Chapter Two

"Thank you all for coming" Max said looking at his friends who where all sitting at the Crashdown. Kyle and Liz were sitting together on one side, while Michael and Maria where sitting on the other and Isabel was sitting bedside him. Togother they made a semi-circle. He looked at in front thinking about Tess as part of the group, he was always suppose to lead but he could remember Tess taking control once and twice.

"Is there a reason we are here?" Michael asked breaking into Max's thoughts. Michael was seriously gettting tired of these long silence whenever the six of them got together. Or maybe it was just when Liz and Max where in the same room, both seemed to be a million miles away. Max was starting to worry him that was for sure, which was saying rather much since Michael was not much into feelings, but then again Max was like a brother to him. He was hurting, anyone with eyes could see that and all because of Tess, she did this to him, made him so unalife. He felt someone holding his hand and turned to Maria, softening up a little. Getting him to calm down, she was amazing like that.

"Yeah" Max said shaking his head avoiding all contact with everyone, "We haven't been together for almost a week and I just thought you...huh...deserved a say in this"

"In what?" Liz asked, wanting to shift Max's attention to herself and was surprise and hurt when he turned to her with absolutely no emotion. She suddenly noticed the silence taking hold of all, they were probably wondering what was going on between them.

"I want to remember who I was in my past life" Max said it so simple surprising them all with his big announcement. Max knew that they probably wouldn't understand but he was going to find Tess and his son if it was the last thing he did. Everyone around him exchanged glances with each other, obvious one thought was going on in each of there minds, Max had gone absolutely crazy, Michael however was the first to voice his concern.

"Are you crazy Max?" Michael asked standing up and staring at Max like a stranger, what was his friend thinking. Sometimes the way Max saw things was just a mystery to Michael at times and he wondered what was going on in Max's mind. The only thing that came into his mind, the only name...Tess.

"Yes, he is" Maria said answering Michael's question, she was looking at Liz with wide eyes before turning to Max. What was this guy thinking, here Liz was waiting for him to get over whatever crap he was going through. But it always seemed like Max had something happen to him or distract him every single week, "This is about Tess isn't it"

Max could feel Liz's eyes on him as if waiting for his answer, he knew that whatever he said was going to hurt her and he couldn't lie, "Of course, I wan't to understand everything and I have come to the conclusion that..."

"Whats to understand" Isabel interupted him, Max turned to his sister and took a deep breath waiting for her to come down hard on him but she was unusually calm, "Tess killed Alex"

"This isn't just about Tess" Max said then looked down as he said his next words, "Or about Alex"

"Excuse us" Liz said trying to not raise her voice but trying to understand what Max could possible thinking but he was wrong this was about Alex. Everything about Tess led back to Alex, he was the one that really suffered from that witch. And for Max to stand there and claim this had nothing to do with Alex was more that Liz could bear. Because it wasn't fair that Alex was dead and someone like Tess was still alife.

Max was thinking of Alex at that moment as well. Alex was his friend as well afterall but to say that this had anything to do with Alex was just wrong. No this had to do with Tess. Tess, the girl who had shown him that more things were more important. For a while, he was actually thinking about Antar and that maybe he had a place there. And then there was the baby that Tess was carrying, his baby.

"Alex is dead because of that...that" Liz could not even come up with a better word to describe her, thinking about Tess was pissing Liz off.

"We loved Alex too" A voice spoke up, Isabel said in a calm voice still looking at her brother, wondering what in the world his brother was thinking about, "And so did Max"

"Yeah, so shut up and listen to the man" Michael said harshly looking at Liz then turned to Max, "I have so many important things to do so make the announcement"

"I want to remember my past life" Max said calmly and quitely, not looking at anyone or anything of course he was aware of the attention and reaction of everyone in the room. Liz and Maria where shocked and were raising there voices against doing such a thing, Isabel was quite, just shaking her head in disbelieve, while Michael's face was expressionless as if thinking about something. Michael wanted to say so much but not outloud. Kyle was just sitting there looking around at everyone. Was he really the only one in this group who thought of Tess as human. He could not do anything.