Part 5


Max followed Liz up the stairs of her apartment building with an amused grin plastered onto his normally solemn face.

"This is where you live?" He asked with a laugh, as he observed their surroundings in amusement.

"Well, yeah!" Liz protested. "The guys here aren't exactly trying to hit on me! It makes it very easy for me to stay single in your absence."

"Yeah, I'll bet." Max cracked. "But how am I going to manage coming to see you everyday? I'm going to be like the new, fresh meat on the block."

"Very funny...they'll keep their hands off." Liz promised.

"Well I should hope so!"

Liz laughed and pulled Max into her home. He smiled softly, as he turned around and studied the place that Liz had called home the past few years. It was small and homely, neat and tidy...there was nothing fancy about it, but at the same time, it just felt comfortable.

"It's you." He said simply, turning back to Liz. "I like it."

Liz beamed at him. "God, I still can't believe you're here. It all seems so surreal, like something out of a dream. I keep expecting to blink my eyes, wake up, and you'll just fade away, disappear, and I'll find myself completely alone again."

"You won't...I swear to you Liz, this is just as real as it feels."

"God, Max....there's so much I want to know! Where's everyone else? Michael? Isabel? Tess? Did they come back too?"

"No...actually they decided to stay."

"Really? Why?"

"Well...you know Michael and Tess...they were always more alien than human. They never really felt like they belonged here...they didn't have what me and Isabel had: the family, the love. Going home...it was just that to them. For the first time in their lives they felt like they actually belonged somewhere...and they liked it. They didn't want to leave. For Isabel the decision was a lot harder. She loves our human family and our life here so much...but it had been ten years, years that she had spent bonding with our alien family. In the end she felt that she couldn't abandon that."

Liz nodded in understanding...but she couldn't help wondering...

"What about you, Max. It had to be hard for you to go. You just said that you had a family there...you were there for ten years...you had a life there. I can't believe you could just give all that up so easily...just for me."

Max smiled gently at her apparent insecurity.

"Liz, as hard as it may be for you to believe this...the decision was that easy for me. I hated it there...so much, because you weren't there. I missed you, felt our separation every single day that I was away. No matter what they gave me, the love that you gave me is just so much more important to me. The entire time that I was there, the only thing that mattered to me was doing what I was there to do, so that I could get back to you."

Max slid his hand into Liz's and squeezed it softly, emphasizing his love for her. He led her over to the couch and sat, pulling her down to sit beside him. Sliding an arm over her shoulder, Max pulled her against him, letting her head rest comfortably in the crook of his neck.

"What was it like, Max?" Liz asked softly. "Your home, I mean."

"What was it like?" Max replied with a sad sigh. "It was a planet that had been overrun by warfare for a century, Liz. It was a mess. You could almost say that when we got there, it was hell brought to life. It's not as bad now...they've begun to rebuild, reflourish, but it took nine years of fighting to end the war, and then we spent another year organizing the reconstruction and forming a new democratic government," Max laughed softly, "One that wasn't completely based on my leadership so that I could leave. But that's all my life has been for the past ten years, Liz. Fighting...more fighting. Death, destruction, pain, loss, mourning...that's all I've known since I left you."

Max tightened his grip protectively around Liz, clinging to her as if his life depended on it, and she let him, knowing that he needed her comforting.

"Liz...before I left, you begged me to take you with me, and I refused. That's the best decision I've ever made. We may have been miserable, but at least we're both alive. I would never want to put you through what I went through, Liz. I would never want to risk your life the way I had to risk my own. You deserve better than that, Liz. You deserve a normal, happy life. I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to give you that life before, but I'm here now, Liz, and I intend to spend the rest of my life making sure that you get all of the happiness that you deserve."

Liz wiggled around and sat on her knees, so that she could look up in Max's eyes. With one hand engulfed in his own, Liz brought her free hand up, and lovingly caressed Max's jaw, as she lightly brushed her lips against Max's own.

"Just having you here gives me all the happiness I need." She sighed against his lips.

Relaxing back down, Liz lay with her head in Max's lap, as he languidly combed his fingers through the silky strands of her hair.

They stayed like that for hours, silently taking pleasure in each other's presence. No words were needed...they were content to just feel each other.

Together Max and Liz fell asleep right there on the couch, in each other's arms, both of them sleeping restfully for the first time in a long, long time...because they were together.