"No one saw us come in," Max said. "I`ll only take a minute." The others watched as he went up to Tess on the bed she was on. She had bandages everywhere. It was weird to see her like this. Max didn`t waste any time. He took one of Tess`s hands into both of his and closed his eyes, and in a few seconds of concentration he knew he was connected.

He saw Tess as a little girl playing alone at recess, tracing little pictures of things from outer space in a sandbox with a stick.

He saw her a little older, sadly staring at a sick-looking goldfish in a bowl knowing she`d have to flush it and put it out of it`s misery.

He saw Tess sitting somewhere in a mall, watching a mother interact with her two children a little ways away.

The feelings that came with that were surprising. Tess wanted a mother, Max realized. She`d always wanted a mother.

Max saw other things too: Tess in art class absorbed into a sketch of the symbol from Isabel`s necklace from Atherton`s house. Tess spraining her ankle playing soccer. Tess being watched by two other kids as she dribbled tabasco sauce on a cupcake at a girl`s birthday party. Tess being unable to sleep at night, reaching her finger up to make little glowing shapes of animals form on her ceiling. Tess, at age eight, angry about two kids who made fun of her that day and throwing crab-apples at the fence. Tess in middle school using her powers to patch a tear in one of her white keds.

Then Max got to business. He used the connection to search around inside her head, fixing any damage he felt until he was pretty sure all her severe injuries were completely healed. He got done just in time before he felt Liz grab his shoulder, breaking him out of the connection. "We`ve got to hurry," Liz whispered. "We can hear people walking around."

"I`m done," Max announced. And the four of them snuck back out to the lobby without being seen.

"Now what?" Maria asked Max.

"Now we wait till she wakes up," Max sighed.

And they did wait. And eventually Isabel and Michael walked in.

"Isabel?" Max asked.

"Maria called us," Isabel explained.

"Has anyone tried to reach Alex?" Liz asked.

Isabel shook her head. "He tried to get away but he`s busy. Family affairs. They won`t let him go."

"It`s okay," Max said, "all we`re doing right now is waiting anyway. It doesn`t take six people to do that. In fact, some of you guys could go home, if you wanted to. It won`t be hard to get her out once she wakes up."

"I`m staying," Kyle announced.

"I think I want to stay longer too," Liz said. "I don`t have anywhere else to be."

"Unfortunately I do," Maria said. "My mom wants me to help her move some furniture around so she can paint in her room today, and I haven`t been the most loyal little daughter lately, so..."

"You don`t have a car," Max reminded.

"I`ll take her," Michael offered. "Any other people wanna join this carpool? Last call."

No one spoke up. Michael swung his car keys around one finger as he walked off with his arm around Maria`s shoulders.

"That room with the vending machines looks tempting," Liz said. She grabbed Max`s arm. "Max, come buy me a soda."

"Oh.... Okay," Max said, following her into the back room. "You want a... a Dr.Pepper?"

"Max, that`s not what this is about," Liz sighed. "Listen, I have to ask you something and you have to give me an onnest-to-God answer, okay? I have to know. It`s driving me insane."

Max stared, confused. "All right... what?"

"I`m not going to care if the answer is yes. I can respect that. I don`t want you to lie. Max, are you together?"

He looked surprised. "Me and Tess? Liz, I already told you-"

"I know what you said to me when you came to my window the other night. But it sure doesn`t look like any of it is true. Not anymore, at least."

"But Liz... that`s so wrong. I don`t know what you-"

"Damnit, do you think I`m stupid? Did you think I could be that ignorant? It`s obvious that you`re in it with her, anyone can see. God, I was so stupid to actually believe you, Max! Of course you`re together, otherwise we would be!"

He was putting his hands on her shoulders now. She wanted to just pull away, not let him touch her, but she couldn`t. "Liz, I couldn`t lie to you. Everything I told you was true. Me and Tess.... I mean, we tried, but it didn`t last long at all. It just couldn`t happen."

"Well, it appears pretty convincingly that it did, and very easily too. I`ve seen you two. I`m not blind. I`ve seen you smiling at eachother. I`ve seen you close together. I`ve seen her-"

"Wait. What?"

"Just the other day, right after the night you told me you WEREN`T together, in fact, I stroll out of English and there you are! You`re at the lockers flirting, right where anyone could see, all over eachother. I died, Max! I knew you had lied!"

"Liz..." Max put his hands on each side of her face. He shook his head and said quietly, "That never happened."

Liz looked confused, then just angry again. "Don`t even try, it`s not going-"

"No, listen. Everything I said. It`s true. If everything we were and everything that happened when we were together means anything to you, please believe me. I swear by all that, I was telling you the truth."

Liz stiffened. If he was lying it was so un-Max it just couldn`t be possible. "Then how did I..."

"The traffic lights, Liz," Max reminded.

Liz`s face twisted into an expression of helplessness. "Oh my God. I was so stupid.... I should have realized..."

"No, it wasn`t stupid. She can do pretty sad things with her powers."

"Yeah. God, she tore me apart. I thought I was losing you. I thought you were turning into another Max."

"Liz, why didn`t you talk to me?"

"Max, I tried. I came to your house. But Tess answered the door, and-"

"Yeah, she kept coming over all the time. I shouldn`t have let her answer the door."

"God! She is so deceptive! How can Kyle even be on her side, after-"

"Wait a minute. Do you think Kyle`s been with her in all this?"

"What do you mean? As in helping her?"

"The other day he came over to talk to me for just a few minutes, and he said all this stuff... I think he was trying to make me think you were getting over me and turning into a boring person or something like that..."

Liz sighed and closed her eyes. "They`ve been working together to make us forget about eachother this whole time. Nothing even happened. In reality, things have been the same between us this entire time. But I`ve been so hurt..." Max pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her.

"Why would Kyle help Tess anyway?" Max wondered aloud. "There`s got to be something she gave him in return..."

"You know Kyle. He`d find a creative way to use her powers to get himself something he wants. There`s lots she could give him with what she can do."

"I guess. But then what was the point of making you see those things?"

"What do you mean?"

"Tess wouldn`t care about making you give me up. All she would want is for me to forget you. It`s almost like there`s something Kyle would get out of you not wanting me anymore."

Liz looked up. She remembered Maria saying, "You don`t think he could still be interested in you, do you?"

"Maybe there is something he thinks he could get out of that," Liz said.

Max slowly registered that. "But I thought he didn`t want you anymore..."

"Well, apparently not."

Max hugged her tighter. Then Liz whispered, "Does this mean... us?"

Max sighed. "Liz, you know-"

"Don`t do this to me again, Max. I don`t care anymore how dangerous it is. Right now being kept away from you sounds more dangerous than anything."

"But it`s different. Last time it was just about you getting into a secret that could endanger you. This is much bigger. I can`t be with you if it`s going to make someone else want to hurt you. If something happened to you again, I could never forgive myself." He kissed the top of her head. "Some day though." Then he broke away from her and walked out of the vending room.

Liz stared after him sadly for a while until he was out of sight. Then she turned around and slammed her fist into a Pepsi machine. "I hate her!"

Max tapped Isabel on the shoulder from behind her in her seat and said into her ear, "We`re getting out of here. I need to ask you to take Liz home, I can`t because I`ve got to run some errands."

"Okay," Isabel said as she put her jacket on, not really understanding his sudden urgency to leave but trusting her brother.

Max looked up at Kyle, who was staring at them wanting to know what was going on. "Kyle, you`re on you own with her."

"You`re just leaving?" Kyle asked angrily.

"Yes, we're just leaving," Max answered matter-of-factly. "Thought we`d let the duo of villians handle things themselves. Cause you`ve done so well together so far. And you can also inform Tess with a smile that you`ve been discovered."

Kyle stared angrily as the three of them walked out. And just then a nurse came out into the lobby and asked Kyle, "Are you here for the girl in the car accident?"

"Yeah," Kyle answered. "What is it?"

"She`s awake."

It only took a minute for Kyle to get she and Tess snuck out of the hospital without anyone seeing. It was easy with Tess`s powers.

The doctor had been prepared to question Tess about her identity when she felt better. But of course in reality Tess was in fine shape. Max had fixed everything inside her head, and the cuts and bruises that he hadn`t cared to touch up were the least of her worries right now anyway.

She felt fine physically. Mentally, she was dying. And it didn`t help when Kyle broke it to her that the others had figured out their plan.

Kyle and Tess were very silent on the ride home. Kyle tried to concentrate on driving instead of her while she sat leaned against the window with the saddest expression on her face. She felt all the most horrible emotions: helplessness, agony, depression, misery, hopelessness. Everything was over. All her hard-working attempts had completely failed. She was no further than she had been when she started her plan. She had been so happy, so sure that everything she and Kyle were doing was working, and then the information was thrown in her face that her work had all flopped because they`d been discovered.

And to add to everything, she had just made a horrible mistake out of her desperateness to do something. Max had just told her flat out and clear that he didn`t love her and never would, and made it obvious that he was never going to give up loving Liz, and she had gone crazy. She`d stayed up all night with all the lights on in her house, sitting up in bed, sitting in the living room, moping, crying, feeling completely helpless. The next day after school she tried to kill Liz. She was so fixed on getting rid of her, tearing her out of the picture, that she didn`t even realize that killing Liz would most certainly kill herself too. And what was more, she`d betrayed Kyle by trying to hurt her. She`d betrayed him when he was the only person who saw her the right way.

But the worst thing was what she had seen. What she had seen when Max had connected with her. She hadn`t exactly been aware that she was seeing them while she was unconscious, but it was more like the images had flowed from his mind into hers and been stored there in her brain to be dispensed when she awoke and could process what they all meant. So the moment her eyes fluttered open, remembered right away the visions she`d gotten of Max and Liz. She remembered the feeling she`d gotten from him while she was in her deep sleep. Somehow, since she had been sleeping, the images and emotions had sort of stayed with her. Inside of her to burn her hopes away. She knew for the first time everything Max felt for Liz. She saw how he saw her, knew why he couldn`t live without her, knew in detail all the reasons he had saved her life that day. She even knew what it had been like the times Max got visions and images from Liz, and she saw, just a little, what she felt for him too. And now the fact hit her so abruptly it hurt: they couldn`t be destroyed. Not by anyone or anything. Not by Kyle. Not by her. It wasn`t possible.

The images had stayed with her through her sleep. And they were still with her. As rain showered down onto Kyle`s car and streamed down the window she had her head leaned against, all she saw in the rain was Max and Liz together. Hugging. Holding hands. Kissing. Alone whispering things to eachother. And along with all those visions of things that had happened once, she also knew every single emotion Max had felt in those moments, every thing that had gone through his head. It was so clear to her now what they had together. And Tess saw now that she was such a tiny rock in Max`s shoe, absolutely no competition to Liz as long as he felt those things for her. They were powerful. And Tess was so weak. Such a small, weaponless problem in their way. She would never be able to break them.

Kyle looked over at her with her bandages forehead in her hands as tears flowed freely down her face. He decided then to go to his house. He didn`t want to leave her alone in her house when she was like this.

When he pulled up to his own house Tess figured things out and didn`t ask any questions. She didn`t want to say anything right now. Kyle went around and opened her door for her and Tess heard the rain pouring down on the world outside the garage. The rain reflected her sadness, it seemed. She wondered if it would ever stop raining.

Kyle and Tess sat in his family room and he brought her a glass of iced tea. He looked at the clock. His dad was working late and wouldn`t be home for another hour and a half. He had plenty of time to get her home and come back.

"I was so stupid to ever think I could do anything to get them apart," Tess suddenly said quietly as Kyle sat down on the sofa next to her. "When he connected to me, I saw things. Not until I woke up, but I still saw everything, and felt everything. I saw memories of the two of them."

"Connected?" Kyle asked.

"When we heal people innerly, we have to make a connection to the other person`s mind first," she explained. "And when we connect to a person we get images and flashes from their memories. And in this case, when it`s two aliens connecting, they each get images from eachother. So I know he saw things, and I saw things too."

"How do you connect to people, though? You could just connect to any old person in a few seconds to dig into their head and get any secret you want?"

"Well, it doesn`t exactly work that way. I could show you. I could make the connection go both ways if I really tried. Do you want me to?"

Kyle paused for a moment and then shook his head. "No."

"Why not? Afraid of what I`d see?"

"No, maybe I`m afraid of what I`d see, Tess. I don`t know if I want to see into the soul of someone like you."

Tess hugged her own arms. "What`s wrong with my soul?"

"...You do things I don`t understand, that`s all."

Tess didn`t say anything. She knew where this was going.

"Tess, how could you do that?" Kyle asked. "I`ll bet you`ll be surprised to know that I fought with those guys in the hospital so much because I wasn`t going to let them leave you there. I was supporting you. I don`t know why I did. You obviously have lost any desire you had to support me."

"Kyle, I didn`t mean to, I swear," Tess pleaded. "I lost it, okay?"

"How could you lose it so much that it crossed your mind to kill her? Didn`t it even dawn on you that you`d be betraying me? What if something had happened to her? Then you wouldn`t be here, would you? You could be dead, or you could still be in the hospital because, well, I wouldn`t have been there for you if I knew Liz was injured or dead because of you. Did you even think of me? Did I even cross your mind before you got into her car?"

"Damnit!" Tess shouted, now angry and out of control because of the way he`d talked to her. "I don`t have to listen to you! I don`t have to be on your side or be loyal to you! You`re a worthless human! I don`t owe you anything. You get in the way like all the other humans. They all have to get in the way. There`s only three people I have to support and be loyal to and that`s Max, Isabel, and Michael."

"That is so wrong, Tess. No wonder you`re like this. You only have to be nice to people like me when you`re pretending to be someone else, pretending to fit in, pretending that you`re human because you have to. But when you`re the alien you really are it`s all about the other three. Well, let me tell you something, Tess. As of right now, you live here. I know you`d love to get your ass out of this alien-themed town and get to a place where you belong, but it isn`t happening any time soon and just face it."

"You have no right to say that. You can`t possibly know what`s it like to be me, be something different than everyone else you see. I`m completely alone. I want to belong. My whole life I have wanted to belong. I`m never going to belong here."

"You`re never going to belong anywhere! You grew up human. Thinking that your people are going to be or act anything like you is total wishful thinking. You won`t fit in at all, Tess. I think you ought to start thinking about how to accept the place you`re in right now. Because belonging anywhere isn`t going to happen."

Tess shrugged. "You`re right. I`m gonna have to face that."

Kyle sighed. "Listen. You`re going through something hard and the problem is you don`t know the right way to survive it. And the others just don`t understand that. That`s why they won`t give you a chance or let you in."

Tess looked into his eyes. "Why do you even give a damn?"

He shrugged. "I guess it`s because I`m sad and single and a teenage dirtbag like you."

Tess laughed and shoved him playfully. "Is that true? Are we eternally sad, ditbaggy people in a happy world?"

"Yeah. We`re gonna be the new two characters in Daria. You`ll be like her friend who wears those long black boots, attractive but unpopular, and I`ll join that dude with all the ear piercings."

"Attractive but unpopular?" Tess repeated. "Naw, I`m more of a Daria herself."

"What, you don`t think you`re attractive?"

"Me? Oh, I`m not really that..."

"Ah, bull shit. In fact the first time I heard Max didn`t want you I thought, He doesn`t want that girl? You gotta be kidding me. But then again, now she`s free for me to make my moves..."

Tess laughed hysterically and shoved his shoulder again.

"Then I got to know you and learned that it`s true: you are a devilish bitch sent straight from hell to make the human race miserable."

"Oh, shut up."

Then her lips were against his.

Kyle was starting his locker combination when he was stopped by Isabel rocketing over and leaning right against his locker, making it quite impossible for hi to ignore her. "You are so fucked," Isabel announced.

"Could you move, please?" Kyle asked with no politeness.

Isabel shook her head and grabbed the neck of his shirt. "I can`t believe I`m saying this, but I`m taking you to our leader. Where`s Tess?"

"I don`t know," Kyle said, deeply annoyed as she pulled him across the hall. "I`m not her other half."

Iz scoffed. "Seems like it."

"What?" Kyle asked.

"Nothing." Isabel let go of him as Max came around the corner.

"There you are," Max said. "Tess?"

"He doesn`t know," Isabel sighed, frustrated. "Looks like she skipped school."

Max turned back to Kyle. "What did she do? Run away?"

"Jesus, Max, I don`t know!" Kyle said. "I haven`t seen her since she left my house yesterday."

"She was at your house last night?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Kyle saw Maria sneak into the picture behind Max`s shoulder. "Great. Just have everyone team up on me, huh?"

Max turned around to see Maria, and then turned back to Kyle. "Listen, since you two are such a great team, how about you deliver Tess a little message? Tell her we never was to see her again and that she has no heart."

"Well, if you broke it..."

"What did you say?"

"Max, here`s how I see things here. I`ve associated with two heartbroken women in the past week, and they both were laid off by our man Evans, weren`t they? It really pisses me off, you know, that it isn`t enough that you have Liz on the line who`s crying her guts out, you`ve got to have another girl who you`ve hurt too."

As Max just stared, Isabel grabbed Kyle`s shoulder and spun him in her direction. "That`s bull shit!"

"You know what else is bull shit?" Kyle said. "That Tess ever did anything wrong. All she-"

"Oh right, nearly killing Liz is nothing wrong," Max said.

"Liz is fine!" Kyle said. "Don`t you get it? The only person who`s been hurt at all here is Tess, who could have died last night if I didn`t get your guys` asses over to the hospital."

"Tess is the only one who`s been hurt?" Maria mocked, speaking darkly. "Take it from Liz`s best friend that she`s been hurt emotionally beyond any freak car accident."

That put a brief different expression on Max`s face until Kyle said, "Tess hasn`t had the best life, okay? But she`s a good person, I swear. If you would actually spend some time with her you`d know that."

"Kyle," Isabel said. "She used you."

"She didn`t use me."

"Did you get your part of the deal?"

"No, but neither did she!"

"Your part of the deal was Liz, wasn`t it?" Max pressed, inching towards him so that he back up a little. "Your fucked-up little mind thought you could just deceive her back into her arms, huh? Well look at things now. I`m sure Tess was thinking a lot about her partner in crime as she got ready to lead Liz to her death, huh?"

Kyle was silent, registering that, and it looked like he was starting to see something, but then he said, "How many times do I have to tell you? She wasn`t in good mental shape at the moment. I`ll have you know that she cried the whole way back to my house. I don`t need that. Liz slapped the girl across the face when she got real mad, and Tess made a bad move when she got really mad."

"There`s a big difference between slapping someone and killing them," Isabel argued. "And besides, who said slapping Tess was such a bad move?"

Kyle`s eyes went fiery. "She should run away, you know that? Only an idiot would stick around with people like you. She`d be better off without Roswell any day." Then he walked away.

Maria turned to Max. "You didn`t do anything wrong."

He smiled and put an arm around she and Isabel`s shoulders. "Things are gonna be okay, you hear me?"

Isabel tiredly put her head on his shoulder. "I hope so."

Tess got the phone call when she was watching an extremely cheesy soap opera out of complete boredom. Of course, it was one of them. Liz, to be exact. Somehow she felt scared on the phone with Liz. She had almost killed her yesterday.

"You weren`t at school today," Liz mused.

"I know," Tess said. "Collecting myself. Listen, Liz, I`m-"

"Let me talk because I don`t have much time, okay?" Liz said. "We just want to let you know if Kyle didn`t already that we have officially excluded you from our group."

Tess squinted her eyes together. "I know."

"You`ve talked to Kyle?"

"No. I just know. Christ, why do you even think that I have contacts with Kyle so much? I hate him, he`s a useless asshole! I never wanna see him again!" She was surprised that she`d said it after she did. She just couldn`t stand Liz and the others thinking she was still teamed up with him and on his side...

"...Well, I don`t know what you`ll do but figure out what you`re going to do fast. I gotta go, I`m at work, and I-"

"Liz, I just-"

She hung up. Tess groaned and slammed the receiver down. Her life was falling apart. She felt like she was dead. She didn`t understand things. She didn`t understand what she`d done, what she`d wanted, she didn`t understand herself. She didn`t understand all the different feelings she had at the moment. She truly felt that she had now experienced it all: whatever emotion you could name that was negative, she felt that right now.

Including regret. And lots of it.

Tess made herself some popcorn and watched some show, not even knowing what it was and not paying any attention. She never knew before that it had been possible to keep your eyes locked on a TV program and yet be completely clueless as to what the show was like at all. She wasn`t really tuned into the popcorn either: normally she would have something on it like hot sauce to make it taste better, but right now it just didn`t bother her. She just ignorantly filled her stomach without caring what the hell the food tasted like, and-

The doorbell rang.

As soon as Tess answered the door, Kyle was babbling about. "Tess, I..."

"Come in," Tess said. He followed her inside and shut the door. She turned off the TV as they went into the living room.

Kyle opened his mouth to say something, but she stopped him. "No, don`t talk," she said. "I`m the one who needs to talk. I just need to...I`m sorry."

Kyle stood there a moment, registering this. When he spoke, his tone wasn`t as casual and friendly as Tess had expected. "Sorry for what? Which thing? Sorry that you used me to get toward your prize? Sorry that you tried to kill Liz? Sorry that you called me a worthless human that got in the way and told Liz that I was a useless asshole-she told me, you know. Is that what you`re talking about? Or are you just sorry for kissing me?"

Tess tried to say something but a croak came out. She didn`t know what to say. All the regretful emotions were coming back to her in a big hurricane right now.

"...And right now you`re out of things to say that will keep me in your hands as someone to use," Kyle guessed.

"Kyle," Tess pleaded, "what I said to you that night was...stupid and...God, I can`t even believe I did those things to you and everyone else. I ruined everything. God, I... I did, didn`t I?" She dug her fingers back in her hair.

"Oh, would you quit it?" Kyle said, getting annoyed already. "I`m sick of your games and your...well, look at you! You just stand there and act innocent when you`ve just done something that possibly worse than all my nights of drunkenness combined! Jesus, you just don`t give in..."

"I have given in!" Tess argued. "Kyle, I don`t want Max anymore. I`ve given up on him!"

"Oh, NOW you`ve given up on him, now that you know for once that it`s impossible to get him, huh? You had to wait until you`d caused this big mess and found out the hard way?"

"Kyle, just listen to me! Please! I don`t want-"

"I`m tired of listening to you. I came here today to clear this up-I want you out of my life. Okay? Just leave me alone, I don`t want to see you again."

With that he turned around and left, slamming the front door behind him. And Tess, alone in the now too quiet room, finished her sentence into the empty air where no one would hear it. "As I was saying, I just wanted you to know that I don`t want Max anymore, I`ve given up on him now. I want you."

The next morning Max awoke feeling anything but up for school that day, and it didn`t help his mood when he found the note on his desk. It was written on the back of a receipt from JCPenney for a luggage bag. The message was brief:

"I guess I`ve finally learned the things Nasedo never taught me, or never could teach me, whichever one it is I don`t know. I always used to think to myself how weak you were. You had let yourself be far too human. But maybe you didn`t. I was too alien. And I didn`t know the human lessons I needed to know to be careful with human hearts. So now I`ve gone away to a place where there will be no one for me to hurt anymore.

I`m sorry."

And it was signed neatly with her delicate handwriting, Tess H.

By the end of the day everyone know. Knew she had left last night. They didn`t know what to think, and they didn`t say anything of it. They just wanted to forget about her.