His eyes darkened angrily at the thought of the guardians who had lied to Liz throughout her entire life. It wasn’t fair to her. What they had done was wrong. As an orphan himself, Max could imagine the anger and pain that Liz was probably feeling right now…and he desperately wanted to take it all away.

Max finally turned to the familiar ladder, buried in the alley beside the restaurant and began climbing. Liz came first…and right now she’d be in her room alone.

Max crouched down beside her bedroom window to look inside, and was unsurprised to see Liz curled up on her bed, frantically writing in her journal. He watched for a moment as her brow furrowed in concentration, and her eyes races after her pen as it flew across the paper. He gave a start though as he watched a single, stray, silvery tear escape from her eyes and quickly rush down her face.

It wasn’t right…an amazing creature like Liz didn’t deserve all of this pain. Max reached down and slid the window open, dropping inside. Liz looked up and met his eyes with her pained ones, and Max’s heart went out to the woman he loved.

He was beside her in an instant, sitting on the edge of her bed, and sliding one arm over her shoulder, pulling her up against him.

The moment Liz felt Max’s comforting touch, all of the pain and fear from the night before came rushing out, and she collapsed against her love, sobbing openly as the tears fell freely down her face.

Max shifted slightly so that he could pull her into his lap and wrap both arms around her tightly, stroking her all over comfortingly: over her arms, her hair, her face… She buried her face into his chest as she cried, and he pressed kiss after loving kiss on the top of her head, whispering softly into her ear: “Shhh…it’s okay…just let it all out. It’s okay…I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

It was a long while before Max felt the tremors in Liz’s body begin to ease, and he loosened his protective grip on her so that she could shift and look up at him.

“Thank you…” Liz whispered. “I really needed that.”

“It’s okay…I told you I’d be here for you whenever you need me. I wish I could stay by your side always.”

Liz couldn’t help releasing a small smile in response to his sweet words. “I love you.” She swore to him.

“I love you too.” He responded with all the love inside of him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’m just…I can’t even look at them, Max. I’ve been hiding in here ever since I got home, and I’m afraid to talk to them. I feel so betrayed. They’ve been lying to me since the day I was born, pretending that they’re my real parents, when they’re not. I don’t even really know who I am anymore. Am I human? Am I alien? I’m so confused.”

“You’re Liz. That says it all.” Max insisted. “You are the most incredible person I have ever known Liz. You’re so strong and so brave. I don’t think I could ever be that brave. Your world crumbled to pieces last night, but you’re still here, and you’re still going strong. It’s amazing.”

“And I owe it all to you, Max. You’re the one who’s keeping me going right now. Your love…” Liz cut off her own words as she pressed her lips up against Max’s in a desperate, passionate kiss. “Thank you.” She whispered against his lips before digging in for more. Their lips attacked each other hungrily…they couldn’t get enough of each other. Max’s tongue plunged into Liz’s mouth, desperately trying to taste the furthest reaches of her hot mouth. She moaned under his caress, as their bodies rubbed against each other, Liz still being perched on Max’s lap.

“Oh my God!” A voice cried out from the doorway, for the second time in an hour, and Max and Liz leapt away from each other again, looking up in shock at Mrs. Parker, who stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at the two of them. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Liz met her mother’s angry gaze with a defiant one of her own. “I’m making out with my boyfriend, what does it look like?”

“Excuse me? It looks like you’re going too far!”

The anger and frustration behind all of Liz’s newfound pain flared up at her mother’s words, and it all exploded out in one angry moment. “What do you care?” Liz screamed out. “You’re not even my real mother!”

Nancy’s face paled at her daughter’s words, and Max stared at Liz in surprise for a moment, before taking a step towards her and taking a hand and squeezing it tightly in comfort.

“What are you…How did you find out?” Nancy fumbled, desperately looking for an answer.

“It doesn’t matter how I found out.” Liz retorted. “I know… You’ve lied to me my entire life. And I didn’t even know it. You claimed to love me, but you were lying to me.”

“We wanted you to be ours, so we did everything we could to try to make it so.”

“But you still lied to me, and led me to believe that I was someone that I’m not all my life.”

“Liz…we’re still your parents…”

“No.” Liz cried out angrily. “You’re not. You never were.”

“Liz, just…”

“No!” Liz interrupted again. “God, I can’t even stand to look at you right now. Just…leave me alone. No, wait? Don’t bother. I’m leaving!”

“What?” Mrs. Parker gasped out in shock at the same moment as Liz stalked to her closet and pulled out a suitcase.

“I can’t stand to be near you right now…I need to go somewhere else for a while.”

“You can’t!”

“I can and will!” Liz retorted as she began to throw her clothes into a suitcase. “Just…let me go! I need some time to sort this all out in my head.”

“Please don’t go.” Nancy begged her softly, tears forming in her eyes.

Liz met her gaze evenly, all of the pain inside of her evident as she looked squarely into the eyes of the only mother she knew. “I’m going. Don’t try to stop me.”