"What?" Max had whispered nudging towards her, not wanting the kiss to end. Liz just moved away and Max opened up his mouth again.

"I have to go," was all she had said, beginning to slip out of the car. And then though she knew her father could see her, she leaned across the seat and kissed Max one last time. Max had been more than confused by her behavior, but when he turned around and watched her walk in the door and saw her father standing there - staring at him - his only impulse was to run. And so he had sped away in the jeep like a coward, leaving Liz to be met by the wrath of her father. Alone.

Mr. Parker didn't say anything for a time. He simply stood across from where Liz was sitting on the couch and waited. He waited for her to say something, to indicate something, to show that she was sorry, but Liz did nothing. Of all things, she seemed to have a content look on her face. A look that almost seemed to say nothing could ruin her mood at this time. Her mother walked in the room though, and then something did.

"This is ridiculous," were the first words out of her mother's mouth and Liz's head shot up at the comment. "Your father and I have been afraid to confront you about this, we've been too afraid you're still...I don't know - traumatized from, from everything," her mother sputtered and she paused and looked to her daughter. "But you really care a lot for this boy -"

"Max, mom - you can call him by his name," Liz said, uncharacteristically in defiance of her mother.

"Too much," her mother quickly said and Liz actually laughed at the comment.

"I care about him too much? You're saying - what, I can't - I can't care about a person? I can't be in a relationship with someone that I lo-" but Mr. Parker quickly spoke before Liz could finish what she was saying.

"Lizzie, you're in high school," he stated and her face wrinkled at the comment.

"What - what is that supposed to -"

"You're in high school and you're in this relationship most people don't get into until they're halfway done with their lives." The realization of the words coming from her parents caught Liz off guard and she didn't say anything. "Okay, and it's gotten to the point where -"

"It put you in the hospital, Liz!" her mother suddenly said, "he put you in a coma - what because you had a falling out? Because things got a little rocky between-"

"I wasn't in a coma," Liz said calmly, "and he did not put me into the hospital, he..." Liz stopped midsentence and looked up to her parents, signs of weakness beginning to show on her face. "He's the one who slept by my bed every night, not you -"

"And that's just it, Liz," her father said firmly. "You're putting him before us and before everything. You're in high school and you have too many other things -" Liz shook her head, knowing exactly where her parents were headed with the conversation.

"No," her jaw tightened and so did the muscles in her face. "No," she stated resolutely.

"No what? No, your boyfriend is more important than school?" her mother challenged.

"No, you have no right to control my life!" Liz fired and she stood up from the couch now.

"I say I'm your father and I do," Mr. Parker countered and Liz snapped her head around to look at him.

"That's what this is all about.." she shook her head in disbelief, "you're jealous of, Max."

"I'm jealous of Max?" Mr. Parker's mouth turned up at the notion - of his sixteen year old daughter telling him what he felt.

"You're upset because there's another person that I can go to -"

"That there's a person whose obstructing the way you live their life."

"Obstructing??" Liz almost yelled.

"Yes, obstructing. Since you've been with Max, he has obstructed your -"

"Since I met Max, I have been the happiest that I have ever been in my entire life," Liz said before her father could even finish his statement. "Why can't you be happy for me? Why can't you even open your eyes enough to *see* that? To see that I'm happy, that I'm....You - you're too busy...kicking Max out of my hospital room to realize that maybe..maybe I need him."

"You're sixteen, you don't know what you need," Mr. Parker mumbled incredulously.

"I know what love is," she said softly, not even believing where this conversation had gone and what she was saying to her parents. She didn't talk about stuff like this with her parents. "I know that -"

"Don't even say it, Lizzie," her mother put up her hands.

"That I love Max?" Liz looked to her mother, knowing it was that which she didn't want to hear. "That he loves me?" Neither of her parents said anything, it almost looked like they had been fearing the words. "Maybe if you actually just talked to him, if you talked to his parents, if you -"

"Lizze, there's no working around this -"

"No," Liz shook her head again, refusing to hear what she knew her parents were about to say.

"You and Max - "

"No," Liz interrupted, yet her father continued.

"Have to stop -"

"No," she shook her head and began to take small backwards steps towards the door.

"You have to stop seeing each other," he finally said. Liz had been fearing the words for the past two weeks, more importantly the past two minutes and it seemed unreal. And she knew her parents, well enough to know that they had probably talked to the Evans about it, that they would take measures to insure Max and her ended it.

"If you talk to his parents..." Liz said again, almost seeming to be in a daze. "We'll - we'll tone it down, okay we'll slow down our relationship, we - we won't -"

"You can't," Mrs. Parker said the words softly, and it wasn't so much of an attack as her other comments had been. "You can't. Liz, your father and I aren't blind. You and Max can't slow it down, you can't control it -" at the words hope began to fill Liz.

"Then you understand?" she asked desperately, holding back the cry beginning to rise in her throat. "I mean you said so yourself - you just said..." and then looking up at the firmness of her mother's face she began shaking her head and a tear dripped down her face and onto the floor. "You can't do this, mom."

"Lizzie, we're doing it 'cos we care about you - alright, this is..." her father held up his hand, "this is high school."

"If you realize that we can't slow down, if we can't....what makes you think we can stay apart?" she said through a blurry mask of tears in her eyes.

"Liz," what her father feared was coming true as he watched his daughter almost crumble and die in front of him and he hated to say the next words to her, the way that they sounded, but he was doing it for her. He was doing it because the way she was functioning now was a way she couldn't for the rest of her life. "Liz, you have to end it.." he stated firmly again, "or we will." She looked at her father, her face a mixture between total despair, confusion and hate. She began to back towards the door again and her mother called to her warningly. Liz didn't hear it though, all she heard was that final ultimatum from her father. All she heard was her father telling her and Max to do something that was impossible. Especially not now, not when they had so many things they still had to talk about and to confront. She thought about the unfinished kiss in his jeep less than an hour ago. The kiss she had been waiting for since she first opened up her eyes in the hospital bed.