Although the stars were beginning to fade and the sky was beginning to brighten, it was still quite dark in the woods - Liz had turned off her flashlight so as to not draw Max's attention, but she realized that she was likely going to kill herself in the process...she moaned as she bumped into a tree, smacking her head quite hard.

When she looked up, Max had disappeared. Liz looked around frantically, her ears peeled trying to hear any noise. "Max, where the hell are you?" She muttered. She suddenly heard a voice.

"It's okay..." It was Max. "I'm not going to hurt you." The gentle tone made Liz's heart skip a beat. She cautiously made her way in the direction of his voice, stopped abruptly behind a tree when she realized that she was about to stumble out into a clearing and directly into Max's line of vision. She looked in the direction of the camp, realized that they really weren't that far into the bush at all. She could still see the dancing flames of the campfire reflecting off the trees.

Liz paused and then carefully peeked around the tree, praying under her breath that Max was not looking up...

He wasn't. He was crouched on the ground over a large, shadowed shape. Max's hand was hovering over the shape, apparently trying to soothe it.

Liz realized that it was a deer - and that it was hurt. She could see that it's delicate leg was bent back at an akward angle. The animal's eyes were bright with terror in the hazy dawn.

"Shhhh!" Max gently stroked the deer leg, clearly trying to get a handle on what was wrong with it...as Liz watched his hand began to glow. Max's face whitened as he took the deer's pain into his own body - healing it....

Liz felt tears beginning to fill her eyes. She flashed back to when Max had healed her - when their amazing connection to each other had begun...

She could still see Max hovering over her like it was yesterday: "You're okay now...you're going to be okay..." She still recalled the feeling of wonder that had claimed her...that she had been about to die - and that Max Evans had pulled her back....

Suddenly the deer was on it's feet and bounding off into the bush...Max watched it go, his expression unreadable.

"Max..." she breathed, getting ready to step out from behind the tree, to let him know that she had seen everything, that she KNEW he was pretending to be something he wasn't...he was still her Max...he had just proven it...

Max was still staring after the deer. As she watched him, he reached up, scrubbed his hand across his eyes wearily...

"What the hell are you doing?" Another voice demanded, anger evident in the tone. Max's head snapped up. Liz recognized the voice immediately.

It was Michael and he had appeared in the clearing from a different direction. Now he was glaring at Max.

"What do you want Michael?" Max asked tiredly.

"I want to know what the hell you're doing?" Michael snapped back. "Where the hell is Liz?" Max stared at him.

"What are you talking about?" He demanded. He had begun to look around the clearing suspiciously. Liz felt her heart stop in her chest.

"She's not in the camp." Michael replied tonelessly. "When I saw that you were gone I decided to make sure you weren't ruining everything..." Max sighed.

"Liz isn't with me as you can clearly see." He looked sad for a moment. "I've taken care of that...you don't have to worry about it..."

"That still doesn't explain where she is..."Michael replied. He too was peering into the bush. Liz started to back carefully away. The tone of Michael's voice - it was terrifying...she literally didn't know what he would do to her if he found her spying on them. He sounded furious. What the heck is going on with you guys? She wondered to herself.

"If she saw you out here playing Dr. Dolittle...they're'll be hell to pay Maxwell..." Michael continued.

"She's not here okay? She probably went to the bathroom...I'm not her keeper for God's sake." Max told him, his tone becoming annoyed. "I promised I wouldn't have anything to do with her - with any of them...I've kept my word until now haven't I?"

"Whatever...you just see that you keep it up...you know what's going to happen if you don't... you know what YOU did and you know now what I can do..."Michael threatened..."I don't want to have to hurt you Max...but I will..." Liz saw Max swallow, look away from Michael's angry face. "Don't push me..."

With that Michael stormed off into the woods. Liz let her breath out with woosh. She hadn't even realized that she had been holding it...

"Liz?" Max was staring right in her direction. She knew it... just as she could feel when he was near, he could feel her...it had always been thus. "You can come out now. I know you're there." Liz couldn't tell if he sounded worried or annoyed. But there was no use trying to pretend she hadn't heard him.

Liz took a deep breath, stepped out of the shadows and into the increasingly bright clearing. Max was staring at her. His expression was shuttered. She could not figure out for the life of her what he was thinking.

"Max..." she began.