Author's Note: A few lines in this part were borrowed from the Roswell episode "Baby it's You".

Part 16

Morning light filtered in through the cabin windows as Michael stared up at the ceiling, lost in thought. His mind was racing from one topic to the next as he considered their situation, wondered about his and Maria's relationship, weighed their options if things went south for any reason, and even pondered Kyle's words to him the night before. He didn't know how to turn off that hyper-vigilance and he wouldn't even if he could. Their safety, their lives, depended on his ability to protect them. They looked to him to make decisions and that responsibility weighed heavily on him. It probably wouldn't hurt to tone it down a notch or two but he wasn't sure he even knew how to do that anymore.

Maybe the sleep he'd gotten would help, he thought. How long had it been since they had slept through the night? Since they had been alone together in a warm bed? He glanced down at Maria when she moved closer and buried her face in the crook of his neck, snuffling sleepily against his skin. He shifted his hip away from her when she stretched lazily, bringing her dangerously close to finding out just how awake he was. He held her for a few minutes, taking advantage of the opportunity to be close to her. When she moved, her hand tracing random patterns on his abdomen he decided it was time to get out of bed.

He didn't realize how cool it was until he threw the covers back and gooseflesh erupted on his skin. Maria glared at him blearily as she made a grab for the blankets, pulling them tight around her and blocking the draft. He hissed audibly when his bare feet landed on the floor for an icy introduction.

Maria sat up, wrapped up in the blankets with just her head sticking out. "Michael, come back to bed," she said as she shivered. "I'm cold."

He ignored the temptation to crawl back into bed with her and forced himself to cross over to the fireplace. "It's almost nine and Julia wanted us back at the house between nine an' ten for breakfast." He put wood in the fireplace and stretched his hand out, nodding in satisfaction when flames began to dance over the logs. He turned to look at Maria. "I'm gonna grab a shower."

Maria fell back against the pillows and just waited for it. She watched him walk into the bathroom and held her breath for the handful of seconds it took for him to discover that he wouldn't be showering. She was mentally counting down to one when she heard it.

The mother of all bad words.

His voice was low but she heard it all the same and she couldn't stop the giggle that escaped. "Aww, Michael said a bad, bad word," she teased. "If 'damn' gets you dishwashing duty, what d'you suppose you get for that one?"

Michael just gave her the look as he stepped out of the bathroom. "We need to go down to Max and Liz's cabin for a meetin' anyway. So get ready an' I'll just take my shower there."

"Michael, you can't just go over there and expect to take a shower! That's their space while we're here. You wouldn't like it if one of them came over and – "

"So, you'd rather I just not shower?"

"Well, no, that's not what I said."

"Then I'd suggest you get ready to go."

Maria made a face as she got up. "You do know you can be insufferable when you want to be, right?" She rolled her eyes when he just looked at her. "When did we decide we were having a meeting?"

"We're leavin' in ten minutes," he said as he sat down and started lacing his boots up.

She let it go and grabbed her clothes, running across the cold floor and barricading herself in the bathroom to get ready. When she emerged nine minutes later she propped her hands on her hips and looked at him. "What is that look for?"

"I told you ten minutes," he said, his eyes tracing over her. She had dressed in jeans and a shirt, brushed her teeth, pulled her hair into a ponytail and forgotten her makeup.

"So? I'm ready."

"Fine, you'd better bring your makeup with you 'cause we're not comin' back here for a while."

She shook her head at him as she tried to decide if he was being deliberately obtuse and finally came to the conclusion that he was as clueless as he appeared. "I haven't physically put makeup on in six months, Michael."

"What?" Damn, he looked at her every day. He was pretty sure he'd remember her not wearing makeup.

"One of the perks of being on the run with aliens."

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes. "Can we go now?"

She shrugged. "Just waiting on you." She smirked when he growled and grabbed their coats before putting the fire out and rushing her out the door.

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Maria's gaze bounced between Kyle and Isabel as they plowed through what had to be at least a foot of fresh snow. She was certain she and Michael had interrupted something because Kyle looked absolutely gleeful while Isabel looked like she was on the verge of killing him.

"I don't suppose you could reverse it?" Michael asked, drawing Isabel's wrathful gaze.

"What?" she snapped.

"The snow… don't guess you could reverse it?"

For a moment she just stared at him and then she remembered standing in the center of the park back home in Roswell, making it snow and trying to calm her brother down. Michael had ridden up on his bike and motioned to the snow falling around them.

"A little public, isn't it?"

"It's a freak storm, you know, who cares?"

A faint smile let him know she had caught the reference and he nodded in response. "So… Valenti drivin' you nuts?"

Kyle just grinned unrepentantly as he turned to walk backwards, not really considering how difficult that would be. "Do you know just how freaked out Isabel gets over clowns?"

Well, that explained Isabel's mood, Michael thought. She'd had a weird fear of clowns since they were kids. He didn't like clowns but he wasn't afraid of them. There was just something wrong with the way they hid behind the painted-on masks, the heavy grease makeup creating grotesque faces that hid the truth.

"You have a clown in your cabin?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, he's short and he's not as funny as he thinks he is."

Kyle stuck his tongue out at Isabel. "She hid it in the broom closet in the kitchen."

"He had it propped up in the cabinet over the coffee pot this morning so when I went to grab a cup the damn thing jumped out at me." She glared at him when he laughed and when he suddenly tripped over a snowdrift she reached out to shove him, pushing him back into the snow.

"Hey, this stuff's cold, ya know!" he sputtered as he struggled to get back up on his feet.

"Suck it up, Kyle." Isabel shook her head at him and kept walking. "Why don't you tell them about your Mickey Mouse sheets," she tossed over her shoulder.

Maria turned her head to look at Kyle, trying hard not to laugh. "You slept on cartoon sheets?"

"Well, apparently Julia only has sheets with cartoon characters on them for the twin bed… and since the wife was in a mood last night, I had to take what I could get." His joking tone ended in a coughing fit when 'the wife' suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned to face him.

"That's what you told her?" Her icy gaze shot to Michael. "Is that what he told her?"

"I'm not getting in the middle of your marital dispute." He walked around her. "C'mon, we've got a meetin' to get to."

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Max opened his eyes, glancing around the room as he tried to identify the muted voices he could hear. For several seconds his fuzzy mind tried to understand why anyone would be so excited over a food processor before he remembered that he had gotten up and turned the television on. He turned his attention back to the woman in his arms when the feel of her skin against his woke the rest of his body up. What would he give to be able to wake up like this every morning? he wondered.

He peppered her shoulder with whisper-soft kisses, nibbling his way up to her neck. He brushed her hair back and sucked on the sensitive spot between her neck and shoulder. She shifted back against him, pushing her backside into the cradle of his hips and he heard the smile in her sleep-roughened voice when she whispered a, "Good mornin' to you too, Mr. Evans."

Liz added a tantalizing wiggle that made him groan before she turned in his arms and pulled him down for a proper good morning kiss. "I could get used to waking up like this," she whispered.

He chuckled roughly in agreement. "I can – " Pounding on the door interrupted him and he growled when he heard the accompanying voices. "We can ignore them… they'll go away."

She nearly snorted at the hopeful denial in his voice. "You know better than that."

He shook his head as he leaned over the edge of the bed, snatching up his discarded jeans. He gave her one last kiss before getting up and jerking them up over his legs. He finished dressing on his way to the door, muttering under his breath the whole way. He paused a moment with his hand on the doorknob, drawing in a deep breath and turning it just as another round of pounding started.

"Hey, you got coffee made yet?" Michael asked as he barged past Max as soon as the door opened. "I'm gonna grab a shower and then we're havin' a meeting."

"Um, we were kinda…" he trailed off when Michael continued on his way and he hurried after him to stop him before he could walk in on Liz still in bed.

"What is wrong with you?" Michael demanded when Max jumped in front of him.

"You can't just walk in there! Liz was – "

"Your wife's modesty is safe, Maxwell… If I was lookin' for a cheap thrill that's not where I'd be lookin' an' she's in the kitchen anyway."

Max' mouth dropped open as he turned to see for himself that Liz was indeed in the kitchen.

Maria mouthed a silent apology at her best friend, grinning at the slight blush that crept up over Liz's cheeks. It was obvious she had dressed in a hurry and the bedroom on the other side of the open glass double doors revealed the unmade bed that had been hastily vacated.

Michael shook his head as he glanced around the bathroom. Every damn time, he thought. He and Maria had the tub with no shower crammed into a small bathroom. Isabel and Kyle had an even smaller bathroom with a shower stall you could practically put your feet in while sitting on the toilet. Max and Liz had ended up with a roomy bathroom that had a tub big enough for two people and a separate shower. Where was the justice?

He turned in a circle, eyes scanning over the rest of the room as he started the water and stripped out of his clothes. Even the john was set apart from the rest of the room. He dug around for a bar of soap and only came up with body wash. He eyed the name of the scent warily. What the hell was joe-joe-bah anyway? He unscrewed the cap and inhaled, further annoyed at the scent that lacked a sense of masculinity. He did one more search of the cabinets before accepting that it was this or nothing.

He snorted at the wall heater before staring at the walls, trying to figure out what color they were. Some kinda red or purple or something… He tipped his head to one side. What was that crap that people always put out on Thanksgiving? They dumped it out of a can and set the jiggling, can-shaped crap on the table… cranberry sauce! Was cranberry even a color? He rolled his eyes and reached for one of the towels on shelf near the tub. Big, soft, fluffy… the ones he and Maria had weren't like this. "Wouldn't wanna chafe the king's ass," he muttered under his breath. Even in the middle of nowhere Max managed to come out on top.

"So, um, is there a problem with your shower?" Max asked as he scratched the back of his head. He didn't want to be rude or anything but they had kinda been in the middle of something.

"Only a problem so far as there's no shower to speak of," Maria answered in an apologetic tone.

"Plus it's nearly nine and El Capitan's got a bug up his ass about us havin' a meetin' before breakfast," Kyle added as he started checking out the contents of the cabinets in the kitchen. He turned his head to look at Liz. "Where's the coffee?"

"The coffee?"

"Julia sent the basics with each of us last night." He made a face at her. "Remember?"

"Oh, right, it's in the box over by the door."

"By the door? You didn't…" he glanced between her and Max, smirking at their red faces. "Oh, right. Nevermind, 'nuff said." He went to collect the coffee and set about making a pot.

Maria wandered around the kitchen while Kyle leaned on the long green and black marble tiled countertop. The cabinets were stained a warm oak color, giving the room a homey feel. The appliances were probably as old as she was and maybe even older, but they were clean and well cared for. This cabin seemed to have a forestry theme, she thought as her eyes moved over the deep green curtains that framed the window above the sink. Even the little night light, plugged into an outlet by the window was shaped like a fir tree.

The floor was a warm beige, a nice complement to the darker colors used in the room. The small rug in front of the sink was decorated with a moose and more fir trees. She paused in her perusal of the room to glance at Isabel, watching her for a moment as she moved around the living area, no doubt cataloging its imperfections. She smiled to herself at that thought. It was just a part of who Isabel was, a coping mechanism that she had developed to deal with whatever was going on.

Isabel reached for the stuffed grizzly bear propped up in the wooden rocking chair in one corner of the room, holding it as she turned to take the seat for herself. She glanced around to take in the cabin, intentionally ignoring the looks going back and forth between her brother and Liz. She studiously avoided the bed as her eyes traced over the bedside table and the imitation Tiffany lamp that resided at its center. She frowned at the door on one of the walls in the bedroom, certain that it was a closet. The room itself was beige with a deep green carpet on the floor. The windows above the nightstand were covered with lace curtains and drawn back to show the snowy landscape behind the cabin. She turned her head and caught the full-length mirror on the closed bathroom door that faced the bedroom and gave a perfect view of… No, do not let your thoughts go there! She shuddered comically and turned her attention back to the living area, her eyes settling on the fireplace. Electric, she realized as her eyes moved over the knobs that controlled the thermostat.

"Floor might be a little bit wet," Michael said as he came back into the room.

Max just gritted his teeth together. He had no doubt the bathroom floor was wet and he also had no doubt Michael had left big wet footprints all over on purpose.

Liz sniffed the air when he walked past her, knowing he was doing his best to aggravate Max. "That's a nice floral scent you've got there, Michael." She forced a too-sweet smile on her face when he turned to glare at her.

He just barely caught himself before he shot the finger at her. The one and only time he had ever done that Maria had nearly annihilated him. He busied himself digging around in his coat pocket when he noticed Maria pouring him a cup of coffee. When she brought it to him he turned and handed her the cookies he had brought back with him the night before. He raised an eyebrow at the obnoxious happy face on the front of the mug. "Alright, let's get down to business," he said after taking a drink. "We need to get a few things straightened out before we go up to the house."

"Hey, can I have one of those?" Kyle asked as he reached around Maria.

"Let's focus on why we're here," Michael huffed impatiently as he shoved Kyle's hand away. "We need to get on the same page with this insane story before we completely give ourselves away."

Maria handed Kyle one of the cookies and he snatched it and ran back to the safety of the kitchen area. She laughed, but sobered when she caught the impatient look on Michael's face. "Sorry, important meeting." She knew how important it was that they all have the same story and not slip up and adlib somewhere, possibly tripping all of them up, but she also knew that his intensity could receive a negative response from the others under the right circumstances.

Michael nodded after a moment and cleared his throat.