So let them talk about us
let them call us funny things,
People sometimes do.
Oh I don’t care, as long,
As you know I love you.
Oh, and you know I do.
+ + + +

October, 2012
South San Francisco, CA

"No!" Maria cried out hastily as she quickly picked up her pace, to run to the little boy. He shakes his head, and balls his fists up tightly as he looks up at her with incredulity. She scoops him up in her arms, and he wraps his little jean-clad legs as far as they can go, around her waist. "You know you’re not supposed to touch Mommy’s computer." The boy shakes his head stubbornly, but when he catches his mom’s stern gaze, his face softens, and he nods his head back and forth.

"No ‘puter," he finally says firmly.

"Right," Maria agrees as she sets her son down on the couch. He grabs his big-boy cup, and devours the remaining apple juice. Maria looks over her shoulder, at the computer, then back at her son. She frowns, but plops beside him.

Ian Frederick Evans leans his head of brown curly locks on his mom’s arm. Maria smiles down at him, and wraps her arm around him.

"Daddy’s gonna be home tonight." Maria shakes her head in confirmation, and hoisted Ian into her lap. He wiggled around and looked up at her with gleaming eyes.

"That’s right. We have to go pick him up at the airport, and then we’re going to order some pizza. How does that sound?" She cranes her neck forward to look at his face. Naturally, at the sound of his favorite word ‘pizza’, it lights up, and he claps his chubby hands together.

"Yes. I really like that!" Ian cheers. Maria drops two kisses on her son’s chocolate-colored head, and sighs.

"Good." She leans back into the couch, and lifts her legs over the wooden coffee table. She sighs with exasperation, but shakes her head as she watches the figures on the TV screen a little more closely.

"What are you watching?"

"Old X-Files," he says firmly.

"Re-runs of the X-Files, huh? Doesn’t that give you nightmares?"

"Nightmares?" he looks up at Maria with a perplexed shake of his head.

"Bad dreams," Maria confirms, as she moves some lose hair out of his eyes.

"Oh," he sighs. "No. Daddy and I watch it all times," he tells his mother. "Specially at night time."

"All the time, huh?" Maria asks her five year old son. He nods his head.

"All times!" Ian establishes with a firm nod of his head.

"Listen, Ian. I have to do some more work on the computer, before Daddy comes home tonight. But I want to watch the X-Files too. Do you think I can bring my computer in here, with out you touching it?" Maria asks her overly-inquisitive son suspiciously.

"Yes! Mommy watches X-Files!" he exclaims with glee. She quickly grabs her laptop, and rushes back, only to catch Scully muttering, "The found your bleepin’ alien." The TV fades into black, then flickers back to life with a commercial advertising Tide laundry detergent.

Maria flips the screen on, and it comes to life. No matter how many times she sees the background every day, it never fails to make her smile. On her wallpaper, Max and Ian are sitting on the beach, and Max has his arms around Ian. Max is looking down at Ian, talking with him, and Ian is looking up in the photo. Ian was three in that picture.

"Me," he declares, as he presses his index finger on the screen.

"Yep," Maria replies, just before the image disappears, and her electronic grade book reappears. Her eyes plant firmly on the very familiar grid of names and grades of her sixth, and last period class. Maria reaches forward, and grabs the stack of papers that she finished grading while Ian was taking his afternoon nap.

Maria flips through the papers at record speed, and records the grades that are jotted in purple at the top left of the pages. She’s done this process so many times, for so many periods, for the past seven years of teaching high school; it’s nearly impossible for anything to break her concentration.

She finishes in record time, and glances at the clock. She has three hours to kill, before she has to load Ian into the car, and drive through rush-hour traffic to make it to the airport in time. Maria is about to ask Ian if he wants to walk down to the market to pick up some ice cream for desert, but the doorbell breaks her thoughts.

She moves up quickly, and jogs to the door. Before Roswell, she could simply open the door, and not even question if it was somebody with a gun, or somebody looking to kill or rape her; or even worse, kidnap her son. Here in San Francisco, she had to think twice about just opening the door to anybody. (Even if she does live in the relatively nicer parts of Southern San Francisco.)

Maria gets on her tippy toes and peers through the tiny hole. A very unexpected gasp escapes her lips, as she immediately throws the lock off, and opens the door.

"Oh my God," she mutters under her breath. She’s speechless. Absolutely speechless.

"Maria De Luca... speechless? And I had the pre-conceived notion that was an impossibility," Liz Parker states flatly, but with a semi-smile across her face.

"Maria Evans, honey," Michael points out from behind. Liz lightly taps her forehead with the palm of her head, as she rolls her eyes.

"What was I thinking... Maria Evans. Stupid me." Maria continues to stare at the two, slack-eyed, and with a lax jaw. She moves her mouth to try and say something, but no sound comes out. She tries again, but is interrupted by a little hand tugging on hers. Maria gazes down to meet her son’s curious face.

"Zat?" he asks as he points outside. She bends forward and scoops Ian into her arms again. Ian looks quizzically toward Liz and Michael. A small smile spreads across his lips. At this moment, he looks like his father; holding headstrong conviction in his expression.

"These are some old friends of mine. Ian, that’s Ms. Parker, and the one back there is Mr. Guerin."

"Hello," he says shyly, before digging his head into the slope of his mother’s shoulder. Maria shakes her head.

"Please, come in," Maria offers as she moves to the side. When she watches Michael shut the door behind them, she walks past the hallway, and leads them into the kitchen. She hears the soft creak of their combined footsteps, as they walk through the hardwood-clad floors of her house.

"Please, have a seat," she requests. Maria deposits Ian down on the couch, where she can still see him from the kitchen.

"I have to go and talk with Mr. Guerin and Ms. Parker. Can you be a good boy for Mommy, and find something to watch on TV?" He nods his head, and she smiles, and plants a few kisses into the nest of his hair. Before leaving, she spots her laptop on the couch out of the corner of her eye. She grabs it, and shoves it under her armpit, to abate Ian’s immense temptation to mess with her computer. As Maria returns to the kitchen, she deposits her laptop down on the counter isle, directly on it’s midnight blue tiled surface.

She takes a seat across from Liz, and next to Michael. All three of them are in equal shock, for their own reasons, so they take a respite of silence to relish in their thoughts. However, Liz takes the initiative, and speaks first.

"I knew you had a kid... but I didn’t think about it. I always tried to put it out of my head when I thought of you. I always wondered what it would look like, but then I always pushed it out of my head. Just because it would hurt to think of you," Michael admitted.

"Isabel told me it was a boy, and she offered to show me a picture of him. But I refused. I didn’t want to see yours, and Max’s creation. I didn’t even want to know his name. Because if I saw him, and knew his name, I would have to think about it... and that’s something I didn’t ever want to do," Liz acknowledged.

"I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to cause anybody pain," Maria states exquisitely.

"Well, we know that now. That’s why we came down here. We want to patch things up with the both of you, before Michael and I get married." Her eyes widened from the impact of Liz’s words.

"Married? Really?" Maria tried to mask her surprise through her voice, but there was no telling what her face was illustrating for them.

"We became close friends after you two left for college together. However, we didn’t start to date up until a few years ago," Michael replies. Liz reaches out, and their fingers lace together; palms locked. "Where’s Max? We wanted to apologize to the both of you... for our behavior for the past few years. We know we can’t make up for everything... the silent treatment, the nasty name-calling, the fight I picked with Max that night of your dinner rehearsal... the wedding..." Michael stops abruptly to let out a lingering sigh. "But we want to try." A smile instantly forms across her face.

"Max is in Germany right now. Him, as well as the other Abnormal Psychology department directors at all of the Cal Universities had to give a convention tour in a few major cities in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland." Maria touches her hand to the surface of the table, still immensely elated with joy. "But he’ll be back tonight."

"I’m back right now," they suddenly hear from the hallway.

"Daddy!" a sharp voice calls from the family room. The pitter-patter of tiny feet rains through the hallway until they all turn to see Max standing on the opposite entrance to the kitchen. He scoops his son into his arms instantly. Ian chatters endlessly about the trials and tribulations of the two weeks he spent Daddy-free.

Max listens dutifully to his son’s ramblings, while throwing constant glances in their direction. "And then dere was this one time where Mommy and I went down to visit Uncle Kyle and Auntie Tess. I painted a picture for them, and..." Ian freezes. "Oh! I got somethin’ for you, Daddy." He squirms, and Max sets him down on the ground. Ian runs off to the upstairs.

"Kyle and Tess? Tess ran off after we defeated Kavar and his men... And I haven’t heard from Kyle since he went to school down in Phoenix," Michael states.

"Kyle joined the FBI a few years ago, and was initially assigned to the Los Angeles bureau. They met up down there, started dating, and moved down to San Francisco when Kyle was reassigned," Max explains as he moves closer to the table. He bends down, and deposits a chaste kiss on his wife’s lips, and another one on her forehead. "Hi there," Max whispers. They both smile into the final kiss that they shared, before he takes a seat next to her. Their fingers lace together under the table.

"How are they... Are they happy?" Liz inquires.

"Definitely. They live in Daly City, which is a few miles away North of here. Tess owns a very successful floral shop Daly City’s Seremonte Mall. They’ve been married for..." Maria’s voice trails off, and she takes a brief pause to think. "Eight years now. They have two kids... Derek Johnathon, who’s almost seven, and Piper Penelope, who’s five."

"Isn’t that about how old your son is?" Michael asks.

"Yes. Tess and I were pregnant around the exact same time," Maria replies. "Tess and I grew so close, that Max and I made Kyle and Tess Ian’s Godparents."

"And I heard Alex was living up here," Michael adds.

"Alex actually lives in Sacramento, which is approximately a two hour drive away. He’s a Forensic Pathologist for the state," Maria explains.

"He’s married, right?" Liz inquires.

"Yes. He just had a baby girl a few months ago with his wife, Eryn. I believe they named her Erika, with a ‘k’, not a ‘c’," Max replies firmly. He was just about to inquire about his sister, but the patter of his son’s footsteps deterred him.

Ian enters the kitchen, with a large piece of butcher paper in his hands. The paper was caked with extra thick markings of various crayola colors. Ian crawls into his father’s lap, and Max holds the butcher paper in front of him as he listens to Ian’s intricate explanation of the picture.

"That might just be your best drawing yet," Max tells Ian with a warm smile. Ian loops his arms around Max’s neck, as Max carries him over to the refrigerator. Ian helps him tack his picture to the refrigerator with magnets. Ian moves to reply to his father’s compliment, but the sharp whistle of the familiar X-Files tune prevents him.

Ian gasps a heavy intake of air, just before jumping up and down to the popular melody.

"Can I be ‘scused?" Ian asks softly. Max gives his son a soft pat on the back. Ian disappears through the French doors, leading to the family room. Max gives a final look over to his son, before turning back to Michael, Liz, and his wife.

"So what are you two doing in California?" Max inquires.

"We want to get on good terms again," both Liz and Michael reply instantaneously. Michael and Liz exchange glances, and smile widely at each other.

"We’ve been doing some thinking," Liz begins.

"And even though we were upset, confused, and betrayed, the way we acted was completely inappropriate," Michael finishes.

"It was," Max agrees. Under the table, Maria taps the side of Max’s thigh in hopes to make him back off.

"We trusted you," Liz points out. "How exactly did you expect for us to react when you came home and announced that you two had secretly been seeing each other when you went off to college, and you fell madly in love... and were getting married? Certainly you didn’t expect us to congratulate the announcement of your wedding over champagne and candlelight," Liz retorted bitterly. "You were our best friends, and you violated and betrayed that our and loyalty."

"That you did," Michael agrees stubbornly.

"It took us a while to heal, but we want to try to piece our relationship back together," Liz states softly.

"We want to try and do this, before we get married. I know that we both missed your wedding... and there’s nothing we can do to reverse that. Is this something we can work on?" Michael asks sternly.

+ + + + "Tess, it’s me," Maria declares as she cradles the phone between the dip in her shoulder, and her head.

"Hey," Tess mumbles in between what appeared to be bites of food.

"Would it kill you to take Ian tonight? I will owe you and Kyle so much..."

"Oh, Max is back," Tess replies slyly. "Big plans, huh?" Tess giggles, and Maria can’t suppress her own.

"Michael and Liz are in town, and they want to work things out," Maria responds candidly. A sigh/gasp of incredulity leaves the confines of Tess’ mouth, and can clearly be heard on the other line.

"You’re serious." It’s a statement, not a question.

"Please, Tess," Maria begs her closest friend to date.

"Yeah, of course," Tess agrees to Maria’s request easily. "But tomorrow, you have to promise to bring them over for breakfast." Maria smiles against the receiver, and nods her head, even though Tess cannot see this.

"That seems fair." Maria tells Tess that she’ll be over in a half an hour, or so, so they each part with the same formalities that they exchange on their daily phone conversations. When Maria returns to the kitchen, Michael is talking with her son about ice cream. Michael tells Ian that his favorite kind is chocolate, and he likes to eat it with hot sauce. Ian makes a sour face, and Michael laughs.

Maria peeks over to the family room, and finds her husband in there with Liz. They’re sitting on opposite edges of the couch, and their conversation is wiped clean of friendliness, but Maria still can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy as she looks at the two. Maria gave them a final glance, before making her way back into the kitchen, where Michael and Ian are still talking.

"Hey sweetie," Maria says as she dips down to pick Ian up by the waist. He giggles carelessly as she sits down in his spot, and places Ian on top of her lap. "Are you going to give Mommy some ice cream?" Maria asks him. He nods fervently, just as Ian takes a handful of the cold goop in his left hand, and offers it up to her. Maria giggles and shakes her head.

"Well, I don’t want it now," Maria says flatly. Ian shrugs, and licks his hands free of the sugary confection. Maria bent her head forward. "I just got off the phone with Auntie Tess," Maria tells her son. "And Derek says that he wants you to come over and play video games with him."

"Really?" Ian asks with wide eyes. "Do I getta spend the night?"

"Uh huh," Maria nods her head in confirmation.

"Wicked!" Ian exclaims as he claps his goop-filled hands together.

"But first, I have to give you a bath, because you’re messy... And you know that Auntie Tess gets particularly cranky things are all messy," Maria tells her son sternly, but it manages to get a crack of laughter out of Michael.

"She’s still like that?" Michael inquires.

"Oh yeah. It drives Kyle nuts." Maria asserts. She walks Ian over to the sink, and she runs water over his sticky hands. "Go upstairs and get ready for your bath," Maria orders. "I’ll be up there in a minute."

Ian scurries off, and she hears him run up the stairs. Maria sighs. She grabs the dinner plates (which were thankfully paper) and she deposits them into the trash bin. As she reaches to clear the table, Michael touches a hand to her back. she jumps nervously, and turns around to face him.

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Uh... I guess," Maria responds as she shoves the ranch salad dressing back into the refrigerator.

"I’ve always wondered this. I don’t regret anything that’s happened... I’ve accepted you and Max, and I love Liz dearly." Michael tells her uniformly. "But what was wrong with me? What was wrong with us?" Maria lets out a sigh.

"There was nothing wrong with you," she defends. "It all started that summer that Tess first came to Roswell, when Liz went off to Florida, and you became overly distant to work on your powers. We were both alone, and we became great friends." Maria places the carton of ice cream back into the fridge. She hoists herself onto the counter, and looks down at him as he looks up at her.

"Did you and Max ever..." his voice trailed off, and he motioned to make sure she understands. "Did you guys ever...before college?" Maria instantly shakes her head.

"We came close once," she admits. "It was the following summer, when Liz went off to Florida again, and you went off to Mexico with Isabel and Tess. I was so broken..." Maria shakes her head. "But we didn’t. I stopped it before anything could happen."

"I didn’t mean to hurt you that summer. I never meant to hurt you." Maria nods her head, to show him that she understands. She bows her head, and allows herself to indulge in the silence.

"I need to go check on Ian," Maria states while jumping off of the midnight blue counter. "C’mon, you can play boats in the tub with my son." Michael’s face lit up, and his left eyebrow raised. They walked through the French doors, which lead to the family room; where Max and Liz were still sitting on the opposite ends of the couch. Max gazed at the two, and Maria finally spoke up.

"I got off the phone with Tess, and she agreed to take Ian for the night, in exchange for breakfast at her house... the four of us. I have to go and get him ready," Maria calls out. Max rushes up, and blocks the stairway.

"Uh, I’ll do that. Why don’t you stay here with Liz, and talk?" Max suggests. Maria glares back at Liz for a moment, almost very fearful for many reasons, and back at Max.

"Okay," she agrees.

"Great," Max replies, before dropping a quick kiss on Maria’s nose. He dashes up the stairs, and Michael frowns.

"Hey, I was promised some quality boat-time playing!" Michael calls out as he marches up the stairwell. Maria releases a smile, but it soon fades once she spots Liz on the couch, waiting for her.

"So, what were you two talking about?" Liz asks.

"Probably the same thing you and Max were talking about," Maria responds, before occupying Max’s spot.

"Probably," Liz agrees. She squints, and a soft smile spreads through her face.

"So... what do you do now?"

"You mean... my career?" Liz nods quickly.

"I teach World, US, Latino, and Asian history at Daly City High School," Maria replies. "What about you. What do you do now?" Maria folds her hands in her lap, and turns to face Liz.

"I’m an astronomer for the Lowell Observatory."

"So you guys don’t live in Roswell? Because I could have sworn that the Lowell Observatory was in Arizona." Maria inquires.

"It is. Michael and I recently bought a cabin up near Keams Canyon. It’s about a half an hour away from Tucson," Liz responded. She fiddled with the hem of her leather jacket, and sighed. "What about Max? What does he do now?"

"Max is psychologist. His technical field is abnormal psychology. He works mainly at Berkeley, teaching, but he often does some profiling for the FBI. In fact, it’s Kyle who suggested that he get started in that area, and he’s loving it." Maria’s smile faded. "And what about Michael?" Liz’s lower column of her teeth sunk into the upper column of her lip.

"He’s reporter for the Tucson Star. He covers the sports."

"So... have you and Michael made wedding plans?"

"Granite Rock," Liz replies. "We want to have a small wedding out on Granite Rock, next May. It’s perfect in May."

"Granite Rock? The one just outside of Roswell?" Maria questions.

"Yes," Liz confirms with a nod of her head.

"When we were in high school, that was where we all used to meet to discuss the important ‘Czeckloslavakian’ information that we couldn’t discuss in public," Maria absently remembers.

"Yeah. We wanted the place to have some special meaning. Plus, at sunset, the lake is really pretty along the granite," Liz says. Another moment of unsullied silence spreads through their conversation. Maria thinks of all the information that Liz has given her, but Liz looks down at Maria and notices a change. Liz swallows, and takes a shot.

"You’re pregnant." Maria instantly looks up at Liz, but cannot deny it. She nods her head slowly.

"I haven’t told anyone... except Max. How did you know? Is it overly obvious?"

"No," Liz responds with a shake of her head. "I can just tell."

"I’m four months along," Maria declares. "We’re hoping for a girl."

"How long have you and Max known?" Liz inquires.

"About a month now," Maria replies. "So... are kids in the future for you and Michael?"

"We haven’t given it much thought," Liz replies candidly. "But I can sense that Michael wants them, and I’m hoping for at least one," Liz completes with a smile. Maria replies with her own. Just as Maria opens her mouth to tell Liz how much she really wants to be friends once again, their footsteps can be heard barreling down the stairs.

Ian is first, carrying his overnight bag in one hand, and his pillow in the other. Max follows close behind, with Ian’s sleeping bag tucked under his arm. Maria rises from the couch, and walks up to her son.

"Are you ready to go?" Maria asks her son, as she reaches down. He opens his arms out and wraps himself around her.

"Yep," Ian says with a lopsided grin across his face. Maria walks him over to Max, and he kisses the top of his son’s head.

"Mommy and I will pick you up tomorrow," Max assures Ian. He nods his head goofilly.

"Daddy, I’ll be okay," Ian says with much confidence. Max smiles and nods his head slowly.

"I know."

"Oh! I forgot somethin’!" Ian exclaims. Maria sets him down, and he goes running up the stairs, and the sound of his feet hitting the ground grows more absent the further he gets.

Max releases a small sigh, which Maria can’t pinpoint any particular emotion to. He moves his hands up to her cheeks, and slowly strokes the delicate skin around her temples. Maria sighs into his embrace.

"Are you okay?" Max asks his wife smoothly, as he continues to rub her temples with his thumbs in languid circles.

"Yeah," Maria replies. "I’m getting there." A small smile forms across his face as he leans over to kiss the bridge of her nose. His hands languidly drift down her arms, and down to her waist. Max’s head falls forward to lean against the dip in her shoulder.

"Jesus, how I’ve missed you these two weeks," Max sighs softly into the shell of her super-sensitive ear. Maria responds by smiling against his cheek, and whispering how much she’s missed him. She also proceeds to whisper a few more things she’s missed, and he lets out a muffled chuckle against her shoulder.

"Oh... Me too. Unquestionably," Max mumbles. Maria wraps one of her arms around his back to move closer to him. Her head drops down to his chest, and they settle in that hold.

"Are you going to be okay here with Michael and Liz?" Maria mumbles sleepily against his chest.

"I’ll be fine. Michael and I have a lot to talk about... A LOT more to work out," Max whispers, with an emphasis on ‘a lot.’

"Uh huh." Maria reaches down her waist, and grabs one of his hands. Their fingers lace together, and their wedding rings clash together... Such a familiar, and heavenly clash in Max’s ears. Such a soothing and lovely clash in Maria’s.

The sound of Ian’s feet moving down the stairs forces Maria to quickly reach up on her tippy-toes, and plant a kiss square on his mouth. Max opens his lip to capture her bottom lip in between his lips. He takes the quick opportunity to feast on her bottom lip, before Ian jumps down the steps.

"You ready kiddo?" Maria asks, as she bends down to meet her son’s gaze at eye level. He nods with absolution, and Maria grabs his hand. She feels Max’s hand connect with the underside of her bottom as she walks toward the front door. Maria cranes her neck back, only to find Max staring back at her, with a mild grin across his lips.

"You’re gonna get it," Maria swears.

"You promise?" Max asks as he clutches his chest in earnest.