Title: Inevitable
Author: Hidden Willow
Email: willow4614@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: The characters don't belong to me. No infringement is intended. No profit made.
Summary: Everything that has pushed Max, Tess and Liz together and apart feels like it was inevitable. M/L implied, M/T implied.
A/N: Takes place a year after they graduate. Though, the storyline is different from mid S2 on. Tess doesn't kill Alex, for one thing.
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The small brunette looked off into the distance with disinterest before she brought her eyes back to her companion. Four days. They had been on his trail for four days. How many times had she entered a town and had just known he had been there the night before?
She knew Tess could feel him close by, too. But Tess never said anything. Her face always gave her away, though. Her face would crinkle in displeasure and anger would animate her face for a brief moment before the emotions sank away.
The days they had spent searching had certainly been no vacation. It was just the two of them, silent in their anger, minds far away, eyes blind to the rumbling countryside that passed them by.
And oddly enough it occurred to Liz that this was closest she had ever come to a cross country road trip. But this was nothing like what she had pictured. This wasn't a blur of states and forgettable, corny side attractions passing her by as she listened to Maria and Alex tease her about her CD collection.
But that dream faded away some time ago. High school had ended and her future hung in the balance as the aliens' cover threatened to be blown wide open. The situation was ultimately smothered until it disappeared with one more set of ruined clothing and one more regret hidden in the closet forever.
Or it should have ended there. It always had. The only thing that made things different that time was the budding relationship between Max and Tess. And really when Liz thought about it she knew it had been inevitable. Wasn't that what she had always told herself?
But 'inevitable' grew to mean something else. It wasn't about queens and kings and far away planets that sounded like something out of a bad sci-fi novel. It was about side glances and soft assurances of friendship. That was reality. That was what evolved to fingertips gingerly touching blond, curled locks before his face tilted to kiss her.
But as she looked at Tess in the present, the girl taking a swig of her bottled water as the glare of the sun reflected harshly on her pale shoulders, she felt no betrayal. There had been no puff of indignation back then. No shrill voice protesting something she had no claim on. She might have expected her heart to scream out, but things had changed during that last year at high school.
Ever so slowly her feelings for him grew into shadows. What she had with Max would never go anywhere. Not with the way things were standing. And it wasn't because of a world ending in a still uncertain future. It was because of a boy who could never love with all his heart like he promised. Not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't know who he was. Not without her. Not without Tess.
"You done taking in the view? We have to get there before dark," Tess said somewhat rudely, but it barely registered for Liz anymore. It wasn't that Tess was mad at her. She didn't even mean anything by her remark. She was just impatient. Worried. But Tess would never admit to that.
"You think he knows?" She opened the car door and slide in before the shorter girl could have an opportunity to scan her face.
"He knows. He's an idiot but he's not that much of an idiot. He can't just endanger all of our lives and not expect us to come after him." The words were bitter and expected, but they also sounded empty like the bang of the door closing as she got in the car. She was tired. Liz felt tired, too.
They had gone through this too many times. It was another misguided attempt on Max's part to do his duty. To save people he'd never met. Something he never should have been asked to do. Something he most likely could never do. But he thought with his heart instead of his mind. He couldn't see, wouldn't see, that it was all lies. He sneaked out in the night, looking for something that didn't exist hoping it would save his people. Ignoring the fact that if the wrong people caught on to what he was looking for then they'd all be screwed.
"Do you think he knows it's us? That we're so close by? I know we are. I can almost feel him," she clarified, ignoring the girl's anger. All that had been dealt with before. It wasn't that the anger wasn't clear and sharp in her own body, it just didn't seem to matter so much anymore. Something was changing. Liz could feel it.
It wasn't some magical connection that she had with Max that seemed to stir whatever it was sleeping inside of her. It was like ... the feeling of what was ahead. The inevitable. She knew Tess felt it. It wouldn't work any other way.
Tess didn't say a word. Her eyes glared at the girl in the driver's seat. Anger for mentioning what she wasn't supposed to. If anything Liz could always be trusted to not talk about certain things. Liz was so good at that. She was so proper. But now she decided to be honest. Real honest. Not that syrupy, polite shit that Liz seemed to revel in.
She didn't know why it bothered her so much, but it did. All she knew was she didn't want to be following Max Evans across the country. She pledged to herself she would never do that. Half of her life following after him, if only for the idea of him, had been enough. And of all people she didn't want to be doing this with Liz was at the top of the list. Though, she supposed she really had no reason to be so unhappy about that. Liz stopped being a nuisance a long time ago. Although, by the looks of it she knew Liz was about to annoy her.
"I can feel him ... in the air."
Tess tried to ignore her. Why listen to Liz and her soft, pretty romanctic words about a guy who was going to get them all killed? To be honest she hadn't felt this cynical in a long time. In a way she had never really *been* cynical despite all the evidence to the contrary.
There had always been a part of her that was naive and hoped for all the things she couldn't have. And that hopeful, trusting side only grew in Roswell, but then it changed. But some people - Liz- didn't have that side. They *were* that side. And it killed her for some reason. She would never be that stupid again. Never be as naive as Liz.
"I can almost smell his subtle scent of...sweat and ..." she paused, lost in an attempt to find the right words.
"Peppermint," Tess unintentionally said outloud. Their eyes connected for a moment. Another reminder, one so much harder to ignore than the others, that they both had fallen for Max Evans at one time. That they had both stood in each other's way at one time.
But they hadn't been at odds for so long. Liz had accepted the fact that they had gotten together in the last year of high school. And months later when the alien couple fell apart and Liz and Max slowly, unconsciously found their way to each other Tess accepted that as well.
They didn't hate each other anymore. That stopped being possible a long time ago. It was Max that had the unwavering ability to want more than they could give him. Max needed to explore his alien side, felt compelled to be with Tess because she made him feel so uncertain about who he was, but she believed in him in a way no one could. But yet he was always drawn to Liz. She was his anchor. She made him feel solid. She made him feel human.
All this swirled inside their eyes. Max Evans had torn them to pieces and it almost felt like a dirty little secret they shared because it had happened to them both. They knew what it was to love Max Evans. They knew what it was like to despise him. It was a sick, ever fluid mixture of emotion that flowed in both of them.
"Yeah." A hand wavered up to her face as Liz tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. Her hand darted to turn the ignition on and she let the vibration of the engine fill the silence.
There was something new in the air between them. Understanding.
The end
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