Home Again

“What happened up there?” Maria demanded. “Where’s Liz?”

“What about Nacedo?” Sheriff Valenti wanted to know.

Max seemed relieved for a question he could answer. “Nacedo’s alive,” he told the sheriff. “He’s posing as Pierce to keep the Special Unit off our backs.”

“That’s a good idea,” Valenti admitted. “We can dispose of the body, and there won’t be a murder charge hanging over Michael’s head.”

“That takes care of one problem,” Max was looking everywhere but at Maria. “What about Maria’s Mom’s car? It’s a bit a shot up, Liz and I had to abandon it.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Valenti replied. “I’ll have it picked up and tell Amy DeLuca that Maria was carjacked. Is that okay with you, Maria?”

But Maria was paying no heed to the sheriff. Instead she was focused on Max and the question that he had not answered. “Max,” she spoke slowly, determined to get his attention. “Where’s Liz?”

“I don’t know,” he said quietly, finally looking at her.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Maria shrieked. “She was with you!”

“She left me,” he whispered brokenly.

“What?”

“She ran off,” Isabel came to Max’s rescue. “When we heard the message from our mother.”

“She ran off? Wait, what message?” Maria was confused.

“We set off the orbs,” the other girl explained. “They’re communicators, and we received a message from our mother… our real mother from home…” she trailed off.

“And Liz just ran off? Just like that?”

“She left me,” Max repeated. “She didn’t want to stand in the way of my destiny.”

“We need to find her,” Alex spoke up. “She shouldn’t be wandering out there alone.”

“I agree,” the sheriff turned to Isabel, who seemed to be holding it together better than Max at the moment. “Where’s the pod chamber?”

Isabel told him. “What about Kyle?”

Valenti stopped, torn between his son and the need to make sure Liz was all right. “Kyle… ah… could you make sure he makes it home okay?”

She nodded. “Sure.”

“I don’t need their help!” Kyle practically snapped. “I’ll be okay on my own.”

“Son…”

“It’s okay, Dad. Go find Liz, she needs your help more than I do at the moment.” Despite what Kyle must be feeling, after everything that he had seen, it seemed to Maria that there was no bitterness in his tone. Just resignation and concern for Liz.

By the time they found Liz, she was almost half way home from where Isabel said the Pod Chamber was. She was walking at a quick pace, with tears streaming down her cheeks, and she seemed unaware of her surroundings. Maria had to get out of the sheriff’s van and physically stand in her path to get her attention.

“Maria?” Liz looked at her in blank confusion. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, chica,” Maria replied. “We couldn’t let you wander the desert alone now, could we?”

“We?” Liz’s eyes darted from Maria to Valenti’s van where the sheriff and Alex waited. She frowned.

“Come on, Liz,” Maria took her arm. “Let’s get you home.”

“Home,” Liz repeated, her brown eyes filling with tears again.

Despite Alex and Maria’s best efforts to draw her into a conversation, Liz remained silent on the short trip back into town, and after Valenti dropped the three teenagers off at the Crashdown. They did not stay in the diner, rather Maria and Alex took Liz upstairs to the balcony outside her bedroom, instinctively knowing that what she had to tell them could not be spoken of in the diner. But still Liz remained silent.

“Chica, why don’t you tell us what happened in the Pod Chamber?” Maria squeezed her friend’s hand. “Why did you run away?”

“I left him,” Liz murmured in the same broken tone that Max had used earlier.

“But why?” Maria wanted to know.

“Isabel told us that the orbs played a message from their mother,” Alex added.

Liz’s eyes filled with tears again. “Max is destined to be with Tess.”

“What?!” Maria could not believe it.

“That’s what the message said,” Liz continued. “Max, Tess, Isabel and Michael… they had whole other lives back on their home planet. Tess was… was… Max’s wife…” Brokenly, she told the whole story to her shocked companions.

“Oh Liz…” Maria did not know what to say. She could only imagine what Liz must be feeling—she did not have the deep connection with Michael that Max and Liz have… had.

“What are you gonna do?” Alex asked.

“I... I can’t get in the way of Max’s destiny,” Liz replied. “I won’t. I love him too much for that.”

Maria smiled wanly. She felt the same way about Michael. His declaration earlier still surprised. “Our lives were a lot less complicated before the Czechoslovakians came into them, weren’t they?”

The comment drew a half smile from Alex, but no response from Liz. She was staring blankly into space, and only reverted her attention to her friends after Maria snapped her fingers in front of her face a few times. “I need to get out of here,” she suddenly declared.

“What?” Maria blinked at the non sequitur.

“I need to leave Roswell for a while. Max needs to forget me and move on with Tess, but he won’t do that if I’m hanging around.”

“Where would you go?” Alex asked.

“What about school?” Maria wanted to know.

“Are you sure about this, chica?” Maria squeezed her hand again.

The look in her brown eyes told her that Liz was not sure, but she nodded resolutely. “I have to do this, Maria. It’s for the best.”

Liz’s decision may have been what was best for her, but it put Maria in an awkward spot when Max turned up in the storeroom while she was working. “You can’t be here, Max!” she hissed, looking around, hoping that Liz or Mr Parker would not find him there.

“I need to talk to Liz,” the alien told her. “But I haven’t seen her around. I think she’s avoiding me.”

Well, duh, Maria thought. “Liz told us about the message the orbs gave you,” she said instead.

“I figured she would have,” Max replied. “That’s why she’s avoiding me. But I don’t accept what it said about me and Tess. I can’t. Liz is the one I love.”

“That may not matter when you’ve got a whole other destiny to live.”

“But I don’t accept that, Maria,” he insisted. “And I know that Michael and Isabel don’t either.”

Maria snorted. “I find that hard to believe.”

“It’s true. Michael’s just staying away ‘cos he doesn’t want to hurt you. So will you help me?”

“Huh?” Maria had totally lost track of the conversation. “Help you with what?”

“Liz. Will you help me get through to her?”

Maria closed her eyes, willing Max to go away and not put her in the middle. But life did not work like that. “She needs time, Max,” she said finally. “Leave it alone for a while, okay? She needs time to take it all in. We all do.”