Title: The Fourth Reunion
Author: Nina
E-mail: chapman@mbusa.net and PLEASE write me!
Category: All / Other
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimers: I don`t own any of the Roswell characters and I don`t own
Kathleen Topolsky but I do own Kathleen Evans and Adrian Guerin. I also
own Cigar the parrot and Tabasco the husky, if those really matter, or I
could admit I`m just trying to get you interested in the story. I don`t
own any of the songs I`ve used and I`m sorry I didn`t discredit myself
for the music in all my previous fanfiction. I don`t own any of the
songs. Just telling you in this one even though there`s no music in this
one.
Summary: Futurefic: The Roswell group and their kids enjoy their fourth
yearly reunion at Max and Liz`s place. Happy.
Author`s Note: This story`s is much happier than things I`ve done before
so don`t worry about that. This fanfic is a sequel to "Kathleen" in lots
of ways. But you can probably catch up if you haven`t read it.

    "Remember the teeny things," Max reminded, feeling like some idiot
in front of his daughter.
    "Daddy, I`m ten," Kathleen Evans laughed. "I can pronounce
'molecular structures.' We were supposed to stop reffering to them as
teenies or whatever three years ago."
    "Fine, concentrate on the molecular structures of the ice cube,
think about the cells, or whatever, do what you have to do, do your
thing, just melt the damn thing."
    Kat smoothly held her hand over the ice cube on the glass surface of
their patio table for no more than three seconds before it melted into
water.
    Liz came over with kitchen mits over her hands and set a bowl of
shortcut carrots on the table. "She knows not to do that in public,
doesn`t she?"
    "Of course, Mama," Kat said.
    "She knows," Max assured her.
    "And be careful about showing off to Adrian too, please," Liz said,
talking to her daughter now rather than Max. "I wish I could stop you
from always running over to her like 'Look what Daddy showed me to do
since I saw you last!' but you can at least make sure she knows how to
handle everything you show her. She`s not as old as you, after all, she
doesn`t understand the need to keep this stuff to ourselves."
    "Liz, Lizzy, Baby, Sweetheart..." Max pleaded, standing up and
holding his wife`s shoulders. "Chill, okay? The kids are cool."
    Kat was suddenly active and enthusiastic at the mentioning of
Adrian. Because Adrian ment Michael and Maria. Michael and Maria meant
Alex. Alex meant Isabel.
    "Is Michael sleeping downstairs with me and Adrian like last year?"
Kat asked her mother hopefully as she set a few forks around the table.
    "Of course he is, just like last year," Liz answered busily. "And
the year before that. And the year before that. Why does it matter so
much?"
    "I like it when Michael sleeps in the family room with us."
    "Why is that?"
    "He tells us scary stories."
    "Oh...does he?" Liz asked, sounding worried.
    Max flashed her a look. A "Don`t worry like you always do" look. Liz
wasn`t convinced.
    "Are they really that...you know...scary?"
    "Uh, Honey," Max said to distract her. "I think you should go inside
and, uh...get an extra bottle of tabasco sauce. We need plenty of
tabasco sauce..." He finished talking as he held her waist and steered
her around towards the back door into the house. "There ya go."
    This was how things had been for the past four years or so. Happy.
everyone was happy. Max and Liz were happily married and had their
daughter, Kat. Michael and Maria were happily married and had their
daughter Adrian and their big husky names Tabasco. And Alex and Isabel
were happily...uh...living together without an official marriage yet and
had their cigar company in Marathon, Texas. Actually they owned a nice
non-alien-themed restaurant there and had a cute little conure named
Cigar.
    Liz and Max were living in the nice house in the country that they`d
inherited from Max and Isabel`s uncle Bill Evans after he died. Actually
Max and Isabel had originally been the official inheritants, but they
agreed that Max, Liz, and their daughter should have it. Isabel had had
less interest in the house from the start anyway. So now the Guerin
family was the only one still in Roswell, and everyone was spread apart,
so once a year they always met at Max and Liz`s house for a little
reunion, to barbecue and tell jokes, to drink beer and get rowdy, to
rage over old times, and to just get plain stupid. Of course their
parents and other family had no idea that they did this because they
wouldn`t understand why it would be so important for just this specific
group to meet together and no one else, but in a way that made it even
more fun.
    Honk-HOOOOOOOONK! HOOOOONK!
    "It`s Isabel!" Kat screeched, remembering like she would never
forget that Iz would always honk crazily to announce it to her that she
was there as soon as she pulled up the driveway. Kat got up from her
seat and ran around the side of the house to the front yard. Sure
enough, a shiny black convertible was parking on the street outside
their house.
    A happy-looking Isabel wearing a long white leather jacket opened
the driver`s seat car door and stepped out. "Katty-girl!"
    "Aunt Izzy!!!" Kat ran forward and collided into Isabel, who warmly
wrapped her up tight and rocked her back and forth. "How`s my little
girl?"
    Max and Liz were coming around the back of the house as Alex came
out of the passenger`s seat. Alex was walking around the car to hug Kat
when Max made it to Isabel.
    "How`s my Izzy?" Max asked as he hugged her.
    "Good," Isabel said and kissed him on the cheek. She parted away
from him and reached into the back seat through the open window. "I
almost forgot this little bastard..." She pulled out a familiar bird
cage with a little colorful conure inside. "He wouldn`t shut up the
whole way here."
    Right then a dark green car appeared and pulled up the driveway. The
first one that came out of the car was a little blonde five-year-old who
flew out of the...trunk.
    "Aunt Isabel!" Adrian Guerin squealed, and ran into Isabel`s arms.
As she hugged her Isabel and Max exchanged a look. Max just smirked
back. All the kids loved Aunt Izzybell.
    Another car door opened and a spiky-haired head raised out of the
car. Michael slammed the door shut behind him and stood there and held
his arms out. "Maximus!"
    "Mickey!" Max called in the same position. Before any further
communication could happen between them, Maria busted out of the other
car door and ran around the car.
    "Liz Liz Liz Liz Liz Liz Liz Liz Liz Liz Liz!!!" she squealed with
excitement as she ran into her best friend ever`s arms.
    "MARIA!" Liz squealed with equivalent excitement. Everyone else
watched as they squeezed eachother`s shoulders and jumped up and down.
    "Babe, I missed you so much!"
    "Me too! Oh! Michael! Michael, hi!"
    Liz and Michael hugged briefly, and Liz hugged Adrian, picking her
up and putting her back down. Then Adrian hugged Max, Isabel hugged
Michael, Michael hugged Kat, Kat hugged Maria, and Maria hugged Max, and
Alex hugged Maria, and Maria hugged Isabel, and Alex hugged Adrian, and
then Michael hugged Maria, and then they realized they`d been living
together for two years and four months, and shrugged and moved away form
each other, and then of course Kat did not hug Adrian but gave her the
traditional piggy-back-ride around the entire front and back yard.
    Then Michael got their dog out of the back seat, who started running
around with the kids, and Liz said, "Let`s barbecue.". They all made
their way around to the back yard and sat out on the deck furniture.
    "I have something to show you," Kat whispered into Adrian`s ear.
They smiled and started to creep away, but michael knew what they were
up to and grabbed his daughter`s arm. "Hey, don`t do anything to freak
out the neigbors, okay?"
    "We know," Kat answered for her. With that they broke away from the
group on the deck.
    "So how`s your restaurant going?" Maria asked Isabel and Alex, who
were sitting next to each other holding hands casually. Pretty much like
every couple was doing at the moment. Actually Max and Liz had their
faces against each other and their foreheads pressed together and were
quietly talking and giggling continuously, which everyone else just
ignored.
    "It`s very good, actually," Isabel answered. "We thought that it
would be good to have something that wasn`t alien-themed for once,
because we figured everyone was sick of that." She laughed. "We were
absolutely right. We get people from Roswell all the time. We ask `em,
'Smoking or non?' and they go, 'I don`t care, just as long as the menu
ain`t got a UFO on it.' "
    Everyone laughed. "They have no idea," Michael said. "They think it
gets annoying, try living with it when you`re one of us."
    "Tell me about it," Max said, finally off of Liz for a few seconds.
"How can you stand to still live in that crappy town?"
    "It`s not crappy, it`s old," Michael said.
    Maria raised an eyebrow. "Not that old."
    "Fine, it`s crappy."
    Max was looking down at his knees, holding a cigarette and heating
up the tip to light it.
    "Why don`t you just use a lighter if that takes so long?" Maria
asked.
    "Because I`m old-fashioned," Max answered. "Actually, I just wanna
show off."
    "Is that where Kat gets it from?" Isabel laughed.
    Max smirked. "Besides, I`m not gonna buy a lighter when I smoke
approximetly..what..four cigarettes a year?"
    "How do you do that?" Maria asked. "Is it like an alien thing that
you can stand to limit yourself to not even a smoke a month?"
    "Probably, but I wouldn`t know. Or maybe I`m just that good."
    She giggled. As everyone else started a different conversation she
drew a vial of Jasmine oil out of her pocket and started to unscrew the
top.
    "You still do that, girl?" Isabel asked.
    "Of course," Maria answered. "Just like you all still use tabasco
sauce. It`s not just something you grow out of."
    "Sure," Max said. "And Michael still has spiky hair."
    "And Alex still tells jokes well," Maria added, lifting the vial to
her nose.
    "By the way," Alex said, "have you heard the one about the two
surgeons and the owl at the-"
    "Yes," Liz answered instantly. "a long time ago. We heard enough of
it."
    But then the thought of the old joke had everyone smiling. And then
they all cracked up.
    "So, you concentrate on the teenies," Kat was saying to Adrian over
in the backyard bushes.
    "The what?"
    "Teeny thingies are what everything on Earth is made up of. They`re
also known as cells. We`re made of cells."
    "Oh, I know about those!" Adrian exclaimed. "When we were in a
restaurant once my daddy drew these cells on a napkin to show me why me
and him are different from my mommy."
    "Yeah, exactly. And like plant cells are different animal cells,
and...anyways, concentrate on the little things."
    "What am I trying to do again?"
    Kat rolled her eyes. "You wanna make the leaf shrivel up is all.
Like I explained already, it looks nifty cause it`s kinda like it`s
burning, you know?"
    "But is it hot?"
    "Of course not."
    "I don`t know..."
    "Come on, it`s really fun once you get the hang of it. Just focus on
the inside of it and spread the cells apart..."
    "...And I`ve still got my Crashdown uniform up in my closet," Liz
was saying to the others. "I put it on every Halloween and all the
trick-or-treaters think it`s so cool."
    "Really, that thing still fits you?" Maria asked. "Ugh, my ass got
too big for that thing long ago."
    "Maybe, but Lizzy still looks sexy as ever in it," Max laughed,
hugging her shoulders with one arm. "I`m gonna go get some drinks,
okay?" he said playfully into her ear. "Anyone want anything?"
    "Oh....beer," Isabel said with a smile.
    Max snapped his fingers as he stood up from his seat. "Damn. Beer. I
forgot to get more beer. We don`t have that much."
    "Are you kidding?!" Liz said. "You only have two six-packs of
Heinies and one pack of Budweiser."
    "I know, I`m playing with you. Isabel, you`re a drinker now?"
    "Now I am."
    "Very well. Anything else?"
    Liz and Alex both asked for cokes, so Max said he`d get those and
then said, "I might as well get a couple of those Juicy Juices or
whatever things, too."
    Maria`s eyes narrowed. "Geese, do we seem that desperate to you?"
    Max smiled and leaned forward near her. He put a hand on her
shoulder and said, "Um...I meant for the kids."
    "Oh!"
    Max went into the house and when he got back Liz was at the grill.
"I think these are done."
    "Goody," Alex said. "Let`s eat."
    "Bring your plates over here," Liz told everyone.
    Adrian and Kat ran over to Max`s side as he sat back down a whole
bunch of drinks on the table.
    "Daddy, I can`t show her how to shrivel up the leaf like you taught
me," Kat said.
    "All right," Max said and groaned with Adrian`s weight as he picked
her up onto his lap. "Here we go."
    Liz shot him a look when he picked a leaf off the pot of flowers on
the table, but he just smiled, and she rolled her eyes and got back to
serving the barbecue.
    "Looks yummy," Alex said as he sat back down at the table with a
full plate of food. "Izzy, your beer is here."
    "I know," Isabel called from over at the grill. "Don`t worry, I`m
not gonna back out on it or anything."
    Alex laughed as Maria and Isabel sat back down and they looked over
at what Max and Adrian were doing. They watched as Adrian`s little hand
burned the last of the little leaf into tiny pieces which blew off the
table.
    "See?" Max said to her. "Easy."
    He gently pushed Adrian off his lap as Liz set a plate in front of
him. "Thanks, hun. Uh, Kat, you better get over here and eat now?"
    "What`s she up to?" Liz asked as she looked behind her in the yard.
Kat was over playing with Tabasco in the grass. "Honey, you can play
with the dog later, you have to eat now."
    "Kathy-kitty?" Isabel called. "This barbecue`s real good."
    "She doesn`t like barbecue," Max said to her.
    "Oh, that would be a problem...Katty!" Isabel got up and went over
to her in the yard.
    Everyone watched her work with the kid and exchanged agreeing looks
that said the same simple statement: the girl should be a mother.
    Izzy came over then with Kat, with the dog following them. "Of
course she doesn`t like barbecue chicken," she said. "She doesn`t put
tabasco sauce on it."
    "Neither do I," Max said.
    "Well, what do you know."
    Eventually everyone was seated at the table, and Isabel and Kat both
put tabasco sauce on their chicken, and eventually Adrian as well who
was enthusiastic to try it.
    "Try not to ruin your entire outfit with this meal, Adi," Maria said
to Adrian.
    "I`ll try."
    "Does it really matter?" Alex asked. "You`ve got Mikey."
    Michael laughed. "You have no idea what it`s like at our place.
'Michael, couldn`t you just get this one stain up for me, please?' "
    "Well, in this house it`s Kat who`s always enthusiatic about doing
that for her mother," Liz said. "You just can`t use your powers enough,
can you?"
    Kat smiled and shook her little head.
    "Hey, it`s my fault," Max confessed. "I`m the one who teaches her
everything. Plus she got it from the Isabel in me."
    "Sounds more like you`re bragging," Isabel said with her arms
crossed.
    "So what if I am?"
    "So she`ll start using them too much if you are," Liz said.
    "She can handle it. Besides, so what if some little accidents may
happen? We don`t live in Roswell anymore. No one`s looking for alien
activity out here."
    "But Adrian still has to be careful."
    "Well, Adrian`s nothing like Kat, is she?"
    "That`s for sure," Michael said. "Kat hates pink. And Adrian can`t
stand to go a day without wearing an item of clothing some color like
yellow or pink or-"
    "Oh, shut up," Maria said. "He can`t take having much of anything in
our house a light color. He`ll never let me even pain a bathroom light
yellow. He`d be fine with it if all the walls in our house were some
dark, ugly green."
    "Well, you wanted our bedroom to have lacy curtain in it, for Jesus
sakes."
    "That is... pretty bad," Max jumped to his defense.
    "See?"
    And the rest of the dinner conversation went something like that.
Michael and Maria bawling at each other but exchanging occasional smiles
anyway. Alex making the jokes. Isabel talking to the kiddies. Max and
Liz leaning on each other after being long since full.
    Afterwards everyone sort of split up. The dog went one way with the
two daughters holding onto it`s tail to go play some more with each
other. Liz, Maria, and Isabel went inside to have their traditional chic
talk while washing the dishes. And the three guys stayed outside,
Michael in a lawn chair with a newspaper, Max in a chair with a cherry
coke, and Alex on the deck bench with his guitar.
    He strummed a chord. "What`s the news here like?" He directed the
question to Michael. "Does anything happen out here?"
    Michael`s eyes moved down the page he was on. "Nope."
    "That`s why I like it here," Max said. "Nothing happens."
    "It must be a relief," Alex said as he started to play more. "Izzy
and I are constantly on the ball with our restaurant while you and Liz
are out here cooling your toes."
    "The comics suck too," Michael commented. He still hadn`t lifted his
eyes from the newspaper. "Baby?!"
    "Yeah?" Maria called from the kitchen.
    "Bring me a beer, will you?"
    Maria gave an exasperated sigh, got one out of the fridge, and went
outside through the screen door and handed it to him. "What do I get?"
    "Nothing," Michael said as he cracked the beer top off with the edge
of the table.
    "What am I, your servant?" she challenged.
    "Why else do you think I married you, bitch?" Michael asked. Then he
smiled. She smiled. She leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips and
then turned around and went back inside.
    Max and Alex exchanged a smirk. So concluded another odd but cute
Michael and Maria flirting episode.
    Alex played his guitar.
    Max thought it was funny. The way the one thing Michael and Maria
seemed to have in common was that neither of them had grown up after al
these years. They acted just like they had in high school. Bitching and
sniding and arguing and in the end ending up with their arms around each
other.
    Max looked up at Alex and his guitar. Someone else hadn`t grown up
by now either. At least not entirely.
    "Do you have a request?" Alex asked him.
    He took a drink of coke. "Sex and Candy."
    "Ah-hah. Very funny."
    The girls in the kitchen were having an equally odd conversation.
    "...So, we fail to get our husband to clean up the house for us,"
Maria was saying as she scrubbed a plate. "Is your place like a Martha
Stewart perfect house because the alien in your place is the female?"
    "I`ll admit it," Isabel said. "Pretty much. I`ll also admit that
half of these dishes have been cleaned so fast because I`ve been helping
everything come off the dishes faster." Isabel wiped her hands on a
cloth and went over to the bird cage she`d set on the kitchen table. You
wanna come out, Mister Cigar?"
    "I`m not surprised your house is probably spotless," Liz giggled.
"Max was right. Kat is exactly like you. We should have middle-named her
after you instead of Mar-Mar."
    "You didn`t actually make her middle name Mar-Mar?" Isabel asked,
opening up the door. Cigar stretched out his wings with a flutter for a
brief couple seconds.
    "Of course not."
    "You know, I`ve heard that`s what the girls call their mother in
Little Women," Maria said. "Mar-Mar. It would make more sense if Adrian
called me that than my friends."
    "It`s okay, Liz," Isabel said, reaching her hand in for the bird to
perch on her fingers. "Kathleen Maria Evans sounds much better than
Kathleen Isabel Evans anyway. It`s too long. Isn`t it, Cigar?"
    "I guess," Liz said. "But the thing is-"
    "Shhh," Isabel waved her hand across the air to quiet her down. she
put the conure back in. The three of them listened.
    "uuuI smell sex and...CAN-DY, yeeAh....who`s that loungin` ..IN MY
CHAIR, yeAh, ooh-uh-hu...who`s that castin` stAAAARES in my dirECtion,
Mama, this surely...is a dream, yEah...."
    All three of them covered their mouths with their hands, but they
couldn`t stifle their laughs. They leaned into each other and burst out
laughing.
    "Hangin` around....downtown by miself and I had SO..." the boys
continued and then stopped when they heard the girls laughing in the
kitchen. They started laughing too.
    "That`s the dumbest thing I`ve ever heard!" Isabel blasted out the
screen door onto the deck.
    "We`re bored," Alex complained.
    "Well, drink beer," Maria called from the kitchen window after
sliding it open.
    Michael and Max turned their heads up to the window above them. "Hi,
honey," Michael said. "Would you like to join us?"
    "No thank you."
    Isabel gasped. "Run, Mar-Mar! He called you honey! It`s all over!
Run for your life!"
    "Oh, shut up," Michael said.
    "No, really," Liz said, coming outside behind Isabel. "Let`s sing
something we can allow the kids to hear."
    "Too late," Max laughed. Two girls were scampering around the bushes
a little ways away from the deck. Liz rolled her eyes.
    "Max, come play with us!" Adrian called as the the Guerins` husky
sniffed her ankle.
    "What are you playing?" Max called.
    "Nothing yet," Kat called back. "She wants another piggy-back ride."

    Max sighed and got up from his seat. "Hasn`t she had enough of them
from you?"
    "She says I`m a boring person to ride."
    "Does she?"
    The others watched as Max came over and lifted Adrian up all the way
onto his shoulders. A while later it turned into a useful way for Adrian
to catch fireflies up high as it started to get dark. When Kat started
to obviously feel left out, he just started swinging them both around in
the air. Everyone else glanced over at the three of them and the dog
occasionally and giggled.
    Eventually it got pretty late, and everyone split up again. Maria
and Adrian were finishing the dishes together, Adrian not being as much
help as Liz or Isabel would have been but of course Maria didn`t care.
Liz and Max were upstairs getting ready for bed. Michael was with Kat in
the family room as they got the cots out for her and Adrian, since
Michael would be on the sofa in there. Then Alex and Isabel were sitting
outside in the dark on the deck, Isabel laying her head against his
shoulder as he, big surprise, played his guitar some more. Both of them
were softly saying things to each other, and Maria couldn`t tell from
the kitchen window if he was singing to her or just talking to her, or
both. She was distracted from looking at them every time little Adrian
had yet another question.
    "Does Max like to do the dishes?"
    "How come he went upstairs?"
    "Are we going anywhere tomorrow?"
    "What`s sexy candy?"
    "I think I saw the video. Is the spider`s name Sexy?"
    "Is Alex`s guitar heavy?"
    "How come they own a restaurant? Is it fun?"
    "I wanna own a restaurant! Can we? Can it have chocolate cake?"
    "Why don`t they have a dishwashing machine thingy like we do? Did it
break?"
    "How come daddy doesn`t have feathers if he came out of an egg?"
    "I don`t know!!!" Maria said. Then she cleared her throat. "I think
we`re done, babe."
    "Yay!!!" Adrian clapped her hands.
    "Yay?"
    Adrian`s eyes narrowed. "I guess."
    Maria sighed. "Well, go get ready for bed."
    She groaned.
    "Adrian, you get to sleep down here with Kat, remember? You like
like for some strange reason."
    "I can`t tell you why."
    "I know, you`re always chiding at me, 'I won`t tell you, I won`t
tell you.' Just go get to bed."
    She scampered out of the kitchen. Maria glanced out the window and
saw Isabel and Alex with their arms around each other. The guitar was
untouched on the bench beside Alex. Feeling like an absolute snoop,
Maria groaned at her own stupidity and turned away. She went into the
family room, where Michael was arranging some pillows and blankets for
himself on the couch and Kat was sitting on her cot moving around to
make it bounce up and down. "I`m in the next room, so, if you need any
beers..."
    Michael smiled with a "Ha, ha, very funny" look. "I`ll keep that in
mind, thanks."
    "Sure. If Adrian will not settle down in hell you can send her into
the living room with me."
    "Thanks, but I think I can handle her."
    "I`m sure," Maria said doubtfully. "Goodnight, Michael. Kat."
    "Goodnight," Kat said as she leaned back into her cot. Just then
Adrian came in past Maria in her nightgown.
    "You too, Adrian," Maria said.
    "What?" she asked her mom as she got into her own cot.
    "Goodnight. Try to settle down and get to bed, please?"
    "Okay. Michael said he`d read us a story."
    Maria looked at her husband in disbelief. "Have I died and gone to
heaven?"
    "Hey, even I have to support the Suess," he said as he held up Green
Eggs and Ham. "Dr.Suess is the man."
    "What happened to James Joyse Ulysses?"
    Michael scoffed. "Sweet dreams."
    Alex and Isabel eventually went upstairs to Kat`s room to go to bed,
and Maria settled in to the sofa in the living room. Max was in bed by
then but Liz was brushing her teeth.
    "Jesus, Liz, go for a record," Max called to her in the bathroom. "A
week ago you made the shortest time ever. You got ready for bed in eight
minutes. Go for seven, huh? Just get the hell into bed. How can you
worry about anything else when you`re tired?"
    Liz spat into the sink and then looked out the door at him with an
annoyed smirk. "Be patient."
    "Oooh, my secret`s blown," Max cringed as she turned off the
bathroom light and headed over for the bed. "Only I`m a little deprived
of a few things right now."
    "What do you mean?"
    "I mean how Alex and Isabel are right in the next room."
    Liz giggled as she got in bed and snuggled in next to him. "What,
you don`t think they will either?"
    Max smiled. "True. Plus it is a lot better than having Kat in the
next room like usual."
    "But then again, she sleeps like a freakin baby."
    Max laughed and leaned in and gave her a kiss.
    "You know what I need right now?" Liz asked him softly.
    "What?" Max whispered.
    "A nice cold iced chai," Liz said.
    Max smiled. "Oh."
    Max sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Sounds good to me too. And mine`ll
be heavily sauced with tabasco."
    "And-"
    "Yes, I know," he interrupted her. "You like yours with two
spoonfuls of sugar. No more," he recited, "no less."
    Liz giggled. "Just get them."
    "Okay, I`m going as fucking fast as I can, dear," he said as he
whipped the sheets off of him and got out of bed. "But quite frankly, I
don`t give a damn."
    "Put a robe on," Liz told him. "I wouldn`t want to give Adrian
another question to ask when she sees you walking around shirtless."
    "Good idea." He put on his green robe and sluggishly stepped out the
door. when he passed the door the Kat`s bedroom, he waved, but didn`t
actually turn his head and look inside at Isabel and Alex, thinking it
just may not be a good idea. When he got downstairs he heard voices.
Michael. And either Kat or Adrian laughing. Their giggles sounded alike.

    Out of curiosity he thought he`d just go down to the family room
doorway and listen in a while. Michael and the two kids did have
interesting and funny conversations. Not the most appropriate ones, but
still funny.
    He heard Maria softly snoring. and he heard Michael reading aloud,
"Green Eggs and Ham."
    "I`ve heard this book before," Adrian complained. "This is boring."
    "Yeah, but it`s all we have," Michael said. " 'I will not eat them,
Sam I Am. I will not eat green eggs and ham. I will not eat them in a
box. I will not eat them with a fox.' "
    Kat moaned. "Couldn`t you tell us a story?"
    "Yeah!" Adrian perked up in her cot. "A scary story!"
    Michael sighed. "I don`t think your mothers would want me to do that
anymore."
    Adrian pouted.
    Michael sighed and read on. " 'Would you eat them in a...' "
    The two little girls were groaning and pulling their covers over
their heads.
    Michael threw the book over his shoulder. "Once there was this chic
who was out with her boyfriend."
    The girls sat up with big smiles.
    "It was real late, okay, and she was out with him in his car parked
way out in the highway under this big tree, you know. And eventually the
girl got kind of scared out there in the dark, and it was way past
midnight by now, so the guy said okay, he`d take her home now. He turned
away from her and got his keys out, but then as soon as he put them in
the ignition they both heard the most horrifying, most awful sound, the
sound of-"
    "Of what?" Kat asked impatiently. "Of what?"
    "...Of the car refusing to start. The girl looked up at him and
sighed. so the dude gave her his jacket and told her to wait there in
the car while he went off to find a phone to call for help. So she
stayed. And he left. And she waited. And waited. And waited. And it got
very quiet, and it got very cold, and it got very, very dark."
    "Ooooh," Adrian said.
    "The girl started to wish very badly that she had just come with him
to go get help. But she was stuck there and she knew it, so she just
kept waiting. But then she waited until she`d waited too long. Her
boyfriend had been gone for hours. She got very scared. And worried. But
most of all scared, as she kept watching the clock in the car, wishing
he would just come back. And then after a while, she began to hear a
scratching sound on the roof of the car. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.
Scratch."
    Adrian squealed with delight.
    "The police found her alone there the next morning. And as a cop led
her away from the car all he kept saying was, 'Don`t turn around, Miss.
Whatever you do just don`t turn around.' But then...she did."
    The girls stared expectantly.
    "Her boyfriend`s body was hanging from the tree. His feet were
scraping against the top of the car as he dangled back and forth."
    "Ooooh," Kat said.
    "Colorful," said a Max that was suddenly behind the sofa. "But you
better pray that Liz doesn`t find out about these stories in detail,
because she might very well take them into consideration when deciding
you to kill you."
    "How ya doin`, Max."
    "So," Max leaned over and picked up the book he`d thrown over the
couch. "You, uh...get a little bored with Dr.Suess?"
    "What are doing down here?" Michael asked.
    "I was supposed to be getting some chai for Liz but I was too
intrigued by your interesting tale."
    "You and Liz get chai at this hour? But hey man, if that`s your
thing..."
    "You and Maria like Tang!"
    "Oh, shit, You know about that?"
    "Of course I know about that. I`m Max. Remember me? The person who`s
been your best friend since we were what? Four? Or we were three when we
figured out that we were alike?"
    "Nobody remembers," Michael moaned. "Don`t try. Go get your iced
freaking chai."
    "Gladly," Max said. "Just be careful about what you tell them."
    As soon as he left the room Kat asked Michael, "Tell us the one
about the babysitter and that freaky ritual."

    The rest of the reunion full of the usual: lots of beer, lots of
questions by Adrian, lots of playing around crazily with the kids, lots
of dirty jokes, lots of flirting, and a very large amount of consumed
food.
    On the fifth day they were having their concluding dinner before
everyone would be leaving. The girls sat next to each other and giglged
privately. The others saw their ignorance of the adults` conversation as
an opportunity to, well, say whatever the damn hell they wanted.
    "Do you remember when I gave you that bag of medicine and then you
paid me for going camping with you, and your dad thought you were
carrying around drugs!" Maria said to Liz.
    "Oh God, don`t remind me," Liz moaned.
    "Wait a minute...what?" Max asked.
    "It`s a long story," Liz laughed.
    "This soup is, like, explosively delicious, Liz," Michael said, "but
I need some sugar on it."
    "Me too," Isabel said.
    "I`ll go get it," Max said, and Michael patted his back with a
"Thanks, man" and got up to go inside into the kitchen. When he came
back everyone was laughing at him.
    "What?" he asked.
    Liz giggled and reached over and peeled something off his back. She
held it up to max. It was a post-it note that had written on it, "Kick
me."
    "Very amusing, Mickey," Max sighed as he took the note, crumpled it
up, and threw it in his face. He sat back down and everyone started
talking again.
    After a while Alex started to bang his spoon against his bottle
beer. "People, we have an announcement."
    "Who does?" Liz asked.
    "We do," Isabel said. She held Alex`s hand as they both stood up. "A
very, um, important...announcement."
    Everyone waited.
    Isabel just giggled and held Alex`s hand tight with both of hers,
not being able to stand still with excitement. "We`re getting married!"
    "Yay!" Adrian said.
    Max got up from his chair and hugged his sister. Alex hugged Adrian,
who had been sitting next to him.
    Alex had proposed to Isabel the night five days ago when they were
sitting out on the Evans` deck at dark. Isabel held up her left hand to
show everyone the ring. "See?" she squealed, and jumped up and down. She
was bubbling with excitement.
    Everyone hugged Alex and Isabel. And then everyone finished eating
and started to say goodbye.
    It was time for the Guerins and the future-Whitmans to leave. So
Michael put the leash on Tabasco and put him in the back seat, Isabel
put Cigar away too, and everyone did another round of hugging each
other. Max hugged Isabel extra tightly and said, "Good luck planning the
wedding. Getting ready for mine was a nightmare." Isabel giggled and
broke away from him. Then she and Alex left, and then Kat said goodbye
to Adrian and she left with Maria and Michael.
    "Does this mean we get to go to their wedding?" Kat asked Max.
    "I certainly hope so," Max said as he picked her up. "Who knows?
Maybe they`ll have a small private thing in their restaurant storage
room wearing blue jeans."
    "Her ring sure is pretty," Kat said as they went back around to the
back yard and unto the deck again.
    "Yep. Now don`t you have to take a bath?"
    "Yeah. Well, get your butt in there," he said, putting her back
down. She laughed and ran for the screen door.
    "Well, if we`re lucky," Liz said, "by the seventh reunion or so they
won`t just be bringing a parrot down here."
    "I`m sure," Max laughed, turning to her. They put their arms around
each other. It was getting dark now. Fireflies were coming out.
    "You`ve completely forgotten by now, haven`t you?" Liz asked as she
lay her head on his shoulder.
    "What?" Max asked as they started to sway to the music that wasn`t
there.
    "About getting out of here," Liz answered. "About finding all the
answers."
    Max grinned. "I don`t think there`s anything left for us to do about
that. Besides...I`m happy."
    Liz raised her head and smiled up at him. "So am I."
    Max knew they`d always be. Everyone was happy now.
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