“She was, maybe in 1999 but not now” Michael response was as immediately Max sat up to take in his surroundings. This had not what he had anticipated. Michael did not know why he did not anticipate it. But he had not, and he saw the confusion his best friend’s eyes, and on his face. Not clear to Michael was if his friend’s memory was impacted by whatever he had gone through in that prison. “So, you might have questions,” he sighed as it was clear that they were the only two people in this cavern of caves. “FYI. This was all Olivia’s doings, with a little help from my own children who will be getting their share of a lecture later” he muttered as Max was clearly grasping for a clue to what was going on, so he stopped and wondered if something was more the matter with is friend. “Max…”
“Wait, where are we?” Max wondered as his mind was going into different places and none of them were connecting to where they were right now. None of it made sense. One minute he had been in the dreamland of the Crashdown engaging with his true love, before events took them in a direction that neither could have foreseen on that day, and then snapped out of that daydream, to come back to reality, it was clear to Max, and his memory was not finding cohesion on any one set of faces, as he stammered
Olivia. Michael’s children, what?
“Snap out of it,” Michael laughed as he saw the confusion on his friend’s face. “I know you have to be a little disoriented, but you do not know where you are, right?” he murmured as the eyes changed and it was clear that it was beginning to make sense for his friend, and instant relief came to him.
Max did not know how to respond to the moment. “It was a dream, was it not?” he murmured. “I remember being in the Crashdown, and watching Liz, you were there, and then there were sounds of shots, and then I was snapped out of there, and came back here” Max murmured. “You confirmed that Liz was shot, but when?”
“1999,” Michael muttered as it was probably only natural that Max would go back to a time before time was complicated and had changed their very souls. Sometimes he wanted to go back when it was all so easy, when he was beginning to know Maria, before it all became so serious “Who knew that the coming of the new millennium would change our lives, and give us everything, and make us lose just as much” he murmured.
“So, we are not in 1999?” Max asked as it was clicking for him, the knowledge that they were not in those days anymore. “Where are we?”
“2019, nearly twenty years from that day” Michael murmured with weariness
Where did the time go as flashes flooded Max’s mind, of the shooting, saving Liz, kissing her, losing her, proposing to her, and their wedding day, and then a day in a courtroom, when it all changed for them as he was led away in cuffs. “Oh god” as it all came back to him.
“A rush of memories, there, huh?” Michael muttered as it was clear that it was all coming back, the good and the bad for his friend. “Your mind must have gone somewhere deep because we could not get you to wake up. Not that we had any special power to do so, unlike you,” he muttered. “But we tried…”
“Who is we?” Max murmured as the rush of memories flooded his brain and all he could see was a young teenager with brown hair. A beauty. Someone who was the spitting image of his dream girl. Liz. But it was clear that she was not Liz but her own unique self.
“Olivia, Zack,” Michael muttered as he thought of the lecture he would have to give to his own children. While they might have started here in the cave, still this was not the life they wanted their children to mimic. Twenty years ago, it was bad enough to go through that, and he did not want to live through that in the actions of his own children because they had barely made it out of there. “And my own twosome?”
“Amelia and Alex” Max asked as more memories were making a connection. Of course, he had never met the two, but he had heard enough of them to feel like he knew them, and the history of time was coming back to him, and everything, even the angsty moments as a teenage boy, with striking blonde hair popped into his mind. “Zack is my son with Tess?”
“Right,” Michael sighed “I am sure you would have wanted in that dream you had to wipe that experience right out of your life,” he smiled. “Of course, dying did help with that, but still you happened to go and create Zack…”
“Right,” Max murmured as his mind worked through the insanity of his back story. To the average person it did not make sense. To anyone who believed in the rational would think it was a movie, but no, to Max, he knew it was real life. And his life story. As he now sat up with more force as it all came to him, and their surroundings became recognizable.
Jesus “We cannot be here, right?”
“But we are,” Michael laughed. “It was your daughter’s bright idea” he sighed. “When she broke you out of prison…”
“She did
what?” Max stammered.
“She only did what we
all wanted to do but had not muster up the courage to do as of yet” Michael muttered. “Of course, she did have Zack to help” he sighed of the sibling twosome who had bonded over these weeks, and yet still did not see each other as family. But would team up to commit a kidnapping…
“That is crazy,” Max muttered.
“It is,” Michael muttered. “Which is why we are in the chamber. This was the only place she could think that the authorities would not be able to reach in and find them” he sighed. “It’s pretty clever when you think of because only a select few have the ability to access it?”
“Isabel” Max asked.
“She had to get home, so that she could get some sleep, and explain herself to her husband” Michael muttered. “You should know that everyone was here…” he sighed. “But appearances had to be made…”
“Everyone…” Max murmured as his voice trailed off.
“Yes, Liz was here…” Michael murmured as Max glanced around once more, but it was clearly evident that they were the only ones in the chamber “She wanted to stay but she had to get home to your daughter?”
“Olivia?” Max asked.
“Yes,” Michael murmured. “A chip right off the old block”
*
“What the hell are you doing here,” came the incredibly angry words of Isabel Evans Valenti as she walked into the home that belonged only to her sister-in-law and niece, and no one else. “You have no business being here,” she continued with the outrage on her face as the tag team father and daughter team of Isabel and her father Phillip came rushing over when they heard the federal government had invaded Liz’s house.
Fear for both her brother, but most of all, her niece caused Isabel to storm into the house, and was in a showdown with Agent Barker.
“We do when we have a fugitive to find,” came the agent who watched the emotion on the face of Isabel and Phillip. As an agent he knew the reputation of both Evans, and he knew he would at least be seeing one of them. Most likely the younger one because he had been aware that the eldest Evans had all but retired from the law. And had not done much in the seventeen years since his son’s conviction except the odd case. His son’s crimes had blunted his reputation in town. And he did not have the desire. His daughter though had taken on the mantle and made herself quite the career, not only in her practice, but in her Innocent Project type organization
, The Sunshine Club. Taking on cases who had been hard done by in the system, and winning freedom in some cases, but most of all, bringing their causes into the light of the day. Agent Barker knew the only that was whale of causes was her brothers, and one she had dreams of getting to come true.
He knew his employers would not want that day to arrive and would fight to make sure it did not come. And now that Evans had vanished, he did not know how the story would end.
For any of them. But if he wanted continual employment than he needed to make sure they found Evans even if it meant the worst days for the fugitive’s wife and daughter, or other family members for that matter even thought he had the sense that they had seen plenty of them in their days.
“Given that my brother does not have a vested interest in this home” Isabel muttered as she knew her sister-in-law had strived for years to be able to afford this house. To be able to give her daughter a home, with a white picket fence. The dream Isabel also knew her brother had for his wife. If fate did not allow him to be in her life, then he wanted the whole nine yards for his wife. And Liz had worked overtime to make it happen, and unfortunately Max had not seen it come to fruition. “You say you are looking for him. Then you are looking in the wrong place”
“But you would agree that your brother does have a vested interest in his wife, and daughter, do I have that, right?” Agent Barker asked. “So, why would he not seek them out?”
“And put him at danger from people like you,” Isabel mumbled with distain. “My brother would want the nothing more than to make life simple for his wife and daughter,” she sighed
that is why he sacrificed himself… she told herself and while she knew her brother regretted a whole bunch of things from his life. The one thing he did not regret was protecting Liz, and now that he knew, Olivia existed. Olivia was number one on that list, tied with her mother, and Max would do nothing to put them in danger. Still, she could not help remembering the murky circumstances that her brother disappeared under. “And really, they cannot be thinking that my brother left of the use of his own two feet, right?” Isabel asked. “Because we have been told that my brother was suffering from some malady, that the prison did not fill in neither myself nor his wife, who by the way is next of kin?”
Agent Barker could see that Isabel was a very powerful advocate for her family, as Phillip as stood and watched, without commenting because he could see that his daughter, and daughter-in-law could handle their own fight, and yet he was impressed to see his daughter going toe to toe with the federal agent, and he could not help but suspect that during her career, and too much during her teen years, that she had the experience unfortunately to be able to keep her own with someone so seasoned professionally. “I have been instructed to look in all the places where Mr. Evans would show up, whether he is of able body or not” he murmured. “Obviously, you are right. No one is accusing him of getting up and walking out of the door of the prison, but someone took him somewhere, and it would have to be someone who cares for him, very much. And that leaves two people in this house.”
“Two people who were kept from him…” Isabel muttered if she did not know she was on sketchy ground but would fight to keep the suspicion from falling onto Olivia, or Zack for that matter.
“We do know Ms. Parker’s car was missing…” Agent Barker countered as he could not explain the ambulance also missing, but he knew the car had disappeared from the parking lot.
“Are you accusing someone?” Isabel muttered as her back was getting up, and the agent sensed it but kept going. Knowing that he was on a path that he had no evidence to back up but kept going because he was acting on a gut feeling.
“All I am doing is speaking of what we know right now,” Dave murmured. “We do know from the surveillance tapes that the daughter was seen at the prison, with her mother,” he murmured as Liz’s eyes went lethal and the three adults that cared, well, they were thanking god that Olivia had finally got to bed, and was fast asleep, and it was just the adults talking. “She then disappears, along with her mother’s car while her mother still at the prison?”
Fear coursed through Liz as she knew that the agent was not eying her, but her daughter. And she could not help but wonder if it was the same fear her own parents faced once upon a time. When she was too young, and too rebellious “Olivia wanted to come home,” she muttered because she needed to get suspicion off her daughter. “I did not need my car because I figured I would be at the prison if the warden allowed me to see my husband, and my daughter knew it, as we had talked about it on the drive up to the prison?”
“Your daughter did not want to stay?” Agent Barker asked dubiously.
“She’s sixteen Agent,” Liz muttered as she one last time cursed the age. “The last thing she would want to do was spend the night at a prison. We both know that if I was going to get a greenlight, then she was not going to be able to come in, and so I wanted to come on back to Roswell, and she had a sleepover to get to” she muttered obviously lying, but thankfully only Isabel and Phillip could guess she was engaging in one lie after another at the moment.
“So, you said, but she was clearly home” Agent Barker asked m
y goodness, she knows how to tell a story. Yet he was unable to tell whether she was lying or not “Yet it is clear you were not that up to what your own daughter was doing, and that would lead loads of time to where she was unaccounted for because as you said, you were with the warden when your husband was reported missing?”
“She had to get to her sleepover,” Liz muttered. “But as she told you herself, well, it did not work out.”
“Why not?” Agent Barker asked.
“It so happens that she was recently involved intimately in a relationship with her best friend’s brother, and they have broken up, and it has been very awkward situation for all involved” Liz muttered as she was on safer ground, but still lying through her teeth as she was alluding the baby. “Given the situation they have to deal with, and while they are friends, still the ex has feelings for my daughter. My daughter was the one who wanted the breakup. At the moment, well, she is very moody and changes her mind constantly, and so she felt it was on safer terrain for her and her ex if she came home and did not finish the night over at their house” she muttered as she glanced over at Isabel who nodded as they both were muttering to themselves,
we are too good at coming up with these bold lies on the spot. “I have been in the middle of the drama ensuring my husband, and she hadn’t been able to tell me.”
Phillip was watching and again could not help but be impressed at how easily his daughter, and Liz could come up with a story to past muster and then he remembered how easily he and his wife had been duped by stories their children were telling them.
“Impressive,” Agent Barker whistled as he could almost applaud the performance Liz was giving. Still, he did not know the woman well enough to know whether it was an honest or not, but he had the sense there was a lot of genuineness in her words.
“How is that?” Isabel asked as he had the sense that the agent was believing their story to a point,
but only to a point and that left them in a grey area that was murky for all involved.
“I do have to commend you because it does seem as if you have an answer for everything?” Agent Barker muttered.
“It is not a story, or an answer but it is the truth,” Liz murmured.
“Is it?” Agent Barker wondered.
“Do you have anything to say it would not be the truth?” Phillip muttered as he maneuvered into the conversation. “Do you?”
Dave could only smile. Because of the tension in the room. Which had been ratcheted it up since they had been joined by the other visitors. The agent had to admire the tenacity of the women, and obviously they were fighting for someone they cared for, but he had a job “I am aware of your past,” Agent Barker murmured as he turned his glance back at Liz.
“And that means?” Liz asked as she could not get a sense of what he was after.
“I am aware that you were arrested along with your soon to be husband in the autumn before the army base massacre, in the state of
Utah, Salinas to be exact. Armed robbery, and while the charges were eventually thrown out. You almost went to prison, and it was only a technicality that got you released. Mr. Evans here, represented you for a time in the case?”
“And how is that relevant?” Liz muttered
and it was more than a technicality that got her released she muttered to herself
It was coldblooded blackmail of federal agent not so removed from this Barker fellow she continued to tell herself. If not for what Max and Phillip had done, and gotten that powder residue tested, then she might have really gone to prison. And who knows where her story would have gone with her parents as she sighed as she glanced over at Phillip who still felt guilty over how that adventure would lead to the events that would take Max from them. She did not fault him. Because it was on them as much as it was on their parents. They had been too suspicious. If only Max could have trusted his parents or known they could trust them. How could their parents not have pickup clues? Still, it eventually spun out of control to such an extent, that it ended up setting up the circumstances that took Max from them, and she knew Phillip felt guilt for that…
“It is just that you are not some average small-town girl” the Agent could not help but mutter. “My records indicate that you are capable of a lot of things, and so is you husband which is why he was convicted, and your daughter is probably just like her parents,
as they say, it does not often stray from home, but you are right for now. I do not have evidence to back up my theory, as I have checked you house. And I have seen no sighs for the fugitive we are looking for, so I will go on my way. But I want to make sure you know that I will be back…”
“Why?” Liz asked as if she did not already know.
“Because this night will not be the end of the story,” Dave muttered as she walked to the story. “Make sure your daughter knows that someone will be watching your family…” he murmured as he opened the door and walked out of the house. “You have not seen the last of me.”
Leaving Liz, Isabel, and Phillip back inside the house unsure of what to do next. None of them like the possibilities.
“Oh god,” Liz muttered as she thought of her little girl. “They suspect Olivia, do they not?”
“Yes,” Isabel and Phillip murmured in unison. “Olivia is going to have to walk a very thin blurry line to get out of trouble,” Isabel could not help but say. “Your story was believable, but only to a point.”
“Well, I have had practice evading the truth” Liz murmured as she concentrated her attention on Isabel. “It was one of the first things you guys taught me, once I started to know you people,” she muttered. “There are many things I am too good at because of these past twenty years.”
Isabel could only nod but also sigh. Because it was one of those legacies that she was not proud of because here she defended people who wanted to get out of trouble, or truly were innocent, and yet she herself had a very murky history and she was very lucky that she was not in prison along with both of her brothers, with Michael included.
“I am not going to allow her to be dragged down by this,” Liz swore. “I will not let my daughter to get dragged into the mess.”
But none of them knew how she would not be as upstairs, hidden from view, was Olivia who had been observing, and doing what she did best,
eavesdropping and she now knew the agent was suspicious of not her Mom, or even Zack but
her, and she was hanging out there on a tight rope, with the bar she was gripping failing…
She had always prided at how she had been able to get through whatever scrape or hole she had fallen into as she grew up, but she did not know how to get out of this one.
“How am I going to get through of this now?”
*
Back at the chamber. Max was now fully mobile. Awake, and taking stock at the change of events. That the walls surrounding him were not bars, or cement but one of rock, and one that held another whole world. One that the
non-believers could not even begin to understand if they knew what the cave held.
Time was ticking down. But his health was returning in full, and he was almost back to his old self.
Still, he did not know what it all meant. He had to give it to his daughter for thinking of this place. A place he had not given a lot of thought to in the last seventeen years when he was forced to play human, and normal in a prison cell. When this place was evidence that he was different. They all were different. Only select people were able to get in, which is why this was indeed the perfect place.
Because it was the one place, the authorities could not find, or penetrate.
But he knew he could stay here. It was no place to live, but it was quiet, and all he could do was watch those pods. Green, and glowing. And proof of how he came to this country, to this land.
Engineered, and created, and hatched.
His children had it easy. Or at least Olivia did. Because he had no idea of how Zack had been born really… Yes, on another planet, but who was now, thriving teenager, full of questions.
Too many that were like how he once was. Max had believed he was giving his child a chance. But now, he only knew he was giving him questions.
And abilities.
And his daughter, Olivia, a picture-perfect replica of the only woman Max could love. Tess had been one night, and a regret because of how it happened. When he was weak. When everything was falling apart. And he had given Tess the one thing she needed to deceive them, and the betray them.
It all started here…
“Max,” came Michael who was still in the chamber and observing as Max was in his reflective trance as he was pacing the chamber. Neither knew they could open the doors, for fear of what could be outside, waiting for them.
“Yeah, what?” Max murmured as his trance broke and he faced his best friend. It was a quite different life than the one they lived so long ago. When both were different people. Michael wanting off the planet. While Max wanted to stay, and to be able to love Liz.
Something he was able to do, while Michael found that there was a place for him here too…
“I just wanted to make sure you had not checked out on us,” Michael murmured because he knew that his friend was in a quandary of his circumstance.
“Us?” Max murmured.
“Yes, us,” came a voice as someone new showed up in the chamber. A tall blonde woman came and showed herself.
She had come in while Max was in his trance of reflection, and she was relieved to see that he was awake and could communicate.
“You,” Max muttered as he recognized Serena Scott, or
Scotti
“Yes me,” Serena admitted as she glanced around the cave. A place she had not been to, and did not have access to, except to be let in by Michael because this had not been her birthplace. She had come to this land, by a ship, that was now ash, and metal and no one would be able to piece together. “I have to hand it to your daughter because she had proven to be the one that we needed to act. I had thought it would her brother, but she proved me wrong…”
“You will find that on this planet. Women are strong, and they can outthink anyone” Michael murmured as he thought of his friends, and most of his wife, and daughter who have proved to be mighty.
“So, she has shown” Serena muttered.
“You are not at the prison?” Max asked. “Keeping watch…"
“I gave my notice,” Serena muttered as she glanced around again, and then back at both Michael and Max. “This was the perfect place, but you do know that it cannot last…”
“We know,” Michael murmured as he glanced at his friend because neither of them knew what to do now…
Where to go.
All Max knew though, was he needed to see Liz…
“Liz,” Max murmured to himself and even out loud. “I am not going anywhere until I see Liz…”
“Naturally,” Michael quipped.