Part 3

Angry Heart

Serena frowned as she walked into the bedroom to discover Max sat on the bed with his attention focused on the television. Her frown deepened when she noticed that he wasn't even nearly ready to leave for dinner. Serena rubbed her forehead, sensing that a headache was on its way.

"Why aren't you ready? Isabel is going to be picking us up soon"

"I'm not going" Max muttered, his eyes still glued to the soccer game on the television. He had every intention of spending the rest of the night watching the sports channels and eating a unhealthy amount of juke food. Nothing was going to make him leave the hotel room, not even a earthquake would get him to leave the hotel.

Blatantly ignoring him, Serena rummaged through his clothes, "I think you should wear that Ralph Lauren shirt, you know the pale blue one. Did you bring it? I could have swore that Jonathan was wearing it just before we left. Maybe you could wear that…."

"I'm not going" He repeated stubbornly. Serena was meant to be his best friend, why couldn't she understand that he didn't want to spend anytime near Liz? What did he have to do to get her to get the message?

"Don't be silly, of course you are!" Serena said still rummaging through his clothes "Isabel is going to be here in five minutes so you better hurry up and change."

"For Christ's sake, I'm not going!" Max gritted his teeth in annoyance. "I don't know what you were hoping to accomplish by forcing me and Liz together all the time but let me tell you that whatever it is, its not going to happen!"

"I'm not…"

"Don't act dumb, Serena. Its doesn't suit you." Max stated angrily. It seemed like the frustrations of the last three days were finally catching up with him. He got off the bed and stalked towards the window. Glaring out at the town he had left so long ago, he was hit with a rush of emotions. His jaw clenched as he remembered that fatal November night. He had been such a stupid lovesick fool. Even after catching Liz and Kyle in bed, he hadn't wanted to believe. His heart had protested fiercely, unable to believe that Liz would do such a thing. But he had seen it with his own two eyes and once the numbness had dissolved, he couldn't deny or make excuses for what he had seen. It had nearly destroyed him but he managed to rebuild his life and he wasn't going to jeopardize that for the world. And that was exactly what spending time with Liz would do.

Serena's heart ached as she caught a glimpse of pain in Max's eyes. "I'm just trying to help…"

"I don't need your help and I sure as hell don't want it" Max said harshly.

Serena took a deep breath. He was angry, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out but she knew he was more angry with himself then with her. And that was why he needed her help. He was never going to be able to move on with his life if he didn't get some closure on Liz. She reached out to him "Yes, you do! Max, I trying to understand but…"

"How can you understand? You've never been betrayed by someone you love. You've never had your heart ripped to little pieces. Hell, you've never even been in love! So tell me Serena, how you can even begin to understand what I'm feeling?" "

Serena cringed away from him. There was an unmistakeable flash of pain in her eyes as she stared at him in shock. She reached for her purse and the car keys.

Max was oblivious to the pain he had caused as he continued to fume. "You don't understand. How could you possibly understand when you live in this perfect little world? You have no idea how much it hurt finding Liz in bed with Kyle. You have no idea what it felt like to discover the girl I was in love with, the girl I risked everything for in bed with another guy. I saw them! I saw them lying there together as if it was the most nature thing for them to do, I saw her smiling and it broke my heart! How can you understand something like that?"

"I'll tell you what I do understand! You're acting like jerk! You've been acting like a jerk since we got here." She opened the door and glancing over her shoulder she frowned, "I don't even know who you are at the moment…" She paused uncertainty written clearly on her, "And I don't think I want to"

The door slammed shut. Max stared at it angrily for minute or so, half expecting Serena to burst back into the room and to try and make everything better. She didn't. Instead there was a sharp knock at the door.

"Isabel?" Max said in confusion as he stared at his sister.

"Wow, you're wife is certainly a firecracker and maybe even slightly mad." Isabel said as she brushed past him. "She muttered something about playing Yoko somewhere else tonight and then stormed past me. Anyway are you ready to go?"

"I'm not going"

Isabel raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed with Max's tone. She folded her arms across her chest as she prepared to do battle. "We see about"

"Isn't this great? The eight of us together again," There was a excited gleam in Isabel's eyes as she smiled brightly. "This is just like it use to be"

Max snorted in disbelief. His sister had obviously become insane since he had left Roswell. He couldn't remember a single time when the eight of them had sat down to dinner together or actually been in a room together willingly. The only thing that was the same as before was the unmistakeable tension that hung in the air. He glanced towards Liz and felt the familiar rumbling in his stomach. Damn her.

"Liz, did you manage to track down that book I was telling you about?"

Max gritted his teeth at the sound of Kyle's voice. It was killing him to be in the same room as Kyle and Liz. Every time he glanced in their direction, he was hit with an image of them in bed together, hell he didn't even need to look at them since the image was permanently burnt painfully in his memory. He wondered how mad Tess would get if he broke a couple of Kyle's ribs. Not many, just enough to cause a lot of pain. He stabbed at the meat on his plate sullenly, pretending that the meat was Kyle. It didn't help as much as he wished it would have.

From across the table, Liz watched him from the corner of her eye. Still feeling sore from the day before, both figurative speaking and literally, Liz was not in the best of moods. And the fact that Max hadn't said more then two words since he had arrived and his sulky mood was starting to irritate the hell out of her.

The only reason this dinner was taken place was for him and he didn't even have the good manners to appreciate it. It was clearly obvious that he didn't want to be here but the very least he could do was pretend that he was having a good time like she was. It wasn't like this dinner was her idea of a fun night out. She would have much rather of been at home, dressed in her pyjamas and watching the brand new episode of One Tree Hill. She was missing her weekly dose of James Lafferty and Chad Michael Murray for that jackass, he should be on his knees with gratitude.

Liz sighed as she picked at the food on her plate. At least it couldn't get any worse.

She had no friends, only enemies in couples. Evil couples that had all gone to dance, leaving her completely alone with Max. Even Michael, who could normally be counting on for being against any form of dancing had disappeared to the dance floor. Liz shifted in her seat as she glanced at Max, the uncomfortable silence was starting to bother her more then she would like to admit. Evil, stupid couples!

Oh, when had she turned into a bitter singleton? Why did her and Bridget Jones suddenly have so much common? Actually Bridget had the better end of the bargain, she had two men fighting for her attention while Liz had exactly none. Liz resisted the sudden urge to break into song, the chorus 'I will Survive' seemed to be especially appealing at the moment.

Right, she was going to offer Max the olive branch one final time and if he didn't accept this time, well then, she was going to get that branch and shove it where the sun didn't shine. It was always smart to have a back up plan.

"So where did you say Serena was again?" Liz asked, breaking the silence.

"I didn't," Max mumbled.

"Well, where she is then?" Liz prodded. Obviously, Max had lost the ability to do anything but mumble somewhere in California. Maybe there was something in the water.

He shrugged and Liz shifted in her seat again, he was getting closer and closer to being beaten with that olive branch. She looked down at the fork that was resting on her plate. It looked so tempting. Olive branch or fork? Olive branch or fork? Choices, choices, choices! No! She was meant to be offering her friendship to him, even though he didn't really deserve it. What he did deserve was to be poked with her fork but she was a grown up and she was going to act like one.

When Max failed to response with any words from the English dictionary, Liz decide to continue with her poor attempts at conversation. "I always thought that newlyweds couldn't bear to be away from each other for more then a second. When Tess and Kyle first got married, well after they had gotten over all the misunderstandings and Tess wasn't trying to kill him and Kyle got over the whole paranoia thing, they couldn't keep their hands off each other…" Liz paused when she noticed Max's scowl. Okay somehow she had managed to piss him a little more. Was it because she had pointed out that him and Serena weren't acting like a normal couple of newlyweds. Maybe they were having problems, maybe they were getting divorced. Liz felt a twinge of guilty pleasure before she berated herself. Bad, bad, bad Liz. She liked Serena, she shouldn't be hoping that Serena and Max's marriage was in trouble. That was just wrong.

"I trust Serena,"

Where had that come from? Had Liz even suggested that there might be some trust issues between them? Wait and gasp. Holy Julian of Macedon was that a dig at her? Was he applying that he didn't trust her? Because ouch, that stung a little. Or was she just being paranoid?

"You know, I'm just going to be quiet now." Liz said with a sigh. Giving up was just so much easier then trying to talk to Max.

"You do that,"

Liz glared at him. Why did he have to be so mean? She looked back down at her fork, could she be arrested for stabbing someone with a fork? Did it matter? She knew the Sheriff and it was like Jim Valenti would make her stay in jail for something that was not really her fault.

"Fine, I will then."

"Good,"

"Double good!" What was it about him that bought the first grader out in her?

"Whatever," Max grumbled.

"FYI , you're a jerk!" Liz said before gasping. Crap, had she said that out loud? She must have because Max's scowl was a lot more mean looking then had been before. Oops! Sometimes she just couldn't help herself. She blamed it on Maria, Maria must have rubbed off on her over the years.

Liz's eyes widen as Max stood up abruptly. Crap, he was leaving and it was all her fault. Again!

"Tell the others I had a headache!" He muttered as he threw some money on the table.

Liz watched him walk away in horror. She wanted to run after him, to shake him until he told her what was wrong and then she wanted to help him fix it but she couldn't. He wasn't hers. And the question that kept playing on her mind was; had he ever really been just hers?

The room was in darkness when Max entered, which suited him just fine. It matched his mood to perfection. He fell back onto the bed, relieved to be back in the safety of the hotel room. He was looking forward to spending the rest of night watching soccer and having a pity party for one. He switched on the television in time to see David Beckham take off his shirt, Serena would be devastated that she was missing this. He glanced down at his watch and wondered where Serena was. Max flicked through the stations, he didn't need to see Beckham topless.

Max snapped his attention away from the television at the sound of retching coming from the bathroom. With a frown, he got off the bed and headed towards the bathroom. Pushing up the door hesitantly, he felt a thread of panic at the sight he found. Serena was sitting on the floor, her head rolled to one side, her eyes closed. She was covered in a light sweat and looked ghostly pale.

"Jesus, Serena!" Max knelt down beside her and reached to forward to push a strand of hair out of her face. Serena's eyes snapped open and she recoiled away from his touch. "Serena…"

"Go away Max," Serena ordered, "Three's a crowd and me and miserably were here first!"

"You're sick"

Serena stared at him blankly for a second before replying, "I know,"

"Let me heal you then" Max said, moved towards her but she scurried away from him. Getting unsteadily to her feet, she swayed towards the sink and gripped hold it. "For Christ's sake, Serena let me heal you"

"No!"

Max ran a hand through his hand in frustration, "Stop being so stubborn. Why do you always have to be so stubborn about everything?"

"Well, you're a jerk and that's a new development" Serena said, her grip tightening on her sink as she was racked by a coughing fit. She slid to the floor as her legs finally gave way. "You really hurt me earlier,"

"I'm sorry. Let me help you please," Max pleaded.

"Wait let me thinking about this. How did it go again? Oh yeah, I don't need your help and I sure as hell don't want it" Serena stated, throwing back his earlier words.

"Serena…"

"Just go Max," Serena choked back a sob. "I just want to be left alone,"

Max nodded silently, unable to bear the thought of his best friend in pain especially when he could heal her. The door was closed as soon as he stepped foot out of the bathroom and he felt a pain slice his heart when he heard the lock clink in place.

Serena and Liz were both right. He had been acting like a jerk. He had been so absorbed in his own miserably that he hadn't noticed how it was affecting the people around him. He sat down outside the bathroom door, ready to go to Serena's aid if she needed him. Tomorrow, he would make it up to her. Tomorrow, he would make sure that things went back to normal.