Wait. Motel room? Wasn’t she in Ben’s house when she slipped into the connection? Ooh, if Adam found her, he was going to be mad.

“Have fun?” Adam’s curt voice asked. Liz turned to see him sitting in a hard chair in the corner. She smiled weakly at him.

“If I said yes, would you be mad?” Liz joked. But Adam’s face showed no indication of laughter.

“Liz, if you want me to protect you, you can’t go off to happy la la mind-land every minute I’m not looking. Can you imagine what I had to tell Ben when we found you passed out on his bathroom floor? I had to make up an excuse, nothing short of you being a drug addict.” Liz wanted to laugh at that. Lizzie Parker a drug addict? Funny. But going with her better judgment, she bit back her giggle.

“So, how’d the reunion with Ben go?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“Right. Ok, before you blow up even more, let me tell you why I went. I’d been feeling strange all day, like something was itching me in my mind. It felt bad. So I connected with Max to check if everything was all right back in Roswell, and of course, it wasn’t. Something happened to Maria, Khivar paid her a little visit. He messed with her mind, and made her all confused. I went to help her, to get her out of her own mind. She was really scared.” Adam’s tough face had already softened, especially at the mention of Maria’s situation. He never wanted anything to happen to one of his really good friends.

“Is she all right?”

“She should be now.” Adam nodded. He went over to Liz’s bed and sat down next to her.

“I don’t mean to be a hard ass, I just want to make sure you’re safe. And it’s kind of hard to do that when you’re connecting to people without letting me know. It’s terrifying to see you passed out on the floor and not knowing whether you’re just in a connection or if something actually happened to you.” Adam sighed and looked at Liz. Innocent Liz.

“I’m sorry, Adam. I don’t mean to worry you and freak you out. Really,” Liz teased. “Okay, sometimes I do, but I do it with love.” Liz grinned. She leaned over and hugged Adam, then shooed him off her bed.