Lost & Found (CC, Mature) - Chapter 48 - Completed: 03/28/2019

[RoswellFan68]

Molly is starting to remember. Liz needs to be honest with Max. He needs to know that Bella is his daughter.

[Parker1947]

Max was arriving at Isabel and Kyle’s place when his phone rang sighing as he reached for it. “Just a minute Serena let me put my stuff down as I just arrived at my sister and brother-in-law’s place” as he saw Isabel come downstairs as she saw her brother coming into the house. Isabel nodded and walked into the kitchen while Max put down his coffee, as he continued with the call. “How are things?”

“How the trip home?” Serena asked as she sat in her kitchen at her place. Her husband and kids were outside playing, and she was just about to get lunch started when she decided to call Max.

“It has had its up and down’s, but I am glad I did it,” Max admitted as he thought of all he’s experienced since returning to town. “Don’t ask me when I am coming back.”

“Oh,” Serena muttered.

Max caught it and wondered what was up. “What’s wrong, I sense some tension in those words because he would have thought she would be encouraging him to stay on vacation.

“We found the Davidson boys,” Serena sighed.

“What, where are they?” Max asked on alert as his spine shot up. “Are they talking?”

“We actually don’t have them in custody. The were found in San Francisco, and they are processing them and transferring them to our jurisdiction” Serena admitted.

“When will they be at the station?” Max asked.

“Tomorrow at the earliest. Apparently the eighteen-year-old is trying to cause a stink to prevent the transfer, but it should be only be a formality, so they should be here sometime tomorrow.”

“Are they talking?” Max asked again.

“I don’t know. Gibson called me in briefly to tell me the news. We don’t have much information just that they were found and are going to come back our way,” Serena sighed.

“How about their father?” Max asked of the hatred she felt for that man seared through him.

“He’s still the wind!” Serena sighed.

“Weird, we always found tracks on him before… Now he’s gone off the radar and stayed off. Something weird about it if you ask me,” Max muttered.

“I know,” Serena nodded.

Max sighed as he saw in his brain all the questions he wanted to ask the kids and then images of Molly appeared in his mind, sighing again he asked. “How’s Molly?”

“She’s doing much better health wise, but the doctors are worried about her behavior.”

“Why is that?” Max asked as his eyes shot up. “She seemed in high spirits as well as she could be, I suppose when I lost saw her.”

“I don’t know, she seems downcast and the professionals are even seeing it, more and more these last few days” Serena sighed as she remembered what she had experienced these last few days when around the girl.

“Why?” Max asked.

“I think more of her memory is coming back, but it’s in conflict with something because her mood definitely rises and falls when discussing who she is, and her life and what she remembers of it.”

“That’s not good,” Max sighed.

“Nope,” Serena said. “Anyways I wanted to let you know we found the Davidson boys, and I’ll let you know what we find out…”

“Do that,” Max sighed because deep down something was knawing on him, and he felt like he was missing something big as he hung up from talking to Serena and turned to see his sister. “How much did you hear?”

“Not much,” Isabel sighed.

Max nodded.

“You’re going back, aren’t you?” Isabel asked as she had walked back into the room and heard Max taking in his authority type voice and knew something had to have happened back at work. “I heard it in your voice there in the end.”

“Isabel…” Max tried but knew he had to go back. He needed to know what the Davidson brothers knew about Molly’s attack as it was evident that they were keeping a secret when they talked to him or tried to evade his and Serena’s question and then they flew the coop so soon after he and

Serena had left the house and yet he didn’t want to leave Roswell and Liz.

He was in a quandary and he knew it.

“I always knew you wouldn’t stay,” Isabel sighed as hated to look at her brother and know he was leaving again.

“I have to sis,” Max said quietly. “I love spending all this time with you and everyone. But there was a case calling on me before I left, and there has been a new development.”

“And your partner can’t handle it without you?” Isabel asked.

“She can,” Max allowed.

“But you need to be there?” Isabel asked.

“It involves a small child and she was attacked and was left to die. We think it was by her father, and he’s missing, and we have found her brothers who also went on the run… I have to know what they know…”

Isabel nodded.

Max knew his decision was made, but also knew he had to come back. “But…”

“But what…” Isabel asked suspiciously of her brother.

“I will come back,” Max smiled although he knew he didn’t have any currency with his sister and warranted the suspicious look on her face. “I can go back, and spend a day or two and come back Wednesday or the latest Thursday and then spend the rest of my time off back here…”

“You don’t have to,” Isabel sighed. “Obviously you have a life there…”

“I don’t have a life there Iz,” Max admitted. “That is part of the problem in my life right now. I just have a job there, and a case that is knawing at me and I can’t just allow it to go on when I need to know for Molly’s sake.”

“Fine,” Isabel said slightly modified by the fact it was a small child taking her brother’s attention from them back home. “How old is she?”

“10 years old,” Max said softly.

“The same age that Bella would be…” Isabel asked as she thought of her step-daughter and niece.

Max nodded.

“Then go…” Isabel said softly even if deep down she was suspicious whether her brother would come home again but she couldn’t in good conscious push for her brother to stay when a small child needed his help and he so wanted to be able to give it. It had been Bella, she knew she would want his help.

Max nodded. “I will come back.”

“We’ll see won’t we,” Isabel sighed. “What about Liz?”

“I am not leaving until tomorrow. I need to find a flight first, but I’ll tell her myself,” Max said as he didn’t relish having to tell his former girlfriend that he was leaving again after promising her to help her daughter. “In the meantime, it will allow Michael and Jim to look more into Sean’s behaviour, as we need to figure out his associates and go from there…”

Isabel nodded as Max walked back towards the door and she watched him head back to the hospital. “Damn it,” she whispered as she hated watching her brother leave her.

*

Back at the hospital Liz was walking around the hallways after getting the okay to start to move around as she hated being stuck in the hospital while she knew she should be doing something regarding her daughter as she couldn’t until she was getting the greenlight to be discharged. She spotted Maria and Betty walking towards her. “Hey you two…”

“We checked your room and didn’t find you there, so we got a little worried,” Maria said relieved to find her friend walking towards them.

“They gave me the greenlight to get some exercise. I wish it was outside, but I have to take what they will give me… for now.”

“That’s the spirit,” Maria smiled as they walked back to Liz’s room. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Liz acknowledged. “I just wish I knew one way or another… you know about Sean?”

“I know,” Maria nodded. “We will find out what happened okay. I can’t see how he would have the resources from prison to do what he would have done,” she sighed as they didn’t to say too much in front of Betty. “But the Sean we knew back then, who knows who he is today.”

Liz nodded as they arrived back in her room as she took a seat on her bed. She hadn’t how out of shape she felt by being in the hospital or if she was honest with herself from the last year.

“How are you doing Aunt Liz?” Betty smiled up at her god-mother.

“I am doing much better now that you’re here,” Liz smiled down at her god-daughter. “You’ve grown up so much…”

Betty nodded, and Maria could see the wistful expression on her friend’s face. She hated all this for Liz. The knowledge Bella could be out there, waiting to come home and her cousin might be responsible for part of it, it clung to her and she hated it. “I miss Bella too…” she whispered to her godmother as Liz came in for a hug.

“We all do,” Maria smiled.

“So how is camp?” Liz asked as she changed the subject away from the memories of her daughter. She knew how much Bella loved going to camp with Betty in the summers.

“It’s a blast,” Betty smiled as she told takes of all her exploits and all the things she was able to make during the arts and craft parts of each day. Liz couldn’t help but be swept up in Betty’s enthusiasm of her enjoyment as they talked about how everything was going…

“I am glad,” Liz smiled at her god-daughter.

“How much longer are you going to be in here?” Betty asked as she didn’t like seeing her mother’s best friend in the hospital.

“I hope not too much longer,” Liz murmured. “Because I am feeling much better, so it could be any day.”

“I can’t wait until your home,” Betty smiled. “Bella wouldn’t want you to hurt…”

Liz nodded as slight tears came to her eyes. “Betty, can I ask you a question. You might not remember because this is about before my daughter disappeared. But did my daughter comment to you about her father, and who it was…”

Maria’s eyes went wide as she also turned to her daughter.

Betty nodded at the premise of the question and then appeared to be thinking about it.

“If you don’t remember that is okay,” Liz said sensitively. “I was just curious what my daughter might have been thinking before she was taken from us…”

Betty nodded again as she was silent then softly she spoke up. “Bella knew that bad man wasn’t her real father” she revealed to her shocked mother and god-mother while at the same time Liz eyes went wild as she searched Maria’s equally shocked face.

“What,” Liz squeaked.

“She told me on her birthday,” Betty said quietly as she revealed something her friend told her days before she disappeared. “When we were in her bedroom before her party.”

“How did she know?” Liz said softly.

“She said she saw it in a letter the day before and, well, she opened it because it was addressed to you. You were at work and we were playing in her room for a while before I went home. She spotted the mail and saw the letter and she opened it because she was curious.”

“What did she say…”

“She said it revealed that bad man wasn’t her biological father,” Betty said as she thought of all she had heard about her mother’s cousin. “That bad man said nasty words in the letter and she was scared to show you.”

“Oh my god,” Liz whispered.

“Why was she scared to show her mother,” Maria asked softly of her daughter.

“Because he said he was going to hurt you,” Betty tearfully spoke to her god-mother and mother. “She was worried about you.”

“Why didn’t she come to me,” Liz frantically whispered. “Why didn’t she come to me.”

“She was protecting you,” Betty said. “She told me that she was thinking of going to her Daddy,” she said as she talked about Kyle. “But the letter also mentioned a name she had heard before, and it got her curious.”

“What…” Liz asked as she feared of what Sean would have written in that letter.

“That bad man said her father’s name was Max…” Betty whispered. “Is that the same man that is Aunt Isabel’s brother?”

Liz’s eyes went straight down towards the bed as Maria silently swore and cursed as Betty watched the two women respond and she kind of knew she had hit a sore spot.

[RoswellFan68]

Wow. Sean wrote a letter threatening Liz. The question is did Max overhear the conversion on his way out of town.

[Roswelllostcause]

Oh how i wish that someone would kick Sean's ass to kingdom come!

[keepsmiling7]

I am torn......it's not a good time for Max to leave Roswell.....
But Molly seems to be remembering things. What to do, what to do??
Of course Bella would try to protect her mother........Max needs to know all of this.
Thanks, things seem to be moving forward.....I hope.
Carolyn

[L-J-L 76]

So Betty told Liz and Maria what was going on before Bella disappeared. Someone needs to tie Sean to a electrical wire and let him fry. Wow poor Molly. Good thing Molly is starting to remember. Can't believe Max is leaving again. Max needs to stay and talk with Liz. Wondering if Max heard Betty say Max was Bella's fathet.
Wonder what Max will do when he finds out.

From:
L-J-L 76

[Parker1947]

Meanwhile Max got off the elevator and was walking down the hall to the hallway and missed Betty’s question, but he heard Liz ask the little girl if she still had the letter. Curious he popped his head in to the room and Liz saw him and went ghost pale.

“What’s wrong?” Max asked as he saw the tension in the room. “Hey little Bette…” Max’s fond name for the little girl who looked at him with giggles which vanished when she saw how tense her mother and god-mother were… “Mommy, are you mad at me?”

“Of course not,” Maria sighed as she stared down at her pint-size mini me. “We just have a lot to talk about,” she told her daughter as she spotted the glances between Max and Liz. “Why don’t we start that discussion on the way home” she asked as she knew that they had to leave now that Max was visiting, and her daughter was liable to surprise them with what she might say, so she had to manage the situation by leaving. “So, Liz call me later,” she smiled.

Liz nodded as she watched the two go as the room felt empty with only her and Max in it, and it had a lot of unspoken tension in their midst. “So, you came back.”

“I did,” Max winced as he sensed some tension in Liz’s words and didn’t relish what he would have to tell his ex. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing,” Liz lied not wanting to admit to the knowledge that was rocking her world that her daughter knew who her biological father was and there was written threats from her ex-husband that came to her home days before her daughter went missing. She knew Maria would tell Michael and they would search her house for that letter. If she still had it and hadn’t thrown it out unwittingly in the previous year. “It’s always emotional when I get to see Betty because she reminds me so much of my own daughter.”

Max sighed as he nodded. “I am sorry because the memories got to be hard for you” Max sighed as he hated the heartbreak that Liz was feeling as she tried to live life without her daughter.

“It’s okay,” Liz nodded. “I didn’t expect to see you again today, so what brings you back?”

“Um… Liz,” Max said quietly as he didn’t want to be one to tell him that he was leaving again.

“What…” Liz asked wearily.

“I have to leave…” Max tried saying…

“You’re going back to Los Angeles,” Liz asked as shock went through her. She didn’t want to lose him yet when she just got him back in her life. “You promised you would stay.”

“I did,” Max admitted as he cursed under his breath. “But work beckons.”

“Does it?” Liz asked as her tone turned icy.

“Yes, it does,” Max said. “I wish I didn’t have to go home but a case that had been developing back home has had a sudden breakthrough and it needs my attention. I wish it didn’t, but it has…”

“When…” Liz briskly asked.

“I still have to book a flight, but I am thinking tomorrow morning,” Max admitted as she saw the immediate ice come to Liz’s face as if a wall went up between them. “Liz, I hate this…

“Go then…” Liz snapped as her heart felt broken in more ways than just the piece that was missing because her daughter was gone. “That is where you want to be, then go.”

Max hated to see so little trust from either his sister or Liz. They were quick to grow icy towards him although he knew he shouldn’t take it personally since he did warrant it. But he hated witnessing it and experiencing it firsthand. “I am sorry.”

“Go, leave…” Liz sighed as the door within the wall slammed shut.

“I’ll come back...” Max insisted and knew he would do anything to come back.

“You said that ten years ago and you didn’t so don’t promise me Max,” Liz snapped. “Any promise now can’t hold weight with me when you broke it before…”

“As I told my sister,” Max carried on. “I can go back and deal with this breakthrough and then be back by Thursday.”

“Do what you want because you will regardless of what I might think,” Liz sighed as ice came over her face. “So, go, leave”

“Liz…” Max tried.

“No, go.” Liz cried as she hated feeling the pain in her heart all over again at the thought of her going and knowing she was facing it all over again, the disappointment and the pain. “Get out and leave me alone.”

“I’ll be back…” Max said as he could tell he was being pushed away and it killed him as much as it did Liz. It was agony to see the pain and the emotion on her face again with the flashes coming back to him of their parting back in 2001. To revisit it was hell. But he knew he couldn’t stay if he could get answers regarding Molly. He just prayed he could prove them all wrong by coming back. “I’ll be back… I promise…”

Liz refused to look at him as he walked out the door, and when he was out of her eyeshot, she fell back against her bed crying.

*

“How come we didn’t see it coming?” Michael as they sat in the living room as their pint-size version of themselves sat on the couch with a defiant look on her face that both her parents knew well. Betty didn’t appreciate being lectured at for keeping the news of the letter from her parents.

“I didn’t know it was evidence,” Betty muttered in her eight-year old mindset. “I only saw it as she knew who her real father was,” Betty said softly of her fallen friend. “She was telling me a secret and I promised to tell no one.”

“We all value secrets honey,” Maria said softly. “You knew that we were looking at what happened to Bella. Why didn’t you tell us that you knew of a letter?”

“I didn’t see the letter. I only had Bella’s word about its contents,” Betty said softly as she cried for her lost friend. “How did I know to know it meant something?” she asked. “The bad man is in jail, right?”

“Right?” Michael nodded at his daughter.

“Then how can he have something to do with Bella going missing if he was in jail, and still in jail?” the pint-size dusty blond hair girl cried.

“I don’t know honey,” Maria smiled as she took her daughter in her arms to hug her as she could tell how upset she was. “We will find out, but do you know if letter was still with Bella?” as she asked quietly as at the hospital Betty hadn’t answered their questioning.”

“I don’t know,’ Betty shrugged. “We didn’t talk about it again before she went missing.”

“Okay sweetheart, thank you for telling us.”

“Mommy, that bad man didn’t hurt Bella did he to get at Aunt Liz?”

“We don’t know honey,” Maria sighed as she looked directly as her husband who only gritted his teeth. “But we will find out” she promised. “You go up to your room okay?”

Betty nodded as she rushed up to her room as she was relieved to get away from her parents as they heard her door slam shut a moment later. “Michael” Maria whispered.

“I know,” Michael said. “I didn’t see any letter in Bella’s room when Max and I went there yesterday, but I wasn’t looking for a letter Deluca wrote Liz, but I’ll go back and look” he said softly as the phone rang and Maria answered it and could hear crying on the other end and knew they were Liz’s tears.

“Slow down,” Maria said as she tried to get her friend to settle down and tell her what wrong. “Fuck,” she swore under her breathe and Michael knew it wasn’t pretty. “I’ll be right there…”

“What happened?” Michael was quick to ask when Maria hung up. “That was Liz, right?”

“Right…” Maria cursed. “She’s breaking down because Max is leaving!” Maria swore.

“WHAT!” Michael asked.

“Max apparently needs to head back home because of a case. He says he’s coming back once he concludes something at home, but Liz doesn’t believe him. I have to go over and calm her down.”

Michael nodded as he took out his own phone as his wife headed for the door. “Max, what is going on?” he was saying as Maria slammed the door shut on her way out as she heard Michael’s question.

*

“I hate him,” Liz swore when Maria arrived at the hospital as she herself hated how Max had come and stirred her friend up again only to leave again. “I wish he didn’t come back.”

“No, you don’t,” Maria said softly. “You love him.”

“No, I don’t,” Liz swore at the stirred-up feeling within her. “He’s my past and it’s better for him to be in my past.”

“You don’t get this irrational if you don’t love someone,” Maria encouraged. “He said he was coming back right?”

“He said he needs to go home and deal with a breakthrough, but he will be back to finish off his vacation,” Liz muttered bitterly.

“Then he will be back,” Maria asked as she tried to keep the confidence of that statement because she didn’t know if they could believe it given it took a decade for Max to come back in the first place.

“He made that promise to me before, but he didn’t so how am I supposed to believe him now” Liz said broken hearted as she repeated her conflict. “How can I believe him?”

“I think the circumstances are different today than they were when we were teenagers. He has more to lose today than he did at the time, and he wants to help you. So, I think he’ll be back.”

“Well I don’t,” Liz said defiantly.

“You knew he had a life back in California,” Maria reasoned even though she personally wanted to strangle Max for hurting her friend but also knew the Max she had seen over the weekend was different and he was deeply affected by Liz’s plight and wouldn’t stay away for long if he could help. It was different when he didn’t know but now he did know.

“He promised me that he would help find Bella,” Liz said quietly.

“He will, he just needed to go home and deal with his job for a few days,” Maria said confidently. “I suspect he will be back.”

“I thought he would be back ten years ago, and he didn’t come back…” Liz murmured.

“We all did,” Maria sighed as she thought of how Michael and Isabel reacted to realization that Max wasn’t returning. Neither were happy in those days and months after Max did vanish as she had to deal with the fallout as they also had Liz’s downward spiral to cope with at the same time as graduation approached for the three of them and the changes that would be falling on them as they approached adulthood with every life changing day.

“I can’t hope, not again…” Liz murmured.

“He will be back,” Maria promised.

“I hope so…” Liz sighed as she thought of why his leaving really dug on her. “Maria, I was thisclose to telling him about Bella.”

“Oh Liz…” Maria sighed as they hugged because she knew they had struck gold at why Liz truly was breaking down over Max’s newest departure as they sat and talked while at the same Michael met Max for drinks at Cow Patties.

*

“How long was Jim here with his band?” Max was asking as they reminisced about those days before Max left town as he was about to be out of the door once again. After getting back to Isabel’s and encountering a suspicious Kyle to add to the collection among his friends he was able to make a flight reservation the following morning with an open-ended ticket with the thought of coming back as soon as possible.

“Several months,” Michael nodded as this time Max kept it to one beer. Michael had an iced tea. “Maria sang with them for a little while and then almost got signed to a deal out of New York.”

“Really?” Max asked surprised as he stared at his friend. “How did you take it.”

“We were going through some difficulties at the time coupled with you leaving and then a friend of hers came back to town at the same time Liz was going through her dark path, so we had some hiccups that weren’t pretty, and she almost went. She in fact did go, but she didn’t like having to compromise her values, so she came back, and one thing led to another and we tried again.”

“Wow,” Max sighed at all he had missed.

“It was a time to remember,” Michael admitted. “What about you?”

“I told you I was in a dark period,” Max sighed. “When I was discovered in early December I spent the next months in the hospital as the doctors tried to figure out all my ailments. I didn’t have much of a life,” he sighed.

“Didn’t you want to come back?” Michael asked.

“Yes, I did.” Max admitted. “Every dream I had when I was conscious of them was about Roswell… and about Liz.”

“Then why not come back?” Michael asked as he hated the quandary that his friend was in, both in the past and now in their present lives.

“Because I was scared to…” Max murmured.

“Then why are you going back to L.A.?” Michael asked point blanked at his friend. “You came back after so long, so why go back so soon.”

“Molly’s case,” Max admitted. “The brothers have shown up and I need to know what they know, and I can only do it in person Michael” he murmured as he thought back how battered and bruised Molly was when he found her, and he needed to know what the boys knew. “Once I do that then I will come back.”

“I am not sure I believe you,” Michael asked.

“Believe me,” Max sighed as he hated how no one believed him or took him at his word. “I know I haven’t given you people much room to think otherwise but I promise you will back. Liz needs me, and I need to help Liz, so I will be back.”

“Sean wrote Liz a letter before Bella disappeared?” Michael revealed.

“WHAT!” Max said taking a double take.

“We actually haven’t seen it and we’re taking the word of a eight year old who was only seven when she and Bella had a conversation in which Bella admitted that she incepted a letter to Liz from Deluca,” Michael sighed as he knew he had to get over to Liz’s house and check for that letter as he told Max while eliminated the letter also revealed Bella’s true paternity. “Apparently it was a nasty letter Bella told Betty.”

“Oh god,” Max muttered. “What did it say?”

“We don’t know,” Michael sighed. “We never found it in the aftermath but then we didn’t know to look for it.”

“If Sean threatened Liz before Bella disappeared…”

“Then he might have followed through by orchestrating Bella’s disappearance which would be the ultimate pain for Liz,” Michael sighed as he didn’t want to think what they both were thinking.

“I hate this,” Max sighed as he cursed the break-through in Los Angeles as he wanted to stay, but flashes of Molly told him that he had to go back…

“You’re leaving…” Michael shook his head.

“I will be back…”

“I hope so,” Michael said as they finished their drinks and Max went back to Isabel and Kyle’s to spend the evening as their parents were coming for dinner and they weren’t too pleased to learn either that their son was leaving after forty- eight hours back in Roswell and they weren’t too sure he would be back despite his assertions he would be.

Therefore, Max knew the next morning as he was getting on his flight for Los Angeles that he had to prove a lot of people wrong…

[L-J-L 76]

Understandable why Liz is upset. Max made a promise and broke it before. Who knows if Max can and will keep his promise now. Liz should have told Max about Bella being his daughter and about the note Betty told Liz and Maria about. So everyone is hoping Max will come back.
Wondering if the blood work will tell Molly and Max that they are father and daughter. Wonder if Molly will tell Max about her dreams. Wonder if Max will go back to Roswell to see Liz and everyone. Wonder if Someone will tell Max the truth. Wonder what happens when the truth is known.

From:
L-J-L 76

[RoswellFan68]

Max's credibility is shot with his family and friends. I wonder the Davidson brothers will have any information on Molly. I wonder if Molly will remember when she see Max.

[Roswelllostcause]

Max going back to LA might be a good thing if Bella remembers who she is and he can bring her home to Liz.