Part 19
Liz stood near the open door, watching the road leading up to Atherton's anxiously. She expected Kyle's familiar tan all-terrain vehicle to appear at any moment. It had been close to an hour since they had last spoken to him and he had to be only minutes away by now.
When Max had first told her that Dan had followed the others, her first instinct had been to deny it. She had known that he was upset, but he had told her that he trusted her, that he would let her deal with the Max situation for a couple of days before he started to freak out.
She had believed him. Because she knew that he trusted her. It was the basis of their relationship. But his actions over the past few hours clearly demonstrated that he [I]didn't[/I].
And the absolute worst part of it all was that he shouldn't. She had done absolutely nothing over the past twenty-four hours that should prompt him to continue to trust her. But she was still hurt - and angry.
She was most angry because his behavior meant that she had to leave Ben. And she had every intention of figuring out a way to return to Alex's son as quickly as possible.
None of this had anything to do with Max Evans at all. He was the furthest thing from her mind right now. His threats that he was going to find a way to win her back - they were just that. She was not going to give into him. He could watch her with those dark eyes of his as much as wanted to. The longing in them, the love, they did not appeal to her at all.
He made her lose control of herself. It was good that she was getting away from him for a while. She needed some air, some space to regroup.
She needed some time to try and get her emotions back under control. He had her in constant upheaval. She [I]hated[/I] it.
She was still furious at Max, had actually refused to speak to him since he had told her about Dan. She had spent the last couple of hours with Ben, just hanging out, playing with the deck of cards the little boy had in his backpack and talking. Max had been around of course, but Liz had not exchanged two words with him. He had basically left them alone anyway, spending most of his time checking in with Michael on the phone, so it had been easy to ignore him.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. He was certainly not [I]easy[/I] to ignore. But she had done her best.
They had finally spoken while they had made plans for the exchange - Liz for Michael, Maria and Isabel. Dan had actually been pleased it seemed when Kyle had shown up at the truck stop. Michael had told them so the last time they had spoken to him. It was [I]Dan[/I], in fact, who had insisted that Kyle go get Liz. This had actually worked out well because Max and Ben could not be left without transportation until the others arrived. It was too dangerous. Kyle had agreed to come and get her and to then drive her back to the truck stop, which was only a couple of hour's drive away it turned out - the others had been more than three quarters of the way to Marathon before they had noticed Dan. It must have been a miracle that they noticed him at all.
Liz wondered momentarily when her fiancé had turned into such a good spy.
And so, it was a convoluted plan, but it was the only way to accomplish this without bringing Dan to Atherton's, as he still refused to let Michael, Maria and Isabel leave without him.
Liz was actually mildly grateful that Michael had not yet blasted him. She had known that her fiancé could be hard-nosed and tenacious - it was what had gotten him to the top of his field at such a young age - but it had been the first time that any of her friends had witnessed it. She knew that most of them had liked Dan before this whole fiasco had taken place, but she was fairly sure that their opinions were rapidly changing.
She had just sighed in exasperation when Max had told her that apparently Dan wanted Kyle to [I]arrest[/I] Max too. The smirk on Max's face [I]when[/I] he mentioned it had annoyed her even more.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" She had snapped at Max, grabbing the phone from him, wanting to speak to Michael herself, but Max's best friend had already hung up.
"Not especially." Max had replied, but he had still looked mildly amused. "I don't like the fact that your fiancé is putting everyone in danger." Liz had glanced at him guiltily. "But, it is quite interesting to see you try and deal with him."
"And what exactly is [I]that[/I] supposed to mean?" She had demanded, her back up instantly. She had not yet spoken directly to Dan after all. Max had no idea what he was talking about.
"It's means whatever you want it to mean." He had returned, smiling innocently and disappearing into Atherton's old office under the dome. Liz wasn't really sure what he was doing down there, but as she moved back into the house now, she could still hear him rummaging around beneath her. Ben had joined him a few minutes ago and Liz could hear their voices rising and falling now as she glanced impatiently at her watch.
How could someone be so eager for something to happen and yet so completely [I]not[/I] eager at the same time?
She wanted Kyle to arrive so that she could go and appease Dan, so that she could try and fix their relationship, which was very quickly falling apart, all due to her own actions.
But, on the other hand, she didn't want to go anywhere. A small part of her just wanted to wash her hands of the whole thing, wanted to call Dan up and tell him to get lost.
And the scariest part of all was that, if she didn't know for a fact that if she did so Dan would track her down, that he would be even [I]more[/I] convinced that Max was holding her against her will somehow, she would have done it. Because, even though she loved him, she knew that the safety and security being with him offered was slowly becoming the least appealing of the options in front of her.
She had been bored with him even [I]before[/I] Max had returned. It was only now - now that she had no choice but to face her real feelings - that she realized that a large part of her dissatisfaction with her job at Harvard had been dissatisfaction with life in general with Dan.
She had forgotten what it felt like to have your heart beat so fast in your chest in the company of another, that you almost felt high. She had forgotten the feeling of your blood rushing through your body at hyperspeed simply when another person's hand brushed against you. She had forgotten that waking up in another person's arms could feel like heaven and hell and [I]home[/I] all at the same time.
It didn't matter that she presently hated Max Evans's guts. He still did that to her. She was twenty-six years old, no longer eighteen, and she wanted him as much now as she had then. Dan had [I]never[/I] made her feel that way, not even in their most intimate moments.
Max had managed to do it in the space of twenty-four hours. With merely a look.
But desire was not enough. She could not risk her heart again. She had told Max that and she truly believed it. The pain the last time she had lost him had been so intense, the feeling of betrayal so bitter, the only way she had been able to survive it had been to shut out the way she felt about him completely. She had [I]made[/I] herself forget what it was like to be with him.
She had made herself forget what it felt like to be alive.
When she had mused to herself a couple of days ago that she would be [I]more[/I] concerned about her future marriage if she [I]couldn't[/I] think about Max, she had been lying.
Because she had not really been thinking about [I]him[/I] at all - not about Max. She had been remembering him as a high school boyfriend, as someone who had been the be all and end of all of her life at the time, but who had faded from her heart, because he had not been anything truly special at all. He had been exciting and dangerous and it had seemed like there could be no one else in the universe to match him, but she had told herself that she was older now, too mature for stupid adolescent romanticism. Max was not the only one for her.
She had been kidding herself.
Being with him...Just being in his presence, she remembered now that it was so much more than that. She had shut it all out, but she could not deny it any longer.
The connection that existed between them... It was magical. It could not be replaced, could not be forgotten, could not be denied.
But it could be ignored. For self-preservation, it [I]had[/I] to be ignored.
She [I]would[/I] ignore it. And that was all there was to it.
Sighing wearily, she watched as Kyle's vehicle finally appeared in the distance, the gravel it stirred up having long heralded his approach. The sun was low in the west. Liz felt a pang of guilt that by the time Michael, Isabel and Maria finally made it here, it would have been close to twenty-four hours since she and Max had left them.
Because of Dan, and as a consequence her, her friends had been in danger.
She heard Max and Ben approaching from behind her, Max obviously having heard Kyle's police vehicle. She didn't turn to look, simply went out the door and waited for Kyle to pull to a stop in front of her.
But she should have known that leaving would not be as easy as that.
As Kyle hopped out of the car, throwing his deputy's hat onto his head as he did so, she glanced down as she felt a small hand slide into hers.
"You're coming back - right?" Ben asked, his blue eyes staring up at her guilelessly. She glanced sharply at Max, whose expression was grim. She didn't even know why she had done it. She knew that Max would never have used his son in this way. He didn't have to anyway.
They all knew she was coming back.
"Definitely." Liz replied gently. She smiled slightly, raised a hand and brushed a cobweb out of Ben's blond curls. "What the heck were you guys doing down there?"
"Dad was looking for something." Ben told her. "I don't think he found it."
Liz frowned slightly in Max's direction, but he was not even looking at her anymore, instead was speaking quietly to Kyle.
"Well, you sure made yourself dirty for nothing then." Liz teased. Ben just continued to stare at her, a confused and scared expression on his face. He didn't understand any of what was going on - why she had to leave, why she and Max were so weird around each other.
All he knew was that someone who was supposed to care about him was leaving him when his life was in danger. It was breaking her heart.
She crouched down, until her eyes were level with his. "I will be back. I have a lot more stuff to tell you about Alex you know. It's my job." She felt tears filling her eyes and, for the first time, she felt a stab of real hate for Dan - that he was making her leave Ben.
He couldn't know what was going on, had no idea the pain he was causing her, was only doing what any man in his right mind would do if their fiancée started acting like a maniac. And yet, she could not forgive him for this.
"I believe you." Ben nodded. He hesitated for a moment and then threw himself against her, almost knocking them both over into the dust. "I love you Liz."
"I love you too." She whispered, stroking his head lovingly.
Over Ben's shoulder, she could see both Max and Kyle watching them now, Kyle looking sad, Max expressionless.
"C'mon Benny." Max finally called out after Liz had clutched Ben to her heart for a period that seemed far too short. "The sooner Liz leaves, the sooner she'll be back."
Liz slowly pulled away, stood up. Kyle was making his way back to his side of the sheriff's department vehicle as Max came over and picked Ben up. The little boy threw his arms around his father's neck, buried his head on his shoulder, but continued to watch Liz out of the corner of his eye.
"I [I]will[/I] be back." She told Max calmly as their eyes met.
He didn't say anything. She frowned slightly, turned, started to move towards the car. At the last moment, before she was beyond his reach, she felt something brush against her.
It was Max of course. Her entire body - her entire [I]being[/I] - told her so.
She did not turn around.
If she turned around, it would be all over. She would throw herself into his arms, all her good intentions, all her resolutions to be strong, to preserve her heart, would be damned.
It was not until she was seated in the passenger seat beside Kyle, silence permeating the vehicle, not until the dome had completely disappeared from sight, that she reached into her pocket and pulled out what she [I]knew[/I] Max had put there.
She held it up, saw Kyle glance sideways at it.
The setting sun poured through the front windshield as they drove west, back towards the highway, striking the object in her hand squarely and almost blinding them both.
But she knew exactly what it was. It was a ring.
Not just [I]any[/I] ring. The symbol that graced it's jewel, cool and blue, was a perfect replica of the symbol that had been carved into the pendant Max had given her so long ago - before he had almost left her the first time.
It was the whirlwind galaxy.
And suddenly, without any explanation, Max's voice seemed to drift through her mind, through her very being. He was whispering in her ear, his breath warm against her neck, sending a chill down her spine. She could [I]hear[/I] him as she stared at the jewel, tears in her eyes.
[I]I give you my home in exchange for your heart.[/I]
To be continued...
Liz stood near the open door, watching the road leading up to Atherton's anxiously. She expected Kyle's familiar tan all-terrain vehicle to appear at any moment. It had been close to an hour since they had last spoken to him and he had to be only minutes away by now.
When Max had first told her that Dan had followed the others, her first instinct had been to deny it. She had known that he was upset, but he had told her that he trusted her, that he would let her deal with the Max situation for a couple of days before he started to freak out.
She had believed him. Because she knew that he trusted her. It was the basis of their relationship. But his actions over the past few hours clearly demonstrated that he [I]didn't[/I].
And the absolute worst part of it all was that he shouldn't. She had done absolutely nothing over the past twenty-four hours that should prompt him to continue to trust her. But she was still hurt - and angry.
She was most angry because his behavior meant that she had to leave Ben. And she had every intention of figuring out a way to return to Alex's son as quickly as possible.
None of this had anything to do with Max Evans at all. He was the furthest thing from her mind right now. His threats that he was going to find a way to win her back - they were just that. She was not going to give into him. He could watch her with those dark eyes of his as much as wanted to. The longing in them, the love, they did not appeal to her at all.
He made her lose control of herself. It was good that she was getting away from him for a while. She needed some air, some space to regroup.
She needed some time to try and get her emotions back under control. He had her in constant upheaval. She [I]hated[/I] it.
She was still furious at Max, had actually refused to speak to him since he had told her about Dan. She had spent the last couple of hours with Ben, just hanging out, playing with the deck of cards the little boy had in his backpack and talking. Max had been around of course, but Liz had not exchanged two words with him. He had basically left them alone anyway, spending most of his time checking in with Michael on the phone, so it had been easy to ignore him.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. He was certainly not [I]easy[/I] to ignore. But she had done her best.
They had finally spoken while they had made plans for the exchange - Liz for Michael, Maria and Isabel. Dan had actually been pleased it seemed when Kyle had shown up at the truck stop. Michael had told them so the last time they had spoken to him. It was [I]Dan[/I], in fact, who had insisted that Kyle go get Liz. This had actually worked out well because Max and Ben could not be left without transportation until the others arrived. It was too dangerous. Kyle had agreed to come and get her and to then drive her back to the truck stop, which was only a couple of hour's drive away it turned out - the others had been more than three quarters of the way to Marathon before they had noticed Dan. It must have been a miracle that they noticed him at all.
Liz wondered momentarily when her fiancé had turned into such a good spy.
And so, it was a convoluted plan, but it was the only way to accomplish this without bringing Dan to Atherton's, as he still refused to let Michael, Maria and Isabel leave without him.
Liz was actually mildly grateful that Michael had not yet blasted him. She had known that her fiancé could be hard-nosed and tenacious - it was what had gotten him to the top of his field at such a young age - but it had been the first time that any of her friends had witnessed it. She knew that most of them had liked Dan before this whole fiasco had taken place, but she was fairly sure that their opinions were rapidly changing.
She had just sighed in exasperation when Max had told her that apparently Dan wanted Kyle to [I]arrest[/I] Max too. The smirk on Max's face [I]when[/I] he mentioned it had annoyed her even more.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" She had snapped at Max, grabbing the phone from him, wanting to speak to Michael herself, but Max's best friend had already hung up.
"Not especially." Max had replied, but he had still looked mildly amused. "I don't like the fact that your fiancé is putting everyone in danger." Liz had glanced at him guiltily. "But, it is quite interesting to see you try and deal with him."
"And what exactly is [I]that[/I] supposed to mean?" She had demanded, her back up instantly. She had not yet spoken directly to Dan after all. Max had no idea what he was talking about.
"It's means whatever you want it to mean." He had returned, smiling innocently and disappearing into Atherton's old office under the dome. Liz wasn't really sure what he was doing down there, but as she moved back into the house now, she could still hear him rummaging around beneath her. Ben had joined him a few minutes ago and Liz could hear their voices rising and falling now as she glanced impatiently at her watch.
How could someone be so eager for something to happen and yet so completely [I]not[/I] eager at the same time?
She wanted Kyle to arrive so that she could go and appease Dan, so that she could try and fix their relationship, which was very quickly falling apart, all due to her own actions.
But, on the other hand, she didn't want to go anywhere. A small part of her just wanted to wash her hands of the whole thing, wanted to call Dan up and tell him to get lost.
And the scariest part of all was that, if she didn't know for a fact that if she did so Dan would track her down, that he would be even [I]more[/I] convinced that Max was holding her against her will somehow, she would have done it. Because, even though she loved him, she knew that the safety and security being with him offered was slowly becoming the least appealing of the options in front of her.
She had been bored with him even [I]before[/I] Max had returned. It was only now - now that she had no choice but to face her real feelings - that she realized that a large part of her dissatisfaction with her job at Harvard had been dissatisfaction with life in general with Dan.
She had forgotten what it felt like to have your heart beat so fast in your chest in the company of another, that you almost felt high. She had forgotten the feeling of your blood rushing through your body at hyperspeed simply when another person's hand brushed against you. She had forgotten that waking up in another person's arms could feel like heaven and hell and [I]home[/I] all at the same time.
It didn't matter that she presently hated Max Evans's guts. He still did that to her. She was twenty-six years old, no longer eighteen, and she wanted him as much now as she had then. Dan had [I]never[/I] made her feel that way, not even in their most intimate moments.
Max had managed to do it in the space of twenty-four hours. With merely a look.
But desire was not enough. She could not risk her heart again. She had told Max that and she truly believed it. The pain the last time she had lost him had been so intense, the feeling of betrayal so bitter, the only way she had been able to survive it had been to shut out the way she felt about him completely. She had [I]made[/I] herself forget what it was like to be with him.
She had made herself forget what it felt like to be alive.
When she had mused to herself a couple of days ago that she would be [I]more[/I] concerned about her future marriage if she [I]couldn't[/I] think about Max, she had been lying.
Because she had not really been thinking about [I]him[/I] at all - not about Max. She had been remembering him as a high school boyfriend, as someone who had been the be all and end of all of her life at the time, but who had faded from her heart, because he had not been anything truly special at all. He had been exciting and dangerous and it had seemed like there could be no one else in the universe to match him, but she had told herself that she was older now, too mature for stupid adolescent romanticism. Max was not the only one for her.
She had been kidding herself.
Being with him...Just being in his presence, she remembered now that it was so much more than that. She had shut it all out, but she could not deny it any longer.
The connection that existed between them... It was magical. It could not be replaced, could not be forgotten, could not be denied.
But it could be ignored. For self-preservation, it [I]had[/I] to be ignored.
She [I]would[/I] ignore it. And that was all there was to it.
Sighing wearily, she watched as Kyle's vehicle finally appeared in the distance, the gravel it stirred up having long heralded his approach. The sun was low in the west. Liz felt a pang of guilt that by the time Michael, Isabel and Maria finally made it here, it would have been close to twenty-four hours since she and Max had left them.
Because of Dan, and as a consequence her, her friends had been in danger.
She heard Max and Ben approaching from behind her, Max obviously having heard Kyle's police vehicle. She didn't turn to look, simply went out the door and waited for Kyle to pull to a stop in front of her.
But she should have known that leaving would not be as easy as that.
As Kyle hopped out of the car, throwing his deputy's hat onto his head as he did so, she glanced down as she felt a small hand slide into hers.
"You're coming back - right?" Ben asked, his blue eyes staring up at her guilelessly. She glanced sharply at Max, whose expression was grim. She didn't even know why she had done it. She knew that Max would never have used his son in this way. He didn't have to anyway.
They all knew she was coming back.
"Definitely." Liz replied gently. She smiled slightly, raised a hand and brushed a cobweb out of Ben's blond curls. "What the heck were you guys doing down there?"
"Dad was looking for something." Ben told her. "I don't think he found it."
Liz frowned slightly in Max's direction, but he was not even looking at her anymore, instead was speaking quietly to Kyle.
"Well, you sure made yourself dirty for nothing then." Liz teased. Ben just continued to stare at her, a confused and scared expression on his face. He didn't understand any of what was going on - why she had to leave, why she and Max were so weird around each other.
All he knew was that someone who was supposed to care about him was leaving him when his life was in danger. It was breaking her heart.
She crouched down, until her eyes were level with his. "I will be back. I have a lot more stuff to tell you about Alex you know. It's my job." She felt tears filling her eyes and, for the first time, she felt a stab of real hate for Dan - that he was making her leave Ben.
He couldn't know what was going on, had no idea the pain he was causing her, was only doing what any man in his right mind would do if their fiancée started acting like a maniac. And yet, she could not forgive him for this.
"I believe you." Ben nodded. He hesitated for a moment and then threw himself against her, almost knocking them both over into the dust. "I love you Liz."
"I love you too." She whispered, stroking his head lovingly.
Over Ben's shoulder, she could see both Max and Kyle watching them now, Kyle looking sad, Max expressionless.
"C'mon Benny." Max finally called out after Liz had clutched Ben to her heart for a period that seemed far too short. "The sooner Liz leaves, the sooner she'll be back."
Liz slowly pulled away, stood up. Kyle was making his way back to his side of the sheriff's department vehicle as Max came over and picked Ben up. The little boy threw his arms around his father's neck, buried his head on his shoulder, but continued to watch Liz out of the corner of his eye.
"I [I]will[/I] be back." She told Max calmly as their eyes met.
He didn't say anything. She frowned slightly, turned, started to move towards the car. At the last moment, before she was beyond his reach, she felt something brush against her.
It was Max of course. Her entire body - her entire [I]being[/I] - told her so.
She did not turn around.
If she turned around, it would be all over. She would throw herself into his arms, all her good intentions, all her resolutions to be strong, to preserve her heart, would be damned.
It was not until she was seated in the passenger seat beside Kyle, silence permeating the vehicle, not until the dome had completely disappeared from sight, that she reached into her pocket and pulled out what she [I]knew[/I] Max had put there.
She held it up, saw Kyle glance sideways at it.
The setting sun poured through the front windshield as they drove west, back towards the highway, striking the object in her hand squarely and almost blinding them both.
But she knew exactly what it was. It was a ring.
Not just [I]any[/I] ring. The symbol that graced it's jewel, cool and blue, was a perfect replica of the symbol that had been carved into the pendant Max had given her so long ago - before he had almost left her the first time.
It was the whirlwind galaxy.
And suddenly, without any explanation, Max's voice seemed to drift through her mind, through her very being. He was whispering in her ear, his breath warm against her neck, sending a chill down her spine. She could [I]hear[/I] him as she stared at the jewel, tears in her eyes.
[I]I give you my home in exchange for your heart.[/I]
To be continued...