I don't own Roswell or any of its franchise. I do, however, lay claim on this plot idea ;)

A/N what's this? Two updates in a month? Record ;) And it's even longer than the last one? Yep, I wanted to reward you all for your generous reviews and comments. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well. I'm slowly getting the group together now, so things will probably switch a lot POV wise. Hope that's okay! Also, there's gonna be a teensy bit bloodiness in this chapter, so be warned. Happy reading!

Unbetaed chapter, but please let me know if you find any glaring mistakes, so I can correct them!

Alex POV

When Alex woke up that morning, he had a distinct feeling in his gut telling him that he should seriously consider just rolling over and get back to sleep. Of course, the second he was beginning to entertain the thought, his bedroom door opened and his ever-eager father stuck his head through the door and reminded him that he was supposed to get up.

Alex groaned and swung his long legs out of the bed, wiping his tired eyes. He hadn't slept very well and the only time he'd actually managed to sleep long enough to dream, he'd had a weird feeling throughout the entire thing.

Walking into his tiny bathroom to get ready for the day, Alex thought back to the dream itself. It had been about Isabel Evans; they usually were, but this time it had been different. At first it had been a regular dream come true scenario with her showing up in a beautiful, tight red blouse that really showed off her voluptuous figure. Some of the guys that usually gave Alex a hard time in real life were crowding her and he'd appeared like a knight in shining armor to beat those bullies into submission. Isabel had swooned and gasped at all the appropriate moments and just as he'd moved in for a kiss of gratitude and unparalleled passion, things turned strange.

Isabel's voice sounded from behind him and Alex found himself turning around, locking eyes with another Isabel. This one looked just as perfect as the one he'd rescued from the jocks, but there was something in her eyes that alerted him to the fact that she wasn't particularly proud of him at that moment.

"Really, Alex? Damsel in distress? I had no idea you thought of me that way."

Made braver by the fact that he just knew it was a dream, Alex smiled confidently. "You looked like you needed a hand, Isabel."

Isabel's answering smile had caused him to twitch a certain place that even his dream self could feel. "I'll always need you to help me," she whispered, almost inaudibly as she took a step closer.

Alex was enraptured by those big coffee eyes that looked into him as though she was staring into his very soul. "I'll always try to help you…" The promise left his lips before he could control it and he frowned. Realistically he knew that, seeing as he was aware that he was dreaming, he should be able to control everything that happened, but a part of him also knew that he had nothing to do with what had just happened.

Isabel was suddenly right in front of him, gazing intently at him. She looked like he was the best thing she'd ever laid her beautiful eyes on and he felt a bit uncomfortable in his dream self's tight pants and in the next second he was wearing loose sweats.

"I really want you to remember this Alex," Isabel slowly said, "I'm not inapproachable, you can talk to me and I swear I won't turn you down."

Alex swallowed, this was a dream, he had to remind himself about that, and said quietly, "I'll try to remember that, but I just have to turn around and kiss the damsel I just saved before I wake up. Okay?"

Isabel's brown eyes turned mischievous and she tilted her head teasingly. "That's just a weaker version of me; you can kiss me instead, I won't mind."

Alex felt a brief flare of intense hesitation and remained rooted in his spot. To his surprise, something darkened in Isabel's eyes for a moment before she smiled again. "I know this won't be as good as the real thing," she told him and stepped even closer, "but I just really need this to live on until it can happen in real life. I hope you understand."

Isabel's slender arms came up around his neck and Alex felt himself being gently, but firmly pushed even closer to the human deity in front of him. Isabel made sure Alex's eyes were trained on hers and just before she moved the last inches to kiss him, she whispered sincerely, "I love you, Alex Whitman."

Then her full, warm lips were on his and Alex's life turned upside down. His entire being turned into a ball of fire, fire that didn't burn, but heated up his insides almost painfully – he didn't know how long it took, but he mentally roared for relief, the unexpected ecstasy was just too much. The fire slowly made its way down his body and settled just above his navel, and the second before he jolted awake in his own bed in the middle of the night, Alex remembered meeting Isabel's eyes yet again and they were widened in shock that echoed his own.

"Alex, are you up yet?"

Alex's flinched out of the memory of the peculiar dream and concentrated on his father's voice through the door. "Yeah, I'm coming down in a minute."

"Okay," Mr. Whitman's muffled reply reminded Alex that he really shouldn't be standing with his toothbrush in his mouth anymore and that he didn't have a lot of time before school.

Fifteen minutes later, Alex reached the school's parking lot and jumped off his bicycle. He was in the middle of locking it to the stand, when he was interrupted in his task by some of the jocks that Kyle Valenti hung around with, the very same he'd dreamt about.

"Oh, Whitman, you're just so cool for daring to show up with that thing. What's the matter? Too afraid to pollute the world with a car?"

Alex mentally rolled his eyes, grabbed his book bag and headed towards the school building without as much as a grunt in reply to the usual taunt. A part of him wished he could just smack them around as effortlessly as he did in his dreams, but Alex was nothing if not realistic. He wouldn't stand a chance against the much beefier guys, so he opted for staying away from them as much as possible.

But then Alex remembered that gut feeling he'd had before getting up earlier and groaned quietly. It was going to be a bad day today; not only because of that unusual dream he'd had, not because ever since he'd shared that kiss with dream Isabel, he'd had an irritating itch above his navel that kept throbbing almost painfully as though waiting for something to relieve it. No, the main reason Alex was convinced the day would suck was due to the fact that he had gym today and it was a class he shared with the before mentioned pack of jocks.

--

Kyle POV

Kyle was not having a great day, hell; his entire week hadn't exactly been a picnic. First Liz hadn't kept her promise to go out with him, ending up ignoring his calls and making him feel like a fool. Then he'd been humiliated in front of her by her best friend. And as though that wasn't enough, his dad was being way more secretive than he normally was. He'd tried his hardest to get the man to talk about whatever it was that was bothering him, but his dad just kept saying that it was official police business and not for kids.

And now this; Kyle sighed and tried to ignore the fact that his good friend, Johnny and some other teammates was in the midst of their daily ritual to mock the gangly Whitman. Not for the first time, Kyle wished he had the courage to step in-between and put an end to things. But he didn't, there was a part of him that just wasn't ready or brave enough to face the outcome of loser status if he did in fact interfere.

I'm just a big coward when it comes down to it, Kyle thought to himself and followed Johnny to the first class of the day, I'll never be brave enough to step in-between anything, let alone a guy being picked on.

As the day went on, Kyle's mood lifted a bit and he was laughing along with his friends over some stupid joke when he entered the locker room to change for gym class. He high fived Johnny and went over to his locker and started changing into the school's mandatory uniform.

A shadow fell over him while he was busy tying his shoelaces for his sneakers. He looked up and immediately looked back down again at the sight of Alex, who was in the middle of changing into the uniform. The look on the tall teenagers face clearly revealed that he was just waiting for Kyle to say something, anything to him.

Kyle swallowed a sigh and straightened up, feeling his fragile hold on his good mood fly out the metaphorical windows in his mindscape. He turned his back on Alex, without acknowledging his presence and walked over to Johnny and launched into a conversation about some movie he'd seen. He didn't even realize that he was distracting Johnny from noticing the nerdy Whitman until Alex rushed by them and into the gym and Johnny exclaimed loudly, "Aw man, you made me miss my dose of `get on Whitman's nerves´."

Kyle tried to smile a friendly smile, but even he could feel the tension in his lips. "Well, Johnny boy, you'll just have to find another opportunity, I guess. Come on before we're late."

When they entered the big room, Kyle found himself seeking out Alex and he quickly looked over at some of the other students present, annoyed at himself for his sudden interest in the local geek boy. The gym teacher didn't show up despite the fact that the bell had already sounded and most of the students were getting edgy. Kyle included.

Just as Johnny suggested that they should bail the class to go play some hoops, the door opened in the end of the room and one of the less popular teacher's strode in, Mr. Grayson. Overweight, pushing fifty and bald; this was a guy who was getting more and more bitter with each passing day and for once all cliques in the class were in complete agreement. They all groaned noisily and tried to ignore the content smile on their hated teacher's face, knowing that he would most assuredly put them through the ringer.

"Well, the coach couldn't make it in today. So seeing as I'm the only option available, you'll just have to deal with that. Now, you there!" Mr. Grayson pointed a beefy finger at some small, trembling guy, who was standing next to Michael Guerin, "Go fetch some dodgeballs and hurry up!"

"Dodgeball?" Kyle muttered and crossed his arms in resignation, next to him Johnny was hollering in delight. Despite the fact that he was athletic and fast, Kyle hated the sport. He had a sudden memory of how he'd once been hit in the face as a young kid in elementary school and how Alex had comforted him and gone with him to the school's nurse.

Why am I obsessing over geek boy all of the sudden? Kyle wondered internally, sitting down on the bleacher closest to him. It's not like we're even friends, I just feel bad for him sometimes.

The poor kid, who'd been sent after the cursed red balls, came running back a few minutes later with the net trailing behind him. He was wheezing hard and muttering something about asthma. Johnny and a few of Kyle's other friends laughed hard when Mr. Grayson simply turned his back on him after ordering him to grow a spine.

Kyle didn't laugh, for some reason he just didn't possess the will to be the mocking jock today. To his surprise he watched silently as the normally so withdrawn Max Evans walked over to the wheezing guy and patted him consolingly on the shoulder. Oddly enough, the asthma attack seemed to blow over in the next minute. Maybe he just needed some reassurance, Kyle concluded before turning his attention on Mr. Grayson, who was reminding them all about the rules of the game.

"Now that I've spelled things out for you all, let's get going with this time honored tradition. And to keep it even more old fashioned why don't we divide the two teams into popular versus unpopular kids. You do the dividing." Mr. Grayson had an almost evil look in his eyes and Kyle thanked the heavens that the older man wasn't their regular gym teacher.

Some of the students stood idly by, ignoring the protests given by others. Kyle was of course put in with the popular crowd within mere seconds and he sat quietly waiting for the selection to be completed.

It went by smoothly for the most part, although Kyle's attention was caught by one of the other jocks going over to Max Evans and Michael Guerin. "Oh man, I can't believe he's that stupid," Johnny chuckled as he sat down next to Kyle, also looking at what was taking place.

"What are you talking about?" another one of Kyle's teammates asked from the sideline and Kyle automatically answered, without looking away from the sight in front of him.

"Guerin never plays against Evans. Don't ask me why, even when we were kids, he pitched a fit whenever he was placed on another team. If he didn't get his way, he didn't play. Or got aggressive about it." Kyle added as an afterthought as he watched Guerin send his patented glare down at the popular jock, who barely reached his chin.

Max Evans, being the typical peacemaker, a real bore, if one asked Kyle, stepped in-between the growing tension and at first Kyle thought the dark haired Evans would silently convince them all to just get along or whatever, but to his surprise, Evans' glower matched Guerin's and even from his location, Kyle could see the threat in Evans' brown eyes.

Okay, maybe not so boring after all, Kyle amended and shook himself out of his pensive mood when Mr. Grayson blew the whistle to start off the game.

The red balls flew everywhere and it was obvious that the "popular" kids were having a blast targeting the people they ridiculed on a daily basis; knowing that their teacher wouldn't object to anything they did.

Kyle caught a ball sent his way and immediately threw it at the closest target, which just happened to be Michael Guerin. The bigger teenager wasn't even looking his way, so Kyle was already beginning to search for another ball, when Guerin's hand snapped the ball inches away from making contact with his face.

"Sorry Kyle," Guerin called over his shoulder, looking genuinely rueful, a look Kyle hadn't expected at all, "you'll be out soon."

Kyle went to stand by the other "casualties," waiting to be sent back in the game. As he surveyed the floor, he noticed that Guerin's team now was down to three players; Michael, Max and Alex.

Whereas the other team had more than double the amount of players, Kyle rolled his eyes, knowing that things would undoubtedly turn a bit ugly now.

A few seconds later, Kyle recognized the predatory gleam in Johnny's eyes as they locked on Alex and he sighed. Now just hit him and let's end this stupid game, Kyle thought as Johnny started verbally taunting the lanky teenager, who was halfway covered by Evans and Guerin's bodies.

"Whoa there," Johnny mocked, twirling a ball casually on his finger, "when did you get bodyguards, Whitman?"

Alex looked as surprised about his helpers as Kyle was, he kept casting glances their way, while tensing in preparation for the ball in Johnny's hand to hit him.

"He doesn't need bodyguards," Evans said, causing Kyle's eyebrows to rise at the sound of legitimate anger in the quiet boy's voice, "I just don't want you to forget there are other players on this team."

Guerin nodded in agreement and smirked. Kyle had a distinct feeling that the roles were reversed and Johnny was the last one to notice. They look as though they're playing with him; like he's nothing but a squashed bug under their shoes.

Eventually it seemed to hit Johnny that the two normally so reclusive guys were on a whole other level than what he used to hunt for bullying wise and he lowered his arm hesitantly. Kyle repressed a smile when in the next moment Alex sent a hard ball right into Johnny's face. It looked like it hurt and Johnny was scowling when he made his way over to Kyle. Behind him, Kyle watched the trio decimate the rest of the other team and end up winning, much to Mr. Grayson's visible chagrin.

The bitter teacher blew his whistle and ended the class. Kyle started walking to the locker room slowly trailing the other students, but stopped when he realized that Johnny wasn't next to him anymore.

Kyle turned around and saw Evans and Guerin was now standing in front of Johnny, looking extremely different than how they normally did. They look like they wouldn't care if they had to kill him.

Swallowing down a hint of irrational fear, Kyle walked back and stopped next to his annoying friend, catching the end of Guerin's words, "…again and I'll personally see to it that you'll never have a good day ever again."

Alex was standing next to Evans, looking decidedly uncomfortable about the tension. "Look guys, let's just forget today and go change…"

Kyle hated to admit it, but he really was in complete agreement with Alex. He crossed his arms, trying to show off the muscles he'd worked so hard to gain, "Look, I'm with Whitman on this. Let's just stop it, okay. Johnny's learned his lesson, right?" Kyle sent a warning glance at the other guy, who was still locked in a staring contest with Evans.

"Evans!" Kyle interrupted the stare down and added when Evans blinked out of it and focused his dark eyes on Kyle. "Enough, all right. I'm sorry that-"

"Don't apologize for him," Guerin demanded abruptly. "You didn't do anything wrong; he did."

"Whatever, he's my pal," Kyle stated, "he might be an idiot, but I'm not gonna stand here and watch you threaten him. Like you apparently, I'll protect my friends too."

The words seemed to cause some kind of double flinch in the two guys, their eyes turned dark, as though they were seeing something only they could see and Kyle fought back an urge to fidget uncomfortably. They blinked in tandem and re-focused on Kyle, suddenly looking a lot older than their sixteen years of age.

"Try to chose friends that deserve your loyalty," Evans muttered and nodded before turning to leave. Guerin nodded, almost respectfully, at Kyle too, and followed Evans and Alex without another word. In the distance Kyle heard them invite Alex to the Crashdown to hang out, but he was too far away to hear the reply.

Johnny huffed next to him, gently touching his swollen nose. "What was that all about, man? They looked like they wanted to kill me for a second there."

Kyle shrugged and made his way towards the changing rooms again, "I don't know."

Johnny was right next to him, still caught up in the memory of the confrontation. "And what about that weirdo way they looked at you? I mean, they looked like they wanted you to join their loser cult or something like that."

Again, Kyle shrugged and started getting ready for the shower. A part of him was just as confused as Johnny, but there was a bigger part that had felt an unexplainable longing to just go with the other guys, something inside him felt as though he was betraying them for not going with them to the diner. The longing was something he usually only felt whenever he was in Liz's presence.

Shaking off the peculiar feeling, Kyle walked to the showers; I'm probably just tired; there's no way I'd ever willingly hang out with those losers.

--

Max's POV

After the eventful gym class, Max and Michael led Alex to the jeep, promising to drive him to school the next day, so he didn't have to walk over later and collect his bike.

Michael chatted with Alex good humouredly, expertly ignoring the slightly panicked look in the other boy's eyes. Max wished he could just blurt out everything and be done with it, but he knew that would most likely cause Alex to jump out of the moving vehicle and run for the hills.

With a sigh, Max pulled into the Crashdown's parking lot. The throb from the bond he shared with Liz was growing, as though it could feel her presence nearby and he was halfway through the parking lot before Alex had even taken off his seatbelt. A quick glance behind him, told Max that Michael was just as eager to go inside because of Maria, but he was keeping pace with Alex and Max briefly scolded himself and slowed down.

"So," Alex began as he opened the door to the Crashdown, "not that I'm not happy for the help today, but I gotta ask what brought this on? I can't really help you with your homework or anything. I'm not that smart; I guess, I could always ask Liz, but-"

Max's heart thumped at the mention of his soulmate, but he quickly interrupted Alex's babbling, "No, Alex. We just wanted to hang out with you. We've heard many good things about you from Isabel." There, Max thought smugly, let him chew on that for a while.

As Max had already suspected would happen, Alex went bright red and he smiled hesitantly. "I-Isabel? As in your sister, Isabel? Isabel Evans, I mean?"

"Somebody say my name?"

Max, who was already aware of his sister's presence due to some of the future expertise that he'd taken with him to the past, didn't flinch at the unexpected interruption. He merely nodded and gestured for her to take a seat next to a smirking Michael. He acted as though he didn't notice the sudden tension in Alex, nor how the youth's eyes were firmly trained on Isabel's with an almost adoring look in his eyes.

Max's keen observational skills caught Alex's hand rubbing his stomach, as though something irritated him. That's what the rest of us do when our bond itches for touch. But Isabel never bonded with Alex; they never had the chance to. What have you been doing, Iz?

Forcing the questions out of his mind, Max concentrated on Isabel instead. Her face had developed a brief frown and she quickly glanced behind her to the table she came from. "I'd love to join you in a minute; I just have to let my so called friends know."

I wonder when she'll manage to get rid of them, Max thought, while his eyes all by themselves sought out the magnificent vision that was his wife in the background. When they were friends in the original timeline, she got frozen out because of something with Maria; she never did say what happened…

Thinking about the blonde, who'd turned into one of his best friends, Max's eyes reluctantly slid past his love and onto Maria, who was standing behind her. To his mild indignation, Max realized that the look in Maria's eyes weren't the least bit trusting. She looks like she wants to rip my head off and fill it with potpourri. She never looked like at me like that before…

There was an inkling suspicion as to why Maria wasn't feeling all friendly toward him, now that Max thought about it. In the original timeline, Liz had learned of his alien status and within half a day, Maria had somehow learned the truth. But now it had been a few days since Max had revealed everything to Liz and by the looks of it, she hadn't spoken a word of it to her friend.

Max sighed inwardly, trying to come up with a solution. He felt weary, not only due to this new problem, but because there was a part of him that didn't know what Liz was really thinking about everything. Every since he'd confessed the alien story, Liz had been trying to avoid him. He knew, realistically speaking, that she was just thinking things over, contemplating all the pro's and con's of his tale, before involving herself, just like last time. But the other part of him wanted nothing more than to force her to realize that they were meant to be and that he wasn't dangerous at all.

Well, Max amended, smirking slightly, at least not to her.

Suddenly all thoughts of building something with this "new" Liz vanished, because Max watched how Maria stomped towards their table with a plate of cherry cola's, he watched how she passed Isabel's table and how one of his sister's ditzy followers put out her leg from under the table and tripped Maria with an evil giggle.

A second later, Maria was on the floor, splattered in soda and glass shards from the broken glasses. To Max's horror, she was holding her right hand with her left; it was bleeding fiercely down her uniform and onto the floor. It didn't surprise him, though, because in the middle of her hand was a big piece of glass that completely penetrated her skin.

--

Maria POV

School was over, it hadn't been a normal day; in fact it hadn't been a normal week, Maria determined. She watched the reason for the one of the abnormalities with a frown.

Liz was avoiding her, doing her best to act frantic and busy, which, Maria had to admit, they were right now with the rush of after school customers pouring in at the Crashdown, but still. Watching her dark haired friend grab another pair of Will Smith Specials and quickly make her way through the tables to deliver them, Maria decided that she'd had enough.

As Liz handed over another order from one of the newly filled tables to the cook, Jose, Maria huffed and grabbed her best friend firmly by the arm and literally dragged her out to the backroom.

"So Liz, what gives? Did I suddenly turn radioactive without anyone telling me?"

Liz, being the incredible and annoyingly smart girl that she was, seemed to have anticipated Maria's question and acted as though it was a ridiculous question. "Are you okay, Maria? Have Dad been working you too hard, 'cause I think you're getting delusional."

Narrowing her eyes, Maria tried to act just as casual as the brunette. "That's funny. You know, I have been seeing things lately; you hanging around with a girl that usually scares the crap out of us. Especially me; your best friend, who showed up with your homework last month when you were sick, even though I had to read up on my history for a pop quiz the next day."

Liz rolled her eyes and smiled a little. "Don't even go there De Luca, because of my notes you aced that quiz, remember that?"

Damn, Maria thought, trying to come up with another way to guilt Liz into confessing whatever it was that she was obviously hiding.

"Look, Liz," Maria went with honesty after a brief internal debate, "I'm actually getting worried here. You never avoid me, you're not yourself. You haven't been this mean to anyone ever; not even Pam Troy. I just," a sigh escaped Maria's lips before she continued, "know that the shooting changed something between us and I don't want that. Whatever's going on, I can totally handle it. Trust me."

Liz's eyes glinted with something for a second, she looked like she was on the verge of breaking and Maria swallowed a smug smile and waited. Just as Liz opened her mouth, the door behind her was banged open and Mr. Parker reminded them that they were in fact working and that they weren't being paid to stand around talking about boys.

"Argh, Mr. Parker," Maria practically growled when Liz seemed to snap out of her hesitation and all but run back out to the diner floor to serve the customers. "You just can't help yourself, can you?"

Mr. Parker raised his eyebrows, looking completely confused over the harsh tone in his daughter's best friend's voice, but Maria brushed by him, eager to catch Liz unaware again as soon as possible.

I hope she's not in any kind of trouble, Maria thought worriedly as she absentmindedly placed a soda in front of the guy she had been crushing on. Except, Maria suddenly realized, forgetting about Liz for a fraction of a second, he's not doing anything for me anymore. That's odd, even for me; I normally don't jump from crush to crush like this.

Unexpectedly, an image of a smirking Michael erupted inside her mind and Maria placed her hand on the added throbbing just above her navel at the thought of the strange boy. I can't waste my time thinking about him right now, Maria scolded herself and quickly ran over to take another person's order, I have to make sure Liz isn't having problems that her brilliant mind can't get her out of.

For the next half hour there was so much to do, so many customers that Maria barely had time to breathe, let alone concentrate on interrogating her best friend. She did however manage to send the confused Mr. Parker a glare every now and then, which served to lift her mood to a somewhat tolerable level.

Of course the mood took a complete dive the moment she spotted Isabel Evans entering the diner, along with her two stupid friends. Maria briefly entertained the thought that she should go over and take their orders, so that Liz wouldn't get involved with yet another Evans, but fortunately for Maria's peace of mind, the third waitress, Agnes, strolled over and took the table. I guess that's for the best, Maria thought, Isabel does scare the living daylights out of me anyway.

A few minutes later, Maria was standing behind Liz, waiting impatiently for her finished order from the flirty Jose, when she suddenly felt a pang of…something in her belly and she placed her hand on her stomach with a soft gasp escaping her lips. To her surprise, Maria noticed that Liz had turned around; looking over her shoulder with her hand placed the exact same place as Maria's.

Full of trepidation, Maria copied Liz and turned around slowly, ignoring her every impulse to flee. When she saw just who had entered the Crashdown, she had to repress the instinct on a whole other level. Why is he always around so much these days? Maria mentally moaned and straightened up when Michael made his way over to an abandoned booth, followed closely by Max and to her big surprise, Alex.

Alex looked oddly comfortable amongst the two boys, but even Maria could see the confusion pouring out of the tall teenager. It shone like a beacon of light in the middle of the night. Or, Maria reasoned with an internal eye roll over her unwanted poetic side, like a geeky teenager being suddenly befriended by two mysterious loners.

Liz brought her back from her perusing by turning her head a fraction to let her gaze linger on Max. She looked like she was battling both some fear and some longing. Maria's protective instincts immediately kicked in and ignoring the uncharacteristically wide smile that Michael sent her way, she glared venomously at Max.

He seemed to be able to feel her stare, because his eyes slowly turned from Liz's to hers instead. His deep brown eyes widened a bit at first before narrowing as he calmly returned her gaze. If you're some evil doer out to hurt Liz, I'll get my mom's pepper spray and make sure your eye sockets will forget they ever had eyes!

"Maria," Liz's voice reached Maria in the middle of some pretty detailed fantasy and she blinked out of her staring contest with Max and focused on Liz.

"What? I didn't do anything." She defended, but Liz merely raised a brow in obvious disbelief. "Fine, whatever," Maria muttered, "I'll just get them their stupid cherry cola's."

Liz bit her lip, looking for all the world as though she wanted nothing more than to go over to Max's table herself, but Maria didn't give her a chance to say so. A moment later she was weaving her way through the tables toward Alex, Michael and Max.

The closer Maria got to the table, the more her stomach started to itch. If this doesn't go away soon, I'll have to go to Mom's healer and see if she can't get me some calming drops that actually work for once. Oh, Michael has pretty eyes. Wait, Maria furrowed her brows; where did that come from? I really need to-

A movement out of the corner of her eyes, was all the warning Maria got before she felt herself trip over a tanned leg and she stumbled forward and pain erupted violently from her hand.

As though in a daze, Maria looked down and saw a big piece of broken glass piercing her skin, right through her hand. Blood was oozing out of the wound from around the glass. Vaguely she heard a sound and glanced up.

Michael was running towards her, pushing people out of the way without mercy, he looked almost feral. Isabel literally dragged the girl, who'd tripped her out the door and didn't come back right away. Liz was already sitting next to her, cooing calming nonsense in her ear. Alex was making sure people didn't crowd her and Max was right behind Michael, looking extremely unlike his normal blank self.

"Maria, Baby, are you okay?" Maria heard Michael ask with a frantic tone in his voice. "Max, do something, please!"

Maria blinked, the pain was distracting her too much to really care about what was happening around her. She did, however, hear Mr. Parker say that he would take her to the hospital. Michael offered to take her himself, while Liz stated that she was coming with her to the hospital.

Michael hovered next to her and Maria found herself soothed by his presence alone, a notion that would probably have scared her senseless before her injury, but now it was merely that; soothing. "That's okay," she muttered, interrupting Mr. Parker, "I'll be fine."

"No, that looks bad, it'll be fixed right up, I promise Baby." Michael's voice again. Maria briefly wondered about the pet name, but didn't mention it, because Michael had turned to Max again, "Max, help her. It looks bad; I don't wanna see her bleed again. I can't. Please."

The pain flared up again and Maria couldn't quite contain a groan of agony; she was sorry that Michael had such a bad reaction to her blood, and thankful for the fact that he seemed to think Max could actually help her, but he was just a young man and not a doctor. So, she turned to Mr. Parker, about to agree to the hospital idea, when Michael spoke again, this time sounding both pleading and extremely angry.

"You'd do it in a heartbeat, if it was your-"

To her astonishment, Max suddenly seemed to radiate authority and power; instinctively she felt herself cower next to Liz, who'd also tensed up the moment Michael spoke. Instead of ramming Michael as she'd expected him to, Max simply placed his hand on Michael bare arm and looked him intently in the eyes.

Michael deflated a few seconds later and looked away with an almost shamed expression on his face. Then Max finally spoke. "Mr. Parker, please get me a towel."

The much older man quickly returned with the demanded cloth and handed it down to Max, who was crouching in front of Maria. He looked her deeply in the eyes and stated gently, "This won't hurt more than a second after I'm done."

Maria gasped in pain when Max suddenly grabbed the piece of glass in her hand and yanked it out, looking as though blood and injuries were a part of his everyday life. He quickly wrapped the towel around her bleeding hand and for one nanosecond, Maria could swear she felt a warmth spreading in her hand before all pain simply disappeared.

"What the…"she whispered and glanced down at Max's big hand on top of the towel. There was still a wound, no question about it, she could feel the cut in her hand, sense the blood flowing, albeit slower now, but there was undoubtedly still an open wound. What she couldn't feel was any kind of pain; any at all.

"She'll need stitches," Max said and got up, pulling Maria to her feet effortlessly, "Michael and me will take her to the hospital, Mr. Parker." He didn't give the older man a chance to protest as he started making his way through the other customers towards the door.

Just as they reached the door, it opened and Isabel stepped back inside. She looked murderous and Maria stopped moving in shock. She vividly remembered all the sneers and superior looks Isabel had given her over the years and would much prefer to receive one of those looks then the one she was being given now.

She looks like she's gonna kill me, Maria decided and swallowed, all her confusion about the painless injury momentarily pushed aside. Behind her, Maria heard Liz arguing with her dad about coming with them to the hospital. Eager to avoid the glare of death from Isabel, Maria turned her head and watched Mr. Parker run a hand through his dark brown hair.

"Look, Lizzie, I'm sorry, but I can't handle the diner without you. Agnes is going home, said she couldn't handle all the blood, so you're all I've got. I'm sorry sweetie."

"I can help."

The words froze the arguing family members and Maria turned back and looked at the speaker with incredulity shining out of her eyes – and a little bit of fear, to be honest.

Isabel Evans was standing with her arms crossed, her vicious glare was slowly turning back into the blank mask she usually wore and she looked genuinely sincere. "You don't know how to wait tables," Maria protested meekly and Isabel looked down at her, scaring her even more by actually smiling.

"It was my…friend, who did this and I feel bad. I've done this once before, and although it's been a while, I think I'll manage. Besides, Liz will help me out with everything I might need. Right, Liz?"

Maria's attention snapped back to Liz, who was – for once – looking just as afraid as Maria felt. Again Maria had the distinct feeling that there was obviously something going on that she didn't know about. After a long minute, Liz straightened up with a small smile. "Sure, Isabel. Let's go see if there's a uniform in the back that you can use. Call me as soon as you're home, Maria." Liz demanded, leading the way for Isabel.

Maria caught the almost amused look Isabel sent back to Max and the still hovering Michael. Maria also noticed how her eyes softened more than just a little at the sight of Alex, who had placed himself next to Maria, obviously completely determined to follow her to the hospital.

Michael's touch brought her back to the present and a few moments later they were all sitting in Max's jeep. Michael's arm was around her shoulders and he kept asking her if she was okay. Maria felt like she was dreaming. All her worries and theories were in the back of her mind at the moment, the only thing she worried about now was whether or not Isabel would become a regular waitress at the Crashdown.

If that's the case, Maria thought, leaning into Michael, unconsciously seeking his protection and warmth, I think I might die from stress before I even graduate high school. If Queen Amidala doesn't kill me first, I mean.

--

TBC…

A/N Not a lot of Alien thinking this time, but I hope you all enjoyed it regardless. I worried about the interaction between all the characters – after all I had two ´action` sequences this time he he. Please take a moment to review, it really means the world to me! Thank you all.

Until Next Time

Ditte Mai