And then it happened. Suddenly, they were all there. Isabel, Max, Alex, Liz . . . everyone was around me, holding out their hands to welcome me back into the life I had left. I wasn’t alone anymore. I had so many people that wanted me, needed me . . . but one was missing.

I looked around frantically until I found her. She was there, of course. She had never left. I was the one who ran away. She stayed, waited . . . She waited for me.

I pulled her to me and kissed her without giving my actions a second thought. I didn’t need to think with her. I only needed to feel. It’s a feeling I never want to let go of.

When I opened my eyes in that cave, she was all I saw. There seemed to be a swarm of people around me, hugging me and telling me how glad they were that I was okay. I was grateful, grateful to my friends for helping me and for missing me and for guiding me back to the place I belonged. But, even that couldn’t distract me from the one sight that my eyes refused to leave. Her. Maria.

I wanted the rest of them to go away. All I wanted was the wrap her up in my arms and kiss her again. I never wanted to stop kissing her for as long as I lived. Her face, her body, everything about her . . . it was home. She was what I’d been looking for all along.

I couldn’t get rid of the rest of them, of course, so I just ended up waiting. I kept my eyes trained on her, never letting her out of my sight, but I let the others fawn over me for a while. I let most of my attention rest with them while they made sure that I was okay, that nothing was seriously wrong with me and that I was really back to my so-called normal self. In the end they were all satisfied that I would live to see tomorrow so eventually we all left the cave and headed back to Roswell together. Max and Maria had both driven so the six of us had to split up to get home.

I think Isabel and Max wanted me to ride back with them, but I just couldn’t. I wasn’t ready to let Maria out of my sight just yet. Thankfully, I was able to convince them that it would be easier for them to drop off Alex and Liz and for Maria to drop me off on her way home. I climbed into the car as she started the car.

She turned to me as the Jeep pulled away in front of us and suddenly I lost all coherent thought. I wanted her. I needed her. And then it all became so clear that it was hard to believe I had taken so long to realize it before.

“I love you,” I said. She just stared back at me and I was actually shocked that those words had come from my lips. But then it all clicked. It was all true. I *did* love her. “Say something.”

She smiled at me then, a smile that sent my heart soaring, and said softly, “Ditto.” And then I knew. I could never run from her again.

* * * * *

The End