"Michael, I've never been so scared in my whole life." Max said, pacing in the kitchen of their apartment, trying carefully not to wake a resting Liz in the other room. "Not even when Pierce was torturing me in that white room...that doesn't even compare."

"Maxwell..." Michael said, unconvinced.

"No, Michael...when I saw Liz lying there, she and our baby...dying...I felt myself dying inside, too. It was Nasedo. He did this to her. He was pretending to be Morgan, he prayed on her Michael...he's dangerous."

Michael nodded, trying to understand the gravity of what Max was telling him. "He said he'd do anything to protect us...and our destiny...to each other."

"That's not a good enough excuse anymore, Michael! I'm not going to sit back and wait until he takes Liz and our daughter away from me!" Max said, the blood pumping through his veins like hot fire. "They don't deserve that! If Nasedo wants to kill, let him kill me!"

"Max, calm down...we're not going to let anything happen to her. Listen, we're almost finished packing up here, and Maria can stay behind here for a few days and close up the place...I'll fly back out there and stay with you guys...I know you need as much power against them as you can get right now."

"Thanks Michael. But I don't need your help to keep Liz safe. I need you here to hold me back. I've been having these...urges..." Max said, clenching his fists.

Michael raised his eyebrow. "What...kind of urges?"

"After seeing Liz hurt like that today, I wanted someone to pay...I wanted someone to suffer as much as Liz and our daughter had to suffer. All I could think about was...killing...Nasedo and Tess." Max said firmly, afraid of himself for what he was proposing. "I just wanted them dead."

Michael gasped in anger. "Maxwell, how DARE you! They are our family! Tess is my sister, for God's sake! I'll kill YOU if you lay a finger on her!"

Max paused. "She's killing my baby! She's killing Liz!"

"Liz is more important than your family? Your blood? Your people?" Michael screamed at him.

"Liz IS my family! Tess means nothing to me! She's done nothing but deceive and trick me since the day we met! She kept my son from me for five years!" Max screamed. "What is wrong with you Michael? Liz is the best thing that ever happened to me, and you've NEVER been able to accept her!"

"I don't have anything against Liz, Maxwell. I don't want her to die...but I think you need to get your priorities in order, that's all."

"She's two months away from being my wife! She's carrying my daughter! Liz, Jordana, and Adam-Michael! They are my first priority, they are my family! I have to save them, I have to have them here with me, safe...they'll never be safe with her around..." Max said, beginning to quietly sob. "Never..."

"Maxwell, I know you want to spend more time with Adam-Michael. But are you really willing to end the lives of Nasedo, who helped save your ass all those years ago when you were being tortured by Pierce, and Tess, who you used to care about, used to be involved with, and is Adam's MOTHER? Do you really think he would ever forgive you for killing the only parent he's ever known?" Michael cried. "You really have a problem, man."

Max paused. "I'm...sorry, Michael. I know Tess and Nasedo are important to you. But I'm trying to make you see that Liz and my children are the MOST important things in the world to me. And if you want to come out here, that's fine, go ahead. But don't think you can stop me. If Nasedo or Tess do ANYTHING at all to endanger Liz and Jordana's lives, I WILL be forced to do something...drastic."

"Max, are you even stopping to consider what you would be losing by killing them? Nasedo was sent here as our guardian. What happens if anyone tries to hurt us again? Like the FBI? Torture? That white room they locked you in? Alien hunters? Do those ring a bell?" He paused to catch his breath. "And what makes you think you can even kill Nasedo? If you kill him, we'll just find him and use those crystals we used to save his life the last time, and you'll just be back to square one again..."

"Wrong, Michael...that's where you're wrong. Those crystals require all four of our energies combined. You, Isabel, Tess, and I. And I'll tell you one thing, I will never do it. Never. And Isabel would never betray me, or Liz." Max said, firmly.

He walked over to the refridgerator and smiled at the picture they'd received from Isabel and Alex announcing Michaela's birth.

The two of them were cuddling with their newborn and they looked so happy. Max longed for that to be he and Liz, holding Jordana. It made him sick to think that it may never happen for them. They may never be able to hold their baby in their arms and tell her how much she's loved.

Michael sighed. He knew Max wasn't going to back down from this crusade of his. And he didn't want to see Max hurt, that was the last thing he could ever want. He knew there was no use in trying to get through to him. He was just going to have to try to stop him from doing something that would tear them all apart.

****

"The daughter never gives up on the mother, just as the mother never gives up on the daughter. There is a tie here so strong that nothing can break it. I called it 'the unbreakable bond'".
- Rachel Billington

****

In the other room, Liz was barely asleep and was listening intently to what Max was saying to Michael on the phone.

She felt torn on the inside. She was relieved to have him standing up for her against his own people, but she was becoming more and more terrified at what he was becoming- he was actually thinking about taking a life. She hated Nasedo, and she hated Tess even more, but she would never want to see them killed by Max. She wanted their baby girl to be able to look up to her father as a brave, loving, caring, honorable man. A man who keeps his promises, respects others, and would never endanger anyone.

*What was happening to him? *

She rolled over on her side, her growing belly propped up with pillows for extra comfort during the night. The warm tears swelled in her eyes as the screaming in the other room intensified. She tried in vain to keep from sobbing herself to sleep, but she couldn't contain the pent-up emotion she was feeling.

"God, I'm so confused." She whispered, looking up to the heavens. "Lord, tell me what to do..." She placed a single protective hand on her belly, which donned the intriguing glowing symbol that comforted her to no end. "Goodnight, baby girl. I love you so much." She said, smiling through tears and kissing her palm, then returning it back to rest on her stomach. ****

After a few minutes, she had drifted off to sleep. Her dream started out so peacefully-it was different from the beach scene that terrified her so much. This time, it was from her point of view. She was walking down the aisle, her father's arm linked with her own. She could fill her eyes brimming with tears of joy as she looked on both sides of the aisle and saw her friends and family members looking at her with ecstatic faces.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Max standing at the altar, waiting for her to join him. His soulful brown eyes matched her own in that they were filling quickly with warm tears. She smiled at him then, but he just couldn't do anything but stare at her immense beauty. She looked to Max's left and saw Michael, the person he always considered to be his brother, standing strong beside him as his Best Man. Alex was smiling sweetly at her, as Max's usher. He winked at her. Liz smiled back at him. Liz looked to her left and her heart filled with love.

It was her best friend Maria as her maid of honor in a beautiful satin lavender wedding gown, with Isabel smiling at her side. Liz loved Maria and Isabel like her own sisters, but the sight of the beautiful baby girl in Maria's arms took Liz's breath away.

Liz didn't have to be introduced to this baby, she knew for certain deep in her heart that the baby was Jordana. She was wearing a white lace dress with a white satin headband on her tiny head filled with short, dark brown hair. Liz wanted to reach out and hold her so badly, she felt this aching in her heart. But she knew what she had to do first. She looked back at Max with love and pride, and took his hand.

The moment they joined hands, the scene changed.

She was sitting in a dark, cold room. Her hands and feet were bound together and she could feel something covering her mouth. She tried to scream out but no one was coming to her rescue. Tears of terror poured from her face, which was contorted wildly from crying so hard and so long. She looked to her right and saw Jordana crying in a crib. She was about a year old, because she was able to stand up in her crib. She held out her tiny arms and screamed for Liz to pick her up. Liz's heart broke over and over as her daughter's cries grew louder and more forceful. Then she heard voices over to her left. They were hard to make out but then grew more distinct.

Tess and Morgan/Nasedo were walking towards her with big grins on their faces.

"Liz, I told you. I always get what I want." Tess said, walking over to Jordana's crib, picked her up, and kissed her head softly. She immediately stopped crying. Liz glared at Tess in anger and tried to scream out, but she couldn't.

Morgan/Nasedo smiled at Liz. "Oh, isn't that sweet?" She said, smiling devilishly. "You're probably wondering what I did with the REAL Morgan, huh? Your best friend? Well, I'm sorry to be the one to have to tell you this...but she's dead, Lizzie. Yup, I killed her."

Liz gasped and she felt her heart break all over again. She shook her head and tried to mutter the words "No...NO!"

"Yup, and unfortunately, it was pretty painful for her. I heated up her body to a temperature exceeding 185 degrees farenheit, basically melting her." Nasedo chuckled. "At least it was quick."

Liz felt like she was going to throw up. She didn't know what was worse- the fact that Nasedo tortured and murdered her best friend or watching Tess comfort a crying Jordana.

Nasedo pulled a needle out of his jacket pocket. He smiled as he examined it. "Sodium chloride..." He began, wickedly. "It's what Dr. Kevorkian gives to those dying cancer patients. It's a virtually painless death...I'm going to inject this into your bloodstream and within moments, you will feel a tingling start in your arm and travel to your other extremities, finally creeping into your midsection and your vital organs. Then you will...peacefully...drift off to sleep..." He smiled at Liz. "Our leader did love you for a long time, Elizabeth. So we decided that you deserved a more...painless...death than the one your friend suffered through." He ripped off the gag from Liz's mouth and she screamed out as loud as she could, trying to wiggle around in the chair she was bound to.

"Please...don't!" She felt herself scream out. Tess started to leave the room with Jordana, flashing Liz a look of almost sincere apology. "Tess! No! Don't leave! Don't take her away from me! Jordana, baby, I love you! Mommy loves you so much!" She cried out. Nasedo got closer and closer with the needle.

***** "NO!" Liz screamed, sitting up in her bed in a cold sweat. Max jumped up out of bed as well when he felt her distress. "No! Oh God!"

"Liz, Liz, sweetie..." He cried, grabbing her and holding her tightly to his body. They laid back and she held on to him so tightly that her fingernails left white marks in his skin. He smoothed her head with his hand and tried to calm her cries with a kiss on her forehead.

"Max, it was just, so awful...I can't...I can't talk..." She said, breaking into fierce sobs.

Max knew she had another nightmare and he lifted up her nightgown to see if the symbol had stopped glowing. It was as bright as ever. He sighed with some relief but was still distressed to know his lover was hurting. "Just relax." He said, shushing her. She shut her eyes slowly. He put his hand to her belly and was immediately flooded with images of a wedding, and then the horrific nightmare of Liz being held by Tess and Nasedo against her will. When the flashes ended, he looked up into her eyes. "Oh, God, baby..." He said, his own eyes filling with tears of pain and rage. "I am so sorry...I'm so sorry you had to suffer through that...God, it's all my fault..." He pushed his face into her stomach, kissing the symbol and the surrounding skin. "It should have been me..."

"Max, stop that." She said, lifting his chin to meet her own loving gaze. "Stop blaming yourself. We're in this together, remember. We're not going to let anything happen to Jordana."

"What about you, Liz? If I lost you..." He began, shuddering.

"Max, you're not going to lose me." Liz said. "We're going to graduate, get married, have Jordana, and live happily ever after, okay? Tess probably sent me that nightmare in my brain to try and scare me."

"She can communicate with you?"

"I don't know...lately I've been feeling her presence inside me somehow...like her breaking into my subconscious...getting me to have this nightmares...these doubts...trying to reject our baby. I'm not going to let her."

Max took her hands in his own and pleaded with her. "You have to fight it. You have to, Liz. Do you hear that?"

Liz smiled. "I'm as strong as I can be, I have you to support me, to protect me. When I'm with you, I feel invincible."

"That's just it, Liz...I can't be there to protect you all the time. I can't make sure that Tess and Nasedo are away from you- not if they're breaking in to your mind like that..." He pleaded, shaking his head at what he just said. "I can only protect you by..."

"No, Max, no. I'm not going to let you kill them. You are the most wonderful man I've ever known, and will ever know. I'm not going to let you kill two of your own kind just so I can sleep better at night." Liz said, shaking her head.

Max paused. "I know, I know it's wrong, Liz. But how right is it for them to target you like this?"

"It's not right, it will never be right, Max. But there are other ways we can protect ourselves."

"Like what? Run from them? They'll find us." Max said, sighing.

"Max, we don't have to run. We need to stand up and fight them. We need to take back our lives. You, Michael, Isabel, Alex, Maria and I...we need to combine our energies, our lives, our souls, our minds...we CAN defeat them. Just like we saved Michael's life all those years ago, the six of us can save me. We can save this baby." Liz said, holding his hands and kissing them. "The six of us, we can do anything, as long as we're together."

Max gently placed his hand on the side of her face. He couldn't believe how wonderful she was. She turned her head and kissed his open palm. "Liz...I love you."

She smiled. "I love you, Max." They shared one of those deep open kisses that looked far into each other's souls. All the pain and anger from the dream Liz had seemed to slip away as Max moved his hands further down her body, caressing every inch of her hot skin. The longing they felt for each other was consuming them both. Neither said a word, passion was taking over and language was just a fading memory. She wrapped her long, slim legs around his back as they continued their seemingly endless stream of soul-stroking, sensual kisses. He broked away from her lips and traveled down to her neck, finally resting his lips on her waiting breasts. She grabbed the back of his head with her hands, pushing her body as close to his as possible. After a few moments of ecstasy, she felt a sudden burst of empowerment and flipped his body over so she was on top of him. She began to deliver to him the same pleasure she had just received. He couldn't speak, his head swam with so many thoughts, but the biggest one being just complete awe- how did he ever find this perfect creature? He couldn't imagine his life without her in it. And at that moment he knew that he would do everything in his power to protect her existence on this planet.