He didn’t even realize that he had tears in his eyes as he looked up at Liz, his gorgeous, amazing wife. "We’re pregnant?" As if he still didn’t really believe it. Max felt the lump in his throat get bigger as he lifted Liz’s shirt to look at the bare skin of her stomach. She was so small and flat, how can there be a baby in there?

Liz watched his actions in awe. For a moment, they were just Max and Liz Evans, newly expectant parents sharing in a profound moment. She could feel Max’s joy and wonder at this development as if it were her own.

"How… when…" Max was incapable of anything coherent yet as he traced the soft skin of her stomach with shaking fingers.

"I think last Thursday when you got home early…" She didn’t tease him about the ‘how’ question, the moment was too precious for that.

"Liz… you’re giving me a baby! I-I dreamt, but…" He brought her closer to him and unzipped her low-slung jeans. Peeling away the flaps from her body, he pressed his lips against her lower belly over and over again. "My baby," he whispered against her skin. "I love you." He pulled back a bit and put his hand back on her stomach, reveling in the immediate glow that resulted in his touch. Then he realized Liz was trembling. He kissed her stomach one last time, whispering ‘be good to mommy’ softly so Liz wouldn’t hear.

He climbed to his feet and caught Liz’s hands in his. Her head was bent and he could feel her worry about what he would say. And there was a lot that he wanted to say, but first he needed to kiss Liz again. In spite of the kiss from yesterday, it felt like he hadn’t had her in his arms for years. He lifted her chin gently and covered her mouth with his. It started out tenderly, him tracing her lips with his tongue and tasting her sweetness. Then she moaned quietly into his mouth and the hunger for her returned in full force. He kissed her urgently, penetrating her lips with his tongue deeply, drowning in her magic.

Liz wanted to cry with the relief of being able to kiss him back without worrying what he might see. She threw her arms around him, clutching at his hair to pull him down on her harder. The force of the kiss increased, their lips meshing together in desperate urgency.

This time, Max felt Liz let him into her mind and heart again. The relief that went with the full return of their link nearly made him dizzy. He felt her pain and confusion of the last week, her panic over being left behind by him and her tentative joy about her pregnancy. He felt how many times she had cried and saw her dizzy spells and this morning’s bout of nausea. That tore him from his haze very quickly. "Liz! Are you okay? Has anything strange happened? Why didn’t you tell me you were feeling sick? And—"

Liz pressed her fingers over his mouth. He was wearing the signs of their intense kissing session and she just wanted him to shut up and kiss her again. "Everything is fine. It’s just the glowing so far. The rest is normal." She pressed herself closer to him. "I missed you so much, Max! I’m so sorry about not telling you sooner. I didn’t really know for sure until last night…"

This reminded Max of all the things they needed to talk about. Moving over to the bed, he pulled Liz down on his lap and brushed her hair behind her ear. "Tell me everything," he asked seriously.

Glancing in his eyes, Liz saw only loving concern and took a deep breath to spill the beans about her actions and decisions of the last week. Please, Max, don’t hate me!

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

Maria was seriously grumpy when they were woken to wait for their shuttle a few hours before dawn on Sunday. And Michael’s unintelligible mumbling when she nudged him to get up was just making things worse. "Get up you big lug," she finally yelled in his ear, eliciting a muffled curse from him. "Some soldier you would make," she told him haughtily and breezed out of the tent. She found Isabel outside, staring up at the stars.

"I wonder if they made it okay? And where they are right now." Isabel sounded uncharacteristically lost. In spite of all her bravado and iciness, she relied on Max a lot.

"I’m sure they would’ve communicated to us if something went wrong," Maria tried to cheer up her friend.

This time, the group was not surprised at the sudden appearance of the shuttle and the second group was whisked into the ship quickly.

"So how long will it take for us to reach Dendar?" Alex asked as soon as he had a communicator.

"About six rotations of your planet," their host answered. "The ship with the King will take one rotation longer."

Maria looked baffled and Alex told her: "Six days, he means six days for us, seven for Their Royal Aliennesses."

"That’s not a word, Alex!"

"Hey, we’re in a space ship on our way to some distant galaxy, I don’t think making up words is a big problem right now."

Michael cornered David, one of Nick’s men. "Is there any way you can communicate with Nick? We need to know if Max and Liz are okay."

"Yes, Sir," the man answered respectfully. "I’ll do it right away."

It took a few minutes, but they all sighed in relief when Nick’s voice came from the orb. He assured them everyone was fine, but Michael insisted on talking to Max directly. There was an awkward silence before Nick said: "Max and Liz are in their room right now, I don’t want to disturb them."

Alex promptly burst out laughing. "I cannot BELIEVE those two, they’re at it in space already!"

Michael decided to let it go, but asked Nick to get Max to contact him as soon as he appeared.

Maria wasn’t laughing. "Am I the only one that thought there was something wrong between Max and Liz yesterday?"

This shut Alex up quickly. Reluctant nods could be seen all around the group.

"Lizzie was acting really strangely and they weren’t all over each other like they normally are."

"It’s probably just an argument. They will get over it, they always do," Isabel stated calmly, more calmly than she felt. Max had been upset about something, she had definitely seen that.

A silence descended on the small group. If things could go wrong between Max and Liz, could the world end too?

~*~*~*~*~*~

Max had listened quietly to Liz’s account of how she got pregnant, why she didn’t tell him and why she felt she had to keep away from him. He didn’t know how to react or what to think about it. On the one hand, he felt like she hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him about her situation. He hated knowing that she had been going through all that alone. Moreover, he couldn’t help worrying that he was taking his pregnant wife into a possible war zone. He didn’t even want to contemplate anything happening to them.

Liz had fallen silent after she told him everything and waited for his reaction with a bent head. She was unconsciously clinging to his hand with both of hers, her throat closing up with fear about what he would do and say now.

"Liz," his voice was soft, "I want our baby, I really do. I cannot tell you how it makes me feel to know that there is a little part of me growing inside you." He stopped briefly. "But I wish you would’ve told me. What we went through this week… I never want to feel like that again."

Biting her lip, Liz swiped at the moisture on her cheeks. Had she broken something between her and Max that could never be mended again?

"But… I guess I can understand why you did what you did. You’re right, I would’ve made us stay home." He pressed his forehead against her hair. "Somehow I have trouble finding a war in another galaxy as important as making sure that you and our baby are safe…"

"No Max," Liz said worriedly.

"I-I don’t know what to do now, Liz. Tell me what to do, because everything inside me is screaming for me to make them turn this ship around and take us home. I can’t lose you!"

Liz turned her body in his lap so that she could rest her forehead against his. "I’ve asked Nick to bring Grace. She’s been through this and she will help me. And my heart tells me that I have to be with you while I’m pregnant and didn’t we say we would listen to our hearts from now on?" She felt him nod against her. "Please, Max, let me stay. I promise I’ll be careful and that from now on you will be the first to know exactly what is happening to me and our baby."

He was torn, she could feel it so she pulled back and stripped her shirt from her body before placing his hand back on her womb. Both of them stared at the glow appearing under his touch. Liz realized for the first time that when Max touched their baby, both his hand and her stomach glowed. With her it was only her stomach. "He knows you," she whispered to Max with happy tears in her eyes and heard Max’s sharp intake of breath at her statement.

Max sat like that for a long time before he gently lifted Liz from his lap. "I need to think," he told her and felt his heart contract at the flash of hurt he could see in her eyes. He helped her take her jeans off before tucking her into bed and kissing her forehead. "Get some rest."

She watched him walk to the door with more tears in her eyes. Was she ever going to stop crying? She held her breath as he hesitated and turned back to come kneel at the side of their bed. He pulled the covers off her and kissed her belly softly. "Bye, baby. Let mommy get some sleep, okay?"

"Max…" Liz pleaded.

"Just rest and I’ll be back later," he said as he tucked the bedcovers back around her.

"I love you," she called after him and saw him falter before he finally left the room. Turning on her side, she folded her arms around her stomach and cried, great, racking sobs that stemmed from the relief she felt at not having to hide from Max anymore and her anxiety that he would decide to send them back or something equally unacceptable. She could feel his fear and confusion through their connection and wished there were some way she could make this better for him. He had reacted so calmly to all this, it reminded her a little of when her diary got lost in their sophomore year. That was the time she realized fully what a gentle soul Max Evans had.

Somewhere through her tears she felt a warmth underneath her hands and the feeling chased away most of her sadness. When all was said and done, she was still carrying Max’s child inside her, nothing could take that away from her.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Max stood at one of the big windows of the ship, staring at the stars and planets rushing past at a frightening speed but he didn’t really see them. His mind was whirling with all that he had learnt in the last few hours. He was so afraid that something might happen to Liz while they were on Dendar. But wasn’t it better for her to be pregnant among other aliens that wouldn’t be suspicious if anything weird happened to her in the process? He had never been as confused as he was right now. His heart was telling him to take Liz with him wherever he went and to never let her leave his side, but his mind was pointing out everything that could go wrong.

"Max?" Nick’s voice interrupted his musings.

He turned to Nick who was watching him anxiously and blurted out: "We’re going to have a baby!" A silly smile settled on his face and wouldn’t go away again. Whatever else happened, this what was mattered. His Liz was carrying his child.

Nick’s mouth fell open and it took him a while to recover enough to say: "Congratulations!"

"I have to go see Liz again," Max informed him, suddenly in a hurry to go back to their room.