Reversal of Fortunes

by Midwest Max

I had absolutely no idea where to post this because it is sort of UC, sort of AU and sort of Conventional. This is based on a rumored "lost episode" that would have aired somewhere between "Crash" and "Graduation". It was requested that I grab the idea and run with it, so here you are, Neeners  Hope I don't disappoint you!

Part One

“What are you doing tonight?” Maria Deluca asked as she dried a glass with her café-issued white towel.

Her best friend, Liz Parker, gave a little smile as she placed her finished glass in the rack and picked up a new one to dry. “Just staying in.”

Maria frowned. Maybe Liz was staying in, but there was never a “just” involved – staying in to Liz meant something painfully romantic, something involving Max Evans. “Staying in and doing what?” she asked.

Liz giggled. “Just watching a movie probably.”

Maria knew that Max and Liz had rented the same movie many times because they never actually watched it. They probably knew the first ten minutes by heart, but anything after that was up to speculation. They were so hot for each other, so head-over-heels in love that nothing on celluloid could keep them apart for long.

“What are you doing?” Liz prompted, more as an afterthought of courtesy than out of curiosity.

“Looking for my life,” Maria quipped sullenly as she put her glass in the rack and reached to get another, found the dishpan empty.

Liz giggled again. “Oh, Maria. You have a life.”

Maria put a hand on her hip. “I do? Can you tell me where I left it, then?”

Her friend was about to retort when the door chimed and their attention was drawn to the person entering. Tall, Dark and Handsome himself. Liz nearly melted into a little Liz Parker puddle right there behind the Crashdown counter.

Maria watched as Liz moved to meet Max at the door and sighed – those two looked so damned goofy whenever the other was around it was nauseating. Max smiling was quite the sight to behold since he did it so rarely, and Liz nearly beamed when he flashed her that smile. Gag, Maria thought.

Of course, she was just envious. Not because Liz had Max. But because Liz had someone like Max. Maria had –

“Hey, blondie, gonna deliver this before it grows up, moves out of the house and has kids of its own?”

Maria had Michael Guerin.

She turned on her heel and met her boyfriend at the pick-up window. He gestured with his eyes toward a plate of food.

“I’m serious – that burger is so old pretty soon it won’t need to be carded at the door, if you know what I mean. And I think I saw the fries start to get those little white potato sprouts things on them,” he quipped.

Maria was tired – she didn’t feel like fighting. But she also didn’t feel like letting it go, either. So, she did the mature thing – she stuck her tongue out at him.

As she turned to walk away, she heard him behind her, “I’ll expect you to use that later.”

She ignored Michael first, then Liz and Max as she passed them, Liz dragging Max by the hand toward the kitchen door. Sometimes she just couldn’t deal with the perfect couple. Not while she was part of the anti-perfect couple.

“Bacon double cheese burger,” she mumbled nearly-incomprehensibly as she unceremoniously dropped the customer’s order before him and moved away before he could protest about the amount of time it had taken to arrive.

Maria walked back to the pickup window and leaned against the small ledge. “So, what are we doing tonight?” she asked Michael, trying to smile and be pleasant for a change.

Michael was busy shuffling cheese slices like cards, dealing them expertly onto the tops of steaming burgers. He shrugged in that uncaring way that so annoyed his petite girlfriend. “Doesn’t matter.”

She withdrew a bit. It did matter. To her it mattered.

Michael seemed to catch her silent reaction and corrected himself. “Is there something you like would like to do?”

Maria thought of Max and Liz so happy to see one another. “Just watch a movie or something,” she answered, her voice sounding far-off, like she was somewhere else.

“That’s cool,” Michael answered, relieved to be off the hook for anything more than that. “But I’m getting out of here late.”

Maria looked at the clock – it was already seven o’clock. “How late?”

“I told Mr. Parker I’d close,” he answered unapologetically.

“Michael,” she began. “We had plans to do something tonight.”

“I need the money,” he answered, his tone even.

She let out a snort and shook her head.

Michael stopped his dressing of the burgers and regarded her with an even stare. “I have bills to pay, Maria. And rent and all of that wonderful stuff. I need the money, so I told him I’d do it.” His tone still held no apology – he wasn’t arguing about this. As he resumed his duties, he told her, “Why don’t you pick up the movie and I’ll just meet you at my apartment?”

She watched him, defeated.

“And you might want to pick up some food or something because I haven’t shopped.”

Well, there was the capper. Without a word, she untied her apron and walked away from the window. As she pushed her way through the kitchen door, she jumped, startled, because Michael had beaten her there.

“I do want to see you,” he told her, his voice low, private. “I just have to do this, okay?”

Maria nodded in resignation and stepped past him to shove her apron in her locker. She didn’t turn around to see if he was still behind her or not. Grabbing her purse, she pulled out her keys and walked through the exit door and into the alley. A noise to her left caught her attention – Liz and Max were against the building, giggling, kissing, climbing all over one another. Maria drew in a deep breath and climbed behind the wheel of her car.

* * * * *

Michael needed a wife. Or a maid. One or the other, because he seemed incapable of cleaning up after himself.

Maria stood in the doorway of his apartment and let out a sigh. In the living area, there were empty cans, pizza boxes and various articles of clothing. In the kitchen, the dishes were stacked so high in the sink that she wasn’t sure there really was a sink under there any more.

Dropping her purse to the chair, she started to pick up the living room first. She couldn’t sit and watch a movie while seeing clutter out of the corners of her eyes – it would be a major distraction. At first she was disgusted at the mess, but then she picked up one of Michael’s shirts and his scent, faint, drifted to her nose and she found herself smiling. Indulging herself, she held the shirt to her nose and inhaled deeply. Her mind immediately shifted to the smell of his sheets, which led to the thought of lying intimately with him and Maria continued her duties in a little better humor.

In the kitchen, she brushed crumbs off the counter and into a paper bag – she couldn’t put them in a trashcan because Michael obviously hadn’t felt the need to buy one. As she swiped empty Snapple bottles and old papers into the bag, something clattered to the floor. She swung the bag out of the way and looked curiously at the source of the noise.

On the floor lay the black cone that Michael had swiped from the compound when Tess’s ship had crashed. Squatting, Maria picked up the alien object and turned it over in her hand. It was completely smooth, without dents or seams or anything. A small smile curved her lips as she thought that the object somewhat resembled a sex toy.

“I wonder where the batteries go,” she mumbled to herself as she rose, placed the cone on top of the microwave and moved for the cupboard.

Michael hadn’t lied – there were very sparse provisions in his pantry. “Very sparse” translated to a box of microwave popcorn and nothing else. Maria sighed and rubbed her stomach; she was too hungry to be picky. She ripped open the box, removed a bag and walked back over to the microwave. Tossing the bag inside, she entered two minutes on the timer and pushed the start button. With a whir, the appliance kicked to life and the lights dimmed. Maria looked toward the ceiling, silently wondered if the wiring in the dump could withstand the draw of a simple microwave.

Hands on hips, she turned to look at the mess of dishes in the sink. She knew Michael was a pig, but she would have at least thought Max would be anal enough to act the part of housewife and clean up once in awhile. In fact, Max was such a little priss about some things, she wondered if he hadn’t stepped foot in the apartment in a week…which he probably hadn’t considering the reappearance of Tess and his son. Maria frowned – it would be up to her to clean this mess if she couldn’t stand it any longer.

She was about to start running water in the sink when a loud popping noise behind her caught her attention – that sound was a little loud and a little metallic for popcorn. What she saw sent a jolt of fear through her body - the black cone was hovering about three inches from the top of the microwave…and it was starting to hum and spin. Maria gasped in a breath and started to back away from it – whatever it was. She hadn’t moved far, however, when a circle of blue light burst forth and quickly knocked her to the floor. Looking up at Michael’s water-stained ceiling, she suddenly felt a sharp, unbearable pain in her stomach.

Then there was a blinding flash of light.

And words.

“Maria. MARIA! You have to look at me. You have to look at me.”

Dazed, Maria cracked open her eyes…and looked up at the Crashdown ceiling? There was a stabbing, debilitating pain in her side and she felt like she’d lain down in a puddle of some kind – everything was sticky and wet. Despite the pain, she was tired, so very tired, and felt so weak. But she did as she commanded and looked into Max Evans’ soulful, incredible eyes. Almost instantly, she felt a warm sensation across her abdomen and her body jerked from some unseen force. She thought she saw a memory flash across her mind, a memory from when she was just a child, but she thought she must be delusional.

Then Max was gasping for air and nearly collapsing over her. “You're all right now,” he breathed. “You're all right.” She had never realized how soft, how almost uncertain his voice sounded. And it had a strange, nasal quality to it, like he was pushing his words through his nose rather than his mouth. Why hadn’t she ever noticed that about him before?

Maria’s mind was reeling now that her senses were coming back to her. Why was she lying on the Crashdown floor? Why were all of these people staring at her? Why was Max telling her she was okay now – wasn’t she okay before in Michael’s kitchen? How did she get here? And why was her uniform ripped open to the waist for the entire world to see?

Over Max’s shoulder, Maria saw Michael sudden loom into view. “Keys! Now!” he commanded and Max tossed them to him. Maria started to smile at Michael – her lover – but realized that something was seriously amiss here. Michael’s hair was short, spiky, like it had been…

When Liz got shot.

“You broke a bottle when you fell, spilled ketchup on yourself,” Max was saying as he smashed a ketchup bottle and poured its contents on her stomach. “Don't say anything. Please.” He backed away, looking uncertain, frightened, her blood on his hands.

Her blood.

Shakily, she pushed herself to her feet, looked down at the bloody ketchup mess on her uniform. Then she turned and looked into the round, disbelieving eyes of Liz Parker.

Another flash of white light and Maria felt soft lips beneath hers. Oddly, she felt relieved – she must have passed out or something and Michael had come home, found her and was kissing her awake, rescuing her from her hallucinatory dream. Like Prince Charming.

There were about a dozen things wrong with that scenario, the biggest being that “Michael” and “Prince Charming” were never good company within the same paragraph. Second, these kisses were different than Michael’s. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. More tender, perhaps, less hurried. But definitely not Michael’s.

Maria stopped kissing, opened her eyes – and looked directly at Max Evans.

Part Two

“Oh, my God!” Maria shrieked. “What are you doing?!”

Max withdrew, his eyes confused. “I’m sorry. Did I cramp you or something?”

Maria looked at him incredulously. “What were you doing?”

He looked down at his hands, curious if they had strayed into forbidden territory. Nope – one was on her shoulder, the other on her hip. “Kissing you,” he said, his voice tentative.

“Why would you do that?”

He gave a light, nervous laugh. “Because I love you?”

Maria struggled to sit up, glanced around her surroundings. They were in Max’s bedroom, lying on his bed – his old bed, in the Evans house. But Max hadn’t lived there in months. Her mind reeling, she put a hand to her forehead and shook her head. She’d been at Michael’s, then somehow in the Crashdown, and now she was making out with Max on his bed.

Maria felt a hand on her shoulder, felt the bed move as Max sat up. “Are you okay?” he asked gently.

No, she wasn’t okay. She’d gone insane – plain and simple. She was sure in some way it was Michael’s fault.

Quickly, she turned to look at Max. “Who am I?” she asked.

He blinked, his brow furrowed. “Maria Deluca.”

Okay, so she was still who she thought she was. “What year is it?”

He bit the corner of his mouth. “Um, it’s still 2002. April, to be exact.”

April. That didn’t make sense. Somehow she was a month in the past. “Was I shot?”

Max let out a snort, put his arm around her shoulders. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

“Answer me,” she demanded, watched Max recoil a bit.

He cleared his throat. “Maria, you know you were shot. Two and a half years ago in the Crashdown.”

Maria got up from the bed and started to pace. “What about Liz?”

Max was looking no less confused. “Liz?”

“Liz Parker,” Maria snapped impatiently.

He shrugged. “What about her?”

“Was she shot?”

He sat silently for a moment, then shook his head. “No. You know she was there when you were shot, but she didn’t get hit.” He scratched his face uncomfortably.

Maria stopped pacing, stared directly at Max without really seeing him – her mind was concentrating on putting together puzzle pieces rather than gazing fondly at her best friend’s boyfriend. She’d been shot; Liz hadn’t. Somehow Maria had taken that bullet in the stomach, somehow the past has been altered.

And now she was in Max Evans’ bedroom. Was Max cheating on Liz with her? She didn’t think he had it in him. Then her gaze drifted past Max’s broad shoulder and landed on a picture on Max’s night stand. It was a picture from a dance, staged and photographed by a professional, perhaps from a prom.

It was a picture of Maria and Max smiling, arms around one another.

A little gush of air rushed out of Maria’s lungs and she felt her stomach lurch. Involuntarily, she wavered on her feet and Max jumped up to steady her. There was such concern in his eyes that Maria felt her stomach jump again.

“Hey,” he said softly against her ear. “It’s okay. Here, sit.” He eased her into his desk chair, then squatted before her, wiped her hair out of her eyes. At any other time, she may have found this gesture heartwarming, but at this moment it was freaking her to no end. “You okay? You want me to take you home?”

She nodded vigorously. Yes, home. Then maybe she would go to bed and wake up and the nightmare would be over.

Max moved around his room, handed her a coat she didn’t recognize, grabbed his own coat and led her out into the hallway. Isabel passed them, tossed her long blond locks over one shoulder and barely acknowledged their presence. Maria watched Isabel retreat to her own room and felt her heart start to slam into her ribs – why didn’t Isabel act surprised to see Maria coming out of her brother’s bedroom?

Outside, Maria had another surprise. Max opened up the jeep door for her. The jeep.

“When did you get a new jeep?” she asked him, refusing to get inside.

Max’s brow furrowed again. “This is the same jeep I’ve always had, Maria.”

She forced herself to get into the car, told herself that maybe she should stop talking. The confused look on Max’s face was starting to worry her – at any minute he was going to have her committed. Things were definitely out of sorts, but if something surprised her, she needed to not put voice to it. Hone those acting skills, she told herself.

They drove in silence to her house. With a sigh of relief, she was happy to see that at least her home was the way she remembered it, minus a few details. Before the jeep rolled to a stop, she had her seatbelt unsnapped and was about to climb out of the seat when she realized that Max was looking at her strangely again.

Silently, he climbed out of the driver’s seat and rounded the jeep to open her door for her. Max opened her doors for her? She swallowed, got out and was about to walk past him when he put a hand on her arm.

“Call me later,” he told her, his voice soft, serious. “I’m worried about you.”

Maria tried to paint on a smile. “I’ll be okay. Too much Midol…or something.” She gave a nervous, unconvincing giggle, then realized she should kiss him goodbye. He didn’t settle for a quick peck on the lips – his goodbye kiss was intimate and passionate.

She smiled at him and moved away, into her house, refusing to turn around and catch his quizzical expression. With her back against the door, she waited until she heard the jeep pull away from the curb, then she raced back to her bedroom.

Her bed was the same, the curtains were the same, but something was missing. The room felt foreign to her, like someone else lived there. She needed something steady, something calming to bring her back to reality.

Liz. Liz was her one stronghold in life. Liz had always been there, would always be there. Maria ran to her nightstand, picked up the phone and quickly dialed the Crashdown number. She found out from Jose, the cook, that Liz wasn’t working. Maria hung up and dialed the Parker’s private number. Mr. Parker answered.

“Mr. Parker, thank God!” Maria spouted into the receiver. “Is Liz there?”

On the other end of the line, the man laughed lightly. “Not right now, Maria. She’s out with Kyle.”

Kyle?! Why was Liz out with Kyle? Maria felt tears start to well up in her eyes.

“But I can tell her you called,” Mr. Parker said into the phone when Maria didn’t respond.

“No, that’s okay,” Maria said, finding her voice again. “I’ll just catch up with her later.”

They said their goodbyes and Maria hung up the phone. Liz was with Kyle, Maria was with Max.

Michael.

Even though Michael was by far the least stable force in her life, Maria needed to find him. Maybe if she explained to him what happened, he could help her reverse it. Frantic, wiping her tears from her cheeks, she dug in her purse and found the keys to the Jetta. She raced outside, climbed behind the wheel and shoved the car into reverse.

It’s like a poor man’s version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” she laughed hysterically to herself as she drove to the seedier side of Roswell, where Michael’s apartment was. I made a wish to die or something and some angel is trying to show me that I’m better off alive. That’s it, isn’t it? I was moaning and complaining earlier that I wished Michael were more like Max and now I have Max and I don’t want him. I’m being punished.

The sound of a car horn jerked Maria out of her inner monologue just in time to avoid being hit by an SUV. She cringed, apologized to the driver even though he couldn’t hear her and looked for Michael’s street.

In front of the apartment building, she jerked the car to a stop in the parking space Michael’s bike usually occupied. The bike wasn’t there, but that didn’t mean hadn’t parked it on the patio like he did sometimes. On the other hand, maybe he wasn’t home. Maria rummaged in her purse, looking for the key he had given her. She couldn’t find it, so she’d have to resort to knocking or using a credit card to flip the lock.

Knees shaking slightly, she went to the door and drew in a deep breath. Please be here, Michael, she prayed silently. For once, be here when I need you. Raising her small hand, she knocked on the cheap wood of the hallway door.

A few moments passed, then Maria heard footsteps coming from behind the door. She stood bouncing nervously, waiting impatiently while she heard someone fumbling with the inside lock. That was unusual because Michael never used the chain lock. The door opened and Maria stood looking into the face of a middle-aged woman.

“Yeah?” the woman said, her voice coming out tired and full of cigarette smoke.

“Is Michael here?” Maria asked, her voice cracking for fear of the answer she was going to get.

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Michael who?”

“Michael Guerin.” Maria’s hope was waning.

The woman looked at her suspiciously. “No one here by that name.”

She started to close the door but Maria stopped her. “Wait! Did he just move out or something? Did he live here before you?”

The woman eyed her up and down and closed the door partially. “I’ve lived here for ten years. I don’t know you and I don’t know this Michael guy.” And with that she slammed the door in Maria’s face.

Alone, stranded in what should have been Michael’s hallway, Maria started to tremble. Behind her, she heard another door open and turned to see an elderly man peering out curiously. He looked alarmed, like he was about to call the police, so Maria retreated to her car.

She drove home, deflated, and crawled fully clothed into her bed. Please , she prayed as she closed her eyes so she couldn’t see the matching prom picture on her nightstand and tried to force herself to go to sleep. Please let me wake up in the morning and this all be a dream.

Part Three

Early sunlight through Maria’s bedroom woke her before the alarm had its chance. Squinting, she glanced at the clock, saw that it was seven. Her night had been short since it had taken her awhile to fall asleep. Every muscle in her body ached, so she stretched like a cat, arching her back, extending her limps as far as she could in every direction. She yawned several times, then rolled over onto her side.

The prom picture of her and Max was still on her night stand.

Hope deflated quickly within her and she decided that fate was indeed cruel to disillusion her so early in the day. Nothing had changed. She was still stuck in the parallel universe where Max Evans was her boyfriend, maybe even her lover.

That thought hit home and Maria sat up quickly. She’d never known anyone but Michael, but was it possible that she now knew Max, too? Or had she not had sex at all yet? Was she miraculously a virgin again?

Head spinning from the possibilities, she rummaged in her nightstand, looking for a pad of paper. If the past had truly changed, if she was the one who was shot, then it was conceivable that she would eventually lose all recollection of her “prior” life, of how she had gotten to this stage, and just become what the new past intended her to be.

Scribbling frantically, she wrote down as much as she could remember –details of the original shooting, of finding out about the aliens, about meeting and falling in love with Michael. She also documented the crash of Tess’s spaceship and the black cone that had so unceremoniously dumped her here in this other world.

Maria looked across her room and out the window. Was it possible that she really was on another world? Was the cone a transportation device that had really sent her to some other planet? Was she not on earth? Watching the trees sway with the gentle breeze outside of her window, she decided that idea was too far-fetched, too much like a bad episode of “Star Trek.”

Another glance at the clock showed that she was going to be late for school. Right now she needed to be as inconspicuous as possible and that meant being everywhere she was supposed to be. Until she figured things out, she needed to blend in and try to act normal. Her behavior last night with Max had not been normal. She would have to come up with some reasonable explanation for him today. She just hoped she could keep up the charade of being madly in love with him all the while knowing he was Liz’s and she belonged to Michael.

Maria glanced down at the writing pad – it was official, she had become Liz Parker, spilling out her experiences on paper. And just like Liz Parker, Maria needed to conceal her experiences, so she stuffed the writing pad between her mattresses. If she was going to lose her memories, it was probably a poor idea to hide the pad, but she also couldn’t risk her mother getting a hold of it. Then she’d definitely be off to the loony bin.

In the closet, she found a pair of jeans she didn’t know she owned and a red stretch T-shirt. Clothed, she looked in the mirror at her reflection for the first time.

Her hair was short, like it had been when Michael first told her he loved her then walked away from her after killing Agent Pierce. Her hair hadn’t been like that in two years. Eyes wide, she stared at her reflection in disbelief. How was it possible that she was the same person on the inside but totally different on the outside?

Maria shook herself out of her daze and managed to avoid her mother as she left the house. No telling what had happened to that woman in light of recent events.

West Roswell High hadn’t changed at all and that was an odd comfort. Lockers were assigned alphabetically, so Maria took a guess that hers would be in the same vicinity as it was in the real world. She rounded the corner and found her P.J. Harvey concert sticker stuck exactly where she had expected it to be. A smile curved her lips and she found it bizarre that school had become her one comfort.

As she zeroed in on the locker, she noticed that Isabel was walking toward her. The tall blond had some girls with her Maria didn’t recognize. Now was the time to start acting “normal”, so Maria pasted on a smile.

“Morning, Isabel,” she called.

Isabel paused long enough to give her an indignant look, then tossed her hair and kept walking with her friends.

“Who was that?” one of the friends asked, the last word spoken with utter disdain.

Even though she couldn’t hear Isabel’s response, it garnered giggles from the group and Maria watched after her in disbelief – the Ice Princess still lived? She shook her head and started to work the combination on her locker. So much for acting “normal” – apparently speaking to Isabel Evans was not a normal behavior for this version of Maria Deluca.

“Hey, Maria.”

That was Liz’s voice. Maria’s heart leapt with joy and she looked up just in time to see Liz pass her by, followed by an entourage of Kyle’s groupies. Her smile faded away as she noticed that Liz was wearing a cheerleading uniform and that Kyle’s arm was slung around her shoulders. Even worse, Liz hadn’t stopped to have the normal morning chat with her, like they always did before school. For the second time in as many hours, Maria felt her hope wane.

She turned back to her locker and thanked herself for being anal enough to tape a copy of her class schedule to the door – it always took her at least two weeks at the beginning of the school year to remember what classes she had when and often she forgot to take the schedule down once she’d memorized it. First period – English. She could handle that. What she couldn’t handle was Liz Parker becoming one of the “in” crowd.

“Hey.”

And that was Max’s voice.

Maria looked up as he slid in beside her, his eyes soft, concerned.

“Hey,” she said, smiling.

“You didn’t call,” he said, his voice sounding somewhat wounded. Maria imagined that voice, soft, sort of sexy, in the dark and wondered why she was thinking of that. Oh, crap – maybe she had just experienced a memory flash of her new self and she and Max had done the deed.

“I’m sorry,” she said, giving her best please-forgive-me smile. “I felt so awful when I got home that I just went straight to bed.”

He nodded, looked down at his shoes. Jeez - was he always this bashful? “You didn’t show up for coffee,” he said.

Maria stopped. Great – not only did they have rituals she didn’t know about, she had also blown her whole “be where she was supposed to be” approach to inconspicuousness. She had no idea what he meant, so she decided to act like she hadn’t heard him. “I’m sorry?”

“Coffee,” he said, looking at her. “You know – The Java Jitter every morning before school?”

She nearly broke out laughing. The Java Jitter? Someone had opened a coffee house in Roswell called The Java Jitter? She quickly recovered and gave an ashamed tip of her head. “I overslept, Max. I just got here. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he said, reached out and ran his fingers along her forearm. His touch was warm, welcoming. “As long as you feel better?” His eyebrows rose slightly.

She nodded, tried another convincing smile. “Yeah, much better. Sorry for wigging out on you last night.”

He shook his head. “No apology necessary.” Then he dipped his head and gave her a short, gentle good-morning kiss. She choked back her surprise and reminded herself that this was “normal” activity, that she needed to relax or he was going to start thinking something was wrong again.

When they broke apart, she smiled at him again and wondered why her cheeks were blushing. No, she corrected herself – she knew why she was blushing. It was because she’d never kissed Max Evans before and he was Liz’s boyfriend, not hers. It was perfectly natural to blush at a time like this. Well, okay, technically she had kissed him before, but that was when she was still dazed from her journey and it didn’t really count, she hadn’t been concentrating on it. But now, standing in a hallway at school all she could so was concentrate on it.

Max seemed to find it amusing. He laughed a little laugh and put his arm around her shoulders and started to steer her down the hallway. Oh, God. Did he walk her to her classes? Maria eyed him curiously. Michael would never walk her to one of her classes – too queer, he’d tell her. He would, however, stalk her and hover outside of her classes waiting for them to end.

“See you in bio,” Max said softly as he left her at the door to her English class. Maria watched him walk away, thought that somehow some of the confidence was gone from his step. He seemed cautious, tentative – like he had in the beginning of his relationship with Liz.

Maria concentrated on none of her classes. Part of her decided she didn’t need to – she wasn’t planning on staying here so what was the point? The other part of her was busy trying to figure out how she could get home. Every now and then, she made herself dredge up a memory from the other world, just so she wouldn’t let that life slip away.

Between every class, she passed what would have been Michael’s locker and looked for him. He never appeared, but Michael’s truancy was nothing new. Maria frowned – if he had been a responsible individual and had taken his education seriously, then she would at least be able to depend on him attending school and giving her some little spark of hope. But there was no Michael to be found.

In bio, Maria hesitated outside of the classroom until she saw Max sit, then assumed she was his lab partner and slid onto a stool beside him. When he smiled at her – a private smile – she knew that her assumption had been correct. As the classroom filled up, she noticed Liz and Kyle take a work station on the opposite side of the room. Liz never even looked up at her as she was busy joking around with Kyle and yet more of his friends. Maria looked at Max to see if he was noticing Liz and her heart sank when she realized he wasn’t. Not even a guilty glance out of the corner of his eye.

Was it possible in this world Max was immune to Liz? Maria stared straight ahead, dumbfounded. That whole thing didn’t add up. Even though they were living in some twisted version of reality, Maria believed that Max and Liz had the kind of relationship that would endure any twisting of the circumstances. In fact, when she had nothing else to hold onto, to believe in, she thought about what those two had and told herself that there were people out there who were meant to be together, that there were such things as destiny and soul mates. To sit here and think that wasn’t true was somewhat devastating.

He’s a guy, Maria told herself. He won’t look while I’m here. So she reached in her purse, pulled out a piece of gum, offered him a stick that he refused, then rose to throw her wrapper in the trashcan by the door. The whole time she was walking, she was looking out of the corners of her eyes, trying to see if Max was looking at Liz. As she returned to their lab station, she looked directly at him. He remained with his head down, doodling on his book cover.

Maria sat down somewhat dejectedly, her hands folded between her thighs. She looked at Liz, who was laughing with her ‘popular’ friends. Maria’s hazel eyes drifted to Liz’s right. Kyle.

A little light of hope sparked deep down inside. If Max had somehow never managed to come out of his introverted hole, then maybe he avoided looking at Liz because of Kyle. Kyle had always ridden Max, had intimidated him with threats of exposing him to the sheriff. Maria smiled. There was definitely hope.

After class – Maria discovered that she knew nothing about biology compared to Max – school was over for the day and Max held her hand and walked her to her car. She found this amusing, too. As they reached the Jetta, he pulled them to a stop and brushed a hair away from her cheek.

“You’re working later, right?” he asked, squinting slightly into the afternoon sun.

“Right,” she affirmed with a smile, hoping she was agreeing to the truth.

“I’ll come see you,” he offered almost as though he was asking permission.

“Of course you will,” she joked and was rewarded with an uncharacteristic, wide smile from Max.

He laughed lightly and put his hands on her waist. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Then he put one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders and pulled her body tight to his, so tight that her face was buried tightly against his chest and breathing was near impossible.

Maria could hear him breathe, could feel his heart beating against her cheek, could feel his strong arms around her body and could smell the manly scent of his cologne. None of those sensations seemed unfamiliar to her and she knew for certain in that instant that she and Max Evans shared an intimate relationship. A memory, nothing more than a few micro-seconds of time, flashed through her mind in which she saw dim lights, soft sheets and bare skin.

Max pulled away and gave her a quick kiss, then a longer one. “Later,” he said, his eyes creasing with a smile as he walked away.

Maria watched him move towards his jeep and wondered what their relationship was like. So far, Max had been courteous to a fault – caring, compassionate, giving. He was definitely nothing like Michael Guerin.

That’s it, Maria told herself. Keep reminding yourself of Michael. That way you won’t lose track of who you really are.

Because Maria’s worst fear was being sucked into this existence and never being able to leave.

Part Four

Maria cautiously opened the back door to the Crashdown, the one that led into the kitchen area. She peeked around the door to see if anyone was in the break room and was relieved when she found no one.

As soon as she’d cleared the door, however, Jeff Parker was before her. He put his hands on her hips and gave her a curious look.

“You don’t come in until six,” he said, sounding a little amused.

Maria pasted on a grin. “Really?” Best to just act stupid here. “Did I mess up again?”

Jeff laughed. “Yeah. Why don’t you try writing it down this time?”

Maria nodded eagerly and brushed past him so she could check the schedule in the kitchen. She scribbled down her hours, then scanned the list looking for Michael’s name. She saw all of the usual suspects, including Liz’s name with the little flower drawn beside it, but nothing of Michael. He didn’t work there. Not in this world.

Mr. Parker was grabbing supplies from the shelf when she re-entered the break area. Waving the paper, she gave him a girlie grin.

“Wrote it down this time,” she called as she moved for the door.

“Okay,” he smiled in return. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

As Maria drove to her home, she felt an overwhelming sense of futility. If only she could find Michael, she’d feel so much better. She hadn’t seen him at school and he didn’t work at the Crashdown any more. Or maybe he never worked there. Max never spoke of him. For a moment she had a debilitating fear that maybe Michael didn’t exist in this reality, but then she remembered seeing him when she was shot.

When she was shot.

She still couldn’t believe she had taken that bullet in the stomach. What had she done differently in this life that she hadn’t done in the last that had resulted in her being shot instead of her best friend? She frowned as she realized she didn’t remember anything that happened before she was shot. When Liz was shot, she could remember every painful detail – standing behind the counter filling coffee cups and telling Liz she described Kyle as if he were a poodle, the men in the corner arguing, the gun coming out, everyone ducking for cover, the gun going off, and Liz falling wounded where Maria had once stood.

Was that it? Had Maria not moved out of the way? Was she still making Canine Kyle references this time around?

A tear rolled down her smooth cheek. There were too many questions and no one to go to for answers.

At home, Maria found her mother sitting on the couch in the living room, her foot braced against the coffee table as she painted her toenails. Amy Deluca’s hair was set in rollers and she wore a bath robe. She looked like she was preparing to go out.

“Hello, Maria,” she said without looking up.

“Hi, Mom.” Maria loitered in the doorway, wondering if she could just escape to her bedroom without interrogation from her mother.

“Are you working tonight?”

“Yeah. At six.”

Amy screwed the lid back on the polish bottle and regarded her daughter. “Do you think Max could bring you home?”

Even in this world, that woman could still irritate her only child. Maria wrinkled her nose. “No, I can just bring myself home.”

Amy sighed. “I need the car tonight, Maria.”

“You do?”

Amy rolled her eyes. “Yes, I have a date.”

“With Jim?” Maria asked before she could stop the words from coming out of her mouth.

Amy’s brows knitted together. “Who’s Jim?”

Maria swallowed. “Isn’t that his name?”

Amy sighed and rose from the couch. “No, his name is Ronnie. I’ve been dating Ronnie for a month now and I’m getting really sick of your disapproving attitude, young lady.”

Maria looked at the floor. So, no Jim Valenti to be had, either. It was some guy name Ronnie that Maria had never met. She nodded her head. “I’ll ask Max to bring me home.”

She turned to go to her room.

“And he’s to drop you off and leave immediately, do you understand me?” Amy called down the hall but Maria kept walking. “There’ll be no sleep-overs while I’m gone, got it?”

Maria closed her bedroom door. While she was gone? Did that mean that she was allowed to stay the night at Ronnie’s, but Max was forbidden from staying the night in Maria’s bed? Maria felt a strange tingling sensation in her body and another memory flashed across her mind, only this time it was longer and more lucid. In her mind, she saw Max, stripped to the waist and barefoot, waving a hand across her lamp shade, turning it into a planetarium of sorts projecting stars and constellations on her ceiling.

Resisting the memory flashes, Maria jerked her head. Every time she received one of the flashes, they seemed more real, like things that had really happened. She didn’t like having them in her head, didn’t like knowing that maybe someday all of her old memories would be gone and she’d be absorbed into this alternate reality.

Moving to stand by the bed, she quickly pulled out the memo pad and read her entries from that morning. All of those things still seemed real, like a part of her life and that relieved her anxiety a little. If she could just keep herself grounded, then maybe she still stood a chance of getting out of this.

She realized she was saying “maybe” a lot lately.

Sighing, she dropped down on her stomach on the bed and turned to a blank page on the pad. She needed to think of a way to get home. If she could remember how she got here, she might be able to use the same way to get back.

Maria’s soul ached when she thought of being in Michael’s run-down apartment, griping about what a slob he could be. In her mind, she could still smell that musty, ancient smell that all old apartment buildings had accompanied by the aroma of Tabasco and pizza. She’d give anything to be back there now, picking up his trash and dirty laundry.

On the pad, she recounted the events of the night, what she could remember of her conversations with Michael and Liz, her drive to the apartment, putting stuff in the paper bag, the cone falling to the floor…

Maria looked up, away from her writing. She’d put the cone on top of the microwave. Then she’d put a bag of popcorn in the microwave and the cone had activated. It was simple – she needed the cone and a microwave.

She had the microwave, but where was she going to get a cone?

Maria worked her mouth, thinking. Where had Michael gotten it? From the army base where they had stored the pieces of Tess’s crashed ship. Excited, Maria looked at the calendar. Tess’s ship would crash in two weeks. This time, instead of that cone going to the base, Maria would be in the desert waiting to collect it for herself.

Laughing hysterically with glee, Maria jumped to her feet and danced around her room. She flipped on her CD player and did a wild dance, arms swinging in all directions. Only two weeks – she could live this life for two weeks. Then she would have what she needed and be back to her old self with her same old irritating boyfriend and his bad housekeeping habits.

A knock interrupted her celebration. Without invitation, Amy jerked open the door.

“Jesus, Maria,” she said incredulously, “what has gotten into you?”

Maria reddened and turned down the CD player.

“Get dressed so I can drop you off at work,” Amy ordered sounding somewhat disbelieving at her daughter’s actions.

So intent was she on documenting and planning her escape that Maria failed to realize the time had slipped away quickly. After her mother left, Maria stripped and pulled on the goofy Crashdown waitress uniform. She slid on comfortable shoes and shoved a pen and an order pad in the pocket of her apron – some routines were the same no matter where you were.

On the drive to the café, Amy ramble incessantly while paying little attention to the road and Maria feared for her life. She might not have to worry about retrieving an alien cone from a UFO accident if her mother saw to it that she was a victim of a different kind of crash.

“I mean it, Maria,” Amy said, waving her hand demonstratively. “I don’t want to come home and find that boy in your bed.”

Maria wrinkled her nose. She figured she could say whatever she wanted and her mother would misconstrue it as teen rebellion. “Have you ever?”

Amy shot her a glance. “Yes! God, how could you forget that!”

Maria waited for the eminent memory flash, but it didn’t come. “Mom, you like Max.” She was betting the odds here – what parent wouldn’t like Max? He was polite, raised by affluent parents.

“That’s beside the point,” Amy retorted as she slapped the wheel. “I don’t like any boy who would crawl into my baby’s bed and just take advantage –“

“Maybe I invited him,” Maria prodded. No matter the universe, she still got an unholy satisfaction out of getting her mother’s dander up.

Amy glanced at her again, her expression deadpan. “I don’t want to know about that,” she replied flatly. “I don’t want to think of you acting the vixen and luring young men into your bed.”

Maria looked out the side window and burst out laughing.

“Maria Louisa Deluca, there is nothing funny about this conversation,” Amy snapped.

Maria looked back at her. “You actually used the word ‘vixen’!” Then she burst out laughing again.

Amy jerked the car to a stop in front of the Crashdown, reached across her daughter and humorously opened the passenger side door. “Get out,” she ordered. “And no Max in the bed, got it?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Maria said as she climbed out of the car, still laughing.

Working at the Crashdown wasn’t much different – there were good customers, bad customers, good tips, bad tips. Liz still busted ass, being the hard worker she was raised to be. Maria still enjoyed working with her, enjoyed clowning around. She wanted to bring up Max in some way but never found the opportunity, just to see if there was some spark in Liz, some interest she was harboring for him.

“Listen,” Liz said as closing time drew near. “Do you think you could cover my shift on Saturday?”

Maria thought about it as she picked up dirty plates from the counter. She would pick up Liz’s shift, but she had no idea if she and Max had plans or not and being where she was supposed to be was still part of her strategy.

“Kyle has an interview for a scholarship at the University of New Mexico,” Liz continued and Maria wondered why she seemed sort of self-conscious about bringing it up. Was it possible Maria disliked Kyle? “And I kind of want to go with him.” Liz turned her eyes to the floor, away from her friend.

Maria was still thinking about it, wondering if she was double-booking herself.

“I think, um, this might be it,” Liz said quietly.

“Might be what?” Maria asked in a normal tone.

Liz’s head jerked up and she looked nervously toward the kitchen. “Not so loud,” she hushed. “I don’t want my dad to hear.”

Maria followed her gaze, confused as to what was the big secret.

“You know, this might be the first time for me and Kyle.”

Maria was halfway through processing that sentence when she realized what Liz was trying to tell her. “Oh! Stupid me!” Maria laughed nervously. Part of her felt guilty for letting Liz give her virginity to Kyle, but they were through the looking glass now and everything was different. “Well, if that’s the case, then sure. I’ll take your shift…and you take some birth control.”

Liz did a little hop of joy. “Thank you, Maria, thank you so much!!”

They cleared dishes in silence for awhile and finally Maria decided to take a risk.

“Hey, Liz,” she said. “Do you remember Michael Guerin?”

Liz picked up the broom and a dust pan. “Who could forget him?”

“You know, for the life of me, I can’t remember – did he work here once?”

Liz’s nose wrinkled. “God, no. Ugh. My dad would never hire someone like him. How could you even suggest that?”

Maria fought back the hurt that was threatening to show on her pretty face. “I don’t know. I thought maybe a couple of years ago he worked here.”

Liz laughed. “No, something else happened to Michael a couple of years ago – you’re just confused.”

“Something else?” There was nothing Maria could do to mask the color draining from her face. She had a feeling this was very, very bad.

Liz started to sweep behind the counter. “Oh, come on, you remember. How could you forget? It was front-page news for months.”

That seemed to be all the information Liz was willing to give and Maria didn’t dare press any farther.

“Oh, yeah, now I remember.” Maria thumped her forehead with the palm of her hand. “Silly me.” She gave a laugh she hoped was convincing. “You know what – I have to pee. I’ll be right back.”

In the bathroom, Maria locked the door and sat on the closed toilet lid. Her heart was jerking painfully in her chest and she had to put her head between her knees to keep from passing out. Her stomach twisted into a big knot and she had to swallow to keep from gagging.

No sign of Michael. Front page news.

In her heart, Maria had a sickening feeling that Michael Guerin had been captured by alien hunters and was now dead.

Part Five

“You still aren’t feeling well, are you?”

Maria looked at Max as he pulled the jeep to a stop in front of her house and cut the engine. “What do you mean?”

He climbed out from behind the wheel and walked around to open her door. “You’ve been really quiet,” he explained. “All night. You didn’t even act happy to see me when I came to visit you.” He pushed his lower lip out in a playful pout.

Maria laughed at him as they started to walk up to her door. “I’m just tired.”

“That’s not it,” Max said gently as she worked her key in the lock. Maria avoided his gaze – Liz had never mentioned Max had any kind of mind-reading powers, but she could never be too sure. “You seem sad.”

As she pushed the door open, she met his gaze and noticed that there was genuine concern in his eyes. He really did care about her. “I am,” she admitted, walking into the kitchen and tossing her apron on the table.

“Why?” he asked as he started down the hallway. Maria realized he wasn’t pausing like a guest would in a common area of the house – he was making his way back to her room uninvited. He must have been there many times before to be this comfortable with entering her private space. Not wanting to make his suspicious, she followed in his footsteps.

“Just, you know,” she said as she watched Max kick off his shoes by her bed. Interesting. Maybe her mother had reason to worry. “Just stuff.”

He sat down on the edge of her bed to pull off his socks. “Stuff?” he echoed.

Maria could tell he wasn’t buying that answer so she needed to come up with a cover quickly. She couldn’t tell him about Michael, about how upset she was that she didn’t know what had happened to him. “Just my mom, you know,” she said, grimacing. “Going out with that Ronnie guy.” Max looked at her sympathetically and she waved a hand. “You wouldn’t understand. You’ve got like the perfect home life.”

Max snorted. “I do? Parents who don’t know who – or rather what – I am? A sister who is a bitch to everyone around her?” He shook his head. “Your family is far more real than mine will ever be, and that in itself will always make it better than mine.”

Standing there, watching him speak so negatively of his family, Maria felt a jolt of guilt. Michael had had the most pathetic upbringing and it was more or less common knowledge that his home life had left something to be desired. But it was different to hear Max, who to the outside world had everything in a family he could ask for, sound so bitter and lonely.

“I’m sorry,” Maria said, her voice barely above a whisper.

He shook his head. “It’s not your fault. It’s not my fault.” He shrugged. “I am what I am.” He gave her a small smile, then stood and started to pull off his jeans.

Panic gripped Maria’s heart and made it pound faster. She couldn’t let him see her fear, so she turned to away from him, to her dresser, and pulled out a long T-shirt. Pulling off her waitress uniform and letting her bra slip down her arms, she tugged on the shirt and turned to face him, fearing he would be naked.

But he wasn’t. He was still wearing his T-shirt and a pair of boxers. Unabashed, he pulled back her blankets and slid underneath.

Don’t hesitate, she warned herself. This must be a normal thing for you to do. Just get in the bed.

As soon as she slipped under the blankets, he reached for her and pulled her into his embrace. With a wave of his hand, he used his powers to turn out her bedroom light. Maria’s face felt warm with anxiety and she struggled to come up with an excuse to not have sex with Max.

“Don’t worry about your mom,” he said, his voice soft against her ear. “You have to let her make her own decisions. And don’t worry about her finding me here again – I’ll be gone when you wake up.”

Then he kissed her, his lips moving against her neck, her throat and finally her lips. One hand touched her hip, at the hem of the T-shirt she wore. She could feel him against her thigh and her body immediately stiffened. Within a split second, he was pulling away from her, breaking their kiss.

“You don’t want to?” he asked quietly, his voice void of disgust or disappointment.

She had to admit she was curious, but she would never betray Michael – not while she still remembered that she loved him.

“Okay,” Max said without waiting for her response. “Then we’ll just sleep.” He kissed her lightly on the lips, then rearranged their bodies into a more relaxed, comfortable position.

In the moonlight, Maria eyed him in disbelief after his eyes had drifted shut. He was an 18- year-old guy, he was in bed with a scantily clad girl, his body had already responded to a sexual need – and he was willing to just accept no and go to sleep?

Max Evans truly was an alien.

In the morning, Maria did wake up alone as promised. She never heard or felt Max leave her bed and she looked around wondering if he’d ever truly been there. As the days were wearing on, it was becoming harder and harder to keep the facts straight.

Reaching under her mattress, she pulled out the pad and reviewed what she had written. It was becoming a morning ritual – if she made it a habit, she wouldn’t forget to do it. The words on the paper still seemed familiar and she knew that her memories had not yet given in to her new reality.

She met Max at the Java Jitter and had coffee and a bagel with him before school. She couldn’t say that she minded his company – she was just growing tired of it, kind of like when a friend came to visit for a long weekend and now it was Sunday afternoon and she couldn’t wait from them to leave. So when they finally arrived at school and he went to his classes and left her to hers, she felt somewhat relieved.

English was a blur once again as Maria’s thoughts drifted back to Michael. There was no one she could ask what had happened to him so she stood the chance of never knowing. Then Liz’s words repeated in her head – “It was front-page news for months.”

That was it – all she had to do was go to the library, get the Microfilm for the Roswell Gazette from two years ago and she would have all of the answers she was looking for. Well, at least some of them. She would probably never know why she and Michael hadn’t been together in this life.

Maria looked anxiously at the clock. It was only ten in the morning. The thought to skip class and go to the library crossed her mind, but she wasn’t sure if that was something she would do uncharacteristically. She frowned – she would have to wait until after school – five long hours away.

After English, she trudged unenthusiastically toward her next class, her books hanging in her limp hand at her hip. As she rounded the corner, however, she came to an abrupt, startled halt and the kid behind her nearly knocked her to the floor.

“Watch where you’re going, freak,” he spat as he rounded her.

Maria didn’t notice him or his insult. Her eyes were fixed on the boy standing before his locker and digging in his notebook a few yards away from her.

Alex Whitman.

Before she could stop herself, Maria let out a scream and ran straight for him. She threw her arms around him and squeezed him as tightly as she could.

“Oh, my God!” she screamed to the stares of passersby. “Alex! You’re alive!”

Alex laughed and gently pushed her away from him. “Yeah,” he said, his voice sounding hoarse. “I just had the flu yesterday. Nothing fatal.” He was looking at her with an amused face.

Maria realized what she had just said and her cheeks reddened. “Of course you did,” she said, clearing her throat.

Alex closed his locker door. “But it’s nice to know I was missed so much,” he laughed, putting his arm around her shoulders. “You’re going to fill me in on what happened in Government, right?”

Had she paid attention in Government?

“Absolutely,” she agreed, smiling and enjoying the feel of his arm around her shoulders.

As they walked together to their government class, talking like old friends, Maria knew that a change in history could not alter one thing – Alex’s friendship, his loyalty, his playful sense of humor. Of all of the people she had re-encountered in this existence, only Alex seemed unchanged. He even still had The Whits, had his dream of being in the garage band that would put Roswell on the map for more than just UFO crashes.

As Government ended, Alex leaned across the aisle as Maria was gathering her things for her next class. “Let’s meet for a milkshake after school,” he suggested.

She wanted to do that more than anything – but she had something else to do that afternoon. “You know, I have to run a couple of really stupid errands for my mom right after school. Do you think we could make it later – around six?”

Alex nodded. “Mr. Evans won’t mind?”

Maria shook her head, not really worried if Max minded or not. Some time away from him was just what she needed. Besides, there was no way she was going to turn down the opportunity to spend some time with Alex. She had been deprived of that for over a year.

“Okay,” Alex said with a smile and pushed his lanky body from the desk. “Meet me at the Crashdown at six then.”

* * * * *

Maria was surprised to find her knees shaking as she entered the Roswell Public Library in search of clues to Michael’s fate.
The library – where he had once built a signal to Nasedo, calling out to someone for answers to his past. And how here Maria was, looking for new answers to a new past.

The librarian directed Maria to the newspaper archives room and showed her how to use the microfilm machine. As soon as she was alone, Maria quickly calculated the date for two years ago – she would start backwards, with reels from May of 2000 and work her way back to the time of the shooting. She had seen Michael behind Max after she had been shot, so she knew whatever had happened to him happened between then and some time in the spring.

Newspaper archives whizzed past as Maria looked for front-page items only. After a half hour and two rolls of film, defeat was starting to set it. She placed her elbow on the desk and rested her chin in her hand, sighed. This couldn’t be a dead end. If it was a dead end, then she had no choice but to start asking questions of those around her and that could only raise suspicion. From Liz’s reaction to her questions, Maria felt that Michael was somehow rather unpopular in Roswell.

A headline buzzed passed and Maria suddenly sat up straight, released the dial that advanced the film. Slowly, so she wouldn’t lose the page again, she turned the dial in the opposite direction, watched the sports and entertainment pages drift by lazily. A Garfield cartoon. A sale at Allen’s Alien Artworks. Then the front page.

Maria’s heart stopped momentarily, her breath catching in her chest. Beneath the headline, there was a picture of Michael, hair spiky and unruly, being shoved into the back of a police cruiser. One of the policemen had his hand on the top of Michael’s head and his neck was bent at an uncomfortable angle. Both of the officers had looks of utter disdain on their faces, but it was the look on Michael’s face that bore holes into Maria’s heart. His eyes were clenched shut and his mouth seemed to be open in a silent scream for mercy, for help. But there was no one to come to his aid.

The headline above the picture read, “Local Teen Gets Life For Foster-Father Slaying.”

Part Six

Maria printed out all of the news items she could find on Michael’s case and ended up with a thick stack of paper. Glancing at her watch, she saw that she only had about a half hour before she was to meet Alex at the Crashdown. She had no intention of missing that date, but she needed to know more of what had happened with her lover.

Taking the papers to the reading area of the library, Maria sat down anxiously at a table and shuffled them into order, the oldest item on top. From what she could tell, it appeared that Hank had disappeared and Michael had been taken in for questioning. Michael claimed ignorance of the disappearance and was released. A few days later, however, a hunter’s dog had found a make-shift burial site and the authorities had recovered Hank’s body.

With no viable alibi, Michael had been detained for questioning again, then later booked for the murder.

Maria glanced at her watch and swore silently to herself. She was out of time. Reshuffling the papers, she shoved them into her notebook and hurried out to her car. On her drive to the Crashdown, her mind frenetically processed the information. A little piece of her was delighted that Michael wasn’t dead – just incarcerated. A very large piece of her felt guilty.

She hadn’t been with him the night Hank disappeared. In her mind, she remembered Michael standing in the rain looking like a lost puppy. She had invited him in, dried him off, consoled him while he wept for reasons she didn’t understand. But maybe this time Max Evans had been in her bed instead and Michael had been left with no one to turn to.

Was it possible Michael had really killed Hank this time? Maria didn’t want to think about that. She wanted to believe that he had just been unlucky enough to have been left alone and unaccounted for and had taken the fall. She didn’t want to believe Michael was capable of that much violence.

There was only one thing she knew for sure – somehow she and Michael had never met, had never gotten involved and if she tried to contact him now, he probably wouldn’t even remember who she was.

She needed that cone. Less than two weeks and she would have it.

Alex’s welcoming smile was all she needed to feel a little bit better about things. At least she had this treat – his company – to help her maintain her sanity. Alex had a music magazine spread out in front of him and he was looking lustily at a guitar ad.

“Am I late?” Maria asked, smiling, as she slid into the booth across from him.

He glanced up at the clock. She was late, but Alex always let her off the hook. “Not at all. Get all your errands run?”

Maria nodded, thought about the copies she had in her car. When she was done here, she was racing back to her bedroom and reading the rest of the articles.

“And I’m assuming you’re not working tonight?”

Maria shook her head.

Alex leaned back in the booth, lay one arm along the back of the seat. “I saw Max going into the UFO Center. I’m surprised that you two haven’t arranged it so that you have the same work schedules.”

Maria laughed lightly. “We’re not joined at the hip, Alex.”

“Really? Since when?” Alex waved her off with a friendly hand. “What can you expect when you’re one of only two people who know-“ he glanced over his shoulder, then leaned across the table and emphasized the words “the secret?”

Maria was momentarily thrown. She was one of only two people? And if Alex was explaining that situation, he must be the other person. It baffled Maria what circumstances had arisen that put Alex in the know and left Liz out.

She quickly covered herself. “Yeah, then why aren’t you and Max joined at the hip?” she teased, banking on Alex being conspirator #2.

He laughed. “Not my type.”

“No?” Maria joked.

“No, I prefer my men blond…and a little less brooding.” He looked at the ceiling, thinking. “In fact, you used to prefer less over-cast guys yourself. What happened there?”

Maria shrugged. “There was something about the clouds in his midst,” she replied, quoting Prince’s “Raspberry Beret.”

Alex threw his head back and laughed a full, jovial laugh. Maria almost felt tears well up in her eyes – she had missed that laugh so much. “You’re too much,” he said as he wiped at his eyes.

They talked for awhile about nothing in particular, the way best friends do. They ordered milkshakes, Alex asking for a side of French fries also. The time whizzed by and Maria suddenly wished she didn’t have to find that cone, didn’t have to put things back the way they were.

They were discussing graduation when Maria noticed Alex’s gaze drift away from her, over her shoulder. She turned quickly to see Isabel prance haughtily past them, not bothering to give either of them so much as a sideways glance. Maria looked to Alex and could almost see him deflate before her. So, he still had it bad for her and she hadn’t noticed. This Isabel was different than the one Maria had left behind – this one had never come out of the arrogant shell she wore like protective armor against the world. This one was still a raving bitch.

Maria watched Isabel slide her shapely body into a booth at the back of the café. Alex was staring at his hands.

“Still doesn’t know you exist, huh?” Maria asked gently, trying to infuse a little humor into her tone.

Alex shook his head, then looked up and gave her a smile. “Nothing new. But don’t worry about me. I’m off to San Francisco State, where I’m going to launch my music career and then I’ll have babes crawling all over me.”

Maria felt a pang deep within. If she put things back to the way they should be, Alex would not graduate from high school, he would not go to San Francisco State and there would never be any babes crawling all of him because of his music career. She forced the pained look away from her face.

“Babes way hotter than Isabel Evans,” she said, smiling.

“Ten times as hot, easily.”

Maria laughed lightly, then felt a warm hand on her arm. She looked up into Max’s face. He was wearing that hideous gold vest Milton made all of the UFO Center employees wear.

“Hi,” he said as he stooped to kiss her on the cheek. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“Ditto,” she replied, reminded herself she was supposed to act affectionate with him and laid a hand on his arm.

Max gestured toward Isabel with his chin. “Meeting with the others. Family business.”

Maria nodded.

“Hey, Alex,” Max said, giving Alex the recognition his sister couldn’t.

“Hey, Max,” Alex replied, sipping on his shake.

Max glanced at his watch. “I’d better get back there. My break is only fifteen minutes long.” He gave Maria a little smile, then went toward the back booth to join Isabel.

Alex had a shit-eating grin on his face.

“What?” Maria demanded.

“He has it so bad for you.”

She was about to agree when she saw the kitchen door swing open and Liz Parker come busting through dressed not to work but rather to go out. She was straightening her sweater and not watching where she was going. Before Maria could issue a warning, Liz and Max collided as he was trying to slide into the booth across from Isabel. Liz nearly fell backward but Max caught her and for one awkward moment they were wrapped up in each others arms. Maria couldn’t hear what they were saying – she imagined a plethora of apologies on both sides – but she could read body language loud and clear. Max immediately released Liz, then shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the floor. And Liz had a nice little blush coloring her cheeks.

Isabel, of course, looked disgusted.

One corner of Maria’s mouth curved upward. Maybe she was right about destinies and soul mates after all.

“What?” Alex echoed.

Maria jerked her attention away from the collision at the back of the café. “You’re right, Alex – he has it bad.” Just maybe not for her. And that was more than okay. She watched Liz walk toward her, self-consciously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Hey – where’d you learn to drive?” Maria called.

Liz looked up at her, startled. “Oh, you saw that.” She looked rather guilty. “I just, I didn’t see him, I didn’t mean, he was just there.”

Alex was looking at her with utter confusion and it was Maria’s turn for the shit-eating grin. Liz Parker never stammered…unless she was talking about Max Evans.

“I know – I saw,” Maria laughed, letting Liz off the hook. “You look good.”

Liz glanced down at her clothes, seemed happy to have the attention diverted from her close encounter with Max. “Oh, thanks. I’m meeting Kyle at the movies.”

“No making out in the back row, kids,” Alex piped in.

Liz laughed lightly, smacked him on the arm, then made her escape. Maria was almost giddy that her friend had reacted so uncomfortably to running into Max. And Max had given her hope, too.

Maria’s joy faded away when she looked back to the booth Max and Isabel had claimed. Max’s words repeated in her head and she heard them fully for the first time – “Meeting with the others. Family business.”

The others.

Not the other. Others with an ‘s’. Others as in plural. Michael was in jail so he wasn’t the plural. The plural should have been on a spaceship, rocketing for earth, getting ready to spill into the desert so Maria could retrieve the cone.

But instead of doing those things, the plural slid into the booth beside Isabel.

It was Tess.

Part Seven

Alex watched curiously as Maria rose shakily from the booth, knocking over her shake glass in the process. He quickly grabbed it and set it upright, then turned in his seat and watched Maria hurry to the back of the café where the alien trio had gathered.

Heart slamming in her chest and her body suddenly burning with panic, she stopped at the end of the table, swallowed hard. Max had been talking, but his words drifted off as he realized that there was someone within earshot. Maria met his gaze, her eyes frightened and furious, and pointed an accusatory finger in Tess’s direction.

“What is she doing here?” Maria demanded, her voice quivering.

Max’s eyes were round, Isabel’s mouth had dropped open in disbelief and Tess remained expressionless.

“Answer me, Max,” Maria said as her whole body started to tremble. “Why is she here?”

Tess sighed. “It’s still a free county. I can go wherever I want.”

“Hell would be a good start,” Maria spat without looking at her. Her eyes were still locked on Max’s. For some reason, he looked utterly confused. “Why, Max?”

Max glanced around at the nearby tables, noted that they were starting to drawn attention. “Please lower your voice,” he said in a calm tone. He reached for her hand but she jerked it away. Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. “We’ve talked about this before, Maria.”

“Many times,” Tess sighed in a bored tone.

“Shut up,” Maria said, again without looking at her.

Alex was suddenly beside Maria, putting a hand on her arm. Maria tried to break free, but Alex didn’t let her. “Come on,” he said.

“No,” she demanded, swiveling and looking up at Alex’s considerable height. “I want an answer from him.”

“Not here,” Alex said calmly and started to guide Maria toward the kitchen door. She looked back at Max and didn’t break eye contact with him until the swinging door blocked him from her view.

Once in the break room, Maria wrenched herself free from Alex’s grasp.

“Hey,” he said, taking her by the upper arms. “What’s up with you?”

Maria held her forehead with one of her hands, exasperated at the sudden turn of events. Somehow, Tess had never left the planet. She didn’t appear to be pregnant with Max’s child. And for some reason known only to God, Alex of all people was defending her from Maria.

“That bitch,” Maria said wearily. “She’s what’s up with me.”

Alex gave a light laugh. “You’ve always had a problem with her. Why the sudden outburst?”

Because I just found out I’m stuck here! Maria screamed in her head. She brought her hands up to cover her eyes. She was dangerously close to tears.

Always the good friend, Alex put his arms around her and pulled her shaking body to his. Maria wanted to resist him, didn’t want to be vulnerable, but she hadn’t been in his embrace for so long that she didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. She gasped a little snort as she realized that ironically she now had eternity to be with Alex.

And without Michael.

This time she was unable to stop the deluge of tears that flooded from her eyes. Gasping loud sobs, she clutched at Alex’s back and let out all of the fear and grief she was feeling within.

“Hey.”

Maria felt Alex pull away from her and looked up to see Max closing the kitchen door behind him. His dark eyes were sad, worried, his lips turned downward into a frown. Alex backed away from Maria and exchanged a glance with Max.

“I’ll be outside if you need me,” Alex said, then exited through the back door.

Max approached Maria cautiously, his steps slow and deliberate. She wiped her eyes with the cuff of her shirt, sniffled. She couldn’t look at him. Partly because she felt like an ass for making a scene in the restaurant, partly because now she really was his girlfriend. Period.

“Maria,” he said, his voice soft. “Look at me.”

She fought his command at first, then gave in and looked up into his eyes. Inexplicably, the tears came again and soon her bottom lip quivered and she was sobbing without Alex to hold her this time.

But there was Max. Mr. Dependable. His strong arms enveloped her much as they had in the school parking lot, crushing her against his chest. He made little hushing noises against her ear, kissed the side of her head, caressed her hair with his cheek. And the whole time Maria sobbed, grieving for a lover who was not in her arms, who was locked away from the world he’d grown to love and who would never know how much she loved him.

After awhile, Maria calmed, lulled by the warmth of his body, the comfort of his whispered words, the steady beat of his heart beneath her ear. She lay silently against him for a few moments, listening to the repetitious rhythm, wishing she was lying against a different chest being comforted by a different person.

“You know there’s only you,” Max said softly as he stroked her back. “I don’t love Tess. No matter what happened in a prior life. She knows that. I know that. And I know you know that.”

Maria pushed back from him, wiped her eyes again. “You can’t trust her, Max,” she warned.

Max’s brow furrowed.

“You don’t know what she’s capable of.”

He scratched his head. “What are you talking about?”

Maria’s jaw was set. “She has an agenda, Max. Nasedo made a deal with your enemies and she will do whatever is necessary to fulfill that deal.”

Max was looking at her, astonished. “What?”

“She is going to seduce you,” Maria continued.

He rolled his eyes to the side, shaking his head. For the first time, she thought she heard impatience in his voice. “Maria, I just told you-“

“I’m not finished,” she said sternly. “She will return to Antar with your baby, and she will trick you and Isabel and Michael into going with her. So that you can be killed.”

Every ounce of compassion was gone from Max’s handsome face. He looked pissed. Really pissed. Maria wasn’t sure if it was the accusation that he would sleep with and impregnate Tess or the mere mention of Michael’s name that had finally managed to spark his temper.

“I think you need to go home,” he said calmly. “And rest for awhile.”

Maria’s mouth dropped open. “You don’t believe me,” she said in disbelief.

“Who in their right mind would?” he asked, his voice level, controlled. “I don’t know what is going on with you lately, Maria, but if you need to get some help, then just say the word and we’ll do it.”

“You think I’m crazy?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Maria gave a disgusted snort. “Then what does ‘get some help’ mean if it doesn’t mean I need to go to the looney bin?” She made a gesture toward the exit door. “Alex is a sitting duck because he is so trusting. If given the chance, Tess will kill him, Max. Bank on it.”

Max dropped his head, looked at the floor. A heavy silence ensued, then he looked briefly at her. Brushing past her, he opened the back door and spoke to Alex. “Can you take Maria home?”

Alex entered the break room and waited while Max paused before his girlfriend.

“I have to go back to work now,” he said softly. “I’ll check on you later.”

“To see if I’ve hung myself with my bed sheets?” Maria snapped before she could stop herself.

Max looked stung and she felt a small tug of guilt. He looked at Alex. “Thanks, Alex.”

After Max had gone, Maria turned to her friend. “I don’t need an escort,” she said tersely.

Alex held his hands up in the surrender position. “Not a problem. But you were pretty upset. How about if I just follow you to make sure you get there okay?”

Maria couldn’t resist Alex and his well-meaning ways, so she relented. She would let him do her this one service. And in return she would make sure that Tess never had the opportunity to harm him.

Because if she did, Maria would kill her.


At home, Maria took a hot shower, turned her face into the spray and let it sting her sensitive skin just to prove that she really was alive in this living hell. The pain was real, her thoughts were real.

And now this world was real.

She toweled her body despondently, took extra care to dry between her toes, between her fingers – if she kept moving, kept herself occupied, then she wouldn’t concentrate on how depressing her life had just become.

As night started to darken her room, she plopped down face-first on her bed and stared at her carpet. It was the same carpet she remembered from her last life. How was it possible that so many things could remain the same, yet really everything else had changed?

As a force of habit, Maria reached under her mattress and pulled out the now-dog-eared notepad. Pouring salt into the wound, she read her account of kissing Michael for the first time. A small, sad smile curved her lips as she remembered him using the excuse that the kiss had been to calm her down. He’d been so awkward in those days, so uncertain how to approach her. Romantically, Michael was a bull in a China shop.

Maria heaved a sigh and let the pad drop to the floor. Maybe she was doing herself a disservice by rehashing all of those old memories. Maybe the time had come to let her new memories invade her mind, take her over, make this her world and dissolve the past world permanently. Because she wasn’t going anywhere now. She was here to stay.

But what was ‘here’? ‘Here’ was a place where everything was backward, where Max Evans lived in a shell, his sister protected herself by being unapproachable, Kyle Valenti was still a dumb jock, Liz Parker had giving into the dark side and had become one of the ‘popular’ people, and Michael Guerin was in prison.

And Maria was connected to someone she didn’t love.

She felt an overwhelming sense of despair as she realized that once upon a time, the world changed because a boy loved a girl. But now that boy was loving the wrong girl and the world had changed for the worse.

Part Eight

Later that night, when Max called and Amy came to Maria’s door to tell her she had a phone call, Maria acted like she was already asleep. Amy closed the door quietly behind her and Maria could hear her down the hallway explaining to Max that he would have to talk to her in the morning at school.

But when morning came, Maria feigned illness and told her mother she was staying home. She may not have been sick physically, but she felt sick in her soul. She’d been up all night just staring into space, contemplating the hand fate had dealt her.

That was how she spent her day – lying on her side with the blankets pulled to her chin staring into space. She hated this world, hated life in general. Maybe Tess would kill her instead of Alex this time. It would be a welcome reprieve.

But, no. Much like Alex, Maria loved life. Even if it was as fucked up at this one.

As the sun started to set once again, Amy appeared in her doorway. “Maria, look at me.”

Maria rolled over, saw her mother with her arms crossed, her shoulder against the door jam.

“Are you taking drugs?” Amy asked.

Maria snorted. “No,” she answered indignantly.

“Then are you pregnant?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “No, Mom, I am not pregnant.”

“Well, you never spend an entire day in bed. Never.”

Maria rolled back over, wished her mother would just go away. “I’ll be okay,” she mumbled against her pillow. “Alex had the flu – I think I caught it from him.”

That was all the explanation she was willing to give up and eventually her mother went away.

Alone again, Maria thought about how life had changed for her. She would have to make the best of it if this was where she was now meant to be. And that meant letting Liz go on a virginity-ending road trip with Kyle on Saturday, letting Tess live for awhile, and being with Max and forgetting Michael.

But maybe she didn’t have to stay with Max. Perhaps she had to stay in this world, but why did she have to stay with someone she didn’t love? She did love Max – as a friend, as a brother – but she would never be in love with him. Was she supposed to stay with him just because she was the only female he’d divulged his secret to? Did that bind them for life? If she did stay with him, how many years would it be before he followed his heart straight to Liz Parker and broke Maria’s in the process?

Now would be a good time to give him the boot. They’d fought. He was angry with her. She had the perfect out.

Almost on cue, there was a light tap on her window. She looked toward it, realized that the sun had nearly disappeared. Sighing, she pushed the blankets away from her body and walked to the window. She couldn’t believe how sore her muscles were, but then figured that’s what she deserved for lying in bed all day.

Parting her curtains, she saw Max on the other side of the glass. He looked sad, afraid of rejection and more than a little apologetic. Heaving another sigh, she hoisted her window up and was greeted with a warm blast of New Mexico night air.

“Can I come in?” he asked tentatively.

Might as well get it over with, she thought and nodded her head.

Max squeezed through her window, his body contorting in a way she hadn’t thought possible. He was a flexible guy, she realized, like a human pipe cleaner. Well, half-human pipe cleaner. In his typical uneasy demeanor, he put his hands in his back pockets and hovered near the window. There was no assumption that he was welcome to take off his shoes and slide between her sheets this time.

Maria walked back over to her bed and sat down.

“I, uh, wanted to talk,” Max began, his eyes only resting on her momentarily. “You weren’t at school today.”

“I wasn’t feeling well,” she lied. “Alex had the flu. I think I got it from him.”

“Oh,” he said. “I thought you were avoiding me.”

Maria was thrown for a moment. He was a blunt one, wasn’t he? “No,” she responded. “Just sick. But I feel better now.”

“Good,” he said and Maria wasn’t sure if he bought her story or not. Not that it mattered – she was dumping him soon anyway. “I think we need to talk about what happened,” he continued, looked away from her again.

“Okay,” Maria agreed.

“Look, I know you hate Tess-“

“Hate her?” Maria echoed, her skin prickling at the mere mention of her name. “I’d like nothing better than to rip her nipples off.”

Max gave a nervous but amused laugh and scratched his head, his cheeks reddening slightly. “I’d almost pay to see that, I think.” He shook his head, willing the image away. “But, listen. I know you don’t like her –“ he caught her expression and changed his words –“I know you’d like to rip her nipples off, but we have to try to get along.”

Maria looked at him incredulously. After all he’d seen, after all he’d been through, how was it possible that he was still so naïve? No wonder he’d ended up falling into the bitch’s trap in the last life.

“I don’t trust her, either,” he admitted which prompted an even more surprised look from Maria. “But she’s one of us. We’re all she has. I try to keep the two of you apart, but I can’t do it all the time. I didn’t know you’d be at the Crashdown last night or I wouldn’t have had the meeting there.”

Dump him, Maria reminded herself as she realized she was starting to take his apology to heart.

“Your happiness is all that matters to me,” he said, looking at his shoes. “I don’t want to do anything that makes you unhappy enough to stay home from school and avoid me.”

Maria was stunned. She couldn’t stop herself from staring at him. He was serious – he really cared that much about her. And he didn’t care that she knew it, didn’t care that he’d just put his emotions out there on display for the whole world to see. Michael Guerin would never do that. Hell, he’d never even admit that he cared about her.

Maria couldn’t dump Max. Not yet.

Rising from the bed, Maria reached him in two short strides and put her arms around him. Immediately, his arms circled her small waist and he pulled her to him.

“I really do love you,” he said into her hair. “Even when you smell a little funky.”

Maria pulled back, laughing. “I do need a shower, don’t I?”

Max glanced to the hallway, toward the bathroom. “I could use one, too…” He paused a moment, then shook his head. “Too soon, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “Yeah.” Standing on her tiptoes, she gave him a little kiss.

“You have toothpaste, right?” he joked and Maria was happy to see that he wasn’t too serious to tease her. She smacked his shoulder playfully, then moved to get clean clothes from her dresser.

* * * * *

In the days that followed, Maria spent her time more constructively that she had in her previous days in this world. She paid attention in class, tried her best at her job. This was her life now and she needed to take it seriously.

She went on an information-seeking mission, trying to gather as many facts as she could about her new past, this new reality. She discovered that Max was too serious a person to have any sense of the rhetorical and while this would have irritated her to no end in the old world, she used it to her advantage to wheedle much information out of him in this new world. For instance, once he was obsessing about what to order on a pizza and when he asked her what she wanted, she rhetorically said, “Come on, Max, how long have we been dating now?” and his response was, “Nineteen months, why?”

Not all of her information came from Max. Some of it came by mistake. She found out Max’s mother didn’t like to be called Mrs. Evans after Maria had done so.

“Mrs. Evans?” she’d said. “Why the formality? I’ve always been Diane to you.”

Maria had laughed, covering her slip and explained that she’d been around her mother’s friend who liked to be addressed as Mrs. Whoever.

Each day, she and Max bonded a little more, though she was using the fight excuse to keep him out of her bed. She wasn’t ready to be intimate with him, mostly because she was still remembering Michael and partly because she was still entertaining the idea of breaking it off. Every time she went to make the move, however, Max would do something incredibly sweet or say something totally beautiful to her and she’d retreat. It was no wonder Liz had been so ga-ga over him.

Liz returned from her trip to Las Cruces with Kyle with a whole new glow about her. A little piece of Maria felt sad that Liz hadn’t waited for Max, but then Max hadn’t waited for Liz either – in this world or the last. Liz wouldn’t give up any details of her trip, only saying that when Maria felt like telling her what sex with Max was like, then she’d tell Maria what sex with Kyle was like.

Another piece of information. Alien sex. Liz didn’t know Max was an alien, so Maria had obviously kept the details of extra-terrestrial lovemaking a secret. If Max was Maria’s one and only, it was highly possible that she didn’t know what “normal” sex was like and had just refused to give any details for fear that she’d let go with something that wasn’t normal.

Little by little, Maria adjusted to her new life. She looked at the notepad less frequently, but when she did study it, she found that those memories were still fresh in her mind. They were probably always going to be a part of her. But she thought she could be happy here. She’d make herself be happy.

One night after going to the UFO Center to surprise Max with lunch, she came home feeling a sense of calm, of acceptance. This was now life. She could deal with that. As she kicked off her shoes, her phone rang. Grabbing the receiver, she said a chipper, “Hello?” into the receiver.

The voice on the other end nearly made her drop the phone.

“You have a collect call from the New Mexico State Correctional Facility. Will you accept the charges?”

Part Nine

“Ma’am? Will you accept the charges?”

Maria jerked back to reality. “Um, y-yes,” she stammered. Dizzy, she sat down slowly on the bed.

There were a few clicks, then she heard the voice that brought tears to her eyes. “Hello?” The tone was terse, surly, generally pissed-off. But it was Michael Guerin’s voice and that was all that mattered to Maria.

“Michael?” she choked. She could suddenly feel her heart pounding in her temples.

“Of course it’s Michael,” he snapped.

“Are you calling from the pr-prison?”

“No, I’m calling from the fucking Marriot. Where do you think I’m calling from?”

An unfamiliar female voice broke into the conversation. “Sir, please watch your language or your call will be terminated.”

Maria’s eyes grew wide. “They’re monitoring your calls?”

“Yes,” Michael answered impatiently. “That’s why I need you to come here.”

She shook her head. Why was he calling her? He shouldn’t even know who she was.

“Maria. Are you listening to me?” His voice virtually hissed through the phone line.

“Yes. I’m here.” She held her forehead in her hand.

“Come to the prison. Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes. I’m sorry if that doesn’t fit into your schedule, but it took me forever to get you approved as a visitor, no thanks to your fucking mother who claimed she didn’t know me.”

The unfamiliar voice again. “Sir. Final warning.”

“Okay,” Maria said. “I’ll be there.”

“Good.”

The phone went dead abruptly and she had to wonder if Michael had crossed the profanity line again or if his time was just up.

Shaking, Maria pushed herself to her feet and immediately sat down again. This wasn’t happening. How could Michael be here? Or did she really have some relationship with the Michael from this world? After all, he hadn’t gone to prison right away and she and Max had only been together for nineteen months, which left plenty of time for Maria and Michael to be together.

Tomorrow. She would see him tomorrow and get all of the answers she craved. With a sigh, she realized she stood no chance of getting any sleep that night.

* * * * *

Maria left before it was daylight, sliding into her mother’s Jetta and letting it roll out of the driveway without starting the engine. During the whole five-hour drive to Santa Fe, all she could think about was seeing Michael again. She’d come to ignore all her nagging questions and just relish in the fact that she would soon be with him again – regardless if he was her Michael or not.

At the penitentiary, she found the guards brusque, no-nonsense as they patted her down for weapons or drugs or anything else she might try to slip to the inmates. The admitting guard looked at her curiously and she knew why – she’d stayed up most of the night reading the rest of the newspaper articles on Michael’s case. It hadn’t been the murder itself that had shocked the community – it was the apparent brutality that had been inflicted on the victim. Only a madman or a total monster could have done that much damage.

“Guerin, huh?” the guard said.

Maria nodded her head silently.

“You’re his first,” the man announced as he slid his key into a heavy steel door. Within the door, there was another door, this one of the jail-cell variety. Maria felt somewhat trapped as the guard locked the first door behind them, then reached to unlock the barred door.

On the other side of the bars, there was a row of small booths that reminded Maria of those solitary-confinement desks people used during SAT tests so you couldn’t copy off your neighbors. There was another series of desks facing that row of desks and there were sections of glass separating one side from the other. A phone for communicating was mounted on either side of the glass.

The guard put a hand under Maria’s elbow and started to lead her down a few chairs. She noticed for the first time how massive the man was – he towered over her, making her feel like a child.

“I’ll be right here,” he told her quietly. “By the door. If you need anything, you call me.”

He was warning her. About Michael.

She nodded solemnly, then stopped when she spotted Michael on the other side of the glass. He already had the two-way phone against his ear, waiting for her. Her heart leapt in her chest and she couldn’t keep the grin from her face. She knew with the way he was looking directly at her that this was Michael, her Michael.

Feeling somewhat giddy, she slid into the chair and picked up her phone. From the corner of her eye, she saw the guard turn and put his back against the wall.

“What the hell did you do?” Michael hissed into the phone.

“What the hell did I do? What the hell did you do?” Maria asked, her joy at seeing him deflating rapidly. Oh, yeah, this was Michael. The insensitive Michael she’d left behind. “You’re the one behind the bars.”

“Funny. Now get me the fuck out of here.”

Maria glanced at the guard, felt sick that even over this much time and space Michael was willing to be a jerk and even more sick that she couldn’t let it go. “Okay. I’ll just stick you in my purse and walk out the front door and no one will notice. Oops! Forgot – they claimed my purse and the rest of my personal possessions while they were frisking me at the door. Thanks a lot, Michael.”

“So, how is he?”

Maria’s brow furrowed. “How’s who?”

“You know, Max, my best friend. As far as I can tell, you’re boffing him, aren’t you?”

Michael’s eyes were hard, challenging, and incredibly jealous.

“Oh, screw you!” Maria spat. “I have not boffed Max since I’ve been here. But he is a really, really sweet guy and if I’m stuck here I have no problem staying with him, Michael. Especially if you keep talking to me like that.”

Michael drew in a breath, obviously trying to control his temper. “Please tell me what you did to get us here, Maria,” he said in a strained voice.

“I know how I got here – I don’t understand how you got here.”

Michael pursed his lips. “I heard this weird humming noise coming from inside my apartment. I opened the door, saw you on the floor and then something knocked me on my ass and I woke up here. Now tell me what you did.”

Maria sighed. “I put the cone on top of the microwave. Then I started the microwave and poof here we are – in some alternate universe.”

Michael’s brow furrowed. “We’re not in an alternate universe, you nitwit. This is reality. This is the real Roswell. You changed history and now you have to put it back the way it was.”

She pushed her full lips into a pout. “Stop talking to me like that, Michael. How was I supposed to know what that thing was? And, God, if you cleaned your apartment once in awhile, I wouldn’t have been picking up after you and I wouldn’t – “

“Stop it. Just stop it.” On the other side of the glass, Michael was holding up one of his hands. “It doesn’t matter now. Look, I can’t do anything in here. This one is up to you.”

She shrugged. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Get the cone –“

“There is no cone.” Maria glanced at the guard, dropped her voice. “Tess never left the planet, so there is no spaceship. No spaceship – no cone.”

Michael sat silently on the other side of the glass, his lips parted in mid-sentence. There was a long period of stillness, then he spoke again and Maria was amazed at how fast his mind worked. “You need the crystal.”

“What crystal?”

“The one that you, Liz and I retrieved outside of Las Cruces. The one that activates the granilith.”

Maria paused, her expression mirroring Michael’s from only a few moments before. “It’s gone,” she finally said.

He shook his head. “Not if Tess never left the planet. It’s still there. You need to get the crystal and use it to travel back in time and change what you did differently. You need to let Liz take the bullet.”

Maria blinked. Let Liz take the bullet? Is that what had happened? Did Michael remember?

“What do you mean?” Maria asked, swallowing past the lump in her throat.

“You don’t remember? You stepped in front of Liz, you took the bullet. You can’t let that happen this time.”

Maria’s mind went into a tailspin. She’d saved Liz, only to alter history and reality and everything else. She shook her head and forced herself to come back to reality. “How am I going to get into the pod chamber? I need one of the a-“ another glance at the guard “others to open it.”

Michael shook his head. “No, you don’t.”

“Huh?”

“You’re different now, Maria. Max healed you, not Liz.”

Maria’s mouth dropped open. She had powers that were lying dormant. That’s what Michael was trying to tell her. Suddenly she was speechless.

“Two minutes,” the guard called in his no-nonsense tone.

“Go get the fucking crystal,” Michael repeated, leaning close to the glass. “Because if I end up stuck doing 18 to life in this shit hole, you are really going to be sorry the next time I catch up with you.”

“I don’t know how to operate the granilith,” Maria blurted, suddenly frantic. “We don’t even know if it can travel in time.”

“Max used it to warn Liz about the end of the world,” Michael corrected.

“But I don’t know-“

“Then you better fucking figure it out.”

“What about that protection device – that landmine thingy that was where we found the crystal?”

“You can take care of it. You’re different now.” Maria saw a flash of something – desperation? – in his dark eyes. “You have to do this, Maria. You have to set things straight.” And for the first time ever, he issued a word of confidence. “I know you can do this, Maria. I know it.”

The phone went dead and Maria felt her heart sink. That was it? Five hours of driving for five minutes of Michael’s time? She whirled in her seat and looked at the guard with pleading eyes. Behind the glass, two other guards came to pull Michael to his feet. For the first time, Maria realized that his feet were chained and the guards went about chaining his wrists to the constraint around his waist.

Michael’s dark eyes were scared as they met Maria’s and she realized that his terse, profanity-filled greeting was only a result of his fear. Silently, he mouthed the word “Please” to her before he was pushed toward a door and disappeared down a hallway.

Maria rose shakily to her feet and her guard met her, took her by the elbow again. As she looked up at him, willing the tears away from her eyes, she thought that this man was not a bad person. He seemed unfriendly, sure, but he was just doing his job. So when he deposited her back in the lobby and returned her personal possessions, she mumbled a little “Thanks” to him and he looked momentarily surprised. Maria guessed that he didn’t get much appreciation in his job.

“You’re welcome,” he said, then opened the heavy door for her and let her back into the desert heat of mid-day New Mexico.

Maria drove out of the penitentiary and only made it a few miles down the road before she pulled over. Dropping her head to the steering wheel, she wept loudly. She couldn’t believe that Michael was there, in that hell, frightened and convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. She couldn’t believe that she’d seen him, been a fraction of an inch away from him and had been unable to touch him. Worst, she’d never told him she loved him. What if she never got another chance?

She straightened and wiped her eyes. Now was not the time to fall apart. She’d been issued a mission. And if she failed in her mission, Michael would be stuck behind bars for the rest of his life.

And Maria would have to live with knowing she put him there.

Part Ten

Maria watched as Max flipped through a magazine on his computer desk. He was stripped to the waist and unusually talkative. She eyed him in amusement, astounded at his utter disregard for his nudity. She’d become used to that over the last two weeks – Max was totally oblivious to the fact that he was beautiful and yet totally unashamed to walk around without clothes.

Though she was anxious to fulfill her mission, she knew that this was necessary in case she failed. She was here on preventative maintenance, covering her tracks in the event that she was unable to reverse the effects of the cone. Part of that task was making sure Max thought she was out of town with her mother. She’d knocked on his window, apologizing for breaking plans she had with him the next day.

“I thought Isabel was going to reach across the table and smack the shit out of Kyle,” Max was saying when Maria tuned back in. The humor in his voice was not lost on her – seeing Kyle get a bit of his own would make Max more than happy.

Maria hadn’t been listening to Max’s uncharacteristic anecdote, so she let out a little laugh, hoping he’d think she had been.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, his smile wide, sincere, and Maria wasn’t sure if it was Kyle’s come-uppance or Isabel’s that would have made Max so happy. Max knew his sister was a bitch.

“So, listen,” Maria said as she rose from her position on his bed, anxious to be on her way. “Sorry again about breaking our plans. Maybe we could do it next Saturday?”

“Of course,” he said, swiveling around in his desk chair.

“I tried to tell my mom I had plans already, but she wouldn’t listen.” Maria pasted on the fake pout.

“It’s okay. Really. I understand.” He shrugged. “Maybe I’ll see if Milton needs some extra help tomorrow, pick up a couple extra bucks.”

She nodded. “All right.” Why was this so awkward? “I guess I should go. I need to get a good night’s sleep.”

“Okay,” he said, smiling.

As Maria walked to the door, she thought that maybe, if things didn’t work out tomorrow, she wouldn’t mind being with Max. There wasn’t much about him that she couldn’t love. Her brow furrowed with a frown as she realized that even though she could love him, she would never be passionate for him. Max could never make her knees weak, could never make her heart beat faster. Okay, maybe he had the ability to quicken her heart rate, but he would never be able to stir the exquisite agony within her like Michael could.

She stopped at the door and turned around. Reaching Max in three long steps, she stopped before his chair and he looked up at her questioningly. Uninvited, she sat down on his lap and kissed him.

When they parted, she almost laughed at the startled look in his eyes.

“In case I never get the chance to say it,” she began, “thank you.”

He snorted, half-smiled. “For what?”

“For being you. For being kind and gentle. And sweet.” She dipped her head and kissed him again. When she rose, she picked up his hand and held it until she’d moved too far away to maintain contact.

Then she turned and left his room without looking back.

* * * * *

Maria’s stomach was doing somersaults as she stood outside of the pod chamber. In one hand, she held the crystal she’d retrieved earlier that morning. She hadn’t really believed Michael that she had powers now, so she’d taken a baseball bat with her. When she’d entered the room where the computer and crystal were, she’d raised the bat like a major league hitter and swung with all of her might. Her aim was true and the red triangular booby-trap was knocked out the window and exploded harmlessly.

Now, hours later, she was standing outside of the pod chamber entrance as the sun was starting to set over her shoulder. She looked down at the crystal and wondered why all alien devices were oddly phallic in appearance. Maybe the Antarians didn’t have penises, and they had seen that humans did, and this was their version of penis envy. She hiccupped a little giggle that only made her stomach hurt more.

How to open the chamber? Just a wave of the hand. That’s all it took. She looked at the smooth rock surface and tried to remember where that silver handprint would appear. Unable to recall its exact location, she resorted to slowly waving her hand across the entire flat surface of the rock. She caught a glimpse of silver and stopped. Retracing her path, the handprint suddenly shown brightly and Maria couldn’t help the grin that came to her face. Michael had been right.

She placed her hand over the silver symbol and immediately there was a sound of rock on rock, the earth rumbled and the pod chamber opened. She suddenly felt much sicker to her stomach.

Inside the chamber, the air was cool, dry. Maria looked around at the empty pods against the one wall and mused that this place seemed so eerie, so foreign without one of the aliens with her. Dropping down on all fours, she crawled through one of the pods so that she could get to the granilith room. When the doors to the room slid open, Maria was greeted with a blast of stale, foul-smelling air. She coughed and waved a hand before her. It was obvious that the granilith had not been disturbed in some time, and that meant that the pod squad in this reality was not aware of its existence.

Maria stopped before the control panel of the granilith and looked up at its height. What if she couldn’t figure out how to use it? What if she ended up rocketing off to some alien planet? She looked down at the crystal in her hand.

Using the granilith meant restoring things to the way they should be. But that meant that Max would cheat on Liz, Tess would seduce Max and set all of them up, and it meant that Alex would once again be dead. Maria felt a pang of remorse that she couldn’t save Alex, but it wasn’t up to her to play God. In the greater scheme of things, Alex was meant to die at seventeen, not be resurrected by Maria’s fumbling with an alien device.

She whispered an apology to Alex, then inserted the crystal into its slot on the control panel. Immediately, the granilith jumped to life, spinning and casting eerie shadows on the wall. Maria’s heart jumped in her chest. She had no idea what to do next, but then she had the sensation of being sucked through space and was suddenly looking out from inside the granilith.

The whirring noises became louder and Maria searched frantically for some kind of controls. There were none. Not outer space! she screamed in her head. The past! How do I get to the past!

But soon she was dizzy and quickly losing consciousness. This was a mistake. This was going to kill her.

Then there was a blinding flash of light.

And words.

“And even if it weren't I'm going out with Kyle. I mean, he's steady and loyal, and he appreciates me.”

Maria felt somewhat detached as she heard her own voice. “Sounds like you're describing a poodle.”

She picked up the coffee cups she’d just filled and started to wait on her customers. The guys she’d been waiting on in the corner were starting to become loud. Their conversation escalated into a shouting match until one of them pulled out a gun.

Everything seemed to fall into slow motion. Maria whirled toward Liz, who looked the part of a deer stunned in on-coming headlights. Maria had the urge to tackle her friend, to knock her to the floor, but something inside her head told her not to. Instead, she ducked behind a table.

The gun went off amidst screams and the two men ran for the door.

Maria hauled herself to her knees and looked behind the counter. Liz was lying motionlessly. “Liz......” Maria gasped, then Max was by her side.

“Call an ambulance,” he ordered, then dropped to his knees beside Liz.

There was another blinding flash of light and suddenly Maria was looking up at Michael’s water-stained ceiling. Her body hurt everywhere and she was gasping for air. She heard Michael’s furious cry and looked at him just in time to see his hand raised, sending the cone smashing into the wall. It broke into a million tiny pieces and tinkled to the floor.

Michael collapsed to the floor beside her, and tried to catch his own breath.

“You did it,” he said after awhile. “My God, you did it.”

She nodded, relieved to the point of wanting to cry. “What a rush,” she breathed.

“Wanna do it again?”

They met each other’s gaze, shook their heads and burst out laughing. Maria rolled over on top of him and kissed him passionately. Her tears fell from her eyes and splattered on his cheeks. Using his big hands, he wiped her hair away from her face.

“It’s okay,” he told her. “Everything is okay now.”

Maria met his eyes. “Are you sure? I mean, how do we know that for sure?”

Michael hesitated. She had a point. “Let’s order pizza,” he said. “And pay Max and Liz a little visit.”

* * * * *

When he heaved himself over the wall of Liz’s rooftop, Michael was more than a little pleased with the sight before him. Max and Liz were tangled together on her lounge chair, kissing like human vacuum cleaners. Well, one human vacuum cleaner and one half-human vacuum cleaner.

Michael reached down and helped Maria onto the roof and they both started to grin. Michael cleared his throat.

Max and Liz both jumped. Max looked pissed. “What?” he demanded. “It better be important, Michael.”

“It is,” Michael said. “We brought pizza.”

Maria met Max’s gaze and for one moment she thought she saw a flash of recognition, of confusion there, but it couldn’t be. Max had to be oblivious to what had just happened to them…didn’t he?

“Oh, pizza,” Liz said as she crawled out of Max’s arms. “I’m starving!”

“Nookie will do that to you,” Maria teased.

The foursome spread a blanket on the rooftop and put the pizza box between them.

“Oh, yeah, I have bad news,” Michael said between bites.

Max eyed him curiously. “Yeah?”

“You know that cone thing?”

“Yeah?”

“I broke it.”

Max raised his eyebrows. “You broke it?”

Michael nodded, knowing that Max had never cared what the cone was. “Yeah, I knocked it off the counter. You wouldn’t think metal would shatter like that.”

Max nodded his agreement. “Yeah, you wouldn’t think. I guess you’ll never know what it was now.” He looked teasingly at his friend. “Think you can live with that?”

Michael shrugged. “I’ll try. I can just let my imagination take care of that one.”

As Max and Liz went about feeding each other in a nauseatingly romantic way, Michael looked at Maria. Had it all been in their imaginations? Had they taken some hallucinogenic trip together? Or had they really seen what the world would be like if one small detail were changed?

Maria looked across the blanket at Max and Liz. Her memories of kissing Max were already starting to fade away. And that was okay. Because she belonged here, in this world, with Michael.

The End