Twenty-four hours later,
The Christmas presents were wrapped. She had done it that morning in trying to deal with the emotion of knowing her husband was gone and would not be coming back and after her in-laws had left the house. And her daughter had barricaded herself up in her room, only coming for a silent lunch. Liz knew she needed to do something. She needed to get out of the house. Christmas was in a few days, and her son would be coming home for overnight, starting tomorrow. So, she had that to do tomorrow, pick up her son from his rehab center. So, that was something she also had to do once Mitchell and Christina were gone, ready the downstairs for her son because he would not be able to go upstairs to his room.
So, he needed to get out of the house. With her daughter refusing to budge from her room, and with the promise that she would go to her grandparent’s restaurant for dinner. Which Mariah agreed too, although Liz knew that might not happen because she was getting to know the feeling of having a teenager in the house even though she had been one herself and knew she had given her parents a run for their money, but knew she was now getting payback.
So, she did not know if her daughter would show up at the Crashdown.
Although truthfully Mariah had been a good kid. But that was before, and Liz did not know if she would be facing the terrible teens now that her daughter was morning the loss of her father, and the changing reality of her life. But Liz knew her daughter needed time away from her, and she needed time to relax, and to be with a friend.
Maria had accepted the offer to stop at Cow Patties for a drink or two, and Liz did not know what it all would mean because she had not been here in many years. Not since high school, although she had been too much of a choir girl to have a good time except that she had been with Max at the time, and at the start of a highly charged moment in time that had just been part of the path that led to their end.
Yeah, I need this she thought as she went to the bar, and placed her order, and waited to be joined by Maria.
*
While back at home. Her fifteen-year-old of course resisted the request to go to her grandparents, and to get out of the house. Instead, Mariah used some of her babysitting money from back in Chicago and ordered in pizza, and she listened to music and played on the computer before tiring of that and she was looking for something in her bag, and she saw a book. Unsure of what it was, she opened it and remembered that it was her mother diary. “Oh, right” Mariah muttered to herself. As she remembered how she had taken it from her mother’s old childhood bedroom over the Crashdown.
She was curious about what the book said…
So, she sat and opened the cover, and read the same words over again that had surprised her and fell into reading what her mother one wrote, and she was stunned by what she read, and it made her question a whole lot.
Geez, came Mariah as she read.
She was not liking what she read.
*
While her mother was being stood up. Maria had text to say something had come up with her mother and she could not make it. So, Liz knew she could turn around and head home, but something stopped her. So, she stayed.
*
While in the parking lot. Max was sitting in his car and was looking at the establishment he has not been in, in many years, even when he was at his lowest. Because he kept his pity parties to the solo variety, and wherever he was living at the time. And now he felt the urge just to listen to some music and relax because River was at his grandparent’s house, preparing for the Christmas celebration and wrapping presents, which was something his father did not like doing so River was looking for something to get out of the house.
And he would be helping at his grandfather’s legal practice once Christmas was over, and before he had to be back at school. Making some money and figuring out what he wanted to do once he graduated. All he knew was he was out of this town when he graduated. But he still did not know what he wanted to do.
So, Max did not have to see how miffed his son was, at him instead he was sitting out of Cow Patties, and thinking whether he should be going in.
He knew he should be getting in the car and heading home and keep his drinking to private nature of his home.
Instead, he got out of the car, and headed into the bar.
Walking into the establishment, and it was same bustling environment he remembered back from when he was not even drinking age. Now, he was very much of age, and was coming in not knowing what he was going to find.
But he found her…
He spotted her instantly.
And she spotted him, not as instantly but close enough as she was getting off the stool to go find a bathroom, when she spotted Max. Oh god, are you kidding me? she cursed towards the sky. This is not what I need.
She walked towards the bathroom and threw some water on her face and tried to convince herself to head home.
But she walked back and asked for another drinking as she was trying to persuade the gods to have Max head back home, and ignore her, and give her some peace and quiet tonight.
But nope, “Hello, Liz”
She did not speak.
“Ignoring me, huh” Max said with a relax nature of himself which was contrary to normal behavior as he sat and gestured for a drink because there was no way he was heading home now when his dream girl was here. “Needing a drink?”
Liz was trying to give the silence treatment because she knew it did nothing to talk to him, not him she thought. The last person she should be on this night, twenty-four hours after burying her husband was with someone who had meant everything once upon a time. And yet she knew she did not regret her time with Brady and knew she could have spent the next twenty-five years with him and been happy.
But that was not to be.
“Okay, I guess you want some alone time” Max asked. “That is fine, which is something I can give you…” he said as he picked up his beer, and walked away, and headed for a single table and sat down and continued to watch the bar, and Liz.
Liz knew he was there and could feel the heat of his glaze behind her.
It was that powerful…
*
While Mariah had an enough of reading. As she found herself engrossed by the book that her mother had written in, about some very confusing events in her life. And Mariah was almost wanting to believe that her mother was imaginative and had been an author and what she was ready could not possibly be something that happened when her mother was her age. This is insane, as she put it down and did not know if she was repulsed by the notion that her mother loved someone else.
That her father was the second choice, that if she had the life, she wanted than my dad would never have been an option Mariah thought as she put down the book and got up, and knew she needed to get out, and go somewhere, somewhere that was not hear.
She always believed her parents had a love story. That they met in college and loved each other, even if she had come a little early in their romance. As she indeed counted the dates and knew the married because of me she thought. It did not bother her because they had made it, right, they had still been married sixteen years later.
And now Mariah had doubts about how much her mother loved her father. Did Dad know he was second choice she wondered, and she put on her coat, and left the house. Needing to go for a walk to somewhere, anywhere that was not here.
So, she locked the door behind her, and tried to get some space from her life.
*
She finally gave up. She knew she had been kind of jerkish before when Max was only being kind and wanting to be there for her and she repaid that by ignoring him, so sighing as she got a refill of her drink, and she picked it up, and walked over to where Max had been watching the music play, and the dancers. Taking in the night and knowing he had not had this kind of night in a long, long time because he had stayed inside himself, much to his detrimental, and now he was here, and he could not keep his eyes from the woman who had been his past.
Even though he knew nothing could come from it, but looking did not hurt anyone, right he was asking himself. As his brain did go back in time as he remembered the time when he had been here, and dancing with his dream girl. His dream girl who was now taken. Whether the husband was dead or not. Max would be an ass to try anything when the pain was so intense for his ex-girlfriend. So, to be a friend was all that he could offer for her right now, and that was all he wanted right now because he did not believe anything more could happen for them when it could not back when, they should have had the chance.
After all, he still had a son whose face only brought nightmares to Liz because it remembered a time, they both regretted. Although he chose to keep his son. “Can I sit?” she asked.
“Sure,” Max said nodding and Liz did sit.
“I am sorry about before,” Liz said with all honestly. “I came to meet Maria, but she bailed on me because of some emergency with her mother,” she said softly. “So, I stayed to get some time on my own because I do not want to be home.”
“Why not?” Max asked.
“It’s new,” Liz said softly. “I am not used to being back in Roswell. And now that I am and the reality of everything is starting to set in,” she said as she thought of Brady. “And my daughter is moody, and I did not want to deal with it today.”
“And your son?” Max asked.
“At the rehab hospital, getting stronger” Liz said softly. She did not know how she could talk to Max because they had some much history. History that was painful, but under the muck of the angst, they did have a friendship. Which made everything better, but it also made it worse when it did go bad for them, but she did treasure the friendship. “He’s coming up home for a little while tomorrow, for the holidays, but the doctors figured he could get better in the facility because he will need rehab once the healing really starts…”
“I am sorry,” Max muttered. “If there anything I could do?” he asked of his abilities, and that is what Liz knew he was offering but she shook her head. “It’s only a suggestion.”
“My son is strong,” Liz said softly. “He and Mariah do not know anything about my prior life. Which is why I did not bring them back here before you know we relocated, because I wanted their lives to be normal, and not to be impacted by what happened back here. There were so many rumors by the time I left,” she sighed of everything that had transpired by the time she had left. Rumors tended to spread. Especially when you are picked up in another state for armed robbery, and only get it out of the smallest of technicalities, and you play Bonnie and Clyde with your boyfriend. With a gun but without the bullets, but of course they had been caught. It would have been too simple if we had gotten out of that state home free, which you could have not said was their way of doing things back then.
“Most of them have vanished,” Max muttered of the rumors that had taken their town.
“Have they, really?” Liz asked.
“Yeah,” Max said softly. “Not that I have made my life inside this town,” he said of his decision many years before to get out of town. Although he could not totally abandon his sister or Michael so he chose to build a house outside of town, and near where they had come to their planet, and the fact that it so far from town limits allowed him to isolate himself even though River would go into town for school and to see his friends. “But I hear the stories, and most of them have been classified as urban legends.”
“Urban legend, yeah, right…” Liz said softly. “Urban legends have some truth to them…”
“True,” Max said with a smile. A smile that weakened Liz, but she tried to think of her children, and her husband and she tried not to be affected by memories of the past. “We tend to not allow any rumors that may exist to gain a hold. Because we try to keep the people who know to a small number, and they know how to tamp down any speculation. If any does exist, and from what I know, or wanted to know, it is largely working, and it has been largely a stress-free existence since everything went down,” he said softly. Yeah right Max. Stress free is something I would not classify your life to be he thought. But given all that had gone down in just senior year, and not the matter those other school years, life was sane today compared to back then. I keep my insanity to my private life in how I treat it.
Liz nodded as she was looking at him like she did not believe him.
“So, you were able to move on…” Max asked as he did not want to discuss what the town might think of his abilities, but the fact he, Isabel and Michael had been able to build their lives here in town and had not had to flee. That meant everything, but of course, he had chosen a different life for himself.
“I tried,” Liz said not wanting to discuss that she had moved on.
“I am glad you were successful,” Max murmured. “I wanted you to be happy. I am just sad it was not with me, but obviously you were fated to meet your husband and have your kids?”
“Yes, I was” Liz said. “And obviously you made the right decision yourself. In keeping your son. River is a remarkable young man,” she said with honestly. “I do not know him well of course, but he has been a friend to my daughter.”
“What my son is today is not because of me,” Max said softly. As he was never going to be able take credit for who his son was because while he made the choice to keep him, still, it was his son who raised himself and at the most he could credit the other members of his family. Because they had helped when he was too mixed up in a pity party.
“You should not be hard on yourself,” Liz asked. “After all, parenthood is a hard job.” I do not know my own parents did it…
“Yes, it is” Max agreed. “But in this case, I cannot claim the credit but that is for another day because this is not the night to go into the past,” as a waitress came over with another beer, and a drink for Liz, and they both took it, and started to drink.
Liz nodded and saw that Max had been drinking and knew he had not been the one to drink in the past. And when he did, it was only a sip, and it had led to memorable encounter. But tonight was different, and Max was obviously drinking beer, and it made the stories she had heard from her best friend have some ring of truth about how hard life had been for Max in the wake of her leaving town, and of course, obviously there were issues between father and son, and she was not aware to the reasons, but she only wished that things could work out “I am sure it will work out.”
“And I hope it works out for you,” Max asked of his ex-girlfriend.
“All it can be in one day at a time,” Liz sighed as she was not happy to have to face this future. It was not part of the bargain she made when she left Roswell, and had met Brady, and they had fallen in love and gotten married. But it was now her life.
“That is life,” Max sighed.
“I hope so,” Liz muttered as they stopped talking, and just watched the dancers, and listened to the music. Neither knowing what to deal with the other, and given how awkward it was to be here, together, when they were not eighteen anymore.
*
While the walk Mariah had been on had ended in the park. As she remembered this was the place where it all started on that night. On this night. She stopped and she watched the stars in the night, and she knew she should be careful given that she did not know this town. She had been only a resident of this place, less than a month. And it had only been two weeks before the worst happened, and the last week had been one fog after another. Dealing with family drama, and just living.
And getting through the days.
She wanted to feel the cold weather. Although Roswell tended to have warmer nights than she would expect in late December. It was unnerving after growing up in Chicago. She knew by now that she should be headed home. Because who knows when her mother would be home, and she knew her mother would not be happy to know she was not home. But she could not go home. She needed something to feel normal. She needed to be away from a house she did not recognize even though it was become her home with every day. But still she felt a tug towards Chicago because that had been where her normal had been.
She had a mother and a father, and a little brother who did not reside in hospital because he had injuries he had to heal from, because it should not be on her to heal. She wanted her father. But he is gone she thought.
When she did go home. He would not be there.
She had to come to some back to reality and know this. Of course, she did, but also, she was fifteen and moody and hormonal.
She did not want it to be only her and her mother.
“Hey,” came a familiar voice. But it was not River who Mariah spotted. It was Mackenzie Guerin. Mac, she thought because she knew that was the name, he liked to be called even though they did not know each other well because as it was commonly known, she and her brother had come to this town before last month.
So, she did not know Mac well.
And neither did Mac know Mariah well. Except that he had grown up knowing about her. That she was slightly older than him. But only by a bunch of months. “Lovely night,” Mac said as he was finished with the Sheriff department. Jessica was not working tonight, as it had been only him and it was even more boring than it had been when they were on shift together. So, once he signed off, he was restless.
Which meant he was going to be up to nothing good.
After all, he assumed his mother was off with Mariah’s mother because he knew that had been the plan and his father was off doing whatever he was doing. So, Mac was roaming free and who knows what trouble he was going to find.
Although that not been the intention of the night. All he knew he was taking the long route and had seen Mariah in the park. And was now approaching.
“Hey, stranger” came Mac said with an easy way of himself. “I know we do not know each other that well,” he said as he knew it was only their mothers who really knew each other. They had grown up knowing each other, but that was about it.
“I guess we will be getting to know each other if we stay in this town?” Mariah muttered.
“That is the plan, right?” Mac asked.
“Yes,” Mariah admitted. “Although my grandparents on my father’s side would like it if we moved back to Chicago, you know so they can see me and my brother, Lex” she muttered. She did not know whether she wanted to be back in Chicago or not.
“Lex is a weird name,” Mac commented.
“He wanted to be his own person,” Mariah said softly. “Instead of being named after someone who mattered to Mom and Dad,” she sighed. “After all, I was named after your mother?” she pointed out of her honorary aunt. A friendship her mother had treasured from childhood on, and nothing had ripped it apart.
“And my parents decided to be creative with my name,” Mackenzie muttered.
“It’s not that bad,” Mariah laughed.
“If you were a girl,” Mac muttered. “Which is why I go by the short form of the name, and that is how it is going to stay. What are you doing out alone, and not at home?” he asked as he did not expect to see Mariah out and about, and so close to the holidays.
“Mom was busy, and I needed to get out of the house,” Mariah muttered. “If this is going to be my home than I might as well get use to this town,” she said with annoyance and Mac could understand it. He suspected he would be if his life had been upended by an unexpected loss. And was in a new town. But then the chances of anyone dying in his crazy little family was going to be rare, except maybe if it was my mother because he knew his mother was normal. While he could not completely classify himself as normal.
“You know it is going to get easier,” Mac muttered.
“Is it?” Mariah asked. “
“But of course, how do I know,” Max said with a smile. “My family is sickening complete,” he said softly. “We have not experienced any loss, or any since I have been alive” he said softly because he knew there had been some loss back before he came into the world, but his little group so far had been lucky in that regard, and he knew chances are that that loss would be reduced.
“You are lucky,” Mariah muttered. “I wish we could have still been in Chicago, and maybe this would not have happened,” she admitted even know numerous time her mother had tried to convince her that it still would have happened, whether it was last week, it did not matter because it still would have happened.
“You do not know that, right?” Mac asked as he felt for the burden in Mariah. So different from the one I feel he thought. “Mom says it was some heart condition that likely caused it to happen. Would it not have happened back in Chicago, too?”
“That is what they say, but I like to blame all the changes…” Mariah muttered. “Because I do not have that condition…”
“They thought you, had it?” Mac asked as he had obviously not been listening at the hospital that night because I had other thinking to do. “That is rough.”
“Yes, it is,” Mariah muttered as she got up from the bench she was sitting as she needed to pace. “What are you doing out on a night like this, so close to Christmas?”
“Doing detention,” came Mac.
“What?” Mariah asked as she stopped pacing and looked at Mackenzie. “School would be out, is it not? Not that I had to go this past week with everything going on,” she said as she was almost looking forward to having the diversion of school once she can get over the holidays, her first without her father.
“It is,” Mac admitted as he supposed he felt for her because of to celebrate the holidays without family probably was a tall order. “But after my boneheaded decision the other night, Mom and Dad decided I needed to see the errors of my ways, and that I needed to volunteer at the Sheriff Department, where my grandfather is Sheriff,” he said softly. “Although to say it volunteering my time, is not really the truth given that I am commanded to make this time in my schedule,” he thought as there were so many other things he could be doing with his time.
“Oh,” Mariah asked as she accessed Mac. While she loved her Aunt Maria, and she had been a part of Maria and her brother’s life as long she could remember still it appealed to her to be able to listen to someone else’s sorrows. And she did not know Mac or even her uncle Michael well because they had never come with their wife or mother when Maria came to Chicago on a trip to see her best friend. “What did they catch you doing, or do I even want to know?” she wondered.
“You probably do not,” Mac smiled as he knew the night in question would always be of horrifying importance to Mariah. “It was me being me and testing my limits,” he thought of his determination to blur the lines. “But not everyone has a Sheriff for a grandfather, and parents who had their exploits when they were young, and because of that, they do not want me to repeat them and so it is more a case of do as we say, and not what we might have also done “So, they are teaching me a lesson. Even though I am young, and all I was doing was a having fun the other night, but unfortunately events led to my parents catching…”
“You mean the night of you know” Mariah asked because she still could barely comprehend what happened.
“Yeah,” Mac said softly. “Sorry,” he said as he was aware of how that was terrible for her, and so he had not wanted to drill down on the date.
“It’s my life,” Mariah muttered.
“Anyways, Mom and Dad want to show me that I got lucky…” Mac said. “So, I am “volunteering at my grandfather’s department until they tell me I am free to get off the punishment that they feel the need to extend to me.”
“Having fun would be nice,” Mariah muttered. “Letting loose and not feel the pressure of everything because it can be so overwhelming….” she allowed because she did not want to be feeling like this.
When she wanted to feel like a teenager, and not one in the throes of grief.
“I might not have loss anyone yet,” Mac said softly as he could see the grief on the girl, and he felt sadden. “But I am sure it is one day at time. Which is all you can do. Although I have a suggestion. You might want to talk to your mother about it. Your brother might be a little too young, but you can talk to your mother, right?” he asked. “She’s going through it too…”
“Can you talk to your parents?” Mariah asked.
“No, but I am different from my mother,” Mac said off handed without really meaning to say it.
“How so,” Mariah asked.
Aware that he had to keep certain facts of life out of the realm of public even if Mariah was a descendent of someone who was very aware of the very secret his clan held. Still, he had been raised to know he and River, along with Jessica and Jaime had to be selective with what they shared. Although Jaime was lucky in her humanness Mac though. But of course, she was part of the unique clan he was raised in. Maybe being around these parts, Mariah would find out one of these days, but he did not know what to upset the hornet’s nest by stating more than he should. “It’s complicated.”
“I hate that word,” came Mariah with a mutter. “I love my mother, but she is going through this too. I know she misses my dad, and then I go and find evidence that my father might not be someone who was her first choice….” she blurted, unaware that she was even going to blurt it out. It had just slipped. She was coming to terms with the book she had read. Most of what was in it is make believe, right? she wondered. How could any of it be true but then reading about her mother and River’s Dad. How can she love my dad, so much…?
Uh oh, given Mac knew some of this. He did not know how to get out of this one. Even though he did not know the full story.
“You do not have to say anything,” Mariah said getting up. “This town seems to have a story to it,” she muttered. “And I do not know even a half of it,” she thought.
“You are right about that,” Mac said as he got up. “I would not let it cause trouble. I am sure you parents love each other, and I am sure they have been amazing parents to you and it’s never easy to find out that our parents have had a past before they had us,” he thought. “I know my own parents had a doozy of a one. Even though they ended up together and have made a life together. But they had one, and so did your mother did too, same with River…”
“Yeah, my mother” Mariah muttered.
Oh, geez Mac muttered.
“You know, do you not?” Mariah asked.
Not answering, “How about I walk you home?” was all Mac was willing to say. “Your mother will not like you wondering the streets alone, given everything that has happened,” he said. “And it’s getting late,” he added.
“I can walk by myself,” Mariah muttered as she did not like feel like she could not do something herself. She lived in Chicago. She had not been sheltered in a small town and protected against the bad world. It was just she had the picture of a happy life until now, and she was beginning to see how that world had flaws in its construction, and she did not want to poke at the holes. All she wanted was the world she once had.
“Humor me, okay?” Mac asked, as he was aware of someone who was overwhelmed and was liable to screw up given that is how he tended to walk the line and knew his mother would have his head and deservedly so if something happened to Mariah in the wake of recent events.
“Whatever,” Mariah said as they started to walk unaware, they were being observed by two people who had come into the park and noticed that Mariah and Mac were talking, and they sticked to themselves and watched, and neither liked what they saw…
“Uh oh,” Jessica said with a laugh, but her companion was not laughing as they watched as Mac and Mariah walked off together into the stillness of the night. “That does not look good…”
No, it does not River muttered