"Liz is his what?" Jeff’s voice.

"What did he mean you’re their leader?" Philip’s voice.

"Who is threatening you?" Diane’s voice.

"Where’s Liz?" Nancy’s voice.

Max held up his hands. "I promise to explain everything. Just let’s all calm down, please." He turned to Marcus and Nick, not noticing that Maria was sneaking out the door. "Can I talk to you outside?"

Marcus was pale when he got up. Maybe Max would be softer on him if he explained that he had had good intentions. It had just been overrun by his big mouth. He meekly followed Max and Nick outside.

"That guy is in SO much trouble!" Alex was trying to lighten the mood.

Nancy looked ready to burst into tears. "Would someone please tell me what is happening? And where is my little girl?"

Leaning over, Diane placed her hand over Nancy’s. "She’ll be fine. Max will make sure of that." She was taken aback when she saw that this only agitated Nancy more. "Please trust him."

Everyone pushed their food around on their plates until Max came back a few minutes later. All attention returned to him immediately. He looked at Michael, Isabel and Alex. "If you guys don’t want to be here for this, that’s fine. It’s mostly my problem anyway."

"No way, Max! We’re staying." Isabel sounded firm. Michael and Alex nodded their agreement with her statement.

Max flashed them a grateful half-smile before sitting down at the table with his and Liz’s parents. "Sorry Mom and Dad, but I have to start at the beginning again." But Max felt the words get stuck in his throat. He still had trouble admitting to people what he was. He was staring at the table top, unsure of how to begin this amazing tale when a warm hand covered his. He turned to his mother in surprised relief before finally looking at the Parkers. "Isabel, Michael, Tess and I were… in the 1947 crash. We’re… from another planet I guess you could say." He stopped to gauge the reaction of Jeff and Nancy to this.

"That’s impossible! Diane, Philip? Do you believe this story?" Jeff sounded more confused than upset.

Philip nodded. "Just hear them out."

Max continued. "We were in incubation pods. We were engineered from human material, so we are essentially human." He needed to stress this for Liz’s parents. "We just have different blood and some powers humans don’t have."

Nancy was looking dazed. "Powers?"

Isabel took up the story. "Yes. We can all do different things. Max can heal. We can manipulate the molecular structure of things…" She didn’t want to mention her dreamwalking and Michael’s fighting abilities yet.

"Excuse me?" More confusion from Jeff. This was just too incredible for him. Were all these people on some sort of hallucinogenic trip?

Isabel picked up a fork from the table after Max nodded at her. She slowly ran her hand over it, forming it into a knife. Gasps could be heard around the table.

Maria arrived back in a rush, Liz in tow. She figured Max could use all the help he can get with Liz’s parents, so she had sneaked out to go wake Lizzie up.

Liz hurriedly went over to Max, but her eyes were on her parents, trying to see what they were thinking. She sat down next to Max and felt some of the tension leave his shoulders as she curled her hand around his arm. He gave her a brief smile and returned to the conversation.

"Why… why are you telling us this?" Nancy was whispering, her eyes filling with tears.

"Mom!" Liz got up again and went to her mother. She hugged her. "Its okay."

Nancy touched her face. "How do you know all this?"

Everyone was quiet until Diane spoke up. "Max saved Liz’s life. In September last year, Liz was shot at the Crashdown."

Jeff jumped up. "I KNOW that isn’t true! I saw her with my own eyes! She was fine… she just had… ketchup… on her dress..." He sat down again slowly. "It’s not possible."

"It is, Dad. It really happened." Liz was willing her parents to believe her. And Max.

"Liz honey, why are you doing this?" Her mom sounded distressed. "We love you. Whatever is really going on… you can tell us!"

Liz stared at her mom and suddenly knew there was no other way. She had to show them. She grabbed a knife from the table.

Max was on his feet instantly. "No!" he cried, rushing over to Liz, but he was too late. She had slashed her forearm by the time he reached her.

The wound wasn’t too deep, but the sight of the blood dripping onto the white tablecloth froze the group into stillness. Everyone, but Max that is. He was already cupping her arm in his hand, his other hand gently cradling her cheek. "You didn’t have to do this!"

Smiling through the pain, Liz just stared up into his eyes. She knew the drill by now. It only took a minute then the pain was gone and Max’s hand stopped glowing. "Are you okay?" Max sounded worried even though he must know she was fine. Liz touched her fingers to his mouth and nodded.

Everyone, including their friends, were staring at Liz openmouthed. Liz’s mom was crying openly now.

Max felt awful for them. At least his parents had always known him and Iz and had suspected something was weird, but the Parkers didn’t have that benefit. They were just suddenly confronted with too many shocks. One: aliens were living among us. Two: these aliens had strange powers. Three: their only daughter had been shot some months ago. Four: an alien had healed Liz from the fatal gunshot wound. Five: Liz is dating said alien. Six: Liz has obviously been leading a life they knew nothing about for close to a year. And now Max had to tell them: "There’s more…"

He led Liz back to her seat and took a deep breath. "All these people in this camp are aliens. From my… our race. Our planet has been destroyed in a war and they escaped just in time to come here to find us. I’m… we’re…" Max faltered, not knowing how to tell these people that they were basically royalty.

It was Liz that continued. "Max is the leader of his race. Like their King. His people came here because Max, Michael, Isabel and Tess were initially sent to earth so they could go back later and save their planet. Only, it was destroyed. And now they have to stay here on earth. With us."

Another thundering silence enveloped the table. Max didn’t know whom he must worry about most: his own parents or Liz’s.

Philip recovered first. "I still don’t understand why we’re all here though?"

Max grimaced. "Uhm… There’s another alien race on earth. The one that destroyed our planet. And they’re looking for the four of us. And Liz." He glanced at the still crying Nancy who was now being held by Jeff. "The guy that was in the Crashdown the other day. He was one of them."

Jeff homed in on the only thing that made any sense to him right now. "Why do they want Liz?"

Max looked him straight in the eye. "Because I love her and they know they can get to me through her."

Something else was coming back to Jeff now. "That guy that you just hustled out of here. He said something about you and Liz. What did he mean?"

Max caught Diane’s eye guiltily. "He meant she’s my girlfriend. So please know that all these people in the camp, they want to protect her too." Please, Mom, don’t say anything! he silently prayed.

"So that’s why those weird men were hanging around Liz at the Crashdown all the time! They were looking out for her." Jeff looked like he had just seen the light. He stared at Max for a long time, still not sure that the young man was telling him everything. "You saved Lizzie’s life. Thank you." He leaned over the table, holding out his hand for Max.

Max felt such a rush of emotions when he accepted Jeff’s hand that he had trouble getting the words out. "I did it for me. She means everything to me." He saw Liz’s mom’s head snap up at the words he had spoken to her after he had fended off the gunman at the Crashdown and he wondered how she was going to react to all this.

Liz slid her hand into his. "Mom?"

"I don’t know what to say… I never knew… but still… I… thank you, Max." Nancy smiled tentatively at Max through her tears.

Max smiled back. The first full-blown smile from him the Parkers had ever seen and they were stunned. Jeff, because he truly thought that Max was the most serious young man he had ever met, and Nancy because the smile made Max look even more handsome than he normally did. No wonder Liz can’t see straight around him!

"I’m sure you all still have a lot of questions, but it’s been a rough day." Max was taking charge again. "Why don’t we talk more tomorrow?"

Isabel got up. "I’ll show you where your tents and the bathrooms are." She started out of the tent with four very emotional parents in tow.

Liz jumped up when her parents got to the door and ran over to them. She hugged them both and whispered: "I love you." This led to hugs between all the parents and their kids and it took a long time before Iz could get them all to leave again.

When Isabel returned, they all stayed to chat while Max and Liz had dinner.

"Nice save on the girlfriend thing, Max!" Maria was grinning.

Alex chimed in, turning to Isabel. "So Iz, how’s the new Marcus-shaped welcome mat in front of the dining tent doing?"

Max was too happy to be baited by his two wacky friends tonight. "I didn’t kill him. I just pointed out that it was not necessary for the whole world, and especially for our parents, to know about the bonding thing." Or about the sleeping together thing either! He rubbed Liz’s arm where the wound was that he had healed a few minutes ago. "But if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I’m putting you over my knee! You scared the crap out of me."

Liz just smiled and kissed him on his nose. Typical Max overreaction to anything that happened to her.

"Well, I’m just rearing to go to bed. With Max and Alex." Michael sounded grouchy. "Have I remembered to thank you again for that Maxwell?"

Maria slid her arms around his neck. "Well, maybe if you stopped whinging, I would walk you to your tent. We could take the scenic route…"

Michael jumped up immediately. "See ya!"

They left with the laughter of the others in their ears.

Isabel and Alex followed them soon afterwards, leaving Max and Liz alone.

Max pulled Liz onto his lap and pressed his forehead to hers. "Thank you… for helping me today." He kissed her softly, careful not to let things get out of hand.

"My parents seemed to take it pretty well." Liz hoped she was right. She slid closer to Max. "Now let’s just be us for a little while, okay?" She sighed. "Before I have to go sleep with Maria…"

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Where the hell is Devin?" The voice belonged to a tall dark man. "He hasn’t returned since this morning!"