Roswell Fanatics

banner by Bordersinsanity

Category: M/L; post-EotW
Summary: Max reacts to seeing Liz in bed with Kyle. Sequel to Island of Hope.
Disclaimer: The characters of Roswell are the property of Twentieth Century Fox Television and Regency Productions. All original characters and concepts are the property of the author. No profit has been made from the distribution of this work of fiction.

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Led by Faith


Max sat alone on the park bench, his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward staring at nothing. His mind replayed the image of Liz and Kyle over and over, in real time and in slow motion. He remembered exactly how Liz’s leg was exposed from underneath her red comforter, how the candlelight flickered around her face, and the sound of her laugh. A noise startled him for a moment and he turned to his left, noticing Tess standing at the corner of the bench.

“Are you okay,” she questioned while Max resumed his previous posture.

“No.”

“Can I sit down?”

“Sure.” She sat down beside him carefully, not completely on the bench. Max could feel her uncertainty and her eyes boring down on him but didn’t raise his head to look at her.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No.”

Before he knew it, he felt Tess’s hand on his shoulder, the strange sensation of reality sweeping over him. With that one act of touch, he could no longer deny what he had seen had been a horrible dream. He had seen Liz and Kyle in bed together, Liz’s naked leg wrapped in the comforter, her bare arms struggling to cover herself as he arrived on her balcony. “It was true. It really happened.”

“What really happened,” Tess questioned, and Max looked at her for the first time since she had joined him on the park bench.

“I saw Liz with Kyle.”

Tess dropped her hand from Max’s shoulder and tilted forward to look at Max. “What do you mean?”

“They were in Liz’s room, in Liz’s bed.”


“I’m sure you misunderstood,” Tess replied as she leaned backwards against the park bench. “I can’t imagine -”

“I know what I saw,” Max argued and even he recognized the quiver in his voice. He could see by the look on her face that Tess had heard it too but he quickly looked away from her before she gave any verbal indication. “I saw them…together.”

“I’m just saying, Max -”

“I know what you’re saying but I know what I saw. I saw them, Liz and Kyle, together in Liz’s bed.”

“Did you talk to her? Have you talked to Liz? I…I can’t believe I’m even suggesting it but I think you should talk to her.”

“What if I don’t want to talk to her? What if I don’t want to see her?”

“There’s something…unusual going on, Max,” Tess said with a sigh. “First, Liz tries to push us together and then you find her in bed with Kyle. Don’t you see how that doesn’t add up? Liz loves you. Why would you want the person you love to be with someone else?”

Max’s shoulders fell forward as he allowed the thought to run through him. Tess was right; there had to be some other explanation, some other reason that would push Liz to sleep with Kyle. He tried to limit his focus to Liz’s behavior during the previous week but couldn’t get the image of Liz and Kyle out of his mind. A large thud to his right caught his attention, and Max’s eyes widened as he noticed Liz sprawled on the ground, her face a mixture of surprise and horror. He stood up and was by her side almost immediately, Tess flanking him.

“Liz?”

“Liz! Are you alright,” Max reached for her and grabbed her hand to help her to her feet.

Do you know how hard it was for me to tell him that I didn't want to die for him? He's the only reason that I'm alive right now. You...you've...you gotta come up with another plan.

Please go to someone else. I...I just...I can't do this anymore.

Just 25 minutes before I came here, I held Michael in my arms...dead. Isabel died 2 weeks before that. Now you have to do this. You have to find a way. All of our lives depend on it.

How? What can I do that's gonna make you turn away from me?

I don't know.

“Oh,” Liz whispered, scrambling to her feet, her hand still firmly in Max’s grasp. “Please, Max.” She jerked her hand away from him and Max watched as she ran out of the park.

“Go after her,” Tess said in a raised whisper, Liz having disappeared beyond Main Street. He felt Tess’s hands on his back, pushing him to follow Liz.

“What?” Max turned slowly to face Tess, surprised to see compassion in her blue eyes. “What did you say?” His mind still clouded by the strange images of he with long hair talking to Liz.

“Go after her, Max. We both know you want to. You need to. Something isn’t right. Liz’s presence here alone should have told you that. Didn’t you see how she looked? Go after her, Max.”

Max stared at Tess for several seconds, a thousand thoughts rushing through his mind at once. Despite the hurt, anger and confusion bubbling to the surface, he knew he should talk to Liz, especially after the unusual flash he had just seen. He had to find out the truth; he owed himself at least that much.

* * *

He found her once again on her bed, fully clothed and in a fetal position. He could hear her cries as he stepped off the ladder onto her balcony, her window wide open. At once, his heart went out to her, replaced instantly by the underlying fear that Kyle had in some way taken advantage of her and forced himself on her. “Liz?” He bent at the waist and expertly stepped through the open window into her room, his entire focus directed at her.

“Please go away, Max,” she whimpered, and Max recoiled slightly into the shadows of her room. He had never heard Liz sound so upset or so defeated – not when Tess first arrived in Roswell and Liz confessed her fears to him; not when she had been detained at the Harding house; not when they had escaped from Pierce together by jumping off a bridge. “Please.”

“I…can’t,” he admitted as he stepped closer to her bed. She did not move, her face partially covered by her hands, and Max carefully sat on the corner of the bed. “Talk to me, Liz. Help me understand what I saw.”

“You’ll never understand,” she replied while she sat upright, pulling her legs into her chest.

“Did Kyle hurt you? Did he…force you to -”

“No.”

“Then just tell me, Liz.”

“I can’t,” she replied and Max noticed fresh tears streaming down her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away with the backs of her hands and settled against her headboard.

“I don’t understand …that flash from the park. Tell me what it means, Liz. Make me understand.”

“Why did you come here,” Liz cried, and Max almost fell off the bed at the level of her voice. “Can’t you see I’m trying to move on? I’m trying to let you go so we both can be happy.”

“Faith brought me here,” he whispered, inching closer to her. “I want to know the truth, Liz, because I don’t think what I saw in this room was real. It took a lot of faith for me to come here. I think I deserve the truth. You at least owe me that much.”

“Why are you doing this to me,” she moaned, pitching her head forward to rest on her knees. “Why?”

Max watched while her shoulders began to shake, her sorrowful sound echoing through the quiet room. He reached for her but quickly withdrew his hand as she raised her face to meet his.

“It was you.”

“What,” Max questioned, Liz’s words a mirror of the words he had said to her the night of the Crash Festival.

“You, from the future. I know, I know it sounds crazy but it’s true. He said we were together, that we were married but that Tess left Roswell and the world ended in fourteen years.”

“Liz, you aren’t making any sense. Please start over.”

“He said I had to change…the future,” she whispered. “That I had to make you fall out of love with me. That I had to make Tess stay because she was a vital piece of your existence. She’s important Max, more important to who you are than me.”

“I’m nothing without you, Liz,” Max argued, his voice low and sincere. He reached for her again, surprised to find her in his arms the next instance, her lips crashing onto his. Her hands framed his face and Max felt her tears settle against his own cheeks. Images and feelings he didn’t understand whizzed through his brain, all the while Liz remained firmly planted against his chest. Wrapping his arms around her back, he pulled her tighter to him and felt her frame shudder in response.

“Did you see,” Liz questioned, their kiss finally complete. Max threaded his fingers through her hair, brushing it away from her face. “Did you see what could happen if we’re together?”

“I need you and I don’t care about the things I saw.”

“Max -”

“That isn’t us. Those things didn’t happen to us. We make our own destiny, remember?”

“I remember,” she whispered, and with a small smile, pressed her lips to Max’s once again.