Hi! I'm very sorry for abandoning you like that. Our internet connection died on me and there was a lot at work…well, let's just say that real life took over more than I intended it to do.

Thank you so much for the feedback!!! It means so much to me to hear your opinion. Believe it or not, it helps in my writing to hear what you think, because either it just motivates me to write even more, or it gets my brain working… So, thank you!

Due to my absence, I'm posting four chapters for you now :)

Chapter 36

Maria propped up her head in her hands and looked at Max as he sat down beside his sister. "Max, what's this your sister has been whispering in my ear about you leaving us?" Maria asked.
"I'm not leaving you," Max said a little taken aback by the statement. He shot a glance in Liz's direction. Had she told them that he wanted to follow her to New York? Because as it seemed right now he wouldn't be able to leave. He couldn't put her in more danger by spending more time around him.
"From what I've heard you are," Maria said a proud twinkle in her eye.
"Nothing is decided yet," Max objected, still thinking that Maria was talking about him going to New York City.
"Of course it isn't. You still have to mail the applications, but I'm certain that you will get in."
Applications? Max sighed in relief. She was talking about him applying to the university.
"Yeah, Max. There's nothing wrong with your grades. I'm sure you will be accepted," Isabel said.

He glanced at Liz and met her smiling eyes which made a warmth spread inside of him. The warmth was almost immediately replaced with the coldness the awareness of what he had to do brought. Give her up. How could he ever do that now that he had got a glimpse of how wonderful life could be with her? How would he be able to go on without her?
"Thank you," Max said, a blush rising on his cheeks.
This was a boring topic of conversation, Michael thought. "Hey, have you guys seen that new movie?"
"What movie?" Maria asked.
As Maria and Michael started to talk about the new movie that had just recently been released, Liz's thoughts started to wander to the person who had been looking for her. Had it been Alex? And if it had been, why had he gone all the way to Roswell to find her? She couldn't help but wonder what could've happened. She once again regretted that she didn't have his cell phone number. Why hadn't he called her?
Isabel's agitated voice broke her out of her reverie. "Max?"
Liz looked up and found Max staring off into the distance.
"Max, what's wrong?" Maria asked.

Liz let her gaze travel between Max, Isabel and Maria. What was going on? Max's eyes were open, but it seemed like he wasn't registering anything. His otherwise warm and expressive eyes were completely vacant and emotionless. From the worried expression of his friends, Liz got the feeling that they had tried to bring him back to reality for some time now.
"Let's get him out of here," Michael ordered.
"What's going on?" Liz asked, but she received no answer. Maria pushed on her to move and in confusion Liz stood up, hardly blinking as she watched the others. Without any words being spoken, Isabel put her arm around Max's waist and dragged him to his feet. Liz tried to step forward to help, but Maria gently pushed her to the side. Liz wasn't sure Maria was even aware that she had pushed Liz; she seemed completely focused on Max. Michael stood up after Max and put his arm around Max's waist, helping Isabel support Max as they started moving him towards the backroom.
"Maria? What's wrong?"

Liz trailed after, worried out of her mind for Max. There was something deeply wrong. She could feel it in the core of her being. A coldness had started to spread within her and she didn't even dare to think what it meant and how she knew that it somehow was connected to Max.
Maria swiftly walked past Michael and Isabel supporting a now shaking Max and pushed the swinging doors to the Employees Only section open.
Liz walked behind them. She didn't even consider if it might not be her place to be there. Something was wrong with Max and every fiber of her being was telling her to be there for him and help him. Like he had been there for her on a countless number of occasions since they've met.

She never considered that maybe she wasn't welcome.

"Get her out of here!"
Michael's rough voice vibrated through her whole body putting a halt to her movements. She felt Maria's hand on her arm.
"Liz, you have to get out of here."
"No," Liz objected.
"Liz, you can't be here."
"Lay him down."
"Oh my God, Michael. He's shaking. What are we going to do?"
"Maria! Get over here!"
"Liz, please. You can't be here."
Liz's eyes took in the commotion in the room. "Maria. Don't make me leave. I want to help. What's wrong with him? Is it some kind of epileptic seizure?"
"Maria!! Get her out of here!"

"We'll talk later, Liz, okay? Now, please, leave us alone!"
Liz anxiously looked from Max's now convulsing body where Michael and Isabel had positioned him on the couch and to Maria's pleading face.
"I want to help, Maria. Please let me help."
But she knew that the decision had already been made. She was an outsider and she wasn't welcome anymore. The others didn't know her well enough to trust her with Max's life.
"Liz..."
"Don't you understand?! Get out!!" Michael yelled.
Liz met his eyes head on and they made her shiver, freezing her to the bones. His eyes said it all and with a final look on Max's unresponsive body she turned around and walked out of the restaurant.

-------------------------------------------



Max ascended the stairs to his apartment.

"LIZ!!"
"Max?"
The silence was deafening, thick and suffocating. Clogging his airwaves.
"Where's Liz? I need to get to Liz."
"Liz isn't here. What happened, Maxwell?"
He quickly sat up, the room around him spinning as a cause of the sudden movement.
"Why isn't she here?"
"Max, listen to me. We sent Liz home. She's okay."
He turned towards Maria's soft and comforting voice. "How do you know? Why did you send her away?"
"She didn't belong here," Michael answered matter-of-factly.
"I have to find her."
The panic had lessened, draining with the entrance into reality, but it still held an iron hand around his heart.
"No, Max. You have to rest. Did you have another premonition?"
Max turned his head towards his sister as his legs moved over the edge of the couch. "Yes, and I have to get to Liz."

He pressed the door-handle down, only to find it locked. Why had she locked the door?

"She's okay. She's in your apartment. You have to stay and rest."
He moved out of Maria's grip and stood up, swaying on his feet. Liz's safety was all that mattered. Nothing else. He didn't have time to rest.
"Maria? Can you give me a ride?"
"Max, shouldn't you be laying down? You're burning up..."
"I'm fine," Max brushed her concerns off and staggered towards the swinging doors, "Liz could be in danger. I have to get to her."
Even though he wasn't looking, he could picture his friends giving each other talking glances behind his back, communicating what they should do.
"Okay, Max. I'll take you," Maria agreed.

Max didn't even bother to look for his key. He just waved his hand over the lock and the clicking sound of the lock unlocking was the cue for him to quickly open the door.
"Liz?"
"Is she here?"
He didn't even turn his head to look at Maria. He knew that she was feeling guilty for having sent Liz away, but he didn't have time for that right now.
"Liz?"
He walked into the poorly lit apartment. He let out a breath in relief as he saw her lying on her stomach on the couch, her hand dangling over the edge with a book lying underneath it. She was asleep. He heard Maria's relieved sigh as he approached Liz and kneeled in front of her.
"Liz...?"
"Max?" she mumbled.

He brushed a tendril of her off her forehead. "Yeah, it's me."
She started to stretch her legs, but then stopped in the middle of the motion, her body tensing. Her eyes snapped open and she quickly sat up. Max met her eyes for the fraction of a second before she flung her arms around him.
"Are you okay?" she whispered.
He closed his eyes when he could feel for himself that she was okay. "I am now."
"I'm so sorry that I left you there-"
"You're not the one to apologize, Liz. I've gotten the impression that the others forced you to leave."
"I didn't belong there. I don't belong here."
Max moved out of her arms to look at her. "What are you talking about?"
"I don't belong here, Max. Not with you or with your friends. I belong in New York."
"No, Liz-"
"I've been thinking that for a while now, but today just proved it. I'm an intruder. I don't belong in your group. Your group is already so strong and it's really a beautiful thing. I wished I had friends like that. But I don't and I can't have yours."
Max frowned. "Liz, where's all this coming from? I want you in my life and I'm sorry if Michael behaved like an idiot towards you today but they are just a little..."

"Mistrustful," Liz filled in, "And I don't blame you. I don't really consider it to be a bad thing. You have something to hide and you'll hide it at all costs."
Max stared at her. Did she know? Had she finally figured everything out?
"Liz, I'm sorry if we made you feel unwanted," to her surprise, Liz looked up to find Maria standing next to them, "Believe me, that was never our intention. Right, Max?"
Max just nodded. What was happening? He felt like she was slipping away from him. But wasn't that what he had wanted all this time? Actually, this was the way out he had been searching for. Now he could let her go so that she could go back and live her life in safety. But as soon as those thoughts had entered his mind, the remains of his premonition slammed into him. Once again reminding him that something was going to happen to Liz.
"And you're right," Maria continued, "We are mistrustful. It's just that we aren't used to letting anyone else in. But we want to let you in, Liz."
"I'm sorry, Maria. I know that you mean well and I like you...a lot. I just don't think that Michael and Isabel share your opinion. They don't want a new addition to the group."

"Liz, don't listen to them," Max tried, "You just have to give them some time to get used to you."
Liz shook her head. "They don't want to let me in."
Max was looking at her in confusion. She was letting her gaze flicker between his face, her hands and Maria. She didn't really want to talk about this in Maria's presence.
Liz let her eyes settle on Max's face and tried to ignore the feelings of guilt that she was getting from Maria. "And neither do you."
"I want you here," Max objected.
"Not that," Liz said softly. She paused. "You don't trust me either."
"Yes I do," Max said baffled that she would even think such a thing.
"You do? Then why don't you trust me with the truth?"
Max's eyes nervously moved towards Maria, a movement that didn't escape Liz's notice.
"I-I- I've told you...things," Max stuttered.
"No, you haven't. I don't know anything about your childhood, except for what your parents told me at dinner. I don't know why you sometimes wake up screaming. I don't know how, when you didn't write down my phone number, you still remember it after only hearing it once. I don't know how you were able to get into my apartment without a key."

"But...but you were asleep," Max said weakly. It was the night Alex had been at Liz's place and they had watched a movie together. Max had arrived after Liz had fallen asleep on the couch and he had 'let himself in'. She had been half asleep the entire time he had talked to her and then he had carried her from the uncomfortable couch to her bed. But he had told her that she had left the door unlocked and she had seemed to believe him.
"Almost," Liz said. She felt as if the air in the room was being sucked out. Some part of her had hoped that her suspicions about Max had been wrong and that he just wasn't that keen on opening up. But his suspicious behavior was only more thoroughly confirming that he was in fact hiding something. And it scared her. It made her realize that she didn't really know this man at all.
"There are so many things that don't add up," Liz continued, "I have to admit that I'm not the best at opening up to people either, but I let you in. I trusted you with my life, with me. Why can't you do the same? What is so bad about you that you have to hide it from me?"
"Liz," Max swallowed, "Please, it's too dangerous."
Liz turned her head towards Maria. "You are all in on it, right? On this secret?"
Maria dropped her eyes to her foot that was fidgeting with the edge of the carpet. Her silence was answer enough. She turned her eyes back to Max.

"Max, what you and I have..." she cast a glance in Maria's direction but decided that she could as well hear it too, "...experienced these last couple of days. It's been... greater than anything I've ever experienced before. I feel things, Max. I feel things not only for you but also from you. When we kiss, it's like... a new world opens up. You. But I only receive a ball of emotions that I can't figure out how to decipher. I don't know why you are so afraid that you are going to hurt me. I don't know why you are feeling guilty from just being in the same room as I am. I don't know why you sometimes kiss me with a desperation like it's the last time you're going to see me. Max... I think that..." she shook her head, "...no..." She was going to say that she was falling in love with him. But she had been in love with him since they first met. If it even was love. She didn't know. She didn't know what she was feeling. She just knew that it was something big and that alone scared her so much. She felt as though she were destroying something as she let more and more words tumble over her lips. Nevertheless, she couldn't go on like this. It was hurting too much and to tell Max that she was in love with him just seconds before she would leave him – if he didn't tell her the truth... She couldn't hurt him like that.

"I..." She sighed, "I want to be sure that I can help you when you have another mysterious episode. Because they aren't seizures, are they?" She didn't expect to give her an answer and she didn't get one either. She bit her lower lip. "What if it's just us two when you experience another seizure and I can't help you? I need to know what to do, but I can't know that if you aren't letting me in on what's going on. But you aren't going to do that, are you?"
Max once again looked at Maria and Liz sighed in frustration. "Max. Look at me."
Max's worried eyes turned back to her and she swallowed back tears as she saw the sheen of tears in his eyes. "Say something," she begged.
Max held her gaze, looking at her as if he were trying to memorize every detail of her face. There was a look of finality in his eyes. As if he knew that this might be the last time he saw her.
"Please, don't leave, Liz."
Liz moved her hand to cradle his cheek. "Then tell me Max. Let me in."
"I can't," he croaked.

She nodded slowly. "Then I have to leave."
Max started to shake his head. "No, Liz. Please. Something bad is going to happen to you."
Liz stood up. "What, Max?" Her voice was tired.
Max looked at her in despair. "I don't know," he confessed, "And that's the truth, Liz. I don't know what's going to happen. I just know that something is going to happen to you and I have to be there."
"Would it be so bad to tell me, Max? Isn't my life worth more than your secret?"
Max took her hand. "Yes, it is. That's why I can't tell you. I have to keep you safe from my secret."
Liz stared at him and then turned to look at Maria who was looking at them with tears streaming down her face. "Maria?"
She could see that Maria wanted to tell her. That she wanted to make her stay. To have Max and Liz together.
"It's not my secret to tell," Maria whispered, her eyes pleading Liz for forgiveness.
"Okay," Liz said slowly and disentangled her hand from Max's death-grip. She moved away from Max's sorrowful eyes and Maria's pleading ones.

"I'll just call the airports and book a flight."
Max looked like he wanted to protest, but when he didn't say anything Liz moved into the bedroom and closed the door behind her. There she fell on the bed and dissolved in tears.

TBC…