Liz was only amused by the butcher job Max had done on her hair. She now had a pixie cut, in a strawberry blonde shade that looked just a little fake. Max hadn't used the scissors. In a show of talent she would have expected from his sister, Max had manipulated her hair into a cute, fashionable style. It was the first time he had used his powers since healing the pain he caused when he took her virginity.

Max ran his hands through Liz's newly spiky hair, feeling it pinprick his skin. He sighed. "I never thought I'd see you without your hair, Liz," he said sadly.

She shrugged. "Whatever has to be done. It grows back."

"You did this for me, though. I still think you should have stayed in Roswell."

"Max, we've been through this a thousand--"

"Sshhhh," he said, placing a finger to her lips. "But I never would have made it without you."

Liz smiled, and on sudden impulse sucked his finger into her mouth. She wrapped her tongue around it and Max groaned. "Oh God Liz, not here."

Liz looked around. "What's wrong with here?"

"It's a gas station restroom, for God's sake."

"Hey," she said, pointing to a dispenser in the corner. "They keep these things here on purpose, you know."

He shrugged, lifting her onto the sink. "I thought you said we didn't need them."

"We will, soon. I'm almost out of pills. It was pure luck that I got my prescription refilled last week and still had them in my purse."

"Mmmmm," Max said, kissing his way to the edge of her T-shirt. "I like the bare feeling, personally."

"Well, have you ever had it any other way?" she asked, gasping out the last word as he kissed her breast through her shirt.

"Well, no," he admitted. "But I'm with you. I want to feel all of you, always."

"Well, do it, then."

He complied, lifting her shirt over her head. She had given up on bras after they made love for the first time. She was small enough in the bust that she didn't really need one, and she had only had one with her anyways. Max cupped her breast in his palm and ran his tongue over the nipple. She moaned, trying to lift his shirt over his head. He shifted to help her.

Before she could do anything else, he had pressed her backwards on top of the counter. Max unbuttoned her shorts and slipped her panties down, and they tangled around her ankles. Max didn't care.

"Max, come on," Liz urged, trying to unbutton his jeans.

He shook his head. "No, I want to do this for you."

"Do..." Her eyes widened suddenly in shock. "It's okay, really, Max."

"No, I want to."

Without another word he leaned down and began to explore her warm wetness with his mouth. He didn't know anything about technique, so he listened to Liz. Whatever caused her to make the loudest noises was what he kept doing. Experimentally, he slipped a finger inside her and began to pump gently with it. She moaned, and he slipped another inside her, pumping furiously while kissing her most sensitive areas with his mouth.

She cried out and arched off the counter, nearly falling off entirely. Max was there to catch her and did, holding her tight while she breathed heavily. "Max, that was amazing," she said breathlessly.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet," he said, mimicking the old movie line.

She helped him remove his jeans and boxers, and slipped her hand around his erection. "Oh, Liz, don't do that, or I'll have to take that last thing I said back."

She sat back on the counter, pulling his mouth up to hers for a kiss. The dirty porcelain ledge wasn't exactly comfortable under her bare behind, but she didn't care. She wrapped her legs around Max's waist, trying to get him closer. He adjusted for the angle, and slipped into her smoothly.

Liz groaned, trying to match his thrusts. She couldn't get any leverage with the sink. It was immensely frustrating. She shoved Max backwards a little, and kept her legs wrapped around his waist. He wound up standing, with her wrapped around him. He moved for the nearest place her could see, the wall next to the condom dispenser. Liz found herself pushed up against the cold tiles, her skin forming goose bumps.

Max pounded into her from underneath while she rolled her hips to meet him, stroke for stroke. It was the first time they had made love that she had not felt any pain at all, and she took advantage of it fully.

"Liz--I think I'm gonna--are you--"

"Yes," she moaned. "Yes, Max, definitely."

****

Back on the road again, Liz decided she could live with her new haircut. Her hair no longer blew continually in her face. She definitely understood why guys preferred short cuts.

Liz was happy and content. She could have been any other girl, on any other road trip with a boyfriend that she loved. Then her thoughts began to gradually darken, straying toward the past and the road they had left behind them.

"Max," she said suddenly, "I think we need to find a place to stay."

"We are," he said without looking at her. "My parent's place at Yosemite will be fine."

"That'll be okay for a while. But we need to find someplace to stay, permanently. We can't stay on the road forever. We're already short on cash."

Max sighed to himself and wondered when Liz had become the sensible one. "Do you have any suggestions?"

She opened the atlas they had purchased in Arizona and flipped through the pages to the maps of California. "How about Claremont? Five colleges in town. We'd blend in really well."

"How big?"

She looked in the back of the book. The index gave populations. "About 20,000."

"Wrong size. We need a town that's big enough for us to get lost, but not so big that we don't know who our enemies are."

****

In the end they settled on Elk Grove. West of Yosemite, it was a small town within forty miles of the state capital. Maybe they could start a new life there. There didn't seem to be any hope of going back to Roswell. Not if they wanted to live, anyway.

Max seemed to have given up all hope of finding Isabel and Michael. Liz had convinced him that the slim chance that they could be alive wasn't enough to risk his own life to find them. And she was right; it wasn't a risk he could take.

They pulled into the cabin and Liz gasped, amazed. It was right out of a movie; huge logs cemented together, a chimney rising from one side, pine needles covering the ground. A small waterfall ran down the cliff a few feet away.

"We can only stay a few days," Max cautioned her. "They'll find this place eventually."

"They'll find every place we stay eventually," Liz murmured. "Do you want me to go get some food?"