ROSWELL on PLANET-SF

As she had for the past few days, Isabel sat in the Guerin/DeLuca home watching yet another rerun of 21 Jump Street while Leia was sleeping. She thought about her upcoming date with Erin and got butterflies in her stomach. He seemed nice enough and Liz was usually a pretty good judge of character. She wouldn't try to set her up with a big freak. One thing did worry her - is Erin who he says he is? Not everyone in the world was out to get her. Erin Leary seemed like a nice guy; she'd try him out. She grinned and fiddled in her purse and dug up some lipstick. She put it on and smiled, she was back.

After watching Officers Hanson and Penhall go undercover as the McQuiad brothers for the first time, Isabel shut off the TV and looked around at her surroundings. Leia was sleeping peacefully next to her, thumb in mouth. Maria had littered the place with pictures. She walked around the room and smiled at the faces in frames that were smiling back at her. Sometimes everyone could be so happy; sometimes everyone was happy all the same time. Not usually, but it did happen occasionally. She kept her fingers crossed that those days would be back and soon. Her thoughts drifted to Kyle; he had been genuinely upset that she wasn't going back to school. She liked him, he had turned out to be an unexpected friend. She'd miss him.

Rath, she shuddered. Why in the hell was Rath in town? He was nothing but bad news. She wondered if her evil twin was here, too. She doubted it; Lonnie would have made herself known by now. Rath was a follower, not a leader. If he was here alone, then Lonnie probably didn't even know about it. But why was he here and why was he killing? She tiptoed down the hall to the bedroom and knocked softly on the door. No answer. No surprise. She pushed the partially closed door open and peeked her head inside. Maria was sitting up on the bed crosslegged. She looked at Isabel and titled her head to one side. Isabel stepped into the room and cautiously approached her. She sat and wrapped her arms around Maria's neck.

"I'm here, okay?" Isabel felt a slight nod and released her. She looked into Maria's eyes and saw pain. She stood and left the room, a feeling of melancholy washing over her.

Isabel understood Maria's pain, althoug she didn't know the root of it, the pain was so evident. Isabel knew what that felt like. She had been through it; something so horrible that it just closes you up. For Maria, she closed off physically and vocally. Isabel closed herself off emotionally. She checked on Leia as a knock at the door brought her back from the route of grief. She opened the door and smiled at her friend Morgan.

"What are you doing here?"

"I don't really have anywhere else to go," Morgan shrugged. "I knew you'd be here; so can I come in?"

Isabel let her and watched as she went to Leia and kissed the top of her head. "So, what's going on?"

Morgan shrugged. "Kyle's helping his dad get the old house ready to be up for sale, Max is helping them. Liz is working and I don't have to be anywhere until five, then I go to work. I don't want to sit around my house because, well, I hate it there. Do you mind if I hang out for a while?"

"Is it getting worse at home?" Isabel sat on the other side of Leia.

"Yeah," Morgan nodded. "I guess. My mom quit her job and now she just hangs out at home. She's not paying bills and I'm actually waiting for the lights to get turned off."

"Morgan, you never told me things were that bad."

"I don't like to burden people," she smiled. "But sometimes it gets too much and I have to tell someone something. When I was little I used to talk to myself a lot. That's where I came up with all my impressions. I had to amuse myself somehow with all the fighting going on. That was before my parents got divorced."

"You could have told me all this before," Isabel wrinkled her brow. "We're friends."

"Even friends have to keep secrets from each other," she winked, causing Isabel to frown. "My grandmother actually sends money to take care of my bills. She pays for my school and told me I can go anywhere in the world for college and she'd pay for it. Anything to get away from my stupid parents. But now there's Kyle and I really love him. I don't want to go away and leave him. He's the best thing that ever happend to me."

"You know, you can always stay with me, my parents won't mind. You can have Max's room." Her eyes twinkled. "You'll be out of school in what, May?"

"There's no way I can move in with you, but thanks for the offer." Morgan laughed. "If it gets worse, I'll probably reconsider, but for now I just need to escape every once in a while. So, anyway, how's Maria?"

"Same."

* * *

Poor Morgan, Maria thought as she lay back on the bed listening to the conversation drifting in from the other room. She's such a sweet girl and has such a hard life. You'd never know it from looking at her or talking to her. At least she can talk about it, I can't. I don't know if I'll ever be able to. Something so horrible has shredded my family; and I don't know if I can ever go back to the way it used to be. I don't know if Michael will understand. I don't know if I understand. My Leia. I can't even take care of my baby. I miss her. I miss everyone.

I'm so lucky, Maria mused. I have the best friends in the world. Liz and Isabel have spent so much time here, I know I've taken tim away from their own lives. To help me. Morgan, a girl I don't know all that well actually got me to watch TV with her and made me smile, Kyle's a lucky guy. Max and Kyle, she smiled, what a pair. Kyle coming over and trying to be Mr. Mom taking care of Leia, he really is her uncle as far as I'm concerned. And Max, sappy Maxie. Not a clue what to do. He healed me, though, and I'll always be grateful for that. Otherwise, he's clueless. When he's with Leia I can see the regret he has for not knowing what happened to his son. Lantham? Yeah, that's it. As far as I can see, looking in like an outsider, because that's how I feel right now, Max will never see anything that isn't Liz. His world is called Liz and you know what? He's damn lucky to have her.

Michael, sweet Michael. I can see his heart breaking every time he looks at me. I can hear it in his voice and part of me dies each time. I wish I were able to tell him why, but I can't. Not yet, not until I'm ready. Will I ever be ready? I hope so because I can feel my life sliding through my fingers and it scares the hell out of me. I can say it a thousand times over in my head, but I just can't bring myself to say it out loud. I want to tell him how much I love him, how much he means to me, but the words elude me. I don't want to lose him, not now, not ever.

* * *

For three days Deputy Guerin scoured the streets of Roswell looking for Rath and came back empty-handed. It was like he'd vanished. Michael knew better though, he wasn't going anywhere. He wouldn't come all this way to sucker punch him and leave. Rath wasn't as bad as he thought he was. He was a big loser who was used to hiding behind Lonnie. Now she was bad. Michael pulled into the lot at the sheriff's department and got out of the cruiser. Jim Valenti was waiting for him outside the door.

"My office, Michael. Now." He walked inside.

Michael took a deep breath and walked in the chilly building, immediately getting goosebumps on his arms. He walked slowly down the hall and pushed Valenti's door open. He took a step in and closed the door before sitting down across the desk from him. "You wanted to see me?"

"What the hell is going on?" Jim slammed his open palms down on the desk, the pencil holder rattled.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play stupid with me Michael, it won't work." Jim sighed. "I want to know what the hell is going on and what you're not telling me. I just about had to threaten Kyle to give me a hint."

"I'm taking care of it."

"Taking care of what, exactly?"

"I know who killed Miles Lefton. It's Rath. He's in town and I don't know why, yet."

"Rath." Jim nodded. "Your punk rock counterpart. That's nice. Were you ever going to tell me about it? Or were you just going to continue to hunt him down while playing Deputy?"

"It's not like that." Michael sat up straight, growing defensive. "I take pride in this job and you know I'm not going to jeopardise it in any way. I am looking for Rath while I'm on duty, but that's not all I'm doing." He slapped down his ticket book. "Look, I've given out tickets like crazy."

"You be careful with this Michael. What are you going to do when you find him?"

"Run him out of town?" Michael shrugged. "I don't know."

"Okay, and what the hell is going on with Maria? Amy is worried sick about her."

Michael let out a deep sigh. "I don't know. Something happened and she won't talk about it. I mean, she won't talk about anything. It was before New Year's and nothing. She not even taking care of Leia."

"Who is?" Jim asked voluntarily leaning further over the desk.

"Everyone." Michael ran his hands through his hair. "When I'm home, I do. When I'm at work, Isabel has been staying during the day most of the time. Liz, Max, Kyle and Morgan all take turns staying. I can't leave Maria alone with Leia."

"Do you have any idea what happened to her?"

Michael shook his head, anguish and fear prominent on his face. "Can you keep Amy at bay for a little while?"

"Should she be seeing a doctor? Is she sick?"

"Max said the pain was mental."

Jim nodded and stood up. "Go home Michael, take care of your girls. From now on, could you keep me updated on what the hell is going on with you guys? Why didn't anyone tell me Morgan found out?"

"I guess I figured Kyle would," Michael shrugged. "Did you know Max and Liz set a date for March?"

"Does anyone tell me anything?"

* * *

Max was looking through a Modern Bride magazine that Liz had brought home earlier. "I think you would look great in something like this." He held up the page for her to see. "What do you think?"

"How much?" she asked casually. "Look at the bottom."

"Holy shit!" Max exclaimed. "This dress is more than the jeep was. Never mind."

"I really want to keep this whole thinig simple Max, okay?"

"Can it still be romantic?"

"Of course. Since you don't believe in God, I'm going to suggest we not get married in church. I was thinking maybe your parents back yard?"

"Doable," he smiled, envisioning white lights strung over a white altar, a judge in front of them. "I don't care Liz, whatever you want to do is fine. As long as at the end of the day I can call you my wife, I don't care if we get married in the middle of the street by some guy named Cletus."

"I'm trying to get a visual and yet, I can't." She roped her arms over his neck. "So, you really want to marry me that bad, huh?"

"More than anything."

"Still want to have all these kids running around?" Liz asked slowly. She had been avoiding that topic for a while, but felt the urge to bring it up again.

"I want kids if you want kids. You know I want whatever you want." He kissed her cheek. "Sure, I'd love to start off right away with a baby, but I know school is important to you. I can wait."

"Have you thought about the possibility that our baby might not quite turn out like Leia?"

Max looked at her and it was obvious the thought had never crossed his mind. "No, I just assumed."

"Well, it's something we have to think about before we go jumping the gun, okay?"

BACK TO THE TOP / CHAPTER THREE

STORY OF LINES:
5 - ALL ROADS LEAD HOME

CHAPTER TWO

WRITTEN BY BECKY W

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CHAPTER THREE

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CHAPTER ONE

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