Chapter Thirty-Five

Sorry that it took me this long to put up this chapter, exams..enuf said :) Read and Review as usual

Max, Isabel along with their parents Diana and Philip Evans sat in the living room in absolutely silence and also beside Max sat Tess with baby Zan sleeping in a small crib. Before dinner was over Max had announced to his family finally after years of lies about his true origins. Diana and Philip Evans had suddenly found out that their beloved children were hardly human, only half if that technicality counted. So the two had absolutely know idea of how to handle the situation that had represented itself. After putting the plates in the dishwasher, the dinner party had arrived in the living room and silence was the only sound heard since. Philip had already grabbed a bottle of vodka from the shelf but amarzingly enough he really wasn't drinking that heavily, not the way Diana was anyway. Isabel was sitting on the one person couch still in shock over the Evans that had taken place moments ago. Still she could hardly believe that her brother had announced their long time secret without even conculting either her or Michael. The brother that had refused to tell their parents the truth for years had suddenly spilled the secret outright to preserve Tess's honor. That fact alone made her absolutely angry but that anger was brushed aside in the moment by a feeling of trepidation. She was worried about her parents reactions towards the news. Tess felt vaguely uncomfortable as she sat next to Max glancing at everyone in turn. She shouldn't be there, that much was clear in her mind afterall this was a family moment and she wasn't part of the family at all.

If only Max had warned her of his intentions.

"You know, I don't know why you are so surprised" Tess suddenly spoke looking from both parents, she was tired of the silence and wanted someone to say something and if it was going to be her, then so be it. "Surely you two must have had an incling that told you that Max and Isabel were different from normal teens? The detarchment, the depression, the 'I am so alone' vibe they throw at you..."

Diana snapped her head towards Tess, giving her a glare that immediately silenced the young mother. She didn't really want to hear what a bad mother she was for not noticing the signs about Max and Isabel. Shaking her head, Diana grabbed the bottle of vodka filling a glass once more before swallowing in one glup. She was aware that both Max and Isabel wanted her to say something, no, the looks they kept sending told her that they needed her to say something. But one could one say in such situations.

Philip however seemed to have thought over Tess's words and now thought to answer her with why he never really thought much about Max or Isabel's behavior.

"Detarchment, depression, 'I am so alone' vibe are support to be signs that our children are from another planet?" Philip asked with a not of disbelief, "We have teenagers, those are signs of adolesence...we were prepared for sex talks, smoke talks, drinking talks and gesh...we were even prepared for Max getting his girlfriend pregnant. But Aliens from another planet? Thats kind of hard to swallow?"

"So what?" Isabel asked in a small voice, introducing herself in the conversation for the first time, "It doesn't change anything? We are still you children...you still love us, don't you?"

"What?"Diana was brought to attention by the childlike sound of Isabel voice, for a moment she looked at her daughter as realization was drawn in her mind. Diana stood up and rushed to Isabel's side taking and took her in her arms, "Isabel, of course it doesn't change anything...you are my daughter and I love you" Diana pulled back and turned to Max, "Both of you, the fact that you are...it doesn't change how I feel about you two, got it?"
"Is that why you didn't tell us before?" Philip asked looking back and forth between the two siblings, "Because you thought, it might change how we felt about you?"
The silence that followed told the parents that the two had really thought that about them. It was then understandable why niether one wanted to tell them, but for Diana this wasn't enough. It wasn't a good enough excuse and the fact that both of her children thought that about her was not a very good reflection of what she had taught them.

"You should not have thought that?" Philip said silently watching the distress taking place on his wife's face.

"We know" Isabel said in a calm voice now that she was asured that her mother's feelings would never change. She had always known that if neither Max or herself were to tell the truth that her parents wouldn't suddenly change their emotion cond. But she was only eighteen years old and thought reasonable were her thoughts, her feelings had no intentions of revealing the truth and prove herself wrong. She was just glad to know that she had been right all along. Isabel looked at her mother and smiled, "I've wanted to tell you for the longest time, it was so difficult for me to keep this as a secret."

"I am sure that it was" Diana agreed smiling back then turned to Max and Tess, "Does this have anything with the government being after you and all?"

Tess looked up to find everyone looking at her and smiled nerviously, how in the world had the conversation shifted towards her all the sudden, Tess wondered as she gave a small nod.

"Those were all lies" She announced what everyone in the room knew to be true, "Its a basic survival instinct for the four of us"

"speak for yourself" Isabel snapped turned to Tess, her eyes flashing with rage before an expressionless face appeared as she forced a smile to divert her parents of the cold situation between herself and the young queen of Antar, "I can not make my lies into an art form like yourself"

"Did you say four?" Philip asked in disbelief, not at all getting that there was something seriously wrong between the alien woman in his living room, "There is another one? Who...Michael"

Of course the three, Michael, Max and Isabel had always been close but really had different personalities and neither Philip or Diana could never truly understand why. But this as crazy as it was would make sense of the weird friendship between the three and would explain a lot.

"Wait a minute here" Diana exclaimed trying to understand everything that was being said but he really needed to get to the buttom of Tess' lie, "Tess why are the government after you?"

"Because they know" Tess said and that was one of the simplest way to say everything, afterall she really didn't want to scare the Evans in anyway shape or form. She told them about going back to the mother planet and the reason for that decision. Needless to say that the Evans were shocked to learn that this was a superman situation were Kal-El is saved from a planet's distruction. She did mention the war on Antar but not how to stop the war. The Evans had just had the shock of their lives, she really didn't want them to think for one moment that they might lose Max or Isabel even through that was an inevitability. She also avoided telling them the real reason why the army was looking for her.

"Okay, this is all too much to take in one night" Philip declared looking at the clock before standing up, "It's late, we should talk about this in tomorrow, we should have a family day so we can really discuss everything"

"Agreed" Diana said standing up as well, then looked at Tess for a moment before turning to Max, "Why don't you take Tess to Michael's apartment, it time to sleep"

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Liz Parker was almost done with her nightly rounds and only a couple more customers remained but as she worked, her attention seemed to be shifting away to a certain male character that was sitting at the counter. Her gaze kept straying to him in all the way possible. She could not help herself somehow but that had to do with the look on Eric's face. The burger in front of him was only half eaten and the drink half empty but she had given him that food more than 30 minutes ago.

What was more disturbing was seeing the serious and so shelled look. She had met Eric that afternoon and since then she had felt that the person that she encountered was a well rounded person. After serving one customer, Liz strode over to Eric with determination to know why he was looking so thoughtful to find out why he was looking so thoughtful.

"Hey" Liz greeted him as she stood in front of him.

Eric broke from his thoughts, blinking a couple of times before letting his lips twist into a charming smile, "Hello there gorgeous"

"Hello there handsome" Liz said back with a small smile, "Penny for your thoughts"

Eric looked at Liz for a moment before forcing a smile, "What is that suppose to mean?"

"It's just you had a look on you face for the last hour or so" Liz said very matter of factly, "I just wanted to know what you were thinking about"

Eric was silent for a moment seriously thinking before letting himself smile, "I see...an hour or so...has it been an hour...are you sure?"

Liz gave a small nod, "Yeah, i was watching you the entire time"

That was obviously the wrong thing to say because Eric suddenly brightened up, "Really, so you were watching me the entire night, huh?'

Liz realized her mistake too late when she concluded that she had just added to Eric's belief that he was hunkalitious, which he was but that didn't mean she wanted to think that she thought that.

"Well" Liz looked flustered for a moment then decided to explain quickly while refusing to look at him at all, "It's only because you looked so sad"

"Oh, it's not because maybe you think I am cute?" Eric asked with a raised eyebrows.

"No" Liz said quickly even though he was obviously a teen hunk but she was trying not to smile, "I do not"

"You do too" Eric said in contradictiory to her denial, "You so think I'm cute"

"I do not" Liz once more denied the accusation stiffly, "I was worried about you, okay, and...because...well I thought we had decided to be friends."

Eric looked at her with his bright smile before turning all serious once more, "you are right...where did Maria go?"

"Huh...oh..she went to Michael" Liz was taken back by the fast change of topic as she answered the question then peeped at him curiously, "Why do you ask?"

"Curious" Eric said his smile slipping away as he drove himself into his thoughts once more. He knew that Liz wanted to say more but at that same time her cell phone rang. He turned away as she answered the phone, giving her a little privacy not that he could even pay attention to what she was saying. It was only after a moment of silent that Eric turned around to find a shellshocked Liz holding on to her cell tightly.

"Liz?" Eric questioned in concern.

A few minutes passed before Liz looked up at Eric, "That was Michael, Maria is in the hospital"

"Okay, then" Eric said standing up, "I'll take you there then"

Liz gave a small nod and silently followed Eric to his car. Thinking about Maria, from what Michael had only told her that it was serious and that she was in the Emergence room. The car ride was silent because for one thing, Eric knew that Liz wouldn't be up for talking and to be honest he didn't know what to say.

"Turn left" Liz suddenly broke the silence as the car came to a crossroads.

"But I thought the hospital was the other way" Eric stated while looking around, he was almost sure of it didn't he pass the hospital that afternoon when he gave Maria and Liz a ride.

"It is" Liz agreed with him then looked up at his questioning look, "We're going to Max's house, I need him right now"

Eric turned to Liz after her sentence, then nodded in understanding before he turned left and thereafter followed her directions. As soon as they got to the Max's house, Liz was out of the car even before Eric stopped running to the front door and ringing the door bell furiously.

"Hey, what the hell?" Isabel questioned as soon as she opened the door to find Liz and a strange but very cute guy standing there.

"I need Max" Liz said ignoring Isabel as she pushed Isabel aside to get into the house.

"That's sweet" Isabel said sacarstically giving the guy a one minute study and through curious as to who he was she turned to Liz, "But he isn't not here"

"Well, where is he?" Liz asked

"I'll give you three changes to guess" Isabel said with a small fake smile.

"Isabel, Maria is in the hospital" Liz said quickly, she had no time to play games.

Isabel's smile slipped off from her lips, so Liz didn't come to the house because of Tess. It was apparant that the girl had no idea about the family dinner and the only reason that she was there was to get Max to Maria. Max had the power to heal. Maybe he would be of help to Maria. And if Maria was sick, then Michael would have to be at the hospital too.

"His with Tess" Isabel said silently.

Liz blinked at Isabel, Max was with Tess...Even though she was well aware that Max was struggling with his feeling. She shouldn't have been surprise by the statement but she was and those feelings of hatred for Tess come up. However at that moment, Maria was most important .

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In Michael's room Max looked down as his beautiful son closes his eyes, the little baby boy going away to dreamland. In that moment in time, everything else felt small, the world felt right. And why not, Max finally had his family back and he was determined more than anything to keep them safe from harm. Kavir was not going to take from him another child, not this time. Hoping that only good dreams would penetrate the little mind Max kissed his son on the forehead and brought the blanket safely up to Zan's chin. With one last look, Max walked out of Michael's room into the living room. Tess standing at the window looking out , wearing a long white shirt, hair tied and arms crossed.

"Finally asleep, huh" Tess stated the questioned silently turning to face him while wearing an expressless face expression.

"yeah" Max answered with a geunune smile walking up to Tess and taking her into his arms and took hold of her, "I just finished telling him a story about a rabbit and some eggs, it wasn't very good but he did fall asleep"

"That's nice" Tess said while moving away from Max's arms though being near him was not something she wished to pass up. But thinking of what happened ealier that night was making her furious. How could he embrass her in front of his parents like that? How dare he not tell her what had happened with his mother, and now she made a full of herself?

"Thats because you deserved it" Max said silently as he heard her thoughts. He knew that she was more than powerful to keep those thoughts private but had voiced them loudly so he could gather how angry she was with him.

Tess turned to face him, fury written plainly on her face, "Excuse me"

"Fine then, you are excused" Max said still wearing his smile as he leaned forward, "Think of it as payback"

"Payback?" Tess asked with a shocked face, "For what?"

"Is that a trick question?" Max asked after a moment of silent, "Let's see, who has been lying ever since she got here? You told us that you lived with Nasado your entire life? You lied about my son not being able to breath in this planet? And the fact that you were caught with this lie is because you took it upon yourself to challenge the United State Army..."

"Okay, okay" Tess exclaimed interupting Max's list of her wrong doing, suddenly the anger left her just like that. She hadn't really thought of all the things that he had apparantly thought about, this was something that Zan would have done in another lifetime. Max and Zan where actually starting to intergrate.

"Sorry" Tess apologized silently after a few seconds of completation.

Max shrugged his shoulders, "listen learned then"

Tess finally aloud a small smile to show as she gave a small nod, "Yeah, I will never be this careless again"

Max blinked a few times while staring at Tess before chuckling outloud while sitting on the couch, "Then I'll take that as a no"

Tess shrugged as she sat next to Max a feeling of contendment taking over, "you should have still told me that you were thinking of telling your parents the truth"

"I still cant believe that they took things well" Max said outloud to Tess, "I have to admit that I thought they would freak out on me and Isabel"

"Aren't you glad to be wrong?" Tess asked making herself completely comfortable beside Max, "Parents who love their children completely don't care much about anything else. Interlove between different species is not that unknown, love at dogs and humans..."

"Are you comparing me to a dog" Max interupted trying to sound offended while struggling to control his bubbling laughter.

"Yes...what..no" Tess went silent for a moment then looked flustered, "No, of course not, it's just that...I am saying that is possible between...I am not making you feel better am I?"

"Are you kidding?" Max asked with a bright smile touch her face, "Though you just insulted me, you were adorable doing it"

Tess smiled brightly at the compliment before leaning forward, "Really"

"Really" Max echoed nodding while carressing her face, "You are so beautiful"

Max declared touching his lips to hers for a perfect moment. It wasn't full of desire or passion as before, this was just a warm, delightful kiss.

"Not mad anymore about everything?" Tess asked hopefully.

"Oh no" Max said smiling slightly, "I am still so mad at you...but I will get over it"

Tess signed, it would have been completely unrealistic if Max had decided to forgive and forget at that moment but she suppose he had every reason to be mad. She had lied to him, and if he had his reasons to be angry at her and there were valid then she could have reason to be angry at him.

Before anything could be said further, Max and Tess pulled apart as the door opened. Both turned to find Isabel standing at the doorway, both exchanged glances both thinking that Isabel had come to vent some anger and spurt some tribulations.

"Izzy" Max said ready to apologize and explain but not getting a chance because Liz suddenly appeared surging forward and throwing her arms around Max's shoulders. Tess looked on in dismay as Max brought his arms around Liz, Isabel smiled in satisfication and Eric glanced at Tess.

"Max" Liz whispered softly holding on tightly because at that moment, everything seemed to disappear.