“How are you doing?” Michael asked twenty minutes later as he arrived to take Max back to the auto repair shop as Max had elected to keep the car at home in case there was an emergency. So, he had asked Michael to shop by and pick him up, and so they were driving, and Max was too quiet, and it unnerve the King of Silence, Michael.
“It hasn’t been the easiest of days,” Max said quietly.
“Beth wants to go back home to Madison, doesn’t she?” Michael asked as if he could read Max’s mind as that was all he was thinking about and he hated the prospect of losing her all over again because of being who he was.
“Yes,” Max said simply.
“Are you going to allow it?” Michael asked as he wondered what Max might do to stop Beth and the girls from leaving.
“I don’t think I have much choice,” Max said honestly. “I can understand why she would freak and want to go back. I had been expecting it for days as I know it’s been this fantasy that we’ve been living but to know it’s happening because someone is coming after me again and targeting our children. I can’t help but resent it.”
“Why does Khivar care about us, so damn much” Michael asked as he took the turn towards the shop.
“I don’t know why. It’s not like we care a damn about him” Max muttered. “We may have stopped him from taking Isabel back all those years ago, but to strike out then with Liz’s crash and now with the kids, I don’t understand it” he murmured as he had the same thoughts that his eldest daughter did, as it’s not like they cared about Antar.
Khivar can have Antar, it’s not like we’re looking to go back and take it back.
“So, we’re thinking it is Khivar?” Michael asked.
“Kal wouldn’t want to do it. Afterall, he protected us from Ellis, with his own methods of course but it was protecting our secret. Khivar has no such desire to protect us” Max murmured. “He just wants to create pain or payback for whatever we did to him.”
“To think he could have succeeded,” Michael asked as he shuttered to think of what might have been… maybe Elizabeth was right that her love life was a lot less painful than what could have been for him and Maria to face if something had happened to their daughter in that accident but he didn’t want to think about his little girl’s love life.
“Thank god for Grace,” Max murmured as they parked nearby the shop, and got out of the car. “I hate to think of what could have happened”
“I know,” Michael nodded as he thought of his own daughter and how quickly he could have lost her as well even if it wasn’t intended by whoever orchestrated today events. “Elizabeth got asked out on a date”
“Whoa,” Max said as he looked over at his friend as they walked up the street to the auto repair shop. “I am surprised you still came with me, so is she going?”
“She only dropped the news as a way to get out of trouble from ditching school, so we don’t have all the details yet but it’s just a remainder that I wish our kids weren’t so independent” Michael admitted. “And yet her love life is better than how it could have gone.”
“I know,” Max nodded as he thought the dance Grace was taking with Jake and whatever connection they had formed.
“Still I don’t like it. I don’t know this kid” Michael muttered.
“Something tells me you will get to know him,” Max sighed as they walked into the shop and met up with Jake to talk about the latest findings.
*
“So, who is this Finn?” Maria was asking her daughter as she watched Elizabeth work on her paper. Isabel had given her the day off after news of the accident hit the boutique and so Elizabeth was working the full day on Saturday to make up the hours. So, she had time to focus on her term paper.
“Some boy,” Elizabeth said as she looked up at her mother as she knew from her mother’s look that she was getting the full investigation treatment. “It surprised me because I didn’t think he was interested.”
“You didn’t?” Maria asked.
“It’s not like I go out with a lot of boys Mom,” Elizabeth said to Maria’s wince. “I have left that mostly to Grace, for good and bad” she sighed as she thought of all the trouble her friend had gotten into with guys. “No one really piqued my attention.”
“Until now?” Maria asked.
“I don’t know if Finn is anything, but it surprised me when he asked me out today. It never entered my mind, and then you know the accident happened and so I haven’t had time to really think about it.”
“Do you want to go out with Finn?” Maria asked.
“I think so,” Elizabeth admitted. “Before you start Mom, he’s a good guy. A junior, and in one of Grace’s AP classes. So, we don’t run in the same circles, but I do know from the grapevine that he’s a good guy.”
“Are you sure?” Maria asked.
“Mom, the school grapevine clues in us students pretty quickly of who you can trust. Sure, there are people who get through the cracks, but I know from what I heard that everyone trusts Finn, and he has no blackmarks against him.”
“You’re trying to make me like him?” Maria asked. “So, I will get him through Dad’s resistance, huh?”
“No, truly, he’s a genuine good guy. And if he’s not, I think you can trust me to handle him if he tries to hard with me but it’s one date. And I know by now to be careful…” she murmured. “I may be only fifteen, but I am almost sixteen.”
“Don’t I know it,” Maria sighed as he walked over to the counter to figure out what to make for dinner. “But let your father and I think about it. Given everything going on these days, we want you to be careful, and we need to know the kid.”
“Oh, I know. I told him I had to get permission and I do want it. I am not going to sneak around you guys. I know how much headaches that would case me. At least right now,” she cracked. “I can always wait for that until it all dies down.”
Maria could only laugh because she knew it was the truth. It wasn’t Elizabeth’s style, and if it were, then she would wait until their guards were down, and yet that was comforting to her right now as the doors opened and slam shut as the rest of the kids came rushing into the kitchen and she was soon back into the swing of the daily routine.
While Elizabeth went back to work on her report.
*
“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” Grace asked her mother as she wheeled her chair into the kitchen as the twins were sitting at the table checking their email, using Max’s old laptop that he had leant them to use. Beth made them promise her that they wouldn’t use it for any way she would disapprove and so far, the girls had been listening to that promise. Beth was making some homemade Chinese food for dinner, for when Max came back from the auto repair shop. As she was cutting the vegetables, she looked up at the disappointment and fear in the teenager’s face. Alexandra and Carrie only shook their heads.
“I promised your father I would think about it, but at the moment that is what I am thinking of doing” Beth sighed as wariness came over Grace’s face. “I know that is a disappointment for you.”
“Yeah it is,” Grace said honestly. “I wish my accident wasn’t forcing you to go.”
“Grace you aren’t forcing me to go. Yes, the accident is one factor in why I think it’s for the best that the twins and I go back to Madison. That is where are life is. The girls need to go back to school to finish off their terms. They switch schools, so their finals marks are important for their futures.”
“I know that,” Grace nodded.
“And I had a job. They have been amazing in letting me stay this long, but I am a doctor and I need to think about my patients” Beth sighed as she thought of her patients. While her colleagues have been picking up the slack, she knew it was coming to a time where it was going to be noticeable that she wasn’t back.
“I know,” Grace conceded. “But still leaving because of today is not what I want.”
“I know you don’t, nor does your father which is why I agreed to think about it, but…” Beth sighed as she chopped the bacon.
“You’ve made up your mind?” Grace asked.
“Not totally,” Beth sighed. “Look Grace, even if we do go back, well, that doesn’t mean we have to stop talking. We can talk. You can call me, and I can call you and maybe this summer when you’re up on your feet… you could come to Madison and visit us for a visit. Leaving doesn’t mean we cut each other off.”
“But it won’t be the same,” Grace asked. “Dad wouldn’t be there…”
“No, he wouldn’t…” Beth conceded. “I do like being here, getting to know you and your father but still we have a life in Madison that we can’t just leave, not yet.”
Grace nodded as she maneuvered her chair around and left the kitchen as Beth looked over at the twins. “Don’t start, okay, you two.” Beth warned.
“We need to go back sometime, and maybe it’s better to do it now than later… You both have to finish school.”
“You know I like school and miss it Mom, but this is an education we will never experience back home so why leave now…” Alexandra asked as Carrie nodded. “We know you have to get back to work, but can’t we wait a little longer?”
“I wish we could but it’s not going to be any easier if we wait another week” Beth warned. “You will still be able to talk to Max, and Grace and I am sure you can come visit this summer or we’re work out something.”
“Yeah right” Carrie muttered as she went back to checking her email after Alexandra finished up and got up from the table and went over to the counter.
“It will be alright you know. Whatever we decide, it will work out” Beth assured her daughter and Alexandra nodded but she hated how it felt to have to go, and miss out on seeing Max and Grace every day…
“I miss Madison, but I think I will miss Roswell more” Alexandra muttered as she picked up a piece of carrot and ate it.
Beth could only sigh.
*
‘After seeing that nothing could be determined yet on the status of the car. Max and Michael left dissatisfied. Jake assured his father he would be home within the half hour. Now they were heading back to the Evans house. “I have called Jim and asked him to see if there is any surveillance tape of the high school and if anyone got to the car while Grace and Alexandra were in the high school.”
“Someone could have easily hacked the electrical panel given how technology have taken over the cars these days” Michael muttered. “But to cut the brakes, someone had to have gotten to the car. Grace hasn’t driven the car much right…”
“I think today was really the first time since the accident. The car has been in the driveway the whole time.” Max asked. “I have been busy at the office, so I haven’t been around the house much this week so someone could have gotten to the car at the house. But nothing happened until after the high school, if they got to the car beforehand.”
“It wasn’t a complete break of the brakes,” Michael acknowledged. “It meant that it would be alright until it wasn’t…”
Max nodded as they stopped at the house. Turning to Michael, “Call me if you find anything out.”
“I will…” Michael nodded as he watched his friend enter his house, as he sighed at how complicated their lives had gotten.
*
“Nothing?” Maria asked Michael as he walk in the house. Jake had just called home and said he was on the way, so she was now in dinner preparations. “Jake called, and said you couldn’t figure out anything”
“Not right now, we have to look more into it. Since Grace hasn’t used the car due to her prior accident, it could have meant someone got to the car without us knowing it. “It requires more investigation.”
“I hate this…” Maria muttered.
“Me too, but at least Elizabeth is upstairs and safe and sound” Michael sighed. “But it doesn’t make it any easier…”
“No, it doesn’t…” Maria sighed. “How is Max?”
“He’s not in the greatest frame of mind” Michael sighed as he thought of his friend. “Beth is determined to head back to Madison on the weekend.”
“Oh god,” Maria said as she put down the knife. “She’s really going back to Connecticut,” she asked. “Why?”
“She’s running…” Michael admitted. “Today scared her, coupled with the other close calls or not so close calls… she’s worried for the girls, and for herself. Max is asking her to think it over, and to change her mind but knowing her, well, I have my doubts that she will be able to stay until she has time to relax... away from the situation”
“It doesn’t help anyone for her to leave, not even her Michael” Maria murmured.
“I know that,” Michael muttered. “But it’s been overwhelming for her and it wouldn’t surprise me to see her leave so that she can get some prospective on all the changes in her life. Maybe Max needs it too. He said it himself, he’s caught up in a fantasy. Maybe it’s time the fantasy breaks, and reality set in.”
“Reality sucks,” Maria muttered as Michael went to do some case work for one of his cases. “Reality really sucks” and so she finished the prep for dinner, and went to do some work on her manuscript and went to the den which was Jake’s current bedroom for another week or so until he got more movement in his leg, and she moved the books out of the way of some books she needed, and one of them fell and some papers came falling out. She went to pick them up and was surprised to see it paperwork from a university in New York.
She looked further, and saw it was an
acceptance. Along with that was another from UCLA, which was another
acceptance.
“Damn it, Jake, you did it this time” Maria muttered as Jake elected to stumble in on his crutches and saw his mother with some papers. “You got into university and you didn’t tell your father and me?”
“Mom… please don’t make this a big deal” Jake murmured as he knew staying downstairs was going to burn him in the end. Why hadn’t he found a better hiding spot than his textbooks, and now it was killing him because he saw the happiness on his mother’s face and yet disappointment that he hadn’t told her himself.
“You got in both schools with full scholarships Jake, full rides” Maria asked. “And you didn’t tell us? How long have you known?”
“Since I got home from the hospital?” Jake said honestly as he remembered the emails and envelopes awaiting his arrival home. “Mom, it’s no big deal.”
“Jake, it’s a very big deal. Don’t you know that all your father and I have wanted for you is for you to go to university and you did it, and got into two very good schools, and you didn’t tell us.”
“Mom, I was going to tell you…” Jake muttered.
“When…” Maria asked. “When were you going to tell us?”
“When I was ready” Jake murmured as he didn’t like what he was also going to have to say. “It’s because I don’t know if I want to go to those schools Mom. Or University at all,” he said honestly to his mother’s face drop. “Don’t look at me like that. I want to go, but I don’t know if I want those schools. Maybe I want to wait and see if I can get into another school down the line…”
“Jacob Luca Guerin, you will not give up your chance at a university education because you didn’t get into a school near here, and near Grace.” Maria angrily demanded as she fought through his real reason on not going.
“It’s my decision” Jake muttered.
“You have a chance at a future for yourself, and you’re not giving it up do you hear me” Maria asked as she walked away in a huff. “Grace wouldn’t want that for you, and your father and I don’t want that for you.”
Elizabeth came downstairs and heard the argument and watched as her mother stormed out of the house and saw the door slam shut.
“What did you do now?” she asked of her brother as she walked into the den, as Jake just stared into space.