Max stood frozen in the doorway of the biology lab for a long moment, just drinking in the sight of her sitting before him at their lab table. All day he had been antsy, just waiting for this moment, for being able to see her, to sit beside her…hopefully to talk to her. It didn’t help his restlessness that he had sensed her around him all day as well, being in such close proximity to her for the first time since that night, even if it was just in the same school. It was as if his whole body was humming in reaction to her, and as he stepped into the lab and saw her sitting there it instantly intensified. Taking a deep breath, Max crossed the room, as her presence quickly drew him in.
The night before, Max had returned home from the pod chamber feeling instantly liberated from all of the weight that had been heavy on his shoulders for months, not counting the time his memory had been missing. The whole weekend in fact had been an ongoing struggle inside of himself, between his renewed obsession with Liz, his desperation to fix the problems between them, and the renewed knowledge of his mistakes.
Liz was correct when she said that he needed to figure things out on that front as well, but since his trip to the pod chamber, he finally felt like he could truly let go of the past, of the memory of Tess and what had happened. She was far away, and couldn’t hurt them anymore.
Since Friday night Max had known without a doubt that he would do anything and everything in his power to ensure the stability of his relationship with Liz…now he finally felt like it was a possibility.
“Hi.” Max murmured to Liz as he took his seat.
Her eyes slowly met his, and they shared a gaze, loaded down with the longing they were both feeling at that moment.
“Hi.” She replied in a soft, sad voice, dropping her eyes and studying the table awkwardly.
“I’m ready to talk…whenever you are.” Max gently announced, watching her closely as her hopeful eyes quickly shot back up to his.
“You are?” She asked curiously.
“Yeah.”
“Could we go somewhere after class?” Liz suggested. “I’d like to…talk…as well.”
Max nodded in agreement as Mr. Seligman called the class to order, pulling their attention away from each other, although for Max, his thoughts never left Liz for the whole class. He knew what he wanted to say to her…he had been thinking about it all weekend. Now all he had to do was put it into motion, to convince her that they were free to be together after all.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“Here again?” Liz asked with amusement cracking out from her voice, as Max pulled the Chevelle off the highway on the road leading to Frazier Woods. Max glanced up at her obviously surprised to hear her speak…it was the first either of them had broken the silence that had filled them throughout the entire drive. The air in the car seemed to be electrified with tension and anticipation of their upcoming talk, and both of them were attempting to use the time to clear their heads, and figure things out a bit.
“I figured it was appropriate.” Max replied, smiling softly as he stopped the car, and stepped out and around the car to let Liz out.
“Thanks.” Liz murmured as she stepped out of the car, glancing around at their surroundings, as she remembered their last few visits here. Max was right…it was an appropriate spot for their talk. It was here they had come the last time that they had needed to have a serious talk about the future of their relationship…the night that they had lost their memories. And it was also the place their new relationship had been jerked into a reality, as they received their first memory flashes.
“Should we walk?” Max suggested. Liz nodded in agreement, and they set off down the path towards the campgrounds.
Liz sighed, closing her eyes as she drank in the cool, fresh mountain air. Pausing in her thoughts for a long moment as she focused on the feeling inside her that she had been trying desperately to ignore all day…the awareness of Max within her that had seemed to pop to the surface the moment she stepped into the school that morning. The awareness that had become undeniable the moment Max walked into biology lab earlier, and it had focused entirely on his presence. She had barely been able to sit still as she waited for the period to end, so that she could get away with Max and thrive in that presence as she did now.
“Are you okay?” Max asked softly, breaking Liz out of her thoughts, as she opened her eyes to see him gazing at her in that sweet, concerned gaze that she hadn’t seen in such a long time.
“Yeah…I’m fine.” Liz insisted comfortingly, smiling at him. “I just love it here, totally surrounded by nature. It’s peaceful.”
“Yeah.” Max agreed, a hesitant look in his eyes before he continued gently. “I meant about everything that happened though.”
“Oh.” She gazed up at him, touched by his sole concern for her, and wondering when she had grown so awkward with the way he treated her. There was a time, years before, when she would have been used to it…it was a normality in their lives. But then after everything that had happened, over a year of separation, his careful attentiveness felt strange and new…even after their brief memory-free relationship.
“Are you okay?” He asked again, pausing walking as he turned to face her. The concern in his eyes was so touching it almost brought tears to Liz’s eyes, especially since there was still so much they needed to resolve.
“I’m okay.” Liz hesitantly replied. “What about you?”
“I…well, to be honest I’ve never felt so clear about everything as I do right now, Liz. I did what you wanted me to do. I spent a lot of time thinking about everything that had happened, trying to figure out where I need to stand on all of it, and I realized that you’re right. I needed to come to terms with what I did…with everything that happened. So I went out to the pod chamber, to make sure that everything there was as it seemed.”
“Was it?” Liz asked carefully.
“Tess is gone.” Max confirmed. “Probably forever, and my son is too. They’re both out of my reach, Liz. The granolith was our only way home, and now that it is gone there’s nothing I can do to help him. I will always regret what I did, and I will always wish that it could be different, that I could get him back, that he wasn’t with her, but I can’t. What I can do though is everything possible to make it up to you, Liz. I’ve hurt you more than in my worst nightmares, and I want to fix that, Liz. I’m here for good, I’m yours. And you…you’re my whole world, Liz.”
Liz’s heart fluttered as she stared into Max’s eyes, glowing down at hers with love, and suddenly she couldn’t resist reaching up and gently stroking his cheek. It was the first that they had touched all day and Liz gasped at the surge of electricity that seemed flow through her at that exact moment. She was sure that Max felt it too, particularly when he closed his eyes and leaned into her touch.
“Liz…” He murmured her name softly, like a breathless prayer on his lips, before his eyes suddenly shot open and he pulled back. “Liz…I want to be totally honest with you about all of this though.”
“Of course!” Liz exclaimed nervously, wondering what could be that bad that he felt the need to pull away.
“I just…I want to make sure you understand that I didn’t need to see the pod chamber to know that I wanted to be with you. I knew it from the start, Liz. I knew it from the moment I met you, both times, and from the moment I got my memory back I couldn’t help thinking that this was all a dream, that I had you back. You are the most important person in the world to me, and I would die if I lost you again. I couldn’t bear it.”
Max sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration before continuing. “If I had found something out of the ordinary at the pod chamber, this would all be so much harder. I would need to follow up on it, but I don’t think I could without ensuring that we could be together first.”
Liz’s eyes widened at the painful way his eyes darkened before the next shocking words poured out of his mouth.
“And I can’t help feeling like I’m the most horrible person in the world, because I was relieved to find that my son was out of my reach. I was relieved to know that there was nothing I could do about that and relieved to know that it couldn’t come between us anymore.”
“Max, no!” Liz gasped. “Don’t think like that! It isn’t horrible of you for being relieved…it’s just human emotion. You’re right…things would be more complicated between us if you could find a way back to your son. To be honest, I’m relieved too, because we won’t be put in that situation where we’d have to choose. And I know as well as you do that you would take responsibility for him if you could.”
“You’re right…I would.” Max agreed softly.
“And I know that.” Liz pressed firmly. “And I understand that. It’s one of the things I love about you. You take responsibility for your own actions…sometimes even more than you should. And you take care of the people you love, but that’s what you have to remember, Max. This is the one time where you can’t take care of the person you love. He’s gone, Max.”
“I know.” Max breathed so quietly that Liz barely heard him.
“Good.” Liz paused for a moment before continuing. “Max…I’m glad you came to terms with everything. I think it’s one of the reasons that I was so angry with you back when they first left. Because I could tell that you were avoiding dealing with it…that all you could think about was fixing things with me, when there were so many more important things that you needed to deal with at the time.”
“What about now?” Max asked her hopefully. “Are we ready to deal with us now?”
“Yeah.” Liz confirmed with a small smile. “I think we are.”
“Liz, I want to be with you.” Max stated honestly. “I don’t think I could stand it any other way.”
“I want to be with you too.” Liz replied simply.
“I know it’s complicated, and I know it’s hard, but I’m willing to do anything…I just want to make things right between us.”
“Max, it’s only complicated between us because we’ve made it complicated.” Liz suddenly burst out, and judging by the surprise on Max’s face, Liz could tell he never considered that possibility.
“What do you mean?” He asked curiously.
“I just mean that if you look at the last few years, all the complications between us came from us not listening to our hearts, to what we really wanted. We spent too much time overanalyzing our relationship, our lives, your destiny. But the whole time one thing never changed between us, and that was our feelings for each other. Our hearts knew that we belonged together, but our minds kept telling us otherwise and it initiated all the problems between us.”
“Do you really think it can be as easy as that?” Max asked in amazement. “We stop overanalyzing things and everything will be okay?”
“Yeah, I do.” Liz replied honestly.
“God you’re amazing.” Max marveled, and Liz instantly blushed.
“It’s just…I have faith in us, Max. Don’t you?”
“I do.” Max insisted quickly. “I know we can make it work.”
“I know we can too.” Liz murmured softly.
“But Liz…” Max hesitated before continuing. “What about what happened between us the other night. We’re completely avoiding that subject altogether, and we need to talk about it. Are you okay with everything that happened?”
“I’m okay with it.” Liz smiled happily. “In fact, I can’t wait until it happens again. What we did was beautiful, Max. I just wish I could remember it more clearly. I was kind of overwhelmed in the moment by the flashes.”
“Yeah…I know what you mean.” Max agreed.
“Max…I don’t have any regrets about it.” Liz assured him. “My only regret is that we made so many mistakes in the past…but we can’t do anything about that anymore. All we can do is move forward together.”
Liz leaned in closer to Max, and gently took his hand, lacing her fingers with his own, as she stared up into his eyes. He broke her gaze for a long moment, staring down at their entwined hands in awe for a long moment before meeting her eyes again.
“Together.” He agreed with a soft smile.
They walked on together, heading further into the woods silently, both of them feeling very much at ease together, like things were finally right for the first time in a long time. After hiking a short distance though, Liz froze, studying their surroundings, as another question formed in her mind.
“Max…don’t you even care about what happened that night?” She asked, suddenly concerned again. “What do you think initiated our memory loss. I went to the doctors and they couldn’t explain it, Max. There was no known scientific reason for my memory loss. What if it was an alien thing?”
“It probably was.” Max replied curiously. “But no, I don’t really care about the answers.”
“Why not?” Liz was baffled by his lack of concern.
“Because, if someone did it to hurt us, Liz, then they would have done something by now. They would have hit us while we were at our weakest…that night or some other time while I didn’t know who I was, how to use my powers. Nothing happened as a result of our memory loss except for our new relationship. Who knows, Liz? Maybe someone did it to help us?”
“I suppose you’re right.” Liz gave in with a sigh. “I suppose we’ll probably never know.”
“Probably not, and that’s why I don’t care.” Max murmured with a dreamy smile on his face as he pulled Liz into his arms and softly pressed his lips to her, mumbling against their embrace. “All that matters to me is that we’re together again.”
THE END
