PART THREE

Ten minutes later, Serena approached Max.

"You want to help? Tell me what I have to do," she said.

"I don't know unless I look at her," he said.

"Not possible," she said.

Max knew that if he didn't tell her what she needed to know, it was almost a certainty she would die.

Max told her what he thought she would need, knowing that asking for a trip for blood to the hospital was futile. Any blood that was stored there was useless. With no electricity in town any supply that might be around had surely gone bad, and she had no way of knowing Liz's blood type.

Not for the first time he thought how much easier it would be if they just let him heal her. But he had no choice.

Serena moved over to the table Liz lay on. She looked at Liz's wounds. Both were still bleeding, though very slowly, and judging from the flow of blood, and the length of time that had passed, she knew Liz had lost a dangerous amount of blood.

Gingerly she wondered if it was a possibility that her intestines had been nicked.

"I'll do what I can," she said to the others. We can't risk any operations or anything like that. We don't have a sterile area, and I am not trained in that," she said.

They nodded, and Serena quietly went to work while Kyle watched her like a hawk.

After an hour of cleaning and dressing the wounds, she was finished. She hoped she had done enough. She was not happy with the fact that Liz had not re-gained consciousness through any of it. She would have though the pain of what she was doing would have roused her. This worried her, and she prayed that she was not too late.

When she was done he stepped back and covered her with a blanket, carefully laying across her stomach and pulling it up to her shoulders. A sweat had broken over her brow, a sign that her body was fighting infection already. She didn't want to think of what had been on that knife, or where it had been. She had done all he humanly could

"I did all I could," Serena said, "but it doesn't look good. She's lost a lot of blood, and it looks like she's fighting some sort of infection.

"I know if I...." Max said.

"No way," Kyle said angrily.

"Enough Kyle," Serena said.

Once more Serena felt a pang that Kyle cared so deeply for Liz. From the moment she met him, she had felt this strange attraction to him, but he had not returned it. Serena loved Liz like a sister, but she couldn't help but feel jealous that Liz had Kyle's attention. She covered those feelings by being curt with him, trying to convince herself that it didn't matter. That is, until she stopped for more than two minutes to think about it. Stop it, she told herself. There are more important things to worry about other than your crush on Kyle. Like whether Liz was going to live. Like whether they were going to win over this crazy thing that had happened to their world.

Michael muttered "Nice, we all are still tied up here Max. ‘Oh they'll let me help her'. Brilliant one Max," he said, and Max glared at him.
Max could feel Isabel and Michael's anger.

He didn't look at them.

**********

Some time later Max was awakened by a shadow falling over him. Disoriented, he looked over at Isabel and Michael. Both had also dozed off. And then he noticed the person who had kneeled in front of him.

"Shh...." Serena said. "It's just me."

Max looked at her questioningly.

"We need to talk," she said quietly, glancing over at the humans who had fallen asleep on the seats they had dragged out from the theater area. Maria lay slumped against Alex, while Kyle leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest.

"How is Liz?" Max asked quietly.

"She's got a bad fever," Serena told him.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Max Evans," he answered.

"No, *who* are you?" she asked again.

Max looked at her confused.

"I can see something different about you. I don't know what it is, but I can see it. You have this strange aura," she said.

"Aura?" Max asked skeptically.

"Oh what, you don't believe in auras?" she asked. "You are an alien, you of all people should be accepting of things that are different," she said.

Max just looked at her.

"Let me help her," he said quietly.

"I can't do that," she said. "I don't get any menacing intentions from you, but I don't know what you are capable of," she said.

"I would never hurt her," he said, looking at her intently, and her eyes widened.

"You have feelings for her?" she said incredulously.

"What?" Max asked in disbelief. "No! I don't even know her really," he said, flustered.

"I sense it," she said. "Strong feelings, old feelings....childhood feelings."

"No, you don't know what you're talking about. I wanted to be a doctor before all this happened. I wanted to help people," he said.

"Max let me explain something to you. I am somewhat of a clairvoyant among other things. So I know you are lying through your teeth," she said.

Suddenly, Liz's body wrenched off the table, and Serena rushed over, as Kyle Maria and Alex woke up hearing the noise.

Max heard the labored breaths that she was trying to take, and he knew that she was going to choke to death on her own blood. And that same instant, an explosion outside rocked the building. Kyle and Alex ran to the front door, anticipating an attack.

Max looked desperately around for something that would cut the cable that was tied around his wrists while their attention was occupied, as Michael and Isabel stood.

"Get out of here now!" Max said. "The back door! Go, while they aren't looking!"

"Max, we're not going without you!" Isabel said.

"I'll be out in two minutes, I promise. Go!" he said, pushing her toward the direction of the back entrance.

"Maxwell, if you aren't out there in two minutes," Michael said warningly.

"I'll be there," he said.

Michael urged Isabel on. Looking around as another thunderous explosion rocked the building, Max spotted a pair of scissors. He deftly turned and picked them up with his tied hands, working the blades between the cable and his wrist, trying to get the leverage to cut the thin wire. Maneuvering the scissors, he desperately tried to saw the wire with them as he watched Serena and Maria try to shield Liz from the debris falling from the ceiling.

A second later, the room went black. Max heard Maria scream, and Liz's labored breathing. Continuing to saw at the wire, he frantically made his way in the direction he last saw Maria and Serena, listening intently, tripping and bumping into objects in his way.

Suddenly the cable gave and fell of his wrists. He clutched the scissors and made his way further toward the gasping raspy noise he knew was Liz. With one hand in front of him he continued on, until his hand on the table stopped him. His groping hand fell on Liz's wrist and he felt her pulse racing through it, with the effort her body was using to try to get air into her lungs.

"Serena!" Maria shrieked a short distance away. Max took Liz's hand in the dark, and pulled her close. Whatever happened he would do what he could for her. He felt the tickling softness of her long lashes on his cheek in the dark, fluttering against it, barely touching him. Oh God, she is awake, he thought desperately.

"It's going to be ok Liz," he said anguished. "You're going to be ok."

He could feel the wrenching of her chest as she tried to draw breath, and without even thinking, he placed his hand flat in the middle of it, closing his eyes, as the building shook again, eliciting another scream from Maria. He pulled her body flush against his, hiding his hand between their bodies, feeling his healing powers kick in, making a connection with her that he had never experienced with anyone before.

*flash*

Liz is standing on the playground, six years old. She is laughing with Maria as they play jump-rope.

*flash*

Eight years old. Alex is chasing her through the Crashdown, her long dark hair flowing behind her like silk. This elicits a yell from her father, but it doesn't stop them from crashing through the doors of the kitchen, diving onto the couch in the breakroom, laughing hysterically.

*flash*

Thirteen. Liz sits with Maria in her bedroom, her arms wrapped around her while she cries inconsolably over her father's departure. He hasn't even left a note. Liz doesn't know what to say, so she doesn't say anything at all, just holding her friend.

*flash*

Fourteen, Liz and Maria sit watching Alex learning to play the bass guitar, while his band-mates struggle with their own instruments. They are struggling not to laugh, as Alex puts his intense rock star face on.

*flash*

Fifteen. Liz blushes as she stands at her locker on the last day of school and Kyle Valenti, wrestler and star basketball player for the Roswell Comets, asks her to a movie. Maria stands a short distance away, trying to hold back a laugh at the look on Liz's face.

*flash*

Kyle leans in closer to her, gently touching his lips to hers. She thinks to herself that it is exciting, and definitely nice, but not the mind-blowing experience a first kiss is supposed to be. But maybe it was just that she was nervous.

*flash*

Sixteen. Liz is peering out of the doors of the kitchen in the Crashdown at Max Evans shyly. He doesn't see her. Good thing. What would someone like Max Evans want with her anyway? He's smart and utterly gorgeous. But no one could take away her daydreams. Neither could anyone take away the racing heartbeat of hers when he rarely came into the restaurant and she was lucky enough to wait on him, along with Michael Guerin and Isabel, his sister. She didn't know exactly what it was Isabel had against her, but she never failed to shoot a nasty look in Liz's direction as she came to take their order. Not that she actually *had* to take Max's order. He always ordered the same thing on the rare instances he came in, and she had memorized it. She would ask though, because she was always rewarded with a polite smile from Max, one that she could almost imagine might be something more. But he never said anything further to her, and she kicked herself for her stupid daydreams. Besides, Kyle was so good to her, even if they didn't have all the same interests. What couple ever does?

*flash*

She was supposed to watch movies with her grandmother, she kept telling herself. She was not supposed to be sitting in the waiting room of the hospital hearing that her beloved Grams had had a stroke.

Kyle sat rubbing her back, but she felt lost. And alone....so alone. Wishing there was someone she could talk to. Wishing that she could call Max Evans and just talk to him. Because she thought about him. A lot. Later, she would tell herself how crazy that was. But dreaming about Max Evans had become a pastime for her. And then her Grams died, and she was out of school for a few days. Kyle came to the funeral with her, and he was wonderful. Supportive, attentive, everything a good boyfriend should be. And she told herself to give up her little daydreams, because they weren't harmless. She had made up this fictional Max Evans in her head, and was comparing Kyle to him. And he wasn't even real. Kyle was tangible, Kyle was there....Kyle was her boyfriend. So she stopped her thoughts of fictional Max, and did very well at it, until she got back to school with puffy red eyes a few days later, and knew that everyone knew what happened. Even Isabel had given her a sympathetic smile. And when she walked into AP English, the real Max Evans turned around and gave her a sweet smile. It was quick, but enough to fuel her daydreams all over again.

*flash*

Senior year. AP Physics. She couldn't believe it. She and Max were partners in lab. She would get to sit next to him every day for the whole year. It didn't matter if they only spoke when they were working on their projects. It didn't matter that they didn't look each other in the eyes. It didn't matter that he didn't really know she existed. She got to sit elbow to elbow with him, and every once in a while their elbows would touch, and little shivers of electricity would shoot up her spine. Sometimes she would get the chance to look sideways, and she would catch a glimpse of his beautiful shiny hair. And always she could breathe in the scent that was Max. Clean and musky and totally exciting. And then she would leave class and scold herself for acting like an idiot girl with a junior high school crush on a boy. She was dating Kyle, and he was popular, and he was good to her, and he really *liked* her. But those little daydreams of Fictional Max, Prince Charming Max, continued, made all the more vivid with the little contact she had with him in class.

*flash*

Graduation day. The football field was resplendent with the bright blue and gold school colors proudly worn by the students. Liz is Valedictorian and she is a nervous wreck about giving her speech. She has practiced it endlessly on her balcony. Alex, Kyle and Maria all assure her that she is going to be fine, but she won't be fine. She will be up in front of the whole school, what if she made a mistake? Ceremonies begin and finally it is her turn to step up to the podium, and she feels her heart beating ninety miles and hour, and her breath is coming quick, and she wants to turn around and run. And she lays her paper on the podium and looks out at the crowd and panics. And then her eyes light on Max Evans, who is looking at her intently, and she thinks of Fictional Max, her Romeo, and she looks away and begins talking in a self-assured voice. Five minutes later she is finished, and people are applauding, and she can step down.

She doesn't remember much of the ceremony, only that she thinks she did ok. And all of the students including herself, receive their diplomas, and the hats are thrown and it is over. High school is over, time to start living in the real world.

Kyle wraps his arm around her and they walk through the throng, dazed, trying to find their parents. And then, Liz catches a final glimpse at Max Evans, and as she looks at him, he looks at her, and they both smile, and then the moment is gone, people blocking her line of vision. When they clear, he is gone.

*flash*

Liz's father has passed away. She was supposed to start at MIT in the fall, but she foregoes and decides to go to school locally to help her mother with the restaurant. She and Kyle go to Las Cruces, and Kyle helps out with anything he can. She loves him for it. She realizes that the pipe-dream she has created for herself doesn't exist. The real Max left Roswell years ago, and never looked back. Time to give it up, and so she does.

Max feels his heartbeat meld with hers, the thrumming of the blood running through her veins becoming one with his, and then the moment is gone, and the lights have snapped on, and Kyle is pulling him away from her, and he is screaming at him, but Max cannot hear him. Instead he still hears the heartbeat that for one moment in time merged with his, that whisper of her husky voice as she scolded herself, told herself to forget about him.

And he is overcome, and pushes past Kyle, into the heart of the night, the echo of Maria's voice shouting Serena's name ringing out of the building.