The shadows of the corner weren’t dark enough, not to stay hidden forever. He was coming. She could taste the brassy taste in her mouth like rusty nails. It was the taste of fear and blood. Looking all around trying to find a better hiding place her breath was coming fast and hard. He was going to come for her, find her. Her heartbeat was so loud that there was no way that he couldn’t hear it. He would find her, and she would pay. She crouched behind a trash receptacle hoping for the impossible. It was the shadow that she saw first. The sense of dread increased as she realized that he was going to punish her harshly. With a tear sliding down her cheek, she hoped that her mother would be okay without her.

~~~

Michael was working the late shift at the CrashDown with Maria. He hated working with her. Since they broke up they hardly talked at all. It was hard to find ways to apologize, even though he and Isabel agreed that they would never make it together despite all the mandates of a thousand worlds. Nothing could erase the feelings of being brother and sister for ten years. They felt the pull of what was engineered between them, but the attraction had changed into feeling deeper, more like the familiarity of family.

Maria was cold and unyielding. She accepted that his pursuing his alien side was necessary and that understanding the past was important. Maria and Isabel remained friends, but she had yet to forgive him. It wasn’t the Destiny that was the problem. It was him leaving her before he had to. Leaving her because he was afraid, and out of control. If he had loved her enough he would have fought to keep her in his life like Max was fighting for Liz. It was the greatest betrayal, and the one she couldn’t forgive. It was making it hard for them to communicate at all with Maria being cold and Michael getting defensive.

He couldn’t help but react when she pushed him hard at times. But it was the guilt, knowing that he was responsible for hurting her deeply that made him push her back equally hard. If he could find a way to apologize, he would. But perhaps that time was over, and he just needed to face the fact that his relationship with Maria would never mend.

“Have you even tried to talk to her Michael?”

“Isabel, leave it alone. We barely talk.”

“This is stupid. You realize that right?”

“I realize that she is cold towards me, and doesn’t plan to let me near again. I’m guilty for hurting her, and we’re at a stalled position.”

“I want our friends back Michael. I want us all back together the way we were before this all happened.”

“It’s not gonna happen between us, Isabel. We’ve lost so much ground. She is dating other guys and has been all summer. Why should she trade a normal life to walk back into all this mess, all this danger.”

“Because she loves you? Or maybe you should let her, since you love her too. It would have never worked between us with you loving her the way you do. Don’t you ever want to be happy? You deserve to be happy too, Michael.”

“Isabel, I don’t think it’s gonna happen.”

“I see you as a father with lots of children. Tell me that you’ll ever feel this way about another person like you do her? Tell me that you’ll ever find a way to let some other in close enough as Maria, or that you even want to?”

“That’s not possible Isabel. I’m alone. That’s the way it’s always been and the way it always will be.”

“That’s just stupid. How can you tell me that you don’t want more, don’t need more? I know better. Hell, Michael you know better too.”

“Excuse me?” Both Michael and Isabel looked up to see Maria standing in the door leading into the kitchen. “Michael the trash is getting out of control. Think you could find the time in your busy conversation to actually empty it?”

Michael bristled under the censor in Maria’s voice. She noticed Maria slight smile at Isabel, as if to tell her that her tone of voice was not meant for her, but was for Michael alone. The merry war between them was heating up and spilling over into everything they did. Michael did the only thing he could. He responded with equal nastiness.

“If you want it empty, Princess, I suggest you do it yourself. I’m busy.”

Maria looked at him hard with cold dark eyes that he could feel cutting into him. Then the look changed to almost regret, sorrow, and finally pain. Before he could react, the look changed to that blank look she kept getting lately, and with a look that seemed to pass through him as if he weren’t there, she turned and left.

“Maria, wait.” Michael started after her, but she was already out the door.

“Why did you do that? You know that she’s pissed at you so why do you add fuel to the fire, making it worse and worse? Don’t you love her anymore?”

“Of course I still have feelings for her, but they’re all confused, almost tangled up in this guilt I carry around. I knew Isabel. I knew about her dad leaving and how insecure she’s about being deserted by her own father. But I swear, I didn’t think about any of that when I left her. I just didn’t want my usually fucked up life to destroy hers.”

“Maybe you should go after her?”

“No. It’ll just find a way of being the wrong choice. My relationship with Maria has been a series of wrong choices along the way. Maybe this is its own destiny. The destiny where I don’t get the girl, we don’t live happily ever after, and we die alone and miserable.”

“Tell me that you don’t believe that?” Michael just shrugged his shoulders. It was looking really grim. Isabel stayed an extra ten minutes talking. It was as she was leaving that Liz came in the door.

“Have you guys seen Maria?”

“She was here a few minutes ago, Liz. She wanted Michael to take out the trash.”

“Yeah, I know. It was getting pretty bad up front, and we would take it out, but the new cans are too heavy to lug around. I really wish we would go back to the old ones.”

“Maybe Maria took the trash out herself?” Michael could feel his usual guilt climbing thinking about a very tiny Maria lugging a huge garbage can to the skip by herself. Wiping his hands, Michael took off out the door to go see if Maria was in the alley wrestling an oversized garbage can into the larger dumpster. Isabel and Liz shrugged and followed him.

Out back in the alley, Michael looked up and down, but Maria was nowhere to be seen. Almost going inside and looking for her elsewhere, he noticed a large trash can on its side by the larger garbage receptacle. Going back into the alley, Michael went over to investigate. There was the offensive garbage can with its garbage spewed along the alley. On the ground next to the dumpster was Maria’s CrashDown antennae headband. Looking inside the skip itself, Michael tried to make sure that Maria wasn’t inside. There on top of the garbage was one of Maria’s shoes tossed inside. The sense of deep concern didn’t hit until while he was getting down he noticed a silent Liz and Isabel staring at the side of the metal dumpster. Bloodstains were gracing the side of the skip, and a trail of blood moved off down the alley until it stopped.

Maria? Michael looked up and down the alley, but she was nowhere to be seen.

~~~

Valenti watched the Feds mark off the area with tape while more and more relief vehicles made it to the scene. Over the last four months over seven young girls had been taken. Maria was starting to look like number eight. This case was the Feds over two months ago after the first dead girl was found. So far of the missing girls only three had been found dead. The remaining girls were still missing, and now, Maria DeLuca has joined their ranks. Jim knew he had no rights in the case, but this was personal. He stood beside Amy DeLuca when they told her that Maria had been taken, and that she was injured.

Valenti wasn’t sure whom to worry about most, Amy or Michael? The rests of the group were equally torn, but Michael was a large lump of silent guilt, sorrow and anger. He literally hadn’t spoken a word since Maria was taken. Liz told him that Michael blamed himself for fighting with Maria and refusing to go empty the trash. And it was while she was emptying the trash that she was vulnerable to be snatched. Looking at the silent suffering young man, he was powerless to help him find a way out of the guilt. If Maria weren’t returned to them unharmed and alive, there would never be any release, not for Michael Guerin.

“Sheriff Valenti?” Jim looked up to see a young woman dressed in a dark suit and standard FBI overcoat.

“Yes? May I help you?” They woman came forward and placed her brief on the edge of his desk extending her hand.

“I’m Special Agent Cordy Powers.” Jim stood and shook the Agent’s hand firmly. He indicated for her to take a seat as he retook his. “I understand that not only do you know the last victim personally, but you would like to be included on the case?” She paused looking the Sheriff over. This wasn’t dead meat law officer material here. He looked to be on top of the game, and not just a rustic yokel. “It’s not the policy of the FBI’s special crime units to include local constables or to even keep them really informed.”

“Special Agent, I…”

“But, in your case I’ll make a special amendment to that policy.” Valenti paused in suspicion over her willingness to include him. He had been ready for a fight.

“Excuse me?”

“I understand that you have a special relationship with this girl and her family? I also noticed that the last four girls were taken in this general area, your area. I may need you more than you think. My task force are strangers here, so as long as your people follow directions, hold back when asked, we might find a way to share the work.”

“I would appreciate that, Special Agent…”

“Cordy. It’s just Cordy, or Powers if you prefer.”

“Cordy?”

“Yes, short for Cordelia.” She sat in the seat across from the desk and looked him over. The strain was showing around the edges. He lost five girls in his district alone, and the FBI original task force finally pulled out to call in the special unit that specialized in serial crimes. Two of the recovered dead girls of the three were from this area, so technically he was only missing three girls now. The other three were from the county to the west.

“We’ll set up in the room that was just vacated by the last team. I know they kept you out of the loop, but in truth they were making no real headway. We have a definite loss of information, no eyewitnesses, and so far, no connection has been made between the girls. What my task force will do is re-examine the information, the crime scenes, re-interview all parties concerned, and try to profile the killer. We need to understand what he sees when he targets these young girls, and Sheriff?” She paused to look at her watch. “We’ve less than two weeks to do this before the next girl is taken.”

“I understand. He is very consistent on taking them every two weeks. Any reason why?”

“As of yet? No.” She moved forward and took off her overcoat laying it across her lap. Placing a recorder on the table in front of her, see looked at him with dark silent eyes. “Tell me about Maria DeLuca.”

~~~

“Michael?” She called his name from the doorway of the darken room. He was sitting on the edge of the bed holding a napkin holder that he had made her months ago. He came every night to sit there for hours, until the morning, and then he would leave to continue his search. Amy moved forward into Maria’s empty room. When Maria left, all the life left with her.

“Michael?” Amy kneeled down to see him, but he kept his head down looking at the napkin holder, holding it firmly in his hands. He could feel the smoothness of the woods grain that he had sanded not once, but three times to get a smooth soft finish that wouldn’t splinter her hands. Her hands. Michael’s body lost control of a long deep sob.

Sitting on the bed next to him, Amy took the holder away and set it on the bedside table. Pulling his head to her breast, she held him. At first he remained stiff and unyielding, but suddenly as if the very weight of the world was pulling him down, he collapsed and rested against Amy. She was shocked at the deep wracking sobs being pulled from his body as he cried against her. It was more than sorrow; it was anguish and unrelenting pain. Holding him close she moved to sit on Maria bed against the headboard and let him cry.

Jim stood in the doorway watching for a while. Amy was holding Michael and gently running her hand through his hair and rubbing his back. He had not spoken a word since Maria was taken and his physical condition was deteriorating fast. As far as Jim could tell, the young man has neither eaten nor slept since Maria’s abduction. After the violent storm of weeping stopped, Amy felt him finally succumb to sleep. Looking up finally at Jim, she slowly moved out from Michael and laid him on the bed, covering him up. Leaving the room in a muted darkness with only a soft light on that she left lit every night to guide Maria home, Amy shut the door and prayed that he could finally find one night of blissful rest and peace.

“How long has that been going on?”

“His coming over here?” Jim nodded his head. “Since she was taken. This is the first time I ever went into the room. He always seemed to need to be here, but to be alone.”

“They were…close.”

“I know. It worried me that all of it was on Maria’s part, but after they broke up she was really, really miserable.” Amy rubbed a hand over her hair and could feel the weight of the pain pulling her down. “I wanted him to be sorry, to feel pain over losing her, but I never meant it to be this way, not like this.”

“He needs rest. I’m starting to think that I may have to arrest him to keep him off the streets.”

“I don’t understand? He’s here most nights.”

“It’s not the nights. It’s the days. He is slowly and systematically breaking into every house in Roswell and surrounding areas, searching them, and then leaving. He doesn’t damage anything, and he doesn’t take anything. Michael is looking for Maria in his own special way.”

“Maybe you should let him work with you, with the FBI. It may be a way of getting him to speak again.”

“I know. I’m worried about that too. Look, I’m going to speak to Stan Walker. Do you remember him?”

“Didn’t he go to school with you or something? I thought he moved to Albuquerque and got married a few years back.”

“He did. Stan went to school to become a psychologist. His wife died in a car accident about four years ago, and I thought his daughter died too, but she survived the car accident and that’s why they moved back to Roswell, and his family’s home. She’s sort of an invalid and does home schooling. I feel really bad that this has happened, but he understands grief and pain. Maybe he can help Michael. Philip Evans suggested him because both Max and Isabel are seeing him.”

Amy looked at Jim in wonder. She never realized how concerned Jim was about Michael, how close he seemed to the young man. This was different and very unusual. The police sheriff rarely found a friendship with one of the most notorious bad boys in a town, and Michael reputation was very notorious.

“You really care about him, don’t you?”

“Yes, he’s a good kid. His reputation is more undeserved than you could imagine. He has a real thinking heart, and sort of an abused one. It’s never been easy for him being raised by Hank, and not having a real sense of family.” Jim didn’t know how much to reveal, what would be too much, or too little. “His bond with Maria is very real Amy. I can feel it when I’m around them. He shuts her out because he doesn’t feel that he’s good enough for her that he can ever belong. But I have never seen one person need another as much as he needs her.”

“Thank you Jim. That just hits my parenting nightmare. How am I suppose to keep the two of them apart, and I mean apart, if everything inside them is pulling them together? What you’re saying is that even though they’re broken up, it’s just a matter of time before they get back together. And then what Jim?”

Jim looked away deciding that maybe he did say just a little too much. “Then they date, they do things together, whatever young people do together now days.”

He winced a little when he heard Amy swearing under her breath. The best thing was the fact that Amy was talking about Maria like she was still with them, like there was no question that they would get her back. The day Amy DeLuca gave up hope was the day they buried Maria, and not a moment sooner. Amy DeLuca didn’t know how to yield.

“I’ll talk to Dr. Walker about this.”

~~~

Looking up from the file he was reading, the doctor watched the young man. He thought Max Evans was a closed book with his sister coming in a near second, but he scrapped those thoughts the moment he met Michael Guerin. It took the Sheriff four tries to get the young man here, but finally it was Maria DeLuca’s mother, Amy that finally dragged him in. He sat unspeaking, unmoving, and still across from the desk in that chair staring at a wall. It wasn’t anger, and it wasn’t abuse that held his tongue. It was the void. The young man was empty, lost, almost a shell of a human. Maria DeLuca. He looked at her picture one more time and noted how beautiful she was. You could almost hear her laughter in her smile and the twinkle of her eyes. As alive as her picture appeared was how dead this young man was.

Getting up, Stan walked over to a closet and pulled out an easel with a pad of paper, a palate, and acrylic paints with brushes, rags and cleaner. Setting the stuff up in a corner by the window he walked back over to the young man watching him again. Holding out a pencil, he offered it to Michael. This was the third session and his last real hope to reach him. He barely noticed the moment that Michael’s gaze focused on the pencil, but once it did, it was if his entire attention was caught there. Taking the instrument he stood and walked over to the easel and began to draw.

Stan retook his seat and sat watching his patient draw nonstop for half an hour with his hands folded together in thought. Getting up he went outside to see his secretary and have her cancel his appointments for the rest of the day. Going back into his office, he settled down to watch an amazing picture of Maria DeLuca come alive, even more alive than the photo he held in his hands.

Stan continued to read all the background information he had on Michael Guerin, all the police reports, school reports, reports given by Philip Evans on his home life in foster care and his emancipation, and finally the report given by the Sheriff. The amazing thing was the pattern of obvious abuse ranging over ten years, but it had gone unnoticed and unchecked in all that time because the patient was never once hospitalized in his life or sick. The story told of a very lost young man, a very talented young man that was surprisingly more sensitive than most would have imagined. He would have made a fine son for a man who could have appreciated him.

Stan looked up when suddenly Michael gave a deep sigh and sat down his paintbrush. There were tear trails on his cheeks. Without even looking back or saying a word, he left the office. Amy DeLuca who had waited all that time, left and came back time and time again, entered the office after Michael had left. She found the doctor standing over by the window staring at a picture deep in thought.

“Doctor?” Stan looked up to see the young woman who looked far to young to have a seventeen-year-old daughter. He could see the worry in her eyes; the grayness of her skin, and inside he felt a tinge of compassion and sorrow for her pain.

“Ms. DeLuca? I’m so sorry. Have you been waiting all this while?”

“Yes. I actually came and went a few times.” Slowly moving into the office she moved towards him and the painting. “Michael, did he speak to you, talk?”

“No. He just painted.” Amy moved to stand beside the doctor and look at the painting. Her gasp drew the doctor’s attention from the painting back to her. He watched as sadness and pain ran across her features. Looking at the picture again it took in the sheer beauty of Maria. She looked like an angel.

“He loves her.”

“Yes.” Stan paused. “But it’s more than that. She is his deliverance from pain. She illuminates him. The only light he ever had in his life.”

~~~

When Amy got home she silently walked to Maria room, like she did everyday. Sometimes she was hoping that it was all a nightmare and that she would find her wacky daughter painting her nails with glitter polish, or reading the instructions on the back of a bottle of hair dye. Maria wanted to put pink highlights in her hair, but kept holding back. Amy had predicted another week of hold out before the impulse was too great and she just did it. Entering the room, she found him asleep on her bed again holding one of her favorite sweaters next to him. She could see the tear stains on his cheek. It was a terrible thing for a mother to run up face to face with the man who was going to take her daughter away. Michael Guerin was the one.

She prayed to God that he would see to it in all his glory to return her child home safe so she could begin that age old battle of keeping her daughter from leaving home too young. But what they seemed to feel for each other was so much more than anything she could understand, but there it was sleeping in her daughter’s bed hugging a six-year-old sweater. The love of her daughter’s life, and he wasn’t going to go away. Reaching down, she brushed the hair away from his face, noticed the beautiful sweep of long lashes on his cheeks that were covered with a slight stubble, but it was the mouth that drew her attention. Her grandchildren were going to have those lips, those lashes, those warm brown eyes, and those beautiful hands.

Kissing his cheek, she covered him with the blanket and closed the door. She never noticed the figure in the shadows watching them, watching him.

~~~

It was the light that penetrated first. The blinding pain that split her head apart until she couldn’t stand the noise. Who the hell was making all that racket, all that crying. Stop, just stop, you’re hurting my head. It took moments for her to realize that the crying was coming from her, that she was the creator of the noise. Slowly opening her eyes she saw the monitors first with the beeping sounds echoing her heartbeat.

She couldn’t move her head because it hurt too much, and her stomach felt nauseated, with a reflexive gesturing of dry heaves. The noise from the corner drew her eyes. There was a figure sitting in the dark corner, watching her, and reading by the dim light. She tried to talk, to ask him who and what was, where, but all that came out was a cry. He quickly moved to her side.

“Shush, it’s okay. I’m here. I’m here.” She tried to focus on his soothing voice and focus on his face.

“Where…”

“Shush, it’s okay my angel, you’re safe here.”

“What…”

“You had an accident, sweetie, that’s all. But you’re recovering nicely. I haven’t left your side, and if you keep getting better I can take you home.” His hands stroked her hair and face, and she watched as his face came closer. He gently kissed her forehead while his hand reached towards her hands. She tried to move her arms, but they wouldn’t move. She was tied down.

“Don’t struggle, angel. I’ll remove the bindings. They were just there to keep you from tearing out your IV while your fever was so high. You have a severe concussion. I was so worry about you. You’re all I have left in this world.”

“Who are you?” Her head hurt so much, but the voice was gentle and soothing. “Daddy?”

“Yes, baby, it’s daddy. Everything’s going to be okay now.”

~~~

Agent Powers looked at the board one more time praying for any insight that would make a motivation come clear. They knew the killer, knew his pattern, but they didn’t know his motivation. In thirty-six hours it would be two weeks since Maria DeLuca was taken, and it would be time for another girl to be snatched. All the dossiers and victim profiles graced a large wall, and in all the information there was still a missing link that made these girls targets. They were missing the association, the common thread that would unravel the mystery and make the serial killer known. But the dead remained silent and the missing gagged.

“Cordy?” She looked up to see the Sheriff handing her yet another cup of coffee. The entire office knew they were fast running out of time. Looking past the Sheriff, she saw him, Michael Guerin. He was standing in front of their wall of shame, the wall that taunted them because it remain unbroken and silent, with the endless victims of three dead girls and five missing mocking them. These broken bodies and missing lives were her business, her responsibility. No child’s body remained lost on her shift, all go home before the job was finished, and yet she was missing five and another was ready to be taken.

“It’s been two weeks. Has he even uttered a word yet?” Jim followed her gaze to rest on Michael. He didn’t know what made him bring Michael with him, but for some reason he was afraid of Michael’s reaction when another girl was taken. He wanted to keep him near, just in case. Michael was intently examining the pictures, but when he came to Maria’s he sat down and looked at her unwavering.

“No. Taking him to the psychologist doesn’t seem to be helping either. Michael doesn’t react well to drugs. The doctor gave him a mild sedative to help him sleep and Amy could hardly wake him. He was awake, but even more complacent than before, and was malleable. You could have told him to walk off a bridge and he would have. It was scary.”

“I don’t think you should worry about his not talking. He’ll when he has something to say.”

“What do you mean?” Cordy looked at the tortured young man staring at his missing girlfriend’s picture. The two weeks of missing her only made it more obvious to him how wrong he was in believing he could have ever lived his life without her. He had fooled himself into thinking that he could, but it was obvious that he was wrong. Living two weeks without her was slowly killing him, but imagining a lifetime with her gone and dead was too much to handle.

“What’s the last thing he said to her?”

“He told her to take out the trash herself. They were fighting.”

“Right. He opened his big mouth, cut her down, and then sent her outside to be taken. The last thing he remembers is the look on her face, the anger, the sadness, and then the blankness of a love affair gone wrong.” Cordy stopped to scowl at her coffee. This crap was burning a hole in her stomach lining. “He won’t open his mouth again until he has something to say or until he can find her and apologize.”

“What if we don’t find her?”

“We will. I always bring them home, but I’m just worried that it will be too late for him to say all the things he needs to say to her, that she’ll no longer be able to listen.”

“What then? What happens to the survivors? What happens to him?”

“To the survivors? They bury their dead and pray for the monster to be caught, but they never forget. But for him, personally?” Cordy stood and dumped her coffee and reached into her pocket to plug the soda machine with change. If her stomach was going to be destroyed by caffeine, it might as well be something nice and cold that tasted better than Roswell PD coffee. “He dies.”

“You see very cold and sure about this.”

“Yes. Michael’s not the type to take his life willfully, but he’ll place himself in dangerous situations, he’ll tempt fate, and he’ll slowly starve himself to death, because all that will be left will be the dream of her. That is all he’ll have left, and that is what he’ll hold onto till the end. She’ll be the face of the angel that leads him out of the darkness. Death will be the release, a sort of salvation.” Cordy missed Michael’s startled look as he turned to look at her.

“So you’re saying he’ll kill himself in some shape or form?”

“Yes, but not right away. He’ll hold on until he finds her killer, until he brings the monster to justice. Once the man who did this is found and taken, then he’ll feel vindicated. He’ll want to look the monster in the face, try to make sense out of the nonsensical. Once that is done all that will be left will be the endless void, the empty abyss. That is when he’ll slowly succumb to death.”

“You seem to know this too well.” Cordy finished her diet coke and crushed the can tossing it into the recycle bin.

“Yes, I do, all too well. I recognize the type. He’s like my father all over again. My father was one of the best violent crime profilers in the history of the FBI. He was the best. When my father found the murdering bastard that killed my mother, he went to sleep and never woke up again. It took him almost three months of starvation and emptiness before he was released. The last word he said before dying wasn’t that he was sorry for taking away my last living parent, but rather my mother’s name. Her face was the only thing he could ever see, the only thing he ever could see.” She picked up her file and walked out of the room.

~~~

“Daddy, when am I going home?”

“Soon, honey, real soon. You get stronger and stronger every day.”

“I had a dream last night.” The man moved closer and sat his chair next to the bed.

“What was the dream about?”

“I can barely remember, but it was about a warrior spirit that walked the earth alone. He left all those behind to go to battle and one day the battle was over, and he wanted to find home again. So he journeyed back and along the way he met many challenges. All he wanted was to find that one place to call home.”

“Odysseus, that is the story of Odysseus. His journey home was covered in many voyages and adventures. The imagery of the female form was prominent in the story. Some were temptresses, some where mother figures, but the most important figure was the last one.”

“Who was that?”

“His wife, he went through all that to get home to his wife.”

“I remember. He was valiant, but sad.”

“Yes. He was sad. His life has been nothing but abuse and neglect, and he is angry and confused. All he wanted was to find home, find his father, and find his wife.” He stood up and gathered the medicine in a syringe and using a special port, he administered it into the IV line.

“Poor warrior. I wish he could have you for a father, then his sadness would melt away.”

“My angel, you’re the vision that would set a thousand ships assailing, if you were the prize at the end of the journey. Now you must rest, the time is short and I want to take you home soon.” He watched her eyes closed as the medicine in the IV finally took hold. She was on the mend and soon he could take her from this place. He must remember to bring the story of the warrior to read to her. She was right. The young man would make a fine son.

~~~

She balled herself up as small as possible to avoid the lashes. He was through with her, dumping her. The cries of a wounded animal after so long in captivity, her legs were almost too weak to hold her. She ran and hid, but he still found her. The wounds of her face bleed and bleed. She was never going to see her mother again. The last thing she saw was the leather strap that was use to beat her, and his cruel angry face.

~~~

Time was drawing to a close. By tomorrow they would have a new name for the wall, a new set of interviews, and a new set of victims waiting for news and trying to hold onto hope. The room was silent, but they all refused to leave. Waiting for the phone to ring was the hardest thing. Cordy searched the wall, but it was giving up no secrets. She looked down to where Michael sat drawing in a sketchbook, endless pictures of Maria DeLuca. The talent was incredible and his insight was steadfast.

“Sir?” Cordy and the rest looked up as the deputy walked in. “We have a body.”

~~~

The air was crisp and biting. The relief teams had to create their own roads into the woods. The body was covered and outlines and police tape was marking off the general area. Her team was fast walking the transits before the scene was disturbed, but there was little to find. The girl had been dumped here, not the kill site, and the killer left no trophies or clues. The body was laid out much like the others with head bowed and hand folded in prayer. Praying didn’t help this poor child; she had been beaten to death, the bones in her face broken to bits.

“What says you Smitty? Call under twelve.” The FBI forensic pathologist looked up at Cordy.

“Yeah, more likely under eight hours dead. She’s only been out here for the last few hours, but definitely not killed here.”

“Not enough blood?”

“That and no physical signs of a struggle, or the beating here. All we have is the deposit, and not even a good set of prints. Look at her hands and feet.”

Cordy bent down to examine the folded hands and the bare feet. The hands had defensive bruises where it looked like she had tried to protect her and head from the lashes, but the feet were clean but scrapped.

“The scraping on the feet? It looks like road rash.”

“Close, very close, but I would say she was running barefooted across cement floors or something, her feet scrambling backwards. Look at the hands again and the patterning on the feet.”

Cordy looked closer to see what Smitty meant. There it was, the same scrapes were on the palm on the hands as the back heel and sides of the feet. The girl had been on the floor scrambling backwards away from her assailant, trying to scurry away from him.

“Poor kid. She never had a chance did she?”

“No. But whoever he is?” Cordy looked up at Smitty from where she was knelt by the body. “He took real good care of her before this. She was well fed, nail polish on both hands and feet, and the clothes are nice. She was cherished before she found herself on his hit list. The question becomes, what made her go from being a cherished object to an object that needed punishment?”

“Punishment?” Cordy looked down at the girl as she slowly rose.

Yes, the final layout of the body was the look of repentance and forgiveness. He punishes them when they’re not able to be what he wants, what he is looking for. What was he looking for? His motive still eluded them, and there were still four girls out there missing, depending on her to unravel the clues and bring them home alive. Time to take this body home.

Cordy walked away after checking in with the rest of the team and as she slowly climbed the hill back to her car all she could think about was one very quiet young man whose hunt may be over today, and his final downfall could just be beginning. They wouldn’t know until prints and identification was ran whether this was Maria DeLuca or one of the other four missing girls, but either way, some family was getting back their love one tonight, and it would be hard either way.

~~~

They were waiting at the morgue when the body was brought in. All the families were waiting to see if it was their love one, returned. Cordy noticed the way that the Sheriff held Amy DeLuca protectively against his side. Michael was up against the wall with his head down staring at the floor and both the Sheriff and Amy were positioned in front of him almost as if they were trying to protect him, take the blows first. She recognized the other small group of friends that she had questioned about Maria.

The Parker girl looked like one big wind would blow her over, and the young man, Alex was staring blankly ahead with his face so lacking in color she was afraid he would faint. The Evans girl who had her face buried up against his shoulder was holding Alex’s hand. Max was standing apart from the small group, but his eyes never wavered from Michael. He looked ready to catch his friend if he fell. Valenti’s son and houseguest were sitting on the floor, up against the wall real close, but not touching. They were just sitting there waiting and staring at the floor.

“The time isn’t right for these people to see the body Jim. The forensic team needs to take care of her first, do their job. I’ll call all of you when it is possible, but it is best if you wait for the call. We will do the identification and call the family.”

Looking around at the different groups of scared friends and family she knew what she was asking was impossible, but it would serve no purpose to have all of them view a body that belonged to only one family. The dead deserved some dignity, some respect. She deserved to be alive, but since that was stolen, Cordy’s only option was to find her justice.

“Please. Let us do this for her. Let us take care of her.”

The families slowly wandered off to find telephones to wait by. She suspected who the victim was, but until they could confirm it, she couldn’t release the name. The beating had stripped the face of flesh, and the taken girls looked enough alike to make the identification not completely possible from just a viewing. It would take a very keen eye to really tell the minute differences. Suddenly Michael moved away from the wall, and before Jim, Cordy, or anyone could stop him he went into the room and pulled back the sheet.

“Michael, no.” She watched as he looked hard at the girl and sudden he backed up against the wall and placed his hand out to brace himself as he kneeled on one knee. His whole body shook and he place one hand on his stomach in pain. The sounds coming from him were not human. They were the sounds of an animal in agonizing pain. He was breathing hard and tears clouded his vision.

“Michael.” Cordy grabbed his head and forced him to meet her eyes. “Is it Maria?”

He shook his head no and she gathered him closer. Looking up she saw Jim waiting; slowly she rose and handed Michael over to Jim and his friends and family. Turning to look at the body, it was hard to say conclusively that it wasn’t Maria DeLuca, but she trusted his instincts. Covering the body to give the dead some privacy she left the room. Where was the newly taken girl? Why hadn’t they had a report of a new kidnapping?

~~~

Amy and Jim tried to get Michael to eat, but he just stared at the food. Max and Isabel had both tried to talk to him, but he seemed lost somewhere else, and even Liz had tried. But she made things worse. It seemed that looking at her reminded Michael too much about how he hadn’t taken the garbage out for Maria, and Liz made the guilt worse. The only people he seemed to respond to were Amy and Jim, and a little to Agent Powers. Doctor Walker agreed with Cordy. That Michael would speak when he found a need to and he would not survive the loss of Maria.

He got up and went into Maria’s room leaving the food untouched on the table. Jim sat with Amy in silence. There was nothing to say. They knew that another family would be getting a call tonight, and maybe even yet another family would also receive a call to let them know that they were joining a nightmare because their child was stolen. It was the angry sound of outrage and a bellowing Michael that made them rushed to Maria’s room. Michael was standing in the center of the room turning around and around, not touching anything, but looking everywhere.

“What is it Michael? What is wrong?”

“He was here.” Both Amy and Jim stared in shock because Michael had finally spoken. “The bastard was here. He took her stuff.”

Amy looked around the room, turning slowly like Michael had. He was right. Things were gone. Her wall dressings, some pictures, the napkin holder, jewelry and other things. Going to the closet she opened it to find clothes missing, boxes of pictures and things. Her room had been systematically stripped of pieces of her personality. Jim saw the outrage and horror on Amy’s face. He took out his phone and made the call.

~~~

“How much is missing Jim?”

“You have to ask Michael and Amy. Michael was the first to notice.”

Jim watched the sweepers dusting the room and recording the scene. They were busy taking Michael’s fingerprints and Amy’s so they could eliminate them from others in the room.

“Cordy, he talked.” She looked back and acknowledged the significance of Michael talking. He finally had something to say.

“Michael.” She took the chair next to him. Taking some food and a can of soda, she placed them in front of him. “Don’t make me get rough. Eat.” She watched as he reluctantly picked up the cheeseburger and took a bite. Finally he reached in his back pocket and took out a small bottle of Tabasco and added it to the burger. He ate like he was starved until suddenly he stopped with half his burger still uneaten. Adding Tabasco to his soda, he drank it and watched her. Kooky.

“What is missing and when did you notice?”

“Everything is missing. Her favorite brushes and mirror, her special clips and hair fasteners, the holder I made her, her clothes and shoes, her favorite sleeping shirt, pictures, jewelry, rings, and so much more. I notice immediately since her sweater I left on the bed was missing, and her favorite pillow that she hugs when she sleeps, her bunny eared slippers, and a picture of me.”

“Okay. This is different. He’s never done this before. He didn’t take a new girl either. He just broke pattern and serial killers don’t do that. I need to think this through.” Looking at the young man, she turned thoughtful. “Michael tell me what you know, what you see. You looked at the pictures long enough and you have an eye for detail. Tell me what you think.”

Michael hesitated and then started talking slowly and in a low tone. “He doesn’t hurt them until he kills them. They were well fed and their clothes were nice brands. They were trophies, something he valued and wanted to keep, but the ones that he killed lost their importance, so he threw them away.”

“Yes. He is a white male between the ages of forty-five and fifty. He is a professional within his field, commands money and respect, and he’ll be the last person anyone expects to be involved. The girls must be held somewhere, somewhere that he can take care of them, and no one will hear them if they scream. He fits in enough that he was able to observe the girls, learn their routine, and learn to covet them. But why did he break pattern?”

“Maybe he found what he was looking for, and didn’t need to search any further?” She turned to look at Michael with speculation in her eyes.

“Tell me.”

Michael looked down at his hands. “I’ve looked to find my past, my home all my life. I always knew that I would leave Roswell without looking back if I were given the opportunity to go home. It made my life here, tenuous at best. It made me keep people at arms length, trying to hold myself apart because I didn’t want to cause pain when I left. No more than I could afford to have a reason to stay, a reason to question leaving. But the search has kept me alive, kept me strong. It helped me to survive my life in the times that it almost broke me. It was the hope that kept me going. But my search would be over the moment I found home.” Cordy stopped to think about what Michael was trying to say.

“Maria. He found Maria, and she has completed his search, so now he no longer needs new ones or even old ones, all he needs is Maria. He took all her stuff because he is building her a room and home elsewhere.”

Cordy paced the floor thinking about all the ramifications. Michael was right. No new girl and a dumping of an old girl suggested that he was cleaning house. He found what he was looking for and there would be no new girls, no new clues, and no more time. As long as Maria continued to be what he was looking for, she was safe. But the remaining other three girls was unnecessary, and the moment Maria became the trophy, they failed. He would punish them for not being what he wanted, and he would dump their bodies.

“Damn, the time is shorter than we know. Unless he finds a new project or something to distract him from the girls, he’ll dump them fast. I need the motive, the original motive and the reason the original three dead girls were punished, banished. The ones that come after will not be part of the pattern. If I can know why, then I’ll be closer to knowing who.”

Cordy took her phone and assembled her team. Time to look the old evidence over again, and again. There was no time left. Her gut was telling her that the killer was getting ready to take Maria and disappear forever, but not until he disposed of the remaining three girls. No time.

~~~

Michael finally went home to his apartment. Amy had protested that he shouldn’t be alone, but in truth, now that all her stuff was missing from her room, it only felt like a room. She was really gone. Entering his apartment he looked around. Every inch of wall was covered in pictures he drew of her, and sometimes he drew them on the wall. Moving into the bathroom, he stripped and took a shower, but no amount of hot water could warm his body.

He couldn’t ever remember ever feeling this cold, and this alone. Later he laid on his sofa looking out the window at the stars and thinking of the world that was so far away, and his. It didn’t matter anymore, none of it did. Go home, stay, or die. None of it mattered without Maria. He had been a fool thinking he could protect himself from her by staying behind a protective stonewall. He was an idiot not to realize that he had taken her into himself, into his heart so that when he built the wall she was with him inside and not on the outside. It was what she had been trying to tell him all alone, but he wasn’t listening.

He fell asleep on the sofa, so lost and exhausted that he never heard the door open to his apartment. He never heard the footsteps as they moved through his rooms looking at the paintings on the walls, the drawings, or as the footsteps stopped next to him and stood watching him sleep. He never registered the intrusion until the sharp biting prick from the needle entering his skin. Startled awake, he was disoriented, and the drug was already starting to make a difference. His limbs were already feeling heavy, and his brain was fogging from the drug. He looked up into the killer’s eyes and he knew him. All Michael could think of before the white cloud covered his mind was Maria.

~~~

It had been over thirty-six hours since the last body was found, and her crew worked nonstop. They couldn’t find the slim connection that would join all the girls together. Each girl was different in personality, looked similar in structure, but nothing else. They had different taste and likes, different social circles, none of them matched another, and the girls were different. There had to be a pattern, and pattern and reason that made sense to the killer. Why?

Sheriff paused at the door watching Cordy work. She had never left Roswell for over two weeks. Her crew moved in a rotation pattern taking a day off and coming back refreshed from time away from the nightmare, but Cordy would not leave. He heard her calling home and talking to her spouse, Terry a few times. They seemed very close and obviously this Terry was very use to how driven Cordy became during a case. He wasn’t sure that she needed anymore bad news, but Amy’s assertion that something was wrong with Michael was too hard to ignore.

“Cordy?” She looked up.

“Sheriff? What is it Jim?”

“Amy called. She hasn’t seen Michael since he left the other night. He hasn’t been to school or came by and she is concerned.”

“Michael is missing? Did you check his apartment?”

“Yes, the deputy said the door was unlocked and the place was a mess, but in truth with everything going on, that hardly means anything. The boy has hardly left the DeLuca house in two weeks.”

“He wouldn’t run away or take off, not as long as she is missing. If he discovered something, he would have told us because it’s not just Maria’s life, but the other girls as well.” Cordy looked at the wall of shame and thought for two seconds. “Let’s go look at his place. Are your people still there?”

“No. Hanson came right back after he looked in and saw Michael wasn’t there. I checked with all the places he would or could have gone. Nothing. No one has seen or heard from him in almost thirty hours.”

“Let take a look and see what we can see, okay?”

They entered the apartment with caution. The front door lock showed signs of being jimmied with scratches along the doorpost. Cordy looked up at Jim knowing that he was seeing what she was. They slowly entered the apartment. It was dark and gloomy, putting a handkerchief over her hand she turned on the light. She couldn’t stop her grasp. Every imaginable inch of wall space and surface was covered with pictures he drew or painted of Maria. She looked almost surreal and angelic in the painting. It was as if he had been driven to work on the pictures, to find a way to have her near, to keep her close.

The deputy was right. The place was a mess, but the mess wasn’t just neglect and poor housekeeping. There were signs of a struggle, not a very strong struggle, but one nonetheless. She went to the sofa and noticed the blanket used to cover him while he slept. Crouching down beside the sofa she noticed the tail end of something under the sofa. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a pair of latex gloves and without really looking behind her, she handed out a pair to Valenti. They were standing in the center of a crime scene. Pulling the object from out from under the sofa, she held a syringe by her fingertips. Remembering Valenti telling her that Michael was allergic to drugs and alcohol she knew that this wasn’t a left over syringe from a user. Taking a bag from her other pocket she bagged the evidence.

Jim looked around the room in dismay. He knew that Michael was missing Maria, but it seemed more than that. All the pictures talked of an obsession of sorts and he was afraid to ignore the implication. Michael was the one among the alien children that was given to visions, visions that drove him.

Jim didn’t know how to clue Cordy in on the fact that Michael might be drawing Maria over and over again because he kept seeing her in visions, and that this wasn’t just an obsession. That was when he saw it. Blood. It stained the corner of the coffee table. While Cordy’s head was turned and before she noticed, Valenti took out his handkerchief and wiped the blood from the table and quickly pocketed the rag before she noticed. How was he going to tell Amy and the others that it looked like Michael had been taken too?

“I need to call the sweepers and let them test the place for prints and things. Do you know whose prints might be in here?”

“Yes.” Valenti looked around the room trying to think of someway to cover the area of the table with anything that would mask the blood residue. Michael’s alien blood would be hard to explain away. Seeing a half empty can of soda on the table, Valenti stood in front of Cordy’s line of sight and slowly moved the can to the spot where the blood had been. Conveniently stepping back when Cordy stood up with her phone in hand, he purposely knocked over the can making sure it covered the once blood stain.

“Damn. Sorry about that, I’m worse than my deputy Hanson.” Jim could feel the color rising on his throat and cheeks. He was fast moving into dangerous grounds here. Covering for the aliens was making him contaminate crime scenes, and hide evidence. He hoped this wouldn’t lead to the loss of both Maria and Michael.

“Don’t worry about it Jim. I jostled you. Save the can and some of the liquid. I know he was drugged from the syringe, but just in case, we need to test that soda.”

Cordy looked around the room seeing more than others would be able to. She had gotten to know the young man, so this felt personal. The killer had changed his profile, yet again. This was unheard of.

“Jim, let’s not mention this to anyone until we get a clear picture of what is happening. Let them think that we think that Michael took off to look for Maria on his own or to clear his head. I would suggest saying that he is out there searching for her, and will not come home until he finds her. Agreed?”

“Yes. You don’t want the killer to know that we suspect that Michael was taken. Why?”

“He broke pattern, twice. To these people, the routine, the pattern is everything. He modified his pattern quickly and twice. He is living unsure, a little on edge, and this feeling of out of control messes with the purpose of what he does. These types of crimes are about power and control. Changing his pattern will leave even him unsure of where he is going. We don’t want to push him into leaving too soon. We want him to feel some control again, so he stays close. Taking Michael might have given the other three girls a reprieve. He’ll be busy with his latest toy, his latest treasure. We have to ask ourselves when did he come to covet Michael.”

Valenti watched them cover Michael apartment with powder checking for prints. The area was investigated, fibers collected, areas dusted and tested. The walls were photographed, and his stuff was searched. One of Cordy’s team, Banks found some of Michael’s alien stuff.

“Sir, we have something strange here.” Cordy looked at the alien book with symbols, the map of star charts, and the collection of drawings that Michael did on the different symbols.

“Mayan history.” The rest looked up at Valenti in confusion. “Michael was interested in Mayan cultures and the symbols on their temples. I lent him a copy of ‘Chariots of the Gods’ because he was interested in visitors from outer space, especially since living in Roswell. Over a year ago, he and a friend at the local reservation found some cave carvings of these symbols almost worn away. He was trying to find them in other cultures, and I really think he was interested in getting one of them tattooed on his arm.”

“Oh.” Cordy looked at the alien book in interest. “How about this book? It looks metal, but nothing like I have ever seen.”

“It’s made with a combination of copper and metal alloys. There is an old abandon copper mine outside of town. I took Michael and few of the kids out there a while ago. He collected samples and we smelted them into metal sheets. He made this book as a special project in school last year for the annual CrashDown party and fair. It won a prize for originality.” He was praying that she wouldn’t flip too far into the book and find the etching of the four podsters.

“Neat. That must have been hard work. I guess he kept it because he was proud of it.”

“Yes.” He almost breathed in a sharp rush of air when Cordy finally put the book down. The amount of lies he had told lately was beginning to stick in his throat. He was beginning to understand just how hard the group’s life had been over the last ten years, and especially the last year when they were trying to do damage control over being exposed. Oh boy.

~~~

It was the soothing touch that drew him from the wall of darkness. He slowly opened his eyes and winced at the bright light. His head hurt, and he felt heavy, like all his limbs were weighted down. His brain was racing and confused. He knew things, but was unable to collect all the thoughts into one conclusive idea. Then he saw her and his heart sped up.

Maria.

She looked beautiful. She was wiping his face with a cloth and muttering low sounds of comfort to him. He could hear a whining noise in his ear that was irritatingHIHi. He finally realized it was his own moaning. It was as if his awareness and body were separate entities, and he couldn’t find a connection. Everything was cloudy.

“It’s okay. Shush, I’ve got you.” He closed his eyes to enjoy her warm touch on his skin. In the first time in forever he felt alive again. She was close to him and alive. “Daddy said that you must not exert yourself, Michael.”

Michael was confused by the tentative use of his name. He opened his eyes to look deep into her clear greenish hazel ones. Her eyes were clear and honest, but something was missing. Maria always had a special look in her eyes for him and him alone. It was missing, almost like she knew him, but didn’t know him. Before he could speak her name, the man came.

“Is he awake, Angel?” She turned and smiled a huge brilliant smile at the man in the doorway. Michael’s heart stopped at the look on her face when she looked at the man. It was acceptance and love.

“Just barely. He just awoke seconds ago. I was so worried that his accident was like mine, that he wouldn’t remember me.”

“Don’t worry love, you’re the most unforgettable treasure in the world.” He bent down and kissed her on the temple before taking a seat on the side of the bed. Taking out a penlight, he checked Michael’s pupil responses. They were dilated, but evenly so. He didn’t appear to be concussed, but the drugs were keeping him compliant. “Michael, you remember Angel, don’t you son?”

“Yes, I remember her well.” Michael was rewarded with a brilliant smile from Maria. She was pleased that he remembered her.

“Dad, I’ll go get him something to drink.” With a quick smile she was gone. Michael could barely move his arms and his body felt heavy.

“Where am I?”

“You’re home, son. You have come home to me and my daughter Angel, the place you belong.”

“What’s wrong with me? Was I sick?”

“Yes, but if you take your medicine you will be all better. Do you remember my daughter, Michael?”

“Yes, she is an angel, my angel. I love her. She is my world.” The man smiled at the young man like a prized pupil.

“That is correct. You love each other, and I’m your adopted father. When you and Angel are old enough you will marry, but until then we are a family unit. You’re a son that a man can be proud of, so make me proud.”

“Yes Sir.” Michael quickly looked to the door hoping for her return. “Father?” Michael paused to watch the reaction of the older man. His happy look and pleased expression assured him that he made the correct decision to use the surname.

“Yes, son?”

“When can I marry, Angel?”

“Soon, son, soon. You’re almost eighteen and she is still just seventeen. When you marry both of you will be happy and we will be one very big happy family waiting for my grandchildren. You do want children with my daughter don’t you?”

“More than anything in the world. I can see them when I sleep, and they’re all I have ever wanted.”

“What do they look like?”

“Her. They all look like her.” Michael looked up when Maria reentered the room carrying a glass of cold liquid. She smiled down at him as she sat on the side of the bed, putting the glass on the bedside table. Using gentle hands she help him to sit up and helped him sip the drink. It tasted wrong, and her brow frowned as if she realized that something was missing. Patting him on the cheek, she quickly left the room and came back moments later with a small bottle of Tabasco. Michael felt his heart stop at the sight of the hot sauce and a sense of doom. She doused his drink with Tabasco and then helped him drink it again. Damage control was needed.

“Tabasco?” She smiled and nodded. “Do you like it this way?” He watched her frown as if she was confused as to why she wanted to add Tabasco to the drink.

“Never mind, Angel. If you think I’ll like it than I probably will.” Michael sipped the drink cautiously, as if he was afraid that it was gonna be horrible. And then he took a big drink and smiled at her. “You were right. I love it.” Her smiled lit up the room, and Michael could feel the man watching with narrowed eyes. “Could I have some more? I’m really, really thirsty.” Michael watched as she quickly left the room and then looked back over at the man.

“Was it really good?” Michael gave a sort of snort.

“Worse thing I ever tasted in my life. It took everything I had not to swear from the heat.” He felt better as he watched the man laugh with amusement.

As long as Maria remained confused and believing this was her father, the better chance they had to survive. He needed to find a way to get them free, to save them, but his body felt disjointed, apart, and it was like his brain had no connection. He needed to abide his time, get free of the drugs, and get her out of there. He also needed to find the other girls, the missing ones. He couldn’t leave them to end up like the girl he saw in the morgue.

When she came back he quickly took the Tabasco and added it to the drink. With them both watching, he drank some of it down. Placing the drink at the bedside, he slowly slid back down into the covers of the bed. What day was it and how long had he been drugged for was a mystery. Reaching his hand to the back of his head he could feel a bandage.

“What?”

“You had an accident, and hit your head. It should get better soon. I gave you five stitches, so you should be glad that you have plenty of hair to cover it up.”

“Thank you, sir. I don’t remember anything that happened, or even what day it is.”

“Don’t worry. I’m an old hand at this. I’m use to having my memories gone.” Suddenly she grew silent. Michael scanned her face and noticed the healing wound on her forehead covered by her hair.

“There? Is that the accident that took your memories?”

“Yes.” Her voice was very subdued.

“You don’t remember me do you?” He watched her obvious distress and tear gather in her eyes.

“No.” She whispered. Taking her hand in his he reached up and kissed her forehead.

“That’s okay. We’ll make new memories, happier ones with father. You’ll see. It’ll feel like you have known me all your life.” He was glad to see her happy smile, and out of the corner of his eye he could see the man’s pleased reaction to what he said.

“Angel lets let Michael rest. He must be very tired and sore still.” The man came forward and injected Michael with some more drugs. “This will make you sleep and take away the pain. Sleep son.”

“Can Angel stay?” The man looked at the two of them and nodded, kissing his daughter’s cheek as he left the room.

“Would you lie next to me and hold my hand while I sleep?” She smiled and nodded taking off her shoes she stretched out next to him tenuously.

He took her hand in his and brought it up to his mouth kissing it gently. He could hear her breathing falter, as he turned on his side to take her beautiful face that he had dreamed of for so long in his hands. Approaching slowly, he gave her time to pull back, to protest, he mated his mouth to her, at first kissing her tenderly, gently, but each time his mouth came back to hers the kiss increased in intensity, until he felt like his heart was going to jump out of his chest. She was moaning softly into his mouth, her hands were roaming his body, spiking his heart rate. They continued to kiss and kiss until finally the drug took its toll and he had to close his eyes.

“I love you. I missed you.”

With that Michael was fast asleep resting for the first time in weeks with Maria resting at his side. But she wasn’t really his Maria. She was the sick man’s daughter, Angel. And until he could find a way to escape, to rescue the both of them, that was who she needed to remain.

~~~

It had been five days since Michael was taken. No new bodies were found and no more girls were taken. Jim stopped in the doorway to watch her. She sat looking at the board with Michael’s information added and a collection of his drawings of Maria. They looked, followed all possible leads, and yet they were at a standstill. No new information was available, and all avenues had led to dead ends. Cordy could feel herself worrying that Michael Guerin would be the next retrieved body. What was it about Maria, and what was it about Michael that made him change his mode of operation?

“Why did he take him, Jim?” Cordy turned to look at Valenti. “Why?”

Cordy did wait for a response. She just talked it out. “I mean he is a loner, an orphan with no one, except Maria. But she was already gone. He is a young man that has searched for his family and home all his life, so why him? Why take him?” Jim was a confused as Cordy, paced around the room in front of the wall talking aloud to herself.

“Because he was alone? Because no one would miss him?” Cordy’s brow furled for a moment as she concentrated.

“Alone, without family. He has no father.” Standing up she quickly moved from victim to victim. “Fuck me!”

Picking up a phone she began to call the family members of the original three girls that were recovered dead. Jim listened to the phone conversation not really understanding the significance of the questions she was asking. They had interviewed the families numerous times. It didn’t seem like there was any possible information left to discern.

“Thank you.” Jim looked over at Cordy. She was rubbing her forehead. “I’m stupid, plain stupid. It was staring me in the face. Michael knew. He figured it out.”

“I don’t understand.”

“What do you desire? What do you come to need? I thought it was what he needed that was the clue, but it wasn’t. It was what the girls needed, and what he could become.”

“Explain.”

“Michael said that he stopped taking the girls because Maria became what he wanted. What made Maria different from the rest?”

Jim looked at the pictures and portfolios on the wall. “I don’t know.”

“She was injured. There was blood on the trash receptacle where she must have hit her head since the blood was also on her headband. She suffered a head injury. The other girls were merely drugged, like Michael.”

“Okay, so that is different, but how does that make her become what he needed?”

“I found the connection. All the girls were fatherless. Their fathers left them left their families at an early age. The three girls that were murdered had stepfathers. They had already replaced their father figure and couldn’t accept him as a replacement. The other three girls are safe for now, but he’ll dump them slowly and soon because the last girl was from a single parent home.”

“Why did he take Michael?”

“Because, Michael belongs to Maria, and he would make some man a fine son.”

“Family? This is all about family?”

“Yes, and I think that Maria’s head injury saved her life, because from what I gather of her personality she would have been boisterous and bold, and caused him problems. He would have dumped her immediately. But her injury must have confused her, made it easy for her to accept him as her father.”

“So he is building his family, and once he has Michael and Maria together happily, they will disappear?”

“Yes, but not before the remaining three girls are killed and dumped. We have to find them first, find him.”

Jim thought about it. It made sense. But Michael has powers. He should be able to combat any intruder, to disarm the killer, so why didn’t he. Looking at the pictures of Maria that Michael drew, he knew there was another clue, a big clue that he was missing. He needed to see Max and Isabel.

~~~

“You should have told us!” Max was pacing the floor in agitation. The others were quiet. It wasn’t often they got to see Max in a tear of rage. “So Michael was taken by the same person who took Maria, and you let us think that he just ran away, that he was out there wandering aimlessly looking for her?”

“We don’t know who the killer is. We had to have everyone believe the same thing. It was important for the investigation.”

Jim knew why they were angry. They had been afraid that Michael would never come home now that he had lost Maria. Isabel was sitting next to Alex all red-eyed and weeping. She had cried non-stop for days because of the missing Michael, and Max was just as bad. It was intolerable losing Maria, waiting everyday for her body to be recovered. But having to lose Michael too was excruciating.

“Max. Michael has powers. He is able or should be able to take out the killer, to free him and Maria, but he doesn’t. Why?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he can’t without harming Maria, or maybe his powers aren’t working.”

“Drugs? He was drugged and wounded. Would that affect his powers?”

“He was wounded?” Max looked at both Isabel and Tess. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Max, I already told you why. The drug was a strong drug used for depression. When the psychologist gave him a sedative before he was weak and compliant. Would that affect his powers?”

“I don’t know.” Max paced the floor and then stopped to look at his sister. “Isabel could dream walk him and ask him where he is, if Maria is okay, and who has them.”

“Isabel can dream walk? You mean she can enter his dreams?” Isabel nodded to Max.

“Yes. She never has been successful with Michael, but she could try, and if worst come to worst, she could dream walk Maria.”

“Why didn’t you think about this before? We could have found Maria weeks ago.”

Isabel looked at Max and then finally at Valenti. “I already tried to dream walk Maria. For almost the last two weeks. All I could see was darkness, and she was not responding. I couldn’t reach her. I thought she might be dead, but I was afraid to mention it to Michael.”

“Agent Powers thinks she was severally wounded and that she is confused from either a concussion or drugs.”

“If she was unconscious for a long period of time, it might explain why I couldn’t reach her, and why I only saw darkness.”

Valenti looked at the group of friends. They all looked terrible, and since hearing about Michael’s abduction they looked even worse. At least before they thought he was out there looking for Maria, now they knew he was lost to them like Maria. “If you could try Isabel, that is all I can ask.”

“What will you tell Agent Powers if we get information? I mean how will you explain it?” Jim looked at Isabel. It was a good question, but one he would worry about only if they did get information.

“I’ll think of something. Let me worry about it. I’ve already withheld information, contaminated the crime scenes, so I should be able to come up with something.” Max interest was peaked.

“How did you withhold information and contaminate the crime scene, or better yet, why?”

“Michael was obsessively drawing pictures of Maria, everywhere. I think there was a reason for his obsession.”

“Well he’s in love with her.”

“No, there is something about the way he draws her, almost like he is leaving a message, like he was sensing something about her abductor. I don’t know. I couldn’t pin it down, but I think I’m right about it.”

“And the contaminated crime scene?”

“I found Michael’s blood at his apartment on the edge of the coffee table where he must have fallen. I wiped it off and covered it with a spilled soda.” Jim rubbed his forehead. “I took a big risk. The blood might have been the assailant, but I didn’t want to take a chance of the blood being Michael’s, and the FBI getting a sample of his alien blood.”

“Damn.” Max rubbed his forehead too, just like Jim like he was sharing his headache. Pausing to look at Valenti. “Thank you.” Going over to Isabel, Max sat next to her and took her hand in his. “Can you do it? Can you try to dream walk Maria or Michael or both?”

“Yes, I’ll try.” Isabel moved away from the others and went to lie on her bed taking the school yearbook. Finding a picture of Maria she quickly tried to enter Maria’s mind.

***

“Go, quickly, Izzy.”

***

And the dream ended and Isabel sat up in her bed.

Isabel sat straight up and looked into Max’s eyes and those of Alex’s. “They’re together.”

Jim came closer to the bed and knelt beside it. “Isabel could you talk to Maria and Michael? Could they tell you where they are or who has them?”

“It was confusing. Maria was in the garden. She was reading Alice In Wonderland and Michael was sleeping beside her.” Isabel moved her hair from her face. “She didn’t know who she was, but for just a moment I thought she remembered.”

“Who did she think she was? Alice?”

“No. She called herself Angel.” Valenti startled for a second and then reached into his back pocket taking out a folded picture. Turning it, he showed the others Michael’s drawing of Maria. She looked like an angel.

“I knew he was seeing more than just her as he drew her. He was seeing her how the killer sees her, and maybe it explains why he took Michael, too.” Jim looked at the drawing once more. “I can’t say that I understand these powers you have, but I learned to respect them, and have noticed that Michael obsessions and visions are usually more.” Looking at Isabel again Jim asked her to try again. “Can you try to dream walk Michael if Maria is too confused?”

“I can try.” Isabel took a picture of Michael and concentrated trying to get him to let her in. Normally Michael was impossible to visit in dreams.

Isabel sat up and looked at Jim shaking her head no. “He is too far away, too many drugs. It is like his mind is separate from his body and he can’t find control. He knows what is going on, but he is unable to connect his body and mind.”

“Damn. I needed to be able to reach him. We are running out of time. If Maria remembers who she is before we can find them things will not go well. And even if she doesn’t remember we are running out of time for the other girls and losing Maria and Michael forever.”

“How long?” Max asked concern ringing in his voice.

Valenti looked at Max. “I don’t know.”

~~~

Michael sat in the chair looking out to the garden. His legs were weak that he found it hard to manage even his walking. Discretely looking around to make sure no one was watching, he moved his had over the glass of soda trying to change its into milk. Nothing. Pausing and concentrating harder he tried again, but the glass remained unchanged. He couldn’t open the lock of this bathroom or move anything either. Whenever he was asked to do something he couldn’t find the will power to resist.

The figure in the doorway was something he felt first rather than saw. Continuing to look straight ahead, he avoided turning to look at the man, but instead remained passive and submissive. He could feel him coming closer and it was hard to maintain his steady heartbeat, but he did. Slowly looking up he smiled at the man.

“Hi. I thought you were Angel.”

“Where is she?”

“She is making us a special lunch, and strange enough I’m apprehensive since she has been cooking it for the last hour and a half.”

“You might be right. Do you think I should go check on her?” Michael looked at him and started laughing at the worry in his eye.

“How bad could it be?” They looked at each other and laughed together. “Yeah, it could be that bad.” Looking down at the sketchpad in his lap and slowly putting it away. “Thanks for the drawing supplies. I like doing it and painting. How long do you think it will be before I’m no longer confused or when I won’t feel so weak?”

“Is it getting worse? I could try changing the medication or the dosage.” He looked at the way the young man’s gaze seemed to go blank and wander. He spent a lot of time lately just staring out of space, almost lifelessly. Then she would walk into the room and his attention would become more alive and tuned. It was as if only she kept him attentive.

“What? No, I trust you. Whatever you think best.” Michael’s attention seemed to wander again until suddenly he looked at the man directly. “You don’t think Angel’s cooking will effect my medicine.” The man took in the earnest look on Michael’s face and could help but laugh at the thought. That was how she found them.

“What is so funny?” She came over and kissed her dad’s forehead and then went to sit on Michael’s lap.

“Nothing much. I was just thinking about altering Michael’s medicine. It might be too strong.” He looked over to see his daughter sitting in his adopted son’s lap.

Michael had his eyes closed and was resting against her rubbing his head along her neck. Her hand unconsciously came up to smooth his neck under his hair. He knew that they were sleeping together, nothing sexual really, just sharing a bed almost like they couldn’t stand to be apart. It would be naive to assume that their relationship didn’t have a degree of sexuality to it, but for the most part it seemed more like comfort.

“I was gonna mention how tired and lackluster he seems. I was worried.” She reached down and lifted his head away from her. Their eyes met and then they kissed briefly. “It’s his nightmares that bother me the most. I hate to leave his alone in case he wakes up.”

“It’s okay. I told you that I have had them for almost as long as I can remember.” Reaching his hand behind her neck he drew her into another kiss longer and deeper than the last. They parted, both breathing heavy and unaware of the man watching them with interest. “The only nightmare I have now is the fear of losing you.”

If this level of involvement continued he was going to have to get them married sooner than expected. Sitting back and watching them communicate in an almost silent language all he could do was think about his future grandchildren they would give him. The young man was a surprise, very compliant to suggestion and almost touchingly appreciative of any signs of affection and a sense of belonging. With his past family history of neglect and abuse it was hardly surprising. It would seem that Angel was mending and curing parts of him so deep, and that she was the only one who could touch that deep. He was also responding well to the concept of a father figure almost like it was fulfilling a lifetime dream.

“Angel? Were you making us a special surprise?” She looked away from Michael and then smiled at her father happily.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I came to bring you to lunch. It is ready.” Giving Michael another quick kiss she was up and through the door as her father watched her go.

“These nightmares? Are they bad?”

“Yes, but when I wake, and she’s there they fade fast. I try to convince her that she doesn’t need to stay with me, that I’m use to the dreams, but she refuses to let me awake alone.”

“Do you want to tell me what they’re about? The nightmares? Maybe I can help?”

“I usually forget them right away, but some I remember. Mostly I dream about waking up alone, naked, and afraid. Usually I feel cold and lost, but then there is a shadowy figure that looms in darkness, and all I know is that if it finds me it would be bad.” The man went over to help the younger man to his feet. He was a tall lean young man with a large frame, and the weakness was robbing him of his normal balance. Taking his arm, he steadied him when he weaved about on his feet.

“Don’t worry about them right now. We will talk more later, but first I want you to rest after lunch.” Helping Michael to a chair they both watched as she came into the dining room and deposited a homemade pizza of fresh basil and artichokes on the table and then went back into the kitchen after other things. Looking down at the lunch he smiled lovingly. “That’s if you survive lunch.” Michael was laughing when she came back with salad and drinks.

“Doesn’t it look great? I already cut it so you can serve yourself.”

After lunch, which surprisingly wasn’t that bad, she helped him back to his room, or rather their room. His eyes were closing fast and he seemed to suddenly lose his ability to hold himself up. She settled him when father came into the room. He handed the young man some medicine and a glass of water and watched as he took the drugs.

“I cut your dosage in half. Let’s see how you function on less. It could be that the drug is too strong for you. I’ll check how you’re doing when you wake.” The man started to leave when his son called to him.

“Dad? Will you be here when I wake up?” The man was pleased at how well the young man was fitting into the family. His heart actually stopped when the young man called him dad.

“Do you want me to be?” Curious as to why the young man was suddenly apprehensive.

“Yes.” Michael looked down and said in a quieter and smaller voice. “Sometimes when I dream I get afraid.” Reaching down the man squeezed his shoulder gently.

“Sleep. I’ll be here.” Looking at is daughter on his way out of the room he stopped next to her to whisper, “are you staying with him?” He watched with approval as she nodded yes. “It might be a good idea for you to rest too, honey. You’re still recovering.” With a kiss to her forehead, he left the room.

Michael watched him go with half closed eyes. He had wanted to pocket the medicine, but was afraid that it would be discovered and the gig would be up. At least acting lethargic the last few days had convince the man to half his medicine dosage. Asking the man to stay was a calculated risk, but as long as he stayed with them, the less likely he was out there hurting one of the three other girls. It was a long game of abiding his time, but his mind was still confused, almost disjointed from his body, and his powers were still off-line. At this point even if his powers could work, he was incapable of going far in his current physical condition.

She watched him trying to settle down to rest. Closing the bedroom door, she reached down and removed her shoes, and with little hesitation she went over to the bed and unbuttoned his pants helping him to remove them. He was as weak as a baby and the drugs were already starting to take effect. Covering him with a warm comforter and sitting next to him on the bed, she unbuttoned his shirt and removed it leaving him only in a warm-up shirt and boxers. Standing up, and feeling his watching her, she unzipped and removed her thin dress leaving her bra and panties on. Suddenly his arm moved and he held the comforter up, giving her a place to scoot in next to him, a place warm and protected. Without losing his eye contact she slid into bed with him letting him cover her with the comforter and pulling her close to his chest. His eyes closed and he groaned his relief at the feel of her resting on him.

“Michael?” She whispered. “I think I’m remembering you.” His body stilled at the implications of her words.

“What do you remember?” He whispered.

“You hurt me. I was sad, really, really sad, because you left me.” Michael was silent for a while, before taking her hand that had been resting on his chest and lifting it to his mouth, kissing the palm and then folding the fingers over his.

“That is right. I did leave you.” It hurt to feel her stillness, it was as if she suddenly lost some trust in him. “My life was confusing and dangerous. I would rather give you up than take the chance of you being hurt because of me. I had to protect you.”

“So just like that, you gave me up?”

“No, not really. I could never completely give you up. You live here.” He took their joined hands and placed them on his heart. “But then this happened.” He kissed the scar on her forehead. “And I knew that I was an idiot. That thinking I was protecting you by pushing you away was only an illusion. I couldn’t stand to have you away from me, and the thought of not having you in my life or having you lost to me was so painful that I came back to you.”

“If I hadn’t been hurt, would you? I mean would you have come for me?” Michael thought about how things were between them before she was taken, before she became Angel.

“Things were difficult. You were angry and I didn’t know how to say I was sorry, how to get you back. And when you were lost to me, hurt and gone I went insane. I couldn’t sleep, talk or even eat. Finding you, getting you back was all I could think about, and then father took mercy on me and gave you back.”

“Michael…”

“Shush. It doesn’t matter. What came before doesn’t matter. We are here now, together now, and I’ll never leave you again. I’ll never risk losing you again.” Looking deep into her eyes he moved his mouth closer and joined their bodies in a kiss that was deep and intense touching her deep inside, touching her hidden memories, but not enough to unlock them. But she was beginning to remember. They were running out of time.

Michael kept his eyes closed when he kissed her. When he kissed her it was like Maria was back with him and not Angel. Maria was whom he wanted back with her anger, bad attitude, and running list of his many faults. Crazy as it seemed, he liked that Maria never pulled her punches or criticism, because despite her realistic view of him, she still wanted him, still found him worth the fight, or at least she did before he betrayed her. If they got out of this that was going to change, because he was going to fight to get her back in his life. He just spent enough time learning just how empty his life would be without her in it.

Michael like the way she curled around him when they slept. How her hand would rest on his chest holding one of his hands and how her legs tangled themselves with his. The man stood at the door watching his children sleep wrapped around each other. She had been right. The boy was a treasure, a fine son. Despite the drugs he responded to kindness and family, and no matter what, he would do whatever he needed to keep Angel safe. It was time to set the match, marry them, and put the past away. His family was almost complete. Now all he needed was a grandchild to carry on the fine family name.

Closing the door to let them rest, he stayed near in case Michael woke disturbed and needed him. The sessions earlier and drugs have released his hidden reserves and he was remembering more and more of his childhood and the abuse. The other night he cried out in his sleep begging not to be hit. That must have been going on for years, and somehow as the young boy grew he never fought back. Many people ask why, but the reason was so obvious and clear. For the abused young, they always see themselves as weak and vulnerable, and at every abuse they revert to the more helpless time no matter how many years pass and how big and strong they grew. It usually takes them protecting another helpless victim to pull them from their own-trapped self-image, to teach them that they can fight back.

~~~

Cordy didn’t know where Valenti has disappeared too, but she was fast on the first real lead that they had in months. Once she understood the questions and the profile to ask it was easy to pinpoint and narrow the search. Plugging all the information into the national database she did a search in a four state radius looking for a series of unsolved teenage kidnappings and murders fitting the profile.

The answer was astounding. This wasn’t a new event or even isolated. Actually over the last three years young women of single or broken home had been taken. The total was well over eighteen dead girls and the three remaining missing ones, and Maria DeLuca and Michael Guerin. All the others had taken place in Albuquerque, but none in the last eighteen months. Packing up and unable to locate Jim, Cordy decided to make a trip to the larger city on her own. She needed to talk to a source. This source wasn’t the nicest man or even honorable, but he kept his ear close to the ground.

"Tell me." With a kind of abrupt change that was usually more Cordy’s style, Blake leaned over the table. "So tell me what you're looking for here. I can steer you away from the major sick cases, and Pop knows all the good pieces."

Hesitating, looking around the crowded leather, rubber & chain filled room, Cordy shook her head slowly. "I don't know..."

"Let me guess. Like nine-tenths of the people on the quest in here, you're looking for a good tip, some first class information right?"

To her surprise, Cordy blushed, and then tried to cover. "Uh, nine-tenths? They all come for information?"

Blake actually laughed sarcastically. "Yeah, real shortage of information so they settle for domination or a quick fuck for a few bucks, in general, but here in Albuquerque, after what happened a few months back, they're absolutely scarce.” Blake took a large drink from his glass finishing it and signaling for another on the very tasty looking Special Agent Powers snitch account. “Seriously, Cord, all the good tender meat are taken; anyone that's cruising tonight is most likely trouble, seriously in trouble, and definitely not for a newcomer." Blake tapped the table- top for emphasis.

"A few months ago?" Cordy asked, more to give her time to think than because she was interested. This whole thing was beginning to look like a very bad idea.

"Yeah, some head-case was kidnapping and then killing young children of the night, sweetmeat, runaways. He took out more than anyone likes to think about in the community before it closed ranks, and then he started in on the professionals, young hookers walking the streets. Police tried, but, to be truthful, everyone is so closed-mouth here that there wasn't much they could do. Eventually they gave up when they didn’t find him, but, man, was that a mess, or what? Big shoot out, 2 or 3 people killed, including a cop, and he just walked away and they never found him again.” Blake drained his drink again and shook the ice cubes at the bartender for a refill.

"Rumor had it they had an undercover woman on the job and that's how they tried to catch the killer before there were more deaths. Some really young looking girl came on the scene just before the guy was almost caught, and she got pegged as the cop later, though no one really knows. She was the last one found dead.”

Cordy handed her tumbler over for another refill of scotch neat. The light and music was starting to bother her. Closing her eyes, the strobe light suddenly sharp and slicing as metal, Cordy told herself sternly that she was jumping to conclusions. There were lots of sick people out there, it didn’t have to be her serial killer that he couldn’t have gone for years undetected. It bothered her to think that what appeared to be a normal person could hide a monstrous enough soul to steal frightened children and beat them to death.

Stomach clenching, she said as casually as she could, "Guess he just vanished, huh? That is hard to do for a cop killer."

"Yeah, but there are lots of reasons he could have left. Found a permanent relationship, a new job, or maybe he turned his back on it. Happens, now and again. They go too far and they almost get seriously hurt, or caught. The undercover cop was a real close call. Maybe in this guy's case he couldn't stand to see everything he was trying to achieve lost. Who knows? Pity though, he destroyed some seriously sweet possibilities. Those girls lost were something or would have been something on the streets for years to come, but now they’re lost."

Dredging up what Cordy hoped was a smile trying to keep from beating in the face of this lecherous sick fuck, Cordy shot back, "Like anybody would ever believe that behind that sweet, innocent face of yours is a single dirty thought."

"Well, maybe one or two! Now, why don’t you tell Uncle Blake, my friend, what fantasy is lurking behind your sweet, innocent face and let me see what I can do to help you."

"Oh, god, just what I need in my life," Cordy muttered melodramatically. "A matchmaker!"

"Make me a match, find me a find, catch me a catch," Blake sang off key, from the music of Fiddler on the Roof.

"Eck! A show tune! That does it. I'm so out of here! You might be contagious!" Cordy laughed realistically, and upturned her drink as she stood, finishing the drink and leaving money to cover the other drinks. "I’ll refrain from mentioning to Terry that you offered to get me a side adventure." Cordy grabbed her coat and was already thinking of the hot bath she needed to get Blake’s slim off her. “You know the drill. Call me if you remember anything else.”

On her drive back to Roswell, she digested the information she discovered. Her killer wasn’t a new killer. He use to hunt in Albuquerque, but then he took runaways and young girls off the street, girls that had no family and wouldn’t be missed. But the undercover cop ended that, so the killer went mole and relocated to the Roswell area. The real question was why the Roswell area? Larger cities like Albuquerque offered anonymity and a larger hunting ground. Strange that he came all the way to Roswell to find what he was searching for in the form of Maria DeLuca.

Something triggered the initial hunt three years earlier, and the move to the Roswell area must have occurred in the last eighteen months with some lag time to allow the killer to view and seek out potential victims. He had to come to covet them; since the community was tighter and smaller he was allowed access. They now had more to go on. They were looking for a white man, professional in early fifties who recently moved to the Roswell area or the area to the west of Roswell. Jim would know who fit that description, but suddenly even Jim was missing. Where the hell was he?

~~~

Michael woke in the middle of the night to Maria calling his name. When he cleared his eyes he could see her sitting up in bed looking at him with worry in her eyes. The sweat was covering his body, making him aware that he must have had a nightmare again. He had them for years, but recently they were coming more frequently and more violent. Suddenly he was remembering things he had suppressed so deep inside that they weren’t even conscious memories anymore. Her hands were soothing him. Looking up at her he calmed down enough to enjoy the view. Last night when they went to bed, he had managed to get her top off before the drugs sent him to sleep. Oblivious to the fact that she was leaning over him topless, Michael refrained from mentioning it just so he could enjoy the view for a short time longer.

“I woke you again.”

“It’s okay. This time I couldn’t pull you from the nightmare. It felt bad.” Maria actually looked like she had been crying. “You were crying in your sleep.”

“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to see me this way.”

“I think that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say to me, Michael Guerin.” Michael startled at the mention of his last name.

She never mentioned or remembered it before, just his first name. Quickly looking up at the closed bedroom door he became concerned that someone else would hear her talking to him.

“And that is a accomplishment within itself since you have shoveled endless amounts of crap my way over the years, but to insinuate, or even suggests that I wouldn’t be concerned or that I would be worried about missing my beauty sleep is by far the lowest mean spirited thing you have ever said.”

Pulling her down on top of him quickly, he joined his mouth to hers in a deep searching kiss moving his hands lovingly up and down her naked back.

“Sorry honey, but I can’t have you looking the way you do, sitting over me and treating me like a scared child when all my emotions and desires are wanting more from you than tender regard.”

“What?”

Michael moved his hand down and indicated her topless body. Maria looked down, and suddenly remembered that she was nude from the waist up and the only other clothes she was wearing was a small pair of panties. Instead of blushing and diving for the covers she quickly turned the tables of him.

“Do you like what you see?”

“Yes, oh God yes.” Michael tried to swallow past he lump in his throat. “It’s taken me long enough to get you out of your shirt and not fall asleep.”

“The falling asleep thing is not the most gentleman thing to do.”

“I know, but the drugs are still too strong.”

“I’m worried about all these drugs. You’re too sensitive and I can’t see a reason for them.” Michael frowned at this. He might want off the drugs, but he didn’t need Maria tackling father about them. Angel needed to stay happy and loved so they could survive.

“Don’t fret, honey. Father is monitoring them and he already said he would switch them to help the tiredness. I think they help clear my confusion. It’s just the strength that is the problem.”

“Are you sure? I could talk to dad about them.”

“No. I trust him to take care of us.” Michael moved in on her trying to distract her. His mouth fastened on her exposed breast, and the deep moan and feel of her moving under him sent his heart racing out of control. “I’m no longer asleep.”

“Oh God! No, no you aren’t.” Her hands held him tight and hard up against her as she moved against him in a sensual manner causing his breath to stick in his throat and his heart to pound out of his throat. She whispered enticements in his ear to inspire him and some actually made him blush.

Angel was no angel and for some reason he was sure that it was his Maria coming through. This was so much more like Maria. Angel was soft-spoken, gentle with an air of fragility. Maria was brash, hot and spicy with more attitudes than a drunken sailor, but with a soft compassionate core.

Michael couldn’t help but pull her close and cover them under the warm blankets creating a world all their own. Her mouth was on his neck sucking and nipping the cord of muscles that ran tautly to his shoulders, her arms where under his arm with her hands coming up his back and holding onto his shoulder tightly. He could feel every inch of her body press tightly into his with barely an inch of breathing space. Her breasts were pressed into his chest and he lowered his head to pull her away enough so he could take her nipple into his mouth sucking deeply until he could the vibration along his upper palate. She cried his name and tightened her hands on his shoulder while her head went back.

The gesture was too much for his control. It was a sense of abandon, passion, and surrender all at one, but when he took her mouth, pulled her taste deep into his own core he realized that he was the one doing the surrendering. Somehow in one second, one endless moment she gave him back his control, his power and he felt safe in her arms. It was what had been missing since last summer, since the moment he walked away from her. She trusted him and wanted him. It was more than just the moment caught in time, stolen in the middle of the night; it was everything. He could feel the tears behind his eyes.

“I love the feel of you so heavy against me. I can feel you trembling in my arms and taste you on my body. I can’t remember a moment in my life when I didn’t love you, Michael or think you weren’t the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”

Maria moved her hands down his back and under that waistband of his boxers to grasp his ass and pull his groin deep into her. She could the rigid feel of him hard against her and it made her hurt in such a way that could only be good.

“Are you gonna fall asleep on me again?”

“No.” Michael was shocked not only that he was still able to speak or think, but also that his voice was so deep and husky. The feel of her under him, cradling him while moving sensually against him, giving him both a warm haven and a hard purchase to rub against was more than he could remember from any fantasy he had cooked up over the past months that he spent alone regretting her loss. “Kill me if I do, because I would never forgive myself.”

“Okay.” Maria said absentmindedly as her eyes lit upon that dip in his shoulder created by the clavicle. Moving in she quickly tasted him there licking the hollow and loving how his hands held her so close. Michael was groaning in her ear and telling her things about how much he was enjoying what she was doing.

He wanted her, wanted to feel her all over his body, but he was holding out. Michael wanted Maria, his Maria, and not just stolen moments with Angel. But Maria was making it impossible to think or even resist. She was destroying all his control with just the sounds in her throat, a touch of her hand, and a taste of her mouth. Rolling around the bed trying to find more and more of each other’s skin Michael was surprised how easy it was to make love to her, how natural it felt. One moment he was trying to talk himself into backing off and a second later he was deep in her, feeling her all around him, with her voice calling to him and begging him to stay with her.

Maria was lifted, prepared, filled so deep she could feel him inside her soul, taken in a way that made her say Michael's name again and again. Every molecule in her body seemed to come alive and vibrate and then realign to his body. They moved together like fluid and she held him tight saying his name as though she could make the ecstasy last by simply evoking the cause of it. Maria dimly heard Michael's voice, hoarse and rough and entirely out of control, saying things to her, agreeing to anything she might need just to keep her there with him forever, just to make it official, to give what they had done a permanence beyond this transitory moment of bliss.

“Yes.” Maria said breathlessly to his spoken question.

“Yes what?” Michael was confused, trying to regain his ability to think and breath.

“Yes I’ll marry you, but only under one condition.” Michael held himself off her and looked at her for a moment trying to think of what she could possibly want from him that he would not give willingly. At this exact moment in time he would rip out his heart if she wanted it.

“Ask me with my real name.” Michael’s whole body went still as what she was asking hit him. Looking deep into her eyes he saw Maria looking back at him, still and waiting. He could still feel the heat of their bodies, the mixing of his sweat with hers, and the smell of them together. Asking Maria to marry him to love him forever was the only thing he ever wanted.

“Maria.” He watched her eyes dilate. “Marry me and I’ll love you forever.”

Reaching up she smiled and pulled him back on top of her as they kissed deeply, his hand intertwined with hers. It was strange to think that such a small hand could hold so much of his heart. He heard her yes in his mouth as her mouth followed his everywhere it traveled. Her other hand taking its own journey over his back and down to grip his hip tight to her.

They were out of control again. Hands, mouths, and tongue moving fast and furious with Michael calling her name over and over again. He needed to hold her, to hold Maria for so long. She had been so lost to him for so long and the breadth of what he had in his arms, what he was touching, and making love to hit him hard.

She was finally home again, back where she belonged. This time he wasn’t leaving her alone, leaving her vulnerable. This time the journey they took would be together. Holding her body hot and lean against him with his sweat mixing with hers he made love to her again and again, joining their bodies by skin, flesh, blood and soul.

They lay together touching and hold each other. He couldn’t stop kissing her, touching her as he traced the lines of her face memorizing every aspect of her. Michael’s thumb moved along her cheekbones and down her cheek as he leaned in and sucked her tongue deep into his mouth loving the feel of it against his. The more he had of her, the more he wanted. It was endless and perpetual.

“Michael, is my mom okay?” He pulled away and quickly looked over to the door.

“Yes, but she misses you so much Maria.”

“I want to go home.” Her hand went up and touched his face. “He’s not my father is he?”

“No.” Michael could feel the regret in her body. “No he’s not.”

“He’s a monster isn’t he?” Her voice has a soft lost little girl quality to it like Maria and Angel were fighting for control.

“Yes, yes he is. Can you tell me where the other girls are? Do you know Maria? Do you know where they are?”

“Yes, over the hill and through the woods in the special place were no one will look for them. They’re allowed to walk in the garden. I was there for a while when I was sick, but then he brought me home.” Maria looked up at Michael with tears in her eyes. “I still love him, and yet I’m afraid. I keep losing myself back into Angel.”

“Stay Angel.” Michael gathered her to him tight and whispered in her ear. “Stay Angel for a while longer. If we lose Angel he’ll punish us and banish us. I need you to hold on to Angel for just a few more days until I can get stronger and we can find a way out.”

“Are all your powers gone?”

“Yes, but I can almost feel them. I just need a little more control to reconnect to them. Can you do this Maria?”

“I have to, so yes, I can do it.” Maria held him as tight as she could. “Michael?”

“Yes.”

“I’m scared.” Maria whispered to him. Michael gently kissed her temple.

“Me, too.”

~~~

He found them still fast asleep. They were wrapped around each other with their legs intertwined and Angel resting across his chest with his hand on her naked back holding her close. They looked so young and innocent together, but the state of undress and the state of the room told him that they finally took the last steps together. He smiled and closed the door to let them wake up on their own. It looked like they were going to need to get married sooner than thought. It looked like they took a large step towards providing him with future grandchildren. It was too bad that Angel no longer had a mother. A girl needs a mother during this time in her life.

~~~

Amy was sitting in Maria’s empty room in the dark when he found her. It was heartbreaking to think she was losing hope of ever finding Maria alive, but now that Michael was taken Amy seemed to lose her spirit. Jim watched her for a little while before joining her in the room. Picking her up he scooped her up and slid under her to lie on the bed and let her rest against him. They stayed the night in the empty room in silence and like so many other families in and around Roswell that night; they waited for that dreaded call.

~~~

Michael found father later in the day in a room he had never entered. He stood in the doorway unsure whether he should enter or not. Suddenly father looked up and saw Michael and motioned him into his own special room.

“Michael, come on in son.” Michael entered looking around interested in all the pictures on the wall and the maps, but it was the huge table in the center of the room was the showpiece of the entire room. It was a large mocked up landscape with military soldiers and weapons.

“What is this?”

“This is my hobby. I recreate great battles and military campaigns. I spent almost three years recreating Napoleon’s march on the Russian Front. This is my newest campaign.”

“Why do you do it?”

“Combination of reasons, it is sometimes hard to visualize the written word of a campaign and this puts it into a three dimensional landscape. It also helps you to see strategy of each side and to see where their strategies went wrong or succeeded.” Michael pondered the information and slowly made his way to a chair. His legs were still weak and he was having a hard time walking still, but today was better than yesterday.

“So it is a learning tool?”

“Yes.” He watched Michael with interest. The young man’s eyes had narrowed as he looked over the battlefield noticing the lay of the land, the positions of the army and the numbers. “What is it?”

Michael pointed to a group of soldiers numbering about two battalions in the lead and in the small town. “Were they the first to come to this town?”

“Yes, it was two battalions of dismounted Calvary, the Black Hats commanded by General Buford.” His curiosity was too much he had to ask. “What is it Michael? What do you see?”

“This column is meeting a force beyond its numbers. It is a lone two battalion miles ahead of the main corp. And this land is the best damn land all around.”

“The land? What about the land?”

“It’s the best land, the high ground. If they hold this ground by the time the main column of the infantry arrives they will have won the battle before it has begun.”

“But they’re outnumbered.”

“True, but the enemies columns are still disjointed. They have yet to completely rally and they’re in enemy lands so they will not want to engage in battle until their forces are firm.”

“That is true. The main army did not engage, but a smaller skirmish of one battalion addressed Buford’s dismounted Calvary.”

“He would have split his battalions into two, one to cover the road into the town and the other to cover the north road. When the one brigade hit him, he would have called his other battalion forward as reserves. They hit him with one battalion, and he held the best damn ground around. Lovely, just lovely.”

“Why did he stick when he knew he was outnumbered?”

“He could see what would happen if he failed to hold strong.”

“Tell me.” He was intrigued how Michael’s voice changed, how his vision changed as if he was looking over a battlefield as a worn soldier who had fought thousands of battles.

“You know what is gonna happen here tomorrow? The whole damn enemy army will come over those hills, and by the time our troops gets here they will have the high ground and there will be the devil to pay. The High ground! The Commander of the army will proceed cautiously, new to command and with Royals watching on in interest wanting a victory. Wires hot with messages, attack, attack! So he’ll set up rings around these hills then the enemy army’s all nicely entrenched behind fat rock on the high ground. The Commander will finally attack if he can coordinate the army straight up the hillside, out in the open in that gorgeous field of fire. They will charge valiantly and they will be butchered valiantly!” Michael looked up at him his eyes those of an older much more experience man. His voice was deeper, older and much more knowledgeable.

“I have lived a soldier’s life. I have never seen anything as brutally clear as this. It’s as if I actually can see the blue troops in one long bloody moment going up the long slope to the stony top as if it were already done, already a memory. There is an odd, set stony quality to it. It’s like tomorrow already done and there is nothing we can do to stop it. Knowing it will fail. We have 2,500 men and 20,000 will come down that road. We block that road. We hold this ridge. We can deprive the enemy of the high ground. It is a narrow road they will be coming down. We stack them up and it will take a while for them to break through. They’ll hit us about first light. We keep a clear eye. We hold this ground until the infantry can catch up to the rear. If we lose the high ground there will hell to pay, hell to pay.” He walked around the table watching Michael move the troops into a classical position mimicking Buford’s movement to the tee.

“Michael, how do you know this? Have you studied the Battle of Gettysburg in school?”

“I know of it, but not in detail. Is this the battle?”

“Yes. You just successfully described day one of the battle. Buford held the high ground against Lee’s army saved the battle and it turned the war for the North.”

“Lee was a fool to stay and fight. He should have retreated and picked his own battlefield where he held the better ground. The Union would have pursued to run them out of their territory. The war by the time of Gettysburg was looking bad for the Union and they were one major battle away from defeat. But Lee stayed and sacrificed his men in Gray. The blood would have stained the soil for generations to come.”

“It did. It was the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil made worse because it was brother against brother, and all the soldiers were the children of the Son’s of Liberty that had made this nation. The entire Old Virginia Brigade under General Pickett was lost and over 53,000 men lay slain in the fields when all the smoked cleared.”

“It was a merry fellowship of death.”

“Yes.” He was watching Michael with great interest. The young man had a very old soul with a unique insight. It was as if he were born to fight great battles. General George Patton had believed he was a reincarnated General from the Carpathians. This insight into Michael made him a threat in some ways, because the young man has the mind of a great strategic master. “How are you feeling today, son?”

“A little better, but tired. I came to ask if you wanted me to take my medicine now. I missed my morning meds.”

“Still having weakness?”

“Yes, my legs are having a hard time holding my body weight. Angel told me I should walk more to get my strength back.” Michael was toying with a few of the soldiers and it was as if he had something he wanted to say.

“There is something else?” Michael took a deep breath and put the soldier down.

“I want you to know that being here with you and Angel, and your giving Angel back to me has been the happiest time in my life, and I don’t want to lose it. I never really belonged anywhere before or with anyone. I’ve always been alone.” Michael paused and looked down at the battlefield.

“What is it Michael?”

“I did something last night that I need to tell you about, but I don’t want to ruin things and make you angry.” Michael put the soldiers back and squared his shoulders and looked at his adopted father directly in the eyes. “I slept with Angel last night.”

“That is hardly news Michael. The two of you have been sleeping together for a while now.”

“No. I mean we made love. We actually went all the way, and…”

“And?”

“I didn’t use any protection.”

“I see. So this means that maybe you and Angel should get married sooner than plan?”

“If you think so, but I just didn’t want you to think that I was being disrespectful to you, going behind your back. It just sort of happened. She woke me up from a nightmare and then it just happened.”

“I see. So this isn’t going to happen again?”

“No. I can’t promise that. I don’t want to go back. I want her.” Michael looked at the man, knowing him, and the part of his brain that was still his own feared this man, but the part loss to the drugs wanted to only please him. “I would do anything to keep her. She is my reason to go on.”

“I know son. I know.” Michael was still his, but for how long? His brain was too much like that of a general’s, too much given to strategy and warfare. If he broke the control it could go bad. He would be expendable once Angel was pregnant. It was too bad. He was a fine son, one that could make a father proud. But he couldn’t let anyone break up his happy home. “Let’s go find some food and take your medication.”

Michael accepted his help leaving the room. It took all the control Michael had to keep his features neutral and his physical presence weak and pliable. But the soldier in him had recognized the regard, understood the spark of one enemy recognizing another. He was father’s enemy because they were fighting for Maria and the fight was for her life. In one instant of memory he lost his position with father and made himself a threat. They had to move soon. He didn’t know how well Maria would handle being Angel, and if she broke in front of father they would find themselves out of time.

They found her in the garden playing a guitar and singing. Both men stopped and watched her for a while. She was the world to both of them, all they wanted and needed. She looked up and smiled at the two of them with love in her eyes. Michael could hear the man next to him sign in relief at her. They both went to join her.

“Father, see how well Michael is trying to get alone. I’m so worried he could hardly stand this morning he was so weak.” The man went over and reached down and kissed her cheek.

“I think the weakness was probably to do with his over exerting himself last night.” He noted the rising red on her cheeks as she remembered why Michael might have felt weak this morning.

“Dad!” He chuckled at her embarrassment. “Enough of those kinds of comments. I made fresh lemonade earlier and sandwiches. Why don’t we eat out here? It is a nice day and the fresh air will be good for the both of you. What were you doing this morning dad? Playing with your soldiers?”

“Yes, and surprisingly so was Michael. He has a natural talent for strategy and warfare.”

“I could have told you that.” Father looked at her in surprise. “You should see the battles he wages to get his way with me. They’re epic.” He laughed at that because he actually enjoyed watching the two trying to maneuver the other to their will. He noticed Angel won most battles more likely because Michael liked losing the occasional skirmish leaving the larger battles to be won.

He watched his daughter move around and arrange the table for lunch. She helped Michael take his seat and she brought him his medicine. Her hand kept coming back to him, touching him almost in assurance, but it was the way he reached out for her and found a way to pull her close to him. They were damn near inseparable and he noticed how they whispered to each other. Angel’s laugh was light and happy and he smiled at their antics. It was too bad the boy would have to die. He couldn’t afford to be away from home to long now days now that Michael was getting stronger so the other matters he needed to take care of had to wait.

~~~

Angel was waiting for him when he returned home. She looked beautiful and fresh with a smile on her face when she saw him. Coming over to him she kissed the top of his head and then hugged him. He placed his hand on her flat stomach and wondered if his grandchild was already resting inside there all snug and safe.

He needed to get the children married before he got rid of Michael. Angel would take his loss hard, and in her fragile and delicate state she would need someone to take care of her when he couldn’t be there. His darling child needed her mother.

“I made arrangements today to have you and Michael married.” He felt her go still next to him. Slowly she knelt next to him and rested her head against his leg moving her fingers over the pleat of his pants leg.

“Married? I thought you wanted to wait until I was eighteen?” He moved his hand over her hair as her head was down looking at the movement of her own fingers.

“I did. But Michael tells me that things between you and him have become more physical.” He paused when she looked up at him with a sense of waiting for him to finish. “Michael also said that he didn’t use protection.” Maria actually smiled at that. They were a little to drunk over each other last night and even earlier today when she talked him into a nap. He reached down and lifted her chin to look at her gentle face. “You could already be pregnant. Don’t you want to marry Michael?”

“Of course I do. I told him yes last night when he asked. He’s all I want.” She looked at her father hard. “I would die without him.”

“A girl needs her mother in a time like this. I think it is time I brought your mother home. She’ll be a great comfort to you while we wait to see if you’re pregnant. She can prepare you better for married life, and you will want her here for the wedding.”

“I thought mom died in the accident that hurt me? I thought she was gone.”

“No. She was away getting stronger, but she misses you so much. I think she is ready to come home and then the entire family will be together again. Your mother, my wife, you, and me, Michael and the baby, all of us will be together finally like a complete family. Our family will be happy again. Leave it me, baby; I’ll bring your mother home. She is a young woman very strong and very beautiful. Don’t you remember your mother Angel?” He watched as her brow furled in thought and she sighed.

“Yes, I think I do, but it’s not a real memory, just a feeling. It is like feeling a hand smooth your head when you were sick, and it a memory of laughter. But, she’ll be so hurt when she realizes I don’t recognize her.”

“That is okay, I have a picture.” He handed her the picture of Maria and Amy together hugging and smiling. It was a picture taken from her bedroom. He watched to see if the memory would clear the cloud of amnesia that she had suffered since he took her. But she looked at the picture almost hungry, like holding onto the image was the only memory she would ever have.

“She is so beautiful. I have her smile and hands.” He watched as tears slowly moved down her cheek. “We look so happy together, so close. I wish I could remember her more, that I could remember everything. Why daddy, why can’t I remember?” He reached down and pulled her onto his lap holding her close and patting her back while she cried. She held on to him like he was her lifeline, but over his shoulder she looked far away and it was Maria seeing the horror that soon her mother’s life would be in danger. They were out of time.

~~~

Maria took her time getting ready for bed. Her father was talking to Michael in their room. She could hear their voices and Michael’s laughter. They were finally removing Michael’s stitches. When she came into the room her father was putting away the supplies.

“Does he mend well?” Her father looked at her and smiled. She was wearing a sea-green antique slip with a matching cover and her hair was brushed in curls around her face. Both men seemed speechless watching her sit at her dressing table and open a bottle of lotion. “Dad?”

“He looks good, all healed. I suspect it would take more to damage this hard head.” He stood up and took his suturing removal kit with him. “I’ll be back with your meds Michael.”

“Dad.” He stopped at the door to look at his daughter. She was smiling and she pointed to the bedside table with a glass of water and a small cup with pills in it. “I already got them.” She went over and handed Michael the small cup and a glass of water and watched as he took them. Then she moved over to the door and reached up and kissed her father goodnight on the cheek closing the door when he father kissed her goodnight and patted her cheek.

Maria turned and looked at Michael. Moving quickly to put her hand over his mouth before he could talk, she joined him on the bed kissing him to keep him quiet. “Shush, not right now. Later.” Maria knelt beside him on the bed and slowly pushed the slip off her shoulders. Moving closer she whispered in his ear, “We will talk later, but hold me close and love me while we wait until father goes to sleep.”

“Oh God, Maria, I made a mistake this morning.” She kissed him quickly to stop him from talking. They couldn’t take the risk that father would hear them talking.

“Kiss me.” Maria moved under the covers with him and held him tight. They had to leave tonight.

~~~

It was late night when the phone rang in the DeLuca house. Jim looked at Amy. The fear in their eyes was identical. A late call to a house waiting to find missing children was never good. Jim and Amy both moved towards the phone, but Amy couldn’t answer it.

“Hello?” Jim held onto Amy’s hand.

“Valenti? It’s Cordy. I need you down here at the office.” Jim paused and swallowed hard.

“Is it the children? Did you find Maria or Michael?” Cordy heard the tone to Jim’s voice and she realized what he was asking. “No, Jim. I have a lead and I need your help.”

Amy looked sharply at Jim when he let out his breath in relief, and suddenly she was able to breath easier. Jim told Agent Powers that he would be there shortly.

“I’m coming with you.”

“Amy, it’s not the kids. She has a lead.”

“I don’t care. I’m tired of waiting in this empty house for a phone call. Jim, I need to go.” Jim looked at her. He could still see the tracks of tears on her cheeks.

“Okay, but it might not lead to anything. It might be a dead end.”

“Let’s go.” Amy grabbed her jacket, and a jacket for Maria when they found her and a blanket for Michael.

~~~

“What happened?”

“I lost myself looking at his battle simulation. I answered the military questions too well. He knows Maria. He knows that if I ever get control of my strength back that he’ll not be able to control me. It is the drugs that keep me from out maneuvering and outwitting him, and he knows I’ll never leave you behind. I just signed my death sentence.”

“Why did he leave you with me tonight then? Why is he waiting?”

Michael reached down and touched her stomach. “He wants to make sure that you’re pregnant before he gets rid of me.”

“That is why he pushed the wedding up suddenly.” Moving over his body and fitting her body into his running her hands over his warm skin, Maria kissed the side of his neck and talked softly into his skin low enough to where only he could hear. “We have to leave tonight. We can’t wait.”

“Maria, I don’t have my powers back. I can’t protect us and I took the medicine tonight. I’ll barely be able to walk.”

“I tossed out your last two doses of medicine. I gave you vitamins and some Midol.”

“Midol?” Michael’s eyebrow went up.

“Sorry, it was all I had that looked like the pills he was giving you.”

“Midol? Well at least I won’t get cramps.” Closing his eyes as she nipped the skin along his neck. “Why tonight Maria? What happened? Did you lose Angel in front of him?”

“No. I’m still Angel. I can’t help it. I keep losing myself. It’s like we are both in here and I keep getting confused, but I do remember me, and I remember my mom.” Maria sat up and pulled Michael up with her. “He’s gonna take my mom next Michael. This has to end now. I can’t let him take my mom, too.”

“He’s taking Amy to take care of you when I’m gone.”

“Yes.” Michael slowly got out of the bed.

“It’s time. We have to leave Maria. Now, tonight.” Maria got up and quickly grabbed warmer clothes and looked for shoes.

“Maria what are you doing?”

“I’m getting us clothes to wear. It’s cold outside and we will freeze.” Michael took the clothes from her and put them away again.

“No. We can’t.” Michael pulled her close when she started to protest. “Listen to me. If we do not get away, if we fail to succeed, then I need us to be in our bedclothes only. You tell him I was having a nightmare, but I didn’t wake, that I was having a traumatic flashback and took off. You took off after me to stop me. I’ll take care of the out of control behavior. It is important that we cover ourselves in case this doesn’t work.”

“It has to work Michael. If it doesn’t he’ll kill you, and he’ll take my mom. Once he has her he’ll kill the other girls and take us and disappear.”

“I know. I know.” Michael moved out of the bed looking down at his boxers and putting his t-shirt back on. He handed Maria her slip, and both of them were bare footed. “It’s time to go.”

“Michael, we have to go for the others. We can’t leave without them.” Michael stopped and looked at Maria.

“Where are they Maria? Do you know?”

“Yes, they’re through the woods and over the hills. Mostly I saw them in the garden, but they’re trapped there.”

“Maria.” Michael took her head in his hands. Her eyes were not clear enough; she was slipping back to Angel. “Maria, concentrate. I need to know where to go.”

“I’ll take you.”

~~~

Jim and Amy walked into the room. It was a bustled with activity. The full forensic team and violent crime unit was working in a flurry. Cordy had already called in all of Jim’s off duty deputies. Jim quickly went to Cordy’s side.

“Jim, where the hell have you been? I’ve been looking for you for almost two days.”

“Special Agent, I was told that you took a trip to Albuquerque. My office knew where to find me.”

“Well damn Jim, you missed out on some real sleazy club crawling in Albuquerque with me, and I’m sure you will regret that for a long time. But it paid off in a few sleazy sex offers and some valuable information.” Cordy looked over at Amy holding tightly to Jim’s hand. She forgot how involved he was in the case. He was more one of the victims than one of the investigators. “How are you Ms. DeLuca? Are you holding up okay?”

“Yes, thank you Special Agent.”

“Cordy. I think it is time to go find the children.” Cordy turned to look at Jim Valenti again. “Jim, I found our man. He’s been doing this for a while now. For the last three years he was pulling runaway girls off the street, but about eighteen months ago he was almost caught in a police undercover operation. He barely managed to escape, but not before he killed the undercover cop, a young woman that was young enough looking to pass for a runaway. The near capture and the killing of a cop pushed him underground. He relocated to this area. And for almost a year he must have watched his new victims.”

“None of the girls were runaways.”

“No. No they weren’t. But they were all young girls from broken homes with missing father figures. The first three girls that were murdered and dumped had replacement fathers. Their mothers had remarried. They could not be what he needed, so he punished them and dumped them.”

“So who are we looking for?”

“We are looking for a white male in his late forties to mid fifties. He is a professional with means, and he has status in the community so that his movements and regard would be beyond reproach. He lost his family, especially a daughter about three ago. He’ll have just relocated to this area eighteen months ago.”

Valenti whole body stiffened and became alert. “Hanson! Get me all the information you can on Dr. Stan Walker. His wife and daughter were supposedly killed in an automotive accident a few years back. He told me his daughter survived, but was home because of her injuries.”

“What was his daughter’s name Jim?”

“Angel. He told me that he and his wife were not able to have children, and as a gift of God they conceived Angel.” Amy covered her mouth as she looked at the wall with all the missing girls’ pictures and information, the last one being Maria, and then Michael. Mounted on the wall between their pictures was some to the drawings that Michael did of Maria. She looked like an angel, surreal, and otherworldly.

“Michael knew. We gave him Michael when we took made him go to see Dr. Walker.” Amy grabbed Jim’s arm hard. “Michael painted a picture of Maria for him. She looked like an angel and Dr. Walker said that she illuminated him. My God, Jim, we gave him Michael.” Cordy was listening carefully.

“We helped him change his pattern. We gave him something else to covet. A son that could see his daughter with the same regard that he saw her.” Cordy grabbed her coat as Hanson came running back into the room with a shelf of papers.

“Sheriff, here’s the information about Dr. Walker’s family’s accident.” Both Cordy and Jim quickly read the information. Linda and Angel Walker both died of multiple traumas sustained in a motor vehicle accident, and both had been declared dead on the impact almost four years ago. Angel Walker was seventeen the day she died. It had been her birthday.”

“Let’s move out and go find our missing children. Sheriff, I’m assuming you know where Dr. Walker resides?”

“Yes. His family home is close to the inpatient psychology clinic.” The entire teams quickly grabbed their coats and were out the door with Amy DeLuca close on Jim’s heels.

“Amy, maybe you should wait here.”

“Don’t even suggest it. I’m going with you to get my children back.” Cordy and Jim looked at each other, and then at Amy. With a nod of Cordy’s head they took Amy’s arms and hustled her out of the room as Jim dialed the Judge for an emergency warrant and search order for Dr. Walker and his residence.

~~~

Michael and Maria made it through the woods in the dark and slowly pulled themselves over the hills. Maria had been right. There was a garden. It was the grounds of the inpatient psychiatric clinic that specialized in eating disorders and problem children with severe depression and suicidal tendencies. It was a place where he could hold his victims drugged and watched by unknowing staff. Dr. Walker had found the perfect place to hide his victims.

Michael looked over at Maria. He was worried. Her hands were dirt covered from scrambling over the hills and she had fallen a few times coming through the woods. His feet hurt from the cuts and abrasive of running through the woods barefooted. Maria’s had to be worse. Her feet were so much more delicate and softer than his. Keeping her to his side and trying to take most of her weight on his frame had tired him. His legs were feeling that weakness that had plagued him for the past weeks since being drugged. His mind still felt disjointed, and they needed to break into the clinic to find the girls, or a phone.

“Michael? Can you break in?” Maria was breathing hard and her voice was cracking under the strain. She was afraid, looking over her shoulder, looking for Him. If he found them, they would be punished. They were both shaking from the cold.

“I’ll have to. Let’s go.”

~~~

Stan Walker woke suddenly in the stillness. The air felt different, and the house was silent. Quickly getting up he went to check on the house. He hadn’t felt this sense of emptiness since he brought Angel home. Moving down the hall, he opened their bedroom door. The room was lit with a small lamp on the dressing table covered by a colored cloth. The bed was empty. Moving into the room he crossed to the bathroom, but it too was empty.

“No.”

Leaving the room and rushing back to his room he quickly dressed, trying to piece together any clues that Michael had regained control or that Angel was no longer his. It had to be something else. Rushing back to the room he noticed the window was left wide open. Opening up the closet all the clothes appeared to still be there. Angel’s coat was on the window seat and Michael’s shoes were beside the bed. Wherever they went, they went quick and without being prepared.

Stan hit the outside of the house and stood on the patio looking towards the access road. He could see a line of cars coming his way. It had to be the police. With one last look at the convoy of vehicles, he walked off into the woods following his two very bad children. They had to be moving towards the clinic since all the phones in the house were turned off at night with the exception of the one in his bedroom.

When he found them, and he would find them, they would have to be punished for disobeying, for running away. This was not the time to be running around in the night. He needed to find them and punish them before he could leave. This could not go neglected.

Pulling on black leather gloves and sheathing a large hunting knife inside his overcoat, he stepped into the woods tracking him prey. They could run. They could hide. But it wouldn’t matter. He would find them, because he under stood how people thought better than they did themselves.

~~~

The special unit of the FBI was the first to enter the house moving in from multiple directions at once. Valenti and his men followed when the all-clear signal was given. Amy followed up the rear.

“Sheriff, he is already gone.”

“When did he leave? Is there any indication?”

“No. But it appears to be suddenly and very recent.” Cordy noticed Amy coming around Jim.

“Maria and Michael? Did you find them?” Amy could feel the fear growing. If he already left, did he take them with him never to be found, or did he kill them before leaving?

“No. There is no sign of them. The house is empty.”

“So they were never here?”

“No. They were here. Follow me.” Jim took Amy’s arm and followed Cordy down the hall to a bedroom door. She moved to the side to let Amy and Jim to look in. It was Amy’s gasp that drew her greatest compassion.

“Oh my God, it’s Maria’s room.” He had reconstructed her room with all her thing in place. The bed was bigger and the furniture different, but the feel was Maria. Leaning up against the mirror on the dressing table was the picture of Amy and Maria. Amy never felt the tears streaming down her face. So close, they had come so close. Looking around she noticed Michael shoes and clothes. She was wrong. It wasn’t just Maria’s room. It was Michael’s too.

“Sir, we found these in the other room.” One of Cordy’s men handed over a plastic bag filled with medication bottles, all with Michael’s name on them prescribed by Dr. Stan Walker.

Another agent rushed in the room listening to a com-link in his ear. “Cord, we have movement in the woods.” The entire room and house exploded with the full search team taking to the woods.

“Woody, give me that link.” She fitted the link to her ear and talked into the transceiver. “Gentlemen take your teams and chop up broadside. I want these woods covered, no transects are to be missed. We have four missing girls and a missing young man, and I want to take them home alive, tonight.”

“Cord, Dawson says that there is an inpatient clinic ran by Dr. Walker through these woods.” Walt was her second in command and partner for seven years.

“That is were he would have kept the girls. Lets go. You and the team cover the woods heading toward the clinic, the sheriff and I’ll take his men and go to the clinic and move back towards you.” The men all headed out. “Walt, don’t let him slip away.”

“Over my dead body Cord. If I don’t get you home to Terry soon there will be hell to pay.” With a quick smile Cordy, Amy, and the Sheriff got in his truck and were followed down the access road by his men. As they drove down the road they could see the lights of the search teams in the woods. Cordy looked over her shoulder at Amy in the backseat.

“Keep the faith Amy. We will find them. It ends tonight.”

~~~

Michael and Maria made it into the basement of the clinic. Michael was able to open a basement casement window, but it took longer than he was use to, and he leaned up against a wall to rest. His legs were quaking and he was afraid he was going to collapse. Maria was next to him, helping to hold him up and her face was pale. The healed wound of her forehead stood out stark in the bright light and against her pale skin.

They slowly proceeded down the hallway trying to find the other three girls. They would have been kept near each other, but away from the other patients. They found three rooms occupied in the west wing. There were no more patients in that wing and the night staff were in the main units station watching the wing with monitors. Michael blew out the monitor cameras and they quietly moved to the first door. Michael opened it with some effort. Maria could hear a young girl’s voice in the room softly crying. When they entered the room the girl scrambled in the bed up into the corner in a fetal ball crying louder.

“Shush, it’s okay. It’s okay. We came to take you home.” Maria rushed to the bed and the girl while Michael leaned panting against the door jam looking down the hall. His forehead was covered in sweat and the lights in the hall kept dimming in and out. He was close to passing out.

“Maria, hurry.”

Maria reached the girl and took her cold hands in hers. “What is your name?”

“Jenny. I’m Jenny.” The girl was still crying. “I don’t belong here.”

“I know. Neither do we. We’re going home. Come with us if you want to live. We have to hurry, father will come.” At the name of father Jenny scurried across the bed and threw herself in Maria’s waiting arms.

Michael reached out his arm and pulled Maria and Jenny to him. They moved down the hall to the next room. Jenny called through the door to a girl named Marilynn telling her that they were going to help her. Michael took even longer to open that lock and as the door swung open and Jenny rushed in to gather up Marilynn, Maria had to grab Michael to keep him from falling to his knees.

“Maria, honey, I don’t know if I have the strength to open the last door.”

“You have too. We can’t leave anyone behind.”

“Maria, we go to the desk and ask the nurse to call Valenti.”

“Michael, we’re breaking out three of the their patients. They’ll restrain us and he’ll come.” Michael swore under his breath.

“Help me to the last door.” They slowly moved there and Michael tried to open it. But he couldn’t. Sliding down the door, Maria knelt beside him and held him close to her body.

“You can do this. I know you can. You’re the strongest bravest man I have ever known.” Pulling his head off her body she looked him in the eyes. “Now baby, open that door because I want to go home.”

Michael closed his eyes and fought the fog that was clouding his brain. Concentrating hard and keeping Maria’s body against him he drew from her strength. He opened the door and they collected Lisa.

It took all four of the girls to hold up Michael and help him down the hall. They took the first stairwell down to the basement level to find the room and window that they had come in through. If they could get out of the building Michael might have enough strength left for him to open up a car of one of the staff and start it.

As they moved down the hall back towards the room Michael heard a noise behind them. Turning, he saw a figure at the end of the hall before the lights went out. The suddenness of the dark made the girls scream. They all looked back and saw the dark figure moving towards them. Screaming, they all scrambled backwards with Michael pushing the girls behind him.

“Maria, the room, now. Go.” Maria turned and pulled the others with her to the room they had entered through. Looking back she saw that Michael had fallen without their support and he was scrambling backwards away from father. She pointed the others to the open window and watched as they helped each other out. Turning back she ran out of the room and grabbed Michael under his arms and pulled him with her into the room slamming the door shut.

“Michael, lock the door.” Michael didn’t move, so Maria screamed in his ear. “Michael, lock the damn door, now.” Taking his hand, she placed it over the lock feeling her heart beating out of her chest at the sound of the footsteps coming closer to the outside of the door.

“Baby, please. Please.” And suddenly Michael’s hand under hers heated up and melted the lock. They both moved backwards towards the window and scrambled out after the girls. They came to help Maria carry Michael. Rushing around the clinic they found the staff parking lot.

“Michael, can you open the door to this car?”

“I’ll try.” He closed his eyes and concentrated as the girls huddled around him holding him up and watching frantically for father. He tried real hard, but he had nothing left. “Maria, I can’t”

Maria looked at him worried. His entire body was covered in sweat and his eyes kept threatening to roll back in his head. She was afraid that he was going to collapse soon. Then suddenly one of the girls, Lisa began to cry and beg. Looking up Maria saw him, father. He came around the corner of the clinic and was walking towards them. Michael saw him too.

“Run, through the garden and into the woods, Maria, take them and hide.” Michael was trying to remain upright, but he was struggling.

“No, no, no. I’ll not leave you.” Maria was clutching him to her.

Michael grabbed her and shook her. “I’m done. Take the girls, and hide, Maria. You hide. Save our baby. Now go. Go!” Maria started to cry. Kissing him quickly, she grabbed the others and they ran.

Michael made sure they cleared the building and turned back to father. He was approaching with a look of anger on his face and an unsheathed knife in his hand. Michael couldn’t hold himself up any longer and he sunk to his knees.

“You were very bad, Michael. I knew that today that you could never be trained, never trusted. You would wait until you had the strength and then you would have taken Angel.” He moved even closer. “You need to be punished. It hurts me to have to banish you, but I can’t let this go.”

Michael put out his hand trying to gain the strength to take out the monster that was Dr. Stan Walker. “You’re sick, very sick.” Michael couldn’t find anything left of his powers and father came close enough to make eye contact, and with a gentle kiss on Michael’s cheek he pushed the knife into Michael’s right lung to the hilt. The thrust was powerful enough to force blood into Michael’s mouth and out of his the side of his mouth.

In one last moment of bravo he looked at his killer and the closest he had ever come to a real father in the eyes. “Her name is not Angel. It is Maria, and she doesn’t belong to you.” And with that Michael spit the blood in his mouth at the man and passed into oblivion in a pile in the parking lot.

~~~

Maria kept looking behind her as she and the other girls ran. They could hear noises in the distance, but had no idea what or who it was. Finding a hollowed out tree covered in the darkness they all fitted themselves into the hollow and huddled together. The group of them was shivering in fear and shock. Maria could feel her heart fluttering like a frightened caged animal. Michael? What happened to Michael? God, please, please, don’t take him. She closed her eyes and prayed. They tried to stay quiet, but they knew he would find them. Maria’s last thoughts were of her mother and Michael.

~~~

Valenti pulled into the clinic’s parking lot at first he didn’t notice the figure collapsed on the ground, but Amy in the backseat did. Her finger pointed it out. They pulled up close, and when Jim jumped out of the car he was shocked to find a deadly pale Michael dying in his own pool of blood.

“Michael, son. Michael!” Reaching down, he took off his coat and pressed it to the sucking wound. The sound of air from the stab wound confirmed the punctured lung, and Michael’s breath was shallow. His pulse was slowing and thready.

“Michael!” Amy ran around the truck and took over holding Jim’s coat to Michael’s wound.

“Maria?” Michael’s voice was low and sounded far away. “You have to get her and the other girls.”

Cordy knelt down next to Jim. “Where are they Michael? Where do we find them?”

“They’re hiding in the woods. Father is hunting them. Go.” Jim looked at Cordy.

“I have to take Michael in or lose him. I have to trust you to bring Maria home. Take my men and find them.” Cordy squeezed Jim’s shoulder and reached down and kissed Michael’s forehead. He wasn’t going to make it. It would take a miracle. Swallowing the tears she took the men and headed into the woods. “Cordy, you will find us at Amy’s. Bring Maria there, and Cordy?” She turned to look at him. “Bring her home alive.” With a quick nod her and the men rounded the corner of the building.

Jim reached down and picked up Michael and placed him in the back seat with his head in Amy’s lap as she covered him with the blanket she had brought. Jumping into the driver’s seat he hit his sirens and lights and turned the truck back towards Roswell. Taking out his cell phone he called Max. There is no time. No time.

~~~

Maria felt him coming before she heard or saw him. His figure came around the trees and almost past them by, but he seems to sense her too. Turning he looked at them. Pushing the others off of her, Maria stood up and faced him. He had Michael’s blood on him, on his face. He still held the knife covered with Michael’s blood in his hand.

“Michael? Did you kill him, daddy?”

“Angel, you were very bad. Why? Why did you leave?” He opened his hands in an open gesture.

“I had too. Michael said that he made a mistake, that he made you fear him. Would you have let me keep him?”

“No. He was right about that. He was too dangerous.” Stan moved closer to Maria. “He’s gone now. I can’t change that, but I can change this. We are almost out of time. Come with me Angel and the other children can go home. I only want you.”

“I can’t. I don’t believe you. You killed Michael, and he was your son. He loved you.”

“Angel…”

“My name is not Angel! I’m Maria!” At that moment a look a total anger covered his features and he raised the knife above his head and rushed Maria. In the distance they could hear a voice calling him to freeze, but he continued to rush Maria. He came so close that all Maria could see was his eyes when three bullets hit him twisting his body and felling him to the ground.

“No! Daddy!” Maria dropped to the ground and pushed the knife away from his hand pulling his head into her lap. The part of her that was still confused and Angel wept over his dying body. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, don’t leave me daddy, don’t leave.”

Cordy holstered her gun and came closer watching the confused Maria DeLuca crying over the dying body of Dr. Stan Walker. Her tears were deep and heartfelt. She was whispering to him, soothing his brow. He looked at her one last time reaching up he gently stroked her cheek wiping Michael’s blood and his own on her face. “Love you, my Angel.”

“Daddy? Daddy, don’t go.” And with that he passed away. Maria sat there holding his head in her lap and running her hands down his arms trying to wake him as the rest of the team joined them. Cordy came nearer and placed her hand on Maria’s shoulder.

“Maria?” The young girl looked up, but her eyes were confused and lost. “Maria, I need to take you home to your mom and Michael. Are you ready to go?”

At the name of Michael she seemed to come out of her stupor and nodded her head yes. Cordy stood and reached down to help the girl to her feet as she gently place the man’s head on the ground and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead barely able to release his hand.

“He was my father.”

“I know.” Cordy put her arm around Maria’s shoulder and helped her from the woods as her team gathered the other frightened girls. All the children were found, accounted for and returned home, some alive and some lost.

Cordy walked in silence beside her partner Walt as he carried the crying girl feeling her sorrow deeply thinking of a brave young man that more than likely would not survive the night. Sometimes the sorrow of this job weighted her down, made her wonder if she had chosen wrong, but someone had to stand for the victims, someone had to care enough to bring them home. The devil that lived in men made her job necessary, and tonight she succeeded in beating back the parts of evil that lived in some humanity. It was only one small victory in a long line of defeats, but it made the difference. God she was tired.

~~~

“Jim? Jim where are you going? You have to take Michael to the hospital. He’s dying.” Jim looked in the rearview mirror at Amy. “My God he has lost so much blood. It has soaked through your coat.”

“Amy, you have to trust me. Michael can’t go to the hospital. I won’t let him die, but we are almost out of time. We have to get him Max immediately.”

“Max? I don’t understand?”

“Amy, please. I’ll explain later. Just trust me.”

As they rounded the corner, Valenti saw Max’s jeep in front of the DeLuca house. Max was there with Isabel, Liz, Kyle, Tess and Alex. They had all came when he called. He pulled the truck into the drive behind the Jetta. Rushing to the back door he opened it and pulled Michael out. He had picked Michael up before to put him in the backseat, but he doubted that he could carry him all the way to the house without help.

“Max, quick.” Jim took the blanket covering Michael and laid it on the ground and then lifted Michael from the back seat placing him on the blanket. Amy was right. He had lost too much blood. His skin was gray and his jacket was totally soaked with his blood.

“Kyle and Alex, we need your help.” They rushed to help. Each one took a corner of the blanket and they took him into the house. Isabel, Liz and Tess all stood together worried and crying. They watched Amy rush into the house following Michael, but the truck was empty and there was no Maria.

“Max, you have to hurry.”

Max looked at Amy and then at Valenti. Jim just shook his head that it was okay. Amy would never do anything to harm or risk Michael, of that he was sure. Max pulled open away the coat and the group of them gasped. His entire torso was covered in blood and the wound was gaping. Max quickly covered the wound with his hands and then concentrated to heal the wound.

Amy looked on in wonder and amazement as she watched Max heal Michael. She started crying again when he finally opened his eyes and looked at her. Her little boy was going to live. Holding him in the back of Jim’s truck she had been so sure, so many times that he was gone.

Leaning down she gathered Michael into her arms and kissed his head. Looking up at Max and the others she finally began to understand what bond held this group of young adults. “Thank you, Max. Thank you.”

The other sighed their relief and then started questioning Jim about Maria and what was going on. Michael just lied there in Amy’s arms almost afraid to look her in the eyes.

“Honey, you’re a mess. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Amy got up leaving a kiss on his forehead; she went into the bathroom and ran a bath. Coming back she asked Max to help Michael to the bathroom. After he came back out Amy wandered into the bathroom herself to check on Michael. They could hear Michael complaining about it behind the door and Amy telling him to hush up while she took care of him.

The group of them waited and waited. Amy had Michael cleaned and out of the bath with his ribs wrapped where his wound would have been and settled in Maria’s bed. “Sleep. You will want to be rested for when they bring Maria home.”

“Maria?”

“Shush, sleep.” Amy sat and watched him drift off to sleep. She watched over him and prayed that Maria would be home soon.

~~~

Valenti heard the car drive up before anyone else. Rushing outside he took Maria from Walt’s arms and carried her inside to her mom. They had taken her to the hospital before bringing her home. They had treated her wounds and scraped feet. When Jim entered the house Amy had come out of Maria’s room leaving a sleeping Michael. When she saw her daughter it was if all the life in her body was spent, and all the energy and strength that had held her upright through the whole ordeal finally ended and she sunk to the ground and wept in her hands.

“Mom?”

Jim brought Maria to Amy and sat her down next to her mom, while the other watched crying too. Reaching out Amy took Maria in her arms and held her tight like she would never let her go again. Cordy watched the reunion from the door, and with a heartfelt sigh she felt that her job was finally done.

“I lost him. I left him to die.”

“What? Who Maria?”

“Michael.”

With that said Maria cried her heart out in her mother’s arms. After a short while of holding her daughter, running her hands over her body to assure herself that she was indeed returned intact and kissing her, she slowly stood and pulled Maria with her down the hall to her bedroom.

When Maria entered the bedroom the first thing she saw was a sleeping Michael, alive and breathing.

“Oh my God.” She rushed to the bed and sat down gently next to him hesitant to touch him in case he was just a dream.

“Go ahead. He would want you too.” Maria turned to look at her mother standing in the doorway, and then back at Michael. She was surprised to find him watching her through half closed eyes.

Then with a small smile, he said just two words in a whisper. “Please do.”

Michael opened up his arm and she moved into his embrace next to his body. They were so close that her nose touched his and she spoke into his mouth. “You made me leave you.”

“Yes.”

“I hate you for that.”

“I know. I love you too.” He moved his hand up under her hair and around her neck and pulled her the rest of the way into a deep kiss. Amy watched them for a few moments and then closed the bedroom door. She went back into the living room in time to hear Cordy talking to Jim.

“Michael? You have Michael in there, and he is alive?”

“He’s not in the best shape, but his personal physician tells me that he’ll recover.”

“Excuse me, a punctured lung usually means surgery and ICU recovery. Do you want to tell me how that young man was able to recover fast enough to be discharged to home care?”

“No. But give me sometime and I think I could come up with a semi reasonable explanation.”

Cordy ran her hand across her head and actually stretched trying to remove the tiredness. “You know what? Forget it. I don’t want to know. I’m just glad that he survived. He is a good kid, and he’ll make an incredible profiler someday. He is observant.”

“Special Agent, would you like to stay and have some breakfast with the rest of us. We are sort of celebrating this early morning.” Cordy smiled at the small crowd of relieved friends and family.

“Kind offer, and I thank you, but actually I think I have a long standing date. And if I don’t go home and see my spouse, I’ll be in a large dog house.”

“Terry, right?”

“Yes, Terry.” With that Cordy gathered her jacket and stuff to head out with Walt already beating her out the door.

“Your husband is a very understanding man.” Valenti looked perplex when Cordy started laughing.

“You don’t know how true that is. But, actually, Terry is my wife. It’s short for Theresa.” With a smile and a wink, Cordy let herself out of the house chuckling. Jim looked over at Amy and they both started laughing.

~~~

Two months later, things had settled almost back to normal, except that Michael no longer really lived at his own apartment. Somehow over the last few months he moved into the DeLuca household. Both Maria and Michael were still suffering anxiety and posttraumatic syndrome over their ordeal, and separation anxiety made it impossible to separate them.

The few times that Maria got out of Michael’s sight for an unexpected amount of time he suffered an almost full meltdown, and Amy had to settle him down from the anxiety. They would have liked to send both of them to therapy, but since Michael’s last therapist had ended up being a psycho killer, they decided it would cause too much added anxiety.

Jim came over every once in a while after work to check up on the couple. He and Amy only just started going out and leaving the two of them alone at night, but in truth the anxiety was almost as much Amy’s as the others. Jim had contacted Cordy and she came down to visit. According to Cordy it was just going to take time before any of them felt comfortable being separated, but the reaction was normal. They just needed time, and everyday they needed to work on getting back to normal a little more and more.

“How are they doing?” Amy gestured him to follow her into the back bedroom. They looked in to find the two sleeping wrapped around each other. They seemed so peaceful and young. Jim followed Amy back into the living room.

They were surviving. It was hard, but they would go on, because succumbing was letting the monster win. Life was a gift, but it wasn’t free and costless, sometimes life had to be that dream you fought the hardest to preserve.

“They’re both still having nightmares. Michael’s are worse. But, I do think they’re getting better, and who knows maybe someday they can sleep apart, but I doubt it. Neither seem to be in any hurry to separate, and I really can’t imagine demanding it, especially now.”

“Now?” Amy went into the kitchen and started making hot tea. “Amy, now?”

“Maria isn’t pregnant.” Jim felt rooted to the spot.

“Was that a possibility?”

“Indeed.” Amy fixed Jim a cup of tea too, even though she knew he preferred coffee.

“So this alien thing. It makes it hard to know how this is gonna come out, whether a pregnancy would be normal, and even the problem of getting Maria prenatal care. I talked to the kids and they made it clear that they wanted the pregnancy. Actually they both seems to be upset about the news that I must admit to feeling a little of the disappointment myself. Imagine Jim, my grandchild is gonna be the most unique person, a combination of hybrid alien and human, and only god knows what kind of powers he or she’ll have.”

“It could be hard for them. They don’t even know if Michael and the others can mate with humans.”

“It’s a brave new world.” Amy added honey to her tea and took a sip. “So what are you doing on Saturday?”

“Saturday?”

“Yes.”

“Umm, nothing yet. Why? Do you have something you want me to do?”

“Well I was hoping you would give Maria away at her wedding to Michael.”

“Wedding?” Amy glanced up from her tea and laughed at how astonished Jim looked.

Yes, they were young, but the chance of either of them ever changing their minds about the other or them stop being sexually active was slim to none. Amy just sat back and contemplated her family that had increased in number when they added Michael. She wondered what her grandchild would look like when they finally had one. Would it have her smile, her sense of humor and moral dignity, or would it have Michael’s eyes and Maria’s heart.

In some ways she could understand Stan Walker and his obsession to find the daughter he lost, because she didn’t know what she would do if she ever lost Maria and Michael? But she could never forget or forgive the terror he visited on her family.

Every once in a while she would see a remnant of Angel in Maria’s eyes, or the sadness in Michael over having found someone that wanted him as a son, and then losing him. But more than anything she couldn’t forgive the emptiness that lived in her life and Michael’s when they were afraid that they had lost Maria forever.

The one thing that Amy did know was that life somehow just got a little more interesting.

Fic