Intense


Disclaimer: I now state I do not own any of the people mentioned in this fan fic (though I'm welcome to offers Brendan and Jason!) This is purely for entertainment.

Rating: If you're old enough to watch the show you can read this.

Author's note: A Roswell Christmas Carol. Bonding at the Crashdown Christmas Day. And I know Alex wasn't in ARCC but I had to have him in there! So lets just say he returned for Christmas. OK?

"Uh huh! No way am I eating that!" Max grinned at an irate blonde who stood in front of the booth, hands on hips.
"And why not?" Maria demanded.
"Because I remember what happened last time you cooked for me."
At the blank stares he met, he explained.
"During the summer, she came over so we could mope together. Ow!"
"I did not mope."
Max grinned again.
"To cheer me up she decided to make me cupcakes. First of all she nearly blew up the kitchen. Then spilt a tub of mayonnaise. I took one bite of yjr cake and had to spit it out."
"Why?" Tess asked.
"Because she'd already iced it with Tabasco, made the cake mixture with Tabasco and put a Tabasco filling into the middle."
"Yeah, well you're meant to love the stuff!"
"We do but that's just too much, even for us."
Michael and Liz each picked up a cupcake and examined in closely.
"It doesn't look so bad." Liz said, trying to placate her friend.
"Smells OK." Michael added.
Both looked doubtfully at each other.
"Ladies first."
Liz grimaced.
"No…age before beauty."
"I'm technically younger than you."
"But if you add your life on your home."
"That doesn't count. We weren't who we are now."
"But you were cloned."
"But a clone wouldn't have the same life as the cloned person."
"But you would essentially be the same person just reborn."
"Hah! Its be proven that clones would be born as babies not as fully grown adults. The social climate in which they grow would affect how they behave. So Michael should be a soldier boy who's very impulsive and follows his heart most of the time except when he wants to defend his people….maybe not such a good example but you get the point." Tess interrupted.
Seven heads swivelled towards her at once.
"What? I do read you know."
Kyle guffawed.
"Yeah you're a regular bookworm. Not at all a blonde bimbo." He said sarcastically.
Liz, Michael, Alex and Max giggled.
"Blondes on both sides and one behind you. Sure you wanna say that?" Isabel challenged.
Opening his mouth to protest he found it gagged by a cupcake.
His eyes widened.
"God that's good!" he said, jaw dropped.
"You might wanna try chewing with your mouth closed Valenti." Alex said in disgust.
Soon the whole table was munching Maria's cupcakes.
"I didn't know you could cook. These are fantastic." Michael praised after swallowing.
Maria smiled and moved from standing behind Kyle to sitting in Michael's lap.
"Thank you."
His arms visibly tightened around her waist.
Alex coughed then coughed again, thinking nobody would hear.
~cough~ "Whipped!" ~cough~.
Michael glared and Max nodded in agreement.
"Well I like it so there."
Maria stuck her tongue out at the two offending boys.
"And you can talk, Mr I-Hired-A-Marachi-Band-And-Sung-To-My-Ex!" Isabel chimed in.
"I'm never gonna live that down."
"As long as Isabel Evans and Maria DeLuca are around you're never gonna get a chance to forget."
Tess stared into space looking thoughtful.
"What's up?" Kyle questioned.
"I've just realised. I've been her for what - 9 months and I still no basically nothing about what life was like before I came here."
"Tess we already told you what happened on Buffy." Maria chirped.
"Huh? Oh hi Mrs. Parker." Isabel smiled.
"Want anymore Christmas cake kids? I think Jeff and Phillip have left a little bit!"
All shook their heads. Except for Kyle.
"Sure. I'll have some. Gotta keep all the bulk up!"
"Yeah, you're just wasting away!" Tess quipped, rolling her eyes and slapping his stomach lightly.
"Are you calling me fat?"
"Moi? Call you fat? No!"
She giggled.
"No, you are. You are calling me fat. I'll have you know I am in prime condition."
"Not as fine as Max." Liz murmured dreamily.
Isabel rolled her eyes as Liz blushed.
"Here we go again."
"Anyway…as I was saying." Tess continued when Mrs. Parker had delivered a particularly large slab to the table. "I still don't know how you all got so close."
"I got shot." Liz said bluntly.
"She means how you all bonded so well." Kyle clarified.
"Well there was the first of many times Michael Guerin scared me."
Michael looked up at Maria with wide eyes.
"You were scared of me?"
"At first. When I had to pretend to be healed…I was so scared you were just gonna stop my heart so I wouldn't expose you. And then you kept staring at Liz and me like we were public enemy number one. But when you kidnapped me…."
"He kidnapped you?" Tess squeaked.
"Oh yeah. He conned me into giving him a lift to the Lift Off then tried to steal my car. When he realised I wasn't going anywhere he took me along too."
Liz smiled fondly at the memory.
"I remember when you rang me secretly so I could listen to what was being said in the car. That was before he threw the phone out of the window. Isabel, Max and me had to chase them in the jeep when we heard that the road was cut off. Then Isabel spotted the Jetta outside this really seedy motel."
Isabel took up the story.
"So we walked along this really dirty corridor and open the door. And what do we see? Maria sprawled on top of Michael both looking as guilty as hell. I swear too god I've never seen Maria blush so much."
"Then Maria got all indignant that we could possibly think they were up to something. He called her honey or something then she started hitting him! Then just when we started to explain everything, Kyle…"
Max stopped as Kyle continued.
"Burst in. Michael threw me across the room. I tried to take Liz home with me but she basically told me to get lost."
"Then we all drove to Atherton's house and found the pendent that led to River Dog, who saved Michael when he was sick."
"OK. So now I know how you and Michael got together and how Max and Liz got together. What about Alex and Isabel?"
Alex shifted uncomfortably.
"I kinda had a crush on her."
"Kinda had a crush on her? Pah! You worshipped her!" Maria laughed.
Alex blushed and ducked his head.
"Yeah, well…"
"Leave him alone. I thought he was adorable. He gave his blood to Max when he was in hospital even though he had no idea that we were aliens."
Maria laughed.
"He was convinced me and Liz had gone off the deep end."
"Well you two all off a sudden were hanging out with Max and Michael all the time and I thought they were leading you astray."
"Us? Alex, Alex, Alex." Michael chuckled, shaking his head.
"Hey, I saw you drag Maria into the eraser room during the heatwave more than once. How was I supposed to know that you were making out not shooting up?"
Isabel laughed.
"All you had to do was walk past. I think the moans would have clued you in."
It was now Maria's turn to blush.
"You still haven't told me how you two got together."
"I'd say the first real time was when we went stargazing in the woods. It was so pretty."
"And then she avoided me until one morning she turned up and ordered me to kiss her."
"Sounds like Isabel to me." Liz laughed.
"Hey do you remember the time me and Max got drunk?"
"Hey, you got me drunk Valenti."
"I didn't know you were an alien!"
"He was blushing for weeks afterward." Isabel reminisced.
Suddenly they all looked at Max who was trying to not crack up laughing.
"What?"
"You know even though we've spent a lot of time running from the FBI and evil aliens… we still manage to have a pretty normal life."
First Maria started to laugh.
"Normal. Never thought we'd use that word to describe our lives."
Soon the whole table had joined in.

"Look at them. I haven't seem them all look so happy in a long time." Jeff Parker said, gesturing towards the group of teens in the back booth.
"I know. Whenever I see them they all look so furtive." Diane Evans agreed.
"And they do tend to go missing for days at a time." Amy DeLuca chimed in.
"Its nice to seem behaving like proper friends again." Mr Whitman smiled.
"Anyone would think they're normally on the run from the FBI!" Mr Evans scoffed.
The table of parents laughed loudly.
Sheriff Valenti laughed along with them, all the while thanking God that he had been blessed with the knowledge he had.