"Not a trace..."

"Are you certain... X-rays..."

"...Missing, too, but yeah. I'm as certain as I can be."

Liz awoke to the sound of quiet voices talking a short ways away.

"Her scalp shows no signs of trauma and the stitches are gone."

"So what are you saying?"

"It's like she was never injured in the first place."

"Doctor, are you sure this is the same girl? There's no way a head injury could heal this fast."

"It's Liz Parker, doctor. I've known her all her life. Helped deliver her in fact."

With a gasp, Liz finally recognized the voice of her family doctor. There were at least two other doctors with him and they were all talking about her. She looked around and realized that she was back in the hospital. There was an IV dripping some clear solution into her left arm, and she was back in a hospital gown. Where was everyone? How'd she get here? The last thing she remembered, she was getting into Isabel's bed. No, wait. That's wrong. She'd gotten up later and there was the confrontation in Max's room and she'd told them everything about what had happened with Future Max. That didn't explain how she'd gotten here, though.

"Who cares about some stitches? What happened to the large growth that appeared on her x-rays? It's completely gone. What happened to that?"

"Gentlemen, let's go see if Ms. Parker is awake. Perhaps she can help shed some light on this situation."

Liz quickly dropped her head back on the pillow and pretended to still be sleeping. Unfortunately, their intention wasn't to let her rest. They wanted some answers. Dr. Sanchez reached out and gently shook her shoulder, saying, "Liz. Liz, wake up."

Faking a groggy expression, she turned over, asking, "Dr. Sanchez?"

"Yes, child. Wake up. We have some very important questions to ask you."

"Where am I?"

"You're back at Roswell Memorial, dear. We've been very worried about you."

"How did I get here?"

"Sheriff Valenti brought you in. Said he found you and his son out in the desert unconscious."

She hadn't expected to hear that. Sitting up, she asked, "Kyle?"

"Yes. Don't worry. Kyle's fine. He checked out earlier with a clean bill of health."

Liz was confused. What had she been doing with Kyle? Out in the desert?

"Liz we need to ask you a couple of questions, if you're feeling up to it."

"Of course." She lay back against the pillows.

"What day of the week is it?"

Liz frowned as she'd thought. Friday was the day she'd been brought in for stitches. Saturday was the day she'd finished her experiments and told Max, Michael and Isabel about Future Max's visit. That meant that today was, "Sunday."

"That's right. Do you remember being in the hospital Friday morning?"

"Yes."

"Good. Why were you here?"

"My head." Liz's hands flew up to where they'd had to put six stitches in her scalp. Uh oh. Max had healed the wound when he'd arrived with the others to break her out of here. The stitches were gone, and Liz knew there would be no scar.

"That's right. So, we were wondering what happened to your head. The injury is completely gone. Like it never was. Can you explain that?"

Liz decided her only course of action was to play dumb. "What do you mean it's gone?" She let her fingers gently probe the area of her scalp where the stitches were. Her eyes got huge. "What happened to it? Where are the stitches?" Like they wandered off on their own. Nice going Parker, she admonished herself. Let's go for confused here, not crazy. "I mean it was there yesterday."

"Liz, where were you yesterday?" This from the taller man next to Dr. Sanchez. His name badge proclaimed him to be D. Burnson.

"Um... I was freaked, you know after mom and dad told me about the x-rays. I just wanted to get out of here. You know, to go somewhere and think. I'm very sorry for upsetting all of you. I went out to this place I like to go in Frazier Woods when I want to be alone. I was there yesterday."

"Were you there with Sheriff Valenti's son?"

Liz had no idea what Sheriff Valenti had told everyone, so Liz said, "No. I mean I don't think so. I think I was running fever. I remember hearing voices, and I had some strange dreams, but I don't remember being there with Kyle."

"You heard voices?" Burnson asked. "Whose voices? What were they saying?"

"I don't know. I mean, I don't really remember. The only thing I really remember was feeling sick. I thought it was a reaction to the drugs they gave me after putting in the stitches. That's it."

She looked at Dr. Sanchez's kind face. "Where are my parents. I want to see them. They're probably worried sick about me."

"We'll let your parents in in just a minute." Burnson said. "But first I have a few more questions."

Liz sighed. She hoped this wouldn't take too long. She really did want to see her parents, then she wanted to talk to Max to find out how she'd gotten here.

"When you were here before, your parents gave you some bad news, is that right?"

"Yes. That's why I left. I couldn't deal with what they'd told me."

"What did they say?"

"That the doctors had found some sort of a lump in my stomach. They were worried it might be some kind of cancer."

"Did you know that they did another set of x-rays after you returned because the ones done originally on you disappeared at the same time you did?"

"Disappeared? What do you mean?"

"I mean your whole file just vanished, x-rays and all."

"What happened to them?"

"We were hoping you could tell us, Liz" Dr. Sanchez said.

"What? You think I... Dr. Sanchez, I would never do such a thing. All I could think about was getting out of here. What could I hope to accomplish by taking my file?"

"We didn't know, but there wasn't any other explanation that we could come up with for them being gone other than you must have taken them."

"No. I have no idea where they might have gone."

"Be that as it may," Burnson cut in, "When you were returned, the doctors immediately took another set of x-rays and do you know what they discovered, Ms. Parker? The lump that appeared in your previous x-rays is completely gone from the new ones."

Liz's jaw dropped open, this time for real. The lump was gone? But how?

It was another hour before Jeff and Nancy were allowed to speak with her. In that time she was no closer to figuring out what had happened to her. She figured the Max must have tried healing her again only this time it worked. But if that was true, then why wasn't there a silver handprint on her skin? She knew without looking that there wasn't one. The whole thing was weird. And how did Kyle fit into the picture?

The reunion with her parents was an emotional one. Nancy was in tears the whole time, and Jeff scolded her on running off like that. He said that after the relief of having her back home wore off, he'd be grounding her for a month.

Liz could only repeat how sorry she was for upsetting them. "I just got to thinking about getting really sick and freaked out. I just had to get out of here. I'm so sorry for not calling you as soon as I could."

Nancy said, "And now the whole thing was a false alarm. Dr. Sanchez told me that everything on your x-rays this morning looked fine."

Liz smiled, "Yeah. That's what he said to me, too. So, since, I'm ok, can we just go home? I feel like I haven't seen my room in a week, plus I need to call Maria and the gang. Does she know I'm back?"

"Yeah. She's working at the restaurant right now, honey. Dr. Sanchez said there's no reason we can't take you home, so why don't you change, and we'll get going."

She was so relieved that she practically danced over to her mom to give the woman a big hug. "I love you, mom."

"I love you too, honey," Mrs. Parker said.

Liz hugged her dad next. "Dad. I love you so much."

"Me too, sweetie. You're still grounded, though."

She stifled a laugh before hurrying into the bathroom to change. God, she felt great. Energy was pumping through her veins, not alien energy, just good ole, it's-good-to-be-alive human energy. She couldn't wait to see her friends. Liz didn't think she'd felt this good since last summer when she'd been with her aunt in Florida.

With that realization, she figured out why. Max. She'd finally been able to tell him the truth. She didn't have to lie to him about Kyle or not wanting to be with him anymore. They would take it slow, she promised herself, but one day, they would be able to be a couple again. She could wait, no matter how long it took.

Unexpectedly "I Shall Believe" popped back into her head. It started out as a soft humming as she dressed, but as she was brushing out her hair, she couldn't help but sing the lyrics aloud.

"Please say honestly you won't give up on me,"

She would be having that wedding dance yet, she just knew. She and Max would find a way.