"My dad's address book, I know it's here somewhere. I've packed things up but I put that somewhere that I could find it and now I can't."

Michael sits down on the couch, he had moved in there at the prodding of Max, there was just to much room for one person as Max said.

"And you need that because....?"

"Because Liz's address and phone number is in it. I've been there once, but I don't remember what house it is."

Michael nods, "And what are you going to do once you find it?"

Max all of a sudden laughs as he pulls a book out of the desk, "I found it!" He starts thumbing through it and comes across what he wants.

Max grabs his keys, "I'm going to go talk to her."

Michael jumps up, "I'm coming with you."

Max looks at him, "What?"

Michael rolls his eyes, "I'm not going to get in your conversation, I just figured I could talk to Maria."

Max shakes his head, "Fine, come on."

They arrive at Liz's house and walk up to the door, they ring it and the door is almost immediately opened.

Maria stares in shock at the two guys, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to Liz."

"She doesn't want to talk to you."

"Look her and I have a lot to discuss, and I'm not leaving till we do." Max tells her.

Just then Liz comes to the door, she's wearing a terry cloth robe, and has just gotten out of the shower, "What do you want Max?"

"I just want to talk, we need to discuss this."

Liz looks at him for the longest time it seems, then she sighs, "All right."

Maria opens the door wider as Liz walks into the kitchen, as Max passes Maria grabs his jacket jerking him back. "My brothers look at Liz as thier other sister, and if you hurt her all it will take is one phone call from me for them to be all over your ass, understand?"

Max looks at her in shock, "I would never hit her."

"Who said anything about hitting? What you don't think what you say hurts just as bad?"

Max looks at the ground, "I understand."

"Good."

Max goes into the kitchen, and Maria looks at Michael still standing there, "So are you going to come in are were you planning on waiting outside?"

Michael gives her a cocky grin, "I'll come in."

Maria smiles at him, "Cool, come on while they talk I'll give you a tour of the house."

As they walk up the stairs Michael looks around, "So you live here now?"

In the kitchen Max is sitting at a table, Liz is at the stove stirring some cocoa in a pan.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Liz says without looking at him.

"The baby."

"Yeah I figured that, what about it?"

"Liz, I'm sorry I asked you if it was mine, that was stupid. I was just surprised to say the least, and then I opened my mouth and all these stupid words came out."

Liz smiles despite herself, but Max doesn't see since her back is turned. "Yeah that wasn't one of your more smarter moments." She pours the cocoa into some cups and goes to the table handing him one. Then she sits down, she sits there sipping her cocoa and not looking at him.

"So how far along are you?"

"Sixteen weeks."

Max nods and thinks he sits in silence and Liz knows what he's thinking so she answers him without him speaking a word. "I'm pretty sure it was the morning of the coconut."

Max looks at her in surprise, "How did you know I was wondering when?"

Liz shrugs, "I wondered the same thing and that's what I came up with."

"That was only the second time though."

"Yeah well that's the way it goes sometimes."

Max nods then takes a sip of his drink and puts it down, "Liz, my dad for as much as I loved and respected him, well he wasn't around a lot when I was growing up. I had everything I could want growing up, but my dad. He was always away on business and when he was around he was to tired to do the ordinary dad things with me. My mom was the one that took me to my baseball games, she was there when I learned to ride a bike. All my major moments in life were with my mom, and I loved her but it wasn't the same. I wanted my dad around as well, and all I know is that I don't want to be that kind of dad, I don't want to never be around for my child."

Liz nods, "I understand all that Max, we talked about your dad a lot, and I understand where your coming from. But what do you want? You yourself said you weren't ready for a real relationship, and having a child is as real as it gets. And I'm sorry to say this, but you gave me up without so much as a second thought, and I don't want to have to explain to my son or daughter one day why Daddy suddenly isn't coming around to visit anymore."

Max nods his head, "Your right, and I wouldn't do that either. And I'm still not sure if I'm ready for everything that comes with a relationship, hell I'm not sure how to be a father, let alone how to be a husband. But I'm not talking about just coming around to visit the kid on weekends, we talked about how things were going to change and that playtime was over, and we needed to grow up. And we do this is a mature decision and we need to look at what's best for us as well as the baby, and I don't want to ask you to marry me because your pregnant, when I get married I want it to be because of something deeper."

Liz looks at him, "Max I've jumped to conclusions as far as you were concerened before, so this time your going to have to tell me what you want, let me know what your thinking and feeling and we can take it from there."

"Okay fair enough, Liz I think that you should move in with me, we should raise the child toghether, I'm not ready to be man and wife, because I still don't want to rush things, but the fact is your pregnant, and I want to be there. Every step of the way I want to be there for you, we were friends once, can't we be again?"

Liz looks at him deeply thinking then she speaks, "Maybe you were right about us rushing a relationship, but your right I am pregnant and there is nothing we can do about it, because abortion to me is just out of the question and I'm not going to give the baby up for adoption."

"I don't want any of those either."

Liz nods, "So your suggesting we move in toghether to raise our child?"

"Yes."

"I need to think about things before I make a decision on it."

"That's fine."

"Also I don't want to leave here, Maria is living here now, and to be honest if I do decide to do this, well if things didn't work out and we got into it about something it would be easier to throw you out then for me to move when I was pregnant or with a kid."

Max laughs, "Your right, if you decide you want to do this, then I'll move in here, Michael can just look after my house for me."

Liz nods, "Okay as long as we have that settled, I still want to think about it."

"Okay." He stands up and looks down at her, "No matter what you decide Liz, I still intend to be there for you and the baby."

Liz doesn't know what to say so she just nods and stands up, they walk out into the living room and Max looks around, "Where's Michael?"

"I don't know."

"Michael!" Max calls out loudly.

A minute passes and Michael comes out of a room and comes down the stairs, his hair is all disheveled and Maria is walking a few feet behind him.

Max and Liz look at the two of them and both are nervous and avoiding thier eyes.

"You ready to go Michael?"

"Umm yeah whenever you are."

Max just rolls his eyes and Michael opens the door, "I'll call you Maria."

"Okay." She says as he walks out the door. When he's gone she goes into the kitchen.

"And what about you, can I call you or should I wait till you've made a decision?"

"I'll call you when I've made up my mind." He looks at her and strokes her hair letting his hand rest against her face,

"Okay."

Liz starts to lean into his hand, but stops herself.

She pulls away and goes to the door, "Good-bye Max."

"For now." He says as he leaves.

Liz closes the door and goes into the kitchen, Maria is sitting there anxiously waiting.

"So what's going to happen?" Maria asks her.

"Well he wants to move in toghether and raise the baby."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"So what did you say?"

"That I would think about it." She sips the rest of her cocoa that has grown cold.

"Are you going to move in with him?"

"No he's going to move in here."

Maria looks at her, "So you've already decided?"

Liz looks at her realizing what she said, "I guess I have, God Maria, I'm so weak when it comes to him, what's wrong with me?"

"Your in love."

"So I'm in love and I suddenly become some weak minded fool?"

Maria laughs, "No! I think that you hope maybe he'll come around."

Liz nods, "Do you think he will?"

"Hey you never know, and at the least at least your child will have a father."

Liz looks at her, "Yeah that's a good thing at least" smirking at Maria, "So what was going on with you and Michael?"

Maria blushes and looks down at the table, "We were just kissing."

"Mm hmm, you know I'm not going to make you leave, I want you to stay."

Maria smiles, "Thanks."

"Your welcome, but it just accured to me that with Max staying here, I bet Michael will be coming over a lot."

Maria beams at this making Liz laugh.

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

The next day after Liz has woken up and drank some tea she makes the call.

Michael answers and gives the phone to Max.

"Hello?"

"Max it's Liz."

"Hey, I didn't expect to hear from you so soon, is that bad?"

"Well it depends on how you really feel about moving in here."

"Really?" Max asks.

"Yeah I thought long and hard about it last night."

Maria giggles at this but Liz glares at her and she continues, "And well I decided that we should both raise our child toghether."

Max smiles on the other end of the phone, "I'm glad that you decided it this way Liz."

"Max before you move in though we need to have a discussion of sorts."

"Okay, when do you want to talk?"

"Are you free today?"

"Yeah."

"Okay how about 1:00?"

"That's fine."

"Oh and Max, is Michael free?"

Maria looks up at her.

"He's not doing anything, why?"

"Just bring him with you this involves him to."

Max looks confused on his side but just nods, "Okay?"

"All right we'll see you at 1:00." She hangs up.

"What was that about?" Maria asks.