Nick watched as the two young lovers traded short, quick kisses, oblivious to everything around them. He wondered what had happened that morning to make them so upset? Maybe it was something he could help with.

Max finally pulled away from Liz, his fingers gently caressing her cheeks and mouth. He leant his forehead against hers. "Your mom’s still inside. I talked to her about us." Seeing the shock register on her face, Max realized that she had misunderstood him. "No! Not about… I mean I told her how we felt. How I felt."

"How did she take it?" Liz’s voice was low.

Max sighed. "She seemed fine, but I can’t really tell." He brushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear. "Do you want to go in and talk to her?’

Now it was Liz’s turn to sigh. "I guess I should…"

After another lingering kiss with Max, she went into the tent.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Sarah stood outside the Crashdown, wondering how she was going to find out where Liz and her parents had gone. By now she and Eric had concluded the same thing. Something had happened to Devin. He had been their point man for so long that they were a little lost without him…

She hadn’t told Eric she was coming here. He would flip, and besides, she wanted some answers before she talked to him. But she desperately needed to see Liz. And more importantly, Max. Maybe between them they could avert a tragedy.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Liz found Nancy staring at nothing in particular when she arrived in the dining tent. She suddenly felt very sorry for her mother who had to contend with an amazing amount of new and strange information. Sliding into a seat across from her, she gently said: "Hi Mom."

Nancy looked at her for a long quiet moment. "He loves you very much, doesn’t he?"

Not bothering to ask whom she was referring to, Liz simply said: "Yes."

"How could I not have noticed that your life had changed so much this year?" Nancy’s eyes were starting to fill with tears. "How did we drift so far apart?"

Liz leant over and took her mother’s hand. "I’m sorry, Mom. It was mostly my fault. I…" She struggled to find the right words. "You have to understand that I was doing everything I could to protect Max." Seeing the confusion on Nancy’s face, Liz realized that there was still so much that her mom didn’t know. "Mom, after Max healed me, the FBI came to town looking for him. He became hunted because he loved me enough to take the chance that people would find out what he was so he could save me. Can you understand that I needed to help him? At any cost?" She looked pleadingly at her mother. "First, it was Sheriff Valenti. Then the FBI sent a woman to teach at our school so she could try and get evidence about Max being an alien."

Wiping at the tears that were coursing down her cheeks with her hands, Nancy could only stare at her daughter dumbly. While she had been worrying about whether Liz was having sex with her boyfriend, Liz had been worrying about her boyfriend being hunted by the FBI.

"When the teacher ploy didn’t work, they sent the FBI’s elite alien hunter unit in. The guy posed as one of the Sheriff’s deputies and they finally caught Max." Liz’s eyes clouded over in remembered pain. "They caught him because he was trying to save me again. Mom, the things they did to him… He never talks about that day."

Nancy finally found her voice. "Then how do you know what had happened to him?"

Liz wondered briefly if she could tell her mother this. "Mom, I don’t know if you’ll believe me when I tell you."

Nancy was desperately trying to catch up with her daughter’s life, so she decided its better to know bad stuff than to know nothing at all. "Try me."

"Sometimes… I can see things. From inside his head. We… we have this connection." Liz struggled to put what she and Max shared into words. "I feel what he feels, I can see what he thinks and I can see some of his memories. Like the crash."

Fear. Pure unadulterated fear was coursing through Nancy’s body. Accepting that there were aliens living on earth, was one thing. Finding out that they could put thoughts in one’s head was quite another. Her voice quacked when she spoke again. "You mean you can read his mind. Can he read yours… and mine?"

"No Mom!" Liz could see that her mother was starting to freak out. "It’s not like that! It’s… it’s only when we kiss," she finally admitted. "And it’s only between me and Max. The others haven’t experienced this. We don’t really know why it happens with us. It just does." She decided to plough ahead and tell her mom of all the strange things that happens to her around Max Evans. "We can also sense each other’s presence. I can tell where he is most all the time. And… and sometimes we dream the exact same dreams." She took a deep breath. "So Mom, you have to believe us when we tell you that this… what’s between Max and I. It’s something amazing and deep and forever."

"Are you sure you don’t just think you love him because he is handsome and he saved your life? And because this is strange and new and exiting?"

"Mom, how can I make you see that’s not true. That I know in my heart that I was meant for Max?" Liz spotted Nick just outside the door, watching her with concern. She turned back to her mother. "I’m coming right back. Maybe I can try something."

She bounded over to Nick. "Could you help me make a connection with my mother?"

Nick blanched. "Maybe we should ask Max--."

"No! Please, I need your help! Only…" She leaned closer. "I need her NOT to see about me and Max… you know, being intimate." Liz blushed at the last part. It’s not like it was exactly a secret in the camp, but still…

Nick still looked doubtful as she dragged him over to her mother, who was watching this with obvious trepidation. "Mom, this is Nick. He is like Max’s nephew, I guess. Nick, this is my mother."

Nick came through with flying colors. He basically bowed in front of Nancy. "It’s a great honor to meet you, Mrs. Parker. Liz is very important to our race."

Talking before her mother could ask what Nick’s last statement meant, Liz tried to allay her mother’s fears. "Mom, I’ve asked Nick to help me make a connection to you. It’s sort of similar to what Max and I share--." She held up her hands when Nancy opened her mouth to protest. "Please, just give this a chance."

After Liz nodded at him, Nick placed his hands on both her and her mother’s heads. Looking at Liz, he gently stressed. "Think ONLY of you feelings for Max."

Closing her eyes, Liz conjured up the image of Max in her mind. She saw him with her heart and she heard Nancy’s gasp when the force of her love for the gentlest alien on earth flooded her mother’s consciousness.

Nancy didn’t see any images, she just experienced her daughters feelings first hand. Complete love and trust. Respect and admiration. A sense of belonging. Tenderness and protectiveness. When Nick finally lifted his hands from them, she stared at Liz as if her daughter were a stranger. Which, in essence, she actually was…

When Liz opened her eyes, it was to stare into the hazel gaze of her other half. He was watching her with an awed expression and she felt an overwhelming urge to run over to him and fling herself in his arms. She saw Max’s eyes darken in reaction before they both looked at her mother, remembering that she was still there.

Nancy was getting up from the table unsteadily and Max was beside her instantly to hold her steady. As soon as she found her balance, she turned to him. "I don’t understand what just happened. I don’t understand what’s going on between you two. But I do know one thing. If you ever hurt my daughter, I will personally make your life a living hell." With that, Nancy started out of the tent.

"Mrs Parker." Max’s quiet voice stopped her in her tracks before she reached the door and she absently wondered about the obedience he so effortlessly commands. He was staring at her earnestly. "If I ever hurt Liz, my life would a living hell ALREADY."