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.. 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 5)
"Our questions?" Max asked.
Liz shot a look at Maria and Alex. She sighed, knowing what
their reaction to this was going to be. "Listen, you guys,
this is something I need to talk to Max alone about. I'm really
sorry, but we'll call you a bit later. Maybe we can go hang out
tonight or something."
"So you're kicking us out, Liz?" Maria exclaimed.
"I'm really, really sorry, but yeah. I'll call you on your
cell when I'm done with Isabel and Michael."
"Cell? I don't have a cell, Liz." Maria looked at Liz
strangely.
"Okay, I guess that's a my-world thing. Anyway, I'll call
you later."
"Fine, bye Liz." Maria and Alex left in a hurry.
"Can you believe this Alex? We finally get our best
friend back, and she goes and ditches us for Max Evans. Liz never
gave Max Evans the time of day, and now she, like, can't keep her
eyes off him. And why is it that she went to him first instead of
us? This is too weird. Something's going on
here."
"Maria, cool it, okay? You're just being crazy again."
"Excuse me? I think I've earned the right to act a little
crazy. It's not every day that your best friend is resurrected
from the dead. But she's acting like a total stranger."
"Of course she's going to act differently. She isn't our
Liz, Maria. She looks the same, and she may have the same
personality, but she's not the same person. Our Liz is dead. This
is just a temporary replacement. Don't get your hopes up that
she'll be back for good."
And by the looks of it, one of us should tell Max Evans
that too, Alex thought.
"You're right, Alex. I know you're right. You're always
right, but I can't help feeling a little upset that she just blew
us off. And for Max Evans. She barely even knows Max Evans.
Something weird is going on here, apart from the obvious. And I
intend to find out what it is!"
"And how exactly do you plan on doing that, Maria?"
"Well, I'm not sure yet, but let's keep a close eye on this
Liz. Try and figure out what her secret is."
"And what makes you think she's got a secret?"
"Everyone has got a secret, Alex. Some of them are bigger
than others, but we all have them. I mean, yours is that you're
an underground computer hacker, mine is…well…mine is
that my father abandoned me and my mom. This Liz has to have one
too. So are you going to help me with this Alex?"
Alex sighed. He and Liz used to always laugh at Maria when she
got worked up over her crazy theories. "Sure," Alex
agreed, "Why not? It's not like I have anything else to do
this weekend."
Isabel and Michael sat silently in Isabel's bedroom, waiting
to talk to Max. Isabel was organizing her makeup, again, while
Michael sat in a chair across the room staring off into space. He
started tapping his foot impatiently.
"Will you stop that, Michael? It's really annoying."
"Well, what am I supposed to do? Huh? I've been stuck
sitting in here watching you pamper yourself for an hour, while
Max is in his room with Liz, doing God knows what."
"I for one don't WANT to know what they're doing in
there."
"Whatever they're doing, he's breaking the rules just by
being with her. You saw the way they looked at each other. We
agreed not to get involved with anyone."
"Michael, will you just shut up? Max will come and talk to
us when he's ready."
"Knock, knock." Somebody rapped loudly on the door.
"See," Isabel shot at Michael. "Come in! It's
about time you came to talk to us, Max."
"It's not Max, it's Liz," Liz opened the door, and
slowly walked in. "Can I talk to you guys?"
"What do you want? Where's Max?" Michael snapped at
her.
"I asked Max if I could talk to you guys first. I wanted to
start by apologizing for just barging in on you guys like this. I
know you never would have expected something like this to happen,
and especially not for you guys to be the people that I turn to
in this situation…"
"Well, that's really sweet of you, but does this little talk
have a point?" Isabel remarked sarcastically.
"Let me finish. You have to understand that things are very
different where I come from. We're all a big group of friends in
my world: you guys, Max, me, and Maria and Alex, and there's no
secrets between the six of us."
Isabel laughed, "No secrets, huh?" She gave Liz a wry
grin, "I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you."
Liz gave Isabel a pointed, serious look. "I meant that,
Isabel. No secrets."
Isabel stared back at Liz, and then turned to Michael, who had
a shocked look on his face too. Michael finally broke the
silence. "Are you saying that you know…" He
drifted off, not wanting to be the one to say it.
"I know everything," Liz told them, "About you
three, and where you come from."
Michael and Isabel sat there in a daze, trying to process what
Liz was telling them. They had spent their entire lives being so
careful, making sure that no one ever found out about them, and
then out of nowhere, a dead girl walked back into their lives
announcing that she knew all their secrets.
"How?" Isabel asked her quietly.
"Well, it all started with the Crashdown
shooting…"
Alex and Maria sneak up to the Evans' house. They're dressed ridiculously in camouflage army clothes in an attempt to blend in with the bushes, sneaking around like they're breaking into a restricted army compound or something.
Alex guards Maria's back with a plastic water gun, as she
sneaks by the front windows, and turns the corner towards the
side of the house. They finally make into the backyard, and sneak
up to Max's bedroom window, where they crouch down and wait,
listening.
Max is pacing around his bedroom nervously, waiting for Liz's return. God only knows what Michael and Isabel's reaction to this all will be. They're probably going to kill her.
The wait was tremendous for him. Max wanted nothing more than to go with Liz in there, so that he could try and make it easier for everyone. He wanted to protect Liz from Michael and Isabel's accusations, and he wanted to be sure that Liz gave it to them lightly.
Max smiled. He knew she'd do fine though. She was amazing like
that. Max remembered what it was like for him to hold her in his
arms the night before. It was incredible. His dreams hadn't come
even close to comparing to what it was like in reality. Her skin
was so soft and silky, and her
hair smelled incredible. He couldn't forget that incredible
scent.
And she was so beautiful.
He was so lost in his thoughts, that he almost didn't even hear
the door open, and Liz, Michael, and Isabel came marching in. He
looked up in surprise. "So, how did it go?" he asked.
"Well, that was something we didn't expect to hear."
Isabel told him, "And you know what the annoying part is? I
can't even get mad at you, 'cause you didn't do it. I wish there
was someone I could get mad at, but there isn't, so I guess we'll
just have to live with it."
"I think they took it pretty well," Liz commented,
smiling her electrifying smile at Max. It was all he could do to
keep from melting into a puddle right there.
"So now what?" Max asked her, "You said that there
was more."
"Yeah, there is." Liz sighed, trying to figure out
where to start. "Okay, like I said before Max, our
relationship wasn't the only thing that came out of the Crashdown
shooting. Neither was my knowledge that you are all aliens. A lot
of people became suspicious of the three of you, in particular,
Sheriff Valenti. He had previous proof of alien existence, and
when you healed me, he focused briefly on trying to get me to
expose you. I wouldn't, of course, but he took me in for
questioning, and showed me this picture of a corpse from 1959,
with a silver handprint on its chest. This man had been killed by
an alien, and he tried to frighten me into revealing you."
"Are you saying that there was another alien besides
us?" Michael demanded.
"Well, there was in 1959. Anyway, this picture led us on a
series of clues, which eventually led us to the Mescalero Indian
Reservation, where a man named River Dog told us the story of his
relationship with this alien named Nasedo. He told us everything
that Nasedo told him about who he was and where he came from, and
he told us the story of Nasedo killing that man in the picture.
River Dog showed us the cave where Nasedo lived. There were
paintings on the wall of the cave, which Michael recently
discovered in a vision were a map home. Max, do you remember that
constellation I pointed out to you last night? The V-shaped
one?"
Max nodded.
"Well, that's where we think your home is."
The three aliens stared at Liz in shock. Liz had just given them
more knowledge about themselves than they expected to find in
their entire lifetime.
Isabel broke the silence, "Could you take us there? Show us
the cave with the map?"
Liz nodded.
Outside the window, Alex and Maria stared at each other in
shock, barely believing what they had just heard. They heard the
front door shut, and waited until they had sped off in Max's jeep
before speaking.
"It's impossible. Aliens don't exist. I mean, even here in
Roswell we all know that there was no crash. It's been
scientifically proven," Alex insisted.
"Why would they make all that up? They didn't know that we
were listening. I think we just found out what Liz's secret is,
and Max, Michael, and Isabel's too for that matter."
"So what are we going to do about it?"
"Let's go over to my place and figure that out. Remember
that we're going to be hanging out with Liz tonight. We have to
figure out what we're going to say to her when she calls
later."