Thanks to all reading this fic and leave all those nice words.

Chapter 7

Maria shook her head when she recognized the two men standing behind them, glancing at her and Michael like they had caught them in a unbelievable moment. Glaring at both she dared them to say something and accept to have her wrath leashed out on them. Thankfully they were smart enough to keep their mouthes closed.

" What are you doing here?".

Kyle smiled sheepishly at his sister, thinking his part about the situation they had witnessed. He was glad that they had come, fearing that something would have happened that Rath wouldn´t find so amusing. It was bad enough to bear the General when he was in a good mood, he didn´t want to cross him when he was in a bad mood. " We got sent up here to take over".

Max shuffled his feet nervously and slightly embarrassed while his hands were interwined behind his back. Now he finally looked like the shy boy he had been before he had saved Liz life. " Order from Rath himself".

" Why?", as soon as the word had left her lips, she noticed the reason for them to be there. Through the small light from the moon she could see that her brother was sporting a nice bruise over his left eye while the other boy had a slightly swollen nose, where still a dabble of blood was sticking to. " Wonderful. What is going on today? Is the testesterone prickling your brains? Or is it something in the air?".

Kyle had expected something in that direction from her. She hadn´t grown up with too much male influence and Alex didn´t count in that department, because the guy had been too girly and in no way the ideal role model when it came to be a man. " Sometimes we men have to let out a little tension".

Maria was sure that no matter how much time she was around a compound full of macho like man, she would never understand them. Why couldn´t they solve a problem like any normal being did it. With talking about the situation, a lot of cursing mixed with hand gestures and maybe even with a light touch of insulting the style or the haircut from the other girl. " Great, can´t you get rid of the tension like anyone else. Have sex with someone or take your hands I don´t care. But don´t take it out on each other. Well unless you like it".

" Hey, I´m not swinging that way. And then especially not with Evans", Kyle felt insulted at the dig, even though he had no reason for that. He was married with a wonderful woman and he was expecting a child in a few weeks. But his sister hadn´t forgot that he had told her years ago that he sometimes had a flash of a naked Max in his head since he had been getting healed from the alien.

Max glared at the guy besides him, clearly wishing that he would get something nasty. Strangly it didn´t appear so serious like it had this afternoon when both men had been near each other. " Like you´re my type. I like my men dark, brooding and close mouthed".

Immediately Kyle and Maria turned to Michael, who in response threw them an icy glance, obviously getting the joke. He wasn´t like that and the last person he would think in that way would be Max. Alone the thought was making him uncomfortable. Thankfully he was straight and only interested in women, well one especially. " Don´t say it!".

" But he totally described you to a T. Maybe we can arrange something nice for you two lovebirds", Maria was delightfully surprised about the slightly friendly way everyone behaved in her presence. Either her yelling was finally getting somewhere or they were just keeping up front to not piss her off.

Michael growled deep in his throat shooting daggers at her and then at the other two males, who were trying to refrain from laughing at the way his expression darkened at the implication. He didn´t like it when people were making fun of him, even if those people were his friends. " Ha ha, I think I will go to sleep now, before I´ll do something unthinkable".

Maria faced her brother and Max with an amused expression, making a funny face. She was so glad to have a little distraction after the serious talk she had behind her. And it was so good to see that her friends were nicely fitting into her family, even if they had started with slightly difficulties. " Oh oh, we have to be careful before Mount Guerin will explode. Get yourself in safety now!".

" Good night", Michael turned around and made his way back inside, wondering how long it would take Maria to follow him. Trying to keep a straight face he heard her wishing the other two men a good night as well before he noticed her steps going after him. Seconds later she was at his side, clearly afraid to have said something wrong. Silly girl. " So how is it to be a mother?".

Maria was a little take aback from the question, having not expected that he would ask her that, especially after everything she had told him already. But it was finally an answer that wasn´t so hard to explain and she was willing to share with him, because it was something great. Even if she had to admit the beginning had been horrible, with all those endless sleepness nights, the crying, the walking around, the talking nonstop and then the smiles, the happy gurgles and the first moment he had told her mama. " It´s wonderful. Although Xander and Cordelia can drive me crazy on occasions. But they´re good kids and I love them very much".

Michael saw the glowing in her eyes and he knew that she had never been more beautiful than at this moment. She was appearing like an angel and in a place like this it was sticking out. But despite the happiness there was still something darkly hidden. " They love you, too", he noticed her small smile and realized that it wouldn´t hold, because his next sentence could destroy her good mood. " I heard Kyle saying something, that you can´t get pregnant. What happened?".

" Liz. She almost gutted me like a fish. She had slashed me from my cleavage to my lower abdomen. When the others healed me they hadn´t enough energy to complete the process and I still have a scar. When they brought me to sickbay and the doctors there examined me, they told me that my abdomen was damaged beyong repair. It would heal, but it would never be useful again", that had been biggest blow and she had needed a lot of time, a lot of tears and a lot of screaming to get over the fact that she wouldn´t be pregnant or feel a child growing inside her like every women experienced it. Rath had been there, listening calmy at her hurtful words she spat at him, blaming him for saving her. More than a few times she told him that he should have let her die. But one day Ava came into her room, showing her little Xander and putting the small guy in her arms. In the moment he was grasping her finger and snuggled his head over her heart, something inside her snapped and she promised that she would take care of the tiny creature in her arms.

Michael finally knew why she hated Liz so much and truthfully he couldn´t blame her for that. If someone he had loved like a sibling would have taken away something so important from him he would have done a lot more than just hate the said person. He would have probably found a way to take revenge and it wouldn´t have been a pretty sight either. " I´m so sorry to hear that".

Maria shrugged her shoulders. It had been a long time ago and she was over the fact that she would never have a child on her own. She knew now that it wasn´t good to cry over spilled milk. " So, did you found out a few things about your past life from Larek? Did he tell you anything?".

" No, nothing that we haven´t heard before", Michael was confused why she asked that like she knew something that he didn´t. But then he remembered that Rath had told him that they were more alien and could remember more than the Roswell four. " Is there a reason that you´re asking that?".

Maria startled for a moment, trying to find a plausible lie she could dish him out and coming up empty. She immediately noticed that he realized that there was something she was not telling him. Thankfully she was saved from embarrassing herself with some excuse when she saw Rath heading hurriedly towards them and she instantly knew that something was wrong. Quickening her pace she met him halfway. " What is it?".

Rath ignored the alarm in her voice and took her hands, making a fruitless attempt to calm her down. He hated to see her eyes showing such a fear, a fear to lose anyone else to something she couldn´t destroy. But in that case she overreacted and it wasn´t so bad like she thought it was. " Cordelia woke up, she wants to have her sister near".

" The nightmare again?".

Rath nodded his head, shooting a quick glance at his dupe when the other man stopped at their side. He didn´t know how much Michael knew about Jim and Amy, so he didn´t know how much he could say. But after he noticed the questioning expression, he realized that Maria hadn´t even told him everything. " Yeah, Laurie and Ava are with her right now. But she wants you".

Maria was sure that her sister was probably hysteric and crying her eyes out. The small girl was too young to know the differences about a nightmare and a memory, although in that case it was probably both, because Cordelia usually dreamed about the day her parents died very painfully. " Okay. Thank you", kissing his cheek she dashed in the other direction.

" That happens a lot, does it?", Michael was slowly getting the hang of what had been going on, although there was still a lot he had to learn. But he wasn´t as clueless as he had been hours ago, so that was good.

Rath had almost forgotten that his dupe was still there, having been too busy with watching after Maria. He was worried about her and not just because her old lover was back in town, making it obvious that he wanted her back. No it was the way she was shutting him out when it came to topic of the way her parents died. He would be relieved when he finally knew what was weighting so heavily on her. " Yep. Cordelia had been present when Jim and Amy died. And she had almost witnessed her sister walking into a burning building, that could be easily give any child bad dreams".

Michael shook his head and he wondered how a human being could stand so much misery without losing faith or the hope that someday everything would be better. If it had been him, he would have let himself get killed on some dangerous mission. But that was him and he had always known that Maria was better than him. " She´s so amazing".

" You´re telling me", Rath immediately knew who his dupe meant. He was most of the time stunned how much she meant to him and that she was still sticking to him. He was asking himself sometimes what he had done to deserve such a perfect creature in his life and when she would realized that she was too good for him and leave. " Hey, there´s a hockey game in a few minutes, you interested?".

Michael was slightly taken aback about the offer, having thought that his dupe would want to avoid him as much as possible. But it would give them the perfect opportunity to talk about a few things and clear the air between them. And maybe they could compare notes with each other. " I´m game".

Two hours later

Maria was silently closing the door to her sister´s room after she had finally managed to get the girl to sleep again. She was exhausted and just wanted to sleep herself not to mention give her voice a little rest from all the talking and the singing to Cordelia. Quietly chuckling she was amused about that fact. In her teenage years she had been able to talk for hours without any problems and nowadays she was glad when she just could be silent. But she wouldn´t say that out loud, because Rath would just make fun of her. Walking through the dark hall she enjoyed the serenity engulfing the compound at night and she was more than ready to fall face first into her fluffy pillows and stay in bed for days without talking to anyone. Opening the door to her room she was a little surprised when she saw that Rath was still awake, reading a book in their bed and obviously waiting for her. He instantly put the novel away and glanced at her.

" Is she asleep again?".

Maria closed the door before she went to the wardrobe and peeled herself out of the clothes, glad to get out of the dirty things. Putting them in the hamper besides her, she was not in the rush to get dressed again. " Yeah, after I promised her that I would never leave her and sang a few lullaby´s".

Rath saw the slump of her shoulders and he waited everyday for her to break down from the pressure and the many hits she had already taken. But she was too stubborn to let anyone see that she wasn´t up to take over the responsibility and part of it was probably the anger at the man having taken so much from her. " How bad was it this time?".

" The worst. This time I went into the fire before you had the chance to stop me and I died with Jim and my mother", Maria had pulled her favourte tank top out of the bottom drawer together with one of Rath´s boxershort. Taking her time she dressed slowly, knowing that he wanted to know what happened before and the others came. But not even him would manage to get her to talk about it.

Rath was sure that she was stalling, because she usually didn´t need so much time to get into two pieces of clothes. Getting out of bed he walked towards her, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her around. She needed to let everything out before it would destroy her and he wouldn´t let that happen as long as he was breathing. " When are you going to stop pretending that you´re not hurting? I can see in your eyes that you´re in pain and I want to help you".

Maria felt tears threatening to appear and she tried to swallow the thick lump in her throat. She knew he just meant well and she found his caring nature so sweet. But she wasn´t ready to talk about the worst hours of her life, because then she had to admit that she wasn´t such a great person like anyone thought. " Then stop harrassing me about it. When I´m ready to open up to you, I will do it. Until that happens I want you to drop the topic".

" Fine", Rath didn´t want to fight with her and he was sure that it would come to that if he would continue bugging her. Pulling her close, he felt her relax in his embrace and he was glad that he still had the calming effect on her. Stroking her head and her back, he noticed her body molding against his. Quickly he tried to think about something to distract him and his friend, because it was more than obvious that they wouldn´t be active tonight. " When are we going to tell Michael about Shox?".

Maria was positive that she wouldn´t get tired of feeling his strong arms around her, holding her like she was the only woman on this world he could ever love. Inhaling his scent, she was stunned to smell the slight aroma of beer on his breath and she knew that he had been having fun with the guys again. " I don´t know. I mean I don´t want to overwhelm him with the infomation. He has a lot to digest, so I don´t think it´s good to hit him with more news".

Rath led her in the direction of the bed, making sure that they didn´t stumble or hit something. He wanted her to rest more, maybe give her a time out for a few days. But seeing as one problem chased the other he was sure that she wouldn´t even think about abanding all of her assignments. " But we have to do it soon, because I´m sure if we don´t do it, Shox will do it".

" Okay, you talk to Shox and I will prepare Michael about the fact that he´s meeting the son he and Isabel have created".

TBC