The captain of the ship and the coast guard had tons of questions for them. BUt first they had to be checked out by the doctor on board, he told them that they would have to be checked out when they were back in the states. But for know he was just going to take their blood pressure, and give them some shots to fight off anything they might have caught.

Then came all the questions. There were statements to take and things to be checked out. They had split Max and Liz up because they had to be sure there were no signs of foul play concerning their parents.

Finally around 6:30 in the evening the majority of the questions had been answered, and they were told that there would be investigations and more questions to answer when they got back to America, these were just a formality.

Liz went to the room she had been asigned and was told that Max was in a room a few doors down.

She spent the better part of the night waiting up for him, but around 4:00 in the morning she gave up and fell asleep.

The next morning Max woke up and he could feel how choppy the water was, the ship was bouncing all around. He went down to where Liz's room and knocked on the door, but no one answered. He walked around the ship, just kind of exploring. He found the dining area and got some breakfast, he didn't realize just how hungry he was for real food. He ate his way through 10 strips of bacon, 4 sausage links, hashbrowns, a big helping of scrambled eggs, and 2 cups of strong black coffee.

When he was finished with breakfast he went up top, the Captain was there and they chatted for a bit. He asked him if he had seen Liz but the Captain hadn't. Just as the Captain had answered him a big wave hit the side of the ship, the seas were really choppy and rough today. The Captain looked at Max to say something, and noticed how green he was. The Captain knew from experience that Max was going to be sick. He had one of the stewards escort Max to his room, and once Max was in there he promptly went to the bathroom and lost his breakfast.

Hours had passed and Max finally felt a little better, but he wanted to see Liz. He went to her room, and when she opened it she looked how he felt.

"Are you okay?"

Liz is standing in the doorway holding the door open she shakes her head, "No I feel awful." She says in a croaked voice.

"Yeah I've been sick all afternoon."

Liz nods, "If you don't mind I wouldn't be much company right now, can we talk later?"

Max looks at her, he's a bit hurt that she doesn't want to be with him right now, but he just figures she's sick.

"Yeah sure, when were feeling better we can talk."

Liz nods and starts to shut the door, once shut Max looks at it and then walks back to his room.

Three days pass and Liz and Max still havn't talked. She's been sick the whole time, and the Doctor told Max that some people have an adverse reaction to certain shots.

That night the captain informs Max that toomorow morning they will be entering the port of Mexico. And from there they can fly home to California. Max is glad about this, he's had enough of the water and he wants to see land.

"Have you told Liz yet?"

"Yes I informed Miss Parker, she's still feeling under the weather, when she gets to the states, before the police and everyone asks her a bunch of questions she should get checked out."

Max nods, but he's distracted he wants to go talk to Liz.

He walks to her room and knocks on the door. She opens it and she doesn't look as bad as she did a couple days ago, she's wearing a long white t-shirt and some socks.

He smiles at her and she smiles back, she opens the door wider and lets him in, closing the door behind him.

"So you heard the good news?" Max asks.

Liz nods, "Yeah well be home by toomorow evening."

Max smiles, "Yeah I can hardly wait, it will be nice to see land again."

Liz sits down on the bed and looks at the floor, "Yeah it will."

Max is standing in front of her looking at her.

Liz can feel him staring at her and she knows what's coming, she's felt it ever since that last morning. Max kept trying to see her on their way home, but she would just ignore it because she wanted to put it off, but they were going home tomorrow and she couldn't put it off anymore.

Liz continues to look at the floor, and finally Max speaks.

"Liz I've been thinking the last couple days, and well were going to have a lot of things to take care of and get done. And well I don't know how much time I'm going to have to invest in a relationship."

Liz nods, "Yeah were going to have a lot to keep us busy, there are estates to settle, and wills to be read. And property to take care of. But I'm willing to work at a relationship, are you?"

Max sighs, "Liz what we had was great, spectacular even. But I'm just not ready to get tied into something serious at 18. I think we both have a lot on our plates as it is without getting serious with each other. I mean I don't want to get married and be some statistic by time time I'm 25."

Liz can feel the tears welling up in her eyes, but she's not about to make him feel sorry for her on top of everything else. Not only is she hurt, but she feels used, suddenly she wants to make him hurt as much as she does.

She stands up, "Yeah your right! I mean why would either of us want to get tied down after everything we've been through toghether. I mean frankly being with you day in and day out was getting to be a little much." She stops and looks at him, "I mean thank God we got rescued when we did or we would have really been in trouble."

Max looks at her, "Look let's not end it like this, we can be friends at least."

Liz shakes her head, "I have enough friends, but your right we shouldn't end it like this." Liz goes over to the bed and lays down on it lifting her shirt up a bit revealing her underwear. She rests on her elbows and looks at him, "So do you want to fuck me one last time before we end this?"

Max looks at her in shock, "Why are you being like this?"

Liz continues to look at him and then pulls her shirt down, "I guess that was a no, but it's not like it's the first time you've turned down sex with me."

She stands up and looks at him, she walks over to her door opening it. "You know what your problem is Max? Your too much of a coward to realize a good thing when it's staring you in the face. Now get out!"

Max goes over to the door and walks out, "I didn't want things to end this way."

"No you just wanted them to end, well you got your wish." She looks at him and tears are brimming in her eyes, "Thank you for a wonderful birthday present, I know I will never forget my 18th birthday!!!!" She slams the door in his face after this and Max jumps back startled.

He hears the lock turn and knows that she's locked it.

*Birthday?* And then he remembers, today is her birthday.

He knocks on the door but there is no answer, and after a half hour of trying he gives up and walks back to his room.

The next day a steward knocks on his door and tells him that they are just about to pull into port. Max thanks him and closes the door.

He packs up the rest of his stuff and makes his way through the ship to the top. The Captain is standing there and so are some of the stewards as well. The plank is down and people have all ready started getting off.

Max looks at the Captain, "Have you seen Liz, I went by her cabin but she wasn't there. I need to talk to her."

"I'm sorry I thought you knew. She had my stewards help her with her stuff, she said that she was in a hurry and needed to get home, she was the first one off."

Max looked at the Captain in shock, "She left?!?!"

The Captain nods his head, and Max shakes his head. "Well thank you for all your help sir, I appreciate it." The Captain offers Max his hand, "It was a pleasure, I hope that things work out for you son."

Max shakes his hand and with the help of the Porter he carries his stuff to the waiting taxi.

The yacht is going to be fixed in Mexico, and when it's done Max can send someone to bring it back to California.

On the drive to the airport Max thinks about Liz. He knew that he screwed things up, he at least wanted to stay friends. It's just that he was 18, he was the only beneficiary to a whole lot of things. He had to secure his future, see about his dad's bussiness. At 18 he was a man, and he wanted to make sure things were running smoothly before he got serious with someone. He sighs, he liked Liz, he liked her a lot. But things were different on the island. If they hadn't gotten rescued it would have been different. But they had, and how was he to know what he was ready for when he had only been in the dating game so to speak for a few years. He figured it was like ice cream, he didn't want to be stuck with just vanilla when there was chocolate and strawberry as well.

Okay granted that Liz wasn't vanilla, she was more like passion fruit, or coconut. He smiled remembering the morning with the coconut.

As he reached the airport he knew he was making the right decision, he would play the field a bit. And then if no one was what he wanted he would take Liz back.

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

It was 3 hours later, and Liz had just touched down at LAX. As she stepped off the gate she heard a shriek and looked up to see her best friend Maria DeLuca running towards her.

As Maria enveloped Liz in a hug both girls were crying.

"Oh my God Liz, I thought that I would never see you again, I was so worried."

Liz pulls back and looks at her, "I know Maria, I was scared to. But I'm home now and everything is going to be fine."

Maria smiles, "I know this is not the time, but...." Maria pulls a cupcake out from her bag and unwraps it from it's container, she pulls a candle out and lights it. "Happy Belated Birthday, now make a wish!"

Liz smiles, only Maria would do something like this for her, Liz closes her eyes and makes a wish, then blows out the candle. When she opens her eyes she finally notices the two men standing behind Maria.

They walk up to her and one flashes a badge, "Miss Parker I'm sorry for your loss, my name is Detective Atherton, and this is Detective Valenti, I'm sorry to do this now. But we do have some questions we need to ask you."

Liz nods, she looks at the cupcake and realizes how it might look, "Umm it was my birthday yesterday."

The detective smiles a bit, "Happy Birthday..."

Liz nods at him, "As for the questions I know, it's okay. I'ld like to get this over with as soon as possible, I have a lot of things to deal with and arrangements to make, and I still have to go to the hospital to get checked out."

The detective nods, "All right, we'll take you to the station and try to get this done as quickly as possible, we just want to get the information when it's still fresh."

Maria looks at Liz and then the detective, "Yeah like she's just going to forget the past 6 weeks, Liz I'm coming with you, I'll follow in my car."

"We have a place where you can wait for her." The detective says.

Later on Liz has answered all thier questions, and been told to stay in town in case they have any more. She gets up to leave and sees Maria talking to a guy near her.

Maria spots her and stands up, "Liz are you done?"

Liz nods, "Yeah no more questions for now." "Okay, oh Liz, this is Michael. He's Max's best friend."

Liz feels a pain at hearing Max's name again. "Hello."

Michael stands up and offers his hand, "Hi it's nice to meet you, it looks like you managed okay, at least Maxwell didn't put you through to much hell!"

Liz looks at him, "I wouldn't say that." She says cooly.

Michael looks at her sensing that she's not saying something.

Maria looks at Michael, "Well it was nice talking to you."

Michael nods, "Yeah and I've got your number, I'll call you sometime."

Liz wants to just go home but Maria insists that she go to the doctor, "Liz babe, you were stuck on a island, don't you know that there are all kinds of diseases you can catch, there are all kinds of bugs and stuff. You need to get looked at and then I'll take you home ok?"

Liz shrugs, "Whatever."

Maria looks at her out of the corner of her eye, "Liz are you okay? I mean aside from the obvious stuff?"

Liz looks at her, this is her best friend she's known Maria since the 3rd grade. "Max and I made love."

Maria looks over at her in shock, "WHAT?!?!?"

"We made love!"

"Oh wow, so how was it? Did it hurt, wait I thought you hated him?"

Liz sighs, "I thought I did, but I loved him."

Maria nods then looks at her sharply, "Wait you said loved, meaning past tense, what happened?"

"He broke up with me last night."

"That bastard, on your birthday? I'll kick his ass!"

Liz manages a smile, "Thanks Maria."

Maria just nods her head.

By midnight Liz has been poked and prodded and tested and looked at. Her arm is sore from all the blood they took, and the urine, and saliva. By the end of it Liz felt like a test subject. But she's done, they wanted to keep her overnight for observation, but Liz wouldn't hear of it. She just wanted to go home and get this nightmare over with. Maria drove her home with the promise to the doctors that she would watch over her for any signs of fever or cold sweats. They get there and put her bags by the door. All Liz wants to do is crawl into bed and sleep. And that's exactely what she does.

She sleeps so deeply and comfortably that she doesn't even here Maria standing over her the next morning with the phone.

"Liz wake up, the phone is for you it's your doctor."

Liz shakes her head trying to focus.

"What time is it?"

Maria looks at Liz's alarm clock, "It's 1:46."

Liz looks out the window surprised to see sunlight. "It's 1:46 in the afternoon?"

Maria nods, "You were tired."

Liz just nods and takes the phone from her, "Hello." She listens as the doctor talks to her, finally she says thank you , and goodbye and hangs up the phone.

Maria pounces, "So nothings wrong right?"

Liz shakes her head, "No I'm healthy, no tropical diseases, no abnormalities, and other then being 4 weeks pregnant I'm fine."

"PREGNANT?!" Maria screams.

Liz nods her head, "Yeah pregnant."

Maria looks at her she wraps her arms around Liz in a hug, "What are you going to do? And what are you going to tell Max?"