I woke up that morning and tried to remember if I had had a dream, durning the night.

It nagged at me for a little while, as I lay there in bed. Something about... about a room, a dark enclosed space. And a pretty girl with dark hair and a bright smile... yeah, it was Liz. We were... we'd been looking for something? No, we'd been hiding for someone, and scrambled into a dark place underground. And at the end of the dream, she'd kissed me. Or I'd kissed her.

Okay... this was starting to turn into a little bit of an obsession with Liz Parker, I realized as I got up and started looking for clothes to put on after having my shower. And, come to think of it... was that stuff really from a dream? Or was it just a fantasy that I'd made up on the spot, because I'd wanted to have a dream like that? Hmm... it was a little hard to tell sometimes.

Going into the bathroom, I decided to actually run a bath instead of taking a shower. It was sunday morning, and I didn't really have anything to do until one pm, and somehow having a bath seemed like a really cool idea. (There isn't anything less than manly about that, is there? I mean, it's not like I put bubble bath solution into the water or anything. Just a nice hot bath, running a little water into the overflow now and then to keep things fresh.)

After bathing, drying, and getting dressed, I sloped off downstairs. Nobody was around - Mom and Dad must have left for church nearly an hour before. We got into some big arguments about church last year... Mom and Dad really believe in God and the Lord Jesus and all that, and I'm not so sure myself. Finally my mom gave up trying to push me into it, and I come along once every month or two to keep her happy, and on special holidays like Christmas and Easter and a few others. But a lot of times the preacher just strikes me as a holier-than-thou SOB who interprets the word of the Lord to satisfy his own preconceptions rather than admit there's something he doesn't know about the world...

Sorry, I didn't mean to get off on a big ramble there. Empty house, nobody around. That's really all I was meaning to say. Kinda felt like a big fancy breakfast... well, to be specific, I was in the mood for eating a big fancy breakfast, not cooking one. (Which is a little odd... normally I don't mind the food prep side.) So I just toasted two pieces of whole wheat bread, had one with cheese spread and the other with peanut butter and peach jam... which is a combination that it's very imprtant not to mix too closely, by the way, if you ask my opinion. Fine if you finish one slice, have a nice long swallow or two of orange juice to clean your palate, and then start on the other. I drank two glasses of orange juice too - well, maybe only one and three-quarters.

Sorry if I'm boring you with the trivia of Alex Charles Whitman's life by this point.

Breakfast was finished, the cheese spread back in the fridge, and the dishes cleaned up. I had picked a hardcover copy of 'The return of the king' off the living room bookshelves, decided that I didn't want to begin at the beginning, and was in the process of skimming back and forth when the phone rang. There was a cordless handset right there on the coffee table, within reach if I stretched over a little. "Y'ello?"

"Hey, Alex. It's Kyle. How're you?"

"Just a little surprised at the moment." Kyle and I have been hanging out a little more lately, but for him to call on a Sunday morning still falls under the 'unexpected' category. For one thing... well, I'm actually not sure what the one thing is, so I'll just get on with recounting the dialog. "What's up?"

"Umm... are you handy with engines at all? Like, cars?"

And the surprises kept coming. "Umm... not especially, I guess. Know how to change a spare tire, at least in theory because I'm not sure it's ever come up, and to, erm, check on various fluid levels." How come that had to sound so dirty? "Never really had much more experience than that. Tinkering with a computer motherboard is more my style. Why?"

"Oh... just, well, we need an extra pair of hands down at the garage, and I thought you could probably do with a quick spring break job. Earn some money for the junior prom, or... well, money for whatever."

The way he had retracted the mention of prom stung a little. Was it quite so obvious that I wouldn't be able to get a date for the big night, a month from now? "Well... the money wouldn't suck I admit. But if you need someone with a natural knack for the automobile, I might not qualify." A pause. "I think I'd characterize myself as bright, willing, and eager to learn." Now, just where had that come from? Hadn't I been looking forward to just goofing off and wasting my spring break, yesterday? And I didn't think boredom was setting in so soon...

"Okay, erm... I think I'll leave you as an alternate and not recommend you unless Tobey gets desperate, how about that?" Kyle said, sounding like he wasn't quite sure how else to deal with the situation I'd presented him.

"Sounds alright," I assured him. "Say, I've heard reports that sparks are flying between you and a certain short blonde houseguest."

"Why, Tess?"

"Um, yeah, there wouldn't be anyone else Chez Valenti who fits that description, would there?" I laughed softly.

"Yeah, I guess so. Um, well..." Kyle's voice dropped slightly, as if he was worried about someone overhearing on his end. "Not sure that I'd ever really want to, well... to get involved with a- you know." I mm-hmmed, just to signal that I knew what he meant. "But then again... she's really cute, isn't she?"

"Umm... well, yeah," I admitted after a second. "Not my type I think somehow, but definitely a very pretty girl."

"And... well, we have a lot of fun together." Kyle sighed. "Who did you hear this from, anyway? 'Cause I've kind of been making a show of hitting on her when she's around Evans... Max, I mean, just because it's funny to watch the look on his face."

"Hmmm..." Did Kyle understand the force of the interpersonal dynamics that he was playing with here? If Kyle flirted with Tess because it was his idea of fun to make Max jealous... it didn't necessarily stop there. If Max's green-eyed monster was so easy to bring to the surface, then maybe it was a sign of deeper feelings for Tess, which Kyle's meddling was just making more obvious - both to Max himself, and to Tess. If that effect became strong enough, and Kyle wasn't really interested in Tess himself, then it might indeed lead to the start of a Max/Tess relationship.

And that would leave Liz heartbroken, and more than a little vulnerable to being swept off her feet by a good friend who found that his feelings for her were growing stronger than just friendship. Of course, such a friend would find himself wedged into the role of being a rebound guy... but sometimes rebound guys did manage to go the distance, right?

Was I really wanting this storyline to play out? It was hard to even admit that I had any kind of interest in Liz that way, though the evidence was starting to get hard to ignore. One thing I could tell, though... I wasn't going to tell Kyle what kind of fire he was playing with. If he figured it out for himself, or someone else clued into the game, then fine. But I wasn't going to spill. Somehow I could tell that Kyle wouldn't have been wild about the notion of his teasing actually helping to drive Max and Tess closer together.

"Well, anything else?"

"Not really. Have a nice day, or maybe a nice week if we don't talk later after all."

"Have a nice day yourself, Kyle." He hung up, and I put the phone down, wondering if I was going to be able to lose myself in Middle-earth for the morning after all.

#

Deep breath, and knock. I said knock! No, come on, you little wussie - you're gonna have to let her know you're here sooner or later, and just drumming silently on the door with your fingertips isn't going to do it. Knuckles tight, into a fist, and really let them rap against the wood!

Finally, I knocked. At first, there was no reply. And then, soft footfalls from inside the apartment beyond, and the faint 'clunk' of the doorknob turning from inside. Then it drew aside entirely, the door I mean, or inside I guess, because it was being pulled away from me. And there, of course, was Liz.

She was dressed very simply... a light, summery dress with a pattern of pink flowers on a white background, her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and tiny gold hoops hanging from her ears. There was... well, it's cliche to say that my heart melted at the sight of her, but I could practically feel something go warm and squishy in that area, I kid you not. That was the point when I had to admit to myself that something was going on... I wasn't quite sure what to label it yet, but I knew I had feelings for Liz that definitely crossed the bounds of good friendship.

On the other hand... I really didn't have any basis to believe that she felt the same way, and she'd probably be a little shocked if I made a move too quickly or announced my change of heart too abruptly. Subtlety was called for.

I don't think I've ever been that good at subtlety.

Meanwhile, Liz was starting to get a slightly confused look on her face, probably because I was just standing at her door staring at her with an oddly intent look on my face. "Uhh, whoops," I mumbled. Great chatty opener. "Sorry, just got distracted for a moment there. Forgotten sonnets?"

"Yeah, that's the plan," she agreed with a little smile. "You got your gear there?"

"Um, where?" It was with some genuine surprise that I remembered slinging a book bag over my shoulder, and of course it was still there. Poetry textbook, handout binder from Mrs Batterson's class, and a spiral ring notebook for my own, nearly illegible scribblings. "Right. I may not have much, but what I have is... um, where did you want to get set up?" Would she say her bedroom? Did I really care so much?

'No such luck' would seem to be the appropriate term. "Well, no-one else is using the dinner table, and we'd have plenty of space there. Better than crowding around my desk I guess." Myself, I'd have loved to have an excuse to crowd close next to Liz, but decided not to make an issue of it. We went into the kitchen and started to set up.

Once the books were out, it was actually pretty easy to get my mind on track for a while, and we shot back and forth various possiblities for the assignment in more or less the same way that we'd done for dozens of other school projects over the last four years or so. The lost shakespearean sonnets were actually pretty interesting, as far as English Lit assignment topics went, and we each had a few ideas, which seemed to feed off each other and multiply. (By the way, in case you didn't know this, the "lost" sonnets have actually been found now for longer than they were lost. Little point of trivia that I couldn't work into the assignment because Batterson would grade me down for telling her what she already knew, so I'm telling you. Even if you already know, you can't grade me down for it.)

"Okay, you can do a contrast versus Milton's Petrarchan work if you like," Liz said nearly an hour later. "She'll like that okay I think... it fits the assignment parameters well enough. I don't think I'll do the same, though... for one thing, she might pitch a bit of a hissy fit if we turn in similar theses like that."

"Alright, fair enough. Any idea what you want to do?"

"I might steal one of your ideas and talk about the theme of forbidden love in sonnets one fifty-eight through one-sixty-three. Maybe bring in a few references to 'the Winter's tale,' since they'll impress her, and wouldn't be completely inappropriate in the context."

I tried to cover my groan... 'forbidden love' had slipped out as a Freudian, even though it kind of did fit with some of the poems, and it was more than a little awkward for Liz to be actually picking that as her thesis. Then again... was it possible that she was doing it as a signal, conscious or unconscious? I suck with signals, too. "When, um, have you actually read 'The winter's tale?'"

"Yeah, most of it at least. I kinda skimmed through the first two acts, because I didn't like them so much."

"Just for the heck of it? I mean, not for a school assignment or anything?"

"I guess I always figured that it would come in handy at some point, maybe not until university." Liz laughed softly. "My dad's got this huge ten-volume set of Shakespeare's plays, annotated and everything. Well, footnoted I mean, I guess. Anyway, I... um, er..."

"It's okay," I quickly said. "You don't have to go into the whole story if you don't want to. I was just a little curious." Short silence. "Umm... can I get something to drink maybe?"

"Sure... how 'bout a royal crown?" She smiled, and I smiled back, as Liz went to the fridge and fetched two cans of the store-brand cola. "Yeah, I think this is enough english lit for now." As she settled down, she closed her books, and I did the same after finishing my first chug of the soda. "We haven't been at it for that long, but we've got a fair bit done, and it's spring break after all!"

"That it is," I admitted. "Umm... oh, Kyle asked me if I was any good at cars. They're short-handed down at the garage where he works. I had to admit that I wasn't anything worth writing home about... with an engine, I mean, internal combustion and all that." How had the phrasing come out like that? "He's keeping me in mind as an emergency trainee if they can't find anyone better, though."

"Um, when was all this?" Liz asked when I finally gave her a chance to reply by not speaking for four seconds.

"Oh, um, this morning, maybe ten-thirty. He called me up, which I found somehow unusual. Maybe it's just the first time it's happened."

"Oh, okay." Liz paused, then took a breath and held it for several seconds. "Did he, or... did the subject of Tess come up, by any chance?"

"Umm... yeah, actually, I asked him about her," I said. "He admitted hitting on her, but I pretty much get the impression that he wasn't very serious about it, just kind of playing around... trying to yank Max's chain." Liz considered that for a moment, and without knowing quite why, I blurted out a followup. "I don't think he realizes what he's doing, or where it could lead. With getting Max jealous, I mean. If it's so easy to get him to react, then maybe once Max and Tess see that, they'll... um, well. I wasn't sure how to tell Kyle about that part, or if I should."

"I... I don't know," Liz said with a weary sigh, and I realized that it was well time, or past time, to drop that particular subject of conversation. On the other hand, there didn't seem to be another convenient topic for me to pick up immediately.

Liz smiled slightly at me, acknowledging the awkward moment. "Umm, wanna go sit in front of the idiot box for a while, heheh?"

"Umm... sure!" We headed out into the living room, and I found a decent Star Trek rerun that had just started - it was the Deep space nine episode with the lady archaeoloist, the one who captain Picard had a crush on (on the other show, the one with Picard in it,) until Q whisked her off to unknown places. I'd seen it a few times before, and Liz didn't seem to be paying a huge amount of attention, but we both seemed pretty happy to leave it running for a while.

"Alex," Liz suddenly blurted out during a commercial about halfway through the show. "Do you ever wish that... that I hadn't sent Maria to get you that day, and bring you to the hospital? That none of us had ever... had ever told you about..."

I shut off the sound, partly because I just always find it a little hard to think when the video hucksters are yelling at me. "Um... no, I don't think that's ever occured to me, and now that you bring it up, I'm glad that I know." Big sigh. "Bottom line, no matter what a mess Isabel made of my heart, which wouldn't have happened if I didn't know about her secret I guess... I'm closer to you and Maria for sharing the secret, and that's worth it all just by itself. If you guys knew and I didn't... I think it would have inevitably driven us apart as friends by this point. Now, if the question was about none of us knowing, that'd be tougher, actually." A pause. "Though Michael's cool, most of the time, and I wouldn't want to take him away from Maria without thinking hard about it first. Max, too, I suppose... I know that you have your baggage with him and Tess, but I'm still happy to call him a friend I think."

Liz nodded and considered that, as we watched Q and the ops crew argue silently onscreen. "I'm not sure what I'd say myself... if it were possible to stop that argument in the cafe, so Max would never have had to heal me. He would probably be safer now and happier... but something I can't quite pin down keeps me from saying that I'd rather it went that way." I considered that. "Why did all the lights on the station just go out except for the emergency boxes?"

"Well, that would pretty much be spoiling the ending," I teased her.

Liz turned to me, her eyes glinting with mischief. "I have ways of making you spill it, Whitman!"

I tried not to grin too widely. "Oh, yeah?"

She shuffled close and reached up to ruffle my hair, which I knew was only a preliminary tactic. I flinched away, not because I really minded, but because it would make her come after me.

Sure enough, she went for the bait... or maybe just went after me, though I'm not entirely sure I'm clear on the distinction. I have a very vivid memory of the way her slender figure looked, concealed under the modest dress but suggested by the way she was moving, as she stretched her arms out, trying to get a solid hold around my neck. I rolled away further, trying to keep her from getting a hold there quite yet... and it worked. One hand, the one that was attached to the nearer arm, was able to make contact around my neck, but the other fell short and landed on my upper chest, just beneath the collar of my shirt. I chuckled slightly at her failure.

"Oh, no you don't!" All concern for decorum or propriety had clearly been driven from Liz's mind by her determination, and I was taken by surprise with how quickly she scrambled up onto the couch so as to get better leverage from which to grapple with me. I made an attempt to roll out of the way again, and not a token effort this time either, but it was too little and too late anyway - she had her knees digging into my waist from each side, squeezing, as her arms locked solidly around my throat in a kind of playful piggyback hold. I was able to stagger carefully off the couch, lifting her up with me, but I didn't have my balance and knew, above anything, that I didn't want to risk hurting her. So I managed to drop down onto my knees without hurting them, (going one at a time, on the Parker's thick living room carpet, helped,) and then sagged down to one side.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Liz gasped out. I didn't feel particularly tough right now, sure enough... in fact, what I mostly felt was Liz. Her thighs were still pressing against my sides, and with her arms stretching around my neck, that left her breasts making pretty firm contact against my upper back, through our clothes, something that I was becoming more and more aware of with each passing second. I realized that the rassling was having a physical effect on my that might be very embarassingly evident, if Liz happened to change which aspect of my body she was focusing on and aware of.

"Alex Charles Whitman, lieutenant junior grade," I gasped out. Not quite sure why I went with this tack... the fact that the oxygen supply to my brain was being threatened probably had something to do with it. "Serial number three eight oh seven four five nine, currently assigned to planet Bajor."

"Okay... what the heck?" Liz relaxed her grip, but only slightly.

"Name, rank, serial number... that's all you're getting out of me." I laughed hollowly.

Liz groaned and moved one hand over to pinch hard at the tender skin of my neck. "Really?"

"Okay, okay, I give," I whined, with as much dignity as I could clutch to myself. "It's the big fancy multicolored crystal thing that whatsername brought with her. Really it's a baby alien embryo or something like that, sucking energy out of the station to try to break free."

Liz shook herself slightly... I couldn't really see the motion, but I could certainly feel it. "Okay... that wasn't so hard, was it?" And she let me go - quickly I turned around to get a look. She was... delightfully disarrayed, if that's anything like the right term - her ponytail twisted around so that the tip of it had actually gone down the front of her dress, and several locks of hair had escaped from the tie and were falling as they pleased. The hem of the dress had ridden up almost to the danger zone, though I only got a glimpse of that for maybe a second and a half before she was smoothing the fabric back down to where it belonged, and one of her sneakers was still next to the couch. Her cheeks were flushed, her breath still rapid, and...

And Liz was falling - literally. I'm not quite sure how it happened... I think that maybe she was trying to walk past me, or over me, to get a chance to sort herself out, and the way I had rolled around meant that I wasn't where she'd expected me to stay, and she tripped or something. What I remember, is seeing her stumble and completely lose her balance... and then she had landed.

Landed in my arms.

"How... how did you do that," she breathed, and for a second, I couldn't understand what she meant.

"Do... do what? I didn't have to do anything... even spread my arms. They were open already, and you just... landed right."

"No - trust me," she breathed, and I shook my head in confusion. "When I was starting to fall, you were nowhere near in the right position to catch me." Dimly, I realized that she was right. "You just kind of... you shinnied around on the floor like... I guess I should just be glad that you were able to keep me from hurting myself or anything."

"It'd be appreciated." Suddenly I relialized that I was still holding Liz tightly... much too tightly considering that whatever danger there was had passed. I also realized that I was still kind of excited from the contact earlier, and that Liz was now in a position where she could possibly feel the excitement from contact with me. Specifically, her leg was pretty much touching my... okay, maybe I shouldn't have got that specific. Anyway, I kind of jerked away from her as soon as I realized that part, and Liz gave me a 'that was weird' look and got herself stood up.

"Okay, umm..." Liz sighed. "I guess we'd probably better turn the television off at this point." And she reached out and pressed the button, and the promenade of the space station disappeared in a flicker of colors.

"Yeah, alright." I stood up myself and scrambled back to the far end of the couch as casually as I could. Liz sat down too. "Well, I have a question," I blurted out.

Liz raised an eyebrow at me. "Really... and what would that be?"

"Are... no. Have - have you thought about dating someone else/ Just as a general possibility? I mean... well, I'm not quite sure what you feel for Max at this point, but... well, it doesn't really look like you've made a move to be with him lately. And... well, not meaning to be excessively blunt or anything, but it's possible that if you change your mind and do want to go out with Max, he wouldn't be interested anymore."

Liz made a sad face, but she nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that."

"And... well, you've been wrapped up in the Max thing for nearly a year and a half now, to the extent that there hasn't been anyone else in your romantic life... since you broke up with Kyle, and except for that one Valentine's day blind date, which didn't exactly work out well as planned. Maybe it would do you good to try having a night out with someone else... someone, dare I say it, more normal?"

Liz thought about that for a second. "Was that why you started something with Leanna?"

"Umm... maybe. I hadn't really thought about it that way. But... well, things with Isabel weren't really going anywhere, and so when I met someone who was nice and who seemed to like me a little, I took a chance. Even if it didn't last long, I'm not sorry that I did."

"Yeah, that's a good way to look at it I guess," Liz agreed, nodding. "Got anybody in mind for me, or do I have to keep my own eyes open?"

For a second, I was tempted to blurt out something about wanting Liz to date me, or wating to date her... but something still didn't feel right. It was too soon, and this wasn't quite the right moment. On the other hand, I didn't want to say no straight out, just in case. So... "Umm... get back to me on that a bit later, okay?"

"Umm... I guess, sure."

I sighed. "Wanna head over to my place? I downloaded a few cool freeware computer games off the net."

"Ehh... not really." Liz sighed. "We could go back to Frazier woods I guess. Bring out notebooks in case inspiration strikes..."

"Yeah right," I mumbled under my breath.

"And just enjoy the beautiful weather," she finished. "Maybe even bring some food for dinner."

I laughed. "Do you guys still have that picnic basket that your mom used to pack?"

"Umm... I think so, maybe. Wanna take a look around the kitchen to see what'd be good to pack, and I'll see if I can find it."

"Gotit." I smiled - all of the awkwardness had gone away, at least for the moment, and we were just the same best of friends we'd always been. I was still crushing on Liz, but that didn't have to make things weird between us... or at least, I hoped not.

#

Liz found the picnic basket, and we packed about half a dozen sandwhiches, of several different kind, and some potato salad that Liz's mom had made for lunch that day, and freezer-chilled cans of pop and a few other little treats. It was maybe four thirty by the time I parked the thirdhand GM sedan that I'd only got about a month ago in a small nook of the forest roads, which looked like it had been specifically cleared of underbrush so that somebody could park a car there.

"Back to waterfall clearing?" I asked Liz.

She considered, taking the picnic basket out of the back seat. "Nah, actually, I want to see if the campsite past the river junction is free. It isn't far." And she started walking down the path the other way.

I wasn't sure which campsite she was talking about... it wouldn't have been the place that the father/child campout had been based, so maybe there was someplace that she'd been just with Maria, or... well, I didn't know. But I didn't really mind, and hurried to catch up with her.

"So," Liz muttered as we walked. "How's the computer stuff coming? Gonna be the next internet multimillionnaire before senior year starts?"

I laughed slightly. "Gonna take a bit longer than that, if ever, I'm afraid. But I'm having fun and learning a lot. Part of the problem is that most people are saying that the dot com boom has definitively busted... the bubble is popped. Most of the people who got rich did it by selling other people on something that was, essentially, a pipe dream, and then cashing out early. I... I'm not sure if I'll ever have a chance to get rich, but I wouldn't want to do it like that... well, erm." Thought about it a little, and decided to come clean. "If it was really a lot of money, and I needed some, then maybe I'd give in to temptation. But I wouldn't feel good about it."

Liz snickered a little. "Yeah, I'm not sure how many zeroes could go onto the paycheck before I threw out my principles, either. If it ever comes up, feel free to nag me and remind me about my scruples."

"Okay, I'll try," I replied, giggling. "But you'd probably just offer me a cut to stop me from bugging you about it."

Liz sighed slightly. "What about Brody's money? Did it come from one of those snake oil deals?"

"Umm... not as far as I can tell," I said. "The company that he helped found is still going strong and starting to turn a profit, though whether it'll make back what they paid him off is still a little hard to say. Online gaming stuff, some pretty cool cyberspace stuff. The programming part is still way out of my depth, to even guess how they were able to create unreal worlds so... so convincingly."

Liz smiled. "Have you actually played one?"

"Yeah, there was a layover in London on the way to Sweden, and I was able to spend about three-quarters of an hour at a British technology expo. It was amazing."

"Well, you may not know everything there is to know about computers and programming yet," Liz sighed as we passed a bend in the road, "but if you keep at it, I don't think there isn't anything you won't be able to accomplish." And she smiled serenely.

"Well, thanks I guess."

"So you'll probably get a chance at that multi-million dollar payoff without it being crooked." She sighed. "But just in case it is... what do you want me to do?"

I laughed. "That's kind of up to you. You can argue the high road... but if I've given in to temptation, I might not take it too well, I warn you."

Liz giggled.

Wasn't long after that point we arrived at the campsite Liz had been heading for. I took the picnic basket from her at some point, can't really remember when - might have been while we were talking about dot-com sellouts. And just as we were getting there, I passed another empty parking spot on the road and pointed it out to Liz. "Guess we could have just driven up here instead of walking the whole way."

"Yeah, I suppose so. But why not walk?" And I guess I didn't have an answer to that one.

The campsite was a great place to spend a little time in the woods, though it could have done just as well or better for a larger group... maybe for the eight of us kids in the gang, if we could gather together without any fights breaking out. (I suppose that there'd even be room for a ninth, so Isabel could bring Grant along if she insisted on it... rumble grumble.)

And, as an aside... just in case anyone thinks that it's inconsistent to be jealous of Grant now that I was setting my sights, so to speak, on the lovely and splendid Liz Parker... well, I never claimed to be consistent. (Did you know that it's logically impossible to be consistent and modest at the same time? It's a fun little proof, remind me to tell it to you sometime. I'm not sure that I'm either.) Also, I'm not at all sure that jealousy is the only reason I dislike Grant Sorenson.

There was a picnic table, and a firepit and a barbecue, (too bad we hadn't brought anything that really wanted cookin or open fire,) and, connected with the rest of the campsite by a narrow path through some trees, where was a small strip of sandy beach that faced one side of the river. There was a family with little kids down on the beach though... I think they had set up tents in a second campsite that connected to the beach as well.

But I didn't mind that so much. Liz and I set up on the picnic table, unpacking the basket, and chatting about old times and books that we'd been reading recently. Liz went on in considerable detail on this series of historical melodramas set in the late 1600s spain, that Maria had started her on. I mostly just listened, entranced by the sound of Liz's voice more than by what she was saying specifically. That was kind of when I knew that I really had it bad for her.

We chatted a bit more, and I noticed that Liz was starting to grow quiet and thoughtful. "Hey, what's so interesting, going on inside that brain of yours," I said jokingly.

"Oh, just got myself worrying about... did I ever tell you much about Ava, and all of that stuff to do with, well, with the summit meeting that Max went to in New York?"

Uh-oh. Angst warning, proceed with caution. "Um, not specifically. I kind of got some of the details thirdhand through Maria - you thought that Lonnie and Rath might kill Max if things went wrong, or even if they just didn't need him anymore, because Ava saw them kill Zan, to get him out of the way because they thought they could get Max to go to the Summit, since Zan didn't want any of them to go." I paused. "So... somehow Isabel managed to use her dreamwalking power to warn Max... and Maria said that Michael said you were important there, though she couldn't really explain to me what you'd done to help."

"I... I'm not sure I can explain it myself," Liz complained.

"I'd be interested in hearing you try to summarize your part in it," I said as encouragingly as I could. "Might help you figure it out for yourself."

"You're right," she agreed. "Okay, well... Isabel had been able to get into Max's brain, she thought, but not to make him notice her. Between the distance from Roswell to New York, which was longer than she'd ever dreamwalked before, and the fact that Max was completely awake and coherent at the time... well, the best way I could figure it is, she can connect to someone's subconscious." I nodded in agreement. "That's how she can walk into someone's dreams. But when Max was awake, he wasn't paying any attention to his subconscious, any more than the rest of us do. That's pretty much what makes it a subconscious, that it's beneath our awareness most of the time. So she couldn't use that to warn Max."

"Makes sense so far," I agreed. "Would have been interesting to see if she could plant a subliminal message that way or something, but it was probably too risky under the circumstances. Where did you come in?"

Liz sighed, looking past me at the woods around us for a while. The light of day was beginning to get less bright, though the sun probably wouldn't set for an hour or more yet. "Ava said a bunch of stuff that I'm still not sure what to make of... about how Max brought me back from the dead, and so I was changed. She said that I'd be able to help Isabel get through to Max... though she didn't explain how she knew any of this."

"Ohh... so that's how Kyle got onto the teenage alien kick?" I asked. Liz shot me a look. "He said something about that when we were trapped in the Gandarium cave - that he was part alien now, because Max had saved his life. I didn't really know what he meant by it at the time."

Liz smiled. "I'm still not sure what Ava 'meant by it'. But the upshot is... well, Isabel looked into my eyes, and did that weird 'making a connection' alien pocus - and... I'm not sure how to describe it, but for a moment I was standing on a Manhattan street. Parts of it were fuzzy, like not quite in focus, and I wasn't getting much in the way of sounds or smells. But Max and the others were perfectly clear. Tess, Rath, and Lonnie. I screamed at him, tried to warn him, but he couldn't seem to hear what I was saying. He tried to reply, and it was like he was a tv picture set with the volume... um, not quite mute but so low you really can't make anything out. And..." She sighed and broke off, shaking her head slightly.

"Go on," I muttered. It was weird hearing her talk about Max like this, but I knew that this was something Liz had to get off her chest, as it were.

"Rath grabbed Tess from behind... pinned both of her arms with one of his own, slammed a hand down over her mouth and face to keep her quiet. Lonnie... she used her powers to get something heavy, high up above Max, to fall down. I was trying to tell him, and then I realized that it was no good and I was about to point, but I got a little dizzy and had a hard time raising my arm.

"But... but he stepped closer to me, trying to figure out what was going on, and that was enough to get him out of the path of danger. I blipped back to the cafe dining room pretty much at that point - my body had been there all along, with just my mental energy making contact with Max, somewhere halfway between his subconscious and conscious mind I guess. And, well... there was more to his story in New York of course, but that's all I was really getting hung up on. The part about me being changed."

I just sat there, and reached out to touch her hand with my own, not being sure what to say. Liz looked around the clearing, and smiled at me. "I don't hear it anymore."

"Huh?" I looked around, trying to hear... there were a few noticeable sounds that I could still hear, but I wasn't particularly aware of not hearing something. "Not hear what?"

"The kids playing at the beach." She led the way back down, and sure enough, the family had gone. There wasn't even a sound from their campsite... maybe they'd gone for a drive, or a hike through the woods. Liz turned back to me. "Wanna go... well, not skinny dipping I guess. Underwear swimming, like you did yesterday?"

I was so stunned I felt like I might fall over. "You... are you serious?" Of course, I wanted to, but... "Neither of us has a towel this time... well, not any closer than the car I guess." Some odd impulse had pushed me into putting two big beach towels that had seen better days in the trunk last night, just because of being caught without one at the waterfall with Liz. "If you want to go for a swim, maybe we should run back and get them first."

"Nah, that's too sensible." And right then, Liz started to shrug the dress she was wearing over her head... which took a little while, but I just stood there and frankly stared. Soon her trim figure was covered only with a white bra, and a pair of panties. She folded the material of the dress twice over her arm, pulled the ponytail tie away from her hair in one motion, and kicked off her shoes. "In case you couldn't tell, I'm being impulsive."

"Um, uh, yeah, I got that much," I mumbled. Liz went over and put her dress down on a rock, and I felt like my eyes were possibly shooting a laser beam hot enough to singe the fabric stretched over her pert rear end. But she didn't yelp in astonishment, so of course I guess she couldn't feel the intensity of my passionate eyes.

I tried not to make it completely obvious that I was gawking when she turned around, but Liz still giggled... for exactly what reasons I couldn't be particularly sure. "Are you gonna take off your clothes and come with me?"

Gee... was I? Stupid question - though of course, she didn't realize quite how stupid... I hoped. "Yeah. But you go in first," I managed to choke out. "So if the water's cold enough that you can't even stay in for a moment, I don't have to bother." Hiding the fact that I was painfully stiff and didn't really want to make it embarassingly obvious to her... though since her little routine had bordered on the exhibitionistic then maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't be surprised - or upset about my reaction.

Liz shot a 10-kiloton pout at me, (nuclear and explosive,) and strode into the river. She shivered very vehemently when it got up to her knees, which made her body shift and sway in even more enticing ways, but didn't stop or turn back. As she went in, I slipped out of my t-shirt and my dockers. As it happened, I was wearing cotton briefs today... less loose and comfy than the boxers of yester, but that was the way fate turned sometimes.

As it happened, Liz didn't turn back until I was already waist deep in the water, and the same coldness had a calming effect on my little crotch problem, as cool water often tends to. She probably couldn't have seen anything through the water even if she'd been trying. I swam out to meet her, and Liz smiled, waiting, and dunked her head beneath the surface. When I got close to her, her hair was falling down all around her head in soggy locks of deep darkness, and water was still dripping from her eyelashes, the tip of her nose, and her chin. Somehow, she'd never ever looked prettier.

"Alex?" She cocked her head slightly. "You've got an odd expression on your face. What's wrong?"

I breathed in, sharply. So suddenly, the moment of truth had come, it seemed. What did I say to her?