“So, ah... are you guys like gonna fix my car?” Maria asked as the jeep pulled off the road beside the broken red Jetta. “Because my mom is so gonna kill me if I have to have it towed all the way back to Roswell. And this *is* all Einstein’s fault.”

She gave Michael a pointed glare, but he merely countered with his practically patented blank stare. As if he thinks that none of this is his fault, she thought. As if the car that he blew up is absolutely no concern of his. As if none of this was registering with him at all. She sighed, rolled her eyes, and turned back to Max.

Max was giving Michael a speculative look of his own. “Yeah,” Max said distractedly. He looked back at her. “Isabel and I will fix it.”

Michael paced impatiently as the other two aliens repaired Maria’s car. Maria sat with Liz in the jeep and continued to glare at him as he walked back and forth.

“Tell me again how nothing happened in that hotel room,” Liz said.

“Nothing happened in that hotel room. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zip.”

Liz studied her suspiciously. “That’s a lot of denial for a nothing.”

“Please. He is so not my type. As in not even my species. Which I’ve always had my suspicions of anyway. I mean, that hair…”

Max’s call interrupted them. “Come see if the engine will turn over now.”

She climbed out of the jeep and nearly ran into Michael. He ignored her as he picked up the box of Atherton’s papers and headed toward her car.

“What are you doing with that?” Max asked.

Michael stared at him, faintly surprised. “It’s mine,” he said simply.

“Why don’t Isabel and I take it back to our house? We can meet there after school and go over it then.”

Michael’s expression turned incredulous. “Because one, like I said, it’s mine. I found the key. I had the vision. I found the dome, the lock, and the room. And two, do you seriously expect me to wait until after *school*? I want to know now.”

Max stared back at him, obviously trying to find an argument that Michael would accept as reasonable. Looking at the spiky-haired alien’s steely gaze Maria guessed that any attempt at reasonable would be unsuccessful. Max finally seemed to realize that, too and stepped out grudgingly of Michael’s way. Maria trailed after him then stopped beside the Jetta.

“My keys?” she asked him.

He gave her another blank look. “Uh, my pocket?”

She cocked her head to one side, waiting.

“What?” He gave her a crooked grin. “You don’t want to dig ‘em out?”

“You wish.”

“Fine.” He set the box on the roof of her car and unlocked the passenger side door. He studied the green, bug-eyed creature on the keychain for a moment then tossed the keys to her. “Your mom make these, too?”

“Get in and shut up.”

Maria climbed into her side of the car and put the key in the ignition. When the engine roared to life she gave Max one of Alex’s trademark double thumbs-up. Max wouldn’t know it was an Alex-thing though, she thought. She shook her head and wondered what poor Alex would think if he knew the truth about their new “friends”. She waved at Liz who was studying her with a worried expression. I’ll be fine, she mouthed. Liz nodded but Maria knew she was unconvinced. When the jeep pulled back onto the highway the little red Jetta followed obediently.

Maria watched Michael nervously out of the corner of her eye as she drove. He was scanning the pages quickly then tossing them into the back seat.

“Crap,” he muttered with each sheet that he threw over his shoulder. “Garbage. Junk. Crap.”

She could sense his rising frustration as he got closer and closer to the bottom of the box without finding anything. His almost rhythmic muttering grew increasingly colorful until it became full-fledged swearing. He angrily thumped at the box, knocking her rearview mirror crooked as he tried to shove it into the back seat, too.

“Stop the car.”

“What?”

“Stop the car.” He didn’t look at her as he spoke. He just glared through the windshield and balled his hands into fists. “If you don’t want me to blow it up again stop the damn car now!”

She stopped the car. He got out and slammed the door. She stared in awe as he scooped rocks off the gravel shoulder and launched them into the desert. They shattered before they ever landed. She kept one eye on him and one on the road watching for curious passers-by as she walked around the car. Max didn’t seem to have noticed that they were no longer following. The jeep was nowhere in sight. She leaned against the Jetta to watch the tiny granite fireworks and wait for Michael to wind down.

“Stupid!” he shouted. “Stupid key! Stupid vision! Stupid waste of time!”

Despite her fear, her heart went out to him. She knew how much this had meant to him and could only guess how discouraged he must be. To get so close to something tangible from his past, only to see it evaporate into nothing. Without meaning to she moved to stand beside him. He turned to glare at her with glittering eyes. She’d never seen tears of anger before, but she knew that’s what they were. Tears of anger and frustration and bitter disappointment. She reached to touch his arm but he jerked away.

“Stay away from me,” he growled.

“But...”

“I’m not *trying* to make these rocks explode. I’m just throwing them.”

Oh. She stepped back. He continued to fastball gravel for several more minutes. Finally she saw the rocks begin to bounce as they hit the dirt. Michael sank to the desert floor and lay down in the sand. She slowly sat down beside him. He stared up at the sky.

“It was all a waste of time,” he said. His voice was strangely detached, almost dead. “Stealing the key. Stealing your car. Driving all this way. For nothing.”

“But you did have a real vision,” she pointed out quietly. “You really did see the dome. Doesn’t that count for anything? Nobody else could have done that.”

He snorted. “Of course not. Everybody else has *useful* secret powers,” he mocked.

“Michael, you’re not...”

“Don’t,” he interrupted. “Don’t even try. I don’t *want* to feel better so just shut up for once and leave me alone.”

She looked down at her hands. She wanted to be angry at him, at his rudeness and thoughtlessness, but she couldn’t. She knew it wasn’t really directed at her. Michael was upset about everything. His whole life was chaos and he was lashing out at anything within reach. She just happened to be in his line of sight today. She sighed and glanced over at him again. He was still staring up at the sky. His dark eyes flicked between the few fluffy clouds that had drifted up from the Gulf and the occasional silver airplanes that left wispy vapor trails behind them. Now that his anger had bled away he just looked lost. She smiled softly.

“What?” he asked at last.

“You.”

He frowned. “What about me?”

She shook her head, still smiling. “I’ve lived in Roswell all my life,” she said. “When I hear the word ‘alien’ this,” she waved at his prone body, “is not what springs to mind.”

“Not bug-eyed and scaly enough for you?”

Not by a long shot, she thought and blushed slightly. “You look so... human,” she said. “Are you sure...” She paused and her blush deepened. “Maybe you really are human, just different. You know, like a mutant or something?”

She was startled by his sudden bark of laughter. “Mutants?” he sputtered. “Like the X-Men?” he laughed again. “And what kind of mutant would I be?”

She shrugged, unsure if it was wise to go on. “I dunno. Maybe somebody like Wolverine?” she ventured. “You have the hair and the attitude... Max could be Cyclops,” she added. “He’s got the tortured leader thing down cold.”

“And Izzy?” he asked, looking at her as if trying to decide whether or not she was insane.

“Um, White Queen?”

“She’s not that bad.” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe Psylocke.”

“The ninja warrior mind-scrambler? Okay, now I *am* scared.”

“You’d have to be Jubilee,” he said as he turned back toward the clouds. “Firecracker DeLuca. Nobody else talks as much as you do. She drives everybody crazy, too.”

“Hey, I’m not a mutant,” she protested. She frowned down at him but was secretly pleased that he had been drawn into her distraction. Then her frown deepened. “Weren’t Jubilee and Logan...”

“Liz,” he said abruptly. “Who’d she be?”

They looked at one another and grinned. “Jean Grey,” they said together.

She laughed. Yep, Liz and Max. Jean and Scott. Two sets of mind-bogglingly sappy soul-mates. She glanced back toward the road as a car flew past.

“We’re gonna be late, you know.”

“For what?” he asked.

“Ever seen that big building over on Hamilton Street where all the other teenagers in Roswell go at 8:15 every morning five days a week?”

“8:15? Really?” He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t wanna go back.”

“Big surprise. Have you been to homeroom at all this year?”

“Not school,” he shook his head. “Roswell. Not yet.” He pled silently with his all-too-human eyes and she nodded, unable to resist. She supposed that they could stay for a little longer. In the past eighteen hours with him she’d already driven halfway across two states, spent the night in a nooky motel, broken into somebody’s house (that was a felony, right?), been chased by the cops, and her mom was probably gonna kill her anyway. What harm could it do to miss a couple of classes on top of all that?

She wrapped her arms around her shins and rested her chin on her knees. Did it mean anything, she wondered as Michael’s brown eyes closed, that she saw him as Wolverine and he saw her as Jubilee? Jubilee had saved grouchy ol’ Wolvie’s life the first time she’d met him. And he had been the only person that she had ever trusted completely. In return, he had become her protector and champion. The two mutants had an unshakable faith in one another despite everything that the universe had thrown at them. And the Marvel universe could throw some pretty wicked curve balls. She giggled. Michael opened one eye.

“What now?” he asked wearily.

“Just wondering.”

“Wondering what?”

“What I’m doing in the middle of Texas...”

“It’s not the middle of Texas.”

“...with a real live alien with sand in his hair and wondering how and when my life turned into a comic book?”

“It could be worse,” he mused, closing his eyes again. “You could be stuck in the AoA version. Hungry?” he asked suddenly. He dug into the pocket of his jacket and handed her a pack of crunched Oreos without looking, remnants of last night’s vending machine raid. After a little more searching he found an already open bag of M&Ms and passed that to her, too. He pulled a few more of the loose candies out of his pocket and blindly dropped them into his mouth. She shook her head and began to pick the larger cookie pieces out of the package. They both started at the sound of tires on gravel. Max had come back.

She resisted the urge to scramble to her feet defensively. Michael didn’t even bother to sit up. She could see resignation settle over his features as he prepared to endure Max’s inevitable demand for explanation.

“What are you doing?” Max asked as he approached. Liz and Isabel followed him. Liz looked concerned. Isabel just looked annoyed.

“Taking in the sun,” Michael replied.

“Liz can ride back with Maria from here. Michael, you’re coming with us.”

Michael folded his arms. “I’m not ready to go.”

Maria rolled her eyes. “And I can’t go anywhere without my keys.” She gave Michael a piercing glare then turned back to the others. “You might as well go on ahead. I’ll beat some sense into him and we’ll be right behind you.”

“Michael, give Maria her keys,” Max said. Michael merely scowled at him.

“It’s okay, Max,” Maria said. “If they leave,” she asked Michael, “will you give me my keys back?”

A surprisingly grateful look crept into his eyes and was gone almost before she could identify it. He made a show of nodding reluctantly.

“Maria...” Liz began.

“I can handle it.”

“Here,” Michael said as he rose abruptly and walked back to the Jetta. He leaned into the back seat and began shoving the papers haphazardly back into the box. “You can take this back, too.” He untangled himself from the seatbelt and pushed the box into Max’s arms. “It’s junk anyway.”

Max looked down at the box then up at Michael’s tight expression. Maria knew that he could probably read the poorly disguised defeat in Michael’s face as easily as she did.

“We’ll take it back to our house,” Max said quietly as the reason for the unscheduled detour became clear to him. “We’ll go through it again. Maybe there’s something buried in it.”

“It’s useless.”

“We’ll try.”

“Whatever.”

Max carefully put the box back in the jeep.

“See you at school,” Liz said, giving Maria a hug. “We need to talk,” she whispered against Maria’s hair.

Maria nodded. Oh, they *sooo* needed to talk.

Isabel frowned at them all and climbed back into the jeep. She crossed her arms impatiently and waited for Max and Liz to join her. Michael leaned against the car and watched them leave.

“I don’t have your keys,” he said as the jeep pulled back onto the road.

“I know.” She dug them out of her pocket and dangled them in front of him. “So, do you really want to stand out here all day or do you want to go find some breakfast?”

“What was wrong with the M&Ms?”

“Get in the car, Wolvie.”

“Pushy little mallrat, aren’t ya?”

“Keep it up and I’ll make you work on that lame-o history project.”

“Can I drive?”

“Do I look like an idiot?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

“Do you want to walk back?”

* * *

Back to Area 51 (Section III)