Michael Guerin | Roswell: New Mexico (ufocowboy) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2020-01-31 20:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !log, liz parker (has_flashes), ~2020 february, ~40 points, ~~michael guerin (ufocowboy) |
Who: Michael Guerin and Liz Parker
What: A chance meeting
When: Friday night
Where: Jendry’s Pizzeria
Rating: Low
She had thrown herself into schooling to try and feel normal, but she knew she needed extra income, too. It made the most sense for her to get a waitressing job. There weren’t a lot of space-themed diners in Indiana, but the pizzeria seemed like a good substitute. Dressed in some nice clothes that were maybe a little bit dated for 2020, she walked in a looked around. She held a resume in her hand - it seemed silly to write a resume when there was no way to contact her references. She hoped they’d be willing to give her a shot, anyway.
What Liz wasn’t counting on was being told she should start right away. It seemed as if there was a children’s party and they were understaff. She was told if she could get through the party, she had a job. She wondered why they phrased it like that until she was in the thick of the party. There were children running around screaming and yelling. There didn’t seem to be a lot of parents and the ones that were, were on their phones rather than parenting. There was a fight over the last slice of cheese pizza, despite Liz bringing out another pie, a fight over the dessert, and a fight over the fact it wasn’t fair the birthday boy only got toys.
By the end of the half an hour - one which felt like a whole day if not more - Liz had pizza stains on her blouse, sprinkles in her slightly disheveled hair that still somehow managed to be in a ponytail, and cake icing on the backside of her pants. She was currently trying to clean up spilled rootbeer on the floor when she heard the door chime. She took a breath and stood up. When she turned, she offered a polite smile despite looking like a hot mess. “Hi. Would you like a seat or take out?”
--
Michael had decided that he wasn’t going to be eating here the second he stepped inside and heard the noise. Kids. Lots of kids. Maybe even a kids’ party. That definitely wasn’t Michael’s idea of a good time. He much preferred the quiet of his apartment, which was 100%, wonderfully child free. He blinked, though, when he noticed who it was who had greeted him. He wasn’t completely sure, since the pictures on the network were so tiny, but he was pretty sure that it was Liz Parker. Who was Liz Ortecho. Only not.
“Take out,” he said, because that was the question he’d been asked, but he paused a moment before continuing. “Liz? From Roswell?”
She definitely didn’t look like his Liz. But the waitressing part was the same, anyway.
***
“Yes?” Her name from him caught her off guard. She pulled back a loose strand of hair from her face and looked at the man again more earnestly. After a second her eyes lifted a little. “Michael?” It was really strange seeing Michael Guerin who wasn’t the Michael she knew. He did look more normal than Rath, but then again, Michael wasn’t from New York City.
She blinked and suddenly felt a lot more embarrassed. She shifted her weight from one foot to another. “Um. Hi.” The smile that she offered this time was a little sheepish and when Liz realized she was standing there staring at him, she moved to a table with a menu and held it out to him. “If you, um. If you tell me what you want, I’ll make sure they start working on it. It’s definitely a little noisy in here right now.” Little was sort of an understatement.
***
I was weird as hell for him, too, so he joined her in the initial staring. He’d known Liz Ortecho since he was a kid, and to think that this was her...sort of...was all kinds of weird. It kind of proved the idea of multiverses, too, which was really kind of incredible and something that Michael would have to examine later when he wasn’t pretending not to be as smart as he actually was.
He followed her to the table.
“Just a pizza with pepperoni,” he said, then turned his attention back to her.
“You look nothing like LIz.”
--
Since he didn’t need the menu, she held onto it, forgetting to put it back down due to his comment. She blinked. “...sorry.” It was a stupid thing to say and she grimanced for a moment. “What I mean by that is, I’m sorry for making things in this place more complicated. For you. And for Maria too, I’m sure.” Though Maria wasn’t an alien with trust issues and Michael was - something that both versions shared.
“I’ll, um… I’ll go place your order.” She turned awkwardly around and disappeared into the back only to re-emerge a moment later - his order was pretty simple. Still, that moment had given her some time to regroup, even if she still seemed to be holding onto the menu. “You don’t really look like him either, by the way. For one, he’s my age. And then there’s the hair - he grew it longer. But, um. I’m willing to bet you have things in common, if we’re from similar, but different realities.”
***
He used his moment while she was gone to try to make sense of this weirdness, too. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy. When someone showed up who you should know, but you didn’t...well...that was just screwy.
“Did he have my irresistable curls?” he asked, teasingly when she returned. He wasn’t great at serious conversations. He didn’t like them. They made him feel vulnerable. He didn’t like feeling vulnerable. “Well, I was your age once too. I just...you knew, grew up.”
He looked down for a second.
“Well, then, tell me. If I’m like your Michael, who am I? Tell me and I’ll tell you if you’re right.”
***
--
Liz hadn’t been expecting that and suddenly she was worried she’d say the wrong thing. She couldn’t help but think, though, that if they shared stuff maybe what happened in her timeline could be avoided in his.
“Okay, well…” Where to start? She glanced around. There weren’t any customers other than the wild kid party near the back so at least there wouldn’t be too many people who could over-hear and eavesdropping would be hard with the occasional screeching from some kid or another. “I mean, obviously some of this is going to be wrong… but um. Okay. So you… showed up.. During that really famous date everyone knows about, but your, um - you woke up later.” This sounded ridiculous without her saying words like ‘crash landed’ and ‘pods’, but she didn’t want to take the chance.
“You, um, you didn’t have a good foster dad.” She glanced away for a moment, partially because she wasn’t sure how he would take that. Her Michael didn’t like talking about that part of his life either. “But you left eventually to live on your own.” She looked back at him. “You hated that Max saved my life and didn’t trust me. You… stole my journal. But eventually decided you could trust me. You hate authority and only work at my parent’s diner because you need money, but I think also because Maria’s there. You’re from a pl--ace called Antar and um. You have a tendency to get into a lot of fights.”
She looked at him with a slightly furrowed brow as if silently asking ‘how did I do’?
--
“Well, some of it’s right,” he said. The wrong stuff was weird, but he’d get there. And he might as well tell her the truth because well, he had a feeling that Liz was Liz and if he didn’t tell her she’d figure it out herself eventually anyway. “I did show up on that ‘famous date’ but I didn’t wake up for fifty years.” His voice was low, as low as he could make it. He didn’t want anyone to overhear, either. “My foster dad sucked and I don’t want to talk about hat. I do live on my own, because I’m 27. I don’t work at your diner. I’m a mechanic. I don’t know what the place I’m from is called. So maybe. And the fight thing?” He grinned at her. “Yeah, that’s me. That’s probably the most right you’ve been on this thing.”
He purposely ignored the thing about Maria because he was still trying to figure out his own feelings about her.
“So are you obsessed with my brother in your place, too?”
***
Liz was going to say that grin was similar, too, but his question about Max threw her. She was glad that it seemed like some of the things were the same. Somehow that was a little comforting. Like maybe she wasn’t entirely alone here.
“Max.” Unfortunately for Liz, she was never really good at hiding her emotions unless she had been even a little bit prepared. Even then it was hard in front of Max and the others. Her expression dropped a little and she finally busied herself with putting down the menu before she had to answer him. “He, um.” Liz looked at Michael and wondered what to say. Did she still love him? Yes, even after everything. She couldn’t hold his gaze. Instead she decided it was suddenly important to wipe down the table they were near despite it already being clean. “He’s in love with Tess. They were king and queen back… home. And she’s pregnant now and the baby can’t survive on… in this place, so you’re all going back home even though Tess -” She closed her eyes - God, Alex. Alex was still alive for him and she was entirely jealous of that. She only opened her eyes once she was certain she wasn’t going to cry.
“I should go check on your pizza.” She turned to go even though she was aware there was usually a bell to signify it was done. Liz only made it a few feet when she stopped. She was being ridiculous. She sighed and turned around with an apologetic expression. “Sorry. You don’t need to hear all this. Yes, I love Max. No, we’re not together anymore, and from what I know you are extremely lucky to have what you have.” She exhaled, frowning a little.
--
Now this was weird. He had no idea what to make with this, but he suddenly understood why she had asked him about this Tess girl. He couldn’t, however, make his mind wrap around the fact that Max was in love with anyone but Liz. He’d been in love with her since he was like five or some shit, and that wasn’t going to change, no matter what other girl came into the picture. He was pretty sure that Max’s love for Liz would transcend dimensions.
The look in his eyes showed his doubt of what she said, although he was also sure that she was telling the truth as she knew it. “That’s weird. About Max. I don’t believe it. I mean, you’re not lying, but you’re misunderstanding something. Somewhere.” That had to be what it was.
“Sounds like you guys know a lot more about where I’m from and what’s going on back there than I do.” He knew he was an alien, and he had met his mother for a brief shining moment, but other than that, he didn’t know a damned thing.
“What I’ve got?” He wasn’t sure what she meant by that. “What do I have?”
***
“Alex.” She hadn’t meant to say it, but there it was and the moment she said his name out loud, her eyes burned. She sunk into the closest chair and shook her head. “You still have Alex.”
Liz ran a hand through her messy hair and shook her head again. “Sorry. I um… I didn’t mean to -” It was just still so fresh for Liz. She hadn’t even made it to the Granolith to tell everyone that Tess had killed her best friend.
--
“Alex?” Michael’s face closed a little, hiding those dangerous emotions that came to the surface when he mentioned his name. It was true, Michael loved Alex. He always would. That wouldn’t change, no matter what happened in his life. But the truth was, they weren’t together, either. There was just too much baggage, too much that had happened between them. “Yeah, Alex,” he said, in that same blankness.
He didn’t know how he felt about Maria. Maybe he loved her too. He didn’t believe that it was impossible to love more than one person at the same time. But he definitely wasn’t going to explain his sex life to baby!Liz.
“Whatever it is, I can’t believe that Max doesn’t love you. Sorry.” He wouldn’t mention it again, but he’d leave it there.
***
She swallowed and managed to keep herself from actually producing tears. The last thing she needed right now was to look the way she did while crying in front of someone who was not her Michael from home while on an apparent job interview. Recovering, she actually smiled a little bit and then sighed. “It’s just easier it I say it the way I say it… It hurts less.” Not to mention the words Future Max had told her was always in the back of her mind.
There was a DING and she jumped a little. After another second she stood up and headed for the kitchen again. When she came back out she looked like she had herself together again, any semblance of the things that sucked in her life washed away. She had even attempted at fixing her ponytail, but that was a lost cause.
She held out the warm pizza box to Michael. “Look. I know you don’t really know me or whatever, but I’m not lying when I say you can trust me. I’ve been threw a lot including the Sheriff Valenti, the FBI, and other bad --... people. I’m even on an FBI hit list. And none of that matters to me as long as you and the others are safe. So.. yeah.” She realized she was a teenager talking to an adult about being someone he could rely on and that was surreal and probably felt incredibly stupid on his end. Even so, she meant it, and left that out there for him to do with as he wished.
***
Michael just stared at her for a moment, because yes, that was incredibly weird. He was, after all, at least ten years older than her and while he hadn’t always made the best decisions in his life, he’d lived it and survived on his own so far. Which was more than she had, because she was just a kid.
Still, a compassionate bit of Michael that he hid whenever he could surfaced, and he gave her close to a friendly smile.
“Look, this is weird. But if you need to talk - anytime - I’ll listen.” He wasn’t sure why he offered that and was pretty sure he was going to regret it, but it was out there and there was nothing he could do about it now.
He took the pizza.
“Good luck at your job?”
***
“Thanks.” Her shoulders relaxed a little when he offered that and at his words about her job, she nodded. Of course, it was like the hellion children could sense the luck being through at her because they were now banging the table in unison while chanting ‘bring us cake’ over and over again.
She sighed. There wasn’t always going to be kids parties like this, right? She put on a far more professional smile that even looked like maybe she was enjoying herself - which she was not - and took a step back. “Guess I should go bring them cake.” With one last smile, she turned and headed to the kitchen to bring the children more sugar they definitely didn’t need.
--