"So? Just use your powers-"

"But what if mom saw my empty room before she went to sleep? I don't feel like explaining to her right now where I have been till 1 am."

"Maybe Max was the one who closed the window. We should try his room first."

"Great. I was hoping this could wait till the morning."

"Isabel, don't you want Max to know about us? We could wait for a while before we told anyone."

"No, don't be silly. I want everyone to know what a great boyfriend I have." Isabel kisses Michael. "I don't want to hide and keep secrets." They kiss again, harder this time. "Come on, let's wake up Max."

They leave the window in front of Isabel's room and sneak to the next window, Max's. Michael knocks lightly. Nothing. He knocks again. Still nothing. "What the hell?" Michael puts his hand on the lock. "We'll just help ourselves in." The window is opened in seconds and Isabel makes an effort to climb in, but Michael stops her. "Wait." She gives him a questioning look. "I'll go first, you know, just in case he's standing behind the door waiting to slam us with the baseball bat."

"That's not funny, Michael. What would you do if someone was breaking into your room in the middle of the night?"

"You're right, let's call him first. Max," he whispers "Max!" Michael climbs into the room and finds it empty. "Looks like he's not home, Is."

Michael takes Isabel's hand and pulls her into the room. After she's safe inside, she asks, "Do you think he's still on the concert?"

"I doubt it. He's probably out feeling sorry for himself since Liz had this date with another guy tonight."

"Oh, Michael, I feel bad for just leaving him home. It must've been hard for him."

"Yeah, I know. But there's nothing we can do now. We'll talk tomorrow. Come on, I'll walk you to your room." *****

That's weird, thinks Max. The jeep's not home yet. That must mean Isabel's not home either.

Then, just when he tries to find his keys to enter the house, he hears the car approaching and parking on the driveway. Two figures get out and Max can see it's Isabel and Michael. They must've been at the concert together. He sees them moving towards Isabel's window. Why don't they just use the door? He decides to keep a low profile and wait, since he doesn't want to explain to anyone how his evening went. He hears them whispering and just standing under the window. And then they kiss? No way! Max looks again and can still see them kissing. "And I thought I was already sober!" He sees them break apart and thinks, "That's it, I'm never touching alcohol again!" Then he sees them going to the window of his room, knocking, no answer, of course, knocking again, Michael opening the window with his powers, some more whispering, Michael entering his room, apparently finding out that no one's in it and finally Michael pulling Isabel into the room and closing the window. "Now that was weird." Max waits a minute or two and then decides to follow Michael and Isabel. It's his room after all and he can't wait outside all night. He has a terrible headache and as he climbs into his room, he can hear some noises. At first he thinks it's all in his head, but then his door opens and the lights are turned on.

*****

In the meantime Michael and Isabel try their best to find their way to Isabel's room in the dark. They're holding hands and Isabel's leading the way. They almost reach the door when Michael feels someone grab him from behind. He yells and Isabel turns, still holding his hand. That's when Diane turns on the light in the hallway and sees her husband holding Michael by the neck and Isabel holding his hand and screaming. When everybody figures out who's who, Phillip lets go of Michael immediately and Isabel, at the same time, lets go of his hand. Michael just stands there and finally manages to say as calmly as possible, "Mrs. Evans, Mr. Evans, good evening."

Phillip and Diane look shocked. "Izzy, Michael, why are you two sneaking around the house in the dark? And in the middle of the night, too?"

Phillip adds, "You scared us, we thought it was a burglar. Michael, I could've hurt you!"

"I'm sorry Mr. Evans, we just thought we shouldn't make too much noise and since we didn't want to wake you up, we didn't turn up any lights."

"And why, if I may ask, are you two still up at 1:30 in the morning?"

Michael looks at Isabel, hoping she will answer the question. He's had enough lies for one night. Isabel tries to think of something that would at least partially make sense and answers with the usual excuse she and Max use when in trouble, as her parents are both giving her the look. "Well, there's this big test on Monday and we were just trying to get maximum study time and we lost track of time-"

"And you decided to go into your room?" her mother interrupts.

"No," Michael interferes. "We remembered Isabel had the book we needed, so we went to pick it up and that's when we ran into you."

Isabel and Michael share a look hoping that Diane and Phillip will buy their story. Phillip finally says, "Oh, well, I know how much pressure that school is for you, but next time please try not to study this late. When do you intend to sleep?"

Isabel and Michael both sigh from relief when Diane and Phillip turn to go back to their bedroom, when Diane turns in her tracks and asks, "So, where's Max? Is he still studying in his room?"

Isabel and Michael answer simultaneously, "-No" "-Yes!" They turn to look at each other when they realize their answers are not exactly the same.

"Which one is it?" asks Diane.

Michael tries to save the day by saying, "Actually, we were studying up till now and Max said he was tired and was gonna go to sleep, and Isabel and I were gonna go get that book and then go to sleep, too." When he sees everybody's looks, Michael quickly adds, "Not in her room! I was gonna get the book and sleep in Max's room."

"Right," comes the reply from Isabel's parents and Michael and Isabel can only look on with horror as they approach the door to Max's room to see what's really going on with him.

Michael whispers to Isabel, "We're so dead."

And then Diane opens the door, turns on the lights and says, "Max!"

Max? think Michael and Isabel and look into the room where Max is seated on his bed in his pyjamas, looking ready to go to sleep. He says, "Mom, Dad, is everything all right?"

Diane and Phillip look at each other. "Yes, honey, we were just checking on you. Are you done with studying for tonight?"

"Yes, I was just waiting for Michael to bring this book from Isabel's room and then we were gonna turn in for the night."

Michael and Isabel are more than surprised when Max manages to confirm their story to the parents. He must've heard their lame excuses in the hallway and decided to go along with them.

The three of them share a look and then Max turns to his parents who are still standing by the door. "It's been a long day, I'm gonna try get some sleep."

"That's a good idea, Max. You should all get some sleep," says Diane and Phillip adds, "Good night."

"Night," echo Michael and Isabel and as Diane and Phillip leave and close the door behind them Max turns to look at them and says, "You two owe me big time. I need some sleep, let's talk in the morning, OK?"

They nod and Isabel turns to go to her room and Michael almost grabs her and kisses her goodnight right there in front of Max, but in the last second decides that he better not take the chance and settles for a "Goodnight, Isabel."

"Night, Michael. Max." With that she's gone, leaving the two boys alone.

*****

Max is driving the jeep along the road, staring straight ahead. Michael is sitting on the passenger's seat and Isabel right behind him. Neither of them says anything. They just drive for the full twenty minutes. After that they finally reach their favourite quiet little place where they can talk. They exit the jeep and head for the edge of the cliff.

"So, Max, how was your evening?" asks Isabel in order to keep Max from asking any questions.

"That was the wrong question, Isabel. If you don't know it, then you have apparently not been anywhere near the concert," comes the reply.

Michael and Isabel share a look and Michael says, "What do you mean?"

"Don't try to deny it! If you were there, you would've known that I got drunk last night and did a bunch of crazy things, like making a pact with Kyle that we would get Liz back. And that I actually broke into Liz's room with Kyle and she and her date caught us as we were in her room. And that I took her away from her date and did and said god knows what to her and when we came to the concert I kissed her in the middle of the stage. And at that moment realized that it was all the consequence of me being drunk and I ran away and left her there alone and sad!" Max stops to catch his breath and then finishes. "I don't know exactly what I did, but I broke her heart again."

Michael and Isabel listen in shock and then Isabel steps closer to Max and puts her hand on his shoulder. "Max, I'm sorry, we didn't know."

"Of course, you didn't. Where were you last night, anyway?"

Michael feels it's about time that he says something and decides to go with the truth. "Public Library."

"What?"

"We went to the Public Library."

"Why on Earth would you go there?"

"We sent a signal to Nacedo."

"You sent him a signal? What kind of a signal?"

"Max, don't get mad. Michael discovered a way to communicate with Nacedo. Since he left us a signal at the cave, we thought we would send one back to him."

"You do that without my knowledge and expect me not to get mad?"

"Don't worry, he didn't come."

"Thank god, he didn't come yet, Michael! Don't you two realize what you have done? You put us all in danger! What if your message works? What then, huh?

"Then, Max, we will find out all we ever wanted about our existence. Oh, how could I forget, you don't want to know! You don't want to know anything that would tell you about your darker side. About your alien side. In case you've forgotten, Max, you ARE an alien. No matter how much you fight it and try to deny it, YOU ARE AN ALIEN!"

"Michael, keep your voice down."

"Why, Maxwell, it's not like anyone can hear us here."

"Michael, Max is right, we have to be careful, more careful than before. We never know who else might be listening."

At that, Michael calms down and allows himself to take a deep breath.

Max's face gets all red from anger and Michael and Isabel step a bit closer to each other and away from Max as if that could protect them from him yelling at them.

"Wow, that part went well," says Isabel to Michael, but Max can't help but overhear it.

"You mean there's more?"

They both look at him, not exactly sure where and how to start. Well, here goes nothing.

"Yes, Max. There's more."

"What is it?"

"Well, no one knows about this yet and we've always been best friends so we thought we should tell you first," starts Michael.

"Before we say anything else, Max, I just want you to know that neither Michael nor I planned it. It was as unexpected to us as it will be to you-"

"Oh, my god, you two are together," says Max before Isabel can continue.

"Not as unexpected as we thought, after all," says Michael as soon as he manages to get over the shock that Max guessed everything.

"How did you know?" asks Isabel surprised.

"I didn't, at least not until now. I thought I was seeing things. That I was still drunk."

"You mean yesterday?"

"Yes. I saw you kissing outside the window. At first it looked like it might have been a goodnight kiss but then it turned out to be much more, so I figured I must be hallucinating. Now I know I wasn't. What I saw was real."

"Yes." Michael puts his hand over Isabel's shoulder protectively and states, "We love each other."

"Is it true, Is? Do you love him?"

"I do. He's the best thing that ever happened to me."

Max looks over to the two people that mean the most to him in the world, standing there, hugging and waiting for him to say more. And he does.

"I must say that we all did some pretty stupid things yesterday." Michael opens his mouth to protest, but Max stops him. "Let me finish, Michael." Michael closes his mouth again and looks at his friend. "As I was saying, we've all done our share of irresponsible things and I hope that at least some of them are reversible and that the others can somehow be fixed. But you two deciding to get together, that was probably one of the few good things that happened yesterday. It did happen yesterday, right?"

"Of course it happened yesterday. What? Did you think we've been hiding it from you for months and now just decided to tell you by accident?"

"Michael, don't get excited over nothing, I just wanted to make sure." They all share a look. "Anyway, I guess what I was going to say is, that if you both want this, I'm happy for you and will stand by you."

"Not too close, I hope," jokes Michael and pats Max on the shoulder. "Thanks."

Isabel hugs her brother, happy and surprised that he has taken the news so well. "Oh, Max, thank you, this means a lot."

"You're welcome. Just don't expect me to take sides with you."

"How could we, Max? We're all on the same side, remember?"

After that Michael playfully lifts Isabel in his lap and whirls around with her, then he puts her to the ground and kisses her lovingly. Max observes them and smiles. "I guess this is one of the things I'll have to get used to now."