- - - - -

The next morning Maria slowly crept downstairs and found Jim blissfully asleep on the couch. Smiling fondly she grabbed the near by blanket and carefully tucked him in. There were several empty beer cans on the glass coffee table. Hmm maybe Giles and him had a chat. That's nice, I hope they got on. Being as quiet as she could she carefully made her way to the small kitchen. Coffee pot brewing, she set doing what she came down to do. They will be so surprised. She happily thought to herself.

"Ungh." Kyle groaned and gradually opened his eyes. The sun was streaming through the window and he immediately panicked. Where was he? What was he doing there? But at last, yesterday's events all flooded back to him. He glanced over at Max and noiselessly got up. As he got to the stairwell a delicious smell wafted over to his nose. The smell was familiar, it reminded him of his mom when she was still with them. What was it? He cautiously tiptoed down the stairs, saw his dad asleep and sneaked past him to the kitchen. It was Maria, she was making pancakes! Oh happy day!

"It's about time sleepyhead! Go and wake the others, breakfast is nearly ready." Maria smiled as she flipped another golden brown, perfect, pancake. There were dozens already! Kyle grinned and bombed up the stairs.

The first room he came to was Tess and Liz's room. He quietly walked up to Tess' bed and sighed, looking down at her angelic face. She looked so beautiful when she was asleep; if possible even more than when she was awake! He brushed his hand across her face, her skin is so soft! He thought to himself and sighed again, blissfully watching her.

"Ahh Kyle, so the plot thickens." A voice said from beside him. Kyle jumped about half a mile in the air. It was Liz; she had a rather smug smile on her face. Kyle felt worried; Liz in power of a secret was never a good thing. "So you've fallen in love with Tess. How cute! Does she know?" Kyle was ready to deny everything but he knew it was no use.

"I don't think so. She probably doesn't feel the same way, thinks of me as a brother or something. Don't tell her! Please? It would mean so much to me if you didn't!" Kyle gave her the puppy dog eyes. Liz raised an eyebrow and watched Kyle squirm, then rolled her eyes and sighed,

"Fine! Fine! But I will have to ask her now how she feels about you, otherwise I'll just go insane. So, apart from peeping on Tess, why are you here?"

"Oh yeah, Maria's making breakfast. She told me to wake you guys."

"What about Tess?" Liz smiled again as Kyle faintly blushed.

"Just give her another five minutes, she looked really tired yesterday."

"Okay, let's wake the others." Liz bounded out of the door to wake Max; Kyle gave Tess a long look and again sighed as he followed Liz out of the door. When the door was shut, Tess cracked open an eye.

- - - - - - -

Kyle walked back to his room with Liz trailing after him. She spotted Max sleeping like a baby, with the happiest expression she had ever seen, spread across his face.

"Max? Max? Come on. Wake up. It's time to get up Max." Liz gently shook Max's shoulder. Max moaned and loudly mumbled

"Oh Liz! Yeah feels good! Faster! More!" Liz went a deep scarlet and started to impatiently shake Max. Her cheeks were burning; she looked like she just wanted to die right there. Kyle grinned.

"Wake up Max! Now!" Liz yelled into his ear, dreading the thought of any more mumbles coming out of him.

"Ugh what? What's wrong?" Max bolted awake to find a very red Liz and one doubled up, crying laughing Kyle. "What?" Max's hands went straight to his head to check his hair and smoothed it down. Just in case.

"Oh Liz! Harder! Faster!" Kyle mimicked and then went into another round of giggling. Max looked confused for a moment and just stared at Kyle blankly, then as his dream came rushing to him, very vividly, he went redder than Liz and covered his face with his hands. To ease their embarrassment Kyle changed the subject. "Come on, get dressed. Maria's made pancakes!" Max beamed as his stomach growled loudly. He was starving! Quickly, he rushed downstairs.

"Go on Liz, I'll wake the rest." Liz gave Kyle a brief smile and bounded out of the room after Max. Kyle walked into Maria and Isabel's room and gently shook Isabel awake. Isabel awoke with a lot more grace than her brother and when told about the pancakes a slightly disgusted expression came across her face.

"Ew! Greasy, sugary, pancakes? For breakfast? I think I'll just stick to fruit. You go though, I'll wake up Alex, Michael and Tess." Kyle was relieved to hear that, the idea of waking up Michael was completely unappealing. Kyle sent Isabel a grateful grin, kissed her cheek and then skidded out after Liz. Isabel shook her head and smiled at Kyle's antics.

She walked across the hall to Michael and Alex's room and smiled fondly at the sleeping guitar player. He's so adorable, she thought to herself. Softly, she roused him. His eyelids fluttered open and revealed his startling bright blue eyes, they seemed to pierce right through her and even though he was human, she swore he could read her entire soul with that gaze. She stood there, her mouth slightly open, falling deeper into Alex's eyes. Finally, with his eyes never leaving hers, he mumbled;

"Am I dead? For there is a beautiful angel standing over me, an angel with rays of the sun for hair and eyes as blue as the ocean's depths." Alex gave her a lopsided smile which made her insides quiver and melt. He then shyly whispered, while blushing, "good morning Isabel." Isabel noticed she had been staring and blushed with him. Quickly, she composed herself.

"Maria's made pancakes for breakfast and has told us to get up if we want some." Alex smiled brilliantly at the thought of breakfast and quickly jumped out of bed. Isabel pretended not to notice how incredibly toned and firm he looked, not to mention sexy…standing there in his boxers... "Kyle, Max and Liz are already downstairs. So you better go quickly if you want some."

"I'll go wake Tess." Alex said, realising there was either Tess or Michael to wake up and he really didn't like the idea of waking up one of the grumpiest guys he knew.

"Don't you think you should put some trousers on? Otherwise Tess may get a bit of a surprise, not to mention the wrong idea." Isabel laughed and winked at the now scarlet computer geek. Alex quickly ran to get his trousers as he realised that he was standing there, in his boxers, in front of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Unfortunately, Life seemed to have it in for him this morning as he tripped over the bed and landed on his face. Isabel chuckled again and Alex just wished the ground would swallow him up whole right there. He quickly got back up, shoved on his trousers and rushed off grinning to wake up Tess.

Isabel still laughing turned to Michael's bed and watched him sleep for a few minutes. He looked so sweet and vulnerable while he slept, like a lost little boy. Michael always brought out her mothering instincts. Though, he often complained of her always clucking around him like a mother hen. You could hardly believe the sleeping Michael and the Michael awake were the same person, they looked so different. Maria is so good for Michael, I'm glad he has her, she thought to herself. The message they had received from their mother came back into her head, it couldn't be right, she just didn't feel that way about Michael. He belonged with Maria. Nothing like that would ever happen, no matter what her kind says.

With that thought in her head, she shook Michael awake.

tbc....