I'm posting this rather quickly so i just want to say a HUGE thank you for all of the support. and without further adieu,
**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kyle quickly made his way to where Maria was standing and smiled at her before deftly pushing her out the way.
“HEY!” Maria screamed in indignation before grabbing him by the back of his shirt. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Kyle turned an upraised eyebrow at Maria, “I was going into the kitchen to get some more ice. What? Do I need permission for that?”
Maria released her tight hold on his shirt before giving him a slightly sheepish look, “No. No, of course not. I just….er……I just was standing there and you pushed me out of the way. Very rudely I might add.”
Kyle gave her an innocent look, “Well, I would have asked nicely except I’m well aware that you are standing guard dragon for Max and Liz’s little liaison.”
“Guard dragon?”
“Yes, guard dragon. Guard dog just seems a bit too tame for you. And judging by the way you just grabbed me, I would say I was correct.”
Maria rolled her eyes at him and pursed her lips, “Well, anyway, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know where Max and Liz are.”
Kyle nodded his head. “Riiiiiiiight.” He said dragging out the word sarcastically, “Don’t worry Maria. I’m not going to try and interrupt them. I’m not that desperate.” He said muttering that last comment to himself.
And really he wasn’t…..right? So what if he hadn’t had any significant female contact in months. So what if he spent more time in the shower lately then he really should, ‘taking care of business’. So what if he had licked his lips at the sight of a bent over woman the other day only to find out it was Maria’s mom.
Uh…scratch that.
He was desperate.
Not able to look Maria in the eye anymore after that last thought, he sidestepped around her and made his way into the kitchen before opening the huge freezer doors. He pulled out two bags of ice and laid them on the table in the middle of the room. Taking the ice pick off the wall behind him, he noticed with wry humor that Maria didn’t move from her post at the door. Instead, she leaned against the open door while keeping an eye on both him and the party.
She has nothing to worry about. I’m not in a particular mood to see Evans getting some.
But even so, his eyes kept wandering to the ceiling and for a sick and twisted second he swore he heard noises coming from upstairs.
One deep breath and a firm shake of his head later, he resumed the tedious task of breaking the ice with the ice pick firmly in his grasp. There were easier ways to do this. Hell, he could throw the bags on the floor and let the fall break the ice apart that way. However, it was far more satisfying to imagine the ice in front of him was Max Evans face.
With renewed vigor, Kyle picked up his pace and tried his best not to let his eyes wander to the ceiling again.
**************************************
“Max?” Liz whispered, “Max, did….did you see?”
Max nodded as he wiped away the tears that slid down her face, “Yeah. Yeah I did.”
Liz closed her eyes briefly. “Oh God Max. It was like I was there. As if it really happened.”
“It did. Just not to us. Not this version of us anyway.” Max swallowed hard at the feelings of warmth, happiness, safety and security that still coursed through him.
He wanted all of that. He wanted it so bad. He could still taste Liz’s skin under his tongue and the scent of her arousal still permeated his nostrils. He could still hear her giggle as he caught her in that hallway someday in the future that used to exist. He could still see the shadowy outline of the furniture in the apartment that he would never live in and while he couldn’t remember it all in excruciating detail, he remembered the feeling of………..home.
None of that would be his. None of it was what was planned for him anymore. He didn’t even know when he walked out of this room tonight what the status of their relationship was. So much stood in between them. Her deception. Her lies. The pain they all still brought.
And the biggest problem of all…..Tess.
It took him a moment to realize that his mind had been trying to tell him something whenever he was with her. What he had been mistaking for comforting feelings of friendship had been something else. Something that was being forced into him.
Tess……….
And without a second thought his eyes met Liz’s once more and he was thrust into the memories of a life he had moments ago wished he’d had the chance to have………
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*
"Well, well, well. If it isn’t Max Evans. Fancy meeting you here.”
Max whirled around from his reflection in the mirror. The hotel room he had been staying in temporarily until the wedding blurred slightly before coming into focus. A blonde stood haughtily at the doorway running a piece of silk from a decorative shawl through her fingers.
“Tess. What are you doing here?” Max asked angrily.
He had an hour before his wedding to Liz and no time to play games with her.
“Vegas is a big place Max. I came to have a little bit of fun. What about you? Why are you here?” Tess raised her hand, stopping him as he opened his mouth, “Wait. Let me take a lucky guess. You think you’re marrying Liz.”
Max’s lips thinned into a straight thin line as he raised his hand and closed the door behind Tess with a slam. In a blur of movement, he was in front of a wide eyed Tess. Before she could blink, he brought both her arms behind her in a painful grasp effectively blocking her from raising her hand again.
Tess started to laugh. A laugh full of menace and an underlying sense of pain that had nothing to do with the physicality’s of her current situation but everything to do with the blackness of heartbreak.
“Do you really believe for one second that by not letting my hands go you’ll stop me from using my powers on you?” Tess laughed again and Max couldn’t help but notice the manic roll of her eyes
“All I know is that you’re leaving. Now.”
Tess’s laughter cut off abruptly. “I’m not going anywhere. You’ll marry that piece of shit human over my dead body.”
Max tensed and his grip tightened even further causing Tess to gasp in discomfort despite her bravado. “Don’t tempt me Tess.”
Tess’ face turned ugly as she glared at him. “Or what, boy? Do you really think anything you say will frighten me? You belong with me. Your Queen. When will you open your eyes and see that?”
“When will you see that I feel nothing but contempt for you?”
Tess started to breath deeply as her anger started to overshadow any other human emotions she may be having. “I swear to you Max, if you marry her I will kill her. I will get into her mind and I will make it so that she is begging me to end her life.”
Max’s body stilled as he lowered his eyes for a brief moment before raising them to Tess’s once more. Tess gasped as she saw the soft glow of amber in his eyes lighten until they became yellow. Power radiated from his gaze and seemed to fill the room and pulse.
Her thoughts became his thoughts and he was in her mind, in her eyes…..
When Max spoke, his voice was deeper than she had ever remembered it being, “I’m giving you one chance Tess. One. I’m going to assume that everything you just said was your silly bravado speaking and you are not so stupid as to try and threaten me or Liz.” Max’s grip tightened even further and Tess couldn’t help the short cry that leaked out. "Don’t ever let me see you again. If I ever hear that you so much as think of breaking Liz’s fingernail, I will break your body into dust.” Max mouth slid into a smile that could only be described as feline, “It’s been awhile Tess, but now I know your aura. I’ll know whenever you’re within our vicinity. How far my power goes I won’t tell you. But believe me when I say that I will know. Don’t test me.”
Suddenly, a large flash blinded Tess momentarily and she felt a pain radiating from the back of her skull. And then she could feel it. She could feel a touching in her mind, almost as if fingers were sifting through files in her head. She saw flashes of memories from when she had been with all of them in Roswell High. She saw and felt her heart wrench every time Max was in her vicinity.
Her love for him blinded everything else. Everything she might have been. Every moment of happiness she might have had. Kyle’s face floated ever so briefly and she felt the bittersweet tang of yearning.
But only Max mattered.
Except the day he had broken her heart had been the end.
Or so she had thought.
She had needed to leave. Needed to figure things out for herself, needed to know how to live a life that didn’t involve being an Alien Queen.
But she had learned quickly that once Max Evans had been in your life, in your heart, it was hard to get him out.
Then she had heard that Max and Liz planned on marrying.
She still didn’t know who or what had given her that little piece of info.
Only a letter with no return address and two sentences. She didn’t stop to think how anyone had known where she was. She didn’t stop to think how her presence was going to affect Max and Liz’s impending marriage. She had only thought about how much she missed and needed Max and it wasn’t fair that one person should want someone so badly and not have those feelings reciprocated even a little bit.
Immediately, Tess felt her anger and despair flow through her and she used it to garner her strength. Max had been a busy little bee. He had learned how to delve into a persons memories but he was still too soft. His love for Liz gave him his strength but that love was also his weakness.
Tess pushed against Max’s power and planted an image of a dead and bloody Liz into his mind. Anguish filled her senses immediately and she knew she had gotten to him. She used her momentary victory to her advantage and pushed Max out of her mind and off her body.
Quickly, breathing heavily, she kneeled in front of Max who sat on the floor trying to get his bearings together. She raised one hand and lifted his cloudy gaze to hers and wiped clean all memories of the last few minutes. She watched as he rose off his feet and moved mechanically toward the mirror and fixed his tie. Through sad, tired eyes she saw him start to whistle an off beat tune that she recognized as the strings of ‘Here comes the Bride’. She finally made her way to the door before closing it behind her.
Tess knew she only had a second before Max realized he wasn’t alone and the warp broke but she couldn’t help but lean against the door and revel in his presence. She felt her momentary control start to waver and she broke the mental tether that binded them and their thoughts and walked away…………………
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Max and Liz both gasped as the connection broke. Liz clutched her head as if she was in pain and Max immediately reached for her.
“Liz? Liz! Are you okay?”
Liz nodded her head. “Yeah. Yeah. I think so. It’s just that….I felt it. Your power.”
Max ran a hand along the back of his neck. “I know. Me too.” Max finally got up and walked towards the window in Liz’s room and looked out into the night sky.
“Liz?”
“Yeah?”
Without turning from the window Max crossed his arms in front of him and said, “If we got married when we were nineteen then that means in two years I gained all of that power. That is a big transformation from the things that I can do now. What changed?” His voice was husky, as he was lost in the memories.
He heard Liz walking up behind him. She just stood there without touching him. He knew she wanted to but he also knew that right now she wouldn’t.
“I’m not sure Max. Future Max…erm..you…said that the night of Gomez we were cemented. I’m…I’m not entirely sure what that means but maybe that has something to do with it.”
Still not turning around, Max tightened his arms in front of him even further and closed his hands tightly into fists. He could feel his fingernails creating those half moon circles in his palms and he wondered fleetingly if he would draw blood.
His life was, in short, a mess.
Liz’s life was a mess.
There were still so many unanswered questions. But he didn’t know what to ask first or even if he would get the answers he wanted if he did.
“Max?”
“Hmm?”
He heard Liz shift uncomfortably behind him, “Tess…she ummm…she threatened my life in the vision but the it also showed us that she supposedly wiped your mind clean of the memories. Why were we able to see what really happened? I don’t think you would have come back from the future to try and get me to get you and Tess together if you thought she would hurt me.”
Max finally turned from the window, leaned against the window frame with a sigh and stared at the carpet on Liz’s floor. “I don’t know. Its possible that Tess warps broke when he put the memories in you. He may not have even been aware of what he was showing you.” Max’s eyes traveled to Liz’s hands as she nervously wrung them together. He reached out and tugged on her fingers and brought her in between his legs. He finally raised his head and looked into her face. “I would have never came back and told you to do what you did if I thought for one second that Tess would hurt you.” Max’s lips curled into a rueful smile. “No matter how much you nagged me to go.”
Liz gave him a tired half smile and threaded her fingers through his, “I know. Now we have to figure out just how many times Tess may have come back to you over the years and just how much of a part she really played on the end of the world.” Liz’s gaze turned thoughtful and alarmed all at the same time. “Max, we don’t really know when she turned to the “dark side” so to speak. I mean, now that we’re not…together maybe she’s…..I don’t know.”
At Liz’s words Max eyes widened, and he stood up abruptly. He stepped around Liz and started to pace slowly. He remembered feeling uncomfortable around Tess and then suddenly being glad she was there. He remembered being angry at Tess in the Jeep and wishing he was somewhere else and then suddenly….he wasn’t.
Downstairs.
Downstairs, she had stopped him, she had grabbed his face and forced him to look at her. Every time he had been annoyed, upset, angry, suspicious it had magically disappeared
One touch to his hand and he was putty in her hands.
“Max?”
Max turned a furious gaze on Liz and she stepped back slightly. “Max, what is it?”
“She’s already turned. In fact, I think she always has been.”
“What? Max, what are you talking about?”
“Tess has been mindwarping me. Every time she feels I’m pulling away from her she “calms” me down. I think she touches me and makes all the anger at her disappear momentarily.” Max scoffed. “What is it with the women in my life trying to make my decisions for me?” He laughed once before shaking his head and ignoring the look on Liz’s face as she bit her lip and gazed at him sorrowfully.
“I’m sorry Max. I thought I was doing what was best for everyone. I thought I was….”
“Saving the world. Yeah. I got that. But the ironic part is that Tess probably believes that she’s saving our world. Antar.”
Liz shook her head. “No Max. I was trying to prevent people from dying. Tess will let nothing stand in her way to get to you even if it means she has to hurt people.”
Max looked at some distant corner of the room. “Same agenda. Different approach.”
Liz narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t compare me to Tess. Don’t you dare. She threatened my life in that vision Max. I think given a chance she would have killed me.”
Max sighed as he deflated right before Liz’s eyes. “I’m so tired of all this Liz. I just want-I just wanted to be normal. I just wanted to be able to love you and live happily ever after.” He laughed softly. “Musings of a child. An alien child at that.”
“Max, I….I can’t undo anything that I’ve already done. I’m sorry for hurting you but I can’t say that if this happened all over again and I wasn’t aware of Tess deception that I wouldn’t make the same decisions.” Liz reached for Max’s arm, “Our relationship isn’t worth the risk of the end of the world. No matter how much I still…love you.”
Max’s eyes raised at Liz’s words. They filled him with sorrow and with elation at the same time. She still loved him. She said it. The words had come out of her mouth voluntarily.
Those words did to him what they always seemed to do. They made him forget everything else but her and how much he wanted her. How much he would sacrifice to hold her again and smell the sweet scent that clung to everything she wore and drove him out of his mind when he smelled it drifting through the hallways at school.
“Why?” He asked. “Loving you is so simple. Why is keeping it so damn difficult?”
Max lifted a hand to her face and traced the line of her trembling lips with his thumb. He watched as he slipped his other hand through the hair at the back of her head and tenderly brought her lips to his. One kiss and he was lost again. He laughed to himself and knew just what a happily browbeaten husband he must have been. He would have done anything for just one kiss, for just the caress of her lips against his.
And he wondered what lengths Tess would go to get the same from him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~
Tess’s face hurt from all the smiling she was being forced to do. She didn’t want to smile. She didn’t want to laugh. She didn’t want to pretend to give a shit. All she wanted was to break away from all these people and find Max. He couldn’t even be given one second alone with that human. Tess knew just how strong their bond was. It was taking all of her energy to infiltrate it. But she did have one thing on her side. They didn’t have a clue as to just how far their connection went. They all went bananas when they had discovered the visions Liz was having whenever they got too intimate.
Oh yes.
She knew about that.
Kyle had a big mouth with just a tiny bit of prodding. But if they even had an inkling of what would happen when they completed their circle…..well then it would be bye-bye Tess.
And Tess couldn’t have that.
No matter what the cost.
So Tess continued to smile at her guests and ooo and ahh over her inane gifts.
She would have to make a move and fast. Something was happening. Her senses were screaming with it.
And she had to stop it.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*
See? I surprise myself. LOL.
Thank you so much for all that feedback Michelle. It was wonderful hearing from you and reading all of your thoughts and speculations. As far as the fact that Tess was having the vision of Liz wrapping the gift being a stronger power, i was under the impression that this had actually been mentioned in the show early in season one by Max as a power that they all had already. If i'm not mistaken, he had said something to the effect of sometimes being able to sense a person's presence on objects that they had touched before. A sporadic at best power, but a power nonetheless. I could be wrong. But I could swear that it had happened. The lord only know what episode it was though. But it makes me want to research some of the transcripts on the Crashdown.com website. 
Even though, Max went to a summit with OTHER ALIENS, they met their dupes who were raised by a protector FROM ANTAR, they met Nasedo who is also from Antar and they had listened to a transmission from their mother from their planet with not one mention of what the planet name actually was…. *Slaps Forehead* It amazed me as I researched the transcripts from Crashdown.com, that the first time the planet name was even mentioned was after Alex had already died and they found the book translation. 
However, I did a bad thing and got all engrossed in my M/L/Z fic that i have yet to post, because i'm determined to get it all written out so that way there isn't weeks in between updates.