You guys are just soo sweet!! Thank you so much for the feedback!!!

Cristine – Thank you for the offer about making me a banner. I was truly honored and I would've loved to have one made by you. But I actually already have one. Talena made me one, but I cannot show it here. This site doesn't allow that. Thank you anyway!! =D

Just to make something clear. This fic is AU (Alternate Universe). For those of you who doesn't know, it means that this story does not follow the show. When it's AU, either the whole background story is different or just some bits and pieces. In this, everything is different. There are no aliens. There was no shooting. Max and Liz don't know each other. They are completely human. All of them. I hope that cleared it up for those of you who might've been confused.

Thank you for reading!!

Chapter 3


When water evaporates off the face of the Earth, it ascends into the troposphere where it condenses back to water droplets. If the temperature is cold enough water droplets are formed and return to the Earth as rain.

Where there is rain, there are also clouds, which clutter the sky. The sun is covered and grayness spreads over the Earth, subduing life but bringing forward fragrances. The rain washes over the ground, ridding it of twigs, dirt and leaves. It wipes the surface clean.

It makes a clean slate.

On the day of the funeral the sun was shining brightly. The sky was bright blue and the birds were chirping. The world was full of life, taunting death. The sun was glaring at him, mocking his grieving. He wanted it to rain. He wanted to feel the rain pelt down around him, subduing his emotions. Subduing his thoughts. He wanted to feel the rain pelt down around him, the earth wailing in sorrow.

He could feel the weight of the others' eyes on him. The grayness of rain would've been able to protect him from the intensity of their pity. It would have been able to shield him from their sorrow. But the sun was still shining. The birds were still singing. Life hadn't stopped yet. It was continuing and he vaguely felt it pass him by.

Tess Kayla Evans
July 5, 1978
August 15, 2001

How could he stand here out in the sunshine while she was being lowered down in the damp and decayed soil? She had been making plans to take Josh to Disneyland. They had been planning to leave Josh at Isabel's and spend some time alone. Now she no longer existed.

Joshua Christopher Evans
February 10, 1999
August 14, 2001

He felt numb. His heart had been ripped from his chest. He wasn't really there anymore. He had stopped breathing the second his son had stopped breathing. His heart had stopped beating the second Tess' heart had stopped. Except it really never had. A part of Tess now lived on in another person. Her heart was still living and beating. But it wasn't beating for her son. It wasn't beating for him. It wasn't even beating for her. It was beating for a stranger.

He had tried to find peace with the fact that Tess' death gave someone else life, but he couldn't. How could he? Tess was still dead. She was still gone. Her breath was still gone. Her skin was still cold. Her body was still being lowered into the soil.

"Max, are you coming?"

He knew he was supposed to answer, but he couldn't. Nothing mattered to him anymore. He wanted the sun to stop shining and the rain to fall. He wanted to hold his wife and son in his arms. But he couldn't. Nothing mattered anymore.

"Take your time, honey."

He slowly closed his eyes. The sun was burning his eyelids and all he could do was stand there. Wait for the rain to begin falling. Wait for something that would drown his feelings. Wait for something that would make it worth taking his next breath.

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A week earlier

The first thing she heard as she started to wake up was the beating of her heart. She could feel it working inside of her. She could feel it living. She slowly opened her eyes.

"Liz?"

The second thing she noticed was the air that flowed into her lungs. It came so easily, so smoothly. As if it were no effort to breathe. No effort at all to pull oxygen into her air sacs.

"Nancy? I think she's awake."

"Lizzie, honey?"

Everything was muffled. It was like she had been lowered in a can of cotton, muffling all of the sounds around her. But even the bright light couldn't stop her from keeping her eyes open and let it rest on all the smiling faces around her.

"Hi honey."

Her mother came to stand beside her bed and she felt her take her hand. The anesthesia was slowly wearing off and feelings were beginning to spring to life within her.

Euphoria.

That was what she felt. A happiness greater than anything she'd ever felt before. She was still alive and she was breathing. She was thinking.

She squeezed her mother's hand in response.

"How are you feeling?"

Her best friend came into view and she wanted to smile. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to jump up and hug everyone. But she knew that she would have a lot of time for that later. A whole lifetime. Something she had never been able to promise herself before.

She tried to lift her arm to reach out for her, but something was keeping it on the bed.

"Those are the wrist restraints, baby," her father's voice told her, "You remember those, right?"

She remembered. Maria stepped up beside her mother and stroked a strand of hair away from Liz's forehead.

"You look beautiful, girlfriend," she smiled gently.

Liz could feel the drugs pulling on her again, prompting her to continue resting her body.

"Go back to sleep, pumpkin," she heard her mother say as her eyelids grew heavier, "We'll be here when you wake up."

Before she drifted back to a peaceful sleep she heard Maria's voice,

"Welcome back, Liz."

And they were the most beautiful words she'd ever heard.



TBC...