~Orison Swett Marden
****

For the second time in his life, Alex Charles Whitman awoke to the beautiful Isabel Evans knocking on his front door.

"Hey," he said, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Hey. Can we take a walk?"

Alex glanced down at his flannel pajama bottoms and old gym shirt. "Uh, yeah. Just let me get some shoes." He ran inside, splashed some water on his face, quickly brushed his teeth and threw on his sneakers. The teen was back outside in less than two minutes.

"I’m glad you didn’t change, Alex."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I like you this way." She took his hand tenderly and led him down the sidewalk. "Did your parents believe the story Valenti fed them?"

"It seems so. Yours?"

"Yep. It’s good to have him on our side now."

They walked a bit farther in an uncomfortable silence. "What’s going on, Iz?"

"Why? Can’t I want to just be with you? Quietly, no questions asked?"

Alex led her into Devou Park, pulling her under a large oak tree. "It’s not usually your way, that’s all. Do you want to talk about what’s really going on?"

She sat down on the dirt ground. "I don’t know." Isabel sighed, feeling helpless. "Liz was there, Alex... and Maria told Michael that she already knew, so I have to be the one to explain the whole story, and I hate it. Max and Michael didn’t have to give any explanations, but I do, and I don’t know what to say to you."

Alex sat down next to her, leaning back into the large tree trunk. "Just tell me the truth. That’s all I ask of you."

And she did. Isabel laid it all out to him, showing him the book Tess got from the library. Healing Nasedo, sending him off to be Pierce, using the communicator, the message from her mother. Even the truth about their past lives and why they were there. Everything. Alex sat in silence, taking it all in.

"Alex... please say something."

He realized that she had stopped talking several minutes before, and he was stuck in a daze. "And now you’re stuck here trying to figure who to choose... how to break my heart easy so that you can follow your destiny?"

"NO! That’s not it."

"It’s okay, Isabel... I know what I have to do, just like you know what you have to do. These are your people that you’re talking about. I’ll step out of the way so that you can go on guilt free."

"Don’t you dare—-"

"What do you expect me to do? Hang on like a pathetic little puppy dog? Pal around with you until you realize that we could never be? Sure, that will help the sting of a broken heart," he said, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but failing miserably.

"It’s not fair! I have this predestined book," she said snatching the book from his hands and tossing it a few yards from them, "telling me one thing and this human heart telling me another. I don’t know which one to trust. Alex, I care about you... probably more than you’ll ever know... and I’m sorry that you’re caught in the middle of this all, but just think about how I feel. I just had my whole life laid out to me, and I still have more questions than anything. I don’t know what to do, who to be with, where to go for more answers. I don’t know anything. So I really just need you to bear with me, please."

Alex sighed, and crawled to the place where the alien book landed. He stared at it for a moment, wondering if he could 'will' it away. No luck. "I’m sorry..."

"Alex. No. Don’t you do this. Please, don’t do this," Isabel felt tears spring to her eyes as she grabbed onto him. "Don’t leave me without giving me the chance—-"

He stepped into her embrace. "Isabel, calm down. Isabel... I was going to say that I was sorry you had to go through all this, and that I want to be there for you... just please, don’t break my heart. That’s all I ask."

"Oh," she said softly, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Okay."

They laughed, hugging under the tree. Their tree.

****

"Max?" Maria questioned, surprised to see the dark-haired alien at her door. "What’s wrong?"

He blinked. "Huh? Uh, nothing. I thought it was time to go get your car off the side of the road."

"Oh. Cool, let me get a jacket." She returned a second later with a light jacket and they climbed in to the jeep.

The two drove in silence for a few miles on the way out of town, when Maria suddenly turned towards Max. "So... how’s the wife?" He glared at her, obviously not amused. "Sorry. I just don’t know how to talk to you anymore. My God, you’re the leader of an entire race. What should I say?"

"I’m the same guy I was before... just be yourself, Maria." Max’s expression softened. "I still want the same things. I still want Liz."

"I know. Hell, she knows. Give her some time, Max. We all need to deal with this destiny mumbo-jumbo before we make our next move."

He sighed, a sigh that held the weight of the world in that one exhale of breath. "Michael... needs this destiny. It’s giving him a direction that he’s been searching for, for such a long time."

"No," Maria shook her head, refusing to listen to the other teen. "Michael needs me. He’s too stubborn to admit it now, but he knows it just as much as I do."

A satisfied smile crossed Max’s lips, causing Maria to frown, concerned. "What?"

Glancing at her from the corner of his eyes, Max chuckled. "I’m glad you said that. I’m glad that you’re willing to fight for what you want." He pulled the jeep off to the side of the road, behind the red Jetta. "I expected nothing less from you, Maria, and I’m glad you lived up to my expectations."

They both jumped out of the car. "So that was a test?? You wanted to check my good intentions?" A squeal escaped from her throat as she finally saw her car, cutting off any response from Max. "Oh Lordy... what in the world am I going to tell my mom. She is so going to kill me for this."

"It’s okay—-"

"Oh, no, this is not okay. This is about as far away from okay as one can get. I mean, Valenti told her that the car broke down on the highway after our hike through the desert, not that a bunch of FeeBee’s shot it up to make it look like Swiss cheese."

He reached out and took hold of the blonde’s wrist, sending calming power into her body. "It will be okay, Maria. Trust me."

Maria’s expression turned from one of horror to a goofy grin. "Wow. You need to teach that to Michael."

"Yeah? Feel good?" She nodded. "Glad I could help. Now," he dropped her arm, "for the reason why I’m here..."

Max moved over so that he could touch the car, his back to Maria. At first contact, he received a rush of images from the last night he and Liz were in the car. Escaping from the military base, running from Pierce’s men, the shots, Liz’s terrified screams. The emotions were so powerful that he almost dropped to his knees.

"Max? You okay?"

He pushed the flashes away, concentrating on the task at hand. "Yeah, I’m just peachy. Keep watch, Maria. Make sure that no one comes close to us when I’m doing this."

"Sure," she replied, the concern still echoing in her voice.

The power started to pulse under his hands as Max’s breathing slowed and became shallow. Soon his hands glowed so brightly that his skin seemed translucent and his bones appeared. Max concentrated on the molecules of the metal and glass of the car, nudging them back to their original, pre-bullet places, and within a few short minutes, Maria’s Jetta was back to its old self.

"Wow," Maria marveled at the extent of Max’s abilities. "That’s amazing." She walked around the car and inspected the repaired exterior. "Crap!"

"What?" Max rushed to her side, near the back passenger side door. "Did I miss something?"

"Nope... you were just too good. There was a dent here that my mother put on the car last month. You fixed it." The pixie blonde backed away from the car a bit, then lashed out with her best Tae-Bo kick. The result was a small dent, identical to the one that was there before.

Max grinned. "Nice."

"Okay, we should get back to town. I have work in an hour."

They both moved towards their respective cars, and before Maria climbed into hers, Max called out. "Maria... He *will* come around. Give him time!"

She studied her keys a moment, then looked back to him. "Thank you, Max. For everything."

"I should be thanking you," he said simply, then pulled out onto the road to Roswell. Maria followed.