Maria paced around the rooftop of the Crashdown Café. Where was Liz? It was about thirty minutes until dawn and she hadn't seen Liz since she had left class. Something had gone wrong. If Max had done anything to hurt Liz! Stamping her foot and clenching her fists, Maria growled and then resumed pacing. If only she had brought that lavender oil with her. She really needed something soothing right now. Not to mention tomorrow night, when her parents would kill her. She was supposed to be babysitting her little brother and after a multitude of persuasion, black mail, and bribery, Maria had finally managed to get Alex to fill in for her. He wouldn't be too happy tomorrow either. All his questions about the Crashdown incident had gone unanswered and her rushing off to see if Liz was ok did not help her claims that everything was fine. For once, she wished that she had an easy excuse like the human girls. Need a guy to go away, just mention tampons or periods. But no, the gargoyle females only cycled once every twenty years. Maria couldn't even just say that Liz was having cramps. She had to make up some lame excuse about a stressful paper that Alex knew didn't exist. This was straining their friendship to the breaking point and Liz was not helping.
Then, there was the hassle she had to go through with Liz's human parents. The clan system for gargoyles had slowly passed away in Roswell and usually human and gargoyle families lived together. All of Roswell was essentially one big clan now, subdivided into families and groups. When Liz's gargoyle parents died while protecting innocents at a bank robbery, the Ortecho's took her in as their own daughter. Sadly, tragedy always seems to strike in threes and Rosa Ortecho overdosed a year later. Now, the Ortecho's were really over protective of Liz and this whole gun shot thing wasn't helping any. She was surprised that they even let her come to school tonight. And now Liz has disappeared and Maria has to make excuses to everyone. Liz owed her big time. Where the hell was she, anyway? Maria spun at the fluttering of wings and opened her mouth to begin her verbal assault, but choked back on her words when she saw Liz.
"Oh my God! Liz, what happened? You look awful."
Liz sniffled and collapsed on the edge of the roof. Maria grabbed her as she swayed dizzily.
"Liz, you're so pale. Have you eaten anything?"
"Not since breakfast. Oh Maria, I just needed some time to myself. It's just that Max…"
"What did he do to you? If he did anything to harm you, so help me…"
"No, Maria, he didn't do anything. We just talked, but, God you're going to think I'm crazy."
"It can't be that bad."
"He's a fairy."
"He's gay?"
"No, he's a fae, a sprite, an elf, an imp, well half way anyway. You know? Like in A Midsummer's Night Dream?"
Wow, it finally happened. Liz went off the deep end. All those years of trying to be prefect must have taken their toll.
"Liz? Are you even listening to yourself right now?"
"I know it sounds crazy, but he changed right in front of me. He morphed into a human! How else could he do that? And the hand print. He is fae."
"Oh man, Liz. We have to tell someone. This is dangerous. He might come and hurt you now."
"Maria! He saved my life and told me the truth. Why would he hurt me now? If he didn't care, he would have just left me to die."
"But he's not a gargoyle. How can you trust him? He might turn you into a frog or something."
"Do you know how stupid that sounds? And, anyway, he said he'd never hurt me."
"Well, then, we at least have to tell Alex. He's our friend and he needs to know. He's ready to kill me because I wouldn't tell him where you were or about last night. I can't keep lying to him and we may need his help later."
"No. We can't tell anyone else. You already know too much. Max trusted me and I'm not going to betray him anymore than I have already."
Maria shifted her weight worriedly. Why couldn't Liz see the danger here? Instead of looking scared, she looked ashamed. This wasn't right. Max could be dangerous. If he had kept such a big thing as this a secret from everyone, then how did she know that he was really who he acted to be? Suddenly, Liz cradled her head in her hands and half laughed, half sobbed.
"What's the matter?"
"Oh, nothing, Maria. I just met some wonderful guy who saved my life and trusted me with his biggest secret ever, and what do I do? Instead of thanking him or saying that I understand, I run away and treat him like a monster. I wouldn't blame him right now if he came and turned me into a toad."
With that, the sun rose and froze the two seated girls in stone slumber.
Author's note: This is it for now. If anyone is really interested in me continuing this, please let me know by leaving a comment in the little box beneath this box. I'm having difficulties with the next scene and would love some input about what you think so far. At this point, I can't decide whether to have the next part from Isabel's viewpoint or Michael's. Once I figure this out, the next parts will be up lickety split.