Many of the characters within this story, and the universe they inhabit, are the intellectual property of Jason Katims Productions.
Roswell: Re-Imagined
Written by Horatio Jaxx
Chapter 26: Slip of the Lip
It was a quarter past three in the afternoon when Michael climbed back over the barbwire fencing and returned to the Volkswagen Jetta. Maria was in the car sleeping behind the wheel when he arrived. The sound of Michael unlocking and then opening the passenger door startled her awake. He quickly slipped into the passenger seat and closed the door behind him. His face displayed a look of dissatisfaction. It was obvious to Maria that his foray onto the White Sands Missile Range did not turn out as he had hoped. Michael stared straight ahead as if he was contemplating something.
"Did you find your spaceship?" Maria questioned snidely after a few seconds of examination.
Michael's only reaction was to show annoyance with the question as he met her stare with a turn of his head. Moments later he extended the car key to her.
"Here, drive," Michael instructed dryly.
Maria promptly took the key and started the car. A few seconds later she had the vehicle turned about and moving down the road the way they came.
"So, I take it things didn't turn out the way you planned," Maria pried gently.
"It wasn't the right rock formation, alright?" Michael grumbled back.
"So, we wasted all this time for nothing?" Maria quipped as she drove.
"Just be quiet and drive," Michael snarled back at her.
Maria was amused by Michael's foul mood. She elected to drive along quietly as she enjoyed her contentment. The silence continued up until the moment that Maria took an early exit off the highway nearly an hour later.
"Where are you going?" Michael questioned with a stern look.
"I'm hungry," Maria answered with a do you mind expression.
"Eat when you get home," Michael ordered gruffly. "Get back on the highway."
"I'm not eating when I get home," Maria countered sneeringly. "I'm hungry now."
Maria continued to steer towards a fast-food restaurant called Flaming Burgers. Michael could see that there was no deterring her from this decision. He chose instead to cross his arms and fret about the amount of control his willful traveling companion had over his life at present. Nearly a minute later, Maria parked the car in the lot adjacent to the restaurant and stepped out of vehicle through the driver's side doorway. When she looked back, Michael was still sitting in the car with his arms crossed and his attention straight ahead.
"Aren't you coming?" Maria questioned with a puzzled look on her face.
"No, hurry up," Michael hollered back at her.
"You can't just sit in the car," Maria insisted.
"Yes, I can," Michael rifled back. "Now go and stuff your face and get it over with."
"Michael, you've got to be hungry," Maria argued with a frown. "You've been running around in the desert for more than two hours."
"Will you just go and eat already," Michael yelled at her.
"No," Maria hollered back. "Not until you tell me why you're sitting alone out here."
Michael gave Maria a sharp look of irritation before responding to her remark two seconds later.
"I don't have any money, okay?" Michael spouted with an exasperated expression. "I put all my money into the gas tank."
Maria took a moment to transition her demeanor from confused to disbelief.
"All hell, you're worse than a baby," Maria complained sarcastically. "Come on!" She continued after a shake of her head.
"I'm fine," Michael insisted with an inflection of defiance.
Maria crossed her arms and took a stubborn stance as she argued back at him.
"No, you're not. You're probably starving after all that running. Now come on, I'm buying."
Michael gave Maria a few seconds of defiance before jumping out of the car and slamming the door behind him.
"I'll pay you back," Michael insisted with a huff.
"Sure, you will," Maria cynically replied as she walked towards the entrance of the restaurant.
Michael quickly stopped in reaction to that remark. Maria stopped two steps ahead and turned about to see Michael angry and hurt. She shortly modified her behavior in response to his.
"Okay, you can pay me back," Maria agreed with a nod and a much softer tone.
Michael started walking again and Maria turned about to match his stride. Inside the restaurant, at the order window, they said as little as possible to each other, conveying only as much information as necessary to navigate through the situation. They took their food back to a booth by the window and began to sulk in silence while they ate. The restaurant had only half a dozen customers scattered about a large dining area and there was no one nearby to hear their conversation. Still, they said nothing for all of five minutes. At the end of that time, Maria spoke up simply to fill the quiet between them.
"You know you could at least say thank you," Maria advised critically.
"I said I would pay you back," Michael responded in a complaining voice.
"Paying me back is not a thank you," Maria scolded.
"Why do you have to make an issue out of everything?" Michael challenged in an argumentative tone.
"I don't make issues out of everything," Maria retorted vehemently.
"You have to complain about everything," Michael continued without regard for Maria's retort.
"I don't complain about everything, and I don't think you know me well enough to say that," Maria defended angrily.
"Oh, I know you plenty well enough," Michael rifled back. "You can't enjoy the moment. You have to find fault in everything."
"Oh, excuse me," Maria responded with over-the-top astonishment. "I didn't know this was a date. I thought I was being an extremely good sport for someone who's been kidnapped."
"See, there you go again," Michael retaliated with exaggerated disbelief. "I told you to get out of the car. You wouldn't listen."
By this time, everyone in the restaurant was noting their angry discourse with glances their way.
"You were taking my car!" Maria responded with a look of shock.
"You're so irritating," Michael bellowed with exasperation as he sat back in his seat.
"I'm irritating?" Maria questioned with incredulity. "Mister you're the king of irritating."
"Really," Michael responded as he leaned forward with a look of shock. "What have I ever done to irritate you?"
"Oh please," Maria countered with an astounded look. "You tormented me all through fourth grade."
"Fourth grade?" Michael questioned with a, what are you talking about look. "I was nine years old."
"You sat behind me in fourth grade" Maria began to explain with a, don't you remember look. "You used to kick my chair and toss little bits of paper into my hair and poke me with your pencil."
"You wouldn't shut up," Michael answered back with a shrug. "You were always talking with other girl … Becky."
"She was my friend," Maria sharply countered. "And what did it matter to you?"
"You wouldn't shut up!" Michael insisted in a stronger voice.
"You're insane," Maria huffed with exasperation.
"You know what, I'm out here," Michael declared in a definitive tone as he got up from his seat.
Michael stormed out of the restaurant, to the notice of all within. He walked across the parking lot and got back into the passenger seat of the Jetta. A few minutes later Maria followed him back to the car at a slower pace and with an infuriated expression. She stopped just outside of the driver's side door and took a few seconds to calm herself down. She then opened the car door and slid into her seat. Michael ignored her as she settled into her car. Maria put the key in the ignition and was just about to start the car when she stopped. She then turned to Michael with a scowl on her face and asked the question that had been seething in her thoughts for the past few minutes.
"If you were so mad at me for talking, why didn't you ever pester Becky?" Maria questioned heatedly. "She was talking just as much as me."
"Maybe I didn't want to pester Becky," Michael defended in an annoyed tone without returning Maria's gaze.
"So, there was just something wrong about me then?" Maria questioned in a vexed tone.
Michael gave no response to this as he continued to avoid Maria's gaze.
"What was it?" Maria continued after a pause. "You didn't like my voice. You didn't like my hair?
Michael continued to ignore Maria by staring straight ahead.
"What was it?" Maria demanded at the volume of a yell.
"Maybe I just wanted you to talk to me," Michael hollered back with a sudden turn of his head to meet her gaze.
Maria was taken aback by this statement. She paused to give Michael a wide-eyed look of surprise before responding to it.
"Is that it?" She exclaimed.
A little embarrassed by this partial confession, Michael looked away before answering Maria's inquiry under his breath.
"Don't let it go to your head," he tossed out with a shrug. "I was nine. Nine-years-old have terrible judgment."
Maria took immediate offense to this reply and countered it with a quick and sharp response.
"I had great judgment. I knew better than to talk to you."
"You see," Michael abruptly spoke up angrily with a toss of his hand and a glare towards Maria. "You can't even take a compliment without getting all worked up."
"You call that a compliment," Maria raged back at Michael with a scowl.
"Yeah!" Michael insisted furiously.
"You wouldn't recognize a compliment embossed on a Hallmark card," Maria roared back.
Michael and Maria took a moment after that remark to glare at each other with their passions seething. At the end of that time, they did the last thing that either of them expected. Michael reached out suddenly, grasped Maria about her head and pulled her into a kiss. Almost in that same moment, Maria tossed herself at Michael as she reached out and grabbed him about his waste and shoulder. They clenched together into a powerful embrace as they kissed. Ten seconds later they adjusted their position, their arms searching and reaching for new locations to better squeeze the other into their embrace. Their passion and their lust for one-another was their driving motivation. Reason and any awareness of their surroundings were gone. They tangled and re-tangled about each other again and again. Pausing only for brief seconds to reconfigure their connection and to exhale air out and gulp air in. Their craving for each other was seemingly at a fever pitch. Michael's arms found their way around Maria's waste and shoulders. He began pulling her towards him into the passenger seat. While still kissing and re-kissing Michael about his lips, Maria crawled out of her seat and onto his. On her knees in the passenger seat, Maria's legs straddled Michael as she faced him head on. Their kisses suddenly turned to caresses as their lips found each other's necks, shoulders and ears. Moans of pleasure and passion were the closest thing to a discourse between them. Michael's hands began exploring Maria's body. She began unbuttoning his shirt to better access his chest. Michael's hands reached up beneath Maria's blouse to caress her skin. He began to squirm and moan in reaction to his expanding ardor. Maria writhed atop him in response to his enthusiasm. More than a minute later, the frantic love-play suddenly stop, and they collapsed into one-another's embrace, seemingly spent. The tight confines of the Jetta awakened them to the limitations of their desires. They sat there for several seconds and did nothing but pant away their exhaustion. At the end of that time, Maria pushed herself off Michael and slid back beneath the steering wheel. They briefly looked at one-another with mixtures of embarrassment, surprise and longing. Maria then started the car, put it into gear and drove off for Roswell. They said nothing to each other for the remainder of the trip.
They came to a stop in front of the Evans' home, per Michael's instruction. He wanted to tell Max and Isabel what he did not discover. He and Maria exchanged looks inside the car. In the absence of any parting words from Michael, Maria spouted a parting remark.
"Yeah, you too …"
It was a quarter to four when Michael stepped out of the car. He promptly closed the door behind him, and Maria drove off with equal rapidity. Michael then started up the walkway towards the house. He was intercepted by Isabel halfway up the front walk. She came storming out the front door a second after Maria drove off.
"Michael, what were you thinking?" Isabel questioned with a stunned inflection.
"I had to see it," Michael exclaimed. "And I didn't want to wait for you and Max."
Isabel calmed down a little bit after hearing that. She spoke up again after a moment of pause.
"Well?"
Michael understood the question and responded to it after a moment of thought.
"It wasn't it."
Isabel was slightly relieved to hear that, but she tried her best not to show it.
"Where's Max?" Michael inquired a moment later.
"He went looking for you," Isabel explained with a look of confusion. "Didn't you see him?"
"No," Michael replied with a shake of his head. "I didn't."