He closed his eyes and pressed on his right temple. “It’s the best thing for her and the baby. I don’t want them getting hurt, Is.”

“What about Maria being pregnant, Michael? How far along is she?” Isabel asked.

“I don’t know; this was the first I’d heard about it.”

“Way to use protection, Michael.” Tess shook her head, and Michael lunged at her.

“Hey, hey, you guys, calm down,” Alex said, stepping between Michael and Tess.

Kyle wrapped his arm protectively around Tess, and Michael dropped his shoulders, walking to the other side of the group.

“I know we’re all a little tense,” Alex began in his psychiatrist tone, “but we need to stick together. Liz and Maria haven’t even been gone for an hour.”

Max stepped up and put his hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Alex is right. We need to stick together. First, we need to finish covering our tracks. In a few months, Maria and Liz are going to be back here with our children”—Max paused at this realization, his child—“so we need to make sure their families know, but without them having to see Maria or Liz very often. Liz is pretty much covered, though her mom’s going to be a bit of a problem.”

“How’s that?” Kyle asked.

“Well, she wants to throw a baby shower…” Max began.

“And once Amy finds out, she’ll want to do a double shower for both of them,” Tess interjected. She paused, turning to Kyle. “You and your dad can work on your step-mom to make it at least small.”

“So you can take care of everyone actually seeing Liz and Maria every once in a while?” Max asked.

“I’ll make them see Liz and Maria whenever necessary, though a big party would be kind of a drain.”

“Ok.” Max ran his hand through his dark hair and started pacing the length of the pod chamber, listing off everything that needed to be done.

* * *

Liz knew she had been holding Maria and Serena’s hands when they left, but, at that moment, she could feel nothing except that her breathing was constricted. All of her senses were numbed. She could feel nothing, see nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing, taste nothing. The darkness wasn’t even blackness; it was an absence of sight, as though she were blind.

Just when she thought she was going to pass out from lack of oxygen, she could feel again, squinting at the sudden light, despite its dimness, and gratefully squeezing Maria and Serena’s hands. Suddenly, Liz felt her knees buckle, and the last thing she saw before blacking out was a horrified look on Serena’s face as two small pairs of arms caught Liz.

* * *

Max shut off the lights in the UFO Center before locking the door. He looked up and down the street and began his walk home.

At Brody’s urging, he had double majored in Business and Computer Science and now made a comfortable salary programming and setting up websites for a variety of companies. Brody let Max use his constantly upgraded equipment whenever he wanted, and, in exchange, Max would do odd jobs around the UFO Center.

Liz had only been gone for a few weeks, but Max had already fallen into a routine. He woke up early and worked at his home computer all day before walking to the UFO Center and working for hours every night. He could have driven, but it was only a few miles’ walk, and he liked the exercise. He wasn’t worried about being alone at night, and he enjoyed the cool air.

Brody had expressed some concern over Max’s long hours, but Max had managed to dodge everyone else’s questions—as well as generally avoiding everyone altogether. Without the weekly get-togethers Liz and Maria had always organized, as well as the occasional in-law dinners to keep the parents happy, Max saw his friends and family very little. Alex and Isabel lived in Las Cruces, where Alex could work on his master’s in Psychology at New Mexico State and where Isabel worked as a social worker. He never saw Kyle and Tess especially often anyway, and Michael was wrapped up in his own thoughts without Maria to pry him out of his shell. Max had avoided his parents’ invitations to dinner several times by saying that he had work to do or that Liz, in her condition, wasn’t feeling up to it.

Looking at all the Christmas decorations on his walk home, Max sighed. Liz had always loved Christmas. She had even put up a tree before she left. He would have to go to Christmas dinner at his parents’ house in a few days. Tess would need to be there to mind warp them.