Title: Visions Of Home Part: 1 Author: Lily Bunny Email: [email protected] Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Michael or Maria. They are the property of Regency, FOX & Katims Productions. But they just hopped the fence into my mind one day and played with me so I thought I�d share. I promise to let them back out. One day ;) Summary: Not Known Category: Michael/Maria Rating: PG-13
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Maria walked down the hallway towards her locker. She was supposed to meet Alex for lunch but he had bailed on her at the last minute to go pick up some guitar strings in town so she was surprised to see a figure waiting for her when she turned the corner. She was even more surprised at who it was. Michael. Ever since the day she and her mom had gotten him out of jail he had been avoiding her like the plague and it really bothered her. She had thought that after he had come to her that night, soaked to the skin from the rain and shivering with cold and heartache that they had gotten closer. But Liz had heard from Max that Michael had almost left Roswell the very next day. He had even gotten so far as the next town before turning around and heading back. Maria was happy he returned but she couldn�t kid herself into believing she had anything to do with it. The fact that he hadn�t even come to say good-bye was an indicator of how far from her his thoughts had been and it was a sobering realization. He didn�t love her. He only came to her when he needed something, and while she would never turn him away she had to accept the fact that they would never be more than just friends.
Michael turned to see Maria approach him and stuffed his hands in his pockets to keep them from fidgeting. Why did she always have to look so damned cute? He pushed those thoughts away as he always did. He couldn�t afford to get too involved with anyone. He accepted the fact that he had a bond with Max and Isabel...they were his family of sorts. But Maria was different. She made him feel different. Something about her drew him in and it had taken everything in his power not to go see her before he tried to leave town. Going to see her would have meant that there was something to say goodbye to. Something...someone he would miss. He didn�t even plan on saying good-bye to Max or Isabel but Max had shown up while he was packing and it couldn�t be helped. Of course it was Max�s words and his gift of the stones from their home world that HAD brought him back. And looking at Maria now he was glad he did. Even if she did look like a little thundercloud coming towards him. What was her problem now? He hadn�t talked to her since that day at Sheriff Valenti�s. Maybe he didn�t thank her again. Did he? He couldn�t remember.
"Hey." He said as she pushed past him to open her locker. She glared at him briefly as she stuffed her books inside.
"What is it Michael?" she asked him, slamming her locker door shut. She knew that she had to be firm, let everything slide off her. Be Teflon.
A confused look passed Michael�s face that melted Maria�s heart just a little. But it didn�t last long before the stone wall came back up again. "Not here." He said and took her by the arm, half dragging her down the hallway.
"Wha...hey...where are we going?" she said, scuffling along side of him. But as they neared their destination she skidded to a stop. "The eraser room?" she demanded, pulling her arm free. "Not in a million years buddy."
Michael didn�t understand what the big deal was. He had spent a whole night in her bed and now she wouldn�t go into the eraser room with him? Okay, so nothing had happened between them that night, but who�s to say that he wanted something to happen now? "I just need to talk to you. In private."
"Talk?" Maria said slowly, not letting him see that the fact he had no interest in kissing her cut her to the quick. Pushing him to the side she walked determinedly to the room. "Fine. Talk." She said, stepping through the door and spinning around to face him as he followed behind her and locked the door so they wouldn�t be disturbed.
Looking at her in the dim light he remembered the last time they had been in there together and felt a rush of heat from deep inside of him. He shook his head a bit to clear his thoughts and tried to read the expression on her face but couldn�t. He knew that he wouldn�t get anywhere if she was angry with him and concluded that it must have something to do with him not saying thank you. He remembered how much that bothered her before. "I-I just wanted to say thank you." He started, noticing the way her eyebrows scrunched together as he said it. "For that night. For letting me stay." He wanted to say thank you for holding him, for being there. But for some reason he couldn�t. "And for getting your mom to fix things with Valenti. I wasn�t sure if I had said it before. So. Thanks."
"Oh." Maria said, her defenses lowering slightly. "Okay. And for that you need to bring me in here?"
Michael opened his mouth as if to speak but then closed it again. He wasn�t sure if he wanted to do this. But if what Max had said was true...
"No. There�s something else." Michael began. "Max told me something this morning. About Liz and him and...well...a kiss."
"The whole images thing. Yeah, I know. She told me. What about it?" Maria wondered why the sudden interest in Liz and Max�s love life. Liz had told her that when Max had kissed her that night at the concert she had gotten a bunch of disconcerted images, some of which were of the earth. As if she were seeing it from outer space.
Michael stepped closer to Maria, his heart beating faster. Maria looked up into his face, her eyes wide and confused. "I thought that if Liz saw something that maybe. I dunno..." he stepped closer. "That it might tell us something about..." he looked at her lips as they parted slightly and remembered how they felt. "That maybe you might..." He put his hand on her neck, his thumb caressing her jaw. "That we might..." Maria�s eyes closed as he leaned in towards her.
"No." Maria said softly, shaking her head free of his touch and backing up out of his embrace. "I�m sorry. I can�t do this."
Michael looked as though he had been slapped. "Fine." He said, straightening up, his face hardening at her rejection and his voice bitter. "I just thought you might want to help. That�s all."
Maria�s eyes welled with tears and she gulped down a sob before it escaped her lips. Watching Michael turn from her to leave, the last vestiges of restraint left her. "You just don�t get it do you?" she said quietly, her voice cracking with emotion. "You selfish son of a bitch."
"What are you talking about?" Michael said turning back to look at her angrily. But the look on her face stopped him cold and a twinge shot through him as he saw the pain in her face.
"Do you have any idea...any clue as to how it makes me feel that the only reason you want to kiss me is to find out how to leave here? To leave me?" A tear slid from her eye and Michael resisted the urge to brush it away, confused at how much her anguish was affecting him. "Has it ever dawned on you how I will feel if you go?" she continued. "Liz told me that you almost left. And it hurt, Michael. It hurt that you would leave without saying anything."
"But I didn�t." was all he could say. He hadn�t gone. He had come back.
"No." she agreed. "You didn�t." But Michael realized she wasn�t talking about his return...but of the fact that he hadn�t say good-bye. Maria straightened up, trying to compose herself. "What�s the point. You�ve made it perfectly clear how you feel about me. I am so gone."
Maria walked towards the door and put her hand on the lock. She wanted to escape...to go somewhere far away where Michael couldn�t see her cry. She had promised herself that she would never let him see how much she cared about him and she was completely losing it. Tears started to flow freely down her face as the dam she had built up against the force of her love for Michael finally broke. But before she could turn the lock Michael placed his hand on hers. Maria felt Michael press up behind her. He slid his other arm around her waist and pulled her into him, laying his forehead against the back of her head and taking her hand off the lock he pulled it to her, wrapping her arm around her so that she was folded completely into him. Michael felt his own emotions rising and could only manage to say one word.
"Maria."
Michael was shaken. He stood there holding her while she cried, not unlike she had for him only a few nights ago. He knew he should just let her go...just let her walk out the door and out of his life. But he couldn�t. He didn�t want to. He needed her. "I wanted to come to you." He finally said softly into her hair, breathing in the scent of her. He could feel her trembling in his arms and he wanted more than anything to take back all the hurt he had caused her. "But if I did...I knew I could never leave."
Michael spun Maria around and took her face in his hands as he kissed her tenderly. All the emotion that he had been holding back flowed through him as he finally let himself realize he loved her. He loved her. The shock of this sudden epiphany struck him deeply and his kisses intensified as he let his feelings flow through him.
Suddenly images flashed through his mind, so intense and clear that it made him gasp. Pulling away from him Maria looked up into his face with concern and love. Seeing her worry he told her what happened. "I saw something. It was beautiful." He said to her, running his fingers down her face tenderly and wiping away the vestiges of her tears.
Maria�s heart jumped at the thought just as she finally broke through Michael�s defenses he might go away. "What was it? Are you okay?" she asked fearfully.
Tears welled in his eyes as he laid his forehead against hers. "Yeah." he said quietly.
"Do you think it will lead you home?" she wondered, her heart already breaking.
Michael remembered the images. They were burned into his mind never to be erased; Maria sitting beside him on the way to Marathon; the way she blushed the first time he kissed her; the look on her face as she dried his hair that night in her bedroom when he felt that he was all alone in the world.
"It already has." He told her, holding her close and kissing the top of her head. And for the first time in his life Michael felt at peace.
