Prodigal Son | (Roswell Fanfiction ) | √

THREE

"You'll do fine. You know this stuff better than anyone else."

There's hesitation before she agrees. "You're right, I shouldn't worry. I have studied for this."

"See? No problem," he assures and she smiles at him.

"Thanks, Max."

*****

He is cautious because he has to be. He threads a fine balance every time Liz addresses him. He cannot mess this up. Liz wanted out and that's the least he can give her. He finds her watching him and inhales deeply before turning to face her. She turns away while her face turns red. He decides to take the safe route.

"Still worried about that quiz?"

She stills, her eyes glued to the microscope slide. She chances a glance in his direction before shaking her head.

"I lied."

"You lied?"

She nods. "About the quiz. It's not... well, it's kinda about the quiz... I guess I'm just wondering if you've ever had the experience that you have information in your head that you don't remember that you've studied."

His heart stops beating, but she continues. "It sounds really stupid, I know. It's just... I can't remember sitting in my room studying this weekend. I can't remember this weekend at all."

Max takes a deep breath. So much for the safe route.

"You sure Maria didn't come by and decided to take your worries off studying by engaging you in some illegal drinking?"

Joking. Joking has to be safe.

But she doesn't react. The frown on her forehead deepens. "But if I didn't study, then how come I have the information? If I got drunk and forgot the whole of Saturday I wouldn't have been able to study."

He couldn't really tell her that with everything going on at the time, she had probably studied for the quiz the weekend before. But since the weekend before had entailed her searching for the true reasons behind Alex's murder he had been forced to erase whole days. Feigning ignorance seemed to be the better option.

"Liz, I'm not sure I really follow."

She looks at him, a look so intense that he wants to squirm before she discovers his darkest secrets, and then laughs softly. "I'm crazy. Sorry, Max. I didn't mean to dump this on you. I must be going insane. Maybe I'm getting too little sleep or something."

He shrugs. "Well, you know what they say; there's a fine line between genius and insanity."

She smacks him on the arm. "Nice one, Max."

As she smiles and looks down the microscope, Max closes his eyes and tries to prevent his heart from sinking into the guilt.

Now he knows why Maria decided to follow Liz into amnesia. Before the shooting, Max had wanted to tell Liz Parker about his secrets so that he wouldn't have to hide that part of himself from her. So that he wouldn't have to lie.

After everything they had been through, he was now right back to where he started.

*****

Four years later

She silently closes the door behind her and shrugs out of Max's sweater. Sweater in hand, she walks into the bathroom and turns on the light. She turns on the water in the shower and while waiting for the warm water to kick in she faces the mirror. She halts, her eyes moving over the face that she thought she would recognize by now. She brushes the hair away from her cheeks, pulling it back into a bun with her left hand, which makes her cheekbones more prominent and her eyes look bigger.