"But…" Max met Nick’s gaze steadily. "Liz is coming with me."

Opening his mouth to protest, Nick realized he should’ve seen this coming. Max wouldn’t go anywhere without Liz. But this was not a good idea. "I don’t think—"

Max interrupted him. "No, Nick. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. She’s coming with me."

Nick was quiet for a long time. "I know how you feel about this… about her, but we don’t know what the reaction of the other groups will be to her. We don’t know what to expect on the other side at all. There might be danger."

A determined light was shining in Max’s eyes by now. "If there’s danger, I’d rather have her with me. They are bound to find out about her anyway. They could get to her here too." He rubbed his face tiredly. "We promised each other we would listen to our premonitions after… after last time. And this time I feel she needs to go with me or something will happen to us." He pinned Nick with another steady stare. "I promised her, Nick. And I will keep that promise. Those people need to recognize that Liz is my wife. Not Tess."

Nick decided to try one last time. "You probably won’t see her very much over there. You will be so busy—"

"I don’t care. She is really upset and there is no way I’m leaving her here. Even if I only get to see her for half-an-hour every day, it’s better than not seeing her at all." He was silent for a few moments. "In fact, I think all six of us should go."

Nick blanched at that. "All six of you! Max, with all due respect—"

Max silenced him by holding up his hand. "You’ve taught me a lot about being a good leader, but there is one thing I learnt all by myself. Our group is stronger when we are together. Liz and I are stronger when we are together… I will have to discuss it with them all first, but if they want to go, we’ll take them." Max didn’t know how to explain this feeling that he shouldn’t let Liz out of his sight right now. This sense of something happening to Liz was overpowering and threatened to drive him crazy with worry. No, there was no way he was going anywhere without her…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Shopping for baby clothes with Grace was really hard for Liz. Firstly, she couldn’t help wondering if she would ever be doing this for her own child, and secondly, because she could feel Max’s increasing agitation. They were both really upset about this "premonition" of theirs and Max’s worry seems to be getting worse.

And why was their connection so strong? Instead of the vague sensing of his feelings when they weren’t physically close, it felt as clear as when he was inside her. As when they were making love. It both scared and exited her. It exited her because she never feels this close to Max unless he was making love to her and it scared her because she feared it meant something bad was going on.

And it was.

When they got home, she could see on Max’s face that something had happened. He looked at her with an intensity that threatened to steal her breath away. And he crushed her to him as soon as she was out of the car. Liz felt her throat close up with fear, but she put up a brave face until they were alone.

Grace and Nick had gone to their room to put baby Maddie to sleep and Max took the chance to take Liz to their bedroom. Just inside the door, he jerked her against him and kissed her passionately. Desperately. Possessively. His movements lacked their usual grace and instead were laced with urgency. Max Evans was completely off balance.

Liz gave herself up to his caresses with wild abandon in the hope that it would chase away her fears. She knew she should be asking questions, but right now she just wanted to bask in being with Max. In his love and in his embrace, which still was the only place in the universe where she felt truly complete.

He couldn’t stop kissing her. He needed to tell her what was going on, but he was afraid to let her out of his arms. Afraid that, for all his bravado with Nick, his world really was coming crashing down on him. Instead, he let his mind talk to hers.

Liz, I need you. So much. Now more than ever. Please go with me.

The emotions and words rushing at her from Max were threatening to drown Liz. There was so much to take in, but most of all, she was shocked by the panicked need she felt from Max. For her. She tore her mouth from his, gasping for breath and grasping at Max’s shirt in desperation. "Max, you’re scaring me! Please tell me what is going on?"

He wanted to, but suddenly a lot of what Nick had said made sense. What if taking Liz to Dendar would put her in danger? He didn’t know anything about the planet other than that Tess had apparently survived there with her human body. But what if there was something different about him, Michael, Isabel and Tess that he didn’t know about? Something that could make a life and death difference to Liz?

Again, Liz could feel and hear everything as if he was inside her mind. She slowly sank onto the bed, with Max still clinging to her hands. "You have to go to Dendar?"

"Yeah," Max looked tortured. "But I want… need you to go with me. Will you?"

Opening her mouth to speak, it promptly felt like Liz was being sucked into a tunnel. A black void. Dizziness overtook her and she only managed to whisper ‘Max’ before she lost consciousness.

"Liz!" Max cried as he caught her. He lay her down on the bed gently and stretched out next to her, touching her with shaking hands. He ascertained very quickly that she had just passed out and that everything else seemed to be fine. His heart was pounding with reaction to seeing her slump to the floor like that. Of course Liz had gotten the flu a few times since their marriage, it was not like Max wasn’t used to her getting sick. But he still freaked out every time it happened. She was his Liz, damn it, and he hated that things happened to her that he couldn’t fix.

She had never passed out before, though. He tenderly caressed her face with one hand as he whispered in her ear: "Please wake up, Liz. I love you…" He kept murmuring soft things until he could feel her stir against him.

"Max?" Liz’s voiced was husky, confused.

"I’m here, love."

"I’ll go, Max. Of course I’ll go." Her voice was gaining strength.

Max stared at her in amazement. Here he was, still trying to recover from her fainting spell, and she was already talking sense. But when he looked in her eyes, he could see she was dazed and he realized that her answer had nothing to do with recovering, but everything with her anxiety about him leaving. "Shhh, sweetie, let me get you some water, then we’ll talk, okay?"

She watched the door of the bathroom until he returned. Liz wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, but she knew she was worried about not seeing Max again. She relaxed only when she saw him striding towards her with a glass of water and a wet cloth in his hands. His eyes were haunted, making Liz tearful. She had done something cause that look. "I’m sorry, Max…"

He was beside her immediately. "For what? No! I just-I just panicked when I saw you like that, Liz. I-I never want to face being without you."

Liz grabbed the hand he was using to wipe her face with the cloth. "Never. Where you go, I go."

Max inhaled sharply at her words. They were everything he needed to hear at this moment. "Liz, it may be dangerous. And your job… I don’t know how long we will be gone. And there’s a war brewing—"

"I don’t care," she said promptly, making Max’s heart soar. "I only know that I want to be wherever you are."

He kissed her softly, rubbing their lips over each other while cupping her face. "‘I love you’ seems so insufficient to explain how I feel about you."

She put her hands on his face too. "Max, you made me ME. How much more do you need to say?"

Closing his eyes, Max breathed deeply as emotion threatened to choke him. He didn’t know how to answer, so he hugged her to him again, praying his embrace would speak for him.

When they had both calmed down a bit, he got back to the reason for his earlier panic: "What happened just now? Are you ill? Did you eat? Are you—"

Liz kissed him to stop the barrage of questions. "I don’t know, love. I just… I think it was because I was so worried about you. And I’m tired. I haven’t been sleeping all that much lately."

They looked at each other with comprehension. It was the same reason why Max had tired bruises under his eyes.

"I’m sorry, Liz." She looked at him with alarm, so he hastened to finish. "For making your life so uncertain."

"I told you before. I have the only certainty I will ever need – your love. The rest are mere details." She cuddled into Max’s warm body and sighed. That horrible feeling that has been plaguing her for days seemed to have lifted somewhat. Maybe because they now knew what they had to face.

Max was rubbing her back soothingly. "I’ll get everyone here tomorrow and we can decide on a plan of action."

She nodded, that sounded like a good plan. "So, why are we going to Dendar?"

And Max realized she had said she would go without even knowing why… He lifted her higher up against the pillows and kissed her breathless. "You are so amazing!"

~*~*~*~*~*~

Nick paced in the spare room later that night. He had talked to Max and Liz for a long time and Liz seemed even more determined to go than ever. On the one hand, he knew that letting her go would make Max more productive. If she were left behind on earth, the majority of Max’s attention would go into worrying about her and missing her. But if she went, who knew what could happen? Nick was sure Tess wouldn’t appreciate having her exalted position taken from her again. By none other than Liz. Not to mention that he worried that the Tresarian request to have the Antar Royal Family represented during the talks may be a trap.

But what alternative did he have? His spies on Dendar were relaying the imminence of war and it seemed like Max was the only one that could make a difference. Not to mention that Max could be fulfilling one of his father Aaron’s dreams – uniting all the planets in their system.

He worried about Liz. She was the glue that kept the aliens and humans together and they have put so much faith in her link with Max. What if something happened to her on Dendar? He had no idea what awaited them there. He sat down heavily on the bed. He will discuss the final plans for their departure with Max tomorrow. He needed to get transport for them, which meant contacting Dendar officially. And that meant that the fact that the King of Antar was alive and well and living on earth would not be a secret anymore…

~*~*~*~*~*~

Liz lay in the circle of Max’s arms and felt more peace than she had in a few days. She could see the stars through their window and she wondered at the fact that she might be among them soon. How weird was that? Humans have been trying to travel in space for decades and were very proud of themselves for reaching the moon. Well, here she was, a girl from a small town in New Mexico, about to travel to another galaxy.

She turned on her back and Max shifted automatically to accommodate her changed position with the ease of years of practice. He lay on his side, his face pressed into the crook of her neck, his even breathing caressing her skin. Liz tangled her fingers with his that were splayed over her stomach. That’s when she saw it.

His hand was glowing. Not brightly, but definitely glowing.

Her gasp woke Max up and he looked at her, blinking sleep from his eyes. "Is something wrong?" he asked with concern.

Liz brought his hand up from her stomach to press her lips in his palm. The glow died out immediately after his hand left her body. "No! Everything is fine."

He kissed her softly. "Are you sure?"

Nodding, Liz prayed that he wouldn’t force the issue and most importantly that he wouldn’t learn anything from their connection. She gave him another quick kiss and rolled onto her side with her back to him. "Just hold me, that’s all I need."

He pulled her flush against him and Liz waited until she could hear him drift off to sleep before she carefully splayed his fingers over her womb again. The faint glow started almost immediately.