"Lizzie?" Maria came in as Liz spun around guiltily from the mirror and tried to wipe away her tears. "What is wrong?"

"I’m fat!" Liz cried in despair. "And-and… how can he love me?"

"Whoa! Liz, calm down, babe. I don’t think it’s good for Max junior if you get so upset!" She hurried over and dragged Liz away from the mirror. This is ANOTHER melt-down you owe me for, Max Evans! "Besides, are you high? Max practically drools over you all his life and you think he doesn’t think you’re pretty?" She patted Liz’s back when Liz collapsed on the bed. "Lizzie, love is about so much more than what the other person looks like! If I hear him one more time about your laugh or about how smart you are, I’m gonna barf. You’re his best friend too, you know."

"I know, but—"

"No, see, you have to count your blessings, because you got the alien with actual communication skills. Me, I have to go on grunts and other nonsensical sounds to know what Michael is trying to say."

"But I want him to like what I look like too! And I’m… not…" Liz sounded silly even to herself.

"Excuse me! Did he, or did he not drag you out of an official dinner last week when he got back?"

"Yes…" Liz answered in a small voice.

"You’re not going to tell me it was because he wanted to TALK to you in private, are you?"

"No."

"And that he couldn’t stand to see you undressed or to touch you?"

"No." Liz was smiling by now.

"Didn’t think so. Lizzie, I wish you could see the way he looks at you sometimes when he thinks you won’t notice. He adores you." She rubbed Liz’s arm. "And now you’re giving him something no one else ever has. A son." She giggled. "So I’d say it’s safe to assume that you are just this side of a goddess to him right now."

"Ugh, Maria! I am SO lame! Nearly four months pregnant and really hormonal. How do you all live with me?"

"Well, mostly ‘cause we don’t have a choice! And because Max threatens us with horrible torture if we don’t pamper you."

They laughed together until Liz sobered up. "Maria, I miss him so much!"

"I know. I miss Space Boy too…"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Max rubbed his face tiredly. The afternoon session was not going well. Gee, that’s a surprise. Dak’or has changed his demands yet again. Now he wanted the King of Dendar to relinquish his position as well. The man was clearly getting more power hungry as the negotiations progressed. It was like he was deliberately playing games with them all for his own amusement. Well, Max was not amused.

One of Dak’or’s advisors was droning on about the new ruling structure they envisaged for the Whirlwind galaxy when Max felt a shiver run down his spine. He looked at Nick and Michael, but neither of them was showing signs of anything but extreme boredom. His connection to Liz was still stronger than normally through his son, but they were basically on opposite sides of Dendar at the moment. This feeling wasn’t coming through their connection, it was more like a… premonition.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The old woman had consented to see Liz late the afternoon. James had thrown a huge fit when she told him to let her go alone and refused point-blank. In fact, his exact words were: ‘there is no way in hell you are going in there alone’ and when she mentioned that he was being real snippy with his Queen, he pointed out that he was only following the VERY SPECIFIC instructions from his KING. No amount of sulking from Liz’s side had worked, so when she started off to see the woman, she had James, two other men and Grace in tow.

Her name was Hora, she told Liz. They were sitting in one corner of a huge room, with Liz’s entourage watching them carefully from the other side. Hora had stated that her knowledge was for the ears of Liz alone, so everyone else had had to move back.

"I remember you," were the first words from her mouth, making Liz shiver. She had strange, intense eyes that were watching Liz enigmatically. "I can’t believe he is making the same mistake again."

What did that mean? "Was I here? Did I know… Zan?" Her heart was going like a trip-hammer.

"Yes," Hora answered. "Although I wished you didn’t, you and Zan knew each other."

A cold hand was starting to close around Liz’s throat. The woman did not look very friendly. "What do you mean? Why does no one else remember me then?"

"He snuck off to see you and only about three of us knew. He was completely besotted with you. We had never seen anything like that here on Dendar. It was like you put him in a trance and he cared about nothing else but you."

Biting her lip, tears started forming in Liz’s eyes. "But… I loved him too, right?"

Hora looked at her coldly for a long time. "I don’t see how you could have."

This elicited a gasp from Liz. "W-why?"

"Because you were seeing someone else too. And you got pregnant by that someone else. Ironic in the light of your present condition, isn’t it?" She leaned forward and put her hand on Liz’s stomach for a few seconds.

The tears spilled over now. Everything inside her was screaming NO. No, she could never have done that to Max. "I-I don’t remember any of it."

"Maybe that is for the best then. He never knew about the other man’s baby. You left him before he found out. He was devastated and I think it made him reckless during the war." Those eyes pinned Liz again. "Recklessness led to his death."

A sob escaped Liz as she placed one hand over her womb and the other over her mouth. It felt like a white-hot knife was twisting around and around in her heart. "No…"

"Yes."

"No…" She was starting to feel dizzy. "P-please…"

James was at her side, glaring at Hora. "What did you tell her?"

"The truth."

James looked at Liz worriedly. She was staring in front of her in a daze, her cheeks wet with moisture. "Let’s go. This was a bad idea," he told her and gently helped her to her feet.

"You will begin to remember soon," Hora called after her as James practically carried her out.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The memories started flooding over her after she had lain on the bed listlessly for an hour.

And each one made her more sick.

Teasing Zan until he panted for her but never allowing him more than short touches and kisses. Meeting him in all sorts of places to tease him some more. Sex with some other man she couldn’t see the face of. Finding out she was pregnant about the same time Max heard about his bonding with Tess. Telling Max to follow his destiny and seeing him break down and cry, begging her not to leave him.

Her whimper brought Maria and Grace out of the chairs they had been occupying next to her bed. "Lizzie, what did she say to you? You are scaring us!"

Maybe I could just stop breathing, she thought idly. That would be so much better than to see Max’s face when he remembered what she had done to him.

"If she told you some crap story about Max not loving you, it’s a lie. You KNOW that!" Maria tried again.

This only led to another soft moan from Liz.

One of James’ men came in quietly and spoke to Grace and James. "I can’t get hold of him. The guards are saying that the door to the negotiations room is locked and they are not allowed in, so they can’t go tell him." Max, if ever there was a time you should rely on your connection with your wife, this would be it, James thought.

Panic permeated the Antarian royal suite. News about Liz’s complete breakdown had soon reached everyone’s ears and there was a constant stream of anxious people to the little lounge outside Max and Liz’s room. No one knew what to do and everyone was praying that Max returned soon. Also, that they would not be around to see his reaction when he saw Liz.

Liz continued to swing between hysterical thoughts that what she was remembering could not possibly be true and a horrible suspicion that she had really betrayed and used Max like that. It felt like thousands for voices were all yelling in her head at once and she didn’t know how to make them stop.

How would she ever look Max in the eyes again? How could he ever trust her? Oh god, but I’ve done nothing but love him during this life! Please let him remember that too. A helpless sob was torn from her throat. "I love him," she whispered, causing everyone to run to the bed again.

"Where the hell is Max!" Isabel said from the doorway. "He is the damn King, why can someone not break down the door wherever he is and get him out here?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Max was in agony. He had started feeling nauseous somewhere during the late afternoon and had just started to rise to get out of there when Dak’or barred the doors from the inside. Furious words were flung around the room and finally it became clear that the Tresar King had taken back his throne and was on the way to get rid of Dak’or too.

It was killing him. He needed to get home because something was going on with Liz that threatened to force all the air from his lungs. She was alive, that much he knew. But she was in absolute emotional distress.

Dak’or was still standing at the door, his men keeping an eye over the VIP’s congregated in the room when something inside Max snapped. He got to his feet determinedly, not even noticing that Michael was right behind him.

As they did that, several things happened all at once. The door was blown in from the outside, throwing Dak’or to the floor. Max felt a dull ache in his shoulder from what must have been a shot from one of the guards’ blasters. He didn’t care, he stumbled over the fallen men until he could reach Dak’or. Grabbing him by the lapels, he jerked him upright and they both came face-to-face with Eric.

"Max, nice to see you again!" Eric was beaming. "And thanks for holding him for me."

Shoving Dak’or at his once-again King and pressing a hand against his bleeding shoulder, Max ground out: "Eric. Nice to see you again, but I have to go. Can we catch up later?"

"Sure!" Eric was puzzled, but he definitely needed to sort out some things here as well. "Say hi to Liz from Sarah and I."

That made Max falter on the way out. "Yeah. Bring Sarah to the palace soon. Sorry about this." But I HAVE to go, my heart is calling me home.

Stumbling outside while ignoring the wound in his shoulder, Max shouted at his guards to get a move on so they could leave. Then he saw their faces and felt despair rip through him all over again. They all looked like they knew something terrible and didn’t want to tell him. "Let’s go," he told them once again.

They didn’t need to tell him.