Title: Change
Background: Post-Michael, The Guys, and The Great Snapple Caper
Category: Liz POV
Rating: PG-13
Author: Anne
E-mail: dreambehr@yahoo.com
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!

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Something has changed.

I haven't figured out exactly what yet…but I've been able to feel it ever since I woke up this morning. It's been electrifying the air, floating there all around me trying to tell me something…what, I have no idea.

Maybe it has something to do with last night…last night that was something out of my dreams. I never thought that when Max said he wanted to make my dreams come true, that he meant it so literally. It was amazing, exhilarating, flying through the sky with nothing except air beneath our feet.

And what made it all the more amazing was, it was with him.

It was like just for those few short hours, when we were flying through the air, we left all of our problems behind us. Tess and his son disappeared, my parents disappeared…it was just the two of us and anything was possible.

I can't wait to see him today.

That morning, I couldn't get to school fast enough…rushing out of the house with a huge grin on my face, and jumping into Maria's jetta without even saying goodbye to my parents. They probably thought I was just ignoring them because of the Max situation…well, it definitely has to do with Max…I desperately wanted to see him as soon as possible.

My heart was racing with excitement as I leaned back against my locker, laughing with Maria as I waited for Max's arrival…and waited…and waited.

My racing heart was slowing quickly. What was going on? Where is Max? He's never late to school anymore, now that he doesn't have to wait for Isabel to pamper herself. Did something…happen?

Suddenly I felt like I was dying…the electricity in the air didn't seem quite so wonderful and exciting anymore…maybe the change I was sensing was in Max…maybe something happened…maybe he found his son…maybe he left for his home in the middle of the night.

No…he wouldn't leave without saying goodbye. Maybe his car broke down.

Sighing, I headed to my first period class. Max was in my first period class, even if we couldn't sit together or talk to each other in it…my teachers were all watching us for my parents. It's so frustrating.

I breathed a sigh of relief when Max walked in five minutes after the tardy bell…but my relief was short lived when he walked right past my desk to his own, without even so much as glancing in my direction.

Even if we couldn't talk, he always sent me a secret smile…we had agreed that we weren't going to let my parents beat us.

What was going on with him?

That one question kept repeating over and over again in my head as I didn't even bother trying to pay attention to the lecture. What was going on with him? Why is he acting this way? What happened?

I decide to confront him after class…if they want to call my parents, that's fine by me…I just need to know why my heart suddenly feels like it's twisting in agony inside my chest…but I don't get a chance…Max is up and gone so fast that I can't even grab him…

I spend my second period class trying desperately to figure out what happened. This isn't like him at all. Someone must have said something to him…something that scared him, that convinced him to stay away from me. God knows it's been done before.

What I need is to get him to confide in me…to tell me what's happened. Maybe then we can work through it.

Our next class together is AP Biology, third period. This time I decide to get the upper hand on him. I walk in late, and Max is already in his seat when I arrive. We were lab partners, but at my father's request, we were switched to new seats. As I make my way to my lab table, I slide a note on top of his notebook, continuing to my seat without even looking at him.

The note is a simple, firm one liner.

My eyes stay locked on Max's back, as I sit down two tabled behind him. I can tell he has read the note a few moments later when his back stiffens, like he's just sucked in a huge breath and knows he's been beaten.

All period I wait for a response from him, but it isn't coming. Class ends…the bell rings, and again, like in first period, he's gone before I can grab him…and he doesn't show up to our fourth period class.

Lunch finally comes around, with much to my dismay, no sign of Max. I head to my locker to drop off my books and meet Maria with a sad sigh.

Three quick twists of the combination, 26, 16, 7, and my locker opens. My breath catches in my throat as a folded note sits there, my name scrawled across the front in Max's handwriting. I pick it up, turning it over in my hands and staring at it for a few long moments, before closing my locker, and rushing off to an empty corner of the school yard.

Standing there, in the grass, beneath the trees, I pace back and forth nervously a few times, before unfolding the note quickly and beginning to read.

As I finished reading his letter, I felt my heart surging in anger, as I crunched the letter in my hands…as if the tension in my fists would make things better.

I didn’t know who to be angrier at…Max for coming to such a definite conclusion without talking to me first, or my parents for being so willing to destroy my life.

I knew one thing for certain…I couldn't do anything to change my parent's decisions…my father's talk with Max proved that much. However I could do something about Max.

Again, I decided to corner him…to not let him leave the school without talking to me…but this time it would be a little harder. I had to talk to him in person, and I couldn't let any teachers see us.

Sometimes it's incredibly convenient to be so tiny…

I managed to cut out early from my final class of the day, and rushed to the parking lot. Nobody was around yet, since class was still in session, so it was easy for me to find my way to Max's car without being seen…and even easier to crawl in and tuck myself into the small area on the floor of the front seat…no one would be able to see me as Max left school…except for him.

It was only a few minutes before the final bell rang, and quickly I heard Max's door open…just as I had predicted, he had raced straight to his car, hoping to avoid me.

He stared at me in shock for a moment, before crawling in.

"I'm not letting you get away without talking to me." I hissed at him. "Get us out of here…take me to the lake or something...somewhere private where no one will see us."

Max nodded quickly, and pulled out, keeping his eyes glued to the road to avoid suspicion. He didn't say a single word to me until we were far from town.

"It's safe to sit up now." He softly suggested, glancing down at me. He gave me a small smile. "You have some nerve, you know. That's got to have been uncomfortable."

"Yeah." I admitted, nodding my head, as I slid up, and onto the seat. "But it worked." I reminded him pointedly.

He turned the car off of the road, and parked beside the lake, climbing out, and coming around the car to open my door for me. I didn't let him, jumping out as soon as the car stopped. The second he approached me I shoved him hard in the chest. He stumbled backwards, his eyes widening in surprise.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked him angrily. "Do you really think you can make decisions like this for me? Do you honestly believe that I'll let you get away with it?"

"Liz…I…" He stammered, but I didn't let him continue.

"I just got you back, Max Evans, and there is no way I'm letting you go now, just because my parents are being pig headed and stupid. I love you too much to loose you now, don't you understand that?" My voice softened on my last words, and I could feel my eyes stinging with the potential of tears. I blinked a few times angrily, not wanting to completely break down in front of him.

I could tell my voice was sounding more and more defeated, as I continued, and I could see the sadness in my heart lingering in Max's eyes.

"You know…what ever happened to all that stuff you said before, Max…about how we'll make this work…about how easy it will be to sneak around behind my parent's backs. I thought you wanted to work for this, Max."

"I do, Liz!" He protested. "God I do…I just don't want to loose you again! Your dad meant every word he said to me, Liz. He will send you away if he catches us one more time."

"Then we won't let him catch us." Liz replied simply. "It'll be hard, Max. We'll have to be more careful than we have been. We have to follow some of the rules…you definitely can't come near the Crashdown, and we can't talk at school…but we can keep writing letters…we can have secret dates like this when I'm supposedly hanging out with Maria or at the library."

I pause a long moment, collecting my thoughts.

"Max…you were willing to let me go this time around because you didn't want to loose me altogether…well it's the same with me. I'm not willing to let you let me go, because I don't want to loose you. We can make this work, Max."

Max nodded silently, his eyes sadly searching mine. It wasn't the first time since I had gotten him back that I couldn't help wondering what he was thinking…he was a mystery to me this time around.

"Just…don't make decisions like this that effect me without talking to me first ever again." I told him firmly.

"I won't." Max agreed in that soft, gentle voice he saved only for me.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I stepped into his warm embrace, tucking my head against his chest as I wrapped my arms around him, snuggling as close to him as possible.

Change is a funny thing.

I woke up this morning sensing the change…and it came, for certain.

The change came in Max himself, in the way he was treating me…most of all in the amount of fear my father put in his heart last night.

But the change wasn't permanent…this change was something that was easily worked through, easily fixed.

And even as I find myself standing here at the end of the day, right where I want to be, in Max's loving arms…I can still sense that more change is coming, lingering in the distance, waiting to reveal myself.

I could only be so lucky if whatever is coming was as easy to fix as this was.