They drove back to Roswell in exhausted silence. No one was up to playing any more road games or even talking much beyond the occasional request for a pit stop or answering the trilling of a cell phone.

Maria kept up an inner battle to stay awake as she stared out the window, leaning slightly against Michael and drawing what warmth she could from him. The rain had left her cold and wet and her teeth chattered slightly, causing Michael to sling his arm around her shoulders and pull her closer to him. Between the warmth that radiated from his body and the gentle rocking motion of the jeep, she lost her silent battle and was asleep in bare minutes.

The scream that tore from her throat surprised everyone in the jeep, as well as Tess who had been talking to Liz thanks to Maria and Isabel's borrowed cell phones and echoed the terrified sound in Alex's car due to her own shock. Jerking the vehicle off the road and onto the dusty shoulder, Max spun around in his seat to face Maria.

Michael was struggling to hold onto her as she fought his grip, his ears still ringing with her cry. "Maria! Maria, wake up!" He shook her in an attempt to bring her from the dream.

Her eyes snapped open and tears streamed down her cheeks unchecked. Twisting in Michael's embrace, she buried her face in the crook of his neck, breathing in the reassuringly familiar scent of his rain-dampened skin and trying to steady her breathing. She remained clinging to him even as the jeep became surrounded by worried friends from the other car.

"What happened?" Alex asked, peering into the back seat.

Liz shrugged, her voice brimming with concern, "I don't know, she was asleep and then all of a sudden she was screaming." She was as much at a loss as the rest of them, watching anxiously as Michael gently rocked Maria, holding her tightly against his chest.

"It's the dreams."

All eyes focused on Isabel. She simply watched Michael continue to soothe Maria, pointedly ignoring the questioning looks.

"Isabel," Max studied his sister, "what are you talking about?"

"I'm not sure."

~~~

They crowded around the booth; they'd been back in Roswell for half an hour already and everyone was more than ready for some kind of an explanation.

"How do you know about Maria's dreams, Isabel?" Max watched his sister closely, trying very hard to believe that she had not been using her dreamwalking activities as a recreational activity again but finding it increasingly difficult to do so.

She glared back at him. After a lifetime on Earth of living in the same house with him, and if the message they had received in the pod chamber was to be believed, a whole other lifetime spent as his sister as well, she knew without a doubt what he was thinking. "As surprising as it may sound, I have no desire to see what it is Maria dreams about. Seeing Michael in a tux was enough to last me a lifetime. I really don't want to know what fills her dreams now that they're actually together." Isabel shuddered, meeting Max's gaze evenly.

"Then how did you know?"

Isabel glanced across to where Maria sat between Liz and Michael. She would have taken exception to the question but for the empty, plaintive note in her friend's voice. She shook her head slowly. "I've been having these weird dreams lately, really weird dreams. When you woke up screaming, I just figured you were having bad dreams too. It doesn't take a rocket scientist," she turned a pointed glare on her brother, "or dreamwalking to figure that one out."

Maria accepted the simple explanation. It would, at the very least, explain why both of them had been at each other's throats all weekend. If neither of them was sleeping well it was no wonder that their almost diametrically opposed personalities were grating against one another so much more than usual.

Liz leaned forward. "Maybe if we compared the dreams you've been having we could figure out what was going on."

Isabel opened her mouth, unsure of how to begin, but was stopped by Maria's desperate denial. Intrigued, she focused solely on the upset teen.

Maria clamped her mouth shut again. Her generally overwhelming quirkiness could only go so far when it came to explaining her actions. She wouldn't be able to keep their questions at bay for very long if she just shouted 'no' every time the dreams were mentioned. She already had Max's curiosity piqued from foolishly allowing herself to fall asleep in the funhouse; she didn't need anyone else to jump on his little bandwagon of well-intentioned determination.

"Um, what I mean is, let's not talk about them here."

Max nodded slowly. "Okay, how about if we go to our house?" He glanced at his sister to see her shaking her head. "Why not, Is?"

"Look, these dreams are weird enough without trying to talk about them with Mom and Dad in the next room."

"My apartment in one hour. No parents, no surveillance equipment, just us," Michael said, his blunt statement leaving no room for dissention. He slid out of the booth and reached out to take Maria's hand in a rare gesture of affectionate possession. "Come on, you can help me pick out snacks at the grocery store, all I've got at home is Tabasco and sour milk."

Those left behind watched the pair as they left the diner.

"I guess those dreams aren't the only thing that's weird these days," Alex commented, curious at Michael's actions.

~~~

Maria and Michael walked up to his apartment half an hour before the rest of their friends were due to arrive. Lugging in the few bags of groceries they'd brought from the store, Michael flipped the tiny black and white TV on and sat down at the counter. Maria set her bag on the kitchen floor and leaned heavily against the refrigerator, relishing its cool surface against her heated skin.

"I'm tired," she said, partly to see if Michael even remembered that she was there.

"You should lie down. Bed's made... clean sheets even. Changed 'em before we left." He gestured vaguely in the direction of the bedroom.

Maria eyed the doorway. She was so exhausted she thought she could probably fall asleep standing up, but the thought of the dreams returning was too much of a deterrent. "Nah, everyone'll be here pretty soon anyway. I'll just make some coffee."

She rummaged through the bag she'd carried in, looking for the can of coffee she'd added to their snack run. If Michael had thought her selection was odd, he hadn't said anything about it at the time.

"Suit yourself."

tbc…