PART FIVE

Max stopped, stunned as he looked straight into Liz's eyes.

Michael walked in behind him, and his face hardened.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked angrily, looking at Kyle and Alex.

"We could ask the same question," Alex said, staring him down.

"We don't owe you any explanations," Isabel said coldly, standing next to Michael.

"Oh this is great," Maria muttered.

Kyle glared at Max, but Max hadn't noticed. He was too caught up in Liz Parker's eyes. The moment he looked into them, the flood of images from their connection flared to the surface of his mind.

Liz felt her breath quicken, and her heartbeat race at seeing Max. Looking into his eyes, she felt the blanketing warmth she had felt back at the UFO Museum.

Yelling erupted around them, but the two were deaf to it as time and space seemed to pause for an endless moment. Liz swallowed hard as she felt the intenseness of Max's gaze.

Max felt as if someone had knocked the wind out of him. Even with the bruise still painfully colored on her cheek, she looked beautiful. He had almost forgotten how beautiful she was. Perfect....

A hideous wheezing erupted from behind her and she broke his gaze. Turning quickly, she looked at Doug and nearly panicked. His face was turning a sickly shade of blue as he tried desperately to take a breath.

"Maria!" she called out frantically.

Maria broke her diatribe at Isabel and Michael as soon as she heard the panic in Liz's voice. She rushed over to where Liz was on the floor with Doug.

"Oh shit....oh shit," Maria said on the verge of tears.

"I want to know what's going on here, right now!" Michael yelled at Alex.

Max saw the panic in Liz's face and made his way quickly to the person her body was shielding from his view.

Liz looked up at him, tears filling her eyes.

"He's going to die," she whispered shakily.

Max looked at the man's face for a moment and then down to Maria, who moved out of his way. He knelt down, the outside of his thigh touching Liz's arm. He looked at her.

"Can you help him?" she pleaded.

He looked at her for a long moment and moved to place his hand on the mans' chest.

"Maxwell don't you dare!" Michael grated. "Don't you dare heal him! They tried to kill us, for crissakes! We don't even know what's going on here...."

"Max," Isabel said warningly.

Liz turned to them. "Look, I promise, I'll explain everything, why we're in here, what happened, everything. Just please help him. He's our only hope of finding Serena," she said, her eyes pleading with him.

"And why should we care of you get this Serena back?" Michael retorted.

"Because she can save the world," Liz answered.

Max looked up at Michael, giving him his answer, and Michael looked up at the ceiling in annoyance.

Max turned back to the man again and placed his hand on his chest, closing his eyes. Doug was wheezing laboriously, trying to get air into his lungs.

Liz watched in amazement as a slight glow appeared through the skin of his hand. This is what he did to me, she thought in wonder.

Max's face twisted in an almost painful demeanor, as his energy was sucked out of him, rebuilding cells and tissue and bone. His breathing became labored as his energy was depleted. Liz watched him heal, watched him become weaker as his efforts doubled to heal the man.

Isabel watched horrified as Max slumped away from Doug, trying to catch his breath.

She kneeled next to him, a worried look on her face.

"Max! Are you ok?" she asked.

He smiled weakly at her. "Yeah, I'm fine. He was pretty bad. It's harder to heal aliens," he said, as she and Michael looked at him in shock. He looked at Liz. "He'll be unconscious for awhile."

"What do you mean aliens?" Michael asked.

"I'll explain everything," Liz said, catching Max's eyes before looking up at Michael and Isabel.

Max used his feet to push himself back until his back hit the wall of the chamber, and then he slumped against it.

"Yes Serena and Doug are aliens, sort of...." she said.

"What do you mean sort of?" Michael asked. "And how did you know about this place?"

Let me start from the beginning," she said, looking at Alex, Kyle and Maria.

"Serena brought me here. That's how we knew about it. Serena and I met in a physics class at Las Cruces. We kind of bonded because she had lost her parents in a car crash right around the same time I lost my dad," Liz said, looking over at Max.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. She gave him a little smile.

"We were sort of drawn to each other, because we were kind of going through the same thing. Over two years we became really close. Everyone liked Serena and her twin brother, Doug. They were fun, assertive, and seemed to have this uncanny ability to know what you were thinking or feeling. I thought it was just one of those things with your friends knowing how you think. But one day, I got out of class late, and I was in a rush, and she came running after me. She told me to come back to class for a minute. I had to get to work at home, and I told her that. But she grabbed my arm at the parking lot. I was so mad at her, because I knew my mom was handling things alone at the Crashdown. So I yelled at her, and as I turned to the parking lot I saw a car come racing across it, full speed. A second later, it smashed into the driver's side door of my car, head on. I would have been dead. A professor had had a heart attack and died behind the wheel. His foot was pressed down fully on the gas," she paused, staring at her hands.

"I know I would have been dead if it weren't for Serena. I had to talk to her about it. That night we sat down and talked, and she told me she had certain "gifts", that she could sense peoples' thoughts and feelings, and that sometimes she could predict future events. I was a little shocked, but she had saved my life. I promised I wouldn't tell the others, and we grew even closer. A little too close I guess because I started to neglect my other friendships. Maria, Kyle and Alex were worried about me.

Almost three months ago, Serena was really troubled, and so was Doug. I was with them at the mall. I asked what was wrong, because I could tell something was off. Serena told me she was getting this strong sense of pain, of desperation, coming from somewhere close. She wanted to check it out alone, but Doug and I insisted that we go with her. We drove down 285, and she suddenly turned onto a dirt road. The feelings were growing stronger, almost unbearable. Then we wound up here, and Serena was walking around confused, because there was no one around, but the feelings were so powerful. Then the doorway appeared," she said motioning to the entrance to the chamber.

"We came in, and we found a man in here. He called himself the protector. He kept whispering about his foolishness, his underestimation that had caused the death of the Royal Three," she said.

Max looked at Isabel and Michael in alarm. Nasedo.

"He told us that the skins had captured him, after they had killed the Royal Three. I didn't understand, and I asked him to explain. He said that the Royal Three had been killed back on Antar, Zan, the King, Vilandra, his sister, and Rath, his second in command. They were re-created with human DNA and brought here for protection. He had to hide them from the skins. He placed them in the desert, knowing they would be picked up. They were adopted. And now they were dead. He said that he had called out to Serena and Doug, half-breeds, in desperation. They had been good to his King on Antar, and he knew that at least through them, a species would carry on. He told Serena to bring her closest friends and family members here when it happened. He told us that when he brought the pods here, he modified the rock in this chamber, so it's protected from any kind of radiational or biological energy. That's why we're still here," she said slowly.

"He didn't know where or when it would happen, but he sensed something terrible from the skin who had mortally wounded him. Whatever it was would be devastating, and they would know it when it came. There were others out there like Serena and Doug. They would sense each other after the skins attack, and they would know what to do. He gave her that pendant, and told her it would open the door to the chamber if passed over the mis-shapen stone, and then, he died. He literally disintegrated," Liz said.

Isabel's eyes pooled with tears that she fought to control. She could not let them know who they were. That they were the Royal Three. But Nasedo was gone. What were they going to do now?

"Serena didn't know what to say to me. I knew now that she was an alien, or part alien. She told me that through her bloodline, a human had fallen in love with an Antarian. She was mostly human, but the gifts that she had were all Antarian abilities. Each Antarian has different ones. Like I told you she is sort of psychic and clairvoyant. Doug is as well, but he also has the ability to talk to people telepathically. I guess Antarians are kind of like the X-Men," Liz said wryly.

"Serena didn't know how Antarian blood came into her family. She and Doug didn't find out until shortly before their parents were killed. They weren't really sure of it either, as they all appear human, even down to the cellular level. The Antarian genes are so diluted, they only appear in a few cells," she said.

"So the three of us started making trips out here at least two or three times a week, studying the pods here, some crystals we found in the back over there, just trying to prepare for the worst. Kyle, Maria and Alex knew something was going down, and so one day, they followed us out there. We never even knew it. When we opened the wall with the pendant, they sprinted up the hill into the chamber wanting to know what the hell we were up to. Serena had just picked up the crystals, and they were glowing. Kyle kind of freaked out," she said, smiling at him.

"He was yelling at us, they all were, and then there was this huge rumble, and the whole chamber shook. Rocks were coming down from the ceiling. We took cover. It lasted for about 10 minutes and then everything fell dead silent. We opened the door to the chamber, and there was this red glow everywhere. We hurried to the car, wanting to get back to town as soon as possible. But as we got near town, we saw cars abandoned on the road, bikes dropped in their place. And there was no one in town. They were all gone. My mom was gone," she said, her voice cracking. She looked over to see Max looking at her sympathetically, and she dropped her head.

She cleared her throat.

"Anyway, Serena started to get these wicked headaches that night. And then she saw that everybody that was here on Earth isn't dead. They're....somewhere else. She doesn't know where, but she's seen them, people as far as the eye can see. And there's something....wrong. Something wrong about the whole vision, and it scared the hell out of her. She saw the skins, out of their husks, and they were horrible to look at. There was something wrong with them. All night she was up pacing. And then she had the final vision. There were others like her, out there that had survived. They were starting to gather in Washington D.C. They aren't as powerful as she and Doug are. Some of them couldn't survive what the skins brought upon us. They were not purely human, so they couldn't be taken, but they weren't alien enough to survive the energy burst's effects. They were either driven insane, or died a slow death," she said.

"We've seen them along the way," Max said quietly, thinking of Jack Rogers.

Liz nodded.

"She and Doug supposed to go to D.C. They will lead these people in releasing the people that the skins have taken. She doesn't know why they were taken, only that they will all die if something isn't done soon," she said.

"We need to get her back from the skins. The energy burst has affected their husks, and a lot of them are dying. But there are still a lot out there, and they know about Serena and what she is supposed to do. They know that together, she and Doug could defeat them, but apart, they aren't strong enough," Liz said.

"So you're telling us that there is a chance that we can save our parents?" Isabel asked hopefully, looking at Max.

"If you want to join us....help us, I think there is a really good chance that we can do that. I want my mother back," she said quietly.

Isabel looked at Max and at Michael, who was very quiet. He never worried about Hank. As a matter of fact, he'd be happy if he dropped off the face of the Earth, but he knew that Isabel was beside herself thinking about her Mom and Dad, and he knew Max was upset about it too. Eventually he knew they would have to face the skins, so it might as well be now. He nodded at Isabel and Max, and Isabel bit her lip.

Max turned to the others.

"We'll help," he said. "I don't know what we can do, but we'll help."

*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%

Kyle volunteered to do first watch around the perimeter of the outcropping. The skins were still looking for them, and they had taken to each taking shifts scouting. It had become a routine.

Not that Kyle particularly like leaving Liz behind with that freak Evans. He didn't really have anything against aliens persay, after all Serena was sort of one, but she didn't do any weird things physically to them, and she sure as hell didn't leave silver handprints behind.

In fact, Serena was one of the coolest people he knew, aside from the whole part alien thing of course. She knew how to fight with the best of them. She'd even taken him down a few times. She had said she had decided she had to be prepared to defend herself because sooner or later, she assumed something would arise out of her alien-ness. How right she was.

He looked back at the outcropping, scowling. He didn't know what those freaks would be able to do to help them find Serena, but if it got her back, then he'd have to tolerate them for the time being. He wanted his Dad back here safe and sound, and....he wanted Serena back alive too. Quickly he pushed that thought out of his head. He was with Liz, and he had to be there for her. After all if he wasn't, who would be?

*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%

Maria was passing out food to everyone, after they decided to let Doug sleep off his recovery. Tomorrow would come soon enough, and he needed all the energy he could muster. They had no idea what to expect. And that was if he could connect with Serena. In his weakened condition that was no guarantee.

She passed a plate to Alex, and he glanced at Isabel curiously, sitting alone near the pods, her food untouched.

She looked up and Michael was standing there with a scowl on his face.

"Don't look so happy Guerin," she said sarcastically. "I mean I know you aren't exactly happy about being here, but damn the least you could do is try to be civil."

"Oh please, you guys don't like this any more than we do. Why the hell should we help you all anyway? You all were ready to kill us a couple of hours ago," he said angrily. "If I had any of my abilities, you'd all be dead now," he said.

"That's comforting," Maria said, irritated. "Now, the question you asked....why should you help us? Because we all have families that we want back alive. Even your friends want their families back," she said.

"Did they get more human chromosomes than you? You should take some lessons from them Guerin," she said sarcastically.

That hit too close to home. Michael glared at her, grabbed the plate of food from her hand and stalked off, leaving an open-mouthed Maria standing with empty hands.

*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%

Alex poured some tea out of the thermos, and looked over at Isabel again.

Slowly he walked over to her and knelt down next to her, holding the cup out to her. She takes it from him wordlessly, looking at the pods.
Alex cleared his throat.

"Hey, uh....I'm sorry for the bully treatment you guys got earlier," he said, looking at her.

Isabel sighed, continuing to stare at the pods.

"Hey, I should have expected it. People just don't understand," she said bitterly. "We're not so different than you, you know."
Alex laughed mirthlessly.

"Well at least you know how it feels," he said.

"What?" she said incredulously, her head snapping toward him.

"In high school, your crowd. They never gave any of us the time of day. You all thought you were better than anyone else," he said.

"That's not true!" she said indiantly.

"Oh come, it's true and you know it. You never would have even acknowledged me in high school," he said.

"You don't know what you're talking about. You've no idea what I was going through," she said.

"Yeah, actually that's kind of freaky to know now that the most popular girl in school is an alien," he said, looking across the room.

"Yes, well I guess that changes your whole outlook on things, doesn't it?" she asked dryly. "Enough to turn you off?"

"Oddly enough, I sort of feel like we have something in common now," he said. "You know, knowing that one of the most gorgeous girls I've ever seen was feeling the same things I was back then....I guess the world isn't such a bad place after all," he said grinning. He stood up and walked over to Maria and Max, leaving Isabel to stare after him with her mouth agape.

*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%

Liz took her plate of food outside to wait for the sun, which was just beginning to peek over the horizon. She was tired, but no more tired than she usually was. None of them had slept well in months, since everything had changed in Roswell. She listlessly picked her the food on the plate in front of her, not really wanting to eat anything.

Looking down, she caught a glimpse of silver fingers on her chest, and she pulled her shirt across her.

"Did I do that?" a voice asked softly.

Liz started, turning her head quickly. He stood quietly against the rock, afraid to approach her, afraid that he'd scare her.

"I....I guess so," she said, looking down at the ground.

"I'm sorry," he said, walking a little closer.

She looked up and caught his gaze, those mesmerizing brown eyes for a long moment, and then broke eye contact.

"Why would you apologize?" she said shyly. "You saved my life."

He sat down next to her.

"I've never done that before....you know, with a person. I didn't know that was going to happen," he said apologetically.

Liz played with a pebble sitting near her shoe and smiled.

"I'm sorry about how everyone over-reacted," she said. "They didn't know...."

He smiled, looking up at the sky.

"It's ok," he said. "We're still alive, so no harm done."

"You're Zan aren't you? The King...." she said. "That's how you were able to get into the chamber."

For a fleeting moment, he considered giving her another answer, but he knew he couldn't lie.

"Yes," he said quietly.

She nodded silently, looking out at the arid landscape spread out before them.

"I wish he had known you weren't dead. The skins told him you were murdered," she said quietly.

He looked down at the ground and didn't say anything.

She mustered the courage to look at his profile.

"Max, when you healed Doug, were you hurt?" she asked, concerned.

He lowered his head and looked at her.

"No, I just used a lot of energy," he said. "It's draining. My powers haven't been the same since...."

He let a wry laugh.

"It feels so strange to be talking to someone about this other than Isabel and Michael, after all this time," he said.

"I'm sorry," Liz said quickly, starting to get up.

"No, it's good, " he said, catching her arm, and immediately her eyes were drawn to his hand, where she could immediately feel that welcoming warmth she had felt earlier.

She stared at his hand in wonder, with his wonderfully tapered fingers, so strong. Fingers that had the power to heal.

Max noticed her looking at his hand and he realized what he had done, quickly pulling away, knowing that the last thing she probably wanted was for him to be touching her again.

Liz felt a distinct disappointment at the absence of his touch.

They sat in uncomfortable silence for a long moment.

"Max, can I ask you something? You know, about when you healed me?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, once again getting caught up in her liquid brown eyes before breaking the gaze, embarrassed.

"I don't know if I can answer. I have never done anything like that before," he admitted.

Liz paused a moment, trying to find the words to explain what she wanted to say.

"When you healed me I....I felt as if someone had touched my soul. I know that sounds crazy," she said quickly, "but I felt it, and I had all of these memories in my head. I don't know if it was a biological reaction from my brain, but I felt it, and I really need to know if it was real. Were you in my head Max?" she asked curiously.

Max blushed and looked down at the ground, embarrassed.

"Oh my God," Liz said, mortified. "You were...."

She was so embarrassed, she felt like she wanted to crawl under a rock.

"Oh, I feel *so* stupid," she said, moving to get up and away from him. He knew. He knew every thought she had ever had about him.

Impulsively, he grabbed her arm again, holding her there.

"No Liz, it's ok," he said quickly.

"No, it's not ok," she said, again trying to rise.

"Wait!" he said. "It *is* ok." He looked at her intensely.

"Can I show you something?" he asked, unsure of himself, pulling his hand away.

Liz nodded.

"Can I touch you?" he asked. "I need to touch you if it's going to work. I am not even sure it will. I've never tried this before," he said quietly.

Again Liz nodded wordlessly.

Tentatively, he reached up and gently put a hand on each side of her face.

Her eyes met his and she felt her heartbeat quicken, and suddenly she was drawn into them. She was *inside* Max.

*flash*

He and Isabel are walking along the highway. It is night, and headlights blind them.

*flash*

The social services woman is telling both he and Isabel that they were going to have a real family. Isabel turns and beams at him, but even then the little boy feels a pervading sense of displacement, or loneliness.

*flash*

He lay on his bed, a little boy, and there is a soft knock on the door. It opens, and the lady who told him to call her Mom is standing there with a kind and sympathetic smile.

She asks him if he wants anything. He tells her he wants to go home. She leaves the room for a moment and comes back with a small model of a house.

"This is a magic house," she says. Whenever you want to think about home, hold this and it will take you there."

Max smiles sadly and takes the house from her. She kisses him goodnight and shuts the door. Max holds that house all night and many nights afterward, but the magic didn't work. He never gets to go home.

*flash*

Max was holding Isabel's hand as he got off the school bus. He was afraid. School was a terrifying prospect for him. He couldn't even think about being around so many children, and he knew he would have to constantly watch himself to make sure that he didn't use his powers. He and Isabel knew instinctively that they had to hide them from humans, but sometimes it was hard, and sometimes they forgot.

Glancing nervously around the playground, he caught sight of the most beautiful dark haired angel he had ever seen. She was laughing with a little blonde girl and a dark-haired boy. His eyes were drawn to her all day. He wished he had the nerve to go and play with them, but Isabel kept him at her side all day, and even if she hadn't, he wouldn't have had the courage. Never had he felt so alone.

*flash*

A sullen boy enters class and immediately draws Max's attention. The familiarity was unnerving to him. There was something about this boy. He sat down next to Max without looking at him. Max looked over at him.

"I'm Max," he said.

The boy turned toward him and recoition dawned in his eyes.

"I'm Michael Guerin...."


*flash*

He watches Liz at thirteen, swinging her tanned legs at her desk, deep into listening to what the teacher is saying. Max can't concentrate. He is drawn to the silky smoothness of her hair, and imagines what it might be like to touch her skin. But he knows he shouldn't wonder these things. He is different.

*flash*

He walks by Liz's locker slowly, hearing Kyle ask her on a date. Inwardly, he feels like his heart is being ripped open, but he doesn't let it show on his face. He can't let any of it show. He stares almost unwillingly at her blushing face, and then feels a tug on his arm.

"Hey Max," Jenny Werner says. "How's it going?"

"Fine," Max mumbles, trying to look back at Liz's locker as he passed it.

"Um....I was wondering, do you maybe want to see a movie this weekend?" she asked hopefully.

Max looks at her and then looks quickly away.

"I can't, sorry," he says, imagining what it might be like if Liz ha asked him. But that would never happen.

"Oh," she said disappointed. "Maybe another time?" she continued hopefully.

"Yeah maybe," Max said, distracted. "See you," he said, walking away, leaving Jenny standing in the middle of the hall.

*flash*

He is standing at the door of the UFO Museum, watching the Crashdown yet again. He sees Liz walk past the window and his heart is filled with longing for what seemed like the millionth time. He sees Kyle walk into the restaurant, catching Liz by surprise, spinning her around. He can see the bright smile that lights her face, and he sighs and turns back into the museum.

*flash*

Senior year. He is sitting at the lab table in AP Physics. He sees her walk into the room, and it as if everything has suddenly lit up. She goes to the teacher for her table assiment and then miraculously she is walking toward his table. She gives him a shy smile, and sits down next to him.

She leans over to grab a notebook, and her hair falls on his hand. It feels like spun silk. He wants to reach out to touch it in the worst way. He wonders what it would be like to kiss her, to touch her soft lips with his own. All year, he tried to convince himself that it would be ok to have a conversation with her about something other than physics, but he never gets the nerve. Still he felt lucky to have even this short time near her. She smelled so good, like strawberries and vanilla, and sometimes he finds it hard to concentrate. Before he knows it, the year is almost over.

*flash*

Max sits a short distance down the road from the Crashdown. He is far enough away to be unnoticed, but close enough that he can see the front and side of the building. It is late, and he has been here for hours. Prom night. He had sat in this same spot many nights during the year. Tonight was going to be different. Tonight he was going to get the courage to climb up to her balcony to say something to her, anything. He looked at the six-pack he had sitting on the seat. That would help, he thought, as he cracked one open.

Two beers later, he realizes that he has absolutely no tolerance for alcohol at all. He grinned drunkenly. This wasn't going to be so hard after all. He saw Kyle's mustang pull up, and Kyle got out and opened the passenger door for her. They went to the side door, and then he embraced her, their lips meeting in what looked to be a fiery kiss.

"He isn't what she wants," Max slurred. "He isn't good enough for her," he said as Liz went inside and Kyle got into his car and drove away.

Max opened the door to the jeep, determined. He took a few steps and a strong arm grabbed his, holding him back.

"Oh no you don't," Michael said warningly. "What the fuck Max? You've been drinking?"

"Leave me alone," Max slurred, looking at her balcony.

"Nope," Michael said, not gonna let you do it, physically lifting Max around the jeep and dropping him in the passenger seat, sealing the lock.

"You'll thank me in the morning," Michael said, as Max glared at him.

*flash*

Graduation day. His last day at school. His last day to see Liz. She was valedictorian.

He watched her go up to the podium. He thought the caps and gowns looked stupid, but on Liz, she never looked more beautiful.

At the podium she paused, looking at the crowd, and suddenly her eyes fell on him and she started to speak.

Max's face burned and his whole body responded to her gaze.

When she talked about love and hope and the future, he felt like she was speaking to him.

And then it was over and she was gone from the stage.

Afterwards he stood with his parents and Isabel, scanning the crowd, and then he spotted her. And she smiled at him and his heart leapt. People walked in front of her and Isabel dragged him off. He kept looking behind him to try to find her again in the crowd, but he never saw her again.

Suddenly Liz was looking into Max's eyes again and she was herself. Her heart was filled to bursting with all different conflicting emotions, as her eyes filled with unshed tears. She was so truly sad for his loneliness. Her heart leapt that he had felt the same pangs of longing she did. She was angry with herself for not having the courage enough to speak to him. And she was grateful that he had saved her life.

She was trying to hold back her emotions, but the look he was giving her caused all her reason to fly out the window. In his eyes she saw everything she had ever felt for her Fictional Max.

"Did it work?" he asked, self-conscious.

She nodded slowly, never taking her eyes from his, and then he looked down, embarrassed.

"Thank you for saving my life Max," she said softly.

He looked up and met her eyes again, and felt her ragged breathing, and she saw his eyes fall to her lips, and then his hands were pulling her face closer to his. She shut her eyes, unable to stop what was happening any more than she could stop breathing. And then she felt the velvet softness of his lips on hers, and her whole body lit up, as if on fire. She felt his lips harden, as he gently pulled at her bottom lip with his teeth, and then she opened her mouth to his kiss, and thought she might explode with the feeling of his tongue exploring her mouth, as her own danced with his. This was what she had always dreamed a kiss should be like, burning, hot, all-consuming. This was the kiss she imagined her dream Max would give her. But sitting before her was no man she dreamed up. This was Max Evans, flash and blood and....alien. He was an alien.

Kyle. Her thoughts suddenly snapped to him. What was she thinking? He was out there protecting them and she was making out with someone she had never had more that twenty words with before tonight.

She ripped her mouth away from his with a strangled cry, and jumped up.

"Oh my God," she said, running her hand through her hair. "I have to go inside," she said, standing at the closed entrance with her head down. She pulled out her wireless handset. Maria, let me in," she said quickly almost in a panic.

He put his hand on her arm.

"Liz, I'm sorry," he said as the entrance opened and she entered quickly, leaving a bewildered Maria looking at Max.