It’s September18th, I’m Liz Parker, and it is such a relief to be able to say that again without any doubt at all in my mind. Now that I’ve had my memories back for two days, I’ve had a lot of time to think, on so many different things, and everything always comes back to Max.

It was two years ago today that Max Evans walked into my life, pressing his healing hands to the fatal wound on my chest, and forever changing my life.

Since recovering my memories, I’ve been reliving every moment humanly possible, reminiscing about almost everything possible. It’s funny…you don’t realize just how precious all your memories are until you’ve lost them, but now I thrive off of them, and for the first time I’ve realized the never ending cycle that Max and I seem stuck in. We seem to be continuously putting each other through these incredible amounts of pain, but somehow, through it all, we always manage to find our way back to each other…and all of it seems to have this intense underlying theme.

Maybe we are meant to be together.

I feel naïve even thinking that after all that has happened, but still…I’m so confused, so torn on everything that has happened between us.

If it isn’t complicated then he probably isn’t a soulmate…that was some of the last advice that Grandma Claudia gave me before she died, and I’ve thought about it a lot lately, because things with Max are beyond complicated.

I know he made some serious mistakes, sleeping with Tess, following his destiny, but the thing is that he knows that, and I know that he knows that. I feel petty, lingering on that now when right before we lost out memories I was ready to let it go…but that’s the problem with getting your memories back, everything seems new to you, both the good memories and the bad. In that moment when I remembered everything, it was like reopening the wound in my heart, and now I’m just desperately trying to mend it.

And right along side of all of the resurfacing pain, there’s something else that is loaded down on my mind…the fact that I gave myself to Max, freely and willingly. I don’t know if I would take it back now, I just wish I could remember it as clearly as all of the painful memories that came back in that moment. We did make love, but at the same time we didn’t, because it wasn’t about us. It may have started being about us, but the moment the flashes started the whole moment changed…it was about the memories, our memories. So at the same time, it both happened, and it didn’t.

I can’t help wondering, as I sit here alone on my balcony, what exactly it meant to Max…or if wherever he is right now, he’s just as confused as I am about the whole situation. Or if he’s thinking of me at all…

~~~~~~~~~~~

Max sighed, a long wisp of air rushing from his lungs as he stood beneath the star-brushed sky, slowly shutting the door of his car as he stared upwards at the huge rock formation towering above him.

He expected it to look different, after all that had gone down here a mere four months earlier, but it looked exactly the same as it did the first time he saw it a year and a half before. It was strange that it didn’t after the huge explosion they experienced when the granolith took off years before.

Max clenched his fists in anger at the thought of that day, the last fatal day before everything had changed for him. It was that day that he realized for the first time just how lost he was, how far he had strayed from the path that he belonged on. Tess had played him like a fool, and he was so caught up in his misery from losing Liz, that he willingly followed.

There were so many what ifs stuck in his head. What if he had just stayed strong? What if he hadn’t gone to Tess? What if he had believed his heart rather than his eyes when it came to Liz and Kyle? What if he listened to his heart when it told him that Liz was still in love with him?

But he couldn’t allow himself to think like that. The past was the past, and he could do nothing to fix it. What he could do however, was let the past go, say goodbye to all of his mistakes, all of his wrong doings, and take a step back in the right direction, find his way back to the path he had strayed from. He needed to find his way back to Liz…and he couldn’t do that until he was sure that everything with Tess was over.

Summoning all of the courage within him, Max made his way up the path towards the entrance to the cave where he was born.

As the rock rumbled away, Max sucked in his breath in shock at the sight awaiting him. The rocks outside may not have changed, but the cave within was drastically different.

The first change that stood out to Max before he entered was the lighting inside. The last time he had stepped inside the cave, there was a dim, greenish glow lighting the now dark interior. A light that Max guessed must have originated from the granolith. Now that the ship was gone, there was nothing left to light the room.

Instantly Max held his hands into the hair, allowing a soft glow to emanate from them, lighting the cave. What Max saw made his heart race, both with excitement, and with sadness.

The cave had been completely destroyed by the falling rocks which had consumed the place as Tess had taken off. As far as Max could tell, it was now just a normal cave. The pods had been destroyed, all the secret chambers had been destroyed. The once expansive cavern now spanned only a few feet before him.

Without a second glance, Max turned and left the cave without turning back.

There was no longer any doubt in his mind. Tess and his son were gone, his only way home destroyed. There was no way to get him back, no way to contact home, and no way to return to save his people as the granolith had been intended.

His future was finally free…free for him to be with Liz.

A soft smile on his face, Max returned to his car and sped quickly away from the rocks.

He just hoped that Liz was ready for him, because any doubts in his mind were completely gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a busy night in the Crashdown, or at least it seemed like it must have been by the incredible mess Liz found in the dining room as she came downstairs after writing in her journal. Her parents had been giving her more time off than she needed since she had lost her memory, and although that Sunday night was a night that Liz normally would have worked, instead Maria and Agnes had been left to fight the masses.

Now only Maria was left, sweeping the restaurant floor as Liz stepped into the room.

“Need some help?” Liz asked softly, shutting the door behind her as she headed over to her best friend.

“Hey.” Maria greeted her friend as she entered the room and started collecting the salt and pepper shakers for refilling. “Thanks…you know Agnes. The moment I locked the door she was gone. She can’t stand to work a second of overtime.”

“Yeah, that’s Agnes for you.” Liz laughed softly.

Maria glanced up at the pensive look on her friend’s face from across the room curiously, before asking nonchalantly, “So, I haven’t seen you at all this weekend. What have you been up to? Did you have a hot date with Max or something?”

“Yeah…something.” Liz murmured softly for a moment, before stopping in her work and turning to her friend. “I got my memory back, Maria…all of it.”

The broom hit the floor with a loud crash, the only noise for a long moment as Maria stared at Liz in shock, barely believing her ears. It was the one thing she had been waiting to hear for months, and now that it had happened, Maria didn’t even know how to react. She just stood there for a long moment, staring silently at Liz in shock, before quietly murmuring, “All of it?”

“Everything.” Liz confirmed with a sad smile.

“When? How?” Maria gaped.

“Friday night…with Max. His are back too. I can’t really go into how, but we’re both okay now.”

There was another long silence, as Maria let it all sink in.

“I’ve missed you so much.” Maria finally cried, rushing at her friend and wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug. “It was so scary, Liz. It was like I lost you, but you were still there right in front of me…just not you. I didn’t know what to say, what to do around you.”

“Maria…you were fine.” Liz comforted her friend. “You handled me just fine.”

“I did?” Maria asked meekly.

“Yeah…well, except for one thing.” Liz paused for a moment, before turning slightly harder eyes on her friend. “Maria…I’m not happy with you for how you handled me and Max. I know that you’re just trying to protect me, but you have to let me make my own decisions, and respect them when my mind is made up.” Liz sighed, pulling back from her friend and pacing away for a long moment.

“Liz…I…”

Liz cut Maria off quickly. “Please, just let me finish. There are things you don’t know, Maria…like that Max and I did get back together right before we lost our memories. I made that choice even knowing everything.”

“You did? Liz…but why?” Maria gaped. “After all that he put you through.”

“I love him, Maria. He’s my soulmate. It isn’t supposed to be easy. Maybe this is like our test, like we only deserve the happiness we can find together if we prove ourselves worthy by overcoming all obstacles first.”

“Do you really believe that?” Maria asked softly.

“Yes, I think I do.” Liz confirmed with a soft smile. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have found my way back to him when I didn’t even know who he was.”