PART SEVEN

Liz's first thought was the warmth that was covering her body. Without opening her eyes, she felt the weight of Max's torso creating that pleasant heat across her middle. She lay still for a long moment, and then opened her eyes slowly, wanting to make this feeling last. That is, until she glanced over and saw Maria sitting at the small table near the window, giving her *the look*.

Gingerly, she eased her way out from under Max, who let out a small sigh at her absence before grabbing onto the pillow and snuggling into it.

She walked over to the table and sat across from Maria, uncomfortable under her unwavering glare.

"Where's Alex?" Liz asked.

"He went over to the restaurant. I'm going to meet him in a minute," Maria said. "What are you *doing* Liz?" she asked harshly.

"What do you mean?" Liz asked, her brow furrowing.

"You know what I'm talking about Liz. I know you feel sorry for him and all, but when I woke up this morning and saw you in bed with him....and never-mind what Alex had to say about it...." she babbled.

"Maria, nothing happened! God! He had a nightmare and I thought he was going to wake the two of you, and I just felt so bad for him. He looked so scared...." she said.

"Liz. You had your arms around him. You were sleeping together," Maria said.

"I told you nothing happened. That's exactly what we were doing, sleeping. I don't even think he thinks that way Maria. He's been in that place for as long as he can remember," she said.

"Oh please," Maria snorted. "He's a teen-aged guy Liz."

"Since when did you become so judgmental?" Liz asked, irritated.

"Since my best friend murdered an FBI agent for some guy she doesn't even know Liz!" Maria answered indiantly. "Chica, you know I love you to death, but this is *so* not you. What is it about this guy?"

Liz sighed. "I don't know Maria. But I feel like I need to help him. The first time I saw him, it was like I was drawn to him, and *I'm* not even sure why. It doesn't matter anyway. He's leaving on a bus today and I'll never see him again."

"Probably for the best," Maria said.

"I guess," Liz said distractedly.

Maria caught on immediately.

"Ok, spill it. I can see the wheels turning in your head," Maria said.

"Nothing," Liz said, her face burning.

"Liiizzz," Maria said warningly.

"Maria I know if I tell you what I'm thinking, you're gonna yell at me, and I *so* don't need that right now," Liz said.

"I won't yell at you," Maria said.

"Yes you will," Liz countered.

"Try me," Maria fired back.

After a pause, Liz mumbled, "I'm going to ask him to stay in Roswell."

"Are you crazy?!?!" Maria hissed. "That's the worst place for him to be right now!"

"Maria, have you ever heard of hiding in plain sight? They'd never think he'd go back to Roswell. The logical progression is to keep moving. Maybe being illogical is the only way he can be safe. We could cut his hair, or dye it, give him different clothes or something," Liz said weakly.

"You *are* crazy," Maria said flatly.

"No I'm not," Liz insisted. "I have a vested interest in making sure he stays safe. If he gets captured again, it'll be like I killed Jeffrey for nothing," she finished lamely.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Maria asked. "Come on Liz, even I don't believe that. As long as we are revealing things here, let's just call a spade a spade. You like him, don't you?" she asked.

"That's not it Maria," Liz said, and was silenced by a knowing glare from her friend.

"Ok, truth," she sighed. "I don't know what I'm feeling. Something is just telling me to do this, just like it told me to look up the story the FBI told us. Just like it told me that Max didn't do anything wrong. And just like it told me that Jeffrey was going to kill him. Maria, you know I don't do illogical things. Please just trust that I'm doing the right thing," she pleaded.

Maria studied her friend quietly for a long moment.

"Liz its not that I don't like Max, because I don't even know him. None of us do," she said pointedly. "But he was in that compound for a reason, and that reason could be dangerous. Maybe he wasn't meant to be among us. Maybe he does bad things with that power of his without meaning to. The point is, we don't *know*," she said.

"Maria, I am more sure that he would never hurt any of us than I have been in anything in a long time," she said with conviction.

Maria could see that she was getting nowhere with Liz. She picked up her bag and stood.

"Chica, I'm your best friend, and I've got your back no matter what you decide to do. Just....really think about it, please. At least do that for me," Maria said.

"I will Maria," Liz said, and Maria walked to the door, opening it. She paused.

"Oh, and Liz?" she said.

"Yeah?" Liz answered.

"If you decide to go through with this, *you're* telling Alex," she said with a smirking smile, and Liz rolled her eyes, as Maria shut the door.

Liz sighed and rose from the table, looking over at Max's prone form before walking to the bathroom to freshen up.

As the door click clicked shut, Max's eyes snapped open, his heart racing at what he'd just heard.

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

Running the water in the sink, Liz really did think about it, as Maria had asked. And she was still certain that asking Max to come back with her was the right way to go.

He needed someone to tell him about the outside world and it's dangers. He'd only read about them in all likelihood, if he knew about them at all. He'd need to get a job, to find a way to support himself and above all he'd need a way to protect himself.

She splashed water on her face, taking the soap and scrubbing the grime of the day before off her face. When she was finished, she stopped and looked at herself in the mirror, trying to see if she looked different, harder somehow, since she was an unintentional murderer. She didn't see it, some hardness, some cruelty in her face that wasn't there before. She stared at her own eyes, looking for traces of the secret she'd have to keep forever. But she found no trace of guilt. She didn't feel guilty about what she'd done.

Patting her face dry, she stepped out of the bathroom and found Max awake and sitting on the edge of the bed.

She stopped.

"Hey," she said.

"Good morning," Max mumbled, still trying to process what he's heard Liz say earlier.

She forced herself to take her eyes off him and walked over and sat on Alex and Maria's bed across from him.

"Did you sleep ok?" she asked. Max nodded.

"Liz, I'm sorry....about last night," he said suddenly. "I'm sorry about everything."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," she said.

"Everyone has bad dreams," she said gently. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Max shook his head. There was no way he could tell her about what he'd done to Pierce in his dream. It was one thing to imagine you had the power to do something so horrible, and quite another to know that you had the actual capability. He didn't want to think about it himself, never-mind tell Liz. If he explained it to her, he would have to tell her what he was, and after everything she'd done for him, and all the compassion she'd shown him, compassion he'd never known before, he couldn't bear to think of her looking at him in fear or horror.

"It's ok," she said. "you don't have to talk about it. But I want to talk to you about something. About where you're going to go," she said.

Max braced himself for what he knew she was going to ask him. He'd thought about it while she was in the other room, and he still didn't know what he was going to say.

"I was thinking you could come back with us to Roswell," she continued. He opened up his mouth to speak and she cut him off.

"Before you say anything, hear me out," she said quickly. He nodded.

" I can get you a place to stay, and we can get you a job. We can change your hair. I know that they'll come back, but that will probably be soon. We can hide you until things calm down, and they will, I know it. Most likely they'll think you've moved on. There wouldn't be any reason for you to stay in the area. But that's the beauty of it," she said. "I can help you....*we* can help you if you let us."

"Somehow I don't think Maria and Alex will be too happy about this," Max said.

"They'll come around," Liz said, smiling wryly. "Max, they're good people."

"They helped me," he said. "I know."

"So, what do you think?" Liz asked.

Max wasn't sure what to say, and then another blinding wave of fear from the others overwhelmed him before subsiding.

"Max, are you all right?" Liz asked, concerned as she saw a deep-seated terror arise in his eyes for a moment, and then it was gone. He nodded vigorously, a little too vigorously.

He took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts. He had to help the others. Somehow he'd have to figure out a way, and Liz's idea might just be the answer. He looked at the beautiful creature sitting on the bed across from him. Her brown eyes looked at him hopefully. He could not put into words what the mere act of her comforting embrace had made him feel. Having never experienced it, it was confusing and wonderful and....healing.

Perhaps trying to have a normal human life for a little while might be a good thing. And perhaps spending time with Liz would be good for him as well.

He wondered if he could be a normal human teenager for her. Every time he looked at her, his heart felt as if it were swelling, and he didn't know why, but he liked it.

She didn't know what he was, and maybe she'd never have to.

"I don't know Liz," he said. "I've put you in enough danger as it is."

"Max, everything I've done was of my own free will. And I'm asking you to come back with us because I want you to, not because I have to," she said.

And then he smiled, and Liz's heart lifted at the transformation in his face. His warm eyes, even with the traces of sadness and fear that didn't quite leave them, made her insides melt. She finally admitted to herself what she couldn't admit to Maria. In spite of everything, she was starting to fall for Max.

"Ok," he said after a pause. "But if they come back, if they start investigating, I will leave. I don't want any of you to get into any more trouble, and I don't want to put any of you in danger."

"We'll work it out as we go along," Liz said, feeling a rush of happiness that she wouldn't have to say goodbye to him this morning.

"I'm going to clean up," Max said, motioning to the bathroom.

Liz nodded, and went over to the table to sit down. She stared contentedly out the window.

A moment later the bathroom door opened and Liz caught her breath at the sight of Max.

His face was clean and his hair was wet, the ends spiking up chaotically. He carried his shirt in his hands and she noticed that even despite his thinness and injuries, the more forgiving light of the room accentuated his biceps, the ridges in his stomach.

He sensed her eyes on him and he met her gaze, stopping short. For a long moment the two just stared at each other.

Liz shook herself out of it first.

"Are you hungry?" she asked.


"Yes," he said hoarsely, trying not to think about how her hands had felt stroking his hair last night, as he stared at them this very moment. Then he remembered the feel of her tiny hand in his at John's office, reassuring him, and that warmth that had spread through his body at the mere touch of her hand on his shoulder.

"Why don't we go meet Maria and Alex? she said. "I have to break it to Alex that we aren't taking you to the bus station," she said wryly.

"Ok," he said, carefully putting on his shirt.

Together, they walked down to the small café adjacent to the hotel, both mentally preparing themselves for Alex's imminent reaction.

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

Wilkes cursed the tracking remote. The thing hadn't been working right for days. Now it had led him into the middle of the desert again.

He'd kept an eye out for the red Jetta, because his instinct had told him that it tied in with Max continuing to elude him. Something wasn't right. So far he'd had no luck in finding the car, even driving around Roswell and cruising the streets, looking in driveways. Jeffrey hadn't contacted anyone, and Wilkes feared the worst. Now he was exhausted and needed some sleep. Ahead, he saw a sign for a hotel, the Desert Inn.

"Thank God," he muttered. He'd almost been ready to pull over to the side of the road to sleep, knowing that the coming heat of the day would make any sleep uncomfortable.

He turned into the parking lot, glancing to the right, and stopped the car in disbelief. For parked in a parking slot in front of a row of rooms was the red Jetta.

"Bingo," he hissed.

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

"WHAT?!?!" Alex said, shaking his head. "Ok, now I know you've gone insane Liz. What are you thinking? Taking Max back to Roswell is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

"Alex, would you lower your voice?" Liz said, looking around.

"Liz, you can't be serious," he said, fairly whispering.

"Oh yes she can," Maria said with a small smile.

"It's ridiculous. Not only is Max asking for trouble going back to Roswell, but so are you!" he said.

"Alex, I have already explained this to Maria. We'll work it out. I'll get him a place to stay. This is going to die down," she said.

Alex threw his hands up.

"You know what? I give up trying to talk sense into any of you. Do what you want, but if this comes out or gets ugly, I had nothing to do with it. If you won't listen to reason, then I once we get back to Roswell, I am no longer involved in *any* of this. Max, if you had any sense at all, you wouldn't listen to Liz. I don't know what she's thinking, but getting as far away from New Mexico would be the safest thing for you right now," Alex said.

Max sat next to Liz, blinking rapidly, his hands shaking.

He could feel his body literally starting to buzz with the power that was resurfacing in his body, dormant for so long and now unleashed. This plus the overwhelming fear and hopelessness from the others were making him slightly dizzy. He took a deep breath to bridle the sensations that threatened to overwhelm him, making a deep conscious effort to push it back to a manageable level. And it worked for the moment.

Leaving New Mexico would be the safest thing for him if it was only himself he had to think about, Max thought to himself. He had made the decision to get the others out of the compound, and he couldn't leave now. And Liz....he admitted that he didn't want to go away from her just yet either. She calmed him. Her mere presence next to him gave him the courage to think that maybe he *could* get the others out, and maybe they could live a normal life, and that the outside world wasn't made up of monsters like Pierce and Jeffrey.

"I....want to go back to Roswell," Max said hesitantly. "I'll take my chances. I don't know anyone anywhere else. I have nowhere to go."

Maria lowered her head suddenly aware of the absolute sense of being alone Max must be feeling now. Liz's eyes pleaded with Alex to understand. He stared at the two of them for a long moment and shook his head.

"Fine, you do what you need to. But just remember what I said if all of this turns out badly. You had the chance to get away Max," Alex sad.

Max nodded, fully conscious of the gravity of his decision to stay.

"Let's get out of here," Alex said. "I'll go pay the hotel bill." He got up out of the booth and walked out the door of the café, walking across the parking lot to the hotel lobby.

Maria looked at Max and Liz.

"Don't worry Liz. He'll get over it, you know how he gets," she said.

Liz nodded and stared at her hands folded in her lap. She hated that Alex was angry with her, but Maria was right. He never stayed mad too long.

Maria glanced out the window and saw that Alex was at the counter in the hotel lobby.

"We should get out of here," Maria said, and they rose, Liz paying the bill for breakfast.

As they walked out into the glaring sunlight, they never saw the sedan parked across the lot, or Wilkes slouched behind the wheel.

Alex came out of the lobby as the others walked toward the car from the café. The parking lot was eerily deserted, as the café had been, with the three having been the only customers.

They all reached the car at the same time and Liz impulsively hugged Alex.

"You know you can't stay mad at me forever," she joked, and Alex smiled almost against his will.

"You owe me....big," he said, and she laughed.

"Liz, before we go, can you just change the CD's in the magazine in the trunk? Maria said, from inside the car.

"Yep," Liz said as she glanced at Max, who was waiting for her to get into the car. She gave him a small smile, and he returned it, her heart leaping a little. Alex got into the driver's seat and popped the trunk.

Liz opened the CD case in the trunk.

"What do you want to hear ‘Ria?" she called out.

"I don't care, just get that damned Neil Diamond CD of my mother's out of the magazine!" Maria retorted.

"Got it," Liz said, taking it out and replacing it with the Cardigans.

"HOLD IT!!!" A voice cried out. "Stay right where you are."

Liz slowly turned, her face frozen in fear as she saw Max, whose own look mirrored hers. She turned her head slowly and recoized Wilkes.

"Don't move," he growled.

This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening. Liz could hear Maria's whispered hysteria in the car.

No way were her friends going down for this. No way was Max going back with Wilkes.

She turned slowly, boldly, purposefully to Wilkes.

"Agent Wilkes, I suggest you put your gun away, and that you get in your car right now and leave," she said quietly.

"Excuse me?" he chortled, waving the gun.

"I know what you've done to him," she bluffed. "We all know what they've done to Max. I know you lied about the murder story in Albuquerque. I don't think it would go over too with the press, do you?" she asked.

"You have no idea who you're dealing with," Wilkes said menacingly.

"I suggest you tell your friends to get out of the car slowly. We might go easy on all of you if you cooperate. But you *will* be coming with me, and Max will no longer be any of your concern," he said.

"No," she said with quiet force. "Max, get in the car," she said.

Max just stood still.

"Girly, you are making a big mistake," Wilkes said, as Liz stood her ground.

He turned and pointed the gun at Max.

"You, come with me," he said.

Max shook his head.

"Get in the car now. You don't want to piss me off. You know what happens when I get pissed off," Wilkes grated.

Max blanched, but did not move.

"Fine, have it your way," he said, and Liz saw what he meant to do.

"No!" she said and jumped toward Max, pushing him to the ground as a deafening shot ran out, and she felt a blinding white pain in her chest.

She fell heavily to the ground on top of Max, trying to catch her breath, trying to retain consciousness as agonizing bolts of pain wracked her chest.

Fuzzily, she noted everything suddenly became tinged with green. She heard a male shout of terror cut off, followed by a loud thump. Dully she heard Maria scream. Still everything was green, even the sky it seemed.

"What the hell is that?" she heard Alex exclaim. "Max, what the hell *is* that?!?!"

And suddenly through a fog, Max was leaning over her.

"Look at me Liz," he commanded.

And then Max's warm hand was on her chest, Max's heat was filling her body, and it was beautiful. Max was inside of her. Max was taking the pain away.

And Liz caught a glimpse of serenity, of his soul, of something far more beautiful than anything she'd ever seen before. It was Max's life-force, it was everything that he was and wasn't. Confusing, mesmerizing, wonderful.

And then it was gone, and she was staring into his frightened eyes. Maria and Alex are standing behind him, confusion and fear written on their faces.

They have nothing to fear, she thought hazily.

"What are you?" she said to Max softly.

And suddenly his eyes were gone, he was gone, and Alex was helping her sit up, and she was panicked that Max wasn't here.

He was running, running through the parking lot, away from her, away from them.

"Max wait!" she cried. "Please! I'm not afraid!"

But she was too late. He was gone.