uEpilogue/u
IRoswell, New Mexico - Two Years Later/I
Liz frowned slightly as she stood on tip-toes, peering into the cupboard over the stove. "Where the heck is it?" She muttered, dropping back down and looking around the kitchen in exasperation. "How am I supposed to do this properly without the Tabasco?"
Her eyes lit up when she spotted her husband's favorite condiment sitting on the table across the room. She paused to scratch the top of Lou's head as she passed him, picked up the Tabasco and was on her way back to the tray waiting for her on the counter when a light tap on the back door alerted her to the fact that she was no longer alone.
"Tess! Hi!" Liz said, catching sight of her friend through the screen. "What are you doing here?" She glanced at the clock. "It's eight o'clock in the morning!"
"I'm opening the Museum for Max this morning. I came by for the key," Tess explained, coming in and sitting down at the table. She eyed the tray, amused. "Breakfast in bed?"
Liz was still staring at her in surprise though and didn't answer, because it was pretty obvious after all. "IYou're/I opening the Center? Why?"
"Anniversary present," Tess replied. She grinned. "Happy anniversary by the way."
Liz smiled. "Thanks! That's so nice!"
"Well, it's the least I can do," Tess shrugged, "Being as I wasn't around for the wedding."
Liz sat down next to her. "But you were there for the really important ceremony," she reminded her. "Without you, we wouldn't be celebrating this anniversary at all."
Tess smiled. "It was my pleasure."
They were, of course, referring to the bonding ceremony that Tess had presided over for she and Max in the granolith chamber just over a year ago.
It had taken Max and Liz almost a year of getting to know each other again, of building their new life together in Roswell and New York and of just plain falling back in love, before they had decided that they were ready to try for a child. It had seemed right somehow that Tess bless their union, that she run the ceremony, although it could have been any member of the "royal party" according to the Destiny Book. Neither Michael, nor Isabel had minded though. Tess had played such a large role in bringing Max and Liz back together, it had just seemed to be how things were supposed to play out.
Liz could look back on the ceremony now with a smile. For the past few months the memory had started to become bittersweet, but now that she knew what she knew.It was altogether a happy recollection.
I "I, Ava of Antar, do solemnly acknowledge the acceptance of this woman by our people."
Liz felt a shiver run down her spine at the seriousness with which Tess was taking the ceremony. Her voice was more stern than Liz had ever heard it and her expression was actually a little scary, with the flashing lights of the granolith shadowing it strangely.
"She is the chosen of our king." Tess looked directly at her and Liz wondered what she had been frightened of. Her friend's blue eyes were entirely accepting and shining with her joy for them both. "And so she is the chosen of us all."
The ceremony had been outlined in the Destiny Book and, yet, none of them had any idea how they were supposed to know if it had worked. But, as Tess said these last words, the granolith sprang to life, bathing Liz and Max in an otherworldly glow, where they stood together, holding hands. Liz heard Maria gasp in a corner of her mind, the rest of their friends having gathered together on the far side of the chamber to witness the ceremony, but she was too focused on what was happening to her body to really register it.
"May she bear our future ruler with my - and, thus, the planet's - blessing."
It was then that Liz understood why Tess had instructed her to design some sort of top that showed off her abdomen. Because, looking down at her bare stomach, she felt tears gather in her eyes.
A silver handprint shone on her skin, exactly where it had appeared almost ten years ago when Max had healed her on the floor of the Crashdown.
The day he had chosen her as his mate, his wife, his queen - the mother of his children. The day he had marked her as his forever.
The day he had become hers alone.
"Antar's blessings be upon you both."
Liz heard Tess's final words only distantly as Max lowered his head, his dark eyes shining. She raised her chin and met his lips, her joy so immense, she could not express it to him in any other way./I
"It will happen Liz," Tess was saying now.
Liz blinked, became aware of Tess's hand on hers, in an attempt to comfort her. Liz abruptly realized that Tess thought that she had become distant because she was reflecting on the fact that she hadn't become pregnant yet - that it had been more than a year and there was still no baby in sight.
Or so Tess believed.
She smiled slightly, wished that she could tell her friend the news.
But Max didn't even know. He had to be the first. In fact, he didn't even know she was back from her short trip to New York to check up on things. Although he usually came with her, he hadn't this time being as tourist season was now in full swing and he was needed at the UFO Centre. She had spent the night in a motel in Albuquerque, it having been too late to drive back. She had been up early, on the road home to tell her husband exactly what her doctor in New York had confirmed.
She was pregnant.
"I mean, you've been away a lot," Tess was saying sympathetically. "Now that you and Max have decided to focus solely on this for the next six months, it Iwill/I happen. I can Ifeel/I it."
Tess was right. Likely one of the reasons it had taken so long was that she and Max had been apart some of the time. It was hard work running two businesses, but EE Designs was finally running smoothly without her - or, at least, she had finally accepted that it was. It was difficult to realize that maybe she hadn't been the business brains behind her company at all. Serena was doing a great job and Liz was actually beginning to recognize that she didn't have to have her finger in every pot.
She kind of liked the idea of just focusing on designing for a while. It was what she had told Serena she was staying in Roswell to do - like she needed the pressure of all her co-workers knowing that she was trying to get pregnant! - but the sheer irony was, none of it had been necessary.
When she had least expected it, it had happened.
"Are you having premonitions now too?" She asked Tess teasingly. "Is that why you're so sure?"
Tess squeezed her hand, grinned again. "Hey! Not necessary. It's destiny, remember?"
But Liz barely heard her. It was as though the mention of the word "premonition" had made fate decide that perhaps it was time they had a little foreknowledge again.
It had been a while since Liz had received a flash of the future. The last time had been just over a year ago, on the night of the bonding. She and Max had come back to their little house and had made love. Later, as she was lying contentedly in his arms, it had happened, more peacefully than any premonition before.
She had dreamt about Max holding their little boy in his arms. And, so, in spite of her complete willingness and eagerness to get pregnant, she had remained confident and certain that it would happen. When they were ready, their child would come.
There had been no flashes since.
Until now.
She clutched at Tess's hand, focused on what she was being shown, trying to understand it.
And, when she did, she smiled.
"Liz?" Tess asked. "Are you okay?"
She could hear the concern in her friend's voice.
"I'm fine," Liz replied. "Everything's going to be fine."
"Well, okay then," Tess said, sounding uncertain.
Liz opened her eyes and smiled at the woman who had been her nemesis, her enemy, her nightmare. She smiled at the woman who was now her friend.
And she just couldn't help it. She had to know. Because she was completely aware of how happy what she had just seen was going to make both Kyle and Tess.
"Tess, did you know that you're going to have a baby?"
***
Liz placed the tray gently on the bed-side table and then perched on the bed, reaching out to push a lock of Max's hair out of his eyes. Her husband was still deeply asleep, obviously not even having heard her come in.
IGood thing Lou is such a great watch-dog,/I Liz thought ruefully. "You'd sleep through the end of the world," she murmured.
She could say it lightly now, knowing deep in her heart, thanks to what that premonition from Tess had shown her, that the end of the world was never going to come. At least not in their lifetime.
Liz had told Tess - leaving out the part that she too was pregnant of course - what she had seen. That Tess's daughter - the one she carried in her womb right now - was going to play a role in the saving of it. She had watched the blonde's eyes widen with surprise, flash a moment of trepidation, before a quiet joy had started to emanate from her expression.
"I." Tess had trailed off, unable to voice her happiness.
"You knew?" Liz asked.
"I suspected," Tess replied. She frowned suddenly, as though something had just occurred to her. "Liz, I'm sorry!"
"About what?" Liz demanded. "What does this have to do with me?"
Even as she said it though, she felt a little guilty for stretching the truth. Because Tess's pregnancy Idid/I have something to do with her. At least it would someday. But they couldn't know. A future like the one she had just seen - it did not need to be known beforehand. They all deserved to experience the happiness as it came.
And it was coming. For them all.
"That I'm." Tess gestured helplessly at her abdomen, then started to fidget with her wedding ring nervously. "We weren't even trying."
"It's what's meant to be," Liz had replied, reaching out to hug her friend, wishing she could tell Tess the reason why she wasn't upset. But Max was first.
Max was always first.
"It will all work out Tess. You have no reason to be sorry. Be Ihappy./I"
Tess had left soon after, still in a slight daze, but quite obviously already plotting how she was going to tell her husband the good news.
So now she sat, gazing down at her husband, about to tell him the news she had waited five years to be able to share, still unable to stop smiling.
Liz Parker Evans had a feeling that she would be unable to stop smiling for a very long time.
She would tell Max everything of course. He trusted her not to keep things from him and she never would again. Never. Even if it was good news. He always knew, the instant she did. It was how she had regained his trust and she was not going to change her ways now.
Keeping secrets had driven them apart once. She would never allow it again. Even if it was a good secret.
She slipped off her shoes and climbed under the duvet fully dressed, wanting to be as close to him as possible when she told him. She wanted to feel his heart stop the way it did when he was surprised, wanted to feel it jump for joy against her hand as it started pounding again.
But, first, she had to wake him up.
Wrapping her arms around his warmth, she pulled herself against him until her mouth was only a breath away from his ear. "Good morning Daddy."
Liz felt him shift against her, felt the slight change in the air as he slowly drifted back to awareness. "Liz?" He murmured, pulling her more tightly against him as he started to understand that she was in bed with him.
"It's me."
She felt the exact instant when what she had whispered to him came back to him. She smiled as his heart stopped and then started to thunder against her own. He understood.
And, yet, he still asked. Max pulled back slightly to meet her eyes. "Did you.What did you say?"
"I said good morning Daddy," Liz replied. She could feel tears gathering, kissed his palm as he reached up to use his thumbs to brush them away.
His smile was sleepy and, yet, not even that could contain his joy and she confirmed what he already knew. "I love you."
"I love you too."
And, really, there was nothing else to say, Liz reflected as he kissed her thoroughly.
But, of course, there was, really.
She pulled back, smiling. "There's one more thing."
Max's expression was becoming slightly befuddled as though the full import of what she had just told him was only starting to become clear to him. "What?" He asked, distracted.
"Tess is pregnant too."
He blinked. "She is? How do you know?"
"I got a flash. She was here."
"That's great!" Max said. "They must be happy."
"Well, Kyle doesn't know yet, so don't spill the beans until Tess can tell him."
"Okay," Max agreed, pulling her more tightly against his chest.
Liz sighed with contentment, exactly where she wanted to be. Home.
And, yet, she still had one more thing to tell him. Liz grinned mischievously to herself, realized that the way he was holding her provided perfect access to his ear again.
It was fate. Destiny. And she had promised him that she would never again keep anything from him. She wasn't going to start now. That would be Iwrong./I
Plus, this way she was giving him at least twenty-five years to prepare himself.
She turned her head slightly so that she could see the expression on his face when she told him.
"There's just Ione/I more little teeny thing Max."
His brows drew together slightly, but he seemed ready to listen so.
"How do you feel about having Kyle Valenti as your in-law?"
The End (For real this time)
IRoswell, New Mexico - Two Years Later/I
Liz frowned slightly as she stood on tip-toes, peering into the cupboard over the stove. "Where the heck is it?" She muttered, dropping back down and looking around the kitchen in exasperation. "How am I supposed to do this properly without the Tabasco?"
Her eyes lit up when she spotted her husband's favorite condiment sitting on the table across the room. She paused to scratch the top of Lou's head as she passed him, picked up the Tabasco and was on her way back to the tray waiting for her on the counter when a light tap on the back door alerted her to the fact that she was no longer alone.
"Tess! Hi!" Liz said, catching sight of her friend through the screen. "What are you doing here?" She glanced at the clock. "It's eight o'clock in the morning!"
"I'm opening the Museum for Max this morning. I came by for the key," Tess explained, coming in and sitting down at the table. She eyed the tray, amused. "Breakfast in bed?"
Liz was still staring at her in surprise though and didn't answer, because it was pretty obvious after all. "IYou're/I opening the Center? Why?"
"Anniversary present," Tess replied. She grinned. "Happy anniversary by the way."
Liz smiled. "Thanks! That's so nice!"
"Well, it's the least I can do," Tess shrugged, "Being as I wasn't around for the wedding."
Liz sat down next to her. "But you were there for the really important ceremony," she reminded her. "Without you, we wouldn't be celebrating this anniversary at all."
Tess smiled. "It was my pleasure."
They were, of course, referring to the bonding ceremony that Tess had presided over for she and Max in the granolith chamber just over a year ago.
It had taken Max and Liz almost a year of getting to know each other again, of building their new life together in Roswell and New York and of just plain falling back in love, before they had decided that they were ready to try for a child. It had seemed right somehow that Tess bless their union, that she run the ceremony, although it could have been any member of the "royal party" according to the Destiny Book. Neither Michael, nor Isabel had minded though. Tess had played such a large role in bringing Max and Liz back together, it had just seemed to be how things were supposed to play out.
Liz could look back on the ceremony now with a smile. For the past few months the memory had started to become bittersweet, but now that she knew what she knew.It was altogether a happy recollection.
I "I, Ava of Antar, do solemnly acknowledge the acceptance of this woman by our people."
Liz felt a shiver run down her spine at the seriousness with which Tess was taking the ceremony. Her voice was more stern than Liz had ever heard it and her expression was actually a little scary, with the flashing lights of the granolith shadowing it strangely.
"She is the chosen of our king." Tess looked directly at her and Liz wondered what she had been frightened of. Her friend's blue eyes were entirely accepting and shining with her joy for them both. "And so she is the chosen of us all."
The ceremony had been outlined in the Destiny Book and, yet, none of them had any idea how they were supposed to know if it had worked. But, as Tess said these last words, the granolith sprang to life, bathing Liz and Max in an otherworldly glow, where they stood together, holding hands. Liz heard Maria gasp in a corner of her mind, the rest of their friends having gathered together on the far side of the chamber to witness the ceremony, but she was too focused on what was happening to her body to really register it.
"May she bear our future ruler with my - and, thus, the planet's - blessing."
It was then that Liz understood why Tess had instructed her to design some sort of top that showed off her abdomen. Because, looking down at her bare stomach, she felt tears gather in her eyes.
A silver handprint shone on her skin, exactly where it had appeared almost ten years ago when Max had healed her on the floor of the Crashdown.
The day he had chosen her as his mate, his wife, his queen - the mother of his children. The day he had marked her as his forever.
The day he had become hers alone.
"Antar's blessings be upon you both."
Liz heard Tess's final words only distantly as Max lowered his head, his dark eyes shining. She raised her chin and met his lips, her joy so immense, she could not express it to him in any other way./I
"It will happen Liz," Tess was saying now.
Liz blinked, became aware of Tess's hand on hers, in an attempt to comfort her. Liz abruptly realized that Tess thought that she had become distant because she was reflecting on the fact that she hadn't become pregnant yet - that it had been more than a year and there was still no baby in sight.
Or so Tess believed.
She smiled slightly, wished that she could tell her friend the news.
But Max didn't even know. He had to be the first. In fact, he didn't even know she was back from her short trip to New York to check up on things. Although he usually came with her, he hadn't this time being as tourist season was now in full swing and he was needed at the UFO Centre. She had spent the night in a motel in Albuquerque, it having been too late to drive back. She had been up early, on the road home to tell her husband exactly what her doctor in New York had confirmed.
She was pregnant.
"I mean, you've been away a lot," Tess was saying sympathetically. "Now that you and Max have decided to focus solely on this for the next six months, it Iwill/I happen. I can Ifeel/I it."
Tess was right. Likely one of the reasons it had taken so long was that she and Max had been apart some of the time. It was hard work running two businesses, but EE Designs was finally running smoothly without her - or, at least, she had finally accepted that it was. It was difficult to realize that maybe she hadn't been the business brains behind her company at all. Serena was doing a great job and Liz was actually beginning to recognize that she didn't have to have her finger in every pot.
She kind of liked the idea of just focusing on designing for a while. It was what she had told Serena she was staying in Roswell to do - like she needed the pressure of all her co-workers knowing that she was trying to get pregnant! - but the sheer irony was, none of it had been necessary.
When she had least expected it, it had happened.
"Are you having premonitions now too?" She asked Tess teasingly. "Is that why you're so sure?"
Tess squeezed her hand, grinned again. "Hey! Not necessary. It's destiny, remember?"
But Liz barely heard her. It was as though the mention of the word "premonition" had made fate decide that perhaps it was time they had a little foreknowledge again.
It had been a while since Liz had received a flash of the future. The last time had been just over a year ago, on the night of the bonding. She and Max had come back to their little house and had made love. Later, as she was lying contentedly in his arms, it had happened, more peacefully than any premonition before.
She had dreamt about Max holding their little boy in his arms. And, so, in spite of her complete willingness and eagerness to get pregnant, she had remained confident and certain that it would happen. When they were ready, their child would come.
There had been no flashes since.
Until now.
She clutched at Tess's hand, focused on what she was being shown, trying to understand it.
And, when she did, she smiled.
"Liz?" Tess asked. "Are you okay?"
She could hear the concern in her friend's voice.
"I'm fine," Liz replied. "Everything's going to be fine."
"Well, okay then," Tess said, sounding uncertain.
Liz opened her eyes and smiled at the woman who had been her nemesis, her enemy, her nightmare. She smiled at the woman who was now her friend.
And she just couldn't help it. She had to know. Because she was completely aware of how happy what she had just seen was going to make both Kyle and Tess.
"Tess, did you know that you're going to have a baby?"
***
Liz placed the tray gently on the bed-side table and then perched on the bed, reaching out to push a lock of Max's hair out of his eyes. Her husband was still deeply asleep, obviously not even having heard her come in.
IGood thing Lou is such a great watch-dog,/I Liz thought ruefully. "You'd sleep through the end of the world," she murmured.
She could say it lightly now, knowing deep in her heart, thanks to what that premonition from Tess had shown her, that the end of the world was never going to come. At least not in their lifetime.
Liz had told Tess - leaving out the part that she too was pregnant of course - what she had seen. That Tess's daughter - the one she carried in her womb right now - was going to play a role in the saving of it. She had watched the blonde's eyes widen with surprise, flash a moment of trepidation, before a quiet joy had started to emanate from her expression.
"I." Tess had trailed off, unable to voice her happiness.
"You knew?" Liz asked.
"I suspected," Tess replied. She frowned suddenly, as though something had just occurred to her. "Liz, I'm sorry!"
"About what?" Liz demanded. "What does this have to do with me?"
Even as she said it though, she felt a little guilty for stretching the truth. Because Tess's pregnancy Idid/I have something to do with her. At least it would someday. But they couldn't know. A future like the one she had just seen - it did not need to be known beforehand. They all deserved to experience the happiness as it came.
And it was coming. For them all.
"That I'm." Tess gestured helplessly at her abdomen, then started to fidget with her wedding ring nervously. "We weren't even trying."
"It's what's meant to be," Liz had replied, reaching out to hug her friend, wishing she could tell Tess the reason why she wasn't upset. But Max was first.
Max was always first.
"It will all work out Tess. You have no reason to be sorry. Be Ihappy./I"
Tess had left soon after, still in a slight daze, but quite obviously already plotting how she was going to tell her husband the good news.
So now she sat, gazing down at her husband, about to tell him the news she had waited five years to be able to share, still unable to stop smiling.
Liz Parker Evans had a feeling that she would be unable to stop smiling for a very long time.
She would tell Max everything of course. He trusted her not to keep things from him and she never would again. Never. Even if it was good news. He always knew, the instant she did. It was how she had regained his trust and she was not going to change her ways now.
Keeping secrets had driven them apart once. She would never allow it again. Even if it was a good secret.
She slipped off her shoes and climbed under the duvet fully dressed, wanting to be as close to him as possible when she told him. She wanted to feel his heart stop the way it did when he was surprised, wanted to feel it jump for joy against her hand as it started pounding again.
But, first, she had to wake him up.
Wrapping her arms around his warmth, she pulled herself against him until her mouth was only a breath away from his ear. "Good morning Daddy."
Liz felt him shift against her, felt the slight change in the air as he slowly drifted back to awareness. "Liz?" He murmured, pulling her more tightly against him as he started to understand that she was in bed with him.
"It's me."
She felt the exact instant when what she had whispered to him came back to him. She smiled as his heart stopped and then started to thunder against her own. He understood.
And, yet, he still asked. Max pulled back slightly to meet her eyes. "Did you.What did you say?"
"I said good morning Daddy," Liz replied. She could feel tears gathering, kissed his palm as he reached up to use his thumbs to brush them away.
His smile was sleepy and, yet, not even that could contain his joy and she confirmed what he already knew. "I love you."
"I love you too."
And, really, there was nothing else to say, Liz reflected as he kissed her thoroughly.
But, of course, there was, really.
She pulled back, smiling. "There's one more thing."
Max's expression was becoming slightly befuddled as though the full import of what she had just told him was only starting to become clear to him. "What?" He asked, distracted.
"Tess is pregnant too."
He blinked. "She is? How do you know?"
"I got a flash. She was here."
"That's great!" Max said. "They must be happy."
"Well, Kyle doesn't know yet, so don't spill the beans until Tess can tell him."
"Okay," Max agreed, pulling her more tightly against his chest.
Liz sighed with contentment, exactly where she wanted to be. Home.
And, yet, she still had one more thing to tell him. Liz grinned mischievously to herself, realized that the way he was holding her provided perfect access to his ear again.
It was fate. Destiny. And she had promised him that she would never again keep anything from him. She wasn't going to start now. That would be Iwrong./I
Plus, this way she was giving him at least twenty-five years to prepare himself.
She turned her head slightly so that she could see the expression on his face when she told him.
"There's just Ione/I more little teeny thing Max."
His brows drew together slightly, but he seemed ready to listen so.
"How do you feel about having Kyle Valenti as your in-law?"
The End (For real this time)
