Title: Friendship of Strangers
Author: Sarah (aka sezza43)
Disclaimer: I do not own Roswell; it's characters, Charmed or Hockey. I do however own this fic.
Rating: PG-13 for some sexual references.
Pairing: Michael/Maria, Alex/Isabel with some minor Max/Liz
Spoilers: Anything before the episode 'Monsters' and some references to what happened in '285 south' and 'Independence day'.
Summary: After 'Monsters' some news causes Maria to take up residence in the Evans's household.
Author's note: I was inspired to write this after watching 'Monsters'. I wondered why the writers gave up on the Maria/Isabel friendship when clearly they had started one so I took matters into my own hands and this is what came out of it. It follows all the story lines up to 'Monsters' then goes off into the world we all like to call the AU. Anything after 'Monsters' can be disregarded and forgotten. Chapter 1 takes place directly after the scene at the school. Oh, one more thing, I'm not sure if there really is a Kumar's Hill in Roswell, I made it up.
Distribution: Candy is Dandy, Belit's site, Susan's site, Ally's site and Fanfiction.net. If anyone else wants it, all you have to do is ask.
Email: sezza43@hotmail.com
This is dedicated to those who wished to have seen Maria and Isabel build a stronger friendship in the showChapter One (Staying Over the Evans's)
"Do they not eat at home?" Maria asked when she saw Isabel, Max and Michael enter the Crashdown and take a seat at their regular booth, which also happened to be in her section. She looked at her friend with her best pout.
Liz laughed, shook her head and gave Maria a slight push in their direction. "No, it's your section, you take the order. Anyway, you have to become friends with them sometime."
Glaring at her, Maria huffed and headed towards the alien trio. She took her order pad from her apron and flipped it open to an empty page. "Welcome to the Crashdown, what can I get you?"
"Three cherry cokes and three burgers and fries thanks," Max said, giving her a huge smile.
Maria glanced at him after writing the order down and realised that the smile was not directed to her, but to over her shoulder towards Liz. She rolled her eyes and hid a smile. "I'll be right back with your drinks." With that she left the table and headed for the drink machine.
Michael watched her leave and shook his head. "She can't be trusted," he said, getting back to their earlier conversation. Since the incident with Valenti, the three had been talking about Maria and whether or not she was completely trustworthy.
"Yes she can Michael, after all, look at how she helped us today. If it wasn't for her lying we would probably be in the hands of the FBI right now." Max said, shifting his eyes away from Liz who was taking someone else's order.
Michael scowled at him. "If it wasn't for her being all nervous around the Sheriff we wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place." He crossed his arms over his chest and sat back, knowing that he had won the conversation.
Shaking his head, Max looked at his sister. "Little help?"
Isabel shrugged. "On some level I agree with Michael," Michael smiled at that and Isabel gave a half roll of her eyes before focusing on her fingernails. "I said on some level Michael, on the other I guess that she did help us and I don't know… maybe we should just give her a chance. She doesn't seem that bad."
"I still think we need to do something about it." Michael said, squaring his jaw.
Isabel stopped inspecting her manicure. "Like what? Kill her?" she said, referring to the earlier statement he had made at school.
Narrowing his eyes at the taller blonde, he gave her a look of annoyance. "No, not kill her, just shut her up or something. One of us must have the power to do that at least."
Before anyone else could comment, Maria came back with their drinks. She placed Max and Isabel's in front of them but before she could put the other down, someone grabbed her arm. The four teens looked up and saw the Sheriff looking at Maria with a frown. He took off his sunglasses. "Maria can I talk to you for a moment?" He glanced at the other three sitting in the booth then back at her. "In private please?"
Maria nodded and motioned toward the back room. "You can go wait in there, I just have to finish up here." He nodded and headed into the back room.
Maria placed Michael's drink in front of him and was about to walk off when Michael grabbed her arm tightly. "If you say one word to Valenti about us you'll regret it, do you understand?" he asked menacingly. Maria nodded, a little fearfully and ripped her arm out of his grasp before hurrying towards the back room.
Once she had disappeared though the door, Isabel turned and glared at Michael.
"What?" he asked with a shrug.
"You shouldn't have done that Michael, Max was right, she did help us today and the more you scare her, the more inclined she is to actually go to the Sheriff and spill our secret." She told him then took a sip of her drink. She swallowed with a grimace then grabbed the bottle of Tabasco sauce next to her. "I think she can be trusted."
Michael looked at her in confusion. "You were the one who wanted to put fear into her remember, you wanted her afraid of your shadow, Max's shadow, my shadow. What happened to that?"
Shrugging, Isabel swirled her now Tabasco laced drink with her straw. "I got to know her a little."
*~*~*~*
Jim gave Maria saddened look and told her to take a seat, which she did. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Maria, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but…" he paused, not knowing how to break the news to her. "…Maria your father's dead. He had a stroke a few hours ago in his home and was pronounced dead when the paramedics got to him."
Maria sat there in shock. Her father was dead. She didn't exactly know how to react to that bit of information. Even though he had not been around for ten years she had still known where he was but never contacted him. If he didn't want to talk to her then she didn't want to talk to him. Now she'd never have the chance to.
Pursing his lips together, Jim continued. "I contacted your mother. She said that she can't get away from the convention for another week but doesn't want you to stay at the house by yourself. She's worried that you might… that you might do something. I'm not sure. Is there anyone you can stay with? How about the Parkers?"
"No," Maria said in a quiet voice. "They're going away for a few days."
Nodding, Jim sighed and looked around the room. He saw that Maria's locker was open and there was a framed picture of her, Liz and Alex all posing for the shot. "What about the Whitman's?" Maria only shrugged while Jim stood. "I'll go and ring them from my car phone and see if you can stay with them until your mother gets back. Just stay here, okay?" Maria nodded mutely and he headed out the door.
Michael watched as the Sheriff walked out to his car, tossing the trio a stern look as he passed. "She told him," he said angrily. "I knew we should have done something. She needs to be dealt with." He stood and started to walk toward the door but Isabel stood in front of him, stopping him from taking another step.
"I'll go. If you go in there you'll only scare her more." Michael sighed and sat back in the booth while Isabel walked into the back room.
Pushing open the door slowly, she looked around and saw that Maria was sitting on the old rickety couch with her head in her hands. She appeared to be crying. Not really knowing what to do, Isabel walked over to her and sat down. "Maria?" she asked softly. "Maria, are you okay?"
Maria's head shot up and she rubbed at her eyes, ridding them of their wetness and then cursing for letting someone else see her cry, especially someone like Isabel. "I'm fine," she lied.
Isabel couldn't be fooled. "You're a bad liar Maria, tell me what happened. What did the Sheriff want?"
Tears started to once again flow down Maria's cheeks and she was powerless to stop them. "My--my father's dead," she hiccuped. "He had a--a stroke and died." She sniffed and rubbed at her temples willing the headache that was forming away. She always got a headache when she cried.
Isabel looked at the crying girl in front of her and didn't understand why she felt the need to comfort her. She wrapped her arms around Maria and brought her into a hug. "Shhh, it'll be alright." She continued to say soothing words to try to calm her until Jim walked back into the room.
"I couldn't get a hold of the Whitman's." He said and took a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe at his sweat-covered forehead. Isabel looked between the two and asked why they needed to get in contact with Alex. "Maria's mother is out of town and doesn't want Maria to stay by herself now that this has happened. Amy can't get back from Arizona for another week."
"She can stay with me." Jim looked at Isabel in shock while Maria looked at her with hesitancy. Isabel smiled. "Come on, it'll be fun and it'll give us a chance to get to know each other better." She saw Maria's continued hesitation and sighed. "Maria, you can't stay by yourself and this seems to be your only option."
Jim scratched the back of his head. "If you don't want to do that Maria you are welcome to stay with Kyle and myself."
Shaking her head, Maria sniffed again. "No, if it's okay with Isabel's parents then I'll stay with her."
Jim nodded and Isabel stood, taking her cell phone out of her pocket. She dialled her mother's number. "Hey Mom… yes, I'm fine… Mom you know the Deluca's, right?... Yeah her mom owns that shop… well Maria just found out that her father died and Mrs. Deluca is out of town for a week… no Mom, he didn't live with them, remember?... Yeah, they were divorced and now her Mom is gone and she doesn't want Maria to stay at her house all by herself so I was wondering… Okay I'll tell her… thanks Mom." She hung up the phone and smiled at Maria.
"My Mom said she demands that you stay with us," she said with a laugh. "So if it's okay with Liz, we can go over to your house now and get your things then go back to my place and get you all settled in."
Jim sat down next to Maria. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked softly. Withdrawn, she nodded and he sighed as he stood again. "Okay, well call me if you need anything Maria, and I mean it, I'm not just the Sheriff, I'm your mother's friend and yours."
"Thank you," Maria whispered. She was still in shock over everything. Not only had her estranged father just died, but Queen Isabel, known for her iciness had just offered her a place to stay.
Jim took that opportunity to leave, saying that he had some work at the office he needed to get done. When they were alone, Maria turned to Isabel with a look of confusion on her face. "Why are you helping me?"
"Honestly?" Isabel asked and Maria nodded. "I'm not quite sure really. I just felt the need to. I thought that maybe having you stay at my house might give us a chance to get to know each other better. It's stupid I know--"
Mari cut her off. "No it's not stupid, I think it's a good idea. Thanks," she said with a small smile. "You know, for everything."
As the door swung shut behind the Sheriff, Liz, Michael and Max came barrelling into the back room. Michael walked over and stood in front of Maria, making her feel very small. "What did you tell him?" he asked in a growl.
Standing, Isabel pushed Michael away from the small blonde. "What she and the Sheriff talked about had nothing to do with us so lay off her Michael."
Michael, not one to let things go, looked back at Maria. "So what did it have to do with?"
"I don't want to talk about it," she said quietly, hoping that Michael would just let it go. All she wanted to do right now was go home and crawl into a ball and cry. Cry for the father she never knew and would now never know. Unfortunately, she wasn't that lucky.
"Well I do, what did you two have to talk about? It was about us wasn't it? You told him our secret didn't you?" he yelled. He started to feel bad when he saw Maria flinch from his tone of voice but pushed that feeling down. He couldn't afford to have some human spill their secret.
Maria felt her blood boil as she stood up, causing Michael to take a step backwards. "You want to know what he wanted to tell me?" she ground out between clenched teeth. "He wanted to tell me that my father just died. Satisfied?" she asked, another tear dripping down her cheek.
"I'm sor--" Michael tried to apologise but Maria just pushed past him and ran into the bathroom. He slumped his shoulders and sat on the couch where Maria had been. If he had known that feeling guilty would be this bad he would never have said anything.
Isabel glared at her 'Brother' and whacked him over the head. "You idiot Michael, could you be any more insensitive?" She gave him a disgusted look before turning to Max. "Maria's mom is out of town and can't get back so Maria's going to say with us, I already discussed it with Mom. She said it was fine." Max nodded while Liz headed towards the bathroom.
She knocked on the door and said softly, "Maria babe? It's me, open the door."
The door swung open slowly and Maria stood in the opening. When Liz opened her arms Maria practically flew into them. "Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"
Maria started to nod but then stopped and shook her head. "I just… what am I supposed to feel Liz? Here I am crying over a man who didn't love me enough to stick around, but I'm still sad you know. I mean he was still my father."
"You have every right to feel sad. He was your father, sure he wasn't around but that doesn't change the fact that he was your Dad. You can cry if you want to," she said into Maria's hair.
Maria pulled out of her embrace. "Thanks Liz. I needed to hear that."
"No problem. So why are you staying with Isabel, you know you could have just asked me right?" Liz told her. She couldn't help but feel a little jealous that Maria was going to stay with Isabel who hadn't shown a single bit of friendliness to her since she found out their secret.
"Well your parents are going away aren't they?" she asked.
Liz shook her head. "No they cancelled at the last minute. You can stay with us if you want to, we'd love to have you."
"No," Maria declined. "I already said I would stay with the Evans's so I can't say no now. Anyway, you were the one who said I needed to get to know them sooner or later."
Liz nodded. She had said that hadn't she? "Okay fine, but you have to call me if you need anything okay? Even if it's 3 AM and you're in need of a girlie chat." Maria laughed and gave her friend another hug before they both headed back into the room.
Walking over to the two girls, Isabel put her hand on Maria's shoulder. "You okay?" she asked and Maria smiled, letting her know she was. Isabel turned to Liz. "Can she have the rest of the day off? We need to go to her house and pick up some things." Liz nodded and Maria grabbed her jacket and bag. She and Isabel then headed out into the café area.
Once the two girls were out of earshot and Liz was back doing her job, Michael turned to Max. "Do you think it's a good idea having her stay with you?"
Max glared at his best friend. "Man Michael, you really are that insensitive aren't you? How can you say that after hearing what happened?"
"Look, I'm sorry her father's dead but that doesn't mean we still shouldn't be wary of her, she's a loose canon." He walked over to the small window in the back room door and watched as Maria and Isabel drove off in Maria's little red Jetta.
"Don't worry, I'll keep my eye on her." Max assured him.
Michael sighed and turned back to face him. "Yeah well I'm going to stay a few nights anyway, just to make sure."
TBC…