Gravely ill Maria thought as she stood in a fog. Nothing else was registering to her. Since Serena’s words penetrated her thoughts, and her brain. All day since she had arrived at the wedding. She had wondered why Michael had not been here, because this was the last place that Michael would miss because it was Isabel’s wedding day. And Michael and Isabel were too close for him to miss it especially since the gods on their planet had once upon a time had wanted them to be together. But here on their planet. A mix of destiny, chemistry and attraction had its own plan for Michael and Isabel whom this planet had named them.
And Maria had met the boy who had captivated her at fifteen. Someone she had loved. Someone who was different, and risky, and everything a growing girl should stay away from. Especially if you wanted to get out of this town one day. And Maria was that girl. She was not someone who was destined to the Ivy League like her best friend.
She was destined for a different path.
Then she met Michael and being different, and alien, had enticed her, when she could have walked away because she had not been her best friend. She had not been saved by one of them. Marked, and forever changed. Even if they had not known it on that September day just how different their lives would end up being. She and Michael had a bond sure. But they were not like Max and Liz. Whose eyes glanced on each other on that September, and they were done for. And for Max, it had been years before.
But for her best friend. It was that September when life forever changed for her. Maria came along for the ride. And along on the ride, she had fell for her own risky alien. But that ride also was rocky, and dangerous. Because those who came with them did not always get out of that adventure without a lot of heart ache.
Alex did not come out of it, at all Maria thought.
Alex Whitman. Someone good. Someone who should have not been lost because of someone who was only looking out for them, and did not care what they had to do, to get what she had wanted. And they were forever missing Alex.
She had seen too much of the pain and the angst. So, she had enough, and she had called it quits with Michael even after he had picked this planet to be with her. When he could have left them, and her, but he chose to stay and make a life with her, but she had been too young. She was starting to see the effects the life was having on her best friend. Watching your best friend being picked up for armed robbery, and almost sentenced to prison will make your eyes open.
And no matter how much she had loved Michael. And she did. But you can not get the thought of you were sacrificing for the insane drama that was getting more dangerous with each day that went by, and then an unfortunately timed visit from a childhood friend Billy Darden got her thinking of what she was giving up for a relationship with Michael.
And so, she had wanted time. Away from Michael.
Michael had given it to her. But being in the same town. In the same circle of him was confusing and despite some deliberate attempts to stay away from Michael. Still, he attracted her like honey, and she could not resist herself with him.
No matter the signals she was giving to him.
So, going to New York was about going for her dreams. But also getting away from Michael and trying to be her own person. Her own woman away from the relationship that had defined her high school career. Unfortunately, she had decided to sleep with Michael before she got on that bus for New York.
And therefore, her son was a result.
She would never regret Charlie. But, looking at him was looking at the man she had given up even though he had wanted her.
She had not told him about the baby because she did not know what he would have done. Certainly, he would have tried to be there for her she knew.
But he would not have meshed with New York, Michael and New York would not have co-existed well. It would have been like oil and water and she was going to continue to pursue her dreams in New York unless she failed.
But she
had not failed.
She had succeeded. Beyond her expectations. Once Charlie was born, it was only up and up and up until she finally reached where she currently was.
“I am sorry,” Serena’s words were saying as finally they penetrated her words. “I did not know he meant something to you as well as to Max and Isabel?”
“Yeah, you can say we have a history” Maria murmured. “What happened?” she asked softly. “What happened to Michael?”
“Max and Isabel would rather it be kept a secret,” Serena murmured.
“Well, too bad” Maria murmured. “I am the mother of his son” she said with a declaration that she had not made since the start of this drama. Unspoken until this day, although everyone could see it and certainly Serena could see as she had seen Charlie and Micah spending time together. She did not see it in Micah even though she knew the circumstance from Max’s own lips that at most, he was only the child’s adoptive father even though no papers had been formalized due to Michael’s illness. The girl’s mother had signed away right in legal papers that Phillip Evans had executed for his son and the girl who would be his granddaughter.
She knew everyone treated Micah as Max’s. And an Evans.
“Oh,” Serena said.
“It’s not widely spoken off,” Maria muttered. “I mean I did not even tell Michael back in the day, but it’s the truth,” she said. “And if you see it, you are not the only one. Which is why I was hesitant in coming back…”
“I would think so,” Serena murmured.
“I understand Max and Isabel’s need for privacy but given the circumstances. I want to know what is going on with Charlie’s father.”
“I guess you deserve to know…”
*
“Thank you to everyone who has been here to share my day with Kyle and me. We very much appreciate it” Isabel said in her speech. As the dancing had stopped for the moment. Max and Liz were still together, standing next to each other. Neither taking the opportunity to leave the other yet, and Maria was talking to Serena. Isabel was standing up in front of the mike, and next to her new husband and she it was a small enough room that she could see the talk in process, she did not know if that were good or bad except to know that maybe Maria
did deserve to know, and Serena probably would be an easier one to crack because she did not know any better despite the known wishes of both Isabel and her brother to keep it a secret. But it was Maria, and once she was on scent, she was unlikely to leave it alone until she knew more…
Like Max. Isabel hated to acknowledge the reality that they had to deal with Michael. It was better off to think he was far away, and it was only when she entered that facility did, she accepted reality. Because Michael should have been here today, and he was not, and that was hard to accept for Isabel.
But it was a reality, but she had Kyle now, and at least she could focus on something special and something that was right in her world. And of course, tomorrow, was her honeymoon, and she did not have to deal with the fallout once she was off with her husband. “Thank you to my family, my parents and my brother for being so supportive. And to
those who cannot be here today. Either by choice, or by circumstance. We are thinking of you today. In more ways than you know, and especially for those we have lost. We are thinking of you. So, thank you again for your support. And I hope everyone has a fun night, because I suspect it will be entertaining…” she said as she stepped down and took Kyle’s hand and they went to the dance floor.
“You are not going to stop Serena and Maria from talking?” Kyle was asking as he knew Isabel’s mood was slightly off given, she had been thinking of both Alex and Kyle during her talk.
“I suspect that it would be useless,” Isabel murmured as she glanced over, and Mari was still in intense conversation with Serena. “And I rather be happy tonight, and I know Michael would not want us to dwell on it, when nothing tonight will change what is happening with him,” she sighed as they continued to dance. “Thank you for being there for me all this time. I know I can be a challenge to be with, and to love?”
“We understand each other. You have helped me immensely, and I can do the same” Kyle sighed as he thought of this mixed-up world. Completely bizarre from those days in high school, but he will take this life if he could love Isabel and raise a family with her…
“I love you,” Isabel smiled.
“I love you too,” Kyle sighed as they heard, a “Sorry, I guess I picked a wrong time, but can I cut in?” came Max. “I wanted to dance with my sister?” he asked as Liz had finally left his side as she gone somewhere into the back to talk to her father and mother, who was catering the wedding. She had not spent much time with them since she had come back.
And now Max had taken the chance to dance with is sister. “Can I?”
“Sure,” Kyle sighed. “I will check in with my father,” he said as he walked over to his father while Max and Isabel continued to dance on the floor.
“I amazed you let Liz get away?” Isabel smiled as she asked her brother because she had noticed that he had spent most of the night so far with his former girlfriend. “And because of that, I am surprised that I would rate?”
“Now don’t you start,” Max muttered. “Of course, you rate sis,” he murmured. “And about Liz. All we are, is friends?” he sighed as he knew he was already missing his ex-girlfriend as he looked around and saw Micah with her grandparents. Charlie was talking to his mother, and to Serena.
Which is troubling in its own way, but I cannot control everything he told himself. Even if I wish I could, but life has a way of surprising us.
He did not see Liz…
“And I believe that, yeah not so much so” Isabel laughed and got a smile out of her brother. “But given that you deserve your chance at happiness because I know you have taken on a lot these past years, and you deserve the same level of happiness that I have achieved with Kyle?”
“My life is okay sis,” Max said softly as he thought of all that he did have in his life. “I have Micah, and she’s a handful on a good day” he sighed as he thought of his bustling daughter, so youthful in her ambition, and energetic ability. “So, I cannot complain about my life. Because I know I am lucky, because it all could have been so different” he sighed he thought of his past, and how a single moment, and everything could have been different
for good and for bad “And when I consider where Michael is these days?”
“I know,” Isabel sighed as she thought of her lost friend. “But still if Liz can make you happy?”
“Isabel,” Max sighed as he thought of his ex. “This town is not Liz’s life anymore. Roswell is only her hometown. We do not rate for anything else as she does not live here, and she has a life that is settled far away from here, and I am going to be here for the long haul” he allowed.
Roswell is my town he thought.
I cannot leave, even if I could… “As she has said to me. Starting anything would be foolish when we both of responsibilities, and they are not conducive to being together.”
“Which is some nice rationalization, but yes, you both have different lives, but it does not mean you cannot try” Isabel asked. “Lives can always be molded…”
“Unfortunately, in this case, yes, it does,” Max sighed. “What we started a decade ago cost us
both a lot. And I do not want that for Liz, and she does not want that for me” Max sighed. “So, you should take your happiness that you have now that you and Kyle are married and are preparing for a new life together. And leave my life to me to deal with, okay?”
“I can be happy and do both at the same time,” Isabel laughed and then her face turned. “Listen to me Max. We have seen for ourselves that life is short. We lost Alex back in high school. I mean he did not have a chance to live to see his eighteen birthday and now with Michael… We cannot know what the future is for any of us, and especially even after today and marrying Kyle. We both know we are taking the chance of building a life together. It could all end tomorrow for all we know. Michael shows us that it
all can be taken from us in flash, and you do not want to lose out on something that might work now that you are both older, and wiser.”
“Leave my love life to me, okay?” Max asked as he glanced as he did recognize that life was short. And you would have to be foolish to give up on an opportunity of a lifetime when you are presented with it, seven years after losing out on that opportunity because you did not go after your dream girl when she left you…
“If you say so,” Isabel smiled as Max could see that Liz had yet to come back into the party zone.
*
“Are you sure you do not need any help?” Liz was asking in the back of the restaurant and knew while her parent’s place had done catering for big events before and had even done Isabel’s first marriage but still it was a lot of work, and this time she had not been around to help or supervise it. “I can give you a hand you know?”
“Honey, you do not work here anymore” Jeff smile as he glanced at his daughter. So, grown up. And so sure of herself even if her career was on a firm track, and her personal life was more off track but then there were things a daughter did not tell their father about her romantic life. And it helped that she lived in a vastly different part of the country or another country all together. “And you are guest at this wedding, so we have all the help we can handle” he assured her daughter. “Seems to me that you might want to stay away from
someone than wanting to help out your dear old parents with a wedding that is very manageable.”
“Dad,” Liz sighed.
“Look, honey. You are not sixteen anymore. So, you have a right to your own life. Which you have been capably managing for these last seven years without any input from your mother and me, so I know not too but it does seem as if you are perfectly settled in all parts of your life, but one.”
“Dad,” Liz tried again.
Jeff did not let his daughter an inch. “Lizzie, I know I gave you and Max a hard time back when you were in high school,
for good reason” he muttered as he said it, and Liz could only shake her head because she was very much aware of how much a time her father had given her for wanting to be with Max which was
for yes, good reason as any parent would be worried she would know but it did not mean she did not resent it, because she did she thought now, and I fought it until we won. And yet, in the end, I left she mused to herself because she knew it was a difficult time to get through because she had wanted Max and did not like seeing her father butting in and making it hard to see him.
“Yes, you did” Liz muttered.
“I was concerned, rightfully, at the time but now is not then,” Jeff murmured. “I cannot know what was going on back then for the two of you,” he sighed because there was a lot he
still did not know about that time and Liz knew it because while she did stay away from this town. She did know what had been said to the parents, or elements of what had been told and she knew that Phillip and Diane knew certain factors in their children’s life, but they did not know everything, and because certain events had not happened, then there was no need for them to know everything and especially with her staying gone. Such truths had not been imparted on her parents, and Liz knew this.
“I know Dad,” Liz sighed.
“But as I said that it obvious that times have changed. And I have seen Max these years, and he has been trying to do right by himself, his family, and especially
his daughter” Jeff said although he had not known Max to have been seen with any females, but then as with anyone. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors? Still, it was obvious Max was Micah’s father.
At least as to what Jeff had been told, and the town had been seen for themselves.
Although Liz now knew differently. “I am happy Dad; I promise that to you and Mom” she sighed. “I cannot complain about my life” she sighed as she gave the same excuse that Max had given to her sister. “I am still young, and if I want to concentrate on my career for now. Then that is what I should be doing” she said even though she was making a more concerted effort to get part of her personal life into movement.
“Fine but know honey that you can only work so much” Jeff sighed. “Which is something you told your mother and I the first time you wanted us to leave the restaurant and join you in Europe?” he smiled at the thought of the adventures he and his wife had with their only child. “Sometimes it is better to take it easy, and to be happy with other parts of your life” he asked. “You do not want to burn yourself out, do you?”
“Yes, Dad” Liz sighed as she desperately wanted to get away from that conversation that had been her sincere offer to help her father had turned into, and now she wanted out. “I do not think I am in any danger of burn out Dad,” she allowed and maybe she needed to concede that her father might be right.
If I am not burnt out, then why I am causing drama now? she wondered but still she was too fascinated with her career to change things completely. “But thank you for caring for me?” she smiled as she hugged her father. “It means the world to me that you and Mom worry so much about me.”
“Always, Lizzie, always” Jeff murmured. “You are our daughter,” he said with s smile. “We just want you to be happy. NO matter who it might be with,” he sighed as he looked at the festive atmosphere. “Are you going to go back and join the party?” Jeff asked.
“No, I think I will go upstairs, and look at my old bedroom” Liz sighed with a sudden desire to go up and return to a place that held so many memories, far more than her father even knew because that was the site of some unique times, and she wanted to see it. She had yet too, since she had left town all those years ago.
“Really?” Jeff asked, a little surprised at the decision by his daughter.
“This weekend has been about memories, of all kinds, so I might as well go up and see where I lived all those years” Liz laughed. “Or have you changed my room into a man cave in my absence?” she asked with a smirk, and Jeff laughed that his daughter would even think that “Given that I have not returned until now?”
“No, we were too busy with the restaurant or traveling to see you to do anything like that,” Jeff smiled. “It’s exactly the way you left it.”
Liz smiled as she hugged her father once more and allowed him to go back to his catering duties, and her mother as she walked upstairs.
Talking a step at a time. As she wondered if she really wanted to open this door to the past.
How bad can it be? she asked herself as she opened the door to her bedroom.
And walked through it, to a land of memories.
*
“Where did your daughter go?” Max asked a few minutes later when he saw that Jeff Parker came out from the back of the restaurant, but Liz had still not come back out, and he wondered why that was. As his eyes were already trained for any sight of her.
Was she hiding from me? Max asked himself.
Max do not give you that much credit he told himself. I
t is not always about you he told himself as this was Liz’s home at one time. And it was natural that his ex would want to spend some time elsewhere, and not with him even though he wished she could spend all his time with him. But that was not realistic,
but it would feel nice.
“She offered to help out, but when I rejected her offer. She decided to go up to her old bedroom and check it out,” came Jeff as he could sense how Max seemed far away. As his mind was elsewhere.
Likely thinking of my daughter Jeff wondered.
What else is new?
“Really?” Max asked surprised.
“She has not spent too much time here since she left as you know,” Jeff sighed as he did know how even if it was not in this restaurant. Max had made visits to other parts of this building, out of hope for his daughter to return. But she never did. Jeff had allowed it even though he had known Max was only hurting himself, but now he wondered if all meant something. “This is the first weekend back here in more than seven years.”
“Yes, I know,” Max sighed at the history of that time before and after she had left him. “I am just surprised she has not been up there before?”
“As I said, she has not spent time here?” Jeff murmured.
“If you are thinking that is because of me?” Max asked even though he did know that Jeff now accepted him, still old angst had a hard time dying, and he was never sure of what Jeff Parker thought of him. While he and his daughter were welcomed in the Crashdown, did not mean he was truly accepted because of what had happened years before.
“No, it is on my daughter as much as it was you,” Jeff allowed. “She is one who stayed away, for a lot of reasons. And certainly, Nancy and I have enjoyed our trips to spend time with our daughter but to know she is back, even if it is only for this weekend. It means the world to me to be able to see her back at home. Yet it is 2009 Max. Time goes on, and it changes people, and the past is the past.”
“If you sure, and yes, it does have a way of moving” Max sighed. “Time that is…”
“As I told my daughter, I cannot begin to understand what happened back then, but life goes on, and my daughter is happy and has been able to prosper in her career, and you have been able to be successful yourself in whatever endeavors you are up to these days” Jeff murmured as he knew that no one in town knew exactly Max was up to these days, in his chosen career.
There were rumors, but rumors can mean so much.
Max only nodded in response. “Thank you for that, and again, I am sorry for back then” Max sighed. “I only wish so much could have been different.”
“I know you do, but as long as my daughter is happy. That is all I care about at the end of the day,” Jeff sighed as he walked away as he was prepared to let the past reside well, in the past and there was that could be done today to change what happened during those days, and it was not like Max did not deserve the benefit of the doubt when today is a quite different time, and different age.
“And thankfully your daughter is
happy and alive?” Max muttered to himself as he looked around and saw his sister and Kyle having a good time. And his parents dancing and enjoying themselves. Serena was dancing with a relative of his, and Maria was just in the corner watching, and looking at him sternly. And he knew she knew, but he was not going to deal with that tonight because tonight still had so many opportunities, that were more meaningful than hoping for a miracle that was unlikely to come.
So, he turned, and went in the back, and went up to the roof…
*
Liz walked into her old childhood room and it felt like she was going back into a time loop and arriving back to those days in February 2002 when she vanished from this room for a saner life in Vermont because her life was in constant upheaval due circumstance and because of choices she had made because she had fallen in love with a boy who had changed the very fabric of her being. At the time, she had assumed she would be back. She was wrong, and now it was years later.
And everything was the same.
She had expected over the years that maybe her parents would have done something with her room because she had not shown any interest in coming back. So, why would they not take the opportunity to give them some space? Because for their daughter. Once she was finished with her studies in Cambridge. She was off to the next stage in her rebellious flight from Roswell. And a result. She had not come back.
Until now.
And so, this was the first time she was setting foot back into her old room. Since those days in 2002 when life changed from even the abnormal state it was in when she started to
change and exhibit powers that had
finally manifested after being in oblivion since her shooting in 1999. Although she could not say that she did have a warning of what it could be for her. Especially once Ava,
the duplicate of their Tess
long story she thought. Ava gave an ominous warning that she was different. She point-blank said that she Liz had been changed because of the shooting. To prove it. She had show how Liz could helped Isabel save Max from dangerous undertakings and as a result. It should have told them that she was different. And it did of course, but it was soon back to the oblivious nature of their lives. Where everything else was more important than the fact she had been given life altering side effects to being saved from certain death on that September day.
Those days seem simple. But they were not when it came to losing Alex. And then finding out they had been betrayed when they should have had their eyes opened, and seen that Tess had been coming for them because her arrival had caused confusion and conflict in her and Max.
We were given a warning, but we ignored it.
My god, Tess actually kissed Max and warped his mind and we thought she could see reason or that I am was with Max?
Yeah, right Liz thought now.
No, they should have taken it as a red flag.
But they had not and lived the consequences with the loss of Alex from their lives, and then the loss of their relationship.
Of course, Max had wanted her still after all they had experienced. But she rebelled and ran because she had wanted normal.
And she got that normal, and now she was back and seeing her old life through new eyes as she glanced around and seen the bed, she had dreamt so many dreams of Max in. It was the same one she had in senior year. The red pillows, white and red covers.
If only we could have so much more in this bed, she thought but they had
kept their interaction to the roof. She thought as she looked at the window that had brought everything to a different level for herself and Max. As she looked back around the room, as the room felt like it was touched by Max.
She remembered back to those days when he found herself upon a discovery of a lifetime. As she thought back to the fallout of her shooting. The fact she had been alive.
And had a silver handprint on her stomach as proof.
Shattering at the memory.
She saw the posters on her wall. The paint, and the books in the shelves. So, much is like it was in those days, but now, she was back seven years later, a completely different person. Sighing, she walked around and looked at it, now with an older eye.
And out of the corner of her eye, she spotted him.
Already on the roof. Looking in on her…
The searing eyes of the dark hair mystery man who had captured her heart at fifteen.
Max
*
Max did know why he had taken a beeline up to the roof instead of tracing her steps up the stairway, behind her. Maybe because this place had memories. And because he would have known that the bedroom would be more confusing, and she had more of a chance to shut the door on his face. But coming to the roof. He was outside, and in
their place he thought.
If any place had been theirs, it had been the roof.
Outside her bedroom. A place they could have put to much use if they had been different people. All American teenagers, who always did the right thing.
Until they did not, but that was another story all together. But they had kept their time on the roof for moments that captured so much about themselves.
A few kisses, and a lot of angst.
Their lot in life.
So, why would Isabel want to advocate for them trying to make it work when they could not make it work when they were younger, and in love, and thinking life could not be as bad as it was turning out to be. It turns out being an adult was a lot easiest than being a teenager and having the love of your life stumble onto the
real you and then watching as you screw that chance up before you got to make the most out of it.
So, he stood and then he heard the common into bedroom. That had been dark for so long. So many years without a ray of light in it. Because unlike his ex-girlfriend Max knew it had been kept almost as if it was a monument of lost time. The Parkers had not changed one iota of the room.
How he knew was, that on occasion. He would come up to the roof and looked down over the main street of the town. And looked through the locked window, which at one time had been open for him to slide through it, or most of the time, for her to slide right through to be with him. For a moment or two before life took them another route.
But now he knew she was here for real. And he turned and stared through the window, daring it to open.
And then he saw her…
Liz.
She stood almost paralyzed, and not sure how to respond. Should she turn around, and go back down the stairs, and return to her old life.
Go back to the party, and then vanish tomorrow.
But no, she stayed. She looked at him, as he was as desirable as ever as he stood and stared at her like she was the only one for him.
When the past tended that belief, and tore it apart, and made her question everything she held dear.
Which is why she left.
And now she was back. But for how long.
She did not know.
And then she did. As took a hold of her life, with the knowledge that she was no longer the eighteen-year-old who was indecisive about her life. Okay, maybe she was about her personal life. But she was supposedly older, and wiser, right?
Yeah, right, she asked herself once again as she walked over to the window and wedged it open despite it having dust and having not been open for a good seven plus years.
“Why are you here?” Liz finally uttered when she got open the door, and neither moving from their sides of it.
“This place has memories,” Max allowed as if Jeff Parker had not planted the seed. Since he was aware Liz’s father had known of his times of trespassing his property, outside his daughter’s bedroom. Jeff never said anything, allowed it, and ignored it. So, it was as if Jeff tonight was telling him something. “Your father said you had come up here, and I had to make sure that this time when I came, you were actually here?”
“What do you mean by that?” Liz asked. “Have you been here before?”
“A hundred or more times, although personally I have lost track the number of times I have come here over the years and been forced to see this window closed tight, and no evidence that you had come back,” he thought of the first time he had come here. Within hours of reading the
Good-bye Max letter she had written to tell her that she had left for boarding school because she could not have done it personally. Which goes with why she had not come back because it was hard to see him face and face, so she wrote a
Dear Max letter and she hated herself for not saying it face to face.
And then when he had called her at school, but she told him not to call back, and so he had not, and she had come back. And that had ended their association.
Seven years later, he was standing there, and he put his hand out, and she took, and the jump over the window ledge and came out, and they almost tumbled but they did not, and they stayed upright, and they were staring into their eyes.
“Hi,” Liz said.
“Hi,” Max smiled, and the simpleness of the smile almost undid Liz as she could only stare because stepping back and turning around and looking at the roof that had started their crazy story.
When he had come here and showed the depth of how he was looking at her all those years when he looked within her soul, and she looked within his…
“Why come back?” Liz asked.
“This was our place,” Max sighed. “Everything that happened had some meaning to here, and I needed to come here and remember as they walked to the edge and looked down at the town. As they looked down at the main street of their town. “I mean this was the place, where you first kissed me?”
When we kissed each other, Liz thought as they remembered back to those days as a heat wave had snapped, and mayhem had broken up in the hours before. And they had not taken advantage of it because they had been too much of a straight arrow
not that we did not try but they always had gotten denied. Now they were older, and should be wiser, and yet they were acting on desires that had not quenched themselves in the seven years since they last each other.
As the party was still bustling within her parent’s establishment, so no one was coming up and interrupting them.
They had all the time in the world.
And neither knew what to do with it.
As the did not say anything as they looked down at the mains street below them, as they saw Maria leaving. With Serena not long after her, and both knew what that meant.
But neither wanted to stop it.
Or say anything.