Part Nine
Max walked back to his jeep, which he'd left opposite the Crashdown before his shift. When he'd told Liz he had to leave, he'd intended on going straight home and shutting himself in his room to think, but as he made his way across the street, he realised that Isabel would most likely be waiting for him there and as much as he loved his sister, he really wasn't in the mood for company at this particular moment.
So when he got into the vehicle and started the engine, he found himself heading in the opposite direction. It took a few minutes for his brain to register exactly where he was going and why, but as he left the town behind and drove through the desert; he became more and more focused on his destination: the Pod Chamber.
He had to see the Granilith again, to figure out if there was anything he'd missed before; anything that might indicate it's purpose or it's ability to travel through time.
He was determined as he pulled up in front of the rocks that housed the pod chamber. As he strode across the desert floor and began the climb up the rocks to the concealed entrance of his birthplace, he was so focused on his task that he completely missed the other vehicle parked a few hundred yards from his own.
Max reached the rock face that contained the hidden door and waved his right hand over the spot where he knew the silver handprint would appear. The rock slid across to reveal the cave and he stepped inside.
Immediately he could sense that something was off. He wasn't alone in the chamber. Someone else was here.
He couldn't see anyone, but he could sense them. A quick glance around the small, empty cavern told him that the intruder must have found the other chamber. He cautiously crept towards the entrance to the Granilith and peered inside.
He let out a sigh of relief.
It was Tess.
She was sat with her back against the wall staring at the glowing object in front of her, her knees pulled up to her chest.
Max quietly stepped inside the small room and observed her for a second before he spoke.
"Tess?"
She jumped slightly and her head whipped round to face him.
"Max! You scared me," she said.
"I'm sorry," he apologised. "What are you doing here?"
"Not much, just thinking," she replied, her eyes leaving Max's face and settling on the Granilith once again. "You?"
"Oh, I, er…" Max fumbled. He couldn't tell her about his recent conversation with Liz, or the reason he'd come here. "I just wanted to check out something up here," he thought quickly. "I couldn't sleep," he added as if in explanation.
"Oh," was all she said.
Max moved closer to her and took a seat on the floor a couple of yards away. He couldn't stand there all night, but he still wasn't all that comfortable being alone with her in such a small, enclosed space.
"So, what were you thinking about," he asked.
She appeared deep in thought for a moment before turning to him once again. "Max, I want to apologise to you for last night." Max frowned, but let her continue. "I shouldn't have come to see you out of the blue like that. It was insensitive of me. I don't know what I was thinking."
"Yes it was, Tess," he agreed carefully, wondering what brought this on. "Why are you telling me this now?"
She sighed, looking away again, "I've just been feeling so confused lately. It's like I'm missing something, like moments in time, but I don't know why and it scares me."
He froze. "What do you mean, moments in time?"
She shook her head. "I'm not sure really. It's just…" she trailed off, searching for the right words. "Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, it takes me a few moments to remember what I did the night before and other times I'll just drift off in the middle of the day, like I'm in a daydream and I don't even notice the time passing."
Max's head was spinning now. Not only had he just had the strangest, mind-boggling conversation of his life with Liz, now his supposed ex from another planet was telling him stories of missing memories and passages of time.
It was too much for his brain to deal with. He closed his eyes briefly to calm himself.
"Look, Tess," he said quietly. "We've all been through a lot this past week. You know, maybe it's just stress," he tried to reason, but he didn't think he sounded very convincing.
It most likely wasn't stress. Both he and Tess knew that, but he also wasn't in the right frame of mind at this time to consider any other possibilities or causes.
Tess managed a brief nod, an acknowledgement that she'd heard him, but her expression was wary.
Max noticed this and felt the need to apologise. "I'm sorry, I've not exactly had a great night tonight and I really not feel capable of thinking clearly about this today. I've got some stuff going on right now, how about we sit down and talk about this in a couple of days when we're both feeling up to it?"
She nodded again, resigned. When he'd shown up a few minutes ago, she'd hoped that he'd be able to help her, that he might care enough about her to assist her in her problems. No such luck, however. Something was obviously bothering him and she'd bet her life that it had something to do with Liz Parker.
"Sure, okay. A couple of days." She said as she stood up. She had no desire to stay any longer.
"Where are you going?"
She shrugged. "I'm going home, Max. I've had enough of sitting here in the dark, contemplating my life for one night. But you stay, by all means. Don't worry about me," she told him and walked quickly out of the room.
"Tess?" Max questioned worriedly, but she was already gone.
Once outside the chamber, she broke into a half-run as she scrambled down the rocks towards her car. Why had she ever thought he would take an interest in her problems and help her?
Back inside the cave, Max was bewildered. What had just happened here? And why did he suddenly feel like it was his fault?
He let out an exhausted sigh and leaned his head back against the silver coloured wall.
Everything was even more messed up than before.
An hour later, Liz was still lying on her bed, one hand hugging a pillow to her chest. Her cheeks were stained with now dry tears and her eyes were fixed on the object held in her other hand.
It was the strip of photos of her and Max. The one she'd told Future Max was private all those months ago.
She sighed. Man, she really needed someone to talk to about this. She reached across for the phone on her bedside table and dialled a number she knew by heart.
"Maria? Hey, it's me. I really need to talk to you. Can you come over?" she asked and then listened for Maria's response. "Okay, I'll see you in a few. Thanks, Maria."
Liz returned the phone to its cradle and sat up. She looked down at the mess of papers and stationary scattered across the bed in front of her. Maria would be here with in a matter of minutes and her room was in complete disarray. Tiredly, she began tidying the clutter and attempted to get place looking more presentable.
Maria was the only person she could talk to about this, the only one who knew the truth. Despite the unspoken agreement between Max and Liz that they would not involve anyone else in their investigation, she couldn't continue feeling the way she did about the whole situation and not confide in her best friend. She needed reassurance that she'd done the right thing by telling Max what she had.
She was still straightening the room when Maria arrived fifteen minutes later. Abandoning her task, Liz let her friend in and they both took a seat on Liz's bed.
"So hun, what was so important that you had to drag me away from an evening in with Michael?" Maria asked, watching her carefully. Something was definitely up with her. She looked tired and drawn.
"An evening in…? Maria, why didn't you tell me you were busy? I wouldn't have asked you to come over if I'd known!" exclaimed Liz.
Maria made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "Lizzie, you're my best friend. I'm not going to just abandon you for Michael when you obviously need me," she rolled her eyes. "You know me better than that."
"But what about Michael?" Liz wondered.
"Oh, he's just fine. Probably making small talk with my mother as we speak," she shrugged.
"You left him at your place? Alone with your mother?" Liz was both incredulous and slightly amused at the thought of Michael and Amy DeLuca trying to hold a friendly conversation.
"Hey, I'll have you know that my mother and my boyfriend are getting along just fine at the moment!" Maria replied indignantly, but then her face softened, a smile gracing her features. "He's just been so great to us both this past week, and my mom seems to have finally accepted him." She gave Liz a 'who would've thought it?' look and rolled her eyes again.
Liz smiled softly. She was glad her friend had someone to look after her, someone to love her. "That's great, Maria," she agreed.
"So, enough about me. Come on then, girl, tell me what's up."
Liz sighed. It was now or never. "Okay. Look, I know I promised yesterday that I wouldn't involve you in all this, but something's come up with the whole Alex situation."
Maria sighed. She couldn't think about this again now, it was all too fresh in her mind. "Liz, please don't," she implored, shaking her head.
Liz looked up at her sympathetically. She hated to upset her best friend, especially when she'd already agreed not to bring up the subject again. "Maria, this is something I have to say, okay. It involves more than just a theory I have. It's gotten complicated and I really need to talk to you about it. Please understand, I'm not doing this to hurt you or spite you. I just don't know what to do," she broke off, the day's events catching up to her once again.
Maria took a closed her eyes and took deep breath. When she opened them again, her expression was softer. "Okay, Liz, just hit me with it - I'll deal." A thought suddenly struck her, "Wait; does this have something to do with the fact that Max picked you up from the Crashdown this morning? Cos last I saw, you two were at each other's throats," she said, eyeing Liz suspiciously.
Liz smiled in relief and began. "It kind of has to do with Max, yeah," she admitted first. "What I didn't tell you yesterday was that Max came to see me at the Crashdown Thursday night. He wanted to apologise for what he said at the wake and I needed to say sorry to him for getting riled up like I did. Anyway, I was kind of upset when he arrived, so he helped me calm down and then told me that he wanted to help me find out what happened to Alex."
Maria interrupted at this point. "He wanted to help? But he was the one who was adamant that it was just an accident!"
"Yeah, well he told me that I was right, that he hadn't wanted to believe it because he did feel responsible. But he realised that there was a possibility that something else could have happened and that he wanted to do what he could to help." She paused, awaiting Maria's reaction.
"Wow," she exhaled. "Never would've thought he'd back down like that," she mused. "You must have more influence over him than he lets on, Liz," she grinned.
Now it was Liz's turn to roll her eyes, but she ignored the comment and continued. "So, anyway, we talked at school yesterday and decided to go to Alex's today, you know, to see if we could find anything. That's where we went after we left the Crash this morning," she clarified.
"So, not that I agree with what you did, but did you? Find anything, I mean."
Liz let her eyes sweep over the room as she thought about what exactly they had found. "Yeah, we did, although we don't know what it means yet. I don't have to tell you about it if you don't want me to."
Maria was surprised. She hadn't expected that they would actually discover anything unusual. As far as she was concerned there was nothing to suggest that it had been anything other than a car crash. And she didn't think her brain was quite ready to cope with the implications of evidence to the contrary.
"If you've really found something, Liz, then I guess I should know what it is. But not just yet, okay? Give me a few minutes to process all this first," she lowered her head, cupping her forehead with her hand.
Liz nodded in understanding, but she was glad that Maria was willing to listen. "Okay, I can do that. It's not actually the biggest problem right now anyway."
Maria lifted her head in question.
"I realised something today, about Future Max."
Maria's brow furrowed. "Future Max?" She was confused. What did Future Max have to do with this?
"Earlier, when Max was here – "
She was interrupted. "Wait! Max was here? As in here, in this room?" she exclaimed and received a nod from Liz. "Why?"
Liz sighed, at this rate she was never going to get her story out. "Yes, he was here. He had to work this afternoon, so he came over afterwards so we could discuss what we'd found at Alex's," she explained but quickly continued so she didn't get interrupted again. "But while he was here, I remembered something that Future Max told me. He said that when we got married, everyone drove to Phoenix to celebrate with us. Everyone," she stressed. "Including Alex."
She let that sink in.
Maria looked confused for a moment, but then realisation dawned. "Liz, you can't possibly think – "
"That I'm responsible for Alex's death? Yeah, I did think that at first, but Max made me realise that I'm not. Not directly anyway."
"Max did? But then that means…" she trailed off. "You told him?"
Liz nodded. "I had to. I was upset and he was right there. I couldn't not tell him what was wrong, I was practically in tears."
"So then he knows about your visit from the future?" she asked.
"Yes, but not – " She was interrupted by the ringing of Maria's cell phone. She was sent an apologetic glance as her friend reached into her purse and pulled out the offending object.
Liz let her mind wander as Maria answered the phone. She was eager to finish their conversation and get her dilemma out in the open. Luckily Maria's call only lasted a couple of minutes.
"…Okay, bye." Maria hung up the phone and turned to Liz. "Liz, I'm so sorry, I really have to get home. I think my mother's about to kill Michael." She apologised. "I know we're in the middle of this, but can we finish it tomorrow? Please?"
Liz sighed and reluctantly nodded. The longer she waited to confide in someone, the more she would go over and over it in her mind. "Okay, sure. You go save your boyfriend," she managed a weak smile.
"Thanks hun," Maria bent to give her a quick hug before collecting her purse and standing up. "And we will definitely finish this tomorrow," she vowed. "I'm so sorry for standing you up like this."
"It's okay," Liz's reply fell on deaf ears as Maria rushed out of the room, cursing whoever's ingenious idea it was to leave Michael at her place, with her mother no less, while she was out.
Liz watched her leave with a heavy heart. She'd wanted some advice regarding her actions. She wanted to know if she was doing the right thing and was now feeling no better than she had been earlier.
She also hadn't had the chance to tell Maria that Max didn't know the whole story yet.
TBC…
