Convergence

Summary: The podsters leave for Antar in Departure before Liz can get to them or figure out that the gerbil killed Alex. Eight years later Liz works for the Center for Disease Control. What happens when she runs into her dark haired mystery man in Mexico? Hmmm...Confrontations, longing stares, passionate embraces, viruses and a special appearance made by my favorite bad guy Khivar. And Liz puts the beat down on a certain blonde we all love to hate.

Rating: PG 13

Coupling: M / L and maybe some M/M if I can find my inner candy

Quotes: Destiny, Departure, and the End of the World

Prologue

He's gone.

It's only been two days, but in reality his being left me a long time ago. Piece by piece he withdrew himself from me. First his love disappeared and then his friendship, and now, there's nothing holding us together but that was the plan after all.

 I unwind myself from my red sheets and drop them on the floor. Pooling at my feet, it's almost looks like I'm bleeding to death, but maybe I am.

Just tell me one thing do you love her?

Not like I love you.

What does that mean exactly? He was coming for me but got sidelined at a rest stop. I wonder where they did it. Was it at some nice hotel or in his room? Did he screw her hard and fast? No, I shake my head. He never does anything rough and unfeeling. Slowly, he must have run his fingers down her. A wave of green light trailed in their wake while his lips glided down the base of her throat. And then, every so carefully, his hands crept underneath her shirt and....

Stop.

traced the delicate line of her spine.

You're going to drive yourself insane.

Not like I love you.

Picking up the whirl wind pendant, I hurl it across the room. It clanks loudly against the wall before falling to the floor.

A genetic imperative didn't drive him to this. It wasn't just some mindless act. I choke on my sob. He made love to her.

Say their names the rational side or maybe it's the masochistic side of my brain orders.

I can't. I won't.

And as on cue, another version of him surfaces in my mind.

"It's what I've always said to you, Liz. We create our own destiny."

How wonderfully profound of you, after you ordered me to destroy mine and Alex's. Bile rises in my throat. "Alex," I sob.

 Roughly, I wipe away the tears. Climbing through my window, I look up at that stars, but they've lost their luster.

"Can you just do that with everyone. Make them see things that aren't even there?

"Sometimes it's easier to do that than to make someone see something that's right in front of her eyes.

It's official. I've lost it. I'm hearing Tess. "I hope you're happy Tess, because I'm finally seen what's in front of my eyes."  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You know what tomorrow is?" Maria asks softly.

I take a sip of my Coke. Of course, I know what tomorrow is. Tomorrow will be forever engrained on my mind, but it doesn't mean I want to talk about it, "May 15."

I motion to the waitress. "Could I have a Long Island Ice Tea?" A man coughs behind me. He's definitely in the first stages of a Streptococcus infection. Brian's right I am way too focused on my job.

"Liz."

"It's been eight years. There either dead or they've made quite a nice life for themselves on Antar. Either way, I don't care."

Maria flinches at my tone.

"I," I soften my voice, "really don't see why we should even discuss them."

"If you were over him, I wouldn't bring it up."

"I am over him, you know that." With my straw, I stir my Coke into a mini brown tornado.

"Then say his name."

Oh, she's really playing dirty now. She knows I haven't said his name since he left. A little wall I've constructed that I'm not ripping down for her or anyone else. "Are you really over Michael?"

This time it's her turn to play with her drink. "Sometimes I feel him. It's like he's right in the room with me. It proves he isn't dead right? Do you ever feel Max?"

"No," I increase the intensity of my Coke storm, "but we never made love. It probably bound you two tighter together."

She reaches over and stops my hand. "Max did love you Liz. I'm sure of it. I used to be jealous of the sheer intensity. You were like this cosmic yin and yang, arm and hammer, pork and beans, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman," she waves her hands dramatically as she launches into one of her famous Maria monologues.

I smile and don't tell her that Tom and Nicole have been divorced for years because somewhere along the way we became her model of perfection, because Spaceboy could never live up to my intergalactic Romeo. She once told me that they were like a hamburger and a fillet mignon. I like to think she saw the true Michael before he left." 

She smacks her forehead in frustration, "you're not listening to me."

"I'm still a little jet lagged," I yawn. 

She abandons Fussy Maria for Mother Maria. Opening her purse, she pulls out a vitamin bottle. "Take this it will help. I don't see why you couldn't get a job working in a lab so you could stop globe trotting."

"I like my job."

"I saw Outbreak the other day. What if you get infected like Renee?"

"It's a movie, and I'm not going to get infected."

"Do they really burn the bodies on pyres like that?

"They do in the remote villages. In the cities, they use incinerators." The waitress sets my drink down in front of me.

"I still don't understand why you would want to put yourself in all that chaos."

"Because I like fixing it. I make a plan. I find the cause and then I restore the balance."

"Could it be that you enjoy it so much, because you can't restore the balance in your own life?"

I roll my eyes, "not everything goes back to him." Taking a very large gulp, I start sucking on the lemon.

She puts her hands up in defeat, "no more about Max." She leans into me. "So tell me did you and Brian finally bow to the inevitable and get some crisis sex in while the two of you were running around Africa restoring the balance?"

"Maria, he's my boss, besides, he's been stationed in Central America for the last month."

"Don't let geography stop the sparkage babe. Please tell me you're secretly seeing each other. It would really make my day. Heck, it would make my year. You guys could have super scientists kids together. I can see it now. They would find the cure for cancer or win the Nobel prize and take care of their Auntie Maria in her old age."

"Funny."

"Or I settle for you admitting that Mr. Nordic is somewhat attractive?"

Try drop dead gorgeous.

"You so want to jump him."

"And what makes you think I haven't already?"

"I knew something happened in Vietnam," she squeals.

The beginning notes of I'll Shall Believe start to play from my cell phone.

"Or it didn't because you still have yours and Max's song on your phone," she grouses.

"It was our future selves' song. We never had a song." I hit the send button. "Elizabeth Parker. Access Number A236852."

 "Voice and Code accepted," the clipped computerized voice answers.

"So little me get this straight you're being nostalgic over something that never happened to you personally? I don't want hear anymore crap from you about me going to psychics."

I stick my tongue out at her.

"Oh, that's real mature. Who is it?"

"Shh it's work."

"Contagion Alert 1. You are booked on El Azeteca Flight Number 232 departing for Mexico City from terminal E Gate 24 at 9:30 in the p.m. Information will be provided in route."

 I fold up my phone. "Can you take me to the airport tonight?"

"You just got back four days ago," Maria groans. "Wait," a wicked gleam shines in her eyes. "It's Brian isn't it? He's going to get you in the jungle and ravish you."

"Not with an Alert 1, he isn't," I mumble, but the De Luca eagle ears still pick it up.

"Alert 1, what is that?  It isn't the highest one is it?" All the color drains from her face.

"Don't go. I have a bad feeling about this. You'll be there the same day they left for Antar. Cosmically, this is a bad day for us a complete mystical convergence. I can't loose you like the others."

I reach over and squeeze her hand. "It's going to be fine. I've worked on several Alert 1 contagions. We do it by the book just like with anything else."

"Do you still have the medallion Max gave you?"

"Yes." I answer slightly thrown by her change in subject.

"I want you to wear it. It will help protect you from all the negative vibes floating around tomorrow. Better yet, don't take it off until you get back here."

"Maria."

She pins me with her eyes.

"Alright."

"Now, what's that so hard," as a visible look of relief surfaces in her eyes. "What time is the flight?"

"9:30."

"We need to get you home and packed. You're going to need some mosquito repellent and definitely a box of condoms."

I spit out my drink.

"For when you and Brian fix the crisis," she explains. "Celebration sex isn't as good as crisis sex or makeup sex or even reunion sex, but at least it's something."

"Sex is not a cure all."

"Well I definitely think it could cure all you ills. Put some color back into your cheeks. I just want you to be happy and don't tell me you are. Now drink your drink and don't argue with Doctor Maria."