WHO: Max Evans and Liz Ortecho WHAT: An anniversary, and not the happy sort WHEN: Friday, June 7th WHERE: Max and Liz’s apartment WARNINGS: Nah STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc
Being in Madison Valley was exhausting. Between hiding what he was from people he was pretty sure already suspected, and from making himself sick every day at work, he should have been sleeping like a baby. But he wasn’t. He wasn’t sleeping much at all. Sure, he and Liz were spending a lot of time at their...nighttime activities, but that was just another reason he should be exhausted. Instead, he found himself watching her sleep late at night, sometimes putting his hand gently on her chest so that he could assure himself that she was really breathing and right there with him.
Yeah, Isobel was right. He was pathetic.
Tonight, though, he’d actually managed to nod off for a few hours, and when he woke up, his first reaction was to reach over and touch Liz. Which made him sit up, almost jumping out of bed in panic.
Liz was gone.
He jumped up, pulled on his pants and was all for getting ready to go out and search for her when he saw the note on the pillow, and sat back down on the bed as he read it. He relaxed a little, and smiled at her ‘I love you,’ then held it to his nose as if he could smell her on it and sighed a little. She’d be back.
Of course, he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep until she was back safe, so he went downstairs and popped a bag of popcorn to nibble on while he watched YouTube videos on his phone.
***
Liz left their apartment at middle of the night o’clock with the full intention of coming back, hense the note. She wasn’t going to leave Max for good like she left Diego and all of her other boyfriends over the past ten years. The urge just wasn’t there and it felt good to want to stay. It meant she was evolving, growing up, a tiny bit of seventeen year old Liz was shining threw her again. She kinda liked this new version of herself and she knew Max did too.
Speaking of Max. She wasn’t at all surprised to find him in the living room waiting for her when he got back. How dare he sit there looking shirtless and delicious. She would smile about that if she was in a better mood. Kicking off her shoes, she walked over to him and leaned over the back of the couch to kiss the top of his head. “I see you got my note” She told him, reaching over to steal some popcorn from the bowl. “I’m making churro pancakes” She declared with her mouth full of popcorn as she walked into the kitchen and began getting everything out. He probably thought she was making them some delicious pancakes but these pancakes had meaning for Liz and they were only fitting to make on this day of all days. She didn’t care that the sun wasn’t even up yet.
***
Max was really relieved when Liz walked in the door, although he really didn’t think she was in danger in Madison Valley. And he also had the feeling that if something bad had happened to her, he would know. He really felt that they were that connected. Maybe he was just being crazy, but then again, maybe he wasn’t.
He looked up at her when she kissed the top of his head, grinning at her with love in his brown eyes.
“That sounds delicious,” because seriously, it did.
“Want some help?”
***
“Sure” She replied from the kitchen as she moved around. The first thing she did was get some coffee going because she was in the mood to make a Mexican chocolate sauce to go with it and freshly brewed coffee was part of it. And really, they were going to need some just to get through the day. Once the coffee pot started, she began getting everything else out.
“Papi used to make these for me and Rosa on the weekends when we were kids and we’d talk about everything. School, boys, friends. Just … life. I don’t need a recipe in front of me to make these because it’s here” She told him, stopping and turning to him to put a hand over her heart. She had a lot of fond memories of her youth over churro pancakes and there was a sad smile as she told Max what they meant to her. She wondered if he even knew what today was.
After a moment, she turned away to get everything out and minutes later, her mis en place was ready to go. “Do you want to put together the chocolate sauce or the pancakes?” She wondered as she turned back to him. She would handle the cooking part but he should be able to do the putting together part and not mess it up if she told him the measurements.
***
“Which do you trust me with?” He asked. He didn’t really trust himself with either, but would give his best attempt at whichever one she chose. He listened silently as she spoke of her family. He had good memories of his childhood with the Evans’, even if they were tainted by the memory of Michael’s absence. He’d never let himself enjoy his family as much as he could have because of that.
But these should have been happy memories, and Max could easily tell that Liz was not happy. She seemed sad. Had he done something wrong? That was where his mind always went, thinking he’d done something wrong and wasn’t worthy of the love she gave him.
“Liz...are you okay?”
***
“I think you can handle the pancakes” She leaned over and kissed him then she began giving him the instructions of what to put in where and how much. It was simple enough that he shouldn’t be able to screw it up, as it was just putting things into bowls. If she and Rosa can do it standing on step stools to see over the counter, he can do it too. She had faith in him.
She watched him for a moment then moved over to the cover to begin getting the chocolate sauce ready in a saucepan. “It’s June 7th” She told him, pausing to give him time to process the date. Would he even remember the date? It had been eleven years ago, after all, and it had been such a terrible night for him. She wouldn’t blame him if he’d forgotten the specific date.
After a beat of a moment, she went on to elaborate. “It’s been eleven years since that night”
She had just endured the tenth anniversary not too long ago but thanks to a time jump when she arrived here, it was already time to endure it again. Even though she’d just seen Rosa alive just before she came here, this date still held a lot of sadness for her. It was a different kind of sadness than the tenth, though, as she let go of all of the grief she held in for the past ten years. She let herself move on and go through the entire grieving process, right down to the acceptance part.
This anniversary was about remembering her sister for who she was, not what she did.
***
It didn’t take him long to catch on, because there was only one night in either of their lives that could be considered that night. It was worse for Liz, of course, but it had been a terrible night for him, too, and one he really wished he could forget. He’d helped cover up a murder that night, and had hurt Liz without meaning to. He’d never stop regretting that.
He stopped working with the pancakes and turned to look at her.
“Do you want to talk about it? I mean...what can I do?”
***
When he asked if she wanted to talk about it, she shook her head as she whisked the sauce together. “I don’t want to focus on that anymore now that I know what happened and the person behind it has been taken care of” She told him as she looked over at him, actually grateful that he’d taken out Noah. He deserved it for what he did to Rosa and Isobel. Justice had been served.
“You can keep helping me make these pancakes. That will keep her memory alive” She told him as she took the chocolate sauce off of the stove and poured into a bowl. “That’s how I want to deal with this now. I spent too many years being bitter and angry about the whole thing and I don’t want to be like that anymore. I need to do something different” She told him as she moved over to help him with the pancake mix.
***
Max couldn’t disagree with that. He’d worried about her after Rosa died, and he knew that she hadn’t taken it well. Even ten years later when she’d returned to Roswell, he could tell that. It just wasn’t healthy, all that anger and bitterness. He was glad that she’d decided to let it go and hoped that he’d somehow had some little part in that.
“I can do that,” he said. “Whatever you need. Really, as far as therapy goes, making delicious food seems like the way to go to me.”
***
A while later, after they’d finished mixing the pancakes and she fried them up, they were enjoying the Mexican dish and she was sharing stories about her sister with him. It felt good to laugh, smile, and think about the good times she had with Rosa. This was something that she should have been doing every year and that she was going to do every year from now on.
“Should we even bother going back to bed?” She asked with a laugh when she showed him the time on her phone as they finished up the last batch of pancakes. It was nearly 4 am already.
***
She seemed as if she felt better than she had when she’d come home for her walk, and for that Max was grateful. He’d been worried about her - he always worried about her - and it was good to know that while she might have some hard times, eventually she’d be okay. That was what really mattered, after all.
“Well, it is still dark outside,” he said logically. Was there much to do “up” before the bakeries were even open?
“But we could go back to bed and not go back to sleep.”
He could think of a few ways they could pass the time, even if it was just cuddling.
***
“Netflix and chill?” She asked with a smile as she stood up from the table. Grabbing her phone, she slipped it into her pocket and reached out for his hand. Once he took it, she pulled him up and walked back into their bedroom with him. She really meant chilling, not chilling because as much as she wanted to make love with him always, she wasn’t in the mood that night. She really just wanted to be in his arms and forget what the day was for a while.