The large object in front of her managed to shock her beyond words and freeze her.

The first time she saw one she had been shocked. Only because it didn't look like she had expected it to.

It didn't look like a saucer...or a teacup for that matter. It didn't look like the one in X-Files or the one in Independance Day. Nope.

It looked like an SR-71 black bird, although it wasn't. It was long and narrow. The color of it was a sleek black and the front of it was narrow and came to a point as thin as your thumb.

It just looked...normal. Like a normal plane, although it was an aircraft to an alien race.

Maria couldn't bear to walk near the ship. She couldn't help but remember.

///Flashback///

"You OK?"

Maria looked to her side and saw her husband, Michael, staring at her. She shrugged and smiled at him.

"It's...um...not what I expected," she said quietly. Michael put his arm around her and gripped tightly. He kissed her forehead and then let his chin rest on the top of her head.

"It's going to be alright," he whispered.

"I...just hate being without you," she said. Michael wrapped his other arm around her.

"Maria, don't think that just because I'm going that I can bare to be without you, because I can't." He said and pulled her to look into his eyes. "Hey...it tears me to shreds when I have to be away from you."

"Then don't go," Maria's said, her voice cracking. "Stay with me."

"Maria, I'm doing this for you just as much as I am for me. Look at me. I know we just got married, but someday I want to have kids with you. And in order to do that we have to...consummate this marriage. And I need answers. I need to know what I am. I need to know that you can't get hurt if we make love and have children," he told her. "I need to know what I am so that I can tell our kids what they are."

Maria wrapped her arms tightly around Michael. "Then go," she said supportively. "Besides, I've been dying to find out how you are in bed."

They both laughed til tears rolled down there cheeks.

///Flashback///

She continued to stand still and stare at the ship. Of course, this wasn't the same ship that had taken Michael, but it was an exact replica of it.

She couldn't believe it had been three years that he'd been gone.

A tear rolled down her cheek. God, I can't even except that he's dead. I just always think of him as gone.

She couldn't help, but wonder if he was living some great life with some alien chick. That maybe he had faked his death. But, she tried to tell herself that Michael wouldn't do that to her. He could do a lot of things to keep people from getting inside, but he wasn't cruel like that.

Besides, when they were married he had changed. He had opened up to her and let her in. He loved her. He HAD loved her. Now, he was gone. Dead.

But, deep down he never would be. Not to her. She would still wake up in the morning and make coffee with tabasco sauce even though he wouldn't be there to drink it. She would watch his favorite movie, The 13th Warrior, every Saturday even though he wouldn't be there to watch it with her. She would lay down imagining his voice reading to her, like he had done every night until he left.

She reached up to grab a hold of the necklace he had given her. She would always hold it when she thought of him.

Maria gasped when she felt nothing around her neck. She looked down and saw nothing. It wasn't there. The necklace Michael had given to her was missing. She felt a strong pang in her heart and she started to cry.

"Max...Max!" Maria rushed through the house looking for him.

"Maria, I'm in here," She heard him yell from a room in the house. .She rushed towards him.

"Max," she said and practically collapsed in his arms.

"Maria, what's wrong? Are you OK? Are you sick?" He asked with much concern.

"It's missing, Max."

"What's missing?" He asked.

"My necklace. The necklace Michael gave me. It's missing," she cried.

"Maria, it's OK. We'll find it, I swear." He promised her and hugged her tightly.

Maria fell to her knees and cried freely. "I'm so scared," she breathed. "I miss him so much."

Max kneeled down and comforted her. "Maria, it's going to be OK. You're a very strong person. You can make it through this."

Maria shook her head. "No, I don't think I can. It's been 3 years and it feels like he just left yesterday. I wish I knew what happened."

"I'm going to find out. I'll get you the answers."

Tron looked through the observation windows to the water patient's room. On the other side it looked like a mirror, so if the patient was ever to wake up he'd be oblivious to the fact that he was being watched closely by the doctors.

Tron sighed. The water patient had been in a coma since they had arrived to the hospital after recovering him from the crash, but he looked like he was taking a nap. A nightmare-infested nap.

Tron wondered how it was that the face of this young man could look so troubled. He couldn't have been more than 19 years old when they had found him.Even then he looked troubled. He wondered what it had been.

When they had found him all he could talk about was Maria, but what was Maria? Tron couldn't understand that. He had gone to the libraries and researched Maria, but could find nothing. So, he figured it was something from water.

The patient wore a necklace containing a stone from there planet and when they found him he gripped it tightly and wouldn't let it go. Tron wondered about that too.

Honestly, he wondered about everything when it came to this patient. He wondered what his life was like on Water. Did he have any kids? Or a wife? Were there others there?

"Mr. Sketchino, what exactly do we know about him? Besides the fact that he came from Water?" Asked a medical student.

Mr. Sketchino looked to the sleeping form of the water patient and then back at the student. "To tell you the truth, we don't know much. We do know he was in the crash of 1947 and has lived down there up until 3 years ago when we found him," he answered.

"Do we know of any affects living on water has had on him?" Another student asked.

"None physically. The only thing that would be possible are maybe living conditions, or certain way of thinking, but we can't know these things until he wakes up," He answered.

Maria woke up the next morning feeling like a ton of bricks were on top of her. She had never been fully asleep since Michael had left years ago. She would always be in between sleep and wake.

She really didn't like the feeling although she could never control it. No sleeping pills worked. The average person's heart beats 80 to 100 beats a minute. If you are really healthy and athletic your heart can beat to as low as 40 beats a minute. Of course when everyone was asleep your heart beat, whether athletic or not, usually went under 60 beats a minute. When Maria was a wake her heart would beat 120 beats a minute and when she was asleep it felt as if it couldn't decided whether to go slow or fast.

It was extremely uncomfortable. It caused her to have palpatations all day long. She was pretty used to them, but some of them startled her. The doctor told her she needed to relax, that she needed to have a more balanced life style. One doctor offered medicine to take care of them, but it always left her feeling terrible headaches and nauseous. Another doctor told her therapy and meditation would do it, but Maria just couldn't relax.

Only one doctor offered that a mixture of both would work. That, yes, medicine could take care of her palpations, but that she also needed to relax and balance her life out better. That seemed more reasonable, but she couldn't do it. Michael had always been her balance.

She rolled over and took in a deep breath. Max wasn't there, because he had already left early in the morning. Maria knew he didn't wake her up because it was going to be to painful.

Sometimes she wondered about her future with Max. If there was one. Then her thoughts moved to Liz. Liz died not to long after Michael. Although not in anway you really expected. But, then again, how do you really expect a person to die?

Stupid, but, Maria always thought Liz would die as an old woman. Maybe from cancer or some other terminal disease, but most likely old age. No one expected Liz to be murdered by some guy who wanted some money.

It's not like her and Max hooked up right after that. Because, it never did happen that way. Truth be told they weren't really together now. They were sort of best friends with a hint of more. They were each others security blankets because they knew how the other felt. Max knew Maria loved Michael and no one else and Maria knew Max loved Liz and no one else.

And that was OK.

He didn't live with her although he might as well. They usually slept in each other's arms because it was comforting to know you weren't the only person in the world that felt the way you did. That there was someone else.

Maria finally stretched off of the bed. She immediately brought her feet back up when it landed on something fury and she realized she almost stepped on her dog, Beanie Baby. The dog rolled over and looked up at her.

"Hey BB," she said and the dog seemed to smile at her. Beanie Baby was another comforting thing in her life. It was a gift to her from Michael. The memory flashed in her thoughts and she smiled widely.

It had been their first official date.

The day after graduation, Michael asked her out and Maria accepted. When she answered the door that night he looked like he stepped out of a pool with all the sweat pouring from his face and hands.

///Flashback///

"Hey," he muttered nervously.

Maria smiled at the nervous looking Michael standing in front of her. "Hey, Michael."

Michael stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down at the ground. "So, you ready?"

"Yeah, are you OK?" She asked.

Michael didn't look up at her. "Uh huh."

"OK, let me get my jacket," she said, but before she could leave Michael stopped her. "What's wrong?"

"There is something coming out of my chest."

"What?" Maria asked wondering what the hell he was talking about.

Michael unzipped the top of his jacket and the head of a 9 week-old bull dog popped out. Maria stood there shocked.

"Oh my god, Michael what are you doing with a dog?" She immediately asked.

Michael unzipped the rest of his jacket and pulled the whimpering puppy out. He held it at arms length, as if it might give him rabies, and she took the puppy in her arms.

"She's so cute!" Maria exclaimed.

"Um...well, I read somewhere that usually guys bring girls flowers on their first date. But, I'm not a usual type of guy. So, I brought you a dog," he told her.

"Oh. Well, I already had one," she said.

"What?" He asked and then he realized she was talking about him. "That's not funny."

"Yes, it is. But, I have a cute one with some derranged hair," she laughed. "Thank you so much. She is the cutest thing in the world."

"What about me?" Michael asked, feeling offended.

"OK, well you're the cutest alien," Maria offered.

"That's better. But, just so you know, don't feel to special. The dog didn't cost me a penny. Some lady was giving them away at K-Mart," Michael said. Maria laughed. It was just like Michael to try and downsize something special he did.

"Whatever," she said with a laugh.

"So, what are you going to name her?" Michael asked.

"I don't know. What do you think?" Maria asked.

"How about...Beanie Baby?" Michael offered.

"That is so cute! How did you think of that?" She asked.

Michael shrugged. "I didn't really. I just think the dog looks like a Beanie Baby," he said.

///End Flashback///

Although Michael acted as if he didn't like the dog at first, he acted that way towards everyone really, Beanie Baby grew on him eventually. In fact Maria often had to fight with the dog about her spot on Michael's chest to sleep. Maria always one though and the poor dog got Michael's stinky feet.

A few times though, they'd wake up and find Beanie Baby on Michael's head. Maria guess that it'd agree, Michael's hair was just so fuzzy and cool.

Beanie Baby barked at Maria and wiggled her tail furiously.

"You want to go outside?" Maria asked and Beanie Baby immediately got up and pranced to the door. When it got to the door it stopped and looked out the window of it. Straight up to the sky and barked. Maria bent down and patted the dog on the head.

It was a certain bark. Maria always knew it was. She would always bark a certain way when she missed Michael.

"I know, sweetie," Maria said as she opened the door. "I know you miss him, too."