Disclaimer: Yada yada yada (not to sound too Seinfeldian...) everyone in the story belongs to Roswell and the creators, whose names I can't think of at the moment and don't feel like looking up. Don't sue please because I have no money, and I'd just have to give you my broken radio and a 12 year old computer, and they're not really worth anything anyway!

Randomness: Okay, this is my very first ever fanfic, so pretty please don't trash me. Criticisim (good or bad) is welcome. Hopefully the wonderful people at Roswell Underground *sweet lil smile* will post my cheese puff little story, but if not, oh well. By the way, this is probably going to confuse everyone, it's an M&M story, even though it starts out with Max, don't be fooled :-P

P.S. Just for the sake of randomness, I would just like to say that I am totally totally devoted to conventional couples and would cry for weeks (well, not really, after all, it's only t.v...oh my gosh, I can't believe I just said that, I take it back, t.v. is life) if they do M/T (ooh, burns my fingers to write that) or M/I (That, too, ouchies) next season.

Please don't steal my story, if you want to post it somewhere, please ask permission first.

* * *

Max Evans sat at a kitchen table, his mother, Diane, standing over the stove, cooking and harassing him about his lab partner and "friend" Liz Parker...

"I'm just curious," Diane said, implying that she was much more then curious.

"Mom..." Max warned, as any normal teenage boy would if his mother was asking about his love life. It was moments like this that Max could momentarily forget about how this wasn't really his mother, how this wasn't really his home, how this wasn't even really his planet. For that one minute in time, he was just a normal boy studying a diagram of a dead frog and having a stupid little conversation with his mother. But all of a sudden, everything went from normal, to terrifying...

The flames had shot up fast. Too fast for him to stop the fire. Too fast for him to grab his mother out of the way. He bolted from his chair as soon as he heard Diane's screams, pulling her out of the way, and using his not-so-normal "talents" to put out the raging flames.

He looked over to Diane, and was horrified. She was unconscious, a large burn straight up her arm and left side of her face. Max didn't even think, he just acted. All he could think about was the day his mother and father had taken him and Isabel in, not the consequences of what he was about to do, not about what questions might be raised.

Diane seemed as though she were only half aware. Hopefully, she wouldn't notice him healing the burns on her body. Hopefully...

* * *

"You what?!" Michael screamed, barely controlling his rage. The rock he had been kicking around had just exploded into at least 20 smaller pebbles, a signal that he had to control himself or his powers would end up hurting someone.

"I can't...I can't believe you did that! I mean, we have to be careful, especially now, Maxwell... God, I can't believe you healed her!" Michael screamed, pounding a large boulder in anger. This area was filled with rocks and boulders, someplace no one would ever think to go, someplace they could come to, just the three of them, to talk.

"Michael, calm down," Isabel, the only calm one of the group at the moment, spoke, "She's our mother, what was he supposed to do? Let her die?" her voice had gotten louder, stronger, angrier as she spoke.

"I don't know, call an ambulence? Put some ice on it? Something other than using his powers?" Michael yelled back sarcastically.

"Stop it! Just stop it!" Max finally spoke up. "Michael, I can handle this, I've done it before, and I can do it again."

"That's exactly my point, Max! Look what happened once you healed Liz? Now the FBI is after us, and this is only going to make them more suspicious! I mean, are you just gonna heal everyone who gets a papercut now? You were the one who said we should stay low for awhile. Now what are we going to do?"

Michael felt betrayed in a way, like the only steady person in his life was slipping away. He couldn't understand why, but ever since Max had saved Liz's life that day, everything had changed. His friends were being taken away from him, being taken away by Liz and Alex. He couldn't go a day without hearing Max pine after Liz, or Isabel staring longingly at Alex.

What happened to when it just used to be the three of them? No complications. No girlfriends. Just them. There were times that he could barely stand to be away from Maria, not that he'd admit it, but he wouldn't let her get in the way. Because if he did, that would mean Max and Isabel could be with Liz and Alex, and he and Max and Izzy would be separated forever. He would lose the only family he'd ever had.

Max glared at Michael, not saying a word, just looking at him with that non-emotional glare that had always gotten him to shut up, even when they were kids. Michael looked at Max, confused, scared, and trying not to show it. He couldn't take it anymore. He ran...

* * *

Maria opened the door and let out a sigh. Not a sigh of relief, or anger, or exhaustion, just a sigh that seemed to Michael to say, "I told you so".

She looked at him for a minute, and when he couldn't take it anymore, he finally said, "So can I come in, or what?"

"Yeah," she said, moving out of the doorway and motioning him inside.

When they reached the living room, Maria finally asked what had been on her mind since she saw him walking up the path to her house, "So what are you doing here?"

She was still angry. He hadn't said thank you. He hadn't lived up to his "no more running" promise. He had barely even said a word to her since they had all left the Indian reservation. She gave him her best, "I'm tougher than you" look that she had perfected to scare the living daylights out of Kyle in the 5th grade.

Michael stood in the middle of the room, silent. He knew she was mad at him, though he wasn't sure why. At this point he didn't care. He just needed someone to talk to. To vent at. And since both Max and Izzy seemed against him at this point, Maria was the only person who came to mind.

"It's Max," he began, "his mother started a fire on the stove the other day, and was nearly killed when the flames shot up." He paused for a moment as he heard Maria gasp, and saw the worried expression on her face.

"He healed her," he continued, the worried look on Maria's face turning to one of relief, "and now I just know everything is going to come crashing down on top of us. We agreed! Damn it! We said we wouldn't do things like this anymore! He promised! We all did! And now he has to heal this woman he calls his mother, even though she's not, when all he really had to do was call an ambulance! What was he thinking!?" Michael screamed in rage, and flopped down breathlessly on the couch, his head resting in his hands.

Maria waited a moment, letting Michael catch his breath, before she sat down next to him. She put her hand on his back, trying to comfort him, but he shrugged her off.

"I can't believe I'm trying to help him," she thought, "I'm like one of those women in the tube tops and mini-skirts on Springer who keeps going back to the same guy, even though he has never once showed any appreciation for all that she's done for him, and probably slept with nearly every other girl in the trailer park."

She put her hand on his back again, slower this time, hoping he wouldn't pull away again. He didn't. He just sat there, staring at his shoes.

"Michael," she said softly, "hasn't there ever been anyone in your whole life who you would give up anything for, just so that they never have to be upset or scared or hurt? Hasn't there been anyone who would give up everything for you?"

He didn't look up.

"Come on, there's gotta be somone..." she tried again.

He still didn't answer.

She looked at him, sadly, realizing he probably hadn't ever had anyone like that. She didn't know much about his foster father, but from what she'd heard from Liz, he wasn't much to brag about. She lifted his head, and gave him a soft, small kiss. She didn't know why, it just felt like the thing to do.

When Maria kissed him, Michael saw something. He didn't know how, or why, or anything like that, but when she kissed him, all of a sudden he saw himself, being carried through a desert. He looked sick, and was covered in something gross, but Isabel, Max, Liz, Alex, and, he realized, Maria, were carrying him, all looking scared.

All of a sudden he felt this wave of emotion, that he knew must have been from Maria. It was just fear and love and worry shooting at him all at once.

He finally realized what Maria had been talking about. Someone who would give up anything. Someone you'd give up anything for. Someone you loved. Max loved his mother so much, he wasn't even thinking when he healed her, because he just didn't want her to be hurt. And Maria cared for him so much, he wasn't sure if it was love, or just caring, but she cared for him so much, that she just wanted him better, wanted to be sure he wouldn't die, that he could maybe be happy someday.

Michael looked up at Maria, who was looking at him strangely. "You okay?" she asked. "You've been sitting there staring into space for a minute or two."

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "Thank you." And with that, he got up and left.

Maria looked on as he walked away, stunned. He had actually thanked her. "I guess," she thought to herself, "all he needed was someone who would give up everything..."

And she went back inside, and closed the door.

Back to Area 51 (Section III)