The Summer After the Departure
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor did I invent the characters of Roswell.
Summary: What happened between the end of The Departure and Busted!
Author's Notes: I don't know about anyone else but I found it rather annoying that the writers just threw Max and Liz back into each other's arms after all they had been through in Season Two. Don't get me wrong—I wanted them to get back together, but I wanted it to happen in a manner more characteristic of them. Showing us those flashbacks made it seem as if it all happened so fast. So I wrote this story to show it all happen in a more logical progression and what all the characters were thinking.
I'm Liz Parker and two weeks ago I was arrested for armed robbery. If you had asked me two years ago what I'd be doing now, in my senior year of high school, I would have said that I'd be going to school, hanging out with Maria and Alex, working at the Crashdown and filling out college applications. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be holding up convenience stores to help my alien boyfriend find his spaceship so that he could go rescue his son from the evil alien who killed Alex.
Alex. I miss him so much. I can't believe it was Tess who killed him. This past year has been such a nightmare. Losing Max to Tess, and then Alex dying. As we stood out there in the desert watching Tess shoot off into space in the granolith-spaceship, I felt this immense relief. And Max took me in his arms and said he loved me.
This summer has been...interesting. I think everyone has just been trying to regain some sense of normalcy in our lives after the insanity of the past year. The past two years, really. Anyway, this summer has been really, really interesting...
oooooooooooooooooooo
JuneAfter the departure, the six of them, Max, Michael, Isabel, Liz, Maria, and Kyle just stood there, speechless. The events were still sinking in. Tess had killed Alex. She had took the granolith back to their home planet. She was gone. Max, Michael and Isabel were stuck here on Earth now, for better or worse.
"We should get home. Before Mom and Dad find out we're gone, " said Max, looking at Isabel.
"Yeah. My mom's gonna be worried, too," Maria reluctantly agreed.
Isabel looked at Maria's Jetta. "Can we all fit?" she asked, wanting desperately to go home. She hadn't wanted to leave, and now she was getting a second chance to stay.
"Yeah, we'll just have to be a little squished."
They all piled in, and Maria drove them back to town. It was a silent trip. Everyone was absorbed in their own thoughts.
When they pulled into Max and Isabel's street, and stopped a few houses away, Max spoke. "We should all meet tonight. We need to regroup."
"Fine. Michael's apartment, seven'o'clock. Okay? Okay." Isabel was fidgeting, clearly wanting to jump out of the car and race back home.
Max smiled at Liz, and he and Isabel got out of the car and headed into their house.
Next, they dropped Kyle off. He walked into his house, thinking of Tess' betrayal. He had thought of her as a sister. Jim Valenti was sitting at the dining table, turning a videotape over in his hands. It was the taped farewell Max and Isabel had asked him to give to their parents after they were gone.
"Change of plans, Dad," Kyle announced. "The aliens are still among us."
oooooooooooooooooooo
As they drove to Liz's place, she thought about Max. He had come out of the pod chamber (without Tess!), grabbed her hand, and ran down the hillside. They had all watched the ship take off. Liz hadn't known quite what to think. The first flowering of hope she had felt in a year started to bloom within her. Then he had turned to her.
"I've been really wrong about a lot lately. But one thing I've been right about...was to get you into my life...to be around you...to love you."
He loved her, and he had stayed. Tess was gone. Liz felt like she might be able to be happy now. Max had broken her heart, but she still loved him. When she thought she was never going to see him again, her heart had broken all over again. She thought that they would have to sort of take things slowly. This past year had been rocky. First, he thought she slept with Kyle, and felt betrayed. Then, he actually slept with Tess (that tramp!), and she now felt betrayed. They would have to take things slowly.
Maria pulled up in front of the Crashdown, and Liz got out of the car, telling Maria and Michael she would see them later. Then Maria drove the car toward Michael's.
Instead of just dropping him off, she followed him inside. She thought about the last time she had been here. They had lain in bed together, and she had made a joke about "taking a huge step in human-alien relations." She had been the happiest she'd ever been at that moment. Then he had told her he was leaving. In a few hours. They'd both known that it could happen eventually, but neither had realized it would be so soon. But now here they were, together, still on Earth.
"You stayed for me."
"Yeah, well." Michael stuck his hands in his pockets and stared down at his feet. "I just realized I couldn't leave when I'd finally found home."
She went to him and they embraced.
oooooooooooooooooooo
They were all seated around the living room in Michael's apartment.
"Tess was a traitor," Max said flatly. "She had a deal with the enemy to deliver the three of us, and my son, back to Kivar. She said Nasedo had made the deal with the Skins forty years ago."
Max still felt numb. He couldn't believe he had made such a huge mistake about her. What kind of a person was he in his previous life to fall in love with someone like her? "You were a KING." And what was he now? "Now you're just a BOY." Yeah, a boy who was regaining his memories of that previous life. King Zan of Antar. She had said it like he was better then, but it seemed to him that he was better now, as a human. He wanted to just forget all about Tess and his previous life. But what would happen to his son?
"Wow. I never liked that girl, but I never actually thought she was working against you guys," Maria shook her head.
"We should never have trusted her, " said Michael.
"Well, how could we have known? She was one of us. I'm just glad it's all over now and she's gone. We can just get on with our lives. I just can't believe she killed Alex," Isabel said bitterly.
"How did you figure that out, anyway?" Max asked Liz.
"Oh, well, Maria and I overheard Maria's mom talking about aliens. She was just going on and on about that whole thing that happened with Brody, or Larek, or whoever, at the UFO museum. She was like remembering everything. When Maria called her, she sort of just snapped out of it, and acted like everything was normal. I realized she had been breaking out of the mindwarp Tess did on her. And I saw her tapping her fingers in this weird rhythm, and it all just clicked. Alex tapped his fingers liked that when he came back from Sweden. And Kyle had been doing it, too. I don't know, I just made the connection. So we went over to Kyle's and asked about it. And he remembered."
Kyle heaved a big sigh. "I was there for the whole thing. Alex was all upset, and Tess was trying to calm him down. She was totally panicked. Then I think she tried to mindwarp him and it killed him."
"I asked her about it. She said she didn't mean to kill him, his mind was weakened from the mindwarp." Max shook his head angrily. "She said it didn't matter now. Like his life didn't matter! He was just a human."
"So she just used him to translate the book, and then discarded him like he was nothing," Isabel started to cry. Max went and sat next to her, and held her as she sobbed.
"So now what?" said Michael. "What if somebody noticed that ship take off? Or what if the aliens get pissed that Tess didn't bring us back with her, and decide to come get us themselves? We can't just pretend everything's fine."
"We lay low. Keep our eyes open. Try to live normal lives," said Max. "We have to try to...forget about that other world. Without the Granolith, there's nothing we can do now."
After a few minutes of nobody saying anything, Maria stood up. " I need to get home. Make sure my mom's not having any more, uh, memories. Liz, want a ride?"
"Yeah, thanks." Liz got up and after casting one more look at Max and attempting a smile, she started to head to the door.
"I should go too. Uh, my dad said we're gonna have to come up with some kind of cover story for what happened to Tess." Kyle shifted from foot to foot, looking uneasy.
"We'll say she moved away. Went to live with relatives or something," Max said.
"Okay, I'll have my dad take care of it."
After the three humans left, Michael looked at Max and Isabel. "See, this is what happens when we let humans in on our secret. They get hurt. Now it's too late for Maria, Liz, and the Valentis. We just have to make sure that they don't get hurt. But we can't let anyone else in. It's too dangerous. It has to end now."
Max nodded. "Agreed. Isabel?"
She nodded. "Yeah, of course."
"Okay, then. It's agreed." Michael stood up with an air of finality. "Now if you two don't mind, I'm going to watch some nice human basketball."
oooooooooooooooooooo
It was that time of the day at the Crashdown, after the last lunch people had left, but before the early-bird diners started to trickle in. Mr. Parker had gone over to the DeLuca's shop to pick up some alien-themed supplies, so Maria and Liz were holding down the fort. The place was empty except for a couple at a booth by the window at the front of the restaurant.
"And he let you see him? What does that mean exactly?" Liz asked as she wiped down the counter.
"I saw his memories. Him as a little kid, with Hank, with Max and Isabel. And I saw me, through his eyes. Honestly, Liz, all this time we thought Michael was like this reject, this un-boyfriend, and it turns out he's like Mr. Romantic."
"And then you guys..."
Maria grinned. "Yep."
Just then they were interrupted by the jingle of the door opening, and they turned to see Max and Isabel walk in and sit down in their usual booth. Maria walked up to them. "Hey guys. What's up with the jeep? Yesterday, I saw you guys getting off the bus."
Isabel rolled her eyes. "When we thought we were leaving, Max had this brilliant idea about faking a car crash to explain our disappearance. End result: the jeep is a burnt wreck at the bottom of the ravine."
"Oooh," Maria winced. "What did your folks say?"
"We haven't told them." Max glanced toward the kitchen, where Liz had disappeared. "They don't have a clue that anything happened this weekend."
"Hmm. Too bad you can't use that mind warp thing to make them see the jeep. Speaking of lost skills, aren't one of you guys going to have to learn how to do that now?"
Max grimaced. "I think the mind warp is one skill we can do without."
"Granted, but what about, you know, the end of the world and everything? You know, now that your "unit" isn't complete?"
Max looked sharply up at her, startled. "What are you talking about?"
Maria stared at him, taking in his shocked expression, and saw Isabel's bewilderment.
"Oh, nothing. Just thinking out loud. Just, um ..., will you excuse me a minute?" Maria turned and walked back into the kitchen. "Liz!" she hissed. "You haven't told them about Future Max and the whole end of the world thing! I totally just assumed they knew. Are you crazy? You have to fill them in on everything! I mean the fate of the world is at stake here!"
"Maria! Maria, calm down. I'm going to tell them. I'm just waiting for the right time."
"The right time? What do you mean, the right time? Are you waiting for their enemies to take over the earth first? You have to tell them. Right now."
"I know, I know. Okay, look, I'll talk to Max."
"Right now!" Maria pushed Liz out of the kitchen and over to the booth where Max and Isabel were sitting.
"Max, Liz needs to talk to you. Privately. Right now."
Liz sighed. "Yeah, Max, why don't we go upstairs."
"Okay." Max slid out of the booth and followed her into the back.
Maria let out a huge sigh, and collapsed onto the seat that Max had just vacated. She rested her head in her heads.
"You okay?" asked Isabel doubtfully.
"Oh, yeah. Just wondering if I'm ever going to wake up from this extremely weird dream I'm having."
Isabel poured some Tabasco into her soda. "What happened to that guy. Sean?"
"Oh, my loser cousin? He decided to go visit some friends in California. I think he finally got it through his thick skull that Liz is hopelessly in love with Max."
"My brother, the King," Isabel said sarcastically. "Do you think they'll get back together?"
"I don't know. I mean, he slept with Tess," Maria said the name with disgust. "And anyway, they have some unfinished business to talk about. Remember the Kyle fiasco?"
oooooooooooooooooooo
Liz closed the bedroom door behind them. "Have a seat," she said, and picked up a pile of clothes from the armchair and threw them in the closet. She sat on the bed and faced Max.
"How are you?" Max asked awkwardly.
Liz nodded. "I'm okay, and you?"
"All right."
There was a moment of unbreakable silence between them.
"Look, I need to tell you about what happened with Kyle, back in October."
"Liz--"
"One night, you came to me. You, from fourteen years in the future. You told me that you and I being together would drive Tess away from Roswell. Then, when the enemy came, you guy's were weakened without her, and that led to the enemies taking over the Earth. You--he--told me I had to make you fall out of love with me. So I made you think I slept with Kyle, so you would leave me and go be with Tess."
For a few moments, Max was speechless. "And you've been keeping this secret all this time, in order to save the world?"
Liz nodded, a tear sliding down her cheek. Max gently wiped it away.
"Liz, us being together is not going to cause the end of the world. We're better off with Tess gone. She couldn't be trusted anyway. I love you."
Liz stood and started to pace. "Tess is gone. What that means for the fate of the earth, I don't know. But there's nothing we can do about that. And you're right, that she couldn't be trusted. Look what she did to Alex." She stopped and looked at Max. "As for you and me, I think we should take things slow. This past year has been so crazy. We need to work our way back to trusting each other. So let's go slow, okay?"
Max nodded, and opened his mouth to say something when there was a knock on the door. Maria poked her head in. "Um, are you guys done? 'Cause we're totally being invaded by the little league team down there. We need to make like thirty alien blasts."
"Yeah, I'm coming." Liz looked at Max, and he managed a smile. "I'll see you later, okay?"
"Yeah. Later." He followed them downstairs and rejoined Isabel, while thirty screaming children took over the Crashdown.
oooooooooooooooooooo
A couple of weeks later...
The hot July sun poured down on them as they walked through the park toward the barbecue stand.
"I so don't want to be at this stupid company picnic right now," said Isabel.
"It makes Mom and Dad happy, " Max noted. "Besides, have you got anything better to do?"
"Thankfully, no. Things have been amazingly peaceful these last few weeks since Tess left." She noticed Max wince when she said Tess's name. She knew he still hated himself for misjudging her so completely and getting so involved with her, when she turned out to be such a traitor. "Max, stop beating yourself up. She had us all fooled. She's gone now. Let's just forget about all of it. Change of subject. Have you talked to Liz lately?"
"No, things have been...strained between us."
"Well, you need to do something to fix that, now don't you?" Isabel said brightly, as they approached the barbecue.
They were pouring sugar onto their hot dogs, when Philip Evans came up to them towing a young, handsome latino man.
"Max, Izzy, I want you to meet the newest lawyer in my firm. This is Jesse Ramirez. Jesse -- Max, Isabel."
oooooooooooooooooooo
Max and Liz walked along the pier in an uncomfortable silence. Liz was remembering the last time they had gone to Senor Chow's. It had been on that double-date with Michael and Maria over a year ago. They had been so happy then. Then the all the FBI craziness had started, and Tess had come to town...things had just gotten all messed up.
"Liz, I just want to put everything that happened behind us."
If only we could. But it's not that simple. She sighed. "Yeah, you know that I would, too, if I had impregnated an alien killer who murdered one of our best friends and then left the planet with my unborn child."
Max winced. "Liz, meeting someone, someone like me, it attracted me. I admit that. It was something I had to find out about, and now I'm over it."
"It's not that simple," Liz noted sadly.
Determinedly, he went on. "Liz, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. Isabel, Michael and I, we've lost our only way home. There's no way back. You're the only one for me to...you're my only reason. I want to be with you."
"Tess is pregnant with your child. What about your son?" Liz demanded.
"There's nothing I can do about that. He's gonna be born in a...in another world, a world that I have nothing to do with. I've accepted it." He turned to her, and looked her straight in the eyes. "Liz, you've paid a lot to know me. You've been hurt and you've been put in danger. Now I want to make that up to you. I want to make your dreams come true. Will you let me do that?"
Liz gazed at him, feeling herself get lost in those dark, soulful eyes of his. Maybe things could work out after all...
oooooooooooooooooooo
Isabel was getting dressed to go out with Jesse when the phone rang. "Aaargh! I don't have time for this!" She picked up the phone, with an impatient "What!"
"Isabel? Isabel, it's me, Liz. There's something wrong with Max. We were at Foster's Lake and he, like, fainted or something. I got him out of the lake and into the car, but he's still unconscious. I'm really worried!"
"Where are you?"
"I'm on my way to your house."
"Well, hurry up," Isabel snapped. "Um, wait, you better go to Michael's. Our parents are home. Look, I'll meet you there."
Ten minutes later, Isabel and Michael were pacing impatiently in Michael's living room when Liz finally arrived.
"Max!" The three of them struggled to set Max down on the couch. He was totally out of it.
Concern in his eyes, Michael said, "Just tell us what happened. Feel free to leave out the lurid details."
"Look, I told you already. He was just, like, laying there in the water and he woke up in the car. But he hasn't said a single word. You guys, isn't there some sort of a cure for this? You guys are the aliens! Do something here!"
Michael took the obviously alien course of action by giving Max a shake, and yelling, "Maxwell! Hey, Maxwell! Maxwell! What's going on?"
"Something happened," Max managed to get out. "I had this vision. It was my son. He's been born. He was reaching out to me. He's in trouble."
Isabel collapsed in a chair. "Man, I thought this was all over."
"Maximillian, there's nothing you can do. Your kid's on another planet. You have to just let it go."
"I can't." Max covered his face and leaned back on the couch.
Isabel stood up and headed into the kitchen to call Jesse and cancel for tonight. It was only their second date, since they had met at the picnic last week. But, just like her whole life, it would have to wait until the latest alien crisis had passed. "Story of my life," she muttered as she dialed his number.
oooooooooooooooooooo
Three weeks later...
Max rang the doorbell of the Valenti's house. After a few moments, Jim Valenti opened the door. He didn't look so good. At 11:00 on a Tuesday morning, he was still wearing his bathrobe. Since losing his job last winter, he had been going through something of a depression. Kyle had had to take a job at the car repair shop just to make ends meet. However, when Jim saw Max, he forced a smile.
"Hey, Max, how you doing?"
"All right. I was wondering, if maybe I could look through Tess' stuff. There might be stuff that we could need."
"Oh, yeah. Of course. Come on in. We've left her room alone. Haven't wanted to mess with anything in there. Take everything you need. Probably be best if we get her stuff cleared out, so Kyle can move back in there."
Max went into Tess' room and suppressed a shiver. This was where she had killed Alex. The last time Max and been in here, he had kissed her, having no idea what she had done to Alex. He walked over to her dresser, and opened the top drawer. Underwear. Nothing alien there. He went quickly through the drawers, until he found buried at the bottom of the bottom drawer a large manila envelope. He took it out, and opened it, finding a stack of papers. He settled down to go through them.
Half an hour later, he was still so absorbed in the papers, that he didn't even hear Liz come in.
"Hey. I've been looking for you."
Max looked up. He flushed. He knew how this must look to her. "Yeah. Yeah, I was just, uh---"
"Looking through Tess' stuff," Liz finished for him. She looked at the paper he was holding. There was writing, and a sketch of a diamond. "What's that?"
"It was buried among Tess' things. It's a letter Nasedo wrote to her before he died. It says, 'I am your one and only protector on this planet. I'll protect you until the end. If I ever die, this is our only way to communicate with our home.'"
Liz looked at him. "And?"
Max shrugged apologetically. "I have to contact my son."
Liz said reluctantly, "So I guess this part of your life isn't over after all."
oooooooooooooooooooo
There was an annoying shrieking, squealing sound as a library pushed a cart with a loose wheel down the aisle of books. Liz tried to ignore it and focus on the books spread out all over the table in front of her. She had come to the library after deciding that she had to help Max find a way to contact his son. It hadn't been an easy decision. She so wanted to have a normal life. She didn't know what would happen if Max did contact his son. All she knew was that she wanted to be a part of his life, and this quest to find his son was part of his life. She didn't want to lose him again. She was flipping idly through a book about famous diamonds, when suddenly she saw an image that arrested her. She looked closer. It was the same diamond as the one in Nasedo's letter. Or at least it was awfully close. She snatched up the book and headed to the copy room.
oooooooooooooooooooo
Michael and Isabel sat across from each other in a booth at the Crashdown. Maria came up to take their order, and then before she left, she said, "Michael. Date tonight. Pick me up at 8." Then she disappeared into the kitchen.
Isabel just looked at Michael with a smirk on her face.
"Shut up," he told her before she could say a word. "Look, do you think we need to worry about this whole thing with Max?"
She shook her head in frustration. "It's like he's obsessed. He's not going to stop until he finds his son."
"But the kid's on another planet. He could be dead for all we know. This search is just gonna cause trouble."
"Michael, I told him all that. He won't listen. I just say we go about our business. Try to have normal lives. That's what we agreed on, right. Anyway, there's nothing he can do. The granolith is gone. There's no other way to get to Antar. Frankly, I'm glad."
oooooooooooooooooooo
One week later...
Liz came into Max's room and jumped onto his lap and kissed him. "Look at this." She handed him the copy of the information about the diamond.
"How'd you find this?"
"I spent 16 hours at the main branch of the library in Albuquerque. The diamond's owned by Delores Browning, one of the 10 wealthiest women in the world."
"Where is it?'
"It's on permanent loan at the Tate museum in London. But it's gonna be the main event in a traveling exhibit. It'll be in Santa Fe in two weeks." She beamed at him, very pleased with herself.
"I'm going," Max said, standing up.
"No, no, no, no, no. I want to do this with you, Max. Together." Her tone was determined.
"Why?"
"Because if I had lost a child, I would want you to help me find him." She paused. "But that's only part of the reason. The other part is that I don't want you to slip away from me. I know what it's like to be with you, and I know what it's like to be apart from you. And I would rather be with you."
Max smiled, but he still looked worried. "I don't know if I could live with myself if anything ever happened to you."
"Max, you're an alien king. What could ever happen to me?"
oooooooooooooooooooo
...The jewel heist went off without a hitch. We successfully infiltrated the gala event and replaced the diamond with a fake. Now that Max had the key, he just needed to find the ship that it unlocked. Max did some research at the UFO center, and located 5 places that were owned by the government, and could contain the spaceship. We found the ship. It was in the basement of some convenience store in Utah. The only problem was we got arrested in the process. By the time Max could get back there, it was gone. So we're back to square one, and I now have a police record. I never thought I would have a life of crime. I guess it's not the first time I've committed crimes in the name of saving alien's lives. Breaking and entering, obstructing evidence, harboring fugitives, running from the FBI. All in a day's work for an alien's girlfriend. But it's worth it. I love Max. And if anything happened to him, or Micheal or Isabel, I could never forgive myself. So I guess I'll just have to keep doing what it takes to help them. And I know another thing. Now that I have Max back, I'm never going to let him go.
Author's Note: Portions of dialogue taken from Season Two Episode "The Departure" and Season Three Episode "Busted".