[b]Chapter 13[/b]
[i]Roswell, New Mexico - 2005[/i]
"Did you sleep with her?" Michael asked Max, without even feeling the need to mention her name - everyone knew that Max hadn't been with anyone else, let alone thought about anyone else, since Liz had disappeared.
"Why didn't you tell me, Max?" Isabel wondered.
Max was looking at some point behind them, the reality of Kira's statement starting to sink in.
"Didn't you even think of using protection?" Michael asked. "The always so cautious Max Evans didn't use protection?"
"Max...?" Isabel tentatively asked and put a hand on Max's shoulder as he didn't answer them. "When did this happen?"
Max struggled to keep his voice even as he answered them.
"The night before the night when I held her dead in my arms."
He was a turmoil of emotions. Sadness that he hadn't been with Liz when she gave birth, hope that she might actually be alive somewhere, a small sense of panic to be a father...
"Oh Max," Isabel said, feeling sorry for her brother.
"Did you know about this, Maxwell?" Michael asked, still irritated with Max's lack of responsibility. Max shook his head, his mind somewhat detached from what was happening around him.
"Do you know where she is?" Max asked, his voice merely a whisper.
Kira looked puzzled.
"No. That's why we contacted you. We thought she was with you."
"No, she disappeared five years ago," Max said.
"If you keep so close watch at us, why haven't you noticed her missing?" Michael asked.
"But we thought...Isn't Tess the mother?" Kira asked, confused.
"Tess?" Max asked in disbelief, while Michael had to stop himself from laughing out loud at the absurdity of that statement.
"Max would never be with Tess," Isabel said.
"But she's Max's mate," Kira said. "Actually, Max can't reproduce with a human."
Isabel, Michael and Max looked at each other.
"Well, it seems as if you were wrong," Michael informed Kira. "Max has only been with Liz."
"Liz Parker?" Kira asked.
Max nodded, starting to feel a bit freaked out about the whole situation. His relationship and his child was being discussed like a missile crisis.
"Wasn't she murdered?" Kira asked.
"Max doesn't believe that," Isabel said. "He felt her a couple of years ago."
"He 'felt' her?" Kira said.
"Yes, they have this whole connection-thing going," Michael explained.
"But she's completely human?" Kira asked and watched all the hybrids in front of him nod their heads.
"This doesn't make sense," Kira mumbled.
Max started to get worried. "Why?" he asked.
"You aren't suppose to be able to connect with humans and you are absolutely not suppose to be able to reproduce with one," Kira said.
"Perhaps something happened when you healed her, Max?" Isabel said. "She was able to reach you that day in New York - of course, I had to help her, but Ava said that you had changed her."
"What?" Kira said. "You healed her?"
"She was shot...and...and I couldn't let her die," Max said.
Kira sank down onto a bench, his hand rubbing his forehead.
"I have to consider this recent information," he said. "But this makes the situation worse."
"How's that?" Michael said.
"Your enemies are soon going to find out about your heir too and they will try to get to him."
"What do you mean?" Max whispered, as dread started to fill him. He knew exactly what Kira meant.
"We have to find Liz and you heir before your enemies do - or they are as good as dead."
[i]Santa Fe, New Mexico - 2005[/i]
"So what do you wanna do today?" Elizabeth asked her daughter. They were standing in the kitchen, making pancakes.
"I wanna see a movie," Emma answered.
"You wanna go to the cinema?" Elizabeth said and tried to fight of the dizziness that tried to take its claim on her.
"Yes," Emma said, grinning from ear to ear.
"Then...then we'll do that," Elizabeth said, her fists clenched. Emma, who was used to her mother's symptoms (despite Elizabeth's thorough efforts to try to hide it from her), watched her intently.
"Mommy, are you awight?" she asked.
"I'm fine, honey," Elizabeth said, her eyes closed in concentration as she blindly reached out for something to steady herself with. Her hand came into contact with something hot - something really hot. She withdrew her hand with a cry of pain.
"Mommy, you hurt yourself," Emma said. Elizabeth was looking at her hand - she had put her hand on the hot plate of the stove. Before Elizabeth had time to react, Emma had put her own little hand in Elizabeth's, which had started to get really red from the burn. Elizabeth looked at her four-year- old, who closed her eyes - a frown of concentration on her forehead - and Elizabeth could feel a small tingling in her hand and the pain gradually decreasing. Elizabeth looked down at their clasped hands and saw for a split second a white glow radiating from between their palms. The glow started a series of flashes in her mind. The flashes were so strong that she had to take a hold of the sink to stop herself from falling. There was naked skin, lips, warmth, passion, love...so much love and that glow. That glow was radiating from the skin. She came crashing down to Earth with a gasp.
"What happened, mommy?" Emma asked. Elizabeth looked down into the frightened eyes of her daughter, her thoughts still on the flashes that she knew in the bottom of her heart were memories from the night Emma was conceived.
[i]Roswell, New Mexico - 2005[/i]
The old gang was gathered in the park in Roswell. The old gang - minus Liz Parker. Kyle was at some seminar about buddhism in another part of the country and Tess...well, perhaps she never was part of the gang... They were all going to the same university, but had made an old unspoken tradition of returning to Roswell on the weekends and holidays. In some respects they were still holding on to the past. Max more than anyone else, since he couldn't let go off Liz -still convinced that she was out there somewhere. Nevertheless, they knew that their enemies were still out there, even though nothing had happened since Liz's death. Max, Michael and Isabel knew that they would probably be living their whole lives constantly on guard, but they also knew that Maria, Alex, sheriff Valenti and Kyle were just as tangled up in this now as well, so they had to keep together in order to protect each other. Michael and Maria were sharing an apartment close to the university. Max lived on campus, as did Isabel. Alex was sharing an apartment together with Kyle. When they had decided to share an apartment Michael had to contain himself not to laugh out loud. That was just a nice couple!
"Do you really think that it will be easier to find her now?" Michael asked. "You've already looked about everywhere!" They were once again discussing Liz.
"I can't look everywhere," Max said. "I've only searched the public institutions - like hospitals, police... I can't go knocking on every door and she certainly isn't Liz Parker anymore, because Valenti hasn't been able to locate her using her name."
"Well, I hate to break it to you, Maxwell, but perhaps she doesn't want to be found," Michael said. Max's eyes glazed over with sadness and Maria punched Michael on the shoulder.
"Ouch," Michael shouted out. "What are you doing?"
"Don't say that, Michael. She might be hurt, or something even worse. Perhaps she's held prisoner. But I know that Liz wouldn't avoid us. She wouldn't hide from us voluntary...only if she was trying to...protect us," Maria said and jerked her head up. "Oh my God, that's it! Liz is doing her trying-to-protect-everyone-else-at-the-cost-of-her-own-happiness thing again. I'm telling you, she's probably hiding because she knows that the enemies will come after her baby and she doesn't want to lead them to Max too. God, it's just the future Max thing all over again!"
Max's head jerked up.
"What did you say?!" he asked.
Maria met Max's gaze while she replayed what she had said in her head. Oh, crap! She had revealed her best friend's most treasured secret.
"No, no I didn't say nothing," Maria stuttered.
Isabel, Alex and Michael all looked at Maria and Max. Max looked like he was on the verge of a breakdown, but simultaneously seemed more determined than they have seen him in years, and Maria looked extremely guilty. Thoughts running through his mind, Max held Maria's gaze. She knew something and he was gonna make her tell him what it was.
"Yes, you did, Maria. Tell me! Liz was keeping secrets from me, wasn't she?!"
"I-I-I promised not to tell you Max," Maria said.
"It might be relevant to the situation," Isabel said. "Perhaps it will help us find Liz."
"No-no, I don't think it has anything to do with that," Maria stuttered, inwardly kicking herself for giving Liz's secret away.
"It can't hurt now, can it? Liz is gone," Michael said.
"Liz isn't gone," Max said.. "She's just...missing. Now, tell us Maria. What was Liz keeping from us?"
"You have to keep in mind that she was doing it for you," Maria said.
"Spill Maria," Alex said.
"Okay." Maria took a deep breath, and held Max's gaze - focusing only on him. "Max, you know this whole Liz slept with Kyle thing..." Maria said.
"Like I could ever forget," Max thought but said, "Yeah."
"Okay...I'm just gonna say this...and even though it might sound a bit freaky - it's actually true...either that or Liz was a whacko-"
"Maria, please. Tell us," Alex whined with an exaggerated painful expression on his face. "You're killing us here, you're worst than a FBI- agent at giving away information!"
Maria took a deep breath.
"Okay, here goes nothing... The Granolith is very powerful and it could obviously be used for time-traveling," Maria was met with four sets of mistrusting pairs of eyes, "Anyway, a future Max - from year 2014 more exactly," now everyone was looking at her like she had grown antennas, "decided to pay Liz a visit and ruin all her future hopes! Future Max told Liz that she had to get present Max to fall out of love with her."
"What?!" Max exclaimed and stood up.
"Max, calm down," Isabel said.
"Why did he..I...the future version of me-"
"Now you know how I feel," Maria mumbled.
"Why did he tell Liz to do that?" Max asked.
"Because you, girlfriend, decided to treat Tess like trash while you were making goo-goo eyes with Liz, and Tess got fed up with it and left," Maria explained.
"So...? What's the crisis with that?" Michael asked, not really seeing a loss with Tess leaving. Since Liz disappeared she had been an even bigger pain in the ass - which Michael didn't even think was possible - crawling all over Max.
"As I understood it, you were all part of a complete unit - the royal four, or whatever," Maria causally waved her hand, indicating how ridiculous she thought that was, "some sort of fighting unit, and without Tess you were lacking something. In 2014 the enemies arrived to Earth and there was a war and people started dying and your powers weren't as strong without Tess. So Max comes back from the future to prevent Tess from leaving, so they wouldn't all be dead in the future. That's basically it."
Maria looked around her and was met by one speechless human and three stunned hybrids.
"Welcome to the life of Maria Deluca," Maria sighed.
[i]Santa Fe, New Mexico - 2005 [/i]
"Oh, what a cutie!"
Elizabeth turned around to see an old lady leaning over her daughter, sitting in the shopping cart.
"Is she yours?" the old lady asked, looking the young woman over.
"Yes," Elizabeth answered.
"She's just adorable," the lady said and then her voice pitched a level higher as she talked to Emma, "And what is your name, sweety?"
Emma looked worriedly at her mom. Her mom always told her never to talk to strangers. Elizabeth smiled at her daughter and nodded her head, giving her daughter approval to speak.
"Emma," Emma answered.
"What a beautiful name," the old lady said and looked down at the ice-cream box the little girl was clutching to her chest.
"You like ice-cream, huh?"
Emma nodded seriously, but her attention wasn't really on the old lady any longer. She could feel that her mother wasn't feeling too well. Emma looked at her mother, but Emma was a smart girl and she knew her mother. She didn't want to put her mother in a difficult situation, since she knew how hard it was for her mother to ask for help. Emma focused on her mother and tried to send her energy and power.
Elizabeth felt the energy and was not for the first time reminded of the energy surge she had felt when she had given birth to Emma. She had thought about it a lot but she still couldn't truly understand it. It had felt as if a warm presence had walked into her mind, showering her with encouragement, calm, strength and love. It was the most beautiful, calming and wonderful thing she had ever felt. When she now felt the surge again she wondered where it came from, but it made her feel a little better. The pounding headache was alleviated and the burning in the back - always there to remind her of the scarred skin - came to an end.
"Would you like a lollipop?" the old lady questioned Emma.
Emma once again looked at Elizabeth and Elizabeth felt a sting in her chest. She had
made her daughter that suspicious, so untrusting of people. It was not the childhood Elizabeth wished for Emma. Emma should be able to carefreely play with other children. The reality was that Emma had never met anyone else in her own age, she had never played with another child - only with her mother. She lived a protected life and Elizabeth had on more than one occasion thought about that Emma almost was a prisoner, just because Elizabeth was so anxious to protect her from all harm. More than once had Elizabeth thought that she also 'protected' Emma from all the good things in life as well by keeping her away from the real world. Emma wasn't really living... she had to grow up too fast, worrying about her mother.
"It's okay, pumpkin," Elizabeth said.
"Yes, dank you, I-I...would like a lollipop," Emma said.
The old lady smiled a warm smile. She felt so bad for the child. Her mother was so young and her heart ached as she realized that the young woman looked like a drug-addict. The young woman's clothes were washed out, she was thin and pale and her hair had no shine. Although, the old woman had to admit that the little girl looked well cared for. It looked as if the mother spend all her money on the girl. The girl had nice clothes, her hair was newly-cut and neatly pulled up into two pig-tails and she looked healthy. And she was just so darn cute!
"Here you go, sweety," the old lady said and gave Emma a lollipop. Then she opened her handbag and pulled out her purse. Elizabeth realized what she was doing and started to shake her head.
"Oh, no. That's very kind of you, but you don't have to pay."
"Oh, but I want to. It's no problem," the old woman said.
"Okay," Elizabeth agreed, not having the energy to argue over a lollipop with an old woman in the middle of a store, only because she didn't like being treated as a charity case.
"Here you go," the old woman mused and pressed some bills into Elizabeth's hand. To use all of those money, you had to buy at least five hundred lollipops.
"This is too much," Elizabeth said.
"I'm just trying to help you out," the old woman said, somewhat offended by the young woman.
"Yes, I understand that, it's very nice of you," Elizabeth emphasized, "But I can take care of myself, I'm sure you have some grandchildren to spend those money on."
"Yes I do, but you're child most certainly need it the most!"
Elizabeth shook her head and put the money back in the old lady's hand.
"Thank you, but no thanks," Elizabeth said firmly and put her hands back on the handle of the cart and started to push it towards the meat section.
The old woman shook her head, thinking about that poor child who had to live with that stubborn and too proud drug-addict of a mother.
"Hi! My name is Elizabeth Owens," Elizabeth said in the phone. "I would like to register my daughter, Emma Owens, at your day-care center."
Emma walked beside Elizabeth down the street, their hands clasped together.
"Did you have fun today?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes, we did a rattle, and we had toilet baper..."
"You had toilet paper?" Elizabeth asked softly. "Do you mean the cardboard roll inside in the middle of the toilet paper?"
Emma nodded excitedly.
"Yes, yes," she said cheerfully. "We put peas in the dwoll and Maria put a pea in her nose!" Emma's pearl laughter tinkled through the air, but was only partly noticed by Elizabeth, who at the mention of the name Maria had experienced a momentary flash of a blonde beautiful girl with green eyes.
"...and then she had to go to the hospidal, but then she had awready pick it out," Emma continued.
Elizabeth pushed her own thoughts away and focused on her daughter.
"She sure was lucky," Elizabeth said. It warmed her heart that she had obviously made the right decision to put Emma in day-care so that she could meet other children, and play and not be so alone. She was so much happier now. Emma needed to meet other people so that she could widen her world and her perspective, not only seeing everything from her mother's point of view. It had also been good for their economy (if one looked beyond the costs of having Emma at the day-care), since Elizabeth had been able to work a longer shift when Emma wasn't home.
"Mommy, what's the hosbital?" Emma asked and looked up at Elizabeth with those soulful amber eyes, that pulled at Elizabeth's heart strings. Elizabeth had never taken Emma to the hospital - there was never any need to go there since Emma had never been sick. She hadn't even suffered from the normal cold. Elizabeth had always hired a baby-sitter to watch Emma when she had gone to the doctors for her medical problems and when she had gone to therapy in an effort to retrieve her lost memory. So Emma had never been anywhere near doctors or hospitals.
"When you're sick you go to the hospital," Elizabeth said. "There are people there - doctors - that help you feel better."
"Why don't you go dere, so you can feel better?" Emma asked.
Elizabeth felt her chest tighten. She sat down on her heels, so that she was on eye-level with Emma.
"Honey, you don't have to worry about me," Elizabeth said gently, pushing a strand of Emma's dark brown hair behind her ear. "Mommy's fine."
"Then why do you hurt?" Emma said, tilting her head to the side desperately trying to understand.
Elizabeth studied her daughter carefully. How did she know that? Elizabeth was always so careful not to give her symptoms or feelings away. She knew her daughter - she took everything on her own shoulders, she worried too much. Emma was too young to worry that much. If Elizabeth had remembered Emma's father she had understood more where that trait came from. Elizabeth didn't like keeping things from Emma, she wanted them to have an honest relationship but Elizabeth also wanted Emma to be a kid - a normal kid. Not be worrying about her mother's health.
"Emma, I just feel that way sometimes, but it's nothing dangerous."
Emma studied her mother. Not wanting her mother to feel uncomfortable she gave her a hug and hugged her tightly.
"I love you, mommy," Emma said.
"I love you too, sweetheart," Elizabeth said, tears stinging her eyes.
"So, can I have an ice-cream now?" Emma asked, her eyes dancing.
"Uh huh," Elizabeth laughed. "I knew there was a catch hidden there somewhere!"
Emma giggled.
"Okay, come here you!" Elizabeth said, lifting Emma off the ground and turning her upside down in the air. Emma's warm laughter filled the air.
Twenty minutes later they walked through the door at their home. Emma rushed to the TV and turned it on, and soon the house was filled with the sound of cartoons. Elizabeth shook her head at her daughter and smiling walked into the kitchen to fix them a snack. As she was opening the refrigerator door to take out the milk, the phone rang. It was not many people who called them. The only ones who had their number was the day care, the baby sitter, Elizabeth's employers and her doctor. Fearing that it was the baby sitter, calling in sick, she answered the phone.
"Hello," she said.
"Is this Elizabeth Owens?" a dark male voice asked. He didn't sound friendly at all.
"Yes," Elizabeth answered warily.
"Do you have a daughter named Emma?" the voice continued.
"Who are you?" Elizabeth demanded, not liking this conversation at all.
"Who I am is not relevant," the man said.
"Oh yes. It's very relevant to me," Elizabeth said.
"How old are your daughter?" the man asked, ignoring Elizabeth.
"Okay, I'm hanging up!"
"You should not be so bitchy, it could be dangerous," the voice said and Elizabeth hung up the phone. The snack forgotten, Elizabeth walked into the living room, sat down beside Emma and pulled her into her lap, holding her close. Emma was so focused on the cartoon that she didn't notice her mother's shivers.
[i]Roswell, New Mexico - 2005[/i]
"Did you sleep with her?" Michael asked Max, without even feeling the need to mention her name - everyone knew that Max hadn't been with anyone else, let alone thought about anyone else, since Liz had disappeared.
"Why didn't you tell me, Max?" Isabel wondered.
Max was looking at some point behind them, the reality of Kira's statement starting to sink in.
"Didn't you even think of using protection?" Michael asked. "The always so cautious Max Evans didn't use protection?"
"Max...?" Isabel tentatively asked and put a hand on Max's shoulder as he didn't answer them. "When did this happen?"
Max struggled to keep his voice even as he answered them.
"The night before the night when I held her dead in my arms."
He was a turmoil of emotions. Sadness that he hadn't been with Liz when she gave birth, hope that she might actually be alive somewhere, a small sense of panic to be a father...
"Oh Max," Isabel said, feeling sorry for her brother.
"Did you know about this, Maxwell?" Michael asked, still irritated with Max's lack of responsibility. Max shook his head, his mind somewhat detached from what was happening around him.
"Do you know where she is?" Max asked, his voice merely a whisper.
Kira looked puzzled.
"No. That's why we contacted you. We thought she was with you."
"No, she disappeared five years ago," Max said.
"If you keep so close watch at us, why haven't you noticed her missing?" Michael asked.
"But we thought...Isn't Tess the mother?" Kira asked, confused.
"Tess?" Max asked in disbelief, while Michael had to stop himself from laughing out loud at the absurdity of that statement.
"Max would never be with Tess," Isabel said.
"But she's Max's mate," Kira said. "Actually, Max can't reproduce with a human."
Isabel, Michael and Max looked at each other.
"Well, it seems as if you were wrong," Michael informed Kira. "Max has only been with Liz."
"Liz Parker?" Kira asked.
Max nodded, starting to feel a bit freaked out about the whole situation. His relationship and his child was being discussed like a missile crisis.
"Wasn't she murdered?" Kira asked.
"Max doesn't believe that," Isabel said. "He felt her a couple of years ago."
"He 'felt' her?" Kira said.
"Yes, they have this whole connection-thing going," Michael explained.
"But she's completely human?" Kira asked and watched all the hybrids in front of him nod their heads.
"This doesn't make sense," Kira mumbled.
Max started to get worried. "Why?" he asked.
"You aren't suppose to be able to connect with humans and you are absolutely not suppose to be able to reproduce with one," Kira said.
"Perhaps something happened when you healed her, Max?" Isabel said. "She was able to reach you that day in New York - of course, I had to help her, but Ava said that you had changed her."
"What?" Kira said. "You healed her?"
"She was shot...and...and I couldn't let her die," Max said.
Kira sank down onto a bench, his hand rubbing his forehead.
"I have to consider this recent information," he said. "But this makes the situation worse."
"How's that?" Michael said.
"Your enemies are soon going to find out about your heir too and they will try to get to him."
"What do you mean?" Max whispered, as dread started to fill him. He knew exactly what Kira meant.
"We have to find Liz and you heir before your enemies do - or they are as good as dead."
[i]Santa Fe, New Mexico - 2005[/i]
"So what do you wanna do today?" Elizabeth asked her daughter. They were standing in the kitchen, making pancakes.
"I wanna see a movie," Emma answered.
"You wanna go to the cinema?" Elizabeth said and tried to fight of the dizziness that tried to take its claim on her.
"Yes," Emma said, grinning from ear to ear.
"Then...then we'll do that," Elizabeth said, her fists clenched. Emma, who was used to her mother's symptoms (despite Elizabeth's thorough efforts to try to hide it from her), watched her intently.
"Mommy, are you awight?" she asked.
"I'm fine, honey," Elizabeth said, her eyes closed in concentration as she blindly reached out for something to steady herself with. Her hand came into contact with something hot - something really hot. She withdrew her hand with a cry of pain.
"Mommy, you hurt yourself," Emma said. Elizabeth was looking at her hand - she had put her hand on the hot plate of the stove. Before Elizabeth had time to react, Emma had put her own little hand in Elizabeth's, which had started to get really red from the burn. Elizabeth looked at her four-year- old, who closed her eyes - a frown of concentration on her forehead - and Elizabeth could feel a small tingling in her hand and the pain gradually decreasing. Elizabeth looked down at their clasped hands and saw for a split second a white glow radiating from between their palms. The glow started a series of flashes in her mind. The flashes were so strong that she had to take a hold of the sink to stop herself from falling. There was naked skin, lips, warmth, passion, love...so much love and that glow. That glow was radiating from the skin. She came crashing down to Earth with a gasp.
"What happened, mommy?" Emma asked. Elizabeth looked down into the frightened eyes of her daughter, her thoughts still on the flashes that she knew in the bottom of her heart were memories from the night Emma was conceived.
[i]Roswell, New Mexico - 2005[/i]
The old gang was gathered in the park in Roswell. The old gang - minus Liz Parker. Kyle was at some seminar about buddhism in another part of the country and Tess...well, perhaps she never was part of the gang... They were all going to the same university, but had made an old unspoken tradition of returning to Roswell on the weekends and holidays. In some respects they were still holding on to the past. Max more than anyone else, since he couldn't let go off Liz -still convinced that she was out there somewhere. Nevertheless, they knew that their enemies were still out there, even though nothing had happened since Liz's death. Max, Michael and Isabel knew that they would probably be living their whole lives constantly on guard, but they also knew that Maria, Alex, sheriff Valenti and Kyle were just as tangled up in this now as well, so they had to keep together in order to protect each other. Michael and Maria were sharing an apartment close to the university. Max lived on campus, as did Isabel. Alex was sharing an apartment together with Kyle. When they had decided to share an apartment Michael had to contain himself not to laugh out loud. That was just a nice couple!
"Do you really think that it will be easier to find her now?" Michael asked. "You've already looked about everywhere!" They were once again discussing Liz.
"I can't look everywhere," Max said. "I've only searched the public institutions - like hospitals, police... I can't go knocking on every door and she certainly isn't Liz Parker anymore, because Valenti hasn't been able to locate her using her name."
"Well, I hate to break it to you, Maxwell, but perhaps she doesn't want to be found," Michael said. Max's eyes glazed over with sadness and Maria punched Michael on the shoulder.
"Ouch," Michael shouted out. "What are you doing?"
"Don't say that, Michael. She might be hurt, or something even worse. Perhaps she's held prisoner. But I know that Liz wouldn't avoid us. She wouldn't hide from us voluntary...only if she was trying to...protect us," Maria said and jerked her head up. "Oh my God, that's it! Liz is doing her trying-to-protect-everyone-else-at-the-cost-of-her-own-happiness thing again. I'm telling you, she's probably hiding because she knows that the enemies will come after her baby and she doesn't want to lead them to Max too. God, it's just the future Max thing all over again!"
Max's head jerked up.
"What did you say?!" he asked.
Maria met Max's gaze while she replayed what she had said in her head. Oh, crap! She had revealed her best friend's most treasured secret.
"No, no I didn't say nothing," Maria stuttered.
Isabel, Alex and Michael all looked at Maria and Max. Max looked like he was on the verge of a breakdown, but simultaneously seemed more determined than they have seen him in years, and Maria looked extremely guilty. Thoughts running through his mind, Max held Maria's gaze. She knew something and he was gonna make her tell him what it was.
"Yes, you did, Maria. Tell me! Liz was keeping secrets from me, wasn't she?!"
"I-I-I promised not to tell you Max," Maria said.
"It might be relevant to the situation," Isabel said. "Perhaps it will help us find Liz."
"No-no, I don't think it has anything to do with that," Maria stuttered, inwardly kicking herself for giving Liz's secret away.
"It can't hurt now, can it? Liz is gone," Michael said.
"Liz isn't gone," Max said.. "She's just...missing. Now, tell us Maria. What was Liz keeping from us?"
"You have to keep in mind that she was doing it for you," Maria said.
"Spill Maria," Alex said.
"Okay." Maria took a deep breath, and held Max's gaze - focusing only on him. "Max, you know this whole Liz slept with Kyle thing..." Maria said.
"Like I could ever forget," Max thought but said, "Yeah."
"Okay...I'm just gonna say this...and even though it might sound a bit freaky - it's actually true...either that or Liz was a whacko-"
"Maria, please. Tell us," Alex whined with an exaggerated painful expression on his face. "You're killing us here, you're worst than a FBI- agent at giving away information!"
Maria took a deep breath.
"Okay, here goes nothing... The Granolith is very powerful and it could obviously be used for time-traveling," Maria was met with four sets of mistrusting pairs of eyes, "Anyway, a future Max - from year 2014 more exactly," now everyone was looking at her like she had grown antennas, "decided to pay Liz a visit and ruin all her future hopes! Future Max told Liz that she had to get present Max to fall out of love with her."
"What?!" Max exclaimed and stood up.
"Max, calm down," Isabel said.
"Why did he..I...the future version of me-"
"Now you know how I feel," Maria mumbled.
"Why did he tell Liz to do that?" Max asked.
"Because you, girlfriend, decided to treat Tess like trash while you were making goo-goo eyes with Liz, and Tess got fed up with it and left," Maria explained.
"So...? What's the crisis with that?" Michael asked, not really seeing a loss with Tess leaving. Since Liz disappeared she had been an even bigger pain in the ass - which Michael didn't even think was possible - crawling all over Max.
"As I understood it, you were all part of a complete unit - the royal four, or whatever," Maria causally waved her hand, indicating how ridiculous she thought that was, "some sort of fighting unit, and without Tess you were lacking something. In 2014 the enemies arrived to Earth and there was a war and people started dying and your powers weren't as strong without Tess. So Max comes back from the future to prevent Tess from leaving, so they wouldn't all be dead in the future. That's basically it."
Maria looked around her and was met by one speechless human and three stunned hybrids.
"Welcome to the life of Maria Deluca," Maria sighed.
[i]Santa Fe, New Mexico - 2005 [/i]
"Oh, what a cutie!"
Elizabeth turned around to see an old lady leaning over her daughter, sitting in the shopping cart.
"Is she yours?" the old lady asked, looking the young woman over.
"Yes," Elizabeth answered.
"She's just adorable," the lady said and then her voice pitched a level higher as she talked to Emma, "And what is your name, sweety?"
Emma looked worriedly at her mom. Her mom always told her never to talk to strangers. Elizabeth smiled at her daughter and nodded her head, giving her daughter approval to speak.
"Emma," Emma answered.
"What a beautiful name," the old lady said and looked down at the ice-cream box the little girl was clutching to her chest.
"You like ice-cream, huh?"
Emma nodded seriously, but her attention wasn't really on the old lady any longer. She could feel that her mother wasn't feeling too well. Emma looked at her mother, but Emma was a smart girl and she knew her mother. She didn't want to put her mother in a difficult situation, since she knew how hard it was for her mother to ask for help. Emma focused on her mother and tried to send her energy and power.
Elizabeth felt the energy and was not for the first time reminded of the energy surge she had felt when she had given birth to Emma. She had thought about it a lot but she still couldn't truly understand it. It had felt as if a warm presence had walked into her mind, showering her with encouragement, calm, strength and love. It was the most beautiful, calming and wonderful thing she had ever felt. When she now felt the surge again she wondered where it came from, but it made her feel a little better. The pounding headache was alleviated and the burning in the back - always there to remind her of the scarred skin - came to an end.
"Would you like a lollipop?" the old lady questioned Emma.
Emma once again looked at Elizabeth and Elizabeth felt a sting in her chest. She had
made her daughter that suspicious, so untrusting of people. It was not the childhood Elizabeth wished for Emma. Emma should be able to carefreely play with other children. The reality was that Emma had never met anyone else in her own age, she had never played with another child - only with her mother. She lived a protected life and Elizabeth had on more than one occasion thought about that Emma almost was a prisoner, just because Elizabeth was so anxious to protect her from all harm. More than once had Elizabeth thought that she also 'protected' Emma from all the good things in life as well by keeping her away from the real world. Emma wasn't really living... she had to grow up too fast, worrying about her mother.
"It's okay, pumpkin," Elizabeth said.
"Yes, dank you, I-I...would like a lollipop," Emma said.
The old lady smiled a warm smile. She felt so bad for the child. Her mother was so young and her heart ached as she realized that the young woman looked like a drug-addict. The young woman's clothes were washed out, she was thin and pale and her hair had no shine. Although, the old woman had to admit that the little girl looked well cared for. It looked as if the mother spend all her money on the girl. The girl had nice clothes, her hair was newly-cut and neatly pulled up into two pig-tails and she looked healthy. And she was just so darn cute!
"Here you go, sweety," the old lady said and gave Emma a lollipop. Then she opened her handbag and pulled out her purse. Elizabeth realized what she was doing and started to shake her head.
"Oh, no. That's very kind of you, but you don't have to pay."
"Oh, but I want to. It's no problem," the old woman said.
"Okay," Elizabeth agreed, not having the energy to argue over a lollipop with an old woman in the middle of a store, only because she didn't like being treated as a charity case.
"Here you go," the old woman mused and pressed some bills into Elizabeth's hand. To use all of those money, you had to buy at least five hundred lollipops.
"This is too much," Elizabeth said.
"I'm just trying to help you out," the old woman said, somewhat offended by the young woman.
"Yes, I understand that, it's very nice of you," Elizabeth emphasized, "But I can take care of myself, I'm sure you have some grandchildren to spend those money on."
"Yes I do, but you're child most certainly need it the most!"
Elizabeth shook her head and put the money back in the old lady's hand.
"Thank you, but no thanks," Elizabeth said firmly and put her hands back on the handle of the cart and started to push it towards the meat section.
The old woman shook her head, thinking about that poor child who had to live with that stubborn and too proud drug-addict of a mother.
"Hi! My name is Elizabeth Owens," Elizabeth said in the phone. "I would like to register my daughter, Emma Owens, at your day-care center."
Emma walked beside Elizabeth down the street, their hands clasped together.
"Did you have fun today?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes, we did a rattle, and we had toilet baper..."
"You had toilet paper?" Elizabeth asked softly. "Do you mean the cardboard roll inside in the middle of the toilet paper?"
Emma nodded excitedly.
"Yes, yes," she said cheerfully. "We put peas in the dwoll and Maria put a pea in her nose!" Emma's pearl laughter tinkled through the air, but was only partly noticed by Elizabeth, who at the mention of the name Maria had experienced a momentary flash of a blonde beautiful girl with green eyes.
"...and then she had to go to the hospidal, but then she had awready pick it out," Emma continued.
Elizabeth pushed her own thoughts away and focused on her daughter.
"She sure was lucky," Elizabeth said. It warmed her heart that she had obviously made the right decision to put Emma in day-care so that she could meet other children, and play and not be so alone. She was so much happier now. Emma needed to meet other people so that she could widen her world and her perspective, not only seeing everything from her mother's point of view. It had also been good for their economy (if one looked beyond the costs of having Emma at the day-care), since Elizabeth had been able to work a longer shift when Emma wasn't home.
"Mommy, what's the hosbital?" Emma asked and looked up at Elizabeth with those soulful amber eyes, that pulled at Elizabeth's heart strings. Elizabeth had never taken Emma to the hospital - there was never any need to go there since Emma had never been sick. She hadn't even suffered from the normal cold. Elizabeth had always hired a baby-sitter to watch Emma when she had gone to the doctors for her medical problems and when she had gone to therapy in an effort to retrieve her lost memory. So Emma had never been anywhere near doctors or hospitals.
"When you're sick you go to the hospital," Elizabeth said. "There are people there - doctors - that help you feel better."
"Why don't you go dere, so you can feel better?" Emma asked.
Elizabeth felt her chest tighten. She sat down on her heels, so that she was on eye-level with Emma.
"Honey, you don't have to worry about me," Elizabeth said gently, pushing a strand of Emma's dark brown hair behind her ear. "Mommy's fine."
"Then why do you hurt?" Emma said, tilting her head to the side desperately trying to understand.
Elizabeth studied her daughter carefully. How did she know that? Elizabeth was always so careful not to give her symptoms or feelings away. She knew her daughter - she took everything on her own shoulders, she worried too much. Emma was too young to worry that much. If Elizabeth had remembered Emma's father she had understood more where that trait came from. Elizabeth didn't like keeping things from Emma, she wanted them to have an honest relationship but Elizabeth also wanted Emma to be a kid - a normal kid. Not be worrying about her mother's health.
"Emma, I just feel that way sometimes, but it's nothing dangerous."
Emma studied her mother. Not wanting her mother to feel uncomfortable she gave her a hug and hugged her tightly.
"I love you, mommy," Emma said.
"I love you too, sweetheart," Elizabeth said, tears stinging her eyes.
"So, can I have an ice-cream now?" Emma asked, her eyes dancing.
"Uh huh," Elizabeth laughed. "I knew there was a catch hidden there somewhere!"
Emma giggled.
"Okay, come here you!" Elizabeth said, lifting Emma off the ground and turning her upside down in the air. Emma's warm laughter filled the air.
Twenty minutes later they walked through the door at their home. Emma rushed to the TV and turned it on, and soon the house was filled with the sound of cartoons. Elizabeth shook her head at her daughter and smiling walked into the kitchen to fix them a snack. As she was opening the refrigerator door to take out the milk, the phone rang. It was not many people who called them. The only ones who had their number was the day care, the baby sitter, Elizabeth's employers and her doctor. Fearing that it was the baby sitter, calling in sick, she answered the phone.
"Hello," she said.
"Is this Elizabeth Owens?" a dark male voice asked. He didn't sound friendly at all.
"Yes," Elizabeth answered warily.
"Do you have a daughter named Emma?" the voice continued.
"Who are you?" Elizabeth demanded, not liking this conversation at all.
"Who I am is not relevant," the man said.
"Oh yes. It's very relevant to me," Elizabeth said.
"How old are your daughter?" the man asked, ignoring Elizabeth.
"Okay, I'm hanging up!"
"You should not be so bitchy, it could be dangerous," the voice said and Elizabeth hung up the phone. The snack forgotten, Elizabeth walked into the living room, sat down beside Emma and pulled her into her lap, holding her close. Emma was so focused on the cartoon that she didn't notice her mother's shivers.