I was in the dark long enough Amy thought.
Although it had taken Amy for a loop and a ride but so much had come into view when told her daughter’s boyfriend, not yet husband was an alien. Someone from outer space, not another country she thought. It would have made sense for him to come from another country, but another planet, that took some time Amy conceded as she glanced at her daughter and knew only a select few could understand this dilemma.
No matter how long it had been, well, Amy was still getting used to it. Given that she now had grandchildren in the situation.
It is crazy she thought. Crazy certainly.
“Being a parent is always having to understand at the end of the day once they grow up, or are starting too, well, you have to let them choose the route they will take.
“My son is only fifteen,” Maria muttered even though she was convinced she had seen those words coming out of her own mother’s mouth when she was that age and coming onto an alien invasion that would change her very life because her best friend was saved one of them, and literally fell in love with one of them.
Amy understood and knew that her daughter was probably thinking of her own childhood. “I had those same fears and let’s say my experience with raising you would be a lot more hair-raising than what you are currently seeing from your son. Mackenzie is being a teenager. Very normal at the end of the day she thought. “We should want that. Would you not be the one to say that you want him to be concentrating on his love life instead of some other melodrama coming from the life you two are living.
Maria smiled. “I do,” she muttered. “But it not easy.”
“I know it is not because it was not the first time I went through with you, while you were dating Michael. Someone who constantly seesawing with you, and you were never completely safe, and you were constantly making me fret over you, even when you went on a simple camping trip with Michael,” assuming that was what that was Amy said to herself and out loud. “You never were that clear with me what went on that weekend?”
“You would never have been letting me out of your sight if you knew what went on that weekend,” Maria muttered as she could not help but think that time with Laurie Depree, Tuscan and alien queen bee jellyfish sack thing and she still shivered at knowing how Michael could have died on that day due to of things, a gunshot wound. Luckily it was not serious.
Thank you, Max.
“Probably not, so I am glad you did not tell me, but I went through it once, and now you are dealing with similar emotions.”
“It was a lot of intensity, which none of us were ready for” Maria agreed. ‘I don’t want that for my son.”
‘Love, or any kind of emotion that deals with intimacy will bring intensity even if they do not go through the degree, you and his father went through, and you really cannot protect that from him. You can want something different for him, but he will tell you what he wants, and you may not like it, but you will have to accept him.”
“Or lose him?” Maria asked.
“Yes,” Amy murmured. “You gave me that choice once remember, and that had a lot more drama added to it given who we were, and you are in a different place with your son. You can look at it differently.”
“But if it were Jessica?” Maria asked. “Given our families?”
“I grant you it would be weird for Jim and me? Amy laughed. “If it were to develop into anything meaningful.”
“And if it goes bad?” Maria asked.
“They will have you guys to help them deal with it, and if there are any hurt feelings, time will allow for whatever it may come too, but you never look at the end when you are looking at something in the beginning.”
“When you are us, you have to look at the potential” Maria muttered. “Given the stakes involved.”
“Take it one day at a time,” Amy suggested. “They are only fifteen after all.”
“Yeah, maybe”
“It will all work out,” Amy murmured.
Maria nodded. “I wish Liz was back here because she has experience with teenagers. She could be of some help with me.”
“How is her trip going?” Amy asked as they were moving onto other topics.
“It seems to have helped the two of them,” Maria murmured. As she had a few calls with her friend and knew that Chicago was enlightening for both mother and son. “They are on their way back, should be back sometime tomorrow if all goes alright.”
“You will get your friend back,” Amy murmured because she knew how much her daughter had missed having her friend in her life, and how happy she had been these past months, Mac’s issues disregarded. And now she would have her friend back again. Those two were like sisters, you do not need blood to be family “How are things with you know, her and Max?”
The dreaded words, said.
“I don’t know,” Maria sighed. “Although I suspect things might be changing,” she allowed because too much was changing, she thought. Yeah, too much.
“You really think so?”
“I cannot help but too,” Maria sighed. “Nothing could ever really stopped them as teenagers, except maybe their own selves, but now, they are older and not necessarily wiser but still, you would think they might be able to figure it all out,” she said as she might have mixed feelings and complex ones at that over what had happened all those years before, but still, down deep she was still a shipper, and she still had a soft spot for the pair, and she knew how much her friend had loved Max once upon a time.
Those damn aliens she thought, as the front door opened, and her own alien walked right in the door, and she smiled. “Yeah, I cannot help but think they will figure it out. Even if they do not think they should.”
Amy smiled because she knew how happy her daughter was with Michael. Michael once upon a time had been a little wild, but down deep his passion was her daughter, and nothing got in the way of what he wanted in the end, and that was my daughter, and he has proved to be there for her and my grandson.
“Hello, Space boy,” Maria said softly as she walked and kissed her husband. “My mother was talking me down about you know our son and Jessica.”
“Was she successful?” Michael asked as he looked over at his mother-in-law, who nodded, and he smiled.
“A little,” Maria murmured I still have some issues she thought. But she felt confident it would work out.
It has too, right?
Hopefully.
*
Meanwhile,
Max also had high hopes that it would work out. Because yes, it has too, right because too much has happened for it not too, or so I hope he thought as he watched a basketball game on television. River was working, and Isabel was home dealing with her daughter hormones. And she knew Michael was probably doing the same with his son, so he was on his own tonight, and staying home. As his focus was on the game, but his mind was on a certain brunette and her mother.
And it was the mother who was on his mind as he could not get her out of his mind, like she ever has been. Not since that night in December when everything changed, and he knew he was different. Whether it ever worked out or not, he knew he was a different person now than he was, and he would have to thank Liz for coming back and how little he was treating his life, and he had been poorer for it.
She does not have to come back for me to know it was well worth it he thought. But she’s coming back, right?
Max had not talked to her since that night, and the subtle tone of her voice still rang in his mind, as he was not concentrating on the score, but on the woman who meant so much. All he wanted was for her to be happy, and he was prepared for anything to happen, all I want is for her to be back in this town he thought.
This past week has been hell he thought. How did I make it through the last sixteen years without her, if I cannot go a week without her, he wondered?
He had no idea.
But she would be back Max thought. And he wondered if they could come to finally some kind of ending.
Maybe Max thought.
As long as she is safe. I will take it. Max thought as finally he put his attention back on the television and took a sip of the beer and tried to stop thinking of her.
It was not working…
I want to see her Max thought. And while he knew all this was just typical of him, still he felt this feeling settling in on him those things were not going to be easy, if he still had hopes that it would work out, which he did even against all current evidence, and now worry was also settling in, but he did not know where it was coming from, and who he should be worried about. It is not like I am the one with the premonitions he muttered to himself. I have the ability to heal. So, I step in after whatever that will happen happens, he muttered
Yet he could not place it. It was the feeling like things were about to change, once and for all. Is it Mac and Jessica? He told himself. No, that seems simple at the end of the day. They will either try to go there, or they will not, and they will move onto someone eventually. Is it closer to home, maybe River or Mariah? Max wondered, but it did not feel like it.
Was it Liz?
And that night he was able to reassure himself that it was not his son because he came home from working acting as if everything was fine, and his son was of an age where he knew he could handle whatever if something was bothering him. And plus, when he tried to broach it with his son, his son only laughed in his face at the apparent concern “Come on Dad, everything is fine. You should not have to start worrying about me, now” River said with a smile that indicated that everything that River knew of at this point was fine. Then who was it? Max wondered as he tried to sleep, but something was keeping him, and worrying.
Am I just trying to find trouble?
He did not know.
*
Twenty-four hours later,
The night was quiet. Too quiet some might say but everything seemed to be operating as if it was a normal night, but would it stay this way. No one really knew. And Liz certainly did not because she was getting close to Roswell. They were now in New Mexico, and she could feel the change once they were in the state. She was listening to the music that her son had begun to play once they left their hotel that morning. And after long days in the car, her son had now fallen asleep. And the driving was getting to her because she wanted to get to her destination.
She was finding that she was missing the intimacy of her hometown. Sixteen years away from it, you would think I would be better away from it but only a week gone, and I am missing Roswell she thought to herself as she drove.
While her son was making his mother believe he was asleep, but he could not sleep, because his thoughts were going in different directions. He knew they would be almost there because they were taking a slightly longer route back to Roswell to give him more time to move his legs, and to get some air. Long driving is not fun.
Although Liz was not as unknowing as some might think given her abilities, still dormant mostly she muttered to herself. “You are awake, aren’t you?” she asked of her son.
“How did you know?” Lex asked of his mother.
“A mother knows,” Liz said with a smile. Because it had been obvious for a little while now that her son was truly awake. Initially he had been asleep, but that ended, and she knew when her son was willing himself to fall asleep. As she checked the clock on the dashboard and found that they were a good thirty minutes from Roswell limits, which meant soon they would be home.
Home Liz thought.
Was Roswell home?
I guess so, because Chicago sure is not as she watched has her son sat up straighter and woke up fully. If she had not known it already, because Chicago had never felt like Roswell once was, still it had been her life, where she had spent her marriage, and now it was over, and she knew over this past week a bit, that you can never go back she thought. But I am, aren’t I? she told himself. I am going home. “We are almost home.”
“Home,” Lex asked as he was echoing his mother’s debate with herself in his own reflection of that time.
“Yes,” Liz murmured.
Lex nodded, “I guess it is home,” he allowed because he indeed been feeling as if Chicago was not anymore, and Mariah and their grandparents were back in Roswell, and that had a more welcoming tone to it than being in Chicago.
Even if Mariah had been there, he doubted it would have been the same.
After all, Chicago had been about his family. His mother and father, and Mariah.
But Roswell was different. It was where is his life was now. I cannot escape it I guess he thought. Do I even want too?
Lex needed to keep thinking and he did find a silver lining he thought. I guess if I hate it, I can always leave when I graduate? he thought with a smile.
“Lex,” Liz asked.
“What?” the thirteen year old asked of his mother.
“What were you thinking of?” Liz wondered because her son was looking faraway. She hoped that her son was better off now, and it did seem like he was taking a turn but would continue once they were back in town.
“Nothing,” Lex muttered. Even though he knew he was thinking of how he could get away from Roswell one day. Who knows, it might work out he thought. Jaime is there he muttered to himself. Not that I know the school system well…
“Are you okay?” Liz asked.
“I am fine,” Lex murmured even though he knew as closer they were getting towards Roswell. The more apprehensive he was becoming when he did not even know why. After all, he did want to see his big sister.
“Are you sure,” Liz asked.
“It’s not like we can turn around if I were not” Lex muttered as if he was expecting his mother to react to it, but found no reaction, but a smile. “Everything is fine Mom, seriously, I don’t know what it is I am feeling because I do want to see Mariah, maybe it because I am nervous.”
“You would not be human if you were not nervous,” Liz said softly. “I am also nervous.”
“Why?” Lex asked. “You know Roswell.”
“Once upon a time I knew Roswell. But that was not my life for a long time. And so much has taken place in a such a short time. And therefore, so much is unknown. Life is still very uncertain, and I have to make a lot of decisions that affect not only my life but yours and certainly your sisters,” Liz murmured. “You and Mariah can be as young as you want to, but I am the adult, and I have to make sure our lives work for all of us.”
Lex nodded as they once more saw a sign that indicated they were coming closer to Roswell. “You take good care of us you know Mom,” Lex murmured.
“Thank you honey, but sometimes I do not feel like I do” Liz said softly as they continued to drive.
“I know we do not always make it easy for you,” Lex murmured. “I am sorry.”
“Honey, it’s alright, you matter to me. So does your sister, and the two of you have had a hard time of it these past few months, and I want things to be the best for both of you.”
“I wish it were easier,” Lex muttered.
“I know you do, so do I” Liz murmured with a smile. “I promise you that it will better in the end, and hopefully it will be easier once you finish up with your healing.”
Lex nodded.
“I promise you that it will be better,” Lex murmured once more and they continued to drive once more and Liz was meddling with the music station on the radio, because she and her son had been in a debate over music styles, and what her son liked in comparison to what she could stand to listen to. Being in the same car was a long battle at times, and she had one eye on the road but not really paying attention when she heard a sudden and urgent Watch out came her son’s voice.
And Liz barely had enough time to look up before they ran over something that lost them a wheel, and they crashed into the barrier, and was hanging over the hill before they knew it, then it gave away, and the car tumbled down the hill into a ravine with only screams that could be heard only to those in the car.
Because no one was around them for miles.
I hope Liz and Lex are going to be ok. Poor Lex, another accident. Maybe Max will go out for a drive and come to the rescue