"Hmm?" The sheriff slowly turned to look at his son. Every time he saw him, he was reminded how close he had come to losing him. "Yeah, son, what do you want to talk about?"

Kyle sat down on the edge of the sofa and leaned forward. "It's about Liz." 'How to phrase this?' he wondered. "She's going out with Max, dad." The sheriff didn't react so he emphasized, "Going out, as in dating, as in ... you know... with Max."

"I know she is."

"What?" Kyle jumped to his feet. "And you haven't done anything about it? Dad!"

'Was Kyle suddenly jealous?' Valenti wondered. He'd thought Kyle and Liz had split a while ago. In fact he remembered Kyle dating some other girl for a while. "Why does anything need to be done? There's no law against it."

"But that's just it. How can you just let her run around with someone like him?" He approached his father, looking for understanding.

"Someone like him?" The sheriff suddenly realized where this was going.

"He's an alien! Dad..." he implored.

"Kyle, he's not hurting her."

"How do you know? I mean, what do we know about him? Nothing. He's got those powers. Who knows what he can do, what his reasons for being with her are? How can it be safe for her to..."

"Kyle..." The sheriff cut him off. "Stop it. Ok, just stop. He's not hurting her, ok? He's not forcing her. He might be different from us, but he's not..." The phone rang cutting off what he'd been about to say.

Kyle knew he was about to lose his dad's attention. "But... Dad..."

"Just leave them alone," he said before answering the phone. "Yeah... What?... Where?... I'll be right there." He hung up, and quickly put on his hat and grabbed his keys. Just before he went through the door, he said, "I'm asking you to drop it. It's over now, right?"

Kyle stared at his dad belligerently, then sighed angrily, "Over... right."

After a moment the sheriff hurried out to his car. Kyle stared at the door feeling let down, once again shuffled to the bottom of his dad's priority list. Would there ever be a time when the sheriff put him first? Except for the few minutes immediately following the shooting, and after Max did whatever he did to him, when his dad held him in his arms, he was always second in line for the sheriff's attention. Despite the circumstances that caused it, a part of him cherished those few minutes of being embraced by his dad. It was the first real moment of closeness they had shared since his mom had died. In the two days it took for the silver hand-print to fade from his chest, they had spent more time together then than they had since the father camp-out weekend from two years ago. And every minute they had spent together, Kyle could practically feel the thing glowing inside his shirt. He knew that it was because of Max that the sheriff took the time off from work to spend with his son, and Kyle resented it. Why did he have to nearly die to get the kind of attention from his father that other kids took for granted? When he was younger, he used to sometimes wish for a different kind of father. The kind of father like Jeff Parker was. Or Phillip Evans. Someone who would come home at night and listen to a kid talk about his day. Not the kind who would go running out in the middle of a conversation. Every conversation. Exactly like what happened tonight.

Kyle sighed and sat back down. He thought about what little his father had said before leaving. It was clear that the sheriff was going to take Max's side in this. 'Why am I the only one in town who sees how dangerous Max Evans is,' Kyle wondered. After spending the next half-hour pondering that question and coming up with no solution, Kyle went upstairs to take a shower. Tomorrow, he told himself, he'd talk to his dad again and make him listen.

The sheriff drove quickly to his office where he put on his gun belt and got the directions to the scene where some hikers had found a dead body. He pulled up next to one of his deputy's car and got out, putting on his hat.

"Sheriff," the deputy said, catching sight of him, "it's over here." They walked a short distance away into some trees. They knelt down next to a corpse. "It looks like he's been here awhile." There was some evidence of decay, plus the condition of the soil around supported the deputy's assessment.

"Who found him?"

"That guy over there," he pointed in the direction where a young couple huddled against a white hatchback. "They are camping nearby. Apparently he was digging a latrine, and found this space previously occupied."

The sheriff shot him a glare, not appreciating the attempt at humor. He talked to the campers for a few minutes and sent them on their way. It wasn't until after the coroner van pulled away with the corpse that he returned to Roswell.

Maria was wiping down one of the tables in the CrashDown the following afternoon. She had been thinking about Michael, and how he'd been acting real tense lately. She couldn't figure out what was going on with him, and though he'd told her time and again that there was nothing wrong, her intuition wouldn't let it go. It kept gnawing at her that something was bothering him. She had learned to listen to that voice these past months. It was this same voice that told her that Liz was lying about the shooting, and that Miss Topolsky was more than she seemed, and that there was something wrong about Tess. Yes, when this voice started speaking, Maria sat up and listened. Only now, she couldn't figure out what it was telling her, other than Michael was keeping something from her.

She was afraid she knew the answer. She'd been afraid that Michael was regretting getting back together with her. After all, he was destined to be with Isabel. Beautiful, popular Isabel who had powers like him. Not to mention the size of her bosom. Maria had given up hoping hers would finish growing in. This was apparently as good as it was going to get, and she had buried her aqua bra in the back of the drawer. How could she compete with someone like her? Sometimes she couldn't believe that it was she, Maria, that Michael loved. About the only thing that was keeping her from confronting him with her fears was the fact that he seemed happy to see her, and spend time with her. She had stayed over at his apartment last night until just an hour or two before dawn, then had to sneak back home. When he was kissing her goodnight, he seemed as reluctant to let her leave as she was to go.

She wished she had someone to talk to about this, but she couldn't go to Liz. Liz had become more unfamiliar to her each week since Tess died. Maria could still remember the wild sensations she had felt when Liz had 'connected' with her that day out by the cliffs. It had been an experiment to see if Liz could control her newfound powers. It was an incredible sensation, but what must it have been like for Liz, Maria wondered? To be on the receiving end of the rush of images and feelings? Then there had been other little things. Maria had caught her heating cups of coffee, and reheating plates of food when she thought no one was looking, just like Isabel had the time she had covered for Liz just before Liz's grandmother had died. It was freaky. And it made Maria a little uncomfortable. What had happened to her friend, and who was this 'alien' stranger in her place?

There was no denying that Liz's abilities bound her even closer to Max than ever before. Maria sometimes wished that she had some powers, too. Not so much to be able to do crazy things like they can, but to have something to link her to Michael. Maybe if she were special like Liz and Isabel... 'No,' she stopped herself. 'Michael said he loved me. He's not the type of guy to lie about something like that.' Of course, he'd said it a while ago, and he'd been using it as an excuse to break up with her at the time... "Maybe it's because I love you too much." She could still remember the look on his face; hear the tone in his voice when he said it. Whatever else that might be happening now, she knew that he had meant it at the time. She just really wished that he'd say it to her again. She wondered if Alex was experiencing the same thing with Isabel. Every time she'd seen them together these past few weeks they'd been wrapped up in each other. Their feelings for one another were new and tender; it was like watching a rose blossom. Of course Alex was completely infatuated, that was obvious, but it seemed like Isabel was coming to love him in return. Maria didn't know for sure. Unlike Max, Isabel wasn't transparent with her feelings. She just hoped that she and Alex weren't fated for heartbreak when Michael and Isabel decided to answer the call of their destiny.

She was jolted from this depressing line of thought by the chiming of the door. Kyle Valenti was once again coming into the CrashDown. Maria went over to him as he seated himself at the counter. "Hey."

"Hey."

"What can I get you?" She already had out her order pad and pen. Kyle, like most of the residents of Roswell had the menu memorized.

"Where's Liz?"

Maria looked up from the pad to his face. "Liz? Um, I don't know. She's not here."

"You don't know where she is?"

"No, look she left here early this morning. She didn't tell me where they were going."

"They?"

He wasn't the sheriff's son for nothing, and Maria fell right into that one. She didn't know why she was reluctant to tell Kyle where Liz was most likely to be found, but she kept remembering the look on Kyle's face yesterday while he watched her friend working.

"Look, Kyle do you want something or not?"

"Just a coke."

He was still sitting there an hour later when Max held open the door for Liz to pass through. She was laughing, and saying, "Max you are so wrong. That never happened. Come on, admit it." The alien took her hand and whispered something to her as they walked right past Kyle, not even seeing him, to the back of the restaurant and he heard them going up the stairs to the Parker's living quarters.

Maria came back over and said, "Are you going to order actual food, or are you just planning to sit there all day?"

Kyle had seen enough. "I'm leaving." He paid his bill and walked out of the restaurant.

Maria watched him go, a frown wrinkling her brow. He was acting very strange since he'd returned from camp, and as soon as Max left, she and Liz were going to have a serious talk about him. Her opportunity came sooner than she thought it would. About ten minutes later they returned to the restaurant. "Maria, have you seen Alex this morning?"

"No. Why?"

"His dad called and left a message on the machine. He thinks Alex might have been gone all night."

"That's strange."

"Yeah. You're sure you didn't see him at all?" It was concern making her ask, not that she doubted her friend.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Maybe he's just out with Isabel." Maria looked at Max.

"I'm going home to see if Isabel is there. No one is answering the phone, but she might be outside or in the shower, or something."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. We'll wait here. In case they show up." Maria answered. She gave Liz's hand a squeeze. The other girl nodded in agreement.

Max hugged Liz to him and said, "I'm sure he's fine. He probably just got up early or something." He kissed her on the forehead, then gently on the lips. "I'll call as soon as I get home."

"Ok."

The two girls watched in concern as Max got into his jeep and drove away. The seriousness of the situation hadn't escaped any of them. Alex was the least likely of the six of them to disappear without checking in, and everyone knew it. Maria and Liz both walked over to a booth and sat down.

"Maria, I'm worried. This isn't like him."

"I know, but we don't know that he's missing, right?" Liz nodded. "Ok, so, he's probably just out with Isabel. Maybe they went stargazing again last night and fell asleep or something, or he got a flat. I'm sure he's ok."

"You know what, you're right. I mean, why are we sitting here all worried about him when he is probably fine? If anything were really wrong with him he'd call us, right?"