Liz sometimes wondered what she had done to deserve this life. She had always been an overachiever. Lauded for her brains and her love for science. She was going places. That is what she had been told since she was too young to know better. Just as she had been guided towards Harvard University either by her father plastering a poster of the institution over her bed or by her genuine desire to go to the university.
But after a while, she did not know what had come first.
Harvard University. It was her destiny.
She was so sure of it. So, why did it change? She did not know.
Yes, I do know she corrected herself. It was because of
one boy. One boy. One incredible boy. A unique soul if there was ever one. She did not regret that time in her life. Or that the love she had felt for him was not real and intense because it
was.
It was too intense by the end. Which is why she had to get out. She had to go to Northwestern when Harvard fell out of the picture because of the choices she chose for herself by entangling herself with that boy. It was another thing she did not regret because she would meet Brady.
Brady Liz thought now, with grief of a wife mourning the love that had allowed her to move on, and to have a family.
That white picket fence she knew Max wanted for her. One that they had not been able to achieve for themselves, because the hazards were too harsh, and too devastating which is why she had to get away. Go for the normal. But even then, she had not known how to achieve that until Brady.
Brady had given her a chance. By being a shoulder that she had needed when she had not even known that she needed him, or that there could be someone else.
Who was not Max? She had not known it was possible. Especially when she was sure Max was the only one. She had been so sure.
She was wrong. Because she had found Brady.
And now she had lost him, and she was facing the realization of being a widow and having to deal with two kids who were mourning the man they loved.
Their father. It would be so easy if Brady had been a crappy father or husband. But he had not been.
He had been a good man, and now he was gone. In a senseless death,
And Liz was trying to figure out how to make it through the day. Which is why she had needed to come to the Crashdown and see her parents. They were a symbol of who she was as a kid. And Mariah needed to see her grandparents after losing her father and to know her younger brother was in the hospital recovering from injuries from the same crash. And now to know she could be carrying the same condition that had likely killed her father.
Liz did not want to think that her daughter or son could have it.
Not Lex. He was only twelve. Mariah at fifteen was no better but she was stronger, and older and she could deal with it. Although what fifteen-year-old could handle losing their father due to a deadly heart condition on top of it. How could she help her daughter deal with the concept of death? When both of her parents were still alive and kicking, and the only death she had experienced was her childhood friend who had not gotten to see his eighteenth birthday
Okay Grandma Claudia, but she was taken by a stroke she thought. Sure, it was sudden, but she was a grandparent…
The only other death she had experienced, was ultimately a short-term loss
yeah, a long story Liz thought now and felt she was cursed
if Max could survive. Why could Brady not?
She knew why. Max was special.
She was given
one miracle. This time her luck had simply given out.
Just like Brady’s heart she cursed. “Are you okay Lizzie?” came her concerned father. Jeff had watched as Nancy had taken Mariah off to console her, after all, his wife had a special relationship with their granddaughter. Nancy and Mariah got each other.
Just like Lizzie and I did when she was younger, he thought. Eventually that had run its course when Liz of course got to an age when she would fall in love with someone and do things that would challenge their family and ultimately take her away from them because she had needed to get away.
Jeff was just happy to have his daughter back in the same town of his wife and him. Sure, to know she was safe in Chicago was good for his battered soul. But they missed their only child. Sure, they travelled to Chicago once or twice a year, usually around the holidays so that they could have an excuse to close the restaurant. But they have not seen their daughter enough. But it was better than how it could have been when their child had cut it too close and got lucky in the end. So, they took what they could get. Their daughter being in Chicago was a better place. But being back here in Roswell was even better, and he and Nancy were thrilled to have their daughter’s family back in town.
It had been only two weeks. And now of course tragedy strikes. He and Nancy had not gone to the hospital the previous night because it was all a whirlwind. And their daughter had not wanted them there, and it was hell for Jeff to have to wait for news. So, he was relieved to get a call from his daughter.
And to see her come through the door with Mariah. It was hell of a thing to know their grandson was in the hospital
Lex Jeff thought. Knowing his grandson preference for his name. Fun for his grandparents. They preferred his given name. But they understood their grandson’s desire for his own name.
Lizzie is a fantastic mother Jeff thought. Brady was the same as a father. It did not feel right to know Brady was gone.
They did not know everything their daughter might know but still they knew of the colossal mess nearby. It was not hard to when you run a restaurant in the heart of the tourist district of their town. Their town was after all, such a small place. Gossip got around to a frightening degree at astonishing speeds. Sometimes he and his wife were immune to the gossip. Other times they could not help but get drawn up into it. Because of course it helped that he ran a meet and greet, and his place was the melting pot of such gossip.
“Lizzie,” Jeff asked again.
“Dad, I am fine” Liz tried as she once again saw Kyle sitting with his daughter
Jaime. Such a replica of her father. Liz had not met his late wife. Teri was a student at the nearby high school when they were at West Roswell. And she, Liz, was already gone by the time Kyle had met and married his wife. Even though she had known he had been smitten with Isabel during the end of their high school career
hard not to see it, but Isabel had been with Jesse, and was trying to make it work, and Kyle had not interrupted it.
Only later did it change, and now they were raising their daughters together. Liz was happy for her ex. They were better off as friends, and both would admit it. “Dad, can you excuse me?”
“Of course,” Jeff said sighing because he knew his daughter needed to see her friends as he watched as Liz walked over to the table that held Kyle and Jaime.
“Liz,” came Kyle as Jaime had gone off when she saw a friend from school. “I am glad to see you, how are you doing?” he wanted to know as she sat down at the table with him as both took a few minutes. “I cannot imagine…”
“Being the talk of the town?” Liz said with a smirk but also a smile. “I am an old expert at that,” she sighed as she thought of how notorious she been those weeks at the beginning of their senior year when she and Max had gotten busted in Utah of all places.
You get the town to talk when you get arrested on armed robbery charges and only by the skin of your teeth did, you get out, and were able to come home. By doing what they did, they had gotten the town to talk about them, and even wonder what possibly could you be thinking? After all, she had been the favorite daughter, Growing up in the spotlight of this restaurant. People thought they knew her, but they did not.
Not by a long shot as they would find out.
She may have moved on from those days, but they stay with you when you come home to you small town after being gone a lifetime.
“That you are,” came a smiling Kyle. “I did not mean that…”
“I know what you meant,” came Liz right back. “My heart hurts, and I feel like I have been knifed in the stomach. I thought the worse I could feel was when Max and you know what happened,” she said of the event in senior year that she could not speak of in open space and air.
“Right,” Kyle nodded because of the lives they had both lived. It was all so close to the surface.
All the memories, good and the bad…
“Well, I was wrong. While this does not feel like that time because of course different experiences but still the pain is intense, and I cannot believe that I must feel it all over again, and to know this time, it all very real, and lasting, and that I have children to make sure they get through the days…?” she muttered because she still did not know how she was getting to be able to do it.
“Children,” Kyle muttered as he thought of his own daughter and caught a glimpse of her talking to Jessica. “They give us prospective,” he said sadly. “It might have been a different situation for me, but I know how it is to lose someone. It was a disease that got Teri in the end, but like Brady, they were both far too young, and it was a hell to get through, and to know I had to be there for Jaime?”
“It is,” Liz said sighing. “I am sorry that you have to know the feeling. But it does seem like Jaime is growing into a wonderful girl. I met her briefly at the hospital when she was doing her volunteering hours, while I was visiting my son.”
“She was,” Kyle asked surprised because he had not heard his daughter talk of it.
“She was visiting Lex,” Liz said softly. “Giving him the support that he needs.”
“Again, all this is senseless,” Kyle thought of the fate that had forced Liz’s son into the hospital with injuries that would take a long time to get over as he saw the commotion of his daughter, Jaime came back to the table with had its way of interrupting their talk. And not long after her arrival, Jessica joined her. As they both had seen the woman sit down and only Jaime could possibly know who the identity of the woman who was talking to her father. And now because of their brief encounter at the hospital earlier in the day. Liz could see Kyle in Jaime and see how she was so like her dad, and even her grandfather before her. “Dad,” came Jaime as Jessie chose to stay silent because she was not familiar with Liz. While the younger teenager chose to speak up.
“Girls,” Kyle said softly to the girls as they returned to the table as he recognized that time was ticking down and that their time together on this night was ending because of the other commitments for the kids. “I assume you have to be getting going Jessica?”
“Right,” Jessie said as she was quick to access Liz and the same went for Kyle’s former high school girlfriend as she was able to see her mother, Isabel in Jessica. As well as the girl’s father, Jesse
Another person lost to them.
But currently, Jessica took after mainly her mother, and it was obvious for Liz.
Recognizing that he had to make some introductions so that the girls did not get the wrong idea. “Girls, this is an old friend of mine.
Elizabeth Anthony Kyle said as he elected to speak of her married name which despite all this time, it still felt odd to say.
“It’s just Liz,” came the other party. “Nice to see you again Jaime,” she said softly. “I assume you are Jessica?” she said again as she got up from the table. “I knew your mother and father well,” she said and left off,
especially your uncle she thought.
That would be too much. “Nice to see you again Jaime. Thank you again for spending time with my son because he did appreciate it.”
“It was nice,” Jaime acknowledged. “I hope he gets better quickly…”
“Kyle, thank you, and I better get back to my daughter. Because I should not leave my parents too long with her,” she said. It was why she was here,
to see my parents she thought. “Another time.”
“We are always here,” came Kyle.
“I appreciate it,” Liz said softly as she walked past a table or two who had just come in and they were startled to recognize Liz because it was in the newspaper, what had gone down, and she knew as she told Kyle, she was infamous these days. Even though she longed to go back to when she was not, but it was hard these days. And there was too much water under the bridge to go back to how things were once because after all, you grow up and move on with life and react to the choices you have made, for good and for bad.
“That was Mrs. Anthony?” Jessie asked.
“Yes,” Jaime said softly. “As she mentioned I met her son today,” she said as she thought of how Lex was alone in the hospital. “It sucks.”
“Yes, it does” Kyle thought. “You did not mention it honey?”
“I spoke of it to Jessica,” Jaime commented. “Lex was alone in the hospital and wanted answers, and I kept hm amused before his mother and sister could join him,” she said. “It is uncool about his injuries, and to know what happened to his father,” she thoughts as she could not help but remember the fact that she had lost her biological mother. She barely remembered what she looked like. Sure, she appreciated how Isabel had been there for her over the years and that her father had kept a few pictures at home, but she had been so young, and her mind had a hard time coming with the memories.
“That is why we should be happy that it was bad enough last night,” Kyle thoughts as the events of the last twenty-four hours was warranting a parental lecture. After all, he knew how close it had been and how lucky they had, especially for his little girl, Jaime. At least Jessica could claim the fact she had an innate ability to recover but his daughter did not,
because she was blessedly normal although there were moments, he wished she had a bit of what Jessica had but he knew he should be happy, and he was but still it did warrant a lecture. “You two may have come through it fine, but you know to be cautious next time right. Please
do not get in the car with Mac if he is driving, okay, you two. Not until he has gotten his license, and even then, be careful,” because Kyle was all too aware of how Mac Guerin was riding too close to the edge these days. “Make sure River is driving.”
“Yes, Dad” came both girls. Because they knew they had gotten off easy that they had not gotten more serious injuries, and both had known they were walking a fine line, and yet they had taken the risk because they knew River was having one of those nights. But Jessica should have known better, and she did,
most of the time.
“Very well, let’s get going” Kyle said as he got up from the table as Jessica had to get down the street to the department. As the three made the walk together as Kyle made sure she made it there in one piece because of the death of Brady, and the injuries to Alex or Lex as he likes to be called were too close to home, and Kyle did not like to the memories that came back of their time in high school, and even his own brush with death
I got very lucky, if not for Max… he thought.
I… would be dead,” he mused to himself and hated to think he could miss falling in love with Isabel or the birth of his own daughter.
“Let’s get home,” Kyle said to Jaime after making sure Jessica walked through the doors of the station.
“Can I go to the hospital and see Lex,” came Jaime as a sudden desire to go the hospital and see Alex arose in her, as they walked back to the car, because he was there alone.
“Are you sure, because you should be home and studying?” Kyle asked.
“I am fine with that,” Jaime smiled. “Lex is all alone in the hospital…” she said softly. “My books will be there when I get home.”
“You are an amazing person honey,” Kyle said softly as he was seeing how his daughter was so much like her late mother, as she was so compassionate, and Teri had been so like their daughter. He prayed his daughter would not lose that ability to help others as she grew up, as he pulled the car out of the parking lot, and they drove over to the hospital.
*
This place rocks Mariah thought as she toured the childhood bedroom of her mother. As she had come to the apartment with her grandmother to get away from the crowds. And to talk, and it
had been nice to talk to her grandmother in person instead of over the phone or on Skype. So, they had come up here while her mother stayed downstairs in the restaurant with her grandfather. But then the phone rang, and her grandmother answered it and was drawn into a long-ish call by Mariah standards and so she started to walk around and found herself at the room that had its door closed, but not locked. Instinct told her that it was her mother’s room.
She opened the door and walked in and found her mother’s room and it was not unlike the room she had when they were back home.
Chicago, she thought.
That is home to me. She did not know if she could ever think of Roswell as home. This might be where her grandparents resided and where her mother grew up, but it was a town she did not know. Because she had been kept away.
She always wondered why.
This place looks ordinary to me Mariah thought now. Nothing bad or offending about the small town.
It is just not Chicago she thought. She walked and spotted the window and looked out and saw the roof. Which is why she thinking this room was particularly rocking.
It would have been fun to have a roof, and to have an easy exit she thought as she imagined what she could have done with it Nope, my old room had no ladder.
It has a security alarm she thought because her parents were paranoid about security. Citing the fact
her grandparents came from money.
She stepped away from the window and saw the poster and one side of the wall. One of Harvard University.
Weird she thought since she knew her parent’s ala Marta was Northwestern, and that they had met there and had gotten married and had her
because she was pregnant Mariah knew. She could count the dates from her parent’s anniversary to when she was born, and how they waited to have her brother. It did not bother her because she figured her parents loved her, and which is why they are still together,
or were Mariah was forced to think.
She continued to look around.
It was all so normal It did not seem right that her mother came from here and because
why stay away and not bring Lex and me here she thought.
This place does not look terrible. She knew Grandma and Grandpa Parker were awesome parents, and they loved their grandchildren and especially their daughter.
So, why stay away and not bring us she wondered, and she asked her dad once when her mother had indeed come back here for a visit.
It is complicated was what her father said,
it is your mother’s past, and she does not like to talk about it he said.
Even to you? She asked.
Even to me her father had remarked, but it was obvious to her that her father knew more than he was saying to his daughter about his wife’s former life.
Of course, there is always secrets she thought as she saw a crack in the wall and then heard her mother’s voice calling for her grandmother. She wandered over to the wall and saw it was a loose brick, and she was curious, so she removed the brick, and found a hole.
Curious. She saw a book inside it. She wondered what it could be, so she removed it, and opened the front cover and realized with shock that it was her mother’s diary
Whoa she thought as she saw the opening words,
its September 23rd and five days ago I died… and Mariah did not know what to do, and then she saw the door opening, “Grandma,” she asked as she expected to see Nancy peeking through, and but no, it was not her grandmother.
It was her mother.
Mariah was quick to put the book in the bag, and she was quick to put the brick back, and turn her attention to her mother. “Mom?”
“Honey, what are you doing in here?” Liz asked. “Your grandmother did not know where you had gone, and I saw the door was unlocked…”
“It was already, so it is not like I broke into it,” Mariah muttered in defense of her herself. “This was your room, was it not?” she asked of her mother.
“I did not think you broke in,” Liz asked wearily. As she finally had a chance to look around and yes, she knew this was a room she left when she left for Northwestern, and after things had gone downhill with Max. She had not been back in here since those days. Because on the rare time she did come back to this town. She usually stayed wherever Maria and Michael were staying, or in a motel if she could not arrange suitable arrangements because it was usually a short-term visit when she did come back to her hometown.
“So, you did not answer me, this is your room?” Mariah asked.
“Yes,” Liz said softly.
“It must have been cool to grow up in this room and have your access route out,” Mariah asked of the window that led to the roof. One that Liz did not have to see to know, because of the memories associated with that roof
I will never forget it she thought of the place she had shared her first kiss with Max.
“It was cool, alright” Liz said without elaborating as she did look around and see how her father had kept it like a time capsule of that time.
I have been gone a long time she thought.
They could have done anything with this room, but they could not.
They kept it the same she thought as she saw that it was the same as it had been during those closing months of senior year.
“All this appears to be so normal, so why did you not bring Lex and me back here to see Grandma and Grandpa?” Mariah asked as she could not help but wonder.
“You saw your grandparents,” Liz with limited success of her choice to keep the kids away from this town, and if they had not chosen to relocate here, she probably would have kept it up until the kids were old enough to visit on their own, although Mariah was pretty much already there, which did not make Liz that relieved.
To know her daughter was that close to possibly repeating old patterns. That is why she had been okay with coming back to Roswell because her hometown was a small town in its heart and therefore you could get into more trouble in a big city, even if you lived in the suburbs.
“Not the same thing as coming here, and we did not see them that often” Mariah muttered as she thought of all she
did not know of her mother’s past. She never really thought of it, but now that she was in Roswell. She could not help but question it.
“Because of the restaurant” Liz thought. “They could only take so much time away from it.”
“Then what is
your excuse?” Mariah muttered.
“This is not the place for this,” Liz muttered. “Let us go and spend some time with your grandparents before we have to head home,” she thought of the fact she did not want to defend to her own daughter the reasons why she had chosen to keep her kids away from Roswell. Simply because she knew she did not have any good reason for it. Brady was always supportive of it, because he had been able to spend time with them when she was gone, but she knew her husband had always had those questions to even though she had been able to tell
some of it to her husband.
But not
all of it but she knew she was in unchartered territory now as she thought of returning to the home that was their home now, and she was still not too anxious to go back there but she knew she had to move on, one step at a time. Brady would want them too, as she would have wanted it to be if the situation was reversed.
“I guess,” Mariah muttered as she grabbed her bag, and walked out of the room with her mother and as Liz looked back at the room as she closed her bedroom with a brief display of power, as she locked it.
Unaware of her daughter’s glimpse at the green display.
WTF Mariah thought but chose to follow her mother back to where her grandparents were waiting without another word
What just happened, she asked herself.
“Is everything alright,” Jeff asked of his daughter and granddaughter.
“Yes, everything is just perfect” Liz said as she looked at her daughter, who only nodded. “Do you have to go back downstairs?”
“I have a few minutes,” Jeff said as he smiled. “I am only glad the both of you are here, and hopefully Lex will be able to join you two very soon.
“I hope so too,” Liz thought of her son. Which was a reminder of how different her life was from when she left town after graduation. Time has given her a different life, and she was not going to take it for granted.
She could not…
*
A different life for sure as River Evans walked into the Crashdown after leaving his grandparents. He needed as sugar rush before heading home and dealing with his father. As his grandmother Diane had served homemade apple pie for dessert and most times River loved his grandmother’s cooking and especially her baking, but it did not do it for him tonight, but he had enjoyed the company of his grandparents despite it.
They were refreshingly normal, and River appreciated it given his abnormal life, and dysfunctional relationship with his father. Which did not hamper his relationship with his grandparents nor aunt even though they thought the moon hung on his father, and River was one who knew how complicated his father truly was, or so he thought. And he did not want to deal with it, so he stopped in for an Alien Blast or Sundae.
Something to get me going. But his mood significantly improved a few minutes later as he saw Mariah as she walked through the back door, alone or so he thought. River had sudden this desire to know how Mariah was doing after the unbelievable events of the night before. As he had heard of what happened to her father, and he could not belief how cruel life was. Sure, he had lost his mother, but it was not like he could claim to have any memories of the woman. It was not like he grew up with the woman and then had her taken from him in such a cruel way. Especially in a town who could not claim to know, which is why he felt for Mariah. “Well, hello…”
“Yes, it is” Mariah muttered because this was a surprise for her because her mother was still upstairs and she was finding the apartment small and restrictive and needed time alone, and so she had come downstairs but was not prepared to see someone she knew. Especially since she was still new to this town, and she barely knew anyone because she only begun at the high school. “What are you doing here?”
“Getting reinforcements aka a sugar rush before I deal with home,” River confessed.
“Oh, right” Mariah muttered as she remembered the experience, she had with River’s father at her Aunt Maria’s home.
“Look my dad?” River tried,
I know the man is complicated, but he is still my father, he thought.
Obviously, we have our issues, but he is not a monster. He just cannot help himself he thought and wondered what happened if he had invested himself in a relationship, and had it fall apart because of choices you made during a weak moment.
I have not been in love yet, but I am not looking forward to it he thought as he smiled because despite unimaginable pain, something about Mariah drew her to him.
“Parents, I know” Mariah muttered. “It’s okay…”
“Yeah, I guess” River nodded, and he could see the grief on Mariah’s face even if she were trying to put on a façade. “Look, your father…” he said as he had no idea of how to really address what he wanted to say. “How are you doing?”
“Better than I was, but still I am little raw which is why it was good to come see my grandparents,” Mariah said softly as she still could grasp the idea that her father, the man she had looked up to all her life was now gone and had been taken from her in such a way. It still did not seem real. Which is
why I am probably able to function.
“Your grandparents own this place?” River asked as he had forgotten how close this truly was or how crazy it was. While he had known the owners of this place had a daughter
who never visited according to the gossip of this place, and they had grandchildren, but River had never made the connection.
Bizarre to think Dad loved the owner’s daughter he thought and knew of the theme of the restaurant ran too close to comfort to his life,
aliens.
Are you kidding me? River would think now as he was making the connection.
“Yes,” Mariah nodded. “Believe it or not, this was the first time I have visited this place since we have relocated here…”
“Really?” River asked as he could never imagine not going to the place his grandparents lived. Of course, he had grown up in his grandparents’ home for a time until his father decided he had enough of being at home, and move the two of them out, and they have been on their own ever since. But he loved visiting his grandparent’s home, and especially given how normal they were in comparison to his own home.
Crazy he thought.
“As I said, my brother and I did not come here…” Mariah muttered
One of the mysteries of this. “I would have love to have experienced this place before now. I mean with everything going on…”
“Yeah,” River nodded. “It really is a great place. I come here all the time,” he thought of one of the benefits of coming into town for school even though he lived out of the district and should be going to the other school in town. But because he had family in town, well, they made exceptions for him given everyone and their parents knew he lived with his father outside of town.
Not that his father braved to come into town much
if you ignore last night he thought. And he wanted to ignore last night and knew Mariah would want to ignore it for obvious reasons.
“Here comes my mother,” Mariah said of the door that had opened and yes, out had come her mother, also her grandparents. Now that River spotted them and now that he knew some of the history between their parents, although he suspected Mariah was still in the dark. Still there was a lot he still did not know. And he suspected
neither of them would not like it if he knew.
“Mariah,” came Liz as she approached her daughter. “You friend I take it?” she asked as she knew she recognized the teen from the hospital the previous night. If not for the uncanny resemblance to the past.
“It’s River Evans Mrs. Anthony,” River murmured.
“Yes, I remember you” Liz said softly. And while the blond hair was reminisced of course of Tess
unfortunately she thought. Still, she saw a good deal of Max in River.
There goes the daydream of maybe Tess lied about the paternity all these years she mused to herself. “You can call me Liz since I am quite familiar with your family.”
“You go back with them, do you not?” River asked.
From the way he worded it, Liz sensed River knew a hell of a lot more than her own daughter of her past in this town and with her family. And Liz was sorry for that because she did have regrets about staying away although if not for their relocation, she might have kept up her reluctance to come back to her hometown.
Brady had tried to warn me that this would happen she thought.
And he had, and now he was gone. “Yes, I do” she said softly. “A lot went down before I left town for Chicago.”
River nodded.
“I knew you briefly before I left town,” Liz said softly. “I am glad you have been able to have a good life here in Roswell because I know how concerned your father was about you before you came to live with your father.”
“Really?” River asked. “That does not sound like my father at all. Because the last thing he has been concerned about is me…” he muttered
he has been mourning you he wanted to say but wisely did not, as he thought of his father. Because while his father might want to rewrite history. All River knew was that the last thing his father had been, was concerned about him.
“You are wrong about that,” Liz muttered as she stood uncomfortable about the notion that life could have changed so drastically for both Max and River once she had left town. Everything your father did back then was about you,” she thought.
It was you she even though she wanted to shudder at the memory. And those words invoked powerful images in her, but she knew too much time had gone by to think that she had been the one who mattered to Max when it was his son he had chosen.
A choice that was wise and necessary she told herself now. She would not have wanted to be on the other side of the choice if it meant giving up his son it might have felt nice, but she knew there was many wild cards associated with being who Max was for him to pick her, and for them to move onto the future knowing he had given up his son for her. Because of the baby’s birth mother who had taken Alex from them.
It was never me, she thought.
She was able move on, and find someone who wanted her, for being her, and who was normal, and who could give her children.
Brady was that for her,
Brady she thought. She did not regret it as she looked at her daughter who was mystified by the tone of the conversation. And Liz knew she was right to crave normalcy and be able to provide that for her children. Because Roswell had provided too much of the opposite during that time in high school. She would never have wanted to provide that for her children.
She knew she was lying to herself.
And she felt the power of the glaze from
Max’s son she thought.
The baby who changed everything for her she thought. She knew he was accessing her, just as he knew more than he should.
She needed an exit, and she found it.
“I will leave you to talk,” was all Liz could say before walking away so that she could get away from the memories that looking at River invoked. After all, she needed to concentrate on the life she had now, and the life she had just lost.
For the sake of her children
the children Brady gave me.
“What was that about?” Mariah thought as she watched as her mother walk away.
“Nothing,” River thought as he was getting a glimpse of the woman who had walked away from his father because of
him.
Mariah suspected there was more.
“I think I better get on that sugar rush,” River said. “See you around…” as he knew how complicated it was to spend time with Mariah knowing that there was history between their parents.
Mariah nodded as she watched River walk away. “Are you okay honey” Nancy Parker asked as she had seen how her granddaughter interacted with the Evans kids.
River Evans. As she knew as well as anyone how messy it was given her own daughter’s history with the boy’s father. “You might not want to get too involved with River, honey.”
“Why is that?” Mariah asked, curious for a moment. Putting away her grief for her father. “There was something obviously going on. “I barely know him.”
“You might want to keep it that way,” Nancy advised. She might not have anything against the Evans boy, and she had mostly gotten over what had gone down between his father and her daughter. Time moves on, and it helped that her daughter had moved on, even though she had was hiding from this town, and she knew it was Max that was the reason, and how intense it had been during that time.
“Why?” Mariah wondered. “What do you have against River?”
“Nothing, honey” Nancy sighed. “Nothing at all…”
“It’s his father, is it not?” Mariah asked as she was putting two and two together from the interaction between her mother and River. “This has to do with how he was looking at my mother?”
What makes you think that?” Nancy asked but she knew it had everything to do with how his father reacted to her daughter, even though she had not been there at the Guerin house, but she knew the past was too heavy.
*
At this moment Max did not know Liz’s daughter was being dissuaded by her grandmother to stay away from his son. Max probably would not be surprised by the development given that he knew how Nancy and her husband felt about him, although the level of distrust had been ratcheted down many levels in the years since he almost landed their daughter in prison for a considerable amount of time if it was not for him. Liz might have decided to come along on the journey to find the very son that would end them. But he had not dissuaded her and told her it would only cause her pain and angst, because of course he had not known just how far they would go in his plan to find his son.
The very son who had become disengaged from over the years because of the relationship that ended and his reluctance to move on. And now that same baby was a teenager and embarking on his future. Therefore, Max was walking down the same sidewalk that his son was walking along after leaving the Crashdown.
The heater was still dysfunctional
probably trying to tell me something he muttered to himself. And after his sister left, and despite his wish for the coldness of the house which match his heart since he lost Liz. But the reality of being in a cold house came face to face with reality. And he knew the house was not fit for man or beast, the very worst beast. And he had met a few of those during his years.
So, he took the car out of the garage. A car he had been hiding since he bought it when he was almost a senior in high school. And kept as a keepsake because he barely used it because he did not want anything to happen to it. But because his son had taken the other car. Max needed something, and he needed to come into town.
Forsaking his normal ban on the town he grew up in, but lived on the outskirts of…
As he called his parents and naturally his mother had jumped at the chance to have her son in the house. A house he had grown up, but barely been in since he left it. Because he did not like the memories of who he was once. And his son was not taking his calls. River tended to ignore his calls, and so to tell his son not to come home. Max had to come and find the boy.
Which was no easy task for a father who did not know his son or his routine.
You do not have to tell me how I am a terrible father because he had certainly gotten that lecture many times in the past twenty-four hours.
Now he was trying to find his son. And he spotted the blonde hair as he turned the corner where he had parked his corvette. River was walking alone, and he spotted his father and stopped. Because this was a rarity. “What do you want?” he muttered as his father approached. “Could you not give me a night off from…”
“What, me?” Max asked softly. “I would if I could and you are free to do what you want to do but I only came to find you because I had to tell you that we are spending the night at your grandparents because the heater is out, and it’s too cold in the house.”
“Since when did that bother you before, to be in a cold house, I mean?” River asked.
“Well, it bothered me tonight,” Max muttered.
“Whatever,” River muttered right back.
“Go on and do your thing,” Max said right back.
“Like you care,” River sighed as a door nearby opened and both realized by the flashing lightning which was glowing in the darkness of this night that it was the Crashdown
Ugh, Max would think. As it was obvious who it was.
Liz and Mariah.
“Just great,” Max would say out loud. The way things were going well it was going to be inescapable in that they would be running into each other. As he prayed that things would not get out of control with his son.
As Max theorized, Liz and Mariah could not help but find themselves from coming upon Max and his son River. Both women were finally ready to go home because of the night was ending and they had a nice time with Jeff and Nancy, but it was time to get home and deal with the future.
Liz had a funeral to plan. And other arrangements to deal with, plus a son in the hospital recovering from dire injuries.
That would take weeks, months even to overcome. So, she had to get home and start to deal with the new status in her life. So, she and her daughter both overcome with thought and in their minds and did not see who they were approaching. And therefore, Max and River had more of a forewarning.
Oh god Liz thought when it did come clear who they were running into.
Not now. Please not now she muttered out loud. River was almost amused by the notion of this run in, and he was almost pleased by how uncomfortable it was making his father. Since he had never known this of his father. His father was always uncomfortable, but this was plain angsty and that and in its own way, unbearable.
But it was also amusing for River because he did not mind if his father was tortured in this way.
Max was the first to say anything, and it was as simple as “Liz” he said softly as this was the first time they will have spoken since they had not shared a syllable that morning when the world was crashing around Liz.
“Max,” Liz said for the first time in sixteen years.