~Part Eleven~


There was no feeling that compared with waking up to the fresh morning dew slipping down the long stems of grass in the fields, or the warm sun rays tickling the tips of your lashes as they opened.  Having the scent of hundreds of daisies wafting through your senses, while bees hummed softly as they worked.  Even the crisp morning air tasted fresh on the tip of the tongue in the meadows.  It was like waking in heaven.

Maria's eyes pinched shut tightly as a silent cry of pain tore itself from her gaped mouth, making no sound.  The visions were becoming more intense now, increasingly vivid and stark.  It was coming closer, and she could do nothing more to stop it than she could to stop air from being expelled from her lungs every day her body produced life.  Taking in deep, even breaths she forced her body to a quiet calm.

When she heard a rustling by the trees near her, she startled.  Rolling her body backwards, Maria flipped herself into a defensive hovering position as she stayed poised on the tips of her toes, her fingers spread in front of her to hold her upper body mere inches above the ground, glaring darkly at the intruder.

"Maria?"

Alex was unaccustomed to taking impromptu rides through the forest in the mornings.  When Michael had told him, rather gruffly he thought, to go and fetch Maria so that she would have time to get 'fancied up and all that crap', he heartily agreed.

From the very moment he saw her, he could tell that something was different about the girl, something he knew he couldn't explain.  He wasn't even sure he wanted to try really, but he was certain of one fact - she was the best thing that ever happened to this little town.  The best thing that had ever happened to Michael 'I have no soul' Guerin.

As soon as he'd entered the meadow, he wasn't quite sure of her sanity, though.  There she crouched, ready to strike as if he was some murderous villain come to claim her.  How it was even possible to hold that position so closely to the ground, he hadn't a clue!

It took Maria a few seconds for her eyes to fully focus before she realized who it was that had walked into the meadow.  Letting out a shuddered breath, she let herself drop to her knees as she pushed her body up to sit back on her heels.

"Why are you here?"

Crossing his arms over his chest, Alex watching her push the hair that had fallen into her face back, mechanically.  "What, no hello?  I think you've been spending too much time around Michael lately."

Maria frowned slightly.  She had learned a few days ago that the tall, brooding man didn't seem to have the word 'hello' in his vocabulary.  It didn't really bother her, though.  It was easier to be able to just start a conversation instead of having to ask politely how someone was.  She didn't quite see the point in that particular human formality; the person would be standing right in front of you, shouldn't you already know?

"Isn't it normal to spend the amount of time with someone, as I have been spending with him?" she asked, standing up from the ground.

Alex coughed to try and hide the laughter in his voice.  This small wisp of a girl certainly was different.  "It's normal enough," he said, watching the worry lines fall from her face, only to be replaced with ones of confusion.  Leaning back against a tree he tried to explain, "What I said was just a phrase that we use."  When he saw her nod slightly, he continued, "See, when someone starts spending time around someone else, they tend to take on a few traits that the other person has.  It's not really a bad thing.  But a phrase that we use when we notice it is, 'I think you've been spending too much time with so-and-so.'  It's just something you say when you're joking around."

"And a joke is something people use to make each other laugh," she stated, more for her own benefit than his.

Alex smiled, raising an eyebrow at her.  What was this girl, some other kind of life form?  He supposed that Liz's explanation about Maria growing up in the forest, away from civilization was very plausible.  But, still...

Nodding her head once in finality, the quirky blonde smiled.  "I think I understand now."  Walking closer she added, "You didn't answer my question though."

Thrown out of his thoughts, Alex gave her a quizzical look.  "Which question?"

"The one I asked when I first saw you."

"Oh!"  Alex grinned at her like a child who held a special secret.  "The grump you seem to enjoy hanging around with thought that you'd like some time to get ready for the wedding.  He wanted to come and get you himself, but Mrs. Evans told him that she wasn't going to let him out of her sight.  I think he was just using it as an excuse to get away from everyone," Alex told her, leading her back to where he'd tied up his horse.  "It didn't work."

Get ready for the wedding?  Was there something extra she needed to do to prepare?  She'd have to ask Liz when they got back...

A moment later, Alex's horse was in view, quietly waiting for him to return.  Maria stopped walking, staring at it as though she weren't quite sure what to do.

"You okay?"

Maria nodded at him as she shifted back and forth from one foot to the other.

Staring first at his horse and then back at the girl, Alex asked, "Maria, are you okay riding back with me on Thunder?"

"Thunder...?"  Alex had the power to conjure the skies?!

"My horse," he informed her, pointing back towards the brown mare.

"Oh."  That was certainly a strange name for a creature.  Why would anyone name his horse after a sound that came from storm clouds?  "Right.  Thunder."

"Maria...?"  Was it just his imagination, or did Maria seem to be afraid of riding?  Maybe it was just because she'd never done it before.

"I'm fine," Maria answered him quickly, walking towards the horse and waiting until he mounted it so she could get up behind him.  She would just have to deal with the awkwardness of riding a creature that was nearly cousin to her own.  "Let's go."

.  .  .

"Michael, stop fidgeting," Mrs. Evans commanded, as she went about her task of straightening his tie...and jacket...and...

Ducking out of her reach, he went to go stand behind Max, hoping that she might get distracted if she had another victim within her grasp.

"Traitor," Max mumbled under his breath.

Michael snorted as he watched Diane Evans begin to brush invisible flecks of dust off of her son's jacket, "All's fair in wedding preparations and avoiding your Mom, my friend."

Ever since he became friends with Max, Diane Evans had become almost like a surrogate mother to him; sending food over to make sure he didn't starve, checking up on him when Max told her that he hadn't been feeling well, always insisting on being a part of his life.

It seemed to make him miss his parents that much more.

"So Michael, Max told me you were taking Maria, the new girl that came to town, to the wedding."

Michael glared over at his smug friend, resisting the urge to punch him.  "Umm, yeah.  Max said I had to have a date."

"So, you've been spending a lot of time with her then?"

Maxwell was a dead man.

Shrugging, Michael tried to play it off.  "She talks to me when she's around."

Looking up at him skeptically, Diane was just about to reply when her husband poked his head into the room.

"Max?  Alex is here so we're all heading over to the church now."

Michael gave a small prayer of thanks before following them out the door.  Who would ever believe that Michael Guerin was happy to be going to a wedding?

.  .  .

The moment Maria set foot into the Parker's home she wished she could do the same thing Michael had tried to do earlier - make an excuse and get as far away from that house as possible.  Every inch of space inside seemed to be taken up by wedding paraphernalia or people.  She never knew occasions like these could be so chaotic!

It didn't help that Alex had left just as soon as he'd dropped her off either, informing her that all of the men were currently at the Evan's home and expecting him to return.  Setting her mind on finding Liz was the only thing keeping her from bolting from the doorway.

After a few minutes of searching, and carefully avoiding most of the glances that were turned in her direction, Maria found her in the small room down the hall, where she had been sewing a couple of nights earlier.

"Maria!  I was wondering how long it would take for you to get here," Liz smiled, greeting her as she stood straight and stiff on top of a stool as her mother was making preparations on her wedding dress.  "I was starting to wonder if something had happened to you overnight.  Which, I guess is silly seeing as how you've lived practically your entire life out there," she admitted, stepping down from her perch after slinking out of her gown.

"No, everything was fine last night.  Alex came for me this morning so I could get...ready," she told Liz, absently playing with a lock of her golden curls.  "Then he brought me here."

Liz looked over at her friend, noticing the confusion drawn on her face.  Why was she...?  "That's right!  You've never been to a wedding before, have you?"  It was more a statement than anything else really, but Maria shook her head anyway.  "Well, I don't suppose you have another dress hiding in there somewhere, do you?" Liz teased, heading towards a closet in the room.

Maria's eyes widened as Liz began searching through it, looking for something that might fit the girl well enough.  "I have to change?"

It took a moment for Liz to notice the fear that had been crawling into Maria's voice.  Turning back around and looking the girl once over, Liz sighed, "Actually, the dress your wearing probably looks better than anything I have in my closet."

Maria let a short breath out of her lungs, relieved.  How would she have explained to Liz that her clothing was like a skin, molding to her body when she changed forms?  It was possible to wear something else, but her dress was a part of her and she couldn't simply leave it behind.

"I guess wearing your dress will be just fine."  Walking over to her new friend, a devious smile lit her lips.

"We can certainly do something with your hair though...