Laura Burns - Quarantine

"You can comfort me now," he murmured. Then he kissed her, and Isabel forgot all about their problems.

"There's still one thing I don't understand," Max said into Liz's hair. They lay cuddled together on her bed that evening.

"What?"

"Kyle said you found alien cells in Dr. Sosa's lab, before there was any chemical spill or any virus."

He felt Liz stiffen. '"That's right. I'd forgotten about that," she said.

"You didn't tell me about it," Max added softly.

Liz sat up and looked him in the eye. "I was avoiding you."

"I know," he said. "Why?"

"Because you're still hung up on finding your son. I thought I wasn't your top priority."

Max didn't know what to say. Liz was definitely his top priority here on Earth. But he did have to find his son; that was his responsibility as a parent. "Do you mean I have to choose between you and my son?"

"It's hard for me to get used to the fact that you have a son," Liz said. "But now I know it doesn't mean that you don't love me. When you were healing me at Meta-chem, I could feel how strong your love was. I don't know how to handle all this stuff with your son, Max. I'm going to have to think about that some more."

"But you're going to stop avoiding me?" he asked.

She pressed her lips to his. "Oh, yes," she answered.

Max held her silently for a moment. There was something else he wanted to ask her, but he wasn't sure if he should.

"What are you thinking about?" Liz asked.

Max smiled. She could always tell when something was bothering him. "Something you said before I healed you," he replied. "I was wondering what you meant. But I think you were just delirious."

Liz sat up and looked at him. "I told you I love you."

"Yes. But you also said something about getting married and making me fall out of love with you."

Liz paled. "I guess I was delirious. I shouldn't have told you about that. I don't know if I can talk to you about it."

"About what?"

She searched his face. "About this… thing that happened last year. An alien thing."

Now Max sat up too. "You have to tell me," he said simply

"Okay." Liz bit her lip. "Well, one day you came to me. But it wasn't you. I mean, it was you… from the future."

Maybe she's still delirious, Max thought. "Um, what?" he said aloud.

"Max, just hear me out. You came back from the future. You said the Granilith could be used for time travel."

Max didn't know what to think. The Granilith was gone, and he'd never known much about how it worked.

"You said we were happy and we were married, but it made Tess feel abandoned, so she left. But you needed her… all four of you needed to be together. There was a threat to Earth, and you needed Tess but she wasn't there."

Max was doubtful. He hated Tess so much lately that he couldn't imagine ever needing her.

"You told me I had to change what happened," Liz went on. "You said I had to make sure you fell out of love with me so that you would turn to Tess. That way, she'd never leave. You said I had to change the future."

Suddenly Max understood. He felt as if all the air had left his lungs. "Kyle," he whispered. "You pretended to sleep with him. You knew I'd catch you."

Liz's eyes were brimming with tears. "I had to make you stop loving me," she said sadly. "It was the only way I could think of."

Max was stunned. He couldn't get his mind around what Liz was telling him. Well, except for one part. "I didn't stop loving you," he said, tears pricking at his own eyes. "There is no way I ever could stop, no matter what you did. You're in my blood, Liz, you're part of me. I will love you forever." He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly, pressing her against him. "I thought you didn't care

about me anymore. I thought you wanted me to be with Tess," he said. "And all that time you were just trying to help me?"

Liz nodded. "You said it would mean the end of the world if Tess left. I was only trying to do the right thing."

Max closed his eyes and just breathed in the scent of her hair. "Of course you were," he whispered. "That's who you are. That's why I love you."

He hated to think of how she must have felt all those months while he was dating Tess. He'd thought Liz had moved on first, that she didn't love him at all. But in reality her heart must have been breaking every time she'd seen them together. "How can you even be here with me when all I do is hurt you?" Max asked. "I don't mean to, but I always seem to end up causing you pain."

Liz pulled back so that she could look him in the eye. "You do hurt me," she agreed. "But you also heal me. You saved my life at the Crashdown two years ago. And you just saved my life again. When you were healing me, Max, I felt how afraid you were to lose me. I know how much I mean to you."

He kissed her softly, just taking in the amazing feel of her in his arms. "I can't believe you loved me all that time," he said. "But what about Tess?"

Liz stiffened. "What about her?"

"Well, she's gone," Max pointed out. "Didn't you say we had to keep her from leaving or something horrible would happen?"

"Yes," Liz said. "But it might be okay. We changed the time line… things haven't happened the way they would have before. Maybe it will work out differently."

Max wasn't sure what to think… how could he plan for some giant disaster that might never materialize? "I guess we'll just have to put it on our list of possible threats," he said, trying to lighten the mood. "Somewhere between the government finding out about us and global warming."

"Guess so," Liz replied with a smile.

They gazed into each other's eyes for a moment. Max sighed happily. "So you don't have feelings for Kyle?" he asked.

Liz burst out laughing. "Kyle?"

"Well, you two did pretend to sleep together. And you were pretty close at Meta-chem. Plus, you told him about the alien cells in the lab."

Liz frowned suddenly. "Why were those cells there?" she said. "Do you think Dr. Sosa was using them for his research? Do you think he knows about you guys?"

Max pulled her back into his arms. "Ms. Wheeler said he destroyed all his research. If he had alien cells, he must have destroyed them too."

"I guess we'll never know what he was doing with them," Liz murmured.

"We'll keep an eye out for him," Max told her. "Just add him to our list of threats too."

"Yeah," Liz said. "I wonder where he is."

Maris watched as the last drum of medical waste was sealed shut. "These are disposed of by incineration, right?" she asked the technician.

The technician nodded. "We take them down to the basement and burn them, then the residue is kept in an airtight container, We can't take any chances with this stuff."

"1 agree," Maris said.

She watched impassively as the dram containing Alan Sosa's body was carted away with the rest of the waste. I'm lucky these science types don't have many friends, she thought. So far no one had questioned her story about Dr. Sosa skipping town, and she didn't expect that anyone ever would.

Maris walked slowly down the Meta-chem hallway to the room where they kept her elderly husband. Clayton was hooked up to about twenty different machines. He couldn't talk because of the tube in his mouth, but the expression in his eyes was as sharp as ever.

"1 have a new scientist working on the DNA from Liz Parker's blood," Maris told him. "His name is Dr. Farrell. 1 lured him away from the CDC."

Clayton smiled with satisfaction.

"Don't worry, darling," Maris cooed. "Sooner or later, we'll figure out the secrets of the Healer."

Don't miss any books in the series that started it all.

#1 The Outsider

#2 The Wild One

#3 The Seeker

#4 The Watcher

#5 The Intruder