Many of the characters within this story, and the universe they inhabit, are the intellectual property of Jason Katims Productions.
Roswell: Re-Imagined
Written by Horatio Jaxx
Chapter 5: A Rash Decision
"Not the Crash-Down, Max," Michael complained with overly emphasized dread.
"Don't start, Michael," Max gently retaliated a second after they scooted between traffic and crossed the street. "You know I like the Crash-Down."
"No, you don't. You like Liz Parker," Michael corrected argumentatively.
"That's not why I come here," Max defended after stopping in front of the restaurant.
"Then why is it that the only time we come here is when Liz is working?" Michael challenged.
"It's Saturday, Michael," Max retorted in an exasperated tone. "Liz always works the weekends and the only time we have lunch together, outside of school is on the weekends. Besides, the food is good here," Max finished with finality.
Max turned and started for the front door. Michael took a second to shake his head in disbelief and began following behind.
"The food sucks," Michael mumbled under his breath while walking through the front entrance.
These luncheons between Max and Michael were regular occurrences. They both spent much of their time together when they were outside of their homes. They often explored the wilderness surrounding Roswell within a convenient distance. Michael, more so than Max and Isabel, was eager to find the rock formation that the three of them shared identical dreams about. The regularity of these outings put Max and Michael together during the lunch hour on most weekends. That was not entirely by happenstance. Both Max and Isabel would routinely find ways to incorporate Michael into their repasts. It was not uncommon for Michael to sup with them at their home during breakfast and/or lunch and/or dinner. From the perspective of Max and Isabel, Michael was as close to them as any brother could be. Their bond was nurtured and fortified by their telepathic connection. Given this mental kinship, it was only natural for Max and Isabel to find ways to rescue Michael from the hardships in his home.
"Here," Max quickly encouraged as he hurried over to a booth along the right wall that had just been vacated.
They both promptly sat down.
"Great, Liz's section," Michael sarcastically pointed out.
"It was open," Max quickly defended.
"Why don't we ever sit in that other girl's section?" Michael retaliated in a hushed tone.
"Who? Maria?" Max questioned with a surprised inflection. "I thought you didn't like her?"
"I don't," Michael emphatically insisted under his breath.
"Then what's your problem?" Max softly argued with astonishment.
"Forget it," Michael responded with exasperation.
By this time, the busboy had just arrived and began cleaning the remains of the last occupants from the table. A minute later the table was clean. Half a minute later, Liz Parker was standing at the end of their table.
"Hi, guys," Liz cheerfully greeted. "What can I get for you today?"
"Hi," Max responded softly and with a smile.
"Hi," Michael followed with a dismal inflection.
Liz paid no mind to Michael's somber persona. It was a common deportment of his and she was quite accustomed to it. Besides, she suspected that it was Max who brought him to the restaurant, and it was he who chose to sit in her section. She was flattered by Max's semi regular visits. But she chose not to lead him on by paying notice to them. In her usual fashion, Liz quickly took their orders while avoiding direct eye contact, and then set she off with a smile to submit them to the cook.
"I see Max is back," Maria jokingly commented to Liz as they waited in front of the cook's counter.
"So?" Liz challenged with a grin.
"So, flirt with him a little," Maria countered with a suggestive look.
"I can't do that," an astonished Liz blurted back in a hushed voice. "I'm dating Kyle."
"I'm not talking about a date," Maria playfully argued back. "Just motivate him a little."
"I'm not doing that, Maria," Liz responded with a grin as she walked away with a tray full of food.
A minute later, Liz came back to the cook's counter where Maria was still waiting.
"Hey, give the guy a bone. He's been in love with you since the sixth grade," Maria pleaded with a grin.
"I'm not listening to you, Maria," Liz returned in a singsong and with a wide smile.
"It's not like he isn't good looking," Maria continued to invoke under her breath. "Who knows? You might like him better than Kyle."
"I'm not listening to you," Liz continued to insist as she waited for another order to be completed.
Her hands then full, Maria set off to deliver her tray-load of food. That she did quickly and then went to two patrons who had just entered the restaurant and taken seats. She promptly took their orders and then went to another table where one of its occupants had been signaling her.
"Bill?" The large burly man with the mustache and beard requested with a word.
The other patron, a tall thin man, said nothing as she retrieved the bill for their combined meals and waited on the payment. Both men looked to be about fifty years of age by Maria's estimation. Their attire suggested to her that they were laborers of some sort. And their manners, up until then, were neither pleasant nor disagreeable. They appeared to be just another pair of patrons that she would soon forget ever existed.
Maria placed the bill, along with the payment from the two men, on the counter behind the cash register. She then went to the cook's counter and placed the new order that she had just taken onto the cook's ticket wheel. No sooner had she done that did she hear loud talking coming from the table of the two men she had just left. Liz, and all the other patrons, had taken notice of their sudden raised voices as well. Liz and Maria were not overly perturbed by that. They had seen patrons with loud disagreements in the restaurant before. Their initial concern was that they were making the other patrons feel ill at ease. The two quickly reduced their disagreement down to a hushed tone and the staring by the other patrons fell away almost as quickly.
Relieved that all was well again, Maria turned her attention towards the cash register and the payment she had just received. After ringing up the bill and making change for the payment, she started on her way back to table of the two boisterous men. Liz was, currently, standing by the soda fountain preparing drinks for Max and Michael. It was at that moment that the muzzled debate between the two men erupted into physical violence.
Maria was startled into inaction at the sight of the two men scuffling. She stopped where she was at the instant that it started and stared at the two men in shock. It was not until she heard someone yell gun that she noted the revolver that the two men were wrestling over. She backed away terrified as the weapon swayed back and forth in their struggle for its custody. Nearly everyone in the restaurant responded to the sight of the weapon by either running or ducking. Liz was the only person present that was caught flat footed when the weapon discharged.
Liz's attention was on the drinks she was preparing when the sound of the fight caught her attention. The small kiosk where the soda fountain was housed prevented her from seeing who was fighting who. Because her hands were holding two large glasses of soda and ice, she hesitated long enough to set the drinks down. She heard someone yell "gun" an instant before stepping out into the open. For a second, it seemed to her as if everyone within the restaurant were dispersing in a panic. It took her an instant more to separate out the two men struggling from the other patrons. Just as she did that there was a loud bang. A moment later, Liz realized that she was on the floor and looking up in a daze.
Max was bent low in his seat, as was Michael, when the weapon discharged. He could see that the two men were shocked by what they had done, and he watched them race out of the restaurant. He was still tracking their flight across the street when he heard Maria's yell.
"Liz!"
Max instantly turned about and looked in the direction where he had last seen Liz standing. With a sudden gasp of terror, he took in the sight of her lying still on the floor. Without hesitation he rushed into motion towards her. An instant later, he felt something snag him by the arm. With a scowl on his face, Max turned his attention back toward what was holding him and came face to face with Michael staring at him.
"What are you thinking, Max?"
"Let me go!" Max yelled as he wrenched his arm free.
Seconds later, Max was on his knees at Liz's side. He instantly noted the wound in her lower left abdomen. The blood that was pooling beside her seemed to be coming from beneath her body. Max suspected the bullet went through her and that she was bleeding out through the exit wound. Frantic to save her, Max quickly searched around him for something to stop the flow of blood that was quickly expanding into a pool on the floor.
"Get me some towels," Max barked over his shoulder at Maria.
Startled into motion, Maria raced behind the counter and procured a small stack of towels. She then raced back around the counter and stopped a foot away from Max and Liz. No sooner had she done that did Max reach up and grab the top towel. He quickly folded it into a small thick square. He then gently rolled Liz onto her right side and slid the towel directly beneath the exit wound. After laying Liz onto her back again, Max snatched a second towel out of Maria's hands and slowly pressed it against her wound with gradually increasing pressure. He noted her stir slightly from the act, but he suspected she was more unconscious than awake.
"Call for an ambulance," Max yelled behind him to anyone with the means to comply.
Maria quickly raced back around the counter and snatched up the receiver to the phone that was situated on the wall behind the cash register. Even as she was doing that, half a dozen patrons were already calling out to the Sheriff Department and paramedics. As that was happening, Max, in a state of agitation, lowered his head barely an inch away from Liz's face and squeezed his eyelids shut.
"What are you doing, Max?" Michael implored with a whisper.
Nearly in tears for fear of losing her, Max ignored Michael's query as he linked his mind with Liz.
"Max, you can't do that," Michael whispered as he hovered above him inches away.
Max continued to ignore Michael as he used his telepathy to blend his mind with Liz's. It took him only a few seconds to do that. The instant that he had mentally merged with her, Max began instructing Liz's body to heal itself.
"Max, think about what you're doing," Michael insisted again at a whisper.
Onlookers began to push around Michael to see what was happening. Even Maria was diverted from her urgent call by the sight of Max bending over Liz.
"Stay back," Michael ordered with a sudden extension of his arms.
The onlookers were surprised by the sudden command from Michael and moved back a step. Oblivious to that and everything else going on around him, Max continued to steer his mind to the task of repairing the damaged area of Liz's body. That was something he was not sure he could do, at least not to someone other than himself. He, Isabel and Michael had repaired numerous, minor injuries to themselves in the past, but they dared not try to do that to someone who was not like them. The prohibition existed because they knew the act involved linking their minds with that person and sharing with him or her their thoughts and secrets.
"What's happening? What's going on?" Jeff shouted as he raced into the restaurant dining area.
Jeff and Nancy Parker had been in their upstairs apartment when the gun was fired. They did not hear the fight at all, and the gunshot was at first mistaken for a noise from outside. It was only after the busboy, Fernando, had come up the stairs and started banging on their apartment door did they think to go downstairs into the restaurant. Little more than a minute had passed when Jeff and Nancy raced into the dining hall and found their daughter bleeding on the floor. Max moved back just enough to give them access to either side of Liz. He kept his right hand firmly atop the towel that was applying pressure to her wound.
"What happened?" Nancy pleaded as she cupped Liz's face between her hands.
"She was shot, Mrs. Parker," Maria yelled from behind the cash register. "The paramedics are coming."
The sounds of sirens approaching could be heard a dozen seconds before Maria made that announcement. Distraught with fear, Jeff and Nancy paid little notice to either. Both parents directed their attentions to whispering words of assurance to their semiconscious daughter. A little more than a minute later half a dozen uniformed Sheriff Deputies poured into the restaurant. A couple of minutes behind them, the paramedics arrived. A dozen minutes later, Liz, unconscious but stable, was wheeled out of the restaurant, loaded into a paramedic's vehicle and raced off to Roswell Regional Hospital. Jeff and Nancy Parker followed immediately behind in their vehicle. Max, Michael and Maria remained inside the Crash- Down Café, at the request of the Chaves County Sheriff Department.