"You guys are just great friends to Alex, you know, still," Mr. Whitman said sadly. "Oh, and Liz, tell your folks thanks for the food they sent over."

Liz was sitting at Alex's desk, "Yeah, sure. What are these?"

Liz held up a small stack of cards. "Condolence cards from floral arrangements," he told her. "You can take a look at them if you'd like."

Liz sifted through the cards, but then she found a name she didn't recognize, "The Olsons?"

Mr. Whitman overheard her, "Yeah. Alex's host family in Sweden. It's awful to admit, but Gloria and I didn't even thin about contacting them."

"Well, then, who did?" Maria saw Liz's raise her eyebrows.

"I'm assuming someone from the school. Alex's entire trip was set up through the guidance office." Maria could see that it was still painful for Mr. Whitman to talk about Alex. "Well looks like you guys are gonna be here for awhile. I'll order a pizza."

"Oh no, you really don't have to order-" Maria was cut off.

Mr. Whitman insisted, "It's nothing."

"Liz, you're being rude," Maria declared once Mr. Whitman left.

Liz was staring at Alex's computer; "Alex put every single thing about his entire life in this computer. There has got to be something in here to help us figure out what really happened."

"Mr. Whitman let us go through stuff for the yearbook spread," Maria sternly pointed out. "You can't look through his stuff for clues. It's immoral."

"What's immoral is that someone murdered Alex. Look, we have two clues here-the numbers on the Thai food receipt and his girlfriend Leanna," Liz told Maria in a serious tone. "Will you start looking through his desk drawers? See if you can find anything."

Maria didn't want to contribute to Liz's theory because she refused to think that Alex could have been murdered, "I don't think so. No."

"Why Maria? Come on, we've only got a few hours here," Liz tried to convince her.

"Does Max know that you're doing this?" Maria questioned.

Liz replied honestly, "I'm just looking for the truth. I don't think that Max is interested in that right now."

"God, I hate this!" Maria cried out in frustration. "It's like this chasm has formed between everybody since…"

"Since I said aliens were responsible for Alex's death," Liz finished Maria's sentence.

"Yes. Look, I actually don't think we should do this without them knowing," Maria attempted to get through to her. "It's just gonna make things worse. As it is, Michael and I haven't even talked to each other in days. He probably feels like I betrayed him."

Liz seemed like she wasn't listening to Maria's ramblings, "Why would he lock this document?"

"What?" Maria asked.

Liz explained as she fiddled with the computer, "Inside this folders, there's five subfolders, and in the last subfolder, there's one locked file. None of the other files are locked. It's like he was hiding it. Do you have any idea what his security code is? Maria?"

Maria was a bit hesitant, "Look, I really don't think we should."

"Just tell me," Liz was losing her patience.

To satisfy Liz's curiosity and to basically shut her up Maria gave in, "Try 'I the stud.' He let me log on to his e-mail account a few times."

Liz typed in the password and the folder opened, "Oh my God. Look at this. Look."

Maria looked at the computer screen, which was filled the words; "Leanna is not Leanna." "What did you press?" she asked Liz.

Liz informed her, "I didn't do anything."

"Turn it off Liz," Maria demanded. "It will only upset us more." Liz turned around in the chair, "But this means something."

"Liz, please, can you drop this, at least for now?" Maria pleaded with a compromise.

Liz thought for a moment, "OK, for now." Liz joined Maria on the bed as they began looking through the pictures. "Alex made the funniest cowboy," Liz smiled as she held up a picture of them at Halloween.

"Yeah, I can't believe he convinced us to go trick or treating," Maria added.

Liz laughed, "Are you kidding me? Halloween was like Alex's favorite time of the year."

They spent the next couple hours choosing which pictures they should put in the yearbook. However, Maria felt that Liz would rather be doing something else. They had pizza with Alex's parents, then Alex's father help load some of Alex's things in her car, so she could take them to school. She then took Liz home and the whole time they didn't talk about what they found on Alex's computer.

* * * Maria threw herself into the yearbook spread so she wouldn't have to think about anything else. She felt a little guilty for not speaking to Michael since the funeral, but she needed the time to get her head together. Liz's behavior wasn't helping her very much, and Maria felt torn in two.

"Look, whatever happened to Alex happened while he was in Sweden," Liz rambled on as Maria set up a camera for a photo spread. "You know that 'Leanna is not Leanna' document? It was created on January 16 while Alex was still there."

"Will you hold this like this?" Maria handed Liz the camera light.

Liz went on talking ass he held up the light, "Yes. 'Leanna is not Leanna.' Well, you think about it in alien terms. It could mean that she's a shapeshifter or a skin or some type of alien that we don't even know about yet."

"You know what? Think about it in human terms, ok?" Maria wanted to instill some reason into her. "What if he and Leanna got in a fight or what if he caught Leanna flirting with another boy or something?"

Liz wasn't buying that, "I started playing around with the sequence of ones and zeroes that Alex wrote on the delivery food receipt that night he was murdered."

"Please, do not use that word, Liz. Please," Maria pleaded.

"There were 20 altogether. Then I counted the number of letters in the phrase, 'Leanna is not Leanna.' 17, not a match, until I counted the number of spaces between the words. 17 letters plus 3 spaces equals 20. What if there's a connection?" Liz concluded.

Michael walked by the music room where he found Liz talking to Maria. He was tired of the silent treatment between them and he really wanted to talk to her. "Hey, can I talk to Maria for a minute?" It was Michael's subtle way of telling Liz to leave.

Liz felt a little annoyed, "Sure."

He took the camera light from Liz as she left. "Give me that," Maria took the light from him and set it down.

Michael questioned casually, "So what's Liz accusing us of now?"

"You know what? If you're here to trash talk, I'm gonna have to take a raincheck, 'cause that is the only way I'm gonna get through a simple school day without losing it, all right," Maria warned him as she loaded the camera.

Michael told her, "Well you gotta tell her to get off this Alex thing."

"What if she's right, though, you know?" Maria softly challenged.

"All the more reason for her not to get involved. It's dangerous. It's not for Liz to look into, or you," Michael replied.

"God, I hate this," Maria sighed loudly. "I just hate that there's this division between all of us."

"Well, then, maybe Liz shouldn't have blamed us for killing Alex," Michael said.

Maria defended, "That is not what she said, Michael."

Michael could see that she was emotionally fragile right then, so he decided to drop it. "What are you doing?"

"It's a yearbook collage me and Liz are doing in memory of Alex," Maria answered as she snapped a picture.

Michael looked at the instruments she had arranged in the front, "And this would be?"

Maria said sadly, "It's a picture of all his instruments. It's lame, isn't it?"

"Kind of," Michael wanted to be honest. "Need help?"

"Why?" Maria didn't think he would want to do something school oriented. "Are you serious?"

Michael nodded sincerely, "Yeah."

Maria was stunned for a moment, "Well, I um…I left Tess my car, so I could use a ride to the photo shop to get some color copies."

"OK," Michael figured that was a start.

Maria continued, "And then I gotta track down this non-clump spray adhesive, and my exacto knife is missing." Michael listened, but he didn't exactly know what she was rambling about. "And, yeah, I haven't collected half of the stuff that we want to put in the collage and, on top of everything, I have a major deadline to meet."

"Maria, calm down, you don't want to stress yourself out," Michael grew concerned.

"You know what," Maria thought for a minute, "Maybe I should get my car from Tess and go by myself."

"No, I'll take you," Michael insisted. "You can count on me."

Maria gave him a weak smile, "Thanks." She gave him a soft kiss on the lips, "I gotta go, I have a lot of work to do."

"I'll see you later," Michael called out as she left the room.

* * * "She's obsessed," Max declared later that afternoon. "She keeps talking to people, asking questions."

Michael was with Max, Isabel, and Tess on the side of the road discussing Liz's obsession with finding out what killed Alex. "Has anybody thought about the possibility that Liz is right?" Isabel spoke up. "I'm the last person who wants to even remotely consider it, but it's us. Stranger things have happened."

"No, she isn't right," Max declared.

Isabel kept on, "Max, if we just thought about it." Michael looked over at Tess who had decided to keep her mouth shut, and he had to admit that it felt weird not having Maria there.

"Isabel, no. Liz is wrong," Max responded. "And even if there were anything remotely alien about this, our cover is the best defense. It always has been."

Isabel had something to share, "Not quite. I got a letter from San Francisco. They wait-listed me."

"Really?" Max sounded surprised.

"Yeah. It's good news. You know, Mrs. Fletcher's got everybody working in the guidance counselor's office to get me recommendations, and my teachers are helping," Isabel sounded a bit excited about leaving. "I mean, this could really be a good chance for me." Max didn't say anything he just looked away. "Some people would say, 'congratulations.'"

"We'll talk about this later," Max held on emotion in his voice.

"Sure," Isabel sneered as Tess and Max walked away. "God, why does he treat me like I'm an immature child."

"Do you really think Alex could have been murdered?" Michael grilled Isabel.

Isabel looked sad, "I don't know what to think, but all I know is that Alex is gone and he shouldn't be."

"Yeah, I know how you feel," Michael said looking over at Max and Tess. "Are you going to be okay here, because I have to go meet Maria?"

"Go, I'll be fine," Isabel replied. "It is good you guys have each other."

Michael gave her a short wave as he mounted his motorbike and drove off.

Maria was looking through a stack of pictures on the Valentis' porch when Michael arrived to pick her up. When he saw her he could tell she had been crying because her cheeks were stained with tears. "Maria," Michael said softly as he sat down next to her.

Maria stuffed the pictures in her purse, and wiped her face with her hand, "I'm fine, let's go."

"Maria, you're not fine," Michael began to worry. "This project is stressing you out, and you don't need that right now."

"I'm fine," Maria retorted sharply. "I'll be done by the end of the week and then everything will be fine." Maria got up and grabbed the extra helmet. She slipped it over her head and questioned him, "Well are we going?"

Michael felt that he had no other choice, so he got up and put his own helmet on. He mounted his bike again and felt Maria wrap her arms around his waist. He thought to himself that the only way to help her is to be there for her, and that was what he was going to do.

* * * Michael dropped Maria off later that night just when Tess was pulling up in Maria's Explorer. "Hey," she said.

"Hey, where were you?" Maria asked.

"I was at the park with Max," she replied tossing the keys to Maria. "By the way you need gas."

"Gee, thanks," Maria mumbled as Tess went inside the house.

Michael joked, "Makes me kind of glad I don't have siblings."

"They can be a pain in the you-know-what, but they keep you grounded," Maria described as she handed him her helmet. "So I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Michael took off his helmet so he could kiss her good night. "Take it easy, babe."

"For the last time, don't worry I'm fine," Maria kissed him so he wouldn't say anything.

After she pulled away he couldn't help but say, "I love it when you do that."

Maria teased, "Well if you're nice to me maybe I'll do it again."

"I might just take you up on that offer," Michael was glad that Maria was beginning to sound like herself.

They kissed again, "I better go, I have some stuff I want to get done before I go to bed. Good night."

She kissed him again real quick before she headed inside the house. "Good night," he said and he waited for her to go inside before heading towards the park. He spotted Max walking through the park, so Michael parked his bike a ways a way and began walking behind Max. Michael began to whistle in order to freak him out.

"Don't do that," Max said when he realized that it was Michael.

Michael started in on him, "This whole thing with Isabel and college."

"She can't go," Max stated without a thought.

"Do you want me to talk to her about it?" Michael offered. "Things seem a little tense between you two."

"Ok," Max agreed.

"No problem," Michael said as Max began to walk away. "Max."

Max turned around, "What?"

"Nothing," Michael answered. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah," Max said.

"Good," Michael replied.

Max also told him, "Good."

"Because you sort of snapped at Isabel before. You know, about the Liz thing," Michael was beginning to have his own suspicions. "She was just saying it was a possibility."

"I know. It's just…if I want to hear these theories about Alex's murder, I could talk to Liz," Max said.

"Yeah," Michael considered the thought.

Max couldn't help but ask, "You think we have something to do with it?"

Michael decided to give him an honest answer, "I have no idea. I just wouldn't want our leader to be forming opinions based on what he wants to be true instead of what really is true. Anyway…"

"Michael," Max began because of what he said struck a chord. "The idea that Alex might have died just because we're here…I can't bear it." Max confessed, "All those times you would run off chasing some clue to find out where we come from. Why we're here. Where we belong. I always thought you were chasing something that wasn't out there, because in my heart, I believed that we belonged here, you know? That we were human. Lately, I've been thinking that you might have been right all along."