She left him sitting in the Jeep, the engine idling loudly, and she did not turn back. Though the sun was just an hour or two from appearing on the horizon, she was not tired in the least. Events of the last two days had her on edge, wired. The last thing she wanted to do was climb the ladder to her room and pretend to be asleep.

She was contemplating entering through the diner to grab a snack when the rumble of the engine cut off. A tremor spread through her body and she grabbed for the nearest rung, ready to haul herself up and away from him. Two hands closed over her own, two strong arms wrapped around her shoulders, and Liz stopped breathing.

"I don't understand." Max expressed agony in every word, but his lips were so close to her ear and his breath was so warm on her skin that every syllable felt like a seduction.

"Max, please, we can't keep having this conversation. What's done is done." She put one foot on the lowest metal bar and began to push herself up. He held her down, though, and moved one hand to her hip, pulling her back against his body. She clung to the ladder, trying desperately to keep space between them.

"I can feel it coming off of you in waves," he told her, pressing his nose into her throat and closing his eyes. "It's fear, Liz. Why would you be afraid of me?"

"I'm not afraid of you. I could never be�"

"Then tell me the truth. Whatever it is, it can't be as bad as what I saw."

She twisted in his grasp, determined once and for all to make him forget her, forget about what he thought he had a right to know. What she had promised a 14-years-older version of him she would never reveal.

"I'm serious, Max! We're not going to talk about this anymore. I've made my choice. And...it isn't you." His eyes were already so sad that this latest injury did not even register. Instead he leaned into her, brushing her long hair away from her eyes and winding it around his fingers.

"Why did you agree to go with us yesterday?"

"What?" The change in subject briefly confused her. "I didn't have a choice. I'm the only one who had a legitimate reason to see Whittaker's family."

"It was dangerous for you to be there. You had to know that."

"It's always dangerous, Max." She frowned as a slight smile played across his lips and his hold on her loosened.

"You could have died. And that was all I could think of. Isabel and Tess�my family�were in danger and all I could think of was saving you. After everything."

"All the more reason for you to forget about me and move on."

"No." He was suddenly angry, his eyes hard, his jaw set. "You lied to me. Tell me why."

Liz jerked away from him and climbed three rungs up the ladder before his hands gripped onto her thighs and pulled her back down. The metal bars pressed against her chest and stomach, while the full length of his body pressed against her back. She bit her lip as tears threatened her eyes.

"You could have died today! For us, for me. After you looked me in the eyes and told me you weren't willing to, Liz. But it was a lie. You proved that. What else was a lie?"

She pressed her forehead into the crook of her arm and choked back a sob. Had the Max of the future known how persistent the teenage version of himself would be? Had he really expected her to withstand all of these assaults, all the pain she was causing him? There was no way she could keep pushing him away if he refused to go.

Max felt the shudder of her shoulders as she struggled not to cry, closing herself off from him. He knew well that the pain within them had no place to go if they could not share it with each other. He grabbed her chin in one hand and forced her face to the side. Her lashes were already wet with tears and her thin-pressed lips were trembling.

"You want to tell me," he whispered in her ear. "You know I'm not going to leave you until you do."

She shook her head slowly and clung to the ladder, closing her eyes and willing him to leave. Instead he kissed her, right above the pounding pulse in her throat. His lips lingered there, sucking on the delicate flesh, daring her to pull away. And she would have, except there was no place for her to go.

Max moved slowly up her neck, running his tongue around the shell of her ear before pulling her tighter against him and rubbing his cheek against hers. Two days worth of stubble rasped against her skin.

"Max. No." Her voice cracked, as it always did when she was trying to be firm with him, but didn't mean it. His hands were around her waist, squeezing softly. Her knees felt weak and her skin itched for him to continue touching her. Tears still flowed down her cheeks.

"When I'm with you, I can't seem to stop wanting to feel you. Everywhere. It's like fire, Liz." His hands inched up, across her hipbones and under her soft sweater. Encountering another shirt beneath, he pulled it from the waistband of her jeans, seeking out the smooth skin of her stomach. His hands were so large that they seemed to span her completely. His thumbs brushed against her and she gasped.

"Tell me," he implored her again. "Tell me and we can be together."

Again she shook her head. She felt his hands tighten until it was uncomfortable for her. She wriggled against him, but his fingers continued to squeeze her until she winced in pain.

"I can't let you go. Can't you see?" Something in his voice had changed. His low, usually soft voice had turned desperate.

His left hand continued to move up under her clothes, skimming lightly over her breasts until it rested on her sternum. With his right he grabbed a handful of her hair in his fist and pulled it away from her neck. Again she felt his lips against her skin, then his teeth as they raked against her skin.

The hardness of his body was not lost on her. She could feel him pressed up against her, the heat radiating off of him. He seemed to get hotter every minute he touched her. Liz's own body was begging for release, in every sense of the word, and she struggled to deny it.

"I want you," he growled. "Every second. You feel it. I know you do."

She nodded as her body finally betrayed her. This thing, that she felt when he touched her, was more than she could control. And somehow he knew it.

"Max..." He felt her surrender as she pushed back against him, seeking more of him.

"Tell me. Please, Liz. That's all I want."

She turned to him, flinching as her hair jerked out of his clinched fist, as the fingernails of his other hand scraped across her chest. He was so beautiful. The angles of his face, the shape of his nose, the heavy lashes framing his pleading eyes. She touched him gently with her fingertips as she took him in. Everything about Max was so familiar to her, yet she was always amazed at how handsome he really was.

Her fingers rested finally on his lips and she closed her eyes, leaning in to replace the soft touch with a kiss. Max wasted no time parting her lips and slipping his tongue inside to brush across her own. They both whimpered.

"You wouldn't react like this. If you had been with him," Max said, moving away from her lips and placing kisses on her closed eyes. "You forget that I know you, better than anyone."

Liz shook her head and urged his lips to hers, guiding him with insistent fingers on the back of his neck. The tendons there grew taunt as he resisted and pulled back to look at her. Her eyes were closed, her lips parted and moist, her chest heaving as she gasped for air. He slipped his fingers beneath her clothes and began tracing circles on the exposed skin of her back. Liz went limp, trusting him to hold her upright.

"He's never touched you. Like this." Max slid open the clasp of her bra and ran a single finger down her spine. She squeezed her eyes tight, trying desperately to block any memory of that night, any memory of the future coming back to change them. His thumbs drifted around her side, brushing against the swell of her breasts. For the second time that night Liz held her breath, waiting to see how far he would take this. His hands closed over her and all the air left her in a rush.

"We...can't," she managed, opening her eyes and fixing her gaze over his shoulder.

"Haven't you wondered what it would be like? With someone who loves you, like I love you?" He teased her, gently, until a soft groan escaped her and her cheeks flushed a dark pink. "You blush like no one has ever touched you there, Liz."

He dragged the fingers of his right hand down her side and found the button on her jeans. Liz turned toward him instantly; her eyes wide and scared as he pulled the material apart, slid his hand inside and curled his fingers around her sharp hipbone.

"Let me show you, Liz. Just once."

Once. The dam inside her broke and Liz began to cry, pressing her face into his chest where she could hear his heart beating wildly. He circled her with his arms and held her to him.

"I can't live my life with a series of �just once' experiences," she choked out. "But everything we share is in danger of being just that."

"Do you think that's what I want?" he whispered into her hair. "I put off kissing you the first time because I knew I'd never want to stop. I tried to conceal how much I love you, because I knew I'd want to show you every second we're together. I've held back...being intimate...with you, because I know that once it happens, I'll never be able to sleep another night without you in my arms. Nothing is ever enough for me, when it comes to you."

She wiped the wetness from her cheeks with the back of her hand and gazed up at him. Max held her face in his hands and placed phantom kisses on her nose and forehead. And then he tripped into her memory and the images flooded his mind�i need you to help me fall out of love with you/find someone else, i can't do this/i leave my boxers on, right/i'm just not ready/did you see things, when he healed you/it feels good to make you laugh/will you dance with me.

Max pushed away from her, eyes wide. She wrapped her arms around her small frame, hugging in some of the warmth of his body, and looked terrified.

"I did this to us."

"You had to, Max. They all died, we were in danger."

"You did all of this, because I asked you to. I loved you, yet still put you through this. How? How could I do that?"

Liz took his hand and pressed a kiss into his palm, cradling him against her cheek. She turned away from him, began to climb, and he followed her.

*-*-*-*

She pulled him down next to her on the lounge chair, making no move to plug in the tiny lights strung up around the windows. It was Max who sobbed now, quietly, into her shoulder. Liz sighed and hugged him closer.

"We can't keep doing this," she murmured to him, stroking his hard-muscled chest through the well-worn jersey of his tee shirt.

"I want you to be in love with a normal teenage boy, but I'll never be normal," he told her, clutching at the waistband of her sweater. "And it's only going to get worse. We're all growing, into our powers. I'm less normal, every day."

"But you're the same, to me." She dipped her fingers into his collarbone and tugged him forward. Liz kissed him gently, still unsure about being here with him, afraid of undoing the changes he had traveled back in time 14 years to affect. He pulled her bottom lip into his mouth, tangling his fingers in her hair. Max shifted until he was on top of her, one of his legs between both of hers, his weight supported on his forearms as he continued to cradle her head.

"There will never be a day in my life when I don't love you, Liz." Max pressed his hips into her, his body humming from having her so close. Her hands tightened into fists where they rested on his back. He found her ear and whispered, "Do you know how much I want to touch you?"

Liz nodded against him and reached between them to grab the hem of the sweater and the shirt under it. He held himself above her with one arm, touching her skin as it appeared before him. A navy cotton bra hung loose off her shoulders and she hesitated before sliding the straps down her arms and completely baring herself to him. Max closed his eyes, giving her a moment of modesty as he let his fingers glide over her arms.

"He said this would happen, this weekend." She shivered as he continued to stroke her, circling her belly button, sliding his long fingers beneath the denim of her jeans. "I didn't believe him."

"What is happening, Liz?" His hands ceased their movement as he caught and held her gaze.

"I think we're making a choice. Irrevocable." She tugged at his jacket and then followed him as he stood to remove it. Standing, she looked so tiny, delicate. The bones in her chest and ribs stood out against her skin, in sharp contrast to the soft curves of her hips and waist. He knelt to remove her shoes, crouching before her as he removed the rest of her clothing and discarded his own shirt

Max softly kissed the inside of her knees, smiling when he felt her grab onto his shoulders to regain balance. He wanted more than anything to lick his way up her thighs and bury his tongue in her until she cried out against him. He'd imagined it, in bed at night without her, but then she hadn't been shivering against him or whispering words he couldn't decipher.

For Liz time slowed to a crawl as Max lifted her and stood in one motion, settling her with infinite care back on the cotton-covered cushions of the lounge chair. She closed her eyes and willed her heart to stop thumping, opening them again only when Max had settled back over her. Their hands begin to rove, exploring bare skin, finding places that made the other sigh.

He kissed every bit of her he could reach, nipping at her lips and nuzzling at her throat, hunger rising each time she arched against him. He slipped a hand between her legs, stroking as softly as he could manage, kissing her in time to swallow the groan that escaped her parted lips. Her nails bit into the back of his thigh.

"It's always you. Need. So much," he groaned into her neck, nonsense that said all she needed to hear. She sank her teeth into his shoulder and shuddered against his fingers. Something inside him snapped and he positioned himself above her, sinking into her softness in one movement. She bit even harder, exchanging pain for pain.

Liz could feel him everywhere. She was hyper-aware of him, the hair on his legs rubbing against her thighs, the muscles in his stomach sliding and contracting. Inside her head she could hear him whispering to her, the connection between them opening instantly. it's all worth it for me, as long as we're together/you are what kept me alive/my destiny is with you/i love you/i love you/i love you.

Stars exploded behind his eyelids and Max fell over the edge, repeating her name breathlessly while she held him. She gazed down at him, curled against her chest. The sun was struggling over the horizon, bathing his bronze skin in a pale pink glow. Liz tightened her arms, fighting off the sudden fatigue, if only to watch him a little while longer.

end