Mnemosyne's Daughter | (Roswell Fanfiction) | √

TWO

Liz laughs softly to herself as she walks back to the cash register.

Maria joins her, shaking her head at her. "You are sooo bad girl," and casually adds, "Oh, and Max Evans is staring at you again."

Liz's eyes widens in disbelief. "No way." Turning around, she finds Max, sitting in the booth he always occupies. "Maria, that is so in your imagination."

Max meets her eyes and she swallows. The eye contact only lasts for a brief second before Max innocently looks down at the table. Liz collects herself and turns to Maria who is positioning the coffee to be reheated and points in the direction of where Max is sitting. "Max Evans?" Her finger points to her own face. "This? No, nah-uh...it's not..."

Maria steps up to Liz and cradles her face between her hands, addressing her like a child. "And with those cheeks!" Liz giggles. "Preciosita tan linda!"

"Maria!" Liz exclaims. For some reason she feels bubbly today, like she is tingling all over. "No, okay?"

Maria laughs softly, satisfied to have embarrassed her friend, and walks back to prepare coffee for the customers.

"And even if I weren't, I'm going out with Kyle," Liz continues. She leans against the counter, feeling the need to defend her relationship with her current boyfriend as Maria laughs softly next to her. "I mean, he's steady and loyal," her alien replica antennae bounce on her head as she strives to justify her choice of boyfriend and Maria turns to her, looking at her incredulously with two cups of coffee in her hands. Like she's reciting a shopping list, Liz finishes methodically, "And he appreciates me."

Maria, slightly bored with the normalcy and goodness of Kyle Valenti through Liz's description, walks past her. "Sounds like you're describing a poodle."

Liz looks after her friend, sighs and lifts herself off the counter where she has been half-sitting. Just because Maria is only interested in dangerous men, doesn't mean that she has to be. She has to admit, boring as it might sound, that she likes the predictability in her relationship with Kyle. She even welcomes it. She likes to know what is going to happen so that she can plan ahead. You always have to have a plan.

Loud voices at the front of her parents' restaurant interrupt her train of thought and she automatically jumps as the sound of shattering glass spills through the room. Before the danger of the situation has time to sink in, Maria turns around and screams her name. Time seems to slow down as Liz stares into Maria's terrified face. Maria turns around and Liz stares at the men who are now standing.

"I was supposed to get the money today. Not tomorrow!"

Her eyes widen in shock, her mouth falls open as she watches one of the men pull out a gun.

"Won't need money if you're dead."

Out of the corner of her eye she sees Maria pull herself down under a table, into safety, and some part of her brain registers the other customers doing the same. But she can only stare, her feet rooted to the floor. Liz, get down! The voice is clear in her head, but her body refuses to follow orders. Her eyes keep staring at the gun in the man's hand as the men engage in a short struggle before the trigger of that same gun is pulled and the loudest sound she has ever heard explodes in the room.

She stares as the men look in her direction, fear on their faces, and scramble off the floor. She frowns. There's a numbness spreading throughout her body and for some reason she is finding it hard to stand on her legs. She doesn't notice how the men hurry out of the restaurant as her legs give away under her weight and she falls to the floor.