A Tale of Two Christmases

By: Kindred Kandies aka ArchAngel1973 in collaboration with Marsis

Disclaimer: Characters and plot lines that appeared in the series, the books, and the concept of Roswell are not mine. Belong to Melinda Metz, UPN, etc, etc…

Pairing: M&M but will also feature M&L as well as Isabel and Kyle (not a couple)

Rating: Teen

Summary: Post-Graduation. The gang breaks down their first Christmas after leaving Roswell.

Author's Note 1: For Mag – Because we all need a little Christmas.

Part 1

The old mini-bus moved along the Interstate at a respectable 70mph, keeping pace with the slower traffic until they moved past the city limits and the number of cars on the road began to thin out. The man behind the wheel rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the tension that had intensified as soon as he had guided the bus onto the larger, well-traveled road. They rarely traveled by Interstate, preferring to stick to the older state highways and smaller county roads, but the road they had intended to take had been closed, leaving them no choice but to take the Interstate.

Blue and red lights suddenly flashed in the rearview mirror and his tension worsened. His grip on the steering wheel tightened and his heart started to pound as he flipped his turn signal on and began to ease into the right-hand lane. The Highway Patrol car sped up and blew past them to pull over another vehicle several hundred yards ahead of them.

"I hate how much it scares me anytime that happens."

Michael Guerin glanced at the woman who had spoken, wincing when the lights from the oncoming traffic illuminated her pale features. The momentary fear of discovery had caused every bit of color to drain from her face, leaving her cheeks washed out. He hated the way they had been forced to exist because they deserved better than this. She deserved better than this. He glanced at the others in the rearview mirror, taking in the way they slept – restless and on edge. The stress of being on the road and constantly looking over their shoulders for the past six months had left them all exhausted, physically and mentally.

The sound of fabric rustling caught his attention and he turned his head to shoot a quick look at his girlfriend, Maria DeLuca. Her gaze was locked on some point in the distance and he reached over to lay his hand over hers where they were clenched in her lap. "How long before we can get off the Interstate?" he asked to distract her.

Maria glanced at the mile marker in the distance, squinting as it grew larger in the headlights. She had spent so much time studying road maps and their routes that she didn't need to consult the map to answer his question. "It's about 17 more miles to the exit." And away from Highway Patrol and big city cops, she thought to herself.

She turned one of her hands over under his, interlocking their fingers and stroking the fingers of her free hand over the back of his hand. Her gaze dropped to the ice-encrusted snow that had built up along the sides of the road. Dirt and grime from the road had sprayed over the frozen edges, coating them with a grungy dark gray film that glittered in places when the headlights played over it.

Michael's thoughts were scrambling around as he watched the mile markers pass by. He silently cursed Jessie for saddling them with such a distinctive vehicle that was practically impossible to hide. What the hell had he been thinking? He rubbed his eyes tiredly. Who knew where they'd be if it hadn't been for Jessie's help? They should've ditched the bus long ago but they were short on money and it had just been easier to hold onto the albatross, changing the color and the license plate on a regular basis. It was a miracle they hadn't been pulled over for the faulty taillight before now. They had fixed the damn thing over and over and for whatever reason it continued to short out. He glanced at Maria, feeling even lower at the realization that with their current situation they would most likely have to steal an SUV or van to replace it… and he would be the one who carried that duty out. Yeah, he thought once more, she deserved so much more than this.

His mind wandered back to a conversation with Maria way back in the beginning when they were just getting to know each other. It had been an unexpected conversation that had taken place in the most unlikely of places. His brow furrowed into a frown as he looked around at the frozen landscape surrounding them. 18 years old and on the run from a secret government unit that specialized in hunting down aliens… yeah, so much for 'better than Roswell, New Mexico,' he thought morosely.

Between the scowl on his face and the tension in his hand Maria knew his thoughts were dipping into dangerous territory. She increased the pressure she was applying to his hand and after several minutes she felt him relax fractionally. She didn't know what he was thinking about but she knew it would be one of about half a dozen things that kept his mind on edge and prevented him from ever really relaxing.

"The exit's coming up in two miles," she said unnecessarily when the lights bounced off of the sign posted next to the road.

Michael glanced at her and nodded. "We'll stop soon," he said when he noticed her shifting around as she searched for a more comfortable position.

She nodded. Usually when they stopped for the night it was at a campground, bunking down in the bus or in sleeping bags around a campfire, and every once in a while they would share one of the rustic cabins when available. It was only on rare occasions that they went to the expense of staying in a hotel and when they did, more often than not they shared one room. There was no privacy, no time to be alone with her thoughts, and she knew more about the others than she had ever wanted to know. There were just some things about your friends that you never wanted or needed to know. It was an intolerable existence being in such close quarters 24/7 and she knew she wasn't the only one who desperately wanted and needed time away from the others.

It was a given that tonight they would stay in a hotel. The temperatures in northeastern Michigan had dipped below freezing and the mercury was slowly creeping lower and lower. It was too cold to risk sleeping in the van unless they were driving and the campgrounds were closed for the year. Not that it mattered because it was too damn cold to be sleeping outside anyway.

Michael rubbed his eyes tiredly as he took the exit for Old 23 and started to follow it, his gaze searching the sides of the road. The moon had come out to shed its light over the barren snow-covered fields and the naked branches of the bordering trees cast long shadows across the road before them.

Maria turned her head to the side to look at Michael when he eased off of the gas just slightly and she looked away when he raised the hand she held to point at something ahead of them. She followed his pointing finger, gasping quietly when she saw a small group of deer on the side of the road. They raised their heads and the headlights caught their eyes, making them glow an iridescent green.

She knew he had slowed down on the off chance the deer did something really stupid like run across the road instead of out into the field, but he had brought them to her attention because he knew it would make her smile. "Look at the smaller ones," she said, her voice hushed as she pointed to a couple of younger deer farther back from the road.

Their ears flicked as the van approached them and they turned, tails standing straight up to reveal the white undersides as they disappeared past the trees. She leaned back in her seat again, cradling his hand against her body and unconsciously rubbing his knuckles. She shifted to pull her pillow up from where it had become wedged between her body and the door. Thankfully at least the side that had been pressed against her body was warm, she thought as she squished it between her shoulder and the door and wiggled around in an effort to get comfortable.

Michael glanced over his shoulder when a hand settled on his arm and one eyebrow lifted when he saw Kyle blinking blearily at him.

"When're we stoppin'?" he mumbled sleepily. He pressed the button on the side of his watch to illuminate the dial and squinted in an attempt to make out the numbers. "It's after 9pm, Michael. I thought we agreed to stop before now? We're gonna pay for an entire night and not get our money's worth."

"Are you drivin'?" Michael asked. "No. We stop when I say we stop."

Kyle motioned to the road sign coming up. "There's somethin' comin' up… city or town, whatever. Why not just stop there?" He rolled his eyes when the hybrid ignored him, feeling it was unnecessary to explain his decision any further. He was tired, his back hurt from sleeping in the uncomfortable, pretzel-like position for the past couple of hours and he just wanted to be horizontal for the rest of the night. He slouched back in his seat, glancing at Isabel where she was curled up on most of the bench seat. She had won the coin toss for the privilege of lying down and even though he'd never be able to prove it he was pretty sure she had cheated.

He sighed as he rested his head against his jacket where he had wedged it between the end of the backrest and the window and folded his arms over his chest. He tried in vain to stretch his legs out and he finally gave up, unintentionally kneeing Michael in the back when he tried to resituate himself. "Sorry," he muttered before the guy went off on him. They were all exhausted and these days it didn't take much to set any of them off. The last thing he wanted was to get into a fight with Michael. Especially in the confines of the bus. That would just spark off a group argument and those were never fun.

He looked up when the headlights bounced off of an upcoming sign and he pursed his lips as he studied the name of the city that was 8 miles away: Tawas City. "Hmm," he murmured to himself. "Tah-wass… Tuh-wass… Tah-wuz… Tuh-wuz…" He suddenly grinned to himself. "Ta'was two weeks before Christmas, and we're stuck in the van. Not a hybrid was moving – "

"Except for Isabel's hand," the tall blonde growled crankily and smacked the back of his head. "People are trying to sleep, Kyle, so zip it."

He rubbed his stinging scalp and burrowed closer to his side of the bus. "Fine, smack a guy around for tryin' to find some humor in this situation."

Isabel squeezed her eyes shut and forced his voice into the background. She craved normalcy the way someone stranded in the desert craved water to sate their thirst. There was no such thing on the road but unlike the thirsty person in the desert who would resort to swallowing sand in the belief that it was water, she had accepted that normal would never happen. Not for them.

Michael's jaw relaxed when Kyle and Isabel settled down once more before one of them just went off on the other. He checked the rearview mirror to see if their minor skirmish had disturbed the couple sleeping behind them and was relieved to see that they seemed to be as relaxed as they were capable of being these days.

Even Max and Liz were on edge all the time and being on the run had worn them down, disrupted the connection between them. While he tended to scoff at the idiocy of getting married at their age he knew early on it had given them something to hold onto. Lately, they had fallen prey to the same problems that plagued the rest of them. The stress of the existence they had been forced to endure for the past six months was wearing all of them down and slowly but surely tearing them apart. Individually, as couples, and as a group.

The miles flew past as he maneuvered the bus through Tawas City and just the slightest hint of a smile touched his lips as he thought about Kyle's ill-timed, made-up song. The road expanded into four lanes as they drove through the city and finally tapered back down to two when they left the city behind. He rubbed his eyes again, trying to ignore the grainy feeling that let him know he hadn't slept in too long. Only a few more miles and we'll stop, he reminded himself. He had grown accustomed to seeking out small roadside hotels; mom-and-pop stops that provided a certain sense of anonymity and made him feel a little more comfortable when they stopped. Big hotel chains asked for too much information and he didn't feel the need for a shower and a comfortable bed outweighed the risk.

The city lights had disappeared from the rearview mirror as soon as they had gone around a curve in the road and as the tires ate up the miles the night seemed to get darker. They had only gone about four or five miles when the van suddenly jerked backward with a loud metal on metal sound that seemed to come from something dragging on the pavement behind them.

Isabel, who was already annoyed by Kyle's earlier interruption shot bolt upright, grabbing the back of the seat in front of her to keep from falling on the floor. "God, Michael! I told you to take it easy on the potholes!" I hate the roads in this State, she thought as the realization that he hadn't bothered to respond started to sink in. "What happened?" she demanded.

"What's wrong?" Max asked, sounding half-asleep. The loud noise had brought him upright, but his brain hadn't quite caught up with his body. "Did we hit somethin'?"

Beside him, Liz rolled her eyes as she sat up, rubbing her neck and turning her head back and forth to work the stiffness out of it. "Where are we?"

"We're…" Isabel glanced around. "That's a good question, Michael." She couldn't ignore the colorful curses coming out of his mouth. She didn't know if they were directed at her or the mini-bus, but it quickly became unimportant when she noticed the white fields surrounding them, the blacktop the only thing seeming to divide the endless sea of white. "You've dumped us in the middle of arctic hell, Michael!"

"I think you're mixing your metaphors or somethin', Isabel," Kyle said helpfully only to earn an angry glare and a shove.

"Choke on a fortune cookie, Kyle," she snapped.

He just grinned at her because he knew it would make her a lot madder than if he argued with her. "Well, that'd be irony, wouldn't it?"

Michael cursed under his breath as he guided the now decelerating and out-of-power van off onto the side of the road. It rolled to a stop amid the sounds of confusion and the expected interrogation from the biggest backseat driver he'd ever known. He'd thought Maria was bad about that, but that was only until he'd spent time in the drivers' seat with Miss Know-It-All shouting instructions at him like he'd never sat behind a steering wheel before.

Silence fell over the occupants in the bus as they stared out at the snowy landscape illuminated by the headlights. Michael felt Maria's gaze on him as his hand curled over the door handle and he jerked it, shoving the door open and climbing out. He pulled his coat on and hurried to zip it up, pausing when he realized that no one else was rushing to get out. He stalked over to the window next to Kyle and rapped his knuckles against the glass, motioning for him to get out of the bus.

Kyle was in the process of tying the laces on his work boots and he turned to glare at the impatient hybrid, shooting the finger at him when Michael gestured for him to hurry up. He was bundling up in his less than adequate coat when the passengers' side door opened and he knew Michael was going to blow a gasket. He and Max collided as they reached the side door at the same time and then engaged in a shoving match to get the door open.

Michael barreled around the front of the bus when the moonlight reflected off of the mirror and drew his attention to the woman exiting the bus. "Maria, what the hell are you doin'?" He took her arm and carefully pushed her back inside. "It's too cold for you to be out here." He slammed the door before she could get the first word of protest out and he held his hand over the locking mechanism, sealing it so she couldn't get out.

He grabbed the handle for the side door, jerking it open and shoving it back. He jumped back when Kyle and Max fell out, landing in the snow and grabbing onto each other to stumble back to their feet. "Go check the engine, Valenti."

"God, it's freezing out here!" Max hissed when the wind picked up, blowing a dusting of snow over them. He looked out at the road, watching the way the snow seemed to move over the blacktop in gentle waves and he shivered. "Let's hurry this up." He shoved his hands in his coat pockets and hunched his shoulders against the wind as he followed the others to the rear of the vehicle.

Kyle fumbled for the latch to release the engine cover, his fingers already feeling frozen and clumsy. "Ya know, I'm livin' in close quarters with three aliens who are completely inept when it comes to mechanics." He grunted when the latch started to give. "You guys are useless in this capacity." He pulled his hand back inside the cuff of his sleeve, using his material-covered hand to lift it up.

They crouched down in a half-circle around the exposed engine and Michael held the cover open while Max held the flashlight he had brought with him. Kyle brought his hands up to his mouth to blow on them for a few seconds before he reached inside and started fumbling around. He fiddled around for several minutes, pausing every few seconds to pull his hands up inside his sleeves and trying to heat them with his breath.

"Whose idea was it to head up to the great white North again?" Max muttered, hands covered by the cuffs on his sleeves and tucked up under his armpits.

"Max, I need the toolbox and since my knees are just about frozen in this position and Michael's over here impersonating an ice sculpture maybe you could go get it." He was grateful when Max went to get the toolbox before Michael started going off on him. He was shifting in an attempt to stand and restore some circulation to his lower legs when Michael suddenly let go of the engine cover, nearly braining him with it. He opened his mouth to yell but before a single word made it past his throat Michael was talking and he turned his head to see Maria approaching them.

"I told you to stay in the van."

"While you stand out here and freeze? No, I'm not the little woman who needs to be coddled and protected. I will not be told to wait inside while you – "

"Maria, we've gotta see if we can fix this so we can get back on the road." He glared at her when she had the audacity to snort.

"Fix it? The last time you attempted to fix an engine you fried the battery and humiliated yourself. It'd be safer for everyone concerned if you just step away from the engine before it goes up in smoke."

The sound of laughter had his head snapping to the side and he frowned at Kyle when the guy caught his dark look and started to cough in an attempt to cover his humor. "Choke on it, Valenti," he snarled as he took Maria's hand to pull her back to the front of the bus. "Let's go, Maria."

Between the temperature and the wind that blew from time to time Maria felt like a block of ice. Getting back in the bus felt like a really good idea but only if he understood it was her idea.

"I'm not gonna stand out here an' argue with you about this all night, Maria. Now let's go!" he snapped.

She almost felt bad for testing him because he was tired and irritable but she wasn't going to be bullied or bossed around. Not even when it was in her best interest. She could almost feel his annoyance notching up when the wind chose that moment to blow and she visibly shivered as it hit her skin like thousands of tiny daggers.

Michael jerked the door open and motioned for her to hurry up and get inside. He harrumphed when she climbed up inside after informing him – through chattering teeth – that she was only getting inside because she'd had enough of the cold. He shook his head and started to stalk to the back of the bus. Women! he muttered silently. What went through their minds when – oh, shit! It was as far as his thoughts got between his heel finding a slick spot and his back hitting the asphalt.

His right hand shot up in the air when he heard the door open, the gesture and the expression on his face one that would warn anyone else off. But not Maria. He sighed when she helped him to his feet, running her hands over him to determine if anything was broken or if he'd injured more than his pride.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Maria," he bit out. "You've had a cold the last few days, now get inside before you catch pneumonia."

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked when he brushed her hands off.

"Maria." The irritation was still there but it was the concern for her laced beneath it that had her nodding and getting back inside. He crouched back down beside the guys in time to hear five words that didn't improve his mood.

"I think the engine's shot."

"That's just perfect." Michael thumped the side of one fisted hand against the useless vehicle and cursed loudly. "Freakin' fantastic."

"What the hell are we gonna do now?" Max asked, standing up and shoving his hands back in his pockets.

Kyle hunched his shoulders and ducked his head in an effort to avoid the worst of the snow when the wind blew. "I'd suggest getting outta the wind."

"What's the verdict?" Liz asked when the guys climbed back inside. She jumped when Kyle dropped the heavy toolbox on the floor. "I take it that's not a good sign."

"Kyle thinks the engine's shot," Max said, tucking his hands under his thighs to warm them up.

"Well, what're we supposed to do now?" Isabel demanded. "We're in the middle of nowhere!"

Michael knew it fell to him to answer her question because he was the one who had decided on the route they had been taking. "We'll just walk to the next house – "

"It's below freezing out there!"

"Are there any other glaringly obvious facts you'd like to point out, Isabel?" he snapped. "I'm aware of how cold it is outside, but no engine means no heat. We can't just stay here; we're gonna have to find someplace warm to stay until we can have this piece of crap looked at."

Maria had been rubbing his hands, trying to warm them up. "Have you seen any houses since we got out of the city?"

He shook his head. "Not that I noticed, but as late as it is…" he shook his head. "If there were any houses the lights were already out."

"How close are we to the city?" Isabel asked.

He shook his head. "I don't know, four or five miles at least. Too far to attempt walking back. Goin' forward makes the most sense. We're bound to have better luck that way. If we keep movin' we should be okay."

"We don't have the proper clothing for this weather," Isabel reminded him.

"Would you rather sit here and freeze to death?" he snapped.

"Michael's right," Max said, interrupting the storm that was about to break. "We're just gonna have to bundle up as well as we can and start walkin'."