Roswell Fanatics

Timelord31 – Thanks for reading.

Alien Friend – Alex, Liz and Maria as kids must have been something, huh? With Maria’s temper and imagination, Liz’s intelligence and Alex probably being already a geek, which could come in handy!

Cjsl8ne – Yes, it’s not just Michael suffering, it’s everyone, his family, Maria, even Max and Isabel in some way. But at least, something good came out of this: Alex, Liz and Maria are back to where they were (or almost) before Max and Isabel came on the scene in Liz and Alex’s lives.


Part 119

Maria rolled over in bed and cracked one eye open to look at the alarm clock, frowning at it when she saw the time. 8:04am. She flopped over on her back and stared up at the ceiling for a moment before closing her eyes again. She was on the edge of the dark abyss of sleep when the events of the day before came rushing back at her and her eyes snapped open again. She grabbed her cell phone where it was laying on the bed next to her, hurriedly checking the display to see if she had missed any calls.

She sighed when she saw that there were no missed calls. She had no way to check on Michael and while she knew he was fully capable of handling himself out in the desert she worried about his frame of mind. He had been upset and killing Tess had scared him and now he was in the desert, God only knew where, trying to figure everything out on his own. Native Americans handled conflicts differently than other people and Michael had been raised in their culture, he had been raised to approach things in a different manner.

It just hurt knowing he was alone even though she knew it was what he would want in this situation. He wouldn’t want anyone else around while he was trying to come to terms with what he had done. She wondered what exactly he was doing out in the desert and if he would ever tell her about it. He was difficult and he was stubborn, two things that she doubted would ever change, but he had gotten better with her.

She rolled over and crossed her arms over her chest, cradling the cell phone against her body as she closed her eyes once more. Maybe she would call Maggie later, just to ask if she had heard anything. She already knew the answer, but hearing her boyfriend’s sister’s voice might help a little bit. She bit her lip and her eyes opened again when she heard her mom moving around in the kitchen. Her thoughts turned back to the four people who had stayed with her until late the night before.

They had finally gone home at nearly 11pm, but only after she had agreed again to join them to help Isabel with some Christmas thing. She appreciated all of them staying with her and trying to distract her while her mind was preoccupied with Michael. Nothing was going to get him off of her mind, but the small distractions had helped to make the waiting more tolerable. Liz and Alex were making an effort, trying to reestablish a connection, and Max and Isabel were doing their best to be supportive as well.

She wondered how things would have turned out differently if Liz and Alex had told her the truth about what had happened that day at the Crashdown. She might not have met Michael, might not have him in her life now. Knowing Michael and the secrets he had to maintain on a daily basis just for his survival gave her an appreciation for what her old friends had chosen to keep from her. No, she still didn’t agree with their methods, but she could understand the need to keep that secret.

Her thoughts turned to Max and Isabel. She wouldn’t have expected them to want to help out, to offer to go and look for Michael when they had no familiarity with the Rez or the desert, or to take their time to distract her. They seemed to be genuinely concerned about Michael, especially Isabel. She wondered if Michael’s theory about him and Isabel being siblings could be true. She had to admit there was a resemblance that didn’t seem apparent between her and Max. What would River Dog think about them? What if she took them out to meet him? She wouldn’t take them to meet his immediate family because it was his place to do that, but River Dog knew things about them as aliens, or hybrids, and that could possibly be beneficial to them as well. Maybe she would bring it up later when they were alone.

She looked up when her mom knocked on the door. “Hey, Mom.”

“Are you going to get up?” Amy asked as she sat down on the foot of Maria’s bed. “Breakfast will be ready soon.”

“Yeah, I was just thinking,” Maria said as she stretched.

“About your company yesterday?” She smiled at her daughter’s expression. “I didn’t miss the fact that Liz, Alex, and I’ll assume their significant others were all in the living room yesterday before I left.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I guess I was thinking about them.”

“Where was Michael?”

“He’s dealing with some things right now and he needed to be alone.”

“Things are better between you, Liz and Alex?”

“Getting there.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat up. “I’m actually gonna go over and help out with some Christmas thing Isabel’s putting together this afternoon.”

“It’ll be good for you.” She patted her daughter’s leg. “Get ready and come down for breakfast.”

“Alright, Mom, give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be there.” She got up and gathered her things before heading down the hall to the bathroom, wondering absently what one wore to prepare things for a Christmas dog show.

*****

Michael stood up from his sitting position and stared out across the desert. He had slept very little the night before, only catching a few minutes of rest here and there. He was restless, unable to sit still for very long in spite of knowing that he needed to open himself up. His mind was still too active, too worried about his family and Maria, and wondering how he was going to face them again.

His mind had locked onto those concerns and it wouldn’t let go and he knew until he could clear his mind he wasn’t going to be able to achieve the visions he needed to help him find his balance. He glanced out at the morning sun before turning to grab one of the canteens and hooking the strap over his head and around his shoulder. He needed to move, put more distance between him and his thoughts. Maybe then he would be able to quiet the thoughts filling his head. He grabbed a baseball cap out of his pack and put it on, conscious of the effects of walking under the desert sun.

He set out across the desert with no destination in mind, simply walking and allowing his mind to sift through his thoughts. He paid no attention to the sun bearing down on him as it rose higher in the sky, mindless of the sweat slowly beading up on his skin and dampening his clothes. The farther he walked the more his thoughts seemed to move around and fall into some sort of order.

Thoughts of Maria and his family dominated his mind and he knew stressing over their reactions to what he had done wasn’t helping anything but he couldn’t help it. He had revealed the darker side of his nature by killing Tess and no matter what he did with the rest of his life he would never be able to wash her blood from his hands. As scared as he was to know what they thought of him now he knew he needed to know. Would they feel he was a danger to them? That him being who he was could put them at risk? His family had always encouraged him to be his own person and they had never shied away from the fact that he was an alien or that there were a lot of unknowns in his past. You’ve never committed murder before either, his conscience helpfully supplied.

What will your family think of you now? He wanted to believe that they would understand that he hadn’t killed her with premeditation, that he had done it to protect them from her, but there was that part of him that feared their reactions. Maria had gotten to him; she had wormed her way into a part of him that no one else had ever touched and now he didn’t know what would happen to him if she turned her back on him. He didn’t want to believe that she would do that, that she could do that, not after all they had been through. She watched you kill another living being. Did it matter that it was Tess? Someone bent on forcing her own wants and desires on them. Someone who he believed would have brought harm to those he and the others cared about if it meant furthering her own agenda? No, it didn’t matter. Murder was murder. Maria’s voice picked at that comment, insisting that he had been protecting them. He shook his head, kicking out those wishful thoughts. She had never said that. What she had done was refused to get out of the truck until he had agreed to call her and then she had kissed him and gotten out of the truck.

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and carefully shifted thoughts of them aside to focus on Max and Isabel. He had to figure out what to do about them. What role were they going to play in his life? Did he even want them to have a role in his life? The three of them were bound together by their past and their DNA, but was it possible to transform those things into a present bond? Did he even want that? He snorted. Would they even want that now? He had no idea if the two of them would have any interest in getting to know him better after witnessing what he was capable of.

Or was it something they were all capable of? Maybe the ability to kill was genetic, something buried in their genes. Maybe they were all proficient killers deep down and it was just a matter of tapping into that particular dark well. Tess had known that darkness, she had embraced it. Was it a matter of her being raised by an alien or was it something more? There had been a coldness about her, a calculating look in her eyes as she told them what their lives were supposed to be. Maybe it did have something to do with her being raised by an alien because he and the others had been raised by humans and that lack of empathy didn’t exist in them. Was that how they would have been had they been found by Nacedo instead of River Dog or their parents? He didn’t know and he wasn’t sure how deeply he wanted to look into it right now.

Before this he hadn’t been sure if he really wanted to get to know Max better. Isabel, yes, he would admit to wanting to get to know her because he was sure they were related. How could that resemblance be overlooked? Not to mention certain personality quirks. He had a feeling she wouldn’t appreciate anyone suggesting she had quirks of any kind. They must have been separated in the desert, but if they were how could he not remember them? How could he have no recollection of his past prior to River Dog finding him in the desert?

Maybe none of that mattered. They might not have any interest in getting to know him better after what had happened. For all he knew they wouldn’t want anything to do with him now. It might be better if they just went back to their own lives and cut their ties with him before he could do anymore damage. Maybe it would be better, safer, for all of them to just go their separate ways now.

He checked the sun’s position in the sky when he stopped to take a drink from his canteen. He poured just a small amount of the cool water into his hand and splashed it on his face and the back of his neck before screwing the cap back on and looking around. The sun was climbing higher in the sky and the temperatures would only continue to rise. He was coming up on that time of day when it was most dangerous to be exposed to the sun so he decided to take a break and take shelter for a while.

*****

Isabel sighed, the sound a mix of frustration and annoyance when one of her underlings moved one of the wire pens to the right. “My right, not yours!” She stomped her foot in aggravation when Alex and Max, who were facing each other across the pen, each moved in a different direction and the pen shifted at an odd angle, forming a sort of diamond shape instead of the square that it should have been. “Are you deliberately trying to irritate me?”

Alex bit his bottom lip as he glanced up at Max. “Is your sister always like this?”

Max just snorted and shook his head. “I’d think you’d know better than to voice that question considering the amount of time the two of you spend together.” He yelped when his sister came up behind him and grasped the back of his neck.

“Max, if I’m standing behind Alex and I tell you to move to my right, why are you moving to your right?”

“I don’t know, Iz, to aggravate you maybe?”

“Well, mission accomplished because that’s exactly what you’re doing!” She gave his neck another squeeze before tapping the pen with her clipboard. “Now move the pen… to your left,” she said with exaggerated patience. “And when you’ve finally accomplished these very simple directions I want you to decorate the pen with the red and green bows. In the exact order that I have them in the diagram, do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand.” He glanced over his shoulder when she walked off to make Liz and Maria’s lives miserable. “All hail the Christmas Nazi,” he muttered under his breath.

Isabel stopped and spun around on her heel to stare at him. “What was that?” Her sharp gaze moved over his face and then checked Alex’s features.

Max assumed a clueless expression. “What?”

“I’ll be back to check on these pens and I expect them to be properly arranged and decorated.”

He just nodded and waved her off. “Just for the record, she gets like this every Christmas.” He moved the pen to his left and set it down.

Isabel marched over to Liz and Maria, stopping in her tracks and frowning when she saw them giggling over something and wrapping the garland around the entry all wrong. “What are you two trying to do to me?”

Liz’s fingers paused with the garland suspended away from the frame that had been constructed around the entrance to the park and she shot a quick glance at Maria. “Um, hanging the garland like you told us to do?”

“Did I also tell you to make it look like a five-year-old had hung it? No, I’m certain I didn’t add that in the instructions.”

“Well, all you said was to hang it and it looks pretty good.” She leaned back to look at it and shrugged one shoulder.

“But it could look better, couldn’t it?” Isabel huffed impatiently and grabbed the garland, giving it a good shake and bringing it down. “It needs to be exactly three inches from the ground on both sides. Not five inches on one side and one on the other.”

“Does it really matter if it’s perfect?” Maria asked. “I mean, Christmas isn’t about perfection.”

“I don’t think the dogs will really care if the garland is…” Liz trailed off at the frosty glare her boyfriend’s sister shot at her. “Right, but the owners might care,” she backtracked and reached for the garland. “We’ll get it right this time.”

“See that you do.” She turned to walk off, calling over her shoulder, “I’ll be back in twenty minutes to check on that garland and I’ll expect it to be hung correctly.”

“Now I know why Max calls her the Christmas Nazi,” Liz grumbled. “I really thought he was kidding about that.”

“Like anyone cares if the garland is exactly three inches off of the ground,” Maria said and rolled her eyes. “Every dog who comes through this entrance will probably pee on it anyway.”

Liz looked down at the garland in her hands. “Um, do you think this’s the same garland they use every year?”

Maria eyed it suspiciously and made a face. “I don’t know, but let’s not touch the ends just in case.”

The two girls glanced at each other and started giggling again.

As the fit of giggles began to calm Maria’s fingers paused on the garland and she stared out at the Main Street that led out of Roswell and towards the Rez. Her thoughts wandered to Michael and she hoped he was doing alright. She had checked her phone numerous times but she hadn’t missed any calls. It was too soon for him to have made peace with what had happened, so it was too soon to expect a call from him. Rationally she knew that. Her heart, on the other hand, wasn’t interested in rational explanations.

“…do you think will win today?”

She frowned as she tuned back in just in time to catch the end of Liz’s question. She had no idea who in town had entered their dogs into this contest and to be honest, she didn’t really care. Seeing some of the dogs that people had started to parade in had only made her think of the day she and Michael had gone out to pick out a puppy for Joey. She smiled at the memory of him taking her to have her picture taken with an honest-to-God reindeer before she started arranging the garland to Isabel’s specifications and debated the winner of today’s contest.

*****

Max collapsed into the booth next to Liz at the back of the Crashdown and sighed at the feeling of being off of his feet. He looked up at Alex when he joined them and shook his head. “Don’t ever suggest we all help my sister out for one of these things again. It’s bad enough that she bosses me around at home.”

“C’mon, it wasn’t that bad,” Alex said, ushering Maria into the booth and grabbing a chair from a nearby table. He glanced outside where Isabel was enthusiastically talking to the owners of the dog that had won the blue ribbon. He shrugged at the look Max shot at him. “Okay, it was definitely a new side to your sister.”

Max snorted. “Better get used to it.”

Alex showed no concern as he reached for the menu standing at the end of the table between the salt and pepper shakers. He opened it up and placed it flat on the table as he braced his weight on his forearms to study the contents.

“Alex, you know that menu up one side and down the other,” Maria said, poking him.

“Yeah, but I’m not sure what’s gonna strike my fancy today, therefore I’m gonna peruse the menu if you don’t mind.”

“At least we don’t have to worry about him challenging us to an eating contest,” Liz spoke up.

“Oh my God, I forgot all about that,” Maria said, pushing Alex’s shoulder at the memory. “I was sick for days after that.”

“It was not days, drama queen,” Alex denied as he debated between a cheeseburger and a chicken sandwich.

“Maybe not days,” Liz agreed, “but it was 24 hours with an excruciating stomachache.”

“He ate more than both of us and he wasn’t anywhere near as sick,” Maria complained.

Alex just grinned. “The two of you started out by wolfing down all of the ice cream in your mom’s freezer. You never start somethin’ like that with a dairy product.”

“Like you even knew that when we were eight,” Liz said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m not the one who spent hours paying homage to the porcelain god, am I?”

“Eww, Alex!”

He just laughed when both girls smacked his arms. He looked at Max as he raised his hand and motioned to let their waitress know he was ready to order. “If you ever need to know anything about these two, I’ve got all the dirt on ‘em.”

Max just shook his head and gave the waitress his order, listening as the other guy placed the rest of the orders from memory. His eyebrow quirked when he placed an order for Isabel and he hoped for the guy’s sake he had gotten it right. Half the time he couldn’t remember what his sister ate or how she liked her food since her likes and dislikes could change at the drop of a hat.

“Okay,” Isabel said, sliding into the booth next to Maria and smiling brightly, “what’d I miss?”

“Just a story that you’d prefer to miss anyway,” Alex assured her.

“You’ve already ordered?”

“Um-hmm, got it all under control.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “So, Mr. and Mrs. Wilkerson seemed to be pretty happy that their dog took first place.”

Max watched them as they talked about the show earlier that afternoon and she never said another word about her order. He was still amazed at how differently she acted with Alex. It was a good thing, it just shocked him that out of everyone at school it was Alex who had somehow reached her.

*****

Michael made the climb back to his campsite as the sun was making its final descent for the day. The air was already beginning to cool and he set about making a fire. The physical activity of hiking out several miles, breaking to wait out the worst of the heat, and then hiking back to camp had helped to tire him out. Physically he was exhausted but his mind was finally starting to wind down. He hoped that he would be able to sleep tonight.

His stomach was growling, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten in more than 24 hours and he grabbed his pack, pulling out a piece of cornbread and unwrapping it. He sat by the fire, cross-legged, his elbows resting on his knees as he stared at the streaks of pink and gray following the setting sun across the sky. He ate the cornbread slowly, his thoughts moving to his family and for once they weren’t focused on what they thought of him now. They would be finishing dinner and Maggie would be complaining about having to do the dishes. He smirked tiredly. Without him there she’d have to wash and dry. She’d make him pay for that when he got home.

The exhaustion in his mind and body had allowed his thoughts to calm, to revert back to normal everyday thoughts. He brushed the crumbs from his clothes and checked the fire before unrolling his sleeping back and stretching out on his back. He stared up at the sky, watching the stars begin to appear one by one until eventually the black canvass was dotted with the little pinpoints of light. He sighed tiredly as his eyes moved from one constellation to the next, easily identifying them without conscious thought, and his eyes grew heavy as he balanced on that fine edge between being awake and asleep.

Alien_Friend – Yeah, Isabel did a great job keeping them all busy and distracted, allowing for a bit of bonding to take place between all of them.

Michael is getting closer to being able to accept what he’s done.

Eva – The good thing here is that Maria’s spent some significant time with Michael and his family, so she’s become more knowledgeable about those cultural differences. Letting him go to handle this alone wasn’t easy, but she knew it was what he needed to begin to heal.

Isabel did a really good thing whether she realized it or not.

Michael’s very close now.

Timelord31 – Thanks for reading!

Cjsl8ne – Thanks! Lol, that was just what they needed, a chance to start rebuilding their relationships. You just never know with Isabel. Michael is getting very close!


Part 120

Alex sat on the short wall that formed the border around the rooftop outside of Liz’s bedroom, his gaze following the Jeep as it disappeared down the quiet main street. He and Maria exchanged a knowing grin when Liz finally stepped outside to join them, blushing lightly when she caught the look on their faces.

“What?” she asked, brushing her hair back and sitting down beside Maria on the chaise lounge.

“25 minutes to say goodnight?” Maria teased.

Liz elbowed her and giggled quietly. “You know how it is.”

Maria snorted softly. Yeah, she knew how it was. “What about you, Alex?”

He looked up at them. “What about me?”

“Well, you drove Isabel home and you were gone for almost an hour.”

“We were talking.” He shrugged one shoulder and smiled. “It was a long day.”

“So, you guys are together?” Maria asked.

He smiled as he looked at the girls. “We’re as together as she’s able to be right now.”

“Are you okay with that?” She shook her head before he could answer. “I just mean it seems like it’s a little one-sided. You’re the one taking the heat for daring to cross the social lines.”

“That’s just because you guys don’t know her like I do. Yeah, there have been some problems with some of the kids at school, but that was to be expected.”

“But you’re so easy going and she’s so…” She made a face as she searched for the right words.

“High maintenance,” Liz supplied helpfully.

“We’re just a little concerned that she’ll walk all over you. She’s used to using guys and throwing them away.”

“You don’t know her,” he said again. “That’s like us thinking that Michael’s dangerous and he’s gonna hurt you simply because he’s intimidating to everyone else.” He snorted. “Yeah, Isabel can be intimidating, she can be high maintenance, and she can be really overbearing when it suits her, but there’s a lot more to her. You just have to get past that to see the real Isabel beneath that surface. I think if you guys ever get to know her you’ll like her.”

Liz brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them as she looked at Maria. “You remember the basketball game where we ran into each other?”

Maria nodded. “Sure.”

“All those people sitting around you… you seemed to know them.”

“Michael’s family. He has a really big family and when his sister Maggie has a game most of them come out to show their support. The only ones who weren’t there weren’t able to be there for one reason or another. Michael invited me to a ceremony a while back, and wow, it was amazing. A little intimidating with his whole family there,” she said with a small laugh. “I mean, he’s got so many cousins, aunts, uncles, his parents, sister, his grandfather. It was kinda crazy because you guys know me, it’s just me and Mom, no big family gatherings or anything.”

“You had fun though, huh?” Alex asked.

“Yeah. He has a cousin named Joey who’s 16 and so sweet. He’s slow and people pick on him, but Michael’s just so amazing with him. And Shysie, another cousin of his, she’s deaf, five years old and she just worships the ground he walks on. He’s wonderful with her. And then there’s Dakota, he’s a jerk who treats Michael like he’s nothing simply because he wasn’t born with Native American blood running through his veins.” She sighed. “I saw them actually get into a fight at a family barbeque.” She chewed on her bottom lip as she remembered the look on Michael’s face when his cousin had gone after him, and then later when he had allowed her to comfort and care for him.

“What’re you thinking about?” Liz asked when Maria had been silent for several minutes.

She smiled. “You know, his grandfather calls him Magnum but he won’t tell me why. It’s become a game between us. Me trying to figure that out and him trying to guess my middle name.”

“Magnum?” the brunette echoed. “There’s gotta be a story behind that.”

“Oh, there is, but it does nothing to give away the reason behind the nickname.” She rolled her eyes but smiled. “I’ll figure it out one of these days.”

“Want some help?” Alex asked.

“Huh-uh, it’s strictly between me and Michael.” She smiled. “But thanks anyway.”

“So, what kind of powers does he have?” Liz shrugged when they both looked at her. “Well, Max and Isabel don’t have the same powers, so it only stands to reason that he would have different powers too. Max can heal, Isabel does that dreamwalk thing…” she nodded at Maria’s shocked expression. “She can go into people’s dreams.” She shrugged. “It’s a little unsettling.”

“Oh, well, Michael doesn’t do anything like that.” She made a face at the thought of Isabel’s power. “What’d you say about Max?”

Liz exchanged a look with Alex before speaking. “Max has the ability to heal. It’s what started this whole thing. Well,” she corrected herself, “what really started it was me being shot that day in the Crashdown.”

Maria’s mouth nearly dropped open in shock. “You were shot?” she whispered hoarsely.

She nodded and swallowed hard. “Max healed me and made sure that no one would know that I had been shot, but Alex was there and you know how nosy he can be when he wants to be.”

“Hey!” he protested.

“Well, you are, Alex,” she insisted. She launched into the story when Maria made an impatient rolling motion with her right hand.

Silence fell over the three of them as Liz came to the end of the tale and Maria looked back and forth between them. She leaned over and hugged Liz tightly. “I’m glad you’re okay and that he was there to save your life.”

Liz swallowed hard and returned the embrace. “I wish we had handled things differently, Maria.”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed, “we should’ve handled it better than we did. There’s no excuse for the way things went down.”

Maria nodded. There was no point in telling them it was okay. Because it wasn’t. But maybe they could move forward now that they were getting things out in the open.

Alex was watching the girls after they fell silent and he decided it was time to get Maria talking again. “So what about Michael?”

“What about him?” Maria asked.

“You said he can’t dreamwalk, right? Can he heal?”

She shook her head. “No, his powers are different.” She smiled as she thought about the day he had taken her out into the desert to photograph her and before she knew it she was sharing the story. As the hours passed they took turns sharing their experiences with their hybrids and on more than one occasion Liz and Alex exchanged amused glances as Maria would get overly enthusiastic while telling them things about Michael. It was easy to see just how in love with Michael she was and the more excited she got the fewer opportunities they had to get a word in but neither of them cared. For the first time in too long things between them felt like they were coming together the way they were supposed to be.

*****

The hawk soared high above the desert, its eyes seeking out any movement below. Its sharp gaze pinpointed dust rising in the distance and it altered the course of its flight to take it to the source of the disturbance. It came to rest on a boulder high above the canyon below and its head tipped to one side as it observed the herd of running horses. The dust settled as the herd stopped running and the hawk cried out when its gaze landed on the stallion and mare that stood apart from the others.

Santana lifted his head as he searched for the source of the sound. His small ears flicked back and forth and his nostrils flared as he pawed the ground nervously. He calmed slightly when Mirage rested her neck across his but his eyes continued to scan the horizon as he sought out any potential threats.

High on its perch the hawk blinked rapidly, its head tilting to one side as it detected the tiniest of movements in the distance. It took flight, its wings opening up to span just over four feet as it soared through the air.

Michael shook his head, his eyebrows pulled down in a frown as he tried to understand the scene unfolding before him. He was neither awake nor asleep, but drifting somewhere between the two planes. He shifted restlessly and settled once more as the animal materialized so that he could recognize it. A gray fox, reclusive in nature, crossed the desert and he looked up to focus on the hawk as it followed the crafty predator.

The hawk circled as it watched the fox, its eyes locked on the animal and waiting to see where it would go. The fox stopped to rest in the shade from an outcropping of rocks and it peered around the edges after a few moments before starting to move once more. The desert heat was unforgiving as it trotted across the burning sand, panting heavily and lifting its head occasionally to determine the hawk’s flight path.

The frown appeared again when he felt a pull deep inside. There was something familiar about the area surrounding the fox but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

The fox pushed ahead in spite of the increasing temperatures. It was a creature more suited to nocturnal traveling but it continued to lead the hawk to its destination. It paused when it reached another outcropping of rocks, its head turning from side to side as it sought a way past the high rise of rocks. It ran back and forth, emitting a shrill whine when the rocky wall continued in both directions. It ran to the west, following the wall and glancing up from time to time to make sure the hawk was still there.

A few trees rose before it and it ran towards them, jumping and using its hooked claws to aid it in climbing the tree. It moved higher up the thin trunk and searched for a place to safely jump to the rocks. It jumped from one tree to the next, finally locating a flat area on the rocks with craggy rises leading to the top of the formation. It landed on the ledge and climbed to the top of the outcropping then ran along the top to find the way back down with ease.

Somewhere deep in Michael’s mind rational thought pushed to the surface as he tried to make sense of the trees the fox had used. There were no trees like that growing in the desert. He had spent his life in and around the desert. The gray fox could climb trees, he had seen them do it before so that little bit of information was at least accurate. He pushed the thoughts away, knowing they would only distract him.

The hawk watched the fox as it nimbly made its way along the craggy side of the outcropping, dropping gracefully to the ground when it was close enough. The fox turned to look at the outcropping, dropping its head as it ran along the bottom edge of the rock face. The hawk came to rest on the rocks above the fox, watching it as it suddenly stopped near a small opening that was carefully hidden well out of sight.

The fox crept through the opening and the hawk tipped its head at an awkward angle in an effort to catch sight of it again. It blinked rapidly when it heard a quiet yelping coming from below, the sound sharp. It crept along the rocks, hopping over to a ledge that stuck out farther, and it watched as a wolf cub appeared from the opening. It was followed before long by two others and the three of them wandered around, occasionally playing as they discovered their surroundings.

Three wolf cubs wandering in the desert. Yeah, he understood the symbolism there.

The hawk stared at the cubs, watching them when something in the desert startled them and two of them scurried back into the cave. The third cub remained outside, tiny ears pinned back and eyes squinting as the wind picked up momentarily, tossing grains of sand in its face. The cub looked around before running back to the mouth of the cave and ducking its head inside as if attempting to coax its siblings back outside. After a few moments it backed away and started to explore its surroundings and as the sun began to make its daily descent the cub began to wander further away from the cave.

Michael shifted restlessly as the scene with the cubs began to morph and he looked around as everything went dark for a moment before an iridescent green light illuminated the space around him. He stood, transfixed, as his eyes became accustomed to the strange glow and his gaze focused on the translucent green coverings on what he could only describe as some sort of pods set into the walls. He started to move closer but immediately realized that he couldn’t move. He watched as one of the small forms behind the covering moved and a tiny hand pressed against it. The material cocooning the tiny beings inside was elastic, giving when pressure was applied.

Only one of them was moving though, pressing insistently against the covering as if trying to escape its confines. As he watched a tiny hand punched through the strange material and some sort of liquid gushed out, the force further widening the opening. He could feel the tiny lungs take in their first breath; the air of the chamber was musty and stale, but to the little boy that emerged it was life.

He stared at the little boy; half-human, half-alien, and so alone that he could feel that gaping hole in his little chest. His eyes followed him as he moved around the chamber, his little hands touching everything in sight. He watched himself, five or six years old, he didn’t really know, but he was inquisitive. The boy walked over to the other pods and crouched down to poke at the material covering it and frowning when it didn’t give at all. He opened his mouth, expelling a sound of protest when the small being behind the covering continued to float in the fluid without noticing his presence and he froze, his eyes darting around the chamber fearfully.

Michael could remember the days before he had realized that he was capable of making sounds and every noise had startled him. He watched him as the little boy beat his fists against the covering in vain before moving to the next one and repeating his actions to no avail. He moved to the fourth pod, staring at its occupant for a moment before backing away from it and Michael lifted his head in interest as the little boy’s actions and reactions flipped a switch inside of him and he realized he was remembering these moments, reliving them.

Time seemed to pass right before his very eyes, minutes turning into hours as he had waited for something, anything, to happen. He had curled up in his pod that night, seeking comfort in the gentle hum that emanated from inside of it. His stomach had started to growl, but he hadn’t correlated it with hunger at that time. Eventually hunger had driven him from the cave and he had wandered out into the desert, seeking food, and getting lost.

Suddenly he was outside of the cave and high above the earth the clouds began to rush across the sky, hues of pink, blue, gray, and black, chasing each other across the canvass and altering time. He watched as the wolf cubs appeared once again, growing and maturing before his very eyes.

The hawk watched from high above as they circled each other, wary and suspicious, before finally coming to an acceptance. It was the stealthy movement of a predator that drew its attention away from the wolves and it launched into flight to observe the intruder and intercept it if necessary. The lynx moved silently as it approached the wolves and it didn’t feel any threat when they became aware of its presence and began growling.

The hawk circled overhead, observing the interaction between the animals and waiting for its moment. The lynx would be a dangerous opponent and one that would be difficult to match in strength. The wolves stood shoulder to shoulder, seeming to be caught up in the hypnotic gaze of the lynx. Primal instinct drove the hawk as it neared its prey and its distinct cry echoed through the desert when the animal below continued to pad across the desert floor.

How appropriate that in his vision the lynx would be chosen to represent Tess. It was an animal that Native Americans believed to possess supernatural qualities.

It held the wolves captivated as it neared them and the ground around them began to tremble, crumbling and falling away until the four of them stood on what was left of the desert floor. Open space surrounded them, revealing the blackest of nights. One of the wolves began to slip when the ground beneath its back foot began to crumble and the lynx moved closer, growling menacingly.

The hawk cried out as it swooped in, talons extended as it targeted the lynx. The cat was unprepared for the attack and it reared up on its hind legs, razor-sharp claws ready to shred its opponent to pieces. The lynx toppled backwards as it swung at the hawk, losing its balance and falling back with an outraged screech. The hawk soared high once more, coasting on the wind as the darkness was slowly broken and the stars began to appear.

Michael opened his eyes to stare up at the sky, staring at the stars for a moment before a sense of peace began to infiltrate his being. Sleep moved in to claim him, but for the first time in days it wasn’t filled with nightmares or his overactive mind worrying about every little thing it could conjure up.

Eva –

Beautiful! The way a mind can wonder and work out inner conflicts astonishes me every time. And this time the Native American influence made it even more beautiful.

Thank you. Yes, the vision allowed Michael to make sense of the things that have happened, in a quite simple way. Humans are known to think too much, to analyze too much, here, he went back to the basics and accept things as they were.

Besides, we really love to incorporate the Native American culture in this story, whenever we can.

Cjsl8ne – In difficult times, people bond and talk. That’s what is happening with Maria, Alex and Liz.

Alien Friend – The vision showed him his past, and it allowed him to unbury what was locked inside his mind, like coming out of the pods.


Part 121

Maria was sitting on the front porch watching the sun slowly make its appearance when she heard the door behind her open. She turned her head slightly when her mom sat down beside her and handed her a cup of coffee. Her hands wrapped around it tightly, soaking in the heat from the hot ceramic mug. She hadn’t realized that she was cold until now and she lifted it to her lips to take a sip, feeling the warmth spread through her as she swallowed the bitter liquid.

“Is everything okay between you and Michael?” Amy asked quietly.

“Yeah, we’re fine.” I hope. She had no idea where his mind was or what he was doing out in the desert with only his thoughts for company.

“Where’s he been the last few days?” She took a drink of her own coffee, keeping her tone lightly inquisitive without being intrusive.

“He’s on a vision quest.” She squinted against the sunlight. “I don’t really understand it,” she admitted after a few moments of silence. “I mean, I get that it’s a part of his culture, but going out in the desert for days on end? How does that solve anything?”

Amy smiled when Maria started to talk to her. “Did something happen between you two?”

“No, not between us. He’s just… there were some things he had to deal with and I guess he needed to do it alone.” She knew he tended to withdraw when he had something intense to face and she understood that, but part of her wished he would just open up to her about it.

“You know, Michael has a deep connection with his family and culture, honey. Native Americans are a very spiritual people and they handle problems a little differently than we do. If something was troubling him and it was important enough for him to undertake a vision quest then you know he’s serious about finding a solution. A vision quest isn’t something they take lightly and the person taking it has to be willing to face whatever’s troubling them.” She hugged her daughter. “He’ll find his answers and when he does he’ll come back to you.”

Maria nodded. “It’s just hard to know he’s out there alone.”

“He’s not alone, honey.” She smiled reassuringly at Maria. “His spirit guide’s watching over him.”

She snorted softly. “I’ll still feel better when he’s back home.” When I can wrap my arms around him and hold him. When I can see and feel for myself that he’s alright. She leaned back a bit to look at her mom. “What’re you doing today?”

“There’s a new art exhibit in Albuquerque that Gabriel and I wanted to see. Would you like to go?”

Spending the day with Mom and her boyfriend? “I think I’ll pass on that, but thanks. Actually I was thinking about seeing if Liz, Alex, and the others wanted to go out to the Rez. I thought maybe I could show them around.”

Amy smiled. “How long has Michael been out in the desert?”

“Today will make four days.” She gnawed on her bottom lip as she thought over the past few days and how long they had seemed. She didn’t expect to see him although she wanted to but being on the Rez would at least allow her to feel closer to him.

“He should be back soon then.” She patted her daughter’s hand as she stood up. “I’m gonna get breakfast started since it sounds like we both have a busy day ahead of us.”

“Thanks, Mom.” She smiled and leaned against the support column as she looked up at the sky. Four days, that was how long Maggie had said he would be gone.

*****

Maggie rinsed her toothbrush out before dropping it in the holder at the back of the sink. Her gaze was drawn to the door on Michael’s side and she smiled as she realized she missed him beating on the door and demanding to know how much longer she expected him to wait before she turned the bathroom over to him. She opened the door and stepped into his bedroom, her eyes wandering over his things.

Her fingers reached out to wrap around the teddy bear Michael had carried everywhere with him when he was little and she smiled as she ran her thumb over the button that had replaced one of its eyes. Her brother hadn’t been as adept at controlling his emotions at six years old even though he had tried hard to hold them in. The teddy bear had gotten slammed in the car door by mistake during a trip and he’d had a meltdown when it was freed from the door and it had been missing its left eye. Mom had come to the rescue and they had sat in the parking lot of the gas station until the stuffed animal had been repaired. She smiled and put it back, carefully propping it up against the stack of CDs.

She prowled around his room, stopping in front of his desk and looking at the pictures on the shelves above it. She smiled as her gaze paused on one of them sitting on the fence out back behind the house, matching black eyes and big popsicle-stained smiles. Michael had been the most fascinating person she had ever known and their bond had formed effortlessly. The two of them had been inseparable and even though they had started to pursue different interests as they got older they had retained that closeness.

Her fingertips rested on a picture of him and Maria that sat at the back of his desk next to his computer. It was a shot of them sitting together at the basketball game. Shysie was in his lap, leaning back against his chest with her head tucked up under his chin. Maria was leaning against his side and their joined hands rested on his knee. Shadow had probably taken it, she thought as she identified several of their relatives in the background. He was really happy. He had found someone who knew him, who understood him, someone who didn’t back down, and who would support him. They were a good match.

She had called Maria the day before to check in on her and see how she was doing in Michael’s absence. They had talked for a while, reassuring each other that he was fine and just doing what he needed to do to accept what had happened. They’d had to talk around the truth, careful not to say anything that might reveal the events of that day, but it hadn’t been that difficult. Christmas was just a couple of days away and she really hoped he would be home before then.

*****

John was reading an article on recycled irrigation in an agricultural magazine when Catherine came into the kitchen. He straightened up from his position leaning on the counter where he was waiting for the coffee pot to fill. He gave her a kiss and reached up to brush his fingertips over the dark circles beneath her eyes. “You need to get some sleep, woman,” he said gently.

“I will.”

When he comes home.

She didn’t say the words out loud but he knew she was thinking them. She had been restless since they had found out what had happened. She had slept very little, prowling around the house through the long hours of the night. When she wasn’t walking the floor she was sitting in his room clutching the stuffed toy Michael had been so fond of as a child.

“Why don’t you sit down and I’ll make breakfast?”

“No, you’ve been up all night,” she said with a shake of her head. She reached up to rub his shoulder as her eyes traced over his tired features. He had been called in even though he was supposed to be off because they had needed him to fill in for someone who was out sick so he’d had very little sleep the past couple of nights. He didn’t stay up wandering around the house, unable to sleep because their son was out in the desert, trying to deal with the situation alone but she knew he was worried. Not so much about Michael being out in the desert on his own for days, but he was concerned about how he was doing in the wake of the alien girls’ death. “Do you think he’s alright, John?”

“I think he’s having a difficult time with what’s happened.” He moved back when she nudged him so she could reach the coffee pot. “But I also think he’s gonna be fine, Cath. The time in the desert will be good for him. I know as a mother this’s hard for you, but you know it’s what he needs.”

She did know that and the rational part of her understood his need to seek his answers in the manner he had been taught and raised to respect. It was the irrational part of her that selfishly wanted him to come home so she could take care of him and make everything better.

“He’s well past the age where we can fix everything for him, woman.” John smiled when she turned her head sharply to look at him. “I know where your thoughts are.”

“Go find Maggie and tell her breakfast will be ready soon,” she said as she held a cup of coffee out to him.

He chuckled quietly and accepted the cup, letting his hand rest on hers for a moment before he turned and left the room. When he didn’t find Maggie in her room he walked down the hall and opened the door to Michael’s room. He leaned against the doorframe and watched her as she stood at the desk, her eyes roving over the pictures on the shelf. “The day I picked the two of you up for that schoolyard fight I knew you were gonna be alright.” He shook his head and pushed away from the doorway. “Sending the two of you to school in Ruidoso was hard because we knew you would face difficulties.”

“Because we’re Native American,” she said, her eyes moving back to the picture of her and Michael sitting on the fence. Her brother wasn’t Native American by birth, but as a White child being raised by a family that was he had been the victim of reverse discrimination.

“Yes. Your mother and I faced that prejudice most of our lives, and we still encounter it on occasion. But sending our children out and knowing it was likely they would have to face it as well… it was difficult. Unfortunately, it’s a necessary lesson.” He sighed. “One we would’ve spared you if we had been able to.”

“We’ve done okay, Dad.”

He smiled and nodded. “You’ve both done very well. That day though,” he said, motioning to the picture on the shelf. “That day I knew the two of you would be fine. There would be hurt along the way, but as long as the two of you had each other, you would be strong enough to deal with anything that was thrown your way. You’ve grown into young adults that your mother and I are both proud of.”

They were silent for a few minutes, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

“Dad?”

He looked at her, one eyebrow lifted in question.

“Michael’s gonna be alright isn’t he?”

“As difficult as this is for him, he will come out stronger for it,” he assured her.

“Today’s the fourth day. Do you think he’ll be home today?”

“I think he’ll be home when he has his answers and when he’s found the peace he needs to deal with what’s happened.”

“Christmas is coming.”

John heard the slight tremble in her voice and he set his coffee down on the shelf by the door. He crossed the room and pulled his daughter into his arms, rubbing her back in small circles the way he had done when she was still a little girl. “Michael will come home when he’s found what he needs to move forward.” He patted her back and held her shoulders as he leaned back to look at her. “C’mon, your mom’s making breakfast and it’ll be ready soon.”

“Okay.”

After her dad had left the room she looked around, her gaze once more settling on the picture of her and Michael. She smiled softly. “Take care of yourself, big brother,” she whispered. She stood there for another moment before going back to her own room to get ready for the day.

*****

Maria smiled as she stepped out of Alex’s car, looking around for River Dog. He was standing several hundred yards from the house, his eyes closed and his face turned up to the sky. She wondered if he was praying as he lifted his hands to the sky for a moment before lowering them and turning to face his visitors.

River Dog walked towards them, his gaze silently assessing as he observed them, easily distinguishing two of them as the visitors. He was gifted with the ability to distinguish visitors from humans; whether that came from within or from his early exposure to Nacedo, he didn’t know. Whatever it was had been enhanced by the years spent with his grandson and he was able to recognize visitors immediately.

Max and Isabel exchanged an uncomfortable look when the old man stared at them. It felt like he was reading their minds, seeing something that they weren’t intentionally revealing.

“Why’s he staring like that?” Max asked after several long moments.

Maria smiled and moved past them to walk over to River Dog. “He studies people, sees things that no one else does. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it in time.”

“Not likely,” Isabel muttered.

“The way he stares is a little bit unsettling,” Liz said quietly as she slid her hand into Max’s.

Maria nudged Alex as he moved to stand beside Isabel. “C’mon, you guys, he doesn’t bite.” She walked over to the old man and smiled in greeting. “Hi, River Dog.”

“Maria,” he said with a slight smile.

“I know Michael’s told you about the others and we’ve just about run out of things to do to keep us occupied while he’s…” she looked out into the desert for a moment before she caught herself. “Well, while he’s doing his vision quest, so I thought I’d bring them out to meet you.”

“It’s good that I can provide you with a diversion,” he said with a quiet chuckle.

“Um…” she winced as she went over the way she had presented herself. “I didn’t say that quite the way I meant it.”

He shook his head and rested his hand on her shoulder. “I understood, Maria. How have you been?”

“Going crazy,” she admitted after a moment of silence. “Do you have any idea how Michael is?”

“The spirits are watching over him.”

“Is that like code for something?” She sighed. “I don’t know what that means. This’s the fourth day. Shouldn’t he be back by now?”

“He will be back when he has the answers he needs. Be patient.” He squeezed her shoulder and motioned to the others as they slowly approached them. He spoke with the others as Maria made the introductions, noting the silent communication between brother and sister.

Max and Isabel had been raised to be polite and their manners quickly kicked in. It was pretty intimidating and even a bit scary to meet someone who knew so much about aliens. He shot a glance at his sister before stepping forward and extending his hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said, his tone slightly reserved.

River Dog smiled as he shook their hands. “There’s no need for you to worry. Fear is a living thing and I feel it. It is unnecessary though. I’m on your side. I have been for many years.”

“You knew Nacedo?” Isabel asked. “That’s what Michael said before, that you had known him.”

“I did, yes, and I can see that like Michael, you bear nothing in common with Nacedo.”

He took in Isabel’s features and wondered if his grandson was correct in his theory that the girl was related to him. He could see the physical similarities between them and as the conversation began to open up the similarities in their temperaments revealed themselves as well. “There are very few similarities between you,” he said, his tone conversational.

“Yeah, we noticed that too,” Max said. “But it’s always been the two of us.” He nudged his sister’s shoulder.

“You’re the one who found Michael, right?” Isabel asked. “Did you ever suspect that there were others?”

“I wondered, but there was no evidence of others when I found him.”

“Our mom thought she saw another child that night,” she said. “But when she looked again he was gone. It must’ve been Michael that she saw.”

River Dog’s expression was thoughtful as he watched them. “It is possible, but the Great Spirit had a plan if he chose to separate you.”

Max and Isabel didn’t know how to respond to that. Neither of them knew anything about the Native American culture.

Isabel watched the old man, seeing the kindness in his wizened eyes. “What was Michael like when he was little?”

River Dog smiled at the question, pleased at the effort being made to get to know his grandson, even if it was in an indirect manner. He began to speak, sharing stories about Michael and asking them questions about their childhood.

Maria, Liz, and Alex exchanged a look and smiled at each other as they watched Max and Isabel interacting with River Dog. They could feel the importance of the moment as the conversation unfolded between the three of them.

*****

Michael leaned against the shelter built to protect the payphone, receiver held between his shoulder and ear as he dug around in his pocket for a handful of change. He fed the coins into the machine, listening to the metallic clink as they settled into the collection area inside. He punched in 11 digits and leaned back, squinting up against the early evening sun as he waited for the call to be answered. He turned slightly when the cold wind picked up, smiling when he heard the hesitant hello from the other end of the call.

“Hey, it’s me.”

Maria nearly dropped the phone as she rolled off of the couch and jumped to her feet. “Michael! Are you okay? When did you get home? How’s everything going at home? Are you okay?” She rolled her eyes when she repeated the question, forcing herself to calm down. “Are you?”

He smirked at her rapid-fire questions. “I’m gonna be okay, Maria. I’m uh, I’m not home yet. Wanted to stop and give you a call first, let you know I’d be home tonight.” He scratched his eyebrow with his thumb. “Let you know I’m better.”

“So being out in the desert like that really helped you?”

“Yeah, I had to clear my head and get things straight. Kinda figure things out.” He picked at the faded blue paint on the shelter. “You been doin’ okay?”

“I’m good. I’ve been spending some time with the others; getting reacquainted with Liz and Alex, and getting to know Max and Isabel. I took them out to the Rez today so they could meet River Dog.”

“Yeah, he told me. I’m glad you did that.” He turned his head when a car drove past and he nodded when the driver waved. “I wish I could see you tonight but I need to get home and let my family know I’m alright. And I’m pretty sure once I get home it’s gonna be a little crazy for a while.”

“No, don’t worry about that. Your family needs to see you. I know how worried they are. Maybe tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.

“Tomorrow? Yeah, tomorrow for sure.” If it weren’t for the fact that his family was worried about him he’d be on his way to see her right now.

“School’s out until after the beginning of the year… I could come out there.”

He smiled as he easily pictured her bouncing on the balls of her feet and chewing on her bottom lip as she waited for an answer. “Maybe around lunchtime?”

She nodded, already counting down the hours. “I’ll be there.”

He inhaled deeply and leaned back against the shelter as he looked around. He had been away for four days but life had gone on. He had a feeling that it had been a very long four days for the people he cared about. He rolled his shoulder, shifting the strap of his backpack into a more comfortable position as slouched against the building.

He had asked his grandfather to drop him off at the tribal office so he could make his phone call and made plans for the old man to pick him up again after about 15 minutes. He could only imagine what was waiting for him at home but he was ready to deal with it now.

Alien Friend – Yes, Michael’s link with his family is crucial to this story. He has people he loves, and has loved and trusted for years. They aren’t just there in passing, they are an integral part of Michael and of this story.

Eva – It’s good that you love the Native American culture. It makes reading this story more real. It’s not necessarily an easy read (some parts might be difficult to read, like the ordinary racism or the day of mourning, instead of the traditional Thanksgiving Day), but we tried to show a realistic view of this culture and way of life in the USA nowadays.


Part 122

Michael dropped his head back to rest against the seat in his grandfather’s truck, closing his eyes and enjoying the brief silence. It would be over all too soon and he would be home, trying to answer his mother’s questions and ease her concerns. When he had arrived back at his grandfather’s house he had been exhausted and still trying to make heads or tails of his vision. River Dog had taken one look at him and suggested they pay a visit to the tribe’s medicine man. The monotonous sound of the tires against the dirt road began to lull him to sleep and as he gave in to it his mind drifted back to earlier that afternoon.

As a child he had been afraid of Yiska. The medicine man had been old back then, his leathery features reminding him of a monster he had seen on the cover of some comic book at the store in town. As the years had passed and he had become a part of the people he had grown to appreciate the tribal elders. Yiska was one of the few who spoke only his native language, refusing to assimilate into the outside world. He had no proof, but he suspected the old man understood the English language; he just rejected it for personal use.

River Dog had driven him out to a remote area on the reservation, a secluded section of land where the old man had resided since childhood. No electricity, no running water, and far away from the prying eyes of the interlopers who visited to get a glimpse of Native Americans and reservation life. Yiska lived in a traditional dwelling constructed of mud and sticks over a log frame. He was content to live his life in a manner that suited him and Dad had told him that the old man believed it helped him to keep his ties to the people and the land pure.

Michael had long ago learned to respect the wishes of those who maintained their relationship to the old ways. Personally, he preferred electricity and indoor plumbing, and he would be happy to never have to live without either. Though if it ever came down to it he knew he would be resourceful enough to coexist with Mother Nature. He also hoped that it never came down to that. He had waited as River Dog spoke with Yiska, respectfully maintaining his silence until he was asked to speak.

He didn’t speak the language fluently so his grandfather would remain to translate for him. The medicine man would be able to interpret the vision without knowing the specifics of what had sent him in search of the vision. Yiska’s ability to interpret the symbolism revealed in visions was well known among their people. He was the most revered and trusted person in their community and he had never broken trust with anyone in all of his years.

River Dog motioned for him to come closer when Yiska moved away and he watched as the medicine man began to collect what he needed for a fire. The air was cold, the early morning frost burned off by the sun that had broken through the clouds overhead for a while. The sky was overcast and hinted at the possibility of a cold rain and he had been grateful for the fire when they had finally settled in a circle around it.

The old man spoke in his native tongue, asking Michael to begin telling him about the vision. He began with the hawk that had been present throughout the vision, describing the way it had observed for most of the time, remaining at a distance until the end when it had clashed with the lynx. He talked about Santana and Mirage, the fox that had led the hawk to the wolf cubs, the interaction and eventual separation between the cubs, and finally the appearance of the lynx and its battle with the hawk.

Yiska listened with interest as River Dog translated his grandson’s words, occasionally asking for clarification, but otherwise remaining silent and considering what was being said. When Michael was finished describing the vision he rested his hands on his knees and tried to be patient while the old man closed his eyes and lifted his face skyward. His hands lifted and he began to recite a prayer that seemed to go on for hours before he became quiet once more, his eyes opening to look directly into the young man’s eyes.

He fought the urge to look away from Yiska’s piercing stare. It felt as if the old man was seeing something he had no intention of revealing. It was only after the medicine man’s searching gaze seemed to find what he was looking for that he began to speak. The words flowed from the old man’s lips, the language spoken slowly in his rough voice.

“The hawk is a messenger, your spirit guide,” River Dog translated for his grandson. “The hawk is a symbol of guardianship. Yiska says the presence of Santana and Mirage in your vision represents freedom. The inclusion of both the stallion and the mare implies a connection to a relationship that is strong and enduring.”

Michael looked at his grandfather, wondering if the implication of the relationship meant the horses represented him and Maria. She had opened up his world and given him the freedom to be himself. He could see a future with her, a future that was open and wouldn’t tie either of them down.

River Dog nodded at the unspoken question and continued. “The fox is a shapeshifter. It blends into its surroundings, seeming invisible. It is a cunning and agile creature.”

A shapeshifter, Michael mused. Maybe the fox in his vision was supposed to be Nacedo. But they hadn’t been found by the alien shapeshifter. He, Max, and Isabel hadn’t been found by Nacedo, but Tess had. In his vision there had only been three wolf cubs and the fox hadn’t hung around once the cubs had appeared at the mouth of the cave.

“The wolf is a symbol of loyalty. Three cubs imply a strong bond of friendship or family. In your vision the cubs are separated but find each other again as adults. This represents the strength of their bond and suggests a connection that will exist throughout their lives.”

So he was right about the wolf cubs representing him, Max, and Isabel. He had been certain that the symbolism was too obvious to overlook.

“The lynx…” River Dog paused when Yiska fell silent, his expression thoughtful. He glanced at his grandson, seeing the worry on his face when the medicine man suddenly stopped speaking. After a few minutes the old man began to speak again and he nodded as he started to translate for Michael. “Yiska believes the death of the lynx is of great importance. Its death is necessary to the survival of the wolves, but it is the involvement of the spirit guide that confuses him.” He stopped speaking to listen to Yiska as he continued and after several minutes he began to explain. “The actions of your spirit guide are rarely heard of. By involving itself and fighting with the lynx he believes it to be a sign. He says that the danger imposed by the lynx was so great that the Great Spirit imbued the hawk with his own strength to defeat the enemy.”

Michael thought about the medicine man’s interpretation of his vision. If the old man was right then he had been right to do what was necessary to protect those he cared about. He looked between the two men as his grandfather spoke with Yiska and he recognized some of the words.

River Dog turned to look at his grandson when he shifted, frowning in his sleep and trying to get comfortable in the confines of the truck. He gently pressed on the brake as he turned into the driveway of his son’s home and from the corner of his eye he saw Michael sit up straighter and look around in an effort to get his bearings.

“Home already?” he asked, his jaw working as he tried to ease the stiffness in his face. He rubbed his left hand over his cheek as he reached for the handle on the door, shoving it open with his shoulder and lowering his right foot to the ground.

“They’ve been waiting for you to come home, Michael,” he said when he saw the hesitation in the boy’s features as he looked up at the house.

“I killed her,” he mumbled, looking down at his hands. “Do you believe Yiska’s right? I mean, about the part of the vision with the hawk and the lynx?”

“Yes, I do. Yiska is a wise man, Michael. Before you took your vision quest I believed that the alien girl’s death, while tragic, was necessary. The more important question here is: Do you believe Yiska’s interpretation was accurate?”

He thought about it for a few minutes before nodding. “Yeah. I guess I’m just not sure what everyone else is gonna think.” He averted his gaze. “I don’t want the people I care about to see me as a murderer.”

“What does Maria say?”

“She’s biased.”

“Is she?” he countered, watching his grandson carefully.

He shrugged one shoulder. “No, I guess not. She’s pretty good about tellin’ it like it is. If she thought I was wrong for what I did she would’ve told me.”

The old man chuckled and reached out to pat the boy’s shoulder. “She’s good for you, Magnum. Don’t let her go.”

He shook his head. “I don’t intend to.” He sighed and looked up at the house again. “Guess I might as well get this over with.”

River Dog opened his door and motioned for Michael to get out too. “Come on, let’s go talk to your parents and Maggie. I know they’ve been worried about you and they’ll be glad to see you home safely.”

Michael nodded, hiding the relief he felt when his grandfather said he would be accompanying him. His backpack hung from his fingers, the straps dragging the ground as he walked up to the front door with heavy feet.

*****

Catherine’s heart leapt in her chest when she heard the sound of the front door opening and she dropped the spoon she had been using, not even hearing the clatter it made. John was in the living room reading the newspaper and Maggie was in her bedroom where she had been for the past hour, talking on the phone with Jesse. She ran from the kitchen, stopping in the doorway when she saw her son standing just inside the house. His jacket was halfway off of his shoulders as if he was just too tired to move any further, his backpack dangling from his right hand and dragging the floor.

She could easily read the exhaustion in his posture and see it in his features. He was filthy from being in the desert for the past few days and in desperate need of a shower. It was the sound of his stomach growling that broke the spell, freeing her from her shocked stare and sending her running to him. She threw her arms around him, pulling him to her and kissing his face over and over.

“Mom,” he complained half-heartedly.

“Catherine, give the boy some space,” John said as he joined them.

“Are you alright?” she asked, leaning back but otherwise ignoring her husband.

Michael looked between his parents, seeing their love and concern for him, but nothing more. No accusatory looks, no sign that he had betrayed them and become some sort of monster by killing Tess. “A lot better,” he answered honestly. “The vision quest helped and it gave me the perspective I needed to deal with what happened.”

“You need to eat,” Catherine insisted. “You look like you’ve lost weight.”

He didn’t argue with her when she started fussing over him, leaning over to take his backpack and thrusting it into her husband’s hands. She worked his jacket over his arms, shoving it into John’s hands as well before taking her son’s upper arms and holding him still while she looked him up and down. Finally satisfied she reached up to frame his face in her hands and she met his tired gaze directly.

“I love you,” she said quietly, fiercely. “We all do. You know that, don’t you?”

He nodded. “I know, Mom. Love you guys too,” he mumbled.

She suddenly threw her arms around him again, hugging him tightly. “I’m so glad you’re home.”

“Dad,” he muttered, hearing the pleading in his own voice.

“Catherine, why don’t you fix this boy somethin’ to eat,” he suggested quietly. “He looks hungry enough to eat a horse. He also looks like if we don’t get some food into him soon he’s gonna fall asleep standin’ on his feet.”

“Oh, alright.” She kissed her son’s cheek one more time and stepped back to look at him. “You go and have a shower. Once you’ve eaten I have a feeling you’ll be ready for some sleep and you’ll feel much better if you’re clean.”

He nodded.

John moved forward when she finally gave the boy some breathing room and he gave his son a tight hug, grateful to the Great Spirit for returning him to them safely. As exhausted as Michael was he could see the acceptance in his eyes and he knew the time in the desert had been good for him. The Great Spirit had provided him with peace and answered his questions.

“John, let him get cleaned up so he can eat,” Catherine fussed. “Can’t you see he’s tired and hungry?” She continued to mutter under her breath as she disappeared into the kitchen, missing the amused look that passed between her husband and son.

“Good to see that some things never change,” he said with a grin as he released his boy.

Michael smiled tiredly and nodded. “Guess she’s been pretty worried. Didn’t mean to worry you guys, but…”

“Michael, you’re a man, and as a man you have to do what you know to be right. Do you understand what I’m sayin’? A man defends what is his; he defends his people, his land, and the woman he loves. What is right sometimes causes conflict between your mind and your heart, and that is when you must seek out the Great Spirit so he may restore the balance.” He nodded when he saw his son release a pent-up breath. “You have done that. What matters is that you’re alright. Everything else will work itself out. We will always love you and support you, even when things aren’t so easy.” He stepped back and slapped Michael’s shoulder. “Go shower before dinner. I have a feeling that your mom’s right and once you’ve eaten you’ll be heading for bed and some well-deserved sleep.”

River Dog watched with approving eyes as his son and daughter-in-law greeted Michael and welcomed him back home with open arms. He was grateful that Catherine hadn’t pried into the altercation between Michael and Tess, and that she hadn’t sought answers about his time in the desert. It wasn’t their way to discuss a man’s journey but she was a mother and at times her emotions overrode everything else.

“He’s exhausted and hungry, but appears well otherwise,” John commented when Michael trudged down the hallway.

“The balance has been restored,” River Dog said simply.

“You took him to speak with Yiska?”

He nodded. “He has spoken with Yiska and while his heart will take time to heal, his mind is where it needs to be. He has found peace with his actions and he has a better understanding of what happened.”

“You’ll stay for dinner?” John asked, changing the subject. Michael had obtained the answers he needed and if anything was to be discussed about his time in the desert he would have to be the one to bring it up.

*****

Maggie was in the middle of saying something when she heard the weary footsteps dragging down the hallway and her eyes widened in shock. “Jesse, I’ve gotta go. I think my brother’s home.” The call was quickly disconnected, the phone tossed on the bed and ignored when it bounced and fell to the floor. She hurried to her door and jerked it open, staring open-mouthed at her filthy brother when she nearly ran into him.

Michael was standing at her door, right hand raised to knock. She jumped into his arms, forcing him to take a step backwards or fall back against the wall. His arms came around her in a bear hug and he felt another piece of his tattered soul being mended at her joyful and uninhibited welcome.

“You’re home!” she rasped, heedless of the tears in her eyes.

“Had to get back before you took over what’s left of my half of the bathroom,” he joked weakly as he released her.

“Find what you were lookin’ for?” she asked as she followed him down the hall to his room.

He nodded. “Yeah.” His movements were slow, his feet dragging as he got a clean set of clothes together. He paused over the open drawer in his dresser, one hand resting on a pair of socks. “Hey, Maggie?”

She moved further into his room and sat on the end of his bed. “Yeah?”

“I didn’t mean to kill her.” His hand clenched around the socks and he lifted his head to meet her gaze in the mirror. “I was just…”

“You were just protecting the girl you love. Protecting the others.” She remained where she was, giving him the space she knew he would want. “It’s who you are, Michael. That girl was a threat and if you hadn’t stopped her she would’ve hurt them. Or worse.”

“You’ve been talkin’ to Maria.”

She laughed quietly. “Four days with no word from you? The poor girl was worried like crazy about you. She’ll be glad to know you’re home.” She tipped her head to one side as she studied him. “Unless she already knows.”

He shrugged. “She knows.”

She had suspected as much. “You’re okay, right?”

“I’m okay.”

“But you were worried about what we would think of you,” she guessed.

“I’ve had the time to work through what happened, start coming to a place where I can deal with it, but everyone else…”

“Everyone else knows you, big brother.” She got up and crossed the room to stand next to him. “No one sees you as a killer, Michael. I know you though, and I hate that you have to live with that for the rest of your life.” She bumped his shoulder and smiled at him. “You smell like you haven’t bathed in days.”

That brought out a hint of a smile and he wrapped his arm around her, maneuvering her around until he just about had her in a headlock.

Maggie wiggled free and smacked his arm as hard as she could. “Gross, Michael! I don’t need to get up close and personal with your armpit to know you need a shower.” She made a face at him and shook her head as she backed up closer to the door. “It’s a good thing Maria’s not here right now.” She stuck her tongue out at him and reached out to grab his doorknob. “She could probably smell you from the driveway.”

He shot a glare at her and took a couple of steps in her direction, laughing under his breath when she pulled the door shut and he heard her disappear into her bedroom. Things were going to be okay. Reestablishing the balance within him was one thing, finding it within his family was something he had been worried about. He had been scared that his family wouldn’t be able to accept him after what had happened but they had welcomed him back with open arms.

He grabbed his clothes and headed for the bathroom and a long, hot shower. He couldn’t wait to eat something and crawl into bed. He felt like he could sleep for days. Well, maybe 12 hours or so. Maria was coming over the next afternoon and he wasn’t going to miss that reunion for anything.

Alien Friend – Michael’s family is a great one. Modest, but with a strong sense of family and of honor. We did our best to make Catherine and John as good parents, but with flaws. Especially Catherine. It’s a bit harder to do since we had to create those characters and not lean on existing ones, for Michael’s family. But it was a great challenge.


Part 123

Catherine turned her head to the side when she heard someone enter the kitchen and she smiled at her daughter. She turned back to her dinner preparations, not commenting when she heard the telephone handset being placed into the cradle. Her relief at having Michael home was almost overwhelming and she was still trying to get herself under control. It had only been four days since he had set off on his vision quest but it felt like it had been so much longer.

“Can I do anything to help?”

She closed the oven door when Maggie spoke up, fanning herself with the potholder and forcing down the tears of relief that were just waiting below the surface. “Set the table and fill the glasses. Oh, and make a fresh pot of coffee for your dad.”

Maggie grumbled under her breath when her mother handed off the task of coffee making. She hated to make coffee. Actually, she hated coffee in general. She didn’t like the bitter taste, the way it smelled, or anything else about it. She pulled the basket out and frowned down at the soaking wet filter, packed tightly with wet coffee grounds. She grasped the edges with her fingertips, hating the clammy feeling of the wet filter as she carried it over to the trash can and dropped it inside. She grabbed the filter basket and rinsed it under the faucet, watching the renegade grounds slip and slide around the sink before disappearing down the drain.

“So what do you think he saw out there?” she asked as she shook the water out and pressed a new filter into the basket.

Catherine placed the baking dish on the stovetop and slid the pan of cornbread into the oven as she mulled over Maggie’s question. “I suppose that’s between him and the Great Spirit.” She wanted to know what he had seen or felt; what wisdom he had been gifted with to allow him to find peace with his actions. But she also knew it wasn’t their way to discuss such things and as much as she would like to know, sharing it or not was his decision to make.

Maggie scooped fresh grounds into the filtered basket and slid it back into place before rinsing the pot out and filling it with water. “Did Dad ever tell you about what he saw when he went on his vision quest?”

“No,” she said slowly. “Your dad’s experience out in the desert is something he’s always held close. It was a defining moment for him. It was intense and deeply personal.”

Intense and deeply personal. “So Michael probably won’t be sharing that.”

“The most important thing is for him to know that we love him. He needs to know we support him and that even though we may not understand what happened he did what was necessary.” She sliced the roast into thin slices and piled it high on a serving dish before covering it and turning to hand it to Maggie. “Here, put this on the table.”

While Maggie was occupied setting the table Catherine finished moving the food from the pots and pans into serving dishes. She had to keep reminding herself that everything she had just told her daughter applied to her as well and she needed to remember all of it when Michael joined them. She had to let him tell them what he felt was pertinent and accept it if he chose to withhold some or even all of what he had experienced. The small timer sitting on the back of the stove went off, the buzzer indicating that the cornbread was ready to come out of the oven.

“I feel like I haven’t eaten in a week,” Michael said as he slid into his chair. He didn’t say anything to stop her when his mother reached for his plate and buzzed around the table, filling it up. He nodded when she asked if he wanted gravy over his roast and mashed potatoes, letting her fuss while he reached for a large piece of the cornbread. He broke it in half and the scent of the jalapenos and crushed red peppers finely chopped and mixed into the batter before cooking made his stomach rumble loudly.

Catherine smacked John’s hand away when he reached for the seasoned green beans and he settled back in his chair, an amused smile on his lips as he watched her. The fact that Michael was quietly sitting back and allowing her to fill his plate for him spoke volumes. The boy was beyond exhausted, mentally and physically. Emotionally too, but he wouldn’t bring that up in mixed company. Some things were best left unspoken.

Michael dug into his food like a starving man when his mother placed his plate before him. He didn’t bother trying to force himself to take it slow because he was hungry and that was kind of the whole point of food anyway. He didn’t slow down until he had taken the edge off of his hunger and his plate was nearly half empty. He glanced up at his family and wiped the back of his hand over his mouth.

“This’s really good, Mom,” he mumbled.

John chuckled as he leaned over to slap his boy on the back. “I’m surprised you can taste anything the way you’re inhaling that meal.” He shook his head and motioned for his son to continue eating. “I still remember how hungry I was after being out in the desert for days on end.” He reached for the mashed potatoes and scooped another helping onto his plate. “I didn’t think I’d ever get enough to eat once I sat down to a meal again.”

“You know,” Michael said slowly and pushed his plate back a couple of inches, “what happened with Tess… I never meant to do that.”

“Sweetie, we know that,” Catherine rushed to assure him. She fell silent when John reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, nodding to indicate she should let Michael continue at his own pace.

“I agreed to meet with her, set it up so we met out at Mustang Point. It was my decision, you need to know that. I knew going in that facing off against her was a risk, but…” he shook his head and used his fork to dig a trough in the center of his potatoes. “She was startin’ to mess with the others.”

John’s gaze dropped to his son’s right hand when his grip around the fork tightened and the force caused the metal to bend. “She threatened Maria,” he said quietly.

He nodded and forced his hand to relax. “I told you she could get into people’s heads.” He held the fork between both hands, slowly bending it back into its original shape. “She cornered Maria at school, made her think she was one of her friends, and until she revealed herself Maria had no idea that she was talkin’ to the enemy. She did the same thing to one of Maria’s friends and then a few days later Isabel came home and found her there with her mom.” He sighed and looked at them. “She had to be dealt with and the only way to get her to back off was to let her think we were disagreeing about meeting with her.”

“Because making her think that would make her leave them alone until the meeting?” Maggie asked.

Michael glanced at his sister. “Yeah, that was the idea behind it. We let her believe we couldn’t come to an agreement for several days and then Maria told her we had agreed as a group that there wouldn’t be a meeting.”

“Oh, right! By putting it like that and having Maria deliver that message Tess thought you guys couldn’t really come to an agreement but because majority rules you were going along with it even though you disagreed.”

“Yeah, then we just waited and planted the rest of our cover story. The others made sure she knew about their plans for Saturday and then I called her to set up the meeting. I had her meet me and follow me out to Mustang Point. The others were there before she arrived, safely out of sight, but there in case she got the upper hand.” He shook his head as he told them about her story about who he had been on their home planet.

“Do you think she was telling the truth about that?”

Michael shrugged. “I don’t know. She believed it, I know that much. That’s when she started goin’ on about getting rid of our ties to humans because it weakens us.”

“Your connection to us weakens you?” Maggie asked, trying to hide her hurt.

Catherine swallowed with difficulty as she waited for Michael to answer his sister’s question. He had always wanted to know about his origins and she had been afraid of losing him if he ever found the answers he wanted so badly.

“If I had grown up differently then I might think that. I mean, having these ties, it does complicate things sometimes.” He tapped his fork against the side of his plate thoughtfully. “But it also balances somethin’ inside of me. Whoever I was in my former life, the guy I was on Antar, I think ties like this would’ve weakened me. But I’m not that guy. I guess half of who I am now is who I was then, but for me to work here I had to be part human, and I think these ties are what makes it work.” He wasn’t sure he was making sense. “Tess was raised by Nacedo and she was as cold-blooded and ruthless as he is. When she discovered the others that day she went ballistic.”

Maggie’s eyes widened. “How did she find out they were there?”

“She touched me and she got this, I don’t know, a vision or flashes of the plan or somethin’ and she knew exactly where they were. She went off, sayin’ that Nacedo would destroy every human we had ties to.” His hands clenched into fists on either side of his plate. “She said he’d start with my family and then she started sayin’ she’d do it. She talked about it without remorse or hesitation. She sounded… excited at the prospect of killing. She stood there, debating whether she should start with you guys or Maria, talkin’ about how she could kill without ever layin’ a hand on any of you. When she did that thing where she’d get into people’s heads she’d get this focused look and I caught that but it was too late, she was already hurtin’ Maria. I didn’t stop to think, I didn’t consider the consequences, I just hit her with everything I had and she went over the edge. She managed to stop herself but her grip wasn’t strong enough to stop her from fallin’.”

“Was Maria alright?” Catherine asked after a moment.

Michael slowly looked up to meet his mother’s eyes, seeing genuine concern there. He was relieved that she had asked about Maria first. “She’s okay.” He gave her a small smile. “She was more worried about me than she was that Tess had just tried to hurt her.”

“Well, she’s a smart girl.” She reached over to place her hand on one of his clenched fists. “Michael, what happened was terrible but you were only trying to protect the people you love.”

“Does it matter if you kill someone for a good reason? By law it’s still murder, right?”

Catherine shook her head and her hand closed over his in a tight grip. “Listen to me. There were extenuating circumstances and she wasn’t exactly your average… opponent.”

“You started to say victim,” he said, watching her.

“I did, and maybe she was a victim of her circumstances. Maybe being raised by Nacedo made her a victim of his way of thinking. I never met her but I know you and I trust you. Sometimes you react to things without stopping to think, but that wasn’t the case here. She was threatening everyone you love and it sounds to me like she saw humanity as something to be tolerated until they achieved whatever their goal was. And at that point doing away with anyone who stood in their way was an acceptable method of dealing with the situation. My point, Michael, is that she may have been a victim of circumstance, but she wasn’t your victim. They’re two very different things.”

He considered what she was saying for several minutes before nodding. His vision quest had given him many of the same answers. His concern that his family was going to view him as some sort of monster had been unfounded. But it was still a relief to hear them reassure him.

John set his empty coffee cup aside. “What happens now?”

“Now?” Michael echoed.

“You’ve had some time to make peace with what’s happened. You’re out of school for a couple of weeks over the holidays. You must have some things in mind.”

“First thing I’m gonna do is sleep. Tomorrow I’m gonna see Maria. She’s gonna come out around noon and we’ll spend some time together.” He shrugged. “After that, I guess I’ll start getting to know Max and Isabel since we haven’t really had that opportunity. We’ve been focused on the situation so right now we don’t know each other all that well.

“You could always invite them over,” Catherine suggested. “We’d love to meet them.”

He shook his head, resisting his mother’s suggestion. “No, I want to get to know them better first. I’d be more comfortable waitin’ until I’ve gotten more familiar with them.” Truthfully, he didn’t know them that well and until he knew them better he didn’t want them around his family.

She watched him, studying his expression and seeing that he had made up his mind. By their culture’s standards her son was now a man and she knew as difficult as it was she was going to have to respect his wishes. “Alright, if that’s your decision we’ll wait to meet them.”

“Okay,” Michael said slowly. He had been expecting resistance to his answer so he was surprised when she capitulated without trying to change his mind. “I’m beat, so I think I’m gonna hit the sheets.”

John waited until Michael and Maggie had left the room before he took his wife’s hand. “You handled that very well,” he said with a quiet smile.

“I’ve been fighting the knowledge that he’s becoming a man and I’m gonna have to let him go.” She sighed and looked at her husband. “I know it’s time to step back.”

“You know, there’s somethin’ to be said for that old saying about if you love something and you let it go it’ll come back to you.” He pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “That boy’s grounded, Cath. He knows his place with our family and while he’ll go out into the world and make his own way, he’ll always know where he belongs and who he is.”

She nodded and smiled misty-eyed as she looked at him. “I know and for the first time I’m ready to accept it.” She sighed and shook her head. “Can you believe a year from now we’ll be spending Christmas with our kids who are home from college?”

John chuckled and stood up, reaching for his coffee cup. “Time does fly, doesn’t it?”

Catherine started gathering the dishes, placing them in manageable stacks. The time had gone by fast. Too fast. Her children were on the edge of adulthood and in a matter of months she was going to have to have to let not one, but both of them go.

Eva: That is something that makes a huge difference, and it really has for Michael. We’ve enjoyed the opportunity to explore what might have been.

Alien_Friend: This is a major development for Catherine’s character.

The support of his family will help Michael heal.

cjsl8ne: Thanks, we’re back with an update!


Part 124

Michael rolled over, half-awake, half-asleep, and completely relaxed in a way that only existed after a night of uninterrupted sleep. His eyebrows pulled down in a frown at the sunlight that attempted to pierce his closed eyelids and without conscious thought he rolled back over to escape it. With any luck he could go right back to sleep.

Crunch

The frown returned at the noise and he pulled his pillow over his head in an attempt to block the sound. He could feel his grip on sleep slipping through his fingers and he fought to hold onto it. Silence once more descended upon him and after several minutes his features relaxed and he hummed quietly as sleep once more welcomed him into its comforting embrace.

Crunch

Quiet giggling

His eyes snapped open and he tensed as he stared at the wall. He knew who it was before he moved. He controlled the smirk that wanted to surface when he shot up and he heard the startled gasps as the girls jumped at being caught. With his arms stretched out behind him he braced his weight on his hands and glared at the three of them.

Maggie sat in his desk chair, watching him as she took another bite of her apple. “We’re gonna go into Ruidoso and hang out… do a little last minute Christmas shopping.”

“So go,” he muttered and flopped back on the bed.

“We’ve got a slight problem with that,” she continued, ignoring his annoyed growl when she dragged it out instead of getting straight to the point.

“And you’re tellin’ me why?”

She shrugged. “Well, you did install the stereo for Linda and now it’s not working.”

“Did you turn it on?”

She rolled her eyes at him and grabbed a tennis ball off of his desk, throwing it at him. It landed on his chest and bounced to roll across the floor. “Just take a look at it before we go.”

“You’re gonna talk right over the music anyway, so what’s it matter if it’s workin’ or not?” he asked and rolled over again. He shot a glance at his alarm clock. 8am. He still had plenty of time before Maria came out to see him.

The girls looked at each other when they didn’t get the response they had been hoping for. Maggie shook her head and gave them an I’ve got this look.

“Well, I guess if we’re not gonna go anywhere we’ll just have to hang out here… with you.” She smirked in satisfaction. “And Maria, she’ll be here around noon, right?” No way would he stand for having them around when she arrived.

“Suit yourself,” he mumbled against his pillow. “She’s not comin’ out to see you.”

“True,” she mused. “Of course the three of us can be very aggravating when we put our minds to it.” She held a finger up in a bid for silence when Christina started to speak. “And Maria and I have formed a sorta bond while you’ve been out in the desert.”

Michael growled under his breath and scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Alright, fine, I’ll go look at the stupid stereo. Now get outta here and gimme five minutes to myself.”

Maggie leaned down to scoop up the puppy chewing on one corner of the trunk at the end of the bed, placing the animal on the bed before hurrying out of the room with her friends. They paused at the door, sending a chorus of thank you’s and ducking out of the room when he rolled over and threw a shoe in their direction. It smacked against the door as Maggie pulled it shut and he lay there for a minute trying to get his bearings.

He closed his eyes and was seriously considering just going back to sleep when something wet slid across his bicep. His eyes shot open and the first thing he saw was the tail furiously wagging. As his gaze became more focused he found himself looking into the extremely up-close face of the puppy they had gotten for Joey.

“Hey there,” he rasped and reached up to scratch behind the puppy’s ears.

She yawned widely and then shook her head before throwing herself down on his chest and starting to chew on a mouthful of his blanket.

“I hope that housebreaking business is goin’ good because if you piss on me or the bed I’m not gonna be happy about it.”

Her tail started to wag again and she wriggled around to make herself comfortable in the crook of his arm.

“Now why can’t every other female in my life be this easy to please?” He frowned at the door when someone knocked on it. “Alright, alright, I’m comin’.” He gave the puppy an affectionate pat and got up to get dressed.

Twenty minutes later his body was contorted in an awkward position as he tried to get a solid grip on the wires that had come loose. He cursed colorfully when one of them slipped from his fingers and he had to fish around for it again. He finally caught it and reconnected the wires, wrapping them with electrical tape and then securing them.

“Okay, that should have it.” He held his hand up and snapped his fingers. “Keys.” He curled his fingers around the keys when Linda dropped them in his palm and reached up to insert the correct one into the ignition. He turned the key and started the engine then moved his hand over the dash to find the knob for the radio.

The girls jumped up and down when music poured from the speakers and he rolled his eyes before cutting the engine and enjoying the silence that followed. And only lasted for a matter of seconds before the girls were jabbering about shopping and boyfriends and whatever else it was that girls talked about. He freed himself from the confines of the floorboard and got to his feet.

“Alright, the three of you can go away now.” He grumbled and tried to rush them along when they started hugging him and thanking him for fixing the radio. He sighed in relief when they finally piled into the jeep and Linda started the engine but a moment later she turned the radio down and Maggie started speaking.

“Anything you want me to pick up while we’re out?” she asked with an innocent smile.

“And the implication in that question would be that Christmas is the day after tomorrow and I don’t have a gift for Maria yet?”

She made a face at him. “Well, you’re not exactly an early shopper and with Maria being your first girlfriend and all you might not wanna show up on Christmas morning without a gift.”

He smirked and turned to walk back up to the house, waving over his shoulder. In the kitchen he reached for the refrigerator door and paused when he saw the note stuck to the freezer door. He pulled it off and read it, smiling at Mom’s reminder to eat something nutritional. At the bottom of the note Dad had left instructions for the day’s chores. Things felt normal. Mom and Dad were at work, Maggie and the girls had started the morning by harassing him, and he had the house to himself. He scratched his chest and pulled the milk out before grabbing a bowl and a box of cereal.

He sat down at the kitchen table and filled his bowl. He was just starting to eat when he heard a vehicle pull up in the driveway and he leaned back to look out through the window. He recognized Eddie’s truck and when the other man stepped up on the porch he waved to get his attention, motioning to the front door.

“River Dog said you were back,” Eddie said as he filled a glass with orange juice and sat down across from his friend. He pushed the note Catherine had left for her son with the tip of one finger before shooting a pointed glance at the cereal and glancing at Michael with a raised eyebrow.

Michael shrugged and continued eating. “What’s up?”

“Thought I’d come by and see if you wanted to take a ride.”

He checked the time. “Gotta be back by noon.”

Eddie smirked. “Yeah, heard you’ve got a big date.”

“Maggie doesn’t know as much as she thinks she knows.”

“Didn’t say I heard it from her,” he said in that infuriatingly calm voice.

He shrugged again and got up to rinse his bowl out. “Let’s get goin’.”

*****

The desert was cold, the landscape serene, and they rode in companionable silence. The only sounds were those made by the horses and the occasional call of a bird overhead. Michael breathed in deeply, drawing in the cold, cleansing air and enjoying the sensation of breathing without the heavy weight of guilt crushing his chest.

The guilt had been replaced by another weight, but while the weight of responsibility rested heavily on his shoulders it didn’t threaten to crush him. He tugged his baseball cap down lower and hunched his shoulders when the wind picked up for a moment.

Eddie glanced at him as they crossed a shallow creek. “Got an idea what you’re gonna do now?”

Michael shifted his weight in the saddle and straightened up. He knew Eddie was referring to the situation with Tess. “For now, getting to know the others better. What I know about them so far has basically been need to know.” He was silent a moment. “Mom wants to meet them.”

“But you don’t know them well enough to bring them around your family yet.”

He nodded in response. “There’re some things I’ve gotta figure out… things I need to know before I can take that step. Maria’s spent time with them the past few days so she’ll have some ideas or theories… whatever.” He snorted and tugged the reins to the left to guide Sundance around a hole in the ground.

“You think the girl… Isabel, right?” He continued when Michael confirmed with a nod. “You still think the two of you are related?”

“You were there the night we ran into them in the woods, Eddie. Can you deny there’re similarities? It’s not just physical features though; she’s got the same kinda temperament too.” He looked at his friend. “How’d you even know about that?”

“Maggie likes to talk when she’s worried about you and there’re only so many people she can talk to about things like this.” He shrugged one shoulder. “She’s a little nervous about the dynamics of your relationship changing if Isabel really is your sister. If that’s true you and Isabel would have a common bond that you and Maggie will never have.”

“Why do girls have to make things so complicated?” he muttered. “I already told her nothing’s gonna change between us.”

“Do we need to have that girls are different than guys talk again?”

“Do you need me to knock you off your horse?” Michael countered.

Eddie just chuckled and searched the blue sky. “Have you discussed the possibility with Isabel yet?”

“Nah, Maria said to wait since the thing with Tess had everyone on edge. That was enough drama without adding potential family complications into the mix.” His expression reflected annoyance when he caught the amused look on Eddie’s face. “What’s so damn funny?”

He grinned and shook his head. “You put a lot of weight behind Maria’s opinion.”

“So?”

“Nothin’, just sayin’.” He pulled back on the reins when his horse started to move around agitatedly. “Easy,” he murmured, leaning forward and patting the animal’s neck.

Michael’s grip tightened on the reins when Sundance started to behave the same way. The big horse pawed the ground and whinnied loudly. “Santana’s herd must be close by.”

Eddie looked at the ground, seeing small pebbles dance across the sandy ground in response to the horses’ hooves as they pounded across the desert floor somewhere in the distance. “They’re not far away.” He glanced up and caught sight of the herd as it ran past them more than a mile away.

Michael watched the horses, too far away to really make out any detail but close enough to pick Santana and Mirage out of the herd. His mind drifted back to the vision he’d had while out in the desert. The pair of horses did mirror him and Maria, he mused. The stallion was responsible for the herd; making sure they were fed and watered, keeping them safe, and defending the herd from predators and at times from the younger stallions he himself had sired. The mare that had become his constant companion watched over him. She did her part for the herd but he was her primary concern. It was uncanny.

The shadows began to subtly shift and he glanced up, noticing that the sun was climbing higher in the sky. It was also getting dangerously close to noon and he and Eddie were at least an hour from the house. They had started talking and lost track of time. “We need to head back,” he said, turning Sundance back the way they had come.

Eddie smirked at the younger man’s hurry but he left it alone. He had been in Michael’s place more than once and he knew how women reacted to their man being late. A woman could and would be late for everything under the sun, make the man wait an eternity before she felt she was presentable to the world, often enough making them late for whatever plans had been made, but they could not understand how he could be late. It just showed a callous disregard for their feelings as well as their plans. He snorted softly at the differences between men and women and urged his horse into a gallop.

*****

Maria stood on the front porch of Michael’s house and frowned at the truck parked in the driveway. No one appeared to be home but they had agreed to meet at noon. After everything that had happened she knew there was no way he would not be there to meet her on time. She looked up at the house again and sighed. She had said noon, right? Not half past or even one o’clock, but noon. She was positive she was on time.

Maybe he’d had to run an errand for his parents. Or maybe he had gone to visit with River Dog and it was taking a little longer than he had intended. No, when she had talked to him the day before he’d already been to see his grandfather. She looked at the truck again and realized she didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t John’s truck. Maybe one of his cousins had come by and he had gone to help with something. It would explain why he was late. She bit her lip as she looked around. She would wait a few more minutes and if he didn’t show up she would start checking a few places around the reservation.

After another twenty minutes she gave up waiting and got back in her car, driving through the reservation and checking every place she could think of that he might be. She stopped by the tribal office first, thinking he might have stopped in there for some reason, but he wasn’t there. She knew if anything had happened to him Maggie would’ve called her to let her know. She checked her phone and quickly noted the lack of missed calls, which only served to annoy her.

She drove out to River Dog’s house and mumbled curses under her breath when she learned that no one was home there either. Annoyance quickly began to shift into irritation at his lack of consideration. He knew what time she was going to be there. He knew after being gone because of what had happened she needed to see him. She ran by a couple more places before she decided she might as well just wait at his house for him to show up.

She sat there, fingers drumming on the steering wheel while her temper simmered to a boil.

Alien friend – Yes, life goes back to normal, with friends and girl troubles. And well, Maria is not happy with Michael, right now.

Cjsl8ne – A decent gift for Maria… hmmm, well, Michael will have to calm Maria down, the Michael way, lol. He’s good at that.


Part 125

Michael pulled back on the reins when he rode around the front of the house and saw Maria leaning back against her car, arms crossed over her chest as she stared at him. As he watched she turned her arm over, glancing at her watch before sending a pointed glare in his direction. He’d checked his own watch just a couple of minutes ago so he knew it was already half past noon.

He shifted in the saddle and leaned forward to pat Sundance’s neck when the big horse tossed his head and snorted. “Hey,” he said with a nod of his head.

“Hey?” she echoed incredulously. “I’m sorry,” she pushed away from the car and walked towards him, “in the civilized world we don’t show up more than half an hour late for a date and say, ‘Hey’.”

The horse danced in place, nervous when her sudden movements brought her closer to him.

Michael opened his mouth to speak but she was off and running before he could get a single word out.

“Four days, Michael! That whole business with Tess went down and you said you needed some space, and okay, I got that. Then Maggie called and told me you’d gone out into the desert to commune with the spirits or whatever, and okay, I got that. I mean, you needed to figure things out.”

He rolled his eyes as he dismounted. “I wasn’t out there conducting a séance, Maria,” he huffed in exasperation. “And I did call you soon as I got back.”

Eddie smirked as he walked up behind Michael, leading his own horse. He reached over and took the reins from his hand, grinning when the younger man shot a look at him as if just remembering he’d had company on his ride. “I’ll take care of the horses and then see myself out.” He nodded at Maria when her mouth snapped closed on whatever she’d been about to say to her boyfriend.

“You said noon,” she said when the other man began to walk away.

“And I – “ Michael cringed internally when Eddie suddenly burst out laughing and against his will his gaze was drawn to his friend.

“Wisdom often falls on deaf ears,” he called over his shoulder as he disappeared around the side of the house.

He wasn’t deaf, he’d just been sure he had the situation under control, Michael thought as he did his best to keep his embarrassment under wraps. He shot an irritated look in Eddie’s direction even though the man was already out of sight. “I said – “

“Anyway,” Maria said, continuing what she had to say, “I went out to find River Dog or someone who might know where you were but I couldn’t find anyone. You said noon.”

She’d let her overactive imagination get the best of her, he realized when she fell silent. “I was just out with Eddie and we lost track of time, that’s all it was.” He moved closer and reached out to take one of her hands. “I’m okay,” he assured her.

“You’re thirty-six minutes late.”

“And I’m okay,” he repeated quietly as he reached up and cradled her jaw in his hand. “Eddie came by and wanted to hang out. I thought we’d be back before you got here.” His thumb brushed over her cheek and then moved lower to trace over her lips. “I found what I was lookin’ for.”

She lifted her hands to frame his face, studying his features and searching his eyes for the truth. After nearly a minute she nodded and stretched up on her tiptoes to kiss him. “I missed you,” she whispered against his lips.

“Um-hmm,” he mumbled as he wrapped one arm around her and crowded her back against the car. His fingers tangled in her hair as he shifted to deepen the kiss, uninterested in talking at the moment.

Maria pulled him as close as she possibly could and her arms slipped beneath his jacket to wrap around his waist. Her fingertips moved over his sides to his back, dragging over muscles that jumped beneath her touch. She had missed him, missed this, and she was so glad he was home and he was alright.

They jerked apart a few minutes later when a horn went off behind them and Eddie grinned unrepentantly as he backed out of the driveway. He rolled the window down and waved as he drove off, immensely enjoying the looks on their faces if his expression was anything to go by.

“He’ll pay for that,” Michael muttered darkly.

Maria giggled and hugged him tightly, resting her cheek against his chest. She could listen to the sound of his heart beating forever. It always beat in rhythm with his moods; nice and steady when he was calm, fast and furious when he was angry, loud and pounding when he was excited, dull and heavy when he was upset. The cold wind gusted and in spite of the warmth of his embrace she shivered.

He rubbed his hands over her arms. “C’mon, let’s go inside.”

She nodded and used him as a windbreak as they hurried up to the house. She smiled as she was ushered inside and the puppy they’d picked out for Joey ran up to greet them.

“Damn it, what’re you doin’ out here?” he muttered and growled when she responded by wagging her tail and jumping up against his legs.

“Looks like she escaped and left you a present,” Maria said and laughed as she motioned to the puddle in the middle of the hallway.

“This housebreaking thing isn’t goin’ as well as I’d hoped.” He scooped the puppy up and handed her off to his girlfriend. “Do me a favor and take her out for a few minutes.”

“It’s cold out there.”

“Would you rather clean up the pee river?”

She considered that for all of two seconds before conceding. “I can handle a few more minutes outside.” She held the puppy up to look into her eyes. “Did you make a mess for Michael to clean up?” She just laughed when the animal’s tail started wagging again. “Yes, you did.”

Michael just rolled his eyes at her disappearing back and went to get what he needed to clean the mess up. It would’ve been so much easier to pick out a puppy that was just a little bit older that was housebroken. But no, Maria had been so certain this one was the perfect one and he’d agreed. Of course he’d agreed, he mused. She’d used underhanded tactics to get him to agree with her. He made a face as he set the supplies aside and waved his hand over the puddle, grateful that at least she hadn’t managed to pee on the carpet. He turned his hand over and glanced at it with a smirk. Okay, if he was on puppy cleanup duty it didn’t really matter, but it did if Mom found out.

“Well, it’s good you came home when you did,” Maria said as she came inside and closed the door behind her. “Another few minutes and she would’ve left you something else to clean up.” She frowned when he wasn’t in the hallway where she’d left him and she rolled her eyes when she heard the distinct sound of the refrigerator door closing. Of course.

In the kitchen doorway she set the puppy down and the animal made a beeline for Michael. He turned around, drying his hands on a paper towel and he crouched down to tease the puppy with it.

Her eyes wandered over him and she shook her head. “You cheated.” How could she have forgotten about his secret powers?

Michael shrugged, not looking the least bit guilty. “It’s not cheating. I’m using my natural abilities, so two completely different things.”

“Okay, you did good,” he agreed as he held her still. “Sit.” He pressed her rump down and straightened up to take a step back. “Stay.” He took a couple more steps away from her, nodding when she remained in place even though he could tell she was just itching to move.

“You’ve got her sitting.”

“Sitting and staying,” he corrected proudly. It had taken weeks to get her to this point. “She’s smart. It’s just a matter of getting her to pay attention.” Just like any other female, he thought but wisely didn’t verbalize.

He grabbed a couple of drinks and they settled on the couch in the living room. The puppy moved around for a few moments before finding a comfortable spot snugly wedged in between them with her muzzle resting on his thigh. He ran his hand over her head, dragging his fingers over her silky ears and she sighed contentedly and closed her eyes.

“Joey’s gonna love her,” Maria said quietly.

“Yeah, he is.” He dropped his head back against the couch and turned to look at her. “How’re things goin’ with the others?”

“Pretty good, I think. We spent a lot of time together and most of it was actually pretty fun.” She made a face. “Even putting Isabel’s Christmas dog show thing together was fun. Well, when she was off insulting everyone else’s work and she was leaving me and Liz alone with our assigned tasks it was more fun.”

“So you guys are finding common ground, that’s good.”

“Yeah, I still don’t like that they shut me out the way they did. I wouldn’t have told anyone. I gave it a lot of thought these past few days and I’ve decided there’s no point dwelling on it. It happened and while I don’t agree with it, they’ve apologized for it, explained the reasoning behind it, and if we’re gonna rebuild our relationship then I have to forgive them. Otherwise I don’t and I let them go, and I’m not prepared to do that.” She shifted around to look at him, running her fingers through his hair absently. “Learning the secret is pretty life-altering and I know I wouldn’t have told them if the situation had been reversed. They’re right, it wasn’t their secret to tell. They’ve acknowledged that they should’ve handled things differently so we’re gonna move forward.”

Michael chuckled. “And you didn’t even have to spend four days in the desert to figure that out.”

“What was it like, Michael?” She felt him tense slightly and her hand dropped to rub his shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

He reached up to cover her hand with his. “It was intense and deeply personal. It’s an experience that really allows you to look into yourself, to sort things out in your mind, and put your priorities straight.” He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “It helped.”

“That’s all that matters.” She wanted so badly to know what had happened to him, what he had experienced out in the desert, but he’d shared all he was comfortable with and this was one of those times that pushing him wasn’t an option.

“So, a Christmas dog show?” He snorted softly. “Really?”

“Yeah, and Isabel’s a raving lunatic. She’s a perfectionist and Max calls her the Christmas Nazi.” She shook her head. “That little nickname is right on target too, let me tell you. I mean, it was a dog show and you’d think we were setting up for the Miss America Pageant. If you’re still thinking the two of you are brother and sister, you might wanna think about whether or not you wanna let her in on the secret. You think Maggie’s bad sometimes? Isabel’s bossy to the power of infinity. So you’re taking your life into your own hands if you share your suspicions with her.”

He made a face. “Sounds like a nightmare.”

“Well, I will say she’s a lot nicer once you get to know her. Working for her is another story altogether because that right there was a nightmare. Having her around, having her involved in your inner circle, I can see that, and she’ll be an asset in spite of driving everyone up the wall on occasion. But I’ll warn you right now, if you tell her you think she’s your sister and she takes that into consideration and decides you’re right? You’re gonna have your hands full, buddy.”

“Well, at least it’s nothin’ that has to be decided right now.” He smirked. “And I think we’ll just keep it to ourselves for now.” He bit back a yawn and ran his hand over the puppy’s head. “I’m glad you took them out to meet River Dog. He said it was a good visit.”

“Yeah, it went really well. He put Max and Isabel at ease. He did mention that she and Max didn’t look anything alike.”

“How’d they take that?”

“They just said they were aware of it but they didn’t really seem to be bothered by it or put much thought into it.” She looked down when their hands collided and she smiled as their fingers interlocked seamlessly. “I missed you.”

Michael leaned in closer for a kiss. “Missed you too,” he mumbled against her lips. He smiled as he scooped the puppy up, carefully placing her on the floor as he maneuvered Maria back against the cushions and stretched out over her.

Her hands moved to his sides, slipping beneath his shirt so her fingernails could graze against his warm flesh. His lips trailed over her cheek, nibbling along her neck and pausing to give her madly pounding pulse point extra attention. Her head dropped back, giving him better access and reaching up to thread her fingers through his hair. Her mind barely registered where his hands were until she felt his fingers tracing along the edge of her bra.

He could feel his heart pounding in sync with hers and he raised his head to meet her gaze as his hand moved closer to his goal.

“Michael…” Question, statement, encouragement, hesitation, it was all rolled into one as she whispered his name.

In the back of his mind another sound registered but it went ignored in favor of keeping his focus on her. It was easy to do when she pulled him down to her again and their mouths came together in a heated kiss.

The sound of something crashing to the floor had him rolling off of her and crouching down next to the couch, his right hand outstretched as he searched for the source of the racket. He sighed raggedly and ran a hand through his hair when he saw the puppy dragging one of the hand woven scarves that Mom used to cover the end tables.

She was proudly prancing around the room, her trophy clamped between her teeth as her tail snapped back and forth happily. She refused to relinquish her spoils when Michael made a grab for it and he cursed under his breath when the delicate material ripped. He scooped the puppy up and pried her jaws apart to pull the scarf free as he chastised her for misbehaving. He shook his head as he handed her off to Maria and went to repair the lamp, antique clock and the scarf that had all been damaged in one way or another during the puppy’s short reign of terror.

He crouched down next to the broken lamp and turned his head to look at his girlfriend. She was consoling the puppy and assuring her none of it was her fault, an obviously incorrect statement, but since she looked thoroughly kissed, her clothes rumpled, her hair in disarray and her lips swollen from his kisses, he decided there was no point in correcting her.

“Will you be giving her to Joey tomorrow or on Christmas morning?” Maria asked as she ran her fingers over her lips.

“The family will get together for dinner on Christmas so we’ll give her to him then.”

She nodded. “Does your family do anything for Christmas Eve?”

“Just spend time together if Mom and Dad are home.” He shrugged. “They both have to work tomorrow evening, which is unusual, but it was that or give up Christmas Day.”

“Oh, that sucks.” She sat up and stroked the puppy’s velvety soft head. “So you don’t have any big family get-togethers or religious traditions for tomorrow evening?”

“No, it’s just the four of us and we usually just sit around and watch Christmas movies.” He shrugged as he lined up the larger pieces of the lamp and held his hand over it to meld it back together. “Maggie and Mom pick out the movies – “

“And he sits back and makes fun of them,” Maggie tossed in as she leaned in the doorway.

“I thought you were out for the day,” Michael said when he looked up at her.

She just smiled. “Did I actually say that?”

“You didn’t not say that,” he growled.

“Well, we ran into Cameron and Morgan,” she said, referring to Linda and Christina’s boyfriends, “and they asked if we wanted to go to a movie later this afternoon.”

“Then why’re you here?”

She grinned at him. “Because I called Jesse and asked if he could get away for a couple hours this afternoon and he said he could so we’re all gonna meet up at the theater in Ruidoso for the five o’clock show.”

He glared at her. “How does that explain why you’re here?”

Maria tried not to laugh at his impatient tone, she really did. “She came home to get ready, Michael.”

He shook his head as his gaze swept over his sister dismissively. “What’s wrong with what she’s got on?”

The girls just exchanged a look and shook their heads at his cluelessness.

“Well, now that I feel welcome and loved in my own home I’m going to my room to get ready.”

Michael waved her off and turned his attention back to his girlfriend. “What about you?” he asked, going right back to their conversation as if they hadn’t been interrupted. “Religious traditions for Christmas Eve?”

“We go to midnight service, but that’s about it.”

“So it’s just you an’ your mom for Christmas?”

“Yeah,” she said with a laugh, “that’s all we have.”

“You should come over for dinner on Christmas.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Mom invited Jesse and his family over. His parents can’t make it but they told him to come over for a little while.”

“Yeah, well, if your mom wants to invite us over I think she should probably be the one to extend the invitation.”

“Maybe she will. Joey and Shy would love to see you again. And Shyanne’s gonna bring her fiancé. I know she’d love it if you were here.”

She smiled and shook her head. “I appreciate that and I’d love to see all of them again, but really, I think it’s your mom’s place to invite us to Christmas dinner.”

“Not really,” he said with a grin. “It’s too cold for dinner to be outside and Aunt Skye has a huge dining room so dinner’s gonna be at her house.”

“Michael, do not instigate anything.”

“I’ll bet she’d invite Gabriel too.”

Yeah, he was definitely on the verge of instigating something. She decided to ignore him and give her attention to the puppy sleeping in her lap, relieved when he dropped the subject and went back to work on the lamp.

Why hadn’t he thought of it sooner? Aunt Skye had enjoyed Amy’s company at Thanksgiving and she loved having a houseful of people to fuss over, especially on the holidays. Um-hmm, one little call was all it would take and he’d be able to give Maria her gift on Christmas Day.

Yoehoe, you're back, Angel! What a nice surprice on this rainy morning! I've got to be honest though: I need to read a couple of past chapters to dive in again but man, I'm so happy you're back with this story. It is one of my favourites!

I have lots of catching up to do.
Thanks,
Carolyn

Eva – Thanks for still being around. This story is close to our hearts so it’s nice to hear that you love it too.

keepsmiling7 – Yes, lots of catching up. So long since we updated so it’s normal that you need catching up.


Part 126

Alex shoved his hands in the pockets of his heavy jacket, his gaze bouncing around as he watched numerous people rushing to do Isabel’s bidding. Some of them grumbled under their breath about doing the same thing over and over and others simply ducked their heads and hurried to redo whatever the person before them hadn’t done well enough to meet her exacting standards. He could understand why Max had dubbed her the Christmas Nazi. He was drawn out of his thoughts when a woman that was probably a couple of years older than Isabel ran up to them.

“Um, Isabel, I hate to be the one to break the news, but Joy and Megan just called in.”

“Called in?” she echoed. “What do you mean they called in?”

He winced sympathetically at the poor woman’s predicament. He’d hate to be the one sharing that news too. Was there another way to say someone had called in?

“Their family made a last-minute decision to drive to Las Cruces to have Christmas with the grandparents.”

“And they couldn’t leave after we close Santa’s Village for the year?” She sighed in frustration and pinched the bridge of her nose. “No, that’s unacceptable. We open in less than an hour. Jeanie, call them back and tell I said…” she shook her head. “No, no, I’ll call them myself.”

The woman relaxed slightly. “On a better note, our Santa did show up ahead of schedule as you requested.”

“Perfect. Have him get ready and I’ll get with him as soon as I’ve solved this problem.”

As soon as Jeanie had made her escape Alex leaned against a telephone pole that had been decorated to look like a giant candy cane. “Is it possible to do today’s production without Joy and Megan?”

“Is it…” she looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “No. Those two were an integral part of Santa’s Village.” She looked around and her eyes locked on the solution to her problem.

Alex turned his head to follow her gaze when her posture suddenly eased. Oh no. There was no time to warn them before she was on the move, locked on her target and nothing was going to get in her way.

“Oh no,” Max muttered under his breath. “I told you it was a bad idea to come here.”

Liz turned to look at her boyfriend and she rolled her eyes at his dramatic statement. “Max, I know your sister’s a little crazy about Christmas, but today’s the last day and you said you hadn’t been through Santa’s Village this year.”

“I don’t know,” Maria said uncertainly, “he might be right because Isabel’s looking more than a little crazy right now.”

“Liz, Maria, I’m so glad to see you!”

“Okay,” Liz said slowly, dragging the word out for several moments, “she’s not usually that happy to see us.”

“I’m telling you, now’s the time to run.”

She elbowed Max and smiled at his sister. “Hi, Isabel,” she frowned when she caught sight of Alex waving his hands and shaking his head behind the tall blond.

He became as still as a statue when she noticed Liz’s expression and turned to look behind her. He feigned a look of complete innocence and did his best not to squirm under her penetrating gaze.

When she wasn’t able to pinpoint the disturbance she focused on Liz and Maria once more. “You believe in the magic of Christmas don’t you?”

Somehow it felt like a trick question. “Um, yeah, sure.”

Isabel made a face. “That’s all the enthusiasm you have?”

“Well, no, I mean, we love Christmas. We do,” Liz insisted, hoping to convince the other girl before she went off on some holiday rant.

“We do,” Maria chimed in with a festive air to her words.

“We were just stopping by on our way – “ Max started only to be cut off by his sister’s palm coming up to rest mere inches from his nose.

“So you would be willing to pitch in and help out if your services were needed? Say, to help bring joy to the children of Roswell? To help spread holiday cheer to all of our residents who come out to visit with Santa? You would do that, wouldn’t you?”

Maria sensed a trap but since the conversation seemed to be directed at Liz she decided to leave it alone. Maybe there was still time for her to escape.

Somehow that didn’t sound like a question. Liz cleared her throat as she shot a nervous glance at Maria. “Well, we, um…”

“Excellent, I knew you’d be willing to help!” Isabel enthused with a wide smile. She motioned to someone coming up behind them and she hurried around them, snatching the costumes from Jeanie and turning to hold them out to the girls. “They should fit just right. Now, follow Jeanie and she’ll show you where you can get changed and explain your elf duties.” And she was off again, fully expecting her orders to be carried out without question.

“Max, she’s your sister so maybe you should fix this.” She looked at her boyfriend with pleading eyes.

“I tried to tell you…” he trailed off when she shoved the outfit in his face.

“Do you see this thing? Can you honestly see me wearing this?”

He pinched his lips between his teeth as his eyes moved over the costume. “Well, it’s not that bad, Liz. I mean, it’s no worse than your uniform at the Crashdown and it’s for a good cause.”

“The girls who’ve been wearing those costumes for the past couple of weeks ducked out on us at the last minute,” Jeanie explained.

Maria held hers up and eyed it critically. “I’m surprised they held out that long,” she said dryly.

“I know they’re not exactly fashionable, but you’d really be doing us a huge favor.”

“And it’ll make life so much easier for everyone working to put this thing together,” Max said with a knowing smile at the young woman. He nodded when she shot a look at him. “Isabel’s my sister, so I know how she is.”

“Yeah,” she laughed with a nod, “you understand then.” She turned when someone called her and she waved to let them know she’d heard them. “Okay, I have to go check on them so if you’ll give me just a couple minutes I’ll be back to show you where you can get ready.”

Alex ambled over to join them when they were left alone. “Nice,” he teased with a grin.

“So nice you’d like to be an elf?” Maria asked sweetly.

“I don’t have the legs to pull that look off.” He reached out and flicked the bell sewn onto the toe of one of the elf shoes. “Definitely not my size, sorry.”

“I didn’t come here with any intention of dressing up like an oversized elf,” Liz muttered.

“C’mon,” Max coaxed, “I bet you’ll look cute.”

She leveled a look at him. “Cute? In this getup?” She sighed heavily. “You owe me big for this.”

“Anything you want, it’s yours.”

“Why aren’t you in costume yet?” Isabel demanded as she came up to them. She tapped the face of her watch. “It’s almost time for the main gate to open. You need to be in costume and you need to have your happy holiday faces on. Do I have to do everything myself?”

“Hey, Iz?” Alex called in an effort to diffuse the situation before one of the girls could suggest she wear the costume herself. “I noticed some of the trees look like maybe they don’t have enough snow on the branches. The ones closest to where Santa will be holding court.”

“What?” She pointed to her left as she looked at the girls. “Costumes.” She whirled around and took him by the arm. “Show me.”

Max shook his head. “I’m not sure he’s doing any of us any favors by encouraging her insanity.”

“If it gets her off our backs I’m okay with it.” Liz linked her arm through Maria’s and they headed off to find Jeanie before Isabel had the chance to come back and read them the riot act for not being ready.

Alex pointed out the trees and Isabel immediately assigned someone to apply more fake snow to the thinly coated branches. He stayed close as the production finally got underway, watching her with an amused expression as she reigned over the organized chaos. She could be overseeing some big party at the White House for all the importance she gave to Santa’s Village. He had noticed moments of distraction, moments where he’d catch her watching Maria, and as soon as the barrier was opened and the children flooded Santa’s area she walked away to take a break and he followed her.

“So, what’s on your mind?” he asked as he sat down next to her after stopping at one of the concession stands for a couple of hot chocolates.

Isabel blew across the surface of the hot liquid as her eyes scanned the area around them. “You remember when we went to visit River Dog?”

“Um-hmm.” He didn’t bother pointing out that it had only been a couple of days since that visit.

“Remember him saying that there weren’t many similarities between me and Max?” She went on when he nodded. “That wasn’t exactly news to us but we’ve been together since the beginning so we’ve never questioned it. Sometimes he does things that make me want to smack him, or worse,” she added with a slight smile, “but he’s still my brother and I wouldn’t change that for anything. I just haven’t been able to get the thought out of my head that maybe there’s someone else.”

“Michael.”

She looked at him and nodded slowly. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility, right?”

“No. There are definitely some personality and physical similarities so I don’t think it can simply be discounted out of hand.” He chuckled. “Further proof in my opinion that the whole destiny thing was a lie. Your personalities would constantly clash in that type of relationship.”

“True.” She was silent for a few minutes, just watching the activity around them. “Max wouldn’t be happy with this theory.”

No, he had no doubt about that. “Maybe if you explain that you’re not looking to replace him he’ll understand.”

“I’m not even sure I should pursue it. I mean, whether I’m right or wrong, maybe it’s just too much. Michael has his own family and he and his sister seem to be really close. I wouldn’t want to come between them. And it’s not like we have any way to know if it’s even true or not.”

“If you decide you want to pursue this I think you should. I have a feeling Michael would be willing to hear you out about it. He might think the whole idea is completely insane, but I do think he’d hear you out.”

“Yeah, I think so too. I’m just not sure Max will be willing to consider the possibility. It’s not that he’s insecure or that he’s a tyrant even though I know he comes across like sometimes. He just has a habit of trying to carry the weight of the world on his own shoulders. He’s not very good at sharing the load. He’s always been like that though, even when we were kids. He internalizes, just holds everything in until it can’t be contained anymore. Sometimes I wonder if that’s just part of his genetic makeup because it doesn’t seem like he does it consciously, it’s just the way he is.” She sighed. “I couldn’t go behind his back on this.”

“Maybe talking to Liz would help,” he suggested.

She made a face. “Why?”

“Well, she’s close to him in a different way and she might have some insight into how to approach him with this.”

She nodded as her gaze drifted over to the area where Santa was holding court while two elves tried to keep the chaos in order.

*****

Michael shoved the truck door shut with his elbow and he looked around before taking the first step towards the entrance of Santa’s Village. He shook his head at the poles decorated to look like candy canes as he walked between them. Christmas at home was a more subdued affair, something he was grateful for. Even with all the extra touches Maggie insisted on adding it was still a lot easier to stomach than this nightmare.

Sure, he enjoyed Christmas. He just didn’t see why people had to go overboard. He scratched his head and scanned the crowd, searching for Maria and coming up empty. He wasn’t even sure where to start and Amy hadn’t given him much to go on. She’d just told him where Maria had gone and given him a small smile when she said it wouldn’t take long for him to locate her. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

Roswell had seemed pretty small the few times he’d visited his girlfriend, but given the sheer number of people that were everywhere he looked it was obviously bigger than he’d thought it was. He made his way through the crowd, pausing when he caught the sound of his girlfriend’s voice carried on the air but he paused to look down when something collided with his legs.

“Hi! I’m Timmy.”

He smiled at the little boy that hadn’t bothered to move back away from him and was instead clutching his jeans with a sticky peppermint stained hand.

“Hey. Already been to see Santa?”

Timmy nodded. “I askeded for a bike,” he said with a conspiratorial grin. “What’d you ask for?”

“I think I’m a little too big to ask Santa for presents, buddy. But good luck with that bike.”

“Timmy, what’d I tell you about running off like that?” a man asked as he hurried to join them. He looked at the man his son had befriended. “Sorry about that, he got away from me.”

“No harm done.”

The little boy took his daddy’s hand and waved with the one clutching the half-eaten candy cane. “Mewee Chwismas!”

Michael waved and watched them walk away, smiling to himself as he remembered all the times his dad had chased after him when he was a little boy intent on exploring the world around him. After a few moments he listened to catch the sound of Maria’s voice and as soon as he identified it he continued on his way.

He expected to find her hanging out with her friends. What he wasn’t expecting was to come face to face with an elf that looked suspiciously like his girlfriend. He smirked when the DeLuca-Parker rendition of Jingle Bells came to an abrupt halt mid-chorus and he shifted to cross his arms over his chest and just let his eyes do the walking.

His gaze slowly traveled over Maria, taking her in from the tip of her little elf hat down to the elf shoes complete with jingle bells attached to the toes. In spite of the ridiculous hat and the stupid shoes the rest of the outfit wasn’t that bad. No, he thought as he reversed his journey, it wasn’t bad at all.

“If you make one smart remark about this stupid costume,” Maria started.

Michael shrugged. “Gotta admit, I’m not impressed with the hat or the shoes, but the rest of it’s not bad.” He grinned when she just shot a disbelieving look at him. “What can I say? It works for me.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” She rolled her eyes at him but she couldn’t ignore the way it made her feel when he watched her like he was. “I was just about to go on break – “

“The entire universe is against me today!”

Their conversation stalled when Isabel stormed over to them.

“Where were the two of you?” she demanded as her manic gaze bounced from one of her elves to the other.

“Where were we?” Liz echoed in confusion. “We’ve been right here the whole time, singing Jingle Bells and fielding questions from little kids who seem to hate elves.”

“Did you just happen to miss that Santa took a break and he didn’t come back?”

“Um…” Maria glanced at the spot where Santa had resided for the past hour. “He gets a break before us?”

Isabel glared at her and lifted her right hand that they only now realized was clutching a Santa hat in a death grip. “Let’s focus on the important information. Santa. Has. Gone. Missing. I have more than a hundred children still waiting to sit on his lap and tell him what they want for Christmas. Do you have any idea how many little children will have their dreams dashed if they miss this opportunity? There’s nowhere else in town for them to go to see Santa on Christmas Eve.”

“That sucks.”

She made a face as she looked at the guy she was becoming more and more convinced was her brother and after a moment she stood back and just looked at him.

“Why’re you lookin’ at me like that?” Michael growled, unnerved when she slowly started to smile.

“Oh, no,” Maria mumbled under her breath.

“Yes, you’ll do,” Isabel said finally as she reached up and pulled the Santa hat down over Michael’s head before he could get away from her.

“What?” His eyes lifted to stare at the fluffy white ball that landed in his face. “No,” he bit out as he snatched the hat off and shook it in her face, “not in a million years would I put on that stupid costume and sit through a hundred kids tellin’ me what they want for Christmas.”

“Do I have to do everything?”

He made a face at her. “Aren’t you the organizer or whatever? Yeah, so if things go wrong I guess it’s on you to pick up the pieces and fix things.”

Her eyes narrowed for a moment. “You’re absolutely right.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him away from the others, talking a mile a minute as she issued orders and explained what he was supposed to do.

Maria shook her head as Isabel herded him over to the area she and Liz had been sent to when they’d had to change into their costumes. She couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up at the trapped look on his face as he tried time after time to get a word in edgewise, to tell Isabel he wasn’t dressing up as Santa, because she knew from experience it wouldn’t matter in the end.

Michael Guerin, alien-human hybrid, was about to put on the red and white suit and become their reluctant Santa for the rest of the afternoon.