...Liz looked up when Michael sat down at the table. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Michael nodded. He leaned in and whispered to the two girls opposite to him. "She's back! Maria's back…"

Going crazy

"What the hell are you talking about?" Max burst out when everybody had listened to Michael. "You don't joke about that," he said and wondered what the hell was wrong with his friend.

"Maxwell, this is not a joke. I just met her in the bathroom, she came to see me," Michael said excited.

"Michael," Isabel said and gently touched his arm. "Maria is dead. I'm sorry, but that is the truth. You can't have met her because she's not alive. I'm really sorry."

"I know what I saw and if you don't believe me then that's your loss," Michael said and removed his arm from Isabel's touch.

He turned to leave when Liz grabbed a hold of his arm. "Michael wait! It's not that they don't believe you, it's just that it sounds so unreal," she said and Max thought he could see some of Michael's hope reflect in her eyes. He just hoped she wouldn't be let down.

"Maybe if you just took us there and we could see with our own eyes, okay?" Tess said, speaking up for the first time.

"Yeah, I can do that," Michael said with a sparkle in his eyes that Max hadn't seen for years. He looked like a child on Christmas Eve.

So they all followed Michael out of the room, through the hallway and stopped when they reached the men's bathroom. "Maybe you should check so that there aren't any others in the bathroom?" Kyle said turned to Michael.

Without answering, Michael opened the door and looked inside. "Anybody here?" he yelled. When he got no answer he walked inside with the others right behind him.

Max grabbed a hold of Liz's hand and squeezed it hard.

He looked around the room for any sign of Maria. He couldn't see any.

"Maria?" Michael yelled out to the room. "Maria?"

Max started to feel really worried for his friend. He was acting crazy.

"Michael, man, she's not here," Alex said and put a hand on Michael's shoulder. "I'm sorry," Tess said.

Liz had tears in his eyes and Max felt his heart break. He knew Maria couldn't be alive, but the tiny hope he'd felt was now gone.

Liz took one last look around the room, before she ran out. Max turned to Michael. "Was that really necessary?" he said before going after his wife…

Liz ran and ran until she reached her and Max's car. She franticly searched for the keys in her small purse. When she got them, she unlocked the door with shaking fingers.

She got in the car and sat down in the driver's seat.

She threw her arms around the wheel and let the tears keep running down her face. Soon she heard someone join her in the car. She didn't have to look up to see that it was Max. She knew he would come after her.

"I just needed to get out of there," she mumbled.

"I understand," Max said. "Michael shouldn't have done that. He shouldn't have told you something like that. I think he's going crazy."

"It's not his fault," Liz said. "The only thing he's guilty of is missing her just like the rest of us." She looked up and turned to look at her husband.

"You can't blame him for that."

"I'm not blaming him for anything," Max explained. "I'm just worried about him. He isn't getting any better and it's been five years."

"I know," Liz said. "But today isn't a good day from missing-someone-you-love-perspective."

Max smiled a little. "I know. Being back here makes you think of her," he said.

"Exactly," Liz agreed. Max reached over and took her in his comforting arms. That was the only place she ever felt truly safe.

"Just hold me," she said and looked up at him.

"Only if you promise I'll never have to let go," Max said.

"Never…"

Michael felt tears welling up in his eyes. Where had Maria gone?

"She was here," he said to his friends that were still in the bathroom with him. "She told me she was here to help me move on. That she was a ghost."

His friends looked with pity at him. "Michael, maybe Alex and I should take you home to get some rest," Isabel said, sounding like she was his mother. Michael felt so small. He couldn't stand the tone in Isabel's voice that made him feel like that. They all thought he was crazy.

"You know I told her I was getting something to drink," he said, ignoring Isabel's comment. "I thought I should surprise her you know. She misses you so much. All of you."

"Michael, don't do this. You're only making it harder on yourself," Tess said.

"Come one, let's go," Isabel said and grabbed a hold of Michael's arm.

"Don't touch me!" Michael screamed and grasped out of her hold.

"You don't believe me and you all think I'm crazy, right?" he said, looking around at his friends. "Fine, I don't care. I don't need you to believe me, I know what I saw and that's all that matters."

Then he bolted out of the room, leaving four stunned friends behind…

TBC...     Please let me know what you think!