Damn it Isabel cursed to herself as she wanted to spread the feeling all over the living room. At herself, and at the situation she was in. She wanted to express it at Kyle for forcing her to have this conversation even if she knew it was not all his fault,
a lot of it is on me because she had allowed it to escalate to this point. Instead of short circuiting it when she had the chance. Sure, maybe in the beginning it was
not on her.
If you want to be technical about it, she muttered. Because she had only been doing what she felt was best for the situation or what was her duty, in telling her niece and nephew that their father would not be coming back to them, nor would be coming home.
Instead of turning it over to their grieving parents. Only for herself to be shocked when her parents did come home, and for them to tell her of what had transpired after she had them at the hospital.
… that Max had come back to life.
Who does that? Isabel wanted to think.
Of course, my brother does she murmured. As she remembered the fog that she had been under since had gotten that initial call in Las Cruces because she had been the chaperone on her niece and nephew’s field trip.
While their father was sowing his wild oats with his past, she mumbled to herself because it was not exactly a secret among their small fraternity.
It was a very badly kept secret,
which caused the wife to find out or have strong suspicions and set in motions the events that are still rocking our foundation she snarked.
Although, it sounds as if Yvonne had been planning even before Liz came back, she thought,
but Liz’s return and how her brother ignore everything to spend time with his high school girlfriend did not help matters Isabel knew.
But ultimately, the
only people who did not had been Maria and Michael, because they were on their honeymoon.
While Max and Liz were using their house for their amoral liaison.
Only for everything to be rocked to their foundation and the sordid mess to end up on the front pages of the local paper, and on the internet for everyone to gravitate too and gawk at, because it was a soapy mess, but she had been in Las Cruces with the twins, and therefore oblivious to it, and she had gotten the call, and they had rushed back.
Dropping the twins off at a friend’s home. She had gone to the hospital, and been told the terrible truth where he had been transported too, after being declared unable to save at the scene, but all she knew it had not changed the fact that…
Max was dead.
My brother was gone she had thought as she was transported back to that horrible day. So, she could not take it, so, yes, she was a bad daughter in leaving her distraught parents at the hospital to deal with the final details of her brother’s life and demise, and she had rushed back to collect the twins and had chosen to take on the responsibility to sit them down and tell them the terrible truth.
“Your father has gone to be with your mother," she had said.
The two sat there staring, all stoic and
just like my brother would, she would surmise as if they were not believing it, but maybe it was only Noah because Ella seemed to know what she was saying, and it believed it instantly, and the three of them burst down into tears.
Mutual tears.
All three of them cried together as she held them and they talked of the good man their father had been, and then the tears had dried up and they had up to their temporary rooms in their grandparent’s home.
As Isabel started to come to terms with a life without her brother in it, as she called Michael, and initially only getting the answering service at the hotel, and later getting to talk to him, himself.
As they sat on both ends of the phone, shell shocked.
Only when she would hung up the phone, had her parents Phillip and Diane come home and filled her in on the newest developments, and she had stood staring at them in shock.
Utter shock was more like it, Isabel remembered.
And then it hit her,
Max is alive she thought.
As she rushed to the hospital, only to be told by reception that the hospital was still listed him as deceased as they looked at her like she was loopy, as she pitched a fit and a tantrum that would make her nephew and niece proud, and all they had down was refer to Jim who would tell her that Max was being kept someplace safe as he healed from his now non-fatal gunshot wounds.
She had demanded to see her brother,
“Come on Jim, you know I have to see him” she demanded, and finally the Sheriff had relented and took her to where her brother was being treated.
She had rushed in…
Three months ago,
Mystery location,
“Oh Max” she had cried when she had run in and hugged her still recovering brother. Even though you would think he that he would miraculously heal right on the spot, but this time it would take him some time to come back. Physically and mentally. So, it would need to take some time.
After all, not many self-described healers could go through what Max had twice in a lifetime and live to tell the story.
He was finding that it was taking time to shake off what he had experienced. And he valued being forced into a secret location because it meant that he could be alone.
Because it had been scary.
But knew how to put on a brave face and show a side of himself that did not tell the truth story. After all he had gotten through his childhood and teenage life by doing that same thing. So, he felt as if he was an expert by then. And knew he could say the words that would reassure his sister. “I am fine Isabel,” he was saying even as he took the embrace that his sister had given him because this was not the situation he was expecting to be, and yet here he was.
As they visited, and she was the one to fill him in of what she knew of the situation. And despite his attempt to absorb all the brand-new hits that had come his way. It was still a situation he had not expected to be in, so it was still a shell-shocking experience.
But when the topic came to his children.
Max was adamant…
“You have to keep them in the dark a little while longer” he said softly. “You have already told them that I am gone, right?” he would ask as he come to terms what his sister had been telling hm and that she had been the one to inform Ella and Noah.
“You want us to continue to lie to them?” Isabel would ask.
“Yes,” Max said simply. “Is, before you get on my case. I don’t know where this will be going” he would murmur. “I don’t know how long I will have to stay in this situation, and if things were to go south from here, then I am not going to have the children told for a second time that I am gone if they have just been told that I am alive,” he said softly. “I would be playing with their fragile mental states, so until I know that I am going to come back from this, I cannot have them put in peril and that is what I would be doing. After all, I cannot have them come with me, wherever the future will take me.”
“Yvonne is still playing the grieving widow” Isabel murmured as this was before the funeral was scheduled or held, or the reading of the will, when things would really change, she would be thinking three months later.
“It is the role she has been made for” Max said dismissively.
“She tried to kill Liz,” so it is obviously something she had been planning for awhile
as his wife was coming into focus, I was so stupid,
he was thinking.
Isabel flinched at the mention of Liz, because it was not a name she wanted to be hearing. “And she succeeded in killing you” Isabel said going with the technically of the situation that he had for a brief time died, and yet he had survived, miraculously she muttered as she was stubbornly looking at her newly resurrected brother for the second time in my lifetime, she reminded herself. “I don’t care about Liz, why did you have to jump in front of the bullet?”
“Because they had misfired their target and were aiming for Liz” Max said softly. “I could not have that, because she cannot die when it should be me.”
“But they could have killed you” Isabel would mutter. You matter to me Max she thought of the stubborn way her brother was fixated on the past. Someone who had hurt her and ultimately had brought them to this point. “In fact, they did kill you” she mumbled.
“Yes,” Max would say. “But I will always step in front of a bullet for her…”
How romantic
Isabel murmured with a scowl on her face. Not she thought as she did not know if anyone would do the same for her, would Kyle do it for me
but still she did not like hearing it coming out of her brother’s mouth. “You have a life to live for Max,” she said softly as she wanted to remind him of what he had to live for. “You have children,” she said softly. “Stop thinking of Liz, and fight for your own life.”
“So does Liz,” Max murmured as he knew that Isabel’s anger at the situation as warranted, and he did know that he was fixated on Liz, but that was only because he loved her, and Liz mattered too.
Liz, Liz, Liz
Isabel murmured to herself but wisely chose to not to say something like that to her brother. Even though she thought it in great spades.
“You should not blame her,” Max murmured. “I changed everything for her. And she has her own life, and she does not deserve to die because of me, and my choice for a wife,” he murmured. “It was all my fault.”
“You are a damn saint, aren’t you?” Isabel would mutter. “A very stupid one.”
“Right,” Max said softly. “But no, I am not a saint, because I have made a lot of mistakes and I am not happy with all of them, but I will always step on a landmine if I can protect Liz, because I love her.”
“Do you love your children?” Isabel would ask. Hey, it’s a reasonable question, s
he argued. How about staying away from those landmines?
“With everything in me, because are the only good things that has been my life since I lost Liz, and I am trying to protect them so that they don’t get hurt again. As much as I want them to be with me, but they were to disappear and join me wherever I end up being until this this over, well, that will be a recipe for Yvonne to find out,” he said softly. “We don’t have any proof that she is behind any of this.”
But she was.
And that was the unspoken truth in all of this, but still in Max’s mind, she could chose to come after the kids if they were to know I am alive, and once she knows what is in my last will and testament
he thought as he was well of the changes he had only just made that was finalized in the hours before his “demise.”
So, yeah, it was a horrible situation and both of them knew it. And even though Isabel was not happy, she knew she had to agree to her brother’s request because they were in the beginning of this, and they did not know where this was going to go. But it meant that there would be a lot of secrets.
And keeping the truth from the two innocents was just one of them, and she was not proud of herself over the next few days as they had to act as if they were burying the children’s father, or over the next three months as she came their “official” guardian, and took them into her home, once their home had been sold.
Which was the one thing that was very real. That could be done without Yvonne’s approval, or knowledge of the real situation because she could assume that it was the estate selling the homes. Since she had no interest in it, except for the payout at the end of it.
But it was Max who unknown to his wife, had instigated.
Because he was alive.
And he was also adamant, that whenever this was over. “We will not be going back to that house, or the bad memories.”
“We will be starting over,” he would insist.
Where, and with who had been Isabel’s question, as she left that day and even though she had not expressed it, because she knew that she would not be happy with the answer. And plus, she figured that her brother had no idea of the answer himself. But first, he has to get out of this mess
she would think as she went back to the on-going charade of keeping it from the town, and especially from her brother’s children.
*
Now,
She had kept it from Liz, the town, and especially the man’s children and really it had not really been a hardship despite her brother’s insistence that he was trying to protect Liz. But Liz was not Isabel’s concern at the moment
if she ever was for me, she would acknowledge to herself as she was now back to reality, as it was three months later, after those terrible days.
As she was handling a boy’s discoveries.
“Are you serious?” Noah Michael Evans would ask. “My Dad is alive?” he would ask as he was now in a showdown with his aunt and uncle, unofficially of course, but to the kids Kyle Valenti was very much their uncle, because he had stepped up to help their aunt with them ever since that terrible day.
And become part of the family.
They even wondered when their aunt would wise up and see Kyle wanted her… Because even as young as they were, they could see what everyone could see that for Kyle, this little arrangement was much more for him, and they wondered why their aunt was not seeing it.
If we can, why cannot see it they would think.
But that was then, and this is now, and a very different discussion under way. When Isabel was not answering after zoning out, minutes earlier which meant that Noah was trying to get his aunt to come back to the now.
Kyle was being no help. Because he knew Isabel was in the middle of something, and it would be useless to do anything to interrupt. But it meant that Noah had a target to go against if his aunt was not answering his question.
“Why won’t she answer me?” Noah asked, as he focused on Kyle.
“She loves your father very much, and she misses him more than you know is possible” Kyle tried. “You need to take it a little easy on your aunt,” he said softly as he tried to defend his girlfriend to her nephew. “It’s a situation none of us want to be dealing with.”
Noah bristled at the notion, after all he was only nine years old. “He might be her brother,” he would say. “But he is
our Dad” he would mutter. “Ella and I matter, don’t we?” he asked and got Kyle to nod. “You guys told us that our Dad is dead,” he demanded. “But it’s not true, right?” he asked. “My sister is right, wasn’t she?” he asked. “I thought she was paranoid, or it was one of her dreams that was leading her down the wrong path, even though she had never been wrong before,” he would mutter. “She had even told me that she thought Dad was in danger, but of course we are kids, so we knew none of you were going to believe her. And I
didn’t believe her. I poo-pooed them, and then Aunt Isabel told us that our Dad was dead. I could see my sister was proven right. Yet, I still did not believe her when she came to later and started to doubt the official story you guys were telling us,”
“Noah,” Kyle murmured as he could Isabel was being shocked back to reality
from wherever she was…
He did not know, but he had his suspicions.
“Noah, what?” the boy asked.
“We care about your sister and yourself,” Kyle tried. All we have done is try to protect the two of you, and in the process, we have had to keep some information to ourselves, because it did involve your father,” he said a little tentatively because he did not know how to explain it, because like his girlfriend. Neither wanted to be dealing with it.
Even if I was in her ear about telling the kids… he knew.
Still, we don’t want to be dealing with this…
“So, what?” Noah asked softly. “You told us that he was dead,” he argued. “But he’s not, right?” he asked. “My Dad is alive?”
And there was nothing that Isabel or Kyle could do but tell the truth. And hope it would not lead to calamity. As both of them knew, they had to finally tell the truth,
Someone has too they knew.
They could not keep this going, especially not now they knew.
“Yes,” Isabel said softly as she was fully back in the conversation.
Holy Crap was Noah’s expression as disbelief set in, as it was being confirmed to him. And was trying to process it, “Are you kidding me?” he asked. “You mean all this time, Ella was right?”
“Yes, she is and was” Isabel said equally softly.
“You lied to us?” Noah accused his aunt.
“No, we didn’t” Isabel muttered as even though she knew that they had.
It might not be lying using the full definition of the word, but we definitely kept the truth from them she knew. “We were trying to protect you and your sister,” she said softly. “We were protecting your father.”
“By lying to us?” Noah asked as there was real hurt in his eyes. “You sat us down and told us that our father had gone to join our mother, but that was not true?”
Isabel winced. “
At the time I said those words, I believed your father was gone,” she said softly. Although it was hard to make a nine-year-old understand the intricacies of the situation. “That was what I was told.”
“Sure, you were” Noah muttered. “I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have too,” Isabel murmured. “But it’s the truth. And one day you will understand even if that day is not today,” she said softly. “Noah, I love your father very much and as much as I was trying to protect you and your sister, I was also trying to protect my brother. And on that day, when I said those words to you and your sister. I believed them. Because that is what I was told and what I saw with my own two eyes,” she said in defence of her actions. But she also knew she could not tell a nine-year-old boy, that his father wanted him to be in the dark.
Because that would not help the situation, nor would it to know the warts of what his father had done to bring down the wrath by his wife, the boy’s stepmother.
Of course, the kids had heard the gossip.
You cannot live in a small town and be totally oblivious
But at nine years old, they were far from knowing the grittiness of it, and the core of the situation and they would not truly understand the meaning of it for years to come.
Blessedly.
But still it was messy, and the kids knew what they knew.
“How can you get something like that wrong?” Noah asked.
Come on folks he thought.
Sure, I know the family I come from but to actually get it “completely” wrong?
“You would be surprised,” Isabel said she glanced over at her boyfriend who was watching the conversation with a lot of caution because he did not know where this was going…
… none of them did.
“With your father, it’s actually pretty easy,” Isabel continued. “Because Noah, your father is remarkably unique man,” she said softly. “And therefore, it is not too far-fetched, when it should be,” she said softly.
I went through this same scenario before she thought. “So, look sweetie…”
“Look nothing,” Noah muttered. “Don’t
sweetie me,” he bristled once more. “Because you guys told us that our father was dead, and that is what you told this to the whole town,” he cried. “They have been looking at the two of us like they are so sorry at us for losing both of our parents before we turned ten,” he muttered. “We see the sad eyes and the concern on their face, and that we are being watched closely, and all this time, you knew,” he said with pain on his face. “I bet the same can be true, about my grandparents. They have known the truth all along. Haven’t they? They knew my Dad was alive?” he asked.
God, she murmured. “It’s a very long story,” Isabel muttered.
The boy deserves to be mad she thought,
we deserve it, but she had not expected it be unleashed by Noah of all kids,
it was Ella who we were concerned about she knew as she feared what Ella would be saying when she told. Because the last thing they could do was ask the boy to keep something like this from his sister, especially since Ella was the one who was right all along?
Ella, she winced.
That will be a nightmare she thought, because she thought she would have to easy with Noah. But Noah Michael Evans was showing that he was no slouch and was looking at her with accusing eyes.
“Don’t be angry with your grandparents,” Isabel said softly as she knew she had to defend her parents, and their actions. “Or take it out on them,” she said softly.
I can take the anger, but don’t take it out on them she said softly. “They love the two of you, and they adore your father and the last thing they want to do was go along with this story, but this situation we are in, and they would have changed it, if we could have, but that was impossible. Not doable. Because we had to protect you and your sister, but also your father.”
You say that but how can it be true Noah murmured,
how could you be protecting us? he muttered. So, he asked the question. “How can lying to us, and the whole town about my father being dead protect him?” Noah asked.
“It’s messy,” Isabel said softly.
“Aunt Isabel,” Noah murmured. “You have got to tell me…”
“Your father might be alive,” Isabel said softly.
As absurd as it is she conceded. “But someone did not want him to be, as they thought they had succeeded”
“They really think they have killed him?” Noah asked.
How dumb is that? the nine-year-old asked himself.
Pretty easy, when the adult in question is playing the part.
“Yes,” Isabel murmured.
“Why does someone want him to be dead?” Noah asked.
“You are really too young to know the reasons,” Isabel murmured. “One day you will, but for right now, just know that your father wants to be here with you, but right now, he can’t but he’s working on coming back to your sister and you.”
And the whole family… she hoped. Although she knew deep down Max was little too busy right now to be working on coming back to them. But time would bring him home again, right?
Hopefully.
*
Of course, Isabel knew her brother well, and Max was not exactly acting in his best interests or in any desire that would bring him back to his children sooner. Because he was fully immersed with acting out his desires for the love of his life. And acting in ways that had been forbidden to him for the last decade, and especially for the last three months.
So, he had a lot of pent-up desire, and that meant he was now in a fog.
Of desire.
Because of having the ability to be with the woman he loved. Which unfortunately allowed him to have the ability to ignore all else.
As his eyes opened, and he could not help but look next to him and was relieved to see that Liz was still with him and had not left him while he slept. Nor were the last hours a dream.
Even though it had played like one.
It was not a dream. Because a semblance of reality was starting to creep in and interrupt the party as he sighed as he laid there while the love of his life slept, and although he was tempted to wake her up, and play with her for awhile more, if she was keen for it, still, he knew she needed the sleep.
And unfortunately, he had too much in his mind, because he was allowing reality to intercede which had not been often in the past hours, but now some moments seeped through, and he was finding the need to get up, and seek some air.
Looking at the woman he loved, laying sexily in bed,
she is so intoxicating he thought. Which made him tempted to stay, but he was being good.
This time.
Mumbling to himself, he got up and put on his pants and walked out into the room that he had not seen much since Liz woke up, and he was given a chance to reunite with the woman he loved. But as she slept, reality dawned.
So, he went to the computer, and turned it on, and went to the chatroom, and saw a message waiting for him.
An encrypted message. Opening it up, he sighed.
Jeff Parker is making waves. Liz is missed, and we think you know why she is read the message, and Max could only sigh as he looked at the back room, where she slept, as it was a reminder of what he was keeping the woman he loved from, and that he was responsible for putting worry out there.
Because it was a reminder of his prior life. When he had tried to do everything right.
And yet had made so many mistakes. And he was still making it. As it was also a reminder that yes, that Liz had a life too, that she was skipping out on, and that he was responsible for that, in whisking her away, without a word to anywhere. Which made him foolish to think that her absence would not be noticed.
You will always notice Liz Max murmured.
So, she was going to be missed.
But he knew that it was easy too for a while there.
As he could not help but sigh at himself, because he did not know how to fix that mess without causing more misery.
I know I am foolish to be only thinking of my own desires he thought. As he saw another message and this time it was from a different sender. Clicking, he sighed as it was a picture of his children at one of Noah’s basketball games.
Geez he thought,
put that knife to my heart, why don’t you he thought as looked at the pictures, and wished that he had been there for them, and the game, and even though he might not have shown it by his actions over the last numerous hours, he still did miss his children and wished that things could be different.
That he could be a typical father.
But he wasn’t.
They are growing up he knew.
Kids can grow so much in only three months he mused. But having enough of the shots at his heart, and what he was missing out on, and not knowing what was happening. He closed down the chatroom and walked towards the front door. Going for that fresh air.
But not wanting to stray too far.
Because he did not want to be away from Liz. Of course, he knew a large percentage of what his current quandary was that exact notion,
not wanting to be far from Liz. Therefore, he only stood and experienced the nights air, and yet he could not help but wonder what was happening miles away from here.
In his old life.
Until softly, he felt a touch, and he turned and found the love of his life watching him. “Hey,” he said softly. “I was letting you sleep.”
“I noticed,” Liz said softly. “And I also noticed that you also left me,” she murmured. Still a little scarred due recent history, and even though she knew rationally, being left in a bed was a very different notion than anything that had recently happened. And knew he would not have truly left him, without word, still she had sprung up from the bed and called out and heard nothing.
So, she immediately got out of the bed and grabbed her sweatshirt that she had been wearing when everything happened, happened, and walked into the room that she did not know.
Reminding herself that she was someplace she did not know.
Because it was all a mystery for her.
Coming out of the room, she saw the front door slightly open, and she saw Max standing and watching the dark sky. “What are you seeing?” she asked softly as she approached the man she loved.
Max twisted around so fast that it brought a smile to her face.
So sexy she smiled.
So, of course, they kissed, but they stopped after a decent amount of time. And stood and watched the night sky together. She knew the situation had to be hurting him. With knowledge of how the sky was key to who he was, and here he was so far away from the life he knew. As they tried to just have a low-key moment because it was not something they had been able to have in their previous life together.
We were so on the go, and unsure if we would even be together the next day, they both knew.
“You know, I don’t know where we are?” Liz asked softly.
“In the woods,” Max said softly.
“Obviously,” Liz said with a laugh that Max returned with his own. “I was kind of unconscious when I arrived…” she said softly.
“Sorry,” Max said a little sheepish. Because he knew he had acted on spur of a moment desire to see the woman he loved. As he admittedly had not been thinking straight. If only because he had gone for a drive. How Michael had left him with a car? He did not know, or why he had acted in they way he did. But once he was finished setting up his computer, and feeling restless, he was also acting a little reckless. “I sort of just acted without thinking.”
Definitely he thought. As he had gone for a drive and found himself going towards Roswell.
I know bad move he thought to himself. Y
ou don’t have to tell me…
Although not tempted enough to go into town limits, and he could not help but relive a little tiny bit of his old life, as he watched
Cow Patties and he knew how proud Michael was of Maria’s attempt at making the bar a success and from all reports, she was.
He did know that it would be suicide to go inside.
Sure, most of the people in there, would not be who he knew, or would they know of his identity. Unless the television was still following his case. Whether they were, he did not know since he had not seen a television in three months. But still, he knew it was not wise, so he only observed.
And got a thrill at seeing the action. Even though he was not able to partake.
But that all changed when he saw Liz rushing out, as she had obviously been drinking.
And then he saw her vomiting, and the instinctive desire to help her made him act. Which made him take a calculated risk and approach the woman he loved when given the opportunity and she had fainted of course, when she saw laid her unfocused eyes on him, and that was when he had acted.
Purely out of a desire to help her, and to be with her…
I know I was being selfish he thought.
But it’s Liz and she needs me.
She needs someone he knew.
And whisked her off into the night, and his cabin in the woods.
Miles and miles away.
And now they were together…
“I am sorry,” Max whispered once again.
Away from the real world, and their old lives. Unsure of what came next. And they were both having to face it. “You should not be feeling sorry,” Liz said with a smile at the man she did love. “You saved me.”
I will never blame him she murmured to herself as she glanced at the man she desired.
“But no, I didn’t” Max said softly. “Not this time,” he said softly. “I acted a little too selfishly. I could have made sure you got home…” he allowed, and it was the truth. Because there were so many other ways he could have helped Liz.
Instead, I chose the one who benefited me, and only me he thought.
No one else he knew.
“To my father’s apartment?” Liz asked with a sense of a smile. Because even she knew that would be highly improbable given his state. “You would have taken me home?” she said softly. “Because that is where I was staying…”
Max sighed,
sure, that would be complicated he knew.
I am supposed to be playing dead he thought.
NO one is supposed to know that I am alive. “Okay, you are right,
that would have been a little hard to do,” he said softly. “But I could have gotten you to a motel or something and called Maria and told her so that they knew where to find you. Scooping you up and fleeing with you was going to cause a shitstorm and I was not thinking straight,” he said softly. “I should have known it.”
“Max, don’t be hard on yourself.” Liz smiled. “You helped me…”
“Your father is worried,” Max said simply. “He loves you,” he said softly. “I should have known that you were never going to be able to go away for long, without being noticed…” he said softly. “So, I was acting purely out of my selfish desire.”
Oh god Liz murmured as she knew it was the first time in hours that she had even thought of her
other life. Her parents, and even her daughter. And the wave of regret came over her, and she knew this was a mess. “How do you know?” she asked.
Of course, he would be worried. Both of them would be she thought.
Given the state I came back in she knew.
“I keep watch,” Max said softly.
“You do?” Liz asked, surprised.
Did you check up on me she wondered but left it unasked because she did not know if she wanted to answer,
given what I was up to back in Bethesda she muttered to herself.
Max nodded. “I have a chatroom where I can engage in encrypt talk with Michael, or Isabel on the rare occasions, and they feed me photos of reports,” he said softly. “Mostly on the kids, but the odd other gossip,” he softly. “So, I know your parents are really worried,” he said softly. “They have contacted Jim…”
“Oh damn,” Liz muttered. Because she knew what getting the police would mean for the massive conspiracy they were.
My absence will be getting notice she knew.
Max nodded because he could see that Liz understood the seriousness of this situation. The fact they had been acting out their impulses did not stop life was going on in their absence. “But the fact you only
just went missing has saved a full-blown search,” Max said softly. “They might have gotten a clue that you are with me…” he said. “But the longer you are gone, the more that Jim might be forced to act?”
That is just great Liz murmured to herself.
Dad must be thrilled she mused.
Not she knew. Because she knew even though her Mom and Dad now had a
We don’t talk about it, policy about her love life,
still they do have opinion on my spending time with Max she knew.
But Max is supposed to be dead.
To the general public he was, and even to some in this story he was…
Which meant no one knew.
And here they were. Off in their hidden world. Looking at each other, both knowing the stakes involved, and yet that did not mean they could stop it and go back to their old lives.
Liz might be able too Max knew.
But to the world.
I am dead.
And I need to stay dead for awhile yet… Even if he longed to see his kids and to return to society.
Not that I was big in society to begin with he thought,
but when you are forced to retreat from it against your will, you begin to miss it. But he wanted to be with who he wanted to be.
In a normal life.
Assuming Liz wants me, he thought of his dreams of the future.
It was like Liz was able to see what Max was thinking,
I am not Isabel. I don’t have that ability to know what Max’s dreaming back, she thought, but I know it has to be a lot for him. “Max,” she whispered.
“Don’t,” Max said softly. Unsure of what she was planning on saying but knowing it could be of any two ways or more, and he was not sure he wanted to be hearing it.
“It cannot be easy,” Liz whispered.
“For what?” Max asked as he looked in the eyes of the woman that he loved and knew everything was going to be alright or at least was on the upswing,
as long as I can look into her eyes he thought.
It has to be alright.
Because eventually our bubble will be burst, and they would have to live with the results. One way or another.
Given all the last twenty-four hours has given to him, he did not know how long it would stay this way, and what he should be rooting for. “I am fine.”
“You are not fine,” Liz said softly. “You have had to make a lot of changes these last months,” she sighed.
“I am here with you…” Max said as if that was all that mattered.
And for most of me, it might he knew. “That makes me just fine.”
“You miss your children?” Liz asked softly. “Ella and Noah, Max, they are growing up and you are missing it, and them?”
I do Max knew. “But it has only been three months,” Max said as he trying to wall himself off from what he knew he was missing out.
“They grow so much in three months,” Liz said softly. “I know it for myself when I sent Callie here to spend time with my parents when you know everything started to bare down on me,” she muttered as she thought of her nutty, and the corresponding pain she had to deal with…
so much was kept from me, if only I had known she thought.
Things might have been different she thought as she wanted to forget what she had gone through.
If only I knew she sighed,
I would not be thinking I was going crazy and dreaming of imaginary people who were dead.
“I know,” Max said softly.
They should have kept it from you he murmured, as he was still angry at his family for treating the woman he loved like they did. “But it’s the way it has to be for now” he said softly.
“I am told you missed their birthday?” Liz asked.
Max nodded,
that was a body blow he knew.
“I am sorry,” Liz said softly.
It was only one birthday he told himself. “Hopefully I will been there for so many more than the one I missed,” Max said softly. “But for right now, that is how it should be” he said. “They can have a life without the fear that Yvonne knowing I am alive will bring to them…”
Liz nodded. Although she was not sure if fear was that well placed or not.
“One day,” Max said softly…
“One day,” Liz murmured softly as she looked into Max’s eyes, as their backs were to the growing night sky. As the darkness had totally taken over.
But there was some light in that they were together. “One day this will be over…”
“God, I hope so,” Max said softly. “I don’t know what will happen, but I want it to be over.” He said softly.
But what does being over mean for the two of us he could not help but ask himself.
Liz nodded. Because she did too. And yet she also did not know what that would mean…
Because so much of this situation was messy and complicated. “Do you want to go for a walk?” he asked. “Get out of the cabin?” he wondered. “Get some fresh air?”
“Should we?” Liz asked.
“We are in the wilderness,” Max said softly. “No one knows where we are…”
Mostly he thought.
Only one person knows the true location of where we are.
Liz nodded. Unsure of what she wanted to do. But she did know that she wanted to be with Max. Because she did not know how much longer she could claim it.
Will I have to go back to my life she thought
and leave Max here? she shuddered at the thought. “Do you want to go for a walk?”
“Not really,” Max said as he felt the desire flare up because for him,
at least something makes sense he thought. Even though he should be arranging for Liz to go back home, and her family, and for him to stop acting foolishly out of his need for her. “You look so good…” he whispered.
I need you he thought.
“In this thing?” Liz asked softly, as she was aware that while she was naked underneath her sweatshirt, but she had flung it on, when she was looking for something to wear. “It’s old…”
“You look sexy in anything,” Max said softly. “In anything…” he emphasised.
“Max,” Liz said softly. “Maybe we should go on
that walk?” she asked.
Maybe the fresh air will straighten up our priorities.
“All I want to do is you” Max said with a strangled whisper as he had enough restraint to close the door, and they were now in the cabin, just them, “You can go…”
“I don’t want to go,” Liz whispered.
I cannot leave him… “I want you too…”
“I thought so,” Max said as he leaned to kiss the woman he loved, and the touch and the kiss exploded and before they knew it, the sweatshirt was being lifted off, and landed on the floor, and she was in Max’s arms, and being led back to the bedroom they had just only left a little while before…
Because when you are playing dead, you don’t have anything else to do… Max thought.
I have to keep busy some way he murmured but when Liz was kissing him, all common sense left him.
As was the same for Liz.