It’s not that he isn’t loved back, although right now, he believes that’s the case. It’s that he stumbles on Maria when she was weak and having a moment of doubt. Had he not found her then, things would have taken a different path. Maria would probably have collected herself and see the light, in the morning. But it didn’t happen this way.Wow! That was bitter sweet. My heart broke for Michael when she said that it was mistake. Though I totally understand but it was such a huge step for Michael. I just would hate for this to make him close off. He's amazing when he's so open.
When his powers went all out of sorts, I thought that was so powerful. I could just feel the grief and devastation of not being loved back coming off him in waves. Then way he held her and took care of when he realized that he hurt her, so sweet.
Mary mary –
It’s been more or less six months since Michael died. Not a lot of time to mourn him, for Maria. Their relationship had been intense, a first love which was a lasting one. What you said about Alex is interesting but don’t forget the Max/Clayton thing.I can't quite put a time slot on Maria's Michael's death and I'm pretty sure she lost Alex in that other time line so she should be able to understand that dead is dead. You don't forget them, you mourn them and then you move on.
She's got a second chance here...a gift from the granolith for whatever reason and she is hurting herself and this timeline's Michael. She needs to talk to the granolith...she can't talk to anyone else because no one else can know nor would they understand but she definitely needs some help here. Poor Michael has so many new emotions running through him that he could use a little help as well. Maybe if they talked to each other.
Maria felt guilty, for a moment. And it’s at that moment that Michael found her.
Eva –
It will be awkward for a while but don’t worry, things will go all right.understand Maria completely. It wasn't that long ago she shared her life with "her" Michael. But it was the wrong moment for this Michael to stumble on her. She was emotionaly out of wack and he didn't deserve her outburst. Not now, after he had opened himself for the first time in his life.
This situation will backfire on the both of them, no doubt about it! It's just a shame!
Timelord31 – Thanks for reading.
Maipigen –
Aaah, thank you. I (Mag) love “The Antarian timetravellers”, so thank you for your compliments.I am new to this site and have only ever written one Roswell story myself...but I bow down to you two gals for this one.
Jordan was just a ship in the night. Not important to the great scheme of things.Then the story progressed and for once I actually saw myself liking the original characters, such as the tragic Stone and Azrael, Gabriel, Raphael - heck even Jordan from the very start (what ever happened to her btw?).
We hope that you’ll stick with us until the end of this story.
Part 60
She dragged herself out of bed a little while later when she heard him leave his bedroom and head towards the kitchen. She quickly collected her things and hurried down the hall to duck into his room. Her intention had been to jump in the shower as soon as possible while he was otherwise occupied, but as she crossed the threshold she was assaulted by memories of the night before. Her gaze was automatically drawn to the bed and emotions she couldn’t define surfaced when she saw that the linens had been stripped, leaving the mattress bare.
“What the fuck are you doin’ in here?”
She whirled around to face Michael, unprepared for his cold, emotionless expression. She had thought she would be ready to deal with him when they inevitably encountered each other, but now she knew she had been mistaken. “I just um… wanted to take a shower before breakfast.”
“Well, the fuckin’ shower ain’t in here, is it?” he snarled.
“Michael…” She had no idea what to say to him.
He crossed his arms over his chest and waited expectantly. “Nothin’ to say? No problem, Maria, there’s nothin’ to say… nothin’ to apologize for, nothin’ for you to regret because it’s not like it meant anything.” He shrugged carelessly. “I expected more to be honest.”
“More?”
His eyes slid over her dismissively. “How you managed to keep him interested and comin’ back to you night after night is beyond me.” He ignored the sick feeling washing over him; she had already struck the first blow and he’d be damned if he gave her the opportunity to take another one at his expense.
Maria wasn’t blind, she knew what he was doing, but she wasn’t able to put her heart into a fight to defend herself. “Last night – “
“Last night wasn’t even worth remembering.” He straightened away from the doorway and shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from touching her. “We were both hyped up from the overload of adrenaline; sex is the perfect way to get rid of it.”
He was reducing the night before to a few hours of meaningless sex and that grated on her nerves. But how could she argue with him when she had been a willing participant in something that had gone above and beyond her expectations? She hadn’t been ready for the emotional fallout as she had laid beside him, listening to him sleep and watching the way his features slowly relaxed.
She had left his side just as soon as she had known she could move without waking him and she’d barely made it into the living room before the feelings of betrayal and guilt had started to eat away at her conscience. He hadn’t done anything wrong; he hadn’t taken advantage of her or taken anything she hadn’t offered willingly, but her reaction to the situation had hurt him and made him feel as if she regretted what they had done and she couldn’t completely deny that she felt that way.
“How dare you make it sound so cheap?” Despite those feelings she couldn’t let him treat the night before as nothing more than one of his many one-night stands. “Last night was not just about adrenaline.”
“No?” He crossed the room, crowding her until she had no choice but to back up. He waited until she was pinned between him and the dresser before he spoke again. “What was it then? Because it sure as hell wasn’t a pity fuck. Maybe you just wanted to see how much you’d been missin’ out on since he had no experience with women – ”
She slapped him as hard as she could when she saw arousal darken his angry eyes, and it only served to ignite her own anger. “I’m not gonna stand here and argue with you all day.”
“Oh, well, there’s a fuckin’ change. Now that you’ve got all that free time, pack a bag when you get outta the shower.”
“What?” Maria asked, taken aback by the sudden topic change.
“We’re goin’ to New Mexico; I wanna see this granolith you’re always talkin’ about and I wanna know how to send your ungrateful ass back home.”
“I told you what the granolith said – “
“Obviously you don’t know how to talk to it. If I’m really part of that bullshit about the royal four that you’ve been talkin’ about then the damn thing should listen to me.”
Maria made a face at his arrogance. “You’re unbelievable.”
His expression turned smug. “Yeah, you thought so last night, too.” He shook his head when her fingers twitched and he could tell she was on the verge of slapping him again. “You weren’t the first woman to think so,” he shrugged carelessly, “and you sure as fuck won’t be the last.”
She glared at him. “You are so fucking full of yourself!” she shouted at him.
“You take a shower and pack a bag; I’ve already called Gabriel and told him you’re takin’ time off… permanently if I have anything to say about it!” he yelled. He stalked out of his bedroom and doors slammed in his wake.
Maria slumped back against the dresser, letting it support her weight as she tried to pull herself together. What had she done? How had she let it happen? She couldn’t deny that there was a part of her that had really wanted it to happen, and that part wouldn’t have a problem with it happening again, but the other part was wracked with guilt over the belief that she had just betrayed her Michael.
What would happen if she managed to alter the events in her universe and she was able to stop the accident from happening? How could she face her Michael knowing what she had done? What would happen when he discovered the truth? It wasn’t something that she could hope to hide from him, not even to save him from being hurt from the truth.
God, her head felt like it was going to explode from all of the thoughts stampeding through it. She went into the bathroom and started the shower, getting the water as hot as she could stand it. It was ridiculous to try and wash away the night before and as she undressed she caught her reflection in the mirror and the sight of the marks Michael had left on her body brought the night before rushing back with crystal clear clarity.
She shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of the memories that washed over her and it only took a matter of moments before she accepted that it wasn’t going to be that easy. Her body was still tingling and sore in places that she had nearly forgotten about but it wasn’t unpleasant and that was part of the problem.
Breakfast, Maria… think about breakfast.
*****
Michael could smell breakfast cooking before he reached the patio doors and despite the rumble of appreciation low in his stomach his temper spiked and he stormed into the kitchen. His mouth watered when he saw Maria leaning over the stove, reaching into the oven to pull out a baking sheet with biscuits on it. He stubbornly tamped down the desire to touch her and shoved his hands in his pockets just in case his wants outweighed his need to be in control.
“What the fuck are you doin’?” he demanded.
“I’m hungry and I don’t intend to just jump out of bed, into the shower, and into the truck for a long drive. Not to mention that your mood will only get worse the longer you go without eating, so sit down and eat.”
“I don’t take orders from you and I don’t need anything from you.” He slapped the palm of his hand down on the island in a fit of temper. “Have you packed yet?”
“I’d like to eat first – “
“I could give a rat’s ass what you want,” he snarled. “We’re not playin’ by your rules anymore! No more tellin’ me what to eat, where to eat, when to eat, what I can watch on TV, or what I can read! You get your ass packed and ready to go because I’m sick of this bullshit! I want you gone… out of my house and out of my fuckin’ life!”
Maria backed up involuntarily when he advanced on her and as soon as she realized it she stopped moving, standing her ground and meeting his hostile gaze. She could see his big hands clenching and unclenching at his sides, could see the angry tic causing his temple on his right side to stay in constant motion, but despite his physically aggressive actions she knew he would never hurt her.
“You have one hour,” he snarled in her face. “If you’re not ready I don’t care; we’re leavin’ in exactly sixty minutes.”
He started to back away and then froze and reached around her to snatch up one of the plates filled with breakfast food. He didn’t break eye contact as he backed out of the room and then turned to go back out to the shop.
*****
Maria stared at the clothes lying on the bed, waiting to be folded and placed in her suitcase, but her mind was stuck replaying the events from the night before. Just about everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong, she thought as she twisted a shirt in her hands. Why did he have to choose that moment to walk in and find her in that condition?
It would have gone so much better if she had just had time to sort her emotions out and put her thoughts together before he had found her and she had hurt him with her words. But he had walked in while she was going through her feelings of guilt and trying to process them, and it had screwed everything up. If she’d had more time alone she would have been able to put things in perspective, to realize that he was Michael and not just some random guy. If she was going to fall for someone then Michael, her Michael from her universe, he would understand that it was another version of him… right? She wasn’t completely confident that was the case; he had always been highly jealous, but it wasn’t some random Billy, Bob, or Brody, it was him.
She’d had time to think about it now and she had realized that it wasn’t that she regretted the night they had spent together. What she really regretted was spending so much time getting lost in her feelings of guilt and hurting Michael in the process. She needed to talk to him but now he was in the mood from hell and she knew from experience that his moods could last longer than she cared to think about. She had to make him understand that she had developed real feelings for him and that she was scared. She had lost her Michael from her universe and now she had gone and fallen for him. It wasn’t an easy thing to deal with but she had to make him understand that she knew the differences between the two men and that she knew which man she was with… which man she had made love with the night before.
He was angry and hurt, probably thinking that not only did she regret what they had shared, but most likely thinking that she had used him and pretended to be with another version of him while she had been making love with him. Her thoughts and feelings hadn’t once strayed from him, but how would she ever convince him of that? How could she explain where her thoughts were in a way that he would not only understand but also be able to accept?
She glanced up when she heard his boots striking the hardwood floor and a moment later he was standing in her doorway, his impatience undisguised as he glared at her. She could still feel his skin against hers, his lips and hands branding her and marking her as his and she swallowed a sigh when he folded his arms over his chest.
“It’s been an hour.”
“Michael – “
He shook his head and stepped further into the room, leaning over the bed and scooping all of the clothes into a pile. He picked them up and dropped them in the suitcase, slamming the top cover shut and slapping the locks in place. He grabbed the handle and looked at her one more time before turning and walking out of the bedroom with the suitcase.
He had made it halfway through the living room before Maria shook herself out of her stupor and hurried to chase after him. She grabbed onto the handle, her hand covering his, and she could feel the irritation thrumming through his veins when he turned to look at her. He was gritting his teeth and she could see the warring emotions in his dark eyes, the brief moments of indecision as he fought with himself over his response to her.
Michael opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get the words out his phone started to ring and he pulled it off of his belt to answer it.
“Guerin,” he barked into the mouthpiece.
Maria watched him, frowning when his expression shifted and several emotions chased across his features too quickly for her to decipher. She couldn’t tell who he was speaking to from his clipped responses, but she was fairly certain that it wasn’t anyone he worked with; the call didn’t sound job-related.
“Tomorrow at noon… got it.” He nodded. “We’ll be there.” He hung up and inhaled slowly and deeply as he shoved his phone back in his pocket and relinquished his grip on the suitcase. “That was Dupree’s lawyer; the old man’s dead.”
Maria stared at him uncomprehendingly as she lost her grasp on the handle and the suitcase fell to the floor unnoticed by either of them. “Dead? How? He was fine when we visited him.”
“Did you hear me ask for specifics?”
She ignored his temperamental answer and switched to another question. “What’s at noon tomorrow?”
“Old man’s funeral.” He turned to walk back to his bedroom, pausing at the entrance to the hallway when she called his name.
“Michael, I’m sorry – “
“I’ve gotta add a couple things to my bag and switch our flight plans.”
Maria sighed as he disappeared into his room and shut the door behind him, not with an angry slam, but with a quiet click that just as easily signified that she wasn’t welcome to cross the threshold and enter his private domain. She sat down in his chair as the realization that Charles Dupree was dead hit her and she wondered how Michael would deal with the news.