Snapshot · (Roswell Fanfiction) · √

31. Does Your Mother Know?

Max and Liz's Apartment
(2009) Max is 24, Liz is 23

"Elizabeth, I'm twenty minutes outside of town. Put on some tea."

Click.

Liz slowly removed the phone from her ear and literally saw her day darken.

Max stepped out of the bedroom, wearing only a pair of boxers, his hair tousled. He tiredly rubbed his eyes as he yawned, walking slowly in her direction. He wasn't used to being woken up at seven on a Sunday morning.

As his vision cleared, his body was about to go into another yawn, but it was interrupted as he saw the look on her face.

"Lizzie?" he asked concerned and stepped up to her.

She was still holding the phone in her hand so he gently disentangled her fingers from it and put it down on the kitchen table.

"You've met my mother, right?" she asked.

He looked at her closely, running his hands up and down her bare arms in attempt to create heat by friction. She looked cold. "Not in a long time, but yes."

"Oh...okay. She's coming."

He frowned. "When?"

"Oh, in about twenty minutes."

His eyes widened and his mouth fell open. "What?"

She moved out of his hold and walked into the kitchen. "We should put on some tea."

He stood staring at her. "Some tea?"

"She wanted tea. So I'm making tea."

He stepped up to her and gently took the kettle from her hand. Turning her to face him, he cradled her face between his hands and first then noticed the tears she had been trying to hide.

"Hey," he said softly and brushed the tears off her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. "What's wrong?"

"She's just..." she bit her lower lip, her eyes large and sad, and slowly shook her head. "She's gonna hate you."

He smiled at her, one of those smiles that could melt ice. "Leave that to me."

"You don't understand," she mumbled. "You don't come from a respectable family. You don't have an education and we're not even married."

"Do you want to get married?" he wondered.

She sighed, the bad mood already putting its firm claws in her. "You're missing the point!"

He caught her flaring arms and pulled her into the comfortable circle of his arms. "Kitten, don't worry."

"You don't know what she's like," Liz whispered into his chest.

He kissed her temple, his hand running through her silky hair. "I can handle her."

She pulled away and wiped the tears out of her eyes with the back of her hand. "I need to vacuum."

His eyes widened. "Vacuum?" They had moved into the apartment just three weeks ago. He wasn't sure they even had a vacuum cleaner yet. "Love..."

"I need to make sure that she doesn't have that much to complain about," Liz said and looked down at herself, seeing herself with her mother's eyes. "God, I look horrible."

"What?" Max wondered in confusion. "No, you're beautiful."

No longer with Max in their apartment, but stuck in her head, Liz murmured, "What could I wear?"

"Clothes," Max said slowly, not really recognizing this Liz.

This was not the Liz that went to get the newspaper wearing just his football jersey and Wellingtons. The transformation that was happening in front of his eyes was almost frightening as the love of his life went from being Lizzie to Miss Elizabeth Parker.