'I used to get sad when I'd skin my knee on the play ground as a kid, because no one noticed or cared that I was hurt. They'd keep on sliding, or swinging, and I'd just sit there with tears rolling down my cheeks as the other children ran by until my mother or father found me and gave me a band-aid. I regret my sadness now, because in a way the lack of acknowledgement was freeing, liberating. Now I see them all watching, analyzing, prodding, and I just want them to go away. I want to be just one in the crowd again. Alone.'
-from the later journals of Elizabeth Parker
"Max, do you have any Kleenex in your room?" Isabel asked as she stood at the doorway holding her nose. "I've got a bloody nose."
"You do?" Max asked, shocked. "So do I. Is this normal?"
"Of course, silly. It happens to people all the time."
"I mean for us. We've never gotten sick, maybe something is wrong."
"You think so?" Isabel asked, becoming worried. "Maybe someone should call Michael and Tess to see if it's happening to them too."
Max nodded. "I agree. Why don't you call them and I'll dig around in the basement. We've got a microscope around here somewhere, maybe a closer look at our blood would tell us something."
"That would be a good idea if we had anything to compare it to," Isabel responded sarcastically.
"Well, I know what our blood looks like when everything is normal, so if it looks different, we'll know something is wrong."
"Alright genius boy, get to work finding that microscope," Isabel spoke enthusiastically and walked into the kitchen to call Michael and Tess.
Max had to do some serious digging, but he eventually found the dusty old microscope and some slides. Isabel met him at the top of the basement steps.
"Both of them have nosebleeds too. They're on their way. I called Alex and Maria too, and told them something might be going on. Figured we could use some support anyways."
"Good idea," Max said. "Liz?"
"No answer," Isabel stated, slightly bewildered. "Her parents should be back from that restaurant convention already."
"Yeah, that is odd." Max thought for a moment. "Try calling the Crashdown and ask one of the waitress' working. I'll start setting up the microscope."
Isabel went back into the kitchen and Max dusted off the microscope. He plugged it in and turned it on, then proceeded to put some of the blood from his Kleenex on a slide. Both of their noses had stopped bleeding by now. He then placed a cover slide on top of the glass with his blood on it and slid it under the lens, focusing it carefully. What he saw confused him immensely. Red cells, shaped like doughnuts. His cells were green, and seemed to possess this strange energy. These cells looked... human.
"Max!" Isabel yelled as she reached his room in a run, nearly knocking him over as she burst in. "I got a hold of Agnes at the Crash. Liz is at the hospital. Her parents came home and she was really sick. She coughed up blood and had a bloody nose too, and then she collapsed. The doctors are running some tests, but she's still unconscious. She's in the critical care unit right now."
Max stood in a daze. Liz... bloody nose... coughing... collapse. He looked at his sister and said pointedly, "Isabel, we were experiencing Liz's bloody nose."
"What are you talking about?"
"I looked at the blood. It was human, Isabel. HUMAN."
"Oh my god... what does this mean?"
"It means that there's something really wrong with Liz. She's much worse than she's letting everyone believe." They looked at each other for a moment before Max abruptly grabbed the keys and flew out the door, Isabel like lightning at his heels. The rest of the gang pulled in to the Evans' driveway as Max and Isabel were getting in the Jeep.
"What the hell Maxwell! Where are you going that is more important than a possible disease that could kill us?" Michael asked as he opened the passenger door to the Jetta and stepped out. He walked up next to the driver's side of the Jeep after telling Maria to keep the car running.
"It's Liz, she's in the hospital."
"What! What happened?"
"She... look, it's a long story. Just meet us over there," Max said hastily.
Michael jumped back into the Jetta and told Maria, "Drive." Maria looked at him confusedly as she backed out of the driveway and asked, "Why is it that you think you're all going to die?"
"Because all four of us had a nosebleed at the same time today, which we've never had before so... what is it?" Michael asked as Maria's eyes widened.
"About half an hour ago?" Maria's voice squeaked.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Because I had one then too." Michael gaped at her, his lower jaw nearly touching the car's floor. Maria's eyes went to the rearview mirror. "Alex?" She saw him close his eyes and nod lightly in the back seat.
"Is this good or bad?" Tess asked nervously.
"Probably both," Michael snorted. "Turn left here Maria; we've got to get to Roswell Memorial Hospital. Something happened to Liz." The only thing Michael could separate from the garble of questions he was then bombarded with but didn't know the answers to was Maria's voice repeating senselessly, "no..."
