Liz fought for some control within herself. She could feel some of the hard rubble cutting into her back. Yes, she could feel her back was hot and burning. She was losing blood and that wasn’t all, she suspected. She realized she could barely breathe. Spasms of pain swirled from the center of her chest encompassing even the tiny tips of her fingers. She was in agony. And then all she could think of was MAX!

Liz: Max, she breathed, are you all right… Max?

Max had some of his own discomfort to deal with. I probably have over 100 pounds of rock on top of me he thought. He could feel some of the jagged edges cutting into his own back and shoulders. He could feel the hot sting of blood coursing down his back. Swiftly he gained access to these wounds and healed them instantaneously.

The worst part of this, he thought, was when he felt the heavy impact of him landing on her slender body, pinning her down. The knowledge that he could have soft-landed on her slight build (been fine himself) and killed her on impact bore even more heavily than the pounds of debris.

Max: “Liz are you… all right? I can barely see you in all this smoke.

The blast that had blown them both down together on the ground was nothing more than dying embers now. Those embers remained restless streams of smoke obscuring Liz’s face from Max’s view. Max’s eyes began to tear as he could only make out Liz’s silhouette.

Max: Liz, Liz… the smoke … it’s so thick. We have to get out of here. They, The Skins, The FBI and every policeman in town will be here soon if they aren’t already, he wondered..

The Skins, Max thought, I have to get us out of here now before they realize that we are still alive. But, the pain and smoke was making it hard to breath, hard to concentrate.

It was a welcome relief to see the smoke fade so quickly, billowing dark leftovers into the sky. She was afraid that what Max said was true. The fire and smoke would alert anyone within its range that something had happened. They weren’t going to be safe there for long. They had to get out of there.

Liz: “I think the fire has gone out Max. Now all we have to do is get free of this….oh”! Liz cried out in pain. The initial shock, worn off, Liz’s body reminded her again of its condition.

Max’s concern was immediately aroused.

With the smoke gone he could now carefully to inspect her injuries. First, her face… It was flawless and beautiful as always… her beautiful face… oh Max don’t go there… he thought to himself … He pulled his hand away from her as if he had touched fire. He had seen it, after all, her betrayal, he thought

Liz looked down at the pool of blood that was beginning to form down her sides, on her stomach. She looked up at Max,

Liz: “Ohh, Max I …don’t kn-know if I’m …going to make it. … Max, my back…it hurts (that was an understatement because she could barely breath from the pain). Max, just get out of here, before they come!”

Max: I’m not going anywhere Liz, not without you.

Max reached his hands down and placed them gently on Liz’s stomach. His healing hands touched her skin and spread its delicious alien warmth. It penetrated deeper and deeper into her wound.

Max looked down at Liz.

Max: I think you have broken your ribs. This shouldn’t take much longer. Just hold on a moment longer.

Max concentrated again, his mind going deeper and deeper into and her flesh to the bone. Yes, that’s it. The bones. Fuse them. With his mind he saw the atoms of the bone itself and began to fuse them. Over and over again, he took each atom and put it back together -- like an atomic puzzle, he thought to himself. Until, there… that did it! He had gotten to the all of what was broken inside her.

Liz watched Max work his magic on her. His brows were furrowed together, his eyes dark and intent on the task. Her chest began to feel lighter. She was breathing again, full deep breaths, healed again because Max Evans had this remarkable gift.

Max looked at Liz, concern still evident on his face. His hand still gingerly placed on her flat smooth stomach.

Liz’s eyes locked with Max, her short breaths becoming shorter and shorter, no longer from the pain of cracked ribs or broken skin but due to some other pleasing feelings beginning to erupt from within her chest into other areas of her body.

Max saw her quiver..

Max: I think I got all of it. Are you hurt …anywhere else?

It wasn’t a response to any other pain but in response to the hands that were still placed ever-so-intimately on her skin.

Only my heart, Max… only my heart.

Liz: Yeah… um… I feel… okay now. Max, I …um… thank you.

She smiled, slowly, looking up at him cautiously, fearing to reveal too much; she was afraid he would see more than just plain gratitude in her eyes.

The explosion had almost killed them was nothing next to the explosive way Liz felt when she saw his look of concern. She clung to the hope that he cared about her, still, and could somehow ignite that concern into something so much more… so much deeper.

It was that day at the Crashdown all over again. He healed and branded her body with his alien hand, imprinting himself permanently on her heart.

Now that Liz was healed and he was over the shock himself of pounds of rock lying on him, Max became aware of another sensation. It was the same sensation Liz was feeling. Max began to feel uncomfortable in other ways…. He could not escape her, the feeling of Liz underneath him. He felt Liz’s being penetrate every pore of his being. The explosion may have sent his adrenaline rushing to begin with, but it was the delicious agonizing feeling of Liz beneath him that began to make his heart continue to pound. He could feel himself shake.

Max. Max. Oh Max, Liz thought, at last. I want you to … Do you want to… You feel so… amazing.

Max was instantaneously aware of the undeniably growing connection between them.

Have to do something about this…he thought to himself… have to get away from her--fast... before I…embarrass myself.

Max: Okay Liz I…

But there was no purpose, no clear reason to his thought and the words drifted in the wind.

The spell he was under was umm… delicious, intoxicating. The intensity weighed him down. It was inescapable. A diffferent weight pounded on him, coursing through him. It was in his head, his heart, his body. There was nowhere to run. There was nowhere he would rather be. Her breath, so sweet, filled his nostrils. He inhaled again and again and again. Liz, Liz, Liz …

His mouth was drawn to her like a drowning man to his last breath. He kissed her.

Her breath, her kiss mingled with his. He claimed it again and again in the language that only they shared. Two mouths, mouthing the words of a wordless song. Their two tongues danced to a primordial tune. He could feel her breath breathing life back into him. His mouth was locked on hers. He realized that it was Life; it was life that she was breathing back into him.

Liz’s kisses were intoxication, euphoric, mind altering. He realized suddenly he hadn’t been alive for a long time. He hadn’t been breathing.

That delicious life he sucked in so sweetly from her rendered him beyond all things. All things disappeared; and, his brain whirled as only Liz’s kisses, Liz’s passion could cast its spell. And he spun and spun, around and around until he could see again the images that only their passionate language could render. That dark luscious language beating, breathing, rampant in their hearts and in their bodies as only rampant longing and passion can run -- no – fly -- from the earth into the cosmos, infinity, beyond. Images began to wash over his dilated passion hazed eyes. The scenes graced him with a simple moment of clarity. He began to see a moving picture, like a TV show. In it, he was the hero and Liz was his heroine. It was he, wasn’t it that he saw… but yet it was not? Hey, what’s up with the hair he thought wildly? Not quite like me…I must be in one of her dreams… Yes… he was in one of her dreams, having a vision; a Liz induced vision. Liz-o-vision he laughed to himself. I am having a taste of Liz-o-vision. And I never want to turn the channel off of this show.

He saw himself dancing with Liz on her balcony. He thought he heard her whisper softly, Max, Can I have this dance, our wedding dance… And then he but not him took her in his arms and they danced.

Suddenly, another flash came to him. Liz was alone on the balcony now. Her arms were tangled tightly against herself. She was crying. Crying, crying ….Why—he asked? He felt her heart respond. Because…you were gone. He heard her whisper why couldn’t Juliet have had her Romeo and her happily ever after anyway?

Max’s kisses deepened. He didn’t want her ever to be alone. Not ever.

His hands had a will of their own. They began intimately, greedily stroking her stomach, delving deeper and deeper until he could touch that part of….

Yes, Liz thought, yesss… that is what I want. I want you Max you….

As their bodies became engulfed in a flame of their own Liz felt a moment of pure joy sweep through her. At last that black thing, that acrid smoke that destroyed what they had would be gone. He had to see her, feel her, know her now… in the middle of this …true moment. He could see it?

Max felt her unsettled churning thoughts begin to disconnect them. An unwanted image emerged. It was the picture that remained imprinted on his brain forever of Kyle Valenti and Liz between the sheets. Anger began to explode inside him. His connection to her grew dim. But, for a moment, he thought…something else…Kyle promising her something – no touching?

Max carefully withdrew himself from Liz’s embrace as if he had be holding a cobra.

He looked coldly at Liz.

Liz shivered.

Max: “I saw something Liz. I don’t entirely understand.

Liz: Is it … That day, Max, that day you saw… “

Max turned his face away from her.

The mood was gone and it was time to leave.

What the hell had he been thinking having a make out session with Liz under a pile of rubble? He hadn’t been thinking… he realized… just feeling… just under some drunken spell of visions of the past, and dreams from a girl you once loved. Oh, Max, get a grip!

It must have been from the shock of being in an explosion. This was totally insane and illogical. He wasn’t acting like himself.

Max: Liz, I saw … well… I guess it doesn’t matter right now. Right now the only thing you and I should be thinking about is getting out of here.

Max’s hands came up from where they had been. Liz blushed.

Max, unapologetic, moved his hand up toward the sky. A green light streamed from his hands and sent the rock that had held them prisoners fly from them more efficiently than a bulldozer.

Max grabbed Liz’s hand and they began to run from the things that would surely pursue them.