He picked up the bag, but instead of handing the marshmallows to her, he stuffed as many as he could in his mouth and grinned. It was just like Max to do something silly.

Maria let out a giggle. "Max, stop being goofy and hand me the marshmallows." She ducked just in time to have a marshmallow fly over her head. "MAX! Give me the bag, not just one!" She couldn't contain her laughter anymore. The sight of Max's mouth full of marshmallows was just too funny. Where was Isabel? She needed to see this.

As if on cue, Isabel slowly sneaked up behind Max. Maria watched as Isabel' s hands came down on Max's cheeks. Marshmallow spewed everywhere. Isabel dropped to the ground laughing. Maria couldn't help but laugh, too. The look on Max's face was of pure shock, then anger. But after a few minutes of watching Isabel and Maria laughing, he too began to laugh.

"That was too funny!" Isabel laughed. "Max, you should have seen your face."

"You're not kidding," Maria said. "You looked like a deflating balloon." Maria attempted a mock impression of what had happened causing Isabel to burst out into another fit of laughter.

"It wasn't funny!" he said smiling. "What if I'd have choked?"

Isabel and Maria stopped laughing. They hadn't thought about that. What would they have done if he had choked? The most important thing was that he hadn't and that's what they were going to think about. Both girls grinned.

"What?" Max asked.

"It was just so funny." Maria and Isabel said at the same time.

Max had all he could stand. He dove over on top of the two girls who were now sitting side by side. He flipped them over and pinned Maria down easily with one arm. He struggled to gain control of Isabel but was having trouble holding onto her because he was laughing. When he thought he could fight no more, Isabel moved slightly and allowed Max to pin her with his other arm.

"I won!" He said, jumping up. "I won! You guys are L-O-S-E-R-S. LOSERS! I beat both of you!" He turned and headed away from the fire.

"AAAAAHHHHHH" Isabel and Maria screamed.

Max turned around to see what the commotion was only in time to see Maria and Isabel make a flying leap onto him. They brought Max down hard. He couldn't help but laugh. The two girls moved so Max could get up. They moved over in front of the fire and Max tossed the bag of marshmallows to Maria.

"There ya go, sis." He said, smiling.

"If I knew it was going to be such a workout I'd never have asked for them." Maria said, returning the smile.

Max continued smiling at Maria. He had come a long way. They all had. It had been six months since Maria had found out she was part alien. She'd also found out that Isabel and Max were her brother and sister. Max hadn't accepted her right away and thus began the search for their father. They found their father, but in turn learned he was evil. Isabel and Maria were forced to kill him (as well as Michael's father) and a girl named Aliyah. She had taken over Tess's identity, but now the real Tess had returned. He had promised to take his sisters camping so he really hadn't gotten the chance to know the real Tess. He looked forward to being able to go back to Roswell and learn from her. At this moment though, all he could think about was being alone, in the desert, with the two people who meant more than anything to him, his sisters. He continued watching Maria as she talked to Isabel. Now that he actually believed she was his sister, he'd begun to see similarities in them. Maria was more of a leader than a follower. That was something she shared with Max. Isabel and Maria had the same taste in almost everything right down to the same clothes. Maria was well advanced in using the powers she had. She had the same powers -the ability to heal and move objects- just as Max and Isabel had. She also had the ability to dream walk, which was something that only Isabel could do before. She also had a power all of her own: the ability to communicate telepathically with any of the other aliens. He didn't know why he had ever believed Aliyah. The truth was staring him right in front of his face and he chose to believe the lies. That was all over now, though. He had his sisters and that's all that mattered. He smiled when he noticed the girls looking at him.

"Tomorrow we go home." He said stretching out on the ground. "Ready?"

Maria's eyes grew misty. "This has been the best weekend of my life." She said smiling. "Everything has worked out so great." But things hadn't worked out great. Maria remembered seeing her father's face when Isabel and her had went to kill him. It was a look of shock and disappointment. She couldn't believe they'd actually been able to kill him.

"Maria?" Isabel asked.

"I'm sorry. I was just thinking," she said. "I know I said everything was perfect, but I just keep thinking about our father. Do you think we really should have killed him?" Tears sprung into her eyes.

"I've been thinking the same thing." Isabel said, drawing her knees to her chest. "I feel so horrible. Like I let our father down. He looked so sad that we didn't believe him." "Isabel, did you even consider for one moment that Aliyah might have lied to us?" Maria asked. "I mean, she did lie about a lot of other stuff."

Isabel looked down at the ground. She'd been thinking about that day ever since it happened. "It crossed my mind. But I figured Tess knew what she was talking about. I put all my faith into her. I just hope I trusted the right person."

Maria sighed. Her tears began to flow. "I won't ever be able to forgive myself for it." She said, sobbing. "He didn't deserve to die. I didn't even know him. WE didn't know him."

Isabel began to cry too. "I'm so sorry Max." she cried.

"It's all our fault." Maria and Isabel said in unison.

Max crawled over between his sisters and pulled their heads onto his shoulders. "Shhh.it's ok. It's ok." He rocked them both back and forth. "You guys did what you had to do. It was the right decision. I won't ever hold it against the two of you. He screwed up. When we get back and get to talk to Tess, she'll tell us the whole story. I believe we have the real Tess back now. You did right." He just set there holding his sisters. He didn't know what else to do. He knew they'd never forgive themselves. He had to let them know as much as he could that he didn't hold it against them. When their sobs finally trailed off, Max looked down at Maria and Isabel.

"Let's get some sleep, ok?" He asked, moving towards his sleeping bag. "It 's back to civilization tomorrow and school."

Isabel rolled her eyes. "I can't believe our senior year is almost over. In two months, we graduate." She looked at Maria and smiled.

"What are we going to do after high school?" Maria asked Max and Isabel.

"Who knows?" Max answered. "Maybe college, maybe start a family, maybe get a job." He looked up at the sky. "Or maybe we'll find a way home."

Isabel and Maria looked up and smiled. That would be something. Being able to return to their home planet would be a dream come true. Reality set in and they looked around themselves. They'd been searching for a way home since they'd emerged from their pods and hadn't found any way since. What reason did they have to believe they'd find a way then? Isabel laughed.

"I guess we're just dreamers, huh?" she asked. "Well, I'm going to bed." She walked over to her sleeping bag and crawled in.

"Goodnight, Max. Goodnight, Maria." Isabel said. "I'll see you guys in the morning."

"Goodnight, Iz." Max and Maria replied at the same time.

Max rolled over and faced Maria. "Don't let what happened with our father get to you. Please, I don't want to see you and Isabel hurting over this the rest of your lives." He smiled at her. "Goodnight, Maria. And in case I've not told you enough, I'm glad that you really are my sister."