Chapter Twenty Five


Michael sat at the table after making the first pot of coffee for the night. He pushed Maria from his brain and tried to concentrate on Lorelei. He took a deep breath and only saw one thing in his minds eye: Maria DeLuca. He wondered if she was doing the right thing. Not for him, but for her. He thought about getting on his knees and praying that she was doing it for herself and he wasn't going to be the one left behind. He really didn't want to be rebound guy; everything felt so special with her, so real.

His eyes flicked to the 8X10 glossy of Lorelei on the wall and felt different. Even more different than a couple of days before. He was drawing away from her. She was falling into the victim only category and he wasn't quite sure how that made him feel. Drawing away from Lorelei might be the best thing for him, he concluded. Seeing the case from a new point of view, not as a victim too, but as an aggressive investigator. Lorelei had always clouded his mind and now she was fading away. Michael knew he'd never forget her, or any of his other girls, but the attachment was lessening. He smiled to himself knowing that the reason behind his feelings was the flaxen haired wonder he was waiting for.

The blank page of the legal pad in front of him was beginning to get on his nerves. Maria had only been gone about twenty minutes and he still had nothing. The last thing he wanted to do was disappoint Maria. Not tonight. Not ever.

The black Bic pen in his hand began to move across the paper in front of him as he retold his story of meeting Lorelei. He crept into every crevice of his brain to remember the details. The details about her family and friends, the details that she let slip.

An hour later he didn't have much more than their history. Some. Lorelei was an only child. She grew up in Richmond Virginia and relocated to Quantico. Why? She was a sculptor and taught the art in the back of a studio her friend owned. Julie something was the owner. Lorelei didn't talk about her past much. He remembered meeting her parents once and it was brief, right before they had left for Seattle. Her parents met them at the airport to say good-bye; they still lived in Richmond. At least he thought they did. A lot can change in two years and that was the last time he had talked to them, the second time and the last time was to tell them their beautiful daughter was dead.

Boyfriends? Michael put a big question mark by that word. She wasn't a virgin when he had met her; but he had never asked about any others before him. He didn't need, or want, to know about that. Once she was his, she was his completely. Friends? Another big question mark. Besides Julie something who owned the studio she never talked about friends. It didn't seem odd at the time, but hindsight is always twenty-twenty. Everyone always has someone left over from school or a job that they stay in touch with at least periodically. Lorelei hadn't. He shook his head reconciling with the fact that when he became involved with her; she was always there. Her life seemed to revolve around him and nothing else. Moving to Seattle with him. Going along with whatever he wanted to do. Michael slapped the tabletop in exasperation.

"Did it piss you off?"

The voice came from the doorway and Michael smiled before turning around. Slowly he swiveled in his chair and met the face of the woman who was making him think. The woman who was letting him breathe. The woman, in just a few short days, who had voluntarily let him fall in love with her.

"Why are you beating up the table?" She smiled through a veil of hurt as she neared him. "I don't know if I can get you another one if you break it. I'm not exactly on the best terms with the boss around here right now." She sat next to him avoiding his inquisitive gaze and fiddled with the side holster. "You freaked me out. I was scared driving ho- Driving tonight, alone. Why'd you do that?"

"I didn't want anything to happen to you," he touched her icy hand. "Cold?"

"Chilled to the bone," she pressed her lips together and closed her eyes, still facing down into her lap. "Did you remember anything about Lorelei?"

Michael nodded and realized she couldn't see him. "Yes, a few things. Well, not really things I remember about her, but things I didn't know about her. Questions I should have asked."

"You couldn't know what to ask," she shrugged. "You never thought she'd be gone so soon. You figured you had years. Remember the kids? The dog named Sam?"

Michael let out a breath and waited. The bitterness in her voice was beginning to outweigh the calm and forced joviality she had when she first entered the room. "Are you okay?" He cringed as he said it; perfectly aware that was exactly the wrong thing to say. He waited for the reaction and wasn't disappointed.

Maria looked up at him through the tops of her red rimmed eyes. "No, I'm not okay. I was okay, but now I'm not. Do I regret what I just did? Hell no. It was the best thing in the world for me to do. Do I feel horrible that I just broke someone's heart that I care very much about? Hell yes. I feel rotten about it and I'll probably go to hell for doing it."

"I don't think you're going to go to hell for anything, Maria," he traced circles on the back of her hand with his fingertip. The circles changed to hearts. "As long as you did it for-"

"The right reasons, yeah, I know. I did." She withdrew her hand from his and rubbed her temples. "So, what did you come up with? Anything useful?"

He thought he detected a hint of sarcasm in her tone but dismissed it. It was an emotional night for her. For him, too. He handed her the legal pad and watched as she read it. Not seeing into her eyes as she read was making Michael's heart pound.

Her body was stiff, both hands holding the pad. "Didn't you ever ask her about what her life was like before she met you?" Maria finally looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Weren't you curious?"

He shook his head slowly. "At the time, no, to be honest. I thought I met this great girl and we were going to live happily ever after. I didn't want to know about past boyfriends. I wanted to think that I was the first."

"But you weren't," Maria lifted an eyebrow. "You wrote she wasn't a virgin, so there was at least one other before you. Her parents? You didn't go see them after she died? What about the funeral? Didn't they come?"

Michael shook his head. "No. They didn't come. No one came really, she didn't know that many people."

"Where is she buried?" Maria lessened the stress in her tone realizing that she was coming across sounding like a bitch. "Seattle?"

He shook his head again. "After the funeral in Seattle, her body was flown back to Richmond to be buried in the family plot. I've never been there."

Maria opened her mouth to ask why, but changed her mind. Each person dealt with grief in his or her own way. Maria herself ended her relationship with Kyle and was on the brink of starting a new one during her time of grief.

"I will go, when he's caught." Michael looked away from her and stared out into the darkness of the window. "I should call her parents or go there. I should have done that two years ago. I didn't realize there was so much I didn't know about her until you brought it up."

She watched him as he spoke into the night. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry for, you were right." He shrugged. "I was clouded by her and now I'm not. I should have probed into her past the way I did the others. I have to do it now."

"It'll be easier now," she placed her cold hand on his warm thigh and felt the ice melt with his heat.

He turned around slowly to face her and nodded. "It will be easier now." He touched the tip of her chin and tilted her head up to face him. "Everything is easier now."

The smile that graced her face was genuine. "Yeah." There was more she wanted to say, but couldn't. She wanted to tell him every thought and idea that was billowing up inside her from somewhere deep. "I guess you should work on that and I'll meet number six. I still feel the clock, Michael."

"I do too," he flipped open the laptop in front of him. "I'll start on Lorelei's background here, well, the best that I can. I'll call her parents in the morning and if need be, I'll fly to Richmond tomorrow." He handed her the next folder from one of the victim boxes. "Number six, Frannie Lewis."

Maria took the folder and set in front of her. She stood up and undid the clasp of the holster and took it off. She set it on the table with a clang. "Maybe I should get one of those cool ankle things."

"An ankle holster?" Michael raised his eyebrows in amusement. "I don't think they do you much good if your pants don't cover it. I told you, you need to use a shoulder holster. I can find you one that won't chafe your arms."

"Thanks," she smiled. "But I still think an ankle one would look cool."

"I have an Uncle Mike's ankle holster in my room, I'll let you borrow it if you want." He crossed his leg, resting his ankle on the opposite knee.

"What else do you have in your room?" Maria asked and immediately reddened. "Oh God. That didn't sound right." She continued to blush while Michael smiled. "Quit smiling at me!" She relaxed and sat back down. She looked around the room and got the chills. Wishing she'd remembered to bring in a sweatshirt from the car she rubbed her bare arms and felt her nipples straining against the fabric of her tank top.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Michael leaned forward and rubbed her arms over her hands.

"Sorry?" Maria felt her voice rise an octave in surprise.

"My turn," he chuckled. "That didn't sound quite right. I meant would you like to go somewhere else and work? Our days and nights are mixed up and I know you don't really want to be spending tonight in here. Not considering…"

Considering every time I walk in this stupid station I think of Kyle? Maria wanted to ask but refrained. Michael was on to something. She did want out of the station tonight. The war room would always be hers, but the rest of the building belonged to Kyle and she didn't want to think about Kyle. Not tonight.

"Yeah," she nodded and glanced at the wall clock. "It's late though. I don't know where…"

"What about the B&B? I mean, I'm sure we can use the dining room." He added the last bit quickly. "Isabel won't mind, right?"

Maria shook her head slowly and then nodded. The B&B was perfect. If she showed up on Isabel and Alex's doorstep with a suitcase in her hand and nowhere else to go they had to take her in. Right? "Perfect. Let's pack up."

Michael closed the laptop and put Frannie's file back in the box. "We'll come back here in the morning?" He asked wondering how much they should take with them.

"Yeah," she nodded. Everything always looked brighter in the morning. "In the morning."

Michael gathered up various folders, papers and envelops and stacked them inside of the victim box. He handed Maria the laptop and looked around the room. "Anything else?"

She looked around and shook her head. Michael followed her to the door and rested the box on his hip as he looked back at the wall of his girls. His eyes fell on Lorelei as he flipped off the light.

*        *        *
Chapter Twenty Six

Michael and Maria packed what they needed for the night into the trunk of the Mercedes. Her Miata was next to it; she opened the trunk and got out her suitcase without saying a word. She set it on the ground and unzipped it, perfectly aware of Michael watching her.

She rummaged around until she found what she was looking for, a sweatshirt. She slipped it on and started zipping up the suitcase. She blushed with the knowledge of nightgowns and underwear on top. She hefted the bag back into her trunk and faced Michael.

"We're taking two cars?" He asked as she slammed his trunk down.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Let's go."

They parted ways after a longing look. Michael followed her the short drive to the B&B and parked in back of her on the street. He watched her get out of the convertible and sighed. Shaking his head at himself, he got out of the car and walked around the back. He opened the trunk and took out the box and put the laptop on top of it before joining Maria as she struggled with her suitcase and duffel and eventually dropped her purse.

"Damn it!" She shouted and dropped the suitcase. She looked to Michael with pleading eyes. "Could you carry my purse?"

He laughed and bent down grabbing the suitcase handle. He steadied himself and shook his head walking up the path to the front door. Maria followed behind him with duffel and purse in hand, smiling. She stepped around him and pushed the front door open letting him in. Isabel met them in the hallway, her eyes wide.

"Hi Maria. Agent Guerin."

"Please, Isabel, call me Michael. Is it okay if we use the dining room tonight?" He asked as he walked into the open room and set the box and computer on the wide oaken table.

"Of course," she smiled and relaxed. Her eyes trailed to the suitcase in his hand and the bags Maria was holding. "Maria?"

Maria blushed. "I need a favor." She motioned Isabel out of the room and followed her. "Where's Alex?" She asked once they were out of earshot from Michael. They sat next to each other on a floral sofa that Maria sank into.

"Over at Max's," her normally bright eyes turned dark. "He's helping with some cleaning and stuff. Max isn't himself yet and I can't…You know. It's hard to see my brother like that. So Alex went over with beer and pizza."

"Max," Maria said softly and shook her head.

"Time will heal," Isabel patted Maria's hand. Her eyes brightened. "So, what's going on? Working here tonight? I mean, that's fine, actually. Oh, you wanted to ask me something?" She raised her eyebrows.

Maria felt herself blush again. "We're going to be working here tonight, but we'll try to keep it down." She squeezed her eyes shut and crinkled her nose. "You know what I mean. Anyway, I know you said yesterday you didn't have any rooms."

"Maria-"

"All I need is a couch. I can take this one," she pleaded. "Please Isabel. I don't want to, no, I can't go to my moms. I don't have anywhere else to go." Her voice broke and she wondered if she sounded pitiful enough.

"You left Kyle," Isabel didn't ask, she knew, she could read it in her friend's eyes. "How did he take it?"

Maria shook her head; the waves of guilt were back and making her seasick. She told Isabel the overview of the discussion and felt closer to her than she had in a long time, maybe ever. "I did it for the right reasons." Maria defended herself.

"I know you did," Isabel smiled. "And of course you can stay here. I should have told you yes yesterday…But today we have a room for you."

Maria let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

"Actually, the room is right next door to Agent Guerin's," her eyes twinkled.

"Stop it," Maria laughed. "We're working together, that's it."

"Whatever," Isabel said in a singsong voice.  She stood up. "You going to be working late?" She winked making Maria laugh.

"I don't know," she said behind smile.

"Well, when my beloved gets home, have him take your bags upstairs." The smile vanished. "I'm sorry about this afternoon, I didn't mean to sound so cryptic about Agent Guerin. I like him." She shrugged. "I can see why you're attracted to him and vice versa. It's a good thing Maria. You're too much for this town and the life you put yourself into; it just took you some time to figure that out. Kyle will recover. Eventually everyone recovers."

Maria smiled an answer. Although the newness of their undefined relationship was something she wanted to talk about it, it didn't feel right. Not yet. Kyle was still so close to the surface but hearing those words from a woman whose opinion she valued was priceless. She stood and hugged Isabel. "Thank you."

Isabel nodded and broke away from her. "I can make coffee for you two, at least the first pot, then I'm going to bed."

"Thanks, but I can get it."

"Maybe I want to make it and see a real life FBI Agent at work for a few minutes." She admitted. "Although the reason he's here is tragic, it's still exciting. The most exciting thing to come to this town in a long time. The FBI, here to solve the murder of Liz Parker." She tilted her head. "There's more to it, isn't there?"

Maria took a deep breath. "Isabel…"

She held up her hand. "It's none of my business, I know. I'll make coffee and be on my way with the smallest possible intrusions. Promise."

Maria watched Isabel Whitman as she strode through the sitting room towards the kitchen. She smiled after her hostess. Now that Liz was gone, Maria only had Isabel and Alex as friends. Kyle wasn't going to be overly happy to see her anytime soon; one more friend that bit the dust. She choked on the simile and bowed her head taking a few deep breaths.

The doubts of her actions of leaving Kyle were nonexistent. She kept a promise to herself, that someday they could be friends. She would pay good money to have them revert back into the special friendship they used to have. The one before all the love and sex.

She stood up, stretched, and walked to the dining room. Leaning against the doorframe, she watched Agent Michael Guerin. His strong jaw, set tight in the task in front of him. His dark eyes, the deep pools of mystery and sadness. His full lips as they puckered.

Maria felt the ache inside of her again. She watched as he pushed up his sleeves exposing his forearms. She watched his hands as they typed mercilessly on the laptop in front of him. She closed her eyes and waited a beat before walking into the room.

"Hi."

"Hi," he turned around to face her and halfway smiled.

She thought she was melting. She stepped towards him and parted her lips to say something, but words didn't seem fitting. She licked her parted lips, leaned into him and kissed him.

She smiled as she broke away from him. "Okay. I'm better now."

"So my kiss can make you better?" He raised an eyebrow at her, grinning.

You have no idea, Agent Michael, she thought but only offered him a shrug. She sat down in the straight-backed chair beside his and rested her elbows on the tabletop. "Any progress?"

"Would you believe me if I told you no?"

"Oh yeah," she yawned. "Isabel's making us some coffee and I have a room of my very own!" She thought she detected a little deflation in his demeanor at her exclamation.  Deep down, she might have been feeling a little deflated herself.

"That's great," he nodded and tapped a few keys on the keyboard. "Now back to Lorelei. Are you ready to meet Frannie Lewis?"

She shook her head. "No, not yet. I have to ask you something about your relationship with Lorelei first. Something that's been bothering me."

"Oh boy," Michael leaned back in his chair and rested his hands on the back of his neck. "Okay, shoot."

"I understand the whole wanting to think of yourself as the first, but didn't you ever ask anything about her past? You know before you? I mean, you had to want to know why she didn't have any friends, didn't mention anything about her family, right? That's all normal. Those are normal things to be curious about. And you're a pretty normal guy so…What gives?" She crossed her legs as she turned in her seat to face him.

"Okay…" He said slowly. "I was curious, I'm an investigator, it's my job to be curious. When I met her, my world went spinning. I didn't think about things like that at first, I just thought how lucky I was to have met her and have her in my life. When people don't want to talk about their family, there's usually a reason. Not everyone has a good relationship with their family."

Maria nodded and understood. Her mother drove her crazy and the closest thing she ever had to a father was Kyle's dad. Families could be very complicated.

"She told me her parents weren't happy with her decision to become an artist; so they argued. She dropped out of college and worked on her art."

"Friends, Michael? Everyone has at least one."

"She had one, Julie, she owned the studio that Lorelei used." He let out a deep breath.  "And no, I don't know anything about her, hell, I don't even know her last name. Lorelei was friendly to everyone but she was shy. Remember how I told you her and Natalie were almost friends? That 's how Lorelei was. She was a great person to talk to, but she never let people get close to her, except for me, and apparently I asked all the wrong questions."

"You were in love. People get blinded by love."

"Yeah, I guess so. But now, here it is two years later and I have to go sifting through everything that I should have done right after she died. Did it strike me funny that her parents didn't come to her funeral? Hell yeah, but people deal with grief differently. I guess I really never noticed the lack of friends until then."

"Did she ever talk about before you? What she did? Where she went?"

"Not really, it was almost as if her life began when she met me," he smiled. "Well, if that doesn't sound arrogant I don't know what does! I understood her, I was the loner in school, and I ate lunch alone with a book. I didn't need friends to get by and I guessed she didn't either."

The more Maria learned about Lorelei the more she learned about Agent Michael. "You found each other and it seemed complete."

"Exactly," he let out a sigh. "It was the fairytale version and I guess subconsciously, I didn't want to interrupt it. I didn't want to know."

"But now you have to," she touched his hand. "I'm sorry you have to go through this now."

"It's easier now, you were right." He turned his hand over so her palm rested on his.

"Well, I guess it's time for me to meet Frannie." She gazed at his mouth and ached to have it on her.

"Coffee?" Isabel pushed the swinging door from the kitchen open and appeared with a tray in hand. She set it on the table and watched as Maria's and Michael's touch broke. "I won't bother you two, but let me know if there's anything I can do to help, okay?"

"Isabel, thank you for everything." Michael nodded at her. "Just letting us work in here tonight was a Godsend."

"Thanks, Isabel." Maria added and hoped she wasn't blushing.

"Good night," Isabel said over her shoulder as she walked from the room.

They listened to her footsteps on the stairs as she made her way. Michael poured the coffee and added the correct amounts of sugar and cream to Maria's. He handed her the cup and then the file on Frannie Lewis.

Maria opened the file and waited to meet the next one of his girls.

Frances Lewis, who hated the name Frances, was from Rhode Island. She was a party girl. Loved to dance, sing and go out with her friends. She was enrolled in college but didn't mind missing classes to be with her friends. Considering how much school she missed, she was an average student.

She liked to drive to New York for weekends and go to the clubs. Her dream was to be a singer and she was convinced she'd get her big break in New York.

Her build was average, her hair changed colors weekly, when she died it was the same color red as the scarf that was left around her neck. Her ears were pierced multiple times, as well as her nose and eyebrow. A small tattoo of a black music note graced the flesh right above her ankle.

She didn't work; she didn't have to. Her parents owned inherited saw mills in Pennsylvania. She got a new car every two years for her birthday and a new wardrobe with each passing season.

Her body was found in her home, in the living room. She was propped up on the couch in the nude, the red scarf around her neck melting with the length of her hair. Upon returning from a fundraiser, her parents walked inside to find their youngest child cold. The beloved family mutt, Cookies, was lying next to her, whimpering.

Maria finished her second cup of coffee along with the file. It was thinner than the others were. She held the 8X10 picture of Frannie Lewis in her hands and gazed at the representation of youth, one with stars in her eyes.

"Her parents?" Maria asked causing Michael to look away from the computer screen and rub his eyes. "How were they?"

"Upset, confused. They thought for sure it had to do with money," he shrugged. "It didn't, it had to do with me, but it took them a long time to understand that Frannie was killed for no reason that had to do with them. They offered a reward for information, one hundred thousand dollars, and people crawled out of the wood work." He shook his head. "It was a mess until I convinced them to retract it. Then it was silence."

"The dog was with her."

"The dog was a sixteen pound lump of fur. Not a threat, not even close to a threat. When I walked in the house she didn't even know I was there until I started petting her head." Michael glanced at the clock. "It's after two."

"Can I read the letter? Where did it get delivered?"

"To the hotel, Natalie gave me a heads up about this one too." He rummaged through the envelope and handed her the letter. "Two more came after this one before the next victim."

"Do you trust Natalie?"

"Implicitly."

Maria accepted the answer without further question. She opened the letter and read it, her brow wrinkled together.

Agent Guerin

Sings of the Angels
Traces lines in the sand
Not a super hero
Just merely a man.

Nightshades are on
At the core of my delight
Will you understand why
Will you catch me tonight?

Agent Guerin, a man and a mountain
Agent Guerin, can you move it to see?

Maria read it through three times before facing him. "Did he just refer to you as Mohammed? The whole mountain thing?"

"Nothing makes sense to me," he ran his hands through his hair. "That's why I'm not a profiler. I can't read him. I'm an investigator."

"In the other letter, Sara's letter, he said something about nearly being at the core of his duty and here," she tapped the paper, "he says he's at the core. The core, Michael! He's halfway done here, isn't that what core means?"

He nodded slowly. "Damn it! If you're right, and he was half way done at number six, then there's only one more to go."

Maria DeLuca felt her blood run cold.

*         *         *

Chapter Twenty Seven


Michael took Maria's now shaking hand. "Michael."

"The core. The core means the center. The middle, he's almost done and I can't figure out why!" He sighed. "Time really is running out and I should have seen it a long time ago. I should have seen it a year ago. Damn it!"

"Michael," she said his name with the delicacy of a lover.

He faced her, staring into the deep pools of her eyes.  He read the fear on her like a memorized verse of a favorite poem. The fear was etched on her face. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"It's not me I'm worried about. What happens when he's done? Does he come for you then?"

Her fear, Michael realized, was for him. She was scared for him. He didn't know the answer. He was beginning to realize he didn't know much about anything. All the light Maria had shed on his case, their case, was amazing. Now her concern lay with him. Would he be the hunted one? Or had he always been? Did the madman trail him already? Did he really know his every move? Was he here? Was he watching? He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Glancing nervously around his cozy surroundings he felt safe. He'd always felt safe.

"Michael?" She asked subtly drawing him back into the conversation. "Will he? Are you the prize?" >
"I don't know. " He took a deep breath. "I don't want to find out. I want to nail this bastard before he has a chance to finish his project. I don't want anyone else to die because of me and the hard-on he has for me."

"I don't either," she tried to stand strong but the nights emotional roller coaster that she'd been on was draining her. All Maria DeLuca wanted to do was curl up under the blankets and sleep away the night. Sleep away the hurt she knew she'd left Kyle with. Sleep away the fears for Michael. Sleep it all away. Everything's brighter in the morning, right? She nodded to herself and let out a sigh. "Okay, did you find out anything about Lorelei you didn't already know?"

"She doesn't have a file with the Bureau except for her case file. She didn't have a police record." He shrugged. "Neither do her parents. Mr. and Mrs. All-American as far as I can tell. I don't think any of them even got a parking ticket."

Maria nodded and realized Michael was still holding her hand. Her thoughts of crawling under the blankets were exchanged for thoughts of crawling underneath Michael. She smiled, lost in her daydream.

"Are you even listening to me?" Michael laughed getting her attention back.
"Sorry," she knew she was blushing. "I was…spacing out, I guess."

"I guess," he licked his lips leaning into her. Relieved when she met him half way. His crushed against hers; he let go of her hand to wrap his arms around her. In a deft movement, he pulled her on to his lap.

Maria pivoted until she straddled him. Her hands were in his hair, her mouth hungry for his. She felt the ache between her legs and wondered, and hoped, if their undefined relationship was going to be defined soon.

"Maria," he panted in her ear before he licked her earlobe. His tongue toyed with the silver studs. "Maria."

"Michael…" She tilted her head giving him full access to her neck.

He took the invitation and had a fleeting notion to give her a hickey. Instead he kissed the delicate skin back up to her mouth. He cupped her face in his hands and broke away from her, looking at her. "Why can't I stay away from you?" He whispered. He shifted her on his lap, embarrassed, knowing she could feel him harden underneath her.

"I'm irresistible," she smiled and licked his bottom lip.

"That you are," he nodded and shook his head. "I guess we should work a little bit more on this tonight. You know…Tick Tock?"

Maria nodded. Tick Tock. The inevitable tick tock of a psycho killer was going to kill the mood. "You're right. We should work now, play later." She blushed and got off his lap. "You know what I mean."

"I hope I do," his longing gaze made him feel vulnerable. "I really hope I do."

"Oh, you do Agent Michael. You definitely do." She looked over her shoulder at him and winked.

The front door opened and Michael was out of his chair, his hand reaching towards his shoulder holster.

"Hey!" Alex Whitman put his hands in the air with an awkward smile. "It's me, Alex!"

Michael took a step back from and bowed his head. "Sorry."

"What're you guys doing?" Alex asked stepping into the dining room after a nod to Michael. "Are you working here?"

"We are," Maria nodded enthusiastically. "How's Max?"

"Bad," Alex shook his head. "He's trying to keep it together, but he's not doing a great job of it." Alex's eyes trailed over the papers and photos in front of Maria. She covered them with her hands. "He misses Liz. We all do."

"Liz," Maria shook her head and felt like a traitor for not letting Alex see what they were working on. "He's going to hurt for a long time." She cast her eyes towards Michael for a split second. "But he'll recover. Everyone eventually recovers." She smiled as Isabel's words spilled from her mouth.

"Now you sound like my wife," Alex smiled. "I guess she went to bed?"

"A while ago," Michael took his place back at the table.

"Um…" Maria paused wondering if she really should ask Alex to carry her bags up to her room or not as he stepped out of the dining room.

"Whose suitcases?" Alex called before stepping back into the room.

Maria blushed and raised her hand. "They're mine. Isabel said you have a room available."

"Yeah, the newlyweds left for their honeymoon this morning," he explained as the realization came over him. "They're your bags?"

Maria nodded and bit her bottom lip hoping she wouldn't have to explain everything to him. Not now. She shook her head deliberately.

"Oh…Okay," Alex nodded. "I'll take them up for you. Good night."

Maria sighed as he left the room. "Well, that wasn't too awkward now, was it?" Her words dripped with sarcasm.

"Do you want to call it a night?" Michael asked resting his elbows on the table. "I mean, I know this day has pretty much…sucked."

"You know what Michael, this day did not suck." She nodded her head once for confirmation. "It's been a telling day. We know more about what's going on. You're digging into Lorelei's past. We know we have no time left and have to figure out this stupid puzzle before he picks a final victim and then comes after you. We know-"

"No, Maria." He interrupted and picked up her hand. A hand he wanted to feel on his skin. "I mean for you, personally. This has been a hard day."

"Hard, but liberating. I ended something that was in stalemate." She ran her thumb over his knuckles. "I ended something that should have ended awhile ago. I feel bad for hurting Kyle, but me personally, I feel great. I feel free."

"That's a far cry from thinking you were going to hell earlier."

"Well, yeah, I'm over that. I have one important thing on my plate right now. To figure this son-of-a-bitch out." She looked at him and smiled. "Okay, two important things."
He chuckled. "So you want to stay up? For awhile?"

"Yeah, Agent Michael. I want to stay up. I want to meet the next one of your girls. I want to meet number seven, Michael. I want to meet the rest of them and fast."

"The letters, you still think the key is there?"

"He keeps telling you everything is right in your face, where else could it be?"

Where else could it be? Michael asked himself that same question. There was nowhere else. Nothing else was in his face. These girls, his girls as Maria referred to them as, had nothing in common. There was no pattern, no requirements. Nothing to link them. He reached into the box and brought out a folder.

"Number seven was Olivia Marsh." He handed her the folder.

"Thank you," she accepted the folder and immediately took out the picture of her. She had been expecting the portrait that was in each folder, instead got a crime scene photograph. "Oh…"

The color picture in her hand was horrible. A picture is worth a thousand words and the only words going through Maria's head were 'bastard and animal.' Maria could tell that Olivia Marsh had been very pretty in life. That natural kind of pretty that didn't need make-up. Light blond, almost platinum, hair reached barely below her ears. Her bangs were choppy, in that perfectly choppy way. Maria imagined her closed eyes were blue.

Her body had been left outside her parent's home in Benton Illinois. She was home from school for a long weekend and met her fate after a night out with her friends. At the end of the driveway, Olivia Marsh was found supported against the mailbox post. The lone red scarf around her neck was the only thing on her.

"She was beautiful," Maria commented. "Wasn't she?"

"And you see her in death," Michael shook his head. "She was beautiful. Her mom named her Olivia after Olivia Newton-John." He smiled. "She was convinced her daughter was going to grow up to be a super star."

"She never had the chance," Maria took a long look at the death scene of Olivia Marsh before putting the picture away. She opened the folder and read about the life and times of Olivia Marsh.

Michael closed his eyes at the dead end he had run into online. The City of Richmond's public records was down. The bottom of the site told him to check back in a few days and to always remember that 'Virginia is for Lovers."

He shook his head. He wasn't sure if he had a few days or not.

*        *        *

"Tick Tock." The killer laid back on the bed in the hotel room. "Tick Tock. Agent Guerin the time has come. The time to lie and the time to run. You make me smile and I'll miss that when you're gone. Can you figure it out? Tick Tock Agent! Tick Tock!"

The resounding maniacal laughter could be heard down the hall.

*        *        *

Chapter Twenty Eight


Kyle Valenti stood at the kitchen window for hours. Time meant nothing to him, not anymore. He heard the words over and over. I'm not in love with you anymore.
Those few word seared into him, hitting him deeper that he ever thought possible. Maria DeLuca was no longer in love with him and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

When he felt the familiar ache in his knees he sat at the kitchen table and wiped his swollen eyes. It wasn't supposed to be like this, he thought as he shook his head. It wasn't supposed to turn out like this. Although he had told her he might not be there for her when Mr. Hotshit G-Man broke her heart, he knew he would be.

His heart and his head were telling him two different things. His heart wanted to beg her to come back and be with him. Wanted to convince her she still did love him. His head was telling him it had only been a matter of time before she wanted something bigger and better out of her life.

He'd mused over that for awhile. Roswell wasn't enough for Maria DeLuca. Kyle Valenti wasn't enough for Maria DeLuca. She wasn't put on this earth to be the wife of a Sheriff in a dusty town making cookies for the bake sakes at the Elks club. She wasn't meant to sit at home reading books upon books about other people's lives and other places. She was meant to be one of those people she read about. One of those people who had to stretch her wings and soar.

That was one of the things he had always admired about her. Maria DeLuca didn't follow the path put in front of her. She veered off as much as she could. This was her chance to change her life and he couldn't blame her for it. Even though his heart was severely punctured, he did love her enough to let her go.

He shook his head and stood up. The after midnight hours would be different now, he realized. Everything would be different. There would be no more cuddling together talking about their day. No more trying to pry out of the other what they wanted for dinner. No more stolen kisses when they passed each other in hall at the station.

Work. He had hardly considered work until now. He didn't know how he was supposed to react to her at work. It would be all over town within days that she had dumped him, that's what happened in small towns. Yet he still had to see her everyday at work. See her with him, until he left. Which Kyle knew he would.

"Damn him!" He slapped the tabletop. He knew Agent Michael Guerin was somewhat to blame for this too. He saw the way he looked at her, and the way she looked at him.

He turned around in the kitchen and took a deep breath. Everything was going to be okay, he told himself, and I love her enough to want her to be happy. If she's not happy with me, then I can let her go.

"You can do this, Valenti." He nodded. "You can work with her and keep your personal feelings out of it. You can do it."

He thought about calling his dad and telling him, but he wasn't quite prepared to hear a montage of reasons why the DeLuca women were insane. Not right now.

He left the kitchen, walked into the living room and laid down on the couch. Just the thought of sleeping alone in the bedroom that he had shared with Maria was enough to make him cry. He curled up into a semi-fetal position and hugged one of the couch pillows against his chest.

*        *        *

"Olivia Marsh," Maria repeated her name. "A beautiful name for a beautiful girl. How's your end coming?"

"Would you believe me if I told you that the public records for Richmond are down?"
He laughed sarcastically and followed it with a yawn.

"Can't you get into them through all your, you know," she waved her hands in the air in front of her, "bureau connections? Natalie?"

"Not if Richmond's server is down, at least, not without going there and rifling through years of documents." He shook his head. "I don't know if we have that much time. I don't really want to leave…" He almost added the 'you' to the end of his thought, but held back. He didn't want to scare her by sounding too possessive.

"You're going to have to or make a boatload of phone calls if nothing else turns up," she replied and went back to the file in her hand. "She was left at the end of her driveway. So sad. Home for a long weekend from school and she ends up dead. Where did she go to school? North Carolina?" She scanned her notes beside the file.

"Wake Forest," Michael answered from his memory. "She wanted to be a teacher."

Maria nodded and jotted that down on the legal pad. "There wasn't much time, was there? I mean for him to get her, kill her and leave her. How much time? Her friends dropped her off around twelve forty-five in the morning and she was found at two by her dad. What was he doing walking the dog that late anyway?"

"He had a bladder problem. The dog, not her dad." He clarified with a slight chuckle. "He always took the dog out in the middle of the night. The killer had less than an hour and a half to do it."

"Does than lend any credence to the non-randomness of the victims? I mean if he was just going for random, wouldn't he have picked someone that he would have more time with. I mean she was only home for a weekend and her dad takes the dog out at all hours of the night. It almost seems like it had to be her."

Michael watched her talk.

"I could be, and I probably am, way off, but this one feels different. There was a time period he had to work in and it was close. What made Olivia Marsh different from the other ones?"

"Why do you think that she was different?" Michael had his own theories about Olivia, but he wanted to hear Maria out before he divulged his own.

"Okay, she didn't live there anymore, not really. She was away at school and only home for what, three nights? She gets killed on her second night. So there was only a seventy-two hour window for him to make his move. The dog. Who can predict when the dog's going to want to go outside? It just feels like he was pressed to get Olivia. She was important to him for some reason. It's like it had to be her." She shrugged.

"Exactly. Olivia was important," he smiled at her thought process. "She's the one that it seemed most like a 'had to be her' kind of thing. Benton Illinois is not exactly a booming town, but there are a lot of women her age that live there. The bars were still open and yet he chose Olivia. And she was almost unobtainable."

"Her friends dropped her off at home, Michael." The fire in her eyes was back. "They dropped her off at home and he had less than an hour and half to do his thing. He was waiting for her!"

"That's what I thought…"

"It's not random, can you see it now? It had to be Olivia!"

"But why her?"

"I don't know!" Her voice rose and her shoulders sank. "But right there is where you can see that it wasn't random anymore. He was waiting for her because it had to be Olivia. There is a pattern Michael. We just can't figure it out, but there is one!"

He nodded. The same thoughts had gone through his head when he investigated Olivia's death. The same thoughts of stalking and waiting but he could never figure out why.

"Where's the letter?" Maria demanded. She closed Olivia's file. "Where did it get delivered to? The hotel?"

He nodded and got it out for her. He didn't let go of the paper as she placed her fingertips on it. "I hope you'll see what I can't Maria."

She took the letter from him and opened it up.

Agent Guerin

'Twas a night of mystery
Unbridled passion on a lark
Taking from the owner
Leaving a sallow mark.

Slaps in your face
Arise to the occasion
Blind to the obvious
Lost in the abomination.

Agent Guerin, little boy lost in the woods?
Agent Guerin, you're really not all that good.

"Whew," Maria frowned. "This one is a personal dig at you. He thinks you're lost in the woods and well, he's basically calling you a dumb ass."

"Thanks," he smiled and almost laughed.

"Sorry, but he doesn't have a high opinion of you and…woods?" She cocked her head to one side. "That's another reference. The one after Liz," she paused as if to honor her friends name. "That thing about forbidden forest that you thought was me? It wasn't me, I don't think, listen."

"I'm listening." He sat straighter and gave her his undivided attention.

"Lost in the woods and playing in forbidden forest…There's that old saying, something about not being able to see the forest through the trees? You know what I'm talking about?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I'm trying to hard to find the reason and not seeing what's in front of me." He let out a breath and shook his head. "It's still a game though. His magic number is twelve and he's done with eleven."

"What if it all comes down to the last one? What if you can see the meaning in the last victim?"

"I don't want anyone else to die!"

"If it's a game, he's going to play it to the end. It's not like Clue, Michael, you just can't declare it was Mrs. Peacock with a lamp in the cabana."

"Lamp in the cabana?" He smirked. "Which version of Clue did you play?"

"You get my drift," she flicked his arm with her finger. "If he's playing, then he's playing until the end and even if we do figure it out, he's still going to finish it."

Michael closed his eyes and leaned forward. The weight of his world was on his shoulders. The admitted knowledge that he was somehow responsible for the deaths of these women was too much. His shoulders sank. He felt Maria stand and then he felt her hands on his shoulders, massaging him. He murmured something unintelligible.

"It's not your fault," she whispered wetly in his ear.

He smiled as she worked the knots out of his shoulder blades. When he felt the heat of released nerve bundles cascade through his chest, he felt better. He sat up straighter and looked up to his masseuse.

"Thank you, I needed that."

"Yeah, you did." She kept her hands on his shoulders and bent down to kiss his forehead. "Let's call it a night, okay? We'll go back to the station in the morning and try to figure it out some more. Can you call in for help…No, I guess that would be against the rules, huh? Maybe Richmond's site will be back up tomorrow."

He nodded and stood up. He turned off the dining room light and guided Maria up the steps with his hand on her back. He led her towards his room and she saw the open door of the room next to it. Her room. He escorted her to the open door. She peeked inside and saw her suitcase on the bed.

"It's so quiet," she whispered and giggled. "I feel like I'm sixteen and sneaking back inside my room."

"It's a quiet place. I've only seen one of the other guests. How many rooms are here?" He whispered back and fought the urge to giggle with her.

"Uh…Five, I think." She nodded.  She waited a beat before sliding her hands around his waist and pulling herself closer to him. Her eyes closed when she felt his hands on her shoulders.

She looked up to him as their heads titled to opposite sides and their mouths locked. She remembered the afternoon tryst and didn't feel embarrassed when she ground her pelvis into him.

She felt his sharp intake of air and grinned. The right reasons.

"I should…uh…go," he bit his bottom lip and took half a step back.

"Me too, it has been a long day," she released her hands from him and turned towards the open door. "Good night Agent Michael."

"Good night Maria."

Maria walked in the room and closed the door. She leaned against it and tried to control her breathing as she slid down to the floor. The need for Agent Guerin was overpowering.

*        *        *

Michael Guerin didn't go to his room, he leaned against her closed door and battled with the thoughts to march in and ravage her the way he wanted to. He slid down the door and sat on the floor taking deep breaths.

*         *         *

Chapter Twenty Nine


Maria took off her sweatshirt and tossed it towards the bed; it went over the mattress and landed on the floor on the other side. She leaned back and sighed. The cool wood of the door felt relaxing against her back. She wasn't sure if the heat was from the room or from her.

"Damn," she smiled. [i]How am I supposed to sleep in here tonight when Agent Michael is right in the next room? Is he thinking about me or is he thinking about his girls? Is he thinking about Lorelei or is he still dreaming of the last time our lips met?[/i]

Kyle Valenti was still so close to the surface and it did hurt. Sure, she felt free, but that didn't mean a part of her heart wasn't still with him. She ended a relationship for reasons she called her own. There were no ill feelings towards him; Kyle hadn't done anything wrong. It was her choice to leave and hers alone. For the right reasons. She kept reminding herself of that. The right reasons.

Kyle would be okay, she was sure of it. He was strong. Tough. The image of the tears in the window brought back the bitterness she had dealt him. She didn't want to tell him she didn't love him anymore. She'd always love him, that was a given, but she wasn't in love with him and she thought her way of telling him that had been cruel.

She took off her shoes and socks and stood up slowly. She began to pace in front of the door with options. She set her footwear down and continued to pace.

*        *        *

Michael Guerin ran his hands through his hair. He was torn somewhere between the rights and wrongs of ethics and morality. Ethically he shouldn't be getting involved with someone he was working with. Morally he shouldn't be getting his hopes up with someone who had only broken off another relationship hours before. In his heart, he wanted to hold her and make promises.

"Damn," he sighed. He took another deep breath and slowly stood up. Lorelei was on his mind, pushed back away from Maria, but still there none the less. The questions about her. The answers he couldn't find. The knowledge that he really didn't know her as well as he thought he had weighed heavy on him.

He was going to marry Lorelei and Maria had been right, he didn't know anything about her past. Like he had told her, he wanted to think of himself as the first one in her life. The most important one. In the end, he had turned out to be the one who nothing about her at all. Lorelei Govern was a mystery. A mystery that needed to be solved.

He paced in front of Maria's door debating over his options. Knock and see what happens or go to his own room and think about Maria, the person who had become so important to him in just a few short days.

He shook his head and walked to his room.

*        *        *

Maria nodded and opened up her door. She stepped into the hallway and tiptoed to Michael's room. She listened and heard him moving around inside. She raised her hand to knock and then stopped. This was too forward. If Agent Michael wanted to be with me, no matter how right or wrong it was, he would have come to my room, she decided and turned around.

As she approached her door she realized that they had left everything on the dining room table. Right out in the open for anyone to look at. She sighed and made her way back down the steps. Crime scene photos, classified ones at that, were probably not what the Whitman's or their other guests wanted to see first thing in the morning.

She admonished both herself and Agent Guerin for being careless. Especially herself. It had been a rough night for Michael; drudging up the memory of Lorelei and putting it to the test. She frowned thinking about how deflated he had looked when he realized he didn't know anything about her past.

"Michael," she whispered his name as she turned the dining room light back on. She set it dimmer and went to work, stacking up papers and files. The envelope containing the rest of the letters was in her hand before she realized what it was.

The temptation to open it and read it was almost as bad as the temptation had been to go to Michael's room. He wanted her to read them in order after she met the victims. After she had met the reasons for Michael's obsession. She understood why he wanted her to wait until after she had met the victims, although the letters were seemingly vague enough that it might not matter.

She sat down with the envelope in her lap. She cared for the victims and she felt like she knew them, not as well as Michael, but well enough. She could imagine herself being friends with some of them. They were just ordinary people living their lives and then they were dead.

Liz. She had managed to push the guilt of Liz back for the evening. The choice she'd made to end her relationship with Kyle and possible start something new with Michael helped her push the guilt away. Now that she was alone with Michael's girls, the guilt was back.

She felt selfish for thinking of a new life that she was beginning when Liz's life had been cut short so dramatically. All of Liz's plans ended with a scarf around her neck. All of her dreams of living a happy married life with Max Evans and having babies were gone. The plans her and Maria had made when they were little about what they wanted their lives to be like were shattered. Liz never got the chance to do the things she wanted to. Maria shook her head and silently promised Liz that she wouldn't let her down.

The envelope in her lap felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. She fingered the flap considering the complications that might arise if she were to read the rest of the letters now. Michael wanted her to read them in order after meeting the victims; she didn't want to chance what might happen if she went out on her own and did things out of order. Michael had order to his case if nothing else and she wasn't going to mess it up. She nodded for confirmation and laid the envelope in the box.

She looked longingly towards the steps as a second exhilarating wind whipped through her. She reached back for Olivia Marsh's file and opened it up. What was so special about Olivia? What made her different from Lorelei, Ivy, Ronnie, Betsey, Sara and Frannie?

She cleaned up the rest of the notes, papers and pictures and filed them away in the box before siting back with Olivia's folder and a legal pad.

"You can do this DeLuca. Think! Make it work!" She bit the cap on her pen and began scribbling notes.

*        *        *

Michael paced his room. Back and forth. Back and forth. The valid reasons for wanting to go to Maria were just that, valid. His heart was pounding, his mind was twisting. He smiled thinking about the way she was the aggressor earlier in the night. The way she held her shirt up for him. The way she touched his face and said his name. The smoothness of her skin. The perfection that he needed to touch and be touched by.

He let out a deep breath as he unbuttoned his shirt. He sat on the edge of the bed and took off his boots slowly. He tossed them to the side of the room and wondered if Maria had heard him; she was so close. She was too close. He had seen the want in her eyes when they parted. It was almost the reflection of his own want and need.

"The worse she can do is say 'go away', right?" He asked himself as he stood up and ran his hands through his hair. "Nothing to lose Guerin, nothing to lose except a little self respect. Humility is good for the soul," he convinced himself as he walked out of his room. He took the few steps to Maria's door and knocked lightly.

He waited for a response but didn't get one. He knocked again and wondered if she was already asleep. Nothing. He got a new nervousness when he knocked again and got nothing. He put his hand on the doorknob and pushed the door in.

"Maria?" He whispered to an empty room. He saw the suitcase on the bed, but the room was empty. His eyes darted to the open and dark bathroom. He stepped inside, "Maria!" he said a little louder noting the urgency in his voice.

He checked each corner of the small room, his heart beating, sweat forming on his brow. He saw her shoes on the floor and her sweatshirt on the other side of the bed. "Maria!"

Nothing.

He walked as calmly as he could from the room and made his way back downstairs holding onto the rail. He missed the last step and turned the corner around them into the dining room. There he saw he her and his heart rate began to slow down. Sitting alone hunched over the table with a file in front of her; Maria was working.

"You scared me," he said softly as he walked towards her.

"Holy shit!" She spun around and faced him, her hand on her chest. "Consider us even."

"You're working," he motioned to the file open in front of her.

"Yeah," her eyes traveled down the expanse of exposed chest behind the unbuttoned shirt. "What are you…What are you doing down here?"

"I was worried." He stepped next to her and closed the folder. He put it and her legal pad in the box and put the lid on it. "I went to your room and you were gone." He extended his hand to her and smiled when she clasped it. "I thought something had happened to you."

"To me?" She sank into him.

"Yeah you," he wrapped his arm around her back. "I got scared when you weren't in your room, I didn't know…"

"You went to my room?" her voice barely above a whisper.

He nodded and scooped her up into his arms kissing her. "I was scared…" He cradled her against him; she looped her arms around his neck.

He carried her out of the dining room and up the steps, kissing her lips on each step. He stood in-between their two doors and paused. He turned towards his own room and backed up to the door. He kicked it open and carried her inside where he kicked it shut.
*            *            *
Chapter Thirty


Michael carried her to the bed and laid her down on top of the quilt. He stepped back and looked at her face. Her beautiful face, so full of adventure and wisdom. Her clear, clear eyes and her full lips.

"Michael," she whispered and outstretched her hand to him.

He nodded and felt alive. With slight hesitation he crawled over her and laid down against her. The heat radiating from her was amazing. He tried to control his breathing and smiled when he realized his breath was still coming out jagged.

"Uh" He laughed nervously unable to come up with words to describe what he was feeling.

Maria laughed with him and noticed she was trembling. She licked her lips with the purpose of speaking, but like Michael, words couldn't quite make their way to the surface.

Michael leaned over her and felt the smooth skin of her shoulder on his bare chest. The urge to close his eyes was overridden by the urge to see her. The woman he hadn't known existed until a few days ago. The woman he met over the murder of her friend. The woman who made him see his life in a new way, with new meaning. The woman he had surrendered his heart to.

He tucked wayward tendrils of her hair behind her ear and traced a line down her jaw and over her full lips. Her lips parted and she kissed his fingertip as it passed by. She felt the ripples of nervousness quake through him. The nervousness of an intimate moment between two new lovers.

"Michael," she smiled and ran her hand through his hair.

"Maria," he smiled letting out a breathy half-laugh. His hand rested on her bare abdomen between the tank shirt and her shorts. His fingers playing with the fabric of her top. He kept his eyes on hers as his hand slid under the fabric. A small gasp from her told him everything was okay.

With tentative hands and the confidence he needed, he rolled her shirt up over her breasts. He rested his body next to her and traced a circle around the foundation of the fleshy mass of the breast closest to him. He watched in awe as her soft pale rose nipple hardened as he moved his finger lightly across it. He did the same to the other breast.

He lowered his lips to her chest and took a nipple in his mouth and rolled it with his tongue. He watched the slight rise in her pelvis and murmured into her flesh. With his hand he massaged the fullness of her other breast and thought about perfection. The perfect feel, the perfect size and the perfect taste. He wasn't sure if he could smell the jasmine on her or if it was just burned in his memory.

Maria smiled at the back of his head while passion seared through her, scorching her. She ran her hands through his hair and down his face turning it back towards her. The innocence in his eyes made her want to weep while the cruelty they'd seen made her angry. She parted her lips as a beacon; he came to her and crushed his mouth against hers sliding his tongue inside.

Her arms made their way around him, her nails raked at his neck. With both hands she pushed the already unbuttoned shirt down his arms and off of him. She flung it to the floor with a giggle. Her breasts flattened under the weight of him as he shifted onto her.

The button of her shorts was being undone and she could do nothing but whimper in anticipation. She bucked her hips up into the denim of his jeans as she felt his warm hands slide inside her shorts.

He kept his gaze on her face as he rolled her shorts down; a small smile played on his lips when he felt her kick the shorts the rest of the way off. He ran his hand up her thigh to the thin fabric of her thong. Running his finger inside the elastic, he felt her hands on his belt. After a slight pause, he rolled over and let her undo his belt, then pants. He felt like a teenager again as she pulled them off of him then faced him.

He touched her chin while his eyes traveled from the waistband of the thong, to the indentation of her waist to the swell of her breasts before settling back on her face. He watched with alertness as she slipped the tank top off and tossed it behind her.

He marveled at how confident she looked in the pale moonlight from the open window as she sat beside him. Any awkwardness about his boxers and immense erection vanished when she touched his chest, then kissed it. His eyes closed as he felt her lithe fingers dipping inside of the boxers and rolling them down.

When she took him in her hand, a moan escaped his lips before he had time to react. Their eyes locked as something transpired between. Something more than the want. Something real. Maria lowered her head to his and kissed him while her hand moved rhythmically up and down.

His eyes rolled back as he welcomed her tongue into his mouth. One hand squeezed the quilt beside him while the other roamed her back, down to the thin band of the thong in back. With trepidation, he pulled the stretchy material over her ass until it hit the crook of her knees. His hand went back and kneaded the flesh of her ass.

His mouth quit moving against hers as all his thoughts went to the feel of her body. The silkiness of her skin.

Letting go of him, she maneuvered herself out of the thong completely. Pausing briefly to catch the light in his eyes, she shifted against him, his hand flattened between them.

Michael felt the wetness of a woman, something he never thought he'd feel again, his breathing became labored as he slid his fingers through her damp folds.

A small cry came from her then a contented nuzzling against his chest. Her legs spread involuntarily as his finger plunged inside of her. He willed her to look at him.
Maria looked to him and moved her hips in rhythm to his hand. Their eyes met and their souls linked.

Maria raised her body upwards; her breasts were heavy in his face. He flicked his tongue over one nipple then the other. She lowered her body onto his, his hand slipped out from in-between her legs as she felt his hardness take its place.

"Michael?" She whispered his name.

His eyebrows furrowed as he read her mind. "No." He shook his head

"I don't either," she smiled and laughed collapsing on his chest. "I can't believe it!"

"I can," he wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. "Oh Maria, stay here with me tonight."

She nodded at his statement. A feeling of odd satisfaction was still riding through her. In that moment, she realized sometimes there was more to making love than the actual act itself.

She kissed his chest and bit playfully on his nipple. As much as she wanted him inside of her, the threat of pregnancy was enough of a deterrent. Smiling as she felt his fingers pinching at her sensitive nipple, she looked up to his face.

"We'll uhHave to correct this little problem. Soon."

"Is there somewhere close? I can go out and buyYou're shaking your head at me," he smiled and pinched her nipple a little harder.

"You're not leaving here and neither am I," an unexpected gasp came out next. "Sometimes all a person needs is a little touch." She licked her lips and then lowered them back to his hardened nipple.

Michael smiled and pulled her against him tightly. He kissed the side of her head and smelled jasmine. The worries of the world were sleeping tonight. Tonight belonged to them and no one else.

The light from the moon shifted across the room as the two renewed and yet tired bodies clung to each other in a mastery of unmarked passion and a deep twist of finding love in an unexpected situation.

Before the sun was even a thought, Michael listened to her shallow breath, her head resting on his chest. He touched her hair and smiled. "I'm falling in love with you." He whispered as his eyes closed.

Maria smiled before she slipped into a restful slumber, [i]I already fell.[/i]

*        *        *
The bright light of morning sun drifted through the open window bathing the new lovers in a warm glow. Maria woke first and froze in her position. The reverberating of the heartbeat beneath her ear made her step back into the reality that her and Agent Michael had almost made love a few hours ago. She felt him stir underneath her and looked towards his face, almost afraid of what might have changed in the few short hours they'd been asleep.

"Hi," he murmured and wiped the sleep away from his eyes.

"Hi," she smiled and knew it was too early for a giant DeLuca grin, but she couldn't help it.

"Sleep good?"

She nodded. "I guess I better get back to my room and shower and change," she sat up and became consumed with embarrassment for her nudity. She pulled the quilt up over her chest and saw him smile. "What?"

He shook his head. "Don't be shy, not now." He pulled the quilt away from her. "You're beautiful Maria."

She blushed and reached over the side of the bed for her tank top. She got off the bed and slipped on the shorts and tucked her underwear in her pocket. She leaned over him and kissed him full on the lips. "We have to go to work."

He nodded and watched as she padded out of the room.
*        *        *

Chapter Thirty One


Maria slipped into her room as she heard doors opening down the hall. She stood motionless near the foot of the bed and heard happy, laughing voices pass by. She smiled.

She locked the door and stripped down before walking into the bathroom for a shower. The water jetting out of the showerhead looked inviting, but the bottles of scented bath gels on a shelf inside the shower made Maria's thoughts turn briefly to the gels she had left behind. To the life she had left behind.

"Over," she smiled to herself and nodded as she stepped over the porcelain into the tub. The water was hot, not too hot, just hot enough. The water poured over her as she lathered her hands up with the most subtly scented body gel available. The scent was so light it was almost non-existent. That's exactly what she wanted. As she washed herself, she remembered Michael's hands on her.

The simplicity of a night of new experiences with old souls. A night to explore the surges of passion in an undeveloped relationship. The touches of a new lover still beat with electricity over her wet skin.

The embarrassment of this morning was almost forgotten. The way he looked at her, the way he called her beautiful made everything seem okay. The effortless way she had gone to him and let him touch her the way only a few had done before. No inhibitions when feeling his skin against her own.  No worry, no expectations. Not too many expectations.

She sighed and laughed at herself. The embarrassment was fluttering back in the form of a queasy stomach. Her thoughts lingered on the 'morning after effect'. Although true intercourse hadn't transpired between them, she had never felt closer to anyone. Through a maze of want that turned into need that turned into something new and unexplainable; Maria DeLuca had fallen in love with Agent Michael Guerin.

She had fallen in love not wanting to and certainly not trying to with her friend's body barely cool in the ground. Her boyfriend stilled with a broken heart. All the reasons Maria should have felt horrible. In truth, she felt wonderful, except for the guilt that racked through her for having the wonderful feeling in the first place.

She stepped out of the shower and dressed quickly in jeans and a T-shirt she grabbed from her suitcase. She looked in the mirror and traded in the T-shirt for a black short sleeve shirt instead. She damned herself for forgetting her hair dryer at Kyle's. After a rough towel drying and finger styling, she was ready to leave her room and see if everything was going to be different now between her and Agent Michael.

*        *        *

Michael stayed in bed for a few minutes after Maria left his room. He leaned over on her pillow. Her pillow, he mused, already she had her own pillow. He inhaled and smelled the one scent in the world he loved more than anything else, jasmine.

"Maria," he murmured her name and felt alive. Taking a deep cleansing breath he got out of bed and heard the shower running next door. A smile graced his lips picturing Maria and her beautiful face and perfect body in the shower. "Man, you got it bad."

Laughing to himself, he walked into his own bathroom and showered. When he dressed he found himself being more careful in his selection of clothing than before. Choosing the jeans that fit him snugly and an FBI polo shirt, he ran a hand through his wet hair and was ready to face her.

He reached to the doorknob ready to face the day, looking at in a new sense, and paused. Oh God, he thought, what if last night was a one time thing? What if everything is different now? What if I fell and I can't pull myself back? What if I really am the rebound guy and last night was…
>"You're being stupid," he muttered to himself and opened the door. The simile of the open door and his new relationship hit him like a bullet train. Everything was different now. Michael Guerin had found something else to live for.

He took a deep breath and walked out into the hallway. Unsure if he should go downstairs and wait for her or knock on her door, he stood with his hands in his pockets.

"Big smart FBI guy," he mumbled. "Can't even figure out if I should wait or knock."
His question was answered in the form of Maria's door opening. He felt the sharp intake of breath as she walked into the hall and turned to him. Frozen in place by a force of the unknown, he waited.

"Hi," she smiled and blushed. She walked towards him with obvious nervousness.

"Hi." He tried to smile but found his lips weren't quite working as well as they should be. "Ready?"

She nodded and bowed her head turning to the stairs. The wanted morning response was no where to be found. Her heart began to sag. With one hand on the railing, she felt her other arm being pulled back. She turned and looked up into the bottomless eyes of Agent Guerin. Her heart pounded as he drew her into him and kissed her.

All nervousness leaked from her feeling his lips crush against hers. There was nothing to worry about, she smiled to herself. She had put her heart out there in the open knowing it could be broken, but was now reassured that it wouldn't be.

His fingertips spread her damp hair, eventually resting on her flush cheeks. He broke away from her and smiled.

"Last night was…" He shook his head and laughed nervously.

"I know," she smiled at him and wondered if it was too big. If it was too much. He traced her bottom lip with his finger. "Thank you…You know."

He nodded. "Thank you."

They laughed together and held hands as they made their way down the stairs. They turned the corner into the dining room and noticed the table was completely empty. Michael switched into Agent mode, his eyes scanning the room while berating himself for leaving evidence sitting out unattended.

"It's all over there," Isabel Whitman walked through the swinging door with a tray in her hands. "I had to use the table when the first guests got up." She motioned towards the corner of the room.

Michael's eyes flew to the corner, an obvious display of relief swept through him. "Sorry about that. For leaving everything…"

Isabel smiled. "No problem," she set the tray down and handed a cup to each of them. "Coffee? There are croissants in the kitchen. I just hope you two know how hard it was for me to move that stuff and not even take a peek."

"Isabel…" Maria raised her eyebrows at her.

"Seriously," she laughed and gave them a famous Isabel Whitman grin. "I swear I wanted to, but I refrained. And if you knew me Agent Guerin, then you'd know how hard it is for me to refrain from anything." She motioned to their handholding and winked. "I guess you might understand…"

Michael blushed and Maria laughed at him. He cleared his throat. "Please, call me Michael."

Isabel laughed and sat at the table. "So, did you get a lot done last night?" She looked between the two of them as they sat down and noticed the now matching blush they wore. "I meant on Liz's case."

Michael nodded. "We're working on it."

"Good, I know Max will be glad to hear it. Alex said he was pretty upset last night. I mean, I know he's upset, but some times are harder than others." She shrugged. "I think we're all still in shock about Liz."

Maria didn't realize it, but she was nodding along with her. Liz Parker was gone. Liz Parker was dead.

"Maria?" Michael touched her shoulder.

"Yeah…Sorry," her smile was clearly forced. The hurt of a fallen friend on her conscious. The guilt that came and went was now bearing down on her, "I was just thinking."
<BR>He nodded and knew the look. The look of someone who was living with ghosts. "You up to going to the station this morning? I want to try to get a hold of Rich…" He trailed off remembering Isabel was sitting right there and listening. He smiled at her.

"Yeah, I'm good." Maria looked to Isabel. "Thanks for giving me a room and letting us use your table."

Isabel smirked and caught herself before she said something sarcastic about how the table had gotten used. "No problem Maria. I'm glad I could help."

Maria looked to Michael; "Do you think you could give us a minute here? I can meet you at the war room?"

"Two cars." He stated. "Sure. I'll see you there." He licked his bottom lip and gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek before collecting the boxes and laptop from the corner of the room.

Once he was out of the B&B Maria took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"You look good together," Isabel quipped.

"Isabel…"

"It's good Maria. It's all good," she nodded in a confirmation to her friend. "Are you good with it?"

Maria nodded and thought it might have been too enthusiastically. "I am. It feels right. For the first time in a long time, I feel alive. I feel like there's nothing that can stop me."

Isabel nodded. "Take care of yourself Maria. Okay?"

"Worried?"

"Everything worries me these days," she looked down into her cup of coffee. "Everything."

*        *        *

Michel drove slowly to the station and parked a good seven or eight spaces away from the ominous 4X4. He got the evidence from the trunk and walked into the building. He nodded at the woman answering the phones, Mary Ellen, the same one who had brought him the last letter from the killer. She waved back although somewhat hesitantly.

He shrugged off the uneasiness as he passed the closed door of Sheriff Kyle Valenti. Balancing the box on his thigh, he fumbled with the keys to the war room.

"Need some help?" Kyle's voice loomed in his ear.

"Shit," Michael grabbed at the laptop before it nose-dived and faced the invader of his space. He caught his stature and his breath and pushed the door open. The light flicked on overhead as he felt Kyle walking in back of him. He set the box down and turned to face him. "Can you keep personal feelings out of this?"

Kyle cocked his head to one side. "That's pretty funny coming from you." He laughed bitterly. "I guess personal feelings have nothing to do with you fucking around with my girlfriend, huh?"

"She's not your girlfriend anymore." Michael met the brazen eyes.

"She was. She was my everything until you came to town."

Michael nodded. He didn't want to fight with him when he knew everything he was saying was true.

"Now she left me and ran to you," he slid his hands into the pockets of worn jeans. "But I'll always be here. When you break her heart, I will be here to pick up the pieces."

Michael opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. Words were not going to solve anything. Telling the Sheriff that he had no plans of breaking Maria's heart was not going to help matters.

Kyle looked around at the walls of the room as if seeing them for the first time. His gaze lingered on the victim photos pinned up on the wall. "Will you get him?"

Michael followed his gaze and nodded. "Yeah. We're going to get him."

"She's good isn't she?" Kyle asked as he turned slowly back to face the Agent.

"She's very good."

Kyle nodded and frowned before turning on his heels and walking out of the room. Michael slumped into a chair and let out a deep breath.
*          *              *


Chapter Thirty Two


Maria parked in the lot somewhere between the Mercedes and the 4X4. She got out of the Miata and took a deep breath before walking into the building. She nodded at Mary Ellen and walked past Kyle's office without stopping. She couldn't help flicking her eyes in the open door just long enough to see Kyle watching her.

She quickened her step down the hall and burst into the war room slamming the door behind her. Michael stood and watched her chest rise and fall.

"Okay?" He asked.

She nodded and walked towards him. "I'm good, Michael."

He smiled and sat back down. "Okay, I'm going to try to get into Richmond and you are going to finish with Olivia, right?"

"The letters that came after her. That's where I'm at."

Michael reached towards the envelope and started to slip his hand inside then stopped. He handed the envelope to Maria. "They're in order."

She took the envelope as a feeling of trust exchanged between them. She slid the letter on top out and removed it from the envelope.

Agent Guerin

Oh my can you see it?
Can you live it can you breathe it?
Written in blood and lots to see
That love is blinding I know you agree.

Will I finish my quest?
I think I might win
Will you figure it out?
Not with the sigh or the grin.

Agent dear, do you rest easy tonight?
Agent dear, can you read between the lines?

Maria read it a few times and knew she had to have the blankest stare on her face. "I don't get it. I mean, could he be any more vague? Seriously. Listen to this: 'Will you figure it out? Not with the sigh or the grin'. What the fuck, Michael? You don't exactly strike me as the big sigh guy, you know. The sigh or the grin?" She set the letter down and sighed. "See, I'm a sigh girl. You? No."

"I don't know either Maria. None of these letters have made any sense to me at all. It's like he's just trying to get to me to think it's in the letters when it isn't. Like he wants me spend all this time analyzing them but there's nothing really in them at all."

"No, I wouldn't go that far. If there wasn't any clue at all, he'd just call you and leave a message on the machine. He wants to have a connection with you and the letters is the way he's doing it. He's got a hold on you; he can read you like a freaking open book. I still think it's just a game to him. You're a game to him. He knows how you feel, how you work, everything."

"He doesn't know everything anymore," Michael said quietly wondering if he was going to be pushing their undefined thing a step too far.

"Why not?"

"He doesn't know that I have other things to live for now. Other things to love." He didn't meet her eyes. He couldn't, not after the declaration of telling her he loved her without the routine words. He saw her hand touch his and then felt the warmth. With a graceful movement, he turned to her.

"That's sweet." She smiled and traced a circle on the back of his hand.

"It's true. I didn't think it could or even would happen, but you've given me something else to live for. The last two years have been filled with pain and horror and now the last few days have been filled with you and all the goodness you brought with you."
He shrugged. "It's a good thing Maria. A really good thing."

She smiled and knew he loved her. Welling up deep within her soul, the truth about him loving her was evident. She opened her heart and he took it. A small nod at him was all she offered. The right words weren't going to come from her mouth any time soon. She'd save them for a time when they weren't knee deep in murder and mayhem. She withdrew her hand and cast a glance back to the letter.

"Back to work," she licked her lips, her body warm. "Sweet talk later. Work now."

He nodded and once again admired her enthusiasm for the job. He tapped away at the keyboard growing frustrated with each stroke. "Richmond's still down. I sent an email to Natalie about what I'm looking for…"

"What do you think you're going to find?"

"Answers." He looked at her. "Maybe. Hopefully something in Lorelei's past that we could manipulate into anything that we could use. A crazy ex-boyfriend or a police record, I don't know, anything."

"I don't want you to find anything that's going to mar your memory of her."

Michael tilted his head to one side. "That's nice, but we have to get to the bottom of it. Part of me will always love Lorelei, I can't help that. It doesn't matter what I find, if anything, in her past; that part won't change. She meant the world to me. She was my entire world and I accepted it. You could have taken away my badge and stripped me of everything else, but to take her away almost killed me."

"But it didn't because you're strong-willed."

"I'll take that as a compliment because you may be the most strong-willed person I've ever met and trust me Maria, I've met a lot of people."

"Thank you Agent Michael," she winked and looked back to the letter in hand. "He still makes a reference to love you can't see past. Lorelei. He had to have known her Michael. He had to have known at least her and maybe you too. Your relationship."

"I was blinded by it and now I can see clearly through it. Maria," he touched her arm to get her attention back on him. "I can see her now as I should have when she died. If I would have been doing my job the way I was trained to, I would have investigated her death-"

"She was your love!" Maria interrupted. <BR>
"She was also a victim of a violent crime," he shook his head. "It took me two years to even try to research her and I'm only doing it now because you told me too." He shook his head, an unforgiving smile on his lips. "The more I dwell on it, the more I believe you in your original theory. He did know Lorelei and possibly me too. Or vice versa. Knew me and maybe her."

"Maybe you better start calling me Agent Maria." She smirked. "All you needed was a fresh pair of eyes and an intuitiveness that can be relentless."

"Relentless," his eyes met hers.

"Persistent."

"Unyielding."

"Obstinate."

"Determined."

"Uncompromising," her breath caught.

Michael licked his lips. "Uncompromising."

"Right," Maria shook her head trying to pull herself out of the game they had started. "No compromising. So, let's get back to it. You heard back from Natalie yet?"

He nodded. "Richmond's mainframe is down, nothing can be accessed at all without going there and sifting through the hard copies."

"When are you going?" She wondered if her voice held as much plea not to go and her heart did.

"I don't know, Natalie's going to get back with me as soon as an expected time is known for it to be up and running. I'll take it from there. Okay," he sighed. "See, I can be sigh guy."

She rolled her eyes at him and jabbed him lightly in the stomach. "How many letters came in-between Olivia and the next one?"

"The one you have and two more." He nodded towards the envelope. "Go for it. See what else you can pick out of there that I couldn't see."

Maria laid the letter on the table and got out the next two. She opened the first one.

Agent Guerin

Night on a rooftop
Easy to absorb
Lucky ladies waiting
Do you know how many more?

Forever in darkness
Forever in my dreams
Tied to the memories
Lost always in the seams.

Can you feel my breath Michael Guerin?
Does it keep you awake at night?

"It's the first time he uses your first name, right?" Maria looked at him over the paper to get a nod in return. "Creepy," She nodded. "This guy, he fancies himself a poet. A bad one, but none the less a poet."

"Poetry was never my thing…" Michael's eyes grew distant; he felt his heart rate quicken. "Lorelei was the one who loved poetry." He met Maria's eyes with his newly focused ones. "She loved all the arts, but sculpture and poetry were her true loves. She would recite poems to me all the time. Sometimes they were the romance ones and sometimes the fun ones."

Maria nodded slowly. "Okay. See, now we're onto something. College classes? Poetry classes? Did she take any that you know of?"

He shook his head and didn't want to tell her he didn't know. "I'll start going through the admissions of all the colleges in the Richmond and Quantico areas."

Maria watched as Michael tapped away on the keyboard; his face was etched with a look of desperation blended with the look of disappointment.
*          *            *

Chapter Thirty Three


Maria went back to the letters that came after Olivia while watching Michael out of the corner of her eye. His exasperation was obvious.

"After Olivia, who are the rest?"

"Their names?"

"Yeah, their names and locations. I don't know about you, but I really can feel this bastard's breath on [i]my[/i] neck. We're running out of time. I want to get through the rest of this while you work on Lorelei."

"Rachel LeBeau from New Iberia Louisiana. Theresa Newlin from Colorado Springs. Hannah Lampe from Tucson Arizona and then Liz…"

"Right, I remember that one." Maria said calmly although the undertone of bitterness was close to the surface. "I remember Liz."

"I'm sorry," Michael ran his hands through his hair. "And I do feel his breath on my neck too, I have for a long time. We are running out of time and I know it's just a game to him; it's all a sick twisted game and I probably am the prize." He laughed. "I'm digging through admissions trying to find out information about the woman I was in love with and none of this makes sense!"

"It will Michael," she touched his hand. "It'll all make sense, not good sense, but sense. He's not stupid and he knows what he's doing. There's a reason he's killed all these girls. His reason. They all mean something, but we can't see it."

"We will though, right?" Michael remembered his words to the Sheriff earlier.

"You betcha," Maria grinned. "Just kinda think of me as one of the Canadian Mounties. I always get my man." She blushed at the double entendre.

"Yeah, you do." He winked.

Maria turned away from him and went back to the letters. "Is that the only time he calls you by your first name?"

"Yeah, the rest are always Agent Guerin or the much loathed 'Agent dear'."

"Why would he call you Michael?" She bit her bottom lip and tapped a pen on her denim-clad thigh. "Wait a second…"

Michael looked at her expectantly.

"I have a vision, but it's not that clear yet." She frowned. "Something you told me about Lorelei…" She closed her eyes for a second then they bolted open. "She taught classes, right? You said she taught classes in both Quantico and Seattle. She was a sculptor and she taught classes!"

"So maybe she did the same in Richmond…?" Michael nodded slowly. "Right. Maybe it wasn't a class she took or school or anything, she was already in the artsy world because she taught classes. Maybe, just maybe, that's the connection. The arts. Poetry." He leaned over and kissed her lips. "I really might start calling you Agent Maria."

She smiled under his mouth as he invaded the space with his tongue. She felt herself move closer to him as his hands touched the bare skin of her waist underneath her shirt. She wrapped her arms around his neck. The kiss became more involved; the case was put aside. Lorelei and the other girls were put on hold.

He broke away from her to look into her eyes. He saw himself in their reflection and hoped she saw her in his. "You've changed the world for me Maria. You made me care again. You made me love again." He licked his bottom lip. "Do you believe that someone can fall in love in a few days?"

Maria pursed his lips. The words she wanted to save until it was over were too far away. It wasn't time to tell him she loved him. It wasn't time for her to throw away any mystery she still might have about herself. "Maybe Agent Michael."

He grinned at her sidestepping and knew, no, he felt the true answer she didn't want to give him. She did believe in it because she had fallen into the same zone he had. He knew he was lucky to have found love once in his lifetime with Lorelei, what he didn't know was how come he had been blessed to find it again in such an unlikely time and place with Maria DeLuca. He prayed the same Gods that were watching over his love life were also watching over his professional agenda and wouldn't permit anymore carnage.

"I guess now you're going to tell me to get back to work, huh?" Michael asked and nipped at her bottom lip. He wondered when he had fallen from a professional FBI Agent to a lovesick man who wanted nothing more than to crawl under blankets with her.

"Yeah, go back to work," she nipped at his lips back and giggled. "You got something to go on now. We have a glimmer of something solid on her." Maria didn't say Lorelei's name, not now. The tiny ping of jealousy that was always present but usually well hidden was peeking its head out for a stretch.

Michael murmured something that sounded like an agreement and buried his face in her neck.

"Working hard?" Kyle Valenti's voice boomed from the newly opened doorway. Maria and Michael separated as the Sheriff made his way towards them. "It's really good to see the taxpayers money hard at work." His voice was bitter, his stature was explosive. "I guess you have everything all cleared up here, huh? You got what you were looking for?"

"Kyle-" Maria started.

"I don't think you need to say anything Deputy DeLuca." Kyle's eyes shifted between the woman he still loved and the man who had stolen her from him. "We can use you for other things, like traffic patrol, since it looks like this case has moved in other directions."

Maria stood and kept her fists clenched. She motioned to the door and nearly pushed Kyle out of it into the hallway.

"What are you doing Kyle?" She demanded as she slammed the door shut. "What the fuck are you doing? Are you really trying to threaten me? Are you really trying to make Michael and me believe that you'll pull me off of this and that's it? What is your problem?"

"My problem is to see you with him," he admitted. "And I still might pull you off of this. There are other things going on in this town besides…"

"Besides the murder of Liz Parker? Besides the murder of ten other women?" She hissed in his face.

"Maria-"

"Don't Maria me now, Kyle. This is bullshit. Complete bullshit. You tried playing this card already and it didn't work then and it's not going to work now!" She felt the heat rise up her neck. "I'm sorry about hurting you, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you how I felt in a more tactful way. But the truth of the matter is you have to let me go. You have to move on and let me do the same!"

Kyle opened his mouth then closed it. [i]Do I love her enough to let her go?[/i] "Are you going to leave Roswell with him?"

She let out a sigh of frustration. "I. Don't. Know. God Kyle, my whole world has shifted in days, yours too, I know. I don't know what the future holds for me anymore and I like that feeling."

He looked to the tiled floor. "Will you ever consider me a friend again?" He asked in such a soft voice that he wondered if she had even heard him when she didn't answer. He looked up to meet the tear filled eyes of Maria DeLuca.

"That's what I want Kyle, that's what I want more than anything." Her shoulders sagged. "I don't know what's going to happen between me and Agent Guerin, okay? I have no idea. But to be able to call you a friend means the world to me."

He nodded and turned on his heels back down the hall. She watched as he walked into his office and closed the door.

Taking a deep breath and wiping away still tears; she walked back into the war room. She smiled when she caught Michael pacing. A few steps closer and her smile disappeared.

"What?" She asked and reached a tentative hand towards him.

"I got a hit from Richmond. Part of their network is back up."

"And…?" Maria prompted.

"Lorelei Govern." He said as if that explained it all.

"What about her?"

"For five months she was Lorelei Laws." Michael ran a hand through his hair and ignored Maria's outstretched hand. "She was married Maria. She was married to someone else and never told me!"

Maria let her hand fall to her side.

*         *          *

Chapter Thirty Four


"She was married for five months to someone named David Laws," he laughed bitterly. "She was married and never told me! She was married when I met her for Christ's sake, Maria. She lied to me!"

Maria bit her tongue; no words she had to offer were going to make this okay for Michael. There was nothing she could say to take away his anger; she could only listen.

"When I met her, she was fucking married. She was married to this…This David Laws when she was making love to me!" He ran his hands through his hair and twirled around slowly. He kicked a folding metal chair over. The loud clang made Maria jump, but he didn't seem to notice. "Fuck!"

He paced the length of the room and back, his focus on the eight by ten glossy of Lorelei Govern on the victim wall. His lips curled as he swore his own anger out at her. He pointed at the face of the betrayer and turned away. He turned back towards Maria.

"She was married…" His words were softer, his anger was visually being replaced with pain. He walked towards her and enveloped her in his arms, burying his face in her hair. "I'm sorry…"

Maria took a deep breath and rubbed his back. She turned her head slightly and kissed the skin right below his ear. She closed her eyes and let him hold her the way he needed to.

Minutes ticked by before Michael took a deep breath, inhaling the jasmine he loved, and stepped back from her. "Wow. I guess I kind of blew my cool, huh?"

Maria shrugged. "You weren't that cool to start out with." She smirked and waited for the response she was hoping for. She got it a few seconds later when Agent Michael Guerin laughed.

"Thank you," he smiled. "That was…Nice." He let out a deep breath. "Okay, now that I have vented, maybe we should move forward on this. All I have are the dates they were married. The marriage date and the divorce date," he nodded. "I couldn't go any further without chucking the laptop through the window." He raised an eyebrow at her. "Seriously."

"Oh, yeah, I believe you." She nodded and walked to the fallen chair. She righted it and set it just out of his reach. "Or I could just ask this chair."

"The chair was in the wrong place at the wrong time, just an innocent bystander," he smiled genuinely and was suddenly amazed that he could do it. How could someone make me smile at a time like this? He wondered. How could someone just happen into my life and suddenly everything looks a little brighter, the astronomical emptiness seems a little more filled?  How could I have ever lived without Maria DeLuca? "Thank you for letting me vent."

"Hey, you vent all you want Agent Michael." She held up her hands in front of her. "You have every right to vent. You can be the King Venter if you so choose to be."

He sat back and down and nodded towards the chair next to him. Maria sat and crossed her legs. "I don't want to be the King Venter, but thanks anyway for the option." He sighed deeply. "I can be sigh guy."

"Today. You can be sigh guy today."

"I just feel so…cheated."

"And so you should," she grimaced. "Wait, that's not exactly how I wanted that to sound. Yeah, it is actually, you have every right to be upset and hurt, she lied to you. But you don't know why…"

"It doesn't matter why. She should have been honest with me and she wasn't."

Maria focused back on the way Michael had said Lorelei was married when she made love to him as that ping of jealously was suddenly engorged. Lorelei had managed to hurt him from the grave and as much as Maria was saddened by the untimely deaths of all of the victims; she couldn't help feeling just a little bitter about Lorelei Govern. As a woman, she knew Lorelei should have had a good reason for not telling Michael she was married. As a new lover, she couldn't think of one.

"I trusted her," he drummed his fingertips on the table. "I trusted her with everything I have and she had secrets. Big secrets." He looked at Maria and seemed to sink into her eyes. "You don't have any secrets, do you?"

Maria smiled and held her arms out wide. "Nope. What you see is what you get."

"Good." His attention went back to the computer in front of him. "Okay, back to work. I can distance myself from this and move on. I mean, I've already moved on, but I can move further. Now we have a name and a possible suspect."

A possible suspect, Maria nodded. The chill started in the small of her back and moved throughout her body. This was a solid lead. David Laws. The killer has a name and it could be David Laws. She deliberated on the fact that David Laws didn't sound like a killer's name. It didn't sound like a sick psychopath who scoured the country to strangle women and torment a man already living in a personal hell.

"So," Maria said the small word slowly. "What now? Do we try to track down this David Laws and see what pans out? This is your area Agent, not mine."

"Yeah, now I get to find out all about David Laws." His tone was bitter. "I've got his name plugged in and we'll see what pops out."

"With the Bureau?"

"Right."

"So the Bureau really doesn't have a file on every single person in the country?" Maria felt stupid for asking.

"Contrary to popular belief, no, we don't. I know there's not one on you, or I would have found you long before coming to Roswell." He ended with a wink.

She blushed and turned to the victim files in front of her. She didn't wait for Michael to hand her anything or tell her what to read, she was as much a part of this as he was.

Victim number eight. Rachel LeBeau. Rachel LeBeau was discovered after dawn on the back porch of her home that she shared with her father and three younger sisters. The wood home with the tin roof was attached to the back of the shrimp shack that the family owned deep in the heart of New Iberia, Louisiana.

Rachel was a rail thin mulatto girl with wild curls who never made it out of high school. Her mother died when she was fourteen leaving her in charge as surrogate mother. She helped her father run the restaurant daily, even helping catch the shrimp in the early morning hours for the lunch crowds.

Maria shook her head at all the loss the LeBeau family had suffered with. Rachel's father, Pierre, had buried his wife and eldest daughter, but still tried to offer what little money the family had as a reward to find his daughter's killer.

"This is incredibly too sad," Maria murmured absently as she read on.

One of her younger sisters found Rachel's thin body when she got up to start the laundry before the storms off the salt came blowing in. The tell tale red silk scarf around her neck was what summoned Agent Guerin when it had been plugged into VICAP by the Sheriff of the New Iberia Parish.

Rachel LeBeau took her responsibility seriously and spent little time with friends, except her boyfriend, a white-bred college student from the Garden District of New Orleans. He was cleared immediately.

"Her family," Maria whispered. "So much loss."

Michael turned away from the computer screen. "It was sad. They live in a little three room attached house and her father offered me a place to stay with them. He said he'd sleep on the floor. I promised them, him and his other daughters that I'd…You already know the rest."

"And you're going to keep that promise."

Michael nodded but didn't answer. His eyes flicked back to the computer screen, his obvious impatience to get back to what he was doing wasn't lost on Maria.

"Go ahead," she nodded towards the offended computer. "Find anything yet?"

"No, a bunch of dead ends so far, but I've only started and I have Natalie accessing information some other ways." He shrugged. "It's strange, after all this time to maybe have a name for the man who's destroyed my life. I mean, if it turns out that Lorelei's ex-husband is the killer, then…I don't know where I'm going with this. I don't want to say it's plausible, because that's completely wrong. Nothing makes killing plausible."

"I know what you mean. If it turns out o be this David Laws, then it makes sense, kind of in a sick-fucking-way, but it still makes sense. But the part of it, if it is him, that doesn't hold any water is why so many? I know the classic obsessive stalker control freakish 'If I can't have you, no one will' thing, but this goes further than that. This is a vendetta against you."

"Personally."

"Personally. He's screwing with your head and you don't understand his game. We don't understand his game." She tapped the file in her hand. "It's here Michael, we just have to put it together. You have to figure out the why even if you get the who."

He regarded her words and eventually nodded. "It doesn't matter if we get the who if we don't get the why, otherwise each and every one of them will have died in vain."

Maria watched his eyes travel back to the screen in front of him; back into the other world where he was in control. She watched his eyes as they scanned the screen in front of him as his fingers tapped at the keys. His lips were pursed and she thought they looked completely kissable. She chastised herself for finding the sexiness in the situation.

She could almost taste the excitement I the air. They had a lead; they had a name. She knew almost all of Michael's girls and she knew Michael even better. The excitement of the hunt was coming down to the excitement of the capture.

As the morning drifted into afternoon Maria's heart broke as she finished the file on Rachel LeBeau. The letter that came to Michael had arrived at the small rooming house he stayed at in New Iberia about four hours before he had.

Agent Guerin

Read and write by the pale moonlight
Night spells fall on the prayers
Are all the words not lining up right?
A cause and a care are you still there?

Trial and error until you can see
Write and read until you see me
Toss and turn throw the first stone.
Knight at hand, are you ready to atone?

Agent Guerin do you sleep alone at night?
Or Agent dear, do they haunt you?


Maria shivered as she had with the other letters. The coldness in his abstract, too complete iambic pentameter verse. She could almost hear the hissed words in her ears as he wrote them. As he spoke them. She reached a tentative hand towards Michael and clasped his.

After reading the letter, she had to feel something warm.

*            *              *

Chapter Thirty Five


"David Laws," Michael said the name with the hint of bitterness and a side of jealousy. "David Laws seems to have disappeared from the planet right after they got divorced." He looked to Maria and cocked his head to one side. "How do you think he's sounding as prime suspect number one?"

"I think he's sounding pretty damn good," Maria squeezed his hand. "We have him Michael." The excitement in her voice was obvious.

"We have a name and a possibility," he said solemnly. "But we don't have him, or anyone. Not yet."

"Is this not the first solid lead you've had on this case since like…Ever?"

"Yes…"

"Ha! Be happy Michael, we finally have something to go on." She met his gaze. "I know how you found it wasn't the best way and I know you're still hurt, but you have to push all that away and deal with this."

"I am-"

"I'm not done," She interrupted him. "So Lorelei lied to you, so what? Is that really going to tarnish the memories you have of her? There could be a million reasons why she never told you she was married. Hell, there could be two million reasons. Should she have told you regardless? Hell yes. Being married when you hook up with someone is bad enough, not telling them is worse. Was she the angel you proclaimed she was? No, I don't think so. I'm not saying she was bad, but she wasn't an angel. You don't find too many angels here on earth.

"Will you ever find out her reasons for not telling you? Who knows? Maybe they're not that important. See, all of this is said and done and you can't go back and fix it. Would you change anything about the time you had together if you could, now knowing all the facts?" She looked at him and waited until he shook his head. "Good. She was important to you, don't be angry with her now. She's not here to defend herself." She paused and took a deep breath.

"Done?"

"Almost. This is a lead, plain and simple. Nothing on file after the divorce. Disappeared from the face of the planet. Could be bitter with you because technically you were the other man; whether you knew it or not. We're going to flush him out Michael. Then we're going to figure out exactly what the fuck he's trying to tell you." She grinned. "How was that for a DeLuca ramble?"

"Wow," Michael clapped lightly. "That was pretty impressive."

"Thanks," she mock bowed in her chair. "Do you follow what I'm saying here?"

"Yeah, I do. We have to shift our focus completely on David Laws and see what turns up. And I have to let go of the anger with Lorelei."

"Bingo," she glanced to the wall clock. "You hungry?"

"For food?" He raised his eyebrows and then laughed. "I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from. You just bring that out in me. Yeah, dinner sounds good."

"Let's go then. We'll take a long dinner break and go back to work afterwards. I can help you with David if you like."

"Finish with the girls and the letters and then you help me," he stood and stretched. "I can't believe we've been in here all day."

She nodded and stood. She wondered if Kyle was still there, if he was waiting or watching. Guilt devastated her peace of mind. She was so disappointed in herself for making out like teenager in the war room; almost right under Kyle's nose. He'd caught them and the knife she'd plunged into his heart had twisted. It had been a stupid thing to do and she regretted it. No more extracurricular activities were going to take place in the war room. It was the least she could do. For Kyle.

He reached for her hand, but it was declined. "Not here Michael, okay?"

He nodded and followed her to the door, which she held open for him. They locked the room up and walked down the hall, Maria keeping a good distance between them even after they passed the closed door to Kyle's office. Once they reached the fresh air she stepped closer to him and motioned towards his car.

"Where to?" He asked as he started the engine.

"Wherever, I guess it really doesn't matter. What are you in the mood for?"

Michael bit his lip on the comment that almost came from his mouth. He wasn't quite sure why he was acting like a lovesick kid. Maria brought out things in him he thought were buried forever. "How about pizza? Is there a good place around here?"

Maria gave him directions and then became uncharacteristically quiet for the ride there. Michael parked in the small parking lot outside the pizza parlor and turned to his dinner companion.

"You're awfully quiet," he touched her hand that rested on her thigh. "Did you wear yourself out with the rant at the station?" He hoped his humor was indeed humorous.

She looked sternly at him with a furrowed brow and a raised eyebrow for a few seconds until she broke out into a famous DeLuca grin. "No, Agent Michael. I did not wear myself out. If you think that little tirade was enough to wear me out then you are sadly mistaken." She reached for the door handle but felt her body being pulled away from the door and towards Michael. She met the eyes of Agent Michael and fell into them. "Wow."

He grinned and lowered his face to hers. "I'm going to kiss you now," he spoke softly into her ear. "Is that okay?"

She nodded and waited with her lips poised and her eyes closed. Michael licked his lips before meeting hers with them. He placed his hands around her midsection as he cradled her over the gap in-between their seats. His fingers played under the hem of her shirt. She touched his cheek with the back of her hand and felt the fire. The heat of want and need. She wasn't sure if it was coming from her or him.

"I have to tell you something," Michael said in a wet breathy voice, his mouth close to her ear.

Maria looked up to him as her heart began to pound.

"I don't know how, or even why." He smiled but the nervousness was leaking through uncontrollably. "I didn't expect this, or even want this." He kissed the corner of her mouth. "But somewhere in-between all the death and destruction…" He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I fell in love with you."

"Michael-"

"Wait," he placed his fingertip to her lips. "You don't have to say anything back to me. I'm not expecting you to. I'm not expecting anything really. I just wanted you to know how I felt simply because I wasn't sure I'd ever be this confidant again."

Maria nodded and tried to come up with the right words to tell him she felt the same way, but her mind was devoid of the capabilities to put her feelings into words.

"We okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, we're good." She smiled and wondered if it was enough. She raised her head and kissed his bottom lip, suckling it for a second between her own lips. "We're very good."

"Good," he let out a breath and helped her sit back up straight. "I'm really hungry now and I think I could use a beer about the size of Wisconsin."

Maria got out of the car and sighed, she caught Michael looking at her over the roof of the car. "See, I really am sigh girl."

He smiled and met her on her side of the car. He took her hand and brought it to his lips before escorting her inside the pizza parlor. They copped a booth in the rear and ordered immediately.

"David Laws," Maria looked thoughtfully into her beer once the drinks were delivered. "What else did you find out about him?"

"He vanished," Michael drained half the bottle of beer in one long sip. "There's nothing since the divorce. He didn't file income taxes, he didn't license a car, no utilities or a phone in his name. Nothing."

"Are you sure he isn't dead?" Maria asked with raised eyebrows.

"Not on file as being deceased," he shrugged.

"Jobs?"

"Not that far yet," he shook his head. "That's what I should be doing now."

"Must eat to sustain energy," she blushed.

Michael nodded and reached across the table taking her delicate hand in his. "We're so close Maria. We're so close to getting him."

"It's not just the getting him, Michael. I don't think catching him is the end of it. There's a reason that eleven women have died and I sure as hell want to know what it is. I want to figure out the rules to his game; I want to understand why so many had to die. I want to know why Liz had to die."

"I know, you're in this as deep as I am. Everything you've said has been dead on, and you're right. Catching him isn't the full deal. I want to know why too. I want to know everything."

"I still think you may be the grand prize," she squeezed his hand. "I just met you, I'm not about ready to let you go." Her eyebrows raised. "I know time's running out and I know we're making a boatload of progress; but I'm scared for you Michael. I don't have a good feeling about the outcome of this."

"Do you have psychic abilities?"

"Don't be a smart ass," she rolled her eyes. "I just want this to end before he kills again and then comes for you."

"It will Maria," he promised her and knew he'd make every effort to keep that promise.
Dinner arrived and conversation drifted from the murder and mayhem to their personal lives. The shared interests were many and the avoidances were minimal. As the dinner plates were cleared away and the drink of choice became soft drinks, the comfort factor rose between them.

"How many letters after Rachel?"

"The one you read and one more."

Maria opened her mouth to speak, then closed it as serious faded into frenzy. "You said there were two letters after Olivia at the station, but I only read one. Did I miss one? I forgot about it until now but you did tell me there were two."

"There were two," he nodded. "You had it in your hand, remember?" The worry in his voice was becoming clear. "Maybe you put it away with the others."

Maria nodded although somewhat doubtfully. She had been treating every document in the file as if it were fine china; misplacing something was not an option. "Yeah, okay. I'll look when we get back."

"It's there Maria," he said. "I'm sure of it."

She nodded and took a deep breath. "Who's next? After Rachel LeBeau?"

"Theresa Newlin."

"Colorado Springs, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah. She was the fighter. Of all of them, she fought back."

"She fought back," Maria repeated.

"She had defense wounds," Michael recalled the crime scene and report from the medical examiner. "The ME said she had cuts on her hands and the bruising around her neck was more severe, there was some skin under her nails, but it turned out to be hers. There were scratches around her neck, around the scarf. Theresa Newlin wasn't ready to die."

"Damn," she whispered.

Michael paid the bill and they left, sinking into the deep leather seats of the Mercedes they drove in near silence back tot he station. The sun had given way to an eerie twilight. Lightening flashed on the horizon. A storm was moving in. The wind kicked up as they pulled into the lot; sand spattered the windshield with little tinkles.

"It's going to storm pretty bad," Maria mumbled as she opened the car door.

Michael nodded and got out of the car. His thoughts shifted towards the approaching storm outside and the tailspin his life had gotten thrown into in the days he'd been in Roswell.

*          *             *

Chapter Thirty Six


"It's going to get bad," Maria commented as Michael held the door to the station open for her. She looked over her shoulder and sighed. "We haven't had a bad storm in ages."

"Maybe we shouldn't work all night," he bit his bottom lip as they entered the station house. "We'll work for awhile and then head back to the B&B before it gets really bad out. Does that sound okay?"

Maria nodded as they strolled down the quiet hallway. Her mind was preoccupied on finding the missing letter. She unlocked the war room and immediately went to the place she had been at earlier. She started flipping through the papers and eventually let out a sigh of relief. "Here it is." She showed him the envelope. "The one I thought I lost." She sat and took the letter out. "I guess it got lost in the shuffle and everything…" Her heart had been racing thinking she had [i]lost[/i] evidence. With everything personal invested in the case Maria knew neither one of them could afford to make a mistake. Being careless was a mistake. One she wasn't about to make again.

Michael nodded and went back to work on the laptop while Maria read the second letter after Olivia.

Agent Guerin

What a chance what a fright
A lonely room on weepy night
Battling with frustration
Will you find me soon?

Ages to conquer still above ground
Miles to wander will I still be around?
Ocean to ocean dusk to dawn
Inflicting my cause with a subtle yawn.

Agent Guerin, do I have to spell it out for you?
Oh Agent dear, what do you harbor, is it love or is it fear?

"Okay," Maria nodded after the third reading of the letter. "I guess I didn't miss anything by reading this out of order. He's a nut job, plain and simple. I can't make heads or tails of this one."

"You've done better than me," Michael replied never taking his eyes off the screen in front of him. "David Laws last known address was in Richmond, that's where he was served with divorce papers."

"So she divorced him," Maria offered. "Can you find a copy of the divorce decree?"

"I'm searching for it now. I found it, but it's sealed so I'm trying to find a backdoor."

"A backdoor, huh?" Maria smirked. "Is that an FBI term for breaking into something you shouldn't be?"

"As a matter of fact it is, Maria," he looked at her and grinned. Smiling seemed so easy to do, even in a time where time wasn't an option. Time was running out, but now they really did have something to go on. They had a name; they had a person who might be responsible for all the murders. A person who had been too close for him to see for two years. A person who was sending him a message that he didn't understand.

"I have one more letter after Rachel and then I'll start on the Theresa file while you," she cleared her throat, "find the backdoor."

"Why don't we pack it up here soon," he motioned over his shoulder with his hand towards the window. "It looks like it's getting worse out there. I think we'll be able to get some work done at the B&B."

"You think?" Maria grinned and picked up the file. "Let's just go now. It does look nasty out and I'd rather be at the quaint little B&B for the big bad storm anyway." Their eyes met and something magical transpired between them. "Ready?"

He closed up the laptop and gathered some notes before following her back outside. The rain was beginning to fall in scattered fat drops. The wind began to howl wickedly. The temperature was dropping and Maria wrapped her arms around her trying to keep away the sudden chill.

"My car." Michael stated rather than asked. He opened the passenger door for her and then walked around to the driver's side. He slid the laptop in the backseat as the engine purred to life. "It really looks bad out."

"Yeah," her words held trembles. "I can't wait to get there…"

"I need to make a stop first," he said to the window, unable to face her.

Maria hid the grin and remained silent. As Michael pulled up in front of an all-night drug store, she still didn't say a word. When he got back in the car and handed her a white rose wrapped tightly in cheap cellophane, she smiled.

The short trip to the B&B was quiet. Maria drummed her fingers on her thigh in rhythm to the music on the radio until the Mercedes came to stop. The raindrops were more frequent tapping the glass and roof in an incessant patter.

They looked to each other and nodded; each grabbed what they brought and darted from the car to the front door. They were laughing by the time Michael opened the door for them.

"I'm glad you two are back!" Isabel Whitman greeted them in the hallway. "It's supposed to be a hell of a storm tonight. Warnings are out everywhere for hail, flash flooding, wind…The whole shebang."

"Yeah…" Maria giggled and instantly felt stupid.

"Anyway, we have an almost empty house tonight. Just you guys and a couple here for their last night." Isabel nodded. "Are you working here tonight again?" She motioned to the laptop in Michael's arms with her eyes.

"Yeah, for awhile." Michael Guerin nodded. "Is that okay?"

"Of course it's okay," her smile was wide and knowing. "I can make some coffee if you'd like. Alex is in bed already. I think he might have come down with a touch of something."

"Really," Maria said. "That's a shame. Summer colds are the worse. And yes, I'd love some coffee."

"Great, you can help me make it." Isabel turned on her heels and left the foyer on her way to the kitchen.

Maria handed her files off to Michael and followed the hostess.

"So," Isabel's back was towards her when Maria walked in the room. "I don't know if I should actually charge you for a room or not."

"Oh no really, Iz. Charge me for the room!" Maria stood next to her resting her backside on the counter so she was facing her. "I don't want any special treatment."

"Okay. No. What I meant was that it doesn't seem right to charge you for a room that you're not using."

Maria blushed uncontrollably. "I'm using it!"

"As a storage space for your luggage maybe," Isabel smirked. "You said everything was good this morning. Is it still?"

"It's still good," Maria smiled looking absently at the floor. "It's strange, though. I feel like a part of me has known him forever, but everything is still so new…I don't know. I'm not making sense."
>"You're making perfect sense," Isabel stopped what she was doing and looked to her friend. "When fate deals you hand, make the best of it. Everything does happen for a reason, you just have to see it."

"But I feel so guilty, even here with you," Maria sighed. "Here I am falling in love while everyone else mourns the loss of Liz."

"I know you mourn too, Maria." She took Maria's hand. "Liz would want you to move on and be happy. No matter what happened between you and Liz before she was…Before she died, she loved you and would always want you to be happy."

"I am going to find who killed her." Maria bit back tears. "When I promised that, I meant it."

"I know you are. We all know you are. Even Max," she sighed after saying her brother's name. "Even Max has more confidence in you than you would imagine. He knows when you're passionate about something; you give it everything you have. If it was anyone else, he would be bothering and pushing the hell out of them to work harder; but because it's you, he knows you already are."

"Thank you," she hugged Isabel tight against her. "When did you get so damn wise?"

Isabel shrugged. "When I thought I had to." She broke away and went back to work on the coffee as the first crack of thunder rattled the windows.

"I can't remember the last time we had a storm this bad…" Maria glanced to the window overlooking the backyard as lightening lit up the darken skies. "God."

"It's been awhile," Isabel turned around with the tray in hand. "Coffee's ready and I'll leave you two alone tonight. You have run of the house, you know that, so help yourself to anything."

Maria followed Isabel out of the kitchen to the dining room where Michael had set up the scaled down version of the war room on the table. Maria noticed that all files were face down and the computer screen was situated away from prying eyes. She knew he had thought about the carelessness of leaving everything in the open the night before.

Isabel dropped off the tray and turned away, then turned back in a swirling motion. "Oh! I almost forgot!" She reached behind her and pulled a white envelope from the back pocket of her jeans. She handed it to Michael. "This came for you today. Just sitting in the mailbox."

Michael took the envelope from her and glanced at Maria. He saw the fear in her eyes as thunder rolled and wind seeped through the house with an eerie chill.

*        *        *

Kyle Valenti walked through the house he now shared with no one. He checked every room as thunder rattled the windows. He shivered and wondered if Maria was okay.

On impulse he called the station and was relieved to hear that Maria and Agent Hot Shit had left a little while earlier.

"No doubt to go have sex," he muttered as he cracked open a beer.

Surveying his surroundings, he missed the essence that was Maria DeLuca. He missed the way she checked the mail and tossed bills haphazardly in his direction while flipping through whatever magazine or catalog came with them. He missed the way she kicked her shoes off and left them in front of the couch when she curled up with a book. He missed Maria DeLuca and knew he would for a very long time.

He poured the beer down the drain and fixed himself a frozen dinner he had picked up on the way home. The weather reports coming in were not looking good and he knew as the Sheriff, he had to be ready to roll on a moment's notice. His personal life had to be put on hold for any type of town emergency.

The lights flickered once, just long enough to knock the clock on the VCR out and turn the TV off. Kyle swore and turned the TV back on. The latest weather report was calling for severe thunderstorms, hail, flash flooding, and dangerous lightning. All were anticipated to rip through Roswell in the overnight hours.
*    ;    *        *

Chapter Thirty Seven


Michael Guerin and Maria DeLuca waited until Isabel understood it was time for her to leave the room. A severe crash of thunder made Maria catch her breath and let out a small squeak.

Michael removed the letter from the envelope now completely oblivious to the storm brewing outside, and held it out in front of them so they could read it together:

Agent Guerin

I never meant to start this
But you left me no choice
Began as one to take away
When you left me without a voice.

I've thrown it all in your face
And now I've almost won the race
Lives for them but you can't see why
Times almost up, not many more are going to die.

Agent Guerin can't you read it still?
Agent Guerin, maybe your new bitch will.

"Did he just call me a bitch?" Maria asked with bravado masking her fear. "Is that what he just said? I'm not a bitch."

"It's him. It's David Laws. Lorelei's husband," he read the letter again and clutched Maria's hand with his free one. "Right here, the first part: 'I never meant to start this.' Damn it! I have to find him and stop this. I…I…"

"We will," she emphasized the 'we' and squeezed his hand. "We have him, we know who it is that's killing these girls. Right?"

"But like you said, we don't know why." He threw the letter on the table in disgust. "You said it yourself Maria, if we can't figure out the why of it, then they all died in vain and I couldn't live with myself if that happened. I can't bring them back, but they died for me. I …I have to see it through. I have to find out the reason.

"And he's told me over and over again that it's in my face, but I can't see it!" He dropped her hand and paced the length of the table. "He's been hunting me since day one with those…those stupid fucking letters. Giving me clues that I can't understand. There's nothing random here, I know that, but there's no pattern either. Eleven women have lost their lives because of me and I can't figure out why! Fuck!"

Maria closed her eyes in defeat. There was nothing she could have told him right then that was going to make everything all better. Michael harbored the guilt of eleven dead women and that would never go away. Their blood that was on his hands would stay with him until he took his own last breath. Maria knew that if he was given a reason it might make the guilt a little less. Maybe.

Their prime suspect had graduated to all but convicted. Right there, standing in the dining room of the Whitman's Bed and Breakfast, they thought knew exactly who the killer was.

Thunder rolled overheard followed by flashes of lightning. Close lightning. The lights flickered and Maria stepped closer to him. "We have to find him. He's close Michael, God, he's so close I'm way past feeling his breath on my neck."

Michael nodded. "Me too." He kissed the corner of her mouth. "I have to search for him some more tonight. Now."

"What can I do? Can I help you?"

He shook his head. "No, you finish meeting them. Theresa and Hannah. Read the letters and make some sense out of them. It has to be there, there's nothing else he's given me to figure out. He's a twisted fucking poet that I don't understand. It's all just words to me for the most part. I need your help with them, Maria. Read between the lines until you figure it out."

"Yeah, because I'm a bitch." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"You're not a bitch." Michael didn't elaborate. The knowing that [i]he[/i] knew about Maria was enough for Michael to work all night and track the bastard down, he was confident that he could, and given the opportunity would, kill him with his bare hands. He had already taken away the love his life once and now… He didn't like one bit that Maria had made her way into the letters. The letters were for him and him alone. Lives for them.

Maria conceded that she was indeed, not a bitch before opening the file on Theresa Newlin from Colorado Springs. The fighter. Theresa Newlin was an average size, an average build with a thick mane of average brown hair. Green eyes and a button nose gave her the appearance of simplicity. A simple girl from a simple life in a simple town. But as Maria read on about her, she realized Theresa was anything but simple. She was very complex.

Theresa Newlin had recently graduated from Denver University with a bachelor's degree in psychology; an emphasis in abnormal psych. Maria wished Theresa was there with them now, maybe she could shed some light into the mind of a serial killer. Torturing animals, setting fires, wetting the bed; she knew all the classic signs of a serial killer in the making from books, but this was different, this was real.

Theresa was found on the front porch of her house in the middle of the afternoon. Her nude body was discovered by the mailman; the telltale red scarf around her neck. Theresa Newlin had left her job as a junior counselor for troubled children early with complaints of a stomach pains. She told co-workers she just wanted to go home and go to bed; she attributed the pains to an intense workout the night before in her kick boxing class.

As Maria read on about Theresa she admired her as a person. Theresa had brought herself up from an abusive situation and made the most of her life. Her father had been, and still was, an alcoholic. Theresa convinced her mother to leave him when she was only ten years old. Struggling with financial difficulty, from the time Theresa started her first job at fifteen, she always helped with bills. She was awarded a full academic scholarship to college and wanted to devote her life to helping children who were in the same place she had been.

Struggling through school and working, Theresa accomplished her goals. The front porch of the little house she shared with her mother was her favorite place to be. She'd sit in the porch swing and read for hours. Maria thought it was tasteless that she had died where she loved to live. She found the letter and opened up ready to tackle another few stanzas of a madman's declaration.

Agent Guerin

So talented to watch
So delightful to taste
Giving up on a future
The life was such a waste.

Tell the dead I walk alone
On paths of broken bones
Clear as crystal rolled into fun
Even if you catch it, I can't stop until I'm done.

Oh Agent dear, I thought you'd be so smart.
Oh Agent dear, I was wrong and now you live in my art.

Maria read the letter over a few times as she did all the others. He wasn't talking about Theresa; he was talking about Lorelei. It's always been about Lorelei not the other girls! They were unimportant to him. They weren't random, though, they were all hand picked for a specific reason. A presently undetermined reason, but it had never been about them. All the letters, almost all the references had been about the first one, about Lorelei Govern. She cast a glance in Michael's direction to see the frustration in his face, in his eyes. He had missed it. He had missed that everything was about Lorelei. He was killing for her the same way Michael was living for them. She let out a deep breath.


The lights flicked again and Michael swore under his breath and continued tapping away at the keys. He sat up straighter when his search was beginning to disclose some pertinent information. "David Alan Laws was a professor at Virginia College up until about three weeks before Lorelei was murdered then he disappeared from their books. He was eventually fired for job abandonment."

"A professor of English?" Maria swallowed audibly.

Michael nodded as the lights went out. "Shit." His face was illuminated in the glow from the laptop screen. "Do you think they're going to stay out?"

She shrugged. "Aren't you on a battery?"

He nodded and looked at the screen. "Damn it! Phone lines must be gone too. Fuck!" He slapped the computer screen down leaving them in complete darkness. "Well, I guess this means we're done for awhile, huh?"

In the darkness, where she couldn't see his face, Maria said the words that she didn't want to say. "It's always been about Lorelei."

"What?" His voice was soft.

"The letters, they weren't always about the girls, not really. The underlying theme in them is Lorelei and you. This was all for Lorelei and you." She heard his breath become shallow. "I'm sorry, I should have seen it earlier, but I didn't…"

"I should have seen it two years ago," he sighed.

"I don't think it would have mattered. The one after Theresa, he said he can't stop until he's done. He wouldn't have stopped and he wouldn't have let himself be found. Even if you knew about him from day one, he thinks he has a mission to fulfil. He won't stop until his master plan, his message to you, is complete. You didn't do anything wrong. He's smart, very smart."

"So am I…" He trailed off shaking his head in the dark.

"When we find out what happened between him and Lorelei I think we're going to see a man who had his heart broken. I think in his mind, the only way to make it better was to destroy the ones who broke it. Lorelei and inadvertently, you." She heard him sigh. "Michael?"

"You're so smart," he said with a smile. "When I read the letters, the thousand times I read each of them, I never…God Maria, I never saw it. I knew it was about me and maybe Lorelei sometimes, but not, hearing you talk I can see it. I can see the words in my mind and…Fuck! I should have known all of this."

"You were too damn close Michael," she reached to him in the dark and poked him in the cheek. "Sorry," she stifled a giggle and slid her hand under his jaw. "You were just too damn close."

Thunder cracked and lightning lit up the room for a second. The time was long enough to see the desperation in each other's eyes. He reached for her and pulled her into him, wrapping capable arms around her and kissing the top of her head. The wind picked up and howled sounding like distant coyotes calling for their mates. Rain pelted the windows threatening to break through.

He stepped back from her and took her by the hand. Moving with the awkwardness of the newly blinded, he led her to the stairs. With free hands relying on the banister for guidance, they walked up in silence towards Michael's room. He pushed the door open as the lights from the storm ripped through the sky. He glimpsed a kerosene lantern on the nightstand. Feeling in the darkness for it, he remembered his days of training in Quantico and lit it deftly with a lighter left by it.

The soft glow from the lantern cast shadows on the walls and across Maria's face. He studied her and knew the shadows weren't only from the mystifying light of the lantern, some were with her always. He was scared for her. Turning the wick down to lessen the light he saw a note by the lantern. It was from Isabel:

Just in case. Isabel.

He reached to Maria and took her small delicate hands into his. Bringing them to his lips, he kissed each knuckle. Rattling windows, howling wind, beating rain and immense thunder wasn't enough to subdue the passion building between two new lovers; if nothing else, it heightened it.

*         *           *

Chapter Thirty Eight


"Maria," Michael whispered her name and slid his arm around her waist. Pulling her against him, letting her feel how bad he wanted her. "Maria." He whispered her name again, this time into her ear and smiled at the goosebumps that rose on her neck.

Thunder rolled across the desert sky as Maria slid her hands under the FBI polo shirt and pulled it off of him over his head. She dropped it to the floor in back of her and lowered her head to his chest. Her tongue traced first one nipple then the other, she bit down lightly on the hardened bit of deep rose colored skin and smiled when she felt his body tighten.

Without looking up, she undid his belt then the button on his jeans. Pushing the denim down without trepidation, her fingers only pulling back once when thunder made the windows rattle.

She looked up briefly to his face and saw the passion in his eyes that mirrored her own. With an impish grin, she ran her thumbs under the waistband of his boxers and hiked them down around his ankles. She heard him gasp as her tongue started at his navel and followed the trim line of hair on an otherwise smooth surface downward.

She kneeled down and took a deep breath. Licking her lips once, Maria took him in her mouth. She felt his hands rest on her head, his fingers running through her hair. Her hands clasped his ass and squeezed gently.

She wrapped her lips around him and took him in as far as she could, back and forth. She felt his hands on her cheeks and she tilted her face up to see him. Afraid of embarrassment for her actions; she sighed when she saw nothing but kindness and love in his face. He nodded once to her and she let him slide out of her mouth. She casually wiped her lips as she stood up with her head down, not facing him until she was in front of him.

With one hand on each of her shoulders, he balanced and stepped out of his pants and boxers. The lightning caught a wicked little grin as he undressed her the same way she had undressed him.

Standing in the middle of the room, two nude bodies illuminated only by the dull glow from a kerosene lantern and the occasional flash of hard lightning, they became one in heart and soul.

Michael stepped back from her and looked at her, he took in every inch of her body in the glow and shadows. His eyes consumed every visible pore.

When he looked back to her face, he noticed the raw fire in her eyes and the passion on her lips. The want and need had converged into something more. When their eyes met there was only thing that transpired between them. Love.

"I love you Maria," he said without hesitation as he stepped to her and wrapped his strapping arms around her, feeling the heat from her body glide into his own. He didn't need to hear the words from her; he could feel them in the beat of her heart next to his.

He backed her up against the bed and gently lowered her onto the handmade quilt. Standing above her, looking down at her nakedness of body and soul, Michael Guerin had never felt more alive in his life.

"I was living for only one reason before and now I see my life in a new light, a better life. A life with you in it." He smiled and the wind howled in the background as he lowered himself over her.

His hand went to one of her breasts and rolled her nipple in-between his forefinger and thumb while his mouth covered the other one. He watched in awe out of the corner of his eye as her pelvis rose up off the bed and then lowered. He rested his body weight on an elbow while his other hand left her nipple and traced a line down her abdomen. The tip of his finger felt the thin, fine translucent hair beneath her navel and kept moving downward.

Her legs parted involuntarily when she felt his fingertips on her inner thigh; the touch was as light as the wings of a butterfly. Her eyes closed as her world rocked. The sensation from her thighs moved incoming towards her center. Fingers parted the thin line of sculpted hair, moving inside dampening folds. Her gasp made him smile around her breast.

He turned his head away leaving her wet naked breast in the breeze and watched what he was doing with his other hand. Resting his head on her stomach, still rolling and pinching her other nipple, he watched as her body reacted to the presence of his hand between her legs.

Slipping a finger deeper against her, he found the hardened bud he was looking for and spooled it with his thumb while sliding his forefinger deep inside of her.

She gasped at the feel of him; the roughness and softness all rolled up into one. The heat and the cool melding together inside of her.  "Michael…" She whispered his name as her hips bucked. "Please."

He turned his head to face her and nodded slowly. He broke the physical connection they shared for what seemed like an eternity to Maria. She watched him dig through the pockets of his jeans as her body recoiled from loss of sensory stimulation. He turned back to her with a small cardboard envelope in his hands. He opened it with shaky hands and dropped the three silver packets to the floor. Swearing under his breath he got down on his knees and gathered them. Tossing two of them over Maria's head on the bed, he ripped the other one open with his teeth.

She watched as he put the condom on himself and rolled the latex down his hardness. She grinned and squeaked when he crawled up on her. He nudged her body up on the bed and then covered it with his own. His hands brushed her hair out of her face as he smiled down on her.

"Beautiful." He leaned down and kissed her lips, their tongues finding each other in a wet tangle.

She reached to him, sliding her hand around his sheathed shaft and guided him into her. A pant arose between them; maybe it was from both of them as the first sensation of truly being together took over.

As he thrust inside of her, thunder cracked over the desert sky and lightning of yellows and purples ravaged through the room. Never taking his eyes off hers, Michael rocked slowly back and forth, his hands holding his full body weight off of her.

The movements were so slow, so honest; the purity of an unfamiliar touch led them to places they never thought they'd reach.

"Beautiful," he said again and smiled.

"Handsome," she smiled back at him.

As the wind howled outside and fat raindrops battered the windows, a new step in an undefined relationship was being added. The undefined was giving way to a definitive answer. This was right; this was real.

"Michael," she said his name between pants of fervor. She cupped his face in-between her hands and licked her lips. "Kiss me."

He lowered himself down on to her and obeyed. Filling her mouth with his, the kiss sent him close to the edge. He pulled away and stopped any motion.

"What's wrong?" She asked alarmed as thunder cracked in the night sky.

"I can't…Wait." He smiled in embarrassment. He closed his eyes for a few seconds then looked at her again. "Okay."

She grinned and wrapped her arms around him holding him tight against her; she trailed her tongue over his ear to the sensitive skin behind it. She smiled as she saw the goosebumps rise up on him.

Michael reclaimed his position above her and began to thrust in and out of her feverishly. The storm outside seemed to be keeping pace with the one inside. He felt her contract around him, her fingernails digging into his biceps, her mouth parted in a silent scream.

The force of his climax rocked him, the thunder boomed as he collapsed on top of her, still inside of her. The light from the kerosene lantern cast their naked forms in a warm glow, glimmering from the sweat that encased them both.

"Oh God," he panted and kissed a sweat-covered nipple. "Salty." He pulled out of her, holding the latex on with one hand and curled up beside her. His tongue laving across the hardened peak of imperfect skin while he felt her hands running through his sweat soaked hair.

Maria's chest rose and fell, electric spasms still ran through her central nervous system. Never did she ever imagine anything could feel so good, so right. She leaned forward and kissed the top of his head. "I love you too, Agent Michael," she whispered.

*         *           *


Chapter Thirty Nine

Michael heard the vocalization of words he knew were true. He had felt them in her heartbeat and kiss and now he had heard them spoken with utmost sincerity. He kissed the fleshy part of her breast and smiled.

Maria couldn't believe she just told him she loved him. That was the one thing she didn't want him to know, not yet, and she had gone and told him anyway. So much for mysteries, she thought.

As the storm continued to pound the sky and the rain pelted the windows mercilessly, a murder mystery not yet solved brewed in the undercurrent of both of their minds right behind the experience of a newborn venture.

The glow from the lantern cast enough light on the couple so when Michael looked up at her face, he saw the innermost emotions of Maria DeLuca and he loved her for them.

As the storm remained violent outside, the passion in the room remained fervent. As the hours of adoration droned on, the other two silver packets were opened and used. The quilt ended up on the floor, their naked bodies entwined in a mass of sweaty arms and legs, mouths connected.

"You are so amazing," Michael pushed her sweaty hair out of her face and kissed her forehead.

"You're not so bad yourself." Maria winked at him as the wind outside began it's mournful howling again.

He smiled while breathing through his mouth. He lips pursed in a smile, his eyes danced. "Maria," broken breaths came out in laughter. "This is so crazy. I mean, here we are lying here after a night of…" He blinked rapidly. "Amazing things; declaring love, no less, when just a few days ago I thought you were beautiful and sarcastic and you were flipping me the bird!"

She laughed and doubled over forcing him to sit up.

"Seriously Deputy," his hands glided into hers. "This was the last thing I ever thought would happen to me. I never…I never imagined…God, you have me so crazy I can't even think straight!" He laughed and pulled her down next to him. "I am just so in love with you Maria DeLuca." He met her eyes before leaning into her neck. He inhaled her skin. The rich Maria smells fused with jasmine.

She closed her eyes as she let guilt wash over her, only for a second this time, before kissing his lips briskly. "You know we left the files on the table, right?"

"I know," he sighed and rolled away from her sitting up. He swung his legs off the side of the bed and looked over his shoulder at her. "Somehow you made top priority." He winked. "I'll go get them right now. Will you be here when I get back?"

"Oh, no, actually I thought I might take a leisurely stroll around the grounds on such a pleasant evening." She rolled her eyes at him with a smile.

"See, sarcastic." He stood and felt around for his jeans on the floor. He slid them on and grabbed the lantern from the nightstand. "I'll be right back." He leaned over and kissed her cheek.

Michael closed the door behind him and ventured down the almost familiar steps. He turned the wick up in the lantern as he entered the dining room. He picked up the folders and laptop, a broad smile on his face the entire time. Agent Michael Guerin couldn't remember a time when he had been so happy. That wasn't exactly true, he did remember a time in his past when he had been happy. When he had been with Lorelei.

Lorelei. The thought of her was marred now, as much as Maria had tried to convince him not to, he held his time with Lorelei at an arms length with a jaded view. This was different. Maria was different. Maria was everything he wanted, everything he needed, rolled up into a neat little blond haired jasmine smelling package and he wasn't about to let her go.

The letter, the one that arrived today, was on top of the folder in his arms. He read the last line again and again.  Agent Guerin, maybe your new bitch will. He closed his eyes as anger roiled beneath his skin. Maybe your new bitch will. Your new bitch.

Bastard! He shook his head in contempt; a madman was threatening his newly found happiness. He realized that there was no actual threat made against Maria, if nothing else, it was almost more like a compliment instead. But a compliment from a serial killer was almost as bad. He made a promise to himself right there, nothing would happen to Maria. Nothing.

He walked back up the steps and into their room. Our room, he smiled to himself as he closed the door behind him. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it when he saw Maria. She was lying on her side; the quilt had been replaced on the bed and was covering her up to her waist, her breasts were exposed to him. Her eyes were closed, her chest rose and fell in a consistent deep rhythm. While he was gone, Maria had fallen asleep.

As noiselessly as he could, he set the evidence and computer down on the bureau and took his jeans off. He turned the wick in the lantern all the way down and slid underneath the quilt. He spooned her, sliding his arm around her waist and taking her hand in his. She responded in her sleep and held his hand against her, pulling it up over her breast.

*        *        *

When the sun should have been kissing one step over the horizon, thunder rattled the entire foundation of the B&B. Maria woke up, her eyes wide. She felt an arm around her waist, a hand holding her own, and smiled. She felt Michael's breath on the back of her neck and rolled over. She smiled as he murmured something and opened his eyes.

"Morning," she kissed his forehead and pulled the quilt up over her naked chest.

"Morning," he curled up closer to her. "Are you sure it's morning?"

"I think so," she giggled and looked at the wind-up alarm clock on the nightstand. "Almost eight, we should be working."

"We could work in bed," he suggested with arched eyebrows.

"Yeah, okay." She pulled the quilt tight around her and sat up against the headboard. "Seriously, we should go."

He closed his eyes in an extended blink before sitting up. He nodded more to himself than anyone else; Maria was right, they should be working. He was slacking because all he wanted to do was stay in bed with her on such a nasty rainy day. Hunting a serial killer was not on his short list of things he wanted to do. Ever.

"You're so demanding," he smiled over his shoulder at her. "But that's one of the reasons I adore you." When he looked in her eyes he saw something he didn't like. Hiding behind the coyness and sarcasm was fear. "It's going to be okay."

"He called me a bitch," her voice was timid. The real words she wanted to say were more consistent with, 'he knows about me Michael'.

"We've been over that, you're not a bitch." He rubbed her leg through the quilt. "It's almost over Maria, I promise you it's almost over."

"Then what?"

"What?"

"What happens when it's over? You go away and I stay in this stupid town?" She closed her eyes as the last word came out of her mouth and shook her head. "Forget what I just said, okay?"

"Maria-"

"Seriously, forget what I just said." She laughed to mask her embarrassment for sounding like a clingy girlfriend. "I'm just worried about…Things."

"So am I," he confided.

"Damn it Michael, he knows about me!" She stated. "He knows about me."

"I won't let anything happen to you," he crawled back up the length of the bed and hugged her. "I promise you Maria, I won't let anything happen to you. Ever."

Maria nodded and wondered numbly if he had told the same thing to Lorelei. She broke away from him. "We really should get to the station. I have one more to meet and you have to dig around some more and try to find David Laws."

At the mention of the name, Michael broke away from her and got off the bed. He ran a hand through sweat starched hair. Chastising himself for putting the reason he came to Roswell on a lower priority than his love life. "You're right. Shower?"

"Together?" She blushed and shook her head. "I don't think so, we'd never get any work done then."

"I'll go first. After that we can head downstairs and grab some breakfast. I don't know about you, but I'm starving!" He smiled as some of his tension drained.

"Me too," she got out of bed with the quilt wrapped around her modestly. She looked over his nakedness and grinned. She then laughed when he put his boxers on off the floor. "I can shower in my room," she kicked the empty condom envelope on the floor. "I think we're going to need a bigger box."

It was his turn to laugh. He watched as she slipped on her clothes from the night before and carried her boots out of the room, blowing him a kiss before she left.

*        *        *

Maria took a fast shower. Being in the shower with a storm outside had always given her the willies. She didn't chose her clothes as carefully as before, but felt herself slide into that familiar feel with someone. Clothes were clothes and she didn't think she had to try to impress anyone with what she wore.

Putting her hand to the window to judge the outside temperature, she slipped a sweatshirt from high school over a black T-shirt. Running her hands through her hair she left the room and went straight downstairs in search of a cup of coffee.

She wondered briefly if she should wait for Michael then decided it didn't really matter. Their relationship was past the pretenses of impression. They were somewhere real.

She smelled the coffee as she hit the bottom step and followed her nose into the kitchen where Isabel and Alex were seated at the table. She fixed herself a cup and joined them.

"Good morning," she smiled after taking that first sip.

"No, it's morning, but not that good." Alex coughed. "I feel like shit and it's supposed to rain for the next few days with actually no end in sight." He nodded and took a sip of steamy liquid that looked suspiciously like hot cocoa. "Rain. Rain. Storm. Rain."

"Oh," Maria nodded and looked at Isabel in time to see her roll her eyes. "So it's gonna keep raining, huh?" She grinned. "Anyway, when did the lights come back on?"

"Only about an hour ago," Isabel raised her eyebrows. "So, did you find your lanterns okay? Both you and Agent Guerin?"

"Uh…Yeah, we sure did. Thanks." Maria nodded.

"Ha!" Isabel pointed across the table at her. "I only left one in the Agent's room! You are so busted!" She said in a singsong voice and then laughed. "See Alex, we can't charge her for a room that she's only using to store her luggage in-"

"Shower. I took a shower…" Maria trailed off into a laugh. "Leave me alone!'

Isabel stood and walked to the corner of the kitchen returning to the table, she handed Maria a plastic bag. "Here. Kyle dropped this off for you this morning on his way to work."

Maria took the bag from her. Kyle. Hearing the name sent her back into a guilt induced emotional roller coaster. She reached in the back and pulled out a jacket. Her rain coat to be exact. Underneath it was her umbrella. She closed her eyes and waited a beat before opening them again.

"He thought you might need them," Isabel smiled compassionately. "He's okay, Maria."

She nodded and set her things on the table as Michael strode through the doorway. He smiled at Maria and said his 'good mornings' to the Whitman's.

"Weather report?" He asked sitting down at the table as Isabel stood up.

"Rain. Storm. Rain. Rain." Alex coughed into his hand. "That about sums it up."

Michael nodded and reached for Maria's hand underneath the table. "Rain gear?" He motioned to the coat and umbrella in front of her.

She nodded, "Kyle dropped them off."

Michael didn't respond, he didn't know what words to use. Nothing would sound right and sometimes it's not what you say, but what you don't say.

Isabel set down warm bagels, cream cheese and bagged donuts in front of them. "It's not much, but it's all we have. I couldn't send poor Alex out into the rain, not when he's feeling so bad." She looked down lovingly at her husband.

"This is perfect," Michael answered as he reached for breakfast.

Maria nibbled on a bagel; the raingear and Kyle had lessened her appetite considerably. When she was sure Michael was almost done, she nudged him. "Ready?" She was anxious to get to work and to see Kyle. Kyle had done something for her that not many other men would have done and she wanted to make sure he knew that.

Michael nodded and stood, thanking Isabel for breakfast and wishing Alex a quick recovery. He walked with Maria out of the kitchen.

"Hey," Isabel followed them into the hallway. "Expect Max today, he's starting to get a little edgy."

They nodded in unison and collected their things. Maria put on her raincoat and gave Michael the umbrella before they ventured out into the storm. Back to the station. Back to real life.

*        *        *


Chapter Forty

Rain tapped the top of the Mercedes incessantly. Maria looked out the window for most of the ride to the station in silence. As they pulled into the lot she saw that Kyle had parked the 4X4 next to her little convertible. A deep sigh escaped her lips before she could stop it.

"You okay?" Michael asked as he slid the gear into park. He saw where her attention was and grimaced. "Are you having…Second thoughts?"

She faced him slowly and shook her head. "Nope. I may have second thoughts on a lot of things like my relationship with Liz and how I broke up with Kyle, but with you? No, I'm good." She ended with a smile. She motioned towards the front doors of the station. "We should go in."

He agreed with a nod and reached in the backseat for the files and laptop. He handed her the small stack of files. "Do you think you could maybe shove these under your slicker there?" He raised an eyebrow.

She pursed her lips ready with a quick comeback, then just took the files and tucked them under her raincoat. She put her hood up and got out of the car. Sprinting across the lot, she beat Michael up the steps and was laughing when they made it inside.

Michael shook out the umbrella before walking down the hall towards the war room. His boots squeaked on the linoleum which made Maria giggle. As they passed the closed office door of Sheriff Kyle Valenti, Maria relinquished the files to Michael and told him she'd be right there. He took them and smiled without questioning her.

She watched Michael walk the short distance to the war room and go inside before she knocked lightly on Kyle's door. She was answered with a muffled 'enter'. She opened the door and then closed it behind her.

"Maria." Kyle said her name and felt the bitter sting of jealousy.

"Kyle," she unsnapped the raincoat nervously. "I just wanted to thank you for dropping this off at Isabel's today," she looked at him through the tops of her eyes. "That was very considerate of you."

"Yeah well," he let out a deep breath, "you didn't take a lot with you when you left and I thought you would be able to use it in this bastard of a storm we're having."

"Seriously Kyle, thank you." Maria kept her fingers crossed figuratively that he could read between the lines and see she was thanking him for a lot more than just dropping off a stupid raincoat and umbrella.

He shrugged as he seemed to absorb what she was saying to him. He met her eyes and saw something in them he'd only seen once before. "It's for real, isn't it? I mean with him?"

She nodded slowly as she absently fumbled with a snap on the jacket.

"I can see it in your eyes Maria," he smiled sadly. "It's the same look you had after the first time we made love. I never thought I'd see that look again, but there it is."

"Kyle-"

"It's okay," he interrupted. "I talked to a friend and they were right, this town isn't big enough to hold you in it. I love you Maria; I can't just turn that off. And I will be here for you when- no, if you need me. Ever. And I realized something, I do love you enough to let you go."

Maria wiped at tranquil tears as she walked around the desk. She leaned down and hugged him, water dripping from her jacket onto his shirt. She kissed the corner of his mouth and then looked at his face. "Thank you."

"Get out of here, okay?" he pushed her away with a half laugh hiding his true emotions. "I should have asked before, but…Are you any closer?"

"I think so," she stood up straight. "We think we have a name."

"Seriously?" Kyle sat up straight; amazement on his face. "Local?"

She shook her head not sure how much she should tell him. He was the Sheriff of Roswell after all; technically he had a right to know. Technically, he should have been let in the loop since day one. "David Laws from Virginia."

"Virginia? How did you come to find him?" Kyle rested his elbows on his desk and his chin on his hands.

"Well, the first victim, Lorelei Govern? She was Agent Guerin's girlfriend." Maria said the words slowly. "David Laws was her husband that we didn't know existed until just recently."

"She was the first one…" Kyle shook his head in disbelief. Suddenly things were making sense. Why one man would spend years tracking a killer down by himself. "God…"

"I know," Maria nodded. "But we're on to something Kyle, we're going to figure this out and we're going to get him. For Lorelei and the others. And for Liz. Always for Liz."

Kyle nodded as he let the information seep into his brain. "Right, Max called before you got here. He's coming in today to talk to you, you know, to see if you've made any progress. Be careful what you tell him, okay? I think Max Evans is walking around half cocked."

"Isabel said he's doing okay, kind of…"

"Yeah, well, I can't imagine what he's going through. I know if I were in his shoes…" He trailed off with the images and shuddered. "Just be careful around Max."

"I think I can handle Max," Maria said with false confidence. She didn't even want to try to handle anything to do with Max Evans. Not yet, not until she could go to him and tell him that they'd gotten the man who had stolen Liz Parker's life and ruined Max's. "Well, I'm going to get back to work, okay?" She turned around and walked to the door. She reached for the doorknob before turning back to face him. "Thanks again Kyle, for everything."

She walked from the office and closed the door behind her. Taking confident strides down the hall she walked into the war room and was ready to sit down and solve a case.

"I'm not going to let you out of my sight for too long, okay?" Michael announced as Maria slid into the chair next to him.

"Did you miss me that much?" She asked coyly smiling.

"I did, but I hate the idea of him knowing about you." He admitted and ran his hands through his hair. "What that tells me is that he's either seen you and I together or…"

"Or nothing," she folded her arms across her chest. "That's it Michael. He had to have seen us together. He's been back here, to Roswell, and we didn't even know it."

He nodded as she spoke the words he didn't want to admit out loud.

"Fuck him," Maria feigned a smile. "I don't need a baby-sitter, Michael." She patted her shoulder holster. "See, I'm armed."

He feigned a smile back at her and shook his head. "You're tough Maria and I'm not saying you need a baby-sitter, I just don't want anything to happen to you." He shrugged and let out a deep breath. The reasons for worry were rampant in his mind. This madman, this David Laws, had taken away the love of his life once and Michael wasn't about to let it happen a second time.

She reached to him and touched his thigh giving it a light squeeze. "Don't worry about me Agent Michael, worry about finding this bastard. Worry about how to track him down and then take him down. Worry about his next victim. I can go on, would you like me to?"

"No, I think I get the picture." He half-laughed and turned back to the laptop. "I'm in the backdoor of the divorce decree-"

"Ahh…The infamous backdoor. How'd you do it?"

"I have Natalie working full time on this, top priority, and she's my ace in the hole. She's going to start feeding me all the information I can handle on the elusive David Laws as soon as she finds it."

"Excellent," Maria snapped and turned to the victim box. "I guess I'm off to meet the next one, Hannah Lampe. Right?"

"Right," he nodded. "The letters Maria, concentrate on the letters. See what I can't."

She nodded and opened up Hannah's file.

* * *

"Time is close to running out," the voice was delusional. "Will you realize what it's all about?"

The figure strode through the hotel room as rain pelted the windows. He twisted a red scarf in his hands, weaving it through his fingers.

"I wanted you to suffer, I wanted you to cry. I wanted you to live for those who I have desecrated. I wanted you to want to die."

* * *

Before Maria even had a chance to read one word in Hannah's file, the door to the room flung open and Max Evans stood in the doorway. Maria and Michael stood and watched him as he looked towards the wall and saw the portraits of the victims.

"Max," Maria walked to him and touched his arm to lead him out of the room.

He flung her arm off of him and stepped to the wall. "Who are they?" He asked in a deeply breathy voice "Who the fuck are they?" His voice now held demand as he turned around to face the ones in charge.

"Max," Maria bit her bottom lip. "We don't we step out into the hall? You shouldn't be in here." She felt Michael inch closer to her.

"Tell me what the fuck any of these people have to do with Liz!" He yelled and pointed in Maria's face seemingly oblivious to Michael's presence. "You're supposed to be finding who…Who…Who killed Liz!"

"Mr. Evans," Michael stepped in front of Maria and pushed Max's hand out of the way. "Why don't we go out into the hall."

Flush crept up Max's neck. "Why don't you tell me what the fuck you people are doing to help Liz?" His eyes flicked to the wall of portraits.

"Mr. Evans, either you step out into the hallway or you will be placed under arrest for interfering with an ongoing investigation." Michael said sternly and grabbed Max's upper arm. He forced him to turn back around and escorted him to the door. He let go of him once all three of them were in the hallway.

"I trusted you Maria," Max's voice held the misery and void of sudden disappointment.

"You can still trust me Max," Maria stepped closer to him. "We are doing everything we can to find the psycho who murdered Liz." Hearing the words coming from her mouth that went straight to Max unnerved her. "Please, you have to believe me."

"But…" Max pointed to the closed door of the war room.

"Max," Maria took his hand in hers. She looked into his eyes and saw his pain. Felt his pain. "I promise you that we'll find him. That's all we're doing, please believe me. What you saw in there is all important, but you have to keep it to yourself, okay?"
She arched her eyebrows. "Will you do that?"

The heated Max Evans cooled as he nodded humbly. "I trust you, Maria." He cast a glance at Michael. "I know you'll find him. Liz knows you'll find him." Tears balanced on his eyelids. "It's just so hard…"

Maria wrapped her arms around him and hugged him as tears welled up in her eyes. She felt Max's pain of losing Liz Parker. She felt it in every breath she took and every promise she made. Having other things to occupy her mind may be the only salvation she was granted. Why she was granted with a new life when her friends was taken away, she'd never understand but would have to learn to accept.

Michael stepped away from the old friends who shared a common loss and went back into the war room closing the door in back of him.

Maria broke away from Max and looked into his red-rimmed dark eyes. "Trust me."

"I do," he stepped away from her and wiped his eyes. "Find him before he kills again." He turned and walked down the hall.

Maria looked after him and knew that he had understood what the pictures on the wall were for. Max Evans knew that Liz Parker wasn't the only one, just the most recent. She prayed that information wouldn't surface. After taking a few deep breaths she went back in the room and started on Hannah's file.

* * *
Chapter Forty One

"He's hurting," Michael said without looking away from the computer screen in front of him. "Do you think he understood what he saw in here?"

"Oh yeah," Maria nodded. "He understood exactly what he saw. As he was walking away he told me to catch him before he kills again."

"Damn it!" Michael slapped the tabletop causing Maria to jump. "I can't let this leak-"

"He's not going to say anything Michael," she touched his arm in a comforting fashion. "He's hurt and pissed off but he's not stupid. One thing Max Evans has never been is stupid."

Michael nodded his trust in her judgement of Max Evans. She'd been right about everything else so far. He was on his feet as the door opened again. He swayed at the sight of Sheriff Kyle Valenti.

"Just me," Kyle held his hands in the air. "I was wondering if I could sit in with you guys for a little bit."

"What's wrong Kyle?" Maria asked. "What happened?"

"Nothing," he smiled but it was a weak attempt. "I just want to know what else you've got, that's all. I am the Sheriff Maria, in case you forgot, and this is my town." His words didn't hold contempt, only honesty. "I want to know about this David Laws."

Michael's attention turned to Maria in a breakneck motion. Accusation in his eyes. Disbelief on his lips. "Maria."

"He is the Sheriff, Michael." She said nervously. The unwanted attention was unnerving. "He should know what's going on in his town…" She looked nervously between the two men in the room and sighed holding her hands out palms up. "What?"

"I don't know…" Michael ran his hands through his hair. More than just by habit this time, this time it was with annoyance. "I'm sorry Sheriff Valenti, could you excuse us for a moment?"

"I didn't mean to ruffle anyone's feathers," Kyle said innocently while stuffing his hands into his pants pockets. "I'm not trying to take anything over; I just wanted to know what was going on." He saw Agent Hot Shit open his mouth to speak and decided to keep going. "Personal feelings aside, I do have a right to know what's going on. I gave you Maria…" He let the double implication hang for a second. "I gave you Maria and deputized her to help you because I know she's perfectly capable of doing that. She's one of the brightest women, brightest people, in the world. I just wanted to know the status of information on the murder of my friend. That's it."

"Right," Michael nodded and averted his gaze away from Maria. "Sorry. David Laws was the ex-husband of the first victim," he stopped speaking when he saw Kyle's eyes glance to Maria. "I guess you know the first victim was my girlfriend."

"Uh…Yeah." Kyle nodded.

"Okay, we think that our killer may indeed be David Laws. We don't know much about him except he seems to have disappeared about three weeks before Lorelei was murdered."

"Okay," Kyle nodded. "If he was her ex-husband, why leave a trail of bodies across the US? Why would there be more after her?"

Michael knew from the question that Maria hadn't told him anything else. He shrugged. "That's what we're trying to figure out. We're trying to find him first, then we can figure out the why."

"Does he have ties here in Roswell?" Kyle asked noticing the shift of mood in the room. He had disturbed something and he almost felt bad about it.

"We haven't learned all that much about him yet," Michael answered. "Servers were down and then the storm pretty much knocked everything out with the electricity last night."

Kyle nodded. The storm. The lack of electricity the night before. The look in her eyes. "Well, could you keep me posted with anything new?"

"Of course," Maria smiled at him and knew the reasons why she used to be in love with him. Why Kyle would always hold his own special place in her heart.

Kyle nodded at them both before walking out of the room. At the sound of the door clicking shut, Michael turned to Maria. "I know why you told him, he has a right to know everything professional that we do, but I wish you could have told me you were going to mention it to him. I don't like surprises Maria, not this late in the game."

"I'm sorry." She held her head up high. "But you're right, he should know. He should have known every professional thing we've done so far. He's given us free reign on this whole thing, but he is still my boss."

Michael nodded afraid of what he might say next. She was right, but he felt somewhat undermined. His thoughts brushed over the fact that he felt that way because of the relationship Maria had been in with the Sheriff until mere days ago. He sat back down next to her and took her hand in his. "It's almost over Maria, this is almost over. I just don't want any surprises."

"I should have told you I was going to tell Kyle, I am sorry about that. I had to tell him though. I mean he asked and I spilled. I didn't expect it, he's kept such a low profile on this it caught me by surprise."

"You didn't tell him about the letters."

"The letters are for you," she shrugged with one shoulder. "Those are yours. You let me into them and now I'm a part of them, but besides that, those are all yours."

"I hate that you got mentioned," he smiled. "And called a bitch."

"Don't even get me started on that," she laughed as some of the tension in the room began to dissipate. "It's all good, right?" She hated the nervousness that crept into her voice.

"Yes Maria, it's all good." He took her hand and brought it to her lips. "I do love you."

Maria tensed. The words were different in the dead of night, as they lay in each other's arms; easier. It was the morning after now and she wanted some of her mystery back. But one look into the deep dark newly awakened eyes and she couldn't keep her stand. "I love you too."

"Get to work Deputy DeLuca," he nodded at the open file in front of her. "I want to end this so I can start something else."

"Hmmm," she rested her forefinger on her chin. "Would that be something with a certain someone I might know?"

"Yeah, it would be." He glanced out the window as lightning careened across the sky. "I don't know what you have in mind, but I don't think Roswell is big enough to hold you in it."

Maria grinned. The general consensus was the same across the boards. She turned to the file in front of her and looked at the picture of Hannah Lampe. Beautiful was the word that caught in Maria's throat. Beautiful. Hannah Lampe with auburn hair so deep it almost looked too hot to touch. Perfectly arched eyebrows and a smattering of freckles across her nose. The picture had to have been a professional head-shot. Almost amber eyes, wolfish, stared back at Maria.

She started reading and learned it was a professional picture. Hannah had been a part time model. Catalogs and local commercials mostly. An extra in a movie filmed in Tucson was her only real claim to fame.

She had lived with her fiancé who happened to be out of town at the time she was murdered. Her body was left in the kitchen of the townhouse she had shared with her fiancé for over two years. A friend was stopping by to drop off some borrowed clothes. When no one answered, she let herself in and found Hannah propped up on the butcher-block countertop. Her legs were crossed at the ankle and her arms were in her lap. The blood red scarf was tied tight around her neck.

"She was so beautiful," Maria murmured as she continued her reading about Hannah.

"Shit." Michael swore and looked at her. "David Laws, professor of English. Specialty? Poetry. Some of his work is archived at the school. Not nearly as creepy as the letters, do you want to hear one?" He turned to look at Maria who stared at him with wide expectant eyes. "Okay, I guess so. Here goes: Together in the harvest/ Sunning on my will/ Alive at the moment/ Loving keeps my heart/ Grace above the rest/ Beauty below the skin/ Model me a picture/ Picture of my love/ You wear it on your pocket/ Hands of the Earth/ Mold my soul." He looked at Maria and shrugged. "Not as creepy."

"Are you really that dense?" Maria asked with humor in her voice covering the truth of the words. "That's about Lorelei! She was a sculptor, Michael, and he was so in love with her."

"How can you get so much from that?" he looked at her feeling every bit as dense as he knew she thought he was. "All I see is…Nothing, really."

"Love keeps his heart, model a picture of his love then mold his soul. Hands of the Earth? Clay. She sculpted and he loved her." Maria sighed. "If he wasn't a deranged psycho killer I'd almost say that was kind of romantic."

Michael didn't respond to her last comment. He looked back at the screen, incoming mail. "I have mail from Natalie." He clicked a few times and then looked at Maria. "It's the divorce decree."

"Well…" Maria scooted closer to him, their arms brushed and electricity shot through her. Electric excitement as they narrowed in on a killer and electricity just from being that close to him. "What does it say?"

"She divorced him on the grounds of mental abuse." He ran his hands through his hair.

"Mental abuse," she repeated. "What else is in there?"

"Verbally abusive to her," he scanned the page in front of him trying to pick out key words. "It wasn't contested, he let her go."

"Because he knew he'd get her back somehow," Maria said the words slowly. "He designed his life around her and then knocked her down, probably over and over again. At some point he realized that if he couldn't have her-"

"No one else would either." Michael finished the sentence for her.

"Okay, no. That's entirely too much of an overused cliché." Maria shook her head. "What I was going to say was that if he couldn't have her, then he'd steal her. Not like kidnap her, but actually steal her. She's the reason for this Michael, and you got thrown in as the 'other' man. The one who stole her from him.

"This is like a game of thievery. It's all theoretical. She stole his heart, you stole her from him, he stole her life by death and now he's stealing your life in a whole other way."

Michael shook his head slowly. There was too much there. Maria was seeing too much that made sense. Every word out of her mouth fell perfectly into place like the pieces of an intricate puzzle. "He did steal my life. When he took Lorelei he stole my reason for living. Then I got consumed by the others…" He didn't want to add that now he was consumed by her. Thoughts of the danger that he had put her in weighed heavy.

"It's just a game to him, Michael. Nothing more than a game. Who can steal the most wins." She shrugged and rubbed her arms as forgotten thunder thrashed through the sky. "I know it's almost over and if we can figure out the why to it, we're there. We'll get him, we'll get him before he kills again."

"You are so confident." He spilled with admiration in his eyes.

"Yeah, well, I have to be. Once we find out the why to this, we'll know the girls, your girls, didn't die in vain. That Liz didn't die in vain. If we just find this David Laws, he won't ever tell. He wants to finish his game, his quest. He wants to play to the end."

Michael nodded and glanced back at the computer screen. "Natalie's digging up a lot of history on him," he skimmed down the list of incoming emails. "Even a picture."

"Go read, let me finish with Hannah and read the letters. Then I want to read the ones after Liz. Okay?"

He nodded and clicked open the mail with a picture attachment. As it downloaded in front of him, his breath caught. Maria tilted her head back and craned her neck to see what was on the screen.

There were palm trees in the background, definitely not Virginia. A couple stood together, posing underneath a blazing sun. Smiles on their faces. Matching golden bands on their ring fingers glinted in the sun. A man in dark suit pants, a crisp white shirt and a designed red tie. The woman next to him, on his arm, Maria recognized as Lorelei. She was dressed in a simple yet somehow eloquent white sundress. Red sandals on her feet matched the red scarf around her neck.

* * *

Chapter Forty Two

Words were caught in Maria's throat. She looked at Michael out of the corner of her eye to see the same expression as her own. Astonishment. His head began to shake back and forth.

"The red scarf," he tapped the screen in front of him. "Lorelei. The red scarf."

Maria swallowed audibly and nodded. "The red scarf. Well, at least that fits one piece of the puzzle, why the red scarf."

"What piece? That she wore it?" His words were icy.

"Look at the picture Michael, I mean really look at it." She watched him as he looked at the screen and numbly managed to figure out that men were not nearly as well equipped in some areas of visuals. She let out a deep breath. "The palm trees? A beach, maybe? Look at their happy faces. Holding up their hands to the photographer, showing off their wedding rings? It's their honeymoon Michael."

"Honeymoon," he repeated and nodded. His eyes scanned the picture once again before hitting the print key. The printer hummed to life and spit out a perfect replica of the original print. He held it in his hands.

Maria didn't want to know what he was thinking about right then; too afraid that it would hurt her feelings. She knew she'd never be his first love, as well as he would never be hers, but now they had each other and a new life to start. With too many reminders of the past, it was going to be hard. She smiled to herself, without the past they wouldn't be where they were right now. The grim realization set in. Without the murders, they would have never met.

She watched as he soaked in every detail of the picture in his hand. Watching him as she knew his heart was breaking again. She looked down and tried to see what he was overlooking in the picture. When she looked at his face again, he was looking at her. The expected betrayal and anger were no where in sight; he smiled at her instead.

"It's okay," he nodded encouragingly. "Really." He laid the picture down and smiled at her. He hoped it looked as genuine as it felt. He was okay. He was better than okay. Old demons weren't going to force him into a swan dive now.

"Sure?"

"I'm sure," he leaned forward and touched her face with the back of his hand. "I promise. Now, I'm going to read what else Natalie found about David Laws and you're going to finish meeting Hannah Lampe."

She nodded and went back to the files in front of her disguising her surprise in Michael's demeanor by diving into studying Hannah Lampe.

Hours ticked by without a word from either of them. Maria kept her nose to the grind as she lived and breathed the life of Hannah Lampe. Michael took notes as he read page after page of emails sent to him.

"He picked her out special." Maria announced.

"Who?"

"Hannah Lampe," Maria rolled her eyes. "I get the same feeling here as I did with Olivia."

"But she was left in a townhouse by herself. There was no rush or urgency." Michael debated.

Maria shrugged. "I can't help feeling it though, the way she was posed, more sophisticated than the others. Except for Veronica, with the stuffed animals. He took his time with her; but it was almost like he savored it. Like he was gloating."

"He's always gloating." Michael said.

"I know, but with her he crossed her ankles and actually put her up on the countertop. Why go to all that trouble when he just really left the others as is, so to speak. Why spend so much time with her?"

"Because he had the time, she was home alone."

"I know, but he had time with some of the others too." Maria bit back the argumentative tendencies in her voice. "But…I don't know, I guess I can't describe it properly. It just seems like he was happy to do it like he did. There's a certain sense of accomplishment in the way she's posed."

"I don't follow."

"Arg!" She yelled and slapped her hands down on the table. "I don't expect you to follow actually, I'm just giving you my point of view on it. It feels like a sense of accomplishment with Hannah, for whatever reason, I can't explain it any better."

"What about Liz?"

"What about her?" Maria snapped.

"How she was found, how she was left? Does that feel like accomplishment to you too?"

"No, Liz was thrown away like trash. She was easy," Maria spoke bitterly fighting back the tears that seemed to want to surface constantly. "Liz didn't mean as much to him as Hannah did."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I can just feel it, I can tell."

"But-"

"Damn it Michael, you want me to help you and I have. I've seen more than you have on several things, why are questioning my judgement now? What changed?"

He looked at her before answering. [i]What had changed?[/i] What he had taken at face value before he was now questioning. He did trust Maria's judgement and he believed every word she told him. Every theory she came up with had made sense so far and now he was questioning her? She had stepped into the mind of a madman in a few days; the mind that he couldn't penetrate for two years.

"Michael?"

He shook his head slowly, "I don't know."

"Great," she folded her arms over her chest and looked down at her case notes. "I can't explain anything any better to you. It just feels like Hannah was more important, like Olivia, and even Ronnie to some extent. The others didn't matter as much, I don't know why. None of them were random, we know that, there's a fucking link between them that we still can't figure out-"

"We will," he interrupted using one of Maria's favorite lines, and smiled. "We will."

"Before it's too late? Before he has a chance to finish his game?" She found herself losing the slight anger that had been brewing inside of her. Urgency arose throughout her. "I can't let them die in vain…"

"We won't," Michael said as he felt the tables being turned, for the moment at least. "None of them will have died in vain. We will find the link, we will figure out his sick game and then we'll find him."

She nodded, before she knew or understood what was happening, she handed over her trust to Agent Michael Guerin. She laid her life in his hands and trusted him implicitly. "What else did you find out about him?"

"He actually seems pretty normal," he raised his eyebrows. "No juvenile record-"

"Hey, those are sealed. Oh, the 'backdoor' thing again, right?"

He answered her with a smile. "He was a well-liked professor, never was in any trouble, no arrests. The only thing in his file is the reported mental abuse from the divorce."

"Do you believe it?"

"Do I believe that he mentally abused her?"  He asked with a shrug. "I don't have a reason not to."

"Good," Maria smiled and ran her tongue over her teeth. "Still believe in Lorelei. I don't think she ever did anything wrong except for not telling you the truth about her past."

He nodded. "Thank you. Thank you for saying everything you have about her, I know given the current situation, it might not be the easiest thing to do. Her memory is marred for me; I can't help that. Not of our time together, but the honesty factor."

"You'll deal with it however you can and you'll move on," Maria smiled and touched his hand. "I know, you've already moved on." His smile warmed her. "So, what else about the mysterious David Laws? Family?"

"Only child, parents deceased."

"Really?" Maria arched her eyebrows in anticipation.

"When he was seventeen, carbon monoxide poisoning in their home. He was taken to the hospital too, but he recovered." He read from an old newspaper article. "Not a exciting life actually. Very bland, boring."

"Like you," Maria said absently and then bit her lip. "That's not exactly what I wanted to say."

"No," he laughed honestly. "That's exactly what I was going to say. Our lives were very similar in that way, maybe that's why Lorelei was attracted to us both."

"But the differences, man, they are entirely too many to count." Maria tried to salvage what was left of the conversation. Pointing out a man's faults was not the easiest thing for him to hear. Pointing out the faults of man you had fallen head over heels in love with may be harder. "But still nothing after he disappeared? Any more poetry? Any more anything?"

"Not really, David Laws lived a very non-extraordinary life. He didn't leave his mark in the world until he started killing."

"It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for," she squeezed his hand in hers. "So, we're back at a dead end for Mr. Laws, huh? Can't we put out on the wire that we're looking for him?"

"That wouldn't be part of the game, Maria, I think that would be against the rules. You called it, it's all a game and nothing we do will stop it from ending. He needs to see it through to the end."

"Right," she damned her own words. "But I still don't know what the prize is. If I'm reading the letters right, then there is still one more to go and then the grand finally which I believe is you. I don't want him killing again," tears stung her eyes as her eyelids fluttered to keep them at bay. "We're almost in a no-win situation here Agent Michael."

"What do you mean?"

"If we find this guy, say today, and he doesn't get to live out the rest of his fantasy game, technically, we still lose. The girls died for a reason that we'll never know because he won't tell us. Their families will never have that closure. You'll never be able to go to their door and tell them why.

"But if we don't find him and he kills again…See, either way it doesn't have a promising outcome."

"The families," Michael said slowly as if just remembering them again. "I made promises to them that I would find out who did this to their daughters, sisters and girlfriends, and why it was done. You're right, I couldn't go back to the families and tell them we got the bastard but why their daughters had to die I didn't have a clue about." It was his turn to slap the tabletop. "Damn!"

"Get back to work Michael, I have a few letters to read then hopefully everything is going to fall into place." Maria said the words with a confidence she believed in. Michael was so sure the key was in the letters that that alone made her believe that she would find it. She had to find it. For the girls. For Liz. Always.

"Thank you," the words were solemn. In his heart he was thanking her for so much more than just her rationalization. He was thanking her for walking into his life and making it better. He was thanking her for giving him another reason to live for.
Thanking her for being herself. He turned back to the amassed emails from Natalie.

Maria thought he was thanking her for a lot, but she didn't want to delve deeper in to it. Not yet. The priorities were still the same as they had been since the beginning. Her friend Liz was dead in the ground, families were ruined and lives were destroyed. Priority number one was to end the reign of horror of David Laws.

As she got out the letter after Hannah, a tickle on the back of her neck forced goosebumps to run down her arms. Something was so close to the surface now. The key to the game? Her mind raced trying to pull her deepest thoughts from the recesses below the surface. Like having the name of a song on the tip of your tongue but you just can't say the words out loud, she reasoned, as every song she had ever tried to think of flooded over her. The thought was lost. "Damn." She whispered. She ignored the look from Agent Guerin and opened the letter:

Agent Guerin

Thrilling in a hostile world
Holding thus until ultimate
Wielding my work into the fold
Will I be the one to be triumphant?

A world collided as time saves my will
Feeding a mania into the sublime
Wondering if you'll ever see it still
I wanted you to learn but you're still blind.

Agent Guerin, maximum in the capacity to flee.
Oh Agent dear, will it ever let you be free?

Maria shifted uncomfortably in her chair as the resounding echo of rain beating against the windows left her cold.

*           *            *

Chapter Forty Three


Maria read the letter again. This time she got chills. She rubbed her arms over the sweatshirt and longed to anywhere else; preferably under heavy blankets with the FBI Agent next to her.

"He's definitely more abstract in this one," she remarked with raised eyebrows. "At least in the others he somewhat told you wanted he wanted you to know, but this one?" She read from the letter. "'Thrilling in a hostile world Holding thus until ultimate.' What the hell? Wait." She read it again. "A hostile world, a world he's not happy with and he's somehow making it thrilling for himself. Okay, I can see that. Holding…Oh! See!" She exclaimed excitedly and shook the paper in her hand. "'Holding thus until ultimate'! He says right here that he's not stopping until he's done. He's playing until the end goal, the ultimate goal!"

"Right," Michael nodded slowly watching her excitement. "I thought we already established that."

"Well, yeah, but now we know for sure. I mean he's telling us that he's not stopping until the end! God, can you ever get excited about anything?"

"I'm sorry," he suppressed a grin. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, actually," she looked back to the letter. "The whole second part, he's making sure you know he's feeding his obsession and in his eyes, turning it into something wonderful. Wielding his work into it, I assume that refers to the letters that are chock full of wacky poetry. The end is telling you that you could have walked away, actually ran away from all of this, but you didn't and so-"

"I'll never be free." Michael shook his head. "Damn it! I could have never walked away from this. Ever. He never knew me or he would have known that much about me. Lorelei could have never told him anything about me because she knew I was never one to walk away from anything."

"Jesus Michael, he's been doing this to you for two freaking years! You know he knows you now better than you know yourself. It's just a play on words, Michael. He knows you won't stop. Maximum capacity? He's just being flippant. God, Michael, he can plot where you're going to stay for crying out loud!" Maria stood and paced in back of him; partly because she was getting agitated. Partly because she was cold and needed to move around.

"Don't get mad at me Maria," he said softly but didn't turn around to face her. "I'm not arguing with you I'm just angry with myself. You can see so much in these letters it makes me feel completely incompetent. I went to school for this kind of thing! I made this my life, my choice in careers and I really suck at it."

"You don't suck at it," she paused in back of him and draped her arms over his shoulders. She kissed the top of his head. "You're not a profiler and apparently not a big fan of digging through poems to pick out the abstract and turn it into 'stract', for lack of a better word. That doesn't make you a bad Agent."

"What does it make me?" He tilted his head back and looked up into her face as she smiled down on him.

"It makes you, Agent Michael, man on a mission. Man who's thrown his life to one side to uncover the mystery of why these girls had to die. Why the woman you loved was murdered in your home. It makes you compassionate and caring and full of life, although you keep saying that you don't have one, you do. A life you've given to solve these murders and put the bad guy behind bars. It makes you one hell of a good man." Her eyebrows furrowed as she felt the next words before they spilled from her mouth. "The man that I'm so in love with."

He smiled the smile of a man whose self-confidence had been boosted. He puckered his lips and grinned when hers met them. "You're amazing Maria."

"I know," she winked and resumed her pacing in back of him. "So what's the story on your end? Anything new?"

"Nothing," he ran his hands through his hair and let out an exasperated sigh. "Like I said before, David Laws led a less than extraordinary life." He laughed but it wasn't a happy laugh. "I have everything he's ever done in front of me and nothing leads him to serial killer status. He was an ordinary guy."

"Like I told you before, you gotta watch out for the quiet ones." Maria smiled as sadness trickled over her. The quiet ones. Liz had been a quiet one. Maria was always the outspoken one and Liz the shy and demure one. She shook her head and pushed away the vision of her friend lying on the cold table at the Medical Examiner's office. She fought the images of the casket holding Liz. No time, DeLuca, she told herself, not now. Grieve later when there's more time.

"Dinner? Soon?" Michael glanced at the wall clock. "We could order something in since It's still raining, God, isn't it ever going to quit?"

"I don't know," she walked to the window and looked out. "I think we may have to start building that ark here pretty soon. Or at least a row boat to get back to the B&B."

"I'll carry you on my shoulders if I have to, to get back there tonight." He stood and took his place next to her at the window as lightning lit up the darkening sky. "Did the sun ever even come out today?"

"Nope," she licked her lips and looked at his reflection in the window in front of her. "It feels like it's going to rain all night."

"At least we don't have to go traipsing through the woods or anything." He shrugged at her reflection. "You know what I mean. Anyway, about dinner?"

A knock at the door sent them both reeling around. Michael instinctively reached for his gun tucked in his shoulder holster. Kyle Valenti walked through the door carrying two pizza boxes. Maria was hit with the smell and her stomach began talking.

"I thought you guys might like some dinner," he shrugged and set the boxes down on the table they had been sitting at. He saw the hesitation on Michael's face and smiled. "Don't worry, I didn't poison it."

Michael smiled and relaxed. "Thank you Sheriff. We were just talking about dinner."

"Yeah," Kyle felt the bitter sting of jealousy rise up in him. "I got Maria's favorites, I don't know what you like." He cast a glance at Maria. "Well, not in pizza anyway."

"Kyle-" Maria stepped towards him.

"Listen," he held up his hands in mock defense. "Just because I told you I loved you enough to let you go doesn't mean it doesn't hurt to see you like this. With him. Okay? Don't expect me to just roll over, okay? It'll take time."

Maria nodded and understood. She could honestly say that if the roles were reversed she wouldn't be handling it near as gracefully as Kyle was. She would have put something in the pizza.

Kyle didn't look back at Agent Hot Shit. He couldn't. "It's going to rain all night and the storms are rolling back through tomorrow. Be careful when you drive ho- When you drive tonight." He backed out of the room closing the door behind him.

Maria fingered one of the pizza boxes and then finally opened it. "Something to drink?"

"He's a pretty good guy, isn't he?" Michael asked what he already knew the answer to.

"Yeah," she smiled but it was laced with something. Regret? No, memories. "He is."

Michael didn't promote the conversation. He reached for the pizza and took a slice in his hand. He watched as Maria walked wordlessly out of the room. Waiting with the untouched pizza in his hand he watched her walk back in carrying cans of soda. He accepted a can from her and watched as she seemed to do everything she could to avoid looking at him. He trailed her eyes as they roamed the room, through the windows and finally settled on the wall of victims.

Maria felt Michael's gaze on her but she didn't look at him. The gestures Kyle had shown in the preceding minutes were enough to let her know that he really was a good guy. He never wanted to hurt her and she had broken his heart.

In the last few days she had tried to push the feelings of guilt away with almost every breath. The guilt for Kyle and the guilt for Liz were entwined. Without one there wouldn't have been the other. Without the pain she wouldn't have found happiness.
She stood and walked towards her workstation and picked up the picture of Hannah Lampe. She set her can down and walked to the wall, tape in her hand. She taped Hannah's portrait up next to Theresa's and then walked the length of the wall taking in each woman as she passed them. She knew Liz would be next on the wall and now there would be a tangible reminder to stand out from all the mental ones. Liz would be looking over her shoulder, watching her try to solve her murder.

"It's not fair," Maria whispered as she touched the empty place on the wall next to Hannah's picture. The empty place that would soon be filled with the beautiful face of Liz Parker. She turned back to Michael in time to see him turn away quickly. A smirk crept across her face as she walked over to him. "Were you staring at me?"

He pointed to himself and shook his head. The gesture so painfully close to that of a little kid, it made Maria laugh. She started laughing and couldn't stop. Clutching her sides as tears rolled down her face, she laughed. The laughing changed course and as tears rolled down her cheeks she didn't know if they were from the laughter or from the pain.

Michael set down his pizza and took her in his arms, holding her while she cried. He held her as her body shook against everything that was welled up inside of her. Tears soaked into his shirt as the laughter slipped away completely. He smoothed her hair and waited for her to move. This was her time, not his.

The crying became controlled and she looked up into his face with tearstained cheeks. Embarrassment was prominent. She stepped away from him, out of his arms and pointed to the pizza. "Eat." She ignored her own hunger and finished what had to be done.

Flipping through a file, she came across the portrait of Elizabeth Parker. Holding the eight by ten glossy in her hand she thought back to the day the picture was taken. She remembered it vividly. The picture was almost a year and half old. On one of their dwindling outings together, Maria accompanied Liz to get the portraits taken as a Christmas present for Max.

Now as she held the tape in one hand and the picture in the other, Maria felt a sadness that reached deep into her bones. She walked to the wall of victims and with shaking hands, taped the picture of Liz along side the others. With fresh tears rolling down her cheeks, she touched the face in the picture and whispered a promise to herself and Liz. "I swear that I will see this through to the end. If we lose him, I promise I will devote my life to find him. For you Liz, always for you."

She turned around and wiped the tears away. Determination flashed through her eyes. She walked towards Michael and the half-eaten slice of pizza in his hand and nodded.

He nodded back at her; an understanding that surpassed anything emotional or physical passed between them. Resolve.

*      *       *

Chapter Forty Four


Maria didn't want conversation and she didn't want pizza. She actually did want pizza after ditching breakfast for the guilt of the raincoat and a day of brain draining mystery solving. Maria was hungry and she really wanted to talk, too. She picked up a few slices and laid them on a paper towel before sitting back down away from the precious files in front of her. Wouldn't be a good thing to splatter them with pizza sauce. She took a sip of her soft drink and looked over her shoulder at Michael who was still standing.

"You can feel her at your back, can't you?" He asked and motioned his head towards the wall of victims.

She nodded. "I can feel them all, but Liz? I can feel Liz like she's standing right in back of me waiting for me to help her. I know they all need my help and I've already promised Liz that. I've promised them all that." She nodded filled with the resolve they needed.

"I pulled you in too far to this-"

"The hell you did!" She snapped and swiveled in her chair to face him. "The hell you did. I wanted in Michael. Liz was my best friend. There was no way anyone could have kept me away from this, that's why I was deputized in the first place."

"It's more than that, you feel for them like I do. You know them, I did the research and you read it. Your heart broke just as mine had over each of them. That wasn't fair." He shook his head and retrieved another slice of pizza. "It wasn't fair for me to drag you in so deep into the others. They'll haunt you, Maria."

"Oh hell," she rolled her eyes. "They already haunt me. But unlike you, I know the haunting will end when we catch David Laws. The pain will never go away completely, but it will get easier to cope with."

"How can you be so strong?"

"How can you not?" She asked before thinking it through all the way. The regretted words hung in between them. She closed her eyes and damned herself for a classic DeLuca fuck-up of words.

"I'm in too deep." He answered her and shrugged. The offending words hit him hard, but he couldn't let her see it. He knew an apology was coming soon, but he didn't deserve an apology. She was right, he wasn't being very strong. For a second he wondered if he'd lost all his strength. If his will was buried with the girls he called his own. "Don't."

"Don't what?" Maria's eyes flew open.

"Don't apologize," he shook his head and raised his eyebrows at the shock on her face. "I am strong Maria, I've just been doing this too long." He ran his free hand through his hair. "Too fucking long, this man, and I use that term loosely, has pulled me around by a leash. He sucked me into a world that was horrible, his world, and there I've stayed for two years. I've never given up and I won't either, that takes strength."

"Michael-"

"May I finish?" He winked at her. "I'm in the middle of a rant here. A minute ago I was doubting myself and I just came to a conclusion. I'm jaded, but I'm not done. You're so bright, so talented with fresh new eyes reading in-between the lines making it seem that I may be little lost. I don't think I'm lost, I think I'm in awe of you, firstly. Secondly, I think that it's so close to the end that I'm not sure if I could go on if we missed it. If we missed him."

Maria opened her mouth to speak then put her hand over it until Michael nodded at her. "We're not going to miss anything. I didn't mean to call you 'not strong', that was an error in wording on my part. Sorry. I know how strong you are. You'd have to be to have lived your life for the last two years." She stood and walked to him, into him, sliding her arms around his waist. She nuzzled against his neck. "We're good Michael. We each have ghosts, some we share, and we'll set them straight. We're not losing this battle, okay?"

He nodded as he filled back up with her confidence that she leached out. He kissed the top of her head as rain began to pelt the window. He looked over his shoulder at the offending noise and grinned. He hoped the rain stuck around all night again. Another night with Maria in the safety of the B&B while rain poured down all night was exactly what he wanted.

Maria broke away first. "Better get back to the grind because I don't want to spend all night here, you know?" She winked and stepped back to the files at her workspace. "Another letter after Hannah, right? Then I move on to Liz?"

He nodded and reclaimed his place in front of the laptop. Maria watched his face in the glow from the computer screen and relaxed. Left over tension was gone; the confidence was back in full throttle. She looked over her shoulder at the picture of Liz and gave it a thumbs up. "I'll get him, Lizzie. I'll get him." She whispered and opened the second letter that came after Hannah.

Agent Guerin

Frothy glass you can't see through
Ruminating for an implication
Tempting others if you only knew
Waiting for the time, you've shown your dedication.

Lounging about in the shadows
Lingering on the gone
Wanting spaciously for closure
Leading up to the song.

Are you thinking of me always, oh Agent Dear?
Can you feel me hovering, can you feel I'm near?

Freak. Maria decided that was the best word that described the illusive David Laws. This letter was just as abstract as the last one. For the first time she felt doubt.  All of the surety that she threw out in front of her was suddenly gone. She looked at Michael and waited for him to sense her and look back. After waiting for over a minute with her stare boring holes through him, nothing. She sighed. Still nothing.

"Holy shit, can you just look at me for a second?" She exclaimed and smirked when she saw him jump.

"Is it an epiphany?"

"No it's not an epiphany." She rolled her eyes and made a mental note that she had to quit doing that. "What if I'm wrong?"

"Oh God," he ran his hands through his hair and leaned back in the metal chair.

"No, really. What if I'm just blowing smoke and I'm completely off base about everything, Michael. I mean, we're assuming that I actually know what I'm talking about. I have been known to be wrong a few times before."

"Maria," he sighed her name.

"Am I being stupid?"

"Incredibly."

"Sorry, just must have had a blond moment." She turned back to the letter in hand.
She didn't see the way he looked at her with deep admiration and new love in his eyes. A new sense of being.

Maria cast a glance over her shoulder at Liz one more time before turning back to the letter. Frothy glass? Maria got the image of bathroom windows and the frosty textured paper people put on them in her head and couldn't shake it. Mr. Laws was once again implying that Michael couldn't see the freaking forest though the trees. She hated that. The constant belittling of him in the letters. It was bad enough that he had ruined his life, then he had to go ahead and make Michael seem useless as both a man and an agent.

She put the letter away and reached for the next one. "Liz." She pulled Liz's file but didn't open it. She knew everything that was in it and so much more. She didn't need to see the crime photos or read the report from the ME.

"Her file's so thin," Michael commented facing her. "Her file's in your head."

"Lorelei's was thin too," she commented. "Of course I believe hers has gotten a tad bigger in the last twenty four hours. Liz's will stay the same. She was unimportant to him, she didn't matter."

"She does matter."

"Not to him."

"To you. To me and everyone else in this desert town." He reached for her hand. "She'll live forever in your heart."

Maria looked at him, a frown on her face. "You're goofy."

"I'm honest." He let go of her hand and watched as she pulled the first letter after Liz out. The one that had been waiting for him at the B&B.

Maria shrugged and opened the letter in her hand. Remembering that this one was waiting for him at the B&B when he had arrived in Roswell. The letter the bastard wrote after killing her friend Liz.

Agent Guerin.

Eleven muses eleven minds
Time's running out for you to find
I give you hints but your not so bright
And I know where you are this very night.

Time is of the essence
but your dying of thirst
I can feel your breath on my neck
But you can't get past the first

It's all there in black in white
Goodnight dear agent, good night

"I guess you covered the stationary angle, huh?" Maria asked without enthusiasm.

"You can get it at any discount department store in America. Same with the pen, black Bic." Michel laughed. "You were expecting…?"

"Yeah, pretty much that answer." She laid her head down on the table and let out a deep breath. "I want to scream."

"You can scream."

Maria turned her head to face him with one eye, her cheek plastered to the table. "Do you wanna get out of here? I mean, we could go back to the B&B. It is a crappy night out and we could work there for awhile."

"Will we work?"

"I tell you what Agent Guerin, I only have like one more letter to read and then I'm up to speed. What else is there to do? I want to start off the day tomorrow with a new insight."

"You'll reread the letters in the morning?"

"Oh yeah, starting with the first and going straight through," she looked thoughtfully at him. "You know, I couldn't grasp why I had to meet them all first until just now, now that I'm at the end."

A crease formed in-between his brows. "And now?"

"Now I get it," she smiled but it came across crooked since her face was still against the table. "I feel for them, Michael. I mean, I really feel like I knew them. All of them. I think I got more out of the letters after I met the victims. Thank you for not letting me rush into anything."

He nodded and closed the laptop. "You've got the right idea, let's get the hell out of here. I would much rather spend this dreary evening at the B&B than here."

Maria perked up and gathered her parcel of evidence. "I'm leaving most of it here." She paused and set the folders down. "Screw it. I'm leaving it all here. I already read the other letter; the one you thought was about me. Forbidden fruit or whatever, right? That's it then, right?" She opened the envelope back up and pulled out the next letter and opened it.

Agent Guerin.

Wasting your time
Do my eyes deceive?
Playing in forbidden forest
No time to grieve

I thought you were smart
But you proved me wrong
I thought you've have found me
You can see I'm not gone

Tick tock Agent Guerin find your man
Tick tock Agent Guerin I don't think you can

"Okay, forbidden forest not fruit, I remember. Tick tock, yadda yadda yadda," Maria nodded as she read the letter again. "Okay, this is the one where I said he was calling you a dumb ass." She winked at him over the paper.

"Oh yes, how could I ever forget that?" He rolled his eyes and Maria laughed. "So you're done being the letter-reader for the night. Right?"

"Damn straight. There's an old phrase or cliché, ah…saying. There's an old saying, you always hear the old people saying it. 'If it was a snake, it would have bit me.' I think that's where I'm at."

Michael's brow furrowed the beginning of a grin twitched on his lips. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You've never heard that before?" She cocked her head to one side.

"No. I mean, yes I've heard it before but I don't catch the simile." He dug his hand in his pockets.

"Okay," she let out a big sigh while a smile played on her lips. "I mean, I have to take a step back from it. I have to give myself a break from yanking the meaningful stuff from the freaky rhymes. In the morning I'll have a clearer mind. A fresh start so to speak. The snake thing?" she twisted her lips and shifted her eyes. "Forget the snake thing."

The smile he seemed to have permanently engraved on his face widened. He shook his head and picked up a pizza box instead of the laptop. "If you're not working tonight, then you can bet that I'm not either. A fresh start tomorrow." He nodded. "I haven't done that in awhile. C'mon Deputy DeLuca, lets get the hell out of here."

Maria followed him from the room and reached for the light switch at the door. With one last glance at the wall, she smiled at her friend's picture and turned the light off.
*        *        *



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