"Good morning, spacegirl," he whispered and reached out a hand to caress her cheek.

Maria fought to stifle a yawn and then sighed with contentment. "Good morning, spaceboy," she whispered back, her throat still thick with sleep and tilted her head up to give him a sweet kiss. "Mmm. What time is it? How long have you been up?"

Michael shrugged. "It's a little after seven I think and I've been up for a while now."

"How come? Couldn't sleep?"

"No, I just wanted to watch you sleep," he replied simply, his eyes roaming her face lovingly.

"And did you like what you saw?" she asked coyly.

"Oh, you know it," he replied and his hands began to tickle her waist. Maria threw her head back with laughter and Michael dropped his head to her neck to playfully nibble on it.

She giggled and moved to kiss him again but stopped short when she heard a very distinct moaning coming from another room. Her eyes practically bulged out of her head in amusement as she looked at Michael who was sporting a similar expression and they both burst into jovial laughter when they heard it again.

"Who is that?" Maria gasped through her chuckles.

"I have no idea but that was definitely female so it's either Liz or Isabel. Either way, one of my siblings are getting some," Michael said, a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"Ooh, poor baby, are you feeling deprived?" Maria teased.

Michael sighed dramatically and pouted. "Yes, I'm so deprived."

"OH MAX!" They heard Liz's voice cry out and their banter was once again interrupted by their own laughter.

"That answers that question," Michael said as his laughter calmed and then he wiggled his eyebrows at Maria and said, "Now, back to me being so deprived," he looked at her hopefully.

Maria rolled her eyes. "You're insatiable, do you know that?"

Michael nodded, "Of course! Now come here."

Maria laughed as Michael turned to cover her body with hers and proceeded to give her the best morning of her life.

*****

An hour later, when they all joined up in the living room of the small house, everyone was extremely quiet. Both Liz and Isabel had small smiles on their radiant faces and kept exchanging shy glances at Max and Alex. Maria exchanged her own glance with Michael but her's was of amusement.

*Looks like both your siblings got some,* Maria sent silently and Michael nodded at her.

*Looks like,* he agreed as he pulled her down on his lap on the love seat.

The silence began to get to Maria and she really wanted to give everyone a hard time so she couldn't help herself from asking how everyone's night was?

Liz looked a little surprised but she nodded and said, "It was...fine."

Max cleared his throat and smiled at Liz. "Yeah, last night was...just fine."

"Same here," Isabel agreed and Alex nodded.

"Wow, four fines," Maria remarked. "I would have thought you all would be doing better than fine after all the moaning I heard this morning." She shrugged innocently.

Four heads shot towards her in surprise and she could actually see them all blushing furiously.

Michael smirked at them, enjoying their discomfort for a moment and then he changed the subject. "So, what did Di...I mean mom want to talk to you all about last night?"

This only caused them all to blush more and Michael felt like he was being excluded from something. "What? What, did I say something wrong?" he asked, searching all of their faces.

Max cleared his throat again and said, "Well, she told us about...." his voice trailed off.

"The ritual," Isabel finished for him, her voice quiet and then she searched Michael's and Maria's faces for understanding.

"Aha, the ritual," Maria nodded and then she smirked. "She probably knew all of you horn-dogs couldn't keep your hands off of each other."

"God Maria!" Liz said as she moved to go sit next to Max on the couch. "You have a lot of room to talk. We could hear you two down here last night before we even got to go to bed."

Maria opened her mouth to respond but her own blush crept up her face and she couldn't stop from smiling at the memory of last night. She shook her head and then fought to bite the smile on her lip back but it wouldn't go away.

"So what?" Michael asked, his voice a little defensive. "We're 'married'."

"Yeah, well so are we now," Isabel murmured and then leaned in to give Alex a kiss on the cheek.

"What about you guys?" Michael asked, nodding to Max and Liz.

Max nodded lightly. "Well, if you must know, yes."

"Oh, now sex aside," Maria began leaning forward. "Obviously, no one died, but did you have the connection? And are you guys now telepathically linked?" No one answered her right away and she pouted and threw her arms over her chest. "Oh, come on. We told you everything!"

Liz opened her mouth to speak but the shut it and her expression turned thoughtful. A few seconds later, she said, "I think it's girl-talk time."

"Oh, even better!" Maria clapped her hands enthusiastically and then leaned over and gave Michael a huge kiss. "Sorry babe, but it's just me and the girls right now. You understand?"

Michael sighed and Maria could feel from him that he didn't want to let her go just yet, so she leaned in and gave him another kiss, softer this time. *I'll be back soon, I promise.*

*Oh, okay,* Michael agreed stubbornly, still reluctant to let her go. Aloud, he said, "I'm gonna see if we can dig up some food then because you need to eat soon." He rubbed her tummy to remind her that she wasn't just eating for one anymore. "Do you want anything particular?" he asked.

Maria tilted her head to the side and started to think of what she wanted. "Well, how about some eggs with grape jelly and Tabasco, cooked into the eggs, not on top. Ooh and some toast with mayo and cheese on it and ..."

Michael grimaced and to the rest of the room said, "Suddenly I regret asking." To Maria, he said, "I thought you didn't like eggs? Or mayonnaise?"

Maria looked into his face and her chin began to quiver. "I don't but Alice does, now is it too much to ask that you get me these things?"

Michael held up his hands in defense, "Not at all. Anything else?"

She nodded and said, "I also want hot dogs with extra onions and sauerkraut and oh and some cranberry juice and milk. That's it." She looked into Michael's queasy face and said, "What?"

"Nothing," Michael said quickly. "Eggs, grape jelly, Tabasco, toast, cheese, mayonnaise, hot dogs, onions and sauerkraut. Got it."

"Don't' forget the milk and cranberry juice."

"And milk and cranberry juice, got it."

"Good," Maria leaned down and gave him another kiss. "Thank you. Now, girls, lets go talk."

She left with Liz and Isabel a second later and Michael looked at the guys and said, "Well, I better go now if I'm gonna find all that crap in the next half hour. Wanna come?"

"Sure," both Max and Alex nodded. "What's up with that appetite though?" Alex asked and Michael shrugged.

"Just wait until Isabel gets pregnant. I'm sure with her it will be even worse. At least Maria didn't ask for any...."

Suddenly Maria's head popped back in the living room and she said, "Oh, I forgot, get me some tapioca pudding too."

Michael shook his head and sighed. "I should have kept my mouth shut. Let's go."

*****

"Maria, why didn't you tell me it was like that?" Liz asked. "I mean, it was like we were one person. I could see and feel everything he had ever felt since he came out of the pod."

"I know, it was definitely like Alex and I were one person. I found out so many things about him that I didn't even know about. It was just..."

"Beautiful," the three girls said in unison.

"So," Maria continued. "What about the telepathy? Any connection?"

Both Liz and Isabel nodded. "Yeah," Isabel said. "I almost peed my pants this morning when I heard Alex answer a question that I had been thinking to myself."

"That's what happened with Michael and me and I totally freaked out on him. I feel bad about it now but I blamed him when it happened."

"Well, I wasn't so surprised," Isabel shrugged, "because we knew it happened with you but it was just, I don't know, I didn't think it would be so...intimate."

"I like it," Liz admitted.

Maria nodded. "Granted, I was terrified at first but now, I don't know how I ever lived without it."

*Lived without what?* she heard a voice in her head say and she smiled at the girls. "The guys are home. Let's go downstairs. I'm starving."

*****

When they arrived in the kitchen, the met the guys walking in the back door, Michael loaded down with a grocery bag full of food and Max and Alex carrying bags from McDonalds.

Maria frowned because suddenly a filet-o-fish sounded really, really good to her.

"What's wrong?" Michael asked her when he noticed her expression.

"I just...nothing, I'm okay."

Michael shook his head and reached into the bag of food and pulled out his own McDonalds bag. "Here you go," he said, handing her the bag.

She looked at him curiously and then opened the bag to find a filet-o-fish inside. "How did you know?" she squealed, jumping up and running over to give him a hug.

Michael shrugged. "Well, the guys wanted McDonalds and I figured that I should probably get something for you too there just in case your appetite has changed in the last half-hour and I figured that the one thing you would want would be the most unappealing item on the menu. So, did I do good?"

She nodded, and planted a slow kiss on his lips. "Yes. You are the best boyfriend in the world!"

"Make that husband," he reminded her. "So, do you still want the rest of this food."

"But of course," she replied as she began to dig into her sandwich.

Max elbowed him in the side just then and said, "Michael, you better tell her the bad news now."

Michael glared at him.

"What bad news?" Maria asked.

"There was no tapioca pudding at the store. So I got you every other kind they had, hoping that it would be okay. There's chocolate-vanilla swirl, butterscotch, pistachio, raspberry...."

"No tapioca?" Maria whispered, her face dropping as her chin began to quiver. "But, I..." she couldn't continue because at that moment, she burst into tears.

Michael walked over to hold her in his arms. "Shh, don't cry. I'm sorry, I know you wanted tapioca but they didn't have any. I even went to two stores. I'm sorry, baby but I promise to get you some later."

She continued to sob on his shoulder as if it were the biggest tragedy in the world and Michael shook his head and through gritted teeth hissed, "Thanks a lot Max. I can't wait until it's your turn."

"Oh God, what am I gonna put on my toast now?" Maria cried.

"We already got you your cheese and mayo," Alex said, and Michael shook his head at him and mouthed, "Don't bother." Then an idea came to him and he pulled back to look at his crying Maria. "Look, I got extra tartar sauce from McDonalds if you'd like and I also got you some ice-cream, you can use that."

Maria sniffed and looked up. "What kind?"

"Rocky road," he whispered as he began to wipe her tears away. And if you don't like that we also go pralines and cream."

Maria smiled. "Really? Why didn't you say so?"

Michael breathed a sigh of relief and then gave her a brief kiss. "Everything's okay now?"

She nodded and he said, "Well, I better get cooking. Go ahead and eat your sandwich and when you get done, I'll have your eggs for you."

"Okay," she said happily and sat down to eat her sandwich.