"I'm driving." Michael walked past her ignoring her snooty tone. He was doing it again!

"Okay, see that's the part I have a problem with." She watched him sit in the driver's seat.

"Just get in." He said buckling his seatbelt. Maria stood and contemplated throwing a hissy fit but eventually gave in and sat in the passenger's seat with a thump.

"So where are we going first?" Michael asked pulling out of his apartment's parking lot. There was a long pause. With the tip of her thumb in her mouth, Maria watched the passing cars and shops. "My house." She finally answered without removing her gaze from the window.

"So what? Are you gonna have a 'tude with me for the rest of the day?" Michael smiled.

[A 'tude?] That was the last straw! Being bossy and controlling was one thing but being rude was a whole other story.

"I do not have a 'tude! You-" She turned to see his smile and ate her own words. "-I just need something to tell Liz's parents." She lied, trying to conceal the reason for her early morning outing. "Something other than, 'your precious daughter, who is not only in love with a good alien, is now blind because a bad alien tried to kill her.' That doesn't sound that great." She sunk back down in her seat.

"Well, we can think of something later." He was quiet for a second. "Are you going to stay at my apartment with Liz?"

Maria loosened her seat belt from her neck. "Of course."

"Well, what are you going to tell your mom?" He watched her run a hand over her blonde locks.

"Nothing. I told you, she's out of town at some convention in California."

"Oh." He said scratching the side of his face.

"She probably won't be back until at least next week." He nodded accelerating at the sight of a yellow light while Maria took a peek at her watch. [5:00. I have to get rid of him.]

******************

"Here, let me see it." Isabel handed Max the folded piece of paper Maria had left for them.

Max, Michael, and Isabel,

Just going out to take care of a few things. Be back soon. Don't worry I'll be okay. I can take care of myself.

Maria De Luca

"It's her hand writing." Isabel bit her lip. "So she and Michael went to take care of some business?" Isabel looked at her brother and couldn't help but feel nausea rumble in her tummy.

"Come on Iz, focus." He looked at her clearly worried. "No, I don't think they're together."

"Why not?" She looked over his shoulder and looked the note over again.

"Because it says, 'Max, Michael, and Isabel'. Why would she address it to him if he was going with her?"

"Good point." She looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. "But where would Michael go?" Isabel's eyes met her brother's shocked expression.

"Nesado." They both said simultaneously. Isabel picked up Maria's letter and looked it over again, while Max shot up from his seat and started towards Michael's bedroom.

"Do you think I should try and get into his head?" He was halfway through the doorway when he heard his sister's hushed voice. "Max." He turned to Isabel to see a small folded piece of paper fall out of the envelope Maria had left them. She skimmed it. "Oh my God. Max, she went to meet Tess…Maria went to meet Tess." She held the letter out to him and he quickly took it from her grasp.

********************

"Just park in the driveway." Michael slowly pulled into Maria's dark driveway and turned the engine off.

"What are we doing here?" He watched her get out of the car and go to the front door.

"Getting some stuff." [And getting rid of an annoying nuisance.] Maria again searched her pockets for her keys.

"Didn't you get everything last night?" He walked onto the doorstep beside her.

"No, give me my keys." She said putting the contents in her pockets back in their places.

"There in the car." He looked past her into the front door's window.

"You left them in the car? Probably in the ignition! Where is your brain?!" She tossed her hands in the air, looking at the oncoming storm in the early morning sky.

"Chill out, I left them in the glove compartment." Maria let out a sign and was about to walk to her car, but stopped at the sensation of Michael's hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I got it." He positioned his hand over the keyhole and a second later, pushed the door open and without a word, she walked past him into her house. Her own house. She knew this place inside and out. She glanced at her watch. [Almost 5:30.] She had to get rid of him. Maybe she could bring him up to her room and tell she had pee and run out of the house. He'd probably wait up there a half an hour before he realized something was fishy.

"So?" He watched her staring out into space. "Do you want to sit around all day and stare at the walls or do you want to get your things."

"Uh, yeah, hold on." She walked up her steps into her room and tried to devise a plan in her head. "Okay Maria, just stay calm." She whispered to herself as she pulled her closet door open and threw one of her sweaters on the floor. "Michael, could you help me up here?!" She slid behind her bedroom door and waited for his reply. "What am I doing?"

"What?" Michael turned the TV off and looked up the steps.

"Come here, I need some help."

"Sure." He started up the steps and took notice of all Maria's baby pictures hung on the walls in the hallway.

Behind her bedroom door, Maria was becoming a tad impatient. [What the hell is he doing?]

"I need you to help me get some of my stuff packed. I'm in my closet."

Finally, Michael stepped through the doorway to Maria's room and scanned the room. His eyes fell on the blue sweater in the middle of the floor. Without a thought, he picked it up and continued in her room, towards Maria's closet. Maria peered her head out from her hidden spot behind her bedroom door and waited until he was inside the closet to make her move. [God, give me the strength.] She thought clenching her teeth.

"Why is it so dark in here?" He said flipping the light on in her closet. With that word, she was off. She ran towards the closet, like her life depended on it-which in a way it did. Michael turned to face her running towards him and before another word Maria slammed the door and locked it.

"Michael, I'm sorry!" She yelled through the wooden door, after making sure the door was securely locked.

"What the hell are you doing?! Let me out of here!" He banged on the door.

"Don't take this personally but I have to go-it's for our own good."

"Don't take it personally?! Maria, open the door!" He rattled the lock and pushed on it as hard as he could.

"I'll come back for you in a little while. I promise." She left the room and heard him continuing to yell. "I'm sorry Michael, I'm doing this because I care about you." She said to herself as she ran down the stairs into the kitchen. As soon as her feet touched the kitchen floor, she heard a loud BANG! "My closet." She looked back up the steps to see Michael's dark figure coming down after her. "Shit." She turned back into her kitchen and ran through the living room to her laundry room, hearing him behind her the whole way.

"Wait!" He yelled from behind her. "Maria stop!" In front of him, Maria concentrated on some kind of way to lose him. She ran through her hallway and swooped into the doorway of her downstairs bathroom. There was complete silence for a moment while Michael looked around the empty hallway.

After stealing a peek into the hall she notice him standing in front of the open door to the basement. [He's going to be so pissed.] She thought before running out of the bathroom to him, where he stood like a deer in headlights.

Throwing all her weight onto him, Maria knocked him down the steps into her basement. He landed at the bottom with a groan.

"I'm sorry!" She repeated, starting to feel horrible about herself. With her breath starting to get caught in her chest, she ran back into her living room, through her kitchen, and out the front door.

The falling rain hit her as she ran keeping her eyes steadfast on her car, unaware of the potted plant sitting in the path to her car. Her body landed hard on the concrete after she fumbled over the plant and with a sob she stood from the puddle that engulfed her, and wobbled to her car.

After sitting in the driver's seat, against her better judgement, Maria took the keys from the glove compartment and started the car. The passenger door opened and a confused Michael jumped into the seat.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He watched her angrily wipe away a single tear off her face.

"Get out of the car!" She gave him a hard shove in the chest.

"What-no!" He avoided a smack that she propelled his way.

"Michael, I mean it!" She put her hand on the emergency brake.

"I'm not getting out of this car until you explain to me why you felt it necessary to lock me in your closet and then throw me down a stairway!" He slammed the passenger car door behind him.

"I'm sorry but-" She shut her eyes trying to put everything that happened into perspective.

"Yeah, you keep saying that!"

"Would you stop yelling at me!" She slammed her fist in the dashboard.

"Hey, I'm not the one who started yelling!" He stared her at her profile. "I'm the one who should be pissed!"

"Well, what do you think? I just did all that because I wanted to hurt you?!" She wiped a few wet strands of hair from her face.

"Sure as hell looked that way!"

"I said I was sorry!" She raised her hands in the air.

"Saying sorry doesn't make me not feel pain!"

"Well, believe it or not, I actually have a reason for my actions!" She looked down into her lap and took a deep breath. "Look, can we just talk about this later-please?" She put the car in reverse. "Just get out of the car."