Author's NOTE: It occurs to me that we really don't know enough about Ava's life in NYC with the other dupes. In Meeting the Dupes, we discover that, just from the way Zan spoke, he was harsh and mean. They all were, with the exception of Ava, no matter how much Lonnie complained that he was a straight arrow. I mean, Lonnie and Rath killed him, so how reliable is that information? What if? What if he wasn't such a nice guy? What if he was just as mean and hard as Lonnie and Rath?

Maybe I'm psychoanalyzing everything, but the way Ava acted; you'd think she was an abuse case… Honestly, I used to think the same about Tess. In the first season, all she EVER SAID was "What do we do now, Max?" like a little puppy. I hated that! I loved how she developed in S2, though, and the development of Max/Tess hooked me forever, especially in "S1 finale: Destiny" when I found out she was his wife!

Anyway, I'm taking a different view on Ava. (Remember in the last chapter, Liz noticed something no one else did—Ava still loves Zan, still misses him and she hurts when she sees Max.)

Warning: Sexual/physical abuse mentioned subtly. (It sorta got away from me…the muse does strange things.)

The sound of Max's laughter drove a knife through Ava's heart; that laughter, Zan's laughter. She turned her face away, hiding the misery from everyone by going into kitchen. It really didn't matter though, because no one saw her—no one ever saw her in Roswell, well, besides Alex. Ava couldn't believe her luck in finding someone like Alex—a nice guy who didn't take advantage of her. She pulled on her purple hair, bringing it to her mouth to suck on.

Maria and Isabel had finally stopped arguing fashion and decided to try to wrestle the remote control from the boys to watch a movie. Isabel had jumped on her brother's back, reaching up to try to grab the remote before he threw it to Kyle. Maria charged at the basketball player, but too was unable to steal the remote before Alex hid in behind his back. Jim ran up behind him, in a mock football position, yelling 'hut hut.' Alex passed him the 'ball', but not before Maria tackled him. The resounding 'ooff' made them all laugh. Isabel, once she stopped laughing, ran to the television set, pushing the buttons on the set to change the channel. "Someone stop her," Alex yelled from under Maria. Kyle ran to the television set, pushing Isabel's hands out of the way, before frantically trying to change the channel back to watch the football game.

The sounds of screaming fans erupted from the television set, making everyone stare at it, "Wow! That was probably the most amazing play in the history of football, and you saw it here on ABC Sports!" The announcer described. Kyle looked positively green hearing that.

"Look what you did! We missed the most amazing play in history thanks to the two of you!" He shouted at them, throwing up his hands in the air, before throwing himself desperately on the couch cushions to mope. Everyone laughed at his 'drama-queen' attitude.

Ava heard all of this from the kitchen. She bit her nails, all the while sitting quietly staring at the table, thinking. She knew that the bowls of snacks were getting low; that she should fill them up for Max and Isabel. They'd be angry if they ran out of snacks, she thought. Standing up on a chair, she reached for another bag of pretzels, dropping them gently from where she stood to the counter. If they were broken, she'd have to buy more; they would hate to eat the broken ones. She groaned when she discovered that there were no more chips. Mentally adding it to her list of things to buy when she went grocery shopping for dinner later in the evening. She was glad that Jim liked her cooking; she'd been cooking all the meals since her rescue for all of them. It was the one thing that she could do without anyone—well, it wasn't important anymore, she was leaving Roswell with Alex. Her life would be different, she smiled thinking of all the fun she'd have with Alex by her side. She was so deep in thought that she never heard the door to the kitchen open and Max walk in.

"Don't we have any more chips, Ava?" Max asked from behind her.

She turned suddenly, gasping; her hand to her heart and forgetting that she was tiptoeing on a chair. She felt herself falling, bracing herself for the pain falling on the hard tiles would surely cause. She felt her head hit the edge of the counter, and heard herself shout in pain before blacking out.

The crash from the kitchen made Isabel spin around and drop the pillow that she'd been pounding Kyle and Alex with. "Max!" She yelled, thinking that something had happened to him as he went to get more snacks.

She ran into the kitchen, the others running behind her. She stood back in absolute shock, "oh my god…Ava? What are you doing?"

The girl had tears streaming down her face as she spoke. The accent and the sobbing made it harder for anyone to hear the soft-spoken girl, though the "I'm sorry" was perfectly clear.

Isabel couldn't believe what she was seeing. Ava, on her knees in front of Max was pulling on his pants, trying to take them off a horrified Max. She'd gotten it un-zippered before he could blink, and now he was trying to hold on to Ava's hands to prevent her from exposing him to her.

Ava turned to look at Isabel, her eyes full of tears, "I'm sorry, I won't do it again. I promise. I can make Zan happy."

Max pulled away, staring hard at her. "Ava, what are you talking about?"

She continued to cry, the words completely unrecognizable. Max shot a look towards the doorway, indicating that he'd handle this, and for the others to leave them alone.

Once the door had swung closed behind Isabel, Max kneeled down so that he could be eye to eye with the distraught girl shivering on the ground. "Ava?"

At the sound of his voice, so close to her, she flinched away from him, waiting to be slapped. He'd always told her that a queen never quivered like a dog unless she was being pleasured; in her case, that was never. She had to pleasure him; he was the king. Their leader and her protector. As long as Zan was happy, he'd keep Lonnie and Rath from touching her. Tears started up again as she remembered the time she refused to love him as he'd asked, he'd given her to Rath and to Lonnie. Shame flushed her checks, they had left marks in places she'd never thought possible. It only happened once; she never rejected him again. Zan made sure that she knew that she belonged to him.

She did belong to him. Ava had always belonged to Zan from the moment they'd met outside the pod chamber. They'd both seen each other and instantly connected. In the same way, Zan had never been with anyone else but her. He loved her, she knew. They were meant to be. All she needed to do was to keep him happy, to be a good wife and a good queen. He'd take her away, take her back home. And when they were home, they'd finally be together the way she'd dreamed. Like they had been, in the past.

Max didn't like the look in her eyes. She was dazed and flinched from him as if she was in pain. He reached out gently to touch her head. Feeling her shuddering under his touch, he started whispering to her, trying to offer comfort. "Ava, you're hurt. I'm just going to heal you, alright? Just, hold still. It'll be alright. No one is going to hurt you, I promise."

Taking a deep breath, Max held his hand against her wound, closing his eyes to focus his healing abilities on her. He tried to prevent himself from seeing her memories as he did with Kyle, but it was no use. Her mind, her memories, thoughts, and dreams flowed into him like sand through a sieve as he healed her.

Flashes

Ava pushing through the cocoon that held her in stasis. She was cold, scared. It was dark and lights flashed everywhere. Then she saw Zan. Her love.

Ava, a little girl, feeding the pigeons in the park—then crying as Rath chased them off, making them fly away.

A teenager, shy, but pretty. A teenaged boy, flirting with her…later being taken to the hospital after Zan beat him for talking to her. Getting slapped and beaten for talking to an outsider.

Ava, forced to her knees, held down as she pleasured Zan. Then another flash as he threw her towards an intimate Rath and Vilandra. Her screaming in fear.

Through it all, she stayed by Zan's side, dreaming of going home together.

He'd watched her scream as Vilandra and Rath killed her husband. Watched as her dreams died.

She'd been forced to come to Roswell, "Who are you? Why are you still livin' and breathin' and ridin' in this car? Oh, that's right. You're here 'cause I love you. Ain't that sweet?" Lonnie's laughter, a reminder of what she and Rath had done to her.

She'd runaway, hoping to escape, to start a new life. The capture, the White Room, the torture, everything. She'd been living at the Valenti's. No one even noticed her besides Alex.

They'd talk for hours, hiding in bedroom closets to keep the Evans from seeing them. Laughter and excitement about starting a new life with a new friend; a new love.

Everything that she'd gone through in her life, Max had seen. He blinked back tears of his own. He—well, Zan had done unthinkable things. Things that he never, ever thought to be capable of. It was one thing to find out that his duplicate was murdered by Lonnie and Rath—they were family! But it was completely different to find that his duplicate was just as bad.

He'd gone to New York City with Tess, Rath, and Lonnie. He been almost sickened with the 'hot alien sex' Rath and Lonnie had in front of him and Tess. They had made them incredibly uncomfortable with the display; however he'd assumed that it was just them. The vision he'd gotten from Ava proved otherwise. Zan had treated Ava like a prostitute. He was disgusted with himself.

Max had been furious with Isabel—she'd hid her past from him, keeping Vilandra's betrayal a secret. Now he knew, he knew the pain she felt, finding out that she'd destroyed her entire family in the midst of her affair with Kivar. It may have not been the past, but Zan was a part of him; hell, Zan was his duplicate, created from the same line.

Ava blinked back the fuzziness from her vision. "Max?" she moaned, "What happened? Did I fall?" He didn't answer her, just staring at his hands. She became afraid. "Max? Did I do something?" She stood up quickly, "Oh, you asked for chips…we ran out. But I'm going to go get some right away." She tried to run out the door.

Max grabbed her wrist stopping her. Her reaction made him freeze. At his touch, she dropped to the ground, hiding her face from him in effort to protect herself. Gulping, Max dropped to his knee besides her, gently lifting her face upwards towards him. She let him, but kept blinking tensely as if she expected to be hit in the face.

"Ava, I'm so sorry." He whispered to her. "You deserved better than him, than me. He never deserved you…" Trailing off, "You love Alex." This was a statement.

She blushed, then frantically shook her head, "No! I mean, he's just a friend. I belong to Zan."

Max held his hand, trying to make her listen. "Ava, no! You don't! Listen to me. You are free now. Free from Zan, from Lonnie and Rath, and from Kivar. You can have the life that you dreamed. You can be with Alex. I'm NOT him! I can't be him! God, I can't be." He repeated, desperately wanting it to be true. "I'm not Zan. I won't hurt Alex. You can talk with him, be with him. I would never do anything… I wouldn't send him to the hospital." He used the memory of the teenaged boy she had a crush on.

Ava gasped, "How did you—you saw? You saw what happened?"

"Yeah…"

"It wasn't that bad. Zan loved me. I know he did. We were meant to be. I was his wife." She defended the memory of her husband.

Max rubbed his mouth, stopping himself from arguing. "I know… but I'm still sorry that he couldn't see how much he hurt you. He should've treated you better. I should've treated you better. I'm sorry." She looked at him questioning his last statement, "I'm sorry that I ignored you while you've been here. I should've noticed."

Ava ran a hand through her hair, "Yeah…"

They both took in a deep breath, silently forgiving the other before Max went back into the living room. Ava turned back towards the stove, smiling.

For the first time in her life, she felt peace.

Unfortunately, it didn't last.

Max walked out of the kitchen feeling unsure of himself, of his future with Tess and the baby, of everything. If his duplicate treated his wife in that manner…what if he changed? What if he unknowingly hurt Tess or his son?

Isabel caught his eye as he walked out. She was very concerned. Ava had always been this mousey little girl, hiding and dodging any contact with any of them. When she'd seen her crying and trying to escape punishment for some insignificant mistake by 'pleasuring' Max, Isabel couldn't breathe. It made sense to her. She knew what her duplicate was capable of; it wasn't a big stretch to assume that Ava escaped unscathed.

Isabel walked up to her brother to put her arms around him. He seemed so upset. "Oh, Max. God…What if that had been us? What if Mom and Dad hadn't adopted us? Would we be like them?" She asked, knowing that they'd never get the answers.

Max jerked out of her arms, startling her. "Max!" She was unable to stop him from collapsing on the ground. He fell hard; there was no attempt to cushion the fall. Once on the ground, Max lay still; not moving, not speaking, but staring at the ceiling as if he was in a coma.

The others had seen Max fall and ran up to them. "What the hell?" Maria asked. "Max? Oh, god. Has this ever happened before?" She asked Isabel, watching her move her brother's head to her lap.

"No! Oh, my god. What's happening?" Isabel cried, as she ran her hands over Max's face.

Max blinked, licking his lips as if his mouth was dry. "Tess…" he whispered. "The baby! The baby wants to be born. He's coming."

To be continued…

What do you think?

Was it a far stretch or was it okay?

Like I said, the way that Ava acts…it was suspicious. I was also unsure that Zan was as 'straight' as Lonnie made him out to be. Just from the "They don't want the Number 2…they want the Number 1."

He just seemed, off somehow. The three of them: Lonnie, Rath, and Zan Stole, cheated, etc. They are capable of murder, obviously. What's to stop them from hurting Ava? (She was too mousey…too timid and afraid of Lonnie and Rath. Obviously she loved Zan and missed him, but maybe she's just better off with Alex.)

I also wanted Max to feel how his sister felt…to find out that he's NOT perfect. That he also has a shady history. He's been so happy with Tess and the baby…I wanted to shake the foundation a little. Make him try harder—to acknowledge that Tess truly loves him (time, space, a different dimension, a different life cannot destroy that love) and is completely loyal to him. It is HIM, Max who has the power to change his destiny with Tess. He can treat her like a princess or like a slave. (She will be with him always.) Does this make sense?

Well, let me know. (If you hated it, sorry. The muse wouldn't get off the suggestion of impropriety and abuse.)