"Listen, you guys, this is something I need to talk to Max alone about. I'm really sorry, but we'll call you a bit later. Maybe we can go hang out tonight or something."

"So you're kicking us out, Liz?" Maria exclaimed.

"I'm really, really sorry, but yeah. I'll call you on your cell when I'm done with Isabel and Michael."

"Cell? I don't have a cell, Liz." Maria looked at Liz strangely.

"Okay, I guess that's a my-world thing. Anyway, I'll call you later."

"Fine, bye Liz." Maria and Alex left in a hurry.

"Can you believe this Alex? We finally get our best friend back, and she goes and ditches us for Max Evans. Liz never gave Max Evans the time of day, and now she, like, can't keep her eyes off him. And why is it that she went to him first instead of us. This is too weird. Something's going on here."

"Maria, cool it, okay? You're just being crazy again."

"Excuse me? I think I've earned the right to act a little crazy. It's not every day that your best friend is resurrected from the dead. But she's acting like a total stranger."

"Of course she's going to act differently. She isn't our Liz, Maria. She looks the same, and she may have the same personality, but she's not the same person. Our Liz is dead. This is just a temporary replacement. Don't get your hopes up that she'll be back for good." And by the looks of it, one of us should tell Max Evans that too, Alex thought.

"You're right, Alex. I know you're right. You're always right, but I can't help feeling a little upset that she just blew us off. And for Max Evans. She barely even knows Max Evans. Something weird is going on here, apart from the obvious. And I intend to find out what it is!"

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that Maria?"

"Well, I'm not sure yet, but let's keep a close eye on this Liz. Try and figure out what her secret is."

"And what makes you think she's got a secret?"

"Everyone has got a secret, Alex. Some of them are bigger than others, but we all have them. I mean, yours is that you're an underground computer hacker, mine is…well…mine is that my father abandoned me and my mom. This Liz has to have one too. So are you going to help me with this Alex?"

Alex sighed. He and Liz used to always laugh at Maria when she got worked up over her crazy theories. "Sure," Alex agreed, "Why not? It's not like I have anything else to do this weekend."

Isabel and Michael sat silently in Isabel's bedroom, waiting to talk to Max. Isabel was organizing her makeup, again, while Michael sat in a chair across the room staring off into space. He started tapping his foot impatiently.

"Will you stop that Michael? It's really annoying."

"Well what am I supposed to do? Huh? I've been stuck sitting in here watching you pamper yourself for an hour, while Max is in his room with Liz, doing God knows what."

"I for one don't WANT to know what they're doing in there."

"Whatever they're doing, he's breaking the rules just by being with her. You saw the way they looked at each other. We agreed not to get involved with anyone."

"Michael will you just shut up? Max will come and talk to us when he's ready."

"Knock, knock." Somebody rapped loudly on the door.

"See," Isabel shot at Michael. "Come in! It's about time you come and talk to us Max."

"It's not Max, it's Liz," Liz opened the door, and slowly walked in. "Can I talk to you guys?"

"What do you want. Where's Max?" Michael snapped at her.

"I asked Max if I could talk to you guys first. I wanted to start by apologizing for just barging in on you guys like this. I know you never would have expected something like this to happen, and especially not for you guys to be the people that I turn to in this situation…"

"Well that's really sweet of you, but does this little talk have a point?" Isabel remarked sarcastically.

"Let me finish. You have to understand that things are very different where I come from. We're all a big group of friends in my world: you guys, Max, me, and Maria and Alex, and there's no secrets between the six of us."

Isabel laughed, "No secrets, huh?" She gave Liz a wry grin, "I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you."

Liz gave Isabel a pointed, serious look. "I meant that Isabel. No secrets." Isabel stared back at Liz, and then turned to Michael, who had a shocked look on his face too. Michael finally broke the silence.

"Are you saying that you know…" He drifted off, not wanting to be the one to say it.

"I know everything", Liz told them, "About you three, and where you come from." Michael and Isabel sat there in a daze, trying to process what Liz was telling them. They had spent their entire lives being so careful, making sure that no one ever found out about them, and then out of nowhere, a dead girl walked back into their lives announcing that she knew all their secrets.

"How?" Isabel asked her quietly.

"Well, it all started with the Crashdown shooting…"

Alex and Maria sneak up to the Evans house. They're dressed ridiculously in camouflage army clothes in an attempt to blend in with the bushes, sneaking around like they're breaking into a restricted army compound or something. Alex guards Maria's back with a plastic water gun, as she sneaks by the front windows, and turns the corner towards the side of the house. They finally make into the backyard, and sneak up to Max's bedroom window, where they crouch down and wait, listening.

Max is pacing around his bedroom nervously, waiting for Liz's return. "God only knows what Michael and Isabel's reaction to this all will be. They're probably going to kill her." The wait was tremendous for him. Max wanted nothing more than to go with Liz in there, so that he could try and make it easier for everyone. He wanted to protect Liz from Michael and Isabel's accusations, and he wanted to be sure that Liz gave it to them lightly. Max smiled. He knew she'd do fine though. She was amazing like that. Max remembered what it was like for him to hold her in his arms the night before. It was incredible. His dreams hadn't come even close to comparing to what it was like in reality. Her skin was so soft and silky, and her hair smelled incredible. He couldn't forget that incredible scent. And she was so beautiful.

He was so lost in his thoughts, that he almost didn't even hear the door open, and Liz, Michael, and Isabel came marching in. He looked up in surprise. "So, how did it go?" He asked.

"Well, that was something we didn't expect to hear." Isabel told him, "And you know what the annoying part is? I can't even get mad at you, 'cause you didn't do it. I wish there was someone I could get mad at, but there isn't, so I guess we'll just have to live with it."

"I think they took it pretty well," Liz commented, smiling her electrifying smile at Max. It was all he could do to keep from melting into a puddle right there.

"So now what?" Max asked her, "You said that there was more."

"Yeah, there is." Liz sighed, trying to figure out where to start. "Okay, like I said before Max, our relationship wasn't the only thing that came out of the Crashdown shooting. Neither was my knowledge that you are all aliens. A lot of people became suspicious of the three of you, in particular, Sheriff Valenti. He had previous proof of alien existence, and when you healed me, he focused briefly on trying to get me to expose you. I wouldn't, of course, but he took me in for questioning, and showed me this picture of a corpse from 1959, with a silver handprint on its chest. This man had been killed by an alien, and he tried to frighten me into revealing you."

"Are you saying that there was another alien besides us?" Michael demanded.

"Well, there was in 1959. Anyway, this picture led us on a series of clues, which eventually led us to the Mescalero Indian Reservation, where a man named River Dog told us the story of his relationship with this alien named Nasedo. He told us everything that Nasedo told him about who he was and where he came from, and he told us the story of Nasedo killing that man in the picture. River Dog showed us the cave where Nasedo lived. There were paintings on the wall of the cave, which Michael recently discovered in a vision were a map home. Max, do you remember that constellation I pointed out to you last night? The V-shaped one?" Max nodded. "Well, that's where we think your home is."

The three aliens stared at Liz in shock. Liz had just given them more knowledge about themselves than they expected to find in their entire lifetime.

Isabel broke the silence, "Could you take us there? Show us the cave with the map?" Liz nodded.

Outside the window, Alex and Maria stared at each other in shock, barely believing what they had just heard. They heard the front door shut, and waited until they had sped off in Max's jeep before speaking.

"It's impossible. Aliens don't exist. I mean, even here in Roswell we all know that there was no crash. It's been scientifically proven," Alex insisted.

"Why would they make all that up? They didn't know that we were listening. I think we just found out what Liz's secret is, and Max, Michael, and Isabel's too for that matter."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

"Let's go over to my place and figure that out. Remember that we're going to be hanging out with Liz tonight. We have to figure out what we're going to say to her when she calls later."

Pt 6

Max stared at the wall of the cave in the dark firelight, tracing the lines of the alien symbols with his fingertips. Liz stood back and watched the three aliens, as they studied the walls in fascination. She realized, as she watched them, that this was their first experience with anything like this. They had probably never expected to ever find any clues about themselves, and she had just handed them a huge one. In her world, they had been studying Nasedo's necklace for days before River Dog had brought them to the cave. Surprises had become not so unexpected in her world, but here, everything was new to them.

She watched Max, and smiled at the way the fire bounced off of his eyes, his incredible soulful eyes. The eyes that had watched her throughout her life. She wondered how it was that she hadn't felt his eyes on her for all the years before. Nowadays she knew when Max was watching her. She felt him whenever he was near. Liz could barely remember what her life was like before the shooting. Her life had turned around so quickly. It went from being empty, to being so full of passion and life. Liz didn't know how she had done it before, lived her life without Max Evans. Then she frowned. What about when she got back? She had Max so completely here, but when she goes home, it'll be right back where they left off, with a step back. She'll have to try her life without Max as the center of it. Liz sighed. She wasn't sure if she could do that.

At the sound of the air escaping from Liz's lungs, Max turned and looked at her. He had been so caught up in studying the symbols that he had almost forgotten about her. His breath caught in his throat, as he studied the look on her face. She looked so sad. He stood up walked over to her, cupping her cheek with his hand.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked her.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I was just thinking about stuff, you know?" Max nodded. He didn't want to push her any further than she wanted to go.

"I'm here, whenever you're ready to talk." Liz nodded, and threw a look towards Michael and Isabel, still caught up in the wall of the cave. Max understood. There were certain things she didn't want to talk about in front of them. He quickly kissed her on the forehead, and turned back towards the paintings. Liz watched him, her eyes filled with love. She was so lucky to have him. She just hoped she would be able to let him go.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" The four friends turned quickly to the mouth of the cave, where an old Native American stood, glaring at them. "You shouldn't be here. How did you find this place? You must leave, immediately! Don't come back."

"No, wait! River Dog!" Liz cried franticly.

"Do I know you?"

"No, you don't. But I know you. I know your secret, and your background with Nasedo!"

"How could you possibly know about Nasedo? I haven't told anyone anything about him."

"I can't explain how I know, but I do. And I'm trustworthy. So are my friends here. They're..." Liz paused and looked at Max before continuing, "They're visitors too. Test them. You'll find them to be worth your time."

Nasedo walked to where the three aliens stood together, and studied them closely. After a great moment of silence he spoke. "Prove it."

Max stepped forward, and picked up a fistful of dust off of the floor of the cave. He studied it closely for a moment, letting it slowly slip between the fingers of his right hand, into the cup of his left hand. He held his right hand over the dust for a moment, before it started to glow. The dust in his hand clumped together, and reformed as a rock. Max looked up slowly, and tossed the rock to River Dog, who caught it, and held it in his hand briefly, not taking his eyes off of Max, before finally saying calmly, "You have passed the test."

There was another moment of silence before Max finally asked, "Can we come visit you more later? I have a great many questions to ask you," he chuckled, "I just have to figure out what they are."

"Of course. I will tell you whatever I can, answer whatever questions I have the right answers to."

"Thank you."

After the brief ride back from the reservation, Isabel and Michael went off to comprehend everything they had just learned, leaving Liz and Max sitting alone in his room. Max watched Liz, as she sat by his window, staring out at the blue, blue sky. She was lost in thought again. Something big was obviously on her mind.

"Do you want to go on a walk or something? Get outside, get some air. Talk. Whatever?" Max fumbled.

"Yeah." Liz responded quietly. Max took her hand and helped her out the window.

There was a cool breeze blowing through Liz's hair as she and Max walked quietly through the streets of the town they both grew up in. Max had his arm around her, holding her close, refusing to let her go. It felt so right, the two of them being together. He finally spoke after a few blocks.

"Listen, Liz. I can tell something's on your mind. Can I help at all?" Liz looked up into the eyes of the man who had stolen her heart, and sighed.

"It's just this. Being here with you. It feels so right. It feels so good. I want you to know this Max. Even through everything I'm going through, the last 2 days have been some of the happiest days of my life, because I've been with you. It's all meant so much to me."

Max smiled his adorable little half-smile, that he reserved only for her. "It's meant a lot to me too, Liz."

"The only thing is this. Through all of my happiness, I can't forget that this isn't real. It's not going to stay this way. Eventually I'm going to wake up and find myself back home, to the world where you're not willing to let us be together like this, and it's going to kill me to know what it's like to have you, to see you every day, but to not be able to be with you. It's going to be so hard to go back to the way things were."

"Liz, I'm an idiot. I want you to know that. When you go back, look at me, and know that I'm an idiot. I have to be if I'm the one keeping us apart. He obviously doesn't know what he's missing." Liz smiled. "I know it's going to be hard for you Liz. It's going to be hard for me too. When you leave, I will always have these memories of our time together, and I will be missing you so badly. It's going to be torture for me, Liz. Absolute torture. I know that for certain, but I'm not going to let it affect our time together now. I can live with the eventual pain of loosing you, as long as I get to be with you now. Any time with you, no matter how short it is, is better than no time with you, Liz, because I love you."

Liz stopped dead in her tracks, and looked up at him in shock, barely believing the words she was hearing, the sweet, wonderful words she had always wanted to hear him say. "What did you say?"

"I love you, Liz. With all my heart." Max tucked his arms around her waist, holding her closely. She looked up into his eyes.

"I love you too, Max. I could never love anyone else the way that I love you. My heart is yours. No one else could ever conquer it the way that you have."

Max pulled her closer to him, his blood sizzling as their bodies met. His lips met hers in a passionate kiss, filled with all the love he felt inside of him. The two of them felt so right. Max knew, in his heart, that they belonged together, as their embrace deepened. After what would have seemed like an eternity to anyone watching, but was way too quickly for the two love stricken teenager, they broke the embrace, still holding each other, and staring at each other with love in their eyes. Liz caressed the back of Max's neck, and he weaved his fingers through her hair, holding each other, wanting to never let go.

"We should probably get back," Max whispered huskily."

"Yeah." Liz responded, still lost in his eyes.