"Hi, are we the only ones that are home?" she asked.

"Yup," he said nodding after a moment. "Can I talk to you?" he asked.

"Sure, about what?" Maria asked, she clearly unaware that anyone else had noticed her.

"About you, there is clearly something wrong, that's upsetting you," he said sitting on her bed.

"Wow, direct and to the point. I like that. My mom usually goes through like an hour of small talk," Maria said laughing. "Yeah, we sit there and talk about school, and she never ever really gets to the point. I think its cause she misses everything. And I do too, I miss having a dad," she said crying.

"Is that was this has all been about?" Jim asked.

"No, it's just, damn him!" she yelled. "God even when he's around he makes me mad! I want to tell her so, bad, I want to tell everyone, but I can't because I don't know what they'll think of me!" she yelled.

"Maria, is this about, Michael being an alien?" Jim asked.

Maria laughed through her tears. "No, I want to tell everyone something else, but I can't, because they will all hate me!" she said softly.

"I won't, I won't say anything, I won't tell anyone, I may even be able to help, I promise, no one will ever know. I'll take it to my grave," Jim said quietly. He got up and closed the door and stood at it.

Maria smiled. She looked up at him, into his eyes, hers shimmering with tears and she smiled. "I'm pregnant."

"Are you sure, did you go see a doctor?" Jim asked quickly.

"No, but I took twelve of those little home things. You can tell from twelve," Maria said. "I can't tell anyone, they'll all be so mad, and I don't want them to be so mad. What about the rest of my life?"

"You still have it. And you have a lot of time to think about this. And you have Michael, and Tess, and me, we are all here for you. And I'm sure everything will be okay. You can still go to New York, you'd better, Amy actually went and sent the check this morning. I made her. You still have everything. I believe it," Jim said after a long moment.

"Really?" Maria questioned. "Then I believe too. Thanks, dad," she said and wrapped her arms around him. "Wait, she put the check down?" Maria asked sitting up.

"Oh yeah, she's happy," Jim said. Maria squealed.

"Who writes this crap?" Liz asked sitting down.

"What crap?" Tess said scanning her eyes over the school newspaper.

"These columns, except for the advice column, its all crap. The only reason anybody writes on this thing, is because they started paying," Liz said laughing.

"The advice is good," Tess agreed. "As usual, I wonder who writes it," she said her voice trailed off as she saw Maria and Michael standing in the center of the cafeteria.

"It's not fair!" Liz whined as she watched the two kiss. "They are so lucky, who'd of thought Maria, and Michael, the last guy who'd be in a relationship, making out in the lunch room?"

"The mysteries of life," Tess said nodding. "Like why I just can't take the advice I get dished out at me?"

"Your fourth child or whatever?" Liz demanded.

"Yeah," Tess said staring at Maria and Michael. "How do they breathe?" she asked.

"So, you don't really like Max?" Liz asked.

"Nope, how the hell do they get any air?" Tess said again.

"Oh my god! Thank you!" Liz screamed kissed Tess on the cheek and bolted out of the room.

Tess laughed. "Love is in the air. Now somebody tell me, how the hell can you get any air when your lips have been stuck on someone else's for the past five minutes?"

"Max!" Liz yelled. She ran up to him.

"Hey Liz, how are you?" Max asked.

"I," Liz said pulling herself into him. "Have never, ever been better!" she yelled pushing him up against his locker. She kissed him wrapping her hands around his head.

"Liz?" Max said, his voice muffled by Liz. "What has gotten into you?"

"Let's just say a destiny," she said smiling and kissed him again.

"I cannot believe this!" Tess yelled.

"Believe what?" Kyle asked.

"That everyone else is getting together, falling in love, and here I am out of the musical chairs, as usual," Tess sighed.

"Man, how do they breathe?" Kyle asked looking at Maria and Michael. "I know what you mean, I'm never in the game of musical chairs, how long have they been up to this?"

Tess cracked up. "I've been saying that for like ten minutes."

"Okay, we need a plan of action," Max said looking into everyone's eyes.

"Good, action, sounds good," Michael said nodding. "You're right, you're the boss, boss."

Tess laughed. "What is up with you?"

"I've never felt happier than I have today," he said grinning.

"Why, cause you were slipping Maria the tongue, half the afternoon in the lunch room today?" Alex asked.

"Guys?" Isabel yelled. "Although he does have a point. You two were pretty happy-go-lucky today, what was up with that?"

"I'm overjoyed," Michael said smiling. Maria kissed his cheek.

"Are you two going to stop any time soon?" Alex asked.

"Is this meeting ever going to start?" Kyle pointed out.

"Good point!" Liz yelled. "Okay, let's listen to Max, before agreeing or disagreeing with him."

"Good idea Liz, you were always the smart one," Maria said.

"Have you two been drinking?" Alex demanded.

"So, I think we need a plan of action," Max repeated, ignoring Alex. "So I think that we should find Nicholas, before he finds us, and he tries to kill us. The questions are, where is he? What is he up to? And what do we do if he finds us first?"

"Who is he going to go after?" Tess added after a few moments. Maria moved up closer to Michael, as if she was worried Nicholas was in the room then.

"Guys, I have kind of an important question," Isabel said. "Uh, what about Kivar? I mean I doubt he's just at home sitting on his butt," she said. "And he's going to go after me!" she yelled.

"Maybe he is, at home, sitting on his butt," Tess said. "Max, remember when we were in New York? Brody, or the guy who was disguised as him, said that they could enter bodies, abduct them, and like move them, and tell them what to do, remember? Maybe he just plucked someone out of the crowd and is in them?"

"That makes sense," Kyle said nodding. "I bet he's right in front of us."

"And he's going to go after Isabel. Great, she's our walking bait," Alex said, not sounding thrilled at all.

"Why don't we sleep on it?" Kyle blurted. "After all it's late, if we don't, we could do something totally rash," he said.

"Sleep sounds good," Maria said fighting to keep her eyes open.

Maria walked down the long alley that it took to get to her new house. She had lived in one house, but then they needed a bigger one, to house three teenagers and two adults. Maria actually liked the new house. It was very cool. She enjoyed it a lot. She heard a crunching noise that pulled her out of her thoughts. She jerked her head around. "Roswell's got too many alley's," she sighed speeding up.

"Agreed, you'd think they thought it out of a movie. Where are your crutches Maria?" a voice behind her asked.

"I don't need them anymore," she said. "Who's there?"

"Oh, I know you know," the voice said, it approached her. "Well, at least you should, I would hope you would."

"Look, buddy, I have peppery spray, and uh, a black belt so don't mess with me," she warned.

"Don't lie to someone that knows you," the voice sighed. "I drugged you, I slipped it into that juice you had before lunch. You'll be puddy in my hands any second."

"You don't know my will to stay awake. I never fell asleep one French class last year, and I had Mr. Taggert," she said quickly.