Max couldn’t stand to see her suffering even the slightest discomfort and he quietly slid the window open, climbed through and made his way over to the side of her bed. Though his brain was shouting warnings that he shouldn’t move any closer, his deaf heart pushed him to sit down on the bed beside her. She was still turning restlessly, her back to him.

“Max…”

The pained sigh was enough to shear his heart in two. Ever so gently, he lowered himself onto the bed pressing lightly against her back and encircling her with his arms. He inhaled sharply at the contact with her skin. Holding her, he felt like he was coming home. A small sigh escaped her lips as she snuggled back against him.

“Shh, I’m here. It going to be alright.” He whispered into her hair, reveling in the silky feel of it against his face.

Her eyes fluttered open and she turned in his arms to face him. “ You’re here.” She wasn’t sure why he’d come but she didn’t care. She was in his arms and she didn’t want him to leave…ever. Max stared at her with such intensity that she felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine. He was absently running his hands through her hair when she pulled him to her tightly and he found his face in her soft dark strands again.

“Please don’t leave me again.”

The ferocity of her plea made Max feel like his heart was being pressed in a vice. Crushing her to him, he managed to choke out “Never.” He pulled back so that he could look at her face again. Tears had found their way down her cheeks and the moisture shimmered in the moonlight streaming in through her window. Almost reverently he traced their paths down her smooth skin and bent down to kiss them away.

His lips on her face felt hot and cold at the same time. She guided his mouth to hers and they sank into each other, overwhelmed by the longing they had been fighting for so long. Feelings washed over them in waves, relief, need and love, swirling around them so intensely that neither could single out the other’s. Liz opened her mouth to him, and Max sighed against her lips and deepened the kiss, sliding his hands down to the small of her back and pressing her more tightly against him. Liz was running her fingers through his short dark hair as small helpless sounds escaped her throat. Max tore his mouth from hers, leaving them both gasping for air and rained light kisses down her throat to the top of her pajamas trailing fire with his touch. Liz ached to have him closer and she wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, delighting in his resulting moan.

Then suddenly her arms were empty. Liz blinked and looked around her room to find him standing at the window looking on helplessly as Kyle got into bed with her. The force of his pain nearly bowled her over and she jumped out of bed screaming after him “Max no! Wait!” but by the time she had reached her window, he was gone. Liz woke up with tears streaming down her face as she shook with the force of both their pain, pain she had caused. Nothing was going to soothe the emptiness in her heart.

Max was snapped awake from the vision of Kyle taking his place in Liz’s bed. His pillow was wet with tears and he balled his fists in his sheets to keep from throwing his bedside lamp across the room. He was sure Liz had been dreaming the same dream. He could feel her pain slice through him when she had seen him in the window. He just wished he knew why she was forcing them apart.

***

It was a busy night for a Monday at the Crashdown. Maria was frantically running around tending to a family of six and two disgruntled truckers who were complaining about the broken milkshake machine. Max and Isabel were seated at their usual booth with homework spread out in front of them. A strained silence hung over their heads as they tried to concentrate on their work. Max still hadn’t been able to get Isabel to talk about what had happened at Copper Summit. Every time he tried to broach the subject she would either quickly change it to something else or insist she wasn’t ready to talk about it.

He hadn’t had any better luck with Liz. She was trying to avoid him like the plague. Izzy pushed herself out of the booth, mumbling something about freshening up and headed for the washroom. Liz hurried past on her way back to the kitchen when Max suddenly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards him. He felt a hum of awareness at the feel of her small arm in his hand. Her skin felt so soft and Max felt all his pent up desires come flooding to the surface, but Liz quickly tore her arm from his grasp, almost as if she were afraid.

“Let go of me Max.” The harshness of her words made them both flinch.

“Look Liz, I know something’s not right here. Why won’t you tell me the truth? I know you don’t love Kyle, so why are you pretending…”

“I’m not pretending Max. Can’t you just move on?” She started to tremble slightly with the effort of keeping all she wanted to tell him at bay. “I have work to do.” She sounded so cold. She forced her feet to take her as quickly as possible to the back of the café.

“I can’t! I won’t Liz! Not as long as you keep lying to me.” He called after her. His words stopped her just short of the swinging door. She couldn’t turn around. She knew if she did she would be lost. Taking a deep breath, she pushed though the door to the other side. Her refuge.

Maria stood behind the counter watching the whole bizarre scene. Something was definitely not right with her friends and come hell or high water she was going to figure out what was going on. Forcing Agnes off her stool and into the café to actually serve customers, Maria shot Max a look of 'If this is your fault I’ll kill you' and went to the back of the café.

Max sighed; maybe Maria could get Liz to tell her what was going on. But something told him that Maria’s obligations to Liz as her best friend significantly outweighed her obligations to him, so he figured he still wasn’t going to find out the truth…yet.

Maria found Liz busily tidying up the back room. “Liz, babe, you O.K.?”

“What? Oh, Maria. Um… yeah, I’m fine.” She answered without turning to look at her friend.

“Cause, you didn’t look O.K. a minute ago. What’s going on with you and Max?” Maria looked at her friend hopefully. In her opinion, it was about time those two got back together.

“Nothing. Nothing’s going on”

“O.K. chica, I can tell you’re not going tell me why you and space boy out there are acting like a couple from a Greek tragedy so I’ll leave it…for now. When you remember I’m you’re best friend and decide to let me in, you know where to find me.” And with that, Maria left Liz to her thoughts. Her words stung them both. Liz suddenly felt so alone. A single tear found its way down her cheek and fell to the lapel of her uniform. ‘I’m just going to have to be stronger’ she thought to herself as she picked herself up emotionally and went back out to face the crowd and the one young man who could melt her last ounce of resolve.

By about nine o’clock business in the café had slowed to a trickle and Maria leaned back against the counter in an effort to straighten her aching back. Liz was trying everything she could think of to keep from looking at Max. She could feel his eyes on her all night. Isabel had left an hour ago, saying something about wanting to take a bath and go to bed early. Since then, Max had forgotten entirely about his homework and fell back into old habits. His stare still held the same power over her. As she served customers, she fought back images of happier times together, before they had known anything about this destiny crap. She felt a familiar warmth creep up her neck as she remembered the feel of his hands on her skin, and the taste of his lips against hers. She put her hands against the counter for a moment and bowed her head, willing back the storm of emotions brewing inside her.

Max was also reeling from the rush of memories. He sat back in the booth and closed his eyes, recalling that night they had spent in the overturned van while hiding from the FBI when he had told her he loved her. It was singularly the best moment of his life. When she told him she loved him back, his heart soared. Being with Liz made him feel human, like anything was possible. He came crashing back to reality when he heard Liz take a deep breath and move off to serve the remaining customers in the café.

Over the low din of cutlery on plates and muted talking floated a soft and soulful song.

Come to me now
Lay your hands over me
Even if it’s a lie, say it will be alright
And I shall believe

The song stirred what almost felt like a memory within Max, but he didn’t have time to think about it. A sudden searing pain ripped though his chest and he heard Liz let out a harsh sob followed by the crash of dishes hitting the floor.

“Liz!!” Maria rushed over to her friend who was now kneeling on the floor staring at the broken plates, breathing heavily. Max was in mid-flight to her side, when a look from Maria stopped him in his tracks. ‘You’re just going to make this worse’ she said with her eyes and Max reluctantly kept his distance as Maria helped a seemingly speechless Liz toward the back apartment.

“I think you’ve had enough for one night kiddo.” She whispered in her ear as she helped her up the stairs to her room. Once there, Liz sat limply on her bed, staring at nothing Maria could discern.

“Rest Liz. You look like you haven’t slept in days. I’ll check in on you after I’ve closed” ‘And I after I have a little heart to heart with a certain tall dark and brooding Czechoslovakian’ she thought to herself on her way back downstairs.

Maria burst back into the dining area in a flurry of words. “Alright Max, what did you do to her, cause I know if Liz is suffering it has something to do…” A hand on her arm stopped her short.

“He’s gone Maria.” It was Michael. In the light of the drama that had been unfolding throughout the evening, Maria had totally forgotten that Michael had been working in the kitchen.

“Gone, what do you mean gone?” She wasn’t feeling up to one of her usual fights with her on again off again alien boyfriend.

“Just what I said Maria, Max left. He helped me clean up the broken dishes and took off.”

“How could he just leave like that? Liz practically had a heart attack for no apparent reason and her supposed soul mate just takes off? I don’t get it.” She exclaimed completely exasperated.

“Neither do I. Ever since a few days ago, Max has been moping around like it’s the end of the world. I haven’t been able to get him to tell me why. Not like he would, Mr. I’m in Charge of the World Evans. Something is definitely going on,” Michael agreed.

“Well that’s one thing we agree on.”