"Max?" Liz's quiet voice interrupted my thoughts and I looked over at the beautiful girl sitting in the passenger seat of my Jeep. "Maria asked if you like horror movies... we were trying to decide what to rent after dinner tonight."

"Yeah, either horror or alien movies." Maria chimed in from the backseat. "Since, Roswell video has about a million of them and practically nothing else."

I glanced in my rearview mirror as Maria asked about aliens to see Michael smirking in the back seat. "Nah... I'd rather watch a chick-flick than an alien movie, Maria. They're just not - realistic to me." I said with a small smile.

"Thank goodness that someone finally agrees with me about not renting horror or alien movies." Liz said with a stare at Maria. "Maria hates that I can't watch alien movies with her. I think it's because the science geek in me can't believe the situations the aliens are put in and I can't believe that all aliens are a threat."

Michael and I stared at Liz in semi-disbelief until Liz caught our stares and blushed.

"Don't worry guys. I don't even believe in aliens anyway." Liz said with a giggle.

I thought I heard a small sigh of relief from Michael in the backseat before I spoke up. "It's okay Liz. I agree..."

Michael coughed violently in the backseat, interrupting me before I could finish.

"That we should rent a chick-flick." I said with a smirk.

"Ooh. Let me see your CD's Max." Maria suddenly called out from the backseat. Leaning over, I handed them to her and then tried to turn my attention back to driving. "Metallica... blah... Counting Crows... blah... Ooh. Stone Temple Pilots - very cool..." I heard Maria say in the back and I bit my lip and waited for the inevitable reaction from Michael.

"Blah? Blah is all you can say about the best band in rock?" Michael challenged Maria.

Maria looked up from the CD case into Michael's eyes. "Blah is only the KINDEST thing I could say about those Grungy wannabes. Don't push your luck and make me tell you what I really think about them."

"Whatever! Grunge wannabes? You wouldn't know true talent if it came along and smacked you in the face!"

"Whatever yourself! How could you have such pathetically low standards to like Metallica? Besides..." Maria sputtered and was about to turn into a full fledged "Hurricane DeLuca" before Liz suddenly intervened as we pulled up in front of the restaurant.

"Maria, c'mon. You can tell Michael later what you think about Metallica. And besides, I like Metallica too." Liz said with a small laugh.

"Well, at least Parker here as some taste…" Michael grumbled as we got out of the car and headed over to the restaurant.

Later that night…

Liz and I both sighed as we watched Michael and Maria argue before us as we left the restaurant and headed back to the cars. I guess that the dinner was very nice; Liz and I got to sit around and talk to each other while we tried to ignore the arguing of Michael and Maria. Maria seemed angry at Michael from the start and poor Michael had no clue as to why Maria was angry. From my perspective, what happens is that Maria sees me open doors for Liz, pull out her chair, all that and Michael doesn't really think to do that sort of thing for her. Maria gets angry and Michael then doesn't realize how mad she is getting and says something that pisses her off even more. Fighting is their primary form of communication, no matter what time period I'm in, apparently.

However, I think that they enjoy arguing because in my time, Michael always commented that he enjoyed "making up" with Maria later. Maybe Maria provides a challenge to Michael that no one else can give him. As we reached my Jeep, they were still at it.

"Whatever!" Maria humphed and angrily got into the Jeep, leaving Michael standing next to the Jeep running his hands through his hair in total frustration. Michael cast a quick glance in my direction, spotting Liz with her arm linked through mine.

I chuckled softly and shrugged my shoulders at Michael in an apology and pulled Liz in closer to me. I had felt her soft hands slide between my arm and start to walk in sync with me a few moments ago and I enjoyed the feeling of her next to me. Looking down at her, my eyes met her warm brown ones and I gave her a quick smile. Her eyes were twinkling as she warmly smiled back at me, warming my body from head (not that one - geez, you guys need therapy!) to toe.

Michael slamming the door brought Liz and I out of our moment and we both started to laugh at Michael and Maria's antics. "You know that they're both so crazy about each other." Liz said as I walked over to the passenger door to let her in.

"You think so?"

"C'mon Max. I've never see Maria as riled up as when she's with Michael. It's impossible to ignore that they're crazy for each other. I doubt that they would go to such lengths to insult and tease the other, if there wasn't something behind it." Liz reasoned.

"Maybe you're right, Liz" I said as I gave her my hand and helped her into my Jeep.

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

How was I supposed to know that all hell was going to break loose after we had chose the movie and went back to Liz's house? I guess it was too easy for Max to have a nice, normal date with Liz… way too easy. No, it wasn't Nasedo, he was mysteriously absent tonight, my problems were with the bickering of Michael and Maria. I usually don't mind the angry sighs, snappy comebacks, Maria stomping off, whatever because I've seen this all before. Literally. All I asked for was one quiet date with Liz, just one, and I would deal with everything else afterwards. I didn't get my wish.

What happened you ask?

At the video store, Michael and Maria argued about what movie they wanted to watch. Maria wanted to see Forces of Nature, Michael wanted to see Gladiator. Liz and I just stood back in shock as they argued about the movie and I know that we were both silently kicking ourselves for not leaving them in the car and choosing the movie ourselves.

Finally, we rented (wait, I forgot, Michael didn't have any money…) *I* rented both Gladiator and Forces of Nature, hoping that I would be able to appease both of them. My future with Liz was resting on Michael and Maria getting along as well as Liz and I.

Then we reached Liz's house and immediately, Michael and Maria got into a fight about which movie we were watching first. I think that the angry look I finally shot at Michael allowed him to cave in and agree to watch Forces of Nature. As I settled down on the couch with my arm comfortably around Liz and Michael and Maria seeming to be getting closer… Michael had to open his big mouth.

"This movie sucks."

Maria couldn't of slid further away from him faster if she had jet rockets attached to her sides and I don't think that Liz or I could cover our sighs of frustration. Leaning down to Liz, I whispered, "Are you as sick of them as I am?"

"Yes." Liz whispered back into my ear, causing my entire body to tingle.

"Then I'm going to do something about it." I said as I stood up, confidently and headed for the small side supply closet next to the kitchen. Looking inside, I saw various types of food, including ice cream cones. Perfect, I thought as I put the ice cream cones on the highest shelf - ALL the way in the back. Then I headed over to the freezer in the Parkers kitchen and looked for some ice cream. The Parkers had two large containers of chocolate and vanilla ice cream and I grabbed both of them and some spoons - making sure that my arms were completely full.

"Hey Maria." I called out as I walked out of the kitchen. "Can you do me a favor and grab the ice cream cones for me? Liz and I decided that we could use some ice cream as we watched the movie." I walked over next to the supply closet as Maria got up. Maria looked around the closet and then spotted the ice cream cones on the highest shelf.

"Max. I can't grab them all the way up there. They're too high up for me." Maria said.

"Hey - Michael! C'mere!" I called out still pretending to juggle the ice cream containers. I watched as Michael reluctantly get up from his position on the couch and walk over to the closet where Maria was all the way inside and I stood right out by the door. "Look - can you grab those ice cream cones for Maria?" I asked. "She's not tall enough to reach up that high."

Michael grumbled. "Whatever, Maxwell." As he stepped into the closet, I made my move. I quickly dropped the ice cream containers on the ground and pulled the door of the supply closet closed and ran my hand over the lock. Connecting in quickly, I fused together the bolts with the wall knowing that not even Michael could break out of that room without using his powers. I also knew that Michael couldn't control his powers very well at the time, so there was no way that either one of them were getting out of that closet without my allowing them to. Plus, to Liz, it looked like I had simply locked the door.

"MAXWELL!!" I heard Michael roar as Michael realized what I did. "LET ME OUT OF THIS DAMNED CLOSET RIGHT NOW!" He tried the handle that didn't turn and started to pound on the door. I heard Maria's hands join him as they both started to yell.

"Liz! Max! This is NOT COOL! I can't spend any time this close to someone, someone like this!"

By this time, Liz had gotten up from the couch and had joined me by my side. "Maria. I think Max is doing the right thing, you two need to learn how to get along without fighting."

"WE DON'T FIGHT!" Both of them yelled.

"Don't worry guys. I'll unlock the door when I think that you two can get along without yelling at each other." I calmly said on my side of the door. "Have fun."

"You're dead, Maxwell." I heard Michael yell as Liz and I walked away from the supply closet, laughing. Secretly, I was proud of my achievement because now I had set myself up for moving forward with my Liz. With Michael and Maria locked away safely in the closet, I finally had the chance to spend time with Liz. The date so far had been perfect for us, great conversation in the car, restaurant, during the movie... I love this girl and I wanted her to make sure that she knew this.

I stood up, nervously because I was going to do something I had never done before. "Umm, Liz..." I asked.

Liz looked at me from the couch. "Yeah Max?"

"Do you want to dance?" I shyly held out a hand to help her up.

Liz's smile practically lit up the room. "Okay." She said and placed her small hand in mine and I pulled her to her feet.

"Stay here, okay? Let me set up the CD." I whispered to her as I quickly moved across the Parkers living room to the CD player and pulled the CD that I had made out of my pocket. I had heard the song on it one day in the car and had instantly thought of Liz. Being an alien certainly had its advantages I thought to myself, as I placed the CD I had "burned" this afternoon into the CD player.

After a brief pause, "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys, started to softly play over the speakers. I walked back across the room and pulled Liz into my arms. I marveled at how perfectly Liz fit into my arms as we gently swayed to the lyrics.

I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I'll make you so sure about it
God only knows what I'd be without you

What almost pains me is that I wished I had been able to do this with MY Liz and let her know this is how I felt about her. The thought made me pull Liz closer to me instinctively, missing MY Liz so much it hurt. Although, I was with Liz, it wasn't the same Liz that had been through so much with me.

If you should ever leave me
Life would still go on, believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me?
And God only knows what I'd be without you

I think that Liz and I were made for each other, I couldn't care less about Nasedo had planned for me. What it came down to was this was MY life and I was going to life it the way I wanted to. Alien or not.

And God only knows what I'd be without you
If you should ever leave me
Life would still go on, believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me?
God only knows what I'd be without you

God only knows what I'd be without you...

Liz and I continued to dance, long after the music died down. I know that I couldn't leave the warmth of her body and her presence. God Only Knows simply reminded me that I missed my Liz and I wanted to end this challenge so that I could be with her again. I enjoyed feeling Liz pulled close against my body and I knew that - deep down - this Liz was slowly falling in love with me.

Looking down into Liz's eyes confirmed it. She smiled at me tenderly as we swayed to a stop and I slid my hand up to her cheek, feeling how soft it was. With a small smile, I lowered my lips to hers and gently kissed her. I felt Liz's lips relax against mine as I started to lose myself in the softness of her lips and the sweetness of her strawberry-vanilla lip-gloss.

I was kissing my Liz, finally… but as we reluctantly pulled apart I realized something that I had never ever would have believed.