Max was coming over at eight so that gave her thirty minutes to shower and get ready. She dragged herself up off her ever-so-comfortable bed and headed to the bathroom.

Unfortunately, she never made it because her phone rang making her walk all the way back into her room. She furtively hoped that it was Max cancelling for the night. As much as she loved him, all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep. Screw economics homework. Sleep was more important as this point.

“Hello?” No one answered. Slightly annoyed, she asked again, “Hello?”

“Liz?” came a faint reply.

“Yes. Who is this?”

“It’s… It’s Maria.” Liz thought she heard a sob.

“Maria? Oh, wow, is it really you? Oh, honey! You called!” Liz felt her exhaustion disappear as her excitement took over.

“Liz… something’s happened… I… I need help.” That’s when Liz realized that Maria was softly crying.

“Maria? What? What happened? Tell me what I can do to help.”

“My mom and dad… oh Lizzy! They died. I’m alone. I’m all alone.”

“Maria, I want you on the FIRST flight back.”

“Okay.” There was relief in Maria’s voice. “But it’s not just me… Annalee… she’s only two weeks old but the state granted me custody… I just… I just don’t have a real job and have no where to go.”

“Maria, don’t worry. My mom will LOVE having a baby in the house again. I can't wait to meet her!”

Liz heard her take a deep breath. “How will you mom feel about two babies?”

“What?” Liz asked, confused. Twins?

“My… my son. Clayton. He’s five months old.”

“Maria! Why didn’t you tell me? Oh… I’m an aunt! I’m an aunt and you didn’t tell me! Is this why you haven’t been answering me or Alex?”

“Kinda,” Maria admitted sheepishly.

“Do you have enough money to get here?” Liz demanded, wanting to see her best friend immediately.

“Yeah, I have about sixty thousand left over from life insurance and selling the house. It should tide me and my babies over for a little while in Roswell, but not here in LA.”

“Good, we’ll find you an apartment. I’ll even move out with you if you’d like help with the kids.”

“Thanks Liz… For offering to help, for being so understanding, for everything. I owe you.”

“No you don’t. Now, how soon can you get here?”

“I can get a flight tomorrow that arrives at 6pm. Oh, and Liz, I don’t want to see anyone but you and Alex just yet. This is hard enough for me as it is. Please don’t tell them about… you know.”

“Sure, Maria anything,” Liz agreed. She would’ve lied to the President if it meant that she would get her friend back.

“Thanks Liz. I missed you.”

“I missed you too. I’m working tomorrow but I’ll have Alex pick you up at the airport.”

They said their good-byes and Liz hung up feeling like a million bucks.

***

Michael left his office and headed down the hall to his boss, Margie Devonshorn’s office.

“Hey kiddo,” she greeted him, papers piled high around her.

“I finished the Continental Furnishings main frame… I was hoping I could call it a day.”

Margie stood up, shaking her head and laughing. “I don’t know what to do with you Mikey. It took Bolser and Knuitz three days to finish the Orange Inc main framed and you come in and do it in three hours. Yes, you can leave. How does it feel to be seventeen and making $4000 in three hours?”

“Pretty damn good,” Michael replied and gave his patented half-smile. “Thanks, Margie. I’ll buy you dinner tomorrow. See ya!”

She mumbled something intelligible but Michael was already jetting to the door. First stop, dry-cleaning. Second stop, dinner. He was starving.

A half-hour later, Michael pulled in front of The Crashdown. Once inside, he took his suit jacket off and loosened his tie. His job did have some fallbacks.

As he was glancing at the menu, which he had memorized, Liz came up to him.

“Umm… Michael. What are you doing here?” she asked nervously.

“What do you mean? I’m here to eat. Isn’t that what I always do here? I mean, besides when I worked here… no wait, I ate here then too.”

“How about I bag your food up to-go… you look exhausted.”

“I’m fine,” Michael said slowly, trying to figure out what was making Liz so crazy. Too much sugar… that must be it. “I’ll have…” Hmm… speaking of sugar… “A men-in-blackberry pie and a coke.”

“That’s your dinner?”

“Yes, mom, it is,” Michael replied seriously.

Liz walked away smiling. Pulling out a copy of the New York Times, Michael surveyed the previous day’s stock activity. He made a couple thousand. Not bad. He might just get that new car after all.

The door jingled. Michael glanced up and did a double take as he realized who it was. Maria. She looked absolutely radiant. Her hair was longer and she was much tanner but she still embodied the essence of Maria. She smiled as Liz ran up and they hugged, crying.

When Maria bent down, Michael noticed a small carrier at her side. She carefully withdrew a beautiful blonde-haired baby and handed her to Liz.

‘She has a baby! She’s only seventeen!’ Michael thought, pained. ‘I could KILL the guy who got her pregnant at seventeen!’ He blinked back tears, but couldn’t stop staring.

“Hi Annalee! I’m your Aunt Liz. You are so gorgeous!” Liz said in baby talk. To Maria she said, “So where’s Clayton? I can’t wait to meet him!”

Clayton. So that’s the bastard’s name. I could probably kick his ass. What kind of name is Clayton anyway.

“He’s bonding with Alex. They should be in at any—” Maria froze as she spotted Michael off to the side. “Oh God…” she mouthed.

Michael didn’t know what to do. On one hand he wanted to run out of there and forget he ever saw her, and on the other hand he wanted to stay and beat the crap out of this Clayton, gay ass name guy. Or he could just pick Maria up, throw her over his shoulder and force her to live happily ever after with him.

To his surprise, and from the look on Liz’s face, hers too, Maria walked slowly over to his table.

“Hey,” she said softly, her eyes never leaving his.

“Hey,” he replied.

“I—“ Maria was cut off by Alex who came bouncing in with baby Clay.

“Liz!” he exclaimed. “Isn’t he adorable?”

Not knowing that Michael was there, he plopped Clay in his mother’s arms and was quickly pulled away by Liz.

“Michael, meet my son, Clayton.”

“Son? But I thought… then who is… you have two babies?”

“That’s Annalee. She’s my sister.”

“Oh… so are you… you know, back for good? Where are your parents?”

“You know,” Liz interjected, guiding Maria towards the back. “She’s had a really long flight, she needs to get upstairs.”

“Actually it was just two hours—“

“As I said before, upstairs.” Liz took the baby from her friend, handing both to Alex, then led Maria upstairs to sleep.