CHAPTER 30
Max

"How long have you known?"

Max had barely taken his eyes off the blonde petite girl with the innocent appearance and sly smile since she had entered his apartment twenty-three minutes ago. Michael's question was one in a long line of questions being fired at Ms. Theresa Harding this afternoon.

Tess shrugged. "Since the orphanage."

"Did you know about me?" Michael continued. "When I was at the orphanage, did you recognize me as being the same as you?"

"I had my suspicions," Tess replied.

"How did you know?" Isabel asked quietly from the other end of the room. She had been uncharacteristically quiet during the conversation and Max suspected it was a result of her trying to reconcile with the idea of Tess being an alien. Just like them.

"It happened by accident," Tess said, her voice softening slightly as she addressed Isabel instead of Michael. "A foster father at the time tried to 'reprimand me', you could call it. It ended with him on the floor, waving at big bats that only existed in his mind."

"Which you put there," Michael added.

Tess nodded, apparently unaffected by the horrors she might have caused. "I wanted him to be eaten by big nasty bats and hopefully get rabies as a result and there they were. Projected in his mind, from my fantasy world."

"What else can you do?" Max asked.

She turned ice blue eyes towards him. Her look made him feel unsteady. But not in the way Liz's eyes made his knees feel weak. No, Tess' eyes on him brought forth something primal, something almost sinister. He pushed the feeling to the back of his mind and hoped that he looked unbothered as he awaited her reply. It was the first time he had addressed her since she entered his apartment.

She shrugged and gave him a half-smile. "I have the same basic set-up of powers as I presume you have."

"Enlighten us," Michael said shortly, his arms tightly folded across his chest, deeming him unapproachable.

"Telekinesis, manipulation of molecules, creating energy blasts."

Max could feel Michael's eyes on him as Tess spoke. Her answer confirmed what Michael had already suspected; that Tess knew a lot about them and their abilities.

"Do you know where we come from?" Michael asked.

"Probably as much as you do," Tess supplied.

"What do you know of the beginning of your life on Earth?" Max questioned.

"You know," Tess shrugged lightly, "Came to naked in a pod in a cave. Wandered outside. Picked up by the police and placed in an orphanage. Nothing fancy."

"How did you know about us?" Michael was the one with the most questions. Max found himself reeling from all the information, causing him to remain quiet for the most part. Isabel seemed shocked into silence in another way altogether. Maria had decided not to come. Or to be specific; Michael had forbidden her to come. Max had a feeling Michael didn't trust Maria to be safe in Tess' company.

"I always had my suspicion about you," Tess answered and nodded to Michael. "The rest came from simple detective work. It doesn't take a lot to figure out why you three hang out so much. For a while I even suspected that blonde girlfriend of yours to be one too."

"Leave Maria out of this," Michael said tersely and Max hoped for Tess' sake that she would adhere to his warning.

She obliged with a nod. "Whatever you say."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Isabel asked. "Why didn't you tell me you were one of us?"

There was a longing in her voice and Max could guess why. Even with the company of Maria, Isabel had always wanted a female friend who was just like her. Someone to confide in, someone that was faced with the same issues as she was.

And even though Tess seemed a bit too callous and nonchalant about this whole discussion, there was something akin to compassion whenever she addressed Isabel. "I'm sorry, Isabel. But I think you can appreciate that I wanted my suspicions confirmed before I went blabbering about this with you."

"Why did you try to get into my brain?" Max asked.

Tess' eyes flickered to him and there was something in her eyes (fear? nervousness?) for a moment which was gone the next. "Again, I needed to confirm my suspicions. I wanted to go through your memories for that. To be honest, I didn't expect you to be aware of it."

"So you can do that - normally - without anyone's knowledge?" Isabel asked.

"It's very easy," Tess said simply, without a thread of remorse at the privacy she was invading.

"Did you do it to me?" Isabel albeit whispered.

"No," Tess answered softly. "You're my friend, Isabel."

"A truthful one at that," Michael added.

"I didn't find you all that truthful when we met, Michael," Tess said acidly.

"But I didn't know who you were," Michael sneered.

"I had my suspicions at the time, but wasn't sure," Tess said. "As I said, I had to be sure before I could tell you."

"What do you want from us?" Max decided to ask, before Michael lunged for Tess' throat. Michael was glaring hotly at Tess.

"Nothing," Tess answered, appearing innocent, but somehow Max didn't feel it. "I wanted you to know that I existed. Maybe let me into your group. Maybe I could help to figure out our past. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one of the four of us who's interested in where we came from and why we can do the things we do."

"Why should we trust you?" Michael asked.

"Look," Tess said, an edge to her voice. "I've been nothing but accommodating to you people. Look at it from my perspective; I come in here, one against three, and I've answered every question you've thrown at me. What is to say that you won't kill me right now? After all, I'm outnumbered and I don't know if I can trust you."

"She's got a point," Isabel mumbled.

"And since I'm one of you," Tess continued, "I can't very well turn you in to the authorities without the risk of exposing myself."

Michael scoffed, signaling to Max that his male friend didn't really believe that statement.

"I'm sure you can appreciate that it will take us some time to trus-" Max started but was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Um… excuse me."

"Just ignore it," Michael ordered behind his back, but Max couldn't ignore this one.

He could feel the visitor on the other side of the door the closer he got.

She was pale and there was a slight tremor in her body as she hugged her coat closer around her, as if she was freezing cold.

He could feel fear coursing through his visitor behind the door he had just opened, which instantly put him on alert. "Liz?"

"Hi," she mumbled, ashamed eyes meeting his.

They hadn't seen each other since that night. More than a week had passed. He had been afraid to approach her. He had wanted to give her space. But he had felt every second apart from her. Seeing her now felt like coming alive. On the contrary, she looked scared to death.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing," she murmured. "I need to talk to you." Her eyes flickered to her right and left and he felt apprehension wash over him. Something had happened.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she mumbled, as if she was trying to assure herself rather than him. "Can I come in?"

He wanted nothing more than to let her in. But probably for the same reason that Michael had ordered Maria to not attend this meeting, Max really didn't want Liz here right now. Just like Michael, he didn't trust Tess in the company of humans. Especially not if reality would mirror his dreams, wherein Tess had not reacted in the best manner towards Liz.

"Now is really not a good time."

A breath shuddered through her as she lowered her eyes in disappointment. "Okay."

He stepped out in the hallway and pulled the door closed behind him. She took a step back to accommodate him and gasped subtly as he cradled her cold white cheek in his palm, encouraging her to look up at him. "Liz? What happened?"

"I'm so sorry, Max," she said and looked like she was about to cry.

Her nonsensical apology brought out his deepest fear. Had she revealed the truth about him to someone? Was she here to warn him about the government that was about to capture him to possibly experiment on him and then exterminate him like the hideous creature he was?

"Tell me, Liz." A part of him didn't want to know.

"There was an agent…" she paused to swallow and Max let his hand fall away from her cheek and took a step back. Oh no…

She looked up at him in guilty surprise and started shaking her head. "No. No, Max, I didn't tell him."

He exhaled and let the door behind him support his suddenly jelly-like body.

"But he had a lot of questions about what happened," Liz continued and he was only mildly startled at the electricity running through his palm as she grabbed his hand. "Apparently David had a lot to say about the matter."

"They won't believe him," Max said, shaking his head. They wouldn't believe him. That was his only reprise.

"I'm not so sure," Liz said, looking at him with glistening eyes and he realized that she was worried about him. Her concern was not for her own safety or her own involuntary involvement in this, but for his. The realization was almost enough to blaze away his ascending feelings of panic.

He smiled at her softly. "Liz, it'll be okay. They have nothing."

"He was talking about the light - the green light," Liz added and the good feeling her concern had brought him instantly vanished. "And questioning how you knocked David out. The agent certainly knew a lot about the case and about you. It felt like he knew a lot about you."

Thoughts were racing through his head as he squeezed her hand and leaned in close, needing to smell her scent, needing to encase himself in the warmth from her body (even though she was probably chilled to the core from the look of her appearance right now) as a reassurance. Almost letting his forehead touch hers, he mumbled, "Thank you."

She blinked and a tear escaped from her eye. "Why?"

"I know that you were defending me."

"How do you know?" she mumbled and Max felt the bubble surround them, shutting everything but the two of them out.

"I just know that you would," Max whispered.

"I don't think he believed me," Liz whispered back, another tear creating a wet streak down her cheek.

"I doesn't matter. I'll take care of it."

"How?" Liz questioned again.

"I'll find a way."

"I'm so sorry," and a sob escaped her. "You warned me. Isabel warned me. But I never realized that it might be like this. That I would be protecting your life."

Max nodded and took a deep breath as he separated himself from her and their bubble. She looked as troubled as he felt as he let space enter between them. "I'll deal with it. Don't worry about it."

She gave a tearful laugh. "I will, you know. I'm worried about you."

He tried to give her a reassuring smile. He was certain that was not what it looked like when it grazed his lips. "And I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine," she whispered and lowered her voice into almost nothingness. "I'm human, there's nothing they can do to me."

Max felt a chill slam into him, freezing the blood in his veins at the thoughts of all the things humans would indeed do to other humans to acquire information.

"I hope so," he answered, not wanting to alarm her or shake her naïve view of the world. Liz was still blissfully unaware that sometimes her rights as an American citizen, an citizen of Earth, were not enough.

Maybe she had felt his chill, maybe she had felt his fear, because she didn't seem to believe him. "What would they do to me?"

Max shook his head, trying to stop her from thinking similar thoughts to what had plagued him. "It's okay. Don't think about it."

"What would they do, Max?" Liz asked, more forcibly.

"I don't know," Max answered truthfully. "But you have to be careful. You can't show that you know of me in any way. Our paths crossed that day and that's it."

"The agent knew that we know each other, I'm sure of it."

Max stilled. The agent couldn't know. He let his gaze flicker over her head, momentarily scanning the hallway. As he did he was hit by the absurdity of it, of how quickly his paranoia would kick in. But, paranoia was his middle name. Were they being watched?

"He knew that we had met at the party. He knew that you were Isabel's brother. He knew of Isabel."

Max looked at her. Her statement caused him to question what he had told her that week before. "Do you know of Isabel?"

She dropped her eyes and inhaled deeply before looking up at him and lowering her voice, "Before I met you, Isabel told me the same story - of having been found in the desert. She also told me that it was with you. That you were adopted together. It was not that hard to figure out, Max."

Michael had been right, Max thought and wasn't sure if he should be happy or devastated. Liz had interpreted the facts correctly.

Before he had a chance to comment on this, Liz added, "Which just gives me even the more reason to protect your secret."

He relaxed. He had no reason to distrust her. He could feel her sincerity emanating from her in waves.

"Maybe we shouldn't see each other," Max said, regretting it the second he voiced it. Not seeing her was the least he wanted. He found himself waiting anxiously for the opportunity to meet with her. But it wasn't safe. Certainly not now.

He could see his disappointment echo across her countenance. "Because of the agent?"

Max nodded. "It's not safe. We need to ensure everyone that I was just saving you that night and that you know nothing more of me. That way they'll leave you alone."

She was biting her bottom lip and she suddenly looked very vulnerable. Resolutely she started to shake her head. "Yeah, okay. That's probably the best thing to do."

"You have my number, right?" Max questioned, ensuring that she knew that it was not his choice to cut her off.

She seemed to get the hint because a small smile fell on her lips as she looked up at him. "Yes."

"If you need me. For anything. Just call. Okay?"

She let out a relieved breath. "Okay."

"Just try and act normal. Forget about the agent and he will forget you."

She nodded, as if his suggestions were starting to make more and more sense. "Okay."

He let go of her hand and instead cradled her cheek and let his thumb slide slowly across her cheek. Her smooth, soft cheek. A longing rattled through him and he held back a sigh. "Be careful."

She attempted a smile and nodded. "Yeah. You too."

"Thank you for telling me," Max said and let his hand drop.

"Of course," Liz said softly. "Bye."

"Bye," Max said and watched her retreat until she disappeared into the elevator at the end of the hall.

Staying away from Liz Parker was going to be painful.