"Don't you watch the entertainment news?" Maria quipped as she pushed past Liz into the Crashdown loaded down with suitcases. "I took a hiatus."

Liz relocked the door behind Maria. She noted the many suitcases Maria carried and raised her eyebrows. "You plan on staying awhile?"

"Alex and I broke up." Liz's smile immediately faded. "Oh my god, Maria. I'm so sorry," she said, enveloping Maria in a hug. Liz recalled when Maria had done the same exact thing when she and Max had broken up. Maria returned her embrace briefly before pulling away.

"I'm fine. . . Really." Despite her words Maria was rapidly blinking back her tears. "It's no big deal."

"Yeah. . .I forgot. . .Maria the Teflon-babe," Liz said softly, reaching forward to brush the tears from Maria's cheeks.

"Oh I don't want to talk about me!" Maria exclaimed, waving her hands, "Look at you! You're huge!"

"Well, I'm due to pop in three weeks, I should be!"

"I can't believe it," Maria sighed, her eyes tearing up once again, "Lizzie's going to be a mommy!" They both shared a poignant moment. Two friends assessing the changes in one another, realizing their differences between them and finding common ground in spite of them.

"Let's celebrate!" Maria exclaimed suddenly.

Thirty minutes later Liz and Maria were upstairs in Liz's bedroom gorging themselves on potato chips, ice cream, and cake. Liz's parents were out of town for a month and Liz was acting supervisor in their absence. Jeff and Nancy Parker wanted to open a chain of Crashdown Cafes across the country. A buyer with deep pockets had been intrigued with the idea of UFO chain of restaurants and decided to back them. They were now in New York negotiating the details.

Liz was happy for her parents and for the success they were having. But their fortune made Liz more determined than ever. She would become a molecular biologist. She would not make the Crashdown Café her life, Liz thought darkly.

"So what's going on?" Maria asked around a mouthful of chips, "It's Friday night and the Crashdown's closed early?"

"Oh, I wasn't feeling well. My back has been killing me all day. I think it's from all the standing I've been doing lately," Liz theorized, eating a spoonful of her ice cream.

"Yeah, you shouldn't be standing too much, you know," Maria agreed. A second later Maria's face screwed up in disgust. "Oh my God! What are you eating?"

Liz looked at Maria self-consciously. "Vanilla ice cream. . .and Tabasco."

"Ewwww," Maria shuddered, "You really are having Max's kid!" They both laughed.

"So, Maria," Liz said a few moments later after their laughter had died down, "are you going to tell me what happened with you and Alex?"

Maria licked her spoon free of ice cream. "Well you already know we were having problems. . ." Liz nodded. She remembered the things Alex had told her when she had visited New York.

"Well," Maria continued, "I was gone so much and there was so much publicity that Alex got fed up. He walked out.

He moved in with one of his Columbia computer friends."

"Oh Maria. . ."

Maria held up her hand. "Don't! Don't pity me. Alex and I had problems long before this. Michael and Isabel have continued to be an issue between us. We should have broken up a long time ago. I'm just sorry that our friendship got wrecked."

"Maria, give Alex some time. He'll come around." Maria just shrugged. "So Gidget, what's going on with you and Moondoggie?"

Liz laughed. Maria hadn't called her that for years. "Oh, we've gone on to Phase 3 of our relationship."

"Phase 3?"

"He follows me. I ignore him."

"I'm not following. . ."

"Ok," Liz said, folding her legs Indian style, "for the last three weeks Max has been like a man on a mission. He's everywhere I turn, bringing me gifts for the baby, offering to take me out. . . ."

"Wait, I thought that was a good thing," Maria interrupted.

"Not as long as he's still with Tess."

"Oooh," Maria said, understanding finally dawning, "So if he's with Tess still, why is he hanging around you?"

"I think Max wants to get back together."

"I'm sensing a "but" here. . ."

"Well, I just know he's not going to say anything because he's afraid of being hurt."

"By you?" Maria burst out in disbelief.

Liz nodded anxiously. "And that's why I think he's with Tess. She doesn't pose a threat. He doesn't love her so she can't hurt him."

"And I thought my life was a soap opera," Maria muttered.

When Liz was finally able to stop laughing she managed to gasp, still caught between giggles, "Oh god, Maria, I'm so glad you came!"

"Me too."

Later that night, while Liz was sleeping her parents' bedroom (Maria had taken hers), she was suddenly jarred awake. She felt weird. Liz rolled upright, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Her back was aching again. She stood to go to the bathroom. Her Tylenol was there. She'd never get back to sleep without help. The pain in her back was god-awful!

The sudden rush of warm liquid down Liz's legs stopped her cold. She glanced down and then reached over to click on the lamp beside the bed. The carpet was soaked through with a silvery colored liquid. Liz looked at the stain in confusion. A small smile hovered at the corners of her mouth. Her water had just broken, Liz realized happily.

She was in labor.