Title: Another Rider Burned to the Ground (1/1)
Author: McSpork
Rating: G
Summary: Michael POV during or after the events in Meet the Dupes/Max in the City; UC-ish (Michael/Isabel undertones)
Spoilers: One or two very vague references to some events in early season two.
Lyrics: From Sullivan Street by Counting Crows.
Feedback: Pretty please?

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I've cursed her since the day we met. Cursed her for being so wild, for being so beautiful, for being so warm. Cursed her for being Isabel.

Take the way home
That leads back to Sullivan Street
Cross the water and home through the town
Past the shadows that fall down wherever we meet
Pretty soon now I won't come around

At first Liz and Maria gave each other surprised glances when I began offering to stay late and help lock up. They've gotten used to it now, I guess. I walk home every night, taking Main down to Sullivan. Sometimes she's there, jeep in park, watching the water. We exchange the usual heys and that's the end of the conversation.

I'm almost drowning in her sea
She's nearly fallen to her knees
Take the way home, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba

Watching her, I try to read her expression, but there's so much going on with her lately I can't tell. I used to know what she was thinking. We ruin...*I* ruined that with our conversation last summer, I suppose. Chalk another one up for the hopelessly disastrous Michael Guerin.

Take the way home
That leads back to Sullivan Street
Where all the bodies hang on the air
If she remembers, she hides it whenever meet
Either way now, I don't really care
'Cause I'm gone from there

So now she tells me nothing. Does she remember like I do? Can she put into words what I can't? The memories...No, the feelings. The love, the heat. And our child. Does she feel this too? She's done a remarkably good job of ignoring it if she has. I, unfortunately, haven't been so lucky.

I'm almost drowning in her sea
She's nearly crawling on her knees
She's down on her knees
Down on her knees

All she knows is what some chick I don't even know may or may not have done a lifetime or two or three ago, in a galaxy that's far, far away. Yet still not far enough. And so she weeps. She weeps over that ever-present weight on her shoulders. She goes to the pod chamber and falls to her knees weeping over it, asking why. And I can do nothing.

Take the way home
That leads back to Sullivan Street
Where I'm just another rider
Burned to the ground
Come tumbling down

I'm almost drowning in her sea
She's nearly crawling on her knees
It's almost everything I need

History repeats itself? Then I guess I'm about due for a fall soon, too. I just wish she'd see that -- sometimes -- she's not the only one to lose her footing.

I'm down on my knees
I'm down on my knees
I'm down on, down on my knees
I'm down on my knees
I'm down on my knees