Title: Miles to Go
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe
Summary: Two years after they fled from Roswell after Alex's death, Maria and Liz are brought back together on the road of life. They know that they can't be complete until they find their answers, and they know that they have miles to go before they will be able to rest again.
Author's Note: Hello everyone. Well, this is a new kind of thing for me. I've always wanted to do a "what if" story. For instance, what if Maria and Liz left after Alex's death, leaving behind Roswell and their pasts. Anyway, I hope you like this. The next chapter will explain the questions left up in the air by this chapter. This is just a short introductory, just something to get the story going. Enjoy! And please, please review.
Miles to Go
The rain beat down steadily on the tin roof as I sat in the silence of my seclusion. I stared out into the dark grey room, looking around at my surroundings, remembering where I had been just a short two years before. Our lives had changed so much since those days, those were my happiness. Whenever I longed for a time when life was simple, I remember them. The way Max's eyes used to stare into mine, Michael's cold stare when he thought through his options, the way Isabel's laugh used to break through the cold ice that encased our relations toward the end of our stay. The three, the ones I had to leave behind, the ones WE had to leave behind.
Things had changed toward the end. When Tess arrived, the three grew distant from us, and we knew we had to escape Roswell and everything there that held our once happiness. When our spirit died along with Alex's presence, we knew that Roswell would never be home for us again.
So we fled. We fled far and fast, leaving the past behind along with the ones who had taken his past. With her by my side, I knew I would be alright, I knew the sun would keep shining, I knew the days would keep coming in their ever constant rhythm of comfort and grace. We went to wonderful places, places where we could start over again and places where we would never have to remember them, never see their faces every time we turned the corner.
It grew too much for her. She would shrink away from my concern, she began to think of me as one of them again, she began to believe that I was one who took him away. As much as I told her that I would never hurt her, she couldn't believe anything anymore. They had taken him away, they had taken away a piece of our past and never been able to own up to their defeats. And for that, I would lose her as well. I woke up one morning to find her gone from her room; she'd left me alone again.
I heard the knock on the door, its noise rising just above that of the rain, and my eyes drew toward it. Who could be there? No one had come since she had left, the morning I found her room empty was the day time stood still. I'd gone about my life, but nothing had been the same in the year that she had been away from me.
I raised myself from the chair and took tentative steps toward the door. Without another thought, I opened it quickly. There she was, standing sad and alone on the doorstep in the pouring rain. Her eyes raised to look at me, and I saw the sadness present in them. Her mascara ran helplessly down her cheeks and her skin was pale and gaunt, hanging from her face, she hadn't eaten in days.
Her clothes were old and worn, saturated through and through from the rain and the sins and memories that sheathed her soul. She looked at me, her mouth opening slightly, her lips forming the shape of my name, but no noise escaping her. Her eyes were dark from the things she had seen since she'd left my side. I held out my hand toward her, and slowly she reached out her thin fingers and wrapped them around mine, taking a step closer, and embracing me, her tears soaking through my collar, her sobs echoing through the small house.
Her hair was dyed a jet black, covering up everything I remembered of her, but the blond roots still peaked out, telling me that this was in fact my best friend. She was here again, she'd come back just as I'd always hoped she would. Maria. . . she'd come home again.
The poem: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost featured in Roswell Season 2, Cry Your Name
Whose woods these are I think I know
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year
He gave his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
