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Chapter 2
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1 month later

Liz paced the room, it was either do or die. And it didn't help that she was paranoid. She couldn't let her parents know that she was changing. She was in the back room of the Crashdown. She wanted Maria to meet her there. She was about to burst with the news she had. News that she wished she would be able to share for later in her life.

"Liz, I'm so sorry that I'm late, see my mom wanted me to help pack some alien knick knacks and I couldn't leave until I was done," Maria said. She didn't notice how worn out her best friend looked until now. Liz would always played it off as either it was school or work, but now Liz was a wreck. Her hair was messy, her clothes were wrinkled, she had no make up on and she just looked - blah.

"Maria, sit down, I have to tell you something," Liz said motioning to her friend to sit down and she did the same.

"Uh oh, what did I do now, Liz?" she asked, half jokingly.

"Nothing, Maria, its what I did," Liz said with all seriousness. This was no time to joke. She was about to tell her friend the biggest secret in the world, ok correct that the universe.

"Liz, what's wrong" Maria said when Liz put her head in hands and start to weep quietly. She quickly took Maria into her room for privacy.

"Maria, you know how close we are, and usually when you get your period, I do too, oh god, this is so hard..."

""Liz" Maria said. She was starting to get scared.

Liz stopped, she took a deep breath, (she would have to borrow some of Kyle's mediation books) and looked into her best friend's eyes, "Maria, I'm late, and one month ago I did the unthinkable....."

A couple of hours and three quarts of ice cream later

"So what are you going to do?" Maria said, putting the bag of Twizzlers down.

"I figured I would leave Roswell" Liz said.

"What? You can't just leave Roswell, you have to tell Max what happened," Maria said.

"No, Maria, I can't. I feel like I should be wearing a big scarlet A, or a big W for whore, do you know what that is? I slept with Max from the Future," Liz said. There she said it again. She broke down before, when she told Maria, but now she was angry. At both herself and Future Max. She could never tell her Max what happened. What was she going to say? Hey Max guess what, you know how I made you think I slept with Kyle, well I didn't but I slept with you, anyway your counterpart. And that's not the shocker. But I HAVE HIS CHILD. That's right, I'm pregnant.

"Liz, calm down," Maria said. She pulled her friend into a hug. "God, if I could help, let me know, and I won't say anything, I would, but you're my best friend in this shitty world, and I would never want to jeopardize that, I love you." Maria wiped the tears that came from Liz's face and wiped her own. Because she wept for Liz and for her baby and for Max, because he would never know of the baby.

"Maria, I would never ask, but I do need your help, when I leave I don't know what's going to happen during the pregnancy. I could deliver a green baby, and if I do I can't be in a hospital, that's why I need you to be my mid-wife, and I'm going to tell Alex, I know that he will learn to understand, and I know that I can trust him, please Maria," Liz asked her friend. She decided early on that she would tell Maria and Alex. There would be no way that she could deliver the baby on her own, especially if there were complications. She needed support. She needed her two closest friends. She just hoped that they would be there, and she had a feeling that they would. And she never doubted her feelings.

"Of course, I'll be there. You can always count on me and Alex. I wish you would have told me earlier. We could have worked this out. You wouldn't have had to keep this all in," Maria said. God, she felt so horrible for Liz. She never would have thought that this was the reason Liz was so miserable. During work, Liz would seem far away. She talked to Michael about it, but he just said that she was PMS-ing. Liz seemed to be numb at times. She would continue wiping the tables, staring at the table across from here. She was in la-la land where everything was gloomy. Maria would sometimes notice Max stare at her. He asked her once or twice what was wrong with Liz, but since she didn't know, she would just she wasn't feeling well. Now she knew the truth, now was the time to be ultra sensitive, and hoped Liz wouldn't get those weird pregnancy cravings.

"Liz, when are you leaving, wait where are you going?" Maria asked her friend. She hoped she wasn't moving far.

"Two weeks, and to New Orleans," Liz said.

"What?! New Orleans? What's there?" Maria said getting up. There goes a nearby place.

"Maria, I have everything covered. Before I talked to you I told my parents, that I wanted to focus on my career, of course that's going to be hard, but anyway a while back I was accepted in a school there. It's like a college prep school, and the reason I'm going there is because it won't look suspicious. And they have a really good science course. I was given a scholarship and they also give apartments near the campus to scholars, and well that's me," Liz said. She thought of this very clearly and was glad her parents accepted her choice. They were at first hesitant. They didn't believe their daughter. They knew she was happy here and she started seeing that Evans boy. But they knew their daughter well enough that they wanted the best for her. They didn't want her to be stuck in Roswell her whole life and plus she would be taken care of in New Orleans.

"God, I'm going to miss you Liz, you're everything to me. When we have winter break, I'm going out there and whenever else we have off from school me and Alex are going to be there. When are you due?" Maria asked. She wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. She never thought she would get so emotional.

"Well I figured late July. By then you will have off and can stay with me. I looked at the school's web site and the apartments are pretty spacious so you can stay with me." Liz said.

"Yea, we can be roomies" Maria said. Liz laughed. It felt good to laugh. It felt good to seem alive. She didn't worry that her baby would be born without a father. Alex would be there. She would love the baby with all her heart. She will be everything for the baby. This was her life and she had to accept this.

2 weeks later

Alex and Maria were in Liz's room. They grabbed her remaining clothes and packed them. Alex had taken it pretty well. He was disappointed that his friend would do such a thing, but he was proud that she was taking care of herself. He wanted her to stay, so that she wouldn't have go through her pregnancy alone, but Liz insisted she leave as soon as possible. He couldn't fully comprehend it.

Sometimes at school, Liz would have her lunch alone. Everyone started to ask questions, because she was always surrounded by people. She was die-hard popular, but she always someone with her. Isabel asked Alex why she would isolate herself and he knew the truth and it pained him to lie but he would say it was girl stuff. Whenever she didn't have her lunch alone Maria and Alex and sometimes Kyle would be there with Liz. Kyle didn't know what was going on, but it was fun to see his friend laugh again. Alex was always the goofy one, so he would always make her laugh. And if it didn't work, he would make funny faces at her.

The worst times would be when Liz had science. She sat next to Max. He would look at her sometimes and she would feel so guilty, she swear that she was turning bright red in embarrassment and she would ask for a bathroom pass. He knew she felt guilty, but not for the reason he thought. She even considered talking to the bio teacher and switching classes. Instead she switched seats with Alex.

It was early in the morning that December day and they went down the stairs together for the last time. They entered the Crashdown and were greeted by her parents. They said their final good-byes and waved to her as she left in a cab off to a place that was going to be new and hard to adjust to.

Alex hugged Maria and told her, "She will be fine, we'll be there in a couple of weeks."

True to their word, they arrived in New Orleans for Christmas. They explained to their parents that they wanted to see her. Amy, Maria's mom was apprehensive, but knew Alex would be there to protect her from whatever was out there. Alex's dad was easy to convince. He wasn't always in town and knew it was only for a week or so. The podsters however were hard to convince.

"Michael, me and Alex we want to go on a road trip, and you are not going to change my mind," Maria said. No way was some alien going to tell her what she could do and not do.

"But Maria, you don't know what's out there," Max said. He looked at Isabel for support, but she disagreed. "Maria, I speak for all of us, you and Alex have fun. We can't leave Roswell, but guys have fun, send post cards when you get to Arizona." Isabel kind of felt hurt, she wasn't going to spend New Years' Day with Alex. But it was for the best, she thought.

"Thanks, Isabel I knew you would understand," Maria stood up and hugged Isabel. It wasn't that she never got along with the alien, but when she was invaded in her dream by Isabel she always felt she would have to feel guarded around her. At least this time she was understanding. She smiled at Max and Michael and walked to the door to go to the waiting Alex, who was warming up the Jetta.

Max got up and gently grabbed her arm, "Maria, is that where Liz is? She never said good-bye, not to me or to anyone. I want to talk to her. I've asked her parents, but they want to respect their daughter's privacy. Please," he looked into Maria's eyes. She tried not to show fear and give in, "I want to speak to her."

"Max, I'm sorry, but I have to agree with her parents. Bye Max, I have to go," with that Maria left.

"Have fun in Arizona" Max heard Tess say from behind.

Max retreated to his seat in the Crashdown, "She's lying, they aren't going to Arizona," Max said. He was so hurt. He wished she would have spoken to him. He would have liked to have said good-bye. No he lied to himself, he would have pleaded for her to stay. To stay with him. Even though she slept with Kyle, in his heart still had love for her, but from what he heard around school was that she left to go to a better school. He didn't believe it at first, but he learned to accept it. He always asked himself, why he deserved such a girl. He knew that she was never meant to stay in little ol' Roswell. There were bigger and better things for her outside of here.

"What do you mean 'she's lying'?" Michael asked. Even though he loved Maria, he didn't want her to get hurt in the long run. She was better off going to wherever she was going. And why was he overacting, he'll see the chick in a week.

"They are going to see Liz. I know it," Max said hanging his head low.

"We don't know that Max," Tess said, she gently placed her hand on his.

"Max don't drive yourself crazy over this. Liz will eventually come around," Michael said. It hurt to see his friend, his brother in such pain.

Isabel however was sick and tired of seeing her brother so down. She knew he was depressed, because every night since late October he would play the Counting Crows. She liked the band, but there is only so much a person a take. Whoever could hurt her brother so badly was already on Isabel's bad side. Family is the most important thing to her. She would find out what Liz did and she had an idea forming in her head.