Two Sides of the Coin
Rating: Teen/Mature
Part Seven
Liz hurriedly through some cash on the table, grabbed her belongings, and ran. She couldn't believe that had just happened. Her powers hadn't reared up like that since Tess showed up back in Roswell. But even then, she had been in control of them. She'd wanted to hurt Tess, and she had. This time, she'd had no control at all. This time it had been like when she first started developing her powers. Every time she was around Max, they flared up.
Max, Liz thought to herself. I called Zan by Max's name. She felt badly about that. She knew logically that Zan wasn't Max. It was just the flare up of her powers that brought back all those memories of her power flare-ups around Max. Calling him Max was just a slip up, an honest mistake.
She turned and looked back toward the coffee shop and saw Zan through the plate glass window. Even from this distance, she could see the slump of his shoulders, and she could practically feel his hurt from where she stood. With a sigh, she turned and headed back toward the coffee shop.
Liz stood outside the door, trying to catch Zan's eye. She didn't want to go back inside and draw attention to herself, especially after that flamboyant demonstration of her powers. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting in the cold air, Zan finally left the restaurant, and breezed past her like she wasn't there.
"Wait!" Liz called, running to catch up with him. "Come on, wait a second. I just wanted to say 'I'm sorry,'" she yelled.
Her words had the desired effect, and Zan pulled up short, causing her to careen into his back.
"What?" he said to her, his voice as cold as the air around them.
"Look, I'm sorry, I know you're not Max. I didn't mean to call you that, it just slipped out. It's just that, well, you made me so mad," Liz explained. "And my powers, well, let's just say that the only time the went all wonky like that was when Max was around. I just reacted. I didn't think, but really, I know you're not him. I do."
"Great, you said your piece, now leave me alone," Zan said, still hurt.
"What?" Liz asked in apparent shock. "You follow me halfway across the country, dogging my every move. You refuse to leave me alone, no matter how many times that I ask you too, and now, when your precious feelings get just the littlest bit hurt, you tell me to leave you alone? Well, fine, I will, and I'd better not see you around me, ever again – Zan," Liz shouted, throwing the name in as a final parting shot.
Her eyes filled with tears, Liz stepped blindly off of the sidewalk, unaware that the traffic light had just turned red. A horn blared, alerting her to danger, but she froze like a deer in the headlights, unable to move. In that passing moment, time seemed to slow to a snail's pace.
This is it, she thought to herself. This is how it's going to end. Not a bullet, not the Special Unit, just an ordinary traffic accident. Maybe it will be worth it. I'll get to be with Max again.
A hand grabbed her from out of nowhere, yanking her forcefully back to the curb. She let out a most un-Liz like expletive as she fell backwards onto the sidewalk.
"Th-thank you," she said. She turned to face her rescuer, and the rest of her thanks stuck in her throat when she looked up into the cold brown eyes of Zan. She'd never one thought of brown eyes as being cold or hard, but there wasn't any way to describe Zan's eyes right now. At least not when he was looking at her.
"Sorry to bother you," she muttered. "You should have just let me get hit."
"I couldn't," Zan said, his voice ripe with disgust. "I made a promise to protect you."
"Look, we've already decided I know who you are, and you know who I am, so you can stop pretending to be one of their protectors. I know you're not."
"You're right, I'm not," Zan said, agreeing with her. "I'm not one of their protectors. I'm your protector."
"What? That doesn't make any sense," Liz said.
"This is obviously going to take a lot of explaining," said Zan. "And I'd rather not do it here, standin in the middle of a cold sidewalk. Could we please go some place warm and get something to eat. I'm starvin'."
Liz agreed, and Zan shouldered her bag before taking her by the elbow and escorting her down the crowded sidewalk. To Liz, tired from her sleepless night on the bus, and sore from both the bus accident as well as her own near encounter, the walk seemed interminable. She sighed with relief when Zan led her into a well-known chain restaurant.
"Here?" she asked. "Wouldn't some place quieter be better?"
"We're less likely to be overheard in a place like this," Zan said.
Liz looked around at the crowded eatery and realized Zan was right. The din was so loud; it was impossible to pick out any individual conversation. She smiled, amazed at his forethought. She didn't know why, maybe it was the image she had in her mind of Rath and Lonnie, but she didn't credit them with much in the way of higher level thinking skills. Zan was proving to be the exception to the duplicate rule.
"We can seat you now," the hostess said, and Liz followed her through the crowded restaurant to a small booth, while Zan brought up the rear, still carrying her bag. Liz waited until they gave their beverage orders to the waitress, and she was out of earshot before saying, "Okay, spill."
"You're not much into beating around the bush, are you?" said Zan.
"No, I don't have the time or the inclination to play games," said Liz. "But you seem to be all about games. Well the ball's in your court, either tell me what you have say, or I'm leaving."
"I said I'd tell you," said Zan. "Jesus, you have gotten really cold, Liz."
"You don't know me," said Liz. "You don't know who I am, or what I'm like, so where do you get off saying I'm cold? I don't need this crap you know."
"Liz, I've been watching you since around the time Isabel killed that skin."
"You – you have?" Liz asked. She was surprised, but not surprised. It was almost as if on some level she knew that it was true. She paused and smiled when the waitress placed a steaming cup of coffee on the table in front of her and waited for Zan to resume his story.
"I saw everything, Liz," he said, after he took a sip of coffee. "Everything."
"Define everything," Liz said softly.
"I saw your visitor from the future, I was there when Max healed all those kids in the cancer ward, I know what Tess did, and I was there when Max died," Zan said in a rush.