Back at the Valentis

"Hey, Tess! Where were you?"

"Nowhere. I've went to take a walk. I saw Max. He was really messed up. I've never seen him like that."

"Yeah, I know." Tess didn't quite understood how he could've had known. She just saw him minutes ago.

"Liz called me. She needed to talk to someone."

"I knew she'll only bring pain to Max, but of course nobody listens to me."

"She didn't told what happened or why she did it but she told me that she did it for the sake of everybody, the whole world. I don't know why she said that."

"That's weird. Well, you know there's that we've let in the air yesterday. Something about trimming my lamp."

"Right, you know, I'm still on the ready."

"Follow me." She lead him back to his room BUT nothing happened except some heavy make out.

Monday morning at school In trig

Liz still couldn't look at Max. All the guilt in her face would make him ask for coming back together again and ask why did she slept with Kyle. Why he wasn't the one anymore.

"Boys, enough. Enough I said!!! Kenny, take Liz's place and Liz, go sit next to Max. Maybe it'll calm them down a little."

'No, no, no, no, no, no… it'll start once again. I don't want to face him. It'll hurt too much.'

After the trig course, Liz and Max bumped into each. Max didn't even look at Liz or even say 'Sorry', he thought I'm not the one who needs to give apologies. He still didn't believe it. Liz, his Liz, who once was ready to give up her virginity to him, slept to Kyle Valenti. One of the guys that she promised to never date again. Max keeps thinking about how he felt when he saw them, in bed, Liz naked under the sheets. He wasn't the one after all. Kyle was right, she's a man-eater. 'I miss her so much. Her and her lips, her arms around me, her laughter and her smiles. She's my love, my soul and she took it away. I can't breathe anymore. Oh no… Really. I really can't breathe!' Max collapsed on the floor.

_____________________________________________________________

"Liz, I've got to talk to you." Isabel pulled Liz in the eraser room.

"What did you do to my brother? He doesn't talk anymore, eat or get out except to take a shower. I heard him cry Friday, when he was supposed to be with you at Santa Fe. Ever since, he's been listening to 'I shall believe' cuz it's the only memory that he has left to you. I was so worried about him that I dreamwalk him and I saw you with Kyle. How could you do this to Max? We both know that you don't love Kyle. So help me out here."

"Is, you don't know how I feel right now but I had to do it." Isabel shot one of those 'I gonna kill you' looks. "YOU had to sleep with KYLE? What's going on?"

"I had to make believe Max that I sleep with Max but I didn't sleep with Kyle."

"Then what were doing in bed with him, laughing, saying it was good to do THAT again?"

"I was talking about laughing together. I'm gonna explain to you what happen but you've got to promise not to tell Max."

"Well, I'm his sister and he has the right to know why his girlfriend slept with an other guy."

"He mustn't know or he'll fall in love with me and then everything will be lost. Last Thursday, when he came singing to my window, something happened. The future version of Max come to me and told that I had to make him fall out of love for me or either Tess will leave and it would be the end of everything. Everything would be lost."

"Wait, you're saying that if you and Max would stay together, you would create the end of the world." Liz nodded. "That's totally stupid, Liz! That's impossible! Time traveling is totally impossible. I thought that you should be the one to know that Miss Scientist?

"And aliens don't exist…"

"Woah! But listen, I saw Tess and Kyle together," she shrugged at the remembering of the view, " making out. If we tell Max about what you just told me, maybe you and Max can be together."

"You think so? But we have to talk to Tess first and then to Max. I'll talk to Max. He has to hear this from me and we have to keep Tess from leaving if anything happens between her and Kyle. Cuz if Max and I go back together, she'll feel betrayed and she'll leave again and everything will go back to the way it's supposed to be and it will be the end of the world again."

"Right, and I'll talk to Tess. It won't be that hard to convince her to stay now." They both started to laugh at the thought of Kyle and Tess together.

"But they make a cute couple. What about you and Alex? Will you do something about it? The guy is practically falling apart."

"I don't know what to do. It's really confusing and I don't wanna to hurt him."

"Isabel, as his best friend, I know he would be better if you just forget about this destiny thing. See, it's breaking us all up. And when I think about it, all I see in this message is the reason why you were sent here. It didn't said that you had to be TOGETHER, you just have STICK together. Well, that's what I think."

"Well, now that you say it, Liz, it makes senses. I'll talk about that with Max and Michael. I'm sorry about you and Max."

"It's tough, not having him glacing at me. It was kind of reassuring, having him staring at me. I miss it."

"Well, you get it back as soon as you talk to him. I'll give you a lift with us, saying that we have to study for the next…euh…English exam and then I'll call Maria to pick me up, and you'll be alone with Max and able to talk to him."

"Thanks Is." She took Isabel in her arms in signs of gratitude. "You don't know how much you're helping the situation. Come on, people will start to make ideas and we have an exam to prepare."

They left the eraser room when Alex suddenly stopped in front of them, gasping for air.

"You guys need to get to the nurse's office. Max lost consciousness."

"What?"

"I don't know. He keeps sayin "Liz, Liz. "and "Why?". I don't know why but just… just come."

Liz and Isabel shared a "what's going on look?". They ran in the nursery.

In the nursery

Max was laying in hospital bed, turning side to side, his arms crossed on his chest. He kept on repeating 'Liz, Liz. Why?'.

Isabel, Liz and Alex stormed in the room.

"There he is." Alex pointed out the bed next to the window. Then the nurse came in. Totally freaked out.

"Are you Max's sister?" Isabel nodded. "Good then I can call the ambulance."

"No!, I mean we'll bring home. I'll take care of him."

"But he requires medical help fast."

"No, our mother is a doctor. She'll know what to do. Alex, Liz, take him. I'll go take the Jeep.", she lied deliberately to the nurse.

Liz and Alex took him on their shoulders. Max was white and he had a fever.

At the Evan's

Liz and Isabel were sitting on each side of his bed, hoping that he'll be all right. Isabel got up and started to pace around the room.

"Liz, you want something to drink?"

"No thanks."

"Well, I'll go in the kitchen. Call me if he wakes up."

Liz continued to look over Max. *Why did I lie to him? This is all my fault.* She felt her hand being squeezed. She looked and Max had woken up.

"Liz?"

"I'm there now. Everything's all right. Go back to sleep."

"Liz, I love you." he before drifting back to sleep.

"I love you too, Max." She bended and kissed him on the lips. He kissed back but he was to weak to continue the kiss. Then his temperature dropped and his colours came back. The fever left him and he said one last time 'Liz.' Then he stopped mumbling. He fallen in a deep sleep. Liz still sat by his side, praying for him to get better. Isabel came in.

"Anything new?"

"He's stable now. He stopped shaking and mumbling. Listen, I thought about it, whatever what Max is having, it looks a lot like what Michael had last year."

"Yeah, you're right. We better call Michael, Maria and Tess right here. I'll go take the healing stones. Stay here and watch him."

Liz nodded and sat back on the bed, where Max laid. She slowly reached for his cheek, slowly stoking it while her thumb was tracing his jaw. A strong hand slowly covered her small hand. She looked down and saw Max looking at her in the most sad look she never saw in her life.

"Liz, you shouldn't be here. I think you should go."

"Max, I'm sorry. Maybe it isn't the best time but you have to know the truth, the whole truth."

'Like I need to hear the love of my life telling how she handed up in bed with Kyle.'

"Sure go ahead."

"All right. The night you came to my window, I had an other visitor…You. An older version of you. He came through the granilith to warn me about us. That if we stayed together, Tess would leave. Then you would be too weak to fight and we wouldn't be able to fight off the alien invasion. That would cause the end of our world, Earth. I had to find a way to, um, …, to make you fall out of love for me. I didn't want to do it but you kept saying to me that we had to. Now, I just…I love you as I much as you do for me. I need you. I can't eat, be and act as before. I can't br even who I was before you. I destroyed my purpose to live and yours at the same time. Are you willing to give me back my life and the reason I am and I have to stay alive?"

"Liz, I…you should've told me the truth. The last 5 months have been unbearable. You…made me become something horrible. My parents even send me to a therapist because they didn't recognize me anymore. I have to admit that for some moments I thought about killing myself. My life didn't make any senses anymore without you. So asking to be myself again is an easy question. Yes, I want my life back and if I could erase what happened in the last 6 months, I'd do it. When you left me, I…I felt empty and I need that hole filled again with you. Another thing, I've realized something. You're my balance. You make everything in my life right and that's why I've had this seizure. You weren't there anymore. I love you so much that life without you is now impossible. Every seconds you spend away from me made me consume myself slowly and painfully. There isn't a reason to keep you away from me anymore. Come here."

Max took his love in his arms. She was crying so hard. All of her guiltiness, her loneliness, her pain and her joy escaped with those tears. It was like her heart came back to life and started to work again. Just like when Max healed her. She came back to life.

"Max , I missed you so much. Can you ever forgive me?" "Always." They finally shared their first kiss for over 6 months. Full of happiness, of fulfilment and of need.

"I think that Max is fully recovered now." Michael always had the baddest timing when it came to talk. Liz blushed and hid her face in Max's neck.

"Well, I have to … shop. I think…Maria, you want to come?" Maria was still staring at them, her mouth wide open and her eyes big as baseball.

Michael: Maria! Stop staring. Maria: What? Oh sorry. I just thought that you guys were like over now. It just surprise me how you can pick up where they left it. Too bad it can't work that way with everybody.

She was virtually insinuating about her relationship with Michael. He had been so cold with her the last months, she didn't understand why. Did he have to be that way with her?

Maria: Michael, you're coming with us. Michael: Why? I don't need you two to shop. Maria: Yes , you do and anyway you need new clothes? Michael: What's wrong with my clothes? Maria: Don't argue and come with us. (she whispered) Max and Liz need sometimes alone. Michael: Why don't you say so? (to Max and Liz) Want us to live? Max: Well…if you have things to do… Michael: oh, I get the point. Well, see ya later, face sucker. Max: Yeah (he waited until they were gone) now, where were we? Liz: Kissing, really, really good kisses. Did I ever told you that you were the best kisser of all time? Max: Not but when you kiss me, my knees weakens and I can't move away. I missed that. That intoxicating effect you have on me. I want to have forever. Liz : Me too. It's like I'm drunk when I'm with you. Max: Can you promise me something? Liz: Sure, what? Max: Promise me you'll never leave. You'll always stay with me. You'll always support me through anything. Liz: I promise. Max: Liz Parker, you are the most amazing, beautiful woman in the world. Liz : So are you.