"Maria..."

"No, really, I think this could be good for business. Alien themed food and the corpse of a girl who dated an alien. They'll be flocking to the cafi."

"Maria, if I have to clean that counter again..."

"Alright, alright." Maria sighed and let herself drop off the counter. She grabbed the mop and made a half-hearted sweep of the floor. "Where is Alex? I thought we were having a human's night out tonight."

"We are but he called about an hour ago and mumbled something about finding a new drummer. He said we should just go ahead and order the pizza and that he'll be here soon." Liz Parker filled the last salt shaker and stood back to survey the Crashdown.

"Ahh, c'mon drummers are a dime a dozen. My cat could play drums."

"You don't have a cat, Maria." Liz replied absently, taking one more swipe at the counter with her rag. "I think we're done. Let's get out of here."

"Right on, girlfriend." Maria bounced off to the back with her usual level of frenetic energy.

Liz's smile faded as she walked to the front of the cafi to make sure the door was locked. The past few months had been hellish. Liz suspect that on a purely personal level they may have been even harder to get through then the whole Topolsky/Pierce/FBI alien hunt. At least then she'd had Max Evans by her side, but now she felt cast adrift. She couldn't talk to him anymore, couldn't force herself to look into his eyes and see the soul-searing pain that resided there now. Pain she had caused.

**You didn't really have a choice, Liz. You did what was best. Right, and if I tell myself that often, enough, I'll be able to pretend aliens don't exists and this has all been a fever-induced dream.**

She didn't want Max to be a dream, though. She wanted him to be real and alive and hers. For a brief moment, so brief she could almost feel it slip through her fingers like the finest, softest, most gossamer silk, so ephemeral she couldn't tell from one moment to the next when it was in her grasp and when it was gone, she had had him. Liz sighed and threw the bolt on the door, why did it have to feel as if her soul had been ripped in half?

A rapping on the window had her stumbling back with a shriek. She had been so involved in her thoughts she had failed to notice the figure standing outside. She had to be pretty far-gone, she decided, not to notice Max. She unlocked the door and opened it a bit.

"Hi Liz."

"Hey Max. Is everything okay?"

"Oh yeah, fine. I was just getting off work and saw you closing up and, uh, I just thought I'd come over and say hi." Max finished lamely. He looked down at her, willing her to look up at him, but she wouldnt do it. He felt as if he was collapsing in on himself. She was hiding something from him and not knowing what it was tore him apart. He still refused to believe that she slept with Kyle, in spite of what he saw and what she told him. Maybe he was being a fool but he just couldn't buy it. God, he was tired. He was too young to feel this tired. Max needed to trust her; Liz was the only one with whom he ever tried to share his burdens. He had to try.

"Umm, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out tonight, or something."

"Well, uh, yeah, I'd love to but, see" Liz was interrupted by a hand pulling her back into the cafi.

"Sorry ET, humans only tonight. Better luck next time." Maria pushed Max away from the door and shut it in his face. She locked the door and turned Liz around and directed her to the break room.

"Maria, Max and I were..."

"Yeah, I caught the whole non-verbal angst thing. Look at yourself, Liz, you look like you're about to curl up into the fetal position under your bed. This is what human's night out is all about. We all need this. They come in peace, my ass." Maria marched Liz up the stairs to her room. "Go change. Alex will be here eventually and as hilarious as it would be to see his face if he walked in on you in the buff I think we can spare ourselves that trip to the ER tonight."

"Maria?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. Why don't you order the pizza and I'll be done in a second."

"Are you okay, Liz?"

"Yes, Maria, I'm fine."

"Okay, just wondering. I don't remember the last time you trusted me to order the pizza." Maria winked at Liz and dashed out of the room with a laugh.

"Oh God, Maria, NO CHIPOTLES."

******

Alex arrived at the same time as the pizza and brought the evening's film entertainment with him. Maria stared at his selections with a mixture of horror and amusement. She wasn't sure which emotion would win.

"'Independence Day' and 'Mars Attacks'?"

"I thought it might be kind of a catharsis, you know. The scrappy, underdog humans, beating the snot out of the nasty, evil aliens.

A strange sound from Liz had Maria spinning around with worry. Liz's face was red and her eyes were wet. Maria was about to smack Alex for upsetting Liz with his stupid movies when she realized that Liz was laughing. Alex looked at Maria's raised hand and smiled smugly. Liz collapsed back on the couch, gasping for breath and fighting off the giggles that threatened to overwhelm her again.

"Perfect, Alex." She managed when she got her breath again.

"Why thank you, my dear Parker. So, shall we...OUCH. What the heck was that for?" Alex rubbed his shoulder where Maria had punched him not so lightly.

"For making me panic, now scooch your butt and let's get down to business. Which movie first?"

******

The pizza had been devoured and the three had laughed themselves sick the movies.

"Maybe we should have taken notes." Liz's sides hurt from laughing and she was sprawled on the couch desperately trying to catch her breath. Both Maria and Alex were in a similar state and her comment just set them off again.

"I am never going anywhere without my laptop, but I'm not sure what we have to worry about 'cause it is just so totally obvious that aliens are crappy pilots." Alex quipped.

"Are you complaining? You wouldn't have a love life if they weren't," Maria laughed and ducked the swing that Alex aimed at her.

"Low blow, Deluca. You're one to talk. At least, Isabel looks human, well like a goddess in human form but still human. What's the deal with Michael's hair? That is like an alien life form all its own. I think I should be scared."

Liz laughed and looked at Maria with an evil glimmer in her eye, "Oh my gosh, Alex, I think you're right. Wasn't it on an episode of Star Trek once? The evil alien disguised itself as Captain Kirk's toupee."

"Actually I think that was the Simpsons."

"Alright, you two, no need to gang up on me. Isn't it punishment enough that I dated an alien with poor personal grooming skills?"

"God," Maria breathed, "how weird are our lives? I mean, seriously, the words 'alien' and 'personal grooming' just came out of my mouth in the same sentence. Does it ever just, you know, hit you? That they walk among us and we've like run from the FBI on account of them?"

"Yeah, sometimes," Liz agreed. "Its like you just go with things, 'cause you don't really have time to think about it. I mean, it's your life. But, god, sometimes it is just so bizarre. I was shot and would have died but I was healed by an alien who I later fell in love with. I've been stalked by a guidance counselor who was actually an FBI agent who was part of a special alien-hunting unit that we were eventually forced to run for our lives from. My boyfriend, his sister and his best friend all turn out to be some sort of royalty and I leave him to follow his destiny."

"With a skanky alien ho. Much angst ensues."

"Thank you, Maria, I don't need additional color commentary."

"Hey, girlfriend, just trying to help."

"I wonder if that Slim Whitman country yodeling stuff would make Tess' head explode." Liz mused.

"Liz!" Alex choked on his Pepsi and Maria threw her head back in laughter. "I'll grant you that she is not my favorite Czechoslovakian, but, uh, how do you know that it wouldn't effect others of Czech descent the same way?"

"I'm kidding, Alex. She's actually been, sorta okay, recently."

"Sure, like I don't see you shooting her evil looks in English every day." Maria admonished.

"Maria, you give her uglier looks then I ever have."

"Because she is an evil, skanky ho. But I believe I said that already. I caught her making trampy puppy dog eyes at Tavis Baird the other day. Bad enough she invaded on the Max front but now she's gotta go through every guy at school?"

"Oh my gosh, Tavis is so totally hot. Did you hear he is going out with Cathy Flynn? Talk about a skanky ho." Liz stuck her tongue out.

"So Tess would be a lateral move for him then, eh?" Alex laughed.

"Oh man, do you know who is a total hottie? Nick Jefferson. Wow. Just wow. I have no other words." Maria sighed.

"There's a first," Alex snorted.

Liz slapped Alex playfully on the arm, "You are totally right, Maria. The thing is though, I mean, I know these guys are totally good looking and all but I just can't imagine wanting to go out with them."

Maria collapsed over on the couch with a groan, "I know, isn't it horrible? Damn Czechoslovakians. It's like some sort of disease. The thought of any guy, you know, touching me or kissing me, who isn't Michael, creeps me out."

"Umm, do I want to hear this conversation?" Alex shifted a little uncomfortably.

"You'll be fine, Alex. Besides, don't you feel the same about Isabel? I can't imagine being with anybody other then Max." Liz leaned forward towards Maria, her demeanor turning serious, "You know, it was kind of funny. That night that Kyle was over, I was so nice to just talk to him again, because he really is a sweet guy. But even though we were in bed and all, I just had no desire to even kiss him or anything."

"WHAT?" Alex jumped up and looked down at Liz, shock written across his face. "The rumors were true? No. No, I don't believe that, Lizzy. Tell me you didn't sleep with Kyle Valenti. Please." He sank back down to the floor with a groan.

"Didn't you hear what she just said, Alex. She said she didn't even want to kiss him. How would she sleep with him? Chill, man."

"Chill? She said she was in bed with him."

"It was an alien/save the world related moment, dude."

"Yeah, see Max came back from the future and told me that in order to save the world I had to make our Max fall out of love with me so that he would follow his destiny with Tess. So I let him catch me in bed with Kyle."

"Whoa, no wonder you and Max look like death warmed over. No offense. Geez, Liz, so did it work?"

"I guess so. Future Max disappeared which I suppose means that that future never happened so he never came back to tell me to make him fall out of love with me."

"I have a headache."

"I hear ya, man, when people start talking about the future in past tense my eyes glaze over and I get this weird ringing in my ears. "But, Liz, if that future never happened, now, or will never happen, ugh, whatever, then that means that the future is like open, undetermined. So wouldn't it be okay if you told Max? Future Max just said that they all needed to stick together. Not that he needed to fall in love with Tess, just that she had to stay here, right?"

"I guess, but..." Liz looked down, her throat tight and she could feel tears burning in her eyes.

Maria leaned forward and grabbed Liz's hands. "And, sweetheart, he didn't know everything. He just knew that things in his time fell apart because he treated Tess poorly and so she left. So you can make our Max play nice with Tess. She doesn't seem as obsessed with him anymore anyway. Not if she's all over Tavis, and Kyle and every other guy in school."

"Except me."

"Except Alex, but only because she is completely terrified of Isabel." Maria winked at Liz when Alex's face broke into a goofy grin.

"I know you're right, Maria. But what I did really hurt both of us. I know I did the right thing but I...I just have to think about it a little bit more."

"Don't think too long, honey. I don't think Max will ever give up but damn he gets into hover mode and won't leave me alone. Please, for my sanity, so that I can get through a night without him waking me up at 3am, just talk to him." Maria pleaded.

Liz laughed finally and hugged her friend and then grabbed a surprised Alex into the embrace. "I love you guys."

"I didn't hear 'Yes, Maria, I will talk to Max so that you can get a decent night's sleep and access to your locker without having to physically remove Max from in front of it everyday before almost every class,' in there anywhere, Liz."

"Yes, Maria, I will talk to Max. Soon. I promise."

"Okay that'll have to do, I guess. And on that note, I think its time I head home. My mom is making me get up at some ungodly hour to help her bake."

The trio stood then and Liz walked them to the door. "Night guys, it was fun. Nice to be Czechoslovakian free tonight." She laughed. "Thanks for the movies, Alex."

"No problem. I'll see you tomorrow, Lizzy." He kissed her on the forehead and waved as he walked out the door.

"You sure you don't want to stay, Maria?"

"No, really, baking and some sort of as yet undetermined craft project with the sunrise tomorrow. I must be off. I'll call you in the morning, okay?"

"That'll be great. I'll talk to you then. Have a good night."

******

Liz shut the door after her friend and walked back upstairs. She cleaned up what was left of their dinner and then went to her room to relax. She grabbed up her journal and went out onto her balcony. She stopped short but found she wasn't surprised to see the figure perched on the wall.

"Hi Liz."