Author: Danilise
Email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: Roswell, the characters, and the situations are
owned by the WB. No infringement is intended.
Author's Note: This story is part of an evolving storyline that
currently includes (in order): "Decisions,"
"Looking In," "Christmas Envy," "From
Another Place," "Husbands and Fathers,"
"Claudia and Nicole," and "Stars." More
stories may be forthcoming.
From Another Place
"We’ll be fine. Stop worrying. Besides, if I play my
cards right, by the end of the night Claudia just might give me
her choo-choo pajamas."
Max Evans laughed. It was such a typically Alex kind of thing to
say. Max thanked the gods who had seen fit to match his sister
Isabel with Alex Whitman. Alex’s wry humor and sensible
realism balanced Izzy’s Izzy-ness perfectly. They were good
together. And happily they were willing to baby-sit tonight.
Max laughed again, feeling carefree and young for the first
time in what felt like ages. School had been pretty backbreaking
lately. But tonight, he and Liz were going out to celebrate that
it was finally over. He was graduating. Of course, another
backbreaking hospital residency waited for him after graduation,
but he wouldn’t let the future cloud tonight in any way. He
couldn’t stop smiling even as he tried to refocus on the
conversation.
Alex was explaining to Isabel with a straight face the appeal of
Claudia’s choo-choo pajamas. Max was amazed anew at the soft
look in his sister’s eyes. Izzy was practically gentle
around Alex. There wasn’t a hint of her old "Princess
Isabel" act anywhere. "Yup," Alex concluded,
"I’m definitely holding out for the choo-choo
pajamas."
"You’re not holding out for the bunny-feet
pajamas?" Max teased, jumping back into the conversation.
"You’re selling yourself short, Whitman."
"How did you two end up talking about Claudia’s
pajamas?" Liz asked as she walked into the living room,
clearly puzzled by the tail-end of their conversation.
Max couldn’t help staring at Liz, watching her as she
finished fastening her earrings. He had loved her since the first
time he had seen her in the third grade. They had been together
essentially since their sophomore year in high school. They had
lived together since moving to Boston for school four years ago.
And they had been married for the past three years. Practically
ever since he could remember, he had measured out his life in
smiles from Liz and minutes spent with Liz.
She gave him the sweet smile she saved only for him.
"So," she said lightly, pirouetting. "How do I
look?" The long black skirt of her dress belled outwards,
showing off her shapely ankles. Max’s gaze slid up from her
ankles, tracing her delicate curves, dwelling on her lovely face,
stopping at the crown of her head. Her midnight-dark hair was
caught up in a sparkly thing, with curls floating around her head
like a halo. Her earrings, a gift from him from two Christmases
ago, twinkled. Max thought that she was the most beautiful
creature he had ever seen. A star made flesh. The mother of his
child.
Who was another star made flesh. Albeit a grumpy star at the
moment. He winked down at Claudia, who was wrapped around his leg
in the way she always liked, wearing the infamous bunny-feet
pajamas. "What do you think, sweetie? Is Mommy
beautiful?"
Two-and-a-half year old Claudia looked up at her father and
nodded seriously. Her face fell when she registered the fact that
her parents were dressed up to go out. She rubbed one eye with a
tiny fist. Her lower lip trembled. "Wanna come," she
said plaintively.
Max detached her from his leg and crouched down to her level.
"Sweetie. This is a special night for Daddy and Mommy only.
We’ll go out the three of us another time." He put his
hands on her small shoulders and gently turned her to face Alex
and Isabel. "Tonight you’re going to stay with your
Aunt Izzy and your Uncle Alex. You’ll have fun."
Claudia blinked her huge brown eyes and nodded, looking
unconvinced.
"We’ll have fun," Isabel assured her, crouching
down beside Max. "We can play your favorite games."
Claudia scrunched up her face and thought hard for a minute.
"Can we play the star game?"
Isabel raised her eyebrows at Max. Catching the question implied
by those raised eyebrows, he grinned at Isabel then at Claudia
who was jumping up and down in excitement at the thought of
playing the star game. "Should we explain to your Aunt
Izzy?"
Claudia giggled and threw her arms around him. Max breathed in
the sweet, little-girl smell of his daughter. Could life get
any better? he wondered. Liz and Claudia. The love of
his life and the daughter of his heart. Who could ask for more?
"We’re waiting, big brother." Isabel stood up and
tapped a fingernail on his shoulder. "What is the star game?
If Alex, Claudia, and I are going to play it tonight, we need to
know."
"It’s simple." Max exchanged a silly
conspiratorial look with Claudia who promptly collapsed into a
heap of giggles. "You pick a constellation, then pick a name
to describe what it looks like," he explained. "The
sillier, the better. With extra points if you find constellations
that look like radishes." He paused when Isabel looked
confused. "It’s like the cloud game."
Isabel still looked confused. "She’s not even three,
Max."
Max tightened his arms around Claudia and picked her up. He
studied Isabel over Claudia’s head, realizing that Isabel
suspected but didn’t fully realize yet how special Claudia
was. She would -- if she and Alex ever got past the endless
engagement phase they seemed to be stuck in, finally got married,
and had children themselves.
"She’s like us, Iz," he said quietly, shooting a
half-apologetic look at Alex. "She’s not exactly
following a normal human development pattern. Hers is
accelerated. Like ours was." Max smoothed a hand over
Claudia’s soft, straight dark hair that was so much like her
mother’s. When his fingers brushed her forehead, he frowned.
"Liz?" His frown deepened when there was no answer.
"She went back into your bedroom, I think," Alex said.
"What’s wrong?"
Max wasn’t sure. Clutching Claudia close, he strode off
rapidly in search of Liz. He found her in the bathroom, touching
up her makeup. "Liz. Feel Claudia’s forehead."
Instant concern creased Liz’s brow. She pressed the back of
her hand against Claudia’s forehead. Fear crept into her
eyes as they met his. "She’s warm, Max. She wasn’t
warm before." She brushed Claudia’s bangs off her
forehead. "I don’t know, Max. Maybe we shouldn’t
go. She’s even sniffling a little."
Isabel and Alex had followed Max from the living room and stood
in the bathroom doorway. Isabel shook her head at them. "Don’t
even think about it. You guys are being typical over-protective
parents. Don’t worry. She’ll be fine. Alex and I can
take care of her. This isn’t anything more than a typical
childhood thing. Really. She’ll be fine."
"Yeah," Alex agreed. "Go celebrate, for geez sake.
It’s not like you graduate every day."
Max looked carefully at Liz. He could see that she was worried.
He could tell that she didn’t want to leave if Claudia were
sick. He didn’t want to either. But, he reassured himself,
he and Isabel and Michael didn’t get sick. Not really. Not
unless something bizarre happened, like a car accident or a
Native American ritual or something. And Claudia was like them,
as he’d just explained to Isabel. It would be okay. Claudia
would be okay. But he knew Liz needed to think it through for
herself.
Still visibly wavering, Liz finally said, "Okay. But let me
give you our cell phone number. Call us if she gets any worse. Or
if anything changes. Anything at all." She dug her cell
phone out of her evening bag, scribbled the telephone number on a
scrap of paper, and handed the paper to Isabel and Alex.
"Iz. Alex. If anything changes, call us."
Isabel smiled reassuringly. "Don’t worry, Liz. We’ll
be fine."
So Max and Liz went out to celebrate Max’s graduation
from medical school at a Chinese restaurant Max had found. He had
planned their evening to resemble their first date. Before
dinner, they played pool. Grinning with a sense of déjà vu, Max
watched his calm, sweetly serious wife play like a pool shark
while he missed almost every shot. After their game of pool, they
ate Chinese food and cracked open fortune cookies, making up
their fortunes to suit their celebratory mood. Then they danced.
As he took her into his arms, Max felt Liz relax. Their intense
connection was so much a part of how they were together. They
touched, and they were lost in each other. The rest of the world
and its worries faded away. Max gathered Liz closer, resting his
chin on the top of her head. It had been so long since it had
been just the two of them. Claudia was a joy and a blessing, but
being graduate students and young parents all at once was hard.
It was a rare pleasure to be alone together, even if it was only
until they went back home to relieve Isabel and Alex’s
babysitting duty.
Then just as had happened on their first date, a panicked call
for help interrupted the evening. Liz’s cell phone rang.
They listened to it ring for a second, knowing who it was. In an
instant, they were thrust back into the worry they had
temporarily forgotten in their magical little world. Liz unfroze
first, leaping for her bag and the ringing phone.
"Hello?" Her voice was frantic. Max watched her face
cloud over with fear, his heart in his throat. Liz’s eyes
met his as she snapped the phone shut. "Max. She’s
worse. A lot worse. Isabel thinks we should come home."
This was what Max had feared most. He hadn’t been able to
name the fear before.
But this was exactly it. When you’re from another place, any
illness could mean life or death. Because she was only
half-from-another-place, Max had hoped that Claudia would have
inherited Liz’s environmental tolerances and immunities. Or
if not that, that she would have inherited his invulnerabilities.
But clearly she hadn’t. His daughter wasn’t normal. He
wasn’t normal. He couldn’t pretend to be normal. He
couldn’t protect Claudia and Liz from situations like this
one. He shook his head to clear it and told himself to remain
calm as he helped Liz into her evening wrap, and they left the
restaurant to race home.
Isabel jumped up when the door to the apartment opened.
"Thank God, you’re here. She has a fever. It got bad so
quickly. Her fever is so high, the thermometer can’t read
it." She stared at Liz and Max, who stood frozen in the
doorway. "Max. You’re a doctor. You must know what to
do."
Max knew that Liz was looking at him with the same plea in her
eyes. He couldn’t look at her. If he did, he would lose
whatever sanity he still possessed. He focused on his sister
instead. "Isabel. I’m a doctor for humans." Not
hybrids. He didn’t say the words out loud. They were too
harsh. But he thought them, and that was enough to make him feel
ashamed. "Not my own daughter," he finished, surprised
to hear the crack in his voice.
Liz touched his arm. She understood what he hadn’t said, and
she forgave him. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was to
have her. "Max," she said quietly, determinedly, back
to being his practical and rational Liz. "We can take care
of her."
Max held her gaze for a minute. Then he nodded and took charge
with all the skill and efficiency he had learned in four years of
medical school. Over the next three hours, he and Liz were each
other’s strength. They drew ice baths for Claudia, spooned
liquids into her, fed her children’s acetaminophen, and sang
lullabies while they rocked her back and forth. Finally, when
they were ready to give up and take her to the hospital, damning
the consequences, Claudia’s fever broke.
Giddy with relief, Max and Liz changed Claudia’s pajamas,
replaced the sheets on her bed, and tucked her back under the
covers. She snuggled her stuffed white-velvet rabbit and gave
them a sleepy smile. "Happy now," she murmured.
Liz kissed her forehead. "Go to sleep, baby."
Once they had shut the bedroom door behind them softly, Liz
buried her face in Max’s chest and shuddered. "Thank
god, she’s going to be okay," she said. Her words were
muffled by his shirt.
Max just held her, running his hand through the silky hair at the
back of her head that had fallen out of her sparkly clip sometime
during the course of the night. "Thank god," he agreed.
It felt like the most profound prayer of thanks he'd ever said in
his whole life. He pulled away a little and smiled down at Liz as
another thought occurred to him. "So I guess this means that
my decision to specialize in pediatrics was the right one?"
Liz looked up and nodded seriously, looking exactly like Claudia
for a second. "Absolutely right." She stepped out of
his arms, still anxious even though Claudia’s fever had
broken. "I’m going to check on her again."
Max let her go, understanding how she felt. "I’ll tell
Iz and Alex that everything is okay," he said. In their
panic, he and Liz had completely forgotten about Isabel and Alex.
He found them in the living room. After reassuring them that
Claudia was fine, Max offered to pull out the sofa bed so they
could stay the night. Isabel shook her head. She looked freaked
out, as if the reality of getting married and having children had
just hit home. Alex shared a speaking look with Max over Isabel’s
head as he helped her into her jacket. In all honesty, Max wasn’t
sorry they decided to say goodnight when he closed the door
behind them. Alex and Isabel needed time to talk. And he needed
to check on his girls.
He found Liz in Claudia’s bedroom. An early-spring-scented
breeze from the open window drifted the white curtain into the
room, fluttering a wisp of dark hair across Liz’s cheek. Liz
had fallen asleep beside Claudia, who was still clutching her
stuffed white rabbit and finally sleeping peacefully. Max leaned
against the doorjamb and just watched them. Their two dark heads
resting together, serene against the white pillow, was the
sweetest sight he could think of.
The End