Chapter 4

Max felt like he got sucker punched in his gut when he heard those words from Maria, thinking that there has to be some kind of mistake. That son couldn´t be from her, because they never had sex with each other. There hadn´t been anything outside the small kiss they had shared the summer Liz went to Florida and Michael ignored her existence. But firstly that had been a hell of a long time ago and you can´t get pregnant from a kiss, even if he wasn´t exactly normal. Turning his face to his best friend and brother he saw the confusion, the hurt and the anger in his glance. Opening his mouth to reassure Michael that there had to be a mix up, he didn´t get the opportunity to say anything in the first place. Feeling a tucking at his pants leg he looked down at the small boy, who was stretching his tiny arms in his direction.

" Daddy up".

Max didn´t hesistate for a moment and lifted his son in his arms, feeling instantly the connection between them and he knew that he was holding his and Liz child. Relieve was spreading through his complete body and made him smile brightly. " Hey Xander".

Maria was glad to see them both hitting it off so well so quickly. She had thought it would be maybe awkward when they would meet each other, but she was happy that she had been wrong about that. Grinning at father and son she saw from the corner of her eyes that one person wasn´t exactly amused about this new developement. Thankfully someone disturbed the silent moment before Michael could ask her any questions.

" Hey Ria, there´s a small problem with Rath and Billy, again. Could you be a doll and do something. You know what happened the last time", a woman in her midthirties with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes stormed into the room, her expression grim and her well built body ready to attack anyone daring to come near her.

Maria groaned annoyed, knowing exactly what the other woman was talking about. Both men were clashing against each other since the day they met and nobody knew the reason for the tension between them. Oddly it was usually Rath that was starting a fight in the first place and Billy just reacted to the verbal abusing. " Great. What are they fighting about this time?".

Unfortunately the question was lost on the person having brought the news, because she was too busy with staring at the group of people standing in their midst and appearing more alive than she ever saw them. Shocked she glanced at everyone, clearly not believing her eyes. Facing her friend to make sure that she didn´t imagine things she saw the barely visible nod from the girl. " I thought they were dead".

" We all thought that", Maria knew that she would hear this question more times today and that the reaction would usually be like that, too. She wondered how long it would take before the whole compound knew about the arrival of the royal four and how many introductions she still had to make. " Guys I don´t know if you remember her, but that´s Serena. She had been a friend from you in your past life".

Serena saw that they didn´t remember her in their eyes and for a moment she felt a stabbing pain when her gaze landed on Zan´s or how he was called on earth Max. He didn´t know her and that after they had spent so many tender moments with each other, okay his former self on Antar. But that didn´t make the pain lessen, even though Rath had already told her that this batch didn´t remember anything from their past lifes. " Good to see that you´re not dust already", in the process to turn around to take care of the current situation she finally noticed the slightly older man. " Brother dear? What are you doing here? Didn´t you tell me you would never leave our planet?".

Larek rolled his eyes, because he should have known that she would be the first to take the spaceship away from their home. No wonder he hadn´t been able to find her in the mess of the destruction Khivar had left behind on Antar after he had found another place to play. " Yeah well, what can I say. I thought a little change of scenery would be good for my skin, sister dear".

" Sorry to interrupt your family meeting, but I need to know where the two male dogs are so that I can pull their claws out", Maria couldn´t waste more time with staying here, the last time she had come too late they had to get Billy to sickbay to stitch up a bloody wound above his eye and cast his wrist. She didn´t want to imagine what would happen when she wouldn´t interfere.

Serena had almost forgotten that she had been coming for another reason and immediately felt bad for getting so side tracked from their new guests. " They´re in the common room. Kyle and Sean are trying to keep them apart, but I don´t think they´re strong enough to manage that".

Maria knew why that was, it was because Sean and Kyle loved to see Billy getting beaten up from the more than obviously stronger Rath and they enjoyed to see the other man suffer. Men, she didn´t know why she hadn´t become a lesbian with all the male tension driving her crazy. " Great, just what I need. Well it looks like I have something to do".

" You need me to come with you?".

Maria turned to the only female in this room able to kick Rath´s ass aside from her of course and thought about the offer. At first she believed it was a good idea to have her tag along, seeing as Billy was her boyfriend. But then she needed someone she trusted to help her friends around the confusing hallway´s. " Nah, I can handle them. But you could show our guests our home and find a room for them".

Serena was glad to hear it, because as much as she usually wanted everyone to believe that she was a tough girl, she was afraid of Rath when he was angry. The only person she had witnessed was able to calm his inner beast had been Maria and she often used her female charme to distract him. " All right".

" See you all later in the dining room", Maria was already preparing herself for the upcoming challenge and she knew that she couldn´t talk Rath out of his rage with the promise of sex or even something kinkier this time. It would be weird to be intimate with him while her ex lover was near.

Michael didn´t want to wait for his answer for such a long time and before anyone could stop him he was storming after her. He wanted to know a few things that were bothering him and he needed to know them immediately. " Hey wait!".

Maria had been sure that he would follow her after she had seen his expression when she had told Max about Xander. She was aware of the fact that he thought she had been unfaithful to him and that with his best friend, even though he should know her better than that. She had never done that and she wouldn´t do that in the future. " I know what you want to know and no I´m not the real mother, Xander is Liz´ child and yes Rath and I are intimate with each other".

" I didn´t say anything", but he was happy to know that it wasn´t her child and that his first thought had been right, even if he had to admit he should have never doubted her and his best friend in the first place. The other confession had been hard, but to be expected. Five years was a long time and he couldn´t expect her to live abstinent. Besides it had been with his dupe and she had thought he was dead.

Maria didn´t need to hear him say anything, she could read the guy like a book now. And it didn´t hurt that she had accidently gotten powers and was able to read thoughts, which she of course didn´t use for her own amusement, just here and there. " You didn´t had to. I could see it in your eyes. You´re not so hard to read like you´re thinking".

Michael was glad to see that they were still on the same page and that some things never change, no matter how much time had passed. Smiling at the knowledge he felt pretty good for the first time in years, even if they were in the middle of a war. " And who´s better in bed. Me or Rath?".

" Uhh, I can´t believe your asking me that", and it was more unbelievable that Rath had asked her the same question after they had slept with each other for the first time. They both were more alike than they thought. Great, what she just needed, two of them annoying the hell out of her.

Michael couldn´t leave that question unanswered and he was sure he would bug her until she told him what he wanted to know. She was maybe stubborn, but still not as much as he could be. Unfortunately he didn´t get the opportunity to get a few information out of her, because they finally arrived at the common room. Stunned his eyes landed on the huge space filled with gaming machines, pool tables, computer consoles and comfortable looking furniture, everything painted in manly colors. It was the dream of every man and here it had been coming true. " Oh wow, I died and gone to heaven".

Maria rolled her eyes, not knowing why men were exaggerating when it came to games, cars or sport, but as soon as they to show sympathy for their significant other they were too controlled to let their emotions out. " Men!", ignoring the dazed look in Michael´s eyes she went deeper into the room, immediately hearing two angry voices getting louder and louder. Seconds later she even saw the dumb dogs barking at each other and went in their direction. She just came right on time to see Rath breaking away from the hold Sean had been having on him and swinging his fist towards Billy, who was thankfully still held back from Kyle via a cue from the pool table. Stepping in between she absorbed the punch in midair and pushed the rowdy back in her cousin´s body. Glaring at both men she let her gaze wander from one to the other. " What the hell do you think you´re doing here? Can´t you for once act like civilized people? Is it too much to ask to behave like adults? For god´s sake not even Xander and Cordelia are acting so childish like you two".

" Then I suggest you should take better care of your lover. He´s letting his sexual frustration out on me", Billy wrenched himself out of Kyle´s arms, angrily wiping smeared blood away from his nose. The hard punch had probably broken something and he had problems to breath right, but he was still able to take the bastard down.

Rath was instantly ready to attack the scumbag again, which only got prevented from Maria´s use of physical strength. She braced her complete body against him to stop him from doing something stupid. For a moment it looked like she was losing, seeing as Rath was taller and stronger. Michael was already in the process to interfere to save Maria from the struggle, but then he noticed his dupe relaxing when she whispered something to him. At that the situation wasn´t so strained anymore and everyone seemed to breath out relieved.

Kyle finally put the cue away and noticed that a new face was present, well not exactly new but he hadn´t seen it for a while now. Rubbing his eyes he wanted to make sure that it wasn´t his eyes playing a trick on him. After he realized that it wasn´t his imagination, he found the reason why Rath had been more aggressive than he was used to. " Well, well. If it´s not Guerin back in action. Tired of getting treated like royals or do you think you should spread a little cheer down with us merely humans?".

" Kyle! Don´t you start, too", Maria knew that she had to do something immediately or else another fight would be taking place and she wasn´t in the mood to step in between again. Even though he was aware that the aliens hadn´t left earth on their free will, she knew that Kyle still blamed them for the loss of his father. " Do me a favour and bring Billy to sickbay. And then we´re meeting in my room. We have a few things to discuss".

Seconds ticked away in which it seemed like the human boy would complain. But then he nodded in agreement, knowing that it wouldn´t get him anywhere to mess with her in the first place and dragged Billy with him out of the room without saying anything.

Breathing easier Maria turned to Rath and seeing for the first time the cut on his right eyebrow. Stepping closer to him she took his face in her hands and eyed the damaged there, making sure that nothing was seriously wrong. Noticing that it didn´t look too deep aside from the bleeding, she tried to remember to send him to Ava later to let her check it out and make sure that everything was clear, at least on the outside. " What has gotten into you? Why do you let him get to you? How many times do we have to repeat this conversation?".

" He was talking shit about me and I wasn´t ready to just take it", Rath winced a little when she came to the spot from the cut and he felt pain shooting through his nerves. He wasn´t usually someone whining about his injuries, but this time it really hurt like hell. The cue had been hitting a pretty delicate point.

Maria sighed disappointed and a little unhappy about the whole situation. She knew that she couldn´t change him and she didn´t want him to, but it would be nice to go a day without interrupting them bashing their heads together. She didn´t know why they both hated each other so much, but she knew that it had to stop. " Ignore him. Everyone else does that. Smile at him and walk away when he tries to provoke you. Can you do that for me?".

Rath glanced in her vivid green eyes and he saw how much this fighting was weightening on her. He knew that she wasn´t very happy when their was tension among the group, but he couldn´t bring to be nice to Billy boy, the guy was rubbing him off the wrong way and he didn´t know why, which was irritating him to no end because it was driving him almost crazy. Unfortunately Maria´s feelings were more important to him than his own. " I will try it. But I can´t promise you anything".

" You´re the best", kissing him quickly she smiled when she realized that he just agreed to play nice for her. Caressing his cheeks with her fingers she wondered what the future would hold for them, now that Michael was back in the picture and what it would mean for her and Rath. " Now go to Ava, she should take a look at the scratch. And I don´t take no for an answer".

Rath knew when it was time to surrender and this was obviously one of the times. Grumbling quietly just to let her think he wouldn´t just do what she wanted without putting up a little resistance he made his way out of the room. As soon as his back was turned to her, his playful expression disappeared and his eyes started to get that sad look that he had sporting since Michael had come back.

Maria watched after his retreating back and she saw the slump on his shoulders, recognizing the stance immediately and making her realize that he was thinking about the same thing that was plaquing her mind right now. She wished she could reassure him that nothing would be changing for them, that everything would stay as it was the last two years. But she knew that it would be a lie. Glancing at Michael she felt like the teenager that had left twenty phone calls on his answering maching or tried to explain to her mother why there were bullet holes in her car. Feelings that she thought she had buried were coming back to the surface and things she didn´t want to remember threatened to overwhelm her. Shaking her head she reminded herself that she wasn´t that girl anymore and she was wiser and more confident with the role in her life. " I think it´s time to show you your room. I believe you would want to take a shower and get new clothes before we eat".

" You love him, don´t you?", Michael was rather clueless about that things, but the look in their eyes was so visible that anyone could see what they were feeling towards each other. Part of him felt betrayed and hurt while the other was slightly angry for her to move on so quickly, even though he knew that he had been gone for five years and that it was a long time.

Maria was startled about the statement, having not expected that question and clearly not from him. And strangly it was so very hard to be honest with him about a subject that was far more complicated than it appeared on the first glance. There was too much history to explain and too much in between that it would take a lot of time to tell everything. " It´s... yeah, I love him. But not like you think and you had to be there to understand what it´s going on between us".

Michael was slightly devastated to hear that, having expected it but it had been more painful than he had thought it would be the listen to her say that. Seeing the shadows passing over her usual sparkling emeralds, he decided to drop the subject until she would start talking about the topic willingly. " So, what does Billy the bard doing here? Didn´t seem like he has a lot of friends at this place".

" You´re telling me. If he´s not butting his head with Rath, he´s annyong Sean, Kyle and occassionally Brody. But mostly he drives me crazy with trying to prevent him from getting killed every few seconds", Maria started their trek to the guest rooms they always held free in case they would find some surivors they had to take in. Now they finally would put the chambers to good use.

Michael immediately followed her, having so much questions that he didn´t know where he should start. He wondered how she had managed to be still alive, how it came that human and aliens were fighting side by side, where the granilith was, who the choosen one was to handle it and why she was so distant towards him. " Can I ask you something and you promise to not get mad?".

Maria was amused about choice of words, remembering that he had never cared if she got mad at him or not. He usually blurted his question out and it always ended with her being angry at him and he getting defensive because he didn´t know why she was so furious at him in the first place. This version of him was different and she liked it. " I´ll try".

" Okay I can deal with that", for a moment he seemed to think hard about the words, making their walk a little quiet. Then he shook his head like he had lost his inner battle with himself and it made him look more beautiful, even though he was dirty, hurt and appeared a little unkept. " Why does it seem like you´re in command here?".

Maria faced him, trying to find out if he was curious about her role in all this or if he was questioning her ability to give orders out. Of course he wasn´t giving anything away on his face, which was set in stone like she was used from him. Prying in his mind she noticed that he was blocking her somehow. " Why are you asking me that? You don´t think I´m capable to do the job or what?".

Michael instantly picked up her anger and he felt his thoughts drifting back to the days when they were younger, unexperienced and naive. He knew the signs of a fight with her and he was relieved to know that some things would never change with them. " I´m just curious that´s all. I had been away for five years and the last time we saw each other you were adamant to go back to New York to try the music deal again".

" Yeah, that had been the plan", Maria´s gaze darkened at the memories assaulting her, making her remember things that she wanted to forget. Things like the first attack on Roswell, hitting the crashdown with the force of a meteorite the size of texas. All those blood, the screams and the dead bodies laying around. The pain, the panic and the sorrow was hitting her again and she had to do everything to keep her tears in. " Can we stop talking about that. I can´t...It´s still too painful for me".

Michael detected the deep sadness in her eyes and he felt it so intensly like it was his own. Giving into his urge he took her hand, making her startle in surprise at the contact and stopping her in her tracks. Slowly she turned fully to him and he finally saw the tiny scar peeking out from the collar of her white t-shirt and he wondered since when she had it, having it never noticed it before and he was damn familiar with her body. " We don´t have to talk at all if you want".

Maria was grateful that he didn´t push her in that matter, which she showed with a tiny smile. Glancing at their interlaced fingers she saw for the first time the open wounds on his knuckles and blood mixed with dirt. Caressing the skin there she felt him stiffen when the injuries disappeared and left an unscathed hand back. Looking at him she noticed the shock and the surprise. Letting go of him she backed away, knowing that she had to be as far from him as she could before he started to ask her more questions. " I.. have to go..uh..we´ll see each other later".

" Wait", but it was already too late and she was almost out of his sight by now. Silently cursing his frozen brain and the daze he had been in, he stared after her now more than curious to find out what happened to her. Unfortunately he had to wait until dinner to corner her, hopefully without anyone trying to interfere.

Two hours later

Michael felt refreshed and a little calmer after the nice hot shower and a change of clothes. He was happy to have something on that was covering more than just his torso and that wasn´t full of blood or smelling like he had crawled out of the sewer. Looking at the small mirror in his room he was relieved to see that there had been a face under all that hair and dirt. Touching his shaved skin he was glad not to be afraid to hurt someone with his stubbles anymore. Smiling at his reflection and the more than comfortable clothes, which was in reality just army clothes, he made his way out. He wanted to try to catch Maria before they would meet the others in the dining hall. Thankfully he still had this radar making him aware where she was at the moment, so he had no problems finding her room. Nearing the door, he realized it was partly open and she was not alone. Sneaking closer he pressed himself at the wall to listen to the more than heated conversation, making him notice that the other person in the room was Kyle.

" I don´t want them here?".

" They´re our friends and I want them to stay".

" Why? So you can start this strange thing with Guerin again? What about Rath? Do you even think about him?".

" Don´t you dare judge me! I´m not putting my personal grudge on someone because I´m hurt".

" Aren´t you angry at them? Because of them we lost Alex, my father, YOUR mother and not to mention your ability to get pregnant".

" Don´t start with that again. Of course I´m not happy about the death of those people, but I can´t blame them for it. They were as much victims as we are in this sick game. Of course I´m angry, even so furious I can´t control myself sometimes, but I´m angry at the right person and that would be Khviar".

" I can´t believe that you have forgiven them so quickly, especially after what happened to Liz".

" I don´t want to talk about that. What happened to Liz wasn´t anybody´s fault but her own. She had been weak and took the easiest way out".

" Great, you´re angry at your best friend but you can´t bring yourself to be angry at them for just leaving us with their mess behind?".

" They didn´t leave us behind and you know it. What happened after they had been gone wasn´t their fault".

" But they started the whole thing, if Max wouldn´t have saved Liz we would be still with our parents, complaining about their overprotectiveness and wondering what the future would still hold for us".

" Yeah, but if he wouldn´t have interfered she would have lost her earlier".

" True, but it would be better than knowing that she´s working for the other side now".

At that Michael heard a sharp intake of breath near him, making him realize that he hadn´t been alone. Turning his head he saw the wide eyes of Max, the shock apparent on his face.

TBC