Whom among us, part eighteen
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: chrisk@fanfiction.net
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. ;-) I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, now based at http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Roswell future-fic
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Liz's life changes when, as a university junior, she runs into Max again.
Spoilers: Up to 'end of the world,' kinda
Liz looked at Max, glanced over at Tess, and then back to the young man she had once been so sure was her soulmate. "Okay, I have an answer for you."
She could hear Max drawing in a quick breath. "Uh... and??"
Liz smiled at him. "Of course I'll do it. I -- I feel the same way that you do, and it you think that this mind meld thing is the best way to figure out our doubts and confusion, then... I trust you about that."
Max smiled a little himself and took her hand in his. "It isn't really a mind meld, of course," he told her softly.
"Psyche-merge, same difference really," Liz scoffed. "You link two brains together, that's the bottom line, isn't it??" Max's silence on that score said it all.
"Come on," was all he told her, and hand in hand they walked down the path, and took a turn right at a fork, Tess following silently behind the two of them the whole way. Soon all three of them emerged in a small clearing where a large park picnic table had been rather incongrously set up. A large foam mattress and several blankets had been spread over the table top, and Isabel was standing next to it.
"Get on," Iz said softly, indicating the table. Of course, with her mentalic powers, she would have known what decision Max and Liz had come to by the time she could see them. Liz froze, a little doubtfully, but Max climbed up onto the far side of the table, using the seat bench as a step, and laid down on one side of it, his head pointing in Isabel's direction, and clearly leaving room for Liz to lie down beside him.
Liz turned, somewhat surprisingly to herself, towards Tess. "Are you sure... I mean, this is kind of an intrusion on you and Max's... your private emotional space, you know what I mean?? I wouldn't want to..."
"It's okay," Tess assured her. "How could I build a life with Max if he wasn't sure that I was the right partner for him, if he were always looking back and wondering if you were his destiny all along?? There's no way. Go -- settle it once and for all, and if you *are*... you know, meant for each other, then I'll be happy for you. Really," she insisted, but there was clearly a tear in her eye.
Impulsively, Liz reached out and hugged Tess tight, and then hurried up to the table to take her place. She was struck by a momentary sense of incongruity as she lay there, next to Max but only barely touching him, watching Isabel's face upside down as she started to review the procedure.
"Now, the psyche-merge takes full effect only in a moment of deep unconsciousness," she told both of them. "Consciousness is largely a mental feedback process, and for the feedback routines to be active at the same time as your mind is linked totally with that of another person would be horribly dangerous. You'd be getting feedback on everything that he's thinking about your memories, and... well, it would be terribly likely that a feedback look would be established that could only be broken by inflicting deliberate brain damage."
"So... I'll put each of you into a deep sleep first, and then establish the link, let it run for a few seconds, end the connection, and then wake you both up. It takes a long while, though, to sort through exactly what you've learned from the link, and how you've changed as a result of it." Isabel chuckled dryly. "Believe me, I speak from experience."
"By the way," Liz piped up, "congratulations, iz."
"Thanks. Are we all ready now??"
Liz nodded, and Max made a wordless sound of agreement. Isabel nodded back at them, and then... she was aware of the world fading around her quickly.
When awareness returned, though, it was as quick as a snap of somebody's fingers. "Don't try to get up," Isabel whispered softly. "It's gonna hit you in a few seconds. You might want to look at each other." Agreeable enough, Liz propped herself up on an elbow and glanced to her left... where she found herself staring into Max's eyes, as he was doing something of the same sort.
---
Two hearts. One born and lived in that small desert place... born to a mother and father that had lived in that place almost all of *their* lives. One heart, longing and craving to see more of the world.
The other heart... from a land so far distant that neither of them could truly understand the distance... did not NEED to understand it, perhaps, except to understand that it was greater than they could understand. Did not truly understand either, perhaps, how a heart could live, and die before its time, and be born again to a new life and a new body.
And they met, and -- sacrifice. To keep the first heart from dying before HER time, the second risked everything... (a sound so loud that it rang, the smell of powder -- precious redness leaking out... lost forever) risked its secrets, gambled its life and its family, and won - perhaps. (Fear and uncertainty: argumentative questions in the night. Silver print glowing on pale skin. Bodies flying through a curtain of fire -- tumbling to the ground and burning as the crowds cheered.)
And the two of them slowly came to discover that sacrifice and salvation had propelled them both, and those surrounding them, into a coming of age trial unlike any other. (Silver key and hexagon dome. Lost pages, found once again, sealed up behind brick and mortar and charm of seal. Circle of water around the balance... stepping back,)
And through it all, there had been a magnetism, (beautiful in his eyes, boiling in the wave -- chain reaction) a sense of kismet, between the two of them, that neither had known how to deal with. (Stepping out from behind the tree, Ed on the highway.) At first, the realization of how truly different they were, that they came from worlds apart, had seemed to stand in the way, and neither could admit to the other how they truly felt. (Stepping back, stepping back. Something to throw himself into.) Later, distractions from his old life had resurfaced... another reborn one, who still felt passion for him. An uncompleted mission. (Fifth point of the V, one side of the square. The waiting slaves.)
And throughout it all, they had not yet been mature... not adult, but adolescent, and not truly understanding the rapport between them. Finally he had left the desert place, and then so did she, in the opposite direction. Feeling that they had to separate completely and never meet again in order to live their lives.
But fate is nothing if it has not a sense of humor, and meet again they did, in the last place either would have expected, and at such a time that they could not help but mix their lives again. That remarkable adventure... was not at an end, and what was about to happen next??
Their hearts had touched. Directly, without the conventions of language or society getting in the way. And she had realized...
---
Liz shook her head, opened her eyes again (when had they closed??) and found Max again. "Do you... did you??" she muttered. Somehow it seemed impossible that he could have come to a different conclusion than she had, but she had learned many times over to take no assumptions for granted. They had not truly EXPERIENCED the merge together; it had happened, but they had each experienced it separately after waking up, no matter how much it seemed otherwise.
"Umm... yeah, I -- I think so," Max told her again, searching in her face for something, just as she was probably doing herself at that moment. And then, as she looked at his slightly bemused, but totally satisfied expression, she somehow knew.
"Umm... I, uh... I think we'd probably better get going," Max said after a moment. "Your plane... well, I think if we head off right now you'll have half an hour at the airport, but..."
"Better early just in case," Liz filled in, shaking her head and swinging her legs back down onto the bench. "Yeah, good idea. We... we have some things to talk about, too."
"Ummm..." Both Liz and Max turned to watch Tess, standing nervously next to a thick tree trunk. "Well, uh... should I come with?"
Max and Liz shared a glance, and Liz smiled. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea," Max said. "You'll need to understand."
Tess followed along behind, still seeming very nervous and scared. As they got into the car, Liz muttered "Isn't there something you should be saying to your wife, Max??"
"Um, uhhh..." To stall for time, Max paid a great deal of attention to pulling out and turning the car around to head back out of the park. "Yes, uhh, Yess?"
"Yeah?" Max turned so he could see her in the rear view mirror. "Tess, I want to stay with you." Nervously, he looked over at Liz. "That *is* what you were thinking I was going to say, right??" Liz smiled and nodded at him.
"You... you what??" Tess burst out. "Sorry... am I dreaming here??" Liz reached into the back seat and pinched her on the arm, hard. "OWWW!!"
"Yeah, this is real life," Liz told her. "And you damn well better appreciate it - this is Max Evans we're talking about!!"
"Okay, okay... I appreciate it, even though I'm not sure I understand," Tess shot back. "I... well, to be honest, Max, I guess I always thought that if you had a chance to get back together with Liz, you... wouldn't even think twice." She grinned wryly.
"Really??" Max repeated. "You never let on. I hope you didn't lose much sleep over it."
"Not until you brought her home with you in Arizona," Tess laughed. "I guess it was always just a notion deep in the back of my mind, that she was your soulmate and I was just... well, just the replacement girl."
"Tess!!" Max protested. "Even when I was... conflicted... about having left Liz behind, you were more to me than a replacement."
"That's good to know," she assured him. "So... well, what did you see?? I mean, if you can explain it to someone else."
"I think I can try," Liz volunteered. "Basically... Max and I really *are* soulmates..." Tess gasped in shock, "but that doesn't mean that we should be, well... married. Or anything like that."
"Ohh... so it's a platonic soulmate thing??" Tess asked.
"More like plutonic," Max laughed. "But yeah, that's about the size of it... though I have to say it isn't anything about the intensity of what I feel for Liz that is any less than what I feel for you... just quite different. If you don't mind me saying so, that is."
"Hey," Tess laughed. "As long as we're not breaking up, I don't care if Liz is your long-lost sister... or something like that, I dunno."
"Actually, that's not a horrible way to put it, though not quite right either I don't think," Liz said. "The thing is, it was the *intensity* of the connection that Max and I felt that confused us -- that, and teenage hormones. I... I don't think we were ever a particularly good fit as boyfriend and girlfriend, even before you showed up, but neither of us could see the reasons why at the time. Or maybe we were an okay match right then, but only because we hadn't become... who we're on our way to becoming. Does that make any sense??"
"Enough," Tess told her.
"We're... going to have to find someplace to settle down within reasonable driving distance of Tempe, I think," Max told Tess. "The two of us need to be part of each other's lives again. It's been too long."
"Wherever you go, I'll follow," Tess quipped, now suddenly grinning like an idiot as, (presumably,) everything that she had learned was sinking in. "So, Liz... are you going to start things up with that Pete guy??"
"Ummm... I hadn't really come to a decision about that," Liz had to admit. "Things have been developing pretty quickly, if you haven't noticed."
* * * *
"I'm still not sure that I believe it," Alex muttered. He and Alex were lying on the bed in the RV... they hadn't DONE anything, (well, not terribly much at least.) Both of them felt reasonably content to wait, that there was no great need to jump into things just because of the suddenness with which they had rediscovered each other. The RV was heading south back towards the US border, and from there back to the southwest.
"I think you'd better believe it," Isabel told him with a laugh. "It might start to hold our relationship back otherwise."
Alex laughed, leaned over to kiss her, and then propped himself up into a sitting position. "Try to explain it to me again. What... what did you see? What made you change your mind so suddenly??"
"Ummm... well, let's see." Isabel smiled up at him. "I saw... that is, well -- I knew... how much you believed in us... and yet you respected my choice to be with Michael enough that you never said a word about it..."
"Well, that wasn't entirely respect," Alex countered. "There was also a little something called fear of rejection..."
"Don't try the false modesty thing on someone who's touched your mind," Isabel advised him. "It doesn't work. Let's see... I realized what it really meant that you were so strong inside, and so considerate, and loyal. I have to admit, I think I would have figured it all out even if we hadn't done the psyche merge, once Sanren's visit made me realize that my priorities needed some re-examining. Seeing into your brain just sealed the deal instantly."
Alex smiled, and lay back down, and they sank into the silence comfortably for a few minutes. "So... what's next??" Alex asked.
"Well, I've been thinking about that," Isabel admitted. "I know that I want to be with you, but I don't want to be too far away from my family either. Max... Michael and Tess. Michael is probably going to want to be somewhere fairly near Roswell... he and Maria haven't settled anything yet, but it's pretty clear that they're both interested, if they can get past all the baggage. Max called from the airport in Calgary, by the way, and though he's staying with Tess, he wants to be spending some serious time with Liz, starting as soon as possible. Like, they figured out that they're destined to be best friends or something."
"Huh." Alex muttered. It kind of seemed like an anticlimax after all he knew of the Max and Liz saga, but it wasn't his place to judge... and even if it were, he shouldn't base any judgements on hearsay, come to think of it.
"They'll probably want to find somewhere roughly between Roswell and Tempe, then... near enough to either place, which will be kind of a stretch but workable if nobody minds taking fairly long drives. San Francisco is kind of way off the map, though... you know??"
"Yeah, I get what you mean," Alex agreed. "Well, after midterms are over, I think I can get into a work study program in Albuquerque, come to think of it."
"Really??" Isabel looked over at him, her eyes shining with excitement. "Alex, I hate to ask you to just change your entire life for me like that, on top of everything else you've already given up for my sake, but..." She let the conclusion hang unfinished.
"It's nothing. I understand how important Max and Michael are to you. And it's not like it'll be a big sacrifice to go to Albuquerque -- it's a great opportunity that I was seriously considering before any of this happened, as a matter of fact."
Isabel rolled up on top of Alex and kissed him thoroughly.
* * * *
(Two weeks later...)
"All right everybody, that's it for today. Remember that your chapter fifteen assignments are due at the BEGINNING of Tuesday's lecture, that's at two o'clock by my watch and not whenever you get here, so if it's not ready... please come to class anyway." A few of the student chuckled. "Read through that handout on Klein-Nishina differential cross-sections and come prepared to take up the the seven review questions on the last page in class, too." That earned doctor Lewisson a groan.
Liz booted out of her seat as soon as the professor started packing things into his briefcase. She had already finished the assignment, and had a good handle on the KNDC material, but she wasn't really thinking about that at the mo...
"Liz!!" Familiar fingers managed to tap her fingers as she was weaving cautiously through the students that were already filling the corridor, from lectures that had let out earlier than hers by a few minutes. Liz whirled somewhat unsteadily around to see Pete Wilson.
"Uhhh... yeah??"
"Umm..." Pete took a moment to consider his words. "I... I just wanted to ask you if you want to go see 'Earthsea' at the movies in town tonight... Liz, is there something wrong??" He was looking carefully into her eyes.
"No!! Well, kinda," Liz amended. "I... I'm sorry, I just can't tell you about it right now. I want to tell you, but..." She abandoned that line of dialog and started again. "I have to go, and I won't be able to make the movies tonight. Take a rain check for tomorrow??"
"Of course," he agreed. "Are you... does this have something to do with Max??"
Liz jumped slightly. "Uhh... it does, actually." Pete didn't seem too upset with that confirmation, at least. "You don't have anything to worry about... you know how I feel for you, don't you??"
"I'd like to think I do," Pete joked back with a smile.
She kissed him, quickly and fiercely, and whispered, "Believe it." And then she hurried on her way.
It only took her about five minutes to get to the parking lot. Since the whole thing with Max and the space capsule, she'd dug into her savings from waiting tables and tutoring throughout her years at university and put a payment down on a dependable secondhand car. She had known that she'd be driving back over to New Mexico fairly often, hadn't guessed that the second time she'd make the trip would be over something like this though.
It was the only thing she'd been able to think about since she'd woken up that morning.
As soon as Liz was out onto route ten and heading east, she picked up her cell phone and speed-dialled Maria. "Hello??" the familiar voice answered.
"Yeah, Maria??"
"Oh my gawd, Liz, where are you?!" Liz wasn't quite sure why Maria seemed to be so surprised to hear from her.
"About five miles out of town, where are you?" Liz shot back.
"I'm here in Czechoslovakia." That was what Maria and Alex had dubbed the new place that the pod squad had settled down in, a large rambling, kinda beat-up house about eight miles west of Las Cruces... and where Liz was heading herself.
"What are you doing there??" she couldn't help but ask.
"Umm, uhhh...." Maria was silent for several seconds. "I... I don't want to go into it over the phone. Are you coming here??"
"Yeah, yeah I am..."
"Then you'll hear about it when you get here. I'm sorry, I gotta go." As the phone clicked off, something in Maria's tone was bothering Liz. She seemed about as overwhelmed by some strange news as Liz herself was. Was it possible that... no, she didn't see how, welll...
She pushed speculation out of her mind as well as she could, and put some music on, hoping to distract herself for the long drive. It didn't really work.
After what seemed like an eternity of driving (especially considering that she was far from used to it,) she finally pulled up to the old house a little stretch west of Fairacres, New Mexico.
Everyone, including Alex and Maria, was in either the living or dining room as Liz charged in. "Max... I need to talk to you," she said, running breathlessly up to him.
"Umm... okay," Max replied after a moment. "How about my study?" Liz nodded, and quickly he drew her off to the small, cozy room on the other side of the hall. "What's this about??"
"Max, I'm pregnant."
Max paused a moment, then nodded and smiled. "Well, how about that. Congratu..." He broke off in mid-word, something about Liz's crazed attitude suddenly getting to him. "You're pregnant, as in..." There was a long silence between them. "Okay, I'll ask straight out. Who's the father??"
"That's the thing," she agreed. "As strange as it sounds, the only candidate... is you. While we were in the reality warp... I had a dream -- about you. And Maria's dream had already affected her, physically. I don't know if you had that dream too, but..."
"I did," Max admitted, blushing. "But..." He couldn't seem to think of anything to say.
"Yeah, I know," Liz nodded. "I don't have any answers either. But I thought that you should be the first person I tell."
"Come on," Max said, opening the door, and leading the way back out. He almost collided with Isabel, who turned immediately to Liz.
"Do you know, already??" Isabel was fidgeting nervously with a ring on her third left finger... Alex's ring, Liz was sure. He'd driven her crazy asking questions, trying to make sure that he got the right one.
It took a second for Liz to realize that Isabel could not possibly be talking about Liz's subject, simply because there was no way SHE could know... well, not no way, considering that she was a telepath... but no way she could have known before Liz did, at least.
"Umm... I don't think so. I came here to talk to Liz..."
Liz broke off, Isabel was staring at her, with that look on her face that Liz had come to realize meant that she was getting incoming brainwaves. Getting angry about the invasion of privacy wasn't worth it... Isabel didn't do this on purpose, it was the dark side of her (frankly incredible) gift. Iz blinked in shock and got an odd expression on her face.
"Well, might as well tell you," Isabel said quickly. "I'm pregnant." Now it was Liz's turn to drop her mouth open in surprise, and Isabel nodded.
"Uhhh..." An uncomfortable notion was starting to grow in Liz's mind. "Do you mind if I ask who the fath--"
"Michael," Isabel whispered, pointing over to him, talking in the living room with Maria and Alex. None of them would be particularly pleased at the way that little bundle of joy had come into their lives, Liz realized.
And the same can of worms, more or less, was about to hit Max, Tess, Pete, and herself. "Ohhh, boy."
"Yeah," Isabel agreed. "Hooo."
THE END!
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: chrisk@fanfiction.net
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. ;-) I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, now based at http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Roswell future-fic
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Liz's life changes when, as a university junior, she runs into Max again.
Spoilers: Up to 'end of the world,' kinda
Liz looked at Max, glanced over at Tess, and then back to the young man she had once been so sure was her soulmate. "Okay, I have an answer for you."
She could hear Max drawing in a quick breath. "Uh... and??"
Liz smiled at him. "Of course I'll do it. I -- I feel the same way that you do, and it you think that this mind meld thing is the best way to figure out our doubts and confusion, then... I trust you about that."
Max smiled a little himself and took her hand in his. "It isn't really a mind meld, of course," he told her softly.
"Psyche-merge, same difference really," Liz scoffed. "You link two brains together, that's the bottom line, isn't it??" Max's silence on that score said it all.
"Come on," was all he told her, and hand in hand they walked down the path, and took a turn right at a fork, Tess following silently behind the two of them the whole way. Soon all three of them emerged in a small clearing where a large park picnic table had been rather incongrously set up. A large foam mattress and several blankets had been spread over the table top, and Isabel was standing next to it.
"Get on," Iz said softly, indicating the table. Of course, with her mentalic powers, she would have known what decision Max and Liz had come to by the time she could see them. Liz froze, a little doubtfully, but Max climbed up onto the far side of the table, using the seat bench as a step, and laid down on one side of it, his head pointing in Isabel's direction, and clearly leaving room for Liz to lie down beside him.
Liz turned, somewhat surprisingly to herself, towards Tess. "Are you sure... I mean, this is kind of an intrusion on you and Max's... your private emotional space, you know what I mean?? I wouldn't want to..."
"It's okay," Tess assured her. "How could I build a life with Max if he wasn't sure that I was the right partner for him, if he were always looking back and wondering if you were his destiny all along?? There's no way. Go -- settle it once and for all, and if you *are*... you know, meant for each other, then I'll be happy for you. Really," she insisted, but there was clearly a tear in her eye.
Impulsively, Liz reached out and hugged Tess tight, and then hurried up to the table to take her place. She was struck by a momentary sense of incongruity as she lay there, next to Max but only barely touching him, watching Isabel's face upside down as she started to review the procedure.
"Now, the psyche-merge takes full effect only in a moment of deep unconsciousness," she told both of them. "Consciousness is largely a mental feedback process, and for the feedback routines to be active at the same time as your mind is linked totally with that of another person would be horribly dangerous. You'd be getting feedback on everything that he's thinking about your memories, and... well, it would be terribly likely that a feedback look would be established that could only be broken by inflicting deliberate brain damage."
"So... I'll put each of you into a deep sleep first, and then establish the link, let it run for a few seconds, end the connection, and then wake you both up. It takes a long while, though, to sort through exactly what you've learned from the link, and how you've changed as a result of it." Isabel chuckled dryly. "Believe me, I speak from experience."
"By the way," Liz piped up, "congratulations, iz."
"Thanks. Are we all ready now??"
Liz nodded, and Max made a wordless sound of agreement. Isabel nodded back at them, and then... she was aware of the world fading around her quickly.
When awareness returned, though, it was as quick as a snap of somebody's fingers. "Don't try to get up," Isabel whispered softly. "It's gonna hit you in a few seconds. You might want to look at each other." Agreeable enough, Liz propped herself up on an elbow and glanced to her left... where she found herself staring into Max's eyes, as he was doing something of the same sort.
---
Two hearts. One born and lived in that small desert place... born to a mother and father that had lived in that place almost all of *their* lives. One heart, longing and craving to see more of the world.
The other heart... from a land so far distant that neither of them could truly understand the distance... did not NEED to understand it, perhaps, except to understand that it was greater than they could understand. Did not truly understand either, perhaps, how a heart could live, and die before its time, and be born again to a new life and a new body.
And they met, and -- sacrifice. To keep the first heart from dying before HER time, the second risked everything... (a sound so loud that it rang, the smell of powder -- precious redness leaking out... lost forever) risked its secrets, gambled its life and its family, and won - perhaps. (Fear and uncertainty: argumentative questions in the night. Silver print glowing on pale skin. Bodies flying through a curtain of fire -- tumbling to the ground and burning as the crowds cheered.)
And the two of them slowly came to discover that sacrifice and salvation had propelled them both, and those surrounding them, into a coming of age trial unlike any other. (Silver key and hexagon dome. Lost pages, found once again, sealed up behind brick and mortar and charm of seal. Circle of water around the balance... stepping back,)
And through it all, there had been a magnetism, (beautiful in his eyes, boiling in the wave -- chain reaction) a sense of kismet, between the two of them, that neither had known how to deal with. (Stepping out from behind the tree, Ed on the highway.) At first, the realization of how truly different they were, that they came from worlds apart, had seemed to stand in the way, and neither could admit to the other how they truly felt. (Stepping back, stepping back. Something to throw himself into.) Later, distractions from his old life had resurfaced... another reborn one, who still felt passion for him. An uncompleted mission. (Fifth point of the V, one side of the square. The waiting slaves.)
And throughout it all, they had not yet been mature... not adult, but adolescent, and not truly understanding the rapport between them. Finally he had left the desert place, and then so did she, in the opposite direction. Feeling that they had to separate completely and never meet again in order to live their lives.
But fate is nothing if it has not a sense of humor, and meet again they did, in the last place either would have expected, and at such a time that they could not help but mix their lives again. That remarkable adventure... was not at an end, and what was about to happen next??
Their hearts had touched. Directly, without the conventions of language or society getting in the way. And she had realized...
---
Liz shook her head, opened her eyes again (when had they closed??) and found Max again. "Do you... did you??" she muttered. Somehow it seemed impossible that he could have come to a different conclusion than she had, but she had learned many times over to take no assumptions for granted. They had not truly EXPERIENCED the merge together; it had happened, but they had each experienced it separately after waking up, no matter how much it seemed otherwise.
"Umm... yeah, I -- I think so," Max told her again, searching in her face for something, just as she was probably doing herself at that moment. And then, as she looked at his slightly bemused, but totally satisfied expression, she somehow knew.
"Umm... I, uh... I think we'd probably better get going," Max said after a moment. "Your plane... well, I think if we head off right now you'll have half an hour at the airport, but..."
"Better early just in case," Liz filled in, shaking her head and swinging her legs back down onto the bench. "Yeah, good idea. We... we have some things to talk about, too."
"Ummm..." Both Liz and Max turned to watch Tess, standing nervously next to a thick tree trunk. "Well, uh... should I come with?"
Max and Liz shared a glance, and Liz smiled. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea," Max said. "You'll need to understand."
Tess followed along behind, still seeming very nervous and scared. As they got into the car, Liz muttered "Isn't there something you should be saying to your wife, Max??"
"Um, uhhh..." To stall for time, Max paid a great deal of attention to pulling out and turning the car around to head back out of the park. "Yes, uhh, Yess?"
"Yeah?" Max turned so he could see her in the rear view mirror. "Tess, I want to stay with you." Nervously, he looked over at Liz. "That *is* what you were thinking I was going to say, right??" Liz smiled and nodded at him.
"You... you what??" Tess burst out. "Sorry... am I dreaming here??" Liz reached into the back seat and pinched her on the arm, hard. "OWWW!!"
"Yeah, this is real life," Liz told her. "And you damn well better appreciate it - this is Max Evans we're talking about!!"
"Okay, okay... I appreciate it, even though I'm not sure I understand," Tess shot back. "I... well, to be honest, Max, I guess I always thought that if you had a chance to get back together with Liz, you... wouldn't even think twice." She grinned wryly.
"Really??" Max repeated. "You never let on. I hope you didn't lose much sleep over it."
"Not until you brought her home with you in Arizona," Tess laughed. "I guess it was always just a notion deep in the back of my mind, that she was your soulmate and I was just... well, just the replacement girl."
"Tess!!" Max protested. "Even when I was... conflicted... about having left Liz behind, you were more to me than a replacement."
"That's good to know," she assured him. "So... well, what did you see?? I mean, if you can explain it to someone else."
"I think I can try," Liz volunteered. "Basically... Max and I really *are* soulmates..." Tess gasped in shock, "but that doesn't mean that we should be, well... married. Or anything like that."
"Ohh... so it's a platonic soulmate thing??" Tess asked.
"More like plutonic," Max laughed. "But yeah, that's about the size of it... though I have to say it isn't anything about the intensity of what I feel for Liz that is any less than what I feel for you... just quite different. If you don't mind me saying so, that is."
"Hey," Tess laughed. "As long as we're not breaking up, I don't care if Liz is your long-lost sister... or something like that, I dunno."
"Actually, that's not a horrible way to put it, though not quite right either I don't think," Liz said. "The thing is, it was the *intensity* of the connection that Max and I felt that confused us -- that, and teenage hormones. I... I don't think we were ever a particularly good fit as boyfriend and girlfriend, even before you showed up, but neither of us could see the reasons why at the time. Or maybe we were an okay match right then, but only because we hadn't become... who we're on our way to becoming. Does that make any sense??"
"Enough," Tess told her.
"We're... going to have to find someplace to settle down within reasonable driving distance of Tempe, I think," Max told Tess. "The two of us need to be part of each other's lives again. It's been too long."
"Wherever you go, I'll follow," Tess quipped, now suddenly grinning like an idiot as, (presumably,) everything that she had learned was sinking in. "So, Liz... are you going to start things up with that Pete guy??"
"Ummm... I hadn't really come to a decision about that," Liz had to admit. "Things have been developing pretty quickly, if you haven't noticed."
* * * *
"I'm still not sure that I believe it," Alex muttered. He and Alex were lying on the bed in the RV... they hadn't DONE anything, (well, not terribly much at least.) Both of them felt reasonably content to wait, that there was no great need to jump into things just because of the suddenness with which they had rediscovered each other. The RV was heading south back towards the US border, and from there back to the southwest.
"I think you'd better believe it," Isabel told him with a laugh. "It might start to hold our relationship back otherwise."
Alex laughed, leaned over to kiss her, and then propped himself up into a sitting position. "Try to explain it to me again. What... what did you see? What made you change your mind so suddenly??"
"Ummm... well, let's see." Isabel smiled up at him. "I saw... that is, well -- I knew... how much you believed in us... and yet you respected my choice to be with Michael enough that you never said a word about it..."
"Well, that wasn't entirely respect," Alex countered. "There was also a little something called fear of rejection..."
"Don't try the false modesty thing on someone who's touched your mind," Isabel advised him. "It doesn't work. Let's see... I realized what it really meant that you were so strong inside, and so considerate, and loyal. I have to admit, I think I would have figured it all out even if we hadn't done the psyche merge, once Sanren's visit made me realize that my priorities needed some re-examining. Seeing into your brain just sealed the deal instantly."
Alex smiled, and lay back down, and they sank into the silence comfortably for a few minutes. "So... what's next??" Alex asked.
"Well, I've been thinking about that," Isabel admitted. "I know that I want to be with you, but I don't want to be too far away from my family either. Max... Michael and Tess. Michael is probably going to want to be somewhere fairly near Roswell... he and Maria haven't settled anything yet, but it's pretty clear that they're both interested, if they can get past all the baggage. Max called from the airport in Calgary, by the way, and though he's staying with Tess, he wants to be spending some serious time with Liz, starting as soon as possible. Like, they figured out that they're destined to be best friends or something."
"Huh." Alex muttered. It kind of seemed like an anticlimax after all he knew of the Max and Liz saga, but it wasn't his place to judge... and even if it were, he shouldn't base any judgements on hearsay, come to think of it.
"They'll probably want to find somewhere roughly between Roswell and Tempe, then... near enough to either place, which will be kind of a stretch but workable if nobody minds taking fairly long drives. San Francisco is kind of way off the map, though... you know??"
"Yeah, I get what you mean," Alex agreed. "Well, after midterms are over, I think I can get into a work study program in Albuquerque, come to think of it."
"Really??" Isabel looked over at him, her eyes shining with excitement. "Alex, I hate to ask you to just change your entire life for me like that, on top of everything else you've already given up for my sake, but..." She let the conclusion hang unfinished.
"It's nothing. I understand how important Max and Michael are to you. And it's not like it'll be a big sacrifice to go to Albuquerque -- it's a great opportunity that I was seriously considering before any of this happened, as a matter of fact."
Isabel rolled up on top of Alex and kissed him thoroughly.
* * * *
(Two weeks later...)
"All right everybody, that's it for today. Remember that your chapter fifteen assignments are due at the BEGINNING of Tuesday's lecture, that's at two o'clock by my watch and not whenever you get here, so if it's not ready... please come to class anyway." A few of the student chuckled. "Read through that handout on Klein-Nishina differential cross-sections and come prepared to take up the the seven review questions on the last page in class, too." That earned doctor Lewisson a groan.
Liz booted out of her seat as soon as the professor started packing things into his briefcase. She had already finished the assignment, and had a good handle on the KNDC material, but she wasn't really thinking about that at the mo...
"Liz!!" Familiar fingers managed to tap her fingers as she was weaving cautiously through the students that were already filling the corridor, from lectures that had let out earlier than hers by a few minutes. Liz whirled somewhat unsteadily around to see Pete Wilson.
"Uhhh... yeah??"
"Umm..." Pete took a moment to consider his words. "I... I just wanted to ask you if you want to go see 'Earthsea' at the movies in town tonight... Liz, is there something wrong??" He was looking carefully into her eyes.
"No!! Well, kinda," Liz amended. "I... I'm sorry, I just can't tell you about it right now. I want to tell you, but..." She abandoned that line of dialog and started again. "I have to go, and I won't be able to make the movies tonight. Take a rain check for tomorrow??"
"Of course," he agreed. "Are you... does this have something to do with Max??"
Liz jumped slightly. "Uhh... it does, actually." Pete didn't seem too upset with that confirmation, at least. "You don't have anything to worry about... you know how I feel for you, don't you??"
"I'd like to think I do," Pete joked back with a smile.
She kissed him, quickly and fiercely, and whispered, "Believe it." And then she hurried on her way.
It only took her about five minutes to get to the parking lot. Since the whole thing with Max and the space capsule, she'd dug into her savings from waiting tables and tutoring throughout her years at university and put a payment down on a dependable secondhand car. She had known that she'd be driving back over to New Mexico fairly often, hadn't guessed that the second time she'd make the trip would be over something like this though.
It was the only thing she'd been able to think about since she'd woken up that morning.
As soon as Liz was out onto route ten and heading east, she picked up her cell phone and speed-dialled Maria. "Hello??" the familiar voice answered.
"Yeah, Maria??"
"Oh my gawd, Liz, where are you?!" Liz wasn't quite sure why Maria seemed to be so surprised to hear from her.
"About five miles out of town, where are you?" Liz shot back.
"I'm here in Czechoslovakia." That was what Maria and Alex had dubbed the new place that the pod squad had settled down in, a large rambling, kinda beat-up house about eight miles west of Las Cruces... and where Liz was heading herself.
"What are you doing there??" she couldn't help but ask.
"Umm, uhhh...." Maria was silent for several seconds. "I... I don't want to go into it over the phone. Are you coming here??"
"Yeah, yeah I am..."
"Then you'll hear about it when you get here. I'm sorry, I gotta go." As the phone clicked off, something in Maria's tone was bothering Liz. She seemed about as overwhelmed by some strange news as Liz herself was. Was it possible that... no, she didn't see how, welll...
She pushed speculation out of her mind as well as she could, and put some music on, hoping to distract herself for the long drive. It didn't really work.
After what seemed like an eternity of driving (especially considering that she was far from used to it,) she finally pulled up to the old house a little stretch west of Fairacres, New Mexico.
Everyone, including Alex and Maria, was in either the living or dining room as Liz charged in. "Max... I need to talk to you," she said, running breathlessly up to him.
"Umm... okay," Max replied after a moment. "How about my study?" Liz nodded, and quickly he drew her off to the small, cozy room on the other side of the hall. "What's this about??"
"Max, I'm pregnant."
Max paused a moment, then nodded and smiled. "Well, how about that. Congratu..." He broke off in mid-word, something about Liz's crazed attitude suddenly getting to him. "You're pregnant, as in..." There was a long silence between them. "Okay, I'll ask straight out. Who's the father??"
"That's the thing," she agreed. "As strange as it sounds, the only candidate... is you. While we were in the reality warp... I had a dream -- about you. And Maria's dream had already affected her, physically. I don't know if you had that dream too, but..."
"I did," Max admitted, blushing. "But..." He couldn't seem to think of anything to say.
"Yeah, I know," Liz nodded. "I don't have any answers either. But I thought that you should be the first person I tell."
"Come on," Max said, opening the door, and leading the way back out. He almost collided with Isabel, who turned immediately to Liz.
"Do you know, already??" Isabel was fidgeting nervously with a ring on her third left finger... Alex's ring, Liz was sure. He'd driven her crazy asking questions, trying to make sure that he got the right one.
It took a second for Liz to realize that Isabel could not possibly be talking about Liz's subject, simply because there was no way SHE could know... well, not no way, considering that she was a telepath... but no way she could have known before Liz did, at least.
"Umm... I don't think so. I came here to talk to Liz..."
Liz broke off, Isabel was staring at her, with that look on her face that Liz had come to realize meant that she was getting incoming brainwaves. Getting angry about the invasion of privacy wasn't worth it... Isabel didn't do this on purpose, it was the dark side of her (frankly incredible) gift. Iz blinked in shock and got an odd expression on her face.
"Well, might as well tell you," Isabel said quickly. "I'm pregnant." Now it was Liz's turn to drop her mouth open in surprise, and Isabel nodded.
"Uhhh..." An uncomfortable notion was starting to grow in Liz's mind. "Do you mind if I ask who the fath--"
"Michael," Isabel whispered, pointing over to him, talking in the living room with Maria and Alex. None of them would be particularly pleased at the way that little bundle of joy had come into their lives, Liz realized.
And the same can of worms, more or less, was about to hit Max, Tess, Pete, and herself. "Ohhh, boy."
"Yeah," Isabel agreed. "Hooo."
THE END!
