"I swear these symbols are familiar!" Max said, he ran his hand over the paper. On the paper were the symbols from the cave wall that Riverdog and shown him. Isabel got up and grabbed the paper from him. As she held it she gasped. Max and Michael stared at her.

"What? Did you figure it out?" she nodded and swallowed deeply.

Michael looked at her praying she'd just say what it was.

"When I touched the paper I saw what it meant!" they turned at the sound of their mothers voice.

"Time for school! Isabel you look sick, are you ok?"

"Yeah, Mom, I'm fine." she smiled quickly to reassure her mother. The trio of aliens quickly walked down the stairs and jumped into the jeep.

"I saw the words in a jumble. Meet me at the Crashdown, so that we can discuss it," Max nodded. He drove by the Crashdown and noticed Liz coming down the stairs of her place. He noticed the sad look on her face when he drove past her. He couldn't stop and pick her up because it was too hard to be around her.

Liz looked down the road where Max had just driven off to. She knew she had to talk to him.

Max walked to English class trying to figure out what Isabel had learned. He was so deep in thought that he ran right into Liz. She fumbled around and then turned and looked directly at Max.

"We need to talk!" she grabbed his hand and pulled him into an empty classroom.

"Liz, I have to get to English."

"No, you have to listen to me!" she shut the door. "I want to tell you why I hesitated in helping Michael the other day."

"Liz, you don't have to," she just looked at him. He sat down in a desk. Liz stood up and started pacing, then she stopped and turned to him.

"I guess I'll start from when you saved me. No use in my going back to 3rd grade. No wait, I will go back that far. I remember not noticing you. But the time I remember seeing you was in, I guess 5th grade. Maria, Alex and I were always together. I remember glancing over and seeing you, Isabel, and Michael sitting on the balance beam, alone not speaking. I wondered what was wrong with you guys. After that day I'd see you but I just couldn't talk to you. Fast forward to this September. I'd started noticing you in a different way."

"What way?" Max asked, Liz smiled.

"A less 5th gradish way. Let's just say you'd outgrown the cooties phase," Max laughed. "When you saved me that day. It felt like you had finally noticed me. You were the only one who helped me. Maria says we are soul mates I'm beginning to think it's true. When you touched me I knew I'd never ever feel that way again for the rest of my life. But then you kissed me and I felt it again." She was near tears.

Max stood up and walked to her.

"That day when you let me read your thoughts, I heard something you thought. I'd found someone who liked me. I found someone who thought I was beautiful. But since that day I've felt as if I've been nothing but trouble. I saw how you guys had to hide just like in 5th grade. I just thought that maybe Michael wanted to be gone. To leave, to quit hiding. And yes, I thought maybe you guys would be better off dead. Because I've only been doing this for 3 months and I'm tired of it. I couldn't imagine doing it my whole life," she was crying now. "But if you have a worthwhile reason," she looked at Max through her tears. "Then it is worth it."

"What's your reason?"

"My soulmate is involved."

"Liz, we cant do anything about this. This won't be good."

"I know, I guess we should just count ourselves lucky that we found each other." Max nodded.

"Liz, Isabel thinks she knows the cave drawing." Liz wiped her tears away and looked at Max.

"Really, what did it say?" Max looked at Liz and the expression on her face, geez he wanted to kiss her. His eyes drifted to ther lips. "Max!"

"Oh, I don't know yet. She said she wants to look at it some more. I'm supposed to meet her at the Crashdown afterschool," she nodded.

"I'm working. So I guess I'll see you there. I should get going." Max nodded. He stepped up to Liz and hugged her tightly.

Max pulled into a parking space outside the Crashdown. He nodded to Liz, who was in uniform. He walked to a booth that was in the back.

"So," he asked Isabel.

"It's good news," Max nodded wishing she'd just tell them.

"Well, tell us?!" Michael demanded. Which was typical of Michael. Just demanding something.

"I think this says January," Max looked at it and realized that he could now read the words.

"It...it does. I can read it too," Michael nodded. Max sadly looked over at Liz in her alien uniform.

"This is great news!" Michael said pounding his fist on the table. Max nodded slowly, not sure if it was great news to him.

Liz watched Max's table as she brought an order in. Everyone at the table was smiling except for Max. He looked depressed. He glanced up at her and their eyes connected. She walked over to the table desperate to know what the drawings meant to them.

"Can I take your order?" she asked them tearing her eyes off of Max.

They made their orders, when she got to Max he didn't look at her. She gave a forced smile and left. She hadn't learned anything. She went to the backroom to catch her breath when she saw Maria.

"Oh, hey Maria," she sat down beside her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Maria gave her a look.

"Liz, we've been bestbuds forever!"

"Fine, Max, shocking surprise huh? They know what the cave drawings mean but he didn't tell me. Everyone looked excited but when he looked at me he looked so sad,"

"It's probably another trip somewhere away from his precious Liz!" she mocked."It's probably not as bad as it seems. Why don't you just ask them?" Liz got up and pushed the door open. The back booth was empty.

Liz sat on her rooftop balcony writing in her diary. She glanced down when she heard Max down below asking if he could come up. She said of course, he climbed the ladder and walked up to her and sat down on the ledge sadly.

"Max? What is it?"she asked sitting beside him. "What did the drawing mean?"

"My family is coming back, Jan 1st." he looked at her, his eyes were getting wet with tears. Liz didn't know what to say.

"Max, Max that's great! You'll finally get to see who and where you came from,"

"Liz, Michael and Isabel want to stay with them. And they are my family, I go where they go."

"So that means..." Max nodded. "Y2K," he looked at her confused. "Y2K is when the world is supposed to end. I just didn't realize they meant my world." she started to cry. "I guess this is a good thing right? You guys can finally stop hiding." Max nodded sadly in agreement.

The next few weeks flew by fast. Liz barely even registered Christmas. Max and everyone was busy trying to figure out where the ship was landing so she hadn't spent anytime with Max. She spent her time writing in her diary and just being depressed. She flipped through her diary and landed, on a page that talked about her conversation with Isabel on their road trip. She had to talk to Isabel. There were just 2 days til the 1st of January.

"Isabel, can I talk to you for one second?" Isabel glanced around and nodded with a huge sigh. They wound up on the bleachers near the football field.

"What?"

"Isabel, remember the other day when we were looking for Michael? Of course you do, stupid question. Anyways. I told you I wasn't taking Max away, and you gave me a look which meant you wouldn't take him from me? You remember that right?" she pleaded.

"Yeah, but Liz I see where this is going. It's our family! We've spent our entire lives trying to find them. And now we have the chance. You can't blow this for Max, no matter how you feel about him." Liz looked off into the distance. Max was standing there with Michael. Liz glanced back at Isabel.

"I know, It's just hard to deal with right now," Isabel patted her leg and got up to leave. She waved bye and went over to her brother.

Liz woke up and groaned. It was Dec 31st, tonight Max was leaving. She didn't realize what had waken her until she heard her phone ring. She picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Liz, hi. It's Max,"

"Oh hey Max, how are you?"

"Good, Liz since this is most likely the last day I'm going to see you, I was hoping that maybe you and um me could go have lunch or something." Liz smiled into the phone.

"I'd love to Max, What did you have in mind?" a few hours later they were sitting in the park having a picnic lunch. They hadn't had one akward moment. After they finished eating he grabbed her hand and they went walking around in the park.

"Liz, we should talk about what we are obviously not talking about,"

"I know we should,"

"We leave tonight and I was hoping you all would come, you, Maria, and Alex," Liz nodded.

"I'll ask them. I'll be there." she squeezed Max's hand. "Max?" she stopped herself. "Nevermind, I'll tell you tonight." She smiled and they kept walking.

As soon as she got home from her date with Max she called Maria and Alex and told them their friends wanted them there. Of course they agreed to come. Liz talked to her mom and told her she was staying the night at Marias. Her mother, of course, believed her.

Later on before Maria was to pick her up Liz gathered her things that she was supposed to have to look like she was spending the night with Maria. But she took along one extra item.

"Beep, Beep!" Liz peeked out the curtain and saw Maria's car. She yelled bye to her parents and raced down the stairs. Alex was already there.

"Here we go," Maria said nervously. Liz nodded choked up, wondering how she was going to make it through the rest of the night. They pulled up to Max's house and they all got out to go to the door. Alex did the knocking. Mrs. Evans answered the door.

"Oh, hello kids! Max and Isabel are upstairs with Michael."

"Thanks, Mrs. Evans," Liz said. They raced up the stairs and knocked on Max's door."Max, it's us!" Liz called out. Max opened the door up quickly and the three kids walked in. Michael looked at Maria and then forced his eyes to look at them all.

"You're early!" he said snidely.

"I was a little eager to see you off!" Maria said her eyes just on Michael. Liz rolled her eyes.

"Is that their way of saying goodbye?" Isabel asked. Max smiled.

"We should get going. It's almost time and we still have to find the spot again,"

"We brought the van so that you could leave the jeep here," Alex said as Isabel nodded.

"Let's go then," they walked down the stairs.

"Children, have fun at the party,"

"We hope so, Mom," Isabel said. She hugged her tightly and whispered goodbye in her ear and said "I love you," Max did the same. The two kids were near tears realizing they would never see her again.

"Kids it's just a party. You'll be home in a few hours," they nodded in agreement. Isabel and Max were the last to leave the house they wanted to have just one good long look. Isabel hooked her arm in Max's and walked with him to the van.

Max sat down next to Liz, she grabbed his hand and laced her fingers through his. He squeezed her hand gently. They drove in silence the entire way. About an hour later they were in the vast desert looking up at the sky. They all crowded up on top of the van to sit and wait. No one could really think of anything to say. Michael was laying back on the van staring up at the sky praying something would hurry up and take him away from this place. He'd never really liked it here. Suddenly a flash of light shot through the sky. Michael sat up and watched as it grew closer.

"Maxwell, Is, Look!" he pointed. They looked at him and then up to where he was pointing. Liz felt the air being slammed out of her. Up to this point she was hoping they wouldn't go. Now it was inevitable. Max, Isabel and Michael slid off the van. Liz, Maria and Alex stayed on the van until the other trio motioned for them to come down. The light was now really close. They stood as the bright light illuminated them, almost blinding them. Suddenly the light was gone and a spacecraft stood before them. A front hatch opened up to allow two human like figures to come out.

"Children, I'd knew you'd join us," one called out. She looked like Isabel, blonde hair and beautiful. "Please come here. Wait!" she yelled as she stepped closer. "I only had 3 pods!"

"We know. These are friends of ours." she looked shocked that they could make friends. "Liz, Alex, and Maria. I'm Max and this is Isabel and Michael."

"Say goodbye, it is time to join the others," with that the woman left and waited for them to come as they wished. Liz turned first to Isabel.

"Wait, Liz I need to talk first. I haven't exactly been the best of friends toward you. But I don't know how to thank you. You've been nothing but nice and helpful. Without you we would have been caught a long time ago."

"Thank you," they hugged tightly. Isabel went to Maria next.

"Same goes for you except," she hugged Maria and whispered. "You made Michael happy. Thank you for that!" Maria hugged her back in reply. Alex was next.

"So Isabel,"

"Alex," she unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. She leaned over and kissed him. "I've been wanted to do that for a long time now," Alex nodded in amazement. She turned to her brother and Michael. They nodded and she headed to the ship. Alex went to go to the van to give them some privacy. Michael was next. He went to Liz first.

"I'm not good with goodbyes but I know when to say thank you. I'm sorry for the BS I gave you at the beginning. I couldn't trust you but I know I always can." Liz smiled and hugged him. He turned to Maria who rolled her eyes.

"I've spent my whole life running away. Hiding everything. Then you came along and tried to break away a forcefield I had made. The reason I pushed you away is because I was scared. But I'm not anymore." Maria nodded and hugged him tightly. He pulled her into a kiss.

"I guess your finally going somewhere better then Roswell?"

"I hope so," he turned to leave and Maria hugged Liz and headed over to Alex. Liz produced a wrapped package from behind her back. She handed it to Max. He looked at it and then at her.

"It's nothing special. You let me see your thoughts I guess I'm giving you mine." Max nodded. "Don't open it til later please." Max nodded near tears. Liz felt one roll down her cheek.

"Thank you Liz for everything. I'm never going to forget you. I love you."

"I love you too." she hugged him tightly, burying her face in his neck trying to remember his smell. She kissed him deeply and then he had to break away. He turned and saw headlights coming up the road. "Go Max! Hurry!" he shoved something in her hand and raced to the ship with just one look back. She raced to the car and started it. The spaceship started to take off, and Liz stopped to watch it but then remembered the approaching car. The car stopped when it noticed the ship, leaving time for Liz to get out of there.

"Ohmigod!" Maria gasped."It's Ms. Topolsky." Liz looked in the review mirror and saw the car the "counselor" drove. Luckily she was to engrossed with the flying saucer to even notice the retreating group. As Liz calmed down, Alex had traded places with Maria so he could lay down in the back. Maria leaned her head on Liz's shoulder.

"Well, this sucks!" Maria whispered. Liz laughed.

"Yeah, it does." she said her laughter caught in her throat and she felt like crying. She replayed the scene in her head and then suddenly remembered that Max had given her something. She found it on the floor and picked it up at the red light. They were almost home. It was a white envelope with just 3 words on it. "Mom and Dad".

"They are going to be so sad!" Maria said, pointing to the envelope.

"Max gave this to me. Oh god, I guess I'll bring it to them tonight," "I'll come with you." Liz nodded and pulled onto Max's court. Alex had awaken by now and had decided to go in also. They glanced at each other and then knocked on the door. It took a few minutes but Max's mom answered in her robe.

"Liz, Maria, Alex what's wrong? Was there an accident? You didn't crash did you?" she asked worridly.

"Well something like that, can we come in?"

"Of course, where are my children?" Liz handed her the envelope. They all sat on the couch and watched as Mrs. Evans called her husband down. They all sat down and Mrs. Evans opened the envelope shakidly. It was written in two different handwritings. She read it outloud.

"Dear Mom and Dad, There's no easy way to say this, then to just come right out and say it. We know for a fact that we were in the '47 crash. I know it probably sounds like we are on drugs, but trust me. Liz can explain how they know all this. When you found us in the desert we'd just been born like 3 days before.

Isabel, Michael and me are aliens. The Shierff is after us which is why our house got broken into. We went one day to find some files the next day the files were gone. Liz will tell you the rest," Max's handwriting ended here and Isabel's started.

"Mom, Dad, you will never know how much we love you guys. Leaving has been the hardest thing we've ever had to do, aside from lying to you everyday of our lives. I just wanted you to know that. That Max and I and even Michael appreciate and love everything you've done for us." Max's handwriting took over.

"PS. Watch the family videos." They glanced at the VCR, one tape was set out. Mr. Evans got up and played the tape. It was a video of Max holding a bird with a broken wing, he was very young. Liz noticed the familiar glowing and then the bird flew away. The tape clicked off.

"Oh god, Liz?" Mrs. Evans looked at Liz waiting for her to explain.

"Everything they said is true. You saw how he healed the bird, well he did that to me. At the Crashdown, I was shot. He healed me," she went through and explained everything that had ever happened to them. By the end Mrs. Evans was crying.

"Please don't cry,"

"Why would my babies want to leave?"

"They had to. I told Max just the other day it's so hard to hide They just couldn't do it anymore. And now they don't have to."

"I remember wishing they'd have good friends, aside from themselves. I'm so glad they found you three." Liz hugged her. "Max and Isabel are great people because of you. They loved you very much," she whispered. "It's true," Maria said."Michael thought you guys were great too."

"He was like a son to us," Mr. Evans said. They turned to a soft knocking on the door. Liz peeked outside and saw the car. She turned quickly to the others and mouthed "Topolsky!" Liz went up to the Evans and told them they had to keep their childrens secrets. They nodded and opened the door.

"Ms. Topolsky! What are you doing here at this time?"

"I was hoping to speak with your children."

"Oh I'm sorry, Ms. Topolsky. They went out of town for the holidays."

"What are they doing here?" she pointed at the gang.

"If it's any of your business we invited them over for New Years. Our children are very close. And they thought we'd be lonely without Max and Isabel." Liz was shocked at what a good liar Mrs. Evans was.

"When will you be expecting your children back?"

"I'm not sure right now. They went to meet their birth parents, they could leave me forever!" she started crying.

"Look what you did Ms. Topolsky. We finally got her to calm down." they hugged Mrs. Evans and led her to the kitchen.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Evans." she turned to Liz and the gang. "I'll be speaking with you three later." she said goodbye and closed the door. Mrs. Evans poked her head up and smiled.

"I took drama in highschool," Maria laughed.

"We should be going. I told my parents I was spending the night at Maria's. I guess I should really go do that." there was a round of hugs and then Alex said.

"If you have any questions don't ask me, I'm just as new to this as you are." Liz hooked her arm through Alex's and so did Maria and they left and headed home.

Max sat down on Isabel's hard mattress. It was basically a piece of wood, she grimaced.

"The luxaries of being an all powerful alien," she ran her hand over the "bed." Max smiled, his bed was exactly the same.

"This place blows a big one," Michael entered. "did you know the beds are made from wood?" they nodded.

"I miss mom and dad," Isabel said looking at Max, he nodded.

"I don't miss my dear old dad. But I miss dirt and the excitement of hiding and.." he looked down.

"And Maria?" Isabel offered.

"What, God No!"

"Oh please Michael."

"Ok, fine. A little, I miss throwing insults."

"I miss Liz too," Max said sadly. He glanced down and started to unwrap the package.

"Oh, Liz's diary!" Michael said.

"How do you know that?" Michael realized his mistake. "Oh god Michael, you were the one that stole Liz's diary!"

"Yeah, I had to find out if we could trust her. You should read it," he said trying to take the attention off of himself. Max started to open it.

"I'm Liz Parker and 5 days ago I died." he continued reading. Isabel and Michael decided to leave him alone, so they went off to explore their new home. He finished reading the journal which said because of who he is she loved him. He turned the page and saw her final entry. It was dated Dec 31st.

"Well Diary I have to address this part to someone else.

Dear Max,

I hope you enjoyed learning everything I've ever dreamt or thought about. I felt I owed at least that much. Afterall you saved my life. I meant every word in this book. My life didn't begin til you came into it. I just wish I would have realized how amazing you were in 5th grade. I'm going to finish this journal now because I have to wrap it and get ready for tonight. I'm going to miss you so much.

Love always,

Liz

PS. Send my love to Isabel and Michael.

He closed the book and saw that Isabel and Michael had come back.

"Max, we want to go home to Roswell."

"This is our home."

"No, it's not. We haven't even seen anyone since we got here. I want to go home." Isabel said. "I know you do too, I can see it in your eyes." Max lowered them to the journal.

"I do too. But if we somehow convince them to let us go home it has to be for good. We can't keep changing our minds."

"I used to think 'There's got to be somewhere better then Roswell' but it's definetely not here. I say go for it, let's go home."

"Liz, would you mind stepping into my office," Liz got up to enter Ms. Topolsky's office. She had called her earlier and requested to speak with her. "Ok, Liz I'm going to say this as straight forward as possible. I know what Max and Isabel and Michael are. They are life forms from another planet. Aliens. I know this, you know this, and your little friends know this. I'm not going to harm them. So just say it with me. They are aliens."

"Ms. Topolsky, your cards are showing."

"What do you mean?"

"In card games you aren't supposed to show your cards to anyone else because the game would be over."

"Dammit Liz, this isn't a game! People's lives are at stake!"

"By three teenage kids? Please, give it up Ms. Topolsky. If what you say is true, do you honestly think any of us would just admit it because you yelled at us?"

"I saw you guys, a week ago in the desert. I saw the spacecraft."

"I was at Max's house the entire time."

"I scrapped the sand and dirt from the van. It matches. This secrets going to break, if the aliens ever show up in Roswell again. You can bet I'll get them."

"Can I go now?"she motioned for her to go.

"Liz, I will get them!" Liz left quickly.

` "You want to go back? To Earth?" the head alien asked, shocked. He couldn't comprehend why anyone would want to go back there.

"Yes, it's our home," the alien looked at them and he noticed they were nothing like he was. The girl had on a low cut shirt that was tight. One of them had hair that was stuck in all different directions. The other seemed sad and depressed.

"You may go on one condition. You can't speak of this to anyone you don't trust. We can't come back to get you anymore. You need to understand that."

"We do. Oh god thank you!" Isabel said gratefully. They rushed to their seperate quarters to get their stuff together. They quickly got to their destination, Earth. They were dropped off in the same place they had been picked up at. They nodded goodbye to their original family a little sadly, knowing full well what they had just given up.

As all this was going on Liz sat on her balcony looking at the stars wondering if Max was having fun up there. She wondered if he read her journal and still thought she wasn't a complete nerd for how she felt. She leaned her head on her arm which was resting on the ledge fo the balcony.

"Liz!" she glanced around wondering if she was imaging things. "Liz, down here!" she looked down at the ground and gasped.

"Max!" she motioned for him to come up. "What are you doing here?" she asked when he got to the top. He showed her her diary.

"I thought you might like to finish this," She took it from him with a small smile on her face.

"It's supposed ot be for you Max. And I did finish it."

"No, you didn't. I wanted to know what you though when I did..."he brushed her hair to one side and cupped her face in his hand. "This," he said softly kissing her.

"Wonderful," she whispered between soft kisses. When they finally broke away she said "Max, why did you really come back?"

"We hated it up there. We are true Earthlings I guess. And we missed you guys."

"So once again you risked everything for me." he nodded. "Oh, god Max. You have to leave now. Topolsky saw you guys. She's out for blood now." she looked at him worridly.

"What do you mean?"

"She called me into her office," she told him the story. "Don't you understand you have to leave now."

"I'm sure everything will blow over soon. I'll hide out for tonight."

"Where? If you go home your parents will freak."

"I don't want to involve them just yet. Can I stay here? Just for tonight." Liz looked around and nodded.

"Sure, um floor or bed?" he looked at her knowing what he wanted to say.

"Floor, I guess. Anything's better then what we slept on the last few days." he told her the story of the hard bed. Liz laughed.

"Oh, poor baby! Earth sure has softned you up!"