Chapter 10: Where the heart is

Amazed, Liz stood up . . . and immediately felt the room tilt sideways.

She sat back down heavily in her seat.

Note to self: Traveling back in time? Not good for the equilibrium.

Grabbing hold of her desk, feeling like the room might spin out around her, she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, recognizing that this must be a side effect of her trip through time. But a chance to fix the future vs. unknown side effects of time travel? Fair trade in Liz's book.

Sudden doubt rose that that it had actually worked. Who knew what time she'd arrived in? What if she'd come back too late? Her eyes snapped open and she was relieved that the room was now right side up and staying that way. She hurriedly reached for the mouse to her computer and clicked on the calender tool. And there it was, clear as day: April 5th 2002 . . . Almost 3 weeks before Max and Alex died.

Max!

Max is still alive!

That's when she realized she could actually feel his presence again. She had to catch herself for a wholly different reason when she realized she could feel their connection again.

She took a deep breath and then grabbed her jacket and climbed out of the window to her balcony, knowing immediately where she had to go first.

She made it to Max's house in 10 minutes, faster than should have been possible, but when she arrived she instinctively bypased the front door and walked around to his bedroom window.

She got her first view of Max (alive!) seconds later and her breath left her in a rush. He was sitting (he was breathing), he was here. She was feeling so many contrasting emotions that she almost felt dizzy again, and took a quick breath to steady herself.

She was about to raise her hand and knock, anticipating the second he would turn and see her and their gazes would lock, when he leaned forward from his position sitting cross-legged on his bed. Liz stepped a little to her left and saw Tess sitting on the bed with him. And before she could turn away, they began to embrace.

She had somehow forgotten this part . . . Forgetten how close Max and Tess had gotten before everything happened. But now it came rushing back to her; suffocating her with memories.

Liz pushed away from Max's window and started walking blindly, only now recognizing how much more complicated this whole thing was than she'd thought. Back in that other future, the plan had seemed simple: Keep Max and Alex alive and keep Tess as far away from the group as possible. But Tess was so tangled up in their group that extricating her without danger to anyone she cared about seemed easier said than done. She'd been back less than an hour now and yet the whole situation had just gotten a lot more complicated.

Liz sighed, so tired she could curl into a ball right there and sleep for days.

But she didn't, couldn't. She had a mission to complete here and it was now abundantly clear that she'd need help to accomplish it.

But who? Who could she lay this heavy burden on? She ran through a mental list of her friends as she continued to walk aimlessly . . . She couldn't go to Maria because she'd most likely freak once Liz told her the horrible things that had happened in that future . . . Alex was too close to Tess since Liz had to assume Tess was still using him for that alien translation . . . Kyle was also too close to Tess since he lived in the same house with her . . . And Isabel lived in the same house as Max so she was automatically discounted.

So Michael it is . . .

She took stock of where she was and then blinked, recognizing Michael's neighborhood. Apparently she'd been heading towards his place all along. Her subconscious must have arrived at a similar conclusion long before she clued into the decision. She started towards his apartment but reminded herself that this was the old, tough, abrasive Michael. Not the one she'd dealt with before who was more in touch with his emotions because of grief. And in light of that, she had no idea what she was going to say to him when she got there.

Before she knew it, she had arrived at his door; still with no idea what she'd say. She recognized though, that planning wasn't gonna make this easier. There really wasn't an easy way to tell anyone what she had to tell him so no point overthinking it.

And as she stood outside his apartment door, she could hear him inside:

"Maria, I'm not gonna change my mind about . . . but . . . you . . . still . . . Whatever!" and she heard something that sounded like him slamming the phone down.

Yeah, Maria never did let anybody get a word in edgewise when she was upset, Liz thought fondly as she raised her hand to knock. Before her fist could make contact though, Michael threw the door open and nearly bowled Liz over, so intent on getting out of his apartment. The scowl on his face barely changed once he realized who had been standing on the other side of his door.

"Sheez, Liz, what are you doing here?" Michael grunted, stepping back but crossing his arms and effectively blocking the entrance to his apartment.

Liz looked at him and wondered if this were a bad idea. This really wasn't the Michael that she'd known. Would he even listen? Liz shook her head because she'd just have to make him listen. All of their lives depended on her being able to do this, so there was no point in second guessing herself now.

Michael's scowl just deepened at Liz's silence. He was already irritated over the fight with Maria; he was really not in the mood to deal with Liz and whatever her drama of the week was.

Instead of answering, Liz pushed her way past him into the apartment and Michael's scowl deepened as he followed her in and shut the door. "Michael, I need to talk to you."

"You need to talk to me? What about?" he grunted. He perched on the arm of his sofa and once again folded his arms, really just wanting to go and ride his motorcycle and blow off some steam.

Liz fidgeted and then began to pace; door to kitchen counter to door again.

She stopped and inhaled deeply. "Michael, there's a situation brewing that will soon get out of control if we don't do something about it."

Michael still looked skeptical. "Ok?"

"Look, I don't know how to say this so I'm just going to say it. I . . . I know the future. I know what's going to happen. And I know that on April 23rd, about two and a half weeks from now, both Max and Alex will die if we don't prevent it from happening."

Michael blinked and then his mouth twisted unbelievingly. "What?"

Liz shook her head. "I know, Michael. It doesn't make sense. But let me explain . . ."

Michael sat back down on the arm of the couch and looked over at her doubtfully.

"Ok, continue" he conceded, curious despite himself.

So Liz sat on the other end of the sofa facing him. "Okay, so you're never going to believe this, but I'm going to say it anyway. And in order for any of it to make sense I need to start at the beginning, which would mean we need to go back to October . . ."

And as she recounted the story of Future Max and the end of the world, she watched various expressions flicker across his face: incredulity, disbelief, amazement, shock, and then the familiar scowl settled over his face again.

"So ok" he began after she finished and she resumed her pacing. "Let's suspend belief for a moment here and suppose what you say is true." He held up a hand at Liz's attempt to protest. "Why come to me? Why not go to Max? Or Isabel? Or hell, even Maria? Why come to me?"

"Because you helped me the first time" she said softly as she stopped pacing for a minute and looked him right in the eye.

Michael blinked, surprised at the sadness on Liz's face. He was momentarily taken aback until what she'd said sunk in.

"Why should I believe you? Why should I believe any of this is anything more than an elaborate tale you've made up to try to explain away sleeping with Kyle now that Max and Tess are getting closer?" He saw hurt flicker briefly across her face and felt bad about what he'd just said. But just as quickly as the look came, it went, and determination took it's place.

Liz's jaw set as she looked across at him. "Ok, so you want me to prove it to you? I will. I know that you consider everyone in our group family even though you'd never admit it out loud. I know that you carry around a piece of metal from the crashed ship in your pocket. I know that you consider Maria your home. I know that Maria will hound you to take her to the prom and you'll refuse, but only because you don't know how to dance. But you'll get lessons and show up anyway. I know that after Max and Alex died, you stayed with Maria and helped her when she could barely stand alone." Liz exhaled shakily. "And I know that, in the future I came from, you helped me. I was completely lost after Max and Alex's deaths and . . . and I was ready to give up. And you . . . you pulled me back from the brink . . ." She blinked and met his eye again. "So Michael, I need your help again, ok? I know that behind that stone wall is an actual caring heart, so can we skip the bravado part of the conversation and get to the part where we figure out how to fix this?"

Michael blinked and simply nodded, too overwhelmed by all she'd just said to even begin to form an answer.

She sat back down and they both sat in silence for a while.

Michael's confusion made him break the silence. "So ok, if Max was alive 14 years in the future, then how is it possible for him to die in a couple of weeks, along with Alex?"

"Because the future I've come back from is not the same one Future Max was from. His future was him and I being together. The one I came from, the one we're in now, is the one that resulted from me changing things and pushing Max towards Tess."

"I'm here now because Future Max left something behind when he visited . . . A failsafe in case things didn't work out. And when things went terribly wrong in the new future, it allowed me to come back here and try again. Which brings me back to now . . ." and she once more got up and began to pace.

"I still don't get it" Michael said. "Why did Max and Alex die? What was so different that would cause this if they didn't die originally?"

Liz spat the name like it left a bad taste in her mouth.

"Tess."

"Tess is what happened. It seems that whether she stayed or left, she still had the ability to bring on the end of the world. She killed them. She killed both Max and Alex. She's been mindwarping Alex to interpret this book that will tell you all how to get home. Then after she made Alex shoot himself right in front of me, Max went after her and she killed him too."

Shock quickly turned to anger at her words. The fact that they had invited Tess into their group, had invited a traitor into their world . . .

Liz continued in a monotone. "After Max was dead, there was nothing stopping your enemies from attacking early, so that's what they did. They killed us all Michael."

Michael turned shocked eyes to her and met her deeply troubled ones. He noticed only now that he was willing to see it that her eyes seemed different now. They had a haunted look that he was pretty sure hadn't been there before. Probably what happens when you see all your friends die he thought grimly. But then he actually registered all of what she'd just said. "Wait. If you died, how did you manage to come back?"

"Moments before I took my last breath there, you sent my essence into the granolith."

"Me? *I* did this? How?"

"It's this thing that I think can only be done when a person is near death. But it's a way to push a person's soul outside of their body. Max did it with my Grandma Claudia right before she died."

Digesting this new information, Michael's voice hardened as he asked "So what happened to Tess after she killed Max and Alex?"

"She apparently had planned all along to have Alex interpret the book and use the granolith to go home. But it didn't work. The granolith crashed and she ended up dead."

"*Death* Michael. That's what waits for all of us in a couple of months if we don't fix this now" she said solemnly. "I can't lose everybody this time Michael. I barely made it the last time. You have to help me. Help me change this" she pleaded.

"How long did you say we had?" Michael asked.

"Till April 23rd. D-day" she said grimly.

Just as Michael opened his mouth to say something else, someone began pounding on his apartment door and Maria's voice carried from the other side.

"Open up Guerin! I know you're in there; your motorcycle's outside!"

Michael's scowl reappeared as he rose and stepped over to the door, yanking it open. Maria stomped past him, already talking a mile a minute.

"Ok Michael, you can be difficult all you want, but you're going to have to face it sooner or later. We're in a *relationship*. And people in relationships do things. They actually go places together; You know, besides the back seat of my car and your apartment. Now I want to go to prom and *you* are going to take me!" she said as she poked him in the chest.

Leaning against the now closed door with his arms crossed, Michael winced, but waited for Maria to notice that there was another person in the room with them.

Maria finally paused to take a breath and looked at Michael to gauge his response. He simply smirked at her and tilted his head at something behind her, so she turned, following Michael's line of sight, and jumped a little when she noticed Liz sitting on his sofa looking uncomfortable.

"Liz! What are you doing here?"

Thinking fast, Liz said "I just stopped by to . . . to talk to Michael about, um, these new powers I may have. I- I got mad the other day and a mirror broke and I wanted to talk to someone about it" she finished lamely.

At this, Maria slapped Michael's arm.

"Ow! What'd I do?" he asked as he inched out of the line of fire.

"You and your alien conspirators changed my poor Lizzie into a walking, talking time bomb! You see chica?" she said pulling Liz up from the sofa, hooking arms with her and walking to the door. "This is what knowing aliens does for you. You end up either unknowingly altered or just generally annoyed." Still dragging a slightly bemused Liz beside her, Maria looked over her shoulder at Michael. "I'll deal with you later Spaceboy" and with that, she sauntered out of the apartment with Liz safely in tow.

Michael just shook his head as he closed the door behind them, figuring he'd have to catch Liz later since Hurricane Deluca had whisked her away.

~.~.~.~

As they climbed into Maria's car, Maria turned to her. "So how are you doing chica? You looked like you needed to be rescued in there, and that's what friends are for, right? So when did this mirror incident happen and how come you didn't tell me about it?"

Liz buckled her seatbelt and avoided Maria's eyes. She waved vaguely. "I was just seriously freaked is all. Anyway, what are you and Michael arguing about now? Looks like you were gonna let him have it if I hadn't been there" she said. As a diversion, it wasn't a bad one. Secretly though, she was pleased to get feisty Maria back. It's been entirely too long she thought, determined to make sure that nothing happened to change Maria back into the grieving shell of a person she was in that other reality.

"Michael and I have been arguing about the prom. He insists that he's not going even though I tell him that he is. It's like this whole endless cycle thing." Maria waved her hands around as she talked, then working up steam as she started the car, she continued. "He is so infuriating! You'd think he'd know by now how important a prom is to a girl, but does he?" Not waiting for an answer, she continued. "Nooooo. He has to be difficult and ruin possibly one of my greatest high school memories."

Liz quickly wiped the smile off of her face as she turned to her friend. In this case, knowing the future might come in handy.

"Maria, I know it probably doesn't seem like it now, but I think all of this is gonna work out. I think Michael does know that junior prom is very important to you. He's probably just nervous over something ridiculous like having to dress up or not knowing how to dance or something . . ." Liz hoped she hadn't told Maria too much.

"You really think so?" Maria asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I do" Liz replied with a reassuring smile.

Just then they pulled up in front of the Crashdown.

"I'll see you tomorrow 'Ria" Liz said as she climbed out of Maria's car.

"Bye Liz" Maria said distractedly as she pondered what Liz had said.

Liz just shook her head as she walked into the Crashdown, just imagining what was going through Maria's head about Michael.

She made her way upstairs and to her bedroom realizing for the umpteenth time how exhausted she was, both physically and emotionally, from the days events. She began her nightly ritual and then climbed under the sheets for her first night of good sleep in a long time. And she was going to need it, she thought grimly, because tomorrow she would face her biggest challenge yet.

Tomorrow she had to go to school, face everyone, and pretend that everything was normal.

Normal.

~.~.~.~