Mending Pieces  

A Roswell Alternate Universe Story  

By Andrea Sinisterra    

Romance/Drama  

Standard Disclaimers Apply

* * *

If I need some of your love again

Give me more than I can stand

When my smile gets old and faded

Wait around, I'll smile again

"Bent"

- Matchbox 20

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Part 7

"Dad?"

Tess choked in mid reply, as their conversation was interrupted by Aaron's entrance. Max went to his son, lifting him into his arms, "I told you to stay outside."

"No, you didn't."

Tess Harding had never been a sentimental person, but right now, seeing her son after six -almost seven years, made her eyes water, and her heart ache. She realized just how much she had missed her son... and Max. It stirred her, something she had thought was not possible, seeing Max and Aaron together. Her hands flew to her mouth to prevent a sob from escaping.

"Oh, God," she whispered, "my son."

Aaron's eyes were glued to her mother's. Blue locked on blue. Max put Aaron down. Waiting...

Max waited, almost anxious, for Aaron's reaction. Aaron never spoke to anyone about his mother, even when Max asked him anything about his mother Aaron had always been hesitant. Sometimes, he even gets angry whenever someone talks or asks about his mother. And it's not like Max has something to do with Aaron's opinion about his mother. Max never told anything to Aaron about the separation. Only that they didn't love each other anymore and that Tess felt that she wasn't a good mother. Max hated Tess for everything she did; however, he didn't want Aaron to hate his mother. And even though, they'd had a couple of chats about the issue, Max knew Aaron had his own reasoning, and maybe had figured out something about his mother's sudden disappearance.

So Max waited patiently, eyeing Aaron with curiosity. He certainly didn't want Tess in their lives... but Aaron deserves to have his mother, and more so, after Tess had begged for forgiveness. Max wasn't about to forbid Tess to see her son, much less if Aaron wanted to see his mother. It just hurt.

Max saw with something akin sympathy as Aaron's eyes narrowed at his mother. The sudden urge to grab Aaron and hide him from whatever Tess was planning was almost overpowering, but he clamped down on it. Though what if Tess really meant everything she said. What if she really wanted to come back and make things good with and for Aaron? He wasn't about to forgive her, nor he thinks he would ever will... but maybe Aaron could find it in himself to forgive his mother and let her win his trust. Maybe they could make some arrangements... he sure as hell wasn't about to give her an opportunity to make it up to *him*, that he was very sure about. He would date Liz, and she could date whomever she well pleases.

Liz... what must she be thinking about all this? Would she hightail as far away as possible from all this mess? Does she even think about him as much as he was thinking about her? And anyway, how could he like her, let alone, want her so much if they just met? Would she feel jealous now that Tess has returned? Though, she has no right to be, but... why does he cares so much anyway!?

The feel of Aaron's smaller hand clasping his own brought him back to reality. Amazing how he had spaced out in such a critical moment. "Aaron?"

Aaron tugged Max's hand, "I want to go home... now." He finally said, backing away towards the door, gently pulling Max with him.

A pathetic sob escaped Tess' lips. Apparently she had thought that she had landed on safe ground now that Max had given Aaron the final decision. Tess had been poorly mistaken when she thought that Aaron's feelings would be magnanimous towards her, opposed to his father's ones. Amazing how one mistake can cause you and all the people around you so much pain. When she had decided to leave years ago, under the pretense that her *hasty escape* was due to some lover she had, she never expected it to backfire. She never expected to miss Aaron, let alone Max, so much. She had barely been twenty-one when she and Max married. A heady mix of love and lust made them walk blindfolded into a marriage that was really no marriage.

A great part was her doing, she realized, when she had thought that life ended upon graduation. So she decided to marry the hottest guy in school. Sure they dated after graduation for nearly thirty-two months, but they didn't count on her getting pregnant so soon, putting a rapid ending to their amour, and walking almost in tears into a marriage that neither of them felt was right. There was love, on both accounts, but there was also a heavy sense of duty on Max's side and the obligating stares of the Evans', that made their marriage, unwanted.

And she loved Max, she still does. But at the time, she felt that love wasn't enough. She wanted freedom, something crazy and wild that she knew she had lost the moment they walked to the altar with their 'I do's'. Besides the fact that she had felt like crap in the eyes of Robert and Clarisse Evans and Phillip and Diane Evans, members of a society she had craved her entire life to become part of. Of course, her chances to become part of that slimmed to none-existent when Max refused to run Parker-Evans Investments and Financial Corporation.

It all got worse after Aaron's birth. It is supposed to be the greatest joy for a woman to become a mother, the greatest joy to hold a child from your own womb to nurture and love... instead she had felt trapped, like a prisoner in a never-ending story. And it wasn't like she didn't love her son either, it just was that she didn't want him -love him enough like a mother is supposed to love her own offspring. By then, things with Max weren't going like she had hoped they would, even though Max was always so eager to please her, always so happy with their son. Though she knew he didn't fool himself into believing they were leading perfect lives.

She had begun by then, spending more time at work and less time at home. She had done all in her power to spend the necessary time with her *family*. When Aaron turned two, Max already did most of the job, becoming both, mother and father. And though she knew that Max was still completely faithful to her, he had cut every emotional link whatsoever. She had expected that.

It was then that she met Keith. The most ironic thing was that Keith was almost the exact image of Max, and it made her think that maybe she hadn't stopped loving him, after all... Keith offered everything she wanted, and the most important was simplicity. There were no commitments, no attachments there was only freedom. He represented all that she had missed out when she was younger... except she was married now. But he didn't seem to care about that, and still offered her the world; which in reality was just a mere escape from her *life*... And she was foolish enough to expect *happiness* from her new *freedom*. She just had never expected to miss so much all those things she had run away from.

And now she was back, after years of absence, with a broken heart, a lonely soul, and a bank balance almost in red. Things hadn't worked out the way she had planned. After bailing out on Keith on their way to Contadora, she had spent every penny she had on a plane ticket to Atlanta... where her parents lived. After her long absence from her 'vacations' with Keith, she had returned to a cruel, mindless reality, bringing her life to an abrupt turnaround. Turned out her uncle, Ted Harding had had a cardiac arrest two nights after her disappearance. She had cried silently to herself for his death. Her keeper... the closest person she had to a friend had died... and she wasn't even around to take care of all the funeral arrangements.

She had lived for a year in Atlanta, listening everyday to her mother's incessant lecture of family values and motherly love. Making her feel guiltier in a situation where there wasn't space left for any more guilt. Her father on the other hand, had turned his back on her, treating her with a cold 'good morning' and an equally cold 'good night'. She had made a resolution after her long stay at her parents' house: she would stop bailing out when things wouldn't look up. She had been giving up on everyone since forever, and look where it got her.

Her son hated her.

"Now, dad." Aaron said again. He glanced at his mother, as if memorizing her appearance, from the tips of her leather black boots, to the long, curly strands of her gold hair. His mother was beautiful. He kept some pictures of her, but the memory of her was non-existent in his head. 

"It's okay." Tess said after half a minute had stretched in awkward silence, holding back tears, and trying to keep her voice from trembling, "it's okay. I'm leaving... but I'll be around. I'm not giving up on this..." She stopped, crouching down in front of Aaron, "I'm not giving up on you again." And with that, she was gone.

To be continued...

Chapter 8: Fatalities