"Beth? Beth, are you out here?" Max called. He peered out of the window in his mother’s old bedroom out onto the balcony, hoping to find where Beth had disappeared to. He’d been talking with his grandparents for the past few hours and somehow he’d lost track of where she’d gone. Nancy and Jeff were inside, sitting with Amy while she caught them up on some of the things they’d missed over the years. Max had spent the last few hours talking and laughing with the grandparents he'd ’ever known. The only thing that would have made it even better was if his mother and father had been there too.

He finally caught sight of Beth on the balcony. She was stretching and doing some of her exercises for ballet class. He remembered what day it was and suddenly realized that because of their trip she and Belle were missing one of their dance classes. He shook his head, amazed that Beth hadn’t complained. He knew how dedicated she was to her dancing, and missing even one day would make her teacher furious. Max also knew how talented Beth was, and that she wanted to be a ballet dancer more than anything.

He watched her for a few minutes and smiled. Beth had come along on the trip because he’d convinced her too, and she’d followed him all over town. She was his best friend. She finally looked up and grinned at him. She motioned him out onto the balcony and he climbed through the window.

"Hey," he whispered, his hands automatically going to her waist as she stretched and leaned over in a position that made Max think she might fall over. He released her quickly, realizing that she’d had her balance all along.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"That’s okay," she replied, trying to hide the disappointment in her eyes that he’d let go. She tried to banish those thoughts from her mind. Max was her best friend, and she had to remind herself of that. She kept practicing her exercises as she talked with him.

"How’d it go with your grandparents?" she asked. When Max grinned at her, his smile open and wide, and she had her answer. She knew how happy he was, and more than anything Beth was relieved.

"Great. They still feel so guilty about the last ten years, but I’m trying to make them see that even though it hurt, I’d rather think about the future from now on. I just don’t know if Mom will be so forgiving," Max admitted.

"And they know that," Beth observed. He looked at her, slightly surprised. "What, you thought you were the only one who can sense thoughts and emotions?"

She teased him and Max smiled sheepishly. They both looked over the edge of the balcony at the sound of several cars pulling up to the back of the Crashdown. Max counted a van and two trucks. He noticed that the trucks were mounted with sheriff’s lights and Max realized that it had to be Jim and Kyle. Which meant their parents weren’t far behind them. He turned to Beth, taking in her nervous eyes, realizing that she had come to the same conclusion.

"Guess we won’t have to wait too long for that confrontation," Max commented. He walked over to the window and crawled through, helping Beth through. They got to the living room of the apartment just as the front door swung open as Alex and Max came through, carefully carrying Michael’s still form. Beth froze at the sight of her father and she sought out the face of her twin, who was standing nearby.

"Mike!" she called. He came to her immediately, putting an arm around her. While Beth looked scared, Mike’s face was coldly expressionless. Max watched his friend carefully, noticing the slight hostility on his face at the sight of his father. His attention was diverted as his own father and Alex took Michael into the guest room and Maria, Liz, Isabel, Kyle and Jim followed through the door.

"Mom!" both Max and Beth called to their mothers and they immediately came over to their children. Maria embraced Beth and Mike, murmuring to them both quietly as Beth tightened her hold on her mother’s arm. Liz hugged her son, relieved that he was safe. After a few seconds, she pulled back, anger overtaking her relief.

"Max Parker, what were you thinking, tricking Amy and Jim to get you across the country?" she asked. Max realized that Jim must have run into them coming into town and that they’d been caught. They’d known it would only be a matter of time before their parents figured everything out.

"You said we couldn’t come with you," he stated calmly.

"That’s right, and we told you to stay in New York. You deliberately ignored what we said and caused Amy and Jim a lot of trouble," Liz replied. Max knew she was right, but he also knew that something had told him to get them all to Roswell.

"I know you’re mad, Mom. But something told me I had to be here. That Belle, Mike, Beth and I needed to be here. I couldn’t ignore that," Max replied. He saw that Liz was softening and he caught sight of Jeff and Nancy, standing in the doorway, watching their daughter. He saw both the hope and fear in their eyes.

"And I couldn’t miss the opportunity to meet my grandparents," Max said. Liz’s eyes widened with surprise and she glanced to where Max was looking. He felt her tense as she met her parent’s eyes and his heart sank. She looked back at him and Max saw her barely able to contain her anger and rage at her parents. He knew she wasn’t angry with him anymore, but he knew without sensing her thoughts that she was still furious with her parents.

"I’m going to check on Michael," Liz replied softly, kissing Max on the forehead as she pulled away from him. She ignored her parents totally as she and Maria went back to the bedroom. Max helplessly watched his mother go and looked sadly at his grandparents. He saw the hurt in their eyes, but he also sensed that they’d expected her reaction.

Liz knocked quietly on the doorframe before she joined Maria sitting with Michael on the bed. He looked so still, Liz barely saw his chest rise and fall. Maria was so pale, and she was more scared than Liz had ever seen before. Maria motioned her into the room and Liz sat on the other side of Michael, gripping his hand in hers. Liz paled at how limp his hand was, his fingers slack. She tried to hide her feelings from Maria, who was watching Michael’s face carefully, as if she was searching for any change.

Maria stroked the side of his face gently, her hands touching him, searching for any injuries that she could see. She smiled at the feeling of his hair between her fingers, at the sharp line of his jaw. She’d been so worried that she would forget what he looked like, even with all the pictures they had. But her mind had kept Michael’s image locked in place, and he didn’t look much older than he had ten years earlier.

"He’ll wake up, Maria. I know he will. He’ll wake up and see you and his beautiful daughter and son right here next to him," Liz urged her friend. Maria reached out and grasped her hand, and squeezed gently. Liz looked up at the sound of footsteps and her face hardened at the sight of her parents in the doorway.

"Michael doesn’t need you here. Please go away," Liz said calmly, her tone even but barely containing her anger. Jeff swallowed, unused to the hostility in his daughter’s face.

"Can we talk to you Liz? Please," Jeff asked, trying to bring her back to them. She looked at them, her eyes still cold. Liz looked at Michael and realized that Maria needed some time with him. She stood up and followed her parents down the hallway to the kitchen, seeing her son and Max embracing in the next room. She closed her eyes, wanting to keep that image in her mind. She knew that it would keep her level, and remind her of what was important. She looked at her parents expectantly.

"You have a wonderful son Lizzie," Jeff said quietly.

"Yes, he is, although you’ve only known him one afternoon. And don’t call me that," she replied evenly. Jeff looked like he’d been physically hit by her statement.

"Please Liz, we’ve made horrible mistakes, but we want to try and make it up to you," Nancy said, her eyes filling with tears. Liz started to feel herself softening, but she shook herself mentally.

"Make it up to me? How can you possibly do that? I’ve spent the last ten years without my parents because they couldn’t accept me. They couldn’t accept that I did something outside of the normal behavior of Liz Parker. My son has spent the last ten years wondering why people he’s related to who don’t even know him, won’t love him. I’ve made a life for myself, with my son and now with Max. We are a family and if you can’t accept that, I don’t want to know you," Liz spat out, her barely concealed anger finally coming to the surface.

"More than anything we want to be a part of your family again. We were wrong to make you leave, to try and make you change your mind about Max when you’d already made your decision to keep the baby. We were wrong to never respond to your letters and we’ve felt that error every day since then. I know that it must be hard to believe and it must be hard to accept, but we are so, so sorry for all the hurt we’ve caused," Jeff said, tears streaming down his face as he willed his daughter to look up at him and his wife.

She seemed to be staring off at something outside the window until she finally looked at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears. In that instant he felt like he’d gone back in time and he was looking at his daughter as a child, pained from something that had hurt her deeply. It tore him up to realize that he had been the one to cause that pain. When she finally spoke, it was with a shaky voice.

"I just want my parents back," she said so softly that he wondered if he’d even heard her correctly.

"We’ve made a lot of mistakes, but we don’t want to make the mistake of letting you go again. You, Max, or Max," Nancy said. Liz’s face crumbled as she heard the words she’d longed to hear for over ten years. Tentatively her parents stepped forward and embraced her. Nancy stroked her daughter’s long hair and held her petite frame tight, amazed that Liz hadn’t changed much in a decade. After her tears were replaced with a smile, Liz pulled back and looked at her parents, taking a deep breath.

"You should know, we have some other things to discuss. Some things you two don’t know about Max, Isabel and Michael. Some things you need to know," Liz said, not hesitating because she knew now that they could accept what they were, and what their grandson was. She took them into the living room, which was where the others had been up until a few moments before. She looked over at Alex, Jim and Amy, who nodded, supporting her.

"Do you guys remember that day when I was sixteen and there was a shooting in the Crashdown?"

Max looked up as his father came over and engulfed him in a hug.

"I’m so relieved that you’re safe," Max said, holding his son’s face in his hands and smiling at him. He pulled Max over to where Isabel had gathered Belle, Mike and Beth. Alex had come out from the bedroom to do some damage control, along with Jim and Amy, with Liz’s parents. Isabel and Max pulled the kids into Liz’s bedroom and they scattered around the room, taking any unoccupied seat. Max watched his father as he ran his hand over the edge of Liz’s dresser and as his fingers drifted over the titles of the books in Liz’s bookcase. He watched him smile at the titles, mostly science related. Finally, Isabel caught her brother’s attention and they turned their attention to the kids.

"Why can’t I see my father?" Beth asked, trying to sound strong, but her voice broke at the end. She wiped away the tears on her face as Isabel came over and cuddled her against her side.

"We don’t know what happened to Michael yet. But we think that somehow you kids can help us save him. We found him in a cave nearby where there are drawings, the language from where we came, engraved on the walls. We’ve known they were there for a long time, but we’ve never known what they say. The stones that Nesado left behind show the constellation that we came from, but as far as we know, they don’t do anything else," Isabel told them. The kids nodded, already knowing the history of their parents. Isabel had ensured that all the kids would know about Nesado and what their parents knew of their past.

"Kyle found the jeep near the cave, so we checked it out. We found these blue stones inside the cave, but Michael wasn’t there," Max said, unwrapping the stones that Isabel had grabbed from the cave. "Isabel and I both heard this humming noise and we followed it out into the desert. That’s where we found Michael, exactly like he is now. Isabel and I tried to connect with him, but we couldn’t. The one thing we got from the connection was that you kids needed to be here to help save Michael. And that we need to do it soon."

Max finished, looking at Isabel to see if he’d missed anything. She shook her head and smoothed back Beth’s hair. Beth looked so tired, Max noticed. He looked at Mike and found the boy’s expression vaguely uninterested while Belle leaned forward, eager to help. Max looked at his father after he’d studied the stones.

"Do we have a copy of the cave drawings?" Max asked. His father nodded and stood up, walking over to Liz’s bookcase. He pulled out the dictionary and flipped through it, finally coming to a folded piece of paper, pressed between the pages. Isabel looked surprised as he unfolded the paper, revealing the cave drawings.

"I made this copy for Liz and hid it. She tried to study it, to see if she could find any patterns in it. I was counting on it still being here," Max said. He put the drawing on the bed and Max leaned over it, trying to will something to come out, to make sense from the drawing. He was concentrating so hard that he barely noticed when Beth sat next to him and reached for his hand. Almost instinctively he tightened his grip on her hand and they reached for two of the blue stones.

Isabel held her breath, still fearful of what might happen when they touched the stones. But she didn’t feel the immediate fear that she had when Liz tried to reach for the stones back at the cave. Beth and Max were silent for a minute, staring at the drawing as they held the stones. Then Max looked up at the rest of them and smiled. Isabel looked at her brother and gasped, her eyes wide, somehow knowing what her nephew was going to say before he spoke.

"I can read the cave drawings."