Max grunted in disgust, set his coffee cup back against his saucer and gave his sister a bland look. “Gee, Isabel, you really should be more vocal with what’s on your mind.”

Isabel remained unflustered. In one deft motion she spooned mashed peas into her son’s mouth and leveled Max with a “give me a break” expression. “I just don’t think it’s healthy, that’s all,” she remarked casually in between coos to her son.

Despite her attempt at nonchalance Max heard the veiled warning in her tone. He narrowed his eyes. “And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Max,” Isabel began in the same soothing tone she used to calm down her infant son, “I am not accusing you of anything, I’m just saying-,”

“Nothing is going on between me and Maria,” Max cut in fiercely.

The quick vehemence of his words caused Isabel to look at him sharply. “I never said anything to the contrary, Max,” she replied placidly. She watched as the tension eased from Max’s shoulders. He offered her a sheepish smile, but Isabel wasn’t fooled. Something was definitely going on with her brother. Isabel was quite aware of this and had been for quite a few months. But she was tentative about approaching Max. He’d been through enough already with the baby’s death and Liz’s withdrawal and attempted suicide. He did not need his sister rashly accusing him of flirtation with his wife’s best friend.

However, that was exactly what Max was doing. Yes, something was definitely going on between him and Maria no matter how vehemently he denied it. Number one, the looks they gave one another were a dead give away and if that weren’t enough the room fairly crackled with tension when they were together. Alex had seen it coming long before Isabel. He’d warned Isabel that she should have a discussion with Max months earlier, but as usual she hadn’t listened. She knew her brother after all. He was in love with Liz and had been since he was in the third grade. There was no way he would ever look twice at Maria. They were both in pain, Isabel reasoned, seeking solace in one another in a time of emotional vulnerability. Max and Maria were just friends. And up until a few weeks past Isabel Whitman had been perfectly content with that belief.

Isabel’s only intention was that it was to be a family dinner. None of them had really gotten together since the baby died. And then hot on the heels of the funeral Michael had hightailed it out of town without so much as a good-bye. Isabel had felt as if her family were falling apart. And so the idea of a family dinner had sounded simply marvelous to her. She had taken great care to prepare everything, not that she had cooked, but she had hired an excellent caterer. For the first time in months they had joked like old times, reminisced. She and Max had laughed about how they’d thought they had enough to deal with concerning their “alien problems” now they had the human ones to contend with as well. Maria, as usual, was full of funny, flippant comments, which kept them all laughing. Isabel would have never suspected that anything was up between Maria and Max at all if she hadn’t gone into the kitchen.

At first glance it was obvious they were in the midst of an intense conversation. Max had his head bent low and he spoke to Maria in hushed, whispering words. Maria was crying. She rested her forehead against Max’s chest while he stroked the length of her spine comfortingly. Occasionally, he would brush his lips across the top of her head. Seeing them together Isabel dropped the tray she held. At the loud clattering of the silver against the floor Maria and Max broke apart, but not before Isabel witnessed the guilty looks stamped on their faces.

Michael had written a letter, they’d told her, he wouldn’t be back for the baby’s birth, possibly not ever. Maria was understandably upset and of course Max was doing his best to comfort her. Clinically speaking their story seemed legitimate and Isabel would have probably swallowed it if she hadn’t seen the chemistry between them with her own eyes. She’d made up her mind in that moment that she would confront Max about it.

“Look, Is, I’m sorry I jumped all over you. I’ve just been a little edgy.”

Isabel knew she could accept his apology and avoid all unpleasantness by sweeping her misgivings under the rug. But she couldn’t do it. Not even for the sake of peace between her and her brother. “We should talk about Maria, Max.”

“What about her?” He tried to sound nonchalant but it didn’t escape Isabel’s notice that he was avoiding her eyes.

“Maria’s in a weird place right now….I was just thinking it might be better for you to just back off.”

“Maria needs a friend, Is, not a kick in the gut,” Max replied dryly.

“I’m not suggesting that you end your friendship with her, Max, just temper it down.”

Although part of Max was angry that Isabel was even addressing the subject with him at all, the other part of him knew that she was right. Truthfully, the issue between him and Maria was something he had been debating on his own for weeks. He could admit to himself that things were starting to get a little confusing.

Max loved his wife. And more than anything he wanted to get their relationship back on track, to recement their marriage. He couldn’t imagine spending his life with any woman other than Liz. Which was why he was confused as hell to find himself attracted to Maria. Quirky, weird, pregnant Maria. His wife’s best friend and his best friend’s girl: what Maria was to Max was indisputable. And still he couldn’t help himself. He wanted her.

The solace max had found in the fact that nothing had really happened between he and Maria was gradually beginning to fade. Now Max had to face the cold, hard facts. It was impossible to ignore that his body responded every time she walked into the room. And that’s what tore him up most….because he really, really, really didn’t want to respond. Never in his entire life had Max ever been attracted to anyone other than Liz and for him to develop this sudden and unprecedented attraction to Maria, Max was more than a little confused and scared as hell. And so he’d done what any normal man in his position would do. He’d made a beeline for the country to see his wife.

As he expected she wasn’t at all happy to see him, but at least she didn’t refuse his visit. At first sight of her Max felt himself recoil in shock as the drastic difference in her appearance. Her hair was….for lack of a better word…..gone. It looked like a buzz cut gone wrong. And she was just as pale and thin as she had been when he’d seen her two months earlier. She reminded Max of a concentration camp victim. As she took a seat across from him, Max had begun to wonder if his unannounced visit had been such a good idea after all. At Liz’s words of greeting Max knew it had been a bad idea.

“I thought we agreed you wouldn’t come here,” she remarked coldly.

“I just wanted to see you, Liz,” Max said simply, spreading his palms in supplication, “I miss you.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Max exclaimed in exasperation, “Why? Why the hell do you think? Because I love you!”

“Well, you shouldn’t,” Liz told him in a flat, emotionless tone, “I don’t deserve it.”

Maybe it was her words or the hopeless way she said them, but looking at her in that moment broke Max’s heart. He reached across the table and took her hands in his own, squeezing them tightly. “Liz, I know you blame yourself for the baby’s death, but it wasn’t your fault. Liz, listen to me, IT WASN’T YOUR FAULT!”

Liz looked down at their conjoined hands then back at Max before deliberately pulling her fingers from his grasp. “I knew that morning that there was a problem with the baby,” she said softly, “and I did nothing. When he died, Max, something in me died, too.”

“You still have me and Claudia, Liz. You haven’t lost everything.”

For the first time since he’d first seen her a look not unlike sadness settled over Liz’s features replacing her look of indifference. “Max, I’m not who I was before…I can’t make you happy.”

Max rapidly blinked back the tears forming in his eyes. “Liz, you’re my life! I love you.”

She continued on as if she’d said nothing. “I think you should divorce me, Max.”

“What?” The word came out in a sob. Max couldn’t help it. She’d ripped his heart out with that statement.

“I don’t want to be married to you anymore. As soon as I’m better, I’m filing for divorce.”

Max closed his eyes against the memory, shuddering. It was then that he realized that he was desperately holding on to a love and a life that Liz obviously didn’t want. The fight for their marriage could not be one sided and Liz was apparently not interested in preserving what she and Max had worked so hard to build. And Max couldn’t really be angry at her about it either because he actually understood her motives. She was penalizing herself. Because she felt responsible for their son’s death she felt she should lose everything she held dear as punishment. The idea was ludicrous, of course, but there was no convincing Liz of that. Max knew that it was a truth she had to realize on her own.

But in the meantime, Max was in a bad place and as always Maria was there, making him laugh, fixing him dinner, just being the friend he so desperately needed. And Max loved her for that. More than loved her. He was afraid that he actually might be falling in love with Maria. The fear of that happening immobilized Max, but there was nothing he could do. His feelings for her had already begun to grow and Max was powerless to stop them.

“Is, I know that things between Maria and I have been getting a little close,” Max admitted to his sister, “but trust me, I’m handling the situation.”

Isabel gave him an unconvinced look as she laid a sleeping A.J. in his playpen. “I’ve seen the way you look at her, Max. It’s not at all friendly.”

Max ducked his head, feeling a blush heat his cheeks. “Well….uh…yeah…but I’ve got to get back to the office, ok, Is. So I guess we’ll talk later?”

“Way to avoid the subject, Max,” Isabel admonished in disappointment.

Before Max could respond his cell phone rang. He flashed Isabel an apologetic look before answering the call. “Evans, here.”

Maria’s panting voice filled his ears. “Yeah well, you’d better haul your ass to St. Mary’s as soon as possible, Evans!”

“Maria, are you-?”

“I’m about to blow, yeah…now get out here to lend me your hand….I need something to crush.”

Max laughed, feeling inexplicably pleased and happy. “The pain that bad?” he teased with a smile.