"Tess," Maria said as she poked her head out of her sleeping bag.

Tess seemed surprised to find that Maria was awake, "Go back to sleep Maria."

"Where were you?" Maria questioned.

"Don't worry about it, just go back to sleep," Tess quickly undressed and slipped into bed.

Maria felt reluctant to give up, but Tess wasn't even facing her. She gave a tired sigh and closed her eyes. She had them closed for a minute when her cell phone rang. Tess stirred but didn't wake up. "Hello."

"Maria, it's me," Liz's voice sounded panicked.

"Liz, do you know what time it is?" Maria realized that it had been 3 hours since Tess got home.

Liz pleaded, "I really need to talk to you."

"Ok," Maria told her. "I'll be right there."

Maria crawled out of her sleeping bag and searched around for some clean clothing. It took her about fifteen minutes to get to Liz's where she found her completely wide-awake.

"Liz what's wrong?" her behavior was making her nervous.

"Oh Maria, I found out something," Liz informed her. "Alex never went to Sweden."

"What?!" Maria didn't understand.

Liz held up a picture that Maria had seen before, "Alex and his supposed girlfriend Leanna standing in front of some building in Sweden…now the problem is…the building was torn down in 1994. 1994, Maria, think about it, Alex was ten."

"How did you find that out?" Maria questioned.

Liz explained, "I scanned this picture to the Swedish Embassy, and they confirmed it."

Maria couldn't believe it, "Ok, I'm so creeped out right now. So who's Leanna then?"

Liz wasn't exactly sure, "You know she could be some girl that Alex never met, put in these photos with him, just like the buildings."

"Or she could be an alien killer," Maria added. "So, wait if Alex never went to Sweden and he wasn't here, then where was he?"

"I don't know, that's what we got to find out," Liz said to her passionately. "I can't do this by myself. I really need your help."

Maria sat down on Liz's bed, "I'm sorry, Liz." Maria saw Liz's face drop, because she thought that Maria wasn't going to help her. "I'm sorry for not believing you."

Liz had a glint of hope in her eyes, "So will you help me?"

Maria nodded, "Of course I'll help you."

"Thank you," Liz said simply, but she was happy that she was no longer alone.

* * * Michael arrived at school fairly early and the first person he saw was Max, well actually Max and Tess. "Hey Michael," Max greeted sounding a little overexcited.

"Hey," Tess also greeted.

"Hey?" Michael threw them a weird look.

"Tess and I were actually just talking," Max explained as if Michael cared.

"That's nice, Maxwell," Michael turned to Tess. "Where's Maria?"

"She's around here, somewhere," she replied.

"All right, later," Michael gave a short wave.

"Great!" Max said.

Michael didn't know what had gotten into him, "Fantastic." He walked down the school hall when he spotted Maria coming out of the yearbook room. "Dropping off the final product."

Maria smiled when she saw him, "Yeah, I got nothing but compliments. Now all they have to do is print a million copies and insert them into the yearbooks by tomorrow."

Michael noticed that she was carrying her laptop computer with her, "That's great, what's with the computer?"

Maria forgot she was holding it, "Oh I had some homework to finish. I was hoping to get a spare minute in the library."

"Oh, okay, well I'll see you later," Michael gave her a quick kiss good-bye and then continued down the hall.

Maria waited for him to turn the corner before passing the library and entering the computer lab. She spotted Derek, the computer nerd sitting in his usual spot as she approached. "I need your help."

"Huh?" He was unaware that someone had sat down next to him.

Maria set up her laptop next to him, "I, uh, need you to tell me exactly where this e-mail is sent from."

"You're Liz Parker's friend, right?" he asked.

"Maria Harding, it's really nice to meet you," Maria said hastily. "So…"

Derek looked into the e-mail carefully, "Um, the origination point has been encrypted."

"Obviously," Maria didn't have time for this. "I need you to do your computer nerd stuff and figure out exactly where this e-mail came from."

"You're asking me to do something illegal," Derek stated.

Maria went on, "And…"

"Just checking," he said as he quickly typed on the keyboard. "And there you go."

Maria looked at the computer screen, "No way."

* * * Maria wanted to go straight over to Liz's house when she found out what she learned, but she had a full day of classes ahead of her. Liz didn't show up to school and Maria didn't want to tell anyone else yet. She was on her way over to Liz's, but then a nagging feeling that had urged her to go home.

She heard voices coming from Kyle's room when she entered the house. "Max, what are you doing here?" Maria questioned when she found Max and Tess in an intense conversation. "What's going on?"

Tess looked over nervously at Max who spoke up, "Um, we have something to tell you."

"Okay," Maria didn't like the vibe coming from the room. "What is it?"

Tess took a deep breath, "Uh, I'm…I'm pregnant…and Max is the father."

Maria didn't know what to say she couldn't really form the words that were running through her mind. "Are you guys out of your freakin' minds!" Maria finally exploded. "How can you let this happen?"

"It just…it just happened," Max uttered.

"Well that's really convenient, isn't it Max?" Maria snapped. "How are we going to explain this?"

"We'll just tell the truth," Max told her.

Maria's head jerked towards Tess, "You didn't tell him."

Max also looked over at Tess, "Tell me what?"

"Alien pregnancies only take a month," Maria announced. "And in case you haven't noticed Tess doesn't exactly look 8 months pregnant."

"I can't listen to this right now," Tess got to her feet and rushed out of the room without looking at Maria.

"You of all people Max," Maria couldn't help but feel disappointed. "Our fearless leader. Mr. Responsible. You certainly got yourself into a complete mess, now the question is. What are you going to do about it?"

Maria walked out of the room only to find another surprise in the living room. "Liz?"

"What are you doing here?" Max asked coming from behind not exactly looking happy.

Liz was surprised to see Max there, "Um, nothing, you know, we were just…we're talking, I should go."

"Talking about what?" Max demanded.

Liz replied, "Nothing."

Tess jumped in, "Max, you know, it's ok, forget about it."

"No, I wanna know," Max pressed on.

"We'll just talk later," Liz began to look uncomfortable.

Maria tried to help her out, "Come on Liz, I'll take you home."

"No, please don't go on my account," Max wasn't going to let this go. "Go ahead and ask your questions."

Tess spoke up, "Max, she just had a few questions about my powers, that's all."

"New theory?" Max shot out at Liz.

Liz answered, "I just wanted to know some things about mind control and I thought."

"Oh, so Tess killed Alex, is that your theory?" Max sneered harshly.

"Max!" Maria snapped at him. "You're out of line!"

"No," Liz said answering Max's question.

Tess surprisingly defended Liz, "Max, she didn't say that."

Max didn't let up, but instead he got in Liz's face, "That's what you're thinking, why don't you just ask it!"

"Max, of course that's not what I'm thinking!" Liz cried out.

Max turned to Tess, "Tess, did you kill Alex?"

"Max," Tess seemed a bit offended.

Maria thought Max was being ridiculous, "Max stop it."

"What were you doing on the night that he died?" he questioned ignoring Maria's pleas.

"Will you stop it!" Liz shouted at him.

Max continued to interrogate Tess, "Go ahead. What were you doing?"

"She was with me," Kyle came out of the kitchen to save Tess. "We were watching Gladiator on video."

"An alibi," Max told Liz. "From one of your own."

"Max, that is enough," Maria ordered.

Liz asked, "Can I leave now?" "Yep," Max taunted.

Liz quickly fled from the front entrance. "I can't believe you Max," Maria started to go after her, but Tess grabbed her by the arm.

"Don't you dare tell Liz about this," Tess warned, but Maria just pulled away and left them all behind.

* * * "Liz! Please get in the car!" Maria pulled her car alongside Liz who was quickly walking on the sidewalk. "Liz! I'm going to follow you the entire way home if you don't get in." Liz finally relented and got in the car. "Now are you going to tell me what that was all about?"

On the way to the Crashdown Liz broke down and told Maria everything. She explained the reason why Max was angry with her was because she was going to go all the way to Sweden to prove that Alex was murdered.

They continued their conversation on Liz's balcony when Maria finally spilled the beans. "I was thinking to myself, right. How is it that Alex sent these e-mails from Sweden when he isn't actually in Sweden, right?" Liz nodded her head as she listened, "So, I took the e-mails that he sent me and went to Derek, all right, and he used his nerdiness to uncover that the e-mails were sent from right here in New Mexico."

Liz had a bewildered look on her face, "Are you telling me that Alex never left Roswell?"

"No, he…he did, he just didn't go far," Maria explained. "The e-mails were sent from a dorm room at the University of New Mexico in Las Cruces."

"What was he doing in Las Cruces?" Liz wondered.

Maria shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Well we have to go there," Liz declared.

"To Las Cruces?" Maria questioned with wide eyes.

Liz nodded and pointed out, "Hey I was ready to go to Sweden."

"Ok, fine, we'll go tomorrow," Maria gave in. "We just have to make up a cover story, but I doubt anyone would care."

Liz gave her a confused look, "What do you mean?"