But worst of all was not sharing with Max that his child was probably growing inside her. This was one of those times that a couple should be experiencing everything together. She swung from being at the heights of ecstasy about her possible pregnancy, to the depths of despair about Max not knowing. Under normal circumstances, Max would have been ecstatic, but with the threat of them going into a war zone, Liz knew he would worry. She still dreamed of being able to share this agonizing and exiting time with him. She wanted to see his face when she told him, she wanted to experience every one of his feelings when he found out, but most of all, she just wanted to be close to Max again.

She had purposely kept herself away from him as much as she could without raising too much suspicion. Luckily, there had been a million things to do and Max was too tired to do anything but hold her late at night. And her fainting spell was still vivid in his memory, making her efforts to look too tired for anything physical look plausible. He had given her a few worried looks, but mostly he treated her like she was made of fine porcelain. He touched her gently, held her hand and kissed her softly, but nothing beyond that. He seemed to sense her need for a bit of distance and Liz knew that any other time, he would have confronted her with her actions by now. She was relieved, but it was also horrible. She needed him. She needed him to make love to her and be close to her. Her body needed his with a vengeance, but she couldn’t risk him seeing too much via their connection. And it was slowly killing her…

~*~*~*~*~*~

On Sunday, everybody had been there for lunch and Liz had watched as their eyes grew bigger while Max explained the situation on Dendar and the need for him to go there. Sympathetic glances had been sent her way until Max made it clear that Liz was going with him. Those same eyes grew even wider when Max had announced that Michael and Isabel should go to Dendar too and had asked Maria and Alex to join them in going.

The discussion had been short. Michael and Isabel would never let Max go alone and Maria and Alex did not want to miss out on travelling to another galaxy, let alone have their significant other’s go off without them. Liz could feel Max relaxing next to her as they all agreed to go. He gave her one of his crooked smiles and squeezed her hand to tell her how happy this made him.

"I’m only going to kick the scrawny butt of one Tess Harding to the curb when we get there," Maria had announced to them. "I just know this is all her fault."

"Just so long as you do it from behind Mr. Shoots-Energy-Bolts-from-his-Hands over there," Alex had countered, pointing at Michael. "Otherwise your single-handed attempt at saving the universe will be very short-lived."

Nick had hovered on the periphery of the meeting, his agitation clear to everyone. He still wasn’t convinced that it was a good idea for all of them to go, but Max had spoken and it was up to him to make sure everything went according to plan. Their plan.

Nick was of the opinion that their transport would arrive the next weekend at the earliest, so they would all meet on Friday night in Frazier Woods to wait for the ship. He also hoped they wouldn’t lynch him for the adjustments he had made to their travel arrangements. But he was doing it because he had to… He told them all to pack light just before he left with Grace and Maddie for Roswell on Sunday afternoon.

Everyone had agreed to organize unpaid leave from their jobs and congregate in Roswell again as soon as they have their affairs settled. Members of the alien colony would mind their houses and pay their bills and everyone was too afraid to ask how they would accomplish that. Max and Liz had to work until Friday and in between, Liz talked to their elderly neighbors to look after their garden. Max worked very late most nights since he had been in the middle of a big project when all this came down and he wanted to finish as much of it as possible before he left.

This gave Liz more breathing space, but by Thursday she was ready to climb the walls. It was not that she and Max couldn’t go a few days without physical intimacy, they have been together for close to 10 years, after all, but not being allowed to be with him was a completely different kettle of fish. It made her fixate on the absence of sex all the more.

She was feeling fine so far. She had some intermittent dizzy spells, but as luck would have it, Max had not been around for any of them and they weren’t too bad. Only a few more days, she promised herself. As soon as they were on that ship and there was no way he could send her back, she was telling him everything. She hoped these other aliens had a way of confirming pregnancy, because if the conception happened when she thought it did, it was way too soon to go to a human doctor yet. There were some tests that could tell if you’re pregnant as early as seven days after conception, but they were not all that conclusive. And there was no way she would be able to hide a visit to the doctor from Max. He would go into orbit about it, would want to go with her and know exactly what is going on and she would cave. No, she would have to wait.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Max was exhausted when he finally got home close to midnight on Thursday night. There had just been so many things to concentrate on that he felt like he had been through the wringer. Things were intense at work. His boss had not been too thrilled about him going away unexpectedly for an indeterminate time so he was working his butt off to finish a few things before he left. Added to that he had been in contact with Nick all the time, trying to find out as much as he can about what was going on up on Dendar to prepare himself.

Nick had informed him that the ship was on the way that would pick them up and also that the news about his existence caused quite a stir on the four planets. Max hadn’t asked, but he knew Nick would be monitoring the reactions of Tess and Nacedo to their imminent arrival. Seeing them again was not something he was looking forward to.

And then there was Liz. She had become distant and quiet and if he didn’t know better, he would swear that she was trying to block him from reading too much of her emotions. He didn’t know what to think about her actions. Sometimes when he was at work, he would experience such intense emotions from her that he would have to stop what he was doing and take calming breaths. The problem was that those emotions were so jumbled and wide-ranging that he couldn’t figure them out. And every time he asked her how she was, she told him ‘fine’ with a smile. It was starting to drive him crazy.

He wanted to give Liz the space she so obviously needed, but he also wanted to fix whatever it was that had her so emotional. The main thing stopping him was his fear that she was panicking about going to Dendar with him. He really didn’t want to know that, because it might indicate a deeper fear within her that they haven’t had to face for many years. His alien side. What if, after all these years, him being "not normal" was finally starting to bother her? He stopped himself from thinking about that possibility too much. Along that road lay madness. Because in spite of the threats of hordes of aliens trying to kill him and the uncertainty of venturing into an unknown galaxy, the one thing that frightened Max Evans above all else, was the possibility of losing Liz. The house was quiet when he entered it and he felt a pang of sadness when he realized it would be their last night in their little home for a long time. He found Liz already in bed, the sheets tangled around her hips as she slept on her side, her arm clutching his pillow to her chest. She was wearing silk pajamas with spaghetti straps that he had given on a whim a few years ago. One of the straps had fallen off her shoulder and her smooth thigh was thrown over the sheet. Her pj’s had ridden up to her hips and the sight of all that golden skin reminded Max that he hadn’t made love to his beautiful wife in a week. He walked closer to the bed and tenderly stroked her hair back from her face. How he loved this woman! She was the air that he breathed and was imprinted on every cell of his body.

Liz rolled towards him when she dimly sensed his hands touching her. "Oh Max…" It was barely audible. She didn’t want to wake up and face the reality of another night lying next to him without getting too close.

Max froze. Her instinctive movements and soft sigh had shot straight to his loins. He wanted her so much he could taste it. But he fought down his impulse to just wake her up in the most primitive of ways and instead he leant down and kissed her cheek tenderly. She was so small and fragile, and he still had trouble getting that image of her fainting out of his mind. So he forced himself away from her, going to the bathroom to shower.

Waiting until he disappeared into the bathroom, Liz slowly let out the breath she had been holding and rolled onto her side again. She had came fully awake at his kiss and had prayed that he wouldn’t do more than kiss her. She could feel his need for her and tonight she had very little fight left. Her body craved his hands and his mouth. And her mind craved its deep connection with Max’s. She lay listening to the water running in the bathroom and her mind created the visuals involuntarily. There wasn’t an inch of that body that she didn’t know intimately by now. How she longed to just give up her efforts to stay away from him and walk into that bathroom. Then she remembered why she was doing this. Curving her hand over her belly, she reminded herself that the alternative was Max leaving her here and going off to another planet for who knows how long. No, she had to stay strong. Only a few more days…

By the time Max dropped heavily into bed, Liz had herself more or less under control again. She stayed on her side, facing away from him and listened to him shift around to get settled. He lay quietly next to her for a long time, his breathing telling her that he wasn’t sleeping. She desperately thought of things like their garden and her work to make sure that nothing about her situation escapes into his mind.

Max was still trying to get the humming of his body under control, so he lay with his hands under his head and stared up at the dark ceiling. He wondered what tomorrow would bring. He couldn’t even imagine what a space ship looks like, let alone what it would feel like to travel to another galaxy. They were truly venturing into the unknown.

Sighing softly, he admitted it. He missed Liz. He missed knowing what was going on in her head and her mind. He missed kissing her breathless and hearing her moans.

Moving onto his side slowly, his eyes traced the indentation of her spine and the way her glorious hair spilled over her shoulder and the pillow. Reaching out a hand, he touched the silky tendrils gently, rubbing them between his fingers and the thought of how she sometimes drove him crazy with that hair came unbidden into his mind. He clenched his jaw against the riot of lust streaking through his body at the memories. He shifted closer to her, reveling in her scent and her heat.

He needed to touch her. He would do it softly so he didn’t wake her up, but he needed to run his hands over her skin just for a few blissful moments. Liz was used to having him all over her in her sleep, so he didn’t think she would notice. He started with her hip, gently rubbing the silk material of her pajamas underneath the palm of his hand. The friction was delicious, but he needed to feel her bare skin, so he moved to her arm. He trailed his fingers up to her shoulder lightly, vaguely registering the goosebumps that followed his touch. How could skin be this soft?

Sliding closer without even noticing it, he finally found himself pressed against her back, their naked thighs touching. He knew he was driving himself insane, but he couldn’t stop.

It was all she could do not to throw back her head and beg him to take her. Liz was starting to shiver under his hand and she bit her lip to make sure that her breathing didn’t give her away. She had been in trouble as soon as his hand had touched her hair. Max pressed his lips against her shoulder, lightly tasting her skin with his tongue before pulling back. Getting carried away was not a good idea. Instead, he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her more tightly into him. It was excruciating inhaling her intoxicating scent and feeling her fit so perfectly against his body. "Liz," he whispered her name against her hair. So much was locked up in that one little word. His love, his desire, his possession and his awe.

As his hand brushed the silk out of the way to cup her breast, Liz gripped the sheet and spoke to the maybe baby inside her: ‘You better be in there, because I am giving up your daddy’s loving for you! And you can’t even imagine how hard that is for me.’ As his hand continued to slowly graze her breast, Liz decided that she needed to do something for Max too. "I love you, Max," she whispered softly, hoping he would think she was talking in her sleep.