And they were sisters, she thought as she looked away to give them some privacy. The sense of wonder she felt at the thought still wasn’t abating. After a moment, Alex walked by and called out a goodbye to both of them. Joey nodded back. He continued on and she watched him lope down the hall.

They sure do grow ’em tall in Roswell. Maybe there’s hope for me yet. Joey sighed.

“Hey, maybe we should leave to go get your stuff,” Isabel interrupted her thoughts as she sat down beside her.

Joey glanced down, slightly uncomfortable, but determined to be up front about this. “I don’t have any stuff, Isabel. It’s all in that bag.”

Isabel blinked, her mind obviously working hard to process that thought. As she glanced away, Joey tried to figure out exactly how to break the news to her that her little sister was a vagabond. “You’re coming home with us, you know,” Isabel surprised her by saying firmly.

“Look, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. I mean, I’m a person, not a stray dog,” Joey couldn’t help herself.

“You don’t think I know the difference,” Isabel was smiling. “Scared I’ll give you a bath and a flea collar when we get home?”

“No,” Joey smiled back hesitantly. “But mothers don’t typically welcome homeless people into their houses. It’s like an unspoken Mom... thing.” Joey had been burned that way more than once.

“Yeah,” Isabel sounded sure of herself. “But not our Mom. You forget, we were vagabonds when she found us, too.”

Joey stopped short. Tears sprung into her eyes as she tried to imagine the kind of woman who would pick up two six-year olds on the side of the road and adopt them as her own. Would she want their little sister? A long, golden arm reached around behind Joey and she was pulled into an embrace before she knew it. But she stayed tense, biting her bottom lip as it trembled. “Sorry,” she finally whispered.

“No, I’m sorry,” the emotion-filled response broke the dam of tears and Joey had to let out a few, right there in the waiting room.

******

Max exited the hospital just as Liz came dashing back in. She didn’t even see him, hampered by her tears. So he put out his arms and stopped her with his voice. “Liz...”

She looked up and he saw the misery in her eyes. “What is it, sweetness,” he asked, his mind flipping through the possibilities. Then he saw Kyle sitting in the truck at the entrance. He grabbed Liz’s arms tightly. “Did Kyle say something to you?” Liz looked up at him and nodded. Fury filled him. Kyle should have known better than to tell her about that tape.

“He feels so bad about Maria. And he still thinks he loves me,” Liz’s words tumbled out and Max froze.

“So, he upset you because he still wants you back,” Max said carefully.

Liz hesitated, the red-rimmed brown eyes full of sadness and pain. “Yes, but don’t get mad, Max. He’s trying to move on. He is.”

Max took a deep breath. She was asking more than she knew. But at least Kyle hadn’t told her about the tape. “Liz, trust me on this. I’m going to go talk to him, but I promise I’ll be nice.”

Liz grasped at his arms. “Max, do you have to?”

“Yes,” he said. “I have to.” She reluctantly let go and he led her over to the bench by the side door of the hospital. “You sit right here,” he told her with a slight grin. “And you can watch me be nice to Kyle, okay?”

Her eyes twinkled at him and he kissed her on the nose. “Okay,” she whispered.

Then Max turned to Kyle with heat in his eyes. He’d be nice, but only as nice as it took to get that tape and convince him that Liz was off limits from now on.

******

Michael paced in his apartment, then stopped and stared at the phone and the open phone book. He squared off with it, and eyed it like it just might get up and fight back. But mostly, he was just fighting himself and the urge to kill someone. Now, whether it should be Kyle, Liz or himself, that he hadn’t yet decided. When he thought about Kyle hitting Maria-

A curse exploded from his mouth and his hands started glowing. If Kyle were standing there right now, he’d fry him in a second. Not only had he almost killed the woman Michael lo- loved, but he had reduced Liz to shivering pile of sobs with that completely selfish barrage a few minutes ago. But as bad as he felt for Liz, he also wanted to strangle her for telling Maria what she did.

So he started pacing again.

He hadn’t been able to think straight since the two girls had that talk. He felt like someone had pried the skin off of his back, pulled back his ribcage and pointed out the few interesting features of his guts. He didn’t think he could even face Maria after that, although Liz had been reassuring him that Maria felt better after hearing it. Yeah, yeah, whatever.

Michael slammed his hand down on the counter. The fact of the matter was that he couldn’t stand to see Maria hurt and lying in some hospital bed. He should have been there and stopped Kyle. He’d have killed him rather than let him hit her. Hell, he’d have let Kyle run over him first. He started moving again.

It panicked him to realize that Maria was... fragile. It had never really hit him that hard. He had gotten used to seeing Liz in trouble and trying to protect her. The girl attracted danger like raw meat does maggots. But Maria... How could he wait any longer? What if something else happened? What if she never knew how he felt about her?

He just couldn’t live with that.

******

Kyle watched as Max moved toward him with danger in his eyes. Oh, goody. A lecture/threat from the Big Kahuna. Just what I need. He fixed a smirk on his face, but couldn’t stop himself from asking the pansy question that was rattling his brain as Max stepped up to the truck. “Is she alright?”

Max hesitated before answering and Kyle used the time to shove his male ego firmly back in place. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings or anything.”

Max’s eyes narrowed and he slowly placed his hands on the edge of the open window. He leaned down to stare into Kyle’s eyes.

Sh*t, that’s effective.

Kyle could feel his gut churning. Somehow he had forgotten how dangerous Max could be. Kyle jumped when Max finally spoke. “Tape. Now,”

Kyle blinked. Oh yeah, he had something to hang over Evans’ head. A smirk slowly grew on his face. “That’s right. I happen to have something you want, don’t I,” he couldn’t resist saying. He glanced over to see that Max’s expression hadn’t changed.

“Give me the tape, Kyle,” he said slowly.

“Well, I don’t know, Max,” Kyle looked off and pretended to ponder the idea. “If I give you the tape, then what do I get?”

Silence met his question and finally Kyle looked over at Max. He suddenly decided maybe this wasn’t a good idea. Mr. Self-control looked like he might be about to lose his title. His jaw was clenched and he was gripping the door with a fierceness that- “Okay, okay,” Kyle managed to sound somewhat light-hearted, “just jokes.” The hands didn’t let up. “I tell you what, I give you the tape, we call it even,” he said, meeting Max’s eyes with some of his own sudden seriousness. “You saved my life; now I’ve saved yours.”

He saw Max get it and give a slight nod. Kyle reached over the glove compartment and flipped it open. Shoving Betty aside, he grabbed the unmarked tape and handed it over to Max. Max took it and held it down below Kyle’s view for a second. Then he brought his hand up and it was full of ashes.

“Was that the only copy,” he asked Kyle, who couldn’t take his eyes off the gray, powdery stuff that used to be a tape.

“That rocks, man,” Kyle couldn’t keep himself from saying. “That has got to come in handy sometimes.” Max was looking at him like he was an idiot, but Kyle couldn’t keep the grin off his face.

“Were there any other tapes, Kyle?”

Kyle frowned and shook his head. “Come on, Max, I practically risked my life to get that tape and get you guys out of the school a few hours ago, remember?”

“Well, really, your life never was in danger,” said Mr. Technicality.

“Hey, I didn’t know that at the time,” Kyle defended his brush with scary alien crap with determination. “I thought Larry could be a Mr. Nasty himself, or maybe an FBI guy. All I knew was that Maria wanted that tape and I had to get it or you guys were gonna’ fry.”

At that, Max had the good sense to nod uncomfortably. “Thanks, Kyle,” he managed.

“Whatever. But, listen,” he looked back up at him, hoping Max could hang with him here. “I don’t think you should tell Liz about her mom. She’s... I didn’t tell her. And I don’t think Maria did.”

Max nodded again. “Yeah. I will tell her, but not until after the wedding. Things have been really hard on her.”

Kyle looked past Max to where Liz was huddled up on the park bench, looking very lost and alone. “Ah, get the hell over there, Evans,” Kyle smirked at him. “No sense in making her any more miserable. Tell her you were very nice to me. It’ll make her happy.”

He gave a maniacal grin and started up the truck. Time for a long, distracting drive. Then home to face the music.

******

Liz yawned as she rested her head against Max’s shoulder. It wasn’t easy to sit like this in the Jeep, but years of practice had paid off and she managed to do it comfortably over the gear shift. The muscles in Max’s arm flexed against her face as he shifted gears, which she usually thought was kinda’ sexy. But tonight, her mind was otherwise engaged.

Right now they were about five miles from the cafe, which she knew just by looking at the shapes of the trees as they slid by on the quiet street. Neither of them seemed too eager to talk, probably for the same reason.

This day had been too long, and filled with too many horrible things. Liz’s mind kept drifting back to Maria’s accident, and to the alien hunter. She shuddered at the memory of what it felt like to have her body freezing... shutting down. She had honestly thought that she was going to die.

And before that, the talk with her mother. She didn’t even want to think about her mother. But she finally sat up and forced herself to break the silence. “Max, you never told me what my mother said when you went up to talk to her.” She noticed him grip the steering wheel tighter, but he didn’t say anything. “Max? What did she say?”

His eyes flickered around the road for a moment before he spoke. “We’re not done talking yet.”

Liz frowned and started to speak. She knew perfectly well that he had been very upset about it earlier, whatever it was.

“Liz,” his dark eyes held her gaze for a long moment. “I need you to let me talk to your Mom again. Alone.”

Liz watched him looking at the road, two distinctly different feelings warring inside her. Her mother had said something bad, something Max didn’t want to tell her. And the not-knowing was filling her with all kinds of dread. But on the other hand, he wanted Liz to trust him to take care of it. And she knew he was trustworthy.

“I promise I’ll tell you everything,” his quiet voice pulled her from her thoughts. “I just can’t do it right now.” He was watching the road, but his right hand crept over and covered hers warmly. She looked at his hand as it completely enveloped hers. So strong, but so tender. He could’ve taken Kyle down tonight easily, but he had deferred to her when she had asked him. How could she deny him anything he asked her?

“So, you will tell me everything... just not tonight, right,” she watched him carefully for clarification.

He squeezed her hand and glanced over with a smile, “Right. So, how’s Michael?”

Liz stared at him. Was that an abrupt subject change or what? She decided to let him get away with it. It wasn’t like she was dying to discuss her mother, anyway. “Well, he’s... actually, he’s about to wear a hole in the floor, trying to decide whether to kill Kyle or go see Maria.”

Max sighed. “I can’t believe he hasn’t even been in to see her yet.”

Liz just held up her hands and shook her head in agreement. “Don’t ask me. I just read his mind, that‘s all.”

Max grinned at her. “Can’t get him to listen to you?”

“No. It’s actually getting hard to get him to respond to me at all. There’s so much going on in there... and he’s used to me now. I’m just sort of a buzz in the background. You know?” She pulled one leg up and clasped her arms around it.

“So is it that way for you, I mean, just a background buzz,” Max’s voice sounded surprisingly vulnerable about this, even now.

“Yep. Exactly like that.” She hoped her easy answer would show him how silly his question was. There was a pause, and Liz could practically hear Max stressing out.

“Except when Michael gets ballistic, in which case that buzz actually takes over and you do things like attack Kyle,” Max said in a matter-of-fact way.

Liz stared at him. So that’s where his mind has been. “Umm... yeah,” she said hesitantly, feeling a slight burn on her cheeks. “I guess I sort of did, didn’t I?”

“Liz, I don’t like that. You would never attack Kyle on your own. It’s just not good that he can control you with his emotions.”

“He’s not doing it on purpose, Max,” Liz interrupted. “He just got upset. And he had every right to.” She pulled her other leg up and held them to her tightly. This whole thing was so awkward... so strange.

Max pulled over on the side of the road and put the Jeep in park. Then he turned to look at Liz with a steady gaze. “Didn’t want to have an accident over this,” he said jokingly.

Liz just nodded and waited.

“Liz, have you tried to break the connection lately?”

“No,” she said impatiently. “I told you there was no way to do it. Michael and I have both tried.”

“I know. I know that,” Max nodded his head, his eyes begging her to understand. “But I... let me see if I can say this right... I want my Liz back. I don’t like sharing you with someone else. And I don’t like seeing Michael in you.“

Liz was hurt, even though she didn‘t want to be. “I can’t help it, Max. If you wanted me, then this had to happen. We can’t just undo it-”

Max immediately touched his hand to her face, gently sliding his thumb over her lips. They were trembling against his finger and she saw the regret in his eyes. “I know, sweetness. I know you can’t help it. And nothing will ever make me not want to be with you. But I have to ask you to at least try. For me. Just because I want you all to myself.”

Liz looked down, assuaged in her fears that he was rejecting her. “I’ll try.”

Max pulled her over until she lay against him again. “You may not understand this, but a guy kinda’ wants to be alone with his girl on their honeymoon.”

Liz smiled at the teasing tone in his voice. “Really? Alone, huh,” she teased back. “That‘s absolutely shocking.” She felt a blush creep up her face and looked up from under her lashes to see him smiling and blushing, too. In just over a week, they would be....

She rolled her eyes at her thoughts.

And he was right, it would be nice to NOT have to share the moment, that’s for sure... although it hadn’t been a problem up ’til now... Liz sat bolt upright at her next thought. Had Michael been able to feel them every time they...

She looked over at Max, panicked, to see that he was as wide-eyed as she.

“Oh my god,” they both whispered, staring at each other.

Liz put a hand over her mouth as she heard a dry voice in her head.