The first thing she did was call Kat, and she was told that she had gone camping with friends. Camping? She hadn't heard anything about a camping trip; she was usually invited along. She called Tanya, Adam, and Tommy with the same response. When she called Rocky, however, she was told he'd had an accident and was in the hospital. She got the particulars on which hospital, and as soon as she hung up, got in her Cherokee and went over.
He looked absolutely pathetic in the neck brace, and she almost started to cry. But he opened his eyes and smiled at her. "Hey. How are you?" he asked softly.
"Never mind me. How are you?" she asked, batting absently at the balloon ribbons that hung down in her face.
"I'm fine. Or, I will be in a few weeks. The doctor said it wasn't too bad, considering." He explained what had happened.
"Great, Rocky." She sat down in the chair next to the bed and touched his arm. "So, they all went camping without you?" Then she realized what she was Seeing. A perfectly normal Aura, if slightly red tinted and tinged with blue, almost the same as Billy's when Tanya had come from Africa. "Um. Rock."
"You're confused, aren't you."
"Yeah." She crinkled her eyebrows together. "How did you know?"
"That's the only time you call me Rock. Every other time it's either Rocky or Rocko." He grinned, then winced as he tried to shrug. "And they didn't go camping. Well, maybe they are camping," he corrected himself. "They went to rescue a magician from another planet, and to keep someone from taking over the earth." He laughed lightly. "The story of our lives."
"So it seems." She leaned back. "Who inherited your powers?"
"A boy from the shelter, named Justin. He'll do fine. It'll be a little weird for the others to adjust to, but they'll do it." He chuckled, wincing as it jarred him. "I guess they really didn't have time to call you; they took off from here yesterday, and there isn't a phone up there. And, for all I know, they didn't have time. We usually don't." He grimaced, as if realizing the 'we' did not include him anymore.
"Wow. You guys get a lot of excitement, I guess."
"Yeah. Comes with the power."
Maggie sighed in the comfortable silence that fell; Rocky was one of the ones she'd always been able to talk to. "I'm not going to be in graduation," she finally said.
"You're not?" His eyes flickered up to meet hers.
"No. I have to go. And if it weren't for the fact that most of my friends are missing and I really want to say good bye to them, I'd already be gone. She wanted me to go this morning."
"You won't be able to stay for the competition?"
"No, no, that's in a week. She'll have me chewing nails." She shrugged. "I hope she lets me stay until they get back."
"Yeah." He eyed her for a minute. "Will you come back to Angel Grove?"
"Definitely." It came out too fast, she could tell by the look in his eyes.
"Why?"
"Unfinished business." She could feel her face flushing.
"Which is?"
"Adam." She sighed, and covered her flaming cheeks with her hands. He'd probably already known that; Rocky was more observant than a lot of people gave him credit for. She figured that out after his first knowing smile and wink. "We never really had a chance to find out if we could be anything. I don't know if he wants to; I guess I'll find out when I get back. I don't want him to wait, though." And there's the whole Tanya issue....
Rocky looked up at the ceiling. "He wants to know, too. He's just had this feeling that he.... that he had to wait." His hand tapped the bed. "He goes by these feelings, too. It's wild. I can't do that."
She nodded. "It takes practice, believe me." She tilted her head to the side. "If you'd like, I can try a healing spell on you. Would you mind?"
He looked at her, considering, then sighed. "If you believe it would help, sure. Just," he grinned suddenly, "don't tell my mom. She'd flip."
"All right." She leaned down and kissed his forehead. "I have to go; I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to take with me."
"Be safe, okay?" he said as she stood up to leave. The image of the werewolf's jaws sprang to mind and she shoved it away.
"I will. You be careful." She smiled, waved, and left the room.
Once the spell was done the next day, the urgency slammed into her, hard. She got the impression that the Lady had been distracted, and that distraction was finished, now. She called Rocky, who had been released not long after she'd left the day before, and asked if they'd returned yet.
"No, I haven't heard anything," he said. "What's up?"
"I have to leave in the morning. I don't know if I passed, but She wants me to go. If Adam gets in touch with you, please have him call me, I don't care what time it is. I left a message at his house, but I don't know if he'll get it...." She couldn't believe how close to tears she was.
"Maggie, calm down." He seemed to be thinking. "Write him a letter, and if he hasn't called, leave it on my porch on your way out. I'll make sure he gets it and reads it, okay?" There was a pause. "Are you packed?"
"Yeah, mostly." She was amazed that her voice wasn't shaking.
"Good. My family's out, there's a horror movie on TV. You know, the kind you laugh at. In fact," he added with a laugh, "its Bride of Hackensack. Come over here, I'll leave a message at Adam's to call here if he gets home, and relax a little. Okay?"
Maggie paused, looking at her stuff in boxes, then nodded. "All right. I'll be there in half an hour."
"Make it 20 minutes, or you'll miss the beginning of the movie."
"Got it."
The two of them were in stitches over the special effects and the memory of Adam's nightmare the one time he'd spent the night at the school. Rocky pointed out every instance one of the group had taken the place of a character in the movie, with his matter of fact "oh, and that was me. Don't you think Billy would have been better as a werewolf?" or "That turned out to be Zordon, then Mondo, and then he really freaked out". She couldn't stop laughing, and she wasn't quite sure if she was laughing at him or the movie. It was almost over when they heard footsteps pounding on the porch, and an urgent knocking. "Hm," Rocky said, and got up to answer it. Maggie heard a low conversation, then Rocky returned with Adam, who sank down next to her, out of breath.
"Sorry. They scrambled Bulk and Skull's brains, and we had to put them back together.... They were weirder than usual. Skull thought he was Antonio Banderas."
"That's something," Maggie said, and took a deep breath. She got a nose full of one of the most horrid stenches she'd ever come across. "What is that?" She wrinkled her nose. Adam looked at her in confusion. "You... where were you?"
He looked down at his jacket. "Oh." He shrugged out of it, throwing it unceremoniously across the room. "I... got slimed. It was not a pretty thing."
"Slimed?"
"Never mind." He smiled, then the smile fell. "You're leaving," he said before she could bring it up, and she nodded.
"Tomorrow morning. I have your address, and I promise I'll write."
"So will I." He took a deep breath. "I'll miss you."
She blushed. "I'll miss you, too. I'll be back, but don't hold your breath, Adam. I don't know when." I don't even know if, she thought to herself, but didn't voice the thought aloud. The only thing that would keep her from coming back was death. She hesitated, then leaned forward and hugged him for the first time, holding him close to her to feel the power in him, and to catch his scent one last time. "I'd better go," she said suddenly, pulling away from him. She could feel tears gathering in her eyes, and didn't want to cry in front of him. "I think it's going to be a long drive tomorrow, and I want to call everyone else."
His eyes were startled when she met them next, and he nodded. "Be safe, okay?"
"You're the one with someone hunting you," she said with a smile. "You be careful." She stood and looked around, suddenly anxious to be gone before she embarrassed both of them. "Where did Rocky go?"
Adam glanced around, too. "I don't know." He stood and followed her to the door, where Rocky stood in the entry way, peering out at the street. "Rocky," Adam said.
He turned, surprised, wincing slightly as he did so. "Oh. Hi. Just a minute." The doorbell rang and he pulled the door open to reveal Tommy, Kat, and Tanya all crowded in the doorway. "I called them all, when Adam showed up," Rocky said, and Maggie was surrounded by her friends, smothered in hugs. It was getting harder to keep the tears hidden, but she somehow made it, begging off with the truth that they - and their power, which had changed again, she noticed distantly - were starting to overwhelm her and her shields. She escaped finally and drove home slowly, afraid that she would crash because she couldn't see through her tears.
The next morning dawned bright and clear, and she was on her way out the door, leaving her father with a kiss, when Adam arrived on his bike, out of breath, screeching to a halt in front of her car. "I was hoping I'd catch you," he said, leaning the bike against her jeep and walking over to her. "I wanted to give you something." He grinned. "I figured it had to be small, portable, and you said once you liked this." He handed her something, and she hesitantly took it, opening her hand to find one of his necklaces in it. It was her favorite, a black and green yin yang design, a perfect symbol of him, of the power he held. "Please, take it to remember me by."
As if I could forget you, she thought as she reached out to hug him again. "Thank you. You take care of yourself, okay?"
"I promise. You be careful, and don't tell me I'm the one who's got someone hunting me," he added as she opened her mouth. She laughed.
"Okay, I won't. I'll write and tell you where I am. I'll see you later?"
"You'd better," he smiled, and opened the door to her jeep. "Thanks for keeping our secret."
"Thanks for letting me in on it," she smiled. She got in and he closed the door, then moved his bike so she could drive out. She waved one last time, at both her dad and Adam, then pulled out of the driveway. She at least got off her street and out of his sight before she started to cry in earnest. Her tears lasted until she was well out of Angel Grove.