Athena Guerin laughed at her brother's stubbornness, even though it wasn't anything new to her or their friends Max and Zan Evans

Title: That's Life….

Author: Shelley

Disclaimer: I only own Athena, that's it!

Time Line: AU version of the Pilot

Summery: In an AU Roswellverse (yeah I know that's not a word!) What would, or could have happened if Max hadn't been able to fully heal Liz that day at the Crashdown?

Authors Notes: Michael has a sister named Athena, who is about a month younger than him, and Max and Zan are twins. And Zan, having lived in Roswell his whole life is a little more mellow and normal.

Feedback: I crave it! Give me, give me, give me!

2nd A/N: Thanks to Mandy who gave me the idea for the name of this part!

When Life Throws You A Curve Ball

Athena Guerin laughed at her brother's stubbornness, even though it wasn't anything new to her or their friends Max and Zan Evans. She tucked her long brown hair behind her ears and tried again. "Michael, you can't spend all day cooped up in the house. I promised Max and Zan we'd met them at the Crashdown, come on Mikey I really wanna see my boyfriend." She pleaded her blue eyes wide. It was unfair of him to be jealous of her and Zan; they were lucky to have clicked the way they did. I wasn't her fault that there weren't two cute alien girls for her brother and her boyfriend's handsome twin.

"Fine," he relented. "We'll go to the Crashdown, but only for a little while."

Athena smiled. "Yay!"

* * * * *

The inside of the Crashdown was more or less packed, well packed considering the fact that only two waitresses were working that shift. Liz Parker came up beside her best friend Maria behind the counter and gave her the classic 'help me' look. Maria grinned. "What's the matter Lizzy?"

"Only the fact that this has been the longest shift of my life," she glanced back over to the two burly men setting in her section. "I wish they would go a head and leave."

"So that Max can come in and sit there?" Her friend joked.

Liz blushed. "I could careless were Max Evans sits." She said grabbing the order she had been waiting on and taking it to a table of tourist. Of course Max and Zan choose that exact moment to walk though the door and slide into a booth in Maria's section. Liz's heart beat quickened. Two of the best looking sophomores at West Roswell High, they made every girl with in a thousand mile radius want to throw themselves at them. Never mind the fact that Max all by his self was enough to make them go crazy, but two of them? More than one girl had had her heart crushed attempting to get one of the Evans boys to simply go to a movie, and more than one girl had wished that Athena Guerin would drop off the face of the Earth, or at least vanish from Roswell. She was the only girl the two would hang out with and had recently begun dating Zan the wilder, as evident by his clothing and piercings, of the brothers. Max on the other hand was simply normal looking with his jeans and tee shirts that looked like they came straight from the Gap, even if he did share Zan's passion for dark colors. Liz collected herself and attempted to make it the rest of the way back to Maria, food now being happily eaten by the UFO freaks, with out glancing over towards them.

"Oh yeah," Maria said. "You so don't have a thing for Max Evans."

Over at their table Max was fighting his own battle of self-restraint as he pretended to be fascinated by the bottles of Tabasco sauce in front of him. "I am ashamed to call you my brother." Zan stated, grabbing the bottles away from Max. "Bro, ya never gonna get a girl if you keep it up. You want Liz Parker you gotta say somethin'."

Max sighed, "It's not that easy. *You* had it easy, your lucky that Athena knows about us…is one of us."

Here he goes again. Zan sighed, Max's typical argument as to why he and Michael don't, and never had, have girlfriends. "Listen Max, you've gotta take a stab at it, or you're gonna spend your whole life alone. You and Michael both!" Giving up he smiled at Maria, who had come over to get their orders. "Hey doll. Uh, we're gonna have two Alien Blast," he noticed Athena and Michael come in, "better make that four." He pulled Athena down into the booth next to him and placed a quick kiss on her lips.

"Well, well. It's good to see you too. Hey Max." She said smiling.

"Hey Ath."

"So, why are we here?" Michael asked.

"I think it's so Ath and Zan can make out in front of us, and everyone else." Max said hiding a grin.

"Yeah that's about right." Athena agreed hitting him lightly from across the table. Their little dialogue was broken up however by angry shouts coming from the men in Liz's section.

"I WANT MY MONEY NOW!" The biker thundered. An angry sweep of his brawny arm knocked both men's glasses and plates onto the floor. "GIVE IT TO ME OR ELSE!" He jumped to his feet and grabbed the other man by the collar and dragged him out of the booth. A gun appeared in the other man's hand as he fought to get free. "GIVE ME MY MONEY!" The biker screamed, grappling the other for control of the gleaming pistol, which went off suddenly, striking Liz in the stomach.

"Oh my God." Athena's hand went up to her mouth as she registered what had just happened. Max jumped out if the booth and ran towards Liz.

"What does he think he's doing." Michael muttered craning his neck to see what was happening. Zan shook his head in disbelief, he's gonna heal her. He thought. Typical.

Max elbowed his way to Liz, and dropped to his knees next to a frantic Maria.

"Oh God Liz! You can't die! You can't!" She was shouting. "Lizzy!"

Max placed his hand on top of Liz's stomach and tried to connect with her. "Look at me, Liz," he pleaded hoarsely. "You have to look at me, Liz!" She opened her eyes and looked at him, it was starting to work! But before Max could finish healing her Sheriff Valenti came running in and over to them, he had to brake the connection. He had been so close.

"Okay, okay. It'll be okay, there is an ambulance on the way. You'll be fine Miss Parker. Everything will be just fine." Max just hoped the Sheriff was telling the truth.

* * * * *

Alone in a cold white hospital room Liz's eyes fluttered open. Where am I? She thought. And then it all came rushing back to her, the Crashdown, the shooting. I was shot! She looked around the room, it was full of flowers and cards. One single white rose caught her eye, next to it sat a card; Hope you get better soon. –Max Evans. Max? Why would Max have sent her a flower? And how did he know she loved white roses? It was probably just a lucky guess. No sense reading to much into it Parker. Along side Max's were cards from Maria, and even one from Athena. That she had to admit shocked her just a little, she barely talked to the short brunette, aside from trying to talk her into helping her get over her awful stage fright in the drama class they shared. It had been impulse on her part to sign up for the class, thinking that an easy A would look good on her transcripts, she hadn't counted on having to act though. Athena was a natural up on stage and had tried her best to help Liz. Out of pure curiosity she opened up the card and read in inside; Get better soon Liz, you've been cast as Frenchy and you can't let all of us down Parker! We need you. –Athena. Oh God. She'd gotten a part? And the play was in….how long had she been here? She was interrupted in her thinking by a stout older woman who walked in the door in a nurses' uniform.

"Oh, you're up!" She smiled in a very grandmotherly way as she fluffed the pillow under her head. "We were starting to think you were just gonna sleep forever."

"How long have I been here?" Liz asked.

"Two weeks, dear. You're quite a lucky girl, most people wouldn't have lived if they'd been shot like that, and much less been able to avoid being paralyzed."

"Paralyzed?"

"Oh yeah. You're lucky doll baby."

Liz stared in shock at where her legs lay under the blankets, how had she been that lucky?

"Look at me, Liz. You have to look at me, Liz!" She remembered seeing Max place his hand over the wound, and doing……..something, to her. Had he, saved her? Would he be dead right now if not for Max Evans? Dead? Paralyzed? She didn't know what he did, how he did it, or why he did it, all she knew was that she owed her life to Max Evans.

* * * * *

"Max! Max wake up!" Max's eyes opened as he felt two hands shaking him.

"Wha-what?" Athena rolled her eyes.

"We're here. Good thing Zan drove or you would have killed us all." Max looked up and saw West Roswell High looming in front of him.

"Oh God. I fell asleep?"

"Yup, now lets get moving. Got a big day today."

All through the day Max tried his best to stay awake. Spending his nights dreaming of and dreamwalking Liz really wasn't good for sleeping. He'd been doing most of his sleeping in class or during the day at home or work. But he couldn't spend today sleeping, Liz was coming back today. On his way to history he bumped into someone near the drama room. "Sorry,"

"That's okay."

Max looked up, it was her. He'd know that voice anywhere. "Liz. Hi."

"Hi." She said tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"How are you?" How do you think she is dumbness! She just got out of the hospital! He berated his self mentally.

"Okay. Listen I need to talk to you, can you met me in the Eraser Room later? After class?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay. See you then."

Liz hurried out of the drama room as fast as she could. Max was waiting for her in the Eraser Room; maybe now she could get some answers about what happened that day at the Crashdown. She slowed as she came to the door and calmly walked inside.

"Hi." She said, trying not to blush thinking about the many fantasies she'd had involving her, Max, and the Eraser Room. This was definitely not one of them.

"Hey." Beat. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, that, um, the day of the shooting, you were at the Crashdown right?"

Max's face suddenly lost the little bit of softness in it and he became angry almost. "Yeah, I was." He said.

Liz nodded, "I thought so, um, you came up to me after…..Max, what did you do to me?"

Max looked thoroughly confused. "What do you mean?"

"Max, there is no way I should have lived, or been able to walk after being shot like that. You saved me didn't you?"

"I tried. I had to brake the connection before…"

Liz nodded again and reached for the hem of her shirt, she pulled it up to reveal a glowing silver hand print right were the bullet hole had been. "I…I don't know how you did it, or what you did, but, thank you." She pulled her shirt back down and headed out of the room before he could stop her.

* * * * *

"So she just told you? Just like that?" Athena asked, eyes wide from her spot perched on Zan's lap in the bleachers near the football field. From their first day at West Roswell High, they'd claimed the bleachers as their meeting spot, it was the best place in the whole school to talk about 'Alien matters' as no one ever wondered over there. Max nodded. "Wow. What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I can tell you what you're not gonna do. You're not gonna tell her the truth." Athena rolled her eyes. Sometimes her brother could be such an ass. "Mikey, what's he supposed to do? Just pretend it never happened?"

"Yeah, that's just it, because if he had never healed her we wouldn't be having this conversation!" Michael fumed looking to Zan for support. To which Zan held up his hands in a way that told Michael he was all-alone on this. Michael fumed and took off.

"Well," Zan watched as his girlfriend's brother stormed off. "I say do what you think is best. After all, you da man."

"Yeah." Max mumbled. For some reason he didn't feel any better about things than he had before.

* * * * *

Two more classes. Liz thought. Two more classes and I can go home and get away from people staring at me. Of course one thing she forgot was that Max was in both of those along with Zan, Michael and Athena. She slid into class a few minutes early to get away from the stares and was shocked to find Zan already there. "Wow, first one here? How'd that happen?"

He smiled. "Funny Parker. Look, I wanted to talk to you and I figured you'd be here early."

"About what?" She asked sitting down in her normal seat towards the back of the room.

"About Max," she inhaled sharply, wondering just what Zan was going to say. "He's a good guy, and well, his obsession with you has lately been getting annoying."

"Obsession?"

"Max has been in love with you sense third grade, he's just been to chicken to say anything. Anyway, I like you Liz, you're cool, and you'd be really good for Max. So what ever he tells you, about what happened, keep an open mind okay? He did it for you after all." With that he walked back out of the class, fully intent on putting the five minutes 'til class started to good use.

"So, did you talk to her?" Athena whispered as he slipped an arm around her waist.

"Yup."

"And she's gonna let Max talk to her?"

"Yup."

She smiled, "Then I do believe our work here is done."

* * * * *

The rest of class passed with out much fuss, the teacher taught, the students learned, well in theory anyway, and Max started a whole in Liz Parker's head. Athena elbowed him and slipped him a folded up piece of paper.

Talk to her! Tell her to met you somewhere later. Do anything if it'll keep you from acting like a total loon, for the rest of the day.

Shaking his head he answered her.

And tell her what Ath? That I'm an alien?

He handed it back to her and a second later had his answer.

Why not? It's Liz Parker, the most trustworthy girl in school. Besides, I think she kinda likes you.

He had no answer for that. Sure he could tell her, and maybe she wouldn't totally flip out with the information, or maybe she'd totally freak and want nothing to do with him after she found out the truth. Only one way to find out. Taking out a new sheet of paper he quickly wrote her a note.

Liz,

Meet me after school at the bleachers, I need to talk to you.

-Max

There, he did his part, know he just wished he knew he was doing the right thing.

* * * * *

The air around the bleachers was claim and hot adding to Max's discomfort as he waited for Liz to show up. He sighed, as she appeared, looking very much worse for the wear. They must have really done a number on her today. What with all the staring.

"Hey," he stood up and offered to help her up the steps.

"Thanks, so…."

"So. Look, you asked me about what happened, that day, and well, I did do something." Liz nodded urging him to continue, "I'm not from around here Liz."

"Where are you from then?" He pointed up. "Up north?" He pointed higher. "Oh. Well, Zan did say to keep an open mind."

"Zan?" Max asked confused. "He talked to you, about this?"

She nodded. "Only to say that I should keep and open mind to what ever you say. Though I have to admit, this wasn't exactly what I expected to find out." She paused. "Okay, I don't know what I expected to find out, but thank you. You saved my life Max, and you've trusted me with this huge secret." Max started to redden. "You don't have to worry. I'm not going to freak out, and I'm not going to tell anyone." She looked into his eyes and smiled. "So, are you going to ask me out, or what?"

"Wha-You..Do you want to go out with me, sometime?"

"Yes, Max. I'd love too."

Under the bleachers Athena and Zan watched them. "It worked!" Athena whispered. "He really told her!"

"Yeah, guess we did our part."

Athena shook her head, "Nope, not until we get that brother of mine a girl."

"Next week Ath. I'm all matchmakered out."

"But-" She started but Zan quickly interrupted her with a kiss.

"Later."

"Okay."

TBC?