Disclaimer: I do not own any part of dark angel or Roswell
Notes: ok, this is updated for all you peeps who don't watch Roswell. I thought it would be amusing to confuse you with the whole Max/Max name confusion (the main character in Roswell is a guy called Max.) but people have given me v.confused reviews, so here we are. Max Guevara is NOT kissing another girl, it starts with Roswell Max! The rest you can work out yourself.
As they embraced, Max moved the kiss from her mouth to her cheek, then slowly down her neck, circling her. As he reached the back of her neck, brushing he hair out of the way, he drew back. She realised her mistake the same moment, and spun round.
"Liz, what is that? You have a tattoo?!" Max exclaimed.
"Err, yeah, I do." She didn't know what else to say. Max laughed shortly, surprised,
"Since when? How come you never showed me?" Liz wouldn't meet his eyes as he spoke, and still failed to as she answered,
"I've had it for ages. I never showed you because I hide it. I hate it." Max looked confused.
"So why don't you get it removed?" This time Liz held her tongue. Somehow I don't think 'I can't, it's etched into my genetic code' will go down too well, she thought.
"I, err, I can't afford it." She nodded, willing Max to believe that this was truly the reason. He laughed again, knowing Liz barely ever lied, and therefore not even considering that this was not the truth.
"But Liz," he smiled, "I can probably do it." Liz was about to say that she didn't think even he should be messing around with a laser when she realised what he meant. She'd been so wound up in covering her own secret that she'd totally forgotten about his. My god! She thought, it might just work!
"I didn't even think about it." She breathed, almost in shock. Max didn't understand why Liz was so amazed at the thought. "Do it." Liz said, turning around and lifting up her hair. He nodded.
"Does your dad know about it? I think he'd freak!" Max laughed. Liz didn't answer. Her Dad did know about it. He also knew it couldn't be removed in the normal way. But he didn't know why, no one here did. "You ready?" Max asked, not reading anything into her silence. Liz just repeated,
"Do it." Max placed his hand over the black mark and it began to glow bright white. After a minute, Liz started to feel a burning sensation on her neck, that got hotter and hotter with every second, "Ow." She winced. "Ow, ow, Max stop. Oh god, stop!" she shrieked, pulling away and slapping her hand across her searing neck. Max was shocked.
"Are you ok?" Liz didn't answer, she hadn't realised that anything could hurt like that. It actually hurt even more than the laser removal, which felt like acid being poured over her skin. Of course her parents didn't know how much it had hurt, even at the age of ten she'd been very resistant to pain. Max touched her neck gently, silently asking her to move her hand. She did as he requested, and Max gasped. Touching it carefully, his cold fingers soothing, he whispered,
"I don't understand! It's still there! Liz, I'm so sorry."
"It's ok." Liz replied, her heart sinking, "It was a long shot anyway." A look of dawning suspicion crossed Max's face.
"It's more than just a tattoo, isn't it?"
"I don't know what you mean." Liz snapped back. "I'm tired, I'm going home."
"Liz!" Max grabbed her arm, pulling her back, "Talk to me!" Liz fought her instinct to throw him across the room, but un nerved by how quickly those instincts returned after just such a small incident, she wanted out quickly. She took hold of his wrist in a vice like grip, a strength she hadn't used in years.
"Let go, Max. Now." She said, slowly. He did, shock at her strength preventing him from following when she walked away without another word.
. . . . .
"Hey Max."
"Hey, how're ya doing?" she smiled at him.
"Good, you?" she nodded. "Hey, you should see this." He passed her a strip of newspaper. She began to read as he summarised. "It's from a few years back, but there's reports of some really odd stuff going down in Roswell, New Mexico. They blame it on aliens." He grinned broadly. "I've heard tonnes of rumours about that place.
"Girl got shot, walked away minutes later, weird. Government types hangin' around now an' then, you're thinking this could be transgenic related?" she looked up at him.
"Well aren't you? I don't know of any full-human who could walk easily away after a bullet wound to the gut." Max grimaced.
"Ew. But I agree. We should check it out." He nodded, and she continued, "Mole an' everyone can take care of stuff here for a few days."
"Logan won't want you to go. He'll think it's too risky."
"I'll think what's too risky?" Alec nearly jumped out of his skin. Max grinned, letting him know that she knew of Logan's presence. They told Logan about the report.
"I agree, you should check it out."
"Only saying that to contradict me." Alec mumbled in a voice only he and Max could hear. Max laughed.
"What?" Logan asked.
"Nothing. Alecs bein' a pratt."
"Hey!" Alec elbowed her gently. "That's not fair!" she raised her eyebrows.
"Is too." She walked away with Logan before he could retaliate, flashing him a last, taunting smile.
Several hours later, Max and Alec were speeding down the motorway, heading for Roswell.
. . . . .
"Liz?" Max called out, knocking gingerly.
"Max? Hey, come in." She smiled at him. After a short silence, she gave in. "I'm sorry I was snappy yesterday. It was totally uncalled for." Max shook his head.
"Forget about it. I'm sorry I couldn't help." Liz gazed into his eyes, thinking of all the times they'd had together. Yesterday, she'd almost left that all behind in her panic. But now she was so glad she hadn't. God, how she loved him. Snapping out of her 'I love Max' daydream, she realised she was running late.
"Oh crap, I have to get to the crashdown!"
"I'll give you a ride." She smiled in thanks, both of them forgetting completely the questions raised the night before.
. . . . .
Max and Alec arrived in Roswell early the next afternoon.
"The girl was working in a café. 'Crashdown.'" He grinned, finding the entire aliens thing very amusing. Max smiled at his immaturity. I truth, it was one of the things she liked most about him.
On entering the café, Max went straight to the counter. A blond, wearing an alien themed waitress uniform greeted her.
"Hi, welcome to the crashdown, can I get you something?" Max smiled at her,
"Hi. You might be able to get me someone. I'm looking for a girl named Liz Parker." The blond looked a little shocked,
"Err, sure, well she's… I'll be back in a minute." She disappeared through the back and soon returned with another girl. The second was quite short, with long dark hair and an innocent smile, but she wore the same uniform. Max's heartbeat quickened the second she saw her, but she was also aware of a guy who had followed them through and was watching her very suspiciously.
"Can I help you?" the second girl asked. Unable to keep the smile off her face, Max asked,
"You Liz Parker?" the girl nodded. "Then I think so. I heard a rumour that you once got shot." She took no time getting to the point. Liz was very taken aback. "Hey, don't freak." Max continued, "I just wanna ask you a couple of questions." In her peripheral vision, Max could see the guy talking to another, who looked very pissed, and was coming over. "Look, all I heard was that you walked away from a gunshot wound minutes after. I just wanna know if that's true." Liz didn't answer, and the guy reached them.
"Who are you?" he demanded. "What do you want?"
"Michael, cool it. OK?" Liz finally spoke. Max registered that Alec was right behind her. He'd joined her the moment the angry guy turned up. Liz came out from behind the counter and spoke only to Max. "Come over here. We can talk. Alone." The last bit was stressed and the others got the idea, but not one of them was happy about it. Moving to a table, Liz resumed the conversation. "So, what do you want?"
"Exactly what I said. Just a couple of answers. I've been shot myself, an' I know that most people don't just walk away."
"Then yes. It's true. But the bullet just skimmed me, that's how come I could walk away." She wasn't meeting Max's eyes, and she mumbled the answer. Max laughed shortly.
"You're a bad liar." Liz's head snapped up.
"What the hell makes you think I'm lying?" she met Max's eyes without even meaning to, and a look of confused recognition crossed her face. Max smiled.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Max." Liz's face lit up in barely believing joy.
"Max?"
"Yeah, Max, Liz." Liz let out a joyous squeal as she hugged the other girl across the table.
"Max! Oh my god-Max!" Max hugged her back, laughing. The four onlookers were all confused, even Alec, thought not for so long. As the girls pulled apart, Alec made his way over, ignoring the annoyed yells of 'Hey!' from behind him. Max beamed up at him.
"Sis, meet Alec." At the look of recognition, she added, "He's Ben's Twin. Alec, this is my sister, Jondi."