AusCat – Thank you so much, glad that you like our little story.
ashleyt – Well, not exactly, remember, the meeting with the code talker will take place on a different Rez, so they won’t meet. But Alex and Isabel will discover some interesting things.
starcrazed – Max had a reaction, quite a violent one in fact, which is something that Isabel noticed. Michael made quite an impact on Max, to the point of him getting more... well, not violent, but he reacted instinctively and just that is a sign that Michael’s presence triggered something in Max.
cjsl8ne – Alex is a cool character, very open. It helps with someone like Isabel.
Flamehair – Thanks for reading.
Ti88 –
Oh, the irony, huh?when those guys fgure out they are keeping the same secret from each other its gonna be a riot.
Part 70
Maria moved up to join Michael near the edge of the cliff when he stopped Sundance and dismounted. Her eyes widened in shock when her gaze swung out over the valley spread out before them. It was like a whole other world! There were trees as far out as she could see, dotting the landscape and covering everything with a blanket of green, right up to the point where they climbed the side of the snowy mountains in the distance.
She dismounted, dropping to the ground and maintaining her balance courtesy of her death grip on the saddle horn. “Michael, this is amazing!”
He glanced at her, taking in her awed expression and the excitement causing her green eyes to sparkle. “Yeah,” he muttered gruffly, “it’s amazing alright.” He wasn’t the slightest bit interested in their surroundings at the moment, captivated by her and her reaction to something that meant so much to him.
“Do you ever wonder how things like this are possible? I mean, behind us it’s all desert with bushes and trees here and there, but you come up here, to the cliffs, and down below, it’s so completely different… it’s like being in two places at once.” She turned to look at him when he started taking his equipment off of the third horse, setting it on a flat rock before he turned his attention to unsaddling Sundance and Rascal. “What’re you doing?”
“We’re gonna be here for a while, so this gives them a chance to rest before we have to leave again.” He tied the horses off a little ways away and came back to unpack his camera equipment, sitting on the rock and glancing at her as he reached for the first bag. “So, you got any requests for the shots?”
“I don’t even know what you’ve got in mind, so…”
Michael grinned as he checked the lenses in the case. “You’ll like what I’ve got in mind, Maria, but if there’re any shots that you’d like to do,” he shrugged, “I can work that in, too.”
“Oh, no, not that I can think of.”
He watched her for a few minutes before he set the camera down in its case. “You’re not nervous, are you?”
Maria shrugged. “Maybe a little.”
“Why? It’s just me takin’ the photos; no one else ever has to see them.”
“I know, but I’m not…” She waved her hand in a downward motion, gesturing to herself as she shrugged again. “Why do you wanna photograph me?”
“Why?” he repeated, confused. Why’d he wanna photograph her? What kinda question was that? Because he thought she was the sexiest girl he’d ever seen and he wanted the opportunity to capture her beauty on film. And he wasn’t saying any of that out loud! He just shook his head and reached out to take her hand, tugging her over to the large rock where his equipment was strewn out. “You’ve trusted me with everything else so far, so trust me with this too, okay? I promise you won’t be disappointed.”
Maria swallowed hard and nodded; she trusted him without question. That wasn’t the problem. “Posing like this is just kinda… I don’t know, personal, and cameras have a tendency to point out flaws – “
“I’ll take your flaws over perfection any day of the week, Maria. Flaws are part of who we are, they’re part of what makes us into the people we become, and I’ve got my fair share of ‘em, so there’s no need to worry about that. As long as you trust me, there’s nothin’ to worry about.”
“Okay, I’m putting myself in your hands. And, y’know that thing they always say about the camera adding ten pounds? Well, it’d better not be evident in your photos. Now, where do you want me?”
Michael glanced at the sky and then looked around as he judged the best angle for the shots he wanted to take. After a few minutes of studying the path of sunlight in relation to the landscape he nodded to himself and motioned for her to follow him. “I don’t want you to get too close to the edge, but I wanna start with a few shots with the valley as a backdrop. The sun’s not too high yet, so…”
Maria just went along with him as he started mumbling to himself about light, distance, depth, and some other stuff that meant nothing to her. Once he was satisfied with things he took a step back and studied her, tipping his head to one side before moving to pick up the notebook lying next to his equipment. “Okay, I’ve got some outfits in mind for the shots,” he said as he flexed his right hand. “Nothin’ tacky, but if you wanna check ‘em out first…”
“No, I’m trusting you with this, so it’s all on you.” She watched him as he glanced at the notebook once more, as if he were committing something to memory, before walking back over to her. His hands flexed a couple of times before he placed them at her waist and she could feel their heat through her shirt. Her gaze was riveted on him, captivated by the expression of intense concentration on his face as he manipulated her clothes into something completely different from their original form.
Michael took a couple of steps back to admire his handiwork and he smiled when Maria looked down at herself and he heard her exclamation of disbelief. The dress was a cross between the style worn by late 18th century royalty and something more exotic, similar to those worn in India.
“It’s incredible, Michael. I’ve never seen anything like it; where on earth did you come up with the idea for it?”
He lifted his right hand and scratched his eyebrow with his thumb. “Well, it’s not somethin’ you’d ever see on Earth. Sometimes I have flashes that I think are from my planet because what I see in them is so drastically different from anything I’ve ever seen here.”
“What makes you think the flashes are from your planet?” she asked curiously.
“Well, the aliens in the flashes kinda give it away, what with their blue skin and white hair… anyway, judgin’ by their choice of extravagant clothes I’m guessin’ they’re more eccentric than humans are.” He frowned when she stared at him for several long minutes. “What?”
“I’m sorry, Michael.” Maria shook her head and chuckled. “I’m trying to picture you with blue skin and white hair, but I keep coming up with this image of either one of the blue aliens on the old Star Trek or Papa Smurf.”
Michael scowled at her comment.
As soon as she noticed his expression Maria carefully crossed the distance separating them, doing her best not to trip over the long dress. “Hey, look at me,” she urged, reaching up to frame his face in her hands. “I’m not making fun of you or your people. It’s just hard to picture you different than you are; not that it would matter to me if you did look different – “
“You say that – “
“I’m not just saying it, Michael, I mean it.” She stretched up to kiss him as her hands slid around his neck to tangle in his hair where it brushed against his collar and it took several moments before he allowed himself to return the kiss. “I would’ve fallen in love with you regardless of your skin color because you’d still be you where it counts the most.” Her right hand settled over his heart and he lifted his left hand to cover hers, pressing it against his chest.
“Papa Smurf, huh?” He shook his head and grinned as he moved her back to her original position. “I guess that’d make you Smurfette?”
“Uh, no!”
“Why not?”
“There were like, hundreds of Smurfs running around in the village… all of them male, and only one Smurfette… you do the math on that one.”
Michael chuckled and nodded as he picked up the camera. “Yeah, that always struck me as wrong, too.” He brought the camera up and moved around as he tried to line the angle up just right. “Okay,” he said just before his finger pressed the button that would freeze her image, “here we go.”
*****
Isabel looked up from the paper she had been trying to write for the past hour when she heard the knock on her door. She scowled at the blank sheet of paper as she called out for her visitor to enter and she smiled when her father stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
“Hey, Daddy.”
“What’re you workin’ on, honey?”
She shrugged and held up her Psychology textbook. “I’m supposed to be writing a paper on the evolution of human behavior, but I haven’t gotten very far.”
Philip glanced at the notebook and the blank page it was turned to. “No, it doesn’t look like you’ve gotten very far at all.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up the notebook as he looked at her. “You seem a bit preoccupied,” he observed. “You wanna tell your old man about it?”
“I don’t know,” she hedged. “It’s just…”
“Does this have anything to do with your search for your biological parents?”
Isabel bit her bottom lip as she debated what to tell her father. “Well, maybe… Alex may have found something, but it’s connected to the Navajo Reservation in the northwestern corner of the state.” She shrugged. “Alex found it while he was doing research for a history project we’ve been working on, and it’s just something we wanted to check out.”
“So, y’all are workin’ on a history project as well? Since when are you interested in anything to do with history?” he teased. “Does this sudden interest have anything to do with Alex? When do I get to meet the young man that’s got my little girl excited about history?” The slightest hint of a blush on her cheeks made him pause – his daughter had never once blushed over any guy and he didn’t want to make her feel self-conscious or uncomfortable, he wanted her to be able to talk to him without worrying about those things. “So, tell me about this project you’re workin’ on.”
Isabel stared at her father for a few long seconds as she considered what to tell him. After a few minutes she sat up straighter and pulled her long legs up, crossing them Indian-style. She was just bursting to tell someone about the research she and Alex were doing; she knew she couldn’t reveal the truth behind it, but this was an opportunity to share something so meaningful to her with her father. “Okay, but, it’s a secret.”
“Another secret?” Philip asked, surprised.
“Well, it’s an extra credit project and we don’t want anyone else to take our idea.” Her features became animated as she described the project with an enthusiasm that was normally reserved for things like a new fashion line or the Christmas pageant.
Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she talked about their search for a Navajo code talker and Philip found himself being drawn in as she talked about something that was obviously very important to her. “So, you have an opportunity to actually meet and speak with one of these code talkers?”
“Yeah, they contacted Alex this morning and told him that Robert Silver Fox has agreed to meet with us.”
“Uh-huh, and he lives on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona?”
“Um-hmm, Alex said it’s about a five and a half hour drive out there; he’s already mapped it out and everything, see?” She leaned over to grab another notebook and pulled the email and directions that he had printed off and left with her. She handed them to her father and watched him as he scanned over the information contained within the papers.
“Not exactly the kind of trip you could take on a school day, is it?” he asked after a few minutes.
“No, I guess not.”
Philip nodded and he handed the papers back to her as he stood up, leaning over to drop a kiss on her head. “Mom said dinner would be ready shortly and I have a few calls to make before then, so I’d better go take care of that.” He paused in the doorway and turned to look at his daughter. “We’ll figure somethin’ out, honey.” He winked at her and smiled. “Trust me.”
*****
Michael finished checking the last few shots he had taken before removing the memory card and replacing it with a fresh one. He had lost count of the number of photos he had taken so far; it was enough to fill up the first memory card but he wanted to be ready if another photographic opportunity presented itself.
“Which it just did,” he muttered to himself as he turned around and his gaze landed on his sleeping girlfriend. She had been wearing a long medieval dress in the last set of photographs he had taken, lying on a blanket on the sand, the dress draped in such a way that the blanket couldn’t be seen. After he had finished with the shots she had taken his jacket and rolled it up, resting her head on it as she watched him check over his work.
Apparently she had closed her eyes to rest them and before long she had dozed off, her face completely relaxed and peaceful. He studied her, his mind searching for the perfect outfit for the shot she had presented him with. He smiled as it came to him and he moved to kneel down next to her, running his hands over the dress and transforming it into a long, flowing gown made of a gossamer material that shimmered in the sunlight. He moved back and grabbed the camera, dropping down to lie flat on the sand with his weight braced on his elbows as he brought the camera up, carefully cradled in his hands as he lined up the shot.
He shook his head as he thought about her fear that the camera would highlight her flaws and draw attention to her imperfections. They were the very things that made her who she was; without them she would be someone altogether different, someone he wouldn’t have been attracted to.
He smiled as he snapped off a series of pictures, chuckling to himself as he remembered how animated she had become once she had gotten comfortable in front of him and his camera. She was a natural and the more relaxed she had gotten the more her confidence had shown through and he knew the photographs were going to be beautiful.
He shifted to a new angle when the wind picked up just enough to create a breathless effect as it gently blew over her prone body, ruffling her hair and lifting the gauzy material of the dress. He finished the last set of shots and put the camera away so it would be safe from the sand being blown around and then he stretched out beside her, his hands quickly transforming the long gown back into her original outfit of jeans and a pink tee shirt.
She honestly had no idea how beautiful she was, he thought as he cradled his chin in his left hand and just watched her. Did the rest of the world notice it? Probably not. He doubted that most people had ever seen what he saw when he looked at her, but that was fine with him.
His right hand stretched out in her direction and he used his fingertips to trace over her features. Despite his eye for photography he had never spent so much time studying a single person’s face, and he wanted to commit every inch of her to memory. His heated gaze was filled with intensity as it slid over her body, tracing its lines and curves before retracing the visual path he had just taken. He froze for a moment when his eyes lifted to her face and he was met by her amused green gaze.
“What’s on your mind, Spaceboy?” Her tone matched her expression.
Michael stared at her and his world suddenly shifted on its axis before righting itself as he realized that the feelings he had for her had a name. Holy hell! He was in love with her! Whoa, this was real… it was… it was life-altering. He had known that his feelings for Maria ran deep, but he had never expected to have a connection with this much depth.
Even though his emotions and his connection with her ran deep he had never dared to examine it too closely or to attempt to define it. His gaze traced over her features as he studied her with this new revelation fresh in his mind, almost feeling as if he were seeing her for the very first time.
Maria had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from voicing the questions running through her mind as his scrutinizing gaze roamed over her face. The expressions on his face were rapidly chasing after each other; shock, a hint of fear, amazement, incredulity, and finally acceptance. It was killing her to remain silent, but she could tell that there was something big going on and that he needed to work through it on his own.
Michael shifted closer to her and his right hand came up to rest his palm against her neck as his thumb swept from her jaw, up over her cheek, and back again. He saw the unasked questions in her eyes as he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers and he growled when she latched onto his shoulders and rolled onto her back, pulling him on top of her.
The flashes were unexpected and Michael quickly realized that he had no control over them. Having never experienced the flashes while kissing any other girl he quickly pulled back and stared down at Maria apologetically. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, wiping the back of his hand over his mouth. “That’s never happened before… I don’t know – “
Maria was amazed by the intensity of the flashes; it was her first time experiencing them, but it was the fact that the images were accompanied by emotions that surprised her. It had to mean something that she had gotten the flashes because he had just admitted that it had never happened with anyone else. He had just given her something that no one else had ever been given access to, she realized. “You let me in, Michael… you really let me in,” she said, smiling as she reached up to frame his face in her hands.
His expression showed reluctance, hesitation, and there was just slightest shadow of fear and doubt in his dark eyes. “It doesn’t bother you?”
Maria carded her fingers through his hair as she shook her head. “It wasn’t something that I was expecting, but no, it doesn’t bother me.” She tugged him closer and kissed him again. “Did you get flashes too?”
“That depends,” he said, his tone teasing. “Did you have a Dalmatian dog when you were a kid?”
“Oh, my God! Really? You saw that?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know how to control the flashes, Maria, so either of us could see anything about the other. If you’re not comfortable with that…”
“Michael, we’ve all got embarrassing stuff in our pasts, and if you were anyone else I wouldn’t be okay with stuff like that being found out. But, you’re not anyone else,” she said as she pressed a line of kisses along his stubborn jaw. “I think I’ll survive if you see anything like that, but what about you?”
He shifted his weight onto his left elbow as his right hand came up to grasp her chin and direct her gaze to his. “You know what I am, you know who I am, you’ve survived my family, and you’ve accepted my search for the truth and taken it on as if it were your own.” He lowered his head to kiss her and paused when he was less than a breath away. “I love you, Maria” he whispered against her lips, “and there’s nothin’ I need to hide from you.”