Pt 4

Liz entered her bedroom and slowly approaching the figure lying there still on her bed. She sat down carefully beside him, watching him cautiously. Max peeked open one of his eyes, and smiled as best he could.

"Hi."

"Hey Max, how you feeling? I brought you some soup. Chicken soup is what my parents always fed me when I wasn’t feeling well. Of course I was sick, and not injured, but I thought it might help." She handed him a mug of soup.

"Thanks." Max took a sip, and looked up at her surprised.

"Um, I mixed in some tobasco sauce for you. I wasn’t sure how much you’d want, so I guessed. I hope it’s okay."

"It’s perfect."

I take it your powers haven’t kicked back in yet."

Max sighed and shook his head.

"Damn that syrum. We need to get you healthy enough to travel. We’ve got to get out of Roswell. They’re probably out searching for you right now."

"Wait a second. We?"

Liz babbled on, ignoring his comment. "Are Isabel and Michael still in town? Maybe one of them can heal you?"

"No. Isabel had to work, so she flew out right after the ceremony. I’m not sure where Michael is. Probably with her. They live together you know."

"Yeah, I know. So we’ll just have to wait it out until the syrum wears off."

"Yeah. Liz…" Max got cut off by a loud rapping at the door.

"Liz, its David. Let me in."

Liz shot a look at Max. "I have to try and explain this to him. He already knows too much. I have to convince him to keep quiet."

Max nodded, and Liz let him into the apartment.

"Hi." She greeted him quietly.

"So you want to explain to me what the hell is going on? That isn’t like you, Liz. It’s not normal for you to throw our research out the door like that. What was it? Was it because this thing looked human? Because it isn’t Liz. No matter what it looks like, it’s not like us. Did you even bother to look at the background information we were given? It was a dangerous animal, Liz, capable of killing either of us with a thought. All I can say, is thank God we gave it the syrum, Liz, ‘cause otherwise you would have been dead the moment you unbuckled those restraints."

"No, David, I wouldn’t have been."

"What makes you so damn sure, Liz?"

"Come back here, David." She led him into her bedroom. Max lay still in the bed. He looked up at David and Liz calmly as they entered.

"It’s here? You brought it here? What the hell’s wrong with you?" David asked incredulously, barely believing the sight in front of his eyes.

"Take a deep breath and calm down, David. I want you to meet Max."

"Hi," Max greeted David weakly, grunting at the pain in his ribs.

"Max? As in the Max you told me about yesterday?"

"Yes. This is the Max I told you about yesterday."

"But its, he’s, not even human."

"There were some things I left out of the story," Liz told him with a wry grin. "I didn’t think you’d believe me if I told you that I was friends with aliens."

David laughed. "No, I suppose I wouldn’t have believed you, yesterday. But that was before they brought…him…to us at the lab."

Max spoke up from the bed. "Thank you for helping me escape, David. You’re a good man."

"And you’re a damn lucky one."

"David, let’s go talk in the other room. Max, I want you to try and get some rest, okay? I’ll be back in to check on you in a little bit."

Max nodded, and watched her go. He felt like crying. David was right. He was so lucky to have her, but he still didn’t understand what he had ever done to deserve her. She was like an angel, sent here entirely for him, and no matter how badly he ran her over, she always seemed to be there to protect him. He closed his eyes, and lay there resting, thinking beautiful thoughts about the most beautiful girl that he could ever know in the entire universe.

Liz shut the door softly, and turned to face David.

He chuckled. "So, you’re in love with an alien, huh?"

"Yes."

"How did you find out about him?"

"He saved my life. When we were in high school, I got shot in the café on one of my shifts. I would have died, but Max happened to be there, and happened to have had a crush on me his entire life. Anyway, he healed me with a touch."

"David, he’s never killed anyone in his life. Yes, he’s capable of killing with a touch, but he never would. He’s a good person."

"So tell me the real story. You obviously left a lot out last night."

"Okay. I can do that. After Max healed me, many people began to suspect that he was…abnormal. The sheriff was constantly watching him, as was the FBI, waiting for him to slip up. The wanted to catch him doing something with his powers, but they never did. They sent agent after agent to watch him. The first was the guidance counselor at our high school. The second was Tess. She seduced him into trusting her, and then set him up to be caught by the Feds. Luckily Max figured it out before it was too late, but the damage had been done, and the FBI watched him more closely than ever."

"On our graduation night, Tess came back. She was sick of being covert, and she wanted to catch Max before he left for college. They knew that once he left Roswell they’d never stand a chance at catching him, so she kidnapped me, and shot me. It was just in the shoulder. Not like the previous bullet from the café. I could have bled to death, but it would have taken a while. Anyway, Max, being the hero that he is, came after me. Tess left me out in the open, and the FBI watched as Max grabbed me, and healed me on the spot. They tried to take him then, but he managed to get away. He left Roswell immediately, and he never came back, until our wedding. That’s the whole story. The real story."

David sat on Liz’s couch, staring off into space. He was trying to process everything he had learned in the past few minutes.

"It is quite a story, Liz. I can’t believe I never heard a word of it until now."

"Maria and I don’t talk about it. She knew how much I missed him, and she tried to respect my feelings by avoiding the subject. I thought I was never going to see him again. That’s why I decided to move on, and I accepted when you asked me out, and when you proposed to me. I didn’t expect all of this to happen."

"He seems like a great guy, but what are you planning to do, Liz? They think he kidnapped you. They’re going to be watching for him everywhere. He has to get out of here."

"WE have to get out of here. I’m going with him. I can’t loose him now that I’ve got him back. The problem is that we can’t go anywhere with him in this condition. It’s that damn syrum. Without it, he could heal himself and we’d be out of here in the blink of an eye, but right now he’s powerless. What can you tell me about it? Do you know which one they gave him."

David sighed. "They gave him the heavy duty one of course. It should last about 48 hours."

"Is there an antidote?"

"No. There isn’t."

"Damn."

"Who knows, maybe his body will reject it quicker. After all, he isn’t exactly human, and we don’t exactly know how his systems differ from ours."

"Well, here’s hoping."

"I’ll do everything I can to keep the cops away from here for the next day or so. Hopefully by this time tomorrow you guys will be out of here."

"Thank you, David."

"Good luck with everything, Liz. You will keep in touch, won’t you? I’m going to miss you when you’re gone."

"Don’t worry, David. It may be a while. I don’t want them to find us so soon, but I’ll be in touch for sure."

"Bye Liz."

"Bye."

As David exited the apartment, Liz turned and looked at the wall separating her from the alien she loved. She wished everything was as simple as she had made it sound to her ex, but she knew there was still a great deal of stuff that she needed to work out with Max.

Liz flopped down on the couch with a sigh. Where was she going to start?