'It sounds amazing,' said Liz shaking her head and staring at Alex.

Her hair was loose and fell on her shoulders, almost touching the table as she leant forward. Alex was still very exited by his trip and kept making large movements with his arms whilst describing the places and things he had seen. His eyes were wide open and Liz was happy to see him smiling.

All this agitation finally caught Maria's attention. Nobody was allowed to have an interesting conversation without Maria being there. She therefore made her way to Liz and Alex's table, and asked:

'All I wanna know is who's that girl on the photo you showed us yesterday night.'

"Maria!" Liz was shocked at the directness of the question.

'It's OK. I can answer that. Well I have to if I want to be in peace for the next 10 years of my life. Her name was Helena. She was a friend of the family I was staying with. We met the day when .'

'Shaun!' said Liz looking half surprised, half disappointed.

Maria rolled her eyes, looked at the ceiling, 'Always good timing Shaun!'

'Am I interrupting something?' asked Shaun sliding in next to Liz at the table.

'I don't think you're welcome here,' said Alex, looking concerned now, and understanding that the girls were not too happy with Shaun showing up.

'Coffee please, Maria,' demanded Shaun, looking determined to stay.

Maria left for the kitchen as she couldn't face another argument with that cousin of hers. She didn't really know him very well as he had spent the last few years in prison. Anyway, she was glad that he wasn't really related to her. Shaun was an adopted child; thank God they didn't share the same blood. She was just sorry for her Uncle Charley and Auntie Mag having to put up with him.

Liz wasn't really happy. Alex had been finally opening up to them and the troublemaker had interrupted. It was best to stay polite, though. If Shaun was back in town it was better not have him as an enemy; he was Maria's family after all.

'Here's your coffee Shaun.' Maria was looking furious and turned on her heels very quickly. However, Shaun wasn't going to let her go that easily.

'Will you give me a lift back home after your shift? Mum wanted to see you and I promised I'd bring you back.'

She had no choice other than to accept. Maria really liked her Auntie Mag and she also knew that with her birthday only a week away it was good to keep her sweet.

'Ok then,' she replied.

****

The café was shut and Liz was meticulously cleaning and arranging pots of sugar behind the counter. She enjoyed these moments of calmness in this place which was more often busy and noisy. She hadn't notice that Max had been observing her from behind the glass door for a few minutes.

He wanted so much to talk to her, but did not know how and where to start. Since their separation they hadn't been talking much. But he needed comfort and Liz was the person he was looking for in those difficult moments. He knocked on the door.

Liz looked up as she heard a knock on the door. Max was staring at her from the other side of the window. A shiver ran down her spine; she had seen this so many times in the past and recently she had hoped so much for it to happen again. She enjoyed staring at him for a few seconds before making her way to the door.

She was looking so cute in her little green alien suit. The whole scene felt like slow motion. Her walk between the counter and the door lasted forever, but eventually she was there, unlocking the first lock, then the second and then here they were looking into each other's eyes.

It was Liz who broke their silence. 'Max, are you OK?'

'I feel awful,' he said, lowering his head.

'Take a seat. Do you want something to drink?'

And it was like before again. Before Tess arrived, before they learnt about their destinies, before the future Max paid a visit to Liz. Before it all went wrong. And here they were talking to each other like they were best friends again. Max was feeling really down after being partly responsible for the Sheriff losing his job. Liz was more than happy to listen and comfort him. She was a good listener.

They had been there for at least two hours when Liz realised that it was getting late. She felt the need to be more comfortable. It would be nice to go up to her bedroom and carry on the discussion there. There were two problems though. Would the fact of moving break the atmosphere of confidence? Even more importantly would it be an inappropriate suggestion? They had just discovered that they could talk again as good friends - would that suggestion be a bit too pushy and be misinterpreted by Max?

Liz must have been looking a little distant as Max stopped talking. 'Are you tired?' he asked.

She saw an opportunity. Maybe Max knew what she was thinking and was trying to help her. 'I'm just a bit uncomfortable sitting on this chair.'

'We used to be more comfortable,' he said, with an encouraging smile.

'Maybe .' she said hesitating, 'we could go up to my room.' But she didn't move; she was paralysed.

The seconds Max took to react felt like an eternity. To Liz's relief he stood up and held out his hand towards her.

Once upstairs, the atmosphere didn't change. They kept talking and talking, and Max seemed to feel much better about himself.

There was a knock on the door.

Liz jumped. She had once again lost track of time. 'It must be my dad back from the meeting. Wait on the balcony.'

Both knew that although it was ok for Max to be in Liz's bedroom during the day, it was different in the evening; especially with nobody home. Max agilely jumped through the window and leant against the outside wall. Liz's dad wasn't going to be long and he wanted to properly say goodnight to Liz. To his surprise it wasn't Liz's dad, but Shaun. 'Hi Liz, how are you tonight?'

Liz was shocked and she gaped silently at Shaun. When she recovered from her surprise she asked, 'How did you get in?'

Shaun didn't answer the question. 'I like being round you and so I thought we could spend the evening together. Is this chair comfy? Let me try.'

Shaun was being a little too forward for Max's liking, but he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to show himself. If Shaun was to see him there it would create far too many problems - and that was the last thing they both needed, more problems. It was better to stand back and listen.

'I'm happy to see you' he heard Shaun say.

'I'm happy to see you ' replied Liz.

'I'll follow you' Shaun added.

'I'll follow you' repeated Liz.

There were then noises of things being moved round in Liz's bedroom. Max couldn't believe that Liz had agreed to follow Shaun and that now she seemed to be packing her bag. It was typical of her. She was just being nice towards Shaun because she felt sorry for him, rejected as he was by the group. 'I don't need to take anything with me,' said Shaun.

'I don't need to take anything with me,' repeated Liz.

Suddenly Max understood. Shaun seemed to be controlling Liz's mind. Max jumped out from behind the window, ready to launch himself at Shaun. But Shaun created a shield of energy between himself and Max, just the same as Max was able to produce. Max instinctively knew what to do, he knew how to produce this shield and so knew how to penetrate it. He stretched out his hand and let a flash of lightening attack the base of Shaun's hand, making the shield disappear. Liz was really scared. Shaun was another alien and he knew what he was doing.

****

Max saw Shaun throwing something at him and then it went dark for a few seconds. The next thing he knew, he was in the desert in the valley next to the pod chamber. Shaun and he were standing in the middle of an alien geometrical design. The design suddenly started turning anti-clockwise and the sky changed from a clear blue to a threateningly pinky-purple. The sand became unnaturally orange. The most spectacular change, however, was that which Shaun and Max went through. They were no longer wearing their everyday clothes. Both were wearing black trousers made from a strange shiny material. Shaun had a grey loose shirt with a black belt. Max was wearing a white shirt equipped with a weird circuit that fitted over his shoulders like pads. Both were carrying a piece of what appeared to be an ordinary metallic tube, which was about the length of their hand. Max couldn't recall being in this situation before; but once again, he knew exactly what to do. He started concentrating his mind on the object in his hand and was surprised that it started to work with such little effort.

In her bedroom, Liz saw Shaun throw something at Max which looked like dust, but which was glistening. The dust surrounded the two boys and she then saw them disappear. Just a second after the dust itself vanished Liz was left alone. Everything had happened so quickly that she had problems remembering firstly how Shaun got in her room, then why Max attacked him, and how they disappeared. Panicking, she didn't know what to do. In that kind of situation everybody would normally say, 'Call Max'. But this time he was the one in trouble and although she totally trusted Michael, Tess and Isabel, she felt lost and lonely.