>From the moment she had woken up, she had been staring lovingly at his face, deciding whether or not she should wake him. *I wonder if he is grouchy in the morning? Will he be mad if I try to wake him?*

Just then, Michael opened his eyes and looked down at her. At first he looked a little confused, but then he gave her a warm smile and pulled her in for a kiss. "Good morning. And no, I'm not usually grouchy in the morning."

She gave him a lopsided smile and shook her head slightly. "What did you just say?" she asked, knowing she must have heard him wrong.

"I said that I'm not a grouchy person in the morning. Isn't that what you were wondering." Michael said, bewildered by her tone.

"Michael, how did you know that I was wondering that?" she asked in astonishment, her eyes going wide.

He rolled his eyes in frustration, not understanding what the big deal was. "Duh! I heard you. You asked yourself whether I was grouchy and if I would get mad if you woke me up."

"Michael, I didn't say that out loud. Those were my thoughts." She had began to shake, and her breath now came quickly.

Michael just stared at her in shock. *What the hell is going on?* he thought.

"That's what I would like to know." Maria said and then put her hand over her mouth. "That...you didn't ask that aloud, did you?" she said carefully, fear showing in her eyes. Michael shook his head no. She got up off the bed and began to pace. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," she repeated over and then bent over and hugged her knees. She began to rock back and forth.

"God, I need some Cyprus Oil." He muttered. He reached over and grabbed

Maria's black leather purse, dug through and pulled out the small brown vile. He opened it and ran it under his nose, sniffing the vapors. A few moments later and his own eyes went wide, reflecting astonishment. *Where the hell did that come from?* he wondered.

Maria threw her hands over her ears and yelled "Stop that!"

"Stop what? I'm not doing anything?" he screamed back. *Crazy wench!*

She got up and walked up to him. "That!" she yelled, then gave him an evil look "I heard that by the way!" She breathed in and out trying to relax and then continued. Look," she said quietly, venom in her voice, "I don't know what you did, but I want you to fix it. NOW!"

"Fine, tell me how!" he yelled exasperated, throwing his hands in the air.

"Well, what did you do to make this happen? Why can I hear your thoughts? Why can you hear mine?"

"Good question," he snapped. "Why are you craving sweet and spicy? Or why did I just sniff some Cyprus Oil from your purse? And why can I all of the sudden control my powers, and even use powers I have never had? These are even better questions. But you know what? I

DON'T HAVE THE ANSWERS TO THEM!!!"

Maria burst into tears. He didn't hesitate before taking her into his arms. "Hey, I'm sorry for yelling at you. You know I didn't mean it." he said. "I really don't know what's going on but how about we just go home to Roswell and I'll talk to Max and Isabelle and see what they have to say. Okay?"

A still sobbing Maria nodded. He sighed and then kissed her on the head. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked. She nodded once more.

"Okay, good. Look, I'm going to go take a shower," he said. "Do you wanna' join me?"

She looked up at him and smiled, tears still shining in her eyes. "We'll never get out of here if that happens," she said naughtily.

"Okay, I'll shower alone," he sighed, wiping away imaginary tears.

"Wait, I'll shower with you as long as you promise to keep your hands to yourself. You know, to conserve time." she said.

He nodded sarcastically and said "Sure of course." She slapped him and he laughed. Then he sighed and nodded, a faint glimmer in his eyes. "You drive a hard bargain, but okay."

*****

After their shower, in which he had defaulted on his agreement and kept trying to grope her, they got dressed and packed up all of their stuff. His clothes from yesterday were still wet so Maria finally decided to let him in on the extra clothes she had.

As they left the room, Maria told him that she didn't want to go home yet, and that she thought they should go to Sedona.

She told him that she knew how bad he really wanted to go investigate the sighting, and that she didn't want him to resent her for keeping him from getting the chance. "Besides, this thing may not be too bad," she had said, trying not to laugh. "I could tell what you were thinking when we were in the shower. You have a pretty nice ass, yourself." she said, slapping him on his shapely bottom.

"I know," he had answered. "Remember? I can read your thoughts as well."

****

When they had neared the city of Sedona, they were both struck by how red everything was. The roads were lined with red gravel, and huge red rock formations. It was as if the town had been sculpted out of tera cotta.

They had stopped for lunch when they entered the city. Michael's worry only increasing when he saw her consume two entire bottles of Tabasco with her food. She heard his thoughts on it, but ignored him.

They spent the remainder of the day hours talking to the local people about the sighting. They got many different accounts, most of them useless. The had been given only one lead, in which Maria could tell Michael had his doubts about. At that point, he had given up all hope.

A lady at a crystal shop had told them that they should go to a UFO shop just outside of town. That they had all the information there. She then began to give them her crackpipe theory on what really happened when Maria heard Michael's thoughts. *Great, another UFO museum with another Milton, I bet. Yeah! I can't wait.* The last part was said with fake enthusiasm and Maria had to bite her lip to stop from laughing. The woman, granted was kook herself, would think she was crazy if she just laughed out of nowhere.

They finally excused themselves and made their way back to the Jetta. They debated over whether they should go to the UFO shop when Michael had the vision.

*Flash* A building that reads UFO Emporium

*Flash* A man wearing a white robe with long white hair.

*Flash* A close-up of the necklace the man wears, similar in design to the one found at Atherton's.

End of vision.

"Maria, I saw...we should go to the UFO shop." Michael spouted after it had ended.

She reached over and grabbed his hand. "Yeah, I saw what you saw," she replied.

*****

They entered the doors to the UFO Emporium fifteen minutes later. It was a relatively large building with an information section on one side, and a gift shop on the other. There were very few people in the shop. They looked around at the articles in the information section, reading theories about the vortex and how it was UFO related, as well as the local clippings about sightings in the area for the last seventy years.

Finding nothing that was helpful, they approached the information desk/cashier. No one was there so Maria rang the bell. They both turned to look at some necklaces behind them while they waited.

"How can I help you?" They heard a man's voice say.

"We were looking for infor..." Maria began as she turned around and then broke off. "Oh my God it's you. Michael, it's him!" she hissed.

Michael spun around quickly and came face to face with the white-haired man from his vision. The man was staring in bewilderment at Maria before he moved his eyes over to Michael. When their eyes met, the man gasped.