Disclaimer: Roswell, and its characters do not belong to me. Melinda Metz, Jason Katims and 20th Century Fox have that particular pleasure. If I was lucky enough to own them, you just know the show would still be on the air, and you be watching that instead of reading this.

Rating: PG-13 to R for inappropriate language and some violence.

Winds of Change

Chapter Six – Connect the Dots

Liz went through the motions of serving the customers, and cleaning up after them, but her mind was everywhere but on her work. During the lull, she polished same spot on the counter over and over again as her mind worked feverishly trying to solve the riddles that filled her mind.

The tinkling of the bell over the door shook her out of her reverie, and she looked up to see Max Evans and Michael Guerin walk into the café. Michael glared at her, the antagonism, mixed with another emotion she couldn't identify, visible in his eyes.

She schooled her features into an indifferent expression and approached their booth.

"Hi, can I take your order?" she asked.

"Hi Liz," said Max. "I, uh, I wanted to apologize for bolting out of the lab this afternoon. I wasn't feeling very well."

"No problem," said Liz, the hurt she felt reflected in her eyes. "I just did it myself. Now what can I get you?"

"We'll have an order of Saturn Rings," said Michael.

Liz made a quick notation on her pad and walked away before Max could say anything.

"I wanted a cherry coke," Max complained to Michael.

"Yeah, whatever. Why are we here, Max? This is the last place we should be."

"I thought we'd agreed that the best thing we could do was act like nothing had happened," said Max.

"Wrong!" Michael hissed. "That's what you agreed. I never agreed to anything."

Liz placed their order and waited until it was filled watching them out of the corner of her eye as she filled sugar containers.

As soon as the rings were ready, Liz placed them on a tray to which she added two cherry cokes and a bottle of Tabasco sauce. Liz picked up the tray and carried over to the table and placed the rings and drinks in front of the boys, along with the unasked for bottle of Tabasco, and left without a word.

"Maybe she overheard me," Max said, looking at the drink he had wanted but not asked for."

"Yeah, maybe," Michael said, doubtfully. "But how do you explain this?" He held up the bottle of Tabasco sauce like it was something disgusting he had found on the side of the road.

"Michael, we eat here all the time. Maybe she remembered that we always use it," said Max, trying to sound reassuring.

"Sure," said Michael, dumping Tabasco into his soda. "Whatever. Okay, look, you apologized, so can we leave now?"

"Fine, Michael, we'll leave," said Max. He slid out of the booth and slipped his arms into his jacket. "Oh, hey wait a second, Maria just came in. I should go see how she's doing."

"You should be leaving, Maxwell," said Michael, propelling his friend towards the door. "I agreed to the hiding in plain sight thing, but there is no way in hell you need to start hanging around with those two."

Max gave one last long, lingering look at the two girls behind the counter before he allowed Michael to push him out the door into the warm New Mexico evening. Max climbed behind the wheel of the battered Jeep he drove and started the engine.

"You coming?" he asked Michael.

"Uh, actually, I have a couple of things I have to pick up for Hank," Michael said, referring to his foster father.

"Well, I'll wait and drive you home," Max offered. He knew Michael's foster father liked to give Michael a hard time, and he worried about his friend.

"No, it's good," said Michael, looking at the ground. "It'd probably be better if you didn't come around." Hank had been gone for the past couple of days, but Michael wasn't above using him, and his rotten home life as an excuse to get rid of Max for a while. "I'll see you later."

Max nodded and let out the emergency brake. Michael banged on the hood of the Jeep as Max pulled away from the curb. He waited until Max was out of site before he started walking down the side street that would take him to the back of the CrashDown Café.

Nicholas smiled an evil smile as he watched Max leave the seedy little burger joint owned by Liz's parents. He knew that if he could just keep Max and Liz apart, then this time frame would remain a reality. All he had to do was eliminate Liz Parker, and then all his problems would be solved. Or rather, Kivar's problems would be solved. The only way his problems would be solved would be to get him off this God forsaken planet and back to Antar.

Nicholas looked around before he slipped around to the back of the restaurant. He secluded himself in the doorway of an adjacent building and settled back to wait for Liz Parker.

Liz sighed as she carried the last bag of trash out to the dumpster behind the café. She usually hated closing the CrashDown by herself, but tonight she relished the opportunity to go over the events of the past few days in her mind.

She hefted the heavy bag into the dumpster and turned to walk back into the restaurant when she got the eerie feeling that somebody was watching her.

"W-ho's there?" she called softly. "Kyle, is that you?" Liz foolishly stepped away from the safety of he doorway into the middle of the alley. "Hello?" She spun around slowly, but was unable to see anybody in he dark shadows of the night.

The sound of pounding footsteps captured her attention, and she turned in their direction only to be knocked to the ground.

"Liz, get down!" she heard a voice call out to her, followed by an incredibly loud crash and a flash of green light.

"Damn, he got away," the voice said. "Are you okay?"

Liz groaned and pushed herself up onto her hands and knees and turned her head to see who was speaking to her.

"Michael?"

"Yeah," Michael Guerin said brusquely, holding a hand down towards Liz to help her up.

"You shoved me on the ground," said Liz. "Why?" She sounded so confused when she asked why, that Michael was afraid she had a concussion or something. He looked closer at her in the dim light and realized that her confusion was actually fear.

"I was walking down the street, and I saw some guy duck down here," Michael improvised. He looked suspicious, so I followed him."

"You followed him," Liz repeated, dully.

"Look, maybe we should get you inside," Michael said, nudging her towards the still opened door of the café.

They walked through the deserted kitchen and out to the main eating area of the restaurant. Liz sat at the counter and Michael sat in one of the booths and looked at Liz for several minutes. He could see her relaxing bit by bit in the familiar surroundings.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Michael asked, finally. "I'm sorry if I scared you, I never meant for things to get out of control."

"What did you say?" Liz asked. She heard a roaring in her ears and the room seemed to shift a little bit.

"I said I'm sorry that I scared you," Michael repeated. "Look, are you okay? Should I call somebody or something?"

"No, I just got this déjà vu feeling for a second, that's all. It was kind of weird."

"There's a lot of weird things going on here," said Michael, eyeing her speculatively.

"Yeah, there have, starting with Max's miraculous healing of Maria the other day," Liz said, aggressively. "But you know what, I could almost accept that, but there are just too many other weird things happening."

"Like you're knowing Max wanted a cherry coke tonight, you mean?" Michael countered.

"Do you like Metallica?" Liz asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"Yeah, I love them," said Michael, confused by the sudden change in subject.

"Maria was right," Liz said, softly. "Something weird is going on here, and I'm going to figure it out!"