'How's Isabel doing?' Cameron asked. She lay curled up on a couple of the flattened beanbags, wrapped in one of Ray's Star Wars comforters.
'Max said she's still sleeping,' Michael answered. He rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. It wasn't nearly time for his two hours of sleep yet, but he was keeping Cameron company until she dozed off.
'So she's okay,' Cameron said.
'No thanks to me,' Michael muttered. 'If I'd listened to Max in the first place, Adam would never have had the chance to even put a finger on Izzy.'
'Is that Max talking or you?' Cameron asked.
'Both, I guess,' Michael admitted. 'Let's just say he wasn't happy about what happened.' He didn't even want to think about their conversation. They'd ripped into each other pretty good, and they never did that. It had always been him and Max against-
Cut it out, Michael ordered himself. In another second he'd be in the middle of some chick flick moment. A montage of his and Max's most special moments. Max pushing Michael into a pile of leaves. Michael cheering Max up after he struck out during the big game.
'Is Adam…?'
Cameron's question pulled him away from his thoughts. 'Our boy Adam is still circling the airport, and I'm making sure he stays that way,' he assured her.
'What do you think Isabel meant when she said there was something evil controlling him?'
Michael shook his head. 'No clue. I'd almost be happy if she was right, though. At least it would mean I wasn't totally deluded about Adam.'
Cameron mumbled something that sounded like an agreement. She was close enough that he could hear each breath she took. And the scent of her, that clean ocean smell, was driving him nuts. He wanted to reach over and pull her up against him. And why shouldn't he? A couple of hours ago they'd been all over each other.
But it felt different now. A lot had happened. Plus it was night, and they were going to spend that night sleeping in the same room. Which made the stakes a little higher. Like if he touched her now, she could think he was looking for more than he actually was. At least more than he actually was tonight.
'So, uh, I saw the hummingbird tattoo. Got any more?' he asked. He figured the way she answered might tell him if she was thinking about the same thing he was thinking about or if she was just thinking about sleep.
'There's one more. I never let anyone see it, though,' she answered.
That didn't sound like an invitation. But it wasn't a slap, either. Michael turned onto his side so he could look at her. It was hard to read her expression in the dim light coming from the hall, hard to see her aura, too. 'No one's seen it? So, where is it?'
Cameron laughed. 'I can hear the drool dribbling out of your mouth,' she teased. 'Suck it in. The tattoo's on my ankle. The reason I never let anyone see it is it came out really ugly. It's supposed to be a dragon, but it looks more like a mutant piglet. I'm going to get laser surgery done when I get the cash together.'
'I could do it right now,' Michael offered. 'All I have to do is connect with you, then push the molecules of ink out of your skin.'
'No, that's okay,' she said quickly. She rolled onto her other side and made a big production out of fluffing her pillow and adjusting her blanket.
Nothing hard to read about those signals. 'Are you afraid?' he asked harshly. 'What, do you think if I connect with you, I'll hurt you, the way Adam did Isabel?'
'It's not that.' She sat up and flicked on the light switch.
'So?' He sat up, too.
'So, it's just not a good idea, all right?' she said.
Michael couldn't stop himself from checking out the long stretch of bare leg the T-shirt Cameron was using for a nightgown showed off. 'Not a good idea,' he repeated. He didn't get it. Touching her in any form seemed like a great idea.
'I probably should have told you this before, but I'm leaving town tomorrow,' she announced.
Just like that. Michael thought back to himself sitting in his cell in the compound, parceling out the women in his life-Cameron, Maria, and Isabel. He wasn't sure why, but Cameron seemed to be the one-the one he could potentially love. But not if she just up and left.
'No biggie,' Michael muttered.
'It's not safe for me to stay in one place too long. Especially a small town,' Cameron went on. 'Strangers get noticed.'
Michael felt some of the muscles in his shoulders loosen up. This was something he could fix. All he had to do was rearrange some molecules, and he could give Cameron a whole new face. He could change her appearance every single day if that's what it took to keep her around.
'Let me show you something.' He leaned over and touched her face. He made the connection almost instantly. Images from Cameron flickered through his mind.
A little girl Cameron fighting not to cry as a woman vigorously brushed Cameron's long red hair. A mirrored tray covered with perfume bottles. A worn paperback book-The Little Princess. An older Cameron leaping over a track hurdle. A needle injecting ink into skin. Cameron standing next to Sheriff Valenti, watching Michael and Adam through a two-way mirror. A varsity jacket.
Cameron yanked Michael's hand off her, breaking the connection. 'I just told you not to do that,' she ordered him, her voice low and angry. 'Don't go pawing through my mind.'
'Afraid of what I'll see?' Michael asked. Why was Cameron in an observation room with Valenti? She was a test subject. She should have been on the other side of that two-way glass. Was she some kind of informant for Valenti? Michael felt his face reddening.
'Ever hear of a thing called privacy?' she demanded. 'What made you think-'
'What exactly was the deal between you and Valenti?' Michael interrupted.
'I told you. I agreed to let him test my powers so he wouldn't turn me over to my parents,' she answered, her brown eyes locked on his face.
Liar, he thought. She was trying way too hard to look him in the eye.
He felt his stomach churn with a cold, oily liquid as he suddenly remembered something Max had told him. Max had said that Valenti already knew that he and Isabel were aliens when they showed up at the compound to break Michael out.
Michael hadn't thought all that much about it. It hadn't turned out to be much of a problem since Adam fried the sheriff about two seconds after the words had come out of his mouth.
'You were in Valenti's office when Adam killed him, weren't you?' Michael asked slowly. 'I mean, you said you saw it happen, right?'
The color drained from Cameron's face. She knows exactly why I'm asking, Michael realized. Some of the acid from his stomach rose up into his throat.
'Yeah. I was there,' Cameron answered.
'You were there because you'd just told Valenti what you found out from me. You told him that Max and Isabel were the other aliens.' It wasn't a question.
'I don't have any powers,' Cameron admitted. 'Valenti said if I didn't get him the information he wanted, he'd take me back home personally.'
Michael nodded. He couldn't even look at her. She'd played him for a chump.
'I didn't know you then,' she said.
He didn't answer.
'Michael, come on, I didn't even know you then,' Cameron repeated.
He still didn't answer. He couldn't.
'Fine. You want it this way, fine,' Cameron finally said. 'I'm out of here.'
Liz snuggled into bed. Her thoughts went from Max's kiss, to Isabel's odd fight with Max, to Max's kiss again… until she gently faded into sleep.
'I need to talk to you, Liz,' a voice whispered. 'It's important. Please wake up.'
