Michael and Maria stood outside the Crashdown, fifteen minutes after it had closed. "Do we really want to do this now?" he questioned her.

Maria sighed. "No, but we have to. Let's just go in."

Everyone was there -- Max, Liz, Isabel, Alex, Kyle, and Tess. The usual suspects. Isabel and Tess were drinking cherry coke with lime and sugar. Alex and Kyle were sitting at the bar, munching on Saturn Rings and Men In Blackberry Pie. Liz was sweeping up, and Max was sitting in the back booth, brooding as usual.

Liz looked up as the couple walked through the door. "So, um, what did you want us all here for?" she asked, curiosity getting the best of her.

Michael took a deep breath. Maria swallowed hard.

"We're having a baby," they said at the same time.

Dead silence.

Then, pandemonium.

"What?"
"How did this happen?"
"How could you LET this happen?"
"What are you going to do?"
"What are WE going to do?"

Maria sat down in the nearest booth, her head beginning to pound.

"I think we all know how this happened, and accidents do happen, and we're all going to be supportive and happy for Maria and Michael," Liz said, sitting next to Maria and wrapping an arm around her. Maria snuggled into her best friend's arm and put her head on her shoulder.

"But this has never been done before! We don't know if we'll have a glowing silver baby or a baby that can shoot out transformers at the blink of an eye or if this baby can... can survive before it's born. Human incubation may not work for it," Isabel said.

In the corner booth, Maria began to cry. Michael went to sit in front of her and took her hands in his.

"What are we going to do, Michael?" she sobbed.

He didn't have an answer.

* * * * *

Later that evening, after things had calmed down some, Michael took Maria home. Sitting on her bed, he took her into his arms. "It's going to be okay, I promise," he whispered in her ear.

A second later, he no longer believed that promise.

The two heard glass break, and instinctively ducked for cover. The sound of squealing tires was heard outside her house.

On the floor lay a rock, with a piece of paper around it. The paper was fastened down by a rubber band.

*Be afraid for yourself and your unborn.*

That was all the note said. Michael looked up at Maria after reading it.

"What is it?" she asked, grabbing the note from him and reading it for herself. All the color drained out of her face.

"I don't think it's safe to be here tonight," Michael told her. "Let's go to Max's."

Soon after they pulled away from Maria's house, a silver car with tinted windows began following the pair openly. After catching on, Michael made a series of turns, going nowhere in particular. Finally turning onto the Evans' street, Michael told Maria, "As soon as I stop, hurry into Max and Isabel's house."

Maria did as she was told and Michael was right behind her. The car kept on going down the street.

Isabel saw the headlights and met them at the front door. "What's going on?" she asked.

"We'll talk, let's just get inside," Michael said and pushed her back through the front door after Maria. He closed and locked the door quickly.

"Someone's after Maria and our baby," he told Isabel. Max walked in from the kitchen and dropped his glass of milk.

"What?" Isabel whispered.

"How do you know?"

"Someone threw a rock through Maria's window. It had this note attached to it. Then, a car followed us all the way here. I tried to lose it but it tailed me at every turn." Michael gave the note to Max, who stared at it for what seemed like forever.

"What are we gonna do, Max?" Maria asked quietly.

"I... well, I don't know."

Just then, the phone rang, and Isabel went into the den to answer it.

"Let me see if I can figure out who wants Maria and what they want from the baby. I should be able to pick it up from the note," Max said, sitting down on the couch. He took the note into both hands, and closed his eyes. Focusing on the note, he began seeing images almost immediately.

Men in suits

FBI

new unit

old files been copied

human-alien hybrid

capture

"Oh my God," he said, leaning back and closing his eyes. He couldn't believe this was happening again.

At the same time, Isabel came running into the living room. "That was Liz. Someone set fire to the Crashdown. Alex is in the hospital."

* * * * *

The four rushed to the hospital and headed straight for Alex's private room. His parents, reassured that their son was okay and would be released in the morning, had gone home for the night. Liz was sitting in the chair by his bed, talking quietly with Alex.

After exchanging hugs and assuring them all that Alex's injuries weren't serious, Liz explained the night's events.

"After closing the Crashdown, Alex and I were sitting and talking. I suddenly smelled something funny and went into the back to check on it. Alex followed me back there and the next thing I knew some stranger had grabbed him and was holding a knife to his throat!" Liz stopped and took a breath. "He kept asking me where I was hiding Maria and when I told him she wasn't there, he slammed Alex against the wall--"

"...And that's when I fell and cracked my head wide open, and we saw flames pouring out from the kitchen. I passed out, Liz dragged me outside, the Crashdown practically exploded, and the man disappeared into the night. Just like a good violent movie," Alex finished.

Isabel gave Alex a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"Liz, are your parents okay?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, they left this afternoon to go look at a building in Arizona that they were thinking about buying."

"We have to leave."

Everyone turned to look at Max.

"Why, Maxwell?" Michael asked him.

"We're all in danger now. There were copies of all the old records, and a new unit has found them. Somehow the FBI knows about Maria's pregnancy and wants the baby for testing. I saw it in a vision, after looking at the note. Michael and Maria are definitely in danger, so is Isabel, and so am I. They could have killed you and Alex tonight by burning down the restaurant and they won't stop to hurt you again if they want more information. We have to leave, to vanish without a trace, at least for a while."

Maria began to cry, silently cursing her overactive hormones. "This is all my fault."

"Maria, if it hadn't been this, it would have been something else. Let's face it, we're never going to be completely safe," Isabel comforted her.

"We leave tomorrow night. Pack just the essentials, and don't forget your birth certificates, Social Security cards and drivers' licenses. We'll have to change those," Max instructed them all with a grim face. "Leave the details to Isabel and me."

* * * * *
It's three o'clock
We're driving in your car
You're screaming out the window at the stars
"Please don't drive me home!"
* * * * *

The six did as they were told. Tess, Kyle, and the Sheriff were informed of what was happening. Max promised to keep in touch with them and let them know they were alright, and the Sheriff promised to throw any searchers off their trail, at least until after the baby was born. The three were also supposed to remain behind as lookouts of sorts.

After about an hour on the road, Max, who was driving the Jeep, pulled off the road into a field. Maria, behind him in the Jetta, followed him.

They all stepped out into the open. "We have to change the look of the vehicles," Max told them all.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Liz asked.

"Well, I guess we'll have to change the colors, tags, and the registration papers too," he said.

"Can you guys do that?" Alex wondered.

"If we all try together, I think we can. It would be a hell of a lot easier with Tess here, but I think we'll manage."

The three aliens gathered next to the Jetta. Concentrating, the red color suddenly vanished and became black. Michael looked up, surprised. "I guess we're stronger than we thought."

After tinting the Jetta's windows slightly and making the New Mexico tag into a Massachusets tag, they moved on to the jeep. It proved to be a much harder task, but eventually it became a dark red vehicle with Florida tags. After resting a moment, Isabel retrieved the registration papers and simply waved her hand over them, changing the identities of the owners. Max set to work on their personal identification and soon all of them had new names, addresses and ages.

"We'll have to do this again after we change our appearances," said Max. Maria groaned and blamed herself once more.

When back on the road, Michael told Maria, "You know, we don't have to do this. There has to be another way besides vanishing into the night."

Maria shook her head and concentrated on the road. "Maybe this was meant to be. We said we wanted a different life for our child, after all. Maybe we're giving the baby a better life by leaving town. "

* * * * *
Blame us because we are who we are
Hate us because you'll never get that far
And who'd suppose you would go?
I've already learned enough to know it
* * * * *

Max pulled off into the parking lot of a motel right after sunrise.

"We'll try to sleep during the day and drive through the evenings and nights," he told them before he went to rent a room. None of them desired to be apart on their first day away from home, so they got one room with two queen sized-beds and took turns sleeping. Maria and Liz slept first in one bed, while Max and Isabel napped on the other bed. Alex and Michael went out to grab breakfast.

* * * * *

Liz was having trouble sleeping. She got up and headed toward the bathroom. Feeling around for the light in the darkened motel room, she suddenly crashed into something in the dark.

"Shit!" she and Max exclaimed at the same time.

"Oh!" Liz whispered after her eyes adjusted to the darkness. "I'm sorry, I was just heading--"

"For the bathroom, to get a glass of water?" Max whispered back. "Yeah, me too. Can't sleep, huh?"

"Yeah," she said. "Just a little worried."

"Understandable," Max said, and pulled her into the bathroom. "I figure we an talk in here without waking Maria and Isabel."

Liz scooted up onto the sink, and Max sat down on the bathtub edge. Neither said a word.

"So, um, did you leave a note for your parents?" Liz asked, breaking the silence.

"No," Max said, "but now I wish I had. How about you?" he asked.

"No."

Max wondered when this horrible awkwardness would end between them.

* * * * *

After Alex and Michael came back with breakfast and rested a while, they set out to change their appearances.

Maria's hair became short and dark while Liz's became longer and lighter, all by the hand of Isabel. The girl's own hair became a light brown, in a layered style. Max and Alex got longer, lighter hair, while Michael's became shorter and darker. Together, Max and Isabel changed everyone's eye color, amazing even themselves. Maria invested in a pair of prescriptionless eyeglasses. Max wore a baseball cap.

There was only one thing left to do. Each person contributed all their money into the escape fund.

"I have two hundred and fifteen dollars," Liz said, and put it in the center of the circle they were sitting in.

"I have one hundred thirty," Maria said, and placed it on top of Liz's. "I was saving for a birthday gift for my mom," she admitted sadly.

Michael threw in fifty bucks. "Phone bill."

Max tossed in a hundred. "Birthday money, three years running." They laughed at that, too.

Isabel threw in seventy six dollars. "I'm a cheapskate sometimes, and I've been saving this for six months."

"One hundred fifty. It's my share of the money from the last two gigs the band played." Alex's money completed the fund.

"Seven hundred and twenty-one dollars," Liz breathed.

"That's a lot of money, but is it enough to get us to where we're going?"

"Where are we going?" Alex asked.

"To safety," Max told them. "Where that is, I don't know. I guess we'll know it when we get there."

* * * * *
Tell me all the places we could go
And count the headlights passing on the road
A long, long time ago...
* * * * *

It felt like ages since Maria had been home. After heading back on the road that evening, Michael took the wheel. Alex, as usual, fell asleep and the pair in the front seat began talking about where they would settle down.

"Max mentioned Georgia, or maybe further north, like Virginia," Michael told her.

"I was thinking Tennessee, or maybe Indiana."

Realizing that the future was terribly uncertain, Maria sighed and leaned back in her seat.

* * * * *

"Oxford, Alabama," Max stated plainly the next morning when they stopped to rest, just outside of Jackson, Mississippi.

"What about it?" asked Alex.

"That's where we're going to settle down, for now. It's about 300 miles from here. If we leave early tonight we can get there by midnight."

"And what's so great about this place?" Maria asked.

"It's not too big, not too small, and there are a lot of same-sized towns around it. We passed through it on our trip to Florida a few years ago," Max told her.