She was still his daughter.
She was in every other way that his son would be if he had ever showed his face. Chances of that are probably below nil by now he thought but Max knew his son was out there, somewhere in this world, or maybe not if he was on another planet or even alive at this point. Because he had yet to see Tess or to know whether they were even alive. So, it was all a bunch of assumptions at this point, and a vastly different life than he had wanted at one time. As he thought of the little girl who was now shopping with her aunt for a dress for the wedding.
Micah. he thought.
It was a complicated.
Micah who had been placed into his arms at birth was his child… and Max was not so proud of how he had made it happened having paid off her waitress of a mother because she had been a one-night stand of Michael’s before he had fallen ill. Not that the woman had not taken the money, signed the papers, and ran from Roswell, which is how he wanted it, with a signed agreement that she would have no role in her baby’s life before she turned 18, assuming his daughter sought her out at the time.
If it were to happen. It would be Micah’s choice, and only her choice. But for Max. It had been the only choice that could be made.
Although Max was not proud at giving a face to the town, or to his daughter that was faulty.
But then back then, in the beginning, Michal had taken his breakup from Maria badly. About as well as I did with Liz Max muttered to himself. But I did not seek company for my bed when I lost Liz. Michael had with many, and in the end, it had come back to haunt him with Yvonne. Once they graduated or did not graduate in Michael’s case, he had fallen into bad times, and tried to forget Maria who had by this time decided to stay in New York and had moved on. Months later, an ill-fated one-night fling had gotten a woman named Yvonne Simmons pregnant. A Cow Patties waitress. Yvonne had not wanted the baby.
And Michael had not wanted the baby.
Not Michael’s finest day Max would admit.
And so, Max stepped in, and paid off the mother, and got custody of the baby at birth. As he was hopeful that Michael would come to his senses but then his friend fell sick, and that was that, and Micah Isabel had come into his life at birth.
Max had been in the delivery room and taken the baby home and he had been in the child’s life ever since, and she had become his daughter.
And she called him Daddy even if he swore that he would tell her the truth when she was old enough to understand, but they were not at that point yet. His family, and Isabel treated Micah as one of their own because Isabel had understood the situation and was doing it to honor Michael as much as her brother was. Phillip and Diane were a little mystified, but they were not going to deny themselves a chance at a grandchild, and therefore they loved Micah every bit as their son did.
He might be raising Michael’s biological daughter, and she had grown into being his daughter, but it did not change that he wanted his best friend back.
And for Michael to live.
But that wish was starting to lose its potency if it ever was that powerful to begin with. “Michael,” Max murmured as he tried to break through the shell of his friend. “You need to come back,” he sighed. “For more reasons than you know” he said as he thought of his suspicions since he heard his daughter say the name of the older child, she had been talking to… Charlie Deluca. There was only one Deluca he knew, and it was Maria. And that child was not the same age as Micah, but older, and surer of his self… and almost a dead ringer for the man who was in the bed, unconscious.
And a dead ringer of the boy Michael had been once upon a time. When they first came to this planet, and before they met up a few years later, in school. “Oh, god” he muttered Secrets. They will get you every time “So, come on Michael. I think you might be surprised to find out what you have back here for you…” he asked. “You should be thinking of Maria, and maybe some unsettled ground there…”
“Thank you for dropping him off Liz,” Amy Deluca Valenti smiled as he looked at the couch that her grandson. A day she had not thought she would see, or that her daughter would allow happen but one that she was glad was happening at all. And while she understood why her daughter was reluctant, but there were factors in the story that Amy had not wanted to tell her daughter for fear it would her daughter hurt, and there really was nothing her daughter could do.
But one of these days her daughter would find out. And the same could be said for her grandson who was finally within Roswell limits.
While she knew that could pose unnecessary drama later... Amy was only grateful that Liz had dropped Charlie off so that he could spend some time with his grandparents. It was a chance that she did not get often with her grandson and therefore, she would relish it while she had the chance. Before he went home to his mother.
“I will try not to be too long,” was all Liz said he watched as Charlie watched the baseball game with his grandfather. As the women smiled at the boys yelling at the screen over some botched call or something, as Liz thought this was what Charlie was missing by Maria’s reluctance to bring him back to their hometown. To allow him to be exposed to his other family members.
Not that Liz did not know the reasons why Maria had stayed away. And she might have done the same thing if the shoes were other foot, although Liz did not know if she could have done the same thing because it would have been Max, she would have done that too. And Max is another story. All she could do was look at the little girl how does he have a daughter when I know he has a son out there somewhere in this world? Liz was hearing her brain ask her as she was trying to ignore it as she thought of the girl who had been looking up at Max with devotion and in seeing that. She knew he had to be an excellent father. A little girl she thought. Did he find happiness with someone else? And the mere thought made her ache and it tugged on her heart to know what she had thrown away.
As she got into her car and drove across town, to her appointment that she could not miss. Despite only arriving that day, but she needed to deal with this.
The atmosphere tended to want to suck your hope out of you Max was thinking as he stood and watched Michael so oblivious to the world. It was so sterile, as Serena walked into the room once again, and acknowledged the fact so little had changed and yet Max could not help but acknowledge how so much had changed in the outside world. “You need to come back to us,” he whispered out into the empty room, as he saw the door being slid open, and Serena walking in. “I do want to thank you,” he murmured as he turned to his friend. “You know we would understand if you did look for other opportunities?”
“I like it here, and I want to see Michael come out of this” Serena muttered as she was at a loss to understand why the patient had not come back to them given that his results were so mystifying as there were no logical reason for his coma. And if not for the persistence of his friends in Max and Isabel. Any hospital would have long given up hope. And yet, he stayed with them, if every way except in consciousness. “Your town is interesting to me,” she smiled even though she was moon lighting across the street at another facility, because her only duties here was dealing with Max’s determination to keep his friend alive. “One of these days you will get your miracle,” she commented.
“If you think so,” Max muttered as he was not sure whether he could get a miracle on this one as he thanked Serena who he knew was trying everything, they could think of to bring her patient back to them. As he exited in the same fashion as he had entered. But with a heavy heart because of what his friend was missing out on, and what he was in many ways. Still, there was hope.
One always had to have a lot of hope. Sometimes it was the only thing that kept your going.
Because unfortunately he did share Serena’s belief that any other facility would have pulled the plug years ago. But Michael remained with them within this private institution that he and Isabel had created out of the wreckage of an explosion at Meta Chem that had taken place due to unrelated events that did not have anything to do with them.
Using funds real or power based to bring in all the equipment needed and hire the best. Serena had come to them straight out of school, as one of the best in her field. She had a lot to prove, and she had been trying ever since to find a way to bring his lost friend back, and his inability to have his friend back was not anything that Serena had done. Max figured his friend was being stubborn because there was no good reason why Michael was holding out on them. But he was not and therefore Serena was trying everything, and fortunately for them, that she stayed on the job.
He did not want to think it was hopeless.
Even if it had been five years. As he thought of little Micah Isabel and knew he had to pick her up, and so he was not really paying attention as he walked to his car as he looked across the street as they were in an industrial part of Roswell.
Lots of buildings were around them. And he stopped when he saw a familiar face come out of one across the street, as he wanted to stop his car once he got in and started it up and offer, he a drive home, but he was seeing she was talking on the phone and walking towards her own car.
Why was Liz on this part of town?
“They said the results will be to you by Monday at the earliest,” Liz was saying into her phone as she walked and not paying any attention to. “I am here on Tuesday before I start the journey back via New York, so call me, or we can schedule an appointment to talk when I am back home” she murmured as she saw out of the corner of her eye a familiar face in a car, stopping, slowly, and she froze in place. “I have to go.”
“Liz,” came the voice. “What are you doing here?” Max asked as he heard her talking about some results or something. But did not know what she was referring too, but he did know she was in the science field and working on genetics or something She deserves all the praise she has been given for her breakthroughs even if others got the glory. Max knew one day his ex would getting all the glory she deserved. “Is everything alright?”
Unable to speak.
Not knowing what he might have heard. Liz was unprepared for this. It was a risk she had taken by scheduling this appointment when she could have waited for another month. After all, Roswell was a small town. People talked, or saw things, all the time.
Which made the fortunate to have been in a different time once upon a time when everything exploded on them. Trying to do now, what they had done a decade ago. Would have been impossible, they both knew. And it is only 2009. “I am fine,” Liz said as she finally found a voice to speak. “It is work related,” she lied because this was anything by work related. Personal, very personal
“Oh,” Max nodded as it bought the excuse. “Do you need a lift?”
“No, I have my car” Liz sighed as she pointed towards the vehicle not that far away.
“Oh, right” Max said. “Anyways, if all is okay, then I will be on my way” he sighed as he longed to stay and glance into those eyes, but he resisted temptation as he drove off, as he was leaving Liz staring at the car as it drove away from her. Like he was curious about what she was doing in the area. She could not help but wonder why Max was even in the area. This is not exactly the place for him, she thought as saw across the street in the building that was once Meta Chem. She had heard of an explosion that had taken place there while she away at boarding school, and knew it had lit up the sky, but it seemed as if it was a medical facility, and it was called Meta Medical, and she checked she map she got out of the glove box and saw no listings for the facility It is unlisted she asked herself. Interesting, she thought, and she did not know what she was thinking as out of the window as she was starting her vehicle. She saw a familiar blonde enter the same facility grounds that Max had just exited.
First Max. Now Isabel?
“What is going on?” Liz asked but she knew she needed to get back to Charlie, so she drove back to the Deluca Valenti household and tried to ignore the questions swirling in her brain.
“One more Uncle Kyle,” said Charlie at the Deluca-Valenti household as they had been finishing up a video game competition. As Kyle who had arrived only after Liz had left and was now staying with his father and stepmother until his wedding day and had been bowled over by Charlie upon meeting him Maria is going to be explaining things he thought as only pictures, and phone calls had been their relationship because unlike Amy. Kyle and Jim had never ventured outside of Roswell to make any visits. It only been Amy who went on girl weekends to New York, or other trips with her daughter and grandson, and now Charlie was in Roswell and it was plain to see, as anyone could see why Maria was staying away.
No one else could be the father Kyle told himself as he watched as Charlie battled with him over some video game. Sighing because there was factors Maria did not know Kyle thought as he sat back down, and they were engaging in another battle when the door opened, and Liz walked in. Any thoughts of winning this time vanished. Smiling, all he said was “this is my exit” he muttered as he promptly got killed off by Charlie’s character. “You win,” he smiled as he got up. “Parker, nice seeing you.”
“Kyle,” Liz smiled as she walked in and instantly relieved to finally see a face that did not make her question what could have been, she thought as they embraced because this was their first seeing each other in many years. “I did not expect you to be here?”
“What can I say. Isabel takes pre-wedding traditions seriously,” Kyle laughed as he thought of his fiancé or in this case it was more me, he thought of his need to stay in his childhood home until his wedding. While his father rekindling things with Amy Deluca had cause some many renovations to the space. Still, it was his family home, and his father and Amy had offered that he stay “So, I am sticking close to here…”
“Is it not only the night before?” Liz asked with a laugh as they stepped back from their hug. “Not that I have any experience with that kind of thing” she though of her the miserable state of her own romantic life and how she had bucked away any chance of her relationships turning into anything meaningful. She never wanted to get to that point. But it did not mean she was not happy that her friends were getting that chance. Even if Maria’s life was also in the same rut as hers was, and they had been in sync in that too Maybe that should be telling us something?
“Neither do I,” Kyle murmured as they both knew it would be his first marriage. “But Isabel is a stickler for tradition and given that I had to be out of my place by today” he laughed. “While I did move everything into her house…” he murmured as he and Isabel had kept their separate places during their romance. Although he had spent most of the time at the home Isabel had been able to buy with her divorce settlement from Jesse. “Do you have to leave, or can you handle a drink?”
“I would say nothing strong,” Liz smiled as the looked back at Charlie who was having fun with the video game. “I have to drive,” she laughed. “If you have lemonade or something like that…”
“Yeah, I think we do” Kyle said as they walked into the kitchen while Charlie continued solo on the game. “It has been a long time?” he sighed as he thought of all the developments over the years since Liz left town in the wake of the changes that had taken over her life.
“Yes, it has been” Liz conceded as she did feel guilty that she had stayed away in the sense of what it meant to those she cared about. There were reasons she could not come back, but she missed out on those she did care about but staying away from Max seemed to be the most important factor at the time maybe I was wrong she could not help but wonder now Oh come on Liz, you can not be that weak? she muttered to herself. “Sorry…”
“That you could not see fit to find time for your hometown?” Kyle wondered “We might be small, but I thought we were pretty memorable” he laughed as they sat down at the table with their drinks. “Or was there something else keeping you away?”
“I was busy,” Liz lamely said, and Kyle could only laugh at the suggestion that she could not fit in the time when he knew that Jeff and Nancy were going to various places to meet up with their daughter. And when they did. His stepmother, Amy stepped in and ran the business. “And yes, Roswell is very memorable” she said softly as the reasons why they were memorable came to her mind. As her mind went back to the dark hair mystery boy who had captured her heart…
“I guess you were busy rocketing up there in the world of science” Kyle asked. “So, who would have time for their lowly hometown?”
“Yes, it has been an interesting time” Liz conceded as she thought of the many breakthrough she had been on the team of, and all the chances she had to make some valuable contributions. “Although I would never call you lowly,” she murmured with meaning.
“And I guess you got what you have wanted from your life?” Kyle asked as he was impressed by his ex-girlfriend’s ability to do something with her life. To contribute to the world of science, with discoveries that were meaningful and lasting.
“Yes, I did” Liz murmured but no I did not. Not by a long shot
“I am glad,” Kyle sighed as his face turned into a frown because of their reflection back to a time that was one crisis after another “I know how much those years took from you, and especially those last months” he murmured softly as he had witnessed firsthand how things had spun out of control for his ex-girlfriend and good friend. “It was hell of a time.”
“Yes, it was” Liz sighed as she did not regret getting out. Because of everything that had happened to her although she did regret that she could not make it work If only, but she knew that Max life was Roswell, and she needed to get out of their hometown to make her life make sense, and she knew she did not regret it even if she had given up the on lasting love to get her semblance of normal. “Yet you stayed?”
“I did not really have the funds to go elsewhere,” Kyle murmured as he thought of the climb his father had taken once he went back to the department. As most of his money from the shop went to supporting his father and himself until his father on his feet financially, and he had stayed despite his father finding something once again with Amy Deluca. Isabel stayed he murmured to himself. “I could see Roswell was the life I wanted, and eventually it brought me who I wanted” he sighed happily at the remembrance of how he finally got Isabel to notice him and give him the time of day romantically. “I only needed a new job.”
“And you found it?” Liz asked.
“Yes,” Kyle acknowledged. “Sports were the only thing I was good at” he sighed. “Even though I never was able to do anything with it…” he said of his dreams at one time of going somewhere professionally. But his talent did not run deep, but he had found his passion in helping those who were more talented than he was strive for that goal. At a high school level.
“I am sorry about that,” Liz sighed because she had known how much Kyle had enjoyed sports and she did know he was now a coach at their old high school. “I guess it better than being at the shop?”
“By a long shot,” Kyle laughed. “I am happy with the way my life has gone,” he acknowledged. I do not want anything more “This weekend will put it over the top,” he smiled “I am glad you ended up being able to come in for the wedding?”
“I hope I am not putting anyone out by making my decision so late,” Liz asked. “I know I kept you waiting for an answer…”
“I remained hopeful,” Kyle smiled as they sat at the table and shared non-alcoholic drink. “Although I never had to deal with what you had to deal with…” he sighed. “So, coming back to this town had to be a lot for you?”
“My schedule freed up,” Liz lamely sighed even though they both knew that was not why she had delayed saying she was coming back to Roswell for the wedding even if she initially has sent her regrets as she glanced around the Valenti house that had changed so much with Amy living here, as it has showed that time had indeed gone by, and they were not the same people they were in high school. “Speaking of that time. You never…” she asked as if they had not talked over the years but seeing each other face to face was different than talking over email or the phone.
“Nope, never” Kyle confirmed. “And I would think by now, well, I would know once way or another?”
“Weird,” Liz sighed as she that was the one thing, she could never figure out Why me? she muttered out loud, and Kyle caught it.
“You were special I guess,” Kyle muttered.
“Yeah, real special,” Liz murmured right back.
“That you were,” Kyle sighed as he though back to the child in the living room. “I figure we have danced around enough of the elephant in the room,” he sighed. “Are you going to explain to me what is going on with Charlie?”
“What exactly are you thinking?” Liz wondered as if she did not know what her former boyfriend was thinking of the child in the other room.
“I am thinking that he’s a dead ringer for someone we both know,” Kyle sighed. “I mean I was not that close to you people when we were kids. It was only in high school that magnified everything, but I remember one particular person…”
“Maria would rather you continue to ignore it,” Liz said softly as she thought of the conversations over the very subject that she had with her best friend. “You are not going to get anywhere by bringing it up with her.”
“I bet she does,” Kyle sighed.
“Kyle,” Liz murmured as she thought of the weight of on her friend’s shoulder “You can think what you want but it is Maria’s life, and she would rather you not think of it,” she muttered. “It is not that important in the great scheme of life” she sighed as she knew she was lying. As she knew it was important. Which is of course why she wanted to bring Charlie back to Roswell. So, that the boy could unsettle the ground. And Maria had known it and fought her on it but given Charlie’s mother was keeping the secret, she did not have that much leverage. Liz would never do anything to hurt her friend, but she knew that keeping Charlie in a bubble or on the East Coast was not going to stop the truth from coming out.
Because she could tell that Max had seen the truth when he had seen Charlie. Which meant they were already in unchartered territory.
Kyle could only shake his head. As he thought of the situation was a crappy one, he thought. Not that he especially cared about Michael, because they were never ones to truly mesh because they were two different people. But Kyle cared about Isabel and since Isabel loved Michael like a second brother, and Kyle did not want anything to hurt her, and he knew losing Michael had deeply wounded his fiancé. “All I was going to say is that it does not even matter whether Michael and Charlie are dead ringers for each other, because it is not like Michael is even around here anymore…”
“What are you talking about?” Liz asked stunned because this was the first time, she was hearing any of this WTF she muttered “Why would he not be in Roswell?” she wondered. “Where did he go?” because where Max and Isabel are, then Michael is never far away?
“Away,” was all Kyle would say as his face was telling a story that his words were not expressing, and Liz could automatically sense it.
“Kyle, what is going on?” Liz asked as she felt the undercurrents in the room shift.
“We all have our secrets. You or I are not different. Maria of course has them but in this case. Max and Isabel would prefer if it were not discussed,” Kyle sighed. “As much as I would love to tell you, but unfortunately, I must listen to them on this issue, as it is complicated, and to most everyone else in town who even care. To them, they think that Michael left town, and is out East.”
“Even from me?” Liz asked stung. “I think you know that I know complicated Kyle,” she sighed. “I mean I lived it for those three years,” she said as she reflected on the extent of what she had to endure during those years. As they were not for the faint of the heart. “It was my second nature. So, Kyle you are worrying me. What is going on?” she asked. “And to get the Tess treatment?” as they both winced at her reference because the blonde had been the worse thing the two of them faced. As Kyle more than anyone other than Max and Liz had faced lifelong burdens because of Tess’s time in their lives. They had not come out of it unscathed, and yet they had said that Tess had gone East when she had gone to Antar, and as far as she knew it. Tess was still gone…
“Ask Max” Kyle was all he could say even though he wanted to say more…
“Kyle,” Liz muttered because she was getting the feeling, she was not getting the truth, which she was not. “Why will you not tell me why?”
“Because I asked him not to,” came a voice of someone who was from Liz’s past. Someone she had not been especially close to because they had been two vastly different people as she saw a certain blonde enter the kitchen. Their personalities did not always mesh well with each other, but she had known they had someone they loved in common, even before the blonde fell in love with Kyle. Yes, Isabel Evans. That other person was Isabel’s brother. “Hello Liz…”
Max.
That brought an alliance between the two, but that alliance was not always the easiest one to sustain. Max was someone they both mutually loved, and Isabel did not always like how things were going or that Liz ultimately walked away from her brother. That caused a tension, although Liz had not been back since she walked away from Roswell during her senior year. So, it was hard to keep the anger going.
Isabel had already graduated and was married to her former husband. But still that did not stop Isabel from feeling like someone in control of her brother and did not want her brother to be hurt. And while she had been warned that Liz was back in town.
Now she was seeing it was the truth. Liz was back. Which would mean more turmoil for her brother.
“Yes, hello Isabel,” came Liz as she got up form the table and acknowledged Kyle’s fiancé, and her ex-boyfriend’s sister yeah, a complicated life I lead she muttered to herself as she saw Isabel continue to walk into the kitchen via the back door which is why they had not heard anything than the noise from the television as Charlie was still demolishing the game he was playing. “It’s nice to see you again after so much time…”
“Yes, because I take it that you are a last-minute addition to our wedding?” Isabel asked, unsure of how to handle this. Because she knew having Liz back, would cause her brother discomfort and angst, and she did not want that, but Isabel knew by now that her brother was a big boy who had made the choices he had in his life, and there was little she could do to get him to think otherwise, and she did not even want to try.
She was on the cusp of finding happiness. Happiness that would last this time.
And that meant she was more lenient to people who brought pain to her family, because she knew that it was her brother who had done his fair share within his relationship with Liz. And therefore, Liz was not the only one who had damage inflicted on her all those years ago.
After all it always takes two to damage a relationship.
Isabel could have said that herself because she had experienced it the hard way, and therefore she did not want to give Liz a hard time. Still, she was hesitancy because she knew what it meant to have her brother’s old flame back in town.
“As I was telling Kyle. My schedule changed, and therefore I wanted to be able to come back and see you guys take your vows and spend some time with my parents before I have to get back to my job and my other responsibilities” Liz could not help but sigh as she thought of her parents, and how she had treated them over the years “They have come to me, so it was about time that I came to them.”
Isabel nodded as she had known how the Parkers had gone on occasion to visit their daughter, and how they had been glowing from their trips when they came back. “I guess then I stand with Kyle and say I am happy you came to spend our day with us,” she smiled.
“Thank you,” Liz murmured. “It’s been a long time, and I have forgotten how much I have missed our hometown.”
“Have you?” Isabel asked as if she wanted to challenge that assertion. “I mean, have you missed Roswell?”
“Yes,” Liz murmured because it was the truth. She might have stayed away for many reasons, but they were never because she did not like her hometown, and she was realizing how much it had changed while she was gone, and how much she had missed it…
“We are happy you are back,” Kyle smiled. “We missed you, and we are glad you were able to come in for our big day.”
“I hope that you both know that you deserve any happiness that you can get, and I know the two of you will be very happy” Liz murmured and she knew it was the right thing to say because she and Kyle were better off as friends, and only friends, because only one person had been able to capture her heart, and she had yet to match that intensity, much to the detriment of her own social life.
“We appreciate it,” Isabel murmured as her face became melancholy because of what their group had lost over the years. “I only wish everyone we love can be here this weekend to celebrate with us.”
“Don’t we all” Liz simply nodded and knew Isabel had to be thinking of Alex. Alex Someone they had lost too early, and someone who should not have died, and especially not in the manner he did. “We all miss him.”
Isabel could only nod as she took Kyle’s hand, because it was not all she was thinking of, and only within this room, Kyle knew it, but still it did not prevent them from wishing for a better future than what was their past.
“Can I ask?” Liz asked as she was not ready to put her questions aside. Especially when she felt that there was too much she did not know. “What is going on with Michael?”
“I do not want to dwell on it,” Isabel murmured as it still pained her heart to know.
“I want to be a friend,” Liz sighed. “We all have a history, for good and for bad. And I cannot help but wonder what is going on, and think by now you can trust me to keep your secrets, and I know something is wrong, and I think I have earned that due my loyalty all those years ago?”
“It’s not like we do not trust you,” Isabel murmured even though she knew that Liz had earned their trust “I just do not like to acknowledge what is going on, and telling more people will only bring more angst…”
“Isabel, what is going on?” Liz asked. “I do not want to have to go ask your brother, and something tells me unlike you and Kyle. Your brother will tell me.”
“Would you tell Maria?” Isabel wanted to know.
“And why would I not?” Liz asked.