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Chapter 19

"So, where's Max, Liz and Emma?" Maria asked as she was unpacking the groceries from the paper bag.


"Emma's sleeping," Isabel answered as she relieved Michael from one of the bags. He was just standing there, an expression mixed with boredom, irritation, tiredness and hopelessness on his face, in the middle of the kitchen, two grocery bags dangling from one hand and three dangling from the other.

"Maria, what did you do to Michael?" Isabel asked suspiciously.

Maria turned to look at Michael.
"Oh, he'll just have to get used to it! I guess he never has shopped more than three products at the same time when he has gone shopping. He'll get over it."

"O-kaaay," Isabel said, unable to grin at Michael.

"Don't start," Michael said menacingly.

"I haven't said nothing," Isabel said, while burying her face in the refrigerator to hide the wide grin on her face.

"Where are Max and Liz?" Maria asked again, while filling the cabinets with sugar, cereals, etc.

"They've been in Emma's room for about an hour - talking," Isabel answered.

"Talking, huh," Michael chuckled. Maria turned around and slapped him on the arm.

"Ouch, what are you doing?" Michael cried.

"That's for you being an insensitive pig," Maria answered, and when seeing that Michael actually didn't get it she continued, "they've just found each other, do you think they will jump each other's bones the first thing they do?"

"Well, yeah," Michael said as if it was a well-known fact, "we're talking Max and Liz here..."

"Yes, we are. The two most controlled people I know," Maria said.

"As I recall they have a daughter together," Michael said, "and I don't know if you missed those biology lessons, but you have to loose some major control-restrains to make a child, you know."

"OOOOHHH," Maria exclaimed.

"There is something I need to tell you," Isabel interrupted. But it was too late. Maria and Michael was already in one of their bickering contests.

"Hey, quit it!! TIME OUT!" Isabel practically yelled, holding her hands in front of her in the form of a capital T.

"What?" Michael huffed. He was just about to win the argument for once!

"There's something I need to tell you," Isabel repeated.

"Okay, shoot," Maria said casually, having had years of practice to calm herself down from 'talking' with her dense boyfriend. She was not as hyper as she once was....okay, she was still hyper but...right, she was about one percent less hyper.

"I think Liz has suffered from amnesia all these years," Isabel said.

"What?!" Maria said, already getting herself worked up again.

"She didn't remember us, she didn't remember her old life, she didn't even remember her own name," Isabel said, "that's why she hasn't contacted us. She wasn't intentionally keeping herself hidden, she only wasn't aware that there was someone out there to contact."

"Oh shit," Michael mumbled - finally putting the grocery bags down on the floor.

"Oh my god, poor Liz," Maria mumbled. "What she must have been suffering. She must have been so lost. I can't even imagine how it would feel like to not remember anything - anything at all !"

Just then they heard a door open, and Liz and Max walked in hand in hand. But as soon as Liz stepped into the kitchen, she was in Maria's arms.

"God, I've missed you," Liz said, her tears streaming down her cheeks. Even though she actually couldn't remember Maria, her whole being had unconsciously missed her.

"I've missed you too," Maria said, herself crying, "I've missed your calm and your advice and I missed you! If we hadn't found you I had probably gone insane sooner or later being around your devastated boyfriend, ice-queen over there, and my oh-so-annoying boyfriend."
Max watched the interaction between the two former friends with a small smile on his face. It was good to see those two together again. Even though Maria had tried to put up a brave face and act normal after Liz's disappearance from the group, she had not seemed the same. That fact had not passed Max unnoticed, even though he was pretty much lost to the world without Liz by his side.

Liz left Maria's warm embrace and turned towards Michael, now sitting on one of the kitchen chairs.
"Michael," she said, "c'mere! I've missed you to!"

Michael hesitated a bit. After all these years, his ability to show affection hadn't really improved. Nevertheless, Liz had always been there for him - even though he had been very skeptical of her in the beginning. As he had seen it, she had tried to manipulate Max into leaving him. Michael could not let a simple human do that - he had only put his trust in two people and that was Isabel and Max. After a while he had started to like that small woman with the warm big heart, and when she had died (even though he hadn't admitted it to anyone) he had grieved just as much as everyone else....well, except Max then - whose grief was something in its own category. Max had done him a favor that day when he had healed Liz. By his decision to tell Liz their secret, Max had opened up their closed-up existence to a real life, with real friends. Friends Michael would now die protecting just as much as he would die protecting Max or Isabel.

Michael rose and stepped up to Liz, capturing her in a big bear hug.

"Thank you for taking care of Maria for me," Liz whispered in his ear - only for him to hear. Michael swallowed and had to concentrate not to let the emotions get the upper hand. Why did Liz always do that? It was like she could see right through him, and she didn't care that he put up a tough exterior because somehow she could see the real him.

"I'll do anything for her," Michael said, his voice low. The emotional touch to his voice wasn't unnoticed by Liz. Michael cleared his throat (in order to free himself of all the uncomfortable feelings - uncomfortable because he never knew what to do with them) and stepped out of Liz's embrace.

"So, where's Alex?" Liz asked, missing her best male girlfriend.

"He's in Roswell, holding the forts," Isabel answered.

"As always," Liz smiled.

"So, Liz. What's this I hear that you forgot about us?" Michael said, his mask put back into place quickly, effectively hiding the feelings Liz had felt radiating from him a couple of seconds earlier.

Liz smiled at him. She knew how much Maria had always meant to him, and she had a hunch that she meant more to him now than ever. But in so many respects he was still the Michael she once knew. Somehow she was comforted by that. It was almost as if she could pick up where she left off...no, that wasn't going to be quite that easy. She had changed a lot. She had a child now and she had lived a hidden life in the dark for five years. Even though it didn't at the moment seem as if her friends had changed at all, she knew that they too had changed. As she thought about it, her smile faltered. She had missed so much of her friends' life. In theory they should probably be strangers by now.

Michael watched the emotions play over Liz's face. She always had such an expressive face - showing almost exactly what she felt.
"Liz...?" Michael asked, worried that he had upset her with bad memories or something.
Liz jerked out of her dream world and found the concern faces of three of her best friends in the world looking at her. "However," Liz thought to herself, "we had something unique, and we were bond in a way that will not be separated by some years of absence. We will survive."

"Sorry," Liz said and smiled again, "I just spaced out, I guess. I'm not used to all this people here. It's usually only Emma and I here."

"What really happened five years ago?" Maria asked.

Liz inhaled deeply and sank down on one of the chairs. She knew that the questions would come sooner or later. She had hoped that it would be later.

"Uhmm, well...I'll just take it from the beginning...But it will be easier if you wouldn't interrupt me okay?" She was met by three persons nodding their heads in agreement.

Liz took another deep breath.
"Okay..." She hadn't had the time or opportunity to think this through herself. She had just remembered what had happened. She had never gotten the chance to process it..."I kept having these nightmares...five years ago. They started about two weeks before...uhm..the attack. My nightmares were always about the same thing. I was walking home...and it was night...and dark...and cold...and...and...and then Max was there but I knew that it wasn't really him. There wasn't anything Max about him, except his appearance that is."

"This...uhm...person..wanted to follow me home, but I kept trying to assure him that I was fine, that I could get home on my own. I really didn't want to walk with him. But he kept insisting and I thought that if I agreed there would perhaps be a pedestrian who would spot us and I could ask for help or something, I hadn't really thought it through. Then everything happened so fast. He...eh...pushed me into an alley and tried..tried...to k-kiss me and I pushed him away and we...uhm..fought a while and then I got away and started to run and that's when I fell and he was over me. I felt his hand on my back and then...I was...being burned alive," Liz swallowed hard to force down the sobs that threatened to come, "and then I woke up. The dreams felt extremely realistic, more like a warning of the future than a dream-"

"Liz, why didn't you tell me? I could've hel-" Max began, his voice filled with guilt.

Liz held up her hand to silence him.
"Max, please. Don't interrupt, okay?"

Max just nodded, his thoughts occupied with everything he could've done to prevent Liz from being separated from him and her best friends in the first place. Liz searched his face and knew that he was beating himself up. He was still her Max - blaming himself for something she had decided not to tell him.

"Anyway," Liz said, "the day of my attack I was feeling really jumpy - paranoid. All my feelings were running high and I just knew that something was about to happen and still I messed up. I had all these warning signs going off around me - I even felt weird when Tess stepped in and I've never trusted Tess anyway." Liz felt Max tense up at the mention of Tess.

"What are you saying?" Maria asked. "Was Tess involved in this somehow?"

"I'll get to that," Liz said and tucked a strand of hair that didn't exist behind her ear (everything that could be tucked behind her hair had already been done so). A classical sign that she was nervous and was getting agitated. "That night I had been at Maria's and I was heading home. Maria offered that I could stay the night - but it was as if some weird force dragged me out of that house even though every fiber of my being resisted. I had only walked a few meters when I met him and my dream started to repeat itself-"

"Oh my God," Maria whispered, putting up a hand in front of her mouth.

"Even though I tried to change what I said and by that hoping that I would change the whole chain of events, nothing was working. We always seemed to get back to the dream-conversation. If I tried something new it was as if the conversation took a detour only to return again. That's when I reached for Max-"

"Ehh..what?" Michael said, totally confused by the whole story Liz was telling them.

"You know, like I did when Max was in New York," Liz said.

"But that was with me," Isabel said.

"I've apparently become stronger," Liz said and shrugged. As she continued she kept her eyes glued on Max's face. Even though she lacked the connection she knew that it was really difficult for him to hear all this - to go through it again. She had to stay strong, for his sake.

"I told him where I was-"

"Wait. You told him?" Isabel interrupted. "But last time Max couldn't hear you."

"I guess I was strong enough to do that too," Liz said. "But it was really difficult and it took a lot of energy. I just wanted to tell him my whereabouts - and the most important things that he needed to know." Max knew what she was talking about. The fact that she had practically told him goodbye in her final words 'I love you'."

"The last thing I-I-I remember is..uhm...falling to th-th-the ground and...dying," a sob escaped her.

Max was at her side in a fraction of seconds, kneeling by her chair and taking one of her hands in both of his. Liz smiled at him gratefully.

"You don't have to tell us everything today," Max said.

Liz shook her head.
"No, I need to tell you this now," she said.

Max nodded in understanding. He focused on Liz and tried to pour love and support through the connection. But as before he only encountered the stone wall. Liz had felt his love and support - even though she didn't feel him through any connection. She saw as he slumped together, failure written over his countenance. Liz turned towards him and put her free hand on his cheek.

"Max...thank you," she said softly.

Max looked up at her surprised.

"How do you think that other couples help each other?" Liz asked, a smile grazing her features. "Even though I can't feel you through the connection I can still feel you. I don't need a connection for that."

Max smiled at her, his heart swelling from the words from this incredible woman.

"What about Tess?" Maria asked, trying to get Liz's attention before she lost herself in Max's eyes. Liz eyes left Max's face and drifted to hers.

"Tess was there that night...helping Nasedo," she answered.

"What?!" Isabel and Michael said in unison. Max was taking deep breaths, trying to subdue the anger. This was not the right place to lose it.

"Liz...Nasedo's dead," Isabel said. "He was killed by the skins, remember? And then when we tried to heal him with the healing stones he crumbled to dust."

"I don't know how it's possible," Liz said. "I just know that it was Nasedo there that night, trying to kill me."

"Why didn't he kill you?" Michael asked bluntly.

Maria shot him a deadly glare, and Michael hurried to explain himself.
"I mean..Nasedo can easily kill in a matter of seconds, why did he fail to kill you?"

Liz looked directly at him and Michael once again felt as if she was looking straight through him.

"I think he didn't want to kill me...The fact that I knew what was going to happen from my dream sort of ruined their plans," Liz answered.

"Then what did they want to do?" Max asked.

"I don't know," Liz said.

"Perhaps rape her," Michael said simply, turned towards Max.

Max flinched at the statement and took a tighter grip on Liz's hand.

"Why?" Liz asked, her voice thin.

"He was impersonating Max, right?" Michael said and continued as Liz nodded. "And when we found you-"

"Wait. You found me?" Liz asked confused.

"I guess that was a mindwarp that bitch made us believe," Maria said. "Max found you dead in the alley and later the coroner said that you had been raped before you was murdered. Perhaps Tess came up with that little fact just because it had been a part of the plan. That gerbil was never known for her imaginative skills."

Liz looked at Max and found tears pooling in his eyes. She reached over and put her arms around him. He clutched her to him tightly, as if trying to assure himself that she was really there.

"It's okay, Max. That didn't happen," Liz whispered.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," Max murmured repeatedly.

"No, Max," Liz hushed. "It wasn't your fault. Tess and Nasedo pulled a number on all of us."

"At least we can be happy that their plan didn't quite work out," Maria said.
Liz nodded against Max shoulder.

"But what happened later...when you woke up?" Michael asked. Liz reluctantly pulled away from Max. Everything was slowly catching up on Max. Everything that had happened the last couple of days, everything that had happened the last time he had seen Liz. Liz softly smothered the tears away from his cheeks and laced her fingers with his, squeezing his hand. Then she turned to Michael, ready to tell them all about what her life had been like since they were separated.

TBC...