Serendipity n. The faculty of happening upon fortunate discoveries
when not in search of them.

Part 13

Max looked at her, astonished. She was handing him every answer he was looking for, things he’d never been able to see himself. Meeting Liz had been the catalyst to everything in his life. He was both apprehensive and excited at the same time. What if she saw things about him that revealed how truly despising his alien side was? Even if it was a comfortable illusion, he liked to consider himself to be nice, normal Max Evans. Finally, he realized Liz was waiting for his response.

"What did you see?" he asked. Liz shook her head.

"I think it would be better for me to show you. Come on," Liz replied, taking his hand and leading him out his bedroom door. The anticipation seemed to flow from Liz, Max could feel it rolling off of her.

He barely had a chance to grab his jacket as she pulled him out the door and to the jeep. He let her climb into the driver’s seat and she backed the jeep up and onto the street. Both Max and Liz were silent as Liz drove the jeep through downtown Roswell and headed into the desert. He’d never felt more nervous in his entire life. Liz was offering him something he thought would always remain untold.

The truth. And he didn’t quite know what to do with it.

"Where are we going?" he asked over the wind washing over them.

Liz turned the wheel and took the jeep off road as she slowed down to accommodate the dips in the ground. Liz glanced over at Max and smiled.

"The place where you, Michael and Isabel came from. I saw it, I know where it is," Liz said excitedly. Max couldn’t stop his jaw from dropping open in amazement.

"You-how did you know where it was? Why didn’t Michael know?" Max asked.

"He never had a clear memory of the actual place, just the inside pod chamber. He could never remember what the desert looked like when he came out. And there’s too much desert around Roswell to search and hope that something might appear. I saw the rock formation when we connected. Michael, Alex, Maria and I used to play in the area all the
time. It has great hide and seek places," Liz said thoughtfully. Max nodded.

"I guess so, if that’s where the chamber has been hidden all these years," Max replied.

Suddenly, Liz hit the brake and stopped the car. Max looked at her and she nodded ahead of them, her eyes shining with excitement.

"There it is," she whispered. Max followed her gaze and turned his eyes to the jagged rock formation slanted towards the sky. He looked at it with apprehension, wondering if that rock somehow held answers to everything he’d questioned about himself. He hated that it might confirm his worst fears about his true alien nature, that he was a freak.

But a strong part of him couldn’t just walk away, couldn’t know that the answers were out there and that he had chosen not to hear them. Even though it might hurt, he had to know the truth. The only way he could avoid that was if it meant losing Liz. He might be able to accept ignorance if he couldn’t be with her. But then he also realized that avoiding the truth was ignoring a part of himself and he knew deep down that even Liz wouldn’t accept that. She would urge him to find out all he could. He just had a hard time telling himself that he could be who he was and she might still care for him.

Nodding his head and deciding, Max climbed down from the jeep and joined Liz on the ground in front of the car. She stood with him and then her small hand slipped into his and squeezed gently. He looked down at her, the wind blowing her hair, and smiled. Her hand still in his, he climbed with Liz up the rock, finding his way carefully. He used Liz to both stabilize his path and keep her from losing balance as they climbed.

The closer they got the more he felt the pull of something. Something that was telling him where to go. He felt like he needed to hurry and Max quickened his pace until both he and Liz were panting heavily. Liz followed him close behind, her hand still anchored in his until Max stopped. She bumped into him from behind and she looked around his shoulder at the face of the rough rock wall in front of them. She glanced up at Max’s face and saw him concentrating, his brow furrowed as he looked at the wall.

"Max, what is it?" she asked. Max shook his head.

"I don’t know. Something’s telling me this is where we need to be," he whispered. Liz smiled at his inclusion of her. She noticed he still seemed uncertain.

"What else do you feel? Trust your instincts Max, they’ll guide you," she urged. Max nodded and he took a deep breath, letting go of everything but her right hand in his left hand. He heard Liz take a sharp breath and he opened his eyes to see his right hand reaching for the rock face and passing over the rough tan rock surface. The rock glowed and shimmered, bending the light almost until is seemed to disappear. Max realized they were looking at the dark shadow of an entryway into the cave. Liz was pulling him forward when he stopped her.

"Wait, Liz. I don’t know if you should go in there. What if it’s not safe?" he asked. Liz looked at him incredulously.

"Then I’m certainly not letting you go in there alone. Besides, I know this cave, Max. I saw it in your memories and I can tell you what you need to know. Come on," she urged, pulling him after her. They entered the cave together and Max followed Liz as she led them towards a wider opening.

Max felt the air whoosh from his lungs as he suddenly realized where they were, that he recognized it, that it felt like the one place so far in the world that he remembered from before he and Isabel had been found. The ceiling was high and carved roughly into the rock to fit the pods circling the middle. The pods were covered in dust from the rocks and cobwebs from years inside the rocks. There were four pods.

Liz passed by the first three pods, cracked and broken, the places that long ago Max, Michael and Isabel had broken free. Liz slowed her steps as she approached the fourth pod, intact and covered with a film of brown dirt. Hesitantly she reached her hand towards the rounded covering and wiped away some of the dirt. She gasped and stepped back, immediately falling against Max’s warm chest. She looked at the pod and then at Max, her face full of sadness.

"Max, she’s—"

"She’s dead," Max confirmed softly, putting his palm against the glass. The person inside had been preserved perfectly through the years, a small blond girl with short curls floating in the water surrounding her and a peaceful expression on her face. Like she was sleeping. Max felt a wave of sadness as he looked at the young girl.

"She was Michael’s sister," he whispered. Liz reached forward and pressed her own hand to the glass under Max’s, not questioning how Max knew what he’d said to be true. She simply accepted it.

"How did she die?" Liz asked, hoping Max would have an answer she could tell her brother. Max shook his head.

"I don’t know. There’s no power left in these pods, it almost seems like maybe what happened in the crash was an accident and we weren’t supposed to stay in the pods so long. It seems like we were lucky to break out when we did, or we might have died when the power went out too," Max said. Liz looked at the small girl wistfully.

"I’m sorry you didn’t get to meet our brother. I’ll take care of him for us both," she promised her. Max put an arm around Liz and hugged her close.

"We’ll come back, with the others, and we’ll bury her. She shouldn’t stay in there forever," Max said. His eyes shifted to the next broken pod and he squinted as he realized he knew automatically what he was looking at. He pointed to each of the pods in turn.

"That was Michael’s. And then mine, and the last one there was Isabel’s. God, Liz, how do I know any of that?" he wondered. Liz took his face in hers and met his eyes.

"Because you have the memories, they’re just locked away in your head. I think I can help you get them out, if you’re ready," Liz suggested. Max looked uncertain and she reached forward, kissing his lips softly.

"Nothing in there could every scare me away. I promise you that, Max," Liz said, her voice strong and truthful. Finally, Max nodded and she pulled him towards the pod that had been his.

"You said this one was yours. What do you remember about being in it?" she asked. Max closed his eyes and tried to think back, using Liz’s words to try and search for a hint or a clue. A glimmer of light, a sliver of a memory seemed to finally poke through the darkness of his memory.

"It was warm. Like being surrounded in honey. I woke up and it felt like I’d just been born. I didn’t know where I was, but I felt safe. I didn’t want to move. Then it didn’t feel safe anymore. I couldn’t move through the liquid and I couldn’t, I couldn’t—"

"Breathe, you couldn’t breathe," Liz said softly, finishing his sentence where he couldn’t. Max nodded, knowing without opening his eyes that Liz had her eyes closed as well, that she was sharing his memories.

"The place that had felt warm and safe suddenly felt hot and like a prison. I pushed against the walls around me, but nothing would give. My hands finally found the front glass and I pushed and pushed, but nothing happened. I felt like I was going to black out, like I’d never get a breath of air when the glass finally gave way and the liquid flooded out. I fell to the ground and finally, finally I could breathe."

Max’s eyes popped open and he looked at Liz, his eyes meeting her wide brown gaze.

"Oh, my God, Liz, that’s it. That’s what happened. I almost drowned."

Liz nodded slowly and took both his hands in hers.

"Yes. That’s what I saw when we connected. You panicked because you couldn’t break free. And you almost drowned. For some reason you had a very hard time trying to get free of your pod and you almost died. Are you ok?" she asked softly. Max nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I just never thought that was it. I never thought it was something so—"

"Human?" Liz supplied with a grin. Max nodded.

"Yeah. I never thought that this thing that has terrified me for years and plagued me in my dreams was something as innocent as that," he replied.

"Do you see why you have nothing to be afraid of? Do you see why none of that matters to me?" Liz asked, knowing this was her moment to show him, to prove to him, that all the doubts that ran through his head had no meaning for them being together.

Max took her face in his hands and she met his amber eyes as they darkened to almost midnight black. His thumb lightly caressed her cheek and she shivered against his touch and the damp coolness of the cave.

"Yeah, I do," Max replied. Then he crushed her against him, his hands gripping her waist and holding her as close as he could. Liz held the back of his head, stroking his hair gently as he held her. She could feel how grateful he was for her help, how lucky he felt for her presence in his life. She didn’t know how to show him she felt the same way, so she tried to send him the same feelings through her caresses and thoughts, hoping that he felt them.

She got her answer in the tightening of their embrace and the bright happiness she could feel practically glowing everywhere from him. So they stood, tightly together as Max embraced the past he’d felt as frightening and his future with Liz at the same time, together in the cave where Max had been born.

They stood still for a long time, Liz had no idea how many minutes or hours had passed. They only broke apart when Liz heard scuffling noises outside. Liz looked at the entrance to the cave and felt her stomach drop as shadows played across the entrance to the cave that led to the sunny outside world.

"Max . . ." Liz’s voice trailed off, worry lacing her words. Max squeezed her arm gently.

"It’s ok, it’s Michael and Isabel and the others," he said. Liz relaxed and watched as her brother stood up through the entrance, his spiky hair grazing the low part of the entryway. As he straightened Liz met his eyes and immediately saw the anticipation on his face. He met her gaze, determined, and stepped towards them. Maria, Isabel and Alex followed Michael into the cave and Max noticed how Isabel automatically reached for Alex’s hand as she looked around, her brown eyes widening in surprise at the place she suddenly recognized.

Michael immediately walked over to the lone unbroken pod. He stopped a few feet away and Liz watched, her heart breaking, as he laid a hand hesitantly over the smooth surface. When Michael’s face suddenly crumpled with anguish and he raised his other hand to cover his eyes, Liz rushed over to him. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight as he took deep gulps of air and cried softly, his voice shaking.

"She was so scared, and so alone. I wish I’d known. It happened before any of us even woke up. I can feel her, like an imprint in this place, right here. If she had been able to talk she would have called to me. She tried to call for me, but I didn’t hear her, I didn’t wake up," Michael sobbed. Maria joined Liz in holding Michael and his arms
went around the girls, clutching them close.

"There was nothing you could have done, Michael," Maria whispered. Liz nodded.

"But I should have! I should have been there for her!" he exclaimed. Liz looked at him, locking her eyes with his

"Michael, listen to me. Did you ever wonder why you came to me in the desert? Why I was able to coax you out and why you trusted me? I never did, but this, today this has made me wonder if maybe it was because you were supposed to be an amazing brother to someone and I just got lucky. It could have been her and I wish you had known each other, but there isn’t anything you could have done to make things different. And you’ve always been an amazing brother to me. Do you hear me?" Liz demanded. Michael finally seemed to hear her and he nodded slowly.

"Yes, I hear you," he whispered, gracing Liz and Maria with a rare wide smile as he hugged them close. He kissed Liz on the forehead and gave Maria a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you."

Liz nodded and Maria burrowed closer to Michael as Liz gently stepped away and walked to Alex, who was watching Isabel with Max. Alex put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned against him.

"How you holding up, Parker?" he asked seriously

"I’m fine. Better. How did you guys all get here? Isn’t school going on?" she asked. Alex gave her a wry smile

"We were in P.E., the period was almost over when Isabel and Michael both got this feeling that they needed to be here. Isabel got Maria and they came running from the girl’s class to us. I was worried because Isabel was almost hysterical and Michael was more hyped up than I’d ever seen. Maria and I managed to get them to wait until the end of the period and we got in the Jetta and came here," Alex said simply.

Liz laughed.

"Well, I never even showed up to first period and now Michael’s going to show up as skipping more classes. Our parents ought to have a field day with that," Liz observed. Alex nodded, his eyes turning to Isabel, who smiled at him as Max hugged her.

"Yeah, but it was worth it," Alex said. Liz looked over at Max, looking truly comfortable and completely relaxed really for the first time since she’d known him and she nodded.

"Yes, it was."

TBC . . .
Part 14