Disclaimer: Roswell, the characters, and the situations are owned by the WB. No infringement is intended.

Author's Note: This story is part of an evolving storyline that currently includes (in order): "Decisions," "Looking In," "Christmas Envy," "From Another Place," "Husbands and Fathers," "Claudia and Nicole," "Stars", "Going Home", "The Ethics Lesson", "Redefining Terms", "Beginnings", "First Date", "A Quality Heart", "In Every Ending", "Birth", "Rose Petals", "The Littlest Czechoslovakian", "Girls' Night In", "A Guy Thing", and "Joshua and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". More stories may be forthcoming.

* * * *

Claudia: Kissing Wistfulness

Claudia’s mom was worrying her bottom lip and frowning at her dad. "Are you sure you want to take Josh? He’s so little...."

"We’ll be fine, Liz. Don’t worry. I’ll look after him." Her dad smiled reassuringly at her mom and then looked down at her brother, who was chasing the Guerins’ dog around the living room, trying to get it to sit still long enough to be petted. She watched Josh beam up at their father, his childish face brightening with the same slow, sweet, understated smile her father had, the smile she saw on her own face in the mirror every day.

Seeming a little less anxious, her mom leaned in to kiss her dad. And Josh made disgusted noises, and Claudia tried not to laugh. Poor Josh would have to get used to their sappiness sooner or later. Resistance was futile.

She nudged her cousin Anna, and the two of them watched the other couples standing in similar lip-locks. Anna’s parents kissed lightly in little kisses, with Uncle Alex assuring Aunt Isabel in between each one that he wouldn’t let Uncle Michael kill Sheriff Valenti. Uncle Michael had his usual dark scowl on his face, and Aunt Maria was trying to kiss and cajole it away. He finally gave her his trademark smirk, and they kissed for a long time. The sheer heat of it made Claudia blush, but she was used to it. Of all her older relatives, Nikki’s parents were definitely the most openly affectionate.

Then it was Anna’s turn to poke Claudia, and they both saw Anna’s brother Matt lean towards their youngest girl-cousin Molly. And to their surprise, the two kissed quickly.

"Well, Nikki was fourteen..." Anna said slowly. There was an oddly wistful note in her soft voice. Claudia thought that her strikingly beautiful brunette cousin looked younger than she usually did, lonelier somehow. So she slipped a comforting arm around the younger girl, thinking that, in some ways, Anna was just like Aunt Izzy, who had always wanted to be just as normal as everyone else.

Anna gave her a grateful look, but the wistful note was still in her voice when she continued her earlier thought, "I knew that she and Mattie were getting close, but...."

Claudia understood what she didn’t say, and decided it was time for a gentle change of subject.

"And speaking of Miss Nicole...." Claudia nodded in the direction of her best friend and closest-in-age cousin, who was sandwiched as close as she could get to her boyfriend while still keeping her clothes on. It was definitely a good thing that Nikki and her boyfriend would be separating when they went to school in the fall. Nik was headed to NYU to study art, and Jamie had picked Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for its architecture program. Claudia knew that both sets of parents were glad that a continent would be separating the two lovebirds. They’d been inseparable since they were eleven, and it was only getting worse.

When she looked over at the sheriff and his wife, Claudia recognized the half-wistful, half-unnerved look on his face. Claudia knew that her family’s Czechoslovakian-ness made Mr. Valenti uncomfortable. But she also knew that he was a good man at heart. She’d known that ever since that day at her dad’s office eight years before, when her dad had told her that the sheriff knew the truth about who and what they were. But what had confirmed it for her was the fact that the sheriff had remained faultlessly courteous to the entire clan since then. He had even struck up a tentative friendship with her parents.

Claudia giggled to herself a minute later as she watched her Uncle Michael break free of Aunt Maria’s embrace and glower at the sheriff. Obviously Mr. Valenti hadn’t quite succeeded in getting into Uncle Michael’s good graces yet. And Uncle Michael still wanted to kill Jamie for stealing Nicole, but at least the dove of peace had been released and acknowledged, not shot down … so there was hope.

* * * *

Molly: Painting Reflections

After the Guerin, Whitman, Evans, and Valenti men had finally gotten everything packed into Sheriff Valenti’s suburban utility vehicle and the jeep that had somehow survived the seven oldest cousins’ learning to drive it, Molly stood in the living room with the feminine half of her large family, feeling a little lost. Even resilient Aunt Liz, the quiet, calm backbone of the family, seemed less than her usual self. Molly’s mom put her arms around her oldest best friend in the world. "They’ll be back soon, Lizzie, don’t worry."

But Molly noticed that her mom’s normally grinning face looked apprehensive too -- probably because the twins and her dad were loose with Jamie and Sheriff Valenti in the woods. And her dad was still pretty upset about the whole Nikki-Jamie thing. And the twins ... well, the twins were in all-out resentment mode about the Nikki-Jamie thing. Hopefully everyone would make it back alive. Molly crossed her fingers just in case.

And then her mom did something she never expected. She reached out to Deputy Valenti with that ‘mothering the world’ look was on her face, and said, "Beth, since all the guys are gone, do you just want to stay here with us tonight? We were just going to bond for a while, pretend we were all sixteen again."

And Beth Valenti smiled, an expression that reminded Molly a lot of the shy smile that tended to spread across Jamie’s face whenever her sister Nicole gave him googly-eyes as Anna called them. "I’d like that. Thanks, Maria."

Which was why they all sat in the family room at Molly’s house an hour later, surrounded by tubs of ice cream, bowls of popcorn, bottles of Tabasco sauce, and cans of soda. Her mom sat on the couch with Aunt Liz on the floor beside her, leaning against her knees; her mom was deftly braiding her aunt’s silky dark hair. For a moment, Molly had a flash of a younger Maria and Liz, sitting on the roof of the Crashdown Café next to a bucket of ice cream, doing the same thing in the same position.

Her older sister Nicole and her cousin Claudia were in pretty much the same position on the other side of the room, except reversed, with Claudia trying to tame Nikki’s wild blond curls. Her sister was painting on the floor with some of Anna’s nail polish, changing the colors from time to time to suit her mood, sneaking tiny glances at the adults in the room to make sure no one was watching. Or, at least to check that no one but other Czechoslovakians were watching.

Molly smiled when she noticed her cousin Anna and her Aunt Izzy looking up from painting their own toenails every once in a while and sending bemused looks Nikki’s way. It seemed that the Czechoslovakians in the room were aware of Hurricane Nikki’s transgressions. And Aunt Liz was trying to keep Molly’s mom busy so she wouldn’t notice. Not that Molly’s mom would get upset necessarily, but.... Molly sighed and shook her head. What a family.

Sometimes it was hard being one of the youngest children in such an exuberant, extended family. Sometimes it was hard enough being the youngest child in her own family. Her mom and dad were the best parents on earth, and she loved her brothers and sisters more than anything, but even in an alien family, Molly sometimes felt like the odd man out. At least Matt understood her. They were both the quiet children -- the outsiders in their families. Sometimes she thought she and Matt had more in common with Claudia and Josh than with their own brothers and sisters. And sometimes Molly did wonder if her father’s old joke about the stork having dropped off the wrong bundle when it dropped off Molly at the Guerin house wasn’t true.

Sighing again, Molly curled up in her favorite thinking chair, the only one in the room that didn’t have paint splattered on it somewhere, and pulled out her notebook. Every Guerin was artistic. Nikki was as good at painting as their dad was, and the twins could take apart almost anything. (Sometimes, they could even put it back together. Not often, but sometimes. They’d even once given the old jeep a bit of a makeover, with help from Matt.) Molly just liked writing her poetry and singing. Her and Anna’s band, Ex Astra, was really getting a lot of good publicity in Roswell. They’d sung a few times at weddings. Nothing big yet, like Uncle Alex’s band had been in college, but band-wise, things were looking good.

And things were looking good otherwise too. Because Matt understood how she felt. About so many different things. He understood that Molly’s art was something internal, not visible like the rest of her family’s. And he understood that in the extremely loving, extremely loud Guerin house, where everyone in the rest of the family always seemed to gather sooner or later, it was easy to end up feeling lost and alone.

Matt understood those feelings. He understood her. Molly knew she wasn’t as beautiful as Anna, or as talented as Nikki, or as intelligent as Claudia, or even as charming as her brothers, since both of them had inherited their dad’s talent for getting into and out of trouble.

But Matt made her feel special. He made that little sparky-thing flare up whenever he hugged her or touched her. She didn’t know why it had taken her this long to see it. And then he’d kissed her today....

"So, Moll ... about Mattie," Anna began, as if she knew where Molly’s thoughts had wandered. Anna didn’t look up from her nail polishing, and kept her hand carefully steady. "Umm, when did...?"

And for a moment, Molly saw Anna’s normally composed veneer crack. Her cousin and best friend had inherited all of Aunt Izzy’s talent for keeping a calm face, so that tiny crack told Molly that something was bothering her. Molly dropped her journal and slipped her arms around the cousin who had always been more like her twin. They snuggled close together, just like they used to when they were little, just like Molly’s mom still did with their Aunt Liz.

"It’s always been that way, Annabeth. But it just kinda clicked a few weeks ago. Remember the night we caught Jamie and Nikki fogging up the windshield in the jeep?"

Anna chuckled softly and nodded. Then she started to paint Molly’s toenails a bright crimson red.

"Well, Matt and I were out together after that night. We spent a lot of time in the tree-house, just talking, and ... it was like magic...."

* * * *

Beth: Truth or Dare

Beth sat back in her armchair, feeling more alone than she’d ever felt. This world of femininity was something she missed around the house. She’d grown up with two sisters, and her sisters all had daughters. But those sisters and nieces were far away in California, where Jamie was headed in the fall for college. And the only daughter she and Kyle had created together had only lived three hours. Michelle Braddock Valenti was buried next to James Andrew Valenti, Sr., in the cemetery just outside of town. Beth loved Kyle, and she loved Jamie more than life, but sometimes she watched Isabel Whitman, Liz Evans, and Maria Guerin with envy, because of the daughters they each had.

Maria’s youngest daughter Molly and Isabel’s daughter Anna sat at the piano, their voices blending together softly in golden harmony, their intense conversation of a couple of minutes before apparently over. Liz’s daughter Claudia and Maria’s eldest daughter Nicole were sitting in a corner of the living room. Nicole was painting on the floor with nail polish. When she looked over, Beth was amazed at the depth of detail Nicole managed to get out of nail polish. Some of the colors were a bit odd, and the picture had an even odder sheen to it, but then they had such bizarre colors out now.

Watching the four younger girls made Beth feel sad, reminding her that she was on the outside looking in on their little world.

Beth looked away, and met Isabel’s eyes for a moment, and she felt a strange kinship with the beautiful blonde woman. Something in her eyes said that Isabel had known that same loneliness, and still did to this day, in spite of having a loving husband and two children.

Maria and Liz seemed to have that kind of friendship that started in the cradle, and their daughters Nicole and Claudia seemed to be continuing on the same path, as did Molly and Anna. But Isabel seemed different. Beth suspected that she’d come later into friendship-bonding with Maria and Liz. As Beth had ... because now, somehow, this group had invited her in too.

"How about a game of ‘truth or dare’?" Isabel suggested, as if she knew that Beth needed something else to think about. Isabel’s eyes were dancing, and for a moment, she looked as young as her daughter.

Maria and Liz began to laugh.

"Like the slumber party in fifth grade. Except it might be better if you don’t flash us this time, Izzy." Liz was grinning at a memory that seemed vaguely familiar to Beth, probably from something Kyle had told her.

"And you don’t need to do a strip-tease either, Lizzie." And Maria was grinning too, seeing the shocked look on the younger girls’ faces. Beth smiled at their expressions; she suspected that they all viewed their Aunt Liz as the calm, rational aunt, not the one likely to perform strip-teases.

"Too bad there are no boys here to kiss, Maria," Isabel shot back, arching her perfectly shaped brows as a smile tugged at her lips.

"But we could always have a pillow fight." Beth smiled softly as the three women gave her shocked looks too. She shrugged nonchalantly. "Kyle told me about that slumber party."

And a bright smile broke out on Liz’s face. "Who wants to go first then? Beth?"

The younger girls began to scoot closer, their similar dark eyes all sparkling with interest. Beth had never noticed before tonight how alike their eyes were. Then she shrugged again, guessing that eye-color genes ran strong in their family.

"Beth?" Liz prompted, but the teasing note in her voice was very soft.

Beth smiled. This was exactly what she had been missing. Unabashed feminine silliness. An invitation into their circle. She stared straight into Liz’s eyes and said, "Truth."

"Ah, brave Beth Valenti starts her quest for truth," Maria said and hooted. Beth couldn’t believe little, angelic-looking Maria Guerin had actually hooted. But then she had had trouble believing Kyle’s stories about Maria’s left hook too. Beth sat back, ready for whatever would happen next, just glad to be part of this night and that magical circle.

Liz looked thoughtful for a minute. "Okay, Beth, tell us the truth about how you and Kyle got together."

Beth took a deep breath and described those halcyon days at the police academy. When she had finished, there was silence in the room. Then laughter.

"You did not wrestle Kyle to the ground! And then he asked you out?" Liz had an incredulous look on her face as she laughed. "I can’t believe you outwrestled Kyle Valenti!"

Beth grinned. "I can’t believe he got Max drunk, and then they both tried to win you back." She grinned even more mischievously. "Yes, Kyle told me about that too."

Liz toppled over from her sitting position until she was lying on the floor, laughing so hard that tears were running down her cheeks. "I’d forgotten about that," she said when she finally got her breath back.

Isabel groaned, burying her face in her hands. "I haven’t. You didn’t have to sort him out after he got home. He was a wreck."

And Liz got a sappy little smile on her face, and her eyes became distant and misty. "But he was so sweet that night. It was ... magic."

And the younger girls coughed and groaned -- even Nikki and Molly, who everyone knew had exchanged kisses of their own before their respective loves had left on the camping trip.

When she saw the confusion on Beth’s face, Isabel gave her a sympathetic look and nodded in Liz’s direction. "Liz and my brother have always been in their own little world like that. Ever since we were little." Then she nodded in Maria’s direction. "Both my brothers fell hard when we were young. And nothing could stand in their way." An odd smile washed over her face.

"But if those rules hadn’t been broken, Izzy...." Maria slipped her hand into her sister-in-law’s.

And then Maria, Isabel, and Liz all exchanged looks, once again shutting Beth out of their world. All of a sudden, she felt like an alien, all alone on a foreign planet. Even Kyle seemed to be half-alien sometimes, like this tightly knit group, probably because he had grown up with all of them. Maybe someday, before her son married their daughter, she’d understand the great mystery behind it all.

And then she noticed that Maria’s youngest daughter’s eyes were watching her, sympathy in their strangely beautiful dark depths. Apparently someone else knew what it was like to feel alien. Beth smiled at little Molly, thinking that maybe everyone in Roswell was an alien, and she just hadn’t looked hard enough.

A little later, after the ‘truth or dare’ game had run its course, ice cream lay melted in puddles on the floor, and the two youngest girls were asleep in a heap on the foldout couch. Isabel was curled up in Molly’s chair, licking Tabasco and melted ice cream off the back of a spoon. Liz was resting her head in Maria’s lap. And Claudia and Nicole were sitting side-by-side, heads resting together, looking startlingly like their mothers must have looked at their ages. And Beth let herself relax in the peace of other women, not needing to talk.

"When did you know that you loved him?" Liz’s voice was soft. "I always felt bad about it, the way I treated Kyle...."

Beth looked up at the ceiling, surprised to find stars painted there, softly glowing against the midnight blue background. In the center of the ceiling was Aries; one particular off-centered v-shape of five stars was painted especially bright. Studying those five stars, Beth said slowly, "I knew when we were in the academy together, and he didn’t crack jokes when people asked him if he’d been abducted by aliens since he was from here."

Isabel laughed, but it sounded forced somehow. Almost panicked. Almost as if Beth had touched on a sensitive subject.

"Kyle was always so quiet, so serious. He studied and worked harder than most people, and I admired that. And he’d learned humility from someone." Beth exchanged a smile with Liz. "He even wooed me a little."

"Kyle Valenti? Wooed?" Maria’s eyes were wide. "I didn’t know he knew the meaning of the word. Stalker Valenti himself?" She grinned.

"Maria!" Liz lightly hit her best friend, then sat up and looked apologetically at Beth. "Don’t listen to her. She has this tendency to babble sometimes. You just need to put everything through the Maria-filter—"

And Maria clapped her hand over Liz’s mouth, and the grin she directed at Beth was half-repentant, half-not at all repentant.

Envying them their close friendship, Beth smiled and shook her head; she hadn’t been offended. "I guess it was actually something your husband told him once, Liz. That the sensitive stuff really did work. Something about seeing into a girl’s soul." And to Beth’s surprise, Liz Evans blushed deep-red.

And that blush almost put to rest Beth’s jealous fear that Kyle would never get over Liz Parker. It was hard to see the look in Liz’s eyes whenever she thought about her Max, and think anything other than how much Liz Evans was a woman deeply in love with her husband and her life.

There was a small silence after that, until her son’s girlfriend broke it. "Are you happy, Mrs. Valenti?" Nikki asked, her voice softly curious. "Are you happy with Sheriff Valenti?" The young girl twisted one of her short blond curls around her index finger. "I know that Mama and Daddy are, and Uncle Alex and Aunt Izzy, and Aunt Liz and Uncle Max have lived only for each other for the longest time...." There was a gentle smile on her face.

Beth smiled at her. Nicole Maria Guerin was going to be nineteen soon. Beth tried to remember what it had been like to be that young and that in love.

"Yeah, I am," she returned in a voice just as soft as Nicole’s. "In spite of everything. Because of everything." She looked at Liz and finally decided to put her husband’s past behind her. "I’m happy."

And the four women exchanged contented smiles, each lost in her own thoughts, each twisting a wedding ring around a still-slender finger. And Beth watched Claudia and Nicole exchange wistful looks, as if they didn’t quite believe it could happen to them.

* * * *

Nicole: New Love

True to her quicksilver personality, Nicole stopped being wistful pretty quickly. She smiled at Claudia, deciding that she was going to ask her very quiet, very shy cousin a very personal question, one that she had been itching to ask ever since Claudia had arrived home from Harvard for the long weekend. "So, Claudi, do you have a boyfriend hiding in your dorm closet back in Boston?"

And Claudia blushed.

Nicole sat up abruptly. "You do?! You kept this from me!? Claudia Isabel Evans! I’m shocked and appalled!"

"I don’t tell you everything, Nik," Claudia mumbled, looking down at her newly painted toenails as if they were the most fascinating things in the world.

Nicole frowned at her best friend and older cousin. She adored Claudia, she really did. But sometimes Claudia could be so closed, so private, so unwilling to open up to anyone ... even Nicole, who had been her best friend forever. She couldn’t figure out whether it was just her extreme shyness or just part of her gene makeup. Aunt Izzy always said that Uncle Max was almost more paranoid than Nikki’s own dad, and that that was really saying something. And Claudia was a lot like her dad.

Nicole decided that she was going to get to the bottom of this. "So," she began, nudging Claudia. "Who is he?"

"Who is who?"

"Don’t play dumb with me, Claudi. You may recall that I’m bigger than you even if you’re older. And I come from a long line of fighters where you come from a long line of pacifists."

"Nik, we don’t know if they’re long lines or not," Claudia contradicted quietly. But the impish smile on her face told Nicole that she was just teasing, so Nicole decided to press further.

"Don’t get all technical on me, Claudi." She poked Claudia. "Who is the boy in your closet?"

Claudia smiled mysteriously.

Nicole poked her again, harder this time. "Spill!"

"Okay, okay. Quit poking. Do you remember that boy I dated for a while in high school--"

Nicole moaned melodramatically. "Nooo. Not Tom Lindsey. Please don’t say Tom Lindsey. He was such a jerk."

Claudia giggled, looking and sounding a lot younger than almost twenty-one years old. "He’s gotten less jerky."

"But his mother is Pam Troy!" Nicole knew she was beginning to whine, but she couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t believe her cousin was actually dating the jerk who broke her heart in high school and scared her off men for such a long time.

"I know," Claudia admitted softly.

Nicole watched her cousin blush again then try to duck her head so that her dark, straight hair hid her red cheeks, which was exactly what Aunt Liz had done earlier. Like mother, like daughter. That was a bad sign. Nicole moaned again. This Tom Lindsey thing was serious. She would just have to get used to it. She swallowed her distaste and asked, "So where did you run into the jerk again?"

"He’s studying at MIT. Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering."

"You’re kidding. He can’t be. He was such a jerk."

Claudia’s slow, sweet smile lit up her face. "Jerks aren’t necessarily stupid, Nik. And his dad’s a pilot, so there was a predisposition--"

"But he’s such a jerk."

"I got that part, Nik. You can stop saying that over and over again. He went to charm school." Claudia giggled again. "Literally. They actually run a charm school during every January at MIT. Kind of funny actually."

Nicole sighed, still not liking the idea of Claudia back with Tom Lindsey, and decided to change the subject. "Stephen and Leo need to go to charm school too. Maybe we should send them to MIT."

"Maybe," Claudia laughed. And Nicole could tell that Claudia was already beginning to retreat back into her safe shell of shyness, as if she’d decided that she’d already revealed too much about herself.

Sometimes Nicole wondered if Claudia felt alone as the eldest, the serious one, the trailblazer for all the cousins. Maybe that was part of why she seemed so shy. Maybe it wasn’t shyness at all, but rather a quiet fortitude, a quiet certainty that she needed to be strong to handle whatever might happen because she was the eldest. Maybe that was why everyone always said that Claudia was a lot like her father. Because maybe that feeling that he needed to be the strong and rational one all the time burdened Uncle Max too.

Getting too heavy, Nicole thought. Time for another subject change. "So. Will you come visit me in New York City when I’m there next September?"

Claudia hugged her. "Of course, silly. Grafton, Massachusetts isn’t that far away from New York, you know."

Nicole pulled out of her cousin’s arms and stared at her. "Grafton? So you’ve decided to go to veterinary school then, instead of medical school?"

Claudia nodded and bit her lip. "Dad tried so hard not to look disappointed that I wasn’t following in his footsteps..."

Nicole nodded in complete understanding. "My dad’s having issues with what I want to do with my life too." She smiled wryly. "Or at least who I want to do it with, and where I want to do it ... stuff like that..."

"... but Mom is working on him," they finished together.

And the two girls fell into each other’s arms, laughing that they had said exactly the same thing at exactly the same moment. Sometimes, Nicole thought, they were so alike despite being so different that it was pretty cool.

* * * *

Maria: Best Friends

"I’m worried about her going away," Maria said, staring at Nicole and Claudia who were laughing hysterically in each other’s arms.

Liz hugged her tightly. "She’ll be fine."

"But New York is such a big city, and she’ll be all alone."

"She won’t be too far from Claudia. Massachusetts isn’t that far from New York State. Don’t worry, Maria."

"She’s my baby. I have to worry." Maria tried to smile her old pixie grin. "And she’s going so far away -- to places that I’ve never even been."

Maybe that was it. Of the six of them, she still felt like the one left behind sometimes. Dr. Liz Evans’ wacky friend. Michael Guerin’s loving wife. The singer Molly Guerin’s somewhat-talented mother. The Parkers’ reliable and efficient business manager.

Her friends had all achieved their dreams and more. And she, who’d had no dreams to begin with, certainly not fragile things that could be shattered, was stuck feeling unfulfilled.

"You went away to school," Maria said softly. "She’s going away to school. I’m the only one who hasn’t left New Mexico. I always thought there would be something better for myself, something different from Roswell, New Mexico, for Maria DeLuca. That I would be something...."

Liz patted her knee in an old gesture, and Maria obediently laid her still-golden head in her friend’s lap. Liz’s gentle hands smoothed through her long curls, just as they had when they were small. "You went on tour with Alex’s band that spring. Just you and him. While I got to stay home and throw up every afternoon at four."

That was true. It had been just like old times -- DeLuca and Whitman, together forever. No Michael, no Czechoslovakians, no Lizzie running to the bathroom. No reminders of what she’d never have, though she had missed every bit of her life that tied her here, to Roswell.

Liz smiled, watching the memories flit across Maria’s face. Maria smiled back.

"And could you ever imagine leaving this?" Liz asked. And as usual, Liz knew Maria’s heart almost better than she did. "It’s where everything happened. It’s where it all started."

It was where the door opened. Where their world was shattered by a single bullet. Where Michael learned to cry, that night in her arms more than twenty-five years before.

"But I’ve never created anything. Not like you with your book, or Michael with his art, or Alex with his music...."

And then Liz chuckled softly, as she dropped a light kiss on Maria’s head. She pointed to the painting that still hung above the fireplace of Maria cradling the twins, her belly swollen with an unborn Molly. Then Liz’s delicate hand pointed to where their daughters still sat tangled up together, both a reminder of the girls their mothers had been, and a vision of the women they were becoming. "You’ve created the most beautiful things of all, Maria. You and Michael together."

"And now my oldest baby is going away." Maria sat up and sighed. Then she rested her head against Liz’s shoulder, just as she’d done for comfort at countless other times and in countless other places. "I have to let my baby fly, just like you gave wings to yours."

Liz’s arms cradled her close in a tight hug. "But you’ll always have me, Maria. Best friends forever."

* * * *

Liz: Old Love

As she held her oldest best friend in the world, Liz thought about how often they had huddled together like this. How all roads seemed to lead to the same place eventually. How love was about letting go and holding close all at the same time. How every love in her life was sustained by the deepest kind of friendship. And how her abiding happiness was rooted in that friendship-intertwined love.

In school, the scientific method had been drilled into Liz. Hypothesis, experiment, proof. Always proof. But love, she knew, transcended physical proof. From her own experience, she knew true love existed in the soul. And no brain and cognitive science biologist had ever been able to pinpoint the physical location of the soul.

And just as every soul was different, there wasn’t just one kind of love. There were different kinds of love -- new love and old love, and every shade in between.

There was the playful but profound combustion of Maria and Michael’s love for each other. There was the friend-first, star-struck wonder of Isabel and Alex’s love for each other. There was the careful, humble love between Kyle and Beth.

Nicole and Jamie showed every sign of following in Maria and Michael’s footsteps, especially considering Nicole’s propensity for creating explosions. Little Molly and Matt were just beginning to explore their brand-new, quietly hesitant love. And Claudia, Liz’s shy, quiet daughter, was trying to reach out of her shell once again towards the boy she’d never forgotten, her old love.

Liz smiled to herself as she stroked Maria’s still-golden curls. Something about the late hour had made her meditative or maudlin, she wasn’t sure which. Perhaps it was because both Max and Josh were gone, and she had never been parted overnight from Josh before, and it had been a long time since she’d spent a night without Max breathing softly, deeply asleep beside her. God, she missed them....

Maria shifted in her sleep, and Liz moved over a little bit to accommodate her shifting. Her eye fell on Anna and Molly, who were curled up together like two kittens underneath a mound of blankets on the sofabed.

Liz had noticed Anna looking wistfully at her cousins earlier, and she’d recognized the longing look in her dark eyes, those eyes that were so much like Isabel’s. Liz would try to remember tomorrow to reassure Anna that before too long she would find her soulmate, too. Because Liz had no doubt that she would. Because, as Isabel was fond of saying, there was a human somewhere who vibrated just right for every Czechoslovakian.

Even for Stephen and Leo Guerin. Liz giggled to herself at the thought of Maria and Michael’s mischievous twosome. According to Maria, both the twins were chasing girls up and down the hallways of West Roswell High, getting into and out of trouble constantly.

Except for the trouble part, the twins were completely different from Max and Michael at that age. They weren’t at all suspicious or fearful. But then they’d grown up in the security of a large, loving family, a family that was more than capable of dispelling the lonely fear of being different. And that was why Liz was sure that even Stephen and Leo would settle down eventually. Eventually, they would find themselves an old love or a new love or something in between, depending on what they needed to fill the empty space in their souls. It was in the genes, and genes didn’t lie.

Genes didn’t lie ... and no one in the family needed to look farther than her baby Josh to see the proof of that statement. Someday, he too would find his love. Considering how much he was like his father, there was probably already a little girl in his soul, waiting for him to find her.

New love and old love wrapped together, with different shades in between. Soulmates all of them....

There was a painting Liz loved that depicted what she was trying to describe exactly, an old painting by Marc Chagall of two lovers in a red-carpeted room. In the painting, the lovers leaned in to each other as if there were no one else in the world ... leaning in, kissing, their feet floating off the ground when their lips touched, the man wrapping himself around the woman protectively, the flowers in the woman’s hand practically tumbling to the floor as she gave herself up to his kiss, the food on the table forgotten, the grim row of houses outside the window unimportant, and the bed just peeking into the frame of the painting waiting ... waiting for the consumption of their soul-deep love.

Closing her eyes on that comforting thought, Liz snuggled closer to her oldest best friend in the world and fell asleep.

* * * *

Isabel: In the Dark

Isabel was the last to fall asleep. She had listened to Liz and Maria’s whispers in the dark, not wanting to join into the conversation because her heart felt too tight. She didn’t want to think about her daughter’s leaving home yet. Even though she knew it had to happen sooner or later. Even though she knew that somehow Liz had survived Claudia’s going away to college. And somehow Maria would survive Nikki’s going away. Isabel could survive too.

But it was going to be hard. Her children were her completion, her belonging on this earth. And Anna was special because she was her daughter. Because the relationship between a mother and a daughter was magical. And because Isabel had never dared hope that she would have a relationship with her own daughter that resembled the relationship she had with her mother.

In the dark, curled up in Molly’s favorite armchair, Isabel thought over the past years. She, Max, and Michael had made it somehow. They’d come out of their pods when they were six and found their way to their human soulmates, thanks in no small part to Max’s inability to keep a sacred pact. There had been bumps in the road, false starts and false steps, misguided steps taken backward and baby-steps taken forward.

But they had made it.

Now all Isabel had to do was get used to the idea of having her talented, beautiful daughter take the next step forward for her, and leave home in a couple of years for college and the rest of her life. And before Anna, Matt would leave too. At least their growing up and moving away would mean that Isabel would have Alex to herself again, would be able to refind her quiet peace in his million-watt grin and soulful music.

They had made it, she, Max, and Michael.

And their beautiful children, their happy families were their legacies on this earth. Because there was some human who vibrated just right for every Czechoslovakian -- someone to make them realize that they were home, and just as human as those born on earth.

* * * *

Anna: In the Morning

Anna woke up to the sound of whispered voices. She lay on the sofabed for a while, under the weight of all the blankets and her cousin’s arm flung across her chest. Molly, like all the Guerins, was a snuggler in her sleep. For a brief moment, Anna wondered if Molly would snuggle up to Matt in the same way. Matt and Molly were good for each other, she reflected. The two quiet geniuses of the family needed each other, so that they didn’t get lost alone in the crowd.

Until five years ago, Anna had been the absolute baby, the petted granddaughter, the talented musician. Everyone knew that she and Molly came in a matched set, just as the twins did, just as Claudia and Nikki did. But now that they were older, the sets were becoming divided. Nikki and Jamie Valenti stuck together like gum to a shoe. The twins chased different girls all around West Roswell High, when they weren’t breaking something. And Molly and Matthew ... Molly and Matthew.

She loved her brother. Anna had loved her brother from the start, in spite of the fact that there was no blood shared between them. She’d known, probably since birth, that he was meant to be her brother. He was the overly sensitive, always trying-to-please introvert. Momma and Dad loved him more than anything, just as they loved her more than anything. She knew that the love was different, but always figured that that was because she and Mattie were so different.

Anna never knew how to deal with the attention she got. She wasn’t the fashion-conscious princess that her mother had been at her age. But she couldn’t retreat into a shell and fade into the woodwork, the way Molly and Matt tried to do. She liked experimenting with her powers. And she did like the fact that she was beautiful. But she wanted to be known for her music and her personality -- not the fact that she’d had breasts in sixth grade.

But her mother understood. Her beloved cousin Nicole understood. Nicole felt the same drive to create, and danced to the same inner music. She felt the same press of time to get out and do. Molly sat quietly enough and thought enough for both Nicole and Anna.

Anna was the impulsive cousin, completely lacking the iron control that her mother had encased herself in. But Anna also had the same wildness in her blood that she knew ran in her Auntie Maria, and her dad. The music sang to her constantly. And she wanted to dance through life, with wings on her feet. Her dad always understood.

She opened her eyes and found herself looking into Molly’s equally dark ones. Maybe if Molly and Mattie had kids, some would be born with blue eyes. Even little Joshie had the same dark eyes as the rest of the cousins. Every Czechoslovakian child had them, just as they all had powers.

The powers developed in different ways, but the same ability to shape and change was always there. Except in Matt. But Matt never seemed to envy those powers. Her brother knew he was unique enough, being the adopted one. When her mother had read her "Me and My Place in Space" as a bedtime story, Mattie always requested, "Why Was I Adopted?" Both books had been inherited from her mom and Uncle Max. And both explained Anna’s and Matt’s completely different, yet extremely similar origins. The two Whitman children knew that they were both special in their own ways.

"I hope your dad didn’t kill the sheriff," Anna said quietly.

Molly’s dark eyes were solemn, but Anna could see Uncle Michael’s grin tugging at her lips.

And the two youngest girls giggled softly.

"I wonder if anyone else is awake." Anna sat up slowly, not surprised to find their mothers still asleep. Her mom lay curled up in the big armchair, a blanket tucked up to her chin. Auntie Liz and Auntie Maria were still curled up together in the double star-watching sleeping bag that someone had inherited from Uncle Jeff and Aunt Nancy Parker. And Mrs. Valenti sat in the rocking chair, sipping a cup of coffee, reading the morning paper.

But what surprised them the most was the figure that snuck up silently behind Beth Valenti, and covered her mouth with his hand. Only Mrs. Valenti’s whipping her head around to see her husband behind her kept her from screaming.

Anna’s dad followed Mr. Valenti into the house, his battered guitar case hanging from one hand. He gave her his million-watt grin and his patented double-thumbs-up. So, Anna thought, the weekend had gone okay, even if they were home a lot earlier than expected. No one had killed anybody.

Matt trailed in sleepily behind their dad, walking straight towards the sofabed where she and Molly were still lying. Molly held up the covers for him to crawl in beside them.

"Long night in the woods, Matt?" Anna asked, giving her brother a wide grin as he leaned around Molly to give her a quick hug and kiss on her forehead.

Matt yawned. "Joshie played Doctor Doolittle, and Uncle Max and Uncle Michael cleaned Dad and the sheriff out of peanuts." He lay back against Molly’s pillow. "And then Jamie and I talked all night about Czechoslovakians, since he’s still mystified by Nik sometimes, and the twins pretended to snore." Matt tugged the covers up to his chin and closed his eyes. For the ten-millionth time in her life, Anna hated her brother for his long dark lashes. They made his eyes almost as pretty as Uncle Max’s.

Anna poked her brother. "Don’t go to sleep. We want dirt."

"Dirt, huh?" Her dad snuck up behind them, dropping a kiss on her cheek. "I think I’ve got some dirt here…." He reached into the pocket of his windbreaker and sprinkled a little bit of dirt on her head.

"Daddy!"

And her shriek woke the rest of her family up.

"Max."

"Michael, you cheesehead!"

"Jamie...."

"Mommy!"

Anna smiled in content as she watched her family reunite. Her dad and mom sat curled up in the armchair, talking softly. Aunt Liz was cuddling with Uncle Max and Joshie and Claudia, while Uncle Michael sat with Auntie Maria in his lap, their lips glued together as usual. Anna looked at Molly, who sighed. They could be such teenagers sometimes.

The twins came to sit at the edge of the bed, looking as tired as Matt did. "We survived," Stephen said, thumping down next to her.

"And we didn’t kill Jamie either." Leo threw himself in the space between Molly and the edge. "Shove over, Molly Ky."

Anna patted Stephen on the head. "I’m very proud of you both," she said gravely.

"Did you know that he knows?" Leo’s voice was quieter than usual. "Nik told him."

"But he stayed. So there’s hope, Lee." Stephen’s voice was equally solemn. He snuggled closer to Anna, peering up at her, his dark eyes as unreadable as Uncle Michael’s got sometimes. They’d all snuggled indiscriminately as kids, and still did to an extent. "But somehow, I think you guys already knew that."

"Nikki told us four years ago." Molly’s voice had the same soft tone as they all turned to watch the second-oldest of them sit with her forehead resting against her boyfriend’s, making mooney-eyes at each other. "He didn’t spazz. He didn’t run away. He didn’t go into shock...."

Anna watched her brother put his arm around Molly, bringing her closer to him as he sat up, leaning his shoulder against Anna’s. Stephen next to her did the same thing, reaching under the blanket to squeeze her hand. He’d always been her protector. Him and Leo.

She looked up at the five stars that shone among the Ram’s horns on the ceiling. Five stars for the five middle kids -- the twins as the leaders, she and Molly as the babies to be protected, and Matthew as the bridge that linked them together. They’d named a star for each one of themselves when they were younger, and the twins were about to go off to middle school. Anna found her star on the ceiling and made a wish for all of them.

"Loneliness may endure the night, but love comes in the morning." Molly’s voice sounded faraway as she quoted, just like when she was composing a poem. She met Anna’s dark eyes, and Anna could see a melody shaping itself to fit the words.

Anna hummed it softly, the tune echoing the lullaby that her mother had sung to her and Mattie since they were babies sharing a crib at night.

Her eyes wandered around the room, watching her family and family-to-be reunite after a night apart. They always found their way back to each other, almost like it was foreordained -- even the whole Valenti thing. Jamie and Nikki were sucking face, and even Claudia was giving them an amused smile. And she could hear Josh’s soft voice making the same groaning noises that the older cousins had made, watching Uncle Michael and Auntie Maria kiss over the years.

"I loved you in the morning," she sang softly. And Molly joined in on the next line. "Our kisses deep and warm...."

Butterfly kisses, morning kisses. It had been a girls’ night in ... but in the morning, it was simply a homecoming.

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