One hour later, they all sat in a restaurant. Liz was still a bit disoriented, but she was okay.

"Um... Liz?" started Isabel.

"Yeah?"

"There's something we've been meaning to ask you for a while now..."

"You wanna know what I was doing at Snowhill," she said, not as an answer, but a statement.

"Well... yeah," said Maria. Liz looked down, thinking of what she should say.

"Can... can we talk about this somewhere else? Somewhere... not so public. And preferably not in front of the kids."

"Well... we can talk about it at the hotel... if you want to," said Alex.

"I have to talk about it sooner or later..."


As they walked out of the restaurant, something caught their attention.

"Do not attempt to adjust your set..." came the voice of a man from the televisions in the store across the street.

"What's that?" asked Kyle. They listened to the man talk. When it ended, his image was replaced with whatever had been playing before.

"Weird..." started Maria.

"Let's get to the hotel, okay?" said Max.

"Yeah," said Liz. Just then, a young girl, about 19 bumped into her.

"Oh, sorry!" she said, before continuing walking, taking a look back to Liz, a bit confused for a reason unknown to her. Liz watched her go, a strange feeling coming over her.

"Liz?" called Max.

"Yeah... I'm coming..."

*

They were now back at the hotel, and the children had fallen asleep, so they decided it was the perfect time to find out what Liz had been up to in all that time.

"Liz? Please tell us," asked Maria. Liz started to think of where to start, but all the memories coming back to her were too much and she began to cry.

"Liz?" asked Maria, going up to her friend. But she put her hand up to stop her.

"I'm okay. I'm okay, I can do this..." she said, wiping at her face. She took a deep breath and charged forward.


"When I left home... I ended up in Wyoming. I rented a small apartment and I was on my way to a job interview. I took a taxi... I wasn't paying attention to the road..." At that point, her tears returned, but she managed to control them. "When it stopped, I realized we were... in an alley. The next thing I knew, I was in the emergency room... the driver had..." Instinctively, she put her hand to the scar on her cheek. "He took... all my money... I had nothing left. I didn't want to call home because I didn't want anyone to see how bad I was doing... when I got to my apartment, I was really depressed and then I... I came across these people who were looking for people for... an experiment, they said... they said it would pay a lot, and I really needed money to get back on my feet. So I signed up... I thought I would only be there for a couple days... I was wrong." Liz surveyed the room, looking at the others' already stunned faces, and also checked that the children were still sleeping.


Slowly, she removed her left shoe. The others were confused. She removed her sock and lifted her ankle for them to see the barcode.

"Wh... what's that?" asked Alex. Liz took a deep breath, and continued.

"We were on a bus, me and 59 other girls. We had no idea where we were going. The windows had been boarded up so we couldn't see through them. I made a great friend on the bus, her name was Gina..." She felt her heart twist at the thought of her friend. "We got there and we were split into two groups. Our group was taken into a large room with beds. Then we were given gowns, and they cut our hair and..." She pointed to her ankle. "They took us into the mess hall and we were finally told what we were there for..." She stopped for a second, needing to take a breath and collecting her strength to go on.


"They were a genetics team, using recombinant DNA to produce superior humans, soldiers..." She looked up at the others. All had their eyes on her, wide open. "They needed... girls to... carry these projects to term... we... we were never told it was what we were there for. We had no way out, it was out of our hands. Next thing we knew... we were expecting... The next couple of months went by... it was a bit of a blur... gene therapy, checkups at least twice a week... I found out I was going to have a little girl. Soon enough I realized... I didn't want to give her up. So Gina and I started planning our escape. And in our seventh month, we tried..." Finally, the emotions took her over and she broke down into tears. Maria reached out and placed her hand over Liz's hand, unable to say anything.


Liz shook her head and continued. "We nearly made it and then... the alarm was set off and... they found us... they had the guns... they were gonna shoot... I didn't want them to hurt my baby... so I stopped... but Gina didn't... and they shot her... and she died..." She broke down again, regaining a bit of control again soon after. "Her daughter was born after she'd died, two months prematurely... I don't know if she made it... that night they placed me in a room all by myself... strapped to the bed... the next two months were spent mostly like that. Then came the delivery. I was tied down again and they gave me some drugs... I don't know what they were... last thing I heard were her first cries... and then the next thing I knew, or at least understood, I was at Snowhill... and I remained there until... today..."


"Oh my god, Liz," said Maria before hugging her friend. "I'm so sorry... if I had known... I wouldn't have pressed so hard to know," she said through tears.

"No. I'm glad you did. I needed to tell this to someone. I'm glad it was you."


Once the group had recovered, there were some more questions from both parties.

"How old is she now?" asked Isabel.

"Now... she must be about... 19... I can't believe it's been that long..." She looked down, but quickly looked back up. "My parents..."

"They still live in Roswell. They sold the Crashdown about a year after you disappeared. They haven't forgotten you. Even after all this time, every time the doorbell or phone rings, you can still see them jump a bit..." said Alex. Tess reached out for the phone next to one of the beds and handed it to Liz.

"Call them."

"No... I can't..." she said shaking her head.

"Yes you can," said Tess. Liz took the phone, not sure what to do. She walked off into the bathroom with it.

*

Back in Roswell

"Hello?" said Jeff Parker as he picked up the phone, still focused on the game on television.

"Dad?" said Liz. That sound had him snap back into reality in half a second.

"Lizzy?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, it's me," she confirmed, more tears forming in her eyes.

"Oh my goodness... it's so good to hear your voice..." he said as he cried as well, then, "NANCY! COME QUICK!" he called out to his wife in the kitchen.

"What? What is it? You look like you've seen a ghost," she said, picking up the phone as he handed it to her, still in shock. "Hello?" she said.

"Mom..." Nancy had to steady herself on her husband's shoulder to prevent herself from falling down.

"Liz?"

"Mom, I'm so sorry I didn't call you, I wanted to and it's a long story and I promise I'll tell you everything when I get home."

"You're coming h... home?" she managed to whisper.

"Not yet, but soon... there are some things I need to take care of."

*

About an hour later, Liz returned to her friends. "What now?" asked Kyle, "Are we going home? All of us?" Liz looked down.

"You want to find her, don't you?" said Isabel.

"I have to," said Liz, looking back up.

"Then we'll find her," said Max.

"How?" asked Michael, "She could be anywhere."

"What about..." started Alex.

"What?" asked Maria.

"That guy we saw on the television this afternoon, when we got out of the restaurant..."

"Maybe... but how do we contact him? We don't even know who he is..." said Liz.

"I could try to dreamwalk him... a bit hard since I've never met him... and I have no picture... but it's worth a try," said Isabel.