[u]Part 21[/u]
For the ninth time in three days, Liz walked down the hall to Max's bedroom and frowned at the closed door. The tray of food she'd left there hours ago was still sitting outside his doorway, its contents untouched. For the last few days, Liz hadn't seen or talked to Max. She'd heard him padding around in his room and had heard his shower running, but he'd yet to come out.
Not that she hadn't tried to persuade him to do so. Liz cooked three times a day, and never once failed to take a tray for Max, leaving at his bedroom door, hoping he'd at least open it and take the tray to have a hot meal. And three times a day, she'd come back an hour later to find the tray still there, the food cold and clammy. She persevered, however, figuring he'd have to come out eventually and, when he did, she'd make him talk to her.
This time she'd gone overboard. She'd fixed his favorite meal and had even made a whole Men-In-Blackberry pie, from scratch. She'd put a white rose in a small vase and set it on the corner of his tray with a copy of the day's newspaper. She'd sat outside his door, pleading with him to open it, finally conceding to leaving the tray there for him, like she had the previous times. And just like before, she'd come back to find the tray untouched.
It was making her mad. She knew it would take Max some time to warm up to her being there. She'd been fully prepared to handle him not talking to her, throwing her silent glances, or even being rude. But this was taking it overboard. He'd yet to come out of the room to acknowledge her presence at all, and even after she'd tried to make this meal extra special, he still refused to come and eat.
It had been three days since she'd seen Max at all. If he didn't eat soon, he was going to be really sick.
Stomping up to the doorway, Liz balled her fist and pounded three heavy knocks, then stepped back and waited for a response. After several seconds of silence, she stepped up to the door and pressed her ear against it, straining for any noise coming from the other side. Any sign to let her know Max was listening. She waited, a frown on her face, when a thought suddenly occurred to her.
What if he'd passed out in there? What if he'd gotten weak from lack of sustenance, his body unable to function without some sort of nourishment?
Fearing the worst, Liz raised her hand to the doorknob and concentrated, pushing the door open when she heard the click of the lock on the other side. Hesitantly, she stepped into the room, and was shocked to find it empty. Running to his bathroom door, she threw it open, half expecting to see him sprawled out across the floor. But, once again, nothing.
Her heart pounding in her chest, she frantically searched the room for any sign of her missing husband. As she looked around, as she realized that this was where her husband spent his nights, she couldn't help but feel a bit awestruck at her surroundings. She'd busted into the room, fully prepared to give Max Evans a piece of her mind. However, the thought hadn't even crossed her mind that he wouldn't be in there. Now, faced with no Max, she was astounded by the fact that, even so, she could feel him all around her.
Liz had been in here before of course - when she had climbed through the window to try and find the divorce papers and Kyle had ended up arresting her. But she hadn't had time to look around then. She noticed the dark gray bedspread, remembering that gray had always been his favorite color. Spanning the length of one wall was a neatly organized desk, a stereo system and several stacks of CD's, a computer work station, and several photographs of faces she recognized scattered in between.
Feeling tears pricking the back of her eyelids, Liz sat down on the bed and took in the room that Max called home. Putting her hand at the head of the bed, she felt something soft and fluffy sitting there, was more than surprised when she turned to find a bright red afghan, folded neatly and sitting on top of the pillows.
[i] Max held up an orange and white afghan and showed it to Liz. She shook her head in disgust, so he turned around and picked up another one, this time holding a blue and red one up for her perusal. After trying four more afghans, and not getting a vote of approval on any of them, Max picked up a bright red blanket from the shelf, unfolded it and wrapped it around his shoulders, walking to Liz and turning in a full circle, clearly impatient.
"How about this one?"
"Max, it's ugly!"
"Liz, it's like the twentieth one I've tried! You don't like any of them, because you think they're ugly. But I can tell you this, Liz. I don't care if it's orange with green polka dots and purple stripes. It won't be ugly. It'll be perfect. You know why? Because it'll be ours. It'll be the first thing we buy, as husband and wife. In my eyes, whatever it looks like, it could not possibly be nicer."
Liz smiled, unable to resist the little boy excitement in Max's twinkling eyes. She grabbed the afghan from the shelf and placed it in the cart, unaware that it would be the only thing on the bed their first night in the apartment they'd rented.[/i]
Sighing softly, Liz picked up the afghan and unfolded it, laying it across her lap. Looking up towards the nightstand, she almost stopped breathing when she caught sight of the photograph sitting next to the bedside lamp. She swallowed, reached out to pick up the frame - the one that had not been there four days ago. She remembered how she had left all those pictures of the two of them scattered on his bed. He had obviously kept the one she was staring at out when he cleaned up.
It was a picture of a raven haired boy, his eyes sparkling with the radiance of love, his arms tucked securely around the waist of a young girl, her long dark hair flowing gently in the wind. They were both entangled in the lacy wisps of white that had been her wedding veil.
Smiling sadly, Liz stared down at it. She could only imagine what Max must have felt like, day after day, night after night, upon staring at his own wedding picture. He had been left with all the memories. She had taken nothing with her when she had gone. He had been left with the good and bad memories, but above all, the photographs reminded her of the promise of the life they'd created together. They had become a grim reminder of the future they'd never had the chance to make a reality, but, now, hopefully were an indication of what they could be again.
As she fingered the edge of the small silver frame, Liz Evans knew one thing for certain. There was still hope. Max hadn't given up on her, even in the three days he'd spent holed up in his room while she lived in his home. That much was obvious by the fact that he still kept precious mementos of the life they'd shared. Because he wanted to remember. Somewhere deep down, whether he wanted to admit it or not, Max Evans wanted his life back.
Pushing the afghan aside, and setting the picture back down with one last longing glance, Liz got up and walked across the room, where a flutter of movement from the flowing curtains caught her eye. She pulled them aside and peered over the edge of the windowsill.
Tucked underneath the neat wood trim, reaching all the way down to the ground was a white wooden trellis, its criss-crossing bars covered with fragrant white rose blooms - the same trellis she had climbed up a few days before. Momentarily forgetting what she was doing, Liz reached out over the windowsill and gingerly fingered the petals of the nearest bloom. As she grabbed the flower, intending to pull it off the trellis, Liz suddenly remembered why she was there.
As realization dawned on her, Liz's panicked sense of worry turned quickly to anger. Max had been sneaking out! For three days, she'd made him breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and he'd touched none of it. She'd been worried about him getting food, and worried that he would get ill from malnutrition, and all that time, he'd been eating elsewhere. Taking a look at the small trash can in the corner of the room, her suspicions were confirmed by the pile of crumpled up Crashdown take-out bags collected there.
All this time Liz thought Max needed time to get used to her being there, that he was sitting in his room sulking, but that he'd come out eventually, still emotionally guarded, yet ready to talk. She and Max had never been able to not resolve a problem between them when they talked about it, and she'd mistakenly believed that this time was no different. But as she briefly wondered if he'd had any intention at all of ever coming out to face her, Liz knew she was wrong.
This was bigger than she thought. As his words from days before at the old radio tower ran through her head, she realized that Max really was scared of her. He was terrified of her hurting him again, frightened beyond words that history would repeat itself and that falling right back into a marriage with Liz would only leave him in heartbreak. He'd even gone so far as to sneak out for food in an effort to avoid her at all costs.
As every cell in her body began to tingle, Liz knew she wasn't just assuming Max's thoughts. She was feeling them, thinking them. Because she felt him. He was home.
Making her way as quickly as she could to the opposite corner of the room, Liz turned around just in time to see Max's hand grab the windowsill. His dark head followed his hands over the top seconds later. Liz watched as Max effortlessly drew his body over the windowsill. He started to take his jacket off, then froze, spotting the red afghan spread out across one side of the bed. Obviously remembering he'd left it folded, Max suddenly looked straight at Liz. She gasped slightly when his eyes narrowed at her.
"What are you doing here Liz?"
At Max's indifferent tone, the underlying anger in his voice, Liz almost lost it. "Well, you know, Max, I came in here because I wasn't sure if you were okay. As far as I could tell, you hadn't eaten in three days. I haven't heard anything from in here all day and I got worried. I thought you could be in here passed out, or worse, from malnutrition. So what did I do? I let myself in, only to find a trash can full of takeout wrappers. Then I realized I didn't have to be angry, or worried, or scared for you, because you had other resources." The sharp tone in Liz's voice was cracking, not coming out as strong or as angry as she'd intended She'd kept up a façade for the last week, but the harder she fought for Max, and the more she was turned down, the weaker she got. She knew any minute now, she would break down and not be able to fight back at all. But if she was going down, she was sure as heck going to do it in a blaze of glory.
She had Max right where she wanted him. Unprepared, and forced to talk. It was now or never.
Max shrugged his shoulders. "Had to eat somewhere."
"What in heaven's sake were you thinking, climbing up and down that trellis anyway? You don't know how strong that thing is! You could have fallen and gotten hurt!" Liz shrieked, deliberately ignoring the fact that she had used that exact trellis a few days before.
"Yeah, well, it wouldn't be the first time falling has gotten me hurt, would it?"
Liz closed her eyes, unprepared for the harsh sting of the underlying meaning in Max's words. She knew what he was doing. He was doing what he'd always done. He was hurting, and he was scared, and he was lashing out in anger to cover it up. Well, it wasn't going to work this time.
"Max, I'm not leaving here until we talk about this."
"We did talk about it, Liz. You talked and I said no. End of story."
Liz shook her head. "I'm sorry, Max. I won't let you give up that easily. It isn't fair. What we've got between us, it's too important to just let go."
Max laughed, the sound of it chilling. "Well, it didn't seem that important four years ago, when you felt you had to give it up without telling me why, did it?" Max started to move, as if to walk away, then put his finger up in the air as if he'd just remembered something. "Oh, unless, you know...this thing between us that you just can't let go, is the end of world, cause that's what matters to you, right?"
Liz shook her head, searching for a way to make Max see what she was trying so desperately to say. "This isn't about the end of the world, Max. I don't give a flip if the end of the world comes right now. You know why? Because I've done my part. I've done what I'm supposed to do. And now, I'm trying to get back what I deserve. I'm trying to get back you, us, this!" she said, grabbing the picture of their wedding day off the nightstand and thrusting it in his face.
"You would have made a great actress, Liz. You've almost got me convinced that the next time there's an earth shattering emergency, you won't run. You've almost got me convinced that this [i]is[/i] about being together, not about saving the world," Max said angrily, snatching the picture from Liz's grasp.
Liz's first thought was that he was going to throw it to the ground, but he surprised her by gingerly setting it back on the nightstand from where she'd picked it up.
Liz's throat closed up, the emotions she was trying to hold back chocking up in the back of her throat. "Max, do we have to go through this again? I don't know what I have to say to you, or what I have to do to you to make you trust me again! I'm here, Max! Right here in front of your face. I'm more sorry than anything about the mistakes made in the past. But it can't be helped. I've learned from them, Max and I know now what's important. Doesn't that matter the least bit to you?"
"Sure it does, Liz. It matters more than anything. You know why? Because of the way I feel right here," he said, raw pain and emotion plastered across his face as he came to within inches of Liz's face, his hand tapping his heart heavily. "Right here, I want nothing more than to grab you and kiss you and tell you everything's going to be all right, because I love you and you love me. But right here, right here," he said, pausing to lift a finger to the side of his head to tap his temple gently, "I know that there will always be something else. You aren't the same person that left here, Liz. You have a life waiting for you back in New York. You have a career that made Elizabeth Evans a household name. And as much as I want to believe it, I can't trust my heart. Because my head knows better. Somewhere, whether it be here or New York, whether it be a career or the end of the world, there will always be a reason why you can't stay."
Staring at him, seeing his eyes watery with tears of frustration and anger, Liz realized there was only one way she was going to get Max to trust her again. There was only one thing she could do to show Max once and for all that she wasn't giving up. "You're right, Max. There is a reason I can't stay. But it's not the end of the world. If the end of the world comes now, I'll know I did everything in my power to stop it. It won't be my fault if the inevitable happens now. And there [i]is[/i] my career. My design firm means everything to me. It was the one thing I had to throw myself into when I thought I'd lost everything, and I'm darn proud of the successful business it's become. But I meant what I said. Nothing, and I do mean [i]nothing[/i] is going to take me away from you or Roswell."
Leaving Max behind to ponder the meaning of her words, Liz stomped out of his room, her face flushed with anger, yet the tears falling down her face were of pain, of regret, and of loss.
Going down the hall to the telephone in the kitchen, Liz picked up the receiver and dialed the New York number quickly before she had a chance to change her mind. It was a last resort. Desperate times called for desperate measures. She loved her career, almost more than anything in this world. But she loved Max more. If she had to choose one of them, then there simply was no contest.
Twenty minutes later Liz put the receiver down and put her head in her hands. Taking several deep breaths in order to fight back her tears did nothing. She felt her chest constrict as one heaving sob escaped.
"What did you just do?"
Liz jerked her head up from the table and frantically wiped her tears across her cheeks, trying to hide how much she had just devastated herself. She turned around to face Max, pulling together all the dignity she had to hold her head up high and look him in the eye. He looked absolutely dumbfounded, like he had been listening the whole time.
"What are you talking about?"
"You were on the phone. With New York. What did you just do?"
"I told you that you could trust me, Max, and I thought I'd done everything I could to make sure you knew I wasn't going anywhere. But there was one last thing I hadn't thought of."
"Liz, what did you do?"
Liz took a deep breath, not missing the suddenly horrified tone of his voice or the disbelieving look on his face. "I just put Elizabeth Evans Designs up for sale. By this time tomorrow, it will have gone to the highest bidder."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Tess sat on the stool at the end of the Crashdown counter, watching idly as Michael and Maria cleaned up after the usual dinner rush crowd. She'd had plans with Kyle for the evening, but when he'd come home, she'd been too depressed to go anywhere and had convinced him to take her to the Crashdown for a big bowl of the most fattening ice cream she could find.
It had been three days since Liz had moved into Max's home uninvited. Tess thought that it wouldn't take her that long, but judging by the way Max acted when he came in, Tess wasn't sure Liz was going to break through that thick skull of his at all. She'd fully expected Max and Liz to have at least already agreed to give things another go, to try and make their marriage work again.
But for the last three days, Max had been coming to the Crashdown for every meal, still ordering take out for one, and still taking it with him. He came in the front, making sure he sat in the section that didn't belong to Maria, and when Isabel was helping out, he steered clear of her section as well. Years of practice had made him an expert at determining each meal's busiest times, and he always made sure he came in during the rush so that none of his friends would have a spare minute to make their way over to him.
Tess had promised herself that she wouldn't call or go to Max's house until she was sure Liz had accomplished what she'd set out to do. But Max's icy behavior combined with the fact that each and every one of them was dying to know what was going in inside the Evans household was slowly chipping away at her resolve.
"Tess, c'mon! Call him! I mean, we don't even know what's going on over there! What if something's happened to Liz?" Maria exclaimed, shaking a broom in Tess's face.
Tess shot Maria a look underneath her heaping spoon of double fudge ice cream and scoffed, "Maria, please, it's Max and Liz. You know as well as I do they're probably knee deep in tension and waist high in sexual frustration being that close to each other for this long. If anything's happened to her, it's nothing a few nights alone with Max post-makeup won't cure."
"Yeah, well, I for one have made a decision. If I don't at least hear from Liz by tomorrow night, I'm going over there. Alien powers or not, if Max Evans hasn't accepted Liz after spending four days locked up with her, I'll wring his neck."
Tess couldn't help but giggle at Serena's fierce tone. It had only taken a day, and within no time, Serena had been accepted as part of the group. Her loyalty to Liz and her determination to make sure Liz got everything she deserved had broken down any hesitancy anyone in the group held against making the girl a friend. And when she'd been accepted wholly by Isabel, it had made the rest of the group's skepticism fade without a doubt. Tonight she was helping Maria and Michael close the restaurant, being as the new parents had plans for a late night dinner and night out after work. Serena had even been given the honoured role of taking care of Eliza for the evening.
"Serena, darling," Maria said, stopping in front of Tess and Serena. "Stand in line."
"You guys, go easy on him. Max has been hurt. He's had his heart ripped out and stomped on by the one person he thought would never hurt him. He knows Liz loves him. He knows he loves her. He's just having a hard time convincing himself that this time, their chance at happiness is real. I don't know how long it'll take. But I know without a shadow of a doubt that Max will eventually come around."
"Yeah, well, if I'm old and gray by the time it happens, and I have to see them kiss and make up while they're using walkers, [i]I'll[/i] wring his neck," Maria said.
Tess giggled at her friends, amazed at the sound. It had been a long time since she'd found something funny enough to laugh at. Heck, it had been a long time since any of them had found anything funny at all. But, here they were, after hours in an empty restaurant making jokes and laughing like a bunch of schoolgirls.
And it was because of one reason and one reason only. Liz Evans.
Without having done anything directly, Liz had had given them all hope again. She'd come back to town, albeit with different intentions then they would have liked, and had turned their lives upside down. Now she was offering them a chance to help make things right again, to make them better than they had been before. She had put herself on the line, put her heart at risk again, in hopes of getting what truly belonged to her in the first place.
Her happily ever after.
Liz's joy at having realized she and Max could be together again was infectious. Only Serena and Tess had talked to her, but they had both been so overwhelmingly ecstatic at the prospect of seeing Max and Liz back together, their good spirits had rubbed off on the rest of the group.
Tess almost giggled again as she watched Michael washing dishes. It wasn't that which made her want to laugh though. It was the fact that he was humming. Michael Guerin didn't hum. The fact that he was not only humming, but swaying slightly to a rhythm only he could hear in his head was definitely a sight to see. It was the little things like this that made it blatantly obvious how important Liz was to the lives of the people she'd left behind.
They hadn't wanted to admit it at first, and Tess had been there to witness their rants, their anger, frustration, and eventually their heartbreak at having been deserted by the one person that had brought them all together in the first place. It had been because of Liz's intense feelings for Max and her determination to make him hers in their sophomore year that had caused the group to be thrown together time after time. It had been those forced meetings and encounters that had made them friends, that had caused them to develop deep bonds of trust and love. And it was partly for this reason that it had hurt them so much when she'd run off.
Oddly enough, it was also the bonds that she'd created that had helped them through the difficult time following her abrupt departure from Roswell. Although life had gone back to being as normal as possible without Liz around, there were still everyday reminders that always put a damper on the happy lives they'd all made for themselves. But since Liz had come back, the proverbial gray cloud had been blown away and all that was left was its silver lining. Liz had left without explanation, but when she'd come back, they'd all found the answers to the questions that had plagued them since she'd left. The extra weight they'd all been forced to carry had been lifted from their shoulders in one fell swoop.
Max and Liz were going to be together. It was unavoidable. They were fated to happen, destined to be. And now that it was obvious no obstacles stood in their way, their friends were all eagerly awaiting their happy reunion.
Tess put her spoon down and looked at Serena inquisitively when the girl sat down on the stool next to her and turned to stare.
"So. You probably know Max better than anyone. Do you really thing he's going to give in?" Serena asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Let's put it this way. You probably know Liz better than anyone." Tess paused slightly as Maria walked by with a tray full of clean glasses. "Well, at least the Liz she is now anyway. Do you really think she's going to let him get away with [i]not[/i] giving in?"
Tess watched as Serena pondered her question, then grinned broadly. "You're right. She won't. But tell me this, she's got her work cut out for her, am I right?"
Tess nodded her head and took another bite of her ice cream. "That's probably an understatement. Max and Liz are the two most stubborn people I know. Max thinks that he loves Liz enough to not let her go, but he doesn't think he's strong enough to trust her to stay. Liz thinks she loves Max enough to make him forget the pain and heartbreak he's suffered over the past four years, but doesn't trust him enough to know that no matter how hard he tries, he'll never truly be able to get her out of his system, and that he'll eventually come around. I think they're both headed towards the same goal here, they're just taking two different paths."
Tess sat back and watched with a crooked grin as Serena grabbed a spoon from the counter and dug into her bowl of ice cream.
"Is anything ever easy with those two?" Serena asked.
Tess shook her head and laughed. "If it was, they wouldn't be Max and Liz."
Tess and Serena both spun towards the bar when Maria stopped on the other side, propping her chin up on her knuckles. "You know, I'm beginning to think we've stepped into some kind of wormhole, and I'm wondering if we'll ever make it out."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tess asked, handing Maria a spoon and pushing the bowl of ice cream towards her.
"Well, first off, Happy Gilmore over there," Maria said, pointing in Michael's direction, "Is humming songs that [I]I've[/i] never even been happy enough to hum. And Isabel actually served lunch on the house to Pam Troy and Vicky Delaney. Then there's our sweet, humble, quiet Max, who's walked around with a major stick up his butt and a scowl on his face for the last three days. Not to mention the fact that Liz and Max are fighting and they've never gone this long without making up - at least not when they were in the same state. Something is wrong here."
"It's [i]because[/i] Liz and Max are fighting that everyone's in such a good mood," Tess replied nonchalantly.
"Oh, great, now you too?" Maria asked. "You think it's a good thing that they're fighting?"
Tess rolled her eyes. "No, of course not. But it's the reason they're fighting that makes us all happier, whether we realize it or not. We all know that this fight is going to end with a reconciliation. Max and Liz are going to get back together. They're fighting right now and are extremely miserable. But that's why we're so happy!"
Maria nodded and took a bite of the ice cream. Tess gave her a funny look when Maria waved the spoon in her face and narrowed her eyes.
"You know," Maria said, "What you said just now sounded absolutely ridiculous and was kind of confusing. But the funny thing is, I actually understood it."
Maria, Serena and Tess giggled some more and got quiet as they all ate ice cream out of the huge bowl that Tess had scooped out. They were talking and laughing again, then all jumped, surprised momentarily by the shrill ringing of Serena's cell phone.
"Hello? Liz?" Serena said, flipping the phone open and pressing it to her ear.
Tess and Maria watched as Serena's expression changed and she hopped off of the stool to stand up with one hand in the air.
"Whoa, whoa, Casey, calm down. Calm down. Take a deep breath, and speak slower. What did Liz do?" Pause. "She what?!"
Tess jumped to her feet at Serena's outburst. What was wrong with Liz? What did she do?
As Tess's mind began to race with a million possibilities, the worst thought came to her. What if Liz had given up? What if she'd gone back to New York, had not stuck around to wait Max out? Or even worse, what if she'd done something to herself? The possibilities were too horrible to imagine and as she listened to Serena talk, she prayed silently that her imagination was only overacting.
Tess was practically jumping out of her skin with nervousness, alternating between confused looks in Serena's direction, and worried looks shared with Maria as both girls listened to Serena's side of the conversation.
"Right. When did you talk to her? And she wouldn't tell you why? She just up and called? Was everything all right, has anything happened since we've been gone?" Pause. "Well, don't do it just yet. If she calls again, tell her it's done." Pause again. Tess and Maria exchanged increasingly frustrated looks. "Right. No, you won't. She won't. I'll take full responsibility. No, Casey trust me. I know exactly what she's doing. You know what? Hold on a second."
Serena covered the mouthpiece of the phone and spoke hurriedly to Tess. "Does Max have a fax machine at his house?"
Tess nodded quickly and gave Serena the number, confusing her even more. She watched as Serena continued the conversation with the person on the other end of the line. "Draw up a proposal. Send it to this fax number. Send it all, but do not, and I repeat, do not make it official. No one knows about this, and whatever you do, don't contact any buyers. I'm sure, Casey. Trust me on this. Right. Okay. Okay, I'll be in touch. Bye."
"What was that all about?" Maria asked, beating Tess to the punch.
"He must really be getting to her," Serena said. "Because Liz is breaking out the big guns this time. That was the attorney for EE Designs. Liz just put it up for sale."
"You're kidding me?!" Tess asked incredulously. "Well, what did you need the fax number for?"
Serena shrugged. "Liz is obviously pulling out all the stops. I'm just sending her a little more ammunition."
"I still don't understand," Maria interjected with a puzzled tone.
"I do," Tess said. "Max doesn't trust Liz not to stay. The one thing she has in the world that means almost as much to her as Max is her career. She wants Max to know that she's not playing around. She just chose him over her own design firm."
Tess couldn't help but smile at the possibilities this news held. There was no way in the world Max would ever let Liz give up something she'd worked so hard for because of him. Max knew how much her career meant to her and Tess knew he'd never allow her to let that go just to prove something to him, something that deep down he already knew, but was too afraid to admit.
Whether she realized it or not, Liz Evans was going to be victorious. She'd just made the winning move that was bound to push Max over the edge.
For the ninth time in three days, Liz walked down the hall to Max's bedroom and frowned at the closed door. The tray of food she'd left there hours ago was still sitting outside his doorway, its contents untouched. For the last few days, Liz hadn't seen or talked to Max. She'd heard him padding around in his room and had heard his shower running, but he'd yet to come out.
Not that she hadn't tried to persuade him to do so. Liz cooked three times a day, and never once failed to take a tray for Max, leaving at his bedroom door, hoping he'd at least open it and take the tray to have a hot meal. And three times a day, she'd come back an hour later to find the tray still there, the food cold and clammy. She persevered, however, figuring he'd have to come out eventually and, when he did, she'd make him talk to her.
This time she'd gone overboard. She'd fixed his favorite meal and had even made a whole Men-In-Blackberry pie, from scratch. She'd put a white rose in a small vase and set it on the corner of his tray with a copy of the day's newspaper. She'd sat outside his door, pleading with him to open it, finally conceding to leaving the tray there for him, like she had the previous times. And just like before, she'd come back to find the tray untouched.
It was making her mad. She knew it would take Max some time to warm up to her being there. She'd been fully prepared to handle him not talking to her, throwing her silent glances, or even being rude. But this was taking it overboard. He'd yet to come out of the room to acknowledge her presence at all, and even after she'd tried to make this meal extra special, he still refused to come and eat.
It had been three days since she'd seen Max at all. If he didn't eat soon, he was going to be really sick.
Stomping up to the doorway, Liz balled her fist and pounded three heavy knocks, then stepped back and waited for a response. After several seconds of silence, she stepped up to the door and pressed her ear against it, straining for any noise coming from the other side. Any sign to let her know Max was listening. She waited, a frown on her face, when a thought suddenly occurred to her.
What if he'd passed out in there? What if he'd gotten weak from lack of sustenance, his body unable to function without some sort of nourishment?
Fearing the worst, Liz raised her hand to the doorknob and concentrated, pushing the door open when she heard the click of the lock on the other side. Hesitantly, she stepped into the room, and was shocked to find it empty. Running to his bathroom door, she threw it open, half expecting to see him sprawled out across the floor. But, once again, nothing.
Her heart pounding in her chest, she frantically searched the room for any sign of her missing husband. As she looked around, as she realized that this was where her husband spent his nights, she couldn't help but feel a bit awestruck at her surroundings. She'd busted into the room, fully prepared to give Max Evans a piece of her mind. However, the thought hadn't even crossed her mind that he wouldn't be in there. Now, faced with no Max, she was astounded by the fact that, even so, she could feel him all around her.
Liz had been in here before of course - when she had climbed through the window to try and find the divorce papers and Kyle had ended up arresting her. But she hadn't had time to look around then. She noticed the dark gray bedspread, remembering that gray had always been his favorite color. Spanning the length of one wall was a neatly organized desk, a stereo system and several stacks of CD's, a computer work station, and several photographs of faces she recognized scattered in between.
Feeling tears pricking the back of her eyelids, Liz sat down on the bed and took in the room that Max called home. Putting her hand at the head of the bed, she felt something soft and fluffy sitting there, was more than surprised when she turned to find a bright red afghan, folded neatly and sitting on top of the pillows.
[i] Max held up an orange and white afghan and showed it to Liz. She shook her head in disgust, so he turned around and picked up another one, this time holding a blue and red one up for her perusal. After trying four more afghans, and not getting a vote of approval on any of them, Max picked up a bright red blanket from the shelf, unfolded it and wrapped it around his shoulders, walking to Liz and turning in a full circle, clearly impatient.
"How about this one?"
"Max, it's ugly!"
"Liz, it's like the twentieth one I've tried! You don't like any of them, because you think they're ugly. But I can tell you this, Liz. I don't care if it's orange with green polka dots and purple stripes. It won't be ugly. It'll be perfect. You know why? Because it'll be ours. It'll be the first thing we buy, as husband and wife. In my eyes, whatever it looks like, it could not possibly be nicer."
Liz smiled, unable to resist the little boy excitement in Max's twinkling eyes. She grabbed the afghan from the shelf and placed it in the cart, unaware that it would be the only thing on the bed their first night in the apartment they'd rented.[/i]
Sighing softly, Liz picked up the afghan and unfolded it, laying it across her lap. Looking up towards the nightstand, she almost stopped breathing when she caught sight of the photograph sitting next to the bedside lamp. She swallowed, reached out to pick up the frame - the one that had not been there four days ago. She remembered how she had left all those pictures of the two of them scattered on his bed. He had obviously kept the one she was staring at out when he cleaned up.
It was a picture of a raven haired boy, his eyes sparkling with the radiance of love, his arms tucked securely around the waist of a young girl, her long dark hair flowing gently in the wind. They were both entangled in the lacy wisps of white that had been her wedding veil.
Smiling sadly, Liz stared down at it. She could only imagine what Max must have felt like, day after day, night after night, upon staring at his own wedding picture. He had been left with all the memories. She had taken nothing with her when she had gone. He had been left with the good and bad memories, but above all, the photographs reminded her of the promise of the life they'd created together. They had become a grim reminder of the future they'd never had the chance to make a reality, but, now, hopefully were an indication of what they could be again.
As she fingered the edge of the small silver frame, Liz Evans knew one thing for certain. There was still hope. Max hadn't given up on her, even in the three days he'd spent holed up in his room while she lived in his home. That much was obvious by the fact that he still kept precious mementos of the life they'd shared. Because he wanted to remember. Somewhere deep down, whether he wanted to admit it or not, Max Evans wanted his life back.
Pushing the afghan aside, and setting the picture back down with one last longing glance, Liz got up and walked across the room, where a flutter of movement from the flowing curtains caught her eye. She pulled them aside and peered over the edge of the windowsill.
Tucked underneath the neat wood trim, reaching all the way down to the ground was a white wooden trellis, its criss-crossing bars covered with fragrant white rose blooms - the same trellis she had climbed up a few days before. Momentarily forgetting what she was doing, Liz reached out over the windowsill and gingerly fingered the petals of the nearest bloom. As she grabbed the flower, intending to pull it off the trellis, Liz suddenly remembered why she was there.
As realization dawned on her, Liz's panicked sense of worry turned quickly to anger. Max had been sneaking out! For three days, she'd made him breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and he'd touched none of it. She'd been worried about him getting food, and worried that he would get ill from malnutrition, and all that time, he'd been eating elsewhere. Taking a look at the small trash can in the corner of the room, her suspicions were confirmed by the pile of crumpled up Crashdown take-out bags collected there.
All this time Liz thought Max needed time to get used to her being there, that he was sitting in his room sulking, but that he'd come out eventually, still emotionally guarded, yet ready to talk. She and Max had never been able to not resolve a problem between them when they talked about it, and she'd mistakenly believed that this time was no different. But as she briefly wondered if he'd had any intention at all of ever coming out to face her, Liz knew she was wrong.
This was bigger than she thought. As his words from days before at the old radio tower ran through her head, she realized that Max really was scared of her. He was terrified of her hurting him again, frightened beyond words that history would repeat itself and that falling right back into a marriage with Liz would only leave him in heartbreak. He'd even gone so far as to sneak out for food in an effort to avoid her at all costs.
As every cell in her body began to tingle, Liz knew she wasn't just assuming Max's thoughts. She was feeling them, thinking them. Because she felt him. He was home.
Making her way as quickly as she could to the opposite corner of the room, Liz turned around just in time to see Max's hand grab the windowsill. His dark head followed his hands over the top seconds later. Liz watched as Max effortlessly drew his body over the windowsill. He started to take his jacket off, then froze, spotting the red afghan spread out across one side of the bed. Obviously remembering he'd left it folded, Max suddenly looked straight at Liz. She gasped slightly when his eyes narrowed at her.
"What are you doing here Liz?"
At Max's indifferent tone, the underlying anger in his voice, Liz almost lost it. "Well, you know, Max, I came in here because I wasn't sure if you were okay. As far as I could tell, you hadn't eaten in three days. I haven't heard anything from in here all day and I got worried. I thought you could be in here passed out, or worse, from malnutrition. So what did I do? I let myself in, only to find a trash can full of takeout wrappers. Then I realized I didn't have to be angry, or worried, or scared for you, because you had other resources." The sharp tone in Liz's voice was cracking, not coming out as strong or as angry as she'd intended She'd kept up a façade for the last week, but the harder she fought for Max, and the more she was turned down, the weaker she got. She knew any minute now, she would break down and not be able to fight back at all. But if she was going down, she was sure as heck going to do it in a blaze of glory.
She had Max right where she wanted him. Unprepared, and forced to talk. It was now or never.
Max shrugged his shoulders. "Had to eat somewhere."
"What in heaven's sake were you thinking, climbing up and down that trellis anyway? You don't know how strong that thing is! You could have fallen and gotten hurt!" Liz shrieked, deliberately ignoring the fact that she had used that exact trellis a few days before.
"Yeah, well, it wouldn't be the first time falling has gotten me hurt, would it?"
Liz closed her eyes, unprepared for the harsh sting of the underlying meaning in Max's words. She knew what he was doing. He was doing what he'd always done. He was hurting, and he was scared, and he was lashing out in anger to cover it up. Well, it wasn't going to work this time.
"Max, I'm not leaving here until we talk about this."
"We did talk about it, Liz. You talked and I said no. End of story."
Liz shook her head. "I'm sorry, Max. I won't let you give up that easily. It isn't fair. What we've got between us, it's too important to just let go."
Max laughed, the sound of it chilling. "Well, it didn't seem that important four years ago, when you felt you had to give it up without telling me why, did it?" Max started to move, as if to walk away, then put his finger up in the air as if he'd just remembered something. "Oh, unless, you know...this thing between us that you just can't let go, is the end of world, cause that's what matters to you, right?"
Liz shook her head, searching for a way to make Max see what she was trying so desperately to say. "This isn't about the end of the world, Max. I don't give a flip if the end of the world comes right now. You know why? Because I've done my part. I've done what I'm supposed to do. And now, I'm trying to get back what I deserve. I'm trying to get back you, us, this!" she said, grabbing the picture of their wedding day off the nightstand and thrusting it in his face.
"You would have made a great actress, Liz. You've almost got me convinced that the next time there's an earth shattering emergency, you won't run. You've almost got me convinced that this [i]is[/i] about being together, not about saving the world," Max said angrily, snatching the picture from Liz's grasp.
Liz's first thought was that he was going to throw it to the ground, but he surprised her by gingerly setting it back on the nightstand from where she'd picked it up.
Liz's throat closed up, the emotions she was trying to hold back chocking up in the back of her throat. "Max, do we have to go through this again? I don't know what I have to say to you, or what I have to do to you to make you trust me again! I'm here, Max! Right here in front of your face. I'm more sorry than anything about the mistakes made in the past. But it can't be helped. I've learned from them, Max and I know now what's important. Doesn't that matter the least bit to you?"
"Sure it does, Liz. It matters more than anything. You know why? Because of the way I feel right here," he said, raw pain and emotion plastered across his face as he came to within inches of Liz's face, his hand tapping his heart heavily. "Right here, I want nothing more than to grab you and kiss you and tell you everything's going to be all right, because I love you and you love me. But right here, right here," he said, pausing to lift a finger to the side of his head to tap his temple gently, "I know that there will always be something else. You aren't the same person that left here, Liz. You have a life waiting for you back in New York. You have a career that made Elizabeth Evans a household name. And as much as I want to believe it, I can't trust my heart. Because my head knows better. Somewhere, whether it be here or New York, whether it be a career or the end of the world, there will always be a reason why you can't stay."
Staring at him, seeing his eyes watery with tears of frustration and anger, Liz realized there was only one way she was going to get Max to trust her again. There was only one thing she could do to show Max once and for all that she wasn't giving up. "You're right, Max. There is a reason I can't stay. But it's not the end of the world. If the end of the world comes now, I'll know I did everything in my power to stop it. It won't be my fault if the inevitable happens now. And there [i]is[/i] my career. My design firm means everything to me. It was the one thing I had to throw myself into when I thought I'd lost everything, and I'm darn proud of the successful business it's become. But I meant what I said. Nothing, and I do mean [i]nothing[/i] is going to take me away from you or Roswell."
Leaving Max behind to ponder the meaning of her words, Liz stomped out of his room, her face flushed with anger, yet the tears falling down her face were of pain, of regret, and of loss.
Going down the hall to the telephone in the kitchen, Liz picked up the receiver and dialed the New York number quickly before she had a chance to change her mind. It was a last resort. Desperate times called for desperate measures. She loved her career, almost more than anything in this world. But she loved Max more. If she had to choose one of them, then there simply was no contest.
Twenty minutes later Liz put the receiver down and put her head in her hands. Taking several deep breaths in order to fight back her tears did nothing. She felt her chest constrict as one heaving sob escaped.
"What did you just do?"
Liz jerked her head up from the table and frantically wiped her tears across her cheeks, trying to hide how much she had just devastated herself. She turned around to face Max, pulling together all the dignity she had to hold her head up high and look him in the eye. He looked absolutely dumbfounded, like he had been listening the whole time.
"What are you talking about?"
"You were on the phone. With New York. What did you just do?"
"I told you that you could trust me, Max, and I thought I'd done everything I could to make sure you knew I wasn't going anywhere. But there was one last thing I hadn't thought of."
"Liz, what did you do?"
Liz took a deep breath, not missing the suddenly horrified tone of his voice or the disbelieving look on his face. "I just put Elizabeth Evans Designs up for sale. By this time tomorrow, it will have gone to the highest bidder."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Tess sat on the stool at the end of the Crashdown counter, watching idly as Michael and Maria cleaned up after the usual dinner rush crowd. She'd had plans with Kyle for the evening, but when he'd come home, she'd been too depressed to go anywhere and had convinced him to take her to the Crashdown for a big bowl of the most fattening ice cream she could find.
It had been three days since Liz had moved into Max's home uninvited. Tess thought that it wouldn't take her that long, but judging by the way Max acted when he came in, Tess wasn't sure Liz was going to break through that thick skull of his at all. She'd fully expected Max and Liz to have at least already agreed to give things another go, to try and make their marriage work again.
But for the last three days, Max had been coming to the Crashdown for every meal, still ordering take out for one, and still taking it with him. He came in the front, making sure he sat in the section that didn't belong to Maria, and when Isabel was helping out, he steered clear of her section as well. Years of practice had made him an expert at determining each meal's busiest times, and he always made sure he came in during the rush so that none of his friends would have a spare minute to make their way over to him.
Tess had promised herself that she wouldn't call or go to Max's house until she was sure Liz had accomplished what she'd set out to do. But Max's icy behavior combined with the fact that each and every one of them was dying to know what was going in inside the Evans household was slowly chipping away at her resolve.
"Tess, c'mon! Call him! I mean, we don't even know what's going on over there! What if something's happened to Liz?" Maria exclaimed, shaking a broom in Tess's face.
Tess shot Maria a look underneath her heaping spoon of double fudge ice cream and scoffed, "Maria, please, it's Max and Liz. You know as well as I do they're probably knee deep in tension and waist high in sexual frustration being that close to each other for this long. If anything's happened to her, it's nothing a few nights alone with Max post-makeup won't cure."
"Yeah, well, I for one have made a decision. If I don't at least hear from Liz by tomorrow night, I'm going over there. Alien powers or not, if Max Evans hasn't accepted Liz after spending four days locked up with her, I'll wring his neck."
Tess couldn't help but giggle at Serena's fierce tone. It had only taken a day, and within no time, Serena had been accepted as part of the group. Her loyalty to Liz and her determination to make sure Liz got everything she deserved had broken down any hesitancy anyone in the group held against making the girl a friend. And when she'd been accepted wholly by Isabel, it had made the rest of the group's skepticism fade without a doubt. Tonight she was helping Maria and Michael close the restaurant, being as the new parents had plans for a late night dinner and night out after work. Serena had even been given the honoured role of taking care of Eliza for the evening.
"Serena, darling," Maria said, stopping in front of Tess and Serena. "Stand in line."
"You guys, go easy on him. Max has been hurt. He's had his heart ripped out and stomped on by the one person he thought would never hurt him. He knows Liz loves him. He knows he loves her. He's just having a hard time convincing himself that this time, their chance at happiness is real. I don't know how long it'll take. But I know without a shadow of a doubt that Max will eventually come around."
"Yeah, well, if I'm old and gray by the time it happens, and I have to see them kiss and make up while they're using walkers, [i]I'll[/i] wring his neck," Maria said.
Tess giggled at her friends, amazed at the sound. It had been a long time since she'd found something funny enough to laugh at. Heck, it had been a long time since any of them had found anything funny at all. But, here they were, after hours in an empty restaurant making jokes and laughing like a bunch of schoolgirls.
And it was because of one reason and one reason only. Liz Evans.
Without having done anything directly, Liz had had given them all hope again. She'd come back to town, albeit with different intentions then they would have liked, and had turned their lives upside down. Now she was offering them a chance to help make things right again, to make them better than they had been before. She had put herself on the line, put her heart at risk again, in hopes of getting what truly belonged to her in the first place.
Her happily ever after.
Liz's joy at having realized she and Max could be together again was infectious. Only Serena and Tess had talked to her, but they had both been so overwhelmingly ecstatic at the prospect of seeing Max and Liz back together, their good spirits had rubbed off on the rest of the group.
Tess almost giggled again as she watched Michael washing dishes. It wasn't that which made her want to laugh though. It was the fact that he was humming. Michael Guerin didn't hum. The fact that he was not only humming, but swaying slightly to a rhythm only he could hear in his head was definitely a sight to see. It was the little things like this that made it blatantly obvious how important Liz was to the lives of the people she'd left behind.
They hadn't wanted to admit it at first, and Tess had been there to witness their rants, their anger, frustration, and eventually their heartbreak at having been deserted by the one person that had brought them all together in the first place. It had been because of Liz's intense feelings for Max and her determination to make him hers in their sophomore year that had caused the group to be thrown together time after time. It had been those forced meetings and encounters that had made them friends, that had caused them to develop deep bonds of trust and love. And it was partly for this reason that it had hurt them so much when she'd run off.
Oddly enough, it was also the bonds that she'd created that had helped them through the difficult time following her abrupt departure from Roswell. Although life had gone back to being as normal as possible without Liz around, there were still everyday reminders that always put a damper on the happy lives they'd all made for themselves. But since Liz had come back, the proverbial gray cloud had been blown away and all that was left was its silver lining. Liz had left without explanation, but when she'd come back, they'd all found the answers to the questions that had plagued them since she'd left. The extra weight they'd all been forced to carry had been lifted from their shoulders in one fell swoop.
Max and Liz were going to be together. It was unavoidable. They were fated to happen, destined to be. And now that it was obvious no obstacles stood in their way, their friends were all eagerly awaiting their happy reunion.
Tess put her spoon down and looked at Serena inquisitively when the girl sat down on the stool next to her and turned to stare.
"So. You probably know Max better than anyone. Do you really thing he's going to give in?" Serena asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Let's put it this way. You probably know Liz better than anyone." Tess paused slightly as Maria walked by with a tray full of clean glasses. "Well, at least the Liz she is now anyway. Do you really think she's going to let him get away with [i]not[/i] giving in?"
Tess watched as Serena pondered her question, then grinned broadly. "You're right. She won't. But tell me this, she's got her work cut out for her, am I right?"
Tess nodded her head and took another bite of her ice cream. "That's probably an understatement. Max and Liz are the two most stubborn people I know. Max thinks that he loves Liz enough to not let her go, but he doesn't think he's strong enough to trust her to stay. Liz thinks she loves Max enough to make him forget the pain and heartbreak he's suffered over the past four years, but doesn't trust him enough to know that no matter how hard he tries, he'll never truly be able to get her out of his system, and that he'll eventually come around. I think they're both headed towards the same goal here, they're just taking two different paths."
Tess sat back and watched with a crooked grin as Serena grabbed a spoon from the counter and dug into her bowl of ice cream.
"Is anything ever easy with those two?" Serena asked.
Tess shook her head and laughed. "If it was, they wouldn't be Max and Liz."
Tess and Serena both spun towards the bar when Maria stopped on the other side, propping her chin up on her knuckles. "You know, I'm beginning to think we've stepped into some kind of wormhole, and I'm wondering if we'll ever make it out."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tess asked, handing Maria a spoon and pushing the bowl of ice cream towards her.
"Well, first off, Happy Gilmore over there," Maria said, pointing in Michael's direction, "Is humming songs that [I]I've[/i] never even been happy enough to hum. And Isabel actually served lunch on the house to Pam Troy and Vicky Delaney. Then there's our sweet, humble, quiet Max, who's walked around with a major stick up his butt and a scowl on his face for the last three days. Not to mention the fact that Liz and Max are fighting and they've never gone this long without making up - at least not when they were in the same state. Something is wrong here."
"It's [i]because[/i] Liz and Max are fighting that everyone's in such a good mood," Tess replied nonchalantly.
"Oh, great, now you too?" Maria asked. "You think it's a good thing that they're fighting?"
Tess rolled her eyes. "No, of course not. But it's the reason they're fighting that makes us all happier, whether we realize it or not. We all know that this fight is going to end with a reconciliation. Max and Liz are going to get back together. They're fighting right now and are extremely miserable. But that's why we're so happy!"
Maria nodded and took a bite of the ice cream. Tess gave her a funny look when Maria waved the spoon in her face and narrowed her eyes.
"You know," Maria said, "What you said just now sounded absolutely ridiculous and was kind of confusing. But the funny thing is, I actually understood it."
Maria, Serena and Tess giggled some more and got quiet as they all ate ice cream out of the huge bowl that Tess had scooped out. They were talking and laughing again, then all jumped, surprised momentarily by the shrill ringing of Serena's cell phone.
"Hello? Liz?" Serena said, flipping the phone open and pressing it to her ear.
Tess and Maria watched as Serena's expression changed and she hopped off of the stool to stand up with one hand in the air.
"Whoa, whoa, Casey, calm down. Calm down. Take a deep breath, and speak slower. What did Liz do?" Pause. "She what?!"
Tess jumped to her feet at Serena's outburst. What was wrong with Liz? What did she do?
As Tess's mind began to race with a million possibilities, the worst thought came to her. What if Liz had given up? What if she'd gone back to New York, had not stuck around to wait Max out? Or even worse, what if she'd done something to herself? The possibilities were too horrible to imagine and as she listened to Serena talk, she prayed silently that her imagination was only overacting.
Tess was practically jumping out of her skin with nervousness, alternating between confused looks in Serena's direction, and worried looks shared with Maria as both girls listened to Serena's side of the conversation.
"Right. When did you talk to her? And she wouldn't tell you why? She just up and called? Was everything all right, has anything happened since we've been gone?" Pause. "Well, don't do it just yet. If she calls again, tell her it's done." Pause again. Tess and Maria exchanged increasingly frustrated looks. "Right. No, you won't. She won't. I'll take full responsibility. No, Casey trust me. I know exactly what she's doing. You know what? Hold on a second."
Serena covered the mouthpiece of the phone and spoke hurriedly to Tess. "Does Max have a fax machine at his house?"
Tess nodded quickly and gave Serena the number, confusing her even more. She watched as Serena continued the conversation with the person on the other end of the line. "Draw up a proposal. Send it to this fax number. Send it all, but do not, and I repeat, do not make it official. No one knows about this, and whatever you do, don't contact any buyers. I'm sure, Casey. Trust me on this. Right. Okay. Okay, I'll be in touch. Bye."
"What was that all about?" Maria asked, beating Tess to the punch.
"He must really be getting to her," Serena said. "Because Liz is breaking out the big guns this time. That was the attorney for EE Designs. Liz just put it up for sale."
"You're kidding me?!" Tess asked incredulously. "Well, what did you need the fax number for?"
Serena shrugged. "Liz is obviously pulling out all the stops. I'm just sending her a little more ammunition."
"I still don't understand," Maria interjected with a puzzled tone.
"I do," Tess said. "Max doesn't trust Liz not to stay. The one thing she has in the world that means almost as much to her as Max is her career. She wants Max to know that she's not playing around. She just chose him over her own design firm."
Tess couldn't help but smile at the possibilities this news held. There was no way in the world Max would ever let Liz give up something she'd worked so hard for because of him. Max knew how much her career meant to her and Tess knew he'd never allow her to let that go just to prove something to him, something that deep down he already knew, but was too afraid to admit.
Whether she realized it or not, Liz Evans was going to be victorious. She'd just made the winning move that was bound to push Max over the edge.
