Liz had already decided what she was going to do. But she was still scared and unsure of what would happen once she acted upon it. The wind began to blow steadily. It was a cold night and the chill of the air fit the slight case of nerves Liz had felt since the men had confronted her with the decision: betray the one you love and save yourself, or stand by him and suffer any consequences the FBI could, and from what the men said, would bring against Liz and the others.

Liz pulled her hand from underneath the blanket and picked up the cordless phone that sat beside her. She dialed the number slowly and waited for an answer. Thankfully, the person she wanted to speak to, answered the phone.

"It's Liz. Could you come over? It's important?" she said slowly.

"I'm on my way." Liz heard the click of the phone being hung up. It wouldn't be long now. Liz had barely moved when she heard an engine and footsteps on the ladder. She turned to look, and there he stood.

"Max," Liz whispered.

"Liz, is something wrong?" Max looked worried as she walked to where Liz was seated and knelt down beside her. "Are they here?" he looked are suspiciously.

"No, no Max, they aren't here," Liz tried to calm him down. "Why don't you sit down, Max?"

Max looked confused but he moved to the nearest lawn chair right in front of Liz and waited for her to speak.

"Um, today, did you hear them when they called me to the office?" Max nodded, and Liz told him the whole story, from beginning to end. When she finished, Max didn't move. His facial expression didn't even change.

When he finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper and his eyes held a frightened look. "Liz, oh God, I'm so sorry. This is all our fault. I won't blame you, Liz, for anything you do. Even if you turn me in, I won't blame you," Liz could hear tears in Max's voice and he dropped his head into his hands.

"Max," Liz sat up and took his hands, "I haven't even told you what I'm going to do yet," Max looked up and looked into Liz's eyes. "I'm not going to turn you in, Max. I couldn't do that," Liz looked into his eyes, which were now wide open and filled with tears.

"Liz, I won't let you do that. God only knows what they would do to you if you-"

Liz interupted him suddenly, "Max, I'm not turning you in, end of story. I don't care about any consequences." Max looked at her questioningly. Liz knew if she said any more that the truth might come out, that she was still in love with Max, so she stopped there. She dropped her eyes to the ground and began fiddling with the blanket.

"Liz, this could be really dangerous, I don't want anything to happen to you..."

There was that phrase again...

He swallowed and continued, "I couldn't live with myself if something really terrible happened to you and I could have stopped it."

"Max, I won't betray you. You've saved my life more than once, it's my turn to save your's," Liz made it sound like it was a favor, but she knew that even if Max had never saved her life, she would give her's gladly for him.

They sat in silence for several minutes, neither one of them knowing what to do about anything.

"Liz, the next time they contact you, I want you to play along. I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I still need to talk to Isabel and Michael; we'll figure out something," Max still looked worried, although Liz knew he was trying to reasure her that everything was okay.

Liz was trying to hold it together, for Max's sake, because she knew that he had more reason to be upset than she did, but this was major: for Max and everyone else involved. She glanced down quickly away from his face to hide the tears she could now feel gathering in her eyes. Liz's brain was screaming to keep it together, but her heart was telling her to reach out, to let Max know how scared she was.

"Max..." Liz began, still looking at the ground. "I'm scared," she dragged her eyes up to meet his as a single tear fell from her eye. The pain in Max's eyes was apparent: he was just as scared as Liz.

"Liz, I'm so sorry," Max choked out, his own tears now brimming his eyes. For a moment Max hesistated, unsure of how to comfort her after...everything. But it only took seeing another tear roll down her cheek for Max to pull Liz into his arms.