MEANWHILE

"The only way to get any clues is to get in touch with Liz. You have to get inside her head, Max, it's the only way." Michael pleaded with Max.

"I guess, if I have to......................"

"Yes, you do." Isabel looked at him and said, "Michael is right, it's the only way." Max held a picture of Liz. He looked down at it and concentrated. He soon fell asleep and entered Liz's dream.

As Max looked around, he noticed that he was inside an unidentified room. Liz was lying on the bed and crying. Max sat down next to her and stroked her hair. Liz looked up at him with tear stained eyes.

"Max, I love you." she said. Liz sat up and hugged him. Max hugged her back.

"I love you too." he replied, kissing her hair and looking into her eyes."You need to tell me who kidnaped you. It's important."

"Oh, Max. This big man came into my room and injected me with some drug. I don't know who it was." she was sobbing into his chest since he was taller than her.

"It doesn't matter, but who is keeping you here? He must have told you who he was."

"This man told me he had been working in the police office. His name is Pierce. I can show you what he looks like." Liz concentrated on her dream and Pierce walked into the room and smiled at them.

"That's who took you?" he looked at Pierce and then at Liz. "He was flirting with Isabel in my house when we had the fire."

"That's him. He says that he's going to force me to tell him about you I refused to tell him anything, but I think he's going to hurt me if I don't. I can't tell him, though, he'd capture you and Michael. He even said he'd get Isabel too. I'd rather he kill me than get you."

"Okay, he obviously knows something is up, that's why he took you. So, he's going to force you to tell him. Don't let him hurt you, Liz. You have my permission to tell him, but I need to know if you can tell me where you are. If I can find you before you tell him, that would be cool." he looked at Liz and his heart leapt.

"All I know is that, I'm in a compound somewhere. I think it's near Roswell, but I think it's out of town. This guy is an agent. The case must have been sent to him after they found my blood on the dress. They must have gotten the dress when I lost my backpack. It ended up in the sheriff's office and he gave the dress to the F.B.I."

"This is all a crazy mess. How did I start this?" Max was kissing Liz on the forehead.

"I won't tell them unless I have no other choice." Liz looked up at him and kissed his cheek.

"That's my girl. I'll come for you as soon as I can. Try not to make any trouble, okay? I don't want them to hurt you." Max kissed her once more and said, "I love you." Then, he disappeared.

He was back in his room and Isabel looked at him with a worried expression. "How did it go? Did you find out where she's being kept?"

"She only knows that she's in a compound. But, I think it's just outside of town. We just have to find out where it is." Max looked around and said, "We may not have much time.........."

MEANWHILE

(Liz is sitting on the bed in her room after taking a shower, brushing her teeth, and changing her clothing. Pierce walks in and greets her happily.)

"Hello, Miss. Parker. I trust you slept well?" He asked her expectantly.

"No, I didn't sleep very well. I only sleep well in my own bed." Liz looked up at him and her eyes filled with tears.

"Today, we're going to talk about Max Evans. You're going to tell me everything you know about them." Pierce looked at Liz and smiled.

"I'm not telling you anything about Max Evans. There's nothing to know." Liz returned the smile.

"If there's nothing to know, than, there's no problem with telling me about him. Come along, Miss. Parker."Pierce grabbed her arm and gently led her out the door and into a room across the hallway.

Liz looked around and noticed two chairs in the center. They looked almost identical to the love seat in her room.

"Please have a seat, Miss. Parker. This may take a while." Pierce took a seat and Liz sat down. "Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions. Please try to answer them as completely as possible. Are you comfortable?"

"Yes, thank you." Liz didn't feel very comfortable sitting with Pierce, but she didn't want to tell him.

"Was Max Evans in the diner the day you were shot?" Pierce looked at her with a strange expression.

"I don't see the point-"

"Please answer the question, Miss Parker. You don't want to know what we do here to make people talk." He looked at her again.

"Yes, he was in the diner." Liz looked uncomfortable at him.

"And did he, or did he not, place his hand over the wound?"

"This isn't going to help you at all! I don't care what you do to me, I'm not going to betray Max! That's final!" Liz looked him in the face and searched for a shred of pity within him, she found none. [Oh, god! What have I done? And what are they going to do to me?] Liz almost took back what she said, but it was for Max, so she couldn't tell. He was coming for her soon anyway, so it didn't matter.

"I'm sorry it has to go this way, Miss. Parker. But since you are not a test subject and you are still under age. We can not legally give you any drugs. I hope you enjoy the dark, Miss. Parker. You'll be sitting there until you tell me what I want to know." Pierce looked at her with a hopeful expression, but Liz remained quiet. There was nothing to say. She wasn't going to tell him what he wanted to know and now he was going to punish her. He grabbed her arm roughly and led her out into the hall. He pulled her past all of the doors they had entered yesterday and further down the hall still. To Liz, it seemed like hours had passed when they finally stopped in front of a door. "Are you sure you aren't going to tell me what I want to know?" Pierce was giving her a chance out.

"I'm positive." She tried to look brave, but she failed. Pierce opened the door and thrust her through into complete darkness. She had nothing to grab to regain her balance, so she fell to the floor. Liz burst into tears and sat there in the darkness.....................

MEANWHILE

(Max, Michael, Isabel, Maria, and Alex were sitting in Max's bedroom. They were huddled around his computer.)

"Try Agent Pierce." Isabel suggested. "Isn't he the one who took Liz?"

"That's what she said. She said the compound was just outside of Roswell." Max tried to stay calm, but his fear was catching up to him and he was holding back tears.

Alex typed in suggestion after suggestion. Nothing seemed to turn up. "How long have we been at this?" He wondered to himself, it had not been intentional to speak his thoughts aloud.

"Oh, we've been at it for about three hours. Anybody hungry?" Isabel asked the group, but only she and Michael wanted something, so they both went down to the kitchen to make a sandwich.

"How can they be thinking about food at a time like this?" Maria was hurt that Michael could just turn his back on dilemma after dilemma.

"Don't think they don't care, Isabel doesn't handle stress very well. She eats when she's upset. It's a good sign, not a bad one. But Michael cares too, he never gets upset. Just worked up." Max offered easy relief.

Alex kept typing in new ideas, but the search was almost useless. "How do you expect to find her when we can't even locate the place where she's being kept? This is insane, what would those people do with Liz anyway? She's completely innocent and she's never done anything wrong in her entire life!"

"It's because I saved her. It was either saving her and having to live with the consequences or letting her die. Now I worked up the special unit's because of the rumor." Max said.

"Special unit! That's a good one." Alex typed in Special Unit/FBI/compound/Roswell. The results came back and there was only one site remotely close to what they wanted. Alex clicked on the website and they all hoped they had found it. A picture with a caption came up on the screen. The caption read.... "Building located off highway 285, just outside of Roswell, New Mexico."

"Look. That must be it. I'm going alone, print that, would you?" Max said to Alex.

"You've got to be careful, Max. Don't let them hurt Liz, if anything happens to her-" Maria started.

"Nothing will happen, Maria. Don't worry." Max grabbed the paper that had emerged from the printer and ran for the door in a hurry.

Max was almost to the kitchen door when Isabel called out, "Max! Where are you going?"

He stopped only long enough to look back and say, "We found Liz!" Max ran out the door and into his green jeep. The noise coming from the driveway was nothing short of loud.

Max had merged left and took the exit off highway 285. He was just south of Roswell and only a mile from Liz. As he shifted into 3rd gear, he saw the building come into view. He decided to park well away from the building so he didn't arouse any guards that may be watching the place. He walked the extra thousand feet to the building and climbed the barbed wire fence, healing the cuts afterward. Nothing was going to slow him down. Max knew very well he was taking a risk, but he went up to the door and tried his powers to unlock it. It worked and he was now walking into the long hallway. He sensed that Liz was in danger, so he quickened his pace. His senses caught him and he felt them tell him to go down to the end. Max ran to where his powers were so strong, his head was throbbing. He touched his hand to the door handle and it unlocked. He immediately heard crying when he opened the door. It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and he let the door close behind him.

"Liz!" Max called out and he heard the crying come to a halt.

"Max! Can you see me?" Liz cried out to him and he searched for her in the darkness until he felt her soft presence near. He reached out and pulled her near. Nothing would keep her from him again.

"Liz, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry this happened. Come on, we have to hurry. We can't stay any longer, they might find out I'm here and if they catch me, we're in a lot of trouble." He grabbed her arm and pulled her along behind him.

"Okay, Max." Liz held onto his hand, it felt so warm next to her cold one. She was freezing. They searched for the better part of five minutes until they finally found the door. In the hallway, they looked out the windows and saw the Jeep.

"If we break the window and jump out, we can climb the fence and run to the Jeep. It's no more than two thousand feet. We can make it without anyone catching us." Max touched the window and a few seconds later, the glass had vanished. It was though it had never existed. Max jumped out first and helped Liz out. She held onto his hand, still shivering, and together, they ran to the fence.

As they climbed, Liz kept calling "ouch!" The few minutes it took was agonizing to Max. He knew Liz was hurt, but he could heal her on the other side. They neared the top and Liz froze, knowing how much this was going to hurt.

Max looked over at her and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She smiled at him and continued over the edge, jumping after reaching the goal. The pain was searing into her like a hundred knives, stabbing at her. Max touched her hands and arms and seconds later, the pain was gone. He held her hand and they ran to the jeep, hearing shouts behind them, Liz looked back and saw a few men following far behind. She smiled at Max and said, "This has been a long day." He smiled back.

Driving away from the building, Max could hear the people still shouting at them, they were almost to the fence, but it was no use. Max and Liz had escaped. And Pierce hadn't gotten what he wanted.

Liz sat close to Max the whole ride to his house. When they returned to his bedroom, Maria stood up to hug her friend. She was still wearing the white clothing. Liz laughed and looked down at herself. As though triggered, Maria burst into laughter as well. Max smiled to himself and then looked back at Isabel and Michael. They were smiling too.

"Now don't get any ideas, Michael. Just because Liz is safe, doesn't mean I totally forgive you. I hold a grudge." Maria looked back at Liz, and burst into laughter.