A.N. Sorry no Alec in this chapter, but I promise he will be in the next one.

Chapter 3

"Liz?" Maria knocked on her bedroom door, she contemplated not answering or telling her long time friend to leave her alone but she couldn't. Who better to help her deal with this than Maria?

"Come on in." She replied. When she came back upstairs she started to unpack her single suitcase, all she brought were three "outfits" the rest of the space was taken up by weapons. Sector and Border Police hardly if ever searched bags manually; they had too many people passing through hourly to do that. And to do it by computer—in this day and age was wishful thinking.

Maria opened the door, plopped onto the bed and waited. Liz knew what she wanted, what she's waiting for, explanations, stories, secrets only she would be privy too. It always became an inner struggle for her to figure out what to tell Maria and what to keep private.

The blond already knew about transgenics, Lydecker, the basics of what she and Alex could do. But she didn't know about all their siblings, didn't know about the murders she's committed, about the lives Alex had saved by stopping her from killing them. Maria knew the least amount of information possible. It was the best thing, she protected Maria by keeping her out of ninety-nine percent of their dangerous lives and Maria was happy because she knew things no one else in their group did.

"What do you want to know about first? Max or Alex and my trip?" Liz finally spoke, might as well give her an option.

"Max first, the other stuff I'm curious about but I can wait." Maria got comfortable as she watched Liz take out the various weapons placing them behind the wall where she kept her weapons safe.

The brunette shrugged. "We broke up." That wasn't nearly enough information to satisfy the curiosity of the quiet gossiper. Maria was one of those gossip people, that admittedly irritated her to a certain extent, but she's not an obvious one. Not like Pam Troy, instead she's subtle when she dropped a name or tidbit. Could be why she got all the best gossip first.

"And? You two technically were broken up. How'd you become more broken? Last Max told me he was jonzing to get back with you."

"I came up here to tell him we'd never be together again. While he wanted to get back together. Unfortunately he and I don't—we don't gel. He's an alien; I'm a transgenic. What happens the next time he's captured, or if I have to go save a sister or brother?" Her friend thought she had one more brother, Zack, and a sister, Maxie, but no more than that.

"This might be stupid bringing it up but why not tell Max about your past? Tell him who you are, who Alex is, you accepted the fact that Max is an alien after he told you." She pointed out.

Liz closed her eyes; Maria and even Alex to a degree had been hounding her to tell the others about their specialties. Alex wanted Isabel to know so she wouldn't hate him if he suddenly disappeared and didn't come back. While Maria thought if Max and the others trusted them with their secret it'd only be fair to share their secret.

She on the other hand hated the ithought/i of telling them let alone actually doing it. One secret revealed didn't mean they got a small peek into who she was. What good would it do anyway? Would they really sneak into a heavily guarded base to rescue her or Alex? Liz didn't see that happening.

"I'm not telling them Maria. And they didn't tell us, I was shot and Max opened the door to be questioned." The soft click of her weapons safe closing added an extra finality to her statement.

She heard footsteps on the stairs. The conversation stopped with a single raise of her hand. Ears perked up evaluating the almost silent fall of shoes on the hardwood floor. Immediately she recognized the rhythm, Alex was coming up the stairs. She listened closer; the others were leaving the Crashdown, some she assumed to follow Max, others who knew where.

"Hope you know I gave up quality make out points to protect your reason for breaking his heart." He announced his presence. "Isabel is quite likely to never let my tongue in the vicinity of anything that is on her body." He enjoyed the disgusted expressions on their faces. They hated hearing about intimate details going on in his love life. Revenge for all the times he had to hear about the way so-and-so kissed.

"Why didn't you tell her? You said you would?" Guilt stabbed at her, she hated when Alex protected her like that. He's not supposed to protect her, she's the older sister, it's her job to protect him, not the other way around.

He shrugged. "You had a reason for not telling her, figured I'd respect that. Family is more important than a girl I'm currently seeing."

"You're more than seeing her, Isabel is the only girl you've dated for more than a week." Liz reminded him.

His sister's right. Longest relationship he had was a week and that was simply because of fantastic sex. That week they hadn't left her motel room, plus she was an older woman. That week could have gotten him tons of reputation points at school—if anybody knew who he really was—and if he were the type to blab about sexual encounters.

"Ok she's more important to me than any other woman I've been with." Alex admitted to them. "Bottom line though, family is more important."

"Besides it's not like Max won't tell Isabel when she gets him to crack." She pushed her now empty suitcase under the bed. "Anyway wouldn't she hate me less if she knew that I broke up with him now when I realize I don't love him as opposed to years down the line? By then we'd probably have a life, be far more connected, maybe have kids."

"Doubtful, you broke up with her brother—she's going to hate you regardless. If she broke up with me for that reason would that make you less likely to want to kill her?" He questioned. Might as well put it into context for her. Eyes sank to the floor, nope it wouldn't.

"For someone who's told us that she doesn't love the man from outer space you sure have thought about a future with him."

Liz leaned against her bedroom window and thought about what Maria said, of course she thought about a future with Max. That's what happened when you loved someone. As laughable a notion as that was she believed it at the time. Lydecker would be so disappointed in her.

Transgenics don't fall in love, they squash it, leave it bruised and broken beneath their combat boots. Heaven forbid if they dared to test the heart in a love challenge. As a young child she heard stories of a transgenic teen falling in love with a scientist at Manticore. Oh Deck tried to keep it quiet but it managed to reach their ears. Being the caring, loving, and heartwarming man he was he killed them.

"I thought about it yes but it doesn't mean anything." Sighing she picked up her dusty leather jacket. I'm going to go, I'll be back later tonight." She slipped out the window, climbed over the wall, and jumped when she reached the middle of the ladder. Next stop—the desert.

TBC