3

"Liz." Max took his wife's hand and smiled down at her.

He was still concerned about her. There were no more green sparks but her eyes had taken on a yellow tinge and her voice was hoarse.

"I know there's something really wrong with me." Liz whispered. "It's not to do with the pressure, the FBI…..I think I have an illness. A disease."

"No, you can't!" Max was taken aback, though he firmly believed that Liz couldn't catch a disease. She wasn't human anymore; she had alien powers, alien DNA.

"But what could it be Max?" Liz asked, her voice rough. "What can be wrong with me?"

Max hesitated. He didn't know and he didn't know what to do to find out.

"Are you hiding anything from me?" he asked finally.

"Hiding?" Liz frowned, and then she realized what he meant. Pregnant, he was wondering if she was pregnant and hiding it from him.

"No." Liz answered truthfully. "No, I'm not."

"It's not pregnancy." Max murmured, standing up and pacing, thinking to himself. "It can't be a disease, you have alien DNA. But what else could it be?"

He sat down beside his wife and squeezed her hand in comfort and helplessness. He had no idea what was wrong with Liz, no idea how to help her.

"I can heal you." Max looked at her.

"But what if it does something? I'm not human anymore, it could trigger something. Something worse."

Max nodded sadly, not wanting to take that risk.

"Do you think I should go to a hospital?" Liz asked him after watching him with tears in her eyes.

"No, they can't help you." Max said quietly. "Unless you can look at your own blood cells. Biology, you can look at them and diagnosis them?"

Liz smiled. "It doesn't work like that. But I can try."

"Okay." Max smiled and leaned over to kiss his wife.

"I just want to get better. I want to put this behind us so we can go back. To Roswell."

Max looked at Liz and smiled hopefully. He just loved her so much; he didn't want her to feel this way.

"I'm going to help you recover." Max promised. "I'm going to sit here and look after you. I love you, Liz."

"Max." Liz gasped in fear. Max frowned and tried to comfort her, not knowing what was happening to her.

"Liz? Liz!"

Liz coughed out a spray of blood and went limp.

"Liz! Liz!"

Max reached for Liz's face, tilting her head in the recovery position and quickly clearing up the blood. He was panicking, he cared so much about Liz, and he couldn't do anything about it. He really wanted to heal her, but was afraid that something would happen if he did.

"Liz, please." Max felt tears in his eyes as he looked at the pale face of his wife, blood around the corners of her mouth. He felt helpless, but he knew he had to do something.

Maybe take her to the hospital. But then they would notice Liz's blood cells. That they were abnormal. Alien. Max didn't know how long Liz would stay in this state. He reached for the phone.

FBI Base, Roswell, New Mexico

"Still no sign of them sir, not in San Francisco anyway." Agent Davis glanced at Captain Mains as he studied the photos of the four missing aliens. Their images had been on the wall for months, the faces of four seemingly normal teenagers.

"We have to press forward." Mains snapped. "We can't let them spread through our country, killing our agents and blowing up our bases. I think we should consider taking action. Bring me the others."

Davis nodded abruptly and left the room. Mains studied the faces of the aliens he was devoting so much time and resources on, the ones that were wearing out the FBI. Their resources were stretched thin, if the aliens were to attack now, they would have no defenses.

That was why Mains was going to attack first. The aliens were obviously out of Roswell, and elsewhere. So they wouldn't find out what had happened before it was too late.

"Here they are sir." Davis appeared with more coloured gloss images. Mains took them without acknowledging his agent and placed the images beside the aliens.

"Any info Davis?"

The first image was of a married couple, fairly old, a man with light grey hair, and a woman with curly brown red hair. They looked worn out, like they had gone through a lot.

"Evans. Parents of the two Evans aliens."

"Good." Mains smiled.

Next image was a dark skinned young man, black hair.

"Ramirez. Jesse. Married to the female Evans."

"And the final one?" Mains pointed to the image of a fairly old man, with brown hair.

"Former Sheriff Jim Valenti, currently Deputy." Davis replied.

Mains nodded in contentment, regarding all the images on display.

"Do you have their locations?"

"Yes sir. We have units on standby right now."

Mains smiled. This was their chance. The aliens would definitely go after their 'families' if they cared enough. And Mains was positive that they did.

"Good. Send them out tomorrow. At dusk. Bring them here. Kill and dispose of any witnesses. No one must know."

"Yes sir."