"Liz?" He said shaking her shoulders.

"She can't hear you, remember?" Isabel sat on the bed next to her brother.

"I know." He gave Liz another light shake and she rolled over meeting his gaze.

"What's going on?" The strange pitch and tone of her voice made a shiver run up Isabel's back.

"Michael and Maria are gone and-" Isabel interrupted him.

"You have to write it down or something-she doesn't get it." She watched Max leave the room and return with a pen and paper.

"Max, okay for all us hearing people here, what's the plan?" She pulled the covers over Liz's goose bumped shoulders.

"Just give me a second to think of something." He miserably looked down at Michael's bed sheets. Seeing his face, Liz slipped her hand into Max's.

"Well, I-I guess we can go and stop Maria before she meets Tess." Isabel picked at her fingernail while Max brushed one of his hands up Liz's face. "Max? Hello-Maria and Michael!" He snapped back into reality.

"Uh, yeah." He gave Liz's hand a kiss before laying it back down on the bed and picking up the paper and pen. "Wait, go after Maria? We can't take Liz to Buckley Point, not in the condition she's in."

"True." Isabel nervously looked out Michael's bedroom window at the black clouds.

"What time does Alex's plane get in?" Max scribbled on the piece of paper not looking up at his sister.

"5:30 this afternoon." Liz, who had been carefully watching their lips, spoke.

"They're together." Max and Isabel looked at her. "It was about 4:30 and Maria got dressed. I read the letter after she left and was planning on going with her until I looked into the kitchen to see Maria and Michael talking." She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Then Michael came in here and changed. I watched them both leave together."

"I knew it." Isabel was starting to get that same nauseous feeling she was becoming so used to.

"Why didn't you wake us up and tell us?" Max said as he scribbled it down on the piece of paper. He held it up to Liz and she sat up in the bed.

"I thought she deserved a chance to figure this all out."

"Yeah, and Tess is really going to help her figure it all out." Isabel shot a glance at her brother before leaving the room.

*******************

"You are such an asshole!" She kicked the gas petal and sent them flying backward.

"Where are we going?!" Michael's shoulders hit the back of his seat as Maria slammed on the breaks.

"To meet Tess, if you must know!" She changed gears and catapulted them out into the street.

"Tess? Are you mental?!" He eyed her skeptically.

"God, sometimes I just want to rip your head off!"

"Wait, why are we going to meet Tess?" He took hold of the dashboard, trying to sit up.

"Oh, you don't want to have a screaming match anymore?" She said swerving to avoid a car. "You're all done for today?"

"Would you slow down." He asked pulling his seat belt from its place on the car door.

"No." She said after not using her turning signal and swooping in front of another car.

"And you think I drive erratically." He said under his breath.

"What!?" She gave him her bone chilling 'evil eye'.

"Nothing, can we stick to the subject-meeting Tess."

"What do you want to know?" She adjusted her rearview mirror and hit the air condition vent until it didn't face her anymore. [What the hell is it with guys and having the AC on arctic blast?]

"Everything." He said, finally clicking his seat belt on.

"Figures." She squeezed her two hands tightly on the steering wheel until her knuckles were white. "Last night, when I was packing my things, I found a note from Tess on my pillow. It basically said, if I wanted to know the truth and help save Liz's life to come meet her, alone, at Buckley Point at sunrise. She also mentioned something about you being in trouble...why I care I have no idea."

Michael stared at her speechless. "S-so you were just going to run off and meet her!?" He threw his hands in the air. "Hello! Let's not prove the point that all blondes are dumb! We talked about this last night-we can't trust her!"

"A dumb blonde?! Okay, listen Chewy-" she huffed at him looking at his hair. "-since Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia were detained, I had to do the job myself! No matter the risk! I had to!"

"You had to? That's not good enough!" Lightning flared in the sky, portraying how upset the two really were, but the sound of the thunder and rain hitting the window was no match for their arguing.

"So what, all of a sudden you disagree with me doing the exact same thing you did with Topolsky?" She looked away from the road, to him.

"Stop changing the subject!"

"No, I'm not changing the subject-it's just you can't face the truth! Maybe now you understand how I feel every time you run off and go do something stupid!" They were both silent. "I admit, in a way, my actions were selfish but Liz is my best friend and you…I can't help it if I love you."

A million pounds of stone cracked Michael right up the side of his head. She actually said it-she said she loved him. What was he supposed to say?

He was torn from his thoughts at the sound of Maria's scream as her eyes focused back on the road. From what they could both see through the front window, a tractor-trailer that had just jackknifed was now throwing its trailer at their quickly approaching red Jetta. Maria focused on the green and black colored pair of dice hanging from the trucks rearview mirror and Michael reacted, grabbing the steering wheel and ripping it to the left, almost turning the car on its side.