Lethal Whispers (ML, MATURE) 10/29/15 COMPLETE
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saori_1902
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Re: Lethal Whispers (ML, MATURE), Ch 32 6/30/15 p. 19
Please come back and post more really soon? I can't wait to read what will happen when Liz meets Michael, Isabel and Tess. I hope Max will try to get the others to understand about the meeting.
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L-J-L 76
From:
L-J-L 76
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max and liz believer
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Chapter 33
Natalie36 - Thank you! 
Eve (begonia9508) - We can just hope that being around Liz will make Max more assertive of himself and give him the "courage" to stand up for his own opinions and make some good decisions for the group. Thank you for the feedback!
L-J-L 76
Thank you for the feedback!
Carolyn (keepsmiling7) - Unfortunately, the nightmares don't end there…
Thank you for the feedback!
Roswelllostcause - Yeah, he's good to have around
Thank you for the feedback!
dreamon - Thank you!
saori_1902 - <3 Thank you
L-J-L 76 (again )
Previously on "Lethal Whispers"…
Premonitions. FBI. Tess. Assault. Nightmares. That's what they've been through so far. When we last tuned in, Max had just had another (a new) premonition, which involved Liz being strapped to a metal chair and being given some type of drug. Apparently, Liz had it too. So Max agreed to stay with her, to make her feel a bit safer.
Let's tune back to Max and Liz - in Liz's apartment...
CHAPTER 33
Max
Max Evans was the type of alien who blamed himself for the state of the planet Earth. He ruefully shouldered the greenhouse effect and saw his existence as a contributing factor to the rising incident of cancer in the human population.
Max Evans was, by default, not the type of alien who would form attachments to a human being since this, in Max’s opinion, would inadvertently put that human being’s life in danger. Even having Max Evans close by, breathing the same air, placed the homo sapiens at a certain risk.
Consequently, it was not a fluke that Max Evans had never been in a relationship or that his adoptive parents would sometime speculate in their adoptive son’s sexual orientation. With the exception of Maria DeLuca and his adoptive parents, the alien was at a complete lack of human relationships.
On the subject of Elizabeth Parker, Max was strongly motivated to keep his distance.
Elizabeth Parker was someone that he, almost instinctively, wanted to protect.
And the biggest threat, in Max’s humble opinion, came from having contact with Max himself. The only problem was that he, for the first time in his Earthen life, felt very strongly about not staying away from this human being.
When his conscience wasn’t watching, Max would even let himself indulge in the notion that he was protecting her by keeping close, not the other way around. He would wonder if a human girl like her could ever love an alien boy like him, without fear and second guessing. He would consider if her lips would feel as soft as they looked and if her body would fit against his. Sometimes, when his guard dropped away, he would imagine a future with that human girl.
A normal future.
But as he watched her tuck the ends of the bed sheet between the cushions of her sofa he knew that could never be so. His guard struggled out of its submission and his conscience started banging around mercilessly on the inside of his skull. He was here tonight for one reason and one reason only; to offer her a veil of security against a threat that his existence had created. If he hadn’t entered her life, she would have gone about her normal life right now without having to fear about FBI agents and aliens.
She also might have been dead by now, killed by David Perkins.
He brushed the thought away because it was a feeble attempt at justifying his continued presence in her life, when he should have left long ago.
“I hope this is okay,” Liz said, interrupting his mental torment. She straightened, wisps of her dark hair dancing around her face as she looked up to meet his eyes. An angel would fade in comparison. He took in the faint flush on her cheeks, the way she was biting her bottom lip, the warm brownness of her eyes, the porcelain shimmer of her skin. She was beautiful; a work of art.
“You okay?” She had taken a step towards him, concerned as she brushed some of the errant wisps of hair away from her eyes.
He got the strongest impulse to help her out, to brush that hair away, to touch her skin and trace the pink of her flush with his fingers.
An iron curtain slammed down in his mind and he held back a sigh. It could never be. She truly was an angel to him; unattainable.
“Sorry, just tired I guess,” he replied, offering her an apologetical smile.
She looked at him wordlessly for a long second (her eyes seemingly seeing straight through him) before matching his smile. “Yeah, we should get some sleep.”
He nodded and accepted the pillow she handed him. “Thanks.”
“Well,” she looked lost for a second, looking at him as if she was expecting him to say something. He couldn’t figure out what, so he kept silent and let her fill in the end of their conversation. “Good night then.”
“Night,” he replied and with a small smile, she disappeared into her bedroom, not really closing the bedroom door behind her.
Two inches of space between the door and the doorframe kept the connection between the two rooms open, something that happened to relax him. Sitting down on the sofa, pillow across his lap, he reached for the switch of the floor lamp and let his eyes wander to the spot where Liz had disappeared before a flick of his thumb drowned the apartment in darkness.
The scream froze the blood in his vessels and shot hot adrenaline into his heart. He was stumbling out of the sofa before he was even fully awake. He had heard her scream like that before, on the night she was attacked. He had heard it again and again in his premonitions. Still, he was convinced that he would never get used to the echoes of misery, anxiety and death that ripped through that scream.
There was only that single scream before the silence of the apartment followed, in which Max struggled to get to his feet, the sheet having tangled around his legs. He fell to the floor with a thump while his hand found the switch to the floor lamp. If the quiet of the night hadn’t been peppered with the irregular moans of distress from the bedroom, Max might have feared that she had been abducted (would the FBI really go to such lengths to get ahold of a witness?).
He found her in her bed, dimly illuminated by the light from the living room behind him. She was curled up in fetal position, looking vulnerably small as she failed to occupy even a quarter of the large queen-sized bed. As he got closer to the bed, he instantly reached two conclusions; 1) she was still asleep and 2) she was bleeding.
Bleeding.
He inhaled deeply and pulled back the thin white sheet that was covering her body and covering the knowledge of what was the cause of the bleeding. The bottom part of her night gown was covered in blood and he swallowed. Being an EMT and an alien with the capacity to heal, illness, blood and trauma did not faze him. But it was different with Liz. Her pain ground through his soul like the rotating blades inside a shredder.
“Liz,” he called softly. “Liz.”
She returned to awareness with a harsh jolt, her dark eyes frantic as they rapidly flickered from side to side in a horizontal pattern. “My baby…”
Baby?
Max put a hand on her shoulder, but hastily removed it as she pulled away from him. “Liz, you’re bleeding.”
“They took it,” she sobbed, curling further around herself. “They took my baby.”
Max kneeled on the side of the bed, bringing his hand back to her shoulder. This time she let him touch her. “Liz, you have to wake up. You’re bleeding.”
She stilled underneath him, her breathing evening out, her eyes staring off into the darkness, past his face. He surveyed her face, unconsciously checking her color, looking for signs of her going into shock because of blood loss. “Liz?”
Her eyes snapped to his and he watched her pupils focus on him with recognition. “Max?”
He let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding and gestured down towards her body. “Liz, you’re bleed-“
His words came to a halt as his eyes caught up with his gesture and he came upon the white sheets. The white bloodless sheets.
“Wait,” he murmured and let his hands slide down her body. Confounded by what his eyes had seen and what they were now seeing, he failed to notice what his unconscious touch was doing to Liz and how her breath got stuck in her throat as he brushed his hands up and down her bare legs, trying to find the blood that had been there.
“Max? What’s wrong?”
Max lifted the sheet that he had thrown off her, looking underneath it, before looking back at Liz’s body. “You were bleeding…”
Liz looked down at herself, at his hand resting against her bare knee, and her look at his hand made Max aware of himself again and he quickly pulled back from her body.
“Sorry,” he mumbled and looked away. His mind was reeling. There had been blood. Where was the blood?
“It was a nightmare,” Liz whispered, her voice coaxing him too look up at her. Tears were drying on her pale cheeks and her eyes were glittering from anguish in the dim light.
Max shook his head to try and clear it. Not many things surprised him, considering his background, but at that moment he found it hard to trust what he had seen. He took a hold of the sheet and pulled it back up over the lower part of Liz’s now seated body. He was suddenly ashamed of what he had done, of the panic he had felt. Had her nightmare aggravated him into seeing things?
“I’ve had it before.”
Max looked up at her again and fresh tears were rolling down her cheeks. His request was soft and non-demanding, “Tell me.”
“It’s raining and I’m crawling in mud. It feels like quick sand, because I can’t seem to get out of it. The more I crawl, the more I sink. I’ve lost someone, but I can’t remember who.” She shakes her head as if this lack of recollection is hurting her and wipes some tears off with the back of her hand. “I think he’s dead. And I think that the same person that killed him is the one coming after me.”
“But it’s a dream…?” Max questioned. It was as if she was describing a memory.
She bit her bottom lip, a sign Max had come to learn as a telltale sign of her uncertainty and nodded. But her reply was weak and deficient in conviction. “Yes.” She sniffled and pulled the sheet to her chin. “But I’ve had it since I was little. In the dream… I think I’m pregnant.”
Max nodded. “You were talking about a baby…”
“I was?” she wondered, brushing another set of tears off her now blotchy cheeks.
Max nodded again.
“I think I’m having a miscarriage.”
Max’s thoughts rushed to the blood he had seen, the blood covering her lower parts. He frowned. How was it possible? Had he really seen it? And how? “Have you ever talked to someone about this?”
She nodded, a faint tremor going through her body. “I was in therapy for years when I was little. I thought it helped since the nightmares went away. But ever since… I guess, starting my new job, they’ve returned.”
“How did the therapist explain it?”
Liz shrugged. “As night terrors. Possibly my mind trying to deal with what had happened with my mom in that car crash, about the horrors I might’ve seen.”
Max observed her closely. “And how do you explain it?”
Liz dropped her eyes. “I agreed with my therapist. At least I did then.”
“And now?”
She looked up at him and the sudden determination in her eyes surprised him. “Why do you think you were sent here, Max? To Earth?”
His heart skipped a beat. “I don’t know.”
“What if…What if you’ve lived before? What if you were important enough to stow away on another planet?”
Max could feel himself getting cold all over. His immediate reaction was to deny it. He had lived by the ‘deny everything’-solution since he had formed a secret pact with his alien friends (plus Maria) and it was firmly ingrained in him not to discuss his possible origin with strangers. But Liz was no stranger. Meeting her large eyes, moistened by her fear and sorrow, he was certain that he could talk to her about anything.
“I’ve never thought about it,” Max mumbled, but it wasn’t the whole truth.
Little had been discussed of their origin because of lack of proof, but Max’s own dreams of Liz and Tess had spurred thoughts in him about possible previous lives. Why else did he have a feeling that he had been married to Tess but that Liz had been his one true love? But even though he could explain Tess’ presence in his past, he couldn’t explain what a human like Liz would be doing there. There were just too many holes in those probable explanations.
“I just…” Liz whispered, hugging the sheet closer to her as if the topic of conversation was chilling her. “I have this strong feeling that my nightmares have happened. That maybe I’ve lived before and those things happened to me.”
She looked at him piercingly as if she wanted to add something, but wouldn’t dare to.
“Liz, I…” Max began, but was halted in his words by the intensifying tremors of Liz’s body. “Are you okay?”
“I’m just,” she answered, on the border of teeth clattering, “so cold.”
“Hang on,” Max said and rose from his kneeling position next to her bed to retrieve the blanket from the living room which she had lent him to keep himself warm during the night. Her shivers had increased as he got back to the room and her lips were starting to look blue.
He kneeled on the mattress this time, folding the blanket around her shoulders and holding it closed at the base of her throat.
“I can’t…get warm,” she got out between shattering teeth.
“Here,” Max whispered and got onto the bed, putting his arms around her trembling body, wrapping her against his front. He felt her cold hands move over the thin material of his T-shirt, around his middle and press up against his shoulder blades.
“Thank you,” she whispered and buried her face against his chest. He could feel her breaths against the base of his throat and was certain that she must feel the throbbing of his pulse against her forehead.
“Liz,” he said softly. “I need to do something, okay?”
“What?” she whispered, a large tremble moving through her as she repositioned herself closer to his body. He felt her acutely; he was aware of every millimeter of her body. He could feel how every small breath moved through her body, how the goosebumps prickled her skin and the viselike grip on his T-shirt that she had curled up in her fists.
He placed a kiss against her silky hair on the top of her head and let the comforting smell of her fill his nostrils as he asked, “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” she answered, no hesitation.
He took a deep breath and moved to cradle her face in his hands. She had a bewildered look as he guided her face away from its hiding place against his chest to meet his eyes. “I need you to look at me.”
She nodded mutely and he formed the connection. Even when he was inside her psyche, inside the workings of her body, he could feel the curl of her fingers against the skin of his back through his T-shirt and hear the gasp brush her lips. He could feel her body tensing and her head leaning backwards but her eyes never let go of his.
His fingers pressed against the pliable flesh of her cold cheeks as he made sure that the connection stayed open long enough for him to search through her anatomy. His mind took on the scientific manner of a medical doctor, used to objectifying his patients in order to distance himself from what devastation he might fall upon, as he searched her body for injuries. He found a significant loss of blood volume, which would medically place Liz in a hypovolemic crisis, but found no explanation as to why that was.
His search of her uterus and ovaries was the most thorough, but there was no evidence of the state of the nightmare manifesting itself in real life. Except for the blood loss.
Before he closed the connection, before he felt her relax against him and her hands even out against his back, he stimulated her bone marrow to up-regulate its red cell production and the spleen to pump out some reserves in order to counteract the loss of blood.
Her eyes rolled back in her head as he broke out of her mind. The tip of his fingers curled into her hair as he attempted to regain her attention, her body having gone limp as a rag doll in his arms. “Liz?”
She shuddered and opened her eyes with a gasp. “What was that?”
“You’re in shock,” Max answered, looking at her closely. “That’s why you’re so cold. You’ve lost blood.”
She shook her head weakly, her words almost slurred, “I didn’t.”
“I know,” Max answered and frowned. “I can’t explain it. But you’re going to be okay.” A thought occurred to him then as she nodded, seemingly satisfied with this explanation. “Has this happened before, after your nightmares?”
“I don’t remember much afterwards,” Liz answered, her voice sounding a little stronger and then she leaned in to put her head against his shoulder and sighed. “So tired. I’m so tired.”
“Sleep,” Max whispered. “I’ve got you.”
Maybe a phenomenon of inexplicable blood loss every time she had a nightmare would account for why she couldn’t remember them too well.
Max kissed the top of her head and scooted them down in bed so they ended up on their sides, facing each other. Liz had her eyes closed, her breathing evening out, but her hold on his body remained strong.
TBC…
—————
A/N: I'll try and update "Unbreakable" tomorrow
Eve (begonia9508) - We can just hope that being around Liz will make Max more assertive of himself and give him the "courage" to stand up for his own opinions and make some good decisions for the group. Thank you for the feedback!
L-J-L 76
Yup… but it's Max, after allMax needs to stop thinking it is all his fault.
Thank you for the feedback!Carolyn (keepsmiling7) - Unfortunately, the nightmares don't end there…
Thank you for the feedback!Roswelllostcause - Yeah, he's good to have around
Thank you for the feedback!dreamon - Thank you!
saori_1902 - <3 Thank you
L-J-L 76 (again
)
Because you asked so sweetly, I'm here (even though I should be asleep). Thank you for the bump!Please come back and post more really soon?
Previously on "Lethal Whispers"…
Premonitions. FBI. Tess. Assault. Nightmares. That's what they've been through so far. When we last tuned in, Max had just had another (a new) premonition, which involved Liz being strapped to a metal chair and being given some type of drug. Apparently, Liz had it too. So Max agreed to stay with her, to make her feel a bit safer.
Let's tune back to Max and Liz - in Liz's apartment...
CHAPTER 33
Max
Max Evans was the type of alien who blamed himself for the state of the planet Earth. He ruefully shouldered the greenhouse effect and saw his existence as a contributing factor to the rising incident of cancer in the human population.
Max Evans was, by default, not the type of alien who would form attachments to a human being since this, in Max’s opinion, would inadvertently put that human being’s life in danger. Even having Max Evans close by, breathing the same air, placed the homo sapiens at a certain risk.
Consequently, it was not a fluke that Max Evans had never been in a relationship or that his adoptive parents would sometime speculate in their adoptive son’s sexual orientation. With the exception of Maria DeLuca and his adoptive parents, the alien was at a complete lack of human relationships.
On the subject of Elizabeth Parker, Max was strongly motivated to keep his distance.
Elizabeth Parker was someone that he, almost instinctively, wanted to protect.
And the biggest threat, in Max’s humble opinion, came from having contact with Max himself. The only problem was that he, for the first time in his Earthen life, felt very strongly about not staying away from this human being.
When his conscience wasn’t watching, Max would even let himself indulge in the notion that he was protecting her by keeping close, not the other way around. He would wonder if a human girl like her could ever love an alien boy like him, without fear and second guessing. He would consider if her lips would feel as soft as they looked and if her body would fit against his. Sometimes, when his guard dropped away, he would imagine a future with that human girl.
A normal future.
But as he watched her tuck the ends of the bed sheet between the cushions of her sofa he knew that could never be so. His guard struggled out of its submission and his conscience started banging around mercilessly on the inside of his skull. He was here tonight for one reason and one reason only; to offer her a veil of security against a threat that his existence had created. If he hadn’t entered her life, she would have gone about her normal life right now without having to fear about FBI agents and aliens.
She also might have been dead by now, killed by David Perkins.
He brushed the thought away because it was a feeble attempt at justifying his continued presence in her life, when he should have left long ago.
“I hope this is okay,” Liz said, interrupting his mental torment. She straightened, wisps of her dark hair dancing around her face as she looked up to meet his eyes. An angel would fade in comparison. He took in the faint flush on her cheeks, the way she was biting her bottom lip, the warm brownness of her eyes, the porcelain shimmer of her skin. She was beautiful; a work of art.
“You okay?” She had taken a step towards him, concerned as she brushed some of the errant wisps of hair away from her eyes.
He got the strongest impulse to help her out, to brush that hair away, to touch her skin and trace the pink of her flush with his fingers.
An iron curtain slammed down in his mind and he held back a sigh. It could never be. She truly was an angel to him; unattainable.
“Sorry, just tired I guess,” he replied, offering her an apologetical smile.
She looked at him wordlessly for a long second (her eyes seemingly seeing straight through him) before matching his smile. “Yeah, we should get some sleep.”
He nodded and accepted the pillow she handed him. “Thanks.”
“Well,” she looked lost for a second, looking at him as if she was expecting him to say something. He couldn’t figure out what, so he kept silent and let her fill in the end of their conversation. “Good night then.”
“Night,” he replied and with a small smile, she disappeared into her bedroom, not really closing the bedroom door behind her.
Two inches of space between the door and the doorframe kept the connection between the two rooms open, something that happened to relax him. Sitting down on the sofa, pillow across his lap, he reached for the switch of the floor lamp and let his eyes wander to the spot where Liz had disappeared before a flick of his thumb drowned the apartment in darkness.
*****
It felt as if he had just closed his eyes when Liz screamed. The scream froze the blood in his vessels and shot hot adrenaline into his heart. He was stumbling out of the sofa before he was even fully awake. He had heard her scream like that before, on the night she was attacked. He had heard it again and again in his premonitions. Still, he was convinced that he would never get used to the echoes of misery, anxiety and death that ripped through that scream.
There was only that single scream before the silence of the apartment followed, in which Max struggled to get to his feet, the sheet having tangled around his legs. He fell to the floor with a thump while his hand found the switch to the floor lamp. If the quiet of the night hadn’t been peppered with the irregular moans of distress from the bedroom, Max might have feared that she had been abducted (would the FBI really go to such lengths to get ahold of a witness?).
He found her in her bed, dimly illuminated by the light from the living room behind him. She was curled up in fetal position, looking vulnerably small as she failed to occupy even a quarter of the large queen-sized bed. As he got closer to the bed, he instantly reached two conclusions; 1) she was still asleep and 2) she was bleeding.
Bleeding.
He inhaled deeply and pulled back the thin white sheet that was covering her body and covering the knowledge of what was the cause of the bleeding. The bottom part of her night gown was covered in blood and he swallowed. Being an EMT and an alien with the capacity to heal, illness, blood and trauma did not faze him. But it was different with Liz. Her pain ground through his soul like the rotating blades inside a shredder.
“Liz,” he called softly. “Liz.”
She returned to awareness with a harsh jolt, her dark eyes frantic as they rapidly flickered from side to side in a horizontal pattern. “My baby…”
Baby?
Max put a hand on her shoulder, but hastily removed it as she pulled away from him. “Liz, you’re bleeding.”
“They took it,” she sobbed, curling further around herself. “They took my baby.”
Max kneeled on the side of the bed, bringing his hand back to her shoulder. This time she let him touch her. “Liz, you have to wake up. You’re bleeding.”
She stilled underneath him, her breathing evening out, her eyes staring off into the darkness, past his face. He surveyed her face, unconsciously checking her color, looking for signs of her going into shock because of blood loss. “Liz?”
Her eyes snapped to his and he watched her pupils focus on him with recognition. “Max?”
He let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding and gestured down towards her body. “Liz, you’re bleed-“
His words came to a halt as his eyes caught up with his gesture and he came upon the white sheets. The white bloodless sheets.
“Wait,” he murmured and let his hands slide down her body. Confounded by what his eyes had seen and what they were now seeing, he failed to notice what his unconscious touch was doing to Liz and how her breath got stuck in her throat as he brushed his hands up and down her bare legs, trying to find the blood that had been there.
“Max? What’s wrong?”
Max lifted the sheet that he had thrown off her, looking underneath it, before looking back at Liz’s body. “You were bleeding…”
Liz looked down at herself, at his hand resting against her bare knee, and her look at his hand made Max aware of himself again and he quickly pulled back from her body.
“Sorry,” he mumbled and looked away. His mind was reeling. There had been blood. Where was the blood?
“It was a nightmare,” Liz whispered, her voice coaxing him too look up at her. Tears were drying on her pale cheeks and her eyes were glittering from anguish in the dim light.
Max shook his head to try and clear it. Not many things surprised him, considering his background, but at that moment he found it hard to trust what he had seen. He took a hold of the sheet and pulled it back up over the lower part of Liz’s now seated body. He was suddenly ashamed of what he had done, of the panic he had felt. Had her nightmare aggravated him into seeing things?
“I’ve had it before.”
Max looked up at her again and fresh tears were rolling down her cheeks. His request was soft and non-demanding, “Tell me.”
“It’s raining and I’m crawling in mud. It feels like quick sand, because I can’t seem to get out of it. The more I crawl, the more I sink. I’ve lost someone, but I can’t remember who.” She shakes her head as if this lack of recollection is hurting her and wipes some tears off with the back of her hand. “I think he’s dead. And I think that the same person that killed him is the one coming after me.”
“But it’s a dream…?” Max questioned. It was as if she was describing a memory.
She bit her bottom lip, a sign Max had come to learn as a telltale sign of her uncertainty and nodded. But her reply was weak and deficient in conviction. “Yes.” She sniffled and pulled the sheet to her chin. “But I’ve had it since I was little. In the dream… I think I’m pregnant.”
Max nodded. “You were talking about a baby…”
“I was?” she wondered, brushing another set of tears off her now blotchy cheeks.
Max nodded again.
“I think I’m having a miscarriage.”
Max’s thoughts rushed to the blood he had seen, the blood covering her lower parts. He frowned. How was it possible? Had he really seen it? And how? “Have you ever talked to someone about this?”
She nodded, a faint tremor going through her body. “I was in therapy for years when I was little. I thought it helped since the nightmares went away. But ever since… I guess, starting my new job, they’ve returned.”
“How did the therapist explain it?”
Liz shrugged. “As night terrors. Possibly my mind trying to deal with what had happened with my mom in that car crash, about the horrors I might’ve seen.”
Max observed her closely. “And how do you explain it?”
Liz dropped her eyes. “I agreed with my therapist. At least I did then.”
“And now?”
She looked up at him and the sudden determination in her eyes surprised him. “Why do you think you were sent here, Max? To Earth?”
His heart skipped a beat. “I don’t know.”
“What if…What if you’ve lived before? What if you were important enough to stow away on another planet?”
Max could feel himself getting cold all over. His immediate reaction was to deny it. He had lived by the ‘deny everything’-solution since he had formed a secret pact with his alien friends (plus Maria) and it was firmly ingrained in him not to discuss his possible origin with strangers. But Liz was no stranger. Meeting her large eyes, moistened by her fear and sorrow, he was certain that he could talk to her about anything.
“I’ve never thought about it,” Max mumbled, but it wasn’t the whole truth.
Little had been discussed of their origin because of lack of proof, but Max’s own dreams of Liz and Tess had spurred thoughts in him about possible previous lives. Why else did he have a feeling that he had been married to Tess but that Liz had been his one true love? But even though he could explain Tess’ presence in his past, he couldn’t explain what a human like Liz would be doing there. There were just too many holes in those probable explanations.
“I just…” Liz whispered, hugging the sheet closer to her as if the topic of conversation was chilling her. “I have this strong feeling that my nightmares have happened. That maybe I’ve lived before and those things happened to me.”
She looked at him piercingly as if she wanted to add something, but wouldn’t dare to.
“Liz, I…” Max began, but was halted in his words by the intensifying tremors of Liz’s body. “Are you okay?”
“I’m just,” she answered, on the border of teeth clattering, “so cold.”
“Hang on,” Max said and rose from his kneeling position next to her bed to retrieve the blanket from the living room which she had lent him to keep himself warm during the night. Her shivers had increased as he got back to the room and her lips were starting to look blue.
He kneeled on the mattress this time, folding the blanket around her shoulders and holding it closed at the base of her throat.
“I can’t…get warm,” she got out between shattering teeth.
“Here,” Max whispered and got onto the bed, putting his arms around her trembling body, wrapping her against his front. He felt her cold hands move over the thin material of his T-shirt, around his middle and press up against his shoulder blades.
“Thank you,” she whispered and buried her face against his chest. He could feel her breaths against the base of his throat and was certain that she must feel the throbbing of his pulse against her forehead.
“Liz,” he said softly. “I need to do something, okay?”
“What?” she whispered, a large tremble moving through her as she repositioned herself closer to his body. He felt her acutely; he was aware of every millimeter of her body. He could feel how every small breath moved through her body, how the goosebumps prickled her skin and the viselike grip on his T-shirt that she had curled up in her fists.
He placed a kiss against her silky hair on the top of her head and let the comforting smell of her fill his nostrils as he asked, “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” she answered, no hesitation.
He took a deep breath and moved to cradle her face in his hands. She had a bewildered look as he guided her face away from its hiding place against his chest to meet his eyes. “I need you to look at me.”
She nodded mutely and he formed the connection. Even when he was inside her psyche, inside the workings of her body, he could feel the curl of her fingers against the skin of his back through his T-shirt and hear the gasp brush her lips. He could feel her body tensing and her head leaning backwards but her eyes never let go of his.
His fingers pressed against the pliable flesh of her cold cheeks as he made sure that the connection stayed open long enough for him to search through her anatomy. His mind took on the scientific manner of a medical doctor, used to objectifying his patients in order to distance himself from what devastation he might fall upon, as he searched her body for injuries. He found a significant loss of blood volume, which would medically place Liz in a hypovolemic crisis, but found no explanation as to why that was.
His search of her uterus and ovaries was the most thorough, but there was no evidence of the state of the nightmare manifesting itself in real life. Except for the blood loss.
Before he closed the connection, before he felt her relax against him and her hands even out against his back, he stimulated her bone marrow to up-regulate its red cell production and the spleen to pump out some reserves in order to counteract the loss of blood.
Her eyes rolled back in her head as he broke out of her mind. The tip of his fingers curled into her hair as he attempted to regain her attention, her body having gone limp as a rag doll in his arms. “Liz?”
She shuddered and opened her eyes with a gasp. “What was that?”
“You’re in shock,” Max answered, looking at her closely. “That’s why you’re so cold. You’ve lost blood.”
She shook her head weakly, her words almost slurred, “I didn’t.”
“I know,” Max answered and frowned. “I can’t explain it. But you’re going to be okay.” A thought occurred to him then as she nodded, seemingly satisfied with this explanation. “Has this happened before, after your nightmares?”
“I don’t remember much afterwards,” Liz answered, her voice sounding a little stronger and then she leaned in to put her head against his shoulder and sighed. “So tired. I’m so tired.”
“Sleep,” Max whispered. “I’ve got you.”
Maybe a phenomenon of inexplicable blood loss every time she had a nightmare would account for why she couldn’t remember them too well.
Max kissed the top of her head and scooted them down in bed so they ended up on their sides, facing each other. Liz had her eyes closed, her breathing evening out, but her hold on his body remained strong.
TBC…
—————
A/N: I'll try and update "Unbreakable" tomorrow
Last edited by max and liz believer on Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Roswelllostcause
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Re: Lethal Whispers (ML, MATURE), Ch 33 7/3/15 p. 20
Wow! Things are starting to get very strange! Why is Liz going into shock as if gfrom blood loss after a nightmare? Was it really just a nightmare or some kind of memory?
Check out my Author page for a list of my fics!
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Re: Lethal Whispers (ML, MATURE), Ch 33 7/3/15 p. 20
Great Chapter!!!! Please please please please please please please please come back and post more really really really really soon? I can't wait to read what will happen next for Max and Liz. Wow this is a very strange dream. I'm glad Max checked Liz to see if she was OK. And I'm glad that Max stayed with Liz. Did Liz have a past life with Max? Why was Liz going into shock from a dream? Why was Liz crying about a baby she doesn't have? Was Liz having a memory or a nightmare? Will Max let himself get close to Liz? Will Max fall for Liz? Will Max and Liz kiss? Will Max and Liz fall for each other? Will Max and Liz become close? Will Max open up to Liz? Will Max protect Liz from the FBI? Will Max stay with Liz? Will Max save Liz? Will Liz met the others? What will happen when Liz and the others meet? Will there be trouble? Will Isabel and the others like Liz? Will Liz leave town on her own? Will Max, Isabel, Michael, Maria and Tess leave town? Will Liz go with Max and the others? Will the FBI go after Liz? Will the FBI catch Liz? What will the FBI do if the catch Liz? Will Max and the others save Liz? Will Max and Liz admit their feeling to each other? Will Max and Liz sleep together? Will Liz get pregnant? Will the FBI catch Max and Liz together? Will Michael and the others save Max and Liz? Will Max and the other fight back against the FBI? Will Max and the others win against the FBI? Will Max, Liz and friends be able to live in peace? So sorry for the questions but I was just wondering. Please please please please please please please please come back and post more really really really really soon? I can't wait to read what will happen next for Max, Liz and friends.
From:
L-J-L 76
From:
L-J-L 76
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saori_1902
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keepsmiling7
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Re: Lethal Whispers (ML, MATURE), Ch 33 7/3/15 p. 20
Liz's disturbing nightmares seem to have gotten worse.
Bleeding, miscarriage, what else could happen.
Max did remember Tess being in his life previously, but she wasn't his love......
Now I wonder what will be happening next??
Bleeding, miscarriage, what else could happen.
Max did remember Tess being in his life previously, but she wasn't his love......
Now I wonder what will be happening next??
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begonia9508
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Re: Lethal Whispers (ML, MATURE), Ch 33 7/3/15 p. 20
Wondering why they did not understand that, what they are seeing are certainly premonitions for the future... and that Max is going to be the daddy, which seems impossible for him, in his state of mind!
EVE
EVE
- Les jouissances de l'esprit sont faites pour calmer les orages du coeur!
- On reconnaît le bonheur au bruit qu'il fait quand il s'en va!
- L'amour vous rend aveugle et le mariage vous redonne la vue!
- On reconnaît le bonheur au bruit qu'il fait quand il s'en va!
- L'amour vous rend aveugle et le mariage vous redonne la vue!
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max and liz believer
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Chapter 34
Maybe a Roswell-update can help alleviate some possible Monday blues… Thank you for reading, everyone!! <3
Roswelllostcause - Yeah, those nightmares of Liz's are really frightening… Maybe they're just nightmares, maybe they're something more… Thank you for the feedback!
L-J-L 76 - Thank you for the feedback!
saori_1902
Carolyn (keepsmiling7) - Liz has always had really bad nightmares. This is just the first we are reading about them. Unfortunately, not even Liz is aware - to the full extent - of the horrors of her nightmares, since she seems to go into shock after having them and somewhat pass out Thank you so much for the feedback!
Eve (begonia9508) You're going down that road, are you Thank you for the feedback!
Previously on "Lethal Whispers"…
Max had dreams of a blonde girl (who he just recently met in person - Tess) and a brunette (apparently - Liz) growing up. In his dream they were fighting for his attention - in their different ways. The dreams stopped for awhile and were just recently replaced by premonitions, in which Max saw the brunette from his dreams getting attacked and killed by a man. Max happened to stumble upon this girl in real life, saved her life and stopped the premonition from coming true. But the hints into the future continued; with Liz now being captured by an FBI-agent.
This FBI-agent - Joel Martin - wants to quickly climb the career ladder. He wants to validate his research into the lives of Max, Isabel, Michael and Tess, and prove to the world that aliens actually does exist. So he is highly motivated to capturing our dear aliens.
On the side, Michael traveled back to Roswell to explore the cave he crawled out of as a young boy. There he found a foreign language scribbled on the cave wall. He, Maria and Isabel have been trying to decipher the text, but haven't had much success. Tess - the fourth alien - has also made contact with Michael, Isabel and Max. She has put surveillance in Max's apartment and has - in the past - hired a private investigator to research Max, Isabel and Michael. So… Is Tess to be trusted or not?
Meanwhile, Liz has suffered from night terrors on and off throughout her life. They stopped in her teenage years, only to return just after meeting Max and the rest of the aliens. Max just witnessed one of those nightmares, which left Liz bleeding from her nether regions even though the blood seemed to have disappeared once the dream had ended.
The FBI-agent has questioned Liz and Liz's assailant (David Perkins) about the assault. He has yet to question Max about the incident…
CHAPTER 34
Anonymous
There was a reason for the secrecy. The less they knew, the better protected they were.
Her assignment was considered a privilege and she had treated it as such. But lately, she had suspected that they had started to remember. The cave had been visited and for all intents and purposes, they were right now trying to decipher the language in that cave.
The truth was scheduled to be revealed upon their required return to their planet, which was not yet.
She closed the back doors to the ambulance with a sigh and rearranged the name tag that had been pushed askew. The human population were not to be underestimated. They were cunning and could be very manipulative in getting their way.
They harbored a kindness and capacity for love which was unprecedented in the totality of the universe, but if their survival was threatened, most of them revealed a bad side.
She knew of the increased interactions with Elizabeth Parker, a person she did not consider a threat but an inconvenience. She knew of the FBI agent - a human she considered to be a very high threat - who was pursuing one of her protégé’s scalps.
“You ready?”
She looked up at him and nodded. “Yeah.”
His amber eyes smiled back and she wondered, for about the thousandth time, when it would be safe to tell them the truth.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” Max asked, apparently not caring that she hadn’t even offered him a greeting when she had picked up on his phone call.
“About Liz. About the FBI agent.”
There was silence. A silence which lasted so long that Isabel removed the phone from her ear and looked at the screen just to make sure that the call hadn’t been disconnected.
“Liz told me. She thought you’d told me already. Which is a natural conclusion. I am, after all, your sister. What I can’t seem to figure out is why you don’t think I deserve to know that my life might be in danger?”
“I had it under control.” His voice was subdued and guilty.
“Really?” Isabel sighed, feeling the betrayal wash through her system. “When are you going to learn that you can’t protect everyone against everything? That we would be safer if we were let in on your secrets? That knowledge gives us power. Gives us power to protect ourselves.”
“I didn’t want you to do anything hasty. I needed to think it through first. I was going to tell you.”
“You didn’t want Michael to do anything hasty.”
His silence told her that she had been spot on in that assumption.
“We deserve to be part of these decisions, Max,” Isabel said tiredly. “The path of our lives is not up to you to determine.”
“You know what Michael’s decision would be on this,” Max said. “He only has one response; Flight.”
“So what? It’s still his decision to make.”
“I’m not prepared to leave my home just like that. To leave our parents. Are you?”
Isabel closed her eyes and pinched her nose. He was not playing fair. He knew how much she adored their human parents.
When they had entered their teenage years, they had fought endlessly about whether or not to let their parents know about who they really were. Isabel had wanted to tell them, being certain that they would want to protect their children. Max had informed her that fear made humans do things out of character. Like turning their adoptive children into the government or the law enforcement.
“Of course not. But we have to know if our lives are being threatened. You must understand that.”
“I do,” Max sighed. “Believe me, I do. But I wanted to spare you that fear.”
“I’m sure it all seems like a very noble act in your head, Max. But we’re all adults here. It’s not your job to look after us or make all the decisions.”
“There’s been a development.”
Isabel was sure she felt her heart momentarily stop. Another development? What was this? The horror culmination of her life?
She was almost afraid to ask, “What?”
“I had another premonition.”
Isabel couldn’t help but exhale in relief. It couldn’t be so bad then, could it? Could it? “But you saved Liz. Danger averted.”
“This is a new one.”
And the fear was back full force. Would his premonition foresee her own demise this time? Or Michael’s? Or kill off Maria?
At her non-reply, Max continued, “Liz is to be abducted by the FBI and questioned about her knowledge of extraterrestrials.”
“That sound a bit dramatic. ‘Abducted’?”
“Held against her will.”
“Max, you were certain that she wouldn’t reveal anything about us. You said so yourself.”
“They’ll torture her for information.”
Isabel inhaled deeply. Why was nature so bent on destroying Elizabeth Parker? “So…what’s your plan?”
“I want us all to meet up tonight. Michael wanted to talk to Liz, didn’t he?”
“He won’t be so inclined to speak to her after he finds out that there’s a FBI agent on our trail,” Isabel murmured.
“Have you told him?”
“No,” Isabel sighed. “I figured he might do something hasty.”
Max laughed and Isabel afforded to smile.
“Right.” She could hear his smile in that one word, a ‘thank you’ for not telling Michael yet.
“But you have to tell him tonight,” Isabel said. “Or I will.”
“I’ll tell him. But I need him to meet Liz first.”
“Okay.”
“Around seven?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Isabel answered. “I’ll let Michael know.”
“Max Evans?”
Max stopped dead in his tracks, still breathless from the run he had just finished, feeling the clothes stick to his sweaty body.
Turning to face the voice, he had to search out his best hidden talents of masking his reactions as he came upon the owner of that voice. The anger hit him out of nowhere, knowing that this was the man that would possibly hurt Liz. It was not without any effort that he bit back the animosity burning through his veins.
“Yes?” His question was the right amount of questioning, his expression not revealing that he recognized the man.
The red-haired FBI-agent that had chained Liz Parker to a metal chair in his premonition gave him a thin smile and offered his hand. “Special Agent Joel Martin.”
Max looked down at the hand for a second before grasping it in greeting. “What can I do for you, agent?”
He could feel the agent watching his every move, gauging his every reaction, but Max Evans had spent a lifetime hiding his feelings and thoughts. Reading Max Evans face would prove quite a challenge for Special Agent Joel Martin.
“I’d like to ask you some questions, Mr. Evans.”
Max looked down at his training clothes with a sheepish smile. “Erm, now is really not a good time, agent. Could we reschedule?”
“It won’t take long,” the agent said, his eyes hard.
Max watched him through his long dark lashes, considering the right action to take. Postpone or just get it over with? It had only been a matter of time anyway before the agent would seek him out.
Max settled for casually shrugging his shoulders. “Well, agent, in that case I’ll have to ask you to excuse the smell,” referring to his sweaty attire.
The agent didn’t seem amused, but gestured down the hall in the direction of Max’s apartment door. “I don’t mind.”
“Right,” Max said and turned his back to the agent, fishing around for the key in his pocket while thoughts were racing through his head.
The sweat that had started to dry on his body from the exercise was returning. At least the agent wouldn’t be able to tell that his presence was in reality affecting Max Evans quite a bit, considering that Max was already sweaty.
Max unlocked the door and swung it opened, remaining in the doorway while he hinted for the agent to, “Step inside, Agent Martin.”
Max removed the running armband around his bicep which carried his iPhone, the white earphones clattering against the tiled floor of the hallway as he disposed of it on the floor, while the agent moved passed him into his living room.
Continuing his act of trying to appear casual and not letting the agent see how his heart in reality was hammering in his chest, Max walked into the kitchen to retrieve a cold water bottle from the refrigerator.
“Take a seat, agent. Can I get you anything?”
Max watched the man out of the corner of his eye as he made himself comfortable on Max’s couch. A couch which had borne witness to a lot of alien-themed conversations over the years.
“Just answers,” the agent replied.
“Right,” Max said, closing the refrigerator door and taking a gulp of water from the bottle. “I presume this has something to do with the girl I helped a couple of days ago.”
The thin smile was back on the agent’s lips as he watched Max take a seat on an armrest of one of the armchairs opposite the couch. “You are correct, Mr. Evans. I’m just tying up some loose ends here. Getting all the ducks in a row and making sure we’re not missing out on anything.”
“I’m a bit surprised that the Bureau is taking an interest in this case,” Max said, screwing the lid back on the water bottle.
The agent’s expression was polite, but his eyes remained cold, almost hostile.
This man has already made up his mind about me, Max thought. And he’s not a big fan.
“There were some elements to the attack that were outside of the…how should I put this?” The agent smiled. “Outside the scope of normal.”
“Huh,” Max said, brushing at the bangs that were sticking to his damp forehead. “How’s that?”
The agent leaned forward in his seat, putting his elbows on his thighs and etching his eyes into Max’s. “Let’s just cut the bull, Mr. Evans.”
Max felt a chill down his spine, but showed it outwardly merely through a frown. “I’m not sure I’m following, Agent Martin.”
“I would like you to know, Mr. Evans, that I’m armed and I won’t hesitate to use deadly force.”
Max felt the coldness spread from his spine into his chest. He’s afraid of me. But Max also knew the appropriate response to such an odd statement.
“I assumed that FBI-agents were armed, but I never thought you made a habit out of going around making threats.”
The agent narrowed his eyes. “I’m just evening the playing field here.”
Max laughed and he couldn’t help but notice how the agent jumped in his seat at the sudden sound. But he pretended to not have seen it. The agent was on edge, no need to put him any more on edge than he already was. Not as long as he was ‘armed and wouldn’t hesitate to use deadly force’.
“Agent Martin, you can’t be serious? I have no intention of hurting you. For God’s sake,” Max made a show of looking around himself in the very ordinarily decorated living room, “even if I wanted to hurt you, what would I use as a weapon that would match up to your gun?”
“I know things about you, Mr. Evans. Things that give me a reason to be cautious.”
Max felt the fake smile slip off his face, he couldn’t stop it. The agent couldn’t be fooled to make light of the situation anyway.
“And what would those things be?”
“I want you to tell me what you did to David Perkins, Liz Parker’s assailant,” the agent said, his hand moving to his waist.
Max noticed the agent’s movement in the direction of the gun attached to his belt and how he paused to let it hover over it. Ready to take aim if Max suddenly would…What? Turn into a horrible alien, make shark teeth push out of his gums and bite the agent to death? Even though Max possessed powers, there was something ridiculous about the thought, about the agent’s fear. Something that made Max lose respect for the guy, making the agent less ‘scary’ than what he had seemed in his premonition and in Liz’s description of the man.
Max relaxed his stance and answered evenly, “I removed him from Ms. Parker.”
“How?”
Without letting his eyes waver from the agent’s face, Max answered, “I took a hold of his shirt and hauled him off. He ended up against the wall.”
“It was quite a stretch from where Elizabeth Parker was,” the agent pointed out and as Max felt his own forehead drying up he watched a drop of sweat roll down the agent’s forehead.
“It must’ve been adrenaline,” Max answered with a shrug. “I’ve read about that. How a surge of adrenaline can give you incredible strength.”
“I’ve never heard of adrenaline giving you the ability to create energy fields,” the agent said grimly.
Since Liz had mentioned that the agent knew about the force field, Max was not surprised at the question and hence could hide his response expertly. He raised one eyebrow calmly. “Energy field?”
“Mr. Perkins stated that you produced a green electrical field with your hand and it was this force field that pushed him off Ms. Parker. Not you directly.”
“Hmm,” Max said passively and let a smile slowly creep onto his lips. When the agent didn’t add anything further, Max let the smile roll into a quiet laughter. The look he received from the agent was cold and hostile.
“Sorry, sir,” Max smiled and unscrewed the lid of the water bottle to take another sip of water. “You actually believe that story?”
“I have my reasons to do so, yes,” the agent answered tightly.
“If I were in Mr. Perkins situation, I’d probably try and wing the truth a bit too to get out of it,” Max said.
There was a pause and the agent stared at Max. Max could hear the blood rushing hotly in his ears, but to Agent Martin he appeared the optimum of serenity.
“You were adopted as a child, correct?”
Max hesitated at the sudden change of topic. “That’s correct.”
“And you have no memory of your childhood before that?”
“Correct.”
“In fact, you had no language, no social skills and there was no one to claim you as their biological child.”
“That’s all in the public records, Agent Martin,” Max said, impatience seeping into his voice.
“What’s not in the public records are statements given by the staff at daycare centers and your teachers concerning extraordinary events occurring in your surroundings.”
Max felt the chill return and he could tell from the smugness creeping into the agent’s expression that he had let it show. “What are you getting at, Agent Martin?”
“One teacher witnessed you picking up an injured bird which, after a couple of seconds, flew from your hands, as if nothing had happened. A Mrs. Krump at The Sunshine Daycare reports of you talking in tongues and even making a chair move by looking at it.”
Max laughed. “Come on, agent. They were only rumors. A lot of people back then were…fascinated by my background - or lack thereof as you so thoroughly recited - and stories arose. What was I supposedly doing with that bird? Healing it?”
The agent rose from his seat and Max looked up, his eyes flickering to where the agent kept his gun, afraid that the agent might actually act on his previous threat.
Instead, the agent looked down at him with a face cut in stone. “You might’ve been able to fool a lot of people throughout your life, Mr. Evans, but you don’t fool me. I know who you are. Who you really are.”
“What am I, Agent Martin?” Max asked evenly, almost looking forward to the agent’s answer.
“You’re a manipulator,” the agent answered and Max knew that was very far from what the man wanted to say. The more probable answer to that question started with an ‘a’ and ended with ‘lien’. “You did something to that man that night. You did something to that bird and somehow you are involved with the miraculous recovery of a girl back in the 90’s. A girl that now happens to be a friend of yours. And you might have been able to run under the radar undetected for a long time, but make one mistake, Max, and I will get you. I promise you that.”
“Are you threatening me, Agent Martin?”
“You’re a smart man, Mr. Evans. What do you think?”
And with that, the agent walked out of the apartment, closing the door behind him.
Max let his head fall into his hands as one shudder followed by the next and the next passed through him. The agent knew everything about him. Which meant that some branch of the government knew everything about him. Which meant that they could capture him at any time and make him disappear. Most likely, without a trace.
TBC...
Thank you for reading, everyone!! <3Roswelllostcause - Yeah, those nightmares of Liz's are really frightening… Maybe they're just nightmares, maybe they're something more… Thank you for the feedback!
L-J-L 76 - Thank you for the feedback!
saori_1902
That is the question… Thank you for the feedback!Wow. Baby? Nightmares? Or reality?
Carolyn (keepsmiling7) - Liz has always had really bad nightmares. This is just the first we are reading about them. Unfortunately, not even Liz is aware - to the full extent - of the horrors of her nightmares, since she seems to go into shock after having them and somewhat pass out
Thank you so much for the feedback!Eve (begonia9508)
Ah… interestingWondering why they did not understand that, what they are seeing are certainly premonitions for the future... and that Max is going to be the daddy, which seems impossible for him, in his state of mind!
You're going down that road, are you Thank you for the feedback!Previously on "Lethal Whispers"…
Max had dreams of a blonde girl (who he just recently met in person - Tess) and a brunette (apparently - Liz) growing up. In his dream they were fighting for his attention - in their different ways. The dreams stopped for awhile and were just recently replaced by premonitions, in which Max saw the brunette from his dreams getting attacked and killed by a man. Max happened to stumble upon this girl in real life, saved her life and stopped the premonition from coming true. But the hints into the future continued; with Liz now being captured by an FBI-agent.
This FBI-agent - Joel Martin - wants to quickly climb the career ladder. He wants to validate his research into the lives of Max, Isabel, Michael and Tess, and prove to the world that aliens actually does exist. So he is highly motivated to capturing our dear aliens.
On the side, Michael traveled back to Roswell to explore the cave he crawled out of as a young boy. There he found a foreign language scribbled on the cave wall. He, Maria and Isabel have been trying to decipher the text, but haven't had much success. Tess - the fourth alien - has also made contact with Michael, Isabel and Max. She has put surveillance in Max's apartment and has - in the past - hired a private investigator to research Max, Isabel and Michael. So… Is Tess to be trusted or not?
Meanwhile, Liz has suffered from night terrors on and off throughout her life. They stopped in her teenage years, only to return just after meeting Max and the rest of the aliens. Max just witnessed one of those nightmares, which left Liz bleeding from her nether regions even though the blood seemed to have disappeared once the dream had ended.
The FBI-agent has questioned Liz and Liz's assailant (David Perkins) about the assault. He has yet to question Max about the incident…
CHAPTER 34
Anonymous
There was a reason for the secrecy. The less they knew, the better protected they were.
Her assignment was considered a privilege and she had treated it as such. But lately, she had suspected that they had started to remember. The cave had been visited and for all intents and purposes, they were right now trying to decipher the language in that cave.
The truth was scheduled to be revealed upon their required return to their planet, which was not yet.
She closed the back doors to the ambulance with a sigh and rearranged the name tag that had been pushed askew. The human population were not to be underestimated. They were cunning and could be very manipulative in getting their way.
They harbored a kindness and capacity for love which was unprecedented in the totality of the universe, but if their survival was threatened, most of them revealed a bad side.
She knew of the increased interactions with Elizabeth Parker, a person she did not consider a threat but an inconvenience. She knew of the FBI agent - a human she considered to be a very high threat - who was pursuing one of her protégé’s scalps.
“You ready?”
She looked up at him and nodded. “Yeah.”
His amber eyes smiled back and she wondered, for about the thousandth time, when it would be safe to tell them the truth.
*****
Isabel“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” Max asked, apparently not caring that she hadn’t even offered him a greeting when she had picked up on his phone call.
“About Liz. About the FBI agent.”
There was silence. A silence which lasted so long that Isabel removed the phone from her ear and looked at the screen just to make sure that the call hadn’t been disconnected.
“Liz told me. She thought you’d told me already. Which is a natural conclusion. I am, after all, your sister. What I can’t seem to figure out is why you don’t think I deserve to know that my life might be in danger?”
“I had it under control.” His voice was subdued and guilty.
“Really?” Isabel sighed, feeling the betrayal wash through her system. “When are you going to learn that you can’t protect everyone against everything? That we would be safer if we were let in on your secrets? That knowledge gives us power. Gives us power to protect ourselves.”
“I didn’t want you to do anything hasty. I needed to think it through first. I was going to tell you.”
“You didn’t want Michael to do anything hasty.”
His silence told her that she had been spot on in that assumption.
“We deserve to be part of these decisions, Max,” Isabel said tiredly. “The path of our lives is not up to you to determine.”
“You know what Michael’s decision would be on this,” Max said. “He only has one response; Flight.”
“So what? It’s still his decision to make.”
“I’m not prepared to leave my home just like that. To leave our parents. Are you?”
Isabel closed her eyes and pinched her nose. He was not playing fair. He knew how much she adored their human parents.
When they had entered their teenage years, they had fought endlessly about whether or not to let their parents know about who they really were. Isabel had wanted to tell them, being certain that they would want to protect their children. Max had informed her that fear made humans do things out of character. Like turning their adoptive children into the government or the law enforcement.
“Of course not. But we have to know if our lives are being threatened. You must understand that.”
“I do,” Max sighed. “Believe me, I do. But I wanted to spare you that fear.”
“I’m sure it all seems like a very noble act in your head, Max. But we’re all adults here. It’s not your job to look after us or make all the decisions.”
“There’s been a development.”
Isabel was sure she felt her heart momentarily stop. Another development? What was this? The horror culmination of her life?
She was almost afraid to ask, “What?”
“I had another premonition.”
Isabel couldn’t help but exhale in relief. It couldn’t be so bad then, could it? Could it? “But you saved Liz. Danger averted.”
“This is a new one.”
And the fear was back full force. Would his premonition foresee her own demise this time? Or Michael’s? Or kill off Maria?
At her non-reply, Max continued, “Liz is to be abducted by the FBI and questioned about her knowledge of extraterrestrials.”
“That sound a bit dramatic. ‘Abducted’?”
“Held against her will.”
“Max, you were certain that she wouldn’t reveal anything about us. You said so yourself.”
“They’ll torture her for information.”
Isabel inhaled deeply. Why was nature so bent on destroying Elizabeth Parker? “So…what’s your plan?”
“I want us all to meet up tonight. Michael wanted to talk to Liz, didn’t he?”
“He won’t be so inclined to speak to her after he finds out that there’s a FBI agent on our trail,” Isabel murmured.
“Have you told him?”
“No,” Isabel sighed. “I figured he might do something hasty.”
Max laughed and Isabel afforded to smile.
“Right.” She could hear his smile in that one word, a ‘thank you’ for not telling Michael yet.
“But you have to tell him tonight,” Isabel said. “Or I will.”
“I’ll tell him. But I need him to meet Liz first.”
“Okay.”
“Around seven?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Isabel answered. “I’ll let Michael know.”
*****
Max“Max Evans?”
Max stopped dead in his tracks, still breathless from the run he had just finished, feeling the clothes stick to his sweaty body.
Turning to face the voice, he had to search out his best hidden talents of masking his reactions as he came upon the owner of that voice. The anger hit him out of nowhere, knowing that this was the man that would possibly hurt Liz. It was not without any effort that he bit back the animosity burning through his veins.
“Yes?” His question was the right amount of questioning, his expression not revealing that he recognized the man.
The red-haired FBI-agent that had chained Liz Parker to a metal chair in his premonition gave him a thin smile and offered his hand. “Special Agent Joel Martin.”
Max looked down at the hand for a second before grasping it in greeting. “What can I do for you, agent?”
He could feel the agent watching his every move, gauging his every reaction, but Max Evans had spent a lifetime hiding his feelings and thoughts. Reading Max Evans face would prove quite a challenge for Special Agent Joel Martin.
“I’d like to ask you some questions, Mr. Evans.”
Max looked down at his training clothes with a sheepish smile. “Erm, now is really not a good time, agent. Could we reschedule?”
“It won’t take long,” the agent said, his eyes hard.
Max watched him through his long dark lashes, considering the right action to take. Postpone or just get it over with? It had only been a matter of time anyway before the agent would seek him out.
Max settled for casually shrugging his shoulders. “Well, agent, in that case I’ll have to ask you to excuse the smell,” referring to his sweaty attire.
The agent didn’t seem amused, but gestured down the hall in the direction of Max’s apartment door. “I don’t mind.”
“Right,” Max said and turned his back to the agent, fishing around for the key in his pocket while thoughts were racing through his head.
The sweat that had started to dry on his body from the exercise was returning. At least the agent wouldn’t be able to tell that his presence was in reality affecting Max Evans quite a bit, considering that Max was already sweaty.
Max unlocked the door and swung it opened, remaining in the doorway while he hinted for the agent to, “Step inside, Agent Martin.”
Max removed the running armband around his bicep which carried his iPhone, the white earphones clattering against the tiled floor of the hallway as he disposed of it on the floor, while the agent moved passed him into his living room.
Continuing his act of trying to appear casual and not letting the agent see how his heart in reality was hammering in his chest, Max walked into the kitchen to retrieve a cold water bottle from the refrigerator.
“Take a seat, agent. Can I get you anything?”
Max watched the man out of the corner of his eye as he made himself comfortable on Max’s couch. A couch which had borne witness to a lot of alien-themed conversations over the years.
“Just answers,” the agent replied.
“Right,” Max said, closing the refrigerator door and taking a gulp of water from the bottle. “I presume this has something to do with the girl I helped a couple of days ago.”
The thin smile was back on the agent’s lips as he watched Max take a seat on an armrest of one of the armchairs opposite the couch. “You are correct, Mr. Evans. I’m just tying up some loose ends here. Getting all the ducks in a row and making sure we’re not missing out on anything.”
“I’m a bit surprised that the Bureau is taking an interest in this case,” Max said, screwing the lid back on the water bottle.
The agent’s expression was polite, but his eyes remained cold, almost hostile.
This man has already made up his mind about me, Max thought. And he’s not a big fan.
“There were some elements to the attack that were outside of the…how should I put this?” The agent smiled. “Outside the scope of normal.”
“Huh,” Max said, brushing at the bangs that were sticking to his damp forehead. “How’s that?”
The agent leaned forward in his seat, putting his elbows on his thighs and etching his eyes into Max’s. “Let’s just cut the bull, Mr. Evans.”
Max felt a chill down his spine, but showed it outwardly merely through a frown. “I’m not sure I’m following, Agent Martin.”
“I would like you to know, Mr. Evans, that I’m armed and I won’t hesitate to use deadly force.”
Max felt the coldness spread from his spine into his chest. He’s afraid of me. But Max also knew the appropriate response to such an odd statement.
“I assumed that FBI-agents were armed, but I never thought you made a habit out of going around making threats.”
The agent narrowed his eyes. “I’m just evening the playing field here.”
Max laughed and he couldn’t help but notice how the agent jumped in his seat at the sudden sound. But he pretended to not have seen it. The agent was on edge, no need to put him any more on edge than he already was. Not as long as he was ‘armed and wouldn’t hesitate to use deadly force’.
“Agent Martin, you can’t be serious? I have no intention of hurting you. For God’s sake,” Max made a show of looking around himself in the very ordinarily decorated living room, “even if I wanted to hurt you, what would I use as a weapon that would match up to your gun?”
“I know things about you, Mr. Evans. Things that give me a reason to be cautious.”
Max felt the fake smile slip off his face, he couldn’t stop it. The agent couldn’t be fooled to make light of the situation anyway.
“And what would those things be?”
“I want you to tell me what you did to David Perkins, Liz Parker’s assailant,” the agent said, his hand moving to his waist.
Max noticed the agent’s movement in the direction of the gun attached to his belt and how he paused to let it hover over it. Ready to take aim if Max suddenly would…What? Turn into a horrible alien, make shark teeth push out of his gums and bite the agent to death? Even though Max possessed powers, there was something ridiculous about the thought, about the agent’s fear. Something that made Max lose respect for the guy, making the agent less ‘scary’ than what he had seemed in his premonition and in Liz’s description of the man.
Max relaxed his stance and answered evenly, “I removed him from Ms. Parker.”
“How?”
Without letting his eyes waver from the agent’s face, Max answered, “I took a hold of his shirt and hauled him off. He ended up against the wall.”
“It was quite a stretch from where Elizabeth Parker was,” the agent pointed out and as Max felt his own forehead drying up he watched a drop of sweat roll down the agent’s forehead.
“It must’ve been adrenaline,” Max answered with a shrug. “I’ve read about that. How a surge of adrenaline can give you incredible strength.”
“I’ve never heard of adrenaline giving you the ability to create energy fields,” the agent said grimly.
Since Liz had mentioned that the agent knew about the force field, Max was not surprised at the question and hence could hide his response expertly. He raised one eyebrow calmly. “Energy field?”
“Mr. Perkins stated that you produced a green electrical field with your hand and it was this force field that pushed him off Ms. Parker. Not you directly.”
“Hmm,” Max said passively and let a smile slowly creep onto his lips. When the agent didn’t add anything further, Max let the smile roll into a quiet laughter. The look he received from the agent was cold and hostile.
“Sorry, sir,” Max smiled and unscrewed the lid of the water bottle to take another sip of water. “You actually believe that story?”
“I have my reasons to do so, yes,” the agent answered tightly.
“If I were in Mr. Perkins situation, I’d probably try and wing the truth a bit too to get out of it,” Max said.
There was a pause and the agent stared at Max. Max could hear the blood rushing hotly in his ears, but to Agent Martin he appeared the optimum of serenity.
“You were adopted as a child, correct?”
Max hesitated at the sudden change of topic. “That’s correct.”
“And you have no memory of your childhood before that?”
“Correct.”
“In fact, you had no language, no social skills and there was no one to claim you as their biological child.”
“That’s all in the public records, Agent Martin,” Max said, impatience seeping into his voice.
“What’s not in the public records are statements given by the staff at daycare centers and your teachers concerning extraordinary events occurring in your surroundings.”
Max felt the chill return and he could tell from the smugness creeping into the agent’s expression that he had let it show. “What are you getting at, Agent Martin?”
“One teacher witnessed you picking up an injured bird which, after a couple of seconds, flew from your hands, as if nothing had happened. A Mrs. Krump at The Sunshine Daycare reports of you talking in tongues and even making a chair move by looking at it.”
Max laughed. “Come on, agent. They were only rumors. A lot of people back then were…fascinated by my background - or lack thereof as you so thoroughly recited - and stories arose. What was I supposedly doing with that bird? Healing it?”
The agent rose from his seat and Max looked up, his eyes flickering to where the agent kept his gun, afraid that the agent might actually act on his previous threat.
Instead, the agent looked down at him with a face cut in stone. “You might’ve been able to fool a lot of people throughout your life, Mr. Evans, but you don’t fool me. I know who you are. Who you really are.”
“What am I, Agent Martin?” Max asked evenly, almost looking forward to the agent’s answer.
“You’re a manipulator,” the agent answered and Max knew that was very far from what the man wanted to say. The more probable answer to that question started with an ‘a’ and ended with ‘lien’. “You did something to that man that night. You did something to that bird and somehow you are involved with the miraculous recovery of a girl back in the 90’s. A girl that now happens to be a friend of yours. And you might have been able to run under the radar undetected for a long time, but make one mistake, Max, and I will get you. I promise you that.”
“Are you threatening me, Agent Martin?”
“You’re a smart man, Mr. Evans. What do you think?”
And with that, the agent walked out of the apartment, closing the door behind him.
Max let his head fall into his hands as one shudder followed by the next and the next passed through him. The agent knew everything about him. Which meant that some branch of the government knew everything about him. Which meant that they could capture him at any time and make him disappear. Most likely, without a trace.
TBC...
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Roswelllostcause
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Re: Lethal Whispers (ML, MATURE), Ch 34 7/6/15 p. 20 bottom
How on earth did this creep learn so much about Max?
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