Some Things Never Change

It had been three years since he left. He didn't know what he was expecting to find there - his friends, they were sure to be gone, all of them had left Roswell with him, at the same time but each with their own destinations in mind. He had contented himself with being a drifter, never staying too long in one place and making sure not to draw attention to himself. He hadn't tried keeping in touch, hell, any one of them could be anywhere by now. So the last thing he expected to find was her, still waiting tables at the diner like old times, still in that skimpy piece of cloth they called a uniform (hell, like he ever complained) and looking not one day older since they left.

"Michael?"

She was staring at him, as shocked to see him there as he was plumb bewildered to see her.

"Hey, Parker. Miss me?"

Oh yes, it was him alright. Michael Guerin and his trademark, possibly even patented smirk. Not to mention that irritating habit of calling her by her last name. Would it kill him, she wondered to actually call her Liz more than once in a while? But that was just Michael, always aloof, always holding everyone at arm's length. Impersonalizing everything.

"You were gone? Gee, I hadn't noticed."

Yep. Liz Parker in the flesh and sassy as heck. Michael laughed as he looked her over. And at her looking him over. Both of them asking at the same time, "What are you doing here?"

More laughter. Then her face changed. "Look, Michael, I'd really like to talk so just let me get you something and have someone cover for me. My shift's almost over anyway." He nodded as she went off to get him the usual. Cherry Coke, a burger and Tabasco. No forgetting that last vital condiment of choice.

"So." He started off casually, as he began on his burger. "Where's Max?"

Silence. A wince. He was sure he saw her wince.

"What happened, Liz?" Please, don't let him be dead. Not her boyfriend, not his best friend.

"The whole thing's kinda complicated...but let me just simplify it." She took a deeep breath. "Max, he kinda...lost it." Too shocked to say a word, he let her continue. "After we left Roswell, I went to USC and we lived in LA, with Langley. Things were fine the first year, it was just so perfect. No alien-hunters after Max, no running from other evil extra-terrestrials, it was just normal. Plain vanilla, no excitement normal.Then the second year, he started getting weird. Spacing out on me, talking to himself."


"You're trying to tell me,"Michael stared at her, incredulous. "Max just went cuckoo? All by himself, nothing triggered it at all?"

Shaking her head, she explained further. "After everything we went through, it kinda got to him. We, you, me, all thought he was coping but he wasn't. And it seems that he just happened to have a latent tendency towards schizoprenia. At least that's what the shrink said." She sighed, staring down into her glass.

"Where is he now?"

"Still with Langley. He takes medication and it helps most of the time. I would have stayed with him but he didn't want me there. He just can't bear the thought, he says, of not being able to make me happy. After everything he said he put me through."

"And you left?"

"No! Well, yeah, after he threatened to go off with Langley so I'd never know where he was. At least if he stays put, I know that he's safe and taken care of. Langley keeps me updated."

Michael stayed silent as she told him about Maxwell finally completely retreating into a shell, not talking or doing much of anything at all. Sometimes, he would let her in, into his mind and she saw he had created an entire world inside his head where he was happy. He wanted her to be happy too. That was what he had told her before finally shutting her out completely.

Isabel had come to LA, trying to talk some sense into her brother but had left in tears as she too, was unable to reach him. Liz let Michael know Maria was in New York still pursuing her songwriting dreams and seeing Billy. Kyle was with Isabel, romanticly, both of them studying in San Fransisco. All Czechoslovakian and friends of Czechoslavakians accounted for.

Liz transferred from USC to University of New Mexico and was staying with her folks, commuting from Roswell. At least she was close to her family. It was some comfort, what with her closest friends all far away and her former boyfriend a certified headcase.

"Seeing as you've got nowhere to go, why don't you just stay with me? In the guest bedroom, I mean." Was she blushing? Liz hoped it wasn't obvious but from the way Michael was smiling at her, it probably was.

"Well, Parker, I wasn't planning to stay long. But maybe I'll humor you with my company."
She snorted. She looked cute when she snorted. An observation Michael vowed to keep to himself.

As she showed him up to the room above her parent's diner, he couldn't help to notice the silence. "Where are your folks?" He queried, an eyebrow lifting.

He looked kind of cute like that, she thought to herself. A thought she wasn't likely to share with anyone, nope, no more lusting after males not of this earth. "Another one of those restauranteurs' conventions. Won't be back till Monday."

"It's Friday..so you and me alone this weekend, Parker? Better lock your bedroom door." He teased as he stretched out on the guestroom bed. "As if you couldn't use some of your alien voodoo to unlock it, Spaceboy. I won't bother." She laughed, rather enjoying their playful banter. When was the last time she felt this carefree, she wondered. And with Michael, of all people. But then his next question had her thrown.

"Would you want me to unlock it?"

He was standing so close to her now, behind her, his warm breath on her ear sending small sensations down her spine.
"Would you, Liz?"
He asked again, noticing her shiver in response.

Part II

She turned around to face him, taking in the look in his eyes and saw in them the heat of her own desire. His lips were ever so slightly parted as he waited for an answer, some answer. It just seemed the most natural thing to do to reach up and pull those lips to her own. Some things couldn't be expressed quite so well in words.

Gasping a little in surprise, it didn't take him long to adjust to the feel of her kiss. Before returning it, slowly, hungrily and with increasing passion. It had been a long time since he'd kissed anyone and he was enjoying this. More specifically, he was enjoying kissing her. His head felt curiously empty of all thought but full of what seemed like a thousand roman candles exploding and a feeling of exhiliration. Absolute exhiliration.

Liz groaned as he pulled her in closer to him, lifting her up onto a table as her legs wrapped around his waist. She kept her eyes closed as his lips left hers and moved to her cheek, trailing down her neck and hovering around her collarbone, then slowly travelling up her neck, lightly kissing her chin before caressing the side of her nose with his own. Feeling his gaze, she returned it and she could see what he wanted was all she wanted, yet he was just making sure, asking, pleading her consent with his eyes.

He almost let out a sigh as she took his hands and slipped them under her shirt, on her back and guiding his fingers as he unhooked her brastrap. Then she just had to catch him off-guard by pulling away and pulling off her shirt and the bra up over her head. Leaving him to return the favor by promptly removing his tee-shirt. It was a bit of a struggle trying not to keep their hands off each other as they undressed on the way to the bed but, they managed.

Perching on his hands above her reclining form, he couldn't help but think she looked so tiny underneath his 6"2 frame. Michael supposed he had been staring a wee bit too long from the wry look she gave him and the muttered, "It's getting lonely down here...."

She thought he was never coming down. Revelling in his touch, she moaned softly as his warm hands roamed, roughly caressing the length of her body, his lips on her neck, on her shoulders and as she let out a tiny shriek, a nipple. While one hand kneaded one breast, his mouth was busying itself on the other tasting, nibbling and adding an isolated bite now and then.

"Mmmm....". The little sounds she made as his tongue circled a nipple were damn arousing, he thought to himself. But not as arousing as the thought of her reaching climax in his arms. Her arms grasped at him as his head moved lower, showering kisses between her breasts down her chest and on her stomach. Flicking his tongue ever so lightly into her navel, he was gratified to see her arch off of the bed. Won't be long now, he mused as his tongue trailed even lower down to her pink nub.

She had to catch herself from bucking straight off the bed as his mouth met her clit and reason seemed so far away, she was close to going insane with wanting, the need for him, his touch and what it was doing to her. Her forehead was heavily creased, her mind just so focused on release that when it finally came, she could do no more than tremble, shivering violently in its wake.

He loved the scent of her, sweet and musky and the sheen of sweat on her tanned skin gave it a soft glow, as he took in the sight of her. She didn't give him long to enjoy that though, pulling him to her, mouth reaching up to capture his, hands on his behind pushing him inside her and her throat letting out a sharp hiss as he entered. He was aroused enough but the way she was looking at him, the way their eyes met with each thrust, with each return from her was intoxicating and he felt as if he could go on forever. His body had other ideas as he found himself going faster, and deeper until he finally gave in to the feeling of her walls wrapping around him.

They lay there side by side, in the quiet you could only hear their breathing as it steadily grew silent. Wordlessly, he reached for her again, pulling her close to him, the both of them surrendering to the blissfulness of sleep.

Part III

It was morning and as she opened her eyes and felt the arms around her, Liz couldn't help but feel as if she had landed in some alternate universe. This couldn't have been real. Here she was, in bed with the former boyfriend of her best friend who also, coincidentally had been her ex-boyfriend's best friend to boot. To her mind the situation couldn't have been more wrong but what she felt was telling her that it was right. A weird kind of, crazy kind of, twisted and totally out of this world right. She only hoped that he thought so too but then you could never tell with Michael.

"Morning." He mumbled to her, awake but eyes still shut tight.
"Morning." She smiled as he continued holding her, pulling her closer.
"Michael."
He grunted in reply.
"We need to talk again, I think.." She turned around to face him and as she did, he moved until her head was nestled under his chin.
"So, talk." Liz couldn't help but giggle.
"Do you really think we can have a serious talk in this position?"
"There are a whole lot of other positions I can think of which would definitely make talking very, very difficult."
She laughed, and so did he.That is, just before he rolled over and pinned her underneath him as he started to make love to her all over again. It was quite some time before their sentences consisted of more than one very loudly vocalized word or name, depending.

After a shower, where they again, got distracted, the two finally made it downstairs and proceeded to discuss what had been going on the day before, the whole night and in the morning.

"Why, Michael?"

He shrugged. "I guess it felt right at the time."

"Does it still feel right now?" She bit her lip, staring at the floor.

It was a long while before he said anything while in his eyes lay a look so soft she could almost feel it caress her.

"Liz, a lot has happened since we last met. Things have changed in your life and mine, we're not the same people, well, not quite. But one thing that remains is that I care about you. I always have and I always will, that could never change."

Taking her hand in his, gently stroking her fingers he went on.

"All those years away from the people that mattered the most to me thought me some stuff. Like you'll never know when they'll be taken away from you and I told myself that if I ever met up with any of you again, I'd be sure to at least let you know that you meant something to me. Even Kyle, even though I did consider him a prick most times." He grinned as she laughed.

"Well, that's good to hear. Kyle would be so touched. And oh, Michael, I've always cared about you too. You weren't just Max's friend, you...I saw you as my friend too. Ever since the day you returned my journal to me."

Holding her close, he whispered, "I know."

"I know, Liz. That's one thing you had in common with Maria. I could just see you, no pretense, no bullshit, I'd see you always shining through. Now after seeing you again, I don't ever want to stop. I just want to wake up and still have you right in front of me. If Max wasn't in love with you and I wasn't in love with Maria, I could have loved you then. And now I realize just how much I want to. Be. In. Love. With you, Liz Parker."

She answered him the best way she knew how, taking his head in her hands, resting her forehead against his and in a small voice, said,"I want to see you too, Michael."

Later that night:

"I'm still Liz Parker, still writing in this journal but things have changed. Max is gone and I miss him. I miss him so much it hurts. He tried to give me the gift he gave me onc, which he thought he took away. He gave me my life back. I didn't think I could imagine a life without him but now I can. Michael's here now and he's not going to take Max's place. No, not ever but he has a place in my heart now and we're going to face the new life we're gonna lead together.

I'll always love Max, he was my first love and a part of me forever. But I can't be with him now and there's nothing I can do to change that no matter how hard I try. So now I'll try and do what he wished, to live. Not for him or anyone else. I'm Liz Parker and I know I owe him at least that much."


The End

That was it, folks.
Finis. Hope you like it, am starting on my Polar version of what happens after "Graduation". I HATE that episode, everything so rushed and the writers trying to neatly wrap things up.
Max-"Gee..I'm not as much as a big shot as I thought, huh. So before I screw up again, marry me Liz."
Liz-"YES! I love you, Max even if you've been a total dipshit..oops, I'm getting these weird flashes, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!"
Michael-"Life sucks. Always has. Am not king. Damn. Maria, I love you!!!!! There I said it. Byeee.....oops, hey again."
Maria-"This all blows. Majorly. But Michael finally said he loved me. Go me!"
Isabel-"Damn. I have to be an alien runaway instead of living the cushy life with Jesse. Oh well, least Kyle is still around to follow me like a dog."
Kyle-"Woof, woof!"
Valenti-"Great! Sonny boy's gone now I can continue dating my barely out of high school girlfriend!"
Me-"..."

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