"Hello Maria, Kyle, Alex." She smiled back at them. Then she turned and smiled at Michael who just looked at her.

"Hello. You must be Hank's son?" she started. "I was talking to your dad earlier and he said you were my granddaughter's age and would be hanging around here after school now since he worked here." She smiled again and tried to meet his eyes and reassure him that he was safe.

"He's not my dad." Was all Michael said.

"Michael! Don't be rude. This is Liz's grandma and she's so cool! She's an archeologist and travels all around the world." Maria beamed at the older woman.

"Yeah and she even digs up dead bones!" Kyle piped up with wide eyes.

"If they're buried of course their dead." Alex teased his friend and received an elbow in the ribs from Kyle and a laugh from Maria.

Michael just looked up at the woman with new interest. "You investigate old tribes and people?" he asked.

Claudia nodded and felt the pull of his curiosity. "Yes. And some have been said to have been left by people from other worlds." She tried casually.

Michael froze and then looked down. "Don't believe in that stuff." He said with now fisted hands in his lap.

Claudia took this in and her eyes narrowed. Did he know he was different? She couldn't be sure. He might just be one of those children that had a fear of aliens. A lot of people in this town either didn't believe or they scared the children with horror stories of invading aliens.

"A lot of people don't." was all she said.

"But you believe Grandma don't you?" Maria asked loving this stuff. After all, she grew up with stories of aliens and she believed.

"I think…anything is possible Maria." Claudia said carefully and saw Michael look up at her again with measuring eyes.

She met his look and smiled lightly but couldn't tell what the boy was thinking. He was a cautious one and she didn't want to scare him away if he thought she was probing.

"Well I hope to see you around Michael. It was nice meeting you. If you get bored down here all day, come up to the apartment and I'll show you some of the things I've found." She offered casually.

"She has some really cool stuff!" Kyle added with a grin.

"Yeah, like bones that are dead." Alex threw in getting another elbow in the stomach.

Michael watched Liz's grandma walk away and his eyes narrowed. What was it about her that sent him on alert? He didn't know why, but he felt like she was trying to find out all about him. And she had mentioned aliens. Did she know something? Was everyone going to know about them before Max was through?

He thanked God Maria didn't know all of it yet. Cause he knew if she'd known that Max's gift was because he was an alien that she would have told Liz's grandma. He was even more unhappy about the fact that Max was, at this moment, in the park explaining everything he knew, to Liz. ****************

Liz stared at Max in fascination and Max clenched his fists tightly at his sides with nerves. Would she be scared now? Would she run screaming? Would she think he was a horrible creature?

Liz suddenly felt Max's wave of fear and she almost cried out at the feel of his pain of rejection.

"Max!" Liz started and had to reach for him. She needed to reassure him that she would NEVER reject him.

Liz tentatively reached for his closed fist and uncurling it, she slid her own small hand into his.

Max looked down at her hand in amazement. As if he couldn't believe she would want to touch him now that she knew he thought he was an alien from another planet.

Liz felt all this and smiled at him. "Max! You can heal people. You're so special, and you'll always be my Max," she admitted with a shy smile.

Max blushed but his stomach flipped at her words. He knew she meant them. He could feel the honestly coming off of her in waves. Why did he always feel things with her? With ONLY her.

"Liz…I don't know why or how I knew you were upset on the playground earlier. I can't explain why I know things about you." He tried to reason out.

Liz frowned. "I know Max. I feel things about you too. I… I saw you when you were found. The other day when you took away my cuts. I saw things about you." She told him.

"You did too?" he asked in shock.

"You saw me?" she asked shyly, wondering what he saw.

"Yeah. I did. I…I saw you with an older lady and you were crying as you said goodbye." He explained.

"My Grandma! I always cry when she has to leave. Oh Max you have to meet her! She's wonderful!" Liz beamed.

Max nodded. Anything for Liz. If this was someone important to Liz he wanted to meet her.

Liz let go of Max's hand and went back to her bike and retrieved her backpack. She came back and sat next to Max again and smiled as she took out a hard covered book.

Max looked at her with curiosity and waited.

"Here. I wanted to share this with you." She said with a shy smile and ducked her head.

"What is it?" Max asked, taking the book but still looking at Liz. She looked so cute when she blushed.

"It's… it's my journal. My grandma writes down everything she sees and finds on her trips around the world, and she writes about everything interesting that happens. So I decided to write one too."

"Okay." Max said with confusion. Still not sure why she wanted him to see it.

"I put things about the other day in there. Things that happened and questions to ask you and my theories. But now I have to add what you told me too."

Max was shocked at first, then looked worried. "You're going to write it down?" he asked.

Liz realized what he was feeling and showed him the lock. "I keep it locked and have a secret place to hide it. But if you don't want me to put down what you told me I won't." she said and bit her lip. She didn't want him to think he couldn't trust her.

Max sensed her worry and how she thought she had done wrong and he shook his head. "No. It's okay. If you keep it hidden. I'd like to see your ideas and stuff." He said with interest. He knew she was smart and he loved that about her.

"We could write stuff down about any other gifts you find you have. Since you want to experiment. We could use this as our experiment book." She grinned loving the thought of sharing it all with Max.

Max liked the idea of having someone to talk to about this and to figure it out with. He smiled and nodded and held the book tighter. "I'd like that." He whispered still amazed at how Liz accepted him so completely after all he'd told her.

They spent another hour reading over Liz's notes and adding new ones and made plans to meet again after school tomorrow at his house this time, to try some experiments. Liz had blushed and looked wide-eyed and fearful when Max came across her note about marrying him someday. She had forgotten that part in her excitement to share her theories with him.

But Max had grinned and met her eyes even as he too had blushed. Then he'd written in the margin by her own words. "Me too."

Liz had held her breath and only released it when Max had looked back at her with his face as red as hers.

Finally Max looked at the sun and knew it would be dark in another hour. He sighed, stood up and held out his hand.

"Come on, I'll walk you home. It's getting late." He said regretfully.

"We have our bikes." Liz reminded him.

"We'll walk those too." He said and grinned as he squeezed her hand.

Liz felt those butterflies in her tummy again and realized that Max just wanted to walk so they could hold hands.

She didn't know what was going on. She had never been interested in boys before. What was it about Max that made her trust him so completely and want to be with him all the time?

Max smiled as he saw Liz blush but she held his hand just as tightly. His own stomach flipped when she smiled and glanced at him under her lashes. Her hand in his felt so good. So right. Why did he feel this way about her? Max had never thought he'd be interested in a girl. At least not until he was much older, like his dad had said. But with Liz… everything was just …different. He felt different. And he knew she did too.

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

Claudia sat sipping her coffee and writing down work notes in the booth she had taken up residence in not too far away from Liz's friends. This way she could observe Michael interact but not be noticed staring at him. She knew he was one of the children from the pods. She had no doubt of that. Even if she hadn't heard his story from Hank, she suspected her instincts would have told her. She'd learned to trust these instincts over the years and not to question them.

Her eyes were suddenly drawn to outside the front of the café. She smiled as she saw Liz walking her bike up to the door. And then she noticed that Liz was talking to another young boy, and that they were holding hands.

Her goose bumps rose again and she sucked in her breath. Other than the fact that Liz never showed any interest in boys up until now, and have never mentioned this one before, she wondered why she was getting the goose bumps. That was usually a sign that her pod children instincts were kicking in. But that couldn't be could it? Could she be this lucky?

She sucked in her breath as she watched the two park their bikes and come into the café, Liz leading the boy straight to Claudia, her hand still firmly in his.

"Grandma! I want you to meet my new friend, Max." she exclaimed with excitement.

Claudia saw the way Liz lit up and how her eyes danced with a light she'd never seen before. Her instincts were on alert.

She turned to the boy next, and met his intense eyes. She almost gasped out loud at the feeling of 'something' she felt when she looked into his eyes. She didn't know what it was, but something was telling her there was something about this Max. She moved slowly, carefully, to make sure she didn't scare the boy with her excitement, and held out a hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Max. So you are a new friend of Liz's?" she asked as casually as she could.

Max nodded and couldn't look away from the woman's eyes. He didn't know why, but he felt some sort of energy coming off of her and it puzzled him, but didn't scare him.

"Yeah. My family just moved here last week from Albuquerque." He explained.

Claudia nodded slowly; glad the boy wasn't as cautious as Michael had been. Now, to find out if he had been adopted or fostered.

"Did you always live in Albuquerque?" she cautiously asked.

Max, used to questions and the answers he'd given so many times over the last two years, let them flow out naturally. "Yeah, mom said I was born on their move to Albuquerque." He smiled.

Claudia's heart fell at his words. He wasn't adopted. Which explained why his name hadn't come up when she'd looked up all adoptions and fosters in New Mexico over the last 2 years. But she had this feeling! Her instincts were screaming at her. She had never had them fail her yet, but he couldn't be one of the children.

And yet, as she watched Liz with this Max, it was just 'something'. There was something around them that she couldn't explain, but it just seemed as if they were connected, or that her granddaughter had a more completed or content air about her now.

She realized she must be going crazy. He wasn't adopted Claudia, she tried to tell herself. But continued asking questions anyways.

"How do you like Roswell now Max?"

Max smiled shyly and glanced at Liz. "I didn't think I'd like it at first, but now I'm really glad we moved here. My sisters are still not as happy here, but I'm sure they will love it here soon too."

Claudia's hair went up again. "Sisters?" she asked carefully.

"Yeah, I have two sisters. We're triplets." He grinned. He was used to people being shocked that he was one of a set of three, especially after people saw the three of them together. They didn't look anything alike.