Liz carefully schooled her expression as he came nearer. She was overjoyed to see him but he didn't have to know that. She feigned sudden absorption in polishing the shake machine.

Max approached her cautiously, his expression clearly uneasy. After three days of being away from her he felt shaky and afraid. Yet he was starved for the sight of her, pregnant with his baby. He schooled his face not to reveal the joy he felt inside. "Hey, Liz," he said when he approached the counter, bracing himself against it.

She slowly lifted her head, looking at him with raised eyebrows. "So you didn't skip town again," she noted sarcastically, "That's nice to know."

Max had the grace to look chagrined. He hung his head in apology. "I had some things to take care of. I've been really busy these last few days."

A scoffing laugh rose in Liz's throat but she swallowed it. She gave him a "just who do you think you're fooling" look.

"And just what business have you been attending to, Max?"

"I called Berkeley and told them I'd be deferring this semester and I wanted my credits transferred to the University of New Mexico in the Spring."

Liz's mouth fell open. In that instant she lost control of her expression. The happiness she felt at his statement glowed in her eyes. She smiled at him softly. "Why would you do that, Max?"

Max glanced around uneasily, uncomfortable with meeting her eyes. "Where the baby goes, I go."

"Oh," Liz said, feeling disappointed. She had hoped he'd made his decision because he wanted to be near her. Liz was hoping that he was ready to give up the ridiculous notion of their being apart and work on rebuilding the relationship. Everything in Liz's being told her he wanted to be with her, even if he didn't admit it. Of course, her conviction could merely rest in the fact that she couldn't bear for Max to feel otherwise. She began wiping at the shake machine again. "How do your folks feel about you coming back home?"

He chewed at his bottom lip, his eyes still not meeting Liz's. "I'm not gonna be staying with my parents, Liz," he told her slowly, "I moved in with Tess yesterday."

Liz's breath suspended in her chest. A squeaking sound escaped her throat. Tears instantly came forth, blurring her vision. She knew she was about to start crying and there wasn't a thing she could do to stop it. And so she took the cowardly exit. She spun around and ran for the back, her chest heaving with sobs she couldn't control.

Max found her with her hands braced against a table, her back to the door, crying as if her heart were broken into a billion pieces. That's probably cause it is, Max silently scolded himself. He padded up softly behind her. For a moment he lifted his hand to touch her shaking shoulder and then reluctantly let his hand drop. He knew nothing he could do or say at that point would comfort her. "She is my girlfriend, Liz," he whispered quietly, feeling close to tears himself.

"I-I know," Liz gasped violently. She didn't turn around to look at him, just kept crying brokenly.

"Liz?" His tone was strained and whisper-soft.

"Why are you doing this to me, Max?" Liz asked him in a jagged gasp.

"I'm not. . .doing anything to you, Liz." But he knew that he was. And he hated himself for it.

Liz rounded on him violently, her face blotchy and wet from her tears. "You must really hate me, huh Max!"

"I don't hate-"

"You want to hurt me so bad, Max!" Liz fired, grabbing hold of his hand and forming it into a fist, "You want to hurt me? Then hit me, Max! It couldn't hurt any worse than what you're doing now! Go ahead! HIT ME UNTIL YOU'RE NOT ANGRY ANYMORE!"

Max struggled to pull his hand from her grasp but her grip remained tight. "Liz, stop this!"

"Hit me, dammit!"

"Liz, you're acting crazy!" Her behavior was alarming Max. Before his eyes her carefully constructed control was shattering. He had never seen her so upset before. Her eyes were wild and unseeing and she was sobbing hysterically.

"You think I'm crazy?" Liz blazed tearfully, feeling as if she'd reached her snapping point, "I'll show you crazy, Max!"

Abruptly, she tore away from him and ran for the table, sweeping everything on it to the floor. Glass shattered on the floor. She managed to flip over the table before Max restrained her, hauling her across the room. She turned on him like a demented pugilist, beating him with tiny fists. He restrained her as gently as he could manage, despite the random punches she landed to his face. Finally he managed to pin her flailing arms to her sides. "Liz, stop it!" he ordered again, "You're going to hurt yourself and the baby!"

Liz tossed back her head, her eyes blazing with anger. "I hate you!"

Her words caused him to wince. He knew she said them in anger but they hurt just the same. It had never been his intention to hurt her any worse than he already had. "I'm sorry to hear that, Liz," he told her tenderly, "Cuz I definitely don't hate you."

He released her gradually and she slid down his body to the floor. Her knees would no longer support her. Her small frame shook violently. "Why?" she sobbed, heartbroken, "Why, Max? Why?" Max knelt beside her. "I don't know." It was true. He wanted nothing more than for them to be happy the way they used to be.

Her chest was heaving when she looked at him and asked, "Do you love her?"

"I think you already know the answer to that."

"Then why are you with her, Max?" Liz choked.

Max was visibly torn. He wanted to tell her the truth, that he loved her and no one else. That he always had and always would, but he knew that the truth would only serve to further complicate an already complicated situation. Trust on both sides had been violated. It wasn't just a simple matter of kissing and making up. But looking at her crumpled, pain-filled expression Max felt as if his heart had been exposed. Oh god, why did he keep hurting her this way, he asked himself silently. Why did they keep hurting each other? "Liz," he began, bringing her against his shoulder, holding her gently, "we just can't be together. Too much has happened and neither of us can go back."

"You really can't forgive me, can you, Max?"

"Forgiving you isn't the issue, Liz. I. . .can't . . .forget."

Liz's tears flowed anew and she pulled from his embrace. "It was a horrible, horrible mistake, Max. I haven't spoken to him since. . .since it happened."

"I believe you," Max said softly.

"So we're really over, Max?"

Max nodded sadly.

His confirmation was hard to accept but Liz garnered every ounce of strength to do so. She wiped at the tears that continued to flow down her cheeks. Despite that Liz squared her shoulders, collecting herself. She looked him in the eye and said calmly, "That settles it then. We won't have any contact with each other outside the baby."

"No, Liz! That's not what I want at all. I want us to still be friends!"

Liz looked at him coldly. "I have enough friends."

Max flinched, hurt by her cool attitude. "Please Liz, don't be that way!"

"Don't be what way, Max? Hurt? Angry? Well you know better than anyone that you just can't wish those emotions away!"

"I just don't want to see everything we shared dwindle into nothing! Liz, we made a baby. No matter what is happening between us now we conceived this baby in love." He laid his hand gently against her abdomen. His fingers spread across it lovingly. They stared at each other for a long moment. Liz sighed unevenly. "I'm still in love with you, Max," she admitted humbly.

"And I'm still in love with you," Max responded quietly, "but I don't trust you not to hurt me, Liz."

"And you trust Tess?" He nodded. Liz closed her eyes, cursing herself for the hundredth time for sleeping with Cam.

"Just give me some time. . . .to think about everything you said."

"Okay," Max agreed, nodding, his forehead rubbing gently against hers. He caressed the nape of her neck, knowing he should let her go, but finding himself unable to do so. They stayed that way for a long time, foreheads resting against one another, their hands intertwined. Both knew they should let one another go, but neither knew how they ever could. Max supposed that was what being in love was all about. But, oh god, it hurt like hell.