School had officially ended and hour ago, but Max had to stay after to take his make-up Trig test. He had just finished it and now it was time to go home so it wouldn't be at all inconvenient for him to swing by the Crashdown on his way. By the time Max got to his locker he changed his mind again. She was okay. He would know if something were really wrong and anyway, Liz had a lot to deal with. All she needed was time. He had to have faith in her.

"Max."

Max looked and saw Liz standing behind his locker door. He was so preoccupied with thoughts of Liz, he didn't even hear her come up.

"Liz," Max said as he closed his locker. He was so relieved to see her. "Are you okay? I haven't seen you all day."

"I, uh, yeah, I wasn't feeling well. I didn't get much sleep last night, so my mom let me sleep in. I saw Maria at the Crashdown after school and she said you were still here so I had her drive me over," Liz explained and looked hesitantly at Max. "I was wondering if we could talk."

Max tried not to get excited, but he couldn't help it. Liz wanted to talk! Max nodded and followed Liz toward the exit. When they got outside, Max led Liz in the direction of the jeep. He hated the silence between them, but he didn't want to seem too eager, he had to let Liz go at her own pace. "So where do you want to go?" Max asked when they got to his jeep. He stood next to it as Liz climbed in and then he walked around the jeep and climbed into the driver's seat.

"Not my place," Liz paused and looked at Max hesitantly.

Max thought she almost looked scared, but he couldn't be sure. Max almost suggested the pod chamber, but decided against it. The last time Liz was there wasn't a good memory for either of them.

"Could we go to your place?" Liz asked finally.

Max nodded and started the jeep. He hoped his parents weren't home. He could easily get rid of Isabel, but his parents would probably want to talk to Liz.

The ride over to Max’s was quiet. Max put the radio on so Liz wouldn’t be forced to talk. He could tell she was nervous. She kept clasping and unclasping her hands and she was obviously forcing herself to look straight ahead and not at him. When Max pulled in his driveway, he saw his parents weren’t there which was a relief. Liz and Max got out of the jeep and walked up to the house. Max opened the door and went inside with Liz following him. After Max closed the door, he turned to Liz and smiled. “You go ahead to my room. I’m going to see if Isabel is here.”

Liz nodded and headed in the direction of Max’s bedroom. Max watched her go then headed to the kitchen. Isabel was sitting at the table flipping through a textbook.

“Iz, are Mom and Dad around?” Max asked.

Isabel looked up from her book. “They called a little bit ago, they’re going to stay in Albuquerque one more night. You wanna go grab something to eat before we meet Tess and Michael at the Granolith?”

“Liz is here,” Max said simply knowing Isabel would understand what he wanted.

“Oh.” Isabel stood up and closed her book. She turned to her brother and smiled. “I’ll make myself scarce then and if you aren’t at the Crashdown by 8, I’ll explain to Tess and Michael that we’ll meet another night.”

“Thanks, Iz,”

Isabel smiled at her brother and headed out the back door. After she left, Max grabbed a couple of sodas from the fridge and headed toward his room. When Max got to his room, Liz was sitting on his desk chair waiting for him. Max carefully closed his door and walked over to Liz. He offered her a soda, but she refused so he put both sodas on the desk. He then walked over to his bed and sat down across from Liz. Liz was looking at her hands, waiting.

“You said you wanted to talk,” Max said finally when she didn't say anything.

Liz jumped slightly at the sound of his voice and looked up at Max. "There's something I need to tell you. It's gonna sound pretty outrageous, but it's true. I thought about letting you connect with me so you could see it for yourself. So you could feel what I've been going through, but…I think I just want to tell you Max. I think I need to say it aloud, as much to convince you as to convince myself that it really did happen." Liz paused and looked at Max hesitantly. Max could see the pain in her eyes and his heart cried out to her. "God, Max, I've been so lost this past week. I've felt so alone and scared. I did what I thought I had to do, but now I just don't know," Liz said quickly barely taking time to breathe. "I'm sorry I misled you and I'm sorry I hurt you. I just…"

"It’s okay Liz. Everything is going to be okay. I knew in my heart you wouldn't betray," Max whispered. "I was just so hurt when I saw you…" He wanted to go to her now and take her into his arms, but he stopped himself. She looked like she would run at any minute. He couldn’t push her.

Liz sighed and looked up at Max. "I couldn't believe what you showed me Max. That was really me in your previous life. It was so unreal, but somewhere inside I know it to be true."

Max smiled slightly. "It was you I wanted to marry in my last life Liz, not Tess. I was in love with you. It's always been you."

Liz hesitantly returned Max's smile then looked away. "After you left last night, I replayed what you showed me in my mind and somehow more memories came to me. I don't understand how, but they did," Liz explained and looked to Max. "I remember I was so in love with you, Max. But it wasn't meant to be. You were going to be king and I couldn't be part of that. I didn't want you to be forced to choose between me and your family, so I chose for you. I thought I was doing the right thing. Kind of like I thought I was doing the right thing when I deceived you about Kyle." Liz stopped and looked down.

"Liz, why did you think it was the right thing to do something so drastic?" Max asked unable to keep silent. He needed to know.

"I don't know where to start,” Liz sighed and began looking around the room. She looked everywhere, except at Max. “So much has happened. I know things I shouldn't know. No one should know what could be and then have to give it up. It’s not fair.”

“What are you talking about?” Max asked trying to decipher what she was saying.

Liz looked down at her hands again. "When I came to you last week, Max. When I told you I didn't want to die for you. I lied," Liz said and looked up so she could look Max in the eyes. "I would die for you Max. I did die for you in that previous life you showed me and I would do anything for you in this one. You’re the only reason that I'm alive right now."

"No…Liz…"

"No, Max, let me finish. I need to tell you this my way," Liz interrupted gripping her hands together tightly. "When I walked away from you last spring, I did it because even though I loved you, I knew we didn't belong together. I did it…because I thought it was the right thing to do." Liz looked down briefly then continued, "Your destiny was something that I wasn't supposed to be a part of and I couldn't stand in the way of what you needed to do." Liz paused then looked at Max for a minute. "There was another reason why I walked away, Max. A reason I wasn't ready to admit to until last night. I walked away, because I didn't want you to have to choose between me and your destiny, Max, so I chose for you, just like I did in my previous life. I chose for you because I knew I would feel guilty if you chose me over your destiny…and also because I…I was scared that you might eventually choose your destiny over me. I didn't think I would be to handle that, Max." Liz paused and wiped a tear from her cheek. "Then I decided to go away this past summer. I knew if I stayed here in Roswell my resolve would weaken and I would go back to you. Oh God, Max, I love you so much sometimes it scares me."

Liz stood up and turned away from Max to collect herself. She walked across the room to Max's dresser and picked up a book that was lying there. She wasn't really looking at it. She just needed to do something with her hands. "I mean, I didn't really know what to expect, but what I feel for you is so intense that it seems to take over my whole life. Last spring, whenever I was near you, my heart soared, just seeing you made me so happy, God, all I had to do was think of you and I would be smiling for hours. And when you weren't close, I would feel incomplete somehow. I still felt that way when I came back from Florida, even though I didn't want to." Liz turned to face Max again. "When I was in Florida, I thought about you all the time. I dreamt about you. I was obsessed about whether or not you had developed feelings for Tess, she was your bride in your past life after all. Sometimes late at night, when I couldn't sleep, I would think of you. I would wonder what you were doing at that particular moment and then I would close my eyes and try to see you. I would imagine you sleeping here in your bedroom or hanging out with Maria, Isabel, Michael, or Alex."

Liz paused and walked over to Max's desk chair and sat back down across from Max. Max wasn't sure what to say. He knew exactly how she felt. He wasn't whole without her either. This past summer Max went through the motions of living, he hung out with his friends, went to work, and spent time with his parents, but his heart wasn't in it. His heart was in Florida over a thousand miles away.

"When I came back this fall, I was so determined to stay away from you. I took the job with the Congresswoman, because I didn't want to see you in the Crashdown. But my defenses were weakening, Max, the more I saw you, the harder it was to stay away, the harder it was for me to say no." Liz paused and smiled slightly. "Then I unknowingly let Maria take me to this Fortune Teller," Liz said and looked at Max with a bright expression on her face. "She told me that I would marry my true love. She said you would choose me over your destiny and that I would know happiness in my life." Then Liz's face fell. "That was the night you came to me, Max, you came to me from the future and asked me to help you fall of love with me."

"What?" Max gasped, "No." He couldn't believe his ears. He came from the future?

"It was you, Max, or you from one possible future at least. You came from 14 years in the future. You, I mean, he knew you would come to my window that night with a Mariachi band. He knew about the Gomez concert. He told me that the night of the Gomez concert would be our first night together and that after that night we would be inseparable."

"Together?" Max’s mind flashed to his first and only night with Arya in his previous life. He wanted so much to be with Liz like that. The night of the Gomez concert, he had hoped that would happen, he was even prepared for that to happen. He wanted so much to show Liz how much he loved her.

Liz continued, not answering Max's question. "You...he asked me to help him change the future, because in 14 years the earth would fall and the world would end. He said us being together eventually caused Tess to leave Roswell and the four of you needed to stay together if there was any hope to stop what would happen in the future." Liz stopped and watched Max carefully.

Max did not know what to say. He came back from 14 years in the future to stop him and Liz from making love? Max stood up and paced back and forth in front of his bed. He didn't know what could have made Liz deceive him about Kyle, but never in his wildest dreams did he expect this. "How?" he asked finally.

"He said he used the Granolith to rip a tear in time space," Liz explained as she watched Max pace.

"The Granolith isn't a time machine," Max stated. He didn't know a lot about what the Granolith could do, but he knew it wasn't meant to be a time machine.

"He said they modified it somehow," Liz said quietly.

Max stopped pacing and turned toward Liz. "Where is he, Liz? The Max from 14 years in the future."

Liz looked up at Max tears filled her eyes. "He disappeared when I changed the future, Max. The future he came from ceased to exist and so did he."

"Oh my God, Liz," Max said and knelt in front of her. "That was the flash I got from you at the Crashdown. You were with him, dancing on your balcony."

"You got a flash from me?"

Max nodded. "When I was at the Crashdown yesterday. I was so confused by it. It didn't make any sense."

"How?" Liz asked.

"It happened when I knocked over the plate and we both tried to pick it up," Max explained. "You were dancing with him and looked so sad somehow."

"I asked him if I could have my wedding dance. He told me about our wedding day Max. The wedding day he had at least. It was so beautiful…"

Max reached up and took Liz's hands in his own. "Oh, Liz, what you must have been going though this past week. Why didn't you come to me? Explain to me what was happening?"

Liz pulled her hands out of Max's grasp, stood up and moved away from him. "You…I mean he asked me not to tell anyone that he was here, especially you. There are so many lives on the line Max, it's not just about you and me. He told me that the world, this world was going to be taken over, that Isabel and Michael were dead. He said Michael died in his arms just before he came back in time. What else could I do?"

Max stood up. He was confused that Liz had moved away from him. Everything was out in the open now. There was nothing keeping them apart. Why was she still pulling away? "I know now Liz and I'm not going to let Tess leave Roswell, no matter what, but that doesn't mean we can't be together. Tess will learn to accept us, I know she will."

"She was your wife, Max. You two were made to be together in this life."

"She was my wife for about 48 hours," Max clarified and walked to where Liz was standing. "We barely had time to get to know each other before I died. You and I are the ones who are meant to be together. You were and still are the love of my life, at least of the two lives I remember. Nothing is going to change that, Liz, and I am not going to lose you in this life, like I lost you in my last one."

Liz looked up to Max. Max felt he could lose himself in her beautiful brown eyes. "But Max…" she whispered.

"Things have already changed Liz. The future that Max told you about isn't going to happen. Don't you see," Max asked and took a step closer to Liz. "Because I saw you and Kyle together that night, I went to Tess and asked her to help me remember my previous life. I probably didn't have a chance to do that in the other timeline."

"Max, I just can't…"

Max stopped her by gently placing his index finger over her lips. He then leaned down and gently kissed her, enjoying the feel of her soft lips next to his own. When he pulled away, he saw that Liz had closed her eyes and tears were running down her cheeks. He used his hands to gently wipe the tears from underneath her eyes and Liz opened her eyes. "We'll work this out Liz. I am not going to lose you again."

Max then took Liz into his arms and pulled her body next to his own, he felt her arms wrap around his waist and smiled. For the first time since Liz walked away from him last spring, Max felt complete. He was holding Liz, the other half of his soul in his arms, and he knew that together, they could do anything.

Max thought of the image he had gotten from Liz and smiled, "We'll have our wedding dance someday, Liz, I promise."