Title: Full Disclosure
Author: Gaudicia
E-mail: gaudicia@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: I don't own Roswell.
Rating: PG
Summary: Maria is being interviewed by a reporter.
Author's note: I want to thank Robyn for betain this and Joia for giving me a title. Thanks, guys!
Author's note 2: This has nothing to do with the movie titled Full Disclosure. :)
Full Disclosure
Kevin took out his notes and tape recorder and placed them in front of him and surveyed the apartment. It was quite a change from the outside. The building was run down, in the worst part of town, but once he had stepped inside he had seen the suitable difference. It looked clean, and organized, incense and candles were everywhere. Pictures that he desperately wanted to study hung on the wall.
Maria stared at the young man before her and bitterly smiled. He looked so much like him that it was frightening. If she hadn't known better she would have thought it was a ghost. She took a puff of her cigarette and dragged out the smoke as she exhaled it. "Why do you want to know?" She questioned, taking his attention away from her apartment.
Kevin was glad he was stubborn enough to pursue this. Her hard stare would have made anyone want to run. "Everyone already knows the story behind them. Everyone knows about Antar, and the purpose of the Royal Four coming to Earth, but they don't know their personal lives. How were they like in their adolescence? What did they like? Did they all get along? How did Liz end up married with Max and you with Michael?"
That last question was the one that drove him to seek answers, but it still wasn't the answer Maria wanted to hear. Maybe it still wasn't the time to tell their story. "We made that choice." She made a movement to stand up.
Kevin quickly spoke, not wanting to loose her attention. After so much searching he had found her and he wasn't about to go back without his story, without knowing the truth. "I need to know. ...please."
Maria sat down again and put out her cigarette. Just like his father. The please had been hard for him to say it. She sighed, "It all started the day Liz was shot—"
Kevin immediately looked up from his notes. "Shot?"
Maria briefly allowed a small smile to tug her lips at the bewilderment in his eyes. "Yes, but Max brought her back to life." Maria desperately wanted another cigarette as the memories only got too clear and painful to remember.
"Before that day we had been divided in two groups, Max, Isabel and Michael, the aliens, and us, humans, Alex, Liz and myself. The only two that could say that they've had prior interaction where Liz and Max, and if you call making gooey eyes at each other interaction that's the closest we were." A wistful smile covered Maria's face; everything had been simple then. "But uniting the two groups was hard, we didn't trust each other, and I even feared them. We also came close to losing Alex--and in the end we did."
Kevin inclined his head. It was the second time Alex's named had been mentioned and prior to that evening it was the first time he had heard that name being mentioned. "Who is Alex?"
Maria glared at him for interrupting, but it didn't have quite the effect she hoped, since pain still lingered in her eyes. "A very close and dear friend. A brother. ...you'll understand more soon."
Kevin jotted down what she told him but made sure to put a question mark beside it.
Maria watched him furiously taking notes and couldn't help but stare at him. He looked so much like them. She blinked, realizing what she was doing. "We managed to become a group, more like we divided into couples. I was with Michael and Liz was with Max and Alex tried to be with Isabel." Maria stopped and took a deep breath before continuing. "Liz and Max were soulmates that's what we all thought. Why else would he risk exposure to save her? It was a fairy tale. While Michael and me had the on and off relationship, Liz and Max had the impossible one. There was always something set against them. Even Max himself made it impossible and then came Tess, but you already know that, right?"
Kevin nodded. Tess was Max's supposed to be wife, Antar's queen that ended up selling them to the enemy. He couldn't really blame Maria for the anger in her voice.
Maria gave up and lit a cigarette. "Liz was broken. Max had destroyed her in a sense, but Max and myself...we were too blind to see it. They were meant to be together and Liz never protested, but later I realized that she had, but we had chosen not to hear it. We thought that if they got married it would be better." Maria shook her head. "We were young and stupid, marriage didn't solve anything. I mean, we were going to be on the run, what kind of relationship would that give them? It just stressed things out more."
"On the run?" Kevin asked, once the word actually registered.
Maria didn't care for the interruption. "The FBI was after us. I didn't have to go with them," she said it softly, and there were traces of guilt behind her words. "I just went because I didn't want to be left behind. I envied Liz. She got the powers; she had no choice but to leave. She would have preferred to stay in Roswell. Now that I think back, she envied me, because I could leave at any time."
Kevin looked up from his notes. "Did you?"
She shook her head in denial. "No. I know now it would have been the best thing to do, but I didn't. I stayed and married Michael. He didn't want to marry me and I really didn't want to marry him either, but I just did it. I wanted to have what Liz had. I just still hadn't realized it was a fucked up marriage."
Kevin flinched at the description. "What about Isabel and Kyle?"
Something in Maria's eyes lightened. "They found each other. They were the only ones brave enough to leave us behind and to make a home of their own. They were beautiful together, because they learned to love each other; it was the only happy and pure relationship on our escapade. They were so happy that they were oblivious to what was going on...or maybe they knew but chose to let us figure it ourselves."
Kevin stopped scribbling, his curiosity too strong. "What do you mean?"
Maria stood up. It was so hard to remember those times. "Liz and Max were to the point they didn't talk to one another. Liz really didn't talk to anyone, and Michael and me...we were constantly fighting. It was nothing new, but I got physical. I'm still amazed at the restraint he showed." Maria turned to Kevin. "I may have not been in love with him, but I did love him and after a while we grew to respect each other. But God knows we had a rough time getting there."
Maria noticed he had stopped taking notes and she felt a small pain in her heart. Even though he was 20 years old he looked like an eager child waiting for the end of a fairy tale. "Michael always liked solitude, and Liz was searching for that moment where she could have peace and Michael seemed to give her that. They ended up spending most of their time together.'
"I felt weird and was incredulous, how could they want to spend time together? They didn't talk, they would just sit in silence. At first you could sit an army between them, but each day they would sit a little bit closer, until finally they could whisper to each other. It was amazing to see the change in them. Liz looked like there was life back into her, and Michael, although always alert,seemed more relaxed.'
"I got close to Max, but it was just to speculate and come up with plots that at the time weren't true. Yet after a while I began to enjoy Max's company, we could talk about anything and everything, and I'm sure that's how Michael and Liz felt. But I still didn't like seeing Michael and Liz together and ignored that I was doing the same thing... After a while, I just seemed to forget about them and Max was the purpose of my existence."
Kevin swallowed, this was not something he wanted to hear. "Then why did it all end up so badly?"
"Stubbornness," was the only answer Maria could provide him with. "Just as we have the capacity to love and bring happiness to others we also have the capacity to hate and cause pain."
"So what happened?"
Maria sighed again, her forty years felt like eighty. "We were sick—Max and me, we thought of Michael and Liz as our possessions—objects. We wouldn't see how happy they were together, how they could communicate without words, how Michael was Liz pillar and how Liz could bring him calm. They were able to give each other what they needed. See, for me and Max everything was fine as long as we were fine, but once we had a little misunderstanding we would run back to our respective couples, making their lives impossible."
Maria took another deep breath, and mimicked her youthful words. "We are best friends. Best friends aren't supposed to go after each other's boyfriends. They aren't supposed to be cheating on you. I destroyed her. She stopped spending time with Michael and they were back to being miserable, but I was happy because they were miserable like me." She didn't dare look at Kevin. "I'm not proud of the way I acted and if I could go back in time I would have let them be."
"Did you try and fix it?" He asked with the hope only a naïve child would have.
"No," she admitted, bluntly. "But Liz did find out about me and Max. She got so angry. But she wasn't angry because I took Max away. She was angry because I had dared professed about a best friend code when I, myself, had broken it." Maria clasped her hands. "Everything went to hell from then on.'
"Although Michael and Liz were happy because they could be together, Max couldn't accept that Liz was happy about it. His ego suffered. And like any Kind, he needed to fix that. And for the first time, Max brought up the idea of us going our separate ways. Me with Michael; and him with Liz. I hated him, because I had learned to love him."
"How could he have been so clueless?" Kevin couldn't believe the man that was being described to him.
"He never knew what he had in front of him. He wanted to live in a perfect world. But he was kind enough to allow Michael and Liz one last night together. The next day was hard for both Liz and myself. We had so much to talk about, so little time, so much to forgive, but no idea how to ask for forgiveness. Our friendship was never the same, but we were the only friends we had. Even though we kept contact over the years, and our friendship was brought back to an honest level, it was never back to the full trusting and innocent friendship it once had been."
"You were in contact over the years?" How had he not known this?
"Yes, and so where Michael and Liz and so was I and Max. See, Max was finally able to accept what was going on. Except you were already born, you were five years old and already thought of Max as your father. That was a stability neither wanted to take away from you and Eliza was already on her way."
Kevin was having a hard time processing this. "Eliza? Who's is Eliza?"
Maria grabbed a picture and handed it to him. "She's Max and my child."
Kevin stared at the picture. "Does she know?"
"Yes. I was raised without knowing who my father was. I didn't want her to go through the same thing. If it helps any, Michael, Max, and Liz were going to tell you. The day they were in the car accident Max and Liz had just gotten a divorce."
Kevin nodded. "Their lawyer gave me the papers and that's where I found your address."
"I know." Maria tentatively put her hand on his shoulder. "She wanted you to know the truth."
Kevin set the picture down. "Is that why you told me? It wasn't because I told you I was a reporter."
Maria squeezed his shoulder. "Yes. She always wanted you to know the truth. How could she not want that when she was always seeking the truth herself?"
The door opened and Maria and Kevin turned to the sound.
"Eliza, say hi to Kevin."
Eliza shyly greeted him. "You're Dad's kid, right?"
Kevin swallowed and nodded. "You're Max's?"
And Eliza also nodded in return.
Kevin could feel his palms sweating. "Maybe you can tell me about Michael and I can tell you about Max?"
"I would like that." She looked at her mother and then at Kevin. "I have to go, homework." And she rushed out of the room.
Kevin turned to Maria. Where those tears in her eyes? "You wouldn't mind would you?"
Maria shook her head. "No. I think it's a great idea," she said, her voice cracking.
"I don't know if I should publish this..." He admitted.
"Why don't you wait? Talk to Eliza. Get to know Michael through her..."
"Will I get to know my mother though you?"
Maria fiercely hugged him. "Yes," she whispered. Maybe just maybe she could start making things right.
THE END.
Author: Gaudicia
E-mail: gaudicia@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: I don't own Roswell.
Rating: PG
Summary: Maria is being interviewed by a reporter.
Author's note: I want to thank Robyn for betain this and Joia for giving me a title. Thanks, guys!
Author's note 2: This has nothing to do with the movie titled Full Disclosure. :)
Full Disclosure
Kevin took out his notes and tape recorder and placed them in front of him and surveyed the apartment. It was quite a change from the outside. The building was run down, in the worst part of town, but once he had stepped inside he had seen the suitable difference. It looked clean, and organized, incense and candles were everywhere. Pictures that he desperately wanted to study hung on the wall.
Maria stared at the young man before her and bitterly smiled. He looked so much like him that it was frightening. If she hadn't known better she would have thought it was a ghost. She took a puff of her cigarette and dragged out the smoke as she exhaled it. "Why do you want to know?" She questioned, taking his attention away from her apartment.
Kevin was glad he was stubborn enough to pursue this. Her hard stare would have made anyone want to run. "Everyone already knows the story behind them. Everyone knows about Antar, and the purpose of the Royal Four coming to Earth, but they don't know their personal lives. How were they like in their adolescence? What did they like? Did they all get along? How did Liz end up married with Max and you with Michael?"
That last question was the one that drove him to seek answers, but it still wasn't the answer Maria wanted to hear. Maybe it still wasn't the time to tell their story. "We made that choice." She made a movement to stand up.
Kevin quickly spoke, not wanting to loose her attention. After so much searching he had found her and he wasn't about to go back without his story, without knowing the truth. "I need to know. ...please."
Maria sat down again and put out her cigarette. Just like his father. The please had been hard for him to say it. She sighed, "It all started the day Liz was shot—"
Kevin immediately looked up from his notes. "Shot?"
Maria briefly allowed a small smile to tug her lips at the bewilderment in his eyes. "Yes, but Max brought her back to life." Maria desperately wanted another cigarette as the memories only got too clear and painful to remember.
"Before that day we had been divided in two groups, Max, Isabel and Michael, the aliens, and us, humans, Alex, Liz and myself. The only two that could say that they've had prior interaction where Liz and Max, and if you call making gooey eyes at each other interaction that's the closest we were." A wistful smile covered Maria's face; everything had been simple then. "But uniting the two groups was hard, we didn't trust each other, and I even feared them. We also came close to losing Alex--and in the end we did."
Kevin inclined his head. It was the second time Alex's named had been mentioned and prior to that evening it was the first time he had heard that name being mentioned. "Who is Alex?"
Maria glared at him for interrupting, but it didn't have quite the effect she hoped, since pain still lingered in her eyes. "A very close and dear friend. A brother. ...you'll understand more soon."
Kevin jotted down what she told him but made sure to put a question mark beside it.
Maria watched him furiously taking notes and couldn't help but stare at him. He looked so much like them. She blinked, realizing what she was doing. "We managed to become a group, more like we divided into couples. I was with Michael and Liz was with Max and Alex tried to be with Isabel." Maria stopped and took a deep breath before continuing. "Liz and Max were soulmates that's what we all thought. Why else would he risk exposure to save her? It was a fairy tale. While Michael and me had the on and off relationship, Liz and Max had the impossible one. There was always something set against them. Even Max himself made it impossible and then came Tess, but you already know that, right?"
Kevin nodded. Tess was Max's supposed to be wife, Antar's queen that ended up selling them to the enemy. He couldn't really blame Maria for the anger in her voice.
Maria gave up and lit a cigarette. "Liz was broken. Max had destroyed her in a sense, but Max and myself...we were too blind to see it. They were meant to be together and Liz never protested, but later I realized that she had, but we had chosen not to hear it. We thought that if they got married it would be better." Maria shook her head. "We were young and stupid, marriage didn't solve anything. I mean, we were going to be on the run, what kind of relationship would that give them? It just stressed things out more."
"On the run?" Kevin asked, once the word actually registered.
Maria didn't care for the interruption. "The FBI was after us. I didn't have to go with them," she said it softly, and there were traces of guilt behind her words. "I just went because I didn't want to be left behind. I envied Liz. She got the powers; she had no choice but to leave. She would have preferred to stay in Roswell. Now that I think back, she envied me, because I could leave at any time."
Kevin looked up from his notes. "Did you?"
She shook her head in denial. "No. I know now it would have been the best thing to do, but I didn't. I stayed and married Michael. He didn't want to marry me and I really didn't want to marry him either, but I just did it. I wanted to have what Liz had. I just still hadn't realized it was a fucked up marriage."
Kevin flinched at the description. "What about Isabel and Kyle?"
Something in Maria's eyes lightened. "They found each other. They were the only ones brave enough to leave us behind and to make a home of their own. They were beautiful together, because they learned to love each other; it was the only happy and pure relationship on our escapade. They were so happy that they were oblivious to what was going on...or maybe they knew but chose to let us figure it ourselves."
Kevin stopped scribbling, his curiosity too strong. "What do you mean?"
Maria stood up. It was so hard to remember those times. "Liz and Max were to the point they didn't talk to one another. Liz really didn't talk to anyone, and Michael and me...we were constantly fighting. It was nothing new, but I got physical. I'm still amazed at the restraint he showed." Maria turned to Kevin. "I may have not been in love with him, but I did love him and after a while we grew to respect each other. But God knows we had a rough time getting there."
Maria noticed he had stopped taking notes and she felt a small pain in her heart. Even though he was 20 years old he looked like an eager child waiting for the end of a fairy tale. "Michael always liked solitude, and Liz was searching for that moment where she could have peace and Michael seemed to give her that. They ended up spending most of their time together.'
"I felt weird and was incredulous, how could they want to spend time together? They didn't talk, they would just sit in silence. At first you could sit an army between them, but each day they would sit a little bit closer, until finally they could whisper to each other. It was amazing to see the change in them. Liz looked like there was life back into her, and Michael, although always alert,seemed more relaxed.'
"I got close to Max, but it was just to speculate and come up with plots that at the time weren't true. Yet after a while I began to enjoy Max's company, we could talk about anything and everything, and I'm sure that's how Michael and Liz felt. But I still didn't like seeing Michael and Liz together and ignored that I was doing the same thing... After a while, I just seemed to forget about them and Max was the purpose of my existence."
Kevin swallowed, this was not something he wanted to hear. "Then why did it all end up so badly?"
"Stubbornness," was the only answer Maria could provide him with. "Just as we have the capacity to love and bring happiness to others we also have the capacity to hate and cause pain."
"So what happened?"
Maria sighed again, her forty years felt like eighty. "We were sick—Max and me, we thought of Michael and Liz as our possessions—objects. We wouldn't see how happy they were together, how they could communicate without words, how Michael was Liz pillar and how Liz could bring him calm. They were able to give each other what they needed. See, for me and Max everything was fine as long as we were fine, but once we had a little misunderstanding we would run back to our respective couples, making their lives impossible."
Maria took another deep breath, and mimicked her youthful words. "We are best friends. Best friends aren't supposed to go after each other's boyfriends. They aren't supposed to be cheating on you. I destroyed her. She stopped spending time with Michael and they were back to being miserable, but I was happy because they were miserable like me." She didn't dare look at Kevin. "I'm not proud of the way I acted and if I could go back in time I would have let them be."
"Did you try and fix it?" He asked with the hope only a naïve child would have.
"No," she admitted, bluntly. "But Liz did find out about me and Max. She got so angry. But she wasn't angry because I took Max away. She was angry because I had dared professed about a best friend code when I, myself, had broken it." Maria clasped her hands. "Everything went to hell from then on.'
"Although Michael and Liz were happy because they could be together, Max couldn't accept that Liz was happy about it. His ego suffered. And like any Kind, he needed to fix that. And for the first time, Max brought up the idea of us going our separate ways. Me with Michael; and him with Liz. I hated him, because I had learned to love him."
"How could he have been so clueless?" Kevin couldn't believe the man that was being described to him.
"He never knew what he had in front of him. He wanted to live in a perfect world. But he was kind enough to allow Michael and Liz one last night together. The next day was hard for both Liz and myself. We had so much to talk about, so little time, so much to forgive, but no idea how to ask for forgiveness. Our friendship was never the same, but we were the only friends we had. Even though we kept contact over the years, and our friendship was brought back to an honest level, it was never back to the full trusting and innocent friendship it once had been."
"You were in contact over the years?" How had he not known this?
"Yes, and so where Michael and Liz and so was I and Max. See, Max was finally able to accept what was going on. Except you were already born, you were five years old and already thought of Max as your father. That was a stability neither wanted to take away from you and Eliza was already on her way."
Kevin was having a hard time processing this. "Eliza? Who's is Eliza?"
Maria grabbed a picture and handed it to him. "She's Max and my child."
Kevin stared at the picture. "Does she know?"
"Yes. I was raised without knowing who my father was. I didn't want her to go through the same thing. If it helps any, Michael, Max, and Liz were going to tell you. The day they were in the car accident Max and Liz had just gotten a divorce."
Kevin nodded. "Their lawyer gave me the papers and that's where I found your address."
"I know." Maria tentatively put her hand on his shoulder. "She wanted you to know the truth."
Kevin set the picture down. "Is that why you told me? It wasn't because I told you I was a reporter."
Maria squeezed his shoulder. "Yes. She always wanted you to know the truth. How could she not want that when she was always seeking the truth herself?"
The door opened and Maria and Kevin turned to the sound.
"Eliza, say hi to Kevin."
Eliza shyly greeted him. "You're Dad's kid, right?"
Kevin swallowed and nodded. "You're Max's?"
And Eliza also nodded in return.
Kevin could feel his palms sweating. "Maybe you can tell me about Michael and I can tell you about Max?"
"I would like that." She looked at her mother and then at Kevin. "I have to go, homework." And she rushed out of the room.
Kevin turned to Maria. Where those tears in her eyes? "You wouldn't mind would you?"
Maria shook her head. "No. I think it's a great idea," she said, her voice cracking.
"I don't know if I should publish this..." He admitted.
"Why don't you wait? Talk to Eliza. Get to know Michael through her..."
"Will I get to know my mother though you?"
Maria fiercely hugged him. "Yes," she whispered. Maybe just maybe she could start making things right.
THE END.
