CHAPTER 48
Liz

She didn't turn to look behind her.

Tried to ignore the increased barking of the dogs.

Attempted to block out the orders from the FBI screaming 'Federal Agent!', 'Freeze', 'Stop right there', 'I'm armed'.

She focused on the pressure of his hand against hers, of her fingers interlaced with his, on putting one foot in front of the other.

The lunch area moved by in a blur and she barely registered the green 'Exit'-sign above the door before they pushed through it. There were metallic stairs outside, only three steps, the perforated ones that enabled you to see through to the ground.

She stumbled, almost fell, as he pulled her down the steps. She ran into his back as he came to a complete stop.

"Melissa?"

Liz looked up and saw the open side door of a white van twenty feet in front of them. Outside of it was a girl, about their age, impatiently waving Max and Liz towards her.

"I'll explain later," she yelled. "Get in!"

Max didn't need much time to go over his options. A nanosecond of confusion passed before he pulled on her arm and together they ran towards the car. Liz didn't miss the suspicion and disproval on the woman's face as her eyes flickered over Liz. Liz got the message loud and clear that she wasn't welcome before Max with a sharp tug on her arm basically lifted her off the ground and she stumbled over the edge of the car, falling to her knees inside.

"Max," Isabel breathed from the dark inside of the van and Liz blinked to catch Isabel throw her arms around her brother.

Breathlessly, Liz looked around the interior of the van while Melissa jumped out and slammed the door shut behind her, before getting in at the driver's side.

They were all there. Tess, Isabel, Maria and Michael.

Liz scooted away, hating to have someone behind her back and scooted up with her back against the metallic inside of the door.

"That was Melissa," Max said, his voice filled with confusion. He was just getting out of Isabel's hug and he was shaking his head in incomprehension. "What is she doing here?"

"We had no choice but to trust her," Maria said. She was sitting next to Michael, desperately clutching his hand. "We were being chased and she came up in front of us."

"Isabel said that she works with you," Michael said.

"She's…" Max shook his head, a deep frown on his forehead as he glanced towards the front of the car, where the strange woman was maneuvering the van like she had spent her life driving get-away vehicles. "She's an EMT."

"I know that she's your friend," Isabel said, having talked to Melissa a lot of times herself. Melissa had even helped her when Max was having a seizure. "But can we trust her?"

"I guess we have to," Max mumbled, putting a hand across his eyes. Liz watched his shoulders rise in a deep sigh. Liz glanced to her left, towards the driver's seat. She was sure that they woman could hear their discussion, but apparently now was not the time for any explanations.

The van moved sharply to the side and the back of Liz's head slammed against the door.

"Yikes," Maria murmured, bumping into Michael.

Liz found a wide lanyard attached to the floor by a clasp next to her thigh and grabbed onto it for support. As she looked up, she saw Max moving towards her. He pushed up next to her and grabbed her free hand with his.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concern in his eyes.

"Yeah," she breathed, not sure if she was telling the truth or not. "You?"

"Getting there," he answered and brought their entwined hands to his mouth and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. A shiver of pleasure ran through her and she couldn't stop the small smile on her lips. He looked down at her, caught her smile and returned it with a small smile of his own.

"Who is she, Max?" Liz asked, catching his eyes.

"She's a friend," he answered seriously. Simply. "I think we can trust her."

"Does she know about you?"

"Nobody knows about us," Max said with a lopsided smile. "Well, except for you and Maria."

"Isn't it very odd that she came here? To this very spot and picked us up when we needed to escape? How did she know? And why isn't she worried about being our accomplice?"

"All very good questions," Michael piped up where he was seated across from them, reminding Liz that she was not alone with Max. The rest of the group was quiet, probably all listening to their conversation.

Suddenly self-conscious, Liz fell into silence and, shy of a squeeze of his hand against hers, Max remained quiet too. Except for a hushed conversation between Maria and Michael, which Liz didn't have the energy to focus on, the van was quiet; its passengers exhausted and shocked from the day's events.

Max

"Explain."

Melissa had gotten rid of the agents on their trail, somehow, and they were now parked on a gravel road off the main road, surrounded by trees. Melissa had just opened the side door to the van and let them all out, Tess and Isabel opting to stay seated on the edge of the side entrance to the van.

Melissa crossed her arms across her chest (Max had never seen her act so coldly) and hitched her chin in the direction of Liz. Ignoring Max's question, she said, "She doesn't belong here."

From the emotional roller-coaster provided by the day they'd just had, Max's anger wasn't far away. He felt it instantly bubble up to the surface as he stepped closer to Liz and took her cold hand in his. "She's with me."

Melissa looked at him. "She doesn't belong here."

"As far as we know, neither do you," Michael said.

The answer was delivered as a simple statement. "She's human."

Max felt his stomach churn. She knows. "Liz is one of us." He looked over at Maria. "And so is Maria."

"Maria's pregnant", Melissa stated, as if it was general knowledge. "She's carrying a hybrid. She is to be protected along with you." She turned hard eyes on Liz. "There's however no reason for us to risk everything to bring this girl along."

Melissa took a step towards Liz, which made Max move in front of Liz, putting himself between Liz and his work colleague. Melissa stopped and her eyes remained hard as she etched them into Max. Max felt like he should wither at her look, but nothing could make him move away from Liz and put her in a vulnerable position. Except for Maria, Liz was alone with four aliens (possible five), which put her in a ridiculously exposed state.

"I won't tell you what you want to hear as long as she's here," Melissa said.

"She knows about us," Max said. "I presume you do too?"

"She doesn't need to know what I'm about to tell you," Melissa argued tensely.

"Put Liz in the van or something, so we can find out what this woman is talking about," Michael sighed and Max felt Liz move behind him. He turned to watch Michael pull on Liz's elbow to forcefully move her towards the van. Liz's eyes were locked with Max, large and fearful in her pale face.

"Michael, what are-" Max protested, but before anyone could react, Melissa had acted on the moment of distraction and closed the distance between her and Liz.

Melissa raised a hand to Liz's forehead and Max's "No!" was followed by Liz's body slumping to the ground having been claimed by unconsciousness.

Max felt himself go ice-cold as the connection to Liz snapped, and governed by pure instinct - fueled by a hot wrath - Max stretched his hand out in the direction of Melissa.

Before Liz's slack body reached the ground, Melissa was flying backwards through the air, thrown by the energy from Max's outstretched hand. She hit the trunk of a tree as Max manifested his green shield around himself and Liz, falling to his knees next to her prone body and pulling her head up in his lap. Her head lolled to the side as he tried to simultaneously focus on keeping the protective shield up while searching Liz's body for injuries.

His heart was hammering in his chest at the unresponsiveness of Liz's body, of how her body was like dead weight, of the paleness of her face. Fighting the panic building at the back of his throat, ignoring the cold sweat that was breaking out on his forehead, he pressed his fingers to her jugular: finding a pulse, alas weak and thready.

He attempted to search her body, even without the connection between them, but the strain of keeping the shield up at the same time as taking care of Liz was quickly sapping his energy levels.

He looked at Melissa through the green veil, drowning in hatred. "What did you do to her?!"

Melissa was slowly getting to her feet, holding her hands up in front of her in a gesture of resignation. Maybe that was the best thing to do, considering that both Michael and Isabel were posed with their right hands stretched out towards her, prepared to fire if she decided to make the wrong move.

"Nothing," Melissa answered and she sounded shaken.

But Max didn't have the patience for her feelings.

Releasing the protective shield, he gently lowered Liz's upper body to the ground and got to his feet, advancing on Melissa quickly. Melissa shied back against the tree trunk that had stopped the throw of her body just a moment earlier, as Max stopped in front of her. He looked into the eyes of the person that he had considered a friend, with whom he had shared laughs and who had been a real support during bad days.

"Tell me what you did." There was nothing gentle about his tone. It was deadly.

"I'd tell him, if I were you," Maria said from behind them.

Melissa briefly glanced at the group behind Maria before she squared her shoulders and regained strength to her voice. "There's something wrong with her."

"There wasn't, before you touched her," Isabel said.

Max slammed a fist against the trunk, half an inch from Melissa's face. She jumped, but kept her eyes connected with his.

"What?" Max demanded.

"She has two minds," Melissa answered.

Max didn't have time to reflect over Melissa's words as Isabel forced his attention back towards Liz. "Max! She's seizing."

Without a word, he left Melissa and ran back to Liz. Her head was moving from side to side, her fists clenching and unclenching next to her body while non-sensical words were spilling over her lips. "Na kuuawa mtoto wangu. Na kuuawa mtoto wangu."

Isabel folded her arms around her middle and asked in a small voice, "What is she saying?"

Max cradled Liz's cheek with his hand and shook his head, feeling helpless and frustrated. "Nothing. It doesn't make any sense."

"No. It does." The group turned to Melissa, who had silently moved to stand next to them.

"It's gibberish," Maria protested.

Max stretched out his hand towards Melissa in warning and said coldly, "That's close enough."

Melissa stopped and met Max's eyes. "Is this the girl you saved when you were little?"

Max looked from Liz to Melissa, his hand lowering in confusion. "How do you know about that?"

"I know more about you than you think," Melissa said wistfully and looked at Liz, her voice turning gentle as she said. "Jina lako ni nani?"

"Aislin", Liz mumbled and Max felt his heart skip in dread. Aislin. Aislin.

Turning to Melissa, Max grabbed her wrist and demanded, "What did you ask her?" while Isabel asked, "What language is that?"

"She's speaking Antarian," Melissa looked at the group. "Your language."

"What did you ask her?" Max asked again, feeling his restraint falling apart. He had seen Liz in his dreams and he had heard the name in his head; Aislin. But it had been a dream. Liz was not some girl called Aislin, his mind had mixed it up.

"I asked for her name," Melissa answered simply.

"What did she say? Earlier?" Maria asked.

"Zan," Liz whispered, her voice breaking in sobs. "Zan?"

Melissa looked at Max and said, like she was only talking to him, "Earlier, she said, 'You killed my baby'."

"Upendo wangu," Liz mumbled.

"She's speaking to you," Melissa said to Max and he shivered with her words. Zan. Something about that word sounded familiar.

"What's happening to her?" Max asked weakly and took a hold of one of Liz's hands. Her hand immediately softened in his grip and her agitated movements calmed slightly.

"I'm sorry," Melissa mumbled, "I wanted to sedate her, so that we could speak in private. But apparently, by sedating Liz, I awoke Aislin."

Isabel laughed, but stopped abruptly as she saw the seriousness on Melissa's face. Looking around the group for support in the ridicule, Isabel asked, "You're joking, right?"

"I never thought this was possible," Melissa said, mostly to herself. "I've never heard of anything like this."

"Bring her back," Max said quietly but forcefully. He was not interested in history lessons at the moment. Liz was obviously in pain, writhing on the hard ground next to him, tears running down her cheeks, her eyes open but unseeing.

"Are you saying that she's possessed?" Isabel asked incredulously.

"In a manner of speaking," Melissa reluctantly agreed. "Your friend inhabits two minds."

"Bring her back," Max repeated, even more demanding.

"I'll try," Melissa sighed and dropped to her knees on the other side of Liz. Max had to struggle to keep himself from pushing Melissa away.

Grabbing Liz's free hand, Melissa mumbled, "Aislin?" Liz turned her blank eyes towards Melissa's voice. "Mimi haja wewe kwenda kulala. Mimi haja ya kuzungumza na Liz."

Liz wailed softly, "No, mtoto wangu."

"Mimi kukusaidia kuokoa mtoto wako ... Lakini unahitaji niruhusu nizungumze na Liz."

To Max's surprise, Liz relaxed on the ground, her eyes falling closed. "What did you say?"

Melissa looked at Max worriedly, "I told her that I needed her to go to sleep. That I needed to speak to Liz."

"What the fuck…?" Michael mumbled, standing over Liz's head.

There was rapid eye movement beneath Liz's eyelids before they flew open. Her gaze was confused before she focused on Max's face. "Max?"

Max felt his body sigh with relief and exhaustion. On instinct he bent down, put his hands around the back of her shoulders and crushed her upper body up against his. "Thank God." He didn't know how much more of this drama he could handle for one day.

"Melissa, is it?" Michael asked dryly as Max pressed a kiss to Liz's forehead. "You've got some explaining to do."