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The Prodigal
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"Alex," her voice was nothing more than a harsh whisper when she finally forced it to cooperate with her brain. Clearing her throat, she reached out and placed her hands on either side of his head, turning it so that she could look into his eyes and block his view of the restaurant.
A desperate need to not scare Maria back into oblivion crested in her and she realized she'd never thought to ask Alex whether he was angry with their missing friend. They had, after all, been a group: the three musketeers, the three caballeros. The three of them had been best friends, collaborators, confidants, inseparable. When Maria left and destroyed that, shockwaves of confusion, pain, and disbelief had jostled the bond that had remained.
She watched the waitress approach the booth and was relieved to see that Maria was still focused on the little girl in front of her. If Maria would just keep her attention diverted long enough for Liz to discover Alex's feelings, she knew she'd have proof that there was indeed someone on her side somewhere in the great beyond.
"What would you do if Maria did walk in? You asked me if I was angry with her but what about you?"
"Liz, you're crazy, it's not going to happen." Alex tried to swat her hands away but she refused to let go until she had an answer. "You've been cooped up in that lab for too long."
"But if she did?"
Alex paused and thought for a moment. What would he do if, by some miraculous twist of fate, Maria came waltzing back home to Roswell? "If she did... I'd probably hug her and not want to let go, maybe be tempted to smack her for worrying us all to death, but I'd just be glad to know she was alive and well. I'd be too relieved to be angry, I could never stay mad at her anyway."
Liz nodded thoughtfully, pleased with his response. "Good."
"Why are you asking, we both know it isn't going to happen."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that. Look." She turned his head toward the booth.
Alex noticed that someone was occupying their booth, two someones who looked deceivingly like a split image of Maria, one younger and one older, until the younger version snatched up the bottle of Tabasco and grinned broadly. Maria would never have been that effervescently pleased to see Tabasco sauce, even as the zany little girl he remembered from his childhood.
Again Maria spoke, "Okay munchkin, do you think you could at least pretend to wait until the food comes before you start in on the Tabasco? I was just wondering, little one." The lilting tones of her voice drifted to the cash register where neither Liz nor Alex could decide quite what to do.
"I've been expecting this to happen ever since that night in December... but I never truly thought it would." Alex murmured.
"Uh huh, I know," Liz's voice was harsh and whisper-soft. "But the little girl. Did you know?"
Alex raised his hands in a sign of surrender. "It's news to me too, Parker."
Liz wanted to race across the restaurant and throw her arms around Maria, yell at her for staying away for so long, and beg her not to leave again. She wanted to do a lot of things; the question was would her legs cooperate. At last her will power won the battle with her stupefaction and she slowly crossed the distance between them.
"Hello." The little girl even sounded like her mother had, and her smile was engagingly warm.
Now that she was closer, Liz realized that her initial assessment of the girl's eyes was correct; it was almost as if Michael was sitting there staring back at her, a much happier, jovial Michael.
She raised her hand to bid the child a silent hello as Maria turned to see who had approached, her body tense and eyes filled with trepidation.
"I've missed you." No beating around the bush, she decided, just cut to the chase and go on from there. Liz was surprised her voice sounded so steady and calm when inside she was shaking like a leaf on a windy autumn day.
"Me too," Maria's tongue was balking at her attempt at speech and her mouth was suddenly bone dry, "both of you." She let her eyes drink in the sight of the two people who had known her best. The ones she couldn't bring herself to face so many years before.
"This is stupid," Liz declared just before she dropped onto the bench next to her friend and threw her arms around her.
Maria clung to Liz as she looked over the other woman's shoulder to see Alex grinning at her like a much taller version of Alice's Cheshire cat. Tears glistened in her eyes as she whispered the words she'd longed to tell them, "I'm sorry, so sorry."
"Hey," Liz pulled back from the frantic embrace and gently wiped the tears from Maria's cheeks. "You've come back to us now, nothing else matters."
"Are you going to let me say hello to her too, or am I going to have to fight you for the chance to hug our prodigal girl here?" Alex's attempt to feign irritation brought a smile to Maria's face as she playfully pushed Liz out of the booth and propelled herself into his arms.
"I can't even tell you how much I've wanted this," she murmured, her voice still choked with tears.
Liz returned to the bench, unsure that her legs would continue to support her in the given situation. She couldn't keep the broad smile from her face, an in fact, didn't want to.
"Everyone's getting hugs but me."
All three of them turned to observe the child who looked expectantly at her mother's friends. When Mickey figured it was going to be left for her to remedy the situation, she climbed beneath the table and popped up in Liz's lap to wrap her small arms around the woman she only recognized as a stranger her mother knew. It didn't matter; if Mommy was getting hugs then she should get hugs too.
Liz was shocked at the child's actions but embraced her just the same. She had definitely inherited some of her mother's spunk. "My name's Liz," she said into the child's silken hair. "And that man over there is Alex. We're old friends of you mother."
"Well, now that you know our names, why don't you tell us yours?" Alex refused to let go of the grip he had on Maria's waist fearing she would again disappear if he did.
The child stood up on the bench next to Liz, stretching her petite frame as tall as she could and curtsied daintily before answering. "I am Michal Elizabeth Guerin. But you can call me Mickey, just like Mommy does. It is a pleasure to meet you."
Maria shook her head in amusement as Liz raised her eyebrows at the display. "It's all those videos she watches, it's gotta be. She didn't get it from me, that's for sure. I'm not exactly what you'd call the curtsying type."
Mickey's attention was drawn away from her mother's friends by the arrival of the waitress with her lunch. Slipping back under the table, she regained her seat and cheerfully twisted the cap off the Tabasco.
Liz watched as the girl poured a liberal amount of the sauce on her french fries and then proceeded to pop them into her mouth one after another. After watching her devour the first few, she returned her attention to Maria. "Michal Elizabeth?"
"Yeah," Maria sighed and leaned her head against Alex's shoulder, "I figured that way I'd always have you and Michael with me, even if you weren't really with me. God, it's good to be back."
"Well Mickey, there are a few more people that I know would love to meet you when you're finished with your lunch," Liz told the busy little girl. "And you'll probably even get a few more hugs while you're at it."
"Cool," she mumbled around a mouthful of Tabasco sauce laced with deep-fried potatoes.
"You wait here while I go get 'em, they're just upstairs." Liz hopped up from her seat but stopped when Maria caught her arm.
"Do you think that's such a wise idea, Lizzie? It has been a long time, I don't want to cause any trouble."
"The only trouble would be if you tried to avoid them. You'll see, it'll be okay." Liz extracted her arm from Maria's grip and bounded into the back of the restaurant.
In Liz's absence, the empty bench beckoned and Alex drew Maria onto it with him. Smiling almost giddily, he nudged her, saying, "I'd start in on all the questions now but I know Liz would just repeat then when she gets back."
"I don't know how many answers I'll have for you."
"S'okay. We won't pressure you for 'em."
They were silent, watching Mickey finish off her food and lick the remnants of Tabasco from her delicate fingers. Basking in the knowledge that their group was once again whole, at least for a while, Maria leaned against her friend. They had changed, who could stay the same for seven years, but the bond that had been so special to their friendship had remarkably remained intact.
"I thought about writing you both, I really did..." her voice faded tremulously as tears threatened to spill down her cheeks again.
"Hey, like I said, no pressure." Alex drew his hand across her shoulder, massaging away the tension her found there.
Havoc prevailed when the Parkers descended from their home. Maria was sure Mr. Parker was trying to suffocate her while Liz's mother sat down next to Mickey and embraced the happy child. Liz had obviously relayed her promise to the child of more hugs to come.
After a reunion that was lacked any pointed questions or open discussion of the past, Liz's parents practically shoved the trio of old friends out of the restaurant so that they would be able to talk somewhere other than in the middle of a busy diner.
The elder Parkers had decided that their daughter and her friends needed privacy to talk. They would find out what was going on later, maybe even discover how Maria, their 'surrogate' daughter, had managed to have a child and survive on her own for so long.
Maria hesitated when they suggested the outing. The only times she'd left Mickey were when she had to go to work and even then she'd grilled the sitter ad nauseum before she was comfortable with it. Now that the little one was in school, she found her worries were multiplied. It wasn't that she didn't trust Mr. And Mrs., Parker, it was almost as if she didn't trust herself, trust that her judgment of others was sound.
"Go, you need to talk and you won't be able to do that here or with this little girl tagging along," Mrs. Parker had insisted, resting her hands on Mickey's shoulders. "Besides, I miss having a little one around, it'll be good practice for when I have grandchildren."
"Mommy, I wanna stay here," Mickey had stated before pulling her mother down to her level for a goodbye kiss and hug. "She said that they have a whole bunch of dolls upstairs!" The whispered declaration ended the discussion and Maria was shoved out the door.
"Be good!"
"I will, Mommy. I'm always good."
"Yeah, right. In your twisted little world you are, monster," Maria chuckled.
"Come on," Alex said as they approached the parking lot, "Liz and I were going to head out to the quarry. How's that sound for a private location?"
"The quarry. Sure, why not." Maria ducked into the front seat of Alex's car, slipping into the seat belt and taking a deep breath for reassurance. Where were all of her soothing oil essences when she really needed them...
The Prodigal
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"Alex," her voice was nothing more than a harsh whisper when she finally forced it to cooperate with her brain. Clearing her throat, she reached out and placed her hands on either side of his head, turning it so that she could look into his eyes and block his view of the restaurant.
A desperate need to not scare Maria back into oblivion crested in her and she realized she'd never thought to ask Alex whether he was angry with their missing friend. They had, after all, been a group: the three musketeers, the three caballeros. The three of them had been best friends, collaborators, confidants, inseparable. When Maria left and destroyed that, shockwaves of confusion, pain, and disbelief had jostled the bond that had remained.
She watched the waitress approach the booth and was relieved to see that Maria was still focused on the little girl in front of her. If Maria would just keep her attention diverted long enough for Liz to discover Alex's feelings, she knew she'd have proof that there was indeed someone on her side somewhere in the great beyond.
"What would you do if Maria did walk in? You asked me if I was angry with her but what about you?"
"Liz, you're crazy, it's not going to happen." Alex tried to swat her hands away but she refused to let go until she had an answer. "You've been cooped up in that lab for too long."
"But if she did?"
Alex paused and thought for a moment. What would he do if, by some miraculous twist of fate, Maria came waltzing back home to Roswell? "If she did... I'd probably hug her and not want to let go, maybe be tempted to smack her for worrying us all to death, but I'd just be glad to know she was alive and well. I'd be too relieved to be angry, I could never stay mad at her anyway."
Liz nodded thoughtfully, pleased with his response. "Good."
"Why are you asking, we both know it isn't going to happen."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that. Look." She turned his head toward the booth.
Alex noticed that someone was occupying their booth, two someones who looked deceivingly like a split image of Maria, one younger and one older, until the younger version snatched up the bottle of Tabasco and grinned broadly. Maria would never have been that effervescently pleased to see Tabasco sauce, even as the zany little girl he remembered from his childhood.
Again Maria spoke, "Okay munchkin, do you think you could at least pretend to wait until the food comes before you start in on the Tabasco? I was just wondering, little one." The lilting tones of her voice drifted to the cash register where neither Liz nor Alex could decide quite what to do.
"I've been expecting this to happen ever since that night in December... but I never truly thought it would." Alex murmured.
"Uh huh, I know," Liz's voice was harsh and whisper-soft. "But the little girl. Did you know?"
Alex raised his hands in a sign of surrender. "It's news to me too, Parker."
Liz wanted to race across the restaurant and throw her arms around Maria, yell at her for staying away for so long, and beg her not to leave again. She wanted to do a lot of things; the question was would her legs cooperate. At last her will power won the battle with her stupefaction and she slowly crossed the distance between them.
"Hello." The little girl even sounded like her mother had, and her smile was engagingly warm.
Now that she was closer, Liz realized that her initial assessment of the girl's eyes was correct; it was almost as if Michael was sitting there staring back at her, a much happier, jovial Michael.
She raised her hand to bid the child a silent hello as Maria turned to see who had approached, her body tense and eyes filled with trepidation.
"I've missed you." No beating around the bush, she decided, just cut to the chase and go on from there. Liz was surprised her voice sounded so steady and calm when inside she was shaking like a leaf on a windy autumn day.
"Me too," Maria's tongue was balking at her attempt at speech and her mouth was suddenly bone dry, "both of you." She let her eyes drink in the sight of the two people who had known her best. The ones she couldn't bring herself to face so many years before.
"This is stupid," Liz declared just before she dropped onto the bench next to her friend and threw her arms around her.
Maria clung to Liz as she looked over the other woman's shoulder to see Alex grinning at her like a much taller version of Alice's Cheshire cat. Tears glistened in her eyes as she whispered the words she'd longed to tell them, "I'm sorry, so sorry."
"Hey," Liz pulled back from the frantic embrace and gently wiped the tears from Maria's cheeks. "You've come back to us now, nothing else matters."
"Are you going to let me say hello to her too, or am I going to have to fight you for the chance to hug our prodigal girl here?" Alex's attempt to feign irritation brought a smile to Maria's face as she playfully pushed Liz out of the booth and propelled herself into his arms.
"I can't even tell you how much I've wanted this," she murmured, her voice still choked with tears.
Liz returned to the bench, unsure that her legs would continue to support her in the given situation. She couldn't keep the broad smile from her face, an in fact, didn't want to.
"Everyone's getting hugs but me."
All three of them turned to observe the child who looked expectantly at her mother's friends. When Mickey figured it was going to be left for her to remedy the situation, she climbed beneath the table and popped up in Liz's lap to wrap her small arms around the woman she only recognized as a stranger her mother knew. It didn't matter; if Mommy was getting hugs then she should get hugs too.
Liz was shocked at the child's actions but embraced her just the same. She had definitely inherited some of her mother's spunk. "My name's Liz," she said into the child's silken hair. "And that man over there is Alex. We're old friends of you mother."
"Well, now that you know our names, why don't you tell us yours?" Alex refused to let go of the grip he had on Maria's waist fearing she would again disappear if he did.
The child stood up on the bench next to Liz, stretching her petite frame as tall as she could and curtsied daintily before answering. "I am Michal Elizabeth Guerin. But you can call me Mickey, just like Mommy does. It is a pleasure to meet you."
Maria shook her head in amusement as Liz raised her eyebrows at the display. "It's all those videos she watches, it's gotta be. She didn't get it from me, that's for sure. I'm not exactly what you'd call the curtsying type."
Mickey's attention was drawn away from her mother's friends by the arrival of the waitress with her lunch. Slipping back under the table, she regained her seat and cheerfully twisted the cap off the Tabasco.
Liz watched as the girl poured a liberal amount of the sauce on her french fries and then proceeded to pop them into her mouth one after another. After watching her devour the first few, she returned her attention to Maria. "Michal Elizabeth?"
"Yeah," Maria sighed and leaned her head against Alex's shoulder, "I figured that way I'd always have you and Michael with me, even if you weren't really with me. God, it's good to be back."
"Well Mickey, there are a few more people that I know would love to meet you when you're finished with your lunch," Liz told the busy little girl. "And you'll probably even get a few more hugs while you're at it."
"Cool," she mumbled around a mouthful of Tabasco sauce laced with deep-fried potatoes.
"You wait here while I go get 'em, they're just upstairs." Liz hopped up from her seat but stopped when Maria caught her arm.
"Do you think that's such a wise idea, Lizzie? It has been a long time, I don't want to cause any trouble."
"The only trouble would be if you tried to avoid them. You'll see, it'll be okay." Liz extracted her arm from Maria's grip and bounded into the back of the restaurant.
In Liz's absence, the empty bench beckoned and Alex drew Maria onto it with him. Smiling almost giddily, he nudged her, saying, "I'd start in on all the questions now but I know Liz would just repeat then when she gets back."
"I don't know how many answers I'll have for you."
"S'okay. We won't pressure you for 'em."
They were silent, watching Mickey finish off her food and lick the remnants of Tabasco from her delicate fingers. Basking in the knowledge that their group was once again whole, at least for a while, Maria leaned against her friend. They had changed, who could stay the same for seven years, but the bond that had been so special to their friendship had remarkably remained intact.
"I thought about writing you both, I really did..." her voice faded tremulously as tears threatened to spill down her cheeks again.
"Hey, like I said, no pressure." Alex drew his hand across her shoulder, massaging away the tension her found there.
Havoc prevailed when the Parkers descended from their home. Maria was sure Mr. Parker was trying to suffocate her while Liz's mother sat down next to Mickey and embraced the happy child. Liz had obviously relayed her promise to the child of more hugs to come.
After a reunion that was lacked any pointed questions or open discussion of the past, Liz's parents practically shoved the trio of old friends out of the restaurant so that they would be able to talk somewhere other than in the middle of a busy diner.
The elder Parkers had decided that their daughter and her friends needed privacy to talk. They would find out what was going on later, maybe even discover how Maria, their 'surrogate' daughter, had managed to have a child and survive on her own for so long.
Maria hesitated when they suggested the outing. The only times she'd left Mickey were when she had to go to work and even then she'd grilled the sitter ad nauseum before she was comfortable with it. Now that the little one was in school, she found her worries were multiplied. It wasn't that she didn't trust Mr. And Mrs., Parker, it was almost as if she didn't trust herself, trust that her judgment of others was sound.
"Go, you need to talk and you won't be able to do that here or with this little girl tagging along," Mrs. Parker had insisted, resting her hands on Mickey's shoulders. "Besides, I miss having a little one around, it'll be good practice for when I have grandchildren."
"Mommy, I wanna stay here," Mickey had stated before pulling her mother down to her level for a goodbye kiss and hug. "She said that they have a whole bunch of dolls upstairs!" The whispered declaration ended the discussion and Maria was shoved out the door.
"Be good!"
"I will, Mommy. I'm always good."
"Yeah, right. In your twisted little world you are, monster," Maria chuckled.
"Come on," Alex said as they approached the parking lot, "Liz and I were going to head out to the quarry. How's that sound for a private location?"
"The quarry. Sure, why not." Maria ducked into the front seat of Alex's car, slipping into the seat belt and taking a deep breath for reassurance. Where were all of her soothing oil essences when she really needed them...