"So do you want to tell me why those guys are chasing you, Liz

"So do you want to tell me why those guys are chasing you, Liz?"

The desert was speeding by them at a fast pace and Liz had been staring out into it trying to think of an answer to the question she knew was coming.

The question he had just asked.

"What do you--" then she nearly choked. It took her a second to catch her breath. "You called me Liz."

"And you answered to it. Which is a good thing because you completely ignored me every time I called you Tess."

Liz started laughing again. He let her go uninterrupted for a full two minutes. Finally she got herself under control, looked at him and shook her head.

"I thought you said you hadn't read any of the files in your car."

"I hadn't. But you weren't answering to Tess, you seemed to know a lot about the shooting at the Crashdown, and whoever you were talking to on the phone kept shouting for Liz."

"Oh." Liz nodded rather calmly all the while her mind was racing with what she was going to tell him next. He had spent the whole night protecting her, he seemed very nice, and yet she couldn't trust him with the truth. She wouldn't risk Max's life if her judgment was flawed.

"So you're Liz Parker--the waitress that was shot at the Crashdown."

She nodded without thinking. She turned a startled look at Mulder and saw that he had been watching her response. She could have babbled "Uh, no" but she knew he wouldn't believe it. She had a feeling he wasn't going to buy the story of the ketchup and the stray bullet anyway.

You have to protect Max! Her mind screamed because nothing was more important to her than that. Not even her own safety.

"What really happened that day at the Crashdown, Liz?"

Liz took a deep breath and she turned in her seat and faced him.

"I healed myself," she said with as much conviction as she could muster.

"Because I'm an alien."

* * * * *


Maria was looking down at the photo of Fox Mulder as a child.

"She said he had little boy eyes. This guy's got those in spades," she declared.

"You really think Fox Mulder is involved with Liz in some way?" Sheriff Valenti asked.

"Yes," Max said. "What do you know about him?"

The sheriff shrugged. "I didn't know him very well. Like I said, his dad and my dad were friends--sort of."

"Sort of?" Kyle asked.

"I don't know. I always got the impression that his dad was always--I don't know--quizzing my dad or something."

"About what?" Michael asked.

"Aliens."

Everyone went silent.

"What did his dad do?" Maria asked.

"He worked for the government," Valenti said slowly. "I think Fox became--"

The teenagers looked at him expectantly.

"He became an FBI agent."

Max swore under his breath, Michael swore something more profane, much more loudly.

"Do you think Liz knows he's an FBI agent?" Kyle asked.

"I don't know," Maria replied. "But maybe. Maybe that's why she went along with his plan--to protect Max and you guys."

"Maybe," Max mumbled.

He was just starting to feel that his world was making sense again. When he thought Liz and Kyle had slept together it had shattered all of his beliefs. But Liz doing it to protect him--that made sense.

No on mentioned the parts of the journal that indicated that Liz had feelings for "FM". Michael and Maria had been vague in describing those parts to Max.

"We need to find Liz," Max declared. "Now."

* * * * *


Isabel thought she was going to lose her mind. She tried to grab onto a rational thought but none were forthcoming.

This has got to stop, her mind told her. But her body refused to listen.

"Alex," she whispered. "Stop."

"OK," he whispered back but he didn't stop.

He was nibbling on her neck and his hands--where were his hands?! She pushed him away gently. "Alex, we can't do this," she said, and she backed away from him. Her heart was racing and her hands were sweating. Who would
ever imagine that Alex Whitman would be able to do that to a girl? "Alex, we decided to just be friends."

"You decided that. I never go a vote."

She stood up and started primping her hair. She didn't have a mirror nearby but she was sure that it was a mess.

"It's for the best. It's safer for--"

"For me, Maria, Liz. Yeah, we've all heard the alien party line. But whether we're involved as friends or romantically involved we're in the same amount of danger. We already know what you are, you can't take that
knowledge back."

Isabel bit her bottom lip. That made a certain amount of sense. She, Michael, and Max had known being involved with humans would only endanger them but Maria, Liz, and Alex all knew they were aliens. Simply by knowing
put them in jeopardy. Agent Pearce had proven that to them. And those who knew their secret, even when they weren't romantically involved with them, hadn't simply gone away. They hadn't walked away and led a safe life—they were all still there, putting their lives in danger. So why was she pushing Alex away? Who better to love than someone who already knew her secret?

Alex walked up behind her and put his arms around her.

"It's not me you're afraid for Iz. It's you."

Isabel opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by the sound of the front door. She and Alex leaped apart. Alex looked around the room for any evidence of their nonviolent wrestling and Isabel started straightening
her clothes and hair again.

"You should go," Isabel whispered to him. He nodded. They both knew her mother wasn't so keen on him since he did that strip tease for her on her birthday.

She led him to the backdoor but he stopped before going out.

"Go to the dance with me tomorrow," he asked.

"Max. Isabel." Her mom called.

"Dance?" There was a time when Isabel Evans thought of nothing else but social engagements. Now she was completely unaware of one going on.

"No. But if I see you there, I might dance with you. Maybe."

He smiled and gave her a quick kiss before he slipped out.

* * * * *


"You're an alien," Mulder said evenly.

Liz nodded and studied his face. She couldn't tell if he believed it or not. He had just proven to her that she was a terrible liar, how she was going to pull this off she didn't know. But she had to. If it meant protecting Max, she had to.

"I can regenerate. This body is really just a shell." She struggled to remember what Courtney had told Michael about her race. "A husk. I shed every few days. When I was shot, I just sped up the process and healed the
bullet wound."

She knew half of what she said was false--the Skins shed every few hours, not days, and she had no idea what their regeneration skills were but she had to leave Max's part out of it so she just mixed a few details. If she
said she shed hourly than he'd expect her to do it any time now and by claiming it was part of her physiology than he wouldn't ask her why she didn't try and heal him. She hoped to God she could continue to juggle all the facts.

"So you're an alien that works as a waitress at a cafe in Roswell," Mulder said slowly.

"Yeah," she replied. I sound so lame! "I was in the crash of 1947 but my pod didn't open until about eleven years ago. When I came out I looked like a six year old. Some people found me wandering in the desert. They adopted me and I've been living as a human ever since."

Mulder just nodded thoughtfully.

"I don't know why I was sent here, or by who. I don't know what happened to your sister."

"And the guys chasing you?"

"They work for a special unit of the government. They want to--" She got a flash of Max screaming, probes strapped to his head. "They want to do tests."

Before she could finish the thought, the back windshield exploded.


Liz let out a scream, covered her head, and leaned down in her seat. Mulder was trying to gain control of the car.

"You know what these guys lack," he shouted.

"Creativity?"

Mulder nodded.

"Why don't they just shoot out the tires?"

And as if they heard her, both tires burst. They started a skid that Mulder tried to control. They left tracks for about half a mile and before the car stopped completely Mulder had pushed open his door and indicated to Liz to do the same. They went around the front of the car and Mulder grabbed her hand and pulled her along as a set of headlights pierced their backs. Liz remembered a similar night, not so long ago, only now Max wasn't there to
protect her.

She heard gunfire and she even thought she felt a bullet whiz by her but she couldn't be sure. Then the world seemed to encompass only her and Agent Mulder. She felt his hand gripping hers, she heard her own breathing
escaping her mouth in wheezing gasps, she could feel cold perspiration trickling in a thin line down her back. She knew that she was going to die and she had only one thought.

"Max"

* * * * *


Max jolted upright on the lawn chair. He had spent most of the night looking for Liz. He had looked everywhere he thought she could be, and then he had a horrifying thought. What if she wasn't coming back? He had scrambled to her bedroom and in through her window. He looked around and couldn't find any evidence that she wasn't coming back. Her small duffel bag was at the bottom of her closet, her favorite stuffed animal that she had since she was little was still on her dresser. He even ventured into her bathroom and gave a quick glance over anything he thought might be a necessity for a trip. Feeling overwhelmed, he went back in to her bedroom and sat down on the bed. He could smell her--that really light perfume she wore, the shampoo she used. God how he'd missed it. He didn't know why, maybe to exorcise the demons that the bed held for him since he saw her and Kyle in it, he reached over and grabbed her pillow. When he slipped his hand under it he felt something like paper and he pulled it out. It was a
strip of photos that he and Liz had taken at one of those cheesy photo booths. He felt his heart squeeze in his chest. She had never given up on him, even when she was forced to.

Deciding not to give up on her, he sat on one of the lawn chairs outside her window and waited. He must have fallen asleep because he woke in the moonlit night, his heart racing.

"Liz," he mumbled, still half in his dreams. Then he looked in his hand and saw that he had crushed the photo strip still in his palm. He stared at the rumpled pictures and he felt a numbing fear. What if Liz couldn't come home?

* * * * *


Mulder pulled Liz behind a large rock formation and drew his gun. Suddenly the world became large all around her again.

"Do you really think you can hold them off?" She looked desperately at the agent who's shoulder had begun to bleed again and when he turned to her and smiled she knew he was going to lie.

"Sure. I'm going to open fire and then I want you to run that way."

He pointed off into the darkness and she realized that he was going to die for her. He was going to try and fend off two armed men while she made a break for it. He was going to be another person whose life was in mortal jeopardy because he had tried to save her life. She still blamed herself for the turmoil Max, Isabel and Michael's lives were in now because Max wouldn't let her die that day in the Crashdown. She couldn't let it happen again.

"I have a better plan," she said, mostly to herself.

Mulder turned around to say: "What?" and saw her just as she stood up and walked around the boulder.

"Liz!" He dived for her ankle but she was out of his reach.