Liz stood in line at the most charming ice cream stand. It was a small, boxy stand with a set of wheels on the left and posts like table legs holding it up on the bottom right of the cart. The white cart with a blue awning overhead represented both small town living and retro charm. Two waist-high handles on the right, where the cart could be lifted and moved to another area like a wheelbarrow, seemed forgotten. Weeds wound around both the wheels and the legs, establishing that this ice cream stand remained firmly planted in this spot for quite some time.
It'd been about 20 years since Liz, Max, Michael, Isabel, Maria, Jesse and Kyle packed up in a van and left her hometown of Roswell for good. Over the years, the group dwindled. Max and Liz were the duo out doing good deeds. While the group's lessons learned in Roswell helped them stay one step ahead of the law, after a couple years it became clear that the heroics of Max and Liz attracted the government's pursuit and fueled the need to never stay in one place too long.
After nearly four years on the road, Isabel and Jesse wanted out first. While staying in Suncook, New Hampshire, the gang went for lunch at a local pizza café. A couple of boys playing an arcade video game caught Liz's attention and triggered a vision about one of the boys.
When she first discovered her powers, Liz only received a vision if she made physical contact with someone. After the first year, her ability evolved such that merely laying eyes on someone could trigger a vision.
Liz saw the boy from the pizza café hanging out with a small group of children, all climbing a tree hanging over the Merrimack River. This boy ventured out too far from the trunk, causing the branch to snap and the boy to fall into the river where we would get carried away by the current and eventually drown.
Typically when Liz had a vision, only her and Max headed out to save the day. Maria, Kyle and Jesse were powerless and offered little to each operation, despite their willingness to assist if called upon. After leaving Roswell, Isabel rarely used her powers, mostly acting like the humans. Michael, while coming to accept that Max and Liz found their purpose, always thought using their powers around others in that manner was too risky. Being forced to leave Roswell for good finally instilled the lessons of caution and discretion that Max always wanted him to learn. Ironically, Max became the one that felt obligated to use his powers to do some good. Michael felt that doing so could someday attract them to a government sting where they would wind up captured. Liz felt like her visions wouldn't draw her to such an operation, but could never prove it. Max always argued that it was worth the risk to do the right thing. The morality and selflessness, along with his faith in her and her abilities, were among the endless reasons he was the love of her life.
For whatever reason, on this particular day, Isabel asked to join them when it was time to prevent the boy's drowning. They walked from the bed and breakfast to the river and spotted the children playing. They inconspicuously made their way to a group of large shrubs about 10 feet from where the kids played. The fateful tree was just a couple yards from the children. No one spoke. Max and Liz often made conversation in hushed whispers but remained silent. Isabel's presence disrupted their routine process. Liz remembered that Max simply looked focused, peering through the bushes intently at the children. Isabel looked nervous. She shifted her attention between the kids playing and Max. Liz watched the two siblings wondering about the significance of having Isabel along.
As was often the case, the scene changed quickly. With no clear foreshadowing from their vantage point, the kids began sprinting toward the tree. Max's posture stiffened. He momentarily turned toward Liz.
"This is it?" he whispered.
Liz nodded yes. Max turned his attention toward the children climbing the tree. Isabel swallowed hard. Liz turned her attention away from observing Max and Isabel to the scene unfolding before them. She scooted forward right next to Max as Isabel stayed a few inches back. They were too far away to hear the sound of the branch crack. By the time the boy would scream it would be too late. Liz saw it all unfold in her vision and could tip off Max at just the right moment. She saw the boy inching out along the branch getting farther and farther away from the trunk. With each scooch, the branch visibly bent at a more severe arc. Max fidgeted, almost wanting to leap into action.
"Not yet," Liz whispered.
At this point, the boy on the branch looked back at his friends. They shouted something to him. Liz knew the moment was near. The boy looked away from his friends and made one final scooch away from the trunk. The branch was about to snap.
Without a word, Liz put a hand on Max's shoulder. Max quickly stood up. Liz and Isabel slowly rose to their feet as well. They saw the boy grip the branch tightly for just a microsecond, as the branch had just snapped. Reaching out a hand, Max used his powers to prevent the branch from falling into the river. The boy's friends urged him to quickly climb back toward the center of the tree and grabbed their spooked pal once he was close enough to safety. Max put his hand down and the branch fell harmlessly into the river. There was no one else in the area, but the three of them instinctively looked around and then began casually strolling away from the scene. No one saw them.
Liz remembered that as they got further away, Isabel stopped them. She looked Max in the eyes and told him she was proud of him. The siblings exchanged a loving smile and, as they broke away from the moment, Isabel told Liz she was proud of her too. Liz was somewhat distracted during the save, caught up with Isabel's uncharacteristic interest in her and her husband's work. She continued to think about what the significance could be.
As they walked along the Suncook River that ran through the town, heading back toward the bed and breakfast they stayed at, Isabel spotted a charming house overlooking the water. The house featured denim blue sighting with a mostly symmetrical look, a front door in the center, two windows on each side and a small peak above the front door. On the upper right of the house there was a taller peak and smaller window. A walkway through a sizable front yard led up to three steps and a small porch anchored by two white columns with crisscross lattice work making it appear like a series of X's ran down the columns. The front door was white, as was the trim around it and all of the windows, which all included white shutters on each side. The white contrasted nicely with denim blue siding. The house extended quite a ways back as it ran toward the water, making it quite a bit larger than it appeared from the road. The group stopped and spent several minutes admiring it as Isabel raved about what a lovely home it was. Liz noted the "For Sale" sign in the front yard. It seemed like Isabel wanted to approach, but she must've sensed that Liz and Max were ready to get back to the B&B after their heroics.
Liz recalled how two days later, as the gang packed up their van to continue their never-ending adventure, Isabel and Jesse asked to speak with the group. They put a deposit down on that house overlooking the river.
Jesse still retained a significant nest egg from his time practicing law and discreetly connected with some of his legal friends in Boston to secure new identities for him and Isabel. After four years, they'd become weary of life on the road and never gave up on their dream of getting out and starting over.
So with hugs and tearful goodbyes, Max, Liz, Michael, Maria and Kyle drove off in their van, leaving Isabel and Jesse behind.
About two years later, Kyle went out for a night on the town while the gang was stopped just outside Greensboro, North Carolina. Max and Liz were out to squash a house fire started by a middle-aged woman and single mother of three who fell asleep on her couch holding a lit cigarette after a 12-hour shift at a local diner. Michael and Maria decided to go out on a romantic date for two. Kyle wound up meeting Carmen, the local sheriff's daughter. The two quickly bonded over their father's involvement in law enforcement which Kyle would later describe as a love-at-first-sight moment. At Kyle's urging, the gang stayed around for three full days after Max and Liz made the save. The gang would typically stick around a stop anywhere from two to eight weeks to pick up odd jobs and earn some money. After Max and Liz made a save, they would quickly head back to the road, looking to avoid any unwanted attention about the bizarre supernatural forces helping save a local townsperson from some form of danger. When Michael insisted it was time to move on, Kyle announced to the group that he was ready to take a chance on love and stay with Carmen. Another round of hugs and tearful goodbyes ensued.
And then, there were four: Liz, Max, Maria and Michael. For years, Liz thought the four of them would be inseparable for the rest of their lives. By the time they'd left Roswell, the full, original gang was getting along and there were few major spats. Even Michael mellowed some but remained prone to some hot-headed moments. This new, smaller foursome, though, always had a special chemistry. For Liz, she had her soulmate, Max, and her best friend, Maria. Max also had Michael, who Liz always figured was somewhere between a brother and best friend to him.
Less than six months after Kyle's departure, the four of them made a major upgrade from their rickety old van. They purchased a large pickup truck and luxury camper in tow. Max and Michael would use their powers to change the license plates and vehicle colors, so as not to develop a profile with federal law enforcement of their setup being associated with Liz and Max's heroics. The only constant from their original van to the new deluxe camper and pickup was the yellow Roswell bumper stick that read "Thank you for visiting!" and had a graphic of a flying saucer between that phrase and the word "Roswell."
Throughout their travels the group visited all kinds of areas, both rural and urban, small towns and big cities. They felt some measure of safety by being off the beaten path in the smaller towns, but they could blend in and not stand out as strange new visitors in the bigger cities.
Three months prior to their 16th anniversary of leaving Roswell for good, Max decided to pull into Las Vegas. Michael expressed concerned. Maybe it was the proximity to the famed Area 51 and the ensuing alien fanfare. Or maybe it was bad memories from the wildly irresponsible trip to Vegas during junior year of high school to blow all of the Dupree's bribe money. Maria felt excited by the energy of the city and ultimately persuaded Michael that a short stay would be ok. Max and Liz had no strong feelings either way, but Liz quickly supported the decision to stay for a bit because of how important it seemed to Maria.
Michael spent most of the time at the camper trailer, and when he did venture out wanted nothing to do with the famed Las Vegas Strip. Maria, of course, wanted to spend as much time as possible on The Strip. Maria wanted to see a show before they left, and, after a week of pleading with him, Michael stubbornly refused to cave in and go with her. Liz offered to be her date while Max and Michael would hang back at their camper.
During the show, Liz noticed an usher discreetly walking the aisles ensuring everything was in order. Seeing him triggered a vision. She saw him on a break shortly after his inspection of their theater. He stepped out behind the theater to a sidewalk that ran across a small road for some privacy while he called his girlfriend. There, he was fated to encounter a drunk driver that would come around the corner at an unconscionable speed and strike the unsuspecting usher. From her vision, Liz didn't have the details to know if it would be a fatal blow or one that would be debilitating, but it didn't matter. She needed to take action.
At this point in time, they'd been on the road together for nearly 16 years. While Liz learned to be much more subtle in how she reacted to a vision, her best friend immediately knew she'd experienced one. Without even asking for details about the emergency, Maria insisted it would be ok for Liz to excuse herself to do a heroic deed. Liz remembered an irrational feeling of unease leaving Maria, which was out of character for her. At the time she thought maybe some of Michael's paranoia rubbed off on her. She did her best to push the feeling aside and stepped out to contact Max.
The gang never used traditional cell phones. Liz rigged phones that were in use by the four of them to basically function like walkie talkies as long as they were within a 10 mile radius. Concerned that the government could track their movements and listen in on their conversations, they resigned to never using a cell phone with a major carrier. Fortunately, Max drove their pickup to the theater to drop off Liz and Maria, and he planned to head back to pick them up as their show let out. Liz reached Max and told him to hustle out to the theater to save the usher.
Max arrived in time and attempted to use his powers to alter the trajectory of the car enough to avoid the collision. It worked and the car missed the usher but crashed into another building a few yards down the road. The usher spotted them. While uninjured, he was pretty shaken up. In an effort partly to avoid suspicion, Liz and Max stuck around to comfort the usher and wait for an ambulance to arrive to render assistance to the drunk driver, who sustained minor injuries in the crash.
By the time the save wrapped up, over an hour passed since the show ended. Liz immediately started to worry and that feeling of unease returned when she couldn't reach Maria. She thought maybe she found a ride back to the camper. Max drove them back to the camper, but Michael was there alone and hadn't heard from Maria.
The next day, Maria reached Liz. She was in the hospital. Because she didn't know where Liz went to make the save, she'd wondered around The Strip alone looking for her. Instead, she found trouble. She was beaten and raped. Rendered unconscious, whoever found Maria called an ambulance and she was taken to the hospital. Everyone felt deep pangs of guilt, especially Liz and Michael.
Liz questioned her powers as much as she ever had other than when she first discovered them. Back then, she'd questioned what was wrong with her and if she could go back to normal. After the attack on Maria, she questioned what was wrong with her powers. Why didn't she receive a vision about Maria? She wondered how many people she encountered that were destined to face impending danger and never triggered a vision, and why some circumstances might trigger a vision, while others did not. If she wanted her powers to help save anyone, she wanted to be able to save the people she loved. She wished they could've helped her save Maria.
The weeks following Maria's attack were difficult for everyone. At first Liz worried about Maria's mental state. Would she feel shame? Embarrassment? Anger at her, Michael or both of them for making decisions that ultimately left her vulnerable? But Maria leaned on all of them for support as she recovered, which impressed Liz at her friend's maturity and perspective on the awful situation.
When Maria found out she was pregnant, it was a devastating blow and a step back in her healing process. For almost the first two weeks she only confided in Liz, and Liz kept her confidence, even from Max. Several times Michael or Max would ask what was wrong with Maria, why was she losing the progress she made in overcoming the horrific attack. Liz would just remind them that it was going to take a lot of time. When Maria reached the point where she was ready to tell Michael, she decided that she intended to keep the baby and raise her (it turned out to be a girl).
Michael, to his credit, and also in true Michael fashion, became as supportive as ever when she needed him most. One of the first decisions the couple made was that they could not raise their daughter on the road. In the most difficult departure yet, Liz and Max said one final goodbye to Maria and Michael at a rest stop along Route 160 just outside of Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.
And so for roughly the last four years it was just Liz and Max. Compared to when they first left Roswell, Liz felt isolated from the rest of her life. While it's true that if she was going to travel about the country with only one person, she would pick Max, the absence of other family and friends left both of them feeling a sense of disconnection from their lives. Just as they'd done with their families in Roswell, they in no way kept in touch with Isabel and Jesse, Kyle or Maria and Michael, knowing that it wouldn't be safe. Liz and Max discussed stopping the constant travel. After all, the road warrior life was always trying at times and even more so without any of the others. But Max knew his alien identity was compromised more than Michael and Isabel, meaning he could never rest easy even if he wanted to settle down into one area. And both he and Liz agreed that they could never see themselves ignoring Liz's visions and not helping people in need. Logically, if they tried to settle down anywhere, repeated saves in the same area would lead to suspicion and draw unwanted attention from the US government, which remained very much interested in capturing them even after all these years. So they pressed on with this life, even in the absence of the joy they once felt sharing their adventures with their core Roswell family. For Liz, it's not that she was unhappy with Max, but she started to at times experience a gnawing feeling of a lack of fulfillment from their saves and constant moving.