We pulled off from the main road and sped down something that looked a little better than a dirt path. I squinted over his shoulder and could see the rock looming before us. We were at that ranch he had told me about. He stopped the bike and got off.

"They’re not here yet…" he turned his back on me, like he couldn’t even stand to look me in the eye anymore. "Max probably wanted to find out if you did anything to Liz…"

"*Did* anything? Why would he think I’d do anything to her? I like Liz…"

"He thinks Nasedo sent you. He thinks the reason you’re here is to fuck up his relationship with her. He thinks you’re making him have those dreams."

I stared at him, gaping at him. What the hell was this? *I’m* the bad guy now?

"Really? And does Max realize the world does *not* revolve around him and his girlfriend?"

He smirked and kicked at a stone on the ground.

"He told you about the dreams…" I said softly, "…what he was doing with me in them…"

He looked up at me then, his face unreadable, and his eyes so dark, as dark as the night sky.

"Yeah he did. But none of that shit matters anyway – he doesn’t want you. He doesn’t love you. He never will. He wants Liz and they belong together no matter what you say. There’s nothing you can do about it."

I got off the bike and stalked up to him, getting in his face like he was always getting in mine.

"What makes you think I *want* to do anything about it?! Did it ever occur to you that I don’t want to be dreaming about him anymore than he does about me? I hate this just as much as he does and I understand even less of what’s happening than he does! Don’t you think this is scary for me? I know you couldn’t care less that I go to sleep at night fucking terrified that I’m not going to be able to control myself that I’m going to wake up feeling like I’ve just…like I’ve…you don’t know what it’s like okay?! If anybody is doing *anything* to *anybody* making them have these dreams, it’s not me! I can’t do shit like that because for the thousandth time I AM NOT ONE OF YOU!"

"STOP SAYING THAT! STOP LYING! YOU KNOW JUST AS WELL AS I DO WHAT YOU ARE!"

"AND WHAT MAKES YOU SO SURE I KNOW?!"

"YOU STAYED WITH ME! YOU…you let a person you’d never seen before drag you out of your house and take you to another state…either some part of you knew the truth or you were just lying to me the whole time about everything…"

"Maybe I was! No – you know what? There’s no "maybe" – I *was* lying to you. I realized that it wasn’t true the second we left Marathon!"

"Then why didn’t you tell me then?! Why did you spend the night with me? Why did you let me take you…Why would you lie?"

I stared at him, breathing hard, blinking back tears, pissed at myself for almost crying in front of him, thinking, *because I wanted to be with you…*

"What about you?" I said instead.

"What *about* me?"

"You don’t think I’m like you. You don’t believe that I belong here anymore than I do…"

"You don’t know what you’re talking about…"

"Michael if you really believed, you never would have let me leave with the Sheriff – no matter what *I* believed, not matter what I *said*…you wouldn’t have let me go…"

"I knew you were one of us. I know you are…"

"Then why didn’t you come back for me…?" I whispered. "Why did you let me go…"

He stared at me, silent.

I felt like I was dying inside, gasping for air, for answers, for all this to be over. For my life to go back to what it had been even though it had been pretty shitty - I at least knew who I was in Marathon,

I at least knew what I felt was real.

He took a deep breath, opened his mouth to speak, and then shut it when a jeep came roaring down the path and pulled up next to the bike.

It was Max and Isabel.

I watched them climb out of the jeep and make their way over to where Michael and I stood beside each other. He stepped away from me and I tried not to care.

Isabel is beautiful…more than beautiful – she’s stunning. I watched her pull her long bond hair into a ponytail as she walked confidently toward us, feeling completely intimidated even though she hadn’t said a word yet. Max followed her, his mouth set in a determined line, his brown eyes hard. I was beginning to feel cornered.

"This’s Maria" Michael mumbled at them jerking a thumb in my direction. They stared at me. I stared at them.

"I’msorryIknockedyouoveryesterday." I said to Max and he blinked at me.

"It’s okay…", he said quietly. "I wasn’t paying attention…I should have been looking where I was going…"

"Me too…" I whispered and took a deep breath. "Look I don’t know what’s going on…I…I don’t know why I’ve dreamt about you…I haven’t done it on purpose…and I’m not…I’m not making you dream about me…I can’t do that kind of stuff…I’m just a normal boring teenager…I’m… just a human…"

"That can’t be." Isabel said. "Nasedo specifically said *your* name…he…he doesn’t want us to have any involvement with humans…why would he want us to contact you if you weren’t like us?"

"I don’t know…I don’t know how he even knows who I am…Look, I told – what’s your name again?"

Michael blinked at me "Michael."

"I told Michael that I couldn’t be like you guys because I *have* a mother. I was *born*, I was a baby – I didn’t come out of some pod seven years old…"

"How did you know about the pods?" Max asked and Michael answered before I could.

"I told her about them. I told her who Nasedo is on the way over here…"

"Where is he anyway?" Isabel murmured biting her lip and scanning the desert.

"What about your dad?" Max turned to me.

"I don’t know him. He left when I was a baby."

"Maybe…"

"What? He was an alien? No." I said feeling sick. That couldn’t be possible because that would make me…that would make me a walking National Enquirer headline…it would make me a fucking hybrid…a freak… "No that’s impossible."

"Why is it impossible?" Michael spoke up finally, and I wanted to hit him for pushing it.

"Because it *is*…" I was actually crying now because it was starting to become a possibility, the only explanation. I could barely see Isabel coming towards me and jumped when I felt her hand on my shoulder.

"Nasedo will explain all this…" she said softly trying to comfort me, "That’s why he wanted us all here tonight…at least that’s what he told me when he dream walked last night…Maybe you’re right Maria, maybe you’re not like us…but…I can’t deny the fact that I feel like I know you…"

"I felt like that too." Michael said and crossed his arms across his chest defensively when we looked at him.

"At the Crashdown, when I was trying to get her here."

"There’s definitely something about you that’s familiar…" Max said quietly. "The same thing that made us all recognize Nasedo when he showed himself. We all knew that we were connected to him somehow. We all felt it…I think we’re all feeling it now."

"Do you feel like you know us?" Isabel said softly.

"Yes…"I whispered, pushing the tears off my face.

What was I going to do? Lie? That’s how everything got started – I lied to Michael by not telling him right away that I wasn’t an alien. And we were lying even now about not having met each other before tonight. I was sick of lying I wasn’t going to do it anymore.

"I feel like I know you…all of you…"

"Do you have any powers? I mean can you do stuff?"

"Sometimes…I…um in second grade I accidentally started a fire without any matches or anything…I just thought about it and then it was happening…"

Isabel’s eyes widened fractionally, and Max stepped in a little closer.

"What else?" he asked.

"I fixed a broken cup once without touching it…and another time there was this cat…it was limping, and when I touched it it was okay…I don’t know…stuff like that I guess…"

"Does your mom know you can do those things?"

I shook my head. "No…it’s not like it happens a lot…No one knows. Who wants to be different in a small town?"

Isabel smiled softly, she looked a little sad. "Tell us about it."

*~*~*

We waited for over an hour and he never came. Michael was angry. Isabel and Max just looked worried.

"I don’t think he’s coming…"

"Big surprise." Michael cut in and Max took a deep breath.

"It’s getting late…We should probably just go home and wait until he tries to contact us again…"

"That’s all we ever do…*Wait* for him…wait for him to come and tell us what we’re doing here, wait for him to tell us what *she’s* doing here…We’ve met with him twice and he hasn’t told us jack shit…"

"Michael…"

"What? You two aren’t sick of this? Maybe he doesn’t know anything…I mean, he shows up, tells us he’s one of us, then disappears. He shows up again months later and tells us to find *her*, then disappears…What is that all about? He’s setting something up Maxwell…"

"So what are you saying Michael?" Isabel cut in "You don’t trust him anymore?"

"I’m not saying that…"

"Because we have to trust him, we don’t really have a choice…"

"I *know* that…"

"Then what are you saying?"

"I’m saying I’m sick of not knowing. I’m sick of waiting – I’ve been waiting my whole life for *something* and the more I think about it, the more I *wait*, the more I’m starting to think I’m never going to find it."

"There’s nothing we can do until he decides to show himself. We might as well just go home…"

Michael kicked at the ground frustrated and got onto his bike as Max and Isabel climbed into the jeep. He stared at me and I climbed on and hooked my arms around his waist. I could feel the anger and disappointment rolling off of him in waves. I knew he wasn’t angry at me. I knew he was just frustrated. He waited until Max and Isabel had driven away before turning around to look at me.

"Thanks…for not telling them that I found you in Marathon…"

I stared down at my hands. He was too close for me to meet his eyes.

"Sure…"

"And I know this is weird…I know you’re scared. And I’m sorry okay…for yelling and stuff…"

"I’m sorry too." He was quiet for a moment and I could feel him looking at me.