She busied herself with wiping down the counters and mopping the floor until Jose came in to say goodbye and she realized that it was time to leave. She took a last look around to make sure everything was ready for the next morning then shut off the lights. As she passed through the kitchen door she was startled by a figure standing by her locker.

“Michael! You scared the shit out of me!” He didn’t stop to look at her but continued rummaging through her purse. “What are you doing? Give that to me! That’s personal property!” He pulled her key ring out and threw the purse back in the locker.

“I need to use the jetta.”

She grabbed the keys away from him. “No, you may not. What the hell are you thinking? You barely speak a word to me for weeks, but now that you need something you think you can just come in and get it. I am not a thrifty car rental.”

“Look, this is important. There’s something I really have to do.”

“Well, then find some other way to do it because you’re not getting my car.”

“Go with me, then.”

Once again Michael had thrown her totally off guard by doing the last thing she expected him to. She knew she should tell him off for treating her like dirt for so long. She knew she should tell him to go away and never talk to her again. She knew she should walk away and try to forget what she ever felt for him. But she also knew she wouldn’t. Because life with him in it was like a roller coaster ride with corkscrews and tunnels and stomach-churning falls. And even though it sometimes made her want to vomit, she still wasn’t ready to get off. She threw her apron into the locker in defeat. “All right.”

He snatched the keys from her weakened grasp. “Good. I’m driving.”

**********

The car began to vibrate noisily as the surface below changed from asphalt to the washboard of the dirt road. Maria was studiously examining her cuticles between surreptitious glances at the speedometer, hoping that Michael would speed or do something else to give her a reason to stop this trip. But he hadn’t, and now at the change of noise she ventured a look out the window. The landscape looked familiar, but it took her a while to recognize it as the reservoir outside of town. They had all been out here a couple times to talk without fear of being overheard, but she had never seen it at night before.

Michael parked the car overlooking the water and Maria tried not to think of how beautiful it looked, the breezes making ripples that reflected the full moon’s glow like a shower of silver.

“So, this is where you needed to go?”

Michael shut off the engine but made no move to get out of the car.

“I thought you needed to do something.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Okay, what are you waiting for?”

“Would you just stop asking so many questions?” After his outburst he returned to the same meditative state. Maria sat quietly, thinking that maybe it was part of whatever alien ritual he had to perform. “We need to talk.”

“Talk? We could do that anytime in the Crashdown, you don’t have to bring me all the way out here. All you have to do is open your mouth and exhale and the words usually come out. Although I guess lately you’ve forgotten how to do that. At least with me, anyway.”

“I know, and I’m sorry.”

Maria stared at him in amazement. “Michael Guerin, apologizing? I don’t believe it.”

“Maria, just listen, okay?” He took a deep breath. Words never came easily to him and he struggled for the right ones. “Somehow the pods gave Max and me these memories. Memories of our life before. I didn’t understand them at first, I thought they were telling me that you were going to do something to hurt us.” He saw the anger rising on her face and rushed to continue before she could speak. “I know I shouldn’t have believed it, but it seemed so real. I should have trusted in you. Instead I acted like a jerk. I’m sorry.”

Finished, he just stared at the steering wheel, waiting for her reaction. The tears welled in her eyes until everything looked rippled like the surface of the lake. The anger and pain churned up inside of her. Then she looked at Michael, waiting patiently for whatever she might do to him, and the feelings began to subside. Although he infuriated her in more ways than she could count, he was here now, facing her instead of running away. She knew exactly what that meant from him.

She brushed the tears away. “So, what’s your planet like?”

That sentence was enough to know that he was forgiven, and Michael was relieved. But Maria could still sense an undercurrent of apprehension in response to the question.

“Strange.” He paused briefly, thinking about it, but didn’t elaborate. “You know, I’ve spent my whole life knowing I was different, and I’ve always been searching to find out what I was, hoping that when I did everything would change. That my whole miserable life in Roswell wouldn’t be so bad because there was something better out there.”

“But now that I’ve seen a glimpse of what that other life is, I’m not so sure. I always thought being human was terrible. But it’s all I’ve ever known. The planet we come from is so different. And now that I’ve seen who I was, I’m not sure I want to be that person.”

Maria had never seen Michael looking so fragile and unsure of himself before. She placed her hand over his. “You aren’t. It’s only one part of you, a part that you’ve always had. You’re still who you always were. Still annoying, bad-mannered, and self-centered. And still someone I love.”

His hand tightened around hers. He lifted his eyes to meet her gaze, then pulled her close. He was tired of denying his feelings. His mouth found hers hungrily as they both gave into the pleasure that had been denied them for so long.

**********

“What’s that?”

“What?” Maria placed gentle kisses along the side of Michael’s throat and his jawline, trying to get his attention back to the activity they had been engaged in a minute before.

“Something’s happening.” He pulled away and began digging in his pocket.

Maria smiled sweetly. “Oh, You must have ditched that day in health class. I can explain later, if we ever get to the point it’s important. All you need to know for now is that it’s perfectly normal.”

He scowled at Maria and pulled an object from his pocket. To Maria it looked like an ordinary rock, except that golden flecks were flashing across the surface.

“What’s that?”

“Something Nasedo gave me. He said it might be useful.”

Maria sighed, discouraged that once again an alien artifact had ruined an otherwise perfectly fine evening. “You people with your rocks and caves. You must come from a species of geologists.”

“A species made of rocks is more like it.”

“What?”

Michael shrugged. “I think the people on the planet we’re from are made of rocks or something.”

“Weird. So what is this thing doing?”

“I don’t know.” As Michael held the rock the flashes began to increase in speed. “It’s getting warmer.” The flashes were getting so quick it was almost hard to see anything but a glow. The heat increased too, and as it burned into his skin Michael saw a vision. A large room, full of people. They were dressed up, dancing and laughing. It narrowed to a couple on the bleachers. They looked around nervously, then started to leave, but something was following them.

The burning was unbearable, and finally Michael dropped the rock. “Isabel and Alex. Someone’s after them. Give me your phone.”

Maria fished it out of her purse and handed it to him.