I own neither the story nor the characters of Roswell.


3:00 PM – Tonopah, Nevada

If you wanted to rob a restaurant in Nye County... well, this wouldn't have been the right one. There were three Nye County Sheriff's office vehicles and two New Mexico State Patrol cars parked outside, and the five officers were having coffee at their usual table. All five were socializing... it got lonely in a solo patrol car in the vast empty expanse of Nye County, but for Deputy Sheriff Michael Walker it wasn't just the fellowship. He was also watching the young waitress out of the corner of his eye. No, he hadn't found the right APB yet, but he was most of the way through the California ones.

'If she'd have only looked me straight in the eye, even once, I wouldn't have been sure,' he told himself. But she hadn't... she hadn't looked any of them in the eye, no doubt afraid her face would give away that she was a fugitive... but it had anyway. Not to the other four, but it had to him. He sipped his coffee slowly, listening to the State Patrol officer tell about his daughter's first day at school. Hard for him to really imagine that someday his three month old would go to school... or be sixteen or seventeen... like that waitress. Only Deputy Sheriff Michael Walker was pretty sure, his little Alissa Sarah would never be on the run like the young waitress almost certainly was.

Arnie was a good-hearted soul and like many cooks, he really enjoyed watching people enjoy the food he prepared for them. But by the same token, he kind of got vexed when someone did something to their food like slathering too much mustard on it, that ruined the taste. As he watched her pull another cold French fry out of the to-go bag he shook his head.

"Beth," he told her, "you'd enjoy it a lot more if you took time from whatever you were doing to eat the French fries and burger while they were still warm."

She watched as he turned back to the grill. The flush was just fading from her cheeks from the activities of an hour ago. Now she flushed just a little more as she shook her head softly and thought to herself,
'Arnie, you have no idea how enjoyable it can be letting French fries cool.'

The flush gradually faded from her face and, elsewhere, the silver iridescence gradually faded as well.