"Maria," she heard someone yell, a familiar voice that she hadn't heard in months.
"Michael?" she asked search frantically through the desert for her friend.
She spotted him hiding by an outcrop of rocks not too far away. She ran to him ready to embrace him. That's when she heard the soft footsteps in the sand behind her. She spun around to see who it was and found herself confronted with one of the men from the FBI Secret Unit. She heard the gun before she saw it and by the time she realized what was happening she was too late…
*5 Years Ago *
Maria didn't know what to say. She had seen the blood, the girl, Liz, she had just been shot. Now she was standing in front of her as if nothing had happened, there was no wound, no blood, not even a hole in her uniform, or blood stains, nothing! She looked at the boy. What was he, how could he heal her? Maria thought she was going to faint. She was shocked and frightened and at the same time excited, was he like her? Was it possible that whatever he was she was too? The other boy from the booth ran over to the boy whole had just healed the girl and whispered something in his ear. They both turned and looked at Maria. She felt like she was being examined under a microscope. She cautiously bent down and picked up her bag and trying to distract them threw her Alien Encounter on the floor and ran out the door.
***
"Isabel, stop her," Michael yelled as Maria ran for the door.
Isabel went to go after her when she saw the cops pull up and Sheriff Valenti pulled open the door cause the startled girl to slam into him. "I'm sorry Miss but you won't be able to leave just yet. We have to talk to you before you can go, get a statement from all the witnesses."
"Please I didn't see anything, just let me go," she cried frightened. She refused to look at the group of people standing behind the counter whispering quietly to each other.
"Don't worry, it will just take a few minutes, we have to look around first, make sure nobody was hurt. Are you okay? You seem like you're in shock. Isabel, why don't you take this young lady in the back and have her lay down for a while."
"No, keep her away from me," she whispered in a hushed voice, "please, I'm fine just keep them away from me," she said motioning to the group who still stood behind the counter.
***
Maria was scared, they were different and she didn't know how to react to that, now she understood how people must have felt when she did strange things like changing the color of things or making her hair grow long again. It was different, weird. She looked at the Sheriff and he was sharing a knowing look with the group behind the counter. 'He knows, whatever they are or that they have special powers, he knows all about it. Maybe he can help me understand what I am too,' she thought.
"Excuse me, Sheriff, as soon as you're done looking around, I would like to be the first one to talk to you, and I would like to do it in private."
"I can have my deputy take care of looking around. Why don't we go in the back and talk."
Maria nodded and followed him behind the counter and towards the back. "Why don't you go on back and make yourself comfortable and I'll be right there to talk to you."
"Okay," Maria said and disappeared into the back room.
***
"She saw," Michael said, "She saw Max help Liz."
"Don't worry, I'll talk to her, everything will be fine."
"I hope so," Isabel said as Valenti pushed through the door to the back.
Maria had sat down on the couch and appeared much calmer than she had been before. "Okay Miss, I'll need your name and address first of all."
"I'm Maria Deluca and I'm currently homeless, I just got to Roswell today and was hoping to find an apartment within the week."
"Have you checked into a motel where we might be able to locate you if we need to question you further?"
"No, but if you need to talk to me I'll give you my cell number, its always on."
"That sounds good, what is it?"
"555-4382"
"Okay, now Miss Deluca, what is it that you saw out there?"
"Where would you like me to start?"
"We'll say about 5 minutes before the shooting."
"Ok, I came in here to have some lunch since I was hungry from the bus ride. I sat down at the counter and the waitress, Liz, the who got shot…"
"Nobody got shot, she just fell and hit her head."
"No, she got shot in the stomach, I saw it."
"No, did you see her, she was fine."
"That's because the boy healed her. I saw it."
"Healed her?"
"You know, I know you know. There's something about them, something that makes them different. I know because…I'm different too."
He looked at her. He didn't know what to say. The girl ran her hand through her hair and it became longer and turned a light brown color. "Please…what am I?"