Marie sat on the couch with Juan and Kyle. Her daughter, Cassie, sat leaning against Juan's legs. On the other couch were Jim, Al, and Beth. Teresa and Belle sat on the two chairs next to Beth, with Mike standing behind Teresa. Max was pacing the room in front of them.

"What in the name of all that is good are you talking about?" Max asked, or rather yelled.

"Max, if you will just sit down, I'll explain," Beth said calmly, almost too calmly to Marie's thinking.

"Explain, you'll explain!" Max yelled, his voice getting higher with each word. "Oh yes great and smart Elizabeth Parker, I mean Whitman, by all means enlighten us. Tell us why you've been lying to us. How you could betray us not once, but twice. It was bad enough you cheated on me sixteen and a half years ago, give or take a few months. Then had the audacity to act like nothing had happened. But now we trust you again to find out you've been building some secret war house and not tell us you intend to fight some 'war' in hiding of all ways!" Max said angrily.

Marie watched as her best friend's face and eyes changed while Max talked. Now her eyes looked dead. She hadn't looked that bad since they left. /-/ Oh is Max going to pay /-/ Marie seethed.

"Back off Max. You have no right to say that," Al said, barely controlling his anger as he stood up.

"What was that? NO Right? Well, look whose talking. You're as guilty as she is. You lied to Isabel and I all those years ago," Max countered.

"Max stop it," Belle cried standing up. "Can't you let it go? Can't you see how much you are hurting her?" she asked, hoping that would get through him.

"Hurting her!" Max yelled

"Maxwell stop this now," Mike said walking around Teresa's chair.

"He's right Max. Stop this. Your letting your anger get the best of you," Teresa said getting up and placing her hand on Max's shoulder.

"Don't touch me" Max said through his teeth. Teresa stepped back stunned, and Mike pulled her towards him.

"Max stop this. What happened to you? The Max we thought we knew wouldn't do this. He wouldn't hurt his friends," Kyle said standing up and walking towards Beth and Teresa.

"You know what? You don't know me! The guy you knew in high school changed over there and died when I found out she didn't love me anymore. And more than that, she apparently didn't love me then because she slept with someone while I was still here, and she had a child with Alex," Max yelled, then sarcastically added, "One of the few people I thought I could trust with anything,"

Marie looked at Beth, who was getting more upset with everything Max said. This had to stop or she might. "Max stop this right now!" Marie yelled standing up with the others.

"Yeah, you're hurting everyone," Cassie said joining her mother

"I don't care. Get it through you heads. I'm hurting, so why shouldn't all of you be hurting as well? "Max cried.

"Max stop this," Jim said getting up and walking behind Beth. "You don't know what you can cause."

"What I can cause!" Max yelled. "What do you think I'm going to do, blow this place to pieces?

"Max please. I know your hurting, but you're not the only one. We all have pain that we are dealing with. We've all dealt with heartache," Beth said standing up very slowly.

/-/ Oh my /-/ Belle thought worriedly/-/ She looks like she's about to pass out /-/

"Heartache? You've had to deal with heartache? Well excuse me for not believing you. You had Alex all along. So how does that qualify as heartache? You probably never even shed a tear for any of us," Max said as Beth's color dropped a few more shades.

/-/ "She gets any whiter, she'll be dead /-/ Mike thought watching Beth.

"That was simply uncalled for Max! You have no idea what she went through after you left," Al yelled

"Don't I? Ha, you are a fool Alex. She was probably pretending, so people wouldn't suspect how happy she was!" Max taunted.

"Stop it!" Juan yelled, finally standing up, causing everyone else who was already standing to turn and look at him. "Stop this, you're hurting my mom," He began.

"Oh, I'm hurting your mom am I?" Max began. "Well. I don..." Max started before he went flying across the room and hit one of the walls. Max got up slowly, "Who did that?" he asked through gritted teeth. "Michael?

"No Max, it wasn't one of us."

"Cassie?"

"Nope," She said quietly.

"If it wasn't you, then who was it?" Max yelled walking towards her.

"Me."

The alien trio and Max turned towards Juan. "You?" Max said. "How? Why?"

"I knew it," Teresa said quietly.

"Because you interrupted me, and you were hurting my mom for no reason," Juan said calmly.

"No reason!" Max yelled.

"You want to try it again?" Juan asked, waiting until Max sat down, quickly followed by everyone else in the room except himself. "Good, I didn't think so. First of all, Al is my dad, but he's not my biological father. He claimed to be, because my real 'father' was gone and never coming back. You were gone and never coming back Max," Juan finished sarcastically.

Everyone stared at him in shock, then Beth began to shake.

Al looked at his son, then Max. Max was totally shocked. /-/ Good. Serves him right /-/ he thought. Then Al looked at his wife. /-/ Oh cripes /-/ he thought. "Beth are you alright?" he whispered.

"Al, did we bring it?" she whispered back.

/-/ Oh no/-/ he thought again. Then picked her up. "Juan, we need the medication now!" he said quickly.

"I'll go get it," Cassie said running out of the room.

Juan moved past Max and helped Kyle move the table out of the way. Al laid Beth down on the floor and held her hand. "Come on girl. Fight it," He said.

"I...I..I can't..." Beth said as the shaking began to get worse.

"Does she have seizures?" Teresa asked

"Something like that," Marie said.

"Juan, Jim, Kyle grab her legs and arms. Mike we need your help," Al said moving behind her head. Jim and Kyle both grabbed one of Beth's legs. Juan got her left arm and Mike her right.

"What do we do?" Mike asked as Beth's shaking continued to increase in intensity.

"Just hold her arm to the ground so she doesn't hurt herself," Al said holding her head steady.

Beth's shaking began to increase even more, and after about thirty seconds, her body started convulsing as well. "Cassie where the hell are you?" Juan yelled.

"Right here," Cassie said running into the room with a black bag. Marie opened the bag and took out a needle and a bottle of medicine. She quickly measured the dosage and walked over to Juan. Juan and Cassie held Beth's arm as still as possible, while Marie gave her the injection. As soon as Marie removed the needle, Beth's body kind of jumped up, then stopped. Jim looked at his watch and began counting off the seconds in intervals of five. Cassie went into the kitchen and grabbed a plastic container.

"What is going on?" Belle asked. "She's not breathing! Do something," She cried as Max started to walk over to Beth.

"Touch her and I'll send you flying across the room," Juan said quietly without looking away from Beth, his voice challenging Max to try something.

"1 minute 30 seconds," Jim said.

"Come on angel, wake up!" Al said softly

"1 minute 45 seconds," Jim said

"Alright, get ready," Kyle said as Juan and Marie moved away from Beth and Kyle knelt next to her chest.

Then, all of a sudden Beth's body jerked up as she took a huge breath as if she had been drowning. She opened her eyes slowly and looked at Al. He smiled and brushed the hair out of her face. Then he slowly helped her sit up. After a few seconds, she started to get sick. When she was done, Cassie wiped her face with a wet cloth, and took the bowl out of the room. Once Cassie was gone, Beth curled towards Al and began to cry.

"What the...? What was that?" Max asked.

"Her curse, thanks to you," Juan said bitterly. "The everlasting reminder of her pregnancy, her body's still trying to fight the DNA I got from you."