Diane Evans said, "Oh really? What happened?"

"I started out ok. Remembered to bring flowers and all, but that was the only thing that went my way." He chuckled and shook his head. "Between dropping both my fork and drink on the carpet and being so nervous that I was shaking the table with my foot, not realizing it until the gravy sloshed out of the bowl onto the tablecloth..." he moved his hands expressively.

"On top of all that, I was stuttering so badly I'm sure they couldn't understand a word I was saying. I must have sounded like an idiot."

He laughed in recollection. "After that fiasco, it was a long time before I ever joined any of my other girlfriends for dinner."

"So is that why you never came over for dinner with my parents?" Diane looped her arms around her husband's neck.

"You bet."

Max watched his parents for a moment. He enjoyed watching them interact with each other. He knew that he was very lucky to have parents that obviously cared a great deal about one another as well as him. After a minute, he said, "Well, tonight wasn't that bad. Liz was real tired, though." Max went on to fill his parents in on her trip to the hospital.

"Is she all right?" his mom asked when he finished.

"Yeah. Just tired, like I said."

"Well, thank goodness." Diane walked over and gave him a hug. "I sure do like her, honey."

His dad added, "Her parents seem real nice. Down to earth people."

"Yeah. Her dad is great."

"I remember meeting him at the campout. He was quite a poker shark. Didn't he beat you?" Max nodded. "Must be why he likes you."

"What about her mom?" Diane asked.

"She's ok. She's just... I don't know how to say it. She's kinda guarded, I guess."

"Oh. Well, I wouldn't worry about that too much. It's different sometimes with mothers and daughters. Every time one of Isabel's dates come to the door, I feel, I don't know, super protective, I guess." She patted Max's arm. "I'm sure it's not you, honey."

"I guess."

Mr. Evans said to his wife, "Remember when we were waiting for them at the CrashDown the day they disappeared? She was pretty upset. It was her idea that the two of them not see each other for a while. Maybe she just hasn't gotten over her scare yet. Max," he continued, "I know a little about women, and I'm going to give you some advice." Both men ignored Diane who was rolling her eyes at that remark. "What you need to do is maybe spend more time with Liz's family. I mean you see Liz all of the time, just let her parents get to know you a little."

"Yeah, I see what you mean."

Phillip slapped his son on the back, "Good. Then my duty here is done."

"Thanks, dad," Max said with only mild sarcasm. Then he remembered what he'd been thinking about parents at the hospital today, and he said in all seriousness, "Mom, dad..." They both looked at him at his sudden change in tone. "I know we don't talk about it much, but I wanted to tell you both how happy Isabel and I are that you brought us here and, you know, took us in. I guess I just wanted to say, thank you. You know, for everything."

"Oh honey," Diane came over to her son, "We love you and Isabel. You don't have to thank us for anything. We should be thanking you for staying with us. We love you."

"What brought this on, Max?" Phillip asked. "Just seeing Liz's parents at the hospital today, and how worried they were about her. It kinda made me think about how much we take things for granted."

His mother enveloped him in a big hug, while his dad stood nearby. "Not a day goes by that we don't thank God for bringing the two of you into our lives, Max."

"Us, too," he replied.

When the hug ended, the three of them stood looking at one another, then Phillip broke the silence with, "So, who's up for a game of Monopoly?"

A few hours later, Max was laying in his bed, dreaming about Liz. In his dreams, he could allow himself to dare for a future with her. He liked to think of how he would propose to her. Would it be right after graduation, he wondered, or would he wait until they were almost done with college. He considered various scenarios: In the park, or while on a drive. Or on her balcony where they'd shared their first kiss. That was the one he kept coming back to. Roses would be a must, he knew. The red kind. He could envision the look in her eyes as he popped the question. He could practically see the stars shining in them now. She would say 'yes,' of course... He drifted off to sleep with a smile on his lips.

Across town, Professor Harrison had staked out the CrashDown Café. The information his brother had given to him stated that one of the aliens lived above the restaurant. The three other men in the van with him were all dressed in black with ski masks pulled over their faces. They were a part of his hand-selected team who were willing to go to any lengths to support his theories. He got out and walked around to the door of the van and slid it open.

The men exited silently. The team leader nodded as if to say, "Let's do it." They walked over to the glass-paneled door. Taking a glasscutter from his pocket, one of the men efficiently cut a hole into the panel large enough to slip his hand through, and within seconds they were silently entering the building.

Thomas stayed with the van. The engine was running, and he sat behind the wheel with the radio playing. He could scarcely believe that it was happening. That he was on the brink of becoming a world-renowned scientist, just like he'd always dreamed.

While he waited, he reminisced about what had happened when he arrived at the Dean's office: "Dean Whittier," he said by way of greeting. "Come with me. I have something you'll want to see."

"Well, Harrison, this had better be good." As always, the Dean had no patience for this particular member of his staff.

"It is, sir, it is." They'd moved into a conference room that contained a TV and VCR, and Tom inserted the tape. Turning on the TV, he hit the play button.

After a couple of seconds, the screen went from static to an image of a couple on a sofa making out. After a moment of this, the Dean asked, "Is this what you came over here to show me? So help me, Harrison..."

"No, no sir, just watch. It's all coming up, I promise."

The image was in black and white, but the lighting was good. The couple looked to be fairly young. The sound was coming in very clearly, and the two men watching could hear the couple's breathing, and clothes rustling as they shifted positions. A door off camera opened, and a group of people entered. The couple on the sofa seemed oblivious to their presence.

"This is it." Professor Harrison said.

"This is what?" The Dean was not amused. "If you brought me in here to show me that your newest hobby is homemade porn, I swear..."

"Shh. Just watch, ok?" He turned up the volume on the set.

The man in the tape whispered, "Maria. Maria," as he moved his lips from her lips to her neck and back again.

The woman, Maria apparently, responded by arching her throat and said, "Michael. Oh, Michael." Her eyes opened, and she spotted the newcomers in the living room. "Max." The man drew back and stared at her before grating out, "What?"

She nodded toward the crowd that was watching them. "Look."

Looking over his shoulder, he pulled away from her with a great deal of speed and asked, "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

A cute, dark haired girl answered cryptically, "Topolsky."

Another girl clarified, "She's back." She was blonde and well groomed.

The two people on the sofa both had expressions of dismay on their faces.

The first girl stated, "She practically just attacked us in the car at Buckley Point."

Maria frowned at that piece of information and said accusingly, "I thought you went to the movies."

"It had bad reviews."

The tall dark haired guy standing next to her said, "She said we were in danger...all of us. And to just act normal until she contacts us again."

Despite himself, Dean Whittier was being drawn into the drama being played out before him. From off camera, there was a sound like a chain lock being secured on a door. Whoever it was making that sound asked, "Would that be, you know, 'alien' normal, or just plain 'we're-the-subjects-of-an-FBI-manhunt' normal?" A tall gangly kid walked into view of the camera as he spoke.

The guy on the sofa said with obvious tension in his voice, "This sounds wrong, like some sort of trap."

The dark haired girl spoke again, "No, Michael. She was really scared." The girl sounded scared herself. "I believed her," she added.

Michael said with heavy irony, scratching his forehead, "Yeah. Let me remind you, Liz, that you believed her the first time, too."

The gangly kid took a step forward. His back was to the camera so they couldn't see what he looked like, and now he was blocking the others who were standing there from the view as well. He said angrily, "Hey, you want to know what? Where would you be if Liz and I didn't stick our necks out to expose her?" The blonde girl became the mediator of the group, saying, "Ok. Just calm down, all right?"

"Do you really think she's here to warn us?" the kid asked the first girl, Liz.

"She wasn't the same person she was before. You know, and the way that she was talking, she seemed like she was just as scared for herself as she is for us." As he walked away to stand next to the blonde girl, they could clearly see Liz's features as she was directly facing the camera. From his new position, the guy leaned on one knee and said, "Then I say we listen."

From the sofa, Michael aggressively said, "I say we don't! All right, it's just a new tactic. She scares us, makes us think we need help, and all we're really doing is admitting who we are. All right? I don't trust her, and none of us should."

The dark haired guy standing next to Liz said in a tone of authority, "Whether we trust her or not, it doesn't hurt to take her advice." He looked at each person in the group as he continued, "We're normal teenage kids. No one says the word 'alien' or talks about this in public. Anybody could be watching." An object about the size and shape of a small Nerf football materialized in his hand. He held it out to Michael, saying, "And I think we should keep this here. It's the safest place we've got right now."

Michael took the thing, and looked at it. Sitting next to him, Maria, sounded very unhappy as she said, "I can't believe she's back." Michael put an arm around her shoulder. "I thought this was all over with," she finished. She looked deeply worried as her boyfriend planted a kiss in her forehead.

Liz and the dark haired kid who seemed to be in charge also embraced. The tension in that room was clearly recorded by the camera. After a few minutes, the group broke up and dispersed, leaving only Michael to sit on his sofa looking at the silver thing the other guy had given to him. After a minute, he got up, turned out the lights and went to bed.

Professor Harrison turned off the VCR and ejected the tape.

"What was that, Harrison?" The Dean's voice lacked its customary impatience.

"That, Dean Whittier was a confession. Videotaped evidence that would stand up in any court of law that there are aliens among us."

"Aliens." He scoffed, but his voice lacked its usual conviction. "Do you know how crazy you sound?"

"Are you denying what you just saw, what you just heard? The one saying that they were to act like 'normal teenaged kids', and that no one was to say the word alien, and the other saying how Topolsky was there to trap them into admitting who they really were." Tom continued, "You know that my brother is in the FBI?" The Dean nodded. "He's the one who sent me that tape. The Topolsky person they were talking about was the agent in charge of his team for several months."

Seeing that the Dean still wasn't convinced, Tom continued, "They actually had one of those boys in custody for a while, and the tests they did on him were conclusive: he wasn't human. The alien who released him killed at least two humans, including our best friend, Doug Matheson. After that, the government just dropped the whole project. My brother and his team were called back to Langley, and even now, the evidence of the whole mission is being destroyed. The tape you just saw was scheduled for incineration last week, as were all the others like it. He was able to pocket this one, but was afraid to try for any of the others." Tom held out his hands in entreaty. "Don't you see what's happening? The government knows that there are aliens out there, and they're covering it all up, just like they did in 1947!"

"Why would they cover it up?"

"Why not? It's what they are good at." Tom said with heavy irony. "I mean think of the crash. They said a weather balloon went down in the New Mexican desert. A 'weather balloon' for Christ's sake. Did you know that New Mexico holds the world's record for most consistent weather? They have sun with temperatures in the high 70's, low 80's three hundred and forty days a year. What the hell did they need a weather balloon for? It was obviously a scam. A cover." He sighed before adding, "The problem with our government is that they think that we are all gullible fools."

"Ok, so why not just capture all six aliens and exterminate them?"

"I told you. The aliens are killing off any humans who get in their way. More than likely, the government discovered or was afraid that there were a lot more living here than they thought. I mean, it's been fifty-years since the crash, and who knows how many other ships that we don't know about have landed. It's three generations later, and what if they procreate like bunnies?" He leaned closer to say, "Ok, hypothetical situation: Let's say there were twenty to begin with in forty-seven at the time of the crash. Ten women and ten men. A human female can bear children between the ages of 15 and 60, give or take. That's 45 years of childbearing. Even if each of the 10 females had only one child every year, that's 450 offspring. The first group of children would have been bearing children for thirty years now, and their children's children would now be at the age of childbearing. In fact, they would be just about the age of those kids in that tape."

The Dean sat down in one of the hard conference room chairs, and Tom sat next to him. "Look, I did the math on it one night, and following that scenario, there would be, right now, over eleven thousand of them living in the United States today. Eleven thousand," he emphasized. "And that's one child a year, by human standards. What if they have litters, or lay eggs? The real numbers could be mind-boggling. If you were the government, would you risk pissing off thousands of aliens by killing off six of their children? Or would you quietly pack your things and go back home to Washington DC?"

"Your brother has actually seen proof that they are aliens, and it's not just some joke?"

"Yes." Tom thought of the silver handprint his brother had seen on Agent Matheson's chest. "Yes, sir. There's no doubt."

"Ok, Thomas, what did you have in mind?" After that, things had snowballed to bring him to where he was, sitting behind the wheel of a getaway van while a group of professionals hired by his brother, snatched one of the females from her bed. Snatching an alien... It had become sort of an ironic joke amongst the men as they drove to Roswell.

His brother had provided them with the aliens' names and addresses. They had originally intended to take the one called Maria, because she was less protected, living with only one other grown up in a small house, but also because, he intended to study their reproductive organs and habits, and by the look of things on the video, she could be impregnated right now.

Unfortunately, when they'd gotten to her house, Maria was gone. There were no clues as to where she'd gone or that she'd be returning any time soon.

Rather than lose the opportunity, they'd gone with the back up plan, and headed to the CrashDown Café located on Roswell's main street.

Between the drugs they given her at the hospital and her exhaustion, Liz never heard the men enter her bedroom. One second she was deeply asleep, the next, she was being pulled out from underneath her covers. A cloud was covering the moon, and the room was in total darkness. She struggled blindly, ferociously as they tried to secure her hands. She opened her mouth to scream, only to have a plastic bag placed over her head. Fear of suffocation sent her from panic into terror. Still, she tried to scream, and a hand clamped over her mouth.

A voice heavy with malice and evil, whispered, "If you don't want me to kill you right now, you'd better be quiet."

She barely heard him over the pounding of her heart. Her fight or flight instincts had kicked in, and she was struggling for all she was worth, but it was no use. Unbeknownst to her, one of the men was a Marine, and the other two were Army soldiers trained in guerilla warfare. She was defenseless against them.

Keeping their hands away from hers, as they had been warned that the aliens' palms were dangerous, they carried her down the stairs and out the front door.

She was running out of oxygen inside the plastic bag, and spots were swirling in front of her eyes, but she refused to give up. The professor saw them coming and hurried to open the door to the van. Inside, there was a large metal cage that looked like a kennel, but was constructed out of a very special metal. He held the door to it open. Liz saw it, and used the last of her reserves to avoid being put inside, but again it was no use. Tears were running down her hot cheeks, and as she lost unconsciousness, she heard the gate being dropped into place, and the lock secured. Her last thought was, "Max."

"Let's go," the Marine ordered.

Thomas was quick to obey. As soon as he returned to the driver's seat, he said, "Get that bag off her head. We don't want her dead."

He put the van in drive, and they began the return trip to Arizona.

The force of the reaction was enough to throw Max Evans out of his bed. He'd been sound asleep, immersed in a vague nightmare. Then, without warning, he was sitting on the floor, with his head pounding. His limbs were shaking so badly he was afraid to try to stand. With his stomach rolling like it was, he knew he had to get to the bathroom, but wasn't sure he was up for the trip. His forehead was beaded with sweat, but he could barely lift his arm to wipe it away. What was wrong with him? His heart was beating at a hundred miles an hour as panic set in. If there was something wrong with him... Isabel hadn't come in, which meant that they hadn't returned from their trip to Texas yet. This would not be the ideal time to get sick. His stomach gave another lurch, and he forced himself to stand. He had to get to the bathroom. With the room spinning wildly around him, he felt his way down the hall. In the bathroom, He knelt by the toilet, but nothing would come up. He couldn't understand what was happening to him. He hoped he didn't have food poisoning, too. The only other time he'd felt like this was... He shot to his feet, adrenaline shooting through his system, overriding everything else. He'd only ever felt this way twice before in his life, and both times had been a sign that Liz was in mortal danger and needed him. He flew back down the hall; his thoughts focused on Liz, and grabbed whatever jeans were laying on the floor. After stepping into them, he pulled on a pair of socks and slid his feet into his shoes.

Waving his hand over the laces, they tightened and tied themselves. His keys and wallet were on the dresser and in seconds, he was in the Jeep and on his way to Liz's. He pulled alongside the CrashDown, and bolted up the ladder that was attached to the balcony outside Liz's window. He pulled up the window, and whispered loudly, "Liz." He climbed over the sill, but in the darkness miscalculated the distance to the dresser. Several items crashed loudly to the floor. "Damn," he swore. "Sorry about that. Liz. Liz? Liz!" He felt his way to her bed, tripping on blankets that were strewn across the floor.

He found her bed by the expedient method of banging into it with his shin. "Ow. Damn it." He reached toward the mattress, hoping to feel soft warm flesh, but there were only pillows and sheets. Liz wasn't in her bed. He looked around for the light switch, when suddenly light bloomed under her door.

He must have woken her parents. He fled to the window. The door behind him opened. He hurried to escape, and barely had time to get over the sill when the lights came on in the room. "Oh my god! Liz!" It was Nancy's voice.

Max hurried across the balcony and let himself down the ladder. He could hear her shouting, "Jeff. Jeff! Come here, it's Liz. She's gone."

Max climbed into the Jeep and drove with all possible speed to Sheriff Valenti's house. He looked at his watch. It was four in the morning. He felt kind of bad for waking the sheriff up, but Liz was missing. He had no doubt that she had been taken, and every second they wasted, whoever it was that had her took her further and further away from him.

A rumpled, but alert Jim Valenti opened his front door within a minute of Max's knock. As an officer of the law, he was conditioned to waking completely up in an emergency. "Max." Valenti was shocked. Max Evans was the last person he would have guessed to have been standing there. "What's..."

He didn't even get to finish, before Max stated: "Liz is gone. She's been taken... kidnapped."

"What? How do you know?" Just then, the phone rang. Valenti shot Max a look, anticipating what the call would be about. "Hello?" He listened for a minute. "No, it's ok. I was up." He listened again. "Yeah. I'll be right there, Nancy. Don't worry. I'm sure she just wandered off. No. No, I don't think that'll be necessary. I'll stop by to see on my way there. In the meantime, don't touch anything, and I'll send one of my deputies right away." He was silent for another minute, and then said comfortingly, "We'll find her. Don't worry Nancy. The two of you just sit tight and someone will be there soon. All right... Fine... We'll see you in a couple of minutes."

He hung up the phone and looked at Max who had followed him inside. "All right, Max, that was Liz's parents. They are worried sick. What's going on here?"

"I don't know, Sheriff."

"How did you know she was missing?"

"I couldn't sleep, and went over to look in on her. I climbed up her balcony, and went into her room through the window." He had to edit the story because he didn't want to have to explain his connection with Liz. "I'm afraid I woke up her parents when I knocked some stuff off her dresser. She wasn't in her room. Her blankets were on the floor. I left just before her mom came into the room."

Max took a step forward. "We have to find her, Sheriff."

"Do you have any idea who would have taken her?"

"Taken who?" Kyle Valenti was standing in the hallway in a t-shirt and gym shorts. "What's going on?"

"Liz's parent's just called to tell me that she was missing."

"What? Where is she?"

"That's what we're trying to find out. Max?"

"No, Sheriff. I haven't seen or heard anything suspicious lately."

"So you don't think it was one of those aliens that guy was talking about? One of the ones who think me, Kyle and Liz are aliens like you?" The sheriff was referring to last week when a group of aliens had come to Roswell in search of Max and his siblings. Through some strange circumstances, the aliens had made the mistake of thinking that Liz and Kyle were Max's family, not Isabel and Michael. They also thought that Sheriff Valenti was the shape-shifter, Nasedo. Unfortunately, he had communicated that incorrect information to his colleagues before they could stop him. Now they all had to be extra careful, because when trouble came to town, it would be looking for the wrong people.

"I don't know," Max replied. "I mean, if they were here to kill us, why take Liz?"

"I see your point. Wait here. I'm going to get dressed, then we'll see what we can find out about whoever it was that took her." Valenti hurried into his room, and pulled on his clothes. Kyle followed suit. Max was too anxious to sit, and so he paced in front of the door. The queasiness and shaking had all passed within five minutes of his having woken up. He was terrified what it meant. He prayed as he paced, "Please God, let her be all right."

The first time he had reacted to Liz being in danger was right at the beginning of the summer. Tess had used her powers to make Liz see a car speeding at her down the sidewalk, causing Liz to jump into the street to avoid it. The whole thing had been a hallucination designed to kill her. It nearly worked. She had inadvertently jumped right into the path of the oncoming car. It had hit her, and she had been severely injured. Sheriff Valenti had been pursuing the speeding vehicle at the time, and called for an ambulance, then had called Max. The reaction Max had that day was mild compared to the one from earlier, but Liz hadn't really had a chance to be scared - the whole thing had happened too quickly.

The second time he'd felt this way was just last week. Nasedo had attacked her and Alex and Maria. Fortunately, Liz had been able to use the Shield to protect them until Max and Michael had gotten there. She had been scared to death that day, too but she was able to fight. Able to stay in control. Until the Shield took control of her anyway. His reaction that time lasted longer than the first one, and had been a little more severe.