Disclaimer: You know the drill…the characters aren't mine. A lot of stuff in the beginning is taken from End of the World. God knows THAT'S not mine. Anything that makes sense and makes it all better, now that's mine. Seriously, Roswell and all characters belong to Jason Katims, 20th Century Fox etc. I'm just borrowing them.

Rating: PG-13 – possibly to R

Chapter Sixty-Four The Beginning of the End

Author's Note: Some of the dialogue was taken directly from Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts' Baby it's You.

Sunlight filled Max Evans' bedroom, and cast a warm pool of light on the bed where Tess and Max were relaxing on Max's bed.
"Max, lets go do something tonight," said Tess. "I want to go have some fun."

"Tess, not now, I don't have time," Max replied. "Liz is still on the warpath. She is insisting that Alex's death wasn't a suicide. I want to believe her, but the evidence is pointing in a different direction."

"Can't we just forget about Liz for a while, and go and enjoy ourselves?" whined Tess.

"I wish it were that simple, Tess," Max said touching her hair gently. "She's decided that his death is alien related, and she won't let it go. I'm afraid of what she might do, or say. We could all be in danger."

"Do you really think she'd betray us?" queried Tess.

"I don't know anymore. There was a time when I would have sworn she'd die to keep our secret, but I'm not so sure anymore."

"Would you mind getting me a drink, Max?" asked Tess. "I'm really thirsty all of a sudden."

"Sure thing," Max answered. He got up off of his bed and walked out to the kitchen.

As soon as he was out of sight, Tess jumped up off the bed and began to pace around the room.

This may work to my advantage, she thought to herself. If Max is worried about Liz, and is beginning to doubt her, I may be able to swing him over to my side. I'll still have to do something about that brat she's carrying. I'm not going to leave any part of Max here. He's so frigging loyal, that he'd try and find a way to come back for the kid. I can't let that happen. But I'll deal with that later. Right now, I need to really focus on Max. I'm glad I figured out about those rings. I had forgotten about the platinum. I don't know how they figured it out. But it doesn't matter now. I just made duplicates of their stupid jewelry, and poof, no more platinum.

"I hope iced tea is okay?" Max asked. He carried a tray loaded down with two glasses filled with ice, and a pitcher of iced tea, as well as some chips.

"Thanks Max, that's really great," said Tess. "Do you have any…?"

"Tabasco Sauce," said Max, pulling a bottle out of his pocket with a smile. "Right here." He passed the bottle of Tabasco to Tess, and sat down on the floor, his back against the bed. Tess lay on the bed behind him and began to play with his hair while she talked.

"Max, let's just forget about Liz for a while. Let's just go out, you and me and I don't know, enjoy life. Alex wouldn't want us to sit around mourning him."

"Okay," said Max. "We'll go. Do you want to head out now?"

"No," said Tess, decisively. "Tonight, after it gets dark. But I do have some ideas about what we can to until then," she added seductively.

Max tried not to panic, but with neither Ava nor Alex around, there was nobody to mind warp Tess into thinking they were fooling around. Thinking fast, Max moved forward and turned to face Tess.
"I was hoping we could try some of your memory retrieval things again. I really think we're close to a breakthrough, and I really want to remember the life we shared together on Antar."

"Oh, Max," said Tess, her eyes misty. "That's beautiful. Of course we'll work on that for a while."

"Great," said Max, trying to hid his sigh of relief. "And after that, I'll take you out to eat, and then we can go on your grand adventure."

"Max you are so romantic," Tess said, as she climbed off the bed. She settled on the floor next to him, and they began to work on the memory retrieval.

Several hours later, Max groaned in frustration. "Let's stop for a while, Tess. I don't feel like we're getting anywhere. Besides, we need to talk."

"About?" questioned Tess.

"Us, you, me, I don't know," said Max, his voice filled with frustration.

"I know," agreed Tess. With what happened to Alex, I can understand putting the subject on hold. I couldn't deal with it either. But now, I just - - I can't help wondering where we are."

"Right. Right. You and me together, it scares me. Right or wrong, I feel like if I follow that road, I can never go back."

"You're scared to go home," Tess said softly.

"What is home? Is home really up there. I just feel like this whole idea about where we come from, and I want to believe it. I want to understand it more and more, but it just feels like this dream…this, this dream that I can never really quite touch or see or…feel. And Earth just seems so much more…real."

"I have an idea, Max," said Tess. "I'll show you tonight. Instead of going out, I have something to show you. I think you'll like it a lot."


That night, Max followed Tess' directions, and drove them to an observatory outside of town.

"I think you'll like this," said Tess, pointing to the telescope. Max leaned down and looked into the eyepiece.
"Do you see that star, the way it wobbles?"

"Is that our planet?" asked Max, his voice filled with awe.

"No, answered Tess. "That's Barnard's Star. Our world is out there, Max. It's not close, and sometimes it seems like a dream to me, too, but it's real, and I know you know that, too. That's reality, Max. This…this is the dream."

"If that's the truth, when do we wake up?" asked Max

"That's up to you," Tess said softly. She pressed her lips against his cheek. "Whatever you decide Max, for me, it will always be you." She slid her lips across his cheek and pressed her lips to his. Using her tongue, she forced his lips open, and began to kiss him passionately.

Max kissed her back, forcing back his revulsion as her tongue found it's way into his mouth.

Oh, God, he thought to himself. How am I going to get out of this?