Snapshot · (Roswell Fanfiction) · √

18. An Unexpected Visitor

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! :-)

Max's Bedroom
Wednesday afternoon
(2003) Max is 17, Liz is 16

The miniature ninja aimed an accurate kick to his shin and Max looked down, not knowing if he should be scared or laugh. But he was closer to fear than laughter seeing that this little ninja had followed him around for like forever and he had the eerie ability to get through locked doors.

Max desperately scanned his surroundings, trying to locate the door to get out of the room again. But for some odd reason, the door he had gone through had disappeared. Looking down at the ninja again, he stiffened with fear as the person brought out a large sword from behind his back and aimed for his leg.

Just before the sword sliced through his tissue, Max jerked awake.

"Hey," a voice said and he found himself staring up into her dark eyes, his heart beating a mile a minute and cold sweat moistening his forehead.

As soon as he came awake he became aware of the aches in his muscles, the headache, the dizziness and the odd heat that made him freeze.

Wordlessly, he watched her sit down on the edge of his bed, keeping her eyes on him.

What was she doing here?

"How are you feeling?" she asked and he was surprised by the softness of her voice.

Was he still dreaming?

"Like shit," he answered.

"You look it," she replied.

No, this was very much reality.

He chuckled, which elicited a violent cough. As he stilled, she was leaning over him with a glass of water in her hand. He was acutely aware of her body pressing into his.

"Thanks," he mumbled and greedily gulped down the water.

"I brought your stuff from school," she said, pointing to some place next to the bed. Max couldn't be bothered to turn his head. His head hurt when he tried to figure out how she knew the combination to his locker.

"You brought me homework, Parker?" Max mumbled, his mouth still feeling annoyingly dry.

He still hadn't quite gotten over the shock that she was here. She hated sick people. They grossed her out. She had told him this on several different occasions. So why was she here?

"'Thank you so much, Liz, for bringing my homework'," Liz said, imitating his voice.

He was too tired to glare at her and instead just closed his eyes with a deep sigh.

"You look disgusting," she said to his closed eyelids and he smiled inwardly. There was the girl he remembered.

His eyes still closed, he said softly, "Gee, Parker. You really have a natural gift to make sick people feel better."

He could picture her scrunching her nose up in that thoughtful way she sometimes did. "It's just gross. All those germs spilling out everywhere."

He opened his eyes and locked eyes with her, giving her a lope-sided smile. "So I guess a hug is out of the question then?"

"Eh," she said as if he was stupid, "yes."

"How was school?" Max asked, licking his dry lips as he pulled the blanket closer to his chin. It was freezing in here.

"Pam was caught with her skirt down in the cleaning closet."

Max shook his head. No surprise there. "Sounds like fun. Was she on her own?"