ROSWELL on PLANET-SF

Chapter Two

Max stared at his reflection in the mirror. He was still unshaven, he needed a haircut. What was it that Liz had said about his future self? He looked really hot with long hair, yeah. Decision made, he would let his hair grow out. For Liz. Everything is for Liz. The one person he gave up a kingdom for is the same person who hates him. He bowed his head, no longer able to look in the mirror, nothing was going to change. He went to the living room and collapsed on the couch, all energy spent. No sleep for two days was taking a toll on him and he could admit that. As soon as he closed his eyes, he was asleep. It was a couple of hours later that he awoke with a start to knocking on the front door. It was Liz. At first he just started a her, was he dreaming or was she really there?

"You look like shit," she said meekly.

He smiled; she was really there. He stepped aside and let her in.

"Hi." Liz sat on the couch and Max in the chair across from her. "I saw the pictures. I guess you probably know that by now, huh?"

"I figured," Max nodded. "Do you believe them?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe me now?"

"I do." She reached across and picked up his hand in her own. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you. I was scared and totally confused."

"Of course you were, you have every reason to feel that way."

"I don't understand what's going on and I hate that. You know I have to know everything." She smiled to herself. "This whole possession thing is kind of freaking me out."

"I don't understand it either. If it is...her, why? Why push us further?"

"Oh, I got that part," Liz nodded. "So if we had sex when she was here, it would be like you were screwing her, again. That would push us so far apart that we couldn't come back. Ever."

"Jesus," Max let out a deep breath. "Jesus!"

"I don't know how to fix it yet, but I'll figure it out."

"I know you will. So, does this mean we can be together again?"

"In almost every sense of the word. I love you, Max, and I can't believe that I actually thought you would do that to me." Liz kissed the top of his hand. "I know you better than that. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Just be with me."

"Until this is figured out and corrected, I don't know if it's a good idea for us to be alone. I apparently have no idea what I'm doing and you can only take so much, right?"

"I'll not let anything happen," Max promised. "I'll never do anything to jeopardize losing you again."

"Not intentionally, but did you really think that was me? Do I really act like that?"

"No, and that bothered me. The only that I was going on was that you had been talking about taking our relationship to the next level."

"I did want that, I do at some point. Not now, I'm not ready, and I'm not alone." She smiled. "God! Of all people to foray in me, it had to be her."

"This is my fault. Everything is my fault and yet, you still love me."

"Not everything."

"Yeah Liz, everything. I brought you into my life and yours has been upside down ever since."

"You brought me in your life by saving mine. I would have died that day if you wouldn't have saved me. Forever, I'll always owe you that."

"You'll never owe me anything." He moved off the chair and knelt in front of her. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged. "I love you."

"I love you, forever and always." She felt the side of his face scratching her cheek. "You look all rugged."

"You like?"

"Yeah, I do." She kissed him and backed away. "Can you tell when it's not me anymore?"

"Not really at first, sometimes not at all. But I'll know now. Our physical relationship isn't going any further until this mess is sorted out. More than a kiss, it stops."

"Right. No temptations until it's only me."

"You know, you are handling this better than Michael and I thought you would."

"I'm handling it okay. It infuriates me to think that she is doing this to us, but I won't let her win. I will never let her win and that's what's keeping me together."

"You're so strong."

"When you're in love with an alien, you have to be." She smiled and kissed his rough cheek.

* * * *

"You have been given the Granilith, a transport between this planet and Antar. You have also been given communication technology which will allow you to access information from your true home. The chamber containing your hibernation pods and the Granilith has been hidden away from human settlement. It can only be accessed by the four of you." He read aloud from the paper in his hand and turned to his companion. "Well, what do you think so far?"

"Sounds like a bunch of crap."

"Nice. Did anyone ever tell you, you have a way with words?"

"Yeah."

"So, you know the plan, right?"

"I helped come up with the plan. Do you know the plan?"

"Yes, I do." He rolled his eyes. "So in just a few short months we'll be on our way home."

"Do you think it will be like the way she said?"

"We have her guarantee, all we have to do is bring the King and the head of his bitch."

* * * *

For the duration of the school year Liz Parker poured herself into school. She would be the Salutatorian and had devastated counselors by telling them she would be attending the University of Las Cruces in the fall and not Harvard or Yale. She and Max had avoided every possible situation that would put them in a compromising position. They spent their time with friends and family and their alone time was usually at arms length. Although on many occasions, Max sensed she was slipping and pulled her back by stepping away. The Tess-isms still came from Liz's mouth at odd times, but Max never told her. Liz was determined not to let Tess win. She wasn't gone from her, but she had been put on the back burner. With school over the next day, that might prove harder than believed.

"I can't believe that we are actually graduating from high school!" Maria buzzed with excitement. "I never thought I'd make it this far." She stood in front of their lockers; her swollen belly protruding underneath the Clash T-shirt Kyle had given her for Christmas.

"I'm so proud of you." Liz hugged her. "You are amazing. You're going to pop in like what, twelve weeks? And here you are Miss Graduate!"

"I think I proved so many people wrong." She rested her hand on her belly. "I don't think anyone thought I'd finish after finding out about her."

"Girls. Girls. Girls!" Kyle Valenti approached them smiling. He looked at Maria's shirt. "I can't believe you're stretching the hell out of that shirt! Do you have any idea how much it cost me?"

"Give me a break, bro." Maria rolled her eyes. "What's the scoop?"

"Party at Nikki Meyer's tomorrow night. Anyone?"

"Pass," Maria and Liz said at the same time and laughed.

"Any other suggestions?"

"We have to work." Liz looked disappointed. "But try Max and Isabel. She's still bummed out about that Bret."

"Okey dokey. See ya." He waved, walking away.

"He can be such a strange one sometimes," Liz remarked after he was gone.

"I know." Maria had tears rolling down her face. Liz looked astonished at her. "No, I'm okay. I guess all this end of high school and getting ready to have a baby stuff is getting to me."

"Let's go." Liz grabbed her backpack. "Let's cut our last class and go hang out and talk. What do you think?"

"I'm so there, they can't fail me now!" Maria scribbled a quick vent to Michael and stuffed it through the vent of his locker and they were gone.

They drove downtown and picked Bagel Joe's and secured a private booth in the corner after getting some croissants and lattes.

"Sorry for the meltdown," Maria said. "I guess everything kind of came at me at once. I was doing really good, too."

"You've been doing great. I would have melted long before now."

"No, you wouldn't have. You're the strong one and I'm the flaky one."

"Look at how much you have going on. You're going to be a mother in a few months. You and Michael are going to be parents! God, I would be so scared."

"I am, sister. You have no idea how scared. I mean, there goes college for a while and Michael's trying to find a real job and then we might move in together and all this responsibility and my mom and everything!"

"You and Michael are really going to move in together?"

"I think so, after the baby's born. Like, way after. Liz, I need my mom to help me, to show me everything. I know nothing. I hated babysitting," Maria exclaimed. "I have no idea how to raise a baby. If it was just me and Michael I don't know who'd be left standing!"

"You know I'll do everything I can for you, I will be there for you."

"No, you won't." Maria looked down. "You're going off to school."

"Las Cruces isn't that far..." Liz looked down guiltily. "Screw it. I'm not going anywhere. Two years at Junior College here in Roswell. I'm not leaving you or anyone else."

"Oh no, that's not what I meant." Maria held her hands out to Liz. "No way. You are not sticking around here at some crappy J.C. for me. I would never forgive myself."

"I've been thinking it over, I don't want to leave. I don't want to leave anyone. It's not only you; it's everyone and everything. I'm not leaving because of me," Liz tried to reassure her friend. "I want to be here. I want to be here with you and Michael and the baby and Max. If you all want to go to Las Cruces, fine, I'll go. You guys stay here, I stay here. I've been giving this a lot of thought, I just needed to be sure before I said it out loud."

"You can't give up your dreams for us."

"I can do whatever I please, and I'm giving up anything! My future is with Max and I'll go where he goes. Until then, I'll be right here for you."

"You are the bestest friend ever!" Maria laughed. "But I know you're really only staying for Max."

"I'm staying for every reason I just told you."

"I could not ask for a better friend." Maria looked around and then spoke softer. "Michael said there have been less and less of hooker moments."

"Yeah, but that could be because Max and I hardly spend any time alone," Liz shrugged. "Can I run something by you?"

"Shoot."

"Okay. She rears her ugly head when Max and I are close. Getting intimate, right? What if there was some way to keep her at bay while Max and I...did it?"

"Serious?"

"Yeah, over the last few months I've been racking my brain trying to find a way to make her go away, for good. If Max and I consummate our relationship, it's over, right? She can't win and the bond between Max and I will be stronger than ever."

"This sounds like a bad movie."

"Thanks," she frowned.

"Sorry, but trying to keep Tess out of your head so you can bang Max? It sounds impossible. It sounds, I don't know, perverse. I don't even know how you would try?"

"Me either, it's just something I came up with. You have no idea what it feels like to want to be with someone so bad and can't because it really might not be you." She banged her head softly on the table. "This sucks."

"Run it by Max, maybe he'll go for it." She raised her eyebrows. "I mean I know he'll go for it, but you're going to be taking an awfully big risk."

"I know, that's the downside. Why does everything in my life have to be so complicated?"

"Excuse me," Maria leaned back and patted her belly. "I'm carrying the alien love child. How is that for complicated?"

"You're right. Ever since we met them our lives have been turned upside down. I don't regret a minute of it though, do you?"

"Nope. Can you imagine where we'd be right now if we hadn't hooked up with them?"

"We'd be graduating high school and going to college. Me to Yale or Harvard and you to somewhere in close proximity to me. We'd be talking about stupid boys and dreaming about futures that were simple. A cool job, a house with a white picket fence, two kids and a dog and a walk-in closet. Boring."

"Alex would still be alive," Maria added somberly.

"Yeah, I didn't forget about that."

"That's my regret, Alex."

"Mine, too," Liz agreed. "I'll always feel responsible for that. I brought him into it."

"We brought him into it."

"Yeah, we," Liz nodded. "Enough of this reflection. We're getting ready to start the rest of our lives, we can't look back at the errors that have happened. Time to move on, start anew. You're going to be a mother!"

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STORY OF LINES:
3 - CURVED PATH

CHAPTER TWO

WRITTEN BY BECKY W

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CHAPTER THREE

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