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lambourngb · 3 years

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day 1 who do you think you are - character recs

Creator’s Week 2021 for @roswellnewmexicocreate - Day 1 : Character Recs

This is my favorite fandom event, and my third year doing it. The last year was really difficult, and fanfic more than ever was my escape from it. Shout out to all the writers, commenters, and lurkers who kept fandom going during it.

Rosa Ortecho:

heal it or break it all apart by @adiwriting : (7,600) All Rosa’s ever done is break things. Her entire life she’s destroyed everything she’s ever touched. So it’s really no surprise when she comes back that her powers do the same. Alternatively- 4 times somebody tries to get Rosa to seek help with her powers and one time she decides to help herself. GEN

why i like it: I pretty much love whatever Britt writes, but in the light of how season 3 is going, I found myself returning to this fic more than a few times. She really captures the fierce but vulnerable Rosa in this beautifully.

Kyle Valenti:

at every occasion i’ll be ready for a funeral by @bydayornight (1,330) Kyle goes on a vacation after the events of 3x04 and meets an unlikely beach companion. GEN

why i like it: Christine has become one of my new favorite writers, and has been a season 3 coda writing machine. Here is where we all would like Kyle to be - lounging on a beach without a care in the world (with that RNM twist! lol) She also does a brilliant job with the Kyle and Michael vibes here.

Maria Deluca:

Butter(bar)flies by @andrea-lyn (4,447) When all of Maria’s people fly away for new opportunities, she needs to find new ones. The lost decade and what should have been. MILUCA

why i like it: Manda has written some of my favorite stories, and even has dragged me into Ted Lasso, but this little lost decade AU is one of my favorites. She captures the flirty vibe of season 1 Michael/Maria, and inserts it into a time when it really makes sense to me for that a friends-with-benefits-relationship should have begun, to give weight to a choice for Michael. Maria is wonderfully characterized here, and it really makes it clear how a real love triangle should have been structured.

Liz Ortecho:

heart of lightning (a roswellian tale) by @bitch-ass-aliens (20,095) When Ser Elizabeth Ortecho of the Roswellian Court is sent by Queen Isobel to retrieve the heart of the missing King Maxwell from a fearsome lightning dragon guarding it, she knows success could bring her one step closer to completing a quest of her own. Ten years ago, a mage named Ophiuchus curse her sister with eternal slumber, and Liz has been searching for him ever since. Saving the king could be the key to learning Ophiuchus's true identity and saving Rosa. But the dragon is not what it appears to be. Soon Liz finds herself needing to guard her heart from feelings forgotten long ago as she and her friends journey back to Roswell, King Max by their side, with more than just the fate of Rosa hanging in the balance. For Ophiuchus's plans are bigger and more dangerous than any of them realize. ECHO

why i like it: This was part of the RNM Big Bang last year and as a fellow participant, I did my best to read and feedback the other submissions, which meant reading something that wasn’t Malex 😂🤯 - suz made it easy, writing a beautifully detailed medieval AU that retold the story of Rosa, Noah, and Max’s S1 sacrifice, through the amazing POV of Ser Liz. This story had everything I love about Liz- her devotion to her family, her bravery in doing hard things, and her love for Max.

Max Evans:

highway to the sun by @angsty-nerd (22,236) Noah’s heart is failing, and Max is on the verge of death. His final wish is to see Liz one last time, so he and Michael road trip to Los Angeles so that Max can say his goodbyes. ECHO

why i like it: Another part of the 2020 RNM Big Bang - Instead of a focus on Liz in this Echo story, we’re deep in the psyche of Max Evans, who is trying to tie up loose ends before he dies. I love the atmosphere of the road trip, the sadness of the clock that Max is trying to run out, and the whole Michael/Max brotherly bond in this story. It’s got all the sweet elements of some of my favorite romantic dramas - like “Beaches” or “Dying Young”, but mixed with the sci fi of RNM. Even though it was written pre-season 3, I really love how it ties up season 2 here.

Alex Manes:

i’m just like my mother, we both love to run @meneatyoghurt (5,211) After what his dad does, he runs and runs and runs. A look at Alex's relationship with running, from track and field to leaving Roswell. MALEX IMPLIED

why i like it: Alex is one of my favorite characters on RNM, mostly because of how hard he tries in spite of his flaws. I love a good story that focuses on why it’s a struggle for Alex to be present, and doesn’t shy away from the fallout of his actions. This is a gorgeous look into Alex and his tendency to run to feel safe, and how that affects his relationships, and why he wants to stop. I just have a lot of feelings about Alex, especially after reading this.

Michael Guerin :

looking for yourself out there by @haloud (6,670) It’s early; it’s a weeknight. Michael can only be here to get blasted or for Marco himself, and both of them know it.It’s been a while since this was a game, for Michael. The flirting he did with Maria was something else, a class all her own. Sex, and the lead up to sex, for the longest time was either life-or-death or it was a helpless, hopeless lashing out for any human contact. (It was either Alex, or it was Maria, or it wasn’t.)So this is nice. MICHAEL/OTHER

why i like it: I privately think hal understands Michael Guerin like no other, and their fic is just a delight for anyone who wants to look under that macho cowboy exterior to see him. One of the things we both agree on as Michael Guerin fans, is that Alex is not the male exception for Michael. And while the show will probably never deliver a Michael/OMC storyline like they have with Max/Jenna, Isobel/Blair, Liz/Heath, Alex/Forrest - that’s what fanfic is for and this story is so satisfiying. If you don’t come away from this story loving Marco and wishing he was real... I don’t know what to tell you. I was so inspired by it, I wrote my own Michael/OMC story.

Isobel Evans:

future starts slow by @foramomentonly (4,799) The bartop is sticky, but Maria's skin is clean and soft.This is how it starts. Brushes of fingers as Maria passes over a glass of wine; her cool, dry hand cupping Isobel's wrist as she reads her palm; Isobel's fingertips pressed to Maria's temples, wisps of curls caught around her knuckles as they practice combining their powers. MARIBEL

why i like it: It’s just facts that Maria and Isobel have incredible chemistry, their banter is off the charts, and I love this sexy story of Isobel approaching Maria for more after they’ve been circling each other for a while. It’s a gorgeous look at two strong women who very rarely let down their guards, but for each other, they do. The sex is really hot, but I think what lingers most with me is how this story rewards the swan dive of hope, Isobel after a lifetime of “being who she should be” becomes who she wants to be, a woman who loves fiercely but not destructively. Of course, Maria is no wilting flower here, which makes it all the sweeter.

If you like any of these recs, please leave a comment on the story- a ‘this was awesome’ is enough to propell an author into the stratosphere with happiness, so don’t worry about coming up with a unique, never before shared insight- sometimes a keyboard smash and emogi makes all the difference!

#rnmcreate21 #character recs day 1 #maribel #rnm-echo #gen recs #fanfic recs #roswell new mexico #RNM

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maeglinthebold · 3 years

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2021 Creator Wrap

This year I'm down from 2020's 500k (!) words to "only" 217,124 words, with the usual disclaimer that cowriting and continuing ongoing fics means these counts are off.

These words were spread over 58 fics in 20ish fandoms. My favorites were all RNM, though I swear I wrote in other fandoms, too, and are below the cut:

From Roswell With Love

Michael/Alex/Maria, 28k, 60s spy AU cowritten with @haloud. A lot of fun to write, and more fun coming!

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Gen, Alex & Maria-centric, 2k, or, how I think Alex would handle all Maria-haters in the fandom. Fantastic art by @daughterofelros.

Those Wild Pony Nights

Malexa, 12k, a song!fic inspired by the song written by the crew of RNM and performed in a S3 episode (8?), wherein Alex helps Michael woo Maria back and also falls in love with him on accident.

Near Death Experience

Just 2k of Dallas/Heath fic before we even learned Dallas' last name. Look, the child actors redeemed like 5 episodes of bland Heath in 5 minutes, and I ran with that. Accepting prompts to add to it!

I Should be at Church but I'm Raging on a Sunday

Gen, Rosa and Arturo centric fic, 2k, where Arturo tells the Vatican about his miracle and Rosa has to be interviewed for sainthood. Recorded as a podfic that's funnier than the original by the lovely christchex!

An honorable mention: Not mine, but I beta'd and did art for @myrmidryad's epic Soon or Never which has murdered me all the year in such good ways. 💖 Malexa old west daemon!AU, clocking in at 170k of slow burn goodness.

As always, community is important to my fandom experience, and my favorite part of last year and also plugging for this year was @rnmbingo where commenting on fics leads to bingo boards and prizes. 2021 was a great success, and if Tumblr doesn't entirely shit the bed over Apple, 2022 is looking good, too.

I hope you'll use other people's years in review, as I will, to go looking for fanfic to comment on!

#roswell new mexico #rnm fic #stuff i write #2021

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eveningspirit · 5 years

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Fic writer asks

@theemmaarthur thanks for tagging me :) I did it, hey!

Author Name:

Hi, I’m evening_spirit on AO3

Fandoms You Write For:

I only ever write for one fandom at a time and at the moment it’s Roswell New Mexico.

In the past I wrote a couple of stories for Arrow, Killjoys, Black Sails and Criminal Minds, some Star Treks.

Used to write a lot for Supernatural in the times when the choice was between Wincest and RPF. Then deleted most of those stories, only left Gen fics.

Surprisingly enough I have 8 stories listed for The Gifted. Wow.

Fandoms that inspired me to write the most stories are, Season One of Agents of Shield, Hawaii Five-0 (don’t know how that happened, probably mostly one-shots) and Battlestar Galactica 2003. Loved that show.

Where Do You Post

Almost exclusively on AO3

Most Popular Multi Chapter Story

It’s difficult to compare a 16 chapter story to a 7 chapter story. The first one has more kudos and comments, the latter has a better kudos and comments per chapter ratio. Then again, the latter was in the Black Sails fandom that was, as RNM, very generous. :)

For this meme I’ll chose the former, it’s Early Enough, an Agents of Shield AU story that splits mid-season-one. The title is based on Coulson’s words "You can save everyone, even from themselves, if you get to them early enough" In this story Coulson stays true to this sentiment and saves Grant Ward (a victim of lifelong abuse, in case anyone had any doubts)

I’m kind of proud of this one.

Favorite Story You Wrote

This is a difficult question and I’m not sure I can answer it. I like so many of my stories. Each has something special in it, some part of me, be it miserable or happy, creative or self-reflective.

Okay, this one. words like silent raindrops fell . Didn’t mention writing for The 100, because this was my worst tv show experience. But this story feels very important to me. Perhaps not my fav, but important.

Story You Were Nervous to Post

All of them? Like, literally, every single one. I think lately I learned how to not get so nervous about posting, so it’s getting better, but I have this mindset, where I’m terrified of other people’s criticism, but at the same time it’s my only source of validation. Well, used to be. I think I’m slowly learning to self-validate. :) Anyway. It wasn’t supposed to be a self psychoanalysis post, so I’ll shut up about it.

How Do You Pick Your Titles

I have two methods – catchy quotes or song lyrics.

Do You Outline

Sometimes. Used to outline more, now I often go with the flow for as long as it takes me. Then I have to outline anyway. :)

How Many of Your Stories Are Complete

Of the stories posted to AO3, 63 out 68 stories are completed. Two are Works in Progress (RNM fics) and three are on permanent hiatus. As in will not be completed, because my muse moved on.

In-Progress

Heart Out in the Cold (Reignite) – is my take on what might happen post Season One finale of Roswell NM (it’s AU, for obvious reasons ;)

You’re the Storm that I Believe in – is a Roswell NM AU that takes place after the shed incident involving Alex, Michael and Alex’s father Jesse.

Coming Soon

Continuation of those WIPs, hopefully. :)

Do You Accept Prompts

Unfortunately, no. Nowadays I’m bad enough writing what I set out to write. Sorry...

Upcoming Story You’re the Most Excited For

Both of those WIPs actually. If I can call that emotion "excitement"...

Tag Five Fanfic Authors to Answer These Questions

Hm. Don’t know who of you has already done it. If you did, it would be sweet if you pointed me in direction of your post. You’re in no way obliged to do so, though, or to take this meme, of course. :) @hithelleth, because no matter if you currently write or not, once a writer – always a writer, right? ;) @soberqueerinthewild, @ultraballantine, @drnathanielheywood, @sophiainspace

Thank you for reading this super long post. :)

#meme #writing meme #fanfic meme #es talks about writing #evening stories

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angsty-nerd · 5 years

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Fictober #31

#31. “Scared? Me?”

Roswell, NM Fanfiction

Gen, slight Echo. Isobel, Michael, Liz...Noah & Max mentioned.

Also for RIPRoswell, with the “haunting” theme for today!

*takes a bow*. Below the cut for length!

Isobel hated that she still thought about him sometimes.

She didn't want to. She definitely didn't want him. But he had spent so many years twisting his way into her subconscious, into her life, into her heart that no matter how much she hated him now, she couldn't quite fully forget him.

It made her want to scream and throw things.

It made her want to blow shit up.

She tried to expel her rage through self defense classes, by trying to grow strong. She tried learning new alien abilities to feel powerful.

But he was still there, tickling in the back of her mind, telling her that she was weak, gullible, that she would always be his plaything.

She clears their home out, removing everything that reminds her of him. It was all fake anyway. The Noah who lived as her husband was the lie, which should make him easier to erase.

The monster who killed Rosa was the real Noah. He belonged in that cave out in the desert. He deserved the cold, damp darkness. He should have been trapped underground with the corpse of his own making. He deserved to be buried. That monster never lived with her in her home and he never would.

Spring was coming and as the weather warmed it reminded her of her husband...of picnics in the town square, of their huge wedding in the big church with the whole town in attendance. Spring had too many memories. Spring meant that it was time to exorcise him from her life for good.

She made her way to the monster’s cave for the first time in months. She hated everything about that place. Not only was it the monster's home, it was a symbol of her husband's lies. Not to mention it was the place where her brother had died.

She would be lying if she didn't admit that she hated that last bit the most about the cave. It had taken her brother away from her. She wanted it to burn.

It hadn't really changed in the months since Max had died. Rosa's weird shrine still dominated the walls of the cave, and the sad, broken pod was still the largest object in the room. Anything alien, or anything they thought might be useful was collected and taken away with them on the day that Max died.

Isobel looked at the ground and her memory flashed back to that day, to running into the cave...the sight of Max lying dead on the ground, Liz with her face buried in his chest as she sobbed, agonized. Rosa in the corner, a blanket wrapped around her tiny frame, so confused about what was going on.

He caused all of this.

As the anger surged inside of her, she felt her power building alongside it, and this was it. It was time to bury him.

She shot her hand forward and narrowed her eyes, focusing all of her energy onto the monster's pod. With a mental thrust she shoved her destructive power at it, and the pod exploded, bits of its flesh-like membrane flying in every direction.

Isobel laughed, shouting at the air around hed. "Scared? Me? Ha! I'm not afraid of you anymore!"

She threw her power at the candles surrounding pictures of Rosa, satisfied to watch them fly through the air, smashing against the jagged edges of the rocks.

The rocks themselves now drew her attention. They had no business existing in this horrible place either, so she blew them up too. Rock flew in every direction, and she felt stinging pain, as the debris scratched her face, her arms, her neck, even her clothes. She tasted blood, as a scratch above her lip dripped towards her mouth.

Her breath heaved from the effort of all of the destruction that she wreaked on this place that the monster had considered sacred. She smiled, as she surveyed her damage.

"You see!" She shouted into the air. "See what I can do to you!! You don't own me anymore! I'm free, and I'm powerful, and I don't need you!"

Her voice cracked on the last word and she fell to the ground, still breathing heavily. Her eyes stung, but she bit back the tears. He didn't deserve them.

She placed her palm flat on the earth, in the dust, on the spot where Max had died. A sharp pain cut through her again as the image of her dead brother's body flashed through her mind once more.

Isobel gathered a handful of dust in in her fist. She raised it up to eye level and then slowly allowed it to slide free, between her fingers, raining back down to the earth. She gasped, as the falling dust started swirling in a beautiful pattern, not dissimilar to a tiny, gentle tornado.

There was no wind in the cave. The air was still.

When her hand was empty, she tried reaching out with her mind, hoping to sense another presence in the cave with her. For a moment she thought she felt a whisper...but no, there was nothing there. Unsure what else to do, she scattered another fistful of dust. Again, it moved into a windless pattern.

Isobel placed her hand back down on the earth and reached out with her mind, trying to sense who or what might be there with her. There was no response, other than a tiny shockwave that extended from her hand...but not from her power.

"Hello?" She whispered into the air.

There was only silence in response.

Somehow though, Isobel knew that it couldn't be Noah. Whatever was out there seemed like it was just trying to catch her attention...maybe tell her that she wasn't alone even though she felt that way. There was a comfort to the presence.

Really, she realized, it reminded her of…

"Max?" She whispered aloud.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Michael laughed as he tasted blood, his split lip already beginning to ache. He didn't give a damn though. Pain was good. Pain reminded him of who he was. Pain helped him remember that he was still alive even if-

No. None of that.

Staggering back into the Pony, his eye bruised, knuckles bloody, and that damn lip, which was gonna hurt like hell on his next drink...but he suddenly found himself face to face with a very annoyed Maria.

"All taken care of, DeLuca. The racist son of a bitch won't be coming in here and saying that kind of garbage to you anymore."

"That racist son of a bitch was a paying customer, Guerin. Unlike you. I actually need to keep a few of those around, you know...so that I don't lose the roof over my head?"

"I was defending your…"

"...honor, I know. But I can handle it, Guerin. I'm not a damsel in distress that needs saving. Now get out of my bar. Your face is pissing me off tonight."

"Fine," Michael grumbled as he made his was back to the door. He turned back right before walking out and was pleased to see no one looking. With a wave of his hand, a bottle of whiskey glided away from the bar, and over to him. He grabbed it with a smirk and headed for his truck.

It was too early to go home. He didn't want to think, which meant no Liz or Alex or Kyle… sighing, Michael could only think of one place to go, so he turned his truck towards the desert and headed to the pod cave.

It was cold and dark out there by the old turquoise mines, but Michael didn't mind the cold. Cold was just another form of pain after all. And pain was life.

He walked haphazardly into the pod cave, feeling his way through the darkness along the rocky walls, until finally it opened up into the large cavern dimly lit by the glowing pods.

He stopped in the entrance, pulled the cork from the bottle and took a long slug of whiskey to numb the impending angst that he knew would come when he let his eyes rest on…

Yup. There was Max. Floating naked in his pod, his dark hair flowing in the liquid of the stasis fluid. He looked almost comfortable, like he was asleep. Of course, it was all deception. Max hadn't moved in months. His heart wasn't beating, he wasn't breathing. He was gone. What was floating in the pod was just an empty shell.

Michael took another long drink from the bottle and closed his eyes as the whiskey burned it's way down his pipes into his stomach. He looked down at the bottle in his hand and poured one out for Max at the foot of his pod.

"One for me, one for you, man." He took another gulp. "Okay make that two for me."

He staggered back and forth in front of the pod, trying to clear his head. Maybe coming here wasn't the best idea. Being here, seeing Max...now he was just drunk and angry and he couldn't leave.

"You know, Max, I am so fucking pissed at you for leaving Isobel and I here alone. It was supposed to be the three of us. And then you and Iz both forgot that. She married that piece of shit, and you brought Liz in, who brought Valenti in, and now here we are. You're dead. And we have a herd of humans instead. But none of them are… family. Fuck."

Michael took another long drink. "Congrats, Max." He saluted the pod with the bottle. "You finally got me to admit that we're family."

He could feel his pace getting more and more unsteady, hear his words slurring as the whiskey went straight to his head.

He took a turn a little too quickly and lost his balance, falling to the ground. He laughed hysterically, lying back in the dust and staring up into the inky darkness of the rocks above.

Rolling his head a bit to the side, he could see Max in his pod a few feet away. He just lay there, staring at Max, his vision growing blurry as he found himself drifting closer to oblivion.

Through his lessening senses, for a moment he thought he saw Max looking at him from the pod. He blinked, trying to clear his head, but it didn't help.

There were footprints in the dust... were they his footprints? Or Max's?

He closed his eyes, trying to stop his head from spinning. It didn't help. The world was on a tilt-a-whirl, and Max was crouched beside him, a worried look on his face.

Before he passed out, Michael could swear he heard his brother say, "Get it together, Michael. They all need you."

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was nearly midnight when Liz returned home from the lab. Rosa was already in bed for the night, so Liz sneaked into the house quietly, trying not to wake her, as she made her way straight back to Max's bedroom.

It was cold in his room. When he was alive it seemed like there was always a fire lit, warming every room of the house. With Liz working all hours day and night, she never had time to make the house comfortable, especially on a long day like this one. So instead she decided to just bundle up for warmth.

She pulled on a pair of her own sweatpants, and then dug into Max's closet until she found his red hoodie. She slipped the sweatshirt on, zipping it up. It was much too large for her, but it was warm, and it smelled like him.

Suddenly overwhelmed by the sensation of being surrounded by the memory of him, Liz crawled into his bed, pulling the covers up around her neck, and turning her face into the pillow.

The weight of the blankets felt warm, protective...they replicated feelings that would overwhelm her when Max would hold her. The smell of him on the hoodie, on the blanket, his pillow...she felt surrounded by him…

But inherently she knew that she was surrounded by the memory of him. She was still alone. And he was still dead.

One by one, tears began to slip from her eyes, flowing down her cheeks, and dripping onto the pillow surface, until there was a damp spot beneath her face.

It had been so long without him. She had been working so hard to try to bring him back, and nothing was panning out. It was soul crushing. She was beginning to fear that she might never succeed. And all she wanted in the world was to feel Max's arms around her.

Goosebumps suddenly rose up on her arm, and she shivered at the sensation. The light tingling sensation moved from her arm, down her hand to her fingertips. She felt it travel along her jawline, trace the shape of her lips.

"Max…" she breathed out softly.

She longed to hear his voice answer, but there was no sound. Just the lightest whisper of a breeze in the air.

She sat up, searching the room for some visible sign that the sensations she was experiencing were real, weren't just a figment big her imagination. There was nothing.

Suddenly, that strange tingling sensation returned, like an invisible hand pressed over her heart, right on the spot where Max had healed her, where he had connected with her. She slipped a hand inside the hoodie and placed it over that same spot, and it felt like she captured whatever was there between her hand and her chest.

"It is you, isn't it?" She murmured to the empty room. "Don't worry, I'm not giving up. I'm going to keep fighting to give you your life back. I'm going to keep fighting for us."

~*~*~*~*~*~

He watched her sleep in the darkness, trying not to focus too much on her tear-streaked cheeks. Watching her mourn, watching her suffer, watching her work herself to death...it was all agonizing for him.

Her pain, Michael falling apart, Isobel's rage...he watched them all and longed to help them. They rarely sensed his presence, but it seemed like once in a while, when things were particularly intense, he managed to get through.

He hoped those moments helped more than they hurt.

But Max believed that Liz would succeed in bringing him back. Why else would he be here, in this state of limbo, unable to move on from the living world?

His soul was waiting to return home to them.

All he needed was for Liz to mark the path for him.

#fictober19 #riproswell #my fanfiction #rnm gen fanfic #liz ortecho #michael guerin #isobel evans

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angsty-nerd · 5 years

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Fictober #1

Apparently I'm really trying to challenge myself this month, because I decided to give this challenge a go too. I'm gonna try to do it, in order of the prompts. And frankly, while I'm gonna try hard to hit all 31, I'll consider it a success if I do 20 of 31. Just little ficlets! So Day 1!

1. "It'll be fun. Trust me."

Roswell, New Mexico Fanfiction

Gen, Liz & Rosa Ortecho

"It'll be fun, trust me!"

"Nooo, Rosa! What if Papi finds out? What if we get arrested? What if we get murdered!?!"

"Ay loco!! None of that will happen! At least, none of it will happen as long as you promise to follow all of my rules. One night only. Please?"

It's a bad idea. Liz knew it was a bad idea. Rosa was the reason that she toed the line, did what she was told. One of them had to stay out of trouble, and it wasn't going to be Rosa Ortecho, so the responsibility fell to Liz.

Still, a night out would be fun…

"Elizabeth, I promise, Papi will not find out. We'll get ready with Maria at the Wild Pony. He'll never even see you. And once we hit the road it'll just be us girls…"

"Us girls and Alex!" Liz interrupted with a laugh.

"Okay, us girls and Alex! And as long as you do everything I tell you to do, no one will ever suspect that we're underage. Trust me, Liz!"

Liz bit her lip, as she wiggled in place. Rosa's energy was infectious and it was hard to not want to trust her big sister.

"FINE!" Liz exploded. "Okay fine! Let's do it!"

A few hours later, the four of them were on their way to the Fall Out Boy concert. Liz kept staring at the fake ID that Rosa had passed her. Sasha Jimenez didn't look much like Liz Ortecho. Her long dark hair fell in perfectly styled waves, while Liz generally wore her hair straight, mostly pulled up, at least in front, to keep it out of her face. Liz Ortecho never wore makeup, really. Sasha wore dark mascara and deep red lipstick. Elizabeth Ortecho would never wear such a low cut top, and a black leather jacket with matching boots certainly wasn't her style. But the part that felt the most awkward to Liz were the huge silver hoops in her ears. They kept getting caught in her hair, knocking the side of her face. How do women do this every day?

But when she turned to look at her sister, Rosa was shining with pride at the sight of her.

"See?" Rosa had said, hugging Liz in the shoulders as she admired her work before leaving Roswell. "Told ya I could make you look 21! Bonita! You look hot, Liz!"

4 years later, on her 21st birthday, Liz thought of her sister as she carefully applied the lipstick and mascara that she had purchased earlier that day at the local mall. On the counter next to her was a big pair of silver hoops.

After all, Rosa had a vision of what Liz would look like at 21. The least she could do was live up to her dead sister's expectations.

#rnm gen fanfic #liz ortecho #rosa ortecho #high school flashback fic #memories and nostalgia #my fanfic #fictober19

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angsty-nerd · 5 years

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Fictober #18

#18. “Secrets? I love secrets!”

Roswell, NM fanfic

Gen, post S1. Maria DeLuca & the rest of team human.

It was starting to get ridiculous.

Maria couldn't deny that she had noticed it a little bit over the past few months since Liz got back into town. It's hard not to notice when your friends suddenly fall silent when you walk up to their table at the bar. Or a totally awkward but obvious change of subject when you unexpectedly enter a room. Her friends were not as subtle as they thought they were. But Maria liked to be the fun friend and there was very little that she hated more than drama. So when these things happened, she laughed it off in front of them, and tried to let it slide off of her shoulders. She figured at some point things would either come to a head, or get better.

And then they did. Sort of.

A week earlier, Michael had come clean to her about everything. He admitted to her that he was an alien, he told her about Max dying to bring Rosa back to life, his healed hand, the pods, Project Shepherd, Noah...everything. And holy hell that was a lot of drama. Maria knew she was in the dark about something, but she had no idea how big of a something it was!

The thing about secrets is...when there's a new person in the know, it throws off the whole situation. There's an adjustment period. But that adjustment period can't even start unless everyone knows that someone new is in on things.

From the edge of this whole alien cowboy drama affair, it appeared that there was some unaddressed lingering drama. Michael had closed himself off from the group and it seemed that he never bothered to tell anyone that he had let Maria in on their secrets.

Which is why, on a particularly quiet Wednesday evening at the Wild Pony, Maria stood behind the bar, wiping the empty counter down and watching the booth a few feet away, where Liz and Kyle sat beside each other on one side of the table opposite Alex. The three of them had their heads together and were talking quickly and quietly amongst themselves. And Maria was quite sure she knew what they were talking about. A surgeon, a biomedical researcher, and a guy with access to it the most comprehensive archive of alien science on earth? They were trying to figure out how to bring Max back.

The hard part was how to get them to admit it to her.

Maria watched them for a little while until she decided that they were way too caught up in whatever they were discussing to notice what she was doing. She grabbed a bottle of tequila and four shot glasses, and casually wandered the long way around the room, so that she could approach them, hopefully unnoticed, from the opposite side of their booth.

Her strategy worked. As she walked up, she overheard Kyle growl out. "...a total wild card. How long do you honestly believe she'll let us keep this a secret?"

“Secrets? I love secrets!” Maria called out as she leaned over the wall abutting their booth, waving the tequila bottle in front of them. "How about I pour you some shots and you tell your good friend Maria about alllll your secrets, huh?"

She pretended not to see the panicked looks that her friend were quickly trying to hide, but internally, Maria was cackling with amusement as she set down the four shot glasses on the ledge of the wall above them and poured the shots. She passed the glasses down to them and then gestured for them to wait as she hurried around the barrier and slid into the booth next to Alex.

"How about we drink to lifelong friendship staying strong through all these years," Kyle suggested.

"Ugggh," Liz groaned. "Cheesy."

"I know," Maria tossed out to the table. "Why don't we drink to lost friends' returns; those that we are lucky enough to have here with us now, and those that we're still waiting for...those yet to come."

There was a long moment of silence. Maria had to work hard to keep a smile off of her face as she could feel Alex fidgeting a bit beside her. Liz was staring sadly at her tequila. Kyle's eyes were glued to the ceiling for some reason. It was Alex who finally broke the silence though.

"To lost friends' return," he concurred softly, as he held up his shot. Kyle echoed him, so that only Liz remained silent. She raised her glass anyway though, and looked up, teary eyes meeting Maria's as she finally croaked out, "lost friends' return," just as a tear trailed down her cheek.

Maria reached across the table and took Liz's hand, squeezing it tightly. She gave her a comforting smile, that she hoped Liz could still read after all these years. I've got you babe. I'm here if you need me. Maria pushed the supportive thoughts in Liz's direction. Internally, she pleaded that Liz didn't need to be psychic to hear her and to understand.

She waited a moment at the table to see if someone, anyone, would start a conversation. Once it was clear that they were going to stick with the totally obvious awkward silence thing, Maria chuckled and pushed herself to her feet.

"All right, I'll let you guys work. I don't want to be the one to blame if y'all don't figure out how to raise Max from the dead. Just do me a favor and let me know when I'm allowed to see Rosa, okay?"

And without waiting for their reactions, Maria turned her back on her friends and sauntered back to the bar, tequila bottle in hand. She had gone maybe five steps when she heard her three friends all start talking at once, frantic, shocked voices that all didn't seem to know how to react at once.

Maria cackled as she slipped behind the bar and returned the tequila bottle to the shelf. It was a little too much fun to take them by surprise like that.

And she didn't even have to mention aliens.

#fictober19 #rnm gen fanfic #maria deluca #my fanfic

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angsty-nerd · 5 years

Text

Fictober #15

Oyyy! I wasn’t sure I’d finish today! They just kept talking and wouldn’t stop! If you’d asked me a few hours ago, I was seriously considering looking to see if I could double up with tomorrow’s prompt and do 2 in 1. But somehow I managed to finish. My longest one yet..don’t think I can even call this a ficlet. At 4400 words, it’s a fic, right?

Anyway....

#15. “What are you talking about?”

Roswell, NM fanfic

Sort of Miluca, but not really all that romantic or anything... and then Maria & Liz friendship too.

Under the cut because long.

“No, Michael! You can’t just waltz in here at closing time, grab a drink, and expect that we’re going to...no." Maria shoved him as he leaned in to try to kiss her. "No more. I'm not touching you again until you agree to talk to me.”

"What's there to talk about?" Michael sighed.

"You, first off. You're a mess." Maria stood and watched him take another swig from the bottle of whiskey with her hands on her hips, before she reached across the bar and tugged it away from him. "Something's wrong, Michael. I can tell. You were finally getting your shit together, and now? It's back to sloppy nights and drunken brawls. You can't honestly pretend like nothing is going on with you."

"Once a shitshow, always a shitshow, DeLuca."

"You know I don't believe that anymore, right?" He didn't respond. Maria sighed and continued. "And we still haven't talked about you and Alex, and that bothers me. A lot. He's my best friend and I need to know if I'm getting myself in the middle of something I don't belong in here."

"Well, maybe you should ask Alex then."

"Alex isn't the one who keeps kissing me." Maria shot back. "And if you’re kissing me while you've got some unresolved feelings for Alex, then you've got some serious explaining to do, Guerin."

"I keep telling you it's over."

"And somehow that just doesn't seem to be the whole story."

Maria waited to give him a chance to talk, but he stayed silent. He wasn't leaving at least, but he wasn't talking yet. She sighed, and grabbed the bottle of whiskey that she set aside, pouring him a drink and then taking her own share straight from the bottle. A sip of courage before she brought up the hardest question of all.

"And then I want to know about your hand." Her eyes fell to where it lay on the bar, wrapped in a bandana. "You're hiding it now, but I saw it that night." Slowly, gently she reached across the bar to it. She expected him to pull away, but for some reason he didn't. "I know it's healed, Michael." She pulled the bandana off of his hand, revealing his perfect, flawless, uninjured hand. "You're gonna have to tell me sometime how it’s possible that the permanent marks of a decade old injury were miraculously healed."

Michael knocked back the whiskey. Then, with a heavy sigh he met her eyes. Maria almost gasped out loud at the amount of pain that was suddenly exuding from his gaze. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?"

Maria shook her head sadly. "No. Not if you want to maintain any kind of relationship with me." She gave him a little smirk to lighten the moment. "Or my bar. So unless you want to start drinking at Saturn's Rings with the tourists, you'd better start talking!"

Michael stood, turned his back, and walked a few steps away from the bar. For a moment Maria thought that he was going to walk out the door. But then he stopped and dragged a frustrated hand through his hair, before turning back to her.

"You know, I like that you don't know anything about this stuff? It simplifies things. I like just being able to be a normal guy with you. You're the only person left in my life who sees me that way. I don't wanna lose that." She stayed silent, arms crossed, waiting for him to start. His shoulders slumped as he finally gave in. "But I'm gonna lose that no matter what."

Maria nodded. She as certain that their relationship would change from this moment forward. Either Michael was going to be honest with her and they could move forward, or he could walk out of the bar and end it for good.

He took a deep breath, and then started talking. "I was in the 1947 UFO crash. I don't remember it or anything. I was just a kid. But after the crash someone hid us in these stasis pods in an old turquoise mine. 50 years later, in 1997, we woke up and emerged from the pods, and were found wandering naked in the desert. We looked like normal human kids, so no one ever suspected that we're really aliens."

As Michael spoke, Maria felt pain and anger boiling up inside of her. It was one thing to not want to tell her the truth, but to use this? To use the same story, the same elements, as whatever was wrong with her mother? Tears stung her eyes as she interrupted him, trying to stop the lies flowing from him.

"That's not funny, Guerin." She whispered harshly. "If you're going to lie to me you may as well walk out of here and end this right now. You don't need to break me first."

"I'm not lying," he replied gently. "I'm an alien."

"Yeah? And let me guess, Will Smith is the one who found you wandering in the desert and picked up an alien kid on his way to saving the human race?"

"What are you talking about? Will Smith? It was a trucker that found us."

“My mom likes to make up stories about the alien invasion too, but at least she can blame it on mental illness. I don’t even know what to say to you right now.”

Michael suddenly hurried back to the bar to her, his eyes wild with fear and concern. “Listen to me, Maria. I am telling you the truth. We’re aliens. Me, Isobel, and Max.” His voice wavered a bit on Max’s name, but he pushed on. “I can prove it to you. We have powers...we can do things that no human could possibly do. Max’s power is healing. That’s what happened to my hand. He wasn’t himself...he wouldn’t have done it normally, but he was on this crazy power trip and he healed my hand—” Maria cut him off with a firm wave of her hand.

“Stop. Max? Max Evans.” She stated, disbelieving. “An alien. He’s sleeping with Liz!”

“You’ve slept with me,” Michael pointed out. He sighed heavily, sitting back down on his barstool. “Anyway, Max wasn’t himself, like I said. He was doing stupid things, like healing my hand...and other stuff. Anyway, now he’s not sleeping with anyone, Maria, because he’s dead.”

“What?” Maria gasped. “Michael—” This time he was the one who cut her off.

“Can we not? I don’t want to talk about Max right now. I can’t…” he swallowed, and Maria could see his eyes shining with unshed tears. “I could really use another drink right about now.” Maria turned to get their bottle, but before she could, Michael shouted, “WAIT!”

She turned and looked back to him. “I promised you proof,” he reminded her. And then he held up his hand, narrowed his eyes...and Maria waited for something to happen.

“What the hell?” Michael grumbled, blaring down at his hand like it had betrayed him. He closed his eyes, shook his head and shoulders out, and then returned to the same position, hand out and eyes narrow. Again, there was nothing. This time he stared at his hand in horror and then looked up at Maria, worries. She raised an eyebrow at him. “My powers aren’t working.”

"Or maybe you're an actual crazy person?"

"I'm not. I swear to you, DeLuca. I'm telling the truth. If you don't believe me, talk to Liz. Or Alex."

"They both know about this?"

"Actually, go see Liz, Maria. Seriously. She could probably use a friend right now. She's going through a lot."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maria slept fitfully that night. She couldn't stop thinking about Michael's crazy talk...or whatever it was. The words sounded insane, but the look in his eyes was so serious. It was like he was pleading with her to believe him. It was that look that drove her to go to the Crashdown for breakfast the next morning.

Liz was working the morning rush, and paused at Maria's table to give her a brief hug hello and pour her a cup of coffee. "I've gotta keep on top of the masses," she quickly told Maria, "but it should slow down in an hour or so and then we can talk."

Maria didn't mind waiting. It gave her a chance to observe her friend for a little while. Liz didn't appear to be in a bad place on the surface. She kept a smile on her face when she spoke to the customers, moved quickly through the motions of waitressing. She looked completely on point.

At least, she did at first, on the surface. The more Maria watched, the more she began to notice cracks in Liz's facade. The smile on her face was a little too wide, like she was trying a little too hard to look like everything was good. But anyone who knew her could see that it didn't really reach her eyes, which looked tired, weary. They were a little red around the edges too.

Once she saw her friend pause at the jukebox. All of a sudden her shoulders slumped and she looked exhausted, leaning on it like she needed it to hold her up. And for just a split second Liz's face crumpled. Maria almost jumped to her feet to come to her friend's aid, but as quickly as she saw Liz fall apart, she suddenly put herself back together, hit some numbers on the jukebox, and went back to work, Counting Crows blasting from the speakers.

Finally, the tables began to empty and Liz's speed began to slow. She finally turned towards the kitchen to shout, "I'm taking off. You guys got this?" Once she heard confirmation, Lis turned her attention to Maria. "Okay, I'm all yours."

Maria pointed upwards. Liz nodded in agreement and led them up to the Crashdown's roof.

“So what’s going on?” Liz asked.

“Guerin showed up at the Wild Pony last night. He said a bunch of stuff to me…and it all sounded crazy. Frankly, it was a little scary. He sounded like my mom. I told him I didn’t believe him, and then he tried to prove it and couldn’t. But he swore it was all true and told me that you would confirm it.”

“Maria, What did he tell you?” Liz pressed her carefully. “Specifically.”

“He...he said that he and Max and Isobel are aliens from the 1947 crash. He said that they were, like, asleep in stasis for 50 years and then, like reborn as kids in 1997. He said that Max can heal, and fixed his broken hand. And he said that Max is dead, but that’s crazy, right? Well, all of it’s crazy, but if Max was dead we’d all know about it, right?”

Liz was quiet for a long moment. It looked like she was glaring at her hands, but she kept her eyes down for a long time, while Maria waited. When Liz finally turned to her, Maria realized that her friend was fighting tears.

“Max is dead, and no one really knows. I’ve been covering it up.” Liz confessed. “I put him back into stasis to preserve his body while I try to figure out how to bring him back.”

“How to bring him back?” Maria gaped. “Liz, if he’s dead, he can’t come back. You should understand that better than almost anybody. Are you okay?”

“I know I sound crazy,” Liz insisted. “But I swear I’m not. I just...it was so much easier for Max. His hands could work miracles. I’m only human. I’m exhausted and I’m nowhere near figuring this thing out yet. But I do believe that it’s possible. It has to be possible.”

“What makes you so sure?” Maria asked.

“Michael didn’t tell you how Max died, did he?” Maria ran back through the conversation with Michael in her head, trying to remember. “No… he said that Max wasn’t himself...that he was on a power trip and making dumb choices. It didn’t sound like Max to me though.”

Liz nodded. “It’s probably a fair statement though. He did do something incredibly stupid. He decided to try to heal a dead person and bring them back to life. And it worked, but it killed him. That’s why I’m sure it’s possible, Maria. Because Max did it. So it has to be possible to bring him back too.”

Maria shook her head. “Liz, this all seems so crazy.”

“I know.” Liz agreed. “But it’s true. And I can prove it to you.” Liz’s eyes dropped to Maria’s necklace, and she stared at it thoughtfully. “Maria, were you wearing your necklace last night?”

Maria reached up and felt the familiar glass of her mother’s pendant. “Yeah, of course.”

“Michael tried to prove it to you by using his powers, didn’t he? And it didn’t work?”

“That’s what he said,” Maria confirmed.

“The flower in your necklace...its pollen has protective properties. Among them, it blocks alien abilities. That’s why Michael couldn’t use his powers last night.”

“You mentioned that you were researching it a while back… this is why?”

“Yeah,” Liz admitted. “There’s a lot you don’t know, Maria. I have a lot to catch you up on. The short version of that story is that the night of the gala, we caught an alien serial killer.”

“WHAT!” Maria exclaimed. “Seriously!?!”

“Seriously,” Liz confirmed. “But before we got him, he tried to sabotage us at the gala. He knocked out Max and Michael somehow and locked them in an old fallout shelter with a pile of that pollen inside. So they had no cell reception, couldn’t use their powers, couldn’t get out. After that night I decided it would be a good idea to research that stuff so that we’d know what to do in the future.”

"Sure, but go back to the alien serial killer, because what the hell, Liz!?"

Liz sighed, "No, you're right. That is more important. And actually, it might help me give you the proof you need that this is all true." Maria gestured for Liz to continue. "So...a variety of investigations kind of converged on the realization that we had 14 murders by an alien on our hands in the last decade. The first was Rosa, and there were 13 more since, all targeted at Ranchero Night."

"My Ranchero Night?" Maria gasped. "But that's for charity. It's supposed to be a night for good."

"And one person was taking advantage of that. The people who go to Ranchero Night are also the kind of people that the system are less likely to look into when they die. Easier to hide the death of a homeless man or a prostitute. Or an illegal immigrant." Liz spit out the last words angrily. Maria placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. She knew it was a sensitive spot for her friend. Anyone targeting her people tended to light Liz Ortecho on fire. "Sorry." Liz sighed. "I think he was going to target my dad next. That's how I figured out his identity. Max figured it out from you."

"Me?" Maria asked. "God, that night is such a blur for me. I barely can remember a thing."

"Yeah." Liz's voice sounded guilty and Maria looked sharply at her. "What? Tell me."

"He kinda drugged you that night. There was a date rape drug in your champagne. That's why you can't remember anything."

"Me? Why would he drug me?"

"He was trying to keep his identity a secret. But there were enough clues that we knew that he had to be someone close to us. So you were the perfect target to throw off the scent."

"Liz, what did he do to me."

"Just… I'm getting there. He was a lot more powerful than Max, Michael, and Isobel. He could do everything they could do, plus even more. And he had no morals holding him back. He liked to possess humans when they were blacked out and use them as his puppets. So he drugged you so that he could use you to get at me."

"That's...insane." Maria protested.

"At least he didn't use you to murder anyone. He used Isobel to murder Rosa, and he used Wyatt Long to try to kill me at Grant Green's warehouse."

"Well thank goodness for that!" Maria laughed bitterly.

"But I think this might help us prove it to you, Maria. I'll bet if we go over to the UFO Emporium, I can talk them into showing us the security footage from that night. You'll be able to see the difference in your behavior when you were just drugged versus possessed. Let's go!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maria was thoroughly impressed by Liz's persuasive skills. A smooth story about a misplaced purse the night of the gala and a promise of a free lunch at the Crashdown, and the pimply teenager working the counter at the emporium led them to a back room with a computer. The kid logged in and pointed Liz to the file folder with the security footage. Liz crossed her heart and promised not to delete anything, and Maria promised to keep Liz in line, and then they were alone.

"That was almost too easy." Maria commented after the kid left.

"Investigating Rosa's death gave me a lot of practice at talking people into telling me things they didn't want to share." Liz explained while scrolling through the video files. "I actually feel a little bad for the kid. I kept looking at him and envisioning little 16-year-old pre-goth Alex. Here we go."

Liz clicked on the video file from the night of the gala and blew it up. The camera was set in one corner of the main ballroom, which gave them an overview look at the main event. Liz watched as people began to arrive for the gala. She saw Maria walk in. Almost immediately one of the caterers walked past her with one last glass of champagne on the tray. He offered it to Maria, who immediately grabbed it and took a sip.

"That must have been how he got you." Liz mused. "He probably mindwarped that caterer into delivering the drugged champagne to you and only you."

Liz skipped ahead a few minutes, and there was the two of them, laughing together after Maria's slip of the tongue. "I should have realized that something was wrong then," Liz chastised herself. "You deserved better."

She skipped ahead again to see Isobel speaking, and then Graham Green. Maria laughed as Liz shuddered and swore under her breath in Spanish. "Hey, I saw his twin brother's murdered body! Cut me some slack!" Liz protested.

Soon after the speeches, the real party was getting going, and Liz spotted Maria dancing sloppily in the middle of the masses. She pointed and raised her eyebrows at Maria.

"I don't look all that put together, do I?" Maria sighed.

"It's not your fault." Liz reminded her.

They watched as Maria lost her balance and started to fall, but was caught and helped away by Noah Bracken. "My hero." Maria said with a roll of her eyes.

"No." Liz stated firmly, hitting pause on the video. "No." She repeated, staring at the screen with a haunted look in her eyes. "He is not a hero."

Maria gasped as she suddenly understood what Liz was implying.

"Him? Noah is the serial killer?"

"He was." Liz confirmed. "He's gone now. Max killed him." Maria couldn't help noticing that Liz seemed frozen, her eyes glued to his figure on the video.

"Liz, are you okay?"

Her friend just shook her head and hit play again on the video as they watched Noah and Maria leave the ballroom. "Sorry. It's just…he murdered Rosa. And he tried to kill me at least four times that I know of. Somehow I kept surviving him, but I feel lucky that I did. The last time I saw him, he literally stabbed me in the gut with a kitchen knife."

Liz paused the video again and pulled up the bottom of her shirt to show Maria the wound that was still healing on her stomach. "Kyle pulled the stitches out a few days ago, but he says I'm gonna have a hell of a scar."

"So you said four attempts. This stab wound is one, and Grant Green's warehouse was two...what were the other two times?" Maria carefully asked.

"The hospital shooting...although I'm not actually sure he was trying to kill me that time...it might have just been a diversion to access and destroy my research. And then…" Liz nodded at the computer.

"He tried to kill you at the gala?"

"Once his cover was blown, Max and I tried to stop him from escaping. He tried to fry me with his powers, but I had injected him with a serum I created that blocked his powers and it kicked in just in time."

Liz hit play again. "We should see something soon here." They watched and waited, until a few minutes later, Maria casually sauntered out from the hallway that Noah had taken her down. Her eyes were clear and wide, a smug smile on her face, and there was zero sign of the date rape drug in her system as she made her way through the room, casting flirty smiles at both men and women she passed, occasionally slipping a stray hand to caress a passerby.

"God, it's like I'm a totally different person," Maria gasped. "That's not me."

"I know," Liz agreed. “That’s what I’m talking about. It was so obvious to me that night."

"What am I doing, d'ya think?"

"I'm pretty sure you're looking for me," Liz guessed. "That serum I just mentioned? Most of it was destroyed in the hospital shooting, except for one last dose. Noah wanted to get his hands on it so that it couldn't be used against him."

They watched as Maria left the ballroom. "You found me in the ladies room. I left my purse with you while I did my business, and you went through it and stole a decoy serum that I had stashed there and then left without saying goodbye."

After a few minutes, Maria reentered the ballroom and crossed the room again. This time she was all business and no games, with her task complete. She disappeared down the same hallway as before, and then a moment later, Noah emerged.

"Ugh," Liz groaned at the sight of him, literally twirling the syringe between his fingers before he slipped it into the inside pocket of his tuxedo jacket. "He thought he had won."

He wandered into the ballroom, looked around for a moment, and then approached Arturo Ortecho with a friendly handshake before starting a conversation with him. Noah then led Arturo to a table, got them both drinks, and started talking emphatically at Liz's father.

"I can't." Liz cried out, skipping the video ahead. "I just can't watch him manipulate my Papi."

Liz skipped the video ahead a few more minutes, but nothing relevant seemed to be happening...until suddenly, about 20 minutes further into the footage, she froze and let the video play. Maria could sense the tension and pain building in Liz at the sight of her and Max walking out onto the dance floor together in the video. A noise escaped from Liz's throat that sounded almost like a whimper of pain. Maria could tell that her friend was trying, and failing, to fight the tears that were coming. She slid an arm over Liz's shoulder, and covered the hand that Liz had slid off of the mouse and onto the desk with her own hand for comfort. "I've got you," Maria murmured, and just like that, the tears began to flow down Liz's cheeks.

It was clear that Max and Liz were having a conversation as they danced, because the dancing slowed as their body language grew more intense. Then, Liz pulled Max into a kiss, before they separated and Liz turned to dance with her father.

"Well, you're too small for me to see on that camera, but by the looks of it, you certainly smeared your armor all over Max that night after all, huh?"

The comment tricked a laugh out of Liz, and soon they were just holding each other, laughing and crying.

"Okay, so you've convinced me," Maria finally said between laughs. "How about we get out of here? I guess I'll owe Guerin an apology."

"He means well," Liz told her, "but he's pretty messed up about losing Max...and something else too. Kyle has implied some things to me but refuses to go into detail. He just says something happened to Michael on this trip they took with Alex, but that's all he'll say."

Liz closed the video program and hit the log out button on the computer, and then the two friends headed for the exit, waving goodbye to the kid at the counter on their way out.

As they headed back towards the Crashdown, Liz turned to Maria and asked, "So was that enough surprises for one day, or could you handle one more?"

"Why not," Maria said with a laugh as she threw her hands in the air. "Go ahead and blow my mind some more, Liz."

"Do you have time to take a drive before work?"

Maria glanced at her phone. "Yeah, I can spare another couple hours."

"Great," Liz said with a smile. "Because - and I'm really surprised you didn't push this one earlier - I did tell you that Max succeeded in resurrecting someone."

"Yeah…" Maria replied curiously.

"Well, Rosa would love to see you."

Maria stopped dead in her tracks, staring at her friend, as Liz laughed, while leading Maria towards her car.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

That night, just like the night before, Michael walked into the Wild Pony right at closing time, black cowboy hat in his hands, as he walked slowly up to the bar.

He looked uncertain, like he didn't know what he was walking into and he didn't know if he should leave. His whole body was tense, like he was just waiting for a sign from her on what would happen next.

Maria looked him up and down, and shook her head with a half smile. She grabbed two glasses, and their special bottle of whiskey from under the counter, and poured them each a couple fingers of it. She slid one across the bar to him, and raised her glass to him.

"Salud." They clinked glasses lightly and each took a sip.

Maria leaned forward, elbows on the bar surface, chin in her hands.

"Soooo," she started. "I hear you're an alien."

#fictober19 #my fanfic #rnm marichael fanfic #rnm miluca fanfic #rnm gen fanfic #liz ortecho #maria deluca

7 notes · View notes

angsty-nerd · 5 years

Text

Fictober 20

#20. "You could talk about it, you know”

Roswell, NM fanfic

Three conversations: 1. Liz & Kyle; 2. Rosa, Maria, & Liz; and, 3. Rosa & Max.

Beneath the cut for length!

It was nearly midnight when the light knock on the front door of Max's house pulled Liz's attention from her reading. She groaned, frustrated by the interruption, but there was no one else to answer the door. Isobel had gone home, and Rosa went to bed at least an hour earlier. Michael was probably picking a fight with some rednecks at the Wild Pony. He seemed to prefer bruised knuckles over actually doing anything useful these days. It made Liz want to strangle him...except she didn't have the time or patience to fix him too right now.

She didn't even try to hide her irritation when she opened the door to let Kyle in. It was clear that he had come straight from work. He was still wearing his surgical scrubs, although he had at least ditched his white coat.

"What is it?" Liz demanded. "I'm busy going through the Project Shepherd files."

"You find anything?"

"Not yet."

"You want help?"

Liz sighed. "I mean…you can backcheck me if you want. Make sure I didn't skip over something important. But I want to see every page of this myself. I don't want to risk missing out on a single clue that could be the key to bringing Max back."

She turned and went back to the couch, hoping that Kyle would take the hint that she wanted to work, not talk. Of course, he didn't, which just increased her frustration.

"Liz, how long has it been since you slept?"

"I'm fine, Kyle. I just need answers."

"Have you eaten?"

"Yeah," Liz replied, distracted as she opened the next file and started reading. "There's leftover pizza in the fridge if you want some."

"I'm worried about you. You're not going to do Max any good if you destroy yourself on the path to healing him. He wouldn't want that, Liz."

Liz froze, a sharp pain rising in her gut, and before she could even fight it, tears were falling from her eyes. The file folder she was reading slid from her lap, forgotten, as she stood and began pacing around the room, trying to calm herself down. It was impossible though. It was Max's house. Everywhere she looked, everything she saw, reminded her of him.

It was like she was surrounded by all of the best parts of him...his books, so many books, which were like his incredible mind and imagination. There, in a corner, sat his white cowboy hat, part of his uniform. It was like a symbol of his honor and his dedication to working hard to do the right thing, to make up for the scars that haunted his soul. In a corner was a small framed family photo...loyalty, love.

Liz dropped down on the bench in front of his bookshelf, now openly weeping, while glaring at her hands. Her stupid, useless, human hands. Max's hands were like magic...gentle when they touched her, electric with passion and the literal energy from his powers. His hands worked miracles. They were weathered and calloused and absolutely perfect. She loved his hands.

Her hands were soft. Weak. Ordinary. Human. Her hands could flip pages of a file, or mix chemicals in a lab, but they couldn't wake the dead.

They couldn't save him.

An incoherent moan of agony escaped from her lungs as she just sat and fell apart. But within moments, her useless hands were encompassed by larger, warmer ones.

"It's okay to fall apart," Kyle murmured. "Just let it out, Liz. It's okay."

"No," Liz cried. "It's not okay. Nothing is okay. I need to keep it together."

“You could talk about it, you know?” Kyle suggested. "It might help you cope if you stop bottling everything up inside. I can listen, you know, if you want me to."

Liz sniffled and wiped her eyes, looking down at Kyle, who was kneeling in front of her.

"It's just...the pressure is getting to me and I feel like I'm all on my own here. Michael's a mess and Isobel's got her own shit to deal with. I feel like it's all on me, and I don't have any superpowers. I'm just...human. And sometimes I'm just so pissed off at Max for putting me in this position. But then, when I see Rosa's face or hear her voice, I'm so happy to have her back. It's so complicated and hard to reconcile this incredible pain and incredible happiness all mixed up together."

Kyle nodded and gestured for her to keep talking. And the floodgates opened.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The future was kind of weird.

And really, was it even the future, if it was also the present? These were the kinds of complex questions that would get caught in Rosa's mind, cycling around and around like a hamster on a wheel, until she gave herself a headache and felt like she was going crazy.

The world was full of contradictions now. She lived in both the future and the present. She was both Liz's big sister and younger sister. Izzy both was and wasn't her murderer. Papi both was and wasn't her father.

Some days it all made her so dizzy that she just wanted to lock herself in a dark room and hide out. No stimulation at all. Strange how her brain craved that now. Did it have something to do with being a former dead person? Is that what death is like?

At least it was better than what she used to do when she got overwhelmed. Back in the day she would have drunk herself into a stupor, maybe gotten high, and then released her frustration through some good ol’ fashioned vandalism.

Well, the vandalism part, at least, she still had a taste for. She always wanted to try to get a little tagging in on the rare occasions when she could convince someone to let her leave the house. Somehow though, they always managed to figure out what she was up to when she tried to sneak away. Everyone was so afraid that she'd be seen, and no one had quite figured out how to explain to the town how Rosa Ortecho had been resurrected from her grave.

So the night that she dug out a hoodie large enough to hide her face, and snuck out late at night to wander the town and maybe leave some street art in a few key locations, she knew that if anyone noticed she was gone, she'd be in deep shit. But she didn't really care.

It was freeing, walking alone, breathing the cool, fresh night air. On the edge of town, she couldn't resist leaving her classic UFO graphic on the backside of a convenience store that she used to be able to count on to never card her. But she knew that her old art would leave too many clues for people to find her, and she had already developed a new graphic to spread her fingerprints all over this town.

A ghost.

She left a ghost on the back wall of the Crashdown, and one on the side of the J.P. Wright building. She placed her mark on the Mexican restaurant and the high school.

Her mistake was when she was working on the dumpster behind the Wild Pony.

"Hey!" An angry and familiar voice shouted. "Maybe you could lay off the vandalism on my property. I can get Deputy Evans over here in a flash to arrest you."

Rosa froze. She had been begging to go see Maria, but Liz refused. No one could know, she kept saying. Not even Maria. The less people who knew, the safer she'd be. Maybe deep down, that was the point of this whole rebellious excursion. Maybe she just wanted to get caught, right here, right now, by her former best friend.

Liz was going to kill her.

"You can call Max all you want. I guarantee he's not coming to arrest me. He's not doing much of anything these days."

Slowly, she turned around, keeping her head low so that the hood continued to block her face.

"What are you talking about?" Maria demanded to know.

Rosa lifted her head and locked eyes with her best friend. "You really are out of the loop, aren't you? I knew there had to be a reason that Liz wouldn't let me see you, but I didn't realize that you didn't know anything at all."

Maria dropped the bag of trash in her hands and took a step backwards, fear and shock emanating from her.

"Rosa?"

"Hola!" Rosa greeted her with a wiggle of her slightly paint-stained fingers.

"I don't understand. How is this possible?"

"Liz said the same thing when she first saw me, and she at least knew enough to put the pieces together. The short version is that I died. And then Max Evans decided that Liz was better off having me in her life than him, and now I'm alive and he isn't."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rosa followed Maria into the Wild Pony where they spent about an hour talking and catching up on Maria's life while Maria finished cleaning up the bar for the evening. Once she was done, Maria led Rosa out to her truck and drove her back out to Max's house.

Liz was pacing the house, frantic with worry when they walked in. She gaped at the sight of Maria with her sister for a moment, before starting to unload about how upset she was all over Rosa. But right when she was getting to her rant about how irresponsible Rosa was, Maria held up a hand to silence Liz, who immediately complied.

"Liz, do you know what Rosa was doing when I found her?" Liz shook her head. "She was painting a ghost onto the dumpster at the Wild Pony. From what she told me, she left ghosts all over town. Why do you think that is, Liz?"

Liz sat down, head in her hands. "Because that's what Rosa feels like. Because she's not really living. Because I'm keeping her on lockdown."

"Sure." Maria agreed. "That's part of it. But I don't think that's all of it. Rosa died, Liz. She was dead for 10 years. And now she's not. That's got to be a hell of a weird transition."

Rosa nodded. "I don't even know if I belong here anymore. And I can't find out if I'm locked in all the time."

Liz looked at her sister thoughtfully. "You know, someone pointed something out to me recently. It's really simple, but it is so logical and it helped so much. And I'm not sure it would have worked if he hadn't said it to me." Liz paused and smiled up at her sister. "You could talk about it, you know? I'm here to listen. And if you don't want to talk to me, you can always talk to Maria, or Kyle. Whoever."

"I know that, Liz," Rosa promised. "Just give me some time.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"You know, we might be the only two people on earth that have died, and been raised from the dead. We're like, a crazy social experiment with unknown consequences that has never happened before and might never happen again."

"You're right," Max chuckled, giving Rosa a wry smile. "It's one thing we'll always have in common at least."

"My sister should put that science nerd brain of hers to work and, like, document this shit. Write a research paper or whatever on us. I mean, obviously she can't publish it or anything, but at least she could, like, bury it in a time capsule so that at the end of the world or something, someone will know that this crazy thing happened."

"There's just one problem." Max mused. "There's no control for comparison. And human to alien can't be compared like apples to apples."

"Point." Rosa agreed. They fell silent for a moment, but suddenly Rosa's eyes widened as a solution popped into her brain. "Well then, maybe instead of Liz documenting it as science, you should use your book nerd brain and write it down as if it were fiction!"

"Hmm…" Max pondered. "Not the worst idea."

"Maybe it would help you…" Rosa suggested carefully. "You know, with the nightmares."

Max's eyes shot up to meet hers. "Liz told you about…"

"Yeah, sorry." Rosa admitted. "She's worried, Max."

"There's nothing she can do." Max argued. "She's with me. She's comforting me when I wake up. She's...she's doing plenty, Rosa. This is my problem to work through."

“You could talk about it, you know?”

"What?"

"It doesn't have to be with Liz," Rosa reminded him. "You could talk to one of your siblings if you want. Hell, you could talk to me, if you want Max...the only other person in this world that somewhat understands what you've been through."

Max found himself wondering why they hadn't talked about it yet. He and Rosa did have a shared experience of sorts, and yet it had been a month since he woke up, and yet, never once had they talked about their deaths and ressurections. Of course, they also rarely spent time alone together like this.

"What was it like for you?" He asked her gently.

Rosa looked at him thoughtfully for a long moment before replying. "It was like time travel." She explained. "One minute it was 2008 and the next minute it was 2018. All of you were suddenly older than me. Technology has changed. And I was a living ghost."

"No, that's not what I meant." Max clarified. "Not the adjustment period. What was it like for you when you were dead?"

She searched his face, a worried expression in her eyes. "That doesn't change my answer, Max. It was like a snap for me. I was in that cave arguing with Izzy...Noah...whoever…and then all of a sudden you were dead next to me. The ten years I was dead? It was just...nothing."

Her answer shocked him, but he was grateful to hear it. It was easier that way. Easier for her to adjust, to live a life now. She was lucky.

"Max, please...tell me that it was the same for you." Rosa begged.

"I wish I could do that." He admitted apologetically, "But I can't. I mean, there was nothing for me too. No light, no feelings, no sound...but the one thing that was there was time. I felt every minute, every day that I was dead. It was like suffering in a lonely, empty, dark world with the absolute certainty that this was going to be the rest of your existence. Waiting alone for anything to break the never-ending monotony. I don't think I've ever been so relieved in my life as I was when Liz pulled me out of that place. I've never been so happy to be alive."

"But sleep reminds you of that place," Rosa realized.

"Exactly." Max confirmed. "I would love to get to a point where I can sleep and dream in peace again. And I think I will, with time. Having Liz next to me helps more than she could possibly know."

"Oh, Max," Rosa cried, reaching over to give him a hug. "Consider me here for you if you ever need an ear. Just call me your ghost-zombie therapy buddy. We’re both gonna be here to help you through this.”

#fictober19 #my fanfic #rnm gen fanfic #liz ortecho #max evans #rosa ortecho #maria deluca #kyle valenti

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angsty-nerd · 5 years

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Fictober #16

YOU GUYS!!! I cannot believe that I’m past the halfway mark and I haven’t missed a day. I am so friggin proud of myself!! When I started this 16 days ago, I honestly didn’t think I could do it. Now, I’m over the hump, so the rest should be totally doable, right? Yay!

#16. “Listen. No really, listen.”

Roswell, NM Fanfic

Liz & Rosa, High School flashback (fall, Liz’s freshman year, so 2004)

"Listen. No really, listen." Rosa pleaded with a laugh. She pulled her little sister back into their bedroom and closed the door, leaning her back against it and dramatically blocking her sister from leaving.

"Rosaaaaa," Liz whined, "I'm going to be late."

"I don't care if you're going to be late. I'm your big sister and you are going to listen to me before you go. Toma mi consejo, Elizabeth!"

Liz's shoulders dropped as she groaned. "Fiiiiine."

"Let me get a look at you." Rosa directed. "Take a spin!"

Rosa grinned. She knew her sister wouldn't be able to resist that. Dramatically, Liz raised her hands over her head like a prima ballerina, and spun in a circle, the skirt of her dress flowing widely around her. Liz giggled as she came to a stop.

"Bella chica!" Rosa exclaimed.

With a critical eye, she appraised her sister from head to toe. The purple tea length dress was a little too modest for Rosa's liking, but considering that it was fall semester of freshman year, it was probably appropriate for Liz. She would have preferred her sister to let her hair down for her first high school dance, but of course Liz had it pulled back into a high ponytail instead. At least she had some wispy tendrils in front that she had curled to make the look a little more feminine. Makeup was light, but acceptable for her baby sister at this age. Shoes were reasonable, black ballet-style flats that looked cute but wouldn't destroy her feet by the end of the night. Overall, for her freshman year homecoming dance? Little Lizzie Ortecho did pretty good, Rosa determined.

"Okay, I approve. You look adorable. So which boys are you planning to drive crazy tonight?"

"Oh! Um…" Liz blushed. "Well that's not really on my agenda for the evening."

"Come on…" Rosa pushed. "There must be someone."

"I don't know. I'm going in a group with Alex and Maria as friends. We invited Kyle too, but he said he has to do a thing with the football team."

"Interesting." Rosa mused out loud.

"Welllll…"

"Spill, Liz." Rosa ordered.

"Kyle asked me to go with him. As his date. With the group from the football team. I turned him down since I already made plans with Alex and Maria. But I did promise him a dance."

"Did you want to go with Kyle?" Rosa pressed.

"Not particularly," Liz admitted. "Not if he was going with all those jocks. Maybe if he came with our group. But I don't belong with those guys."

"Es una decisión excelente!" Rosa told her. "Listen to me Liz. I know I'm not that much older than you, and I’m still figuring boys out too, but I’ve realized this much already -- pick a guy that knows you. The real you. Kyle is un idiota if he thought you'd have any fun with those jocks. He was thinking about himself. You want a date who will think about you."

"Kyle's not that bad," Liz protested.

Rosa just rolled her eyes at Liz. "Was Kyle the only guy that asked you to the dance?"

"Yeah," Liz confirmed. "Why?"

"Hmm." Rosa pondered. "I'm surprised."

"Talk, Rosa!" This time Liz was the one getting pushy.

"No, it's not that big of a deal or anything," Rosa insisted. "I'm just surprised that Max Evans didn't ask you."

"Max?" Liz asked. "Why would Max ask me?"

"Oh Liz…" Rosa laughed. "Now you're the idiot."

Rosa finally moved out of Liz's path and opened the door to allow her to leave. "Have fun tonight, hermanita!"

"You're not going to go?" Liz asked as she gathered her things and walked from the room.

"Come on, Liz. You know high school dances aren't my scene. I figured that out my freshman year. But I hope you have a blast."

"Okay. See you later!" And with that, Liz bounded downstairs to meet her friends in the restaurant.

Rosa, on the other hand, flopped down on her bed, drawing pad and pens in hand, and flipped on some music. A quiet Saturday night was just what she needed...at least to pass the time until she could sneak out later to meet Frederico in the desert.

#rnm gen fanfic #fictober19 #liz ortecho #rosa ortecho #high school flashback fic #my fanfic

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angsty-nerd · 5 years

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Fictober #30

#30. I’m with you. You know that.

Roswell, NM Fanfiction. The PENULTIMATE FICTOBER FIC!!

Set in the middle of episode 1x08...between Liz running off after Max asking her if she can make the cure, and Michael finding her channeling her inner Rosa. The Pod Squad chats at the hospital.

Liz rushed from the hospital room, leaving Max, Michael, and Isobel alone. Max was still sweating, his stomach heaving, as he tried to recover from his failed attempts to heal his sister. Isobel lay in the bed, occasionally coughing, but generally just raggedly breathing. Of the three of them, only Michael seemed coherent enough to be able to manage the situation.

"Michael…" Max gasped out at him. "Go run interference with Noah. See if you can keep him out of here for a little while until…"

Michael nodded cursely and left the room. Once he was gone, Max staggered his way back across the room to the chair at Isobel's bedside. He slid a hand over hers, trying to comfort her as best he could.

"Max," Isobel gasped out. Her voice sounded pained.

"Shh." He replied. "You don't need to talk. Get some rest while you can."

"But I just...Max, why did you tell Liz the truth. About Rosa." Isobel coughed weakly. "What if she had reported me to the police, or the government or something. We could all be locked up right now."

Max sighed. "She deserved the truth." He told her. "And anyway, I didn't tell her, really. She figured it out for herself."

"But you wanted to." Isobel pointed out to him, and Max could only nod. "Yeah. Then and now."

Michael suddenly swept back into the room, a bundle of energy compared to Max and Isobel.

"I convinced Noah to go home and get some stuff to make Isobel more comfortable. It'll maybe buy us an hour. At most."

"Thanks," Max said with a nod.

Michael pulled up a chair next to Max and joined them.

"So what's it like? Being sick?"

Max raised his head and glared at Michael.

"I don't think hearing about it is gonna help anything." Max interjected.

"No, it's fine." Isobel told him. "I don't mind talking about it."

Isobel paused and took a few slow breaths, before continuing. "It's like...I'm exhausted and weak, like everything is hard. Not just, like, doing things. Talking and breathing and just...existing... it's all hard." She had to stop and breathe for a moment, before continuing. "And everything hurts. And it feels like there's something stuck in my throat trying to claw its way out, but no matter how much blood I cough up there's always more."

Max could barely listen. He stood up and paced away from the bed, trying to take a moment to process. It hurt to hear her describe it, and it made him angry, and frustrated. He felt helpless and weak since he was unable to do anything to save his sister. And a part of him felt guilty too, since he was the one who told Liz to keep the serum. He never imagined that Isobel would pull a stunt like this.

"Max, come sit down," Isobel pleaded. As mad as he was at her, he couldn't deny her anything while she was so unwell, so he did as she asked.

"So I want to know something," Isobel said weakly to him. "Why did you save Liz, Max? What is it about her?"

Max ran a hand through his hair awkwardly, and glanced at each of his siblings. He wasn't used to talking about Liz with them. Especially with Isobel. It felt odd to even consider it. At least back in high school he and Michael used to talk about girls, a little. Isobel never really understood how deep his feelings for Liz ran, so he usually just kept them hidden from her. He tried to consider how to explain in a way that she might understand.

"So you know how we always say that we three are stuck here alone together? And then when Isobel got married, that kind of changed things for you because now it was the three of us, and Noah?" Michael and Isobel both nodded. "Well, the truth is that I've always been lying when I say that it's just the three of us, because it's never been that way for me. It's always been the three of us and Liz."

"Always?" Isobel asked softly.

"Always." Max confirmed. "I've loved her since the first time I laid eyes on her. We were eight years old. I don't think I even understood love at that age. But she's always been the only one. Honestly, I don’t think I'm even capable of falling in love with anyone else."

"So when we sent her away after high school…" Isobel started.

"...it broke my heart." Max admitted. His statement hung out in the air for a long moment as Michael and Isobel considered what he said. It was Michael who broke the silence first.

"We're not gonna apologize for sending her away, Max. You were a mess even before she left. Isobel and I were protecting all three of our lives, and I was particularly thinking about keeping Isobel safe and out of jail. I still think it was the right thing to do."

"I'm sorry it hurt you so much." Isobel interjected softly. "I could see it at the time and I knew it was because of me. I wish there had been another way."

"Look, just do me a favor and stay out of it this time?" Max requested. "I don't know what's going to happen here. Liz knows everything now, and yes, she told Kyle the truth, but having him as a resource is already helpful. Liz didn't turn Isobel in and she's off in her lab right now trying to create a cure for Isobel even though she knows the truth about Rosa. She's…" Max just shook his head, unable to finish the thought because he couldn't quite put into words how amazed he was by her actions.

"Like I said, I don't know where this is going to go, but I'd like a chance to let it okay out. Maybe it'll go somewhere. Or maybe she'll just stay a close friend that I feel a little too much for. Hell, she could leave town again and it'll all be for nothing. But just don't intervene again. Please."

Michael suddenly stood up, pushing his chair back to the wall. "Speaking of Liz, I think I'll go check on her progress. You guys good?" Michael asked. Max and Isobel both nodded, so Michael took off, leaving them alone once again.

"Max, if I survive this I promise I won't mess with Liz again." Isobel swore weakly. She coughed, blotting at her mouth with the tissue in her hand. "I’m with you. You know that, Max."

"Yeah," Max agreed, smiling softly at his sister. "I know, Iz."

#fictober19 #rnm gen fanfic #rnm echo #max evans #isobel evans #michael guerin #my fanfic

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angsty-nerd · 5 years

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Fictober #6

I really didn’t think I’d get there today... with all the RNM content coming out of NYCC I’ve been just overwhelmed today. But I decided late this evening, since I took tomorrow off work, to give it a try, and now here I am with 45 min to spare! WHEW!

#6. “Yes, I’m aware. Your point?”

Roswell, NM fanfic

Gen, post S1. Rosa & Liz Ortecho, Kyle Valenti, Isobel Evans, Michael Guerin

Liz was always trying to be perfect. At least, that was the teenage Liz Ortecho that Rosa remembered. Her hair was always perfectly straight, often pulled back to ensure that it stayed out of her face. She never broke the rules, always did her homework, and got perfect grades. On her worst days, Rosa found Liz to be tedious and looked for ways to poke holes in her perfect image. There were a lot of those bad days. Too many bad days.

On her better days, Rosa knew that her sister was destined for great things. Better things. Roswell, New Mexico would never be able to contain a force like Liz Ortecho. She was guaranteed to leave this sleepy town. She was going to change the world.

Rosa didn't quite know what to make of the real Liz Ortecho. She was still a force of nature. Rosa had watched her cry and fight, heartbreak and anger all mixed together when she saw Max's body. But once her initial reaction was over, she rubbed the tears from her eyes and went straight to work, stripping his clothes off and smearing his body with silver goop from head to toe.

This is a Liz Ortecho who thinks fast and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty.

It wasn't long before Izzy and Michael Guerin came running into the cave. They both froze at the scene in front of them, but Liz didn't even let them react.

"Help me get him in the pod!" she ordered.

"Liz…" Michael started, but she wouldn't let him speak.

"Don't argue with me. I have a plan. We need to get him in stasis. NOW."

And that was it. There was no more arguing. Izzy and Michael just moved to Liz's side, and the three of them worked together to lift Max's body and push it into the pod.

It was like the fight went out of her once Max was settled in the pod. She fell to knees in front of the pod, the tears slipping from her eyes again as she reached out and pressed a hand to the pod's surface.

Michael and Izzy just stood and watched from a few feet away. Tears were running down Izzy's cheeks as well, but Michael just looked stone faced. Rosa shivered at the cold, angry look in his eyes. Something felt wrong with him, but she didn't quite know what.

Rosa stepped past them, pulling the blanket tighter around her body so that she could lean down and try to extract her sister from her position of mourning in front of the pod. Thankfully it worked. Only a soft nudge from Rosa and Liz was back on her feet, hugging Rosa tightly. Rosa could feel as her sister's breathing began to settle, and finally, when she seemed calm enough, Rosa quietly asked, "Why don't you tell us about the rest of your plan?"

Again, Liz wiped her face clean before turning to the others. "Michael, can you move the pod with your powers?"

Michael narrowed his eyes, and for a second, Rosa thought he was going to say something rude. Instead she leapt to the side with a frightened gasp as the pod lifted up in the air a few feet and started floating towards the cave exit.

"No problem." Michael called back to Liz.

"Good. Load him into your truck and take him to your pod cave. Noah said that his pod was defective, which is why he went insane and started murdering people. I want Max out of that pod and into one of your functional ones as soon as possible."

"Good call." Michael agreed.

"Isobel, Rosa… help me pack up anything remotely useful or alien looking in here. We'll take it with us to the other cave. I never want to see this place again."

As they were bringing their last load to the car, Rosa noticed something in Liz's car just kept ringing. Like a little Christmas bell.

"Do you hear that?" Rosa asked, wondering what it was and why nobody was stopping it.

"Just my phone." Liz said dismissively. "Somebody is lighting it up with text messages. It's fine. I'll get it later. What we're doing is way more important."

"If you say so!" Rosa agreed, as it rang a few more times.

"Get in the car, we've got to go." Liz ordered and she jumped into the front seat while Izzy slipped into the back. They barely had the doors closed before Liz had the engine running and the car moving.

Rosa heard the noise again, louder this time, and noticed a little flat device sitting in the cup holder. "Is that your phone?" Liz confirmed. "Can I stop the ringing?"

"Yeah." Liz agreed. "The passcode is your birthday, 6 digits. Just let me know who’s texting like crazy."

Rosa punched in the numbers and the phone opened directly to a list of messages.

"It looks like… new messages from Kyle and Maria. Both. Liz. Please don't tell me you're still dating Kyle Valenti?" Rosa asked with a laugh. She didn't know how long had passed, but from the look of each of the people she had seen so far, she was certain that a significant amount of time had passed.

"I'm not." Liz said softly. "I'm with Max."

Rosa wanted to kick herself. Of course Liz was with Max. That reaction wasn't the kind of grief you have for a casual friend.

Another ring sounded and a new message popped up.

"Kyle." Rosa announced.

"What does it say?" Liz asked.

"He says the lack of response is starting to worry him. He just needs to know if you're okay. No burst stitches or infection…Liz, are you hurt!?"

"I'm fine!" Liz insisted. "Just got cut a bit last night. Had to have Kyle come stitch me up. It's no big deal. I'll call him when we stop."

"Liz, how close did my husband come to killing you?"

Rosa and Liz both froze. Isobel had been so quiet that they had forgotten she was there.

"It's okay, Isobel. Just a flesh wound. He got me with a knife when he escaped from the freezer. Kyle patched me up and I'm going to be fine."

Another ring interrupted them

"Maria?" Liz asked. "What does she say."

"She says she needs her girlfriend now to come talk and to stop ignoring her and get down to the Wild Pony. She says that… oh. Guerin kissed her and then ran off."

"Shit." Liz grumbled. "What the hell am I supposed to do with that? It's not like I can tell her that Michael ran off because his psychic alien connection with Max went nuts and he felt Max die resurrecting my dead sister." Liz let out a loud, angry laugh.

She suddenly stopped the car. Rosa looked around. It just seemed like they were in the middle of the desert, but then again, so did their first location.

"Will you start taking things into the cave? I should call Kyle back."

Rosa took one of the big pots full of silver goo from the trunk and followed Izzy to the cave. When they turned to go back for more, Rosa almost walked straight into Liz, who was walking into the cave.

“Everything ok with Kyle?” Rosa asked.

“Yeah,” Liz said, her voice distracted as her eyes drifted to Max’s pod. “We’re going to meet him at his place after we’re done here.” Liz explained. “Where’s Michael?”

“He was already gone when we got here.” Isobel said, “I think he’s spiraling.”

“At least he took care of Max before running off.” Liz pointed out.

His sister rolled her eyes. “That was the least he could do.”

Once the car was unloaded, Liz took Isobel home and, as she indicated earlier, headed to Kyle’s house. Rosa wondered what kind of a man her half brother by birth had grown into. The kind of man who gives a girl stitches and then worries about it all the next day. She wondered if either of her siblings knew about her secret Valenti bloodline. She was still getting used to the idea before… well, before whatever had happened. Liz couldn’t have been serious when she said ‘resurrect’ after all.

Her sister pulled her car up to the curb in front of a small house in a unfamiliar subdivision, probably because it was new. Liz turned off the engine and turned to Rosa.

“Can you adjust the blanket so that your face is hidden?” Rosa nodded and then shifted the blanket around to make a headwrap to cover her face and hair. “This good?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Liz affirmed. “So, Kyle is going to be pretty shocked to see you. Happy, but shocked. I want to prep him a bit. Would you mind coming up and hanging back a bit while I talk? Then we’ll go in. No one can see your face though, until we’re safe inside.”

“Got it,” Rosa agreed

Liz lead Rosa up the walkway to the house. Halfway there, Kyle flung the front door open, and Rosa had to quickly duck and hide her face.

“What the hell, Liz? Yesterday was insane, you almost died, and then just… nothing? Radio silence for almost a whole day? And who is this?”

“It’s just been nonstop, Kyle. A lot has happened since I saw you last. Hey, before we come in. Remember that conversation we had yesterday while you were stitching me up? About that thing that Noah told me, but you already knew?”

“That Rosa was my sister? Yes, I’m aware. Your point?”

Liz didn’t even need to gesture at her . Rosa stepped a little closer to her sister and lowered the wrap away from her face so that Kyle could see just enough to know it’s her. His eyes widened, mouth dropped open, and he was speechless for about a split second before it was like something important crossed his mind and he ushered them inside.

“Rosa…” Kyle gaped. “How is this possible.”

“My idiot alien boyfriend decided that I was better off with her than with him, it seems.” Liz replied dryly. “Now I get back the person that I’ve missed the most for the last 10 years, but in exchange I lose the person that I’ve just fallen in love with. Max is lying dead in an alien pod right now. Unless we can figure out how to revive him like he revived Rosa. You’ll help, right?”

“Of course.”

“10 years?” Rosa suddenly burst out. “Well, shit. No wonder you made me hide my face! Kyle, any chance you have some, like, shorts and a T-shirt I can borrow? I’m getting real sick of wearing nothing but this blanket.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Kyle agreed. “I’ll go dig something out. And then I want to check your wound, Liz. And I should probably do a quick check on you too, Rosa, to make sure nothing’s wrong. Sound good?”

Kyle disappeared down the hallway and Rosa took advantage of the opportunity to speak to her sister. “So you already knew? About my birth father?”

“I did,” Liz confirmed.

“I’m not even an Ortecho.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you are.”

“Papi and I aren’t related at all.”

“Rosa, listen to me. Papi raised you. Papi loves you. Papi has mourned you every day that you’ve been gone. He prays for you during Día de Muertos every year. Your picture stays on the wall in the Crashdown kitchen. Jim Valenti may have been your blood, but you are an Ortecho. We’re family.”

Kyle's voice echoed down from the hallway, “Okay Rosa, I laid some options out for you in the bedroom. Just grabbing some supplies to check Liz, and I’ll be out of your way.”

“You just happened to add a pretty kick ass brother now too.” Liz added with a smile, pushing Rosa towards the hallway.

#rnm gen fanfic #fictober19 #my fanfic #liz ortecho #rosa ortecho

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angsty-nerd · 5 years

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Fictober #9

I made it! I made it!

#9. “It does have a certain taste to it.”

Roswell, NM Fanfiction, Liz, Rosa, & Arturo Ortecho. Gen.

This is a continuation of my Fictober #3 ficlet... it gets a little longer than most of them so preview with the rest beneath the cut.

It was an odd, but comforting family reunion.

Most intense family gatherings don’t begin after ten o’ clock at night, but in this case, with the Crashdown closing for the evening, it was that late when Liz brought Rosa home for the first time in a decade.

The reunion went well. Papi didn’t have a heart attack, and Rosa was finally at ease, being at her home with her family. Papi was overjoyed to have both his daughters back. So sleep simply wasn’t an option.

Liz and her father traded off telling amusing stories of the past 10 years to Rosa, while Rosa roared with laughter. Most of Papi’s stories even Liz hadn’t heard yet, and it reminded her how much of her father’s life she had missed...so much time wasted while she was running and hiding from her pain.

Later, when the laughter died down a bit, and Rosa was silenced with an enormous yawn, their father asked, "What did Rosa mean earlier when she said that I was the best 'out of everyone'. Who else have you seen, Rosa?"

"Papi, don't blame Rosa," Liz insisted. "I was the one who was keeping her hidden."

"It's been, what? Two weeks or so?" Rosa mused.

"Fifteen days, 13 hours, and…" Liz glanced at her phone. "...24 minutes. Since I found you in the desert and Max's body in the cave."

Rosa and Papi both just stared sadly at her, wide eyed. "Yeah, I know!" Liz cried out. "Muy idiota! But I'm feeling every single minute that he's gone, like each one is like a pin prick to my heart. Each one alone is small and insignificant, but with time? I won't be able to tolerate the pain anymore. I have to figure out how to save him before I fall apart. I have to!!"

"Oh Liz…" Rosa reached over and hugged her sister tightly. "We all see how hard you're working. If it's possible to save him, you will."

"Yeah." Liz agreed. "But what if it's not?"

They both fell silent. Nobody ever had a good answer for that question, or any words that actually brought Liz any comfort.

After a long moment of silence, Papi gently replied, “Then we thank God for the brief time we had with him and we pray that his soul finds peace, mija.”

It wasn’t what Liz wanted to hear, and it hurt like hell. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, trying to fight back the tears that were stinging and threatening to fall. Once she was sure she could claim victory over them, she reopened her eyes and told them, “Well then, Max is damn lucky that I’m a fighter.”

Papi nodded and thankfully redirected the conversation. “But two whole weeks! Where have you been hiding, Rosa?”

“Mostly with Liz at Max’s house. Occasionally with Kyle at his place. One very weird night at Isobel Evans’ house, and that was an experience I do not want to relive!”

“Why?” Papi asked.

“Just… it gave me the chills being in that house. It was like I could feel him all over it. Like he was watching me the way he used to.”

“He’s gone, Rosa,” Liz insisted. “Max told me himself that he’d never be coming back. Michael and Isobel saw Max…” Liz’s voice faltered. “...they said they saw Max kill him. You’re safe. We’re all safe.”

“I think...we need to stop with the sad and scary talk,” Papi announced. “Instead I think it’s time that we talk about the happy times. I think it’s time for a churro pancakes talk, Liz. Tell Rosa and I tu loca historia de amor with Max, hmm?”

Liz couldn’t help laughing as her father wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at her. “Oh we are definitely going to need churro pancakes for that conversation!” Liz announced, tossing off the blanket she had wrapped around her lap. “I’d better get cooking!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Pancakes are served!” Liz announced with a flourish, as she slid the plates across the Crashdown kitchen counter at her family.

“I’m still not sure about this new recipe of yours, mija,” Papi said skeptically as he cut his first bite and took a sniff. Rosa had already shoved some in her mouth chewing slowly, with uncertainty.

"There is a certain taste to it. It's not churros exactly. More like actual dirt. Seriously Liz, are you feeding us dirt? How did you manage to take something as perfect as Papi's churro pancakes and turn them into this?"

Liz and their father both burst out laughing at the look of disgust on Rosa's face.

"Rosa! I told you that Papi hasn't been well. He's pre-diabetic. He can't eat all that sugar anymore!"

"Well yeah…" Rosa said with a smirk. “But does that mean we have to suffer?”

“Rosa!” Liz scolded, but Papi cut them off before they could argue further.

“Now girls, let’s get on with it here. I believe Liz promised us a love story.”

“I don’t know how much there is to tell,” Liz admitted. “Sure there was a lot of...I don’t know...feelings between us, but it all happened so fast.”

“Did it though?” Rosa asked. “You were interested at the end of senior year.”

“You were friends with him in high school, yes?” Arturo wondered.

“Well yeah… we were friends, lab partners...and we went on a date.”

“What!?!” Rosa exclaimed in unison with Papi musing, “I didn’t know that.”

“Well, it was earlier on the day that Rosa died,” Liz explained softly. “So we didn’t really get a chance to talk about it. He took me out to the desert, and we listened to music and watched the sunset. We danced. It was perfect. Until I told him that I was leaving town. He asked me to stay, and I refused. Then he offered to come with me. I think...he was already in love with me then, but I didn’t really understand. Then Rosa died, everything fell apart, and I left without him and broke his heart.”

“Wasn’t this talk supposed to be about the happy times?” Rosa asked through a mouthful of pancake. “So far we have death and heartbreak, so, great start there, Lizzie.” She gave Liz a sarcastic thumbs up.

Liz made a face at her sister. “Fast forward ten years, okay. I guess Max never really got over me. And while I may not have been in love with him in quite the same way, I certainly had unresolved feelings for him that I had buried along with everything else that I loved about this town. Except for Papi, of course.”

“Then the government pulled my study’s funding and I lost my job in Denver, unexpectedly. Somehow, in a decade, that had never happened before. I always had managed to have the next thing lined up. But this time, for the first time, I had nothing. I needed to reboot my life. So I dumped my fiancée, packed my car, and drove home.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Rosa interjected. “Did you just say fiancée? Elizabeth, you’ve been keeping secrets! Spill!”

“Different guy, different story!” Liz protested.

“Let’s save it for another night, muchachas.” Arturo agreed.

“Fiiiiine!” Rosa complained. “Continue. I guess.”

“So, I’m driving back into Roswell for the first time in 10 years, and I drive right into an ICE checkpoint. Which is totally illegal this far from the border. So ICE tries to hide what they’re really doing by making the local sheriff's department set up a DWI checkpoint. And the locals can’t really say no to the Feds, right?”

“Bastards,” Rosa muttered.

“So, I’m driving into the checkpoint, and they wave for me to stop, and I just lose it. I roll down my window and start digging for my passport, and all the while I am just going off on this guy, telling him he’s a racist, citing the legal precedent that I’m gonna sue him under...and then I turn to show him my identification…”

“...and it’s Max?” Rosa interrupts.

“It’s Max.” Liz confirms. “And he’s staring at me like he’s seeing a ghost. And we’re both almost speechless at the sight of each other. Then Sheriff Valenti steps in to see what’s going on and the moment is over. At least, until Max showed up at the Crashdown that night after closing. And that’s when we actually talked, and caught up a bit. There was a moment between us that was just electric…and then Wyatt Long shot out the Crashdown windows.”

“The windows and the outside lights,” Arturo corrected. “I am so glad that Max was here with you.”

“Yeah.” Liz agreed. “Yeah, it was a really good thing, Papi. Because one of the bullets got me. I was shot. Wyatt Long would have murdered me on my very first night back in Roswell, if Max hadn’t been there.”

“Oh Lizzie,” Arturo gasped.

“I was bleeding out on the floor, and Max just didn’t even hesitate. He put his hand over the wound and healed me. And then went after Wyatt. Oh, and Wyatt didn’t shoot out the lights, Papi. That was Max. He, uh… his power is somehow tied to electromagnetic energy. I haven’t quite figured it all out yet, if he channels it and uses it to do what he does, but it’s also somehow tied to his state of mind, like when things get intense or emotional for him it also tends to affect the electricity in the area, so I still want to know if it’s that he draws from it, or just is connected to it, or…”

“Liz, you’re rambling.” Rosa interrupted.

“Right.” Liz acknowledged. “Sorry. So if you just want the shiny happy version of things, Max revealed himself to me and told me that he had loved me since the first day he met me. We slowly got to know each other better, but I was always hung up on the idea that he might love the idea of me more than the reality of me, so finally I called him out on it. And he proved me wrong. So I kissed him.”

“He proved you wrong?” Her Papi asked.

“He listed my faults. Trust me, it was way more romantic than it sounds.” Liz insisted, before taking a big bite of pancakes.

“So what are you leaving out. The part about me?” Rosa asked.

“Well, that among other things,” Liz admitted. “I found out that you were murdered by an alien and I was trying to be sneaky about investigating him, but I lost it pretty quickly and accused him to his face of murdering you. Which in turn upset and hurt him so much that he accidentally blew the power grid for the entire town.”

“The mysterious power outage!” Arturo exclaimed

“Yup. My fault,” Liz confessed. “Then Noah tried to kill me, and Max saved my life...again. And then he finally told me the truth as he knew it about what happened when you died. I told him I never wanted to see him again because of what he did to our family. Then I was so angry that I spent weeks in my lab creating a weapon to protect myself against an alien. Then Isobel injected herself with it and almost died. And I felt horribly guilty about my role in that, plus came to a few of my own realizations about how much I cared for Max, so I spent weeks working to cure her. And then we kissed.”

“Oh, is that it?” Rosa laughed.

“The short version.” Liz confirmed. “But this is what I meant when I said earlier that it all happened so fast, Papi. That kiss was just a few days before the gala. The night of the gala was when we confirmed Noah’s identity. The next night is when Max killed him, and the morning after that he brought Rosa back and died. We only had a few days together. I mean, we haven’t even officially gone on a second date yet. Just that one date back in high school.”

“Oh Lizzie, I’m so sorry,” Arturo murmured. “Come here mija.”

He opened his arms and Liz leaned in to hug her Papi. He opened one arm wider and gestured for Rosa to join them. She did, and the three Ortechos stood there in the kitchen of their family restaurant, the smell of cinnamon still in the air from the pancakes fresh off the griddle, and basked in the miracle that they were together again.

When they separated, Arturo looked at his two girls, still so alike, even though instead of two years apart in age they were now over eight years apart.

“Liz, keep the faith. You may not have alien powers, but you do have one of the most amazing minds and hearts I have ever known. If anyone can bring your Max back, it is you.” He squeezed Rosa’s hand and smiled. “I may not have believed yesterday that the dead can return, but I have been proven wrong. Rosa is with us again. So what’s to say that another miracle can’t happen too?”

#fictober19 #rnm gen fanfic #liz ortecho #rosa ortecho #arturo ortecho #churro pancakes #my fanfic

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angsty-nerd · 5 years

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Fictober #10

#10. “Listen, I can’t explain it. You’ll have to trust me.”

Roswell, NM Fanfiction, Maria/Michael, Liz, Rosa. Gen, immediately post-S1

Like yesterday, it’s a little longer, so most of it is under the cut...

She couldn't stop staring at his hand.

His perfect, flawless hand that only a few days earlier had been scarred and mangled. She knew it had been. She sat there beside him while Arizona examined it up close. She watched him harass Max for even a split second of believing that the healing might have worked.

But now his flawless fingers were plucking away at the guitar strings like they had never been damaged.

And he looked so damn happy .

Embers began smouldering inside of Maria, the heat rising. She told herself it could be new. They hadn't talked yet. He knew that she was looking for a miracle too. She shouldn't assume anything until they actually talked.

"Guerin…" she started, but before she could say another word he suddenly seized up and cried out in pain.

"Oh my God, Michael!?!" Maria rushed across the room to him. She, too, felt a sharp surge through her mind, like a slight electrical shock. Maria thought she was picking it up from Michael, but she wasn’t quite sure. However, if it was strong enough for her to feel a slight surge or pain, it had to be debilitating for Michael.

He convulsed and moaned, jumping to his feet and turning towards the wall. Maria took the guitar from him and he braced himself against the wall with both hands, breathing heavily.

"What is it?" she asked. "What's wrong."

“Listen, I can’t explain it. You’ll have to trust me," he gasped. "Can you drive? Ahhhh!" He cried out in pain again, and Maria flinched. "I'll direct you where to go," he finished.

"Of course," Maria agreed. "Come on."

Michael was clearly weak and in pain, as Maria helped him into the passenger seat of her truck. As she hurried around to the driver side, she saw him tilt his head back and take a swig of water...wait, no. The bottle wasn't shaped like a water bottle. It looked more like...nail polish remover?

Maria shook her head. That was completely ridiculous.

"Where are we going?" Maria asked.

"Out in the desert northwest of town." Michael groaned. "Near the crash site."

"The crash site?" Maria gaped. "Michael, you need a doctor!"

"No...I don't. Please, DeLuca.” He begged, before the next surge of pain hit him. “The desert." He bellowed, as it overtook him.

She decided not to argue again. Biting her tongue, she turned west towards the highway, her fingers nervously drumming on the gear shift. Once they were clear of town, she gunned it as much as she justifiably could.

They were maybe 10 minutes out of town when Maria realized that Guerin had been quiet for a little while. His moans of pain had subsided, and now he was just sitting silently, staring out the window, a sad, distant look on his face.

"Michael, what is it? What changed?"

"Just...cold," Michael replied. He opened his mouth to say more, but before he could his phone rang. He answered without looking back at Maria.

"Yeah, I know. I felt it too." He said to whoever was on the phone. "I'm on my way out there. Maybe 10 minutes away. Get here when you can." Michael paused and listened for a moment. "I know, Iz. I'm scared too. Don't jump to conclusions. Maybe he just passed out or something...yeah. I'll let you know what I find."

He hung up the phone and slipped it in his pocket.

"There's a dirt road to the right about three miles up. Take a right." Michael directed.

"Sure thing, cowboy." Maria replied.

That got Michael's attention, and he shifted to look at her. "Thank you." He said simply. "I don't know what I would've done if you weren't there."

"No problem." She paused, weighing whether or not to say more. Her curiosity was burning, but she could tell that Michael was in a bad place. Maria didn't know how much to push him. But she was never one to hide from a problem, so she finally let her curiosity win.

"Michael, what the hell is going on? How did Isobel know that something had happened to you? What are you so worried about?"

"Almost there." Michael announced, so Maria slowed and put her questions aside as Michael pointed to the dirt road and directed her into the desert. The dirt road was bumpy from the travel of heavy vehicles, and it was full of potholes, rocks, and other uneven surfaces. Maria dropped her questions to focus on navigating the roadway.

A few minutes later Michael directed her to take a left, and then another right. Maria squinted as she could see something shiny up ahead. As it grew closer, larger, and came into focus, she realized that it was Liz's new car.

"Michael...what does Liz have to do with this?"

"Shit…" Michael cursed. "Dammit! Listen, DeLuca, I don't know what we're going to find down there. You might see some crazy things. But more likely we're just gonna find Liz distraught and needing a friend. If so, I'm glad you're here no matter what crazy stuff you see."

Maria pulled the truck up behind Liz's car, and she and Guerin lept from the car and he led her down the Sandy slope and into the arroyo.

Guerin clearly knew where they were going, so Maria just followed closely behind. She knew when they were close though, because she could hear the sound of Liz crying...or really, wailing with grief. Maria's heart seized at the sound of it, even as she heard Michael cursed again.

He led her to the mouth of a barely noticeable cave, ducked through the entrance, and into the dim cavern. The space was lit only with small candles and...oh. Maria's eyes froze on the enormous glowing egg in the corner that was the main source of light, emitting a dim amber hue.

And then her eyes lowered to where Liz had thrown herself on the floor of the cave, draped over an incredibly still Max Evans as she wept and pounded his chest.

"Oh Liz…" Maria murmured.

“Dammit, Max!” Michael groaned.

“She’s been like that for a little while now.” A familiar voice added. “I haven’t been able to snap her out of it.”

Maria turned to face the person, who was standing so still against the cave wall to the side of the entrance that she hadn’t even noticed her until she spoke. Maria froze at the sight of a face that she remembered every day, but hadn’t seen in a decade. The face of her dead best friend.

She suddenly felt wobbly, light headed, and she didn’t want to pass out, so she grabbed onto Guerin for support. “Rosa?” She asked. Her voice sounded weak, childish to her own ears. “But...I don’t understand. How are you here.”

“Yeah, Liz,” Guerin suddenly exploded, his voice loud, accusing, and sharp enough to pull Liz’s attention from Max, her red, swollen eyes looking up to where Guerin loomed over her. “What did happen here, Liz? Max couldn’t bear to keep a secret from you, so he brought you here to see your sister's body on display? And at the sight of poor Rosa’s face again, you begged him to try to bring her back, didn’t you? And he was so determined that he tried and he tried until it killed him.”

“Noooo.” Liz protested, her body still convulsing from the deep sobs. “No, it wasn’t like that at all. I...I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have…” Liz hiccuped and took a deep breath to try to steady herself. “I was at the cemetery, visiting Rosa. I felt it. I felt his pain...and then I felt it all stop. Somehow I was able to follow it here. That’s how I found this place. Found Rosa alive… and Max…” Liz looked down at him and shifted so that his head was in her lap, and she gently stroked her hand through his hair. “He did it for me.”

“You felt him?” Maria asked. “And you were able to follow that feeling here?” It sounded completely implausible.

“Yeah, actually, good question. How could you feel him like that?” Michael demanded to know.

Liz blushed and reached up to press a hand over her heart. She pulled her top to the side a bit to look at the skin a bit, then shrugged, and let it fall back into place. “I asked Max to connect with me,” Liz admitted with a blush, “this morning, after everything was over. I wanted him to feel my feelings for him since I didn’t think I was ready to say it to him yet.”

“He marked you,” Michael declared with a roll of his eyes.

“I asked him to.” Liz emphasized again.

“And seeing him this morning, connecting with him, feeling him like that, you never once thought, ‘gee, something seems off about Max today’?”

“We were happy. It was nice to be happy with him.”

“Liz, he was high on a power trip from killing Noah.”

“He...what?”

“ I had never seen him like that before, Liz. He was manic. Pacing around, rambling. He grabbed my hand and healed it, without even asking,” Michael held up his hand for Liz to see, while Maria gasped at the implication of what he said.

“After he left you, he met us here, and almost immediately he started rambling about wanting to push ourselves to become more powerful, to access new powers or stronger powers. And he wanted to start by trying to heal Rosa. We told him not to, convinced him to leave with us, but I guess he decided to come back on his own.”

Liz suddenly pushed herself to her feet, a determined glint shining in her otherwise puffy eyes.

“Max brought Rosa back from the dead after ten years. He’s been gone for less than an hour. If Rosa can be standing here alive then that means we can bring Max back too… we just need some time to figure out how.”

“So how do we buy him time?” Maria asked.

“The same way that Rosa’s body survived for ten years.” Liz replied. She turned to Michael. “And the same way we kept Isobel alive when she was about to die. We put him on ice...so to speak. We put him in a stasis pod, similar to this one,” Liz gestured to the giant egg thing. “This one’s not in great shape. It was damaged in the crash. But the other pods aren’t far from here. We’ll take him there.”

Maria watched as Liz took a deep breath, brushing the last tears from her eyes. "No more crying." She heard her friend whisper.

"Now…" Liz started, but Rosa interrupted her with a loud, "No!"

They all fell silent and turned to look at Rosa.

"I think I've been pretty damn understanding so far here, but I've been standing over here listening to you talking loco things like pods and healing powers and connections and crashes...if somebody doesn't tell me what the hell is going on, now , then I'm not going anywhere."

Rosa looked at each of them, one by one, giving each a penetrating look. When she reached Maria, she threw up her hands. "Hey, I'm as in the dark as you! I'm just the D.D.!"

There was awkward silence.

Finally Liz spoke up first. "Okay, fine…" but Michael held up a hand and she froze.

"Thanks, Liz, but Maria really deserves to hear this from me."

Guerin shifted uncomfortably for a moment before looking Maria in the eyes. "Okay DeLuca, so, Max, Isobel and I were in the 1947 UFO crash. None of us remember it. We were in pods like this one and we stayed in them for 50 years after the crash until we hatched and wandered out in the desert together as kids."

"And all this time, Max Evans had magical healing powers that can literally raise the dead and both of you knew that I was desperate for something to help my mom, and neither of you said a thing. And now he's gone."

"Maria…" Liz moved to comfort her, but Maria held up her hand to stop her. "I don't want to hear it, Liz. We're talking about my mom . This hurts, okay."

"I'm sorry."

Maria turned her attention to Michael. "So what about you? Please tell me that you can help my mom too. Tell me that losing Max wasn't my last shot."

Michael looked at the ground, running a hand raggedly through his curls. Sadness poured from his eyes as they returned to hers.

"I can't do what Max does. I can't help your mom."

"Figures." Maria grumbled. "So what can you do then?"

Michael looked from her, to Rosa, and finally to where Liz stood with Max's cold, silent body behind her.

"How about if I get Max loaded into the back of the truck and leave you alone for a bit. Come out to the cars when you're ready to go."

He narrowed his eyes and Maria gasped as Max's body suddenly floated into the air and towards the cave exit. Michael kept Max's body in front of him and followed it out of the cave.

Once he was gone, the three women studied each other.

"You know, there was a time that I didn't think I'd ever see either of you again," Maria mused. "I was thrilled when Liz finally came home. But this? I never dreamed that the three of us could ever be in the same room again."

"I know I hurt you, Maria, but… hug?" Liz suggested.

"Absolutely." Maria agreed, opening her arms and inviting the Ortecho sisters in for a hug. They didn't hesitate, and the women stood there, in the middle of that dark cave, just holding onto each other, both with joy over their reunion, to comfort the pain...pain over Maria’s mom, pain over Rosa’s lost years, and the pain of Liz’s lost love.

#fictober19 #my fanfic #rnm gen fanfic #rnm marichael fanfic #rnm miluca fanfic #I committed non-OTP fic...#but it’s not really romancey #which makes sense for the situation #liz ortecho #rosa ortecho #max is still dead

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