Max and Isabel were bored, sitting at home and flipping through channels.

“There’s nothing on.” Isabel complained.

“We must have fifty channels.” Max observed as he surfed through them all, channel by channel.

“Crap … crap...”

“Uh-huh.”

“Boring.” Isabel complained.

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m going to take a stroll; see what people are dreaming.” Isabel told her brother getting up to go to her room.

“Haven’t you been overdoing that lately?” Max asked, suspecting that she may have visited him a few times too.

“Take it easy. It’s harmless.”

“It’s just not a very nice thing to do.” Isabel shrugged, leaving Max with his convenient morals as he yelled after her. “And stay away from Liz, please!” He went back to his channel surfing muttering, “Crap … crap … crap …”

Isabel sat on her bed looking through her yearbook. She stopped at Liz’s picture. Normally she wouldn’t invade Liz’s dreams, afraid of seeing something disgusting involving her brother, but since Max mentioned it... Isabel smiled lying back as she touched Liz’s picture.

She entered Liz’s dream at the Crashdown. A young man entered.

“Hello, Liz.” Hmm, beefcake.

“Hello, Braaad.” Liz said in a sappy sugary voice as Brad lifted her up to set her on the counter. Liz lay down looking at him seductively. “Would you like fries with that?” Isabel made a face rolling her eyes at the comically quasi sensual voice. She lifted an eyebrow appraisingly when Brad and Liz started kissing and then suddenly Max showed up behind the counter.

Liz looked up at Max somewhat insolently. “I’m with Brad now,” she told him in her little squeaky voice topped by a pout.

“Brad doesn’t even exist.” Max told her. “Besides, you want someone who can do this.” Max gestured toward the ceiling and rose petals started to fall as Liz left Brad and started kissing Max.

“Oh my!” Liz moaned dramatically with her hand on her breasts.

Isabel came out of her dream state disgusted, and severely icked by the sappy dream. “Even her romantic dreams are boring.”

Isabel went back to the yearbook and smiled when she saw a picture of Maria. Oh, like she hadn’t already looked into that headcase’s dreams. Shrugging, she touched Maria’s picture to see what was going on. Maria was flipping through a magazine. She didn’t bother to look up as Isabel invaded her dream.

“Get out, Iz or I’ll cause you more damage than you can even imagine. I’m thinking of your dad wearing your mom’s underwear and her with a bullwhip.”

Isabel gasped herself awake. Bitch. She didn’t bother with Max whom she knew was awake, and no sane human would even want to risk a glance at Michael’s dreams. Alex was too risky, and after what happened between them, she just couldn’t. She looked through the yearbook again and stopped on Kyle.

“Kyle’s got to be more interesting than Liz and not as bitchy as Maria.”

In Kyle’s dream, he was on a mountaintop seated in a Lotus position at Buddha’s feet.

“Remember Young Blossom, my most important words.”

“Yes, Master.” Kyle said bowing in deference.

“To thine own self be true.”

“It’s Shakespeare.” Isabel pointed out.

“With every inhale find the center of yourself. With every exhale release the ties that bind your energy. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale … Buddha was interrupted by a cell phone beeping. “Excuse me,” he told his favorite disciple. “Buddha here. Yeah. When? Prepare the ship. Standby to beam us aboard.”

“Master?” Kyle said in confusion.

“Our enemies have arrived, Kyle. We must leave Earth and face the dark legion.”

“No, no, no, no.” Kyle said with some distress. “I’m here for inner peace, not that science fiction crap.”

“Max Evans changed you when he saved your life. You know that. You’re an alien now, Kyle.” Buddha shook a scolding finger at Kyle. “Dude, like, accept your destiny.”

“No, I’m not!” Kyle screamed as he looked down and his hand became green and slimy. “Ahhhhh!”

Before Isabel could exit Kyle’s alien driven nightmare the dream changed. She was in a dark forest with flashes of lights.

“Where am I?” Isabel circles around in the dream, in the dark … confused. “Kyle, whose dream is this?”

Isabel gasped as she saw a man dragging a screaming girl in a black plastic bag. Pushed out of the dream in fear, Isabel woke up in a panic her hand going to her heaving breasts.

~~~

Jim was enjoying his third cup of the worst coffee that the Roswell PD had to offer when he heard a voice outside his office.

“Excuse me. I’m looking for a broken-down, old, war-horse somehow managed to make Sheriff of Roswell, New Mexico.”

Jim smiled. “Hansen,” he called to his deputy, “send that sanctimonious paper-pusher in here before I have him arrested for vagrancy.”

He stood up smiling when a man around his age came through the door with his hand outstretched. They shook hands sociably.

“Damn son, you’re gettin’ old!” the man commented. Though he and Jim were the same age, Jim’s face had more lines lacking the polished look of the other man.

“Real police work will do that to you, Dan. You should try it some time.”

“Now, that hurts.” Dan Lubetkin took a seat across from Jim’s desk. “Long time, Jimbo.”

“Too long.” Jim agreed as he took his seat again. “So, I take it this isn’t a social call.”

“The State Police Board wants to review the Hubble shooting.”

“Hubble?” Jim breathed in deeply looking at his friend from police academy who long ago went into the administrative part of law enforcement. “Well, it’s an open and shut case. Crazy old man with a gun in the desert.” Jim shrugged, but his eyes were serious and careful. “It was over a year ago. Why investigate that?”

“Wheels of justice grind slowly.” Dan answered, his eyes equally careful as he watched his friend.

“Do I need a lawyer?”

“Whoa, easy, no need to get all riled up now.” Dan said holding up his hands.

“That was a clean shoot, Dan.”

“If you say so,” Dan glanced at Jim’s coffee cup. “You got any more of that stuff?”

“It’s real cop coffee; it might burn a hole in your stomach.”

“I think I can handle it.”

~~~

At the Crashdown Tess was having breakfast with Kyle who was still obsessing over becoming alien. Ever since Ava had told Liz that she was changed, Kyle had spent hours taking account of his own physical body, horrified at the thought he might actually have a lifetime connection to Max Evans. He glanced at Tess as she poured Tabasco sauce on her waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, and also in her orange juice.

“That’s very alien, isn’t it? The very sweet, very spicy thing?”

“Uh-huh.”

Kyle frowned. “Can I try a bite?”

“You won’t like it.” Tess warned him.

“Oh, I hope not.” Kyle took his fork and tasted the overly sweet pancakes laced with Tabasco. “Oh, my God,” he said more to himself as he ate it.

“I told you.”

“No, no, no.” Kyle said waving off her warning. “It’s not completely horrible. It’s almost tasty.”

“Oh. Well, here. Have some more.” Tess said offering him her plate.

“No, no, I can’t. This is so wrong. I’m not ready for this.”

“Not ready for what?” Tess asked him confused by his reaction.

“For the change. Not ready to be, like, a half-human, half-alien freakazoid.”

“Uh, we prefer the term ‘hybrids’.” Tess told him testily slightly miffed at the slam to her alienkind.

“I’m serious. Look, I never bargained for this. One minute I’m a normal guy with my whole life ahead of me the next thing I know, Max Evans transmogrifies me into something not-of-this-Earth.”

“Whoa, whoa, trans-what?”

“Look, I never asked for this.”

“Well, I suppose he could have let you die.” Tess pointed out. “Is that what you want?”

“If I had died, I would have transcended the mortal plane and been reincarnated into the next stage of my life.”

Tess shook her head. He was deranged. “Reincarnated as what, exactly?”

“Like, just another person or animal, maybe.”

“An animal?” Tess laughed. “Like, you could have ended up a gopher or something!”

“Look, we’re getting off the point. I really need some help.”

“What do you want from me? I don’t know what’s going to happen to you. You know, maybe nothing will happen. Or maybe you could develop superpowers and start flying all over Roswell in a big cape.” Exasperated by him, Tess dug into her breakfast. “I don’t know!” Kyle reached his fork towards Tess’s waffles.

“Could I have another …”

“No!” Tess said pulling her plate away from him. Alien freakazoid … indeed!

~~~

Isabel and Max took their concerns to Sheriff Valenti unsure how else to deal with the dreams.

“Alright, let me get this straight. You can go into people’s dreams?”

“Yes. But usually I choose whose dreams I go into.” Isabel informed him leaving out the few dreams of his she invaded. “This one just came to me.”

“Well, how do you know this was real, not just somebody’s nightmare you stumbled into?”

“I don’t know, but it felt real. She needs help.” Isabel pleaded in earnest.

“Sheriff, when Tess was being tortured Isabel got flashes from her, and that’s how she knew Tess was in danger.” Max explained to the Sheriff. “That’s how we saved her life. We should check into this.”

“It’s a little hard to look for a missing girl without a name or a face.” Jim tried to explain to them. He paused when there was knock on his door and Dan stuck his head inside.

“Hey, Senor Chows for lunch?” Dan asked.

“Yeah, that’d be fine.” Jim said noticing how Dan was staring at Max and Isabel in interest.

“Hi.” Dan said to Max.

“Hi.” Max replied uncertain who the man was.

“I’ll see you at 1:00, Dan.” Jim called to his friend subtly excusing him from the room.

“Who was that?” Max asked as the door shut behind the man.

“He’s from the State Police Board.” Jim told the teens. “He’s reviewing the Hubble case.”

“Hubble?” Max squeaked, sitting up straighter.

“It’s no big deal. Dan’s an old friend.” Jim stood up. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll look into it, okay?”

“Thank you.” Isabel pulled Max unceremoniously out of the Sheriff’s office with her. Jim watched them go, rubbing the back of his neck. He would investigate. Shaking his head he looked at the time to see how long he had until he had to meet Dan.

~~~

Dan and Valenti were having lunch at Senor Chows. Jim talked about the Hubble case as they ate.

“When I ordered him to put his weapon down, he uh … he refused, brought the gun up. I felt my life was in imminent danger, so I fired.”

“Hmm, just like it says in your report.” Dan signaled a waiter. “Uh, could we have more of these sweet and sour tortillas?” The waiter nodded and went off to get them as Dan smiled at Jim. “They’re good. Different, but good. So, uh, who were those kids in your office this morning?”

“Nobody.” Jim lied, immediately suspicious of anyone that took an interest in the alien children. “Stolen bike.”

“Hmm, what were their names again?”

“Max and Isabel Evans.”

“Max Evans … hmm, I got a statement here says that Hubble was last seen in a car with Max Evans, before the shooting.”

“Whose statement?” Jim asked, his alert level going up.

Dan ignored the question. “Was Max Evans there that night?”

“No.”

“Okay Jim, that’s all I need to hear.” Dan said smiling when the waiter returned with the tortillas.

~~~

Liz was serving customers. “Okay, Umm, we have a Saturn Rings and a Galaxy Sub, hold the Max.” Liz looked at Maria as she realized her mistake. “Okay, so I’ll be right back with the Cokes.”

Maria pulled Liz aside. “Okay, what just happened?”

“I need help. I’m sick, okay?” Liz wailed, grabbing Maria desperately. “I am an obsessed person.”

“Okay, is this a general freakout or should I be concerned?”

“No, I have Max on my brain 24 hours a day. Okay, I dream about him, I think about him, and now I’m saying his friggin’ name without even realizing it.” Liz held onto Maria tight. “What am I going to do?”

“You’re in love that’s all.” Maria told her friend. It was to be expected.

“I know, but it’s not getting me anywhere.”

Maria was quiet for a moment, sighing deeply she looked at her friend. Nodding, she led Liz into the backroom. “Where exactly did you expect it to get you?”

“What?”

“You said that being in love with Max isn’t getting you anywhere. So where did you expect it to get you?”

“I … I really don’t know. Happy?”

“How can that happen, Liz? Future Max told you that you and Max were too obsessed and self-absorbed, that you weren’t prepared when their enemies came, and they needed Tess.”

“Maybe that isn’t true anymore.” Liz told Maria. “I mean Tess was here when the Skins came, she blew them to dust, and … and maybe now it is over and Max and I can be together.”

Maria nodded. Okay. “Did Future Max tell you that? Did he tell you that it was the Skins? I mean you just dumped him and a few weeks later Tess takes out the Skins. Do you think in the last timeline it was merely weeks? When exactly did these enemies come, and who were they? Didn’t he say that when their enemies came Tess was gone, and she was gone because the two of you were married? That implies that Tess didn’t leave until after you married, and the enemies that threaten the world don’t show up until after she leave.”

“I don’t know.” Liz bit her lip. “He didn’t say.”

“Oh!” Maria nodded. Typical. “So he tells you about your great love, your great marriage, and your great life together except for that one pesky thing … oh let me see? Oh yeah! The world ends! Right. But he couldn’t tell you who, where, why, how and when? He couldn’t tell you anything to prepare you in case this didn’t work, and it still happens, but just not exactly the way it did last time?”

“Okay. He didn’t tell me anything …”

“Useful. Only things that hurt you.” Maria made Liz look outside into the Café. “What has changed? Really? I mean you still want Max, you hate that he is only a friend now, and you are obsessing how to get him back in your life. What has changed?”

“Tess is still here.”

“True, but they aren’t together. And we don’t know that the danger that threatens the world is here yet. What if it doesn’t show up for another ten years? So you and Max getting back together …”

“Would result in the same future,” Liz concluded. She looked at her friend, her eyes pleading. “What should I do? You’ve got to help me, Maria. Tell me what to do?”

“I can’t. If Future Max had given us even a hint of when it happened or with whom, at least we would know when the danger was beyond us … and then maybe you could be with Max. So now we have no idea, and that means that you … Liz, you have to decide if your want and need to be with Max is more important that the world, or the possibility of the world ending.”

Liz covered her eyes. “This isn’t fair. This can’t be on me!”

“It should’ve never been. Max did that. Future Max. But we can’t go back. Your obsession is your obsession, and love is love. If you decide you can’t live without Max, that nothing except being with him is important, then there it is. You roll the dice. You take a chance with your life, our lives, and his. The future, Liz … it is now undetermined, and all you can do is make the best decisions with the knowledge you have.”

“And if I choose wrong?” Liz asked quietly.

“Then you choose wrong. All you have is a possibility, a foresight of what might be. Nothing more. People make decisions every day, and some of them are wrong … some very wrong, but they didn’t know how wrong it was until after it was too late. You are merely cursed with foreknowledge.”

“I hate this. I hate that I can’t … that I don’t want …” Liz covered her eyes breathing in deep.

“Okay relax, relax, Liz. It’s not that bad. I promise.” Maria noticed Mr. Parker looking around. She quickly pushed Liz back into the Café joining her behind the bar pretending to fill glasses. “So you’re a little obsessed. It’s not that bad.”

“Not that bad? Really? Why don’t you look at this?” Liz pulled out two pictures of Max from her apron pockets. “See! Obsession, obsession, obsession, obsession!”

“Okay, okay, you’re a Max-aholic.” Maria conceded the point. Liz was officially a basket case. “I’m here for you. What can I do?”

“Get me a life.” Liz begged. Anything to take her mind of her Max problems. At that moment a young man entered the Crashdown.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me.” Maria was not pleased. “When did you get out?”

“This morning,” Sean DeLuca informed his colorful cousin.

Maria’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You didn’t break out did you?”

“I got a release. Good behavior.” Sean’s eyes wandered over his cousin, and then the girl standing next to her gaping at him.

“That’s a first.” Maria said sarcastically. “You don’t think that you’re going to stay with us do you?”

“Oh, uh, Aunt Amy already gave it the thumbs up.” Sean happily told his cousin, enjoying her look of disgust.

“She is such a soft touch, isn’t she?” Maria said bitterly.

Sean ignored his cousin for the girl next to her. He loaded on the DeLuca charm, charm that unfortunately had missed his sour cousin. “Hi, Liz.”

“Hey, Sean,” Liz said with a shellshocked look on her face.

“All grown up. Like it.” Sean commented winking at his cousin on his way out. “I’ll see you at home.”

“It’s not your home!” Maria yelled at him, her body stiff.

Michael, who had been cooking came to the order window at the obvious sounds of a distressed Maria. He frowned out over the slow Café searching for whatever was the source of Maria’s displeasure. Hey, no one had the right to upset the DeLuca … no one but him. He had first dibs.

“Michael! Oh my god, Michael!” Maria was so upset she rambled and Michael only caught every few words in a long rant. It sounded almost garbled like a long distance communication … one from Planet Maria. “Sean … cousin … that no good juvenile delinquent … he stole my home, and … I can’t … he is a … he … I … I can’t breathe!” Maria took large calming breaths.

“Okay, your cousin, Sean is in town. He is staying with you and your mom. He has a history, one that led him to juvie, and now he’s back. He upsets you.” Michael concluded.

“You’re good!” Liz said in awe.

Maria reached over and kissed him on the lips quickly. “Exactly. I knew I could count on you to understand how horrible this is! I, oh god! I really need to go! I need to go count the silver, double check everything, and label my stuff so Sean doesn’t touch it. I can’t get it done if …”

“Go!” Liz begged. Anything to get Maria to calm down, to take a few extra breaths. The girl was an unhealthy shade of red.

“Bless you!” Maria took her order book and shoved it in Liz’s hands while rushing into the breakroom to get her keys and jacket. Michael left the kitchen as Liz followed her. “Spaceboy, prepare yourself. I might have to run away from home. Can I sack at your place?”

“Always,” Michael said.

Maria hugged Michael quickly and waved at Liz as she rushed out the back door in a flurry of limbs, mumbling to herself the entire time.

“Wow! I thought I was obsessing. I stand corrected and watch a master.” Liz said to herself. Glancing at Michael she shrugged. “Well, back to work.”

Michael grabbed the back of the sash tying Liz’s apron and pulled her back before she could run away. “Uh-uh.” He shook his head.

“Uh-uh?” Liz repeated.

“What the heck is going on? Who is Sean? And what has Maria all upset?” Michael looked Maria’s oldest friend over. “Liz? Spill.”

~~~

At the Evans house, Grant Sorenson was flipping through TV channels as Max walked in with a look of distrust. He was clearly unhappy to see Grant.

“Grant.”

“Hey, Max.” Grant answered socially enough as he continued to flip though stations.

“You’re uh ...

“Waiting for Isabel.”

“Oh, right. I’ll go check on her.” Max entered Isabel’s room, stopping in amazement at the mess. Isabel was hurriedly going through her closet of clothes picking out something to wear.

“You know, Grant’s downstairs.”

“I know.” Isabel tossed off a sweater and pulled on another.

“Do you really like that guy?”

“Don’t start with me, Max.” Isabel looked in the mirror hating what she had on. Tossing it aside, she went to stare in her closet grabbing more clothing from hangers.

Max noticed how distracted Isabel was. “What’s wrong?”

“I just … I’ve been thinking about that girl all day. You know?” Isabel confessed looking at her brother. “It was different. It was like she was dreamwalking me.”

“You mean, like, she’s an alien?”

“No, no, I don’t think so.” Isabel couldn’t explain it.

“Well, maybe you should cancel your date.

Isabel shook her head. “You know how many times I have cancelled in the last month? I have no more excuses.”

“Well, tell him the truth.” Max suggested. “You’ve been battling evil aliens for control of the planet and it’s hard to fit him in.”

“Funny. No, no, I want a normal date with a normal guy tonight. I’m going, so just … just tell him I’ll be ready in five minutes.” Isabel demanded. “Okay? Five minutes.”

“Five minutes.” Max repeated looking around the room. No way in hell.

“Yeah, five minutes. Okay? Thank you.” Isabel went back to obsessing over her clothes.

~~~

Kyle was sitting in front of the TV. It wasn’t on. He tried out his alien powers by raising his hand toward the screen trying to turn the TV on. Concentrating, he failed to see Tess walk up behind him. Smiling, she saw what he was doing, so she picked up the remote control and turned the TV on in concert with his hand gesture.

“Oh God, jeez.” Tess chuckled quietly to herself as Kyle tried again. “Channel 15,” he commanded as Tess changed to the channel with the remote. Kyle was visibly freaked out at his newfound power. “Channel 23” Tess changed the channel again. “Unscrambled porn.” Tess changed it again, and Kyle jumped up in triumph with his fist in the air. “I have become …” he turned seeing Tess behind him. “… an idiot.”

“Oh, but a cute one.” Tess said laughing as she tossed the remote to Kyle. “Hey.”

~~~

It was much later when Isabel and Max sat in Valenti’s living room telling him about Isabel’s latest dream. She had gone to the movies with Grant, but during the movie she had fallen asleep in an almost fugue state. During that time she received another flash of a young girl being kidnapped as she went to her car. There were drugs and a syringe. The man was dragging the girl in a black bag. Once the date was over, Isabel found Max, and together they went to Jim.

“I need to find her. She’s in trouble. She’s going to die.” Isabel told Jim, her earnest belief touching him.

“I thought you weren’t sure.”

“It’s real Sheriff. I know it’s happening.”

Max easily supported his sister’s abilities. “You have to find her.”

“Find who?” Jim asked frustrated as they were. “What missing girl? No one’s been reported. I don’t know what she looks like. I don’t have any leads …”

“I saw her car. It’s silver.”

That was something. “Did you see the plates?” Jim asked hopefully.

“No, but it’s a Honda, or a Toyota, or something. I’m not good with cars.” Isabel apologized.

“Okay, I guess I could start looking through the abandoned vehicle reports. See if it’s turned up. Okay?”

“Thank you. I’m sorry for barging in like this.” Isabel told the Sheriff sorry to have caught him getting ready for bed.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay, alright?” Jim reassured the young girl.

“Thank you.” Isabel said as Max led her out of the house, he paused after Isabel went through the door to go to the jeep.

“I know how all this must look.” Max said.

“I believe her. I do.” Jim reassured Max. “I just don’t know how realistic it is to think that I’m going to be able to find this girl with this evidence.”

“I know. Thanks.”

After Max and Isabel left Jim made a call. “Hansen, I’m coming in.” Jim sighed as he went to change back into street clothes. On his way to the PD, he stopped at the Crashdown to get coffee and food to help him through what looked to be a long night.

Jim ran into an old friend, Judith Foster, and he spent a few moments exchanging conversation until he noticed the woman was slightly worried. Her eldest daughter, Melissa was missing, or at least she hadn’t bothered to call her mother. The girl had gone to visit friends in Santa Fe yesterday, but hadn’t called home as of yet.

“Melissa drives a silver car doesn’t she?” Jim asked suddenly suspicious that he might have found the missing girl.

Judith Foster was suddenly alarmed by the Sheriff’s interest. “Yeah, Toyota. Why?”

Jim took Judith to the PD and got his deputies busy on trying to track down Melissa Foster. They contacted her friends and patrolled highway 285 searching for her car. Judith Foster was very helpful providing a picture and all that she knew about what Melissa was wearing and what she took with her on the trip. While Jim was busy, Dan came into the room. Dan asked Jim about what was happening, and Jim explained he was busy looking for a missing girl. When Jim took the picture of Melissa and went to office Dan asked who was in the office.

Jim turned back glancing at Dan but he didn’t answer. Going into his office, he shut the door. Max and Isabel were waiting. Jim handed Isabel a picture of Melissa Foster.

“Is this her?”

Isabel frowned at the picture, just not certain. “The hair’s the right color.” Isabel nodded. “I think so.”

“Are you sure?” Jim needed her to be very sure. He had a mother outside getting progressively worried every moment that ticked by.

“I never saw her clearly, but it’s her. It has to be.”

“I hope you’re wrong. I’ve known the Fosters for years.”

Max looked at the picture shaking his head. “Well, I don’t recognize her.”

“She goes to Goddard High.” Jim explained to Max.

“The terror. I felt it so clearly in the last dream.” Isabel told Jim stressing the urgency. “We have to get her back. I need to.”

“You and me both,” Jim assured Isabel. He desperately needed to find the girl to justify his actions and use of manpower, not to mention having scared a good friend.

~~~

Michael stayed late and helped to close the Crashdown with Liz. They were sitting at the counter as Liz refilled the sugar dispensers and Michael ate a late dinner.

“Okay, Sean DeLuca,” Michael prompted Liz.

“Maria’s cousin.” Liz offered. Michael gave her a look and Liz sighed. “Fine. What do you want to know?”

“Why he has her running faster and harder than Madam Vivian’s curse of true love.”

Liz seemed shocked at how much Michael saw in a glance. “She loves him, and it hurts. He hurts her and he hurts her mom, and she might forgive him for herself, but not her mom.”

“Explain.”

“Sean’s father was Maria’s mom’s brother. Ryan DeLuca was a great dad, a great uncle, and a great brother. He and Sean’s mother died in a car crash when Sean was fourteen, and I guess Maria was about twelve. At first Sean went to their grandmother, but she couldn’t handle a boy like Sean, one that was angry at the world. So …”

“Maria’s mom took him.” Michael guessed.

“Yeah,” Liz spilt some sugar on the counter and started doodling designs in the granules. “Sean loved Amy and Maria, and they loved him. They weren’t the problem. Sean was. He … it took a long time for him to get over his parents’ death, and during that time he got into a lot of trouble. Mostly, small stuff like breaking and entering, or shoplifting. He skipped classes, failed to turn in work … there were a few other things.”

Michael shrugged. That didn’t sound so bad.

“He started drinking. Mostly a beer here, a beer there. Mrs. DeLuca was always getting him out of trouble, and sometimes, it cost a lot. She worked really hard to keep Sean, to keep him safe and happy. It didn’t work. One night, he got drunk and he drove the car through a store window. No one got hurt, but it was the final straw. The judge sentenced him to juvie for three years and until he received his high school diploma. He was sixteen.”

“So why is Maria upset?”

“Maria’s mom, she loves Sean like her own son, and he’s the image of her brother. It was hard when she failed, and Sean was sent away. He left her with a dead car and a huge bill to pay to repair the damage to the store front. It almost broke Mrs. DeLuca. She took out extra loans on her business and house, and almost lost them too. It was pretty bad for a few years. Maria watched her mother struggle. Her mom was never upset about the money … just about Sean.”

Michael was quiet for a few moments. He nodded as if he understood something in his own head. “Thanks.” He took his plate into the kitchen, and then grabbing his coat, he went to the DeLucas. Letting himself in Maria’s window, he found her sitting up in bed in the dark. Not saying anything, he lay down next to her, offering her his arm as she moved to sleep next to him.

Michael was the first person up. He put on the coffee and went through the house quietly gathering the trash. It was trash day. Taking the garbage out to the curb, he came back inside and was confronted by Sean DeLuca.

“You are...?”

“Michael.”

“Michael? I don’t know you.” Sean said vaguely remember a Michael kid around Maria’s age, but that was a long time ago.

“That’s right, you don’t.” Michael shut the door. He walked around the other boy and went down the hall to the bathroom. Shutting the door, he left a thoughtful Sean watching the closed door.

~~~

Maria held the order over Sean head clearing her throat much like her mother did. “In case I haven’t told you this. You dine n’ dash here, you die.” Sean reached into his pocket put his money on the table. Maria peered at it closely. “Is there a tip in there?”

“Just give me the burger.”

“How about a little talk, hmmm?” Maria sat the burger down and took a seat across from her cousin. “Alright, in our house there are rules, and as strange, unimaginable, and bizarre as it may seem - we live our lives by these very simple rules.”

“Okay.” Sean looked at the inside of the bun, and quickly picked off what he didn’t want, adding mustard.

“Rule one, toilet seat is left down. Rule two, underwear are not left on the floor, no.” Maria shook her head not wanting to imagine her cousin’s underwear let alone … see it. “Rule three, milk is poured into a glass, not directly consumed by the carton. Rule four …”

“There a lot of these rules?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll write them down for you, assuming of course, that you can read.”

“Of course,” Sean said more to himself. Not on the reading, but rather on the fact that Maria would write them down so he couldn’t pretend not to know them.

“Now, pay attention please. Rule four is very important. Leave Liz alone.”

“Why, is she part of that house too or something?”

Maria glared at him. “I am not kidding, Sean. She is way off limits to you. Okay? Way, way, off limits.”

“Way.”

“Look, I saw the way you looked at her, alright? ‘All grown up. I like it’ No, it’s not going to happen, Sean.”

“Okay.” Sean agreed more interested in other things, but this topic was at least a topic that got Maria to talk to him.

“She’s in a very delicate and fragile place in her life right now.” Maria assured Sean as the delicate desert blossom, Liz yelled in the background, “Dammit Eddie, where’s my order?” Sean looked questioningly at Maria. “I’m serious,” she warned him.

“I hear you, alright? Leave her alone. I get it. What do you want from me?” Sean demanded wanting her to stop harping on him.

“I’ll give you the list by the end of the day.” Maria told him flippantly as she got up to go back to work.

“Maria,” Sean said quietly to her. “I’m not going to leave again. Not this time.”

Maria refused to look at him. “That remains to be seen.”

Sean reached out a hand to stop her from walking away. He did that once. He left and it cost Maria and his aunt everything. He wouldn’t do that again. He wouldn’t risk them again. “You want to tell me about this Michael guy?”

“No. He’s none of your business.”

“Okay.” Sean said accepting that. Michael Guerin wasn’t his business … yet, but he planned to make him so very soon. “Then how about you explain why he slept in your bedroom last night.”

“Thanks. I think I’ll add that to the list of rules. My personal life and friends are none of your business … so get over it.”

~~~

Isabel was in her room trying to dreamwalk. After many attempts she saw the blond girl again being dragged in the forest. This time she saw the face of the man and it was Grant Sorenson. Isabel woke up upset with Max shaking her. Telling Max about Grant, they went to see Jim at his office the next day.

Jim went to the judge to get a search warrant, but the judge was reluctant to give one without probable cause, especially since Grant had already filed a complaint against Valenti during the time that Tess had been kidnapped. Searching Grant’s rooms without a warrant and shoving a gun in the man’s face had left an impression and lots of hard feelings.

Unable to procure the warrant, Jim and Hanson went to search Grant’s campsite anyway. Upset that every time a girl came up missing, Valenti felt the need to roust him like the local sex offender, Grant Sorenson filed another complaint. When Jim got back to Roswell, Dan Lubetkin was waiting for him.

“Dan.”

“Okay, cards on the table, Jimbo. What’s going on here?”

“I’m in the middle of an investigation.” Jim told the other man.

“Where you been the last four hours?”

“Following a lead. Checking out a suspect,” Jim informed Dan going back to work looking through reports. “Any more questions?”

“Yeah, you get a warrant for Sorenson this time?”

Jim put down his papers and looked at his once friend. “You always know more than you let on, don’t you Dan? I should have remembered that the day you walked through my door.”

“It’s part of my job, Jimbo, and what I know right now is that you disappear for days on end and you spend a lot of time lately with teenage kids.” Dan’s eyes became serious and penetrating. “That’s awfully strange behavior.”

“This isn’t about the Hubble case is it? What the hell is going on here?”

“The State Board has had you in their watch file for a long time now, what with your reputation for chasing UFO’s and what not,” Dan said with a little spite knowing Jim’s own father’s history. “But right now it’s your own men who are talking, and they want to know what’s happened to their sheriff.”

“I don’t owe them an explanation.”

“You owe me!” Dan yelled at Jim as Jim returned the favor and the two men yelled at each other in anger. “You’re crossing a lot of lines and I want to know why!”

“I haven’t been able to carry on an investigation. A girl’s life is on the line.” The two men were interrupted by a knock on the door. “What!” Jim demanded.

Hansen stuck his head in the door. “Uh, Sheriff. I’m sorry but, uh …” Hansen showed a young blond girl into Valenti’s office.

“Can we help you?” Dan asked the teenage girl.

“Yeah, hi. I’m Melissa Foster. I heard you were looking for me.”

~~~

Valenti met Max and Isabel outside in the alley behind the Sheriff’s office, the same alley that Max and Michael had once jumped into the dumpster from Jim’s window, so long ago.

“Girl said her car gave out halfway to Santa Fe. Next day she had it towed.” Jim informed the teens. “No kidnapper, no needles, no bags and no desert.” Isabel hung her head, upset that she had been wrong, that she had caused Jim so much trouble. “Isabel, it’s alright. Melissa’s safe. Her family’s happy. Nobody got hurt.”

“What about you?” Max asked quietly his dark eyes darker than usual.

“I’ll have some awkward questions to answer but I’m sure it will blow over.”

“Sheriff, I am so sorry. I don’t know how I could have been so wrong. I …”

“Hey, you didn’t do anything wrong. You have gifts the rest of us don’t, and I trust those gifts. And if anything like this ever happens again, I want you to come to me.” Jim reassured the alien girl. “I’ll be fine.”

~~~

Valenti found himself to be wrong in his reassurances to Isabel. He was in a lot of trouble as he faced an angry judge and Dan Lubetkin was determined to interrogate him.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” the judge demanded. “You conduct an illegal search after I say no!”

“You know, Sorenson has filed a 15 million-dollar civil suit against the city?” Dan asked.

“For what?” Jim asked. “Because I ruined his stupid experiment? He’s gonna be laughed out of court.”

The judge threw his hands up in anger at Jim’s attitude. “I’m half tempted to have you thrown into your own jail on a contempt citation.” How could his Sheriff have so little regard for individual rights, trampling them at will?

“I’m sorry. Okay, I was wrong.” Jim conceded readjusting his attitude. “I had a hunch. I had to follow it.”

“A hunch!” The judge demanded, gripping his golfing iron. “You told me you had a witness!”

“You told Judith Foster you had two witnesses!” Dan clarified. “You terrified that family! I spent all day trying to calm them down.”

“There are two witnesses, but I promised them anonymity. I can’t break that promise.”

“Are we talking about those kids again?” Dan asked suspiciously.

“No.”

The judge looked at Dan. “What kids?”

“Max and Isabel Evans.”

“This has nothing to do with them.” Jim insisted angry that Dan brought the Evans kids up.

“Then who?” The judge demanded. “I want names and I want them now.”

“I’m sorry.” Jim refused to name his source unable to bring the aliens into it.

The judge stood up to leave. He pointed his golfing iron at Jim. “Best find yourself a lawyer.”

~~~

Max sat on his sister’s bed talking to her as she prepared to go to bed early. Her sleep had been disturbed too often lately and she was needing a night of sleep uninterrupted.

“Isabel, I don’t understand this. You’ve never been wrong about this in the past and we’ve always gone with your judgment.” Max said to Isabel.

“I don’t understand it either, Max. This wasn’t something that I planned.”

“How could this happen?”

“I don’t know.” Isabel worried over the Sheriff’s suspension due to her visions.

“Valenti might be losing his job because of us. Have you thought about that?”

“Of course I have, but what was I supposed to do?” Isabel asked. “Just let her die?”

“There is no missing girl, Alright!” Max tried to convince her wishing that the visions would simply go away. “Your dreams were wrong. You were wrong.”

“Don’t’ you think I know that?” Isabel hugged her knees to her chest resting her head against them. “Maybe part of me just needed her to be missing.”

“What do you mean?”

“After everything we’ve been through, after all the pain that we’ve caused, I just wanted what we are, what I am, to do something good for a change.”

“Isabel, you are my sister. You yell at me, you second-guess me, and you piss me off. You also saved my life, and I don’t care what we’ve been through; I still believe in you. I always will.” Max smiled at her. “Go get some sleep. You look … really bad.”

“Thanks!” Isabel said sarcastically smiling at her brother as he kissed her forehead when she laid back.

~~~

“Hey.” Michael caught Maria as she raced by.

“What?”

Michael frowned. She was barely talking to him; actually, she was barely talking to anyone. Recognizing her shut down look, he scratched his eyebrow. “You gonna tell me what’s bothering you any time soon?”

“Probably not,” Maria answered breezily, intent on leaving, but then she stopped. Turning quickly, she went into his arms leaning her head against his chest with her eyes closed. “Sorry. You know this isn’t about you, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” Michael glanced out of the kitchen to the quiet Crashdown. Liz was working too, and she was talking to Kyle who was sitting at the counter. “You want to get away?”

“Dying to.”

“Late night ride through the desert on my bike?”

Maria nodded wrapping her arms around his middle hugging him tight. “I really appreciate you, you know that, right?”

Michael laughed softly hugging her. Yeah he knew that. Maybe that was the mystery of their friendship. She always listened to him, always tried to understand, and even when he royally pissed her off. A voice of reason would rise from her irrational behavior and calm her to actually listen to his side of things. Maybe it was because she treated him like he could fix anything … everything. Being Maria’s hero was becoming his addiction. “Go. Let’s get this shift done, take you home to change and then take off.”

Maria nodded reaching up to pat him on the cheek before swinging out of the kitchen to join Liz and Kyle in the diner. Michael who had no active orders, leaned in the order window to talk to the others, his eyes occasionally glancing at the clock. He half listened to Kyle, smirking in amusement at the other boy’s woes.

“Tess is openly mocking me now.” Kyle grieved to the others. “This morning I woke up with little antennae coming out of my head.”

“I don’t know what to say.” Liz told Kyle leaning on the counter she just cleaned sympathizing with Kyle’s alien problems. It took one to know one, and she had alien troubles with a capital T. “We need professional help.”

Sean wandered into the Crashdown to check on his cousin. Unhappy with their earlier disagreement, he felt compelled to make sure she was okay. “Yo, M!”

“M? No, see um … in the real world we use names.” Maria told her irritating cousin as she moved down the counter to intercept him. “My name is Maria.”

Kyle glanced at Michael gesturing to Sean. “Who’s that?”

“Maria’s loser cousin Sean,” Michael told Kyle, his face closing down as he stared at Sean unyieldingly.

“Can I get some fries, tough guy?” Sean asked pleasantly, pleased that he was getting under Michael’s skin, the two men confrontational.

“No.” Michael said firmly. Not on his damn shift. He received a look of adoration from Maria.

“Sorry, we’re closed.” Maria said shooing her cousin away. “So sorry.”

“Anyway, the point is, I’m just saying It’s gonna be okay.” Kyle continued to Liz, ignoring the DeLuca-Guerin weird zone. “I mean we’re both obsessed people but we’ll get through it. At least we have each other.”

Liz wasn’t paying attention to Kyle, her eyes were fixated on Sean. “You know, uh, I think the fryer is still warm. I could whip you up some fries.” She offered. Maria turned and stared at Liz with her mouth open in shock. Oh no! No. This was so not good. No!

Sean smiled and winked at Liz, feeling his welcome dwindling fast. “Nah, forget it. I’ll scrounge something up at home.” Sean turned easily and walked out of the Crashdown, happy to have spread cheer and excitement in his sweet little cousin’s life. God knows she needed it … look at the big brainless ape she was keeping company with.

“It’s not your home.” Maria called loudly at her cousin’s receding back, “Stop calling it that. You’re just passing throoough!” as he was out the door, and out of earshot. Maria whipped around shaking her head at her friend. “You’re not actually thinking …”

Liz made a face, her skin pinking up as her eyes kept going back to where Sean had just been. “No, of course not.”

Maria threw her hands up in exasperation. “All I try and do is help. Does anybody listen?” she demanded more to herself, her grievances growing as the time ticked down moments. Michael shook his head at the appearance of insano-girl. Uh-huh. At least the appearance of Sean-Juvie from Hell, Maria forgot to obsess over Madam Vivian’s curse to her happiness.

“I’m sorry, what were you saying?” Liz asked Kyle having realized that he had been talking to her.

“Nothing. I was just talking to myself.” Kyle reassured Liz as he glanced at Maria. “Hey, you got any cousins for me?” Kyle ducked quickly as the towel Maria had been holding came flying at his head.

~~~

Isabel was asleep in bed the same night. She had another vision. The vision this time became more physical as she seemed to feel what the girl was feeling, almost trapped in the girl’s mind, as if it was happening to her as well.

“Where am I?” Isabel asked.

“No, please don’t!” The kidnapped girl begged.

Dream Isabel looked around in fright, feeling a need to hide, to run. She circled frantically screaming for her brother. “Max, Max! No, Max … Max!”

The girl’s attacker took out a syringe. Isabel screamed and her sleeping body began to react like the kidnapped girl’s.

“Help me!” Isabel screamed in her sleep.

Max rushed into the room immediately going to Isabel, sitting on her bed he tried to wake her. “I’m here. Isabel. Isabel, wake up.”

“No, please! Don’t do this. You don’t have to do this. No!” Isabel screamed still caught in the dream. Suddenly she woke sitting up in a harsh gasp as Max grabbed her holding her tight, his hands moving over her trying to calm her.

“Isabel, are you alright?” Max asked thickly.

“Oh, my God.”

~~~

Dan entered Jim’s office and sat on the edge of his desk. “Judith Foster is filing a grievance with the State police board. She wants a formal investigation into your actions.”

“I wonder who put that idea into her head?”

“Lotta questions here, Jimbo.” Dan told him. “Time for you to start thinkin’ of some answers.”

“Talk to my lawyer.” Jim said as he reached for his ringing phone. “Sheriff Valenti.”

“It’s not over.”

Valenti glanced at Dan. “You wanna explain that to me?” He asked Max.

“It’s not Melissa Foster. It’s some other girl. She’s in Frazier Woods in the clearing outside the abandoned pump house. We have to go right now.” Valenti paused, looking up at Dan. “Sheriff?”

“Where are you now, Deputy?”

“We’re at our house. We’ll meet you on Clark’s street, near the Crashdown.”

“Stay where you are.” Jim told Max not needing to be seen with the alien children anymore than usual. “I’ll take care of it.”

“No, we’re going with you. Can you meet us?” Max asked. They needed to make sure for Isabel’s sake.

“Yeah, I’ll meet you there, Deputy.” Jim hung up.

“Do deputies always call you on your private line?” Dan asked suspicious of the phone call.

Jim grabbed his hat. “I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

“You know your Daddy went down just like this.” Dan reminded Jim. “Got some fool notion into his head, ignored the law and his friends, and ended up handing over his badge.”

“Is that a threat?” Jim asked standing up straighter.

“If that phone call was from those kids, consider it a warning.” Dan told Jim on his way out to meet Max and Isabel.

~~~

Max, Isabel, and Valenti were searching Frazier Woods with flashlights.

“This is it.” Isabel told them recognizing the location from her dreams.

Max glanced around trying to find anything. “Ok, we’re here. Now what?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know. She’s here. She’s here somewhere.”

Valenti looked around the place talking more to himself. “You kidnap a girl. You bring her out here and then you …”

Max found a pile of soil. “What is it?”

“It’s a molehill.” Jim said looking at the mound of soil with interest.

“So?” Max shook his head shrugging at Isabel.

“It’s an awfully straight line for a molehill.” Jim said as he reached down and found a tube. He pulled it up following it until he came to a strange apparatus. “Oxygen tanks,” Jim said looking at the two teens.

“Oh, my God,” Isabel said … again.

Jim went to follow the tubing back to the burial. “Come on.” He followed the tube back the other direction until it finally disappeared deep into the ground.

“Oh God, she’s under here.” Isabel said stating the obvious as Jim and Max frantically dug with their hands. Isabel dropped next to them to help. They slowly uncovered a girl.

“Watch the head.” Max warned.

“Oh, my God,” said Isabel for the billionth time as they unearthed a clear plastic box encasing the buried girl’s head. “What did they do to her?”

Max shook his head. How could he say? Buried her? “I don’t know.”

“She’s going into shock.” Jim said trying to hurry to get the girl out.

“We’ve got you.” Isabel told the frightened girl as they tried to remove the plastic box. “What did they do?” She asked again as the other two ignored her too busy trying to unearth the victim.

“Isabel, can you get this thing off?” Max asked gesturing to the plastic box.

“Yes.”

“Hurry, Hurry.” Jim encouraged Isabel. “Get it off.” He looked around frantically. Whoever put the girl in the ground could be back soon. Suddenly on the ground near them a bullet round hit. Max jumped up putting up his protective shield. Valenti drew his gun and aimed toward where the shots came. The masked man fired again, but the bullet bounced off the shield.

“Isabel, hurry!” Max yelled to his sister as he fought to keep his shield up.

“Max, I see the shooter.” Jim told him.

“I can’t keep this up.” Max yelled feeling his powers waning.

“I almost have it.” Isabel said as another barrage of bullets bounced off the shield.

“I’ve got it.” Isabel helped the girl as the plastic box was removed.

“You see him?” Max asked Jim.

“Yeah …” Jim acknowledged getting a line of sight on the shooter. “Ready?” He asked Max as he prepared to shoot as Max put down the shield. “Go!”

Max withdrew the shield and Valenti fired several shots hitting the shooter. Wounded, the shooter ran away as a flashlight appeared behind Valenti, Max, and Isabel.

“Freeze!” ordered Dan as he came into sight.

“Dan, it’s me!” Jim called holding up his hands to keep Dan from shooting.

“What the hell’s going on here?” Dan asked as he put away his gun. “Who are you shootin’ at?”

“Kidnapper.” Jim told the other cop.

“What kidnapper?”

Jim gestured to the girl still half buried. “We found our missing girl.” Jim told Dan as Isabel and Max continued to remove the remaining soil away.

Max and Isabel looked at each other nervously while Dan walked over to see the girl. She was sobbing in fright, awake and breathing as Dan removed his coat to cover her.

As the young girl was loaded on a stretcher and taken to an ambulance she answered some questions. She never saw her attacker’s face. While on a trip to visit grandparents in Rowell she was grabbed from behind off the streets.

Jim promised to keep a watch over the young girl until her parents came for her. When asked how Jim found her, he simply replied that someone heard her crying out for help. As the paramedics took Laurie away Isabel and Max followed while Dan approached Jim.

“How’d you find her?” Dan asked.

“Good police work.”

“Aw, come on. You can do better than that.” Dan said shaking his head in disbelief. “What were those kids doin’ out here?”

“Nothing. They were just along for the ride.” Jim said refusing to get Max and Isabel involved any further.

“Along for the ride?” Dan could understand what Jim was protecting. “You tellin’ me that you took two minors with you on a ridealong? That alone is enough to get you suspended.”

“I’ll take the suspension.” Jim told his once friend. “You leave the kids out of this.”

Hansen approached with a small plastic bag. “Sheriff, look at this.”

“Our shooter’s bullets?” Jim asked as he looked at the smooth metal jackets of the expelled shots.

“Yes, but there’s no laceration or impact. They’re in perfect shape.” Hanson said, excited.

“That’s impossible, physically impossible.” Dan said taking the bullets. “Thanks. Deputy, I’ll take care of these.”

“I’m as baffled as you are.” Jim told the man.

“Nah, nah, you’re not.” Dan said, understanding a lot about Jim. “You’re a good cop, Jimbo, but you don’t lie very well, and whatever you’re coverin’ up I’m going to find it out. You can count on it.” Dan walked away with the bullets that had no markings except those made as they left the chamber. The point of impact or how they came to stop was a mystery. Jim rubbed the back of his neck as he glanced over at Isabel and Max standing next to Laurie’s stretcher waiting with her as they prepared to transport her to the hospital.

“Who are you?” The frightened girl asked Isabel.

“Isabel.”

“You saved my life. Thank you.” Laurie held her hand out to Isabel who took it. As she did there was a flash of blue cell-like organisms. Isabel stood back in shock as Laurie was loaded into the ambulance.

“Ready to go home?” Max asked noticing when his sister didn’t respond. “Isabel?”

“There’s something about her, Max.” Isabel said her eyes meeting her brother’s in a joint understanding.

“What do you mean?” He didn’t want to ask.

Isabel glanced back as the ambulance pulled away. “It’s like I know her.”

Deputy Hanson and the Special investigator from the State’s Review Board, Dan Lubetkin were questioning Max and Isabel while Jim was questioned by the Judge Lewis and Lubetkin afterwards. They were kept apart so they weren’t able to coordinate their stories.

“What time did you arrive at the scene?” Hanson asked the teens.

Isabel glanced at Max, uncertain. She was too distressed. “9:30.” Max told the deputy.

“How did you find the girl? What led you to her?” Dan Lubetkin asked.

“We heard her screaming.” Isabel said. It was true. She heard her, in her head.

“There was shooting. How many shots?”

Max shook his head uncertain how many bullets had hit is energy field. “Six?”

Dan glanced at Hanson his face giving away nothing. “What were you kids going in the woods?”

Max glanced at Isabel quickly making up a story. “We were, um ... uh, hiking.”

“Okay, that's it for now. Your parents have been notified, and they're expecting you at home.” Hanson nodded to Dan. “Deputy Carter will take you.”

“Can we see the Sheriff?” Max asked as he and Isabel stood up.

“Sorry, kids. Not right now.”

~~~

Dan Lubetkin and the Judge sat with Valenti taking his statement. Dan had his notes from the Evans kids before him.

“About what time did you arrive at the scene?” Dan asked.

“Shortly after 10 p.m.”

Dan made a note of Jim’s answers next to the Max and Isabel’s. “How exactly did you locate that girl?”

“I, uh ... I spotted the oxygen tanks.”

Dan glanced up from his notes, his eyes suspicious. “How many shots were fired?”

“Four … from the north.”

“What were you doing in those woods?”

“The Evans kids were on their way back from the library when their car broke down. I was, uh … I was giving them a lift when the call came in.” Jim winced at the lie. There would be no call recorded.

The judge who had let Dan Lubetkin take the lead in the questioning asked his own question, confused by the order of events. “Jim, didn't you say you got to the scene after 10:00? I may be wrong, but I think our library closes at 8:00.”

That information was enough to make Dan question Jim with greater intent as Jim took offense, him and Lubetkin facing off in a shouting match.

“Oh, this whole thing is a load of crap.” Jim said in disgust.

“Your abuse of procedure shows a complete …”

“Wait one damn second!” Jim yelled at Dan, interrupting his opinion. “Police work saved that girl's life tonight.”

“Mr. Lubetkin …” The judge begged trying to regain some order and stop the investigator from baiting Jim. He turned to Valenti. “Have your report on my desk by 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. Jim … policy dictates that … umm … we set a hearing of the city council to discuss this.”

Jim nodded. “Well, whatever policy dictates.”

“You're burnt out. You need a break.” The judge told Jim. “Give me your badge and your gun. You're officially suspended until this week's hearing.”

~~~

The nurse entered Laurie Dupree’s room checking on her patient. She opened the curtains as her patient slowly woke up.

“There she is.” The woman smiled kindly as Laurie sat up. “Did you have a good rest?”

“You … saved my life?” She was confused, looking around the room.

“No, the people who found you did.” She helped the young girl arrange herself into a better position. “There are some … uh … folks from the Sheriff's department who'd like to talk to you when you're feeling up to it.” The nurse noticed the fear and confusion in her patient’s eyes. “I can tell them to wait. Can I get you anything, sweetie?”

“Juice.”

~~~

Michael walked through the hospital hall in scrubs searching for something as he stopped to look through the room assignments. He looked up when the PA system announced that a Dr. Kravitz had a visitor in the main lobby.

“The sexual dysfunction unit's that way,” Tess’s voice echoed from behind Michael’s back.

“Very funny.” Michael glanced around. “Have you seen Maria?”

“Is she lost again?” Tess shrugged it off. She adjusted the front of her candy striper’s uniform. After all, Maria and Michael were tied at the hip, she had no doubt that Maria would soon come wandering home. “Ok, according to the blood work and X-rays, Laurie is human.”

“That's impossible.” Michael frowned searching for records to confirm Tess’s assessment. “Why did Isabel have a flash when she touched her?”

“I don't know.” Tess looked around nervously. “We got the info Max wanted. Let's just get out of here. This polyester number is just not working for me.”

Maria came around the corner in a nurse’s uniform and Tess’s eyebrow went up as a few doctors were following her, talking to her. The uniform was …

“Where did Maria get that uniform?” Tess squinted. “Is it leather?”

“I found it for her.” Michael muttered, distracted by the amount of paper in front of him, none of it making sense. “Why?”

“Where? Playmate’s Haven?”

“Hey, it’s a uniform. It works.” Michael looked over at Maria in a nice tight leather nurse’s uniform with an incredibly short skirt. “What is she doing? I told her to blend.”

Tess snorted. “Right. She’s totally blending. We’re drawing too much attention. We got what we needed. Let’s go.”

“Not until I get a look at her.” Michael frowned at Maria one more time as a doctor backed her up against the wall leaning in to talk to her. He made a sour face when he heard her laughing.

“Don't even think about it. Michael!” Tess warned hurrying after Michael. She looked back at Maria for help, but Maria was … busy. “Michael!!!” Tess rushed after him. Why did she get stuck with Scully and Mulder?

Michael entered Laurie’s room, but then stood in the doorway confused. The bed was empty and a nurse was walking that way carrying a juice.

~~~

The next morning Jim made his way to the front door at persistent knocking. Swearing as he stubbed his toe, he opened his door to an attractive woman who appeared to be a mix of African American and Latino descent.

“Sheriff Valenti?”

“Yeah?”

The woman smiled. “Agent Suzanne Duff, FBI. Good. You're showered.”

“Can I help you?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Agent Duff moved herself into the house looking around in interest. “Laurie Dupree is missing again.” Duff went into the kitchen and fixed herself a cup of coffee.

“Yeah, I'm aware of that.” Roswell wasn’t a big enough town to hide the fact that a girl was missing from the hospital.

“And in the interest of locating her and catching her attacker, Judge Lewis has agreed to let me bring you back in on the case.” Looking into Jim’s refrigerator, she frowned. “You got any more half and half?”

“Uh, no.”

“Here are the conditions.” Duff said giving up on the cream to sip the black coffee. “You're still suspended, so I call the shots. You follow my lead, and you get my back when I need it.”

“My lucky day,” Jim said sarcastically.

“Well, hey … it beats watching Oprah.”

“Listen, Agent Duff … I've got a whole bullpen full of deputies down there who would love to be your go-fer.” Jim informed her refusing the … generous offer.

“You know what, I appreciate honesty. So, I'm gonna be straight. This is my second case. My first was an interstate kidnapping that went off without a hitch. I like to catch criminals, and I want to make assistant director by the time I'm thirty-five. That means busting my butt and asking for help when I need it. So?”

“That's honesty.”

“And here's some more. You make a horrendous cup of coffee.”

“Yeah? Wait till you taste what we make down at the station.” Jim grabbed his jacket and hat. “Come on. We got a girl to find.”

~~~

Maria was at her locker mumbling to herself when a pair of arms came around her hugging her tight. Balling her fist ready to smash it into the offender’s face, she turned to find a smiling Alex.

"Javlar, jag missade bussen," Alex said pleasantly.

“Oh, my God! Alex!” Maria threw herself into his arms hugging him tightly. “Oh, my God! I missed you so much! How was your trip home?”

“Oh, well, the flight from Stockholm was, like, ten hours late.” Alex took the exaggerated kissing from Maria with a slight blush and a laugh. “Yeah, vilken javla rora. Oh. ‘What a bloody mess’.”

Liz saw Alex and Maria and hurried to join them. “Oh, Alex, hey!”

“Hi!” Alex hugged Liz.

“We … oh, uh …” Liz struggled to remember the Swedish phrase she learned to greet Alex home. “Uh, hur ar det?” Alex tipped his head amused and nodded. “I looked up Swedish web sites while you were gone.”

“Well, then, in that case tack bra.”

“Thank you.” Liz smiled almost curtsy to him. “Oh, did you see the midnight sun?”

“Ok, stop hogging him, Frieda.” Maria pushed Liz out of the way. “So, were the Viking guys hot, huh?”

“Well, you can decide that after you see my slides.” Alex informed his two best friends.

“Ooh! I'm so excited!” Liz said pushing Maria back.

“So, how is everybody here?” Alex asked smiling at Maria and Liz’s antics.

“Umm … uh, Sheriff Valenti … he was suspended last night. It was in this morning's paper.” Liz said trying to remember all the things that happened that Alex missed. “Well, what …” She never got to ask Alex about what was happening with him when Maria interrupted.

“Did they find that girl, by the way, who escaped from the hospital?” Maria asked. Michael had been upset. He went to check the girl out and her room was empty.

“Umm, no, and people are saying that, you know, whoever kidnapped her may have come back.” Liz confessed to Maria.

Maria spied Max off to the side walking to his locker. “Oh, um, ahem. Look. Max. He needs you.” Maria pushed Liz towards the alien boy.

“Okay. Umm, Alex, it's so good to see you.” Liz told them hurry off towards Max. “I'll see you guys later.”

Alex shook his head. What the heck was going on? “I've been gone one month.” He commented. Not a lifetime.

“Let's hit the vending machines.” Maria glanced over at Liz talking to Max, and as they talked Kyle walked by purposely ignoring Max. “I'll catch you up.”

“Maybe later,” Alex said noticing Michael charging towards them like a tank. “I have a feeling that some things haven’t changed a single bit.”

“Spaceboy …”

“Alex. You’re back.” Michael said culling Maria from the pack of students making their way to class. “Good to see ya.” He swept Maria away with barely a backwards wave at Alex.

~~~

Kyle walked into Jim’s office dumping a bag on the desk. “Chicken sandwich, extra mayo.” He took a seat across from his father. “So … were you gonna talk to me about the front page of the newspaper?”

“Kyle, of course I was gonna talk to you about it.” Jim quickly amended. “I will talk to you about it. Umm … I've just been brought back here as kind of glorified secretary, so my time isn't really my own.”

“Some pal Judge Lewis turned out to be.” Kyle said shaking his head. What his father did for this town, for Max Evans and his crew, and this was the thanks? He not only pulled the aliens collective butts out of the fire time and time again, but he helped to save the entire town of an invasion.

“He doesn't know what we know.”

“I know, but it pisses me off that we can't tell him the truth.”

“Well, as you kids say, it sucks big.”

“Sheriff,” Agent Duff said charging into Jim’s office without a knock, “where the hell is that background report I asked you for?”

“Agent Duff, this is my son Kyle.” Jim said standing. “Kyle, Agent Duff from the FBI.”

“Hi. Nice to meet you. You look just like your father.”

“Thank you.” Kyle gestured to his father. “Well, I, uh, I gotta go. I'm late for class.”

“Right. It's nice to meet you.” Duff said watching the young boy leave.

Jim noticed the files in Duff’s hand. “Yeah, can I see those?”

“Mmm-hmm.” Duff passed the folder to Jim. “We've got a pretty decent shoe print at the burial site and synthetic fibers pulled from the duct tape that bound the girl.” Sitting on the edge of Jim’s desk she lifted a brow. “And what's the update on Laurie Dupree?”

“My guys are sifting through the prints from her hospital room right now.” Jim told her while reading through the reports. “Her last address was the Pinecrest Psychiatric Hospital, Brownsfield, Texas.” Jim sat back in his chair looking at Duff. “Paranoid schizophrenic. No parents or guardians on record. And she ran away from there one week before the kidnapping. Her doctors are faxing her records.”

“CC those to me.” Duff told him on her way out. She was a nice looking woman, but the hard edge with a type A personality attached really detracted from her people skills.

“Right,” Jim said thoughtfully as his pager went off. Frowning at the number, he reached for the phone.

~~~

Jim swore on his way out to Fraser Woods. The aliens were going to be the death of his, or at the very least, his career. He pulled up next to Michael’s bike getting out as he walked over to the burial site. Maria was standing beside Michael frowning at what he was holding.

“This wasn't here last night.” Michael told Jim as the Sheriff joined them.

“So, why the hell are you poking around a closed crime scene?” Jim asked the two teenagers.

“If I don't look after us, who will?” Michael told the older man. He passed the strange blue crystal to Jim.

“Anyone see you?” Jim asked Michael and Maria.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

Michael gestured to Maria. “Maria was my lookout. No traffic until we saw your SUV.”

“Listen, Michael, you can't be doing this anymore. The FBI is involved.” They had their share of trouble with the FBI, no one wanted to walk that road again. “This is how trouble starts. You got it?”

“Yeah.” Michael gestured to the crystal. “What about that?”

Jim put the blue crystal into an evidence bag. Getting forensics to look at it without attracting attention was going to be hard. “If I need anything, I'll call you.” Jim waved to Maria. “Does your mother know you’re out here and not at school.”

“Of course she does, Sheriff.” Maria easily lied.

“Uh-huh. Back to school,” Jim told them pointedly looking at Michael as well. “Both of you or I’ll be calling a certain woman.”

Maria sniffed as Jim walked away. “That is one very mean man! Geez, he’s got a bee in his bonnet.”

“Back to school?” Michael asked.

“Nah, we’re here. We better finish it.”

Michael smiled. That was his girl. “Did you bring snacks?”

“Who are you talking to?” Maria huffed.

~~~

Jim entered the quiet house after a late shift at the PD. Michael and Maria had put a nice dent in his day, and the overly exuberant Agent Duff was running him ragged. He looked around wondering where Tess and Kyle had gotten to.

Opening up the closet to put away his coat, he found a terrified girl, her eyes crazy staring at him. Laurie Dupree.

She screamed until she noticed who it was recognizing Jim from the other evening. “Stop looking for me! Please!”

Jim helped the terrified girl, feeling his grasp on his job slowly leaching away. He couldn’t not help her.

“Laurie, you need to see a doctor.”

“No, no, no.” Laurie said half crazed. “Th-they get into hospitals.”

“Don't be afraid. A lot of people want to help you.”

“No, no! No one can know I'm here, just you.” Laurie told him, her hand gripping him painfully. “Y-you found me. If you were working for them, you wouldn't have saved me.” Laurie licked her dry lips, terrified beyond reason. “Can I trust you?”

“Yes. You can trust me. Come on. Now, are you talking about the person that did this to you? Was there more than one?”

Laurie shook her head. “Everyone keeps asking me about the man who took me. Is he tall or short or fat or thin? But it wasn't a man. It was a them.” Her terrified eyes meeting Jim’s. “They're not from here.”

Before Jim could ask her to explain or ask further questions his phone rang. Answering it, he swore when he heard Duff’s voice. “Yeah?”

“I just found out that there's been a construction crew working on that whole stretch of highway leading into Frazier Woods. The entire gang's on their way in for interviews so I'm gonna need your help.”

Jim glanced at the young girl. “This can't wait till tomorrow?”

“Not when I'm calling the shots. I thought we had an agreement, Sheriff. Can I count on you or not?”

Jim sighed tiredly. “Yeah, I'll be right there.” He hung up the phone.

Laurie held onto his arm. “Y-you're leaving?”

“Not just yet.” Jim racked his brain for a solution. “Listen, if you can trust me, then you can trust the people that I say are okay, right?” Laurie nodded reluctantly.

~~~

Maria, Liz and Isabel sat out on Liz’s stoop while Alex worked on setting up the slide projector to show his slides from Sweden. Maria was busy telling the other two girls about how she picked up all these phone numbers from doctors at the hospital. The strange thing was none of them called.

“Not even one?” Liz asked.

“Nope. There, I am now officially adding interns and doctors to my list of who not to date! They have no follow through.”

“You gave them your home phone number or cell phone?” Isabel asked in clarification.

“God, no! My mother would flip, and the whole cell phone, while I’m at school? Not a good idea. No, I gave them Michael’s number.”

“Michael?” Liz asked, amused. “Gosh, you haven’t heard from a single one. Imagine that!” She made a face and caught Isabel’s eye, who was smiling.

“Thanks for inviting me, Liz.” Isabel told the other girls. “I can't stop thinking about her.”

“Well, I'm glad you came.” Liz answered, hoping that Isabel and Alex would talk.

“So am I. Thanks, I really needed this.” They looked up as Alex came to join them, him standing back to observe his handy work.

“Ok, an appetizer of Swedish fish. These are Lundstrom bowls from IKEA.” Maria said looking at the display she fixed. “And a smorgasbord will follow if it doesn't freeze.” Maria looked at her watch. Where was Michael? He was supposed to bring the smorgasbord.

“Yeah, you know what? You guys are sissies, 'cause after a winter in Sweden, this weather is downright balmy.”

Isabel glanced at Alex’s slides. “That's a lot of slide carousels, Alex.”

“Yeah, well, you know, I wanted you guys to feel like you had been there, too.” Alex smiled at Maria when she tried some fish making a face. The others laughed as Liz went for her ringing phone.

“Oh, I'll get it, I'll get it.” Liz answered turning to look at her company. “Uh, hello. Oh, yeah, hi, Sheriff. Um, yeah, of course. Hold on one second.” Liz held out the phone. “Isabel, it's for you.”

“Hello?” Isabel’s face took on a look of concern. “Aw, man. Yeah, okay, I'll be right there.”

“Isabel, is everything okay?” Liz asked.

“Yeah, um, sure. Valenti just needs me to do something for him.” Isabel quickly apologized to Alex. “I am so sorry, Alex.”

“Don't worry about it.”

Isabel frowned at Alex’s tone, too nonchalant and uncaring. “Maybe we can do this some other time.”

“Yeah, yeah, just let me know when it's good for you.” Alex said already going back to his slides.

“Well, I think your trip really agreed with you. You look great.”

“Thanks.” Alex said glancing up at her. “Yeah, I feel great. See you around.”

Isabel frowned at Alex, uncertain what was happening. “Yeah, see you guys later.”

Liz and Maria waved at Isabel. “Bye.”

Alex didn’t seem to notice Isabel leaving. “Hey, Liz, do you have an extension cord?”

Liz glanced at Maria equally confused by the changes in Alex in regard to Isabel. “Oh, yeah, I do. I'll go get it.” Liz walked down the stairs and noticed Sean munching away on some food. Her mouth opened in shock at the nerve of Maria’s cousin.

“Excuse me, what are you doing here?” She asked her arms folding in front of her.

“I was hungry.” Sean smiled at her charmingly. After all, she promised him a twenty percent discount the other night when she refused to serve him. “The … uh … auto show's in town this weekend.”

“Uh-huh?” Liz went around him searching in the stacks for the extension cord.

“I was gonna go,” he continued.

“Where is that extension cord?” Liz rummaged around looking for the cord.

Sean saw it and offered it to her. “So, uh, you wanna go?”

“Umm, I don't know. Cars are, you know, I just … maybe I will check it out.” Liz said not understanding what Sean was suggesting.

“With me?”

“Oh.” Liz’s face went blank as Alex came down the stairs looking for Liz.

“Hey … uh, Liz, do you have some Windex or something? The lens is dirty.” Alex stopped when he saw Sean. “Sean.”

“Alice.”

“Hey, that's funny. I haven't heard that since they put you away.” Alex told him, unhappy to see Maria’s loser cousin.

“In the kitchen,” Liz told Alex.

“Thanks.” Alex went through. Maria started to come down the stairs when she saw her cousin. Groaning, she refused to let him see her.

“Yeah, um, you know, thank you very much for the invitation, but I don't think I can go.” Liz told Sean as Maria heard and her mouth opened, but she remained quiet.

“The, uh … the guy who was in there with you before?” Sean said gesturing to the Café from the other night when Liz wouldn’t serve him, but was with another guy.

“Max. Well, yeah … it's just that we're, um, we're, you know … we're semi-involved, and it's not that it's romantic right now, but it has been in the past, and I just don't know about the future. We're friends. You know, we're friends plus.” Maria shook her head going back upstairs quietly.

“No sweat. Thanks for dinner.”

Alex found the cleaner. Ignoring Sean he called to Liz. “Hey, Parker, let's go.”

~~~

Kyle and Tess were in a store buying groceries. Since Jim was coerced into forced labor by Agent Duff, the food in the house had sunk to a dangerous low.

“Grab me some Skittles.” Kyle told Tess as she was reading the back of a Tabasco bottle.

“Hmm?” Tess turned the Skittles over.

“No, you're not dumping this stuff on the candy.” Kyle told her grabbing his Skittles.

“Yes, I am.” She told him pulling the Skittles away from him. They both became still when they heard two women talking.

“Two minors in the Sheriff's patrol car, and I heard one missed taking a bullet by inches. It's crazy behavior, plain and simple.” The one woman told the woman at the checkout.

“Well, his dad was a loon, and that type of thing's hereditary.” Her voice had a dramatic whisper to it that was hardly a whisper. “And am I the only one wondering why he's escorting children through a deserted wood in the middle of the night?”

“Well, have you seen the Evans girl? Looks like a supermodel … ‘trouble’ written all over her.” Neither woman noticed Amy DeLuca who was also shopping and heard the gossip. She smiled at Tess and Kyle moving in to interrupt the two gossiping cows.

“Well, Nancy Anne, you'd be the expert on statutory rape.” Amy said sweetly, putting her items on the counter. “I mean, you must have done a ton of research when you found out your husband was sleeping with the baby-sitter, right?” Amy gave the woman a pleasant smile that was lacking any warmth or humor. “Oh, well, one thing you obviously know nothing about is Jim Valenti. Otherwise, you wouldn't be talking such trash.” The other customer took off in a huff. “This and two scratch-off lottery tickets, please,” Amy told the checkout clerk, not noticing Kyle and Tess’s smiles.

~~~

Max let himself into Michael’s apartment when he heard Michael talking inside, but not answering the door. Max frowned at an angry Michael talking on the phone. That explained why he couldn’t get through to him.

“What the hell do you mean you want to talk to my fifteen year-old daughter?” Michael said irately into the phone. “Who is this?” Michael laughed when the doctor on the other end hung up in a hurry. He looked over at Max. “What?”

“What was that about?” Max asked suspicious of Michael and the good mood he seemed in.

“Wrong number. What are you doing here, Maxwell?”

“Valenti called. He has Laurie. Isabel is with her at his place.”

Michael grabbed his jacket. “Let’s go.”

~~~

Isabel watched Laurie with great concern. The girl was scratching her skin leaving bleeding grooves.

“Laurie, stop. Your hands are bleeding.”

“No, no, I have to get them out.” Laurie told her frantically. “They put them under there. That's what they do to me.”

Isabel moved closer trying to calm the girl. “What do they do?”

“I'm so cold. I'm so cold.”

“Laurie … what did they do to you?”

“Put needles in me. Put stuff inside. See?” Laurie showed Isabel her arms.

“I don't see anything.” Isabel shook her head scared for the girl who was barely holding on to a slim strand of sanity.

“I-It's there. I'm not crazy.” Laurie rubbed on her arms. “They put me in a mental hospital, but I didn't belong there.” Laurie told Isabel, but the alien girl wasn’t so sure.

Isabel startled when a knock came at the door. “Laurie, go into the bedroom, ok? Until I tell you it's all right.” Laurie hurried into the other room as Isabel opened the door to Max and Michael.

“We got a message from Valenti.” Max told her. “What's going on?”

“Laurie Dupree is here.” Isabel told them as she let them in. They walked over to the bedroom door and Isabel knocked. “Laurie? Laurie, you can come out. It's okay.” The frightened girl opened the door reluctantly. “You remember Max. He was there that night.” Isabel gestured to Michael. “This is our friend Michael.”

“Hey.” Michael said to the girl wishing Maria was there. She was so much better with people.

Laurie saw Michael and her eyes opened in fear. She became hysterical, screaming at the top of her lungs and fighting to get away at the same time. “You stay away from me! You're dead! You're dead!” She slammed the bedroom door, locking it.

“No, Laurie! Laurie!” Isabel called through the door. Using her powers she opened the door in time to see Laurie go through an opened window. “Laurie! Laurie! Damn it!”

Laurie was outside screaming hysterically for help, her voice loud and panicked. “Help, help! Somebody! Somebody, help me!” Max and Michael took off after her.

~~~

At the Sheriff station Jim was ready to call it a night … again. “Listen, unless there's anything else …”

“Oh, no.” Duff waved him off. “No, I'm just gonna finish up some paperwork, so, I'll see you tomorrow.”

“Right.” Jim was on his way out when his cell phone rang. “Yeah?”

It was Isabel. “Sheriff, she just took off! She just ran. Max and Michael are trying to catch her.”

“I'm on my way.” Jim told Isabel ignoring Agent Duff.

Agent Duff was watching Jim’s back as he quickly left, the phone ringing beside her arm. “Sheriff's department. What? Where?”

~~~

Laurie was running around erratically, screaming as she ran. Suddenly, Michael stepped out and grabbed her as she ran into him.

“Hey, don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt you.”

Laurie looked up into his face recognizing him. She shrunk back in fear. “No!”

“Settle down!” Michael told her as she got free and ran into the street directly in front of an oncoming car. The driver hit his brakes barely stopping in time.

“Are you all right?” The driver asked getting out of his car.

“Help me. Help me!” She pleaded, screaming in fear. Michael stepped back as Max and Isabel joined him. “The aliens are coming. Help me, they're coming! The aliens are coming.” Jim’s police car arrived on the scene as other units were quick to follow.

“Oh, no.” Laurie said as all the lights moved around her, confusing her more.

“Step back.” Jim ordered Michael and the other aliens.

“At his house! The aliens came to his house!” Laurie screamed hysterically moving away from Jim. “The aliens are at his house. He held me there so they can come get me.”

“People, walk away now.” Jim told the growing spectators. “Let's go.” He said gently to Laurie trying to calm her as Duff and other units arrived.

“He said I'd be safe, that I could trust him.”

Jim looked at the other cops and spectators. “She doesn't know what she's talking about.”

“He told me he'd protect me. I was hiding in his house. 14 Olive Street. Brown couch … brown couch, green curtains, green checkered … checkered wallpaper. The aliens are his friends.”

“Is this true? Was she there? Is this true?” Duff asked Jim. Jim was silent, unable to answer without incriminating himself. “Our arrangement is over, Sheriff.” Duff told him as she escorted Laurie away motioning for a deputy to bring in the Sheriff. The aliens watched helplessly.

~~~

Duff questioned Valenti first, the girl being too upset to talk to. The questioning was completed once Jim’s lawyer left, but Duff had a few more issues she wanted answered.

“How'd you find her?”

“I didn't. She came to me.” Jim said sticking as close to the truth as possible.

“And in that moment, a bell didn't go off in your head to call … I don't know, the police? Or here's a thought … me?” Agent Duff turned on a recorder placing it on the table. “What's your relationship with the kids in this town, Sheriff?”

“You had your chance to ask questions when my lawyer was here.”

Agent Duff turned off the recorder. “You hindered an investigation. You will lose your job.”

“Agent Duff … I understand why you're coming down like this. And if I were in your shoes, I would do the same. But don't beat yourself up for trusting me. It may not look like it now, but I am one of the good guys.”

~~~

Liz and Alex were all that was left watching the slides of Sweden once Maria had to hurry off when Michael called.

“So that relationship gets stranger and stranger.” Alex said. “Guess that hasn’t changed in a month.

“Two of the most clueless people in the world,” Liz confirmed. “They forgot to get married.” Liz smiled slightly when Alex laughed, her mind ever on her own problems.

“I just wish Kyle would understand where Max is coming from.”

Alex shrugged, once again his life tossed as Liz’s and that of the aliens took the front ground. “Well, you know, I guess some things don't change in a month.”

“It's too bad.” Liz said more to herself.

“Okay, this is my host family, the Olsson, and they live in Uppsala which is just north of Stockholm, and that is Johan, Gustav, Rebecka, Mattias, and little Kiki.” Alex said trying to distract Liz.

“You know, on the other hand, Kyle has every right to be angry. This is complicated.” Liz glanced at Alex realizing she was obsessing again. “Sorry.”

“No problem.”

Liz glanced at a slide of Alex hugging a tall attractive girl. “Okay. Spill.”

“That's Leanna.” Alex said smiling. “She and I have a long distance thing going.” Alex lifted a brow. “Hey, speaking of which, what’s up with you and Sean DeLuca?”

“That's gross!” Liz made a face, her face reddening a bit, especially glad that Maria wasn’t there to hear that question.

“No, come on. Don't lie to me, all right?” Alex made a face, sitting back feeling a bit more knowledgeable. “I saw the two of you, and there was a twinkle.”

“No. No, I can assure you there's absolutely no twinkle.” Liz glanced at her friend, her eyes definitely now twinkling with interest. “And what about you? That was pretty smooth playing it cool with Isabel last night. I think her interest was piqued.”

“Well, you know what? Isabel is great, but lusting after her is something the old Alex Whitman would do.” Alex sat back smugly, looking at the slide of him and Leanna as he changed the slide. “The new Alex Whitman snowboarded on that very mountain … almost broke his wrist.”

Liz laughed. “Do I know you?”

“Uh, well, yeah … yeah, you do.” Alex suddenly went serious. “But I know what you mean. Sometimes I look in the mirror and I don't recognize myself.” Alex advanced to the next slide and Liz gasped in awe.

“Oh, my God.”

“Yeah, the northern lights. I can't describe it.” It was beyond beautiful, almost surreal. “Basically what it is you're looking up there, and you're actually seeing electrons from the sun colliding with our atmosphere in every color you could possibly imagine.” Alex shook his head still entranced by the wonder of it all. “Really makes you realize what a big world is out there. All these … all these possibilities. All these … new experiences. Life. It's all just there … waiting for us.” Alex glanced at his friend, who at one time in his life was the one that seemed to be going the most places, now … that wasn’t so true as her entire world narrowed to Max Evans and the great weighty alien conspiracy. “You really gotta travel, Liz. It's the most amazing thing.”

“Yeah. Someday.”

“Right.” Alex said softly knowing that if things didn’t change that someday would never come for Liz. “When there's not so much goin' on.”

~~~

It was a bad day at school for Max. He was forced to convince a very unhappy Kyle to help them. The alien crystals that Michael and Maria found were in Valenti’s desk, and they needed them back before Agent Duff found them. Kyle finally agreed, only because if found, his father would be looking at losing more than his job, but charges of withholding evidence.

After Kyle, Max went to talk to Liz. The previous evening with Alex made it clear to Liz that they were all suffering, humans and aliens alike. All of them were nothing more than children, young adults not even out of their teens, and already their lives were being set in disturbing paths due to the secrets they shared. Liz felt the aliens were being cheated, but she never thought of how it was also cheating her, Alex, Kyle and Maria as they gave up their own dreams to protect those of the aliens. Max listened with a sinking feeling as Liz asked him to go with her, to go to Sweden. He couldn’t. The Granilith chamber was as far as he could roam. It was entrusted to him, and he hadn’t given it to the aliens of Antar at the Summit, and it was his job to keep it safe. He told Liz to go … to find and follow her dreams, and he would be there watching her, waiting for her to come back because he couldn’t go. None of them could.

~~~

Kyle went to his dad's office to recover the crystals. He started searching around and found a glowing alien crystal hidden inside a tobacco bag. Agent Duff happened to open the door at that moment, startling him.

“Kyle.”

“Agent Duff.”

“You shouldn't be in here.”

“I know. Uh … my dad's supposed to sign my report card. I gave it to him a week ago. It's due tomorrow.”

“You're sure it's here?” Duff asked suspicious of Kyle.

“Should be. Yeah.”

Duff watched the young man, finding it hard to understand the small group of teens that seemed ever present around the Sheriff. “What are you really looking for, Kyle?”

Kyle grabbed a blank piece of paper in front of him and folded it in half. “Here it is right in front of me.”

Duff wasn’t so easily fooled. She held out her hand. “Well, let's see how you're doing.” Reluctantly, Kyle handed over the piece of paper waiting to be busted as Agent Duff looked it over. She handed it back. “I didn't like trigonometry either.”

Kyle left the office confused by Duff’s reaction. He waited until she couldn’t see him to glance at the paper himself. It looked like a report card. As he stared at it, the print faded away leaving a blank piece of paper. Kyle looked up confused to see Tess wave at him from where she was waiting for him in the hallway

“Oh! What are you doing here?” He whispered loudly looking around.

“I figured you might need a little help.”

“Don't ever use your mind freeze.” He told her crossly.

“Warp.”

“Whatever! Your creepy powers on me again! All right?” He pointed to his head and waved a finger at her. “Off limits!”

“You know, a simple thanks for saving your butt would be quite sufficient.”

“I mean it.” Kyle and Tess left the station. “I can’t believe you gave me a D in Trigonometry.”

While Kyle and Tess were retrieving the crystals, Jim waited outside the meeting to hear the decision of the city council. He was unanimously voted out of his office of Sheriff.

~~~

Max and Isabel entered the Crashdown seeing the others, Kyle, Tess, Maria and Michael waiting with Liz. Alex came out of the kitchen area with something to eat, but once he saw Isabel and Max, he stopped to lean against the counter.

“Sorry we're late.” Isabel told them.

Max paused. “What's wrong?”

“They fired Sheriff Valenti.” Michael told them.

“No.” Max shook his head. That wasn’t possible. Sheriff was an elected official, not appointed.

“They can't.” Isabel said, her guilt etched on her face. She started this, got Valenti involved. “They can't just fire a Sheriff.”

“They can if they're the city council.” Kyle informed her. He looked at Max in anger. “In the past year, my dad and I have been put through an amazing amount of your crap. You and your Martian friends move in, take over, and obliterate any shred of normalcy we had. Our lives are no longer ours.” He couldn’t find enough calm in his body as he stared at the alien boy who was slowly destroying his entire life, and that of his family. “Promise me you're gonna stay away from my family. Promise me this is the last time we have to put ourselves on the line for you.”

“I can't.” Max told Kyle. Michael stood watching in interest as Kyle extended his hand offering Max the bag of alien crystals he had retrieved from his father’s office. Max reached out for it, but Kyle dropped it on the ground in an act of civil disobedience. Whoever Max had been in his past life, Kyle could completely understand why there had been a revolution to overthrow him. He was a jerk. Kyle walked away.

~~~

Maria wandered back into Max’s bedroom as the alien hit squad sat discussing the alien substance, or more specifically, Michael discussed it while Max and Isabel sat back in glum lumps of depression.

Michael took the drink Maria offered him as she went over to pick through Max’s things occasionally reading the back of a book. “So how do we figure out what this is?” Michael’s face took on a look of irritation at the other two. “Hey, paging the Evans.”

“What's Valenti gonna do?” Isabel asked. “You know, it's not like he can just go and be Sheriff somewhere else.”

“He gave up everything for us.” Max said sitting there staring at his hands hanging useless between his legs.

“He gave up a crappy job with low pay and long hours.” Michael informed them, rewarded for his overly generous compassion by a glare from Maria. Michael shrugged. Yeah, whatever. It was a job.

“Michael …” Max said.

“What? We were born into this cause.” Michael reminded them. “Valenti chose it. Let what he did be worth something.” Max met Maria’s eyes as she tilted her head. The spaceboy had a point. Valenti’s troubles weren’t going to reverse just because they felt bad, and ignoring the evidence wouldn’t make it better.

“I think I have an old microscope in the closet. We know what our cells look like. If this stuff isn't from here and it's from out there, there should be similarities.” Max sat up the microscope, taking a small sample of the substance from Michael. He sat down at his desk and looked into microscope. “I don't believe this.”

“What?” Michael asked crowding into Max wanting to see too.

“It looks like they're pulsating.”

The group took turns looking into the microscope. The crystals didn’t resemble their cells, but whatever it was, it was definitely alien.

“We found it in Laurie’s grave.” Maria reminded them.

Michael nodded. “There is something off about that chick. Her screaming and yelling over aliens …”

“Her fear of you, you mean.” Maria reminded him.

“Yeah, that was whacked. She looked at me like she knew me.”

“Maybe we need to know more about her?” Isabel suggested. “Sheriff Valenti is no longer in a position to get us more information. She was in a psych hospital in Texas.” Isabel glanced at Michael. “Maybe we should go check it out, see if we can find more information about her.”

“Maybe.” Michael glanced at Maria. “Where was the hospital?”

“Pinecrest Psychiatric Hospital, Brownsfield, Texas.” Isabel told him.

“Brownsfield? That’s almost four hundred miles away. I could make Brownsfield in about seven to eight hours on my bike.” Michael said sitting back thinking of the fastest route.

“Jeep. I’m not riding on that death trap of yours.” Isabel informed him.

“I’m not taking the jeep. It shakes if it goes over sixty and it leaks oil like a sieve.” Michael glanced at Maria. “Jetta?”

“Nope. Mom has it for something first thing in the morning. Bike is the best bet.”

Michael nodded. “Maria and I will go take a look after Amy scrams for the day. We’ll be back late.” Michael informed Isabel and Max, uninviting the two. He could only fit one passenger on his bike, and he wasn’t up to listening to Isabel bitch about her hair for sixteen hours.

~~~

Liz set a plate down in front of Sean.

“You look like roadkill,” he told her.

“You know, for your information, Sean, I had and I'm still having a really horrible day.”

“You wanna sit?”

“No.” Liz shook her head, too tired to think about anything. “Thank you.”

“You need to write what's bothering you in mustard.”

Liz stopped from leaving the table. “Excuse me?”

“Sit, sit, sit.” He encouraged her. “Ahem. It's my Aunt Amy's trick. You squirt it right there on that beautiful ground beef patty, chow down … problem's gone.”

“Don't tell me you did this in Juvie.”

“It was harder. They had mustard packets. Here.” Sean pushed his hamburger to her. “Go ahead. I won't look.”

Liz grabbed the mustard bottle and wrote out "grow" on the hamburger and then she took a bite.

“Better?”

“Mmm-hmm … a little bit.”

“Good. Then maybe you can help me with a little problem.” Sean suggested.

“What?”

“Where the hell is my cousin? And what is going on with that big ape, Michael?”

Liz stopped chewing for a moment knowing full well that Maria and Michael had taken off for Brownsfield, Texas that morning. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t start, Parker. You and M are thick as thieves, and I never thought I would see her thicker with someone else, but then came the boyfriend, Mickey-man. I’ve only been here a few days but all I hear from her and my aunt is ‘Michael this’ and ‘Michael that’, so why don’t you explain how my cousin came to have a boy climb in her bedroom window to sleep with her, she takes off out of it, jumps on a bike, and my aunt is too busy sewing new buttons on the boyfriend’s shirt to notice.”

Liz cleared her throat. “Can I have some more mustard?”

~~~

Amy and Jim were sitting in the Jetta outside the Valenti house. She had woken him early with picnic lunch, a power boar at Calhoun Park, and a day entertainment to keep his mind off his dismissal.

“Thanks for adopting me as your charity case today.” Jim told her.

“Oh, don't you dare do that.” Amy told him hating to see him so down. “This had nothing to do with charity.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“I came to your house today, because I wanted to spend my day with a really good man … and a really good kisser.” Jim laughed kissing her. It was a shame their kids weren’t around to freak out. It would’ve made a good day even better.

~~~

Kyle came into the kitchen to look for dinner. Tess watched him for a few moments.

“There's meat loaf in the bottom drawer.”

“I found it.” Kyle said taking it out to make a sandwich.

“My stuff's packed. I'll be gone after school tomorrow.”

Kyle stopped what he was doing. “What?”

“Last night, when you said we'd moved in and taken over your life, I realized you were talking about me.” Tess shrugged, use to being in the way. “I'm sorry I overstayed my welcome.” Tess went to leave the room quietly not wanting to make too much noise or be more a bother.

“Tess, don't leave.” Kyle called to her.

“It's ok, you know? You have the right to protect your family.”

“You're part of the family I was trying to protect.” Kyle told her. “As far as I can see, you're the only good thing about having an alien in my life.”

“Kyle?” Tess said smiling slightly.

“What?”

“You're definitely my favorite human.”

“Yeah, well … you're my favorite Martian.”

~~~

They got to Brownsfield, but waited until after dark to approach the hospital. Outside the Pinecrest Psychiatric Hospital, Michael and Maria snooped around for an easy access to the records room. They found a nice small window at the ground level.

“Michael,” Maria whispered, looking around. “Do your thing.”

Michael blasted the window with his powers using his foot to knock away any access glass. He helped to feed Maria through the window before following her. They moved quietly through the basement level until they came to the records room.

“This place creeps me.”

“Same.” Michael said searching through some files.

“Can you imagine being locked up in a place like this?”

Michael shook his head. He had to agree. The place was eerie. “That would suck big. Did you notice those beefy guards? What was with that?”

“What I don’t get is why all these peoples’ stuff is packed away down here. Aren’t they allowed to have anything personal?”

Michael found a file for Dupree. “Yes!” He opened it to find it empty. “No.” He tossed it to the side.

Maria found some bags of personal belongings. “Michael. Personals. Lots.” Michael came to help her. “Look, here …” Maria stopped her mouth opening in shock. In the bag labeled ‘Dupree’ she found an old picture. She turned to towards Michael so he could see it shining her flashlight on it. “It looks like you.”

“It is me.” Michael took the photograph. The man was on a ranch or farm. The picture looked to be over fifty years old. Turning it over, he saw the name. Charles Dupree. “Okay, now I’m freaked.”

Michael and Maria were on the roof of the building across from the Sheriff’s station, spying with binoculars. Maria was still looking at the picture of Michael, or old Michael.

“Okay, this is freaky.” Maria turned it over, frowning at the name.

“Yeah, that's pretty weird, huh?” Michael glanced at her. “You think he’s like a father or something?”

“Pretty weird, huh? Nope. Completely weird.” Maria tapped the picture against her chin in thought. “Michael, have you ever even thought of the possibility that this guy more than just looks like you? Like he is you. Like your donor. Like your human side is him. Which means in some weird and twisted way, that he and his relatives are like your family.”

“Like Laurie Dupree.” Michael suggested.

“Exactly.”

“It figures.” Michael said as Maria looked through her binoculars. “I finally find a family member, and she's a complete whack job.”

“Whoa.”

“What?”

“Someone's in Garrison's Hardware Store.”

“Maria, we're supposed to be watching the sheriff's station.” Michael reminded her.

“I think they're having sex!”

In a flash Michael refocused his binoculars on the hardware store. “Whoa.”

Maria laughed. “She's not actually going to plug that thing in, is she?”

“Go, baby, go!” Michael encouraged moving forward almost falling off the roof except for Maria pulling him back. “Yeah!”

“Sick, man, this town is sick.” Maria laughed as she turned her attention back to the Roswell PD. “Michael, something's happening.”

Michael’s binoculars quickly turned to follow Maria’s view. They watched as Laurie was wheeled out of the station, still struggling, and strapped to a gurney. They loaded her into an ambulance. When it took off, Michael quickly helped Maria up so they could pursue.

Maria glanced over at Michael as he was driving. “So just to put this out there, I’m sure you realize that this is the second night I haven’t been home.”

“Where is your mom exactly?”

“Home.”

“Oh.” Michael was quiet for a moment. “Okay, that can’t be good. You better do that thing you do.”

“You don't happen to have any suggestions?”

“You mean like the truth?”

“That we’re chasing down a half crazed lunatic that might or might not be your relative, who believes she is being pursued by aliens, which at this moment happens to be true … at least one alien … you. And …”

“Lie.”

“Thought so.” Maria watched the ambulance’s rear lights. “On second thought, I think I’ll wait to see how this goes down.”

“Whatever.”

“Whatever? Do you want to talk to her?”

“Maria, no threatening the driver. I need to concentrate on not murdering the Jetta. You know how your mother gets over that.”

“I told you not to confess that it was you driving.”

A third car, unnoticed by Michael and Maria, moved into line behind the Jetta as it pursued the ambulance. Laurie, in the ambulance, used a hidden paper clip she had grabbed when they tried to subdue her at the police station to get out of her restraints. She took the guard by surprise hitting him over the head with his gun.

The driver looked back when he heard the noise. “What's going on back there?”

Laurie grabbed the wheel and attempted to take control of the vehicle. She and the driver struggled as the ambulance lost control and crashed. The Jetta pulled up behind the crashed ambulance and Michael rushed up the window.

“Hey, can you hear me?! Are you guys all right?!” Michael banged on the ambulance trying to get an answer. Rushing to the back, he opened the doors as Laurie stumbled out into his arms. She looked up into Michael’s face and freaked, trying to get away from him.

“Hey. Hey.” Michael held onto her as Laurie was screaming. “Easy! Easy! I'm not going to hurt you. We're here to help you!” Michael looked at Maria who joined him with a desperate plea for help in his eyes.

Maria tried to get Laurie to listen to her. “We're here to help …”

Laurie knocked Maria over as she took off running as Michael picked Maria off the ground and they ran after the frightened girl. The car following the Jetta pulled up and a figure wearing a ski mask got out with a gun and started shooting at Laurie.

Michael caught up to Laurie pulling her down to the ground. “Get down! Get down!” Frantically Michael looked for Maria. “Maria, get in the car!” Michael literally jumped out and pulled Maria in next to him as a bullet just missed her. Maria, Michael and Laurie were behind the Jetta as bullets were still flying.

“Oh, god! More bullet holes in the Jetta! I am so doomed.”

“I’ll fix them,” Michael told her, keeping her safe beside him. “If it doesn’t hit the gas tank and blow the Jetta and us up,” he said in a soft voice to himself. “We’ve gotta go!” He grabbed Laurie’s face forcing her to listen to him. “Hey! Hey! Hey!” He finally got her to look at him. “Now, you can come with us, or you can stay here and get killed. Okay?” Laurie nodded.

Michael turned to the shooter's car and held out his hand, exploding the car's engine, as Laurie looked on in shock. As the shooter regrouped, Michael opened the car door ordering the girls to get in.

“Come on, quick! Get in the car!” They barely made it inside when the shooter started firing again with several shots hitting the Jetta as Maria and Laurie got down. Michael took off in a spray of gravel with the tires squealing.

~~~

“Michael …”

“I know.” Michael said looking back at the deranged wild creature in the backseat. “Maria, stay away from her. She’s dangerous.”

“Right, like a Jetta has lots of room.” Maria glanced around the car morosely. “Just lots of bullet holes.”

“I’ll fix them. I promise.”

Laurie reached forward and tried to grab the steering wheel as the three teens struggled with the Jetta going all over the road. Michael finally pulled over dragging Maria out of the Jetta locking the doors with his powers.

Maria and Michael breathed in relief to be away from Laurie for a moment. She was utterly whacked. Michael took Maria’s face in his hands and looked her over. She had a slight scratch, but seemed less worn for the wear. He quickly checked her out for bullet holes. One had come real close. For a moment, he pulled her in his arms and hugged her, relieved she hadn’t been hit.

“We can’t keep driving around in the desert.”

Michael nodded. “I know. We need gas and a plan. Tell me you have your phone on you and not in the car with the wildebeest.”

Maria held it up. “I would leave it with her over my rotting corpse.”

“Good girl. Gimme.” Michael took the phone and called the Evans. “Yeah, it’s me, Michael.”

Maria stood watch on Laurie, her mouth opening in shock at the damage the girl was doing to the interior of the Jetta. “Hey! That’s personal property!”

“Where are you?” Max asked as he and Isabel watched the television coverage of the previous evenings events.

" ... Sources within the county hospital say that the young girl, Laurie Dupree, became agitated while the vehicle was in motion. But what is not clear is how Laurie Dupree released herself from her protective restraints and somehow ... "

“I don't know.” Michael looked around the deserted road. “We're about, uh, thirty miles west of Dexter.”

Maria made a sound of distress. “The side mirror. One hundred bucks, not including labor.”

Max could hear Maria in the background berating someone about destruction and respect.

“As you can see, there's an abandoned stolen vehicle here. Now, how that figures into this developing story is still unclear.”

Isabel was chewing on her nail watching the news broadcast with an increasing anxiety. “How is she?”

Michael frowned as he heard Isabel’s question. “Who, Laurie?” Was it Laurie she was asking about or Maria? Michael figured it was Laurie since he was the only person who ever paid that much attention to Maria. “She's completely crazy. She tried to jump out of the car three times while it was moving, so I had to use my powers to lock her in.” Michael glanced at the rocking Jetta and the distressed Maria, Laurie’s deranged cries definitely not music to his ears. “She's basically like a caged animal.”

“Sun visor. Fifteen bucks, including labor, of course.” Maria threw up her hands.

“At this hour, a county-wide search for the missing girl is underway. Here is a recent hospital photograph.”

“God.” Isabel said seeing the news photo of Laurie. She picked up the other receiver. “The whole state's going to be looking for her. You can't come back to Roswell, Michael.”

Maria shook her head trying to plead with Laurie’s humanity as the girl pulled the removable CD player off the dash. “No, no, no. No!” Maria covered her eyes in horror as Laurie banged it on the seat. “Now--now you're hurting all of us. You wait until I get my hands on you, Missy!” Michael put a finger in his ear to drown out the two insane girls. It was hard enough to concentrate with Max and Isabel speaking to him both at the same time.

“We can use any information we can get about the crystals.” Max told Michael. “Try and get her talking.”

Michael glanced at the caged animal slowly and systematically destroying Maria’s good will with her mother. “Oh, yeah. She's a real conversationalist.”

“Not the dash!” Maria screamed at Laurie as she banged on the glass, then tried to open the door to the Jetta herself. “Not the dash! That is a major deal to replace.” Michael hung up and turned to Maria, who gave him an exasperated look pointing to her car. “Do you not see this?”

Michael walked to the car flopping his hands in agitation as he spoke to Laurie. “What are you doing?”

“Kill her.” Maria said. Maria stared in at the wild girl, their eyes meeting. “She touches or rips one more item or piece of vinyl off this car … kill her. Because if you don’t …” Maria hit the glass hard and threatening. “I will!”

Laurie dropped the CD player and backed away into the backseat.

Michael watched Laurie calming down at the imminent threat of annihilation from Maria. “What’s the problem? She looks pretty calm? Maybe it’s your people skills.”

Michael swore as a huge dirt clot hit his head, they both looked in surprise when that got a chuckle from the girl in the Jetta.

~~~

Max refused to ask Liz to help them with the crystals. He thought they were some type of bacterium, but he wasn’t certain. Worried, Isabel went to find the others, to talk to them about what was happening with Michael and Maria. She sat in the Crashdown with Liz and Alex giving them all the details.

Alex couldn’t believe it. Michael and Maria again off on some strange roadtrip. “So they're driving around aimlessly with a fugitive in the car.”

“No, no, she's not a fugitive.” Isabel insisted. “She's just … wanted by the law.”

“Interesting distinction.” Alex said dryly. “So they go on this like twenty-four hour trip to Texas to dig up information, literally come home for a couple of hours to touch base, get the Jetta, and then stake out the Roswell PD, from there they follow the ambulance transporting our psychotic alien freak-a-zoid back to Bellevue when she freaks out and causes the ambulance to crash. Then Michael and Maria, our Roswell solution to Scully and Mulder, immediately go to the rescue where they rescue the alien abductee under a barrage of bullets. They escape with the fugitive, who is so insane she is literally eating the inside of the Jetta with her bare teeth, and our two friends are driving in circles in the desert unable to return to Roswell with monkey girl trying to crash them or jump out of the window of a speeding Jetta.”

“No,” said Isabel. She made a face. “Okay, yes. Anyway that’s not important, what is, is that they're going to be gone for a couple of days, so we need to cover for them.”

Sean DeLuca had quietly walked up on the group as they were unaware, and he caught the tail end of the conversation. “Who may be gone for a couple of days?”

“Uh, no one.” Liz said covering immediately. “Um, Sean, we're sort of having a private conversation here, so …”

“Piss off?” Alex suggested.

Sean ignored everyone except Liz. “Aunt Amy is flipping over M being AWOL.”

“Great!” Alex said sitting back. “You want to translate that for, you know, the people that haven't served time?”

Sure, he could do that. He looked at Alex and raised his voice threateningly, “Where the hell's Maria?” Maybe that would be plainer English.

“Uh, oh, I-- I don't know.” Liz stammered out the truth. Technically, they had no clue.

“Well, Aunt Amy's freaked out. She wants to see you now.” Sean literally helped Liz to her feet. “Let's go.”

Liz, caught in the DeLuca Mafia stronghold, was destined to visit the matriarch so she waved to the others to remain. “Okay, um … I'm going to go over there with Sean and, um, try and keep that situation over there from getting out of hand.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Isabel agreed, her eyes widened at the fierce and firm Sean DeLuca.

“Yeah, smart move.” Alex agreed. What did they teach hoodlums in Juvie?

Sean forcibly escorted Liz out of the Crashdown glancing down at her. “Nice top. I dig the midriff thing.”

“Yeah, shut up, please.” Liz told him giving a slight skip as she tried to keep up with his brisk pace.

~~~

“Talk to her.” Michael insisted.

“I tried. She ate my damn car.”

“Maria …” Michael gave up when Maria got on the hood of the car with her back pointedly away from the girl trapped inside and the mass destruction of her property. “I’ll repair it all … I promise.”

“You’re the one she’s afraid of. You’re the one that needs to convince her that you’re friendly. Not me. I’m just the sidekick.”

Dammit. Michael looked up gathering his strength. Looking into the car he tried to reason with the irrational.

“Laurie, I'm trying to help you, okay? I mean, just tell me if you have any family. How hard is that?” The girl ignored him. “Come on!” Michael yelled at her. He was severely on the verge of losing what little patience he had. “You can trust me! I pulled you out of that ambulance. I saved you from the kidnappers. I mean, what else do I gotta do?” Frustrated he slammed the horn, completely startling Maria, who was reclining on the hood, to jump off in fright.

“Michael!” She pushed him aside towards the back seat. “That's it. Let's go. I'm hungry. Let's go.”

“Go?” Michael jumped in the back leaving Laurie with Maria in the front. He suspected the girl was afraid of Maria, so surprisingly she was calm, not grabbing at the wheel of the car. “Go where?”

“To the Roadside Cafe. It's the world's worst chili-cheese fries in about 100 miles, but best vanilla shakes in five.”

“The cops are looking for her, you know.” Michael pointed out.

“Listen, trust me, even the cops give the Roadside a wide berth.” Maria started up the Jetta that by some miracle actually still ran. “It's strictly for us hard-core greasy spoon aficionados.”

“Thank god. I was afraid you were going to make me eat green vegetables.”

Maria pulled onto the road. “Nah. They make you glow green, and that’s such a damn giveaway.”

Laurie glanced at the two, uncertain if they were joking or telling the truth.

~~~

As Alex and Isabel were leaving the Crashdown, they ran into Agent Duff at the door. Isabel soon found herself being interrogated by Agent Duff, and because she was eighteen her parents were not required to be present. Agent Duff was applying pressure, threatening Isabel with FBI action into her personal life when an interruption came at the door.

Agent Duff irritated by the interruption answered. “What?”

“Sorry, Agent Duff.”

“Deputy Hanson, this is not the ti…” Grant Sorenson walked into the room carrying a shotgun. “Mr. Sorenson, what … what can I do for you?”

Grant glanced at Isabel before placing the gun on the table. “I found this in the woods this morning, about a mile east of the crime scene.”

~~~

Michael, Maria and Laurie were seated at a table at the Roadside diner, with country music playing in the background. Laurie watched discreetly as Michael and Maria ran through the menu.

“Ah, the food that time forgot. I'm assuming that anything out of a can is a safe bet.” Maria said as she glanced over the menu.

“Chili fries?”

Maria shook her head. “Way too greasy, even for you. Definitely avoid the chili cheese tots, too.”

“Burger?”

“Safe bet. They have to incinerate it, so anything growing in the meat should be dead.”

“Epic. I’ll have that and the rings.”

“Same. Oh, and my vanilla shake.”

Michael glanced at Maria. “You didn’t happen to bring …” Maria passed him the Tabasco from her bag. Michael smiled, searching for the waitress.

Laurie shocked them with speech. “I have to go to the bathroom.” Michael and Maria look at each other, stunned that she finally spoke. Neither of them actually believed she knew how, or that when she did, it would be something not foreign or unintelligible, like the Dupe’s talk or Canadian.

“Fine.” Michael said sitting back. “Maria...”

“What?”

“Go with her.”

“Are you crazy?” Why her? This was so unfair. She needed an upgrade in her sidekick status. “Have you ever seen that bathroom? It's one stall and a door.” Maria shook her head in disgust. “I'm sorry. No, thank you.”

“Well, if you don't, she's gonna book.” Michael looked at Laurie. “Isn't that right?”

Maria sighed, putting down her menu. Michael was right. She looked across the table at Laurie and changed her voice as if she was talking to a small child. “Okay, I'm sorry. I've had it.” Maria’s eyes darkened to a disturbing green. Michael seemed fascinated by the change in demeanor, his eyes never leaving Maria’s face. She looked … Michael rubbed the back of his neck. Was it hot in here or what?

“Look. I am not your mommy, and I'm not your doctor. So there is no frickin' way that I'm gonna go in the bathroom with you and hold your hand while you potty.” Maria leaned forward a little to make sure she had the girl’s full attention. “Look. We gotta establish a little trust, all right? You trust us, we trust you. Got it?” Laurie’s deadpan look as not a spark of acknowledgement hit her face made Maria sigh yet again. “Look, all we're trying to do is help you escape the evil aliens that wanna bury you in the woods, remember? Is there anybody else out there in the big bad world that's gonna do that for you, hmm?” A beat while Maria waited for a response. There was none. “No. See, I didn't think so. So, look, after you answer nature's call in that toxic waste dump of a restroom, you have the choice of either a) rejoining us here at the table with a different attitude for a nice, delicious meal, or b) you can hoof it to the Mexican border.” Maria sat back in her chair pointing in a direction. “It's about 150 miles thataway.” Maria looked over at the counter ignoring Laurie as she got up to go to the bathroom. “Can we get some service, or what, hmm?”

Michael watched Laurie go, glancing back at Maria. “Do you think that's gonna work?”

“Not a chance, but it doesn't matter. The Mexican border's thataway.” Maria told him pointing in the opposite direction that she told Laurie.

“What do you think we should do?”

“Eat. I’m starving.” Maria glanced up at the waitress. “You know, I think I rethought the rings. I’ll take a cheeseburger hold the onions with a large side of chili cheese fries.”

Michael gave his order. “What about Laurie?”

“She comes back, she can eat, if not … I’m not taking her a doggy bag. She’ll just get greasy fingerprints all over my interior.”

“What interior?”

Remembering her destroyed interior, Maria sighed at the tragedy and ordered an extra large vanilla shake, extra thick.

~~~

Liz was facing down Amy DeLuca at the DeLuca house …

“I am certain Maria is fine.”

“Oh, she called.” Amy informed Liz. “She went camping again.”

Liz almost groaned. Not camping! “Oh, see? I knew it.”

Amy nodded. Uh-huh. She held up a small pair of pants. “Do you know what these are, Liz?”

“Long johns?”

“Maria's long johns.” Amy warmed on her subject. “Why would Maria leave her long johns and all of her other winter gear at home if she went camping in the middle of February?” Amy paused dramatically not wanting or needing an answer from Liz. “Here's a theory from someone who's had several hours to muse on it. She didn't go camping. She lied to her mother, just like she lied to me the other times she took off for days on end, each time leaving out on the open road another piece of her innocence, and my Jetta.”

Liz had the chagrin to look embarrassed knowing exactly how Maria got involved with the aliens, and the amount of destruction the Jetta had taken in the course of over a year of knowing them. The Uzi was just one more incident in a series.

“Liz, I consider you a friend … and an extended member of this family, and I value the friendship you have with my daughter very much.” Amy said her voice rising in anger. “But if you don't tell me everything you know about where the hell she is, I'm gonna become very violent with you.”

“Mrs. Deluca, she's fine.” Liz licked her lips nervously as she paused. “She's with Michael.”

“Do I look some kind of stupid? I knew that.” Amy moaned. “Where one goes the other is nipping at the heel.”

“No. They aren’t getting into trouble or anything. They're just getting away, you know?” Liz searched for a reasonable explanation. “They're taking in the scenery.”

“Yeah, of a cheap motor inn,” Sean added.

Liz glared at the young man. “Sean, shut up.”

Amy seemed to think things over. “All right, give me your phone.”

“What?”

“Hand it over.” Liz placed her phone into Amy’s outstretched hand. “She shut her phone off, but I'm sure she'll be turning it on to call you again. And when she does, I'll be here with you to receive that call.” Amy pointed to the sofa. “You can sit down. You're not going anywhere till I get my daughter back.”

“Ms. DeLuca …” Liz tried again.

“I knew it. Those two …” Amy was off on a nice rant. “They put more mileage on that Jetta in one month than I do in a year, and I have deliveries to make! What was this last trip? Texas? Corpus Christi. Oh, let’s don’t forget Arizona and Utah? Utah for a concert? Uh-huh. Camping? Oh, like Maria can stand to camp? Not without her boots! And Michael? He didn’t even take his heavy flannel shirt! Oh, those two … when I get my hands on them … grounded! Both of them!”

Liz looked at Sean who was leaning back listening to his aunt. “Do something.”

“I suggested much stricter punishments. Who is this Michael person anyway?”

“Jealous?” Liz asked snidely hating that Sean seemed to have a thing against Michael and his position in Maria and Amy’s lives. Perhaps they had something in common after all. “Found a bad boy that rivals you?”

“Hardly,” Sean said his eyes narrowing dangerously at the thought.

~~~

Laurie was strolling down the road in the middle of nowhere. The Jetta pulled up behind her. When she saw the car and realized who was in it, she took off running, but stopped as she realized it was useless. Sitting down on a fallen log, she stared off into space as Michael and Maria got out of the car.

“Laurie Duuuuupree!” Maria said much cheerier now that she had fortified herself with empty calories and fats. “Fancy meetin' you out here. So what's goin' on, huh? What's happenin’?”

Michael searched the girl’s face. “You okay?”

“You know what? Why don't you give those lips a rest and let me have a word with Spaceboy, okay? Okay.” Maria dragged Michael away from her a few feet. “Don’t you hate it when they talk your ears off?”

“You know it.” Michael glanced back. “So now what?”

“Okay, you wanna get through to her? You want information? You wanna make a connection here? This is what you gotta do. You gotta tell her the truth.”

“Oh, forget it.”

“Look, you wanna know why you look like Grandpa 1935?” Michael reluctantly nodded. Of course he wanted to know. It was all he had. “She has the key. So, you have two choices, all right? You can let her in on the whole alien conspiracy thing and hope that it shakes something loose from the dusty corners of her brain, or you can …” Maria paused and looked at her friend. “No. You know what? That's not gonna work, so look … You have that one option, all right?”

“No, no, no. What's my second option?”

“You won’t like it, I promise.”

“Just say it.”

Maria glanced at the lonely girl sitting so far from them, from anyone. “Form an emotional bond with Laurie.” Michael shook his head. Impossible, he barely had one with Max and Isabel, and that was after over ten years of knowing each other and sharing a secret. Maria was an anomaly. Why he had taken to her was always a mystery. “All right, fine. You don't like that answer, then go show her the secret alien handshake.”

Michael sighed. “Okay, fine. What kind of psychobabble, Oprah crap do I gotta tell her?” Damn, why did he always turn Dr. Phil off?

“I can't put the words in your mouth, Michael. It's gotta come from you. It's gotta come from your heart. You can do it. I know you can.” Maria gave him an encouraging push. “Just go over there and tell her in your own words that she can trust you, and make sure that she feels that you're being completely, emotionally honest.”

“Okay, fine.”

“All right,” Maria said fretful like a first time mother seeing her firstborn off to school. “You think you can handle it?”

“I'm not completely emotionally retarded.” Michael said making a face at her, he visible straightened his shoulders. “I have feelings.”

“I know you do. All good ones,” Maria kissed him gently on the mouth patting his cheek. “All right, then walk 'em over there and give 'em a workout.”

Michael approached Laurie cautiously sitting next to her on the log while Laurie stared off into space. Michael started a few times, stopped, and then tried to start again. Looking at Maria, she gave him an encouraging gesture.

“Look, Laurie, I know a lot of people think you're pretty crazy. But the truth is, knowing everything you've been through, you seem pretty normal to me.” Michael smiled a little, well except for the wild girl imitation, but that was totally forgivable. Well at least with him … now Maria? She was another story.

“I just want you to know that whatever you are to me-- a sister, a cousin, whatever-- you're the only family I've ever known, and I just found you. I don't … I don't want to let you go.” Michael looked out over the scenery. “I know you're scared to death of me, but … if you could find some way to trust me … I mean, I got all kinds of faults. And this one over here, you know,” Michael said gesturing to Maria, “she can list them off for you if you want later on, but … the one thing I am is loyal. I will not turn my back on you. That's all I gotta say. I don't know.”

Laurie didn’t seem to respond at first as she continued to stare off into space. With an audible sigh. “You're not my Grandpa, are you?”

“No.” Michael shook his head, wishing he could be what she needed, but he could only be who he was. “But I'd like to meet him.”

“Tucson.” Laurie said finally looking at him. “Grandpa's in Tucson, Arizona.”

~~~

When Liz’s phone rang, Amy looked at it in confusion as she tried to figure out how to answer. “Uh … Uh … Liz, I, uh …”

“What?” Liz seemed to understand Amy’s problem. “Push the but…”

Amy found the button and turned the phone on. “Uh, hello?”

Maria frowned into the phone expecting Liz’s voice, but getting her mother. “Hello?”

“That's right. This is your mother.” Amy told Maria. “I confiscated Liz's phone. Where are you?”

“I-I'm still in New Mexico, Mom.” Maria said her voice unusually high and squeaky. Michael gave her a sharp look.

“Oh, that's cute.” Amy said not believing it for a moment. “Where are you?”

“On our way to Arizona.” Maria winced at not being able to lie to her mother effectively, as she blurted out the truth, ignoring Michael’s shocked look.

“Why?”

“We're--we're being free spirits, mom.” Maria said as Michael made a face at that.

“That means you're going to Sedona to get stoned and have sex in the hills?”

“Mom!” Maria turned a nice shade of pink which got an interested look from Michael.

“Do you think I wasn't seventeen once? Do you think I didn't do crazy, stupid things with a really bad boy when I was your age?”

“Yes, I know you did, Mom -- Dad. Michael isn’t a bad boy.” Maria assured her mother. “He’s nothing like Dad, and …”

“Let me talk to him.”

“No.” Maria said automatically, but her curiosity was excruciating. “Why?”

“Put him on the phone now!” Amy ordered.

“She wants to talk to you.” Maria told Michael shoving the phone at him.

“What? No! Get it--” Michael tried to push the phone away. “Are you cra--” Michael had no choice as Maria shoved it in his hand next to his ear. “Hey, Mrs. DeLuca.”

“Michael, I want you to listen to me very, very carefully.” Michael glanced at Maria the trepidation he usually found around Mrs. DeLuca apparent on his face. “On this glorious, rebellious, lost weekend of yours, you will take care of my daughter. You will protect her and be kind to her, and she will have fun.” Amy paused as she caught her breath. “You will not get matching tattoos, and you will not allow her to pierce any part of her body that cannot be shown in polite company.” Amy cleared her throat. “And, Michael, if you have sex with my daughter, I will hunt you down and kill you … so you are to keep it buttoned up. Okay?”

“Okay.” Michael said, unable to think of anything else to say. The matching tattoos, he hoped didn’t include the ones they already had.

“Call me if you need bail money.” Amy told him before she hung up the phone.

Maria was chewing on her nail glancing at Michael with worry on her face. “What'd she say?”

Sighing, Michael blew out his breath hard, not sure how to take Amy DeLuca’s reaction. Did he just disappoint her? Or did she just give him a vote of confidence? “She wants you to have fun.” Michael said in a deadpan voice. Those tattoos … um, they might be a problem.

~~~

Amy handed the phone to Liz. “Shut this off.”

“I think you should call the police.” Sean told his aunt.

“Sean!” Liz said, not wanting him to give Maria’s mother any ideas.

“I'm just thinkin' about Maria.” Sean told Liz. “I don't want anything to happen to her.”

Liz ignored Sean, not understanding the immediate dislike Sean had for Michael. “Michael will take care of her, Mrs. Deluca.”

“Oh … I don't know. Guerin's a mighty shady character.” Sean added.

“Oh … Look who's talking.”

“Me? I'm not shady. I'm, uh … I'm misunderstood.” Sean hit Liz with a throw pillow

“Stop, Sean.”

“What's the matter, can't handle it, Parker?”

“Sean, stop it.”

“No.”

“Yes.” Liz said as she and Sean went back and forth, the throw pillow tossed between them as the fight escalated. “Sean … I'm not kidding. Stop.”

“No.”

“Sean! Stop!” Liz hit him harder in repetition as Sean deflected and retaliated.

As a full-fledged pillow fight broke out, Amy got up obviously at the end of her ability to cope. “Okay, okay! I need a drink here.” She gave the Sean and Liz a stern look. “Sit down. Please behave yourselves.”

Sean waited until his Aunt’s back was turned to smash Liz upside her head. Liz was quickly into the fight. “Sean! Get-- yeah! Stay down!”

Amy shook her head. She was serious. She needed a drink, a real stiff one. Opening the door to leave, she almost plowed through Max standing there with his hand up, ready to knock on the door.

“Uh … Hi, Max.”

“Hi.” Max heard Liz’s voice laughing and yelling at someone. He tried to look around Amy. “Uh … is … is Liz here?”

“You're not planning to take her across state lines, are you?” Amy asked suspiciously.

“No.”

“Then, yeah … she's here.” Amy let him in as she left. Max made his way to the living room following the noise and laughter.

Max paused at the door seeing Liz and Sean on the sofa, both of them laughing.

“Stop it! Come on! Stop it! Please get off of me.” Liz pushed on Sean again laughing playfully. “Get off of-- Sean, get off. Get off!” Liz continued laughing as Sean refused, but something caught his eye and he looked over to the door pausing. “Will you please get off of me! Sean--what?” Liz looked around following Sean’s glance. “What? Max! Um …” Liz quickly scrambled to her feet.

Max seemed shocked staring at a laughing Liz. “Hi. Um …”

“What are you doing here? Is something wrong?” Sean swatted her upside her head with a pillow. Liz glared at him threateningly holding a pillow ready to retaliate. “Stop.”

Max was genuinely embarrassed to interrupt the two. “I … I need your help with something. Science homework.”

“Okay. Um … I'm gonna go get my bag.” She reached over for it a slight pink. “Um … Okay.”

“Bye, Liz.” Sean called to her where he was lounging on the sofa smiling not so innocently. “Good to see you again.”

“Bye, Sean. You, too.” Liz quickly left with Max giving Sean a quick look.

~~~

Jim had spent the passed few days working in his woodshop on a project that had both Tess and Kyle confused. He was slowly turning a bat for Kyle, a project he always wanted to do, but never had the time. It was ironic how much of his son’s life was lost in the bustle of his job, and all for what? A sweeping depression moved over him as he stared at the civil lawsuit Grant Sorenson had filed against him. His family was on the verge of ruin. Out of work, released from his position and threatening bankruptcy sent Jim to Sorenson’s campsite in the hope of settling their dispute outside of court. When he got there, Sorenson completely ignored him.

“Sorenson? Hey, listen, I, uh … I came out here to see if we could settle this thing. Uh … I admit I kinda stepped over the line with you, but … It doesn't give you the right to try to destroy my family.” Jim frowned at the man who sat with his back to him at the campfire, not even bothering to acknowledge his presence. “Hey. You could do me the courtesy of turnin' around.”

Grant slowly turned to face Valenti, then suddenly lunged at him screaming. Jim defended himself as Grant attacked him, but just as quickly Grant seemed to change, became milder and confused as he stopped struggling.

“Don't hit me. Sheriff, stop! What the hell you doin?!? Stop!” Grant said as he laid on the ground with a hand up defensively trying to prevent Jim’s fist from hitting him again.

Shocked, Jim stared at Grant for a moment before getting into his vehicle and leaving. Mulling the events over on his way back to town Jim rushed into his old office to find Agent Duff.

She looked up as she hung up the phone. “I just got a call that you attacked Sorenson again. What is it, woodshop got you frustrated?”

“I want you to put Grant Sorenson under surveillance.” Jim told the woman.

“Thanks for your suggestion, but maybe you're forgetting you're no longer sheriff.”

“He's the one you're looking for. He's the kidnapper.”

“Does this have anything to do with his $15 million lawsuit?” Duff asked staring at the older man. She held up the shotgun. “This is the gun that was used to fire the bullets at you, Max and Isabel. Sorenson found it out at one of his digs and he brought it to me.” Duff sat back in Jim’s chair comfortable and in control. “Sheriff, if he is a kidnapper, why would he be trying to help me solve this case?”

Jim waved that off as unimportant. “All right … I went to Sorenson to try to settle our differences, okay? When I approached him, he didn't recognize me. It was like he'd never seen me before. Suddenly, he lunged at me, and one minute later, he's his old self again. Now, I don't know. Maybe … Maybe he's guilty and he's innocent.” Jim suggested.

“A split personality?” Duff asked skeptical that it wasn’t just a way for Jim to excuse his actions by placing blame on Grant.

“Grant Sorenson may have turned in the rifle, but I'm telling you … the person that jumped me earlier today is the one who fired it.”

“Well, that's an interesting theory, sheriff, but the problem is, right now you appear to be the one with the split personality.”

~~~

At the UFO Center Liz and Max were using Brody’s computers and equipment to research the crystals.

“It looks like they're … alien versions of naegleria filarae. Waterborne parasites found in the blood cells of certain species of fish.” Liz said. Max made a face. Leave it to Liz to remember enough to know something like that, something most Biology majors in college couldn’t identify at sight. He was in the same class and it hardly left an impression, definitely not enough for him to give it a name.

“Parasites? Well, that implies they need something to feed on … like an arm.” Max said remembering how when he had fallen asleep the crystal and oozed out over his arm.

“Maybe,” Liz said glancing up at him. “But you said that they didn't affect you.”

“No. I got the feeling I didn't taste good or something.”

Liz sat back in thought. “Then they didn't react when Sheriff Valenti picked them up?”

“No.”

“Sounds like they're not interested in terrestrial organisms.” Liz surmised. Max made a face as he thought about where they were found. They obviously were looking for something ‘terrestrial’ since they were in Laurie’s burial.

“Well, except Laurie.” Max pointed out. “They formed on her grave site.”

“So, maybe there's something unique about her, something the parasites are looking for.” Liz’s face screwed up in concentration. “Or there could be something unique about her grave site.” Liz called up the local geological maps of the region. “It's in Frazier Woods, right?”

“Right.”

Liz picked up the phone and dialed. “Isabel. Hi. It's Liz. We need you to do something.”

Max leaned back and listened as Liz explained to Isabel what they needed her to do. He frowned, unhappy that Isabel was going to need to date Sorenson again. After all the strange events and his dispute with Sheriff Valenti, Isabel had dumped Sorenson much to Max’s delight.

“What?” Liz said noting the look on Max’s face.

“Nothing. I just never liked Sorenson, and sending Isabel out to get information, it’s just …” Liz made a face. She had no doubt that the alien girl could handle herself.

~~~

Maria, Michael and Laurie pulled up in front of the Dupree estate with a security gate.

“Wow. Grandpa's done pretty well for himself.” Maria commented as they walked up the drive towards the security monitor.

Michael took Laurie’s arm afraid she would bolt in fear. “You okay?”

“I'm nervous. I haven't seen my grandfather for so long.” Laurie admitted having finally become comfortable enough with Michael and Maria to actually talk to them.

Michael buzzed the intercom at the gate sharing a look with Maria who lifted a brow. She had no idea how far Laurie could go before she broke.

“Can I help you?” A voice asked over the intercom.

“Yeah.” Michael said. “We're here to see Charles Dupree.”

“Who are you?”

“I'm Michael, this is Maria, and this is Mr. Dupree's granddaughter, Laurie.” Michael informed the bodiless voice. The gate opened and Maria and Laurie went with Michael up to the main house. The maid opened the door. She reacted visibly when she saw Michael.

“Hi.” Michael said uncertain to the maid noting her reaction. The woman stood back allowing them to enter without speaking her eyes wide as she openly stared at Michael. Maria and Laurie stayed close together as they followed close behind Michael. Both of them looking up as a man approached them from the hallway.

“Laurie.” The man called. “Is it really you, Laurie?” He stopped when he saw Michael, stunned.

“Where's grandpa?” Laurie asked.

The man’s mouth opened in wonder, his eyes never leaving Michael’s face. “Oh, my God.”

A woman came down the stairs calling to the man. “Bobby, you do remember that we have that function later this afternoon, don't you? I mean, really, you can't be trotting around the polo grounds for the whole afternoon and expect me to do all …” The woman stopped when she noticed the group of teens. “Who are …” She stopped when she saw Michael. “What is it?”

“Aunt Mary, I want to see my grandfather right now.” Laurie said to the woman.

“He's dead, Laurie … he's been dead for seven years. You were at his funeral, for God sakes.” The man informed Laurie. Michael and Maria looked at each other and then at the man and woman, both of their faces surprisingly the same as suspicion and distrust lined their bodies. With out thought, Michael and Maria both moved closer to Laurie.

Laurie’s uncle and aunt, Bobby and Meredith invited them into the sitting room. The two older siblings were speaking quietly at the bar while the teens glanced around the room taking in their surroundings.”

“Spooky.” Bobby told his sister refilling his glass, his eyes following Michael. “I mean, it's just spooky.”

“Oh. Typical is more like it.” Meredith huffed as she tossed back her drink. “Daddy always did have that wandering eye. Looks like he just wandered off the marital reservation and left us all a little surprise, hmm?” Meredith said louder to the teens. “Well, I love surprises.” She quickly located the maid that had answered the door sighing. “Carmen! Would you draw a bath and get Miss Laurie's room ready?” Meredith looked at her niece. “Go on, Laurie. Why don't you go upstairs?”

Laurie hesitated as she looked at Michael in confusion. He nodded gesturing for her to follow the maid. “It's okay. I'm not goin' anywhere.” Bobby and Meredith shared a "raised-eyebrow" look at that information waiting for their niece to leave the room.

“And, uh, what is it you want, Mr. …” Bobby paused over the last name.

“Guerin. Michael Guerin.” Michael didn’t know what they expected, but it sure as hell wasn’t Dupree. “Look. Your daughter's been …”

“Niece.” Meredith corrected Michael quickly not wanting any claim to parenting Laurie. “She's our niece, Mr. Guerin.”

“Well. Your niece has been through a pretty traumatic experience.” Michael informed them. “Somebody kidnapped her. They buried her in the ground, and we think that he's still after her.”

Meredith made a sound of derision as Maria watched the woman with darkening green eyes. “Oh, well, that's quite a story.”

“Why don't Laurie's hospital records list you as the next of kin?” Michael asked them.

“What hospital?” Bobby asked innocently.

“The Pinecrest Psychiatric Institute. Brownfield, Texas. Where Laurie's been living for the past, I don't know, what … three … three years?” Maria said, not for a moment believing they hadn’t known exactly where Laurie had been.

“Oh, well,” Bobby waved off the information as unimportant, “we haven't seen our niece in years.”

“Mm. So someone finally put her away, hmm? Did the aliens chase her there, too?” Meredith scoffed in amusement. “You know, aliens are chasing our family, Mr. Guerin. Don't stay too long. They might get you, too.”

Michael stared at the woman not in the least bit impressed or interested in her. Maria stood at his side, and he could feel her body stiffening at the subtle threat. Maria drew in a breath saying in a soft voice, “Oh, I sincerely doubt that.”

~~~

Isabel joined Max and Liz at the UFO Center. She was more than happy to share her newfound boring information.

“So he has about fifty experiments going on in Frazier Woods, all of which he explained to me in excruciating detail, but the common thread through each one is the water table.”

Max shook his head not understanding what was so significant about Grant’s research. “What about it?”

Isabel shrugged still bored beyond belief. “The woods are unusual because the water's so close to the surface. In some places, it's less than three feet below ground.”

“You know, if the parasites really are waterborne … and that's just a theory … they might be in the water table.” Liz suggested.

“Yeah, but how would alien parasites get in the water table in the first place?” Max asked.

Liz went back to the computer pulling up the geological survey of the county, including the basic landform watershed information. “Okay. Uh, this is a map of the water table for the entire county.”

“It looks like a bunch of, uh, rivers.” Max commented as he looked over Liz’s shoulder at the screen.

“Yeah, that's basically it. The water flows from one area to another through, uh, a system of underground rivers and streams …” Liz increased the area until Frazier Woods appeared on the screen. “Frazier Woods.”

Isabel bent in to look at the map as well. “So the stream passes right underneath the grave site.”

Max’s finger followed the stream that passed under Laurie’s grave. “Let's see the rest of that stream.”

Liz increased the zoom to move outward. “Oh, my God.”

“What?” Max said looking at her sharply.

“Do you know what that is?” Liz asked the two alien teens. “That's Pohlman Ranch.”

Isabel stood up stepping back a little. “The crash site.”

Liz nodded. “Yeah. The stream passes right beneath it.”

“That means that the parasites might have been on our ship.” Max told Isabel.

“Somebody kidnaps a girl and buries her in the ground so a bunch of alien parasites can …” Liz paused in her thoughts. “I mean, can do what to her we don't know, and … and then how does he know about these parasites? Is he human, or is he alien? Are these things dangerous to normal people in Roswell?”

Roswell? How about the world, Isabel thought. “Okay. Where do we go from here, Max?”

Max sat down on the edge of a desk. “I have absolutely no idea.”

“We need help.” Liz said moving around in the chair looking at the two aliens. “I wish you guys could just phone home.”

Isabel sighed. “Wouldn't that be nice?”

Brody walked into the room seeing Max. “Max, could you …” He paused when he saw the two girls, his eyes immediately searching for Maria. “Oh. Hello.”

“Sorry. We were just, uh, using some of the equipment for a--a science project.” Max lied. “I hope you don't mind.”

“Oh, of course not.” Brody, disappointed that Maria wasn’t there, had no reason to stay. “Uh, can you let me know when you're done?”

“We won't be long.” Max reassured his boss.

“Okay.” Brody left the research area to return to his private office.

Isabel watched Brody as he walked away, her face thoughtful. “Max, didn't you say that there was an alien at the Summit that reached out with his mind and possessed Brody's body?”

“Right.”

Isabel lifted a brow at her brother. “What if that connection goes both ways? What if we can send a signal back through Brody?”

~~~

Agent Duff walked in on Valenti in his woodshop without a knock or permission to enter. “That rifle was reported stolen by a hunter in Newcastle, Wyoming, in July, and the oxygen tanks used to keep the girl alive were stolen from a hospice in Fort Collins, Colorado, in August. And the plastic box around her head was taken from an industrial supply warehouse in Las Cruces in September.”

Valenti continued to do his woodwork, concentrating on smoothing the bat to nice finish. “And?”

“This is Grant Sorenson's work itinerary.” Duff said handing Jim a piece of paper. “He was in all those places at the times those items were reported stolen.”

“Chalk up another one for the woodworking detective.” Jim said snottily, giving her back the paper. It wasn’t his job any longer.

“Look, you seem to know more about this than anyone-- why, I'm not sure-- but I need to settle this case, and you want to be sheriff again.” Duff offered Jim a deal she hoped he couldn’t resist. “You help me close this one, and I will make it my business to get you your job back.”

Jim put his project to the side. “I guess the bats can wait.”

~~~

Michael and Maria were outside looking at the pool, both of them happy to be out of earshot of the house.

“I don't like it.” Michael told Maria.

“What, the tile?”

“No. The fact that we haven't seen Laurie in three hours.”

“I know. It is like that huge nasty house with Poltergeist atmosphere swallowed her whole. Maybe we should turn on a TV and see if we can talk to her, or tell her to go towards the light.”

“The place gives me the creeps.” Michael agreed. “Bobby and Meredith, um … if they’re related to me? No thanks.”

Maria sighed when she looks over seeing Bobby and some guards approaching. “This can't be good.” That Bobby Dupree, he was majorly creepy. Maria shuddered when the man’s beady little eyes moved over her. She resisted the desire to tug on her short skirt for better coverage.

Bobby handed a package to Michael. “This is yours.”

Michael frowned at the brown envelope. “What's this?”

“$50,000.”

“What?” Maria’s mouthed opened as she peered at the brown envelope in Michael’s hand.

“And that's all you're going to get. You may look like our father, but we'll fight any further paternity and inheritance claims every step of the way.” Bobby Dupree informed Michael.

Michael shook his head at the idiot of a man standing in front of him. “I'm not here to make an inheritance claim.” Like he could. His genetics were not available for testing at any cost.

“Wait. How big of an inheritance claim are you talking about here?” Maria asked suspicious at that payoff. Michael hadn’t asked for a cent or even indicated that he was interested in being claimed a legitimate heir. A payoff implied that the Duprees didn’t want anyone looking too close legally.

Bobby motioned to the guards. “Please escort Mr. Guerin and his gorgeous friend off the property.”

“No. Wait.” Michael shrugged the guard’s hands off him. “Wait a minute. What about Laurie?”

“We'll take care of her now.” Bobby informed Michael motioning for the guards to do his request.

“Hey. No. You don't understand.” Michael stressed avoiding the guard’s hands. “There are people after her.”

“Oh, right.” Bobby made a face. “The aliens. Well, we'll keep on the lookout for 'em.”

Michael struggled as the guards lead him away as the other grabbed Maria. “You can't do this!” The guards escorted Michael and Maria to the gate as Michael tossed the guard off himself and then Maria. “Get you damn hands off her!” The guards waited patiently as Michael and Maria went through the gates, both of them turning to watch it close.

“Now what?” Maria asked Michael.

I don't know.” Michael ran a hand through his hair as he looked at the large estate with irritation. “But I promised Laurie I'd protect her, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do.” Michael glanced at Maria. “Are you okay?” Maria nodded taking his arm as they went back to the Jetta, Michael occasionally glancing back at the estate worrying about Laurie.

~~~

Max went to find Brody. He and the others talked to Brody about his experienced and tried to convince him to under go hypnosis.

“I've been put under hypnosis before. It's never helped me remember anything about my experiences.” Brody assured them.

“This would be different. I have a gift.” Isabel told the man quickly finding an explanation for her powers. “Um … I'm a little psychic.”

Brody made a face looking from Max to Liz in disbelief. “Come on …”

“You believe in aliens, but you don't believe in psychic phenomena?” Liz asked in amazement.

“I was abducted by aliens.” Brody pointed out. “I know they exist.”

“I know my gift exists.” Isabel told the man.

Max pressed Brody. “Aren't you at least curious?”

Brody glanced at the three teens and then shrugged. What did he have to lose? "Okay. So what do we do?”

Isabel moved closer to Brody. “Okay. Relax. Close your eyes and clear your mind. Give me your hand.” She told Brody offering him her hands. “This won't hurt.”

Brody felt bad as he extended his hand to Isabel. The teens seemed so interested and enthusiastic. He hated to disappoint them. “I just want to warn you, the last time I was put through this, I was a very difficult subject. I just don't want you to be too disappointed when …”

Isabel touched his hand with both of hers and the result was instantaneous … they were both thrown across the room. Max ran to where Isabel laid in a heap, as Liz went over to Brody where he had hit a wall.

“Isabel!” Max turned his sister over in concern as Isabel moaned.

“You shouldn't have done that.” Brody’s voice said from his body as it laid in a heap.

“Brody?” Max asked as he joined Liz beside Brody.

“Larek.” Brody’s voice informed them. “This body has not been prepared for communication. Its heart has stopped.”

Isabel moaned as she got up joining the others beside the unconscious Brody that was Larek talking to them through him. “Oh, God.”

“It may restart once I've released him.” Larek told them. “What is it you want?”

“We need your help.” This man had claimed to once be his friend. “We think that some form of a-- a parasite was released into our earth's ecosystem when our ship crashed fifty years ago. We think they're dangerous …”

“When you say parasite, do you mean the gandarium from your ship have escaped into the ecosystem?” Larek asked sharply.

“I don't know.” Max glanced at the others. “It looks like blue crystals.”

“Earth is in serious trouble. You must leave now.” Larek told Max.

“What are you talking about?” Max demanded. Leave? What? How?

“Earth has become infected. You're no longer safe there. Get off the planet now.” Larek seemed to falter, his awareness fused with that of his host, feeling rushing through him in a confusing mess.

“Okay.” Max tried to imagine how to leave. They couldn’t. They couldn’t leave the Earth to its fate, one created by them. Brody collapsed again. “Wait, wait, wait.” Max said to Larek, who was gone.

“Oh, God!” Isabel said in her usual overly dramatic manner.

Max checked Brody out. His heart was still not beating even though Larek had released him. He started to heal Brody, but Isabel stopped him with a warning look.

“No, Max.” They couldn’t risk a silver handprint on Brody. Max nodded and quickly switched to CPR. It took a few moments, but suddenly Brody came to grasping for air.

“What happened?” Brody asked as Max tried to help him.

“You fainted.” Max told him as Isabel joined Max to help Brody up.

“I'm so sorry. I had no idea.” Isabel told the older man. “I'm so sorry.”

“You sure you're all right?” Max asked his boss.

“I think so.” Brody said as they helped him to his feet.

Michael kept a steady bead on the Dupree estate from where he and Maria sat watching up in a tree. Glancing at his companion, he made a face when Maria made another phone call on her cell.

“Hey, we’re here to keep an eye on Laurie. Would you stop making phone calls?” Michael said crossly as Maria connected.

“It’s official business.” Maria told Michael before talking into the phone. “Liz! Hey, it’s me again. Listen, um, how do you get tree sap out of fabric? I think I’ve ruined my top …”

“You’re wasting the battery.” Michael pointed out to Maria, irritated that she wasn’t putting her full attention on him and the job.

“No, no. The black turtleneck … The cashmere one … I borrowed it from my mum, you know?” Maria listened nodding her head tragically. “I know … I know, right? It’s tragic …” Michael sat up at attention as the lights went out in the house. “It is … I’m still in the middle of nowhere with he who shall remain nameless.” Michael reached over and yanked the phone away disconnecting it as he literally picked Maria up by her arm. “Hey! Ow!”

“Let’s go!”

Maria followed him, her hand on his back holding on tight to the waistband of his jeans trying to avoid tripping in the dark. She hated this. There had been no forewarning that they were going and she was incorrectly attired, both in her outerwear and footwear. They had sneaked into the estate hiding by the pool as a security guard passed by.

“You got any cool powers to take care of him?” Maria whispered to Michael noting the security guard’s gun. Michael picked up a rock and threw it into the bushes. As the guard went to check out the noise, Michael and Maria slipped into the house.

Maria and Michael walked quietly around the second floor searching until they found Laurie’s room. Going inside, they both stood looking at the room in shock. Laurie had torn her bed apart and was hiding beneath a cover on the bare mattress with a light.

“Hey. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Michael said gently talking softly to the frightened girl. “We’re gonna help you.”

Laurie looked up at Michael and Maria seeing their concerned faces. “My aunt and uncle need me to be crazy.”

“What are you talking about?” Michael asked, but before she could answer Bobby and Meredith walked into the room with a guard.

“Mr. Guerin!” Bobby said his beady eyes wandering over Michael and then Maria, staying on Maria. “You and your, uh, accomplice with the, uh, lips … are trespassing.” Michael eyes narrowed as he pulled Maria closer to him keeping himself between them and Laurie who was huddled in a ball on the bed.

“That money we gave you was intended as a going-away present … as in, "take the money and go away!" Meredith emphasized.

“Got it?” Bobby asked.

“Yeah.” Michael said his voice rough with anger. He got it.

Meredith turned to the guard. “James, please escort them to their car, and this time be sure they drive away.” The guard led Michael and Maria out of the room as both of them looked back at Laurie as they left. She was curled up into a ball on the bed, looking frightened.

They found a nice hotel not too far away, and Michael sat back on the bed watching Maria pace as she toweled her hair, wet from the shower. “I say we go back! Now. Right now. Tonight!” Maria huffed and ranted while Michael was strangely quiet. “They … they’re monsters treating her like that. Can’t they see she’s frightened, that she is terrified? If we …”

“We’re not going back.” Michael shook his head when Maria looked at him in shock. “Not tonight.”

“We do our best work at night.”

“They’ll be waiting for us, Maria. Maybe that’s a good thing. Their security is tight, and they’re expecting us back, so if we can’t get in, then neither can whoever is looking for Laurie.”

Maria sighed heavily getting on the large bed facing him wearing only his shirt. “I’m … are you okay?”

“No.” Michael admitted. “I promised her. I swore that I wouldn’t let her down.”

Maria took his hand in hers. “You haven’t. Tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day.” Maria gave Michael a squeeze of confidence. “Tomorrow, we stick it to Bobby and Meredith. There is something off with those two blue-blooded snakes.” Maria picked up the money.

“What are you suggesting?”

“We follow the money.”

Michael smiled when he saw the look on Maria’s face. Now that was a look he knew, and god help Bobby and Meredith. Hell was coming.

“Hey,” Michael said. “Bring me your sweater.”

Maria scrambled and picked up the ruined cashmere sweater, just another in a list of offenses that would stand between her and her mother. Michael took it looking at the sap marring the material and with a sweep of his hand, it was clean … pristine.

Maria hugged Michael hard kissing him outrageously on the cheek with big sloppy kisses making loud obnoxious noises. Michael half heartedly tried to push her off as he enjoyed her enthusiasm. Good. That meant he would be able to talk her into letting him hold the remote. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw that Braveheart was on.

~~~

While Jim and Agent Duff were investigating Grant Sorenson and searching his car Sean waited in the dark living room of the DeLuca house when Amy finally came home.

“Aunt Amy?”

Amy turned on a light to find her nephew sitting there, waiting for her. “Sean … is Liz?”

“She left with Max a while ago.” Sean frowned at his aunt. She didn’t appear completely toasted. She was stone sober. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Amy confessed. “I thought … I thought I had more time.” Amy took a seat and looked at her nephew. “I know you’re confused. It’s strange to see me not reacting violently to him, to him coming in my home and stealing my daughter.”

“Is that what he’s doing?”

Amy laughed. “Eventually. Yeah. She doesn’t realize it, and I know he doesn’t … not in the aware sense. I think Michael knows more than Maria does.” Amy didn’t know how to explain. “I look in his eyes, and all I see is territory. He’s already marked her as his, but there’s something that holds him back, keeps him from saying it, or even acknowledging it. I think he is more afraid of hurting her than he is of being alone.”

“Do you … are you drunk?”

Amy laughed. “Oh, I am so far past that. I know you’re confused. He sleeps with her, in her bed, and I don’t say anything. If he’s not here, she’s there. I know when I’m gone, she’s with him.”

“You don’t care that they sleep together?” Sean couldn’t get that. It was too far off spectrum.

“It’s not physical … at least not yet,” Amy told him, completely positive that whatever Michael and Maria were, they were platonic.

“How can you know that? Did M tell you?”

“No.” Amy laughed a little clearing her throat. “They have no expectations. Lovers expect things from each other … almost demand it. Whatever they give, they give freely without question. It is more like a sharing.” Amy couldn’t describe it better than that. Lovers expected more, demanded more, and feelings became easily hurt. Michael and Maria had none of that since they expected nothing from the other except friendship, and when they got more, it was a gift.

“So they’re a couple.”

“Worse,” Amy said. “Much worse. They’re best friends.” Amy shook her head. “The only thing that gives me hope is that neither of them is ready to be more. The whole togetherness thing, it started with her helping him, taking care of him, like she used to take care of me. I don’t know when it stopped being that, and started being about him taking care of her too.”

Sean remained silent, hoping in the rambling of his aunt, he would come to understand what made no sense. Michael Guerin made no sense.

“Did you know until he came into our lives over a year ago, Maria was set on her twenty year plan, the whole not falling in love until twenty years after her father left … when she turned twenty-seven. She was so set on that path, so used to raising me, picking me up and keeping me out of trouble, that I don’t think she even knew what it meant to take a risk. Maybe mixing purple with a certain shade of rose and green. Suddenly we were at odds, with her standing firmly on Michael’s side and me worried that she was dating a bad boy despite her claims of it not being like that.”

Amy plucked at the covering on her chair. “Did you know that until a year ago, I never felt like the mother in my relationship with Maria? Since Michael came into our lives, literally crashing in with me finding him sleeping with my daughter, I never had a moment of worry or doubt with Maria. I left her alone, safe in the belief that she would be here. Since then there have been missing days, lies, bullet holes in the Jetta, and Maria spending the night in jail. I’m her mother. I worry. I fret.” Amy looked at her nephew with shiny eyes. “I just found out how wonderful it feels to be the adult in our relationship, and I have Michael Guerin to thank for that.”

Sean laughed at the look on his aunt’s face. She really meant it. She found a joy in being the mother, something that had escaped her all those years of struggling.

“I know that it started out with her taking care of him, but somewhere along the way it changed. She hates being alone. I left her alone too often, and Michael only knew loneliness. Together they found a way to not feel that way any longer. When they’re together, they’re never lonely.” Amy laughed. “By him teaching her how to take risks, to be young, those two crazy kids taught me how to grow up. God, when I get my hands on them … they are in so much trouble!”

“I’ve got a six pack.” Sean told his aunt. “Want to get drunk?”

“That’s a good idea.” Amy laughed following Sean into the kitchen. “I’m glad you’re here, Sean. Maria … she’s slowly moving on, and she doesn’t even know it. It’ll be easier for her if she knows I won’t be alone.”

Sean squeezed his aunt’s hand. “You won’t be alone.” And … Maria wasn’t gone yet. Sean’s eyes narrowed. Michael Guerin …

~~~

The next morning Tess, Isabel, Max and Liz were seated around the table at the Crashdown, discussing Larek's revelations about the crystals.

“His final words were to get off the planet.” Max told Tess.

“Which isn’t currently an option,” Isabel pointed out. It wasn’t like they could just steal a space shuttle, and go … where?

“Which is why we called this meeting, to figure out what our options are.” Liz told the others. They looked at her like she was insane. Get off the planet sound like few options to them.

“And just so I’m clear, when Larek said that Earth was infected, wh-what exactly are we talking here?” Tess asked. “You know, a couple of acres? Couple of miles?”

Liz bit her lip speaking for the rest of them. “Um, I think he was speaking a little more globally.”

Brody entered the Crashdown and walked up to them.

“Hey Brody, how you feeling?” Max asked surprised to see his boss outside of work.

“It’s Larek …” Brody took a seat at their table, “and although I’ve had a little more time to prepare this body for communication, I’m still having trouble keeping its heart beating, so I’ll get right to it.” Larek paused having more than just troubles with the heart. He was flooded with the host’s memories, thoughts, and feelings. It was a hodgepodge of information, so different from the usual. The failed attempt made yesterday had to have changed things in Brody’s body. Larek shook his head and began, he had no time. “The gandarium are a genetically engineered life form, designed to bridge the DNA and RNA sequencing during third-stage amino synthesis.”

Everyone looked to Liz for an interpretation, who shook her head shrugging at the others. “No, uh, I’m lost too.” She asked Larek to explain. “Uh, it’s way over our heads. Do you mind explaining it to us in simpler terms?”

Larek took a breath preparing to explain simple genetic replication processes, especially those common to simple reverse transcription and retroviruses. He glanced around the Crashdown as if he was looking for something, someone, and oddly, he felt disappointed. “Alright. Uh, let’s say you want to create an alien-human hybrid. First, you get some alien cells, then you get some human cells. Normally they don’t mix very well. You need something to help bridge the differences. That’s where the gandarium come in. In a controlled environment like on your ship, they’re harmless, but released into an eco-system, the gandarium will perform the only role they know: infect human cells.”

“But they’re not infecting just any human cells …” Isabel told the alien.

Tess corrected her. “They seem to be focusing on one particular girl.”

“Not every human is a candidate for hybridization. The genetic structure has to have … well, you would call it a flaw.” Larek explained. “It’s very rare on Earth, fewer than one in 50 million people have it.”

“That’s why they’re going after Laurie.” Liz concluded. “She must have the defect.”

“What happens if they succeed in infecting Laurie?” Max asked.

“Once they’ve infected her, the gandarium will mutate into a universal virus. She’ll infect anyone she comes into contact with, human or otherwise. They in turn, will infect everyone they come into contact with. Eventually, she and every infected person on the planet will die.”

Max couldn’t believe how close they had come to losing everything. Had Isabel not had the dream … “How do we destroy them?”

“Once they’ve infected the host, it’s all over.”

Tess sat up straighter as the truth dawned on her. “They didn’t finish. The gandarium didn't finish infecting Laurie.” They couldn’t have or they wouldn’t be frantically searching for her.

“She was buried right out there with the crystals.” Isabel reminded them.

“Wait. No, I think that Tess is right.” Liz was surprisingly agreeing with Tess. “That’s why they’re still coming after her. To complete the process.” Liz looked at Max. “Michael found the crystals in the burial site the next day with Maria. They weren’t there when you, Isabel and Valenti found Laurie.”

Larek nodded. Good. “If that’s true, then you may still have a chance. The gandarium are hive-like, with workers, drones … even a Queen. The Queen is the only one that can infect the host. Find her, kill her, and the rest of the hive will die.”

“So the Queen will be in the hive?” Isabel asked.

“Not necessarily.” Larek stood up. “I’ll have to return this body to its home or it won’t survive. Good luck … to you all.” He looked around the Café one more time. Maria. She wasn’t there. Too much of Brody was coming through, and Larek shook his head. He had to release the body immediately. He walked out without a look back.

Max waited until Larek was gone to finalize the plans with the others. “The first thing we have to do is go back to Frazier Woods and find out how many more of these crystals are out there. Or rather, down there. And then we have to find a way to destroy them. Collect whatever digging equipment you can and meet outside in an hour. I’m going to call Kyle and Alex for more help.”

~~~

Michael was in a bad mood. Max had called and they were told that regardless what happened in Roswell, they had to keep Laurie from there, keep an eye on her, and not let her out of their sight. Once Max explained what Larek had told them, Michael became impatient to get back into the Dupree estate. Maria instead drove them to the Hall of Records to check out a file.

“This is a stupid idea.”

Maria rolled her eyes. Nope. His idea involving duct taping Bobby and Meredith to chairs in the attic was stupid. This was smart.

“Think about it, Guerin. What do you think Laurie meant when she said that her aunt and uncle needed her to be crazy?”

“Who knows?”

“Well, I do. At least I have a hunch.” Maria smiled when the man returned with records that Maria had requested. “Look, Bobby and Meredith, they cling to money like the leeches they are. So trying to buy you off for a mere fifty large from an estate easily worth millions?”

The man passed Maria the record from his cabinet. “Deed of record for ... 11, Osborne Road?”

“Thank you.”

The man smiled at Maria handing her the form to sign for releasing the information. “Sign here please.”

Maria quickly signed the form passing back to the man smiling charmingly at him. “‘Kay. Here you go.”

“Thank you.” Michael glared at the man crowding Maria away from the counter as Maria opened the file scanning it quickly. She began to laugh as she found what she was looking for. Hitting Michael in the stomach she told him, “Okay. Just start applauding right now.” Michael sarcastically follows her instructions and clapped. “The Dupree estate is in Laurie’s name, left to her by her grandfather.”

Michael leaned over to read the document. “So what does that give us?”

“Hmmm … a little thing called leverage.” Maria glanced at her partner in crime. “Okay, lets go make Bobby and Meredith jump through hoops.”

“About time.” Michael followed Maria out of the Hall of Records. “Um, how exactly are we going to do that?”

Michael and Maria returned to the Dupree estate and rang the security call button at the gate monitor.

“Hello?”

“Greetings. It’s the team of Guerin and DeLuca again.” Maria informed the security camera smiling pleasantly.

“Wait right where you are. The police should be by to scoop you up in approximately ten minutes.”

“Right, of course.” Maria took the paper from her bag. “Um, are Bobby and Meredith around? If they are, could you just have them come outside so that they could take a look at this?” Maria held the deed of record up to the camera.

“One moment.”

“Charmed, I’m sure.” Maria simpered for the security camera.

“If it was me,” Michael told Maria, “I’d tell us to get screwed and call the cops anyways.”

“That’s 'cause you don’t have any money, Michael. People who do tend to get a little nervous when it’s threatened.” The gates opened for them. Maria gestured to them smiling at Michael with her patented, ‘I told you so’ smile.

Michael took her arm and hustled her to the front door of the main house. “Uh-huh. I saw that.”

~~~

The group of aliens and their human friends were all out at Frazier’s woods searching for the subterranean hive of the gandarium. Alex and Kyle were off together digging away from the other three aliens, and a overly efficient Liz Parker with a map ordering the unhappy workers around.

Alex leaned on his shovel. “So is this the sixth or seventh hole we’ve dug today?”

“Hey, hey.” Kyle said wiping the sweat from his face. “I was kinda wondering what the hell you people were doing sophomore year.”

“Ah, well, a lot of secret meetings, a lot of lying to authorities. Sometimes narrowly escaping gunfire …” Alex winced when he noticed Kyle’s worried look. “Although generally that was pretty rare.”

“So what do we lowly human folk get out of all this?” Kyle wondered. Having his life, his father’s life turned upside down, and they weren’t any the richer for it, merely on the verge of bankruptcy.

“I’m not sure.” Alex told Kyle honestly. He guessed Liz got Max or whatever it was that they had or didn’t have. Him? He was screwed in the Isabel department. Personally, the only person who seemed to benefit was Maria who found a great friend in surprisingly Michael Guerin of all people.

“See, I guess what I have a problem with is that suddenly I’m a member of this club I never wanted to join.”

“Yeah.” Alex had to agree remembering how they took his blood and lied to him.

“And it turns out this club bears a striking resemblance to a chain gang.” Kyle complained as he and Alex continued to work for their alien overseers. Ungrateful bastards.

Alex hit something hard with his shovel. “What the … Look at this.”

Kyle dropped his shovel happy to stop toiling for a moment. “What the hell man? It’s some sort of cave.”

Alex raised his arms in triumph as if he won a prize. “Jackpot, baby!! Whooh!! Yeah!! Alex Whitman, ladies and gentlemen! Uh-huh! Yeah! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Alex stopped cheering when he noticed Kyle staring at him like he was a little off. “Okay, well, time to put the shovel away, and uh, go find the others and tell Max.”

Kyle looked at the hole speculatively, and then turned to Alex. Tell Max? The alien dick? Uh-huh. “You comin’?” Kyle asked a glint of dare in his eyes. Break the chains of dependency, Alex he seemed to say.

Alex gave it half a thought and then caved in to Kyle’s pressure. What the heck. It was their find. “Sure. You first.”

“Okay.” Kyle lowered himself inside with his backpack and Alex joined him. The cave wasn’t too large of a chamber with the entrance at the top left corner. Kyle dropped his bag down before lowering himself and Alex followed after. The walls of the cave were covered in clusters of the gandarium, the blue crystals illuminating the cave.

Kyle was stunned by the interior of the cave. “Oh my God!” He shined his torchlight around the blue-coloured cave as Alex entered coughing slightly. “What do you suppose alien crystals are going for on eBay?”

Alex looked around at the alien crystals laughing nervously. Too many. Way too many. “Alright, Columbus. You claimed the land for the Queen of Spain. What do you say we go tell the others?” Alex turned to get out of there as fast as possible when the crystals suddenly grew over the opening of the cave that they had entered through cutting out all sunlight. Alex watched in horror as their entrance closed. “Oh, oh no! Oh, oh …”

“I don’t know why I’m looking around.” Kyle said as Alex started to pant a little out of breath. “I suppose stuff like this happens all the time? Right?”

Alex gave Kyle a sour look. “Yeah, sure.” He looked at the pulsating crystals and moaned. Sure. All the frickin’ time.

~~~

Liz, Max, Tess and Isabel congregated at the place where Alex and Kyle were digging a short time later as they slowly cleared another coordinate on the artificial grid system they sat up over all of Frazier Woods.

“Find anything?” Liz asked the tired diggers.

“Just a lot of rock.” Tess said brushing a dirty hand across her face.

“There’s nothing in grid point 23-27.” Max informed Liz breathing hard.

Liz checking her clipboard as the others glared at her as she went into her ultra supervisor mode. “Okay, then uh, you should move on to …”

Max glanced around looking for Alex and Kyle. “Where are those guys?” Max spotted the crystals in the ground that covered up the hole Alex dug up. “The crystals.”

“Oh.” Isabel said looking around for Alex and Kyle.

Liz’s cell phone rang as Max, Tess and Isabel put down their shovels and attempt to study the crystals a little closer. “Hello?”

“Liz?!” Kyle’s voice said in the phone.

“Yeah.” Liz looked around confused by talking to Kyle.

“It’s me, Kyle!”

“Yeah, Kyle. Where are you?”

“In the freaking nest!!”

Liz mouth opened in confusion as she looked down at the crystals. “Oh my God!” She pointed at the hole. “You guys, they’re in there.” She told the others.

“Do you see the crystals?” Kyle asked.

Liz nodded as the alien trio got down on their knees around the hole. “Yeah, yeah, we see the crystals.”

“They blocked us in here.”

Liz told the others as they knelt next to the crystals. “Okay, um, you guys … you guys think that you can make an opening?”

“We can try.” Max offered.

“Tell them to step as far away from the entrance as possible.” Isabel told Liz.

“Okay,” Liz said in the phone, “uh, try to step as far away from the hole.”

“Come on, come on. Get a move, get a move.” Kyle told Liz as he and Alex moved further into the cave away from the entrance.

Max, Isabel and Tess concentrated their powers to try to create an opening through the crystals, but they held fast.

“Our powers don’t work on these!” Max told Liz exhausted as he, Tess and Isabel slumped from the effort.

Liz clapped her hand over the cell phone mouthpiece. “Are you sure?”

“You’re welcome to try!” Tess invited Liz, her body too exhausted to try again.

“Okay, what now?” Kyle’s voice asked. “What are you doing?”

“Um, they’re just uh, you know … they’re uh,” Liz was at a lost as to what to say. “They’re taking a break!”

Kyle’s voice came back incredulously. “Break?! You know there’s not that much air down here.”

“Uh,” Liz tried to concentrate. “Okay, um, we’re … we’re just gonna have to get back to you.”

“Get back to us?!”

“Breath shallow.” Liz told Kyle.

“Breath shallow?!”

Liz hung up looking at the alien trio. “What now?!”

“Uh, Brody has some weird equipment in the back of the UFO Center. I think there … there’s even a diamond saw in the storage locker.” Max suggested.

“Okay, yeah.” Liz nodded. “That could work, that could work.”

“I’ll get it.” Isabel offered taking herself off in a hurry to get to the UFO Center.

Max looked around the area. “Maybe we should dig another hole.”

Tess agreed. “Okay.” Liz dropped her checklist to help with the digging as Tess moved to a spot a little off the original entrance to start digging a new hole.

“Parallel to where they’re digging.” Max suggested. “See if we can tunnel in from the side.”

“Where?” Liz asked. “Where?”

“Here.” Tess said as Max joined her.

“The side.” Max told Liz pointed to a place for her to stand.

“Let’s go, let’s go.” Tess urged them as they started to dig furiously.

~~~

Meredith and Maria were having drinks poolside. “Are you sure one room is enough?” Meredith asked Maria. “We have plenty of space.”

“One is fine. Right next to Laurie.” Maria said, sipping her drink. “This juice is delightful.”

“So …” Meredith asked Maria trying to feel the younger girl out. “Shall I have Carmen prepare for your departure tomorrow?”

“You know, I think we’re gonna stick around a little longer than that.” Maria smiled pleasantly at the older woman. “So um, you can just tell Carmen not to knock herself out.”

Meredith poured herself some wine. “You do know that we have power of attorney over Laurie? I love that girl like a daughter.”

“Mm …”

“But, the girl is certifiable. And the doctors agree.” Meredith smiled at Maria matching her sweetness. “So we could have you and the beatnik kicked out of here anytime we like.”

“Then why haven’t you?”

“Hmm.”

Maria pulled a big, leather bound checkbook from her bag. “Maybe it’s … uh, I don’t know, because of the …” Maria flipped the book to a particular page, “one million dollars you donated to the Pinecrest Psychiatric Institute to get them to say that Laurie was crazy?” Maria smiled knowingly at Meredith whose smile bled away then came back lacking any amusement.

“Where did you get that?”

“Oh, Laurie told me that I could go anywhere in the house that I pleased. So I looked at your desk.”

“Huh.” Meredith said sipping her wine.

“Huh.” Maria said sipping her fruit juice. “This juice really is delicious.”

“Would you like some more?” Meredith asked politely.

“That would be lovely.”

~~~

Michael sat in Laurie’s room telling her about what they did to get back into the house. “So I realized I had to find some kind of leverage. I went to the courthouse had them look up files on this place and … bang, there it was. The deed with your name on it. So I threatened to call the police on Bobby and Meredith and have them arrested for trespassing and …” Michael paused scratching his brow. “Well … we threatened to call the police cause Maria kinda helped.”

“That’s really smart.” Laurie told Michael.

“You know, well people with money. They tend to get nervous when it’s threatened you know?” Michael scratched his eyebrow again.

Laurie smiled suddenly. “You look just like him when you did that.”

“Who?”

“Grandpa.” Laurie explained smiling. “He used to scratch his eyebrow just like you did. He even wore a ring on the same finger you do.”

“What was he like?”

“A lot like you. Hard to read, lived in his own head. But kind. He’s the only one in the family I ever felt safe with.” Laurie paused and asked Michael shyly, “Would you like to meet him?” Michael nodded as Laurie led him down to a bomb shelter underneath the house.

She switched on the lights and entered first. There were beds on both sides of the walls and wooden boxes filled with Grandpa’s stuff. Michael flipped through some books lying on top of one of the boxes.

Laurie picked up a sweater smelling it. “You can still smell him.” She held the sweater close to Michael to sniff. “Indian River Pipe Tobacco.”

Michael flipped to a page with drawings of alien-like figures, big bald heads with black eyes and pointed ears. “He had an interest in aliens.”

“Grandpa said they took him.” Michael glanced at her in enquiry. “He wouldn’t talk about it. He’d just come down here to the bomb shelter and read for hours.” She looked around a slight smile pulling on her mouth. “It was his sanctuary.” She became serious again. “The older he got, the more he wanted to know what really happened to him. So he started talking. Aunt Meredith and Uncle Bobby used it to put him away.” Laurie fingered a page filled with words written in a spiral pattern.

“It drove him crazy.” Michael said more to himself.

“That’s what I got from Grandpa … that and some bad blood.” Laurie informed Michael.

“Bad blood?”

“Uh, a bad chromosome actually. It’s what they call a recessive genetic defect.”

“That’s why they want you.” Michael said more to himself.

Laurie had been putting the sweater back in a box, she glanced at Michael. “What?”

“Nothing.”

Laurie pulled out a worn wedding dress from the same box. “This is Grandma’s. I never met her.”

“What was her name?”

“Ada-Jane. She’s dead too.” Sighing Michael scratched his eyebrow again, but became aware of his actions, he paused self-consciously when he noticed Laurie watching him.

“Can’t fight who we are Michael.” She told Michael. “You’re Grandpa’s legacy, and …” Her voice dropped. “I’m crazy.”

Michael pulled the girl to face him holding her firmly by the shoulders. “You are not crazy. What happened to you was real. I mean, you have a right to live your life. Bobby and Meredith have tried to take that away from you, but it’s yours. Just like this house is yours.” Michael reminded her. “Now look, I’m not what you would call an optimist. Life sucks. People suck. That’s reality. But you’re special. You’re a good person and you deserve better than to be locked up in an institution because it’s more convenient for your aunt and uncle. This is your life, and this is your house.”

Laurie listened to him, and she slightly smiled. He really was just like her grandfather.

~~~

Isabel went to the UFO Center to find the equipment they needed to get Alex and Kyle free. While in there a masked stranger came up behind her with chloroform and put her out. It was Grant Sorenson.

On the highway, Isabel woke to find a struggling Grant trying to remember things, to piece together his life. He went through a sequence of events, and Isabel realized that it was Grant that took Laurie and who shot at them. He was struggling to remember things. He told Isabel she was the only person he trusted.

“When did this all start happening?” Isabel asked.

“Hard to say. Uh, I uh, have gaps in time. I think it was … when I started digging out near Pohlman Ranch … some time last summer. Found these weird crystals …”

“Oh my God.” Isabel said more to herself. “Oh God, Larek said there was a Queen.”

“What?” Grant glanced at her confused. Confused by what she was saying, confused as to why he was racing towards Tucson.

“Oh God … look, Grant. You’re going to be alright. Your body has been … has been taken over by something.”

“What kind of … thing?” Grant asked her.

“It’s hard to explain, but it must have happened when you were digging. God, it was the gandarium. They must have been in the water tab …”

Grant was sweating and desperate. Losing his control he turned and shouted at Isabel. “I don’t know what that means, okay?! I’m losing it here!”

“Grant …”

“Why is this happening to me?” Grant asked no one in particular as he stared straight ahead. “I’m a good person …”

“I know.” Isabel told him.

He glanced at Isabel. “Do you?”

“Yes.”

Grant started to shiver and shake uncontrollably. “I have to kill you, but I don’t wanna. There’s a cell phone in my coat pocket. Grab the phone Isabel.” He told her. “Now!”

“Okay, okay.” Isabel said taking the phone as she looked around the car nervously. Grant pulled over to the side of the road. Isabel tried to plead with him, but Grant kicked her out of the car. “Grant …”

“Get out of the car.”

“No.”

“Get out of the car!” He yelled at her.

Unbuckling her seat belt, Isabel was crying and pleading with Grant. “I can’t help you if you don’t …”

“Please …” Grant begged her in a last moment of lucidity. “Get out of the car.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Sorry! Isabel told Grant as he drove off, leaving her in the middle of a dark highway as it began to rain. Taking out the cell phone Grant made her take, she called Valenti.

“Hello.”

“Oh, Sheriff Valenti, thank God. Thank God.” Isabel said in her usual dramatic style. “Grant is definitely the kidnapper, but it’s not his fault. The Queen … and it possessed him somehow.”

“Possessed by the what?!” Jim asked in the phone almost as confused by Isabel’s ramblings as Grant had been.

“The crystals. The … the aliens.” Isabel told him. “The important thing is he’s after Laurie and he’ll be in Tucson in a few hours.” Jim was frantically scribbling down the details. “You have to stop him.”

“Alright. Wait a minute, where are you?”

Isabel looked around the dark road. “He left me by the side off the road somewhere. But don’t worry. I’ll … I’ll find a ride.”

“What do you mean ‘you’ll get a ride’?” Jim demanded. “You can’t get into a car with just anybody …”

“Sheriff, I am the last person on Earth who has to worry about getting into a car with strangers.” Isabel reminded him. “Trust me. Just get to Laurie before he does. Please!”

“Isabel …”

“Sheriff … Sheriff …”

“Isabel … Hello? Hel …” Heavy static broke up their connections. Jim hung up the phone as Isabel hitched a ride. He glanced at his watch. He needed to find Duff and get to Tucson.

Jim found Agent Duff at the Roswell PD doing paperwork. Entering, he didn’t bother to mess around, he went straight to the chase.

“We need a plane.”

Duff glanced up at Jim with a shocked expression. “Pardon me?”

“Sorenson is halfway to Tucson. We gotta get there before he does.”

“How do you know this?” Duff asked her suspicions sparking again by the way the Sheriff just seemed to know things.

“Listen, we work together or we don’t. You gotta trust me. We have to get to Tucson now.”

“I’ll call the Arizona Field Office and tell them we need back up.” She reached for the phone, but Jim stopped her.

“No. Agent Duff, there’s something you that need to know.” Jim and Duff’s eyes met and she hung up the phone. “Before this is over, you may see some things you won’t be able to explain. As a matter of fact, you won’t want to.” Bending down to her so he could see her eye to eye, Jim told her, “You told me once, that you appreciated honesty. Well, here it is. If you tell the Bureau what we’re about to do, you will kill your career.”

Duff sat back in her chair. “What are you talking about?”

“You gotta trust me. You’ll follow my lead and be very selective with what you put in your final report.” Standing up, Jim handed her the phone as he asserted the authority that always made him the Sheriff. “Now get us a plane.”

~~~

It was raining in a torrential downpour as Max, Liz and Tess were furiously digging to free the two trapped in the cave. Inside the cave Kyle and Alex were singing to entertain themselves as Kyle played with a piece of crystal and an empty glass bottle. Kyle dropped the crystal into the bottle, lit a match and dropped it into the bottle screwing the lid tightly.

“Die sucker.” Kyle told the crystal, forgetting his Buddha training as he put the bottle aside and went back to singing. He stood up quickly when the crystal in the bottle next to him went into a frenzy. “Man, look at that!”

Alex stopped singing for a moment to stare. “Whoa! Oh, my God!”

“What?” Kyle asked confused as they both watched as the piece of crystal seemed to die.

“Look at that …” Alex said glancing up at Kyle who nodded. He called the Parker.

Liz was screaming into her phone with a finger in one ear as she tried to understand and hear Kyle over the thunder. “Wai ... Okay, wait, wait, let me get this straight. You said uh, that you used a bottle?”

“Yeah.”

“Was the cap on or off?”

“Well, I put it on, then it tried to escape.” Kyle told her.

Liz paced a little trying to figure out what exactly happened. “‘Kay, but you were heating it the whole time. And the crystals died once you put the cap on.”

“Yeah, just after, yeah.”

“‘Kay, well. That’s it. You burned all of the oxygen in the bottle and suffocated it.” Kyle in the cave raised a fist to Alex as a sign of hope.

Then …” Tess said as she pushed the wet hair off her face, “then all we need to do is get the oxygen out of there.”

Max stared at the cave and shook his head. “And then they die too.” Liz and Tess stare at Max, realizing the futility of their situation as Liz flopped her arms in frustration.

~~~

Michael and Maria sat beside the pool in lounging chairs and white fluffy bathrobes watching Laurie as she swam. Maria smiled as Laurie did another lap obviously enjoying herself.

“I can’t believe she’s actually smiling.” Maria glanced at Michael. “What did you say to her?”

Michael shrugged. “I just listened to her.” Maria smiled at him like a proud parent whose child did something incredible. “What do you think I should call her? Grand-daughter? DNA clone?”

“I’d go with sister.” Maria suggested her eyes still on Laurie. “The whole grand-daughter thing really creeps me out.”

Michael stared at Laurie swimming happily in the pool. “I have a sister.” He said in wonder. “That is so weird.” Maria took his hand and squeezed it, happy for him. He had no family not since the whole destiny train chugged on the horizon stripping away the belief that he was a brother to Max and Isabel.

“Oh! By the way, Meredith and Bobby are evil!” Maria told Michael stressing just how smarmy the aunt and uncle were. “They’re ee-vil!! They paid Pinecrest to keep Laurie out of their hair.” Maria shared a look with Michael. “Can you believe they would ruin her life so that they could live here like rich bastards?”

“Shallow, shallow people,” said Michael as Carmen up to Michael from with the phone on a silver platter.

“Mm-hmm.” Maria agreed still watching Laurie waving when Laurie waved at her from the other side of the pool.

“Carmen.” Michael said as he turned just in time to see her. “I think it’s kind of a Braveheart night, and tell the kitchen we’ll be ready to dine at about seven.”

“Yes sir. This one is for you sir.” Carmen said placing the phone before him.

“Thank you.” Michael said pleasantly as he reaching for the phone. “Hello?”

“Michael, it’s Max.” Max said talking loudly in the phone over the thunder as Tess and Liz continue digging. “The crystals can’t live without oxygen.”

“Okay.”

“That’s how we can stop it.” Max told Michael quickly explaining what Michael needed to know just in case the fact that the crystals couldn’t live without oxygen made no sense to Michael.

“Well, I got a newsflash for you Maxwell. There are no crystals around here.”

“So Laurie’s safe?”

“She’s under my constant watch. I’m not even sleeping.” Michael told Max. “How are things with you?” Michael asked touching base since they hadn’t talk since last time when he and Maria were driving around in circles in the desert, and Max called with what Larek told them. “You find the hive as Larek suggested?”

“Tired. It’s been a long couple of days.” Max told Michael staring at where Liz and Tess were digging. “Oh yeah, we found the hive.”

“Yeah, are you going to tell me about it?” Michael asked as Carmen approached with the DVD player.

“It’s been raining pretty hard here.” Max shared with Michael.

“Thank you.” Michael said to Carmen as he took the DVD player and listened to Max.

“Morale’s a little low.” Max told Michael.

“You want to tell me what is going on? You found the nest, and …”

“No, there is nothing you can do. Just do your job and keep Laurie safe.”

“Right.” Michael opened the DVD player. “Okay, then. Ah … Max, I gotta take another patrol round the perimeter.”

“Talk later.”

“Okay.” Michael hung up the phone, turning around he spied Carmen. “Oh, Carmen, May I get some iced tea please?” He made a gesture to both him and Maria. “For the both of us?” Carmen went off as Michael and Maria turned on the portable DVD and started watching Braveheart.

“So how is everyone?”

Michael shook his head. “Max didn’t say. It’s raining and they found the hive.”

Maria nodded as she leaned in closer to Michael to watch the movie. “Braveheart, again?!”

~~~

Michael, Maria and Laurie were seated for dinner, eating a veritable feast all of them enjoying themselves at Bobby and Meredith’s expense. Laurie smiled occasionally, comfortable and calm with Michael and Maria’s presence.

“This fish is delightful.” Maria mumbled to herself, almost in shock. Looking across the huge table at Michael she called to him. “Michael, isn’t this food delightful?”

“It’s delightful.” Michael repeated, too busy to care as he stuffed his mouth full.

Laurie laughed following Michael’s lead stuffing her face too. “Yeah, this is the first time I've felt at home at this dinner table since my grandfather died.”

“Chicken’s tasty but it’s kinda puny.” Michael said tossing a bone.

Meredith and Bobby entered the dining room in formal wear giving the teens a disgusted look, especially after Laurie belched and Michael and Maria laughed.

“It’s not chicken.” Meredith informed Michael. “It's squab stuffed with foie gras and black truffles with a pinot noir glaze.”

“Oh my God, they’re using the good crystal.” Bobby said in horror as Maria tossed him drinking down her root beer.

“We have a charity event at the Governor’s Residence and it’s the staff’s night off.” Meredith informed them. “But I’ve asked them to prepare a full seven-course extravaganza in hopes it will keep you two from snooping around in anymore of our personal effects.”

“Aw, thank you, Mer.” Maria smirked waving a squab leg at her.

“And please keep in mind that you’re having your soda pop out of nineteenth century Bavarian Crystal.” Bobby suggested hoping it would keep the unruly teens from smashing them in the fireplace in an act of unbridled vandalism.

“I'll keep that in mind Bobby.” Michael told the older couple releasing a loud burp as they were heading for the door.

“Please, God. Let at least one of them choke on a pigeon bone.” Meredith said under her breath as she and Bobby left.

“I think she’s right. I’m gonna need another root beer.” Maria said to Michael as she rang a little bell near her plate. “Carmen! Um, I think the um, the pint noir glaze is getting me a little dry. Could you haul over another root beer please?” Maria smiled cheerfully at Michael wolfing down his food. “Haul it over.” Maria repeated for Michael’s benefit as he nodded still eating with gusto. Pigeon? So now he knew what he and Maria could live off when they moved to New York. Maria frowned when Carmen didn’t respond. She rang the bell again. “Carmen!” Maria picked up her fork and knife to start eating again. “Michael … could you be a dear and see about the beverage situation?”

“I’m eating.” Michael pointed out.

“Please?” Maria begged nodding to Laurie. “Laurie and I are getting dry.” Laurie nodded her head enthusiastically. Outnumbered by the girls, Michael reluctantly went to find Carmen and drinks.

“Carmen …” Michael called as headed for the kitchen. When he entered, the place was darkened and he frowned as he made out Carmen’s form sitting on a chair facing away from him. “Carmen?” Michael went to the maid, and his face registered the shock and horror he felt as he found Carmen dead with her throat slashed. “Oh god, Carmen.”

Straightening, he glanced around the dark room quickly. Maria. Laurie. Michael rushed back to get the girls.

Maria glanced up when Michael rushed back into the room. “Hey, I thought you were gonna go get the um …”

“Get up.” Michael said pulling Maria up from the table by her arm holding her close to his body as he moved towards Laurie.

Maria glance at Michael’s face immediately reading the seriousness. “What’s going on?”

Michael rushed Maria to Laurie. “Take her some place safe … right now.”

Laurie only just realizing that something was wrong bolted off her chair in fright. “Oh, my God. They’re here …”

Michael quickly caught Laurie by the arms before she ran in a panic. “Whoa, Laurie, Laurie. It’s alright, I’m gonna take care of it.” He nodded to Maria. “Take her now.”

Maria nodded, her and Laurie holding each other. “Okay, what are you gonna do?” Maria asked worried about leaving Michael alone.

“Just go!” Michael demanded.

“Michael!” Maria’s voice raised in fear. She never left him … never. They always went together, and …

“Maria …” Michael said softly their eyes meeting and she nodded rushing Laurie out of the room.

Michael moved out into the hallway through another entrance. The house was dark and quiet with all the servants gone. He moved down the hallway cautiously looking for the intruder. Hearing a sound from behind him, he turned. The hallway was empty. Michael slowly moved towards the sound. Looking up the nearby, Michael was suddenly shot from behind. As Michael crumpled to the ground, Grant emerged from the shadows. He tucked a gun in his belt and went off with purpose to find the girls.

~~~

Maria and Laurie ran down to the sublevel basement, to the bomb shelter. Maria rushed them as the feeling of being pursued choked at her throat. They went into the shelter and tried to close the rusted door to slow their pursuer.

Maria pushed on the door trying to close it. “Help me Laurie!” The girls struggled with the door. “It’s stuck!” The two girls tried to close it frantically as they felt danger coming near.

~~~

Jim and Agent Duff found the house dark and what appeared deserted. The front gate was open. Circling the house, they entered through the kitchen. There they discovered Carmen’s body. They both drew their guns and nodding to each other, they split on either side of the door covering each other as they made their progress with caution. Jim saw the heap, he bent down to discover the bloodied Michael lying in the hallway with a shoulder bullet wound. Michael was barely conscious as he held his shoulder, the bullet having entered from the back and exited through the front of his shoulder.

Jim crouched beside the injured teen. “Michael …”

Michael talked with some difficulty as the wave of pain almost made him pass out again. “They’re back there … Back there!” Michael pushed Jim weakly. “Go!”

Jim and Agent Duff left Michael in the hallway while they went to look for Grant and the girls.

~~~

Maria and Laurie were still struggling with the door as Grant made his way down the stairs. Holding up the gun, Grant entered as the girls back further into the room. Maria pushed Laurie behind her as she tried to distract Grant.

“Grant! Grant! Hey it’s me, Maria DeLuca. I’m Isabel’s friend. Really, really good friend.” Maria said holding up her hands in a non-threatening gesture. Grant lunged for Laurie and Maria got in the way. “No wait …”

Laurie screamed as Grant pushed Maria aside and caught Laurie by her hair and held her hostage to the just arriving Jim and Agent Duff. Maria rushed to Jim getting out of the line of fire.

Jim took aim at Grant. “Sorenson! You don’t wanna do this …”

“Put the gun down and step away from the girl.” Duff told Grant.

Laurie was crying hysterically. “Don’t let him put me back in the ground …”

“No one’s going anywhere.” Duff told the girl. “Put the gun down … now.” Duff warned Grant.

Grant shook his head in pain, crying as he tried to resist and the alien inside exerted more control over him. “I wanna but I can’t! You have to stop me!”

Jim approached the man, sorry for what was happening to him against his will. “Listen to me … we’re gonna help you, I promise. Just put the gun down.”

Grant let Laurie go as a sudden pain shot through him as his hands went to hold his hurting head. Laurie quickly crawled to Jim and the others as Maria opened her arms where she was crouched on the floor out of the way of flying bullets. She gathered Laurie close to her.

“Good, good.” Jim said once Laurie was clear. “Now just drop the gun. Everything will be alright.”

Grant was shaking his head to try to clear his head. “No! No! You have to kill me.”

“Grant, I’m gonna help you.” Gradually Jim lowered his gun. “I promise, you can trust me. Look, I’m gonna walk over there.” Jim took a step towards Grant. “See?”

“Ah, ah!” Grant screamed in pain his eyes flooded with tears. “It’s gotta stop!” He raised his gun to open fire and Agent Duff shot him first. Grant collapsed on one of the bed, facing up. As Maria hid her face in Laurie’s shoulder and the other girl tried to recover from shock, Agent Duff approached Grant’s body warily with her gun still raised.

Jim looked at the two girls on the floor. “You alright?” Maria looked at him with tears in her eyes as one tear ran down her cheek nodding.

“Michael …”

“He’s upstairs. He’s okay. I’ll take you to him.” Jim told Maria as he reached down to pull the two girls to their feet.

Agent Duff reached out a hand to check for a pulse when Grant’s chest cavity opened up to reveal a cluster of gandarium crystals. Maria and Laurie both saw it at the same time and they both scrambled back screaming in fright. Jim turned as he stood behind the backing up Duff. A shape started to emerge from the cluster of crystals as the group watched frozen in fear. Michael stumbled down the stairs, his face white and covered in sweat as he held his arm stiffly against his side.

“Everybody out!” Michael yelled at them. “Now … now!”

Jim pulled Agent Duff who had remained frozen to the spot from the room. “Come on!” He and Duff tried to close the door as a jellyfish-shaped organism emerged from the crystals. Jim and Duff couldn’t move the rusted door any more than Maria and Laurie could earlier. “Michael! The door!”

Michael nodded and with a wave of his hand the door slammed shut, hard. Duff stared at it for a moment, then at the young boy. Maria was watching the jellyfish organism, the Queen moving about the room. It seemed to be gathering strength to attack.

“Okay, whatever you’re gonna do, do it quick!” Maria told Michael coming up behind him, her hands firm at his waist taking his weight against herself as he struggled to remain upright and conscious. “That thing looks pissed!” Maria was mumbling to herself a prayer. “Time to work, baby. Take it out … do your thing.”

Michael raised his uninjured arm to the ventilation shaft by the door and used his powers to draw all the air out of the bomb shelter. The gandarium Queen started darting furiously around the room searching for an escape as all the air was leaving the room in a vacuum. Michael lowered his hand, exhausted as Maria went under his good arm to take part of his weight.

Jim looked at Michael. “What did you do?”

“Max said they need oxygen to live. So I just sucked all the air out.” Michael ignored the FBI Agent. He couldn’t worry about that right now as they watched the gandarium in its last struggle for life charge the door, trying to break through the glass as it smashed into a pulpy mess on the window.

“Simple.” Michael said.

“So it’s … it’s over?” Laurie asked.

“Guess that depends on what happens to the rest of the crystals.” Jim told the young girl as he went to help Maria with Michael.

~~~

Inside the cave, Alex and Kyle were lying on the ground, head to head, shining their flashlights around their enclosed space.

“So this is how it ends …” Alex said.

“Somehow this is not how I pictured it.”

Alex smiled slightly. “It was hell of a ride though.”

“I guess.” Kyle admitted, not really sure about that. Everything he associated as bad in his life seemed to revolve around the aliens and knowing about them.

“I mean, think about it. We not only met aliens, but they killed us.” Kyle turned his flashlight on Alex unbelieving how accepting Alex was, even without meditation and Buddha philosophy. “How many people can say that?”

“You’re getting delirious, is that it?”

“Nah, take … take a step away from your life, Kyle. You know, I mean, you’re part of this … this amazing thing. This … amazing knowledge that you have that six billion people on this planet don’t.” Alex glanced at Kyle. “You really want to step out of this cave if it meant that you were gonna be another dumb jock?”

“You know what, I wouldn’t.” Kyle confessed. Knowing about aliens made him change, and though maybe all of it wasn’t for the good, a good portion was. He never thought about things before … not real things. Now, every day he lived … it was like a gift.

The crystals started to melt. Alex was the first to notice, then Kyle released a sharp shout of horror as some of the liquid dripped on him.

“Ah, ah!” Kyle screamed as he sat up in an upright position. “They’re attacking! Oh no!”

Alex looked at his hands and the area around him. He glanced up as the crystals slowly were liquefying. “No, no … no.” He said quickly trying to calm Kyle. “They … they’re … they’re … they’re dying.” Alex said with a joyous laugh. “They’re … they’re dying.”

“Dying?” Kyle repeated uncertain that Alex was correct, but hoping.

“They’re dying!”

“I mean …” Kyle looked at Alex’s smiling face and suddenly raised his arms in triumph. “Dying!”

“Dying!”

Outside, Max, Tess and Liz were still digging trying to create another opening for Alex and Kyle when suddenly the two guys popped out of the original opening once covered by the crystals. They were covered in mud and blue crystal residue. The girls saw them started shrieking as they helped the guys out of the hole.

“I’m back!” Kyle announced as he hugged Tess.

Alex reached out a hand to Max and Liz. “Pull me up!” Max and Alex shared a stare at one another in joy as Alex hugged Max. “I love you man!”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Liz cried, stopping the rejoicing. “What happened? What happened?” She shook her head. They did nothing except dig. “What happened?”

“I'll tell you what must have happened.” Kyle told the others.

“Okay …” Liz said doubtful but willing to listen.

“Since Alex and I figured out how to kill the queen, and Max told Michael, Michael must have killed the queen.” Kyle concluded. “So all the crystals died. And they fell on us cause they’re dead.” Kyle stressed the dead part, happy it was the crystals and not him and Alex. “Which means we must have saved the world!” Kyle screamed in excitement.

“Yeah!” Alex joined Kyle both of them jumping around in the mud with their arms in the air. The rest of the group joined with whoops of joy and hi-five one another. “I think our job here is done …” Alex told the others. Looking down at his muddy clothing he made a face. “And I need to take a shower.”

“Let’s go home!! Come on! Come on!” Liz and the others went to leave as Liz circled back. “Grab the shovel! Let’s go! Let’s go!” They all ran off to the cars for once more teenage like and carefree than any of them had felt in a long time.

“Where’s Isabel?” Alex asked.

“Who?” the others said.

~~~

When Isabel made it to the Dupree estate, it was too late. Grant was dead, Michael was wounded, and Jim and Duff were trying to decide how to resolve the mess. She went down into the bomb shelter to see Grant. He lay dead on the cot. She sadly covered him with an afghan. She was too late. She couldn’t save him. Sitting down next to him, she waited with him until someone came to get him so he wouldn’t have to be alone.

In the Dupree kitchen, Jim and Agent Duff were sitting by the counter, having drinks and discussing all that had transpired. Duff poured herself a nice stiff drink.

“So looks like I have two options. Tell the truth about everything I’ve seen, or write a false report and commit a felony.” Her options weren’t many.

“Not very attractive options,” Jim agreed.

Duff sighed in her drink. “I know.”

“I always took a very legal approach to my job.” Jim explained. “If I couldn’t put it in a report, or swear to it in a court of law, in my mind,” he gave her a meaningful look, “it never happened.”

“Just walk away?” Duff asked.

Jim nodded slightly as he sipped his drink. “That would be my advice. Sometimes it’s better just to walk away with your victories.”

“It’s cost you a lot.” Duff observed.

“My family, my sanity, and my good name. True.” Jim stared in his glass. “I protect them from people … from people like you, FBI agents in Special Units who want to dissect them, tear them apart forgetting they are just teenagers with special gifts … gifts that just save our entire planet from annihilation. I protect them, because I know them. They’re good kids … all of them, human and alien alike. They don’t look at each other and see something strange and different … something to fear. They just see their friends.”

Duff drank from her glass. “I think my life is going to change.”

“That is usually what happens.”

~~~

In the dining room, Maria was tenderly tending to Michael’s shoulder wound. She had bandaged both places, entry and exit wounds. They couldn’t let Isabel close the wound until Max could heal the real damage. It was better to let the wound seep in case of infection. Michael was in pain and Maria couldn’t give him anything for the pain.

She kissed him on the forehead. “Brave …” On the nose, “handsome...” Then she kissed him softly on the lips, “hero …”

Michael winced slightly at the pain. “Wounded hero. I gotta get back to Roswell … let Maxwell work on my shoulder.” They were going to take Isabel and Valenti home with them in the Jetta since Agent Duff was going to be very busy with mop up.

“Alright, whenever you’re ready, Spaceboy.” Maria told him, her hands remaining on him as her eyes were bright. Close. The bullet was so close. It could’ve been his heart. He could’ve died, and if he had, they all would have.

“Maria, let me ask you something.”

“Mm?” Maria said putting away the first aid supplies.

Michael was slightly distracted, his mind busy with everything that had happened, everything he learned. “What would you think if Laurie moved in with me?” Maria’s face registered shock, but she held her tongue as he continued. “I mean, like we said, she’s kind of my sister.”

“She is.” They definitely shared blood.

Michael sighed shaking his head. “Yeah … but after all she’s been through, she probably needs some peace and quiet.” His life would always be dangerous, filled with threats of exposure.

“Probably,” Maria admitted softly leaving him to come to his own conclusions.

“And a chance to get away from all the alien stuff and … if she lived with me … well … I’m kinda a magnet for the intergalactic trouble.”

“Yeah …that you are,” Maria rubbed his lower arm in sympathy knowing how hard it would be for him to walk away from the first real family he ever found.

“What’s gonna happen to her?” Michael looked around at the large home, nice and rich in everything except love and human warmth. “We can’t leave her here with these freaks.” He didn’t have much in physical wealth, but he could give her more than these people ever did.

“Well, that’s something we can handle. All we need is a lawyer.” Maria kissed him gently again resting her forehead to his. “We won’t leave her to their mercies. We won’t leave until Laurie is okay. Okay?”

Michael sighed in relief. “Thanks, Maria.”

~~~

Isabel and Jim ended up getting a ride back to Roswell from Duff in the plane she had ordered. Michael, despite the pain he was in and the bullet hole that needed attending stayed with Maria to finish fixing Laurie’s life. In the Dupree living room. Robert, Laurie and Meredith were seated facing a lawyer while Michael and Maria were standing by the fireplace watching the proceedings. The lawyer handed out documents for Robert and Meredith to sign. Michael hugged Maria close to his side as Laurie looked up at them and smiled. Later that day, Laurie walked them to the gate as Michael hugged her goodbye, and the two girls whispered to each other softly, both laughing. With a quick hug, Michael and Maria left Laurie to live her life in peace, free of aliens for the first time in her life. They walked away hand and hand, and Laurie smiled watching as she shoved Maria’s phone number in her pocket.

~~~

Michael and Maria sat outside the DeLuca house. They had stopped to see Max first and Michael was finally healed and free of his sling. They both shared a look for a moment and visibly prepared themselves to enter the house.

“You don’t have to do this.” Maria told Michael. He already suffered enough pain.

Michael stared at the lit window and laughed more to himself. “Yeah, I do.”

He got out of the car and went with Maria into the house to face Amy DeLuca. They stood in the doorway waiting for Amy to see them.

“So you’re back.” Amy said not looking up. “The Jetta?”

Michael cleared his throat. “A few bullet holes,” Michael admitted as he watched as Amy startled, “but I’ll take care of them.” Michael came into the room taking a seat on the sofa with Maria sitting next to him. They faced Amy. “So we have a story to tell you,” Michael began.

Michael and Maria began the story they decided on, one that was shockingly close to the truth. They started with them going to Texas, to Brownsfield to check out information on Laurie to help Sheriff Valenti. Maria stressed that fact knowing her mother’s concern over the ex-Sheriff. Michael handed Amy the picture they had found in Laurie’s personal effects.

“It’s you.” Amy said in shock.

“No. It’s Laurie’s grandfather.” Michael clarified.

Maria quickly jumped into the story. “According to Laurie’s aunt, Laurie’s grandfather, Charles Dupree had a roving eye, and …”

“He could be your father.” Amy concluded looking at Michael who was the spitting image of Charles Dupree realizing how important this would be for the young man. Michael nodded. Not quite, but close enough.

“He died something like six or seven years ago,” Michael explained.

“So we staked out the Sheriff’s department,” Maria continued ignoring her mother’s raised eyebrow. “That was when they were transporting Laurie back to Brownsfield. We followed the ambulance and saw it crash.”

“I ran to help the survivors,” Michael added.

“And that was when Laurie spilled out of the ambulance and someone started shooting at us!”

Amy’s mouth opened looking at the calamity twins. “You were at that scene? I saw that on the news!”

“Mom …” Maria interjected. “The Jetta took a few casualties.”

“Which I will fix,” Michael reminded them. “Anyway, we didn’t know who was trying to kill Laurie, or where she belonged. We couldn’t bring her back since the killer kept getting to her, and she was a little …”

“Crazy at the time. Fear made her a little … wild.” Maria explained.

“So we needed to calm her down, and get her to trust us so we could take her home, to her people … where she would be safe.”

“We stopped for food at the Roadside Café.” Maria added.

“Oh,” Amy said. “They make the best vanilla shake.”

Michael ignored the comment, used to the DeLucas. “That was when Laurie with a little convincing told us where her family lived.”

“Tucson.” Amy guessed. Both Michael and Maria nodded. “And you couldn’t tell me what was going on?”

Maria licked her lips nervously. “I’m sorry I lied! Really, I didn’t want to get you involved. We were aiding and abetting a fugitive, and if we told Sheriff Valenti … well he was already in enough trouble trying to save Laurie’s life.”

Amy nodded seeing their point. “So you took her home to Tucson.”

Maria nodded, then telling her mother about Bobby and Meredith Dupree, how they had paid to have Laurie kept in the psychiatric hospital, and how the killer, Grant Sorenson had tracked them, as did Sheriff Valenti and Agent Duff.

“So Jim found you and this Agent Duff saved all of you by shooting this Grant person?” Amy watched as the two nodded. “And Sheriff Valenti’s story will be the same?”

“Absolutely.” Maria breathed easier, having told her mother mostly what was true, minus a few extraterrestrial elements.

“Why did this Grant person want Laurie? Why did he bury her?”

“We don’t know,” Michael said. “No one does. They think he had a split personality, and he saw Laurie as she escaped the hospital and was trying to make it home to Tucson to confront her aunt and uncle. No one probably will ever know now that Grant is dead.”

“And Laurie is okay?”

Maria smiled. “She’s good. We got her a lawyer, and he took care of her creepy aunt and uncle. So now she’s free to live her life.”

Amy sat back looking at Michael. “So you started out trying to help the Sheriff, instead ended up helping a frightened girl, and ultimately finding a little about yourself … finding a niece?”

“I think I’ll consider her a sister.” Michael told Amy.

“So you’re heir to a lot of property.”

Michael shook his head. “No. I got all I wanted from the Duprees. I got Laurie. That’s enough.”

Amy laughed shaking her head. Just when she thought she understood Michael Guerin, he found a way to surprise and amaze her. “Can’t the two of you find something to do that is … I don’t know … normal?”

Maria moved forward on the sofa. “Well, actually, Mom … we have tickets to this concert in Albuquerque, and …”

“It’s like this,” Michael said at the same time.

~~~

Michael and Maria went to Michael’s apartment for the first time in days. It appeared that it had been searched. They suspected it had been Grant having recognized Michael and Maria, and the Jetta that took his prey away.

Maria watched as Michael placed a framed photo of Laurie out in his apartment. He stepped back hugging Maria to his side.

“Better?” Maria asked Michael.

“Yeah. Much better.” Michael put his other arm around Maria too, pulling her in to a firm hug as he kissed her forehead. “Much better.” His family kept getting larger everyday.