Blind
Date…..
“So you really set this up?” Michael asked looking at
the embarrassed Liz and the news media nightmare.
“Yep. Just what she needed to get on with her life.”
“Here, file this away…do not ever try to help me.”
Maria laughed. “Stop being a poop, this can be fun. She
goes out on a dream date, maybe makes Max a little jealous and I get to sing
with The Whits, opening for some huge band.”
Michael stared down at the small blonde staring off at Liz.
“You’re really going to sing?”
“Yep.” Maria pulled a ticket out of her waitress
uniform. Reaching up, she put it in his pocket. “Here. Got this for you so you
didn’t have to break in.” Maria looked away. “I’ll understand if you
can’t make it, but just in case.”
Michael looked at all the media. It looked like the last
place he wanted to be, anywhere near that feeding frenzy. “I’ll try,
okay?” Maria nodded. Michael cleared his throat. “Thing is…I think I
figured something out, and I need to check it out tonight.”
“The map with the constellations?”
Michael looked at her in shock. “You were listening?”
“Okay, granted my eyes did glaze over a bit with all that
Aries in retrograde, northern most aspect, blah, blah, blah. But, sure. I was
listening.”
Michael moved uncomfortably on his feet. “I was going to
ask you to come, but seeing how your night is pretty booked…”
“Sorry about that. Any other night, you know?”
“I know.”
Maria looked at him. Scratching her chin, she sniffed. He
shouldn’t be doing this alone. “Look, Liz is out tonight with another guy,
and I’m sure Max isn’t going to be great with that, so why don’t you talk
to him.”
“He wouldn’t listen.”
“You never know until you try. This affects him too. Him
and Isabel.” Maria smiled at Liz across the room. “Maybe they would want to
participate, help you.”
“I doubt it. Max will say no, and as usual, Isabel will
be on his side.” Michael’s jaw flexed.
Maria put her hand on his side, squeezing it in comfort.
“You don’t know that. Isabel was pretty shaken when you were sick. I think
she never realized that she could lose you or Max in that way. Give her a
chance. Things can change you know.”
“I’ve never known that to happen.”
“Sure you have.” Maria hit Michael lightly in the
stomach. “Look at you and me. Did you ever in a million years think we could
be friends? That I could know this much about you?” Maria smiled making her
point, taking herself off to collect the horrified Liz. They had to get ready
for tonight.
Michael watched her go, his eyes following her across the
room. “No,” he softly said to himself, “I never did. I never thought
anyone could or would want to.”
~~~
Following Maria’s advice, Michael tried to discuss Nasedo
with Max and Isabel. They were at the Crashdown where Max could keep an eye on
Liz, and the entire bizarre media blitz around her.
“All right, look. We know the cave painting is a map.”
Max frowned. “Michael, we don't know anything.”
“I feel it, ok? I mean, it was clear in my
hallucination.”
“Hallucination would be the key word there.” Max looked
at Isabel for support.
“Let him talk, Max. What's wrong with you today?” Both
Max and Michael looked at Isabel in shock. Michael couldn’t help it, his eyes
went to find Maria’s across the way. She was taking an order. She said that
Isabel had been scared, that she changed, but how could she know it for sure?
“Why would you invest yourself in something that you know
isn't going to work out?” Max asked, his eyes watching Liz.
“Don't bring your personal problems into this, Maxwell.
It's too important.”
“I'm talking about the search you're on.” Max said, not
wanting this to be attributed to his problems with Liz. “Trying to find
someone who could possibly hurt us if we ever find them.”
“The fourth alien is not a killer. He's one of us.”
Max sighed. He knew Michael would refuse to listen. He only
wanted to believe what he wanted to believe. “You heard Hubble tell us about
the other victims. About the handprints...”
“No, I heard a crazy man.” Michael looked at Isabel
hoping to get some support from her. “Tell him. Tell him we gotta find this
guy.” Isabel looks at him with sympathy, but she remained quiet. “Fine. Both
of you sit here with your cherry colas and your high school fantasies. I'm going
to find him.” Michael took off, leaving the Crashdown in an angry pace. Maria
stopped what she was doing, watching him go, and her head turned to look at Max
and Isabel. The alien girl shrank under the cold disdain in Maria’s eyes.
Somehow, she knew that Maria knew what Michael was talking about. Their eyes
met, and Isabel remembered what Maria told her when Michael was sick, her cheeks
reddening.
“You can't treat him that way, Max.”
“What am I supposed to do? Encourage him to track down a
murderer?”
“We don't know what is and isn't true yet.” Isabel said
repeating what Maria astutely pointed out. “Michael needs his hope. It's the
only thing that keeps him going.”
Max looked at Isabel, hearing what she was saying, but
unable to agree. “What about you?”
“You know, I don't know who I'd be if I had spent the
last fifty years on my own. If you were Nasedo, wouldn't you want us to at least
hear you out?”
Max sighed, unable to quell a really bad feeling, one
he’d had since Hubble held the gun on him, crazed by the loss of his wife to
the Shapeshifter. “It's a mistake, Isabel.”
Isabel stood up to leave. “Maybe. You're never gonna
convince him of that without some proof.”
~~~
Michael tried Max’s room first, but it was dark. He
started to leave, but Isabel’s window was lit. Hesitating, he thought of what
Maria said. This had to do with them too, and maybe, just maybe, Isabel might
agree. She hadn’t supported him, but she hadn’t shot him down like Max did.
Taking a breath, he knocked on the window, prepared to be turned away. He had
never knocked on Isabel’s window before.
Seeing Michael, Isabel opened the window for him. “Come
in.”
“Hey.” He looked around uncomfortably. The room was
so…girly, and not like Maria’s who’s tended to be wacky and stylish in a
mad hatter sort of way.
“What're you doing?”
Michael took a breath, and gave it another try. “I think
I've figured it out. I think I can read the map. Come on, I'll show you.”
“But what about the concert?” Isabel said, reluctant to
miss a night out. “Alex got us tickets.”
“Well, it's either the concert or discovering where we
come from.” He planned to go see Maria sing if he could after he tried this,
but he didn’t want to make any promises just in case it worked, and he was
gone.
“Well, what about Max? Shouldn't we at least...”
“What about Max?” Michael let a little of his
bitterness come through. “Last I heard, he didn't seem too interested,
remember?”
“He's just worried, Michael. He's worried about you.”
Michael shook his head. He didn’t need Max dictating to
him in a parental manner. He needed a friend. “Yeah, look, the only father I
need is the one out there waiting for us to find him.” Isabel hesitated, but
for once, she looked in Michael’s eyes, and caught a glimmer of what Maria
told her was there. Isabel nodded. Michael seemed shocked by her agreement, but
not too shocked to take the opportunity. “Let's go.”
~~~
Isabel sat in the jeep staring at the library. “I think
this is as close as you've ever come to the library, Michael.”
Michael shrugged. “That means something, Isabel. It's
right here on the map. Look. This is the constellation I saw in my dream. It's
Aries, the Ram.” Isabel lifted a brow at the idea of Michael and astrology in
the same sentence. Michael seeing this rolled his eyes and explained, “I
looked it up. And this is the symbol Nasedo left us at the cave. If you take a
map of
Isabel looked at him in shock. “How'd you know how to do
all that, Michael?”
“I just knew.”
“I don't think we should be doing this.” Suddenly
Max’s concerns were very real. Before, there was questionable possibility that
Michael would succeed, but now, Isabel wasn’t so sure.
“Isabel, he sent us a signal. We gotta send him one back.
This is how we're gonna find him.”
“Yeah, but what if he's...”
“What if he's the killer?” Michael said jumping out of
the jeep. “There's only one way to find out.”
~~~
Isabel stood biting a nail, frantically looking around as
Michael poured gasoline on ropes sat on the ground to form the alien symbol.
“This is vandalism.”
“It's not like we can't clean it up.” Michael reminded
her.
“Are you sure about this?”
“More sure than I've ever been about anything in my
life.”
Isabel bit the inside of her mouth until it bled. “I just
don't want you to get hurt, Michael.”
“Isabel, I told you Max is wrong. Nasedo's the only one
we have.”
“We still have each other, isn't that enough? I'm
just...,” Isabel was suddenly so uncertain, almost as much as she had been
when he was sick, “...I'm just afraid that you won't find what you're looking
for. Or that maybe you will and you won't need Max or me anymore.”
Michael looked at her and paused. “That's not possible,
ok?” He stood back, lighting the gasoline soaked ropes, so they burned in the
shape of the symbol from the woods.
~~~
They waited for a while as the fire slowly burned itself
out. No one came. Michael’s reaction was hard to miss, as his shoulders
slumped, dejected.
“We can't just leave this here.”
“I know. Can you...” Michael turned away as Isabel used
her powers to get rid of the symbol burned in the grass.
“You think I'm stupid, don't you?”
“No. Not stupid.”
“Just forget it.” Michael said. He hated being pitied.
“He's not gonna come.”
“Maybe not tonight.”
“No, not ever. No one ever comes for me.”
Isabel didn’t hesitate. “I will. Whenever you need
me.” Michael needed his hope, and tonight, he lost a large part of it. That
hurt. Isabel offered him comfort, but he was standing so far away, even though
they were right next to each other.
~~~
Maria opened the window. She knew he would come.
“So how was the concert?”
“Scary. I didn’t think I could do it at first.”
She stepped back so he could come through the window.
“Sorry I missed it. I was planning on coming. Things didn’t work out for me
to get there.”
“Not a problem. It happens.” Maria tsked as he tripped
over the beanbag. He had been in and out of that window so many times, how could
he still trip on it? “So what happened?”
Michael’s jaw clenched and he shrugged. “Nothing. I
thought I figured something out, something from the woods, and I was wrong. It
didn’t work.”
“Hmm. Sorry.” Maria looked at his profile. “Did
Isabel go with you?”
“Yeah, she was cool about it, but I knew she really
didn’t want it to work.”
“She showed up, so that has to mean something.”
Michael shrugged. “Means she pities me.”
Maria let that go. Michael had to learn to trust on his
own; it wasn’t something she could teach him. Given her history and family
background, it wasn’t like she had mastered the art either. “So what did you
expect to happen?”
Michael laughed. “I don’t know. Maybe if I sent a
signal, that they would come. That I could go home. I don’t know.” He shook
his head. “They’re never coming. No one ever comes. I’m stuck on this
stupid planet forever.”
“It’s not stupid, okay? It’s my home. The only one I
have, and one that has sheltered you…a refugee, all these years. How do you
know where you come from is better?”
Michael scowled at her. They weren’t going to get into
that argument again. “I don’t. I just have to believe it, that’s all.”
“Why? Why is it so important for one place to be better
than another?”
Michael sat on her bed in his usual place, with his back
against the headboard. “In a smaller scheme, this thing you do. This waiting
thing where you hope your dad comes, back?” Maria nodded. “Well, how do you
know that wherever he would take you would be better? Better than
Maria went quiet. “I don’t know. I just want to
believe.”
“Same. Guess we aren’t so different.”
Maria punched him on the arm to break up the serious tone
of their talk. “Stop trying to terrorize me, Guerin. I thought you got over
that.” He just smiled slightly. Maria huffed a little. “So I heard some
girls talking about you at the concert.”
“God, spare me!”
“No really. They were discussing your possible
endowments.”
Michael frowned. “My….”
“Endowments.” Maria bit back a smile. “I added in my
two cents.” Michael just groaned. Shaking his head, he really did not want to
know. “I told them to look at a man’s hand size, and shoes…it’s a dead
giveaway.”
Michael, who had been playing with a rubber band he picked
off her bedside table was suddenly self-conscious about the size of his hands,
and his large feet on her bed. “Oh great! Now everywhere I go there’ll be
giggling girls staring at my feet.”
Maria got up laughing. “Um, no. They’ll be staring at
some other place. Trust me!”
“DeLuca!” She was a total pain. Smiling cruelly, he
extracted some revenge. “I should tell you that your name graces the men’s
bathroom in a few places.”
“No!” Maria bit her lip. “Don’t tell me.” Michael
waited. Three. Two. One. “Tell me! Dammit, Michael, tell me!”
“It’s the list.”
“The List?” Maria frowned. What the hell was with guys?
All these damn lists! Alex made them all the time.
Michael shrugged. “It’s like a top ten lists. You grace
a few of them.”
Maria bit on the edge of her nail. It was dark, but not
really that late. They had time. Grabbing Michael’s arm, she ignored him when
he tried to shrug off her hand. No way. He had started something. “Let’s
go.”
“Where?” Michael frowned. Hell, he was comfortable.
“The school. I want to see this List.”
“After school hours, Maria. The place is closed.”
Maria snorted. “That’s why I need you.”
“No.”
Maria stopped her hands going to her hips in a determined
stance. “I’ll buy you dinner tomorrow. Burger. Fries. Drink.”
“Two.”
“Two?”
“Two Will Smith Burgers, two orders of Saturn Rings, and
a piece of your mom’s coconut cream pie. Cherry soda. Large. All the
