To be enlarged, they should with much more band Contain my strugglings...."

-Book Twelve, "The Odyssey"

******

Michael Guerin had never been more depressed in his life.

As he walked into the low, smoky lighting of Roswell's one and only dancing hot spot, Isabel ahead of him, he couldn't be bothered to raise his head. Too much had happened tonight. There was no energy left in him.

Isabel was worried about him-- he could sense that plain as day, and alien abilities be damned. //Alien abilities. Ha!// he thought bitterly. //What a load.// What good had his "secret powers" done him tonight? Except lead him on a wild goose chase to find a father who might or might not be a killer.

Michael became vaguely aware of the fact that Isabel had drifted away from him, and he forced himself to look up and find her. She was sitting a few feet away, elbow propped on a tabletop, cheek resting against her hand. There was a foolish grin on her face, and Michael rolled his eyes as the realities of the situation hit him.

It was that damn concert she'd been all worked up about earlier that night. The one "Alex" had gotten them tickets for. How could he have forgotten? As if he hadn't heard enough about it over the radio, or from flyers advertising "The Whits" posted around school.

So, Isabel was making googly eyes at Alex, huh? How the hell could she just FORGET so quickly? How could she just FORGET that they'd been so close to the truth? He glared at the side of her face, but she didn't notice him. Her eyes were glued to the stage. Michael sighed, and turned his own eyes in that direction, just as the first strains of music began to play.

And he froze, as the world collapsed into slow motion sound.

"I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord..."

She was standing on the stage in a treacherously tight, sleeveless red and black top with a feathery collar, and black leather pants. There were sequined red cuffs around her wrists, and they glittered in the smoky light, drawing attention to her slim, supple arms. Her lips were shining in the stage lighting, and he figured that her shade of lipstick must have been labeled "Sex Bunny" on the shelf at the drug store.

"...I've been waiting for this moment, all my life, Oh Lord..."

She was gripping the microphone as if it was painful to loosen her grasp. There was a nervous treble to her voice, but it was quickly disappearing as she fell into the song.

"...Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord, Oh Lord."

God, her voice. It sounded like honey over piano keys-- melodic and rich.

How come she'd never told him she could sing? REALLY sing? Sure, he'd overheard her humming to herself as she wiped down tables at the Crashdown, and there was something about the depth and rhythm of her speaking voice that screamed 'Terpsichore,' but those were all circumstantial. He'd never expected... well, he didn't know WHAT he'd expected. Maria was nothing if not surprising.

"Well, if you told me you were drowning I would not lend a hand I've seen your face before my friend But I don't know if you know who I am...."

She was moving on the stage now as her nervousness wore off, and Michael's eyes followed her. He felt suddenly very protective-- wasn't that top just a bit too revealing? Didn't it hug her just a bit too close? Only he had ever held her that tightly, melded to her slim body like frictionless spandex. Only he had ever defined her breasts so well, grazing his knuckles up her side and over her chest as he pressed her back into the stainless steel shelves of the eraser room...

He wondered if that shirt was making her remember, too.

"...Well, I was there and I saw what you did I saw it with my own two eyes So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you've been It's all been a pack of lies..."

She was swaying on stage as the music took her over, invaded her, and now Michael wanted to BE that music. He wanted to be pulled into her lungs and drowned in her oxygen. He wanted to be inside her, like so many melodies, trailing his fingers over every inch of her interior; exploring those parts of her that were always hidden.

Unlocking her mysteries.

Like where did her voice come from? And her compassion? And those breathless sighs that had forced him away from her, but made him keep dreaming, and kept calling him back?

"And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, Oh Lord I can feel it in the air tonight, Oh Lord, Oh Lord..."

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, Oh Lord.....

"...And I've been waiting for this moment all my life, Oh Lord, Oh Lord...."

//Save me.//

"Well I remember...."

She couldn't have known he was there, but her eyes found his anyway, and held him.

"...I remember don't worry How could I ever forget? It's the first time, the last time we ever met..."

The rest of the universe had disappeared, and all he could see were her eyes-- deep, rock-a-bye emerald that were singing to him. He didn't know how he could have ever thought her a ditz; just another dim blonde. Maria was not dumb-- she could see it all. Even a chink in a smoky stone wall.

"...But I know the reason why you keep your silence up, no you don't fool me The hurt doesn't show; but the pain still grows It's no stranger to you or me."

Michael wanted to take a step forward, towards her Siren call, but he held himself back. He would have covered his ears and run if he could have torn his eyes away from hers. Would have bolted out the door, and driven to the cliffs, and maybe thrown himself off, and maybe not. And maybe he would have been able to forget her voice, and maybe not. And maybe he would have heard her still echoing on the chasm's walls, because he knew for a fact he'd never be able to forget her voice.

But he couldn't look away. She had trapped him, and there was no one to tie him to the mast and keep him from flinging himself overboard towards her song.

"And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord..."

No one but himself and his crumbling stone wall.

"...I've been waiting for this moment, all my life, Oh Lord..."

Maybe she saw his resolve faltering, or maybe she didn't. But either way, her eyes broke away first.

Perhaps she didn't want to see him when he ran.

"...I can feel it...in the air tonight, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, Oh Lord..."

******

As the music drew to a conclusion, the smoky room erupted into furious applause. Isabel leapt to her feet and joined the thrall. "ALL RIGHT, ALEX!" she screamed over the crowd, and she saw him look towards her and grin. It made her own smile grow even bigger.

"Wasn't that amazing, Michael?" she said to the young man who stood just behind her shoulder. "Wow, I never knew Maria could sing like that! And Alex..." She trailed off, a goofy grin on her face. She didn't want to start complimenting Alex-- that led her mind in directions it couldn't take.

At Michael's silence, she glanced behind her in puzzlement. "Mic-," she began, but cut herself off when she realized he wasn't there anymore.

She looked around quickly, eyebrows furrowed in distress, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Michael?" she murmured to no one in particular. "Where on earth did you go?"

******

He took the jeep, and he drove to the cliffs.

It was a lonely, bumpy journey, but he drove it anyway. When he reached the waterhole, he stepped out of the jeep and walked to the edge, dangerously close but not caring.

He stood there for a moment, just staring out over the water, and listening.

Then Michael Guerin started to laugh.

Few people had ever heard his laugh-- he didn't share it with many people beyond Max and Isabel. He wondered for a second if Maria had ever heard him laugh; but that just made his current fit come all the harder, and he fell to his knees, laughing at the sky, eyes tearing.

It was too much-- too ethereal. Too damn pathetic.

He'd come to these cliffs to escape her. But part of him had expected-- had hoped-- that her voice would be here, hanging like daylight on the sheer stone walls.

But it wasn't. And he was alone.

The part of him that was laughing couldn't stop thinking about how ridiculous this was-- how stupid and silly. That he'd driven to the middle of the desert to hear her, when he'd already convinced himself that he'd had his fill of her mindless chatter weeks ago. Where the hell had his brain taken him?

So he kept laughing, louder and louder, trying to drown out the echoes of the cliffs as they threw his own laughter right back in his face.

The End

********

Well, whaddaya think? I know, rather cheesy. But hey! This is ME we're talking about! LOL!