Once they’d committed to the plan of trying out the blast, they’d realized they couldn’t very well perform it in Michael’s apartment. They were too uncertain of what would happen when Liz tried it, and they didn’t want to risk attracting attention. After racking their brains for a place to go that wouldn’t leave them exposed in the open like the quarry had, it had been Max who had finally come up with the reluctant solution of using the old abandoned soap factory near the edge of town. It would offer the safety of a large enclosed space, and there were no houses for miles around, so they should be safe from discovery.

Once here, they’d seen that it really was perfect for their purposes. There were only three entrances, one of which had been boarded up thoroughly enough that it had remained that way over the years, and there were hardly any windows in the place. The few that were here were nearly opaque with grime, and they were situated yards above their heads, so there was no chance of anyone looking in on them through their clouded glass. Unfortunately, they didn’t allow in much light either, and as it was nearing darkness outside anyway, it left the interior of the building gloomy and dark. Not to mention the fact that with no source of heat, it felt cold and damp inside.

It was the cold and the silent spookiness of a structure long-deserted that had Liz and Maria huddled together the way they were, rather than any sense of chumminess or real support they felt at the moment, but it was comforting to have another human body so near, nonetheless.

Maria hadn’t said much at all after her initial outburst over the news of Michael sleeping in Liz’s room, and the coolness she’d exhibited ever since affected Liz far more deeply than the dank winter chill of the building. She would’ve almost preferred that Maria rail at them rather than retreat into silence this way. It was so un-Maria-like, and Liz didn’t know how to counter it. To be thrust abruptly back into this tangled state of affairs after feeling the carefree joy that everything was finally getting back to the way it should be was distressing to say the least. For everyone involved.

As Liz watched her friend now with unhappy eyes, Maria stared fixedly towards the spot where Max and Michael had disappeared, and avoided her gaze.

Lowering her head briefly in remorse, Liz said quietly, “I’m sorry, Maria.”

Sighing, Maria finally turned to face her. “I know, Liz. You’ve said that like a hundred times. Stop apologizing, alright?” she said without heat.

Liz bit her lip and was silent for a moment, but she couldn’t stand feeling this wedge between them. Looking at Maria’s set face, she said apologetically, “How can I when I can see how upset you are about this?”

“I’ll get over it,” Maria returned flatly. At Liz’s slight wince, she said relentingly, “Look, I know you guys didn’t do anything wrong. I even think it was kind of noble for Michael to be willing to sit outside in the cold to keep you safe. The part I don’t get is why you let him spend the night with you when you had to have known how Max and I would feel about it. If someone had to stay with you, Liz, why couldn’t you just call Max?” she asked in a slightly resentful tone.

Liz looked away guiltily. Max had said the same thing last night when she’d told him. And in hindsight, she could see that that probably would’ve been the best solution. One that everyone could’ve lived with happily.

But informing Max over the phone in the middle of the night that she’d been thinking someone was watching her didn’t really seem like a great move, either. So maybe there just hadn’t been a solution that would’ve made everyone happy.

Subdued, Liz said again, “I’m sorry, Maria, but it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. And at the time, I just couldn’t think what else to do. You’re right, though. With everything as messed up as it is over this connection, we should’ve given your feelings more consideration. It was thoughtless of us.” With a look of remorseful appeal, she continued, “And until you can forgive us for hurting you like that, I can’t stop apologizing. Because I truly am sorry, Maria.”

Maria softened at the earnest sincerity of her words. She’d done her level best to react to all this rationally as Max had suggested, but rational just really wasn’t her thing. Especially when she was still a little thrown by all this connection business. To be fair, she couldn’t really blame Liz and Michael for any of it, though.

“I know,” she said softly in acceptance of Liz’s apology. “So you can stop now, okay? I forgive you.” Grimacing a little, she said, “I can understand why you did it and everything, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Liz made an apologetic face, but before she could say anything in reply, the guys returned from their reconnaissance of the building.

Max naturally gravitated to Liz’s side to slide an arm around her waist, and Michael came to a stop near Maria, eyeing her a bit uncertainly. Maria smiled faintly in return.

Dividing his gaze between the two girls, Max asked, “Everything okay?”

Liz threw a look at Maria before nodding in reply. “Yeah, it’s fine. You guys didn’t find anything?”

“No, it’s all clear,” Michael answered. “You ready to do this thing?”

Max felt Liz pull in a bracing breath, and although he was worried about her doing this, he mustered up an encouraging smile and gave her a little squeeze.

Knowing he needed the reassurance as much as she did, Liz returned the one-armed hug and nodded in answer to Michael’s query.

“Yeah. Where should we go?”

“There’s some empty crates in the back. Maybe one of those would make a good target,” Max suggested.

“Yeah, good idea,” Michael agreed.

The four of them moved to gather in the back part of the building, which had obviously been used for storage or warehousing at one time, as evidenced by the several large wooden crates that sat near the wall. With no windows for relief, it was considerably darker back here, and the deepening gloom made the silence feel thick and eerie.

Maria shivered. “I don’t remember this place being so creepy,” she said. “The scene of great humiliation and heartbreak, yes. Creepy, not so much,” she ended dryly.

The moment they’d walked in the door of the abandoned factory, Maria had been assailed by memories of the party they’d attended here almost exactly a year ago. That had been the night Michael had broken up with her only a week after they’d first gotten together, basically telling her that being with her was a huge mistake, and he never should’ve even gotten involved with her in the first place. He hadn’t used those exact words, but that had been the general gist.

Remembering the blow he’d dealt her that night was making her feel a little vulnerable. And it wasn’t helping that memories of that breakup were in turn stirring up plaguing thoughts of the dream she’d had last night, where she’d reminded Michael of his little speech from the party, and he’d told her that didn’t pertain to him and Liz. She had to remind herself that the dream hadn’t meant anything.

Michael and Liz both looked stricken by her words.

“Oh, Maria, I wasn’t even thinking,” Liz said, stabbed with remorse for once again being so thoughtless of Maria’s feelings. This was probably bringing back some painful memories for her at a most un-ideal time to have to deal with them. Deeply regretting the way he’d hurt her the night she was referring to, Michael hesitated uncertainly before lifting a hand to rest on her shoulder blade in silent apology. When Maria looked up at him he saw a brief flash of insecurity in her eyes, but then her lips lifted in the barest hint of a smile, and she brought her hand up to wrap around his forearm in acceptance of the gesture.

“Don’t worry about it, “ Maria told them both in dismissal of the subject. “Could you guys just do some kind of power thing and maybe get us some light?”

Lifting his palm toward the ceiling, Max granted her request, bringing the ancient overhead fixtures to life.

Briskly chaffing her arms, Liz said lightly, “Got anything in that hand that can do something about some heat?”

With a slight grin, he answered, “Your wish is my command.”

He lifted his hand again and a faint stirring in the air around them brushed against their exposed skin like a breeze that was barely there. Instantly the temperature in the room rose by at least twenty degrees.

Impressed, Maria said, “Pretty nifty bag of tricks you got there, girlfriend.”

Looking at him with a keen edge of scientific interest, Liz asked, “How’d you do that?”

Shrugging modestly, he said, “Just stirred up some molecules and heated them up.”

“Impressive, Maxwell,” Michael acknowledged. Rubbing his hands together, he said, “Okay, you got light and you got heat. We all set now?”

Tilting her chin up determinedly, Liz answered, “Yeah. I’m ready.”

She lifted her eyes to Max’s before moving from his side, and he brought a hand up to the back of her head and leaned down to kiss her briefly on the lips. Pulling back to look into her eyes, he tried to keep his anxiety from showing, and said reassuringly, “I’ll be right here if you need me, okay?”

The arm around his waist gave him a tiny squeeze. “Everything’s gonna be fine, Max,” she assured him in return.

Tightening his lips in a semblance of a smile, he nodded, then reluctantly released her so she could move to join Michael near the center of the room.

Once she stood beside him, Michael looked at her gaugingly and asked, “You okay?”

Nodding, she replied, Yeah. Nervous. But I’ll be fine.”

Michael could tell how nervous she was. He felt that way, too. What if she got seriously hurt this time trying to do this? He felt responsible for whatever might happen because this was basically his gift she would be using. And he felt like his experience with it should enable him to keep everything under control, but he didn’t know if he was going to be able to do that. Her nervousness and uncertainty was just increasing the jitteriness he was feeling.

Michael frowned suddenly. Or was that actually her nervousness he was feeling.

Seeing his frown, Liz asked with edgy sharpness, “What’s the matter?”

Shaking his head in dismissal, he answered, “Nothing.” Looking assessingly at the crates lined up against the wall, he pointed towards the largest of them a little over to their right. “That one ought to make a good target.”

Liz turned her head to look where he was pointing and nodded in agreement. Trying to control the nervous butterflies in her stomach, she blew out a short calming breath, and fixed her eyes on the crate.

“Okay, you know the drill,” Michael told her. “Just pull all your energy together, center in on the crate, and focus on the way you release your power. At this distance you won’t have to use that much, so take it easy, okay?”

Nodding, Liz lifted her palm toward the crate, and attempted to follow all his instructions. Gathering her energy and pulling it towards her center, she divided her concentration between an intense scrutiny of her target, the amount of energy she was going to release, and shaping the sort of explosive bolt it was going to take to achieve her goal. When she felt she had built her energy level high enough, Liz squeezed her eyes shut, and let it fly.

And nothing happened.

Opening her eyes, she looked at the crate in puzzlement, as if it could tell her what had gone wrong. Thinking that she just hadn’t focused it correctly, she tried again. She could still feel her energy humming electrically inside her, and she tried to pull still more from the furtherest reaches of herself to add to it, reasoning that maybe she just hadn’t attained the strength she needed to do the job. She remembered how powerful and violent the reserve of energy had felt inside her the last time. But no matter how high she tried to stoke the force inside her now, it just didn’t feel quite the same. It lacked that aggressive quality Michael’s energy had seemed to possess when they’d done this together.

When she thought she’d pooled as much as she possibly could, she held it together there, charged and seething, and let it gain in strength and velocity. She felt a strong pull from Michael’s direction, but she forced herself not to look that way to question him. She didn’t want them unintentionally connecting again while she was doing this. That could spell disaster.

Clenching his hands in his position beside her, Michael took a few precautionary steps away, and forced his energy to remain at bay. It was reaching toward Liz’s with a strength that was taking a large amount of willpower to contain. He didn’t want them connecting now either. He agreed that it could prove disastrous if that should happen.

Wait a minute, he thought, how could he agree when she hadn’t even said anything?

Liz was just about to release her pent-up energy for another try when she was startled to feel a familiar presence brushing against her consciousness. Michael?

“What?” he answered her unspoken question without thinking.

Their eyes flew to collide with one another’s when they realized what was happening, and in his surprise, Michael faltered in the struggle against his energy. It quickly escaped his hold, eagerly pulling free to join with Liz’s.

“Michael!” she said shrilly in panic when she felt it pouring inside to fill her.

His heart quickening with anxious dread, Michael tried to pull it back, but just as it had the last time, once the two forces had melded together, there was no separating them.

At his failure to call it back, he said harshly, “Just get rid of it! Don’t give it a chance to build up this time.”

Automatically, they reached for one another’s hands, although obviously they didn’t need to. Liz could feel the combined mass of energy inside her gaining momentum fast, and without giving it a chance to grow any further, she drew on Michael’s ability to hastily expel it in a violent eruption of power that blew the thick wooden crate to bits.

As the resulting particles rained down on their heads in a powdery dust, Max and Maria rushed to their sides. Ripping Liz from Michael’s hold, Max gently seized hold of her upper arms and looked her over worriedly.

“Are you alright?” he demanded.

Before she could do anything more than nod her head shakily, Max rounded on Michael angrily.

“What is your problem?! I thought it was understood that Liz was doing this on her own! Did you not get that? Why is it so beyond your capability to control your own power?”

“I tried to control it, alright?” Michael raised his voice in defensiveness. “I was fighting to keep my energy from reacting to hers, but somehow we connected anyway.”

Placing a calming hand on Max’s bicep, Liz said softly, “He’s right, Max. It wasn’t his fault. It was an accident.”

Tearing her concerned gaze from Liz, Maria frowned. “You made a connection from like five feet away without even touching? I didn’t know that was possible.”

“Well apparently it is,” Michael replied with a surly look at Max. He felt guilty for once again dropping the ball, and he resented Max for pointing it out.

Max returned his dark look with an equal measure of resentment, hating this connection, but hating this aspect of it especially when it kept putting Liz in danger. He’d just had another few years scared off his life when he’d understood what was going on, and he placed the blame for the whole thing squarely on Michael’s shoulders, fair or not. He felt like he was placing Liz within Michael’s keeping every time he gave the go-ahead for her to mess around with this thing, and each time he did, Michael let him down. While a part of him understood that there was just no guessing what would happen with this connection, it was really hard to listen to rationalities when Michael got his back up like this, and when his own emotions were running high on adrenaline.

While the two boys glowered at each other, Liz said in a conciliatory fashion, “Max, nothing really happened. I’m fine. It wasn’t like the last time. You were right, Michael. It seemed to help to do the blast right away. It didn’t give it a chance to get as strong.”

Giving Michael one last glare, Max turned to look down at her in concern. Cupping either side of her face, he tilted it up towards his and looked at her searchingly.

“Are you sure you’re okay? No headache this time?”

Bringing her hands up to wrap her fingers around his wrists, she looked deeply into his eyes and repeated, “I’m fine.”

Frowning, he said, “You’re shaking like a leaf.”

“It’s just a delayed reaction or something. It’s nothing,” she assured him.

With a final probing look, Max sighed and reluctantly let it go. Dragging her close within one arm, he half-turned towards Michael, and rubbed her upper arm gently to ward off her shivers.

“What happened? Did you even have a chance to try it on your own before you connected?” he asked Liz.

“Yeah, once,” Liz replied. “I couldn’t do it, but I thought maybe I was just doing something wrong. I was about to try again when I realized we’d formed a connection.”

“I still don’t get that,” Maria interjected. “So you can connect from a distance now?” she asked, trying to remain objective about it.

Liz looked at Maria somewhat apologetically. “I think that’s probably what we did when we shared that dream,” she said, transferring her gaze to Michael. “We weren’t touching then either, but I think we must’ve connected somehow.”

“So... how close do you think you have to be for it to happen? Can you just form one from anywhere?” Max asked with frowning consternation.

Somehow uncomfortable with the idea, Liz answered, “I don’t know. Do you want to test it?” she asked Michael, really wanting to know if it were possible that they could just connect at any time or place without intending to.

“Yeah, okay,” Michael agreed, uneasily wondering the same thing.

Liz gave Max a light squeeze before letting him go, knowing he couldn’t be very crazy about this either, then she and Michael put a distance of several yards between them. Looking at each other intently, they concentrated on forming a connection.

It formed instantly, and the suppressed emotional intensity that was Michael surrounded her.

A little disconcerted at how easily they’d accomplished that, Liz decided to test it further. Remembering how he’d heard her silently calling his name earlier, she tentatively thought the words again. Michael? Can you hear me?

At first she got no response, and she thought he hadn’t heard her. Then, she had a definite feeling that he’d said something to her in question, but she couldn’t make out any words.

I didn’t hear you, but I thought you asked me something. Can you hear what I’m thinking? she asked again silently.

Michael’s brows drew together, and with a slight shake of his head, he finally asked aloud, “Are you saying something?”

“Yes. Are you?” she returned.

“Yeah. I was asking if you were saying something,” he answered, his lips quirking.

Smiling, she said, “I was just asking if you could hear me.”

“I could tell you were trying to ask me something, but I couldn’t make it out.”

“Yeah, same here. So we can connect, but we can’t do the telepathy thing?” she said questioningly, asking his opinion.

“Looks like it,” he agreed. “Let’s move further apart. I wanna see if we can do this from anywhere.”

Liz glanced guiltily at Max and Maria before moving to do as he said, somehow feeling that she and Michael were doing something wrong. She suddenly questioned if it had been such a good idea to have them both here while she and Michael did this. She felt like they were excluding them from something important. And if she felt that way, she could only imagine how left out they must be feeling right now.

The subjects of Liz’s worries looked on in brooding silence as Michael and Liz moved to opposite sides of the room. The two of them were fighting similar feelings of exclusion and resentment, but it seemed to help a little to know that someone else was feeling exactly the same way, and they drew comfort in that. They also had to admit to a certain curiosity over the limits of this connection, so they knew these experiments were necessary. They were just going to have to grin and bear it.

When Liz and Michael had reached either end of the room, they turned to face each other, and reached out to try and connect once again.

After being unable to do so after a moment, Liz narrowed her eyes in concentration. She could clearly hear the distinct whisperings of his subconscious , but she was having trouble actually making a connection with him.

Michael was having the same difficulty she was. He thought he could feel her reaching out, but it was like stretching out to try and catch someone’s hand when something was preventing you from actually making contact. Like he couldn’t quite reach.

After trying repeatedly, it felt like they did finally manage to form some kind of peripheral connection, but it was more like they were just brushing up against one another’s inner energies, rather than feeling as if they had actually joined.

Again, Liz asked him mentally if he could hear her, and wasn’t surprised when she got no response. She couldn’t even sense his thoughts this time.

A subtle relaxing of their postures signaled the break of the meager connection, and Liz sighed gustily. That one had taken a lot of effort.

“Did it work?” Maria asked curiously.

“Kind of,” Liz answered.

“But barely,” Michael added.

“Yeah, I couldn’t hear what you were thinking at all. Could you?” she asked Michael.

He answered with a shake of his head.

“So, should we try it from further away?” Liz asked.

“We can try. But I don’t really think it’ll work.”

“Well, what about this thing with your energy?” Max asked, thinking back to last night. “You were practically on the other side of the complex last night when you said your energy reacted to Liz’s. Her energy level was really high, which probably had something to do with it,” he admitted with ruddy cheeks, knowing everyone here was aware of exactly why it had been so high. Smiling slightly, Liz lowered her eyes blushingly as well. With a quick glance in her direction, Max continued. “But I’m just wondering if distance has any affect on that.”

Michael looked at him narrowly. “Worried I might be able to tell the next time you start to get lucky?”

“Michael!” Maria said in wide-eyed protest. She couldn’t believe he would say something so crass, especially in front of Liz, who was blushing furiously now. He had to know how inflaming that would be to Max, Maria thought, looking uneasily at Max to gauge his reaction.

His jaw tight, Max struggled to hang onto his temper. Michael was already on shaky ground as far as he was concerned. He was really pushing it.

In a hard voice, Max replied, “Actually, I’m worried that if you ever have to do a power blast with Liz nearby, she won’t be able to keep her energy from reacting and joining yours.”

At that Michael fell silent. That hadn’t occurred to him. After what had happened a few minutes ago they knew the two of them were capable of doing the blast without a repeat of what had happened at the quarry. But the potential for danger was still there. It was just so unsafe to experiment with, he didn’t know if they would ever be able to find out all the absolutes of it. Until they did, it would probably always pose a threat to Liz. He should’ve thought of that before he’d shot his mouth off, Michael realized with an apologetic glance toward Liz.

His expression was a little cooler when he turned his gaze Max’s way but he said in reluctant conciliation, “Yeah, we should probably check that out.” Looking at Liz a little questioningly, he said, “I’ll just go out towards the front. I won’t actually use my power, but yell if you feel my energy charge, okay?”

Liz nodded without looking at him, a little miffed at him for embarrassing her, and for constantly sniping and pushing at Max the way he did.

With a tiny pang of regret, Michael turned to leave the room.

“I’ll come with you,” Maria stated rather than asked, and followed him out.

Liz watched them go and sighed. She couldn’t really be mad at Michael when she understood his motives, and she realized suddenly that she did know what was driving him in his snide remarks. Catching her and Max together at the club kinda had him wigged out for some reason.

Feeling the need to try and smooth things over between him and Max, she attempted to excuse him, saying, “He’s still just a little upset about what happened last night, Max. You know, seeing us together and everything.”

Max’s expression hardened. “I’m not exactly overjoyed about the whole event myself.”

“I know,” she said placatingly, laying a soothing hand on his chest and stroking lightly. “But you know how Michael is. He doesn’t think before he speaks. He just- reacts. If it’s any consolation, Maria’s probably out there giving him an earful right now.”

The corner of his lips tipped up at the thought and he admitted, “It is some consolation.”

They shared a wicked smile.

In the next instant, without warning, Liz’s inner energy pulled together sharply, as if someone had scooped it up within a large fist and yanked it into a heightened state of readiness in a fell swoop. The suddenness of it made her gasp.

“What’s wrong?” Max asked, alarmed.

“Um...” she said a bit shakily, “I think I understand a little better why Michael flipped out the way he did last night. This energy thing is a little...disconcerting,” she said in vast understatement.

If Michael had spent half an hour fighting this back, then it was no wonder he’d been so agitated, she thought, as the charged force rushed strongly within her. And her energy level combined with Max’s had probably been a lot higher than Michael’s was right now.

Relaxing when he realized nothing was wrong, a sound in the doorway of the storage area brought his head up to see Maria standing there.

“Okay, he’s doing it. Can you feel it?” she asked Liz.

“Yeah,” Liz answered dryly. “I can feel it.”

Poking her head out the opposite side of the door, Maria relayed the message to Michael, then after a moment turned back to tell Liz, “He’s gonna move further away. Tell him when you can’t feel it anymore.”

Liz nodded and waited for an abatement of the electrified coursing within her center, but even after several silent moments it was still raging just as strongly.

“Is he still moving?” she finally inquired of Maria.

Maria glanced outside. “Yeah. You can still feel it?” At Liz’s nod, she said, “He’s all the way to the door now.”

They heard the muffled sound of Michael’s voice, then Maria repeated for their benefit, “He’s going outside. Max, take my post, will you? I’m gonna go to the front door of the building.”

She left, and Max took her place so the two of them could act as go-betweens for Liz and Michael.

While Max and Liz waited, he watched from the doorway as she shifted restlessly and pulled in a deep breath.

“You okay?” he asked with concern.

“Yeah,” she answered. “Just...edgy, I guess.”

Studying her, he asked curiously, “What, um... what’s it feel like?”

She paused for a contemplative moment before replying. “Like... my energy is fully charged and waiting to be used, and it’s kinda like it’s straining to reach something. To reach Michael,” she amended, somewhat apologetically. “I can feel him pulling at me.” She made a face. “I guess that’s how he found us last night. It would probably pull me right to him if I let it.”

Ignoring the small twinge of jealousy her words aroused, he said, “Not that I want you to try it, but do you think you could do the energy blast now?”

Liz hesitated, then said, “For some reason, I don’t think so. It seems like I have to be connected to Michael before I can do it, and I don’t think we could actually connect from this distance.”

She heard Maria say something from the front door, and Max told Liz, “She said he’s pretty far away now. You can still feel it?”

After a brief internal check, Liz replied, “Yeah. I feel it, but I don’t think it’s quite as strong now.”

He repeated her answer back to Maria, and they heard her calling to Michael outside.

Max moved back into the room with Liz and told her, “He’s coming back.”

Liz felt the strength of the power inside her begin to dim, then die down slowly, and it took a moment of concentration to pull it back into place. Absorbing it was still an effort for her, and it demanded her full attention, but it didn’t take long to complete the task.

Michael and Maria came back into the room, and his eyes met Liz’s before they both looked away, not quite sure how all this sat with them.

“So I guess it reaches pretty far,” Michael said after a short, awkward silence. “I was probably about 30 yards away and I could still feel it pretty clearly.”

“Yeah, um... me too,” Liz agreed.

“So, what exactly did we just learn here?” Maria asked for clarification. “You can like, sense each other’s energy from far away, but you can’t actually connect? Does that mean Liz can or can’t do the power blast?”

Michael and Liz looked at each other in conferral, and Liz said, “I don’t think I can. You can go back in the other room and we can give it a try,” at this she glanced at Max, as though asking for his assent, and told him, “But I really don’t expect it to work.”

Max hesitated, then said, “As long as we’re doing this you might as well make sure.”

That agreed, Michael left the room again, and shortly after, Liz felt the sharp rushing course of her energy. She’d been more prepared for it this time, but the sudden intensity of it still took her breath away.

She turned away to face the crates once more and did her best to produce a blast, but again, it didn’t happen.

“Okay, somebody tell him to do one out there and see what happens.”

“Liz,” Max protested.

“You said we should make sure, Max. And I really don’t think anything will happen. Just tell him to do a little one,” she said in appeasement.

Max wanted to object further, but he put his trust in her instincts, and kept silent.

Maria told Michael what they wanted him to do and was met with a long silence from him.

Finally, he asked, “And Max is okay with this?”

He wasn’t sure it was such a great idea. Not since Max had raised his concern over it. Why had he suddenly changed his mind?

“Um... maybe not completely,” Maria said vaguely. “But Liz doesn’t think anything will happen.”

Feeling doubtful, Michael wondered if she was 100% sure about this. Reaching out with his mind, he tried to connect with Liz, or at least get a sense of her feelings, but he couldn’t seem to reach her. He could feel the vibration of her energy answering to his, but nothing more specific than that.

At his hesitation, Maria encouraged him softly, “Go on, Michael. They both said to do it. Just make it a weak one if you can.” Finally deciding to bow to everyone else’s judgement, Michael looked around searchingly for a target, and found it in a small cluster of faded buckets that sat in the corner. Glancing behind him to make sure Maria was well out of the way, he lifted his hand to take aim.

“Get ready,” Maria told Liz in warning.

Without conscious thought, Liz braced herself at the words of caution, and faced the crates in a state of readiness, just in case.

She stood there waiting for the unknown with heart pounding, unable to believe in that moment that she’d suggested this. In the instant before she heard the small explosion from the outer room, a powerful shockwave rippled through her, making every inch of her skin tingle fierily as her energy seemed to explode against the confines of her flesh from the inside. The abrupt plummet of the surging power sent her reeling, and she staggered and might have fallen if it hadn’t been for Max, who had miraculously appeared at her side to catch her.

“Are you okay?” he rasped, frowning with worry.

“Fine. I’m fine,” she assured him breathlessly.

Pulling her into his arms, he held her tightly and said pleadingly, “No more experimenting with it today. That’s enough, okay? Please?”

Nodding in wholehearted agreement, Liz clutched at him and tried to halt her trembling.

Max could feel her wobbling on legs that were obviously unsteady, and without a second thought, he bent to scoop her up into his arms and lift her against his chest.

“Max!” Liz protested on a choked spurt of surprised laughter. “Come on, put me down. I’m fine.”

“You’re just gonna have to allow me this he-man moment, Liz,” he said unapologetically, as he carried her towards one of the shorter crates against the wall. “You’ve stopped my heart one too many times today,” he said in excuse.

Melting into compliance, Liz tilted her head to rest her forehead against his temple, and tightened her arms around his neck.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized softly.

Hovering anxiously at Max’s back, Maria followed them over to the crates, where Max sat down and cradled Liz on his lap. “Are you sure you’re alright, Liz?” she asked with distress.

“I’m okay, Maria,” Liz said reassuringly. “It was just like this shockwave or something went through me when he used his powers.”

Michael went hurrying into the room as soon as he’d performed the blast, and when he saw Max apparently coddling Liz as she sat on his lap, his stomach dropped. Rushing over, he dropped to his haunches in front of them, and laid a hand on Liz’s arm.

And suddenly, he knew for a certainty that she was fine.

“You’re okay,” he stated in relief. A bit unsettled by the realization of how he knew that, he looked at her uncertainly and told her, “I can feel it.”

“Yeah, I- I can tell,” she replied in abashment, as she became aware that nothing more than the simple touch of his hand on her arm was allowing them to become in tune with each other’s emotions.

Their eyes locked as that information settled in upon them, and Max and Maria witnessed the entire exchange with a sense of dismayed resignation.

Just as she’d predicted, Maria thought gloomily as she watched them.