Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 31 - 07/30/2025

[Parker1947]

“Yes, I am” Maria admitted. Because it needed to be said. It had come to this. I knew it was going to come out she sighed. She hated this. She hated the disgust on her best friend’s face, as she looked at her. Maria knew she deserved the feelings of rage. She hated this. Of course, she knew that Jim and Michael would be mad that she was confirming all this to her best friend. But it was not like she had much choice on the matter. It is not even about saving our friendship she thought. It is about the fact that Liz has a right to know.

We cannot keep this lie going.

Not from Liz.

Maybe the general public, but not Liz.

She knew if she did not say something than it would definitely be considered a lie. And she was never going to lie to her best friend. She flinched when she saw the devastation on her friend’s face. Not for the fact that Max was dead, but because he’s alive…

And she spent the last three months trying to make peace with the fact that’s he was gone, and we allowed her to think he was dead, when we knew.

“I am sorry Petunia,” Maria said softly.

Flinching at the term of endearment, something she had liked in the past and now it only made her cringe, “Don’t call me that,” Liz murmured in an icy tone and Maria felt the slap of the words be denied “I cannot believe it,” her friend said. “It was all a lie?” she murmured. “You made me believe he was dead.”

“He really died Liz,” Maria said softly. That part of it was true.

She knew this was a ludicrous story to have to tell the woman Max really loved, when Liz should have known all a long.

“Obviously he did not stay that way,” Liz muttered. “Are you telling me history revisited itself?” she asked. “And he flew into a new body,” she asked. As she recalled the surreal events in Vermont. Not waiting for a nod from her friend or a rejection before she continued on. As flashes played in her mind of that deadly day. “Because I was there remember Maria. I remember him dying in my arms Maria. My arms,” she whispered in a strangled tone. “I still live with that feeling. That day. Max jumping in front of the bullets, and taking them for me” she said, and kneeling down, and hearing how he loved me. How it was only me who he loved” she cried. “It was only me,” she said. “And his eyes closed, and his heartbeat dimmed to nothing.”

“As I said, he really died” Maria murmured as she hated provoking memories of something she had not even seen. “Of course, we were not there at those moment” she said of the fact the had been on their honeymoon. She and Michael had been able to have the chance to get away, only for the terrible news to reach us and she remembered the paleness of her new husband’s face when he was told what had happened when Isabel had reached them. A day of seeing the sights had led them coming back to their honeymoon suite, with plans of spending some alone time only for the message to be waiting. Michael had called right back, only to be confirmed… “Isabel told us, he was dead.”

“But he was not dead?” Liz asked as she was trying to make it make sense. But it was not making sense, how could it?

When she had believed something so completely different for three months.

When the opposite was true.

“Yes, he was” Maria murmured. “To hear Jim tell us, he was put in the ambulance and taken to the hospital. For final call of death, and you know whatever protocol there is?” she asked as almost a question because she would be the last person to know.

But Liz knew.

“I know,” Liz said. I was in medical school at one time she told herself. “A hospital has to call it before it’s finalized.”

“Anyways, they assumed he was…” Maria murmured. “And from all appearances he was. But at the hospital, something happened…”

Liz’s eyes perked up, as she remembered that day. She had not wanted to go in the ambulance. Because I was the mistress, remember she thought. She knew enough decency, not to go to hospital. All she had was seeing Max’s eyes and body go cold, and yet know he was still warm. But she knew that the hospital had to make the final call and then turn it over to the Sheriff Department. She already knew how it looked. But it had come down to the fact she had been too devastated to ride to the hospital and hear the final determination when she knew she had already seen him die. She had not wanted to be there and did not feel like it was right. I was not family she knew.

So, she had gone to the closest bar, and then liquor store, and then barricaded herself in a motel room until Maria came and found her, she had to have known by then she moaned of her alcohol haze run, while the ambulance had roared off towards the hospital.

“Phillip and Diane were called, so was Isabel” Maria murmured. “Who came from the field trip,” she said softly. “So, it was only their parents who were there in the beginning, but she soon arrived. They met the ambulance at the hospital. Ready to hear the final call and confirm of course that it was Max” she said of the family identification. “They made the call…”

“Obviously it did not take,” Liz murmured with a hysterical laugh. “God, this is incredible" she said out loud.

Maria nodded. She hated how she was hurting her friend. But forcing Liz to remember but also to confront something that was different from what she was believing the circumstance to be. “Isabel called us and left a message. Imagine how it was for Michael and me to get that message,” she said softly. But Liz was not ready to give any sympathy to her friend because of what she had been forced to endure these last three months. And it was not something Maria was expecting to be given so she continued on, “From what I know of it. Isabel had not wanted to stay at the hospital. So, she had gone to collect the twins…”

“She left her parents at the hospital?” Liz asked.

“We all react in our own way,” Maria sighed. Grief makes us all act differently “She started to make the calls,” she said softly. “She sat the twins down…”

Shit!

The twins Liz thought. It was not only her they lied too she moaned. “You allowed his children to believe he was dead.” she asked of the confusions he had seen on Ella’s face; her dreams are trying to tell her the truth.

“At that point, he was dead” Maria murmured. “Or it seemed to be that way.”

God this is so farfetched she thought. She knew it was, and of course if she had not lived through it once before, when she was a teenager and if she did not already know that they were dealing with aliens, well, I would think I needed to be back in that insane asylum she thought. But she knew what she was dealing with, even if she did not know how they got here. “At the hospital, just when they were ready to move him to the morgue,” Maria was saying.

“Yeah, what did happen?” Liz asked. As if she did not already have a pretty good idea. She did and she still could not believe it.

“Life started to flicker into Max,” Maria said softly. “Somehow, I don’t how it happened. But his body came back to life,” she said softly. “The same body that we knew him to be. It was only Phillip and Diane and Jim in the room, when their son came back to life.” she said. “By the time Michael and I came back to town. A funeral was being planned. Because it was decided that they had a pretty good idea who did it, and they came up with his plan to make everyone believe he had died for real,” she said softly. “To go through the formality of it, which meant, allowing the children to continue to believe that he was gone.”

“And me?” Liz asked. “You allowed me to believe he was gone.”

“It would not have been my choice Liz” Maria murmured. “I wanted to tell you. That was the first thing out of my lips. When I realized they had not told you. But Jim would not let me.”

“Why not?” Liz asked. “If this was about secrecy. Then that is a bunch of hogwash because I can keep a secret?” she asked. I have kept a doozy for the last more than a decade. “The thing about me, is that I pretty good at secret keeping.”

“I know you are. They know you are,” Maria murmured. We are all skilled at keeping secrets. “But it came down to the fact they knew who it was…” she said softly. “They wanted to protect you…”

“Who?” Liz asked. “Who did it?”

“Yvonne!” Maria admitted. “Or she was the one who hired the gunmen,” she said softly. “She went there that day to confirm her husband’s destination, so she could have it done.”

“But she had not known he was there. She did not see him” Liz moaned of the last moments, the last hours she had spent with the mans he loved. Or I thought they were last moments she thought. And maybe they were she thought. “She never saw him,” she said softly. “I made a show of it.”

“But she had a pretty good feeling” Maria murmured. “She set the stage,” she muttered. “And Max proved it when he walked out of the house,” she said softly. “Of course, we only have the word of the gunman that she had hired to do it…”

“Why?” Liz asked. “Why would Yvonne want Max dead?” she wondered. “Me?”

“It was not even about you,” Maria murmured. “Or the affair she was assuming Max was having with you, but it came down to the money. She believed she was going to make out like a bandit in the will” Maria admitted. “She believed she would get more out of having her husband dead than she would get out of a divorce settlement,” she said. “Because she knew what the agreement Phillip got her to sign. On that score, she was probably wrong. She probably would have made out better if she gave him the freedom that he wanted. Because if he had wanted bad enough than Max might have made it more than worth it. But then, she did not know her husband had already gone to his father to make changes,” he allowed.

“Putting me in the will?” Liz asked. “Yvonne did not know this?”

Maria nodded.

“But he’s alive,” Liz asked, as she was trying to come with terms with this shocker, and I am not sure I can believe it she thought, but she was forced to consider if it was true, then it means Max still was tied up, “So they are still married” Liz asked.

“She does not know this,” Maria muttered. “She still thinks he’s dead. The world does too. Obviously,” she said, and Liz shook her head in derision at her friend’s words. “She slipped out of town thinking that her husband was dead and found herself down in the Caribbean” she said softly. “Making a show of it apparently,” she said softly, “Not that we know much about her life down there…”

“Why did Jim not arrest her?” Liz asked. “IF he knew?”

“We don’t have proof, and she made her getaway before Jim was able to find out more about the circumstances of what went down, and how it was planned” Maria murmured. “At the time, right after the funeral,” she sighed. “We were just happy that she had left town.”

“Why not tell me?” Liz asked. “If she was gone…”

“She is still out there,” Maria murmured. “If we had told you that Max was alive but is hold up in a secret location. We did not know if word would drift down to where Yvonne had relocated, and especially if it did seem if you were happy. And at the end of the day, you would want to see him.”

“You were right,” Liz murmured as it as sinking into her that Max was not dead. But alive. He’s alive. “Where is he?” she asked as the thought of having Max back in her life drifted back into her brain, Oh god. Where is he?

“I cannot tell you,” Maria murmured.

“Unbelievable,” Liz sighed. “Really?” she asked of her best friend. Some friend.

Maria knew she was on thin ice with her friend. “I am only doing what I am being told,” she said softly. “Liz, we wanted to protect you…” Maria murmured. “But most of all. We want to protect Max.”

“Well, if any of it was about protection than you did a lousy job at it,” Liz murmured. “Because if this was about protecting me. You allowed me to believe the love of my life was dead. You let me lose it,” she said softly. “And worse, you allowed the real mastermind to ruin my life.”

“We did not know she would do that” Liz said. “We thought she would leave you alone” she said softly. “If you were gone. If you stayed away from here, then she would not care” she said. “Because you would have no reason to come back here. So, that is why I was not trying to get you to stay,” she said. “I knew you wanted to leave. Leaving was what was the best…”

“Well, you were wrong, weren’t you?” Liz muttered. “Because by believing she had succeeded in her goal of dispatching her husband. She was free to mess with my life. Because I took what she believed was hers, she muttered. “First Max, and then the money. Maria, she screwed with my job,” she said. “She ruined it all for me,” she said. “I have nothing left.”

“I am sorry…” Maria said.

“You can say that all day if you want, but the truth of it was this was all a set of lies,” she said. “You could have told me, and I would have kept it a secret. Because we both know I am good at it. And about Max. Even if I would have wanted to see him. I love him, Maria. I would never want to hurt him, and I know I have done so in the past. And I have lived to regret it, but I would not do it again. And so, I could have stayed away. But you guys did not give me the chance to make that decision. Instead, you kept something fundamental from me” she murmured. “And that is something I cannot forgive,” she demanded and twisted and walked past Maria, and stormed out of the apartment.

With the door slamming behind her.

“Damn it,” Maria murmured.

This is not good.

Nope.

“What is going on?” Nancy Parker as she walked inside the apartment a moment later. “Maria, what are you doing here. “What is going on?” she asked. “I just saw my daughter. She was cursing and storming out of the restaurant.

“Did she tell you want was going on?” Maria asked.

“No,” Nancy shook her head. “She was too mad.”

“Good,” Maria murmured.

“So, what is going on?” Nancy asked once more.

*

Because Nancy had no idea what was going on. And Maria was not able to fill her in, because she knew they had to keep the truth to as little of a group of possible. She also knew she did not want Jeff or Nancy to know because they would be on their daughter’s side. And would not be looking at it from the other side. Naturally she thought. “Sorry, can’t tell you” she said simply. “I better be going,” she said simply. Because she had a good idea of where her friend was going. And if indeed that was where Liz was going.

Then it would be bad news. And she needed to do some heading off, assuming that was possible. Of course, she did not know.

Liz has a right to be pissed off.

“My daughter…” Nancy asked.

“She will be fine” Maria said softly. She has better be, she thought. “Liz will be okay Nancy” she sighed. Even if she did not know if her friend would be.

“She has had a lot to deal with,” Nancy sighed. “We don’t want to be upset.”

Too late Maria muttered to herself, as she knew I just delivered her a whopper of more baggage to her she sighed. “I know you and Jeff are concerned and you have a right to be but that the end of the day your daughter is strong, and she will make it through.”

Nancy nodded, as she wondered what had happened between her daughter and her best friend. Because since childhood her daughter and Maria had been the tightest of friends, nothing had gotten in the middle of their friendship she thought. Even when they had disagreements she thought. She knew her daughter and Maria were like sisters.

And now something was in the middle of that sisterhood.

And Nancy sensed something was amiss.

There was, but it was not something Maria could tell her friend’s mother because she knew she had already made this situation more complicated by bringing Liz into the circle. As much as Liz needs to be in this, still we have to protect Max “I have got to go,” she said softly.

Nancy nodded, and watched Maria walk off.

She started to dial her daughter’s cellphone, but got nothing…

She did not know what that meant.

*

Neither did Liz as she started walking. Being it was Roswell and not a bigger city. So much was on the main street, and it did not take long to get to the Sheriff Department, because yes, that was where she was going. Her mind was shot. She did not know what to think or do. She simply was reacting, and she knew that was not good.

Because it was not something she did especially well, and that had been her mode of operating these past three days, but everything was different now. All she could think of was all the ways they were different. Max, she whispered. Her mind was with Max, as people walked around her, and the main street was bustling. People going all over the place.

She had her mission. And she was in a trance as she tried to get to her destination.

She needed answers.

On the surface, she knew Maria was probably correct. Her friend would have wanted to tell her, we don’t keep those kind of secrets she thought of the fact she had been the one who eventually had brought her friend into the secret of a lifetime when she had confessed and told Maria that Max was an alien.

That had set off three years of heart ache and pain but also thrills and mayhem. And a lot of that was experienced at the same time. As they both fell for their own alien. So, she believed Maria would not have wanted to keep it from her, but at the end of the day, she had Liz moaned to herself.

They lied to me.

They kept Max dead when he was very much alive. She thought as she remembered the funeral, and the scene that she had made. They knew it was all it was all for something fake.

It was fake, but it felt very real at the time Liz could not help but think.

She annoyed. And yet they let Yvonne go… she muttered as she thought of the fact that Max’s wife was allowed to leave town. She did not know what it all meant, but most days she hated to remember that Max had been married, still is she thought.

The divorce had not happened Liz knew. It had only been in the infancy Phillip tells me she thought because yes, Phillip had told her before she had left that Max had wanted to leave his marriage.

He waited too long she had thought at the time, and she hated that Phillip and Diane were forced to think of the same thing, but now, she knew they had been in the know.

They knew Max was alive she thought. Everything about that day was a scene, put on to masquerade the situation from the town, and from the man’s wife she thought. I was part of those who were kept from the truth she sighed as memories of those days, and especially that day came to her mind as she had reached her destination.

“Where is he?” Liz asked as she stormed through the doors of the Sheriff Department. Being Roswell, they still had a small department. It’s small she was forced to think as she was amazed now after experiencing Illinois and Maryland. We are a small town she thought.

It had been protected for many years by the same man.

Sheriff James Valenti, Jr.

“Who?” came the deputy on duty. Tasked with being the front lines that protected his boss from those in their town.

“The Sheriff,” Liz said. “I need to see the Sheriff right away.”

“What is it?” came the deputy.

“Something only for his ears,” Liz said. “Where is he?” she demanded. “I need to see him.”

*

While the commotion in the lobby was about to take place. The Sheriff was in his office. He was in the middle of some paperwork. The dreaded part of his job. He would rather be out on the streets, figuring what was going on with citizens of his town. And if he knew what was coming, he might have planned to be out of the office.

But unfortunately, that was not to be on this occasion. He had paperwork to do because of some recent cases, and because he would rather spend his free time with his wife. Therefore, he had kept that dreaded work until he absolutely had to get it done so that he could pass on the cases to the legal system. To get justice for the victimized. So, he had given orders to his deputy to keep any problems from him, unless it was life or death.

Or family related.

And because of that, he had spent the last hour dealing with the case work. And while on the surface, these were simple cases, but still, it was part of the job. But he was on a time crunch because he needed to get it done by the end of the day, he let the phone ring.

Unaware of who was calling.

If only he had answered than he would have gotten the warning. And he would want the warning. As he signed the final piece of paper on the first case, he heard the commotion. Which he was trying not to hear so that he could get his work done. But now he did not have that diversion. So, his ears were open and hearing… “What is going on out there?” he asked himself. And because he was needing a momentary break, he chose to get up from his desk.

And take it outside.

“What is going on out here?” Jim asked as he walked out and stopped at once when he saw someone he knew very well, too well, and it was evident that she was mad. Pissed off to be exact Jim thought.

And yet it was uncommon for him to see this expression, because Liz tended to keep her emotions in check he thought.

Mostly he thought as he still remembered that day three months before.

“We have to talk,” Liz said softly, and pretty simply.

Even though nothing about their encounter was going to be simple. “Privately,” she said as she referenced the deputy, and those in the front lobby. Not a very big area, but it was a Sheriff department during the day, so there were going to be people.

Shit Jim would think as he saw the expression on Liz’s face, and he knew.

She knows.

Damn it Jim said. “Let us take it in my office,” he said simply. Because he also knew there was nothing going to be simple about their conversation. “Stevens, no calls unless I tell you to patch them through.” Even if he would have wanted the diversion that works calls when it does call. “We can have that privacy in my office.”

That is debatable Liz knew. Because the office was small. But still they have managed to talk about sensitive topics. “Fine,” she said as she walked to the office. A place she had not been in, for many years.

It seemed like it was a regular stopping ground for while there she knew, Although Jim tended to come to us most of the time, when it called for information that we were not ready to give him she sighed.

*

Sheriff’s office,

Jim walked back into his office and only sighed. And looked down at the paperwork that he wished he could be getting back to instead of having this conversation. As he watched someone he knew very well, from when she was a teenager and even younger than that because she had been a classmate of his son. And even an ex-girlfriend. Although Jim knew the relationship was short-lived, only for a few months he remembered. Not that Kyle was open to sharing with me at the time he thought, because he remembered well how that time was fragile, and the edges of their relationship were frayed because of his determination to prove that aliens were among them.

How right I was.

But Kyle could not stand me going down the route that my own father took he would concede now. And he further conceded that he almost began to resemble his father. Fortunately, I saw the light before it became too much…

And I lost my son he thought. But then he could have lost his son in a very different way, and it was why his eyes were open to the fact that not everyone is a bad apple if you were not from around here and had some questionable DNA in you.

And now he was watching someone forever changed by their experiences. But now, she looked a pale version of how she did at one time as he accessed Liz as she walked into his office, determined to have this conversation. One that he was not ready to have, and one he had to know come via his stepdaughter.

No one else will have told her he knew.

He did feel guilty that they had kept Liz in the dark. As he watched the love of Max’s life come in, looking very different. In a university sweatshirt, and pants, not that fashionable she would think. “Hello Liz”

“Hello Sheriff,” Liz said softly.

Unsure of what to do or say. She had wanted this conversation. So hurt and pained, she had come immediately here, and now she was forced to confront the truth.

“I think you know you know you can call me by my name, Jim?” said the Sheriff. “We have known each other since before you were even fifteen.”

Liz bristled. “Yes, we do” she muttered. “Because I was dating Kyle at one time.”

Jim nodded.

“Then if we knew each other so well than I was surprised you would be so determined to keep the truth from me. When you know I deserved to know. Jim, you left me in the dark?”

“Yes, I did” Jim acknowledged.

This was no time for deception, because that has already happened, he would tell himself. And the rouse was up.

“Why?” Liz asked as she checked to make sure the door was indeed closed. “Why then could you not tell me that Max is alive,” she said softly. Still finding it unfathomable that the man she loved was still alive and was among them. Somewhere. She had come determined to have a talk with the Sheriff about this fact. But she was at the same time having trouble convincing herself that it was truth.

She might have heard it from Ella Evans, someone who does not even know what she knows she muttered. And then her best friend. Maria would not lie to me.

Even though she has, for the last three months she said with annoyance. She would not say she was lying, just keeping the truth from me she would acknowledge.

“Liz…” Jim said softly.

Unsure of how to manage this situation.

“What?” Liz asked. “Max is alive?” she murmured. “Isn’t he?”

Leaving it a question when they both know it was something more than a question.

[totallizfan]

Now Liz is on the war path.
I have to agree with Liz's anger over the group ignoring her mental breakdown.
I hope Jim can explain the situation and help Liz fully understand why they needed to keep her out of the loop.
I'm glad Ella has hope that her father is alive.

[Superman86]

Now Liz is on the war path.
I have to agree with Liz's anger over the group ignoring her mental breakdown.
I hope Jim can explain the situation and help Liz fully understand why they needed to keep her out of the loop.
I'm glad Ella has hope that her father is alive.

Finally! Liz knows the truth, can't wait to hear Jim's side of things

[Parker1947]

“Yes, he is” Jim said softly. Because while he wanted to be able to deny it. And would have to any one outside of their very small fraternity who would have asked the question. Especially the media he knew. But Liz is different he knew, and it did not help that he already felt guilty. Now that she’s in my face and he had to own up for what he had chosen to do. “Look Liz, I am sorry we kept it from you.”

And I am Jim thought as he saw the look on Liz’s face.

“Are you?” Liz asked, as she started to pace the room. And even though said room was pretty small. You still move around, as she looked around. She knew she had to say something, Not a lot has changed she thought with the acknowledgement that she had not been in this office in many years. “It doesn’t look like you made a lot of changes,” she said simply. Because she had not want to say what she needed to say.

Jim knew this.

“Small town,” Jim said sighed. “One of the benefits of it, is that life goes a little slowly” he said with a smile. With the acknowledgement that because he was old fashion, technology had not caught up to our time he would think as he knew his office still looked like it did many years before.

I am getting slowly there Jim muttered to himself. “It must look different from what you have experienced elsewhere?”

“Yes,” Liz acknowledged. “Definitely different.”

“You went to school in Illinois, right?” Jim asked. Because he had not really talked to Liz in many years. Even that dark day he allowed She was in no condition to talk, and he had allowed her to take her grief elsewhere, which is why we are in this position because I had told her what I knew. But he knew from the boasting by Jeff and Nancy that Liz had ended up near Chicago in her studies, I also checked up on her he knew.

“And Maryland” Liz said softly.

“You got around.” Jim said. “I know that is what Kyle has said you wanted to do.”

Bristling at the mention of the past, and the common attachment. Which was her previous relationship with his son. Acknowledging collided with the fact that Jim had not been honest with her, despite their history. Even when she knew the burdens of his job, she would have thought the Sheriff would have been honest with her. Especially on this matter.

She knew the job at times was need-to-know.

But I needed to know this…

“Good for you” Jim said softly once more. “We are all proud of you” he said. “You deserved every success.”

“I am sure you are,” Liz muttered. “Simply because my success allowed me to leave this town, and to stay gone, and therefore you could tell my friends to lie to me” she spat. “Which is something I don’t appreciate you know.”

“I know,” Jim sighed. “But Liz, I did not tell them to lie to you,” Jim said. Even though that had been what he had wanted those who knew to do against his better judgment. “It’s my job to keep this town safe and take charge. We had a complication situation develop and I needed to keep it under control” he allowed. “I wish it could have been different, but it could not be” he allowed.

“Says who?” Liz muttered.

“Me” Jim said simply. “I do wish it could have been different, and I did not ask for any of it to happen but once it did, all I could do was try to control it, given it was unique in stature,” he would mutter. “Because at the end of the day, I am this town’s Sheriff. It is my job to make sure justice is served. I had something happen, and I was trying to protect my town.”

“Really?” Liz asked. “You allowed suspect to flee town, and to come and ruin my life” she allowed. “And most of all, you told me that someone who meant the world to me was dead, when he was not, and you told those who did know to keep it from me.”

Damn it Jim would mutter.

*

Jim wished he was anywhere other than his office about now, but unfortunately, he was having to deal with something he did not want to deal with, while meanwhile, Maria had known exactly where her best friend was going, and her intention was to head it off. Or to join it, but unfortunately as she was delayed when she literally ran into her stepbrother. “Hey,” she said as she picked herself up. As she saw Isabel with him, “Trying to get something to eat?” she asked.

“Yes, that was the intention” Kyle said. But that is not to be today.

“We have to pick up Ella,” Isabel murmured “She was here visiting with Callie.”

“Yes, I know” Maria muttered. “I was in the restaurant for a late pickmeup meal” she said with laugh. “So, I saw her, and Callie having spoiled their dinners,” she said with a laugh. A laugh joined in by Isabel and Kyle. “No Michael at home meant a late night at the bar.”

“He’s coming back, right?” Isabel asked. As she checked her phone and saw no texts from her best friend. Because she had known the mission her friend was and knew it would not be easy to deal with. She had wished she could make the trip. But too many people leaving town would be noticeable she would think, and I have the children to worry about…

“Should be on the road,” Maria muttered.

“How did it go?” Isabel asked.

“Not well,” Maria said, keeping it simple. “I had to do a little talking down…” she muttered, and Isabel frowned. She had known it was not going to be easy the mission Michael was forced to undertake. She had wanted to be, but she knew she could not be. And because of where they were, only so much could be said out loud. So, none of them needed to state the obvious, because they all knew what was at play, and where Michael had been, unfortunately though Liz did not know. “I saw Ella in there” she said moving onto a subject that would not get people talking.

“Good,” Isabel said. “When you do see your husband. Tell him to call me because I need a complete report,” she said softly. “Kyle, I should go in and collect Ella. Because we are expected at Mom and Dad’s, for dinner, as they are picking Noah up from his swim lesson.”

The work of parenthood Maria murmured. “Lot of picking up, huh?”

“Yup,” Isabel said.

“Parenthood,” Maria cracked.

“Well, I could do with out it,” Isabel murmured. Because as much as she loved her niece and nephew. She hated the situation that was play. “As soon as possible…”

“I guess we shall see, right?” Maria murmured. Because personally, she hoped this nightmare was over as soon as possible, but she had her doubts. And as she saw that Isabel was prepared to head into the restaurant. “Before you go…”

“What is it?” Isabel asked.

“You should know that Ella is talking…” Maria murmured.

“Well, the girl is nine years old,” Isabel murmured. The girl definitely is a unique creation she thought of her niece. And most of it is untapped she knew, of the power that both of her brother’s children have, they really don’t know what they can do. “She likes to talk…”

“I know, but it’s who she’s talking to is the point” Maria murmured. “And the subject she is choosing to talk about…” she allowed.

“What do you mean?” Kyle asked.

“She has opinions…” Maria murmured.

“On what subject?” Isabel asked. As if she did not already know her niece was opinionated, of course I do, so it could be almost anything she would think.

“Her father,” Maria muttered and cursed when she saw the frown on Isabel’s face appear. And knew it was not one that they liked to see, none of us like this situation she thought. She knew how much Isabel missed her brother it is an unfortunate situation.

Shit Kyle thought because he knew.

“What do you mean?” Isabel asked. Even though she knew. Because how could she not. She and Kyle knew the kids were growing up with every day that Max was missing, and that could mean a lot.

or nothing at all.

They did not know.

Maria could only sigh as she looked around to make sure they were alone. And unbelievably they were alone, it was a remarkable circumstance given the late day time it was getting to be, which means, people would be out of work. Looking for food, or on the way home.

“Something we all know, but she and her brother does not know” Maria murmured. “They shouldn’t know, but she thinks she knows.”

Shit Isabel sighed.

NONE of them liked keeping the twins in the dark. If it was their choice, they would allow them to know, they should not think that their father was dead they knew, but that was what the kids were under the impression. Ella has her opinions on the matter, but she does not really know that she could be right.

She is only nine years old.

And who had already lost her biological mother, so death was not something to be playing games with. They were sure that by keeping the kids in the dark was the best decision because no one knew what the endgame would be for anyone, and especially not Max.

With Yvonne out there.

We don’t know how this will work out they would all think. When sure, they wanted it to be a happy ending. But they knew their history. And happy endings rarely have occurred. And if they did, they were short-lived.

They did not want the children getting their hopes up, if it ended in disaster which was a distinct possibility they knew. So, yes, this was not what they wanted.

“Shit,” Isabel muttered once more.

“You can say that all day long” Maria murmured. “I would join you. So, of course, because she is smart, Ella decided to take her suspicions to the last person we would have wanted her to go too,” she sighed. She hated having to think of her best friend like this, if I could have been the first one to tell the truth. But it definitely was not to be.

“Whom?” Isabel asked. Even though both she and Kyle figured that they knew.

They did.

“You know who,” Maria said simply. “Therefore, I had to do a lot of work to fix the damage,” she said. “Which meant that I had to be honest,” she thought. I could not keep lying to Liz’s face she muttered to herself.

Oh god both Isabel and Kyle thought.

“Did you have too?” Isabel wondered. But she knew the answer.

Of course, she did.

Now I may have been able to try to maneuver around it, but it’s Maria. And Maria is not me and rarely can never not tell Liz something if confronted.

Not that it had come up much before, but everyone knew Maria and Liz had a tight bond. And Isabel knew how much it had killed Maria not to go to Liz and tell her the truth as soon as they knew.

Maria flinched at the idea of having to defend herself. “Neither of you were in there when she saw my face. I was unable to stop it. Because I was talking to Michael, and you know preventing the situation from escalating,” she said a little pointedly and Isabel did wince. My brother Isabel muttered to herself as she focused her attention back on Maria. “Little did I know what I would be walking into because Ella went to her and was talking to her. And yet, I could see that Liz was not believing it, until I happened onto the conversation because I had been talking to Michael, and you know, having the conversation that I was having” she emphasized, “and so I walked in the middle, and I did not have time to put on my poker face in that instant and Liz immediately noticed,” she sighed. “She knows me and is also too smart and knows too much of our situation not to put two and two together.”

“Are you sure?” Isabel asked.

“Kyle knows me and Liz. We have been friends most of our lives, and therefore, we know each other extremely well. Which is why it pained me to have to keep what I was forced to keep from my best friend. So, yes, Liz knew immediately what was up, but thankfully she had enough grace to keep it from Ella that the child was in fact right about her suspicions” Maria sighed. “Ella left us alone, and in those moments that all hell broke out, and I had to tell her…” she sighed. “Because Liz is smart. She is able to add Isabel,” she frowned. “She knows what 2 plus 2 equals.”

“Damn it” Isabel muttered. “I hate this.”

Everyone hated this. But it was an unfortunate circumstance. And one they all were being forced to bear.

Therefore, Kyle did not envy his stepsister because he did know how close Maria and Liz were, and how the last three months had been hell in what Maria had been forced to keep from her friend. Kyle felt the same amount of guilt, but he and Liz were friends, but he was not a friend on Maria’s level. Therefore, Maria has been in agony.

But Kyle’s father had put his foot down, and because of his position in this town. They had to
abide in it.

But because she was gone, it was easier, so he knew with Liz’s recent return, how tricky it was, so privately he felt to his very bones that the secrecy was not going to last. Because it could never last in our little fraternity, he would admit to himself.

If I know, then Liz should know he would tell himself as he saw the misery on both his girlfriend and stepsisters faces.

No one liked the present situation.

Because it was not easy on anyone.

“We know you did not have a choice,” Kyle said. “Right Isabel.”

Fine, Isabel sighed. “Right,” she said. Checking her watch, she knew she had to pick her niece up and chose to leave before she said something she would live to regret. “Tell Michael to call me,” was all she said softly as she walked away and into the Crashdown.

“Sorry,” Kyle murmured once Isabel was out of their sight.

“You don’t have to be,” Maria sighed. “This is not an easy situation, on anyone” she said. “I think we can all agree also that we wish it could have been different, way different” he muttered and got Kyle to nod. “I just wish we were not in it, but I was, and we were,” she sighed as she looked at her own watch. “I better go and try to prevent the fireball,” she sighed. “Because I figure where Liz would be planning on going, once she comes down from all the anger and disappointment she feels.”If she ever does come down from it.

“My father?” Kyle muttered.

“Yup,” Maria nodded. “I told her that I would have told her, but the word came from you know who…” she sighed as she saw the frown that came to her stepbrother’s face. “Kyle, you know that I hate to have passed the buck to him, but…”

“But he was the one who told you not to tell Liz” Kyle murmured. Dad caused this to happen he knew. And of course, he got all sides. He got it. And knew why his father was concerned, and what he had to worry about, way more than I do he thought. Because of course Kyle had never wanted to be a cop, and work for his father’s department. It’s not me. “Maybe I should come with you?”

“You have dinner with Diane and Phillip, and the kids” Maria murmured. “Probably best if we don’t make things anymore awkward than they already are.”

“I can’t believe that girl told her suspicions to Liz of all people.” Kyle murmured as she thought of the child. She is smart. “Why could she not come to us?”

“She does not know what we know,” Maria murmured. “She does not know Liz was not to be told, and plus, she is nine years old and therefore she does not know half of what she does know” she sighed. “She did not want to go to you or Isabel in case she was wrong…” she sighed. “She did not want to be told she was grieving and seeing things.”

“I know,” Kyle sighed. In any other situation. Ella would be a grieving nine years old, but she was different than the normal child.

And therefore, unfortunately, she is right.

And they would have to deal with that…

One day soon.

Whether they wanted to or not.

Somehow, a reckoning was coming, one way or another…

*

But first, there were other matters to dealt with, and other conversations being had. Jim was back in his office. Wishing some crime was happening, and he was needed to leave the safety of his department and head off. Instead of having to deal with this. Because this was messy.

Very messy.

Jim hated the look on Liz’s face. He hated that he and others were the ones who had put gave it to her. “I am sorry” Jim murmured. “That we did not know enough soon enough to get to Yvonne in time…” he allowed. “We figured she would leave town and leave it at that. We only had suspicions, and that was not enough to build a case if it got to that” he sighed “We are only a small department.”

“I know,” Liz sighed. Which is why I love my hometown she sighed. Most of the time.

“I wish I could have done things differently. But we don’t have the resources to put everything on one case, to get to the bottom in a matter of a week. We are not some crime solving television show,” he muttered. “It takes time. We may have had our suspicions, but nothing that we could build a case with, and we thought if she left, then it would give us time.”

“Has it given you time?” Liz asked.

Nope Jim knew. “Not the time we need, because everything has been quiet” Jim acknowledged. Too quiet.

“Because she was amusing herself with wrecking my life,” Liz murmured. “She was coming after me.”

“I am sorry,” Jim sighed. “I had heard that you had hit some hard times.”

“More than some hard times” Liz said. “My livelihood was ruined,” she said softly. “I was told something that I now am told is not even true,” she sighed. “Whether it was true for a moment or two is besides the point,” she sighed. “Yes, I know that a lot of it is on me, I know it. I made my own bed, and I have had to lie on it, because I went there with Max. But I love him, Jim. I have always loved him. Since I was a teenager. And what do you do. You led me believe that he was dead. And he was lost to us, this time forever,” she cried. “And if it could not be any worse, you asked my friends to keep the truth from me,” she whispered. “You asked my friends to keep it a secret from me,” she muttered. “You think that allowing her to escape this town that she was out of your hair. Until you could prove something. But it allowed for Yvonne to have the ability and play with my career,” she muttered. “Preventing me from trying to stay where I had crafted a life for my daughter and myself. Instead, I had to come back here, and to the memories that I was trying to avoid.” Even if those memories, and flashbacks followed me… “And now to know it was all a lie.”

“We did not think she would cause trouble given the trouble she had already committed and was trying to get away with…” Jim sighed.

You did not think is the appropriate word, but Liz knew enough to not say that town Sheriff, whether he was a personal friend or not, is he even a friend after what he kept from me? she asked. She did not know. “She did get away with it,” Liz murmured. There is no “trying”. “She knew she had the time to play games, because she had left your jurisdiction, and therefore, she has no need to come back here.”

“Yes, she believes she has won.” Jim allowed. Even if she did not get everything, she was dreaming she could…

Or that it was all moot now because it is a very different world.

“With very little to show for it” Liz sighed and voicing what they all knew. “Max cut her off with very little, and she does not know it was all for naught,” she sighed. “That they are still married. And therefore, she is back in the game,” she sighed. “To be able to get all she believes she has earned.”

Jim sighed.

Because both of them hated this. And ultimately Liz’s take on the situation was more right than wrong.

“You lied to me?” Liz murmured as she was taking back to the heart of it. “You told me he was gone.”

“Not in the beginning,” Jim sighed. “At the scene that day, I believed he was gone” he said. Because he remembered that day and believing that Max Evan had finally been taken from them. Sure, he had heard about that business in Vermont. It’s bizarre to think about and rarely did he think about it. All I know is the boarding school refused to refund the Parker’s tuition, and were not talking…

And I was not on the job at that moment, so I did not have to worry about anything coming to haunt my town he thought.

One of those benefits of being dismissed from the job I loved he thought and the good year it took to start the climb back.

But he managed to make it back. And most days he was happy to be back at the job he loved so much. But there were those days I wish I was still a country western singer he smiled to himself. Those were the days.

Yes, the were.

Kyle was thinking I was having a midlife crisis, and a breakdown Jim knew. And maybe he was right he knew now as he looked back to those days, and the hell that went on in this town. For a time, it was like a hellmouth had opened itself up and made things so much more difficult for my son and I he allowed.

I know, different show he thought. Not that I watched it. So much was going on at the time.

The feeling was the same.

“I believed he was gone” Jim said as he remembered back to that day.

“Let me in there,” came a loud and demanding voice. And both of them knew who it was, Of course, Liz would think.

She would know where I would come have come first.

“Sorry, Miss” came the deputy. “I have strict orders for no interruptions.”

“That would be fine, but I am not just anyone” Maria Deluca Guerin thundered. “I am the man’s stepdaughter,” she muttered. “He will want to see me, so I am going in” she said as she opened the door and walked in, not allowing for the deputy on duty to get a hold of her. “I knew it.”

“You did not have to come?” Liz murmured.

“Yes, I did” Maria murmured as she glanced at her stepfather, and her best friend. Even if she did not know what the state of her friendship with her best friend was at the present time, we have had our icy moments. We have always broken through them she thought, so she had to figure they would get through this.

“I can fight my own battles Maria” Jim said.

[totallizfan]

The in the loop group have made a real mess for the out of the loop subjects.
Liz and the twins are the collateral damage.
Now that Liz knows the truth I hope they will tell the twins.
Let Michael and Sean keep tabs on Yvonne.
Liz and Max's children have been through enough.

[Parker1947]

Could he? Well, that is highly debatable Maria Deluca Guerin thought as she closed the door on the deputy’s face and turned to face downcast energy in the room. Mom would have a field day with all of this she thought of Amy Deluca Valenti’s need to make sure everything was alright in the world. It goes back to her hippie days both her daughter and husband would think.

Those were the days Jim briefly thought of those early days when he had met Amy Deluca. And was smitten with her, but of course, it would be many years before they would have a chance to make anything work between them, and several more after that before they truly made it work. Merging their already existing families together.

The very fact that they were able too had left Jim feeling slightly amazed that he and Amy had been able to merge their families after choosing to begin a new life together. Because to make something work between them had not come easy. In fact, it had been hard work. Those early days were tough on both of them. Chances that had come had been blown away before they had even a chance to bud, to see whether it would work out. We were younger, and the kids were in their crazy period he would reflect. As if the crazy period ever really has ended, he muttered to himself. It became tame there for awhile as he wished they were still in that tame period. Although anything now probably could not hold its hat to what went down in early 00’s he muttered. But the primary reason that he and Amy had not been able to make it work initially had been their crazy lives.

Or my crazy life. He would correct himself now…

…first because of the nature of the job. Amy was always antsy about it he knew. My days were unpredictable, and not conducive to a relationship he thought. Which is why my first marriage did not work out, he thought. Although THAT is a whole another story he thought of his ill-fated marriage to Kyle’s mother, Michelle. But ultimately why he and Amy initially had not been able to make a go of it had been the secrecy. Because of the secret knowledge that he would come by, which would turn itself into quite the secret. Such knowledge that would have shocked his father, that was assuming the elder Valenti had any sanity left before his untimely end. Because his father had been used in a pursuit of something that had been a bunch of misinformation. Misinformation that had taken his father away from him.

Ultimately.

And had gone down the rabbit hole.

And would bring about distance between before the end eventually would come. One that never really repaired itself. Not that he and his father had ever been that close. They had been different people. Set about down different paths, despite holding the same job. But they viewed things differently. It had led to a lot of distance. And ultimately, it had been a pattern that the junior Valenti would find himself repeating with his own son until fortunately they were able to save their relationship before it was too late…

Thanks to a mutual discovery. Although again, it had not been so easy. He had almost lost his son there for a moment. And me too he muttered as he shuttered at the memory. Thankfully Max saved Kyle in time.

Which meant the Sheriff was indebted to the younger man from another world.

A different land.

Max had indeed saved my family he would think as he had his own life saved in a very different way than his son. Therefore, Jim was duty bound to keep the secret. But of course, keeping such information had been hard. It had also cost him dearly. But it was a price he was willing to pay if it meant his son was still them, on their planet. Or that he was too, for that matter, So, when he and Amy had been given a new chance.

They had taken it.

And merged their families, and despite the odds, had made it strong.

So, it was not like Jim could not appreciate all that had transpired because of the secret he knew. Being a keeper of such information had been a tough burden at times, for all involved. That if possible was even more costly for other, than even it had been for his family.

Because there was a small fraternity for those who knew…

So, he could not help but understand and see the impact on the two girls before him. Women he corrected himself. They are women now. But sometimes it had been hard because he had known Maria and Liz from when they were teenagers, and even younger because of their “closeness” to his son Kyle.

So, all Jim could say was “I am sorry,” once more.

And this time, he meant it. “I wish it could have been so different,” he would say as he turned his attention to the blonde in the room. “Maria, I am fine” he said of his stepdaughter’s need to come and bail him out.

One more thing he was amazed at. How close he and Maria were now. When it had not been so long ago, it seemed like they would never get to this point. But fortunately, for their family, they had been able to make peace.

“I know you are,” Maria murmured. “And I know that you can handle this, but I needed to be here,” she sighed. “Just because…”

Even though they all knew that Maria really did not need to be here.

“It is all my fault,” Maria murmured. “I told Liz.”

I figured Jim muttered to himself as the tension filled the room. “Obviously.”

Liz bristled because it felt like they were not focusing on what they should be focusing on. “While Maria might have confirmed it, she did not tell me. I only know because a nine-year-old chose to tell me of her dreams. Dreams that tell that the man that is her father, a father she loves dearly, but believes to be dead is really alive. Right, because he’s not dead. He’s actually alive?”

“What?” Jim asked, diverting to an easier part of the conversation. The part of it, that he was not aware of. “Ella?”

“Yes,” Liz murmured. “Ella Evans. The vision of her father even though they don’t look alike, but she is his daughter in every other way that counts,” she would think. Now Noah is the one who looks like his father she would think.

“Ella?” Jim asked, stunned, once more.

“You guys not only lied to me, but you kept two innocent young children in the dark. I am a grown up at the end of the day,” she muttered Even if I don’t feel like one all the time she sighed. “While I should have known. But Ella and Noah. Guys, they are Max’s children. How could you keep them in the dark? My goodness. They have already lost a parent. Their mother. For them to believe the only other parent they have left was also taken from them. When he was not. That is downright cruel,” she demanded.

Liz did not care if her voice was rising, or that people might be able to overhear. That was not her pressing concern at the moment. She did not care. Even though she knew it was unusual for her to be this upset. It is possible she knew, btu she knew it was better to stay quiet.

But this was exceptional circumstances. ‘How could you?” she asked as her words were not pointed towards her best friend but to Jim.

This is because of him she told herself. This was all about their town Sheriff choosing the route.

“I told you,” Jim sighed. “There were bigger concerns that outweighed…”

“By allowing me to go crazy in grief or to let two small children think their father is dead?” Liz murmured with her arms crossed. God this is insane she thought as she continued. “If Max is held up somewhere. Then why could you not allow him to take his children with him?”

Huh, why not?

“Because Yvonne would know that something was fishy if Max’s children suddenly disappeared upon his death,” Maria murmured.

“Like Yvonne cares about the children, or what they are currently doing?” Liz mused. She cannot go after them to scoop up their money she thought. Because Max arrangements… she thought, and there is that thing that Max is not really dead. Because it was not like she knew the woman of course, but she knew enough that the woman she knew, who was still Max’s wife would be after only one thing. And it was not the children she had helped raise.

“But if the children upped and disappeared when they should be with Phillip and Diane or with Isabel,” Jim murmured. “Yvonne might have questions, and she might take it into her hands in ways that we would have disapprove of?”

“What could she have done?” Liz asked, incredulously. “And if she did poke her head back into the scenario, you might be able to do something, finally,” she said a little irritated. “Like catch her…”

Anything Jim and Maria thought of what Yvonne might have done. She ordered her husband’s assassination. “We could not risk it. That she might do something. Because yes, we might have been a little too slow in picking her up for questioning, but at the time, we only had suspicions, and I cannot do anything with suspicions. I need hard facts, and we did not have them at that moment,” he sighed. “She got away, unfortunately, but it was not like we don’t have someone who is watching her.”

“I thought you said you don’t have the resources, or the funds?” Liz asked.

“We don’t” Jim sighed. One of the downfalls of being a small department. Only so much funding to go around in a state as large, when there are bigger cities other there.

“Then how?” Liz wondered.

Knowing that they were too far down that rabbit hole to go back now, so they had to be completely honest. “We have someone who is working as a volunteer purely because he had a vested interest in this matter,” Jim sighed as he glanced at Maria.

“What?” Liz asked, as she saw the glances between Maria and her stepfather. “Whom?” she asked. “I know it’s not Michael, right?” she asked of Maria’s husband. “Or wait, is it Michael?” she asked as she glanced over her best friend and noticed how silent her friend had gotten. “Is that where Michael has gone off too?”

“No,” Maria said with a shake of her head. “He is visiting the other side of the story,’ she muttered as she glanced over at the Sheriff.

Unsure of what her friend had to be thinking. Liz did not know how to respond. Which was not a surprise given that she was completely confused, and yet she had the feeling that had yet to go away since she had been at her father’s restaurant. Which was, a feeling of being completely in the dark, and been overwhelmed because of it. “If not Michael, then who?”

“The one person I wish was not in this story,” Maria muttered. Okay the other one she thought because she knew there was one other person she did not want to be dealing with, and she figured her friend would not want too either. She can stay dead the blonde muttered. “But this person, I wish had stayed away,” she muttered. “But I was overruled,” she sighed as she glared over at her stepfather. “If you have not already guessed. It’s my cousin.”

“Wait, what?” Liz asked. “Sean?” she wondered. As she stopped pacing the room. Something she had been doing since the start of this incredible taxing conversation. She was so in her own mind that she was not conscious to even know if Sean was even still in town, so for her former temptation to be brought into the conversation. It shocked her and immediately took her thoughts away.

As she and Sean had never been close.

Never even kept in touch.

Not since high school she thought. And that was only for a span of a few months, she thought when my life was in turmoil.

Those were the days she muttered. But of course, when has my life ever not been in turmoil she thought. It has been that way since that day in 1999.

But it was not like could regret living, because that was the alternative.

Being dead.

She never would not want to know loving Max. Or what kind of that life she would have, even if sometimes she would wonder she told herself but then she remembered the feelings of being loved by someone who worshipped her and wanted only me she thought.

So, no, not in this life.

Max, she murmured to herself. She missed him. The memories of loving him and being loved by him always was so present. As she thought of her dark hair mystery man from a different mysterious place. Her brain was swimming. As she was trying to create some semblance of sense of any of this. “You know that none of this makes sense,” she would utter, “None of it,” Liz muttered as she thought of her one-time temptation. “Why has he been doing it?” she asked of Sean.

“Because he cares for you,” Maria muttered. “I don’t necessarily like it, but he did come to us with his suspicions about Max’s wife,” she sighed. “And we did not listen to him,” she sighed. All I wanted to do was go on my honeymoon she told herself as Liz flinched because she too remembered those days when Sean had come to them.

To me, Liz murmured.

As she flashed back to those unbelievable days as she had poo pooed Sean’s concerns. A shrink might tell her that it might be why she had gone over the cliff because she should have seen it. My shrink might have she thought of the hospital she had just been in. But Liz had not been talkative, so yeah, it was not like she knew all the players in this drama. Currently. She only knew of the past…

Or how it any of it worked out.

She only knew Max. And how that worked out.

Badly.

Not before she had been playing a risky game with him. And they had given in to each other’s desire for each other. So, it was easy to wave off Sean’s concern as jealousy. And it was probably jealousy she reasoned with herself. Even though she knew she was playing with fire. But at the time, it was a fire she had wanted to play with…

Until it had real side effects. I just did not know how bad it would get she told herself.

“So, What?” Liz asked. “You are saying that Sean is watching over Max’s wife?”

“Yes,” Jim acknowledged. “When she disappeared. Sean volunteered to seek her out and keep an eye on her for us. And that was before we knew how deep it went, until we were able to catch up to the person who did the job for Yvonne. Anything we had before that, was only suspicions, and I cannot do anything with only a gut feeling or information I have so far from any sources that are far from official,” he sighed of his ability to gain access through the alien human hybrid vines, my bosses would frown on if I used those to conduct official business he thought. I learned that the hard way he thought. “We unfortunately got the information too late,” and Liz winced at those words, yeah it definitely was too late they would acknowledge. “Sean volunteered, and I took up the offer and because of him, we soon would know where she was…”

“IN case she found out your secret?” Liz muttered. “You wanted eyes on her?”

Jim did not say anything, and she only cursed. “Fine,” she sighed. She knew she was being a hard ass on this, but I love Max, and I was lied to, she stewed. “Then where is he?” she asked. “Sean?” she muttered, “Because I know you won’t tell when you know who is,” she said of the greatest love of her life. I am going to find out, but I know they will only go tight lipped she knew. As she thought of Max’s whereabouts, but she was not going to get that answer, not yet anyways she told herself. “Where is Sean?”

“Down on some island,” Jim muttered.

“And?” Liz asked. “What is he doing?”

“I don’t want to think of what he is doing,” Maria moaned of her cousin. He could be up to anything.

“Jim?” Liz asked. “What is he doing?” she muttered, because she was fully aware of what Maria thought of her cousin. So, she was not going to be getting anything out of her, assuming she knows anything because of that frosty relationship between the two cousins.

“Officially, I don’t really know” Jim acknowledged. “Initially, it was just over-watch. But currently I don’t really have good gauge on it because he has not been calling in lately.”

That little tidbit changed the atmosphere in the room. “What?” Maria and Liz bellowed with increasing volume, together, in unison for once. “What do you mean, you have not talked to him?” Maria asked. “You told me that we could trust him. When I know you really were doing it for Mom’s sake,” she sighed as she thought of her mother, Amy Deluca Valenti’s close kinship with her nephew.

While it had been oil and water between the cousins.

“No, I have not heard anything recently” Jim admitted. “But I am sure everything is okay,” she said. “I trust him to tell us if we are to know anything…”

“How can you even know?” both Liz and Maria asked.

“Jesus,” Maria whispered in a mutter at the thought of her cousin being off the grid. “He could be up to anything?”

“Give him some credit,” Jim murmured. “You might think of him badly Maria, but your cousin has turned over a new leaf. Which is something I vetted for myself before I brought him into our situation. Because yes, I know your mother, my wife, wants to think best of her nephew. But this time, she is right. Sean was on a good run there when he came back to town. And in this case. We needed him. And he is the one who figured out Yvonne was conducting some shady business, so I think we can trust him to keep an eye on him and let us know when it warrants it. It’s a long-term mission. So, I don’t expect to hear from him every single day.”

“I do” Maria muttered. Because on the surface, she knew her stepfather and even her mother were probably right. There had been no evidence that Sean had been doing anything but what he said he was, and after all, she lived with her own private investigator. Who is an alien. So, Maria, knew they had their ways of knowing Sean was into anything shady, or not. But it still did not mean old habits could be left in the dust. “Because otherwise, it could mean anything,” she muttered.

“What could it mean?” Liz asked.

“I have no idea,” Maria muttered.

While Jim could only shake his head because he did trust Sean Deluca.

*

Was that trust warranted. Jim hoped so and maybe it was. Because everything was fine down south, on a paradise beach where Yvonne Evans had vanished to three months before. And the one Sean had relocated too shortly thereafter, after getting his order from the Sheriff in Roswell, New Mexico. And after they had tracked down the evading and elusive Mrs. Evans. And it was not like at the end of the day Sean did not know he had his aunt to thank for this job; she probably put a bug in her husband’s ear he would think. But he was willing to make good. Maria might think badly of me, but I do want to stay in Aunt Amy’s or my own mother’s good graces because he knew it had been a tough go there, when he was younger.

But he had truly turned his life around.

Although the jobs had come and went. Because he had been the wandering sort since he left Roswell originally, and after he was released from his probation sentence. Without the need to have stay in the calling graces of his probation officer. He could go anywhere and done so. And he had seen the country as a result.

Doing a little of everything. Whatever paid for his motel room or paid the plane or bus ticket to the next locale. So, what he was being called to do down here, was not a stretch as he stood on the balcony and looked out on the pool deck with his binoculars, and saw the blonde by the pool, laughing and having a good time.

Moving onto her new mark… he thought.

“Looking good” was something else he would say and think as he took down the activity he had been observing as he had to admit the current Mrs. Evans was looking very fetching since she departed Roswell.

If she was not so deadly, who knows what might happen he would think. And he made his notes. Knowing he should be making his call to Jim, but nothing really had been happening.

Yvonne had not made any moves of any interest.

What he expected, he did not know given that she was evading questioning into her husband’s death.

So called death Sean Deluca knew, because he was in on the secret.

Max Evans was actually alive.

Somehow, he had come too at the hospital he murmured, after being declared dead by authorities he would also think. Who gets that kind of call wrong? He would ask himself every day these past three months.

But then had always known something was off with Max Evans.

What, he did not know. But there was something. The bond between him and Liz was unusual. It’s such a small fraternity he would think of the small circle that was back in Roswell.

One of the reasons he had left Roswell in the first place.

Because it was odd.

Sure, the girl had not wanted him. She had wanted someone else he would come to realize; I do give her credit for telling me before it was too late. So, why stay around when no one wanted me around here, he muttered, except Aunt Amy but she had her own stuff she had to do, she had vanished for much of her daughter’s senior year of high school. So, Sean did not feel the need to stay around when he was not wanted.

So, he had started to wander around.

Going back to Roswell more than a decade had been a lark, because of Maria’s wedding and he was amused at the notion of poking at his cousin. But truthfully, he had been curious, but never did he imagine he was walking into this bizarre drama.

Wife hires a hitman to kill husband, fine, it happens, Sean smirked, but the hit actually does go down, but he does not actually stay dead.

He comes back alive.

Like the Phoenix or Lazurus.

But not before he basically cuts his wife out of the will, Sean smiled. While putting his mistress in.

Ballsy Sean smirked at the notion that Max would have put Liz in his will, with her getting the bigger share of the estate after his children, who would take the biggest chunk, times two.

So, Yvonne had flown town after the funeral. And therefore, she in the dark about the alive part of her marriage.

And they had tracked her down here, and therefore Sean had come down here with orders to keep an eye on her. But it was nothing all that interesting. Very tame. So, it did not seem as he needed to make any calls to his uncle.

Putting down the binoculars, he got up and headed out of his hotel room.

A snazzy one that he had been able to score for himself, after smooth talking the woman at the front desk, when he had checked in. Costing more than he could afford, but that would be for another day.

Leaving the room, just as the phone rang,

Ignoring it, he had gone off…

*

“Nothing,” was all Jim would say as he put down the phone. “Tried him, but he is not in his room,” as he looked at both Maria and Liz who could only frown. “Look, I am sure everything is fine.”

“It has better be,” Maria muttered.

*

Meanwhile,
Phillip and Diane Evans home,

“You are pretty quiet,” Isabel was asking as she took a break from helping her mother get dinner ready. Which was a little late getting going because her father, Phillip was still at the office. Actually, at the office she thought. Not holed up in his home office. Because some case had come in at the last minute, and therefore, he was late getting home. Which meant dinner was still in process, and the children were off, playing in the backyard.

It all seemed so normal. And maybe it was.

But they were in abnormal times.

Because it could not be forgotten how they had gotten to this point. With no ending in sight. Even though she wanted dearly for there to be an ending so that her brother could come home. Home to her, and her parents.

And to his children.

She knew that she was only a temporary bandage on this situation. With herself and Kyle trying to make it manageable for themselves, and most importantly for the children, so that they could have a normal life.

Because that was important. That was the most important in all this she thought.

Because she and Kyle would figure out the state of their lives later, including the nature of their relationship. There previous friends and benefits relationship had bee upgraded to a more serious state over the last three few months. How do you walk back all this she would think of when this was over, and sanity had prevailed.

Assuming sanity prevailed. That is a big if she thought. So, she had no idea what it all meant or how their lives would look when this was all over, or what I even what she thought because she still did not know how to make sense of any of what was going on, and where it would leave them, as she looked over her boyfriend. “What are you thinking about?”

“My dad” Kyle admitted.

“How so?” Isabel asked, although she sort of knew. Because they both knew that Maria was going to try to head off Liz at the Sheriff department. And therefore, neither of them knew how it would go, and they both could figure that it would be not so good.

Because nothing about the situation was any good.

There were losers on all sides.

It was an only matter of the degrees.

“You want to go and check in on him, don’t you?” Isabel asked as she looked at the concern look on Kyle’s face. Because she felt for both Kyle and Jim. She knew the situation was not the greatest. Even if she also figured that Jim would be able to manage it. Better than we could, probably she would think.

“I made a commitment to be here,” Kyle murmured. “You and the kids, matter to me.”

“I get that,” Isabel smiled. Kyle is a great guy she would think. “And I appreciate it, because you matter to us too, but I know it’s complicated. In fact, I am the one who knows it better than almost anyone,” she said with a sigh. “If you want to go, go, Mom and Dad will understand. And the kids won’t care.”

“I guess,” Kyle sighed because as much as he wanted to stay and have dinner with Isabel, and the children. Still, he was worried about his father, even though he’s a big boy, and he got himself in this mess himself he would think. He is the one who told us not to tell Liz. “I probably won’t be long,” he murmured. “I have probably missed all the bloody stuff,” he said with a smirk.

Isabel laughed. Although it’s not a laughing matter but you have to laugh sometime, right? she sighed, at this all too serious matter. “However long it lasts, we will be fine, and if anything were to happen, you know where we live,” she said with a smile, and it was one that Kyle returned. “We will see you are the house later, if you don’t make it back.” Isabel said of the home she and Kyle were making into a home.

It was the house she had moved into in the wake of her divorce from Jesse.

Because she had gotten a bundle out of the divorce, given Jesse’s salary had jumped considerably by the time they had finalized their divorce, after his move to Boston. A move she knew was the right one for her former husband. She knew he was much happier, and even though she hated how their time had ended. Knowing that they were better off where they each were made things better. Although she did not regret loving Jesse. Because she had loved him.

The love was real.

She had just been too young, and on the rebound from some big losses, and fell into something with Jesse. She had only wished things had gone down differently, and she knew Jesse would keep her secret despite the end of their marriage because he would not want anyone to know what he had seen or done during his time in Roswell. Not with him having ambitions to climb the ladder within the legal world, and maybe elsewhere some day.

It was not malicious or anything.

It was just she and Jesse were different people. Literally, she thought. “And they were not going to make it work because they both wanted different things from their relationship. Different things on the surface that might have been able to be bridged but at the end of the day, what made the difference was that Jesse had been unable to handle the sacrifices she had made and would have to make on a daily basis, to be able to live the life she had lived.

And to pretend it did not make a difference.

When they both knew it had, and it did.

In so many ways.

As she looked as Kyle would get up, and she saw how different Jesse was from Kyle. Because Kyle knew her and did not care for her quirks and differences. And how they were at odds from most human beings.

It came down to the fact that Kyle did not care.

He loved her anyways. He loves everything that makes me, me…

And wanted to make a life with her. She knew she had been resistant because of how things had been with her former husband.

Sure, she was aware that it had been very different circumstances. But she was gun shy. Failing once was hard for her. Because she hated to fail. She had always strived to make sure everything was perfect. I even graduated early she told herself, although she knew that was a unique situation because she had been wanting to run at the time. I ran into something and ultimately failed when given the first chance I got to get out of the house.

She did not want to fail again.

So, she was resistant to go there again.

Yet Kyle hung in there and had shown up big time over the last three months. Most guys have walked off when it looked that they would become an instant father to two orphan children and even when the circumstances ultimately changed. Most would have not been fond of the arrangement.

Instant family.

Yet Kyle had been there for her, and love throughout the pain. “Go, see what is going on with your father,” she encouraged. “The kids and I can handle being here…”

“I appreciate it,” Kyle said softly, as he leaned down and kissed her, and she kissed him back. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Isabel smiled as the kiss broke off when a ‘Gross’ was spoken, and she looked up and saw Ella watching them, and she laughed. “We will see you later,” she said and nodded and headed for the door.

“What is going on?” Isabel asked of her niece.

“Where is Kyle going?” Ella asked.

“To check in with his father” Isabel murmured.

“Why?” Ella asked. “Is something wrong with Jim?” she asked, as she and Noah were on first names with the town Sheriff. With the past three months being almost in a form of a new grandparent, and yet they all knew Jim was not the twin’s grandparent. He’s being additional one they all knew.

Within a very unique situation which is why Ella and Noah called the Sheriff by his name.

“Nothing serious,” Isabel smiled because she knew Ella knew what Jim did for a living. Both kids know she said to her brother’s eldest child, three minutes makes a big difference she mused to herself. As she knew that that was story the twins often told people, and in this case, it was the truth. Ella and Noah are totally different, and it was becoming more apparent as they aged.

Not only because of their birth gender, but in their personalities. Although she knew the last three months had changed a lot for the twins. The joy has vanished. The jokes and the laughter often were missing from the house. The only times she saw it when Ella and Callie got together. It is a strange situation she knew of the friendship between the two girls, but they both need it.

“Are you sure?” Ella asked.

“Don’t worry” Isabel smiled. “Dinner is almost ready.”

Ella nodded.

“Where is your brother?” Isabel asked.

“Playing a video game,” Ella murmured. “It was getting colder outside,” she said. “Is Grandpa home yet?”

“Nope,” Isabel smiled. “But he called, and is on his way,” she assured the child as she saw the tense look on the twins. A lot is different these days she saw, with the acknowledgement to the secret she was keeping from her beloved niece and nephew. She hated it, I hate not telling them, but it will make it a lot more complicated if they know…

So, she knew she was wading into a thorning story. “Honey,” Isabel asked, cautiously. “Was there anything you wanted to tell me?” she wondered. She did not know how to approach this conversation, but she knew the child should be talking about her suspicions, even if none of them really wanted to have the dreaded talk with the twins or tell them the truth.

It was easy to leave it where it was. Doesn’t it mean she was not feeling guilty. In the decision to allow the children to believe that their father was gone. Dead. Because it would be a lot more complicated if they knew, because Yvonne is still out there, and it’s a little because of their age. Kids are unable to keep secrets long-term.

Eventually, somehow, they will slip and that was the last thing they wanted.

And if somehow Yvonne finds out that he is alive, which makes the fact that they are still married. She is going to come back and make everyone’s lives a living hell she thought until my brother shows up.

They now knew what she had wanted to do, and she had hired someone to do it.

But Max was actually alive. And therefore, it did not leave Yvonne guilty of much except planning, and the hit was paid in cash, and Yvonne was smart enough not to take the money to the bank account. So, they had no records. How could she afford it, they did not know.

It would be a nightmare for Yvonne to come back into the picture, so Isabel personally had no idea of how this was going to work out,

For anyone.

Or how Max could come back…

As she looked at her niece and the frown that was on the child’s face. She knew that Noah was going with the flow. Not questioning anything. Taking what we are telling them with a lot of face value.

But Ella was different.

She had always been different. She had loved that about her niece. Yet today it was more of a cause of concern because it was another element to this story that they could not control. She actually went to Liz Isabel muttered to herself.

The girl is unique Isabel smiled. In ways that are even different than my brother she told herself.

“No,” Ella murmured. Because she was unsure of what her aunt was asking and the last thing she wanted to be doing was talking about her dreams or making it apparent that she was having the dreams. I don’t want the talk that will come with it she murmured. She and Noah barely talked to the elders in their clan about our abilities she thought. Better to just blend in and keep any exploratory to when we are alone, she knew. But in this case, she did not want to be told that she was right, or delusional.

She did not know what answer she wanted.

So, it was best if she did not want to go there…

Which meant Isabel could only sigh because it was so complicated, so damn complicated.

So, Isabel could only sigh as she looked at Ella. “You know you and your brother can come to me you know,” she said softly. “Nothing is off limits, you know” she murmured. “If you or your brother have anything to tell me, you know you can come to me,” she smiled. But frowned when she saw the look dubious on her niece’s face. “Honest.”

“Anything?” Ella asked, weary.

Weary for a reason. But of course, she did not know everything that was being kept from her and her brother.

“Anything” Isabel confirmed. “Even if I cannot answer your question, tell, then we can talk about it.”

I knew it Ella muttered under her breath and Isabel could hear it and it led to her to sigh. “Ella, I love you and your brother, and I know for certain that your father would want you or your brother to come to you, or your grandparents with any concerns you might have.”

Wanting to shake her head in disbelief, she did not do it. She knew she could to her aunt, and her grandparents. She knew they loved her and Noah, but this was something big, and she did not know how to handle it. So, instead she muttered. “I know you guys love us. We love you too. You have given us a home” she murmured softly, Since our last one has been sold, she thought of the house she and Noah had called home.

“You will always have a home,” Isabel murmured.

“I want Daddy,” Ella whispered.

Oh Ella, Isabel murmured. Because she did not know what to say, and Ella knew it. “I don’t have anything to tell you” the nine-year-old muttered. “I am going to go and find Noah and maybe beat him in his game” she sighed as she walked away from her aunt.

Leaving Isabel spinning with the clear fallout from their deception. Oh shit.

“Are you okay, honey” Phillip Evans asked as she walked into the living room at the tail end of the conversation between his granddaughter and his daughter. So, he knew what they had been talking, about, or not talking about it he would mused. As he had come home, and into the house, through the kitchen, and spotted the conversation.

“Dad, we have trouble” Isabel murmured.

“I know,” Phillip sighed.

“What are we going to do?” Isabel asked.

“What do you want to do?” Phillip asked. “Do you want to tell the kids?” he asked.

Did she?

Isabel did not know. Because she hated the situation.

And she did not know how it got any better.

[totallizfan]

Sean has eyes on Yvonne. Let him handle that.
I don't think Liz can keep the secret from Ella.
The twins need their father.

[Parker1947]

Of course, no one liked the situation. Absolutely no one. And yet here they were. Maria and Liz knew this very well as they were still at the Sheriff’s department. And even though Liz knew she should be headed back to her parent’s place, and spend some time with her daughter, Callie. Yet, she could not leave. Not yet anyways, as she wanted her life to make sense. Good luck on that she very well knew. As the talk with Jim had gotten waylaid because of a call that came into the station that had caused Jim to take leave and go and deal with the problem.

Himself.

Instead of dispatching his on-call deputy.

The women did not know if he had been wanting an out regarding the conversation he was in. Or was it truly an emergency. Both could be true they thought, as they both knew they should have taken the chance to leave the station, but neither of them could. When Maria knew Liz was not leaving without more information and she, Maria was not leaving and letting Jim holding the bag. So, both of them stayed.

And yet they had not really spoken. Liz was glaring, and Maria was silent. Allowing the silence to take over the office until Maria broke the impasse. “I am sorry,” she said with a deep sigh. As she did not know how to move on from this.

“You can say it all day long,” Liz muttered. “I love him Maria,” she sighed. “I have never stopped.”

“I know you do” Maria murmured. And that is what makes this all so terrible.

They did not even have to say the name because they both knew whom Liz was talking about. “I wanted to tell you,” she sighed. “I never wanted to keep it from you, because I know how important he is to you,” Maria murmured. “I hope you believe me.”

I don’t know if I do Liz thought, even though she knew that on some level its true, but it’s very hard to be the last in the know and to know people willingly did not tell you, whether they wanted to or not.

Whether you want to or not does not mean there is a lot of credit being given.

“Can you imagine if you were told that Michael was dead?” Liz whispered as she broke her own impasse to say something. “Or that you held him in your arms, and saw and even experienced his last breath, and you were forced to move on, go on, without the love of your life. Your husband, now that you are married,” she asked as she could not believe that this was a logical conversation that she was having with her best friend. To think Max actually came back to life after dying. “Think back, if you were told he was gone, and you were being forced to move without him,” she muttered. “It is pure hell.”

“I know it must have been.” Maria sighed. “I cannot imagine,” she allowed because she had not needed too. She knew it had never happened to her, and she could not think of it happening. She did not know how it felt.

She knew that Liz had the utter misery of experiencing it twice, and while the first time, a miracle had happened.

The second?

Yeah, it was a messy mess, and she was guilty of allowing her friend to grown when she should have known.

It was hell.

“I would have hated it,” Maria murmured. As she could not imagine losing Michael. She did not want to even think of it. Especially now that they had taken their vows, and happy together, that is assuming we are allowed to be happy she thought as she was forced to acknowledge how the last three months had been the ultimate of their very young marriage.

“Yeah,” Liz sighed. “You would have,” she muttered as she turned the conversation. “So, you can say you are sorry all day long, and it does even cover what it meant to have experienced,” she said softly as she thought of the love of her life. “So, where is he? she whispered. “You know, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t” Maria said softly. “Honestly, I don’t” she sighed as she saw the weary look on her best friend’s face. I deserve that look she thought. But it’s the truth. “Michael does. That is where he was last night,” she said softly. “Knowing that some honestly was needed in this situation. When we knew you were coming back. We knew Max needed to know…”

“Know what?” Liz asked.

Liz grumbled out loud and Maria sighed. “Really?” she asked as she saw the expression on her friend’s face. “You kept him the dark?” she wondered. “You certainly have brushed up on your secret keeping skills I see,” she sighed of the skill they had been taught before they had reached the end of their high school conversation. “That comes easily for you, doesn’t it?”

No, it doesn’t Maria sighed. Not at all. “Not me,” she sighed. “Personally, I have not seen him since the wedding,” she said with a frown as she looked a way. A day of dreams, she thought of the day of her dreams. She never imagined that she and Michael would come back from their honeymoon to this.

This, which was still to be unveiled…

“Really?” Liz asked if she did not believe her.

She did not.

“Really,” Maria murmured.

“Am I supposed to believe that?” Liz asked.

“You have to believe us sometime, you know” Maria muttered. “Really, I am sorry for what we did to you, but at the end of the day, we had to protect him, and I think you would have wanted that too…”

“I would have wanted the ability to make the decision,” Liz muttered. “Hell, yes, I want him to be protected because it has been hell these last three months without him… I want him in this world, not out of it. But no one gave me a chance,” she sighed. “You kept me in the dark,” she sighed. “Deliberately,” she muttered. “You had the ability to tell me before I left, and even if you did not, then you knew where I was, once I was back home.”

“We know,” said a new voice that had come into the room, as they both turned around and spotted Kyle. “Although, you would disappear on us”

Like that makes a difference.

As the room changed, as the women looked over at the new party to their discussion. “Kyle, what are you doing here,” Max asked. “I thought you were having dinner with Isabel and the kids at Phillip and Diane?”

“I did,” Kyle murmured. “I wanted to check in with my father…”

“Why?” Liz muttered. “Your father is a big boy.”

“I know he is,” Kyle murmured. “No one likes this situation Liz,” he muttered. “We all wish it could have been different. If we had only made different decisions, but we did not. Dad was trying to figure out the situation, just like the rest of us,” he allowed.Not every town Sheriff has this bizarre situation play out, and he had to put his feet before him and try to make it manageable.”

Maria nodded.

Liz did not say anything.

“We hated keeping you in the dark. Both Maria and I were constantly going at Dad to allow one of us to tell, but we also knew Yvonne would have made your life a living hell if you came back here…”

“Well, she did that anyways, only to end up back here,” Liz muttered. She knew she was whining way too much, but she still felt kicked in the stomach. And it was not going down any easier.

To know her friends had kept her in the dark.

I need to be angry a little longer she would mutter to herself. Because she hated it. So, yeah, she wished she could be more of an adult here, but she still felt too damn affected by the deception of it.

“Yeah, we know how things are little much,” Kyle sighed. “None of us wanted any of this…”

Liz could only nod. Because she knew she was taking it out on her friends, and they were in this same situation she was in, except they were let in way before I was, she muttered as the bad taste still resided in her, but she knew this was an unfair situation.

So, it was something she knew they could agree with…

“We are sorry Liz,” Kyle murmured.

Liz nodded. But did not say anything. She felt the silence was a better response.

“It would have been much easier if none of this had happened” Kyle said. “It has been hell for Isabel and I and we have been trying our hardest at trying to keep everything together, especially with the kids” he allowed. “It has not been easy.”

The notion of the kids being in the dark. Ella might suspect but at the end of the day, she and her brother still don’t know. But the idea of the kids not knowing made her ill. “I cannot believe you are allowing the children to believe their father is dead,” Liz muttered.

The anger was warranted, Kyle knew. We wish it could have been different he thought. “They had already been told when Isabel received word,” Kyle muttered. “How do you walk something like that back,” he asked. “How do you sit two eight-year-olds down and say, ‘My bad, your father is not dead, even though his heart stopped, and he was declared dead, but he has somehow come back to life. But he has to go away for now, until your psycho stepmother is caught? Because she is the one who wanted your father dead.’”

Maria smirked, that is pretty good she smiled.

“Grant you, it would have been hard” Liz sighed. She knew that kids were precious commodities, and it would be hard to destroy them, and then to take it back. So, yeah, she did know that it was harder when you factor in kids…

“Right,” Kyle sighed. “Added to this was the fact that Isabel loves her brother. Deeply. She was personally destroyed when we believed that Max was dead. And we did believe it. She could barely hold it together. But somehow, she managed to keep it together for the children,” she still is Kyle remarked to himself. “Even though every instinct tells us to tell the twins, that their father is alive. We don’t know what it means if we do…”

“Ella already suspects,” Liz muttered.

“She does not know what she’s thinking,” Kyle murmured. She does not even know what she wants he thought. “Which is why she has not come to me, or Isabel with her thinking?”

“But she came to me” Liz muttered. “Why, I have no idea.”

“Because she knows how much you cared for her father. And vice versa. It might be a weird situation for the girl, but her mind is crying out to her, and she needed to voice it to someone. So, you could tell her that she was wrong…” Maria murmured.

“But she’s not wrong,” Liz murmured.

“No,” Maria murmured. And she knew her arrival on the scene had interrupted the common-sense reaction that Liz would have told the child.

“So, how do we get to what comes next?” Liz asked.

“I have no idea,” came Jim’s voice as he opened the door to his office and quickly shut it behind him. “Son…” he asked as he spotted Kyle. “Anything to worry about?”

“Nope,” Kyle said. “Heard Liz was going to be coming here and needed to come and see how it was all dealt with. Got me out a family dinner with Phillip and Diane,” he smiled. “Phillip was not home yet, so I was not missing much.”

“I know how much you love those dinners,” Jim smiled.

“Better food than I grew up with,” Kyle snarked and the room laughed, as it was common knowledge that Kyle and his father Jim lived a very bachelorhood life after the split with Kyle’s mother, and before Jim and Amy had managed to make it work, and craft their family into something strong. Therefore, there was not a lot of structure to the family meals he thought, especially because Dad was working so much…

Things changed when Amy Deluca came into our lives.

A lot, he thought as he looked at Maria.

Stepsiblings, we have come far he would think of how they viewed each other in high school. Before the alien invasion he would think. Maria did not think highly of me, he would think. The feeling was a little mutual.

And then the invasion happened, and he had to come to terms with a lot in a short time. A decade little, he was still coming to terms with it. But he had a better handle of it, because it was a life that he had wanted.

He wanted Isabel.

So, he was willing to take it as it came. Although the last months have been a big step forward after a decade of existing in slow motion.

“Well, I assume everything is fine” Jim murmured. “Right ladies?”

“Right,” Maria said.

“Liz?” Jim asked.

“Right,” she said a little hesitantly. “I hope all is fine with your little business?”

“As smooth as it can be. The Thompson kid decided to cause trouble once more,” he said. “So, it had to be me who dealt with it, and to give the lecture he had coming,” he allowed because he knew the girls would have thought that he was trying to get out of the conversation they were having. Sure, it was a bonus he knew but the Thompson will only respond to the sight of the Sheriff. “Are we okay?” he asked.

Kyle, Maria, and Liz looked at him.

“I need to see him Sheriff,” Liz blurted out. “You know who I am talking about, right?”

Yes, I do he thought. The whole room knows they all thought. “Liz?”

Don’t, okay” Liz asked. As she had enough of this. She needed to see him. She needed to know with her two eyes that Max was alive, and he was okay. Because it was all playing with her mind. She was expected to take it all in, and then to keep it all a secret. Which is something she was known to be able to do. It was instilled in me very early on she told herself. But it was something she could not know until she saw Max for herself. “I need to know he’s alright.”

“That is not possible,” Jim said softly.

“Bullshit,” Liz muttered and those in the office was taken back. When they should not have been she muttered. She hated this situation. Every bit of it. “I think we all know that I am not going to go out into the world and shout out that he’s alive because I get there is a need for some secrecy, which is why I am so pissed that none of you told me and allowed me to find out through other means, she said defiantly. “But I know how complicated the situation, and I am willing to keep it a secret. But to be able to keep it a secret. I need to know with my own two eyes that he’s okay.”

“We are telling you that he’s alright.” Jim murmured.

As Kyle and Maria could only look at each other, with a deep sigh. Because they knew they were now in a different territory. Unknown she both thought. Neither of them knew what would come with this demand.

As a woman who loved her man, Maria knew that she would be responding the same way if Michael was being kept from her, I love my Space boy she murmured. So, even though she knew how complicated this was, she did not think her friend was all that wrong to issuing the demand.

“Well, I don’t believe you” Liz sighed as she squared off with the Sheriff. “You have already led me to believe that he was not alright,” she said with a frown. “Maria tells me that only Michael has seen him, and therefore, and on some level, I am sure you are all on the level. But I need to know for myself that he’s okay. Because you are expecting a lot from me. You are expecting me to swallow something without an inch of proof. Jim, I need to see him. Otherwise, I am not going to be able to go on with my part in this little story.”

Shit they were all thinking.

“24 hours,” Liz murmured. “You have 24 hours to decide. But I am only giving you that time, to show me that he’s okay, otherwise, I will take it into my hands to find him. And I don’t think you want that,” she demanded as she stormed out of the office.

Leaving stunned glances.

“Well, that was unexpected,” Kyle murmured. Of Liz’s demand.

Although they should have seen it coming.

“You know if you allow her to see him, she’s not going to want to leave,” Maria warned her stepfather. “But it’s not unreasonable,” she would ask.

Was it?

*

Liz hoped not. She did not know how it was all going to play out. She knew that she could issue her demands, but at the end of the day, they did not have give her what wanted. What she needed. When she did not even know what she wanted. Because none of it made a lot of sense. Even if she was starting to believe it. She knew there was a reason for this type of mission, but she needed to see Max with her two eyes. To know she was not going crazy. And that these were not stories being told to her when they would not show her the man himself.

So, she needed to see Max.

To believe he was alive.

Because her mind was playing tricks on her. And because she had gone through this same scenario once before, albeit in a different form, that was why she was issuing the demand. She needed to see with her eyes that he was okay. Because her mind was telling her that Max could not possibly be okay. Which is why they are hiding him, right? She knew it was unreasonable to think that, because she knew this was about protecting Max.

She did not how it any of it would play out.

Max was alive.

She still could not believe it. Because none of it made any sense. When life does not make sense to me, I go a little squirrely.

The last three months were proof of it she thought. She thought of her memories of Max, her dreams. Oh god she whispered. “I hope I am not in some hospital dreaming this…”

Why would I be dreaming this she told herself. Why give me this kind of pain?

But it still was not out of realm of possibilities right given recent months. Maybe I am still in that hospital, in some White Room and dreaming of being told Max is alive she told herself.

I am going crazy she muttered to herself as she stared out onto the crowed Roswell street. She knew it was a small town. A small town she had loved growing up in, which made her effort in trying to distance herself from it all the more heartbreaking ever since those days when she was eighteen and had left. And then to come back, and experience what she had. She did not know what was real anymore.

I am cracking up she muttered to herself as she was starting to believe this was some elaborate dream. Some scenario that was playing out while she was in a hospital back in Bethesda… None of this could be true, right.

I just want to believe Max is alive…

“You are not going crazy,” came someone from her past. As she turned, and she started to laugh a tad hysterically for being sane, and if anyone was watching her, they would have what she was fearing. Really, she muttered to herself as she stared at street, and nothing was in front of her. And if anyone was seeing her, they would think that she was talking to herself.

“Alex?” Liz said softly.

“Yes, me” Alex Whitman said in his ghostly form.

“And so, you expect me to think I am sane, and not cracking up in some insane asylum back in Maryland?” she asked.

“If anyone else has experienced a tenth of what you have, then they might be, but you know all this is real” Alex said with a smile. “Deep down you know it’s true.”

A smile that was good to see. A smile she had missed since he was taken from them when she was seventeen. He did not even get to see eighteen she muttered. “Alex?” she whispered as she could not believe this, “You are really here,” she whispered as she wanted to reach out, and touch him.

And when she did, her hand went through, and she wanted to cry. “Why are you here?”

“Yes, it is me,” he said once again. “I came because you needed me to be here.”

“I needed you when you died,” Liz murmured. “Why not come back then?”

“No, you did not” Alex murmured. “Isabel was the one who needed me. Because you had a better handle of things,” he murmured, and Liz laughed, I really had a handle of things she sighed, that is a laugh, and she knew she would have to question her sanity if she talked back to a ghost of all things. I should have stayed in that mental house she muttered. “I knew you would find out the truth.”

“The truth was painful” Liz murmured. It was hell to get to the truth she knew. And it caused a lot of pain ultimately for Max and me she sighed and brought plenty of consequences she thought.

“Yes, it was” Alex said. “I hated it for you…”

Why did it have to happen “Why have you not crossed over,” Liz asked as they started to walk. As if she was just an ordinary person, walking on the sidewalk. Headed back towards home. And she was not walking with an imaginary version of her best friend from childhood. “We solved how you died.”

“I never wanted to leave this plane,” Alex murmured. “My parents needed me. You, Maria needed me.”

“Were you here all this time?” Liz asked.

“Most of it,” Alex murmured. “Whenever you guys needed me, I was here.”

Oh god Liz whispered. “Seriously?”

“Yes,” Alex Whitman said as he stood there, and Liz's mouth was gaping at the implausibility of this moment. Are you seriously telling me this is happening right now she was telling herself. "Are you sure I am not in some padded room?" she asked once more. Because despite evidence to the contrary. She had always assumed she was sane. I was only hiding in that shrink hospital she muttered to herself. So, despite the events of the previous three months, she had the knowledge that she was probably very sane. She had just been given some losing hands in her life.

This was not new.

Knowing this, she always felt she had held up pretty well with all the blows but now she was wondering if this was all some make-believe tale that had taken over her life once it had gone off the rails. And she knew when it probably happened, probably at the age of fifteen she thought now. Has the last ten years been all a dream?

Because a lot had changed on that day.

Back in 1999.

Nothing was the same after that day.

Which had been both good and it was also bad. Because she was forever changed when a bullet flew into her, and Max had flown into action. Forever changing their destinies, and the trajectory of their lives. Fusing each to the other, and a bond for the ages.

"You are not crazy," the vision of Alex Whitman was telling the earthbound reality of his childhood best friend Liz Parker. "I stayed."

Obviously, Liz would think. I have not heard of anyone crossing back over once they have moved on..."But why?" Liz was asking. Alex may not be saying that she was crazy, but she felt she was. Here I am talking to some ghostly phenomenon of my dead friend she asked herself in a crackle of laughter. What a thought she told herself. "In what world am I sane?" she wondered to herself.

In a world that has aliens she would probably be told if she posed the question. If you didn't love someone whose DNA was only half of this planet? So, why should she quibble that she was talking to a ghost?

And walking along the street like she would with someone who was living. But of course, Alex was not living. No matter how much she and Maria wished he was. Because he had been taken from them as well as his family when they were so young.

When they had so much to live for.

After all, Alex had so much to live for and Tess took that from both him and us, she cried as she felt the betrayal at her core. Despite the fact that she never had trusted the villainous blonde, the shocking loss of Alex had stung her, and been a knife wound in their group. And one that was not easily patched up without a lot of pain, and grief, and a lot of life wrenching consequences. We were forever changed.

The tears had been so to come by, oh, how she had cried at the time.

She was still crying.

When she had been forever changed on that day in 1999. Because she had not been ready for all she had endured over the next 32 or so months.

So much in such a short time. Liz mumbled. Yes, so much had gone down in that time.

"I have always been over head watching," Alex assured.

"Why?" Liz asked once more.

"You have needed a little guidance in an insane world," Alex would say with a smirk.

Ghosts can smirk? Liz would ask herself. This is so unreal she would tell herself. As she did not know how to take any of this. Being able to communicate with her deceased friend, and to know that he had been watching her all this time.

"I could have moved on, sure, because yes the manner of my death was solved. But my purpose was watching over those I loved back here." Alex was saying. “I did not need to be anywhere else.”

"Some guidance," Liz would think. Because none of this makes any sense.

And that was true.

"Why now?" Liz would ask as she stared at the youthful appearance of her friend. I have grown older, and he has stayed seventeen. "Why show your face, now?" she murmured as she tried to make some semblance of sense in any of this...

"Because you have been dealt with some shocking blows," Alex would say.

Liz laughed, Really, she muttered to herself. "Well, you got that right" Liz would mutter. As she knew she had felt some resentment over the whole situation. "They lied to me," she muttered. "My so-called friends," she whispered. "Maria?"

"I know," Alex sighed as she saw the pain and the disappointment on his living friend’s face. "I hope you believe that Maria never wanted to do that to you," he would say, and Liz snorted. And the ghostly vision that Alex Whitman could only sigh. Because after all, he had been there most of Liz's life. And he had seen how close Liz and Maria were, as close as you could be if you were not related by blood, and so he had seen how they managed any eruptions that would come in their friendship over that time. It was rare, but there were some he knew.

"How would you know?" Liz would ask.

"Because I have been there for Maria as well." Alex murmured as Liz looked surprised. "I am all seeing," he said with a laugh. "One of the perks of my condition," he sighed, and Liz winced. "I can move around without abandon, almost..."

"Oh," Liz murmured. As she was unsure of how to deal with this. All of this is so bizarre, she mused to herself.

He hated this. "Liz, she agonized over not being able to tell you," Alex murmured as it had been a version of hell for him to see the discontent with both of his childhood friends over this matter. Because he had seen the fighting between the newlyweds. Even if fighting was much of the attraction between his friend and the one that she loved, and it was why Maria and Michael seemed to make it through when for other, the friction might be the end for them, but for Maria and Michael, they would always battle each other instead of walking away.

"Alex, how can I be happy with them," Liz whispered. "They have allowed me to believe that Max was dead." Liz said little snidely as the resentment still was attached to the matter.

"I know," Alex murmured. Believe me, I know.

"What do you know about it?" Liz asked. "For the last three months, I thought he was with you?"

"He was," Alex murmured. "In the beginning..."

Silence took over, and it was shocking "He was?" Liz asked with a little bit of a squeak in her voice as she stopped walking. Not caring what someone might be thinking of her mumbling and talking to the air around her. Thankfully for her, on this day, anyone who were passing by. They were not watching her, or curious. They were dealing with their own life and not focused on someone who was talking to a ghost.

"Yes, he was" Alex sighed. "I sent him back here, to you..."

"What?" Liz asked, a little incredulously.

"I told him that it was not his time to come to where I was. Because he still had too much to live for." Alex murmured.

Oh god Liz whispered as she glanced at her lost friend. "Me?"

"Yes," Alex said. "It was not his time," he would also say.

Time, what is that?" Liz sighed. "How would you know?" she cried. "It was not your time when you left us."

"But it was," Alex murmured and despite being in the condition that he was. He felt a little defeated in having to admit this. As much he missed his family, and his friends. But it was the truth. "If it was not my time, then Max would have been able to save my life. Like he had with you..." or with others…

This sucks Liz moaned as it sank into her. The theory that Alex was meant to leave them before they even turned eighteen. Why? did it have to happen. As the flashbacks of those days played in her mind. She felt the cold, the shock, and the nausea all over again. It felt very real. Because despite how tense it was at the time. She also knew how much it pained Max not to be able to use his abilities to save Alex when he had been able to save her. To find out that there were some boundaries to his powerful ability to heal.

"I thanked him for trying," Alex murmured. "But I am where I should be," he said softly. "No matter how much I miss you guys. You, Maria, Isabel and especially my parents."

"Max?" Liz whispered. "You saw Max?"

"Yes," Alex said softly. "I told him to come back."

“You did,” Liz whispered as it sunk it. "He did," Liz murmured of the wonder of it all. "But they kept him from me."

[totallizfan]

Alex's spirit or Liz's mental condition seems to have talked Liz down.
Maybe her next meeting with the group will go smoother.
Liz is right...the kids should know.
Seeing Max is her priority now.

[Parker1947]

Yes, unfortunately they had, although they had their reasons, and those reasons were warranted, but it did not mean it was going down easily for Liz. As she tried to process it. She did not know if she was processing it at all. Because it did not seem real.

None of it.

How could it? Given what she was faced with. Neither of them knew it easy. Not the ghostly vision of her deceased friend, and of course Liz. She could not understand it and even though it was Alex's mission to be a comfort to his friend. Someone who he had been watching off and on over the last decade. Whenever it was needed. No matter where she had gone, he had followed. After the business with Isabel was concluded and she had begun to move on.

He had not crossed over.

She has made peace and moved on even though she would not find her happily ever after with Jesse he would think of the aftermath of his visits to Isabel. I could have told her that it was not meant to be if you rush into it so fast, but she was not going to listen to me he wisely knew, [/i]I am dead [/i]he thought. But for awhile there, it did look like Isabel would be happy. But it was also obvious to him that not everyone was that happy. He would see the push and pull that Maria had been constantly under with Michael, but after awhile, they had largely begun to make it work.

Liz was another story all together...

It was obvious his death had cause a lot of turmoil for his friend, and he was sad to see it. But he had not stepped in because she was using the grief she was feeling to solve his case. But he could see how it was hurting her, and ultimately it would cause lasting consequences, and take a long time before she would try to make something work with Max.

It would not last.

Which was why when Max had found his way to where he was, he could see quite clearly that it was not Max's time.

Because Max had too much to live for. Children...

And Liz he would realize even if he would also recognize how messy it all was, but he wanted his childhood friend to be happy, and having Max back in her life, and allowing her to work out whatever was meant to happen, well, that was what he wanted.

So, he had told Max to go back.

Unfortunately, he had not counted on what would come next...

He did not think anyone could know...

"I am sorry," Alex said. "I know it could not be easy."

"It was hell," Liz murmured. "Alex, I love him."

"I know," Alex whispered. "I am sorry, but at the end of the day, Liz, he's alive. You have a chance to figure out what comes next," he asked. "You have gotten your miracle," he allowed. "Some don't get that chance," he said softly.

"Sorry," Liz winced.

"I have made peace with it, and this my purpose" Alex murmured. "My parents have moved on, and I can watch over them...,” he said softly of his occasional visits to his parents, and the lives they currently were living, away from Roswell. After they had retired to Canada. Away from the memories. “But you have a chance here."

"I know," Liz said. "Again..."

"I know," Alex smiled of the implausible story that had been Max and Liz.

"Did you help him last time, too?" Liz whispered. Knowing what she was asking was unfathomable. She had already almost lost Max to death. His eyes closed; he stopped breathing she remembered.

Of that day back during senior year...

"NO, that was all you" Alex smiled. "I was busy somewhere else," he said softly. "You willed him back, and he willed himself back" he said. "Unfortunately, you did not take that chance that you had."

"I was young and foolish," Liz murmured. As she knew she had a million regrets in her life, and many of them were about what she had done in the wake of their graduation. "I was worried. I did not want to lose him. I feared for him."

"Life is unpredictable," Alex murmured. "It can swerve around and throw us off course..." he said. "But it is also precious," he said with determination. "It can also be short. So, if you have a chance at happiness. You should not give it up, over fearing that you will lose him," he said. "Because you ended up losing him in a whole other way."

"I know," Liz said softly.

"Then I suggest that you swallow your hurt and take this chance that you have..." Alex smiled.

"He's married." Liz murmured. She might have tried to kill him, but she is still his wife she sighed as she thought Yvonne. "I still won't be able to have him,” she sighed with acknowledgement of how messy and how complicated it was.

"Like that mattered to you, before" Alex laughed.

"She does not deserve him," Liz whispered. "Look at what she did to him?"

"No, she does not" Alex agreed.

"So, what am I going to do?" Liz asked.

"That is up to you..." Alex said softly. "Only you can go for what you want."

*

Meanwhile,

Nearby, a car pulled into the parking lot associated with the Crashdown. Because the night was setting, the lot was emptier than it was early in the day. As the driver stopped the engine, and soon she got out of the car. And the other doors swung open, and two small children got out. Because Isabel was bringing the twins for an after-dinner treat. Because dinner had been short and sweet.

Maybe not so sweet… Isabel sighed.

Without Kyle, and after Phillip returned. Dinner commenced, but it was obviously the room was distracted. And discussion was not robust, and once it was over, it was getting later so Isabel knew they had to go home. But she wanted to treat the children because for the first time in a long time, her mother did not have dessert at the ready.

Isabel knew that her mother was missing her brother. She has not been in the mood to be cooking or baking, even though they all knew what the story was.

Only Liz had been in the dark.

So, Diane Evans knew where her son was. But she missed him, and every once in a while, it put a darken shadow among the house because of how they had to lie to Max’s children.

Keeping them in the dark was not easy. So, Phillip and Isabel did not want to pressure Diane to bake if she was not in the mood.

So, the Crashdown was calling to them. And she figured that it would brighten the moods of the children. "Are you okay?" she asked Ella as they got out of the car. Because Ella had been quiet the whole drive from her grandparent's home. Noah had been talking about an upcoming swim meet and plans that weekend to go to a motorcar race with his friend, Wendell, and Wendell's father.

So, there was discussion to be had in the car, but Isabel could tell her niece was troubled. But Ella was not talking, and even though Isabel knew what her niece was thinking, it was something that could not be discussed.

Not yet.

Not until the child came to her and even if Ella were to do such a thing. Isabel did not know where she stood. Because even though she had not seen her brother. Max still was adamant that the children should not know, not yet anyways.

According to Michael.

Because her brother did not want to hurt them, if he was not coming home yet. And as Kyle and Maria would have said to Liz.

If the children did disappear and Yvonne did somehow find out. She would know something was up Isabel would think. Of course, the easy way out of this mess would be for the bitch to come back Isabel thought. We could catch her...

But my brother is alive, and there is very little that can be proved...

So, for her brother's sake. She did not want her brother's wife back in town. But she knew as long as Yvonne stayed gone, and justice was not avenged, and her brother could not come home to his children.

So, as much as it pained them to lie to the twins, she knew it had to happen for a little while later. Because of the age of the twins, they could say something.

To the wrong person.

As evidence of what Ella did today Isabel knew as she looked at her niece. Whom, at this moment was startling looking like brother.

She was Isabel's namesake, and she looked like her late sister-in-law, Edie but there were traits from Max that appeared in the child. And they were coming out... "Ella?"

"I am fine," Ella muttered. Because she knew she had been quiet at dinner. Too quiet she knew. Being quiet in this family can lead to questions she knew. "Will Uncle Kyle be at the house when we get there?"

"Probably," Isabel said softly as she and the twins started to walk to the restaurant. She had yet to hear from Kyle, so she assumed he was still dealing with his father. "You know you can tell me anything, you know..."

"I know," Ella said "You have already told me that," with a mutter.

"I know, I have" Isabel said. "I will keep telling you guys..."

Ella nodded and Noah only shook his head. Because he knew what his twin sister was thinking. And he did not know why she wanted to be right. Noah knew that his sister had the capacity to know things before he did, she is too eerie at times the nine-year-old muttered to himself. But it did not bother him.

When he was trying to get through the day.

He wanted things to be normal. So, he was willing to buy the party line because it was not like he was stupid. He knew something was up. And his sister was probably righter than she was wrong, but she knew as long as the adults were telling them the story that they were. There must be some reason for them to tell us something like that.

Given whose family he was from. He knew, nothing was going to change. So, why get upset about something you can't change?

Sure, he missed his father.

But he was trying to make it through the day without thinking of his father, and he was willing go with the flow and buy the story being told to them.

Ella is different he knew. We are so different he thought. Despite being twins he thought as he walked along with his sister and aunt. And looked around. It was getting darker, and later. And he was happy that they were able to convince their aunt to stop by the Crashdown for ice cream, when it was a school night, and they should be in bed.

As he spotted Liz...

"Isn't that not Daddy's friend?" Noah asked of his aunt.

Isabel was in her mind as she thought of her dilemma. And so, she was not immediately hearing her nephew's question, but enough of it broke through her debate with herself, "What?" she asked. "Did you say something?" she asked of Noah.

"I said, is that not Daddy's friend?" Noah asked. "I know I don't know her or anything," he asked. "But she looks familiar?"

Isabel came back to reality and turned and spotted Liz...

As if she was in an intense talk...

Ella turned her head and spotted Liz.

"Who is the guy that she is with?" Ella asked.

"What?" Isabel asked, as she looked down at both her niece and nephew. "yes, that is Elizabeth Parker. Yes, she is a friend of your father and me," she spotted. "She's probably on the phone or something," she said. Although she does not look like she was on the phone she thought to herself. Maybe she has earphones on? "But she's alone."

"No, she is not" Noah said as she looked closer at his father's friend. "Ella, you see him, right?"

"Right," Ella acknowledged. As she squinted and looked at what she was looking at. She was sure she had seen the guy's picture before... "I know I have seen him somewhere," she muttered almost to herself.

Isabel did not want to play this game. It was getting late. She was tired. She had too much too her mind to play one of the twins' games. Because Ella and Noah were known to try to trick her, Kyle and Phillip and Diane. And sometimes they got us going she knew. So, she was not in the mood for one of those games because she knew that her brother's children were very creative in their youth and knew how to play those around them. "Guys, it is late, and it's been a long day, maybe you should be going to bed" Isabel murmured. "Instead of the ice cream I promised you, we should be heading home, or maybe better yet, I should be thinking of glasses for you," she laughed. "Liz is alone."

"Aunt Isabel," Noah murmured. "Your friend is talking to someone. Some guy. Tall, dark hair. They are talking about something, but she's with someone. Is it her boyfriend or something?" he asked.

Isabel was stumped. Because she was seeing that Liz was muttering to herself, out in the open. But she was alone.

All alone.

"How can you not see him?" Ella asked as she looked at her aunt and was curious about why she and her brother were able to see this person, yet her aunt was not able too. She liked mysteries, and this was one, and it got her away from thinking of her father, and how much she missed him, and wondering what she did not know.

How could she not see him? Ella was thinking.

There was a simple question, but it was not an easy one. But Isabel was not in the mood. "Enough," she said softly because she knew the twins were creative because of their gifts and because they knew it, they were able to get her going. "Go inside," she said. "Pick what you want, because it is getting late, and we have to get back to the house."

She knew what her aunt was thinking, and she knew it was not what was happening. I am on the level she muttered to herself. "Aunt Isabel, we are not trying to trick you" she said with a frown. Because she knew she and Noah, being twins were able to trick the adults around them. In ways that were very different than many twins, but in the case, they were on a level. They were not trying to get one over on their aunt. "Ms. Parker is definitely with someone," she said softly. "I know I have seen him before..."

"Before, three months ago. Liz had not been back here since before you were born" Isabel muttered. “So, I don’t know how you would know any of her friends” she sighed as she wondered if they would have gotten to this point if Liz had come back sooner.

Probably, she knew.

"We know," Noah said. "So, you have to know him?" he asked. “Right,” she asked of the small community she was in.

"I don't see anyone," Isabel said softly. "So, let's not play those games tonight" she said softly. "Go inside and pick what you want," she said. "Take it 'for the go' said, even better" she muttered.

"Fine," Ella murmured because she knew her aunt did not believe her. "But your friend is talking to someone. I think she is mouthing the name Alex" she said as she knew how to read mouths, because she had some hearing-impaired friends at school, and therefore, she had learned early the beginning stages of sign language, and most off, reading mouths.

You learn a lot that way Ella was quick to find out. Which is fabulous when you are trying to eavesdrop, and the adults catch on to you... she knew. We can modify our approach to it she thought. "We will go in, come on Noah" she said as she did not see how she had thrown the bombshell on her aunt, of the name that she cited.

"Alex?" Isabel asked softly.

"I think so," Ella murmured. "We are going in."

"Fine," Isabel murmured as she was in a stupor while the two nine years old walked into the Crashdown.

*

Inside,
Moments, before,

"Is Mommy, okay?" Callie Parker was asking as she was looking outside, and seeing that her mother was on corner, looking like she was in a deep conversation. But it appeared she was alone, because Callie was unable to see whom her mother was deep conversation with, but all she knew that it had been going on for awhile now...

After all, Liz had not returned to the Crashdown after she disappeared after the emotional conversation with her Aunt Maria. Callie had not thought much of it, because she was so interested in the amusements of being downstairs and watching the bustling restaurant. Which was now less then it had been earlier, so she had more time to be curious. You learn so much by being curious she would remark to herself. After the rush of the dinner crowd. And because it was obvious that her mother was not returning. She had gone upstairs with her grandfather and grandmother for dinner. And because Jeff needed to come back down, she had chosen to do so too, and she had spent the evening milling around the restaurant. Now, she was looking outside, and she saw her mother show up, and then get into a deep conversation even if she was making it look as she was not mumbling to herself, but Callie figured she was, and she was beginning to worry about her mother, and so when her grandfather passed by. She could not help but ask. "Grandpa?"

Jeff sighed, as he stopped to look, and like his granddaughter, he could see his daughter dealing with something. What, he did not know. And figured he had to tamp town Callie's concern for his mother. "She is fine," he would say to his granddaughter. But he was doubtful and growing more so with every moment that his daughter was back here. Given the circumstances of the blow his daughter had faced in Maryland. Jeff was so sure it would do good for his daughter to come back here to Roswell.

Even if it meant coming back to the scene of events that his daughter was still living down.

But because Jeff needed to get back. He and Nancy felt that they would be able to keep an eye on their daughter, and he was sure that having Callie around would bring their daughter back, but now he was wondering if it was the worse thing he could have done. And therefore, he was worried for his daughter.

And getting more so…

As he looked at the weary look of his granddaughter. But knew he had to reassure the girl. "Don't worry about your mother. She will come through this," he said with assurance for the young girl, but it was assurance that he did not really had.

And he saw the weary look on Callie's face as if he did not trust his words, fully. "Seriously, sweetheart."

"She looks distracted?" Callie asked.

"She is," Jeff murmured. Unable of course to know whom his daughter was in deep conversation with...

"I want her to be happy," Callie muttered as she saw the intense look on her mother’s face.

"She will be again, I promise" Jeff said and wondered if that promise was something he would be able to uphold to his granddaughter. And he could tell that his granddaughter was not totally sure either, and he deeply sigh as the door opened, and in walked Ella and Noah Evans and his granddaughter's face lit up at the sight of her friends. "It's late, isn't it?" he asked to the two Evans children.

"Aunt Isabel wanted to treat us," Noah smiled. "Grandma Evans did not have any dessert. For the first time in forever," he smirked. And Jeff smiled and frowned because he knew how much the Evans family had changed in recent months, and he did not envy Phillip and Diane Evans as they were coping with such a loss.

"It's good to see you again," Jeff said with the acknowledgement that the children had been seen a lot in the restaurant in recent weeks. "Let's see what we can get you?" he asked. "I assume your Aunt is coming in?"

"In a minute," Ella said. "She I think needs to talk to your mother," she said softly as she saw that Isabel was headed over there...

"Why?" Callie asked as they headed over to the counter.

"Something that probably relates to whom she your mother is talking too," Noah commented.

Whoa Jeff Parker said. "You two can see who my daughter is talking too?"

"Sure," Ella asked as she looked out as she saw her aunt watching Liz, who was still in a deep conversation. "You can't?" she wondered as she looked at Callie, and her grandfather. And Callie also shook her head.

"Well, no" Jeff said softly.

"Weird," Noah muttered. Why can we see him, and yet Callie and her grandfather can’t or even Aunt Isabel he thought.

"I guess," Jeff said softly.

"Who do you see?" Callie asked. Curious, because she was only months younger, and yet she did see this man that was talking to her mother.

"I think your mother said the name, Alex" Ella murmured.

Alex Jeff paled. Because he only knew of one Alex in his daughter's life. In his daughter's crowd. And that Alex had lost to the town, and to his daughter back when she was a teenager, and it was a bad loss for his daughter. Rivaling what she was experiencing now, although Max's loss is way more painful, he would think.

Unaware that Max was truly alive, of course.

"Grandpa, do you know any Alex?" Callie asked. Because she was curious about the man talking to her mother, because it meant someone was talking to her mother. And she might not have to worry.

Even though she was unaware that her mother was talking to ghosts of course.

"Maybe," was all Jeff could say as he looked out once again... while Callie and Ella ran off towards the counter, and Noah looked back, and was curious.

*

Meanwhile,

"While I do think I am crazy to be talking to you," Liz said unbelievably as she still could not grasp that she had been talking to her late friend. Someone who had been dead for more than a decade. "But I do appreciate it, that you are talking some sense into me, even if I don't know what any of it means." Or why I am taking advice from a ghost she would mutter to herself because this was all so bizarre yet comforting.

That would not be too surprising. "Go with your heart," Alex smiled. "It will always tell you want you want."

"If I go with heart," Liz murmured. "I often get into trouble..." And if I do go with my heart, where does it take me?

Alex could only smile.

"Liz," came a voice from nearby, and it brought Liz back to reality. Because she knew this was going to happen. Deep down it was the logical move, and I am all about being logical she thought. Which is why I am so sort of outside, because this all is so illogical.

Oh god she would mutter to herself. Because she did recognize the voice. And it was one that she was not thrilled to have to talk to, not right now.

"Hello Isabel," Liz said softly as she turned and focused on Max's sister.

Someone who loved Max just as much as she did... So, she did not particularly relish this moment. "What do you want?" she asked the blonde who was staring at her with some interest. And it was hard for Liz to know how to explain what she was seeing on Isabel’s face, or what I am feeling for that matter she was telling herself. “What do you want Isabel?”

"Who were you talking to?" Isabel asked as she had taken a few minutes after letting the twins go into the Crashdown without her, watching Liz, and wondering what was going on. Why would Alex be helping Liz? she could not help but ask. Because she knew that it had to be Alex Whitman.

And she was not one to think it was that crazy to even think of the possibility to Liz was talking to their deceased high school friend.

Nope she told herself.

Not when she knew that Alex had helped her once before. Back when she was young, and the cusp of doing something rash and unwise. Alex did try to stop me she told herself, but I was so determined to run into something after his death, and the situation with Grant before that she muttered as she had to shutter at the thought of the fiasco with Grant. I still think of that jellyfish thing she muttered to herself.

"Was I talking to someone?" Liz murmured to Isabel.

As she felt it was best to try a little denial.

"The kids were saying you were" Isabel murmured. "And I could see that you were," without actually seeing Alex for myself she told herself. Probably because he does not need to appear to me, she wondered.

We are passed that time in our lives.

Kids Liz asked as Alex was no longer staring at her, and it was now only Max's sister who had that honour as she was completely back to reality as she glanced around and did not spot the kids, Ella, and Noah. She could not believe that anyone would have been able to see Alex. "Where are they?"

"Inside," Isabel said softly. "Where I should be."

Liz nodded. So should I "Nothing is stopping you" she muttered to herself.

"What is going on Liz?" Isabel wondered, ignoring the snide comment. She's entitled.

"I don't know what you should mean?" Liz asked as she was still in that state of denial. As she was totally aware of the icy nature of the tone of their conversation, and it was a tone that she was not feeling that concerned about. "Is it any of your business who I might have been talking too?" she sighed given all the complexities of this whole situation.

"Not normally," Isabel conceded.

"Not anytime," Liz muttered right back.

"Look," Isabel said softly.

"Look, nothing" Liz muttered. "It's my business, and only my business who I talk too. And given none of you decided to tell me about you know..." she said, aware that they were outside and so she was being careful with how she ranted towards Max's sister. "You wanted me out of your lives, and so I let me go..."

"I love my brother," Isabel murmured.

"I know you do," Liz murmured. And despite the resentment still within her, she did know how much Isabel did love her brother. Because it was something they both had in common, and it was not something either could have an issue with… We both love Max.

"Therefore, his safety and that of his children is what I care about most in this world," Isabel murmured. "Your feelings never entered my mind," she said with a glare.

"Obviously," Liz said as she began to walk away.

"Stop," Isabel said.

"Why should I?" Liz asked as she moved towards the restaurant as she turned and faced off with Isabel. "You have shown what you think of me," she said softly. "I know you never approved of my relationship with your brother," she said with a mutter, "So, you can leave me alone,” she said. “We don’t have to deal with each other.”

Except they did.

Because the town was too small, and because the situation was too complex. Way too complex both women would think to themselves. As they looked at each other. And neither knew how to handle the other. Because it was true that Isabel had never been one of those shippers like Maria had been. Regarding Max and Liz, and their unorthodox love story. No, she was not a supporter of her brother's relationship. Sure, she was not a hater, but she had shown her disapproval in the beginning, and then she simply ignored it and could not see what had drawn her brother to someone like Liz. Even when you did look at it. They are very similar she thought. On the outside she would clarify. We are all different on the inside. Liz is very different from us. "I would love to leave you alone" Isabel murmured. "But my brother loves you."

"And I love him" Liz said. Even if he were dead, she muttered. I will go to my own grave loving him. "I am not going to mess things up for anyone," she said of the situation. Something they were both aware of and Liz knew that Isabel had to be told of the new circumstances. "But you showed what you thought of me by not telling me what was going on," she muttered. "But I value your brother's safety, so I am going to keep the secret, all of them and you and I don't have to have anything to do with each other."

This is a mess Isabel murmured. Because she knew this was not what her brother would want. And it was true that Liz had kept their secrets, every little dirty one she would acknowledge. And how do we repay her?

Silence on a matter of great importance...

So, Isabel knew that it was warranted that Liz should be angry, and any other time. She would have done what Liz wanted, and move on, and ignore her, but she could not. She needed to know if she was right. "Were you talking to Alex?" Isabel questioned as she changed the tone of her voice.

To very soft.

"What if I was?" Liz said. Now I am truly going for the record books she muttered of the insanity of this conversation. And yet she knew how much Alex had felt for Isabel, and in her way, Isabel had felt something for Alex too, and so she could not be totally icy.

"He's..." Isabel said softly, unable to say the words. She rarely was able to say the word.

"I know what he is" Liz sighed. "I am quite aware of it. But he cares about me, which is more than any of you can say" she said. "Look, I know it might been an order from Jim. But I have been in this since the beginning," she muttered as Isabel flinched. "Okay, not the beginning but certainly since 1999. You guys could have told me, and I would have kept it a secret. So, yeah, I am going back in. Because my parents are probably wondering what happened to me," she said as she began to walk to the Crashdown. As she turned to face Max's sister. "You don't have to like me Isabel, nor do I have to like you. We are very different people. But I will always love your brother, and he will always matter to me so let us move on..." she said softly. "We need to move on..."

Which is something that was universally agreed upon they both knew.

Isabel was unsure of how to respond. Because she knew it was complicated. And she knew Liz's anger was warranted. It would be on the other foot if my brother was alive, and they did not tell me she sighed. "I hope he helped you" Isabel said softly.

"It was reassuring," Liz murmured. "Even if not slightly insane."

Isabel nodded and sighed with a wishful look on her face. "I miss him" Isabel said.

"We all do" Liz said softly. "His loss was senseless," she muttered of the way they had lost Alex. "And yet, I took solace that Max was with him, these past months, and they were watching over us, together. But I was wrong, wasn't I?" she said.

"God," Isabel muttered. "I am sorry."

You should be Liz said but stayed quiet. "We both can be that..." she said softly as they reached the Crashdown.

"Look Liz," Isabel tried again.

"It's fine, Isabel" Liz murmured. "What has gone down has gone down. It's the past, and neither have the ability to change anything that has happened, right?" she said simply because she knew she had to get over the hurt, and the feeling of being left out of the loop when it was true. She could not change the past. It has happened, and nothing can change these past three months.

I just have to move on and figure out where we all go from here.

"Right," Isabel murmured.

"Then let us go in" was all Liz could say. “And face what is now…”

So, they did, or Liz did, as she opened the door and spotted her father as it was almost like he was going to come out, "Dad" she simply asked as she saw the concern look on her father’s face.

"Lizzie, are you alright?" Jeff Parker blurted out. Because he of course he had witnessed the scene outside, without actually listening in...

"Sure," Liz smiled. Aware of how complicated it was. "What could be wrong?" she muttered with a slight smile. As neither of them said anything more, and she walked over to the counter where the twins were, and so was Callie.

Making sure she understood that she had more to deal with...

As outside, Isabel could see the twins inside as they sat at the counter with a pile of ice cream before them, Isabel simply sighed, and turned around and she was sure she saw Alex...

"Alex?" Isabel whispered.

But Alex only smiled and vanished from her sight. Because it was not Isabel who had needed his help, so, she turned and headed into the Crashdown.