Liz quit kicking the table leg and looked up at that.

"That poor man. He still hasn't gotten over the loss of his wife." Nancy said as she reached over and put some vegetables on her daughter's plate.

Liz wrinkled her nose at the offensive beans, but knew she would have to eat them.

"Did you hire him?" Nancy asked as she sat back down.

"Yeah, I'm not sure it will work out, considering he's been hitting the bottle a lot since his wife died, but we'll give it a try. He has to take care of his boy somehow." Jeff answered and winked at his daughter as she gave her vegetables a shove with her fork.

"I'm glad you're giving him a chance honey. If not for Hank, then for his boy." Nancy smiled and took her husband's hand in hers and their eyes met and held.

Liz looked from her parent's hands to their smiles and their eyes and right then, with her fork frozen in the air, she made up her mind that she was going to marry Max some day.

If she had to live with someone like her parents did with each other; she wanted to live with Max. There was something about Max. Something that seemed so familiar to her. She felt so safe when he was around, like she was home when she was with him. She didn't understand it, but she knew she loved Max. That he was special. She wondered what Maria would say if she told her. She smiled at that thought and poked at her vegetables again.

*************

Liz was swiveling around on a counter stool with Maria waiting for Grandma Claudia the next day.

"Oh my Gosh!! Liz 'boys are boring and dumb' Parker is in LOVE!" Maria stopped spinning around on her stool and stared at her best friend.

"Shhh! Maria! You promised you'd keep it secret!" Liz begged looking around to make sure no one heard.

"And besides, most of them ARE dumb and boring." Liz threw back at Maria and lifted her chin in defiance.

"Who's dumb and boring?"

They both turned to see their best buddy Alex coming in the door.

"You are." Liz and Maria said in unison and then laughed at Alex's pout.

Alex jumped up on a stool and frowned. "Oh yeah? Well how come I can beat both of you at swimming races, bike races and dodge ball!" he defended himself.

The girls exchanged looks and smiled. "Okay Alex, we take it back. You're not boring." Maria gave in.

Alex smiled at them and then frowned again. "What about dumb?"

"Don't push it." Maria said and Liz laughed. Alex just stuck his tongue out at them.

"When's your grandma supposed to be here Liz?" Alex asked. Watching the two girls spin was making him dizzy so he turned to look around the alien themed Café. It always amused him that people thought that aliens had crashed outside of Roswell. But he loved the Café's decorations. He thought they were cool.

"She said she'd be here around noon sometime." Liz grinned and stopped spinning when she saw the Sheriff and their other best buddy coming in.

"Hey Kyle! Hey Sheriff." Maria and Liz called out.

Kyle jumped up on the stools to join his friends and punched Alex on the arm. "Are they abusing you again Alex?" he nodded to the girls.

"Always." Alex sighed and then grinned at Kyle.

"Hello girls, Alex. Liz is your dad around?" The Sheriff asked.

"No Sheriff. Daddy went to pick up my Grandma Claudia at the airport earlier. But they should be back around noon. Do you want to speak to my mom? She's upstairs, I can go get her?"

"Nah, that's okay Liz. I'll talk to your dad later." Sheriff Valenti smiled and gave Liz's arm a light squeeze in thanks and headed back out of the café.

Liz froze when she felt a sudden wash of worry coming from the Sheriff. She frowned and tried to comprehend what had just happened. As soon as the Sheriff had released her arm, the feeling went away.

"Hey Liz, do you think your grandma brought you back something really cool from Africa again?" Maria asked.

Liz shook off the incident with the sheriff and grinned at her friend. "Yeah. She always brings back something really cool."

"I hope it's a skull or some dead bones." Kyle said and brightened, as did Alex.

"Eeeeww!" Maria exclaimed and shivered. "You two are just gross!"

Liz put her elbow on the counter and leaned her chin on her hand. She wondered what Max was doing today? She figured he was probably still helping his mom unpack, since he had told her they were still unpacking just yesterday.

She wanted to talk to him again. She wanted to find out how he had made her cuts go away and she knew he was just as surprised about what had happened as she was. She could only imagine how scary it must be to realize you could do something you didn't know you could do. That you had no control over it. And mostly, Liz just liked being around Max.

When the bell rang on the front door again Liz was brought out of her thoughts by Maria's squeal. Liz looked up and her eyes met her Grandma Claudia's.

"Grandma!" Liz cried out and jumping off the stool she ran into her Grandma's open and waiting arms.

"How's my little Honey Behr?" Claudia hugged the little girl close to her, so glad to see her again.

"I'm great! I've missed you so much!" Liz admitted.

"Well let me look at you."

Liz stood back and smiled shyly as Claudia gushed about how pretty she'd gotten and how much taller.

Alex and Kyle snorted at the taller comment. Liz was the smallest kid in their class. She threw a pout at them and then stuck out her tongue.

"Ahhh… the other three musketeers." Claudia laughed as she noticed all three of her granddaughter's friends waiting to greet her as well.

"Hi grandma! Did you bring us something?" Maria ran to Claudia for her hug.

"Of course I did!" Claudia laughed. She loved this little spitfire as well.

*************

Sheriff Valenti looked up when he heard the knock on his office door.

"Jim, what's up? Liz said you came by." Jeff Parker said as he came into the office.

Jim Valenti could tell his friend was tense and tried to reassure him. "It's nothing really Jeff. I just thought you might like to know, someone from out of town came into the Record Office yesterday and looked up all adoptions within the last 10 years."

Jeff Parker turned white and gripped the chair in front of him.

"Hey Jeff, it's probably nothing." Jim said softly and stood up to put a hand on his friend's arm.

He knew that Liz had been found by Jeff's mother, for they had had Jim Valenti quietly put out a search for any missing infants at the time. When nothing had turned up, they had decided to keep the baby themselves and tell people that Liz had been adopted through a private agency. Jim had helped and kept it quiet, knowing how much the baby had meant to his friends and since no one had reported any missing infants, he didn't want to see the infant have to go through the system.

"I'm sure it's nothing, but I thought you'd want to know." Jim tried again to reassure his friend.

"You're probably right. Do you know who the person was?" Jeff asked raking a shaky hand through his hair.

"I got the name and am running it through the computers but I don't think we'll find anything." He explained.

Jeff sighed. Jim was right, it was probably nothing. Jim didn't know that it couldn't be the birth mother, since he didn't know how Claudia had found the baby, so Jeff knew that his friend just thought he was worried about that.

But Jeff had to go tell Nancy and his mother about this. They had to make sure that it wasn't someone or something looking for the alien pods after all these years. His mother had told them of the possibility of the alien enemy knowing of the Pods' existence and that one-day someone might try to locate them. He just prayed that this really was nothing to worry about. That it was just a coincidence.

************

Max sat on the floor in his room surrounded by boxes. He was supposed to be unpacking, but instead he had just told Michael what he'd done to Liz Parker's cuts the other day.

Michael looked shocked and nervous. "You shouldn't have done that! Now she'll know you're different!" Michael swallowed and looked around. He was terrified of being different and being taken away.

"I didn't KNOW I could do that so how could I have helped what happened. And besides, Liz won't tell anyone. I know it." Max said quietly and with total assurance.

Michael looked down at a scraped elbow he had and then at Max.

Max took a deep breath and put a hand on Michael's elbow.

They both held their breaths, and when Max took his hand away Michael was stunned to find the scrape gone. It wasn't that he didn't believe Max, but to actually see it…

"Do your sisters know about this?" Michael asked still looking to where the cut had been.

"No, not yet. Can you do anything? Have you ever tried?" Max asked.

"No. And I don't know if I can do THAT!" Michael swallowed and then looked at a scar on his finger and tried to heal that.

Max waited, holing his breath. But when Michael moved his hand the scar was still there.

"Maybe it doesn't work with scars." Max said when he saw Michael's disappointment.

"You try it." Michael said and watched Max.

Max nodded and focused on the scar on Michael's thumb.

When he removed his hand, the scar was gone.

"So you can do this healing. I wonder what I can do, if anything?" Michael chewed on his bottom lip.

"I know Isabel moved that snake across the desert that night two years ago, but I don't know if she's tried anything like that since cause our parents told us not to act different." Max said with a frown as he thought.

"We need to see what we can do Max. It could be important." Michael said staring at his friend intently. "So we know what NOT to do in front of people next time."

Max nodded. "But we have to be careful Michael. We don't want anyone to know or see us."

"What about Liz Parker? Does she know about the pods? About the symbols on the cave or anything about all of us coming out of them?" Michael asked nervously.

Max shook his head. "No. I…I didn't get to talk to Liz too much after I took her cuts away. But if she asks, I'm going to tell her what I know." Max said stubbornly.

Michael sighed and rolled his eyes. His friend was nuts over the Parker girl and he knew it. He didn't understand it, to him all girls were pains, but Max just seemed to have this thing for little Liz Parker. Isabel and Tess told him that Max usually never talked to strangers and especially had never showed an interest in girls before. So they didn't understand it either, and Max wouldn't answer any of their questions about Liz Parker.

"I don't think we should tell ANYONE Max, and I bet your sisters would both agree." Michael stated.

Max shrugged letting Michael know he wouldn't talk anymore about Liz.

Soon after that, Michael left and Max just sat where he'd been on the floor. He didn't know what it was about Liz, but he trusted her completely. He just felt happy when he was around her, and he loved to talk to her. He wanted to talk to her about all of this stuff. He didn't understand what was happening but knew that if he talked to Liz he would feel better. He didn't know why, but whenever he was around Liz Parker, his tummy felt funny. Not bad funny, but good funny. And that too didn't make any sense to Max. But he liked it and he liked Liz a lot.

Just thinking of Liz made his tummy feel 'good' funny, and he smiled. He had always thought that when he grew up, he'd never want to be with any dumb girl like his dad was with his mom, but now he knew he wanted to be with Liz forever. He somehow knew that the funny feeling in his tummy would always be there with Liz Parker, and he liked that, it made him feel happy and safe.