Part 2
A Year Ago
"We're almost out of cash," Max announced to his friends. They had been running for a while now. For the first few weeks they had lived on the money that he, Michael and Isabel pooled together. It wasn't much. Isabel contributed the bulk of it with the cash in her purse.
Oddly enough, the next months they lived on Maria's money. She would leave for a while and say that she would get a job and when she returned, she had enough money to last all of them for some time. They all wondered how Maria did it. Afterwards she'd seem so happy though, and satisfied. Michael would have thought the worst were it not for the fact that she came back less than half an hour after. Oh yeah, and the fact that he trusted her.
"I can get some," Maria offered. Kyle grinned at her, and Maria rolled her eyes heavenward. She had been leaning back against Michael on the bed. But for the chance to be useful, she sat up.
Max looked at Michael uncertainly. Beggars can't be choosers. But he was really curious about what Maria actually did to get that much money every time. He agreed and Maria skipped out the motel room happily. "I'll be right back."
"We know." When the door shut behind her, Max turned to his best friend. "Follow her, Michael."
"Finally," Michael muttered. Every time she left he wanted to go with her. Max kept telling him not to. They had to respect Maria's choice to be alone.
He spotted Maria by the reception desk, speaking on the phone. Silently he edged his way closer, careful not to alert her to his presence.
"Yeah, we're here. Right where I told you. Yeah." Maria looked around, and Michael flattened himself against the pillar so she wouldn't notice. "Really?! That's so great. Thank you thank you thank you! Okay. Bye."
Maria exchanged a few words with the frowning receptionist. But after she told him her name, the receptionist smiled politely and handed over a thick white envelope. Hastily, Maria broke open the seal and peeked inside. And then she drew out the folded fax paper and read, walking to the stairs.
All of a sudden the letter was taken out of her hands, and she was looking into the dark, furious eyes of her boyfriend.
~~
Piper laid down the food on the table. She slapped Paige's hand away as she reached to take a piece. "We're waiting for Leo," Piper informed her youngest sister.
"Orb now, orb now," Paige muttered.
The blue lights materialized as she prayed. Leo appeared worried, which meant there was something supernatural was building. Paige sighed in resigned dismay. Well she wasn't fighting off demons and warlocks with an empty stomach! While Piper approached her husband to ask what's wrong, she reached for a slice of quiche.
"We need to save a young woman. She's going to be attacked by sucking demon outside a building in LA," he told them.
"Beat you to it!" Phoebe announced, with a directory in hand. She was still in her bathrobe with a towel wrapped around her head. "Had a premonition while in the shower. The girl's blonde and the sucking demon attacks her outside the building of Wolfram and Hart, a law firm." She dropped the directory on the table and started rifling through the pages.
Muffled with food, Paige asked, "Are you even sure this is supernatural?"
"What do you mean?" Piper inquired.
"Can't this just be some tryst? I mean, sucking demon. That could really translate to a passionate date with an overeager lawyer given the location," she explained.
"Good point."
Before Leo could reply, Phoebe shook her head. "No, no. Definitely a demon. I saw it. Attack, screams. And don't diss attorneys. Cole was one." And then she paused. "Point taken."
~~
"I can't believe this!" Max exploded. "We trusted you, Maria. And all along you've been telling someone where we are, where we're going to be."
Maria bit her lip. Confronting Max was the only requirement Michael gave her before he'd give her back her letter. "It was the only way he would know where to send the next money."
"But if we knew that you were laying some sort of breadcrumb trail to us we wouldn't have allowed you to do that."
Michael, who had been standing behind Maria the whole time, thought that it was a little hypocritical of Max to be yelling at his girlfriend like this. Sure, he was pissed at first. She was putting herself in danger just so she could support them. And he wanted her to tell Max just so she'd finally come clean. Secrets were a no-no when you had to depend on each other for survival.
"Look, she didn't think it over. That's that. She won't do it again, okay," Michael snapped at Max. "Come on, Maria." He took her towards their own room. She was still a bit shell-shocked at how Max reacted, so she let Michael lead the way.
He sat her on the bed and gave her back the letter. "Sorry. I didn't know Max would act like such an ass. I thought he was going to tell you how stupid it was and let it go."
Maria took her letter and looked at him directly in the eye. "It wasn't stupid, Michael. It was working. We were okay and he wouldn't have said anything to anyone, least of all the FBI!"
"It wasn't the smartest thing to do. We're running and hiding. And you tell your uncle to wire the money to our next stop. It's like plotting our collective demise."
She huffed. "I didn't tell him to send the money. He offered!"
"Maria—"
"Fine."
"Look. I spotted you standing there in the reception desk, your back to the door. The receptionist obviously knows there was money in the envelope. You could have been attacked. You were reading your letter with a manila envelope of cash in the corridor!"
"It wasn't smart." She had to give him that.
"You're not putting yourself in more danger than you already have—for us."
Maria laid down on the bed with her letter. Taking off his shirt and pants, Michael climbed in beside her. She turned her back to him and let him embrace her spoon-fashion. "So read it to me," he requested.
"What?"
"Tell me about him. And if you want to share, I'm here."
He was nibbling on her shoulder. Maria smiled and started talking. "Well he's my half-uncle. My mom's half-brother. And we used to sing together a lot. Sometimes he'd play the guitar while I'm singing. He was my accompanist when I competed at this contest one summer I was vacationing in LA. We won."
"Musical family," he commented needlessly, just to show that he was still listening.
"He's really rich, you know. He's vice president at this law firm called Wolfram & Hart. So he doesn't really mind sending me money. He loves me. All high school when we hardly saw each other we wrote and called. And he always told me I was the only pure thing in his life—that I can't him from destroying himself."
"You make him good."
"Maybe. Yeah."
"Well we've got that in common."
"Michael—"
"Yes."
"Do you think I can go see him? We're so close to LA now."
Max was going to absolutely hate this. But this was a guy who had been unknowingly supporting aliens. He deserved to see his niece. Still, Max was going to kill him for this. "Want me to go with you?"
"Well, he kinda doesn't know I have a boyfriend. And I don't want him to blow up on you. He doesn't approve of the way we're on the run and all. He thinks it's no way for me to live." Michael tightened his embrace on Maria. He himself didn't like to think of Maria stuck in a life like this. She deserved something more. "So let me work on him first before you come into the picture, okay?"
~~
"What are you still doing in the building, Arco?" Lilah Morgan demanded of the towering demon. "Lindsey fired you, didn't he?"
"He hired me to get the vampire with a soul. But we didn't agree that I had only a month to do it. He didn't even pay me the rest of the amount we agreed on!"
"Well you didn't do the job."
"I'll kill him!"
Lilah smirked. "Third door to the right."
Arco crept to the office to find the door open. He was about to storm in when he heard the bastard talking softly on the phone, in a tone he'd never heard him use before.
"You're really visiting me then. That's great! We'll catch up. I know, Maria. Be careful all right? You know you're the most precious jewel my worthless family ever spawned. Well you and Amy. When will you arrive? That soon? I'll be waiting for you tomorrow night then. All right. Love you."
Arco stepped in the moment Lindsey put down the phone. "Mr. Mac Donald."
The lawyer glanced up and glowered at him. "What are you still doing here?"
"I just wanted to say
before I left that it was memorable working with you. Bye." Arco strode towards
the elevator grimly. Tomorrow night wasn't too long of a wait.
