Title: How it Falls Apart Author: Zia Rating: Mature – Adult themes, and content not intended for younger readers Summary: A slight twist on the world of Roswell
Chapter One
The infamous spike-haired Michael Guerin was sitting in his usual booth, at the Crashdown restaurant in the infamous Roswell, New Mexico. Brooding as usual. He was hunched over a piece of paper, studying it intently, ignoring the rest of the world, as usual.
"What Michael?" Max Evans sighed, sliding into the booth across from his friend. Max brooded as well, even more so since Liz Parker, the girl he'd fallen in love with the second he saw her on the first day of third grade, was killed four months ago in a shooting at the restaurant. They rarely came to the Crashdown diner anymore, but Michael had called him, and told him to meet him there.
"I've been having these dreams." Michael told him in a hushed tone, the excitement evident, as he pushed the paper across the table. "Look."
Max's eyes focused for a second. "What is this?"
"I think it's from our home." Max picked up the paper, inspecting it closer and then ripped it in half.
"What did you do that for?!" Michael snapped following Max as he got out of the booth and headed for the door.
"Get over it Michael. This is our home, deal with it." Max's voice was quiet, and angry.
"This is all because of Liz Parker isn't it?" A moment later Max's fist slammed into Michael's nose. He stumbled backwards and Max stormed out of the diner. The few patrons in the restaurant watched the scene cautiously.
Maria DeLuca had been watching the confrontation between the two as she had was getting a drink for another table. She set the coke down on the table and hurried to Michael's side. "Oh god, are you okay?" He tried to brush her off but she didn't let him. She bypassed his table and dragged him into the back room.
"I'm fine." Michael sputtered through the blood dripping from his nose.
"No you're not. He broke it." She pushed him back onto the couch. "Stay." Then she rushed into the kitchen and grabbed some ice and a towel before hurrying back to him. "Tip your head back a little." She told him and leaned one knee on the couch. Carefully she pressed the ice wrapped towel against his nose.
She watched him for a several moments before going up front to give a customer their change. Maria came back and sat beside him on the couch. "Need some aspirin?"
"I'm fine." He told her. Then they just sat there for several long moments.
"Thanks Maria." She mocked him. "No problem, Michael, just call me Dr. DeLuca." He glanced over at her and she raised an eyebrow. "Why'd he hit you?" He shrugged touching the bridge of his nose gently. "Something to do with this?" She asked pulling the ripped piece of paper from the front pocket of her apron. He snatched it away quickly. "What is Antar?"
"Thanks for the ice." He muttered and jumped up from the couch and stormed out the door.
After work, Maria walked home, protectively holding the other half of the paper, of Michael's drawings in her hand. "Need a lift?" A voice called and she turned to see her brother pull up to the curb.
"Thanks Kyle." She climbed into the car and stared out the window.
"What's wrong?" Kyle asked, noticing the strange vibes coming off her.
"Max Evans punched Michael Guerin at the Crashdown." Maria told him, not turning to look at him.
"You call dad?"
"No, Max took off. I got Michael some ice. He broke his nose."
"You should have called Dad. He'll freak when he finds out."
"He isn't going to find out Kyle." Maria insisted.
"Maria-"
"Kyle. I said no." Kyle grumbled softly and pulled into the driveway.
"He worries Maria."
"That's exactly why he can't know." Maria climbed out of the car and rushed into the house and down the hall to her room. She locked the door behind her and pulled the paper out of her pocket. She laid it out on her bed and began smoothing out all of the little wrinkles. The drawings ranged in size and they were beautiful and interesting. What were they? Why did he get so defensive? What exactly was Antar?
Maria folded it up carefully and tucked it into the bottom of her underwear drawer. Neither Kyle nor her father dared tread there. It would be safe.
Days passed. Michael hadn't been coming to school. Max was there, but Maria was too intimidated to approach him. Max had always seemed so friendly, but he seemed more and more angry at the world.
"Alex." Maria slid onto the bench beside him, where he was tuning his bass.
"Maria."
"I need your help.
"Oh this can't be good. I won't get arrested again will I?" He asked and she bit her lip guiltily. "Oh the things I do for the woman I love." He got up and followed Maria from the table. "What is it?"
"I need Michael Guerin's address."
"Why?" Alex asked suspicously.
"Because I do. I'll tell you later. Please!"
Alex groaned. "Guard this with your life." He thrust the bass into her hands and headed for the office.
Ten very long minutes later he reappeared with a piece of paper in hand. "I'll go with you."
"No you won't." Maria told him.
"You are not going to the trailer park alone. Your father will skin me alive and turn me into a new pair of boots!"
Maria rolled her eyes and snagged the paper and gave him back his guitar. "I wouldn't let him."
"You can't stop him if you're dead!" Maria kissed his cheek and rushed off without another word.
Maria chewed on her lip as she walked through the dusty trailer park. One-Fourteen was the trailer she was looking for. When she spotted it she was a little taken back. Michael lived there? She took a deep breath and walked up to the door and knocked. No response. She tried to peer through the window and then almost fell off the step when the door suddenly swung open. An older man appeared, wearing worn boxers and a t-shirt. "Um... I was looking for Michael... Michael Guerin."
The man pushed open the screen door farther and Maria cautiously walked inside. "Who knows where Mikey gets to these days." The door slammed shut behind her and she yelped.
"If he's not here, I'll just come back later." She said softly.
"No. I don't think you will." The man grinned, and Maria felt her stomach sink.
Michael trudged across the lot, kicking a stone as he went. Maria had been right. His nose was broken. He avoided school, avoided Max avoided everyone. The front door was locked when he got to the trailer. That was strange. He frowned, but at least Hank's truck was gone.
He pushed open the door and instantly smelled blood. He knew it was something bad. Very bad. "Maria!" He yelled seeing her prone body face down on the floor. Laying in a puddle of blood. One knee was bent, the angle slightly odd. In her right hand was a knife, the tip broken off. Her left hand was near her face. She was completely still. "Oh god, no Maria." He grabbed the phone and touched her cheek. She was barely warm. "Open your eyes Maria. Look at me!"
One eye cracked open a little. "Micha-" Her voice cracked. "My dad is going to kill me." She whispered.
"I think he will spare you." He dialed 9-1-1 and told them the address before hanging up.
"I'm so sleepy." She murmured.
"No. Keep your eyes open. Look at me." Michael was kneeling beside her, pushing a lock of hair back from her face.
"Don't leave me." She whispered.
"I'm not going anywhere. What were you doing here Maria?"
"I was worried about you. Hadn't seen you in days." Her voice was barely a whisper, and her eyes were starting to slip shut.
He was in awe. She was worried about him? "Open your eyes Maria." Carefully grasping her left hand. Her eyes fluttered open again.
"Michael?"
"What Maria?"
"Do me a favor."
"Anything." He told her, and he meant it.
"Kiss me."
"What?" He asked surprised. That was definitely not what he was expecting her to ask him.
"Please?" It was getting harder and harder to keep her eyes open. Harder and harder to even breathe. And she had never been kissed, not really kissed anyways.
He leaned down and ever so gently brushed his lips against hers, for a moment she kissed him back, before her eyes slid shut and her hand went limp in his. "No! Maria! Baby!" Michael honestly didn't know where the endearment came from, but he would never take it back.
The sirens were suddenly there. Paramedics burst through the door. One of them froze at the realization that it was Jim Valenti's daughter. We're fucked, he thought as he stared down at the girls prone body. They were careful as they loaded her onto the gurney. When they did, they discovered a large gash on the right side of her face, and what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the belly.
"I'm going with her." Michael said, and they didn't dare argue.
In the ambulance as they tried to revive her, one began asking questions. Whose house was it? How did he find her? Who might have hurt her? What his relationship was to Maria De Luca?
Jim Valenti was annoyed. Hank Whitmore had stumbled in drunk and bleeding profusely from a stab wound that had somehow managed to miss every major organ, but still required surgery to remove the tip of the blade from the inside of one of his ribs. "Mind explaining how it happened?" Jim asked again, and the drunk man just grinned. "I give up." He muttered and walked out of the emergency room.
A moment later he heard yelling as the doors slid open and several paramedics rushed in. Jim was frozen. "No." He whispered. Maria was laying on the gurney covered in blood. One of the men was compressing her chest while another helped her breathe.
Michael came running in behind her. "Tell me what happened." Jim demanded.
"Hank Whit-" Jim didn't let him finish. He bolted back to the room he'd just come from and punched Hank so hard he fell off the bed.
"Sheriff!" One of the nurses exclaimed.
"If she dies, you die." Jim growled and stormed back out. Hanson stood there wide eyed. "Arrest him." Jim said before rushing after his daughter.
Two and a half hours later Jim was pacing anxiously across the waiting room floor. Kyle was shoving candy bar after candy bar in his mouth. Alex was shaking his head, and mumbling no every now and then. Michael sat apart from them, but every bit as anxious. It seemed like it had been forever when the doctor finally came out.
"How is she?"
"She is still critical. She has lost a lot of blood." He told them.
"Will she live?" Jim asked.
"We just have to wait and see. They will be moving her to the ICU shortly and then you can see her." After a little while a nurse came and said they could see Maria.
"You boys go ahead, I'll be right there." Michael could feel their eyes on him. Kyle and Alex watched for a moment before disappearing down the hallway. "Tell me what happened?"
"I don't know, Sheriff." Michael hung his head.
"What happened from the time you got there?" Michael took a breath and recounted the events. From walking in the door, smelling the blood. Finding Maria on the floor. Her being worried that Jim would be mad, and having been worried about Michael himself. Everything up till arriving at the hospital.
"What happened to your nose?" Jim asked.
"A friend punched me." Michael said awkwardly.
"Not a very good friend."
Michael shrugged. "She's really nice, you know? Nicer than anyone I've known. She was looking for me. It's my fault she was there. I never thought she'd come looking for me."
"She cares about people. I'm not surprised. But it wasn't your fault. Come on, let's go see how she is doing." Jim guided Michael down the hallway to her room. She was hooked up to machines with tubes and cables. She was so pale. The gash on her face was bandaged as was her right hand.
Alex had buried his face in her shoulder, his shoulders were trembling. Kyle held her hand gently, his thumb rubbing over her wrist. "Come on, baby girl. You've gotta wake up." He whispered.
Jim cleared his throat and both men looked up. Jim walked over and pressed his lips to his daughter's forehead and sighed. "Wake up beautiful." But there was no response, save for the beeping of the heart monitor. "Why don't we step outside for a moment." Jim said and ushered Kyle and Alex out of the room.
Carefully Michael walked over to the bed, not wanting to disturb anything. "Maria... Can you even hear me? Or am I just being stupid? This never should have happened. Hank is supposed to be my problem. No one elses."