Max and Liz fic

Chapter One: Between Contractions

"Ahhh!!! Damn it Maria, this car is not going fast enough!" Maria De Luca looked sympathetically at her best friend. Maria herself had never been pregnant and could only guess how painful these oddly close contractions were, but there was nothing Maria could do to speed up New York traffic. Maria moved her eyes to the automatic clock on her dashboard, it's red neon lights read 11:30. She fought back a smile; it was almost funny traffic was this bad this late at night. She and Liz Parker had only lived in New York for a little over nine months when Liz realized she was pregnant. And her idiot cousin dropped off the face of the earth, Maria added scornfully. He was probably screwing some virgin in Las Vegas right now, the fact that his child was possibly being born at that very moment not even in the deepest recesses of his mind. Without trying Maria's mind fell on to Max Evans, something that she and Liz had in common was that they both compared Sean to Max. And Maria knew for a fact that if the child pushing Liz's vagina was his not only would he be there holding her hand and whispering sweet nothings in to her ear trying to get her mind off the pain but he'd be using his alien super powers to have them in front of the hospital at that very moment.

"Lizzie, if I could get these cars to move any faster I would." Maria answered softly moving her hand back to grab Liz's, and squeezed it reassuringly. As Liz did her best to start her Lamaze breathing during a brake between contractions she smiled at Maria for her thought.

Nodding she said, "I know Maria, I know you would." Liz laughed uncomfortably, "It's times like this I wish one of us was still dating an alien who actually could get the cars to move faster."

"Like Michael's powers would have improved enough to get us there." Maria joked. But the only reaction she got out of Liz was to watch her forget about Lamaze completely and start staring into space; something Maria had grown to know as what happened when she started thinking of that other male alien they use to know.

Liz took a deep breath, "Max would have." She whispered so softly Maria wouldn't have been able to hear her if she hadn't been listening for it. Whispering something emotional about Max was what always came next after the "Max Stare" as she had become accustomed to calling it.

Maria smiled sadly at the brunette in the back seat of her new Volkswagen Bug, "I know Chica. I know." She realized suddenly she hadn't been paying the least attention to the road because of concern for Liz. Looking out the window again she found that the long line of cars in front of her hadn't moved an inch. "This is bull." She said shaking her head. Maria squeezed Liz's hand quickly as she heard Liz's whimpers of another contraction coming and pulled away she bent down and grabbed her cell phone out of her purse and dialed Beth Israel Memorial Hospital. She was going to get an ambulance out there if it killed her; Liz was not going to have her baby in that car.

After four rings a woman's voice picked up, "Beth Israel Memorial Hospital."

"Yeah hi. Elizabeth Parker is going into labor and the contractions are coming really fast now and I thought I could drive he to the hospital and now we're stuck in unmoving traffic on Third Street and Main and I don't want her to have this baby in the car." Maria explained frantically, "Send an ambulance truck now."

"Okay we'll send one right now and set up a room for Miss Parker. Tell her to hold on and that someone will be there in a minute." The woman answered calmly.

Maria nodded her head quickly, "Thank you; thank you! Okay, bye."

Suddenly the woman practically screamed, "Oh, wait!"

"What, what, what?"

"I just thought I should warn you," the woman said her voice back to that freaky calmness that all people that work at a hospital seemed to possess. "Miss Parker's doctor, Doctor Sullivan is out of town on vacation so we're going to have to send someone else."

Maria nodded her head again, "Sure, okay. Thank you." Maria glanced back at her friend who was clutching her abdomen. For the first time Maria noticed said abdomen was starting to spasm slightly. Should she have told the receptionist that? Was it a bad thing? Was Liz having some sort of birth failure? "Do those hurt Liz?" Maria asked taking Liz's hand back in her own and giving another reassuring squeeze.

Liz opened her eyes; she had been squeezing them closed through every contraction yet. "The spasms?" Liz asked weakly.

Maria nodded.

"Not really, they're just obvious more then painful. My body knows those aren't normal." Maria tried to give a smile that showed all the trust that Liz was going to be fine that she didn't possess. From the look Liz gave her as she closed her eyes again Maria figured it didn't come out that way.

"The ambulance truck should be here any minute Lizzie. The receptionist said that they were sending a doctor with it so if anything's wrong you'll have help right away."

A frightened look appeared on Liz's face, "Do you think there's something wrong?"

Maria shook her head vigorously, "No, no, no! Liz I'm sure your perfect, and that the baby's fine, and don't worry I was just saying that… you'll be fine. Believe me." Liz nodded although it was obvious to Maria she wasn't confident at all. Neither was Maria.

~*~

"Mr. Evans! Mr. Evans, you're needed in the ambulance truck, right now!" Max Evans turned his head to the right, where a very frantic Megan Albright was running towards him. Her short, slightly chubby form bounced as she ran, "A pregnant woman is stuck in unmoving traffic on Third and Main. Her doctor is in the Bahamas right now and you're the only one left trained in pregnant emergencies."

Max's mind went from doctor waiting around in an empty ER waiting room to doctor with an emergency to handle in a split second. Standing up Max asked, "Is anything other then she's in a car that's seriously wrong with her?" Megan shook her head sending her long blond hair flying around her head as she took Max by the hand to lead him to a waiting truck.

"No, nothing, but…" Megan was cut of as the truck took off without Max fully inside of it.

"Never mind, Meg!" Max called to the woman who looked shocked that the vehicle moved so quickly, "I'll find out when I get there. Remember I like surprises!" Max laughed lightly and closed the door swinging around in the cold New York night air.

Max sat down next to one of the graveyard shift EMTs Eddy. He just looked at him, silently asking for the 411 on the pregnant woman. For less then five seconds Eddy just stared back with a blank look on his face before shacking his head and read of the chart in his hands, "Elizabeth Parker, 29 years old, nine and a half months, and Dr. Sullivan's her regular." Max said nothing; his mind was focused on one thing, or more precisely, one person. Liz… Was it possible this woman was she? No, Max reasoned, Elizabeth is a fairly popular name, and so is Parker. It's just a coincidence. A normal person wouldn't have reflected back to their high school sweetheart if their latest patent happened to share the same name as her; Max just happened to still be in love with his.

"Oh." Max said quietly. Eddy looked at him questioningly. "Where's her car again?"

Eddy stared at him for a second more. "Uh, Third and Main, we should be there in less then a minute," he answered. As if one cue the truck pulled to a stop. Max automatically flew up, opened the door and jumped out. As a few more EMTs pulled out a stretcher and fallowed him.

Max was not prepared for the sight before him: Maria De Luca waving her hands around her head frantically at the truck as if they hadn't seen the car yet. Absently Max smiled as he ran around cars to reach the BMW, same old Maria. The only real differences was her hair, which was longer, her body, which looked slightly trimmer then the last time he saw her, and her face, that simply looked older; more experienced; tired. As she caught sight of him her hands fell from around her head and her jaw dropped open.

Maria just stared at him as he ran towards her, the look of shock on her face seeming to grow. "Max?" She yelled. "Holly shit, it's Max!"

Max was just as shocked. If the name of the woman in labor was Elizabeth Parker, and Maria was the one driving the car she was stuck in, that meant… Liz, his little Lizzie was sitting in the back seat of that yellow bug having contractions. Max ignored the pain burning through him at the thought of someone else impregnating Liz and threw open the back seat of the car. Suddenly he was face to face with Liz. Her brown doe eyes started at his face. "Max…" a small smile fell upon her face, "you came, you're here." Moving out her hand to touch his face she said, "I knew god would answer my prayers and bring you back to me… I just knew it."