Family Matters (CC, Mature) - Chapter 88 - Completed - 01/10/2024

This is the place to post all your General Roswell fanfiction. Any Canon fics, which pick up directly from any episode of the show and that focus on Max/Liz, Michael/Maria, Isabel/Alex or Isabel/Jesse, Kyle/Tess, or all the couples together! Rule of Thumb: If Max healed Liz in the Crashdown in September 1999, then your fic belongs here. If it picks up from the show in any way, it belongs here.

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Superman86
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Re: Family Matters (CC, Mature) - Chapter 10 - 05/30/2023

Post by Superman86 »

totallizfan wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 2:00 pm Well that's quite the situation.
So Liz was with the special unit?
It's a bit confusing.
Hope Max finds out soon.
Similar thoughts, it's a bit confusing can't wait for more
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Parker1947
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Family Matters - Chapter 11 - 06/01/2023

Post by Parker1947 »

Liz knew full well the damage she had once done. And the position she had put her now former father-in-law in when she told him as much as she could at the time as she entered some kind of protection. Which was not witness protection because I did not witness anything except maybe an alien invasion of my life which left me eventually impregnated by an alien she thought. The tabloids should have sought me out because I would have kept them in business, she muttered to herself even though she would never in the million years tell her story. For fear of it hurting the man she loved. Still, she had entered some kind of special protection even though there was never a crime or a need to be protected except to make an agreement that she would leave her husband and be able to take her daughter as long as her husband and his family were protected.

Or more like it, left alone.

Any additional protection would cause waves and they would smell it, because they were those kinds of people. When something is going on, they will figure it out.

Eventually.

Unless it was their love lives…

And after all. She had left her husband and sentenced herself to eighteen years of self-hatred and a life under a bunch of aliases. Because she needed to save her husband from being caught. Because they had caught up to her and shown just how cruel and evil, they could be to her in their quest to get information out of her on her new family. Threatening her life, and as well as that of her new baby at home with her father, and of course Max. Using leverage, they had gained on her husband. Putting blame on him regarding Vermont, and threatening life in prison for the sudden death of Maris Wheeler, whose body was discovered on the grounds of her one-time boarding school.

While there was no proof of her husband’s guilt except, we know he did it but still, there were extenuating circumstances to why it was happening. It was not every day that the man you love dies, turns into ash, and gets taken over by a mad man, who likes the idea of being resurrected in a younger man’s body and whose wife wanted anything to save him, and was taking a shine to the fact she now had a younger and sexier version of her once too old husband.

She was a trophy wife once. Now, she was hanging onto the man before natural death called, and therefore when Max’s forced healing of her husband did not take and he fell into a pile of ash, and somehow his soul collided into that of Clayton Wheeler and therefore all bets were off in their quest to make sure Max who was fighting to come back did not take hold once more. And therefore, they sensed that it was Liz who was drawing the boy she loved back, and they had come after her.

It was an un-mitigating disaster. Max had sacrificed himself for her, and to save her life and some seriously shady stuff had gone down which meant that they could put Max behind bars if they caught up to him. And given her baby girl was just like her father, although they did not know for sure, so she could spin that they knew her daughter was very much like her mother, and any gifts given to her were too small to really be a threat.

She had lied because it was already evident of how special Claudia was…

She needed her daughter with her because she needed to protect her. They had a bond. Max was grown and could deal with it himself, but she did not want him to have to be forced to keep an eye on their daughter. Maybe it was selfish of her, yes, but she needed a reminder of the boy she had loved at fifteen and married at eighteen, and now would be divorced from at nineteen.

It had all gone terribly wrong. But she believed she was doing the right thing. The only thing she could have done. She had made the same sacrifice before, and she would stand by it because she believed she was doing it for the greater good. She did not know what she was starting though or how Alex would be taken from them because she had started a new timeline.

Still, she and Max had defied the odds and come back together, and they had been so certain that they were better for it, and stronger for it. We were, weren’t we? She asked herself now as real life snapped that glow off her face and forced her to make a sacrifice that Max would not have wanted to make because he would have wanted her and Claudia, and to fight. She did not have to look at the real world to know they would not have been accepted, all of what we had to offer. If it is bad now, it was a different time back then…

Saner but then she had upped the lunacy and walked away from it and led a different life these last eighteen years and it was one she never thought she would be open to her, and now she was back, and she was beginning to see what she had wrought all those years ago when she asked Phillip to keep an eye on his son, and not to tell him, why she was leaving.

Or why, he did not have a wife or a daughter for that matter.

So, she knew a lot of it was her fault, and she was thinking of only herself. As a result. She knew how much she deserved for Max to hate her and not to think that she had loved him, because she had told him as much, right? I told him that he was not enough, and that his life was not enough for me, and it was too dangerous.

“Liz, are you coming back to us?” Kyle Valenti asked as once again he noticed that his former girlfriend was in her own world of thought as they were finally downstairs for a change and having a look at the bones of the restaurant to see what Liz might want to change before she was to open it all up to paying customers. But she was indecisive as she was not sure, but they were finding despite the restaurant being closed and boarded up for more than a year, it still was in decent shape.

And he could work with this.

It would be good to have a project because so much has been in lockdown over the last year. With a town this small, it was noticed. There were small projects her and there with people forced to be home all the time. They were up for self-improvement projects or if they had moved, little projects but eventually the economy had taken a hit so there was only so much could be done, and therefore there were large periods of no work, and that is when his latest marriage decided to head into the crapper too much time at home together, he thought. Debbie decided the same and took up with some self-help guru and he was single once more. And with having to pay alimony to two ex-wives, thankfully, not three because Sue Ann had remarried relatively fast. Therefore, there was only the responsibility of paying support for Gillian and now Debbie, who was costly mistake there, it is a reminder to me never to marry again he muttered. Added to all this was child support, he was on the hook for Sue Ann to support Tripp.

But only until he turned eighteen.

Unless he went to university.

And he then would have to shift to help with his education. Not that his college fund will not help with that he thought. Still, he needed to work so he helped this job pan out. But he figured Liz would only need a refresher down here, because upstairs might be a bigger job if they had to figure out how to make a bedroom in there for JJ.

A boy whose arrival in his ex-girlfriend’s life was just as mysterious as it was to Max because he had not heard much from his former girlfriend in those first years after she vanished into thin air. Leaving a devastated husband who had come home broken hearted before many years later moving in with his parents when his mother became sick. And to keep an eye on his father when they had lost his father.

Isabel was remarried and had other responsibilities. And now everything was different, thanks to a life altering pandemic that had already taken so much from them, and it was not officially over yet, but life was slowly returning to normal.

He hoped it stuck.

“Liz,” Kyle asked again as he came back out of his own mind.

“Yes,” Liz murmured.

“It seems you were out there for a minute or two?” Kyle asked.

“Sorry,” Liz sighed as Claudia could only laugh as she had come down with Tripp, and they were supervising their parents. Tripp just wanted to spend time with Claudia. The teenager did not care that Tripp’s eyes were on her, because she wanted to laugh because her mother was famous for her spacy moment.

“What else is new,” Claudia muttered as she observed her grandparent’s old restaurant. It looked different to her, as things had swung back to Kyle and her mother.

“Maybe you should invite your parents back for a few days,” Kyle suggested. “Get Jeff’s suggestions on what should be done,” he asked. “I imagine you will want to keep down here much the same as we all remember it,” he asked, “A touch up here and there, maybe update the plumbing and things like that,” he thought at the memories of the restaurant back during those early days, when everything was out there to be experienced.

And none of them would know what would be out there for them.

Where would they stay? was what Claudia would think although she would say it. Even though her mother would have much of the same thoughts because the last thing they could do was fit two more people into the apartment.

“I am not sure that is wise,” Liz sighed. “Dad and Mom both want a clean break from this place,” she sighed because she knew that was why they had been warm to the idea of selling it so they would not worry about it, and to ask them to come back into the alien’s lair…

She did not know if that were wise.

She knew it was not, but it would be nice to see her father. After all, she had not seen her father since December when she left her daughter in her parent’s care, when she was not intending to make this switch in her life, and now months, here she was…

Back to her old haunt.

And she was looking at it through older eyes than the eighteen-year-old who had last seen it. She did not know that it would be the last time she would see it. But she left to be with Max, and we know how that ended.

She vanished under different alias’. A different life to keep out of the limelight, and it helped those early years when she was a single mother and student who went to classes wherever she was living. And she finally got her degree after she was permitted to go back to her old name, Liz Evans.

Do not judge me, Liz muttered to herself. That was the last name I was…

I was no longer Elizabeth Parker.

Until I was… As she would go back to maiden name eventually, and especially once JJ came into their life. Even though she would muddy the situation further by having Claudia keep the Evans name she was given at birth, it only seems appropriate. And given JJ goes by Parker, yeah, it is all very muddy.

As she thought of those months before the end came, and how even though her married name was Evans, it was not like we could use the name because we were living a different life, and technically we could not be Max and Liz anymore. But on our marriage certificate, our real names existed on the document, which is why they caught on to us, and eventually would figure where we were…

And I would lose my husband and my daughter would lose her father.

Because of me.


And she was living in that direction still today as she came back to Roswell and dealt with a new life she was leading, and what she was prepared to undertake. “No place for them to stay.”

“I can stay with Dad and Grandpa,” Claudia announced.

And immediately the scouting mission for Kyle turned on its nose.

No way in hell Liz muttered and almost said it out loud and wanted to bite her tongue. Or more like she did not want too but she had too. Shit, this is what you wrought Liz she sighed because it was now obvious that her daughter, Claudia Diane, had seen her father, and even Phillip.

What am I going to say to that?

Liz did not know.


*


Claudia was almost daring her mother to say something, and she knew it. She knew she took the whole energy out of the room with her statement. She also knew her mother should be fingering out what she wanted to with this place, and how to get it up and running again and their personal drama was making it hard to do such a thing, and she knew she did not make it easy by basically outing that she had seen both her biological father and grandfather. She also knew there was a reason why her mother did things the way she did.

She never understood why of course.

We are very different people. Claudia could not help but think that Mom seemed hardened by a life of serious knocks whether that came with life with her father or since and of course she did not know what it all meant.

She had read her mother’s journal. But there were a lot of blank pages, and missing details in what she had written at certain points, and therefore here was so much she did not know even though they had been on the road together, and you would think a growing child who knew early on that she was different from her friends wherever they were living would get a sense because it had just been her and mother until her little brother came into their lives.

And even though she and JJ were different. Which was apparent from day one.

JJ was normal.

While she, Claudia was different. She was also stronger, and she knew it. She was feisty and wanted to prove it and she did not where that came from because it was obvious from early on that her mother was the more cautious type, and maybe the road she was on had driven her mother to, but Claudia did not want to be the cautious type.

She wanted to prove herself, and she wanted to fight.

And therefore, it would often make sure she and her mother would clash because her mother had wanted to protect her, and Claudia had chaffed against such protection. The alias’ were bad enough and Mom still wanted to protect me even when we were back to our old names, and eventually Mom would take back her maiden name.

She always kept Evans once they were permitted to go back to her birth name, and it always did not make sense to her, or why she had a bodyguard until she did not anymore, and they were completely solo. It was always odd to her.

She wanted to go her own way. Walk her own path, which is why she picked Arizona over returning to Boston with her mother and brother.

She should be in the mountains with Archie because she could finish up the last of her credits anywhere. That reminds me, I have a paper I have to write she muttered to herself. But still, Arizona proved she could do it, because she was on on-line learning this school year, even as she was approaching graduation with unnerving suspicion because she knew she had to get out there in the world.

Why she did not use the backup she had in furthering her education. She did not know. She just did not feel the school structure after so much free time, why go into a school building when I have spent so much time out of it, and on-line but she also knew she needed to figure out what direction she wanted, unlike my mother who one time had a dream. I am directionless, she thought. Nothing appeals to me, right now, so the plan had to head towards Archie and the mountains in Colorado before her mother had sprung this latest surprise on her, in wanting to return to her hometown.

And take over her grandparents’ restaurant.

She was weary about why her mother wanted to return. When so much of her life had been running away from this place?

But her grandfather had jumped at the idea of his little girl talking over his other pride and joy. And Claudia decided on a lark to return, to spend at least the summer with her mother and brother.

Now she knew this town was about more.

She just did not know half of it.

And she was meaning to keep that that she had seen her biological father and grandfather from her mother, for fear of what her mother would say, but then she could help herself. “I thought you would like that,” she said with a smile as she saw how taken aback her mother was… She almost looks like she is frightened.

Maybe not frightened but scared that she would come to know her father.

But that why she would ultimately come back because she wanted to know more about the man who had helped create her, with her mother. So far, the image of her father did not seem to gel with why her mother would be scared to mix up with him again. Almost like she was scared to take the chance again.

Because it got screwed up the first time.

“Enough of this, I am going outside for some fresh air,” Claudia muttered and there was sense of relief in her mother, and so her daughter knew this was the right tact to take.

The drama continues Kyle thought as he also saw the relief in his friend that Claudia outburst had not escalated into anything more. “Tripp, why don’t you accompany Claudia outside?”

Claudia bristled at the request, despite finding out the cute guy’s name. Tripp, interesting. “I can handle myself. I do not need a chaperone,” she sighed. “I know this town already.”

“I am sure you do,” Kyle said softly. “But I am finishing this up with your mother, and Tripp probably does not need to be here for the nitty gritty of any discussion we have. Tripp, if you want to do something, check the messages on the company on your phone.”

Tripp did not particularly want to do that, but he took the option of going outside, and getting away from the drama that he had no inside information on. “Will do.”

“Whatever,” Claudia muttered as she stormed out of the creaky glass doors, and it was a reminder of what Liz would have to refresh here as she watched as her daughter and Kyle’s son step outside.

“Kids,” Kyle said with a laugh.

“Something they can say the darndest things,” Liz said with a mutter. “No matter what age they are,” she said with a smile to her long-time friend. Some tension was let out, and it was something she needed.

Kyle nodded. “So…”

“So,” Liz smiled as she did not know what she was going to do on a number of fronts as Kyle was looking at her with a mixture of sympathy and eagerness for this potential job. She did not hate him for it because of the little she had kept up on her hometown. She knew it had been hit by hard times. Which is why it had driven her eager parents away from this town because they could not handle the uncertainness that the pandemic had brought their town and their restaurant.

Because it was hard to make ends meet when no one was allowed to enter your doors for fear of an illness that did not discriminate even though there was rhyme or reason for who it chose to strike. Jeff and Nancy had taken the enforced closure and left for safer pastures. Intending to come back. But health and a genuine effort to retire had left them to decide to stay put because they were liking their life where they had settled. And knew trying to get this place up and running again post pandemic was going to be a nightmare.

So, why am doing it? Liz wondered, so she did not want to open any new wounds by seeking her father’s advice and even if she knew he would want to give it. Because he loved this place Liz knew but she also knew she needed to be an adult, and to make her own decisions. Which is why she did come, was it not?

As she looked outside and saw her daughter talking to Tripp. “The girl has a talent for the dramatics,” she muttered as she also said it out loud. “She is capable of so much,” she sighed as she wished her daughter was younger than she was, as she wished her daughter was someone she could control. She was able to handle it when her daughter was younger, as she wished for that time. When it was easier.

Was it ever easy?

Liz did not know but it was a hell of a lot simpler to get her daughter to do things her way.

Now Claudia had a mind of her own. “Thank you for coming over” she muttered as she came back to her new reality. “I do appreciate it,” she murmured. “I am usually way more prepared to handle everything than I have been showing today,” she sighed. “Everything is ganging up at once as I am trying to get used to coming back home.”

Home, she thought. There is that word again. Am I home?

“It really is no problem,” Kyle said with an encouraging smile. “Although I suggest that you might want to look around and figure things out before I come back?” he smiled. As he felt for his former girlfriend and knew had to be a shock to her system in coming back. Especially after being gone for so long. It was not like she has been only eighteen days. Kyle thought. It has been eighteen years and yes, nearly nineteen years is a long time.

Liz nodded. “Yes, because there are a lot of decisions on many fronts that I need to figure out. It is obvious that I cannot escape them much longer.”

Kyle nodded. I know the feeling; it is always hard to figure it out. “You have to know coming back would open the door to see him.

Him. Yes, him.

Max.

Liz’s ex-husband. Claudia’s birth father.

“Damn,” Liz muttered to herself. Why does everyone have to bring up my past “I guess I open myself up to those kinds of questions that everyone has for me” she muttered. “Of course, I know what I was opening myself up for…” she sighed. I just was not ready to deal with it even though I should have been.

Liz, what did you expect? she muttered to herself.

But how could she explain why she had to come back when she had no idea why she had to really come back? So, it was just so annoying.

It would be like she was being drawn back here, why, well, I have no idea.

Kyle could tell you though.

Max Evans. Because as with his sister. Isabel Evans. You would never be able to escape them. Even if Liz had given it a gallant effort by staying away for more than 18 years.

A lifetime.

Claudia’s lifetime and as if it was not kismet. Before either could end their conversation and for them to discuss a second date to meet and seriously discuss what Liz might want done. “In the meantime, I will scribble some ideas for upstairs. You do not want to mess with your old balcony, right?”

“Not on your life,” Liz thought. She might have issues with her old room. But to get rid of it.

No way.

Kyle did not have to know Liz’s answer to know it would be out of bounds for any changes.

Anyways, before they could discuss a date to meet. Out of the corner of Liz’s eye. She saw a shadow. An image that had been burned in her retina for nearly 20 years.

Max!

Damn it,
Liz thought. Can I not get a break?

For one second?

Kyle wanted to burst out laughing as he saw Max and Michael stop when they saw Claudia and Kyle’s son Tripp. Of course, this was going to happen. Because you cannot stop the drama from happening, not with Max and Liz in the same town for the first time in nearly nineteen years.

It was always destined to be something that would happen.

And it made Kyle want to sit back and watch because it is not about me
totallizfan
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Re: Family Matters (CC, Mature) - Chapter 11 - 06/01/2023

Post by totallizfan »

Well it seems like quite a few lives have had a lot of drama over the last 18 years.
Max's life seems to have less drama then the rest. Maybe that's about to change.
I hope eventually every one will want the band back together.
Kyle and Max might be having a conversation...re: Claudia and Tripp

Thanks for the update
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Parker1947
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Family Matters - Chapter 12 - 06/03/2023

Post by Parker1947 »

Outside,


Max and Michael had spent a while doing things that were normal. Too normal both would think as they were making sure Michael was able to stock up on all the things, he would need to make his new home complete. It was different to be back in Roswell after time on the road, and then in Nashville, which is a very musical town that had its own code, Michael would think as he was coming to appreciate that there was something calm about being Roswell. We operate using different wave lengths that Nashville would never imagine trying to copy.

And of course, he knew this town.

Or he once did, nearly two decades ago. A lot has changed. But one can say that about everywhere in this world he thought. No one is the same, and that goes for people too… Of course, Michael knew he did not always feel like that, because he knew I wanted to be off this planet for so long he thought. Then I got my fill on being outside of it, even though he and Maria would eventually manage to make a life and it was not always living out of a suitcase. We did manage that little picket fence. But it was the suitcase life at times, but as Lucy got older, one had to stay home, and it was often him. And I was fine with it.

Maria got to have her dreams Michael muttered. It was not like I was destined for anything he thought. I was simply happy to be out of jail, or even alive. After all, I did not even graduate, he thought. Although there were a lot of reasons why I did not. But it was not like I was going overboard in trying to graduate once his early attempts by the wayside, thanks Utah, he muttered but knew he could have done a better job but then it was about putting food on the table and keeping a roof over my head before I vanished from these parts, so he now looked at his return to Roswell with different eyes.

It was calm, he thought. Although there was still a lot that the public did not know. Despite our exit he thought.

It had died off, most did not believe much, and the government had tried to cover up what they were trying to do that day he thought.

Terminate four unarmed teenagers.

Okay, okay, we were armed in many other ways.


Not that many people knew it.

Only a select few did.

So, now that he was back. He had to get back into the swing of things, and with Max wanting to get out and not mind about having his ex-wife and daughter back in town, it led to a guy only mission to pick up supplies for the new house.

And it had largely worked. Because they had been kept busy. And they did not let the past or the now get in the way.

That was then, this was now, of course, because Michael had been the first one to see the warning sides of trouble when they stopped up the street from the Crashdown. Because they were planning lunch at one of the luncheon places that was open. Because there were not as many restaurants that were fully open yet. Like the Crashdown, they either closed doors or reverted to takeout to make ends meet. Therefore, they did not have eat in yet, except for a few that were able to open right up, and because Jeff and Nancy had not made the transition to take out or even food apps before the pandemic hit, they were at a loss to move quickly to embrace the new technology, which is why Jeff did not want to stick around and worry about it all, but there were places of course that were open to it.

And Max and Michael were planning to make do with a lesser quality burger. After all, for all the drama that would come out of the Crashdown on an almost daily basis back in the late 90’s, and the early months of the new millennium. The food was always first class, I should know Michael thought as he had manufactured some of it. Even though I did not like the job at the time.

But it kept the lights on, and cable on the television, mostly with the help of that other job Michael thought of in the apartment he was forced into when he went out on his own once things went south with Hank. And he was out on his own and having to handle dealing with his own life. There was so much that he had to handle once he was on his own. He would admit those days were often rocky, if you kept it to their daily lives as teenagers.

Often, you could not because they were so much more to them once that shooting occurred, and things started to change.

And now it was more than two decades from those shots ringing out, and so much had changed.

And here he was back in his hometown, a changed man and a happy one at that although his best friend had seen better times, so he knew it had to be difficult for his friend to eating somewhere other than the Crashdown. I am used to it.

But we do not have any other choice he thought as they were preparing to eat at a lesser place, although still delicious but only Max could attest to it. Because Michael was only a few days off being back in town, and not a formal resident yet. While Max was someone different.

He had lived his life here in town, since coming back to their hometown with heartbreak in his heart. But that all changed as they got out of the car, and he was locking it up when he looked down the street, not really looking at anything seriously until he spotted the no longer flashing lights of the spaceship above the Crashdown. A place now dormant, and he missed his former workplace not for the work, but for who he had met there, and all the drama that came from it. But he knew Max had a lot more memories attached to it, for many more reasons than he could attest too. But now he was seeing a brunette who he had not seen in over a year, not since she had been in Nashville.

Someone who was eerily looking like her mother, and her father Michael sighed. Because he knew how much her absence had cost his best friend.

Both her, and of course the girls’ mother.

Someone he had not seen since that visit in Nashville for his own daughter’s 16th birthday. A gathering that had been lots of fun for the party girl, but he also knew that he had been lucky to see his daughter grow to become sixteen, and now seventeen. While Max was different. He had missed all this, and now Claudia was even older, and his best friend had missed it all.

Except for three months.

Unfair, Michael thought now. Now he saw Claudia as she stood outside the dormant shell of the Crashdown, that was still closed for business.

But he knew the intention was to open it up again, and he wondered if Liz would be able to do it.

Claudia was standing outside the restaurant and talking to a young man, and it took a closer look for Michael to recognize who it was. Oh shit, Michael muttered.

And it was something Max heard even though he was in his own head because he was stewing on the difficult discussion with his father, and what I do not know he thought. Which might be a lot.

Which was true, but he did not know half of it.

And now he was called back into reality by his best friend, and he spotted what Michael was looking at, and he took his own look, and he stopped in his tracks and was almost paralyzed Oh Max, Michael would now say.

Max was too far out of it to respond.

Naturally Michael thought but did not blame his friend for the reaction because he would almost certainly have the same response if Maria had kept his child away from him, but that was something Maria had not done, he thought. I got to know Lucy from the day she was born through her formative years, to her current free spirit phase.

Very much like her mother.

And he loved every minute of his daughter’s life.

But now he had other pressing matters as the second in command was coming out in him, and Michael thought he should take control of this situation because he knew it could go many ways. “Max,” he would say again.

Finally drawn out of his trance, Max had to shake himself out of it. You saw her this morning. You can deal with this he thought as he saw his daughter, and now she was simply talking to Tripp Valenti. Born James Valenti, the third but given the name Tripp early on in his life. Because there were not many other ways to go with the name, since Jim was still alive, and Tripp according to our sister who was close friends with the boy’s father, did not seem like a James. And really, we all knew how Kyle and his father had a complicated relationship with the original James Valenti.

A former town Sheriff who went down a path that would echo his own son’s but fortunately Jim’s landing was a lot easier, even if it was complex in origin.

So, Tripp was
as if he was the son from Kyle’s first marriage.

Not that Michael knew him. But Max did, for obvious reasons because of what my sister has chosen for her life.

And he saw that it was Tripp who was talking to his daughter, and as he took a few extra steps. He saw that the teenage boy was smitten with his daughter. After all, Max knew what smitten looked like because he had spent so much of his life being smitten by one woman, and one woman only he thought.

Liz.

And now he was seeing a teenage boy acting like that with his daughter. And a reaction of I could care less from his little girl. A girl he did not know. Which would cause a strange sensation through him because he did not know what he should be feeling because he knew he had missed Claudia’s life. Everything but three months.

And now he was seeing his daughter in a different light.

One that was older. Who knew how to handle her own life? It was an odd sensation for Max to feel because he had been so absent from his daughter’s life.

She is 18 years old Max was forced to remind himself.

“Are you okay?” Michael wondered as he got through to his best friend.

“I am fine,” Max said softly. But he did not know if he was telling the truth. “Maybe I am, maybe I am not. I do not know what I am…”

“What do you want to do?” Michael asked.

“I have to speak up,” Max said softly. “I cannot walk away,” he sighed of the changes in his life. And what it would all mean, as he took some steps and walked towards his little girl. Who was now a big girl?

And Michael had no choice but to follow his friend and make sure this did not go badly, but then he got closer to the Crashdown and spotted Liz inside the restaurant. Well, he knew this was going to be a losing battle.

Yeah, this will not go well Michael thought. What else is new…

But Max did not care.


*


Claudia did not take the effort to kick her out of the Crashdown well. But she did not resist because she knew she could deal with it later, when she was alone with her mother. And really, she needed some fresh air so she took up on the effort to dismiss her, and so she and Tripp would leave the aging restaurant that needed to be remodeled if her mother was serious about bringing her grandparent’s old place back into shape. Although critically, she knew it did not need much but it probably needed to be brought up to the standards of 2021, because it was still very much back in in her parent’s time.

Parents, plural Claudia muttered to herself. After all, because most of her life was about growing up with only a single mother. The fact she knew her biological father was in this town, and she could see him at any time, well, it was still a shock to the system. She knew she should not be surprised, after all, she knew she was her parents’ hometown.

Not mine because I was born elsewhere.

That much I do know because she had seen her birth certificate, and knew she was born in small cove near the Mexican border, in California. She should be happy to know California was her birth state, but it was not one they stayed in, obviously we moved around she thought so it was only a place where I was born, and not a place where I do not know.

Like this one.

So much of her life had been about having a single mother. She did not know if she could think of having two parents, especially since she did not know her father. Could she handle having him part of her life. But then she did want to know him, right, because that she was the one who sought him out just that morning. She could have kept their relationship to one that was nonexistent, which was how it was before now, but she had gone there, and now she was curious about this town.

And she was standing in front of a place that had major ties to her family, and her parents, and could be their future.

If Mom’s sticks this time Claudia muttered. How can I be sure she will not wake up and want to move away? she asked herself. If it becomes too hard for her? But everyone else did not have my father in it, Claudia muttered to herself once more. Can he convince her to stay?

As stood outside, in the fresh air. She knew so much was different than where she thought her life was going a year before, when life turned upside down and changed itself forever. As she spotted the different ways everyone was coming out of the pandemic. Because not every store was open.

Tripp saw that Claudia was observing the new and controlled bustle of their main street. Yeah, everything was different he would tell himself. And I was born here and lived here all my life. But he knew this town was different than it was on the cusp of 2020.

Now, it’s 2021 and it is trying to get its sea legs up and running.

“This is probably new for you?” Tripp was asking because he did not know what to say to her. His dream girl.

He was still smarting from the breakup with his ex-girlfriend Rita. It was six months now, but it had still had him smarting but then Claudia had come to town. And even though he could not speak to her, or more like it, he did not know how to talk to someone who obviously had a different kind of life. She is not from around here, even if she has family here.

But they did not know each other.

But he hoped they would get used to each other.

“Somewhat,” Claudia muttered as she was reminded that she had a bodyguard of sorts she sighed. Tripp. As she did not know how to talk to Tripp either because they did not know each other. So, she was concentrating on the street traffic and hoped for her mother’s discussion would end and she could go back into the restaurant, and they would go upstairs and figure out where to go from here with her little brother JJ, and then she saw the two gentlemen looking at her. Uh, oh she muttered.

“What?” Tripp asked.

“This is what I do not need,” Claudia muttered. “Not at least, right now.”

“What?” Tripp asked, because he was obviously in the dark.

“Claudia,” came the second man as they came closer to the two teenagers. Obviously, not listening to Claudia’s inner pleas to walk away. Nope, they could not do that, could they?

“Uncle Michael,” Claudia murmured of the man who was married to her godmother. Even though they were not as close because of the distance that she and her mother were living for most of her life. Still, in the last decade, she had seen Lucy’s family more and more except for the last year when of course a crushing pandemic had gotten in the way, and it stopped everything in their tracks, and the ability to see old friends, so this weekend was the first time in over a year. While her biological father’s name was not mentioned when they would see the Guerin family. Still, she knew that Lucy’s father was the best friend of her biological father.

And she could see the ease that the two men were under right now, obviously they are close friends Claudia murmured to herself. It is just odd because I am looking at a man I do not know, “Dad?”

And now Tripp looked surprised. Obviously, he was not up on the full nature of the squad’s branches, and that Claudia somehow related to Mikyla’s uncle aka Kyla. Whoa Tripp would think now, “Max is Claudia’s father. That surprises me,” he would tell himself.

And probably it did because he knew Max Evans was the emphasis of being lonely. Because he had been single for many years, and he, Kyla and her sisters did not know most of what went down in the past with their parents. The elders of their clan kept quiet for a reason. Because with Liz and her daughter gone, and the trouble largely tamped down, it never made sense to open old wounds. After all, Michael, and Maria and later with Lucy would settle elsewhere. And his father was in and out of his many marriages. And Kyla’s mother would remarry her father, although we know the truth of her parentage, but Neil Anderson was a good father to his stepdaughter, and treated her like his own daughter, and therefore early on Kyla would take the name Anderson even though adoption never occurred, but it would when he and his wife would adopt Kyla’s younger sisters Poppy and Katy because they were orphaned due to a fire.

And put in the system. And Isabel, a short-lived resident of the system swooped in with her husband and quickly adopted the infants, and they would join Kyla’s family.

And now he was seeing that he was Claudia’s father. Really? he wanted to say but did not want to be considered clueless.

“Claudia,” Max said softly.

“We did not expect to see you,” Michael murmured. “We were planning on lunch up the street…”

“I hope we can count on your business when Mom gets this place up and running?” Claudia said with ease. If that even happens, she murmured to herself but did not say it, and Michael smiled. And Max was mystified by it all. The fact that his daughter was back in town, and his ex-wife was back, and the fact that Liz was planning on taking over the Crashdown.

And not just live above it. “Is that the plan?” Max asked, because of the things he had asked or considered asking. He never imagined that it would involve his ex-wife taking back her father’s restaurant.

“If you ask Mom, it is,” Claudia muttered. “And why she quit her job and moved JJ and me here,” she sighed. Although I have to acknowledge that it was my choice to come back here…

Max did not know what to say.

Michael felt for his best friend. It was going to be hard to deal with it, as everything was new for everyone involved in their little story.

Max was not sure what to say, and he was almost ready to say something when he took a simple look around and found his eyes going through the glass of the door that his daughter had just come out of, and he stopped and found someone that captivated his eye. And it had been that way since they were in third grade together.

And Liz would not have known Max’s name. But Max knew her name. And how cute she was in that playground, when she was playing with her friends, and especially Maria. And he would keep his eye on her throughout their lives as they would grow up, and co-exist in the same grades, or as partners when they were in high school together, and the same science classes. That is when it all changed for her.

That is when Liz had noticed him. Just like he had noticed her.

Of course, it had taken a simple shooting to change everything for them. Although we would learn that it was not a simple shooting at all. Because it would become a lot more confusing, and a lot more painful as we got away from it.

When he saved Liz’s life.

After all, he could not let her die.


And it was something he did not regret. Not even after she would destroy him by walking away from him and ending their short-lived marriage. Max would never regret that he had loved her, or that he saved her life. Because of what she had provided him. Even if it had been suspenseful and stressful for several years, and it had only ended in pain for him.

When she walked away from, and taken their daughter with her, and now she was back. And was older than that tiny baby she had seen, and then of course he had his eyes trail and found Liz in the Crashdown talking to of all people Kyle Valenti.

Kyle, someone who had been in their very beginning. Someone who was his competition even if that competition ended early. But there was a part of him that would be jealous. Even though Kyle obviously had moved on, and had other girlfriends, and marriages and was a feature in my own sister’s life he thought. In eyes that Isabel has not yet recognized.

And as soon as his eyes reached Liz, it would seem like her eyes found his.

And they stared.

And Kyle could only laugh inside, and Michael knew that feeling on the outside of those doors. Unreal Michael thought.

Claudia did not know what to feel because there was so much, she did not know. You can read about it. But it is another thing to see it.

She remembered feeling the same the day before when all of this started, when they set their eyes on each other and she had seen it and now she was seeing it again, and she did not know how to feel about it. If Mom cannot keep her eyes off my father. Why did she leave him?

It was a question that was unknowable except for two people.

Certainly, Liz’s daughter did not know.


*

Everything seemed to stop. No one knew what to do next. Would Max and Liz be able to finally talk to each other. It was anyone’s guess. Michael knew lunch was now forgotten, because nothing would be able to stop his friend Max, and hunger pains seemed meaningless to any other pain his friend had experienced before. And especially now that his friend had a new chance to actually eye his ex-wife once more. What else is new.

Claudia and Tripp were now trapped outside, unsure of what was going to happen next. Although for the couple’s daughter, this was more of an issue than Tripp who could only look on with awe at the drama unfolding while his father was inside having to deal with it from a place that involved way too much of the inner drama of it all.

Still though while it was decided what would come next. Nearby, Isabel who did not know what was happening with her brother, or her two brothers. Although she would not be shocked to know it had to do with her unknown niece, or her former sister-in-law because after all, one would assume that one of these days, her brother would find himself making sure that he saw his former wife. Talking to her might be another story Isabel smiled to herself, although she was not sure if she could smile because she wanted her brother to be happy.

But still, she knew none of this. Isabel needed some retail therapy after an unfortunate conversation with her father, which had left her with too many unanswered questions and of course her brother, but her father bothered her, still. Because on a normal day, she wished her father would clean up his act and come back to the land of the living. But now she did not know what her father was dealing with, or what she wanted the future to be. So, instead of dealing with her father, and getting those questions she had answered. Well, she decided to do a little shopping.

With her daughters away. Kyla was not due back for a week, after she had gotten accepted into an rare and exclusive exchange that opened up for international students despite a pandemic that was swirling, but Kyla wanted to do it, and she would be safe in a bubble of sorts with the other students, and Isabel had said yes, because it had been a rough year since the loss of her father, well, the twins would be back a few days later after spending time with their paternal grandparents Daisy and Frank Anderson who lived in Maine. And with their son dead. They still wanted to be a part of Poppy and Katy’s life, and Isabel wanted to allow them. She knew it was important for the girls to have grandparents. And especially since the girls had not been able to see their grandparents since before the pandemic. Daisy and Frank had not been able to come to the small funeral held because travel was locked down. Therefore, Isabel felt now that life was starting to resume to allow the twins to go and spend time with their grandparents. Kyla would have gone with her sisters if not for the opportunity to study overseas.

She would be back. Of course, Isabel knew that Kyla’s life was a little more complicated because her mother was not had acknowledged who her biological father was, because of an agreement between the parties. Isabel did not want Kyle forced to take responsibility for a child she had wanted, and he only helped out with its conception as a friend. Not even the old fashion way, Especially, once he started getting involved in his marriages.

Neither was doing anything about it. Although Isabel suspected both Kyla and Kyle’s son Tripp knew what was going on. You cannot keep a secret in our clan.

So, it was a very bad secret. An open one at that. But Kyla and Tripp did not make it an issue. Isabel knew her eldest daughter saw Jim. But it was not a grandparent relationship. Still, Jim spoiled Kyla on occasion. And helped his biological granddaughter financially with her trip. So, Isabel knew everyone knew about it.

But she had not wanted to deal with it. Especially after losing Neil the way, she did. And it had taken most of the last year to deal with the loss because she had loved Neil in her own way. It had not been the young love she had for Jesse. But it was strong. And she had raised three great children with him.

They had a great marriage. Even if the passion had dwindled a little by the end, she was content and would have been happy if Neil had not gotten sick.

And had not wanted Max’s help.

Because Isabel had wisely not headed into another marriage with such a secret between herself and her betrothed. She had told Neil. Like Jesse, there was discomfort with the knowledge. But Neil had come around and wanted to marry her anyways, and while he was never 100% comfortable with it, still he loved both Isabel and her daughter Mikyla and wanted to be a family with them.

And Isabel and her daughter would feel accepted by Neil and his family. Although Isabel’s in-laws would not know the truth, because that would be taking the secret a little far. And there did not seem to be a pressing need for the Anderson’s to know the truth. Poppy and Katy were normal. And Kyla had her quirks, but she did not want her Anderson grandparents to know because she could see how much knowledge brought to people. Thankfully Neil had accepted it, but they were not sure how accepting his parents would be.

Why try?

Although with Kyla growing up. Who knows what the future will hold? But it was not a worry for Isabel today as she sought retail therapy to get her mind off some normal worries, her own family ones. That did not have to do with how special she or her daughter were.

So, she was in a nearby boutique, checking out the fashions when spotted Maria and Lucy on the sidewalk. Happy to know that her brother Michael was in town. She felt life calming down. She only wished it would calm down for her brother, and that Max could be happy.

She stopped her browsing and walked out of the boutique. “Hey, strangers” she said to her friend Maria. “And boy, Lucy, you have grown up so much since last I saw you.”

“Hey, Aunt Isabel” Lucy Guerin smiled as she saw the friendly face of her honorary aunt, and godmother. “It’s been a while,” she sighed because she knew the last time, she had been here in town was the summer before her sixteenth birthday because of how much the pandemic had refused her to do anything the previous summer. So, it had been two years since she had been back in town visiting her grandparents and was able to see her aunt Isabel because her mother had been touring, and her father had gone with her.

For a change.

Lucy had come here to Roswell.

Truly her mother’s daughter Isabel commented. I have seen that pixie cut she thought as she remembered a time where she had not known Maria formerly Deluca well. Because Maria had her quirks, but she worked and played with her best friend Liz and did not mix well with the life that Isabel had been living at the time. But somehow Maria had come into her mix, and it was mainly because of what her brother had done on that September day.

Save Liz Parker.

She and Michael were miffed because they could see things changing, and it was never good to have their very lives changing before their eyes. But somehow Michael had fallen for that blonde pixie that their daughter was now modeling. “That haircut.”

“Don’t you love it?” Lucy asked with a smile, and Maria could only grin as she exchanged a knowing laugh with Isabel because they both remembered Maria’s own time with that pixie cut, as she started to attract Michael during that time even though it would be a hard journey of three years before they would make a commitment.

The only people who had a harder go were her brother and Liz.

Only for Liz to walk away in the end.

Shocking them all.

“It’s an original one alright, although I think your mother tried it out back in high school,” Isabel sighed.

Lucy waved it off.

“I am glad you two are back,” Isabel said with a smile, and knew it was the truth because she needed some friendly faces in this town. Because who knows what is coming our way.

And my brother’s way.

And what did my father have to do with it?
So, Isabel could use some friendly faces in their lives as she got a text, and she looked down. “Oh great,” she muttered out loud.

“What is it?” Maria asked, as she stood next to her daughter.


*


“Are you going to actually speak to him?” Kyle was wondering as he was still in the Crashdown and beside his former girlfriend who was still in a state of paralysis, of course she is as she had not moved an inch. Nor had Max so they were both in sync in that regard. They always had this need to be in sync, but then the worst would happen, and all hell would break out. “Maybe it is time you two talk,” he suggested because the one thing he knew was that they had probably not spoken. “You are back here now, aren’t you and it is not like Max is a part-time visitor, because he lives here in town” he murmured. “Somehow, you will be seeing him often,” he sighed. “Especially if you do get this place up and running?”

Liz nodded. After all, that is the plan, right? But she had to be honest with herself. She had not really thought about the reality of getting this place up and running. I should have she was telling herself as Kyle once more saw his former girlfriend was in her own head and thinking of something other than his question to her. “Liz?”

Liz sighed, as she looked around and while the restaurant had held up remarkably well in the year that it had been closed, and boarded up, but there was definite updating that would need to be done to get it up and ship shape for this decade. She knew her father loved the place, but he had kept the maintenance to a minimum because he had not wanted to shut down the place for how long a total refitting would take place. And really, he had not needed too because business was brisk, and the restaurant withstand the many years since she was a waitress here. Initially not jumping on the opportunity, even as her father had made plans to sell but over time, she had made such a drastic decision even though fortunately by staying in one place. She had gotten the opportunity to rise in her chosen profession.

As a researcher and a scientist…

But the last year had burnt her out because of the demand to know what was going on in this world, with an out-of-control virus that was taking over the world. And she had been early on drafted to help with living and breathing patients, and that had escalated her burn out and once it became apparent that her son was not taking well to on-line schooling. It only increased the dual demand.

And finally, she finally had an enough and the thought had come to make this move. But she had not seriously thought about what it would entail, although thankfully the downstairs. The main part of the restaurant would not need much, but still enough had to be done before she seriously got around to opening it up. And when she did that, how she was going to deal with running it, well, that was still a mystery to her.

What she knew she did not need was to see her ex-husband wherever she looked. She knew she was in a dicey situation coming back to this town, knowing the little she did know, that her ex-husband was back in this town, and had not left it.

She did not count on feeling like she was out of control whenever she saw him, and now he was outside she thought. “Why do I deserve this?”

“You do not,” Kyle said with a smile. “But unfortunately, that is life. I have to deal with my ex-wife Sue Ann due to Tripp, but thankfully the other two have moved on except they get something out of my bank account each month,” he muttered. “But I have made peace with it, but I am sure being away from it, has gotten you out of the habit?”

“Yes, it did” Liz sighed. “I know what I have done to him…”

“At the end of the day, we grow up and have to deal with it” Kyle sighed. “We are all grownups now and have to deal with all the decisions we have chosen to make, both good and those that are bad.”

Liz nodded.

“So, are you going to talk to him?” Kyle asked.

“I almost have too, don’t I?” Liz muttered. “It would be easier if he had moved out of town or something and I did not have to deal with him…”

“Unfortunately, that is not to be” Kyle sighed. “Although I am sure there are some days where Max would have liked to have lived out of town, away from all the headaches of being here in town provides but nope, he has sticked it, out and has had to deal with his father on a daily basis as a result.”

Phillip Liz sighed. Knowing full well how much pressure she had put on her former father-in-law to handle the weight of what she had told him, and they had not seen each other at all during these years except for the odd picture she would send of Claudia as she grew up. Also knowing full well that she should be providing it to the child’s father, not the grandfather. But she could not bear having Max know where they were… That is not the deal I made, she muttered to herself. And a deal she had to uphold unless she wanted to unleash havoc back here in town.

It had helped with Michael and Maria had moved to Tennessee, but she knew as well as anyone that these people can find you anywhere and could have found Michael and Maria she thought. After all, Maria’s career had been on the upswing once they went to their old identities. She used her maiden name for her musical career which allowed for some anonymity.

Very few federal authorities were looking for a country singer musician and her mysterious housemaker of a husband.

Of course, they would not know the deal that Liz had made, or the sacrifice she had made for her husband, but also her best friend’s husband. Only one person knew some of the details, and that man only knew certain details.

Liz had kept it to a minimum.

She knew it was to protect her father-in-law, and while she knew that eventually Max could come back to this town. Liz had left it at that and closed off all channels except those occasional drops to Phillip.

She did know what had happened to Diane, and she felt guilty once she did learn. After the funeral, and after the dust had calm down. She did not know what she would have done if she had known before, could I have come back and allowed Max to be a part of Claudia’s life earlier than now? she muttered to herself.

She did not know, and therefore, she knew she should be feeling guilty. And all Liz could do was nod as if she knew more than she did about her ex-husband’s life. Maria had told her a little, because that is how I wanted it and therefore she had kept it to a minimum and now her ex-husband was standing outside of the restaurant she was in, talking to their daughter.

And all the angsty feelings were boiling in her, “I heard what happened to Diane.”

“Cancer is evil,” Kyle muttered.

“Yes, it is” Liz sighed. Thanking that her parents were still relatively happy and healthy. No one should lose a parent to something that senseless, and while she and Diane were never close because of the circumstance. She knew how much her ex-husband had loved his mother even though relations had grown rocky there for a while, back when Liz had hope that she and Max could make it.

I would learn I was wrong Liz sighed. Even though she knew she was the reason they did not work out. And therefore, she had never come to terms with Diane, and she doubted if her former mother-in-law had seen her before her death, she would have had something to say for breaking her son’s heart Liz thought because she knew how close Diane was to her son, and it hurt to know how distant she was from Max.

Because we had to run, and then I went and broke her son’s heart. Liz thought. Diane had every right to hate me.

Although Liz did not know or could not know what Diane had felt because she did not give her the chance to know her granddaughter, or the true circumstances of what had gone down back then. Therefore, Kyle also did not know any of it. As he felt sympathy for his former girlfriend. “Max moved in with his parents before Diane’s health took a real downturn. And he stayed when things went the way they did,” Kyle sighed. “And things have been rocky between him and his father ever since.”

“Why?” Liz asked softly.

“Because Phillip has gone down the rabbit hole more than once, and Max feels its duty to be there for him, even though things are touchy between them.”

“Couldn’t Isabel have been some help,” Liz said as she did feel guilty of the pressure she had put on Phillip, and she had no idea whether his rough go was because of the burden she had put him under, and of course the cruel nature of his wife’s death.

It was a bit of both.

Only Liz could have sense of this, and even then, she did not really know because she had kept herself walled off from Roswell.

“Isabel was married and was raising her children and therefore she could only be so much help,” Kyle sighed as remembered how helpless Isabel had felt back then when she took the consolation of raising her children and having Neil to love because she could not help her mother. “And because Max was single, he had the ability to be there for his parents.”

“Because I left him, you mean” Liz asked.

Wincing Kyle sighed, “I did not say that” he sighed even though there was some truth to it. Max was single because of the divorce he sighed. Max could have moved on and found someone new. But he never did, so he became the option to help out at the family home he sighed. “All I meant was he had the availability, and he had the ability.”

Liz nodded and once more looked out and saw the eyes of her former husband and wondered how she was going to handle whatever came next.


*


Max had to be thinking that too because he was out on the sidewalk knowing he was in paradise instead of pandemic fueled shell shock of a main street that was located in his hometown. So much was different, but he was a haze because he was talking to his daughter, someone of course he did not know.

Michael could only smile if he wanted too even though he was not going to smile because all he knew that he was trying to keep things calm because he did not know how this situation would go and especially since his best friend was exchanging looks through the doors of his former workplace.

No one knew how this would work out.

Which is everything you need to know about Max and Liz. Michael sighed. You never knew how it would end up.

Neither did they and then he and the ones who were outside heard the door open, and the creakiness of the glass door once more moved and the uncertainty that Claudia was under, and she did not know how to approach this. It was so much easier when we did not have to worry about any of this she thought. But she was still here when she could have gone anywhere but here.

And she noticed her mother coming through the door along with Kyle, who nodded at Max and Michael. Liz who came out with him, because she knew she could no longer stay behind the glass windows, and a shell of a restaurant. She needed to face her now and figure out where she went now. “Max,” she said for the first time in a long time.

“Hello Liz,” Max said.
totallizfan
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Re: Family Matters (CC, Mature) - Chapter 12 - 06/03/2023

Post by totallizfan »

Relationships....hope things work out.
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Parker1947
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Family Matters - Chapter 13 - 06/05/2023

Post by Parker1947 »

It had led to this, did it not? Because Max and Liz were standing stood staring at each other. And as it was often with them, they had felt like they had been transported into their own little world. Where no one in the outside world could interrupt. And therefore, Michael, Kyle, and Claudia and Tripp could only watch and not know what it really meant for this to be taking place. Of course, Michael knew. Because his best friend had been living for this day for eighteen years. While mixing in the belief that this day would not happen after eighteen years, who would believe in it and being forced to feel the conflicted feelings as a result.

And yet it had come to this.

And Claudia could not know half of what was going on in her mother’s head although Kyle could understand some of it. But so much had not been told to two, and especially the woman’s oldest daughter. Someone who had been on the ride of these last eighteen years with her, and still she did not know what really rested in her mother’s mind because so much had been kept quiet, out of protection Liz moaned.

It was an odd life and Kyle certainly knew it. Because of course, so much had started on that day in September 1999. And he would not begin to know it for months to come, until his own experience that would shake his core. But unlike Liz. Kyle had never changed. He was the same person he always was, and he was not looking for anything different in life he thought except a happy marriage, but Kyle had worried there a minute because his one-time girlfriend had changed. He had asked himself, whether he would do the same.

But no, I did not.

Because it became apparent as time went on, for some reason Liz was different from him. I stayed the same, except for the knowledge of a different way of being. And that it was not all black or white. There were different shades of grey. Kyle thought. People of all different kinds resided in their world. And there were a few who quite unique. Knowing fully that if his late grandfather had known what his son and grandson would learn. James Valenti, Sr. would have a different viewpoint than what Jim and Kyle would come too, many years later when they would come into some unique insight.

But Kyle was happy to still be the same person who he always was. But he knew he was different in one respect. And that was because I know we are not in this alone, and he could not stay married because he had fallen for one of them back in high school and as a result has been forcing himself into relationships he knew would eventually fail, because he could never have the one, he had wanted.

Because she did not see me Kyle thought.

Isabel was a wonderful woman, and mother, and he was happy to have helped her become a mother for the first time, and maybe we will always be destined for a friendship but sill it meant he has to give up the notion of marrying, if I am not going to be happy.

He could not keep giving Tripp such a wanderlust look at love. Because Kyle also knew he would never have the feelings that he could see being exhibited between Max and Liz as they stood staring at each other. No one could feel the intensity that Max and Liz had for each other Kyle thought. Those three years were one for the books.

He had lost the girl to the alien. But he could plainly over two decades later, he would never be what Liz wanted.

Because even though she would not get what she wanted. She clearly loved only one man he murmured. Of course, I do not know what happened these last eighteen years, and off on that road, but still…

He knew whatever Liz might have found out there wherever she was living. Would it pale forever because of one boy she met at fifteen, or she had known him forever before that, but really got to know at fifteen Kyle thought.

And Kyle did it did not make him feel good to know he was so lost in love, so he had to get out of here so that Max and Liz could finally talk to each other because they had been simply eying each other, too speechless to even utter a word except one’s name. As Kyle did not want to feel like he was interrupting. “Okay, you two, we might as well give them some privacy.”

“I better go up and see my little brother,” Claudia muttered knowing JJ was feeling like the lost one in the scenario because this town was so much about my mother, and me, and he barely feels like he has a presence.

JJ darted through Liz’s thoughts, as she tried to figure out how not to speak to her ex-husband because there is so much to say, but she knew she could not say what he would want to hear her say, and she did not have to courage to break the false life she had led him to believe all these years. I should be stronger than this she told herself. I fought for this life she thought.

I fought to get free of the restrictions that guided our life, so therefore, I was free, and we were free Liz thought. So, she needed to be more than a lovesick thirty-six-year-old who was looking at the one who got away.

The one I threw away. Liz muttered to herself. The one I trampled on and walked away when so much could have been different. “It should not be Claudia dealing with her brother, it should me,” she told herself and yet she did not move a step, and neither did Max as he could not move. Because that would mean he would be leaving the woman he loved.

The woman he wished her could have been married too, all these years. Yes, sure, he was disappointed, and hurt, and sometimes angry, and that feeling remained to this day, but the love had never vanished even in those moments where he was in the midst of all the angst. Because after all, he had experienced it once before, but of course, never to the degree of the last eighteen years but still, I love her.

That will never be in doubt.

And that never will change.


“I guess, I better take a small walk” Claudia muttered because like Kyle she did not want to deal with it, and texting her brother, she found that he was watching a movie. And because it felt as if his sister had been watching her own movie.

Claudia needed an out.

Kyle started walking, Tripp went after him. Because he knew he had too, although he wanted to stay where Claudia was…

And then Kyle stopped when he saw the one his own heart desired walking towards him. Not that she knew it.

While Max and Liz stayed and kept staring at each other.


*


Isabel, Maria, and Lucy were walking down the street when Lucy caught sight of Claudia and rushed down the street, with Isabel and Maria only chuckling because Isabel had gotten the SOS from Kyle about the drama going down at the once bustling Crashdown. Now Isabel sighed as she got a look at Kyle as he and his son walked up the street. Maria knew Michael had gone off, because he and chosen to stay and wait for his best friend to stop his staring without anything to go with it, but Maria and Kyle were in the area.

“You left love central?” Maria quipped as she spotted her stepbrother head their way, and while her daughter had rushed off to see Claudia who had stopped when she spotted her friend. Now it was just the adults as Tripp had left his father, and wandered off, looking for something for his father, for an upcoming job. And he had already had enough of dealing with stuff that did not involve her.

Jim and Amy had been married for over a decade now, after a lot of push and pull to the point that their kids never thought they would make it through, but finally, when all hope was lost, they had figured it all out, and had gotten married in a spur of a moment ceremony and they have made it work ever since.

Bringing Kyle and Maria together into the family. As family.

And therefore, they had become closer friends than they ever were during high school, even after Liz, Maria and eventually Kyle would come into an alien conspiracy like no other but given Maria had never been a full-on supporter of her best friend’s high school relationship with Kyle, and in fact was supporter of a very different romance for her childhood buddy. Eventually, Kyle and Liz would fall by the wayside because of his foolish ways and attitudes. Although their friendship would become stronger.

“You would if you had seen it too,” Kyle murmured right back to his stepsister even though he could not help but sneak a look at Isabel, a look that Isabel was of course oblivious to it, but Maria caught it and it smiled. Hopeless she thought.

If Max and Liz are bad, then this is just pathetic she thought. Because it does not have to be like this, she muttered to herself. “It cannot be that bad,” she sighed as she saw the smile come across on both Kyle and Isabel’s face.

As she spotted her daughter and Claudia talking. She sighed. “I will see for myself,” she sighed as she walked away. So fast that it made Kyle and Isabel’s head spin.

Whoa there Kyle thought. Why so fast? he muttered as he was left alone with Isabel.

Unsure of how to approach this. Everything had changed between in the last year since Neil passed away, Neil was our buffer. Kyle thought now. I could pine from afar knowing it would never lead to anything.

Which is why I made so many mistakes marriage wise he thought. Because I did not make the move soon enough. But knowing Isabel and Neil were happy, it led him so happiness to know she was safe and sound. Same with Kyla.

They were well taking care of.

Everything changed a little over a year before when Neil died in a hit and run. Senseless and sudden.

Suddenly Isabel was alone, and she was raising her daughters alone. Which made Kyle pitch in to help, here and there, and probably why things went south with Debbie, and why she hooked up with the self-help guru he thought. Because Debbie had not known the secret between him and Isabel.

No one knew.

Except if you did not consider it the worst kept secret in the family, because everyone knew he thought. But it was not something he and Isabel were willing to admit too, but it had forced him to step in and help with especially Kyla since she was the eldest. And of course, three kids were a lot.

And here I thought having one kid was enough?

But Isabel had triple the drama to have to deal with, so he had helped some, which got Kyla thinking and apparently thinking whatever everyone knew. But no one wanted to acknowledge. Only Debbie had not known, which is why once Neil had passed away. She did not understand his willingness to help with Isabel.

Things went downhill from there Kyle thought, “What were you up too?” he asked of the mother of the child he could not claim. A daughter who called another man Dad, even though that man was now dead. “Before you got drafted into helping your brother?”

“I was just curious,” Isabel murmured.

“I know you are, but Max and Liz can handle their own life, we are all adults now, aren’t we?” Kyle wondered. Even if sometimes we think of ourselves as those teenagers.

“I know, but I know how much it took Max to stay out of that rabbit hole when he lost Liz and Claudia in the first place, and I almost lost him, and I am lucky that we got him to stay sane, and I do not want any of this to go badly for him.” Isabel sighed. “His discussion with my father has him stirred up already, and I do not know what kind of mind he will be in, to deal with Liz. And Liz already hurt my brother once, and I do not want her to repeat that…”

It was hard to be on Liz’s side given what happened back then, and I do not know what exactly happened Kyle thought. None of us do, because all we know is she got up one day and nuked her marriage, and basically told him that he was too much for her and taken his child away from him, for eighteen years.

So, he understood Isabel’s position. “Your brother is a big boy.”

“I know he is,” Isabel sighed. “I just know how much of a time he has with my father, and he has to bear it all on him, because I have only been able to do so much” she sighed because of her own responsibilities.

Kyle nodded. “What is going on with your father?”

“What else,” Isabel sighed as they stood and talked, “He’s still dealing with losing Mom, and it can be rough on a good day,” she muttered. And there have been rarely good days she knew and especially when she knew that her brother had taken much of the brunt of the fallout, unfortunately she sighed. “Dad and Max do not have the easiest of relationships, and now somehow our father has decided to awaken the memories, and inner angst that my brother is feeling because of went on back when he lost his wife and daughter and therefore, my brother is starting to wonder...”

“Wonder what?” Kyle asked as they looked down the street as Claudia and Lucy had rushed off, and Maria had been diverted into a store.

And thereby being diverted from seeing what was going on with Max and Liz…

“Why Liz left in the first place,” Isabel sighed. A question that had long baffled us. “Why would she walk out on her marriage, and why did my brother lose the best thing in his life?”

Is there an answer to something like that Kyle muttered, and why would Phillip know it, when we don’t? “Why would your father know anything about the demise of that marriage?” Kyle asked. “It is not like your brother and Liz were even living here in town when everything went south,” he asked. I am the only one who was back here, because Max and Liz were living in that little cove town in California.

“Yeah, I know, which is why he has my brother stirred up,” Isabel sighed. And Dad is not talking she sighed. Despite my efforts and she thought of her brother. “And when he’s stirred up, who knows what he is liable to do?”


*

Meanwhile,


Max and Liz were still in a stare down outside the restaurant. Neither talking nor leaving. While their daughter had taken the end run around going past them and entering her room through the easy way. Choosing to show Lucy her new bedroom. They headed back to the restaurant, but went through the back way, via the rickety ladder that was on the edge of the back, that would take them up to the balcony.

And now they stood on top of the balcony, looking out on main street. Not as bustling as it was in her parent’s day. But definitely seem the bust that myth she had about small towns, that they are sleepy and backward, and nothing of any interest will happenbecause the town did seem alive. Even if it was still shell shocked after coming a life altering year. And now the two teenage girls were up on the balcony, observing all.

This is so cool Lucy giggled. “I wish my new room could have its own balcony.”

“I think your parents would have something to say about that,” Claudia said with a smile as she was beginning to see the wisdom of having more than a simple view outside a bedroom window. She had a whole new scenery she could spy on, very different from the bedroom I had back in Boston she thought.

She had never had this much freedom.

“And your mother does not care?” Lucy as she looked around. It still seemed to blast to know that this was going to Claudia’s new home, should she stick around she thought because she knew that her friend wanted to head off towards Colorado and Archie, but was here, for now according to Claudia. “This place is awesome,” she thought.

“Mom does not want the memories,” Claudia thought, “This used to be her bedroom, back you know when she and…”

“Your Dad?” Lucy asked. Claudia’s mysterious father was interesting to her because she never knew that her Uncle Max was Claudia’s father. Sure, she did not know her father’s best friend all that well because he never visited Nashville, but on occasion her father would come back to this town, and she would come back with her parents, although often if she came back, it was to see her grandparents. “When you know…”

“Yes, unfortunately” Claudia muttered.

“It must be a sugar rush to know he’s here, and you can see him if you want too,” Lucy asked. Because it was unfamiliar territory because she had grown up all her life with her father in her life, and at home. And even taking care of her when her mother was on tour and she was school age, and it became inappropriate to always withdraw her, that would happen, but eventually they would get a visit from the truancy officer Lucy smiled like that ever happened, but the fear of it kept me at home some of the time.

And dear old Dad was the primary care giver. So, she did not know what it meant to be without a father. She always knew her best friend Claudia had a wanderlust life. Always on the road. Even when she settled in New York State and then Boston, still, her friend had a different kind of a life.

That involved only her mother and her baby brother who joined the family ten years before. She never knew Claudia’s father. Nor did her friend talk to her when they visited, of course last time was party time in Nashville because she was turning 16. Little did I know, that would be the last celebration I would be having…

“It’s a rush alright,” Claudia muttered as they looked out. “I am still getting my bearings.”

“I would not know how I would be feeling if it was me,” Lucy admitted.

“Luckily, you don’t have to face it” Claudia murmured. “You got to know your father. You never had to deal with the unanswered questions because your mother did not want to talk about it and kept her old life a whole mystery until she ups and decides to return to your hometown. Knowing the odds that my birth father would be, and knowing that I do not know the man, and she expects me to handle it.”

“You could have joined Archie you know,” Lucy smiled of Olivia’s hot boyfriend.

“I know it,” Claudia sighed. “Still, it is a lot to deal with, and I don’t know what it all means because what I do know is that something is off, and I don’t know what it all means.”

“What do you mean, about off?” Lucy asked.

“It just feels like there is more I don’t know,” Claudia sighed as they looked down and she spotted her parents, acting like teenagers. Not moving an inch since they had climbed up here, simply perfect. Grow up you guys she muttered.

Lucy felt for her friend. She might be into the grand drama of it, but to have to live it, had got to be a nightmare.

“At least you are here,” Lucy murmured.

“Yeah, I am here, alright” Claudia muttered. “Let’s go in, because Mom is being a teenager and refuses to come in,” she sighed because she did not know what it would mean for her parents to actually behave like adults, and talk.

Lucy laughed, because she felt it was funny. But Claudia knew it was not funny because it was too serious. Too many ramifications existed if it ended up seriously off track, please don’t screw this up you guys’ Claudia sighed as she and Lucy climbed through the window, and once more Lucy thought her friend lucked out. As they climbed into the bedroom and looked around.

“This is all so cool,” Lucy thought.

“Yeah, it’s cool aright” Claudia sighed.


*


As downstairs, and outside, Romeo and Juliet for a new generation. Or maybe not if you really got down to the grittiness and the truth of it, but still they were of a bygone era that was nowhere even close to being what we are currently in, as Max and Liz continued to stare at each other, even though both knew they had to break this impasse because seriously this was getting pathetic. And it was not even their daughter who was thinking of it, or Maria who came out of the stare, and only sighed and walked away, wisely taking the cues from Kyle and Isabel who did not even attempt to approach, as they had ducked into a restaurant for some coffee and some discussion with each other. Maria texted her daughter to meet her at home, and took a detour, so she did not have to deal with the display in front of the Crashdown.

It is for Liz to deal with.

And for me to clean up in the aftermath Maria thought to herself as she vanished from the scene.

Max and Liz of course knew they were being watched. And that it was time to make a move, someone has to make a move she thought, in so many ways she mused. “This is probably enough,” Liz sighed as she finally voiced something to her ex-husband. They had not really said anything to each other since they first saw each other more than twenty-four hours now, and now it was not day one. It was a new day.

What kind of a day was it, they did not know, but it definitely different from the one they had existed. “I think I should leave,” Max said softly. Because he was unsure of why he was even still here because of the past, so, why am I doing this to myself?

But he knew the truth. He knew why he was doing this to himself because it was…

Liz.

And no matter what we did to each other. She is the only one for me.


Liz nodded. Because she also did not know why she put herself through this. She left this man for a reason, and she knew she broke his heart and treated him abominable, because if only I told him the truth of why I had to leave.

Max would never have let me leave. And I did one better, I took his child. But for some reason, she could not walk away. Not this time. Which made it strange for her because she had found it so easy to leave before, why stay now?

But she knew she had to get out off the street. Because she knew eyes were watching them, and she did not want to attract to much scrutiny, for natural reasons she thought even though she had been in the free and the clear for nearly a decade now, but still, you did not know what was going to happen if the wrong person found out where you are…

She knew she was poking the hornet’s nest by coming back to Roswell. Even though the danger had long vanished, still, who knows what would happen if people found out she was back in Roswell. She had taken the risk in coming back. Assuming they would not care. And she was older and knowing she could handle her own life. And plus, her child was older and wiser, and knew more than when she was a tiny baby, who was defenseless.

Claudia could handle herself.

And she has shown in it in the past, her mother knew.

But still there was a risk. But the world was a different place now, we are trying to come out of a life changing pandemic she muttered so maybe the danger is looking elsewhere. But she knew they were tempting the worst, by all gathering in the same place after nearly two decades of living in different places.

And now she was looking at the man she walked away from and wondered why she had done it. Why could she not have told him the truth. But she knew she wanted to protect him and wanted to make the sacrifice for the greater good because I knew how much danger he was put in when he saved my life.

She never knew if it was worth it, and she knew she would have been a shrink’s dream patient. But that was never going to happen.

She never could talk to someone about her unique life. And the fact her daughter was a product of that life. Still, she was looking at Max, and wondered what would have happened if she had just told him, we might have been able to be together…

Liz do not think that. You did what you did to protect him, and you should allow him to be angry, and to walk away. Which means, do not engage… she was trying to tell herself, but she could not walk away.

She still knew they needed safety, somewhere to talk without the prying eyes watching them. Wondering what was going on with them.

Have you not ever seen someone you used to be married too, after so many years of separation Liz wanted to say, but did not, “Do you want to talk inside?”

“Really?” Max asked, almost in the state of disbelief She wants to continue to talk.

“Unless you need to get going?” Liz wondered.

“Of course not, I do not have much to do” Max said. “I had penciled time to you know help Michael with his errands for the new house. Nothing really was on my schedule, besides sticking around at home” he sighed. And the last thing I want to do is do that because it means I have to go home and deal with whatever my father knows that he will not tell me.

Or not deal was more like it.

Liz nodded as she turned, and opened the glass door, and she walked in, away from the bustling of the lunch crowd. As she knew back in the day, the traffic often would come in through these doors, but not today because it had been closed for business for over a year now, and it was a different atmosphere to walk in, and not hear the noise that you often found in her father’s establishment.

She was so fond of hearing the noise of customers, and the clanking of the dishes. It is not happening now… she thought as they walked into the closed down restaurant, and it was a reminder that this was what he was intending to do, was to come back and rebuild, or to at least open it back up.

So, that it could serve the public once more. But she also knew how unsuited she was to the role. You can be a teenage waitress, but to actually run it. Sure, I was manager when Dad and Mom were gone, but still…

Now all the decisions would fall on her.

“Claudia mentioned the plan is to open this back up?” Max asked as he was looking for something to talk to his former wife about, without going into the darkness that resided in their past. Or about our child, who I can just ask myself. Because she’s eighteen.

And I missed all those eighteen years, minus about three months of it, Max murmured to himself as he tried to shake those thoughts out of his head. It is weird to talking to my ex-wife Max admitted to himself, but I will always take it over the alternative. Something I was getting too used to over these years.

“That was the plan,” Liz murmured. As she knew it was odd for them to be talking to each other now that the glass door was closed behind them, and they were standing in the belly of the old restaurant. “Dad wanted to sell, but there were no takers.”

“The last fourteen, fifteen months has taken a big toll on the economy as a hold,” Max said softly. Eventually, it would have sold, but to not anyone we would have preferred “Your father had told me he was planning on selling it, and of course the for-sale sign was a dead giveaway…”

Oh, I know, this last year has been hell Liz murmured to herself as she nodded as she looked around the restaurant. So, much was a showcase of an era that was no longer with them, and how it was one that was long past them and forced them to make choices they would either agree with or regret as the years passed and now, she was back and looking and remembering everything that went down in here all those years ago.

Looking up at the alien pictures on the wall, she remembered when Max could make those words literally change into loving ones…

Max saw her looking at the faded paint on the walls, but still pretty vibrant for being two decades later he thought. But he did not say anything because he did not know what to say to the love of his life, and the woman he was married for such a memorable year.

Liz dragged herself back to the present, and away from the past. “I know from where I was in Boston. Restaurants closed up, and they did not always reopen.”

Max shook his head, “And you want to open this one back up,” he asked as it was a reminder, Boston he thought. That is where she was, he thought.

Obviously, his father had not told him, which was an off-course Phillip would not. So, he was taking that tidbit with some interest.

“Honestly, I have no idea what I am planning on doing” Liz sighed. “I came back without a sincere plan on what I wanted to do, which is always trouble for me, I know…” she sighed, and Max nodded because they both knew that Liz operated best on a plan, and when things went haywire, all bets are off.

Which goes for me too Max thought. Life is better under a plan. But then eighteen years ago, my life’s plan went out the window, and I have been winging it ever since he muttered to himself as he had been forced to navigate life’s demands solo, and without a plan because who knows what would happen if he were to develop a plan, because it went off the cliff last time.

“You were talking to Kyle?” Max asked.

At one time he might have been jealous, but he knew enough to know when Kyle was not juggling ill-fated marriages. He is smitten over my sister he thought because everyone could see it, except of course Isabel he muttered to himself. So, at one time he might have jealous if he had seen Kyle talking to Liz. That was a time he thought of those early years.

But we are older, and things went the way they did Max thought. I do not deserve to be jealous anymore.

“Trying to think of plans you know for upstairs, because it is pretty small” Liz murmured. “And maybe down here, but my head was not into it, so we tabled it for today, but something is going to have to happen because JJ deserves space.”

Max nodded, knowing everyone deserved their own space. “I hope you figure out what you want do with this place because it would have been a shame to lose it.”

Liz nodded, “Which is why I came back and took it off Dad’s shoulders, because I did not want to see it fall into the hands of some developer or someone who would not see what good this place has done,” she sighed because saving it meant she now to do something with it, and she was at a loss to try to figure what to do with it “Although as I said, I do not know what I am going to do with it.”

Max smiled. “I would guess that you do have the time to figure it out,” Max sighed because once more he was reminded that this was very weird for him to be in a closed down and dust ridden Crashdown, and talking to his former wife about everything other than what he really wanted to know, which was naturally, why did you leave me?

I need the diversion he thought.

“Time,” Liz said. “That is what I do have I guess,” Liz sighed because from the expression on her former husband’s face, she could tell a lot more was on mine than this silly small talk that was going in every direction than where it should be going.

Where that was, she had no idea.

“I am glad you do have it,” Max murmured as he glanced at the woman who held so much of his life. “Time, I mean.” he sighed. “We all do things for a reason don’t we?”

“That we do,” Liz sighed. Unsure of why she was doing this. Staying down here and talking to her ex-husband when all it was doing was bringing memories back to her, and she did not necessarily want to be reminded of those memories. Especially when she should have moved on from them, I have, haven’t I?

And then from there suddenly was a backfire of an engine outside on the street, and suddenly a memory of a long time ago resurfaced…

As she flinched…

“Are you okay?” Max asked as he grew concerned at the change in his former’s wife’s expression…

Liz did not respond.

“Liz,” Max asked more softly because he did not want to trigger anything in his former wife, because she was someone he cared so much for, despite the time and distance between them. “Liz,” he asked once more as he touched her arm, and she did not flinch when she reacted, as she fell against him.

For no good reason, except she was Liz, and he was Max.

And there was always an explicable bond between the two of them.

“Liz?” Max asked.
totallizfan
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Re: Family Matters (CC, Mature) - Chapter 13 - 06/05/2023

Post by totallizfan »

Tangled...emotions...relationships...secrets
Sometimes if you just pull one string...the tangle disappears.
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Parker1947
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Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:34 pm

Family Matters - Chapter 14 - 06/08/2023

Post by Parker1947 »

Liz did not know why the backfire of the engine got to her, because it has been so long since that day, she thought that started it all. She supposed it was a reminder of a time that did not have anything to do with this town, she thought. Not everything that happened to me involves this place she thought. Although for the longest time, this was the most memorable time in my life she thought. Unfortunately, I have had nearly two decades away from this place. “Max, it’s fine” she said as she saw the concern on her former husband’s face. That concern once got her heart fluttering.

She supposed it still did, but for a different reason. She was older, and yet he still got to her, and I still allow him to get to me when I am the one who left him. But this was not about the infatuation she was feeling over her former husband. There was no reason for an engine backfiring to remind her of that September day. Even though it did have a tinge sound of a gunshot, and she could hear it ring out inside her head. And the falling to the floor in the kitchen, and how Max had come racing to save the day. But it was not the memory of that day here in the Crashdown that was troubling her, no she muttered to herself.

It was something else.

Although that day back when it all began for her and Max was a memory that she would never be able to forget, but there was so much good that had come from that bad day. Even though it had ended up to their determent, “I am fine,” she said once more to her former husband. “You do not have to worry about me Max because it was just a sound that startled me or something” she said as she wanted to dismiss it.

She needed to dismiss it.

“Are you sure?” Max asked, unsure because he knew there was so much, he did not know about his ex-wife. We are two very different people today.

Nothing is the same as we knew it once upon a time. Liz tried smiling to assure her former husband that all was well, but she did not believe it herself so how could she tell the man she once was married too, “Everything is fine,” she said softly. And almost believed it. It has been years.

But the engine misfiring made thoughts come to her head, and especially since she knew she was walking a very thin line in coming back to this town. She had been burnt out in her previous life. She needed a change. She needed something to make sense. Because nothing this past year had made sense, and she did not do well when everything was going against her because she needed life to be going along as planned.

Of course, once upon a time that had been her life. A life that was going out of control with regularly. And what do I have to show for it.

A divorce decree that was signed and finalized.

And that was because of her, the fact she walked away from this man who was showing so much concern to her, and it was making her feel like a teenager again. After the year she had, she needed life to make sense again. Because so much these last ten years had started to stabilize, but there was those eight years she thought before she got her control back, her semblance to able to control her destiny.

“I think it’s just being back here,” Liz said dismissing the concern on Max’s face. “It has gotten me out of sorts. I am not used to this town…”

Max nodded, unsure whether his ex-wife was telling him the truth but there was so much prodding he could do because I do not have that right anymore, because he had the signed divorce papers back at him home, and a signed divorce decree saying we are not married anymore and have not been since his father convinced him that Liz was not coming home to him.

“I guess that is understandable,” Max said. “A lot has changed this last year but there are always the things that surprise us,” he said with a smile, and it got his former wife to smile too, thank you he whispered to himself. She always had a beautiful smile.

A smile that captivated him from the very start. Even before he really knew it. The sight of her smiling in the restaurant, at everyone but me he thought even though he got a few of those smiles when she would bring his orders, while Michael or Isabel grumbled opposite him because of his insistence of coming in here for lunch, or just to spoil our dinners. He had gotten a few of those smiles directed at him, and then everything changed he told himself. Max do not do this to yourself, Max muttered to himself. You are only opening yourself to disappointment he muttered. Did you not tell your father you would not hold any hope?

His phone rang, and he ignored it, but it got him thinking that this was probably going on too long, although he would want it to go on for infinity he thought. But someone has to end this, “I guess I better get going,” he said softly even though he knew he did not have any place to go, but still, this was a lot even though they both knew that they had not really talked about anything of importance to themselves, or the fact they shared a daughter, and therefore they might have signed divorce papers, but they would always be linked.

For life.

Because of Claudia. But small talk is a start, the rest can come later he thought. Because hopefully, there will be a later…

Right?

“I better be going,” he repeated as if he wanted to force himself to leave, and while he did not, still he did know that he had to leave because it was not good for his mental health to keep this going because it was only going to lead to disappointment. “But I am glad you are back.”

“It’s good to be back,” Liz said with a smile.

It was a smile that Max almost believed, because they both knew there was a lot behind that smile, and they had not really talked about what it all meant for her to be back. And what Max wanted, I do not know what I want he muttered to himself. “I almost believed that” he said with a laugh, and that got his former wife to smile, and laugh a little. “But I will leave you to go back to whatever you were planning on doing,” he said with a sigh.

What was that Liz muttered to herself, because so much was different today than what was her goals, as they saw the door swing open and JJ came through? and stop when he saw his mother and Claudia’s father, Max.

“Oh,” JJ Parker muttered as he saw that his mother was taking with someone. A man he did not know. “Claudia said that you were down here…”

“JJ,” Liz sighed. As she had to wonder if her daughter had sent her little brother down here to bust the fantasy she was under, and the bubble they were in. Because after all JJ was a reminder that she was no longer the eighteen-year-old bride anymore, nope, because she was more, and she had to get back to making plans for their settling in this place. Figuring out how to make it all possible.

“Yes,” 10-year-old JJ murmured as it still shocked him to see his mother with a guy. Any guy really, because he knew his mother had not dated that I know of since I came in the picture he sighed. And Claudia had made rogue comments that even before he had come into the family, that their mother had been on a solo mission. So, to see her mother talking to some man, it was an eye-opening experience for the ten-year-old.

“This is an old friend,” Liz said softly as she knew it was only appropriate to introduce her former husband to her son. Still, she was taken back by the choice of words, ones Max was finding amusing she muttered to herself. Old friend wow Liz, that is a whopper of major proportions she sighed to herself and knew her son did not believe it. “Anyways, this is Max Evans…”

“We met yesterday,” JJ said. “But I did not know his name. He is Claudia’s father, right?” as he was willing to take the pretense of his mother covering for it. It is not like it matters to me, right? he sighed to himself. “You are the reason Claudia has the last name, Evans?”

“Right, I am” Max said softly because it was a reminder that he and his former wife was linked, and it was an easy-going history between them, and it was complicated.

Nasty even. Because of the many undercurrents that were currently swirling below them.

Liz could only sign because this was not what she wanted, “Max, this is my son. Jeffrey James Parker, we call him JJ.”

A name I knew but not from Liz, Max thought but it was a name he knew it was name that meant something to Liz. “JJ, nice to meet you” Max said, and he meant it because he was happy that his former wife had been able to move on, right, tell that to someone who will buy it he thought as he knew from his daughter that her brother was adopted. Which meant there was a story there, one that I do not know, and do I even have a right to ask.

But it was a reminder that she had moved on, while I stayed here and eventually had to deal with Dad…

“Mr. Evans,” JJ murmured politely.

“You can call me Max, because even though we are not related. We are family,” Max said as a reminder to his former wife that yes, we are family, he thought. That is how we will stay, regardless of whatever goes on with us, and Liz should not think of her as the only one in this story anymore.

He intended to know his daughter.

Assuming Claudia wanted to know her father. Because he hoped her storming into his house that morning meant that she was open to the possibility. But it was a reminder that they were over, and he needed to remember that “I have to go. Liz, another time.”

Liz nodded, “JJ, let us go upstairs, because there is more unpacking to do…” and coming up with a plan that gives you a bedroom she thought.

I do not know what to do with this place, but I have to figure out what to do with upstairs.

JJ nodded; this is interesting he thought. Maybe there will be some use for this town after all he thought. Because he knew he was the reason his mother had upped and changed their family dynamics once more. Quit her job and was talking about opening this place. My doctor of a mother is going to be a restaurant owner, that is fun the inquisitive ten-year-old muttered. And knew I am old for my age.

Living with my mother and sister has taught me a lot.

“Goodbye Liz,” Max said softly as he got ready to turn around but watched as his former wife take her son’s hand and walk off, and he was startled because he could see that she had a very noticeable limp. A limp that had not been there before, or so he thought he had seen because he would have to acknowledge that he had been in a haze for nearly twenty-four hours, and there was so much he had not seen.

That was right under his nose. “Liz,” Max enquired.

“What is it?” Liz asked as she stopped and turned around and spotted the concern look on her former husband’s face. “Is there a problem?”

“Are you okay?” Max asked softly.

“Me,” Liz asked softly. As if she had no idea why he was asking this, and of course she did not because the limp to her had become almost second nature, and she would not have noticed it, and she did not think it was that noticeable. “I am fine.”

“The limp, I noticed you limping?” Max asked.

“Oh,” Liz said with a wince because yes, it would be noticeable to the outsider she told herself. And yes, Max is an outsider who did not know what went on back then… “It is fine, it’s nothing. An old injury, and some days it aggravates more than other days” she said simply as she walked off, but JJ was more slowly as he turned around and spotted Max and did not know that Max had a healing ability.

“Mom has had that for as long as I have been alive,” JJ muttered. “Claudia said it was something that happened when she was a baby, but Mom refuses to talk about it.”

Whoa Max said. She did not have that limp when I last saw her, right? he was forced to ask himself, right?

Wrong.

Not that he was in any condition to have noticed it before…

But now he had, so what did it mean?



*


As a result, Max was almost in a daze when he practically stumbled onto the street, and literally bumped into his sister who was carrying some bags after coming a nearby restaurant after exchanging some lunch with Kyle. They had not really talked about anything. Just small chat, and her plans for the day. She knew she was playing with fire. But she could not help herself. She did not want to start anything that messes with a good friendship. She and Kyle at one time had made a deal, and with Kyle just coming out of a bad end to a marriage, it was better to be friends or that was what she was telling herself, so once and Kyle went their way as Kyle had to get back to the office and check in on Tripp. Isabel had more shopping she planned to do, but she was mumbling to herself and so she was not watching where she was going, “Watch it,” she would mutter but she would look up, and saw that it was her brother, “Oh, Max.”

Isabel’s voice brought him back to reality, as he saw his sister trying to pick herself up from the ground and her bags, “Oh, Isabel” he muttered. “Sorry, I was not watching where I was going.”

“I could say that as well,” Isabel smiled. “You finally broke up your little session,” she said of the fact that because her father was not exactly paying attention to where he was going, not that I cannot claim the same thing, but I do not have an ex-husband she muttered.

I do of course, but Jesse and I are long over. And I just have a Kyle. Someone she did not know how to classify, and he would not to be able to classify it himself. But she and her former husband stayed friends, and they sometimes communicated but Jesse had moved on, eventually moving to Washington to try his hand in politics, and he would remarry have several children.

But she knew her brother had a bit more intense history with his former wife, and any interaction would cause him to react. “Are you okay?”

“I am fine,” Max sighed as he quickly came back to earth as he helped pick up the bags and hand them to his sister. “Shopping therapy I take it,” she said of her sister’s quest sometimes to use her credit card to try to alleviate the stress in her life, and since Mikyla came into her life. Isabel had been able to be a stay-at-home mother because her marriages allowed her a growing nest egg, and now unfortunately with Neil’s passing. His estate came to his wife, and would late be passed onto the girls, so Isabel had not had a need to work. She wanted to be home with the kids, and she had not felt the need to establish a business. Although she had been talking now that the girls were getting older of getting into the working force, but he was not sure if she wanted too or not.

“I felt like I needed it after dealing with Dad,” Isabel murmured. That man and his code of silence. “Sometimes I do not know why you are able to handle it, and you live there, and I do not anymore…”

“I don’t deal with it,” Max said with a smile. I run whenever I have the chance. “Seriously though Is, I am fine. Dad is who he is, and I have long dealt with who he is, although he sometimes does get to me. And about Liz, yes, we talked, and it went well enough, and I am happy that she is back, and it is not the end of the world” he murmured as he glanced back through the doors that he had just left. “I will be fine.”

“Will you though?” Isabel muttered as she saw her brother’s eyes trailing back through the doors, that revealed an empty room. Of course, she is not there, Isabel muttered. What is my brother thinking? Because it still amazed her that after fourteen months of inactivity that the Crashdown was starting to burst open once more. After spending so much time in the restaurant and spending so much money Max had not really gone into the restaurant these past eighteen years since he returned to Roswell. He did not want the memories Isabel knew. But she did know that Jeff had drafted him into protecting the place once he and Nancy shut it down and moved to Arizona or wherever they were because Isabel had never had a close relationship with the Parkers.

My brother was the one, not me Isabel sighed. As she worried that on top of having himself stirred up morning, noon, and night by their father, then having Liz Parker back in town will be even worse she muttered. As Kyle says, my brother is a big boy. “Max,” Isabel sighed.

“Isabel don’t, okay?” Max said. “I am fine, I promise.”

“I hope so,” Isabel sighed. “

“Concentrate on your own life,” Max advised.

“My life is going fine,” Isabel muttered as she did not like having her meddling ways revisited by her own brother, and turned back against her, it’s not fun she thought of the concern coming from her brother. “It’s been a year since Neil.”

“I know,” Max sighed as it was not fun to experience loss, and at least my sister is an honorable look at how to move on because Dad and I just wallowed in it.

Although I am a better example of it than Dad Max muttered to himself as he almost congratulated himself for not falling into the hole their father had fallen into, “I am happy that you and the girls are doing so well,”

“We all are finding our own way,” Isabel sighed. “It is never easy, but it is becoming manageable,” she sighed. “I want you to be happy.”

“I am happy Is,” Max said as they began to walk down the street, away from the place that was so memorable for him, as it was a way to get away from it, and so that it could be out of his mind, like that is possible he muttered. “We all have our different ways, and I have not been crying out for anything.”

“Yes, you have” Isabel muttered at the blatant lie from her brother, “But I know you had to figure out some way of moving on, so that it did not eat you alive like we have seen Mom’s loss affecting Dad.”

“I am trying,” Max sighed. “So, you do not have to worry about me sis” he muttered as they stopped in front of his sister’s car, “Can you give me a drive home, because Michael was the one who drove me, and you know…”

“You got sidetracked by your ex-wife?” Isabel murmured.

“Claudia too,” Max sighed,

And Isabel certainly knew the situation was a hard one for her brother, and she wished it was better for him, “Sure, why not, I have nothing better to do.” she said with a smile as she loaded her packages into the car, and they both got into the car, and soon the car was moving forward, and away from Liz…


*


Upstairs, Liz tried to get Max out of her mind and a bit out of her heart as Claudia was still visiting with Lucy who was now helping her friend unpack and set up her bedroom. Choosing this over heading home and doing the same thing for her own new bedroom. Liz took this as a good thing that her daughter mind would be elsewhere, and she had her own things to do as she got her son set up, and they figured out a way to make this living situation bearable for the ten-year-old.

“Mom, that man?” 10-year-old JJ asked as he looked at his mother, who was ever the busy worker. Trying to get them unpacked, and for the apartment semi normal. And he had to help, which meant no time for television. I have already had enough of that he thought as his mother and sister were busy all morning.

Now, he was in his new apartment and figuring out the lay of the land. And how it mattered to his mother and big sister. A family he had come out into because his mother had rescued him from a bad situation. Abused and abandoned and only a few months old when he was discovered and transferred to the hospital. His now mother found him in the ICU for children, when she was finishing up her studies.

And she would adopt him, and he would join her and his new big sister who was thrilled to have a little brother, despite their obvious age difference. Claudia and JJ were close, but of course my sister is getting older, and he did not know what this town would bring, and whether Claudia would stick around in the long run, since she has Archie waiting for her.

Or university, wherever she chose. It was weird to have an older sister almost out of the house, but he was getting used to it. “That man…”

Max, Liz thought. “An old friend.”

“Friend, really?” JJ asked. “He’s Claudia’s father, so, why was she not a part of his life?” he asked. Sure, he was only ten years old but knew the ways of the world, and he knew broken families from his time in Boston because that is where they had been living after his arrival into the family at the tail end of his mother and sister adventure in New York. He knew he had an unusual family. Aware from an early age that he was adopted, and that his mother was a single mother. There was no father around. And he had an older sister who was nearly a decade older than him, but she had a father, but he was not in the picture it was easy to see. His mother and Claudia never wanted to talk about it.

Bad memories, he wondered but Claudia had let it slip that her parents had split right after she was born, obviously he thought. But she never wanted to talk about, and the three of them managed their own little family as he grew up, and it became second nature to know he had a single mother, no father, and an older sister.

Then the last year happened, and he saw his mother getting burnt out. While his sister excelled once transported into online schooling, the social aspect was a little different. But he was different. On-line learning is not for me he thought. He grew restless the longer he spent in front of the computer screen, given my love for computer games, you would think I would be a natural. But because their mother was working long hours, brought on by the need of the hospitals to use her services to give help to their most critically sick patients, both sick with the virus and those with ordinary maladies but made worse by lockdowns, and lack of services.

So, his older sister was in charge of his schooling as well as hers, along with the odd babysitter that they could manage to find, that could deal with his mother’s hours. So, finally his mother got burnt out and it did not help that his sister had chosen to stay with their grandparents in Arizona. Therefore, it was all on his mother, and she grew frustrated and finally it all snapped. And here we are…

And what a town it was. JJ thought.A little smaller than we are used too. Although he did not know of his mother and big sister’s life before he came into the situation back in New York. But it definitely, was not this kind of town he thought. The sands on the outskirts of town mystified him, and the desert heat when you think it should be colder than what it was.

It was already a bizarre town You do not every day live above a restaurant, a closed one as it might be JJ muttered. But a cool one, he thought. “Mom,” he asked in an exaggerated motion because his mother was not answering his question, even though he knew the answer, or thought he did.

Oh, JJ Liz thought. A subject she did not want to really to be discussing. Not with her daughter, who was Max’s daughter, nor with her son. Someone who had come into her life just as she was getting out of a nightmare, of my own making.

“It’s complicated,” Liz sighed. Extremely complicated she thought as I am the reason Claudia did not have a relationship with her father. And that was because I screwed it up, royally she thought. I made it seem like he would be a bad father.

When the opposite would have been true. I know he would have been an awesome father, because she still remembered those three months before she cut him off at the knees and left him in the lurch.

“Mom,” JJ sighed. “You are spacing out again,” he muttered. It was not unexpected, but something he had not seen as regularly because he would have not known what it would have meant and to him, his mother was full of her other responsibilities before they left their old home. But since she’s been back, and it has only been less than twenty-four hours he told himself in his ten-year-old sense of the situation.

“Sorry,” Liz sighed as she quickly came back to the situation because she knew she had too. “It does not involve you,” she sighed. “It involves your sister.”

“I know,” JJ muttered. “Just seems odd because the way he was looking at you, does not show me that he was a bad man…”

“Max was never a bad man,” Liz sighed. Only for a tiny bit, he was and that was because of a true mad man had taken over his core she thought. But he came through that and came back to me.

And I ended up leaving him.

He sacrificed his life for me, and how do I repay him,
Liz thought. I take his child away from him.

“Fine, you are not going to tell me anything” JJ muttered. “All I want is to know about this town you know, because it’s going to be my home, right?”

“Right,” Liz thought. “We are not leaving.”

“But you left it in the first place,” JJ asked. “Why?”

Questions, stupid questions Liz muttered. My son is full of them she thought. Suddenly, she muttered to herself. He did not care before. Why now?”

Because I came back to this town she muttered. “It’s complicated.”

“You like the word complicated, don’t you?” JJ remarked as he only shook his head and walked away and went to join his sister in her bedroom. “When am I going to get myself my room?”

Yeah, when Liz thought. As she did not know what to say to her son. She knew this apartment was too small for them, but it was their life and she had to make it work because there was no other alternative. She could not run the restaurant and live elsewhere, right? she told herself. Dad and Mom made it work, therefore, I can too…

Anyways, JJ vanished into the back room, and Liz sighed because she knew she had to figure out how to make it work. So, she went to the phone intending to call Kyle to schedule another planning session, because she knew she had to get serious. She could not doddle. My new life is counting on it.

But she saw the message waiting, and she sighed. Knowing it could be any number of people. Her old life knew this number, and she wondered if it was her parents calling to check in. She had called them the day before when they finally arrived, and her father had been thrilled that she had made it there.

Which is why she did not want to rock the boat and go with Kyle’s suggestion and get advice from her parents, because they had moved on, and this is my life now she thought as she quickly checked the voice mail message and all she could frown because she knew the voice. A voice she had not talked to in eighteen years, but it was a voice she knew well because it had gotten her out of serious trouble, but it also reminds me of his son.

Yes, Phillip Evans, and she heard the vagueness in his words and knew he knew she was back, and what it meant, and the load she had left on his shoulders all those years ago, you know who it is, call me back, as soon as possible.

Yeah, I know who it is she thought. But she did not want to call him back, and no one was going to force her too.

As she quickly got herself distracted by calling Kyle and scheduling another meeting for the weekend, and then she got back to unpacking. Leaving calling her former father-in-law for another time.

“Mom,” came JJ from Claudia’s room.

“Coming,” Liz said and quickly went to deal with whatever she needed to deal with, knowing Phillip could wait for another day.

But could he?


*


Phillip did not think so, and he stood annoyed that Liz was not responding to his call, however vague he had left it. Sighing, he knew he had to deal with this, because the longer it went on, well, the more questions his son was going to have. And maybe my daughter he thought. He knew his son would be home anytime now because he was never gone. And it was after all, Roswell, and the town was small.

He knew his son was miffed and had a reason to be. Most people would not be as considerate to their former wife if she had done what Liz had done to his son. So, why am I advocating for her? But still, it was a sad situation all together, and Phillip hated it, and he did not know how to handle it. And both Max and Isabel did not want to have to deal with their father, so they had stopped on the way to the house, to see Michael’s new place.

A place Max had seen but Isabel had not, and it was a diversion from heading home and dealing with their father and Isabel did not have anything on her schedule, as her kids were still gone. Anyways, Phillip remained annoyed that his former daughter in law was not calling him back, come on Liz, we have to talk.

I need to know how to look at my son with a straight face he thought. Because he knew I have not been able to manage thus far he thought.

And that weighed on him because of how much his son had done for him, and for his mother when she was dying, and now they lived in this house together, and it was hard to look at him when he knew so much.

And did not know so much too…

Going for another drink, and he knew he should be better for this and clean himself up because he had to be respectable if his granddaughter chose to have a relationship with his son, which was something he did want because he had cost father and daughter a chance to know each other because I took her mother’s side and did not do a good job at convincing her not to destroy my son.

Nor did I tell my son where they were. Phillip muttered. I might not have known everywhere they had stayed, but I knew enough, and especially when Liz did send me updates every blue moon…

Of course, she had already done the dirty deed before coming to Roswell, so it was too late. But I could have told my son he thought. I could have delayed the divorce or found some way for my son to fight for his family.

I put blame on my son for not putting up a fight, but I know it would not have worked.

Going for another drink, he was delayed from adding to his buzz, which was only at a manageable level of sobriety. I have too much tolerance for this stuff he thought as he looked down at the booze in his hand, but he was stopped by the doorbell.

Darn Phillip thought. Who could it be?

But it was not who he wanted it to be, so that he could get some answers. Nope, he thought as walked down the hallway, to the front of the house, and he opened the door and found the town Sheriff.

“Jim?” Phillip asked, silently surprised because they rarely walked into the same corners these days. Not since he retired from the office. And Jim was still upholding the town’s safety, after only a short time on the bench before getting reappointed to the job once Hanson had gone off to another job. Choosing a new town, a more authority. Reappointed, and easily winning election with every subsequent election. So, they had not seen much of each other in recent times. But he knew his kids had kept their association with the town Sheriff, but things had been relatively tame since everything went haywire back in 2002. “What can I do for you?” he asked as he stood at the doorway to the house and found the town Sheriff wanting to talk to him. And he was not sure exactly why he would want to the come the house when he could have just called, “Is it either of my kids?” he asked with a startled realization that he might have to worry, because it was something I have not had to worry for nearly two decades now he sighed to himself. Of the time when he and Diane had to sit by the phone and worry that they might get a call from Jim saying that trouble had found the kids.

Trouble had found his son and his wife, but unfortunately that trouble came in the form of choices they would make themselves, not any true worry.

And now he had to wonder, even if did not think Jim would be so informal if it was truly something he would have to worry about.”

“No,” Jim said with a tip of his hat. “Sorry, if I gave you a startle. Everything on that front is as far I know fine, and you do not have to worry,” he sighed as he sighed as he took of his hat. “I am here in an unofficial capacity, because if I weren’t, we might have more worries, but I am trying to keep things on the informal basis.”

Phillip nodded. “And that means, what?” he wondered. “What brings you by if not one of my kids getting into trouble?”

Jim knew the worry was warranted. Usually, it would not be something he would have to do, unless something had happened with Max and his friends, and he definitely knew that Phillip had been called on before because of some misadventure of his children, and especially his son. But he knew that was not why he was here, not today. And that hopefully will not happen under my watch. “I figured with you know who back, we had to talk” James Valenti Jr. muttered. Just Jim to the town…

“Why?” Phillip asked.

“Because I know what went on back then?” Jim sighed.
totallizfan
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 122
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:30 am

Re: Family Matters (CC, Mature) - Chapter 14 - 06/08/2023

Post by totallizfan »

The plot thickens...as Liz says...it's complicated.
Jim is involved in Liz's secret too?
So much angst.
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Parker1947
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 642
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:34 pm

Family Matters - Chapter 15 - 06/10/2023

Post by Parker1947 »

For more than two decades, minus a slice of years when he had been forced off the job due to an unnecessary kerfuffle over sworn duty to this town. This town. A town as Sheriff, Jim had been serving for more years than he could count, and that time off had come because of his chosen association to a small group that had more than their share of secrets and for a while, it had caught up to Jim, as he had been unable to open up, and defend his position and say that he was taking the job seriously. Which he was. But their town had come up with their own theories and were creating rumors that were beginning to percolate with a greater storm once certain events began to unfold and stir themselves during his son’s junior year of high school and by the time it had hit a boiling point, Jim had been helpless to defend himself, and he had not wanted too because he felt a selected few deserved his protection and therefore he had been forced from the job that had been his calling, without the ability to fight back.

Until the town came to its senses and wanted me back Jim would think now.

He never regretted it because he knew it had been for a greater cause than simply being about a job. Not that his hiatus from the job had not been an eye opener and caused some issues for himself and son, and had taken them on some unfortunate detours here and there, and his sanity was indeed questioned a time or two. But he always had sworn a duty to his town. That had not changed at all. Jim wanted to serve it well. And he had, although he knew that line had been blurring more times than he could count. Which is why the town’s desire for change and turfing him could not truly be counted against the town.

Because he knew he was trying to protect his town. It was just that he was trying to protect certain people who were also his citizens, and who were different, and unique and who deserved his protection as well. Unfortunately, for many reasons. They were not able to be as open as they would have liked. For fear of judgement cast against them, and ultimately it would force them away from town after some misadventures and getting out of some terrifying drama by the thinnest of their teeth. And when it all calmed down. Jim was able to start the climb back to respectability and had taken his job back.

With the determination to keep his town safe.

And unfortunately, for a time, those he had not been able to keep safe, well, they were forced away from their town as a means to keep themselves alive. While they were gone. Life might have gone back to normal. But Jim knew he was forever changed. Regardless of what the town might have thought. Those bullets drilled into me and knowing I could be dead is a dead giveaway to knowing that he needed to value life and to help all those who needed his help.

No matter who they were, under their skin…

And therefore, he would always be partial to Max Evans, even though there were a time or two he had his doubts. Mainly during a span of months where he had judged the man wrongly or the boy he was and came to see the teenager was just like his son. Different, sure, but he was normal. And he deserved his help, and the fact Max ended up saving both his son and then Jim himself. Jim knew he was indebted to the man who had seen the cruelty of life but stayed standing. Jim knew he could have so easily have lost his son, and his own life later on, and therefore, he owed Max. Fortunately once Max had come back to town. Things had not heated up, and they could all live as normally as the rest of the citizens led their lives.

He was the same as everyone in his town, except Max’s life was not the same.

Because there were moments where Jim knew not all was normal. He knew too much. But he kept the secrets for the safety of his town, and for the sanity of those in this small fraternity that now counted him and his son as unofficial members. The fact that I have a granddaughter who is a member helps keep things on an even keel he thought although he knew Kyla was not officially a Valenti.

But still the girl looked like his son, and therefore, it was the worst kept secret in the family. I know all the secrets he thought as he stood at the doorway of the Evans house and looked at a man who was shaken by life’s demands. Both of them had information, and now they were meeting to talk about said information. “Phillip?” Jim muttered.

“Come in, I guess” Phillip sighed as he invited the Sheriff into his house, my son’s house he corrected himself. I only live here now, and he did not know whether he should be given what he knew that his son did not know, and the guilt that he felt as a result. “I guess we have something to discuss?”

“Is Max home?” Jim asked. “I saw his car?”

“No, he and Michael headed off to do gods knows what,” Phillip muttered. It is not like Max keeps me updated on his schedule for the day he thought. He might be if he did not think you would look down at home, he muttered to himself but wanted to shake it off because that would not help matters.

“I did hear Michael was back in town,” Jim said softly as he knew he was exchanging small talk because of course he knew Michael and his family were back in town because after all, he and his wife had helped them move in the day before, and knew because of their granddaughter Lucy, but still he had not seen Phillip in a while. “Amy is thrilled to have Maria home,” he said of his wife.

Someone who had surprised him in that they could make it work. It might have taken many years before we managed it, but they had made it work, and therefore, he knew his wife was thrilled to have her daughter and granddaughter back in town. Because for so much time, Maria had made her life away from this town even though Amy was thrilled at the success that her daughter was able to achieve, but still, you want your children back, close to you. “Your son and daughter must be thrilled.”

“We have not discussed it much,” Phillip said softly. “We do not talk about a lot of things,” he sighed because he would not have known that Michael Guerin was back in town if not for his sudden arrival that morning, there is some things we do talk about… “But yes, I am sure they are happy to have their friend back.”

Because he knew Michael was almost like a brother to both his son and daughter. And a part of his kids was lost with Michael living so far away, “Family is important,” he said softly even though he knew he probably should not be saying that given how he had treated his own family at times.

Jim nodded Don’t I know it he murmured to himself as he looked around. The downstairs was cleaner than it had been before, and of course Jim would know what state Phillip could be found in most of the time because as town Sheriff, he did keep apprised of his citizens and those he should worry about, and keep an eye out for but fortunately, he had never been called to this address. Although he only knew too well that he might have if Max did not live here and been able to corral his father in the months and now years since his untimely passing of his wife.

A loss that still cut deep Jim knew.

Phillip sensed what the Sheriff was doing, but not in a way that gave judgment. But it meant that this visit should be moving along, “And you came by?”

Why was the hanging word in that question, and Jim knew it, as he glanced at Max and Isabel’s father “As I said, I am aware of what happened all those years ago” Jim murmured. “I figured we should talk because I have become aware that Liz is back in town. And that she and her children are living above the Crashdown once more…”

Phillip nodded Except I did not know where they were living, he thought of the current whereabouts of his one-time daughter-in-law, but it does make sense he thought of the idea that Liz would be living above what was once the family restaurant for the Parker family. Still, he knew that all I had was her cellphone number. Which is something else I failed to give to my son.

He knew he was probably deserving of time in hell, or in a need of a good talking too about which side he was on, and why he was not willing to help his son achieve closure, or at the most have a relationship with his daughter.

If he had found her, assuming Liz had not picked up and moved on.

Which was a possibility he knew, because he had looked for her in some of those places, he had gotten pictures of Claudia from, and nothing he thought.

“What do you know?” Phillip murmured. As a former lawyer, he knew to be cagey with a town Sheriff or any authority although generally he had not had to deal with the criminal part of the law. He kept his role to the business and other kinds of the law, with only a short-term visit within the criminal system and that had not been a raging success even if it kept his son and his girlfriend at the time out of prison, in another state.

One he was not cleared to practice in…

He was lucky he had been able to maneuver to get his son and Liz out of a jam, although it was my son’s unique methods getting them out of that jam, not me he thought. And that sent my relationship into tatters.

Because my son’s inability to explain until it was too late.

That is something I now know something I am capable of Phillip murmured to himself as he tried to focus his attention back onto their situation.

And thought back, and fortunately, he never had to deal with Jim in terms of his profession. But now that he knew so much more. And about his children’s rap sheet. Phillip knew he should be grateful for all that Jim had done for his children, and their ability to get through some of their scrapes if Jim’s assistances, although it was close, he had been told. Thankfully Utah was a long way away from Roswell and had nothing to do with Jim or this town, because it would have cause trouble even though Jim was off the job at the time. Still, it was all a lot of knowledge, and it was something they had not talked about, but it was unspoken between them and why Jim was even here today.

“I know that those government agents came to me, before they found Liz,” Jim said softly. As he had done some investigating off the books once he was back on the job and was able to do it ever so subtly without raising red flags all over the place. And he knew early on how the government agent who had interviewed him, had approached Phillip before they found the kids… Because the kids had managed to scatter to many places before they each found their final places, where they would make home.

“A lot happened back then; we had a lot of questions asked of all us parents.” Phillip muttered of that day when the graduation ceremony for the class of 2002 went off the rails. And Michael rode his bike in and rescued Max, while the others managed to get out of the auditorium literally seconds before the lights went out and Michael would come in on his rescue mission.

He and Diane would not see their kids for nearly a year. First Isabel after she came back after a pit stop in Boston to call time of death on her failing marriage, but it would be later for his son, and only he would come back dejected because his marriage fell apart. A wedding we were not a part of he thought because the kids had tied the knot on the road. But Phillip knew too much about the end of his son’s marriage, even when I do not, but he could not say anything about it to anyone, and especially not his son.

But back in those hours after the graduation was disrupted, and his son was not able to pick up his diploma, because of the mayhem. He and Diane would receive it later in the mail, but until that happened, the authorities and authorities was what he was loosely calling them because they did not want to raise the issue but still, they did a little interviewing of the parents of the vanishing sixtet of disappearing teenagers.

Phillip and Diane tried to stay evasive, and he knew Jeff and Nancy were also quizzed but fortunately they were more in the dark than he and his wife were, we knew a little too much but fortunately the flunkies walked away, but he knew they were not off the case because months later, they came to him, with all kinds of questions about his son and their friends.

The parents did not know where the kids were, and by that point they now knew, the six would start to sperate and go their own way. Kyle would come back first, although by the time he came back, he would show up married to his first wife. Someone they had not known. And he was able to lie and say that he had just gone off on a road trip after quitting from his job that paid too many of the house bills during senior year, and found his wife, and Sue Ann did not know anything. She had no part of the alien chaos that was among them. It was easier for Kyle after all, Phillip and Jim knew now that he was not like the others. Nor was he intimately involved with a party of the alien kind.

Liz nor Maria had that luck. But Maria was of course more normal. Not that Jim and Phillip knew everything. But Jim knew some and had parted some information on the parents when Liz’s diary had shown up in the possession on Jeff. Who had gotten the message to go searching for it, but as far as Jim and Phillip knew, the diary had been put back in the previous hiding spot even though a letter had come in the mail for her father, explaining what had happened and why they had run. It had got Jeff going to find the diary, and allowing himself the information the parents would crave because it would tell them what had happened during those mysterious three years when so much of their children’s actions had baffled them. Jeff had not burnt it as his daughter had wished. Something Liz knew, but had forgotten.

Still Phillip knew so much when the so-called federal authorities had come to him later, he was able to claim no information and he was unwilling to help them find his son and his daughter-in-law. Because Jeff had the diary. And then only weeks later after the authorities had reapproached him for the second time, Liz had contacted him and told him what had happened, and he was living the results to this day. So, he did not know what Jim knew, or had experienced.

Which was fortunately on the tamer side of what the government could do to get you to do their bidding. Jim had his badge on his side.

Phillip had his concern for his son, but still he and his wife had not known much which helped their case. Even later when he was visited. There was so much he did not know.

“I know they got to Liz,” Jim said softly. “I know they got her to leave Max…”

“You knew this, and did not tell my son?” Phillip asked. It is not like I told my son what I knew? so how can I stand judgement against the town Sheriff, who was a family friend to my son he thought. I am Max’s father.

“You knew what you knew and did not tell your son” Jim asked as he could almost read Phillip’s mind, which the former lawyer did not appreciate it. “They came to me, but fortunately I had the job on my side, and there was so much I did not know, and then Kyle came back, and he was able to skate by because he was married to Sue Ann. Who obviously was not connected to any of it? But still I know they wanted to use me to try to get Max to incriminate himself.”

“My son was innocent,” Phillip muttered.

“There is a lot you did not know of what was going on back then,” Jim sighed because he of course knew too much he thought. Luckily Max came through the fires, but he was a different person.

“I wish I did,” Phillip muttered. “I wish my son and daughter could have let their mother and me in a lot sooner than they did, so that we might have been a bigger help than we were” Phillip sighed. So much might have been prevented if only we had known earlier, he told himself, we would have not had done what we had done, he thought. Or I did he told himself, as he remembered how he had forced his wife to go along with it.

It is all on me.

“It was a pretty hard life for your son and daughter to be in,” Jim sighed. “I mean it was a hard life for an outsider like my own son and myself to be in,” he muttered. And it cost me my job. “Liz obviously did not come to me, but I could gather from my own research of what went down, and I gather how she secretly came back to town and was able to see you, and then she would vanish once more until just days ago.” he sighed. “Given what they wanted from me, and I am sure what they asked of you, raising what happened in Vermont to use against your son. The fact Liz was there in Vermont, I suppose that was a way to get at her, and have some leverage in the discussion?”

“She made a sacrifice,” Phillip muttered.

“Yes, she did” Jim nodded. “Given my own involvement in the life, as much on the sidelines as it was, still I have to know what it would mean to be on the other end of such a moment, and it would take a lot of guts,” Jim allowed. “To give up on someone you love, for the greater cause of it all?”

“My son lost his wife and his daughter,” Phillip sighed. “And there was nothing I could do to stop it, because she was trying to protect him.”

Jim nodded with a deep sigh of agreement. “It is a hell of a thing.”


*

It was a hell of a thing all right, and it was not clear what it all meant. And Max knew it all too well as he and Isabel were visiting Michael. And unfortunately, the visit was finishing up because there was so much diversion you could muster up, and Max had to get home and figure out what was happening next, “This place is huge,” Isabel with approval. “Quite a step up from that first apartment.”

Michael chuckled, as did Max.

“I kind of miss that place,” Michael said with a grin. “It had a lot of charm for a while there,” he said. “I had a lot of access there by the end.”

“To you maybe,” Isabel sighed as she had always had an opinion of that apartment, but she also knew it was the best a sixteen year could hope to be able to find and it was not like Michael was used to the finer accommodations. Until years later…

“Yes, to me,” Michael agreed with a wistful flash of that apartment. After all, we all have to start somewhere. “Right, Max” he muttered as he looked at his unexpected roommate during senior years when Max struck out on his own because of the secrets he was keeping from his parents. Isabel got married. And Max walked out of the family house he thought. “We made it work there for a while…” he said of memories of that time, with a smile although I do not miss having multiple jobs to pay for the rent he thought. And knew now that he was in a different stage of his life where he did freelance jobs to keep the thrill going, even though it all depended on Maria’s day job as well. But he had mainly stayed home with Lucy, and he did not regret it.

It allowed Maria to full fill her dream, and if the pandemic had not come around. Who knows where they would be today? But it did, and we have to think of Lucy’s future. Because we do not want to see her repeat our past.

She has a future.

And we want her to reach for it…


And for it not to be a much of a thriller rollercoaster ride that his own life was, or tip toing around her dreams as Maria had been, and who knows what would have happened if things had not gone the way they did but they did, and even though Maria would reach for her dreams. Still, it was a life they did not want for their daughter and therefore they were ready to have a home base here in Roswell so that Lucy had stability.

Although Michael did admit coming back to Roswell had its advantages for him, because it allowed him to be around his friends. And he was seeing how much he had missed because Max and Isabel had not come his way. Because they had stuck it out here in their hometown. Isabel had Kyla and then got married again and adopted her other two girls. And Max was puttering around doing his own thing until his mother got sick, and then he moved in, and escorted her to her doctor’s appointments and stuck it out in the hospital.

Ruing that his mother would not let him save her.

Of course, by then they knew it was a dicey proposition to use Max’s powers to heal. Because you never know what you would get. They were only batting one in three that got any abilities. Liz would special it would seem. Everyone else did not powers.

Or they were not crackling as Kyle had crudely termed it once upon a time. None of them knew why it was Liz who changed when everyone was different. We are happy it was only her because there were too many unknowns if we have to worry that everyone will start to exhibit, he muttered to himself.

But it was not something you wanted to do unless you had no choice. Max jumped into the fire and saved Liz that day, and now he knew the consequences.

Still, you wanted to be able to save your parent if you could, but Diane had been adamant, and Max had to helplessly sit by and watch his mother fade away. That was then, and this was now, and Michael was happy to be back so he could see his friends again.

And therefore, he came back to reality and could hear Isabel making some joke or something to her brother, and it reminded Michael how special it was that they were back together again, even though things were sane, and they had never had to worry after those days that driven them from this town for a span of months. Or eighteen years for me he thought. But now that Liz was back, who knows if it will all start to pick up again.

They would be tempting fate. But then we always were…

As he walked his friends to Isabel’s car and watched as they drove off as he walked back into his palatial new home and knew life was different than what it was back in high school when he was in that ratty little apartment, charming it might be, but it is not my life he thought as Maria walked downstairs. “They just left.”

“I figured,” Maria smiled. “You must be happy to be able to see them again,” she murmured because she knew how much her husband had missed his friends. But it was a sacrifice he had made for her to achieve her dreams, and she would always owe him for that because she knew Nashville had not been her husband’s town. And how one the tips of his toes they had to be, to keep in front of the prying media once she had hit big time. Thankfully none of the intrusive media had questioned the uniqueness of him, or their flight from their hometown.

One thing the government was good for, Michael thought. They kept an iron curtain around what happened that day, and no one knew they wanted him.

Of course, he did not know the truth of it.

That Liz had made a deal that would save him from further questioning. Or blowing up the lives they were starting to build for themselves. Same for Isabel, and especially Max. If the three of them had known, they would know they would have owed Max’s wife. For making such a giant sacrifice she had made, that would allow them a normal life.

No questions asked. While she had taken the hugest knife wound possible and walked away from it all.

But now she was back.

And who knows what that pandora’s box would now open. And unfortunately, Michael did not think of any of those unanswered questions because he did not know of that deal. He had been oblivious to it all.

And had been able to have a life with his wife and daughter all these years while Max lost it all.

And unbelievably Maria did not even know. Despite her sisterhood with her best friend as she leaned and kissed her husband as they both knew they had something real, and they had made it against the odds.

If only they knew?


*


What would they have done if they had known? Max definitely would not have stood by and watched his wife walk away, and especially not allowed her to take his daughter. Not that he had been equipped to be able to be a single father. Or wanted to deprive his wife of their daughter. Although he would have wanted to have a role in his daughter’s life. But Liz did not want that because she had made a sacrifice, and taken the hit and Phillip knew how much his son had hurt because of that, and his role in it.

Even if it had come after, still it was hell to know what he knew. “I told her that she was giving up too much, allowing them the leverage. When the whole thing was fishy,” he muttered. But I did not have the experience they did. “She said she knew what she was doing.”

“It definitely was,” Jim agreed and knew if only Liz had come to him, then he might have been able to do more for her before she had signed a deal with a devil of sorts. And given up so much for so little. “I only came into it later…” he sighed. “As much I question it and would have at the time. I do know they would have had enough on Max and even Isabel to make things tough, because there was so much unspoken or forgotten,” he allowed. And knew he only knew because he had kept apprised of and what I could find out on my own, “And I am aware that you started to do that investigation you know, which stirred up some of the dirt under the ground of your children.”

Phillip did not need to be reminded how much he had rocked the boat. He and Diane both, but I was the instigator he thought. I talked Diane into it, and we learned so much that we had not known because our kids would not humor us with that information. And therefore, it did not make him feel good to know how he had the primary driver that led his kids to leave. Along with whatever antics Tess dreamt up Phillip muttered. Because there would be more that he was not a part of.

Yes, Tess Harding I am told.

Which is how they would ultimately leave town, so they did not go down for something they had nothing to do, that Tess had done, in coming back with the baby we believed to be Max’s son.

What a con Phillip thought. And knew his son still felt pain about the child that was almost was, even though it was with the wrong woman and then he would ultimately lose the child he would have wanted to raise because his wife chose to sacrifice her happiness for the sake of the safety of her husband.

And now it was all coming back to haunt in so many ways. Way too many years later he thought. Why could Liz not come back earlier. Why did it have to be when Claudia was already 18, and fully able to make her own decisions.

“You do not have to remind me,” Phillip muttered.

If he was any other town Sheriff, he might have had some words about secretive taping of his daughter’s bedroom even though she did not officially live there anymore, but Diane had forced her to come home when her husband had taken his son-in-law on a mutual business meeting out of town. But Jim knew Phillip had his reasons, and he supposed it was warranted because Max was keeping secrets, and it was hell to be a parent when a child is holding a secret.

After all, he was the child despite his advanced age in that he never really told his father that he had been right all along. But my father, James Valenti Sr. would not have been as enlightening as I am Jim knew. Jim’s father believed in aliens, but believed they were dangerous and did not belong on this planet although he did not really have the insight that I do he thought. Of course, I once shared my father’s view, but I saw the light.

And now I believe. “I am sorry,” Jim said. “It was a hell of a time.”

“I am happy my daughter speaks to me, or my son for that matter” Phillip muttered because he knew what had happened back then, but then my son does not know. “I am not sure that will continue to happen if he were to know what I know.”

“We parents’ sometimes have to protect our kids from themselves,” Jim sighed.

“That we do,” Phillip agreed. “But there comes a time when we have to be honest. Diane and I looked down on our kids for not telling us all there was to know about themselves for so many years, and only told us at the last possible moment. We could have been there for our children and been supportive, but they did not trust us to be there for them.”

“They trusted you, but they were worried” Jim sighed. “To be in their shoes, come on, we all know it was warranted, the fear. Because they were worried about what it would mean for your family. Would you and your wife look at them differently? And you do have to admit that it was not the easiest of adjustments for you or your wife,” he sighed as he was there for those early days.

“It took a little time sure,” Phillip sighed as he knew he and his wife had needed time. We earned that time he thought. We did not know what we were getting into he thought. We thought we adopted two abandoned kids; we did not bargain for the other aspects of their life he thought. If we had known earlier? “They were fearful, and Liz’s shooting opened up a lot for them and they were not ready for it,” Jim murmured as he continued on.

Phillip nodded.

“Events of that time were unpredictable, and to bring you and your wife into it, I can see why they were worried about what it would do for your family, to know, but I know it was not easy for either of you,” Jim said. “Still, the more people that were coming in meant that things were starting to get out of control, and they had to protect more of us. It was adding to the burden your son felt at the time, and probably still does a little, and of course, because it ultimately backfired on them, and it cost them big time.”

“Alex,” Phillip sighed. As he thought of the unknown causality. “We knew he died, but we did not know until after you know.”

“Unfortunately, he was a casualty because he was in the know,” Jim sighed. “Your son felt it, and it hit them all hard. To have one that they were trying to protect die. They did not want anyone else to die. And they loved you, Phillip. Both you and Diane. You gave them a great life. A home, and roof, and they were fearing that even if you were okay with all it meant to be who they were, then the danger it would put you and your wife in. They saw that in in the inability to keep everyone safe and how that ended up losing us Alex,” he sighed. “Adding you and your wife to those they had to protect was not something they needed even if they would have you and Diane for support, assuming you could support it all.”

“It was a lot,” Phillip muttered. “We could have been there for them,” he sighed. “We were the adults, and they were only teenagers at the time.”

“Teenagers, sure,” Jim smiled. “But old souls at the same time, and you were able to help, in time.” he allowed. “Thankfully you and your kids were able to move on from that,” he allowed even though he knew Phillip and Max had not really been able to move on from those days at all, and Isabel was still trying to be the supportive daughter despite the pain in her heart.

“We did,” Phillip agreed. “But I am right back there with my son because of my inability to be able to tell him everything I know,” he sighed. “You do not know what it is like to know something that could change everything and to keep it from my son,” he sighed. “I put myself in that position when I agreed to keep Liz’s secret.”

“I know something about fathers and sons,” Jim sighed. “It is not the easiest of relationships. I had an uneasy relationship with my own father because of what happened in my early years, and what he chose to believe in, and I saw how it was eating our relationship apart because I did not get it, and he chose to go with what he believed in, over our relationship. Years later, I would find myself in some kind of kinship with my father because I learned of a world that is much greater than simply being on this planet. Your son and daughter, and Michael are one-of-a-kind type of people, and I could not be truly honest with my father because he was slowly driving himself mad because of what he chose to believe in, and his actions that came from that belief, and he really did not believe in it, like I would, and I did. So, yes, I know something about it.”

Phillip sighed. Because while he never was close to their former town Sheriff James Valenti Sr. because he had been forced off the job when Phillip was younger, and not following the comings and goings of their town, and especially since it was before he would meet his wife, and before they eventually would form their family. But, of course by now, he knew the path their former town Sheriff had gone down, and yes, most of the town had labeled him a nut, and a lunatic and Jim had to put him in a home before too long because of his deteriorating mental state. I never want to be in that place with my kids, he thought. Even though he knew that he had been a ghost living in this house. And not going out into society and staying too much of a hermit.

But I believe he muttered. I believe in too much he would think. I never doubted my kids, Phillip sighed. Once I knew.

Which is why I allowed Liz to make the sacrifice she had made he would mutter now. “I am sorry.”

“Father and sons,” Jim sighed. “We are never the easiest of relationships. And I know it from my own one with Kyle. A relationship I almost let follow in earlier footsteps but fortunately, I was able to see the light and was able to rescue it, in time before I allowed it to consume us. “The fact that I have my son at all is thanks to your children, and therefore I will always be grateful for them,” he thought. “For all they have done for this town,” he sighed. “Even if most of our citizens would not have known it.”

Phillip nodded. “I do appreciate that...”

“That is why I can understand what your daughter-in-law did, and the sacrifice she made. Because she and your son had a magical but intense connection. And your son changed everything for the Parker girl, and despite all the hurt that would come into mix of their relationship. Liz always did want to protect your son and she would go down fighting because he would have done the same thing for her, and she knew it. Because at the end of the day. She is alive because of your son. Therefore, she was willing to do just about anything to protect your son.”

“I know,” Phillip sighed. I could tell by what she ultimately did to protect my son. “So, how do I tell my son the sacrifice his wife made to protect him, when he lost the woman he loved, and his child?”

“Tell him a divorce is much easier to deal with, than what the FBI would have provided to him,” Jim sighed. “And that his daughter was safe, compared to what might have been her fate if the government got a hold of the three of them, which would have happened if she had resisted their offer.”

And before they could talk anymore, they heard the slam of a door, and they both twisted around and found a shocked Max and Isabel watching.

“Max,” Phillip asked. “What are you doing here?”

“I own this house, don’t I?” Max asked. “Therefore, I am entitled to be here…”

“Yes, you do,” Phillip muttered because he was unsure of how much his son would have overheard. “Jim and I were just talking.”

“Yes, I can see that,” Max said as he was not about to give away his hand. It was after all good matters to acknowledge the town, Sheriff. “Jim,” he muttered.

“Max,” Jim sighed as he knew trouble was about to erupt in this house. And he should have seen it coming. And probably he did, which is why he was here today and knew it was a scene that was going to play out.

One that was long in coming.

“Isabel,” Jim said.

Isabel did not know what to say. So, she of course, kept quiet but kept her eyes going between her father and that of her brother.

“Enough small chat,” Max said because it was too much as he only had eyes for his father. A look that Jim and Isabel did not see often, one of lethal intensity they thought. Max mostly had an easy-going laid-back personality, they thought. Most of the time. Isabel muttered. Because she knew better than anyone that her brother could erupt, and it could not be classified as a good moment when her brother did erupt. “What did I just overhear?”

“I don’t know what you might have overheard,” Phillip muttered, even though he did. And he was only delaying the inevitable.

They all knew this.

“What the hell were you saying about Liz,” Max demanded as his mind was swirling as he was trying to figure out what he and his sister had just walked into, since, after all, he owned the house and had a key to it, so he did not have to know. I can just come in as I like he thought. But now he wondered if he should have knocked, because then he would not have overheard what he had just heard, and he would not have it swirling in his mind as he was trying to put two plus two together to make four, because none of it seemed possible. So, he did away with the formalities, and got right to the point. “What sacrifice?”

And with that, Phillip knew the rouse was up. And it was going to be a little too late to put the genie back in the bottle. Sorry Liz.
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