Title: Dimensionality

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Summary: How many more times could he screw this up, he wondered, and just how many more until he finally got it right?


The Tenth Dimension: Resonance

I think whatever resonance I may be able to achieve is in part from the amount of learning that I acquired along the way.

-Robert Parker

Max rubbed his head for a moment, still trying to push away the memories, and the tumultuous emotions that came with them, before he turned to Michael and asked anxiously, "How is past me?"

"He's fine," Michael replied. "Isabel is staying with him for right now. We're not really sure what happened…" He trailed off, seemingly unable to figure out what to say next, and it was Maria who cut in with her usual blunt manner.

"There was nothing wrong with him. He wasn't in any danger. Basically, Michael went charging into your house for no reason at all."

Max gaped for a moment, at a complete loss for words. Then he recovered his voice and said firmly, "No, that's not possible. There was something wrong with him. I felt it."

"Maybe you were mistaken," Maria replied.

"Obviously, you were mistaken," Michael muttered, emphasizing the first word. "I went bursting into your room, convinced you were going to be dead or something… and you just looked at me like I was crazy." His words were sharp, and he sent a pointed glare at the future version of his best friend.

"You are crazy," Max answered with a faint smirk. He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, still trying to figure out everything. His mind was a mess of too many different and occasionally conflicting memories, and the pressure of all these timelines was building, turning a pounding headache into a full-blown migraine.

He groaned.

"Look, whatever it was you thought you felt, it was wrong," Michael fumed. "So I had to stand there, looking like a complete idiot, and make up some sorry excuse about how I had thought past you was in danger but maybe it was all a bad dream." He scoffed and shook his head. "A bad dream. I actually suggested that I was having nightmares just to keep your presence a secret."

"Isabel is still there," Liz said softly, her voice much more soothing than Michael's growl. "She decided to stay, just in case… and also to try to reassure past Max. To make sure he didn't get suspicious…" She trailed off with a little sigh, looking worried. "But it might be too late for that."

Max didn't answer. He knew it was now far too late to try to keep everything a secret from his past self, but he still didn't like the idea of telling the truth. He didn't want to deal with the repercussions of that, because he knew exactly how his past self would react, and it would not be pretty.

He would demand answers, he would not believe anything anyone said, he would want to meet the future version of himself, just to make sure this wasn't some kind of shape-shifter or skin… and that couldn't happen. Serena had been adamant about the dangers, about how disastrous a meeting between the two would be.

And Max didn't really want to cease to exist.

Liz's voice roused him from his thoughts once more, and she asked hesitantly, "How long was it between when Michael left and when Courtney attacked you?"

Max shrugged. "Not that long," he answered, carefully considering the question. "She must have been watching the building. She must have known exactly when Michael left…" He looked over at Liz with a question in his eyes, but she was looking at Tess.

Tess sighed. "I don't know. I mean, it's possible. I could probably due it. If Courtney had the right abilities, she could, too. So it is certainly feasible. I just don't know if she has that power."

"But if she did…" Liz prompted.

Tess nodded. "Then it would make sense."

"Okay, someone want to explain to the rest of us here?" Maria asked, folding her arms over her chest and glaring at the two girls.

"Whatever Courtney's goal was," Liz replied, "she clearly needed Max alone to accomplish it. If she had just been watching the building, she would have had no way to guarantee that Michael would actually ever leave Max."

Max caught on quickly, a frown marring his features as he finished, "But if she used her powers to ensure that I thought the past version of me was in trouble… Michael would go to his rescue, and I would be here by myself." He looked towards Tess. "Is that possible?"

She nodded blue eyes clouded with worry. "It can certainly be done with a mind-warp. Do you know if Courtney has that power?"

Max shook his head slowly. He didn't know enough about Courtney to know exactly what powers she had. He couldn't remember her ever mentioning that she had the ability to mind-warp… but now that he thought about it, he honestly couldn't remember any of her abilities.

He sighed, expelling the breath of air in frustration.

"It would make sense if she did all that," Liz murmured, looking between Max and Michael. "If we assume that Max was right, that he did actually feel something, but also that Michael was correct when he said that our Max wasn't in any danger… a mind-warp is a logical answer."

"But this still doesn't explain why she would have gone to all the trouble of getting Max alone and then not actually kill him," Tess argued.

"We could always ask her," Michael mused, giving Max a shrewd look. Max didn't particularly like the gleam in his friend's eyes, and he certainly didn't like the idea of them all hunting down Courtney and demanding answers from her. Particularly because, at the moment, Maria looked ready to kill, as did Liz. And he had a feeling Tess might be tempted towards violence against the skin as well, given the opportunity.

His throbbing head kept him from feeling that much concern for the luckless skin if they caught up with her, but on the other hand… attacking her might not be particularly conducive towards getting answers, and that was what they really needed.

"Do we even know where to find her?" Liz questioned, looking over at Max.

He met her gaze with a rueful sigh. "Not really. I doubt she'll just be hanging out at the Crashdown as though everything is normal."

"She'll be running for the hills right now, if she knows what's good for her," Maria ground out in a low voice.

"I don't think she was actually trying to hurt me," Max said finally, rising slowly to his feet. Liz and Michael both gave him incredulous looks, and Maria rolled her eyes, but Max continued firmly, "It's like Tess said, why would she go to all the trouble to attack me and then just leave?"

"Maybe she got what she wanted," Liz suggested.

"Which was what, exactly?" Tess questioned, one eyebrow raised.

"Look, we're just going in circles on this one," Michael argued. "And the only way we're going to find out what exactly happened is if we track down Courtney and ask her."

"Which brings us back to the initial issue of not knowing where she is," Tess pointed out logically, sighing.

Max took a few steps across the room, testing his ability to walk. He sighed, wincing a little as the pain continued to throb behind his eyes, and reached out to steady himself against the wall.

"I don't think Max is in any state to be looking for Courtney," Liz murmured softly. He couldn't help but smile a little at the worry and concern in her tone, but then she continued in a harder voice, "But Michael and Tess could go."

"And where would we look?" Tess asked. "Do you really think she's stupid enough to still be here?"

"We won't know unless we look for her," Max answered. He glanced quickly at Liz, then added, "And I'll be fine. I'm not staying behind, not when I am the one she attacked."


Which was why the five of them found themselves quietly searching through Courtney's abandoned apartment.

"I feel like we're Scully and Mulder or something," Maria remarked to Michael, smirking a little as she let her gaze wander over everything.

Michael snorted and Max rolled his eyes at the comment, but Tess asked in confusion, "Who?"

"From the X-Files," Liz answered automatically. At Tess' blank stare, she elaborated, "You know, the television show?" But the blonde hybrid just shook her head, clearly not picking up on the reference, and turned away.

"Nobody's home," Michael said after a moment.

Max nodded, agreeing with that assessment, and frowned. He hadn't really expected anything else, but he was also fairly certain that Courtney wouldn't completely skip town. At least not yet, anyway.

"Whoa," came Maria's voice, and he turned to look in her direction. She was leaning over a bunch of CD cases, staring through the titles. "Culture Club? Wham?" She wrinkled her nose as she picked up another one, and said aghast, "The Backstreet Boys? God, she really is an alien, this one."

"Come on, let's spread out," Michael declared.

Maria lifted an eyebrow at him. "Spread out? It's an apartment, Michael, not Central Park. I don't think we really need to divide and conquer."

"Besides," Liz murmured, speaking up as she turned her attention to Max, "what are we even looking for?"

"Clues of some sort," Max answered. "I wasn't the one who investigated her in the past," here he shot a look at Michael and noted that Maria was wearing a distasteful expression at that revelation, clearly not happy with her sort-of boyfriend's extracurricular activities, "so I don't know all the details. But she had another hideout, and she might be there now."

"So we need to find an address book or a calendar or something?" Michael suggested, eyebrows knit together.

"Of course," Maria drawled. "Because she's going to write out the location of her top-secret hideout in an address book. And I bet we'll also find sketches of her army and all her plans for world domination."

"Hey, are you just gonna rag on me or are you gonna help?" Michael retorted.

The argument was cut off by Liz's sudden intake of breath, and Max whirled around quickly to make sure she wasn't in any danger. She was standing in the doorway of the room, holding a piece of graying skin between her thumb and her forefinger. Her expression was a mixture of fascination and revulsion.

"What is this?" she asked, glancing at Max.

"That's why we call then skins," Max answered, watching with some amusement as Liz carefully held the skin close to her face for examination. The scientist in her was way too fascinated by this. "She's shedding," Max added, wondering if that would gross her out.

It didn't.

Liz just nodded and continued looking at the skin, but Maria shivered and muttered, "Okay, ew. So gross."

Tess wrinkled her nose as she stared at the skin as well, then announced, "I'm going to take a look through her bedroom. There might be something in there." And she walked out of the living room.

Michael, following Tess' lead, said, "I'll take a look at the kitchen." He, too, left the living room, and a moment later Maria trailed behind, leaving Max and Liz alone.

"So… what… um… what did Courtney… I mean, what happened to you?" Liz asked, coming to Max's side after dropping the piece of skin back to the floor. She was stumbling over the words, as though she couldn't quite figure out what to say, but at least she was actually talking to him. "I know you don't know what she did, exactly, but it was very… I was worried about you, when we found you… on the floor."

Max smiled at the hesitancy in her tone. She was playing with a few strands of hair, a habit that he had seen her do countless times before. She only did it when she was nervous, when she was having trouble articulating herself. He found it endearing.

"I was seeing flashes," he explained. "Only… it felt more like I was trapped in them. Like I was actually reliving it, unable to control what I was saying and doing, but… for some of them, I had this vague sense that it wasn't right. That I wasn't supposed to be there."

Liz was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and concern, and he sighed heavily. He couldn't blame her for not fully understanding what had happened to him – he didn't even know exactly what Courtney had done – but he didn't want to have to recount any more details.

Living through the memories had been hard enough. Retelling them would just be more pointless pain.

"In the future," Liz said quietly, "uh… I mean… your future, the one that you are from… and you and I are… married."

It wasn't a question, but Max answered it anyway. "Yes."

"Did we have a family?"

Max slanted a quick look at her before turning back to his methodical search of the room. "Children? No. We wanted to, but it never seemed like the right time. I think both of us thought that we could put it off, that we wouldn't run out of time. But then the attacks…" He trailed off and didn't finish elaborating.

He knew he didn't have to say anymore, Liz would understand well enough anyway. With the continual attacks from the skins and the FBI, they'd never really had another chance. A pregnant Liz would have been too easy of a target, and a child would have gotten in the way. It would have been far too dangerous to try to raise a son or daughter in the middle of a war…

Tess and Kyle had discovered that.

But it was actually a good point, he thought to himself as his mind wandered over the little that he knew of each timeline. Tess was the only one to consistently have a child. In every single time line except one, she'd had either a son or a daughter. Most of the times the father was Max, and once the father was Kyle. But there was only ever one child in their group, and the mother was always Tess.

Kyle, too, had occasionally had a child, either with Tess or with the other woman who had been his wife… Jennifer? Was that her name? Max could only just barely remember what she looked like, a vague set of flashes from timelines he had not lived through, had not experienced.

But even Kyle did not have a child as frequently as Tess.

"Max?" Liz's voice cut into his thoughts.

"Hm? Yeah?" he asked, turning to look at her.

"Were we… happy? You and I, I mean. In your timeline, were we happy?"

"Yes," Max replied simply, because it was the truth. Because there was really nothing else to say to that question. They had been happy. They had all been happy, before…

The attacks.

"Oh!" Tess' cry of surprise filled the apartment, and Michael and Maria came running out of the kitchen. Max had already moved towards the door of the bedroom, readying his powers in case he needed to attack anyone. He rushed into the room, the other three following behind…

And came to a complete stop.

"What is that?" Liz breathed, sounding horrified.

Tess was standing in front of the open closet door. Max couldn't see her face, but he could easily picture the look of disgust that had to be reflected in her blue eyes. It was the same feeling that churned in the pit of his stomach as he peered into the closet and took stock of what was inside.

There were several pictures of Michael propped up on a small table or scattered on the floor. A pair of his shoes also rested on the table, in between what looked like several scented candles and a voodoo-type doll. One picture of Michael was surrounded by a large silver heart. The floor of the closet was filled with several various items that Max was fairly certain had at one time belonged to his friend, before Courtney had stolen them.

It was a shrine.

"That's the shirt I lost at work," Michael said, shaking his head as he gestured towards a gray shirt that was tacked to the wall. "What the hell is this?"

"It's Graceland…" Maria answered. "And you're Elvis."

"Wow," Michael muttered.

"Wow?" Maria echoed, looking appalled. "Is that all you can say right now? Wow?" She spun to face Max with a glare. "She's been dreaming about Michael. Fantasizing about him. You told us she was only into Michael in a political sense. This…" she pointed towards the shrine, "is a hell of a lot more than political. She's obsessed with him. She's… she's stalking him."

Before Max could answer Maria's angry words, Tess turned to face them and said, "Hey, shut up for a second." She was holding a photograph in her hand, and had a thoughtful expression on her features. "Take a look at the pictures. They were all shot from the apartment across the street from Michael's building."

"So?" Maria snapped, but then the answer seemed to dawn on her and she said, "Oh. That's where she goes to spy on him."

Michael grabbed the picture and studied it for a moment, then nodded. "Guess we know where her secret hideout is."


Michael and Maria were arguing.

Their ability to argue over anything and everything never really ceased to amaze him, even after all this time, but at least he had learned to tune it out.

Mostly.

"This isn't going to work," Maria grumbled. "She's not just going to stroll up to her hideout while we're sitting here watching her."

"This was your idea," Michael retorted.

"That's not the way I remember it," was Maria's answer.

"Okay, so now it's my fault?" Michael snapped.

"Yes. You know what? Just to make things simpler, from now on you should consider everything to be your fault, okay? Okay."
Max walked away from the two bickering teenagers and glanced out the window. Across the street he could see Michael's apartment building. Courtney wasn't here yet, and he wasn't entirely sure she'd show up. Maria could have a point about that. Whatever else he could say about Courtney, he knew she wasn't stupid.

"So I take it they don't change?" Tess asked as she came to his side.

He looked at her, and then back at Maria and Michael. "Those two? Never."

She nodded slowly, then looked out the window as well. "Are you sure she should be here? Maria, I mean. It might be better as an alien-only ambush."

Max frowned as he thought about that. Liz had been forced to leave about thirty minutes ago, due to a prior commitment to working a shift at the Crashdown. She'd promised her parents that she would fill in for one of the waitresses who had gotten sick, and bailing on that promise would have caused too many problems.

So now it was only Maria, Michael, Tess and Max himself.

Max honestly wasn't sure if Tess was mentioning this because of some desire to keep the humans out of this as much as possible, because her own dislike of Maria had been seriously exacerbated by their previous argument about her supposed betrayal and Alex's future death, or because she was actually worried about Maria's behavior.

Max decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume it was the third option.

"I'm sure between the three of us, we can keep Maria safe," he said. "Besides… I doubt any of us would be able to stop her from coming along. She's… stubborn."

Tess smirked at that description and gave a slow nod. She continued to stare at Michael's apartment, but Max turned to face her fully, to study the tension in her expression.

She shot a quick glance at him, then turned abruptly away. Looking at Michael and Maria, she said in a low undertone, "I hope Courtney shows up soon. At least then they'll stop arguing."

"You know," Max remarked in a would-be casual tone, "you and Maria are actually pretty friendly in the future."

"Oh, you mean all the futures where she doesn't want me dead?" Tess snapped snidely.

Max expelled a slow breath. He wished he could say something to reassure her, but there were no words to take the sting out of everything she had learned since his arrival. And he also knew he couldn't blame Maria for any of her feelings, because in at least some of the futures, Tess had killed Alex and betrayed them all.

It made it harder for him as well. The Tess he remembered most clearly, the one he had lived with in his future, had been smart and funny and caring and, above all else, loyal. But now when he looked at her, he saw faded echoes of all the other Tess', reminders of what she had done to them. He wanted to trust her, wanted to tell the others to trust her as well. The fate of the world could very well depend on it, because he knew they couldn't defeat Khivar without all four aliens.

But knowing what he now knew, seeing what he had seen… how could he trust her?

Blue eyes were staring at him, and he realized that she had expected some kind of answer. But he'd been quiet too long, and she began to walk away from him.

"Tess, wait," he called, reaching out to grab her arm.

Max sat on the edge of Liz's bed, one hand resting on her shoulder. She was lying on her side, practically crumpled into a ball, and she was sobbing. Maria had died almost three weeks ago, but she couldn't let go of the past, couldn't let go of what had happened. He would occasionally find Liz like this, broken and hurt.

"Liz?" he murmured, wishing there was something more he could say. But there was nothing that could ease the pain of what had happened, nothing that could bring her best friend back to life.

She rolled onto her back and looked up at him. "You shouldn't be here," she whispered, her eyes moving towards the door of the bedroom.

It was his house, his guest bedroom, and telling him he shouldn't be here was ridiculous. But he knew what she meant, what she was afraid of. He should have been afraid of it as well, but somehow…

"Tess is probably wondering where you are."

he just couldn't be bothered to think of his wife when Liz looked at him with those tear-filled eyes.

"Hey, it's okay," Max answered in a low murmur. "She can wait. I'm more worried about you." He pushed a few strands of hair out of her eyes and watched as she drew back from his touch.

"Maria's dead," Liz said, the words sounding forced and choked. "The police interrogated me… they thought… they thought I killed her, Max!" She pushed herself into a sitting position, pulling her knees into her chest. "Oh, God, who am I kidding? I did kill her. She died protecting me. If I hadn't… if they hadn't been after me, she wouldn't have… she wouldn't be dead, and…" She started crying again, tears spilling out of her eyes.

"It is not your fault," Max said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a hug. "You did not kill Maria. You can't blame yourself. Blame the skins. They are the ones that did this."

She buried her head in his shoulder and said in a muffled tone, "It is still my fault. I'm the one that put Maria in danger. I shouldn't have… I shouldn't have let her die for me." She drew back, and looked up at him. "It should have been me."

He wiped away the tears, his thumb gently moving over the skin of her face. He could feel the warmth of her breath and the heat that still existed between them, even after all this time.

"No," he said emphatically. "It shouldn't have been you. It shouldn't have been either of you. You and Maria… neither of you deserved this." He hesitated a moment, then added, "Maria wouldn't want you to feel like this."

"Maybe not," Liz countered, "but Maria's not here, is she?"

It had gotten harder, every day, to have Liz living under his roof. He had refused to let her leave in the beginning, worried about her mental and emotional state, worried she might do something stupid in her grief. And after the first few days had passed and she seemed more like her old self, like the Liz he remembered, he still didn't want her to go because he had figured out that she – and not Maria – had been the intended target of the skins' attack. She was in danger, and he wanted to keep her here. He wanted to keep her safe.

He loved her.

But every day that she was here, under his roof… everyday, he realized just how much he wished he'd married her. And not Tess.

"No," he agreed, "Maria's not here. But I'm here, Liz. You're not alone. You don't have to be."

Liz sniffed and shook her head. "What do I have? You have Tess, Isabel has Alex, Kyle has Jenni… I don't have anyone. And because of me, Michael doesn't have Maria anymore."

"You have me," Max promised, taking both her hands in his. "You'll always have me."

And then, before either he or Liz had really realized what was happening, they were kissing. Max thought he might have been the one to initiate the kiss, but Liz quickly responded to it, deepening it. He could practically sense just how needy she was at the moment, how much her heart had been torn apart by the events of the past few weeks, and…

She suddenly pushed him away, and he lifted a hand to his lips, the reality of what had happened crashing down on him.

He'd kissed Liz.

He'd kissed Liz, in his home. The home he shared with Tess. His wife.

And the mother of his son.

He moved away from Liz, rising to his feet, the guilt twisting, churning heavily in his gut. "I'm sorry," he whispered, practically horrified. "I'm so… sorry. I didn't mean to…"

Liz wasn't looking at him. Instead, she looked down at the bedspread, her hands running over the fabric. "You should go," she said.

And this time, he left.

He didn't look behind him as he walked down the hallway and descended the stairs. He knew he was flushed and probably looked as bewildered as he felt. His breath was shallow, and he could still feel Liz's hands on his skin, the touch of her lips on his…

He entered the kitchen, and found Tess standing by the stove. Through the door that lead into the dining room, he could see his son sitting at the table, playing with toy cars that he pushed back and forth across the table cloth.

"I don't like the fact that Liz is here, but I've been trying to put up with it," Tess said, her voice sounding strange. She turned and looked at Max, "And maybe I am not being as welcoming as I should. Maybe I still… feel threatened by her. But I'm trying, Max."

He couldn't read the expression in her eyes, but he knew it was nothing good.

She wrapped her arms around herself. "So if you're going to make-out with that… that… husband-stealing tramp, at least have the decency to close the door."

"Don't you dare call Liz that!" Max hissed, angry. "You have no idea what Liz has been through. And you haven't exactly been helping."

It was true. The animosity between the two women was still there, even after all this time. And with everything Liz had been through, Max had been hoping that Tess would be a little bit more understanding. But she had been opposed to Liz staying with them, instead wanting the brunette to stay with Michael, or with Alex and Isabel. And she had never given it a rest, never stopped arguing with him. Not once since Maria's death… She'd made it clear Liz's presence was not entirely welcome.

She'd at least had the courtesy not to argue in front of Liz, though, and Max supposed he should be grateful for that. Whatever else it was she said about Liz to Max, she would not insult or attack the brunette to her face. Not so soon after Maria's death.

And then he frowned, the full weight of her words slamming into him, and he asked, "You saw Liz and I?"

"No." She turned away, her tone bitter and caustic. "But imagine my surprise when I send our son upstairs to get you and Liz for dinner, and he comes back to tell me that Daddy is too busy kissing the other woman to notice him standing in the door."

Max paled, his eyes snapping towards his son. "He saw…?"

"Yes," Tess answered in a clipped tone. "He saw." She wasn't crying, he could tell that much from her voice even though her back was to him. But her words were filled with fury, and hurt, and he knew she was probably close to breaking down.

"Tess, wait," he said, reaching for her arm as she moved to step past him. "It was a mistake. I never meant to… you know I wouldn't do this to you… or him… You know me."

She spun to face him, cheeks red with embarrassment and rage, "I thought I knew you, Max. I know you love her, Max. And I tried to be okay with that. But I thought… I thought you had the common decency not to make out with her in our house. In front of our son." And she walked past him into the dinning room.

He came tumbling back into reality with a feeling of surprise, frustration, and guilt. He was still holding Tess' arm, and she yanked in from his grip, her eyes wide and unreadable.

He licked his lips and asked tentatively, "Did you see that flash also?" even though he was fairly certain he already knew the answer.

Tess nodded, blonde curls bouncing. Her gaze was cold, but it wasn't so much anger that had frozen her expression as bewilderment. He was not sure why she appeared so puzzled, but as she drew away from him with her eyebrows slowly raising into her hairline, he could not deny the look of utter befuddlement in her face.

"Yo, you two alright?" Michael's voice interrupted Max's thoughts, and he and Tess both turned towards the hybrid General.

"Fine," Tess said, her tone short and sharp.

"Tess," he started, feeling surprisingly guilty. "You have to understand…"

"I do understand," she said in a voice devoid of emotion. Then the sudden rush of bitterness and sarcasm that clouded her words, "I understand perfectly. I'm not Liz, so I'm never going to be good enough. Am I?"

"About time you figured that out," Maria grumbled softly, but still loud enough for both Max and Tess to hear. Max sent her an annoyed glance, but Tess ignored the comment completely as she continued to scrutinize Max's face as though looking for something.

Finally, she said, "And you, apparently, make an incredibly lousy husband and father."

She walked away from him then, and he let her go, because really, what else did he have to say? He could feel both Michael and Maria's stares on him, but he turned his back purposefully on the two and gazed back out the window and across the street towards Michael's apartment.

It was remarkable, he couldn't help but muse, how many ways he could manage to screw up. Every single timeline seemed to have something so wrong with his internal character, with all of his relationships. And each of these wrongs were so completely different from timeline to timeline.

If there were so many different ways he had managed to make a mistake, then how was he ever going to get this right? Or were they forever doomed to repeat the same eventual scenario, to have the world fall to Khivar?

"Look, if we can talk reality here for a second," Maria said at last, breaking the tense silence that had fallen, "I think Courtney booked. Out of town."

"No dice," Michael countered. "She wouldn't do that. She's too obsessed with me."

"Well, I guess that makes two of you then, doesn't it?" Maria smirked, eyebrow lifted challengingly.

"She'll show up sooner or later," Michael said, stubbornly refusing to take the bait in Maria's comment.

"How about sooner?" a voice said.

Michael, Maria, Max, and Tess all spun to face the entrance, to find Courtney standing in the doorway, arms folded over her chest. She was eyeing them all with a smug expression, and Max had no idea what exactly she had to be smug about. But seeing her again made the headache come back at full force, and he had the sudden urge to send her sprawling into the wall.

He didn't, but both he and Michael raised their hands, ready to attack if need be.

"Whoa. Truce, boys," she drawled, lifting her arms, palms facing outwards as though surrendering. "I come in peace. Well, sort-of."

Her gaze lingered for a moment on Max, then moved back to Michael and Maria.

"Don't move," Michael ordered stiffly as he stepped closer towards her, blocking her view of Maria. Max quickly moved to Michael's side, and Tess came to stand slightly behind them, ready to join any necessary fighting.

"Don't worry," Courtney said, smiling. "I won't." She folded her arms over her chest once more and tilted her head to the side. "Let me guess. You were watching the building. You figured out where I'd be from the pictures." When no one made any attempts to contradict her statement, her smile widened, and she said, "That's very good, Mikey G. You're everything I thought you'd be, and more."

"Oh, please!" Maria scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Don't your lips ever get..."

"Technically," Tess said, interrupting Maria before she could finish her remark, "I was the one who figured out where you'd be." She paused, gave Michael a quick look, then said, "Although I suppose Michael might have been able to figure it out on his own."

"He would have done it brilliantly," Maria muttered, looking over Tess with a cold glare. Tess shrugged, and Maria added, "Probably faster than you did..."

"But you," Courtney said, turning to Max before Maria could continue her comment, "turned out to be quite the mystery. And yet I'm impressed. You turned out to be who you said you were."

"Why did you attack me?" Max demanded hotly.

"Yeah!" Maria chimed in. "And if you wanted to kill him, why did you run off so quickly?"

"You know, Maria, I don't think we should be reminding Courtney of her failure to kill Max," Tess said sharply, rolling her eyes.

"You know, I think she probably figured it out, given that he's alive and standing in front of her," Maria hissed in reply.

"God, you're pathetic," Courtney remarked carelessly. "It's no wonder you keep losing. And my bet it, you're just going to keep failing because you sure as hell haven't learned anything, have you?"

And Max couldn't help the sting he felt in his chest, the dull pain that wrapped around his heart and constricted tightly at those words. Because wasn't that exactly what he had been thinking before? Weren't her caustic words just an echo of his own fears?

Was he really going to just keep ruining everything?