Pt3

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."