Rating- PG

Category- M/L

Summary- Its a sniffy future fic involving Max and Liz. I don’t want to spoil it, so just READ. I promise, it won’t hurt or stupefy you.

Spoilers- The End of the World, I guess. And Max in the City! Kind of. I mean, we mention the summit.

Disclaimer- As much as we want Jason Behr, we don't own Roswell, its content, or characters. Yumm...Max Evans...

Authors' Notes-

Ariana- Major props to my spiffy Pixie-who-got-a-7+, and my Driver's Ed teacher. His class is so boring that I get to work on storylines fifth period. I dove feedback to itty bitty pieces.

Pixie- What can I say?! I adore my Ariana! Heehee. She wrote pretty much the whole story, I just added some sentences and delayed her. ^_^ Because I’m an evil procastinator. Bwahaha. Oh, and also, I want to be Majandra Delfino when I grow up. Or, right now is fine too.

~*~

Max Evans awoke with a start. He rolled over, kicking his bedmate. Tess Evans groaned and turned to face him.

"What's wrong, Max?" she mumbled, still half asleep. Her curly blond hair framed her face, like a lion’s mane. She squinted, attempting to make out his form.

"Nothing, I... just need to go for a drive."

Tess was back to sleep almost before he'd finished his sentence. Max crawled out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a jacket over his boxers and t-shirt. He shoved his feet into a pair of tennis shoes and trotted quietly out the door.

He had felt her, Liz, for the first time in over five years. He had almost dared to believe that their connection was broken, but if it had been it was back, strong as the day he healed her.

She was dying somewhere, he was sure of it. She was in pain, and he could almost feel it in his bones. He had no way of knowing what had happened, but he knew he would be guided to her. Hang on for just a little bit longer, Liz, I'm coming...

He got in the Jeep, and raced off. He hoped that she heard him, that he wasn't too late. She was going to die if he didn't go to her, he could feel it. He pushed on, despite his lingering feelings of dread at seeing her yet again. He didn't know, couldn't understand how or why he still felt her. They hadn't seen each other since the day they'd graduated, and that had been devastating. He knew he'd promised never to bring it up, but that day he had.

~

Liz combed her hair back over her shoulder again and twirled in front of the mirror. Her graduation gown made her so happy. It was yet another reminder that she was leaving Roswell, and soon. There was a knock at the door, and she called over her shoulder, "Come in."

Max walked in and looked at their reflection in the mirror. They both smiled, he more weakly than she. She sensed his tension and turned to face him.

"Max, is something bothering you?"

Max bit his lip and began what was obviously an ill-prepared speech, "Liz, I know we've been good friends since I came back from the summit last year, and I've loved that. I know I told you that I'd drop it, but I just have to ask you one more time. Something about it just doesn't feel right. I feel like you're lying to me, but I just can't understand why. Did you, Liz?" he choked out the last words, "Not did you sleep with him, but did you ever love me? I loved you," he corrected himself, "I love you."

Caught off-guard, it was all Liz could do to not start sobbing. "You--he--I--" she stuttered incomprehensibly. Her hands and eyes searched blindly around her for some sort of distraction. There was none. She bit her lip, and blinked rapidly.

Max was on the verge of tears himself. "It's just one word, Liz. Yes or no. If you say no, I'll never bother you again. I'll leave, I'll move as far away as I can, but I need to know."

Liz looked up at him, her eyes brimming with hot tears. She shook her head slowly and walked away.

~

It had never made sense. He knew she'd said no, but he also knew that it just had to be a lie. He couldn't have felt her love so surely if she hadn't. Liz was a horrible liar, she always had been. But why would she have lied about hat if she had loved him? He was sure it had something to do with how she knew about the Granolith, but it was completely beyond his realm of comprehension. And he had always been too afraid for the answer to ask more insistently. He could see how it hurt her.

He had married Tess a few years later. It had seemed the logical thing to do. He doubted he'd ever see Liz again, and Michael had convinced him that he needed to move on with his life. Michael, however, had remained friends with Maria and unattached otherwise. Isabel had left Alex without even a real goodbye.

Before Max knew it, he was at the scene of a car accident, along with several emergency vehicles right after him. He jumped out of the Jeep and into the chaos.

Looking around frantically, Max's mind raced. He couldn't find her. There were people everywhere and he didn't even know if she was alive and why did he come when she didn't love him and how did he feel her...

Then he heard her weak voice in the clamor of cars and yelling, breaking through his own traffic jam of thoughts and memories. He heard it as if she was right next to him. It still made him shiver, ever so slightly.

"Max," she whispered desperately, "Max, where are you?"

He whirled around and there she was, laying forgotten on the ground. He knelt beside her wilted body, brushing her long, dark hair from her face. "Liz?"

She looked him straight in the eye, hers dull and bloodshot. "Max, I knew you'd find me. I knew you'd come. You always did, you know. Whenever and wherever I needed you, you were there."

Max ran his eyes down the length of her body. Everything below her waist was mangled, twisted and bloody beyond recognition. He tore his eyes away, his own legs aching. From her pain. He focused on her mouth, her lips. He focused on her eyes. His Liz. "Liz, I..."

She smiled painfully. "I'm going to die, Max. I just want you to know--I didn't."

Max looked at her in shock. "No, no you aren't. I'll get you out of here, I will, and I'll heal you. It'll all be all right, you'll see," he paused. He tried to push away the tiny thread of hope wrapping itself around his heart. "Didn't what?"

"I didn't sleep with him. That night, or ever."

Max was crying softly, his head to Liz's chest. He listened to the sound of her slowing heartbeat. "Why?"

She sighed. "Look at me, Max."

He looked up at her, tears running down his face in torrents.

She went on, "I love you. I think, somehow, I've always loved you. I can't explain it, and I won't try."

"I love you too, Liz. Please, just hold on a little longer." He was weeping for her, for him, for six years lost, and for the future they would never see. He kissed her gently, hesitantly.

There was a flash and for a moment, he saw her and the other him, the future him who would never exist. The one who had married Liz, and watched everyone else die. This other him had a terrible life, but somewhere deep down, Max suspected that this other him had been happier. He heard their song--a slow, sweet, sad, poignant melody.

Liz looked at him sadly. "Now you know."

Max lifted her up and cradled her in his arms. "You can't die."

Liz half-smiled. "I will die, Max. But it'll be all right, you'll see. Just believe." Then she was gone.

~*~

Max never told Tess why he insisted that their daughter be named Sheryl Elizabeth. He never told her why sometimes he woke up crying. He never told her why sometimes when she woke up, he was gone. He never told her why his credit card bill had so many charges for flowers.

Sometimes, late at night, Tess heard Max singing. He would never explain why. She was as kind as she could be--she didn't deserve to know that the husband she loved still visited the grave of one Elizabeth Claudia Parker every day, leaving six white roses, one for every lost year.

...that not everything is gonna be the way
you think it ought to be
it seems that every time I try to make it right it all comes down on me
please say honestly you won't give up on me
and I shall believe...

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