he delivered it with a half-crooked smile, “…intriguing.”

She didn’t look impressed. “Just because I didn’t screw you immediately like those other bimbos you hung out with?”

“Come on, give them some credit. They liked me, didn’t they? So they must’ve had some good qualities.”

She barely refrained from rolling her eyes. “Please. You don’t have to have brains to want to have sex with you.”

Max looked at her interested. He liked the sound of that. “Really?”

She nodded seriously. “Yep, I heard Toby McNaughton wanted you badly.” To her amusement, Max’s smug expression vaporized. “And he wasn’t really a brainiac.”

“Oh yeah,” Max mused, trying to recuperate from the blow under the belt. “Thanks again for letting everyone think that I was gay.”

She smiled sweetly. “I bet that put you off sex for a while. With 99% of the supply consisting of eager teenage boys.”

“So that you could have me all to yourself.”

Liz’s mouth slammed shut and the shock was real on her face.

Touché.

“Come on,” she stuttered weakly.

Her breath stumbled in her chest as his fingers trailed down the side of her body; across her ribs, following the curve of her waist, in under the elastic material of her bikini bottoms.

“You’re so full of yourself,” she whispered as his fingers briefly trailed along the upper border of her curls only to turn around and dig into the soft flesh of her ass.

He leaned in, his voice husky in her ear as his lips brushed against the shell of her ear. “It was an obvious act of jealousy.”

“It was just another game,” Liz protested, her voice failing miserably at being convincing. “And you’re just a bad loser.”

Shaking his head slowly, his lips continued a trail across her eyebrows, whispering across her eyelids. “Tsk tsk tsk, you and I both know that we needed to get something out of our games. A triumph of some kind.”

She angled her head away from his kisses. She couldn’t concentrate when he was touching her like that. She looked at him stubbornly. “Exactly. And the triumph was that everyone would think you were gay.”

He narrowed his eyes in mock confusion. “But you see; it still doesn’t make sense. The only pleasure you would get out of that would be people talking about me or it being awkward for me-“

“Yeah,” Liz interrupted. “Are you seriously saying that’s not fun enough?”

“What I’m saying is that the part you would triumph from would be the fact that I wouldn’t be having sex for awhile.”

She looked at him oddly. “So? Point being…?”

He cocked his head to the side, his fingers sliding slowly back and forth underneath the material of her bikini. “The only reason why you would care so much if I had sex or not would be if you wanted me to yourself. In other words, you being jealous.”

Her snort sounded forced. “Yeah, right. How about me not wanting you to have sex so I wouldn’t have to hear about your accomplishments every fourth second.”

Removing his hand from inside her bikini bottoms, eliciting a soft moan of protest from Liz, he slid both hands down her thighs, urging them to bend up around his hips while his hands slowly caressed her skin.

“Fair enough,” he mumbled and placed a kiss on the tip of her nose. “But for someone that didn’t care, you were fairly involved in my sex life.”

“Only because you made it my business by constantly bragging about it.”

“You could’ve just walked away,” Max pointed out casually, his fingers moving just as lightly as his voice down her left shoulder. “No one forced you to listen.”

She frowned. “Come on. I couldn’t just walk away in the middle of a conversation. That would be rude.”

He laughed. “Right. That was the reason.”

Her eyes widened in indignation. “It was!

“What about Kyle Valenti? Martin Smith? Even Sean, before you decided that he was worthy of your time. You had no problem walking away from them when they were trying to talk to you.”

“That was different. They were not even my friends. They were blatantly hitting on me.”

“Just admit it,” Max said. “You couldn’t say ‘no’ to me then, either.”

She huffed, amused disbelief coloring her brown eyes, before she pushed herself up from him.

He did his best to hold back his laughter as he watched her look down at him angrily, one leg on each side of his hips, before she stomped away.

Shaking his head with an eye-roll, he easily pushed himself off the sand and ran after her.

Wrapping his arms around her waist, he spun them around, eliciting laughter from Liz as they both hit the ground in a whirl of sand.

“No no no,” she giggled, trying to slap his wandering hands away as he rolled on top of her, tickling her mercilessly.

“Admit it,” he mumbled, fiercely attentive to her facial expressions. It warmed him from the inside out to watch her laugh so freely.

“Never,” she gasped between fits of laughter.

“You loooved me,” Max sang.

“Now you really sound gay,” Liz teased.

“Oooh, I’ll get you for that,” Max threatened and, to Liz’s surprise, his lips claimed hers. He was forceful at first, until her body relaxed beneath his and she surrendered to his magic.

Her fingers tangled into his hair, finding the occasional grains of sand, as her mouth melted into his. Coming up for air, she looked around them, across the vast planes of sand.

“We’re not alone yet, Max,” she said breathlessly while his fingers touched her in places they probably shouldn’t in a public place.

He looked in the direction of her pointing finger, also seeing the couple walking along the shoreline, hand in hand.

Looking back at her, Max Evans winked at his wife, his fingers letting her know just what he thought about the idea of stopping at the courtesy of outside eyes.

“I can be very subtle,” he said conspiratorially.

She smiled at him. “Mr. Evans. You’re a married man now. You can’t behave like a playboy any longer.”

“Says who?” he challenged.

“Probably some unwritten law or something. Common sense.”

“So…what you’re saying is; I can’t do just whatever I want with my wife?”

She shrugged. “Basically.”

“Really?”

Pulling her to her feet, he grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the trees at the top of the beach.

“Where are we going?” Liz laughed.

“We’re going to do it in a public place,” Max announced excitedly.

“Oh my God,” she said, continuing to laugh as she stumbled trying to keep up with him, “You’re such a guy.”

“I hope I’ve already proved that to you by now,” Max said, pulling her behind a large bush, concealing them from most directions.

Liz raised her eyebrows. “That you’re a highly immature guy? Yes, I’ve known that for quite some time.”

“Never mind,” he grinned before blending his fingers with her dark hair and pulling her mouth towards his.

She moaned beneath his assaults, loving the taste of him and how he felt. Her body was trembling with heat and desire. The excitement of what they were about to do was also adding to the sensations making her knees weak and she sank down in the soft sand.

Max followed her, his hands sinking into the sand along the sides of her body as he spread himself out on top of her, the lines of his toned body matching up with hers as she stretched out on the ground. Liz’s arms enveloped his shoulders only to seconds later brush down his strong arms to find his face, trying to bring his face closer to hers.

“You’re not serious, are you?” she mumbled against his lips.

“It would be a shame to let this opportunity get away,” Max answered, his hand trailing down the front of her bikini bottoms. “So little clothing, so much time.”

“It’s sand, Max,” Liz gasped. “Sand is not a very…soft material.”

“What are you talking about?” Max questioned, pulling at the strings holding her bikini top together. “Sand is really soft.”

The material loosened around Liz’s chest and as soon as her breasts came into view, his mouth closed around one wanting nipple.

She arched up into his touch, the desire magnifying to an almost painful amount. Momentarily forgetting about the topic of their conversation, she lifted her thighs to surround his hips, locking her ankles at the small of his back. She pressed herself into his warm body, getting goose bumps from the sensation of his half-naked body rubbing against hers.

The slightly prickling sensation of the sand beneath her body only served to further heighten the feelings.

“What if someone comes?” Liz whispered.

“Then they’ll be scarred for life,” Max answered.

Liz looked at him in amused disbelief, her expression rapidly turning into one of passion as he inserted a finger inside her.

With a soft groan, she managed, “Isn’t this illegal?”

“Probably,” he said, adding another finger.

She strained to breathe, her body shaking as her breath caught in her throat.

“But even if someone were to see us,” he pulled his fingers out of her and hooked his fingers into the sides of her bikini top to pull it down her shapely legs, “I’ll make sure you don’t notice.”

Lifting her head, she watched him undress her, feeling her body warm from top to toe from the looks he was sending towards every inch of her body.

Feeling very exposed in the chilly evening air, without him to shield her, Liz suddenly felt insecure. “Max…”

Meeting her eyes, he smiled and she warmed another couple of degrees. Reaching his hand out towards her, he said, “Come here, kitten.”

She took his hand and let him pull her naked form into a seated position. She felt the abrasive sand scratch her in places she’d rather not encounter sand and she smiled ruefully at Max as he followed her glance downwards and followed her train of thought.

Lifting her like she weighed nothing, he sat her down on his lap. She could feel his arousal through his swimming trunks and it made her forget all about sand.

For the moment anyway.

Enveloping her in his arms, Max smiled and tenderly kissed her. “I love you.”

She tasted his tongue and was heated from the touch of his fingers running down her exposed back. “Love you more.”

He shook his head, his fingers coming up to brush her hair away as she moved around in his lap to find a good spot. A deep groan ripped from his throat and he pressed his forehead against her, pleading for willpower.

Pulling back slightly so he could look into her eyes, he murmured, “Not possible.”

Her hand crept down between their interlocked bodies, pressing over his crotch. With a mischievous smile she asked, “Really?”

He groaned again, his breathing turning increasingly shallow as he squeezed his eyes tightly shut. “We’ve got to do something about those trunks, don’t we?”

“Yeah,” Liz nodded seriously. “We really do. This is getting ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous is what it is,” he mumbled, before he lifted her off of him so quickly that she laughed in surprised shock as her back once again ended up against the sand.

Standing up and skimming out of his swimming trunks faster than she’d ever seen him move, he was quickly back on top of her, his weight pressing her down into the sand, their bodies forming a united impression in the grainy material.

Before she could even make a comment about his eager behavior, he was inside of her. Their bodies sighed together in relief, while the desire further surged inside of them.

Feeling her tensing underneath him, a combination of their public position, the cold air and the sand beneath their moving bodies, Max recommended her to, “Relax.”

She nodded and took a deep breath, which was difficult as Max started moving inside of her.

“Oh God,” she whispered breathlessly.

“Kiss me,” she moaned and, with sweat starting to form on his chest, he fused their fronts together as he bent down and captured her lips with his.

“Are you okay?” he asked, breath stuck in his throat.

The sand was scraping against her back and it was mixing in with the friction, but right now Liz couldn’t care less.

She nodded, her voice faint, “Yeah…yeah.”

His hands crept up underneath her shoulder blades, buffering her body from the sand and bending her torso upwards. He kissed her deeply, as he continued loving her.

“Faster, Max. Please…faster.”

“What’s the hurry?” he asked, a faint smile on his lips as the feeling of being so intertwined with her, so much part of her, made it hard to speak.

“Don’t…” she warned and gasped. “Don’t you dare tease me right now.”

He almost laughed and, instead of answering, he started to move faster, bending her knees closer to her body, getting even closer.

“Max…” she gasped. “Max….I can’t…”

“What?” he wondered, a line of concentration across his forehead.

“Just…” she moaned and then her head dropped backwards, her body arching into his, the warmth flooding from the center of her body out to every corner of her being. She exploded. She imploded. She tingled all over. Her toes fell asleep and her fingers curled into his shoulders.

He continued moving inside of her, searching for his own release, triggering another one in her.

“Oh God, Max,” she panted, feeling herself falling apart at the seams.

“Let it go let it go let it go,” Max mumbled like a chantra and then he did just that.

With a groan of satisfaction, he collapsed on top of her and as she started laughing softly in his ear, a large contented smile spread across his lips.

“I’m so gonna regret this soon,” Liz laughed.

Rising up on his elbows, Max looked down at her and wondered smilingly, “Why?”

“Sand and sex – not as romantic as it sounds…”

Max looked almost incredulously, until he started laughing too.

“Ouch,” Liz grimaced, but then gasped as soon as Max rubbed his fingers over the area where the sand had added some extra soreness.

“Better?” he asked with an uninhibited wink.

She moaned, a part of her trying to stop herself from saying what she was about to say, “We have to stop.”

“Really?”

He lowered his mouth to her sandy abdomen, kissing down the centre line, his goal clear in his mind.

“Max…please…soft bed. Please.”

“You have to admit,” he said between open-mouthed kisses. “It was pretty exciting, right?”

Possibly the best sex she’s ever had. At least it was right up there with the five top ones.

But she didn’t say that. Then they would never leave this sandy beach.

“Max…” she said, warning mixed with a hint of begging in her voice.

“Okay, fine,” he said and pulled back.

His agreement came like a cold shower and she looked up at him, almost feeling denied.

Max caught her expression and laughed. “Make up your mind, beautiful.”

As he threw the discarded bikini parts at her, he made up her mind for her.

Looking to her left and right, she stood up and pulled on the bottoms. She struggled awhile with the strings of the bikini top, her fingers too loose, too trembling, from their recent activities, before Max stepped up behind her.

Taking a hold of the strings, he first tied the strings that went underneath her breast. Coming around to fish up the strings going around her neck, his hands wandered up her breasts, enclosing them in his hands. Kissing the side of her neck, he held her like that for a long time and she melted.

Her she was, on a beach, with the man of her dreams, and they were married.

His lips slid up behind her left ear as his hands left her breasts and he pulled the strings tight to tie at the back of her neck.

Stepping back from her, he gestured in the direction of the hotel. “Mrs. Evans. Shall we?”

Taking his hand, she smiled. “Yes.”

“More hot animal sex is waiting.”

She grinned and looked over at the hotel. “So close and yet so far away.”

Shaking his head with a grin, he thought back at their previous conversation. “Right…like you were never into me before.”

She rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”

“You loooove me.”

“I’m warning you…”

“You want to have my baaaabies-“

“No more sex for you.”

He looked at her oddly. “Sure. Okay.” Utter disbelief in his voice.

She shrugged. “Just because it’s our honeymoon doesn’t mean we have to spend the whole honeymoon screwing like rabbits.”

He bit his lower lip in contemplation. “Yes. Yes, it does actually.”

“Shut up.” But there was a small smile in the corners of her mouth.

“You want my body,” he said. “You know it.”

“For God’s sake!” she exploded and with one accurate push, pushed him straight into the water.

Since Max wasn’t really prepared for this, he fell over with a surprised cry as the cold water washed over his nether regions.

Trying to hold back her laughter, Liz put her hands at her hips and stared him down, “You really needed to cool off.”

“Oh-oh-oooh,” he laughed, while scrambling from the water.

Liz turned and started running towards the hotel.

“You’re gonna regret you did that,” she heard Max yell behind her.

“You’ll have to catch me first,” she yelled back over her shoulder.

“I love you,” he yelled sweetly.

“Nice try,” she yelled back just as sweetly.

But just as she said that, her tired legs stumbled in the sand and she fell ungracefully to the sand.

Instead of attacking her, Max slumped down next to her, panting. “Damn sand.”

Looking at him breathlessly and with a true smile, she agreed, “Damn sand.”

TBC...
Last edited by max and liz believer on Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE)Chapter 51 July 25th p. 6

Post by max and liz believer »

Helloooo

I'm here, with the future...

spacegirl23
Laira
mary mary
yayaliens
coccy
Kris
Kismet
Natalie
scorpio6
suie
Hi, thank you so much for dropping by and letting me know that you're reading :D
suie wrote:This whole dog accident in the previous part brought back a memory. Sometime Max said something along the lines, he felt in love with Liz while he was in hospital. So when was he in hospital? I would love to see a snapshot for that sometime...
Max was just in the hospital to visit Liz. Liz was the patient, because she broke her ankle. That's all I gave away in "White Flag" (chapter 39) :roll: But there's definitely gonna be a snapshot about that one. That's when, as you said, Max fell in love with Liz so I'm not skipping that one.
suie wrote:And I also always wondered what lead up to the "first kiss in the closet" scene. By the way, I absolutely adored that part together with many other parts! For example the whole cow incident in the earlier part of this story was just so sweet.
Oooh, excellent idea. I'll definitely make a snapshot of the scene leading up to the closet scene :D.

Emma
Destiny
Roswell Fan Forever

Roswell Fan Forever wrote:Anyway, that’s one of the things I like so much about this fic…that despite the way you’re bouncing back and forth in time relative to their lives together, you throw in little things that tie in with what’s happened sometime in their past which helps to maintain continuity in the "present" . I love this attention to detail, as I'm sure it's not an easy task.
Thank you so much for saying that. And I am having troubles keeping track of the details, but I have help that let me know if I'm making mistakes :roll:. But this far I'm in control :lol:

Alien_Friend
Dreamers_fan_believe
Eve
Alison
Sara
sunrise102
Tamashii


and

Elizabeth


Updated Timeline

52. A Family Affair
Max and Liz’s home
(2018) Max is 32, Liz is 32


“I just don’t think it’s such a good idea,” Max said, his voice bearing the faintest trace of irritation.

The stack of dining plates produced a loud ‘clunk’ as Liz deposited them on the counter. “Shouldn’t this be up to me to decide?”

Max walked around her and grabbed the dish towel from its hook. “You usually don’t think very rationally where she’s concerned.”

“She’s my mom, Max,” Liz said tensely. “If I want to invite her over for barbecue on 4th of July, I should be able to. Your dad is coming. Why can’t my mom?”

Max looked up from wiping the plate, his gaze asking if she had gone crazy, “Because every time you see her she makes you feel like crap.”

“Dad just left her!”

“And that means that she’s gonna treat you better?”

The dishwater sloshed around in the sink as Liz practically threw another plate into the water. “She’s all alone. She can’t be all alone when everybody’s celebrating.”

Max grabbed the wet plate from her hand as she held it out for him. “She’s a grown woman. I’m sure she can deal.”

“How do you think she feels? Dad left her for her secretary. Some floozy 25-year-old.” Focusing on the washing up, she mumbled under her breath, “But you probably don’t have any idea how it feels like to be compared to and left for another person.”

Max stepped up close, looking at her walled-off profile. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Liz pushed the dripping wet wine glass into Max’s unprepared hands and the glass was merely saved from a smashing death by Max’s quick reflexes.

“It means that you’ve always been on the other side. You’ve always had girls at your beck and call-“

“You think I would leave you for some blonde bimbo?” Max asked in disbelief, anger seeping deeply into his voice.

She sighed. “I didn’t say that.”

“Right,” he said with an air of mock casualness, “You’re just saying that because I used to fool around a lot it means that I can’t understand that your mom is hurting right now.”

Liz opened her mouth to retaliate, but closed it soon thereafter when she failed to disagree. “Well… yeah.”

Max rather violently ripped open the door to the kitchen cabinet and placed the wine glass with its kind, grumbling under his breath. “Then you’re missing the point.”

“The point is that I want to invite my mom for 4th of July. It’s as simple as that.”

Max turned towards her, sighing demonstratively as he accepted another wet plate from her hands. “I understand that she’s hurting. I get that she might feel alone this holiday. But what happened to hating her and the endless nights you’ve cried yourself to sleep over something she said? She doesn’t deserve your sympathy right now, Liz.”

Liz turned, soapy water dripping on the floor as her hands hung suspended in the air, while she watched him put the now dry plate away. “I’m her daughter. She’s hurting. I should be there for her.”

He turned to look at her annoyed. “She doesn’t deserve it. That’s all I’m saying.”

Liz squeezed her eyes tightly shut before facing the sink anew and drowning the cutlery in the water. Starting to wash them one by one, she said, “Don’t you think Zoe has the right to get to know her own grandmother?”

Max raised an eyebrow that spelled out ‘Are you kidding me?’. “So that she can screw up our daughter as well?”

The fork landed on the dish rack with a loud clatter. “Oh, so you think I’m screwed up?”

Max groaned in frustration. “Don’t start with that.”

“What?” she asked, letting the water out of the sink. “That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? She ruined me and you don’t want to risk her doing the same thing to our daughter.”

His lips were pulled into a tight line as he remarked, “You got half of it right.”

Reaching for the hand towel, Liz asked. “So you seriously don’t think Zoe should get to know her own grandmother?”

Max hung the dish towel on a hook to dry and took a step closer to her. “If she’s gonna treat Zoe in any way similar to how she’s treated you, then no. She’s better off without getting to know her grandmother.”

“It’s not all black and white, Max.”

Max sighed despondently. “I’m not making it black and white.”

“Yes, you are,” Liz said tensely, her voice increasing in intensity. “As long as my mother remains good all the time she can spend time with Zoe, but if she screws up even once she’s all bad and is automatically banished from Zoe’s life.”

Following her level of voice, Max’s voice increased accordingly, “What I don’t get is why you’re defending her! After everything she’s done to you-“

Liz rubbed frustrated hands down her face, angrily picking up the dish rag and starting to wipe down the counter. “Maybe I understand what she’s going through!”

Max looked at her incredulously. “Oh, your husband abandoned you too? Cheated on you with a girl younger than your own daughter?”

“Gaaah,” Liz groaned and threw the dish rag against the tiled kitchen wall. “Why are you being so unreasonable? Why can’t you give her a chance?”

Max caught her flailing hands in his and turned her around to face him. His hand brushed up along her cheek, the touch incredibly soft in contrast to their argument, and his voice was so quiet it almost hurt her ears in its lack of intensity. “Because she never saw how much her words hurt you. She was never there to pick up the pieces. She was never there to hold you and worry about you as you cried throughout the night. She wasn’t there when you tried to put on a brave front when she wouldn’t even give you her blessing at our wedding.”

His fingers threaded through her hair and her eyes were big and shiny as they hung onto each word. “I don’t want to give her a chance because she wasn’t there. She was never there. I’ve tried to give her the benefit of a doubt on several occasions, but she keeps on disappointing. I very much doubt she will ever change. I want to believe so for your sake. I want you to have the best mom in the world. But I can’t stand by and watch her tear you down while you hold onto the hope of who she might be able to become. “

His hand unconsciously trailed down the pregnant expanse of her abdomen. “And I’m afraid that one day I might just not have the power to ignore her and I’ll end up strangling her.”

A half-smile drifted across her lips, but the tension remained in her shoulders, reflecting her stubborn need to win the argument.

“I know you’re only trying to look out for me,” she mumbled. “And I love you for it.”

Pulling away from his arms, she pressed the switch for the kitchen light and the kitchen went dark. Turning in the doorway she saw the outlines of his broad shoulders in the semi-darkness and a shiver raced through her.

She loved him so much.

Just seeing him standing there in the dark kitchen, so fierce in his belief that she needed protection from her own mother, made her love him so much more.

But despite his best intentions, she couldn’t stop herself from clinging to the hope that some day her mother would accept her. And maybe Liz just needed to reach out to her mother first for that to happen. It was after all a two-way street.

Taking a deep breath, Liz added, “But I want my mother here for 4th of July.”

She could just make out his grim expression in the darkness. “So I don’t have a say in this?”

“She’s my mother, Max.”

“Who’s hurting my wife and possibly my daughter,” Max retaliated.

“Would you just drop it?”

“Daddy? Mommy?”

They both froze at the tentative voice of their daughter. Turning towards the doorway, Zoe was looking at them worriedly, clutching her Winnie the Pooh bear in her arms.

“Come here, baby,” Max said softly and Zoe walked with small quick steps up to her father.

He pulled his daughter into the safety of his arms before hoisting her up on his hip. She threw her arms tightly around his neck, alternating worried glances between her parents.

“Are you angry?” she asked them.

“We’re just having a bit of a disagreement,“ Max answered, catching Liz’s eye roll out of the corner of his eye.

“What’s ‘disgeement’?” Zoe asked, her voice muffled against her father’s throat.

“You know when Alba and you can’t decide what movie you want to watch,” Liz said, her voice impressively soothing without its angry intensity from moments ago, “you’re having a disagreement.”

“We’re sorry we were so loud,” Max mumbled into her dark hair.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Zoe announced seriously.

Max took a step towards the stairs while he reached out with a hand in Liz’s direction. “Let’s fix that.”

At the absence of Liz’s hand, Max looked in her direction, winked and mouthed ‘come on’ which had Liz momentarily swallowing the argument with a reluctant sigh. She stepped up and grabbed Max’s offered hand. His fingers tightened around hers in a comforting squeeze and she looked up at him with an attempted smile.

Zoe’s small fingers reached across Max’s neck and touched her mother’s shoulder. “Are you sad, mommy?”

It was at times like these that Zoe reminded Liz so much of Max. How he could reach out in concern and read her so effortlessly, something that Zoe had inherited. It was the same quiet gentle concern in her fingers as in the ones holding tightly onto her hand.

At Zoe’s question, Max’s hand tightened in response around hers and she could feel his suddenly worried eyes scanning the side of her face.

She hadn’t realized she’d been crying until her daughter had subtly pointed it out. With her free hand, Liz wiped her cheek dry of tears with two determined strokes.

“I’m fine, baby,” Liz answered, seeing Max’s small tentative smile out of the corner of her eye. He didn’t believe her for one second.

“Let’s get back in bed,” Max said and pulled on Liz’s hand.

“There’s something under my bed,” Zoe confessed quietly, her face pressed into her father’s shirt. Always ashamed of being afraid of something in her room.

“Okay,” Max said, moving into patrol mode. “We need a flashlight.”

Liz squeezed his hand before letting go. “I’m on it.”

He hugged his daughter tighter as his eyes followed Liz’s departure for a second or two, knowing that she was happy to get out of there. He knew that she needed space right now, but he also knew that if he gave her too much space she would sink into that unreachable place inside of her.

He refocused his attention on his daughter. “What else do we need?”

“Gloves,” Zoe announced.

“Good idea,” Max answered and stepped up to the closet in the hallway to pull out the thickest mittens he could find.

Zoe quickly pulled the pink mittens over her small hands while Max covered his own in black fluffy ones.

“Robes,” Zoe added.

Max nodded and headed for the stairs. “Definitely.”

“No wait!” Zoe cried out.

“What, babe?”

“Hats. We need hats.”

“Right,” Max said and did a 180 back to the closet. Pushing a grey knitted hat over her dark curls, he put a bright red one on his own head that had Zoe giggling.

He winked. “It will scare them. Monsters don’t like red.”

Her face turned serious and she nodded with determination. “Yes.”

Liz came around the corner with a flashlight in her hand that had Zoe sighing in relief, as though the small battery-driven source of light were kryptonite for monsters under beds.

“Let’s scare that monster so badly he won’t ever come back,” Liz whispered conspiratorially as she joined her family.

Zoe bit her lower lip and nodded with anxious determination.

Max managed to press a purple hat on top of Liz’s head with one hand and while she automatically grabbed the edges of the hat to pull it more firmly in place, Max took advantage of her distraction and placed a light kiss on the lips.

Her surprised eyes met his, but he only smirked in return which had her eyes narrowing. It didn’t matter how many times he pushed her buttons; she would always respond the same. If she were ever responded with any less emotion, it would immediately tell Max that something was seriously wrong with their relationship.

“Yep, let’s do it,” Max agreed and had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing out loud as Liz kicked the back of his leg.

Mature, Lizzie, he thought. Very mature.

Her head held high in triumph, Liz passed Max and Zoe and took the lead in the stairs. Several ideas of retaliation flew across his mind as he watched Liz’s body move in front of him. The only thing preventing him from grabbing a hold of the loops of her jeans and pulling her backwards towards him was the weight of his daughter in his arms.

Liz stopped outside the door to Zoe’s room with a cautioning glance in Max and Zoe’s direction and a silencing finger against her lips before she slowly pushed the door fully open.

Max felt Zoe tighten in his arms and felt her breath against the side of his neck as she hid her face from the frightening reality.

Switching on the light, Max followed Liz into the room.

“Zoe, you wanna look under the bed?” Liz asked.

Without looking up from the comforting warmth of her father’s neck, Zoe shook her head with her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

“You can scare them away,” Max said softly.

“Show them that you’re not afraid,” Liz chimed in.

There was an attempted smile on her lips as she met Max’s smiling eyes. It was hard for her to leave their argument behind her, especially since it had been left unfinished, but she was doing her best.

There was a pregnant pause of hesitation as Zoe considered this and then her arms started to loosen their grip around her father’s neck in resignation.

Sliding down his body, her small feet touched the ground and with a brave squaring of her shoulders, she took a deep breath and kneeled next to the bed. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, she put her head on the side, her ear close to the floor, and mentally prepared herself for what she might see.

A visible shiver raced through her body and then she opened her eyes and gazed into the darkness underneath the bed.

Liz smiled as a sigh of relief escaped her daughter’s lips.

“There’s nothing there,” Zoe declared.

“It worked,” Max said with breathless wonder, as if he couldn’t quite believe it himself.

Liz bit her lip to prevent herself from laughing at him.

Zoe bit her lip for another reason, nodding thoughtfully as she rose from her position on the floor. With newborn determination, she walked up to the closet. “I’m gonna scare anyone in the closet away too.”

“Good idea,” Max agreed and with her newfound braveness, Zoe opened the closet door revealing its monster-free interior.

She spun around with a blinding smile, stretching from one ear to the other. “All done.”

Max nodded proudly, and held his hand out at her level. “High five, peanut.”

Biting her lip as she concentrated on hitting her father’s hand, Zoe slapped her much smaller hand flush against Max’s. “Hiiigh five.”

Liz hated to be the one to ruin all the fun, but it was getting late. “Time for bed, hun.”

Zoe nodded, too exhilarated to make any objections.

Except one. “Daddy, could you read me a story?”

“We’ve already read you one,” Liz said before Max had a chance to reply.

Zoe’s smile faded and Liz instantaneously felt like the worst mother in the world.

“Maybe, since you were so brave, I could read you a short one,” Max said, shooting a glance in Liz’s direction.

They’ve had more than one occasion had the conversation about how they should never give Zoe different directives. About how they should never go against what the other one had said, that way not teaching Zoe that she could get one reply from one parent and then go to the other and get a completely different answer.

Max was very aware of this as he saw the unreadable look pass over Liz’s eyes. Considering how they’d left off their argument, now was probably not the best time to go against one of their more fundamental parental rules, but Max wanted to give Zoe something for being such a trooper.

“Mommy please,” Zoe pleaded, looking at her mother hopefully.

Feeling very much like the mean parent, Liz reluctantly nodded. “Okay. But only a very short one.”

“Yaaay!” Zoe erupted and ran up to her mother, wrapping her arms tightly around Liz’s knees. “Thanks, mommy.”

Not feeling so bad anymore, Liz smiled faintly and bent down to Zoe’s level. Wrapping her in her arms, Zoe reciprocated the action and Liz pecked her daughter on the cheek. “Good night, Zoe doughy.”

“Night, mommy.”

Placing a final kiss on the top of Zoe’s head, Liz left the room with a small wave.

Max watched her go with a sting in his heart. He itched to talk to her, to clear the air, but right now his daughter was demanding his attention.

Smiling down at her, he asked, “So. What book do you want me to read?”


------------------------------------------------



He heard the water running in the shower in the adjoining bathroom as he entered their bedroom half an hour later. Taking his clothes off on the way to the room, he quietly pushed the ajar door open and stepped into the steamy room. Her back was towards the door, the outlines of her petite body slightly dimmed by the textured shower glass protection.

As he pushed the glass to the side, the soft sound of the sliding door revealing his presence, Liz jumped, glanced behind her and quickly averted her eyes. But not before Max noticed the redness.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered, putting his arms around her pregnant abdomen, pulling her back up against his front.

“Don’t,” she sniffed. “Can we talk about this later, please?”

He pressed a kiss to the top of her shoulder and she sighed, frustration coming off her in waves. Max got the message loud and clear. She wanted him to go away.

But just because he received the message didn’t mean he was going to read it. “Why is this making you so upset?”

Her head bent forward into the spray of water, her arms wrapping around herself as she tried to step away from him.

But he wouldn’t let her go and there wasn’t really much room in the shower cabinet for personal space.

“It’s my mom, Max,” she said weakly, weariness in her voice, as if her statement alone summarize it all.

“We’ve already been over that,” Max said, resting his chin on her shoulder. “You care about her and even though she treats you like shit on the best of days, you love her.”

She shook her head and turned around, which forced Max to let go of her. Looking at him angrily, she bit out, “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Summarize how I feel like it’s some irrelevant childish emotion.”

“I didn’t mean to-“

“No, maybe not, but that’s what it sounds like. You have no idea how it feels like – to me – on the inside. It’s not that simple. I can’t make it as black and white as you seem to be able to.” Her hand clenched against her left breast, over her heart. “There’s this…torment inside of me.” Her lips strained as she tried to maintain some control over her feelings, or at least over her words. “And I don’t know how to feel about everything. I’m not stupid, Max. I know that she’s treated me badly. But I’m not a machine either. She might be the worst parent ever, but I like to think that she’s trying to be better. And I don’t want to make it any harder on her by resisting her efforts.”

Max attempted an incredulous look. “Efforts?”

“She is trying. Maybe you don’t see it, but…she is.”

“Lizzie, please-“

“And don’t use that tone with me.”

Max sighed helplessly. “What tone?”

“Like I’m a child that doesn’t understand what I’m getting myself into. It’s that whole condescending aspect that hurts the most.”

Max shook his head slowly, looking at her apologetically. “Baby, I didn’t mean-“

She closed her eyes. “No, you never do. But still that’s exactly what happens.”

Tasting the salt from her tears mixing with the shower water on her lips, Liz added, “I want to hate her too, Max. Maybe that would be the best solution.” She gave a humorless laugh. “At least I would sleep better at night, not having these conflicting emotions.”

Swallowing back his pride, his need to protect her and guide her through her decisions, Max asked, “What do you want to do?”

Looking up at him, a flash of tentative gratitude in her eyes, Liz answered without hesitation, “I want my mom to celebrate 4th of July with us.”

Max nodded, his voice bearing no traces of his previous protests as he said, “Okay.”

Liz frowned. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Just like that?”

“I didn’t know it was that painful…” he shook his head at his inability to explain and started all over again, “No, that’s not it. Of course I know it’s painful for you. I’m right here, next to you, watching you go through all of this and I know it’s hurting you. I guess I just never realized that it was this bad. I guess, for me, it’s easier to just dislike the woman and leave it at that. But it’s different for you.”

Liz nodded, a small smile on her lips caused by tickling relief. He was seeing her again. Finally she had gotten her message through.

Max opened his arms in invitation, simultaneously asking for her forgiveness. Without a trace of hesitation, Liz stepped into his arms. Their bodies flushed against each other intimately, their minds once again at peace.

As his hands slowly ran up and down the length of Liz’s spine, he placed a gentle kiss against the side of her neck. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

She nodded, fighting to hold back a new batch of tears. “I know you have the best intentions, but-“

“I know,” Max interrupted, “Sometimes I’m a bit tactless about it.”

“Yep,” Liz agreed, relaxing even more against his naked form. There was something comforting about having him so close, without a single thread separating them. “This is a strange place to have a conversation like this.”

He chuckled, the laughter vaporizing the tension in his voice. “I think it was a pretty good place. You couldn’t escape.”

“Ha.Ha,” she retorted sarcastically.

“I love you,” he whispered.

She sniffed and nodded, pulling back to melt their lips together. She craved his touch, needed him to comfort her in the most primal of ways.

Kissing him with a barely repressed heat, her body unconsciously rubbed against him in attempt to get even closer. Walking them backwards, he used his body to press her up against the shower wall, his hands moving down her sides, having her melt into a puddle in his hands.

It didn’t matter that he had touched her like that a million times before or that he had memorized every inch of her body; goose bumps still followed the path of his fingers and he still craved to taste every millimeter of her skin.

“Is she asleep?” Liz breathed, her daughter suddenly at the front of her mind as Max hiked her legs up around his waist.

“Out like a light,” Max assured and caught her lips with his, mumbling against her lips, “And, I locked the bathroom door.”

Liz smiled at him ruefully. “Did you plan to have your way with me, Mr. Evans?”

He returned her smile with a wink. “That’s always my backup plan.”

She nodded slowly, her soft moan caressing the small space between their mouths as he slowly moved inside of her. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

He curled his hands around the top of her shoulders, a desire which was just waiting to explode lighting his eyes. “You do that.”

Using his hands to keep her in position against the slippery tiled wall, she moaned softly as they moved together. He was always amazed by how fiery she could be when they were arguing about something. How she had been swearing at him and even physically hurting him when they were younger. But when it came to making love, Liz was soft and quiet. She was a warm loving slip of a woman who surrendered her body completely to his ministrations. She loved with her whole being, but she did it quietly.

As if she were enjoying her favorite ice cream, a look of absolute pleasure fell across her face as a small sigh of satisfaction came from her lips.

Max loved that about her. He faintly remembered the girls he used to date, of how they seemed to think that the louder they screamed the better he would feel about himself. Sure, at the time it had made him feel like a sex god. But it didn’t come close to having Liz fall apart in his arms with a simple “Max” on her lips.

She arched against him, accidently smashing the back of her had against the wall.

“Ouch,” she murmured.

“You okay?” he asked.

She laughed and answered breathlessly, “Yeah. Don’t stop.”

“No way in hell.”

“Romantic, very romantic,” Liz smiled, her eyes closing in sheer bliss as she gave into the sensations.

“Anything for you, kitten.”

Her nails dug into his shoulders as the sensations piled on top of each other, escalating. Max’s mouth touched her shoulder and his teeth sank lightly into her flesh, eliciting a whimper of pleasure from his wife.

His breath was hot in her ear. “Are you close?”

“Yes,” she gasped.

His lips against hers softened the shakes of her body as he moved towards his own completion. He was just a few seconds behind, his legs slowly giving out from underneath them as the heightened feelings rocked his body.

Sinking to the floor, Max cradled Liz on his lap, peppering her face with slow kisses as the water pelted down on them from above.

“Are we okay?” Max wondered, kissing along her collarbone.

“For now,” Liz answered with a tired, but teasing, smile.

“As long as I barbecue fillet for your mother,” Max filled in.

Liz nodded seriously. “Pretty much.”

“Good thing I’m the barbecue king then.”

“Yeah, you’re very lucky.”

“Shut up, gorgeous,” Max said, his contradicting sentence delivered with the softest voice.

She kissed his smiling lips and gave a little shake, trying to get her mind back in order. “You don’t hate me?”

Max’s kissing feast reached an abrupt halt and he frowned at her. “What?”

“I’m doing the typical girly thing of crying to get my will through,” Liz explained, fine guilt tracing her voice.

Max seemed to consider this carefully. “Yeah, you’re right.”

She rolled her eyes. “I just don’t want you to…resent me or something. I get that you don’t feel comfortable about my mother being around Zoe-“

“Yeah.”

“-so I just need to know that you’re not agreeing just to…shut me up.”

He seemed to ponder this new fact and then started nodding slowly. “Yes…actually, now that you say it; you might be right.”

The water splashed off his skin as she hit her palm against his upper arm. “I’m serious, Max!”

But there was amusement in her voice, because even though he was being an annoying brat right now, it still served a purpose; easing a situation that might still be tense.

“Seriously Liz,” Max said, his face turning serious, “I am worried about what possible impact your mother might have on Zoe. I worry because my only reference to her behavior is how she treats you and how she seems to hate me. I’m not sure I want Zoe to be exposed to those dynamics. Even if your mother is okay with Zoe, the way she might treat you in front of Zoe is another thing altogether and that might have just as much of a negative effect on Zoe.”

Liz bit her lower lip guiltily. “Soo…even if you don’t hate me now, you surely will after all of your suspicions come true on the 4th of July?”

Max looked at her like she was a crackpot. “Don’t be ridiculous. I could never hate you. I’ve done enough hating you for a lifetime.”

Liz looked at him incredulously. “When did you hate me?”

Max shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Around the time you hated me.”

“I never hated you,” Liz denied.

Max’s eyebrows rose. “Ooh. So you kicking me in my special area-“

“Your ‘special area’?” Liz laughed, suddenly very aware of that she was sitting very naked across his special area.

“-had nothing to do with hatred?”

“Accident, Max.”

“You were sooo aiming for it.”

“I was not.”

“Yes, you were. It was a warning for me to back off and believe me, I received it loud and clear.”

“Sorry,” Liz mumbled.

Max frowned, amusement in his eyes. “Excuse me? I didn’t quite catch that. Did you just apologize?”

“Yeah, yeah, be an ass-“

Max’s eyes widened with shock. “Liz Parker is actually apologizing?”

Pressing her lips together, Liz started to get up from Max’s lap. “You know what? I take it back.”

Max looked up at her, quite liking this viewpoint of her body as she stepped around him. “You take it back?”

“Yep,” Liz answered, pushing the glass door aside.

At her quick departure, Max scrambled to his feet and turned the shower off.

She was wrapping a blue towel around her body as he stepped out of the shower cabin.

Coming to stand behind her, his hands crept around her body, sliding between the layers of her towel. He watched her reflection in the mirror as his hand closed around one breast.

He had to give it to her; she was good. Even though her nipple hardened in his hand, her face revealed nothing as she reached for the toothpaste and pushed out an even line of white paste on her toothbrush.

“You can’t take back an apology,” Max breathed against her ear.

Her eyes challenged him in the mirror. “Says who?”

“Anyone,” Max said simply, letting his hand slide down her front.

She started brushing her teeth, almost working herself into a fever while trying to not let any of the sensations Max was causing to show on the outside.

“So you’re sure you’re not just doing this to appease me?” Liz wondered, her tone serious as she bent forward to rinse her mouth.

“When do I ever do anything to appease you?” Max wondered, winking at her in the mirror.

Liz almost gave in right then, Matt knowing exactly how to touch her.

Instead her tone turned stern. “Max Evans. Are you trying to bribe me?”

He looked innocent, while his actions were quite the opposite. “Bribe you? Why would I need to bribe you? You should be bribing me.”

Her eyes rolled back in her head as she leaned her head back against his chest, his intimate touch finally getting the best of her. “Gaah, I can’t think!”

Max laughed. “Mission accomplished.”

Licking her lips as her hips betrayed her even further by pushing against his hands, needing more, she muttered, “Can we just finish one conversation before we start another one?”

“Kitten,” Max said softly, his husky voice sending vibrations against her ear, “Don’t worry. I won’t ever hate you and I won’t let your mom do anything to Zoe or you. Here’s the compromise; If she behaves badly in anyway, she’s out. This is her last chance. Deal?”

In a bad case of timing, Liz’s body gave into Max’s ministrations and she fell apart in his arms. “Yeeees.”

Max laughed, kissing the shell of her ear before moving down her neck as she slumped in his arms. “Was that the answer to my question or were you a bit distracted?”

“Both,” Liz answered, straightening. Turning to face him, she attempted to scold him, “How am I suppose to have a reasonable conversation with you when you use tricks like that?”

“I didn’t hear any protests,” Max said innocently.

She shook her head slowly. “Sometimes I don’t know why I put up with you.”

He shrugged and stated simply, “Because I’m a Sex God.”

She sighed, holding back her smile. “Nothing wrong with your self-esteem, is there?”

“Should there be?”

Ignoring his attempts at further bantering, Liz redirected the conversation, “So…if she’s not on her best behavior, she’s out the door?”

“Yes,” Max stated firmly.

“Okay. Fair enough.” Looking down at her feet, she mumbled, “I’ll call her tomorrow.”

Max put a finger under her chin and lifted her head so that he could look into her eyes. “I never hated you.”

A warm smile slowly spread across her lips. “Ditto.”


TBC...
Last edited by max and liz believer on Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:02 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE)Chapter 52 July 31st p. 9

Post by max and liz believer »

Hi everyone

You might've seen banners around this board about the "Supporting Stacie"-auctions. For those of you that don't know, Stacie is fighting ovarian and breast cancer and her medical bills are piling up. To help her out, people on several boards have gone together to raise money for her treatment. The auctions are one way of helping Stacie out. Basically, authors auction off their words to the highest bidder. This means that the highest bidder gets to choose what the author should write about (within certain guidelines set by the author). In other words, a reader gets a custom-made story and Stacie gets money and hope.

I wanted to be part of this in April, but I missed the deadline :roll:. But this time I've registered on time and I'll be writing a M/L story for the highest bidder.

The auction is between the 11th and 14th of September. You can find more information here.


And now... onto this story.

Laira
Sara
Destiny
Alison
Natalie
Roswell Fan Forever
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:There. My two cents turned into two thousand I guess. LOL. Now aren’t you sorry you encouraged me to do some more spouting off, Jo? LOL
Nope. Not at all sorry :D
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:That's okay...I really wasn't expecting you to comment anymore since you'd already said in a previous feedback that you try not to do that. I was just trying to make up for my lack of previous feedback. And now I think I've probably said enough to last through the rest of your fic! :lol:
You're not gonna stop now, are you? I was just getting you warmed up :wink:

Ginger - Thank you for sharing that piece of information from your own life. And I'm glad to hear that things seems to have worked themselves out for the better in your situation. So, there's still hope for Liz :wink:
mary mary wrote:maybe Nancy doesn't know she's doing anything wrong.
Precisely. Thank you for seeing that :)

Amanda
spacegirl23
Alien_Friend
kismet
coccy
coccy wrote:I wonder what Zoe thinks about her new little brother/sister and how they told her about it.
Good point! I love it when you guys give me pointers towards new chapters :D

Eve
Kris
scorpio6
Emma
sunrise102
roswell3053
Tamashii
suie


and

Elizabeth

Also, thanks to Laira for - yeah, you know, Laira. Thank you!

The neat thing (another neat thing) about skipping around like I do in this story is that I can now take us far away from Nancy at the moment and let that discussion cool off some.

Updated Timeline

Here's the answer to a subtle request... The events leading up to the confined space inside Ryan Anderson's closet...


53. Spinning the Bottle

At school, Wednesday afternoon
(2001) Max is 16, Liz is 15



“You’ll never guess what just happened!”

Liz barely glanced over the rim of her dark sunglasses before she suggested, “Meg and Millerrun got back together?”

Maria rolled her eyes and slumped down next to Liz against the school building. “Noooo.” Considering the possibility of seeing the most popular couple in school get back together again, she added, “But that would’ve been pretty cool though.”

Liz nodded with an air of disinterest and returned her attention to the book titled Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future in her hands.

“Cooome on, guess!” Maria urged.

Liz sighed, trying to think of what else had the power to excite Maria to this degree. Liz knew very well that Maria’s excitement didn’t stem from some bubblegum-popping-sparkling-eye-shadow-teenage personality. It was more a case of having fun at the expense of some high school people who thought they owned the world.

But there was a possible alternative for Maria’s happiness. An alternative that always made Maria’s enthusiasm levels skyrocket.

Looking at her friend, Liz stated, “Party.”

“Paaarty!” Maria replied, jumping to her feet and doing a bizarre squiggling dance.

Liz couldn’t help but laugh. Shaking her head, she confirmed, “You’re a freak, Ria.”

“Ah, you love me,” Maria said. “And you’re going to love me even more when you hear that I didn’t only manage to get me invited, but you as well!”

Liz looked horrified for a moment before her face turned into a frown. “Who’s throwing this party exactly?”

“Ryan Anderson.”

Liz sighed loudly. “That explains it.”

Maria threw her hands up in resignation. Why did Liz always have to burst her party bubble? “What? What does it explain?”

“Don’t you know? Sean is Ryan’s best friend and Sean is kinda stalking me.”

Maria gave her an incredulous look. “Oh come on, Lizzie. Of course he’s not.”

“Why else would someone like Ryan invite some 15-year-olds to a party, huh? It’s not like we’re the popular pretty girls. We never get invited.”

“Max’s going,” Maria said.

Liz rolled her eyes. “And how exactly does that help in convincing me to go?”

“You know him, right? Pretty well. So at least you know someone there. Besides me of course.”

Liz slammed her book together and started pushing it into her backpack at the same time as she pushed to her feet. “Maria, are you feeling okay?”

Maria looked at her oddly. “Yes, of course I am.”

“Are you sure?”

Maria looked absolutely dumbfounded. “What are you talking about?”

Liz slung the backpack over her shoulder. “Because it seems as if you have managed to forget about every single conversation I’ve ever had with you.”

Maria sighed. “I know you think that you hate Max Evans-“

“I don’t think anything, it’s a fact.”

“How can you hate something so beautiful?”

“Because he’s an idiot.”

“He’s one year older. You’ve known him like forever so he actually acknowledges you. He’s very,” Maria made sure to further emphasize this word by looking at Liz pointedly, “very easy on the eyes. He has a car. Oh, and did I mention? He’s one year older.”

“So you think I should just like him because he looks good, is one year older and has a car?”

“Okay, sure. There are certain principles one has to follow,” Maria said all seriously and Liz nodded. “I myself wouldn’t date someone like…ehm…your brother. Because he…uhm…no offense Lizzie, but he sleeps around.”

Liz shrugged and nodded for Maria to continue.

“So I can totally understands this whole ‘hating Max’ thingy you got going on there, because…rumor has it that he also shares the goods.”

“Rumor has it?” Liz asked incredulously. “I’ve heard it from his own mouth, against my will.”

“I’m just saying…I don’t really understand why you hate him so much because he seems okay to me. And you would know someone else at the party, that’s all.”

Liz didn’t look particularly convinced. “Right.”

“But if we forget all about Max, let’s just talk about the fact that we have a chance to go to a party, with older people. We can make the party our playground-“

“Hmm…not really sure I like the sound of that-“

“And have the time of our lives. It’d be great. We don’t really have to hang out with the other people if we don’t want to. If they’re boring or drunk or whatever, we can just hang out with each other. It’d be great.” Maria brought out the puppy eyes. “Please, Lizzie. Pretty pretty pretty please pretty Lizzie. I really want to go, but I don’t want to go alone.”

Liz had already made up her mind to go. After all, she wasn’t the sort of person that would deny her friend a night of fun. But that didn’t stop her from making sure that she had marked her stand.

Pouting, Liz objected, “But it’d be like encouraging Sean’s stalking behavior.”

Maria looked a bit more hopeful, having felt the shift in Liz’s thought processes. “We’ll just ignore him.”

“And Max?”

“Won’t be a problem at all,” Maria assured. “Ryan’s house is biiig. We can easily stay away from him.”

Liz bit her lower lip thoughtfully, putting on a bit of a show. “Hmm…I dunno.”

“Cooome ooon,” Maria pleaded.

“How much do you love me?”

Maria’s face brightened. There was only one reason as to why Liz would ask that; she had given in and Maria was going to have her way. Maria measured as far apart as her hands would go. “This much.”

“And what am I?”

“The smartest, coolest, hottest girl in the universe?”

Liz laughed. “Okay, deal. I’ll go.”

“Yaaaay!” Maria shouted, encasing Liz in a bouncing hug. “You’re the best.”

“And the coolest. Don’t forget that.”
-----------------------------------------------------------
Three days later
Ryan Anderson’s house


“Little Lizzie Parker.”

Liz automatically rolled her eyes before she turned to face her arch nemesis. Handing him a fake sweet smile, she retaliated, “Jerkass Max Evans.”

Folding his arms across his chest, he leaned against the doorframe with a hurt expression. “Ouch, Parker. What crawled up your ass this morning?”

Liz sighed. “Don’t you have some vulnerable, clueless victim to prey on?”

He shrugged. “Actually…yes. But I couldn’t help noticing my best friend’s little sister in the kitchen. The same sister I thought didn’t have much interest in going to these things.”

“Really? Then what about yourself? What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were a fan of Ryan.”

Max shrugged again and answered casually, “A party’s a party. When it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter who throws it.”

“Still the perfect opportunity to score,” Liz added, a bite to her tone.

Max gave her a crooked smile. It didn’t bother him one bit what she was insinuating. He knew he had the rumor of being a playboy, even if he hadn’t actually been with that many girls.

But it was all about the reputation. And little Lizzie Parker was good at feeding his reputation, even if he was sure that wasn’t her intention. She probably still thought it would embarrass him if she called him a manwhore, not having a clue that it served the absolute opposite purpose.

“True that,” he answered and watched her eyes darken with irritation.

“Okay,” she said, tasting lip gloss as she bit her lips firmly together, “It’s been lovely talking to you, but I have to go back to Maria.”

“Sure,” he answered.

He remained in his position, leaning against the doorframe, taking up more than half of the door opening and Liz stared at him pointedly for a couple of long seconds before the developing grin on his lips told her that he was not going to move to let her pass.

Her eyebrows rose in frustrated questioning bows. “Do you mind?”

Not moving an inch, Max’s grin turned as sweet as honey. “Not at all.”

Sighing dramatically, Liz stomped up to him and tried to squeeze past him. As she did he moved towards her, pushing her into the opposite doorframe.

She hissed. “Max! Get the fuck out of my way!”

He grinned, obviously amused. “What?”

“Ooooh,” Liz erupted annoyed and ducked down under his arm, expecting him to move to stop her progress there as well.

But he didn’t, and she found herself on the other side. Throwing him a glare, she brushed off her clothes and tried to reclaim some dignity before stomping off to find the friend that had dragged her to this party.
--------------------------------------------------------
2 hours later

“What’s going on downstairs?” Liz asked, not being very happy about the prospect of following Maria down to the basement.

“They’re playing some games or something,” Maria shrugged. “Come on. Let’s just check it out. The party’s so dead up here.”

At her words, Liz scanned her surroundings, noticing the couple making out on the couch, the guys smoking pot laughing at a bottle cap in another corner, the girl sleeping on the floor, the guys having a drinking contest involving ketchup to obviously see who would throw up first.

Liz grimaced. Maria had a point. What could be worse than staying up here?

“Maybe we should just head home.”

Maria glanced at her watch. “It’s only like…eleven.”

Liz bit her lip, thinking hard. She had been so over this party ever since she had met Max in the kitchen. He just really had a way of pissing her off and destroying her mood for several hours afterward. She really felt like ditching this place, taking a long hot shower and crawling into her soft bed.

“Fine,” she regretfully agreed.

Maria took a long look at her friend’s face. “Lizzie, we can go home if-“

Knowing that Maria still wanted to stay, Liz waved her words away. “No. No, that’s fine. Let’s go downstairs.”

Maria smiled. “Thank you, hot Lizzie.”

Liz rolled her eyes and couldn’t stop a small smile from grazing her lips. “Whatever.”

Hooking arms with her, Maria pulled Liz down the stairs into the large basement.

Liz blinked. The music was enveloping her from all directions. The buzz from all the conversations was almost hurting her ears.

Obviously, this was where the party was.

She glanced around, estimating there to be about 50 people in that basement alone. There was a pool table and a ping pong table. There was even an old jukebox playing in a corner.

“Oh, there’s Amy. I’ll be back in a sec.”

Before Liz had a chance to react, Maria had left her side. Feeling oddly self-conscious and awkward, Liz tried to decide where to look, feeling the gazes of a lot of people on her.

Straightening her shoulders, she tried to brush the stares off her.

She picked a corner to walk to but just as she started to walk, someone grabbed her by the elbow.

“Kitten.”

The voice was smooth in her ear and delivered a mixture of relief and irritation.

Turning her head, she found Max towering over her with a lopsided grin. “So we meet again.”

“What do you want?” Liz snapped.

Max’s grin turned into a laugh. “Fuck. You really woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning, didn’t you?”

“Very funny,” Liz mumbled and turned to scan the crowd again.

Max standing next to her had done nothing to soften the unwanted attention. Now, wherever she seemed to look, there were the hateful eyes of jealous girls. What was up with these people? Didn’t they know that she hated Max Evans?

Pulling her elbow out of his hand, she faced him again. “So, what’s fun down here?”

While looking slightly stunned at the one eighty turn of her mood, that suave smile that had a tendency to annoy Liz to death remained on Max’s face.

Taking her elbow again, and this time she pretended she hadn’t noticed, he said, “Come with me.”

Resisting him, she shook her head. “I’m gonna go and see what Maria’s up to.”

“Oh come on, Parker,” Max said. “It’s fun. You need to lighten up some.”

Liz pouted. “I don’t need to lighten up.”

He laughed. “Fine. Whatever you say.”

This time she didn’t resist his pull and he unceremoniously directed some people sitting in a circle on the floor to make room for her. Giving her a wink, he left her between two guys as he himself sauntered to the other side of the circle, sitting down in between two lightly clothed girls.

Liz’s mood immediately darkened.

“Hi Liz,” someone purred next to her and she shivered. She didn’t have to turn her head to know who Max had put her next to.

Pervy Perry.

Narrowing her eyes in a promised I’m gonna kill you glare, Liz kept her eyes on Max’s amused face. He was so going to pay for this.

“Didn’t know you liked these kind of games, Liz. Then I would’ve invited you sooner.”

Ready to scream, Liz refused the urge to stand up and leave the circle as she heard Sean’s comment next to her.

There was no way Max had accidently put her between Pervy Perry and Sean.

Clenching her fists along the sides of her body, she tried to control the urge to rush across the floor and strangle that pest of a person opposite her.

I hate you, she mouthed to Max and even though she was sure he was able to read her slow lip movements, he put a hand behind his ear and looked at her as if he had no idea what she had just said.

“Okay, people. Whose turn is it?” a boy called Tim asked.

“How about Liz spins?” Perry suggested. “She’s the new arrival.”

Perry gave her a big slippery smile and she shivered.

Locking eyes with Max, Liz directed her answer at him as she looked at him in challenge. “Sure.”

She was no coward. Max would not get any pleasure out of that.

Bending forward, she placed her fingertips on the bottle in the center of the circle and set it for a spin.

The empty bottle spun once, twice, thrice…and then started to slow down.

It spun past Max, past the blonde girls on his right and continued towards Perry and past herself, slowing down even further when passing Sean and then moving past Tim and Millerrun.

Watching the bottle spin slower and slower, Liz’s heart seemed to slow down in beat with the turns of the bottle. Glancing around the circle of people she realized that there really wasn’t anyone in that circle that she wanted to do anything with. It had also just struck her that this game was usually about kissing.

She had yet to kiss a single soul. Did she really want the reciprocal of her first kiss to be the result of the spin of a bottle?

Her heart hammered in her chest as the bottle barely past by Sean, bumped past Tim and then reached a slow gradual halt in front of Max Evans.

Her eyes were glued to the bottle, not really knowing what to feel, let alone wanting to look at Max. He would be grinning his ass off by now, she was sure of it.

“Wohoo!” Tim erupted. “The bottle has picked Evans. You two – in the closet.”

Liz’s head snapped up and spun to face Tim’s. “What? What closet? I thought this game was about kissing?”

Tim laughed. “Come on, little girl. You’re playing with the big boys now.”

A chill past over her heart and for the first time since the bottle had stopped its spin she looked over at Max.

She had expected him to be amused by her behavior and be preparing to make a fool out of her. But he was quiet and when her eyes made contact with his there was something she couldn’t quite decipher in his eyes.

“Come on, Liz,” Tim urged.

Liz swallowed back her sudden nervousness. She could do this. It was Max for Christ sake. She wanted to kill him a minute ago…being in a closet with him made the killing so much easier.

Her own rationalization made it easier for her and she pushed to her feet. She could feel Max’s eyes follow her shape as she walked around the outer border of the circle. Coming to a stop next to him, she said, “What are you waiting for?”

The bold undertone to her question elicited cat calls and sporadic clapping from the circle.

Something past over Max’s eyes before a satisfied grin spread across his face. Getting to his feet, he grabbed her hand, his touch gentle in comparison with the emotions he was pasting onto his face. “Eager, huh?”

He sent a wink to the laughing audience before he pulled on Liz’s hand in the direction of the closet. Opening the door with one hand, his other hand led her into the darkness of the closet.

Liz’s heart quickened as she stepped as far into the small dark closet as she could. Then she felt Max’s warm body take up the remaining space and the light from the outside was cut off as Max closed the door.


TBC... (well, you already know what happened right after that)
Last edited by max and liz believer on Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE)Ch 53 Aug 12th + A/N Aug 18th p. 14

Post by max and liz believer »

So... a little bird whispered in my ear that the 10 years anniversary for the airing of the first Roswell episode is coming up this year. After I'd gone "Oh my God, I'm so old" for about three minutes, I realized that I might just post this season 1 summary video I made a while back as a tribute.

Here's the link if anyone want to take a look

But to move on...

Laira
Em
Eve
scorpio6
Sara
coccy
nitpick23
Ginger
yayaliens
Amanda
Destiny
Roswell Fan Forever
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:For instance, here’s a pretty random observation I made that was actually pretty funny to me: how this party was being thrown at Ryan Anderson’s house and yet he didn’t seem to be in attendance. I looked for him specifically but he just didn’t seem to be there anywhere! :P
Haha, maybe he had enjoyed his own party a little too much and was too incapacitated by alcohol to take part in any of the games...
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:Thirdly, I have to say I think it was rather crappy how Maria kind of abandoned Liz after she all but dragged her downstairs with her into the basement where the real party was happening.
Yep, Maria was a bit too excited about being asked to play with the old kids to fully consider her own behaviour. She was after all only 15 (just like Liz) and fortunately she matured with time...
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:Please don’t ever think that I’m attacking your characters and that you need to “defend” them…well not Max or Liz anyway! :wink: (Nancy’s a different story, LOL.) I’d rather you felt like “explaining” them occasionally because it's fun rather than defending them (which doesn't sound fun :? ) because they don’t need defending from me!
Oh yes. Explaining is a better term there. I really don't feel like I need to defend my characters. I mean, if they mess up they have to suffer the consequences, right? :wink: It's just not right of me to defend them then :roll:
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:
max and liz believer wrote:Maybe I should write that chapter from Max's point of view. Haha. That would be chaotic. Poor Max. Can't make up his mind.
Oh I would LOVE to read that!!! :mrgreen: Please do seriously consider writing that Max POV of this sometime. I know others would enjoy reading it too!!!!
Well, then I'll certainly consider doing just that :D

Kris
suie
nibbles2
Tamashii
kismet
kismet wrote:I have also wonderd if Michael and Maria got married in some point and if yes, then when was it?
Aaah, right. Maybe I should cover that as well :roll:
Alison

and

Elisabeth

Let's go waaaaay far into the future, shall we?


Updated Timeline


54. Growing Pains

The Evans’ Residence
(2031) Max is 46, Liz is 45


She smiled as his arms wrapped around her waist from behind. The faint stubble on his cheek prickled her cheek as he placed his chin on her shoulder.

“Hey,” he mumbled and angled his head slightly to place a kiss behind her ear.

“Hey you,” Liz answered, putting the sliced cucumber into the salad bowl.

“Do you need any help?”

She shook her head. “Nah, I’ve got it under control. The lasagna is in the oven and I just have to cut up some tomatoes.”

He covered her hand that was holding the knife. “Let me do that.”

“Max, there’s no-“

“You’ve been on your feet all day. Go and sit down, Parker.”

Knowing that there was not really any idea fighting him, Liz nodded and let him take the knife out of her hand. She turned her head and kissed him softly and walked out of his embrace with a whispered “Thank you.”

Sitting down on one of the black bar chairs, she watched the broad back of her husband as he cut the tomatoes into wedges.

“How did it go for Zoe today?”

Liz supported her chin in her hand. “She was perfect.”

Max sent her a smile over his shoulder. “She always is.”

Liz jumped off the chair. “Yep.” She walked towards the oven, but only got halfway before Max grabbed her by the waist and spun her to face him.

Holding her tightly in his arms, he gave her a mischievous smile. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Looking innocent, Liz replied, “Just checking on the lasagna.”

Max bent down and kissed her slowly. Pulling back, his smile returned. “I thought I told you to sit down.”

She bit her bottom lip. “I guess I’m not that good at taking orders.”

“Ah,” Max laughed softly and kissed her again. “A confession.”

She locked her fingers behind his neck and leaned towards his lips. Nipping softly at them, she purred, “I’ve got some more in store.”

“Really?”

Liz nodded and ran her tongue across his bottom lip. “Uh-huh.”

He smiled. “Okay, so how about we-“

“Moooom. Daaaaaad.”

Liz bit her bottom lip in a typical ‘caught with her hand in the cookie jar’ expression and briefly met Max’s laughing eyes before turning her head to face her 13-year-old daughter.

Brianna looked appropriately annoyed at her parents’ non-parental behavior, her hands at her waist and a stern look in her dark brown eyes.

But as soon as Liz was about to address Brianna, Jacob Aston stepped around the corner.

Following the redirection of her mother’s eyes, Brianna sighed dramatically as she saw her best friend by her side.

“God, you’re so embarrassing,” she mumbled to Max and Liz. “Why can’t you be like other parents?”

Liz laughed. “We’ve never been like other parents. Why start now?”

Brianna rolled her eyes and decided to put it behind her. “Is it okay if we take the bus to the mall?”

“What about food?” Liz asked.

“We just ate something at the CrashDown.”

“Are you sure you want to do that, Aston?” Max addressed Jacob, a twinkle in his eye.

“Daaad,” Brianna whined, a fresh blush spreading across her cheeks.

Jacob laughed. “I think I can handle it.”

Liz subtly elbowed Max to silently suggest that he’d stop embarrassing their daughter. “You’ve got your phone?”

Brianna nodded. “Yeah, charged and everything.”

“Good,” Liz smiled and disentangled herself from her husbands embrace to pull her teenage daughter into a hug. “Have fun.”

Max put a firm hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “Look after her, okay?”

Brianna sighed. “Daaad. Pleease.”

“Of course, sir,” Jacob agreed.

Max shook his head. “I thought we’d been through this. Just Max. No ‘sir’. Makes me feel old.”

“No use denying what you are,” Brianna teased.

“God, you’ve created a monster,” Liz said to Max.

Max looked surprised. “I’ve created a monster? I thought we worked on that together.”

Brianna sighed again. “Oookay. There we go again.” Taking a firm hold of Jacob’s sleeve she started pulling him out of the kitchen. “Let’s go.”

Max reached out and grabbed his moody teenage daughter by the hand. “Hey.”

She obediently stopped, her eyes begging him to act normal.

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Bye Bribear.”

Her face softened and she offered him a small smile. “Bye.”

“Uhm…we’re gonna miss the bus,” Jacob mumbled behind Brianna and she nodded, pulling her hand out of her father’s grip.

“Love you,” she said to her parents, already halfway out the door.

Before they could respond, the door closed behind Brianna and they were alone once again.

Liz laughed and turned to smack Max over the chest. “You’re so evil!”

“What?” Max laughed back, even though he knew exactly what she was referring to.

“She’s a teenager now, Max. Right now you’re not her cool dad anymore. She’s becoming a young woman and as a result finds you pretty embarrassing.”

Max put a hand over his heart in a display of hurt. “Are you trying to tell me that I’ve finally managed to make a girl not adore me?”

She nodded seriously, laughter hidden in the corners of her mouth. “Yes. And you’re embarrassing her in front of Jacob.”

Max rolled his eyes. “So what? He’s known her for several years-“

“She has a crush on him,” Liz declared and watched the color drain from her husband’s face.

He started to shake his head. “No…no…”

Liz started to nod along with his shakes. “Yes…yes.”

“But she’s…she’s just a baby.”

Liz almost took pity on him. He had to start facing the rough truth; his girls were growing up. Even though he hadn’t said anything out loud she knew how much it bothered him to have to face the ugly truth that his girls were entering that dangerous adult world. Especially the world of boys. Liz suspected part of his fears was because he used to be one of those boys, the ones that went after the girls. So he knew exactly the situations his daughters could end up in.

And it scared him to death.

Putting her arms around his waist, she pressed her cheek against his chest and let her hands run soothingly up and down his back. “Not for much longer.”

Silence lowered itself over them for a couple of seconds, Max considering this new piece of information that his subconscious had already been suspecting but that he hadn’t dared to face.

“You really think she has a crush on him?”

“It’s obvious. She’s so different around him.”

“Maybe it’s just the way she’s around all of her friends.”

“No, it’s different. She puts on her nicest clothes. She had lip gloss on just now.”

“Hmm…” Max mumbled, laced with worry.

“And she gets so flustered.”

“Hmm,” Max said again.

Liz leaned back to look up at his thoughtful face. “She’s growing up, Evans.”

He looked down at her, nodded and took a deep breath. “I guess so.”

It was hard for him. Because even though Zoe was the oldest, she hadn’t really hung out much with boys. Zoe was completely committed to her dance and was so focused on taking care of school and keeping up with her training that boys rarely cluttered her busy mind.

Brianna was the opposite of Zoe. While Zoe had been calm and quiet as a baby, Brianna had been a fire cracker. She had colic as a baby and would cry inconsolably for hours. As a toddler she painted the walls with her crayons and as she got older she would put animals in her sister’s bed and cut the hair off all her Barbie dolls. While Zoe was more like a young Max, Brianna was more like a young Liz.

Zoe had gone through puberty much the same as the rest of the stages of her life; calmly. But apparently, Brianna was not to follow her sister’s example in that part of her life either.

Knowing what was on his mind, Liz rose on her toes and kissed him. “She’ll come back to us.”

He nodded. “I know.” But there was a fear in his eyes that she had never seen before.

“She’s such a good girl,” Liz added. “She’s just does everything…more.”

“And louder.”

Liz laughed. “And louder.”

Max looked down at her and it was visible on his face how he did his best to push away his worries. Concentrating on her again, he said, “I love you.”

She smiled. “Right back atcha.”

Straightening, he hitched his chin in the direction of the oven. “Shall we?”

Liz nodded. “I’ll get Zoe.”

He placed a quick kiss on her forehead. “Thanks.”
-------------------------------------------------------------
Two hours later

“So, how was the show, peanut?”

Zoe put a wild curl of hair behind her ear and tucked a well-trained leg underneath her body. “It was good.”

“I’m sorry I missed it.”

She shrugged and gave him a small smile. “It was just a try-out, dad.”

Max looked at his beautiful daughter regretfully. “Still. I wanted to be there.”

Zoe’s smile warmed. “Chill, dad. It’s okay.”

“Mom said you did really well.”

A blush of modesty grazed her cheeks and she dropped her head, letting her curly brown hair curtain the sides of her face as she refocused her concentration on her homework.

“What are you up to?” Max asked, taking a seat on the bed next to Zoe.

“Just homework,” Zoe answered.

“Oh,” Max said, pushed her hair off her right shoulder so that he could rest his chin there.

Zoe laughed. “Did you want something, Dad?”

“No,” Max answered casually. “Just hanging with my daughter.”

Shaking her head, Zoe put her book to the side and scooted around so that she was facing her father. “What’s up?”

“Well…”

“Is this about Bree?” Zoe asked, reading her father like an expert.

Max sighed in resignation. “Yes.”

“Don’t worry about her, Dad. She’s doing okay.”

“Do you know anything about her and Jacob?”

Zoe got straight to the point. “She’s in love with him.”

Max’s eyes widened. “That’s what Liz said.”

Zoe shrugged. “Mom’s right.”

“What does this mean?”

Zoe smiled. “It means…nothing right now. Bree hasn’t told Jacob how she feels and she doesn’t know if he feels the same about her.”

Max looked surprised. “She’s told you?”

Zoe nodded. “Of course. We do talk, you know.”

“I just didn’t know you were so close…you’re so different sometimes.”

“She’s still my sister.”

“I know.” Max sighed and raked his hands down his face. “Why can’t she just be as easy to deal with as you are?”

Zoe laughed good-naturedly and put her arms around her father. “Stop worrying, Dad. We’ve raised her well. She’s going to figure this out and come out on the right side.”

“Ha. Ha. I’ve raised a funny girl.”

“Soon you’ll be talking to her about me, trying to figure out who I have a crush on.”

Max pulled away and looked at his oldest daughter with wide eyes. “ What?!”

Zoe giggled. “Stop looking so shocked. Just because I haven’t dated yet doesn’t mean I’m immune to guys.”

Max looked even more shocked.

Before he had a chance to say anything, Zoe continued, “But if you have to know, there’s no boy in the picture and I’m still daddy’s girl.”

Max shook his head and chuckled at his own ridiculousness. “Shit. I can’t believe I’m breaking down like this. I’m the father. I should be listening to your problems, not the other way around.”

“Nah,” Zoe smiled. “I love our conversations. Besides, it’s a two-way street.”

Max’s face softened with love. He was so proud of his daughter. Both of them. Even though one was a mystery to him at the moment.

Patting her knee he rose from the bed. “Don’t study too late, butterfly.”

Her smile assured him that, “I won’t.”

He kissed her forehead. “Good night, beautiful.”

“Night.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
An hour later

“Mike, get down.”

Max held the bedroom door open for the dog who obediently left the bed and walked out the door. Closing the door behind the Labrador, Max started unbuttoning his shirt.

Liz, coming out from the adjoining bathroom in one of his football sweaters which reached her knees, started removing the excessive pillows from the bed while Max continued undressing.

“She’s back home.”

Liz smiled. “Of course she is. The mall closes at nine.”

“Yeah, I was just-“

Grabbing one edge of the bed spread each, they pulled back the cover.

“Worrying,” Liz filled in.

“Ever since you mentioned her having a crush on Jacob…”

She took a hold of the front of his boxers and pulled him towards her. “It’s just a crush, Max. It’s not like she’s suddenly gonna have sex.”

Max blanched. “Great… I hadn’t really thought that far yet.”

Liz looked slightly guilty. “Sorry, I thought that was why you were so upset about this.”

“No…well, yes… I guess-“

“Baby,” Liz whispered, kissing his words away. “She’s kinda like me when I was young. She’s a wild spirit.”

Max sighed. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Liz cocked her head and looked at him incredulously, but with humor in her eyes. “What, big boy?”

“I remember quite clearly what you were like when you were young.”

“Oh yes?”

“Yeah. And I really remember how that used to make me want you so badly. You being so…annoying…was a big turn-on.”

She raised an interested eyebrow. “Your point being…”

“That her being a wild spirit is going to make guys even more interested in her. She’ll be noticed. They’ll see her as a challenge, someone that they want to tame and-“

“She’s thirteen.”

“She’s gorgeous.”

“But just a kid.”

“You just said yourself earlier that she was growing into a young woman.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t equal that she’ll turn stupid. She’ll still make responsible decisions.”

“Like you, kitten?” Max asked, with a twinkle.

Liz rolled her eyes with a knowing smile. “Fine. So I wasn’t the best judge of character and if you hadn’t been there most of the time, I could’ve gotten myself into some big trouble. But I like to think that we’ve raised Bree differently. We’ve given her a solid foundation to stand on and supported her in everything she’s done. She knows when she’s out of line and she’s a really smart girl.”

Max relaxed a bit. “She is very smart.”

“-And she has Jacob-“

Max’s tenseness returned with full force. “And that’s a good thing?”

“Jacob’s her Max,” Liz said with a soft smile.

“You know, the Max I knew lost his virginity around Jacob’s age and wasn’t shy about spending a lot of time with girls.”

“The Max I knew always protected me. Was always there to stop me from making idiotic decisions and put up with me even though I was screaming at him.”

“He also took your virginity in a less commendable state when you were eighteen.”

Liz’s eyes softened. Max had never really gotten over that night. He had explained to her time and time again how it had been the most special night to him, but at the same time his most horrific. Because he took something from her when she was vulnerable. Something he had promised himself never to do.

But that only made Liz love him even more.

“You can’t stop it from happening, Max. Our girls are gonna grow up. They’re gonna fall in love. They’re gonna fall out love. They’re gonna have their hearts broken. They’re gonna get engaged, get married, have babies. And before they get to that state they might go through several boys. Some might not be so nice to them, other’s might treat them like princesses. All we can do is to support them through it. Let them know that if they fall, they can always come back to us and we’ll wipe their tears.”

“And thirteen is a good age for all of this to start?” Max asked, thinking that Liz was bringing up some good points but that it all sounded too soon for his baby girl to be going through all of that.

She shook her head. “No. I don’t. But maybe we should have that chat with her.”

Max sighed, knowing exactly what ‘chat’ she was talking about. The Talk. They’d had it with Zoe, but it had run so smoothly that it felt like they hadn’t even been talking about sex.

Brianna might be another deal altogether.

“Yeah, I think it’s time,” Max nodded.

Liz looked at him lovingly, brushed her hand down his tanned arm and let it land in his hand. Lacing her fingers with his, she pulled him towards the bed. “Relax, Evans.”

A reluctant smile briefly grazed his lips before he crawled into bed next to his wife. Pulling her close, shaping his body around hers, he kissed the sensitive spot behind her ear. “What would I ever do without you, kitten?”

“You would still be amazing,” Liz answered.

“I doubt it,” he said. “You are what makes me who I am.”

“Only because you showed me how.”

He laughed. The laughter deep and throaty against her ear. “You’ve got a point.”

Her head shook slightly, indicating the shaking of her head in disbelief. “You’re not supposed to agree with me.”

He kissed along the pulse down her neck. “Oops…Right.”

Liz laughed softly. “Good night.”

“Night, princess.”


TBC...
Last edited by max and liz believer on Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE)Chapter 54 Aug 18th p. 14

Post by max and liz believer »

Hello everyone

I thought it was about time for another update.

Laira
sunrise102
kismet

kismet wrote:I wonder how Michael took that that they named the dog after him
:D It'll be explained...

yayaliens
yayaliens wrote:ps the video you made was AMAZING!!
*muah* Thank you!

Kris
scorpio6
Roswell Fan Forever

Roswell Fan Forever wrote:First of all, I’m anxious to watch the Season 1 video you made, as I’m sure it’s really extraordinary. :mrgreen: But unfortunately, I’m probably one of the few people left out there who still only has a dial-up modem, and it just takes FOREVER for me to download anything. And since right now I just simply don’t have the time nor the patience to wait for the video to load for me on youtube, I’m hoping you’ll leave it up long enough for me to have a chance to see it some day soon when I am able to make the time to load it and view it…especially since I’m sure I’ll totally love it as much as I love this fic.
Oh no! You're still cursed with a dial-up? I remember that time... it sucked. So yes, I completely understand that you don't have the patient to load the video. The video will remain on youtube (as long as youtube doesn't remove it) so if you're able to watch it in the future, it'll be there :)
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:So I have to ask. What does Max do for a living?
It will all be revealed...in a later chapter...that I still haven't written... But at least I know what their professions are, that's good right? :roll:
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:I have to admit, though, as I was reading the part, that I just had this awful feeling that you were going to spring some kind of true angst upon us. After all, right now their life just seems so picture perfect, that I kept waiting for the shoe to drop and squish – or at the very least, distort - that perfect life. Thankfully that didn’t happen. (Not this update anyways. :razz: But don’t you go getting any ideas now!)
Hmm...weeeell... I won't say too much, but I'll say this; Don't we all agree that Max and Liz have had enough angst in their lives as it is? But of course, I can't give you any guarantees.
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:I always wished I’d had that kind of relationship with my own sister as we were growing up – but I’m quite a bit older than her and that kind of interfered.
Yep, I'm kinda in the same position. There's 12 years between my sister and I, she's just entering her teens right now, I've missed 5 years of her "growing up"-years and that kinda sucks. But we're working on it now. Instead I was surrounded by boys growing up - three brothers. Now we're three girls and four boys :roll:
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:Television writers could learn a thing or two from writers like you.
<3 <3 <3

Sara
nibbles2
Destiny
Alien_Friend
Natalie
Ms_BuffyAnneSummers
Ruth
Emma
keepsmiling7
coccy
Kay
moomin

moomin wrote:I'm coming out of lurkdom to say that I love this story!
Thank you!
moomin wrote:I especially love the poetic justice of Jeff leaving Nancy for another woman! All those years Nancy had said Liz was unable to keep a man and lo and behold she can't keep her own.
Haha, not even I had realised that poetic justice. But yes, that's completely right.
moomin wrote:OK, so Max was in love with Tess, but arguing with Liz was one of the main things that kept him going after his mother died. Did he really love Tess? Or did he kind of settle for her?
Okay, to Max, Liz was always off limits. As the little sister of his best friend, there was always something that stopped him from letting himself realise that he had more than friendly feelings for Liz. He did have strong feelings for her for a long time, but for the longest time he told himself that they were feelings of responsibility and looking after her. But even if he did feel some small part of (non-platonic) love for Liz, he never thought he stood a chance. Liz clearly hated him - in his eyes. She did a very good job at making sure that he thought she detested him. So he just had to push those whatever feelings he had for her to the side and continue on with his life.

He didn't necessarily "settle" for Tess. He actually did have feelings for her. But you can love people on different levels, in different amounts. The love he had for Liz, the strong feelings he was trying to push away, were so much stronger than what he had for Tess. But being with Tess was not off limits and it was safe. It didn't contain any big, "scary" feelings. The probability of him getting hurt were smaller and she actually appeared to like him. :roll: Does that make any sense?
moomin wrote:Also do they ever talk about what Tess said to make Liz cry? It's obvious Liz found it extremely painful to hear Max refer to her as flat-chested with an 'awful personality'. Several years later she's reeling it off verbatim when she sees Max after Michael hit him. And she uses Tess as a reason to not let him close...
Hmm...I dunno... maybe :wink: Nah, they have. They eventually go through most of their history, in small conversations here and there over the years. Maybe I'll let you see/read that conversation one day.

Tanya- Hey! You're back :D! I've missed you
Tamashii

and

Elizabeth


Updated Timeline


55. A Brush with Adulthood
The Parkers’ Residence
(2003) Max is 17, Liz is 16


“Elizabeth, go and wash up. We’re having someone over for dinner.”

Liz let her school bag slide off her shoulder and drop to the floor with a thud. “Who?”

“Some acquaintances of ours,” Mrs. Parker answered fleetingly.

Liz narrowed her eyes. Her mother’s evasive behavior immediately raised her suspicions that she was not going to like this. “I have a lot to do for school.”

“You have to eat,” Nancy said.

“I’m not that hungry.”

Nancy’s eyes grew colder and she fastened her eyes in her daughter. “Elizabeth. This is not an option. You’re having dinner. End of conversation.”

Liz sighed. “Fine.”

As she walked upstairs to take a quick shower, she was certain that she was going to regret that she hadn’t put up more of a resistance against her mother. It wasn’t really the fact that her mother’s dinner parties were about as much fun as pulling out teeth that bothered her. It was the nagging feeling that her mother was going to play another game of matchmaking.

Over the last year, her mother had been adamant at trying to find a suitable boyfriend for Liz. Liz never really understood why there was such a hurry to start with since she was only sixteen, but her mother was almost frantic in finding a proper future husband for Liz.

And her mother didn’t disappoint.

As Liz walked downstairs to the dinner table one hour later, William Stanwood rose from his seat, together with his parents, to greet her arrival.

Liz sighed internally. William didn’t attend Roswell High, but had been shipped off to boarding school at a quite early age. That didn’t mean she didn’t know who he was. His family was extremely wealthy and Nancy had made sure that Liz had met William already when he was a little boy. Liz was sure it was an attempt to get Michael and her to play with the rich kids instead of low scum like Max Evans.

Truth be told, she hadn’t like William when he was six, she probably wouldn’t like him now either.

“Oh, Elizabeth,” Mrs. Stanwood gushed. “You’ve grown up into an exceptionally beautiful woman.” Turning to Nancy, Mrs. Stanwood continued, “You must be so proud, Nancy.”

Nancy smiled warmly, seeing her daughter through Mrs. Stanwood’s eyes. “I am. I am.”

Liz felt the heat rise on her cheeks. She was not used to being complimented. Especially not in front of the watchful eyes of a boy.

“Isn’t she gorgeous, Will?” Mrs. Stanwood continued and Liz felt her cheeks grow even hotter as she ventured a glance in William’s direction.

There was an almost smug expression on his face. As if he knew that this was a set up by his mother, which inadvertently meant that the beautiful woman his mother was talking about was meant for him.

Like she was a trophy or something.

A cold chill passed through her body as his eyes raked down her body.

“Very beautiful,” William agreed in a low tone.

“Marvelous,” Mr. Stanwood said with finality, pointing towards the seats. “Shall we eat? I’m starving.”

“George!” Mrs. Stanwood erupted with an embarrassed smile before addressing Nancy. “My sincere apologies about my husband.”

This was followed by some good-natured laughter around the table, which had Liz fighting nausea spells. Oh God.

An evening of bad polite jokes and fake laughter awaited.

Her mother pointed to the seat next to William and Liz blanched. “You are to sit here, Elizabeth.”

Knowing that she would be making a scene if she asked to sit somewhere else, Liz nodded quietly and took a seat.

His aftershave was empowering as she discreetly, in the process of pulling her chair in, scooted the chair as far away from him as possible.

As the conversation continued around them, William leaned in towards her and said in a low voice, “You certainly grew up nicely, Elizabeth.”

Not even attempting to give him a smile, Liz merely glanced at him and mumbled, “Thank you.”

Noticing her aloof behavior, William’s tone shifted from seductive to polite, “Look. We both know what our parents are trying to do here. I just want to let you know that I’m very much against this stuff. I actually have a girlfriend already, even though my mom doesn’t acknowledge her.”

Feeling an odd sense of relief wash over her, Liz looked over at her seating partner with warmth in her eyes. “I so know what that’s like.”

Seeing that he was getting through to her, William served her a dazzling smile. “Yeah? You have a boyfriend?”

Not realizing he was fishing for information, rather than innocently sharing facts, Liz shook her head. “Nah. But my mom is…” her voice lowered to a whisper so that her mother wouldn’t somehow hear, “…extremely controlling when it comes to guys.”

He nodded, understanding on his face. “Which is why we’re here.”

“Exactly.”

Liz had no problems talking to William after that. There was still something about him that rubbed her the wrong way, but she kept telling herself that it was his private school aura that was annoying her and not the fact that he at one point brushed his hand against her thigh or that when he leaned in to whisper in her ear, she could feel his hot breath against her skin.

For one evening she wanted to give up her paranoia that all guys had a secret agenda and just talk to someone that wasn’t Michael or Max. She needed some variation in life, really. That’s what was going on here.

Variation.

As the evening was getting closer to the end, Liz excused herself to go the bathroom.

Walking out of the bathroom, she really hadn’t expected William to be standing there. “Oh hey. Did you need to use the bathroom?”

He looked at her intently, not saying a word, and Liz felt her heart automatically speed up. For some reason, she suddenly felt threatened.

“Let’s be honest, Elizabeth,” William said.

When he didn’t elaborate, Liz frowned, unconsciously pressing up against the wall to increase the distance between them. “About what?”

“There’s this attraction between us,” William continued.

Liz looked at him incredulously and a nervous laughter passed her lips. “Come on…”

He took two steps and closed the distance between them, pressing his body up against hers.

“What are you doing?” she snapped, the break in her voice revealing her fear.

His breath was sickeningly warm against her face as she tried to pull to the side to get away from him. But his hands came up to grab her by the upper arms, stopping her.

“Let me go!” Liz growled, trying to sound as menacing as possible.

Using his body to keep her trapped against the wall, he released his grip on her left arm and instead pushed his hand between their bodies.

“Nooo,” Liz whimpered, struggling with everything that she had to get free.

“You’re a fucking tease, aren’t you?” William ground out, an excited shallowness to his voice as his hand moved down the front of her pants. At her struggling and his intrusion, the button at the front of her pants fell out, falling to the floor unnoticed.

Liz gasped, tears rolling down her face. She wanted to scream for help, but something stopped her. Maybe it was the fear that her mother would take William’s side when she tried to tell her what had happened. Or maybe it was an aversion to disappointing the Stanwoods when they had just hours ago complimented her on her beauty.

Either way, there was not much rational thinking running through her head at that moment as William’s fingers brushed down inside her panties, touching her in a way no one had been allowed to before.

“Nooo!” she erupted and got her leg loose enough to jam her knee up his groin.

He yelped, quickly pulling his hand out of her panties. That second of distraction was all she needed and she turned to the bathroom where she quickly locked the door.

Her hands were shaking as she back away from the door, slowly sitting down on the edge of the bathtub.

She waited for a sound outside the door, even expected him to try and break in, but there was nothing. And with a part of her innocence lost, she started crying.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“William.”

William turned, surprised at seeing Nancy Parker on the second floor. He had just been close to getting a little something from her daughter, seeing Mrs. Parker right now was like getting hosed down with cold water.

“Mrs. Parker,” he offered with a polite smile.

“Could I have a word?” Mrs. Parker said, a tenseness to her mouth that sent William clear warning signs.

Looking around him, as if to see if Elizabeth would step out from the shadows somewhere and tell her mother what he had done, William’s eyes settled on Nancy’s face a couple of seconds later.

With an easy smile, he answered, “Of course, Mrs. Parker.”

Stepping up to him, Nancy Parker’s eyes were cold as she took a closer look at the young man. “I guess you know the reason why I invited you and your family to my house.”

Trying to read her face, William started to feel very uncomfortable when he was completely unsuccessful. Swallowing deeply, he tried his best to act casual, adding an easy polite laughter for good measure. “Well, I presume the reason was to pair up Elizabeth and I.”

“Precisely,” Nancy agreed. “Now, what gave you the idea that me introducing you to Elizabeth gave you the right to assault her?”

William blinked. “Excuse me?” He couldn’t have heard that right.

“I saw you, William. I saw you forced my daughter up against the wall and touch her against her will.”

William paled. “No…no. With all due respect, Mrs. Parker, you must be mistaken.”

Her face hardened another degree as she narrowed her eyes. “Are you calling me a liar?”

William was very close to becoming a stuttering fool. “No…no, of course not. I would never- Of course not.”

“Do you realize what this could do to your family if this got out?” Nancy asked.

“Please, Mrs. Parker. I thought she had feelings for me too-“

“Don’t you even try to pull that crap on me!”

William took a step back. He had never been so scared of a person in his whole sheltered life.

“I want you to stay away from my girl,” Nancy said in a low tone. “I don’t want you to speak of her or what you did to any of your friends. Because believe me, I will find out.”

“Mrs. Parker, I’m really sorry if-“

“Shut your mouth!”

William swallowed, took another step backwards and nodded.

“I will have a chat with your parents and I’m sure we can-“

“No, please don’t, Mrs. Parker. I promise I won’t get anywhere close to Elizabeth again-“

Nancy looked at the polished boarding school student incredulously. “Do you really believe that I will just let you go after how you treated my daughter?” Gesturing down the hall, where Liz was still in the bathroom, Nancy continued, “That’s my baby in there. That’s my flesh and blood. You just forced yourself on her and you think I’m going to let it go unpunished so that you can go and treat other young women the same way?”

“I assure you, Mrs. Parker, this is just a big misunderstand-“

“Now,” Nancy interrupted. “This is what we’re going to do. We’re going to walk downstairs and then you are going to tell your parents what happened. You’re going to apologize for what you did and then you’re going to leave. Is that clear?”

William looked like he was about to faint at any moment and with his last strength he nodded.

As Liz was crying in the bathroom, Nancy and William walked downstairs. As Liz carefully unlocked the door and peeked down the hallway to ascertain that she was alone, a shocked Mr. and Mrs. Stanwood apologized to Nancy for their son’s behavior. As Liz made her way to her brother’s room, which was the only place she felt safe, an embarrassed Mr. and Mrs. Stanwood said goodbye to Nancy and led their chastised son out the front door.

As Liz hugged her brother’s pillow to her chest, lying curled up in the middle of the king sized bed, her mother poured herself a gin and tonic.

Liz would never find out what her mother had witnessed and had done as a result of it.

Maybe if she had, their relationship would have improved.

Nancy Parker never went to comfort Liz. She never went to tell her that she had thrown that guy out. Turning of the lights downstairs, Nancy Parker instead went to bed.
----------------------------------------------------
One hour later

Clink.

Liz almost jumped out of her skin at the sound. Her eyes flew open and she blinked in the darkness that greeted her. The night’s events slammed into her like a train and she quickly realized where she was.

Michael’s room.

Clink-clink.

On shaky legs, she got up from the bed and walked up to the window. Pulling the curtain just enough to the side to look out it was with very mixed emotions she saw Max’s shape outside the window, his arm positioned to throw another pebble on the window.

She only looked out for a second, but it was enough for Max to spot her.

“Shit,” she murmured and let the curtain fall back in place as she started walking back towards the bed.

Another two pebbles connected with the window pane and Liz pulled her knees higher up towards her chest as she rolled herself into a tight fetal position in the middle of Michael’s bed.

“Go away,” she whispered to the darkness surrounding her.

The pebble rain stopped and for moment Liz thought her prayers had been answered.

But then she heard shuffling sound outside the window, getting louder and louder, followed by a knock on the window.

“Fuck,” she murmured.

She had forgotten that it was very easy to climb up to Michael’s window and that’s how Michael had escaped curfew on more than one occasion.

“Liz!” came a soft hiss through the window.

She squeezed her eyes tightly together and tried to telepathically send him images of death and gore so that he would leave.

But either she wasn’t very good at telepathy or Max wasn’t very responsive, because he kept calling her name and knocking on the window.

With a groan, she pulled herself of the bed and pulled the curtain away with a sharp tug, revealing Max’s face on the other side of the window.

Smiling at her lightly, he looked at her expectantly.

With anger in her eyes, she unlocked the window and pushed it upwards.

“Hey Mike,” Max said. “You’ve changed since I last saw you.”

She grimaced. “Funny. Now could you please go away?”

Before she had a chance to close the window again, he pushed a leg through and with practiced ease he was inside the room within three seconds.

She looked at him with a ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’-expression on her face. “Mike’s not home yet. How about you guys use your cell phones? That way you would know if the other was home before you go breaking into their house.”

“Are you okay?”

His question came out of nowhere and Liz froze. In her frustration to get him to go away she hadn’t noticed how the triumphant Max-smile had slipped off his face while she spoke or how worry had entered his eyes as he scanned her red eyes and her flustered cheeks.

“I will be if you leave,” Liz got out, proud over herself for not breaking down. She had the strongest impulse to bury her face in his chest and let him comfort her.

“Did something happen? Are your parents okay?”

Her laughter sounded fake even to her ears. “Of course they’re okay.”

Unconsciously, he put his hand on her shoulder in some act of comfort and didn’t realize he had touched her until Liz jumped away from him. “Don’t touch me.”

He looked at her oddly. “Sorry, I-“

“Could you just leave? Please. Just leave.”

He observed her carefully, his eyes running down her body, unconsciously looking for any physical injuries . Just anything that could explain why she looked scared to death right now. His eyes fell on the broken button to her pants and a chill went through him.

But a broken button didn’t mean anything, right? He had lots of pants with missing buttons.

Although, the difference here was that Liz had servants to fix her buttons and why would she put on a pair of pants with a missing button when she was otherwise pretty dressed up? It looked like she was going out for dinner. Except for the fact that her hair was in a mess and her eyes were swollen.

“Did you go somewhere tonight?” he wondered.

“Max?” Liz said, looking serious.

“Yes?”

“Go away.”

“Kitten,” he said softly, seriousness in his face. “There’s obviously something wrong here. And I get if you don’t want to talk to me about it. But you…you look scared. And I don’t want to leave you here when you’re scared.”

She laughed humorlessly. “I’m not scared.”

He huffed. “You’re terrified.”

“Maybe I’m scared because someone climbed through the window in the middle of the night.”

He shook his head. “No.” Cocking his head to the side, he observed her closely. “That’s not it.”

“You’re freaking me out, Max,” Liz mumbled.

“You don’t have to tell me what’s wrong, but if you want me to stay, I will.”

God, how she wanted him to stay. Desperately so. Even though he was an ass to her most of the time, she knew that he wouldn’t hurt her. And he would beat William to a bloody pulp if he decided to return and claim his trophy.

But she was too proud to admit weakness to Max. “What part of ‘go away, Max’ didn’t you understand?”

“Why are you in Michael’s room?”

“I got tired of my own room.”

“He approves of you just changing rooms like that?”

“He doesn’t mind.”

“So if he comes home with a girl right now, he would still let his baby sister stay in the room?”

She scrunched up her nose at the mention of another girl and the thought of what it meant that her brother would bring one home. “Ew.”

Max shrugged. “I’m just saying. It’s Friday evening. He’s probably on the prowl.”

“He doesn’t bring girls home. He wouldn’t have sex here.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “How’d you know?”

Liz folded her arms defiantly across her chest. “I just do.”

“Aha,” Max said unconvinced.

Looking back at Michael’s bed, Liz didn’t really feel like laying down there anymore. Turning to face Max’s smug face, she was infused with a sudden anger. Max had just destroyed her one and only secure zone.

“I’m gonna go back to my room now. You can let yourself out.”

Max grabbed a hold of her hand and her breath caught in her throat, the memory of being trapped not too long ago being too fresh in her mind.

“Let me go,” she whispered, the fear coloring her voice.

At the sound of her voice, he did just that. Immediately. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”

“My mom would kill you.”

She couldn’t believe she was actually considering letting Max stay, but the fear of being alone again was making her heart beat so fast she thought she might faint.

“She won’t know,” Max said to her back.

Swallowing her pride, Liz turned to face her brother’s best friend. “Could you stay for just a little while? Until I’ve fallen asleep?”

The concern in his eyes was achingly clear this time as her words confirmed to him that something had happened. “Of course, kitten.”

A tear of relief slipped down her cheek and she nodded. Straightening her back to not lose all of her self-pride, she said, “Only until I’ve fallen asleep.”

“Yeah,” he agreed.

Liz took one long look at him before she walked towards the door. She could hear him following her as she quietly walked down the dark hallway towards her room. As she entered it, she realized that she still needed to change into her pajamas and brush her teeth.

Standing awkwardly at the entrance to her room, Max watched in silence as Liz picked up a tank top and some shorts from her chair and disappeared into the adjoining bathroom.

He stood there until she reappeared five minutes later.

There was a sharp ache in his chest at the sight of her, dressed in what she normally slept in, looking so small and unLiz-like as she tentatively looked at him standing at the door.

“Uhm…I’ve got a sleeping bag.”

Max nodded. “Okay, sure.”

“Sorry, there’s an extra mattress in the guestroom, but it’s next to my parents’ bedroom so-“

Max smiled at her. “That’s okay. A sleeping bag is perfect. I’m not staying too long anyway.”

Fear flashed in her eyes until she realized that only staying until she had fallen asleep had been her own condition.

He saw the shift in her eyes and he took a couple of steps into the room. “I could stay longer if you-“

“No,” she said quickly and then attempted a light laugh. “No.”

He shrugged, trying to act unaffected. “Okay.”

Taking a deep breath, Liz pulled the covers off her bed and buried herself underneath the layers of protective sheets. She heard Max unroll the sleeping bag next to her bed and looking down in the soft glow of the nightstand lamp, she watched him lay down on top of it.

“Where is Michael tonight?” Max wondered.

Happy for the distraction, Liz said, “I thought he was with you.”

“Obviously not.”

“Don’t you have any communication with each other? You, as his best friend, should know where he is, shouldn’t you?”

Max looked at her incredulously. “Note there, best friends, not his mother.”

“I’m sure Mother doesn’t know where he is either.”

“I hope not.”

Liz folded her elbow under her head and positioned herself on her side to look down at him. “You really think he’s out with some girl?”

“Are you trying to tell me that you think your brother is some innocent romantic guy that takes girls on several dates before asking them to come home with him?”

Liz swallowed. Considering her own brush with the reality of horny boys earlier that night, this conversation had a different effect on her than it normally would, realizing that her own brother might be very similar to William in his behavior.

“He wouldn’t…I mean, if she didn’t want to, he wouldn’t…” Her voice trailed off as the memories took a hold of her.

“What do you mean?” Max asked, feeling that their conversation had taken a dangerous turn.

“If she said ‘no’, he wouldn’t…continue, would he?”

Max felt his heart skip a beat. “You mean, force her?”

Liz turned on her back so that Max lost the connection with her face and he watched her pull the sheet up to her chin. “Yeah.”

“No,” Max whispered. “No, he would never do that. Mike’s a good guy. He likes to have fun with girls, but they’re always in on it.”

She nodded. Her voice was thin as she asked, “Like you?”

He sat up, causing her to look in his direction. With fire in his eyes, he replied, “Yes, I like to have fun with girls too. But I would never touch them if they didn’t agree to.”

She seemed relieved by this. “Okay.”

“Liz…” his voice was unsure, but determined, “You know I wouldn’t hurt you, right?”

“Why do you say that?”

“Whatever…happened…to you earlier… I would never force you.”

She laughed lightly, a tinge of fear and hysteria in the laughter. “Why would you want to force me to do anything?”

She couldn’t imagine Max thinking of her as anything else than his best friend’s little sister. Why would he even mention ever doing anything remotely related to anything but that?

Steering away from the direction the conversation had taken, Max pulled himself together. “I’m just saying.”

She sent him an odd look, but his facial expression was hidden in the shadows. “I’m tired. I’m gonna go to sleep.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Uhm…” she said haltingly. “Thanks for staying.”

He smiled softly. “No problems, kitten. Just stay on your side, huh? Don’t try anything.”

She rolled her eyes, his light words dissipating the previous conversation. “I can’t promise anything.”

Surprised by her flirtatious words, knowing that they were mostly used to save face and return the joke, Max reached out and turned off the lamp.

In the darkness that lowered itself over them, Max watched Liz’s profile until he could hear her breathing even out.


TBC...
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Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE)Chapter 55 Aug 26th p. 17

Post by max and liz believer »

First of all, thank you so much to those ones of you that participated in the Support Stacie Auction. Roswell Fan Forever happens to give the winning bed, so I guess I'm your bitch now RFR :wink: You can decide exactly what I should write.

On another note...here's the new chapter


Laira
Natalie
Ms_BuffyAnneSummers
mary
Emma
Eve
begonia9508 wrote:I wonder what kind of family Nancy had! :? :(
Well, not a very good one...

scorpio6
scorpio6 wrote:I know I have many questions, but their dysfunctional relationship is so interesting to me especially now with this twist.
I love your questions. "Unfortunately", Nancy is still a mystery. I'm glad that you (among others) picked up on the fact that Nancy saw the incidence but didn't actually stop it. She "only" talked to the boy afterwards. There's many possible reasons to that, but it all comes down to that she let her daughter handle the situation alone before she herself intervened. But that doesn't mean that if Liz hadn't managed to get herself out of that position, Nancy wouldn't have intervened. I mean, she wouldn't stand there and just let something worse happen, would she?

Alien_Friend - Thank you for the bids! :D
Kris
Kay
coccy
coccy wrote:Firstly, what happened to Liz is horrible. I'm glad that the guy didn't rape her but i also think that what happened there deeply affected her for a while and it's one of the things that together created her insecure and fragile personality.
Yep, hit the nail on that one.
coccy wrote:anyway i always suspected that behind Nancy's behavior toward Liz there are issues linked to Nancy's past. I mean...maybe her own mother was like her or even worse?
The apple usually doesn't fall very far from the tree. Good observation!

yayaliens
sunrise102
Roswell Fan Forever

Roswell Fan Forever wrote:I have to say as I was reading this part, I found my dislike for Nancy growing even deeper, which quite honestly I didn’t think was even possible. :roll: But now I have to say I’m pretty close to completely hating her. :x
Haha, I knew you would not be so easily convinced :roll:
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:When William was – as Nancy said – “assaulting” her “flesh and blood”, the whole time I kept hoping that Max – or even Michael (since he still lived there) – would show up in time to rescue her…but alas, no such luck. Then to find out after the fact that Nancy could have rescued her but didn’t???!!! What the hell is the matter with that woman???!!! I just don’t get her. She obviously had the maternal potential within her to be fiercely protective of her daughter – judging by the threatening way she dealt with William after Liz kneed him and ducked into the safety of the bathroom to get away from him. So why did Nancy let things go as far as they did between William and Liz? I mean, Nancy told him: “I saw you forced my daughter up against the wall and touch her against her will.” She SAW him…but did nothing to help Liz. GAWD!!!!
Maybe by now it's getting a bit clear that I usually don't write stuff just for the fun of it. There's very likely a possible reason to why Nancy reacted the way she did - or didn't react in this case. With the risk of explaining my characters, there's the chance (in the ultimate backwards manner that is Nancy Parker) that the reason for her not intervening was to let Liz handle it herself and "grow" from the experience. Now, that reason alone pisses me off as well so it's not like it's the best reason and it certainly doesn't give many excuses for Nancy's behaviour. But Nancy is a pretty messed up individual. She does what she thinks is right out of her own repertoire of "How to raise children", which is not the best one. She's trying to make Liz strong and independent, she's just have a really really awful wrong way of doing that.
Roswell Fan Forever wrote:I’m with Liz here. Given their relationship so far, and the fact that neither has openly indicated they’d like to pursue a more romantic relationship – despite them having sexual chemistry galore – it did seem a bit odd for Max to say something like that at that time unless he had been trying to date her and she'd declined and he just wanted to reassure her he wouldn’t hurt her or pressure her or take advantage of her if she were to start dating him. But to my knowledge (of the snapshots we’ve been shown so far), he hadn’t ever asked her out or even acted like he wanted to. So I myself am a bit confused here as to why he’d say this.
Yes, it might seem a bit odd for Max to say that, but he was kinda saying it according to his feelings. I'm not sure how to explain it. In Max's world, he will never be in a relationship with Liz. She's off boundaries. But by saying that, he wanted to kinda show her that, if given the chance, he would never exploit Liz like that, or any other girl for that matter. He wanted to show her that there's some good guys out there and that what happened to her was not acceptable at the same time as he was trying to defend the underlying hypothesis that just because he was labeled a player, he didn't have any morals and could possibly act the way William just did. That probably didn't make much sense (I've just woken up so my mind is very blurred).

Lessie
Destiny
destinyc wrote:I'm glad Max stayed even after Liz's first attempts at ridding herself of his presence. I'm a bit surprised that Max didn't try to wheedle more info out of Liz and go kick the wanker's ass.
Hehe, yeah, maybe he should've. But he redeems himself by kicking Sean's ass later... :roll:

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- Hi, welcome to this fic! Thank you for the feedback :D
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and

Elizabeth - for editing <3

All of you, thank you so much for the feedback. It means the world to me.


Updated Timeline

56. The Morning After

Wisconsin, December 26th
(2004) Max is 19, Liz is 18


“Liiiz! Huuurry up!”

Michael turned to Max with a patent irritated look. “Be grateful you don’t have a sister, man.” Focusing on pushing a suitcase into the boot of the car, Michael grumbled under his breath, “Why do they need so much time in the bathroom anyway?”

Max looked over at the open front door, his heart skipping oddly in his chest as he waited to see Liz appear. He couldn’t deny that he was quite relieved about her tardiness, but with every ticking second his agitation also grew. In those twenty minutes that the boys waited for Liz, Max managed to imagine every single possible scenario about how Liz would act when she came face to face with him.

He felt his heart hammer to a stop as she appeared in the doorway, her head bent and her wet hair shielding her face from him.

“Sorry,” she mumbled to her brother and hurried into the car.

Michael frowned. “What the hell…?”

Max felt his heart disconnect from its position in his chest and plummet. He could feel Michael’s eyes on him.

“What’s up with her?”

Mustering up a casual expression, Max managed to get his paralyzed body to produce a shrug. “I haven’t got the faintest idea…”

“Fine,” Michael sighed and crammed the last bag into the trunk. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Max made his way over to the driver’s seat, trying to inconspicuously get a glimpse of Liz while he passed the back seat window.

His hand was shaking as he pulled the door open and his emotions twisted up even more as he entered the suffocating atmosphere inside the car.

“Did you sleep okay?”

He almost kicked himself as the words left his mouth. Did you sleep okay? What the hell kind of question was that? It would give him about as much information as asking her if the earth was round would. There were a million questions clogging up his mind right now. And Did you sleep okay? was certainly not one of them.

Are you okay?

Why did you leave?

Was that it?

Are we just going back to being friends now?

Was I too rough?

Are you in pain?

Do you love me?

But he couldn’t ask her that. He couldn’t. Even if Michael hadn’t been there, about to step into the car at any second, it was clear from Liz’s body language that she wouldn’t give him the answers he so desperately needed right now.

“Yeah,” she answered quietly and he couldn’t help but watch her face intently in the rearview window. Wanting to get a glimpse of something. Something that would answer any of the questions he had.

But her face was carefully hidden from his probing eyes; seemingly intent on checking her phone for messages.

They both jumped as Michael tore the door open.

“Fuck,” he mumbled. “Next time, we’re taking my car. I could barely fit all of our crap in the back.”

Suddenly mauled by the tension in the car, Michael looked to the back of the car, to the mere shadow of his sister. “And what the fuck is up with you?”

Reacting to Michael’s harsh and irritated tone of voice, Max practically snapped, “Leave her alone.”

Michael frowned. “Eh…okay? What…?”

Max cursed under his breath for losing his temper and instead turned his attention to turning the ignition. “She’s just…had a rough night.”

He glanced in the rearview mirror as he said this and caught Liz’s eyes as she looked up, unreadable emotions swimming in her eyes as they connected for a few heartbeats. The brief glimpse cut through him like a blazing fire.

Michael turned worried. “What happened?”

Liz dropped her head again and Max managed to catch his breath long enough to answer, “She was worried about you, you idiot. Being trapped in the snow and what not.”

Michael shrugged, even though Max suspected he was touched that his sister cared so much, “Hey…that was nothing.” Looking back at his sister, he added, “I told you I was fine on the phone.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Liz said weakly. “Could we get on with it? I need to get home on time.”

Max nodded to himself and put the gear in drive.

As they turned out of the driveway, Michael turned in his seat, “Sorry sis. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

“S’okay.”

Max swallowed, a chill going through him at the sound of her voice. She was barely a shell of the woman she normally was.

And that was all his fault.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Two hours later

Max opened the door to the back seat, feeling the surprised eyes of Liz Parker snap to his face. “Hey…”

She almost looked scared. “What are you doing?”

Max chose to ignore her terrified voice and took a seat, closing the door after him.

A backpack in the middle of the backseat was the only thing separating them.

“Are you okay?”

She looked ready to bolt and Max’s body tightened in preparation to throw himself across the separating bag and grab her before she could run.

At least, that’s what he was telling himself he would do. If it actually happened, he wasn’t so sure he would have the guts.

“I’m fine.”

“Okay,” he whispered. “Okay.”

“Is that all?” she wondered, a weak hint of dismissal in her voice.

He nodded, deciding that that was probably all. He wouldn’t pressure her. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk to him.

He turned in his seat to open the door, but as soon as his fingers hooked into the door handle he changed his mind. Before he had time to regret or analyze what he was about to do, he faced her once again. “Actually. No.”

“Okay,” she whispered and he wanted nothing more than to actually leave her alone. Because he had a feeling that his presence right now was making matters worse.

But he couldn’t let this be.

“Okay,” he echoed, feeling the cold sweat break out on his forehead.

For God’s sake, he was a wreck.

Really making an effort to pull himself together, Max straightened in his seat. “I get that you probably don’t want to talk about this, but…” He swallowed, watching her turn away from him.

His eyes landed on her trembling hands, which were fisted in her lap, and for some reason it relaxed him some. At least she wasn’t completely unaffected by all of this.

“About last night-“

“Max, please,” she whispered, staring at the hands in her lap.

“If you don’t want to talk about it,” he said softly, “you don’t have to say a word. But just let me say this, okay?”

He waited for her approval and by her weak nod he continued, “Last night was… “ He took a deep breath. Fantastic. Amazing. The best night of his life. Magic. Just perfect. “It was your first time…”

She looked like she wanted to sink through the car seat and disappear beneath the car. She turned her head away from him and looked out the window at the gas station, perhaps trying to will her brother to return from paying for the gas so that Max would disappear.

But that only reminded Max that he probably didn’t have much time left and he grabbed onto the small courage he currently possessed and continued, “And you probably have a million thoughts and feelings right now. I mean, it’s a big thing.” God, he was babbling. “I guess, what I want to say is; If you have any questions about what happened, you can just ask me and I’ll be as honest as I can.”

He sighed internally. He sounded like a freaking Sex-Ed teacher.

“What I mean is-“

The passenger door flew open and a bag of chips impacted with the side of Max’s head.

“They only had sour cream.”

With his heart in his throat and a sense of not getting the chance to say what he needed, Max looked from Michael’s face to Liz’s, who worn a clear expression of relief.

Taking the bag of chips in his hand, Max forced a small smile on his lips and turned to Michael. “Thanks. Sour cream’s fine.”

“Cool.” Michael looked from Max to Liz, a thoughtful look coloring his face. “Do you want me to drive?”

Just the thought of not being able to occupy his thoughts with driving caused his heart to skip a beat in fear and Max quickly opened the door to get out of the backseat. “No, that’s fine. I’ll drive.”

“Sure, dude,” Michael said, watching Max’s walk around the car oddly.
-----------------------------------------------
New Year’s Eve
Tim’s Apartment


“Wooohooo!” Tim yelled as Max drowned another shot.

Michael shook his head, opening a can of beer for himself. “Dude, you’re gonna be wasted straight into 2005.”

The shot glass tipped over and rolled across the table as Max failed in balancing the glass on the stable solid surface. Looking over at Michael with a happy drunken expression, Max slurred, “That’s my plan.”

“Okay,” Kyle laughed. “I’ve seen Max drunk before, but this…” he gestured to the surrounding mess of empty alcohol bottles and discarded beer cans, “this is a record even for you, Evans.”

“New Years is all about partying,” Max got up, reaching across the couch he was seated on to grab a bottle of beer off the ground. He giggled as he fell into the lap of the girl that was sitting next to him.“Oh, hello there.”

The girl rolled her eyes, looking down at the usually so charming boy draped across her lap. “Getting a bit too personal there, aren’t you?”

Having forgotten his mission to get the beer bottle, Max turned onto his back in her lap, looking up at the red-hair. He proceeded to squint his eyes in deepest concentration. “Did you know your eyes are green?”

She couldn’t help but laugh. Even when drunk, Max Evans managed to stay adorable, in a helpless, vulnerable kind of way. Because there was something different about Max Evans this evening. She had last seen him at a party just before the Christmas holidays and he had been same old Max. But tonight…there was something almost haunting in his eyes.

“Yeah, I discovered that a couple of years ago.”

Max smiled as his eyes slowly blinked. “You’re funny.”

“You’re heavy,” she remarked.

Not getting the hint, Max raised his hand to her face and marveled at the difference in skin tone. “You’re white.”

Tim laughed next to them, inhaling another can of beer. “Parker, what have you done to our boy? He’s not just getting megawasted, he’s also less intelligent than usual.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “’Megawasted’? At least he’s still smarter than you, T-man.”

“Do you wanna take me home?”

Brenda looked at the boy in her lap and with a smile found it very hard to resist the puppy eyes looking up at her mixed in with the blunt question.

“Smooth, Max. Very smooth,” Michael mumbled, checking his mobile again for a reply from Maria.

“Maybe you need some fresh air,” Brenda suggested.

Tim shook his head in amazement. “I can’t believe this. Even when he’s too wasted to coordinate, he can get laid.”

“He’s not getting laid,” Brenda said, shooting Tim an irritated look.

Tim looked at the girl incredulously. She had been around many of the same parties as Max over the years and in one of her own drunken moments, Tim had fallen into a conversation with her about her long-time crush on Max Evans. This had been a year ago, but even if she didn’t have those same feelings any longer, they’d been there once and they could come back again – if presented with the right opportunity.

That opportunity had literally fallen in her lap.

“Just some fresh air, eh?” Kyle questioned.

Brenda narrowed her eyes at Kyle and pushed at Max. “Yeah, just some fresh air.”

Max continued to fall of Brenda’s lap and ended up in a tired, intoxicated heap at her feet.

Michael huffed a short laugh. “You’re gonna take that one out for some fresh air?”

“Good luck,” Tim mumbled, having lost interest in this whole thing and headed for the kitchen to search for something else to drink.

Surprisingly enough, Max managed to get to his feet and with a proud smile of accomplishment, he put a hand out for Brenda and pulled her up from her seat. “Let’s take a walk.”
------------------------------------------------------------
Two hours later
Brenda’s Apartment


It all seemed wrong.

The hair was wrong. The skin was wrong.

The curves were wrong. The breasts were too big.

She tasted different. His lips moved against hers, his tongue occasionally moved along hers, but it wasn’t the same.

“Are you okay?” a voice gasped.

A different voice.

He pulled back slowly, looking down at the face in the darkness. “I’m…I’m…”

“Do you need to throw up?” the girl asked. “Cause I would appreciate if you told me before… I don’t really feel like getting vomit on me.”

Max frowned in confusion as the alcoholic daze lifted some. What was she talking about?

“Where’s…where is she?”

Something flashed across her face, but his brain was too slow to read it.

“Who? There’s only me here. Only you and me.”

He felt her hand brush down the side of his abdomen and slide between his legs.

He almost yelped as he felt her hand inside his boxers.

“You’re not too drunk to do it, are you?” the girl asked.

Nausea was rising up his throat and he grabbed her wrist, pulling her fondling hand out of his pants. The hurt was so clear across her features that there was no way he could miss it.

“I’m sorry…I…”

Looking down into her hurt face he could almost read her thoughts. Here she was, in bed, with one of the most rumored playboys in town. Everyone knew that he wouldn’t say no to sex and especially not when pretty girls were concerned. And Brenda was very nice on the eyes.

In a word, the girl was a knockout. She probably thought there was something fundamentally wrong with her to not be able to turn on Max Evans.

Had she dragged him into her bed two months earlier he would’ve been getting rid of all his possible frustrations right now.

But a lot had happened recently.

And looking into the eyes of the pretty girl underneath his body, he longed for another face. The face that had been borderline haunting him recently.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated and pushed himself off the girl.

He caught sight of her top to the right of her face and he brought it over her chest, to shield her semi-exposed chest.

Tightening her lips, Brenda snapped the fabric out of his hands. “Get out of here.”

Feeling like a scum, he tried to silently apologize as she bundled the shirt tight against her chest. “Brenda, I-“

Pointing towards the door, her words were cold and drowned in humiliation, “Get out.

Nodding, he swallowed and got off the bed. Picking up his shirt off the floor, he found the way out of the house on his own.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(2005) – A couple of hours post midnight

He woke up to find her leaning over him. He barely had time to register that she was there before she had pulled away, looking off into the distance at something that seemed much more important than him.

“Hey,” he mumbled, wincing at the sound of his own voice.

It felt like he had carpenters in his head, hammering away, apparently trying to dig out his brain by repeatedly stabbing it with forks.

She looked at him again, apparently on her way out of there. “Are you okay?”

He put his hand to his head and managed to shake his head.

“You smell…really bad,” she remarked and if he’d had the energy, he would’ve smiled.

“Sorry.”

“You don’t happen to know where Michael is?”

He almost snorted. He might have, if he’d had the energy.

As if he was in any shape to keep track of someone else. He was having trouble keeping track of himself right now.

“No.”

She nodded and was about to leave when he forced himself into seated position. Wincing, he mumbled, “What year is it?”

She looked at him incredulously and if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a hidden smile in her eyes. “2005.”

“Shit. I missed it.”

“Apparently, so did Mike. He was supposed to ring in the new year with me.”

If everything had been as it always had been, Max would have made a comment right about now of what a martyr she was. He would’ve been sarcastic and she would have hated him. But things were not as they had always been.

About a week ago, he had tasted her skin.

About a week ago, he had kissed the mole underneath her breast.

About a week ago, he had moved inside of her.

About a week ago, she had left him in the middle of the night without an explanation to why.

“Sorry. I don’t know where he is.” Taking in his surroundings, he mumbled to himself, “I’m not even really sure how I ended up…here.”

“I let you in,” she answered and he failed to hide the surprise on his face.

There was something hidden in her face, something she was not telling him. He partly remembered leaving Brenda’s house but things had been a bit blurry after that.

“What did I do?” There was fear in his voice, not knowing how he had acted around her. Considering the conflicting thoughts and feelings he’d had these last couple of days, he could’ve said just about anything to her.

It was terrifying that she was the one with the answers to what he had said.

She shrugged. “You walked straight in and fell asleep on the couch.”

He didn’t believe her for a second. “That’s it?”

She looked at him for a long second and something cold and aloof fell across her face. “You threw out some indiscreet invitations, but unfortunately for you, I was not drunk this time around.”

Her words were like a fist in the face and he physically cringed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Even though they both fully knew what that meant.

She looked away from his face and started walking out of the room.

A faint mumble was all she left behind. “Happy New Year, Max.”


TBC...
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Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE) Chapter 56 Sep 15th p. 6

Post by max and liz believer »

Hey everyone,

So, I'm having a visit from my Australian friend at the moment so I don't really have the time to write. But I have managed to produce one part for you. This part is actually requested and mapped out by Roswell Fan Forever. She gave the winning bid of $50 in the "Support Stacie Auction" and this is now, together with the enormous amounts raised, helping Stacie to pay for her medical bills.

Thank you everyone so much for the feedback!! Mucho appreciated!

This is for you, RfF


Updated Timeline

57. Z is for Baby

Max and Liz’s apartment
27th of October, 2:17 a.m.
(2013) Max is 28, Liz is 27


“Max. Max.”

He let out a short groan of protest as his pillow started to move. Something was pushing on him.

“Max, wake up.”

“What, kitten?” he mumbled, slowing regaining consciousness.

His eyes slowly opened to the dark surroundings of the early hours of the new morning.

“I think my water just broke.”

He was suddenly wide awake, his head lifted from her chest and then he found himself staring down into his wife’s face. “What?”

Locking eyes with him, she repeated with a shake of nervousness in her voice, “I think my water broke.”

All he could think about was how wrong that was. “No. No, it’s too early.”

“The only alternative is that I peed on myself,” Liz said, a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

Max didn’t find this one bit amusing, but instead jumped on the opportunity that Liz had mistaken a weak bladder for the arrival of their child. “That could be it.”

Liz laughed and brought a hand up to caress his cheek. “Evans. I think I would’ve known if I had peed myself. Especially since I still kinda need to go to the toilet.”

With a slow shake of his head, he pulled the sheet to the side and tried to spot in the darkness what she was claiming had happened.

“The baby’s coming,” Liz told him as his searching hand encountered the wet sheet under his wife.

“But the due date is in two weeks.”

She was about to answer him when her uterus decided to contract painfully. Her body stilled during the pain and her hand found Max’s. Squeezing his hand she closed her eyes against his worried eyes as she rode out the pain.

“You were saying?” she asked with a slight panting quality to her voice.

“Maybe it’s those…ehm…Brexton…Buxton…Botox-“

Liz laughed. “Botox?”

“Those false labor thingies,” Max tried, not appreciating that Liz was laughing at him when he was bordering on a nervous breakdown.

“Max,” Liz said slowly, making sure she had his attention. “The water doesn’t break when it’s false labor.”

“We have to get to the hospital,” Max mumbled.

“Hm…yeah,” Liz said, starting to roll her less flexible body out of bed. “That would be the best thing to do because I don’t think Nunchuck is waiting.”

Max narrowed his eyes at her as she got to her feet. “You’re finding this funny?”

She smiled at him. “No, Evans. I’m finding you funny.”

“This could be serious,” Max said with outmost seriousness. “It’s too early.”

“I don’t think I can stop it now,” Liz said.

Max stumbled out of bed, took a deep breath and watched Liz slowly move around the room to add the last essentials to her pre-packed hospital bag. As she walked past for the third time, his arms stopped her, pulling her towards him.

His arms tightened around her body and taking a deep breath he kissed her temple. “Are you okay?”

She smiled, letting his worry and love envelop her. “Yes. Just some contractions. Nothing I can’t handle.”

If he hadn’t been so worried about this monumental thing that was about to happen, he would’ve appreciated her joke more. “I love you.”

“I love you,” she whispered, the ‘you’ turning into a groan as another contraction hit.

His arms protected her body, muffled her pain, as they waited it out together. When she relaxed in his embrace, Max kissed her forehead and let her go. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road.”

She sighed deeply. “Couldn’t agree more.”
----------------------------------------------
Roswell Regional Hospital
1 hour later


“Do you remember the last time we were here?”

“Have I had any other babies that I’ve managed to completely forget about?”

If he hadn’t been nervous, he might’ve appreciated her joke, but right now it flew straight past him. “When you broke your ankle.”

“Right. The whole incident that made me hate these places.”

He pushed the damp hair off her forehead and placed a tender kiss in its place. “How’re you holding up?”

“If they could just give me the drugs…” Liz sighed, putting on her best face of impatient five-year-old.

He smiled. “You’re doing great.”

“Hello. How are we doing?” They both looked up at the interrupting voice and saw a petite dark-haired woman with a warm smile.

Liz smiled back, instinctively comforted by the doctor’s presence. “Hi.”

“I’m Dr. Zoe Wright and I’m gonna help you deliver your baby today.”

A rush of excitement hit Liz at the words. She hadn’t fully had time to think about the end-result of this pain yet.

“Baby decided to start a little bit early, huh?”

Max straightened, his hand taking Liz’s as he focused his attention away from his wife and onto the doctor. “Yeah, you can say that.”

The doctor smiled comfortingly and walked up to the young couple. Addressing Liz, she asked, “How are you feeling, Liz?”

“I need drugs,” she stated simply.

Max almost rolled his eyes while the doctor laughed. Typical Liz not to beat around the bush.

“Well, that we certainly can do something about,” Dr. Wright replied while she grabbed a seat. “Now, could you put your legs in the stirrups for me, please.”

Max gave Liz’s hand a squeeze of reassurance as Dr. Wright conducted a quick examination. “When did your water break?”

“About an hour ago,” Max answered in Liz’s place.

“Okay,” Dr. Wright said, rolling backwards on her rolling stool while removing the gloves from her hands. “You’re about 4 centimeters dilated. So baby’s getting ready.”

Liz nodded. “Peachy.”

“The golden number is 10 centimeters.”

Max nodded. He’d read that in one of those What to Expect when you’re Expecting books. ”Okay.”

“I’m just gonna feel your abdomen, okay? Turn on your side, Liz.”

Liz glanced in Max’s direction, but he was concentrating so hard on reading the doctor’s every facial feature that he missed her search for reassurance.

Watching the changes move across the doctor’s face was perhaps not the best idea, since Max could feel worry etch itself in his heart as the seconds seemed to drag on.

Looking up, Dr. Wright glanced at the nervous father-to-be before she locked eyes with Liz. “The baby seems to be facing the wrong direction.”

Liz blinked. “Breech?”

Max felt his stomach drop and his eyes were digging into the doctor, as if staring at the doctor hard enough would reveal everything he needed to know to calm himself down.

“Yes. We’re gonna get the ultrasound in here to make sure.”

Within minutes, the ultrasound equipment was wheeled into the delivery room. Cold gel was applied to Liz’s lower abdomen and in black and white, the monitor confirmed the doctor’s suspicions.

The baby was facing the wrong direction.

Wiping the gel off Liz’s abdomen, the doctor had a brief conversation with the nurse before addressing Liz. “Okay, so…right now, the baby’s bum is where the head should be. Which is not what we want. Since your cervix is only 4 centimeters dilated we’re going to give the baby some more time and he might rearrange himself. A vaginal delivery is still the best option so we’ll just have to wait and see what the baby does.”

Liz nodded, “Okay,” while trying to take deep breaths.

“What happens if the baby doesn’t? Rearrange himself?” Max wondered, squeezing Liz’s hand almost painfully hard.

“We’d have to do a C-section.”

“Okay,” Liz repeated again, feeling the start of another contraction hitting her. Her hand squeezed Max’s, which had him refocusing all of his attention on her.

The doctor, understanding what was happening, said calmly, “Just breathe. Breathe through it, Liz.”

After the contraction had passed, the doctor squeezed Liz’s free hand. “I need to talk to you a little bit about cesareans.” Liz nodded. “It is a standard procedure nowadays, but you still have to be aware of that, as with any operation, there might be complications like bleeding and infection at the incision site. Now, this very rarely happens, but you need to be aware of it.”

Liz nodded again. “Okay.”

“There’s no way to help the baby to turn? Medically?” Max asked worriedly.

Dr. Wright shook his head. “I’m afraid not. This is completely up to the little one.”

Max inhaled deeply and felt Liz hold onto his hand with all her might.

“I’ll be back in a short while to check on you, Liz,” Dr. Wright promised.

“Thank you, doctor,” Liz said.

Max mumbled something that sounded similar to what his wife had just said, but his concentration was already on Liz’s face. Brushing her hair away from her face, he kissed her forehead.

“I’m scared,” Liz whispered as Dr. Wright left the room.

Max swallowed. He was quickly losing it as well. But he couldn’t. Liz depended on him.

With a squeeze to her hand, he let it go, only to climb onto the bed and lay down beside her. Placing his arm across her rounded waist he buried his face into her hair. “We can do this. You can do this.”

A tear trickled down her cheek as she watched his hand slowly caress her pregnant belly. “I just want everything to be okay.”

“It will be okay,” he said softly. “It will be. These people know what they’re doing. It’s not like we’re the first couple this has happened to.”

She nodded and brought her own hand up to her stomach. Lacing her fingers with his, she whispered to her child, “Turn, baby. Turn.”
---------------------------------------------------
Seven hours later

“It hurts. It hurts it hurts it hurts.”

Max looked skywards, his whole body aching from the frustration of not being able to help. Of not being able to remove the pain Liz was feeling.

He kissed the side of her face and then quickly looked up as the doctor walked through the door, returning from a bathroom visit.

The doctor had barely left their side for the last seven hours. Something that both Max and Liz really appreciated. In a way, their baby’s life was in this woman’s hands and it was reassuring that she was there at their beck and call.

“How’s she doing?” she asked the nurse.

“She’s in a lot of pain,” the nurse answered.

Max heard Liz sob next to him and his heart broke some more. Do something. Just do something.

“It hurts, Zoe. It hurts,” Liz cried out to the doctor.

Dr. Wright put her hand on Liz’s pregnant abdomen and looked at Liz with a concerned maternal expression. “I know, Liz. I know. We’re gonna fix that.”

Sitting down, the doctor did another quick examination of Liz, trying to decide what their next move should be. The baby was not following the book and Dr. Wright was now seriously considering taking Liz into surgery.

Her voice was subdued as she told the nurse to prepare for surgery, but Max hadn’t missed one word.

Walking up to the bed, Dr. Wright made sure she had eye contact with her patient. “Liz? Listen to me, hun. The baby hasn’t turned. We’re gonna have to take you into surgery.”

Liz nodded, the pain of the uterus contracting with the inability to push exhausting her past recognition. But one thing she was sure about, “Can Max come? I need Max in there.”

Dr. Wright smiled reassuringly. “Of course.”

Liz looked to her husband, her eyes glistening and her face flushed and damp. “You’ll come, right?”

He was slightly taken aback that she felt like she had to ask, but on the other hand, fear had taken her over a long time ago. She hadn’t been the same Liz he knew for a couple of hours now. Without taking his eyes of her, he said firmly, “I’m not leaving you.”

She took a breath of relief and her whole body seemed to relax in a way it hadn’t since they contractions had started getting really close.

As long as Max was there, things would be okay. That’s all she could think about then.

As long as Max was there, things would be okay.
-----------------------------------------
30 minutes later

“What’s happening?” Liz wondered, her view of the procedure being hidden behind a separating sheet.

Max looked over the sheet just in time to see the surgeons pick up his baby from the incision. As Dr. Wright announced, “It’s a girl!” Max felt his knees go weak.

“It’s a girl,” Liz breathed.

“Yes,” Max mumbled and sank down on the stool that one of the more perceptive nurses had put behind him.

He watched as the experienced medical staff suctioned the nose and mouth of his newborn daughter and his heart missed a beat as Dr. Wright asked, “Do you want to cut the cord, Dad?”

Max swallowed and looked at Liz who was smiling at him tiredly with happiness trickling down her face in the shape of tears. The healthy cry of their daughter surrounded them.

He stood on unsteady feet and took a hold of the surgical scissors that were handed to him. His hand was shaking when he concentrated 100% on doing the job correctly and with one cut his daughter was no longer physically connected to Liz.

“Good job,” Zoe smiled and handed the baby girl to the nurse opposite him.

While Dr. Wright began the job of stitching Liz back up, the nurse stepped around the sheet and presented the baby for Liz to see. “Say hello to your daughter, Mom.”

“’Mom’…” Liz whispered and touched her daughter’s small hand with her index finger.

“I’ll give her back soon,” the nurse assured them, “We’re just gonna clean her up a bit for you.”

Liz wasn’t sure she wanted to be separated from the girl, but she quickly realized it was in her daughter’s best interest.

Her husband’s hand brushing against her cheek had her turn her head away from where her daughter had disappeared. She could hear her daughter cry in the background, which at the moment was music to her ears.

“You did it,” Max whispered.

We did it,” Liz retorted, taking his hand in hers.

He bent forward and gently kissed her lips. Brushing her hair away from her forehead, his mouth just an inch from hers, he whispered, “I love you.”

“Ditto.”

Just then, the nurse returned with their daughter. “Okay, Mom. Let’s get you comfortable while the doctor finishes up the surgery, okay?”

Liz didn’t really pay much attention to what the nurse was saying. Her complete focus was on the small life that the nurse was placing on chest.

“Oh my God,” Liz whispered as their daughter’s cry turned into sobs only to stop completely. Squinting against the bright light of the delivery room, the baby girl looked up at her mother. “We made her.”

“She’s beautiful,” Max added in awe. He was slowly running his hands down the head and cheek of the newborn, not believing that she was so small, that she belonged to them.

His heart was beating painfully in his chest, already swelling to a painful size with the love he felt for his daughter.

And right there and then, he vowed to himself to always protect this little girl with his life.
---------------------------------------------------------
20 minutes later

“How are the parents doing?” a warm voice said from the doorway.

Max and Liz tore their eyes away from the sleeping girl on Liz’s chest and made eye contact with the doctor that had gone through it all with them.

“Hey,” Max replied, the smile coming easily.

Her smile growing wider, Dr. Zoe Wright said, “It looks like you are every bit a proud father.”

“Oh, he can hardly get over himself,” Liz said, earning an eye roll from Max.

Pulling up a stool to Liz, Dr. Wright reached out and stroke the soft chubby cheek of the little girl. “How are you feeling, Liz?”

“Tired,” she answered, her eyes focused on the baby.

“You’ve done an amazing job,” Dr. Wright said softly, stepping up to the wardrobe and pulling out two pillows. Crushing them to her chest she walked up to the couple.

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” Liz said. “Thank you so much.”

Zoe smiled. “It was my pleasure. She’s an absolute stunner.”

Both Max and Liz boosted with pride. “Thank you.”

“Now, have you read anything about breastfeeding? Learnt anything from your mom or from friends with babies?”

“Just a little bit,” Liz answered, the insecurity shining through.

“Don’t worry, hun, I’ll walk you through it.”

Zoe placed the pillows behind Liz’s back to put her into more of a seated position.

While Max watched with serious concentration that would’ve had Liz laughing out loud if she’d had the time to look at him, Zoe guided Liz through the breastfeeding.

“Your nipples might feel a bit sore. First-time mothers usually have that problem. If it really hurts, you could try and change the position that the baby is lying in against your chest because it might be a problem of how the baby latches on.”

Max was hanging onto Zoe’s every word, amazed by how easily the woman seemed to discuss ‘nipples’ and ‘latching’ with total strangers.

The baby slurped happily as she found the nipple and all three adults smiled.

“There we go,” Dr. Wright said.

Observing the baby feeding for a short time, Zoe eventually got up. “Okay, you’re a natural at this. I’m gonna leave you alone. I’ll come back later. Liz. You should try and get as much sleep as possible; you’ve been through a lot. And the more sleep you get, the faster that incision will heal.”

“Okay, Zoe,” Liz smiled, her attention still on the baby.

With a small nod and a soft smile, Dr. Wright left the couple.

“You know what I was thinking?” Liz said when they were alone.

“Nope.”

“That we need to have a name.”

“Very wise. I’m not so sure Nunchuk would work in the long run. I mean, it’s cute and all when she’s small but just imagine her applying for a job and introducing herself as Nunchuk Evans.”

“Well yeah…my point exactly. So…how about Zoe?”

Max looked up from his daughter and met his wife’s eyes. “I like it.”

“Since we hadn’t thought of any names and…” looking down at her daughter, Liz added, “…she kinda looks like a Zoe, doesn’t she?”

Max smiled. “She’s gorgeous, Liz.”

“We did a good job.”

“Yep,” Max agreed. “We should do it more often.”

Liz laughed. “I’ve just gave birth and you’re already thinking about sex.”

Max shrugged innocently.

“Besides, if we were to do that any more often than we already are, I think I would die from exhaustion.”

“But you would die happy.”

Liz bent down and gently kissed baby Zoe’s head. “There’s always that.”

“Zoe Evans.”

Liz nodded. She liked the sound of that. “Zoe Evans.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Three hours later

Liz had to stop herself from laughing. It wouldn’t actually be very nice of her to laugh at her husband when he looked like he was having a nervous breakdown.

But that didn’t stop it from looking extremely amusing.

Cool, confident Max Evans was shaking in his boots.

About holding a baby.

But then Zoe was given to Max and Liz melted. His large hands and strong arms tenderly surrounded the small baby’s body. As if she was a porcelain doll. It was something about the contrast between Max’s strong body and the vulnerability and helplessness of that small baby that was squeezing Liz’s heart.

The back of Zoe’s head completely disappeared in Max’s palm as he supported Zoe against his chest.

Liz took a trembling breath, being torn between wanting to walk up to them and be a part of the beauty and not wanting to disturb what she was witnessing.

“Okay, just bring her over here,” the nurse said, bringing Liz out of her reverie.

Max ever so gently placed Zoe on the changing table.

“Just unbutton and unwrap,” the nurse said simply, hiding an amused smile. The first-time fathers usually didn’t appreciate this part of having a baby.

Max did as he was told, while Liz watched from the hospital bed.

Opening the nappy, Max took a step back, a horrified expression on his face. “Oh God…Oh…shit…”

Liz laughed. “’Oh shit’ is right.”

“That’s just…wrong,” Max mumbled, stepping back up to his daughter as Liz and the nurse laughed at him in the background. “Is it…supposed to be black?”

“Yes, these first days it will be,” the nurse answered. “It’s normal.”

“How that can be classified as normal is beyond me,” Max mumbled.

“Okay, let’s clean her up,” the nurse announced which had Max paling a bit and Liz let out another laugh.

Looking over at her, he narrowed his eyes in a weak threat, “You just wait… Soon you’ll be healthy enough to experience this too.”

“But I won’t have learned it from an expert,” Liz said innocently, referring to the nurse, “I think it would be better for Zoe if you just kept on doing this part.”

“Oh no,” Max laughed. “You’re so not getting away from this.”

The nurse just smiled, putting the moistened tissues in front of him. “There you go.”

“I love you, baby,” Liz sang from the bed and Max looked at the nurse helplessly.

“See what I have to put up with?”

The nurse just smiled, seeing the whole spectacle for what it was. A secure and loving relationship.

Now with the addition of a beautiful baby girl.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Max and Liz’s Apartment
2 weeks later


“Did you hear that, Zoe doughie? It’s time for your bath.”

Zoe didn’t look particularly impressed. For some reason her parents had decided to take off all her clothes and she would rather go and have a drink from her mother.

“Look! Mommy’s watching,” Max continued in his baby voice.

Liz shook her head where she was watching from the chair. She had been released from the hospital, but she was still a bit weak and even though she probably had the energy to help Max out with Zoe’s first bath, Max had more or less forced her to sit down.

She might be able to fight the exhaustion, but she couldn’t fight her very much stronger husband.

Walking up to Liz with Zoe, Max looked every bit the proud competent father. Liz was really impressed with how quickly he had adapted to the situation and had adopted his responsibilities – and several of Liz’s – when taking care of Zoe.

It was clear to anyone that saw them, that Zoe had Max wrapped around her miniature finger. Max had fallen head over heels in love with their daughter.

Liz kissed Zoe’s small forehead and smiled as she received a kiss from Max.

“We’re ready?” Max asked, as if there was a whole audience watching this monumental event.

“We’re ready,” Liz nodded.

Liz watched Max as he walked up to the red small plastic bathtub, seeing how his shoulders tensed ever so slightly. Even though Max was already competent while caring for Zoe, he was still afraid of accidentally hurting her. She was so small, so vulnerable and so dependent on him.

But then he rested Zoe in the crook of his arm, her body fitting perfectly along the length of his underarm and lowered both arm and baby into the water.

After a slight gasp from Zoe, her eyes brightened and she started moving her small chubby legs in the water.

“Come and look, Liz,” Max said excitedly.

Liz got up from her chair and stepped up next to Max to look down at Zoe.

“She’s loving it,” Max said.

“She is,” Liz said, reverence in her voice.

Together, they watched as Zoe kicked with her legs while making various sounds.

“You’re loving that, aren’t you?” Max said softly.

Zoe cried out in excitement and both Max and Liz laughed.

“Yes you are, yes you are,” Max said and Liz looked to his profile.

Tracing the sharp shape of his jawbone, the outline of his long dark eyelashes and the excitement in his gaze as he watched their daughter, she rose to the tips of her toes and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

“I love you,” she whispered.

He turned and looked at her, love shining from every corner of his face. “Right back atcha, kitten.”
---------------------------------------------------------
Max and Liz’s Apartment
Three days later


“I’ll go.”

Liz barely opened her eyes as she mumbled. “It’s my turn.”

He kissed her cheek. “That’s okay.”

“Thank you,” Liz whispered, already falling asleep again.
---------------------------------------------------------
She woke up in a bed that was still half empty. She wasn’t sure how long he had been gone.

Frowning, she pushed the sheet off her and placed her bare feet on the cool floor.

Liz walked over to Zoe’s crib, which was positioned only a couple of feet away from Liz and Max’s bed, only to find it empty.

Suspecting where her husband and daughter might be, Liz left the bedroom.

When she entered the hallway, she could hear a sound coming from the nursery. Her curiosity piqued, she aimed straight for Zoe’s future bedroom.

As she got closer, his voice got clearer and she smiled as his deep voice threaded carefully along the tunes of a song.

Stepping around the door frame, she stopped abruptly in the doorway at the sight of Max in the rocking chair, with Zoe in his arms.

You are so beautiful. To me. You are so beautiful. To me.

His eyes were on Zoe’s face and Zoe’s eyes were wide open, looking up at her father. Without saying a word. As if she was truly listening to him.

You're everything I hoped for. You're everything I need. You are so beautiful. To me.”

Liz stood there watching Max and their daughter in the darkness of the night, her heart swelling in her chest.

Before he could see that he was being watched, Liz left the nursery and went back to bed. She fell asleep with a smile on her face.

TBC...
Last edited by max and liz believer on Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE) A/N 4th of Nov p. 10

Post by max and liz believer »

Hey people!

Okay, so your feedback did its job. Thanks to you and the ideas you've been throwing my way, I got back into the story again and I felt like writing. Now, I might not write everything that you requested, but still the same your ideas got my mind working.

Thank you so much to;

Sara
sunrise102
Aurorabee
Heavenli24
thetvgeneral
yayaliens
Ms_BuffyAnneSummers
- and thank you for the extra bumps!
Alien_Friend - Sounds like we have a lot in common. I know that feeling, of being in love with him but the love goes unanswered. In this case, I told him about four years ago how I felt. He told me that he didn't love me that way. So I dropped it. We continued to be friends like we had before I revealed it all. Then I decided to talk to him again before I left Australia (when I didn't know when I would see him again) and he tells me that he's loved me since the break of dawn. That kinda threw me off a bit. But we've sorted it out now. Which is a relief. I just need to get past not having him around - as a friend. Because that's how I mostly know him as. And it hurts to not have your best friend close. I guess that's what this story was for me. A way to get out of the mess and tell myself that everything will work out in the end, like you said. That's why Max and Liz are the way they are in this story. I really really hope things work out for you and that you can get over whatever is between you and your friend right now. *hugs*
Roswell_Fan_Forever - Thank you, for...Well, you know. Thank you!
keepsmiling7
Destiny
Ginger
Kismet
- I'm with Bluestar on that one. That new girlfriend can't have been a very good person - and hopefully she didn't stick around - if she didn't let you hang out with your friend - who happened to be male. I would be incredibly sad if my boy were to cut contact with me, not because of his own choice, but because he was "forced".
Eve - Yes, maybe it is for the best that you never saw the love of your life again... But never say never :roll: But in a way, it's always calmer not to have the love of your life around :wink: They tend to make everything so much harder and you end up sitting on an emotional rollercoaster.
Coccy
coccy wrote:things i'd love to know... the first time Max realized that he was in love with her
Yes, that's definitely coming. And your request about Max and Liz waking up after the second time they make love is coming very very soon *psst look further down the page*

Kris
Bluestar8
- Thank you once again for giving me some good advice when it comes to relationships. And the boiling water analogy is a very true one. *muah*
Ashley - Thank you, hun. I needed some girl power. And thanks for the suggestions. They certainly got my mind going :D

and

Elizbeth

So this is something I put together today (and thanks to my beta's super-efficient editing abilities, I already have the chapter back, ready to be posted). There's been some requests about what happened the day after Max and Liz had sex for the second time, i.e. when Liz gave herself as a birthday present for Max. This is basically what happened.

Updated Timeline

58. Staying In

Max’s Apartment
July 3rd, Max’s birthday
(2009) Max is 24, Liz is 23


The apartment looked like a warzone.

If someone had walked in right then, ignorant to what had been going on the night before, they would’ve assumed that Max Evans had just been robbed.

Furniture was toppled over. Picture frames were crooked. There was chocolate sauce on the floor and the water in the shower was dripping from not having been turned off completely. On the floor was a dying flower, in the middle of a smashed pot.

But walking into the bedroom, everything was quiet. The owner of the apartment was spooning his tired body around the naked body of his girlfriend. In the light of the morning of his birthday, Max Evans was sleeping heavily, his cheek pressed up against her shoulder and his hand resting heavily across her waist, keeping her close to him.

Liz Parker was just as tired. If she hadn’t been immersed in the deepest sleep of her life right then, she would’ve reveled in the sweet soreness of her body and how she might possibly currently be the most satisfied woman on the face of the planet.

If it hadn’t been for Max’s cell phone going off to the tunes of “I’m too Sexy”, they might’ve continued sleeping for days, limbs entwined.

“Nooo,” Max grumbled against Liz’s skin.

“What’s that noise?” Liz mumbled back.

“I’m sorry,” Max whispered, his hand whispering done the front of her abdomen as he started rolling away from her.

“No,” she moaned. “Don’t leave.”

Before his body lost complete contact with her body, he leaned back and lightly bit her shoulder. “I’ll be back.”

“Mmm…” she mumbled, barely conscious.

Squinting against the midday sun, Max tried to get his tired brain around the possible location of his phone. Getting to his feet, he followed the singing of Right Said Fred, who was apparently too sexy for his cat right now, and hauled the phone out of the back pocket of his jeans.

Pushing the answer button, he mumbled, “Speak.”

“Max?”

Rubbing his hand across his face, Max tried to get himself to wake up. “Speaking.”

“Are you okay?”

Recognizing his father’s voice, Max suddenly felt very exposed, standing naked in the middle of his bedroom with his childhood friend slash girlfriend sleeping naked in his bed after a whole night of adult activities.

“Dad? What’s up?”

“You sound terrible. Couldn’t wait until your birthday to start the celebrations?”

Max smiled, stepping over his gym bag and sitting down on the bed. “I guess fate wanted it otherwise.”

His father laughed good-naturedly on the other end of the line. “So your birthday is going to be a calm-stay-at-home-licking-your-wounds kind of birthday instead?”

Max glanced behind him, to the dark-haired beauty hugging his pillow to her naked chest. His eyes worked their way across her body, from the dark rustled hair to the last piece of naked skin he could spot just above her hip before the sheet covered up her lower body.

“Max? You there?”

“Uh,” Max cleared his throat and forced himself to look away from Liz. “Yeah, I’m here.”

“Okay then. It doesn’t seem like this is gonna be an intellectually stimulating conversation anyway so-“

Max grinned. “If you wanted an intellectually stimulating conversation, you shouldn’t be calling me, Dad.”

His father laughed. “I should’ve learned by now. Just wanted to wish you happy birthday.”

Max smiled. “Thanks, dad.”

“We’ll talk some more some other day,” Philip added.

“Probably best that way,” Max agreed. “Thanks for calling, Dad. Over and out.”

“Over and out.”

Max disconnected the call and put the phone on the night stand. Not wasting another second, he crawled back into bed and softly placed his lips against hers.

“Mmmm,” she mumbled, completely out of it.

Max smiled, feeling himself waking up and starting to come around to the idea that far too much time was spent on sleeping when you had a naked goddess in your bed. “Are you awake?”

Liz just groaned in reply and Max laughed softly, kissing the tip of her nose.

“I think you need to wake up. We can’t sleep the whole day away.”

“Why are you talking?” Liz mumbled, shifting away from him and rolling onto her back.

Max swallowed deeply as he felt a rush of desire strike him as her head dipped to the side with the innocence of sleep while her breasts become completely exposed to his eyes.

Before he could reconsider, or even hesitate, Max slid his hand down the inside of her thigh, mustering a small moan from her lips, and used his hand to spread her legs apart underneath the sheet. Placing that same hand on the inside of her other thigh, he pushed that thigh away as well at the same time as he moved to position himself in the gap he had just created.

Kneeling between her legs and leaning forward over her body, his much larger fingers slid up the length of her much smaller fingers, caressing them a couple of times before he grabbed her hands and slowly pushed them up over her head.

Her body stirred, but her eyes remained closed, incoherent sounds escaping her lips.

“Kitten,” he whispered and bent down to kiss her lips.

“Mmm,” she answered.

His lips moved down the edge of her jaw, down the front of her throat to continue to the middle of her chest before taking a detour to her left nipple.

The response was instantaneous. The second his lips latched onto her nipple, her body slowly arched up against his.

“Mmm…Max,” she mumbled and he grinned. He wasn’t sure if she was still dreaming or not, but that didn’t really matter when she said his name like that.

“You need help to wake up?” Max wondered and if she had been awake, Liz’s heart most certainly would’ve skipped a beat at the look in Max’s eyes right then.

He got no reply and he laughed softly to himself while shaking his head in disbelief.

He had really worn her out, hadn’t he?

He prided himself on this for a second or two, because he was after all a full-blown testosterone-driven man and the fact that he could satisfy his woman pleased him more than just a little bit.

Lowering his body on top of hers, his hands still kept her hands locked over her head so that their upper bodies could merge completely together.

Looking up at her face, Max whispered, “Wake up, baby.”

“How can you still be horny?” Liz mumbled and Max’s body stilled at her very coherent sentence.

“You awake?”

“I’m desperately trying to sleep here, but you’re being a bit too persistent,” she answered and opened her eyes.

He grinned at her innocently, with a ‘Can you really blame me?’ expression on his face. “I want you.”

She laughed softly, her eyes blinking tiredly. “Yeah, I can tell.”

“You’re up for another round?”

She shook her head in disbelief. “You’re gonna be the death of me, aren’t you?”

He winked and pushed into her, causing her to gasp. “Oh, but what a way to go.”

“Oh God,” she mumbled.

“You approve?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She bit her lower lip in concentration as she reveled in the sensation of him filling her up again. “Of what?”

“Of the wake-up call,” Max replied.

“Almost,” Liz said, bringing her feet up to brush along the back of his legs.

He frowned. “Almost?”

“If you could only shut up for a second and instead focus on the sex part it would be so much better.”

Max pulled out of her, only to push back in slowly, having her tighten her legs around the back of his calves. “Oh really?”

“Yes,” she breathed. “Yes.”

“Admit it, you can’t get enough of this either.”

Liz clenched her vaginal muscles around him, causing him to groan out loud. “Seriously, shut up.”

“I just wanna hear you say it,” Max said breathlessly, moving in and out of her, while his hands trailed down the inside of her arms.

“What?” she moaned. “That you’re insatiable?”

“No.”

“That you’ve got stamina?”

“Kinda.”

She inhaled sharply as he grabbed a hold of her knees and pushed her knees more fully up against her abdomen, changing the angle of penetration.

“That you’re the best I’ve ever been with?”

“I already knew that.”

If he hadn’t been giving her so much pleasure right then, she would’ve smacked him. Instead she immersed her hands into the hair at the back of his head and pulled his face down to hers. Melting their lips together, she languidly slid her lips along his, her moans drowning in his mouth.

“Come on Parker, you know what I mean,” Max mumbled against her lips.

“Oooh, God. Faster.”

Taking her order, he started moving faster, his hands sliding down to her breasts. “You’re onto something there.”

She laughed breathlessly, the sensations making her head swim. “Why are you still talking?!”

“Repeat after me; ‘Max Evans…’”

Liz barely managed to roll her eyes as her back arched off the bed. “Max Evans…”

“Are you close?” he asked.

“Are you close?” she repeated, past the point of knowing what he was saying.

He laughed and kissed her lips. “No no, don’t repeat that.”

Her breath hitched on a moan and his lower abdomen tensed with desire. “Okay.”

“Are you?”

“Don’t stop.”

“I won’t.”

It was with a sharp intake of air and a hitching moan that she fell apart underneath him. As she floated on the sensations, he increased the speed to find his own release. “Oh fuck…”

He collapsed on top of her, his nose buried in the crook of her neck and together they filled the air around them with shallow breaths and invisible smiles.

“Repeat after me,” Max mumbled into her neck ten seconds later, causing her to laugh.

“’Repeat after me’,” she properly obeyed.

“Max Evans…”

“’Max Evans…’”

“…is a fucking sex God.”

She burst out into a stream of heartfelt laughter that had Max smile against her skin.

When she was still laughing a minute later, Max lifted his head from her neck so that he could look at her. “It’s not that funny.”

Being face to face with the man that she loved, that was finally hers, she sobered up. “Say it again. I’ll do it properly this time.”

Max looked at her a long time, pretending to be considering if she was honest or not. “Max Evans…”

Her finger trailed down the side of his cheek as she repeated softly, “’Max Evans…’”

“…is a fucking Sex God.”

“…I fucking love you.”

His face transformed with his smile and her heart prickled.

“You didn’t repeat that properly,” Max whispered.

She smiled knowingly. “No?”

He shook his head seriously. “Nuh-uh.”

“Whatcha you gonna do about it?”

Cocking his head to the side, Max regarded her carefully. “I think I might have to punish you.”

“Oh God…” Liz sighed, since she knew exactly what that mischievous look in Max’s eyes meant. “You are insatiable.”

Max shrugged. “It’s your fault.”

“What?” She frowned. “My fault?”

“For being the woman of my dreams.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at the cheesiness of his phrase at the same time as her heart melted. “Naaaw.”

He shrugged again. “It’s the truth.”

“Whatcha you gonna do when you break me?”

He looked at her incredulously. “Break you?”

“Well, to be honest, Evans. If you continue like this, I’m gonna expire pretty fast.”

“Naah,” he said lightly, kissing the tip of her nose. “I’ll take good care of you in the 20 minutes between.”

She huffed. “Great. Thanks.”

Looking at her closely, Max said thoughtfully, “I get the feeling that you’re not as excited about this as I am, Ms. Parker?”

She shook her head. “No one can be as excited about his as you, Evans. I don’t know what you put in your breakfast, but I need to get some of that.”

“Pure love, kitten. Pure love.”

She smiled. “Good answer.”

“Sooo…what do you say?”

She looked at him carefully. “About what?”

Lifting an inviting eyebrow he suggested, “Shower?”

Knowing exactly what was going to happen if she had a shower with him, and not objecting to it at all – contrary to what she had been letting him think – she sighed dramatically. “I guess.”

“After that, we’ll get some sleep.”

“That’s what you said last time.”

“And you did get some sleep, right?”

“I seriously hope you have food at home, because if I don’t eat soon, I’m gonna fade away into nothing with all of this exercise.”

“We can order in pizza.”

“Pizza...” Liz looked at him disapprovingly. “Really?” That’s all they ever ate when they were at Max’s place. “Wait, birthday boy. We need to get you a cake.”

Max met Liz’s hinting eyes, watched how she slowly licked her lips at the thought of cake, and felt himself harden again with the mental image of smearing cake all over Liz’s body and then proceed to lick it off. “Fuck Parker. We seriously need to get to that shower now.”

“What about cake?”

“Now.”

She laughed. “Okay.”


TBC...
Last edited by max and liz believer on Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE) Chapter 58 Nov 10th p. 11

Post by max and liz believer »

Okay, so your feedback really got me going. I have another chapter ready and I'm finishing off yet another chapter today. Happy days :D

And it's all thanks to you;

Roswell Fan Forever - Oh you saw the video. Yay! I'm glad you liked it :D Thank you!Oh, and the song is from Buffy yes. It's actually the very last musical score in the whole series - the final episode. The big fight. I'm a sucker for soundtrack music so I notice music a lot. It's a problem sometimes :roll:
BlueStar8 - Thanks, sweetie. I'm trying to open up. I am :D I certainly don't want my Max to just walk me by :wink:
Sara
Kate
Kris
Natalie
Ginger
Alien_Friend
- I'm happy to hear that he still got in touch with you on your b-day (Happy belated birthday!!). And with my boy I just figured, life is too short to let uncomfortable stuff stand in the way. So if you really want him back in your life, I think you have to force yourself past that uncomfortable stuff and have a chat with him. Or write it in a letter. Haha, that's how I always started those things with my guy. And I was lucky in that he always took it at the correct seriousness level and we could have a really good honest conversation afterwards, as long as you squeeze out whatever you need to say. You'll feel so much better afterwards. But anyhooo, that's obviously up to you. It's just a little suggestion :roll:
Kay
keepsmiling7
coccy

coccy wrote:seriously... a "Max Evans" should be created for every woman of the planet :lol: again, maybe we could ask the antarians if they can make some clones of him after all it wouldn't be the first time
I think you're onto something there.

And about what you said about how I write M/L. Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me. *muah*

sunrise102
yayaliens
Kismet
- Your chapter wish has been noted :D Thank you!
nitpick23
Ellie
- Hey! Welcome to this story! Good to have you here :D
Eve
horizon_azure
Ms_BuffyAnneSummers
Emma


and

Elizabeth

And an extra thank you to Eve who helped me out with the title for this chapter.

Updated Timeline

59. Une Affaire Secrète

The Parkers’ Residence
Michael’s room
(2003) Max is 17, Liz is 16


“Michael’s phone.”

There was a hitch at the other end of the line and then dead silence.

“Uhm…anyone there?”

“Max?”

His heart clenched when he recognized her broken voice. “Parker?”

“Where’s Michael?”

There was a sniffle and Max sank down on Michael’s bed, a bad feeling etching itself in his chest. “He’s taking a shower.”

There was a weird sound, something that Liz probably had intended to be a snort. “Why are you in my brother’s room when he’s taking a shower? Isn’t that a little too soon after the gay allegations?”

Max tensed. That was a blow under the belt. “The allegations you invented.”

She sniffled. “Whatever.”

“Isn’t it in the middle of the night for you? Shouldn’t you be getting your beauty sleep by now?”

“Don’t need it,” Liz mumbled. “Look. I just wanted to talk to Michael.”

Max’s grip on the phone tightened as her voice tensed, becoming more distant. “He just hopped in. He’ll probably be another five minutes.”

There was a heart-wrenching sob that had Max wanting to rip his heart out so he would never have to feel anything that was connected to that feeling again.

“Kitten? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Nothing. I just want to speak to my brother.”

“How about you talk to me until he’s out of the shower?”

“Why would I want to talk to you?”

Max bit back the comeback that was immediately at the tip of his tongue. If she hadn’t been crying on the other end of the line he would’ve made sure that she knew that she couldn’t just treat him like shit. But right now, if treating him like shit made her stop crying, he was going to let her.

“Just to pass time I guess. If you need someone to talk to.”

There was a long pause.

Just as Max was about to ask if she was still there, she inhaled deeply and said, “Paris sucks.”

“Really? I thought it was the city of romance. The best city in Europe.”

“They only speak French here-“

Max couldn’t help but laugh. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, babe, but you’re in France.”

“It’s not that,” Liz huffed offended. “It’s the fact that they won’t listen to me just because I speak English.”

Max tried his best to keep his smile out of his voice. He was almost positive this whole crying episode didn’t have anything to do with the French people. It made him realize how much he’d missed her. Missed arguing with her. She’d only been gone for three days but apparently that was enough for him to miss his daily dose of Liz’s obnoxious brattiness.

“Come on, it can’t be that bad-“

“It sucks!”

“You’ve got the Eiffel Tower and the baguettes and the croissants and the frogs-“

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, her breaking voice putting an abrupt halt to his amusement.

“Okay. Okay. Croissants aside, are you okay?”

There was another pause, whereby Max for some reason pictured her chewing on her bottom lip. It just seemed like a thing Liz Parker would do in that moment.

“I want to go home.”

He refrained from uttering the obvious ‘duuuh’ and instead leaned back on Michael’s bed and fixed unseeing eyes to the ceiling while he said softly, “It’s just another four days.”

“I want to go home,” she repeated, soft sobs straining her voice.

His hand tightened even more around the phone and his voice acquired a tad of concern as he asked, “Did something happen?”

“No,” she answered quickly.

Max frowned. “You don’t have to tell me the details, you know. I’m just…if you need to talk, I won’t tell anyone what’s been said. It’s between us. Promise.”

She huffed. “Yeah right.”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine, princess. Have it your way.”

Another pause and then Liz mumbled, “I’m so alone.”

He straightened on the bed. “Your parents…?”

“Are always out on meetings and dinner parties and galas and blah blah blah. They’ve probably spent a total of 20 minutes in my presence.”

He frowned, finding this odd. After all, it was Liz’s parents that had insisted that Liz would come along with them to Paris. Michael would’ve gone too if he hadn’t had a major exam this week. Max was starting to suspect that having Michael around would have been much better for Liz.

He couldn’t help but picture her all alone in that big city so far away. With no one to talk to. Not understanding the language. Yep, he was starting to see her side of it now.

“So how do you make time pass?”

“Pay-Per-View.”

“You haven’t been outside the hotel room?”

“Once. That was enough.”

“Lizzie…”

Hearing the nuance to his voice she interrupted him, “Don’t.”

“Liz-“

“No, don’t pity me. I can’t stand it.”

“I’m not-“

“Yes, you are. You feel sorry for me. That’s not why I called. Actually, I didn’t even call to talk to you. I wanted to talk to Michael. To yell at him for abandoning me.”

Max smiled as the pig-headed Elizabeth Parker that he knew so well came through at the end of that statement. “Oh, you’ll get the chance to do that. I just heard the water turn off.”

There was a sigh of relief and then Liz murmured, “Thank you.”

“No worries, pet.”

“I just miss…being home.”

“I actually miss you around here-“

There was crystal clear surprise in her voice. “You do?”

He cleared his throat. “I mean, I don’t have anyone to make fun of. Only Michael. And he’s no fun. He’ll just turn it into some beat up session.”

“Oh,” she said and he imagined he heard disappointment in her voice. “Well, I’m sorry I’m not there to be at the receiving end of your insults.”

“You’ll make it up to me when you get back, I’m sure,” Max smiled.

“Whatever.”

Hearing the bathroom door unlock, Max took a leap and said, “You know, you can always call me too. If you need to, you know, talk. Just tell me to back off and I’ll be normal and listen.”

Pause. “Okay. Thanks. I guess.”

“Don’t cry, kitten. Especially not in Paris.”

She sniffled, but he could hear a smile in her voice. “I’ll try.”

Michael was now looking at him oddly, brushing the towel back and forth through his hair.

“Okay, Mike’s here.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I’ll put him on straight away.”

“Sure,” Liz said and there was an anxious quality to her voice that gave him the feeling that she wanted to tell him something. But she didn’t. “Bye, Evans.”

“Until we meet again, kitten,” Max murmured and then handed the phone over. “It’s your sister. I’m just gonna take off. I think she needs a good long talk with her brother.”

There was instantaneous worry on Michael’s face and he accepted the phone without a word, nodding as Max made his way to the door.

As Max closed the door to Michael’s room behind him, he heard Michael say, “Liz? What’s wrong?”

-------------------------------------------------------
A hotel room
Paris, France
2.33 a.m.


It was in the middle of the night when Liz heard the door connecting the two hotel rooms open. Tensing, she laid completely still, pretending to be asleep.

She heard the soft shuffling sounds of someone moving around in her room and she fought hard to not let her increasing breath sounds be heard.

There was someone in her room and even though it was most likely one of her parents, she couldn’t be sure.

She felt the fear clasp its claws into her and her whole body tensed. She imagined feeling the cool metal of the sharp edge of a knife against her neck. She imagined a stab into her heart.

She imagined every bad movie scenario in the world. And it really didn’t help her to remain calm.

So when the bed dipped as the person sat down next to her body, she almost cried right out.

The silence started to suffocate her. Not being able to put up with not knowing anymore, she opened her eyes slightly and felt her whole body relax as she saw her mother.

Noticing that she was awake, Mrs. Parker’s eyes widened with guilt and something Liz couldn’t quite pinpoint.

“Mom?”

“Go back to sleep,” she whispered.

The room was dark, except for the soft light from the street lights that was coming in through the large windows. But it didn’t have to be very light for Liz to notice the tears on her mother’s face.

“What’s wrong?” Liz asked.

Nancy quickly looked away. “It’s fine, Elizabeth.”

Not deterred by the defensiveness in her mother’s voice, after all Liz was used to it, Liz pressed on, “You’re crying.”

“Let’s not discuss this matter any further,” Nancy said stiffly.

Fully awake now, Liz scooted up into seating position, her back against the headboard. “Is Dad okay?”

“I’m sure he is,” Nancy replied with a twinge of bitterness.

Liz frowned. “Did something happen?”

“For God’s sake, Elizabeth,” Nancy sighed tiredly. “Could you respect that I don’t wish to discuss this?”

Feeling the everyday irritation creeping in, Liz mumbled, “How about you act like a proper mother for once and let me help you.”

“I didn’t come in here to fight with you,” Nancy said tensely, her voice tired.

“Then why did you come in here?” Liz asked.

“It doesn’t matt-“

Just talk to me!” Liz hissed, getting beyond frustrated.

“I needed to see you!” Nancy erupted and then quickly turned her gaze away, instantaneously regretting losing control over her feelings.

Liz swallowed, her mother’s answer perplexing her. She had no idea what to say or even how to act in response to her mother’s reply.

“Dad’s fine, right?”

Nancy sighed. “He’s fine.”

“Okay,” Liz said, lacking any emotion in her voice as her mind was furiously trying to figure out what her mother’s behavior meant. “Is he asleep?”

“Your father is still out.”

“Oh.”

“Gambling.”

“Okay,” Liz said slowly, looking at her mother carefully to gauge every reaction from her. This was probably the longest conversation they’ve ever had.

“Apparently he values liquor, hookers and gambling more than his family.”

“Hookers?”

Nancy met her daughter’s horrified eyes and inhaled deeply. “No. No. Of course not. I’m going to go to bed.”

Liz felt lost. “Okay?”

“He’ll be home soon.”

“Okay.”

Nancy got up from the bed and started for the door.

Liz blinked. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, Elizabeth. Go back to sleep.”

“Okay,” Liz sighed. She would die trying to figure out her mother. “Good night, mother.”

“Good night,” Nancy said softly and left the room.

Liz stared at the door where her mother had disappeared, trying to get her thoughts into order.

What the hell had that been about? Her parents had obviously had a fight. But gambling and hookers? Liz frowned.

Crawling back down under the sheets, Liz pulled the blanket up to her chin and closed her eyes. But it would be a long time until sleep found her that night.

TBC...
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Unbreakable (M/L, AU)
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My Imagination

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