Disclaimer: Roswell, its characters and situations, are owned by the WB. No infringement intended.

Author's Note: This story is the part of an evolving future storyline. All the stories currently in this storyline are included in order on the Future Arc page.

"So, who are you today? Are you Joshua Two-Two?"

"No, Grandma Diane," he said, shaking his head as if she should have known. He flapped the ends of his cape at her. "Today I’m Bulshapruti, one of the Knights of Sheleshelemakhmakh. The Knights of Sheleshelemakhmakh are a secret order of knights in Czechoslovakia--" Josh leaned in conspiratorially and dropped his voice to a stage-whisper-- "so don’t tell Grandma Nancy, ‘cause she doesn’t know the secret of Czechoslovakia yet." Grinning, he stepped back and flourished his cape. "I’m the king’s son, so I get to be the hero."

Diane Evans nodded in complete if bemused understanding, then shared an amused look with Nancy Parker, who had just walked back to their table with two cups of coffee. For a minute, Diane wondered how much Nancy had heard.

But Nancy said nothing, just set one of the coffee mugs in front of Diane and sat down in the chair opposite hers. She looked pensive.

Diane guessed that Nancy was thinking the same thing she was. They both marveled at their youngest grandchild’s fertile imagination. Unlike Nancy, however, Diane also marveled at the fact that only part of Josh’s creativity was made-up. She had never quite come to terms with the fact that the other part -- the Czechoslovakia part -- wasn’t made-up at all. But, as Josh had pointed out, that part was something that Nancy still didn’t know even after all these years. Sometimes Diane thought that her children should tell Nancy, that Nancy had a right to know, but Max and Michael were so paranoid....

"But I’m still two plus two plus two years old, Grandma Diane," Josh continued. "So later, when Mommy and Daddy come to get me, I can be Joshua Two-Two again. But I don’t wanna meet the Hooded Fang. I’ll do that tomorrow."

And with that, Josh wrapped his cape around himself and ran into the storage room at the back of the café, intent on rescuing a princess or maybe a caterpillar among the boxes.

Shaking off her earlier musings, Diane smiled at Nancy over the rim of her mug. "So, you survived yet another dinner with Max and Josh last night."

Nancy laughed. "It was ... interesting. As usual."

"Josh is a character, isn’t he? He’s a lot like Max: bright, stubborn, mostly quiet--"

"But a little less serious. Definitely stubborn."

"And he looks like Max. Except for his intense expression--"

"Yes! That one is Liz’s through and through."

Both women laughed. It was a conversation they had had many times before. They both found it reassuring to see evidence of their children in their grandchildren.

Taking another sip of her coffee, Diane looked thoughtfully at her friend. She had been meeting Nancy Parker for coffee regularly since that morning over twenty years ago when she and Philip had ended up in the Crashdown Café with Jeff and Nancy Parker, waiting for Max and Liz to show up after spending the entire night together alone in the desert.

Diane still remembered Nancy’s frantic phone call that morning. The two women had only really met for the first time earlier that week (even though Philip had gone to school with Jeff and Nancy Parker), when they had both been called into the high school principal’s office to discuss Max and Liz’s adventures in the eraser room.

After she had hung up the phone, Diane had raced to Max’s bedroom only to find it as empty as Nancy had said Liz’s was.

So Diane and Philip had gone to the Crashdown to wait with Liz’s parents for their very in-trouble teenagers to show up.

Everyone had been thinking the worst, but Jeff Parker had tried to give the two children the benefit of the doubt ... out loud at least. "They’re basically good kids, right?" he’d insisted. "They’re just using bad judgment."

Diane remembered her husband’s response as if it had been yesterday. Philip had snorted disbelievingly then agreed that it was big-time bad judgment.

Then Nancy had handed Diane a cup of coffee and said the words that still reminded Diane of a skewed version of Romeo and Juliet, with the four parents cast as the misguided Montagues and the Capulets: "Maybe they shouldn’t see each other for a little while."

And Jeff had tried again to remain open-minded: "Well, why don’t we give ‘em a chance to explain themselves?"

And his question had finally forced Diane to speak. She’d wondered aloud exactly what kind of explanation there could possibly be for two sixteen-year olds being out all night.

She had felt so frustrated, so out of touch with Max. Neither Max nor Isabel had ever given them any problems since the day she and Philip had brought them home from the orphanage. Max in particular had always been her quiet boy. He had always been shy, withdrawn, controlled. But his behavior for months that year had been out-of-character. And the most frustrating thing for her had been wondering whether his behavior had been truly out-of-character or whether she had never seen his true character.

All those thoughts had run through her head as she wondered aloud what excuse their insubordinate children might offer when they finally showed up. She remembered guessing silently that whatever explanation they offered would probably be as good an explanation as Max had been able to come up with for cutting classes earlier in the week, which had been silence.

As if on cue after that, Max and Liz had walked into the Crashdown, holding hands. Their expressions had been identical: luminous, defiant, in love, stubborn....

Diane blinked and brought herself back to the present. All that had taken place so long ago....

* * * *

Sitting across from Diane, Nancy Parker was also lost in memories. She was remembering the same long-ago day when her daughter Liz had been sixteen, and Nancy and Jeff had realized for the first time that she wasn’t their baby girl anymore.

She had been worried about Liz -- worried about her cutting classes, worried about her feverish infatuation with Max Evans, worried about her spending the night alone with a boy.

What had happened to her baby girl? she’d wondered.

She remembered musing out loud in the Crashdown that morning, while she and Jeff and Max’s parents had been waiting for their children to show up from wherever they’d spent the night. She had said that maybe Liz and Max shouldn’t see each other for a while.

Not long after that, Liz and Max had walked into the Crashdown, a united front. The strength of the raw emotion emanating from them had disturbed Nancy, had left her feeling unsettled. These were sixteen-year olds, she’d had to keep reminding herself.

Unable to contain her anxiety a minute longer, Nancy had spoken first. "So where were you?"

And Max and Liz had looked at each other, communicating silently on some higher level of understanding, their twin expressions just intensifying Nancy’s uneasiness. "We went star-gazing," they’d said in unison.

"Star-gazing?" Nancy had tried not to sound as disbelieving as she’d felt, but she’d failed miserably. Her uneasiness by then had tightened in her chest so that she had almost been having trouble breathing. "All night?"

"Don’t you believe us, Mom?" Liz had asked. And Nancy had noticed that her daughter’s entire body had been tense, her posture screaming defensiveness and defiance. Even after all these years, Nancy remembered Liz’s defiance. When was it, she wondered now (because she was sure it had happened before that day), when was it that her relationship with her daughter had become so distant?

But that day, Nancy hadn’t indulged in idle wondering about her relationship with Liz. She had shifted her frown to the boy standing beside her daughter to let him know that he was in as much trouble as Liz was. And she had been almost surprised to see his quietly protective stance; he had been standing beside Liz as if one wrong move from any of the parental units in the room would have caused him to sweep Liz away to safety.

"You keep trying to control me!" Liz had said heatedly. "This is nothing to worry about, Mom. We just lost track of the time and fell asleep out in the desert. It’s not what you’re thinking. Nothing happened."

"It’s not about control," Nancy had reminded her, glomming on to the part of Liz’s reply that had pressed her hot buttons because of their conversation the night before. "I told you that last night. I have never tried to control you."

"And I told you that you don’t even see me," Liz had retorted.

Nancy had noticed then that Liz had practically been shaking, she’d been so upset. Max must have noticed her shaking too because his arm had come around Liz’s shoulders, and he’d pulled her close to his side. And once more, they had been a calm, rational, united front.

Seeing their obvious togetherness, Nancy had been unable to think about anything beyond the fact that she no longer knew what was going on in Liz’s head. That one minute, Liz had been her little girl, sweet and hardworking, doing a great job in the restaurant and excelling at her schoolwork; and the next minute, Liz had pushed Nancy away and shut her out of her life. Nancy hadn’t even known that Liz had broken up with Kyle Valenti, let alone started dating Max Evans and gotten serious enough with Max to have been caught by the principal making a "disturbance" in the eraser room.

Seeing their obvious coupledom had also reminded Nancy of Liz’s feverishness the day before. Liz had been burning up, but when Nancy had asked her about it, again she had pushed Nancy away. Nancy had hated not knowing what was going on with her baby girl. And even more than that she had hated realizing that Liz had somehow mysteriously become a young woman when Nancy hadn’t been looking, and that she would never be her baby again.

When had her relationship with Liz become so distant? she had wondered regretfully for the thousandth time.

And then she’d seen the heart-wrenching look between Liz and Max, the look that had sung the air between them into life. That look had transcended a puppy-dog crush. It, more than anything that day or before that day, had left Nancy wondering who was this young woman in front of her, and what had she done with her baby girl.

By that time, Nancy had been so consterned and upset that her words had come out more harshly than she’d intended. "It’s obvious that you both feel strongly about each other," she’d said, speaking for the other parents even though they hadn’t discussed it first. "But we think you need a cooling-off period. We’re not sure you should be seeing each other for a while."

And both teenagers had winced, then exchanged another speaking glance.

After a minute, Max had spoken up, his voice firm and cool. "I’m sorry, but it doesn’t matter what you say."

Looking into the fierce determination in the boy’s strangely beautiful eyes, seeing the matching determination and love in her daughter’s eyes, Nancy had felt herself relenting against her better judgment.

But she’d looked at the others first to see if any of them would intercede or otherwise back her up. Jeff had had a soft look on his face, a look Nancy still called his "Sucker for Daddy’s Little Girl" face. Philip and Diane had been staring at their son as if they had never seen him before.

Something about the wonderment in their faces had caused Nancy to turn her attention back to her daughter and her boyfriend. As she’d studied the two teenagers, it had occurred to her that she had never seen them before either. They had actually been glowing.

And for one rare and beautiful moment, time had stopped, and Nancy had realized that she was looking into the purest love she had ever seen.

And Nancy had regretted not for the first time that she had always found it easy to slip into the role of disciplinarian. It had driven a wedge between her and Liz. Maybe if that wedge hadn’t’ve been there, Liz would have been able to talk to her about this incredible thing that had happened to her.

Seeing the look on her daughter’s face, Nancy had decided that she couldn’t let the wedge between her and Liz become insurmountable. So she’d relented and again spoken for the other parents. "Fine. But we want you to take things more slowly. And no more all-nighters alone."

But that had been so long ago....

Nancy sighed as she thought back to that day. Her relationship with Liz had been rocky over the years, but since Liz and Max had moved back to Roswell, it had gotten better.

All along, it had helped having Diane Evans to talk to.

Diane and Nancy had become friends over the years, drawn together by the almost frightening connection between their children.

At first, they had been meeting to worry together over the fact that Max and Liz seemed to be too serious with each other too fast. After a while, their meetings had taken on more the tenor of a support group. They were both standing outside their children’s intensely intimate relationship. As outsiders looking in, they could relate to and support each other.

And they had both been relieved when things had turned out for the best.

Liz and Max had a good marriage. They had two beautiful children. They were both successful in their chosen careers. They were happy.

What more could a parent ask?

Taking another sip of coffee, Nancy smiled at Diane. "We’re both lost in thoughts here," she remarked.

And Diane just nodded and smiled back.

* * * *

The door to the Crashdown jangled, interrupting the companionable silence between the two older women. They both looked up to see Liz Evans framed in the doorway.

Nancy Parker reacted first, waving and smiling at her daughter. Liz was still dark-haired, still slender. She was wearing black capri pants, a red top, and a black leather jacket, and on the surface at least she didn’t look all that different from the girl she’d been. The years had been kind to Liz. Being in love with and married to one’s soulmate probably ensured a kind of eternal youthfulness, Nancy thought.

As soon as she saw them, Liz waved and headed over to their table. "Hey, Moms."

Diane laughed at her silly greeting. "Liz! You’re early. Where’s Max?"

"He’s coming. He got held up at the office with a late patient."

"Mommy!" Josh had heard his mother’s voice, and came running from the storage room, his cape fluttering behind him. He flung himself around his mother’s knees, and his cape settled around them both.

Smiling down at her son, Liz ruffled Josh’s hair. "So--" she said, nodding to the cape-- "you’re Bulshapruti today?"

Josh let go of her knees and spun slowly in a circle so his mother and his grandmothers could admire the full effect of his cape. "Bulshapruti! Hero of the Knights of the Sheleshelemakhmakh!"

And Liz laughed and dropped to her knees to stop his spinning with a tight hug.

As Nancy sat back and watched her daughter hug her son, she realized that seeing her daughter as a mother had helped her "see" Liz for who she really was. And their relationship was richer for it.

As Diane sat back and watched her daughter-in-law hug her son, she thought again how ironic it was that Max and Liz had produced her bookend grandchildren. Considering that Max and Liz together were probably the most deliberate and cautious of all her children, it was truly ironic that both Claudia and Josh had been accidents. But then she remembered that day long ago, and the light of passion and love in their eyes that should have seemed wrong in sixteen-year olds but instead had just seemed right, and she told herself that she should never have been surprised.

The door jangled again, and this time it was Max, carrying three bouquets of flowers.

He went to Liz first, because he always went to Liz first. Slipping an arm around her waist, he kissed her, and together they turned to give a bouquet to each of their mothers, wishing them both a happy Mother’s Day.

And while Josh was chattering to his grandmothers about the fantastic things he’d found in the storage room, Max turned to Liz, kissed her lightly on the lips, and offered her the last bouquet. Resting his forehead against hers, he looked into her eyes and told her that she was the most beautiful mama he’d ever seen.

And Liz shoved his arm playfully then threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back. And her happy laughter filled the Crashdown.

Back to The Future Arc