Immediate Consequences

Rating: Suitable for ages 13 and over

Pairing: M/L

Spoiler/Notes: Tag to “Sexual Healing”

MUSE #23 – Story must take place during Season 1.

*******
Max took a deep breath, squeezed Liz’s hand and opened the door of the Crashdown. Four faces turned to look at them, some frowning, some with raised eyebrows, all silently asking for an explanation.

Jeff Parker was the first to break the silence. “Are you kids okay?”

Max and Liz nodded and glanced at each other. Mr. Parker had sounded calm enough. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“Then where the HELL have you been?!”

Max winced. So much for sounding calm.

“Mr. Parker, Mrs. Parker. Mom, Dad, this is all my fault.”

“Max, no!” Liz protested. She met his eyes. “I’m as much to blame for this as you are,” she said in a low tone, though she was well aware that the others could hear her perfectly. “I won’t let you take all the responsibility for this.”

Before Max could answer, Philip Evans spoke up.

“Would you care to explain what happened?”

“We… um… we drove to the desert last night,” Max started to explain.

“We went stargazing,” Liz put in.

“Yeah, and um… well, we fell asleep,” Max finished sheepishly.

A knowing look passed between the parents. “The old ‘we fell asleep’ excuse,” Philip muttered.

“We did!” Liz replied, feeling somewhat indignant. She looked at Max. They had fallen asleep. Didn’t they believe them?

Max gave her a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand, tugging her toward him. They stood in front of their parents, shoulders touching.

“I’m sure you did,” Diane said. “I think what we’re mostly concerned about is what went on before you guys fell asleep.” She looked at her son pointedly.

His mother’s scrutinising eyes were making Max uncomfortable. He could feel his ears burning. Great! Now they were going to think they really had done the things they were accusing them of doing!

“We looked at the stars,” Max said. It was true enough. Yet he didn’t think their parents needed to know that the most beautiful ones he had seen had been in Liz’s eyes.

“We spread the blanket on the ground and lay on our backs and watched the stars. Then we fell asleep,” Liz said. And it was the honest truth, too. If you overlooked the part where they had found some alien nerf football, and all the making out that went on before and after that particular discovery.

“Oh really?” Jeff Parker said.

“Yes!” Liz insisted, but Jeff was not looking at his daughter. Max squirmed under the glacial stare for a moment. He wished that the ground would open up and swallow him whole. He felt Liz let go of his hand and turned his head to look at her in surprise. He relaxed when she put her arm around his waist; he automatically did the same. They looked into each other’s eyes for one endless moment and Max felt his resolve strengthening.

He met Jeff’s eyes and stood a little straighter. “Mr. Parker,” he said, “I care very much for your daughter. And I can tell you that you shouldn’t be concerned about anything that happened last night.” Jeff’s eyes narrowed and Max faltered, wondering if he had said something wrong. Mentally reviewing what he had just said he figured that maybe he could have phrased that a little better.

“I was 16 once, Max. You were out all night.”

Max looked at his father for support but it seemed that Philip Evans had chosen his corner, and it wasn’t his son’s.

“I will not lie to you. We kissed,” Max admitted, hating that his cheeks were now burning as much as his ears. He glanced at Liz apologetically. “Quite a bit, in fact.” She held him a little tighter and he did the same. “But I promise you, it didn’t go any further than that. We.. uh…”

When Max didn’t elaborate, his father asked, “We what?”

Max looked down, “We kept our clothes on the whole time,” he mumbled.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you,” Jeff said. His wife shook her head and hid a smile; they had heard Max perfectly well. But maybe if Max was embarrassed enough, he would think twice before doing anything to her daughter.

With her daughter, she amended silently. Liz had been right; they were both to blame for this. And they would both suffer the consequences.

Max raised his head and once again met his likely-to-be-future-father-in-law’s eyes. “We kept our clothes on the whole time,” he repeated. Mostly, he finished silently. But they didn’t need to know that. Admitting that he knew the colour of Liz’s bra would not put him in her father’s good graces, he knew.

“Very well,” Diane Evans said. “We believe you.” At the teens’ relieved sigh she added, “But don’t think you’re getting off the hook so easily.” She turned to the Parkers. “Thank you for the coffee, Jeff, Nancy. Are we still going through with what we discussed before?”

Max and Liz exchanged worried glances as the parents nodded their agreement.

“Come on, Max. We’re leaving,” Philip said as he moved toward the door. Max looked at his parents standing by the door then back at Liz.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“I’m sorry too,” she answered.

He cupped her face with his left hand and looked deeply into her eyes. “Are you going to be okay?”

She nodded. “Yes, but I think you better go.”

“Okay.” He leaned in to kiss her. Someone cleared his throat and Max was pretty sure that it was his father, but he didn’t let himself be intimidated. Liz returned his kiss and they parted, much too soon for both of them.

“I’ll see you later,” he said, before turning to go.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Jeff Parker muttered under his breath.

*****

“You’ve never acted so irresponsibly before!” Philip Evans said. He stopped Diane as she was about to pour him yet another cup of coffee and indicated the chair next to his. She took the offered seat but immediately started wiping the table with the cloth she had used earlier to clean a coffee spill.

“I didn’t act irresponsibly this time either.”

“Max, you were out all night. No one knew where you were,” his mother said.

“If I had told you, would you have let me go?”

*****

“Of course not!” Jeff Parker exclaimed. “No 16-year-old daughter of mine is going to spend the night in the desert with a boy!”

“Dad, nothing happened!” Liz said, watching her father pace around the kitchen.

“Kissing happened!”

“Dad, kissing happens here too,” Liz pointed out. “I know you don’t like it but I’m not a little girl anymore.”

“But you’re not an adult yet,” her mother said. “We talked about this.”

*****

“Do we have to talk about this?” Max asked, trying to mask his impatience. They hadn’t done anything wrong!

“What would you have done if things had… progressed further?”

“But they didn’t, that’s the whole point!”

“Max, I was once your age too. I know how quickly things can get out of hand.” Philip paused and looked at Diane who nodded silently. She picked up the cloth and resumed wiping the sparkling kitchen table. “We’re not trying to pry into your private life,” his father assured Max. “We just want to make sure you are prepared for what may happen.”

Max closed his eyes. He knew what was coming next.

“Would you have been prepared, son?”

Max sighed and hung his head. He debated briefly what would be worse: letting his parents believe he was a irresponsible teenager totally ruled by his hormones or admit in front of his mother that he was, at this very moment, carrying condoms in his wallet?

Max opened his eyes and met his father’s gaze, straight on. “Yes, dad. I would have been.” He tried not to notice that his mother had paused briefly in her scrubbing only to start again more forcefully. They’d be lucky if she didn’t wear a hole through the table.

“And you think that you and Liz are ready to take that step?”

*****

“That’s between me and Max,” Liz said, crossing her arms.

“Honey, we’re only concerned about you. We know you have feelings for Max, and he really seems like a good kid, but if anything happens, you’ll be the one who will have to deal with the immediate consequences,” Nancy said.

“You mean if I get pregnant,” Liz said.

“Yes.”

She bit her lip. Being a teen mother was not appealing but it was the least of her concerns should it happen now. The fact that the baby could potentially be green and slimy ranked higher in Liz’s list of worries.

“Mom, I know all about the precautions we have to take. We went over this before.”

“I know, honey, but in the… heat of the moment… cooler heads don’t always prevail.”

“I trust Max. Don’t you trust me?”

“We do, but I was once a teenage boy, Liz. He may say things to you, probably even mean them… but things can get carried away and you might end up getting hurt.”

*****

“I would NEVER do anything to hurt Liz, or do something I think she might… we might not be ready for.”

Max shook his head and glanced down. He didn’t think he should have this conversation with his parents even before he had it with Liz. They had played it by ear so far, and he knew she trusted him. He trusted her to let him know how she was feeling but her comments from this morning about being used were haunting him more than he cared to admit. He had to let her see that what he was feeling had not been dictated by some alien artefact. That if she wanted to wait, he would. And if she didn’t, well, he was all for that, too.

“Max, you really care about this girl, don’t you?”

Max’s head snapped up at his mother’s kind tone. There was something in her eyes, a nostalgia and a sense of resignation that caused his heart to squeeze a little. She looked like she was losing her little boy. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he couldn’t lie to her. At least not about Liz. He nodded.

“How much?” his father asked.

Max looked from him to his mother and back again. He looked down at his hands, not seeing the knowing look his parents exchanged. “A lot,” he finally said softly.

“Max, I know this is all new and exciting, but we just don’t want you to make a mistake-”

“Being with Liz could never be a mistake,” Max said.

“-- a mistake that both you and Liz could regret,” Philip finished.

“It would be a mistake if things happened too fast, too soon,” Diane said. “How long have you and Liz even been together?”

Max considered the question. With all the events of the past half-year, it was kind of hard to pin down. He couldn’t tell them that they had officially been back together for only a few days; that would give too much weight to his father’s “irresponsible” argument.

“We started to get close in September,” he admitted.

“That was only 6 months ago,” his mother pointed out gently. “It’s not a long time to know someone. Don’t you think you two should wait? Get to know each other and yourselves better? See what is in your heart?”

“Liz is what has been in my heart my whole life,” Max said softly. He glanced up self-consciously when he realized he had spoken out loud. He had never meant to reveal so much and suddenly felt vulnerable.

His parents only looked at each other before they looked at him. He couldn’t read anything negative in their eyes; no indication that they would use his revelation to hurt him or make fun of him. That made him feel only marginally better; he didn’t like the feeling of someone knowing his innermost thoughts. Someone other than Liz, that is. How he wished she was here with him right now.

*****

She needed to see Max. She needed him to hold her and say… nothing. Words were only that; words. She needed to feel him all around her, just like this morning when she had awaken in his arms. They had been so in tune with one another. She couldn’t wait to feel that way again.

But her parents had made sure it wouldn’t happen for a little while longer. She fell back on her bed. The conversation had gone well, considering. The conclusion her parents had come to, while not surprising, was still infuriating.

She sat up quickly when she heard the phone ring. She held her breath, hoping her mother or father would come to let her know it was for her. Her hope deflated as minutes ticked by.

She lay back on her side, staring into space. She frowned when she noticed that her purse was moving. She quickly got up and fumbled for her cell phone that was inside.

“Max?”

“Hi,” he replied. She could hear the smile in his voice. “I thought I could catch you on your cell before your parents thought about confiscating it.”

“It was you on the phone just now,” she said. It was not a question; she had felt it.

“Yeah. They said you couldn’t come to the phone.” He hesitated a moment then asked, “How bad was it?”

“Pretty much as expected,” she answered, sitting on the bed. “You?”

“Grounded. Three weeks. I can only go to school and to work. The Crashdown is off limits and I can’t take the Jeep unless Iz is driving.” Max sighed.

Liz felt her stomach tighten. “The Crashdown is off limits? But we only have two classes together.”

“I know,” Max said his voice low. “I’m not sure how I’ll be able to breathe for the next three weeks.”

“Four. I’m grounded for a month,” Liz said.

“A whole month? Why?”

“Probably because I’m the girl. You know, the one who will have to deal with the immediate consequences?” She sounded so dejected, it made Max’s heart constrict.

“That’s not fair. We are in this together. I would never let you deal with any consequences alone. We should be punished the same. “ He sighed in frustration. “I like my punishment better,” he added as an afterthought.

“Me too. At least I’ll be able to see you at the Crashdown that fourth week. Even if my dad assigns your booth to Agnes.”

“I’ll be there every day,” Max assured her.

“Liz? Who are you talking to?”

Liz’s eyes widened. “That’s my dad, I have to go!” she said into the phone. She quickly moved to the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

“Liz, wait,” Max said. “I…”

When he didn’t say anything else she prompted him, “Yes?”

“Liz! Open that door please!” Jeff Parker had obviously moved into his daughter’s room and was standing just outside of the closed bathroom door.

“Just a minute, dad. I’m… kinda busy at the moment.”

“I just wanted to tell you…” Max started again. He wanted to tell her that he didn’t know how he would live with seeing her every day in school without being allowed to talk to her outside of the short recesses they had. He wanted to tell her that he didn’t want to go back to the way his life was before he knew that he could hold her hand anytime he felt like it. Mostly he wanted to tell her that he loved her. But those words had never been spoken aloud between them even though they had made their presence known in every look they had shared. And he thought that they deserved to be looking into each other’s eyes when they were finally spoken.

“Yes?” Liz whispered into the phone.

“I miss you already.”

“I miss you too. I’ll see you in school?”

“I’ll be there.”

Liz closed the phone and opened the door to face her father.

“Hand it over,” he demanded, extending his hand in front of him.

Liz considered feigning innocence but something in her father’s eyes told her that she’d better do as he asked if she didn’t want to make the already unbearably long punishment even longer. She gave him the cell phone.

Jeff took the phone and turned it off before putting it in his pocket. He smiled at his daughter.

“It’s only for a month, honey. It won’t be that bad.”

Liz only nodded. She wished she could believe that.

- the end -