Liz drew in a shaky breath. "Yeah. I just overreacted a little. I shouldn't have given Tess the satisfaction."

"I won't let her get to you like that again. I promise." Max wrapped a comforting arm around Liz's thin shoulders. "Come on. I'll be damned if I let ruin our evening. Let's go back inside and dance." Liz allowed herself to be led back inside the jam-packed room."

Maria was still fuming. Liz and Max may be able to forget and move on, but she certainly would not! This was the absolute last straw! How dare that gerbil show her ugly head again on prom night! Of all the things she could have done, why did she have to wreck all of their prom nights? The little wench had gone way too far! Maria voiced her opinion out loud. "I say that we should pay Tess back for doing this to us on prom night! She shouldn't be allowed to get away with this!"

The remaining three looked at each other doubtfully.

Surprisingly, it was Alex who agreed first. Quiet, humorous, peace loving Alex.

"Alex, Maria, we should just let this whole thing go," Michael managed to choke out, for it was obvious he was in pain from having pushed away possibly the last link to his past.

"Let it go?! Oh, so we just sit back and watch while Tess keeps striking when we least expect it? I don't know about you, but I for one, am not going to allow Tess to keep hurting us, most of all, Max and Liz. And I refuse to stand on the sidelines anymore and merely spectate while my best friend loses control over and over again. Liz is the most calm and rational person I know. For her to lose her temper like that means that she had to be pretty mad or hurt. Tess really needs to be taught a good lesson that she won't be likely to forget anytime soon!"

"Maria," Isabel began, trying to reason with her, "I'm not sure that Tess hasn't learned her ultimate lesson. She seemed really destroyed when she ran away. Maybe she was finally forced to accept that my brother and Liz are together and nothing she says or does will make any difference."

"Actually, Maria, Isabel does have a point. Tess did look really devastated."

Maria muttered something about stubborn, dense Czechoslovakians and a certain Czech's overly devoted doting boyfriend who would do anything she wanted.

"Oh, yeah? Are you sure that's not just wishful thinking? Tess was supposedly really devastated after Max went back to Liz two years ago. But here she is, back, again, as determined and bitchy as ever!" Maria screamed at them, desperately wanting them to see things her way.

"Look, Maria! We don't want to hurt Tess! How do you think she must be feeling right now? Max, Isabel, and I were her family, the only family she had left after Nasedo shapeshifted into Pierce to keep tabs on the FBI. And now that family had deserted her! How would any of us know what that feels like? Sure, I've had to live with Hank all my life, but I never considered him my family. And I knew that he had never given a damn about me, so I didn't really care about him when he disappeared. Not a single one of us has ever had that particular feeling of not being wanted before!" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Michael wished that he could take them back.

"Oh my gosh, Maria, I---" he attempted to apologize.

"Save it, Michael!" she snapped back the hurt and anger clearly evident in her eyes, "So none of us knows what it's like to be abandoned by family, huh? I guess that means my dad doesn't count?! Huh? Is that it? Or is it only that I'm not one of you guys that I don't count as 'one of us?' Just because Tess is 'one of you guys', it automatically makes everything she does forgivable. That she has a perfectly acceptable excuse for trashing my best frined's heart time after time after time? Or is it the fact that Tess holds some information to your past that you're willing to do anything to learn? Even if it means tearing up our hearts? After all, we're just humans, so what does it matter? As long as you get your precious questions answered, the rest of us can go to hell for all you care! Don't you know that every time she does something like this, Max is devastated, too?" Maria paused for a second to catch her breath. She knew that after saying what she was about to say next, she might as well rip out Michaels heart and trample on it, and he wouldn't know the difference. But it had to be said. She needed to get through to him somehow. "Or does that even matter to you, anymore?" Maria whispered so softly that Michael had to lean in closer in order to hear.

"And what it that supposed to mean? What the hell are you trying to say?"