The Story of My Life (CC, Mature) - Chapter 75 - Completed: 04/25/2021

[Superman86]

Still waiting for Max & Liz.

Thanks

I'm nervous for them too, What will the visit bring

[Parker1947]

Diane’s face went pale at the mention of her son. She had not expected it because Phillip had not told her of their daughter’s efforts to gain the freedom of their son. Of course, Phillip did not know that Liz had wanted to spend time with their son, or that they had gone to court to get that right. So, it was still shocking for her grandmother Olivia knew and she was sorry that she had to bring up her father. Because she had long knew that like at home. Max Evans was a ghost to her grandparents as well as to her because no one really discussed him. And when they did, they spoke in glowing words. And not the reality of the situation.

“Grandma, I am sorry” Olivia said softly.

“No, it’s alright” Diane said righting herself. “You certainly have every right to bring up his name, it is well a surprise because I didn’t know your mother was visiting him?” she sighed as she longed to see her son. A young man she only got to know for a little more than a decade before he was brutally taken away from her by his own words, and by the government. She missed him. She longed for the day when they could have him back again, even if to her it always remained within a dream, as she did not dare hope that there was some ability to bring him home again.

As much as she and Phillip missed their son, she also knew her granddaughter missed the man she never knew. While she was aware of her granddaughter’s recent trip on her son’s birthday. But she did not know of other recent overtures towards the prison. She wished life had worked better for both her son, and her granddaughter. She gave her daughter-in-law a lot of credit for raising Olivia in the face of the town rumors and naysayers who thought she should have written her son off years ago. She would not have blamed Liz if she had divorced her son or left this town in the face of the talk, because it was a hell of a situation. But she admired the woman Liz was in staying, and standing up for the man she loved, and remaining by her son’s side even if they did not have a marriage in the traditional sense because her son had kept his wife away. So, there was no husband to stand by in that sense…

“I figured you deserved to know,” Olivia smiled. “Aunt Isabel and Mom successfully fought the court and the government to get a pass for Mom to see Dad. So, she did not have to sneak in or use any other underhanded methods to see Dad,” she sighed because she long knew how much her grandparents missed her father. From them and a little from her mother, before the stories, she got the sense her father was a warm and compassionate man who was the opposite of what the town told her about her father. She grew up with conflicting opinions on the character of the man who helped bring life to her. Which is why she had to go visit him because she needed to know what kind of man, he was…

She had not anticipated it would open this box that had long been closed. Something like Mom’s shooting ripped the band aid of Dad’s normal life she muttered to herself. She knew it was still open wound for her grandparents as evident in the pain in them over their actions that led to her father pursuers having enough evidence to convince a jury to go along with her father’s confession.

“Thank you,” Diane smiled at the girl who looked so much like her son as the door opened and Phillip walked in with several bags and seemed surprised to find his eldest granddaughter.

“Olivia, what a pleasure?” Phillip asked as he assessed the situation. One he had not expected when he came home.

“I didn’t give either of you warning, and I am sorry about that, but I told Grandma that I wanted to pay you a visit because Mom is busy tonight, and I am not expected over at Amelia’s until later,” Olivia murmured as she felt the overwhelming glow of love from her grandparents. Despite the circumstances, that never changed.

“Well, I am glad you came here,” Phillip said as they walked into the kitchen and he dropped the bag of food on the counter. “We have plenty of food if you want to join us?”

“I told Grandma that I ate on the way over…” Olivia as the jolly man her grandfather was. A warm and inviting man. Although the insight into her father’s past, and her grandfather’s actions allowed to see a side of her grandparents that she had not while growing up because they had always been closed off despite their warmth to her. Now she knew there was true pain behind those eyes.

“Phillip were you aware that over daughter is now our son’s lawyer” Diane wondered as she glanced at her husband whose face did not stay in as he absorbed his wife’s words. Olivia sensed that they had been able to absorb a lot of words said between the two over the decades of marriage.

“Isabel just informed me of that fact,” Phillip murmured.

“You didn’t tell me?” Diane asked a little hurt that there were things being kept from her as she glanced over at her husband whose face now did change to show remorse. “Does that mean Max’s case has been reopened?”

“No,” Phillip said softly and sighed because this was why he had not told his wife. Olivia sensed it too. “You shouldn’t get your hopes up honey because it’s a simple matter of Max was requesting a change in representation, and Isabel took him on” he sighed. “The case hasn’t been reopened” at this point he wanted to say, but that would lead to more questions from his wife.

“Then why does Max want our daughter’s involvement?” Diane asked as she looked at her granddaughter and then at her husband of so many decades. “Do you two know something. Why after all these years is your mother asking for permission to see our father?”

“My visit woke up the monster,” Olivia murmured. “Not that Dad is a monster. But I guess my visit opened undisturbed earth, and things are spilling out, all over…”

“What do you mean?” Diane asked as she hung on her granddaughter’s words.

“Dad wanted to see Mom, and Mom wanted to see Dad. So, she and Isabel went to court, and won a visit with anything else to be settled later” Olivia murmured. “That is where Mom is tonight, with Dad, and I am spending the night with Amelia” she murmured as she had a sense her grandfather did not want her grandmother to know the truth of the situation as the gang was trying to indeed reopen her father’s case.

“Oh god,” Diane murmured.

“Honey don’t think anything more than what it is. Nothing else is being looked at” Phillip murmured right now at least.

“What else am to think?” Diane asked. “I am not stupid Phillip so don’t treat me as if I am. I know for a fact our daughter-in-law wouldn’t be suddenly seeing our son, a man who she hasn’t seen in nearly seventeen years if something has not happened to change things, and I don’t think it was just your visit to your father?” she asked as she turned back to her granddaughter as if she expected the teenager to tell her something that she was not getting from her husband.

“Sorry for upsetting you Grandma,” Olivia murmured. “Nothing has changed. Grandpa is right. Everything is the same today as it was yesterday. It is just my recent visit has made Mom want to see Dad, and she is taking that opportunity, anything more is for tomorrow and is not any chose today as it was yesterday. In fact, it might be far off, because the government will fight us and it’s not like we know anything that could get Dad out of prison”

“Phillip you know that I don’t like not knowing things when it clearly impacts my family,” Diane muttered towards her husband. “We’re going through this together, and not apart okay?” she asked of her husband who nodded. “I know we both miss our son. And I have reacted emotionally in the past, maybe too much so, and I know that, but I want to know what is going on, okay?” she asked of Phillip who nodded once again. “This is far too important for me not to know, and to be left in the dark?”

“I promise to keep you informed,” Phillip murmured as he did know his wife did deserve to know. “We have our granddaughter visiting us, so, why don’t we stop talking about matters we cannot control and focus on ones that we do have some control of” he sighed. “I am very glad you did come over honey, because it’s been a long time since we had one of these spur of the moment visits.”

“Which is why I wanted to come,” Olivia murmured although she did not know if her own life was in her control. She wished it were, but something tells me it would be many months or maybe never…

“Why don’t you join us,” Phillip murmured as they set the plates at the table. “Even if you do not want to eat, then you can tell us what is going on with you these days. Because I suspect you have a lot on your mind, if your recent hospitalization is any indications.”

“I guess,” Olivia murmured.

*

It had taken slightly longer than what Google had told it would take to get to the prison. Due to an unscheduled stop for more gas, and traffic, but finally she approached the prison and saw the terrifying building and knowing her husband spent ever since day these past sixteen years in it was even more horrifying. While she had been able to live her life and go on with life as she raised their daughter.

Now, she was confronted with the notion that to see her husband that she had to come to his building. When life should have been easier. Her husband should have been home with her and their daughter, and not in one of these frightening places. But she had long made peace with it, and one of these days she would be getting him out. She only wished it could have been like those horrible hours in the White Room; short-lived as Liz parked her car and took the ticket because she was in long-term parking. Sighing at the nerves that still flooded during her brain and her stomach.

She got out of the car.

And walked towards the prison… And it was a half hour later after waiting and going through she had to go through a lengthy security checks that she was led into a room. “You have until 12 full hours, so the door will unlock at 7:30 tomorrow morning,” said the guard. “Someone will be out here at all times, so if you have any worries, and you need help?” the guard murmured. “You just knock on the door, and we will assist you.”

“We will not be asking for assistance,” Liz murmured as she thought of the time she would have with her husband, and there was no chance she would be asking for assistance from these people. “I just want to see him,” she murmured as she knew she was being judged for wanting to see her husband and she had seen this dismissive look as she looked at her ID. She might not carry her husband’s name. But still she was married in her heart, and there was a ring on her finger to show it. She still had the pendant around her neck, that she had gotten out of the drawer when all this had started over again. She was not removing it this time.

*

“Evans,” said the guard as they approached Max’s cell. “You time had come, so we better get going because we wouldn’t want to give your lawyer any incentive to make things even more tense around her,” and Max nodded as he got up from the bed as he had been staring into space for hours it seemed as he did not think the hour would approach Liz is here. Finally, I will get to see my wife, and spend the next hours with her he said to himself. He had not believed this day would come. And made him wonder why he had kept her away all this time. If only because it annoyed the prison to see that he was getting something good coming to him.

Of course, he saw it from their prospective. The government knew that Max was lying and had been innocent all this time, but they needed a sacrificial lamb to take to the media to prove that they took the army base explosion serious and they had someone they could blame, who was not a bunch of ash. Max knew they suspected it was Tess, and they could have made it easier on them to say it was her, but then it would have to open a lot of doors that were best left closed. Even if it meant giving him on a serving plate.

The prison only saw what everyone other than his family and those he loved saw. They saw someone who went wrong. They saw his time in Utah, and then Vermont as an escalating level of trouble that led to the base explosion. Little did they know what he had done during other times, or, well, what any of them had done. So, he knew he was lucky he had not gotten nailed for any of the other things he had done. So, the prison was only doing what was called on them to do, and what he sentenced himself to, when he confessed. Treat him like a hardened criminal.

So, he knows he annoyed them by bringing Isabel into the situation now. After more than a decade and a half of swallowing his innocence and laying close to the ground as possible when you did not have other prisoners trying to make a name for them by beating on those who were perceived as having more of a name in the prison. He was one of those, and these bruises were not the only ones and some days, it made him wish he did fight back then, but then who knows what would have happened if he had decided to fight. It was better to protect his family, and most of all Liz by doing what he did. Even if he had wished he had been there for Olivia and been the father she needed.

He walked and saw the stares coming his way as everyone knew that he was making waves, or his legal team was making waves, and that the warden was upset. Which is why he was getting the bruises in the first time. Punishment in one of these places took many forms as Max long had found out for being the one who had done a noticeable crime. Added to it was if the warden was angry, then the inmate would feel the pain eventually. He could have heeded it with some little power, here and there, and yet at the same time, well, he knew he could not because then he would get a target on his back. And if he had gotten a target on his back, then he would not still be alive in one of these places. And if by some miracle he had survived then it would not have helped his sanity, and it would have made things worse.

Still, he did not know if Liz would like the man he was today. He was not who he was seventeen years ago, or twenty years ago. Would she want me today? he asked himself as he walked the distance across the prison campus.

Finally, they had arrived at the trailer for such events. “Ready?” asked the guard.

“As I ever will be,” Max said simply.

*

“You are,” came the stunned words from Diane Evans as Olivia dropped the bomb that she was pregnant. Silence took over the table. None of them knew how to respond. Olivia worried her grandparents would be looking at her differently. She knew her mother did even if Liz would say differently. She did not want to be here and telling her grandparents what she had just told them, and now she was waiting for the fallout as both Diane and Phillip were stunned silent and had not talked until just now.

“Yes,” Olivia said simply as she watched both of her grandparents to see how they would react. She knew they had not dealt with this with her father until well after the fact. When her aunt told them to try to get out of some dicey stuff, and then when Tess came back with said child as she brought the last bit of mayhem that would envelope their families. When they became instant grandparent.

Now she was making them great grandparents if she elected to keep the child. Even if she did not, they would be great grandparents. She still did not know what road she wanted. Or the route, except she knew she was having the baby.

“I am sorry if I am disappointing you guys,” Olivia murmured as she thought of her situation. She knew she was upending everyone’s expectations of her, and what she had grown up believing and showing her capable of being. “I know I am Mom” she said of her mother, and she wished she could have been the model daughter, and not one who went down the very road her mother wanted her to avoid.

“You could never disappoint us honey,” Diane said softly as she glanced at her granddaughter, and could tell the young woman was overwhelmed, at the very least. “We were just a little surprised,” she murmured as she tried to be encouraging. “Phillip, do you want to say something?” she asked of her husband as they both knew they had a lot of thoughts going through their minds and none of them had expected this of their granddaughter at this stage of her life. Although they probably should not be surprised, they both thought because they knew Olivia and Alex had been getting too serious of late. But a baby was not what they were expecting.

“Your grandmother is right,” Phillip said softly as his heart pulled for his granddaughter. “You haven’t disappointed us, nor do we anticipate that day…” he sighed. “We love you regardless of what happens to you in your life,” he said he felt for his granddaughter. “Of course, it is just a lot to digest,” he asked. “I assume Alex…” he asked without finishing the sentence.

“Yes,” Olivia nodded to confirm as she looked to starve off the inevitable questions. “Before you ask. He did not ask for us to break up because of the baby. It was me who decided we needed to take a breather. We were happy until everything became too overwhelming, and I needed time to figure out what want because neither of knows what we want…”

“That means?” Phillip asked.

“I am having the baby,” Olivia announced. “Anything else is what I don’t know yet. Both Alex and Mom say they support whatever I decide to do.”

“Your mother,” Diane asked as she thought of her daughter-in-law who had been forced to deal with a lot as a single mother. So young when she did become a mother, and despite the family support. It still was a hardship, and to know her granddaughter was now facing it, even younger. “How is she responding?”

“You can ask her,” Olivia muttered as she knew her mother was dealing with an enough, and it was on her that she had given this added burden. She did not like being the statistic that came true that if you were a young mom, then your child might continue to the tradition. She knew her mother was a different situation and Olivia also knew she did try to be safe, and she was trying to be smart of it. Fate had other plans. “She has been a saint. I know I have tested her trust, and her limits but of course almost at the same time she found out, I upped the angst in her life when I went and woke the beast by going and visiting Dad, so she has had two very different competing journeys to deal with, and so, yeah, I haven’t made it any easier for…”

“Your mother was always a compassionate soul” Phillip smiled. “That is what your father told me he loved about her was that she wanted to help. She did not judge. He just wished he hadn’t given her cause to be hurt by his actions?”

“Yeah, that where is I am at” Olivia muttered. “I wished this had happened and before you blame Alex. We took precautions, but I guess they didn’t work, and so neither of us asked for it nor was it planned, and of course it has totally upended our world.”

“Is Alex there for you?” Diane asked.

“Yes, he is” Olivia murmured although they had not really talked or seen each other but Olivia did know that if she had needed him, then he would have come running and she was the one who was making to decision to stay away.

“I am glad,” Diane murmured

“So, you don’t know what you want to do?” Phillip asked of his granddaughter.

“No,” Olivia admitted. “One moment I think about keeping it, but then the next I was thinking adoption, and even looking at an agency and thinking along those lines. Aunt Isabel has given me her advice on what it meant to be adopted. Which is why I wanted to come and see you, because not only did you deserve to know. But I guess I wanted to get your advice as you two adopted. And ended up adopting children who were special. And because I do not know how my baby might end up being. I guess, I needed some advice”

“We didn’t know until well after the fact,” Phillip murmured as he thought back to those days when they thought they were rescuing two six years who were found at the side of road near the desert one day. That should have been a clue that something was odd with the situation Phillip asked himself. Given Max and Isabel were not sociable or climatized to this world and needed time and teaching to be able to go to school. “That did we know what was going on with your father, and your aunt and that they were special…”

“Would you have gone there if you had known that from the moment you adopted them?” Olivia asked. “I mean you were adopting two six years old’s, so that was a quite different situation than what Dad would face later, or what I am facing now. Would you take Dad and Isabel in if you had known?”

Phillip looked at his wife, as they were forced to reckoned something they had not had to think about because they did know, but they had not even broached the subject, and now their granddaughter was making them face it.

“So, yeah, would you have still adopted Dad and Isabel if you knew what were, and what they could do?”

*****

You will have to wait for the answer to Olivia's question. Because, yes, finally the moment Max and Liz are wishing for is upon us. So, something to look forward is starting...

[keepsmiling7]

Oh boy, Olivia dropped the bomb on her grandparents.
Surprised is an understatement.
She had good questions about adoption.
What will the answer be??

[totallizfan]

Still waiting for Max & Liz.
I don't get why Olivia is considering putting her baby up for adoption.
She has all the support anyone would need ...( physically, emotionally & monetarily).

[Superman86]

Yay!!!! Can't wait till Max and Liz reunite after 17yrs face to face. Person to Person, Husband and Wife

[Parker1947]

While Olivia had given something for her grandparents to question as they tried to dodge giving an answer, or whether they even wanted to ask that of themselves and give their granddaughter an answer. Hundred of miles away, Liz was looking around the room she had been led into as the time was approaching. She was nervous. She might have had seen Max since those days seventeen years ago. But this was the first time they would be alone in the same room. And not even in the prison but somewhere, more private where they only had a guard on the other side of the door. She knew camera would witness but they also knew there would be a malfunction as so not to give authorities an eye or ear full. The prison knew this which is why they hated how the judge had given Liz a visit of her own choosing. Which meant she could choose. Anyone would know what Liz would have chose, and she did. Why would she give up a night of having him in her arms, whether they went anywhere other than just being able to see each other.

Now she waited for the unknown to become known. As there was a knock on the door, and she did not have to say anything as then the door opened and the guard came in to assess the landscape of the room before seconds later Max was led into the room, and the world seemed to close around them as they viewed each other for the first time in atmosphere that did not have glass between them, barring any meaningful connection. This would be different.

The moment Max laid his eyes on Liz, he felt the world close, and the same with Liz, as she glanced at Max.

They both knew it, as if they felt like in the world of their own, and their own bubble. As the guard witnessed the connection in the stares that came from the prisoner and his wife. And he had to wonder how they could be like that, like no one existed, when he knew the charges that had been leveled against the prisoner, and how he had been convicted of them Weird the guard muttered to himself as he witnessed Max and Liz staring at each other. You would not think he was accused of nearly killing her because he saw the devotion on the face of Max. And love on the face of his wife.

Still the nature of relationships gave false fronts all the time. To the world, they seemed in love, and nothing could come between them and then behind closed doors. Something else entirely, and one could never judge what truly was going on, and this might be an example of it, Prisoners always attract the devoted

The guard undid the restraints, “You know you can’t leave until these doors open tomorrow morning at 7:30 am” the guard asked. “Someone will be outside, at all times, so do not get any ideas”

“We know,” Max said softly as his eyes stayed on Liz who was sitting on the bed and looking at him like he was ghost. “You can leave us alone now,” he said softly as Liz nodded, and the guard sighed but took the demand, and left the room.

Leaving Max and Liz together in the same room, without the spectator of glass as a barrier, for the first time in seventeen years. Neither could talk. They could only stare at each other. Like they could not believe this was happening. For them, that was true. Neither could believe this was happening. Something they had wanted since they realized it was possible. But still neither had not put any stock in it happening, and now it was, and they were staring at each other like their bubble could burst at any time. And it would be all an illusion, or a magic trick or one of their imaginative dreams. Which Max had a constant supply of since being remanded into this facility. “You came?”

“You thought I would stay away?” Liz said softly as she got up from the bed and started to approach, as if she wanted to make sure this was not one of Isabel’s dream walks, or one of her own imaginative dreams. Or their connection that always seemed to pop up when they thought of each other.

“I didn’t know if you wanted to see me like this?” Max asked softly as they both knew they were two vastly different people from who they were at eighteen. They had been so young then, and so in love. Youth was on their sides. And they were now on the close side of forty, and with seventeen years of trials and pain, and they were not the same as the had been when they fell in love and fell into a world that changed them in too many ways.

“I have seen you before you know?” Liz murmured as she wanted to touch him, explore him to make sure this was real. But then her dreams had been like the real thing as her mind made it appear to her that she could be with him, even though she was not insane and residing in a mental hospital, and rationally knew it was only one of her dreams and knew what she had done to get this opportunity, and she was not about to deny her this ability to see him, and to touch him. “I went to court with your sister because I wanted this…”

“But still, it’s one thing to see me behind glass, but it is another you know…” Max murmured as he approached the love of his life and knew how different they were today than they were back on their wedding night. “To want something like this?”

“It made the government unhappy,” Liz murmured. “Which of course makes my day, and this Max is something I have wanted all these years Max. To see you, and to touch you, which is why I never divorced you even when during the period where I was the angriest with you for keeping me away. You were the one I wanted at fifteen, and who I married at eighteen and who I now want once again when I am 36?” she sighed. “Nothing was keeping me from coming here,” as she winced at the unclose look of her bruises. Isabel tried to warn me, but the reality was so much black and white. “They hurt you?” she sighed Jesus, how could they? she moaned to herself. The pain he endured in here…

“It’s nothing,” Max said softly as he did not want to dwell on the past, or the pain and the bruises. “It’s what I had to endure to be here with you, and I have made peace with it,” he sighed. ‘This not an easy place to be in, and that is why I didn’t want you to come here and see me like this…”

“We married for better and for worse, and we took such vows” Liz murmured. “I meant them at the time we said them to each other,” she asked. “Did you mean them when you said them to me?” she wondered as she accessed the marks on her husband, and her hatred blossomed even more than it had before she come to this building.

“Of course,” Max sighed. “You were a dream come true for me,” he sighed as he thought back to their wedding day. “Something magical, something I never believed I deserved or should want on this planet. When you made my dreams come true, up until we had one last glorious night, didn’t we?”

“It was magical,” Liz smiled as finally she touch him, and took his hand as they both grasped each other’s hand like it was the only thing they could otherwise they would be separated by fate. “God, Max”

“Liz,” Max sighed as he felt the tender touch and he could not believe he had lived these seventeen years without it. The dream he had did not do it justice to touch his soulmate. The love of his life. The softness, and the tenderness of her flesh as worry was intermixed with the joy of the opportunity. “I fear this will be a mistake?”

“How can it be?” Liz sighed softly as they looked into eyes. “The mistake would be staying away, and not taking the possibility” she whispered as their heads came close to each other as they inched together, and before the knew it, their lips were on each other, and it caused almost an explosive charge, as they came together and experienced each other for the first time in seventeen years.

“Liz,” Max whispered as they kissed, and he felt out of control and this need rose him in him, and it did not matter if his body was full of bruises or he was underweight, because of years of barely eating, only enough to keep himself alive and for Liz, it was like a dream. Seventeen years in the making and the enduring the waiting. She had been celibate and had closed herself off because she had only wanted one man, and it was feeling like she was coming home again. “Max,” she whispered as she could not believe the luck, and the ability to experience his touch. “The camera” she murmured softly as she felt his lips on her shoulder and the touch of her hair as he swept it with his kisses, as she did not know how she could have lived without this feeling these years, and maybe she had been in he own prison. Self-imprisoned because nothing could ever feel this good with anyone else.

“I know,” Max murmured as if he was conducting this show for the cameras to prove to them that he was not an abusive wife beater and that this woman was his passion. No one else could get his blood boiling. The passion he felt for this woman was like no one else in his life. He knew he had gone there with Tess. But Tess had been during a weak time of his life that he would always regret. The sex had been its own degree, but to be with Liz, now this was passion, and exotic.

Again, they kissed as they could not keep their hands off each other as finally it felt like there was a charge in the room, and the camera light went off. No one came running. Because he sensed they knew, as Liz felt as if she was being pushed against the wall with their kisses. Knowing they should be talking. Still, this was a night that was seventeen years in the making, and there were no way words were going to get in the middle of them.

Not now.

“Max, it shouldn’t be like this with us” Liz whispered as she felt in another world as the rational woman, she was told herself to slowdown, come on Liz, be rational but there was never anything rational or logical with her and Max. A boy who had come to a new world and captured her imagination, and brought out the woman she was, and who she could be. The single mother she was told her to be careful with her heart, to slow down and talk first, and not run into a situation which only had pain attached to but she could not adhere to either of those women she was because Max always brought out the unexpected desire in her, and the need to touch him overrode everything sensible about her life. “We are not kids’ anymore…”

“And we have a kid?” Max asked as if that mere fact still stunned him.

“Yes,” Liz whispered as she felt sexy, and knew this was the only man who could bring this out in her because for long when she was a teenager, she was the girl that was always straight lace and who had a brain and was going places. Then a boy changed it all for her, and brought her into a new world, and unleashed something in her, and there was no getting it back in the bottle and as the bottle was only reserved for one man.

This man. Her husband.

“You do something to me Liz,” Max murmured as he felt her unbuttoning his prisoner suit, and wished this night were not in the location it was, but there was no going back now, as finally he felt her touch on his skin.

As she felt the kisses on her shoulder once again. She winced when she saw the bruises on his chest when shirt came off. “God Max…”

“You make it, so I don’t feel the pain,” Max murmured as he hated how she was seeing now, and how different this place had made him.

“You should be fighting back?” Liz asked. “You should not be allowing them to know that they can hurt you?”

“That would have made it worse,” Max whispered. “But let us not talk about that because this is our time,” he asked as they kissed like the world was ending and they had no time left in it, or together. “You are beautiful”

“No, I am not” Liz shook her head.

“You are my exotic beauty,” Max ignoring her words. “You will always be the only one for me…” he sighed as he felt the glow of her touch down her stomach. Now there was no camera to catch it, they did not have to hold out on each other. As they both felt a stirring that held no bounds, and as they gasped for more…

More intimacy as finally he felt his wife pushing him towards the bed as she felt bold. Bolder than even when they eighteen and so in love that they did not care about anything but themselves and refused to be separated by death. As she pushed him onto the bed. “Let me,” she whispered as they both felt out of control, as she maneuvered her hands down the waist of his pants, yanked them down, to remove them as Max felt like this could not possibility be happening.

That he had to be in dream. This cannot be real, right? Yet it was very real, as he felt the embrace of his wife and the tenderness of her touch as he fell back against the pillow. He did not care that this was the worst place for them to be, when she was here, with him. It made him able to see the end of this, think that he could get to the end of the rainbow and go home to her, and to their daughter. Even if on this night. It remained a dream.

Max felt her touch on her stomach as she lightly kissed the bruises, and they did not make him wince. Even thought they had earlier in the day. Being with Liz made everything right again and gave him a reason to fight this insane world “Liz,” he whispered.

“This place is barbaric,” Liz winced at the sight of the bruises as she longed to make it right for him. To allow him to know there was something good in this world. That there was not pain in every corner of it.

“I did this to myself,” Max whispered. “To know you and our daughter have been able to have a life together these past years. To know my family. Michael and Isabel were able to create their own families. It makes it worth it, to know I prevented what could have been and what it was almost…”

“We wanted you,” Liz murmured as continued to sit on his stomach and leaned down as she brought her caresses up and they exchanged a passionate kiss. “The world is not the same with you not in it” she moaned as they kissed as Max did not want to think about the past or what he had chosen to give up, and what he had sacrifice to be able to live with himself. When he wanted his wife. “I wanted you in my bed…”

“God, I love you” Max whispered as finally taking advantage of the lay of the land and he flipped her onto her back, as they both laughed at the change in situation. “I have you now, so what are we going to do about it?” he asked as he took a hold of her, as they both felt out of control. This does not make sense. Not after all these years,” they both thought together as they continued to embrace as they finally they went beyond their threshold, and they crumbled together as they continue to embrace each other.

And hold on to each other.

As they found each other.

[keepsmiling7]

Finally.....
Now we have to get Max out of that prison.

[totallizfan]

Max & Liz together again.
They'll want each other all the time now.
Isabel and Serena better get busy with a plan.

[Parker1947]

While Max and Liz took solace in each other, Olivia was still with her grandparent. She knew from a text that her mother made it to the prison. She did not want to think about what they might be doing right now seventeen years being apart is a long time as she tried to get a sense of her grandparents in the wake of the news that she was pregnant. Her grandparents had been dodging her question.

A question that had surprised even her when it came out of her mouth. It did make her wonder. She knew her grandparents loved their children. Despite their actions. They had done it out of love because they could sense their son was different. The had not known the same could be the same with their daughter, and only when they took methods into her own hands did, they find out the truth. More than a decade after adopting the kids they had found out by the desert. “I am sorry about blurting that out. Mom has told me that I am too blunt at times” she mused. “I try not to be, but sometimes I cannot help myself.”

“It’s alright,” Phillip said impressed by the inquisitive nature of his granddaughter. An inquisitive nature that was not so different from her parents but still was her own, and she was self sufficient and had a sense of herself and he admired her for it. “It’s not something we tend to talk about Olivia”

“I know, and I am sorry” Olivia sighed. “I wish this all could be so simple. And I did not have to ask they questions. Because adoption sounds so normal. Giving a child a chance at a life that I might not be able to provide them because of my age. If only I was five, ten years older than this might be a different question. Still thought, to know I am different. I am not like any other girl out there who finds themselves in my situation. Neither Alex nor I are. But I come from the fact that both my parents are different. Alex is the way only because of his father.”

“Your mother is still the same woman she was when she met your father” Diane asked, not sure what to say to granddaughter. It is not like they had not had those thoughts come through their minds once they found out the truth. They just had not vocalized it to each other. They accepted the truth that they found out and loved their daughter and supported their son before he was taken away from them, and in his place, then they loved his daughter, and now that little girl was on the cusp of adulthood, a few years too early.

“She is, and it does not change the fact my mother is different. Which makes me different because of them both. If I did not already have the genes from my father. Still though this child could be different, or they could be completely normal and have abilities limited to some areas of their life that are not that visible to outside world. You usually cannot tell with one of us until we are older, and we have more control of our lives. So, I do not know how I can choose to do it, and take the chance…”

“Your father was able to do it?” Diane asked.

“I know,” Oliva muttered. “And Dad doesn’t regret it. The whole situation was incredible unique for him. It does not change the fact that at the time he chose giving up his son. He was under the assumption that he was human, completely normal,” she sighed. “But that was all a lie because he was operating under faulty information. Tess lied to him. So, how can I do the same thing if eighteen years from now, the child is different and comes looking for us because they don’t know their situation?”

“What do you mean, Tess lied to your father?” Diane and Philip asked together and in almost perfect unison. While Phillip knew Zack was in town, still, he did not know much more than just seeing a glimpse of him, and what his daughter was able to tell him. It still seemed to weird to know the baby he had helped place for adoption was back in town and asking questions. Or that he was nearly eighteen. Because of the unbelievable life his grandchildren were leading. He and his wife could never know what it was like to be part of the life. They were spectators. “Max’s son is in town” Phillip muttered as Olivia looked surprised that her grandfather knew that Zack was in town. Because Diane looked shocked, Olivia could sense this was something else her grandfather had not told her grandmother before he turned his attention to his wife. “I don’t know much more than simply that he is in town Diane, and I was trying to get some more information before I filled you in. I saw him with you Olivia,” he sighed as he turned back his attention towards his granddaughter. “I saw you talking near the Crashdown?”

“What,” Diane asked shocked.

“Yes, he is” Olivia confirmed. “His name is Zack Mason. He grew up in New York with his adoptive parents, and recently came to town to find out more about his origin story. And yes, Tess lied or deliberately misled my father into believing he was human when he chose adoption. I do not know how many powers or how powerful he is, but he has some gifts, and so it has been a wake-up call and makes me weary about what to choose for my own child.”

“Oh god,” Diane whispered. “How is he?”

“Normal for what I can see,” Olivia smiled. “We have had a rough beginning, but we are trying to be civilized towards each other”

Neither knew what to say about the fact Max’s son was in town as it was a weird situation for all involved and they did not know what to make of it. Phillip could sense the confusion in the room, and in his granddaughter. “Honey, any parent takes a chance when they place their child up for adoption. No one knows if a baby who looks healthy at birth might stay that way. Or how they will grow up to be, and their abilities. Of course, 99.9% of the population does not have the abilities you and Alex have, so you need to decide what it best for your child, and what is right for you. Your father did that. Even if he did know back then if his son had powers. He was not in the place in his life where he could provide for your brother and given how life did work for him. He made a wise decision.”

“So, you would have still adopted Dad and Isabel if you had known?” Olivia asked as she brought back the question, she originally had for them.

“We love your father, and you aunt, and we cannot think what our life would be if we did have them in their life. Even if they came with abilities. Although we only wished they had come to us earlier, and we might have been able to help, and things would have escalated in the matter they did…” Phillip smiled as he had deep regrets about how the situation had escalated, and how it had changed all their lives. If only we had known earlier. “Right Diane?”

“Right,” Diane nodded. “We were happy to be their parents. Every parent finds surprises with their kids. Even if they give birth to them. Your father and aunt were great kids, and while things did not go as we hoped with your father. But we know the boy your father was, and know we were lucky to have them in our lives” she sighed. “When you make your own decision. You should think about what is best for you, and most of all, the baby.”

“Thanks Grandma,” Olivia smiled as she helped clean up the dishes. “I wish I could know the future?”

“We all do,” Diane smiled. “But sometimes we learn more from the hard decisions and living through them…”

Olivia nodded. “I guess I better get going” as there was a knock on the door. And she volunteered to answer it, “Why don’t I get that for you” and she went and was surprised by who was at the door. “What are you doing here?” she demanded of the visitor to her grandparents’ home.

“Picking you up,” Zack smiled as he presented himself “Amelia sent me…”

“I doubt that,” Olivia muttered even though she knew it was something her friend would have done, but she was not going to admit it, to Zack of all people.

“Then you do not know your best friend,” Zack smiled. “She is all about playing matchmaker these days, so I figure why not come by and get you where you are supposed to be” he laughed as he did what Amelia asked because he was amused by the idea of picking Olivia up and dealing with her hostility when she was visiting her grandparent’s home, or should he say, their mutual grandparents.

“If you have your motorcycle?” Olivia warned…

“Do you think that I am stupid, or have a death wish?” Zack asked. “We can walk…” he murmured as he stopped talking when two elderly people came to join their granddaughter at the door.

“Olivia, who is this?” Phillip asked as he stopped when he recognized the gentlemen at their door.

“Zack,” Olivia said simply.

“And who would he be?” Diane asked as she did not make the connection from the name their granddaughter had told them to the boy in front of them.

“Diane, this is Max’s son” Phillip said simply.

*

In their world, it was like no time had elapsed, and nothing had separated Max and Liz and everything right about the world could come from being together, as they laid in bed and in each other’s arms. “We should be talking?” Liz murmured as she revelled in the arms of the man who she had spent seventeen years dreaming of and now was in his arms, as it did not matter who they were today, but only that they were together.

“We did too much of that and not nearly enough of this,” Max said softly as he could not believe his luck to be able to lay in the arms of the only woman he could love. The fact their connection was so explosive even after all this was one of life’s mysteries for Max because they had not done enough of this, because circumstances or other people got in the way. “If only we had, then maybe half the stuff would not have happened?”

They would have been different people if they had done it. And they were the results of their choices, but their choices had been made, and they were the people were, and they had this opportunity to be together. Feeling like no time was lost. When too much time had been lost, and too much had been taken from them.

“I don’t want to talk,” Max continued to revel in having her together. “We can talk later,” he murmured as he felt entranced by her, as they came in for another kiss as they continued to live in another world, and a different reality.

*

“You were good with them,” Olivia muttered a bit hesitantly twenty minutes later as she and Zack walked towards the Guerin home as it was awkward minutes that they endured as Phillip and Diane came to terms with the boy their son had helped create and yet had been raised elsewhere, and it was clear that he didn’t feel an attachment to know his biological fathers’ parents. Yet Olivia did have to give Zack credit for not being his usual standoffish self with her grandparents. Zack instead stayed standing and took their natural curiosity of him and was genuine and accepting them while Olivia grabbed her jacket and bag and started the walk over to the Guerin home.

“They are your grandparents, not mine” Zack smiled. “They obviously love you, and you were raised to love them. They do not know me, and therefore I do not know them. That is okay because that is how our father wanted it, still, I do know how to be a gentleman you know even if their stares were little off putting.”

“They come with the story,” Olivia muttered. “Still, I do appreciate that you were kind to them because they didn’t ask for this to have happened to their family. They loved my father very much, and he was lost to them, and until they met you, I am their only link to him, so they are curious.”

“The love him even when he was accused of something so terrible?” Zack wondered.

“They knew he was innocent, just like the rest of us do” Olivia sighed. “They didn’t know what they were getting when they adopted my father and aunt, and it took more than a decade for them to know the full of extent of it, and unfortunately for them. The truth came out before everything went haywire and Dad was lost to them…”

“He’s not dead you know” Zack muttered as Olivia was speaking as if their mutual biological father was dead and had departed this earth.

Olivia knew this. In some many ways it might be better for Mom and me if he were dead, she mused to herself. Then Mom could move on, and we would not be forced to reckon the past in the way we have. But then Olivia knew her mother might still be in love with a dead man and would not allow herself to move on because to her, Max Evans was the only one she could love. To Olivia, that kind of love was off putting and unrealistic. “But he does not want them to visit him, and in a lot of ways, to them, he is dead because it is better to think that than know he is prison and does not want to see them. We are his only links to him, so that makes them curious about you…”

“You are a link to him, but I was adopted out” Zack sighed. “And even then, our father was adopted himself so it’s not even like we are blood to them?”

“To them, we are blood” Olivia muttered. “Whether they signed adoption papers or not still to Grandpa and Grandma Aunt Isabel and our father are blood to them, and they love them, and they take everything personally. I am sure you grandparents on your Mason side think of you the same way?”

“That is true,” Zack muttered because he did know his grandparents thought of him and Helena as true Masons. Biology did not matter to them. It did to me which is why he was on this track into the past but to the grandparents he had been lucky to find himself attached to because of his adoption. The Masons side, and Owen’s side which was his mother’s side were incredibly good to him and had helped finance his trip into his origins or at least the beginning days. Now, he was still using his funds from jobs he would work on his way to Roswell. And knew he would have to find a job one day very soon if he stuck around Roswell, he mused to himself as he focused on their conversation. “So, they didn’t know when they adopted our father and his sister?”

“No,” Olivia shook her head. “Dad was afraid of what they would think if they knew he and his sister were different. They were six when the were adopted, and they did not even know they were special. It was not until later did our father and aunt have a suspicion that things were different for themselves and they were afraid to be upfront with their parents, and it cost them big time later when they things spiraled of control.”

“How so?” Zack asked as his eyes widened at the thought of his father being that old, when he found himself adopted. “They were really six?”

“Yup,” Olivia nodded. “They woke up on this planet as different people, with different structures, and different DNA along with their alien genetic material and eventually they were found wondering around in the desert. Alex and Amelia’s father, Michael was found days later and put in the foster system which of course our father and Isabel also went into it. The three had no sense of each other. Not until they started school. In the meantime, Grandpa and Grandma were the ones who had found Dad and Aunt Isabel wondering in the desert, and they immediately put in a request to adopt them both. So, their stay in the system was short-lived while it became a heck of a lot longer for Michael.”

“How long?” Zack asked as he was curious about Amelia’s origin story

“He eventually got emancipated by the court with my grandfather’s help when he was sixteen,” Olivia murmured. “So, he was stuck in the system from the time they came to this land until then, and so he had a lot of baggage from the awful foster families he lived with until he got out on his own. His final home only wanted him around to collect the monthly check. Fortunately, in high school, he would find Alex and Amelia’s mother, at the same time Dad found Mom, and as they say, the rest is history.”

“Interesting,” Zack asked surprised. “That he didn’t get same life as our father and his sister?”

“There are those cases out there but fortunately he had Dad and Isabel to support him once they did become friends” Olivia murmured.
Zack nodded. “You know that is some origin story we have here, is it not sis?” he laughed at the annoyance that came over Olivia’s face. “You might as face it because we are related. We might not feel like brother and sister, but we are. You should think I am going to replace you in the favor of our mutual father. All I want is answers, and once I am satisfied then I am out of this place, and I will head on home to my life.”

“You think you can do that,” Olivia wondered. “I mean, get those answers you want and then just leave and likely pretend that we do not even exist,” Olivia asked as she had a sense that would be what he would be trying to do “Or that you can be normal after all this?”

“I am sure going to try,” Zack murmured. “I will not forget this place, but it is a bizarre town, and it has already shown me how normal has to be better than the stress of being you” Zack muttered as he could see that his half sister was full of unexplored stress, and he certainly did not want to be like her, and be a bundle of pressures, waiting to explode.

“As my Mom found out. Once you have been touched be one of us, well, you cannot find normal again,” Olivia cautioned because it was the truth. She might have lived this life from birth, but it did not take a genius to know that trying to leave it, would be a hell of a lot more complicated once you know the nitty gritty. “Look, you will not catch me saying that this is not a stressful life being who we are, and with the knowledge we have because yes, it is, but it’s on us what we do with the knowledge” Olivia sighed. “My stress does not come from being who I am”

“What does it come from?” Zack asked warily.

“It comes from the way Dad was taken from us,” Olivia muttered. “Not having in my life,” she muttered. “You say that I have a lot of love, and I do, but still I wanted to have a father, and I was denied one…”

“Are you sure?” Zack asked. “Because it seems to be if you were someone normal. You would not have the stress of knowing what you know and having to make sure no one found out?”

“Normal is not what it’s cracked up to be,” Olivia muttered.

“Is that not what you hope your baby is so that if you do put the kid up for adoption than you would not have to worry that they will not one day follow my path?” Zack asked as he could see why his sister would be confused because he figured that Olivia was the type who would have chosen adoption by now because she had too much to look forward to in her life than being a single or a teenage mother at sixteen.

Olivia did not answer, and Zack nodded. “I thought so. Look sis, I cannot know what the future will be, and you do not either. Something tells me whatever you decide, this child will be loved, and you should do what is best for you, and the child. Our mutual father chose a closed adoption because he did not want to know right. But you can choose to know what is going to on with the child, right?” he asked. “You can go on with your life, but still be part of the kid’s life. And maybe if you wanted that, then the new parents can allow you to help with the child one day if say they do start crackling”

“Watch it,” Olivia muttered as her brother was speaking the truth. She could choose an open adoption. “I do not appreciate that snide comment.”

“Well, is it not the truth?” Zack muttered. “It was for me, was it not for you?” he asked.

“Maybe,” Olivia muttered because she knew she had the signs for years before she knew what they meant, or how she had to be careful with her displays. “Still, it is a lot to give a child, who is out there with parents who do not know any better.”

“Which is why I am surprised you would not tell the truth. Let it all out. So, there is no shock and awe?” Zack muttered as they finally reached the Guerin’s street, and moments later they approached the door, as they descended into silence over the last few minutes of their walk as they did not have to knock before the door blasted open and Amelia and Maria appear before. “As you asked” he cracked at Amelia who only nodded and shook her head.

“Finally,” Maria muttered at the amusement on her daughter’s eyes almost sixteen, damn it as she still had issues with Zack, and Zack knew it, but did not blink his eyes at the dismissive nature of Amelia’s mother’s attitude for him. “I guess I better get going. If you want to talk then you know where to find me”

Olivia nodded as they watched him walk off, and get on his motorcycle that was standing nearby, and drive off.

“Are you okay?” Maria asked simply as he knew how to gage Olivia’s moods and knew the teenager was overwhelmed on many levels.

“Of course,” Olivia smiled as they all knew it was a lie as she walked into the house and saw Alex staying away from the door. She put down her bag, and they smiled.

*

“We didn’t use anything?” Max said when they finally seemed like they were taking a break and sitting up in bed. Neither wanted to talk about how this was bizarre situation. Seventeen years full of them, and they finally had a chance to be together, and the first thing they did had landed them in bed. “Not like I have anything?” he murmured as they stopped to kiss, and Liz just smiled. “You were right that we should have talked before…”

“There are no worries,” Liz murmured as she smiled at the sense of normalcy that they had crafted in this movie of the week. Although her husband’s question poked at scars in her that she had not wanted to remember or acknowledge. “Chances are nothing will come from this,” she said softly as Max looked surprised. “I had a little problem after Olivia was born?” she revealed to Max’s concern on his face. “Oh, It’s nothing Max…”

“How bad?” Max asked, sensitive to the change in her mood and obviously it was an issue that provoked memories in his wife.

“Some medical issues, which makes it very unlikely that I would be able to have another child” she murmured. “It’s possible, but the way they framed it, it would be a miracle” she murmured. So, that is why I hung onto Olivia so tightly, because she was my link to you, and a gift you gave me, but it was my only shot.”

“God,” Max murmured.

“Don’t, because I have made peace with it” Liz sighed as the tears she did cry when she did hear the words from her doctor in the aftermath. While she might have closed herself off from the idea of more children without Max. Still, the sentence that she was unlikely still was a wound that had not closed.

“Have you told our daughter?” Max murmured as he still found it crazy to utter those words.

“No,” Liz shook her head. “Olivia was too young to remember that time. She stayed with your parents while I recovered, and now, I do not want it to be the reason she chooses to keep the baby for fear that history might strike twice. Fortunately, she is completely healthy, and there is not that fear. But there was not for me, and look how that went with me, so I do not want her to make a choice out of fear. I want her to decide because she wants to make it, and if it is the right choice for her…” she sighed. “Even if she’s a little too young to be having to make this decision?”

“Does she know what she is going to do?” Max asked as he thought of his daughter being sixteen and facing this kind of decision. It was not any easier when he had to make it, but as he was not actually having to deal with the emotions of his body changing.

“She is looking at her options…” Liz sighed as she wished her studious and ambitious daughter were not facing this choose. She knew Olivia had the world at her feet I was that girl once before. I choose the root because I could not see my life without this man, but I do not want that for her daughter. “What she chooses to do at the end of the day will be up to her. I am not about to push her in any direction…”

“You are a great mother…” Max murmured as once more he was reminded that he had forced Liz into this role by confessing, but then the other side of the argument was that he would have wanted to sign up his wife and daughter to the life if he had not confessed, and they had been on the road, hiding from the law. Even if we would have been together

“I suck as a mother,” Liz muttered as she was constantly over thinking her motherly choices, and decisions. “I couldn’t put any barriers on her because of what happened to us, and maybe I should have and maybe she and Alex would have waited” she sighed. “But knowing Olivia. She would have rebelled, if I or Michael and Maria had put any barricades in front of them, and she still did, and look where she is…”

“She’s smart, and sensible Liz” Max sighed as he had two short visits to make the assessment of his own blood, but those visits had been memorable and he could tell Olivia was truly someone with a future to look forward to “She will make the right choice for her, and she will not let it detour here which is something you didn’t allow yourself to do after I wrecked your life…”

“You didn’t do that Max,” Liz sighed. “You saved lives with your choice. While I wish you could have made any other choice that would have involved being home with me and raising Olivia. Yet I know what it would have meant.

“Did I not?” Max asked. “Look where I am…” he muttered. “Your words are nice, but I should have been at home with you and our daughter and living a life we both deserved. Back in high school. I might never have thought much of my future, or what I was going to do, but I never imagined this life or that we would get our shot, and for it to fall completely apart. Still, you are here, and I do not what that means for me, except I know I can’t lose you…”

“You are alive,” Liz sighed. “You didn’t lose me, but I lost you, for almost seventeen years…”

“We lost each other, but you are here now…” Max asked as they leaned into kiss once more and the fell back against the pillows and sank into their bubble and tried to forget that time was ticking down. Soon reality would be crashing down on them once again.

[keepsmiling7]

Great part.
Yes Diane and Phillip......Tess lied!
Diane is shocked Zack is in town.
Olivia had great questions and concerns about adoption.
Glad Max and Liz had a good time together, he didn't want to talk obliviously.
Liz says she can't have anymore children...........
Zack learns more about his father, surprised he was 6 years old when adopted.