And, so it was, later . . .
as the mirror told its tale . . .
that her face at first just ghostly
turned a whiter shade of pale . . .

Liz pulled the last slide out from under the microscope as a frisson of awareness made its way through her relatively new chemical balance. A few months as an alien and the changes were still making themselves felt. Two things registered in her brain at once. Max wanted her . . . again . . . always . . . and with an intensity that took her breath away. And, Maria was definitely not an alien. At least not yet. Even without the slides as proof, she knew . . .

She looked up from her completely focused task of the past half hour to meet five pairs of anxious eyes. She briefly wondered why she didn't feel fatigued, but then remembered that she really never felt tired anymore. Having no idea at this point what to expect in reaction, she hesitated to give them the results they were so eager for. As her eyes met Max's again, having circled the whole group, she allowed herself to get lost for a moment in thoughts of this afternoon . . .

As soon as Max had parked the jeep, and maybe a little before, they had been locked in an unshakeable embrace, as he carried her into the house and to their room. He had held her securely with one hand under her bottom and the other around her back-- a single destination in his mind. His only goal in that moment had been the privacy of their room. As soon as the door had closed behind them, he had released his tight hold and let her slide down his body until her feet made contact with the ground. Her hands had found and unfastened his pants before he could take a complete breath. She could still feel him thrusting into her hands . . . and her body . . .

Small coughs and shuffling feet broke her mind away from her memories . . .

As her vision cleared, her eyes focused once more on Max and the body that set hers on fire, and the eyes that mirrored her own. By the set of his jaw and his rigid stance she was fairly certain that he had shared her memories . . .

Forcing herself to look away before they did something really embarrassing, Liz cleared her throat and looked up again, this time with the expression of the molecular biologist that she hoped to one day be. At this point, she was almost sure that Maria would not take this news well. Something had changed in her best friend lately . . .

Michael had his arm tightly around Maria, almost as if he could keep her there by sheer strength and force of will . . .

Liz: (quietly) "Maria . . . you are not an alien. Whatever is happening to you is not physiological."

At her quiet words, Maria stood with a fixed stare and slightly parted lips. Her eyes spoke volumes as she kept them trained on Liz's. So many thoughts passed between them in that sliver out of time.

Then, slowly, she turned away and walked outside without saying a word and stringently avoided Michael's eyes for fear of completely breaking down.

Liz took a step to follow her, when Michael grabbed her arm gently, stilling her progress. Her startled eyes flew to his and they told her all that she needed to know. He would take care of Maria. Liz silently acquiesced as she watched him walk outside. It wasn't really hard to let him take over the job that had always been hers. It was just a natural progression . . . It was just that the devastated look on Maria's face was hard to accept without a fight.

As Michael disappeared out the same door through which Maria had made her escape, she felt Max behind her . . . his breath close to her ear, his arms sliding around her waist, pulling her back to rest against him. Her body, released from its pressing responsibilities, immediately sought out its mate. In a way, it seemed peculiar to be so . . . animalistic. On the other hand, it seemed completely right. She kept waiting for her skin to change to a glowing green. The really amazing thing was that she didn't even care if it did . . .

------------------------------------------

Michael: (softly) "What is it, Maria?"

Maria didn't turn or answer for quite a while. She stared up at a clear, star filled sky . . . and ached inside.

Michael: "Maria, please, tell me. Isn't this what you wanted?"

Maria: (ragged) "I thought it was. But . . . "

Michael: "But what?"

Maria: (turning to the side but still not looking at him) "I just . . . (shifting from one foot to the other and staring at the ground) . . . I don't know . . . I didn't want you to feel so all alone here. I thought maybe . . ."

And then, she turned the rest of the way around to face him, and the force of her pain slammed through his heart and mind as her eyes met his. He almost wished she hadn't turned around . . .

Michael: (rushing to do anything to stop that flood) "I don't feel alone. I have Max and Isabel . . "

Maria: (eyes clearly expressing her disagreement) "You *feel* alone and I feel it every moment of everyday."

Having no idea what to say to that, Michael pulled her close and held her, hoping for wisdom from the King but knowing it was unlikely . . . after all, he hadn't done the homework . . . and Solomon had been dead a long time . . .

Damn. What did you say to a woman who actually hoped she was turning into an alien . . . ??? <"Hey, baby. I know how to fix that."> Hrumph. Better not. Might as well thank Solomon for that bit of wisdom, cause it sure as hell wasn't internal.

Michael: "Maria, I'm a big boy. You don't have to turn yourself into another life form just so I don't have to feel lonely."

Maria watched him closely, but remained silent.

Michael: "I mean, I'm o.k. I'm more than o.k. I love you. Human or whatever."

Maria: (stepping back) "Wow. That was damn near eloquent, Michael."

Michael stood dumbfounded watching her and having no idea whatsoever what to say now.

Maria: (shrugging and rubbing tired eyes that had yet to form a single needed tear) "Okay."

Michael: (exasperated) "Okay?!?! What do you mean, 'Okay.' What is that?"

Maria: "I mean that if you don't feel alone and I'm out of my tree wanting to help then, okay."

Michael (wearily) : "Damn."

Maria: "I know. Relationships are a bitch, aren't they?"

Michael: (commiserating) "Damn straight."

Silence stretched.

Michael: "Help me out here, Maria. What in the hell do you want from me?"

Maria: (quietly) "I want you to love me so much that you wish I was like you even though I'm not. And I want you to love me so much that you don't care that I'm not like you."

Michael: (shaking his head) "But I do."

Maria: (eyes meeting his) "Then that's enough."

Michael stumbled forward in his haste to get to the most maddening female on the planet. He sought out her mouth with his own, but found that it wasn't nearly enough. The ideal would have been to make it back inside the house, but who was interested in the ideal anymore? Night had fallen, and the canopy of stars and a silver moon shown over two people who desperately needed reassurance. Maria felt grass and dirt and leaves and a few stray roots as her back made contact with the cold ground, but more importantly she felt Michael and his wants and his needs and the desires of his soul . . .

----------------------------------

Isabel kissed Alex softly as they curled up together on the sofa. Alone at last. Liz and Max had disappeared shortly after Michael and Maria and they were blessedly alone. Alex wondered if all of this were just some sort of crazy dream . . .

Liz turning into an alien. Maria possibly following right behind, but then, oooppps, nope. Guess not. Now what?????? His mind churned and without realizing what was happening, Isabel grabbed his hand and pressed her lips to the back of it in a gesture of unreserved affection. His heart stopped. It really did. He felt it. How did she *do* that? One brush of her lips across the back of his hand and nothing else mattered . . . nothing. Stroking one hand down the back of her head and feeling every strand of silky hair as it slid along his sensitive nerves, Alex consigned his worries to the pit and opted for the only peace he would ever find in this life . . .

-----------------------------------------------

Liz turned off the bathroom light and made her way as quietly as possible across the quiet bedroom. Max was sound asleep. A smile turned into a grin as she thought about how exhausted he must be right now . . .

As she passed the window, the full moon and silver trees stopped her feet and stilled her mind. Gliding towards it soundlessly, the grin slipped and faltered altogether. The night seemed peaceful, but the stars hung knowingly in the sky and their light shown down on this one small but distinct piece of the Earth. As her gaze rested on the wilderness that surrounded the house, her vision blurred at the edges, and her mind set sail, leaving moorings and reality behind . . .

*The day was bright and clear and cool. The scene was the same. Six friends getting away together in a remote location. Much different people than they were today. Not so very much older, but different. People who had been torn apart and put back together in slightly different packages. People who had been changed. Shaped and refined into who they would become by events they would have never even believed possible . . . *

Max: (quietly coming to a halt behind her) "What are you doing, Liz?"

Liz: (so absorbed in the vision, she started) "Wh-what?"

Max: (concern changing his tone dramatically) "Hey. Are you o.k.?"

Liz: (still pensive) "Yeah. I'm sorry. I was a million miles away. Literally."

Max: (blunt and totally unconcerned with making polite conversation when it came to Liz's wellbeing) "Why?"

Liz: (surprised) "What do you mean?"

Max: (intent) "I mean, why were you a million miles away?"

Liz: (smiling at his forthrightness) "I don't know exactly. I was walking by the window on my way back to bed, and . . . got distracted."

Max: (somewhat worried now) "By what?"

Liz: "Sort of a vision, I guess. We were here again. All of us. Together. But, different."

Max: (hands resting on her shoulders) "How?"

Liz: "I think we were older, but not a lot. And, life had changed for all of us."

Max: "Go on."

Liz: "I'm not sure I can explain it, Max."

Max: "Try."

Liz cast about for words that wouldn't come no matter how hard she sought them out, so in the end, she pulled his hand down from her shoulder and brought it to rest flat against her stomach.

Liz: (softly) "Look. Outside."

Max watched steadily, and at first saw nothing at all. Just as frustration began to unfurl, he caught a glimpse of something strange. Something from the future . . . their future . . .

*Michael's face relaxed into lines he'd never witnessed before as he watched Maria stretched out on her back on a blanket in the yard . . . holding a baby straight up over her with her elbows locked. The infant giggled and grinned and waved tiny arms and legs in the air above her as Maria laughed. Looking on, he next saw Alex and Isabel curled up together under a tree. His sister's hand clutched a book as they read it together, and an engagement ring sparkled distinctively from her ring finger. They all looked so . . . happy, but somewhat different. What was it? Age? Maturity? Having seen too much? . . . Battleworn . . . They'd all suffered something together and it had changed them.

As his eyes travelled further through the layers of the unfolding scene, he saw Liz. He also saw himself. It was almost as if they were one entity. You couldn't see one without superimposed images of the other. In a way, he knew he should've been frightened by the message, but there was no fear . . .

He watched as the future version of each and every person was revealed. Liz grabbed his hand and laughed in a carefree manner that belied the tension they had grown so accustomed to. As they played together in the yard, she suddenly stopped, raising up on tiptoe to kiss him quickly before dashing inside the house. He shook his head in total bewilderment as to how she had heard that smallest of sounds. Mothers were notorious for being able to hear what most mere mortals could never fathom. A few moments later the screen door slammed shut behind her as she walked back out into the yard, carrying a sleepy, hungry, and somewhat irritable 9 month old baby. The baby squinted against the glare of the sun and surveyed his environment with a critical stare. After a few moments of adjustment, and a bottle that had been made ready earlier, life was deemed good enough not to warrant a serious protest. But, it was a near thing.

Sometimes he wondered what he had ever done to deserve this kind of happiness. A wife . . . a beautiful, perfect, son. It was much more than he'd ever dared hope for . . . *

Max came back to reality with a thud. His heart beat erratically in his chest for a few seconds before returning to a normal cadence. His eyes slid shut almost in relief as the vision faded from view.

Max: (strangled) "Liz?"

Liz: "I'm here."

Max: (pulling her close and hugging her to him tightly) "We need to talk about this."

Liz: (kissing his jaw and up to the corner of his mouth) "I know. . . . Later."

Her hands slid through his hair as she sought to bring his head down closer to hers. Tracing his lips with her tongue, she banished the vision from her mind . . . for now.

Max: (eyes sliding shut) "I can't think . . .

The rest was silenced as her mouth opened under his in a kiss that only made him want to taste her everywhere. But the scene he had just witnessed was still trying to find a home inside his mind. A reconciliation of the present and the future . . .

Max: (tearing away and shaking with the effort) "Liz. We . . . should . . . talk . . . "

Liz: "We will."

And with that, her lips parted and slid down his throat, pretty much stamping out any remaining will he had left to stop her. His mutinous body gloried in every touch of her tongue, and nip of her teeth . . . But, the small remaining tyranny of the vision distracted him once more.

Max: "Liz, . . . please . . . "

Whatever he was going to say got lost in the indrawn breath as Liz made her way lower still . . .

Liz: (stopping just briefly, unable to resist teasing him just a little) "Please what? Please stop or please don't stop?"

He looked down into her radiant face and eyes on fire with contented resignation.

Max: (swallowing so he could speak) "We'll talk later."

Liz chuckled a little but the moment was short lived, as Max swung her off her feet and headed determinedly toward the bed . . .

----------------------------------------------------

The next morning, breakfast was once again produced by Michael and Maria, with everyone commenting on their future in the hospitality industry. Alex leaned, hunched over the counter, and distractedly munching on a leftover piece of bacon, when Maria came to sit down beside him. The others were working on the clean up and insisted she was exempt since she cooked. She wasn't sure how that let Alex out or why Michael had cooked and was still cleaning up but, hey, who was she to argue. Pushing back from the counter and staring pointedly at Alex, she cleared her throat . . . loudly . . . and with no result whatsoever. Frowning intently, she leaned forward once more and gave up the subtle approach. Swatting him on the shoulder and smiling sweetly, Maria waited for his reaction. She didn't wait long. He whirled around with a startled expression, dropping the bacon and very nearly sending the entire contents of the countertop to the floor. As both of them scrambled to stop the avalanche, arms outstretched to grasp everything they could hold, order was finally restored. Sitting motionless and staring at each other in shock, Alex finally found his voice.

Alex: "Was that absolutely necessary???"

Maria: (laughing out loud) "I'm sorry, Alex. I was just trying to get your attention."

Alex: "Well, you did." (said as he surveyed the almost catastrophe)

Settling down to just a little chuckling here and there, Maria finally remembered that Alex had been lost in thought and that was what had started the whole thing in the first place.

Maria: "Where in the world were you, Alex?"

Alex: (still reeling from the possibility of so much damage) "Huh? . . . Oh, I was just thinking . . . "

Maria: (curious) "About what?"

Alex: "Well, actually, . . . . you."

Maria: "Me? Why?"

Alex: "Well, if you're not changing physiologically, then what is going on, because something is definitely off."

Maria: (blank expression) "What do you mean?"

Alex: "I mean that, yesterday, you knew exactly what was going on with Liz and what to do about it. Where did you get that information from, Maria? And, and, remember when you said that you sort of focused for Michael when you were at Atherton's house? What was that all about? If it's not physiological, then what is it?"

Liz: (walking in before Maria could answer) "That's a very good question, Alex. I've been wondering the same thing myself."