The Nature of Accidents
Disclaimer: I do not own General Hospital or its characters.
A/N: In this story Michael is eighteen and he never ran to Mexico with Kristina. He was the one that ran Claudia off the road, but he never was punished for it. Everything else will be explained through the story.
Chapter 1: Micheal's Confessions
'It was an accident' those words whirled around in his head.
He would have given his own life before inflicting an ounce of pain on her, but he had. There was no one to blame but himself.
She was trying to save him, but he didn't want to be saved, didn't think he needed to be.
She had followed him knowing he was doing something incredibly stupid and dangerous.
He would give anything to hear her voice again, to look in her deep brown eyes. But she was dead, killed by a bullet.
The worst part of the whole scenario wasn't that he shot her, it was the fact that he fled the scene after it happened. He didn't even check to see if the victim was still breathing. He just ran like a scared little boy, unlike the man he claimed to be.
His only defense was that he didn't know it was her, as if that's a real excuse. He thought the gun was on safety, his finger slipped and the gun went off. IT was an accident.
He remembered when Johnny came to see him. He had been avoiding everyone like the plague for the last two days. And somehow he should have known something was wrong when she didn't call him. But he was too busy trying to deal with what he had done.
Johnny looked like he had been crying with his red eyes. Something was wrong. He told him he needed to sit down, but he preferred to stand. Whatever he had to say he had a hard time saying it. He started and stopped a couple of times, but he spoke her name. And suddenly he felt his chest tighten up and the idea of sitting down sounded like a very good idea. Johnny rambled on about something, but all he heard was that she was dead.
He sat there still, but he didn't make the connection yet. But when Johnny went on and elaborated on where they located her body, he found it hard to breathe.
Days went by and he hardly left his room. His mother was worried about him. She literally had to force him to eat something and take a shower. They all could see how depressed he had become. They tried to get him to talk to some professional, but he refused. He had killed the one person he knew would love him no matter what. Nothing that anyone said could make him feel better.
Claudia came to visit him, probably at the request of his mother. She didn't say much, but he did notice the darkness in her eyes and the bags underneath them. She hadn't been sleeping, something they had in common. When she did choose to speak, she talked about vengeance. He cringed, but he didn't say anything. The woman in front of him loved only three people in her life. He somehow had managed to take away two of those people from her. He was a dead man walking and he knew it.
The first accident, he knew he had no business driving in his condition. He was damaged goods, not able to keep his emotions under check. His parents gave him a car and a license that he didn't deserve or earn. They felt guilty about him loosing a year of his life, so they tried to make it up to him. He rather stupidly swerved in her lane and caused the death of his step brother.
Claudia had found away to let it go. He knew it was the hardest thing she ever had to do, but she did it for her. Now, he had taken her away as well. It was only a matter of time before his secrets came to light and he would have to look Claudia in the eye. No one could get him out of this mess, at least not this time around.