A Soldier's Wife (CC/MM, Mature) 1/1 - 04/24/10

[PML]

None of this round is truly happy. Although I will write one of them I swear.

This would not be it.

Title- A Soldiers Wife

Author- PML

Disclaimer- Roswell is not mine and no infringement is intended.

Category- CC-M/M

Rating- Mature

Summary- This is the tenth companion piece to A Kiss to Build a Dream On. As the others have detailed, this night has been a mix of glorious highs and horrific lows. This Companion occurs after the horrible night has ended and morning is now in full bloom. Michael has visited and touched base with Liz, and knows all of what happened. And he had rushed to protect his Maria.

But he was too late. Maria is in the hands of Aric.

Can Maria find a way to escape this monster?

Maria-

Maria was tired and excited as she left the hospital. She was beginning to think they would never let her go. Or any of the other five people Max had healed.

She’d gone through test after test. She lost enough blood to feed an army of vampires for every blood test they could imagine. And likely some extra samples for ones they couldn’t think of yet but might.

All six of them had been completely healed. And by this she didn’t just mean whatever had placed them in the hospital. Everything had been fixed. They were now six perfectly healthy human beings.

This had lead to a couple of shocks. Maria hadn’t even known that she hadn’t had perfect vision until now. Things had never seemed fuzzy, it was more that now everything seemed crystal sharp.

Was it her memory or had her vision improved?

It was small things that really put questions in the heads of the doctors. Why had this happened? And why did each of them have a hand print?

Her mother lead them to the Jetta.

Something made her instantly suspicious. But it wasn’t quite coming to her. She’d have to let her mind work its way to tell her what was wrong.

It wasn’t her mom. Sure, Amy was subdued, but then her daughter had been practically dead until a few hours ago. And unless Maria had unbelievably good luck, the story of how she and Michael had been found would have made its way to her.

No, her mom was always her most dangerous when she was like this. Calm, but not really calm. Maria could sense an anger hiding in the wings.

She also looked very tired.

Maria knew she should be quiet, that she should just let silence fill the car. But she was nervous. And if there was one thing that she shared with Alex, it was a tendency to babble.

Not that she’d admit it to anyone. But she knew. She knew it was true.

And so the car was filled with her somewhat inane ramblings.

After a few moments Amy spoke, “So you and Michael…. Did you sleep together last night?”

Maria closed her eyes. Was their a point in denying it. “Yes.”

“You do realize I can not tolerate this behavior.”

Maria sighed and waited for the torrent to begin. She opened her eyes and saw they were driving out to the desert. Her mother was still silent.

Must be some object lesson she wanted to give Maria. Some spot or moral lesson.

Her mom could lay it on thick.

They drove in silence for around ten minutes further into the desert, going along back roads at this point. They past where the snow had fallen, although the rain had obviously reached this far.

Amy stopped the car.

Maria scanned the horizon. It was somewhat near the Pod Chamber, but still fairly flat. “Why are we stopping here?”

“Picnic. Get the stuff out of the trunk.”

“A picnic? Out here? In the winter?”

“Maria……”

“Okay, just saying….” Sigh. The Talk was coming and somehow she knew this was going to be a long and torturous one. She wished Amy would just start. Because it wasn’t going to end until she started.

So Maria trudged back to the trunk and opened it with her keys. She looked inside. There was no food. Only a shovel and some rope. And several bottles of honey.

Then something strange happened. The car shook and bright light seemed to leak from the car around the trunks edges.

“Mom?” She wandered back to the drivers side.

Only Amy wasn’t there anymore. For a moment she saw Michael. She just stared at him.

Aric. Only he paused and muttered to himself. Another storm of light came behind her as she ran.

She didn’t really have much hope. But for the moment she was alive. She could feel as the air coursed into her lungs and it felt like the sweetest thing.

Any moment now….

And she was right. The blast hit her in the middle of the back and she felt herself fly forward. She rolled to a stop and tried to get up.

He was too fast. He tied her up. Only it wasn’t Michael.

It was Ed Harding. And the tiredness in his eyes seemed even more pronounced. He couldn’t even look at her.

She screamed a couple of times in futility.

He laid her on the hood of the car.

She struggled with the bonds of her ropes, but in vain. She was going to die.

She had gone through all of this, all of last night and she was still going to die. She gulped in the precious blessed air. But she didn’t scream. There was no point.

All hope was gone.

Well she should have known.

At least she had had last night. It was more than she had expected after getting hit. The feel of Michael’s warm arms around her. The feel of him inside of her. The warm sweaty tiredness that had lulled them to sleep.

No Aric might kill her but he couldn’t take last night away from her.

Aric began digging.

Was he just going to bury her alive?

Did it matter? Dead was dead. No need to torture herself with imagining what would happen when he finished. Just enjoy what was left to her.

So she talked. She talked about Michael. About her love of him. About her knowledge of how fleeting it all would have been. She told her killer of her dreams and plans.

And he dug away steadily.

A deep pit. Not a long one. Buried vertically?

No, don’t think of that. Don’t think of the end. Not until it happened. Enjoy the now.

It was all you could be certain of anyway. Everything could be taken from you at any moment. If anyone knew, it was her.

So she filled the air, just talked. She doubted he was listening, and in truth didn’t care. The truth was, she liked talking. Liked expressing herself, even if no one was listening.

She even sang to him. Sang to her killer.

Not in hopes that it would save her. But simply to sing. She told him of her secret dreams to go and be a musician someday.

In those hours he dug, she told him everything. Everything about herself and her plans. Of her life. Of her past and the future that she would now never have.

He never said a word. Not one. Just kept digging.

Then he was done. He climbed out of the pit he had dug.

Maria closed her eyes. It was over. It was all over. She felt rather than saw as his arms lifted her and carried her over to the pit.

And set her in it. Her eyes opened as she felt the abrasions of the cold soil. When fully set down her head was level with the ground. He would bury her to her neck.

At least he wasn’t going to smother her.

Now the fear set in. Now she couldn’t let it go. Now at the end. She began to shake and cry. But still the ropes were too tight. Added to the lack of room in the pit and she was stuck.

She closed her eyes again, waiting for the first shovelful of dirt to pack her in.

A minute passed and then another. She looked up and glared at Aric. At least he could have the decency of getting this over with.

His impassive face was covered in tears. And he just looked at her buried in the ground, shovel in hand.

He jabbed the shovel hard into the earth and began to pace, muttering to himself.

Maria’s heart was pounding. What exactly was going on?

A bird fluttered down and stared at her. It was a large bird, a raven. It cocked its head and hopped closer. She stared at the bird as she heard the mumbling shape shifter pacing around the Jetta arguing with himself.

The raven came ever closer, still studying Maria.

A sudden fear came to her. She couldn’t defend herself. She was helpless.

And the bird knew it. It marched right up to her. And pecked at her.

She moved her cheek slightly, so it avoided plunging its beak into her eye. But it cut into her cheek, taking a small piece of meat from above her cheek bone.

It tilted its head back and swallowed the bit of her. And began to make calling noises as it angled its head for another strike.

It wanted her eyes. It would nibble at the rest of her, but the eyes were the prize.

And while in her not completely buried state she had more room to move her head, she knew. Sooner or later it would get them. Either it or another bird. She heard another bird answer its call and heard the rushing of wings landing nearby.

Another raven. Another beak to dodge.

FOOM! One of the birds became a storm of feathers. The other tried to fly away and it too died.

Aric walked over and pulled her from the pit. “I just can’t do this. Not to you. Not to her.”

Maria was shaking as he carried her over to the car and set her in the passengers seat.

And slowly he began to talk himself. Told her of Mirelille. His wife, left in the chaos of war back on Antar. Left so he could help save the realm, to save the Royals. So that they could go back.

But everything had gone wrong. The pods had hatched late. And the hybrids had hatched too young.

Tess’s pod had been damaged, and so he had taken care of the sick little girl. The others he helped set up situations that he had hoped would be beneficial to them.

He succeeded with Max and Isabel and failed with Michael.

He admitted to killing Hank for what he had done to Michael. For damaging him, weakening his ability to trust himself and others. That had crippled his powers.

Until Maria had come into his life. Of all the humans, only Maria had truly aided her hybrid. The others tried to drag them fully into the human world.

Maria naturally kept totally silent. Listening as he slowly told his tale. Slowly drove her back into Roswell.

At the end, when they had reached her house. He turned to her. “You said you understood that what you had with Michael would end one day. That one day you know that his past will call to him, that a ship would come to take him home. And that you would let him go.”

Maria just stared at him. Her cheek still stung from the where the ravens beak had hit her. And the tears had never truly stopped falling.

Hope now warred with her certainty that the next moment would indeed be her last. “Yes.”

His gaze was intense as he stared at her, “Did you mean it? Did you really mean what you told me back there.”

“Yes I did. I love him. I doubt I will ever find another that will ever replace him. But,” She swallowed heavily. “But I would let him go. I would let him do what he must.”

“Even knowing that he might never come back, that you would likely never see him again.”

She closed her eyes in pain. “Yes. I know that day will come. Nothing good ever lasts.”

He looked at her. “You are good for him. A true soldier’s wife. His destiny is not with you and you realize that. But you are good for him. And so for him and in memory of her….” He got out of the car. He peeked back in the driver’s window. “Just remember your promise. Good bye.”

He made a gesture and the ropes were cut. And he walked away.

She watched as he slowly walked down her street, rubbing her hands and trying to get the circulation working.

She sat in the car for a time, and just breathed. Just breathed in that beautiful wonderful air.

And luxuriated in being alive.