A/N- There is no excuse for how long it has taken me to put up this chapter. My only hope is that my readers are still out there, waiting and willing to read and review to let me know what they think. I hope you all forgive me for how long it as been and enjoy this chapter. I have the rest of this story all planned out, it is just a matter of getting it written. The answers are in sight. Thank you and please review, it helps me figure out if I'm doing this right. The response on the last chapter was amazing- thank you so much to all of you!

Chapter Ten

"You're dead!" The woman screamed again, her body falling against the sofa behind her. "You're dead, you're dead, you're dead..." her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes, turning her head away from her daughter.

Max turned reluctantly toward Liz. "I think maybe you should go down to the car," he said, his voice filled with apologies.

Protests bubbled to Liz's lips but he gently placed his finger over her lips. "I think it would be best if we talked to your mother. I think it might be easier on her if you weren't here."

Slowly she nodded, her head falling as she turned away and began walking down the hall.

"I'm going with her," Maria said, quickly hurrying down the hall after Liz. Alex said something similar and he too followed the pair down the hall.

Max turned back toward the apartment and saw Liz's mother staring at them. "Ms. Parker, is it okay if we come inside and talk?" He asked and she paused before nodding.

The group filed into the room, quickly filling up the small space. Liz's mother sat down on the couch, leaning her head in her hands. Isabel and Michael quickly found places on the chairs around the room and Max followed. He looked around the room as he walked, a cluster of pictures on the mantle catching his eye. A framed school photograph of Liz stood in the center of the mantle. He looked at her thin, smiling face as it shined out from within the photo. As he looked at her, he saw something different in her eyes. Something he'd never seen before. As he looked at her, he saw confidence in her frame. In her smile, a confident, almost haughty, look shone from her dark eyes.

"That was Liz's junior year photo," Liz's mother said from behind him, startling him out of his thoughts. He turned toward her, smiling timidly as he too took a seat in one of the chairs. "She always was a bright girl," her mom said, her voice trailing off as she realized the error of her sentence. Her daughter was alive.

"My name is Max, and this is Isabel and Michael. Ms. Parker, we just would like to ask you a few questions." Max began, leaning toward a bit and resting his elbows on his knees. "We're a little confused about everything that has happened. Liz just sort of showed up a week or so ago. She didn't know who she was or where she was from, but she's been getting small pieces of information as the week goes on. Eventually we were able to figure out her name and then were able to track you down. But, there are still so many unanswered questions. We were just hoping you could tell us about what you know. We'd like to know anything you can tell us."

Nancy Parker looked at the three sitting in the living room around her, taking a slow, even breath. There was a moment of silence that seemed to stretch around them as they waited for her to speak. Finally, she began. "Liz was always so bright. Her father left when she was very young, and so it was always just the two of us. She was so, so bright." Nancy let out a laugh and shook her head. "God, some days, I swear, I was certain she knew more about everything than I did. But the problem was, she thought so too. There was just always something about Liz. Something so... different. Something always seemed off. We'd be in a store and she'd know things about people standing in line next to us without having to ask. She'd come home from school spouting stories about her classmates that no one knew. I swear, she could look at you and you just knew. You knew she was seeing something inside of you that you didn't want anyone else to see. It almost felt... wrong. It was hard for people to deal with, and eventually she started to use it against others. She almost used it as revenge.

"Shortly after her graduation, two men came to our door while she was at work. They seemed pleasant, but they were so mysterious. They told me that they were from a clinic that was interested in people like Liz. I asked them, 'what do you mean by that?' And they said to me, 'people who can see things that no one else can see.' I told them I wasn't interested. I told them they'd have to find someone else because I wasn't going to allow them to take my daughter. They left shortly after, and I didn't see them ever again. But then Liz disappeared less than week later. The police kept telling me that she'd run away, but I just didn't believe them. Liz would never run away. Two weeks later I got a phone call from the police... or at least they said it was the police. They told me that Liz had died in a car accident. There was a funeral and everything. I was told that the cost was being taken care of, but no one ever told me who was taking care of it. But, there was a funeral... we buried a coffin. I never got to see her body, because they insisted it should be a closed-casket funeral due to structural damages to her face during the accident."

Nancy paused, covering her mouth with her hand as a tear trickled slowly down her face. "My daughter was dead, Max. I went to her funeral, and I grieved. I cleaned out her room and said my goodbyes. My daughter was dead," she paused," and now she's sitting outside in the parking lot..." a sob escaped her lips. "I just don't know what's going on."

Max placed his hand on her arm, "I'm so sorry to spring this all on you, Ms. Parker. I wish there was some other way, but we just have so many questions. None of us know who Liz or how she got to Roswell. I wish we had some answers for you, but we don't." He paused, "would you like us to go get Liz?"

Nancy's face paled as she considered his words. Quickly she shook her head, "no, I just... I can't. Not yet. Don't you see? My daughter was dead..." she repeated, her voice trailing off as she covered her eyes and sobbed.

Meanwhile, down in the parking lot...

Liz, Maria, and Alex sat outside in the Jeep waiting for Max, Michael, and Isabel. Liz and Maria sat facing one another in the backseat as Alex fiddled with the radio in the passenger seat.

Maria placed her hand on Liz's arm, "are you okay?" She asked, quietly.

Liz nodded. "I'm okay. I'm just so confused. I don't even know who my mother is, you know? All I know is that Nancy Parker is my mother, but I have no recollection of my childhood at all." She let out a slow sigh, "It's just so frustrating."

Maria nodded and let out a sympathetic sigh. "I wish I could help you. I've been connected to this whole alien deal for so long that it almost makes me feel inhuman, but I wish I could help you Liz. I wish there was some way that I could make you remember."

Liz sat in silence for a moment, her mind turning over the events of the past few days. She sighed, shaking her head. "I just need to get all of this out of my head. I need a distraction." She turned toward Maria, "How did you two find out about all of this anyway?" She asked, getting Alex's attention in the front seat as well.

Maria let out a low laugh. "Oh man, I haven't thought about the day I found out for a long time. It was my junior year of high school and I worked at this café downtown called the Crashdown. I was working my ordinary 3-9 shift after school, pushing out disgustingly greasy burgers and getting hit on by middle-aged men, when all of a sudden there was this fight. Two huge, stupid men with a gun were fighting toward the front of the store. There was a gun shot, and all of a sudden I was on the floor, and then there was Max. Max was above me with his hand on my stomach, dissolving the bullet inside of me and telling me something about ketchup.

"The next day, I confronted him. There was all this suspicion mulling around in the air, and I had to know the truth. So, he told me. What he didn't tell me at the time, but I figured out later through my womanly powers of persuasion, is that Michael had asked him to save me. He'd always had a crush on me, and when I got shot he and Max were there eating at the café. He asked Max to save my life. Romantic, huh? Well, you know, I mean as romantic as Michael Guerin can possibly get." She finished with a laugh and turned toward Liz. "Quite a story, eh?"

Liz nodded, "That definitely is an interesting story. It's not everyday that one gets brought back to life by an alien. So Alex, what about you? Did Isabel tell you?"

Alex chuckled, "Oh no, no, no, it was quite awhile before Miss Isabel Evans would admit that she was totally in love with me. No, Maria told me. After the incident in the diner, she was pretty loopy for awhile, as Maria tends to get sometimes. She needed someone to talk to and I am her best friend, so she turned to me, much to Michael's dismay. No one was very pleased for awhile, but I think I can safely say I've won them all over now. I mean, how couldn't they love me?" He asked, his face forming an innocent smile.

The passenger door opened and the group turned to see Michael standing there. "Get in the other car," he demanded, pointing Alex toward the car parked beside the jeep where Isabel was waiting.

Alex sighed, turning back toward Liz, "See what I mean?"

Liz let out a laugh as the others climbed into the jeep. When she looked toward the front and saw Max's face though, her stomach twisted and she instantly remembered why they were here.

"Tell me," she demanded, staring directly at Max.

Max stared straight ahead, "I think that the best thing for us to do right now is go back to Dexter and figure things out from there."

"Max," Liz's voice held a protest but Max quickly cut her off.

"Liz, please," he said, his eyes turning toward her. She instantly saw the helpless look in his eyes, his expression quieting her protests. "Please, let's just go back to Dexter and I promise, we'll get this figured out."

They drove to Dexter in silence. No one said a word as they sped down the interstate, miles stretching in between them and Liz's home. They reached Dexter and they pulled the cars into the motel parking lot. They quickly decided they would get rooms again for the night and try to use the next couple days to figure out where Liz came from, although no one knew quite where to start.

They all filed out of the cars and began to walk back to the motel. Max fell in step beside Liz and took her hand, pulling her back from the others. They stood off to the side of the parking lot and he stared down at her. She looked to the side, the disappointment evident in her eyes.

"Liz, please look at me. I'm so sorry." He placed his finger under her chin, lifting her face so that her eyes faced him.

"I just-" her voice cracked as the tears brimmed her eyes, "I'm just so sad Max. I don't even know what to feel anymore."

"Oh Liz," Max said, quickly moving his hands upward, cupping her face in his hands.

The flash came upon her before she could even take a breath...

It was ten o'clock and Liz was relieved. She left the diner, kicking off her shoes as she walked over the worn down pavement of the parking lot toward her car. It had been such a long day and her feet ached from standing on them for hours. She neared her car and began searching through her purse for her keys.

Suddenly a man was behind her, smothering her face and silencing the screams that ripped through her body. He dragged her to a van where there were others. They quickly stuck a needle inside of her and the scene blurred as she fell into a deep unconsciousness.

The compound was large, made entirely of grey brick. That was the first thing that Liz comprehended when her eyes opened. She realized she was tied down on a stretcher. These men had ill-intent. She could feel the evil ripping through her mind as she stared up at them. They took her to a glass cell, men surrounding her as they untied her limbs and threw her into the cell.

She curled up on the floor, tucking her knees under her chin and refusing to open her eyes for hours. She could hear noises going on around her, but she was too afraid to see the guards that blocked her doors and whether there were others in the cells beside her.

She finally relaxed hours later, her arms falling limp at her side and her legs stretching out. She turned her head and slowly opened her eyes, looking at the scene in front of her.

When her eyes finally cleared, she saw a pair of eyes staring back at her from the other side of the glass, so empty and emotionless that it made Liz hurt inside. The kind of emptiness that came only from months of having others steal your soul from inside of you. That was the first thing Liz thought of when she saw Tess Harding.

The visions cleared Liz's eyes and she sighed, looking up at Max. He looked down at her, knowing that she had seen something.

"What is it, Liz? What did you see?"

She lifted her hands, placing them on Max's and she looked up at him. "The compound where they held me is here, Max. I can show you where it is. I remember."