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 The Evans sit in silence as they ride in their chauffeured van. A sickening feeling fills Max's stomach as he sees the gates of Eagle Rock open. He looks at Isabel who seems calmly serene, then turns. His parents smile reassuringly. Three ambulances and two escort vehicles make up the rest of the convoy. As the last vehicle passes through, the gates close and lock behind them.
Inside, the corridors are horribly familiar. The smells, the sounds, all too familiar. Eagle Rock was still in operation, never closed apparently, but deeply underground. Max wonders if they told their parents too much, but there really wasn't a choice any longer. Max watches Liz's gurney and listens to the squeaking wheel as it heads down the corridor. Her mother and father are on either side of Liz as they move quickly past the morgue, turn and stop in front of The White Room. The door opens and they disappear behind the door. Max conceals his horror.
In The White Room, several medical technicians rehook Liz up to a battery of machines -- BP, EKG, EEG, plus a few her dad was not able to identify.
"What are these?" he asks.
"Just some other monitoring devices," says the technician.
"What do they do?" he asks.
"Mr. Parker," he says, "there's no need to worry. Your daughter is in the best possible hands. No expense has been spared by the US government."
"When are you going to operate?" says Mrs. Parker.
"The doctors will discuss that with you."
"Are they here?"
"They're flying in today and should be here this afternoon."
"So it won't be today," says Mr. Parker.
"They'll want her latest stats, first. Her BP is still a bit low."
"Doesn't all this waiting increase the possibility of paralysis?"
"She has the best care -- 24/7. We'll give you a few moments alone, then you'll have to let our patient get some rest."
"Can't I just stay with her?" asks Mrs. Parker.
"Mrs. Parker, the best way you can help your daughter is to take care of yourself."
Max paces the room. He knows the drill. He knows Michael, Isabel, Maria, Kyle, and Liz are all subject to the same medical tests he got. He knows that they will disable their abilities to act by doing whatever it is they do to the cerebral cortex. They will be in captivity with their parents as hostages. He jumps when the door opens.
"Relax, Max," says the man in the dark suit. "I'm not going to do anything to you. I have everything I need from you medically. Pierce was very thorough. But I do need your help."
Max looks puzzled.
"We know you have powers. You used them to save Liz Parker and Kyle Valenti, just as you used them to kill Special Agent Pierce. You can't hide anymore ... any of you."
"I didn't kill Pierce."
"Well, one of you did. It really doesn't matter which one, does it?"
"What do you want?"
"I want you to heal Liz Parker."
Michael hobbles on crutches in his room. He's trying to get the hang of them and keeps cursing when he screws it up.
"Damn," he says, as Isabel walks in. She's slightly amused.
"Why don't you just heal yourself?"
"I tried, but I can't do it."
"Can you?"
"I can't do anything. Ask Max."
"Haven't seen him."
"For once, I have what I want -- to be completely normal ... and ..."
"Well, they got us where they want us," says Michael, looking around the room.
"Max will figure something out," says Isabel.
"Yeah, right," he says.
"Come on, Michael, can't you be the least bit optimistic?"
"Maybe when everybody stops trying to kill us."
When Liz wakes, she still can't move. She's nauseous from the drugs or is it because she knows she's in The White Room. She remembers the flashes she got from Max, fleeting moments of time and pain. She feels Max presence in the room.
"Max?"
"Hey," he says, coming into her view.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm here for you."
"It's a trap, Max."
"I know," he says.
"You have to go," she urges, "before you get caught, before you're exposed."
"It's too late for that," he says, "we're all exposed."
He comes up close to her and touches her back. He feels her tense up.
"I'm so sorry," he says, "This is my fault."
"What are you going to do?"
"Heal you."
"They'll see you."
"I know."
"You can't."
"It doesn't matter now."
"What's happened?"
"Don't talk," he says. "We'll talk later, if we can, if they let us."
"Max ..." she begins, but he doesn't let her finish.
"This won't take long."
Max releases the straps holding Liz down when the Parkers and Valenti enter.
"What the hell ..." says Jeff Parker.
Max stops and turns.
"What are you doing, Max?" he says and starts towards Max.
Valenti holds him back.
"Jeff, it's okay. You have to let Max do this."
"Do what?" says Nancy Parker.
Valenti looks at Max. Max nods.
"Heal your daughter."
The Parkers look from Valenti to Max.
"There are no surgeons," says Valenti.
"Then why are we here if there is no one to help?" says Nancy.
"For this," says Valenti.
Max turns back to Liz and finishes releasing the straps. He runs his hand from her neck down to her waist, intuitively assessing the damage. Valenti continues to restrain Jeff Parker, who's not sure he likes what he sees. As he completes his assessment, Max moves his hand to her lower back, next to the shrapnel. He wraps his thumb around it while his four fingers remain spread on her back. He begins to concentrate and his hand begins to glow, red at first, then white hot. The metal begins to soften then dissipate into a gas. Max's entire hand now rests on Liz's back and quickly, he feels each slash begin to heal, and finally the deep wound near her spine repairing itself. For Max, it seems a lifetime. For everyone else except Liz, it's so fleeting, the Parkers are in a daze, not even sure what happened. Valenti relives the moment when Max healed Kyle.
"You're okay, now," says Max to Liz.
Liz already knows. She's been through this before. She slowly begins to turn on the gurney. She's embarrassed for Max that her parents were there to witness the healing; embarrassed for herself It was hard enough knowing that they were being watched on camera. And they both cherished their privacy, especially their time together. It was selfish, she knew, but there were certain things she only wanted to share with Max. She hears her mother gasp, then both her parents surrounded her. She looks to Max who's been pushed out of the way. She wants to thank him and he smiles slightly. He knows what she wants to say, but he retreats and leaves the room.
"What do you mean, you didn't get any readings?" says the man in the dark suit.
"They're wild," says the technician. "It's like a compass gone haywire."
"You didn't get anything?"
"They're off scale."
"So we have no idea what Max Evans did to Liz Parker."
"The energy was so intense, the shrapnel just disappeared. The heat alone should have fried her skin and all the tissues, but it's undamaged."
"What else?"
"She's running an abnormally high EEG."
"Okay, get her parents out of there. I want a full battery of tests on her. I want her checked three ways to Sunday. Got it."
When the technicians come, security people accompany them. They quietly convince the Parkers to leave while they check Liz out. When they are gone, the dark suited man comes in. She expects the worst.
"Ms. Parker," he says.
"What are you going to do to me?"
"I think you know the answer to that question, but I think you'll be cooperative. Your family, your friends, they're all here and you know what we can do to them."
Liz knows that to be true. She looks the man straight in the eye.
"Where's Max?"
"You're a smart girl. Maybe too smart, but right now, I'm interested in you."
"Why? I'm just a high school student who got too close to a bomb."
"Do you think we're stupid? We've got your medical records, Ms. Parker, or shall I call you Liz. Things don't add up anymore, do they, Liz? You want to know what we found so far?"
Liz looks away from him.
"You already know, don't you? You're different now, aren't you?"
Liz remains silent.
The man reads from the report.
"Two years ago, shot in the Crashdown Cafe, no bullet found, but your uniform showed traces of human blood, your blood plus one bullet hole.. However, you were checked out by a paramedic and not even one little scratch was found. You want to explain that. ... No, don't bother. We already know that Max Evans healed you. Left a silver handprint then, didn't he? He walks around her to check her back. Should be showing another one soon, don't you think?
Liz feels very vulnerable and exposed in the hospital gown.
"Now this is new. Minimal traces of Cadmium X found in the stomach area. That's where you were shot, wasn't it? Now, how did that get there, I wonder."
"What do you want?" asks Liz.
"You're changed, girl. We want to know what that means. Don't you? Don't you want to know what's in store for you?"
"Did you know that every human found with Cadmium X is their body is dead? That is except for you ... oh yeah, Kyle Valenti."
"Kyle?"
"Makes you wonder, doesn't it?" he says, ignoring Liz's question. "Is that going to happen to you? Are you already dying?" He stops to pick up a Geiger counter and slowly runs it from Liz's head to her stomach. As it approaches the target area, the Geiger counter increases. Liz hides her alarm. "Do you know what Cadmium is?"
"It's a transitional metal."
"See, I'd expect a straight A student like you to know that."
"You know what's it's used for?" he asks, not waiting for an answer. "It's used in batteries for storage. You know what that means? You're a regular Ni-Cad battery. But like all batteries, they have a shelf life. I wonder what yours is."
"You just trying to scare me."
"You should be scared," he says, putting the Geiger counter down and retrieving her medical report. "Cadmium X, now that's something else. I'm not even sure what the uses of Cadmium X are. It's not of this earth. Maybe you can tell me."
"I have no idea," she says truthfully.
"You've had sex recently, too, I see."
Liz blushes. It's the last subject she wanted to talk about, especially with this sleazy, creepy guy from the government.
"Hot alien sex, too! Stopped using condoms? Birth control? Risky not using protection, isn't it? Or did you think we wouldn't check? Messy, trying to clean up all that evidence. Your friend, too. What were you girls thinking?"
"Maria, no, Maria wouldn't," says Liz, then realizes she has virtually made an admission. She notices the man is smiling.
"Not sharing intel, huh? And I thought you girls were close."
Liz lowers her head, kicking herself. She had to be more careful with this guy.
"Yep, you're a real vibrator, all right."
"What!?"
"Isn't that the term? Maybe I got it wrong. Well, I guess that's enough for now. We can talk about vibratory rates later. But it comes down to the same thing, doesn't it, Liz. You're not exactly human anymore, are you? You've changed."
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