ROSWELL on PLANET-SF

EPILOGUE

Two months had passed since the unbelievable occurrence had transpired in room 285 at the Lighthouse Inn. Roswell, New Mexico faded back into normalcy for Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, Isabel and Kyle. It was a few weeks into the fall semester and Isabel and Kyle were both back in town for a few days from Las Cruces for faculty conferences; Kyle spending a lot of time with his long distance girlfriend Morgan. Isabel was spending most of her time alone or with her family.

The betrayal of Bret has caused her more mental anguish than she let on. Once the flamboyant, beautiful, self-confident Isabel Evans, now she was changed. Things that used to be important to her were no longer as meaningful. Her grades had fallen since the start of the fall semester; her social life had become non-existent. If it hadn't been for Kyle Valenti, it was doubtful Isabel would have ever left her dorm room except for class. Kyle had been her lifeline. He tried to keep her spirits high, no matter how hard she tried to fight smiling. She knew he was sacrificing some of the fun stuff of the first few weeks of school to spend time with her, he'd never know how much it had meant to her.

She had replayed Bret's words to her over and over in her mind. Did I remind you of anyone? She had never hated anyone more than she had him at that moment. Hearing those words come from his mouth had killed a part of her. Alex. Sweet Alex. She had been duped into falling for Bret. Tess had actually known her well enough to pull it off. Isabel hated them both with a passion. She was glad Bret was dead.

"You okay, Iz?" Max peeked his head around her bedroom door.

"Yeah." She sat up on the bed. "What're you doing here?"

"Can't I come visit my sister?" he asked, walking in the room and sitting down next to her. "Liz and I are have a get together at our place tomorrow. You going to be able to make it?"

"Well, let me check my calendar." She looked thoughtfully in the air. "I guess I can pencil you in."

"You sure?"

"What else would I be doing Max? I don't have a social life outside of you guys, and even that's not much of one."

"Thanks," he frowned at her.

"You know what I mean." She smiled, but it wasn't a real Isabel smile. It paled in comparison to the ones she used to have.

"What's going on with you?"

"I don't know." She bowed her head.

"Bret?"

"Probably."

"You did the right thing."

"Did I? I killed my boyfriend, Max. How is that the right thing?"

"He wasn't your boyfriend Iz, he didn't care about you. He was using you, he was playing all of us." Max hated seeing his sister heartbroken for the second time in just over a year. "We're all here for you. You know that, right?"

"Here for me?" she snorted. "Here for me how? Are you at school with me when I cry myself to sleep every night? Are you with me when my body shakes with guilt?"

"Iz..." He hugged her and let her cry on his shoulders. "No regrets, remember?"

"I regret everything. I regret ever letting anyone know about us. I regret going along with you," Isabel snapped drawing herself away from him. "If you would have kept our stupid secret Alex would still be alive. Liz and Maria and Kyle would go about their happy lives and never be in danger or hurt because of us. We wouldn't have to look after them."

"Do you mean that?"

Isabel nodded hesitantly. "I think so."

"Okay. I'm sorry you feel that way. But if I had kept our secret Liz wouldn't be going about her happy life, she would have died on the floor of the Crashdown. Leia wouldn't exist and Michael would have probably left town and gotten himself killed for doing something stupid. You don't know what would have happened to Alex and you wouldn't care. If it wasn't for Liz and Maria you would have never fallen for him. He was their friend."

Isabel listened and nodded. "I can't help thinking that things could have been different."

"Sure, they would have been different, but do you really think they would have been better?"

"'Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.'" She managed a semi-real smile. "Something like that, right?"

"Yeah." He smiled back at her. "No regrets, Isabel."

"No regrets." She took his hand and squeezed.

* * * *

Michael was unbuttoning his light brown Academy uniform shirt as fast as he could. He threw it to the floor and pulled his T-shirt over his head. He heeled off his shoes and threw his socks across the room. The belt was undone and the top button of the uniform pants was almost through the buttonhole when Maria placed her hand on his. She was smiling.

"I won!" she laughed. "I told you I am a master at getting that stupid little uniform off. Did you really think you would beat me?"

"You've had more practice," he looked at her nakedness. "I've only been wearing this for like, six weeks. You've been wearing that forever." He smiled as he felt her finish pushing the button through the hole and then ease down the zipper. Pants dropping to the floor, Maria dropping to her knees. She took him in her mouth, her hands caressing his ass. "Sweet Jesus." Michael took a deep breath.

Her tongue moved in short jabs at him, her teeth grazing his skin. Michael shuddered and placed his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him and smiled. He was shaking his head, eyes closed.

"Can't do this any more," he whispered extending his hands to her. "I want to be inside of you. How much time do we have?"

Maria accepted his hands and stood in front of him glancing over her shoulder at the clock in back of her. "An hour. I have to back home in an hour."

"I can do an hour." He pulled her close to him, into him and cupped her face in his hands. He licked her neck feeling goosebumps rise underneath his tongue. Her arms over his shoulders, his body pressed into hers. His hands glided down her shoulders and slid down to grasp her ass. He walked towards her forcing her to walk backwards until she felt the coolness of the wall. He lifted her on to him and she helped him inside her. One hand braced him against the wall; the other was trembling underneath Maria as he thrust into her. He stopped and looked in her eyes. "Condom."

"I've been on birth control since Leia was born," she grinned mischievously.

"You have?"

"Surprise! I had to wait until it kicked in."

"Are you sure it will work?"

She cocked her head to one side and shrugged. "I sure hope so."

He grinned back at her and let her slide off of him. He picked her up and kissed her as he carried her into the bedroom, kicking the door open, and laying her on his bed. "You keep getting more beautiful every day." She smiled lovingly at him, tracing his lips with her finger. He drew her finger in his mouth and savoured the taste. Savoured her.

Maria felt his warmth deep inside her; warmth that she was confident would never disappear. She moved so quickly that Michael didn't have time to react. She pinned his arms in back of him and straddled him, hovering over him, she lowered herself and felt him inside her. He shuddered and tried to move his arms. Maria held them down tight and shook her head when he looked at her. He smiled sideways and let her do what she pleased. Her still swollen breasts hung in front of his face and he lapped them up as much as she'd allow. Teasing. Only letting him take a nipple in his mouth for a few seconds, then watching as his mouth opened for more.

He licked his suddenly dry lips and then opened his mouth as Maria's clamped down on his threatening to take his breath away. He moaned as she rocked and without warning he climaxed, second later she followed and collapsed on his chest breathing hard. She released his arms and felt them close in around her.

"You and Leia are my world," he mumbled barely audible. "I don't know what I would do without either one of you."

She smiled against the slickness of his chest. She didn't know either. They laid together in sweaty utopia until Maria had to make a mad dash to put her clothes back on to get back to her mom's.

"When will you stay here with me?" Michael asked leaning against the doorframe of the bedroom.

"I'm staying over in a couple days." She slipped on her shoes without looking at him. "Tomorrow we go to Liz's and then-"

"No. I mean for good. When will you and Leia stay here for good? With me."

"I don't know Michael," Maria sighed. "Leia's only a couple of months old. I've only been back at work for a few weeks, I still don't know everything..."

"Do you think we could learn it together?"

The want in his voice was heartbreaking. Maria knew if she opened her mouth to speak at that moment, she knew she would have given him anything. Content with looking in his eyes, she went to him and hugged him.

"Maria?" he whispered into her hair."

"Sshhh..." She kissed his naked chest and broke away. "Soon, baby, soon."

* * * *

Liz looked at the small, delicate engagement ring on her finger. It was a diamond and blue sapphire ring, just what she had wanted. Max had surprised her a month earlier. He had found the box he had given her for Christmas the previous year and had put the ring inside. Hiding it under her pillow, she complained of the lump and then found it. He proposed to her lying next to her under the covers. She had readily accepted.

She smiled every time she thought about the proposal. Deep down she had known that she and Max would get married and live happily ever after, it was just getting to that point that had been so hard. Shaking her head she looked around the kitchen at the spread of food for her friends. It was the first time she and Max were entertaining in their home. She felt so grown up. A chemistry textbook was staring at her from the counter, begging to be read and memorised for a test the following week. The old Liz would have been reading already. The new Liz had figured out there was more to life than school and books. Oh, she still wanted to finish school, but other things were more important. Like the one that was staring at her from the living room.

"What are you looking at?" she called to Max; he was lounging on a gift from his parents, a sofa. It matched the lawn chairs and card table nicely.

"You. You're so cute when you're pre-occupied."

"Whatever. When is everyone coming over?"

"Couple hours."

"Everyone?" Liz asked but Max knew it was just Isabel she was asking about.

"Yeah. Not Morgan, though. Kyle said she had to work, I guess with you and Maria off someone has to run the show."

"Yeah. So, Isabel's coming?" She crossed her fingers. Isabel had taken to not really speaking to Liz since the motel incident. It hurt Liz's feelings - although they had never been closed and probably never would be, she was, after all, engaged to her brother.

"She doesn't hate you." Max took a deep breath. He wasn't sure if he was up to the debate again.

"I don't know about that." Liz walked to him and curled up in the crook of his arm. He glanced down and Liz followed his gaze. He was staring at the branding on her leg. She pulled her shorts down over it. "I think it's fading."

"Yeah, me too," Max agreed, nodding as he knew full well that it wasn't fading. Gone but not forgotten.

Kyle was the first to arrive. He kissed Liz's cheek and shook Max's hand before settling on the sofa in front of the television Liz had brought from home. Isabel came a few minutes later. She shied away from potential conversation and mostly kept her head down except when Kyle could get her to smile. Liz took a deep breath, she thought this could make for a very long night. She returned to the kitchen to check on the food and heard someone walk in behind her. She smiled and turned, expecting to see Max, instead it was Isabel.

"Hi. Isabel," she stammered.

"Can we talk?" She motioned to the small bistro set in front of the window. Liz followed and sat across from her. "I don't hate you, Liz."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Many times I thought I did, but I don't. I never have. You've made me crazy sometimes, though." Isabel half way smiled. "You're going to be my sister-in-law eventually, I don't want any animosity between us."

"Me either, and I want to apologise." Liz fidgeted with her hands until she got on her own nerves. "I'm sorry about what happened. I know you sacrificed a lot to save me, I never got the chance to really thank you. Thank you, Isabel, thank you for helping to save my life."

"You're welcome," Isabel finally smiled. "I guess we're even?"

"Even?"

"I saved your life in the here and now and you saved mine in one path of the future?"

"I guess so," Liz smiled back at her. "Do you think we could ever be friends?"

"My friends seem to get hurt, or die." She looked sullen again.

"Not all of us," Liz reached across the table and patted her hand. "You know, I kind of miss the old Iz."

"What do you mean?" Isabel's eyes sparkled for the first time in months.

"You know, the old Iz would have told me off by now and said something rude about my shirt or the way I clean the apartment. This new gloomy Iz isn't all that much fun."

"Am I acting like Max the Brooding?"

"Big time."

Isabel's smile was wide, she hadn't smiled like that in a long time and it felt great. She pulled the rubberband from her hair and shook out her mane. She looked towards the counters and pointed to the floor. "Have you ever heard of a mop?" Liz laughed. "That shirt kind of looks like the curtains in the other room threw up."

"Okay, that's enough." Liz laughed again. "Maybe someday we'll reach a happy medium."

"Thank you." Isabel hugged her before leaving the kitchen. Within minutes Liz heard something she hadn't heard in months, Isabel was laughing.

"I wish you would have let me go home and change first, I feel like a dork in this uniform." Michael looked to Maria and smiled when he saw Leia looking at him. "God, she is so cute!"

"I think you're hot in the uniform, remember?"

"Remember how fast I got it off yesterday?" He sighed as they stood outside the door to Max and Liz's. "I think I can beat my record tonight."

"Tonight?"

"When we get home?"

"Michael, I have to go to my home tonight. My mom said she'd only watch Leia all night every once in a blue moon, and lo and behold, what is coming up two days from now? An actual blue moon - unbelievable!" Maria shifted the baby carrier to her other hand and handed Michael the diaper bag.

"An actual blue moon? That's why you're staying over because of an actual blue moon?"

"Yeah, but it's not really blue."

"What colour is it?" Michael seemed to be intrigued.

"Moon colour," Maria shrugged. "Second full moon in the same month. Cool, huh?"

Yeah, so anyway, I wasn't really saying for your mom to watch Leia. I thought we coudl all stay the night at my place, like a family?" The Michael that never showed need or wanting of inclusion was gone.

"Guerin, I think us girls would love to spend the night with you." Maria smiled and knocked on the door. They heard Max yell for them to come in. At once everyone flocked to the baby. Maria felt the carrier being lifted out of her hand. "Geez, I feel unwanted, how about you?" She looked over her shoulder at Michael, he nodded. "I think next time we can just drop her off and leave."

The friends gathered around the sofa and lawn chairs and talked, about everything, about nothing. Each one knew it was a good thing that they were able to be together and talk. They shared a secret. They were connected. Relationships, friendships and companionship. Friends and families. Forever, they would stay close. Secrets brought them all together and secrets were the one thing that could tear them apart.

After dinner was served and Max and Michael had cleared the card table, Leia was awake and taking in her surroundings. Michael set her carrier on top of the card table; Maria stood in front of him, his hands on her shoulders. Max and Liz were on the other side, Kyle and Isabel stood close as well.

"She looks so much like both of you!" Isabel smiled.

"More Maria," Michael grinned. "I suppose that's a good."

The room was silent except for the intermittent gurgle coming from Leia. Each of them smiled as they watched the baby squirm. Leia seemed to look past them all to the back of the sofa. Without warning, a Winnie the Pooh bottle whizzed through the air past them and gently landed next to Leia.

Maria stared at Michael, he stared back. He took a deep breath. "Oh, shit."

THE END
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STORY OF LINES:
3 - CURVED PATH

EPILOGUE

WRITTEN BY BECKY W

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