Awesome Banner by the talented Drogyn!!!!
Title- Inquiring Minds
Disclaimer- I don't own Roswell, and mean no infringement. It is owned by Melinda Metz, Jason Katims, UPN, WB, etc.
Category- M/M, A/I, M/L
Rating- Mature
Summary: Maria, Alex and Liz have experienced some strange happenings with their classmates Michael, Isabel, and Max. When a shooting happens at Liz's parents restaurant, the three friends finally share their experiences. Will they discover the truth about the three resident aliens in Roswell, NM?
A/N: This is going to be pretty short, and is just about an alternative way the humans could have found out about the aliens. Each couple will have a story, and then it will all be brought together with the shooting at the Crashdown, and in case you were wondering, Liz will not get shot.
This will be updated every Sunday until it's finished, probably in four or five parts.
Chapter One: Maria and Michael
September 1996
Thirteen year old Maria Deluca sat in the nice but small trailer she shared with her Mom doing her homework and listening to music with her Walkman. Her neighbor, Hank Guerin was in rare form tonight and it sounded like poor Michael was in for it. Maria sighed as she wished she could do something about it, but Michael had made it perfectly clear that he wanted no help from her or anyone.
They had lived next door to each other for years now, and at first Maria was excited that at least she had someone her age living by her when they moved into the trailer park. That lasted all of one day after the little boy next door made it perfectly clear that he wanted nothing to do with Maria.
Her Mother had tried to do her best, but being a single Mother at such a young age left her with little money, so they ended up in this hell hole. She took a job as a bartender and unfortunately took advantage of all the free drinks the slimy men would buy her while she was working.
Amy Deluca loved her daughter with all her heart, but her job left Maria alone a lot at night and the alcohol she consumed didn't exactly help her judgement. Sometimes she would bring home men that were less then desirable, and the thin walls of the trailer left little to Maria's imagination about what was going on. Her Walkman and music had become her salvation, blocking out everything from the terrible sounds coming from next door to the things she didn't even want to think about going on in the room next to hers.
Her Mother, being the new age type woman that she was, had a very open and honest relationship with her daughter. When Maria told her Mom how uncomfortable this made her, they came to an agreement. She would not bring men home unless Maria was spending the night at her best friend Liz's house, which happened frequently. When she wasn't there she could be found at her other best friend Alex's house, but that was happening less and less lately as puberty was making Liz and Alex's parents a little reluctant about boy/girl sleep overs anymore.
She looked up at the window as she saw headlights flash across the room. Maria got up and peered out the window, seeing Hank drive away. At least Michael would be ok. There were times she'd swear he should look like he went a few rounds with Tyson, but he would be at school the next day looking fine. Maybe Hank just yelled a lot and threw things. Maria had thought more then once about calling the authorities, but Michael always insisted he was fine and to mind her own damn business whenever she said anything to him.
A few hours later Michael noticed headlights streaming across his bedroom. Damn, he thought Hank would stay out the rest of the night, passing out in the parking lot of the bar like he usually did when he was in binge mode. He went to look out the window, because if Hank was back he needed to make a quick exit to Max's house.
Max and Isabel Evans were his real family, not Hank. They were what did Max call it? Oh yeah, not of this Earth, as in they were aliens. They had hatched from pods in the desert, and Max and Isabel were taken in by the Evans and Michael, who had hid in the background, was found a day later and had been through countless foster homes that first year until he came to live with Hank, who was hard up for money.
The trio had no idea where they came from or if there were others like them, and Max and Isabel didn't even like to talk about it. Michael wondered constantly about it. Were there others? Why did they leave them? Why were they here?
Max and Isabel lived the perfect little human existence, so Michael guessed that was why they could easily dismiss the fact that they were hatched, not born. They knew Michael didn't have it nearly as good as them, but they didn't know the extent of it. They didn't know how violent Hank could get or how sometimes he didn't have food for days. No, they could never know about that. They already had tried to talk him into coming to live with them, but the ironic thing was the most alien Michael ever felt was being in the presence of Max and Isabel's perfect little existence. No, he would stay here until he was old enough to leave.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was that Maria girl's Mother and some drunk from the bar. The hair stood up on Michael's arm when he looked at the man helping a practically unconscious Ms. Deluca from the car, and Michael tried to rub the goosebumps from his arms. It seemed that one of his powers was knowing danger, like he had an internal alert system. It had saved him from many beatings in the past.
It wasn't any of his business anyway. He stayed away from humans, as he was pretty sure he wasn't human. That Maria girl had tried to be friends with him over the years, and had he not been an alien he might have been her friend. Yes, she could be annoying and loud, but she had a determination and spunk that he couldn't help but admire. No, this wasn't any of his business and it wasn't like Ms. Deluca had never brought a man home. She did it quite frequently until Maria had that little conversation with her. He really wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but between the little insulation in the trailers to his heightened sense of hearing, he heard quite a lot of things that he knew were not meant for his ears.
He went and laid back down, thankful that Hank wasn't home. Michael couldn't help but hope that Maria was asleep so she wouldn't have to witness her practically passed out drunk Mother being drug into the trailer by some random guy. He quickly dismissed the thought because he couldn't go caring about humans.
They certainly didn't care about him, well Maria had asked him if he was ok many times, way more then Max and Isabel ever did. Perhaps it was because Max and Isabel didn't know how truly horrible things could be on Earth, or perhaps it was because Maria DID know that made things that way. One thing was certain, that little blond girl next door was not afraid of him, and he at least made most people nervous, which was why at the beginning of his life he was passed from foster home to foster home. There was an air of danger that seemed to follow him, but it didn't phase her a bit.
Michael pulled the covers up over him, trying to go back to sleep, but couldn't help straining his ears to listen. It wasn't like he cared of course, he was just curious, and that man did seem very dangerous. Maybe he had come to rob different places in the trailer park. Michael needed to be prepared for anything, or at least he told himself that. He didn't tell himself that no one in their right mind would come to the trailer park to steal, but deep down, in a place Michael rarely went, he knew that wasn't the reason he was listening.
Maria awoke from her sleep when she heard the front door of the trailer slam shut. Usually her Mom was more courteous then that. 'Great,' thought Maria, 'she must be looped up.' Deciding she should go check on her, Maria climbed out of bed and went into the small living room.
"Mom, are you ok?" she called as she walked down the narrow hallway. Maria abruptly stopped at the site in front of her. Her Mother was haphazardly laying on the couch, and a rather large man was looking at the pictures they had displayed on their walls.
He turned and looked at Maria. "Hi," he said with a smile that made Maria's heart drop to the pit of her stomach, and not in a good way. "Amy must be your Mom. She had a little to much to drink at the bar, so I drove her home."
Maria instinctively back up a few steps towards the hallway, putting distance between her and this man. "Oh, umm thanks," Maria said. "You should probably be going now so bye."
The man laughed. "Maybe I should stay for awhile, just to make sure she's alright. She was drinking pretty heavily. Does she do that a lot?"
"Oh no, you've done enough. I can take care of her, it's no problem. Wouldn't want to hold you up any longer," Maria said looking cautiously around for something, anything she could use as a weapon if need be.
"You sure are pretty...." he said looking over the pajama clad Maria. She crossed her arms around her middle at the sudden chill she felt.
"Well thanks, but like I said, you should be going, like now probably," Maria said, not liking the turn of conversation one bit. She slowly started backing up toward her room, hoping she had left the cordless phone in there. Just as she was about to turn and run, he closed the distance between them in a few long steps and grabbed her arm.
"Where are you going? I thought we were going to get to know each other better?" he said.
"Let me go!" Maria shouted and regained her composure. "I need to check on my Mom."
"Oh, so this is where you were going," he smiled wickedly as he backed Maria into her room, never taking his large hand off her small arm.
"I said let me go, you're hurting me!" Maria shouted as she swung out with her other arm, successfully making contact with the man's face.
"Why you ungrateful little bitch," he said, grabbing both her arms and violently throwing her on the bed. "I'll teach you what happens to bad little girls...."
Maria went to scream, but he covered her mouth. She fought trying to get out from under him, but his weight was too much for her little frame. Her arms pushed on his chest trying to get him off of her, but it was all in vain. The horror of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks when she felt him jerking at her pajama bottoms.
Maria clamped her legs together and tried to remember every self defense technique she had ever read about. "The more you fight, the worse it's going to be," the man growled, the heavy scent of alcohol on his breath.
This didn't make Maria stop fighting him, in fact it made her fight harder, like she was fighting for her life. Just as she was silently praying to God for someone to help her, she felt the man being ripped of her. With terrified eyes she watched him slam into her bedroom wall as she frantically crawled to the corner of her bed, pulling her half torn pajama bottoms around herself.
"Get out of here," said Michael Guerin. The man, being half drunk and half delusional from hitting his head he tried to focus on what was going on. Whoever pulled him off the little girl was way stronger then him, so he scrambled to his feet and out the door.
Michael calmly followed him out, and stood at the open door of the trailer watching him speed away. He turned quickly when he heard someone behind him, and he saw that Maria had put her bathrobe on and was looking at him with tear filled eyes.
How would he ever explain this? That man was huge, and even though Michael was in good shape there is no way in hell he should have been able to pick that man up and thrown him against the wall.
Michael knew he didn't exactly to that, he had used his powers to throw him, but he wasn't sure if Maria knew that or not. She was in no position to see anything when he got there. The man, well the man wouldn't remember or wouldn't say anything since he was attacking a 13 year old girl. He was obviously one of those traveling salesmen people by the looks of his rental car, so hopefully he'd stay away, worried about going to jail.
Maria sniffed and seemed to break. She walked towards Michael quickly and buried her face in his under developed 13 year old boy chest, threw her arms around him as tightly as she could, and cried her eyes out.
Michael didn't know what to do. He had never been hugged like this before. Sure, Isabel and Max had hugged him on occasion, but this hug, he could feel all her fear and gratitude, all her heart. She was holding on to him like he was the only person in the world she could rely on. After standing there lost for a few seconds he pulled her to him closer, stroking her hair and making shushing noises.
She finally calmed down enough to look into Michael's eyes. "Th...th...thank you," she said with such sincerity it nearly took Michael's breath away.
Michael shrugged as Maria backed out of the embrace, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Just being neighborly," he said.
"No one is neighborly around here," Maria said. "Everyone minds their own business no matter what is going on, and you just saved me from...from...."
"In that case, your welcome," he said. "Are you going to be alright?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine," Maria said.
"Ok then, I'm going to go home," Michael said and walked out the door, gently closing it.
That's when the panic set in. What happened once she calmed down? What happened when she started thinking about how all of that could never happen? Would she ask him about it? Shit, what was he going to say?
He knew he needed to talk to Max and Isabel, but he just couldn't. They were his only family, and what if they were so mad at him for possibly exposing them that they stopped talking to him? They had made a pact, never to tell anyone. What if they wanted him to go away? It was to soon to leave, they didn't have any answers. Michael decided to wait it out until the next morning to see how Maria acted.
The next morning Maria was busy preparing two lunches, one way bigger then hers. Amy stumbled into the kitchen, fumbling in the cabinets for aspirin.
"Oh my God my head," she said.
"Mom, we need to talk," Maria said.
"Do we have to now sweetheart? How about when you get home from school?" Amy pleaded.
"No, it has to be now," Maria said calmly. "Last night, your your "friend" who brought you home attacked me. I guess he wanted me to finish whatever you had started since you passed out."
"What?" Amy said. "Maria! Are you ok? Did he hurt you baby?"
Maria held out her arm and pushed up her sleeve, showing a large hand print bruise. "Luckily it was only this, but thankfully he was drunk enough that I smashed him into the wall in my room before he could get what he wanted."
Amy's face crumbled as she jumped up to hug her daughter. Maria took a step back. "No Mom, this has to stop, and it has to stop now. Do you know what could have happened to me? Do you? Do you know how much I needed you, but there you were, passed out as usual!"
"Maria, I promise you, I won't drink anymore. I'll get help. Nothing like this will ever happen again," Amy whispered.
"I'll believe it when I see it," Maria said as she grabbed the lunches and walked out of the trailer. She had just seen Michael leaving and had to deal with him. Unknowingly to her, Amy had just hit rock bottom and would never drink again.
"Michael! Michael! Wait up!" Maria panted on the way to the bus stop outside of the trailer park.
Michael slowed down his pace, dreading this moment. Would this be where it all came to an end?
He sighed as she caught up. "What's up Maria?" he asked way more nicely then he meant to say it. What was wrong with him? Usually he had no problem being rude to her.
"Here," she said, shoving a brown paper bag in his face.
"What's this?" he asked curiously.
"Payment, for saving me," she said, "and for your silence about this whole....situation."
Michael looked at her with his mouth hanging open. "Look, I kind of told my Mom what happened, leaving you out of the equation. My gut instinct told me you wouldn't want to be involved, but here's the deal. My friends don't know how life can be here, and I don't want them feeling sorry for me. So keep quiet about it, and we'll be golden."
Relief washed over Michael as he realized she didn't know anything strange had went on. "Yeah, I can understand that," he said, thinking about how he never wanted Max and Isabel to know what he went through as he took the lunch.
"It's just I can't owe anyone anything," Maria said. "Maybe we can come to an agreement. Hank doesn't seem like the type to get up early and fix lunches, so maybe I could make an extra one for you and you could, I don't know look out for me. Like a protector," she said, looking way more vulnerable then she would want.
"That could probably be arranged," Michael said as the bus pulled up. The two got on and went their separate ways as usual.
Maria went to sit with Liz, and when Liz accidentally touched Maria's arm she hissed in pain. "What's wrong with your arm?" Liz asked in a concerned tone.
"Oh nothing," Maria said as she waved her hand. "I was just trying out this gymnastic move and fell, I'm fine," she said as she looked out the window.
Michael plopped down in the seat next to Max. "Hank going domestic on you?" he asked, pointing to the brown paper bag.
"Something like that," Michael said.
It would be a couple of days later that Maria would find a key hanging in her locker, a key that fit a dead bolt that locked on both sides that was installed on her bedroom door when she got home from school. She continued the lunches for Michael until her Mom, who had gotten sober and opened an alien themed store, could afford to rent their first ever house three years later.
It would be a couple of days after that when she would start to wonder how a scrawny, 13 year old kid threw a grown man across a room. She racked it up to the guy being drunk and Michael used to dealing with Hank, but somewhere deep inside of her she knew it wasn't right. She pushed it to the side for years, until the shooting at the Crashdown when she discovered her two best friends, Liz and Alex, had also noticed strange occurrences around Max, Michael and Isabel.
