Liz knew that there was something wrong. She played her game very well. To save Isabel and Michael, Max had to tell the truth. But now he is very nervous to confront Michael and Isabel.
Ellie:
Yeah, Liz was very cool with it. But then again, she always was that fierce girl, looking for answers. She was the girl who dared to confront Max after the shoot incident. She never backed down. Hell, Liz even robed a store once. This is contradictory to some fics in which she’s described as a very vulnerable, little girl. But in my opinion she never was like that.
Tess is indeed a mystery at the moment. Is she alien or not? And most important: how are her values towards life and the humans in it?
Keepsmiling7:
As promised you’ll find some answers in every chapter.
Yeah, Max has indeed found his match in Liz. But will he see what’s right in front of him?
BB:
You’re right: this Liz and Max are set in a very different situation. We will have and wait to see how their story will turn out.
Cardinal:
Isabel won’t be happy, that’s for sure. So you think she won’t kill Max because she will see Michael again? I’m very curios about that one!
Tess and the alien abyss: how will she react? It’s a very important question and I believe the answer will depend on how this Tess is living her life on earth.
Mary mary:
True: is he still married? And where is his wife or ex-wife?
The Bitch… I understand you’re not a fan of Isabel’s?
I smirked when I read your description of her. Chapter eleven
With a sigh Michael lowered him self to sit on one of the tree stumps in the garden. A suffocating feeling kept strangling him. He had hoped to find some air outside the house but the urge to flee away kept haunting him wherever he went.
Fear. He could taste it in his mouth and it made him nauseous.
Freak. Creep. Alien.
It was the first time he had exposed himself to someone. He could kick himself for being so reckless. What had he been thinking? Taking the risk of detoxing in a stranger’s home. He had known well enough that after the sobering up his long-time suppressed feelings would crop up with all the accompanying consequences.
Every fibre in his body screamed to him to run away. Again. But he knew he couldn’t. The last year had been a long sequence of running and hiding from his feelings, his family, his life and his work. It had brought him nowhere.
It was time to change his acts and to face his life. Or what was still left of it.
It was time to grin and bear it.
A muffled sound snatched him away from his thoughts. Michael looked over his shoulder and saw Maria coming down the porch of the cottage.
Maria DeLuca.
A combination of factors had literally blown him in her life. With her caring support and her unconditional friendship she had surprised him completely. And most likely he had surprised her just as much, he thought ironically.
Which made him believe he owed her an explanation. Big time.
But how do you tell somebody that earth wasn’t your home? Hell, most likely it wasn’t even in his solar system.
Seemingly relaxed Maria came closer. Hesitatingly he made eye contact.
“The windows are…”she pointed towards the little house were every window, glittering again in their frame, reflected the sunlight.
“I know.”
“Just the one on the right,” she restarted.
“Still has a crack. I know.” Michael lifted his right hand to scratch his eyebrow with his thumb. “I’m not that good at it, you know,” he apologised.
He sighed, looking at the ground miserably, and ran a hand through his hair before trying again. “I’m more the man of action.” He cynically smirked, “or destruction. Everything I lay my hands on is sooner or later bound to meet disaster. ‘Cause, you know, that’s just what I’m good at: destroying things.”
“No, you’re not.”
The matter of fact way she had responded to him made him look up to her. “How would you know? The other night you called me an irresponsible jack-ass and you were right, one hundred per cent.”
“No, I wasn’t and I happen to know that for a fact.”
Maria could clearly read the astonishment in his eyes. “Look,” she explained, “I don’t know how it happened or if it’s even possible but I think I saw the real you last night. It was like I was in some kind of movie. But I wasn’t. It was more flashes, little fragments. I really don’t understand but what I do know is that I saw you.”
“Tell me. What’d you see?” The seriousness in her voice had made him curious and edgy at the same time.
Maria frowned while she tried to recollect her memories. “I saw a little boy. He was about six or so. He was wandering in the desert together with another little boy and girl. Then I saw the same kid with an angry looking man. The man unbuckled his belt and-”
“Hold it. You don’t have to give me the whole book. If it’s the same for you, I don’t want to relive that misery for a second time, thank you very much.”
Though Maria had been certain about what she had seen, the truth still hit her immensely. “So, it really was your life I saw?” Her eyebrow quirked.
His face closed off, Michael just nodded.
“Whoa!” The curiosity took over. “But how?”
Reserved he stood up. Turning his back on her, his eyes seemed to search for answers in the skyline. Just as Maria was beginning to think he would ignore her question, he started to talk.
“It just happened I guess,” he said, his tone cautious. He had to grit his teeth and take in a deep breath so he could continue. “In the past it only happened twice. With Max. It’s like I can’t hold my guard up when I’m emotionally in the sewer. Just like-”
Michael didn’t finish his sentence but Maria could easily understand he was referring to last night. She was silent for a moment, remembering how upset Michael was last night. She could still feel his sorrow, his pain. And even now, she still saw it in his closed off features.
Instinctively Maria knew she couldn’t push him. Now that she had seen glimpses of his past life and feelings, she understood what he had been through. And though she didn’t understand everything and still had a billion questions to ask, she just knew she had to leave it. Just for now anyway. She realized that with Michael’s guarded nature, she had already been privileged to see more of Michael than any other person in the world.
Observing him once more, Maria all of a sudden noticed that Michael had changed his look. Wearing freshly washed clothes and short spiked hair instead of the long, unkempt ponytail, Michael’s appearance was a huge contrast to the wild and neglected look he had the first time they met.
Impulsively Maria pointed towards his hair. “What happened to the ponytail? Did you work your hocus pocus on it too?
Michael turned towards her and smirked. “No, just took the scissors to them.”
She tilted her head and looked at him. “It isn’t... you know, fashionable, but somehow it kinda suits you.”
“Aren’t you going to freak out now you know I’m…” He hesitated. The words that had popped in his head earlier all seemed too odd to pronounce. Because they all felt too strange for him to say out loud, he searched for a more appropriate word. “You know, different?”
Maria’s smile widened. “Ten years ago I would’ve gone ballistic if someone would’ve told me there were aliens in town. I would’ve ran screaming through the streets of Roswell.”
Her openness made him grin. Michael could easily picture a younger version of Maria running frantically out of the Crashdown café.
“What changed?” His tone was still cautious, as if he still feared to be rejected.
“You.”
His unease didn’t alter.
“The fact you’re not ten feet tall with green slimy tentacles helps a lot. Besides that, you’re more human than some of the weirdo’s and wacko’s I met in showbiz.” Maria bantered trying to ease off the situation.
Her answer surprised him greatly. It was the last thing he had expected her to say. He shuffled nervously. “So what happens now?”
“Now?” Maria’s wide and open smile warmed his whole body. “That’s easy, spaceboy: coffee!”
A few minutes later Michael found himself sitting on the porch of Maria’s house. The matter of fact way Maria had just accepted who he really was had left him stunned and speechless. The fact that she deliberately ignored his reserve and kept chattering about trivialities slowly made him at ease. At one point when she was grumbling about her former gardener and the way he had left her precious garden, Michael let his guard down and even entered the conversation.
“And do you have an idea about how you want your garden to look?” he asked her.
Maria wrinkled her nose. Hadn’t he listened to what she had been saying? “Just like I told you: lots of flowers, perfectly cut lawn, a jungle gym for Emily, a sandbox, a- “
“Hold it,” Michael interrupted her, “let me rephrase. The things you just listed, where specifically do you want them?”
He took a paper napkin and folded it open. Smoothly he sketched Maria’s property including her house and guesthouse. “So, this is the plan of your garden and everything in it at this moment. Now, what’s your idea?”
With big eyes she just stared at him and the drawing. It was obvious it wasn’t the first time he had drawn something like that. On familiar ground now, Michael became so engrossed with the design that he didn’t notice Maria’s astonishment.
With his ball-point he tapped on certain areas of his sketch while thinking out loud. “I would advise a flower area here next to the entranceway and here, just before the two porches.”
His enthusiasm was contagious and it didn’t take long until both of them were in a very animated dialogue.
That carefree moment was interrupted with the sound of the bell at the gate. Maria rose out of her chair to check it out.
When she came back, she saw him stiffen when he noticed the blue BMW coming up the driveway. She didn’t need to tell him who it was.
Together they waited till the car was parked in front.
“Max,” she welcomed the visitor, “What a nice surprise to see you on this beautiful Sunday morning.”
Max nodded and reluctantly approached the porch. The carefree setting in front of him surprised him. He wholeheartedly hoped that the cosy breakfast had lead to a good-tempered Michael. Especially with the news he had to tell.
“Can I get you a coffee?” Maria offered.
Max shook his head. Uneasily he glared at his brother, trying to check him out to see he was doing alright after everything that had happened. It struck Maria that Max’s uneasiness was immediately reflected in Michael’s body language.
The two broody men looked uncertainly at each other and at her. It was a tense atmosphere until it dawned on Maria that she was the fifth wheel on the wagon. It became more and more obvious that the two brothers needed to talk. Alone.
“Guys, you have to excuse me. Emily will be back soon and I promised to make her favourite dish.” With that she took matters in own hand and strode into the kitchen.
Max waited till she was out of hearing range and then looked back at Michael. “We need to talk, bro. But not here.”
Michael nodded and pointed to the garden. “I know a perfect spot. Follow me.”
***
From behind the window Maria observed how Max, with his hands in his trouser pockets, walked along with a stoic looking Michael, still holding his coffee cup in his hand.
Both men looked very alike at the moment: both tall and handsome, both had soulful and dark brown eyes which made their brooding expression almost similar, their unease after seeing each other after so many months away,…
Seeing them walk together over the lawn made her think back at the flash she had got of the little children wandering down the desert. And all at once it hit her, Max was Michael’s brother, they were both found in the desert, therefore Max had to be different too!
The realization that there were two aliens in her back yard didn’t frighten her. Maria had felt Michael’s fears and thoughts and they had been all very human and understandable considering the events and what he had been through. So to her Michael and Max were human, just with a little bit more. Not plain different. Not really. Just more.
***
Michael let Max towards the tree stumps. Reserved and in thought they lowered themselves onto one of them.
“Are you ok? How are you feeling?” Max began.
Michael shrugged. “I’m fine.” Then he looked Max right in the eye. “Cut the small talk, Maxwell, I know something’s on your mind.”
Max’s head shook up and he messed his hair before starting. “I’m just wondering which one you want to hear first: the good or the bad news?”
“Gimme the good news first. After everything that happened I can use some good news.” He put his cup to his lips.
Without any delay Max just blurted out. “Isabel is coming to see you."
Michael choked in his coffee and spat it out. He was already anticipating the asphyxiating hug that Isabel would give him. “Do you call that good news? If that’s the good news how bad is the bad news really?”
“I kinda told Liz our secret.” Max mumbled.
To his surprise Michael stayed silent. “Haven’t you heard what I said? I told Liz-”
“I heard you,” was Michael’s stoic answer.
“And?” Max’s question was asked with so many question marks; a normal man would immediately start to talk but Michael just shrugged his shoulders in response.
Michael’s coolness was enough to provoke a saint, something Max wasn’t. So he nearly exploded when he asked, “Aren’t you mad? Furious?”
Michael had always been convinced that he couldn’t trust a stranger with their secret. He had even voted against Isabel’s wish to tell her parents. Over the years he had held resolute. His stubbornness to not reconsider the idea had eventually caused some friction between him and Isabel. The only disagreement they ever had.
“I should go hard on you but I’m not going to. The fact is that I blew it too. I had to tell Maria.”
“You had to tell?” Max fell from one astonishment into the other. His puzzled face said it all. He just couldn’t conceive the idea that Michael had voluntarily revealed his origins. “What did she do: point a gun against your head?”
“I kinda redecorated her guesthouse. Twice.” Michael smirked a bit after his dry comment.
Max’s mouth fell open. “You did what?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Michael waved his hands, “You heard me, Maxwell. And don’t give me that ‘I told you so’ bullshit.” He continued. “Look, we both fucked up. The question now is: how can we control the damage? And most important: who’s going to tell Iz?”
Isabel! Max had totally forgotten his sister and the way she would react on the current circumstances. He had already thought that Michael would freak out. But Isabel's reaction was going to be nuclear. Not only would she be furious, Isabel would be disappointed too. She was never allowed to tell her parents and now they had told two strangers!
“Ok, point taken: we both made some mistakes.” Max stood up and started to pace back and forth. “God, I can’t believe we both had to tell the truth! What a situation!”
Running over the cold facts, Michael tried to calculate all risks. He wasn’t worried about Maria. Though he hadn’t told her, he too had received some flashes. They had shown him fragments of an impulsive but open and warm hearted woman who would go through fire for the people she cared about. It had been all qualities he had already encountered in the blond pixie. The only weak link he could think of was the doctor.
“What about Liz Parker? Can we trust her?”
The questions ripped Max out of his thoughts. He hesitated just a moment. Thinking back at last evening where she had listened to him with an open mind and had made him believe they could trust her. So he shook his head. “She won’t give it away.”
But Michael wasn’t that sure about Liz and he feared that Max’s feelings for the woman prejudiced his opinion. Pinching the bridge of his nose Michael persisted. “Max, are you sure?”
