«You and Liz okay now?» Michael asked when he noticed the direction in which Max's gaze was fixed.
«Oh, sure," Max replied, keeping his eyes locked onto the dance floor. «We're closer than we've been in a long time.»
«So what's with the look?» Michael persisted.
«It's Mr. Whitman," Max said as he caught an actual expression of happiness creep onto the face of Alex's dad for the first time that evening. Mr. Whitman was lifting Liz up into the air, doing some amazing moves that Max had only seen in movies. «I don't know how he does it.»
«Does what?» Michael asked. «Dance?»
Max had to chuckle in spite of his mood. Michael always appeared to miss the subtleties of life, which often proved to be a sore point in his relationship with Maria, but Max knew that his friend caught on to things far more often than he showed. «I don't know how he goes on with his life," Max explained. «He raised Alex, and now his son is gone. How does a father cope with it?»
«Doesn't seem like he has much of a choice," Michael said as he continued to flip burgers. «It has been a couple months since Alex died.» Then he added, «And since Tess left.»
«That's not what this is about," Max said.
«Isn't it?» Michael asked, already knowing the answer. «Your son's probably been born by now, right?»
«If Tess was telling the truth when she said her alien pregnancy would only last a month," Max reluctantly conceded, «then, yes, I have a son.»
«We'll get him back, Maxwell," Michael said, ignoring the food for a moment. He put his hand on his friend and leader's shoulder to stress his words. «I promise you.»
«I know," Max agreed without a doubt in his mind. «But then what?»
«Then we raise him," Michael replied.
«You and me?» Max asked, only partially joking. «How do I raise a hybrid human/alien child? I'm a child myself.»
«Max, you haven't been a kid since we came out of the pods when we were six," Michael reminded him. «You've been an adult your entire life. Hell, you were an adult even before this life.»
«It's just…," Max started.
«Are you going to hide in here all night?» Maria asked accusingly as she blew into the kitchen with Liz trailing her silver platform heels. Her song apparently over, Max assumed that she was probably angry her boyfriend had missed hearing her sing.
«I'm helping Max deal with his intense issues over fatherhood," Michael said, largely to change the subject to get Maria off the path that she was about to take him down once again.
«Thanks, Michael," Max said, wishing that his personal issues could have remained personal for just a while longer. Immediately, he saw a familiar look of concern in Liz's eyes. He had been hoping to spare her his problems for at least this night. Max tried not to get angry with Michael for using their private conversation as a distraction for Maria, but it wasn't easy.
«Besides," Michael added. «I'm cooking.»
«Looks done to me," Maria said as she eyed the burgers. «Well-done, in fact. Come on, we can bring the food out while my mom does her Earth Mother performance art piece.»
«Can't miss that," Michael sarcastically replied as he started flipping the burgers onto some buns. Maria helped out by removing the French fries from the deep fryer and pouring them onto a serving platter. Silence hung in the room as they finished getting the food ready, and Liz waited to follow up on the question she had been wanting to ask since she and Maria walked into the room to Michael's less than warm response.
With all the food on its respective serving trays, Michael and Maria silently made their way out to the dining room area, leaving their friends behind in the kitchen.
«Do you want to talk about it?» Liz asked as soon as the kitchen door swung closed.
«Not tonight," Max said. «Tonight, I get to be here for you for once instead of the other way around.»
There was a pause as Max's words hung in the air.
«Okay, we both know that's not going to work," Liz said, smiling at him. «So why don't you just cut to the chase and tell me what's wrong?»
«Why can't anyone just let me wallow in my pain?» Max asked rhetorically.
«Because the last time you did that, you got drunk with Kyle off one sip of alcohol and totally crashed my blind date from Hell," Liz said, reminding him of one of his less than stellar evenings from well over a year ago. «Spill it.»
«Just having some fatherly regrets," he said.
«We'll get him back," Liz said, mustering up support for him even though she was talking about a child that he shared with Tess.
«Like 1 told Michael, that's not the problem.» Once again, his gaze leaped to Mr. Whitman, who was still on the dance floor twirling his wife in circles.
«It's what to do with him once he gets here?» Liz correctly assumed.
«I look at Alex's dad and I can't imagine dealing with that kind of pain," Max said. «His son was living this life that he knew nothing about and eventually it killed him, and his father will never know the truth.»
«Maybe someday-," Liz started hopefully.
«Then I think of me and my dad," Max unintentionally cut her off. «Things are never going to be truly honest between us, because I can't share with him the most important part of my life. Even so, I know when I need him, he'll be there for me. I don't know if I have that kind of strength.»
«Of course you do," Liz said.
«Do I?» Max truly wondered. «Think of Sheriff Valenti raising Kyle on his own. The two of them are so close. Will I ever be that close to my son?»
«Kyle's mom left them over a decade ago," Liz reminded him. «They didn't have a choice. They only had each other.»
«How am I ever going to have that kind of bond with my son after I get him back from his mother-a woman who murdered one of our closest friends? How do I explain everything to him when I don't understand it myself?»
Max knew that Liz was holding her feelings for Alex at bay so she could help him with his problem, and the knowledge was making him feel even worse.
«I don't know," she said honestly. «But I do know that you'll make a great dad. You're a born leader. Literally. How hard could fatherhood be compared with ruling a planet?»
«That's a bit of a jump," Max said.
«True, but it's the best I can do right now.» Liz's face lit up. «Hey, I've got an idea. For once, we have a conveniently timed crisis. My parents arranged for me to go to Artesia this weekend to baby-sit their friends' son Jason while his parents go out of town. Why don't you come along? It will give you a chance to spend some time in charge of a twelve-year-old boy.»
«I don't think our parents would like us spending the weekend alone together," Max reminded her.
«So we don't tell them," Liz said. «It certainly won't be the first secret we've kept from them. And we won't be alone. Jason will be there, and he won't say anything to anyone.»
«I don't know.»
«Doesn't matter," Liz replied bluntly. «You're going.»
As if to add a formal end to their conversation, Michael came back into the kitchen. «Max, your sister's looking for you," he said, carrying the now empty serving trays. «Has Liz solved your problem yet?»
«Almost," Liz replied. «I was just…»
But before she could finish her sentence, the back door slammed open and shut.
Concerned, Liz, Max, and Michael moved from the kitchen to the back room. There, they found Kyle still wearing his blue work overalls, breathing heavily and looking rather pale.
«Wow," Michael said. «You look like crap.»
2
«There you are," Isabel exclaimed with relief as she found her brother in the back room. «Come on, we're up next.» She plopped a baseball cap on his head and grabbed him by the arm.
«Isabel, wait," he tried to say, but she ignored him.
«Whatever end-of-the-world situation we're in the middle of, it can wait.» She pulled him to the door. «We're doing this.»
It was now the time for Isabel to pay her respects to the one boy who had truly loved her, even though she had pushed him aside-not because she didn't want him, but because she didn't want him to be hurt. But he had been hurt-killed-and since she couldn't change the past, she was going to do her best to honor him in the present.