Fic: Five Card Spread (Roswell New Mexico)
Oct. 2nd, 2023 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impala_chickTitle: Five Card Spread
Fandom: Roswell New Mexico
Characters/Pairings: Maria DeLuca & Max Evans
Rating: Gen
Word Count: 1,968
Warnings: None
A/N: Thanks to Northern Lights Wicca.com and The Ultimate Guide to Tarot book for being helpful resources! And thanks to infp_obssessing_over_everything for the quick beta. I'm not a tarot expert so please feel free to give constructive criticism. Written for Max Evans Weekend, and the No_true_Pair prompt Darkest before Dawn.
Summary: Maria has to call the Sheriff's office to break up a fight. When Max shows up, Maria gets hit with a vision and consults her Tarot cards about it.
Tags: Tarot Reading, Visions, Maria DeLuca is a good friend, Lost Decade/pre-canon, Deputy Max Evans
Fic on AO3
Maria absolutely hates having to call the cops. The locals usually know how to handle themselves, and she can usually spot the people who really need help before things escalate too far. She’s taken plenty of keys, and called plenty of Ubers, and she’s not afraid to cut people off and kick people out.
But there comes a time when things go too far, and she needs forceful backup.
Tonight is one of those nights. She’d already taken Wyatt Long’s keys and told him he needed to get out. He’d been stumbling around, and he’d called some other women at the bar some choice words. He flat out refused to leave, and then his buddies started yelling at her. When a group of dudes in loafers and polos started yelling at them, fists started flying pretty quickly.
Maria can’t entirely tune out what the members of the group are feeling as the conflict erupts. The brash eagerness, machismo, and fear filling the room makes Maria feel queasy. She steps out of the way, because there is no way she is going to be able to stop a group of ten or so people when all of them are throwing punches like their lives depend on it.
Once someone breaks a chair, Maria reaches her breaking point.
They all deserve to get properly written up so she can charge them for all of the damage they are causing. She hurries behind the bar and makes the call. Max is usually reliably respectful to her and the patrons who can control themselves, so she hopes he’s on duty tonight.
Wyatt Long sails over the pool table just as she hangs up the phone, and she groans. It’s going to be a long night.
It only takes ten minutes or so for some Sheriff’s Deputies to come bursting through the front door. She sees Jenna Cameron first, with her long blonde braid swinging behind her. Max Evans isn’t too far behind. His eyes meet hers as he scans the room. He cuts an imposing figure with his sandy cowboy hat, tight-fitting Sheriff’s office uniform, and tactical belt.
Maria tips her head towards the three dudes on the ground, making pained noises. Wyatt is still trying to fight one of the polo-wearing guys, but he looks absolutely pathetic. His arms are moving at half-speed, and there’s blood dripping from his lip onto her wood floors.
Jenna yells for the guys to knock it off, and steps between them. Max is quick to step beside her, and he wrestles Wyatt’s arms behind his back. Then he pushes him into a booth and tells him to stay put. Jenna wrangles the other guys that are left into their own booths, and flips open her notebook.
Max keeps a wary eye on Wyatt as he walks up to Maria, still behind the bar.
“You okay?” Max asks. Maria can feel how anxious he is, even though the conflict seems to be over.
Maria nods quickly. “I got out of the way of those idiots pretty quick.”
“Was Michael -?” Max trails off as he glances around the bar again.
“He wasn’t here tonight,” Maria says.
Max blows out a breath and nods, and his shoulders seem to relax minutely. Maria decides not to ask what that is all about.
Max reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out a slim notepad. It has a pen jammed into the spiral across the top.
“So you want to tell me how this whole thing started?”
As Max puts the pen to his notepad, Maria suddenly feels like she’s being hurtled back in time.
She has a bird’s eye view of her sixth period English class during Senior year, and teenage Max Evans is sitting diagonally from her. She can see that he’s hunched over a notebook, hurriedly writing on lined paper. She’s immediately curious, and she gets close enough to see the beginning of what Max has written.
I feel like I'm disappearing until you look at me, and then I'm so completely seen. I've never liked that feeling before.
The vision ends and Maria blinks up at Max. He was writing a love letter. It’s not clear in the vision who it was for, but Maria can feel that he was writing about Liz Ortecho.
“Maria?” Max sounds concerned as he narrows her eyes at her.
Before Maria can answer, Jenna walks up next to Max and gently elbows him in the side.
“I think we should take these guys to the drunk tank before they get rowdy,” Jenna says.
“And before they puke all over my floor,” Maria adds.
She looks over at Jenna, who is watching Max carefully. Her body language hasn’t really changed, but Maria can feel something in the air between them. That makes Maria wonder whether Max has finally moved on from Liz.
Max nods and closes his notepad.
“Will you be here for an hour or so? Otherwise, I can come back tomorrow night for your statement. I’m working nights this week.”
Maria glances around the bar. It’s going to take her at least an hour to clean everything up anyway.
“Sure, I’ll be around.”
Max thanks her and then helps Jenna put handcuffs on all the troublemakers who are too drunk to go home.
While Maria starts cleaning up behind the bar, she has half a mind to call Liz. But she’s not sure how to explain her vision without sounding like a creep. Something about the vision keeps bothering her. Maybe it’s a sign from the universe that things between Liz and Max aren’t completely over. She hasn't exactly talked to Liz about Max in a very long time, and she knows for a fact that Liz has been dating other men. But Maria had always been rooting for them ever since high school.
Whenever she’s mulling over a mystical problem, she usually asks her Tarot cards. They don’t always have something useful to say, but if she really believes in the question they usually help relieve her curiosity.
She has to kill time waiting for Max anyway.
She gets out her red reading cloth and Tarot deck. She has a specific way of beginning her readings, and she doesn’t dare forsake the details now, even if she’s doing a reading behind Max’s back. She locks the doors so as not to be interrupted, and returns to her table to smooth out her red felt reading cloth. She fans out the entire deck in one hand, and then gently blows on the card edges in one breath. After they are back in one neat pile, she knocks on the top of the deck once just to cleanse them of any old energy.
Then Maria lights a vanilla scented candle, and takes a seat. She shuffles the deck gently for exactly 60 seconds, then makes a cut. She takes a few deep breaths and concentrates on her vision, asking the cards to reveal to her whether Max and Liz will reconnect.
Then she lays out five cards face down in a pentagram spread. She thinks she’s got a relatively easy question, so she opts for a simpler spread.
She reveals the card at the top of the pentagram first by flipping it over from left to right. It is the hermit, reversed. This must surely represent Max, who is probably feeling alone and unsupported. He seems to have withdrawn into himself, and maybe he’s withdrawn from his support system too. She flips the second card and it’s the Fool. This card represents the beginning of an important journey. It signifies that the road ahead has many dangers, but it’s time for Max to take a leap of faith. This card gives her hope that Max will be able to start anew with Liz.
Card three is Death. Maria gasps, but doesn’t let her focus slip. Max’s challenge in the future will involve a swift and unexpected change. Maria feels strongly connected with the card, as if it’s meant to be interpreted literally. She can’t tell if someone she knows is going to die, but it seems like the cards are pointing right at Liz. She feels unsettled, and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
She takes a deep breath and then flips card four. It’s the Emperor.
She leans back in her chair and stares at the cards for a moment. It could mean Max should respect his own authority over himself. He has to trust himself to make his own decisions and step into a leadership role.
Maybe he’s going to risk something to be the one to save Liz.
Then she reaches card five and flips it. This last card is supposed to represent the ultimate goal, the objective, what Max wants to get out of his relationship.
It’s strength.
Max must want to use his strength and his courage for something good. He can find success if he believes in himself and his abilities, and sticks to his own moral code. It would seem that Max will have to show Liz who he is, in order to save her.
Looking at the cards as a whole, Maria thinks it’s safe to assume that Liz is coming back to Roswell sometime soon. And Max is going to try to connect with her again, but something bad is going to happen.
The cards say Max will know what to do, though.
Ever since high school, Maria has known Max to be a stoic and dependable presence. She will have to trust him to be there for Liz at the right time.
Maybe she’ll still call Liz just for good measure.
There’s a knock at the door, and she assumes it’s Max. Maria decides to leave the cards on the table and see if he asks her about them. Maybe that will give her an opening to talk to him about what she’d learned.
She blows out the candle and then lets Max in. He seems weary as he takes off his hat and offers her a small smile.
“Sorry, this is sorta just formality at this point,” Max says as he sits down in a booth with his notebook in hand. “I know it’s been a long night.”
Maria shrugs one shoulder. “I get it. This isn’t my first rodeo.”
Max glances over at the table with the tarot cards and raises an eyebrow. “Should I even ask?”
Maria smiles. It’s exactly the opening she’d been hoping for.
“The cards told me that you should trust yourself more. Your instincts are good, and you need to use your strength. Don’t try to keep hiding, it’s not working.”
Max’s eyebrows shoot up into his hairline and his mouth drops open, but he quickly schools his expression. Then he huffs a laugh, but it sounds totally fake.
“Okay DeLuca, how much is that going to cost me?”
Maria holds up both hands in a placating gesture. “That one’s on the house. Let me know if want to know more, though.”
Max laughs for real this time, and shakes his head. But he is shifting in his seat uncomfortably, and he has started clicking his pen over and over. Maria doesn’t have to use her psychic abilities to notice that she’s definitely hit on something Max is worried about.
“How about we just finish getting your statement for tonight,” Max says.
“You got it,” Maria agrees.
She lets him ask her questions, but her mind is buzzing. She feels vindicated and anxious in equal measure. She was right to seek out information. She’s also still worried about Liz, so her and Max will both have to be extra vigilant.
That was definitely a masterful tarot reading, though. Too bad no one is going to pay her for it.
Fandom: Roswell New Mexico
Characters/Pairings: Maria DeLuca & Max Evans
Rating: Gen
Word Count: 1,968
Warnings: None
A/N: Thanks to Northern Lights Wicca.com and The Ultimate Guide to Tarot book for being helpful resources! And thanks to infp_obssessing_over_everything for the quick beta. I'm not a tarot expert so please feel free to give constructive criticism. Written for Max Evans Weekend, and the No_true_Pair prompt Darkest before Dawn.
Summary: Maria has to call the Sheriff's office to break up a fight. When Max shows up, Maria gets hit with a vision and consults her Tarot cards about it.
Tags: Tarot Reading, Visions, Maria DeLuca is a good friend, Lost Decade/pre-canon, Deputy Max Evans
Fic on AO3
Maria absolutely hates having to call the cops. The locals usually know how to handle themselves, and she can usually spot the people who really need help before things escalate too far. She’s taken plenty of keys, and called plenty of Ubers, and she’s not afraid to cut people off and kick people out.
But there comes a time when things go too far, and she needs forceful backup.
Tonight is one of those nights. She’d already taken Wyatt Long’s keys and told him he needed to get out. He’d been stumbling around, and he’d called some other women at the bar some choice words. He flat out refused to leave, and then his buddies started yelling at her. When a group of dudes in loafers and polos started yelling at them, fists started flying pretty quickly.
Maria can’t entirely tune out what the members of the group are feeling as the conflict erupts. The brash eagerness, machismo, and fear filling the room makes Maria feel queasy. She steps out of the way, because there is no way she is going to be able to stop a group of ten or so people when all of them are throwing punches like their lives depend on it.
Once someone breaks a chair, Maria reaches her breaking point.
They all deserve to get properly written up so she can charge them for all of the damage they are causing. She hurries behind the bar and makes the call. Max is usually reliably respectful to her and the patrons who can control themselves, so she hopes he’s on duty tonight.
Wyatt Long sails over the pool table just as she hangs up the phone, and she groans. It’s going to be a long night.
It only takes ten minutes or so for some Sheriff’s Deputies to come bursting through the front door. She sees Jenna Cameron first, with her long blonde braid swinging behind her. Max Evans isn’t too far behind. His eyes meet hers as he scans the room. He cuts an imposing figure with his sandy cowboy hat, tight-fitting Sheriff’s office uniform, and tactical belt.
Maria tips her head towards the three dudes on the ground, making pained noises. Wyatt is still trying to fight one of the polo-wearing guys, but he looks absolutely pathetic. His arms are moving at half-speed, and there’s blood dripping from his lip onto her wood floors.
Jenna yells for the guys to knock it off, and steps between them. Max is quick to step beside her, and he wrestles Wyatt’s arms behind his back. Then he pushes him into a booth and tells him to stay put. Jenna wrangles the other guys that are left into their own booths, and flips open her notebook.
Max keeps a wary eye on Wyatt as he walks up to Maria, still behind the bar.
“You okay?” Max asks. Maria can feel how anxious he is, even though the conflict seems to be over.
Maria nods quickly. “I got out of the way of those idiots pretty quick.”
“Was Michael -?” Max trails off as he glances around the bar again.
“He wasn’t here tonight,” Maria says.
Max blows out a breath and nods, and his shoulders seem to relax minutely. Maria decides not to ask what that is all about.
Max reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out a slim notepad. It has a pen jammed into the spiral across the top.
“So you want to tell me how this whole thing started?”
As Max puts the pen to his notepad, Maria suddenly feels like she’s being hurtled back in time.
She has a bird’s eye view of her sixth period English class during Senior year, and teenage Max Evans is sitting diagonally from her. She can see that he’s hunched over a notebook, hurriedly writing on lined paper. She’s immediately curious, and she gets close enough to see the beginning of what Max has written.
I feel like I'm disappearing until you look at me, and then I'm so completely seen. I've never liked that feeling before.
The vision ends and Maria blinks up at Max. He was writing a love letter. It’s not clear in the vision who it was for, but Maria can feel that he was writing about Liz Ortecho.
“Maria?” Max sounds concerned as he narrows her eyes at her.
Before Maria can answer, Jenna walks up next to Max and gently elbows him in the side.
“I think we should take these guys to the drunk tank before they get rowdy,” Jenna says.
“And before they puke all over my floor,” Maria adds.
She looks over at Jenna, who is watching Max carefully. Her body language hasn’t really changed, but Maria can feel something in the air between them. That makes Maria wonder whether Max has finally moved on from Liz.
Max nods and closes his notepad.
“Will you be here for an hour or so? Otherwise, I can come back tomorrow night for your statement. I’m working nights this week.”
Maria glances around the bar. It’s going to take her at least an hour to clean everything up anyway.
“Sure, I’ll be around.”
Max thanks her and then helps Jenna put handcuffs on all the troublemakers who are too drunk to go home.
While Maria starts cleaning up behind the bar, she has half a mind to call Liz. But she’s not sure how to explain her vision without sounding like a creep. Something about the vision keeps bothering her. Maybe it’s a sign from the universe that things between Liz and Max aren’t completely over. She hasn't exactly talked to Liz about Max in a very long time, and she knows for a fact that Liz has been dating other men. But Maria had always been rooting for them ever since high school.
Whenever she’s mulling over a mystical problem, she usually asks her Tarot cards. They don’t always have something useful to say, but if she really believes in the question they usually help relieve her curiosity.
She has to kill time waiting for Max anyway.
She gets out her red reading cloth and Tarot deck. She has a specific way of beginning her readings, and she doesn’t dare forsake the details now, even if she’s doing a reading behind Max’s back. She locks the doors so as not to be interrupted, and returns to her table to smooth out her red felt reading cloth. She fans out the entire deck in one hand, and then gently blows on the card edges in one breath. After they are back in one neat pile, she knocks on the top of the deck once just to cleanse them of any old energy.
Then Maria lights a vanilla scented candle, and takes a seat. She shuffles the deck gently for exactly 60 seconds, then makes a cut. She takes a few deep breaths and concentrates on her vision, asking the cards to reveal to her whether Max and Liz will reconnect.
Then she lays out five cards face down in a pentagram spread. She thinks she’s got a relatively easy question, so she opts for a simpler spread.
She reveals the card at the top of the pentagram first by flipping it over from left to right. It is the hermit, reversed. This must surely represent Max, who is probably feeling alone and unsupported. He seems to have withdrawn into himself, and maybe he’s withdrawn from his support system too. She flips the second card and it’s the Fool. This card represents the beginning of an important journey. It signifies that the road ahead has many dangers, but it’s time for Max to take a leap of faith. This card gives her hope that Max will be able to start anew with Liz.
Card three is Death. Maria gasps, but doesn’t let her focus slip. Max’s challenge in the future will involve a swift and unexpected change. Maria feels strongly connected with the card, as if it’s meant to be interpreted literally. She can’t tell if someone she knows is going to die, but it seems like the cards are pointing right at Liz. She feels unsettled, and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
She takes a deep breath and then flips card four. It’s the Emperor.
She leans back in her chair and stares at the cards for a moment. It could mean Max should respect his own authority over himself. He has to trust himself to make his own decisions and step into a leadership role.
Maybe he’s going to risk something to be the one to save Liz.
Then she reaches card five and flips it. This last card is supposed to represent the ultimate goal, the objective, what Max wants to get out of his relationship.
It’s strength.
Max must want to use his strength and his courage for something good. He can find success if he believes in himself and his abilities, and sticks to his own moral code. It would seem that Max will have to show Liz who he is, in order to save her.
Looking at the cards as a whole, Maria thinks it’s safe to assume that Liz is coming back to Roswell sometime soon. And Max is going to try to connect with her again, but something bad is going to happen.
The cards say Max will know what to do, though.
Ever since high school, Maria has known Max to be a stoic and dependable presence. She will have to trust him to be there for Liz at the right time.
Maybe she’ll still call Liz just for good measure.
There’s a knock at the door, and she assumes it’s Max. Maria decides to leave the cards on the table and see if he asks her about them. Maybe that will give her an opening to talk to him about what she’d learned.
She blows out the candle and then lets Max in. He seems weary as he takes off his hat and offers her a small smile.
“Sorry, this is sorta just formality at this point,” Max says as he sits down in a booth with his notebook in hand. “I know it’s been a long night.”
Maria shrugs one shoulder. “I get it. This isn’t my first rodeo.”
Max glances over at the table with the tarot cards and raises an eyebrow. “Should I even ask?”
Maria smiles. It’s exactly the opening she’d been hoping for.
“The cards told me that you should trust yourself more. Your instincts are good, and you need to use your strength. Don’t try to keep hiding, it’s not working.”
Max’s eyebrows shoot up into his hairline and his mouth drops open, but he quickly schools his expression. Then he huffs a laugh, but it sounds totally fake.
“Okay DeLuca, how much is that going to cost me?”
Maria holds up both hands in a placating gesture. “That one’s on the house. Let me know if want to know more, though.”
Max laughs for real this time, and shakes his head. But he is shifting in his seat uncomfortably, and he has started clicking his pen over and over. Maria doesn’t have to use her psychic abilities to notice that she’s definitely hit on something Max is worried about.
“How about we just finish getting your statement for tonight,” Max says.
“You got it,” Maria agrees.
She lets him ask her questions, but her mind is buzzing. She feels vindicated and anxious in equal measure. She was right to seek out information. She’s also still worried about Liz, so her and Max will both have to be extra vigilant.
That was definitely a masterful tarot reading, though. Too bad no one is going to pay her for it.