Pygmalion
By DocPaul
Chapter
Forty-one: Foolish games….
You took your coat off and stood in the rain,
You were always crazy like that
I watched from my window,
Always felt I was outside looking in on you
You were always the mysterious one
With dark eyes and careless hair,
You were fashionably sensitive, but too cool to
care
Then you stood in my doorway, with nothing to
say
Besides some comment on the weather
Well in case you failed to notice,
In case you failed to see
This is my heart bleeding before you,
This is me down on my knees
These foolish games are tearing me apart
Your thoughtless words are breaking my heart
You’re breaking my heart.
~Jewel~
Day Fifty-five: Sunday,
Jonathan
stretched tiredly as he fumbled with his keys. He should’ve stayed another
full night and come home in the morning. It was hard to be away too long, and he
was sick of
“I’m
awake.”
Max.
Jonathan hit
the light switch beside the door as he dropped his bags and closed the door
behind him. Max was sitting in the living room in the dark. Jonathan could see
the half empty bottle of beer.
“You
drunk?”
“Getting
there.”
Jonathan
frowned and rocked on his feet. “Party of one, or did your cohorts leave?”
“One.
Jonathan
entered the room, but his feet faltered when he saw what was surrounding Max.
Pictures. Files. “Max…”
“Don’t.”
Max held himself stiffly. “Tell me that you’re not Pierce! Tell me!”
Jonathan
licked his lips. “I’m not Pierce.” He sighed. That talk they never seemed
able to have was long overdue, and now perhaps too late.
“Are you a
Skin?”
“No.”
“One of
those Walkers?”
“No.”
Max looked
sick. “Pierce is Nasedo, or Torq’el…whatever his name is! You’re not
him?”
“No. I am
not your rogue Shapeshifter. I am not the nemesis that has been hounding you in
the background. I am many things, but I am not he.”
Max pointed
to the pictures, to the files, to all the information he had found in
Jonathan’s house. “Then explain this! Explain how you came to know all about
me before we ever met!”
Jonathan
sighed and sank into a chair opposite Max. “I’m tired, Max. Real tired, but
this can’t wait. It’s waited too long already.” He picked up the article
on Michael, about his life on the street, and Max, the officer who brought him
home. All the information he had gathered on Michael and Max, and even Isabel.
As far as Tess went, that information he already had.
“I hired
you and Michael for the detective positions at the Roswell PD. The Foundation
brought you here.” Jonathan looked at Max with his dark eyes void of any
light. “I created the Foundation with Maria’s money. I built the concept of
‘second chances.’ I financed Tess’s degree program, and I built the
Roswell Police Department to rival a large city’s so there would be a need for
Detectives such as you are.”
“Why?”
“You know
why. The Royal Four needed to come home, and the Commander’s mate was here. I
did nothing to introduce Maria to Michael. I waited to see if Destiny would do
that. It did.”
“Who are
you?” Max whispered. “What are
you?”
“I am your
mate. I am the love of your life. I am what you
made me.” Jonathan looked at Max and stood up, his long body seemingly
stronger and taller than normal from Max’s perspective. “I’ve loved you
all my existence, but until I met you, Max, I didn’t even know what that
meant.”
Max pulled
something out of his pocket. A small shiny object. One of Jonathan’s shirt
studs. Holding it out to Jonathan, he stared at it. “Did you kill Vanessa
Whitaker?” This was the object he had found in her hotel room close to her
body. The object he had hidden from Michael, his partner.
“Yes.”
Max shut his
eyes, bowing his head. “You could’ve said that you stopped and talked to
her. That you lost the shirt stud. Anything.”
“I
didn’t know where I lost it, and I couldn’t tell you that, Max. You asked me
a direct question. Did I kill her? The answer is ‘yes.’”
“How?”
Max stood up and backed away remembering how Vanessa looked. “What are you?”
“I am what
I’ve always been.” Jonathan said. “I’m your protector.”
Max shook
his head no. “That isn’t possible! Pierce, Nasedo, Torq’el or whoever the
hell that whack job is, he’s our
protector!”
“Yes.
Originally, he and I were the Royals’ assigned protectors. Your Pierce was my
mate.” Jonathan closed his eyes. “I am Sa’rel.”
“You lied
to me! You used me!” Max didn’t want it to be true. He didn’t want to hear
it.
“I did
not!” Jonathan rubbed the back of his neck. “I have never lied to you! I am
incapable of lying to you! You of all people! Especially you. Ask me anything! Demand anything. I can’t harm
you, no more than Torq’el can. We are genetically incapable of harming any
Royal. It is in our breeding to protect.” Jonathan stared at Max. “You made
us that way. You think any one person could control Torq’el if he had a
choice? If I had a choice?”
“Sa’rel.
You’re dead.”
“No. I
live.” Jonathan went into the kitchen. He took out a beer. “Torq’el, this
Nasedo, he tried to kill me. He left me for dead. I had spent time in this area,
waiting for you to waken. It took longer than anyone expected. The crash
compromised all the pods. I took the Royals and hid them in a cavern I made for
the incubation pods, and I took the other pods to a cave on the Reservation.
Stored them there.”
“Why?”
Jonathan
moved closer to Max, handing him a fresh cold beer. “You know why.”
“No, I
don’t.”
“You. Zan.
The man you were, ordered me to remove your pod and the genuine Royals from
Torq’el’s grasp. You never trusted him, but you needed him for your plan.
You sold me to him as a mate to ensure that I would be part of the mission to
Earth.”
“Pierce.
Call him Pierce.” Max drank from the beer, his stomach was sour. “And I’m
not Zan! I remember none of this.”
“I
know.” Jonathan felt too tired to continue. It was a long day. A long life.
“I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you everything.”
~~~
“What
did they do to you?”
“Something
they will pay for.” Torq’el looked at Sa’rel. “Where are the
children?”
“The
humans had them. I retrieved them, but not without cost.” Sa’rel
concentrated on not blinking. “Four of them were damaged. Leaking. The
incubation pods were autopsied. The hybrids did not survive.”
“The
Royals?”
“Chance.
The four remaining ones must be the Royals. How could we exist otherwise?”
Torq’el
nodded. “Where are they?”
“A
cave. I found a cave away from the crash site, out of the desert. It is on the
edge next to the woods.” Sa’rel backed away from his mate. “You feel
different. I cannot...what is that…?” He paused. There were no words. Taste?
Smell?
“It
is hate.” Torq’el grabbed his mate close, suspicion edging into his
consciousness. “Take me to them.”
It
was some time before they made their way to the cave, careful of human patrols.
They both shifted into soldiers. “They look undamaged.” Torq’el checked
the incubation pods for leaks. “This one is slightly damaged.”
“It
is the Queen’s. It is leaking some fluid. I patched it. The damage was caused
by having to remove her pod from that of her twin. The twin was dead.”
Torq’el
nodded. The twins were never to have been separated until they reached a certain
degree of maturity. Then separation would have been natural.
“Tor,
we must not keep them here, in this region. The humans will continue to search.
The other? Is the other dead?”
“Yes.
We are all that is left.” Earth was familiar. Centuries of exploration and
observation. “We stay on this continent. It was where the Granilith was
originally found. We will take the children and go east. North. Away from
here.”
“No.”
Sa’rel felt his eyes on him. Trust. They had no abiding bond of a love match,
only that which was forged in the joining process. Torq’el had never trusted
him. Shapeshifters mated for power. A complimentary power that increased their
ability to shift. “We need to lead them away from the children. You are
injured. Weak. I will leave a trail to the west. To
And so it
was. Sa’rel led the humans away from the desert and the
He would not
return. Not until it was maturation time. To do so would run the risk of
Torq’el finding him. A mating between Shifters made it possible for them to
feel each other. His and Torq’el’s was not a strong tie, but it still made
things difficult.
~~~
“So you
left us.”
“No. Not
really. Your maturation cycle was off. It was extended almost three times the
normal time period. Torq’el suspected his children might not be the real
Royals, but he couldn’t be sure. No one could. The pods were breaking down, so
he took them into the sewers of
“If you
didn’t dump us like Nasedo dumped the Dupes, then how did we come to be found
in the desert?”
“It was a
mistake. On Torq’el’s part. It was over twenty years before he caught up
with me.” Jonathan sat down again. “I was working on a film crew. Mostly
camera work. I chose an assignment that would bring me back to
“We were
told that the Shapeshifter called Nasedo or Pierce lost his mate. That his mate
had died. That Nasedo killed his mate Sa’rel.”
“So he
thought. He was wrong. They were
wrong. Sa’rel. I am he.”
“Prove it.
Shift for me.”
Jonathan was
shocked. He felt no compelling need to obey. That was new in the relationship
between him and his King. “No. Not even for you.”
“But, you
wish me to believe you are this Sa’rel.”
Jonathan
nodded. Trust. He had to hope that Max would believe in him enough to listen.
“I was
presumed dead. And I was close to being that way. I laid in the ground for so
long on the verge of death, unable to help myself. I was found by a man in his
late sixties. Jonathan Stiller.”
Max stared
at Jonathan in amazement. “You killed this man?”
“No. I
didn’t have to. He took me in.” Jonathan laughed. “I didn’t even know if
I could shift any longer. I had no energy left. It had drained from me, but
whatever in a body survives or thirsts to survive, reached out the moment he
touched me. My body shifted into him, imprinted him, and I became him.”
“He knew
what you were?”
“Hard to
miss.” Jonathan laughed without humor. “Jonathan Stiller saw an opportunity.
A large one. He cared for me until I healed. It took years and years before I
had my strength back. I could only use his form. A younger version, and a
version of him that was identical. I couldn’t shift into anything else.”
Max’s
curiosity was unquenchable. “Was that important?”
“For
Stiller? Yes.” Jonathan sighed. “He was a rich man. Isolated. Don’t
imagine for a moment that he was honorable and good. He wasn’t. He saw me as
an opportunity.”
“I don’t
understand.”
“I
know.” Jonathan went into the kitchen. He rutted around for food and Max
followed him. “Max, when a Shapeshifter imprints a person on them…takes
their form, there are degrees that they can imprint. I was dying. My body
imprinted Jonathan Stiller completely. I was him. Normally, we would remove the
person we imprinted since two of the same people can’t exist. I couldn’t
kill him. I barely had the energy to shift into his form.”
“What
happened?”
“Stiller
found a use for me. Normally I was a younger version of him, working at his
side, almost like a bodyguard or a second in command. People assumed I was his
son, so much did I look like him. My name was Jonathan as well. Stiller found it
convenient to have me shift to an older version of him…identical when he
needed to be two places at once. He named me Jonathan Stiller, II. So well bred,
no? It amused him to have people think I was his bastard son that he had decided
to acknowledge by giving me his name.”
Max sat down
and watched as Jonathan made himself food. Reaching out, he started making
himself a sandwich too. “Two places at once? Why?”
Jonathan
laughed. “He wasn’t an innocent, Max. He liked children.” Jonathan stopped
and looked at Max. “Not in a nice way. He was a dirty perverted old man. I
can’t even tell you the extent of that perversion, but I know it. It was in me
too.”
“You were
a pedophile?”
The disgust
in Max’s voice was evident. The horror of a new father who let a man he
thought he knew near his infant son. Jonathan looked at him darkly. “I warned
you. I told you there were things in my past that would destroy us. No. I was
not a pedophile. I did not get my jollies at looking at little boys’ penises.
Or small girls’ pussies. I didn’t want to molest them. I didn’t have
enough human emotion to even feel lust. It was a matter of interest to me, to
feel his need, but it wasn’t enough to make me want the same. I did worse.”
“Worse?”
Max was afraid to ask. What could be worse?
“Yes, much
worse, or at least in my eyes. I became him. Went to meetings out of town. Went
to charity events. Went to public places while he was doing what he liked with
these small children. I became his alibi.”
“You were
an accomplice.”
“Yes.”
Jonathan took a bite of his sandwich, and laughed as he chewed. “Amazing! Back
then, I didn’t care or even understand the difference. Today. Now. As I am…I
want to throw up my guts. I want to….be punished, held accountable.”
Jonathan seemed to be thinking as he chewed. “Who knew that someone like me
could actually learn to feel?”
“You
didn’t kill this Jonathan Stiller?”
“No, he
died. Cancer. Rotten soul. It ended badly. He died, and everything came to me.
Everyone assumed I was his son. No one ever questioned it. How could they? We
were practically identical, except I was younger. I even went to college. I
lived as a human Jonathan Stiller for a long time. I forgot Antar. I forgot my
duty.”
“You left
us.”
“No. I
actually went back for you. All of you. I was going to place you in a safe
place. A family. Maybe make you my children.”
“What
happened?”
Jonathan
paused. He stared at the counter, at the sandwich in his hand. “I was too
late. As I said, your maturation cycle was off. It stopped inexplicably. You
woke too early. Wandered from the cavern into the desert. I missed you. I
didn’t know where you had gone. By the time I got there, only Tess was still
in incubation.”
“You left
her?”
Jonathan
laughed. “Don’t be stupid. Who do you think conveniently ‘found’ her in
the desert? Who made sure she was placed in a large loving family with lots of
siblings? I paid her family to foster her. I always knew where she was. The rest
of you were a mystery. The government is very quick to close cases on minors.
Michael was the hardest. He was immediately fostered and then adopted by Mikey
Guerin. He literally never entered the system.” Jonathan frowned. “I
actually had a moment of fear that my mate had found you, that he had the
Royals.”
“So you
looked for us?”
“No.”
Jonathan sighed. “I had every intention of shifting into a younger and younger
version of myself. Create a son that would take my place when I would seemingly
grow old and die.” Jonathan licked his lips. “I found you gone. In that
moment, I was free. Free of all of it. To all those that knew what I was, I was
dead. There were no more obligations to serve. No reason to look back. I had a
name. A place. I could live out my existence here, unhindered.”
“What
happened?”
“Vanessa,
a Skin found me, or maybe I found her. She didn’t know what I was, but I sure
as hell knew what she was.” Jonathan started putting away the leftover food.
“I used her. Married her. I allowed her to lead me to the Dupes.” Jonathan
looked at Max. “I had to be sure that my mate, Torq’el hadn’t found you.
That you were safe in your human lives. I used Vanessa to lead me to the others.
To them, I was human. A man of resources and means. A man to use.”
“Did you
find him? Your mate?”
Jonathan bit
his mouth. “No. He was gone. He had deserted them. Since they emerged he fed
them a destiny line. Told them they were destined for each other. He wanted the
King to produce a child with his Queen, and he wanted the others to stay near.
After years of the first maturation alignment, they remained barren. He knew for
certain that he had the Dupes, and that out there, somewhere, the real Royals
lived. There was a Peace Initiative between the ruling families. The Dupe King,
Zan didn’t have the Antar crest. That was the final proof. Torq’el deserted
them. I was dead to him, and he was left to search for those lost.”
“He
returned to this area as Nacedo. Why?” Max hated to ask. Part of him didn’t
want to know the extent of Jonathan’s duplicity, but another part of him
wanted answers.
“The
Granilith. It was originally found in this region. It was why our ship crashed
here. We were establishing incubation chambers in the old Granilith cavern when
our ship was hit. By the time the Dupes emerged from their pods, the Granilith
homed itself to Earth, and to the Commander who emerged at the same time, but
across the continent. It searched him out.” Jonathan took another beer and
went into the living room. Sitting down, he drank from it. “Torq’el, the one
you call Pierce…or this Nasedo, returned to this area. He believed that the
Granilith returned to this region, and it was here that the Royals would someday
return, drawn to it, and the destiny they can’t escape. He waited. He built
his empire exploiting human weaknesses for drugs and the crime of the region.”
“You knew
him? All this time?” Max’s expression was one of censure.
“No.”
Jonathan stood up. He walked around the room. “I had no desire to meet my old
mate again, or in any way to know of him. Our bond was severed the moment he
killed me, or tried to, and that freed me. My bond to you as Zan died with you.
His murder of me killed the last strand of bondage to any of the past. I was
freed.” He looked at Max finally. “You think I deceived you, but you are
wrong. I am no longer Sa’rel. I am no longer that person. I have been Jonathan
Stiller for almost twenty years. I haven’t shifted in that entire time, except
minor alterations in age.” Jonathan closed his eyes. “Except once.”
Max nodded.
Of course. “Maria.”
“Yes.”
“You told
me I would hold that against you.”
“Yes.”
Max stood
up. He couldn’t handle any more. “This! Us! We’re a lie. A lie created by
you!” Max ran his hands through his hair. “How am I to trust you? Every
thing, every touch…..a lie.”
Jonathan
grabbed Max’s arm, his eyes stormy. “No! That is fucking not true! I loved you! I love you!”
Max shook
his arm free. “You….you who can’t feel! How can you love me? How?”
Jonathan
looked away. “I don’t know. I just do.” He laughed bitterly. “I arranged
for you to come to
“How can
you have emotions?”
Jonathan
laughed bitterly. “A mistake. An unforeseen mistake on my part. I changed.
Without realizing how, I changed.” Jonathan licked his lips. “I woke up one
day feeling human, almost too human.” Jonathan stood up. “You can’t
understand how hard it was to let you into my life. To find myself not only
respecting you, but liking you. I pushed so hard. Gave no ground to you. The Zan
I once knew and loved, hadn’t deserved any respect or consideration from me.
He only took from me. Abused our bond. Sold me to a creature that even on our
world was considered abnormal and horrific. All so that I would be in a position
to fulfill his great plan!” Jonathan looked at Max. “I thought I was free of
you. How ironic that I would actually come to understand what real love was, and
it would be for you. Death would’ve been easier.”
“You
deceived me!”
“I did
not! You didn’t even know who you were! You sure as hell didn’t tell me that
you knew that you were alien. Would you have thanked me, Max? If I revealed my
nature? What if I said, ‘Don’t worry, honey, because you’re an alien
too.’ Would you have thanked me?”
“Once I
told you about me. Once I revealed that I knew I was an alien, you should’ve
told me!”
“I wanted
to, and I tried. Things happened. There was never the right time . Never enough
time to stop and just talk.” Jonathan shook his head. “Maybe I didn’t want
to, or maybe I knew that it would cost me everything. I don’t know. I just
know that I’m not Sa’rel. Not any longer.”
Max stared
at his lover. Shaking his head, he looked away. “How can I trust you? How can
I ever believe in you again?”
Jonathan
grabbed Max. Kissed him. Roughly. Then not so roughly. They both moaned and
moved together, but before it went too far, Jonathan pulled away. “I’m
already missing you, Max. I never missed Zan. In so many ways, he was my
tormentor. I am what you made me. I do what you told me. You’re not the same.
I know this better than anyone. Better than you know yourself.” Jonathan
kissed him again. “Kill me. You have the power. I don’t. I could never hurt
you. Destroy you.”
“You did.
You hurt me, Jonathan... Sa’rel... Whatever the hell your name is.” Max
gulped hard. “You made me believe. Made me happy. I can’t forgive you for
making that a lie.”
Jonathan
nodded. “There is more I should tell you, but I can’t. Not right now. I’m
so tired of this. All of it. You find me when you’re ready.” Jonathan
grabbed his jacket. Standing at the door, he looked back. “Vanessa was a
threat. To me. To you. To the others. My job was always and foremost to protect
you, my King. But I killed her for one reason only. She got too close.”
“You said
she didn’t know that you were Sa’rel.”
Jonathan
laughed. “She didn’t. Not for a long time. Not while we were married. She
was a plaything. But, when she came this time, she was hinting…suggesting she
knew I was a Shifter. More than likely she thought I was Pierce at first….Torq’el.
Later, after she actually spoke to Pierce, she came to realize there was only
person I could be.”
“How did
she figure it out?”
Jonathan
rolled his eyes. So stupid. So ridiculous. “Alien sex. Hard to miss or deny.
The sex was too good.”
Max stopped
Jonathan before he could leave. “Why did you leave her body? A message for
me?”
Jonathan
laughed at the door. “No. A message for Pierce. Now he knows that there is
someone else protecting the Royals, and now he has a reason to fear.” Jonathan
closed his eyes. “I knew where the Granilith was. I know where it is today. It
took a while to piece it together. I think I never wanted to return to this
life, but that damn destiny has a way of biting a person in the ass when
they’re not looking.”
“You know
where the Granilith is?” Jonathan nodded. “Then why don’t you take it and
leave? Isn’t it what all of you want?”
“The
Granilith means nothing to me! All I know is that it meant something to you at
one time. It helped to re-engineer you, and it once saved our worlds. The
Granilith is not my concern. The protection of the Royals, namely you, was my
only directive. Since you’re releasing me, I guess I am truly free.”
“Where is
it?”
Jonathan
sighed. “It will always be near to the
One. Seek there, and you will find it.” Jonathan opened the door. “You
know where I am. If you have any questions, ask me.”
“Wait! Did
you ever use the Foundation for illegal reasons?”
Jonathan
shook his head. “I created the Foundation with Maria’s help for one reason,
and one reason only. To bring you and the others to
Max watched
as the door shut behind Jonathan. It took a while before he finally sat down
sinking his head in his hands. His betrayer. His lover. Misery. Misery was he
still loved him.
~~~
“Maria!
Where are the scissors?”
Maria
didn’t bother to look up at the upstairs landing. Michael was standing there.
His bellow could be heard all across the loft. Sighing, she yelled back at him,
“Drawer to the right of the bathroom sink! Where they’ve always been!” She rolled her eyes.
Michael, the
Great Detective of Roswell, was the only person who ever asked her where the
eggs were. A normal person might suspect that the refrigerator was an obvious
answer. Maria told him down the street, take a left, look under the huge
boulder. Some questions were so obvious they really didn’t deserve to be
seriously answered. A bonus to Michael’s intellect was that he didn’t go
look under that mythical boulder. He just gave her a nasty glare. Such a
sweetheart.
It took a
moment for the request for scissors to nag at her. “Michael? Honey? Why?” He
didn’t answer her, and so she shrugged and went back to what she was doing.
Knitting.
Maria bit
her lip. This pattern was insane. What the hell was a damn pearl, and how did
she keep dropping stitches? When she needed to drop one, she seemed to gain them
instead. The knitting needle was confusing enough. Instead of the classical long
ones she imagined from childhood as she dreamed of a mother who actually knitted
at the fireplace, this needle was plastic and round. Round? Damn. She probably
got the wrong thing. No wonder Amanda’s baby blanket looked like a nightmare.
Maria
continued to work diligently. The amount of yarn around her increased
exponentially. Soon, she had managed to weave herself into a cocoon, and yet,
the blanket remained a mysterious entity. “I don’t think this looks
right.”
Maria
finally looked upstairs. Where the heck was he? It had been hours! Okay, maybe
only about twenty minutes, but it felt like hours. He was supposed to save her
from the horror of knitting. Sewing. He had already banned needlepoint and
embroidery when she lost too much blood on the canvas.
“Honey?
Michael?” Maria put the yarn away. Twisting and turning, she tried to untangle
herself from the mess. “Ummm…..”
“Shit!
What did you do?”
“Language!”
Maria said in her soft singsong voice, happy that she was going to be unsnagged
from her irresponsible maternal instinct to knit. “Detective, get me out of
this torture chamber, and I’ll let you interrogate me!”
“Bonus.”
Michael chuckled moving down the stairs fast. He started to unravel his wife
from a large yarn ball. Kissing the side of her head, he freed her. “I’m
starved! Feel up to a burger?”
“The
Grease Pit?” Michael nodded. Maria pushed him over on the sofa kissing him
outrageously. “Oh! Great. I wanted to see Bess. She was applying for college,
and….” Maria never finished.
At that
moment, it was possible that she could’ve gone into premature labor. So
frightening was the bizarre creature that jumped on the coffee table next to
them, that Maria actually screamed in fright, and sat up.
“What?”
Michael quickly reached for his gun, searching the room for an intruder.
Maria
pointed at her cat, Mr. Booboo. Sometimes Mr. Boo, ‘the’ Boo,
or just Boo. Her poor baby kitty, a sweet innocent soul. Her sometimes
calico, most times black, maligned to be neurotic cat sat in front of her
caterwauling his outrage and embarrassment. His once beautiful coat was a
fright. Nappy. Patchy. Holey. Missing chunks of fur everywhere.
“Michael? Michael!
What happened to Mr. Boo?”
Michael
scratched his eyebrow. “What? He looks good!”
Good? He was
a cat nightmare! “What the hell did
you do to him?”
“Me? Why
me? He might have been the victim of a runaway mowing. Or….”
“Runaway mowing?”
Maria turned to her mate and slapped him on the arm. Mimicking him, her
voice rose in a singsong, “Maria, where are the scissors?”
Michael
grimaced. “So? I gave him a little haircut.”
“Little?”
Maria pointed at their insane cat, who was wildly licking his pelt trying to get
the hair to lie down in some pattern that resembled normal. “He looks like a
chemo victim!”
Michael
shrugged. “It’ll grow back. Did you see all the damn hair he left in my sock
drawer? Look at how……svelte he looks now! No diet necessary.”
Maria’s
eyes narrowed. “You did this to get even with him over your athletic socks?
Michael….” Her arguments were drowned out by the yowling of the cat trying
to vocalize his shame for his new do, and the ringing of the loft doorbell.
Michael quickly went to answer.
Sean.
Michael shut
the door in his face. “No room at the damn
“Michael,
let Sean in.”
Michael
kicked the closed door. “No way in hell! He comes. He never leaves. The man is
a mooch. The world’s biggest…”
“His Dodge
Charger is being delivered today.”
Michael
quickly opened the door. Grabbing Sean’s shirt and dragging him into the loft.
“Get your ass in here. The Charger is being delivered today?! When did Walter
say he’d be bringing it? Did you decide on the paint? I was thinking….”
“Honey,
let him breathe.” Maria waved at her cousin. “Hi, Seanie, did you want to
get a burger with us?”
Before Sean
could respond, he spied the hacked and whacked cat. “Holy shit!” He circled
the frantic cat who still trying to find order to his uneven coat of fur. “Did
you arrest the punk that massacred your cat? He is a neurotic little guy and
we’ve had our differences, but this is like….”
“Michael.”
Maria said.
“Excuse
me?” Sean couldn’t take his eyes off the vandalized beast. He looked like he
had lost twenty pounds in one fatal chop.
“Sean, can
you help me?” Julia was at the door carrying a basket and Ms. Fluffy. Mr.
Booboo immediately saw his lady love, who saw him at the same time, and suddenly
in a flurry of white fur, the female feline shot out the door in fright from the
barbered Mr. Boo.
The mangled
feline took off after his mate, stopping long enough to hiss and spit at
Michael. The group of them stood stupefied by the event. It took Julia’s laugh
to start the group talking all at once.
“Nice
haircut!”
“Told
you!”
“He looks
like a psychotic fiend.”
Sean
laughed. “You just figuring that out, M?” Anyone could’ve told her that
her cat was anything but normal.
~~~
“So
normally you would’ve been out there,” said Julia.
“Under
normal circumstances.” Maria patted her stomach. “Like my stomach would’ve
let me slide under the car or bend inside the engine.”
Julia
laughed. Maria as a grease monkey was something she enjoyed visualizing. Biting
into her Grease Pit burger with gusto, she noticed that Maria was dipping deep
fried pickles in ketchup. “Interesting thing, these fried pickles.”
“I love
them. Michael introduced me to them.”
“There is
a nice difference in you, Maria.” Julia said.
“I
don’t…”
Julia
laughed. “I mean your personality. You’re loud. Brash. Tomboyish in your
grease monkey tendencies. Feminine in your shopping. Eccentric with laundry and
other things.” Julia looked at Maria hard. “Almost a nymphomaniac about
sex.” At that, Maria gave a nice whooping sound with a loud laugh. “I heard
about how Michael Guerin was before he met you. No relationship lasting more
than a few dates. Willing to stay around until the woman wanted more, then he
was sort of cold and unemotional. There are many stories. He dated his way
through the entire DA’s office before I came. Before he hooked up with you.
Michael never knew what hit him, did he?”
Maria popped
more food in her mouth. “A two by four would’ve been more subtle. In the
same regard, he put me in a tailspin as well.” Maria smiled remembering first
meeting Michael Guerin. “He was infuriating. All arrogant. Squinty eyed
suspicious. Foul mouthed. He had this way of frowning, and then suddenly he’d
scratch his eyebrow and look like a small kid. I hated him. Hard not to. The
moment I saw him, I wanted to toss him on the ground and rip his clothes. Off. I
had a nice organized life. Very directional. Very set. I loved teaching. I loved
my mother, who was making my already overstressed life even more difficult. I
loved my friends and family. I had a department head that despised me, which is
okay since he was a psycho killer. In hindsight, it’s nice to know that a
psycho killer didn’t like me, if you know what I mean. I was busy thinking of
performing blow jobs to get my mail delivered correctly, when Michael walked in
all confrontational and puffed up.” Maria actually fanned herself. “It was a
testament to my breeding that I refrained from fucking him immediately. Right
there. In my nightmare office, in front of Max, because he was so damn
mouthwateringly doable.”
“You
showed amazing restraint.”
Maria nodded
in agreement. Damn right she had. She would’ve jumped Michael Guerin
immediately instead of waiting a few days had she not been uncertain he
wouldn’t have arrested her for assault after he came to a few screaming
orgasms. He was that annoying.
“He had
this huge, and I mean huge ‘keep
off’ sign about him. A woman knows. It was sort of a warning not to expect too
much. He didn’t get involved. Not like that. Fucking was great. Emotionally
entangled, not so great.” Maria rubbed her lower back from a slight nagging
strain. “Lucky for him and for me, I was only in the market for lots of
fucking….minus the messiness of romantic entanglement.”
“So when
did it become more? For both of you?”
“Immediately.
We both stepped into an unseen trap. Michael seemed to recognize it first, and
amazingly he didn’t struggle to get free. He seemed resigned, or perhaps the
word is ‘content.’” Maria paused. Michael didn’t back off from her. He
seemed to instinctually know she was his mate. That she was what he would need.
Maria quelled the slight rising nausea. He loved her. She was positive. It was
just this destiny thing that clouded things. “I took a little longer.”
Julia paused
from her eating. “Why?”
Maria
snorted. “You should’ve seen the state of his car! The man needed a better
ride. Now once the Mustang was fixed….whoa! He was like looking at the
blinding light of the sun.”
“You
realize that you are a little whacked, right?”
Maria
snorted again. “I’m sorry. Have you never met my mother? You are dating my
cousin, right? We DeLucas never feared incarceration. There is always an
insanity plea.”
Julia found
that too funny. Sean was the most unpredictable, confusing man she ever met. He
was like a lightning strike between the eyes, irritating as hell, balanced by
how totally lovable he could be. She had never stood a chance. In that, she held
a special kinship with Michael Guerin.
“How long
will they be working?” Julia looked at her watch. It was late. Real late. They
had been there all afternoon and much into the evening. Maria looked a little
tired.
Maria
shrugged. “I give them another ten minutes. I heard Michael grunting. He
pulled the carburetor, and the sight of it will horrify Sean enough to close
down Auto Mechanic Shop 101 for the night.” Maria discreetly looked at Julia.
“I wished you lived closer. Mr. Boo would love it. And we’d love having Sean
near, but not too near. He’s always finding ways to worm his way back into my
loft.”
“Maria…”
“I’ve
got two prime lofts that need renovating between Liz and Isabel’s loft and
Zeke’s. They would make a huge home, about the size of my loft.”
Julia looked
around. The place was open now that the construction was finished. She allowed
her eyes to follow the new upper banister to the children’s rooms and the
newly opened area into the new family room was airy and spacious. The first
thing she was shown was Michael’s new lair and exercise room. The exercise
room opened out into the garden. It was nice. The woodwork and attention to
detail was warm and light. Comfortable. A place to raise a family.
“I don’t
know, Maria. Sean has been suggesting it, but…”
Maria
refrained from pushing. She knew she could, but that wouldn’t be right, so she
held back from imposing her will on Julia. “Tell you what, I’ll call Stan.
Have him work up some plans for the space. Something like a four bedroom loft
area, with a home office, and a large kitchen for Sean. It’ll open out into
the new Mulhoney garden. I’ll have him make some possibilities, and you and
Sean look at them. You decide.”
Julia
nodded. It was hard. Since her home was destroyed, it was almost like she was
too shy to try again. To start over. Till that moment, she had been ready to say
yes to Sean about the ring, and telling his family that they were finally going
to stop living in sin. Julia smiled at that. Living in sin. So quaint. Then her
life was blown to hell in that moment, and uncertainty froze in her. She had too
much to lose. Sean was something big.
“I’ll
think about it.”
Maria popped
another pickle in her mouth. “Good. Do that.”
“Dammit,
Michael, you didn’t have to gut the whole thing!” Sean was covered in grease
and Michael looked worse. He looked like he had tried to rub all the grease from
Sean’s engine with his head. His hair was a mess.
“Yes, I
did.”
“What’s
it look like, Detective?”
Michael
grimaced, Kissing Maria noisily as she tried to squirm away from his messy
oil-soaked body. “The solenoids are gone. Cylinders are cracked. The crank is
for shit. We’re looking at a small fortune or some major retooling. Looks like
it was in a huge accident once. Someone base welded the entire rear section back
on. Pretty decent job, but the trunk is rusted out. Suspension is shit too.”
“Lots of
work.” Maria looked at her cousin. “Walter listed parts needed
immediately?” Sean nodded and handed over the inventory. Julia watched in
curiosity, confused what the hell they were talking about. It was all Greek to
her. Sean handed over a list and Maria whistled at the size. “Damn. Detective
Sweetcheeks is right. This is going to cost a bloody country.”
Michael
whispered in Maria’s ear. “Hey, don’t tell them your pet name for me! That
was our secret!” Maria laughed as his arms came around her center and pulled
her back against him. The knock at the door saved Maria from retribution for
cutesy pet names. She was practicing for the babies.
Alex and
Eddie were standing there. Both looked exhausted and dirty. “Hey, Whitman,
what’ve you been doing? You look like shit.”
“Thanks
Guerin. You’re as always my reason to exist.” Alex rubbed his face tiredly,
but quickly kissed Maria’s cheek patting her stomach. Julia’s eyebrow went
up when Eddie did the same. Maria. She was like an unnamed matriarch of this
whacked-out clan of individuals, unless her mother was present. Then it was
completely Amy Valenti’s room. “Little mother, you’re starting to look not
so little.”
“Alex, are
you calling me fat?”
Alex laughed
and headed for beer. “Rumor on the street is that Guerin has his very own
funhouse with a large screen TV.”
Michael
looked at Eddie. “The street, or your cousin Eddie?”
Alex just
shrugged. He never gave up a source. He kissed Julia’s hand. “Lady Julia.
Always a pleasure to see you, ADA Mac. Shocking that you’re still stooping low
enough to associate with this loser.” Alex spared Sean a quick glance laughing
amused as Sean flipped a social finger his way. “Anyone see my Isabel? I
called her and there was no answer.”
“Michael,
you better call for pizza or something. We ate all the burgers. Unless Sean
wants to cook. I’m supposed to stay off my feet.” Maria pushed the phone at
Michael as he grabbed the takeout menus. No way Sean was cooking. The man made a
mess, and Michael knew who would be stuck doing the clean up. “To answer your
question, Alex, Isabel and Liz took off to
“When are
they coming back?”
Maria
shrugged. “Late tonight or early in the morning. Try Liz’s cell phone if
you’re concerned. Isabel couldn’t take hers because she forgot to recharge
again.”
Michael
finished ordering food and hung up. “What are you doing here, Alex?”
“Such a
nice man to visit. So friendly.” Alex smirked at the mean look on Michael’s
face. He was getting worse. His territorialism was extending to anyone in his
house for more than a few hours, or anyone standing near Maria and the babies.
Alex took out a bag. It was the stones.
“What are
these?” Michael went to open it before Alex could stop him.
“Stones
from…..Nasedo.” Alex looked at Julia quietly. She was still out of the loop
on the whole alien thing. Michael poured them out, too late to stop. Otherwise,
he would’ve taken them somewhere else, or waited until Julia was gone.
Before
anyone could say anything, there was another knock on the door. Michael frowned.
It was too soon for pizza. Opening it, Max stood there. Michael took one look at
his partner’s face, and quickly pulled Max into the loft.
“Maxwell?
What is it?” Max was obviously drunk. Wavering on his feet, his face was gray.
“Jonathan.”