"I still can't believe that you of all people Michael, gave up the chance to go home," Max said in wonder.
Earlier that week, Tess had managed to translate the book and found out how to use the Granolith. They decided that this morning would be when they left and had everything ready but by the time they were in the Granolith with seven minutes to spare, Michael had announced that he couldn't leave. That he had to stay and try to find Maria. Maria was his home, not a planet out there that sent them to Earth all those years ago.
Once he had declared that he was staying, it didn't take long for Tess to follow. She said that she wanted to stay on Earth because it was her home, Kyle was her home and she wanted to stay. He remembered turning towards Isabel who had a look of indecision on her face then finally decided to stay. She had met a man named Jesse Ramirez and had fallen in love. She didn't want to leave him. Max had felt relief when she said that. He was only going to leave if she left but now that she wasn't, he was free to stay and be with Liz. So all had vacated the chamber and watched as it soared into the sky.
"Yeah, why did you stay anyway?" Alex asked snidely and Laurie shot him a warning look.
A few months ago Michael had found out that Laurie's Grandfather was the human that he had gotten his DNA from, making them family, and Laurie decided that since she now had family that she didn't want to leave him so she moved from Arizona to New Mexico to be with him where she met Alex and instantly fell in love. Michael had not been happy about it and tried to break them up by telling Laurie about Maria and it worked until Alex told Laurie the truth. She was the only one besides him to know and just told Michael that she didn't care if Alex had a child with another woman. That she'd be with him anyway. Michael was pissed but there was nothing much he could do really so he learned to deal. But Alex was still not welcome in their apartment.
"I have my reasons," Michael snapped back and Laurie turned her glare to him.
"Could you two please stop your pissing contest for like five minutes? It's rather annoying," she said and Tess seconded her. The two had become great friends when Laurie had moved to Roswell. Tess still missed Maria greatly but it helped that she had Laurie to talk to and was thankful that Laurie wasn't too fond of Liz or Isabel.
"Hey do you have those photo's that Maria sent?" Laurie asked her boyfriend. Maria sent them new photographs every six months and just sent Alex new ones.
Alex nodded. "Yeah the little tyke is almost a year and a half old. He's gotten so big," he gushed as the girls took a peek at the pictures.
"I need to go to the bathroom," Michael announced as he vacated the table. Still to this day he couldn't bring himself to even look at a photo. He didn't know what the kid looked like and wasn't sure that he wanted to know. Every time he saw it he'd remember that Maria had slept with Alex. But he knew that he'd have to eventually get over it when he went to get Maria and bring her back home. He almost had the money to do it too, just a few more months and he'd be set. He'd have enough for the return flight for him, Maria and the kid as well as enough money to stay for a few days.
He returned to hear Liz comment on one of the photos. "He really is beautiful Alex, doesn't look like you though," she said, handing him the photo back. Since Maria had left, Liz and Isabel had tried to restore what had been lost that day when Maria made her announcement. They both knew that they should have been more supportive and less bitchy but neither could bring themselves to ring and apologise. They felt so bad at the things they had said to her and would rather live hoping that Maria had forgiven them then having Maria tell them that she didn't.
"Yeah she's right," Jesse added. He found out about them being aliens when he saw Isabel fix a broken glass with a wave of her hand one day at her house. He was a little freaked when he found out but now that he had time to come to terms with it all, he was okay with it. He loved Isabel for who, not what, she was.
Alex shrugged. "He looks more like Maria, so what?" he said taking the photos back, hoping that no one would bring up the fact that Brendan looked like Michael.
"Didn't mean anything by it Alex; he has Maria's eyes that's for sure," she said and Isabel, Tess and Laurie agreed.
"It's fine. Hey what's the time?" he asked Laurie who glanced at her watch.
"5:00 pm why?"
Alex got out of his seat and walked over to the phone. "I got to call Maria, I can't remember what time it is over there so I'm hoping it's not to late…or early." He picked up the phone and dialled. "Hey Aunt Kayla…yeah I'm good, is Maria there…What do you mean she's gone…what…no she didn't…okay I'll talk to you soon," he said before hanging up. "That's weird.
"What is?" Tess asked, intrigued by his side of the conversation.
"Apparently Maria's left," he said with a shrug. "She left this morning and hopped on a plane. Aunt Kayla said that Maria told her that I already knew."
"So she's not in France anymore?" Michael asked worriedly. If she wasn't in France then where in the hell was she and how was he to find her?
Alex shook his head. "Nope, god damn it where is she?" he yelled, getting frustrated. "She should have f-ucking told me."
"Sorry Alex, it was a spur of the moment type of thing."
Everyone turned and gasped at the sight of Maria Deluca standing in the doorway. No one had heard the door chime when she entered. Tess stood and rushed over to the blond, hugging the life out of her. "Ease up there Tess I need to breathe," she laughed and Tess loosened her hold.
"What happened to staying in France, huh?" Tess asked teasingly but before Maria could answer she was bombarded with hugs from Kyle.
"Hello to you too Buddha Boy."
Kyle let go of her and spied the baby capsule lying next to her legs. "Is that him?" he asked kneeling onto the ground. Maria nodded and bent down to gather her baby in her arms. "Can I hold him?" Maria smiled and placed Brendan in his arms carefully.
"Support his head," she said and watched as the smile Kyle wore grew.
"Maria?" Alex asked with his hands on his hips. Maria turned to look at him with an apologetic face.
"Sorry I didn't call Alex but by the time I left it would have been too early to call here and I thought that I'd get here before your weekly call." She walked up to him and gave him a hug and Alex sighed, hugging her back. "I'm sorry," she mumbled in the crook of his neck.
Alex nodded and rubbed her back. "It's okay, just don't do it again okay?" Maria gave a nod before pulling out of his arms and looking around the café. It hadn't changed much in the two years she had been in France. She turned and came face to face with Michael.
Michael felt as though he'd had the wind knocked out of him. Seeing her at the door, he thought that it was a figment of his imagination but then she spoke her beautiful, angelic voice. She was really here, right here in the Crashdown. He couldn't believe it. She had changed so much since he'd seen her last. Her hair was longer, just past her shoulders and coloured brown with a slight curl to it. She had more curves too; she wasn't as skinny as she had been before. Her body had filled out and it filled out well. Her breasts were also bigger he noticed but figured that it must have had something to do with having a kid. He'd read that somewhere, that woman's breasts grew bigger during pregnancy. She looked perfect, like a goddess.
Before she could open her mouth, Brendan started to cry. "Oh god, what do I do? Maria?" Kyle yelled. "Maria how do I turn it off?" he asked frantically.
Maria laughed as she took Brendan off him and held him to her chest while patting his back to calm him down. "First of all Kyle, you can't just turn him off and secondly he's just not used to being around strangers." Brendan soon started to calm down but had grabbed at Maria's top for dear life.
"So what are you doing back?" Tess asked as they all took a seat.
"I… umm…need to talk to you later okay?" she said nervously and Tess looked at her through questioning eyes but decided to wait until later to ask why. She then noticed Maria look strangely at Jesse and Laurie.
"Oh sorry babe, this is Jesse, he and Isabel are dating. He knows about the whole alien thing so it's cool," Maria nodded, a little confused, but figured that Tess would fill her in later. "And this is Laurie, Alex's girlfriend."
"Now I've heard of you," Maria said with a smile while Alex blushed. "Alex has told me so much about you."
Laurie raised an eyebrow and looked at Alex. "Oh have you now?" she returned her gaze at Maria. "And what exactly has he been saying?"
Maria laughed and switched Brendan to lie on the other side of her chest. "Only good things I promise." Laurie smiled, happy with the answer and kissed Alex on the cheek. Maria turned towards Tess. "Can I talk to you in the back for a moment?" she asked and Tess nodded while standing.
"You want me to watch Bren?" Alex asked.
Maria shook her head. "No ahh…I'll be fine." Alex nodded slowly but with his eyes told her they'd talk about why she was really back later. She nodded and headed after Tess. She could hear the others discuss reasons as to why she was back but had other things to worry about.
"So what did you want to talk about?" Tess went and sat on the couch in the back room corner.
Maria took a deep breath. "Okay, what I'm about to tell you may shock you but--" Tess interrupted her before she could go on.
"But Brendan isn't Alex's, he's Michael's." Maria's eyes widened and she nodded, wondering how Tess had worked it out. Tess sighed. "Kyle and I had suspicions about it the first time you sent photos but it wasn't until the second lot when we knew. Why didn't you tell us before?"
Maria shrugged. "You saw how Michael reacted when he initially thought Brendan was his and Alex was only trying to protect me and in order to stop Michael from ever finding out well…we just decided to keep it to ourselves. As far as I know only my Mom, Alex, Laurie and now you know."
"Laurie?" Tess asked, a little hurt that a girl Maria had never even met knew but she didn't.
"I didn't tell Laurie, Alex did. He said that if he didn't then Laurie would have broken up with him so I let him tell her. Tess I am so sorry but we thought it was best. Forgive me?" she pouted, knowing that Tess couldn't resist.
Tess tried to look away but resistance was futile. "Fine you're forgiven but no more secrets okay?" Maria nodded. "Good, so why are we in here?" Out of nowhere, Brendan suddenly awoke and shot out a green coloured blast at the couch that Tess had been sitting on causing Tess to scream and duck out of the way.
"That's why," Maria said with a sigh. "My baby has developed powers and I need you to help me either get rid of them… or control them in some way."
TBC…