This story is in response to a challenge from [email protected]
1.Must take place after destiny
2. After Liz runs off from max she gets kidnapped.
3. Maria goes to see if she's with Max and finds out she isn't
4. Max goes to Tess and gets really angry because she was the one responsible for the kidnapping and the break-ups
5. Tess tries to get revenge on Liz after she's found but Max protects Liz.
6: The evans catch Liz and Max in a heavy make-out
7.
8.
9. Must be Max/Liz Micheal/Maria Isabelle/Alex. Mostly M/L.

I purposely left #7and #8 blank because those were things that I didn’t want to give away! Don’t worry, they’re nothing bad! I promise! *and she stealthily crosses her fingers behind her back* (J/K!)

Part 1

Liz felt as if the world had suddenly come to a screeching halt. She couldn’t breathe. It felt as if all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. Slowly she backed away from Max and the others.

“Liz, everything I told you before is still true.” She ignored Max’s plea, and continued to put distance between herself and the four aliens.

What Tess had told them had actually been true. Max had a destiny. A destiny which obviously didn’t include her. Liz turned around and fled from the nightmarish scene as fast as her legs could carry her, paying no heed to Max’s call for her to come back, although the desperate tone in his voice tore her apart even more.

She ran until she could run no more. Liz had come upon the highway, where she bent down and sucked in her breaths in huge gasps.

Everything she had heard was still ringing in her ears.

“I have sent you with your young bride.”

“I knew this was meant to be.”

“It’s the four of us now.”

“Liz. Liz! Liz, wait!”

Alright, she silently coached herself, just call Maria and have her pick you up. She fumbled with her cell phone, unable to open it with her trembling fingers.

Liz heard a crunch of gravel behind her, and suddenly a cloth doused with a sickly sweet smelling substance was slapped in front of her nose. She tried to struggle, but her abductor was too strong. Finally, she gave in to her lungs’ scream for air, and went limp in her captor’s arms.

Part 2

Maria paced the length of her room, growing increasingly frustrated with each passing minute. She glanced at her alarm clock. 6:30. Where is she? She was supposed to call me as soon as she got back from her little outing with the Czechoslavakians. Maria looked at the clock again. 6:31. That’s it, she decided, I’m calling her, and if she’s home, she’s really going to get it, ‘caus between Michael practically dumping me, the Sheriff and his son finding out, I really don’t have time to worry about my best friend’s well-being.

Brrrrrrrring! The sound of the phone startled Maria. That had better be Liz.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Maria?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Maria, honey, this is Liz’s mom.”

Hearing the anxious tone in her voice, Maria got a sudden sense of dread. “Mrs. Parker, are you calling about Liz?”

“Yes. Is she over there?” The feeling increased.

“You mean she isn’t at home?”

“I’d thought she’d be over at your house. Didn’t you guys leave the camping trip together?”

Camping trip? What camping trip? Maria was just about to ask what Liz’s mom was referring to when she remembered. The sheriff had promised them that he would think of a good cover story for their being gone almost two days without a word to any of their parents.

“Um, no. We, uh, decided to take a hike and got separated.”

“Oh, okay. Who was with Liz?”

The aliens. “Max, Isabel, and Michael. I’ll, uh, go over to the Evans house and see if they’re home yet.” If they came home without Liz or hurt her in any way, boy, I’ll kick their sorry little alien butts all the way back to their home planet. Especially Max and the gerbil-faced wench.

**The Evans house**

“Max will you get the door?”

Maria’s anger flared upon hearing the name Max. The door was swung open to reveal one weary-looking Max Evans.

“Look, Maria, I’m not really in the mood to talk right now. So if you’re here to yell at me on Liz’s behalf, don’t bother because I’ve already beaten myself up about it.”

“Woah, what about Liz? Did you hurt her again?”

Max glanced at her in surprise. “You mean Liz hasn’t told you about what happened yet?”

“Well, I haven’t seen her since she left with you guys. Where is she? I swear, Max, if you harmed Liz in any way, I’ll—“

“What do you mean, where is she?” Max inquired, concern creeping into his voice.

“Well, her mom called to say she hasn’t come home yet from the ‘camping trip.’ And since I last saw her with you guys…” Maria broke off, noticing that all the color had drained out of Max’s face.

“What happened, Max?”

Max sighed. “Come in. I’ll get Isabel and we’ll explain as best as we can.”

Part 3

**An Hour Later**

Maria gaped at Max and Isabel in a shocked silence, trying to digest all the events of the past few hours.

Max and Isabel had seen a hologram of their real mother? Max, The Great Leader of his people? Tess and Max…together? Geez, no wonder Liz had disappeared. I fit had been Maria in that position, she probably would’ve freaked, too. Probably? Yeah, right! Just remembering how she had reacted when Liz had first told her about the aliens, she would have been surprised if she hadn’t caused the entire town to come out, yelling for her to quiet her hysterical screams.

“Maria? Come on, say something.”

Maria was somehow infuriated by Max’s gentle prompting. How dare he break Liz’s heart like this with that, no-good, curly-haired little B*TCH? And then wanting Maria to say something? What was she supposed to say, huh? Oh, no, Max. Everything’s all fine and dandy. It’s not your fault that Liz is gone. Uh-uh. No can do. Maria just couldn’t sit there, trying to rein in her out-of-control temper at a time like this.

Maria opened her mouth to shriek at Max when Isabel, as if sensing that things were about to get unpleasant, intervened.

“Look, we are accomplishing a whole lot of nothing just sitting here like this. We aren’t helping Liz at all.”

Maria wanted to yell at Isabel, too, but then realized that her words did make some sense. Their number one priority right now was to find Liz. Screaming at Max could come after they were assured that Liz was safe.

“Alright. I guess the first thing to do would be to get Michael over here and have him help us look for Liz.”

Max and Isabel exchanged uneasy glances. “Uh, Maria? Ummm…we hate to tell you this, but Michael’s over at Tess’s. He was pretty shaken up after he heard everything and needed some comforting.”

“And, what, he turned to Tess of all people? Well,” she lowered her voice, “people and extraterrestrials. Why didn’t he come back here?”

“Michael needed to talk about, you know, things. And both of our parents are home right now.”

Maria sighed, defeated. “Ok, then. Let’s go over to Tess’s,” she stated grimly.

*~TBC~*