Author's Note: A few lines in this part were borrowed from the Season Three Roswell episode Ch-Ch-Changes.

Part 20

Liz was straightening up when someone knocked on the door and the simple pleasure of having a door for someone else to knock on made her smile. She glanced around on her way to the living area and experienced a rare moment of peace. It wasn't permanent, she knew that, but she had every intention of enjoying it while it lasted. She pulled the door open and motioned for Maria to hurry up and come inside.

"I was hoping it'd be you."

"After this morning's interruption I wouldn't have answered the door," Maria said as she walked into the small kitchen and set a bag on the counter.

"Well… he's just been under a lot of pressure."

"That may be the reason for his behavior but it doesn't excuse it." She rolled her eyes and shrugged out of her coat, draping it over the back of the couch as she followed Liz. Her eyes wandered over the furniture, the spacious interior and the romantic French doors that led into the bedroom. "He's reverting back to old behaviors and I know it's his way of coping but it still doesn't excuse him."

"Okay, well, his timing could've been better," Liz admitted as she put the last of Max's clothes away. "So, where's Isabel?"

"She went up to the house to give Julia a hand with the cookies since Maggie went with the guys to go fishing or whatever." She wrinkled her nose and shuddered comically. "I can't imagine anything that would be worse than standing on a block of ice and fishing through a little hole when it's this cold out." She paused a moment. "Okay, well, that wouldn't be any fun if it wasn't this cold either."

Liz rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it. And when they come back we'll be duty-bound to be impressed with whatever they've caught."

"I don't know about duty-bound but I'll be impressed if Michael catches something. He's never been fishing a day in his life so if he catches anything at all it'll be impressive. You might be duty bound and so is…"

They looked at each other and said, "Mrs. Valenti," at the same time before they burst out laughing.

Maria's eyes followed Liz as she moved around the room, straightening things up and dusting. Busy work, she realized. "So, spill, how was your night?" She watched her hand hesitate as she wiped down the mirror that hung on the bathroom door. "It must've been good if the coffee was still in the box by the door." She rolled her eyes when Liz continued to wipe the mirror down. "Good grief, Liz, you're gonna polish that mirror until it no longer reflects… what exactly did that thing see last night?"

Liz literally felt the heat in her face and knew without looking that she had flushed crimson. "Maria," she protested.

"I'm just sayin'… it's got a great view of the bed," she teased, laughing when Liz turned yet another shade of red.

She smiled slightly as she moved away from the mirror, folding and refolding the little dust cloth she held. "It feels weird to be together like this. I've really missed this."

Maria held a hand up and pointed to the bed. "Sit. I'll be right back." She ran to grab the contents from the bag she had left on the kitchen counter and rummaged around in a couple of the drawers before hurrying back. She offered the pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream to Liz along with a spoon and she sat down across from her on the foot of the bed. "I sooo could not believe that Big Dave had cookie dough ice cream!" She wiggled around in a parody of her happy dance. "Yay! Okay, let's talk. For real, chica"

"Weren't we just talking?" Liz asked with a frown as she popped the top off of the ice cream and leaned over to place it on the nightstand.

"You know what I mean." She pointed at Liz with her spoon. "Talk to me. How was your night?"

"It was… Parts of it were good. Like really good," she said with a tinge of red heating up her cheeks, "but there's just something, I don't know, missing." She sighed as she held the ice cream out to Maria so she could get some. "I guess I was hoping that our connection wouldn't feel so distant since we were alone and for the first time in what feels like forever it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment rushed thing."

Maria nodded as she sucked on the spoonful of ice cream she had just put in her mouth. "I know what you mean."

Liz took another bite of her ice cream and pulled her knees up as she leaned back against the headboard. "How was your night with Michael?"

"Long." She exhaled slowly. "I don't feel him reach out to me with his mind anymore, Liz," she admitted finally, her voice low. "Not even when we've been, you know, together." She glanced at her reflection in the full-length mirror, taking in her flawless hair and makeup along with the clothing that was layered for the weather but courtesy of Isabel, still had style.

As she met her own gaze she was taken back to another bedroom and another mirror that she had stood in front of, trying out outfits and chattering on about being with Michael after learning about the demo deal.

"This so does not mean that we are back together."

Liz had been sitting on her bed, watching her. "Does Michael know that?"

"Well, he knows that I'm not interested in having what we used to have. I've been clear about that. It's a… it's a boy-girl friendship with a twist."

"It sounds romantic…"

She slumped back against the low footboard and stared morosely at the ice cream. What was I thinking?

"Do you think he's holding back on purpose?"

Maria nodded sadly. "Yeah. He's forgiven me, you know? But he doesn't trust me anymore, like, emotionally. It wasn't easy for him to open up to me and when he did I turned around and destroyed that trust." Her vision blurred and she wished futilely that she could go back and somehow change the past, erase those mistakes. "I don't know if he'll ever be able to trust me again."

"Maria, no, don't say that," Liz said as she moved to sit beside her best friend so she could hug her. "Have you guys ever talked about that?"

"Have you and Max ever talked about things?" Maria countered.

She stuck her tongue out at Maria. "That's definitely one of the negative factors about being a couple trapped in that van day and night with four other people. No privacy kinda means you can't talk or argue or… well, you know…"

Maria laughed when she saw the blush on the brunette's face. "Oh, Liz, I love you, girl," she said as she hugged her.

"Maybe breaking down here happened for a reason, you know?" Liz shrugged. "I don't know. We all needed the break from each other, a little space to give us some perspective and a chance to reconnect with each other. Our relationships are all in need of some help and now we have the opportunity to work on them while we're stranded here." It was true, she thought. Whether it was their friendships or romantic relationships, they all needed a little something. She dragged her spoon through the ice cream, creating a deep trench in the center of it. "I just hope we really do get to stay through Christmas before we have to wedge ourselves back into that van and leave again."

"Well," Maria leaned her shoulder against Liz's as she reached for the pint of ice cream, "if Kyle's right about the engine I don't think that'll be a stretch. He's pretty sure it's shot. But we've also got Isabel on our side, and her plan to do this Christmas thing will definitely keep us here through the holiday. And seriously, who's gonna tell her no?"

"True, and there's Julia. She didn't seem to think the van would be repaired before Christmas. Of course, she's a mom and I think she's watching out for us."

Maria nodded. "She's really intuitive, but you're right, she's got that whole mom thing going on. It feels kinda nice to have her fussing over us though, doesn't it?" She sobered as she stared out through the window above the nightstand. "I miss my mom so much, Liz."

Liz shifted to rest her head on Maria's shoulder. "Me too."

"You know, we should have a girls' night while we're here and include Isabel. I know she has Kyle to talk to, but it's not the same."

"Yeah, we should do that. Who knows when we'll get the chance to do that again?"

Silence fell over them as they wondered how much longer they would be together after they left Stevens Sanctuary. There were enough uncertainties in their lives right now without bringing that into the mix. The thought of being separated was too hard to think about and before long they decided to go up to the house and give Julia and Isabel a hand with the cookies.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Michael watched Kyle as he carefully removed the hook from the mouth of the fish he had just pulled up, waiting to see what he was going to do with it. Here it comes, he thought when Kyle held the thing so he could look it in the eye. "Put that thing on the ice with the others," he said before it could be released back into the water. He was going to start chanting over it, praying over it, or contemplating the meaning of life with it any second now.

Edward looked up when he heard the two of them talking and he shook his head. It was the second fish Kyle had pulled in and if he stayed true to form it would be the second one he turned loose. He could hear the annoyance in Michael's voice and honestly, if that fish went back in the water after another speech about the circle of life he was banning Kyle from the ice.

Kyle turned his head to look at the hill where Maggie and Eddie were sledding. Earlier the boys had been fishing side by side when they had gotten into an argument because Brian wanted Eddie to switch spots with him and the younger boy had refused. He had caught several fish while his brother had caught nothing and he didn't want the hole Brian was unsuccessfully fishing.

Edward had settled the fight by asking Eddie to take Maggie to the sledding hill on Mr. Tony's property and to keep an eye on her. Brian had quickly moved, taking the hole Eddie had been fishing from and Max had offered to take his spot. The fish had wasted no time taking the bait for Max and Brian had been confused when he hadn't gotten so much as a nibble of interest.

Kyle glanced at the fish lying on the ice, swallowing hard when he saw the most recent catch flipping around, struggling to breathe. He couldn't do it. He looked at the fish in his hand one more time before crouching down and turning it loose.

"Valenti, I swear, you're tryin' my patience," Michael growled. "Does Buddha not understand the concept of hunger?"

"Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace," he said simply. His dad hadn't understood him either, he mused, remembering the day they had gone fishing and his poor dad had gone off on a rant about the guys not coming over to watch games anymore and how the Buddha thing was getting in the way of him dating. At least Dad tried to understand later though, he thought with a wry smile.

Michael had no idea what that meant and he didn't particularly care.

"I think I'll go see if Eddie wants to switch off an' I'll keep Maggie company on the hill." He smiled and gave Edward a nod as he passed him.

"Your brother-in-law's a strange fella," Edward commented with a quick look at Max.

Max started to correct the older man but suddenly remembered that the family believed his sister was married to Kyle. "Yeah, he's um…"

"He's an idiot," Michael muttered with a shake of his head.

"Uh-huh." Edward glanced up when one of the tip flags raised and he went to pull it in. Beneath the exasperation in Michael's tone was something else that he couldn't quite put his finger on. Fondness? No. Respect maybe, he decided. He had a feeling that if anyone outside of their group called Kyle an idiot they wouldn't get away with it.

Max watched Edward, taking in everything he was doing and committing it to memory in case he ever needed it later on. How many times had he gone fishing with his dad over the years? He smiled at the memory of the first time his dad had taken him fishing when he was seven years old. At the time he hadn't understood what they were doing. All he had known was that what they were doing made his dad happy and he had wanted to be just like the man. He had been so proud the first time he had reeled in a fish and it hadn't mattered that it was just barely large enough to keep. From his dad's reaction anyone who didn't know better would have thought he had just reeled in the largest fish he had ever seen.

The happiness of that memory dissipated as he pictured the last time they had gone out on the lake together. He could still remember the sense of betrayal that had washed over him when he had discovered the board in his dad's office. All he had seen was an investigation into who he was. What he was. And he had immediately gone on the offensive. The man who had raised him, who he had grown up loving and emulating, had suddenly felt like the enemy and he hadn't been able to reconcile that in his head.

At the time he hadn't been able to understand that the secrecy that surrounded him like a cloak had concerned his dad, worried him. He had seen it as nothing more than someone digging around and trying to expose his secrets. He barely saw the large pike he was unhooking as his memory took another turn and he remembered feeling cornered when his mom had questioned him after the fire he had put out in their kitchen. That day in the park when they had sat on the bench and he had offered to leave… he hadn't seen it at the time but he had hurt her so badly.

Both times he hadn't been able to see beyond the questions they were asking, taking their concerns as an attack on him. Now that he was a father he could understand a little better that they had simply been trying to get answers, trying to understand why their own child couldn't come to them with his problems, why he couldn't trust them with whatever was bothering him. They had just been trying to help him, to protect him, and what had he given them in return? More worry, more concerns, more fear for their children… and probably for themselves as well. He wished he could go back, really sit down and talk to them and explain.

He glanced over his shoulder when Michael moved to the next upended flag to pull the line in. He knew Michael fought his own demons on a daily basis and it wasn't fair for him to be shouldering everything. There was a reason why, as king, he'd had a second in command. It was too much responsibility for one person to carry alone and Michael had been stuck doing it because he had turned in his king card and someone had to make the tough decisions.

"I'm not interested, Evans."

His eyebrows lifted at Michael's comment. "What?"

"Whatever you're thinkin' the answer's no."

Max chuckled and shook his head. "Just thinkin' mine's bigger."

Michael just snorted without raising his head. "Not likely." He looked at the perch hanging from the hooks on the line he had just pulled in before glancing at the much larger fish that Max had just unhooked. Well, of course his kingship would have the larger one. Fish, that is, he added with a mental high-five to himself.

"Aww, you caught two little ones!" Maggie said as she crouched down across from Michael. "When we went fishin' last summer me an' Mama caught some perch like yours an' she named them Percy an' Pringle. Can we name yours that? They're almost as big as the ones me an' Mama caught."

Michael cleared his throat. "I thought you were sleddin'?" he asked as he added his catch to the rest.

"It's getting too dark. Kyle just sledded through a bush an' I don't think he wants to do that anymore."

The guys turned to look at Kyle, taking in the scratches on his face and his disgruntled expression.

"What, Buddha doesn't have a sayin' for this one?" Michael questioned with a smirk.

"Yeah, somethin' like 'man who sleds through bush gets berries in hair' or somethin'?" Max asked.

"Buddha and Confucius are not the same. And Confucius never said anything like that."

"Now he's an expert on the fortune cookie king," Michael muttered.

Maggie stood up and reached out to pat Kyle's arm. "Maybe Isabel will kiss an' make it all better. Do ya wanna go back home now?" She walked over to Daddy and tugged on his sleeve. "Daddy, me an' Kyle's gonna go home now, 'kay?"

Edward glanced up at the sky and then back at the path they had taken to get to the lake. He motioned to one of the snowmobiles as he looked at Kyle. "Be careful when you cross over 23 an' tell Julia we won't be far behind."

"I'd just about pay to see Isabel's expression when Maggie makes that suggestion," Max muttered under his breath.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The girls looked up when the back door opened and Maggie and Kyle stepped inside, stomping the snow from their boots. The house was warm and smelled of freshly baked cookies and something else… Kyle sniffed the air and his stomach grumbled in response. Spaghetti or lasagna, he decided and a moment later narrowed it down to lasagna since there was no evidence of spaghetti cooking on the stovetop.

"What happened to you?" Isabel demanded as soon as she saw the scratches on his face.

"Kyle was sledding down the big hill at Mr. Tony's house an' he went right through a bush," Maggie told them. "I never seen anyone do that before."

"Just how many bushes were there?" Isabel asked.

"Oh, it's all by itself an' Mr. Tony puts lights on it at Christmastime so nobody runs into it." She looked up at Isabel when she approached them. "Are you gonna kiss an' make it better for him?"

Kyle's face was red and he couldn't blame all of it on the cold. "It was a really big bush," he explained. He glanced at Julia for a moment. "Edward wanted me to tell you the others aren't far behind. I think they were tryin' to catch a couple more fish before callin' it a night." He nudged Maggie. "Why don't you tell 'em about Michael's catch," he suggested.

The little girl quickly launched into the story and Isabel shook her head when Kyle mouthed an I'm sorry at her. She reached up to tip his chin up to examine the scratches, deciding after a moment that they were superficial.

When the guys traipsed in a while later Kyle was in the living room being waited on while the girls listened to him recounting his life-threatening sledding feat down what had suddenly turned into Martin Mountain. Michael rolled his eyes as he and Max exchanged a look.

"We bring dinner home an' he's the one bein' fawned over," he muttered after a quick glance into the living room.

"Go figure." Max lifted an arm to wave at his wife, smiling when she deserted Kyle in favor of greeting him.

"Alright, we've got fish to clean," Edward said as he shrugged out of his outer gear and put it away. He sent Brian and Eddie upstairs to clean up and he waited to see if one of his guests would offer to help with the fish.

"I'll give you a hand with that," Michael offered when he noticed the green tint to Max's skin. He'd never be able to stomach it and neither would Kyle. "You should probably get cleaned up, Maxwell. Grab some attention before Valenti hogs it all."

Edward walked over to the counter and peeled an edge of the foil back off of the foil pans placed next to each other. He turned when Julia came up behind him and he shook his head at her.

"What? They're going in the fridge for dinner tomorrow night." Her eyes danced with humor when she saw the look on his face. He knew lasagna had been her backup plan in case they had come back empty-handed.

"They'll never last in the fridge."

She made a face at him. "They'll go in the freezer."

Max was proudly showing off the rather large pike he had caught and going on about ice fishing, explaining how it worked when Maria came into the kitchen.

"So, I hear your haul was pretty impressive," she said with a smile as she stretched up to give Michael a kiss.

"Well, they were until I saw that," he said with a nod at the fish Max was showing off.

Maria waved dismissively at Max and his fish. "He's been fishing for what, 12 or 13 years? This was your first time and you caught something… that's pretty impressive if you ask me." She bit back the smile when he straightened up slightly before reaching for the bucket he had set on the floor.

"Yeah, okay, that's true." He pulled the line up to show off his catch and he felt ridiculously pleased at the impressed look on her face. It wasn't like he had gone out and conquered a city or anything but she made him feel like he had done something huge. "I've gotta give Edward a hand cleanin' 'em and then he's got some secret batter he's gonna make so I can cook 'em."

"I'm sure they'll be delicious. Make sure I get one of yours." She had no idea what kind of fish he had caught or what it would even taste like but she didn't care. He was proud of himself and he had an actual smile on his face.