Part 51

Maria scanned over the schedule taped to her locker and frowned when she realized she wasn't scheduled to work all weekend. She pulled the paper down and walked to the small room Liz's dad used for his office. He was sitting at his desk, punching buttons on a calculator that was probably older than her and Liz both.

"Hey, Mr. P."

Jeff Parker looked up from the part of his job that he hated the most, grateful for the interruption. He smiled at his daughter's best friend and waved her inside, motioning to the chair across from his desk. "I thought you would've already been outta here," he said, nodding at the schedule she held in her right hand.

"That's kinda why I'm here; I wasn't expecting to have the entire weekend off." She shrugged. "Are you cutting back hours?"

"No, not at all. Things have seemed kinda strained between you an' Liz here recently so I thought maybe some time away from each other would help."

"Oh." Well, he is Liz's dad, she thought. He obviously wasn't going to cut his daughter's hours. "So, it's just temporary then?"

"Maria, it's not a punishment," he assured her. "I took both of you off of the schedule this weekend." He nodded when she relaxed slightly. "Y'know, I tried to get Liz to tell me what's goin' on between the two of you but she didn't wanna talk about it. So? What about you? Wanna tell me what's goin' on? I used to be pretty good at helpin' you two fix things."

Maria sighed. It was nice of Mr. Parker to try and arrange things, but the entire situation just felt so impossible. "Some things just can't be fixed, Mr. P."

Jeff sighed in resignation. This was worse than he had thought it was and he didn't have any idea how to help them. It had been so much easier when they were little and all it took was a hug, some ice cream, and one of his pep talks to make things right again.

"I'll see you Monday after school," Maria said as she stood up.

"Will Amy be home soon?"

Maria shrugged. "Monday or Tuesday probably."

Jeff watched her, worried about the young woman. Amy definitely had her own way of raising her daughter, but Maria seemed to need her mother right now. "You should at least stop by for dinner, Maria."

She smiled, touched by his concern. "I'm thinking about spending the weekend with a friend; I'll have to call and see if they've got plans first though." She smiled. "Thanks anyway, Mr. P, I appreciate the offer."

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Michael was leaning back in his chair almost forty-five minutes later, feet propped up on the corner of his desk, and a pencil clamped between his teeth as he waited for the virus scan to finish running on his computer before he could get started on his search once more. He turned the page in the notebook in his lap and reached up to scratch his eyebrow before glancing at the progress meter on the screen.

The excited screams from down the hall startled him and he jerked, nearly unbalancing himself before he managed to grab the edge of the desk to pull himself upright. He bit the pencil in half and quickly threw the two pieces on the desk and took a drink of his juice to get rid of the taste of lead from the broken pencil.

"Damn it," he muttered as he dug through his top drawer in search of another pencil. He threw his notebook down in frustration when someone knocked on his door and he yelled an aggravated, "What?" at the unseen person as he leaned over to pick up the stapler that he had knocked off of the desk.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he sat back up and a pair of arms came around his shoulders. "What've I been tellin' you about huggin' me since you were seven years old, Linda?" he growled, recognizing the cartoon characters on the face of the pink watch on her right wrist.

"I know, it's against your rules," she whispered, hugging his shoulders tighter. "And calling Cam and involving yourself in my problem was probably against your rules too, but you just made me so happy. He didn't tell me you called him, Michael, but I know it was you."

Michael heard the unshed tears in her voice and he reached up to awkwardly pat her hands where they were linked, fervently hoping that she wouldn't start crying. "I don't know what you're talkin' about."

"I know, because you'd never do something so nice." Linda smiled as she finally released him and walked back to the door. "Y'know, if I had a dad or a brother I'd want them to be something like you."

"Get outta here," he muttered gruffly. "And keep it down, will ya?" Michael turned back to his computer, noticing that the virus scan was finished, and he scanned through the different sites he had bookmarked, looking for anything new or unusual. His eyes narrowed and he leaned in closer to the screen when he saw the newest post on the blog. After reading it he made some notes in his notebook and moved on to the next site, hoping to corroborate the blogger's post.

He could feel the excitement begin to take hold of him as his pencil filled the sheet of paper with notes from others who were claiming that the sighting in northern New Mexico was credible. On a clean sheet of paper he listed others who believed that the sighting was false and once he was finished he carefully studied both lists.

It was real, he was sure of it. Several of the sites were also claiming that it was more than just a sighting, and that there was possible wreckage in the area. He was suspicious of that particular claim because there was nothing to indicate that there was any evidence besides a few random posts that were unsubstantiated. It was still worth investigating, he thought as he stood and moved to the map tacked to the wall on the left side of his desk.

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Maria looked down at her cell phone when it rang and smiled when Michael's name appeared on the screen. She had been thinking about calling him but she hadn't wanted to call until she was sure she wouldn't be interrupting dinner with his family.

"Hi, Michael," she greeted.

"Hey, Maria. Listen, are you workin' tomorrow?"

Her eyebrows rose in surprise; his tone was as gruff as it usually was but there was something different about it that she couldn't quite identify. "No, I'm off all weekend."

"Feel up to a road trip?"

"What've you got in mind?" she asked, intrigued.

"I've got a lead… maybe about my biological parents, and I'm gonna go check it out tomorrow after school." He sighed and she could hear the frustration in his voice. "My parents have this rule about skippin' school, so I can't go until after school."

She didn't even have to think about it. She had lived in Roswell her entire life and she hadn't once chased a UFO sighting. Not to mention the possibility that it might help Michael find some of the answers he was looking for. "Okay, I'm in. Should I meet you at your house?"

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Catherine leaned against the wall in the hallway not far from Michael's open bedroom door and eavesdropped on his telephone conversation. She had been in the middle of putting a stack of freshly laundered towels in the hall closet when she had realized what he was talking about and whom he was talking to.

His words were carefully chosen and he didn't mention aliens or sightings once but the fact that he continued to talk indicated that Maria understood what he wasn't saying. She could hear the excitement in his voice even though he was trying hard to keep it under control, and it was obvious that the girl wasn't trying to talk him out of chasing after what would probably only be another disappointment.

Catherine straightened up as she realized that his discovery of the sighting had to be a recent development, and fast on the heels of that realization came the thought that for the first time since he had started searching for the truth about himself he hadn't come to her and John first. The phone hadn't rung, which meant that Michael had made a conscious decision to make the call, to share his news with someone outside of his family.

Her eyes widened when she heard him making plans with Maria… plans for a road trip with the intention of investigating the sighting. She had never liked it when he took off on these trips, but he had always gone with Eddie and that had given her some measure of comfort. The thought of her son taking off with Maria was in no way comforting; the trip would undoubtedly end in disappointment and the girl had never dealt with that side of his personality.

The more Catherine thought about Michael and Maria taking off on a road trip together the more certain she was that it was a bad idea.

"Catherine?"

She jumped when her husband called her name unexpectedly and she hurried towards him, motioning for him to be quiet and follow her.

"Were you listenin' to Michael's conversation?" he asked, amused.

"This is serious, John," she snapped. "Do you know what they're talking about?"

"I'm not the one who was eavesdropping." He could hear the combination of anger and annoyance in her voice so he motioned for her to continue.

"He's found another sighting." She kept her voice pitched low, mindful of their guests who were unaware of Michael's not-quite-human status.

"Okay." John shrugged, not understanding what had triggered her anger. "That's nothin' new; he's been chasin' these things for the past couple of years."

"He's planning a road trip with Maria," she hissed. "And I don't think it's a good idea for him to go – "

Not again! John shook his head, wondering when his wife would let the 'Maria situation' go. "When are you gonna accept that he's almost an adult, Catherine? You can't keep throwin' your parental weight around."

Catherine narrowed her eyes at her husband. "Almost an adult, John, and until he's eighteen we have every right to stop him from doing things that we don't think he should be doing."

"And what is it exactly that we don't think he should be doin'? Searchin' for his answers, chasin' down these leads, or datin' Maria?" Their son was a good boy; he was doing well in school, he helped out around the house or with the ranch, and he wasn't involved with drugs or alcohol. Why couldn't Catherine just trust Michael? They had raised him well and he was a responsible young adult. They had done a great job with him and Maria's presence in his life wasn't going to change that.

"Yes, all of it," Catherine snapped.

John nodded. "So, you're willin' to sacrifice his happiness? Because that's exactly what would happen, Cath; Michael's driven by the need to know where he came from and why he was left the way he was, and he's never gonna be satisfied until he has those answers. Maria saw that in him and she accepted it without question – "

"That's your reasoning?"

John thought about it for a minute before nodding. "Yeah, that's it. What would you suggest?" he asked as he poured coffee into his mug.

"We have to tell him he can't go," she stated firmly.

He looked at his wife expectantly, speaking once he had surmised that she wasn't going to give in or see reason. "All that's gonna accomplish is – "

"Why would you tell me I can't go?" Michael stood in the doorway, confused by his mother's statement. "I'm not plannin' to leave until after school tomorrow."

"With Eddie?" Catherine asked, trying to hide her anger.

"No." His chin lifted just a fraction and his dark eyes gleamed defiantly. "Maria's gonna go with me."

"No, you're not going on a road trip to…" She paused, trying to remember if he had mentioned his destination.

"We're goin' up to Aztec; it's just a few miles from the Colorado border."

"No." She shook her head. "Absolutely not. With the time you're anticipating leaving, and the time it'll take to drive up there you're looking at an overnight trip and that's unacceptable."

Michael could feel his temper rising and he knew he was going to say something he would end up regretting if he stayed any longer.

John reached out to stop Catherine from going after Michael when he backed out of the room and walked away. "Let him go."

Catherine could feel despair building up inside of her. Was she really the only reasonable and responsible person in the house? "We can't allow him to take this trip with Maria; have you thought about all of the potential problems that could come from them spending the night together?"

"Catherine, you're jumpin' the gun." He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. "I need to get ready for work and you need to let this go for the night; we'll talk about it when I get home, okay? He's not gonna do anything until school's out for the weekend and if the sighting was in Aztec I'd imagine Maria will probably drive out here to meet him. It wouldn't make any sense for him to drive so far out of the way just to pick her up. You both need to take a step back and calm down, and we can decide how to handle this when I get home."

Catherine crossed her arms as she stared at her husband. "You're not thinking about everything that could happen if we allow them to take off and spend the night together. You can't honestly believe that they're gonna drive up to Aztec and stay overnight without having sex."

"I think you've forgotten that we were their age once," John said as he straightened up and kissed her. "And we didn't have to drive several hours away to be together, did we?" He shook his head. "We managed to sneak around behind our parents' backs without ever leavin' the Rez. I'm not sayin' they're a couple of little angels, Catherine, but they're both creative enough to come up with ways to be together without drivin' five hours away to do it."

"You're not taking this seriously," Catherine complained, annoyed by her husband's lack of understanding in this situation.

John reached out to take her in his arms, hugging her close in an attempt to soothe her. "Honey, I understand where you're comin' from, but in this case I really think you're overreacting; he's chasin' a sighting, somethin' he's been doin' for a long time." He walked over to the doorway and turned to look at her. "I'm not makin' light of your concerns, but you know how focused he gets when he takes these trips."

"We know exactly what Eddie's told us about their trips; Michael doesn't say much of anything about them. All I know is that he's never once come back after one of these trips with any useful information; he comes back angry and hurt, and he won't talk about it, he just bottles it up." She could feel her heart breaking at the thought of yet another deception looming on the horizon. These trips never ended well and Michael always ended up getting hurt again.

She shook her head and made a waving motion with her left hand. "Go on or you're gonna be late for work." She sighed when John nodded and hurried away. He didn't understand, she fumed silently. She would just have to come up with some way to convince him that she was right and this trip was a mistake.

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Maria hurried home after school the next day, rushing to grab her things and throw them in the backseat of the car. She had been held up at school when one of her teachers had stopped her in the hall to discuss a recent assignment so now she was running late. Once she had locked the house up she stopped at the gas station to fill up before driving out of town. She was sure that her classes that day had been longer than usual and while that was expected due to her anticipation of the road trip, the day had seemed endless.

She had no idea what to expect from the road trip and she wondered if there was any validity to the sighting Michael wanted to investigate. His mother and sister had both warned her about how badly he reacted when one of his trips to investigate sightings ended in disappointment. Neither of them seemed to believe that his pursuit of information was going to lead to a discovery of the truth and they were both worried about the constant disappointments he had dealt with in the past.

At some point one of his leads had to have results. His very existence proved that aliens were real; he had been left on this planet so there had to be others like him somewhere. She didn't know what his expectations would be if he did find what he was looking for because they had never talked about it, but she knew it was important to him to find the answers to all of his questions.

She glanced at her watch and muttered a curse under her breath; thanks to her teacher and having to stop for gas she was running half an hour late. Michael hadn't asked her to be there at a specific time but she knew he would be expecting her to arrive earlier than she was going to be there.

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Michael ran through the front door and hurried to grab a clean set of clothes, glancing at the time on his way to the shower. He hadn't expected to have to squeeze a shower into his schedule, but because he was covered in grease from messing around under the hood of Linda's jeep when it wouldn't start, it was a necessity.

He rushed through his shower, his mind already busy running through the possibilities that could come from the sighting. What would he find at the ruins? he wondered as he dried off and got dressed. Was it possible after all this time that he would finally find the answers he was looking for? He was running the towel over his hair when the scent of watermelon caught his attention and he lowered the towel, glaring at it for several seconds before bringing it up to his nose and sniffing it suspiciously. Okay, Mom hasn't changed laundry detergents… His head lifted and he stared at his reflection in disbelief before turning back to the shower and snatching up the bottle of shampoo sitting on the shelf.

His eyes scanned over the familiar label of his preferred brand and he quickly uncapped the bottle and held it under his nose, sniffing it. He replaced the cap and jerked his shirt on before stalking through the house in search of the culprits, certain he knew who had replaced his normal shampoo with the fruity one now residing inside the bottle.

All five girls looked up when Michael stormed into the kitchen and slammed the bottle of shampoo down on the table between them. Their innocent expressions didn't fool him for a single second and he pointed at them accusingly.

"I assume there's a reason you want us to see your shampoo?"

"That is not mine," he snarled.

"No?" Maggie picked the plain bottle up, examining it closely. "Well, it looks like yours; I mean, it's certainly not anything I'd ever use."

"Yes, it looks like mine," he growled as he placed one hand on the back of her chair and the other on the table next to her, and leaned down so they were at eye level. "But it's not. If you think –" His attention was pulled away from his sister when the other girls leaned forward, making exaggerated sniffing sounds.

"Do you guys smell… what is that?" Summer leaned back slightly, pondering her question.

"I smell it," Christina concurred, nodding. "It's kinda… what's the word… fruity?"

"Hmmm, I think you guys are right," Maggie mused, leaning back to look at her brother. "That's watermelon, isn't it?" She glanced at the bottle in her hand again. "I didn't realize they made your shampoo with a watermelon scent."

"They don't." Michael straightened up and snatched the bottle out of her hand. "You were all in on this; I don't know which one of you actually did it, but you're all in trouble." He left the room, barely containing his anger when he heard Maggie and her cohorts laughing at him.

Back in his room he finished getting ready, fervently hoping that the shampoo's scent would quickly dissipate because he didn't have time for another shower. He grabbed the bag that he had packed the night before and unzipped it, shoving the notebook with all of the information from the newest sighting inside along with a map of the area. A quick glance at the clock let him know that Maria would be arriving any minute so he zipped the bag up and carried it out and dropped it on the porch swing.

He was pacing the porch restlessly ten minutes later, wondering where Maria was when the screen door opened behind him. He didn't have to look to know it was his mother; he had long ago learned to identify his family by the sound of their footsteps.

"I told you last night I didn't approve of this trip," Catherine said, letting the door shut as she stepped out onto the porch.

"I can't not go, Mom." He shook his head and stared into the distance, willing Maria to hurry up. "This could be the one, can't you understand that? The information has been verified by multiple groups; this could be – "

Catherine could see the excitement building as her son spoke of finding his answers, but she already knew how it would end… badly, as usual. "Michael, I understand what this means to you, but – "

"You don't understand, Mom!" He started to pace again, his agitation clearly visible. "I need to do this; I can't just know about it and ignore it."

Catherine responded by raising her voice, "And I can't ignore an overnight trip that involves you and your girlfriend." She shook her head. "You're not going, Michael. I told you last night that you were not taking this trip with Maria and I wasn't just talking to hear myself talk. I know you don't understand and you probably think that I'm being unfair, but one day you'll understand."

Michael sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm goin', Mom, and you can't stop me."

"Give me your keys."

He turned to stare at her. "What?"

"I told you, Michael, you're not going to Aztec." She held her right hand out. "I want your keys. Now."

"Fine." He pulled his keys out of his pocket and removed the truck keys from the ring. He placed the keys in her outstretched hand and shoved the remaining keys in his pocket. "I'm still goin'; I don't care if I've gotta hitchhike the entire way!"

Catherine turned when John joined them and she knew right away that he wasn't going to put his foot down in this matter; he intended to let Michael make the trip. She didn't know what to say or how to make either of them do what she wanted them to do.

"Catherine, we've got five girls underfoot that need help getting ready for the dance and I don't think I'm gonna be much help to 'em." He turned to look at their son when she muttered something under her breath and went back inside. "I know you need to chase this sighting, that you've got questions you need answers to, and that you're almost an adult, but that doesn't give you the right to be disrespectful to your mother." He shook his head and glanced up when he saw the little red car turning into their driveway. "Your mother's concerns – "

"I know Mom's worried that we're gonna have sex," Michael interrupted. "But if this was about us lookin' for a place to have sex we could've just done it at her house, Dad; Maria's mom has been outta town all week."

John smiled. That much was true; if that was what this was about and Maria's mother had been gone, they would've had more than enough time to have sex, and the trip would be the last thing on Michael's mind! "You're old enough to differentiate between right and wrong, and you've gotta do what's right for you, but you're smart enough to know that your mother's concerns don't exist only because Maria's goin' with you; that's a big part of it, but she's never been happy about you chasin' these things. You do what you need to do, Son, but think about what I said." He reached out to pat the younger man's shoulder before turning to go back inside. "You two be careful and don't get into trouble."

Michael grabbed his bag and hurried down the steps as soon as his father stepped back into the house. He stalked past Maria when she stepped out of the car, jerking the back door open and throwing his bag inside.

"I guess we're taking my car?" Maria asked when he slammed the door.

"Could you have been any later if you had tried?" he snarled as he reached out to take the keys from her. "I told you last night that this was important to me and you said you'd be here – "

"I told you I'd be here and I am here," Maria snapped, annoyed by his attitude and rude behavior. "I can't help it if I got sidetracked by a teacher and – "

"I don't have time for this," he interrupted. "Get in if you're goin'," he ordered as he slid in behind the wheel.

Maria stared at him for several short moments as she digested the fact that he obviously intended to drive and he was telling her what to do. She ran around the car and jerked the door open when he started the car and gunned the engine and she realized that he wasn't joking; he was leaving with or without her.