Liz had been back in Roswell two weeks before she finally had the courage to tell her parents she was pregnant. Nancy Parker completely lost it, which came as no surprise to Liz. She had charged Liz with being thoughtless and irresponsible. If Liz hadn't already felt so numb perhaps her mother's words would have cut her. As it was she endured her mother's entire tirade with a blank stare. After her mother had left in an angry huff Jeffrey Parker crept into his daughter's room to comfort her. He shed bitter tears for himself and for his pregnant daughter. Liz had remained in his arms, stoic and without tears. She didn't have any tears left to cry.

By some unspoken agreement Liz waited tables at the Crashdown just as she had in high school and in return her folks didn't hound her about the baby. The baby. Liz rarely thought of it. Or anything else for that matter. Except Max. He consumed her every thought. She wondered what he was doing, who he was doing it with. Was Tess healing the wounds that Liz had inflicted? Liz imagined that Tess would be all too willing to lend her shoulder for Max to cry on. Liz tortured herself with endless questions. Did Max think about her at all or had Tess pushed her completely from his mind?

In her bed Liz curled into a fetal position. She felt hollow inside, thinking about Max. If only. . .if only. . .she could torture herself forever with the if onlys. Liz wondered if it would have made any difference at all if she had told him that she loved him that last time. But Liz had been too angry, too proud to give him anything more than a curt good-bye. Why had he brought Tess along, Liz mused in agony. If only Tess hadn't been with Max when he'd come to collect the remainder of his belongings Liz would have confessed her love. She would have begged him to stay. But instead she had remained in the living room, pretending to watch 90201 while he and Tess packed his things together in the bedroom he and Liz had shared less than three months before. Liz's heart, which was already in a million pieces, broke into a million more. But Liz continued to stare, unseeing, at the television screen. She refused to reveal even a shred of emotion.

When he and Tess finally emerged from the bedroom Liz held her breath in anticipation. Max came around to stand beside the TV, holding his box. "I'm leaving," he said quietly as if waiting for some reaction from Liz. She refused to give him one. "Have a safe trip," she had replied without looking away from the television screen. A curious, numbing sensation had begun to unfurl in her belly and spread through the expanse of Liz's chest. She hadn't known it at the time but that numbed feeling would stay with her for months to come.

"I left my half of the rent on the kitchen table," he continued. He had stood there expectantly, seeming to want something more from her.

Liz had only shrugged. She refused to give him anything. She'd be damned if she humbled herself while that bitch was in her house! "That's fine, Max," she had replied with pretended unconcern.

Max looked extremely saddened by her response, almost crumbling Liz's resolve. Almost. "Well, I guess this is good-bye then," he said.

Liz still refused to look at him. "I guess so."

Liz screwed her eyes shut in the memory. She regretted treating him so coldly now. Liz wished that she had taken that moment to give him a decent good-bye. He had deserved at least that from her. But Liz hadn't been able to let go of her stubborn pride long enough to do so. In hindsight, she realized that Max had been waiting there for her, waiting for her to give him an excuse to stay. He had been waiting for her to ask him not to leave. And Liz would have. If only Tess hadn't been there.

Liz curled herself into a tighter ball. She had survived that first lonely night, torturing herself with images of Max and Tess together. For the first time in her life Liz Parker actually considered suicide. She was just in too much pain and she simply wanted it to stop. For several long, intense moments she had held the razor blade to her wrist but she was unable to make the cut. No matter how bleak her life looked at the moment Liz did not want to die. Not really. Instead she trashed the apartment, destroying everything that had reminded her of Max. But she had survived that night and the hellish ones that followed it. Liz was slowly coming to discover that she could survive anything.

At the knock that sounded on her bedroom door Liz lifted her head. She was surprised to find her mother standing there holding a tray of food. "I've haven't seen you eat anything all day. That can't be good for the baby, Liz," Nancy said as she sat down at the foot of Liz's bed, setting the tray aside. She took a moment to study her daughter. Nancy had been livid when Liz had announced that she was pregnant to her and Jeff. She had seen it as the ruination of her daughter's life. A daughter full of potential, a daughter two semesters away from graduating one of the most prestigious universities in America. Now all Nancy felt was an intense worry. Liz didn't eat anymore. She rarely slept. Nancy watched her daughter drift through existence daily, not really living at all. She knew that Liz and Max were no longer together but she didn't know why. She knew that Liz was miserable. Perhaps it would have been better if she cried, but all Liz did was stare blankly into space, as if she were dead inside. That worried Nancy more than buckets of tears ever could have.

"You should eat, Liz," she said again when Liz didn't seem inclined to touch the food she had brought in.

"I'm not hungry, Mom," Liz mumbled into her pillow.

"And what about the baby?"

"What about it?"

Nancy glared at her dejected daughter in exasperation. "Have you even seen a doctor, Liz?" "Why? What's the point?"

That afternoon Nancy Parker made a doctor's appointment for Liz. Three days later an indifferent Liz found herself laid out on an examining table, a cool, clear gel being spread across her still flat tummy.

"You're going to do an ultrasound?" Nancy asked the nurse as she strapped a heart monitor belt across Liz's abdomen. "Isn't it a little early for that?"

"Well, Mrs. Parker, since your daughter is unsure of the date of her last period," the nurse explained patiently, "the ultrasound will give Dr. Bolivar an idea of how far along her pregnancy is."

Fifteen minutes later Dr. Bolivar breezed into the examination room, his demeanor chipper. "So Liz, how are we feeling today?"

"We are feeling just fine," Liz replied sarcastically.

Nancy was quick to apologize for her rude daughter. "She's been a little irritable lately," she explained lamely.

"That's quite alright," Dr. Bolivar said pleasantly, "Let's take a look at the little one, shall we?" He grabbed hold of the ultrasound sensor and began running it over Liz's abdomen. The fuzzy picture of the baby popped onto the screen.

Nancy Parker was in awe to view her grandchild for the first time. Dr. Bolivar watched the screen with interest, nodding, and "hmmmming" occasionally.

"Is everything alright?" Nancy asked anxiously, gripping Liz's hand.

"Everything looks spectacular. Looks like your daughter's about twelve weeks pregnant."

At his statement Liz came alive. She bolted upright, dislodging the belt and startling the doctor.

"Liz!" her mother protested, "What's gotten into you!"

Liz ignored her mother, her wild and desperate eyes trained on the doctor. "Did you just say I'm twelve weeks pregnant?"

Dr. Bolivar nodded, smiling. This was the most alive he'd seen the young woman since his arrival. "Based on the fetal development I saw, I would guess you're about twelve weeks along."

Twelve weeks! Oh god, Liz thought, she had slept with Cam only a little over eight weeks ago! So that could only mean one thing. That she had been already four weeks pregnant when she slept with him!

She was pregnant with Max's baby.