A/N- Thank you all SO MUCH for the reviews, you all made me so incredibly happy and you made this chapter so much fun to write! Although it may seem that this story is slow moving, that is how it is meant to be. The story is about Maria and Liz finding themselves again, and how the aliens help heal them. So, yes, it will be kind of slow. But bear with me, because I really love this story, and I want you to too. I think it will be something great.

Anyway, enjoy it! And please review, you have been wonderful to me so far.

-- Miles To Go Chapter 4 --

"I dream of vanishing into the crowd. Longing for home again, and home is a feeling I've buried in you."

-Melissa Etheridge "Breathe"

"Liz," Max said again, as if he didn't believe that his eyes were actually telling the truth, as if I was only an illusion. He looked to Michael for an answer, but Michael only stared back, not being able to give Max an answer to why we were back again. They'd spent two years getting used to our absence, and to have us here again, sitting in Michael's apartment, was breaking the mold of reality they'd trained themselves to believe.

Max took another step into the room, his eyes dodging back and forth from me, to Maria, and back. "You're back," he whispered softly, looking deep into my eyes. I nodded slowly, as if trying to convince myself as much as him that we were, indeed, back. Back to the place we'd left so long ago. Their searching was over.

"I need to use the bathroom," Maria's voice came strong, vibrating through the room, breaking the ice that held us in place. I hadn't heard Maria's true voice in over a year. Not since before she left me, since before she began to fade away. I looked toward her, and saw her looking intently at Michael. I almost laughed, Maria was back again, I could see it.

"I'll show you where it is," Michael said, and he too smiled as he looked at her. He could see the old Maria again, he could feel her strength entering her again, see it in her eyes.

I watched as they rose from the couch, and Maria followed Michael slowly out of the room, looking back at me briefly, a small smile playing on her lips. She was alive again. She'd come back, and she wanted to help me find my way, because she could feel my pain. She wanted me to find my answers, just as she intended to find hers. We both needed to take our own paths, travel the miles alone to discover our pasts, and at the same time discover our futures.

Max took a seat across from me in the chair that Michael had vacated only seconds before. I looked at him for a minute, tracing his features, trying to block out the hundreds of memories that were bombarding me as I looked into his eyes. There was so much history, so many things my mind had blocked out over the months. I'd tried to forget how much I had cared for Max. If I forgot, it made it easier for me to leave every emotion, every memory I had with him, behind. But now, as I looked at him, everything came flooding back. Only now did I remember how much of me was shaped by everything held in Max's eyes.

"You were gone for so long, Liz." Max said suddenly. I could see him struggling to find the words, and I knew this was not easy for him. I knew he was unsure, we had hurt him so much- I had hurt him. We'd fled so quickly, trying to escape our pain, and in the process left him in the dust, bleeding and broken and stumbling to find answers.

"I know we were," I answered him, nodding. I wanted him to see that I hadn't meant to hurt him. I hadn't left because of him, only because I couldn't take another day here. Another day of not knowing what was coming next, another day of running from everything, another day of losing everything that I'd loved for so long.

"We didn't think you'd leave," he said, shaking his head, leaning forward and balancing on his knees. He turned his hands over, studying them, and avoided looking into my eyes as he talked. "I knew it was hard on you, but I didn't think you would go. If I had known you were hurting so much, I would have listened when you pleaded with me. I would have done something, anything, to convince you that Roswell wasn't the end."

He looked back up at me when I said nothing. "You were right, Liz. I should have listened to you after- after Alex died. I made so many mistakes, I just wish I could go back and change them. I wish I had listened, then maybe you wouldn't have gone away." It hurt me to see the pain in his eyes. Max blamed himself for everything.

"Max, Maria and I left for so many reasons. After Alex died, it was so hard," I said, my voice cracking at the mention of Alex's name. "It felt like everything was torn away, everything that used to be wonderful was suddenly dead. We were so sad, we just couldn't stay here anymore. We couldn't stay here, go to school knowing that Alex wouldn't be there to greet us in the mornings. Knowing that Alex wouldn't be at the Crashdown after school, drinking a milkshake and listening to us complain. We just couldn't do it anymore, and so we left. We needed a new start, we needed to find ourselves somewhere where we wouldn't be influenced by our former lives."

Max shook his head, leaning back against the chair again. "Liz, I know you left because we didn't believe you about Alex's death."

I felt my heart slam in my chest. Of course he'd known, I'd been stupid to think that just because we left, he wouldn't remember my hurtful words, my strong pleas asking him to believe me that Alex didn't kill himself. I knew Alex had been murdered, and Max had turned away from my tears, he hadn't believed me. I couldn't take it. Max was right, that was a large part of why I'd left. I couldn't stay for someone who would never believe what I could feel in my heart.

When I said nothing, Max continued. "I should have listened to you, I shouldn't have ignored you like I did. I just want you to know that you- you were right." I let out a little gasp, and he nodded. "Alex was murdered. You left and I was determined to find out what had happened. It's kind of stupid, but I thought that if I found the truth, you would miraculously return to me. Tess got pregnant soon after you left, the biggest mistake of my life." He shook his head, not meeting my eyes, knowing this information would hurt me. "She kept insisting we had to go back to Antar for the baby, but I couldn't let you go, Liz. I couldn't stop remembering what you said to me before you left. And so I investigated, and you were completely right. An alien did kill Alex- Tess killed Alex."

I gasped again, coving my mouth with my hand as a tear escaped my eyes. Tess had killed Alex, Tess. She'd taken the life of my best friend, she'd stolen away my childhood. Tess had been the one all along, she was the reason we'd had to leave, she was the reason we'd felt so empty and alone. She killed our happiness.

I bent over slightly, as fresh tears ran down my face. My hair fell in front of my face like a veil, I didn't need Max to see my cry. I'd been so strong when he died, I hadn't allowed myself to cry. For years, I'd never been able to let him go, and now I felt it. I could feel his memory begin to unwrap its clenching grip from my heart, Alex was letting go. I was finally freeing myself from the pain of his memories, and I was growing at peace with it all. Max had helped to free me.

"Liz," he said and quickly moved himself from the chair, and over to the couch beside me. "Liz, you were so right, and I was so wrong. We sent Tess back up to Antar. It turns out that the Grenolith doubles as a ship, and she's gone. She will never come back to haunt us again." He looked at me worriedly. "Don't cry Liz, please."

I raised my eyes and locked my gaze on him. "I'm crying only because now I know. I have missed Alex for so long, Max. He only wants me to be happy, he wants Maria and me to be happy again, and now I think that I finally might be able to." I smiled through my tears, and Max smiled as well.

As I looked at him as evening settled in on the town of Roswell, I could see the Max I'd fallen in love with so long ago. No longer was my picture of him marred by the weeks before Maria and I had left, but now I saw him as the man he was capable of being. Max was right, Roswell was not the end- Roswell was the beginning, and in the dying light of the evening, I saw my savior in Max Evans.