WORK IN PROGRESS
        Rating – R
        Disclaimer- not mine
        Category – I have no idea: everyone and no one. It’s a rollercoaster.
        Summary - A power struggle within the group causes massive problems as Michael and Max square off, sides are chosen, and irreparable actions are taken that can never be forgotten or forgiven.
        Authors Notes – This story was thought up before I saw “Max to the Max,” “White Room” or “Destiny.” So, take your mind back to a time when Pierce wasn’t really a problem yet, Tess was little more than a massive annoyance to the Dreamgirls, Valenti was not yet a ‘good guy’ and Isabel’s nearly incestuous dreams with Michael had really just begun. It’s based on a spoiler I accidentally stumbled upon for the season finale. The spoiler, that Michael kills Pierce, gave way to this story. Basically, this is my take on something that I am sure will, more or less, inevitably happen on the show. The season finale spoiler just served as the perfect vehicle to get me there.
 
 

    August 23, 2000
    I’m Liz Parker and this is my last journal entry. I’m starting over. Everything, my whole life before this moment is being erased, consciously, by me. I don’t ever want to remember the events of the past three months. I decided I should start a new journal, to go along with my new life. But, I owe it to this one to explain how my old life ended.
    We were so sure of ourselves, of our bond. We thought we were indivisible, unconquerable, and immortal. We thought we could do anything as long as we were together. We were wrong about everything.

    The gunshot would ring through his mind for the rest of his life. Always drawn out, echoing, ripping away his composure to reveal the raw, scarred skin beneath. The fourth of July would be spent alone, as far from civilization and the bang of fireworks as he could get. And, the littlest of everyday sounds would ignite the memory again, searing his mind with the pain and the fear and the desperation of that day and the events that followed.

    The toy guns little kids played with so often on the playground.
    *bang*
    He’d see the fear in her eyes.

    The background noise of a bad action flick.
    *bang*
    He’d see the bullet drive straight through the guy’s body.

    The sound of his next door neighbor’s door slamming in the middle of the night as he tried, desperately, to find sleep.
    *bang*
    He’d hear Izzy’s voice echoing his thoughts.
    “Oh my God, Michael. What have you done?”
 
 

    June 7, 2000

    There was a storm brewing on the horizon over the desert, to the east. It was moving swiftly, almost purposefully toward town. Liz Parker had been watching the storm looming on the edge of the horizon for just over an hour, knowing it was coming, but unable to do anything to avert it.  The storm would break soon and Liz couldn’t help but worry it would drown the small town with its fury.
    “Are we closing up, Liz?” Maria asked, joining her friend at the Crashdown’s window. “Man, that is the mother of all storms, isn’t it? Should we like sandbag or something?”
    Liz didn’t answer; her eyes were fixed solidly on the black clouds advancing in waves upon them.
    “Liz, babe, no one’s here anyhow. We should be upstairs at the very least. Help me close up,” Maria said.
    “Yeah,” Liz agreed as a low rumble of not-so far-off thunder broke her thoughts. “Yeah, let’s close up.”
    Liz went to close out the register and tell Michael to turn off the grill as Maria turned the sign on the front door to the ‘closed’ side when Max, Isabel and Alex came running up to the little diner.
    “What’s wrong?” Maria asked, letting the frantic trio in and locking the door behind them.
    “We have to get out of here, now,” Isabel ordered, grabbing Maria by the wrist and running toward the kitchen with Max and Alex close behind.
    “What happened?” Liz asked, the only calm one of the six.
    “The FBI, that’s what’s wrong,” Izzy sobbed, studying her surroundings like a rabid, caged animal.
    “They found us?” Michael asked as he removed the bandana he always wore while cooking.
    “Such an understatement,” Alex answered.
    “They tried to run us off the road while we were driving with Mom and Dad,” Max answered. “We’re all okay, but they skid into Pam Troy’s car and decapitated her on impact.”
    “She never could keep her head about her,” Isabel muttered.
    “Oh my God,” Liz wailed.
    “Lizzie, you hate Pam,” Maria wailed back frantically.
    “The point is someone is dead because they were coming after us,” Liz emphasized.
    “What are we going to do?” Alex asked, looking to Max.
    “We leave,” Max answered solemnly. “That could have been any one of us who was killed. I’m not willing to risk that. We’re in too much danger here.”
    “I hate to point out the obvious, Max, and let me emphasize that I so agree with you, but look out the window for a second.  We aren’t going anywhere,” Maria sobbed, grabbing onto Michael’s forearm in a panic.
    Black clouds rolled across the skyline and a twister could barely be seen in the distance when lightening brightened the sky. The winds screamed as they kicked up a sandstorm that rivaled anything the little town had ever seen. It was only a little after four in the afternoon, but the sky was pitch black except for the lightening bolts that crackled all around them.
    The air was electrified and Isabel screamed as a lightening bolt struck close enough that the ground shook when it hit.
    And the lights died.
    Liz grabbed the hand closest to her’s. “Max?” she whispered.
    “It’s Alex,” a voice replied in the dark.
    “I’m here,” Max said, closing in on where he’d heard Liz’s frightened voice. “Do you have a flashlight around here Liz?”
    She nodded until she realized he couldn’t see her.
    “In the cabinet next to the big fridge,” she replied.
    “I’ve got it,” Michael answered and Liz could hear him rummaging through a drawer a moment later.
    “Izzy? Maria? Are you okay?” Max asked.
    “How okay could I possibly be, Maxwell?” Isabel snapped, her voice full of fear.
    “I’d say she’s all right,” Max muttered. “Maria how are you doing?”
    “Well, I think I just about peed my pants, but aside from that and hyperventilating and completely wanting to start the day over, I’ll live. I hope,” Maria said, her voice shallow and ragged.
    “What was that?” Isabel asked, suddenly.
    “What was what?” Alex asked in reply.
    “I heard a noise,” she whispered.
    “You’re imagining things, Izzy,” Max assured her.
    “There it is again,” Isabel insisted.
    “I heard it, too, Michael,” Maria breathed in a voice barely above a whisper. “It came from the dining room.”
    “I found the flashlight,” Michael announced softly.
    “Don’t turn it on,” Max demanded.
    Just then, a crash came from the dining room.
    “That was the pie rack, Lizzie,” Maria whispered through frightened tears. “Someone’s out there.”
    “Damn it, it’s the FBI, Max. I know it is,” Isabel said, the paranoia and desperation clear in her voice.
    “Calm down, Iz. We need a plan. Now,” Max said.
    “We could go upstairs,” Liz offered.
    “Right, like they’d never find us there,” Michael scoffed.
    “She’s trying to help, Michael, which is more than I see you doing at the moment,” Max said harshly in a low whisper.
    “I say you and I go check it out. We can take down this bastard,” Michael said with far more bravado than he actually felt.
    “No,” Maria insisted, tightening her grip on his arm. “You will not leave me right now.”
    It wasn’t a question. It was a demand.
    “We don’t have time for this,” Max sighed. “Liz, Izzy, Alex and Maria get upstairs. Michael and I will go check out the dining room. If we aren’t back in fifteen minutes, storm or not, get out of here. Go to Alex’s house. Get his Dad’s guns. Get a car and drive to the reservation. Is that clear?”
    “Max, I am not leaving you,” Liz sobbed.
    “You will. Alex will make sure of it. Right Alex?” Max asked, barely able to make out his friend’s frame in the darkness.
    “Yeah,” Alex replied quietly.
    “Max… be careful,” Liz begged, holding back tears.
    “I promise,” he replied.
    “Michael, if you don’t come back to me in one piece, I will kick your sorry ass,” Maria cried, clinging to him.
    “You just worry about calming Liz and Izzy down, okay?” Michael whispered in her hair.
    He felt her nod against his chest before reluctantly pulling away.
    “Go, now,” Max said.
    “This is so not a good idea,” Liz muttered. “Girls in horror movies always run up the stairs and they always get killed.”
    “Hello?” Isabel squeaked quietly, “I’m a blonde in a tight white shirt running upstairs while someone is chasing me! Worse idea for me!”
    “Hush,” Michael heard Maria say. “Just keep quiet and it will be all right.”
    “Do you have any idea what we’re doing?” Michael asked his friend as soon as he was sure the others were out of earshot.
    “Let’s sneak in low, use the advantage of surprise,” Max told him, ignoring the question. “Make sure we are positive who it is before we do anything. After we’re sure it’s an FBI agent, we’ll both make a dive for him. If you get at his head or neck, make a connection and squeeze a blood vessel just enough to make him pass out, but make sure you don’t kill him. The last thing we need is a dead FBI agent on our hands. Got it?”
    “Yeah, sure and how exactly do we make sure it’s an FBI agent? Ask for ID?” Michael asked snidely, obviously having little faith in the plan.
    “This was your idea,” Max pointed out.
    “I just wanted to get them as far away from him as I could,” Michael countered. “I really hadn’t thought beyond that.”
    “Then we have that much in common,” Max admitted.
    Michael sighed. “Let’s do this.”
 

    “Something’s wrong,” Maria shuddered worriedly. “I have a really bad feeling about this.”
    “Really?” Asked Isabel sarcastically, “‘cause I was feeling all warm and fuzzy!”
    “Calm down,” Alex said evenly. “Getting angry at each other isn’t going to solve anything. I’ll go peek downstairs and see if everything is all right. Ok? I’ll be right back.”
    “No, Alex!” Maria yelped, grabbing his arm in a panic. “Never, ever, say you’ll be right back because if you do, you never will!”
    “Maria, how many times have you seen ‘Scream?’” He asked, smiling sympathetically.
    “Too many,” Liz confirmed, grabbing onto her friend’s arm comfortingly. “Go, but be careful and get back quickly.”

    The room was so silent that Michael could hear his own breath rattle in an unacknowledged fear.
    This sort of thing wasn’t supposed to happen to them. They were supposed to be sitting around the Crashdown or his place, debating things to do and coming up with nothing because Roswell was a black hole in the middle of the desert, devoid of anything interesting.
    Instead, Michael found himself in a pitch-black room hunting the man hunting him. This was not the sort of Friday night he wanted.
    Michael abandoned all thoughts as he heard a shoe squeak against the floor. He nearly lunged at it before realizing it was Max. It was shortly after Michael’s near tackle of his best friend that the lights flickered shortly, before failing again. He felt his heart lunge into his throat at what he saw.
    Nothing.
    There was nothing there but a fallen pie rack, just as Maria had said. That and strawberry pie filling splayed across the floor with a single footprint marking the presence of an intruder.
    “Max, there was someone here,” Michael hissed quietly. “Where is he?”
    Max was about to answer when a terrified scream rang out from upstairs.
 
 

    Alex stood just inside the doorway to the kitchen when his breath caught in his throat as the scream rang through his ears. He knew that voice. He’d known it for years. He’d known it since the day she’d yelled at him in fourth grade for calling her mood ring hokey. It was a voice he’d always remember.
    He turned and ran back up the stairs as quickly as he could, cursing having left the girls alone. Stumbling as he reached the top step and ran to Liz’s parent’s room, he could hear Michael and Max running not far behind him.
    “What do you want? God, just let her go!” He heard Isabel shriek.
    As Alex narrowly avoided slamming into the doorframe barreling into the room, he saw a man in a bad black suit hold Maria with a knife to her throat, nearly cutting into her. Maria didn’t dare so much as whimper in pain or fear, but Alex could see the  fear in his friend’s eyes.
    “She’s no use to you, let her go,” Alex told the man, rationally as Max and Michael sprinted into the room.
    Michael took one look at the situation and was raging beyond belief. Max could practically hear the other man’s blood boiling.
    “If she so much as has a paper cut when you let her go, I swear I’ll make you wish you were dead,” Michael seethed.
    “Shut up, all of you, just shut up,” the man growled, speaking for the first time. “I have to think.”
    Max held his hands up in a non-threatening gesture and moved directly into the man’s line of sight.
    “Who are you?” Max asked.
    “Pierce, Agent Pierce with the FBI,” he barked back.
    “What do you want,” Max asked.
    “I want to do my fucking job,” the man snapped angrily.
    “All right,” Max said slowly, calmly, “what’s your job.”
    The boom of a thunderclap made the skittish man even more nervous. And Max knew the man had pressed the knife even    harder into Maria’s throat because the terrified girl winced and her eyes grew desperate.
    “My job is to tail you three until you heal someone, kill someone, blow something up or just plain blow your human cover.     Then, I bring you in to the big boys so you can’t contaminate our world any further than you already have, you alien bastards,” he yelled hysterically.
    He was just as scared as they were. Max could see it in his eyes.
    Then, the man’s demeanor changed, something clicked. Max could sense it, see it reflected back at it, so could Michael. The guy started to get cocky, sure of himself. At least on the surface, he started to gain some control.
    “Maybe I can do my job, huh? This girl, Maria right? She seems to be important to you three. If I cut her, there’s no way you’ll let her bleed,” He said calmly, his hands still shaking.
    “Think rationally,” Max said, calm as ever, “even if you… if you cut her and someone here is an alien and heals her, how are you going to bring us in? There are six of us and one of you.”
    “What choice do I have?” Pierce yelled.
    Michael, help me. God, please, Michael.
    Her voice rang through Michael’s head. The sheer terror in her mind’s voice would haunt him for the rest of his life and only one thought echoed through his mind. Save her.
    Michael, please, I need you.
    Out of the corner of his eye, Michael saw something underneath the bed just a foot or two away, partly covered by the bed skirt.
    God, Michael, I think he’s going to kill me.
    Without thinking, Michael grabbed for the gun and silently prayed it was loaded.
    Michael, I don’t want to leave you. I love you so much, I wish I’d told you that. I love you.
    That last thought reaffirmed his course of action. He barely took the time to aim the gun before firing it, he just guided the bullet with his mind.
    The shot drove straight through the man’s upper left chest and Maria narrowly avoided the knife before the agent fell, the force of the bullet driving him backward.
    Maria ran straight to Michael’s arms, sobbing hysterically as she embraced him. Michael, too, was shaking and near tears.
    “Oh, God, Michael. I was so scared… so scared,” she wailed, her tears staining his shirt as he kissed the top of her head.
    “He’s dead, Michael,” Max whispered, kneeling in front of the FBI agent, feeling for a pulse.
    “Can’t you heal him?” Liz asked.
    “I can’t bring back the dead, Liz. He’s gone,” Max sighed.
    The truth weighed heavy on the group. Michael had shot and killed an FBI agent. There was now no doubt that the FBI would never stop hounding them. They’d taken down one of the FBI’s own. There was no turning back.
    “Oh my God, Michael,” Izzy whispered. “What have you done?”
 
 

    “What do you mean ‘What has he done,’” Alex asked bewildered. “He saved Maria’s life.”
    “He killed an FBI agent, Alex,” Isabel snapped, running her fingers through her hair, her hands shaking violently. “We’re    dead. We’re all dead. They’ll come after us with a vengeance, now.”
    “So, what are you saying? He was supposed to let Maria die?” Alex asked, disbelieving his ears.
    “There were other solutions, Alex,” Max said, looking up at him as he knelt over the body of Agent Pierce. “I was talking him out of it. He would have let her go.”
    Michael picked his head up from Maria’s shoulder long enough for Max to see the pained and angered glare shot his way.
    “He would have killed her,” Michael insisted.
    “There were better ways to deal with this, Michael. What was the very last thing I said to you? ‘The last thing we need is a dead FBI agent on our hands.’ But did you listen to me? No, like always you have to take the fastest, most impulsive route to the finish line, don’t you? Damn the consequences, whatever they are. Isn’t that right Michael?” Max fumed.
    “This from the man who healed Liz in the middle of a crowded restaurant in broad daylight,” Michael countered.
    “You’re comparing healing Liz to killing an FBI agent?” Max asked incredulously.
    “I’m comparing saving Maria to saving Liz. I saved her life, Max,” Michael insisted.
    “At what price?” Isabel whispered.
    Maria, whose eyes showed more pain than while she’d been held with a knife to her throat, lifted her head from Michael’s chest and turned to face the group, never losing contact with Michael.
    “Never would I have thought that I meant this little to you,” she choked out before turning to Liz, who’d kept silent through all of the argument.
    “It’s not that, Maria,” Liz said quietly as she moved to Max’s side. “You mean the world to us. But… there were other ways of … of freeing you.”
    Maria felt the tears swelling up in her eyes again. “It’s good to know where your loyalties lie,” she whispered to her friend, who was tightly grasping Max’s hand.
    Alex interceded before any more arguing could be done. “We can discuss this later. Right now, we have a dead FBI agent’s body to worry about.”
    “Can you heal the wound?” Liz asked hopefully, staring at Max. “Maybe then we can dump him somewhere and make it look like the storm killed him.”
    “That’s a huge risk, Liz,” Isabel said fearfully. “If someone finds the body before the handprint fades away, we’re completely done for.”
    “Do we have any other options?” Liz asked rationally. “If they find the body with the bullet in it, they can trace it back to my parents. Do you really think they won’t find us then?”
    Isabel worriedly paced the room. “Then we really don’t have a choice, do we?”
    Michael nodded angrily. “Great, have fun ditching the body. Now that you’ve made the decision and the storm seems to have passed, I’m taking Maria home.”
    “Leaving us to clean up your mess again, Michael? Why am I not surprised?” Max asked.
    “Being around here is the last thing she needs right now,” Michael countered.
    “Is staying here the last thing she needs or the last thing you want, Michael?” Max asked knowingly.
    “Both,” Michael snapped back as he led Maria from the room.
    “He’s so reckless and self-serving. He just doesn’t think before he acts,” Isabel said frustratedly as soon as Michael was    gone. “He’s going to get us caught, Max.”
    Alex shook his head slowly as he stared at Isabel. “How can you say that? I don’t know who you three are anymore.”
    Alex moved to leave, but Liz caught his arm.
    “Alex, you have to see what a huge mess he’s made of this. It’s like he cured a hangnail by chopping off the thumb. Max is right. This wasn’t the way to deal with the situation. Can’t you see that?” She implored.
    Alex swallowed slowly and looked over at Isabel, who sat defeatedly on the windowsill, her arms folded protectively in front of her.
    “I would have done the same thing,” he replied to Liz, but his eyes never left the terrified blonde.
    Liz sighed and let him go, turning only after he’d closed the door behind him as he left. Behind Isabel, through the window,    Liz could see the sky had cleared of clouds and the sun streamed in the room, illuminating the gruesome scene before them.
    It was a deceptive sight, the cloudless skies and sunbeams. They made it look like nothing had changed. But, the little town had born the brunt of a heavy storm. Downed power lines, flooded streets and businesses and dead plants would all be fixed or replaced in time. But, Liz knew the truth. Roswell would heal in time. Trees would grow, businesses would reopen and the power would come back on. But, the scars were there forever. Nothing would ever be the same.
 
 

    Maria had been silent the entire way home. The sounds of her crying just twenty minutes before had been the most heart-wrenching, terrible thing Michael had ever heard. He hadn’t thought anything could have been more painful. He was wrong. Somehow, the silence was worse.
    He’d practically had to carry her half of the way back to her house. The torrential rains had left small lakes in the roads and plenty of downed trees along the way. The usually headstrong, vibrant Maria who would take any opportunity to pick a fight with him hadn’t so much as blinked when he’d picked her up and waded through water up his knees back on Baker street.
    That had scared him.
    A lot.
    “I don’t think your Mom is home,” Michael told her as he helped her down onto the sofa, grateful that no more than the carpet fell victim to water damage from the storm. “Her car’s not here.”
    Maria didn’t even nod.
    Michael paused and shuffled his feet for a moment.
    “Well, I’m going to get you a towel to dry off and a sweater or something to warm you up, ok? You look… really cold,” he said, unsure of himself.
    After finding a towel and grabbing a warm-looking blanket, he returned to find Maria exactly as he’d left her. Right down to the empty look in her eyes aimed somewhere just right of the clock on the wall.
    “I… I brought you a blanket. I hope that’s okay,” he muttered.
    She continued with what Michael was sure Alex would refer to as an excellent impression of a statue. So, Michael proceeded to take off her shoes and socks, which were soaking from the few puddles she had walked through, and to dry her calves and feet off with the towel.
    He saw her blink at some point and took that as a good sign. She wasn’t actually catatonic after all.
    He wrapped the blanket around her and backed off a bit, unsure of what to do next. Unsure if he should do anything at all. He was, after all, a killer and an alien. What he was doing playing nursemaid to a beautiful girl? He should be locked up on death row or in a lab somewhere.
    “I guess I should get out of here,” Michael mumbled, careful not to touch or look directly at her.
    He turned to go before hearing her strained voice.
    “You’re leaving me?”
    Michael could literally feel those words tear his heart to shreds. But they didn’t change the truth. Nothing could.
    “I’m the last person you need to be around right now, Maria,” he whispered, not turning to face her.
    “You’re the only one I want to be around right now,” she confessed quietly.
    “I… I’d like to stay, too,” he admitted. “But, I don’t think it’s such a good idea.”
    “Why?” She demanded.
    “Why?” he asked, incredulously, making the mistake of turning to face her. “I killed someone, Maria. I took a gun and I shot him. I’m a killer. I have no right to be around you.”
    Maria blinked and choked back some tears.
    “I need you right now,” she confessed. “I am scared. I feel alone. I feel betrayed by most of my friends. And I am asking you not to leave me. Can you do that? Just this once can you forget everything else and be here for me?”
    He cleared his throat and looked at his toes, anything to avoid her pleading eyes.
    “I’m so sorry, Maria,” he whispered before leaving as quickly as he could, trying desperately to block out the sounds of her sobs as he left.
 
 

    “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Liz sighed as she readjusted her hold on the dead FBI agent’s feet.
    “Just stay calm, Liz,” Max said soothingly, his arms supporting the corpse by an armpit. “Everything will be fine.”
    “I think I’m going to puke,” Isabel said queasily, her eyes glued to the dead man’s face.
    “No, Izzy, you can’t,” Max insisted, nearly dropping the body. “That would be physical evidence that you were here. You     puke and we’re caught. Got it?”
    Isabel paled even more and clenched her jaw and eyes shut.
    “Good job calming her down, Max,” Liz said.
    “I’m sorry, Iz. It’s just really, really important that we just face the task ahead of us right now, okay?” Max questioned his sister.
    Isabel nodded, not opening her eyes.
    “Good. I guess this is as good a spot as any,” Max said, as he eased the body to the ground.
    “What do we do now?” Isabel asked, regaining some composure.
    “I say we make it look like lightening hit him,” Liz said.
    “Okay, not a bad idea,” Max agreed. “But, think of it this way, you’re the police. You find this FBI agent’s body, apparent  cause of death electrocution. What’s the first question you ask yourself?”
    “Why was he out here and how did he get here,” Isabel offered, her color finally approaching normal.
    “Exactly. So, why is he here?” Max asked the girls.
    “Maybe he’s lost?” Liz asked.
    “Or his car died!” Isabel exclaimed. “That way we can say how he got here, too. We can put his car just off the side of the road and burn out the battery or something.”
    “Good!” Max agreed. “That’s good. That’s believable, right?”
    Liz and Isabel nodded.
    “Okay, so he’s just… lying here. Like this?” Max asked, positioning the corpse as if it had fallen straight over after having been hit.
    “Well, wouldn’t he have crumpled before hitting the ground? Like curled up or something?” Liz asked.
    Max shrugged and turned to his sister, searching for an opinion.
    “I have no idea,” Isabel hissed. “It’s not like I’ve ever planted a body before. Why don’t you ask Miss Scientist over there? Tell us Dr. Parker, what exactly does electricity do to the human body?”
    “Isabel,” Max admonished, “calm down. This isn’t Liz’s fault.”
    “No, it’s Michael’s,” Isabel snapped. “So why isn’t he here to clean up his mess? Oh, wait, because he’s Michael so he gets to go off and screw around with Maria while we clean up his mess. God, I am so sick of his crap.”
    “We’ll deal with Michael later,” Max promised. “Right now let’s just take care of the clean-up, all right?”
    Isabel nodded, shaking.
    Max knew she was absolutely terrified and was channeling that terror into a violent hostility. Normally he’d take the time to calm her down and allay her fears, but they didn’t have time for their own feelings or concerns at the moment. They didn’t even have the time to argue about the effects of electricity on a body. So, in the end, they picked a partially crumpled position and prayed it looked convincing.
    As they left, Max used his powers to erase their footprints and silently hoped they hadn’t left any trace evidence.
    Liz had driven the agent’s car through the ravaged town to the spot outside of town where they’d stashed his body. She pulled it off the road so Max could mess up the engine and cover their tracks once again. Just to be sure, Isabel vacuumed the car.
     The walk back to town was long and quiet through the rubble-filled street the storm had created. In some ways, the aftermath was even worse than the storm itself.
     No one spoke, not even one word, as they walked back. Their silence was filled with desperate fear and blind hopes. But Max held Liz’s hand tightly and kept his other arm wrapped around his sister in comfort. He just hoped he seemed more reassuring than he felt.
    Just a few hours ago, Max would have said nothing could ever break their little group apart. They were bound by a secret that created an indivisible friendship. Now, he realized, another secret tore them apart, split them straight down the middle. And the edges were so jagged, so painful, that he didn’t know if anything would ever be right with the six of them again.
 
 

    Alex had more anger in him than he’d ever thought possible. Sure, maybe Michael had been a bit impulsive and maybe there had been other options. Isabel, Max and Liz certainly had a right to have that opinion, even if he didn’t share it. But, they were friends, a team, they were supposed to stick together no matter what. They were supposed to defend each other no matter what.
    There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that he would have done the same exact thing for anyone in their group had he seen the gun. Not a doubt.
    He kicked a shingle that had been ripped off of a house during the storm and managed to splash himself with a truly disgusting puddle that his foot landed in.
    “Great,” Alex muttered. “Can my day get any worse?”
    He hopped over a fallen limb of the old gnarled tree in Maria’s front yard. They’d spent summers up in that tree, perfecting their clubhouse, when they were younger. Just him, Maria and Liz.
    It was profoundly saddening to realize that would never happen again. Even if they were way too old for treehouses and even if the three of them were still inseparable, too many limbs had fallen in the storm. The remaining boughs would never be enough to support another clubhouse. It just wasn’t strong enough.
    Before he even started walking up Maria’s path, he could hear her crying and could barely make out her curled up form huddled on the sofa.
    He rushed past the opened door and was at her side in an instant. He touched her shoulder lightly and she jumped at the contact, not having realized anyone else was there.
    “Oh, Alex,” she sobbed and hugged him as if her life depended on it.
    “Hey, it’s all right. You’re okay,” he said comfortingly as he hugged her back. “Nothing’s gonna happen to you. Alright?”
    He wasn’t sure if she’d heard him or not because she just kept crying.
    “What am I going to do, Alex?” She asked in ragged choked up sobs, pulling away from him.
    “Well, you’re going to hug your best bud again first,” he smiled, opening his arms wide, fully prepared for the force of her flinging herself into his arms again.
    She kept crying, but this time, at least, she didn’t pull away from him.
    “What am I going to do without Lizzie?” she asked quietly.
    He sighed, “You’re going to hug me a lot and call me whenever you need to talk, about anything. And you’re going to hope she realizes how much you mean to her and that she’ll apologize. That’s all you can do, Maria.”
    “I should have known that Max meant more to her than I did,” she whispered.
    “Hey, now, that’s not it. She just a little blinded right now,” Alex assured her.
    “But, she sided with Max,” Maria cried.
    “That’s right. She sided with Max, but I don’t think she really meant everything she said, Maria. She sided with Max because he’s Max and she loves him and believes in him. That doesn’t mean she believes in everything that he believes in. She just needs to realize that.”
    “You think?” She asked, quietly, hopefully.
    Alex nodded.
    “Oh, God… I almost died,” she said, a little shocked by the words.
    “But you didn’t. You’re okay,” he reminded her. “You’ve been through a lot today. Just lie down and get some rest. Where’s Michael?”
    With that she started crying all over again.
    “He left,” she said in a whisper. “I told him I needed him and he just left. He said that he was a killer and that he had no right to be around me. But, I told him that I was scared and felt alone and that I needed him to just be there for me. He just left, Alex. He left me.”
    Alex couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Michael Guerin had done a lot of really stupid things over the course of his relationship with Maria, but Alex had never said anything. He kept quiet and comforted his friend when she had been dumped and stepped on time and time again. But, this time… this time was too much. He’d gone too far and Alex was pissed as hell.
    “Maria?” Someone yelled, from the front yard.
    Maria sniffled and sat up. “Mom?”
    Amy DeLuca flew into the room with her usual dramatics and hugged her daughter tightly.
    “Oh, baby. I was so worried. Were you here for the whole storm? Are you all right?” Amy wailed.
    Maria just cried.
    “She was working, Mrs. DeLuca. We both walked over after the storm ended. She’ll all right. She’s just really shaken up,” Alex said.
    “Oh, Alex. Thank you so much for looking after my baby girl. You’re such a good friend to my Maria,” Amy cried, grasping Alex’s had.
    “Um, you’re welcome, Mrs. DeLuca,” Alex replied, unsure of what to say.
    “Why don’t you go on home, Alex,” Amy suggested. “Your parents must be worried sick.”
    Alex looked at Maria, silently asking if she would be all right. She nodded.
    “Go home, Alex. Thank you, so much,” she smiled through her tears.
    “Call me if you need anything. Anything at all, Maria, I mean that,” Alex said seriously.
    She nodded again, “Promise.”
    He squeezed her hand one last time before leaving the DeLuca house. Amy was home now, so Maria would be fine. But, even if Amy had been right that his parents would be worried sick, Alex had no intention of heading home just yet. He had something else he needed to do first.
    He’d stood by silently for the past year as his best friend in the world had been treated like trash and tossed aside. Not again. Not this time. This was too much. Michael wasn’t going to get away with it again, not if Alex had anything to say about it.
 
 

    “If I never do this again it will be too soon,” Isabel sighed as she waved her hand over more blood in Liz’s parent’s bedroom making it disappear.
    “I second that,” Liz agreed, looking around nervously for any other trace evidence that might need to be destroyed.
    Max surveyed the room silently, calmly. He completely masked his rage within. The situation had quickly spiraled out of his grasp. How had he let this get so out of control?
    “Max,” Liz said quietly, “what are we going to do about Michael?”
    The dead silence of the room was nearly overwhelming and Isabel had to bite back another snide comment about Michael as she looked to her brother for guidance.
    Max rolled the question around in his head for a moment. How could he take control of this situation? How could he salvage something out of this mess?
    “If I didn’t think we’d get caught, too, I’d say hand him over to Valenti and let him answer for his actions,” Max said through gritted teeth.
    “But that’s not an option. Even if he wasn’t an alien, at this point we’re accomplices and we can’t get caught, Max,” Isabel reminded him nervously.
    “I know that,” he replied. “So, first, we get everyone together and make sure we have our stories straight. Then… then we cut ourselves off from him completely. He’s too much of a risk.”
    Liz looked at Max agape. “Are you sure about that, Max? I mean, he is your brother and you do have this huge secret you share. Is this really what you want to do?”
    “He’s not our brother. Max is my only brother,” Isabel insisted harshly. “And if we have to cut Michael off to stay safe, then that’s what we do.”
    Her voice was unwavering, but Liz knew she was trying to convince herself more than either her or Max.
    “He’s out of control, Liz. We don’t have a choice,” Max said gently, brushing her hair from her eyes.
    Liz paused before nodding, “I’m sure you’re right, Max. It’s just a really big step and it’s going to be difficult. That’s all.”
    “We’ll be fine, Liz. The three of us will get through this just fine,” Max reassured her.
    Liz blinked several times and stared at the floor, “What about the three of them, Max. Will they be fine?”
    Before Max could answer, the trio heard the Sheriff’s voice calling out from downstairs.
    “Oh my God, Max,” Isabel cried, shaking violently. “What do we do? He’s here too soon.”
    Max took one look at his sister and knew she wouldn’t last two minutes with Valenti.
    “You stay here, Izzy. Liz and I will go down there. Everything will be fine. I promise,” Max told her.
    Isabel nodded and hugged her arms around herself tightly.
    “Be careful, Max,” she whispered and the other two left to go downstairs.
    Max and Liz cautiously entered the dining room of the Crashdown to find Valenti looking over the serving area and into the kitchen.
    “Is everything all right, Sheriff?” Liz asked quietly, startling the man.
    “Liz,” Valenti said, taking off his hat. “I’m glad to see you’re all right after that storm. Can I please have a word with you, alone?”
    Liz looked at Max and back to the Sheriff.
    “It’s of a personal nature, Ms. Parker, but I’d appreciate it if Mr. Evans didn’t go far. I’ll need to speak with him in a moment,” Valenti told her.
    Max looked at Liz apprehensively, but she nodded and gestured for him to go into the kitchen.
    “I’ll be fine, Max,” she smiled, squeezing his hand lightly before he went.
    Valenti stared at his steel-tipped boots for a moment before he began speaking again.
    “Ms. Parker… Liz, I think you might want to sit down,” he sighed.
    “Why? What’s wrong, Sheriff?” She asked as she sat, suddenly very nervous.
    “Liz, there’s been an accident. Your parents were driving back from Albuquerque with some supplies for the restaurant when the storm hit. Liz, a tree fell directly on the car out on 285 near Elkins. They didn’t make it.”
    Liz’s voice caught in her throat. “What?”
    “Liz, I’m so sorry that this happened,” he replied, taking her hand in comfort. “If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”
    “My parents are dead?” She whispered. “Both of them? They’re both gone? Just like that?”
    “It’s not fair, Liz. I know. But, yes, they’re both gone,” he told her solemnly. “Would you like me to get Max?”
    She nodded vacantly as he left to get Max to try to comfort her.
    She’d known, somehow, in the beginning of the day that the storm would change her life. She’d realized that the clean up would be hard when she’d first seen the twisters whirling outside. She’d been sure that the day would replay through her mind as a vivid nightmare for years to come when she saw Michael shoot the FBI agent.
    Little had she known that she’d underestimated everything.
 

    Alex made his way through the ravaged streets of Roswell as if they were the same they’d always been. He didn’t even slow down from his near break-neck pace as he jumped over a rather large tree branch in his way.
    Alex Whitman had one thought in his head. It was one of sheer anger directed almost entirely at Michael. Had he really thought about it he would have realized that a good chunk of his anger was also directed at Max, Liz and Isabel, but he didn’t stop to think. For once in his life, Alex did something without over-analyzing his actions.
    He reached Michael’s apartment in record time, though he didn’t realize it, and banged on the door as loud as he could.
    “Open the door, Guerin,” he yelled.
    He’ll never understand why, exactly, Michael did open the door. Had the positions been reverse, Alex would probably have hid in his closet or jumped out the window.
    But, Michael opened the door. He stood there with an utterly blank look on his face and just stared at his visitor.
    Alex stormed in and shoved Michael, hard, up against the wall next to the door.
    “I have watched you make her cry for the very last time, Guerin,” Alex seethed, running on pure anger and adrenaline at this point.
    “I have stood by and watched you make her life miserable for the last year and I have said nothing. But this, this is the last time. Just who do you think you are? She deserves so much better than you. She deserves someone who doesn’t leave her sobbing and alone. What the hell is wrong with you?” Alex yelled, poking his finger into Michael’s chest.
    What Alex didn’t realize was that his words were actually a relief to Michael, in a twisted sort of way. He was echoing all of Michael’s thoughts out loud, validating them, making them real.
    “I can’t be around her,” Michael replied.
    “You know what? I would agree with you one-hundred percent. But, she seems to disagree. Now, Maria is my best friend and I want her to be happy. You have the power to do that. For some reason, you mean a lot to her. So, I don’t care if you deserve to be around her or even if you want to be around her. She wants you to be there for her and that is what you are going to do, for her,” Alex demanded.
    Michael thought about that for a second. “I’m a danger to her, Alex. I’m a killer.”
    Alex released him from the wall and backed up a step. “The only reason I’m not thoroughly attempting to kick your ass right now is because you saved her life. If I’d seen the gun, I’d have done the same thing. You didn’t kill, Michael. You defended. Legally you’d even be justified.
    “What I don’t understand,” he continued, “is how you are willing to kill for her, but you aren’t willing to take twenty minutes to make sure she’s emotionally all right, because she’s not, Michael. She’s a mess. She just had three of her best friends basically say they’d rather she was dead and you, her boyfriend, desert her, too.”
    “I wanted him dead,” Michael seethed.
    “So did I,” Alex admitted.
    “You don’t understand, Alex. I wanted him dead and I killed him. I could have aimed for his arm or his leg or something non-lethal, but I shot him in the heart so I could kill him. I wanted someone dead… so I killed him,” Michael whispered. “What kind of a person does that make me? Hell, I’m not even a person. She might want me around right now, but after she realizes what really happened she won’t want anything to do with me.”
    Alex sighed and sat down on the third-hand, lumpy sofa, “You can’t believe that.”
    Michael nodded, “Yea, I do. She doesn’t need some fuck-up like me hanging around her life. She’s too good for that.”
    For the first time since he’d barged into Michael’s apartment, Alex really looked around the place. There was broken glass everywhere, most of the posters were ripped from the walls and he was pretty sure some of the rips in the sofa were new.
    “Look, I’m sorry for laying so much on you,” Alex sighed. “I guess I was so wrapped up in how upset she was that I didn’t stop to think this might be really hard on you, too. Maybe I was just expecting too much from you.”
    Michael stewed for a moment, not saying anything.
    “No, you were right the first time,” he said finally. “I screwed up. I should have been there for her and I screwed up.”
    Alex sighed, knowing that, if anything, he’d just made matters worse.
    “Just be there for her now, Michael. Don’t worry about what you did, just worry about what you’re going to do. She needs you,” Alex said wearily.
    Michael silently sat down on the sofa next to Alex. “Thanks.”
    “For what?” Alex laughed. “Barging in your place like a maniac, throwing you up against the wall and screaming at you?”
    Michael snorted. “No, for being there for her when I screwed up. She needs you, too, you know.”
    “Not a problem,” Alex nodded.
    “Her Mom’s there, now,” he continued. “So she’s okay. But later tonight one of us should go check on her.”
    Michael nodded, “I’ll go by around ten or eleven, make sure she gets to sleep all right.”
    Alex nodded back, seeming pleased with the outcome.
    “Do you want some help cleaning this place up?” Alex asked, surveying the man-made mess.
    Michael sighed, “Yeah, thanks. It’s going to take a while.”
    Alex looked at him with a face that said “duh” as loud as his voice could have.
    “Be careful with that glass, Michael,” Alex said. “You managed to stay out of harm’s way while making this mess. It would be a shame to get hurt trying to clean it all up.”
 
 

    Liz hadn’t spoken a word since Max had rushed over to her and pulled her into his arms. She sobbed quietly against his shoulder and clung to him as if she was afraid he’d disappear if she let go of him.
    After about a half-hour, Isabel silently crept downstairs, clearly terrified of what she’d find. Upon seeing Liz curled up in Max’s arms, she let out an audible sigh and walked toward the duo.
    “Max, I was scared to death up there that the Sheriff had grabbed you two and hauled you both off to jail. Why didn’t you come up and tell me what was going on?” She demanded, her voice trailing off as she caught a glimpse of Liz’s tear-stained face.
    “Liz’s parents died, Isabel, in a car crash off 285,” Max told her.
    Isabel’s jaw dropped, “Oh my God, Liz. I’m so sorry.”
    Liz didn’t even acknowledge she’d heard Isabel’s voice.
    “Max, do you think this was the FBI? They tried to run us off the road earlier, maybe they went after Liz’s family, too,” Isabel said nervously.
    Max thought about that for a second. “I don’t know, Izzy. It’s possible, I guess, but a tree landed on their car during the storm.”
    “Max, they’re still out there, after us. We can’t forget that,” Isabel reminded him. “Our lives depend on it.”
    “We need a plan to survive this,” Max sighed.
    “All our lives depend on it,” Liz whispered into Max’s shirt. “That includes the others.”
    Isabel bit her lip, “She’s right, Max. They’re involved, too, and even if they are dangerous I think it’s more dangerous to exclude them.”
    Max nodded, “I know. We need to talk to them, get all our heads together.”
    “Do you think they’ll listen to us?” Isabel asked skeptically.
    “At this point? I don’t know,” Max replied. “But we have to try. Izzy, you go try to talk to Alex or Michael.”
    “Me?” She squeaked, “Why me?”
    “Because I need to be here for Liz right now and she’s certainly in no condition to try to work things out with Maria. Plus, I think you’ve got the best chance of getting through to one of them. There’s no way Maria’s going to talk to any of us and Michael would probably spit on me if I walked up to him right now.
    “Alex is crazy over you, Izzy. He’ll probably listen and if he doesn’t Michael might because, well, there’s a lot of history there,” Max reasoned.
    “What do I say?” Isabel asked, shuffling her feet. She wasn’t happy at all with this arrangement.
    “Tell them Liz’s parents were killed and we think the FBI might have something to do with it. Tell them we need to get our stories straight about what happened. Tell them whatever you have to so that they’ll come here and talk to us,” Max instructed her.
    “All of them?” Isabel asked.
    “It won’t work otherwise, Isabel,” Max reminded her.
    Isabel nodded.
    “For the record,” she added. “I hate this.”
    “We all do, Izzy. I don’t think this is anyone’s definition of a good day,” Max sighed as he ran his hand comfortingly over Liz’s back.
    Isabel nodded reluctantly, “Fine. I’ll be back soon.”
    “Be careful out there, Iz. There’s a lot of debris, still,” Max reminded her as she strode out the door.
 
 

    Alex and Michael had spent a solid hour cleaning up Michael’s apartment when someone knocked on the door. The two exchanged a confused look.
    “Who do you think it is?” Alex asked.
    Michael blinked at him for a moment, “I have no idea, but I know a great way to find out.”
    He walked over and opened the door to find Isabel standing on his doorstep. He immediately tried to slam the door in her face, but she shoved her foot in the way of the door.
    “Give me five minutes,” she said.
    “I’ll give you five minutes to get the hell off my doorstep before I call Valenti, how’s that?” Michael asked snidely.
    “You do that,” she snapped back. “While I’m down at the station I’ll tell him all about that FBI agent who was following you around and just happened to disappear.”
    He grabbed her arm and roughly dragged her in the apartment.
    “How could you say that out in the hallway? Do you want to get caught?” He snarled.
    “Do I want to get caught or do I want you to get caught?” She snarled.
    “What are you doing here, Isabel,” Alex asked coldly.
    “Let go of me, Michael,” She insisted after glancing at Alex.
     “Why are you here?” he countered.
    “You’re hurting my arm,” she replied, her eyes watering slightly, more at the emotional pain than the physical pain.
    He let her go instantly, as if her touch suddenly burned him. She rubbed her arm lightly, reassuring herself that he wasn’t still holding her.
    “Thank you,” she mumbled.
    “Isabel, let me be clear on this,” Michael said harshly. “You called me reckless and self-serving for defending the life of the woman I love. You practically said you’d rather she were dead than your situation be jeopardized. I have no place for you in my life. I don’t ever want to see you or Max or Liz ever again. Is that clear?”
    Isabel hardened her expression, but felt the pang of Michael’s words anyhow.
    “Liz’s parents are dead,” she said suddenly, coldly. “We think the FBI might have been involved. We need to get our stories straight and to do that we all need to sit down and talk about what happened.”
    Alex sat down on Michael’s sofa looking broken.
    “Both of them?” He asked. “Both of them are gone?”
    Isabel nodded.
    “I’ve known them almost my whole life,” he whispered.
    “So can we all meet together?” She asked, ignoring his obvious pain because she no longer had the right to comfort him.
    “Have you ever cared about anything but yourself, Isabel?” Michael asked, placing a comforting hand on Alex’s shoulder.
    “Comes with the antennae, I guess,” she countered.
    Before Michael had the chance to say anything, Alex jumped in.
    “There’s no need to be mean, Isabel. We’ll meet you at about nine at the Crashdown but we’re not dragging Maria along. She has enough problems at the moment,” he reminded her.
    “Fine,” Isabel snapped. “Liz may or may not be there, depending on how she’s feeling.”
    “Fine,” Michael replied. “Nine tonight. Now get out or I will throw your icy little ass out of here. Understand?”
    “Perfectly,” she replied, slamming the door behind her as she left.
    Alex sighed, “This has been the longest day of my life.”
    “Me, too, Alex,” Michael agreed. “Me, too.”
 
 

    “Hello Mrs. DeLuca. Is Maria here?” Isabel asked.
    If Amy DeLuca took notice of Isabel’s uncommonly plain, tired-looking demeanor, she gave no sign of it.
    “Yes, come on in, Isabel,” Amy replied. “How did your family weather the storm?”
    “Uh, I don’t know, yet. I haven’t been home. Max and I were helping Liz cleanup the Crashdown. It took quite a beating,” Isabel sighed. “Mrs. DeLuca, I really need to see Maria. It’s very important.”
    “All right,” Amy nodded. “I’ll go get her. Why don’t you try to call your parents in the mean time. They must be worried sick by now.”
    “I tried about an hour ago, but they’re at their office in Clovis today. They left just before the storm him. Unfortunately, the phone lines are still down out there,” Isabel sighed. “I’ll try again later, but the storm is likely still going on in Clovis.”
    “Oh, my. Well, I’m sure they’ll be fine. You and Max are welcome to stay here for the night, if you like. I won’t let you two poor children stay all alone after a day like this.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. DeLuca,” Isabel said, staring past her toward Maria’s room.
    Amy smiled at her, “I’ll be right back.”
    Isabel nodded and ran her hands through her hair as Amy turned to get Maria. It was hard to believe that just that morning she’d been having breakfast with the other five members of their little group, making plans for the rest of the summer. It felt so far away.
    “I have nothing to say to you,” a voice choked out, breaking Isabel from her thoughts.
    “Give me two minutes, Maria,” Isabel replied, her voice begging.
    “If you’d had your way, then I wouldn’t even have those two minutes to give. Please leave,” Maria said, turning to go back to her room.
    “Liz’s parents are dead,” Isabel announced, just as Amy re-emerged into the living room.
    “What?” Amy asked quietly.
    “They were driving on 285 near Elkins when a tree fell on their car. Neither of them made it,” Isabel whispered staring at the floor in front of her.
    “Oh, that poor girl,” Amy gasped as her hand flew to her mouth.
    Maria still hadn’t turned around and Isabel had to wonder what, exactly, was going through the smaller girl’s mind. All blame and anger aside, Isabel had to admit that Maria had been through a lot that day. They all had and this latest development was more than any of them had thought they’d have to deal with. It was more than any of them knew how to deal with.
    “Is Liz all right?” Maria asked reluctantly.
    “No,” Isabel replied honestly. “She’s not all right. She’s not even close to all right.”
    Her back still turned, Maria sighed heavily and even without seeing the girl’s face, Isabel could tell she was crying.
    “Take me to her,” Maria announced, turning to face the tall blonde. “I may not be able to forgive you, but I can’t not be there for her.”
    Isabel nodded stoically, as if Maria’s words didn’t even faze her.
    “Let’s go then,” she shrugged.
 
 

    Maria didn’t say a single word to Isabel as the two walked back to the Crashdown. It wasn’t that she had nothing to say to Isabel, as she’d told the girl earlier. It was that she knew if she spoke, she wouldn’t be able to keep herself from unleashing entirely upon Isabel and that wasn’t fair.
    Certainly, some of what happened had been Isabel’s fault, but not all of it and Maria hadn’t had time to sort through what had happened, yet. Besides, now was not the time or place for their eventual conversation. This moment was about Liz, not her. Her own conflicts would have to wait.
    Breezing through the doors of the Crashdown with Isabel close on her heels, Maria rushed to Liz’s side and enveloped her in a hug. Liz just started crying harder as Maria ran her hands soothingly over her long-time friend’s back.
    After several minutes, Liz pulled back.
    “I, um, I didn’t think you’d come,” Liz said, pushing her hair back behind her ear.
    Maria smiled sadly, “We’ve been friends for over a decade. I had to be here.”
    “Thank you,” Liz sobbed, her hands shaking violently as Maria pulled her back into a hug.
    “I’m so afraid, Maria,” Liz whispered. “I don’t know what to do. What do I do?”
    “I don’t know, Liz. I don’t know. You do what you can. You ask us for help when you need it. You take it a day at a time,” Maria reasoned.
    “I have to say something to you, Maria,” Liz cried. “I am so, so sorry for how I reacted earlier. We can deal with anything that happens as long as we’re all together. We can deal with the FBI if we have to, but we can’t… we can’t come back to life if we die.”
    “It’s okay, Liz,” Maria soothed. “I understand.”
    “Well I don’t,” Isabel interrupted. “I don’t understand. Are you saying that you think Michael did the right thing?”
    “Isabel…” Max warned.
    “No, no Max. I want an answer. I think we deserve an answer. Where do you stand Liz?” Isabel demanded.
    “That’s enough, Isabel. She’s been through a lot today. She doesn’t need you interrogating her on top of it all,” Max ordered his sister harshly.
    Isabel ignored him.
    “Where do you stand?” She repeated.
    “All I’m saying is that our lives are all precious and irreplaceable and we need to do whatever we can to ensure that we all survive this,” Liz replied.
    “That goes without saying. Whose side are you on?” Isabel questioned.
    “I don’t think it’s necessary to pick a side, Isabel,” Liz countered.
    “Well, I do. Pick a side, Liz. Are you with us or against us?” Isabel screamed.
    “That’s enough!” Max yelled. “Don’t answer her, Liz. You don’t have to pick a side, no one does. I will not stand by and watch our group be dissected. That can kill us as easily as bullet can.”
    “You’re saying this because it’s her. You’re doing this for her! I should have known. Max, you are going to get us all killed because you can’t keep your head straight with her around. And I, for one, am not going to sit around and wait to die,” Isabel cried.
    “What are you saying?” Max asked.
    “I’m leaving, Max. I’m leaving Roswell.”
 
 

    “You’ve got to be kidding,” Max breathed.
    “Do I look like I’m kidding, Maxwell? This isn’t safe. You aren’t safe,” Isabel hissed.
    “And being alone is?” Liz questioned.
    “At least I’ll have control over what happens on my side. I won’t be forced to cover-up other people’s mistakes. I won’t have to plant bodies I didn’t kill or have someone else tell my secret. When I leave, I’ll answer for my own actions and no one else’s,” Isabel replied.
    “You can’t go,” Alex said as he and Michael entered the Crashdown.
    “And why not? No one want’s me here. You least of all,” Isabel scoffed.
    “Of course we want you here, Isabel,” Maria sighed. “We might have our differences and be a little hostile toward each other at the moment, but that doesn’t mean we should just run away from our problems.”
    “If we don’t stick together now, we’ll never get through this. Besides, if the FBI even suspects that someone killed that agent and you just run away, who do you think they are going to blame?” Alex reasoned.
    She wanted to come up with a good answer his argument. Something that would dismiss everything he said. But she couldn’t, because there was none.
    Isabel sat, looking utterly dejected, at one of the booths.
    “Iz, I know you’re upset. And that’s all right. We’re all scared, but you can’t let it control you. If that happens, they win. And we can’t let that happen,” Alex coaxed.
    Isabel looked up at him, the vulnerability completely gone, replaced with a cold, hard glare.
    “I will stay until we have finished dealing with this mess and then I’m leaving. I won’t do this again. I’m not covering up for his emotional rashness,” she said pointing to Michael.
    “Or his conflicting lusty desires for Liz and need for control,” she added, gesturing to Max.
    “Or her mindless devotion,” she spat in Liz’s general direction.
    “Or her over-dramatic hysterics,” she nodded toward Maria.
    “Or your blindness to all of it,” she finished, yelling at Alex. “I can’t do it. No, you know what? I won’t do it.”
    Alex was taken aback and the room fell silent.
    Max stepped forward, setting his jaw.
    “Next time you say something like that, you’d damn well better think it through first. Because, next time, this ‘lusty control-freak’ will not forgive or forget what you say,” Max told her, inches from her face.
    “There won’t be a next time, Max. Because I’m leaving and I’m not coming back,” Isabel reminded him.
    “Those things you just described,” Liz whispered. “Those aren’t just things you have to deal with. That’s who we are. Exaggerated, obviously, but those things you say you won’t deal with, those things are us, Isabel. Are we really all that terrible?”
    Isabel stared at the brunette silently before standing abruptly.
    “I’m very sorry about your loss, Liz. I really am. Someone let me know what Max and Michael decide to do. We all know the rest of us would just sit here and listen to them argue it out anyhow. I’m going home,” Isabel announced as she made her way toward the door.
    “Yes, please, run away, Isabel. That’s what you’re best at,” Max yelled after her.
    Liz placed her hand on his shoulder comfortingly, “Don’t worry about it, Max. We’ll talk to her when she’s cooled down and get her to see things more clearly.”
    “I know we could. The thing is,” Max whispered, “I’m not sure I want to.”