Inevitable Storms
By ZanPotter
Desclaimer: I don't own Roswell, yada, yada, yada
Summary: Tess Hardings arrives in Roswell like a storm on a sunny day. This takes place during Tess, Lies and Videotape, and will be AU going forward, will have CCs anc ACs.
Chapter One - Reason
There was a storm brewing. Nature's reminder to the world of humankind that there are some things that can not be controlled. Flames light the skies, dancing in the night as the spark roared in the air. Water fell to the earth, an endless entourage of doves clashing down from the heavens. It was an undeniably refreshing reminder. Some things in the world cannot be controlled. It was why at times such as these, humanity would retreat. In the ongoing battle between humanity and nature, humankind had the sense to fall back. To retreat in the safe havens they had created for themselves, to shelter them from nature's wrath, from the storm. Maxwell Evans was not human and perhaps it is because of that biological fact that the young man had found himself entangled in a very peculiar problem in this very particular night.
Maxwell, better known as Max, Evans though not entirely human liked to think of himself as fairly reasonable young man. Reason had dictated, practically fell on bended knees and begged that the boy follow the protocol of retreat. However, it has been argued and found to be true that possessing the ability to reason did not actual result in the behaviors to indicate such rationale. Indeed, Max's behavior this night did not indicate any rational process. Those who knew Max, those who would testify a sworn oath of Max's virtues, would not only paint a picture of Max's reasonable nature but his intellectual mind. So why then this unreasonable act? Why then this idiocy? For what purpose could be achieved in weathering a miserable storm. What manner of thought? What emotion? What could ever explain such madness? Ask those same people , those people that had sworn up and down of this young man's virtues. And they would only have one answer.
Max Evans was a romantic. And so following the preset of previous romantics, his actions could only be insanity certified because by all accounts romantics can only have and only answer to the demands of one mistress. Love. Of course reason dictates that the only reason a reasonable man can do unreasonable things is because of love. So following the conditions of this reasonably unreasonable disposition, Max ventured to the outside and found himself caught in the jars of a shark for, what else, but a girl.
Elizabeth Parker is a perfectly ordinary looking girl, She lived in an ordinary town that once upon a time had experienced fame, she lived with somewhat ordinary, definitely mostly ordinary people. No observer, no stranger can take a many glances at her and think to themselves. How extraordinary. She wasn't so grandly beautiful, her looks quite ordinary in form. She was however a bit more intelligent than the ordinary girl, but that was due to her rather studious nature brought to the surface by a grant dream. There was one thing, however, that made Elizabeth, better known as Liz, Parker extraordinary.
For as long as he could remember. Max Evans has only ever been in love with Liz Parker. She was the sun and the moon, the stars in the sky and everything in-between. She was light in the dark; warm fire in winter. And Liz Parker was the reason that Max had made this journey in the rainstorm. And that is why this was all very strange. Max Evans was kissing a girl under the slaughter of the ongoing rain. Willingly, passionately kissing a girl. And to think a few moment before, he had thought his journey had given him his just reward.
"I love you Liz" He said to her, so clearly, so honestly without a hint of uncertainty, without hesitation. "You are the one Liz, the only one. I can never be with anyone else."
He meant every word, his heart spoken true and aloud to the heavens. Was it a surprise then that Liz's response had been a kiss? A kiss filled with desire and need, a kiss that conveyed every beat of her heart. Her heart was a reflection of his. These young ones, these young people in love had never felt more complete as they did in that eternal moment. Even as the rain raged outside, time had lost all meaning for both had become lost in each other.
Max kissed her passionately, without reservation and without thought of mind. He kissed her as if the end of all was to arrive shortly and he could not get enough. She returned his embrace with just as much fervor.
Max Evans left Liz Parker's humble abode, feeling quite pleased with himself. There was satisfaction in the depths of his heart, a pleasing joy so full it threatened to burst out of his chest to the viewing pleasures of the universe. He left her home, and while walking on his way to his humble abode, there was a light sprint in his steps, his heart weighting as light as a feather. What a contradiction made, a full heart weighting so lightly. His mind was filled with thoughts of her. She was perfection. Her dark waving hair, her sparkling chocolate brown eyes, brilliantly blinding smile. Oh, she was extraordinarily, exquisitely the most beautiful thing he had ever been blessed to see.
"Max"
A familiar voice called out to him. A voice that froze his heart still, and stopped him dead in his tracks. He wished that he had imagined it but there could be no way the universe was that kind to him. He wished that by standing still he could disappear in the splintering rain. Wishes however were definitely not horses. He wished he had been blessed with the power to disappear; he was not. So Max did what he knew was unavoidable, he turned.
It was her .
Alas, the universe was definitely not that kind.
"My car broke down" she said yelling to be heard over the drowning rain, "Can you believe it?"
Planted on her face, a set of twinkling eyes that had in them a spark of mystery and a smile so bright it was on the verge of laughter. The raining water had drenched her clothes and they clung to her tightly. She stood there, a visage of innocence come alive.
Max swallowed, the beats of his no longer frozen heart began a race against each other.
"No" Max said, a statement of a simple word defined in all languages in the same manner. A denial.
"No" She echoed in seeming confusion, a frown appeared and disappeared with the flashing lightening. He almost withdrew into himself, almost retreated.
"No" Max said once again then clarified, "I don't believe it"
Her ocean like eyes widened, the green in her iris more clearer than before, yet her smile stayed the same, "What are you talking about?" She asked with light laughter sipping in the tone of her voice.
Max knew he should not say another word, he was a smart boy, why then did he lose all ability to reason.
"You planned this" He said plainly, accusation flying in the air. He was not angry, his statement was one of fact as he saw it. His words were a determination building up. He was determined. Determined to stop her.
"I planned what?" She asked, again confusion expressed only by her eyes marred her face.
It was perhaps the self-assuredness she possessed in her arsenal that caused Max come to takes steps towards her meanwhile a thought ran ramped through his head. There was something not quite right about the girl in front of him.
"To be out here" Max said, answering her. There was something about her.
"Max" She said, eyes back to normal and wearing a smile even brighter than before if that was at all possible, "You sound a little crazy"
Of course, he sounded crazy, he knew he sounded crazy. But there was a reason. Unreasonable enough, she was the reason.
"You are doing something to me" Max accused her, his steps taking himself closer to this mysterious girl in front of him.
"Max, my car broke down" She said, "I am waiting for somebody to help me. I didn't plan anything"
He sounded crazy; she sounded reasonable. Max finally stopped in front of her; she had stood still as he advanced towards her, as he threw accusation upon her person and yet she stood and allowed a crazy-sounding young man to invade her personal space.
"I'm with Liz" It was a strong statement, a fact known by all.
"I know you are" She was, after all, one of the knowing.
"We belong together" He had told Liz that, not the same words, no but the meaning. The meaning remained the same, unchanging.
"I'm sure that's true" The tone of her voice changed when she made that statement, no longer on the verge of laughter, as serious as it could get in fact. As did her smile, dimming slightly.
Max got even closer, "I don't want anyone else but her" He whispered to her and to himself and to nature itself.
She held eyes and trapped them and then she said, "I'm sure you don't" And then his world unraveled.
Nature in all its glory had this understated habit of not following the rules of man. She came like nature, storming in the sky, stomping in his life without warning. And like a moth to a flame, he was drawn to her. She was a stranger and Max, who had always had this instinctual aversion to strangers, was uncommonly, frighteningly, and uncontrollably drawn to her. His hands, having a will of their own, had grabbed her, anger simmering beneath the surface, finally. He wanted to shake her, to shake the truth out of her. In the next verified moment however his lips were upon hers. He kissed her.
In the midst of the pouring rain, the brewing storm. Max kissed her; like mother nature, that uncontrollable nature, so was this passionate embrace. It drowned out everything, reason and common sense. His mind fell blank, no thought to be had. This wasn't love; he had never felt this before either. And then it happen.
A little blonde girl in a water filled tank. The two of them in a desert staring at each other, holding hands. A rocky hill, paved upward. A sky of flickering stars, five brighter than the rest aligned in a V like shape.
The flashes ran through his mind and at once, just like that, he snapped out of it. He snapped out of nature's uncontrollable grasp. He withdrew from the kiss, confusion sipping into every part of his being. He looked at her, stared deeply in her eyes and she stared back unabashedly. His breaths were shallow as the water mingled air barely gave him air. His heart was striving to tear itself from inside his chest. He was awaken.
"Who are you?" He asked.
The sound of his voice brought back the mad world. Crashing back into his head, reason, in his heart, the disastrous unreasonable actions he had partaken in. Guilt came in waves to consume him. He turned away from her piercing eyes and did the one thing he knew he had to do. The one thing he should have done long back when nature's hands showed its play. He retreated.
Turning away, answers withstanding, the time to retreat quietly had long passed. He took steps away from her without conscious thought. The steps began a sprint that turned to a jog and soon enough, more. He heard his name, her voice calling out to him. So he did what he should have done when she had first called out to him. He ignored her and keep on running.
He was a coward, of course he was, the truth self evident. A cowardly coward cowardly running away but he could not stop; he could not turn back time either. What he could do though was run. The storm raged on and keeping pace were memories playing in sequence within the foundations of his mind. At the center of it all was her. A girl who was more than a girl; ordinary, she was not. No, she was the very essence of love embodied in body.
Using reason, he came to the unreasonable conclusion that he was not at all at fault. After all, there was no way in any way, in any world that Max Evans could ever kiss a girl. He could never kiss any girl in that way, in that manner, and not have her be Liz. It was simply impossible. The impossible however impossibly it seemed had proved it's resilience. Tonight Max Evans had kissed a girl. It that way, in that manner.
It was not Liz.