Hi everyone!

Thank you *so much* for the feedback!! It's highly valued!

And chosen-gurli; No, this story only resembles the movie "Return to Me" in the basic plot idea. Actually, I haven't even seen the movie, so it would be weird if I managed to make my story the same as the movie lol

Finally, the inspiration on this story is flooding, so the updates will be a little more frequent. Enjoy!

Chapter 15


"I'll get that," Max said and Isabel watched him disappear into the bedroom.
"Okay…" she said slowly. She continued to pick up Michelle's toys from the floor, her mind miles away.
"Here," Max put down the Lucy doll on the kitchen table, "Something else?"
Isabel's eyes narrowed as she took in Max fidgeting behavior, how he was practically jumping with restlessness.
Isabel put the doll in the bag and zipped it up.
"I'll get Michelle," Max volunteered.
"Hang on for a sec," Isabel said.
Max stopped and judging from his expression he knew that he had been caught.
Isabel looked at him seriously. "What's going on?"
Max's eyebrows rose in innocence. "Nothing's going on, Isabel. What makes you think that?"
"Eh… Well, I guess that smile is a total give away," Isabel answered, watching the nervous half-smile that had formed on Max's lips slowly disappearing again. "Has something happened?"
Max shook his head. "No, nothing has happened."
"Everything went okay with Michelle?"
"Yes, she was an angel. As always."
"Okay," Isabel said slowly, looking at him more closely. There was something different about him.

"You should get home. Michelle should be put to bed."
Max was already turning towards the living room again to get the sleeping Michelle from the couch, when Isabel's question stopped him.
"Why are you so eager to get us out of here? What are you going to do?"
Max turned around slowly. "I'm not trying to get you out of here."
Isabel's eyebrows rose in disbelief. "Really?"
"Michelle should really go home to her own bed," Max tried.
Isabel shook her head with a smile on her lips. They both knew that it didn't harm Michelle to sleep on a couch. Isabel tried another tactic. "What were you two up to today?"
"Hide and seek, which is totally useless, because she is so small that she can hide anywhere," Max murmured.
Isabel chuckled. Knowing her brother, he didn't like that game because he would get so worried every time he couldn't find Michelle.
"Then she played on her own for a while and I told her a story."
"Sounds like you had a great time," Isabel said, sitting down on the end of the couch, gently removing a blond strand of hair away from her daughter's cheek. "You know, she names all her princesses and Barbie dolls Liz now."
Max froze. When he didn't say anything, Isabel looked up and saw the mixed emotions on her brother's face. Bingo.

"Have you talked to her lately?" Isabel asked.
"Who?" Max asked evasively.
"Liz Parker," Isabel answered.
"I just met her two days ago," Max answered.
Isabel raised her eyebrow in question. As if Max meeting Liz two days ago was going to stop him from calling her again in that short time if he had the chance. Another woman wouldn't have interested him much, but there was something different about Liz. They had all seen it. How Max looked at her and the way Liz looked back.
"Do you have her number?"
"Maria gave it to me," Max answered.
Isabel smiled. "Right, Maria. I knew that I could count on her."
Max frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, nothing," Isabel answered with an innocent smile. She stroke a few strands away from Michelle's forehead, before leaning forward and placing a kiss there. She could feel Max's eyes on her. She could feel the questions hanging in the air. She knew that he wanted to talk to her about something. She just had to wait him out. She wasn't disappointed.
"I called her this afternoon."
Isabel looked at him, hiding her surprise. "You did?"
Max sighed and sat down on the armrest of the armchair. "Yeah."
Isabel was confused by his weary sigh. He didn't sound that happy at the memory. "So, what did she say?"

The soft smile that she had expected on his face earlier started to take form. "Everything she said was great…"
"But…?"
"It's what she didn't say that concerns me."
Isabel frowned. "What do you mean?"
"When the car broke down, it was raining and she got wet-"
Isabel held up her hands in a typical stopping motion. "Wait, wait. Your car broke down?"
"Yeah," Max answered, "When I was driving her home the other night."
Isabel nodded, but didn't say anything.
"She tried to help me and she stepped out of the car, getting all wet. When we were in the taxi to her house, she fell asleep and I just… I just…"
"You got worried," Isabel filled in for him.
Max dropped his eyes. "I had this feeling…" He met Isabel's eyes. "It scared me. Just the thought of her getting something as small as a cold scared me."
Isabel nodded in understanding, while she was both awed and frightened with what she was reading between the lines of what Max what telling her. The obvious attachment Max had already formed to Liz was so real in everything Max did when he talked about her.
"I'm sure she's just fine," Isabel assured him.
"That's what she told me," Max said.
"Then there's nothing to-"
"But it sounded like she had a cold. Her voice sounded different. She sounded tired."
Isabel rose from her position on the couch and stepped up to Max, looking down at him with worry in her eyes and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Max, I'm sure it was nothing. She probably just had a rough day."
Max looked up at his sister, his eyes not really seeing her as his thoughts wandered aimlessly in his head. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs from his mind and took a deep breath. "You're right. I'm being ridiculous. I shouldn't worry that much."
Isabel smiled. "No, you shouldn't. But it's who you are, Max, and you can't run away from that."
Max looked at Michelle's sleeping form on the couch and nodded absently. "Maybe we should get that little lady in bed."
Isabel's gaze lingered on him a moment before turning to look at her daughter. "Yes."
But Isabel's thoughts would stay with Max for a long time afterwards.

-----------------------------------------



Three days later

"I get it! I get it!"
Michelle's voice was gradually hushed as she disappeared into the kitchen to answer the phone. Isabel straightened the bed cover and turned to walk into the kitchen, wondering who was on the phone. "Who is it, baby?"
Blonde pigtails twirled in the air as Michelle turned her head towards her mother's voice. "It's Michwael."
Michelle handed over the receiver to Isabel. "Michael, hi."
"Oh, hi Iz," came the surprised answer. "Where did Michelle go?"
Isabel smiled and ruffled her daughter's hair lightly, careful not to destroy the hairdo. "She probably just forgot to say goodbye."
She could hear the mutual smile in his voice as he answered, "Okay. Isabel, I need to talk to you about something."
Isabel frowned at the sudden shift in tone in Michael's voice and sensing that it was something serious she turned to Michelle and told her to go to her room and play.
"Michael, what is it? Is everything okay?"
Michael laughed lightly. "You know, Iz, you always say that Max is worrying too much, but you are pretty good at it yourself."
"Michael," Isabel warned, "I can hear that something is wrong. Has something happened? Is it Maria? Did you guys have a fight?"
"Everything's okay," Michael assured.
"How are things between you and Maria by the way?" It just struck her that she hadn't had the time to investigate further on the newly blossoming relationship between Michael and Maria. There had been so many other things happening. Max being at the top of that list. Him taking pills, becoming more like a stranger to her. Meeting Liz. It had been a rough couple of days.
"Good, good," Michael said quickly. "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."
Isabel suppressed a smile. It was so typical Michael not to give any details about his love life. He never had, and she wondered if he ever would.
"What is it?"
"Max."
That one syllable caused her spine to straighten and her hand to tighten around the receiver. "What about Max?"
"Well…"


"To be more precise, it's about Liz…"

"Liz? Is that you?"
"Max? Hi!"
Liz's face lightened up as she looked into those amber eyes, which had been visiting her nightly dreams.

"What's going on, Michael? Talk to me."
"I'm not so sure I should tell you this, but I've been thinking about it a lot and I have to talk to someone about it…"
"Michael, what is it?"

"What are you doing here?" they spoke in unison. A fresh tint of red spread over their cheeks and Liz ducked her head slightly, a smile teasing the corners of her mouth.
"You go first."
Her eyes lifted at his soft offer and got trapped in his eyes. The tingle in her chest intensified, she could feel her cheeks getting hotter, but her eyes never left his. She didn't want to.

"Liz has a heart condition."

"I…I…" And then reality sneaked back into her mind, making her look over her shoulder at the building towering up behind her. The hospital. The happiness at seeing him again was quickly being replaced with fear. Fear that he would realize why she was standing outside a hospital. Her mind was immediately put into high gear. She never analyzed about why she decided to lie to him. She just did.
"I just got some pills for my mother. She has…uhm…migraine."

"What…"
"She had a heart transplant, Izzie. She was really sick. According to Maria, she nearly died."
"Oh my God…"

"That's too bad." The concern flashed in his eyes and the truth about what it meant hit Liz hard. If he had the ability to be concerned about someone he hadn't even met, what would he feel if he found out the truth about her? It made her even more determined not to let him know. She didn't want to burden him with it. Rigidly, she denied the sting of pain she felt in her heart to have to lie to him about such a big part of her life. Something that had formed her into the person she was today.
"Yeah," Liz nodded, feeling nausea rising in her throat. She forced herself to smile in an effort to suppress her bad conscious. "What are you doing here?"
He was looking at her so intently that she could feel the heat rise in her cheeks. She throat was dry and she tried to swallow.

"It's just so bizarre. Tess' heart is in someone like Liz. Liz is a living proof of what Tess' heart meant for someone."
"Michael, stop that please."
"And now Max is seeing someone like-"
"He isn't seeing her, Michael."
"Didn't you see how they were acting around each other? If they aren't seeing each other yet, they will be soon."

"Max?"
He jumped and his eyes regained focus. "Oh, so-sorry. What did you say?"
She couldn't help but laugh at this. "What are you doing here?"
"Teacher's conference," he gave her a goofy grin and she shook her head, the smile on her face getting wider and the bad feelings were pushed further away from her mind.
She raised an eye-brow. "Really? Where's the rest of the group?"
"Oh, they are in there," Max pointed at the café further down the street.
"Shouldn't you be with them too?"
Max answered her with a guilty half-smile. "I needed a break."

"We have to do something."
"That's what I thought. What should we do?"
"I don't know… We just… This isn't going to work out well, Michael. He can't be with someone unhealthy. What if she… God, Michael, what if she dies?"
"No… I don't think so. After the transplant she is supposed to be able to lead the same life as a healthy person. At least that's what Maria told me."
"He's gonna worry…"
"But then there was on the other hand this thing with the…uhm…"
"What thing?"

"Aha," Liz nodded in understanding, a twinkle of laughter in her eyes.
She watched the sun play in the dark curls of his hair, casting playful shadows over his beautiful face, and watched the way he shifted restlessly from one foot to the other. As if he were nervous.
"I was actually planning on getting something to eat," Max said, his eyes moving from a place over her head to a tree on his right. "You wanna…" He cleared his throat. "You want to join me?"
Liz felt her heart jolt at this and she smiled. Her voice was soft, warmed by subdued joy, when she answered, "I'd like that."
He looked surprised and she was transfixed by his eyes as they twinkled with something new, making his eyes shift into different shades of amber and dark gold. "Yeah?"
"Yes," she confirmed.

"Atrial fib…"
"Atrial fibrillation?"
"That's it. She was in the hospital."
"Oh my…When was this?"
"Uhm… The day after she joined us at dinner."
"Max was right."
"What?"
"He talked to Liz on the phone and he thought that she sounded tired. That something was off. Michael, we have to stop this. This will kill Max. He cannot survive this again. He is too weak."
"Wait, Iz. Maybe…maybe we shouldn't butt in-"
"Michael, you remember how he was the first months after Tess' death. He still hasn't recuperated. He is still suffering. I think he's even getting worse. He's taking pills, Michael."
"What kind of pills?"
"Sleeping pills."
"A lot of people take sleeping pills."
"He's taking too many."
"Okay… So what you're saying is that we have to stop Max from ever meeting Liz again?"
"Yes."
"Preventing him from ever falling in love again?"
"That's not what I'm saying. I want him to fall in love again. He shouldn't be doomed to spend the rest of his life alone."
"Then what are you saying?"
"I just don't want him to fall in love with Liz."
"What if Liz is what he needs?"
"Michael, I'm not doing this to be mean. I'm doing this for him. I miss my brother. I can't stand by and watch him die. He can still fall in love. Liz doesn't have to be his big love."
There was hesitation in the silence before Michael spoke. Because he had seen Max and Liz together and what he had seen spoke a different truth than what Isabel was saying. He was certain that Isabel had seen it too. But it all came down to the sanity of his best friend. And complications were probably the last thing Max needed right now. It was, however, with some reluctance that Michael replied, "Okay.


The young woman basked in the feeling of the warm sun on her face as she walked along the sidewalk. It was a beautiful day and her mind was already swimming with thoughts about how she should spend the day. Her eyes moved between the shopping windows, absent-mindedly drifting over the products being displayed. Her steps faltered when her eyes fell onto the couple at the other side of a window, sitting in the café she was just passing. A warm smile spread over her face and the feeling of joyful freedom deepened. She watched the woman laugh and fumble with the napkin on the table, her dark long hair spilling down her tanned shoulders. Her eyes fell on the handsome man sitting opposite the woman. Her pace slowed another degree when she watched how he was looking at her. With awe. She had never seen a man look at a woman like that before. Like he was feeling blessed just to be in her presence.

The young woman pushed a red strand of hair out of her eye and smiled to herself as her pace quickened again. But the couple remained in her thoughts for some while. Ah, to be in love on a day like this.

TBC…