Author: Anne
Email: [email protected]
Summary: What would the world have been like if Liz had died in the shooting? After an accident, Liz finds herself experiencing that world.
Background: Immediately after the Balance. No spoilers or anything.
Author: This is my first fanfic, and I've been toying with this story idea for a while now. Please give me feedback!
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: They're not mine. The characters of Roswell belong to Melinda Metz, the WB, Jason Katims, and all the wonderful people who we all love for starting this wonderful story. I'm just borrowing them!
Timelines (Part 3)
Liz sat there silently for a moment. Could she really tell him
everything that had happened to them: Topolsky, River Dog,
Atherton? There was so much. He didn't even know that she knew
about him yet.
"I guess I should start with what happened in the
restaurant. I'm sorry about that. It got too weird and intense
for me. It wasn't you, I want you to know that," Liz
stammered. How could she tell him everything?
"Don't worry about it. It's over."
"You have to understand. In my world, um, well, you took me
on our first date there."
"We dated in your world?" Max couldn't believe what he
was hearing. In her world, he actually had the guts to ask her
out?
He wondered what kind of circumstances brought them together.
Before she had died, Liz barely would have given him the time of
day. He knew that he would have never moved forward with it. Not
only was he just plain out too shy, and kind of embarrassed about
his feelings for her, but he was also just different. No one, not
even Liz, would have understood what his life was like.
"We went on one date. To the Chinese Restaurant. I was cool
with it at first, 'cause our date there was nothing like the one
in my world. My Max sucks at pool, for example. But the fortune
cookie thing freaked me out. On our date, I told Max that my
fortune cookie said, "Tonight is the best night of your
life," because it was. It was true at that point in
time."
"But something happened." Max stated as a fact. He
could tell she was leaving something out.
"Our date got interrupted. Michael got really sick and
needed you there with him, and anyway, Michael being sick set off
a series of events, which led to my Max breaking up with me. That
was last night. It was the last thing I remember before I woke up
here."
"And that's where all that stuff about breaking your heart
came from when I first saw you this morning," Max finished
for her. Max couldn't believe this. HE broke up with his dream
girl?
Liz nodded slowly, trying to figure out what to say next. How
was she supposed to explain her world to him? Do you just blurt
stuff like that out? By the way, I know you're an alien. Or is
there kind of a subtle way of saying it without freaking him out?
"I'm sorry. It must have really hurt."
Liz looked up at him. Oh no! He was apologizing for her Max. "Don't. It wasn't you who did it. My Max…well, our relationship is really complex. There's lots of things that are pushing us together, but twice as many trying to keep us apart."
Max nodded. He could understand that. But what he couldn't
understand was what brought them together. He had admired her
from afar for, well, as long as he'd known her, but he always
held himself back from expanding to even a friendship with her.
His life was so complex, he didn't think she could ever really
understand it.
Max and Liz both sat in silence for a few minutes, both of them
trying to work up the courage to say what needed to be said.
Finally Max worked up the courage to say it.
"Liz, I have to ask. How is it that you and I became so
close, I mean, before you died we didn't even talk enough to
classify us as a relationship, and now you're telling me that in
your world we were a couple. Truthfully, I don't think that
anything would have made me open up to you while you
were alive. The fact that I've lived with your death these past
few months is the only thing that's really given me the strength
to do it now. So my guess is something had to have happened
between us. What was it?"
Max felt a huge relief lift from his shoulders. He had gotten it
out. He looked intently into Liz's eyes, and found her staring
back into his. God, she looked so beautiful, sitting there in the
dark with the stars in the sky behind her, all cuddled up in his
favorite jacket.
Liz stared back at Max, still trying to figure out how to say
what she needed to say. She looked into the eyes of the man she
loved, and found it hard to believe that he didn't already know
what happened between them. As she had fallen in love with Max,
she knew with certainty that there was no one else in the
universe like him, and somehow, she had found him. Another Max.
As she sat there with his arm around her, it felt so perfect,
like it was where she belonged. But at the same time, it wasn't
where she belonged, and they both knew it. Liz finally knew what
to say to Max.
"Um, something did happen between us," Liz stammered
trying to get it out right, "The shooting happened. In my
world, you were in the Crashdown the day of the shooting, and you
put your hand on my stomach, and you healed me, and when you
healed me, it opened up my eyes to a whole new world of
possibilities. You were the center of all those
possibilities."
Max felt like he had been punched in the stomach. He had spent
most of the day with Liz. They had laughed together, and cried
together, and talked together. No one had ever made him feel so
at home, so human. For a little while, he had almost forgotten
how different from her he was, and now he finds out that she knew
about him all along? It was completely unexpected, and
unimaginable. Okay, so he had dreamed it a million times, but no
one ever expects their dreams to come to life right in front of
him.
Max stood up and paced around for a moment, before kicking a rock
down the edge of the rocky cliff. He had no idea how to react to
this.
Liz watched him from where she was sitting and tried to figure
out what to say. She stood up, walked over to where Max was
standing, and took his hands into hers.
"Max, talk to me. Don't bundle it all up inside. I know
that's what you've always done your entire life, but you can let
it all out. It's okay."
"Do you.." Max stammered, "Do you know the
truth. About me I mean?" Max looked down at her, trying to
see through her eyes, and figure out what she was thinking.
"Yeah."
Max nodded. It didn't look like there was any fear in her eyes
when she said that. Then again, she had treated him normally all
day. Suddenly a thought occurred to Max. "Liz, you dated me
even though you know I'm an alien?"
"I fell in love with you even though you're an alien. And I
wouldn't change anything about you."
Max couldn't believe what he was hearing. Liz Parker loved him. He felt like he was in a dream. Any moment now he would probably start flying. Max looked deeply into Liz's eyes. There was something he had always wanted to do. This would be the perfect moment.
Slowly, hesitantly, Max brought his lips to Liz's, and they met in a deep, passionate kiss. Their lips broke, and Max's broke out in a grin.
"What?" Liz asked.
"That just proved it for me. This isn't a dream. I know
that for certain, because in my dreams, whenever I try to kiss
you I wake up. We're still here though."
Liz nodded. "Yes, we are here."