Behind the Music…….

Maria put the dishes down. “So he’s not taking it well, huh?”

“Alien Defcon 5,” Liz answered. Max was freaked beyond control. His father had his entire life mapped out on a special storyboard, a board that had everything. Liz. Tess. The Jeep. Utah. Everything.

“First, I think you mean Defcon 2 or 1 … maybe 2 since 1 is full-scale world annihilation. The numbers work backwards, the smaller the number the more severe the situation. So Defcon 5 would be … um, peace?”

“Fine, Defcon 2 then! Maria, you’re spending way too much time with Michael.”

Maria squeezed Liz’s arm. “It'll be ok, I hope.”

“Let Max talk to Michael.” Someone had to talk sense into Max.

Maria glanced over at her partner in crime. Sense? “Right,” she sighed. This was so not going to work.

Michael peered through the order window. “So, when does Billy get here?”

Maria glanced at the clock. “I don't know. I thought he'd be here by now.”

“Billy who?” Liz asked.

“Billy Darden.”

“First-kiss Billy?” Liz actually smiled. “He's coming here?”

“Yes.” Maria picked up an order. Placing it in front of Kyle, she leaned a hip against the counter. “He's on his way to New York.”

“Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Your ex-boyfriend's coming to visit? That's not legal.” Kyle said quickly glancing at Michael.

“He's not my ex-boyfriend. We kissed once four years ago. I was thirteen, and I’m single, so no harm, no foul.”

Kyle shook his head. “You know about this?” he asked Michael.

Michael shrugged. “Yeah, we're all going to dinner.” He was okay with it; he had to be. Technically, he and Maria weren’t a couple, and he was just slowly getting her to think about dating him. He wasn’t going to mess it up by coming down all heavy and jealous.

Liz took her order, watching Michael finish it up. “No. No mayo on that one.” She turned to talk to Maria. “Um, so, where's he gonna stay?”

“At my house.”

Kyle lifted a brow at that. “Your mom's ok with this?”

“My mom's out of town.” Maria reminded Kyle, who should remember that fact, since her mom and his dad were no longer seeing each other. Thank god.

“What?” Kyle looked at Michael in disbelief. Michael saw the look.

“It's fine.” Michael shoved the plate at Liz. “There's your no-mayo.”

“Michael, Michael, Michael,” Kyle moaned, needing to shake some sense into Michael. “Let me explain something to you. Here on the planet earth we have this thing called jealousy.”

“Kyle, relax. I have nothing to be jealous about.” Maria made a face at him. “We keep telling all of you … Maria and I are friends. Friends, and they were 13-year-old geeks at band camp.”

“Ok, first of all, it was a, uh, songwriter's workshop,” Maria informed him. “And, uh ... Billy wasn't a geek. He was just a little skinny. He had a little acne on the face, but …”

“… and braces,” Michael added.

“We all had braces.” Maria informed them, but then seeing Michael’s look she gave up. “All right, fine. He was a little bit of a geek.”

“And you kissed him?” Kyle smirked.

“Would you shut up?” she asked Kyle, glaring at Michael who had started this conversation.

“Shut up.” Michael told Kyle before he got him in trouble.

Maria gave him a thankful smile as she went to tend to a new customer. “Hello. Table or booth?”

“It's me.” The young man was attractive. Maria looked him over.

“Billy?”

“Yeah.”

Maria couldn’t believe it. He was … not awful. “No.”

“Yeah.”

“Come here.” Maria hugged the guy laughing as he literally picked her off her feet. “Oh, my god.”

“Ohh.” Billy put her down, looking her over. “God, look at you.”

A dozen eggs sitting next to Michael on the counter, suddenly exploded. Maria glanced at him sharply, a frown pulling at her face. She quickly led Billy away before he could get curious. “Oh. Um, let's go this way.” She glanced back again.

“All right,” Billy let Maria led him to the outside tables in front of the Crashdown.

Kyle watched them go, smirking at Michael. “I guess the braces worked.”

Michael growled at Kyle as he mopped up the egg mess. He was okay with this. He was.

~~~

“God, last time I saw you, you were like thirteen going on thirty.” Billy’s eyes kept moving over Maria.

“And you were like ninety-eight pounds going on this.” Maria checked him out as well. She would’ve never guessed that he could turn out so well. “You look great.”

“Now don't take this the wrong way, but have you looked in a mirror?” Billy couldn’t take his eyes off her. “I mean, you went from the girl no one wanted to dance with to the prom queen.”

“Now, how am I supposed to take that the wrong way?” Maria rolled her eyes. Her gawky youth was best left forgotten. “And shut up.”

“I'm serious, really. You look great, Maria.”

“Thanks. Ahem. So …” Maria was suddenly uncomfortable at his regard. “Uh, how long are you staying?”

“Uh, just a couple days. Uh, is it cool with your mom, me staying over?”

“Sure. Yeah. And anyway, she's, uh,” Maria cleared her throat, so maybe this wasn’t the greatest idea, “she's actually gonna be out of town for a couple of days.” A week. Months. Forever. Maria didn’t want to go into detail.

“Oh.” Billy smiled sitting back. “Well, uh, I can’t wait to hear what you've been working on.”

“Working on?”

“Your music.”

“Oh.” Maria was suddenly uncomfortable.

Billy didn’t seem to notice. “God, I can still remember some of the lyrics you wrote back at band camp.”

“God.” Maria hid her face. “Yeah, most of it was crap, anyway.”

“Oh, come on.” Billy smiled even more charmed by Maria’s reaction.

Maria looked around leaning in conspiratorially, “Look, if anyone asks, it was a songwriters workshop.”

“Oh.”

Michael was watching Maria and her friend from behind the order window. He barely glanced over when Max came in the door after entering the Crashdown by the back.

Max whispered loudly. “Michael!”

Michael glanced at Maria again. “What are you doing in here?”

“When do you get off work?”

“Ten minutes. But I've got plans with Maria and Billy Bob Thornton out there.” Michael made a face at the other man talking to Maria.

“Something came up. Cancel them.”

Michael watched Maria laughing with Billy. “Forget it. Whatever it is can wait. I’m busy.”

“My dad knows,” said Max.

Michael frowned as Max quickly outlined his father’s investigation. Michael had heard this in La Jolla, and it kept Max from relaxing. Looked as if Max’s need to panic was in overdrive.

Maria and Billy were still talking in front of the restaurant as Michael slowly made his way towards them.

“That is so funny.” Billy said to something Maria told him.

“Hi.” Michael said interrupting them.

Billy glanced up at the larger man. “Hey.”

“Michael,” Michael said, introducing himself. “I'm the other friend.”

“Hey. Billy.” The other guy introduced himself. “Nice to meet you.”

Maria smiled at Michael. “Ready to go?”

“Gotta cancel.”

“Wait a minute.” Maria quickly looked into Michael’s eyes. “We were gonna cook.”

“Something came up.” Michael said cryptically, but Maria caught the tone.

“What?” She glanced at Billy frowning.

“It's work-related.”

“Oh.” Maria caught the look. Alien stuff. “Of course.”

“Steve's wife, Cheryl,” Michael quickly explained to Billy, “she got the flu on my other job, so I gotta cover for her …”

“Oh. Him.”

“Yeah.” Michael met Maria’s eyes. “Sorry, Billy.” His tone was anything but sorry.

“Oh, no. You gotta do what you gotta do, you know?”

“I'll make it up to you. I promise.” Michael said to Maria, kissing her quickly on the mouth, but something made him pause, holding the kiss longer than usual. Michael looked pointedly at Billy. “Nice meeting you.”

“Yeah.” Billy got the message. Michael had just put up a huge ‘Keep Off’ sign around Maria. “He seems nice.”

“Oh, yeah.” Maria said distractedly. “He's a peach.” She smiled quickly. “Hey, I need to get my things. Can you wait for me here for a moment?”

“Sure.” Billy frowned as Maria quickly went into the Crashdown.

“Hey!” Maria caught up with Michael before he could leave with Max. “What’s going on?”

“Excuse us for a moment?” Michael asked Max.

“Sure,” Max glanced between the two. “Make it snappy.”

“Always a prince,” Maria said sarcastically. “Spill, buddy, and make it quick since we’ve both got people waiting.”

Michael quickly told Maria what Max wanted to do. Maria nodded listening.

“Liz told me about his new alien DefCon 2 strategy. Think you can talk some sense into him? Maybe calm him down?”

Michael and Maria both looked over at the jittery Max. “Not a chance in hell. Look,” Michael took her arm, “I’m really sorry about dinner.”

“No problem. Just come by when you can, okay?”

“You okay alone with him?”

“Who? Billy? Sure he’s fine.”

“Maria, four years is a long time. He might not be nice old Billy anymore. Just be careful, and I’ll be there.”

Maria nodded. “If you aren’t there for dinner, I’ll leave a window open for you.”

Michael kissed her cheek, quickly taking off before he changed his mind.

~~~

Maria and Billy were in the DeLuca kitchen cooking dinner.

“I can’t believe you're doing it.” Maria said tasting the sauce. “Moving to New York, huh?”

“Yeah, Greenwich Village.”

“Playing seedy bars and coffee shops,” Maria mused, smiling at their youthful plans.

“Well, that was the plan.”

“Yeah, but there are plans and then there are plans.” Maria continued cryptically.

“Well, I guess this was the plan.” Billy was confused by Maria’s lack of enthusiasm, something she had in abundance when they were younger.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Maria added some more garlic to the pot. “So, what are you gonna do for money?”

“As long as I make enough to get by, I'm fine, you know?”

Maria laughed smiling at him. “Oh, god, that is so romantic, I could just scream.”

“Come on.” Billy leaned up against the counter next to her. “It was your idea.”

“I know, but I mean, I was thirteen and talkin' about going to the big city. Even then I knew it was just talk. Michael and I’ve been talking about it, but until it’s a done deal, I really can’t say where I’ll end up.” Maria held out some sauce on a spoon. “Here, taste.”

“That's pretty good.” Billy said tasting the sauce. “That's not how I remember it. I mean, even back then you were pretty dead serious about your music. I mean, you're the one that gave me the bug. If I hadn't met you, I'd still be playing ‘Stairway to Heaven’ in my mom's garage.”

Maria shrugged, not wanting to care too much about this. “Well, I guess for me music was just more of like a passing thing.”

Billy went to the refrigerator taking out some cream, pouring a some into the sauce. “Well, I find that very hard to believe.”

“What are you doing?” Maria asked frowning at the cream he added to the sauce.

“The sauce is just a little thin, so I'm gonna show you a little family secret.”

Maria stared into the pot, her mouth open. “In my sauce? You're putting creamer …”

“Shh.” Billy offered her a taste of the sauce now. “Come on. Try it.” He shoved the spoon at her, tempting her. “Try it. Try it.”

“Ok.” Maria took a taste. “Mm-hmm.” It was good.

“Mm-hmm.”

“Not bad.” Maria tried another taste. “Wait until I tell Michael. We spent forever perfecting this sauce.”

“Michael?” Billy frowned at the other man’s name being mentioned yet again.

“Uh-huh. He’s turning into a pretty good cook … well, except for cookies. He eats the dough before he can cook it.”

“Michael.” Billy resolved himself to a night of ‘Michael did this’ and ‘Michael did that.’

Billy and Maria finished eating, and Billy produced something Maria prayed no longer existed. Pictures. They were like a stroll down a long nightmare.

“No! Oh, my god! No!”

“There she is.” Billy said cruelly, amused by her reaction. “Right there.”

Maria stole the picture, hating the image of herself. “Look at my hair and my eyes. Ugh!”

“Come on. It was your late 90s retro Annie Lennox phase. You know, you were experimenting.” Billy bumped into her playfully. “I think it was cute.”

“Right,” Maria shoved the pictures at him. “Burn those now.”

“Oh, no--oh, no.” He snatched them back, away from her questing hands. “These are goin' to the Big Apple where they'll be prominently displayed in my guitar case where people will be throwing money.”

“Look at that!” Maria stared at another picture, the horror was endless. “Look at-- this hair spray alone could choke a horse.”

“Ok. Well, look past the somewhat flammable hair and see what I see.”

“Which is what? Bad eyeliner?” Maria asked, squinting at the picture, horrified that her eyeliner actually looked like Liz’s recent trip into Goth. At least she had the excuse of being thirteen, but Liz …

“Nah. Dreams.” Billy took back his picture. “Look. This girl … she has beautiful dreams. And she makes beautiful music.” Billy was suddenly serious. “So, what happened to her?”

“Nothing.” Maria shrugged. “She just grew up.” Maria hated that young girl in the picture. She had more than dreams … she didn’t have nightmares and fears that weighed down her life. She had a future.

“Right. Right.”

~~~

Max and Michael were digging a hole in the desert. Michael was irritated at Max, and the canceling of his evening. “Is this deep enough?”

“Almost.”

Michael wiped a tired arm across his forehead. “Max, we've been up all night collecting every conceivable alien artifact that ever crashed in this god-forsaken planet, including all of Tess's stuff. I'm tired.”

“All right. That's deep enough. We still need your healing stone.”

“I think it's at Maria's.”

Max couldn’t believe it. “You think it's at Maria's?”

“Yeah.” Michael didn’t see the big deal. It wasn’t like they needed them anymore. “I don't know. Most likely.”

“I bet if it was one of your Metallica CDs you'd know where it was.” Max said sarcastically, knowing how possessive Michael got over things he considered his. Living in his apartment for the past few months was an eye opener.

“Hey! You wanna bring that up again? The reason I got pissed is you put And Justice For All before Master of Puppets.”

“Yeah. Alphabetical order.”

Michael’s body stiffened in outrage. “They go in order of the release date.”

“And you don't know where your healing stone is?” Once upon a time, the healing stones and alien artifacts meant everything to Michael. Since he decided to stay on Earth, Michael found other things much more important.

“You still wanna sleep on my couch?”

Max’s cell phone rang, saving him from another confrontation with Michael. “Hello?”

Isabel’s voice was worried and frantic. “Jesse is asking all kinds of questions about you, Max. You're right. Dad is out of control. We have to do something.”

Max looked at Michael who was listening. “Isabel, calm down. Just tell me what happened.”

“What's going on?” Michael asked. He didn’t want to be exposed. He had a life … sort of, but it was the first real time he had one.

Max held the phone away from him. “My dad's recruited Jesse into this crusade of his.”

“Ok, Max, you need to talk to your father. Keep your friends close …” Michael said pointing at Max, “and your enemies closer.”

Isabel heard Michael. “Our father is not the enemy, Max.”

“Talk to him. Make nice. Get close. Find out what he knows.” Michael handed Max his shovel. Looking at his watch, he winced. It was late, real late. “I’ve got places to be. Let’s go.”

Max finished talking to Isabel as they packed up the shovels into the Cheville.

They missed a man behind a rock taking picture of them burying the alien artifacts.

~~~

Michael entered Maria’s room through the window. He could’ve gone through the door, but he didn’t want to use his powers in case Billy saw him. The house was dark, and more than likely everyone was asleep. Max had kept him out real late.

Taking off his shoes and stripping down to his usual sleep attire of boxers and a t-shirt, he gently moved Maria over and got into bed, sighing in relief as he sank into the bed.

“Michael,” Maria said softly. She moved into his body, making a noise from the feel of his cool skin. “You’re late.”

“Max is freaking, and now Isabel has joined the alien hit parade. Mr. Evans is out of control, and he has Jesse asking questions.”

“And you? How are you holding up?”

“I told Max to go talk to his father … to get information.”

Maria sat up a little in the bed looking down at her tired friend. “Okay, you sent Max? Damn, it’s official, Michael. The infection has reached your brain. We’ll have to put you down.”

Michael reached up and pulled her down on top of him. “Go back to sleep. I’m too tired for your list of possible antibiotic regimens to cure me of early dementia.”

Maria giggled softly against him, burrowing into his skin that was finally warming.

“Can I confess something to you?” Michael asked softly.

“If I say no, will that stop you?”

“Not likely.” Michael kissed the top of her head. He slept with her practically every night … since Alex died and when he wasn’t working. “I was afraid to come over in case I found you sleeping with Billy.”

“Seriously?”

Michael nodded.

“You are suffering some type of alien sickness. You should know by now that you’re my only sleeping friend. I think I slept with Alex when I was younger, and of course, I shared a bed with Liz at times. Not recently, not since …” Maria paused. Not since Alex died. Michael knew that. He tightened his hold on her as they both slowly succumbing to sleep.

Maria was already gone when Michael woke. He had been so tired. Scratching his stomach, Michael went to the bathroom to tap his bladder and splash water on his face. Heading into the kitchen, he hoped Maria left coffee.

Nope. Worse.

She left Billy.

Billy seemed genuinely shocked at seeing Michael, especially in his attire. “You haven't left yet?”

“Oh, no, man. Late night.” Billy looked at the larger man. “Sorry. I'm leaving later today.”

Michael shrugged filling a cup mug with the black brew. Maria had to have left a while ago, it looked really black. “How was dinner?”

“It was good, man. It was good.” Billy watched as Michael got out the creamer adding it to his coffee, and started making himself breakfast, obviously knowing where everything was. “How's Steve's wife?”

“Who?” Michael asked.

“Steve's wife, with the flu. You covered for him.” Billy frowned at Michael. “Remember?”

Michael made a face at forgetting his lame excuse. “Yeah. She's great. She's fine. Is Maria around?” Anything to distract Billy Bob.

“No, man. You just missed her. Just missed her. Can I leave her a note or a message or something?”

“No. I’ll run into her soon enough.” Michael looked at the wall clock. “I’ve gotta get dressed for my shift at the Crashdown.” Remembering the healing stone, he smiled at Billy without warmth. “I'm needing to find something I left here. I wonder where Maria put it.” He had no problem with letting Billy think his relationship was something else with Maria.

“Can I help you look?”

“No. That's ok.” Michael took his coffee back to Maria’s room.

Billy followed. “What are you looking for?”

“Something I need.” Michael wasn’t above being petty. “Hey, can you pull me out a fresh shirt from that top drawer? There should be a Metallica tour tee in there.”

Billy opened the drawer finding Michael’s shirt that Maria had confiscated to sleep in. Michael quickly pocketed the healing stone. Billy tossed the shirt at Michael.

“You have a lot of clothes here?”

Michael shrugged. “Not as many as Maria has at my place. I have my own apartment, have had for almost two years.”

“Two years?”

“Yeah I was emancipated at sixteen. Normally Maria stays with me when her mom’s out of town, and we would’ve invited you to sack at my place … except our friend Max has been sacking on the sofa. So there was no room.”

“Where does Maria sleep?”

Michael gave Billy a penetrating look. “In my bed.” The ‘of course’ was understood. Michael walked out of the room smirking slightly as Billy followed him.

“Hey, when did Maria stop writing music?” Billy asked.

Michael shrugged. She hadn’t done much since Alex died. “She messes around with it once in a while.”

“Well, how often does she mess around with it?”

Michael stopped, looking back at Billy. “Is this goin' somewhere?”

“No.” Billy scratched his brow. “I mean, maybe. I mean, I don't know. I'm just … I'm just wondering if she's given up on writing and singing altogether.”

“I really wouldn't know.” Michael stared at the other man, unhappy with the questioning, the implication that he was neglecting Maria in some way.

“Well, listen, man, she's really good. I mean, she's really good.” Michael appeared to be looking around the living room not wanting Billy Bob to know he already found what he was looking for.

“Yeah, I'll keep that in mind.” Giving up his search, Michael was more than ready to get out of there. “I guess what I'm looking for isn't here.”

“Well, I'd tell her you stopped by, but I got a bus to catch.”

“Yeah, well good luck in New York and all that.”

~~~

Maria put an order up in the window and stretched over, watching Michael mix a sauce.

“Hmm, you know what? That sauce looks a little thin. You should put half and half in there.”

Michael glanced at her, stating an obvious. “It's not coffee.”

“It works. Billy showed me. It gives it heft.”

Billy? Michael made a face. “I don't put dairy products in my meat sauce. It's not kosher.”

Maria shrugged looking at her order that was up. “Ok. I said no cheese in the nebulae salad.” She started picking it out.

“Forgot. Listen, I was thinking about skipping out on bowling tonight, and maybe we could make up for last night.”

“That is so sweet,” Maria smiled at him, “but I kind of have plans. I just assumed you would be destroying poor little defenseless pins. Just …”

Michael paused in his cooking. “Plans with who?”

“It's nothing … Big.” Maria said. “Just me and Billy were gonna go and …”

“Billy?” Michael eyes narrowed. “Isn't he on the bus?”

“He missed it. He's staying another night.”

“Another night?!” The salad bowl that Maria was extracting cheese from exploded in front of her, barely missed hitting her.

“What did you do that for?” Maria asked Michael, stepping back her hand going to her face. “You could've hurt me.”

Swearing, Michael left the kitchen, going to Maria. Checking her for injuries, he held her head in his hand. “Sorry. I'm not sure what happened.”

Maria looked at Michael, worrying entering her eyes as she searched his face. He looked pale. “What is going on?” she asked softly.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know.” Maria’s hands tightened on Michael at his tone.

Taking his hand, she led him into the back room. “You’re not sick are you?”

“I don’t know... my powers … they’re shorting out or something. Or surging. I don’t know what’s going on.”

Her hands moved over him in comfort, a flurry of activity heightened by worry. “We’ll figure it out.”

~~~

Worried about Michael, Maria was suddenly wishing that Billy had already left. She needed to go spend more time with Michael, but they couldn’t afford to have Billy see Michael lose control of his powers.

“Billy, I hope you're ok with hamburgers 'cause that's what you're getting.” Maria called out as she entered the house with groceries.

Billy didn’t look up from his task. “Hamburgers are fine.”

Stopping in the door, in shock, Maria’s eyes couldn’t stop looking at Alex’s guitar, the guitar that his parents had given her after he died. “Why is that out?”

“Michael was searching for something earlier today. This ended up on the bed, so I am tuning it for you.”

“Why?” Maria asked huskily, tears thick in her throat.

“It's out of tune, darlin'.”

Maria rushed into the room tossing the bag of groceries on the sofa. “Put it back.”

“In just a second.” Billy missed how upset Maria was, he was still tuning the guitar.

“You know what? Forget it.” Yanking the guitar from his hands, she hurried towards her room. “I'll put it back.”

“Hey, what's wrong?”

“I invite you into my house and you go through my stuff?” Maria was on the verge of tears.

“Where's all this coming from?” Billy asked confused. “It's a guitar, baby.”

“No, it's not.” Maria slammed her bedroom door in his face, sitting on her bed with the guitar, crying. Wiping her face, she picked up her cell phone.

~~~

Michael and Liz were closing the Crashdown alone since Maria was off with Billy. Michael was too distracted to go bowling so he worked an extra shift. He and Liz rarely talked unless others were there, but Michael made an effort.

“Pretty busy night, huh?”

“Mm-hmm.” Liz said distractedly.

“How much money do you think we'd pull in on a night like tonight?”

Liz finally looked up. “You know that you really suck at small talk? Why don't you just tell Dr. Parker what's on your mind?”

Michael shrugged. Nothing. He was fine … just fine. “Hey, tell me … do I need to be worried about this Billy guy?”

“No, you don't. He's completely harmless.” Liz looked at Michael, interest sparking in her eyes. Both Michael and Maria swore they were just friends, but by all outer appearances, there was a hell of a lot going on that neither seemed willing to admit to.

“But you think he's good looking right?”

Liz shrugged, not wanting to go into the attraction of the renegade musician. “Uh, well, yeah, if you like that sort of thing, I guess.” Damn, poor Michael, he was competing with a musical poet.

“The good-looking sort of thing.” Michael asked needing confirmation. Dammit, Brody last year was bad enough, then Larek … but now this? A millionaire. An Alien King. A bard. Hell, couldn’t she pull in something boring like say a lawyer or tax auditor?

“Michael …” Liz cleared her throat.

“Do you really think he missed his bus?” The suspicion in Michael’s eyes was hard to miss. Liz quickly intervened before it went out of control.

“Yes, I do. Haven't you ever missed a bus before?”

“No,” Michael said with a lot of emotion, “'cause I don't take the bus, and I don't write songs. And I don't cook with freaking half and half.” The sugar dispensers that Liz had been refilling exploded next to him. Liz literally jumped in fright.

“Hey! Hey, Michael!”

“Sorry.” Michael stared at the mess he made with a certain amount of confusion and chagrin. “My powers are out of control.”

“Would you look at this mess!” Liz was beyond knowing how to clean it up. “My dad is gonna freak.”

“Relax. I'll fix it.” Michael reached out a hand and tried to repair the damage, restoring the sugar jars back to their pristine condition. It didn’t work. His powers wouldn’t respond to even the slightest push.

“Please. Michael, you need to calm down, ok? Everything's gonna be fine between you and Maria, trust me.”

“She cooked him Italian food last night.”

“Oh.” Liz face held a bit of shock and wonder.

“I knew it. That's a problem.” Michael sat back dejected. He knew it. She was … she didn’t need him anymore.

“No, no, it's not a problem. It's just, um … It's food.”

“No, Liz.” Michael said tragically. “It's Italian food. They changed our recipe.”

Michael couldn’t take much more. He couldn’t even get a handle on his emotions, all he knew was he felt … unsettled inside. “Michael, please don't do anything stupid or alien or both, please?!”

Liz cell phone rang. She quickly answered frowning at Maria’s voice.

“It’s Maria. She wants to talk to …” Michael snatched the phone away from Liz. “… to you.” Liz finished to herself.

Michael talked in a low tone, and Liz’s brow lifted when suddenly Michael’s voice went soft and even, as he talked to Maria slowly, with great care. Disconnecting he gave Liz back her phone.

“I’ve got to go. Maria needs me.”

Liz didn’t even get a chance to respond before Michael was out the door. Shaking her head, she never imagined she would ever see a jealous alien before, or specifically that it would be Michael. Holding that thought, she sat back wondering why when she was hanging with Maria’s cousin Sean, Max never exploded anything. He seemed to care, and despite him being with Tess, shouldn’t he have shown some display of out of control jealousy? Liz sighed, unwilling to think about it any longer. She had a mess to clean up.

~~~

Billy was playing his guitar when Michael entered the house. Going through the living room he paused to look at the intruder.

“Where’s Maria?”

Billy seemed shocked to see Michael. “She’s in her room, but …”

“What did you do? She called me upset and crying.” Michael’s height and size were suddenly threatening. Billy held up his hands.

“Hey! Nothing, okay? I was tuning her guitar, and she totally wigged out of me.”

“Guitar? What guitar?”

“The one you left on her bed.”

The confusion cleared from Michael’s face. Swearing, he went down the hall entering Maria’s room without knocking. Shutting the door firmly behind him. Billy stared at the closed door.

Michael stood with his back to the door. She sat on the bed, still crying over the guitar. Making a soft sound in his throat, Michael went over and took the guitar from her. Putting it away, where he had taken it earlier in the day before placing it on her bed, he sat down on the bed next to her.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I was looking for the healing stone, and I put it on the bed.”

Maria nodded.

“Tough day?” He asked.

“Tough life.” Her voice was thick with tears. “I think I’m getting over it, and then …”

Michael held open his arms and Maria moved into them. Her arms went around his neck, holding him tight. Michael scooted her along the bed, so he could sit against the headboard with her in his arms. Closing his eyes, he let himself feel things he shouldn’t feel, and for a moment, want things he couldn’t have. Things he didn’t know how to get.

“Am I becoming too dependent on you? Too clingy since Alex?”

Michael whispered ‘no’ against her temple. He liked her clinginess. A lot. “My turn. When we first met, it was always you doing for me, supporting me. I think this makes me feel better, like we’re equals.”

“We are.” Maria searched his face, and suddenly they both looked away. Maria cleared her throat. “I totally lost it on Billy. I don’t know. I was … hearing someone else play Alex’s guitar … I wasn’t ready for that I guess.”

“It’s okay. Put it away again, until you’re ready. It’ll be there, Maria. I’ll be there.”

“I know.” Maria wiped a hand across her face. She really needed to face some home truths about herself, but only one thing at a time. It was all she could handle right now. “Are your powers still on the fritz?”

Michael laughed. “Yeah. I just blew up sugar dispensers at the Crashdown.”

Maria sat back away from him worry etched on her face. “What’s going on?”

“Power surges. I think I lost hold of the powers and then ‘poof’. I’ll figure it out. Maybe I’m going through alien puberty?”

“What, so this is your version of acne?” Maria could hear the music from the other room. Taking a deep breath, she smiled slightly. “Guess I should go take care of that, huh?” Maria asked gesturing to Billy and the music in the other room.

“Yeah, I guess. He was wondering what he did wrong.”

Maria started to get up from the bed, Michael helping her, setting her firmly on her feet. She hugged him for a moment longer. Pushing away, she left her hand on his chest.

“You should go home for a while. Check up on Max or something.”

“Anywhere but here, huh?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how we would explain things if you lost control in front of Billy. I’m better. Thanks for coming when I called. I just needed someone who would understand.”

Michael put a hand on her face. Him. She called him, not Liz. It was a hard thing, but Maria and Liz were still divided on Alex. It would take time, a while before they found a way to talk about him without it getting clouded with Max and Tess, especially Max.

“Okay. You want me to come over later?”

“Sure. You can come in the front door. That’s if you and Max don’t find something interesting to do.”

“Like that is going to happen.” Michael made a face. “I guess I should go check my mail, the groceries, and make sure Max hasn’t alphabetized my life.”

“Are you going to do laundry?”

Michael’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“My red sweater is over there, dirty. If you wash, could you …”

“Right. Sure.” Michael led Maria out of her room. “I thought it was your turn.”

“Michael.” She gave him her patented sad look.

“Yeah, yeah. You look pathetic enough. I’ll do it, if … and I do mean if I get to it tonight.”

Michael ignored Billy, taking her face in his hands, he kissed her on the mouth holding the kiss longer than usual. “Call me if you need me,” he whispered meeting her eyes. She nodded.

Maria waited until Michael left before turning to Billy. He was still holding his guitar.

“Try going to an F major 7th, please. I can’t listen to you anymore. Just trying going to an F major 7th.”

Billy recognized a peace offering when he saw it, and he tried her suggestion. “Not bad.” He said in surprise.

“Oh, please. I totally fixed it for you.”

“Ok. Now let's see if you remember this one …” He started playing another song glancing at her. “So what about earlier?”

“Yeah, I'm sorry that I went off on you.”

Shrugging, Billy continued to play. “Gonna tell me about it?”

Taking a deep breath, Maria tried to smile, but couldn’t. “That guitar belonged to a friend of mine. His name was Alex. He died last year. Actually … .last spring.”

Stopping his playing, Billy suddenly understood a lot especially Michael’s over protectiveness of her. “I am so sorry. I am so sorry. I had no idea.”

“His parents wanted me to have this guitar, but I just couldn't bring myself to play it.”

“Bad memories?” Billy asked.

Maria nodded, refusing to cry. “He was only seventeen. He had his whole life.” Choking back the tears, she closed her eyes for a moment. “His whole life.”

“Did you and Alex write songs together?”

“Not really.” Maria smiled at that. Her and Alex were artistically opposite on music at times. “We tried once, but I just don't partner well.” Maria smiled at him, needing to make amends. “I don't know, you're, like, the only person that I've ever trusted in that way.”

“So if you guys were writing songs, then that means you was singing up until …”

“Until his funeral.” Maria never saw Michael standing in the kitchen. He had come back. He forgot to take out the garbage, and he promised Amy to do it before trash day. Listening to them, he leaned against the wall. He missed that. She sang at the funeral, and not since … not even at the bachelor party though she used it as an excuse to go. “Yeah, that was the last time.”

Billy patted the sofa next to him. “Well, then I guess tonight's a special night.”

Maria smiled as he strummed a song she wrote long ago. It was flattering that he should remember it.

“How did you remember that?”

Billy smiled. “Believe it or not, Maria, there is little about you that I don’t remember.”

Michael straightened at that. Maria was singing. Listening, the words actually meant something to him … something he didn’t want to admit to or think about.

I wish I could read your mind

words don't mean a thing

I've given you all my time

all you do is leave

and if you were standing here in front of me

I know you would say

there's nothing oh, so precious

as something that's gone away,

and if there is a reason

I just don't want to know

why you feel the need to love me so

only when you go

only when you go

It could’ve been a song written for her father, Alex or even him. All of them in some way had left her, and remembering her fear that something would take away her mother, Michael watched from the kitchen for a moment, before quietly letting himself out. Upset, Michael walked down the dark streets of Roswell as his out of control powers set off car alarms and blew out car windows along the way. Slamming the door of his apartment, for a moment, he stood in the middle of his living room, unable to settle himself, to control what was barely leashed inside.

“What happened?” Max asked sitting up when an angry Michael entered the apartment.

“Something too terrible to talk about,” Michael answered.

“What, my dad found something?” Max voice rose in concern. “What?”

“No, it's not that.” Michael made a face. Of course it would have to be about Max. “I saw Maria and what's his name, Billy, together.”

“Oh, together as in …” Max’s face suddenly lightened as a thought hit him, what Michael could be saying came clear. “Together?”

“Worse.” Michael threw himself tragically into a chair.

Max didn’t get that. Michael walking in on Maria and Billy in bed … that was … “What could be worse?”

“They were singing together.” Michael said morosely.

“So you're jealous.”

“I'm not jealous!” A lamp over Max’s head exploded. “My powers are slightly out of whack.” Michael explained.

"Out of whack?” Max repeated in disbelief. This was not ‘out of whack’, it was a full scale disaster.

“I've been blowing things up all day.”

“Get them under control.”

“I can’t.”

“Michael, get yourself together.” Max looked around the room as items began to shake. “What if this happens in front of my father?”

“I don't care about your father or his stupid investigation.” Another lamp exploded and a plate off a counter flew across the room to hit the wall.

“All right, look, I'm sorry.” Max quickly tried to get Michael calmed down. “We're part human. We're supposed to have feelings. You keep them bottled up like this, they're gonna get out somehow.”

“I’m not bottled up.”

Max made a sound of disbelief over that. “The hell you aren’t! Fuck, Michael. Did you even tell her why you stayed? Walking around, in love with her, unable to tell her, but you go even further, you sleep with her in your arms practically every night. Close, but so damn far away.”

“I told you, Maxwell … I do not want to talk about it!”

“Just tell her, Michael! What if she feels the same? What if she’s holding it all back, because she is afraid to wreck her friendship with you?”

“I can’t. After tonight, I don’t know. I want to, and at times, I think she knows, but …”

“What happened? Was it really this Billy? Is she falling in love with him?”

“He’s giving her her music back. We … this whole damn alien crap, you, Tess, and Alex, it took it from her, and now …”

“She’s singing again, because of this Billy person.” Max guessed. “You need to tell her, Michael. You owe her at least that much, to tell her why you stayed, and give her the chance to decide.”

Michael shook his head. He held it all inside for months and months. There were risks he took in his life, big risks, but this was too great. “What if I tell her, and even if we decided to try … I’m more afraid I’d fuck it up. There is a big difference between being a good friend, there and supportive, and being more. If we were more, she’d expect things from me, want things, things I might not be able to give her, or not realize she needs. What if we break up, and this friendship … it ruins it?”

“It means that much to you?” Max asked quietly. Once Michael was his best friend, his and Isabel’s, but numerous times, Michael had walked away from them with hardly a glance back. The last time had almost been forever. It was hard to realize that Michael could walk away from them, but not Maria.

“It means everything. I never knew how alone I was until I wasn’t. I never knew how much I needed someone to look at me, believe in me, trust me, and think I’ll do what’s right, even when I’m wrong.” Michael sat back dejected. “I don’t know when it happened, but one day I woke up, and what and who I wanted to be was the person Maria saw, the person she believes in. It’s hard to take chances with that image, because it’s all I want too. I can’t risk losing that. I can’t.”

“You can’t live your life in love with her, upset and afraid she’ll fall in love with someone else.” Max shook his head. “Repression is killing your control, and as fast as it kills it, it will expose us … get us all dead.”

Michael glanced over at Max. “What should I do?”

“Talk to her.”

“That's it?” Michael snorted in disbelief. He talked to her all the time. “Just talk to her?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok, sure.” Michael sat back on the sofa, suddenly spent. Talk to her. Tired of his own life and problems, he finally asked Max about his father. “You talk to your Dad?”

“Tomorrow. We’re going fishing.”

“Hope that goes well,” Michael said. He couldn’t even think. He should go back to Maria’s, but he couldn’t trust himself with Billy there. “My life is sucking again. How did that happen?”

~~~

Michael found Maria working at the Crashdown. Coming up behind her, he leaned in to talk into her ear.

“Hey.” He said softly.

"Hey back.” Maria smiled at him. “I missed you last night.”

“Couldn’t take a risk on my powers working while I was asleep.” Michael glanced at the dead Crashdown. There were only a few customers. “Can I say something?”

“Back room.” Maria took his hand leading him to the back break room. “Do we have a problem?”

“No, we don't. I do.”

He was serious. Maria’s eyes roamed over his face, concerned. “How can I help?”

“Be patient with me.”

Her hand went up his arms rubbing in comfort. “Always.”

“Don't say it like that, like I'm a kid.”

“That's not what I meant. I don’t think of you as a kid, Michael.” He was … Maria held his arms surprised as the small tremble she felt. “What are you worried about, really? What can I do?”

“Tell your friend to leave.” Maria tipped her head, and Michael quickly continued. “He shouldn't be here. It's not a good time.”

“Not a good time? Let me ask you a question, Michael.”

“Here we go …”

“No, don't do that. I am not making demands of you. I am asking a real question here.”

“You ask "What can I do," and I told you.”

“When is it a good time?”

“To step out with an old boyfriend? Things are too volatile, and I can’t control it. I don’t want to make a mistake.”

“He is not an old …” Maria threw up her hands in the air at the look on his face. “Ooh, would you just …”

“Where's your patience now?”

“I’m showing immense patience! You have no idea!”

“We're in danger. Max's father …”

“I know.”

“Yeah, and you don't care because that Billy guy …” Michael lost it. Things behind him exploded from the shelves.

“Michael …” Maria jumped in fright as the items hit the floor. Putting a hand on her heart, her breath heaved. “God!” Pushing him down on the break room sofa, she pointed a finger at him. “Stay!” Leaving him quickly, she went to find the other waitress working.

Maria came back removing part of her uniform and grabbing her street clothes. Ignoring that Michael was there, she quickly changed.

“C’mon.”

“Where are we going?”

“Your place. You can’t be out wandering around like this.” Maria led him outside and shoved him into the Jetta.

“Are you going to tell Billy …”

“Yeah. I’ll tell him as soon as I get you home.”

“Thanks.”

Maria shrugged. “It’s what I do. I follow instructions, remember.”

“It’s not like that, Maria.”

“Sure it is.” Maria glanced at him. “What bothers me is that you felt the need to ask, that you worried that I would say no. Billy is a friend, true, but then so are you. When have I ever put your safety below my own concerns?”

“Never.” Michael breathed in harshly. She was right. She always did what was asked and needed, and this one time she had something, he ruined it for her.

“C’mon,” she said as she pulled in front of his place. “Let’s get you settled, and then I’ll go take care of Billy.”

~~~

Maria entered her house. Billy was playing his guitar. He glanced up when she came into the room.

“Hey.”

Maria put down her jacket and bag. “I have to tell you something.”

Billy put his guitar aside. “What?”

“You have to go.”

Frowning, Billy saw the earnest look on her face. “Right this second?”

“Yeah.” Maria smiled slightly, unhappy with kicking him out, but unable to do otherwise.

“I'll get my stuff.” Billy stopped, looking at Maria. “Is this about Michael? Am I in the middle of something?”

“No.” Maria rolled her eyes. Okay, so it was about Michael, but not how Billy meant. “It's complicated. It's just my life. I can’t have more than one thing going on. It's not you. It has nothing to do with you.”

“That's too bad.” Billy told her, his eyes never leaving her face.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Truth?” He asked, and Maria nodded. “Maria, I missed my bus on purpose.”

Shaking her head, she couldn’t imagine him doing that on purpose. “Why?”

“Because I was given some advice one time …” He smiled ruefully. “Decide what you want in life and live it.”

Maria made a face. “That's terrible advice.”

“You gave it to me.”

Maria laughed softly. “That explains it.”

“Four years ago, our last night at camp.”

“I was thirteen,” she reminded him.

“That night stuck with me.” Billy moved closer to her as Maria stepped back until she was against the wall. “You stuck with me. That kiss stuck with me. It was my first one.”

“You told me that you kissed tons of girls.”

“I lied.” Billy looked at her mouth. “I don't know. I was just … I was hoping that …”

“I'm confused, but I don’t think I can be anything to you except a friend.”

“Yeah, I met Michael. Remember?”

“Look, you don't understand. Michael is just…” She never got to say that Michael was just a friend. It was a tired old explanation, but one she always gave.

“Stopping you?” Billy suggested.

“Stopping me from what?” Maria was confused now. Michael, he never stopped her from anything. Billy had it wrong. Everyone did.

“From... I don't know, from life.” Billy moved closer. “From this.” He kissed her, and Maria held back, unable to respond or breathe, and then she kissed him back.

Pulling away suddenly, she shook her head, stepping away.

“I …” Putting up a hand in defeat, she walked out the living room door into the kitchen. Uncertain where she was going, she found herself seeking out Liz. Liz would know.

Billy caught up with her before she could go out the kitchen door.

“Wait!”

“Billy, I can’t talk about this right now.”

“I’m sorry.”

Maria stopped in her tracks. “Hey! Listen, buster, you kiss a girl, the first thing you say to her shouldn’t be, ‘I’m sorry!’ It will get you kicked in a very painful place.”

“Okay, then I’m sorry for that too.” Billy made a shushing motion at Maria. “No. I’m not sorry for kissing you. I’m just sorry for changing the relationship between us … taking it someplace you weren’t ready for or didn’t want.”

“It’s not you.”

“Hey, hey, hey. You don't owe me an explanation.” Billy rubbed the back of his neck, shaking his head in self mockery. “I screwed things up. I was given the back off sign from Michael, and instead of heeding it, I took it as a challenge.”

“What are you talking about?” Maria asked, confused. Challenge? This was a challenge? What was she? A prize or consolation?

“Look, only an idiot wouldn’t recognize that there is something pretty intense going on between you and Michael. I could see that without him shoving it in my face. It was there all the time. The way you say his name. The way you wait for him to get home so you can sleep. I guess I fucked things up, because I thought he was forcing you to give up a part of you … but maybe I read that wrong too. So I screwed it up.”

“No, you didn't.” Maria assured him.

“Yes, I did.” Billy couldn’t believe his luck. He had waited all these years to see her again, and he waited too long. “I should have known better. I changed the whole flow between us. But I’ve been wanting to kiss you for about four years, and I'm a guy, so I took a shot.”

“It wasn’t a horrible kiss.” Maria told him, a dimple deepening on her cheek. “I just think I may have given you the wrong impression.”

“No, you didn't. We're fine.” Billy breathed in deep, picking up his bag he had dropped at his feet to grab her. “And if I did anything to make you feel bad, I'm sorry. I just wish you hadn't...”

“What?”

“I wish you hadn't hidden yourself away with that guitar.” Maria entire body reacted to that. “I know you think you’re in mourning, but there is a lot of power in sorrow. I can’t believe you haven’t used music to help you reclaim some of your lost friend.”

“It still hurts a lot.”

“And you’re in love, and it takes everything you have to feel that way.”

“Billy, you don’t understand the relationship between me and Michael.”

Billy laughed shaking his head. “I’m a guy, Maria. I understand perfectly. You weren’t kissing me. You were kissing him, and what I don’t get is why you aren’t kissing him now? But, you know what?” Maria shook her head. “It’s none of my business, because one thing is clear, you don’t belong to me and never will. Your heart belongs to someone tall and mysterious, with a pissy attitude.”

“Billy …”

“You gonna come see me in the Village?” he asked shouldering his bag.

“Yes.” She smiled.

“I'll get you front row seats.”

Maria laughed. “And I’ll throw my underwear at you.”

Sighing, Billy kissed her goodbye on the cheek. “Make it black underwear, and you’ve got a deal. Bye, Maria.”

“Bye,” she said more to herself as he walked through the door.

~~~

Maria was lying on Liz’s bed while Liz sat there looking down at her, in her professional psychoanalyst mode.

“And then you kissed him?”

“Yes, I did.” Maria said, then making a face. “Well, technically, he kissed me, but I didn’t stop him, and I did kiss him back for a moment or two.”

“Where is he right now?”

“Gone.”

“Ha! What were you thinking?”

Maria made a face. “You know me and my rules on boys and dating. I don't know.”

“And that's all that it was?” Liz asked, skeptical. If it was only a kiss, then why was Maria so bent? “It was just a kiss.”

“Maybe.” Sighing heavily, Maria had a flight of honesty. “You know? Maybe not.”

“Let's just talk about the kiss for one second. Was there any passion?”

“Tons.”

“Oh …”

“I know.” Maria laid back unhappy and confused. “It was all there, Liz. That hold your breath … this could be it. The One.”

“The One?” Liz bit her lip. Oh, this wasn’t good. Poor Michael. Not Madam Vivian’s ‘the One?’

“The One. And then, there I was, kissing Billy, and all I could think was he was the wrong man. I had all this passion in my bones, and it wasn’t for him.”

“Wrong man? Whoa, okay back up … start again. There was passion...”

“But it's not that kind of passion.” Maria didn’t even know if she understood it herself. “You know I avoid any type of romantic entanglement. You know that. I guess I liked Michael, because he was leaving, and he was safe.” Maria covered her face groaning. “I’m a fool! No man is safe, and I forgot that. He made me forget that, and …”

“How exactly did we get to talking about Michael? The last I checked we were talking about kissing Billy … Billy, who is now gone.”

“Gone, but not forgotten. I mean, he sort of was a catalyst, you know?” Maria turned on her side to look at Liz. “I wanted it to be Michael.”

Liz lifted a brow at that. Finally! It was about frickin’ time one of the two most thickheaded people in the entire universe figured it out. About time Maria said it aloud.

Maria groaned. “I wanted it to be him kissing me that way, and not Billy. It was like this ‘rite of passage’ from childhood to adulthood or something. Billy was the childish dream, and Michael is the real deal.” Maria shook her head. “That kiss. It's like it woke me up.”

“Like sleeping beauty.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Maria sat up. “Michael. I didn’t … I mean you know I love him, right?

“I know. I think everyone knows. About time you thought of the possibility.”

“Do you think I've been asleep this whole time?” Maria sat on the side of the bed, to finally get up and pace. “I hid it so deep inside. Fear. Pain numbing fear of rejection, loss, and being left again, and he was everything that could do that. He was leaving. He would be gone forever, and he would walk away without a look back. I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t, and the more he became a friend the more I couldn’t risk losing that friendship.”

“Well ... I think you've been trying to remember who you used to be for a long time.” Liz saw Maria’s face, the expression that moved over it. “Say it.”

“I just … sometimes I just feel like I've paid this huge price for knowing Michael and knowing these aliens. It's like … God, I didn't think I'd end up here dealing with this crap every day. I didn’t want to give so much of myself up to it, because I was afraid of losing my own identity completely. Now … now I just realized today, in one small kiss, with another man, for god’s sake, is that there is no safe. I was never safe! I’ve been a fool living in denial all this time, sleeping. It was there, all this time. I knew I loved him, but until the moment Billy kissed me, and I felt this heartbreaking need for it to be Michael … I hadn’t realized I was ‘in love’ with him.”

“I know.” Liz said softly.

“I mean, I … I didn't sign up for this.” Maria flopped her hands dramatically. “I never wanted this!”

“Yes, you did. We all did.” Liz laughed in self-deprecation. “We both were waiting for love … for something special all our lives, and we got it in spades. And it’s come with a cost. A huge cost.”

“I know. It's just, I had this dream once … I mean maybe I still do. I don't know.” Maria sat down, a tear moving down her face. “I remember him leaving that night. I remember it like it was yesterday, and I knew then that the greatest event of my life just passed me by. I knew, but I let him go. If he hadn’t walked out of that cavern … if he had left …” Maria went silent. She couldn’t think it or say it. “My heart broke in that moment, and when I got him back, I didn’t care anymore. I would never do anything to risk him, to risk this friendship. Nothing. Not even this love.”

“You can’t not tell him.” Liz bit her lip, trying to not break a confidence. It would be so easy, but maybe that was the point. Love shouldn’t be easy. It should be worked for and fought over in blood, so it became something so precious and not taken for granted. “He might feel the same.”

“This love and friendship I have for him, it’s so big. It’s overwhelming. How can I risk everything for a few moments of something? What if he doesn’t want that? You saw what destiny did to his friendship and relationship with Isabel. I can’t risk losing him in my life. He needs me in his as well.”

“So this is some sacrifice for him. You hide your true feelings to be what, Maria? His confidante for life? His buddy?”

“I had this dream once … when I was young. Billy reminded me of that dream. Music. I had it with Alex, and when he died, the music died too.” Maria wiped away her tears facing Liz. “The thing I discovered today is that dreams are important, and though the dreams I dream now aren’t the same ones I had when I was thirteen, that doesn’t make them less important. I dream of Michael. Of him and me together, living our lives on our terms, fighting together, a united front to survive. Music, laughter, love, and so much more. It all mixes together, because for me, Michael is always in the center of it with me. He’s the music. Always.” Maria shook her head. “It was just a silly dream.”

“Maybe sometimes you have to go after your dreams. Maria. You’re strong. I’ve never known you to back down or away.” Liz smiled ruefully. “And who am I to tell you just give them up, because without your dreams, you're just... me.”

“Liz.” Maria squeezed her friend’s hand hard, comforting her. Over the years, Liz lost so much of her dreams, all for one … Max.

“I'm sorry.” Liz wiped away her moment of self-pity. “I'm sorry. That sounded way too self-pitying, and this isn't about me. It's just that, um … I'm committed to going down this road with Max. Good, bad, indifferent, I'm committed. And I've given up a lot along the way, so don't be so quick to give up your dreams. He might walk with you, and he might not. Don’t you think you owe it to him to give him the chance to decide?”

“I don’t know that I can be that brave to risk everything by reaching for this dream of him, Liz. I don’t know, but I’ll work at it.”

“I know you will.”

Maria shook her head. “Michael Guerin. I think I knew from the moment he kidnapped me. I can’t believe I allowed myself to be this dimwitted for so long. This DeLuca is a one woman crew of the Roswell Ship of Denial. Leave it to me to fall in love with an alien in Roswell. God, Madam Vivian should have her license revoked. You think she couldn’t have just told me?”

~~~

Michael, Max and Isabel watched on Route 7 as the jeep was being pulled up from the ravine. Max now knew why his father cut their fishing trip short. They had talked, but they got nowhere. His father was investigating him for a reason. He no longer knew his son, and he risked his own reputation on a boy that was hardly identifiable as the child he raised. Kyle called when they found the jeep’s remains.

“This is bad.” Isabel said.

Michael couldn’t agree more. “What are you gonna tell your father, Max?”

“I'm not gonna tell him anything. He doesn't trust me anymore.”

“Who does he trust?” Michael asked. Max looked at Isabel, and Michael lifted a brow.

“Max …” Isabel looked at the other two. “I am sick of this. I am sick of the lies!”

“They trust you, Isabel.”

“I'm sick of lying to our parents.” Isabel told her brother. “I am sick of lying to my husband.”

“There's no other choice.”

“Yes, there is.” Isabel looked at the jeep as it was recovered. “The truth. We can tell them the truth.”

Max shook his head, and Michael remained quiet, but he agreed. “It's too dangerous for them and for us.”

“Max, you're wrong I want to tell them …”

“What? That we’re aliens?” Max asked.

“No. That you had a thing with Tess. She got pregnant, and left with your unborn child. You have a child out there somewhere, and the night she left, you got so upset, you ran the jeep off the ravine.”

Michael lifted a brow. “That might work! The truth, or partial truth. Hard to disprove, and trip us up. I’m with Isabel on this.”

Max looked at the jeep. Great. More reasons for his parents to think he was out of control. A teenage parent, unwed, with no idea where his child was. It wasn’t like he had any pride left.

“Fine. Do it.”

At dinner with Jesse and her parents, Isabel told her parents the story of Max’s baby and Tess, and later, Mr. Evans while looking at the board he was using to chart out Max’s life and the huge mystery of it, he added Isabel’s name to the list of co-conspirators.

~~~

Michael found Maria sitting in her dimly lit room with a candle as her only light. Pausing before entering, he watched her. She looked lonely, a little lost. There was something different about her, like she had pulled away from him.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” she said back quietly without looking at him, her body stiffening.

Michael frowned. “Is he gone?”

“Yeah.” Maria glanced at Michael finally. “Are you feeling better?”

“Getting there.”

“That’s good.”

Michael moved into the room sitting on the bed, strangely it felt different, as if he was invading her space, something he couldn’t remember ever feeling.

“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry that this whole mess … my out of control powers, Max’s dad investigating him interrupted your life, your visit with your friend. I’m sorry that once again, you had to put your life aside for ours.”

Maria shrugged.

“Stop that!” Michael said in anger, more from hating how distant she seemed. If what he asked of her risked their friendship, put a wedge in it … Michael couldn’t take that.

“I’m sorry, Michael. It’s not you … really, it’s not.” Maria reluctantly took his hand. “It’s me. I guess I had a lot happen to me over the last two days and not all of it was good. I’ve been here trying to work it out, maybe come to an understanding of what it means to me and my future.”

That sounded ominous. Michael frowned, not sure he liked where this was going.

“Billy kissed me.” Maria said, then paused rethinking that. “Actually, I guess it was mutual. He started it, but I didn’t stop him or even try, and then I kissed him back.”

Michael felt it inside first, this feeling in his stomach. He quelled it as best as he could before it moved forward resulting in him losing control of his powers. She wasn’t his, not in that way, and she had the right to kiss other men. Michael could feel it. He was on the verge of losing it. The hell she did! That was his fault too. He should’ve made things clear a long time ago.

“It was strange, but Billy and that kiss, it changed things for me.” Maria glanced at Michael unaware of the struggle he was having not to lose it all in a rush of jealousy. “I mean it wasn’t really the kiss. That was okay, just not what I was expecting.”

Michael cleared his throat. “Expecting? You were expecting something?”

“Sure. It’s been four years, and he was my first. I think there was always this idea or thought that maybe he was the One, the one that got away. What if I met ‘him’ and let him walk away without realizing I found him. People always think that true love is something … a commodity, like soulmates. You can pick them off a tree, and there could be more than one, so you miss one, wait … another will show up eventually.”

“And Billy wasn’t that?”

“No.” Maria plucked at the bedding. “He was more like a wake up call.” Maria looked at Michael. “I’ve been sleeping for a long time, Michael. Maybe forever, since my dad left, but definitely since Alex died. I’ve been waiting to exhale.”

Alex. Another lost to the great alien conspiracy. Alex. Maria’s life. Liz’s identity. Kyle’s sense of mortality. Valenti’s job. There was a cost to the humans.

“I never meant for you to pay for knowing me, Maria. For knowing all of us.”

“I know. It’s not just that. Sometimes I want off this huge spinning wheel of alienness. I’m young, in my teenage years, and feeling alien … that’s a given, but when you add this alien thing to it, it clouds the whole growing up experience. I barely know my own body. It’s like a rage. A fever. I think you know what I mean, because this week, your body raged out of control.  I don’t know how to process all that I’m feeling, and you know, I think that’s okay. It’s okay, I think, because it part of this horrible puberty of raging emotions and hormones.”

“Hormones? That kiss?”

“Yeah, it was passionate, but not in the way you mean.” Maria finally moved to face him. “It was like an awaking, a reminder that I’m young, free, and my whole life is before me waiting for me to dream, to reach, and fulfill those dreams. I’ve been holding my breath for a long time, Michael … at the very least, since Alex died. I don’t know what I was waiting for …”

Maria stopped.

“That’s not true. I just lied.” Maria laughed at herself. “God, I’m trying to be honest, and automatically I cover to protect myself, to protect my fragile human heart. I want to be better than this … more honest.”

Michael could feel her like a doomed trainwreck moving fast from him. He never wanted to risk losing her, give her a reason to walk away.

“Maria … can I tell you something?” Maria nodded, she happily gave up the floor to him because she was on the verge of telling him the truth, how she felt, what she learned today. She was in love with him. Fear bit back her tongue. Not fear of rejection as much as risking the most important friendship of her life.

“I … my powers, they were out of control because of my emotions. Maybe it was this puberty thing, you just spoke of. Whatever it was, it was a rage. You’re right. Hormonal? More than likely. It was Billy.”

“Billy?”

Michael nodded. “He walked in the door, and I was okay with that. But, I wasn’t prepared for how much he dominated in a part of your life I had no foothold or understanding.” Maria looked confused. “Music, Maria. He was music. It was the part of you that you always shared with Alex. When Alex died, that part of you shut down.”

Maria nodded, tears slowly flooding her eyes.

“I guess I always thought you’d go back to it when you were ready. I never expected it to be forever. Music and you, you seem to go together, because when I see you, and I mean really ‘see’ you, it’s not just visual. I always hear music.”

A tear ran down Maria’s cheek, unnoticed. “You do?” Her voice held a trembling wonder.

Michael nodded. “I made a mistake. I’ve always listened to the melody, the song that is you. At time, it is all I have in calmness, knowing you’re there for me. I made a mistake, because I wasn’t listening to the sounds behind the music. I missed that. Or maybe, I didn’t want to know because I was powerless to change it. I don’t know.” Michael licked his lips. He was rambling. “Behind the music, Maria … there’s crying. You’re crying, lost, and I didn’t listen or know how to fix it so I ignored it, refused to listen beyond what it was covering.”

“Michael …”

“No. Let me finish.” Michael took a breath. “What I am … being an alien, all of it, it’s cost you. You think I don’t know that?”

“I never …”

“Don’t lie to spare me. Yes, you have, Maria. At times, you regret it. I know. Today, today you regretted it, and I made you do that. The thing is with my powers out of control, it was about Billy. I was jealous. Alienness took away the music, and he brought it back. He gave you back a part of you that a part of me took away … maybe I didn’t kill Alex, but knowing me … us...did.” Maria tried to talk, but Michael wasn’t finished. “I hated that he could see what was behind the music so easily, and he didn’t have some alien power to see, like I did … and yet, he saw it so much clearer.”

Maria shut her eyes for a moment. “I’ve never regretted you. That’s a truth I can’t deny or hide. All of this …” Maria gestured to the world wide. “It means nothing compared to you.” Maria took Michael’s hand. “I learned something today. I learned I was biding time, sleeping, but I’m not asleep anymore, and I don’t know where this will lead, or how long it will take me to find the courage to try, but I’ll work at it every day.”

“Work at what, Maria?”

“Me.” Maria laughed at herself. “I was letting everything around me define who I thought I was … letting me fake it, like I’ve done since my dad left. Maybe it is time for me to really start working on me. Who I am. What I’ll be. I’m afraid you won’t want to know who I become. I was just sitting here, confused as to where to begin. Today, I realized that I was betraying Alex. He’ll never dream again. He has no future because it was stolen from him at seventeen. I have a life to live, and I wasn’t doing it.” Maria sniffed back the tears that refused not to fall. “I’m betraying his memory every time I cowardly back away from love and life. I never meant for that to happen.”

“Healing takes time, Maria. Whatever you do, or who you are inside, or become, I will want to know you. It might take time, but time we have.”

“Mine is running out. I’m letting it weigh me down like a disease.” Maria looked at him, and because she couldn’t resist, she touched his face, her fingers softly moving over his cheek bones. “Where do I start? This world is so vast, and I am only one small part of it. Where do I begin again? How do I get clean again?”

Michael reached over for Alex’s guitar. Handing it to her, he said, “Here. Begin here.”

Maria hand moved over the wood of the instrument. She looked at Michael, and he could read the fear. She was afraid of failing, of losing something of Alex, what she had left.

“He won’t go away, Maria. Even if you move on in your life, it’s not like forgetting him. Maybe it’s making him more a part of you. Play something. Play for you. Play for me. Play for Alex.”

Maria leaned forward, she softly kissed his mouth, both of them pausing for a moment, sharing breath before they both sat back afraid to go any further. Like a chord, life was part of a larger melody, and sometimes, it took practice to learn how one small chord played in the whole thing.

Playing for Michael, Maria slowly worked on the entire masterpiece that would slowly evolve into her life … into their lives.

Samuel Rising……

Walking down the street, Max asked Michael, “So did you finally talk to Maria about how you feel?”

“Not now, Max.”

“You’re avoiding.”

“No, I’m backing off a little.” Michael made a face. “Maria has a lot on her plate right now. I sort of walked in when she trying to get it all straight. I don’t want to add to it by heaping my problems on her.”

“You have problems?” Max glanced over at Michael who made a face. “Oh! Raging hormones? Unrealized lust and desire? Maybe a little of the…”

“Can we stop talking about me?”

“You’re upset.”

Michael stopped outside the Crashdown. “Look, Maxwell, we’re not going to have a touchy feely bonding moment here, okay? Maria is avoiding me. I can tell. Since the whole Billy fiasco she’s been going out of her way to avoid being alone with me, breaks dates, and I can count on one hand how many times we slept together.”

“This sleeping thing … It’s a little confusing, Michael. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that both you and Maria get some rush from it, and it’s more an addiction.”

Michael actually turned a bit red, and his eyes shifted as if avoiding Max’s. “You wouldn’t understand. I just know that I broke something in my friendship with Maria, and I was afraid that would happen.”

Michael opened the door and went inside with Max following him. Isabel and the rest of the group were there.

“So this is how it's gonna look. It's gonna be, like, white lights and clear ornaments and white candles.” Isabel told them showing them her plans for Christmas.”

“Hail the Christmas Nazi,” muttered Michael noticing Maria and Liz.

Jesse frowned confused by the reference. “What?”

“Hi, Michael,” Isabel smiled sweetly. “Shut up.”

Liz smiled at Max. “Hey. I love that you just walked in here.”

Michael rolled his eyes and put an arm around Maria’s waist pulling her close to him. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Maria gulped hard and stared at him, then at his mouth.

“So what's going on? Are we hanging today after your shift?”

“Uh … today?” Maria asked in a panic. “Uh, no. I have some stuff to do today.”

“Stuff?” Michael stared at her. She was lying. “Whatever.” She was avoiding him. He knew it.

Max glanced across the Crashdown and noticed a little boy. “Is that kid staring at me?”

“What kid?” Michael looked around.

“Over there. Sitting with his mom.” Max watched the boy for a moment, the kid’s gaze never wavering from him. “He is. He's staring right at me.”

“So what?” Michael looked at all of Isabel’s obsessive plans. “Christmas … It's a … load of crap.” Maria punched him on the stomach in retribution, and to her horror, her hand stayed on him, almost stroking his stomach. She stood away from him suddenly her eyes wide.

“Are you kidding me?” Jesse asked. “It's a great time. Just mellow out, watch a little football.”

Michael smirked, laughing at the clueless man. “Oh, you'll be watching lots of football.” Maria made a comment to him under her breath.

“What does he mean by that?” Jesse asked his wife.

“Nothing. We gotta go, honey.” Isabel glared at Michael and his snotty attitude. “We gotta make sure the senior Christmas dinner is still on schedule. I still haven't found the proper Santa for Santa village, and, oh, you know what? You gotta change the lights on the windows of our apartment.”

“Enjoy mellowing out.” Michael said sarcastically, feeling upset over Maria and happy to share his pain.

“You know, Michael, I, too, was miserable around the holidays until I found my calling.” Isabel informed him sweetly.

“Making other people miserable?” Michael guessed.

“Volunteering.” God he could be so nasty and mean. “Helping the elderly, needy children, and the less fortunate find joy and happiness through the holidays.”

Maria who was half listening suddenly perked up. “Wanna know something? That actually sounds great. Giving of myself-- I like it.” She chewed on her nail for a moment. “I think that's just what I need to, um … get my mind off of other situations.”

“Well, you’ve come to the right place.” Isabel’s eyes took on a gleam as she found a potential helper, her needs endless.

Liz smiled, nodding to Maria. “You know, I think I'd really like to do that, too.”

“Is there anything we can do together?” Maria asked excited at the thought of her and Liz being a team again.

“Actually, I think there is. Meet me at the park after work.”

Michael looked down at Maria. “I thought you had plans, Maria. You said you had … stuff.”

“This is charity, Michael. I can give of myself.” Maria glanced up at him, and her eyes went tender as she stared at him. Oh god. “I … it will be good to do something for others, you know?”

Michael hated it. She was using it to keep away from him. He was sure of it. Before Michael could figure out how to trap her, to force her to talk to him, the little boy who had been staring at Max walked over to their group.

“Samuel? Where are you going?” the little boy’s mother called to him.

The little boy, Samuel stopped in front of Max. “Daddy.”

“Samuel.” The woman came for her son.

Max smiled at the little boy shaking his head, slightly confused. “I think you got the wrong guy.”

The woman stared at Max. “Did he just say something to you?”

“Yeah. He just called me Daddy.”

The woman stared at Max and then at her son. “That's impossible. My son doesn't talk.”

~~~

Kyle watched his father stuffing a turkey and glanced around at all the Christmas decorations. “Dad, if just-- I wanted to say that I figured out what's going on.”

Jim stopped stuffing for a moment. “You have?”

“Yep. All this Christmas stuff is because it's been a rough year.”

“Uh-huh.” Jim went back to his turkey.

“The whole thing with Tess and you losing your job and everything.”

“Yeah.”

“I know you wanted to make this a good Christmas for us-- for me--and I just wanted to say I appreciate that.”

Jim sighed wiping his hands. “Listen Kyle, there's something that I wanted to tell you, but it's kind of slipped my mind. I, uh, actually invited somebody to come over for Christmas breakfast this year … a lady friend.”

Kyle was taken aback. He stared at his father for a moment, then looked around. Of course. “Fantastic,” he said sarcastically. “So you just, uh, you just decided to invite her to Christmas breakfast … to our Christmas breakfast. Did you even think to ask me?”

“Kyle, listen, if you don't want her to come …” Jim quickly offered to cancel if it really bothered his son. He was right; it had been a tough year.

“No, no, no. It's fine.” Kyle shook his head and walked away. Just frickin’ fine.

“Kyle …”

“It's fine. Don't worry about it.” Kyle took his jacket and left.

~~~

Isabel was late. She was going through her list as she arrived home to find Jesse decorating for Christmas. Stopping in her tracks, she stared at what was in her husband’s hand.

“What's that?”

Jesse smiled at his wife. “It's my old stocking.”

“Oh. Wow.” Isabel came in and smiled a large fake smile. “Well, it's, uh, very … brown.”

“Yeah. I made it myself in kindergarten.” Jesse told her proud of the stocking he made so many years ago.

Isabel stared at the ugly brown thing. “I don't doubt that.”

“Yeah, it always hung on my mantle at my house, and now it's on our mantle.” Jesse hung it from the stocking hanger standing back to admire it.

“Hmm.” Isabel said in thought, muttering to herself. “Yeah, it certainly is.” She quickly used her powers to make new stockings. “Oh! Oh, oh, oh!”

“What? What? What?” Jesse asked confused by her reaction.

Isabel pulled the new stockings out from behind her back holding them up. They were new, beautiful, and had both their names on them. “But I made these.”

“Oh, my god. You made these?” He looked at the perfect stockings.

“Yeah.”

Jesse couldn’t believe she could do such elaborate work, so much hidden talent he knew nothing about. “When did you have the time?”

“Well, actually, it didn't take as long as you would think.” Isabel hung the two new stockings.

“Wow. Ok, so I guess I'll have two stockings on the mantle.”

“Yeah.” Isabel looked around desperately. That wasn’t what she had in mind. “Yeah. Or … maybe we could hang this one...,” Isabel searched for a place, any place, “...somewhere else.” Isabel took Jesse's stocking off the mantel. “You know, like, on … well, the tree. You know, we could just sort of--just-- just sort of, uh-- we could just-- sort of put it right there.”

Jesse frowned as Isabel hung it to the back where it couldn’t be seen. “Yeah, I guess that works.”

“Yeah, good.” Isabel smiled happy with her compromise. “Ok, let's get going. two days till Christmas. Lots to do.”

“Anyway, I was just thinking …” Jesse reached for a plate of cookies.

“Oh, honey!” Isabel quickly stopped him. “Don't touch those. They're for Christmas morning.”

Jesse put the cookie back. “Yeah.”

~~~

At Isabel’s Christmas Village, Santas were auditioning. Isabel quickly found something wrong with each Santa one by one, as Jesse watched on in wonder, staring at the strange creature that was his wife, and not his wife. The ‘ho, ho, ho’s’ of the Santas were driving him insane, and obviously demented his wife a long time ago.

“They won't do.” Isabel told the woman helping her. She waved off the latest Santa atrocity as her eyes surveyed the line of horrible Santa posers.

“Really? I think that Santa 2 has a real Kringle quality.”

“Santa's village is an institution-- my institution-- and the children of Roswell deserve a great Santa.” Isabel informed the woman. “Not a good Santa, a great Santa.”

“Right.” Isabel’s assistant stared at the neo-nazi Isabel with in deep fear.

“Hi, Isabel!” Liz called as she and Maria arrived.

Maria was practically prancing, all excited to be doing anything, something … desperate to be distracted. “Hi!”

Isabel glanced at her watch. “Oh. seven minutes late.” She told Maria and Liz before addressing her assistant again. “I need five more inches of snow on all of the trees. This is the North Pole.” Isabel made a dismissing gesture before turning back to Maria and Liz. “Ok! Snowflake and Candy Cane.” She held up two elf suits to the girls.

Liz’s mouth opened in horror, shocked by the possibility. “Elves? Are you kidding?”

“No.” Isabel shoved an elf suit into each of their hands. “You said you wanted to give of yourselves.”

“Not as elves.”

Maria stared at the green and red nightmare. “Yeah, all elves do is deal with annoying kids who want to cut the Santa line. I mean, we wanted to make a real contribution, Isabel.”

“There are no small assignments. Only small volunteers,” Isabel informed them in her “Art of Christmas Warfare” way. “You two are the smallest I could find for those elves costumes.”

Maria and Liz at each other in surprise as Isabel assigned them to grunge work due to their size. Jesse watched on, sharing the girls’ dismay as Isabel steamrolled over them and everyone else. Michael’s term of ‘Christmas Nazi’ was finally making sense.

~~~

“I can’t believe this!” Maria stared at herself in the mirror shocked at the shortness of her skirt. “Tights! I have to wear tights.”

“If you don’t you’ll expose your …”

“Whatever!” Maria stared at her costume and then Liz’s as Candy Cane. “Why is Snowflake’s skirt at least three inches shorter?”

“It’s not. Your legs are just longer. With your high waist and long legs, it just looks …” Liz stopped and stared at Maria. “Oh my!”

“My mother would kill me! I look like a cocktail waitress dressed up for the holidays.”

“Okay, don’t panic. We’ll have Michael or Max use their powers to lengthen the skirt.”

“Good. If I bend over to lift a kid on Santa’s lap, my ‘hmmm hmm’ will be showing. That isn’t the present I think parents want for their kids from Santa.”

Liz laughed as she struggled with her costume too. “So are you going to tell me why we’re volunteering?”

“Charity.”

“Maria.”

“Fine!” Maria sighed heavily. “I just needed some time away from Michael.”

Liz stopped fidgeting for a moment. “Okay, you lost me. You just figured out that you’re head over heels in love with the boy, and your response is to ignore him? He adores you, and you live in his damn pocket, and now you’re avoiding him?”

“Irrational, I know.” Maria sat down, yelping when her backside hit the cold table. “I … I haven’t slept or shared a bed with him practically since I figured it out.” She pushed her hair off her face. “I mean the first night, he had me play for him, and that …” Maria couldn’t even explain how much more she fell in love with him that night.

“And?”

“And he spent the night. We slept, like we always do, except …”

Liz went still. “Except?”

Maria turned red and exhaled hard, “Except I woke in the middle of the night, and I was holding him.”

“Okay.” Liz shrugged. She had seen Michael and Maria sleep together before. They usually slept very close and in each others arms.

“No … holding him!” Maria said with some emphasis.

“Oh.” Liz said, not really sure what Maria meant until she met her friend’s eyes. “Oh!” Liz mouth opened and she glanced down at Maria’s hands. “You mean you were …”

“Uh-huh!”

“Oh! Well, I mean … you immediately, um … released him and …”

Maria went redder. “Actually, no. I mean I should’ve, but my hand was on him, and he was … um, well, anyway, I just couldn’t … so I didn’t, and …”

“Maria!”

“I know!” Maria covered her face with her hands. “I can’t help it. My hands, they have a mind of their own, and every time I’m near him, I just reach out, like this impulsive need to just … touch him.” Maria breathed deeply. “I can’t afford to be too close to him until I can get my mind straight. I refuse … Liz, I refuse to molest or rape my best friend!”

“Okay, you have to be calm about this.” Liz stared at herself in the mirror, the shock of Maria revelation still on her face. “I just don’t know that our being Snowflake and Candy Cane is going to make things better.”

“Sure it is. Michael is already suspecting something’s wrong. This way, I have an excuse to be busy without having to come clean.” Maria stood up pulling on her Snowflake uniform. “At least Max and you are doing okay.”

“Oh? Are we?”

~~~

Maria and Liz let themselves into Michael’s apartment. Maria waved Liz to the sofa while she went to see if Michael was sleeping. He was.

“Michael?” She climbed on the bed and leaned over him. “Michael?”

“Hmmm?” Michael sank deeper into the bedding, reaching over to drag Maria into the bed with him. It was about time she got there.

“Michael,” Maria said resisting his attempt to grab her. “Wake up.”

Michael opened an eye and stared at her in her Snowflake costume. “Okay,” he said thickly more to himself, “this is new. I appreciate the short skirt, but the whole Christmas theme isn’t working for me. Can we go back to the harem girl thing?”

“What?”

Michael shook himself awake. “Maria?”

“Yeah.”

Oh crap! So she wasn’t a sleep-induced wet dream. The damn costume had him fooled. Michael stared at her for a moment. “What’s with the costume?”

“I’m an elf.”

“I noticed.”

“No. Isabel has pressed me and Liz into indentured elf status, and look at my skirt! I’m going to be arrested for exposing myself to young children.”

“Hmm, we can take you down to Les and Bunny’s Kitty Corral and you can make a small fortune in …”

Maria put her hand over his mouth. “Are you going to help me or not?”

Michael sighed, reluctantly reached over and lengthened her skirt a good two inches. Any more would’ve been a damn shame. Sitting up, he stared at her. She looked … tired. “You’re not sleeping.”

“Duh!” Maria sighed. “What gave me away?”

“Dark shadows under your eyes.” Michael cleared his throat trying to decide how to bring up her avoiding him. It had to be the whole damn situation with Billy.

“Listen, Liz has Max problems, and they’re ones you might want to hear about.” Maria climbed off the bed. “You coming?”

Michael lay back on the bed. “I was trying to until you woke me.” Groaning, he rolled out of bed. Best thing about the winter break was he was actually getting to sleep. Best thing about sleeping was he got to spend more time imaging Maria in his fantasies.

~~~

Michael was eating the lunch the girls had brought him, shaking a liberal amount of Tabasco on the burger as he ate his fries. “So it’s this kid thing.”

“Not just any kid thing.” Liz explained. “He hasn’t got a message from his son in over a month, and so this autistic child, Samuel comes up to him and calls him Daddy.”

“I was there. So what is the big deal? The kid is mental so he probably got confused.”

“The kid isn’t mental, Michael!” Maria said taking some of his fries. God, he looked so good sitting there eating in nothing but a pair of sweats. Her eyes kept wandering to his skin, to the hollow created by his clavicle. Maria groaned under her breath. She was being totally hormonal, and it was making her mouth dry. Actually, it was making her mouth hot as she bit into a fry with Tabasco.

“Autistic. Yeah. Mental.”

Liz ignored their discussion plowing on with her account of Max’s latest escapade. “He thinks that maybe the special wiring in this kid’s brain is making him receptive to messages from the ‘other’ side, so to speak. So he went to their home and talked to Samuel’s mother. He told her he wanted to work with Samuel. The last time he called me, he was going to Samuel’s afternoon psychologist appointment.”

Michael nodded taking a huge bite of burger. “Maybe he’ll get help for himself while he’s there? You know, his issues … he’s got a lot of ‘em.”

“You’re not going to take this seriously?” Maria asked.

“Not unless he tries to play God and heal every autistic child in the greater Roswell area.”

~~~

Samuel's family was in the psychologist's office while Max waited in the outside reception area. Samuel’s father, Warren listened as Rebecca explained what happened in the Crashdown.

“I'm telling you, he spoke. I heard him speak.” Rebecca told the psychologist.

“I know, and that's fantastic, Rebecca, it is. What we need to do now, is figure out exactly what this means.”

“It means he's starting to communicate with the world. He's growing. He's changing.”

“Rebecca, come on.” Samuel’s father begged her. She was expecting too much, hoping for a miracle that didn’t exist.

“What?” Rebecca demanded.

“We've had moments like this before.”

“Like what?”

“Like emergency meetings, breakthroughs, changes.”

“Don't do this to me, Warren.” Rebecca begged her husband knowing that they were separated because of Samuel and how they dealt with him, but she needed his support on this now.

“Don't do what?”

“Don't take this away from me.”

“No one is trying to take anything away from you, but, Rebecca,” the doctor explained, “I just don't want you to get your hopes up too soon.”

“I want to get my hopes up. I deserve to get my hopes up. He is different. He was different this morning.” Rebecca couldn’t give up. She couldn’t. Hope was all she had. “Max is outside in the waiting room. He was the young man Samuel spoke to at the diner.”

“What?” Warren rubbed his face, uncertain what to do. “Why?!”

“I thought it might be helpful if you observed him with Max. If he related to him before, he may again.”

The psychologist looked between the couple having slowly watched their marriage dissolve over their child’s condition. He didn’t want to add to the burden they already carried. “I think that's a good idea.” The doctor went to the door leading to the reception. “Max? Why don't you come in now?” He waited until Max joined them to offer his hand. “I'm Dr. Ramey.”

“Nice to meet you,” Max said noting the others in the room including Samuel who was by himself lost in his own world.

“Dr. Ramey has been with my son since he was three,” Rebecca explained to Max, “and this is, um, Samuel's father Warren.”

“Hey, Max.” Warren said smiling at the young man, not happy with the situation, but not wanting to upset Rebecca further.

“So, Max, why don't you tell us what happened this morning?” the doctor invited.

“Well, I was sitting with some friends having breakfast, and … I noticed him looking at me. Kind of staring,” Max said to the doctor directly. “Then, a few minutes later, he walked across the room.” No one noticed Samuel coming up to Max again, but the child did. He handed Max a picture he drew of a UFO. Max took it, uncertain what to do as the others in the room stared in shock. “Thank you,” he told Samuel.

~~~

Michael entered the apartment and put a bag of groceries on the counter from his early morning shopping on his way home from work. Looking over at Max who was just sitting there at the counter staring at a child’s drawing he shrugged.

“Nice drawing. You putting it up on the refrigerator or something?”

“Samuel made it for me.”

Michael glanced at it closely. “Kid had potential. Nice use of color there, though that green might be a little much.” He finished putting away the groceries and left Max to brood while he went to separate his laundry. His room was a mess, and he was hoping to talk Maria into coming over later. He had time to sleep and then go find her.

Max pondered the picture when a knock on door disturbed his thoughts. Max opened the door to find Liz.

“Hi.”

“Hey,” said Max letting her into the apartment. He glanced towards Michael’s opened door, hoping that Michael wasn’t asleep yet. The other alien didn’t take well having his sleep interrupted.

“I'm so excited. I haven't gone ice skating in so long.”

Max didn’t seem to hear as he took the drawing and handed it to Liz. “Take a look at this.”

“That's--you did a really good job, Max. Great use of color there,” Liz complimented him.

“I didn’t draw it. Samuel did. He drew it for me.”

“And that means …”

“It means my son is trying to communicate with me through this boy.”

“Max …” Liz said with some ill ease.

Max ignored her warning, needing and wanting it to be what he thought it was. “Look, even Samuel's psychologist thought it was unusual.”

“You're getting really involved in his life.” Liz observed quietly.

“Liz, you were the one who said you would do anything to help me find my son.” Max reminded her. “Well, right now, this is my only lead.”

“I know, Max, but I just see you walking into the life of this child, you know, this special child. I don't want you to just get what you're looking for and then walk away.”

“Liz, trust me.”

“I do trust you.” Liz sighed at his obsession with this. “Now let's go ice-skating, and we'll talk about this later.”

Max seemed to only realize why she was there. “Uh …”

Liz’s face dropped in disappointment. “What?”

“I told Rebecca that I would go over there this morning. Sorry.”

Liz noted the use of Samuel’s mother’s first name. “Right.”

“What about tonight?”

“Uh, I can’t, because I'm an indentured elf all through Christmas Eve.”

“Sorry.”

“It's ok.” Liz saw with great disappointment, knowing it wasn’t okay, but there was little else she could do. “We'll do it some other time.”

Michael was standing in his bedroom doorway watching the scene unfold as Liz Parker took herself off in what was almost a huff. Max seemed stunned staring at the door. “Well, that went well.”

“Michael, I thought you were asleep.”

“Yeah, that would be an idea if my home wasn’t Grand Central Station. Remind me again how long you were staying?”

“You uninviting me to crash here?”

“No. I just saying that I need sleep, so could you make meetings with Liz elsewhere when you know I’ll be sleeping?” With that said, Michael came back into the room, “Also, maybe she’s right about this kid.”

“I don’t …”

“No, of course you don’t. This is last year all over again. You heal the sick to assuage your guilt, and now you’re hoping to use a child with a misaligned brain. Are you even seeing a pattern here?”

“You think I’m a user.”

Michael made a scoffing sound. “I have no problem with using other people for a purpose, and hey, who am I to judge. I’m just saying that this kid is special, and you better make sure that you don’t do him more harm than good in this obsession you’re building.” He shrugged. “Who knows, you might be right and it’s your son. The real problem is, Max is what if it isn’t? You use this kid to find that his rewired brain just sees something in you … something alien. I’m telling you to be careful.”

Max nodded. He understood that, but he still needed to follow through with this.

“You might also consider Liz in this.”

“Oh,” Max shook his head. “Now I draw a line at you giving me relationship advice. Mr. ‘I’m dating her, but she doesn’t know it.’”

“Well lately, I’m not dating her either. She’s avoiding me, but, hey, that’s about me, and when do we concentrate on me? Let’s talk you.”

“Liz and I are fine.”

“Yeah, just like me and Maria.” Michael scratched his brow. “I’m just saying that how easy can it be for a young teenage girl to watch her guy running after a child he created with someone else, not her? How easy can it be to watch him be obsessed over everything else, but can’t even make a skating date?”

“You don’t even know why Maria’s avoiding you.” Max pointed out, figuring Michael was equally dense.

“I’m saying. We’re both are sucking here.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter since both our girls are shackled at Isabel’s Christmas Purgatory.” Max pointed out.

“Yeah, well there’s always a loophole somewhere. I’m going to sleep on it.” Michael was ready to crash. “Quiet on your way out. I’m sleeping.”

~~~

Maria and Liz were in Christmas Hell created by the Underworld overseer, Isabel Evans-Ramirez. They, the indentured little people of Roswell, were singing their guts out trying to entertain the growing masses of children upset that Santa hadn’t arrived.

On the third refrain of ‘Jingle Bells,’ Maria decided to consider sterilization.

“Boo!” screamed Roswell’s version of the future generation of serial killers. “Shut up, elves. Elves suck.”

“Do you know that without elves, Santa would be nowhere?” Liz informed the angry mob of children in her Parker lecture voice. “We are very proud to be elves.”

“Loser!” They screamed as they began to chant, “We want Santa! We want Santa! We want Santa! We want Santa! We want Santa!” Suddenly one of the children saw their savior in red. “There's Santa! Here comes Santa!” The kids cheered ecstatically as Santa rode up on a motorcycle. Maria’s mouth dropped as Michael in full Santa gear and cool shades got off his bike.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” cheered the kids.

“You've gotta be kidding me.” Maria said in disbelief as her body kicked up a notch. It couldn’t be! God wouldn’t punish her like this.

Liz mouth was still hanging open. “Oh, my god. Is that …”

“No …” Maria begged.

“Way,” said Liz.

“Ho ho ho!” Michael called to the kids, joining his little worker elves roping a special one to his side with an arm, sliding his hand down to discretely shorten Maria’s skirt just a tad bit without her realizing it.

“Wh-- what are you doing here?” Maria asked in a stutter.

“Other Santa's in rehab.” Michael lied, leaning down to kiss the cutest elf in Roswell on the cheek to the catcalls of the bratty youth of Roswell. “So Isabel forced me to do this. You know how she gets around the holidays.” Michael took his throne, getting into his position of power with Maria at his beck and call. He would have to store this in his fantasy bank. “Bring me a brat, Snowflake.” he ordered her giving her butt a nice pat.

“Ohhhh!” Maria jumped and the kids around her laughed. Brats! She included Michael in that assessment.

~~~

Max was playing basketball with Samuel as Rebecca watched, when Warren arrived. Warren hesitated when he saw Max, but came to join his family anyway.

“Almost sweetheart. Almost!” Rebecca encouraged as Samuel tried to shoot a basket.

“Try it again.” Max encouraged him. “Just a little more muscle.” Max helped him shoot.

“Great job!” Rebecca smiled at her son, liking the color on his face, the interest he was showing due to Max.

“Great shot. Want to try it again?” Max asked as Samuel’s father came over.

“Hi, Warren,” Rebecca said somewhat subdued.

“Max.” Warren nodded to Max and then knelt to talk to his son. “Hey, Samuel. I got your cape. It was in the back of my car.”

Max looked at the father and son, and suddenly felt as if he was intruding. “Uh, I should go.”

“That's ok.” Warren told Max. “Actually, I have to go to work today.”

Rebecca stood up. “What? You're supposed to take him to see Santa today.”

“Yeah, I know. I got swamped. It'll have to wait till tomorrow.”

“Warren, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. There is no way Samuel's gonna sit on Santa's lap if there are those kind of crowds.”

“He's not gonna sit on Santa's lap no matter what we do. He's never sat on Santa's lap.”  Warren explained to Max. “He doesn't let people touch him.”

“Well, we could still go and at least pretend to be a family.”

“Rebecca, he doesn't even know what Christmas is.” Warren pointed out not wanting to fight. “I gotta go to work.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Bye, Samuel.” Warren said to his son, and then, “Bye, Max.” The man walked off to get into his car and leave.

“He's probably right.” Rebecca confessed her eyes on her son. “Samuel's never sat on Santa's lap.”

Max hated to see her give up. “Listen, I can go with you, if you like. I know some helpful elves.”

~~~

Back at the festival, Michael was busy with the long line of kids ready to sit on his lap. Maria, his assistant elf of choice, was run ragged by his constant demands.

“So, Zeke, what are you asking Santa for this year?” Santa Michael asked.

“A Raceway 5000.”

Michael showed ample appreciation. “Nice choice, dude. The Raceway 5000 rocks.” He held up his gloved hand. “Gimme 5!”

Maria moved her hair off her face and squirmed as she pulled on her skirt again. It was suddenly feeling way too short. “Looks like Michael finally found an age group on his level,” she commented to Liz.

Liz smiled, secretly delighted by this side of Michael she never suspected existed. “Yeah, he's really good with kids.”

“Yeah, he's so adorable. I could so do him right now,” Maria’s voice went thick and heavy with emotions, her body exhausted and aroused by the fat man in the ugly red suit. “Oh! This is exactly what was not supposed to happen,” she complained. “I was trying to avoid this feeling, and there … he waltzes in, and I am doomed.”

“Arousing?”

“Total hot flash.” Maria couldn’t keep her eyes off of him. Watching him bend his head to talk to little kids, the way he seemed to concentrate on them only, and the children responding to his attentions. “I need to sit on his lap.” Maria decided going to push the child with sticky hands off her …

“Whoa!” Liz pulled her back. “Where are you going?”

“There,” said Maria pointing to Michael. “I’m going to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him exactly what I want for Christmas. I am going to find out what he is wearing under that suit.”

“Oh no! You are not getting it on with a man in a red suit, not in front of the youth of Roswell.” Liz stopped the demented Snowflake. “What about your plan to get your head straight and not rape or molest your best friend?”

“Stupid. Who am I to deny basic human urges?” Maria moved Liz aside, “I’m going to let my hands have a say … let them move all over his sexy …” Maria frowned when something distracted her. “Uh, Liz, look. That's a weird sight.” Maria pointed out Max, Samuel and his mother coming to see Santa.

“Here.” Maria took the film Liz was holding for the photographer from her so she could go talk to Max.

“Thanks.” Liz walked over to meet the small group. “Hi.”

“Hey. This is Rebecca, and this is Samuel.” Max introduced. “This is Liz.”

“Hi. I think that we actually met yesterday at the Crashdown.” Liz said bending a little to talk directly to the young boy. “Hi, Samuel. Merry Christmas.”

“He has a hard time with waiting in lines, so we were wondering if you could move him through?” Max explained.

“Oh, yeah. Sure.” Liz went to take the little boy’s hand. “Why don't we just bring him …” Samuel recoiled from her touch.

Rebecca quickly stepped in. “Oh, ok, I'm sorry. He doesn't like to touch people or to be touched.” Max took the little boy instead as Liz stepped back. “He may not want to sit in Santa's lap, and if he doesn't, that's ok. Don't force him to do anything.”

Liz turned to the frantic mother. “Um, why don't you just come with us?”

“That would be great. Ok. Thank you.”

“Come on, Samuel.” Liz said softly letting Max lead the little boy as she and the mother walked with them to Michael who was talking to his trusty assistant Snowflake.

“Ho, ho, ho,” Michael said seeing the small boy.

“Michael?” Max stopped in his tracks seeing his friend suited up, noting Michael’s hand on Snowflake’s waist keeping her near. Michael reluctantly let her go. “What are you doing here?” Max asked, as if he didn’t know. Michael’s loophole no doubt.

“Spreading Christmas cheer,” Michael answered in a deadpan voice while Maria made a ‘bah humbug’ comment under her breath. He pinched her ass which made her yelp and slap his hand away.

“Snowflake, go soothe the masses while Santa takes care of this little buckaroo.”

“You’re feeding me to them?!” Maria glanced at the ever growing line of children impatient to see their hero. She made an ‘eeking’ noise in her throat before returning Liz the film and going to distribute candy canes to the impatient children.

Rebecca glanced at the other kids they cut in front of and tried to make this quick. “Ok, Samuel, do you want to sit on Santa's lap?” Samuel had no response, but he seemed mesmerized by Michael. “It's ok. Let's go.” Michael leaned down and easily lifted the young boy to his lap. Samuel didn’t make a sound. He just stared at Michael, and their eyes met, and Michael slowly smiled. “Here you go.” Rebecca said more to herself as she stepped back in wonder at her son sitting on Santa Michael’s lap. Tears filled her eyes. “Sweetie, you're doing great.”

“The camera,” Max suggested to Santa, keeping near in case Samuel got upset.

Michael glanced over and ordered his slacker elf to get to it. “Hop to it, Candy Cane.” Liz nodded taking her post next to the photographer as Rebecca watched, her hands together in hope unable to believe her eyes.

“Oh, um, one more,” she begged. “Ok, wait. One more.” Rebecca wanted in the picture and she invited Max. “Max, come on in.”

“No, it's all right.” Max said not wanting to be in the picture where Samuel’s father should be.

“Come on. Please get in the picture.” Max moved in as the photographer took pictures of Samuel and Max with Michael and Samuel's mother. Maria watched, and her eyes met Michael’s, and she saw something in his eyes. Michael was worried.

~~~

Michael convinced Maria to go with him back to his place for dinner. She was reluctant, but since she really missed him, it was easy to persuade her.

“You were a good Santa.” Maria said looking around the apartment. God it felt so long since she had just been there to hang out and be with Michael. Sitting on the sofa, she leaned back tired as she slowly pulled the evil ugly tights off dropping them in a heap on the floor.

“It’s not hard. You just listen and ho, ho, ho, a lot.”

“No, you’re good. The kids all loved you.”

Michael took a seat next to her on the sofa lounging back with his feet on the coffee table. He was still in the Santa pants minus the padding so they hung on him by the suspenders. Maria was in her very short elf suit minus the tights and stupid boots. Her hat was gone too, and she could care less if she ever saw it again.

“You going to eat your sandwich?” Michael asked.

“I’m eating.” Maria nibbled on the sandwich not really very hungry. Her stomach felt hollow and she felt tired. Maria glanced at Michael and he munched away. “So what made you so worried when Samuel was on your lap?”

Michael stopped eating his grilled cheese sandwich, to share a look with her. So, she caught that. Why wasn’t he surprised? “Nothing really … it was just,” Michael laughed at himself, “when I picked him up, I felt like he could see me. He knew I was different … otherworldly? Maybe the way Santa is supposed to be, so he trusted me. That’s why he sat in my lap.”

“So what made you worry? It was sweet how excited his mother was, how much it meant to her.”

Michael picked up Maria’s hand. “If he sees me … in some strange awareness realizes that I am … different, then maybe it is what’s making him respond to Max?”

“Oh!” Maria’s tired brain cleared of the fog. “Right! So maybe it’s not Max’s son making a connection to Samuel, but rather, a child that has no way to communicate trying to use a means … a way to make contact with the world.”

“Yeah,” said Michael. “If that’s true, then Max is pursuing the wrong avenue, and he might harm the boy.”

Maria sat up a little, she stared into Michael’s eyes and suddenly felt his worry again. “He wouldn’t do that.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

Maria put her unfinished sandwich on the table. “I’m so tired. I should go.”

Michael put his arms around her pulling her into his arms, his food forgotten for the moment. “Stay. I’m not working tonight, or until after Christmas. There is no school.” Michael bit the bullet. “You’ve been distant lately, and I don’t know what I did, but …”

“Michael!” Maria moaned. Damn! “No. It’s not you! I … I’m sort of confused a bit lately and I guess I was pulling back into my head, quiet time, trying to work it out. I wasn’t … it’s not you.”

“Then stay.”

“I’m so tired. I haven’t been sleeping and I’ll just fall asleep on you, and …”

“Maria. Stay.” Michael picked up the remote. “We’ll watch TV. You can sleep on me.”

Maria acquiesced. She really missed him. She couldn’t leave. If she did, it would be like she was punishing him for something he didn’t do. They watched TV and it wasn’t long before Maria was sound asleep, her body stretched out along his, her legs entwined in his as they stretched out to the coffee table, her hand on his stomach.

Michael watched TV finishing his sandwiches and hers. His hand kept wandering to her hair, and he spent a time watching her sleep, his fingers moving through her hair. Leaning down, he kissed her soft lax lips groaning when she breathed his name in her sleep, her hand sliding further down his stomach.

“You’re all I want for Christmas,” he whispered to her.

When Max entered the apartment, he stopped at the scene of them together on the sofa. Michael was holding Maria, who was sleeping literally on Michael. His head was bent to her head, and Max frowned unsure what to do.

“Am I interrupting?”

“She’s asleep,” said Michael quietly.

Max came into the room, his eyebrow raising when he got a closer look at them. “Um, is her hand … um, …” Max cleared his throat.

“Yeah, and if you wake her … I’ll kill you.”

“Don’t you think you should put her to bed?”

Michael’s fingers moved through Maria’s hair. It felt like forever since he spent time with her, and when he did, never this close. “In a little bit.”

“So did she tell you why she’s avoiding you?”

“No … just that it’s not about me, and that she trying to get her head straight.” Michael thought of all the times he felt a need to be alone, to work out what was bothering him, and it was a request he could understand. “I have time. I can give her that.”

Max sat down in a chair across from Michael. This couple was confusing to him, to everyone. “How did you get this close?”

That was a mystery, one Michael wasn’t sure he could explain. Shrugging he closed his eyes for a moment, when Maria moved in her sleep, and her hand tightened on him. “I don’t know, but it feels good, and some days, it feels better than good.”

“You know that I love Liz.”

“Yeah, I think you mentioned it, she mentions it, and Maria hums it.” Michael commented sarcastically. “What about it?”

“We’re not this close.”

Michael put his head back. He didn’t want another long discussion where other people tried to dissect his and Maria’s relationship, to find what made it tick. It was a mysterious miracle.

“Look, I think that when you’re with someone, like girlfriend and boyfriend type crap, there are expectations, certain boundaries that are understood. You’re exclusive, you don’t cheat or lie, and you don’t forget to do things … little things.”

Michael wasn’t sure he wasn’t talking through his hat, but it was the best he could explain. “With us, we never got to that point. We’re friends. I forget to thank her, she shrugs it off. She thinks I’m full of crap she tells me, I don’t feel like doing something I say no, and the list goes on and on. I don’t have to look at her and see disappointment in her eyes because somehow I didn’t measure up to what she needed, maybe because she walked in the door with no expectations, and everything I do do is more than she expected or asked for.”

Max thought of last year, of Tess, the baby, Kyle and Liz, the entire fiasco between them over Alex. He betrayed their ‘soulmate’ love, but then so did she to the whole Future Max thing. It wasn’t just that. It was the walking away after Destiny, making him pay for a destiny he never wanted. Their entire relationship over the last year was about each of them walking away, and the disappointment and hurt in Liz’s eyes every time he failed her. Even today … the skating thing, Kal and the ship, him looking for his son, it still caused her to look disappointed in him.

He was doing it again, today. He forgot a date with her, made other plans, and all for this idea that Samuel was channeling his son.

“I think I might have made a mistake, Michael.”

“What? With Liz?”

“No, Samuel.”

“I was going to talk to you about that.”

Max frowned. “What?”

“He wasn’t afraid of me, Max. He sat on my lap, without a problem. I think he knows I’m like you, that we have powers to maybe reach him.”

“I don’t know.” Max leaned back in the chair his eyes on the sleeping Maria. “I went with his mom and him to get ice cream after he sat on your lap. I tried to connect to him, to see if I could find my son, and it terrorized him. He almost ran into the street in front of a bus.”

“Is he okay?”

“Yeah. His mom called his father, who was waiting for us when we got home. Warren told me that Samuel spoke before, that he said ‘Baskin Robbins’ like the ice cream. They waited years for him to speak again, but he didn’t.”

“So he does speak.”

“Right.” Max rubbed his face. “I might have misread the situation. I never meant to cause him harm.”

Michael was quiet for a moment. “Maybe he approached you because you’re different, and maybe this is about him and not you?”

“I talked to Liz at the Crashdown. She said basically the same thing.” Max admitted. “She thinks that maybe there's some other reason that he reached out to me. He spoke to me because he senses that I’m different. Maybe he is trying to say something, and he is looking for help to say it.”

“That is what I sensed. Why else would he respond to me too? I mean they never could get him to sit on Santa’s lap, and yet today he looked at me, and had no problem.” Michael cleared his throat. “Max, I have no son to contact me, and nothing I need from that child, but he saw me.”

“What should I do?”

Michael shrugged, adjusting his body under Maria’s. He slowly moved her off him, even her hand. Standing up slowly with her in his arms, he looked down at her sleeping body. “I can’t tell you that. I can barely decide what to do with my own life and situation. I just know that something made Samuel seek you out. There has to be a purpose. I don’t believe in coincidence.”

Michael left Max to ponder things as he went to put himself and Maria to bed.

~~~

Christmas Eve morning, Jesse was watching football on the TV as he did his latest assigned task sanctioned by Isabel.

“No! No! No! No!” He yelled at the game glancing up when Isabel came to stand beside him. “Hey.”

“Hey. How you doing?” Isabel asked frowning at the game and the progress of Jesse’s work.

“Oh!” Jesse fell back on the sofa excited. “Turnover! Our ball! Our ball! Our ball!”

“Good game, honey?”

Jesse smiled. “Oh, great game.”

“Oh, great. Great.” Isabel crossed her arms in front of her. “You know, Jesse, it's Christmas-eve morning. We have a million things to do.”

“Yeah, hey. I'm stringing.” Jesse held up his work. “Look.”

“You've hardly started, and the sequence is all wrong. It's five popcorn, two cranberries.” Isabel pointed out.

Jesse stared at his wife a moment, a little tired of her attitude especially in regards to how it applied to him. “Hey, if my work isn't good enough, maybe you should get Candy Cane and Snowflake involved.”

Isabel ignored that suggestion, not mentioning that she tried that already. She called Michael’s place, and Michael hung up on her. “Ok, I’m doing everything I can to make sure that we have a perfect Christmas.”

“How can we have the perfect Christmas? Everything is too perfect. I mean, it's too planned.” Jesse gestured to the room, to the ‘perfect’ room. “I'm breaking out in hives here. I never break out.”

“But we're starting our Christmas traditions.” Isabel justified and complained.

“No.” Jesse contradicted her. “We're starting your Christmas traditions, all of your activities and your decorating and your charity work. I mean, it's great. But what about us? What about just sitting back on the couch and watching some TV and just talking and mellowing out?” Jesse refused to back down from the aggressive Nazi he was married to. “How about that for a Christmas tradition?”

“Mellowing out?”

“Yes.”

Isabel couldn’t believe he would just desert her in her hour of need. “Ok, are you gonna come with me to the Christmas village, or are you gonna be too busy mellowing out?”

Jesse shook his head. Unreal. She wasn’t even listening to a word he said. “I'm going for a walk.”

~~~

Kyle opened the door to a girl he knew. “Hey, Shelby. Shelby Prine, right?”

“Hi, Kyle.” The young blond woman smiled at him. “I haven't seen you in years.”

“So what are you doing here, is it a Unicef situation?”

“Oh. Didn't your father …”

Kyle frowned. “My father? He's in the bedroom getting ready to see his lady friend.” Kyle’s face blanched of color. “Oh. Oh, you …”

Kyle and Isabel were walking down the street as Kyle helped Isabel with her tasks for the day, and Kyle told her about Shelby.

Isabel was still upset over Jesse, and the argument they had that morning, but Kyle was a nice distraction. “Maybe it's not so terrible.”

“What?” Kyle stared at her in disbelief.

“Yeah. Wasn't she a few years ahead of us in school? She's probably twenty-one or so. And …”

“And?”

“Jessie is older than I am.” Isabel pointed out, though she and Jesse weren’t perhaps the best example at that moment. “You can’t predict who you'll have a connection to.”

“Whose side are you on?” Kyle demanded. If he wanted this sort of brush off, he would go talk to Michael who would tell him to suck it up.

“I always liked Shelby. She was really cool.”

“Stop!” Kyle demanded. Isabel obviously wasn’t seeing the real picture here. “Listen, listen. It's sick. It's sick and deviant and humiliating.” Dammit, he should’ve gone to Maria, who had always agreed with him over their parents dating, and would no doubt see this for the laps into a sad sick world it was.

“Kyle, don't worry about it,” Isabel started but was interrupted by Jim and his date, Shelby.

“Hey!” Jim said happy to see his son out and about, working on the Christmas events.

“Oh, crap.” Kyle said to himself before addressing his midlife crisis dad. “Hey. So, out for a public display-- oh, I mean, walk?”

“Isabel Evans?” Shelby said in her usual perky manner. “Hi. How are you?”

“Hi.” Isabel said noting Shelby’s hand in Jim’s.

“Hi.” Shelby repeated.

Isabel was speechless. “Hi.”

“We were just … walking.” Jim informed them.

“See ya!” Kyle took off in a fast pace with Isabel next to him keeping up. Anything to get him away from the dysfunctional freak show.

“Yeah.” Jim called after the two teens frowning at his son’s retreating back.

“Bye, Kyle.” Shelby’s voice followed them.

Isabel glanced at Kyle in sympathy. “Huh. You're right. It's sick.”

~~~

Santa Michael was hard at work feeling a lot better after a nice evening at home with his sexy elf, so much so, that he couldn’t stop baiting her …teasing her as he enjoyed that look in her eyes. “So, Paul, you a football player? You look like a football player.”

“Hockey.”

“Hockey.” Michael nodded. He liked this kid. “There's a man's sport. What's your favorite team?”

“The Rangers.”

“Ok, that's where we go our separate ways.” Michael shook his head at the boy. Not that the Rangers weren’t okay in a pinch or live, but the kid was obvious on the path of ruin. “You should check out the Canucks, or even the Avalanche.” Michael glanced at Maria. “Wanna fetch me a Snapple?”

Maria’s mouth flew open. Did he just order her? “What?”

“I'm dry as a bone here. Been talking all day!” Michael pointed out, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Come on, Snowflake.”

Enough was enough! Maria hated her costume, hated being an elf … excuse her, horizontally challenged person, and most of all … she definitely hated a certain domineering alien Santa! “Michael, there's no way that I'm gonna …”

“Michael? I'm not Michael. I'm Santa.” Michael scoffed at Maria. “Paul, don't you think that Snowflake should fetch Santa a Snapple?”

“Of course you should.” Paul informed Maria. “You're an elf.”

“Exactly!” Michael said proudly at the above superior child. Good man. “And I'll need a foot rub later, too.”

“Uh, you know what, Santa? I think I have a Snapple in my little elf house.” Maria grabbed Michael’s arm and dragged him into the elf house.

“Fetch me a Snapple?” She demanded once they were alone.

“You're supposed to be Santa's helper.” Michael pointed out enjoying the circumstance.

“Oh, that's a load of crap. You're doing this deliberately.”

“Doing what?” Michael asked innocently.

“Abusing me for your pleasure!” Maria demanded her eyes narrowing. “Is this because I made you take me to the all night sale at Nordstrom’s?”

“Hey, Snowflake, you're an elf. It's your job.” Michael told her. “Get over yourself.” Damn, whatever was mucking with her, it took out her humor and tolerance.

“Stop taunting me.”

“I'm not taunting you. You think I wanna be here? Isabel roped me into this.”

“I’m not happy either, and you’re making my entrapment worse!” Maria took a deep breath hating she volunteered for this nightmare. “Then we'll keep to ourselves, and we'll be fine.”

“Fine.” Michael frowned. He didn’t mean to push her too hard, just get her into the humor of it all.

“Perfect.” Maria went to leave, but Michael pulled her back to him.

“I miss you.” he admitted honestly.

Maria sighed searching his face. Last night was the first real sleep she had in forever, and it was due to him. This wasn’t supposed to be so hard. “I miss you, too.”

Michael put his gloved hands around her face and bent his head to rest on her forehead. “I’ll stop baiting you. I guess, I just … I thought you stopped seeing me, and …”

“I always see you, Michael. I just …” Maria moved a hand up to touch his bearded face. “I don’t want to use you or take you for granted.”

“Not gonna happen,” he told her. Their eyes met, and both of them drew in a deep breath seeing something they needed to see in the other’s eyes. Desire. Michael leaned down and kissed Maria as she stepped back because his Santa’s stomach was in the way. They became tangled between limbs and costumes falling down on the floor as Michael refused to give up on kissing her. Their mouths had barely touched when a kid walked up to the door and saw them.

“It's Santa! Santa and Snowflake are kissing!

Michael groaned. “We gotta hide.” Maria agreed. She tried to roll to her feet, but couldn’t.

“Gross. Mommy, Santa and Snowflake are doing it!” The kid yelled out to the waiting crowd. “They're doing it!”

Maria swore, glancing at the door in a panic. “Get off!” she told Michael, pushing herself up, but not able to completely get away. Their two costume buckles were stuck together.

“I can’t, my belt's stuck. I can’t move.”

Maria straddled Michael, trying to undo their belts as he lay back like a beached whale, his Santa stuffing between them. “For god’s sake! Michael breathe in deeply. I’m going to have to take off your belt.” Maria squirmed around as Michael’s hands went to her waist to hold her upright, as she struggled to unbuckle her belt from his as she leaned over him, her hair curtaining them from observers.

“There, there … Maria, um, yeah, I think … no move a little to your left. Hmm, yeah just like that.” Michael said appreciatively as she grinded into him a bit.

“Would you just lay back and let me do the work! Stop ordering me around!” Maria told him irritated by all his instructions. Her legs were on either side of him, as she straddled his waist, and the short skirt left a large expanse of her legs exposed, especially since she had refused to wear the tights today.

“Aah!” A group of kids said as they came to the door watching Santa and Snowflake getting it on on the floor. Isabel pushed her way through them to determine what the disturbance was, just as Maria popped her belt, the wrap around elf suit opened leaving her partially exposed, mostly to Michael’s eyes, who decided Maria was right … he should just lie back and let her do all the work.

Isabel came in to find them sprawled on the floor with Maria apparently ‘riding’ Michael with her elf costume more than half off, and no tights. Isabel gasped and quickly put a hand over a small child’s eye, who was asking if Snowflake was Mrs. Claus.

You two should go home and have a long talk with yourselves!” Isabel reprimanded their behavior. “And you,” she said turning heated eyes on Michael, “… you begged me to be Santa.”

Maria looked down at him, her mouth opening not noticing how she looked with her hair all about her, her elf suit opened and exposing, sitting on Michael. “You what?”

“You're fired. Both of you.”

Michael sniffed, lying back, still enjoying his view of things, if only he could get rid of the stuffing, this might go his way. “There,” he told Maria, “I saved you from your volunteer nightmare.”

“Get stuffed!” Maria put both of the hands on his big stomach and pushed hard as she got off him, stomping out of the elf hut, mortified by the applause as she held her damn costume together.

~~~

Max went into Samuel’s room late night, and tried to heal him. He waited for Samuel to talk, but the boy remained quiet. Max was disappointed that with all his powers, especially to heal, that he couldn’t help the boy.

“So what happened?” Liz asked him later that night when Max came to her.

“It didn't work. I couldn't heal him.”

“Well, maybe he didn't need to be healed. You heal people who are sick or hurt. But Samuel isn't sick or hurt. He's just different.”

Max thought about that for a moment. “Maybe I was trying to heal the wrong person.”

~~~

Michael and Maria came through the apartment door, loud and angry. Michael slammed the door as Maria turned around to confront him.

“God! I can’t believe how that looked!”

“Why are you blaming me? I didn’t make our belts jam together.”

Mortified still, Maria put her hands over her cheeks that were hot, imagining how they looked to the casual observer. “Oh god! We just headlined a porn video called “Snowflake Does Santa!”.”

“It wasn’t that bad. Forget it.” Actually, he wouldn’t mind a personal copy, but he doubt Isabel had the elf house wired for video.

“Michael, no. I--look, I ... I want … I should just go home.”

Michael stared at her quietly. He hadn’t imagined the look in her eyes. It had been there. Awareness. Lust. Desire. Her mouth just touched his, and … Michael shook his head. He couldn’t keep taking two steps backwards with her for every one he took forward. He wasn’t getting anywhere too fast. She wanted him, he was sure, but something was holding her back.

Maria saw the confusion in his eyes. “Yeah, I know … I’m giving you mixed messages and confusing you.” Maria covered her face. She was so seriously fucked up. “Look, I think I should just go, ok?”

“Maria …” He stopped her. “I don't wanna be alone. It's Christmas. We always spend Christmas together.” They were scheduled to go to Las Cruces tomorrow for Christmas dinner, but he suddenly wasn’t sure she wanted to spend time with him.

Maria reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck as he picked her up in a full hug. “I’m sorry. You’re right.” She took a calming breath. “Ok. Well, how about … I … make us some hot chocolate and we just sit and talk?”

“How about that foot rub?” he asked hopefully laughing when she hit him with his own Santa stuffing.

~~~

Max found Isabel and asked her if she could take Samuel’s parents into his dreams. Isabel wasn’t sure she could do it, but Max explained that maybe if they could see his world, the world he lived in his dreams, they would understand him a little better, understand that he loved them.

Isabel touched Samuel's picture and goes into his dream. He was looking at a tree with a fire truck under it and his parents were watching. Isabel touched their pictures and they were brought into the dream too. Rebecca and Warren watched a very happy Samuel playing with them as they watched their dream selves with their son.

“Ok, now it's time for the angel.” Warren told Samuel.

Rebecca held out the angel to Samuel as Warren lifted him. “Honey, let's put the angel on the top of the tree.”

“I love you, Mommy,” Samuel said. “I love you, Daddy.” Samuel's parents looked on crying as Isabel watched with them.

“Did it work?” Max asked when Isabel came out of the dream.

“Yeah.” Isabel smiled with tears in her eyes. “Yeah, it worked.”

“What's it like in his mind?”

“It's beautiful.” Isabel confessed seeing more in one small boy’s dreams as to the real meaning of Christmas than all the charities and events she planned over the years. Christmas wasn’t about the perfect string of lights or decorated tree, but the perfect feeling and only that could be found in the heart.

~~~

Michael and Maria were laughing together under the tree that they finally put up in Michael’s apartment. They had gone out late and found a tree at a lot, a poor pathetic thing that no one wanted. The tree man was all but closed for the season, and he told them to take what they wanted. There had been other trees, but they both looked at this one, and without discussing it, they took it home.

Michael dug through the outside recycle bin and brought in a bag full of cans and bottles. He altered them into clear crystal snowflakes to commemorate his favorite elf, and watched Maria hang them. With an altered strand of lights, they completed the tree with a Snapple angel on top.

Michael and Maria ate a late Christmas Eve dinner on the floor in front of the tree talking for the first time since Maria woke up to Michael. It was an easy talk, but both of them still subdued, keeping a peace between them, a silent awareness that every day broke down just a little more.

“Open it,” Maria begged Michael.

“I thought we weren’t opening presents until Las Cruces tomorrow.”

“Michael, please? I can’t wait!”

Michael laughed softly at the look on her face. She was always like a small kid about Christmas and presents. He stared at the large box, not sure that what he got her was equal to her larger present. Careful of the paper, he opened the box. It was a leather jacket. A black leather jacket that matched the boots they bought in L.A..

“Maria …”

“Try it on!” Maria got up on her knees as he slid the jacket on. “I thought it would protect you in case you did something stupid, you know, like those dirt bike races and took a spill.” Michael stared at his new jacket. He never … no one ever bought him a real jacket before. He usually got them from the ‘Coat for Kids’ program or some other hand-me-down place. “Michael?”

“Hmm?” He could stop looking at the lining, the pockets that never had another owner, and the cool extra patched area of the elbows.

“You know that brown jacket you own?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Can we burn it?”

“No.” Michael said handing her the present he got her. “We’ll blow it up.”

“Righteous!” Maria had no tender mercy for wrapping paper like Michael did. She tore it to pieces to get into the present. It was small. Real small, like the earrings from the previous year. Maria opened the jewelry box to find a golden charm bracelet. “It’s a charm bracelet.”

“Yeah. I had choices for charms. I picked a few that meant something, but then I made the rest with my powers.” Maria picked it up with shaking hands. There was a small replica of the Atherton amulet, a miniaturized Jetta, and numerous other things that reminded of her friendship with Michael. There were a tiny locket next to a musical key and Maria opened it to find a tiny picture of Alex. Maria looked at Michael with tears in her eyes.

“I know you were afraid you would forget, so …” Maria hugged him.

“Michael Guerin,” she said huskily, “you give the best presents.”

“Bah, humbug.”

~~~

Christmas morning came, and with it came a lot of changes, some slow changes that happened over the year, other changes seemed to happen overnight.

Kyle woke to find that his mid-life crisis father and the new ‘girlfriend’ had called it quits, as Isabel cancelled her excessive Christmas plans and created a new tradition of spending it with someone she loved. Max and Liz finally made it skating as Samuel’s parents woke to a new awareness of their son.

Rushing down the road on a long journey of chasing the sun to Las Cruces, Michael’s bike roared open and free while he, Santa Michael rode in his new leather jacket, being hugged from behind by the ever faithful Snowflake Maria, whose charm bracelet gleamed in the sun.

Things changed. Life had been hard this past year with Tess’s betrayal, Isabel’s marriage to Jesse and the Khivar fiasco, Kyle joining the alien conspiracy as Jim lost his job to it, and Alex’s death. Things had also stayed the same. Max and Liz were back together and Michael and Maria were continuing their slow mating dance … and sometimes, things got better, but either way, this year had passed. Through the year’s pains and joys, sorrow and tears, they … all of them persevered. Maria rested her head against Michael’s back as her arms tightened around his waist, humming a Christmas carol to them both, hoping for a better year.

A Tale of Two Parties……

~The enigmatical Mr. Guerin~

New Year’s Eve: 6:32 p.m.

Liz dumped another scoop of tapioca into a dish, begging Maria for help … pleading for a bolt of lightning to strike her dead. Maria kept nodding her head at Liz, but her mind was on other things, namely, the large bag she was searching through.

“So, I have this new plan,” Maria told Liz. “I call it my, ‘make Michael Guerin die at my feet in lust’ plan.”

“Just kiss the boy, for god’s sake!” Liz begged Maria. This had to be her friend’s latest and lamest idea yet.

“No. No, this will be good! I can’t just go and molest him. I mean, he’s a friend, and that’s a … uh-uh. So, instead...!” Maria modeled her stylish long jacket, tight skirt, real short showing some wickedly sexy legs, and her nice revealing top. “I’m dressing for success! Add in the coup d’etat!”

“What government are you toppling?”

“Guerin-land.”  Maria held out her hand for Liz to sniff. “Smell.”

“Nice.”

“Michael bought it for me.” Maria smiled pleased with her newest strategy. “I had it all wrong! I don’t need to keep away from him … I need to stay close. Limpet close. Think barnacles.”

“What, he’s going to have to sail up into fresh waters to kill you, then shuck you off?”

“Scrape. He’s going to have to scrape me off!” Maria was humming. Oh, yeah. She loved this strategy. “By the time I’ve worked my magic, the boy will be driven out of his little mind with lust … he’ll have to make the move, kiss me, toss me on the bed and ravish me the way I deserve to be.”

“Okay, you are bent. You know that, right?” Maria made a phishing noise. Therapy was too expensive, a little … a lot of old fashioned sex would do the trick. “Michael … I think he’s highly receptive. I don’t think you have to pull out the big guns. Try … I don’t know, kissing him?”

“I can’t do that! Girls don’t make the first move. Attention, boy … Michael. Girl … me. He’s got to do it. He just needs some … incentive.”

“I think he’s got plenty already.” Liz took a deep breath and tried to talk reason to her unhinged friend who was letting sexual frustration rot her brain away. “Do not think for a moment I don’t know that this ‘plan’ is just another way to justify having your hands all over him.”

“Liz!” Maria stomped her foot. “Work with me!” Geez, of course she had her little hands all over him every chance she got. Damn things had a mind of their own. “Look, we find the party, we get all loose and free, and then under the night skies, loud music, and loud debauchery, something gotta give, right? Am I right? Or am I right?”

~~~

Michael changed his shoes for a third time. He needed something comfortable. Something that wouldn’t give him blisters, and most importantly, something he could kick off in a flash.

“When are you meeting Maria?” Max asked.

“Soon. I’m going to be late if I don’t get out of here.” Michael flipped off his shoes. Converse All-Stars … excellent.

“What are you doing?”

“Practicing,” Michael told Max. “Look, what are you doing tonight? Anything special with Liz?”

“No. She has to work the Crashdown New Years party for Senior Citizens. I guess they do it every year.”

“Exciting,” Michael said, not in the least bit interested, but it sounded about right up Parker’s alley. “Listen, could you find a place to flop tonight?”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah.” Michael put his shoes back on. He quickly pulled his shirt off over his head without unbuttoning it. Excellent. “Tonight is the night, Maxwell.”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah, me and Maria. I’m making my move. It’s time to just go for it.”

“Go for it? So you need me out of here.”

“Right. It goes the way I plan, yeah, you need to be scarce.”

Max felt a cold trickle of fear. “What’s the plan, Michael? Maybe you should tell me before you just spring it on Maria.”

“Forget it. She’s driving me out of my mind. I take more cold showers than a damn third world country! She’s invading my dreams, and every time I wake up, she’s all over my body. I can’t take any more. This ends tonight.”

“Michael, what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to kiss the girl … and I don’t mean the kissing I already do with her,” Michael took a long dramatic breath, “Maxwell, there will be tongue!” Michael informed his friend crudely. “That’s my New Year’s resolution. I am going to really kiss Maria DeLuca.”

~~~

Liz stared at the tapioca pudding in depression. “This isn't fair.”

“I'm really sorry, Petunia, but in about three minutes I'm out of here.”

“You're never gonna find it.”

“Oh, please.” Maria waved that off. She had to. It was her New Year’s resolution. Find the party, and do Michael Guerin until his eyes crossed. In that order. “This year, I'm gonna find it. Trust me.”

Jeff Parker came up to Maria and Liz. “Find what? Enigma?”

Liz looked at her father in shock. “You know about Enigma?”

“I've only lived here all my life. That secret New Year's Eve party has been going on since before I was your age.”

“Well, did you ever find it?” Liz smiled a bit trying to see her father as a party animal.

“Once.” Jeff checked his arrangements. “Did you dish up the tapioca?”

“Fifty times. Dad …” Liz begged.

“Daughter...” Jeff countered.

“Come on,” she pleaded, “you don't really need me to be doing this.”

“Liz, you and I have done this party together since you were, like, this high.” He held his hand out at waist height. “It's a family tradition.”

“What, that I wait on a bunch of geriatrics for all eternity?” Liz asked in exasperation.

“I'll tell you what, when you're finally a resident of the Desert Inn Retirement Community, then you don't have to come here for New Year's Eve.”

“Gee, thanks.” Liz sighed dejectedly.

Michael came slamming through the door of the Crashdown from the back. “Yo, we ready?”

“You bet. I got the essentials.” Maria told her party animal partner.

“Essentials?” Jeff quizzed his two employees who were dressed to party.

“Right!” Maria opened her bag showing an impressive display of bottled water, matches, flashlights, compass, and …” Jeff lifted his eyebrow when Maria realized what else was in there and closed it quickly.

Jeff cleared his throat and looked between Michael and Maria. “You two are good. Have a good date.”

“This isn’t a date,” both Michael and Maria said at the same time giving each other nervous looks. Sure it was, but neither felt the need to clue the other in.

“It's not a date.” Maria informed Mr. Parker. “It is the Mecca of all parties, a scavenger hunt looking for party clues so secretive that only the best of the best, the true party aficionado can possibly conquer.”

“And … that would be us.” Michael reassured Mr. Parker of their imminent victory.

“Petunia,” Maria told Liz, “work on him. I have a feeling he'll weaken. Otherwise, we'll tell you about Enigma tomorrow morning. Bye.”

~~~

Kyle was praying in front of his Buddha statue exhaling, inhaling, and exhaling.

“Thank you. Now that my immortal soul has been cleansed,” he coughed, “on to more terrestrial concerns. It's been a dry couple years. Kyle needs a woman. Kyle needs her badly. Kyle needs her tonight.” There came a knock at his door, and his eye opened quickly to stare at the door, when the knock came again. “Oh, thank you! But if that's a Jehovah's Witness, I'm coming back here.” Kyle opened the door expectantly, to have the wind knocked out of his lungs.

“Hi.” Isabel said smiling at him.

“Hey.”

“Kyle Valenti, it is your lucky night.” Isabel said perkily holding up a video tape. “Rudolph's Shiny New Year! No?”

“No, I can’t.” Kyle told her emphatically. “I'm going out.”

“On New Year's Eve?”

Okay, proof, he had sunk to loser status. “Yeah, imagine that.” God, he used to be a big party man. “I'm going to that Enigma thing.”

“Really? Do you know where it is?”

“No, but I'm gonna find out.” Kyle informed her.

“Hmm.” Isabel seemed to be giving it some thought. “Or you could save yourself the aggravation and buddy up here with Rudolph and his Shiny New Year. Oh, and … I brought goobers.” Isabel shook the box at him.

“Tempting, but no.”

Deflated by his refusal to entertain her, she admitted the truth. “Jesse missed his flight and is stuck in Houston. I had this whole romantic evening planned and I had to scrap it.”

“Boo-hoo.” No. Not gonna happen. He wasn’t going to let her talk him out of partying and getting laid.

“Kyle, it's Enigma.”

“Yeah, it's just sex, drugs, and whatever's passing for rock and roll these days. Why would I want to go there?”

“Ok, fine.” Isabel put Rudolf down and the opened the goobers to start eating them. “Well, do you mind if an old married lady tags along?”

Sighing, Kyle nodded reluctantly. “Ok, but I'm warning you, I'm a man on a mission: Sex or death. So don't get in my way, and don't cramp my style.”

“You have style?” Isabel made a face as she popped a few more goobers. Who knew?

“Hey!” Kyle said indignant. He even took a bath. “Do I look like Michael Guerin?”

“Ok, hey. Let's go. Where's the first clue?”

“At the high school. Mr. Seligman's room. All right. Bring the goobers. I'm driving.” Isabel laughed following him.

~~~

“I'm sorry,” Liz sighed dejectedly to Max, confessing that she couldn’t weasel out of the Crashdown thing.

“It's all right. I had a feeling he wasn't going to let you go.”

Liz sighed again, rolling her eyes. “So what are you gonna do?”

“Go back to Michael's and avoid New Year's Rockin' Eve.”

Liz bit her lip. That sounded like … well it sucked. “Why don't you just go out with Maria and Michael?”

“To Enigma?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I'm not really a party guy, Liz. I'm more of a … one-on-one guy.”

“Well, I like one-on-one, but parties are very fun, too.” Liz wrapped her arms around his neck. “No, seriously, when was the last time that you went out and had fun at a party with people you didn't know?”

“I dunno.”

“Exactly. Come on, there's no reason both of us should have a crummy New Year's.” Liz took a deep breath. “Besides, Michael and Maria probably shouldn’t be allowed out on their own. They definitely need a chaperone, or someone to keep them from damaging each other.”

“What are you talking about?” Michael couldn’t have told Liz that he was planning on doing it … kissing Maria, and more if he could get away with it.

“Let’s just say, parents … keep your virgins in doors. It could get really dangerous, real quick. Maria was packing bear. She and Michael left with … supplies.”

Max rubbed his face hard. Oh god, this had to be like being told to be the designated driver at a Dionysus orgy. “I'd feel like a third wheel.”

“No, you would be a guy hanging out with his two best friends on New Years, and you'd be having a really good time. Right?”

“I need more convincing.” Liz kissed Max. “I almost believed it …”

Liz laughed pushing him away. “Good-bye. I have to go back downstairs.”

“All right. Ok. But on one condition: Midnight comes and we're together.”

“How are we gonna do that? I'm gonna be downstairs and you’re gonna be out …”

“We find a way. Somehow, some way, we make it happen.”

“Max...”

“Liz...”

Liz laughed remembering Maria asking her once if she and Max were going to breath heavy on the phone and just keep repeating each others’ name. “Ok. We'll find a way.”

“Ok. See you at midnight.”

~~~

Kyle laughed as he and Isabel entered the garage.

Isabel looked at the high end classy car raising a brow. “And whose car is this?”

“My boss Toby's. And these would be the keys.” Kyle said tossing them in the air and catching them.

“What if we get caught?”

“We won't.”

Isabel wasn’t so sure. “How many blue Vipers are there in Roswell?”

“One,” Kyle confirmed looking smug.

“One. And, I'm sorry, how many people have access to this garage after hours, besides your boss?”

“One.”

“Yeah, we're gonna get caught.”

“Maybe, but this thing's a chick magnet, Isabel. I've seen it work. I'll take the risk. Get in.”

Isabel sighed putting her hands on the car and using her powers to turn the car yellow.

“Whoa, man!” Kyle said laughing, so very impressed.

“I'm not really in a risk-taking mood. I hope this doesn't cramp your style.”

“Yellow wasn't my first choice, but that's cool.” Kyle jumped into the driver’s side as Isabel climbed into the passenger’s. “Next stop, high school, then Enigma!”

~~~

Michael, Max and Maria were breaking into the school as were a bunch of other students on the great Enigma trail.

“Watch it,” Michael muttered crossly to Max, still trying to figure why his friend was there hogging into his date.

“Don't pull.” Max ordered Michael.

“You know this is breaking and entering?” Michael explained to Max as he pulled Maria in after him.

“Well, if we get caught, we'll party in jail.” Maria told the boys.

Michael slowly set Maria back on her feet, his hand lingering on her bare legs. “The girl wants to party.”

Maria latched a hand in the front of his jeans, dragging him with her by his belt to the chalk board. “This is the first clue. Hut, hut. That's football, right? Maybe the party's on the football field. I don't know. That's too easy.” Maria gestured for them to stay there and wandered off to confer with other students.

Michael watched Maria go, his eyes never leaving her body. “So why are you really here?”

“What are you talking about?” Max demanded. “I'm looking for Enigma.”

“Did Liz put you up to this?” Michael’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. He wouldn’t have told Liz about the plan? No. No way. “Are you a chaperone for me and Maria or something?”

“It's New Year's Eve, and I'm looking for a party, ok?” Michael gave him a disbelieving look. “Hey, I know how to party.” Michael gave a sputtering laugh.

Maria rushed back to them, practically hopping in excitement, her hands on Michael. “All right, this is what I gather. It's a quarterback's call, and there is a number 7. Dave Lambert is number 7.”

“Who's Dave Lambert?” Michael asked Maria.

“The star quarterback at Isabel's college.” Maria answered quickly, going on with her information. “Anyway, so Julia says …”

“Who's Julia?” Michael asked interrupting her again.

“That's Julia.” Maria said pointing to a girl talking to other students. “Dave Lambert's fraternity is having a party, which is probably where the next clue to Enigma is. So let's go.”

The three of them headed for the window, but stopped when Kyle came through it, stopping to pull Isabel in behind him. Michael, Maria, and Max stared at Kyle and Isabel in interest, as Max folded his arms. “What are you two doing?” he asked in his firm brother voice.

“Max!” Isabel seemed taken aback by Max’s presence.

“Looking for Enigma,” said Kyle. “Finding it too, so stand aside, Evans. This party isn’t for big boring drips.”

“Boring? Hey! I know how to party!” Max insisted. Kyle and Isabel both giggled. “What, you think you can find Enigma before we can? Who’s as your partner? Martha Stewart?”

Isabel looked her brother over taking affront to the comment about her new hair style and domestic situation. “Without a doubt.”

“You want to put some money on that?”

“Money? Hmm.” Isabel looked at Kyle who nodded. “Say twenty?” Kyle shook his head as his gambling gene went into high gear. “Fifty?” That got two thumbs up. “We wage fifty that Kyle and I can find Enigma before you.” Isabel said smugly.

Maria leaned in. “We’ll take that deal, and it’s cash and carry only. No credit cards.”

“Whoa, just a second,” Kyle said staring at Maria, and then at Michael. “The bet was with Max.”

“Yeah.” Maria said smiling nicely. “He’s with us!”

“No!” Kyle dragged Isabel to the chalkboard and the clue. “We need to move fast! That’s twenty-five for my share.”

“What is wrong with you? Michael and Maria? So what?”

“No, you don’t understand,” Kyle explained. “Michael and Maria? They’ve been to practically every Rave for the past two years, every concert, except lame ones, and they go for the music. So if there is even a tinkling of music in the air, those two could sniff it out miles away.” Kyle glanced at the clue ‘hut, hut’ frowning. “We’re gonna have to move quick.” He pointed to the clue. “Any ideas?”

“Out the window, Guerin.” Maria ordered Michael practically shoving him. They were in the competition now! She stopped and put a hand on Max’s chest. “Oh, Max, listen, this chaperone thing, I know that Liz put you up to it, but Michael and I, we're not needing a chaperone tonight. What’s about to happen, there isn’t enough money to pay any chaperone to witness.”

“I'm not a chaperone. I'm really looking for the party.” Max repeated, yet again.

“Right.” Maria said, her voice not in the least bit convinced. “Ok.”

~~~

Kyle and Isabel were working on the clues, or at least Kyle was working girls while working the clues.

“It's an easy clue. An easy clue.” Kyle told the girls smiling charmingly. “See, the hut hut part meant the falafel hut across the street, and the 24 and the 7 run either side of the 2 zeros, so here we are at the site of the next clue.” Kyle smiled charmingly. “Nice car, huh?”

The girls giggled, holding on to each other. “Yeah. Yeah.”

“Jerky?” Kyle offered them from a huge bag, the desiccated meat an obvious new trend in post modern mating rituals.

The girls refused.

A large beefy man with his friends came up to Kyle. “Hey! I'm gonna ask you a question from the future.”

“Yes?”

“Are those your teeth lying on the ground?” The man asked Kyle menacingly as he herded the girls away.

“Bye-bye.” Kyle said.

“You know, I think they liked you.” Isabel confessed.

“Yeah, the way you like a monkey in a little hat. I was just entertainment till the real men showed up.”

“Is this a confidence issue? Because women can detect insecurity a mile away, Kyle.”

“Do you detect it?”

“No. I'm married. My radar's been dismantled. Look, women want an alpha male, you know? You gotta exude confidence.”

“Confidence?”

“Yeah.”

“All right.” Kyle looked skeptical.

“It can’t be that hard, Kyle. I mean, you used to date girls.”

“Look, it's been a long time, all right? I used to be a fun guy. I used to have fun, but then the alien invasion happened, and I sorta-- my social life started to suck.”

Isabel glanced at him sadly knowing it was true. “Yeah.”

“Did you find the next clue in there or what?”

“No. I think your whole falafel hut theory was a little off.” Isabel confessed. “Yeah. Come on, let's go.”

“Where we goin'?”

“To find you a new social life.” Isabel opened the door to drive looking at the bag in Kyle’s hand. “Drop the jerky.”

~~~

The frat party was hopping, and Michael and Maria moved into the crowd easily waving at a few people they knew from previous parties they had crashed. Maria leaned up and shouted in Michael’s ear for him to take the other side of the room, and she would meet him in the center. Max wasn’t as quick to catch up with the other two, as he kept getting blocked, and the sway of the party butted him to the outside.

“Party! Whoo!” A drunken student screamed while beating his chest.

“Dude, it's empty, bro.” Another male student complained about the keg as he tried the tap again.

“What do you mean it's empty, man? We just tapped it.” The guy took the tap and tried shaking the keg to get it to move.

“It's empty.” The student screamed in the other’s ear. “Dude, it's empty. This is the last one. It's all gone.”

“Not--not so loud. Not so loud.” The guy looked around nervously knowing the party would explode if new got around that their beer was gone.

A girl stopped Max smiling seductively. “Hey, aren't you in my astronomy class?”

“No, not really.” Max tried to see around her, to spy Michael and Maria.

“I swear I've seen you before.” She ran her hand up his front suggestively. “Hmm, are you with anyone tonight? It is New Year's.”

“Uh, yeah, my girlfriend's meeting me later.” Max said removing her hands off him.

“That's too bad.” She got to her real reason for chatting him up. “Hey, uh, we're running out of beer. Could you be a dear and start a collection for a new keg?”

“Uh, why don't I check and see if the keg is really empty first?” Max moved over to where a third male student was pushing on the keg.

“Aw, come on! Come on! You're out of beer?!”

“Uh, hey, maybe I can help.” Max intervened.

“What?! What are you, a townie?”

“Seriously, I, uh--I have a way with these things.”

The guy backed off. “Be my guest, please.”

“Sometimes it's this, uh--this thing up here that just-- you gotta make sure it's-- I don't know. Give that a shot.” Max used his powers to fill the keg with beer.

“Oh! Oh, man!” The student exclaimed, as the beer shot out of the tap. “There was nothin' in there. That was empty.”

“Apparently not.”

All cheering, whooping students started changing and whooping. “Townie! Townie! Townie! Townie …” As Max got picked up and swept out of there.

“Now get out of here.” Dave said retaking his seat as a star quarterback. Maria frowned as Max went by on a sea of shoulders. She just shook her head and turned back to her goal.

“Dave! Hey.” Maria said smiling at the man that once tried to trap her in the eraser room.

“Hey.” Maria DeLuca! He pushed the person next to him over to make room for the girl, noting the outfit, and the total grown up hotness. “How are you?”

“How are you?” Dave asked flashing his patented charming smile guaranteed to part a young girl from her tiresome virginity.

“Good. Listen, I'm looking for a party.” Maria informed him as he reached out to pull her closer.

“There's a party right here, baby.” Dave told her, as his hand moved down to her ass discretely.

“Do you know of any clues for Enigma?” Maria asked not noticing Michael just across the way noticing her with Dave. Dave’s hand grabbed a handful of Maria, and she jumped. “Hey. Oh!”

Michael’s eyes darkened as he turned away, missing Maria dumping Dave’s beer in his lap. He was too distracted as he could feel it, the rising need to blow something. Looking around, he bumped into a guy. “Where's the keg?” He made a face when several guys went by carrying Max in on their shoulders, chanting, “Tow-nie! Tow-nie! Tow-nie! Tow-nie! Tow-nie! Tow-nie! Tow-nie! Yeah! Too much, brother. Good stuff, man, really…”.

“Ok, this is so not the right place.” Michael said to himself going off to find the keg.

Maria searched for her partner in crime, but only found Max where the frat boys dumped him on his ass. She reached down and dragged him to his feet. “Max, Max, we're in the wrong place. I've--I've talked to everyone. I've flirted with half a dozen of these bozos. No one's ever heard of Enigma. I even let Dave Lambert touch my ass.”

“Did Michael see that?” Max asked, not a little worried that if Michael did, he would start blowing the place up with his out of control powers made volatile by jealousy.

“The chaperone speaks.” Maria shook Max.  “I don't know. And it doesn't matter, 'cause I dumped his beer on his lap. Jerk, manhandling me like some stupid co-ed.”

“Michael?”

“What? No, Dave Lambert! Are you even paying attention?”

“Where is Michael?” Maria looked around helplessly in the crowd shaking her head. They were wasting time on this loser place. “You go that way … and I’ll go this way. I’ll meet you outside!”

Max found Michael drinking heavily, two fisting glasses of beer tossing them back like cherry cokes, heavy on the Tabasco.

“Hey.” Michael said blurry eyed at Max, belching.

Max took Michael’s head and forced him to focus. “Look at me.”

“Sorry, I only have eyes for Maria.” Michael said morosely. “But she's handing her butt out to total strangers. What's that about?” he muttered drinking more beer.

“Michael, what are you doing? I told you what happened the one and only time I got drunk. My powers went crazy.”

“I'm fine. I got no …” Michael shook his head to clear it, “power problems whatsoever.”

“All right. I want you to stand up.” Max took Michael’s arm. “Come on, we're going.”

“Ow!” Michael tilted away from Max, pulling at his arm trying to get it free of the grip.

“What's the matter?” Max asked confused by Michael’s reaction to his touch.

“That's a killer grip, man.” Michael put his hands over his ears. “Oh, it's loud in here now.”

“Yeah. Can you walk?” Max asked afraid to touch Michael again.

“It's bright. It's really bright.” Michael put a hand up over his eyes. Suddenly, his back tingled, then it began to burn like tiny ants were crawling all over him, biting his back. “Right, Max, what's on me?” Michael turned around wildly peering over his shoulder. “Max, what's on my back?!”

“It's your shirt.”

“No, no, Max, I got some-- Max, I'm on fire! I'm on fire! Max, I'm on fire!” Michael struggled trying to get out of his shirt, out of clothes. “I'm on fire! I'm on fire!”

“Michael, Michael, let's go.” Max told him as more and more people took notice of Michael’s strange gyrations.

Michael rushed to the door, moving through people fast, seeking the coolness outside. He got outside and began pulling on his shirt, tossing it over his head. “Max, I'm on fire! I'm on fire!” Max frowned at the redness on Michael’s skin, as he slapped at his skin. “I'm on fire! I'm on fire! Put it out!” The hysteria in Michael’s voice drew Maria’s attention as she came out of the party. She saw the two aliens, and quickly ran towards them. “Put it out! I'm on fire!” Michael threw himself on the ground and began to roll thinking he was on fire as Max and Maria look on.

“Michael!” Maria reached for him, but Max stopped her.

“Don’t touch him! It hurts him.”

“Oh my god! Is he sick again?” Maria’s hand went to her mouth. “It’s the fever! We have to get the stones, and the others, and …”

“Maria, calm down! He’s drunk.”

Maria was confused. She looked at Michael on the ground rolling about and shook her head in disbelief at Max. “He's drunk?”

“Uhh!” Michael said holding his head. “Too loud.” Maria dropped to the ground next to him, her hand reaching out to touch him, but she held back.

“Yeah.”

“So, wait a minute. My New Year's Eve isn't being ruined by some life-threatening, hot flash alien disease. It's because Michael's drunk?”

“I think the alcohol affected his senses. Some sort of sensory overload. Everything's too bright, too loud.” Max explained.

“Thank god, it’s just that. I thought he was dying again.”

“He’ll probably feel that way by morning.”

Maria took a chance and put a gentle hand on Michael stroking his red skin. “So, I guess the search for Enigma's over.”

“No, it's still early.” Max insisted, remembering how his inebriation just seemed to clear completely. “He could just …” Max and Maria tried to help Michael to his feet.

“Eww, what's that stench?” Michael demanded as he glanced at Maria. “Is that you?”

“I don't have a stench.” Maria told Michael, wondering how much her heel to his soft tissue would hurt.

“It might be your perfume.” Max suggested.

“Smells like road kill.” Michael told her still hunched over.

“It's fifty bucks an ounce, man.” Maria informed him. “And … you bought it for me!”

“It still stinks.” Michael said putting his fingers to his nose to pinch it close. “I have terrible taste! No wonder you won’t date me!”

Michael dissing something he did himself? That was her job. She looked at Max with worry in her eyes. “Oh god, Max. He’s dying!”

“Aah!” Michael screamed as Michael fell to the ground his skin moving with color as he began to glow.

“Oh, my god! Oh, my god!” Maria breathed in and out furiously, damn near hysterical.

“Quick, get in the car.” Max and Maria practically dragged Michael to the Cheville. “Come on.”

Maria got into the back with Michael, talking to him in low tone, her voice soothing as she gently tried to hold him. Max listened, hearing her crying voice calling to Michael, telling him to stay still, to hold onto her as she called him baby, and other things. He should’ve taken Michael home, but he took them to the Crashdown instead. Maybe Liz would know how to purge the alcohol from Michael’s system, and a hysterical Maria needed her friend.

~~~

At the Crashdown, Liz was calling out bingo numbers when Maria called her to the kitchen frantically. Liz excused herself telling her dad that Maria was waving frantically to her, and that she would return.

“Maria?”

“Night from hell!” Maria told Liz hustling her upstairs to the Parker’s home, and to Liz’s room. “Night from hell!”

“What's up?”

“Michael's up. Very up. Come here.” They entered Liz's room and Michael was floating over the bed.

Liz’s mouth dropped open, as she and Maria quickly shut her door. “Oh, my god!”

“Shh. Shh. Shh.” Maria said hushing Liz quickly. “Look, his senses are super, super heightened, so, if the lights are too bright, or if he hears anything really loud, it really, really hurts.”

“Like your whispering is doing right now,” Michael commented heavily.

“Sorry, baby.” Maria pulled Liz outside to the balcony where Max was waiting. “We would’ve left him out here, but he was sort of floating, and we didn’t want him to float away, not to mention the glowing light of his skin is like this huge alien neon sign! He’d be moving across the sky like a huge alien zephyr.” Maria put her hands to her face and laughed, nearly hysterical. “Did I just say that?!”

~~~

Isabel and Kyle entered the party full of more than half drunk people. Isabel scoped the area looking for possibilities.

“This is a college.” Kyle told Isabel. “This is a college party at a frat house. Why am I here?”

“Because you need to set your sights a little higher than high school.”

“But I am in high school.”

“Yes, but they don't know that.” Isabel pointed out.

Kyle smiled. “That's true.”

Isabel gestured to the room. “Yeah. Ok, so pick one.”

“Ooh, how 'bout her?” Kyle pointed to a girl, then another and another. “How 'bout her?” Finally he settled on one.

“Ok, that's Sally Reynolds. She's in my philosophy class. Not your type. She's a nihilist. Would never get your sense of humor.” Isabel scrunched up her nose.

“How 'bout those two brunettes over there?”

“Ok, that one right there is Kim Langstrom. She's actually really very nice, but she's got a laugh like breaking glass. The other one, Bernadette Tahoe …”

“Hey …” the girl said going up to Bernadette.

“Yeah, she's dumb as a fence post and only likes girls.”

“Well, there's gotta be someone.” Kyle said fretting over his celibate state.

“Oh, oh!” Isabel grabbed Kyle’s arm. “You see that girl right there talking to the jock, who knows that everything he's telling her is total crap?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kyle was getting excited.

“That's Bitsy.”

Kyle’s hopes crashed and burned. “Bitsy?”

“Yeah, I know, she's got a stupid name.” Isabel told him. “Trust me, Kyle, she's the girl of your dreams.” Bitsy laughed loudly making Kyle wince. “Yeah, breaking glass.” Isabel waved that off for Bitsy’s better qualities. “Ok, let's go meet her. Just be cool.” Isabel told him. “Bitsy, I want you to meet a friend of mine, Kyle.”

“Hi, nice to meet you.” Bitsy said friendly enough.

“Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.” Kyle smiled at Bitsy hoping Isabel knew what she was doing. Isabel introduced them and listened as Kyle and Bitsy talked awhile.

“And then the quarterback said, ‘Throw me the chicken,’ and I did.”

Isabel laughed with fake humor at Kyle’s lame story. “He's hilarious. I told you he's hilarious. No, but really, Kyle, you've changed since then.” Isabel turned to Bitsy telling her truthfully. “Kyle's a Buddhist now. It's really inspirational.”

“Wanna talk religion?” Kyle asked, using his old football days to pave the way, but his newfound Buddhism really more telling of his current personality.

“Ok, but tell me you're not just some guy with a fat Buddha statue who prays to get laid on Friday night.”

“No, I do--I do have a statue.” Kyle admitted. “I do. And I do pray on Friday nights sometimes, yes.”

“And you're honest.”

“I try.”

Bitsy smiled at Kyle. “You succeed.”

“Is that good?”

“Very.”

Isabel smiled. Things looked to be on track. “Ok, I'm gonna go get some drinks. You guys want anything?”

“I'm ok.” Bitsy told Isabel.

“Me, too.” Kyle said.

“Ok, I'll be back whenever.” Isabel went to mingle leaving Kyle with Bitsy.

Kyle rushed after her. “Hey, wait, wait. I just--I just wanted to say thanks for, you know.”

“My pleasure.” Kyle went back to sit with Bitsy.

“Isabel's nice.”

“Yeah, yeah. She is,” Kyle said staring after Isabel, “she is.” It was nice to have a friend again, someone to talk to. He hadn’t had that since Tess.

~~~

Back at Liz's house, Max was still trying to help Michael while Maria and Liz waited outside to minimize the noise and pain caused to Michael. Maria was pacing frantically, occasionally staring into the room as Max used his healing powers to detoxify Michael.

“How’s that?” Max asked Michael who nodded and seemed to go to sleep. He was no longer floating.

“Is he gonna live?” Maria asked nervously.

“I think he's past the rough stuff.” Max admitted as he led Liz and Maria downstairs to leave Michael in the peaceful quiet of Liz’s room. “We should leave him to sleep off the worse of it. He’s probably going to remember next to nothing by morning, since my memory was pretty much wiped clean when I got drunk.” Max glanced at Liz. “Think anyone will notice if I duck into the bathroom?”

“Go for it.” Liz invited as she glanced through to the diner locating her father. “My dad's still calling bingo.”

“What a great New Year's Eve.” Maria said weakly, her nerves shot.

“I know. Did you have any luck finding Enigma?”

“No.”

“Well, you still have plenty of time.”

“I can’t leave him. God, he scared me tonight! I mean, he’s always been curious about drinking because when we go to Raves I usually have a beer, but he has to stay sober. I guess I thought he would wait to satisfy curiosity in a controlled environment.”

“Why did he start drinking?”

“I don’t know.” Maria covered her eyes and breathed in deeply. “I think I have a flashback to when he was sick before, and it wasn’t a good feeling.” Maria glanced at Liz. “I don’t know that I can stand to lose him.”

“He’s fine! You’re not losing anyone.”

Maria breathed in deep. “I need to go back upstairs and be with him.” Maria stopped on the stairs, not realizing that Michael could hear everything she said to Liz. “I love him so much, and there is so little room left for anything else. He’s it. He’s ‘the One,’ and I trust that now. I really trust it.”

“I know you do.”

“I’m just so afraid that it will be perfect, and you know that most things that are perfect have the shortest life. I just don’t want it to end.”

“It can’t end if it never begins, Maria?” Liz asked. “Do you really want that?”

“No.” Mara blew out. “I’ve struggled to find a way to change things between us since that day Billy came to visit. I’m just confused over how to go about it.” she sniffed. “I’ll be upstairs.”

Max came out of the bathroom as Maria was going to go upstairs. He went over to Liz. “I'm gonna head back to the school for a second.”

“Why?”

“Something about that clue on the board keeps bugging me.”

“Max, would you drop the act already?” Maria begged on the stairs. They weren’t finding Enigma.

“It's not an act.” Max told her again. God, why didn’t anyone believe him?

“Liz,” Jeff Parker said coming through the door as Maria went upstairs, “it's almost 10:30.” Time for senior citizen New Years.

“Uh--sorry, sorry, Dad. I'll be right there.” Liz promised.

“Hey, Max?” Jeff called to Max.

“Yeah?”

“Where you goin'? What kind of boyfriend isn't with his girl at midnight? Don't you have any class? Tick-tock.” Liz and Max were stunned by Jeff’s acceptance of Max, and the invitation for him to join them.

~~~

While Max and Liz were downstairs celebrating an early New Years, Michael woke up long enough to raise his hand to stroke Maria’s cheek.

“Hey, Maria?”

“Michael! What are you doing awake? You shouldn't be resting … getting better.”

I'm fine, all right? I am definitely still drunk, in a strange euphoric way, but I’m fine. I want you to get back out there and find Enigma.”

“Without you?” Maria made a face. “It wouldn’t be any fun without you.”

“I’m going to be asleep soon. Maybe I’ll wake up and go home. Either way, I’ll meet you here for breakfast.” Michael could barely keep his eyes open. He needed to rest them as strange lights and thought moved in and out his mind. He couldn’t afford to let Maria see that he was still sick, or she wouldn’t leave. “Go. Make me proud.”

~~~

“Lizzy, that's good enough.” Jeff told his daughter. “I can finish up.”

“What are you talking about, dad? The place is a mess.”

“That's ok. I can take care of it. Why don't you, um …” Jeff motioned to Max. “Why don't you two go out and have a real New Year's?”

“Dad.” Liz’s mouth dropped in disbelief.

“Well, I put a resolution on the cactus. It said, ‘Give second chances.’”

Liz smiled. “Well, you see, the thing is, I-- I also put a resolution on the cactus. It said, ‘Remember that your parents won't always be there.’”

“So, you want to stay.” Max guessed.

“Well, yeah, 'cause Crashdown New Year's-- it's like this, um-- this family tradition. I think my dad deserves one night a year.” Liz explained getting a little of the old Liz Parker, the one her father knew back. “I'm sorry. I know we promised that we'd be together at midnight.”

“We were …” Max pointed out. “At Crashdown midnight.”

“Yeah, I guess that counts.”

“Listen, I'll, uh, I'll stay, too. You know, just help you clean up.”

Liz laughed, shocked by a realization that Max couldn’t convince anyone else of. “You--you--you really want to go to Enigma, don't you?”

“Well …”

Liz laughed as Max blushed. “My god, look at you.”

“Yeah, I just don't want to go by myself.”

Maria came swinging into the Crashdown from the back. “Heh heh heh. Who still wants to find a party?”

Liz pushed Max off on Maria. “Oh, I think that might be this guy right here.”

Maria made a face. “Oh, Max, the chaperone thing, really, it's getting old and it's just completely unnecessary right now. I promise to abuse Michael as soon as he’s on his feet, and you can sacrifice yourself then.”

“All right, that's it.” Max had it. Enough was enough! “I'm going to that party. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck.” Liz said smiling.

“Let's go.” Max said to Maria, hooking his arm through hers. “Party train's leaving.”

Maria let him pull her into the back room as Liz followed. She shook off his arm as Max kept walking to go start his car. “Is he serious?”

“Very. Oh, wait, what happened with Michael?”

“Uh, he is still sleeping, uh, and he gave me orders to find Enigma or come home on my shield in defeat … owing Isabel and Kyle fifty bucks.”

“Ooh, good for you. Is he ok?”

“God, I hope so! My spaceboy looks too damn adorable to lose right now, so …yeah, he's fine.” Maria held both of Liz’s arms. “So your sworn friendship duty is to alien-sit for me, to keep him covered and warm, and whatever you do … do not let him out of your sight! You let him float away out your window, we will have words.” The Cheville’s horn honked obnoxiously as Max grew impatient.

“I can’t believe I'm going to Enigma! You don't mind?”

“No--rent my boyfriend for the evening?” Maria nodded. “Go ahead.” Liz had a second thought. “Oh, but Maria?”

“Hmm.”

“You know the plans you had for Michael for tonight?”

Maria remembered them well. “Oh yeah, guess they are on hold until my boy is up on his own feet, or at least can defend himself from me.”

“Yeah those. Iix-nay-on the ax-May … he’s not that kind of proxy.”

“Okay, you know … I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Bye. Thanks. Bye.”

~~~

Max and Maria broke back into the school and were staring at the chalkboard looking at the clues.

“So, all we know for sure is that 7 does not stand for Dave Lambert's jersey number.” Max concluded.

“Zero, 24, 7, zero.” Maria pondered.

“What if it's a math puzzle? I mean, if we assume that the zeros are place-holders for integers that …”

Maria gasped aloud, her hand grabbing Max’s arm hard. “Oh! 24/7. It's so simple, it's painful!” She pulled Max with her to the window. She got it. It was so … simple.

Maria and Max arrived at Bud's 27/7. There were other students scurrying about, obviously figuring out the first clue, but still trying to locate the next one.

“This feels like the right place.” Max commented noting all the activity.

“Hey, have you found any clues?” Maria called to a boy in their class.

“No, not yet.” The guy stopped and stared to Max. “Hey, is that Max Evans?”

“Yeah.” Max acknowledged, slightly confused by the other guy’s interest. “Uh, Daryl, right?”

“Yeah. So, what are you doin', man?” Daryl asked obviously amused to see Max.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, out … at night. On New Year's Eve?” Daryl scoffed, finding it equally funny that Max was out with Michael Guerin’s girl. Damn, Max Evans had a death wish or at the very least, a brain tumor. Michael Guerin was going to brutalize Max Evans when he found out.

“I'm looking for a party.” Max told the guy in exasperation. What the heck?

“Right.” The guy walked away laughing. Crazy! Max Evans was looking for a party!

“Max!” Maria whispered to her Enigma partner in a loud stage whisper. “Psst! I think I found one of the clues, but I don't know what it means.”

“Where?” Max asked discretely, his voice low staring at the ground nonchalantly.

“It's right behind me.”

Max peered past Maria, not seeing anything, then catching something purple. “The flyer?”

“It's not a real flyer.” Maria explained. She and Michael knew every restaurant in town, and had a collection of their flyers and menus at his place for convenient ordering and takeout. “So, one of these specials must be the clue.” Maria perused the flyer reading the menu offered. She stopped at one entry. “Blue moon quesadilla. There's no such thing.” Maria told Max, as they walked a few steps away from the flyer, not to draw attention to it. “But what does that mean?”

Max rolled the worlds around on his tongue, hoping for inspiration or some word association. “Blue moon quesadilla. Blue moon … blue … Blue Moon canyon.”

Gasping loudly, Maria’s whole body did a little jump as did Max’s in excitement. “That's it!” She said to Max, as they huddled so conspicuously. “Ok … “ Maria said taking a calming breath. “Let's walk back to the car nice and easy, like we haven't found a thing.”

She and Max literally hopped to the Cheville and were in it so fast, it was hard not to see their excitement. No, they weren’t hiding anything...

~~~

Liz was downstairs using the bathroom preparing to sleep on the sofa since Michael was upstairs in her bed. She didn’t hear Michael when he came down the stairs, his face covered in sweat and confused. Noises were in his head, voices, and of all the noise and chaos, one voice kept a constant level in is mind. Maria.

He could hear her telling Liz that she loved him … passionately. His mate. The thought wouldn’t stop moving in and out of his thoughts. His mate. He couldn’t feel her near, or smell her. Confused, he went down the stairs to find her, as the alcohol was slowly coursing through his veins, working its way out.

Maria. He had to find Maria. Nothing and no one was going to come between them. No one. Michael stumbled at the bottom of the stairs, picking up Maria’s scent, feeling her like a low level tingle along his overly hyped up senses. He shut his eyes and lifted his head sniffing, his tongue coming out as if he was smelling and tasting the air.

“Michael. Michael!” Liz yelled trying to get his attention. “Michael, are you-- are you ok?”

“Where is Maria?”

“What? She went to find Enigma with Max.” Liz tried to get Michael’s attention, but he seemed to be off somewhere in his own head, his attention hardly on her. “Michael! You need to go back to sleep. It’ll be better in the morning. Maria will be back.”

“What did you do with Maria?” Michael demanded.

“Okay, you’re still drunk. Give me a minute, and I’ll put you back to bed.” Liz went into the bathroom to turn off the light and gather up the dirty clothes she left in there. It was the click of the door that made her realize that something happened. Michael shut the door on her. Trying to open it, she couldn’t. It was locked. Staring at the lock that only locked from the inside, she tried again.

Michael. Michael had used his powers to lock her inside. Banging on the door, and pulling on it, Liz screamed. “Michael! Michael, let me out of here.”

“No one is coming between me and Maria. No one,” Michael told the door. He walked out and then stopped. Closing his eyes, he was perfectly still and then suddenly his eyes opened, and he was off seeking his mate.

“Michael! Come back here and let me out! Michael! Michael?” Liz sighed. Great. Some alien babysitter she was. Wait until she had to tell Maria.

~~~

Kyle and Isabel put the Viper back in its home garage and Kyle waited while Isabel changed the color back to the original paint.

“You're sure you're not disappointed?” she asked him.

“Aw, what are you talking about? I got the girl's phone number.”

“Yeah, but you wanted to get laid.”

“Look, I got a college girl's phone number. I'm way ahead of the game.”

“And you gotta know when to hold 'em and …”

“Know when to fold 'em.”

“Know when to walk away …”

“Know when to run.” Kyle finished. “Hey, thanks. I--I had a really good time.”

“Yeah, me, too.” Isabel admitted. “Even if we didn’t find Enigma. I’m hoping the others didn’t as well. But you know, the night’s not over yet.”

“It's not?”

“No. It's over an hour till midnight.”

“Ok. Well, then, what do you want to do?” Kyle asked, wondering how he was going to keep his eyes open until midnight.

“How much do you love me?”

Kyle imagined kissing Isabel, and he quickly shook his head awake. Now that was deranged. He needed sleep. His eyes found something in her hands. “Oh, oh, oh! Rudolph's Shiny New Year?”

“Please?” Isabel begged giving him her best engaging smile.

“Oh, the sacrifices I make for my friends.” Kyle groaned, resolved to watch the lame show.

“Thank you. You're the best.”

“Don't be a complete idiot.” Kyle said. They sat back to watch the show, and it was as silly as it appeared as they both were falling asleep on the sofa.

“Isabel?”

“Hmm?”

“It's five seconds till midnight.”

“Mm. Happy New Year.” Isabel mumbled.

“Happy New Year, Isabel.” Kyle went back to sleep as Rudolf’s Shiny New Year continued to play.

~~~

They were on the road driving towards what they hoped would be the party. It was almost midnight, and Maria was talking about Michael, much to Max’s surprise. Maria talked mostly to Liz about Michael, but only on rarest of occasions to him.

“You should have seen him there all brave and noble … telling me to go find Enigma, to make him proud.” Maria took a deep breath. “It was enough to make me fall in love with him all over again.”

Max stared at Maria sharply. Oh well, hell, there it was. She admitted it, and Michael wasn’t there. “Yeah, well, I have to live with him. That's enough.”

“I live with him too, most of the time.”

Max wasn’t sure how much he could say without betraying a confidence. “Why don’t you just tell him you love him?”

“I tell him I love him all the time,” said Maria, purposely being obtuse. “I realized a long time ago that he had very little of it in his life, literally none. So once I realized how I felt, it seemed mean not to tell him.”

“Maria,” Max laughed at how she avoided the question. “In love with him, not just that you love him.”

“Oh, that.”

“Yeah.”

Maria laughed at herself at the irony of her life. “You’d think it would be easy, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Sure, just walk up to him and say, ‘Oh by the way, my feelings have changed, and I not only love you, but am actually ‘in love’ with you’ … yeah, that would be an idea.”

“So?”

“You have to understand. In retrospect, I think I loved him from the moment he kidnapped me and my Jetta, but I knew I loved him the night you and Liz went to the reservation and met River Dog. That night … he tried to kiss me, and I stopped him.”

“He …” Max glanced at Maria in wonder. That long ago? That was even before he and Liz … Max stared at the road in shock. “Why did you stop him?”

Maria shrugged. “He was something I could never have. He was leaving. He would always be leaving, and I could have this passionate confusing love affair with him, but it would always be bittersweet in the knowledge that he was leaving. My heart could never handle that much misery.”

“He’s not leaving anymore, Maria.” Max pointed out the obvious, that her excuse to keep Michael at arms length … denying something that she wanted, and he wanted was no longer necessary.

“I know, but the thing is this … when you fall in love with someone, you slowly learn everything about them by a slow process of dates, meetings, sharing things, and even a slow burning passion that blazes into something more as you become more comfortable. Well, I’m already there with Michael. I’ve been doing this for over two years, and I know more about him than you do.”

“I know you do.”

“Well, I didn’t allow myself to think about him like this years ago, or allowed myself to think about him as a lover until he lost control of his powers, only a few weeks ago. A lot of things happened to me in those two days. I woke up, and I also learned something important. I was still only seventeen going on eighteen. I forgot that. I forgot that I’m basically still a child slowly growing into a woman’s body, but I felt old. So much older. This secret I’m sharing with you, it has put more mileage and age on my mental body than I can tell you. I woke up tired and feeling used, like I was ready for this to be done.”

“I’m sorry.” Max understood. He woke up an alien King, and the weight of it, the need to always be right, to make the wise choice, was an albatross on his back. He stared more often in the face of failure, than the glory of success, in both this life and the last. He was a boy trapped in a fate judged as a man, and no matter how he fought against it … it was his destiny.

“Michael was never allowed to be a child, and I grew up hard and fast myself. This alien thing, it made me grow up even more, as it always did Michael. So much of our youth compromised, sped up to this need to be older than we are.” Maria sighed not in tiredness, but something so much more … weariness.

“Falling in love, Max. You only fall in love the first time once. There are no do overs or start again. Once. There will in your life only be One first love, and if you’re lucky, it will be the love of your life. I don’t want it to be another rush in my life, a sudden … hi, I’m awake, and this is what I am. I want to fall in love the right way, with all the parts in between. I want Michael to feel that too, because I know more than I can say. I know that once it’s a done thing, that we’re in love, there is no tomorrow that doesn’t look different to us. Everything will change, and I don’t want to lose what I have, so I want him to finally do something the right way, have the childhood, and maybe along the way, if he doesn’t want it, if it becomes something he cannot want, I want him to be able to stop, pull back … because I love him.”

Max was quiet thinking of what Maria was saying, thinking of himself and Liz. Maybe if he and Liz had slowly dated, slowly allowed their friendship to evolve long before the first kiss, their lives might have been different. As Maria said, everything for all of them raced at high speeds, and none of them learned to feel comfortable in their bodies before the world raced out of control to the next alien crisis. When he loved Liz, it was as if he wasn’t allowed to be an alien king, and when he was king, he couldn’t have Liz. They were the two parts of his makeup, and they were mutually exclusive of each other.

Maybe that was where he went wrong. He and Liz had needed the time to slowly build a strong foundation based on love, friendship and mutual respect, long before they built a future on it. Instead what they had began to crumble because there was too much stress on a foundation based on an idyllic love … to young and untried, and it had little else, leaving it shaky at best. He felt a friendship with Liz, and even a respect, but nothing equal to the deepness and richness that Michael and Maria had created over the years. Last spring proved that as their friendship and respect for each other blew up.

“Are you sure we're on Juarez road?” Maria asked breaking into his thoughts.

“Positive.”

“Then where's the turn-off to Blue Moon canyon?”

“Another three or four miles.”

Maria sat on the edge of the seat hoping they were right. It felt strange to be here without Michael. “Max?”

“Hmm.”

“Will you not tell Michael what I said?”

“Your secret is safe with me.” Maria smiled as Max turned onto Blue Moon canyon road, and they could see lights in the distance. The Rave. Enigma. They found it. Max found a place to park among the other cars, and he and Maria walked up an embankment towards the light.

“So, are you ready?”

“I've been thinking about this my whole life.” Maria told him, not meaning Enigma, but rather what it meant to her. Growing up, the culmination of years of effort to get there. It was her metaphor for loving Michael. “I am so ready.” Was it no wonder it felt wrong to be there without him. “Max?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you the designated driver?”

“I can’t drink, so yep, that would be me.”

“Good because I think I need a drink. Just promise me that you’ll keep an eye on me, don’t let me drink more than three, do not let any icky boys put their sweaty paws on me, and most important … do not let me take a pee in public.”

“Maria DeLuca … did you just ask me to be your chaperone?”

“Yeah, well you’re really good at it.”

~~~

Max and Maria were dancing and laughing as the party swelled into a loud explosion of music and lights. There were people everywhere, and the music and dancing seemed to sway to a collective beat. Max’s heart rate increased to match it, and he laughed with Maria as she danced, drawing attention to herself as her youthful enthusiasm mixed with the general feel of the party. She was down already two beers, and completely drunk, having more fun than she could say.

A hand touched her shoulder, and Maria swung around gasping in surprise at a tall Michael, standing over her. Max could hear her cry of, ‘Michael!’ just before she literally threw herself into his arms. Max watched as Michael took the bundle of Maria in his arms and twirled her around, and fulfilled his New Year’s resolution with a real kiss.

Max watched for a few moments, as did everyone else around them. Max quickly grabbed Michael’s arm, and dragged him out of the crowd to a corner. He didn’t have to worry about Maria, she was apparently attached at Michael’s mouth … and a few other places.

“Michael! Michael!” Max had to yell to get Michael’s attention from Maria.

“Huh?” Michael said in irritation, not pleased with the interruption.

“How did you get here?”

“Who cares!” Maria said enthusiastically, smiling at Michael before grabbing him for another kiss.

“Maria,” Max ordered, “step away from the alien, keeping your hands in plain view at all times.” Michael and Maria stopped their frenzied mating game to stare at Max in confusion.

The hand Max had on Michael suddenly moved off Michael’s arm as Michael pushed Max away. His. All his and no one was going to take her away. Max stared at the moving of glowing color along Michael’s skin.

“Michael, you’re still drunk! How did you get here? How did you find Enigma?”

“Yay us!” Maria told Michael excitedly, “I’m drunk too!”

“Enigma?” Michael mumbled confused, his eyes going to Maria, devouring her alive as she leaned into him whispering hotly, ‘Oh god, yes!’, and Michael said, “Maria, I found Maria.” He didn’t know what Enigma was … just Maria.

“You tracked Maria?” Max asked in disbelief.

“Max,” both Michael and Maria said at the same time. “Go away!”

Maria was kissing Michael passionately, her hands up his shirt on his skin. “Does this hurt?” She asked him. Michael moaned shaking his head.

Her hands moved and her mouth as she sucked on his skin. “Did that hurt?” Michael’s eyes took on a real hot component as he kissed her hard.

Max watched for the rest of the evening as his two drunk friends danced plastered together while kissing, and the occasional glow on Michael’s skin. No one else seemed to notice it as strange, and from the inebriated state of most of the Enigma partiers, they never would. Giving up his position of chaperone, he went back to the party, keeping a watchful eye on the two drunks, but it was his night off from the world, his world, and he wanted to pretend he was free and young.

~~~

Jesse got home early morning to find Kyle and Isabel on the couch. He stared at his wife sleeping with another man, and reached down to pick up the video box his wife rented. Rudolf’s Shiny New Year? Jesse shook his head and decided he owed Kyle a breakfast.

When Kyle, Jesse and Isabel came into the diner they found Liz working the early morning shift behind the counter. Liz looked up as the first customers of the day appeared smiling at her friends.

“Hi.” Isabel called to Liz as she, Jesse and Isabel took a close table instead of a booth.

Liz brought them menus. “Hey, Jesse. Hey, how was Houston?”

“Cold and uncomfortable. Spent the night in the airport.”

“What? You're kidding.” Wow, someone else had a terrible New Year’s Eve too? Though, Liz bet that hers won hands down, unless Jesse spent the night in a bathroom, locked in by an alien. Now how often did a person get locked in a bathroom by an alien? She so won this … hands down.

“Yeah, I wish I was. New Year's Eve, all alone, and then I come home to find my wife asleep with another man.”

“What?”

Kyle was looking through the menu. Breakfast was on Jesse. Hmm. “Morality has no place on New Year's Eve. I saw an opportunity, and I took it.” Kyle informed the group.

“The lesson is,” Isabel informed her husband, “never leave me alone. Ever.”

“Lesson learned.” Jesse pulled Isabel close kissing her.

“So,” Kyle said looking around hopefully, “I assume nobody found that Enigma thing, right?”

“I wouldn't be too sure of that.” Liz told Kyle gesturing to the Crashdown door as Michael, Maria, and Max came stumbling in. Maria was getting a ride on Michael’s back, and the group of them was singing … badly.

“You found it?” Kyle groaned. “I don't believe it.”

“Oh, yes, we found it, closed it, did it!” A weaving Maria exclaimed trying to sit on a stool at the counter. Michael picked her up dumping her on the seat while his arms went around her, holding her in place from behind.

“I'll bet you think it’s unbelievable, because we won the bet!” Michael told Kyle.

“That’s right!” Max made a rubbing gesture with his fingers at Isabel and Kyle indicating money.

Liz smiled at Max’s enthusiasm and the happy look on his face. “Tell us everything.”

“Ok, well, first we-- we go all the way back to the classroom for clues.” Maria started.

“It was at the falafel hut, right?” Kyle asked.

“The what?” Max made a face.

“Let Maria tell the story.” Michael told the others, especially since he had no memory of how he got to Enigma, or anything that happened in literally the last twenty-four hours. All he knew was he became aware with a very drunk Maria in his arms, dancing with him, kissing him, and whatever happened … he was not going to complain. He got his New Year’s resolution, even if the drunk Maria never remembered everything … it was a start.

“Thank you, Michael. Anyway, as I was saying …” Maria stopped when Mr. Parker came up to them. “Hi.”

“So you found Enigma?” Michael, Max and Maria nodded and Jeff Parker shook his head. “Well congratulations. The kitchen is open. Orders?”

The gang ordered food as Maria, Michael and Max continued to tell them their adventures, and Mr. Parker interrupted once to ask Michael and Max to later help him replace the back bathroom door. It seemed that the lock had frozen solid, and to get Liz out that morning, he had to take the entire door off its hinges.

~~~

Max and Liz dumped Michael and Maria into Michael’s bed to let them finish sleeping off their inebriated state. They watched as Maria curled up against Michael.

“Michael?”

“Hmm?”

“I think I’m going to throw up.”

An exhausted Michael didn’t even bother to open his eyes. “Okay.” He went back to sleep, as did Maria.

Liz shut the door. “How much did she drink?”

“Three beers.”

“Three?” Liz laughed. “One makes her tipsy, two and she’s trashed.”

Max laughed, his arms going around Liz pulling her close. “And you know this how, Ms. Parker?”

“My dad used to let Maria  and me have a beer when she stayed overnight. Hated the taste, but it was fun. We would get a little drunk, under my dad’s careful eyes, paint our toenails, and talk about boys.”

“Well, she only had two, but when Michael showed up, she had a third to celebrate him making it to Enigma.”

“How did he find it?”

Max shook his head at the mystery of it. “No clue. He just showed up, totally trashed and on his bike.” Max’s blood still ran cold at the idea of a drunk Michael on his bike, but that was done, and they still needed to go back and retrieve it from Blue Moon canyon. “He showed up, they danced, or did what passed for dancing, laughing and talking, and a heck of a lot more.”

“They didn’t …?” Liz asked remembering Maria’s plans to knock Michael down and abuse his body.

“No. But, they came about as close as they could in a huge crowd of people with most of their clothes still on.” Max laughed. “You know how the entire school thinks they’re together, a couple … a very sexually active couple?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, let’s just say that last night, Michael and Maria didn’t squash those ideas, but rather confirmed them.”

“Oh,” said Liz meeting Max’s eyes. “Oh!”

I Married An Alien…….

Isabel answered the door when the doorbell rang. It was Michael and Max. Michael was carrying a ladder and a can of paint, and Max was carrying painting stuff too.

“Honey, the painters are here.” Isabel called to Jesse in her syrupy voice.

“Yeah, that's funny.” Michael pushed his way inside. “Come on, move out of the way. This crap is heavy.”

Jesse walked into the room seeing his two brother-in-laws. “Hey guys.”

“Hey.” Max said nodding to Jesse.

“You sure you don't want me to stay and help out?” Jesse asked the boys.

“Ah, actually, there are a couple cans outside.” Michael informed the man happy to hand over the job.

“But they can manage.” Isabel told her husband pushing him towards the door.

“Right, our treat,” Max said. “Seriously, it's a housewarming gift from us to you.”

“Yeah,” Michael agreed, quickly adding, “and a wedding gift that's combined.”

Isabel laughs with that special look in her eyes, as she glared at Michael. “Don't be silly. The wedding gift will be separate.”

Michael made a face. “Of course it will.” Michael rolled his eyes. Last present he actually had to get Isabel, she made him exchange it three times until it finally met her approval.

“Well, it's just very generous of you to take your Saturday off to paint our apartment.” Jesse told them surprised at how much more accepting the two boys appeared about his marriage to Isabel.

“Ah, it won't take us that long, we're pretty fast.” Max told him.

Isabel grabbed Jesse's arm and walks him to the door. “Come on honey, you're going to be late. My dad hates late.”

“Okay, alright. Uh,” Jesse grabbed his golf clubs, “see you guys later.” He kissed Isabel's cheek nodding to the boys again. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Max said as Michael waved while making a face. Isabel shut the door behind Jesse.

“You know you could’ve probably done this yourself.” Michael told Isabel irritated by having to do this on his Saturday.

“Right, Jesse was going to let his wife paint the entire apartment all by herself.”

Max looked at the walls. “You know what color you want?”

“Tuscan Ocher or New England Brick Red. Isabel held up the sample color chips.

Michael rolled his eyes. “Here we go.” Isabel had them spend an entire afternoon moving her damn furniture recently. This was going to take forever.

“I need to see it in this space, so uh, Max you take Ocher to that wall, “Isabel pointed to the side wall and handed Max the color sample, “and Michael you take Red to that one there.” Michael frowned grabbing the sample color paper from her. “Then I'll decide. Maybe.”

Max and Michael held their hands against the wall, looking at the sample color, and concentrating. The white walls slowly turned into the two colors.

Michael stood back looking at the wall, not seeing the difference between his color and Max’s. “I'm exhausted, I'm calling a break.” He threw himself on the sofa and turned on the TV.

Isabel and Max leaned against the back of the sofa staring at the walls.

“I like the Ocher.” Max said after some consideration.

“Hmmm,” Isabel wasn’t that easily convinced.

Michael surfed the channels for a moment until he found a reason to go on. “Oh, Nickelodeon is having a marathon of Bewitched! My weekend is set.”

Isabel turned to stare at Michael in disgust. “Who are you and what have you done with Michael?”

Max snickered. “It's the whole Maria thing. Ever since she’s been out of town, he's been getting into the tube.” Max addressed his next comments to Michael. “It's getting pathetic!”

Michael ignored them. “This is the one where Samantha turns Darren into a goose. It's good.”

“You need a hobby, man.”

Michael made a huffing noise. He had a hobby, but she was out of town dealing with a death in her mother’s family. “What? Like golf? Ride around in some stupid cart?”

They all froze at the sound of keys rattling. Isabel freaked out. “Oh, Jesse!! Oh!!! The walls!!” She ran to the door and slammed it shut as soon as Jesse tried to open it.

“Hey, Isabel, it's me!” Jesse called.

“Sorry honey, there's a ladder in front of the door. Hold on one second.” Isabel gestured wildly at them to do it. Fix the walls. Max and Michael quickly changed the walls back to white.

“No, that's wrong. It was more of a Navaho White, that's more Aecho.” Max told Michael as they changed the walls back, and Michael’s was different.

Michael made a face. “And I'm the one who needs a hobby? Stop being so gay … you’re freaking me.”

“Is everything okay in there?” Jesse called through the door.

Isabel looked at Michael and Max making sure it was done. “Yeah, it's fine. It's fine.” She unlocked the door and lets Jesse in. “Yeah, sorry. Sorry, Forget something?”

“Yeah, my balls.” Michael and Max both laughed, finding that funny. A man married to Isabel losing his balls? Funny stuff. “Where you guys just talking about me?” Jesse asked Michael and Max.

Isabel made a scoffing noise in her throat. “That's a little paranoid, don't you think? I mean, the whole world doesn't revolve around you.”

“It revolves around Michael.” Max volunteered.

Michael raised his hand. “Uh, that's a fact.” He walked to the sofa and went back to watching Bewitched.

Jesse frowned at the other boy that was confusingly sort of Isabel’s surrogate brother. “Is he okay?”

“Michael?” Isabel asked. “Not really, but then he never has been. He’s just suffering Maria withdrawal.”

“Oh, okay. Bye.”

“Bye.” Isabel shut the door after him locking it. She walked over to the sofa exhausted suddenly by the constant lies.

“That was fun.” Michael said his eyes never leaving the TV.

Isabel sighed watching Samantha on Bewitched for a moment. “She had it so easy.”

“What are you talking about?” Michael demanded. “Take a look beyond the surface, and you'll see the truth. Samantha takes pride in her witchcraft, and she made a sacrifice for it in an uncaring, secular world. She's a modern day Athena.”

Max stared at the deranged Michael. “I swear my head is going to explode.”

“Well, at least Darren knew she was a witch. She's not having to run around hiding her powers from her own husband. But think about how much easier my life would be if Jesse could just know who I really am.”

“Yeah, that would be a classic show.” Michael said sarcastically. “You could call it ‘I Married an Alien.’”

Isabel laughed, and watched Samantha chasing Darren, who was now a goose, around the house. She started to daydream.

It was no longer Samantha and Darren, but her and Jesse riding in an old car on TV in '60s clothes. Jesse found the orb in the car.

“Isabel, how many times do I have to tell you not to leave your alien orbs in the car?”

“Sorry dear.” ‘60s Isabel smiled perkily and put the orb in her purse.

“Yeah, that would be some show.” Isabel said to herself.

~~~

Isabel was making breakfast and her mind kept wandering.

Isabel walked into her kitchen dressed like Samantha. The kitchen was a mess with dirty dishes everywhere.

“Wow, this is certainly no way to start a morning.” Isabel said simpering to herself as she waved her hands, and the dishes were clean and put away where they belong. “Hmm... I think we'll have French toast and sausage.” She waved her hand and the bread flew over to her as she grabbed it. Then she waved her hand again and the refrigerator door opened as a carton of eggs flew out and she grabbed them. She waved her hand again, and the sausage flew across the room.

Jesse walked in dressed as Darren, wearing a suit and holding a brief case. He saw Isabel using her powers to make the spatula fly over to her.

“Isabel.” Jesse said disapprovingly. “How many times do I have to tell you no alien powers in the house?” He stopped and sniffed the air. “Is that French toast?”

Isabel smiled sweetly opening the lid to the pan. “Mm-hmmm.”

Jesse kissed her cheek. “Well, maybe just this once.”

Jesse came into the kitchen sitting down at the table startling Isabel from her daydream. “Good morning.”

“Morning honey. Hey, here's this.” She handed him his coffee. “This time,” she told him as she lifted the lid to the pan with his breakfast, “I think I have really,” smoke poured out of the pan and Isabel stared down into it, “burned it again.” She put his burnt breakfast on his plate. “I think there’s something wrong with the stove.”

Jesse drank his orange juice. “Mm, well the orange juice is perfect.”

“Good. Fresh-squeezed.” Isabel smiled at him. “Okay, it's 8:58.”

Jesse quickly got up before Isabel decided to cook anything else. “Oh, I gotta go. I have to be in court at 9:15.” They hugged and kissed “So if it was anything else …” Jesse explained his need to run.

“I know, it's okay, I have to study.”

“I'll see you later!”

“Okay!” Isabel waves cheerfully. Until the door shuts, then she sat at the table dejectedly. Her life could be easier if she didn’t have to live a lie every day.

~~~

Isabel startled from another daydream where in the sitcom version of her life, Kyle was a friend who wanted her to use her powers for get rich quick schemes. She stared at the lump of metal on her table.

“Why do you always come to me with these things?” Isabel asked him.

“I'm sorry but I couldn't figure it out, and Toby's been on my ass all week. All it has to do is work, and it doesn't even have to work well.” Kyle explained. “Just so it works.”

“All right.” Isabel placed her hand over the carburetor, and used her powers to fix it.

“Thank you.”

There was a knock at the back door and Isabel was more than happy to leave Kyle and his mechanical nightmare to go answer it. She smiled when she saw Maria standing there. “Maria! Thank god, you’re home.”

Isabel hugged the other girl enthusiastically, as Maria patted her on the back, uncertain about the reception she was receiving. “Um, hi?” She glanced over at Kyle who shrugged. “So, I’m touched that you missed me.”

“Missed you?” Isabel laughed. “God, you can believe how relieved I am to see you. Michael has been a bundle of irritating nerves since he came back from the funeral without you.”

“Yeah, I had to stay behind to help mom with grandma’s estate. Sean was pretty useless. He lived with Grams for a while, and her death hit him pretty hard.”

“Sorry about your grandmother, Maria.” Kyle offered his condolences.

“Thanks. She was old, and really after grandfather DeLuca died, I really didn’t expect her to go on so many years alone. They were all gifts.” Maria cleared her throat really not wanting to talk about her loss. “Um, does anyone know where Michael is?”

“He’s not home glued to the TV?” Isabel asked.

“Nope. I checked there first, school’s out for the day, he’s not working at the Crashdown, and it’s too early to be at Meta-Chem.”

“I really should be going,” Kyle said picking up the carburetor.

Maria easily stood in his way. “Kyle? You wouldn’t know where Michael has wandered to, would you?”

“Maria, c’mon, give me a break.”

“Which arm?”

Kyle laughed, but the seriousness of Maria’s eyes stopped him from laughing, actually made him gulp. “Look, I don’t want to say anything, because he asked me not to. I can tell you that it’s a surprise for your birthday, and I’m not saying anything more.” Kyle quickly escaped.

Maria took a seat. “My birthday? That’s not for another six weeks.” Maria clicked at nail on her teeth in thought. “What could take six weeks to prepare for?”

“Don’t complain, just sit back and enjoy. I mean a few years ago, he would’ve given you a cutout coupon to a local eatery, and wonder why you didn’t think a can of motor oil for the Jetta wasn’t a great thoughtful present.”

Maria laughed. “True. He’s come a long way.”

“How’s the dating thing?” Isabel looked at Maria critically. “You do realize that the two of you are now officially dating, right?”

“Yeah, I can be a tad bit dense at times,” Maria ignored Isabel’s sarcastic ‘You think?’ going on, “but things have … changed.”

“Changed?” Isabel wasn’t sure she got that.

“He’s pulled back a bit in our relationship, not just the dating thing, but the friendship thing too.” Maria sat back unhappy. She was afraid this would happen.

“Maria, he’s not pulling back. The boy is a grumpy lump on the sofa porking on ‘Nick at Nite.’ Believe me, he’s missing you.”

Maria shook her head. “It’s my mom. She did this.”

“Excuse me?”

“He came to the funeral, they talked, and then next thing I knew, he told me that he needed to get home to work. I told him I’d come back with him, but he told me to stay, that my mother needed me.”

“You think she said something to him?”

Maria shrugged, not in the least bit elegantly as she put her head down on the table. “I’m sure of it. I have literally not kissed him, even platonically since Enigma. I can tell you exactly how many hours I’ve slept in his bed. I’m having a hard time getting him to hold my hand or spend real time with me, even like we used to do.” Maria groaned. “I messed this up, and I’m not sure how I did it.”

Isabel frowned. Something wasn’t right. “Look, Maria, he’s planning a big surprise for your birthday … I don’t think that means the end of anything. I mean, the two of you have been a couple for years, even if you refused to admit it.”

“What are you talking about?”

Isabel breathed deeply. There was only so much she could say before she said too much. Some stuff, Michael needed to tell Maria. “Why do you think Alex hit Michael when he kissed Courtney? Or why do you think I felt so weird over the whole destiny dream with me having a baby with Michael? I was pretty confused, but I wasn’t confused about the fact that Michael was yours, and that strange circumstance would interrupt your relationship, no more than I had any illusions that I would ever be enough, or able to compensate him for your loss. Michael would have given me his support, but be with me? Never. That was never going to happen, even if there was a baby.”

Maria stared at Isabel, speechless. So she admitted to be sleeping, barely breathing, waiting to exhale, but she couldn’t have missed all this, even that long ago … for that long?

“Look,” Isabel said afraid she said too much. “Don’t obsess. Just let Michael come to you in his own way. Or … try kissing him.”

Maria felt a sinking in her stomach. “I can’t kiss him,” she said in a hollow voice. God she had plans, but him pulling away changed them. She had to respect his wishes, respect that he didn’t want that with her.

“Why?”

Maria rubbed her forehead for a moment. “Zero to sixty in less than a minute.”

“Excuse me?” Isabel was confused.

Maria cleared her throat. “The next time I put my mouth on Michael Guerin’s, there are going to be clothes flying, and definite behavior not suitable for minors. I can’t. If he isn’t onboard with me from the start, then I might do something unforgivable.”

Isabel stared at the table, wanting to ask something that bothered her, or at least made her curious for the past few months. “Maria … how did you know about alien sex? I mean I assumed that you and Michael were … you know. I mean the entire school does. How did you know?”

“Oh, god!” Maria put her hands over her cheeks, embarrassed. “I … that’s something I wasn’t going to tell anyone.”

“Maria …”

“Do you ever have dreams?” Maria asked.

Isabel laughed. “Incidentally, lately … lots of them. I keep daydreaming Jesse and me into the Bewitched scenario, you know, where he knows that I’m an alien.”

“Okay, yeah, I do mean daydreams, but also other types of dreams …” Maria cleared her throat. “You know … dreams.”

“You mean sexual fantasies, and wet dreams?”

“Exactly!”

“Michael’s a star in yours?”

“No, Michael is more than just a star … he heightens them.” Maria said trying to discretely explain something she couldn’t really explain, but something she had been experiencing a long time, literally since she started getting flashes from Michael … feel his emotions.

“Heightens them?” Isabel shook her head, uncertain she was catching Maria’s meaning. Maria told her that alien sex was intense … very intense in a very good way. “Oh! You mean that he gives you … oh!”

“Mm-hmm. He does.” Maria exhaled deeply just at the thought of it.

“Does he get the same … benefit?”

“You think I’m going to ask him that?!” Maria was mortified. “I mean, until recently he was just a ‘good friend.’ I couldn’t go up to him and say … ‘Oh, by the way, you know how I get flashes off you at times? Well, guess what, it could with other perks as well. Spaceboy, when you flash, you really flash!’”

“Okay, so I see your point.”

Maria bit her lip. “The thing is, Isabel … I’ve been dying to ask someone, and I would ask Liz, but just never knew how to do it.”

“What?”

“You heal people, right?”

“Sometimes. Max does most of it, but yeah, I can heal.”

“Okay.” Maria nodded. “Is it … normal for the recipient and maybe even the healer to experience a …” Maria struggled for a word not too graphic or crude, “...completion?”

“Orgasm? You got an orgasm from being healed?” Isabel’s mouth opened in shock. “When?”

“Michael healed my broken arm in La Jolla.”

“And you …”

“Oh, yeah!”

Isabel started to make another comment, but there was a knock on her door. She stood up pointing at Maria. “Do not move. Do not leave. We’re still talking.” She answered the door. “Yes?”

“Hi, are--are you Isabel?” A strange man stood in the doorway.

“Yes.”

“Uh, I'm Eric, Eric Hughes, Jesse's friend from …”

“From Cornell. Of course, come in. I'm sorry.”

“Thank you.” The man smiled, relieved he got the right address.

“Come in.” Isabel stood back and as Eric came in putting his suitcase down. “So what are you doing here?”

“Uh, well, I just had a gig in Texas, and I thought that New Mexico was next door, so … He shrugged his shoulders, glancing into the kitchen and seeing Maria sitting at the table. The beautiful blonde girl was watching him, and Eric smiled and waved to her. “Hi!” God, New Mexico raised gorgeous women, no wonder Jesse couldn’t find a way to escape the area.

“That’s my friend, Maria.” Isabel quickly introduced them, before going back to Eric. “That's so great. Jesse is going to be so excited to see you. He was so disappointed to hear that you couldn't make it to the wedding.”

“I know. I'm sorry about that,” Eric confessed, not willing to admit that weddings were not his scene.

“Don't worry about that.”

“No, no, no. I had the best intentions. I was on the road and I was going to drive straight through from Atlanta, but I got kinda side tracked. I got this gig up in St. Paul and another gig in Chicago.”

Gig? Isabel frowned. “Oh, are you a musician?”

Eric laughed. “Uh, no, I'm a reporter.”

“A reporter?”

Maria’s mouth opened, and she quickly got to her feet. “Mm, I should be leaving. Bye Isabel!” She practically ran out the back door.

“Maria!” Isabel laughed nervously turning to Eric. “She must have plans … somewhere else.”

Pity, Eric shrugged turning his attentions back to Isabel. “Must say, I was pretty surprised to hear that ol' Jesse was getting hitched. You must be something out of the ordinary.”

“Me? No.” Isabel laughed uncomfortably. “So, how long will you be staying in Roswell?”

“Not too long. I just wanted to stop by, see Jess and meet you. Nothing too much going on right now, and I might not get the time later.”

“You have to stay. We have a couch, completely free.” Isabel insisted, needing to be normal in some way. “Jesse will be so excited to see you. He's always talking about you and the guys from the fraternity.”

“It's all good I hope.”

“Well, he glosses over the good stuff. Makes it seem like you spent all your free time discussing and studying under his influence.”

Eric laughed, his dimples deepening in amusement. “He must be a lawyer.” He sat on the couch smiling at the young woman. “Um, well, I appreciate you letting me stay on the couch. I'll try not to get in the way. Who knows, maybe while I'm here I can get myself a story. This is Roswell after all. So, know where I can find any aliens?” Isabel laughed nervously as Eric joined in.

~~~

Isabel went to find her brother, and knowing him, she headed straight to the Crashdown. He would no doubt be there mooning over Liz, waiting for her to get off work so his life could begin.

“Liz, hi.”

“Isabel. You want a menu?”

“No. I want Max.”

“He’s not here.”

Isabel looked around. “You’re kidding! Huh, imagine that.” She frowned, trying to think where else Max could be.

“But he will be soon. He called a few moments ago to tell me he was on his way.”

“I’ll wait.” Isabel looked around, not really hungry or wanting anything. She glanced at Liz, and then remembering her talk with Maria speculation, entered her eyes. “Um, Liz?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

Liz stopped working to wait for Isabel to continue. Isabel rarely sought her out, so this was unusual. “Sure.”

“Do you have … dreams?” Isabel rolled her eyes. Of course she had dreams, after all she had invaded a few. “About Max, I mean. You know … dreams?” God, Isabel didn’t mean her boring romantic dreams about Max making it rain rose petals, or anything that lame.

Liz mouth flew open. “You mean like …” Her face turned slightly red. “Oh, those kinds of dreams! Sure, I mean …”

Isabel quickly held up a hand. “No details!” She took a deep breath. Eww. That was close. “No, I just wanted to know that when you do, if you actually feel anything, you know …”

“It’s just a dream, Isabel.”

“No. I mean do you get a ‘physical’ response to the dream?”

“You mean like an orgasm?” Liz asked in a loud whisper, leaning in closer, suddenly turning even redder as Max entered the Café. “Oh! No. I mean, it’s … no, never! I mean that one time when we found the orb from a touch, but otherwise … normally, um, no!”

“Oh, okay. I don’t either.” Isabel said quickly as Max joined them.

“You don’t what?” he asked.

“Nothing.” Liz said quickly smiling at her boyfriend but then frowned, connecting the dots to the questions. “Wait, if you don’t and I don’t, then why are you asking?”

Isabel cleared her throat. She glanced quickly at her brother. “Nothing. It’s just something that happens to Maria, and I … she wanted to know if it was commonplace.”

“Michael gives her orgasms?” Liz squeaked. How could her friend not mention this?

“What?” Max sat up straighter.

“Shush!” Isabel looked around nervously. “Could you say it a little louder?”

“Does Michael?” Max asked curiously.

“Do I look like I’m going to ask?” Isabel asked her brother crossly. “I’m getting the impression … yes. She said that when he healed her broken arm, that she … that they both, well … you know!” Isabel looked around leaning on the counter. “I was just wondering if when Max healed you, if you felt … you know, that amount of intensity?”

“No. I didn’t really feel anything, not until he let me see into his mind, you know so I wouldn’t be afraid of him.”

“I got flashes from Liz, about her life, but not that.” Max reassured Liz quickly not wanting her to think he was some alien pervert running around healing everyone, especially kids for a sexual rush.

“I don’t get that rush either when I dream about Jesse or anything either.”

“Wait,” Max said needing clarification. “It happens in dreams?” Damn. Max obviously missed the first part of the conversation.

Isabel hit the countertop. “Oh my god! Of course!”

“What?” Max and Liz chorused.

“If they’re heightening off each other, getting this rush in their ordinary dreams and daydreams,  no wonder neither of them felt a need to date other people!” Max and Liz shared a glance, still confused by what Isabel was saying. “Don’t you get it? They’re like each other’s private vibrators.”

Liz stood back, not sure she wanted to think that much about Michael and Maria’s private relationship. “You know, a few years back, after they went to Marathon, Maria told me that Michael was a vibrator.”

“She said that?” Isabel laughed. “Michael said the exact same thing!”

“I said what?” Michael asked, having come up behind them with them unaware.

“Nothing!” they all said in unison, looking guilty.

Isabel changed the subject. “Oh good, you’re both here. I think we might have a problem.” She quickly told them about Jesse’s friend, and his joking request to find Roswell aliens.

“Sounds like you’re making a big thing out of nothing.” Michael said. He looked at the time. He was missing the marathon. “I’ve gotta go.”

“Did Maria find you?”

“Maria?” Michael stopped short. “She’s back?”

“Uh-huh. Came by my place looking for you. We had an interesting talk.” Isabel ignored Max’s comment under his breath about ‘Oh boy, did they...,’ as she continued. “Seems Maria’s upset, confused by you. She’s under the impression that you’re pulling back on your friendship with her, and that she messed things up.”

“Great!” Michael scratched his brow. “Look, I’ve gotta go.” He was out of there. Great. Just great. The more he tried, the worse things got. You would think he could catch a break.

~~~

Jesse and his friend were looking through his CDs and drinking beer while talking about mutual friends. Isabel came in and dropped off bedding for Eric, refusing to stay up and hang with the two friends.

“Just like the good ol' days, man. Where's the bong?” Eric asked Jesse.

“Shh!” Jesse glanced at the closed bedroom door. “Come on, she doesn't know I used to get high.”

“What? What, you're keeping secrets from your wife?”

“I dunno. We're still getting to know each other.”

“Okay dude, you're supposed to do that before you get married,” Eric pointed out.

Jesse laughed a little drinking his beer. “In a perfect world.”

“Yeah. Well, how many secrets are you keeping from her?”

“Hmm. Not as many as she has.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Jesse frowned in his beer.

“Come on dude, look who’re you talking to? Must I remind you of the notorious infamous Kate Joplin episode and her monstrous lacrosse playing 6’3” boyfriend?”

Jesse laughed. “Yeah, you saved my ass, I remember.”

“Yeah, I did!”

“I--I don't know man-- it's just weird. I feel like there's a part of Isabel's life she doesn't want to share with me, you know?”

“Like what?”

“Like--I don't know just--Every once in a while something weird happens and … like the other day, I'm fixing the ice maker. Okay I'm in there, and I'm getting pissed off, I'm banging the thing, and I'm cursing like that's gonna help, and she comes in and she says, take a break. So I'm headed to the bedroom, and I glance back and her hand is on the ice maker.”

“So?”

“So when I come back, it's fixed. I mean it works perfectly.”

“Huh. Well, you know, in my professional opinion, I'm gonna have to say that that is not a story.”

“Okay, fine. Well, what about her brother, Max? He breaks my nose right before our wedding …”

“He broke your nose?”

“Yeah, it's a long story, I'll tell you later. But he breaks my nose, and he heals it with a steak the next day.”

“What do you mean a steak like …”

“Like a steak. He completely heals a very broken nose in about thirty seconds. It's just weird. Just … really weird.”

“Huh. Well, maybe … maybe she's an alien. Jesse man, you married one of the Roswell aliens.” They both laughed at the pure stupidity of it. “It's like--it's like ‘I Dreamed of Jeannie’ for a new millennium, man.” They laughed a little too loud.

“Shut up, shut up.” Jesse begged as Eric began to sing the theme song to I Dreamed of Jeannie.

~~~

Max walked into Michael’s living room and found him brooding, watching ‘Bewitched.’

“Okay, this is officially not funny anymore.”

“I'd ask what your problem is Maxwell, but I really don't care.” Michael said ignoring Max to concentrate on the marathon.

Max used his powers to turn off the TV. “Michael, you have got to get a life.”

“I tried. It didn’t work. Thanks for the heartfelt advice. You can leave now.” Michael used his powers to turn on the TV.

“Go talk to her!”

Michael couldn’t do that. “I can’t, okay?” He groaned. Why couldn’t Max just leave him alone to wallow in TV Land marathons?

“What happened? You two looked like you were on your way, and now … what  changed your mind or stalled?”

“Neither. Her grandmother died.”

“And?”

“I saw Amy DeLuca.” Michael confessed.

Max sat on the edge of the sofa. “She told you to back off?”

“No. Maria’s mom and me, we have an ‘understanding’, but I was talking to her, listening to her, and it occurred to me. I want her daughter.”

“Big revelation?”

“No. You don’t get it. I want her not even legal daughter, and not just as my friend. I’m talking about in a completely carnal way, and some of the things I think about in my brain, if Mrs. DeLuca could read my mind …”

“She would kill you in your sleep as the antichrist?”

“That and worse. She would hang me upside down, eviscerate me, while I slowly sanguinated, and then infect me with a flesh eating virus.”

“Oh wow.” Max was quiet for a moment. Those had to be some very interesting fantasies. “So what now? You gonna just step away from Maria?”

“No. I’m going to wait until she’s eighteen, which is in 40 days, 11 hours, 37 minutes, and some seconds. Then, she’s legal and I won’t be dishonoring a woman that has been almost the only mother I’ve ever had.”

Max laughed shaking his head. He never imagined that it would ever come to this for Michael. “So this is a respect thing.”

“Yeah. I don’t have much in the way of honor, and no family to mention, but Amy DeLuca. She opened her home to me, gave me her trust, and she seems to understand that this thing I have for Maria isn’t just a raging hormone thing. She trusts me with her daughter, and I was standing there talking to her thinking about how tight Maria looked in that cute little black dress.”

“It’s a good dress.”

“Yeah.” Michael groaned. “I am officially one real sick pup, making all nice with her mother while my mind was going over all kinds of nice lewd scenarios.”

“So you left.”

“Seemed the best thing to do, given my physical state. I swear I take more cold showers than any other man alive.”

“You do take a lot.” Max admitted, hiding his amusement. “So now you have Maria thinking she did something wrong, messed things up, and you no longer want to be even her friend.”

“I know.” Michael stared at the TV. “I just took another step back, and in truth, I’m exhausted trying to make up some ground.”

“Okay, all is not lost. You only have to hold out forty more days.”

“Eleven hours, twenty-four minutes, and some seconds.”

“I’m serious, you’re going to rot what's left of your brain with this.” Max used his powers to turn off the TV. “Try getting up and doing something productive.”

“I am showing an interest in the classics.” Michael told Ma firmly. He had checked it out. If he could sustain a forty day ‘Bewitched’ marathon, then he’d be home free. Michael used his powers to turn on the TV.

“You're wallowing in self-pity.” Max turned off his powers to turn off the TV.

Michael was more than a little annoyed. “You know this is my apartment! If I want to sit here a wallow, which I'm not, then that's my business!” He tried to use his powers to turn on the TV, but because he was upset, he blew up the TV instead. “Great! Thanks!”

“Oh yeah, that's my fault. I'm outta here. I'll see ya later.” Max started to leave but he paused at the door. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but do you honestly think you can afford to let Maria think you don’t want a relationship with her, friendship or otherwise for the next forty days? Maybe you should at least go back to the beginning, when you two were just friends that hung out, and cool it down some until she’s of an age when you can do something about it comfortably.”

Michael stared morosely at his TV. Now he had damn scruples! This was stupid. He was lonely, and he missed spending time with Maria. Maybe Max was right, he needed a new hobby.

~~~

Isabel was busy cleaning the chaos in her perfect little home, cluttered by pizza boxes and beer bottles.

“The place is a wreck, I know.” Jesse told her when he walked in the door and saw her cleaning. “We'll clean it up when we get back, I swear, okay?” Isabel nodded wishing Eric would leave. Jesse hurried to the bathroom door and knocked. “Come on, let’s go. We're gonna be late!”

Eric came out of the bathroom. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I have an idea.”

“First time for everything,” Jesse teased his friend.

Eric laughed. “I want to write a story about you and Isabel. It's a story about how two people marry in a hurry, and then have to do all the get to, know you stuff later.”

Isabel hated the idea. “Sounds boring to me.”

“But I'm gonna pitch it so it sounds great. Hot shot lawyer marries small town girl after whirlwind romance. My editor loves that kind of crap.” Eric reassured Isabel.

“Are you saying the story of our marriage is crap?”

“Yeah, it's good solid horrible crap. Come on you guys, I need your help. I need to sell something.”

There was a knock on the door, and Isabel was visibly relieved. “I don't feel like being in a magazine right now,” she said as she answered the door to Max.

“Hey.” Max said, looking past Isabel at Jesse and his friend.

“Hey.” Isabel opened the door wider to let Max inside.

“Hey.” Eric said nodding to Max.

“Max,” Jesse said, “this is Eric, my friend. Eric, this is Max, my brother-in-law.” Eric and Max shook hands.

“Hey.” Max said.

“Hi.” Eric looked Max over. “Oh, you're the guy with the special healing powers.”

Max quickly waved his arm, and Eric changed into a hound dog. “Somebody want to tell me what's going on?” Max said to Isabel and Jesse.

Jesse stared at his friend in shock. “Max, you just can’t go around turning people into dogs.”

“I won't stand here and be lectured by the descendant of an ape.” Max said rudely in his superior alien manner, tapping his foot as he looked at his sister.

“Max, change him back please.” Isabel pleaded wringing her hands, use to playing the peacemaker between the two men.

“He seems to know our little secret. Now how could that have happened?”

“He doesn't know anything, unless, of course, he's seen you flying around the neighborhood in the saucer again.” Jesse said crossly at the buffoon. Brother-in-law or not, Max was an idiot.

“You go for one joy ride, and they never let you forget it.” Max complained.

“Max, I-- I don't want him to piddle on the carpet.” Isabel begged wondering if her carpet had a special decon stain resistant coating.

Max raised his index finger hushing both Isabel and Jesse. “In a minute. Speaking of the saucer, Michael burned out the cloaking device, so I had to park it in your basement for now.”

Jesse couldn’t believe this. “In the basement?”

“Am I speaking too fast for your human brain to follow?”

“How did you get it in there?” Jesse asked as Max rolled his eyes.

“He used the time-space slip stream, dear.” Isabel explained patting her husband sympathetically.

“Duh!”

“Great!” Jesse bent down and covered the dogs ears with his hands, so he couldn’t hear what was being discussed. “There's a reporter in the house with a flying saucer in the basement.”

“Want me to take him to the pound?” Max offered. Jesse picked up the dog keeping him away from Max.

“Just change him back please.” Isabel asked nicely.

“Oh, very well.” Max changed Eric back into a human, and Eric jumped out of Jesse's arms.

Isabel blinked as her daydream broke, and Max was saying goodbye to Eric. “Nice to meet you.” Max said.

“I'll see you later.” Jesse kissed Isabel on the cheek.

“Bye. Have fun.” Isabel called to them as they left.

Isabel turned to Max. “Yeah, Jesse told him about the whole broken nose incident, and they've been yakking it up ever since about how I'm from a family of aliens.” Max smiled and tried not to laugh. “You think that's funny.”

“Well-- Yeah. I mean, in an ironic sort of way. They're just kidding around. If you make a big deal out of it, it will look suspicious.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Isabel’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here?”

“Inviting my sister to have a delicious piping hot breakfast before her first class, my treat.”

“Oh. Where?” As if she didn’t know, and Max just smiled.

Isabel and Max walked up to the Crashdown Café and Isabel groaned. Her brother was going to be smelling like grease if he didn’t alter his eating patterns.

“You don't need me as a chaperone. Liz's father has given you the green light for you guys to be together.”

“I just don't want her dad to think I'm some loser who doesn't have anything better to do all morning then sit in a booth and wait for Liz to get off work.” Max told Isabel as he opened the Cafe door for Isabel. They walked in.

Isabel laughed. “Must I make the obvious comment?”

“Please don't.”

Isabel groaned as she walked into the place and saw Liz seeing them. She blinked …

Liz dressed at a 60s waitress came up to them batting her eyes wildly. “Max.”

“Liz.”

“Max.”

“Liz.”

“Can we get a table for two?” Isabel pleaded with the mooning couple, her stomach souring.

“Oh, certainly Isabel. You must be here to have breakfast with Max,” Liz said in her loud squeaky voice, talking louder so her dad could hear, “cuz he's certainly not here to see me, are you Max?” Liz gives an outrageous wink at them that had Isabel gasping in horror.

Max simpered back. “Certainly not.”

“This way.” Liz showed them to a booth as they sat down. Liz sighed dramatically mooning at Max on last time before walking away. Max leaned his elbow in the table cupping his face in his hand watching her leave.

“Eww!” Isabel startled herself out of that disturbing daydream.

~~~

“Hey,” said Michael from the doorway of Maria’s room. “I heard you were back and looking for me.”

“I was.” Maria smiled at him, happy to see him standing there looking so … Michael. She got up and went over and hugged him, to suddenly step b