ROSWELL on PLANET-SF

Chapter Two

Liz went back to work and the world moved on as Max sat at home with his daughter. He didn't have a job, he didn't want to leave the house; friend he still had were working. Even his sister was on an all-day excursion with her new beau and his daughter. Sloane was lying on the floor in front of the television watching Muppets of some kind; Max didn't know their name.

After his fourth trek through the house he was bored. Bored to depression. He lay down on the couch resting his head on Liz's pillow. She had slept on the couch each of the five nights since he had been home. He inhaled her scent and wanted to cry. He missed her so much. Even though he saw her every day it was all so wrong and distant. Last night was the first night he had gotten her to smile at something he said. He saw a glimmer of the old Liz in the smile. The Liz that used to be proud to be Mrs. Max Evans.

Who could blame her for not being proud of him right now? He was a dark mark in an otherwise clean sky. He was accused of raping a student. What could possibly be worse for a new teacher? Michael talked to him every day, but he could tell Michael was preoccupied with something else, probably Maria. He had eavesdropped on a conversation Liz was having on the phone with her. Maria might be pregnant.

Jared Knox, his lawyer, had told him the date of the trial, still eight more weeks away. He still wanted to call the school and explain that it was all a mistake and beg for his job back, once again, out of the question. Jared Knox ordered Max not to talk to anyone except him.

He sighed and looked down at his daughter. What was she going to think when she was older and found out her daddy was on trial for rape? What about if he was found guilty? He couldn't think of that. It couldn't happen. Innocent people don't get sent off to jail for crimes they didn't commit, right? Michael told him they'd get him out of it. But would that happen? Max covered his face in his hands.

Thoughts drifted through the abyss he called his mind. What he had sharpened in school and work was now dulled. Wild images of life going on without him clouded everything else. Liz would be a perfect single mother, if anyone could do it, it was Liz. She is so strong. Isabel would grieve, so would his parents and close knit circle of friends. But they would all be able to go on, to move on without the burden of having a rapist in the family. Was he actually considering killing himself? He shook his head. Never in his wildest imagination did he ever think about suicide before and now it was prominent.

"No daddy." Sloane looked up from the floor at him.

"What Tiger Eyes?" Max's attention was brought back to the condo and his daughter in front of him.

She climbed up on his lap and wrapped her thin arms around his neck. "Don't go away, daddy."

Max squeezed his eyes shut and held his daughter tightly. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Dont leave me and mommy," she whispered in his ear and kissed his scruffy cheek. "We need you."

"I promise baby, I'm not going anywhere." Max rubbed his daughter's back and wondered when she had learned to read minds. That was not necessarily a good thing, although right now, it was the best thing in the entire world. Those few words from his five-year-old saved the life of Max Evans.

* * *

Maria DeLuca paced in front of the couch waiting for Michael to come home. He promised he'd come home for lunch and she had been waiting for just shy of an hour. She peered out the front window and sighed heavily: no Michael. A cramp seized her stomach; stumbling she made it into the bathroom. She pulled down her jeans and saw blood in her underwear. Blood in a thin line running down her inner thigh. She panicked and tried to wipe it away with Kleenex. Eventually, only a red smear was left.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You're okay DeLuca, everything's fine." She changed her pants and sat down at the kitchen table. "You're fine. Just a little spotty, nothing to get worried about. So you haven't had your period in four months, that means nothing. You're fine." After several more minutes she had almost convinced herself that everything really was going to be fine.

The phone was ringing as she finished her mantra. She answered and immediately wanted to cry. It was Michael and he had to cancel their lunch date. She hung up and called Liz at work. She dialled the extension she had gotten from Michael and waited for voicemail. Everything was always voicemail.

"Liz Parker, I mean, Evans," Liz answered.

"Hey chica, forget your name?"

"Hi Maria, rough day." She sighed. "Everyone keeps walking by me and staring. I'm about to stand up and make a public service announcement."

"I guess you're busy for lunch then?"

"Actually, no. I thought Michael was coming home for lunch today?"

"He was." She paused. Did Michael tell her everything? "He had to cancel."

"So I'm your second choice, huh?" she said with a smile in her voice.

"Not really," Maria smiled. "Come over. I already have sandwiches made."

"I'll be over soon," Liz promised and hung up.

"Cool." Maria walked around the kitchen and felt better already. She'd get to hang out with Liz. She missed Liz. Even though things had smoothed over with them, there was still a ripple of unfamiliarity when they were together.

Maria knew Liz had every right to still be pissed for her being so absent and bitter, but time will heal everything, isn't that what Liz always says? She waited patiently for her friend to arrive and while waiting decided against telling her about the bleeding. She'd tell Michael when he got home.

* * *

As Liz Evans made her way through the office to the front doors she felt eyes on her back. She swung around quickly and busted most of her co-workers staring at her.

"All right, that's it!" she yelled. "I know I'm new here and you all don't know me very well. If you did, you'd know to come right out with whatever you want to say and then move on. I know everyone here is aware that my husband was arrested for rape. But what you don't know is my husband. If you knew him, you'd never believe this story that some girl made up about him. This is a crushed schoolgirl who had the hots for her teacher. When he wouldn't play into her, she called rape. It's a daily occurrence in America - don't any of you watch Lifetime? She knew they were listening when she heard a few chuckles. "Now, I'm going to lunch, I'll be getting back late so you'll have plenty of time to speculate while I'm gone. Bye!" Liz turned back around. As she walked through the front door she heard a smattering of laughter. Mission accomplished.

* * *

Michael cancelled his lunch with Maria not because he was busy being the Sheriff, but because he was busy following Lindy Franks. She was becoming his obsession. He followed her as she stopped in a clothing boutique and then a music store and then as she ate lunch by herself at a fast food restaurant. He knew the way she walked, talked and drove.

She was just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. There was nothing spectacular about Lindy Franks. She was very pretty and very polite to everyone she encountered. she didn't speed and she didn't meet anyone for a clandestine drug deal. Lindy Franks was just a girl.

Michael trailed her until she went back home. He knew her parents had pulled her out of school and wouldn't let her leave the house for more than a couple of hours at a time. He drove past her house slowly once again before cruising through the high school parking lot. School was just letting out for the day and the parking lot was alive with students. He drove slowly and stopped the 4x4 when he saw someone flagging him down. It was Jesse Jones. She bounded over to the truck smiling. Michael leaned out of the window.

"Sheriff Guerin," she beamed, holding her hand over eyes to block the sun. She held a few sheets of paper in her other hand. "Hi. I wanted to show you this. It's a petition to get Mr. Evans his job back. Most of the students signed it. I told you he was a favourite."

"That's great Jesse."

"Could you tell him we all miss him?"

Michael promised and returned to the department. So much to do, so little time. Jim Valenti had called earlier after speaking with a friend of his in the DA's office. They had a strong case built on circumstantial evidence, but Lindy Franks was a model student and citizen. They were going to want a DNA sample from Max. The information was given to Jim in confidence; Michael promised he wouldn't utter a word. He already knew what was needed for a conviction. He also knew that Max's DNA wasn't going to match anything found on or in Lindy Franks. It wasn't going to match anything found on the planet.

He was worried. This was a legal case; everything would be examined in front of experts from both sides. He slapped the steering wheel in disgust. He decided to call Maria from the station and tell her he was going to work late, already knowing her feeling were hurt after cancelling lunch, but he had to. He had to figure out a way to get Max out of this mess. It wasn't only Max's life on the line; it was all of theirs.

* * *

Maria tried not to cry after hanging up the phone with Michael. He'd be late again. She looked around the empty house and sighed. At the time it had seemed like a good idea for Isabel to pick up Leia and take her and Sloane to the Children's Museum with her new boyfriend Rick and his daughter. At her lunch with Liz she found out Max wasn't doing all that good. Not that he should be, but she still felt kind of sorry for him.

Besides, she had thought to herself, Sloane needed a break from daddy the brooding. Now she rethought it. She didn't want to be alone tonight. She wanted to tell Michael everything that she'd been experiencing and her theories. She had put it off long enough, but after the incident with the bleeding she knew she had to tell someone her fears and Michael seemed to be working all the time lately. Trying to help Max, she knew that.

On impulse she picked up the phone and called Kyle. Kyle had been there for her all through her pregnancy with Leia. He was her brother in her heart and she had abandoned him with everyone else. He was someone who had never wanted anything from her but friendship. She missed him. She missed him a lot. Although Morgan was entirely too up front for her lately, she knew why Kyle loved her.

"Hi," she said when Kyle answered.

"Maria?"

"You know my voice," she smiled into the phone. "I was wondering if maybe you want to come over and hang out."

"With you?"

She heard the hesitancy in his voice. "Yeah, with me. We can order a pizza and talk."

"You and me?"

"Kyle, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for being such a bitch to you and everyone else. I miss you; you're my kind-of brother. We used to hang all the time and now we don't."

"That's not my fault."

"I know whose fault it is," she sighed. "Do you think you can find it in your heart to forgive me? Please?"

"You buying pizza and beer?"

"Of course." She smiled so wide she felt her cheeks ache. After she hung up she felt better. Kyle would always be around for her. She could talk to him about anything. The stiffness she had felt earlier with Liz wouldn't be there with Kyle. Kyle was, well, he was Kyle. All around good guy. She drove down to the store and picked up a twelve-pack and waited. She opened the door before Kyle could knock and embraced him in a bear hug. He laughed and hugged her back.

"Whoa!" He broke free from her. "I guess you're happy to see me?"

"You have no idea!" She laughed and hugged him again. "I'm sorry Kyle. I'm sorry for blowing you off, it wasn't personal."

"What's going on with you Maria?"

"I'll get to that later, first we order pizza!" She walked into the kitchen and called for delivery while handing Kyle a bottled beer. "Okay, thirty-five minutes." She sat at the table with Kyle across from her. "I'm sorry I didn't celebrate your nuptials with you, I should have."

"Yeah, you should have, you're right." He shook his head and swallowed half the bottle of beer in one drink. "I was so mad at you. I thought you were being so selfish and self-centered."

"I was," she sighed. "I'm having problems, Kyle, and I don't know what's wrong."

"With Michael?"

"No, not with Michael." She smiled saying his name. "I think I might be pregnant and I'm scared out of my mind that something's wrong."

"You don't know?"

"No, not really. Nothing's right." She shook her head. She should be having this conversation with Michael first. "I don't know what to do. I can't go to a doctor because what if this is some freaky alien thing? What then?"

"What does Michael think?"

"He doesn't really know about everything. He's got so much on his mind right now, you know, this whole thing with Max is, what?" She stopped after noticing his grim expression.

"I don't want to talk about him, I don't really even want to hear his name, okay?"

"What's going on?"

"I'm pissed and I want to kick his ass for what he did to Liz. Plain and simple." He raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "He's a fucking pervert and I don't want to be around him anymore. I'm done with him."

"Okay," she stretched out the single word. "Well, Michael's been busy and Liz and I are trying to reconstruct our friendship and I'm scared."

"What can I do?"

"I don't know." She rubbed her stomach. "I don't feel pregnant most of the time. Sloane scared me at Christmas; she put her hands on my stomach and started to cry. Leia said she was trying to help me. That freaked meout," she admitted.

"Help you - like, heal you?"

"I think so, she can do that, you know like Ma- her father."

"You need to talk to Michael and Isabel, they'll know what to do," Kyle said it like it was the best solution in the world.

"They won't know anymore than I do. The man without a name, I've been thinking about going to him, especially after Sloane..."

"If you must, but I wouldn't let him touch you with a ten foot pole. God, he makes me sick. Why does Liz put up with him?"

"People makes mistakes," she said weakly. "So, Michael and Isabel, first, huh?"

Kyle nodded and reached across the table, picking up her hand. "I'll help you, Maria, anyway that I can. You can always count on me."

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STORY OF LINES:
BOOK 7 - TREADING LIGHTLY

CHAPTER TWO

Written by BECKY W

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CHAPTER ONE