Liz glanced at her watch impatiently, heaved a sigh of annoyance.

"Where the heck is he?" She asked Isabel. "The plane is leaving in fifteen minutes." She blushed slightly when Mr. Evans gave her a surprised look. She realized that that had sounded nothing like her usual self. Spending so much time in close quarters with Michael Guerin, the cause of all the grief of the last few months, was driving her nearly insane.

Liz, Isabel and Isabel's dad were standing near the boarding gate for their British Air flight to London. Michael had disappeared into the crowds of the Miami airport the moment they had gotten off their flight from Albuquerque.

That had been two hours ago. They had not seen him since.

"He went to call Maria." Isabel explained. "I ran into him at McDonald's about half an hour ago. Don't worry! He'll be here."

Liz shifted from one foot to another, tried to get herself to calm down. She was never going to survive the seven hour flight to England if she didn't cool it.

But she couldn't help it.

For some reason she felt like time was running out...and not just because Maria was so sick.

She was getting the feeling that if they didn't get to Stonehenge quickly they would lose the opportunity to bring Max home. And that did not bear thinking about.

"Did you call your parents Liz?" Mr. Evans asked, clearly trying to change the subject.

Liz and Isabel exchanged glances. "Ummm, yeah." Liz replied, hating herself for having to lie to him. "They told me to call again when we reach London. They worry about me being on planes."

Although Tess had still been furious at them when they had seen her that morning, she had done her part. She had created an illusion of the Parkers at the Roswell airport saying good-bye to Liz. Mr. Evans had not suspected a thing. He still had no idea what Tess' gift was.

Mr. Evans nodded sadly. "A parent can never be too careful." He said quietly.

Liz saw Isabel's eyes fill with tears. It was clear that Mr. Evans was thinking about Max. It was equally clear that Mr. Evans felt like he had failed his son somewhere - that if he had been a better parent, none of this would have happened.

Of course, it couldn't be further from the truth. Max, Isabel and Michael had never had any control over their lives. What on Earth could the Evans possibly have done to make it any different? What they had done had been wonderful enough.

Max Evans was the kind, loving person he was because of them. They had given him the normal life he had always wanted.

But then all hell had broken loose.

If Liz had her way though, it was all going to change when Max came back. He was going to be happy and normal if it killed her. Destiny be damned.

Isabel was searching the crowd with concern. "Okay, he has been gone for way to long." She finally admitted.

Just then Liz caught a glimpse of Michael's spiky head towering over the people in the terminal. He was rushing towards them, a sucker stuck in his mouth.

He looked completely unconcerned. Liz wanted to strangle him.

Michael stopped and stared at them all. They were all staring back at him.

"Why aren't you on the plane?" He asked in typical Michael fashion, as though they were the idiots and he was an innocent bystander trying to stay clear of their polluting ways.

"We're waiting for you dimbulb!" Isabel replied, rolling her eyes.

"Why?" Michael scowled at her. "I can board a plane by myself you know."

Liz heaved a sigh. Michael glanced at her, quickly looked away, a guilty expression on his face. Liz tried to suppress the pang of guilt that suddenly hit HER. She was not going to feel bad for Michael. He deserved to feel bad. They wouldn't even have to be doing this if it wasn't for him.

"Let's just go kids." Mr. Evans suggested, trying to ease the tension.

Liz followed him quietly. I just better not have to sit with him, she thought to herself as she boarded the plane.

As she settled into her window seat next to Isabel, her thoughts naturally returned to Max.

We"re coming Max! Just hold on a while longer. I will see you again.

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

It was late afternoon.

Kyle had gone to the airport to see Liz, Isabel and Michael off and was headed over to Maria's to check on her. Michael had asked him to and he had quickly agreed.

Not only was he worried about Maria for her own sake, he also knew that Tess would be there. He was just as concerned about her.

Tess had showed up at the airport to do her, as Maria would say, voodoo alien mind thingy on Mr. Evans. She had not spoken to anyone but had stalked out, without even acknowledging Alex and Kyle's presence, as soon as the trio travelling to England, as well as Max's dad, had boarded the plane.

She was acting very strangely. Like she hated them all.

It was so sudden, Kyle didn't know what to think.

Tess had started to develop a bond with the group - one that had become natural after she had given up on all that destiny crap. The fact that they had all been mourning the loss of Max had made the transition in their relationships even more logical.

Past mistakes and bitterness had seemed really petty after what had happened to Max.

But, after her little freak-out in the Crashdown the previous evening, Tess had been totally alienated from the rest of them, no pun intended.

She was even ignoring Kyle. And it hurt.

Kyle knew that Tess did not feel the same way about him that he felt about her. He LOVED her. She LIKED him and was totally oblivious to how he really felt. It sucked, but he accepted it. At least he got to spend time with her.

If he lost that, he didn't know what he would do.

He pulled his Mustang into the Deluca's driveway. He was not surprised to see Alex's parents' car parked on the street out front.

Kyle hurried to the front door, knocked. Maria's mother answered a moment later.

Amy Deluca looked like she had been put through the wringer. She had dark circles under her eyes and her brown hair was hanging limply, as though she hadn't washed it in days.

If Kyle didn't know that Maria was suffering from some spacey disease, he might wonder if what she had was catching. Her mom looked like she was on death's doorstep too.

"Hi Kyle." Amy said quietly, her usual bubbly personality muted under the heavy burden of her concern for her daughter. "How's your dad?"

"He's okay." Kyle replied. Kyle had often wondered what had gone down between his dad and Amy. He knew that they had gone on a couple of dates, and he knew that his dad had really liked her, but then BOOM! Nothing. It was weird.

"Maria's in her room." Amy told him. "Alex and Tess are here too. Do you want to stay for dinner?" Amy continued. "Maria asked for pizza." She sounded really excited that Maria actually had an appetite.

Kyle suspected that Maria was only pretending to be hungry in order to ease her mother's mind somewhat.

"Sure, thanks." Kyle replied. He made his way down the hallway to Maria"s bedroom, knocked softly.

"Come in." Maria's voice came through the door. Kyle entered to the sight of Alex sprawled on Maria's bed beside her. Tess was sitting at the vanity, gazing out the window, a far-off expression on her pretty face.

"Hey guys! What's up?"

Maria was curled up on Alex's shoulder, her pillow on her lap. She looked even worse than she had yesterday, if that was even possible.

"Michael just called." Maria replied, her breathing heavy. Kyle saw Alex frown slightly. "They're in Miami about to board the plane to London."

"Cool." Kyle said, sticking his hands in his pockets. He suddenly realized that they were a strange group to be hanging out together. Liz and Max were the ones who had always bonded them. To have both of them gone...it just felt peculiar.

"So we're trying to come up with a movie for tonight." Alex piped up. "The girls have already vetoed Scream 1, 2 or 3."

"Actually, we're vetoing any film that has a number after the title." Maria put in. "Right Tess?"

Tess' head snapped around. "What?" She asked. She had clearly not heard a word of their conversation. Alex and Kyle exchanged a look.

"Tess, are you okay?" Kyle asked, going to put his hand on her shoulder. She flinched away. He tried to ignore the pang of hurt that clenched at his stomach.

"I'm fine," she snapped.

"You're not still mad that they left you behind?" Maria demanded, sounding annoyed. "I mean, we all wanted to go Tess...it just was not logistically possible."

Tess looked away again. "I know." She said. "I'm not mad anymore. I'm just tired." She finished lamely.

Kyle knew she was lying.

"Anyway," Alex attempted to change the subject. "Movies? Any ideas Valenti?"

"Don't you think we should be looking into who has Liz's journal?" Kyle asked, scowling slightly. "We still have no idea and, from what I understand, there's some pretty explosive stuff in there."

Maria struggled to sit up. "Kyle's right. We need to make up a list of suspects."

"Who are you?" Alex asked teasingly, "Sherlock Holmes?"

Maria grinned slightly. "Actually, I'm Watson. Michael's Holmes."

"Yeah, and a really effective one at that." Alex replied sarcastically. "Has that guy EVER broken in somewhere without almost getting caught or pulverized?"

Maria smacked him. "So, I vote for Pam Troy. That girl was just WAY too excited about that web-site."

Kyle shook his head. "I don't know. She's pretty dumb. I don't think she could set up a web-site."

"Not to mention, the person who did it clearly has an agenda. There was a reason that the Czech parts of the journal were left out." Alex continued. "Whoever did it wanted us to know that they had it, wanted us to worry, but they didn't want to give up the goods - yet anyway."

"Good point. So who the hell was it then?" Kyle sighed. "Jeez, this is tough. I never realized how much Liz and Max were the brains of this operation."

Alex scowled at him good-naturedly. "I resent that Valenti. I am clearly the designated nerd around here..." He was cut off by Tess, who had suddenly jumped to her feet.

"Can we please just shut up about Max and Liz for once?" She demanded. "That's all I ever hear about...how much LIZ misses Max, how much SHE needs him. Every time you say their names its like they're one word...LIZANDMAX, MAXANDLIZ..." She was practically yelling now. "There are others of us who cared about him too you know!"

Kyle moved to put his arm around her. "We know that Tess." She whirled away from him.

"I'm leaving. I need some air. I'll be back in a while to check on you." She told Maria. Maria was still staring at her with her mouth open. She snapped it shut abruptly.

"Okay."

"What got stuck in her craw?" Alex asked when the bedroom door had slammed shut behind Tess.

"Shut up Whitman." Kyle snapped.

He was torn about whether to go after Tess or not. He decided to give her a chance to cool off. Not to mention he needed to think. He had thought that Tess had gotten over all this jealousy stuff, that she had given up on her so-called destiny.

But the way she had just acted...it didn't seem that way at all.

Can things possibly get any worse? He wondered as he plunked himself down on the vanity stool Tess had just vacated.

When Kyle looked back on the incident days later, he wished that he had knocked on wood - because, surprise, surprise...it had turned out that things COULD get worse....

Much worse.
**********************************************************************

Heathrow Airport, London, England

Isabel stumbled off the plane, rubbing her eyes. She had been surprised that she had managed to sleep. She had been exhausted though and had also been willing to do anything to escape the tenseness between Liz and Michael.

She had been stuck sitting between them and it had been no picnic, that was for sure.

Liz had snapped at every word that had come out of Michael's mouth, until Michael had just stopped talking entirely. The whole thing was even more disturbing because Michael never said anything to defend himself. It was so unlike him to let someone treat him that way, it was very worrisome to Isabel.

She could not be mad at Liz though. She knew that resenting Michael was the only thing that was keeping Liz in one piece. If she really started to think about the fact that Max might never come back...Isabel just knew that Liz would lose it totally.

"Do we have to get our baggage before we go through customs?" Mr. Evans was asking Liz as they followed behind Isabel.

"No." Liz replied. "We can pick them up on the other side." Liz was the designated tour-guide being as she had spent a considerable amount of time in London during the fall of their junior year...during the time when she had been trying to give Max his freedom to live out his so-called destiny with Tess.

"What time is it anyway?" Michael asked tiredly. He had just joined them.

"It's a seven hour time difference." Liz replied. "I think its about eight a.m. London time. I'm thinking that we should probably go straight to my aunt's and try and get rid of this jet-lag. We can get up later this afternoon and head for Victoria Station to get bus tickets to Salisbury."

"I don't think I can sleep." Isabel told Liz as they slowly made their way through the customs line. It looked like a whole slew of 747's had landed at the same time and that they had come from all over the world. Isabel could not even identify half the languages she was hearing.

Isabel felt a pang of excitement. London! How she wished she was there under different circumstances. It was one of the most exciting cities in the world, one she had always wanted to visit. She had often dreamed of leaving boring little Roswell behind for the lights of the big city...of course, the "big city" had usually meant New York or Los Angeles...but London was right up there on the list.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Liz replied. "But we need all our strength Iz. We have no idea what's going to go down tomorrow."

"God, I hope we DO know." Isabel sighed. "I hope we're right Liz, that we're not on some wild goose chase here. What if Stonehenge doesn't mean anything?"

"It has too." Liz told her firmly. "Why else would we ALL have seen it?"

"I guess." Isabel did not have time to continue. She was suddenly confronted by a very cranky looking customs officer.

"Country?"

"Ummm...the U.S." Isabel told her.

"Reason for your visit? Business or holiday?"

I wonder what she would say if I told her that we were here to bring my brother back from another planet through an interstellar gateway that we think is at Stonehenge? Isabel wondered briefly. "Holiday." She bit out quickly, trying hard not to laugh.

The customs officer stared at her closely. Isabel scowled at her. This woman is in for some VERY unpleasant dreams tonight, she thought to herself.

"Enjoy your visit." The woman said abruptly, waving her through.

"Don"t you worry. I will." Isabel muttered under her breath.

Liz was through a minute later. She had charmed the customs lady no doubt. Isabel wondered why everyone loved Liz so much. All she had to do was smile and people melted.

When Liz suddenly threw her arm around Isabel's shoulder, she suddenly remembered. It was because of Liz's heart. Her friend's goodness shone through, even to complete strangers.

It was no wonder that Max had loved her the moment he had laid eyes on her so many years before.

She was Liz.

"Well, we're here. Only a day to go and we'll see him."

Isabel smiled at her friend.

When Liz said it....