Extra note!!! Obviously a few parts of the journal entry in this chapter are modeled after the pilot.... I don't own it and you'll know it when you read it.

Chapter 21

July 2nd.  Journal entry six.

I'm Liz Mitchell and five days ago I died.  But then things really got weird...

I can finally write about what happened.  I couldn't bring myself to do it before.  But now, as I sit here, leaning back against Max's chest, I have the courage to admit to myself what happened and how close I came to losing all of this.  A week ago, I was shot.  There was a bullet several inches below my rib cage and I'm pretty sure I was dead before Max Evans placed his hand over the bullet wound and saved my life.  He brought me back to life.

I know without him there, I would be dead now; the girls would have been found and sent back to Frank—basically, total disaster.  But he was there and you know what?  Max and I finally admitted out loud our true feelings to each other.  We were both afraid of 'being found out' in our own ways and weren't sure of the other's feelings.  But the shooting opened our eyes to how much we had come to mean to each other in such a short time.  Ever since the day he saved me, the day he told me the truth about himself, we've been almost inseparable.  He's over here almost every night and Maria has termed him my shadow.  She claims that after all the excitement of last week (if it can be called that), he's afraid that something will happen to me if I'm out of his sight for too long.  Maria doesn't know what really happened, by the way.  She seems to believe the story about the broken ketchup bottle...but I think she's suspicious.  Michael and Isabel have at least been more civil to me lately now that they know I don't plan on exposing them.  I think they're still a little leery though at times.

Really though, my life is great right now.  I mean sure, I'm still technically a runaway taking care of two small children that I basically kidnapped and did I forget to mention I'm in love with an alien?  But somehow, the whole complicated mess that is my life seems to fit together perfectly.  Everything is working out and even though my life is anything but normal...at least now I finally feel like I have a life...

It's July 2nd, I'm Liz Mitchell and five days ago I died.  But then the really amazing thing happened.  I came to life.

Liz closed her journal, folding her hands over it on her chest, and sighed.  It felt good to finally get all that off her chest.  She felt as if she had been carrying a dead weight on her shoulders.  She closed her eyes in contentment...just savoring the feelings of happiness and love that came along with being with Max.  She felt arms tighten around her waist just slightly, a sign that Max had noticed that she was finished writing.  She had made him promise not to read over his shoulder if they were going to sit together while she wrote in her journal.  So instead he had watched the hockey game on the small decrepit TV that was donated to her via Alex, who seemed to have no end of old electronic equipment. 

"Feel better now?" he asked quietly, snuggling closer to her.

"Yeah...I do."

"What did you write about?"

"That's private Max," she said, pouting just a little.

"I just wanted to make sure....you know that..."

"Max, with two small very nosy girls in this apartment I know how to keep things hidden.  Trust me okay?"

"Alright," he said as they drifted into a comfortable silence.

"Max?" she asked cautiously.

"Yeah Liz?"

"When you told me about how you healed me...you said you saw images of my life."

"Yeah..."

"Well I was just wondering..."

"What Liz?"

"Could that 'connection' be reversed?  I mean could I see 'images' from your life?  Cause really it's not very fair you know...you know all this stuff about my life and I know next to nothing about you...comparatively at least."

"Well honestly I've never tried to reverse the connection.  I suppose theoretically it could work...  Do you want me to try?"

"Could you?"

"Sure, but you have to face me."

"Okay," she said shifting her position on the couch so that she was sitting Indian-style facing him.

"Alright.  Well like I said...I've never tried this before so I guess just look into my eyes and take deep breaths and just let your mind blank out..." he said quietly, placing his hands on the sides of her head.

Suddenly she was bombarded with a rush of images flying through her mind so quickly it was hard to sort them out. 

Max, Isabel, and Michael walking through the desert

Max going to school for the first time and being so scared

Max seeing her that first morning in the Crashdown

Max waking up the morning after they had fallen asleep on her couch

Max running over to her during the shooting and asking her to look at him so he could heal her

There were so many images, but through all of them, she could feel what he had been feeling—his fear when they were found in the desert, his loneliness all through school, his absolute terror when he realized she had been shot, his relief when he realized she wasn't afraid of him after he told her of his 'alien status,' the feelings of love and contentment and happiness that he felt during their first kiss... it was amazing. 

He pulled back and let his hands drop.  "Did it work?" he asked nervously.

"Yeah..." she said smiling as she leaned in to kiss him, wanting him to be certain that her feelings still hadn't changed after seeing his past. 

The strange thing was though, that this time when they kissed, Liz got flashes like she had when he opened the connection. 

"Max?" she asked confused.

"Yeah?"

"Did you close the connection?"

"I thought so...it normal closes when I lose contact.  Did you get those flashes just now too?"

"Yeah...do you think we did something?  You know...by reversing the connection do you think we caused it to be stuck open or something?"

"I don't know.  Maybe it's an after effect that isn't permanent..."

"I guess we'll have to check up on that later..." Liz said deviously.

Max smiled catching her meaning.  "Yeah.  Definitely."

"Hey Max?"

"Yeah Liz?" he asked, sighing sarcastically.

"Can you stay over tonight?"

"Yeah.  Just let me go call Izzy and get her to tell my mom I'm at Michael's place," he said, walking toward the kitchen where the phone was located.

Liz got off the couch and prepared to pull out the bed from inside, not wanting to wake up with a stiff neck from sleeping on the couch normally.  Being already dressed in a tee-shirt and cotton pajama pants, she climbed into the bed and waited for Max.  He reappeared a few minutes later dressed in a pair of sweatpants and his old wrestling team shirt that he had left at her apartment the last time he had been there.  He climbed into bed and wrapped his arms around her waist, snuggling his face into her neck.

"Goodnight Liz."

"Night Max."

"I love you," he murmured as he drifted off to sleep.

"I love you too Max," she whispered in return.  Her last thought before losing consciousness herself was that she was finally where she belonged....safe and loved.

TBC...