Liz Parker was looking out the window of the office building. Far below, she could see someone opening the trunk to a car, tossing in luggage. She nodded slowly.

"What was your first impression of him?"

Liz shrugged. Behind her, she heard the doctor sigh and put her pencil down on the desk.

"You're going to need to answer some of these questions, Liz."

She turned around and looked at the doctor. "No, I don't. I don't have to tell you anything."

"You want to get out of here, don't you?"

Liz thought about it for a moment - she would like to go home. Now. But, if she told the truth, they'd lock her up for good.

"You think I'm crazy," she said simply.

The doctor shook her head. "I don't believe that."

"Then you can let me go now. You have no grounds to hold me. I'm not a threat to you. I'm not a threat to myself. I'm not a threat to anyone."

"The police want some answers, Liz. They just want to help. They want to help Max's parents find him."

"Then how is my first impression of him going to help?"

"We're just trying to understand what…motivated Max to do what he did."

Liz didn't want to think about what Max had done. She couldn't bear to break down in front of this woman.

"Look, I met Max when I was nine years old. I don't remember my first impression of him."

The doctor folded her hands in front of her. "But what about since then? You've known him for eight years now, Liz."

Liz sank to the couch, slouching. "Not really. I mean, I knew who he was, but we weren't friends that long."

The doctor picked up the pencil again. "How long have you been friends?"

Liz shrugged. She hated giving up any information. "A year."

"And in that year, did - "

"No, I never saw him do anything strange. I never saw him commit any crime. I never heard him talk about doing either of those things. Stop looking for something that isn't there." Liz's eyes showed all of her rage.

"Liz - "

"You'd better come up with a good reason to hold me," Liz threatened. "Because you're looking at quite the hefty lawsuit if you continue this."

The doctor dropped the pencil again. "Liz, we only want to protect you."

"From what?"

"From Max Evans."

Liz snorted. "Yeah, he's a big threat to society, and to me."

"What do you mean, Liz?"

"I mean you don't know him. Max can't hurt me."

The doctor shuffled her papers, closing the manila folder over them. "Alright, Liz. I'll see that you're released. But if you have any contact with Max Evans, it is your obligation to contact us. Otherwise, you're aiding and abetting."

Liz watched the doctor leave, then crumpled to a fetal position on the couch, sobbing. __________________________________________________________________

Liz flopped face down on her bed and heaved a depressed sigh. She hadn't been able to get away from her parents fast enough. Her mother wouldn't stop touching her - touching her face, hugging her, kissing her head, going on and on about "her baby." Her father, usually so calm and open-minded, had been all but ready to get his gun and call out the hounds. He kept demanding to know if Max had hurt her, if he'd ever hurt her - in any way. Which meant that if she'd been having sex with Max, her father was going to kill him. Kil l me instead, Liz thought. Put me out of my misery.

Liz heard a noise on the balcony outside of her window and jerked her head up. Max was the only one who used the window as an entrance.

It wasn't Max - it was Alex. He stopped at the window and knocked gently on the glass with his knuckles. Liz got up from the bed and hoisted the window open.

"Please, Alex," she begged. "Don't ask me if I'm okay, alright?"

Alex nodded. "Okay."

"What are you doing on the roof?"

"Thought you might need a friend..." He shrugged. "And I wanted to see that you are okay- I wasn't going to ask you or anything, seeing for myself is okay...can I come in?"

Liz stepped back and let Alex into her room. She looked uneasy as she shoved her hands into her back pockets.

Alex looked equally uncomfortable, then sighed. "Maybe I should just leave. You don't seem - "

"No, please, Alex stay," Liz said, touching his arm. "I could use the company. I'm just not at my best right now."

"Okay. Do you want to talk? Because you don't have to if you don't want to."

Liz met Alex's gaze, and two seconds later she was sobbing again. Alex pulled her into him with his long arms and held her tightly. He soothed her with his embrace and his whispered words of comfort. Eventually she stood back and wiped her tears away. She motioned to the window.

"Let's go outside," she suggested. "God knows I don't want my parents to hear."

The climbed out onto the roof. Alex slumped onto the lounger, and Liz slid in beside him, letting him put his arm around her shoulders. His hand went to the top of her head and smoothed her hair. Liz drew in a deep breath, felt her body relax. There couldn't be a better friend than Alex.

"I'm so scared, Alex," she admitted after a long silence.

"I know you are," he replied.

"Not for myself. Not even when I was locked up in there. I'm not afraid of what will happen to me. I'm afraid for Max."

Alex kissed the top of her head.

"If I just knew where he was," Liz breathed. "I'd feel so much better. But, I can't even go look for him. They're following me, I just know it. Not that I would even know where to look if they weren't."

"Want me to try?" Alex volunteered. "Can't imagine they have too much interest in me."

Liz allowed herself a little laugh. "They do if they saw you climbing up to my roof."

"I don't know - I'm pretty sneaky. I can blend in, disappear. It's the one big advantage to being a geek." He fell serious. "I mean it Liz - I could talk to Michael or Isabel, find out where he may have gone."

"Michael's gone, too," Liz explained. "Max has his parents to look for him - no one cares if Michael disappears. I think that's why the police are so concentrated on finding Max and not Michael. It's kind of sad, when you think about it."

"Yeah, it is. What about Isabel?"

Liz craned her neck so she could look at Alex. "Do you really think her parents are letting her out of their sight?"

Alex thought about it and agreed. "Does she have a roof outside her room, too?"

"I don't know." Liz felt a smile creep to her face. "Thank you, Alex."

He squeezed her gently. "Any time, Liz."

Isabel paced her room, wringing her hands. God, she'd tried to dreamwalk both Michael and Max and had come up empty. Were they intentionally blocking her? If they were, that was so unfair, because she deserved to be involved in whatever was going on. Didn't she? If they were on the run, she should be with them. That's the way it had always been planned. If something happened, they would leave town together, the three of them. Not two of them. All of them. Without knowing where Max and Michael were, she suddenly felt so alone.

Then it hit her - maybe they weren't intentionally blocking her. Maybe something had happened to them. Maybe they were....

Isabel turned quickly to the window. She'd heard a noise out there. Michael! Only Michael ever had the balls to climb the trellis and crawl through her window. She raced to the window and ripped open the curtains.

It was Alex.

"Alex!" Isabel gasped as she threw up the window and helped him into her room. "What on earth - "

"Hi," he said, wiping his hands on his jeans.

Isabel leaned out the window. It seemed such a long way down. "Did you climb up here?"

Alex nodded. "I thought dragging a ladder to the window would be too noisy and a little obvious."

She was a little excited by that - who would have thought Alex had that kind of upper body strength? She wiped away her smile with a shake of her head. "What are you doing here, Alex?"

"I just came from Liz's house."

"How is she?" Isabel asked anxiously. Liz wasn't her favorite person, but she didn't deserve to go through what she had.

"Okay, I think. She's worried."

"Aren't we all?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Alex scratched his head absent-mindedly. "Look, Isabel, I made Liz an offer, and now I'm going to make you one."

Isabel looked at him warily. "I'm listening."

"Out of all of us, I think I am probably under the least amount of suspicion. Of course, Liz is being watched, because she was there and because she is Max's girlfriend. You're being watched because you're Max's sister. Maria is being watched because she is Michael's girlfriend. I'm not involved with anyone who is missing, so I think I'm pretty safe."

"What's your point, Alex?"

"I want to look for them. But I need your help where to start."

Isabel started to protest. "I can't let you do that. If anything happened to you - "

"It's my decision, Isabel. I'm going to do this. It's just going to take a lot longer if you don't help me."

Isabel stopped. He was right.

"Now, do you have any ideas where they may be?"

Isabel sat on the bed, motioning for Alex to join her. "I've been trying to connect with them," she explained. "I haven't been able to. I'm not sure what that means."

Alex put a hand on her arm. "I don't think they're dead, Isabel," he said, bluntly putting a voice to her fear.

"How do you know that?"

"Because Liz said Max wasn't injured the last time she saw him. Michael wouldn't have been either, if Max picked him up afterward. Why would the police be looking for them if they had already tracked them down and killed them?"

Isabel swallowed. "What if it wasn't the police, Alex?"

"What, you mean alien hunters?"

Isabel nodded.

"Look, if I were an alien hunter, the first thing I would want is to get the local law off my back. I'd devise a plan of some kind - dump the jeep in a river somewhere, let them assume the bodies were washed away and never recovered. Gets the parents off your back, gets the locals off your back."

Isabel shivered.

"Have you heard any stories like that?"

"No."

Alex raised his palms as if to say, "See?" Isabel had to admit - Alex was no dummy. "Now, will you accept my offer to help?"

Isabel studied his face, saw there was no point in resisting. "Okay. Start at the cave on the reservation. It's the only place I can think of that no one else knows about."

"Right." Alex rose to leave, but Isabel's hand on his arm stopped him.

"Alex, be careful."