PART FOUR

Liz paced back and forth in the break room, while the dark-haired stranger watched her with growing trepidation.

He was very confused. Moments ago, he had thought he was going to die. There was a gun held to his jaw, and he had accepted it. But now everything had changed. Here he sat, watching the human who had killed his worst nightmare.

He didn't know why she had done it, and he didn't know what was to become of him now. What would she want of him? What would he be subjected to now?

If he could have, he would have run again, but he was too weak and in too much pain to even try. So he watched her walk back and forth in front of him, muttering to herself. Again, that voice soothed him, even though it was agitated.

Suddenly Liz stopped, remembering the person sitting on the couch. She turned to look at him.

"Are you ok?" she asked, and he nodded.

She moved to sit on the couch next to him, and he quickly moved to the other end of the couch.

"Can you tell me your name?" she asked, seeing the pain he was experiencing in his face.

He just looked down at his hands.

"Please, if you can speak, I need you to tell me what's going on," she said.

Silence met her query, and she put her head wearily in her hands.

Where was Alex? She thought.

This was a big mess, and she was fighting off panic. She had no idea what to do, where to go, what to do with this person sitting on her couch.

"Max," a hoarse voice said quietly. Her head shot up from her hands and snapped toward him.

"My....name is Max," he said, never looking up from his hands.

"I'm Liz," she said, and then he looked up, into her eyes, and she felt a lump in her throat. What had they done to him to put that look of utter misery, fear and pain into his eyes? It was almost too hard to look at.

She sighed and got up and went to the refrigerator, taking out a bottle of water. He had to be thirsty. She poured some of the cool water into a paper cup and slowly approached the couch again, not wanting to frighten him. She sat down a short distance from him and tentatively held the cup out to him.

"It's water," she said softly, as he warily eyed the cup, unmoving.

He had been tricked too often in the lab, and though he was thoroughly parched, he couldn't bring himself to reach out for the cup.

Liz bit her lip, and realized his reservation. She got up and picked up the water bottle and walked back to the couch, still holding the paper cup.

"It's just water, see?" she said, taking a deep mouthful straight from the bottle. He watched her, looking at the bottle longingly.

"You can drink it," she persisted gently. "The same water is in the cup. I drank it too. So if something was going to happen, or I was trying to drug you, I wouldn't drink it, would I?" she asked, watching him intently.

She had a point, he thought, and reached out a shaky hand, his fingers covered in his own blood. She gently placed the cup in his fingers, her own brushing his accidentally. She felt a tingle pass through her fingers, and he quickly pulled his away, bringing the cup to his mouth and drinking deeply. Within the space of two seconds, he had finished off the water. She could see that he was still thirsty, and she held the bottle out to him. After a moment's hesitation, he took it from her and quickly polished off the rest of the water in the bottle.

She smiled at him nervously.

"Would you like more?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"You're bleeding," she said softly, and he looked down at his hands and shirt.

A banging at the front door made his head snap up in alarm.

"It's ok," she said, "that's Alex, a friend of mine. He's going to help us. I promise, he's a good guy. Wait here," she said. "I'll be right back.

He looked at her uncertainly, as she hurried out the swinging doors of the kitchen. He felt his hear begin to race as he heard an agitated male voice, but he forced himself to hold his ground. This....Liz had not done anything to harm him. He would have to trust that the people she knew wouldn't either.

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

Liz opened the door to the worried faces of Alex and Maria.

"What happened?" Maria cried, as she burst into the Crashdown. "Did you get robbed or something? Why isn't the Sheriff here? Did somebody try to break in again? Because I know you Liz, you wouldn't have called Alex unless something really freaked you out, and dammit I left my cedar oil at home! It doesn't look like anyone broke in...." she rambled as she walked around, surveying the restaurant. "See I told you somebody should be staying here with you, but did you listen to me? No chica, you never listen to me and now look what happened, I ought to..."

"Why is Maria here?" she grated softly to Alex, so Maria wouldn't here her amidst her babblings.

"I was at her house working on our programming project, he said in a low voice. She heard you on the cell and she insisted on coming," he said exasperated.

"Great," Liz sighed as she watched Maria talking a mile a minute. "Alex, of all times, this wasn't the one...."

"What happened?" Alex said.

"Yeah, what exactly happened?" Maria chimed in, stopping her diatribe momentarily.

Liz took a shaky breath.

"I don't want you guys to freak. I mean I freaked, but....bad things will happen if you guys freak *Maria*," she said pointedly.

"Moi?" Maria said, her hand at her throat.

"I am insulted," she pouted.

"Promise me....promise me you aren't going to freak Maria," Liz pleaded. "I just can't deal with it right now."

"I promise," Maria said irritated.

"Ok....ok," Liz breathed. "Come with me."

They followed her in through the kitchen doors and Liz immediately realized her error in whom she told not to freak.

"What the....?" Alex said, as he spied Max sitting on the couch.

"Liz are you out of your damned mind?" he shouted. "A murderer! You've got a murderer in the kitchen! A baby killer! A Mommy killer!"

Maria just stood staring at Max, her mouth agape.

The tone of Alex's voice caused Max to jump from the couch. Angry. Angry man. Angry meant he was going to be hurt. He tried to run to the door, and tripped over the low table, falling to the floor. Liz ran over to him, kneeling next to him as he clutched his stomach and panicked, tried to get up.

"Alex, shut....up!" Liz grated.

"Maria, get him out of here!" she said frantically as she saw Max try to get up.

"Maria please!" Liz said, and after a slight hesitation, she pushed a still screaming Alex through the swinging doors into the restaurant.

She put her hand on Max's arm and he jerked away. Realizing her error, she put her hands up and then into her lap.

"Max," she said in a low voice.

"Max, Alex isn't going to hurt you. He's not bad, I promise. He's just angry because he doesn't understand," she said as he looked at her, and she met his eyes pleadingly.

Hell, I don't understand, she thought.

"Please, stay. I promise nothing's going to happen to you," she said softly.

"I promise," she finished emphatically. "Look, we're in this together now, like it or not. We have to trust each other. We don't have a choice. Please....trust me."

He remained still for a minute, in indecision, and then relented, slowly getting up to move to the couch, dropping onto it heavily.

"Just stay there for a minute. I promise when he comes back in here he won't be yelling. Ok?" she asked.

He just looked at her, and she burst through the doors, meeting Alex's angry eyes with a glare of her own.

"Why....why is he here?" Alex said. "No wait, why is he here *again*! And if he is here, then why isn't the FBI here?"

Liz looked at the floor.

"Liz, I'm waiting," he said exasperated.

"Alex, lay off," Maria said, smacking him in the arm.

"Chica," she said almost as fiercely, "tell us what's going on."

"Look, it's complicated," Liz began.

"Complicated?" Alex fairly squeaked.

"WHAT exactly is complicated about this? Murderer in the kitchen," he said pointing to the doors, "CALL THE FBI!" he said shaking his cell phone.

"If you're not going to do it, then I will," he said, pushing the power button.

"I wouldn't do that Alex," Liz said softly, closing her eyes.

"Give me one good reason why not?" he said starting to dial.

"Because you will be calling the FBI on me. *I* am the murderer," she said, and Alex froze, his cell dropping out of his hand.

He stood stock still while Maria stared at her.

"Yeah nice try Miss Bleeding Heart," he said, laughing humorlessly, shaking his head. "Not gonna work."

"Come with me and I'll show you," Liz said, looking at him intensely.

She walked to the front door and they followed her outside the Crashdown, into the alley. A moment later, she opened the shed and clapped her hand over Maria's mouth to muffle her scream in the same instant. A curious calm had come over her, and it almost scared her. She had just ruined her life, for someone she didn't even know, and she was standing there cool as a cucumber.

Alex's eyes grew wide as he looked at the body sprawled on the floor. He turned away and started pacing.

"Liz, I don't know why you're covering for this guy, but you'd better stop," he said, as Liz stood with her hand still slapped over Maria's mouth. Maria stood stick still in shock.

"That's it, we have to call. I don't know what you're hallucinating on Liz, but you can't help this guy," he said.

"Alex, if you call them, and they do an investigation, they are going to find my prints on that wrench. They'll see that he was hit from a low angle. I'm shorter than Max. I swear, I am telling the truth," she said.

"Oh, so you're on a first name basis with him now?" Alex said in disbelief.

"Well, he was there when I killed him, I thought I should at least have the first name of the witness," she quipped sarcastically.

Alex's brow rose and his mouth dropped open.

"Sorry," Liz mumbled, "but I *need* you to believe me!"

Alex let out a heavy sigh and closed his eyes.

Maria pulled away the hand Liz had forgotten she had across her mouth.

"Why Liz?" she whispered. "Why would you do something like that?"

"Because that guy was going to kill Max," Liz said.

"Maybe he should have," Alex quipped.

"No!" Liz said. "You weren't there, you didn't see what happened. Max wasn't fighting back, and he was beating him. They're doing some sort of experiments on him, and the agent, he said that he didn't care what progress they'd made, he was going to kill him. He had Max up against the wall and he was strangling him, and Max wasn't fighting him, and then he held a gun to his head. I couldn't let him do it," Liz said tearfully. "I didn't even think. I just grabbed the wrench off of the wall and I hit the guy with it. I didn't mean to kill him, I just wanted him to stop hurting Max. I don't know why they were after him, but I know Max hasn't done anything wrong!" she said.

Alex relented, pulling Liz into his arms. Maria wrapped her arms around the both of them from Liz's side.

"I need your help. I am going to go to jail for this if you don't help me," Liz whispered.

"Ok....ok, we'll help," Alex said quietly.

"I'm sorry," a voice said softly, behind them, and Alex lifted his head to see....Max leaning heavily against the alley wall.

Liz broke away from Alex and Maria and went over to him.

"Sit down," she said quietly. "Just sit here and we'll take care of it," she said.

"Maria, get the car," Alex said purposefully. Maria nodded and walked around to the front of the restaurant.

"Liz, I'm going to need your help," Alex said, and Liz took a long look at Max before she walked to the shed.

Maria pulled the car up.

"Open the trunk," Alex called out from the shed. Maria hit the button and waited.

Inside the shed Alex worked efficiently. He pulled two trash bags off of a roll and picked up the wrench with one bag, throwing it into the other and tying it. He put the remaining one over Jeffrey's head.

"Can you get his legs?" Alex said, moving to Jeffrey's upper body and grabbing his arms. Liz nodded and they awkwardly lifted the body and carried it out to the alley. With a great heave, they hoisted it into the trunk of the Jetta. Maria peered in seeing the blood pooling in the clear bag.

"Ugh, gross," she whined, and Liz shot her a look.

"Sorry," she lamented.

Alex went back into the shed and grabbed a tarp and a flashlight.

He threw those into the trunk and slammed it.

"We've gotta go out to the desert," he said. "https://majestysfanfic.tripod.com/ficnsmain.htm"He has to come with us."

Liz nodded.

Max sat miserably against the damp wall. He knew he should just leave, keep moving, but he felt as if this was his fault, and he had brought someone completely innocent into this....Liz, and now this screaming Alex and the female Maria.

But he had to help them at least get rid of Jeffrey. Then he could move on. He had to. It was dangerous, for all of them. They would find him. There was no doubt about it now. They couldn't know what he was.

Liz walked up to him and knelt beside him.

"I'm going inside for a minute. I need to change. You have to come with us. It's dangerous for you to stay here," she said.

It was dangerous for him to be anywhere, he thought.

He nodded.

"It's going to be ok. We'll figure something out. We'll get you on a bus or something later," she said.

No, he wouldn't be getting on a bus. He didn't know where to go, but he knew he had to keep running in the shadows. They knew how to find him. But he said nothing, and nodded.

She stood and went inside. A few moments later she came out, clad in jeans and a sweater, carrying a bag.

"A change of clothes for you, for later," she said. "They're my Dad's," she said quietly.

He said nothing. He felt his body growing ever weaker, as he lost more blood. Not much time to do what had to be done.

He tried to stand and fell back to the ground.

Liz held out her hand and met his eyes. In them he saw something, softness, worry, sadness. He reached out and took her hand and she pulled him up. For a short moment he relished the warmth of her palm against his before she let go.

"Let's move," Alex called from the car, and Liz motioned to him. He followed her to the car, and she opened the back door, letting him in on the passenger side, shutting the door behind him. Alex turned from the driver's seat and gave him a long glare before facing forward when Liz got in next to Max.

He started the car and pulled out of the alley.

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

A speeding Jetta passed Wilkes as he made his way down Main Street. He was getting closer. It was hard to pinpoint the bastard. And where the hell had Jeffrey gone to? He was getting more irritated by the minute.

He turned into the alley near the Crashdown, the last place the fugitive had been spotted. His headlights shone on a shed. The door was wide open.

Suspicious, he drew his gun. Maybe this would be his lucky day.

Cautiously, he made his way into the shed, flashing his pistol first to the left, and then to the right. Nothing. And hen he looked at the floor. He crouched down, putting his finger into a sticky substance. Pulling a lighter out of his pocket, he lit it. Blood. Son of a bitch. He must have just been here. The blood was still fresh. And then it hit him, the speeding Jetta. In his haste to get out of the shed, he didn't notice the object he kicked behind a bucket. Jeffrey's wallet flapped and lay open, hidden by the container.