Max sat in the sheriff's office, staring straight ahead, but unable to see anything other then Liz, standing on the fire escape stairs, smiling down at him.
"Max?"
He blinked and refocused on Sheriff Valenti. Liz's parents had freaked when the sheriff suggested he come to his office to talk. They thought the sheriff suspected Max and it was reassuring to know that they trusted him. Little did they know that he might be responsible. Just not directly.
"There's nothing else you can tell me?" Valenti asked.
"No. I dropped her off—we were late so she went up the fire escape. I should have waited until I knew she was safe…I should have walked her to her window…."
"Max, there's no way you could have known…."
"Yes, there is. I should have known better. There is always danger. Always."
"You think this is alien related then?"
Max buried his head in his hands.
"I don't know."
"Did anything unusual happen last night?"
"No," Max jumped out of his chair, unable to sit still any longer. "Everything was fine. Perfectly normal up until…
"Until?"
"Well, this girl jumped me."
"A girl jumped you."
"Yeah, but I don't think it had anything to do with this. She thought I was somebody else. Besides, she took me home so it couldn't have been her. Are we done? Can I go?"
"And do what?"
"I don't know. Something. I can't just sit here and wait."
"Max, there is no evidence that this has anything to do with aliens. She may just…"
"Have been nabbed by a serial killer?"
"Max…"
"Listen, you do your investigation and I'll do mine." He turned to leave but Valenti grabbed his arm.
"Max, be careful. And let me know if you learn anything. We're going to work together on this and we will find her."
* * * * *
Max climbed up onto the roof and looked around. The small patio had police tape here and there but otherwise looked the same as it always had. He climbed into her bedroom. He didn't know what he was looking for but if anything was out of order he would know.
He glanced at the picture of she, Maria and Alex and he picked it up. Alex was dead because of Max. He hadn't killed him but if Alex had lived in ignorance of what Max was, he'd still be alive today. He ran his finger over Liz's image. Max had tried to stay away from Liz in the beginning. He knew she might be in danger if she got involved with him. But he had loved her from the moment they met as children. He didn't know if it was some alien insight or something completely human, but he knew then that they were intertwined and always would be. If something happened to her, he didn't know how he would live as half a person.
He looked up when he heard something outside on the patio. Still holding the photo, he crept to the window and peered carefully outside.
"Buffy?"
The petite blond whirled around quickly, her fists drawn back in a fighting stance. She relaxed when she saw Max. He climbed out on the patio.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
"Looking for you, actually. I was at the café this morning when they told you that girl was missing. Your girlfriend?"
Max nodded.
"They said she disappeared last night."
The hair on the back of his neck was beginning to stand up. He had told Valenti that she had nothing to do with Liz's disappearance but he'd almost forgotten about her unusual strength, and now she was here, asking questions.
"I want to help."
Max blinked.
"What? You don't even know Liz, or me."
"I know, but you were coming here last night when I stopped you, weren't you?" He nodded. "If I hadn't attacked you she might be OK. I—I feel responsible. Please let me help."
Guilt. Guilt was something that Max understood.
"Thanks, but I can't imagine what you could do."
"You'd be surprised."
* * * * *
"How's she doing?"
His voice sounded so gentle, it was hard to imagine that face—that horrifying face—went with it. Liz couldn't open her eyes anymore, the light made them water, so she just listened.
"I think she may need a doctor." Wesley said.
"That is such a bad idea I won't even bore you with the details."
"Gunn's right. They'll be looking for her by now."
"Well we can't just sit here and let her get worse. We're suppose to be protecting her." Wesley declared.
"She's more cooperative this way, at least." Cordelia said. "What? At least she's not throwing herself out windows anymore. Which, by the way, did not help that goose egg on the side of her skull."
"She was scared," the gentle voice said. "You would have done the same thing."
"Well, assuming that she's going to live," Gunn said. "What do we do now?"
"We rescued her from the capture that Cordelia foresaw in her vision but we still need to find out why she's after her. Ms. Parker, here, won't be safe until then." Wesley said.
"And until she's safe, she's not going anywhere."
* * * * *
Buffy walked over to the window and examined it.
"No forced entry. They were probably waiting for her out here." She began looking around. "No signs of a struggle." She crouched down to get a closer look at the ground. "Cement, so no footprints. Does anything look out of place to you?"
Max was startled that Buffy actually did seem to know what she was talking about. He looked around.
"No, not really."
She looked at the framed picture in his hand and she put her hand out. He handed it to her.
"Which one is she?" She asked.
Max stopped and pointed to Liz in the photo.
"She's pretty," Buffy said, and there was regret in her voice.
But Max didn't notice. He started picking things up and looking around the patio for something, anything, that would give him some clue. He was losing time and he didn't even know where to start. He kicked a chair.
"You really love her don't you?"
"She—she is my everything. We're so different in so many ways and she still loves me. There are hundreds of reasons why we shouldn't be together but she knew we could make it work. She knows everything about me and she still loves me. We have been through so much, and she still---" The words wouldn't come out of his mouth any more.
Buffy stared at him as he buried his face in his hands. What he said made her tremble. She recognized the anguish that she saw in his face. She'd lived it. And although he couldn't possibly have been through as much as she had with Angel he spoke of it like he had.
She wanted to reassure him but she knew from too much experience that sometimes things didn't work out.
"I'm sorry," Max said.
"Don't be. You're worried, you should be. But we'll get to the bottom of this."
Max walked over to the ledge.
"I wish---" As soon as his hands touched the cement the image shot through him like a surge of electricity. Liz looking down at the ground, dangling below her feet. She looked up and there was someone, no something, holding onto her. There were fangs, and yellow glistening eyes….Max stumbled back with a startled cry.
Buffy was next to him, supporting him.
"What? What happened?"
"Something grabbed her," he mumbled. "He—it—had yellow eyes and fangs and his face was—deformed. She was dangling over the side of the roof."
"Fangs?"
Max shook her off and stumbled around the roof. It was nothing he had ever seen before. It wasn't an alien, that much he knew instinctively. But it had been horrible, and it had Liz.
"How do you know it had fangs?" Buffy asked.
Max turned and looked at her. He felt like someone had splashed him with cold water. Think of a lie!
"I'm—I'm a bit psychic. Sometimes I can see things."
He was surprised when she didn't give him one of those "are you kidding?" looks. In fact, she didn't even blink an eye.
"What else did you see?"
"That's it."
"Was it a he or a she? What was it wearing? Dark hair or light? Were there any scars or tattoos or anything else distinctive?"
Max still couldn't believe that she wasn't thrown by the whole psychic thing.
"A he, I think. Dark hair, dark clothes, I didn't notice anything else."
She nodded.
"Well that doesn't narrow it down very much," she mumbled.
"Except for the fangs," Max said. "I could identify that in a crowd."
Buffy looked up suddenly. Think of a lie!
"Yeah, that." Or just fudge over the topic. "Listen, I have a friend who might help. Let me touch base with him and I'll get back to you, OK?"
"Sure," Max said, relieved to get rid of her. Her witnessing his vision was more then he had wanted to share. "I have some friends that I need to talk to too."
* * * * *
Buffy walked into the hotel room to find Giles happily buried behind a pile of books.
"Been doing your usual sightseeing tour, I see, "she said as she rifled through her purse. "Today ransack the libraries and tomorrow maybe you'll squeeze in city hall and the walking tour of the post offices."
Giles didn't look up from what he was reading.
"Mock me if you like, but the history of this town is really—"
"Quite fascinating," she finished for him.
"Yes, well, my research might help us discover where she is hiding."
"She's not hiding. Something got to her before we did." She found what she was looking for and she discarded her purse on the bed.
"That doesn't bode well."
She walked over to him and shoved the picture of Liz and her friends under his nose.
"Liz Parker is the dark haired one."
Giles studied the picture.
"She looks quite harmless doesn't she?" He remarked.
"Yeah. And I spent some time with her boyfriend. He's really worried about her."
"That surprises you?"
"No, how much he loved her did. I don't know, Giles, something about this whole deal doesn't feel right. And if I'm going to kill this girl, I want to make sure that it's the right thing to do."
