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Without further ado...

Chapter 24

Liz closed the door to her bedroom and paused - relishing in the silence. Max was in the living room, talking to Kira. She had left, not being able to hear the hurt and hopelessness in Max's voice. She needed time alone, time to think. She had been through so much since Max had decided to make an entrance into her life almost two days ago and she hadn't even had any time to process it all. She realized that she had not really lived any of all those days. She had been so confused. She had tried to pretend like nothing, accept that she didn't know her righteous part in this world and that she had to move on and go about her life like any other human being would do.

Of course, that was nearly impossible. She was constantly reminded about her lack of memories, as someone mentioned a city and she had no clue where that city was located, or someone mentioned a name and she had no idea that that person had been a president or a famous actress. She had never really been able to accept the fact that she had a child - a beautiful daughter - but no idea who her daddy was, what he looked like, where he lived or what his name was. Now that the memory had returned to her, many things fell in place that had puzzled her earlier.

Like the unexplained phenomena her daughter used to accomplish. Liz remembered one particular event with Emma's teddy bear, as Emma had been only four months old. Liz had bought Emma a pink teddy bear, and had placed it in Emma's crib. The next day, the bear had been blue. Liz had discarded the whole thing as temporary insanity on her part - maybe the bear had been blue. But she had never quite been able to forget about it. It was one of those events that had been piled at a place at the back of her mind. Just like when she was giving birth to Emma. She had felt a surge of energy go through her, supporting her throughout the last stages of birth. Now she knew that it had been Max...

"Oh my God," she gasped and flung the bedroom door open, rushing into the living room.

"Max!" she cried.

Max spun around and looked at her, a flicker of fear passing over his face. So much bad had happened in the last couple of hours that he expected the worst as he saw her agitated face expression. But then he saw a small sparkle of...hope in her eyes.

"Liz...?" he said, almost timidly.

"Max, remember the day when I was giving birth?" Liz asked, her voice masked with excitement.

Max looked at her, wondering if she was finally losing it.

"Liz...I wasn't with you," he said carefully.

"No, no, I know," Liz said, the words pouring out of her. "Do you remember when I gave birth to Emma?"

Max tried to figure out what she meant. He had a feeling Liz was onto something important.

"You mean- you mean - Yes! I could feel you..." Max said, the realization dawning on him as he too started to get infected with Liz's excitement.

"You could feel her?" Kira asked. "Wasn't this after the connection was blocked?"

Liz nodded excitedly, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"I could feel your pain and your contractions," Max said, but then slowed down as doubt tried to crawl its way back into his mind. "But perhaps that was only because-"

"No Max!" Liz said. "I could feel you!"

"You could?" Max asked slowly, it all starting to sink in.

"You could?" Kira echoed.

"At the last stages of birth...when things were the worst, I could feel you - sending your energy to me through the connection. When I come to think of it, I had probably not been able to live through the birth if you hadn't reached out for me. I was already so sick. I had no strength left."


Max pulled her flush against his body and put his strong arms around her waist. He knew that she wasn't aware of the magnitude her words had on him. She truly was incredible. She had succeeded in lessening his bad conscience - removing some of his demons - and she probably wasn't even aware of it.

"This is good, right?" Max asked Kira, not letting go off Liz.

Kira wasn't sure if this changed anything, but he had experienced enough of Max's misery the last couple of hours to know not to intentionally give him bad news when it came to Liz.

"Well, this does mean that the connection can be opened again. But we don't know if it was only an one-time occasion."

"But there's a possibility that we can restore the connection?" Liz asked.

"Yes," Kira said. He was not at all convinced, but neither Max nor Liz noted. They were too happy to pay any greater attention to what was transpiring around them.

"Maybe we just haven't found the right method to open the connection yet," Max said.

"But why was the connection blocked again after the birth?" Kira said to himself.

Max released Liz and his happy appearance faltered a bit. Liz looked up at him, took his hand and gave it an reassuring squeeze. Max smiled gratefully at her. This was perhaps their last thread of hope and Liz could not let that be crushed so easily.

"I had no memory," Liz said calmly. "If I had known I had fought with everything I had to keep the connection open. But I didn't even know about the connection. How can I keep something open that I didn't even knew existed?"

"It was easier for you to fall back to having the connection blocked as that was the state your mind recognized in its state of amnesia," Kira said, contemplating Liz's words.

Liz nodded. The sound of the ringing of a cell phone ripped through the air. Max jerked his head up at the sound.

"That's yours," Kira informed, as he made no inclination as to answer.

Max looked slightly surprised, and then he hauled up the cell phone from his pocket. He looked at the telephone number on the display before he pressed the connect-button.

"Hi Alex!" Max said and had to smile as interest flared up in Liz's eyes.

Max was quiet for some time as he listened to Alex at the other end of the line.

"That's good, Alex," Max said, trying to keep himself from not grinning at Liz's miserable efforts at hiding her craving to talk to Alex. She was trying her best to pretend to not seem interested at all in what Max was doing.

Alex was just as bad at hiding the real purpose of him calling. Alex was highly conscious of the fact that Max had found Liz and that Max right now was in the very same room as the best friend he had known almost everything single detail about a couple of years ago. The third member of the former Three Musketeers. And now he had to pretend that he had only called to update Max on the situation home in Roswell.

"Alex, hold on for a sec, would ya?" Max asked.

"Uhm..okay," Alex said.

Max lowered the phone, holding a hand over the speaker.

"Liz...," Max said.

"Yes," Liz said, trying her best to sound casual.

"There's someone here that would like to speak to you," Max said, smiling.

"Okay," Liz whispered, not even attempting to hide the tremble in her voice, revealing her nervousness.

Max kissed her gently on the forehead and gave her upper arm a light squeeze, before putting the phone to her ear. Liz shakily put her hand over his on the phone and they both registered the small electrical tingle at the touch before Max withdrew his hand.

"I'll be in the kitchen," Max whispered.

Liz nodded weakly and watched as Max disappeared into the kitchen. She drew a shaky breath.

"Hi Alex," she said into the speaker. Her voice was low but stable, considering the turmoil that was going on inside of her.

"Liz...?" she heard that familiar voice, that she had longed to hear ever since she retrieved her memory, say. "Is that really you?"

"Yeah," Liz said.

"God, Liz... I can't believe it. I thought you were dead," Alex said.

"Well, in some ways you can say that I was," Liz said.

"Yeah, Isabel told me that you had amnesia," Alex said. There was a pause.

"God Liz, I have so many questions - I don't even know where to begin. There's so much I wanna know. Isabel has told me a little...but.. so...How are you? Eh...I mean, how have you been?"

Liz couldn't help but smile at his stuttering, her nervousness gradually sliding off her as she realized that Alex was just as nervous. She grew calmer as his familiar voice enveloped her.

"As good as could be expected," Liz said.

"Right," Alex said in disbelief and Liz could by the sound of his voice tell that he was smiling.

"I've heard that you were sick."

"Well, yeah...," Liz said evasively.

"Someone also informed me that you're eligible to take part in leading the car-pooling to school now," Alex said, his voice affectionate.

Liz's face shone up at the thought of her beautiful daughter.

"Yeah," she breathed.

"I heard she's as beautiful as her mother," Alex said and Liz blushed.

"She's wonderful," Liz said proudly. "I don't think I would have survived if it wasn't for her. I would have given up a long time ago."

"I can't wait to meet her," Alex said, "and thank her."

Liz smiled, tears stinging her eyes.

"I've missed you, Liz," Alex said.

"I miss you too," Liz said.

"Are you coming home to Roswell?" Alex asked.

Liz hesitated. She hadn't really thought about the future yet - a couple of minutes ago she hadn't thought she even had a future. Was she going back to Roswell? She figured her parents still lived there. She missed her parents so much. She had to meet everyone. But to everyone in Roswell she was dead. How was she going to explain a sudden coming back from the dead? However, it had not been her choice to leave, and she wanted back. But was she ready? She wanted to, but so much had happened and she was afraid that she was getting overloaded - overwhelmed by all her emotions.

"I don't know," Liz answered. "Of course I'm coming back....but there are some practical things to take care of. I have work here and Emma has friends at day care. I need a little more time."

"Of course you do," Alex said. "I completely understand that. But isn't Max and the others going back tomorrow?"

A blur of emotions bubbled up inside of her. Just the thought of being apart from Max anymore made her feel so many things. The most distinct feeling being fear.
"You know, it's Monday tomorrow and we all attend the university," Alex said, a little worried by Liz's silence.


"Of course," Liz thought. "What did you think, Liz? That they were just hanging around doing nothing day after day. They all have their own lives!" She realized that she knew nothing of how Max's life was like now.

"Liz?" Alex said, bringing Liz back to reality.

"Honestly, Alex. I haven't talked to them about it yet - but I guess they're all returning back tomorrow."

"Well, I'm not so sure Max will leave your side anytime soon," Alex said. "We'll have to chain him to a wall and throw away the key to keep him away from you. And even then I'm not so sure it would stop him - alien powers or not."

Liz smiled.
"I can understand that, because I feel the same way," Liz said.

"We'll meet each other sooner or later, Liz," Alex promised. "Nothing can keep me away either - it's some kind of power you have on us Liz Parker!"

Liz giggled. She had only spoken to Alex for approximately ten minutes and already she felt like a teenager again, discussing every thing between heaven and Earth (and even beyond Earth) with one of her very oldest best friends.

"Thank you, Alex," Liz said.

"For what?" Alex asked, confused.

"Just...thank you...for being you," Liz said.

"Welcome back, Liz," Alex said, the smile once again evident in his voice.

"I love you, Alex," Liz said.

"Love you too, girlfriend," Alex said. "Talk later, huh?"

"Try stopping me," Liz said, smiling.

"Bye, Liz," Alex said, reluctant to hang up.

"Bye, Alex," Liz said and slowly lowered the phone from her ear and pressed the disconnect-button. She just stood there for a while, listening to the voices coming from the kitchen. Familiar voices - voices of her family. She became aware of the smell that had started to fill every corner of the living room. Her stomach rumbled. For the first time in nearly six years she did not feel nauseous in any way and the rich smell of home made food awoke a welcomed and much longed-for feeling of hunger within her, and with a content smile grazing her lips she made her way to the kitchen.

***

"Something's up," Tess said in the phone.

"What?"

"Max left Roswell two days ago, taking Isabel, Maria and Michael with him - and they haven't been back yet."

"What?!! Why didn't you go with them?!"

"I-I-I didn't know they were going to leave. They never told me!"

"Of course they didn't tell you! They don't trust you!"

"Yes, they do!!" Tess whined.

"I'm tired of playing games, Tess. You blew it a long time ago and I let you continue anyway because you're our only direct link to them! But that's a mistake I won't make again."

"Don't talk to me th-"

"Shut up, Tess! You will still be monitoring them, but you will not do anything. Do you hear me?! You don't even breathe wrong without my permission! If you screw this up - anymore than you already have - I will personally see through it that you'll be eliminated."

Nasedo slammed the receiver down. He had heard some disturbing rumors from his allies back on Antar that an heir to the throne had been born - an heir to Max. The pressure on him was huge. If he was to do one thing incorrectly they probably would have him executed and have his head served as an offer to Khivar on a silver plate.

TBC...