Chapter Twenty-Eight – Conundrum

Liz ran for several blocks before fatigue, coupled with a shortness of breath caused her to slow her pace. Instinctively, she looked over her shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't see Max anywhere in sight. As she walked her hateful parting words to Max rang in her ears.

"What was I thinking?" she groaned to herself. "Why did I say that? It was wrong on just so many levels. I'll be the first to admit that what I know about time travel and the like comes from reading science fiction novels, but they all have one theme in common. Those doing the traveling are supposed to be observers and not mess with the natural order of things."

The sun peaked higher over the horizon as Liz walked, and the air around her heated up, causing her skin to glow with the faint sheen of perspiration. She absently swiped her hand across her forehead, as her feet moved of their own volition, retracing the path she had taken earlier that morning.

"If we don't make things right," she mused. "Will we be messing with the natural order of things. Damn, this is all so confusing. I need to talk to someone but the only person I can think of is Alex, and I can't talk to him about him dying. Or can I?"

"Can you what?" a voice asked behind her.

Liz spun around in fright. She had been so deeply lost in her thoughts that she was unaware of anyone approaching. She bit back a scream and turned to run when the figure reached out and grabbed her by the arm.

"Liz, what's wrong? You look totally freaked."

"M-Michael," she stammered, a mixture of fear and relief running through her body. "What are you doing here? If you're looking for Max, he's about half a mile back that way," she added as an afterthought.

"Looking for you, actually," Michael admitted. "Well, I was looking for you, but I couldn't find you anywhere, so I figured I'd try Maxwell."

"Looking for me why?" Liz asked. She took a deep breath and tried to relax but adrenalin kept her heart beating at an accelerated rate.

"It'll keep, what's the matter with you?" Michael asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Um, you scared me?" offered Liz, half-heartedly.

"Not buying it," Michael said. "Now spill."

"I will, but first, why were you looking for me? Seriously, Michael, was it something important?"

"I had one of those dreams," Michael admitted. "It was weird. Max, Isabel and I were with some blond chick in this really strange room. There was this purple glowing thing there, and all of a sudden, I knew I didn't belong there. I was supposed to be someplace else, with, well, with Maria," he tacked on in a rush. "You're turn, spill it."

"I think," said Liz. "No, I'm positive that someone called Nicholas has shifted time and put us in an alternate reality. The thing is, if we go back to our original reality, Alex is going to die. But, if we stay in this reality, Max's son will never be born."

"You lost me," said Michael. "Max doesn't have a son," said Michael. "Wait, that's why we were leaving," he said slowly. "The baby couldn't survive here on Earth. We were going to use the," he paused for a moment. "The granolith!" he cried triumphantly, proud at himself for remembering. "We were going to use the Granolith to go home, but at the last minute, I decided that I belonged here with Maria, and when I exited the Granolith chamber, you, Maria and Valenti were all outside trying to get in."

"To tell Max that Tess had killed Alex," Liz said.

"So what's the problem?" Michael asked. "We stay in this reality, Alex lives, and Max doesn't have to go off on his quest to find his son."

"It isn't that simple," said Liz. "Believe me, I wish it were. I think, we're not supposed to mess with the flow of time. If we do, it could screw up so many different things. I mean, what if, in the other time, someone was close to finding a cure for cancer, or stopping the spread of aids. If we don't restore time to its original path, those things would never happen. I wish there was someone I could talk to who understood all this time travel stuff."

"How about Alex. Isn't he into the whole sci fi thing?" Michael asked. "Hop on, I'll take you to his house."

"Michael, I can't talk to Alex about this!" Liz cried.

"Why not?" Michael asked. He flung his leg over the seat of his motorcycle and waited expectantly for Liz to climb on.

"How can I tell him that if we restore time, he'll die?"

"How can you not?" Michael shot back. "I'd want to know. I wouldn't want anybody else making that decision for me, but me."

Liz stared at Michael; unable to believe that the most reasonable piece of advice she had heard had come from him.

"That makes a lot of sense," Liz admitted. "It's just weird, I mean how exactly do you present something like that to someone? Oh hey, guess what, we're in the wrong time, but if we go back to the right time, you get to die. So what do you want to do about it?"

"That's a little to blunt, even for me," Michael admitted with a laugh. "Come on, hop on, you can think about what you're going to say on our way over to Alex's house."

"Oh, wait, uh, we can't go there," said Liz, remembering what she had seen through Alex's bedroom window a short time ago. "I uh, I think Alex has, um, a guest." Her face turned a bright shade of red, and Michael quickly and correctly guessed the gender of Alex's guest.

"All right Alex," Michael crowed. "Who'd have ever imagined old Alex would be getting a little something on the side. Tell you what, let's round up Maria and Valenti, and then go get Max and Isabel. That should give Alex time to get rid of his guest."

"No!" Liz shouted. "We can't do that either."

"Why?" asked Michael growing instantly jealous. "Are you trying to tell me that it's Maria over there with that, that geek?" he spluttered.

"Um, no, it's not Maria," Liz said carefully.

"Ewww, Jesus, you mean he has Valenti over there. Man that is way more information than I ever needed to know."

"Michael!" Liz burst out laughing, despite the delicacy of the situation. "It's not Kyle, either."

"Well, if it's not Maria, and it's not Valenti, and you said Max is back that way, then that only leaves, that son of a bitch," Michael cried when he realized to whom Liz referred. "I'll kill him."

"Michael. Michael!" Liz yelled, trying to be heard over Michael's ranting. "Calm down. Believe me, I don't think you have to worry about Isabel. If anything, worry about Alex, he's had a crush on Isabel since the third grade."

"No, it's Isabel we need to worry about," said Michael, calming down, rapidly.

Liz looked closely at Michael, surprised to hear the sadness in his voice.

"Isabel doesn't let anybody get close to her. Not me, not Max, not anybody. If she let Alex get this close to her, it will kill her if he dies."