Magali and Juxi – thank you so much for your feedback!!
This is the last installment of this story. I realize that there are still some questions left unanswered and I am considering writing a story portraying this event from Max's perspective. But the jury is still out on that one…
Everyone; thank you for reading, for leaving comments and for all your support.
Six
She's asleep when he enters the room, the exhaustion of the last couple of days taking its toll. He bends down to remove his shoes and softly moves across the floor. He looks down at her sleeping face and his chest constricts. She looks like an angel. Her face is so peaceful that he doesn't want to wake her. But she has already sensed his presence and her eyes open.
"Hey," she whispers groggily.
"Hey," he whispers back, and kneels next to the bed, bringing his face level with hers. Against his better judgement, his hand moves to brush the hair away from her forehead.
"How are you?" Liz asks.
His smile is bittersweet. "I thought that was my question."
"I know I'm asking a lot-"
He puts his finger to her lips, silencing her. "This is the least I can do."
Her breath catches and she's not sure if she's happy or not. "You're doing it?"
He leans forward and kisses her forehead. "Yes."
"Thank you," she says softly.
Max looks into her eyes and realizes at that moment that she forgives him for everything. Every hurtful word, every fight, each and every one of his missteps. Ironically, she forgives him when he is about to be erased from her memory.
She leans in, captures his lips, and their eyes drift close at the contact. Familiar sparks spread throughout their bodies. She's not really aware of Max climbing up on the bed, covering her body with his as his lips continue their assault on hers. She suppresses a moan as he kisses down her neck, tracing her collarbone and her back arches against him as his hand crawls under her shirt and closes around her breast. "Max…"
He pulls back and she meets his eyes, realizing that he thinks he crossed the line.
She shakes her head at him. "Don't stop. Please, don't stop."
He answers her plea by slowly, tantalizingly, opening one button at the time of her pyjama shirt. He halts for a second and looks at her face. "You're so beautiful."
She brings her hand up to touch his cheek. "So are you."
He laughs, heart-brokenly, and moves his hands to the bottom of her shirt, sliding them under the material and as his hands, palms flat against her skin, move upwards they push the shirt open, revealing her stomach and breasts. He's crying as he leans down to gently kiss the soft mould of her breast.
"So beautiful," he says brokenly. He's tugging at her resolve and she is close to giving in. They can work it out, right? She doesn't have to move away. They can heal, even with the memories. Right?
His movements come to a halt and she angles her head to look at the top of his head. He looks at her stomach and slowly brushes his hand over the tanned skin, causing her to gasp, because a white light is being emitted from his hand and it's tickling her nerve endings in the most pleasurable way. His movement has revealed the handprint on her stomach. The only physical proof of her healing. She hasn't seen it since the days just after the incidence and she realizes that she has missed it. Missed having a visible sign of the wonder that is Max Evans.
"Will it show?" Liz wonders.
Max looks up at her and his eyes are trained on her as he kisses the handprint and it vanishes beneath his lips. "No…"
It occurs to her that he has already begun the erasing process and a tear slides out of the corner of her eye. He moves up her body and catches her lips, kissing her with an adoration she thought had died long ago. She is starting to regret her decision. "Max, maybe…"
But his mouth muffles her protests and she realizes that there's no going back now. Max has decided that she needs her freedom and he wants her to have it. He wants her to be able to lead a normal life. Knowing that this is the end, she pushes upwards, pushing Max onto his back. She moves to straddle his waist and smiles at the look of wonder on his face. Returning the favor, she gladly shoulders the task of removing his sweater. He lifts his head off the pillow to facilitate the removal and she discards it on the floor next to the bed.
"It's been a while," she says in awe as her fingers trace the surface of his well-defined chest, the muscles hard to her touch, remembering that night at Michael's apartment when they had been trying to obtain 'clues'. She can feel the muscles ripple under her fingers, something that fascinates her to no end. He watches every expression flutter across her face and there are many of them as she explores his chest.
Her hair falls down around her face, tickling his skin when she bends down to graze the bronzed surface with her lips. He groans when her tongue encircles his nipple and he buries his hand in her hair. She takes her time to worship his chest, before traveling lower, following the only hair present on his otherwise hairless chest, where the strip disappears into his pants, hidden from her view.
Glancing up at him and finding him watching her intently, she begins to unbutton his jeans and pulls down the zipper. He helps slide the pants down his legs by sequentially lifting his lower body off the bed. Her eyes unhindered travel to the place that is still covered by his boxers and she can't help but be fascinated by the masked bulge. This is new territory for her, but surprisingly she isn't afraid. Since thoughts of sex first entered her mind as a sixth grader, Max has always been the natural choice. She has always envisioned herself losing her virginity to Max.
"Liz," he calls softly and she meets his eyes. He smiles at her gently, probably fearing that she will be nervous, not knowing what to do. She slides up his body and he grimaces with pleasure.
"You're so warm," she says as she melts her naked chest with his.
"All because of you," he says.
"And you're such a smooth talker," she adds.
She can see the effort he makes to smile but her attempt at joking only reminds him of how he has to give her up.
"Make love to me, Max," she says.
His eyes snap back to her face and a giggle escapes her.
"Your wish is my command," he answers, and for a second they are both sadden in a bittersweet manner about what her previous command is about to do to their lives.
He rolls them over so that Liz is once again on her back and proceeds to slowly remove her pyjama pants and, with her encouraging nod, her panties.
"I don't know why we didn't do this earlier," he breathes regretfully, as his eyes travel down the length of her perfect – absolutely perfect – body.
"You thought it wasn't safe, remember?"
He nods, blushing in shame. "At least now we're sure." Maria and Michael had already ascertained that for them. He removes his boxer on his own and positions himself against her, skin against skin, without a thread to separate them. They hold each other for awhile, just feeling, listening to each others' heartbeats. Then Max starts moving, caressing every inch of her skin, memorizing, because it is the last time he will ever see her.
Liz writhes and moans under his touch, her cries of pleasure muffled by his mouth, but she needs more. "Max, please… I need you."
He kisses her deeply as he positions himself and then plunges home. The sting of pain is intense but brief, quickly fading into the background as his hand brushes over the lower part of her abdomen, his hand glowing between them.
"You didn't have to do that," she says breathlessly.
His reply makes her smile. "I needed to."
They are still, Max patiently waiting for Liz to accustom herself to having him inside of her and he spends his time raining kisses over her face.
"Please, Max," she moans. "You're killing me here."
Afraid that he is hurting her, he stares down into her eyes in horror, but Liz dampers his fear by, with the heels of her feet, pushing him deeper inside of her, an action that causes them both to gasp. Taking the hint, Max starts moving inside of her.
His movements are slow at first, careful, remembering, but as their bodies heat up and lose touch with gravity, his movements increase and Max cries out seconds before Liz. Their sweaty bodies encircle each other and they become one as they breathe in unison. A thin sheen of white light envelopes them, encapsulating them in a soft warm humming. She feels his warm tears falling against her breast, as his head is buried in the crook of her neck.
"I love you," she says softly. "I will always love you."
"I love you," he says thickly. "More than you'll ever know."
"I think I know," she smiles sadly and kisses the top of his matted hair.
They lay like that for what seems like forever. In real time it's two hours. Their protective capsule is keeping them warm and humming with pleasure as their nerve endings are kept depolarised. It's like a chronic low-grade orgasm. Max is the one to pull away first, breaking the protective wall and raising on his elbows, which are positioned on either side of her body, and meets her eyes.
"How do you want to do this?" she asks quietly. She's not even sure she wants to do this anymore.
"I'll form a connection with you and then I search out every memory connected to Michael, Isabel…me, and I…remove it."
Her smile is sorrowful. "I think we are already as connected as we can possibly be."
He nods. He knows that much, being able to feel her blood rush through his blood vessels, the air she's breathing in his lungs.
He stills for a second. "Everything will be gone, Liz."
She swallows. "I want everything gone. Everything."
He takes a deep breath and she feels him disappear into her head, and she stops him. "Wait!"
He looks up at her, hopefully, and her heart disintegrates. "Don't remove you completely. Just everything that has to do with our time…after I found out. You can plant memories, right? Make me believe that we were only lab partners, but still hung out…?"
He nods. "One thing I learnt from Tess."
She bites her lip and he realizes how much he is going to miss that act. "Will you take care of Maria for me? I talked this over with her and she wants out too. She said something about wherever I go, she'll go."
Max looks surprised. "What about Michael? He-he stayed for her."
In that moment, Liz's heart bleeds for Michael. "I know. It's Maria's decision. I don't know why she made the choice she did."
Max thinks of his best friend and then looks back at Liz and gives his agreement. "Yeah, I'll help Maria."
"Thank you," Liz says softly. "Thank you for everything." She hesitates and then says, "Goodbye, Max."
She is crying when he kisses her one last time. "Goodbye, Liz."
She closes her eyes and he enters her mind and commences the process of removing every smile, hug, kiss and caress. He removes every trace of pain, planting false memories of how Alex died and changing his and Liz's relationship into purely platonic. Lastly, he puts her in deep sleep. He breaks the connection and pulls away from her warm body. With a wave of his hands he removes all traces of their lovemaking.
He dresses himself first, before dressing her. He could have dressed her 'magically', but he prefers the mechanical method as his fingers melancholically lingers against her skin, remorsefully covering her body in fabric.
"I won't forget," he whispers before climbing out the window and then he's gone.
"Oh my God," Liz whispers into her pillow. She can still feel the tingling from Max's touch all over her body. She asked him to do it. She asked him to help her forget. And it worked, until Max unknowingly closed the distance between them by deciding to study in the same place as her.
"Oh my God," she sobs, trying to drown the sounds in her pillow. She doesn't want to wake Maria up. She can't tell Maria now. It was Maria's choice to stay away so she won't ruin it for Maria.
Does she remember all? No, she only remembers what her dreams are showing her. She expects that there is a lot she has yet to see, yet to experience, a second time. Like Alex's death. Something is telling her that it is going to be horrible and she shivers in the night. Should she try and find Max and ask him to repeat the process? To make her forget again?
Or does she want to remember instead? Has time healed her wounds or will they be reopened by the sudden realization of what is hidden in her past?
She leaves the false warmth of the bed and dons her robe. Soundlessly, she opens the door, careful not to stir Maria, and walks out into the corridor. She doesn't know how she knows, she just follows the pull. The energy. She pushes the heavy wooden main door open and steps outside into the cool summer night breeze.
He is sitting on a bench on the other side of the large lawn that is spread out between the dorm and the library. She hurries over the lawn, her feet getting wet from the dew-affected grass. As she gets closer, he stands and opens his arms in invitation. She throws herself into his arms, burying her face against the safety of his chest. He envelopes her in his coat, hiding the two of them from the outside world.
"I want to remember," she whispers and he smiles.
THE END
The companion piece to "Mnemosyne's Daughter" is called "Prodigal Son".