Til We Meet Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 84 - Completed - 09/01/2022

[RoswellFan68]

I wonder how Max is going to take the news that he has a daughter? Sadly it a daughter that doesn't trust him and doesn't like the fact he had a relationship with her mom before her dad. I don't think Mariah will see anyone but Brady as her dad.

[Parker1947]

“Are you insane” is something Max wanted to say but would never utter those and on this day. Wisely, he chose not too as it was now ten minutes later, and I have a daughter because those words were still digging into his brain stem because inside had become suffocating upon Liz’s revelation and they were now outside because both needed to be able pace in the fresh air of the new year, and neither wanted to be in doors, and that feeling of drowning within the house. Neither knew what the reaction would be once the silence broke because all they could operate in in the aftermath of such of a disclosure was the silence. It seemed a better response than saying anything, but now, finally, the silence finally broke, and all he could say was something saner, and simple “Are you sure?” he asked, even though he knew that Liz would not be coming here telling this if she was not sure. Especially after allowing him to be sixteen years in the dark. It must be true, right?

“I wish I could say no, but unfortunately I cannot.” Liz said softly as she could see how the revelation was playing with him and on both. And at no time when she moved back to this town that she thought she would be here telling her ex-boyfriend, ex-fiancé, and former soulmate that they shared a child together.

Especially not when she left him over a child he chose to keep.

She had walked away because of one baby, and without the knowledge that they would share their own child. Instead, she had moved on, right away, and ended up married to someone else and she had raised a family based on something she had not seen fit to question because at no time would she think she could have been pregnant when her daughter did not appear until after the traditional nine months after their time together.

But it was right in the zone of her and Brady.

And now she was coming to terms with the truth of along ago, “I know you hate me for my deception.”

No, I never will hate you Liz Max thought as they stood at looked at each other and neither could understand why this was happening. Why after all this time? “I do not hate you, Liz.”

“Mariah will when she finds out,” Liz muttered as she could envision that day. And unfortunately, because of that September day back in 1999. She had the ability to have tremendous insight of the events that were to come, and she did not know for sure she how her daughter would react, but she certainly knows when they talked, it would not be pleasant, so she took the easier road.

Coming out and telling Max the truth.

Because despite her fear that he would hate her, still, she sensed he would be kinder than her fifteen-year-old when told of the news that will change her life. I will not blame her she thought as she stood staring at her past.

“Mariah does not know?” Max asked. As he could not even comprehend what they were talking about Not even close.

“No,” Liz said softly. “I might have told her this morning, but I had more pressing worries to speak to her about,” she said softly. “And I am afraid because she is moody and she is grieving the father she loves and the only father she knew before his untimely death, and now I will be telling her something that will change her whole world. So, I am delaying it until I cannot anymore.”

Max nodded.

“You want to ask, how I know?” Liz asked.

“Something like that?” Max conceded.

“Simply, it was the events that led to Brady’s death,” Liz said simply. “You heard that his death was because of a genetic condition he had?” she muttered as she still could not believe that her husband’s life could be cut short by something that could have been prevented if only, he knew.

“Yes,” Max said softly as he remembered being there that day when Liz had been learned the news, and how shocked she had been because of unknown for her children. As he remembered the shocking reverberations of that disclosure.

“Testing was done, which you would think normally would be all so simple. Do the kids have the same condition as my husband or not?” Liz said simply. “Eventually, Mariah came up clean, and we are still waiting for Lex’s results but she’s healthy, but they did not have her blood type listed in her file and so they did some testing, and I was only told the truth yesterday in a letter I was sent by the hospital,” she muttered ignoring for the fact that she had ignored the letter for the bulk part of the holidays. “In it, it told me she has an extremely rare blood type.”

“People have rare blood types all the time, right?” Max asked as he did not want to make the connection that it had to be him, if Mariah did have a rare blood type. “It does not always have to make me the father?”

“Normally you would be right, but in this case. Max, you are the only candidate. As much as I want to say it was my husband, and we could have been wrong about his blood type, but it’s been confirmed by the hospital. They after all were the ones to tell me. Otherwise, I would be the none the wiser. But in this case, it was the RH factor that makes her truly special. Someone they had not seen before, and a blood type they have no known record of in any of their systems. One that does not match me, or my son. And it did not match Brady, which made the chances of him being her father extremely unlikely, because the fact that neither of us matches her and there is no compatibility.”

“Oh,” Max said.

“Yes, oh” Liz said. “Look I know what I am saying is shocking to you Max because I really did not know,” she said softly. “That is the truth Max, I did not tell you before now because I had no way to know it could have been you,” she sighed because she knew how hard it was to say, and it must be hard for Max to hear.

“Really?” Max asked as if he did not believe her which would be his right she thought.

“Mariah was born March 28th, and I left this town in May,” she said of their early graduation from high school. “If you do the math. There is no way I could have counted and seen that it was you,” she said. “Because…”

“Because of what?” Max asked.

“You were not the only one…” Liz said softly.

“Brady,” Max asked as his heart was hurting to know she had moved on so soon after she had left him, and Roswell. While he had stayed celibate and gone nowhere close to someone else once she had left him. Of course, I had a child to raise or not raise.

“Yes, and I should not have said that in the way it sounded,” Liz said softly. “But unfortunately, it was true because it was only after I left Roswell, and I landed in Chicago,” she muttered as she stopped talking, and wished she did not have to explain. She did not know why she was even telling this to Max. Why does it matter. Max is Mariah’s father. End of story. Still, she felt compelled to explain. “In those days, it was not only Brady, or you but there were others before I met Brady. Normally if it was not my husband or you. I could label them the father, but in this case, none of them as different as you are, and the blood type you would provide a child. If she did not have a rare blood type, but she does Max. Which makes you the only one to be here father. It’s only blood type that is seen in her.”

“And you would never be able to get the confirmation of a test because we are not officially in the system?” Max asked and Liz nodded. As he remembered how paranoid they were after an ill-timed car accident had given the chance to be put the system. But they managed to avoid that by using someone else. Both knew who it was, and how Liz had made sure it had happened. Because they managed to use Alex’s blood he thought now. So, he was not in the system.

And there was no chance to confirm one way or another.

“Right,” Liz said softly. “There were others” Liz murmured as she was not happy with her conduct, and one reason why she was so unnerved by the fact her own daughter had gone that level, already. She had wished Mariah would have waited. “I am not happy to say that, so it was never going to be matter of you or Brady. But in this case, if it were not my husband than yes, there would be no one else who could have matched her, so I assumed it was Brady. And so did Brady,” Liz said softly.

Max nodded.

“I am sorry Max,” Liz said softly.

“It’s okay,” Max said but knew nothing would be okay again. If only he thought. If only she had told me. But then he knew she had moved on and had a baby within a year of her departure, but he never did the math either, because he never knew when Mariah was born but still even if I had known, I would probably be like Liz.

And discount me.

Liz nodded.

“I would have told you if I had any suspicion at all,” Liz said adamantly.

“Would you have?” Max asked simply.

“Of course,” Liz said. “You should have known.”

Yes, I should have known. “But I remember why we broke up Liz,” Max said softly. “You could not handle the fact I kept River, that I rescinded the adoption. You walked away from me, you gave me my ring back even if I had you keep the diamond, but still you walked away because of River,” he said softly. “Would you really have come back and told me about our baby if it meant I was still raising my son, and you would have had to deal with him once more.”

“It was not the concept of River that scared me, it was the Tess factor” Liz said softly.

Really? “Tess was dead,” Max said softly as this was too much, way too much as the past was darkening their step as they were finally getting into a discussion long in the making and something they had not had because they rarely talked about their feelings. Neither one of them wanted to have the discussion, and that meant their relationship suffered in the end. And now it was all coming out.

“Yes, she was” Liz said conceding the obvious thankfully.

“Therefore, she was never going to be factor again. Obviously, you did not want to my son’s mother, even though his birth mother would have had no impact on our life together. It is one thing for her to still be there, but she was gone. We were free to move on, together, and because of who I am. I felt it was necessary for me to keep my son because I did not know what kind of child that he would grow up to be, and I could not do that to an adoptive family I did not know. I was that child once upon a time Liz. I knew what it meant for my parents to raise kids they did not know everything about and did not come into the adoption knowing the full story. They love Isabel and me, but still I know what not knowing did to them before they found out. So, I could not do that to my son. I know what it meant to keep him, and I knew I was risking everything with you. But I had to be there for my son.”

“Max,” Liz said.

“I get why you walked away. I was asking a lot of you, but I know the baby scared you. Being a mother to a child that was not your own. We were young, and I did not resent you for walking away. Sure, I have a lot of regrets, but I do not regret keeping my son. Sure, I have shown it pretty badly over the years, but I know I made the right decision because I know what it would mean for him to be raised away from here.”

“You made the right decision Max,” Liz murmured “You could not have made any other choice. To ask that of you would have been wrong. River deserved a chance to be raised to know who he was, his heritage and to know his family. But I could not handle it at the time. Everything was raw Max. Yes, Tess was dead. But Alex was also dead. So much had happened in such a short amount of time. High school is naturally a hard time for any teenager but for me, for us. I had a dream once. And meeting you got me away from that path that I had. I needed to know if I still had that dream. Could I still do it? Whether the dream was still possible. I loved you Max. I did not walk away because I fell out of love. But because it became so overwhelming, and we were graduating. And being with you and raising River when I still had raw feelings about his birth mother would have been a lot for me. So, I left.”

“So, do not tell me you would have told me about our daughter when you could not have stayed?” Max said softly.

“I would have told you. It does not mean we would have worked out, or I would have wanted to end things with Brady because by the time I knew I was pregnant. We were happy together. It was something fresh, and exciting. He was good to me. Not that you were not good to me or that we did not have an exciting life because we did but honestly Max, by the time it ended. It was exhausting. I needed time to get away. Brady was good for me. Because he did not care that I was crying for a relationship that was intense, and that maybe as my daughter now thinks that he might have been a consolation prize. Instead, he was my shoulder and loved me for being me. Someone who supported me. Allowed me to heal, and to move on? So, I do not know if I had known it was you who was Mariah’s father would I have ended that and come back to you, but I would have told you about our baby.”

“Are you sure?” Max asked still it a state of disbelieve about this whole conversation, and the fact that it pained to know she had been happy with Brady. Which is something he had known this was sixteen years later, but to know, back then, she had been happy, and might have chosen Brady instead of them. It did not feel as Brady was the consolation prize anymore… He was something real to her.

“Yes,” Liz said softly. “How it would have worked out, I have no idea.”

Max nodded.

“You would have deserved to know the truth. Even if we would not have made it work. Mariah would have deserved to know you, especially given being your daughter opens up something very different for her, assuming she were to have any abilities?”

Oh god Max thought as it was now sinking in that he had a daughter. Someone who did not know who she was, and if she were to have abilities, which all the newest generation had to some level still it was like a slap in the face.

“Yes,” Liz said softly as she could see it hitting Max just like it had earlier with her. “She’s been normal. Happy and well-adjusted sure, but she is fifteen and a few months from sixteen. And she is going through a lot right now, and she will not always tell me everything about her life. I have had no concerns about her until now, except to think she is extremely intelligent. But then my son is the same, and he has Brady for his father,” she murmured. “I am sorry for the fact you are just learning the truth right now when you should have known years ago. I hate this. I hate what it means for our lives. And definitely hate how it is going to affect our daughter.”

“She will be fine,” Max said softly.

“I am not too sure,” Liz muttered. “All I know is she does not know, and when she does find out, she’s going to be angry, and hurt…”

“She’s a teenager,” Max said softly. “She will come to realize you were protecting her, and you are not the enemy.”

“I hope so,” Liz said softly.

“It will be alright Liz,” Max said softly as they both stopped talking and just time to observe the outside. The sunshine was bright, and the desert sun was apparent, and little did they know that it was going to be such an emotional moment. “Although I wish I could make sure this was easy for you…”

“I do not want it to be easy, I want our daughter to understand” Liz said. “But then this is something I really do not know if I can understand so how can Mariah possibly understand?” she asked as she felt drained.

Life was draining, and she needed to be at the end of this drama. And Max felt for her because life had been unfair, and neither knew how the next minute would unfold as he took her into his arms, and they hugged.

A simple hug. Something they both needed.

Whatever happened in the next minute, they would always be linked not because of a September day when he saved her life. But because of something more precious, and it was something neither of them knew how to fully comprehend. I have a daughter Max thought once again as the stunning realization was startling for him.

As a car took the opportunity to turn into the area, and approach.

But nothing was interrupting the hug.

*

River was driving home after dropping Jessica at her house. Mac was still at home. And now he was heading home so he could do some studying up on classes he wanted to take the next semester as he had to register for them come the next day. So, wanted to prepare and it was something good to focus on so that he did not think of newest developments in their clan. And unknown resulting from Mariah’s actions the night before.

So, he was listening to the music playing in his car and did not see people by his house until he was ready to park. But then they came into focus, and especially when he saw that it was his father and Mariah’s mother.

Uh oh River would think as he saw them in a hug. And then step back from each other as the car had been noticed. This is what I do not need.

Getting out of the car. He could not notice the emotion on his father’s face, and the fear on Mariah’s mother’s.

Yeah, this is not good he thought as he approached. “Dad,” he said ever so neutral because there was a lot unsaid.

“River,” came Max. “Thank you for leaving that note. Did Jessica get home safely?”

“Yes,” River nodded.

“I am glad,” Mac said softly. “You know Mariah’s mother?”

If I did not know her before, but I would know her after the night before River thought. “Yes,” River said. “I hope Mariah is well?”

“I hope so,” Liz said softly as she thought of her daughter. “I guess I better get going,” she said as she checked the time and saw that she had been out here too long, and knew she had to be getting home. “I am sorry for laying this all out at you Max. If you need to talk to me, you can call me” she said softly as she knew so much was still unsaid, and they were in a new world.

Whether we want to be or not Liz thought.

“I am sure we will be talking,” Max said as he knew there was still so much, they had not talked about…

“Yeah, we will” Liz agreed as she began to step away from the situation and turned to head to her car, although she was not far enough away not to overhear River with his father, and she could not help but acknowledge that she had walked away from Max because of the baby that would turn out to be River.

And now she was back, and there was a baby who was a growing young woman who had been deprived of her history, and her biological father and half-brother because she had walked away, If I had only questioned.

Although, given it was an abnormal amount of time for Mariah to be arriving.

She tried to get mind of her musings, and heard River say to his father, “So, you know?” and she took a doubletake because she was not at her car yet.

“Excuse me,” Liz said as she did a twist around and saw that Max and River were facing off with each other. How would River know? Liz asked herself as it made no sense. But then what does make sense with this story. “You know?”

“Definitely,” River muttered.

“How?” Liz demanded.

“Last night,” was all River found the need to say. As he could tell that his father was only just finding out this information, and it was shocking to him. I would think so he thought as he could tell this was the last thing they needed to have happened.

“What about last night?” Max said simply, as he found his voice. The last thing he needed was to have his son arriving home, given he was a reminder of actions so long ago and now to know his son seemed to know about Mariah, his half-sister. God, you are acting up, are you not?

“I did not know until she gone to the party. So, how did she come with this information?” Liz asked as none of this made sense, none of it.

“She freaked out on Mac and me, in the park…” River said simply as the truth was coming to the light of the actions. And he might as well do some talking. “Yeah, your assumptions are partly true because yes, she and Mac were getting too handsy at the party. I did not like it. Because I know Mac’s reputation among the ladies, and I was feeling protective over Mariah. I do not know why,” he muttered as he stopped with the reality of how he and Mariah were related was starting to sink in “I guess I know why now, but before, I did not. Some might say that it was jealousy, and maybe in the beginning it was, but not last night. I could tell she was in a mood. She is grieving her father, and I knew it, and Mac knew it which is why I got upset when she threw herself at Mac, and Mac seemed to like the attention. And seemed to want to egg it on, but still, they left the party, and I had to go after them, because I had this sense that trouble was in the offering. I would find them at the park.”

Oh god Liz thought as she did not like hearing about her daughter’s actions. A grieving moody teenager is not good at not straying the lines she thought. She had been that way once, or maybe twice. First with Alex’s death. But solving his death had been her diversion from the pain over his loss. It was something she had to solve, and unfortunately, she did not know what they would undercover when they did find out the truth surrounding his death. And then later, in the aftermath of Tess’s return with the baby, and Max is choosing to keep his son. She had fallen over the cliff with her actions. So, she had some sympathy for her daughter, but she just prayed she reigned it in before it got too far from her control.

“Go on,” Max said simply. Unsure of what to say about this. As he was still coming to come to terms with the news, and now to hear his son finally coming out with the truth of the encounter last night. It was not easy to hear, although he could track where it could be going. And what they would hear in the end.

“At the park, I interrupted them, from doing anything more and she came down on me, and one thing after another happened, and before we knew it. We were on the ground, thinking it was the other who had started it. But it was not us, because when we woke up, we saw that Mariah was exhibiting this green energy, which only happens when you are out of balance, and you are all wacked out emotionally.

I know Liz thought as she remembered that time in her own life when she had green energy coming out of the woodwork, and she had not been able to harness it and it was a horrible time, and she had ended up at boarding school, and she and Max had come through that time, barely she thought. And we almost did not because if not for a miracle than Max would have been dead before they had gotten the chance.

“It was like she did not know what had happened, as if she was in some trance, paralyzed and when she came out of it, she realized what had happened” River muttered “She did not know what was going on, but Mac and I did, and so we sort of covered up regarding what truly went down, and while there were people around, but not that many close and if they were, they were drunk and passed out on some other benches.

Max and Liz did not know what to say about all this, and so they did not say anything as Liz was trying to process it, and as she was doing. She had respect for what River and Mac done, protecting her daughter although she also knew it was out of the need to protect the family secret because both River and Mac were players in the small coven within the clan that was indeed special, and now she knew her own daughter was a member, not only because of her blood type but because of something more real, her abilities she thought.

No one knew what to say, but finally Liz broke the embargo of silence. “I guess all I can say is thank you,” Liz said simply to River.

“It is no problem,” River murmured. “I wish she did not have to find out that way, but she did, because once she came out of it, well, she could not help but know the truth because she had read your diary I am told, and there were clues in it about Dad?” he asked, and Liz nodded. “By the time she had come to her senses, well, the authorities were on our trail and so Mac and I took the easy way out of it and took the blame.”

“Thank you,” Liz said once again. “Mariah will help with the fallout.”

“It’s really no problem,” River muttered. “It’s not like Mac and I aren’t used to it by now, I just hate that is how she was to find out.”

“I know, so do I” Liz said simply as it was no way to find out as she checked her watch. “I guess I better get home and have a talk with my daughter?”

Max and River nodded as Liz did not say anything more except to leave them and get in her car and head on back to town. While Max was still feeling bulldozed and he did not know how he was feeling, or what he was feeling. All he knew was that he had a daughter. Someone who was like him and River, but someone who had been raised to believe another man was her father and ripping that away from her at fifteen was going to hurt like crazy, and it was not going to be an easy time as everyone adjusted to the reality.

“Let us go inside,” Max said simply to his son.

The child he had gotten to raise, but the fact he had done it badly was weighing on him as he knew how much he would have known Mariah as she grew up, and could tell River knew that also, and it was not easy to know. “Thank you for being there for Mariah.”

“It was no way to realize the truth,” River said softly.

“No, it was not,” Max acknowledged. Although it is not easy at any time to find out, but not for a growing young woman “But I appreciated it, and how you and Mac were there for her,” was all he said as he went to the fridge and got out of the left-over Chinese food for dinner. After all, he was not a cook, and neither was his son, but his son was a better one because Max had never felt the need to be able too, but still they did a fair share of takeout, and they had that in the fridge that was easy to eat on this night.

When neither wanted to cook.

River did not say anything but went for the big bottle of tabasco sauce, and put it on the table, and they both sat down at the table, and did not talk at first.

Until River finally broke the tension in the kitchen.

“So, you have a daughter, and I have a sister?” River asked.

[RoswellFan68]

I'm glad River was honest with his father and Liz. Liz will at least be prepared for her daughter's reaction to the news. Hopefully, River can help his sister get through this new development in her life.

[keepsmiling7]

The truth is finally out there.
Now I can't wait for the fall out, and I'm looking forward to Liz's talk with Mariah.....

[Parker1947]

Yes, I do Max thought as he could speak of it yet because he had yet to come to terms with it, and he knew it was going to be life changing even if he ended up not having a relationship with his daughter because she had been raised to believe she was Brady Anthony’s daughter, so it was going to be hard to accept that she was someone else’s biological daughter. And he already knew she did not have a great impression of him, and he hated that for her because if only I had known than everything might have been different.

Because he knew it would have been different, even if nothing had worked out for Liz or him and if she had chosen Brady.

It mattered to him that Brady had given Liz and the children a good life, a happy life. But it hurt to know she had found someone else. That she had been happy. That it was not a miserable marriage only entered because she became pregnant early in their association.

No, she loved him, and she might still love him.

A dead man.

Still, Mariah was raised to believe Brady was her father and it was going to be hard for her to accept someone else. So, how was Max going to handle it if she chooses the fact that she would rather stay Brady’s daughter?

Max did not know.

River could see his father was inside himself, and in his mind. Something that was not strange to see. But in this case, it was a whole new ballgame, so he allowed him to eat in peace, and he finished up, and went into his room, and exchanged some texts with both Jessica and Mac about the changing landscape within their clan.

*

And Jessica was the first one to receive the text as she was supervising Jaime in the kitchen. Her younger sister was baking some cupcakes, and Jessica was making sure it had the right combination of tabasco, as was bored since it was New Year’s Day, and nothing was on television, and she was not in the mood to stream something on Netflix. So, instead she was in the kitchen watching over Jaime as her mother and Kyle were finishing up taking down the Christmas decorations.

Ever the Christmas organizer Jessica knew her mother loved to make sure their house was decorated to the hilt. She and Jaime helped take down the tree and helping put away the decorations that had been collecting over the years since they were a part of a family to make it memorable. But they went their own way once the tree was dealt with, and now they were in the kitchen. And she saw the text, Dad knows Mariah is his daughter and she spit out of the drink she had been drinking.

Holy smokes she thought and said it out loud. Jaime looked up from putting the cupcakes in the oven. “What happened?” Jaime asked as she also put the more normal cupcakes that she and her father liked also into the oven, as it was standard procedure to do two kinds of things when in this household because Jessica and Isabel liked their sweets more spicy and sweet than she and her father did, and so it was just easier to allow for the creative spark to come out. And she was even thinking of taking a cupcake of the normal kind to Lex at the rehab hospital.

As she was going to visit the next day.

“Nothing,” came a clearly shocked Jessica muttered as their parents took their time to come into the kitchen and look at the cleanup in progress. Isabel could see her daughter was thinking of something, “What is up?”

“Nothing,” Jessica said simply.

“She got a text,” was all Jaime said as she took the bowl to the sink.

“So, what when I am always getting text messages,” came an annoyed Jessica and Jaime just laughed it off, as she swiped her sister’s phone and saw the text, and the laughter, to the yelps of her sister. “Give that back to me.”

“Girls,” a wearily looking Kyle murmured because he was not in the mood to be dealing with the girl’s temperamental streak.

“Is River serious?” Jaime asked as she saw the message and she stopped in her tracks and looked at her older sister. “I mean seriously, how can this be true?” she asked. “Hey, did you even know, because the text makes it seem that the both of you know.”

“Know what?” Isabel asked. Curious what had made Jaime stop in her tracks, and her own daughter was no better because it was obvious that Jessie did know something, and it made her curious.

“It does not involve us,” Jessica muttering to herself as she swiped back her phone from Jaime, and closed it, and put it back in her pocket. “We can leave it alone because it has nothing to do with us, so yeah, we can ignore all we want, and let it be dealt with, elsewhere where it should be dealt with” she muttered as she walked off.

Leaving a perplexed Isabel and Kyle.

Of course, Kyle knew what to do next, go to his daughter, since it was obvious that Jaime knew what was going on.

“Hey, honey, what is going on with Jessica?” Kyle asked. “If it should be something we are worried about?”

“I guess,” Jaime said seeing loophole given that unlike what Jessica might have indicated. The revelation did relate to them because it meant one more to this clan, she was too normal to be a part of it, and yet she was.

And she would not have it any other way, because she loved her crazy little family.

“What is it?” Isabel asked of her stepdaughter-to-be.

“Seems like Uncle Max is Mariah’s father,” said Jaime softly as she knew perfectly well how it was going to land with her stepmother, because of how close she was to her brother. Not that Jaime was that close to her uncle but only because Max had kept mostly apart from them, and their life here in Roswell, but she knew Isabel tried to be a part of her brother’s life, and knew this news was going to shock her.

And shock it did. As Isabel’s jaw dropped in total surprise but when Isabel looked at fiancé, well, it did not come as surprise. And she knew it was not a hoax or a trick the girls were pulling on them, even though it was not April Fools. She saw that it did not read as foreign to Kyle, and she knew suddenly that he knew, and it was the truth. “You knew?” she said accusing her boyfriend. And Jaime looked on in surprise.

“Only because I should not have,” Kyle said. “Because it was none of my business.”

“But it affects my brother, and you should have told me” Isabel murmured. “But you did not tell me?”

“I did not want to get a friend into trouble. I happened to come onto the information by accident. And I realized that Liz did not even know, so I figured I would keep it to myself until Liz was in the know, which apparently, she is now because there is no way River would have known before Liz,” Although how River knows, I have no idea he thought but focused on his family. “But I told myself, if Liz still did not know after the holidays, then I would kick some dirt under the bombshell, but it was private business that does not affect the immediacy of our life together. Yes, it deals with your brother, but only him and Liz, and now Mariah too…”

“It’s my brother?” Isabel muttered a little too stubbornly.

“Yes, and he can take care of himself,” Kyle murmured. “This is something that affects him, and it affects Liz and Mariah, and I guess River too but not us, so all we can do is support them and hope that it works out for them.”

“I guess you are right,” Isabel muttered as she turned her attention to the fact Jessica knew, so she was angling for information, she went to knock on her daughter’s door, but Jessica was in a middle of a phone call with her boyfriend, so she came back into the kitchen. “I have to go see my brother.”

“I know you do,” Kyle said simply as he hands a six pack of beer because he knew Max would be stewing and he might or might not allow her in, but she would have an if she showed up with some alcohol, which was the key in the past. Isabel knew Kyle knew her and her brother, and her family, and took the beer and was out of the house in a flash.

“You are not staying, right?” Jaime asked, as she did know her dad.

“I have to see a friend,” Kyle said simply and Jaime. “You and Jessica will stick to this house, right?”

“Here, why do you not take a cupcake or two” Jaime said of the newly baked dessert, and Kyle simply smiled and kissed his daughter on the forehead and grabbed two of the regular cupcakes and was out of the house not long after.

“Family,” Jaime thought. Sometimes you want to kill them, but in this case, I love them very much as she went in search of her sister with some tabasco flavored treats to bribe information out of her big sister.

*

Mac was working on setting up his new computer, and had not checked his phone because he was amazed that his parents still had given him the machine for Christmas given his escapades, but he would take it, and play with it, and enjoy it and it was something to play with and not think of how things could have gotten even more screwy than they currently were the night before when Mariah freaked out, and a whole new chapter of their story started. And one no one had expected to happen.

So, he finally he took a break, and collected his phone and walked into the backyard to get some fresh air. His father, Michael was off doing something, and his mother Maria was off visiting his grandmother and Mac did not want to go but was under strict instructions to stay home.

So, he was bored and looking for something to do but knew he could not leave otherwise he might be grounded past his birthday, so he was checking his phone when he saw River’s message, and he almost choked at the thought of the secret being out, and then he saw River coming from the gate. “You sure have got a lot of movement for someone who trashed the park last night,” he said with a laugh.

“The rouse is up, I confessed that it was not us” River admitted, as he walked and sat down on the step beside Mac.

“And why would you do something like that?” Mac asked.

“Because I did not have much of a choice when Mariah’s mother was there, confessing to the fact that my father is her biological father, so, yeah, and basically I gave away that I already knew, so I had to be honest with them which is something they probably should know” River muttered. “Secrets involving us, are already dicey.”

“I guess,” Mac muttered. “Still, I would have liked the mystery of it to go on a little longer,” he said with a laugh.

“Only you would,” River muttered. “At least it might get you out of the doghouse with the parents?”

“Until I do something else to draw their ire,” Mac said realistically.

“Why are you trying so hard to cause trouble?” River muttered because he knew his friend if cleared of his infraction will just find something else to get in trouble, it was the one of those life constants he thought.

“Because it’s fun,” Mac said softly. “I know I have it good, with my life in stark contrast to yours, and even Jessica and Jaime’s even though they are in as golden situation as they could be given how much their parent love each other, so, I might as well keep things interesting otherwise my life would be dull,” he said of being in a house with two parents have loved each other since high school.

“Our life is never dull, so we do not need any help from you” River muttered.

“It livens things up, and we are only young once. Might as well have fun before we settle down, and everything becomes routine” Mac said softly.

“I do not think our parents would describe their lives as routine,” River muttered.

“Anyways, it’s probably wise to tell the truth to your father and Mariah’s mother,” Mac said coming to the realization that it was probably going to be hard to keep the truth given the stakes involved. “Any idea how your father is handling it?” he asked. “Or you, you know, having a half-sister?”

Half-sister River thought. That is a new one and something he never figured he would have because of his father’s insistence of screwing up his life, and not interacting with anyone. So, he figured it was going to be as good as it was going to get, to have his father come around to the fact he had been such a non-factor in his life, and a horrible father. And now he had something else, something he had not calculated for, more family.

Not that Mariah will want dear old Dad to be a father to her River thought. “I have not let it sink in.”

“It’s something different alright,” Mac said as he was also an only child. A sibling was never going to be spring on him he knew, Dad only loved Mom and Mom only loved Dad from what he would hear of those early years.

“I do not think Mariah is going to like having me for family,” River said.

“She will probably like it fine, with it being you. But your father is another story all together,” Mac said realistically. “So, it should get us some fun drama at least.”

“You are always looking for drama,” River muttered.

“Life would not be as fun if there was not some kind of drama going on,” Mac muttered as he stood up, and he and River walked to the back door, not realizing that they had been listened to, for roughly the whole conversation, “Mom, when did you get home?”

“Not long ago,” Maria said. “River, what are you doing here?”

“Dad was in one of his brooding sessions, and I thought I could use time away from the house. I can go home if you want me to go.” River said although he was that anxious to be going home anytime soon because he was finding it was better when his father was in one of his moods, was to give him a lot of leeway, but he was not sure why Mac’s mother was looking at them oddly, and he did not know how long she had was home, or how much she had overheard.

“No, sure, stay” Maria said softly as she looked at her son, and his best friend. “What is this what I heard about your father River; how do you know about Mariah?”

“You know?” Mac asked as it surprised him that his mother would know, even if she was Mariah’s mother’s best friend. Still, the truth was seemingly going along the grapevine fast these days, which did surprise him. For something that was sixteen years in the waiting, suddenly it was coming down on them hard.

“Yes, I guess I do,” Maria said as she could not comprehend how her son or River might know the truth, or Max if what I heard from the boy’s talk was accurate It pays to eavesdrop on your kid. “But how do you know, and what is this I hear about you taking the blame, when it does not fall on you, but on Mariah?” she asked of her goddaughter.

“Long story,” River muttered.

“Then you might as well start talking,” Maria said with determined focused as she focused on both River and her son.

And so, River and Mac did…

And Maria was not liking what she was hearing.

*

Isabel was unsure of what to expect as she pulled up to her brother’s home. She noticed the car was gone, but that did not mean anything because it could be parked anywhere on the property, which was vast in its scope. Max did want anyone encroaching on his land she thought as he had made sure he too control of a large swath of land when he planned the house, because he did not want anyone to be near the house.

Not many would be wanting to be out by the desert, far from town she thought. Only my brother would think this was a place to live she thought. Fortunately for her nephew, his family in Roswell flexed their muscle so that he could attend school in town instead of the closest community to the chambers, which was not Roswell.

It was a pretty house, she had to admit it to herself as she pulled in and parked her car. She would never want to be this far out, but then she was not her brother, he is one of a kind she thought. Definitely.

She saw how her then boyfriend, now fiancé had helped her brother. Same with Michael. Somehow, it was a beautifully crafted home. Not that her brother cared for how it looked, because he became a recluse once he moved in.

Only recent days had brought a change a sea change, and a landslide coming for her brother towards his family, but still, that did mean he could not go back in his self. Especially when he was rocked with information.

He remembered how when they heard that Liz had married, and then became a mother, how it almost took her brother away from them completely. Fortunately, they saved him, but it made him even more of a recluse out here and made herself and their parents step up more to help River because it was obvious that her brother was missing what he could have had with Liz, but Liz did not want it she thought.

She wanted someone else. And became someone else’s wife and was a mother to another baby, and not the one that belonged to her former boyfriend. Isabel knew how that had cut deep for her brother, and he did not recover, until recently because Liz was back in town.

Not that he assumed anything could change. But it was good to see life in her brother, and now to know that a bombshell had been laid before her brother, she did not know what state she would find her brother in.

Which is why Kyle had known her brother and given her alcohol. Only if he would have told me she thought. Then I could have prepared my brother she thought.

Now, she had to deal with the fallout, as she knocked door and yelled through, “Max, open up, because I know, and you better see me because I am not going anywhere.”

Of course, there was no fear of someone else hearing because there were no neighbors for miles. “Come on Max you know I have a way in,” she muttered at the silence she was getting. So, after five endless minutes of waiting. She used her skills to get into the house, and she opened the door her way.

And entered the house and found that no one was home. Or at least not her nephew.

“Max,” Isabel called. “I know you are here, because you would not go anywhere given whatever state you are in,” she called through the house. As she knew what room she would find her brother in, and she banged on the bedroom door. “Open up,’ she called again.

Silence.

“You will not come to me, so I will come to you” Isabel muttered as she burst through the door of her brother’s bedroom, and saw him flat on the bed, on his stomach, pretending to sleep. “Oh, grow up, sit up, because I brought something that will help you.”

“What?” Max asked as he groaned because he knew his sister, and she was not going to be leaving him alone, and plus, he did not know how his sister could possibility know the big news. “How did you even know…”

“Because it is spreading through the grapevine that is our family, so I am surprised you did not tell me first,” Isabel muttered as she nodded towards the bag she brought. “I brought the alcohol.”

“I do not need to be drinking…” Max muttered as he checked the clock as he had been reeling and ignoring the advancing of time here in his bedroom. “Where is River?”

“How should I know; he is your son. It’s not my fault if you cannot keep track of him,” Isabel muttered as she sat down on the bed. “But I know…”

“Know what?” Max asked, as he still was having a hard time processing it, and he did not know if he truly had at all.

“What do you think?” Isabel said softly.

“That I have a daughter?” Max asked. “Someone I did not get to raise and who is now fifteen, almost sixteen and who hates me, and thinks I am the worst…”

[keepsmiling7]

Now what????
Surprise everyone!

[Parker1947]

Oh, Max Isabel thought as she was trying to figure out how to comfort her brother as back in town Liz had taken the long route home. Encountering traffic, but not enough to keep her from home especially given she was coming home to a lot of unknown. So, as she pulled into the driveway outside of her home. She saw the house which still had the aura of being brand new, and yet she was seeing it in a different way than she had only a month before when she and her family had moved into it, and now here she was, looking at it with a whole different eye.

One of change.

She hated change. She liked to plan, and to abide by that plan. Stay in control, and when she ventured out of that, she tended to screw up and find herself down a rabbit of hole of her own making, one that was extremely different from the life she had known.

What else is new Liz thought as she sat in her car and looked up at the house and wondered what she was coming home too. She wished it could be the life she had in Chicago. Coming home at the end of the long shift and seeing her husband or her kids rumbling around dealing with their own plans of the day.

Nope, not today.

Instead, she was in her hometown. And inside the house Mariah was tired. Like her mother she wanted life to make sense as she came downstairs, and spotted her mother’s car outside, oh great she thought. As she saw her mother sitting in the car staring at the house. She did not know what that meant, but it cannot mean anything good she thought as almost on cue, her mother got out of the car and walked up the walkway, and seconds later, she opened the door to the house.

“Mom,” came Mariah as she saw her mother seemingly to be overwhelmed, never a good thing for her mother she thought. Because her mother functioned in an organized life, and when she strayed from it, she tended to feel like everything was coming for her.

Which she supposed was reasonable with everything happening in the last few weeks. But she was also feeling overwhelmed, and she hated feeling that way. “You were gone awhile,” came Mariah.

“Sorry,” Liz said softly as they walked into the kitchen. “If you are hungry?”

“I am fine, I had some leftovers that were in the fridge” Mariah said softly as she knew was very independent because of life in Chicago, after all, both of her parents had jobs, and her father could not always be there, so she and Lex had gotten quite adept at adjusting to being “latch key” kids, so she knew how to take her of herself but it was a different life today than it was six weeks ago, and she could sense that her mother was frustrated with her life, a little like she currently was, but her mother was yes, her mother, and should be a little more in control than she Mariah was at fifteen. “Are you okay?” she asked as she felt guilty over that morning’s conversation. “I am sorry about this morning you know.”

“Me too,” Liz said as she saw how grown up her daughter was, and before she knew it Mariah would be out of the house, and out on her own. She knew she still had a while to go, but still it was eye opening that her daughter was not a baby anymore. She was a beautiful young woman, right on the cusp of everything beginning for her. “I know how I sounded, but all I am is concerned for you, and I want you to be happy and healthy,” she said as she knew how her words had sounded to her fifteen-year-old, because she had once been that fifteen year old on the other end of parental assumptions. Even if Max and I waited, but still there was a lot that I got up to in those years that my parents had no idea about…

“I am growing up, and you have to let me…” Mariah said. “I am not trying to wreck my life you know. I am being careful, and last night was last night, and I am usually not that kind of person. I do not know what happened. Everything was bursting, and before I knew, things had happened” she murmured because she still had not come to terms with what all had gone down, and what she now knew.

“Sometimes we surprise ourselves with what we are capable of doing,” Liz muttered as she knew there were multiple reasons why that statement was true. After all, she had found that she had been capable of too much when she was her daughter’s age. And life had its own way of showcasing how different she became.

“I guess,” Mariah nodded.

All Liz could do was look at the child that had given her a life outside of the walls of Roswell, and the child that unbeknownst to her was a link back here, long before, she now knew it, and she knew her daughter was a crossroads in life. She now has two roads in front of her or maybe three she thought.

One that had the life she was raised in, and then the one that was engrained in her DNA that she had not even tapped into yet because she had not known the truth, and there was no other road that could be calling for a girl who had too much on her plate, and she was not able to process it. Liz did not know what path she wanted to go down, but she did not want it to be pathway number three, because there was too much unknown on that route. Although there is plenty of obstacles on the other ones too, but I do not see her losing a part of herself because she is upset.

“I love you, and I love your brother. And I love the life I had had with your father and you guys, and you should not be thinking that I wanted another life.”

“I know you say it,” Mariah muttered.

“Oh, Mariah” Liz sighed as they sat down. “Look, I know you might have some opinions of my life, without the facts to go along with them…”

“I know you loved Dad, okay?” Mariah sighed. “Everything cannot have been a lie…”

“Nothing has been a lie,” Liz muttered with the understanding she was walking into a trap, and a mind field of her words, and she could tell her daughter immediately reacted to them as the younger girl bristled at them. “I understand you miss your father, and I do too. Your father should not have been taken from us, but that is the way life sometimes works. You lose the people you love, and you must find a way to move on, whether you want to or not. That is how life works.”

“Who have you lost?” Mariah muttered. “Besides Dad of course?”

“My grandmother, like your father, it was an unforeseen tragedy, but she was older, and strokes sometimes happen but the loss that crushed me was my best friend during childhood. The boy who your brother got his name from…”

Someone who Mariah did not know of because Liz had not brought her back to Roswell. Words mentioned into her journal, but still, she did not how gritty the days were. You can read so much on paper, and not have experienced it. And yet, there was a lot that she had not put in those papers, and so she knew the kids knew that Alex’s namesake was someone their mother had lost early on in life. And as Alex Anthony had grown, he bristled at being named for a ghost. So, he has gone his own way.

Liz did not know if Lex would keep his nickname as he grew, but at twelve. It was sticking. Still, there was only so much Mariah did know of how her brother got his name. But she had not heard her mother talk about him.

I did not hear her talk much about anything from her, except maybe Grandma and Grandpa she thought of her the only link she knew of this town. Thanks to Mom.

“I thought Aunt Maria was your best friend,” Mariah asked.

“She is, but we had another best friend. Someone we met in elementary. Someone we grew up with, but who we lost at seventeen when he was killed…”

“Killed,” Mariah asked as her eyes went wide. She remembered something about it in the diary, but there was a lot of missing pages, and missing words about that time. But she could feel her mother’s grief on the paper as she written about the loss of her friend. And she remembered a night not too much before this one, where she was seeing someone who was not supposed to be alive, and the fact her mother was seeing the same person. She had waved it off at the time, and now with what she knew, she was looking at it all with fresh eyes.

And now she was hearing more, which was something Liz wish she did have to recount. Because the time had been brutal and incredibly painful to get through, and almost she had not gotten through them, “Yes, Alex was murdered,” she said whispering the words.

“Whoa,” Mariah muttered as she thought of that happening. “That was not in your journal?”

“There was a lot I left out,” Liz said softly as she thought of how it became important to not put everything down on paper when Michael decided to teach her lesson. It was lesson well taught, but it taught her to be careful with what she wrote, which is why she was not sure how much her daughter understood of the story she had read on those pages. “A lot went down back then, and it was all so overwhelming, so I needed to leave town, and when I did, I found your father and he made me happy. We started a life, that would include you…”

“Who killed your friend?” Mariah asked as wanted to ignore the implications from her mother’s words that her father was who her mother was saying it was, nice try Mom she thought but did not voice her frustration because she was trying to ignore it some more.

“River’s mother,” was all Liz said. Not wanting to put a name to the title, and Mariah looked caught off guard. “That time was dark. A lot went down that I did not want a printed record of it, for obvious reasons, and it was a primary reason why I eventually needed to get away,” she murmured even if she knew she could have stayed. And had been planning on staying if not for the fact that there was a little part of the story that involved the pesky detail of Max getting someone else pregnant and then keeping the baby that would end up being River.

“And you would leave…” Mariah asked.

“And I met your father…” Liz murmured.

Finally, Mariah bristled at those choices of words because she was not taking kindly to the fact that her mother was not telling the whole story. “What?” Liz said softly even though she knew she was on a slippery slope, and one of her own making It should be all so much easier she thought.

“Look, I know the truth…” Mariah said with a groan, and a mutter to herself this is unfair she told herself.

“What do you think you know?” Liz asked, nice Liz, not she thought. Just tell her the truth.

“I know Dad is not my father or was not when he died” Mariah said with a mutter as she demanded the truth finally.

“Of course, he was, and is” Liz said softly as it still panged at her heart that they were without Brady, when he should have been here with them, and she wanted him to be, even though she did not know how her husband would have responded to knowing he was not Mariah’s biological father. Brady loved Mariah; from the day she was born.

Something Max was not able to have she thought. Being there when Mariah was born, she thought.

“Mom, come on tell me the truth,” Mariah muttered. “Because I know my biological father is your old high school boyfriend, and the man you would have married if it was not for the fact that you left him… over a kid that he would have some else.”

Secrets will always get you Liz would think.

*

“You do not have to stay you know,” Max said as his sister handed him the beer. And she was not necessarily drinking it, but he looked it and felt the temptation, but he was not in the mood to pass out. They were now in the living room as he pulled himself out of his misery and was now trying to figure out where this new chapter of his life was going to take him. “I am sure Kyle, and the girls need you at home?”

“I am little mad at Kyle right now, so the time away will do us some good” Isabel muttered because while she understood covering for a friend, and the issue was sensitive, but if only she had known, before today, even though it was not like her fiancé had known these last ten years but still.

“Why?” Max asked, taking the diversion.

“Kyle knew about you know what and he did not tell me” Isabel sighed. “I had to find out the from the gossip vine that is our clan?”

“Well, I had to find out from Liz, sixteen years too late” Max muttered. “It does not really matter if Kyle knew or not, because I did not know, and I missed out on so much time…” he sighed. “Time I am not going to get back because Mariah does not even like me,” he moaned stuck in his pity of one more thing going wrong in his life. And it was something he was not even aware of it, and it did not make him feel good to know.

“You need to give her time,” Isabel said as she felt for her brother and felt for the girl who was now her niece, a fact she never even saw coming. “Originally, she was not looking at you as her biological father. She was looking at you as someone who had a combative relationship with your son. This might change things. But it will be a huge adjustment regardless, and she has already gone through a lot even before all this, and therefore, it is going to rock her, and she will need to come to terms with what it will mean to her life,” Isabel advised. “Trust me, as a mother to a teenage girl and stepmother to another one, they are moody on the best of days. So, when you add this to the mix, yeah, you will need to let her get a handle of it because it will be a hard adjustment because she believed she had one life, and now she finds herself in a different world all together.”

Max nodded.

“Somehow, it will work out” Isabel murmured. Somehow this has got to work out, right? she was asking herself. My brother would not have come into this secret, now of all times if not for the fact that everything is changing, she wondered. God, you are not that cruel, are you?

“Assuming she wants this life,” Max muttered as it was not lost on him the unique circumstance his daughter was now in. Maybe it is for the best if she does not want me to be her father, he thought of life that no one should want he thought because it was an acquired taste. You have got to be able to get it and for the uninitiated, it was going to be a lot on its best day.

“She is your daughter,” Isabel said softly.

“Yes, she is…”

But at what point is it just merely a technicality or a test result on a page.

*

“I am not a liar,” Liz muttered as she was being forced to defend herself to her teenage daughter. A teenage daughter who was looking at her like she had betrayed her and had lied to her all her life Liz thought. As it was never easy to be a mother of growing teenage girl. She now regretted the treatment she had given her own mother when Nancy had battled some of her daughter’s moods, because Liz was now getting it back tenfold. But in this case, she was having to defend her ground because had raised her daughter in a life she believed her daughter was born in it. How should I have known was something she was repeating to herself constantly in the last twenty-four hours.

“You did not tell me that Dad is not my biological father” Mariah accused. “And it was your old high school boyfriend…”

“I did not know,” Liz said out loud once again, but this time to the person who needed to hear it. “I love you honey; you are my daughter. I gave birth to you. You are my daughter. You are also your father’s daughter, Brady, I mean, because he was the man who loved you and raised you, and you were his daughter. He was there in the delivery room, and he loved you every day for the rest of his life. Nothing that my come out of a test will not change that fact, that you were raised in love.”

“How can you know, because Dad did not even know because you did not give him a chance to know…” Mariah muttered. Do not try to tell me you could not have known “You made him believe that I was his daughter, when it was all a lie…” You had to have known.

“That is enough,” Liz muttered it was already hard enough to know everything she believed was false, but she was not going to be told she was a liar. I never knowingly lied to Brady “I know you are going through hard time, and you do not deserve the pain that is coming from questioning everything you thought you knew. But there is a lot you do not know of the situation. I did not deceive your father. And yes, he might have gone to his grave believing something, but it was not because I lied to him, when the truth of the matter is I had no reason not to believe that he was your biological father. Or that your biological father was back here in Roswell and was the man I was engaged to, for a short time before I left town.”

“How could you have not known?” Mariah muttered. “Were you really that kind of person who raced into Dad’s bed?” she said bluntly, and she did not really care that she was being cruel. I am entitled to be angry, are I not? “I thought you were just telling me that I should be careful of who I sleep with, and that I need to wait until the time was right because sex is intense and now you are telling me you could not have known that my father was not who you believed it to be.

Liz felt the slap in her face. Even if it was not a slap. She knows how to get me she thought. And of course, a lot of it was the truth she muttered to herself. I have taught her to be careful, to be cautious and was I not getting on her case for sleeping with Josh at fifteen when I waited until eighteen, but then I ran into multiple men before it was Brady after Max.

Flinching at how her mother was reacting. Mariah did feel guilty for saying those words. The words were brutal. She knew she had not liked hearing the words being directed at her, and now she had actually said them to her own mother. “Mom…”

“No, you have said enough” Liz muttered as she glanced at the grief overwhelming her daughter. “Look, honey, I know you have been given a hell of a shock and I am sorry for it, but I am not going to say that I regret my conduct because it was a learning experience. The good and the bad. I had an incredibly intense three years and lot happened when I left this town for a new life. I found myself falling apart before I found her father, but yes, maybe I should have questioned your paternity because I did things that I am not proud of many of them because it was not just a question of your father Brady, or, yes, your biological father Max...

Who was a boy I loved at fifteen? The age you are at right now, who opened a whole different world for me. I was a small-town girl who was loved and protected by your grandparents and sheltered in a way that looks so tame by today’s standards. I met a boy, someone who had eyes on me since he first came to this town,” Liz said omitting the word, planet because my daughter does not to hear that word right now. “We battled a lot of obstacles in the three years, and yes, we slept together when we become engaged for a brief time, but he had made a mistake during one of our breakups, and he was forced to deal with the consequences. I could not handle it, so I moved on, and yes, I am not happy with how I responded to that time, but it is a part of why I am the person I am today. I take in all I went through and know I am better for it. It led me to your father, and it led me to you and your brother. So, yes, there were others but then there was also your father.”

Mariah was taken aback by the passion and the grief in the words because she never heard her mother talk to her like this. She never talked about this town. “You left this town because of River?”

“Partly, okay, mostly” Liz said softly as she knew she had to be honest with her daughter. “I always had this goal to get of this town I grew up dreaming of applying to Harvard, which I did, but the interview got botched because of how intense senior year was for me, and so Northwestern came up, and it made me question where I wanted to go but at the same time my life was complicated because of the relationship I was in, and in the course of a lot of different circumstances, yes, Max and I did get engage and probably yes, we would have been planning on a wedding. But River had come back into the picture after being off elsewhere with his birth mother, and because he was a product of a dalliance Max had with someone who he found himself with during a weak time, and while I always knew of the existence of the baby, still I believed it was dealt with, because when River had come back to town, and his birth mother passed away, it would be left for Max to make a decision as to what would happen with his son, and initially he did decide on adoption, but then he changed his mind…”

“And lost you in the process because you chose to walk away?” Mariah asked. “You walked away because River’s father wanted to keep him?” she murmured and wondered how it would be for her to be the same situation, and it made her queasy and uncertain but then she knew her very creation came at the same time, and she would be raised in a different life. God, why. “You could not handle raising River when he was not yours?”

“Right, during this time, I was eighteen and I was in love with Max, Mariah, I mean I loved him. It was extremely intense time. Eventually it became too much for me to handle, and I took the opportunity that came with River’s reentrance into our life, so I decided to take the Northwestern’s offer, and I moved to Chicago, and found myself going through almost a withdrawal process. Because those three years were extremely intense, and the bursting out of that bubble was almost a shock to the system so I did things I should not, but in the process, I met your father. Someone I did not expect to fall for, but I did. Your father was amazing, and someone who loved me for me, and did not expect things. Then I found out I was pregnant…”

“And you did not think back?” Mariah muttered. Come on Mom, count back 1-2-3

“No,” Liz said. “Because you were born the following March. March 28th, and you were an incredibly special baby from the start, but the idea that you could be born when I left Roswell in May, no, it was impossible.”

“And these other options?” Mariah asked as she did remember how the last entry in her mother’s journal was in May but nothing else, so plausible and I guess me being late March would get in the way of believing Max was my father.

“The timing was not right, and even then, if I was going to question your paternity, which I never did, unfortunately for you now, but it was would have been them, but never even now, I can discount them to be your biological father.”

“Why?” Mariah asked.

“Only because of your blood type,” Liz said. “The hospital notified me of the fact. Something I did not know of until yesterday,” she murmured. “Because of your blood type, no other man can be linked to you as your biological father.” I still do not know how Max could have knocked me up.

“Why not?” Mariah asked softly.

“Your blood type which is different from anyone known in this world, and it links to you to a very select group. And that makes all other options rendered not possible.” Liz said softly. “You and Max, along with River,” share the same type. “Same with Mac and his father Michael, and Max’s sister Isabel and her daughter Jessica.”

“I cannot not be that different?” Mariah asked as she wanted to discount all she had experienced the night before, because she had no good explanation for any of it. “I am normal, right?” she murmured. Please let me be normal “I am me…”

“Yes, you are you but there are parts of you that might feel different” Liz said softly as she wished her daughter could be just like any other teenage girl, but then there is always going to be a part of you that feels different, no matter who you are. “But I cannot say that for sure, because we are all different, and you can only know how you feel.”

“Oh great,” Mariah muttered. All this because of Mom’s past with this town. Something she left too late…

“Honey,” Liz tried saying. “I still do not know how you could have been Max’s daughter given of when you were born. Babies can be late, but not that late…” she said softy. “But you always have been remarkable,” she said as she had good reason for any of this except that God was playing a cruel practical joke on them.

“I guess,” Mariah muttered.

“I wish this could make sense to you,” Liz said softly. I want it to be make sense to me or why this had to happen.

Why could Mariah not stay Brady’s little girl she thought. Why does she have to be Max’s?

God you better have an explanation for all this she thought. “At no time did I lie to your father, Brady. And regardless of what is in your DNA, he still is your father. Because he raised you, and watched you grow up. You are who you are today because of not only me, but because of him.”

“Only because you did not give yourself a chance to know the truth” Mariah muttered. “I know you say all the kind words, covered up with pretty gloss about how you found Dad, and you were meant to be in the life you are in now, with the three of us, but obviously that is because you left Roswell, and you did not give my biological father a chance to know me…”

“I did not know,” Liz muttered. Why will no one believe me when I say I did not know, and Mariah was arbitration that should not have known, no human was known to have a 10-month plus pregnancy, unless you are on a television show and the writers are playing with time she thought.

“You, say those words, and you might even believe them, but you knew instantly that I could not be Brady’s daughter, and that my blood type is so special that I belong to this small group, only because you happen to have sex with some alien human hybrid” she spat as she did not know why these words were coming up from her core, now, of all times. Why am I saying these things? It is not like I want Max Evans to be my father.

I still want to be Mariah Anthony. Not Mariah Evans or River’s half-sister which is something else I have not dealt with.

How she and River were suddenly siblings.

“Honey, how can you know that…” Liz asked shocked that her daughter had blurted out what she just did.

“That you slept with someone from some other world?” Mariah asked. “I read your journal. I might not have wanted to believe any of it. But now it is not some fictional story is it, because it is the truth. You slept with alien, and he is my father,” she muttered. “Someone with green powers and is able to do all kinds of weird things.”

“Honey,” Liz said as she knew this conversation was once again spiraling out of control when was it ever in control she thought.

“Because of you, I am not normal,” Mariah muttered. “It’s all your fault I am this kind of person” she spat, as Liz stood in horror at the fact her daughter was exhibiting green energy a symbol of being out of control she thought. But Mariah could not handle it. All she wanted was to be normal, not this kind of person. As for some reason she blasted something with green energy, and her picture frame fell off the wall, and the glass cracked, “I am out of here.”

Mariah rushed to the door and yanked it open and ran out of the house.

Leaving Liz to ponder just how different her life was going to be….

As seconds later, there was a doorbell ring, and she in a state of paralysis walked to the door. She did not know what to make of this being her life. She opened the door, not prepared for it to be anyone other than her daughter changing her mind and coming back, and not wanting to deal with the key.

She opened, and she saw a friend’s face. “Kyle,” she whispered. “Why are you here?”

“I thought you could use a friend,” Kyle said as he could see that his friend, and former one-time girlfriend was extremely close to spiraling out of control. She is this close he thought as he knew Liz did not do change well, and one that flings into a whole new dimension that she was not used too. Which is why he had needed to come over and see his former girlfriend and would have been here before, but traffic and diversion had gotten in the way of his track across town.

“What am going to do?” Liz said falling apart as she flung her arms around the boy, she had been with at fifteen before Max, and left him for someone out of this world, and now nearly twenty years later, was forever changed.

Whether she wanted to be or not.

[RoswellFan68]

Mariah has a lot to deal with. If Liz could have accepted River when Max made the decision to keep him, then Mariah would have been raised by with Max as her father. Max and River would be different people since Max would have a reason to question his decision to keep his son.

[keepsmiling7]

Kyle was right, Liz needs a friend right now.
Miriah has lots to sort through and she needs a friend too.

[Parker1947]

A short time later,

“Are you feeling any better?” Kyle was not too much later than it had been as they sat in the kitchen because Liz was tempted to reach for the alcohol but that had been her crutch years before and she wished could reach for it now, but she knew she had to be stronger than falling for what tasted good. She needed to figure out how to put one foot in front of her and move on so that she could make this life livable for herself, her son and especially for her daughter.

Who was now facing a whole different life? One that Liz had not seen coming. Because she had been operating under the assumption that Brady was Mariah’s father, and that she had moved on, and gotten away from those funny green men and their powers she thought. It was bad enough I have them… she muttered. But for her daughter to have them, that was a whole new ballgame. She knew she had heard it from River that he and Mac had observed it in her, but she almost did not want to believe it.

She wanted to blame on the fact that maybe the kids had acted out and drunk some spiked alcohol and River did not want to own up to and blamed it on something he thought he saw but not on what he actually saw she muttered. But no, now she knew her daughter was different.

She was normal as a child. Liz remembered how there had been absolutely no signs of her daughter being anything but normal.

Of course, she is normal she thought. She is just little above average.

She still is my little girl she thought. Just someone who is like me, and who is like her biological father.

She did not need a paternity result or a letter from the hospital saying her daughter had an extremely abnormal blood type.

All she needed was the green energy, as she remembered how she had showed powers for the first time. When she had been emotionally unbalanced. Now she saw the same thing in her daughter, and she worried for her daughter because that could mean just about anything. And she had no idea where her daughter was, or what she could be doing.

“I wish I could say yes,” Liz said softly as she was returning to reality and seeing how her friend was trying to be supportive. “Although thank you for showing up…”

“I hope you are not upset?” Kyle asked as he had explained how he had heard but wanted it to the hospital to tell her, and Liz could only burst out laughing as she broke down some more because everything was too much. But no, she did not blame her former boyfriend. Because it seemed right that people would know before she and Max.

And before Mariah.

Because she was the one who was inflicted by this. Who was now entering a whole new world?

“No,” Liz said shaking her head. “If anyone is mad, it is me, and it is not with you, but with myself because I should have questioned it earlier…”

“Would it really have made a difference?” Kyle asked. “You have told me of when she was born. So, you would probably not have thought it was possible because we all remember when you left town. But if you had known back when you were pregnant, and been able to pinpoint Max as the likely father, still, would you have come back?”

“Max accused me of the same thing,” Liz said softly. “Saying because of River, that I was paying him back in some way because he changed his mind about the adoption and chose to keep his son, and because I did not want to raise him, that I left, and I did this because of what it would have meant?”

That she would have had to accept the baby.

A legitimate question Kyle told himself. Not that he did not know why his former girlfriend stayed. Because he had been burned once upon a time by Tess Harding. And even if Tess had not done to the group what she ultimately done. What she and Max had done was bad enough, and not many women would have been able to handle that. Especially not with how young we were he muttered. “Would you have come back if you had known?” Kyle asked as they both were taken back to those days. “You were burnt out by so much that year especially, and even before with Alex, and then of course Tess betrays us all,” he said softly knowing what his actions had done to contributed to the nightmare. “If you would have questioned whether he was the father, would you have come back when you would have had to face having to deal with it all over again?”

“Of course,” Liz said. “I would not have knowingly kept it from Max because he would have needed to know,” she sighted. “I do not know what I would have done about our relationship. Because I might have sticked it out with Brady, because by then we had something good.”

“If you think so,” Kyle said as if he was not convinced.

“Kyle…” Liz muttered.

“As you said, you had something good with Brady. You know what kind of relationship you had, and I do not, and it probably was not at the level of intensity that you experienced here in Roswell, and so it was a whole fresh start. I like to think you would have told Max because you are not heartless, but I doubt you could have dealt with both relationships at the same time. So, your brain made a choice when you knew how unique the circumstances, and it was only a month difference…

Not possible Liz thought. “Not for someone who is human.”

“We cannot classify this drama of yours normal nor are you strictly human,” Kyle said with a smile. “And I know it myself because I love my own alien, and even then, when I fell for Teri, it was much my only brand of rebellion from everything related to this circus we were in. I was not nearly as into the circle as you were, but the life did almost swallow me up as well, and so Teri was outside the drama. Everything was new, and fresh and unfortunately for us, I was still pining for Isabel and that eventually would lead us to our end. Although we had Jaime as a memory, and a forever link. Something I will always treasure. So, I think deep down you might have allowed yourself to question if you really wanted to, but you took the easy way and the door that Brady was holding open.

“So, Mariah is right to blame me?” Liz muttered.

“No, but all I am saying is you have to be honest with yourself” Kyle murmured. “Your situation is insane, and probably could have only happened to this group of people, but still…”

“I am,” Liz murmured.

“Are you?” Kyle asked as he knew how this was a tricky situation. “Or are you allowing a barrier you created around that time in your life to wall off it off, and would you have wanted to come back and risk tearing down that wall… I do not think you were doing it intentionally, but you knew you were in love with an alien. You know they are special creatures, that we had not even finished exploring all that it meant to for them to be who they are, because I mean River was supposedly born after a one-month pregnancy,” Kyle murmured. “Not that we saw his actual birth, but when it involves our little group. Things are known to be hinky, because if it was three months, then you might think it was fair game not to second guess, but only a month, and you have said that babies are sometimes late.”

Not that late Liz muttered of the date her daughter was born she muttered a little defensively. “I wanted Max; I would never have kept it from him.” Liz murmured as she did not like thinking she was doing it out of some form of punishment for breaking her heart, when she was the one who left in the first place. “Sure, I do not know for sure what I would have done because I did love Brady or was beginning too. But to keep it from Max is something I would not have done, for the simple reason as we cannot say for sure whether our child would be special or not. If Mariah had powers, then that would be something I would not be able to control myself, and therefore Max should know so he could help our child deal with it.”

“I know,” Kyle murmured because it would have not been Liz to have knowingly deceived Max or keep it from him and there were many factors in any child that came from the special club.

“This is a situation that I did not ask for, and now I am stuck in it” Liz said. “So, yeah, I will not blame if my daughter hates me forever.”

“She will come around,” Kyle murmured.

“I hope so,” Liz muttered. “I hate to think what Brady would have thought of me…” she sighed as the front door burst open, as Maria was finally responding to Kyle’s SOS that he had sent when he first arrived.

“What on earth could have happened now?” Maria muttered as she ran in, and Liz felt reassured to have her friends. Two people who she started this mess with…

Surely, life cannot get any more complicated, can it?

*

Mariah would hope not as she had hitched out to the desert. She did not know where she was going. She had started walking, and found her out by the highway, and one foot went after another and before she knew she saw the desert sands. Amazing she thought of a town that could be enveloped by it in it is outskirts, and yet be a normal town in its heart. And she remembered she had been shocked to the see the sand when they first came here. And to know her mother grew up in their environment. It had been such a different experience from Chicago she thought. A suburban girl but raised in a big city, and the bustling nature of the life in the outskirts of the city. This place had such a different vibe, with the New Mexico heat. Such a different climate. Even in January. Such a difference from Chicago.

It was a blast, literally she thought as she was starting to calm down from her explosion at her mother. She knew her mother did not deserve it because she believed her when she did not question it, and she knew enough of babies to know chances of her being late, that much was off the charts unusual.

So, why would Mom question it, Mariah mused as she walked. Such a different life. She had not seen a car in miles, and now she was coming in on the sands, wow she whispered. She did not know why she was out here, but she continued to walk.

Still, her mind was whirling as she did not know how to handle the fact that she was not normal. Sure, I am human she thought. I am pretty normal she also thought but still I am not human, am I? she wondered.

She thought of her mother’s journal, and the story she had wanted to write off. Why would I not, given how ludicrous it all sounded. She almost wondered if her mother was a hidden author, who had written a book in the waiting, but left before she finished. Because she remembered the blank pages, a lot unsaid but then she remembered those glimpses of the energy in her mother, and then her freak out on River and Mac the night before.

She had been in a trance, but she remembered. Everything, and too much.

Yeah, she muttered and then she heard a familiar sounding voice, “Mariah,” came a surprised voice as she turned and found it River.

Her half-brother she had not known about…

Quite the life she told herself. “Hello River?”

“What are you doing out here?” River asked as he stopped his car, and had the window opened, and Mariah stopped walking, and stopped and saw that it was indeed River.

“Wanting to run away,” muttered Mariah.

*

Wanting to run away, well, River knew that feeling. Growing up in the life he had. It had been a constant thought, especially in the lowest of times with his father. But his love for his family, minus his father had kept him from actually pulling up the stakes. Instead, he focused on his education and used his goal of bettering himself as a way out of this town, and it was coming up in another eighteen months or so…so close now he thought.

As he was coming back from town, ready to deal with whatever condition his father was in. But River was not ready to see a familiar looking brunette walking along the road, headed out to the desert. She did not have a backpack or anything, but it looked like she was on a mission. But it made him stop.

“You know with running away, walking is not the way to do it” River said with a laugh. “The closest town is miles away, and you will pass out of thirst before you get there, even at this time of year,” he said softly. “You need something on wheels to get anywhere in this state.”

“Really,” Mariah asked as if he was wary. Which she was. “How would you know?”

“I live out here,” River muttered.

“You do?” Mariah asked, realizing that she did not know where River did live but she did not figure it would be out here not really, she thought. Given he went to the high school in town. “But you go to the high school in town?”

“Legacy kid,” River muttered. “Or more like I have family who fought for my education,” he sighed. “My grandfather is a lawyer,” he murmured or our grandfather he thought now, but did not voice because he did not want to freak her out. “Would you want a lift?”

“Where?” Mariah asked as she was forced to ponder the idea of getting into his car. It was not like she did not trust River because she did, but still, she was a little burnt out about it all, and the last thing she wanted was to face more of what she did not know…

“Wherever it was that you were headed off to?” River said.

“I do not know,” Mariah sighed. Because she had not known where she would end up because she had started walking, and she had not stopped.

“Then I know the perfect spot,” River said, and Mariah nodded and got into the car, and they sat in silence for a moment or two. As they both listened to the music until she finally snapped because she was interested. “You said your grandfather is a lawyer, who would it be?”

“I only have one set,” River muttered.

“Really?” Mariah asked. “Because it usually takes two to create someone?” she muttered as she thought of her own creation, and how it was coming back to haunt her.

“Dear old Dad’s parents,” River said softly. “My birth mother was an orphan and raised by a foster father before her untimely death,” he thought with a sigh. Or not too untimely because to many, it was a death that no one is especially crying over he thought of the woman who had given birth to him, and someone who he had a lot of mixed feelings over because he did not know her, and she left a trail of a lot of angst, and it was still affecting the family as he sat in this car today.

“Your mother is dead?” Mariah asked as she was looking at River in different eyes now that she knew so much, but there was still so much she did not know Do I even want to know? Probably not she thought. But then she remembered what was in her mother’s journal, or what her saw free to spill in those pages. “I guess I knew that…” she said of what her mother had found time to spill, and she knew River’s mother was pretty notorious in their little group.

“How?” River asked as he was a little surprised to know that his sister would know anything about his backstory. Because he could not remember if he had told her before everything went south that night.

“My mother’s journal,” Mariah said softly. “Which I swiped not too long ago, because apparently, she liked to write about being a teenager, and it was quite an eye-opener, and I am not sure I believe all that was in that book although I am beginning too, she thought. “What was in the book was not something I necessarily would have liked to have known but unfortunately I do know now,” she said softly. “And of course, you were featured in it?”

“I am sure I was,” River thought as the one thing he had not been told was about the journal. Given the nature of his family. He would not have figure that his father’s former girlfriend would be big on writing down the adventures of that time, and it made him think of what it could have led to, but to read the book, and not know anything about it. I would think that would have been indeed an eye-opening experience he would guess. There was still a lot he did not know. But he did know one thing. “I kind of showed up before she left town, or so I am told because I do not remember any of it,” he said as he parked, and they both looked out at the baron dayscape of the desert sand. It is pretty here he thought as they both observed the landscape before them.

It is, Mariah thought as she too looked out into the desert sands and marveled at the difference here in New Mexico compared to Chicago and Illinois as once more she was forced to remember what she had read of how River came to be. It was just so farfetched she thought How could I have believed it. “I do have to admit, you have a pretty landscape out here.”

“Yes, we do.” River said, admitting to it.

“How is it, to be you know…” Mariah asked as if River knew what she was going to say, and he did not but he could give some guesses.

“To be who I am, the reason my father’s life has been so miserable all my damn life” River said in his own display of self-pity.

“I did not know if that was what I was meaning, but sorry if I did hit a nerve.” Mariah said cautiously because she knew that there was still a lot of rawness there for River in relation to his father, now their mutual father and it was baggage that she could not bear to even know about, yeah not likely she thought Because I quite like my life with my family.

Just a month ago, I had a mother and father who loved me, and I never second guessed a single thing in my life.

Now I am full of what ifs.

“No, I am sorry, I know you were hit with some shitty revelations, and ones that you are not ready for, and I am sorry about that because my life is actually pretty good. I had a family who loves me, and a roof over my head. Sure, my relationship with my father could have been better and it all is rooted back…”

“To before I was born?” Mariah asked. “Because my mother walked away from your father, and I got a new father.”

“Maybe you were lucky?” River muttered.

“Really?” Mariah asked because yeah Brady Anthony had been an amazing father but now there was still so much, she did not know, and now she knew she had someone’s DNA as part of her genetic code. “Do you mean it?”

“Of course not, because I know you would have been the kid our father would have wanted, while I could have gotten lost in the solar system for all he cares,” River muttered because he fully knew his father would have wanted to be Mariah’s father, while him on the other hand he thought, Dad would have picked a different ending he thought Even if he kept me, and killed his chance at being Mariah’s father he mumbled to himself as they walked into the desert, and now both were in a pity party of two thanks to parents who had gotten either a raw deal or they made a mess of their own lives on their own terms. “Again, sorry, sometimes stuff like that shoot out of my mouth without really meaning it, because Dad and I have our way of dealing with each other, and it is not always pretty but it is something we have figured out for ourselves.”

“It’s quite a mess we are in,” Mariah wondered as she could figure that yes, River probably had come to terms in his own way with whatever that was going on in his relationship with his father and was trying to soft pedal it to her now, because of the obvious. And she was not ready to look at the man as someone good, because it would mean she would lose something big. Still, a part of her would have liked to have known her hidden history. And she was feeling robbed, which is why she exploded on her mother.

Something she did not deserve Mariah thought. But still, she was not ready to head home and deal with her new life. As they finally stopped and glanced out at the mass of sand in front of them, and at the caves in front of them. “So, where are we?” she wondered because this was a part of the state, she was not familiar with, as if I am familiar with any of it.

“Some place pretty fundamental to who we are, and why we are the way we are” River muttered as they looked up the collection of caves, and chambers, that River knew were within at least one of them.

“Huh,” Mariah did not understand.

And River knew it because he was the one born into this drama. The one who grew up in it, and Mariah was the one who had been able to have a bliss free existence up until now, and therefore there was so much she did not know. Not that he knew of everything because the elders of course had been tight lipped about their adventures, and the darkness in their past. But still Mariah was at square one and did not know to the level of what he did.

And he figured it was time to wake up some knowledge in her, so that she could make a better-informed decision one way or another. Because whether he had a good relationship with his father or not, and he knew he did not. But still, he was more informed than she was…

“What are you talking about?” Mariah wondered.

“Simple, this is where it all started” River muttered. “The place where our father became the person he would become or started the process” he said softly. “This is where he was born…”

“What, excuse me?” Mariah asked as all she was doing was looking at a bunch of rocks, and she could not compute what River was telling her because he seemed like he believed this stuff, but it would not sink for her, because it did not make sense. “How is that possible” she murmured, a little to herself, but also out loud.

River could relate. He grew up know the darkness of their origins, so it was not brand new for him, but for Mariah, it would be…

“Prepare yourself for a freaky story…” River muttered.

Mariah did not know if she was prepared or wanted to be prepared.

*

While Liz was back home, having been fully immersed within the origins of the drama for nearly twenty years despite a significant time, sixteen years in fact out of the drama that unfolded starting in September 1999 and concluded in many ways in May 2002. When she broke Max’s heart and instead of a wedding band on her finger, she boarded a bus and rode on it away from this town and would not come back until a month before.

And now she was forced to reconcile that she had never really left the drama even when she believed she had moved on. Getting married and having kids with someone else and being able to achieve that white picket fence.

And now she was agonizing about what the future would be for her, and her daughter while Kyle had gone back home because he did not want to leave the girls and once Maria was there in the house, he knew that Liz would need her best friend more so than him.

While on the other hand, Maria could not believe the twists this was taking in her friend. She had been thrilled when her best friend told her that she and her family would be relocating back here, after so many years gone. Finally, she would have her best friend back and life had gone tame compared to those years in high school.

What could happen? Maria had told herself, and even her husband. Michael should have warned her that you should never say something like that because life will upset your carefully laid plans with their own plans for your life. But still, she had been thrilled to have her friend back.

But never in any nightmares did she get any warning of any of this. Of course, I do not have any special powers she thought. I am the normal one in this family she thought. Liz is the one who had the power of premonition she thought.

But one that Liz had not used, so how could she not have gotten a warning.

She felt for her friend. Liz was notorious for not doing well when life swung out of control, and now it definitely was, and here her friend was worrying about her daughter. It made Maria’s worries for her son more mundane because Mac was foolish and being a teenager, but she did not have to worry that he was in a position that he was not prepared to handle. Because Mac had grown up in this life, like River. So, he is battle tested she mused to a point.

She might not like how he was conducting his life. Too recklessly she thought. But she would take it over the unknown of which her friend was dealing with…

She felt for her friend, “I like to think you would have told Max,” Maria was saying. Although she questioned if her friend could have stayed with Brady knowing she was carrying Max’s child.

But coming back would have meant she would have had to raise Tess’s child.

Even though she was dead. Thankfully.

“Thank you, both Max and Kyle think the opposite,” Liz said softly. “I would have told Max. I do not know what it would have meant for us, but I would have at least told him. Because I would never have kept it from him. After all, I told him did I not.”

“Although it’s sixteen years later,” Maria muttered. “It is much easier to come back when your baby is now a teenager, and River is also a teenager, and you did not have to be here for his childhood…”

“Yes, I guess, it is” Liz muttered, and she would concede that it was easier but not necessarily that much to do such a thing today, coming back because the other side has so much missed time to atone for “Still I never would have deprived Max of knowing,” she muttered as she was still determined to believe she could have come back even if she had something decent with Brady. And would have had to deal with River. And having to live a life where they would have to check in with Max on the daily activities of their daughter, that would have been a hell of a time she muttered. Maybe I did ignore a lot to protect myself. What am I going to do?”

“Deal it with it in the only way you can because you are not a novice in this Liz. You know how to handle it. Sure, you have been away from this life, but Mariah will need patience. Because this is a life changing experience for her, and she has been raised in the relative peace away from the kind of drama that can infest a sometimes-easy life,” she muttered “You left it, I did not. So, I know of what I speak. So, while things are tame, still…”

“I know, you do not have to tell me. The unexpected can happen” Liz muttered. Not like that was not our everyday occurrence for three years.

“Love and accept your daughter, and eventually she will be who she is meant to be…” Maria advised. And just pray she does not do something foolish in the meantime she thought but could not bear to say the words.

“I hope so,” Liz sighed even though she was thinking the same thing as her best friend.

*

What are you people? was the words ringing through Mariah’s head as she stared at the set of rocks in front of them. She could not believe this. She was a girl who was raised in the relative privilege of Chicago wealth despite her parents wish to get away from the trappings of being part of money, still, it was a life afforded to her and her brother, and now she was in a small town and having her whole life turned upside down.

She was being told her biological father. A man she barely knew, and what she did know, was traits she did not particular care for. Still, she was being told a story by her until this point unknown half-brother, who was a product of a fling her biological father had with the woman who had killed her mother’s best friend, her brother’s namesake. I am actually being told that Dad hatched in some cave. And I am supposed to believe it?

“Are you crazy?” Mariah said in almost a whisper as it was too horrific for her to come to terms with, but next to her, River was standing there like it was an everyday occurrence, like this was not life changing.

“To many, probably” River thought. “But this is real, it did really happen back in 1987 when in that chamber, our father along with Mac’s father, and Jessica’s mother hatched from these pod things, that are still in in there today, but our father came to this planet, and this country through a chamber in there…

“Excuse me,” Mariah muttered as if she could not understand what he was saying. “That is not possible.”

“Is it not?” River wondered. “But then I guess to someone who does not know the warts, and all would not know it was possible. But I figure you needed to know that this was the place where it all started. Dad, my biological mother, Aunt Isabel, and Mac’s father lived on this planet, and they were part of like a royal family or something. Kings, princesses, and everything like that, Anyways, Antar is what it was called. They eventually would experience a coup against Dad’s rule. Bad people wanted to take over Dad’s throne, and they succeeded, but before it was too late, the elders up there decided to save their race and for it to continue on in some form, and so, they mixed a little of their DNA along with some human donors from this planet, and set our father this way, and it took a while for them to hatch, but they eventually would as six years old’s hatch and come onto this planet.”

“Hell no,” Mariah muttered as she recoiled from the retelling. “This is way too crazy,” she said as she could not handle all this. My life is not a science fiction movie she thought.

“Unfortunately, it’s not.” River said conceding to himself that maybe he was laying too much on Mariah too soon. Because he did know that it sounded too much like fiction.

But it was not fiction.

It was true.

Still, he could see how she was reacting. And now he wondered if they should have waited for this discovery. Because not everyone was able to take this. You have to be able to accept something that cannot possibility be true, and yet it was, and was his normal.

But it was not Mariah’s normal. She had been born and raised in a different culture.

She might feel different and was different. But still…

“Look, I am sorry” River murmured. “I thought you could handle this because it’s a fact of our life. I could take you into the chamber, and maybe seeing it for yourself will convince you that it is true.”

“No,” please no Mariah whispered as River put his hand on the rock, and the door started to rumble, and she went to into shock as she pulled back, “No, stop this, because I cannot handle this,” she muttered as she ran off.

And River did not know where she was headed.

Mariah did not even know, but all she knew was that she wanted to escape.

And River was forced to admit to himself that he might have made things worse for the situation. And he did not know how this was going to end as he closed the door to the chamber and was left to wonder what would happen next.

****

Author's Note

What could possibly happen now is the question. As we have reached the end of the first segment of the story, as the truth is out. And now it's time to figure out what is going to happen now, as people have to cope with the life changing news. So, there will be a lot of confusion. Relationships will be tested, and maybe strengthened in some cases, as questions are explored, and the past continues to haunt in many different ways...