"Maria, we have to. They trusted us, and they're asking for our help…" Liz was pleading, she had to help Max, he needed her, even if he didn't want her.

"So?" her eyes flashed and Alex looked terrified for a moment of what she might do. "We've asked for their help, your grandmother, my car…" she trailed off, throwing her hands up.

"Maria, calm down," Alex sighed suddenly, the first time he'd spoken since the argument had broken out.

"So you're siding with her?" she demanded, rage building in her.

"No," he sighed, "I'm not siding with anyone. We don't even know what they're asking, and remember, you've done this to me before. For Max," his gaze was on Maria, but he was thinking of Liz. "For all of them," he added quickly. "You lied to me, you kept secrets from me, hell you didn't even tell me when I found half of it out!"

Maria hung her head, ashamed.

"I know," she murmured, "you have every right to tell me to stuff it, but I'm just sick and tired of having to drop everything and run whenever one of them gets into trouble," she sighed, covering her eyes. Alex looked over at the door to find Michael Guerin standing sullenly in the doorway.

"Trust me," he said coldly, his voice like ice, "we don't like coming to ask for your help."

Maria looked up and the flash of pained anger there nearly broke his cold resolve.

"Let me guess," she said, equally cold as he had been, "you got yourself into another stupid mess and you need the three ignorant humans to clean up after you," she looked him up and down and frowned, "sound about right?"

He frowned, "How many times has it been me in trouble?" he asked, pushing off the doorframe and plopping into a chair at the table, which Alex sat upon.

"Let me see…" she began counting on her fingers, "there was that damned trip to Marathon, where I had to get you out of being arrested and charged with god knows what…" she was about to continue when Max and Isabel came in quietly.

"Care to share what's going on?" Alex asked quietly, smiling a bit at Isabel.

"It's about Tess," Max said softly, and Liz's eyes dropped to the ground. Maria felt a surge of hatred for the three aliens at that moment. Max had hurt Liz beyond words, and Isabel had used Alex for her own selfish purposes.

'What about Michael?' a small voice in her head asked, 'you hate him too, don't you?'

But the answer was simple. She couldn't care what Michael did to her, because then she'd feel the pain that hid just below the surface, and she didn't want that. She couldn't let herself be hurt by him again.

"So," Maria said, her voice dripping with venom, "what'd your little slut get into this time?"

All eyes shot to her, pained ones from Max and Liz, disgusted ones from Isabel, disappointed ones from Alex, and smug, gloating ones from Michael. Why did he have to be so damned cocky all the time?

"Maria, that was crude," Alex said slowly, touching her arm to calm her down.

"Oh what? Now I have to be nice to the people responsible for crushing my best friend?" her anger was a runaway freight train, and the others were in its direct path.

"Sure that's concern for Liz that's making you into a bitch?" Michael smirked, and she snapped.

"You dare to assume that you held any power over me, you filthy, pathetic, weak excuse for a man?" she laughed bitterly, and the others were taken aback. "You're lucky that your people fated you with someone so beautiful, else you'd be alone for the rest of your miserable, worthless life!" She spun on her heel and moved towards the back room to collect her things.

Michael only watched, hiding the horror her words had induced well. Isabel looked at him sadly.

"I'm sorry she said that," Liz murmured, "she's," she thought a moment, looking at the swinging doors, "I don't know, she's been different ever since…" but she trailed off as Max slowly passed through the swinging doors to the back room.

"You shouldn't goad her, Michael," is all Alex would say; he wanted nothing more then to wipe that smug look from off the bastard's face.

Michael didn't speak, and they fell into silence, trying to hear what Max was saying.

Max found Maria viciously stuffing things into her bag, tears were threatening to stream down her cheeks, and she was furious that she had let him get to her.

"Maria?"

Her head snapped up, glaring at Max, her tears forgotten now. "What?" she demanded when he didn't speak. He remained silent and she returned to stuffing things back in her bag. "Don't try any of your weird alien mojo on me, Max."

"Maria," his tone was soft, delicate, condescending. "That was cruel, you know that Michael didn't have a choice in this, and neither did Isabel, Tess, or myself."

"Well that's just great, four victims of fate, and what of the two people you hurt, huh?" she slammed her locker closed, "what about Alex and Liz? They cared about you guys, hell, Liz LOVED you!" She zipped her bag shut furiously, catching her finger on the zipper and drew blood, but didn't notice.

"What about you?" he asked, and she stopped mid-stride.

"What about me?" she asked indifferently, "I was dragged into this unwillingly, I was used, and used, and broken, and used. Oh yes, I was used a few more times, but I was smart," she laughed coldly, "I managed to keep myself from that idiot's thing called love," she frowned, "can I go now?"

"Maria, I think you should apologize to Michael, he may not show it, but he's more sensitive than you think."

"I think I know him well enough to see that, Max," she said sharply. "What I said was the truth, and you should simply be glad I'm not throwing my opinions of you and your little whore around freely," she spun her back to him and again moved to the door.

"She's not a whore, Maria," Max said as he followed her out, "she's as much a victim of fate as everyone else!"

"No!" she shrieked back, fury tinged her voice, "I am NOT a victim of fate. I refuse to be governed by your wants and needs anymore!" she was possessed entirely by her anger now, "I hate all of you!" she looked at Liz and Alex and silently told them that they weren't included in the declaration. "You four can be dissected for all I care, just don't drag me back into it!" She stomped out, slamming the door behind her.

Michael frowned, jumping up and running out after her, she was walking home so he could easily catch up with her. "Maria," he said as he jogged up beside her.

"What the fuck do you want? Another chance to use me?" she snorted in disbelief, "you actually believe I'm that stupid, don't you? Little Maria, stupid pathetic human, why not make her life worse, right?"

"That's unfair," he said, and the tone of his voice let her know how much he missed her.

"Well, life's unfair Michael, at least life on this planet is," she sneered the last and glared up at him. "Maybe you should try acting like the species you pretend to be."

"And what would that entail, Maria?" he snapped, "bending to your every whim?"

"Having a heart," she said coldly, and she met his gaze, laying out all her pain, and hurt, and anger for him to see. "Letting someone in, letting someone care, Christ, even letting yourself care! You're as emotionless as stone, Michael, and I for one am tired of your shit!"

She turned and began to cross the street, not noticing the car. Michael didn't notice either, not until after he shouted it at her.

"You stupid, ignorant bitch! You try it, you see what it's like to be so completely different from everybody else, and yet be so in love with everything it blinds you!"

She stopped and turned, and laughed when she saw the car that didn't see her. "Maybe I will, Michael," she said bitterly, "but not in this life."

And he ran to shove her aside, feeling responsible for the sickening thud that broke the night's stillness, but he was too slow, and just as everyone in the Crashdown came hurrying out to see what was happening, Tess stepped out of the car, shrieking in terror.

"Oh god!" she murmured, hovering next to Michael, who was carefully carrying Maria's unmoving body back to the Crashdown, "I didn't see her! I swear I didn't mean to…" her eyes fell on Max and she ran into his waiting arms, sobbing wildly, "Max, oh god, can we fix her?"

"I don't know, move your car and come back inside, ok?" he said calmly, and shooed her over to the black Volkswagon Golf. Michael was silent, and he laid Maria down on the sofa in the back.

"Oh go, Michael, do something, "Liz was crying, holding Maria's hand, "make her wake up!"

Alex was silent, standing next to Isabel. "This is our fault," she said quietly, "we did this, if you guys had never known…" she caught herself from continuing.

"If we had never known, Liz would be there instead of Maria," he said softly, looking over to where the girl was lying still.

"Michael DO something!" Liz insisted, looking at him with demanding eyes, "wake her up, do the healing thing, kiss her for god sakes, wake her up," she had caught his shoulders and begun to cry. "I need my best friend…"

Michael looked down at the sobbing heap that was clinging to him, and shot a quizzical look to Max, who shrugged.

"There's nothing to fix, Liz," Max said quietly, taking the girl from Michael, "she's unconscious, and bleeding, but we can't do anything to help her."

"Then take her to the hospital, just make her better!" she demanded, and Michael and Max shared a look.

"We can't take her to the hospital," Max said slowly.

"Why the hell not?" Alex demanded, finally finding his voice.

"Because then they'll connect it with Tess, and Tess with us, and us with trouble," Michael said coldly, looking down at Maria's still form.

Alex was beyond his normal reason the moment the words left Michael's lips, and he sneered, advancing on the other boy. "You damned well better find some way to make her alright, you cold, unfeeling bastard. Because of you an innocent girl could be dying, and all you can think is that if you take her somewhere to get help that you might get found out?" He quelled the urge to throw a punch directly into the other boy's jaw. "You really are as bad as she thought!" he murmured coldly, and moved past him to Liz, who had pulled away from Max the moment a sobbing Tess had come barging in.

"Alex?" she asked quietly, her tears still streaming down her face, "will she be okay?"

Alex looked at the offending four, Max holding Tess, trying to quiet her, while Michael and Isabel stood comfortingly close to one another.

"I don't know, Lizzie," he sighed and looked down at Maria, "but if she dies, they're entirely to blame."

Liz burst out into fresh tears and turned her face into Alex's chest.

"I can't lose her, Alex!" she sobbed frantically, "I can't stand to lose anyone else!"

He held her close and glared, disgusted, at the other four.

"I know, Liz," he sighed, stroking her hair, and Max felt a surge of jealousy run through him. "We'll take her upstairs and fix up the cuts, but aside from that, we'll have to wait and see…"

Liz nodded and Alex bent to lift Maria from the couch. Liz led him up the stairs and into her room, the four others following close behind.

Liz turned watery eyes to the four as Alex laid Maria on the bed.

"I think you should leave," she said softly, looking at the floor.

"I'm not going anywhere," Michael said stolidly, and Liz looked up.

"Why?" she said, harsher that intended, "you want to keep an eye on your investment, is that it?" she frowned, looking at the rest of them. "Fine, stay if you want, she's right, you know."

"About what?" Max asked, frightened of what she might say.

"About all of you, you're so selfish! Always demanding that we help you, but never strong enough to give it back when we really need it!" she turned and grabbed a first aid kit from the bathroom before returning to her room. The four aliens watched the unconscious slip of a girl intently, as if she might disappear.

Liz and Alex proceeded to clean and cover Maria's few scrapes and tucked her in.

"We were lucky," Michael said softly, Alex and Liz turned to look at him coldly.

"This is what you call luck?" Liz asked, her tears forgotten, replaced by cold, unfeeling rage.

"She didn't break any bones, she's still breathing, this is definitely lucky."

"You bastard," Alex whispered, turning back to Maria, "you really don't have a heart, do you? It's a wonder she let you near her."

"Because she loved him," Liz murmured, "she was stupid and she let herself love him," she sighed, looking at Alex, before crawling up in the bed and lying next to Maria's prone form.