“What?” Maria couldn’t believe it. It was her decision. It should be her decision. He made his when he stayed on Earth, and she should have the right to decide about leaving Roswell with him.

“I can’t let you, Maria.”

“I’ve thought this through, Michael. I want to be with you. I love you. I’ve always loved you. This should be my decision.”

Michael looked at the others, and took her arms pulling her away from the group. “I love you too, and that is why you’re not going.”

“This is because of before.”

“Maria.”

“No. Don’t deny it. I broke up with you, and you haven’t forgiven me for that.” Maria ran her hands through her hair uncaring what it did to her style. “If you love me, and I love you, and we want to be together, then it shouldn’t matter.”

“It does matter. We will be on the run for the rest of our lives, Maria. Forever. No safe. Never.” Michael saw Max make a gesture that they needed to hurry.

“I want to be with you.” Maria’s stomach hurt.

Michael shook his head no. This was the way it had to be. He couldn’t risk it. Risk her. “Maria, I already said goodbye. I meant it.”

“And that’s it.” Maria stood back looking at him in disbelief. “It’s always been this way.” Seeing his look of confusion, she continued. “Between the alien stuff and us. The alien stuff always rules supreme. What about my heart? Your heart?”

“I’m following my heart, and for the first time, my head as well. Taking you with me would be a selfish thing. It would be compromising your safety, your life. Too many people have died because of me, I can’t have you be another one.” Michael heard his name. “I’ve got to go. We…” Michael paused looking at her. He wanted to kiss her one more time, but he couldn’t. Steeling his heart, he turned and walked away.

They stood there in the dark watching the van’s tail lights until they faded away. Neither of them speaking, as Jesse stood a few feet away from her. There was nothing to say. They were just human. Nothing special. Easy to leave. No reason to take or stay.

~~~

5 Months later…

“Max, you’ve got to talk to him.”

Max looked up from where he was sitting with Liz on a bed in another cheap motel. They were almost out of money again, so it was back to one room for the five of them. Michael tended to sleep in the van despite the cold, and Isabel shared a bed with Kyle, as Max and his wife, Liz took the other bed.

His wife.

Max smiled an idiotic grin. Liz Evans.

“Snap out of it! Michael. He’s a problem. Go deal with him.” Isabel couldn’t take much more. Her life. It was a nightmare.

How do you learn to hate? It was hard to say. But in six months, Isabel knew a few things to be facts. First being, she hated her life, and how it turned out. She hated her brother Max, with a passion, and with him, she hated Liz Parker. She hated Michael Guerin. And finally, she hated that they were all she had in the world.

Max and Liz were as simpering in marriage as they were before the glorious, earth shattering event that realigned the planets, brought about world peace, and turned the waters of the world to milk and honey.

Actually, no.

None of those things happened. Nada. No magical alliance. No unseen Destiny. Even Liz’s alien powers had waned. In the last six months she had exactly three premonitions, and the last one didn’t even pan out. The only thing that did increase was the dolt like smug smile on Liz’s face as she sat next to Max smiling into his face.

Michael. He changed, for the worse. All the ground he made over the past few years dissolved before their very eyes. They had suspected that it was Maria that made Michael change. Criticizer of Maria would say she nagged and pestered him to be what she thought he should be. But in truth, all the changes came from Michael, inside. He changed because he wanted to be better, be worthy of Maria. That was just how he saw it.

For the first time in about two years, both Isabel and Michael were unhindered by significant others. So finally, she left Jesse, and he left Maria. You’d think they would’ve joined together, consol each other, and maybe even accidentally try that Destiny they once denied.

No. Nope. Nada. The will wasn’t willing, and the flesh was even less so. It was a hard crushing reality to find that no matter how far they roamed, where they went, those they left behind still owed their heart, and everything else was second best, and sometimes not even that.

Michael Guerin was the furthest thing from a dream mate, Isabel could think of. He was nasty, biting and sarcastic. He rolled his eyes at every word leaving practically any of their mouths. He lost his tempered, never slept, and became meaner as the days moved along. He made Alien King Michael look like a Campfire boy.

He was Michael Guerin again. Michael, pre-Maria, but even worse. For once in his life, he had no great purpose. No search for home. No Destiny to be a soldier, or even a stand-in King. He was nothing but a fugitive trapped with four other people he suspected he didn’t even like.

Food tasted like paste. And it was possible that the sky was eternally gray. He hadn’t laughed once since they left Roswell. Not once. His face was like a rocky faced cliff, and most the time, he pretended not to hear people as he ignored them. The only words he had were in complaint, or to dress down someone for some offense.

Using all the hot water was grounds for a firing squad.

Laughing at a Garfield comic was enough to earn a person a day of disdain.

It was hard. Isabel could understand because her and Michael were in the same boat. They left someone they loved behind. In an act of love, they walked away.

Then there was Max.

Max who saved Liz Parker three years ago starting a chain reaction of a slow dissolving of their safe boring lives. Max who broke a promise between the three of them. Max who cheated and lied to not only them, but to Liz. Max who let a murderess into their lives and took Alex away. Max who did so much wrong starting from the moment he saved Liz Parker. His reward? He got to marry the girl. He got to keep his love close. All that. And once again Max Evans got everything.

How do you learn to hate?

You live with it every day.

~~~

“Can we talk?”

Michael looked up from the magazine he was reading. “Do I have a choice?”

“Look, Michael…”

Michael sat up and slammed his magazine down. “Guess that means no.” Michael got up and grabbing his jacket, he left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Max watched the door close. Looking at Liz, he could see the sympathy in her eyes. Sighing, he picked up his coat and followed. Michael was in the van. He was lying down on the back bench seat. It was cold. How Michael could stand sleeping in the van was beyond Max’s comprehension.

“Is this where you, King Max tells me that Princess Isabel would like me to adjust my attitude? Or is it Queenie? The all seeing, all knowing Great and Magical Wizard of Roswell, Liz?”

Max ignored the insults. After six months, it was pare for the course. “No this is where I tell you to get over it.”

Michael just snorted. “Thanks, Max. I feel better already because I’ve been ordered to get over it.”

“I mean it, Michael.” Max took a seat in the front and turned around to regard his once best friend. “You’re pissed. What about this time is anyone’s guess. This attitude has been a constant cloud over the entire group since we left Roswell.” Max picked at the fabric of the chair he was sitting. “If you were going to take it so hard, then you should’ve let her come.”

Michael sat up, his face turned red. “You know nothing, Max. I suggest you shut the fuck up before I forget that I’m not a killer.” He should’ve left Max there to fry. He didn’t have to come back, but he did.

“She wanted to come. You said no. Don’t take that out on us.”

Michael swore and looked out into the night. “This isn’t about…” He couldn’t say her name. Closing his eyes, he felt a need to rub his eyes, but he resisted. Max was watching. “What? Do you even care? You’ve got your wife. You’re all happy and sickeningly nauseating most the time with all the cooing, lovey dovey names, and smug smiles…so happy, even though the rest of us are miserable.”

“Don’t blame us that you aren’t happy. Maybe you should just admit it, Michael. You didn’t leave her behind because you were concerned about her safety.”

“Shut up.”

“No. You can listen or not, but pretending that you were being noble isn’t solving or admitting to the problem.”

“And that would be?” Michael asked nastily. Max, the magnificent always knew everything.

“The problem was she was right. You were still punishing her for breaking up with you. That was why you left her out, made her unimportant. It was why you took away her right to choose.”

Michael wasn’t getting any sleep tonight. Max wasn’t going to go away. Trapped. Michael searched for a place he could go sack out away from the others. Perhaps he could break into an empty room and sleep in it for the night. Watch some television. Forget.

“Are you through? Or is there more to this lecture?”

Max was tired. Tired of all of it. “No, that’s about it. You need to learn forgiveness, Michael. You never forgave me for saving and telling Liz, and all the things after. You never could even think of Isabel in any manner once you learned of Kivar and her betrayal as Vilandra. You can’t forgive Liz for being important to me. And you couldn’t forgive Maria for wanting a life that didn’t revolve around us, you, and danger. You couldn’t forgive her for wanting more, because that meant you weren’t enough.”

“I forgave her. We…” Michael looked at the night again. “We were sort of back together in an unspoken way before everything went wrong.”

“Why? Because you two were occasionally sleeping together? She wanted more, but you kept holding back. After we helped the Colonel, I thought things were getting better, but you left her out there on a limb. She could have you physically, but nothing else. Not your heart. You couldn’t forgive her that one thing, after how many years of her forgiving you everything?”

“Shut up, Max. It was none of your business. I never asked for your opinion, nor do I want it.”

Max opened the door and jumped down. “Too bad. You made a mistake. You let your unforgiving nature prompt you to throw away the only woman you ever loved, the only person who ever accepted you, warts and all. And, Michael,” Max said softly, “there are a lot of warts. So just learn to accept it, because we are sick of it.”

Michael didn’t even bother to acknowledge Max’s leaving.

Unforgiving.

The only person he ever loved unconditionally. No one, but her. He hadn’t lied. There was never anyone else for him, except her. There never would be. Lying back on the bench, he ignored the cold.

“I don’t even have a picture of you,” he said to the darkness. “Three years. You would think that I would’ve at least taken the time to carry a picture of you in my pocket.”

Michael laughed bitterly at himself. The laughed turned into a hardly suppressed sob. It wasn’t suppose to hurt this much. He always knew he might have to leave. Years go by, and he had convinced himself it wouldn’t matter…that he could walk away.

Michael wiped a trembling hand over his mouth. It was wet. A cold sweat broke out on his upper lip. He felt sick. Sleep. He needed sleep. It was too cold to sleep. That was why he slept there. It kept him awake. He hated dreaming.

The nightmares.

They started almost immediately after they left Roswell.

The nightmares made no sense. It was like an acid backwash. A really bad trip.

Color and noises that sounded like distorted screams. Scenes moving too fast to keep in focus. One thing that stuck and made sense. Fear. Not a slight fear. This was deep. Bone shaking fear.

A month after Roswell, he almost fell over in pain. It wasn’t just physical, but more than that. Sorrow. It started inside and colored everything black. Maria…

He never told anyone. Michael couldn’t. It made no sense. It was Maria. It had to be. She was crying for him.

He left her standing in the dark. He left her alone.

~~~

“Anything?”

Kyle shook his head. He closed the hotel door. Two days. They had looked and waited for two days.

Michael was gone.

Max stood at the window and looked into the night. He left that night while they slept. He took his jacket, nothing else, and he walked away. Where the hell was he? Maria? Roswell? Or just sick. Sick inside with himself? Sick of them? It was hard to say.

“We leave tomorrow.”

Isabel sat up abruptly. “Max, we can’t. How will he know how to find us if we leave.”

“He doesn’t. Michael knows the rules. We get split up, we rendezvous at the designated place. We follow the schedule changing location every seven days until he finds us again, sends word, or we get tired of waiting.” Max closed his eyes. Hopefully Michael was paying enough attention to the code that Liz devised.

“Week forty-three of the year is Quartz Hill, California. Locker is one-clubs, 4D.” Liz said.

There were fifty-two weeks in a year. Fifty-two cards in a deck, divided into four suits of thirteen. Each week of the year was designated a card in the deck. Hearts being the numbers one thru thirteen A, Spades were one thru thirteen B, Clubs were C, and Spades were D. There were twenty-six letters in the alphabet, and so they used the alphabet twice giving each week of the year a letter corresponding to a city. They all memorized the cities in order. Figure out the week of the year, find the city, and at that city’s bus depot, find the locker corresponding to the card of the deck. In that locker they would leave messages of where they were, up to that week. Then they would move to the next city.

Liz looked at Max, “What do we do, Max?”

“We go where we’re suppose to be, and wait.”

What else was there?

Isabel looked out in the dark, and sighed. Michael was smart. He got free. Isabel closed her eyes and hoped he went home to Roswell, and Maria. Bring Jesse, too. Please.

~~~

“Jim, I’ve got a report of a possible breaking and entering at Gardner’s Drug. Can you check it out?”

“Ten-four, Vera. I’m on my way.” Jim turned his Deputy’s SUV towards the middle of town. It was late. Three in the morning. Normally he didn’t mind the late shift. Roswell was quiet enough, and it left him alone. It was better that way.

“Vera, I’ve checked. Gardner’s is locked down. There is no movement. The alarm company is showing an activated alarm.”

“Roger, Jim.”

Jim sighed and stretched on his way back to his vehicle. Prank. High school kids liked to call in false reports and sit at a distance and watch the police respond. Things never changed. Getting in behind the wheel, he sat there for a few moments in the dark. Some things did. Lonely nights. He had nothing but time to think about it.

“Don’t turn around.”

Jim’s body went still at the low voice. Sitting forward he tightened his grip on the wheel.

“Is this vehicle bugged?”

“I don’t believe so.” Jim wanted to turn around but he remained facing forward. He knew that voice. Knew it from anywhere.

“Then lets take a drive.”

Jim started his patrol again, taking dark lonely streets, and turned out of Roswell towards the desert. Taking his radio he called in his location to dispatch.

“Vera, I’m off to Sutter’s pond to check on a possible Rave.”

“Roger, Jim. Careful out there in the dark.”

“Affirmative.”

The SUV was the only lights in the night rounding the small pond. Pulling up to the pier, he got out and waited. It took only a few moments before his passenger decided that they hadn’t been followed, and he emerged from the back seat.

“Good to see you, son.” Jim gave the young man a heartfelt hug. It felt like a lifetime since he last saw Michael Guerin. “What are you doing here, Michael?”

Michael looked over the dark waters. Aw, the pond where Liz Parker tried to do a striptease for Max. Pathetic. Only those two could make something sexual look like something lame. He laughed his ass off later when Max told the whole watery tale of how they were trying to skinny dip and he had a vision about his son, almost drown. They had called him, and he went after them. Both Max and Liz had been huddled in blankets shivering, and Michael had gotten a glimpse of Liz’s staid white cotton underwear. It was enough to make him consider turning gay, that was until Maria showed up wearing that scrap of nothing lace. Maria always defined the limits. Isabel married looked like a June Cleaver, and Liz was so asexual, she was wearing panties that would shame her own grandmother.

Not Maria. Maria liked silk and lace, and she was a card holding member of Frederick’s and Victoria’s Secret. She wore matching panties and bras in shameless sheer material that gave a person a glimpse of what was underneath, and at times, she wore nothing at all. He loved how unwrapping her was always a treat of unexpected delight, never knowing what she would have on under her clothes. Everything about her was a surprise.

“Where is Maria? I went to her house, and observed it for hours. It looks abandoned.”

Jim swallowed hard. Looking at the waters, he felt it again. That welling of emotions behind his throat threatening to burst out of control. He couldn’t…not alone. Jim reached into his vehicle and grabbed a sheet of paper from his notepad. Scribbling directions and a time, he handed it to Michael. The old copper mine.

“There is too much to tell. This place isn’t safe. Meet me here and I’ll answer your questions.”

Michael shoved the paper in his pocket and nodded. “Just tell me where Maria is.”

Jim went and stood at the end of the pier. His shoulders shook a little. He said quietly without looking over his shoulder, “She’s gone, Michael. Gone.”

When he turned around, Michael was gone too.

~~~

He found a place to watch the mine. Sitting there hours before he was scheduled to meet Valenti, he heard the words in his mind over and over again. Gone. Maria was gone.

Gone? Left Roswell. Gone to another life, another man? Gone as in dead. No.

No.

He watched as the first vehicle arrived. It was after dark, and he watched the headlights from a distance. There were three sets. After they arrived and went inside, he waited another hours watching the horizon. There were no other lights.

~~~

“Michael? How did he look? Did he mention Liz? Are they all here?” Geoff asked holding his wife’s hand. She was quiet and drawn. Worry etched her face, as conflicting emotion raced through her. Liz. She wanted to see her daughter, but…

No. She was still Liz. Still her child.

Philip paced the room. “This is crazy. None of them should’ve ever returned. We just finally got back to some type of normal, and now this starts it again.”

“Philip, maybe he has a message from Max and Isabel.” Diane said softly. She hoped that was the case. To hear from them again, it would be worth almost anything. Almost.

Diane bowed her head at the thoughts running rapid in her mind. Almost anything, but not everything.

“I think he came back for Maria.” Jim said. “Just him.”

The group of adults looked at each other, and slowly looked away. What could they say? What should they say?

“What should we tell him?” Geoff asked. He swallowed hard. Damn. It was back. A need to cry; the need to break down.

“I…it will be hard for him. For all of them. But, they need to know. They need to know so they can understand why they can never come home, never contact us, and never stop running.” Jim sat down hard on the edge of an old table covered in dust. “We tell him the truth.”

“That is exactly what I want,” said Michael from the top of the stairs leading into the room.

~~~

“Michael, are you hungry? I brought some food just in case.” Diane was busy wringing her hands. Nancy Parker was silent in the corner, but Michael could see a hint of tears on her eyelashes.

“I want to know where the hell Maria went.”

There were people missing. Most noticeable was Maria, her mother, and Jesse. The Parkers, Evans, and Jim Valenti all seemed to shrink into themselves.

“We can’t tell you, Michael.” Jim hurried before Michael interrupted. “We don’t know.”

Michael was quiet. This was bad. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to be here, waiting. Angry. But waiting. She had to know he would come back for her. She had to know that. Michael kept repeating that in his head. She wouldn’t leave, not as long as there was a chance. Maria DeLuca never gave up.

If she left, then things went wrong.

“What happened? What went wrong?”

Jim looked at the others, they all looked away, so he took the first turn.

“Everything.”

~~~

“They didn’t even give us a chance to regroup, create a story. They came immediately after the graduation. They took the Parkers and Evans.”

Geoff cleared his voice. “They searched everything. Our homes, our business, and cars. Everything. They packed up Liz’s room and took every scrap they could find, even the dust and dirt. They found her journal behind a wall. They took that too.”

Philip nodded. “Same with us. They literally packed up our entire home, anything that Max and Isabel touched. They did the same to your apartment. They found the Destiny book and the translation.”

“They took you?” Michael asked. No. That wasn’t right. They had nothing to do with them. They weren’t involved.

“Yes. All of us. We were in there for almost two weeks. They interrogated us. Lie detectors. Scans. Blood testing. We were considered exposed to an alien form.” Geoff put his had on his wife’s shoulder. “Exposed to our daughter. It…was bad.”

Michael felt it, felt what they weren’t saying. Exposure. Maria. Jesse.

“Where is Maria!?” Michael’s voice raised in fear. Oh damn. The cold sweat broke on his skin again.

Jim cleared his throat. “She…her and Jesse never had a chance. No warning. They came back to Roswell after you left, and Jesse drove Maria home. They were waiting. As soon as she was out of the car, they grabbed her. Dragged Jesse from the car.” Jim’s voice became thick suddenly. “Amy saw. She tried to stop them. After they left, she called me hysterical about her daughter being kidnapped.” Jim looked away his voice kept breaking. “Amy…she, um, she was waiting for Maria, angry about graduation, and when she heard the car, she went out on the porch. That was when they took them.”

Michael could hardly talk. The nightmares. They started immediately after he left Roswell. Maria. Fear. One month. Pain.

“Maria? They have Maria and Jesse?”

Jim walked away and stood with his back to the group, his shoulder hunched. The rest of the group was quiet. Finally Philip Evans stood up.

“You have to understand, Michael. We…the group of us, were considered exposed, but for Maria and Jesse it was worse. They…they were intimately involved with aliens. Jesse with Isabel, and Maria with you. Intimately…sexually. The government wanted to know if there were changes because of that close of exposure. They…” Philip couldn’t continue.

“They had Liz’s journal. It had everything. It told them just how intimate you and Maria were, and Jesse was understood since he was married to Isabel. It told them,” Geoff looked down at the floor. “Everything.”

Michael couldn’t believe it. That journal. That damn journal, and he gave it back to her. Looking at Jim, who slowly turned around, Michael frowned.

“Why didn’t they take you, too? You were healed. Changed.”

Jim shook his head. “Liz wasn’t here when it happened. She never got around to adding it. There was Max’s death. Your rise as King. Her interpretation that you were a homicidal maniac willing to kill any human that learned your secret. Your threats. So much happened, she never got a chance to add in the stuff about me. But there was enough. My helping you. Kyle. Pierce. It was all there.”

“They let you go?”

Jim nodded. “It was Kyle they wanted. Not me. They had no reason to want me. At least not yet. They ran blood tests on me, and a few others. They all came back normal. No residual effects. I haven’t started to change yet. Don’t know if I ever will.”

Michael paced the room. “You should leave while you can.”

Philip Evans and Geoff Parker both stood. Philip shook his head. “No. Jim stays. This is his home. He was born and raised here. He belongs here. They will never know. Us.” Philip looked around at all the adults. “We’ll make sure of that.”

The five of them. They took over the younger generations place. Once it was the three aliens, and three friends. Now it appeared that the adults had their secret, their alien, and an alien would continue to live in Roswell.

“You’re choosing a hard life. I know. I’ve lived it all my life.”

“We know. But if Jim leaves, they will know. This way he doesn’t become a target.” Philip had it all worked out. Him and Geoff did.

Jim just shrugged. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. Not anymore. Amy was gone. Maria gone. And Jesse…God, Jesse.

“They have Maria,” Michael said hollowly. He left her. His pride made him leave her…

“No.” Jim said. “There is more.”

~~~

5 Months ago…

Jesse tried to keep the car on the road. It was hard. His hands were shaking so bad, and he couldn’t keep his mind from wandering. Maria sat next to him, and she was crying. Really crying. She was bent over, with her head on her knees, and the weeping was almost too much for him. He could feel responding moisture behind his own eyes.

Pulling over in front of the ‘Welcome to Roswell’ sign, he searched the car. Kleenex. There had to be a box. Isabel was obsessive about certain things. Isabel.

His hands faltered, and he couldn’t move. Isabel.

Leaning his head back against the headrest, he closed his eyes and gulped. She was gone. She left. He was sorry. All the trouble they had since he learned. His coldness. It wasn’t supposed to be forever. They were supposed to be forever.

“Maria.” What could he say? There was nothing to say. The aliens of Roswell said it all. Human. Not important.

“I can’t believe this. I just can’t believe this.”

Disbelief. He understood. All they did. All their love. It was never good enough, or enough. They had just left.

“It will be okay.” Those works they choked. Bullshit.

Maria looked up at him, her tear stained face pale and tear rimmed eyes just stared in disbelief. Jesse nodded. Okay, so he lied.

“What do we do now? How do we go on?” Maria looked out the window. “My heart is breaking. I can’t breath. I don’t…I can’t see tomorrow. I just want to sleep. Maybe I’ll wake up and it will just be a bad dream.” Maria laughed bitterly. “I use to think the same thing when Alex died. Sleeping didn’t change a thing.” Maria gave another laugh that dissolved into almost a sound of hysteria. “He just left. I’m so sick of being left behind.”

“Maria.” There was nothing he could say. He felt the same, but she had years on him in experience. “Let me get you home. We can’t do anything tonight.”

“We can’t do anything ever. It was never our choice. They stole that from us, just like they stole our hearts, and our lives.”

Jesse started the car and headed home to Roswell. It was dark. Late. The streets were quiet. Big day. Graduation. FBI. Fugitives. Max Evans claimed to be an alien. The news media and press, alien freaks would all flock to Roswell. They would be on his doorstep wanting interviews about his alien brother-in-law and wife. It would never stop. It was just beginning.

Jesse watched as Maria slowly peeled herself out of the car. He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Try. Try to get some rest. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Maria just nodded. They both knew there would be no rest for either of them for a long time.

It happened so fast, he couldn’t register it at first. Getting ready to back out of the drive, he saw the light on the porch come on, and Amy DeLuca stepping out. Maria was walking slowly…almost like she had aged fifty years in one night.

They came fast and swift. Dressed in all black, they blended into the night. Two grabbed Maria. One with his hand over her mouth, and the other took her legs.

It was the scream of Amy that broke him from his stupor. Reaching for the door, to get out, to rescue Maria, it took a few moments to realize that there was no door. Hands. Reaching for him. Struggling, he tried to get free. Hands under his arms kept him restrained, and then a rag with something on it…then nothing. His last thought before the chloroform took him over was that he guessed someone thought he and Maria were important.

It was dark in Roswell when they left. Darkness was perhaps the last thing he would ever see.

~~~

It hurt. The lights. Maria struggled to her feet in the room. No furniture. A bank of mirrors, but nothing else. It was too light. White.

Bending over, she retched. Her stomach emptying as she felt sicker and sicker.

Struggling, she moved along the wall searching for a door. Her hands banging on the wall. Crying. She moved as fast as she could. Her stomach was sour and cramping.

“Maria?”

Maria looked around trying to pinpoint the sound. It came again.

“Maria?”

“Jesse?”

“Yeah.” Maria found where it was coming from. An air vent, up high on the wall. Jesse’s voice was filtering through. “I heard you crying.”

Maria had the mind to snort. He was being kind. He meant to say, he heard her having a hysterical fit. White room. It was a white room. Oh God!

“Jesse, my mom. I remember seeing my mom before they took me.”

“She was on the porch. I think they left her alone.” Jesse couldn’t say for sure, but it was his feeling. Searching his prison, he couldn’t find a way out. His stomach was sick, and he could hardly stand on his feet. It was good to hear Maria’s voice. It was good not to feel alone.

“What do they want?”

Jesse sat down against the wall next to the air duct. “To know where they went.”

“We don’t know.”

“I know. We just have to convince them of that.” Jesse rubbed his face. His head hurt, and his mouth was dried. He’d kill for a drink of water. “It will be okay, Maria. Just tell them what you know.”

~~~

“Where is my daughter, Jim?” Amy paced her home. Hours. It was hours. She had called the police. Jim Valenti showed. Jim. She hadn’t really seen him since last summer. They saw each other on the street, but no more dating. Amy never really could figure out what went wrong, why things changed, but one day she was dating him and suddenly just like that, he stopped calling.

“I don’t know.”

Amy stopped and looked at the man. He was lying. She knew enough to spot a lie. Hell, she had a teenage daughter. Maria was a master, but even at times she couldn’t slide by.

“All this time, after all this time, do not! DO NOT lie to me, Jim Valenti.” Amy held her ground firm, and stood in front of the man. “Where is my daughter!?”

“I don’t know.” Jim held up his hand. “But I know who has her. They took the Evans and the Parkers as well.”

“Who?” Amy wiped the moisture from her forehead. People she knew were gone. Taken. This was unreal. “Who? And don’t say Alien abduction.”

“No. FBI Special Unit. They are looking for aliens.”

Amy sat down fast. Fuck. Fuck Jim Valenti if he didn’t give her a real answer. “Funny, Jim. I’m serious here. If you don’t tell me something, I’ll make sure that new Deputy’s badge is gone. Do you understand?”

Jim sunk to his knees in front of her. “I’m not lying, Amy. Kyle is gone too. They didn’t take him. He went. He went with the aliens.”

“Aliens?” Amy just shook her head. Aliens. He was crazy if he thought she was going to put up with this. “What aliens?”

“Max and Isabel Evans, and Michael Guerin.”

Amy’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh god! That explains the hair.”

~~~

“Mrs. Parker, where is your daughter?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know.” The woman couldn’t move. Terrified. The bright light. Her arm hurt. They took her blood, and a man with a scalpel sliced a piece of her skin. It hurt. Burned. Her hair. They took her hair too. X-rays. A MRI and CAT scan. Gynecological exam. Heart assessment. She couldn’t breath. Her chest felt heavy, and it hurt. Was she suppose to be able to breath?

“My daughter is Elizabeth Parker. She is my child. Mine. I carried her. Birthed her, and cared for her every day of her life. She is a good girl. Never in trouble until she met Max Evans. She is going to be a biologist. Go to Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, any where away from Max Evans. My daughter…you have made a mistake.”

“When did she change? Was it when she was shot in the Crashdown three years ago?” The voice asked behind the light.

“My daughter was never shot! She spilled ketchup. The bullet missed her…”

“Let me read something to you, Mrs. Parker.”

“I am Liz Parker, and yesterday I died.” The voice read the journal flat and without effect, making the girlish ramblings somehow more inane and contrived. Nancy winced at her daughter’s personal thoughts and feelings being toted out and displayed. It was private. The words. The journal. The lies.

“That’s not Liz. No. My daughter, she would never lie to me, to my husband. She respects and loves us too much. You don’t know her! You don’t know her…” Nancy dissolved into tears. She didn’t know her. Her daughter. Liz. Or whoever Liz was now was a stranger. Nancy broke down and cried. Her chest hurt, and she really couldn’t breath.

~~~

The man watched the interviews, read the reports. It was all the same. The Parkers were genuinely shocked, but the Evans knew. Only for a short while. The stories were the same. None of the test showed anything out of the ordinary.

Mrs. Parker had a weak heart. During a test, she had a heart attack, but they brought her back. Otherwise, the parents were all normal. Normal parents. Clueless. Lied to and deceived by their children. If apathy and not paying attention was a crime, then this group of parents was paying for three years of being duped.

“The Sheriff’s son was changed. He’ll turn like the Parker girl. Bring in the Sheriff…Deputy. I want him tested as well. He had one living in his home, and his son is becoming something else.”

Leitchner watched as a few agents took off. They were in special medical labs outside of Roswell. It was part of the Wheeler laboratories not destroyed by the fire at the Meta-Chem plant. It wasn’t secured. His agents were spread thin trying to track the aliens. They didn’t have much time to get the information and move to a more secure location.

“The children he saved that one Christmas. Bring them in.”

One of the doctors looked at Leitchner. “We found the adoption agency and tracked the alien baby. Zan.”

“I want him as well. Nothing is to be left undone. Fine this Hollywood producer, Cal. He is a shapeshifter, and send an alert to our people in New York. There is a Skin called Nicholas, who appears to be a young teenage boy, and three people who look like the Guerin boy, Evans’ girl, and the girl Tess. Dupes. Find them. I want all of them found and secured. Anyone in contact or exposed.”

“Yes, Sir.”

The parents. He watched them in their holding cells. The monitor flipped from cell to cell. Changing the monitor, he looked in on the girl, and the husband to an alien. Almost ten days, and they both were breaking. The girl stopped talking. Stopped crying. Stopped asking for her mother. They only did a few tests on her, but the man. They needed to concentrate on him. The girl would have to wait. She had a bigger purpose now.

“Cut the parents loose. Inform them they are being monitored and if they have any contact with their children, they are to inform us immediately.”

Leitchner stared at Maria DeLuca. She was pale and thin. Her hair hung lifeless about her face, and her lips were pale as well. She looked ill.

“The girl. Is she eating?”

“Not much. She can’t hold it down, and complains of no appetite.”

“Put in an IV. Tell her if she doesn’t eat, we will force feed her through a tube.” Leitchner turned away. Pregnant. The report came back conclusive this morning. He had an alien child on the way. The girl was useful until after she delivered the baby. “Concentrate all tests on the man. He is expendable. No more drugs for the girl. She is to eat, sleep, and exercise. You can do superficial tests, but nothing physically harming. I don’t want her harmed.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“How soon can we move to more secure laboratories?”

“Estimation is that it will take at least four more weeks to get all the altered steel and metal into a complex in Utah. The specifications are exact. Once we move her there, no one can reach her. The aliens won’t be able to rescue her.”

Leitchner nodded.

He flipped a switch and looked in on an interview session with Maria.

“I swear, I don’t know! I don’t know where they went. They left me behind.” Maria looked around frantically trying to see beyond the light. Jesse. Where did they take him this time? Last time he was so sick. In pain. They were giving her drugs, and she couldn’t remember what day it was. Jesse. They were hurting him.

She could hear his screams of pain. Tears chased themselves down her cheeks. “I told you! We’re not important. They left us because we were just human…unchanged. Leave him alone. God, please. He’s suffered enough.” They weren’t listening. No one ever did. Not before. Not now. Maria couldn’t take anymore. “Leave him alone, and I tell you anything you want to know. I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t hurt him!”

He was their bargaining chip to control her. “Good, then Ms. DeLuca you will start by eating.”

~~~

“Jesse?” Maria rested against the wall on the floor. They brought furniture in her room. A bed. Comfortable. Quilt and food. Lots of food and water. Juice. They gave her a phone to call if she needed anything. The bathroom. Go for a walk. Shower.

They followed her to the shower. A guard watched her. It was hard at first showering naked in front of him, but after a few days, she learned to turn her back on him and get it done quick. He never really looked at her. She was nothing. Just a piece of meat. An experiment. Something to poke and prod, to use, and discard. Sound so fucking familiar.

The bathroom was the hardest. The toilet was behind a small half wall, and the guard could see her head. She couldn’t go. It was humiliating. “I can’t do this with you watching. Can’t you just turn around for a moment?” The guard didn’t even blink, or acknowledge that she spoke. “I can’t do it!”

A voice came from overhead. “What is wrong, Maria?”

“I can’t do this with someone watching. Privacy! Would be appreciated!”

“Maria, just make a poop, and let the nice guard escort you back to your room.”

“I can’t!

“Maria, you will, or else…”

Maria sat on the floor trying to get Jesse to talk to her. He was the ‘or else’.

“God! Jesse, please!” Her hand reached upward to rest on the wall not meeting the air vent.

“Maria…I can’t talk right now.” His voice was so strained. Pain. It was in every vowel, every sound.

“What did they do to you?” Maria asked in a low horrified whisper.

“Maria.”

“Just tell me!” It was her fault. She would behave. Do what they asked.

“My bones. They surgically took bone samples. They cut a bone out of my leg. One in my arm. My hip. Pelvis, and collarbone.”

“They…” Maria tried to understand what he was saying. “Jesse, you’re still using those bones. How can…”

“They grafted, plated and pinned metal in place of the missing bone.” Jesse couldn’t breath. The drugs were wearing off. He hurt. All over. They were going to start chemical treatments tomorrow. Radiation. Maria. “I have to sleep. Rest Maria. Just rest.”

“Jesse…” Maria’s hand stretched up the wall. “Jesse, no.”

For once, he couldn’t talk to her. It hurt too much. He wished he could see her one last time. Maybe hold her close. Feel her body, warm and alive. Maria. He wanted to touch her, anything. Maybe just stare. She was his lifeline. Jesse put his head down on his knees and slowly let sleep drain him of consciousness.

He was in love with Maria DeLuca. Her voice. The dreams of her in his head. She looked like an angel. He couldn’t even hardly remember his wife’s name. Didn’t want to either. One thing was certain, meeting her was the worse thing that ever happened to him. All he could remember was that he hated her. Isabel. Vilandra. Didn’t matter anymore. He hated her.

Michael Guerin could have her. They deserved each other. He wanted Maria. Only Maria. If he listened closely, he at night could hear her voice singing softly. Lulling him. Leading him home.

“Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.”

“Do you still love him?”

Maria paused in her singing. Alex. It reminded her of Alex. “Who?”

“Michael.” Maria winced as Jesse spit out the name. Michael. Maria looked up at the ceiling of her cell. Did she still love him. Her hand crept over her body. Pregnant. They said she was pregnant.

That wasn’t real to her, but Michael was. He was somewhere. Living. He was her only hope that somehow, someway, he would feel his child like Max did, and he would come save it. Him or her. Their baby. She would be gone. It didn’t take a genius, or a great intellect to figure out why they made her comfortable. At first she thought it was Stockholm’s syndrome. They were going to make her like it there. Then they told her about the baby.

They could control her with her baby, but she remained stubborn and refused to budge unless they treated Jesse better. It worked…a little. Not much. But it was the best she could do.

Did she still love Michael?

“No,” she said softly. Jesse sighed a breath of relief. Maria closed her eyes and prayed to God. Forgive me. She’d always love Michael Guerin, but Jesse couldn’t handle hearing that, so she lied.

Maria rubbed her flat stomach in wonder. A baby. How the heck did that slip in? It had to be after they saved Connie and her father. She punched him playfully, and he sat in the back seat of the Cheville with her. She alluded him. He invaded her space. He was so cute about it, that she couldn’t help laughing. They stopped at his apartment, and she ran in for her jacket. That was the first time. It had to be later. He was complaining about her confiscating another one of his shirts. So she, in a snit pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it at him. It might have worked had she at least had a stitch of clothing on under it.

Sex. That they could do. They sort of found a quiet relationship together without the word. No talks about what they were or where they were going. No promises. For once, Maria remained silent. She wanted him back, so she just ‘went with the flow’ and followed his lead. They weren’t together, but it felt like it. He sought her out. Wanted her in his bed. Tapped on her window to see if she wanted to catch the late movie. Bitched about the video she selected to watch. He did everything but make a commitment one way or another.

She might have given up, cut her losses, if it weren’t for sex and the way he touched her. That was all hers. He couldn’t lie, hide, or disguise what he was feeling. Not any longer, and never from her. And she wasn’t beyond using sex and their attraction to each other to let him understand how much she missed him, loved him, and wanted him back. Using what they had during sex, the connection to tell him in less than words what he didn’t want to hear or deal with was her only outlet. He responded to it with a breathless ‘oh wow’, and the most incredible moments together. It was those times that gave her confidence that they would find their way, until they ran out of time.

“What was Alex like?”

Maria had forgotten he was still awake. Lost in her own thoughts. Alex. He was…

“Beautiful. The best of us.” Maria paused. “He was my best friend in the whole world.”

Jesse uncurled himself and tried to concentrate on not screaming in pain. He didn’t want to scare Maria. “I thought Liz was that.”

Maria curled to her side, towards the wall from where Jesse’s voice came. A tear ran down her cheek.

“She was. Once. I never had a sister, and Liz was that. But things changed. We tried. We tried for two years to hold our friendship together, but it was hard. Boys do that, they come between the best of friends, and alien boys…they are the worse.”

“You always seemed real close to me.”

“This last year?” Maria thought about it. “No. Not really. Still friends. Bound by a common secret. But no. Alex. He was my friend. Thick or thin. Alex would be there. Liz was so obsessed after Tess left. She wanted to be everything to Max. Erase Tess from his brain, but the baby was haunting him. She compromised who she was, what she was, all for this ‘great’ all inspiring love that couldn’t even keep his dick out of another woman.”

Maria let her anger show through. Tess. That bitch killed Alex. Liz forgave Max for that. Forgot Alex. Put him aside until Tess came back. Suddenly she had ‘powers’ and could push Tess a little, but was it really about Alex? Then there was the whole voting to terminate Tess. Like butter couldn’t melt in her mouth, Liz voted no, forgetting Alex again, because ‘she wasn’t a murderer.’ Not like the rest of them. Of course, that fact hadn’t stopped her from suggesting they might have to kill Michael when he was King. Add in after the crest transferred back to Max, her snotty ‘Max is King’ while trying to run her foot up his leg…it all sickened her. Maria couldn’t take it anymore.

Her friend. Liz. The real Liz Parker was never so vain and self-centered. Never needed to be the woman with a powerful man. But when they needed to leave, Liz didn’t even try to understand what Maria was saying, how she was losing her entire life. Her best friend let them leave her behind without even a goodbye. And she left a journal documenting everything.

No. Alex was her best friend. And he was gone. Sacrificed to a cause that made no sense, and with him was the real Liz Parker. Her Liz would’ve found it impossible to leave Maria behind. But the new, alien improved Liz didn’t need anything. She didn’t need parents. Didn’t need friends. She didn’t need dreams. She just needed to know how to say, ‘What do we do now, Max.’

Jesse was quiet for a moment as Maria was thinking. No. Maria was wrong. Her and Liz were good friends, but everything was clouding that fact. She was letting being left behind color how she saw her life, and the past year.

“You’re just angry with her.”

Maria thought about it a moment. Another tear ran down her cheek and she wiped it away angrily. “No. Not angry, Jesse. Disappointed. Discarded. Abandoned. Heart broken.”

“You will forgive her, Maria. Next time you see her, you’ll forget you were hurt and upset.”

“Will you forgive Isabel? Will you see her, and all you will feel is gratitude to have her back?” Maria asked curling a hand under her cheek as her eyes became so heavy. Tired. She was tired a lot lately.

Jesse went silent. No. Never. As long as he lived, for whatever remained of his life, he would hate Isabel Evans. If she had told him from the start, it would’ve been different. He could’ve made a choice to accept the danger. Instead he woke up in it, with her pleading and begging him to understand, to support and love her. He did. He put away the betrayal of her silence, and accepted her to have it tossed back with his wedding ring as she drove off in the night. No. Love was a two way street. It had to give back as much as it gave, and he would’ve never left her behind if the circumstance had been reverse. He would’ve found a way to keep his love with him.

~~~

“Jim!” Amy DeLuca was out of the booth and rushing to Jim Valenti’s side. It was after hours and the Crashdown was closed. The parents took to meeting there almost every night, almost in vigil, waiting for news of their children, and those taken.

The others quickly joined him.

“Are you okay?” Diane asked, scared. He looked tired and old.

Jim nodded as he took a seat at the bar, and Geoff went to the other side to pour him a cup of coffee.

“Can I make you anything?” Nancy was uncertain what to do. Ten days. They took Jim the day they released the rest of them. It was twenty days since their children ran away, and Maria and Jesse were taken. Twenty days. Almost three weeks.

“No.” Jim was shocked how hoarse his voice sounded. Not using it recently, his voice sounded different. Almost a stranger.

“Any news? Maria?” Amy couldn’t lose hope. It was all she had left. Damn Michael Guerin to hell. Michael and Liz Parker. Amy tried to keep her hatred of Liz Parker from Liz’s parents. It was hard. Alex. Maria. Both gone to this great alien conspiracy, and where was Liz Parker? Sleeping with Max Evans. Happy?

“No. Nothing.” Jim rubbed his eyes. “I think,” Jim lowered his voice. This place had to be bugged. It wasn’t safe to talk here. He knew that. But he had two years of paranoia working for him. The rest of them were new to this stuff. “They are experimenting on Maria and Jesse. I think I could hear Jesse screaming in pain.”

Philip just sunk his head into his hands as Diane put her hand over her mouth and tears flooded her eyes. Amy opened her mouth to talk, but Jim covered it quickly with his hand, and shook his hand no. Taking a napkin, he wrote the word ‘bug’ on it and showed Geoff, who showed Philip, and so on.

Jim sat back trying to think. A place. Somewhere that they couldn’t be spied on. Someplace where audio tracking would be impossible so no one could eavesdrop.

Scribbling on the napkin, he passed it. Copper Mine. It worked once. It could work again.

~~~

“Camilla? No way. Think of something better.”

Maria searched the book of baby names. “There is nothing wrong with Camilla.”

Michael shrugged. “Sounds like tea or some kind of soap. Bruno. I like Bruno.”

Maria put down the book and gave Michael a look of disgust. “Bruno? You expect me to name my child, Bruno. It sounds like a dog’s name, Michael!”

“Strong. Fierce. Loyal. Bruno.”

“Uh huh. Umm, no.” Maria looked up at him from under her lashes and said casually, “We could name the baby Rath. After all, Max’s son had his old name.”

Michael rolled over in the bed and stared at the ceiling. Running the name over and over in his mind, along his tongue, he appeared to really be thinking about it. “Rath? Hmm, interesting choice. Lets see. Murderer. Arrogant. Vicious. Amoral. A psychotic killer. Excellent choice, Maria.”

“Alex,” she said softly.

Michael went quiet, and he turned back on his side. “Alexander Guerin. Alexander Charles Guerin.”

Maria smiled. His eyes searched hers. “Alexandra if it is a girl?”

“Yeah. I like it.” Michael lounged back in the bed. This parenting stuff wasn’t that bad. There. They already settled on a name.

Maria went to flip the pages to the A, so she could see what the name meant. Michael took the book and tossed it. Leaning over her, he played with a piece of hair by her ear. Blowing softly he watched the soft down hairs move against her skin. She was so damn beautiful.

Her skin was clear and almost translucent with a healthy bloom on her cheeks, and the redness of her incredible mouth drawing his eyes. Her eyes sparkled like an oasis of green, alive and intense. Pregnancy looked good on her.

“I was thinking…”

“Uh oh.” Michael pinched her and Maria laughed softly. “Okay, tell me. You were thinking?”

“That we should get married.” Whew. Michael blew his breath out hard. Piece of cake.

“Married? You and me? I do? Death do you part stuff?”

“That’s what marriage means right? That, a mortgage. No sex. Take out the garbage. Kids. Backyard barbeque, and trash pick up. Bowling with the boys. Thanksgiving.”

“Handing out treats on Halloween?” Maria asked cocking her head to the side.

“Yeah, and eating most of it. Trying to figure out if it’s illegal to try to barter a kid out of his stash.”

Maria rolled over on him, resting her arms on his chest, and her chin on them she looked at him serious. “We don’t have to do that, you know. The baby is yours whether there is a ring on my finger, or we ever do the ‘I do’ thing. No one can take that away from you.”

“I know.” Michael ran a finger down her nose, and smiled slightly. “Maybe this is something I need. Maybe I need the ‘I do’ ceremony, and a sense of this is my place.”

He never said that much. It was unusual for him to be so straight forward about what he needed. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him happy, but she didn’t want him trapped either.

“Michael.”

“Maybe I need to know that you’re mine and I’m yours, and no matter what happens, we stick together. Thick or thin, DeLuca. No more walking away. No more leaving anyone behind. There is nothing more important to me than you.”

“There is nothing more important to me than you.”

“Then we’re family.”

Maria rolled off him, and pulled him with her. He leaned over sweeping the bedding away. Looking down at her naked body, Michael gently stroked her stomach, and then bent down and kissed it. Maria watched him as her hands went into his hair.

“Yes. We are a family.”

~~~

Michael and Maria both woke up at the same time.

Maria sat breathing heavy in the darkness of her cell. Rolling to her side, with an arm around her stomach protectively, she squeezed her eyes closed as tears leaked through.

Michael was sleeping in the van in somewhere America. He sat up breathing hard. Panting. His hand shook as he ran it through his hair. His body was hot, aroused and actually ached in strange places.

Every night he dreamt of her. Every night. Some nights, nightmares where she was in pain, afraid, and screaming in fear. And then there were other nights, erotic fantasies, and dreams of long walks holding her hand complaining about missing his game, and watching her play on the beach, walking along the waters edge.

She walked a line between where the sky met the water. Laughing she ran and called back to him. He called her back from a rising fog where the contrast between white on white was lost. Lost. Her body folded into the fog, and she disappeared.

Maria!

Michael got out of the van. Walking in a confusion of thought. He couldn’t clear it. Too much. Too many images. Her voice calling his name. Bending over beside the motel wall, he threw up.

~~~

“Do you know where it is?” Amy asked pacing in the small space of the copper mine.

“I think so. There are reports of increased activity at the Wheeler Laboratories. Those labs had been closed down since the fire. No one was using them.”

Philip handed Jim some more coffee from a pot. “We have to go. I agree with Amy. It’s Maria and Jesse. We can’t leave them there.”

Geoff frowned. “Let’s be realistic. We’re talking the Feds. How are we supposed to take them on? We’re business men…” He looked at Amy, “And women. Not secret agents, or Special Forces trained. We aren’t Steven Seagal.”

“That’s okay,” Jim said. “Steven Seagal isn’t even Steven Seagal.”

The group chuckled.

Nancy Parker who was pale and thin, finally spoke up. She hadn’t felt very good since the let her go, and after her experience she wasn’t leaving anyone in the hands of those people.

“We’re talking about Maria. I’ve known her all her life. We can’t leave her behind. Not her, and not Jesse. If what we were told is true, our children outsmarted FBI Special Unit agents, other aliens, and kept Jim in the dark for over a year. We have to be able to do better. We are adults.”

Amy looked grateful at Nancy. It didn’t change her feelings towards Liz, but it helped. Every little bit helped.

“You’re right. They were resourceful. They had an advantage though. The alien powers helped them, and some pretty ingenious planning. Maria was one of the main instigators. She could think on her feet pretty fast.” Jim smiled at Amy. Maria was a survivor. They had to believe that after three weeks she and Jesse were holding on.

Amy clapped her hands. Now they were talking. “So how do we get in?”

“I can maybe get the floor plans of the labs. They should be in public record with the construction and architecture companies that filed for building permits.” Philip said as Diane nodded. She could help him do that. They looked up floor plans in public domain all the time for landmark buildings requesting renovation permits.

Geoff looked at the group. “But how do we get past security? This isn’t a convenient store, and we saw how successful Max and Liz were at that.”

Jim reached into his pocket and pulled out a security access card. “I don’t know if this will work, but when I was a security guard for Meta-Chem labs, I had clearance for all the Wheeler laboratories. They might not have changed the coding since no one is using the Meta-Chem site after the fire.”

Amy looked at the others. “Okay. So it’s decided. I want my daughter back, my daughter and Jesse. We go.”

Diane nodded. “Go.”

Geoff looked at his wife, and she nodded. “Go.”

Philip hit Jim on the shoulder. “Too bad your alieness hasn’t come on line, but then they would’ve never let you go. Then we would be rescuing you too.”

“I would’ve just walked out. So it is decided. We go as soon as we get the plans and create a complete mission scenario. No mistakes. We don’t have an alien to heal us if someone takes a hit. We’ve got one chance, and one chance only. If they move them, we’re dead in the water.”

Philip nodded. “It’s a go.”

~~~

“What is Ramirez’s status?”

“Not good, Sir. They hit him with full bombardment of radiation. The rads were off the chart.”

“Results?”

The doctor glances over at his colleagues. “Pretty much what any human would do. He is dying of radiation poisoning. It was like he was standing on the building of Chernobyl’s reactor core looking down into it. His hair is falling out, his skin peeling. He’s in pain.” The doctor look uncomfortable. “We can find no indication of changes in his body from exposure to the alien life form. He is, as far as we can tell, human.”

The doctor didn’t want to mention that they were hurting humans, the very people they were sworn to protect. It didn’t set well.

“We’ve got a problem with the girl. She is upset because the male isn’t talking to her. She is off her food, throwing up, and if I could risk it, I’d shoot her up with a quite a few milligrams of something to calm her and make her sleep.”

“Is the baby under stress?” He couldn’t lose his alien. He needed that girl.

“The mother is under stress. The baby is too. She needs to calm down soon, or we’re looking at a possible miscarriage.”

“Doctor, I don’t care what you have to do. You get that girl calm. Put the man back in the cell next to her, load him with pain killers. Keep him talking to keep her happy. I don’t care.”

“Yes, Sir.” The doctor nodded, and making a gesture with his colleagues, they quickly moved away.

~~~

“You feel okay today, Maria?”

Maria shrugged. “Not so hot, Stan. I think I need a long hot shower.”

“Not too long. Not too hot. It’s not good for the baby.”

Maria looked over at her guard. “How do you know?”

“Two kids. Wife just had the second one a year ago.”

Maria was quiet for a moment. That was impossible. Sometimes she forgot it was her own government torturing her and Jesse, and not some alien creatures bent on destroying mankind. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect any of you to be normal and human. I can’t bring together the image of the monsters that run test on me, threaten to take my baby, and imprison me with that of an everyday human who goes to their child’s ballgame. It doesn’t compute.”

Stan didn’t comment. He was breaking protocol talking to his prisoner. Prisoner. She was an eighteen year old girl, pregnant, alone, and scared. It was hard to see her as a national threat of any sort. The man was bad enough. He was dying and in pain.

When they got to the shower, Maria quickly took off her clothes and hung them on the special hook. Turning on the water, she looked around for more soap. Stan. He was turned with his back to her. Smiling slightly, she appreciated the gesture of privacy and human dignity.

On the way back to her cell, Maria could hear Jesse. He was in pain. They were doping him up again. Before she entered the cell, she looked at Stan.

“Thanks for today.” Maria paused. “Do you think that when they are finally through with me, rip my child from my body, irradiate me, burn, prod and mutilate, that they will slice all my organs up and leave my remains as just tissue samples on slides as they look for oddities?”

Stan swallowed hard, but remained silent. It didn’t matter. She already entered her cell. Maria wasn’t expecting an answer. He really hated his job.

~~~

“This is momma-bear one to poppa-bears, come in.”

Jim answered Amy’s call. “This is poppa-bear, over.”

Amy scanned the area. No real new movement. Front guards changed just a few moments ago. “Front area is clear. There are three new skinnies in the house, and two out. Copy. Over.”

“Copy, momma-bear. We are moving forward. We have a go.”

Diane bit a nail as she listened to them talking. It was going to be a long night. Jim, Philip and Geoff were slowly moving forward. Nancy was home playing a tape of them having a card night with all windows drawn. They recorded over eight hours of it last week. Diane hated that Geoff won so many of the pots.

Nancy Parker was left at home to man the phones. She was the key contact for all teams, and their cover for the ever hearing bugs. Three teams counting Nancy. Diane and Amy on major look out and cars. Geoff and Philip were on security lookout detail while Jim entered the complex. Geoff and Philip would follow just a few feet behind.

God she was sick. Sick of worrying. Sick of being afraid. That must have been what Isabel, Max and Michael felt all their lives, and the price that Alex, Kyle, Liz and Maria paid to befriend and help them. It was inconceivable. This friendship. This amount of trust in children so young. It wasn’t about three of them being special or better, or Liz and Kyle becoming more because they were turning alien. All of them. All were pretty damn special to give up their youth and dreams, and let loyalty, friendship and bravery guide them into adulthood. All of them were unique.

~~~

“Maria?”

Maria scrambled to the wall collapsing beside it. “Jesse? Jesse Ramirez, you’ve been silent too long. I was worried.”

“Sorry.” Jesse coughed. “Can you finish the story? Or you want to talk?”

“Talk. I’ll finish the story later when you’re ready to sleep.”

Jesse chuckled. “Maria, stories of trolls, battles, and lost treasures are hardly conducive to sleep. It makes me want to run out and watch Lord of the Rings.”

Maria laughed softly. “Hmm, really? That must be a male response. All that fantasy, sci-fi stuff puts me to sleep.”

“Figures.” Jesse was quiet for a moment. “Are they treating you okay?”

Maria felt bad about the worry in his voice. She couldn’t tell him she was pregnant. She just couldn’t. He didn’t know they stopped testing on her. He just thought he pulled the lucky straw for the radiation testing.

“I’m fine. Good. Worried about you.” Her voice dropped. “I wish I could see you. I’m lonely. Talking helps, but I miss human contact.”

Jesse looked down at his body. Last thing he wanted was her to see him, or know how sick he was. He wasn’t going to last long. Only a fool wouldn’t recognize the truth. He hurt. Every where. It was a pain so deep and throbbing, he could barely stop from screaming. The drugs helped, for a while. But it was wearing off faster and faster. They were worried about his respiratory rate.

He wasn’t different. Nothing was changed. He was still human. They tested on a human…killed a human. An innocent. He hoped the doctors rot in hell for that, and never found a peace with it. His only regret was Maria.

If things were different, he would have slowly found a way to date her. Take her out. Pay attention. Love her. Marry her after he obtained a divorce from Isabel on grounds of desertion. He would treat her so well, that she’d forget Michael Guerin. That was his dream. He dreamt it every night. Him. Maria. Together. Two beautiful kids, and her speaking a fast sassy Spanish tongue. His dreams were becoming erotic and very graphic. He dreamed every night of his life with her, their kids. It was good. It was more than good. It was perfect. He was happy. Really, really happy. She never lied to him. She loved him.

Jesse closed his eyes. They hurt from the flooding of tears. He was going to do the unforgivable. He was going to leave her behind. She would be alone. Maria. He couldn’t bare to think of her left in the hands of these monsters. He feared for her the most. He hadn’t changed, but he suspected Maria was.

In ways she didn’t even understand, she had been changed. He knew. She talked to Michael in her sleep. It was like he was there. She loved him still. She said she didn’t, but in her sleep, her voice filled with love betraying her true affections. Good for her. He wanted her to have everything, even if that was Michael Guerin. Maybe the bastard stand-in King would save her. That was his newest fantasy. The idea that Maria was saved. Alive. He could die peacefully if that were true. He loved her.

In his cell, alone, hurting, he thought about it over and over. He asked her how it was for her and Michael when they first met, and was sex with Michael as strange and intense as it was for him with Isabel.

Maria had laughed and shared with Jesse what she felt was a common experience. The alien-human orgasmic connection.

Maria was wrong.

It was different. Michael had opened up to her. Let her inside. Somehow they had made a connection. Jesse really believed that Maria was talking to Michael in her head. That connection, though strained and weakened by distance was still there. He didn’t have that with Isabel. Another experience she cheated and denied him. She never opened herself up, shared herself with him. Sex. Yes. But her soul? No. They never made that extra connection, and for that reason, he never changed. He stayed Jesse, human garbage. Use and discard in the appropriate receptacle.

“Are you asleep?”

“No. Just thinking.” Jesse said smiling slightly.

“About?”

“You mostly. I was wondering if your hair was growing long.”

“We’ve only been in here for over two weeks, three I think. Maybe four.”

“A month. It felt longer.” Jesse’s voice was so flat and monotone. His coughing was increasing.

“Jesse? Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Jesse waited a moment to catch his breath. “Today I think I learned something about myself.”

“What?”

Jesse phrased it carefully. Maybe she would listen and learn too. “I learned that I was capable of great forgiveness.”

“Forgiveness? How?”

“How I don’t know, but why is because I realized why Isabel was so afraid. I realized what she was trying to protect me from. I don’t give her points for involving me without telling me the truth, but I can understand why it was so hard.”

“It was.” Maria rested against the wall. She was feeling tired again. “She wanted to tell you from the beginning. Michael and Max wouldn’t let her. It was her greatest sorrow that she couldn’t tell her parents and you. Everyone else had people who knew. Michael had me, and Max had Liz. We knew the secret, so we accepted them as they were. Isabel didn’t get that. They robbed her, and in turn, robbed you.”

“You’re excusing her.”

“No. Just maybe helping you to understand.”

“I do. Really, I do, Maria. It might take me some time to forgive.”

Maria knew what he meant. She was guilty of not being very charitable. But honestly, she couldn’t figure out how she was going to overcome what was inside her. She was dead anyway. It was just a matter of time. So for her soul, she would work on forgiveness. It could take the rest of her life. She was going to be a mother now, so she needed to be better than that. Time to put away childish things.

~~~

Jim stopped at a security access checkpoint. Looking both ways, he checked with Geoff and Philip. They gave him a thumbs up sign. It was clear. Looking at this old security card from when he worked with Michael at Meta-Chem, he hoped it work. The rescue would end right here if it didn’t.

The swipe. Wait. Wait even more. It wasn’t going to work. Jim bowed his head when the light went from red to green, and the door lock clicked.

They were in. It was time to find their missing. Everyone went home. No one left behind.

~~~

“Maria…”

Maria had been telling Jesse a story, a story of ordinary human rising to great heights of valor and honor to overcome overwhelming odds. Persevere. Survive. Be strong. Live.

“Yes?”

“I wish I could be your hero from the story. I wish I was that strong.” Jesse said with a sadness in his voice. “I wish I was as strong as you.”

Maria laughed. “You are, and so much more.” Maria closed her eyes as tears clouded her sight. Stan standing outside was listening to the story closed his eyes too. The man was dying. “You were so much calmer and collective when you learned the truth about them, more than me. I ran screaming in the night. Liz had to catch me!”

Jesse chuckled picturing his Maria, in her wacky way screaming and running, hands flying around her head. “Do you ever regret it? Knowing? Meeting them?”

Maria paused. Truthfully? Alex. Jesse. They were too high prices to pay, but could she ever regret meeting and loving Michael Guerin? She had. The moment she realize that Alex would dream no more. Touching her stomach, she closed her eyes. None of that mattered anymore. The now. Her child. That was what was important. She had regrets, but there was no time for that. No time.

“Yes. I regretted it at times. When I realized that my youth was slipping away, that I was required to be more than I was ready to be. I regretted losing my ability to dream. For a human, Jesse, the lack of imagination is perhaps the worse curse. I woke up one day, Alex was gone, and I forgot how to breathe by myself. I had to reach for something, a dream. I…never felt worthy of Michael, worth the sacrifice he made to stay on Earth for me. I wanted to be more, and I needed to do it on my own. Partially to prove I could be that strong, and partially because I knew that if anything happened, the next alien crisis, my dream would be buried again. Mostly, I regretted never getting the chance to prove myself to Michael…so he could be proud, so he could know that I was worth the sacrifice.”

“Maria,” Jesse swallowed hard. “You were worth it. I’m sure he thought so.”

“Are you? I never was. Sure, I mean.” Maria sat with her head against the wall. “I guess you can say, ‘I’m sorrow’. Three years…three years and I cried more than I laughed or smiled. How much can a small human heart take? I wish I could say that I’m proud to die for them, but I can’t. I can’t because it means I failed. I let them take something I was suppose to protect, away.” Maria stopped talking. She couldn’t tell Jesse about the baby.

“I miss church.” Jesse could feel it inside him. The creeping death. “I wish I could have a priest. Catholic, you know.”

“Me too. Name like DeLuca, it’s expected.”

“I want to confess one last time…”

Maria was quiet. Bowing her head, she hugged her bent legs, her arms wrapped around her knees.

“God can hear you, Jesse. Just pray. Confess. He’ll understand that there was no priest.”

Jesse crossed himself quickly, “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been too long since my last confession. I’ve let hate enter into my heart. I’ve killed a man. And for that I can find no forgiveness in my heart. I’ve suffered pride. And I sinned against my wife. All these things, weigh down my soul, and I pray that you take this burden of my guilt from me. For the Lord is my salvation, and there is but one true living God, Jesus Christ, my savior.”

Maria sniffed trying to pull the tears back in. Smiling slightly she said, “Face before God, man comes naked and exposed, and he tells him that his sins are cleansed. Go and sin no more.”

Jesse asked quietly. “Maria? Do you think there is a God? Knowing that we are not alone, that there are others?”

“Yes. I believe more, because of it.”

“If he made us in his image, then how can that be?”

Maria wiped her face, and sniffed away the tears. “I think. I believe that in ‘God’s image’ mean a purity in heart. I’ve seen in Michael’s heart, and it is just as pure as any human’s. Sometimes I suspect more so. The universe is a vast and wondrous place, that I can’t conceive it isn’t part of some divine plan. Do I regret knowing about them? That we are not alone? No. You and I, Jesse, we have been given a gift of knowledge. The knowledge that we are not alone on this one bright planet. The knowledge that we are part of something so incredibly huge. I have to believe that it is God that makes something this grandeur.”

“I’m dying.” Jesse curled up next to the wall where he could be close to Maria. “I think of you…and I believe that there is a God. That he watches over me, and he’s calling me home.”

Maria buried her face in her hands. One hand reached up on the wall towards the air vent. “Jesse! No. Don’t die. Don’t leave me alone.”

“It’s okay. I’m okay with it, at peace.” Jesse closed his eyes trying to swallow another pulse of pain. “I know you will be okay. I just know that someone watches over you.” He had to believe that. He had to, or he couldn’t rest in peace. “Maria? Do you remember any of the Psalms?”

“The Lord is my Shepard?” Maria asked. “I can’t remember it all.”

“Anything is fine. I need to sleep. Can you tell me one?”

Her memory wasn’t the best. School was never her strong point. Struggling, Maria cleared her mind, and tried to picture something the way she did music. Closing her eyes, she cleared her thoughts, and it was there. She could hear it. Alex. Alex’s voice. Listening, she repeated what he said to her.

The Lord is my light

“The Lord is my light…”

and my salvation;

“…and my salvation;”

whom shall I fear?

“…whom shall I fear?”

The Lord is the strength of my life,

“The Lord is the strength of my life;”

of whom shall I be afraid?

“…of whom shall I be afraid?” Maria looked up at the air vent. “Jesse? Is that okay? Jesse?” He was silent. Asleep. It was wrong to wish him to stay when he was in need of relief from pain. Selfish. Maria curled up next to the wall, to be close to him. “I’m here. I’m still here.”

Stan stood outside the room as they finally went quiet. Oh God.

~~~

They found the main security feed room. It was empty. The night guard had to be on a security sweep. Jim moved the monitors, checking each grid. Jesse. He found Jesse. The man was asleep on the floor, huddled. Oh God. He looked bad. Maria was on the next monitor. She too was on the floor curled in sleep. Tiny. So small. Bastards. Hurting a small defenseless creature.

Jim located tapes for the corridors, and for Jesse and Maria’s rooms. Taking the tape from the previous evening, around the same time, he fed it into a top machine and set it to feed into the monitor in a continuous loop. Cameras were fixed.

The three of them left security and followed the corridor colors. Maria and Jesse were in a blue corridor area.

When Jim slowly entered the corridor, he saw the guard standing in front of a door. The man appeared to be sleeping with his eyes closed. It took a moment for Jim to realize that he was praying.

Taking his service revolver, Jim hit the man on the back of his head. Watching him collapse, he bent down and checked the pulse along the neck. Alive. Good.

Philip and Geoff quickly joined him. “Is he?” Geoff asked.

“Alive. He’s guarding this door.” Jim quickly searched the guard. A security key. Standing, he faced the access pad and looked at the other two. Swiping it, they waited.

The door opened into a dark room.

It was quiet. It took a moment for Jim’s eyes to adjust to the dark and gloom. Maria. She was on the floor asleep. Going to her, he picked her up in his arms. God, she weighed nothing.

“Maria?”

“Hmm?”

“Maria, it’s time to go home.”

Her brow furled in sleep, confused. “Home? Heaven?”

Jim shook his head. “No. Maria. It’s Jim. We’ve come to take you home to your mom.”

Maria struggled awake, but she was so tired, and nothing made sense. Mom. That she could understand. “Is this a dream?”

Jim quickly stood and handed Maria over to Philip. “Take her. I’ll get Jesse.”

Geoff shook his head. “We can’t leave you.”

Jim nodded. “Philip, can you take her alone?”

Philip handed Maria over to Geoff. “You take her. Jesse is my responsibility.” For a moment Geoff and Philip shared a complete understanding. Liz got Maria involved, and it was Isabel’s fault for Jesse. They both had to fix what their children did. Geoff nodded and took off with Maria. Jim used the security pass to open the door next to Maria’s cell. It was dark too. Jesse. He was on the floor next to the wall. Jim went to him.

“Jesse?”

The man slowly came awake. They came for him. More tests? No more tests. Please.

Philip knelt too. “Jesse, son. It’s Philip.”

“Philip?” The voice was dry and cracked through swollen lips. Philip could hardly hold his reaction to the devastation. Jesse. He already looked dead.

“Yes, Philip. We’ve come to take you home.”

Jim tried to pick Jesse up, but the younger man cried in pain. He looked at Philip. “I don’t know that we can move him without hurting him.”

Jesse’s hand came out and grabbed Jim. “It’s okay. I’m already going home. Just leave. Leave me. Take Maria.”

Philip shook his head no. “That is not going to happen, son. Everyone is going home. No one left behind.”

“Thank you for coming for Maria. Tell her…tell her I love her, that she saved me.” Jesse coughed and cried in pain. “You’ve got to go now. Get Maria away, far away from here.”

Jim searched the room. Maybe they could use a blanket from the bed. Jim frowned. There was no blanket. No bed. A bare room. Maria’s room had a bed. Blankets. Jim’s blood ran cold. Rape. Did they rape her? Use her?

“Philip, go into the next room. Grab a sheet or blanket from Maria’s bed.”

Jesse reached up and grabbed Jim again. “Kill me. Jim, I will never leave this place alive. Don’t leave me alive for them. Please. They will make me betray you, all of you…Maria. Kill me and leave. I’m already dead.”

Jim bent his head. Oh God. “I’m sorry, Jesse. I’m sorry it took us too long.”

~~~

Geoff cleared the complex. The guards were still on rotation. Timing. They timed and watched them for three days in preparation. Forward guards should be cycling back. He had to hurry. Carrying Maria, Amy saw him. She saw him carrying a small body. Her baby. Amy rushed to his side.

“Maria!” Amy searched the pale face. Her child. Her small baby girl. “Is she…”

“Alive, Amy. She’s alive.”

Maria opened her eyes to stare into her mother’s face. “I must be dead or dreaming. Mom?”

Amy laughed through tears. “Yes, baby. Mom. You didn’t think I’d leave you in there.” She ran her hands over Maria’s face, and through her hair. Her back was to the compound.

“We need to move, Amy. Jim and Philip are bringing Jesse.”

Jesse. Maria struggled. Jesse. She left him. “Mom, we’ve got to get Jesse. He’s sick. Real sick. They hurt him.”

Geoff looked back as Jim and Philip came through the door. They were alone. No Jesse. Turning back, he gestured to Amy. “We’ve got to go now! The guards are due any minute to return to this sector.”

Geoff was right. A guard came around the corner at the moment.

“Halt!” He raised his gun to fire. “Stand fast, or I will fire!”

Geoff and Amy, with Maria took off towards Diane and the waiting cars parked out of sight. It was the crack in the air that echoed. It rang in Geoff’s ears, and he could feel the air about him getting still as the echo pushed outward. Amy stumbled, and Jim and Philip came up behind her, grabbing her arms and helping her rush forward.

The guard raised his weapon again, to take another shot at the figures escaping in the night. He aimed. Took a bead on a close target. The man holding a person. He went down, then the bundle was lost. The prisoner.

He never shot. A gun came down on his head, and he hit the ground hard.

Geoff stopped at the car, and put Maria in. He quickly got into it as Philip and Jim loaded Amy into the other car with Diane. Maria sat up and looked back at her prison.

Stan. He stood in light of the compound, his rifle in his hand, and blood running down his head from where Jim had hit him. He slowly dropped his rifle, and raised his hand in a small salute to her.

Maria lifted her hand, and put it to her mouth, sending him a gesture of gratitude. Jesse was right. Someone was watching over her.

~~~

They made it back to the copper mine without anyone following. Geoff helped Maria from the car, picking her up, he carried her inside. It was Jim and Philip rushing in behind them that set the room into a commotion.

“Out of the way! It’s Amy. She took a shot.” The two men lift Amy onto the table.

“Mom?” Maria struggled out of Geoff’s hands as she moved closer to her mother. Amy was covered in sweat. Pain was etched on her face. Jim gently moved her, to look at her back. There was a small bullet hole. Mid-back. High and center. The heart. Blood was pumping from it with every pump of her heart.

“Maria…I saved you.” Amy gulped. “Did they hurt you?”

Maria shook her head no. “Not really. They only ran a few tests on me before they stopped. Jesse. He took the worse.” Maria looked up and around the room. Someone was missing. Jesse. “Jesse! Where is Jesse.”

The others looked at Jim and Philip. Both men looked away, but Jim was gesturing no. Jesse didn’t make it. Maria left the reality rush over her, but before she could react her mother made a sound of pain.

“Jim, she’s losing too much blood.” Philip took his jacket off, and pressed it to the wound. “She needs treatment right now! Surgery.”

Jim swore. Amy. No. “Where can we take her?”

Amy ignored the men. Her eyes were on Maria. Her daughter. She got her daughter back. “Maria. I love you. I missed you.”

“Mom, please. Don’t talk. There is so much I have to tell you. Three years. I’m so sorry. I should’ve trusted you, told you.” Maria used her sleeve to wipe her mother’s face. “You’ll get better. And we…we’ll go away. Far away. Just you and me. They’ll never find us.” Maria leaned down and kissed her mother’s face. “All I am. Everything good I’ve got in me, I got from you. I love you.”

It took a moment for Maria to realize the hand in hers was quiet. It lost its grip, and that Amy was too still.

“Mom?” Maria searched her mother’s face. Her eyes were open. But Amy was gone. Jim stepped back with her blood on his hands, covered in a scarlet red. Philip wiped a sleeve across his forehead. Disbelief. “Mommy?”

Diane Evans turned away at the sound of Maria’s childlike voice. Sinking to the ground she cried. Cried for Amy. Cried for Maria. Jesse. Alex. All of them.

Six of them. There were once six of them. Geoff, Nancy, Diane, Jim, Amy and Philip. Now there was only five. They lost their Alex.

Philip shut his eyes and placed his hands over his ears as Maria hugged her mother’s body close and cried. It was so sorrowful, full of pain. Wounded animals sounded like that. It was hard to take.

They moved away and let Maria alone with Amy. Jim could hear her talking.

“So I should tell you a story about a girl, an ordinary girl that one day died in a diner, and she was saved by an incredible flip of fate. An alien laid his hands on her, and she was restored. I never told you about the day Liz Parker died, and how my life became entangled with Michael Guerin. It was normal day in Roswell…”

~~~

They burned Amy’s body on a stone outside the pod chamber in the dessert. Tending the fire, the four adults and Maria watched at the smoke reached into the night sky. Maria stood apart from them. Higher up, and away, outlined on the sky with the fire in the foreground. The hot desert wind blew at her clothes and hair. She stood alone, pasted among the night’s starry sky.

If sorrow and rage could break a soul in half, then her laid shattered at her feet. Jesse. Amy. Alex. How many more? Where would it stop? Caught in a maelstrom. Three years of fear. Resting her hand on her stomach, she thought of her child. A legacy. A legacy of fear and pain. She would have to do better than that. Work harder. There was no time to mourn. Their silent dead gave their lives for the living, and living was the only tribute she could give them back. A promise to live. To survive. And to never forget.

~~~

“You all need to leave. Fake my mother leaving the Crashdown. They will be waiting for her at our home. Looking for me. Take the Jetta. Drive it away from Roswell, anywhere. They will question you.”

“We can’t leave you, Maria.” Diane, Jim, Geoff, and Philip looked at each other. They couldn’t just leave her alone in the mine, and walk back into their lives like nothing happened. That Jesse wasn’t dead. And Amy. Their Amy. They couldn’t.

“You must. I can’t go with you. They will be searching for me. They will never stop. I’m safe here for now. Things were done. People lost. I can’t…I can’t lose any more. I can’t lose any of you.”

Jim’s silence was finally broken. He needed to know. “Maria. They gave you a nicer room. A bed. A warm place. Did they…” Jim didn’t know how to ask He needed to know. She was traumatized enough, but he needed to know how far that trauma went. “Did they touch you? Rape you?”

Maria understood what he was asking. Did they use her for sex. Give her a place where they could visit. “No. No, Jim. Not that. They tested me…some. A few painful ones, but nothing as severe as…Jesse.” Her voice faltered over his name. In God’s hands. She had to believe that Jesse was there. With Alex. With her mom. How else could she go on? She had to believe.

“Why the difference in treatment?”

Maria wiped a tear away. “I was protected by Michael in a strange way. He saved me. I’m pregnant. So you see, they treated me better because they want my baby. Michael’s baby. An alien child. They won’t rest until they find me. Find us.”

“Pregnant?” Philip ran a hand over his face. And for a second he forgot himself. “Pregnant? Jesus! Didn’t you kids take Sex Ed in school? You’ve got to know how to protect against this.”

Maria laughed bitterly. “Yes. We do. And normally…” Maria sighed in tiredness. Her eyes closing. Rest. She was so tired, and she had too much to do. “In this case, I’m glad the pill and condom failed. It saved my life.”

The adults remained silent. It did. It saved her long enough until they could come.

“Now you know why it is important all of you go home. Resume your lives as if nothing happened. They will think I intercepted my mom on her way home, and puff, in a trail of smoke, we disappeared.”

It took a little longer, but they finally left. Maria looked around the place. Curious. She hadn’t been there since they took Max from the White Room. The White Room. A shudder ran through her body and she was cold. The copper mine. She’d never see this place again.

~~~

Stupid. It was stupid.

Maria chastised herself, but she had to go.

Home.

The window to her room. When she went through it, it felt like a million years since she last saw her room. Four weeks. Four weeks to rearrange a life. She was truly alone.

Her hand went to her flat stomach. No. No she wasn’t. There was someone for her. Her baby.

Returning to her home was not in any way smart, but she needed a few things. It was hard to go through that window imagining men in black waiting to return her to the prison. Hopefully, the followed the bait. Found the Jetta, and was trying to locate both Amy and Maria there. Rushing around her room as quiet as she could, she removed a board on her floor. Money. She had dumped her account before Graduation. It happened so fast, that she hadn’t been able to come back for it. But it was there waiting. She always planned to leave with the others. A letter for her mom. She was going to leave it on her mother’s pillow. Maria took that letter too. She quickly went into her mother’s room. Closet. Top shelf to the right. A tin. Emergency cash. Maria didn’t bother to count it. The clothes. They smelt of Amy. Maria rested her head in them for a moment. Grabbing a sweater, her mom’s favorite, Maria took it with her.

Getting ready to leave everything else, she noticed the pictures framing her vanity mirror. Two of her mom. One of them together, and another of Amy alone and smiling. Maria grabbed them. A picture of Michael. Only one she had. Maria took it. Her baby would one day want to know about him. A picture. They deserved that much. Finally, a picture of Maria with Liz and Alex. Alex was in the middle hugging both girls close to him. Maria looked at it for a moment. She took the picture and ripped Liz’s picture away, tossing it on the vanity table. Taking the remain piece of her and Alex, she was finally was ready to leave.

Maria changed her shoes into a pair of comfortable athletic striders, extra socks, underwear, her toothbrush, hairbrush, and lip gloss. A pair of sunglasses, a hat, and a heavier coat quickly found their way into a shoulder bag. She changed into jeans and a t-shirt, one of Michael’s, and a sweatshirt over the top.

Time to leave. The house was empty. No one lived here anymore. Maria was almost out the window before her eyes lit on the guitar. Alex’s guitar. She was leaving. Tonight. The others wouldn’t understand, but she had to leave alone. If they knew she was leaving, they would want to come with her. Protect her. She was better on her own.

Reaching for it, she took it and was gone.

~~~

It was late when a knocking, more of a banging came at the door. Mr. Whitman, Alex’s father answered it in his robe.

“Maria?” He stood back and let Maria DeLuca into the house. She was small. Smaller than he remembered. Carrying a bag and a guitar. A shot of pain hit him. Alex’s guitar. “Where have you been? Your mother, she was frantic!”

Maria looked up at him with dead eyes. “My mother is dead. They killed my mother.”

Linda Whitman entered the room at that moment. “Maria?”

Maria gathered what strength she had. “I’m sorry to wake you. But, I’m leaving, and I couldn’t in clear conscience, not without first seeing you.”

“Leaving? Amy is dead?” He couldn’t grasp it. “Maria, have you been drinking?”

“I wish. No. Stone cold sober.” Maria went into the room. “I have a story I need to tell you. A story that involves Alex, and how he died…why he died. He was,” Maria choked back her tears. “He was singularly my best friend, and I haven’t gone a moment since he died not missing him. I need you to listen, and understand what happened, and why I can’t let you think your son killed himself. Because nothing. Nothing meant more to Alex than life.”

The Whitmans looks at each other. They knew. They knew that Alex never committed suicide. They knew their son, but it was time. It was time to hear the reason, to put an end to that long sad chapter in their lives. It was not knowing that held them prisoners in grief. Maria was offering them an end to that suffering.

“Come into the kitchen. We all need something hot to drink.”

“It started over three years ago, a normal day like most, when Liz Parker was shot and died in the Crashdown….”

~~~

“We can help you.”

“No one can. It’s not safe. It already cost me Alex, my mom, and even Jesse. I lost my friend Liz, and I will never see the man I love again. They can’t touch me. I have nothing…nothing left for them to take, except my baby and my life. I can’t risk yours too. I’ve already put you in danger.”

Mr. Whitman nodded. “I understand, Maria. I do. And I can’t thank you enough for telling me about my son. He was an incredible young man, and he…” The older man stopped, and rested his hand on his crying wife’s shoulder. “I never been so proud in my life. Thank you for that. But you realize that the FBI has no reason to look here, to look at us. Alex has been gone for a year. There is no connection between us. We can help get you away. Far away.”

Maria saw the simplicity in the plan. Of course. She couldn’t stop, but she needed out of Roswell now. Tonight.

“Okay. What is your plan?”

Mr. Whitman nodded. He could do this. “First, we better make a list.”

Maria laughed softly and then she cried. Of course. A list.

~~~

Presently…

“So you really don’t know where Maria is?” Michael’s hair was wild, made more so by the constant running of his hands through it. This wasn’t real. It was worse than his nightmares. No. That wasn’t right. Maria’s nightmares. He shared them.

Jim held his hand out helplessly. “She never made her intentions known. When we left, she must have left at the same time. Walked in the night back to Roswell. And then where? No one knows.”

“The FBI Special Unit?”

“They questioned us. But they had listened to us playing cards all night. There were empty beer bottles, and signs of a party. Amy left here laughing promising to do it again next week. And she was never heard of again. We left her car, the Jetta outside El Paso, Texas, just south of Las Cruces.”

Michael felt sick. Real sick. “And Jesse? He died there?”

Jim and Philip shared a look. Jim tried to hold it together, but he couldn’t. Tear fell, and they weren’t going to stop any time soon. “No. He was still alive.”

“You left him?” Michael couldn’t believe it. Jim wouldn’t do that. He couldn’t.

“No. He was dying. He begged me to kill him. He was too weak to move, and he knew they would torture information about who came for them. He begged me to get Maria out, and kill him.”

Michael couldn’t. He just couldn’t stand it anymore. Too much. It was too much pain and violence. Because of them. All because they left Jesse and Maria behind. They should’ve known that no one was safe. No one. They were just thinking of themselves…the aliens. They left the human unprotected.

They left Maria. His child. Jesse. Michael wiped a hand across his eyes. Amy. How could Maria ever look at him again? Any of them? They cost her…Michael bent over in pain. His pride. His fucking useless pride. Had she paid enough Guerin? Was she forgiven yet?

Michael wandered over to the side of the room and threw up. Resting his head against his arm, he looked up at Jim. “Jesse?” He had to know.

Jim crumbled to the ground. Crying, he shook his head. “I took the guard’s gun. I shot him. One round. In the head.”

Silence. In the gloom of despair, silence was the sound that broke the back. It moved over them like a blanket of darkness. No time. No words. None of them could ever come back from this. In the dark of the night, they who remained mourned their dead.

~~~

“What are you going to do, Michael?” Philip asked. “Where will you go?”

Michael was packing food in a backpack and a clean sweater. It was time. He stayed too long. He could only bring more death to these people. There was nothing left for him in Roswell. Maria was gone.

“I’m going to find Maria, and my child. I’m going to find her, beg her to forgive me, and spend the rest of my life making sure nothing, no one, or anything harms her again. That is what I’m going to do.” Michael handed them a piece of paper. “This paper runs an ad section for the lost ones. It is suppose to help reconnect old lovers. It is free. We are the ‘Unforgiven’ and a message will be place there if you need to find us.”

Jim took the information. “We will be “Left Behind”. If you need us, we will be watching.”

“I leave tonight. After dark. If you want to pass any messages to the other, I’ll carry them.”

Jim stopped Michael. “Maria. You’ll find a way to let us know if you find her? And the baby? If it is okay?”

“Maria is ‘salvation.’ When I find her, I’ll leave a message about salvation.”

Jim and the others noticed that Michael said ‘when’ and not ‘if’. He would look for the rest of his life, if it took that long. Jim knew one truth. Michael Guerin would never stop, never give up. Not until he found her, found them.

“Michael. You should know. All the children you and Max saved that Christmas. They were taken. And Max’s son? They have him too.”

“Are they…alive?”

Jim shook his head. “I don’t think so. I don’t think so. There were reports of finding bodies. Otherwise they wouldn’t be so intent on finding Maria and your child.”

Michael closed his eyes. “So this was all for nothing. All the risk.”

“What will you tell them?”

Michael looked at Geoff, and finally at the others. “The truth. We made mistakes. Someone has to take responsibility. We have to know that we can’t think about our own lives only, anymore. We have to think bigger…more reaching. The people we touch and involve are at great risk. We should have learned that with Alex, but we were too busy worrying about our own selfish concerns. Someone has to be accountable.”

“Max will need to know if Zan is alive or dead.” Philip said.

“Max will do what he feels he must. My journey is set. I’m finding Maria.”

The five of them stood on the high promontory above the copper mine hours later. Watching Michael Guerin leave Roswell for what would be his last time, all things being even. He blended into the dark, until they could no longer see him. They, the ones left behind to watch over what was once home.

There was a cleanness to the journey. It was one that their children would continue on their own. No more time for childish things. The children of Roswell were fast going to take the final step into adulthood, where all actions had consequences, and they had to be accountable. Geoff hugged his wife close to him, as did Philip, and Jim just stood alone. Time flies in the night, and daylight was dawning over the desert. It was time to take back their lives, and leave their children to live their own.

Godspeed. Godspeed.