Complicated.....oh ya.
Thanks for the update.
Til We Meet Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 84 - Completed - 09/01/2022
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totallizfan
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Til We Meet Again - Chapter 9 - 02/02/2022
Liz sometimes wondered what she had done to deserve this life. She had always been an overachiever. Lauded for her brains and her love for science. She was going places. That is what she had been told since she was too young to know better. Just as she had been guided towards Harvard University either by her father plastering a poster of the institution over her bed or by her genuine desire to go to the university.
But after a while, she did not know what had come first.
Harvard University. It was her destiny.
She was so sure of it. So, why did it change? She did not know. Yes, I do know she corrected herself. It was because of one boy. One boy. One incredible boy. A unique soul if there was ever one. She did not regret that time in her life. Or that the love she had felt for him was not real and intense because it was.
It was too intense by the end. Which is why she had to get out. She had to go to Northwestern when Harvard fell out of the picture because of the choices she chose for herself by entangling herself with that boy. It was another thing she did not regret because she would meet Brady. Brady Liz thought now, with grief of a wife mourning the love that had allowed her to move on, and to have a family.
That white picket fence she knew Max wanted for her. One that they had not been able to achieve for themselves, because the hazards were too harsh, and too devastating which is why she had to get away. Go for the normal. But even then, she had not known how to achieve that until Brady.
Brady had given her a chance. By being a shoulder that she had needed when she had not even known that she needed him, or that there could be someone else. Who was not Max? She had not known it was possible. Especially when she was sure Max was the only one. She had been so sure.
She was wrong. Because she had found Brady.
And now she had lost him, and she was facing the realization of being a widow and having to deal with two kids who were mourning the man they loved. Their father. It would be so easy if Brady had been a crappy father or husband. But he had not been.
He had been a good man, and now he was gone. In a senseless death,
And Liz was trying to figure out how to make it through the day. Which is why she had needed to come to the Crashdown and see her parents. They were a symbol of who she was as a kid. And Mariah needed to see her grandparents after losing her father and to know her younger brother was in the hospital recovering from injuries from the same crash. And now to know she could be carrying the same condition that had likely killed her father.
Liz did not want to think that her daughter or son could have it. Not Lex. He was only twelve. Mariah at fifteen was no better but she was stronger, and older and she could deal with it. Although what fifteen-year-old could handle losing their father due to a deadly heart condition on top of it. How could she help her daughter deal with the concept of death? When both of her parents were still alive and kicking, and the only death she had experienced was her childhood friend who had not gotten to see his eighteenth birthday Okay Grandma Claudia, but she was taken by a stroke she thought. Sure, it was sudden, but she was a grandparent…
The only other death she had experienced, was ultimately a short-term loss yeah, a long story Liz thought now and felt she was cursed if Max could survive. Why could Brady not?
She knew why. Max was special.
She was given one miracle. This time her luck had simply given out. Just like Brady’s heart she cursed. “Are you okay Lizzie?” came her concerned father. Jeff had watched as Nancy had taken Mariah off to console her, after all, his wife had a special relationship with their granddaughter. Nancy and Mariah got each other. Just like Lizzie and I did when she was younger, he thought. Eventually that had run its course when Liz of course got to an age when she would fall in love with someone and do things that would challenge their family and ultimately take her away from them because she had needed to get away.
Jeff was just happy to have his daughter back in the same town of his wife and him. Sure, to know she was safe in Chicago was good for his battered soul. But they missed their only child. Sure, they travelled to Chicago once or twice a year, usually around the holidays so that they could have an excuse to close the restaurant. But they have not seen their daughter enough. But it was better than how it could have been when their child had cut it too close and got lucky in the end. So, they took what they could get. Their daughter being in Chicago was a better place. But being back here in Roswell was even better, and he and Nancy were thrilled to have their daughter’s family back in town.
It had been only two weeks. And now of course tragedy strikes. He and Nancy had not gone to the hospital the previous night because it was all a whirlwind. And their daughter had not wanted them there, and it was hell for Jeff to have to wait for news. So, he was relieved to get a call from his daughter.
And to see her come through the door with Mariah. It was hell of a thing to know their grandson was in the hospital Lex Jeff thought. Knowing his grandson preference for his name. Fun for his grandparents. They preferred his given name. But they understood their grandson’s desire for his own name. Lizzie is a fantastic mother Jeff thought. Brady was the same as a father. It did not feel right to know Brady was gone.
They did not know everything their daughter might know but still they knew of the colossal mess nearby. It was not hard to when you run a restaurant in the heart of the tourist district of their town. Their town was after all, such a small place. Gossip got around to a frightening degree at astonishing speeds. Sometimes he and his wife were immune to the gossip. Other times they could not help but get drawn up into it. Because of course it helped that he ran a meet and greet, and his place was the melting pot of such gossip.
“Lizzie,” Jeff asked again.
“Dad, I am fine” Liz tried as she once again saw Kyle sitting with his daughter Jaime. Such a replica of her father. Liz had not met his late wife. Teri was a student at the nearby high school when they were at West Roswell. And she, Liz, was already gone by the time Kyle had met and married his wife. Even though she had known he had been smitten with Isabel during the end of their high school career hard not to see it, but Isabel had been with Jesse, and was trying to make it work, and Kyle had not interrupted it.
Only later did it change, and now they were raising their daughters together. Liz was happy for her ex. They were better off as friends, and both would admit it. “Dad, can you excuse me?”
“Of course,” Jeff said sighing because he knew his daughter needed to see her friends as he watched as Liz walked over to the table that held Kyle and Jaime.
“Liz,” came Kyle as Jaime had gone off when she saw a friend from school. “I am glad to see you, how are you doing?” he wanted to know as she sat down at the table with him as both took a few minutes. “I cannot imagine…”
“Being the talk of the town?” Liz said with a smirk but also a smile. “I am an old expert at that,” she sighed as she thought of how notorious she been those weeks at the beginning of their senior year when she and Max had gotten busted in Utah of all places. You get the town to talk when you get arrested on armed robbery charges and only by the skin of your teeth did, you get out, and were able to come home. By doing what they did, they had gotten the town to talk about them, and even wonder what possibly could you be thinking? After all, she had been the favorite daughter, Growing up in the spotlight of this restaurant. People thought they knew her, but they did not. Not by a long shot as they would find out.
She may have moved on from those days, but they stay with you when you come home to you small town after being gone a lifetime.
“That you are,” came a smiling Kyle. “I did not mean that…”
“I know what you meant,” came Liz right back. “My heart hurts, and I feel like I have been knifed in the stomach. I thought the worse I could feel was when Max and you know what happened,” she said of the event in senior year that she could not speak of in open space and air.
“Right,” Kyle nodded because of the lives they had both lived. It was all so close to the surface. All the memories, good and the bad…
“Well, I was wrong. While this does not feel like that time because of course different experiences but still the pain is intense, and I cannot believe that I must feel it all over again, and to know this time, it all very real, and lasting, and that I have children to make sure they get through the days…?” she muttered because she still did not know how she was getting to be able to do it.
“Children,” Kyle muttered as he thought of his own daughter and caught a glimpse of her talking to Jessica. “They give us prospective,” he said sadly. “It might have been a different situation for me, but I know how it is to lose someone. It was a disease that got Teri in the end, but like Brady, they were both far too young, and it was a hell to get through, and to know I had to be there for Jaime?”
“It is,” Liz said sighing. “I am sorry that you have to know the feeling. But it does seem like Jaime is growing into a wonderful girl. I met her briefly at the hospital when she was doing her volunteering hours, while I was visiting my son.”
“She was,” Kyle asked surprised because he had not heard his daughter talk of it.
“She was visiting Lex,” Liz said softly. “Giving him the support that he needs.”
“Again, all this is senseless,” Kyle thought of the fate that had forced Liz’s son into the hospital with injuries that would take a long time to get over as he saw the commotion of his daughter, Jaime came back to the table with had its way of interrupting their talk. And not long after her arrival, Jessica joined her. As they both had seen the woman sit down and only Jaime could possibly know who the identity of the woman who was talking to her father. And now because of their brief encounter at the hospital earlier in the day. Liz could see Kyle in Jaime and see how she was so like her dad, and even her grandfather before her. “Dad,” came Jaime as Jessie chose to stay silent because she was not familiar with Liz. While the younger teenager chose to speak up.
“Girls,” Kyle said softly to the girls as they returned to the table as he recognized that time was ticking down and that their time together on this night was ending because of the other commitments for the kids. “I assume you have to be getting going Jessica?”
“Right,” Jessie said as she was quick to access Liz and the same went for Kyle’s former high school girlfriend as she was able to see her mother, Isabel in Jessica. As well as the girl’s father, Jesse Another person lost to them.
But currently, Jessica took after mainly her mother, and it was obvious for Liz.
Recognizing that he had to make some introductions so that the girls did not get the wrong idea. “Girls, this is an old friend of mine. Elizabeth Anthony Kyle said as he elected to speak of her married name which despite all this time, it still felt odd to say.
“It’s just Liz,” came the other party. “Nice to see you again Jaime,” she said softly. “I assume you are Jessica?” she said again as she got up from the table. “I knew your mother and father well,” she said and left off, especially your uncle she thought. That would be too much. “Nice to see you again Jaime. Thank you again for spending time with my son because he did appreciate it.”
“It was nice,” Jaime acknowledged. “I hope he gets better quickly…”
“Kyle, thank you, and I better get back to my daughter. Because I should not leave my parents too long with her,” she said. It was why she was here, to see my parents she thought. “Another time.”
“We are always here,” came Kyle.
“I appreciate it,” Liz said softly as she walked past a table or two who had just come in and they were startled to recognize Liz because it was in the newspaper, what had gone down, and she knew as she told Kyle, she was infamous these days. Even though she longed to go back to when she was not, but it was hard these days. And there was too much water under the bridge to go back to how things were once because after all, you grow up and move on with life and react to the choices you have made, for good and for bad.
“That was Mrs. Anthony?” Jessie asked.
“Yes,” Jaime said softly. “As she mentioned I met her son today,” she said as she thought of how Lex was alone in the hospital. “It sucks.”
“Yes, it does” Kyle thought. “You did not mention it honey?”
“I spoke of it to Jessica,” Jaime commented. “Lex was alone in the hospital and wanted answers, and I kept hm amused before his mother and sister could join him,” she said. “It is uncool about his injuries, and to know what happened to his father,” she thoughts as she could not help but remember the fact that she had lost her biological mother. She barely remembered what she looked like. Sure, she appreciated how Isabel had been there for her over the years and that her father had kept a few pictures at home, but she had been so young, and her mind had a hard time coming with the memories.
“That is why we should be happy that it was bad enough last night,” Kyle thoughts as the events of the last twenty-four hours was warranting a parental lecture. After all, he knew how close it had been and how lucky they had, especially for his little girl, Jaime. At least Jessica could claim the fact she had an innate ability to recover but his daughter did not, because she was blessedly normal although there were moments, he wished she had a bit of what Jessica had but he knew he should be happy, and he was but still it did warrant a lecture. “You two may have come through it fine, but you know to be cautious next time right. Please do not get in the car with Mac if he is driving, okay, you two. Not until he has gotten his license, and even then, be careful,” because Kyle was all too aware of how Mac Guerin was riding too close to the edge these days. “Make sure River is driving.”
“Yes, Dad” came both girls. Because they knew they had gotten off easy that they had not gotten more serious injuries, and both had known they were walking a fine line, and yet they had taken the risk because they knew River was having one of those nights. But Jessica should have known better, and she did, most of the time.
“Very well, let’s get going” Kyle said as he got up from the table as Jessica had to get down the street to the department. As the three made the walk together as Kyle made sure she made it there in one piece because of the death of Brady, and the injuries to Alex or Lex as he likes to be called were too close to home, and Kyle did not like to the memories that came back of their time in high school, and even his own brush with death I got very lucky, if not for Max… he thought. I… would be dead,” he mused to himself and hated to think he could miss falling in love with Isabel or the birth of his own daughter.
“Let’s get home,” Kyle said to Jaime after making sure Jessica walked through the doors of the station.
“Can I go to the hospital and see Lex,” came Jaime as a sudden desire to go the hospital and see Alex arose in her, as they walked back to the car, because he was there alone.
“Are you sure, because you should be home and studying?” Kyle asked.
“I am fine with that,” Jaime smiled. “Lex is all alone in the hospital…” she said softly. “My books will be there when I get home.”
“You are an amazing person honey,” Kyle said softly as he was seeing how his daughter was so much like her late mother, as she was so compassionate, and Teri had been so like their daughter. He prayed his daughter would not lose that ability to help others as she grew up, as he pulled the car out of the parking lot, and they drove over to the hospital.
This place rocks Mariah thought as she toured the childhood bedroom of her mother. As she had come to the apartment with her grandmother to get away from the crowds. And to talk, and it had been nice to talk to her grandmother in person instead of over the phone or on Skype. So, they had come up here while her mother stayed downstairs in the restaurant with her grandfather. But then the phone rang, and her grandmother answered it and was drawn into a long-ish call by Mariah standards and so she started to walk around and found herself at the room that had its door closed, but not locked. Instinct told her that it was her mother’s room.
She opened the door and walked in and found her mother’s room and it was not unlike the room she had when they were back home. Chicago, she thought. That is home to me. She did not know if she could ever think of Roswell as home. This might be where her grandparents resided and where her mother grew up, but it was a town she did not know. Because she had been kept away.
She always wondered why.
This place looks ordinary to me Mariah thought now. Nothing bad or offending about the small town. It is just not Chicago she thought. She walked and spotted the window and looked out and saw the roof. Which is why she thinking this room was particularly rocking. It would have been fun to have a roof, and to have an easy exit she thought as she imagined what she could have done with it Nope, my old room had no ladder. It has a security alarm she thought because her parents were paranoid about security. Citing the fact her grandparents came from money.
She stepped away from the window and saw the poster and one side of the wall. One of Harvard University. Weird she thought since she knew her parent’s ala Marta was Northwestern, and that they had met there and had gotten married and had her because she was pregnant Mariah knew. She could count the dates from her parent’s anniversary to when she was born, and how they waited to have her brother. It did not bother her because she figured her parents loved her, and which is why they are still together, or were Mariah was forced to think.
She continued to look around.
It was all so normal It did not seem right that her mother came from here and because why stay away and not bring Lex and me here she thought. This place does not look terrible. She knew Grandma and Grandpa Parker were awesome parents, and they loved their grandchildren and especially their daughter. So, why stay away and not bring us she wondered, and she asked her dad once when her mother had indeed come back here for a visit. It is complicated was what her father said, it is your mother’s past, and she does not like to talk about it he said. Even to you? She asked.
Even to me her father had remarked, but it was obvious to her that her father knew more than he was saying to his daughter about his wife’s former life. Of course, there is always secrets she thought as she saw a crack in the wall and then heard her mother’s voice calling for her grandmother. She wandered over to the wall and saw it was a loose brick, and she was curious, so she removed the brick, and found a hole.
Curious. She saw a book inside it. She wondered what it could be, so she removed it, and opened the front cover and realized with shock that it was her mother’s diary Whoa she thought as she saw the opening words, its September 23rd and five days ago I died… and Mariah did not know what to do, and then she saw the door opening, “Grandma,” she asked as she expected to see Nancy peeking through, and but no, it was not her grandmother.
It was her mother.
Mariah was quick to put the book in the bag, and she was quick to put the brick back, and turn her attention to her mother. “Mom?”
“Honey, what are you doing in here?” Liz asked. “Your grandmother did not know where you had gone, and I saw the door was unlocked…”
“It was already, so it is not like I broke into it,” Mariah muttered in defense of her herself. “This was your room, was it not?” she asked of her mother.
“I did not think you broke in,” Liz asked wearily. As she finally had a chance to look around and yes, she knew this was a room she left when she left for Northwestern, and after things had gone downhill with Max. She had not been back in here since those days. Because on the rare time she did come back to this town. She usually stayed wherever Maria and Michael were staying, or in a motel if she could not arrange suitable arrangements because it was usually a short-term visit when she did come back to her hometown.
“So, you did not answer me, this is your room?” Mariah asked.
“Yes,” Liz said softly.
“It must have been cool to grow up in this room and have your access route out,” Mariah asked of the window that led to the roof. One that Liz did not have to see to know, because of the memories associated with that roof I will never forget it she thought of the place she had shared her first kiss with Max.
“It was cool, alright” Liz said without elaborating as she did look around and see how her father had kept it like a time capsule of that time. I have been gone a long time she thought. They could have done anything with this room, but they could not. They kept it the same she thought as she saw that it was the same as it had been during those closing months of senior year.
“All this appears to be so normal, so why did you not bring Lex and me back here to see Grandma and Grandpa?” Mariah asked as she could not help but wonder.
“You saw your grandparents,” Liz with limited success of her choice to keep the kids away from this town, and if they had not chosen to relocate here, she probably would have kept it up until the kids were old enough to visit on their own, although Mariah was pretty much already there, which did not make Liz that relieved. To know her daughter was that close to possibly repeating old patterns. That is why she had been okay with coming back to Roswell because her hometown was a small town in its heart and therefore you could get into more trouble in a big city, even if you lived in the suburbs.
“Not the same thing as coming here, and we did not see them that often” Mariah muttered as she thought of all she did not know of her mother’s past. She never really thought of it, but now that she was in Roswell. She could not help but question it.
“Because of the restaurant” Liz thought. “They could only take so much time away from it.”
“Then what is your excuse?” Mariah muttered.
“This is not the place for this,” Liz muttered. “Let us go and spend some time with your grandparents before we have to head home,” she thought of the fact she did not want to defend to her own daughter the reasons why she had chosen to keep her kids away from Roswell. Simply because she knew she did not have any good reason for it. Brady was always supportive of it, because he had been able to spend time with them when she was gone, but she knew her husband had always had those questions to even though she had been able to tell some of it to her husband. But not all of it but she knew she was in unchartered territory now as she thought of returning to the home that was their home now, and she was still not too anxious to go back there but she knew she had to move on, one step at a time. Brady would want them too, as she would have wanted it to be if the situation was reversed.
“I guess,” Mariah muttered as she grabbed her bag, and walked out of the room with her mother and as Liz looked back at the room as she closed her bedroom with a brief display of power, as she locked it.
Unaware of her daughter’s glimpse at the green display.
WTF Mariah thought but chose to follow her mother back to where her grandparents were waiting without another word What just happened, she asked herself.
“Is everything alright,” Jeff asked of his daughter and granddaughter.
“Yes, everything is just perfect” Liz said as she looked at her daughter, who only nodded. “Do you have to go back downstairs?”
“I have a few minutes,” Jeff said as he smiled. “I am only glad the both of you are here, and hopefully Lex will be able to join you two very soon.
“I hope so too,” Liz thought of her son. Which was a reminder of how different her life was from when she left town after graduation. Time has given her a different life, and she was not going to take it for granted.
She could not…
A different life for sure as River Evans walked into the Crashdown after leaving his grandparents. He needed as sugar rush before heading home and dealing with his father. As his grandmother Diane had served homemade apple pie for dessert and most times River loved his grandmother’s cooking and especially her baking, but it did not do it for him tonight, but he had enjoyed the company of his grandparents despite it.
They were refreshingly normal, and River appreciated it given his abnormal life, and dysfunctional relationship with his father. Which did not hamper his relationship with his grandparents nor aunt even though they thought the moon hung on his father, and River was one who knew how complicated his father truly was, or so he thought. And he did not want to deal with it, so he stopped in for an Alien Blast or Sundae. Something to get me going. But his mood significantly improved a few minutes later as he saw Mariah as she walked through the back door, alone or so he thought. River had sudden this desire to know how Mariah was doing after the unbelievable events of the night before. As he had heard of what happened to her father, and he could not belief how cruel life was. Sure, he had lost his mother, but it was not like he could claim to have any memories of the woman. It was not like he grew up with the woman and then had her taken from him in such a cruel way. Especially in a town who could not claim to know, which is why he felt for Mariah. “Well, hello…”
“Yes, it is” Mariah muttered because this was a surprise for her because her mother was still upstairs and she was finding the apartment small and restrictive and needed time alone, and so she had come downstairs but was not prepared to see someone she knew. Especially since she was still new to this town, and she barely knew anyone because she only begun at the high school. “What are you doing here?”
“Getting reinforcements aka a sugar rush before I deal with home,” River confessed.
“Oh, right” Mariah muttered as she remembered the experience, she had with River’s father at her Aunt Maria’s home.
“Look my dad?” River tried, I know the man is complicated, but he is still my father, he thought. Obviously, we have our issues, but he is not a monster. He just cannot help himself he thought and wondered what happened if he had invested himself in a relationship, and had it fall apart because of choices you made during a weak moment. I have not been in love yet, but I am not looking forward to it he thought as he smiled because despite unimaginable pain, something about Mariah drew her to him.
“Parents, I know” Mariah muttered. “It’s okay…”
“Yeah, I guess” River nodded, and he could see the grief on Mariah’s face even if she were trying to put on a façade. “Look, your father…” he said as he had no idea of how to really address what he wanted to say. “How are you doing?”
“Better than I was, but still I am little raw which is why it was good to come see my grandparents,” Mariah said softly as she still could grasp the idea that her father, the man she had looked up to all her life was now gone and had been taken from her in such a way. It still did not seem real. Which is why I am probably able to function.
“Your grandparents own this place?” River asked as he had forgotten how close this truly was or how crazy it was. While he had known the owners of this place had a daughter who never visited according to the gossip of this place, and they had grandchildren, but River had never made the connection. Bizarre to think Dad loved the owner’s daughter he thought and knew of the theme of the restaurant ran too close to comfort to his life, aliens.
Are you kidding me? River would think now as he was making the connection.
“Yes,” Mariah nodded. “Believe it or not, this was the first time I have visited this place since we have relocated here…”
“Really?” River asked as he could never imagine not going to the place his grandparents lived. Of course, he had grown up in his grandparents’ home for a time until his father decided he had enough of being at home, and move the two of them out, and they have been on their own ever since. But he loved visiting his grandparent’s home, and especially given how normal they were in comparison to his own home. Crazy he thought.
“As I said, my brother and I did not come here…” Mariah muttered One of the mysteries of this. “I would have love to have experienced this place before now. I mean with everything going on…”
“Yeah,” River nodded. “It really is a great place. I come here all the time,” he thought of one of the benefits of coming into town for school even though he lived out of the district and should be going to the other school in town. But because he had family in town, well, they made exceptions for him given everyone and their parents knew he lived with his father outside of town.
Not that his father braved to come into town much if you ignore last night he thought. And he wanted to ignore last night and knew Mariah would want to ignore it for obvious reasons.
“Here comes my mother,” Mariah said of the door that had opened and yes, out had come her mother, also her grandparents. Now that River spotted them and now that he knew some of the history between their parents, although he suspected Mariah was still in the dark. Still there was a lot he still did not know. And he suspected neither of them would not like it if he knew.
“Mariah,” came Liz as she approached her daughter. “You friend I take it?” she asked as she knew she recognized the teen from the hospital the previous night. If not for the uncanny resemblance to the past.
“It’s River Evans Mrs. Anthony,” River murmured.
“Yes, I remember you” Liz said softly. And while the blond hair was reminisced of course of Tess unfortunately she thought. Still, she saw a good deal of Max in River. There goes the daydream of maybe Tess lied about the paternity all these years she mused to herself. “You can call me Liz since I am quite familiar with your family.”
“You go back with them, do you not?” River asked.
From the way he worded it, Liz sensed River knew a hell of a lot more than her own daughter of her past in this town and with her family. And Liz was sorry for that because she did have regrets about staying away although if not for their relocation, she might have kept up her reluctance to come back to her hometown. Brady had tried to warn me that this would happen she thought. And he had, and now he was gone. “Yes, I do” she said softly. “A lot went down before I left town for Chicago.”
River nodded.
“I knew you briefly before I left town,” Liz said softly. “I am glad you have been able to have a good life here in Roswell because I know how concerned your father was about you before you came to live with your father.”
“Really?” River asked. “That does not sound like my father at all. Because the last thing he has been concerned about is me…” he muttered he has been mourning you he wanted to say but wisely did not, as he thought of his father. Because while his father might want to rewrite history. All River knew was that the last thing his father had been, was concerned about him.
“You are wrong about that,” Liz muttered as she stood uncomfortable about the notion that life could have changed so drastically for both Max and River once she had left town. Everything your father did back then was about you,” she thought. It was you she even though she wanted to shudder at the memory. And those words invoked powerful images in her, but she knew too much time had gone by to think that she had been the one who mattered to Max when it was his son he had chosen. A choice that was wise and necessary she told herself now. She would not have wanted to be on the other side of the choice if it meant giving up his son it might have felt nice, but she knew there was many wild cards associated with being who Max was for him to pick her, and for them to move onto the future knowing he had given up his son for her. Because of the baby’s birth mother who had taken Alex from them. It was never me, she thought.
She was able move on, and find someone who wanted her, for being her, and who was normal, and who could give her children.
Brady was that for her, Brady she thought. She did not regret it as she looked at her daughter who was mystified by the tone of the conversation. And Liz knew she was right to crave normalcy and be able to provide that for her children. Because Roswell had provided too much of the opposite during that time in high school. She would never have wanted to provide that for her children.
She knew she was lying to herself.
And she felt the power of the glaze from Max’s son she thought. The baby who changed everything for her she thought. She knew he was accessing her, just as he knew more than he should.
She needed an exit, and she found it.
“I will leave you to talk,” was all Liz could say before walking away so that she could get away from the memories that looking at River invoked. After all, she needed to concentrate on the life she had now, and the life she had just lost.
For the sake of her children the children Brady gave me.
“What was that about?” Mariah thought as she watched as her mother walk away.
“Nothing,” River thought as he was getting a glimpse of the woman who had walked away from his father because of him.
Mariah suspected there was more.
“I think I better get on that sugar rush,” River said. “See you around…” as he knew how complicated it was to spend time with Mariah knowing that there was history between their parents.
Mariah nodded as she watched River walk away. “Are you okay honey” Nancy Parker asked as she had seen how her granddaughter interacted with the Evans kids. River Evans. As she knew as well as anyone how messy it was given her own daughter’s history with the boy’s father. “You might not want to get too involved with River, honey.”
“Why is that?” Mariah asked, curious for a moment. Putting away her grief for her father. “There was something obviously going on. “I barely know him.”
“You might want to keep it that way,” Nancy advised. She might not have anything against the Evans boy, and she had mostly gotten over what had gone down between his father and her daughter. Time moves on, and it helped that her daughter had moved on, even though she had was hiding from this town, and she knew it was Max that was the reason, and how intense it had been during that time.
“Why?” Mariah wondered. “What do you have against River?”
“Nothing, honey” Nancy sighed. “Nothing at all…”
“It’s his father, is it not?” Mariah asked as she was putting two and two together from the interaction between her mother and River. “This has to do with how he was looking at my mother?”
What makes you think that?” Nancy asked but she knew it had everything to do with how his father reacted to her daughter, even though she had not been there at the Guerin house, but she knew the past was too heavy.
At this moment Max did not know Liz’s daughter was being dissuaded by her grandmother to stay away from his son. Max probably would not be surprised by the development given that he knew how Nancy and her husband felt about him, although the level of distrust had been ratcheted down many levels in the years since he almost landed their daughter in prison for a considerable amount of time if it was not for him. Liz might have decided to come along on the journey to find the very son that would end them. But he had not dissuaded her and told her it would only cause her pain and angst, because of course he had not known just how far they would go in his plan to find his son.
The very son who had become disengaged from over the years because of the relationship that ended and his reluctance to move on. And now that same baby was a teenager and embarking on his future. Therefore, Max was walking down the same sidewalk that his son was walking along after leaving the Crashdown.
The heater was still dysfunctional probably trying to tell me something he muttered to himself. And after his sister left, and despite his wish for the coldness of the house which match his heart since he lost Liz. But the reality of being in a cold house came face to face with reality. And he knew the house was not fit for man or beast, the very worst beast. And he had met a few of those during his years.
So, he took the car out of the garage. A car he had been hiding since he bought it when he was almost a senior in high school. And kept as a keepsake because he barely used it because he did not want anything to happen to it. But because his son had taken the other car. Max needed something, and he needed to come into town.
Forsaking his normal ban on the town he grew up in, but lived on the outskirts of…
As he called his parents and naturally his mother had jumped at the chance to have her son in the house. A house he had grown up, but barely been in since he left it. Because he did not like the memories of who he was once. And his son was not taking his calls. River tended to ignore his calls, and so to tell his son not to come home. Max had to come and find the boy.
Which was no easy task for a father who did not know his son or his routine. You do not have to tell me how I am a terrible father because he had certainly gotten that lecture many times in the past twenty-four hours.
Now he was trying to find his son. And he spotted the blonde hair as he turned the corner where he had parked his corvette. River was walking alone, and he spotted his father and stopped. Because this was a rarity. “What do you want?” he muttered as his father approached. “Could you not give me a night off from…”
“What, me?” Max asked softly. “I would if I could and you are free to do what you want to do but I only came to find you because I had to tell you that we are spending the night at your grandparents because the heater is out, and it’s too cold in the house.”
“Since when did that bother you before, to be in a cold house, I mean?” River asked.
“Well, it bothered me tonight,” Max muttered.
“Whatever,” River muttered right back.
“Go on and do your thing,” Max said right back.
“Like you care,” River sighed as a door nearby opened and both realized by the flashing lightning which was glowing in the darkness of this night that it was the Crashdown Ugh, Max would think. As it was obvious who it was.
Liz and Mariah.
“Just great,” Max would say out loud. The way things were going well it was going to be inescapable in that they would be running into each other. As he prayed that things would not get out of control with his son.
As Max theorized, Liz and Mariah could not help but find themselves from coming upon Max and his son River. Both women were finally ready to go home because of the night was ending and they had a nice time with Jeff and Nancy, but it was time to get home and deal with the future.
Liz had a funeral to plan. And other arrangements to deal with, plus a son in the hospital recovering from dire injuries.
That would take weeks, months even to overcome. So, she had to get home and start to deal with the new status in her life. So, she and her daughter both overcome with thought and in their minds and did not see who they were approaching. And therefore, Max and River had more of a forewarning.
Oh god Liz thought when it did come clear who they were running into. Not now. Please not now she muttered out loud. River was almost amused by the notion of this run in, and he was almost pleased by how uncomfortable it was making his father. Since he had never known this of his father. His father was always uncomfortable, but this was plain angsty and that and in its own way, unbearable.
But it was also amusing for River because he did not mind if his father was tortured in this way.
Max was the first to say anything, and it was as simple as “Liz” he said softly as this was the first time they will have spoken since they had not shared a syllable that morning when the world was crashing around Liz.
“Max,” Liz said for the first time in sixteen years.
But after a while, she did not know what had come first.
Harvard University. It was her destiny.
She was so sure of it. So, why did it change? She did not know. Yes, I do know she corrected herself. It was because of one boy. One boy. One incredible boy. A unique soul if there was ever one. She did not regret that time in her life. Or that the love she had felt for him was not real and intense because it was.
It was too intense by the end. Which is why she had to get out. She had to go to Northwestern when Harvard fell out of the picture because of the choices she chose for herself by entangling herself with that boy. It was another thing she did not regret because she would meet Brady. Brady Liz thought now, with grief of a wife mourning the love that had allowed her to move on, and to have a family.
That white picket fence she knew Max wanted for her. One that they had not been able to achieve for themselves, because the hazards were too harsh, and too devastating which is why she had to get away. Go for the normal. But even then, she had not known how to achieve that until Brady.
Brady had given her a chance. By being a shoulder that she had needed when she had not even known that she needed him, or that there could be someone else. Who was not Max? She had not known it was possible. Especially when she was sure Max was the only one. She had been so sure.
She was wrong. Because she had found Brady.
And now she had lost him, and she was facing the realization of being a widow and having to deal with two kids who were mourning the man they loved. Their father. It would be so easy if Brady had been a crappy father or husband. But he had not been.
He had been a good man, and now he was gone. In a senseless death,
And Liz was trying to figure out how to make it through the day. Which is why she had needed to come to the Crashdown and see her parents. They were a symbol of who she was as a kid. And Mariah needed to see her grandparents after losing her father and to know her younger brother was in the hospital recovering from injuries from the same crash. And now to know she could be carrying the same condition that had likely killed her father.
Liz did not want to think that her daughter or son could have it. Not Lex. He was only twelve. Mariah at fifteen was no better but she was stronger, and older and she could deal with it. Although what fifteen-year-old could handle losing their father due to a deadly heart condition on top of it. How could she help her daughter deal with the concept of death? When both of her parents were still alive and kicking, and the only death she had experienced was her childhood friend who had not gotten to see his eighteenth birthday Okay Grandma Claudia, but she was taken by a stroke she thought. Sure, it was sudden, but she was a grandparent…
The only other death she had experienced, was ultimately a short-term loss yeah, a long story Liz thought now and felt she was cursed if Max could survive. Why could Brady not?
She knew why. Max was special.
She was given one miracle. This time her luck had simply given out. Just like Brady’s heart she cursed. “Are you okay Lizzie?” came her concerned father. Jeff had watched as Nancy had taken Mariah off to console her, after all, his wife had a special relationship with their granddaughter. Nancy and Mariah got each other. Just like Lizzie and I did when she was younger, he thought. Eventually that had run its course when Liz of course got to an age when she would fall in love with someone and do things that would challenge their family and ultimately take her away from them because she had needed to get away.
Jeff was just happy to have his daughter back in the same town of his wife and him. Sure, to know she was safe in Chicago was good for his battered soul. But they missed their only child. Sure, they travelled to Chicago once or twice a year, usually around the holidays so that they could have an excuse to close the restaurant. But they have not seen their daughter enough. But it was better than how it could have been when their child had cut it too close and got lucky in the end. So, they took what they could get. Their daughter being in Chicago was a better place. But being back here in Roswell was even better, and he and Nancy were thrilled to have their daughter’s family back in town.
It had been only two weeks. And now of course tragedy strikes. He and Nancy had not gone to the hospital the previous night because it was all a whirlwind. And their daughter had not wanted them there, and it was hell for Jeff to have to wait for news. So, he was relieved to get a call from his daughter.
And to see her come through the door with Mariah. It was hell of a thing to know their grandson was in the hospital Lex Jeff thought. Knowing his grandson preference for his name. Fun for his grandparents. They preferred his given name. But they understood their grandson’s desire for his own name. Lizzie is a fantastic mother Jeff thought. Brady was the same as a father. It did not feel right to know Brady was gone.
They did not know everything their daughter might know but still they knew of the colossal mess nearby. It was not hard to when you run a restaurant in the heart of the tourist district of their town. Their town was after all, such a small place. Gossip got around to a frightening degree at astonishing speeds. Sometimes he and his wife were immune to the gossip. Other times they could not help but get drawn up into it. Because of course it helped that he ran a meet and greet, and his place was the melting pot of such gossip.
“Lizzie,” Jeff asked again.
“Dad, I am fine” Liz tried as she once again saw Kyle sitting with his daughter Jaime. Such a replica of her father. Liz had not met his late wife. Teri was a student at the nearby high school when they were at West Roswell. And she, Liz, was already gone by the time Kyle had met and married his wife. Even though she had known he had been smitten with Isabel during the end of their high school career hard not to see it, but Isabel had been with Jesse, and was trying to make it work, and Kyle had not interrupted it.
Only later did it change, and now they were raising their daughters together. Liz was happy for her ex. They were better off as friends, and both would admit it. “Dad, can you excuse me?”
“Of course,” Jeff said sighing because he knew his daughter needed to see her friends as he watched as Liz walked over to the table that held Kyle and Jaime.
“Liz,” came Kyle as Jaime had gone off when she saw a friend from school. “I am glad to see you, how are you doing?” he wanted to know as she sat down at the table with him as both took a few minutes. “I cannot imagine…”
“Being the talk of the town?” Liz said with a smirk but also a smile. “I am an old expert at that,” she sighed as she thought of how notorious she been those weeks at the beginning of their senior year when she and Max had gotten busted in Utah of all places. You get the town to talk when you get arrested on armed robbery charges and only by the skin of your teeth did, you get out, and were able to come home. By doing what they did, they had gotten the town to talk about them, and even wonder what possibly could you be thinking? After all, she had been the favorite daughter, Growing up in the spotlight of this restaurant. People thought they knew her, but they did not. Not by a long shot as they would find out.
She may have moved on from those days, but they stay with you when you come home to you small town after being gone a lifetime.
“That you are,” came a smiling Kyle. “I did not mean that…”
“I know what you meant,” came Liz right back. “My heart hurts, and I feel like I have been knifed in the stomach. I thought the worse I could feel was when Max and you know what happened,” she said of the event in senior year that she could not speak of in open space and air.
“Right,” Kyle nodded because of the lives they had both lived. It was all so close to the surface. All the memories, good and the bad…
“Well, I was wrong. While this does not feel like that time because of course different experiences but still the pain is intense, and I cannot believe that I must feel it all over again, and to know this time, it all very real, and lasting, and that I have children to make sure they get through the days…?” she muttered because she still did not know how she was getting to be able to do it.
“Children,” Kyle muttered as he thought of his own daughter and caught a glimpse of her talking to Jessica. “They give us prospective,” he said sadly. “It might have been a different situation for me, but I know how it is to lose someone. It was a disease that got Teri in the end, but like Brady, they were both far too young, and it was a hell to get through, and to know I had to be there for Jaime?”
“It is,” Liz said sighing. “I am sorry that you have to know the feeling. But it does seem like Jaime is growing into a wonderful girl. I met her briefly at the hospital when she was doing her volunteering hours, while I was visiting my son.”
“She was,” Kyle asked surprised because he had not heard his daughter talk of it.
“She was visiting Lex,” Liz said softly. “Giving him the support that he needs.”
“Again, all this is senseless,” Kyle thought of the fate that had forced Liz’s son into the hospital with injuries that would take a long time to get over as he saw the commotion of his daughter, Jaime came back to the table with had its way of interrupting their talk. And not long after her arrival, Jessica joined her. As they both had seen the woman sit down and only Jaime could possibly know who the identity of the woman who was talking to her father. And now because of their brief encounter at the hospital earlier in the day. Liz could see Kyle in Jaime and see how she was so like her dad, and even her grandfather before her. “Dad,” came Jaime as Jessie chose to stay silent because she was not familiar with Liz. While the younger teenager chose to speak up.
“Girls,” Kyle said softly to the girls as they returned to the table as he recognized that time was ticking down and that their time together on this night was ending because of the other commitments for the kids. “I assume you have to be getting going Jessica?”
“Right,” Jessie said as she was quick to access Liz and the same went for Kyle’s former high school girlfriend as she was able to see her mother, Isabel in Jessica. As well as the girl’s father, Jesse Another person lost to them.
But currently, Jessica took after mainly her mother, and it was obvious for Liz.
Recognizing that he had to make some introductions so that the girls did not get the wrong idea. “Girls, this is an old friend of mine. Elizabeth Anthony Kyle said as he elected to speak of her married name which despite all this time, it still felt odd to say.
“It’s just Liz,” came the other party. “Nice to see you again Jaime,” she said softly. “I assume you are Jessica?” she said again as she got up from the table. “I knew your mother and father well,” she said and left off, especially your uncle she thought. That would be too much. “Nice to see you again Jaime. Thank you again for spending time with my son because he did appreciate it.”
“It was nice,” Jaime acknowledged. “I hope he gets better quickly…”
“Kyle, thank you, and I better get back to my daughter. Because I should not leave my parents too long with her,” she said. It was why she was here, to see my parents she thought. “Another time.”
“We are always here,” came Kyle.
“I appreciate it,” Liz said softly as she walked past a table or two who had just come in and they were startled to recognize Liz because it was in the newspaper, what had gone down, and she knew as she told Kyle, she was infamous these days. Even though she longed to go back to when she was not, but it was hard these days. And there was too much water under the bridge to go back to how things were once because after all, you grow up and move on with life and react to the choices you have made, for good and for bad.
“That was Mrs. Anthony?” Jessie asked.
“Yes,” Jaime said softly. “As she mentioned I met her son today,” she said as she thought of how Lex was alone in the hospital. “It sucks.”
“Yes, it does” Kyle thought. “You did not mention it honey?”
“I spoke of it to Jessica,” Jaime commented. “Lex was alone in the hospital and wanted answers, and I kept hm amused before his mother and sister could join him,” she said. “It is uncool about his injuries, and to know what happened to his father,” she thoughts as she could not help but remember the fact that she had lost her biological mother. She barely remembered what she looked like. Sure, she appreciated how Isabel had been there for her over the years and that her father had kept a few pictures at home, but she had been so young, and her mind had a hard time coming with the memories.
“That is why we should be happy that it was bad enough last night,” Kyle thoughts as the events of the last twenty-four hours was warranting a parental lecture. After all, he knew how close it had been and how lucky they had, especially for his little girl, Jaime. At least Jessica could claim the fact she had an innate ability to recover but his daughter did not, because she was blessedly normal although there were moments, he wished she had a bit of what Jessica had but he knew he should be happy, and he was but still it did warrant a lecture. “You two may have come through it fine, but you know to be cautious next time right. Please do not get in the car with Mac if he is driving, okay, you two. Not until he has gotten his license, and even then, be careful,” because Kyle was all too aware of how Mac Guerin was riding too close to the edge these days. “Make sure River is driving.”
“Yes, Dad” came both girls. Because they knew they had gotten off easy that they had not gotten more serious injuries, and both had known they were walking a fine line, and yet they had taken the risk because they knew River was having one of those nights. But Jessica should have known better, and she did, most of the time.
“Very well, let’s get going” Kyle said as he got up from the table as Jessica had to get down the street to the department. As the three made the walk together as Kyle made sure she made it there in one piece because of the death of Brady, and the injuries to Alex or Lex as he likes to be called were too close to home, and Kyle did not like to the memories that came back of their time in high school, and even his own brush with death I got very lucky, if not for Max… he thought. I… would be dead,” he mused to himself and hated to think he could miss falling in love with Isabel or the birth of his own daughter.
“Let’s get home,” Kyle said to Jaime after making sure Jessica walked through the doors of the station.
“Can I go to the hospital and see Lex,” came Jaime as a sudden desire to go the hospital and see Alex arose in her, as they walked back to the car, because he was there alone.
“Are you sure, because you should be home and studying?” Kyle asked.
“I am fine with that,” Jaime smiled. “Lex is all alone in the hospital…” she said softly. “My books will be there when I get home.”
“You are an amazing person honey,” Kyle said softly as he was seeing how his daughter was so much like her late mother, as she was so compassionate, and Teri had been so like their daughter. He prayed his daughter would not lose that ability to help others as she grew up, as he pulled the car out of the parking lot, and they drove over to the hospital.
*
This place rocks Mariah thought as she toured the childhood bedroom of her mother. As she had come to the apartment with her grandmother to get away from the crowds. And to talk, and it had been nice to talk to her grandmother in person instead of over the phone or on Skype. So, they had come up here while her mother stayed downstairs in the restaurant with her grandfather. But then the phone rang, and her grandmother answered it and was drawn into a long-ish call by Mariah standards and so she started to walk around and found herself at the room that had its door closed, but not locked. Instinct told her that it was her mother’s room.
She opened the door and walked in and found her mother’s room and it was not unlike the room she had when they were back home. Chicago, she thought. That is home to me. She did not know if she could ever think of Roswell as home. This might be where her grandparents resided and where her mother grew up, but it was a town she did not know. Because she had been kept away.
She always wondered why.
This place looks ordinary to me Mariah thought now. Nothing bad or offending about the small town. It is just not Chicago she thought. She walked and spotted the window and looked out and saw the roof. Which is why she thinking this room was particularly rocking. It would have been fun to have a roof, and to have an easy exit she thought as she imagined what she could have done with it Nope, my old room had no ladder. It has a security alarm she thought because her parents were paranoid about security. Citing the fact her grandparents came from money.
She stepped away from the window and saw the poster and one side of the wall. One of Harvard University. Weird she thought since she knew her parent’s ala Marta was Northwestern, and that they had met there and had gotten married and had her because she was pregnant Mariah knew. She could count the dates from her parent’s anniversary to when she was born, and how they waited to have her brother. It did not bother her because she figured her parents loved her, and which is why they are still together, or were Mariah was forced to think.
She continued to look around.
It was all so normal It did not seem right that her mother came from here and because why stay away and not bring Lex and me here she thought. This place does not look terrible. She knew Grandma and Grandpa Parker were awesome parents, and they loved their grandchildren and especially their daughter. So, why stay away and not bring us she wondered, and she asked her dad once when her mother had indeed come back here for a visit. It is complicated was what her father said, it is your mother’s past, and she does not like to talk about it he said. Even to you? She asked.
Even to me her father had remarked, but it was obvious to her that her father knew more than he was saying to his daughter about his wife’s former life. Of course, there is always secrets she thought as she saw a crack in the wall and then heard her mother’s voice calling for her grandmother. She wandered over to the wall and saw it was a loose brick, and she was curious, so she removed the brick, and found a hole.
Curious. She saw a book inside it. She wondered what it could be, so she removed it, and opened the front cover and realized with shock that it was her mother’s diary Whoa she thought as she saw the opening words, its September 23rd and five days ago I died… and Mariah did not know what to do, and then she saw the door opening, “Grandma,” she asked as she expected to see Nancy peeking through, and but no, it was not her grandmother.
It was her mother.
Mariah was quick to put the book in the bag, and she was quick to put the brick back, and turn her attention to her mother. “Mom?”
“Honey, what are you doing in here?” Liz asked. “Your grandmother did not know where you had gone, and I saw the door was unlocked…”
“It was already, so it is not like I broke into it,” Mariah muttered in defense of her herself. “This was your room, was it not?” she asked of her mother.
“I did not think you broke in,” Liz asked wearily. As she finally had a chance to look around and yes, she knew this was a room she left when she left for Northwestern, and after things had gone downhill with Max. She had not been back in here since those days. Because on the rare time she did come back to this town. She usually stayed wherever Maria and Michael were staying, or in a motel if she could not arrange suitable arrangements because it was usually a short-term visit when she did come back to her hometown.
“So, you did not answer me, this is your room?” Mariah asked.
“Yes,” Liz said softly.
“It must have been cool to grow up in this room and have your access route out,” Mariah asked of the window that led to the roof. One that Liz did not have to see to know, because of the memories associated with that roof I will never forget it she thought of the place she had shared her first kiss with Max.
“It was cool, alright” Liz said without elaborating as she did look around and see how her father had kept it like a time capsule of that time. I have been gone a long time she thought. They could have done anything with this room, but they could not. They kept it the same she thought as she saw that it was the same as it had been during those closing months of senior year.
“All this appears to be so normal, so why did you not bring Lex and me back here to see Grandma and Grandpa?” Mariah asked as she could not help but wonder.
“You saw your grandparents,” Liz with limited success of her choice to keep the kids away from this town, and if they had not chosen to relocate here, she probably would have kept it up until the kids were old enough to visit on their own, although Mariah was pretty much already there, which did not make Liz that relieved. To know her daughter was that close to possibly repeating old patterns. That is why she had been okay with coming back to Roswell because her hometown was a small town in its heart and therefore you could get into more trouble in a big city, even if you lived in the suburbs.
“Not the same thing as coming here, and we did not see them that often” Mariah muttered as she thought of all she did not know of her mother’s past. She never really thought of it, but now that she was in Roswell. She could not help but question it.
“Because of the restaurant” Liz thought. “They could only take so much time away from it.”
“Then what is your excuse?” Mariah muttered.
“This is not the place for this,” Liz muttered. “Let us go and spend some time with your grandparents before we have to head home,” she thought of the fact she did not want to defend to her own daughter the reasons why she had chosen to keep her kids away from Roswell. Simply because she knew she did not have any good reason for it. Brady was always supportive of it, because he had been able to spend time with them when she was gone, but she knew her husband had always had those questions to even though she had been able to tell some of it to her husband. But not all of it but she knew she was in unchartered territory now as she thought of returning to the home that was their home now, and she was still not too anxious to go back there but she knew she had to move on, one step at a time. Brady would want them too, as she would have wanted it to be if the situation was reversed.
“I guess,” Mariah muttered as she grabbed her bag, and walked out of the room with her mother and as Liz looked back at the room as she closed her bedroom with a brief display of power, as she locked it.
Unaware of her daughter’s glimpse at the green display.
WTF Mariah thought but chose to follow her mother back to where her grandparents were waiting without another word What just happened, she asked herself.
“Is everything alright,” Jeff asked of his daughter and granddaughter.
“Yes, everything is just perfect” Liz said as she looked at her daughter, who only nodded. “Do you have to go back downstairs?”
“I have a few minutes,” Jeff said as he smiled. “I am only glad the both of you are here, and hopefully Lex will be able to join you two very soon.
“I hope so too,” Liz thought of her son. Which was a reminder of how different her life was from when she left town after graduation. Time has given her a different life, and she was not going to take it for granted.
She could not…
*
A different life for sure as River Evans walked into the Crashdown after leaving his grandparents. He needed as sugar rush before heading home and dealing with his father. As his grandmother Diane had served homemade apple pie for dessert and most times River loved his grandmother’s cooking and especially her baking, but it did not do it for him tonight, but he had enjoyed the company of his grandparents despite it.
They were refreshingly normal, and River appreciated it given his abnormal life, and dysfunctional relationship with his father. Which did not hamper his relationship with his grandparents nor aunt even though they thought the moon hung on his father, and River was one who knew how complicated his father truly was, or so he thought. And he did not want to deal with it, so he stopped in for an Alien Blast or Sundae. Something to get me going. But his mood significantly improved a few minutes later as he saw Mariah as she walked through the back door, alone or so he thought. River had sudden this desire to know how Mariah was doing after the unbelievable events of the night before. As he had heard of what happened to her father, and he could not belief how cruel life was. Sure, he had lost his mother, but it was not like he could claim to have any memories of the woman. It was not like he grew up with the woman and then had her taken from him in such a cruel way. Especially in a town who could not claim to know, which is why he felt for Mariah. “Well, hello…”
“Yes, it is” Mariah muttered because this was a surprise for her because her mother was still upstairs and she was finding the apartment small and restrictive and needed time alone, and so she had come downstairs but was not prepared to see someone she knew. Especially since she was still new to this town, and she barely knew anyone because she only begun at the high school. “What are you doing here?”
“Getting reinforcements aka a sugar rush before I deal with home,” River confessed.
“Oh, right” Mariah muttered as she remembered the experience, she had with River’s father at her Aunt Maria’s home.
“Look my dad?” River tried, I know the man is complicated, but he is still my father, he thought. Obviously, we have our issues, but he is not a monster. He just cannot help himself he thought and wondered what happened if he had invested himself in a relationship, and had it fall apart because of choices you made during a weak moment. I have not been in love yet, but I am not looking forward to it he thought as he smiled because despite unimaginable pain, something about Mariah drew her to him.
“Parents, I know” Mariah muttered. “It’s okay…”
“Yeah, I guess” River nodded, and he could see the grief on Mariah’s face even if she were trying to put on a façade. “Look, your father…” he said as he had no idea of how to really address what he wanted to say. “How are you doing?”
“Better than I was, but still I am little raw which is why it was good to come see my grandparents,” Mariah said softly as she still could grasp the idea that her father, the man she had looked up to all her life was now gone and had been taken from her in such a way. It still did not seem real. Which is why I am probably able to function.
“Your grandparents own this place?” River asked as he had forgotten how close this truly was or how crazy it was. While he had known the owners of this place had a daughter who never visited according to the gossip of this place, and they had grandchildren, but River had never made the connection. Bizarre to think Dad loved the owner’s daughter he thought and knew of the theme of the restaurant ran too close to comfort to his life, aliens.
Are you kidding me? River would think now as he was making the connection.
“Yes,” Mariah nodded. “Believe it or not, this was the first time I have visited this place since we have relocated here…”
“Really?” River asked as he could never imagine not going to the place his grandparents lived. Of course, he had grown up in his grandparents’ home for a time until his father decided he had enough of being at home, and move the two of them out, and they have been on their own ever since. But he loved visiting his grandparent’s home, and especially given how normal they were in comparison to his own home. Crazy he thought.
“As I said, my brother and I did not come here…” Mariah muttered One of the mysteries of this. “I would have love to have experienced this place before now. I mean with everything going on…”
“Yeah,” River nodded. “It really is a great place. I come here all the time,” he thought of one of the benefits of coming into town for school even though he lived out of the district and should be going to the other school in town. But because he had family in town, well, they made exceptions for him given everyone and their parents knew he lived with his father outside of town.
Not that his father braved to come into town much if you ignore last night he thought. And he wanted to ignore last night and knew Mariah would want to ignore it for obvious reasons.
“Here comes my mother,” Mariah said of the door that had opened and yes, out had come her mother, also her grandparents. Now that River spotted them and now that he knew some of the history between their parents, although he suspected Mariah was still in the dark. Still there was a lot he still did not know. And he suspected neither of them would not like it if he knew.
“Mariah,” came Liz as she approached her daughter. “You friend I take it?” she asked as she knew she recognized the teen from the hospital the previous night. If not for the uncanny resemblance to the past.
“It’s River Evans Mrs. Anthony,” River murmured.
“Yes, I remember you” Liz said softly. And while the blond hair was reminisced of course of Tess unfortunately she thought. Still, she saw a good deal of Max in River. There goes the daydream of maybe Tess lied about the paternity all these years she mused to herself. “You can call me Liz since I am quite familiar with your family.”
“You go back with them, do you not?” River asked.
From the way he worded it, Liz sensed River knew a hell of a lot more than her own daughter of her past in this town and with her family. And Liz was sorry for that because she did have regrets about staying away although if not for their relocation, she might have kept up her reluctance to come back to her hometown. Brady had tried to warn me that this would happen she thought. And he had, and now he was gone. “Yes, I do” she said softly. “A lot went down before I left town for Chicago.”
River nodded.
“I knew you briefly before I left town,” Liz said softly. “I am glad you have been able to have a good life here in Roswell because I know how concerned your father was about you before you came to live with your father.”
“Really?” River asked. “That does not sound like my father at all. Because the last thing he has been concerned about is me…” he muttered he has been mourning you he wanted to say but wisely did not, as he thought of his father. Because while his father might want to rewrite history. All River knew was that the last thing his father had been, was concerned about him.
“You are wrong about that,” Liz muttered as she stood uncomfortable about the notion that life could have changed so drastically for both Max and River once she had left town. Everything your father did back then was about you,” she thought. It was you she even though she wanted to shudder at the memory. And those words invoked powerful images in her, but she knew too much time had gone by to think that she had been the one who mattered to Max when it was his son he had chosen. A choice that was wise and necessary she told herself now. She would not have wanted to be on the other side of the choice if it meant giving up his son it might have felt nice, but she knew there was many wild cards associated with being who Max was for him to pick her, and for them to move onto the future knowing he had given up his son for her. Because of the baby’s birth mother who had taken Alex from them. It was never me, she thought.
She was able move on, and find someone who wanted her, for being her, and who was normal, and who could give her children.
Brady was that for her, Brady she thought. She did not regret it as she looked at her daughter who was mystified by the tone of the conversation. And Liz knew she was right to crave normalcy and be able to provide that for her children. Because Roswell had provided too much of the opposite during that time in high school. She would never have wanted to provide that for her children.
She knew she was lying to herself.
And she felt the power of the glaze from Max’s son she thought. The baby who changed everything for her she thought. She knew he was accessing her, just as he knew more than he should.
She needed an exit, and she found it.
“I will leave you to talk,” was all Liz could say before walking away so that she could get away from the memories that looking at River invoked. After all, she needed to concentrate on the life she had now, and the life she had just lost.
For the sake of her children the children Brady gave me.
“What was that about?” Mariah thought as she watched as her mother walk away.
“Nothing,” River thought as he was getting a glimpse of the woman who had walked away from his father because of him.
Mariah suspected there was more.
“I think I better get on that sugar rush,” River said. “See you around…” as he knew how complicated it was to spend time with Mariah knowing that there was history between their parents.
Mariah nodded as she watched River walk away. “Are you okay honey” Nancy Parker asked as she had seen how her granddaughter interacted with the Evans kids. River Evans. As she knew as well as anyone how messy it was given her own daughter’s history with the boy’s father. “You might not want to get too involved with River, honey.”
“Why is that?” Mariah asked, curious for a moment. Putting away her grief for her father. “There was something obviously going on. “I barely know him.”
“You might want to keep it that way,” Nancy advised. She might not have anything against the Evans boy, and she had mostly gotten over what had gone down between his father and her daughter. Time moves on, and it helped that her daughter had moved on, even though she had was hiding from this town, and she knew it was Max that was the reason, and how intense it had been during that time.
“Why?” Mariah wondered. “What do you have against River?”
“Nothing, honey” Nancy sighed. “Nothing at all…”
“It’s his father, is it not?” Mariah asked as she was putting two and two together from the interaction between her mother and River. “This has to do with how he was looking at my mother?”
What makes you think that?” Nancy asked but she knew it had everything to do with how his father reacted to her daughter, even though she had not been there at the Guerin house, but she knew the past was too heavy.
*
At this moment Max did not know Liz’s daughter was being dissuaded by her grandmother to stay away from his son. Max probably would not be surprised by the development given that he knew how Nancy and her husband felt about him, although the level of distrust had been ratcheted down many levels in the years since he almost landed their daughter in prison for a considerable amount of time if it was not for him. Liz might have decided to come along on the journey to find the very son that would end them. But he had not dissuaded her and told her it would only cause her pain and angst, because of course he had not known just how far they would go in his plan to find his son.
The very son who had become disengaged from over the years because of the relationship that ended and his reluctance to move on. And now that same baby was a teenager and embarking on his future. Therefore, Max was walking down the same sidewalk that his son was walking along after leaving the Crashdown.
The heater was still dysfunctional probably trying to tell me something he muttered to himself. And after his sister left, and despite his wish for the coldness of the house which match his heart since he lost Liz. But the reality of being in a cold house came face to face with reality. And he knew the house was not fit for man or beast, the very worst beast. And he had met a few of those during his years.
So, he took the car out of the garage. A car he had been hiding since he bought it when he was almost a senior in high school. And kept as a keepsake because he barely used it because he did not want anything to happen to it. But because his son had taken the other car. Max needed something, and he needed to come into town.
Forsaking his normal ban on the town he grew up in, but lived on the outskirts of…
As he called his parents and naturally his mother had jumped at the chance to have her son in the house. A house he had grown up, but barely been in since he left it. Because he did not like the memories of who he was once. And his son was not taking his calls. River tended to ignore his calls, and so to tell his son not to come home. Max had to come and find the boy.
Which was no easy task for a father who did not know his son or his routine. You do not have to tell me how I am a terrible father because he had certainly gotten that lecture many times in the past twenty-four hours.
Now he was trying to find his son. And he spotted the blonde hair as he turned the corner where he had parked his corvette. River was walking alone, and he spotted his father and stopped. Because this was a rarity. “What do you want?” he muttered as his father approached. “Could you not give me a night off from…”
“What, me?” Max asked softly. “I would if I could and you are free to do what you want to do but I only came to find you because I had to tell you that we are spending the night at your grandparents because the heater is out, and it’s too cold in the house.”
“Since when did that bother you before, to be in a cold house, I mean?” River asked.
“Well, it bothered me tonight,” Max muttered.
“Whatever,” River muttered right back.
“Go on and do your thing,” Max said right back.
“Like you care,” River sighed as a door nearby opened and both realized by the flashing lightning which was glowing in the darkness of this night that it was the Crashdown Ugh, Max would think. As it was obvious who it was.
Liz and Mariah.
“Just great,” Max would say out loud. The way things were going well it was going to be inescapable in that they would be running into each other. As he prayed that things would not get out of control with his son.
As Max theorized, Liz and Mariah could not help but find themselves from coming upon Max and his son River. Both women were finally ready to go home because of the night was ending and they had a nice time with Jeff and Nancy, but it was time to get home and deal with the future.
Liz had a funeral to plan. And other arrangements to deal with, plus a son in the hospital recovering from dire injuries.
That would take weeks, months even to overcome. So, she had to get home and start to deal with the new status in her life. So, she and her daughter both overcome with thought and in their minds and did not see who they were approaching. And therefore, Max and River had more of a forewarning.
Oh god Liz thought when it did come clear who they were running into. Not now. Please not now she muttered out loud. River was almost amused by the notion of this run in, and he was almost pleased by how uncomfortable it was making his father. Since he had never known this of his father. His father was always uncomfortable, but this was plain angsty and that and in its own way, unbearable.
But it was also amusing for River because he did not mind if his father was tortured in this way.
Max was the first to say anything, and it was as simple as “Liz” he said softly as this was the first time they will have spoken since they had not shared a syllable that morning when the world was crashing around Liz.
“Max,” Liz said for the first time in sixteen years.
Last edited by Parker1947 on Sun Oct 16, 2022 10:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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keepsmiling7
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 2649
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:34 pm
Re: Til We Meet Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 9 - 02/02/2022
This is beyond interesting with the next generation getting involved.
So Max and Liz finally face each other, with very few words.
So Max and Liz finally face each other, with very few words.
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RoswellFan68
- Obsessed Roswellian
- Posts: 543
- Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:52 am
- Location: Charleston, WV
Re: Til We Meet Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 9 - 02/02/2022
Max needs to give Liz time to grieve her husband and support her kids. I hope Liz finds out the truth soon about her daughter. Mariah and River need to find out quickly that friendship is all they have in their future.
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totallizfan
- Addicted Roswellian
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- Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:30 am
Re: Til We Meet Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 9 - 02/02/2022
More drama and angst....bring it.
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Parker1947
- Obsessed Roswellian
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- Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:34 pm
Til We Meet Again - Chapter 10 - 02/05/2022
In all these years, sixteen of them in fact. Max had many dreams. And many of them were creative and downright imaginative when he would dream of seeing Liz again but none of them wrote this kind of scenario. Sure, in most of them. His tongue would be tied. He would be speechless, and unable to think reasonably, and all that spoke true to the events of tonight. But none of his scenarios would have his son right by him, clearly enjoying the discomfort in his eyes and his face.
This was what you wrought when you were a terrible father, and his son was clearly taking too much pleasure in this. In the discomfort that he was feeling as he was coming face to face with the woman he had loved since third grade when he first glance at her on the playground as she confidently played with her best friend Maria, and all her other friends. While he was the loner. Only attached to two people in this world.
Isabel and Michael.
Then on the cusp of sixteen. His dream girl had given him a chance. And he blew it by the end of it and had to watch as she walked away. If only she had believed me when I told her in the beginning that I did not want it to go bad for us, that they only had one way of ending if they had tried and it failed. It would end…
Badly he thought now.
They had gone there, and now she was facing her years later, and they were both different. For all the wrong reasons. At least she got to be happy he thought. “Liz,” he said softly and for Liz, it was a reckoning and one that she was not ready to have to face. Even though she knew it was coming because they were now in the same town. And she had just seen his son back in the Crashdown.
“I should be leaving,” Max said softly as he could see that he was making Liz uncomfortable, and their kids were spectators of their reunion. One that was confusing Mariah and giving River the time of his life, even when it should not. I am glad my pain makes your day he thought of his son.
“No, we should” Liz was trying to convey. “We were headed home.”
“Right, you have relocated here?” Max asked as he felt it was insane how he was trying to make small talk with his ex-girlfriend. Some sixteen years after they had last spent time together. On the brink of a commitment to each other, but Liz could not handle it and therefore she had gone her own way, and away from their town. And she had not been back, according to what he knew. And if she has than I have not seen her, because no one has talked about his former girlfriend because they knew how much it would hurt him.
And he did not want to know.
“Yes,” Liz said softly. As she was still unable to comprehend how life had changed in the two weeks since she and her husband had moved their kids to this town. “We live over within the new Forrest development that was built since we were in high school,” she said in equally soft tones because this town that had the ability to bring out all kinds of memories in her, of both the happiness and the sorrow, and the angst and the joy. And now it was the pain that was overcoming everything, and she somehow had to make a life for not only herself but her daughter and son.
Who she knew would be both looking to her for guidance?
“I am glad you are here,” Max said softly. As he had wanted to say happiness but given the recent developments. He would only know those would feel hollow, and he did not want that feeling for his ex. “Roswell has missed you…”
River was watching as if his father was under a considerable amount of control in trying to deal with this meeting. Sure, he was slightly amused by the look of uncomfortableness in both his father and Mariah’s mother and yet still something along the lines of sympathy was bubbly up, and am I feeling sorry for my father? River asked himself.
He did not know. But he was beginning to think so. All these years my father’s life has been defined by this woman. And yet it is obvious until the events of the last day or so. She has been able to move on. River thought.
Dear old Dad has done anything but move on. To the peril of his life for himself and his son. How he could possibly get through the days River did not know, feeling the weight he did. And now River was feeling a tiny but of sympathy for his father because it was obvious Mariah’s mother had meant something real to his father.
The stories did not do it justice.
“Has it?” was all Liz could say because she did not know if she shared that sentiment. She had only come back here because the small town would be good for the kids. To get out of the big city, and even though they lived in the suburbs. With Mariah getting older, and Lex a few years behind her, she felt the lure of the small-town values that she had grown under. Brady had felt the same event he had grown up in Chicago because his family came from money and was in in banking and other investments, and so he had grown up under the big city sentiment. So, he was liking the idea of moving to a small town so that their kids could grow up in a safe environment.
Safe that was a laugh Liz would think. Sure, it was a small town at its heart, and had values of such. But the time she had spent here at the tail end was anything but safe she muttered to herself. Sure, Maria and her husband Michael had chosen to raise their son Mac back here Roswell, and the gossip she had heard over the years was the town was safe.
Of course, Maria was living with an alien, and her son was half of one… Liz told herself. Still Maria was up on what was going on back here, and she had indicated much of the danger had vanished once graduation had died down. So, she and Brady took the opportunity, and now she was going to have to deal with the future, alone and she had not been alone in sixteen years.
She hated being alone. But she was alone now, and she was going to have make peace with it. Despite their history, it was almost comforting to see Max staring at her once more. All concerned and wanting things to be better than they were for her. She could believe that things would be okay, once again.
Next to her, Mariah stood with an eerily sense of foreboding because she did not how River’s father was looking at her mother. She also had this sense that River knew a hell of a lot more than she did about whatever was going on between their two parents. All her life, all her fifteen years, almost sixteen years she thought. She believed her parents loved each other. Sickening so, in some ways. All her friends had told her that she was lucky that her parents looked at each other and saw what was good about the other. And did not give her or her little brother any doubts that their family was not a good one.
And now she was seeing someone who missed her mother. She had always been told she had this sense of people. She was too perceptive for her own good her mother would tell her, and now she did not want to be seeing she was seeing. She would rather go home. Any place than here she thought. “Mom,” came Mariah finally. And her voice seemed to make an impact on her mother as she flinched.
And Max instantly realized that life was different today than it had been all those years before. “We have not been formally introduced, although we saw each other at Michael and Maria’s house this morning. My name is Max Evans,” he said to Mariah as she was trying to get some of the distrust in the teenagers’ eyes away.
Distrust that was natural… It had been there at the hospital, and even at the Guerin house. It was unmistakable.
Contrasting that of what he saw in his son’s eyes, which was not natural at all and only a product of the life they had together. “I knew your mother back when we were younger, and especially when we were high school.”
Mariah nodded. Unable to know what to say or be able to say what she wanted to spew. Because she did not like the vibes of how River’s father was looking at her mother. She was protective of what her parents had shared, and she did not want anything to change even if she knew everything was changing.
Whether she wanted it to or not, “Yeah, whatever…”
Max could almost laugh because the hostility in Mariah’s eyes was what he was expecting to see given the absurdity of this moment. Contrasting that of what was in his son’s eyes.
“Since she’s not introducing herself,” Liz said as she tried to cling to some way of making this go alright. It was proof to Max that Liz had indeed moved on with life. I am on the only one stuck in the past he thought. Everyone else is moving on or found a way to, and here he was stuck on someone who had left him sixteen years before, and now had married and had children with someone that was not him. “This is my daughter, Mariah Christina Anthony?”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mariah,” Max said in pleasant tones and River was almost miffed that his father could be such a gentleman to Mariah and her mother, and yet be such the opposite at home, or when they were together. Of course, I drive it too River knew, but still he did not like the performance his father was giving.
When the reality of it was so different. Life behind the closed doors of their home was as different from this show as it can be.
“Can we go Mom?” Mariah asked as she wanted out of this night, and she was even willing to head home and deal with being in a house she did not know and was too new and did not have her father and brother in it.
“I can see you have to go,” Max said softly to Liz as Mariah finally having an enough of it, walked away and River waked after her. Which unfortunately for them, left Max, and Liz too close to each other. “I can see I make your daughter uncomfortable, and I am sorry for that,” he said to his former girlfriend.
“Everything is uncomfortable for her at the moment,” Liz said softly. “It has been since my husband, and I moved her and her brother back to this town. A town she has no memories of…” she thought of her insistence of keeping Roswell such a mystery to her children. Lex rolled with it, but Mariah seemed to be having the biggest adjustment. I guess it is natural she thought. Mariah is in high school.
High school Liz mumbled to herself. Something she had not gotten used to the fact she had a daughter who was sixteen and was the age where it had started to change for her, and she hoped her daughter would have a better transition to adult life. A lot easier ride she thought. That is the hope anyways she told herself.
Because she knew Mariah would have her own journey as she came back to real life and could see the searing eyes of the man who had changed everything for her looking at her, like she was the only woman in the world. I loved that feeling once she told herself. But I am no longer eighteen she thought as he remembered her daughter, and her recovering son.
“And one that you have too many memories of, huh?” Max asked as he could tell that for a moment there that Liz had zoned out like the memories were taking over. Memories he thought. One of the reasons why he had chosen to make his life outside of town, on the outskirts of the desert because of the memories of this town. Because he could not walk down a street or turn a corner and not have some memory of when time was good… and of a brunette. Even though until now, she had not been exactly living in this town. And had not since they were eighteen.
“You can say that” Liz said softly as she remembered her daughter who had walked away. “Now that she’s left. I really do have to get home Max,” she said softly as she was facing the reality of this night. “I know this town. She does not,” she said softly because by the time she had been a teenager. She had known every inch of this town, but her daughter did not because she was too much of a newcomer. And that now worried her because she was from this point on, a single mother.
And her daughter was grieving.
While at the same time, at the Sheriff’s department. Mac Guerin was realizing just how serious his parents were about this grounding business. Simply because it was starting right away. Instead of allowing it to stew and brew because of what was going on with his Aunt Liz. His mother’s best friend. Which was clearly not happening. Nope. Just because he had not been picked up for his underage drinking, and he had been a victim of the unfortunate crash. Yet he knew that his parents had been pissed over the chance he was taking with his safety, and not only him, but his friends Jessica and Jaime. and they were now looking for him to pay up for the fact he had used their car, and now it was totaled and a write off.
Forcing them to deal with the insurance company. Which is something his father hated to do. Dealing with any kind of authority.
So, because of what he had done. His punishment came in the form of his parents forcing him to volunteer at the same department that his grandfather worked at, as he was the town Sheriff. Until his grandfather decided enough was enough. So, on a night he almost wished he were home studying for those exams that were starting to finish up within days. Studying would be better than this…
Nope, instead of that, he was here at the Sheriff’s department. Seeing how it was being overwhelmed at the extent of the investigation into the activities of the night before. Sure, they had a preliminary diagnosis for what happened, but still, the investigation was not over, and it had taken over the department. And given that the department was small, well, it was easy for one massive crash to take over the resources of the department. And top it off, his grandfather and given Jessica the authority to be his supervisor for this evening shift.
Simply because she was doing this as a regular school credit and so she knew more, and he did not. Even though he certainly like to blur the lines, despite having a grandfather for their town Sheriff. Now, he was seeing downside of it, even though he knew he was very lucky. Really, it was only a sip of beer, and I was only holding it.
But his parents had warned him because of his status that you can only have a tiny sip, and it becomes so much more. It apparently was like that for River’s father he thought. Although according to his friend. You would not expect to know that from his father’s behavior when he was behind closed door and his son was privy to what was truly going on. It did not always take only a sip to be a jerk.
Now, Mac was paying for his lapse of judgement. And he knew the goal behind this punishment was to see how close it was, and how he had gotten lucky. As if he did not know how it could have been.
Who knows how it could have been, if any of the conditions were changed even a tiny bit but still it was boring to be sitting here and inputting arrest forms into the computer so that its cases can be transferred over to the court of the system, assuming the cases merited it? “I do not know how you like this stuff?” Mac muttered to Jessica who was sitting by him. Doing the same thing but because she had more time, she was the “senior” one and keeping an eye on. On express orders from their mutual grandfather.
Even if they shared no blood, and her mother was not married to the Sheriff’s son yet.
“It is boring but it’s the job,” Jessie conceded. “If you had pulled that stunt last night?” she muttered. “Then you could be home right now, or out with River.”
“You got in the car,” muttered Mac back. “I was being a friend to River. You saw him, and he was in no mood to drive,” he said softly as if that was truly a defense, and he knew it was not. “And it was stupid to do that other thing…”
“Drink when you are underage?” Jessica muttered.
“A tiny sip, and it’s not like I was driving,” Mac muttered as he continued to type in the information he was finding in the arrests. Not that many since this was a small town. Fortunately, Mac thought, or he might be on this job for hours. “If Armageddon had not happened, no one would have been a wiser because I can hold my drinking…”
“You have heard the lectures as well as anyone,” Jessica muttered. “A tiny sip can be all it takes for people like us,” she muttered. People of very specific brand of genetics and sure River, Mac and I are one generation off our parents she muttered. But they knew with River that he had abilities. So, all it could take is one sip… Because that has all it has taken for Uncle Max.
“I know my boundaries,” Mac muttered. “It takes more than one sip to get me into trouble,” he thought. “None of you would have had anything to worry. I knew I was driving, and River was in no shape although his mood was better after seeing Mariah, but then the worst happened” he thought.
“Which is a recipe for disaster,” Jessica muttered. “We both know nothing can happen between the two of them,” she said softly as her hunch was more and more paying off.
“Why not?” Mac asked. “It would solve your problem since you do not want your sister to go after River…”
“Jaime is still too young,” Jessica muttered. “And anyways, Kyle will not let her date until she’s older,” she smiled as she remembered the numerous conversations between her mother and Jaime’s father and if Kyle had his way, she would not be able to go out on a date either until she was older.
“How do you get around it?” Mac asked. “Are you not going out with Alan?” came Mac as he looked up, and knew Jessica was dating a whole bunch. They were now sophomores in school and since the beginning of the school year Mac had noticed how Jessie seemed to be going around with a bunch of guys, and the latest has been with Alan Pullman.
“Mom has her way with Kyle,” Jessica said with a smile. “Really Alan and I are fine, and we’re taking it slow” because Jessica sensed that Alan was more real than some of the guys she had been dating since she gotten the allowance to date. “Mom and Kyle really have nothing to worry about with me, and really Jaime is too young” she thought of her little sister. They might not be blood, but they had certainly grown up together since they were young.
“If you think so, I am not so sure Alan is the one for you” Mac muttered.
“Why do you say that?” Jessica asked with a smile as it really mattered what Mackenzie thought. She usually did not give weight to any of his feelings on the matter of her dating. You have you own string of dates she thought. As she knew Mac had let be known how he was looking to settle down and repeat history and be like his parents who had met when they were in high school and were together, to this day.
A very tight unit.
Mac felt no kinship in that. She knew he wanted to play the field. And that was certainly played out in the fact he had a string of girlfriends. River kept his toes out of the dating field all together. Claiming his need to study so he could get out of the house as soon as he had his diploma. While Jessica might be dating a whole lot, but none of them were losers, but still, none of them want it to be something more.
Except maybe for Alan. But it was too new.
“I just do not like the vibe he gives out,” Mac muttered.
“Alan is fine Mackenzie,” Jessica muttered using his given name which she knew he hated. And had gone by Mac since he was young enough to make a stick about it.
“If you say so,” Mac muttered.
“I do say so,” Jessica said with a smile. “We have known Alan since junior high. And he has been a perfect gentleman to me,”
“Whatever,” Mac muttered. “It’s only my opinion on the matter,” he said as he looked down at the computer and continued to input the assigned work, and neither communicated for the rest of their shift.
“How are you doing?” Jaime Valenti asked as she was sitting in the hospital room of Alex Anthony or Lex as he preferred to be called. Jaime had arrived not long before and while her father was visiting a friend who was in for minor procedure. Jaime was taking a chance to visit with Lex, purely as a friendly face because she knew being alone in the hospital took a lot out of a person. While she has been fortunate to stay out of the hospital. And she had been healthy for a mere mortal as Jessica tended to call her at the times. Still, she had seen in her duties here at the hospital, and knew Lex was younger than even her…
Being in the hospital as patient sucks Jaime thought because of the kids she had seen on her shifts. So, she knew they needed all the support they could get, and which is why she had chosen to it as her school credit even though she at times got the dreaded vibes from being in the hospital because of the faint memories of being four and her mother being sick, and eventually dying.
“Thank you for coming,” Lex said as it was getting boring watching television all the time and not being able to get and at least go for a walk because he had been known to be active back in his old home and even since coming to this town. As he had been looking forward to joining some teams after the holidays, and he did not need a doctor to tell him that it was very doubtful for the current season given his current condition. Mariah is known to heal quickly but not me Lex thought. But then his sister had not had any of these maladies befell her, so Lex did not know how his sister would have handle this kind of misadventure.
“No problem,” Jaime smiled “My Dad wanted to go visit a friend and given your mother and sister cannot be here all the time…”
“No, they cannot,” Lex muttered.
“I saw them at your grandparent’s restaurant,” Jaime muttered, and Lex looked surprised. “Right, you are new to this town?”
“Yeah, only two weeks” Lex said softly. While he had known his mother had come from this town and his grandparents lived here, but like Mariah, whenever on the rarest of opportunities that his mother left them back home with their father. He and Mariah had not come here to this town with her, which he knew struck Mariah strange It was strange, but Lex always figured that their mother had a reason for it.
And it was not like they could not see their grandparents, because Jeff and Nancy had come visit and Nancy a few more times than her husband. And it was always fun to tour Chicago with their grandparents.
But being here was different. Lex had thought it would be fun to live in a small town. Mariah had more doubts he knew but he had been a fan of the idea. What am I not a fan of, is being here in the hospital he thought because this was making the holidays depressing?
“I am sorry about your father,” Jaime murmured. “Losing a parent can suck.”
“Yeah,” Lex murmured. At least the pain from the injuries had been distracting him from thinking of losing his father. Worrying about his mother and big sister also took over and missing his father and letting it really hit him had taken a back seat. He knew it would hit him eventually.
“I lost my mother when I was four,” came Jaime said. “I miss her to this day…”
“You did,” Lex asked. “What from?”
“Cancer,” Jaime murmured. “I have some memories of that time, but Dad said it was pretty quick once they discovered it, but treatment did not help because I guess it was something rare,” she said softly. “At least you got to know your father longer than four years…”
“Yeah, I did,” Lex murmured. “I wish it did not happen, especially not in the way it happened” he muttered as he thought of the rumors, he had been picking up from overhearing the doctors and nurses on his case, about his father might have had a heart condition or something, and he needed to be tested for it. It scared him to think of it. Specially to hear that his sister had already been tested for it.
Just like his sister. All his life he had been hearing how he had been so much like his father while his sister took after her mother, in almost every way. So, he did not know what that meant for his sister as opposed to him. “I hear stuff…”
“What did you hear?” came Jaime asked.
“Gossip about my father,” came Lex said softly.
“What did you hear?” Jaime asked as she was happy to hear any kind of gossip. Practically living in the Crashdown and here at the hospital, plus school. You get a wealth of stuff when they do not think you are listening or have any understanding of what was being discussed. Sometimes two and two get put together she mused. Most of what she heard here she had to keep confidential. But it was always fun to hear anyway.
“My Dad had some kind of heart condition,” Lex said softly. “It was reason for the crash, and they want to test me for it because it apparently can pass along to my sister and I?” he murmured. “Because we are his kids,” he said softly as he and his sister were not aware of any suspicions regarding his sister’s paternity.
“Whoa?” Jaime murmured, stunned at the idea. “That sucks…”
“It does, does it not” Lex muttered to himself as he had not allowed it to hit him yet, because too much was going down since his accident. And it did not make sense to him because his father was always a health nut. Even more so than his mother. Sure, we did not get that healthy stuff but still he knew his father liked to exercise, and it did not make sense that he would not have known.
None of this made sense. Except he would have to learn to deal with it.
While at the same time Kyle had been visiting a friend from work who had a minor procedure and was resting comfortable. Since he did trust his fourteen-year-old not to get into some mischief after the events of the previous twenty-four hours, and with Jessica dealt with for the evening and with Isabel visiting her brother, which was a troubling event that he had not wanted to share with his fiancé.
Not like I was invited Kyle thought as he exited the room. Visiting hours was ending soon which meant he could pick up his daughter, and they could get home and Isabel would be there, and Jessica would not be too much behind them. It was the life he had always wanted, and he felt shame he could not have that life with his first wife, Teri. We tried he thought. And we did definitely try for Jaime’s sake he thought but eventually it became easier to break up, and work on being doting parents without the anxiety that was in the house. Kyle had known it from his own household when his parents were still together, and before his mother vanished from his life. Two parents sticking it out for the kid was not the answer, and so they had separated.
Unfortunately, Teri was taken from too quickly and before he knew it, was dealing with a grieving daughter.
And he found Isabel. Not that he had been looking. They ended up together, and he did not regret how lucky he had been to have this chance. Because he saw in Max, what happens when you dwell on a love that you could not get the happy ending with. No one wants to be Max he thought as he walked down the hall of the ward that he had been told his daughter would be in, visiting with Liz’s son.
It still stunned to think him how much time had elapsed since high school. Times flies he muttered to himself. It does when you have a fourteen-year-old and you were responsible for raising her, and someone who was even older in Jessica.
He was fortunate to offer the girls a happy life, which was jarring contrast to the solo life he had growing up, with just his father. And he knew his father that he had a different future for himself. Even if his father had wished he had followed the family tradition in law enforcement. Nah, not for me he told himself.
Not paying attention to where he was going, he ended up knocking into someone who had been walking towards him, with a pile of folders and they made quite the crash when they collided with each other, “Oh, sorry” Kyle was quick to say as he saw who he had crashed into, “Veronica?” came Kyle.
“Oh, it’s you Kyle” came Veronica Jackson as she spotted it was her former coach. As a former star player at West Roswell. She had been one of the star players on one of Kyle’s teams, but instead of going to university on a basketball scholarship which she had received from numerous schools. She concentrated on her studies and was working her way through medical school. And now was working her way through medical school. “I thought Jaime was fine?” she asked as she knew Kyle’s daughter had been a patient briefly the night before.
The events of the last twenty-four hours were all over their town, and this hospital. Especially since the crash had claimed a lot of damage. She had not been working the night before, as she had a rare night off for a change, and used it, and only that morning did she hear what had gone down near their park, in the heart of the downtown.
She was not surprised to hear the connection to Kyle’s family given how her parents were always saying something was happening back when years before, and it always tended to track to her old coach and his wife. It had actually been tame during those years she had been his star player. So, it surprised her to hear the rumors.
“Veronica,” Kyle said with a smile. She had been one of his players which he thought might have a future in the professional ranks, but she wanted to go to medical school and concentrated on her studies in her pursuit of a medical degree. “Jaime is fine. She’s actually visiting a patient, she met during her volunteering hours.”
“Which one,” Veronica said as she started to clean up the files that had piled onto the floor. As it was her mission to translate the records into the system, grunt work, but it helped pay for her studies. Since she had turned down those scholarships. She needed to find ways to pay for her studies, the only fashion way, lots of hard work she thought as she looked up at her old coach.
“Alex Anthony,” came Kyle as like for Liz. The name was a stab because of events that were unknown to the general public, and only to their little squad in how the name had a capacity to bring bittersweet memories, because of how good Alex Whitman had been, and how Tess had used them, and in particular him to fit her agenda.
“Oh Lex,” came Veronica with a smile. “I was in his room earlier on my shift,” she murmured. “Such a tragic case. To lose his father like that, and to have these injuries that will take a long time to get over.”
“Yes,” Kyle said with a sigh. “It’s hard for the family. Because while I do not know him or his sister well, I know their mother…”
“You used to date her, did you not?” Veronica wondered.
“How did you hear that?” Kyle asked a smile. “You were only a child back then,” he said of the drama that had taken place back in the late 90’s, and early start of the new millennium. But he knew how she would know, because of his choice of ex-girlfriends was notorious back then, after several high-profile incidents that had gotten the town to talk, and now that she had returned to town and befallen by this tragedy amid the accident the night before. As Liz had forecast, the town was a blaze once more.
“My mother talked about it when I was talking to earlier,” came Veronica said not wanting to acknowledge how Kyle’s choice of a past girlfriends was the talk of the town, or because she was the daughter of the owners of the Crashdown. Their town’s greatest source of gossip. She had certainly heard enough of it while growing up.
“Right,” Kyle said softly as he handed back the files that he had helped her pick up for the file and were going on their way when he saw a piece of paper on the floor. Oops, this must have fallen out of one of the folders he said softly as he picked it and glanced at the name and was quick to give it to Veronica. “You forgot this…”
“Oh,” Veronica said as she saw the paperwork. “Yeah, that is indeed important” she muttered as she appreciated how Kyle was not making it seem like he knew what had been on the printed page “So, I guess I better get on this…” she said as she quickly moved on, and Kyle just stared because he had seen the name of the patient, Mariah Anthony he thought. Liz’s daughter. And he had seen the blood type, since nothing else he would be able to understand, and he had recognized it as making his friend’s life overly complicated.
I have seen that blood RH factor once before Kyle thought.
In the blood of the daughter of the woman he was planning on marrying one of these days. Jessica has a very distinct blood type which makes until now, only six people who were known to be a match if she were become sick. And fortunately, we have been lucky Kyle thought of him and Isabel.
Now there was a seventh Kyle thought. It had been unmistakable he thought as he might not know his medical jargon, but he knew what it meant to have that blood type. And it was not a misprint, which any other person might think it as, and fight with the hospital to get it clarified. Nope, I know the truth.
And that meant one thing, trouble he thought as he quick to walk down the hall and walk into Liz’s son’s room. “Honey, ready to head home. Visiting hours are concluding…”
“I guess,” said Jaime Valenti murmured as she saw her father walk into the room as she had been debating favorite movies with Lex. “Lex, this is my father… “
“Nice to meet you Mr. Valenti,” came Lex.
“Nice to meet you too,” Kyle said as from the looks of Lex. He is a spitting image of his father he thought. And yet Mariah is of her mother, and someone else entirely…
Anyone would just put it on that she was a replica of her mother at an early age which it is Kyle thought. Nope, he saw other genetics at play too, and he did feel like Liz was as in the dark as everyone was of the drama. Kyle knew his ex-girlfriend. Liz would not knowingly play games with her children.
She is not Tess Kyle muttered with distain because of how he and his father had been fooled by a blonde of their past.
And yet Kyle could only see trouble coming down their way.
This was what you wrought when you were a terrible father, and his son was clearly taking too much pleasure in this. In the discomfort that he was feeling as he was coming face to face with the woman he had loved since third grade when he first glance at her on the playground as she confidently played with her best friend Maria, and all her other friends. While he was the loner. Only attached to two people in this world.
Isabel and Michael.
Then on the cusp of sixteen. His dream girl had given him a chance. And he blew it by the end of it and had to watch as she walked away. If only she had believed me when I told her in the beginning that I did not want it to go bad for us, that they only had one way of ending if they had tried and it failed. It would end…
Badly he thought now.
They had gone there, and now she was facing her years later, and they were both different. For all the wrong reasons. At least she got to be happy he thought. “Liz,” he said softly and for Liz, it was a reckoning and one that she was not ready to have to face. Even though she knew it was coming because they were now in the same town. And she had just seen his son back in the Crashdown.
“I should be leaving,” Max said softly as he could see that he was making Liz uncomfortable, and their kids were spectators of their reunion. One that was confusing Mariah and giving River the time of his life, even when it should not. I am glad my pain makes your day he thought of his son.
“No, we should” Liz was trying to convey. “We were headed home.”
“Right, you have relocated here?” Max asked as he felt it was insane how he was trying to make small talk with his ex-girlfriend. Some sixteen years after they had last spent time together. On the brink of a commitment to each other, but Liz could not handle it and therefore she had gone her own way, and away from their town. And she had not been back, according to what he knew. And if she has than I have not seen her, because no one has talked about his former girlfriend because they knew how much it would hurt him.
And he did not want to know.
“Yes,” Liz said softly. As she was still unable to comprehend how life had changed in the two weeks since she and her husband had moved their kids to this town. “We live over within the new Forrest development that was built since we were in high school,” she said in equally soft tones because this town that had the ability to bring out all kinds of memories in her, of both the happiness and the sorrow, and the angst and the joy. And now it was the pain that was overcoming everything, and she somehow had to make a life for not only herself but her daughter and son.
Who she knew would be both looking to her for guidance?
“I am glad you are here,” Max said softly. As he had wanted to say happiness but given the recent developments. He would only know those would feel hollow, and he did not want that feeling for his ex. “Roswell has missed you…”
River was watching as if his father was under a considerable amount of control in trying to deal with this meeting. Sure, he was slightly amused by the look of uncomfortableness in both his father and Mariah’s mother and yet still something along the lines of sympathy was bubbly up, and am I feeling sorry for my father? River asked himself.
He did not know. But he was beginning to think so. All these years my father’s life has been defined by this woman. And yet it is obvious until the events of the last day or so. She has been able to move on. River thought.
Dear old Dad has done anything but move on. To the peril of his life for himself and his son. How he could possibly get through the days River did not know, feeling the weight he did. And now River was feeling a tiny but of sympathy for his father because it was obvious Mariah’s mother had meant something real to his father.
The stories did not do it justice.
“Has it?” was all Liz could say because she did not know if she shared that sentiment. She had only come back here because the small town would be good for the kids. To get out of the big city, and even though they lived in the suburbs. With Mariah getting older, and Lex a few years behind her, she felt the lure of the small-town values that she had grown under. Brady had felt the same event he had grown up in Chicago because his family came from money and was in in banking and other investments, and so he had grown up under the big city sentiment. So, he was liking the idea of moving to a small town so that their kids could grow up in a safe environment.
Safe that was a laugh Liz would think. Sure, it was a small town at its heart, and had values of such. But the time she had spent here at the tail end was anything but safe she muttered to herself. Sure, Maria and her husband Michael had chosen to raise their son Mac back here Roswell, and the gossip she had heard over the years was the town was safe.
Of course, Maria was living with an alien, and her son was half of one… Liz told herself. Still Maria was up on what was going on back here, and she had indicated much of the danger had vanished once graduation had died down. So, she and Brady took the opportunity, and now she was going to have to deal with the future, alone and she had not been alone in sixteen years.
She hated being alone. But she was alone now, and she was going to have make peace with it. Despite their history, it was almost comforting to see Max staring at her once more. All concerned and wanting things to be better than they were for her. She could believe that things would be okay, once again.
Next to her, Mariah stood with an eerily sense of foreboding because she did not how River’s father was looking at her mother. She also had this sense that River knew a hell of a lot more than she did about whatever was going on between their two parents. All her life, all her fifteen years, almost sixteen years she thought. She believed her parents loved each other. Sickening so, in some ways. All her friends had told her that she was lucky that her parents looked at each other and saw what was good about the other. And did not give her or her little brother any doubts that their family was not a good one.
And now she was seeing someone who missed her mother. She had always been told she had this sense of people. She was too perceptive for her own good her mother would tell her, and now she did not want to be seeing she was seeing. She would rather go home. Any place than here she thought. “Mom,” came Mariah finally. And her voice seemed to make an impact on her mother as she flinched.
And Max instantly realized that life was different today than it had been all those years before. “We have not been formally introduced, although we saw each other at Michael and Maria’s house this morning. My name is Max Evans,” he said to Mariah as she was trying to get some of the distrust in the teenagers’ eyes away.
Distrust that was natural… It had been there at the hospital, and even at the Guerin house. It was unmistakable.
Contrasting that of what he saw in his son’s eyes, which was not natural at all and only a product of the life they had together. “I knew your mother back when we were younger, and especially when we were high school.”
Mariah nodded. Unable to know what to say or be able to say what she wanted to spew. Because she did not like the vibes of how River’s father was looking at her mother. She was protective of what her parents had shared, and she did not want anything to change even if she knew everything was changing.
Whether she wanted it to or not, “Yeah, whatever…”
Max could almost laugh because the hostility in Mariah’s eyes was what he was expecting to see given the absurdity of this moment. Contrasting that of what was in his son’s eyes.
“Since she’s not introducing herself,” Liz said as she tried to cling to some way of making this go alright. It was proof to Max that Liz had indeed moved on with life. I am on the only one stuck in the past he thought. Everyone else is moving on or found a way to, and here he was stuck on someone who had left him sixteen years before, and now had married and had children with someone that was not him. “This is my daughter, Mariah Christina Anthony?”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mariah,” Max said in pleasant tones and River was almost miffed that his father could be such a gentleman to Mariah and her mother, and yet be such the opposite at home, or when they were together. Of course, I drive it too River knew, but still he did not like the performance his father was giving.
When the reality of it was so different. Life behind the closed doors of their home was as different from this show as it can be.
“Can we go Mom?” Mariah asked as she wanted out of this night, and she was even willing to head home and deal with being in a house she did not know and was too new and did not have her father and brother in it.
“I can see you have to go,” Max said softly to Liz as Mariah finally having an enough of it, walked away and River waked after her. Which unfortunately for them, left Max, and Liz too close to each other. “I can see I make your daughter uncomfortable, and I am sorry for that,” he said to his former girlfriend.
“Everything is uncomfortable for her at the moment,” Liz said softly. “It has been since my husband, and I moved her and her brother back to this town. A town she has no memories of…” she thought of her insistence of keeping Roswell such a mystery to her children. Lex rolled with it, but Mariah seemed to be having the biggest adjustment. I guess it is natural she thought. Mariah is in high school.
High school Liz mumbled to herself. Something she had not gotten used to the fact she had a daughter who was sixteen and was the age where it had started to change for her, and she hoped her daughter would have a better transition to adult life. A lot easier ride she thought. That is the hope anyways she told herself.
Because she knew Mariah would have her own journey as she came back to real life and could see the searing eyes of the man who had changed everything for her looking at her, like she was the only woman in the world. I loved that feeling once she told herself. But I am no longer eighteen she thought as he remembered her daughter, and her recovering son.
“And one that you have too many memories of, huh?” Max asked as he could tell that for a moment there that Liz had zoned out like the memories were taking over. Memories he thought. One of the reasons why he had chosen to make his life outside of town, on the outskirts of the desert because of the memories of this town. Because he could not walk down a street or turn a corner and not have some memory of when time was good… and of a brunette. Even though until now, she had not been exactly living in this town. And had not since they were eighteen.
“You can say that” Liz said softly as she remembered her daughter who had walked away. “Now that she’s left. I really do have to get home Max,” she said softly as she was facing the reality of this night. “I know this town. She does not,” she said softly because by the time she had been a teenager. She had known every inch of this town, but her daughter did not because she was too much of a newcomer. And that now worried her because she was from this point on, a single mother.
And her daughter was grieving.
*
While at the same time, at the Sheriff’s department. Mac Guerin was realizing just how serious his parents were about this grounding business. Simply because it was starting right away. Instead of allowing it to stew and brew because of what was going on with his Aunt Liz. His mother’s best friend. Which was clearly not happening. Nope. Just because he had not been picked up for his underage drinking, and he had been a victim of the unfortunate crash. Yet he knew that his parents had been pissed over the chance he was taking with his safety, and not only him, but his friends Jessica and Jaime. and they were now looking for him to pay up for the fact he had used their car, and now it was totaled and a write off.
Forcing them to deal with the insurance company. Which is something his father hated to do. Dealing with any kind of authority.
So, because of what he had done. His punishment came in the form of his parents forcing him to volunteer at the same department that his grandfather worked at, as he was the town Sheriff. Until his grandfather decided enough was enough. So, on a night he almost wished he were home studying for those exams that were starting to finish up within days. Studying would be better than this…
Nope, instead of that, he was here at the Sheriff’s department. Seeing how it was being overwhelmed at the extent of the investigation into the activities of the night before. Sure, they had a preliminary diagnosis for what happened, but still, the investigation was not over, and it had taken over the department. And given that the department was small, well, it was easy for one massive crash to take over the resources of the department. And top it off, his grandfather and given Jessica the authority to be his supervisor for this evening shift.
Simply because she was doing this as a regular school credit and so she knew more, and he did not. Even though he certainly like to blur the lines, despite having a grandfather for their town Sheriff. Now, he was seeing downside of it, even though he knew he was very lucky. Really, it was only a sip of beer, and I was only holding it.
But his parents had warned him because of his status that you can only have a tiny sip, and it becomes so much more. It apparently was like that for River’s father he thought. Although according to his friend. You would not expect to know that from his father’s behavior when he was behind closed door and his son was privy to what was truly going on. It did not always take only a sip to be a jerk.
Now, Mac was paying for his lapse of judgement. And he knew the goal behind this punishment was to see how close it was, and how he had gotten lucky. As if he did not know how it could have been.
Who knows how it could have been, if any of the conditions were changed even a tiny bit but still it was boring to be sitting here and inputting arrest forms into the computer so that its cases can be transferred over to the court of the system, assuming the cases merited it? “I do not know how you like this stuff?” Mac muttered to Jessica who was sitting by him. Doing the same thing but because she had more time, she was the “senior” one and keeping an eye on. On express orders from their mutual grandfather.
Even if they shared no blood, and her mother was not married to the Sheriff’s son yet.
“It is boring but it’s the job,” Jessie conceded. “If you had pulled that stunt last night?” she muttered. “Then you could be home right now, or out with River.”
“You got in the car,” muttered Mac back. “I was being a friend to River. You saw him, and he was in no mood to drive,” he said softly as if that was truly a defense, and he knew it was not. “And it was stupid to do that other thing…”
“Drink when you are underage?” Jessica muttered.
“A tiny sip, and it’s not like I was driving,” Mac muttered as he continued to type in the information he was finding in the arrests. Not that many since this was a small town. Fortunately, Mac thought, or he might be on this job for hours. “If Armageddon had not happened, no one would have been a wiser because I can hold my drinking…”
“You have heard the lectures as well as anyone,” Jessica muttered. “A tiny sip can be all it takes for people like us,” she muttered. People of very specific brand of genetics and sure River, Mac and I are one generation off our parents she muttered. But they knew with River that he had abilities. So, all it could take is one sip… Because that has all it has taken for Uncle Max.
“I know my boundaries,” Mac muttered. “It takes more than one sip to get me into trouble,” he thought. “None of you would have had anything to worry. I knew I was driving, and River was in no shape although his mood was better after seeing Mariah, but then the worst happened” he thought.
“Which is a recipe for disaster,” Jessica muttered. “We both know nothing can happen between the two of them,” she said softly as her hunch was more and more paying off.
“Why not?” Mac asked. “It would solve your problem since you do not want your sister to go after River…”
“Jaime is still too young,” Jessica muttered. “And anyways, Kyle will not let her date until she’s older,” she smiled as she remembered the numerous conversations between her mother and Jaime’s father and if Kyle had his way, she would not be able to go out on a date either until she was older.
“How do you get around it?” Mac asked. “Are you not going out with Alan?” came Mac as he looked up, and knew Jessica was dating a whole bunch. They were now sophomores in school and since the beginning of the school year Mac had noticed how Jessie seemed to be going around with a bunch of guys, and the latest has been with Alan Pullman.
“Mom has her way with Kyle,” Jessica said with a smile. “Really Alan and I are fine, and we’re taking it slow” because Jessica sensed that Alan was more real than some of the guys she had been dating since she gotten the allowance to date. “Mom and Kyle really have nothing to worry about with me, and really Jaime is too young” she thought of her little sister. They might not be blood, but they had certainly grown up together since they were young.
“If you think so, I am not so sure Alan is the one for you” Mac muttered.
“Why do you say that?” Jessica asked with a smile as it really mattered what Mackenzie thought. She usually did not give weight to any of his feelings on the matter of her dating. You have you own string of dates she thought. As she knew Mac had let be known how he was looking to settle down and repeat history and be like his parents who had met when they were in high school and were together, to this day.
A very tight unit.
Mac felt no kinship in that. She knew he wanted to play the field. And that was certainly played out in the fact he had a string of girlfriends. River kept his toes out of the dating field all together. Claiming his need to study so he could get out of the house as soon as he had his diploma. While Jessica might be dating a whole lot, but none of them were losers, but still, none of them want it to be something more.
Except maybe for Alan. But it was too new.
“I just do not like the vibe he gives out,” Mac muttered.
“Alan is fine Mackenzie,” Jessica muttered using his given name which she knew he hated. And had gone by Mac since he was young enough to make a stick about it.
“If you say so,” Mac muttered.
“I do say so,” Jessica said with a smile. “We have known Alan since junior high. And he has been a perfect gentleman to me,”
“Whatever,” Mac muttered. “It’s only my opinion on the matter,” he said as he looked down at the computer and continued to input the assigned work, and neither communicated for the rest of their shift.
*
“How are you doing?” Jaime Valenti asked as she was sitting in the hospital room of Alex Anthony or Lex as he preferred to be called. Jaime had arrived not long before and while her father was visiting a friend who was in for minor procedure. Jaime was taking a chance to visit with Lex, purely as a friendly face because she knew being alone in the hospital took a lot out of a person. While she has been fortunate to stay out of the hospital. And she had been healthy for a mere mortal as Jessica tended to call her at the times. Still, she had seen in her duties here at the hospital, and knew Lex was younger than even her…
Being in the hospital as patient sucks Jaime thought because of the kids she had seen on her shifts. So, she knew they needed all the support they could get, and which is why she had chosen to it as her school credit even though she at times got the dreaded vibes from being in the hospital because of the faint memories of being four and her mother being sick, and eventually dying.
“Thank you for coming,” Lex said as it was getting boring watching television all the time and not being able to get and at least go for a walk because he had been known to be active back in his old home and even since coming to this town. As he had been looking forward to joining some teams after the holidays, and he did not need a doctor to tell him that it was very doubtful for the current season given his current condition. Mariah is known to heal quickly but not me Lex thought. But then his sister had not had any of these maladies befell her, so Lex did not know how his sister would have handle this kind of misadventure.
“No problem,” Jaime smiled “My Dad wanted to go visit a friend and given your mother and sister cannot be here all the time…”
“No, they cannot,” Lex muttered.
“I saw them at your grandparent’s restaurant,” Jaime muttered, and Lex looked surprised. “Right, you are new to this town?”
“Yeah, only two weeks” Lex said softly. While he had known his mother had come from this town and his grandparents lived here, but like Mariah, whenever on the rarest of opportunities that his mother left them back home with their father. He and Mariah had not come here to this town with her, which he knew struck Mariah strange It was strange, but Lex always figured that their mother had a reason for it.
And it was not like they could not see their grandparents, because Jeff and Nancy had come visit and Nancy a few more times than her husband. And it was always fun to tour Chicago with their grandparents.
But being here was different. Lex had thought it would be fun to live in a small town. Mariah had more doubts he knew but he had been a fan of the idea. What am I not a fan of, is being here in the hospital he thought because this was making the holidays depressing?
“I am sorry about your father,” Jaime murmured. “Losing a parent can suck.”
“Yeah,” Lex murmured. At least the pain from the injuries had been distracting him from thinking of losing his father. Worrying about his mother and big sister also took over and missing his father and letting it really hit him had taken a back seat. He knew it would hit him eventually.
“I lost my mother when I was four,” came Jaime said. “I miss her to this day…”
“You did,” Lex asked. “What from?”
“Cancer,” Jaime murmured. “I have some memories of that time, but Dad said it was pretty quick once they discovered it, but treatment did not help because I guess it was something rare,” she said softly. “At least you got to know your father longer than four years…”
“Yeah, I did,” Lex murmured. “I wish it did not happen, especially not in the way it happened” he muttered as he thought of the rumors, he had been picking up from overhearing the doctors and nurses on his case, about his father might have had a heart condition or something, and he needed to be tested for it. It scared him to think of it. Specially to hear that his sister had already been tested for it.
Just like his sister. All his life he had been hearing how he had been so much like his father while his sister took after her mother, in almost every way. So, he did not know what that meant for his sister as opposed to him. “I hear stuff…”
“What did you hear?” came Jaime asked.
“Gossip about my father,” came Lex said softly.
“What did you hear?” Jaime asked as she was happy to hear any kind of gossip. Practically living in the Crashdown and here at the hospital, plus school. You get a wealth of stuff when they do not think you are listening or have any understanding of what was being discussed. Sometimes two and two get put together she mused. Most of what she heard here she had to keep confidential. But it was always fun to hear anyway.
“My Dad had some kind of heart condition,” Lex said softly. “It was reason for the crash, and they want to test me for it because it apparently can pass along to my sister and I?” he murmured. “Because we are his kids,” he said softly as he and his sister were not aware of any suspicions regarding his sister’s paternity.
“Whoa?” Jaime murmured, stunned at the idea. “That sucks…”
“It does, does it not” Lex muttered to himself as he had not allowed it to hit him yet, because too much was going down since his accident. And it did not make sense to him because his father was always a health nut. Even more so than his mother. Sure, we did not get that healthy stuff but still he knew his father liked to exercise, and it did not make sense that he would not have known.
None of this made sense. Except he would have to learn to deal with it.
*
While at the same time Kyle had been visiting a friend from work who had a minor procedure and was resting comfortable. Since he did trust his fourteen-year-old not to get into some mischief after the events of the previous twenty-four hours, and with Jessica dealt with for the evening and with Isabel visiting her brother, which was a troubling event that he had not wanted to share with his fiancé.
Not like I was invited Kyle thought as he exited the room. Visiting hours was ending soon which meant he could pick up his daughter, and they could get home and Isabel would be there, and Jessica would not be too much behind them. It was the life he had always wanted, and he felt shame he could not have that life with his first wife, Teri. We tried he thought. And we did definitely try for Jaime’s sake he thought but eventually it became easier to break up, and work on being doting parents without the anxiety that was in the house. Kyle had known it from his own household when his parents were still together, and before his mother vanished from his life. Two parents sticking it out for the kid was not the answer, and so they had separated.
Unfortunately, Teri was taken from too quickly and before he knew it, was dealing with a grieving daughter.
And he found Isabel. Not that he had been looking. They ended up together, and he did not regret how lucky he had been to have this chance. Because he saw in Max, what happens when you dwell on a love that you could not get the happy ending with. No one wants to be Max he thought as he walked down the hall of the ward that he had been told his daughter would be in, visiting with Liz’s son.
It still stunned to think him how much time had elapsed since high school. Times flies he muttered to himself. It does when you have a fourteen-year-old and you were responsible for raising her, and someone who was even older in Jessica.
He was fortunate to offer the girls a happy life, which was jarring contrast to the solo life he had growing up, with just his father. And he knew his father that he had a different future for himself. Even if his father had wished he had followed the family tradition in law enforcement. Nah, not for me he told himself.
Not paying attention to where he was going, he ended up knocking into someone who had been walking towards him, with a pile of folders and they made quite the crash when they collided with each other, “Oh, sorry” Kyle was quick to say as he saw who he had crashed into, “Veronica?” came Kyle.
“Oh, it’s you Kyle” came Veronica Jackson as she spotted it was her former coach. As a former star player at West Roswell. She had been one of the star players on one of Kyle’s teams, but instead of going to university on a basketball scholarship which she had received from numerous schools. She concentrated on her studies and was working her way through medical school. And now was working her way through medical school. “I thought Jaime was fine?” she asked as she knew Kyle’s daughter had been a patient briefly the night before.
The events of the last twenty-four hours were all over their town, and this hospital. Especially since the crash had claimed a lot of damage. She had not been working the night before, as she had a rare night off for a change, and used it, and only that morning did she hear what had gone down near their park, in the heart of the downtown.
She was not surprised to hear the connection to Kyle’s family given how her parents were always saying something was happening back when years before, and it always tended to track to her old coach and his wife. It had actually been tame during those years she had been his star player. So, it surprised her to hear the rumors.
“Veronica,” Kyle said with a smile. She had been one of his players which he thought might have a future in the professional ranks, but she wanted to go to medical school and concentrated on her studies in her pursuit of a medical degree. “Jaime is fine. She’s actually visiting a patient, she met during her volunteering hours.”
“Which one,” Veronica said as she started to clean up the files that had piled onto the floor. As it was her mission to translate the records into the system, grunt work, but it helped pay for her studies. Since she had turned down those scholarships. She needed to find ways to pay for her studies, the only fashion way, lots of hard work she thought as she looked up at her old coach.
“Alex Anthony,” came Kyle as like for Liz. The name was a stab because of events that were unknown to the general public, and only to their little squad in how the name had a capacity to bring bittersweet memories, because of how good Alex Whitman had been, and how Tess had used them, and in particular him to fit her agenda.
“Oh Lex,” came Veronica with a smile. “I was in his room earlier on my shift,” she murmured. “Such a tragic case. To lose his father like that, and to have these injuries that will take a long time to get over.”
“Yes,” Kyle said with a sigh. “It’s hard for the family. Because while I do not know him or his sister well, I know their mother…”
“You used to date her, did you not?” Veronica wondered.
“How did you hear that?” Kyle asked a smile. “You were only a child back then,” he said of the drama that had taken place back in the late 90’s, and early start of the new millennium. But he knew how she would know, because of his choice of ex-girlfriends was notorious back then, after several high-profile incidents that had gotten the town to talk, and now that she had returned to town and befallen by this tragedy amid the accident the night before. As Liz had forecast, the town was a blaze once more.
“My mother talked about it when I was talking to earlier,” came Veronica said not wanting to acknowledge how Kyle’s choice of a past girlfriends was the talk of the town, or because she was the daughter of the owners of the Crashdown. Their town’s greatest source of gossip. She had certainly heard enough of it while growing up.
“Right,” Kyle said softly as he handed back the files that he had helped her pick up for the file and were going on their way when he saw a piece of paper on the floor. Oops, this must have fallen out of one of the folders he said softly as he picked it and glanced at the name and was quick to give it to Veronica. “You forgot this…”
“Oh,” Veronica said as she saw the paperwork. “Yeah, that is indeed important” she muttered as she appreciated how Kyle was not making it seem like he knew what had been on the printed page “So, I guess I better get on this…” she said as she quickly moved on, and Kyle just stared because he had seen the name of the patient, Mariah Anthony he thought. Liz’s daughter. And he had seen the blood type, since nothing else he would be able to understand, and he had recognized it as making his friend’s life overly complicated.
I have seen that blood RH factor once before Kyle thought.
In the blood of the daughter of the woman he was planning on marrying one of these days. Jessica has a very distinct blood type which makes until now, only six people who were known to be a match if she were become sick. And fortunately, we have been lucky Kyle thought of him and Isabel.
Now there was a seventh Kyle thought. It had been unmistakable he thought as he might not know his medical jargon, but he knew what it meant to have that blood type. And it was not a misprint, which any other person might think it as, and fight with the hospital to get it clarified. Nope, I know the truth.
And that meant one thing, trouble he thought as he quick to walk down the hall and walk into Liz’s son’s room. “Honey, ready to head home. Visiting hours are concluding…”
“I guess,” said Jaime Valenti murmured as she saw her father walk into the room as she had been debating favorite movies with Lex. “Lex, this is my father… “
“Nice to meet you Mr. Valenti,” came Lex.
“Nice to meet you too,” Kyle said as from the looks of Lex. He is a spitting image of his father he thought. And yet Mariah is of her mother, and someone else entirely…
Anyone would just put it on that she was a replica of her mother at an early age which it is Kyle thought. Nope, he saw other genetics at play too, and he did feel like Liz was as in the dark as everyone was of the drama. Kyle knew his ex-girlfriend. Liz would not knowingly play games with her children.
She is not Tess Kyle muttered with distain because of how he and his father had been fooled by a blonde of their past.
And yet Kyle could only see trouble coming down their way.
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keepsmiling7
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 2649
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:34 pm
Re: Til We Meet Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 10 - 02/05/2022
No, Liz will never be like Tess. Never ever!
Awkward......that was the only way to describe Max and Liz's meeting.
The testing of Liz's children for the heart disease is going to open a big can of worms.
Now I can't wait for Chapter 11, hurry back.
Awkward......that was the only way to describe Max and Liz's meeting.
The testing of Liz's children for the heart disease is going to open a big can of worms.
Now I can't wait for Chapter 11, hurry back.
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totallizfan
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 125
- Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:30 am
Re: Til We Meet Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 10 - 02/05/2022
Teat results....Kyle knows....will he tell Isabel?
Thanks for the update.
Thanks for the update.
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RoswellFan68
- Obsessed Roswellian
- Posts: 543
- Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:52 am
- Location: Charleston, WV
Re: Til We Meet Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 10 - 02/05/2022
Will he tell Liz? The news may be easier to hear from a friend that a stranger and someone she may need to work with in the future at the hospital.
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Parker1947
- Obsessed Roswellian
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- Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:34 pm
Til We Meet Again - Chapter 11 - 02/07/2022
“Thank you for coming,” came a grieving Liz as she welcomed her best friend into her new home. It was now later in the evening, and things were quiet since she and Mariah had gotten home. Once back in the house. She and her daughter had both gone to their corners. She still did not know how to be in this house. It was too new. Yet it had memories of such a short time with Brady. And how they had been with their children Mariah and Lex. She could not help but feel Brady as she walked around the house, trying to think of how it had been once, just a few days ago, before all this happened. Sure, they had only had two weeks in this house. But still the house had his memories, and his scent. And now she was worried it was going to eventually fade.
And now on top of it, well. Liz was still processing her first true encounter with her ex.
The one person who at one time mattered. At a time of great upheaval. A lot of transformation had taken place during that time, and she had moved on. Because she had too. Because she had chosen that road and she had needed it to take place.
She did not regret it.
But it did not stop her from reacting to seeing, and talking to Max. For the first time in so many years. Since the days when danger was around every corner. Which is why she had walked away. And which is why she had embraced her life with Brady, and the one they could make for their children. Now she was back in time and seeing Max and yet she could tell that life was not so kind of him.
Maria had tried to warn her, and she saw the frustration within the relationship he had with his son. The son that had torn us apart she thought. She did not regret her choice. She knew Max had to do it. She had seen how much upheaval had come when you try to hide, and you do not keep those who need your protection in your corner. Having the baby out there in the world. With two clueless parents. That would not have been the answer. So, she told her that she had made the right decision for the situation.
For the greater cause. Like Future Max told me once before which brought on the Tess era and brought unforeseen consequences that she did not even know if the future version of Max would have known was possible. She hoped not. She would not think that it was possibility his goal the whole time, to bring Tess onto the scene, and for them to lose Alex.
The original Alex.
No, she could not believe it and so now that she was in the walls of her new home. She felt alone. She hated that feeling. Which is why all those years ago. She had run into waiting arms of anyone who could give her sanity, and normalcy. And in the end, it had been Brady, and now he was gone. And so, she had needed comfort in between the calls she had to make. Which already had taken a lot out of her.
Making plans and talking to Brady’s family in Chicago took a lot out of her. All she knew she was to expect Mitch and Christina Anthony sometime the next day. They understood any funeral would have to take place in Roswell because even if Lex would be out of the hospital by then. Liz knew that her son could not be expected to leave town while he was in the tender first day’s recovery.
Which was something she would have to deal with tomorrow, calling the funeral home and starting the process. Too much to do she thought.
“Are you okay?” Maria asked as she had walked into the house and could instantly feel the weight of the tension in the house. She remembered being in her the night before and feeling the happiness, and the hope in the house, and now that had all vanished and now all there was pain and angst. She did not want that feeling for her friend. So, she wanted to be here while she let her husband pick up their misbehaving son once his shift was over at the police station.
Maria was hopeful the forced work at the station would keep Mac on the side of the law, they wanted, and not to blur the lines anymore. Sure, she knew Mac was testing his limits, and being a teenager which, was something she should be wanting but she did not want to chance losing her child.
Her only child.
“I am fine,” Liz said softly as they sat in the living room. There was now darkness outside, and darkness also coming from Mariah’s room, and she knew her daughter was in fact sleeping which was what her daughter needed.
“Are you really?” Maria asked because she had not seen her friend since those days back in high school. When Liz had tried to get away from the insanity that was swamping their small town lives. Not that she did not want excitement to happen, after all, all teenagers want something exciting to happen, but they had not been prepared for what they had encountered, and what they had willingly walked into, and what they had taken part in.
“No,” Liz agreed. “I hate being alone…” she said as she looked around. “Brady and I were so happy when we picked this place out. It was our chance to get out of the thumb of his family money. Which it was one of the reasons we had come here because we wanted a little separation. Even if we were walking right back into the hornet’s nest of my past,” she said softly. “How could god be cruel to take him after only two weeks?”
“Sometimes life has its own plans,” Maria said softly. “It did not make sense for Alex not to see his eighteenth birthday. You are going to be alright, will you not. Brady would want that for you and the kids.”
“I know,” Liz said softly. “I am trying…”
Maria nodded. “You know, you and Mariah could come and stay with Michael, Mac and me” Maria offered. “I know the ghosts of this place can be a little much even if there is so much unexplored,” she thought of all of what could be, and what had not taken place yet.
“I would love to wake up Mariah and jump at your offer” Liz said softly. “But Mitch and Christina are coming tomorrow,” she said softly of Brady’s parents. Parents she got along with, but better at a distance which is why they lived far away from them in Chicago. And taken the opportunity to come to Roswell. And now she would have to deal with her in-laws. But they were grieving together. “I need to stay here, and Mariah and I have to figure out how to go forward from this day. Brady’s parents are grieving over their loss, and because it had been so sudden, and to make things worse for them, they had not known about the heart condition so the grief is something we can share in.”
Maria murmured. “It sucks,” she agreed.
“Brady was so healthy,” Liz muttered.
“Sometimes it is like that,” Maria agreed. “Unfortunately, I have a husband and a son who are abnormally healthy, that it’s scary sometimes. If something strikes, I know it can be dealt with in some fashion, but then there are my own worries that something like what happened in high school will happen to Michael or even my son because he is so new to this world. And we do not how to help them, and while we have a healing safeguard in Max. Still, Max is unable to heal everything,” she whispered as she thought of the times where Max good was not enough, or just was not in time to be able to help. “We have gotten lucky, but sometimes luck is something that is not there.”
“No, it is not” Liz sighed as she thought of all Max could do. And yet even his abilities had a wall that you could not penetrate despite all your mite,” she though. She might curse the fact Brady was not like Max. In that Max likely would not have a mysterious heart ailment that only shows up in sudden death, but Max had all kinds of burdens a mere mortal like her husband did not have to worry about, and neither did she even though she did have a few abilities here and there she thought. She knew she might have gotten her daughter an eye full earlier in her childhood bedroom. Neither said anything, but she knew her daughter was bright enough to notice things when they were not normal.
She largely did not do anything with her abilities because she had not wanted to acknowledge that she was different. That she was marked. That she could not leave town, and not be someone else. She had tried. And a large part of her had been successful in that Brady knew she had quirks. But she had used her brains, and her smarts to get here where she was today. Not my powers she though. Although she did not deny there were times a little blast here or there, or a pull of strength was beneficial, but she had wanted to be the normal girl who she had left town to be.
Otherwise, she would have stayed in Roswell.
I would have stayed with Max she thought. Although she knew there were reasons why she had not stayed with Max. She could overlook the abilities and try to chase them out of her mind. But it was a tiny baby who was the reason why she got out of dodge, and had not come back, until now. She did not know if she could have overlooked the baby.
She knew, she had not been able to, so she ended their engagement and was gone, and found her normal. Although their parting had been intense. She still had memories of it. But Brady had allowed her to move on, and then the birth of Mariah had allowed her to fully embrace the new life she was creating for herself. Lex would join them a few years later…
Her life did not have to be about Max. And yet why was he still in my mind? she wondered. My husband is dead. I love my husband. I love our life together. I was able to move on and yet walking back into Roswell had brought back the past.
Maria seemed to have an ability to read her mind she did not even get powers she thought. She might have given birth to one of them, but she had been lucky to be normal. So, why did she have the power to see through me, she asked herself. But Maria did, as she could only sigh as she wished it were easier for her friend, but she was curious, and she needed to know for the sake of knowing because she knew how bad off, he was “So, how was it to see Max?” she asked because Liz had been upfront about how she and Mariah had run into River and Max.
Once she knew this. Maria did not have to be a genius to know how it might have sent Max off into another world. But she was not dealing with Max tonight. She was dealing with her best friend.
“It was like these sixteen years have not happened?” Liz muttered in a degree of honestly. “But it was awkward. And we were never about being awkward together. It always made sense, although there were of course times where we were, yet even when we did have those moments. It always made sense to talk to him again. We always made sense. Even when we should not have, and now it is years later, and we are different today than we were at eighteen.”
“We all are,” Maria confirmed.
“River is not a baby anymore,” Liz said as she thought of the boy that was no longer a baby under a different name Zan she thought of the boy who was taking very much like his birth mother, and yet he had the essence of Max for her to know that there was no miscarriage of justice in the determination of paternity.
“No, he is not. River is a junior in high school. Looking very much at graduation so he can flee this town” Maria confirmed the sentiment within the family of River’s long-range plans. While her own son liked to blur the lines. River was someone else, all together. The opposite of both of his birth parents. Because he had plans, and goals to get out of this town, and to move on, and further his education somewhere that was no even ten miles from where his father lives.
Maria hoped father and son could make up one day, but she knew that River had a reason for the estrangement, because it was hard to sympathize with Max on this issue even if Maria had many raging feelings regarding the boy’s birth mother. River is not Tess she thought. Thank God, she told herself.
“Why are things so difficult between him and Max?” Liz asked, as she was looking for something to divert herself from feeling the overwhelming grief for Brady and the worry about how tomorrow will go with her in-laws.
“Because Max was a different person once you moved out of town to go to Northwestern, and then word came back that you met someone else…” Maria said softly. And married him barely six months after leaving this town “He might have had a baby at home, Zan whom he quickly renamed River to try to get away from the memories. But the memories could not completely go away because whenever he would look River, rightfully or wrongfully, he saw that he had driven you away. By his decision to keep his son.”
“Oh god,” Liz whispered.
“Max has been torturing himself. We all have been able to move on from those days. But Max has been stewing in it, and eventually it did damage to him and River, and therefore River is looking for the day when he can leave this town behind” she thought. “Although Max is starting to wake up to the fact that he is risking a lot with his son, but it’s hard to change your ways.”
“Can anything help them?” Liz asked.
“Who knows,” Maria muttered. “Both will have to want to fix it,” she thought.
Did Max want to fix it? On one level he did but his son was not on the same page. And even ten minutes in his parent’s place told him about the tension between him and his son was getting a little thick, and finally Max decided to walk away. Leave. Instead of going home to freezing atmosphere in their house. He decided to go over the Guerin household. Despite his mother’s pleas for her to stay, “It’s alright Mom,” Max had said before leaving and heading across town.
“Good riddance,” River muttered as he watched stone faced as his father left the house, and how it was making his grandmother unhappy.
“You should be trying with your father,” Diane Evans muttered to her only grandson. “It’s obviously he’s trying in his own way, but you have to play your part?”
He has you snowed River thought and wisely chose not to say to his grandmother because it had been acknowledged by much of the family that out of his grandparents. Diane Evans wanted to think the best of her son. And rarely saw his faults for what they were and were showing them to be. Phillip wanted to think the best, but he did acknowledge that his son was not the boy he had been as a kid, or the teenager he had. Although he had some depressive states he thought. And there was that time in high school, when life got too much and they had nearly lost their son to prison, and they had not known what was going on with their son because he was a different person Phillip thought as he watched as his wife and grandson had it out about his father.
But even then, Phillip knew his son was human compared to what he had been like these past years. Ever since Liz had walked out on him. For keeping his son.
Ever since, the state of his son’s behavior was linked back to Liz Parker Phillip thought not with malice, but melancholy because of how it could have been, and how he wished his son could be that person again.
Phillip now knew Liz was back with her husband and children, even before the events of the night before. After all he was a lawyer. A little closer to retirement these days. But still he worked in the office, and he had handled the buying of Liz’s new place with her husband. Liz’s husband had been the one to approach to him because he had been aware Phillip had been his wife’s attorney for a time and did that kind of law, as opposed to criminal law.
So, Phillip had known, but did not tell his son because he had not wanted to set him off. Any more than he was now, and now he sat as River was not giving his son an inch. Phillip was mostly on his grandson’s side even though he was aware of how it was hard for his son. But his son had a tendency not to wake up, until he was forced.
“Why should I be nice to him, when he barely wants me around him” River said to his parents. “Especially since I know I lost him his fiancé,” he said with a coldness in his eyes. “I am why my father does not have the perfect wife and children anymore, and she moved on, away from him, and has someone else’s kids.”
“Oh River,” Phillip muttered. “You cannot put that all on yourself.”
“Can’t I?” River asked. “Dad does,” he said. “Just because he might have opened his eyes because of last night, and the fact he now knows his ex is back in town. He lives to torment himself, so why do I want that in my life?” he asked. “Let me just live my life, do my time, and get out of here when I graduate.”
“Oh, River” Diane thought. She was not as oblivious as her husband and daughter might think of her. She knew her son was a different person, and it was because of one person, primarily, she told herself. She knew her son was not the little boy he once was. Silent, inside himself too much, and lonely except for his bond with his sister, which she had penned to the fact they had been abandoned in the wilderness of the New Mexico desert, and then found a friend in another outsider, Michael Guerin. Still, there was something special about her son. From that very first day when she and Phillip rescued the boy and the girl they had found wondering at the side of the road, and eventually would become their parents. Max was inside himself, guarded while Isabel was always out going, and trying to be inside some gathering or another. She was willing to go out into the world. While he was content to live his life. And not put himself out there. And that is what drew her to him and wanted to protect him.
Her husband and daughter would think it was because Max was her favorite. No, Diane thought. She and her daughter might clash at times and were different personalities despite her daughter’s wish to settle down which was different than the personality she put out there in the world. I do not have a favorite child, when I am happy to have children at all she thought. She and Phillip were lucky they knew.
When they knew not every child was that lucky because of the life she had witnessed befell her children’s best friend. Michael was out in the world too early. Because of the father he had been unlucky to be paired off when he was found wondering not that long after her own children. She and her husband clashed over the years with Michael, but they thought of him as family, and were happy that Michael was happy with Maria and their son.
They only wished their own son could be happy. She was not happy to know how distant her son had grown over the years, and how his relationship with his son was on one hand, combative, and on the other hand, it was non-existent. She did not like knowing her grandson was counting down the days until graduation so he could leave their town.
“Diane,” Phillip said with a sigh as their grandson had enough and walked upstairs to the room he had when he was here. His father’s old bedroom he thought because he spent too much time he knew at times. Because it was better to be out of the house. “Let him be…”
“I hate this Phillip,” thought Diane with a groan as their grandson vanished. “I want them to be closer…”
“We all do but let our son and River deal with it on their own” Phillip advised. “No one can fix what has been done to their relationship except them, and especially it is on our son to fix it,” he said with a sigh because that had been them with their own son back when he was in high school, and their relationship fractured over what they did not know Phillip thought. It had taken a lot to come back to the table, for himself and his wife, and his son. And he knew how hard it was to mend fences. But he also knew that it was possible. And River was young enough to have a lot of years left. Although his son was coming to a point where if something did not change than things might get cemented in concrete, and nothing would be able to change past a certain point.
“Yeah, I know” Diane muttered. “I wish it could all be different,” she thought. “Our son used to be so different.”
“Yes,” Phillip admitted. “But he’s still here with us, and we should be fortunate,” he said softly. “We both know how it can be, and therefore, we should leave our son’s relationship with our grandson to them to deal with, because it does nothing to get involved when it only leaves the potential for it to backfire.”
Diane nodded no one wants that she thought as she waked into the kitchen and cleaned up and made sure she stayed busy as her thoughts were with her son.
“So, you whimped out?” Michael was saying as he opened the door and saw his friend sinking in his sorry state. It was almost like a reversal replay of those days when they were younger, and he would show up on occasion for a sudden slumber party in his best friend’s home. After all his best friends, Max and his sister Isabel had the ideal home. Two parents who loved and protected them. After rescuing them on the side of the road once they had hatched from their cocoons of pods back in the chamber back in 1987. While he ended up in the foster system, and no family wanting him for longer than a short-term placement because he was not the most ideal child in those days.
Michael would admit that he made it hard for his foster families.
And then he ended up with the worst of the worst. Hank Guerin. Someone who was not fit to be a foster placement, but it was his lot in life until he got himself emancipated at sixteen and found the love of his life.
A love that he had been able to make work. All these years. Against all odds when that life should he been the one for the boy with the idyllic house with a sister, and two parents to love him. Nope, instead they had a role of reversal once more. While Michael turned into a family man for Maria and their son once he was born.
Max turned into the loner, who did not want anyone and alienated everyone who wanted to talk to him.
Yeah, a role reversal, alright Michael told himself now. “You let your son drive you out of your parents’ home without showing him you are his father, and you want to be there for him?” he was asking.
“Maybe I should not have done that,” Max conceded.
“Only maybe?” Michael asked with a laugh.
“I rather come here, and I did not want to feel his disdain for me after the night I have had, and it’s not like I wanted to stay there and see how disappointment my parents are with how I am running my life. Or how I am treating my son. Which I know is horrible so you do not have to remind me so I figured River would have a better time of it, if I took myself out of the situation,” he said. “I rather come here, unless you do not think Maria will want me here…” he asked of the life that Michael had today.
Quite the difference from the one of solitary that his friend lived in their teenage years.
“We do not turn anyone away, and especially not you or Isabel” Michael muttered as he wished life could be different. “You gave me enough shelter growing up, and I will never be able to pay back all that your family gave me, and plus, it’s one night, right, before you go home and deal with the furnace not working?”
“Right,” Max muttered.
“Then fine,” was all Michael would say. Although he would add. “We also know you have spent too much time out there by yourself, so of course I will be here for you, now…”
“Thank you,” Max said softly.
“What brought your need to get away from your son?” Michael asked.
“Liz,” Max muttered.
“Of course,” Michael muttered. Who else would bring you back to the town you have barricaded your life against, he thought? “What made tonight any different from any other since I know you have been drowning in those memories since she left town. And since she got married,” Michael asked because if Max had been bad once Liz had left town, and reality started to strike about being a single father to a baby that had driven his great love away from him. Then once word came that Liz had married. Only six months or so after leaving Roswell. Yeah, Max went dark quickly after that, and had not let up.
“I saw her tonight,” Max muttered. “And I talked to her…”
“And went off the ledge,” Michael wondered. Because that is always something that would happen to his friend when Liz, formerly Parker was involved. Nothing new there he thought. “You know it is true?”
Max knew it.
And now on top of it, well. Liz was still processing her first true encounter with her ex.
The one person who at one time mattered. At a time of great upheaval. A lot of transformation had taken place during that time, and she had moved on. Because she had too. Because she had chosen that road and she had needed it to take place.
She did not regret it.
But it did not stop her from reacting to seeing, and talking to Max. For the first time in so many years. Since the days when danger was around every corner. Which is why she had walked away. And which is why she had embraced her life with Brady, and the one they could make for their children. Now she was back in time and seeing Max and yet she could tell that life was not so kind of him.
Maria had tried to warn her, and she saw the frustration within the relationship he had with his son. The son that had torn us apart she thought. She did not regret her choice. She knew Max had to do it. She had seen how much upheaval had come when you try to hide, and you do not keep those who need your protection in your corner. Having the baby out there in the world. With two clueless parents. That would not have been the answer. So, she told her that she had made the right decision for the situation.
For the greater cause. Like Future Max told me once before which brought on the Tess era and brought unforeseen consequences that she did not even know if the future version of Max would have known was possible. She hoped not. She would not think that it was possibility his goal the whole time, to bring Tess onto the scene, and for them to lose Alex.
The original Alex.
No, she could not believe it and so now that she was in the walls of her new home. She felt alone. She hated that feeling. Which is why all those years ago. She had run into waiting arms of anyone who could give her sanity, and normalcy. And in the end, it had been Brady, and now he was gone. And so, she had needed comfort in between the calls she had to make. Which already had taken a lot out of her.
Making plans and talking to Brady’s family in Chicago took a lot out of her. All she knew she was to expect Mitch and Christina Anthony sometime the next day. They understood any funeral would have to take place in Roswell because even if Lex would be out of the hospital by then. Liz knew that her son could not be expected to leave town while he was in the tender first day’s recovery.
Which was something she would have to deal with tomorrow, calling the funeral home and starting the process. Too much to do she thought.
“Are you okay?” Maria asked as she had walked into the house and could instantly feel the weight of the tension in the house. She remembered being in her the night before and feeling the happiness, and the hope in the house, and now that had all vanished and now all there was pain and angst. She did not want that feeling for her friend. So, she wanted to be here while she let her husband pick up their misbehaving son once his shift was over at the police station.
Maria was hopeful the forced work at the station would keep Mac on the side of the law, they wanted, and not to blur the lines anymore. Sure, she knew Mac was testing his limits, and being a teenager which, was something she should be wanting but she did not want to chance losing her child.
Her only child.
“I am fine,” Liz said softly as they sat in the living room. There was now darkness outside, and darkness also coming from Mariah’s room, and she knew her daughter was in fact sleeping which was what her daughter needed.
“Are you really?” Maria asked because she had not seen her friend since those days back in high school. When Liz had tried to get away from the insanity that was swamping their small town lives. Not that she did not want excitement to happen, after all, all teenagers want something exciting to happen, but they had not been prepared for what they had encountered, and what they had willingly walked into, and what they had taken part in.
“No,” Liz agreed. “I hate being alone…” she said as she looked around. “Brady and I were so happy when we picked this place out. It was our chance to get out of the thumb of his family money. Which it was one of the reasons we had come here because we wanted a little separation. Even if we were walking right back into the hornet’s nest of my past,” she said softly. “How could god be cruel to take him after only two weeks?”
“Sometimes life has its own plans,” Maria said softly. “It did not make sense for Alex not to see his eighteenth birthday. You are going to be alright, will you not. Brady would want that for you and the kids.”
“I know,” Liz said softly. “I am trying…”
Maria nodded. “You know, you and Mariah could come and stay with Michael, Mac and me” Maria offered. “I know the ghosts of this place can be a little much even if there is so much unexplored,” she thought of all of what could be, and what had not taken place yet.
“I would love to wake up Mariah and jump at your offer” Liz said softly. “But Mitch and Christina are coming tomorrow,” she said softly of Brady’s parents. Parents she got along with, but better at a distance which is why they lived far away from them in Chicago. And taken the opportunity to come to Roswell. And now she would have to deal with her in-laws. But they were grieving together. “I need to stay here, and Mariah and I have to figure out how to go forward from this day. Brady’s parents are grieving over their loss, and because it had been so sudden, and to make things worse for them, they had not known about the heart condition so the grief is something we can share in.”
Maria murmured. “It sucks,” she agreed.
“Brady was so healthy,” Liz muttered.
“Sometimes it is like that,” Maria agreed. “Unfortunately, I have a husband and a son who are abnormally healthy, that it’s scary sometimes. If something strikes, I know it can be dealt with in some fashion, but then there are my own worries that something like what happened in high school will happen to Michael or even my son because he is so new to this world. And we do not how to help them, and while we have a healing safeguard in Max. Still, Max is unable to heal everything,” she whispered as she thought of the times where Max good was not enough, or just was not in time to be able to help. “We have gotten lucky, but sometimes luck is something that is not there.”
“No, it is not” Liz sighed as she thought of all Max could do. And yet even his abilities had a wall that you could not penetrate despite all your mite,” she though. She might curse the fact Brady was not like Max. In that Max likely would not have a mysterious heart ailment that only shows up in sudden death, but Max had all kinds of burdens a mere mortal like her husband did not have to worry about, and neither did she even though she did have a few abilities here and there she thought. She knew she might have gotten her daughter an eye full earlier in her childhood bedroom. Neither said anything, but she knew her daughter was bright enough to notice things when they were not normal.
She largely did not do anything with her abilities because she had not wanted to acknowledge that she was different. That she was marked. That she could not leave town, and not be someone else. She had tried. And a large part of her had been successful in that Brady knew she had quirks. But she had used her brains, and her smarts to get here where she was today. Not my powers she though. Although she did not deny there were times a little blast here or there, or a pull of strength was beneficial, but she had wanted to be the normal girl who she had left town to be.
Otherwise, she would have stayed in Roswell.
I would have stayed with Max she thought. Although she knew there were reasons why she had not stayed with Max. She could overlook the abilities and try to chase them out of her mind. But it was a tiny baby who was the reason why she got out of dodge, and had not come back, until now. She did not know if she could have overlooked the baby.
She knew, she had not been able to, so she ended their engagement and was gone, and found her normal. Although their parting had been intense. She still had memories of it. But Brady had allowed her to move on, and then the birth of Mariah had allowed her to fully embrace the new life she was creating for herself. Lex would join them a few years later…
Her life did not have to be about Max. And yet why was he still in my mind? she wondered. My husband is dead. I love my husband. I love our life together. I was able to move on and yet walking back into Roswell had brought back the past.
Maria seemed to have an ability to read her mind she did not even get powers she thought. She might have given birth to one of them, but she had been lucky to be normal. So, why did she have the power to see through me, she asked herself. But Maria did, as she could only sigh as she wished it were easier for her friend, but she was curious, and she needed to know for the sake of knowing because she knew how bad off, he was “So, how was it to see Max?” she asked because Liz had been upfront about how she and Mariah had run into River and Max.
Once she knew this. Maria did not have to be a genius to know how it might have sent Max off into another world. But she was not dealing with Max tonight. She was dealing with her best friend.
“It was like these sixteen years have not happened?” Liz muttered in a degree of honestly. “But it was awkward. And we were never about being awkward together. It always made sense, although there were of course times where we were, yet even when we did have those moments. It always made sense to talk to him again. We always made sense. Even when we should not have, and now it is years later, and we are different today than we were at eighteen.”
“We all are,” Maria confirmed.
“River is not a baby anymore,” Liz said as she thought of the boy that was no longer a baby under a different name Zan she thought of the boy who was taking very much like his birth mother, and yet he had the essence of Max for her to know that there was no miscarriage of justice in the determination of paternity.
“No, he is not. River is a junior in high school. Looking very much at graduation so he can flee this town” Maria confirmed the sentiment within the family of River’s long-range plans. While her own son liked to blur the lines. River was someone else, all together. The opposite of both of his birth parents. Because he had plans, and goals to get out of this town, and to move on, and further his education somewhere that was no even ten miles from where his father lives.
Maria hoped father and son could make up one day, but she knew that River had a reason for the estrangement, because it was hard to sympathize with Max on this issue even if Maria had many raging feelings regarding the boy’s birth mother. River is not Tess she thought. Thank God, she told herself.
“Why are things so difficult between him and Max?” Liz asked, as she was looking for something to divert herself from feeling the overwhelming grief for Brady and the worry about how tomorrow will go with her in-laws.
“Because Max was a different person once you moved out of town to go to Northwestern, and then word came back that you met someone else…” Maria said softly. And married him barely six months after leaving this town “He might have had a baby at home, Zan whom he quickly renamed River to try to get away from the memories. But the memories could not completely go away because whenever he would look River, rightfully or wrongfully, he saw that he had driven you away. By his decision to keep his son.”
“Oh god,” Liz whispered.
“Max has been torturing himself. We all have been able to move on from those days. But Max has been stewing in it, and eventually it did damage to him and River, and therefore River is looking for the day when he can leave this town behind” she thought. “Although Max is starting to wake up to the fact that he is risking a lot with his son, but it’s hard to change your ways.”
“Can anything help them?” Liz asked.
“Who knows,” Maria muttered. “Both will have to want to fix it,” she thought.
*
Did Max want to fix it? On one level he did but his son was not on the same page. And even ten minutes in his parent’s place told him about the tension between him and his son was getting a little thick, and finally Max decided to walk away. Leave. Instead of going home to freezing atmosphere in their house. He decided to go over the Guerin household. Despite his mother’s pleas for her to stay, “It’s alright Mom,” Max had said before leaving and heading across town.
“Good riddance,” River muttered as he watched stone faced as his father left the house, and how it was making his grandmother unhappy.
“You should be trying with your father,” Diane Evans muttered to her only grandson. “It’s obviously he’s trying in his own way, but you have to play your part?”
He has you snowed River thought and wisely chose not to say to his grandmother because it had been acknowledged by much of the family that out of his grandparents. Diane Evans wanted to think the best of her son. And rarely saw his faults for what they were and were showing them to be. Phillip wanted to think the best, but he did acknowledge that his son was not the boy he had been as a kid, or the teenager he had. Although he had some depressive states he thought. And there was that time in high school, when life got too much and they had nearly lost their son to prison, and they had not known what was going on with their son because he was a different person Phillip thought as he watched as his wife and grandson had it out about his father.
But even then, Phillip knew his son was human compared to what he had been like these past years. Ever since Liz had walked out on him. For keeping his son.
Ever since, the state of his son’s behavior was linked back to Liz Parker Phillip thought not with malice, but melancholy because of how it could have been, and how he wished his son could be that person again.
Phillip now knew Liz was back with her husband and children, even before the events of the night before. After all he was a lawyer. A little closer to retirement these days. But still he worked in the office, and he had handled the buying of Liz’s new place with her husband. Liz’s husband had been the one to approach to him because he had been aware Phillip had been his wife’s attorney for a time and did that kind of law, as opposed to criminal law.
So, Phillip had known, but did not tell his son because he had not wanted to set him off. Any more than he was now, and now he sat as River was not giving his son an inch. Phillip was mostly on his grandson’s side even though he was aware of how it was hard for his son. But his son had a tendency not to wake up, until he was forced.
“Why should I be nice to him, when he barely wants me around him” River said to his parents. “Especially since I know I lost him his fiancé,” he said with a coldness in his eyes. “I am why my father does not have the perfect wife and children anymore, and she moved on, away from him, and has someone else’s kids.”
“Oh River,” Phillip muttered. “You cannot put that all on yourself.”
“Can’t I?” River asked. “Dad does,” he said. “Just because he might have opened his eyes because of last night, and the fact he now knows his ex is back in town. He lives to torment himself, so why do I want that in my life?” he asked. “Let me just live my life, do my time, and get out of here when I graduate.”
“Oh, River” Diane thought. She was not as oblivious as her husband and daughter might think of her. She knew her son was a different person, and it was because of one person, primarily, she told herself. She knew her son was not the little boy he once was. Silent, inside himself too much, and lonely except for his bond with his sister, which she had penned to the fact they had been abandoned in the wilderness of the New Mexico desert, and then found a friend in another outsider, Michael Guerin. Still, there was something special about her son. From that very first day when she and Phillip rescued the boy and the girl they had found wondering at the side of the road, and eventually would become their parents. Max was inside himself, guarded while Isabel was always out going, and trying to be inside some gathering or another. She was willing to go out into the world. While he was content to live his life. And not put himself out there. And that is what drew her to him and wanted to protect him.
Her husband and daughter would think it was because Max was her favorite. No, Diane thought. She and her daughter might clash at times and were different personalities despite her daughter’s wish to settle down which was different than the personality she put out there in the world. I do not have a favorite child, when I am happy to have children at all she thought. She and Phillip were lucky they knew.
When they knew not every child was that lucky because of the life she had witnessed befell her children’s best friend. Michael was out in the world too early. Because of the father he had been unlucky to be paired off when he was found wondering not that long after her own children. She and her husband clashed over the years with Michael, but they thought of him as family, and were happy that Michael was happy with Maria and their son.
They only wished their own son could be happy. She was not happy to know how distant her son had grown over the years, and how his relationship with his son was on one hand, combative, and on the other hand, it was non-existent. She did not like knowing her grandson was counting down the days until graduation so he could leave their town.
“Diane,” Phillip said with a sigh as their grandson had enough and walked upstairs to the room he had when he was here. His father’s old bedroom he thought because he spent too much time he knew at times. Because it was better to be out of the house. “Let him be…”
“I hate this Phillip,” thought Diane with a groan as their grandson vanished. “I want them to be closer…”
“We all do but let our son and River deal with it on their own” Phillip advised. “No one can fix what has been done to their relationship except them, and especially it is on our son to fix it,” he said with a sigh because that had been them with their own son back when he was in high school, and their relationship fractured over what they did not know Phillip thought. It had taken a lot to come back to the table, for himself and his wife, and his son. And he knew how hard it was to mend fences. But he also knew that it was possible. And River was young enough to have a lot of years left. Although his son was coming to a point where if something did not change than things might get cemented in concrete, and nothing would be able to change past a certain point.
“Yeah, I know” Diane muttered. “I wish it could all be different,” she thought. “Our son used to be so different.”
“Yes,” Phillip admitted. “But he’s still here with us, and we should be fortunate,” he said softly. “We both know how it can be, and therefore, we should leave our son’s relationship with our grandson to them to deal with, because it does nothing to get involved when it only leaves the potential for it to backfire.”
Diane nodded no one wants that she thought as she waked into the kitchen and cleaned up and made sure she stayed busy as her thoughts were with her son.
*
“So, you whimped out?” Michael was saying as he opened the door and saw his friend sinking in his sorry state. It was almost like a reversal replay of those days when they were younger, and he would show up on occasion for a sudden slumber party in his best friend’s home. After all his best friends, Max and his sister Isabel had the ideal home. Two parents who loved and protected them. After rescuing them on the side of the road once they had hatched from their cocoons of pods back in the chamber back in 1987. While he ended up in the foster system, and no family wanting him for longer than a short-term placement because he was not the most ideal child in those days.
Michael would admit that he made it hard for his foster families.
And then he ended up with the worst of the worst. Hank Guerin. Someone who was not fit to be a foster placement, but it was his lot in life until he got himself emancipated at sixteen and found the love of his life.
A love that he had been able to make work. All these years. Against all odds when that life should he been the one for the boy with the idyllic house with a sister, and two parents to love him. Nope, instead they had a role of reversal once more. While Michael turned into a family man for Maria and their son once he was born.
Max turned into the loner, who did not want anyone and alienated everyone who wanted to talk to him.
Yeah, a role reversal, alright Michael told himself now. “You let your son drive you out of your parents’ home without showing him you are his father, and you want to be there for him?” he was asking.
“Maybe I should not have done that,” Max conceded.
“Only maybe?” Michael asked with a laugh.
“I rather come here, and I did not want to feel his disdain for me after the night I have had, and it’s not like I wanted to stay there and see how disappointment my parents are with how I am running my life. Or how I am treating my son. Which I know is horrible so you do not have to remind me so I figured River would have a better time of it, if I took myself out of the situation,” he said. “I rather come here, unless you do not think Maria will want me here…” he asked of the life that Michael had today.
Quite the difference from the one of solitary that his friend lived in their teenage years.
“We do not turn anyone away, and especially not you or Isabel” Michael muttered as he wished life could be different. “You gave me enough shelter growing up, and I will never be able to pay back all that your family gave me, and plus, it’s one night, right, before you go home and deal with the furnace not working?”
“Right,” Max muttered.
“Then fine,” was all Michael would say. Although he would add. “We also know you have spent too much time out there by yourself, so of course I will be here for you, now…”
“Thank you,” Max said softly.
“What brought your need to get away from your son?” Michael asked.
“Liz,” Max muttered.
“Of course,” Michael muttered. Who else would bring you back to the town you have barricaded your life against, he thought? “What made tonight any different from any other since I know you have been drowning in those memories since she left town. And since she got married,” Michael asked because if Max had been bad once Liz had left town, and reality started to strike about being a single father to a baby that had driven his great love away from him. Then once word came that Liz had married. Only six months or so after leaving Roswell. Yeah, Max went dark quickly after that, and had not let up.
“I saw her tonight,” Max muttered. “And I talked to her…”
“And went off the ledge,” Michael wondered. Because that is always something that would happen to his friend when Liz, formerly Parker was involved. Nothing new there he thought. “You know it is true?”
Max knew it.