AN- Here is chapter number two, hope you readers are enjoying this.
Michael groaned as he rolled over in bed pulling his pillow over his eyes. The sun was way too bright. A knocking at the door finally drew him out of bed. He only had a pair of sweatpants on as he stumbled to the door. He winced as he allowed it to swing open to see the blonde, he saw at the bar a few nights ago. In her arms, she held a toddler, a little girl with blonde hair, but her eyes were someone else's eyes, ones he almost recognized.
"Can I help you?" He mumbled while rubbing his eyes allowing them to adjust.
"My car." She said looking behind her it was connected to a tow truck. "It's broken."
"What happened?" he asked still not fully awake.
"It won't start, you got it started last time I was hoping you could again." She turned back to him looking lost.
"Last time your battery cables weren't connected." She only blinked at him showing she had no idea what he was talking about. He sighed, "Let me take a look." He glanced behind him to find where he had thrown his boots from last night. "I'll be right out." He muttered as he ducked back inside to hunt down his shoes.
When he came outside the girl whose name, he had already forgotten had put the toddler down and was holding her hand as the child tried to drag her over to some of the junk piles. He noticed how the woman wore a sundress and high heels, walking around in the dirt of his yard didn't seem especially easy while trying to contain a small child. The tow truck had already dropped the SUV and was driving out of the lot. Michael was happy he hated the truck driver.
"Well let's see what we got here." He said as he popped the hood and walked around to open it. He first looked to the battery and frowned this time the lines were cut, and the battery was gone. He looked up at the woman who had picked the toddler back up and was walking over to him. "Did you miss me?" he asked which caused her to frown.
"No." she looked under the hood still frowning, "Is it bad?"
"Bad?" he laughed at the question, "I've had girls do just about anything to meet up with me again but cutting the battery lines and taking the battery out." He looked up at her but saw only what he would consider fear in her eyes.
"Someone cut it out?" She tightened her hold on the baby and her eyes quickly danced around the yard as if expecting to see someone hiding.
"It looks like it." Michael said slowly as stood up, "You didn't do it?"
"I hardly remember how you opened the top of the car."
"The hood." He corrected
"Whatever." She muttered.
"It shouldn't take me to long to fix." He told her, "It might take a day or two for the parts to get here though."
"You can't fix it like you fixed it before?" she asked
"Before someone just disconnected them." His eyes went to her hand and noticed she was wearing a wedding ring, he knew she wasn't wearing that the night of the bar, "Is there someone who would want to prevent you from going anywhere?"
"No." she said a little too quickly.
He could tell instantly she wasn't telling the truth and could tell she wasn't telling him the truth. A part of him wanted to make sure she was alright, but he had to remind himself he didn't care about anyone other than himself. "I doubt it will be fixed today." He told her.
The girl sighed and pulled out her phone and then paused and looked up at him, "You don't have Uber out here do you?"
"That car service thing?" Michael laughed, "No."
"Great." She muttered and looked down at her phone, but her finger stayed frozen as if she had no idea who to call.
"Do you need a ride back to town?" he found himself asking without even thinking. He had never offered anyone a ride before, but she seemed lost and out of place here. Maybe it was the little girl in her arms that made him want to help her he wasn't sure.
She looked him over for a moment and seemed to go back and forth in her mind trying to figure out if she should get into the car with a strange man but seemed to decide on the simple fact there was no better option. "Please."
"Trucks over there, let me go throw on some clothes." He said as he walked away and noticed her eyes flick to his bare chest, and he couldn't help but smirk.
When he came back the girl was strapping a car seat into the seat of his truck. He forgot that kids needed those things. She put in on the passenger side leaving the only option for her to sit directly next to him. He thought maybe it was because she wanted an excuse to be closer to him, but as he got closer, he realized it was because she didn't trust him, and it was to keep the baby as far away from him as possible.
They drove in silence for a while before her phone made a sound and she looked down and then quickly back up as if whatever she saw was something she didn't want to see. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed she seemed to be fighting off tears. If he was a better guy like Max, he would ask what was wrong, but honestly, Michael didn't care or at least he told himself he didn't care. "Where do you want me to drop you?" he asked
"The bar is fine." She told him not wanting to show him where she lived. Michael understood that he was still a stranger to this girl. So when they got to the bar he put the car in park and turned it off. "You're going to the bar too?" she asked.
"It's lunchtime." He grinned, "Need a drink and some food."
"You just woke up."
"So?"
"You have my car to fix."
"I'll order the parts after I have some food in my system." He told her which only earned him a glare.
He got out of the truck and let her slide out before he closed the door. She quickly moved to the other side of the truck and took the toddler out and unfastened the car seat. He watched as she struggled to carry the child and seat towards the bar.
Michael sighed as he caught up with her, "Let me help." He said taking the seat from her.
"No it's" she stopped when he took the seat, "Fine really I'm good."
"We are both going inside for lunch, might as well carry this for you." He didn't hand her the seat back until they got inside the bar.
"Thank you." She finally said as she placed the toddler in one of the booths and pushed the seat under the table. "I forgot to ask, how much to fix the car?"
Michael didn't really know how much it would all cost he hadn't even looked up the parts he needed or figured out how long it would take him to fix, but he could tell by the slight twitch of her lips she was worried about the price. "How about you buy me lunch and we call it even?"
"Are you sure?" she asked frowning, "Lunch here isn't very expensive."
"I forgot my wallet, so you're saving me from having to go all the way back home." He told her as he slid into the booth opposite the child.
Hanna looked like she was going to argue but then decided against it. She couldn't really afford to get her car fixed, but she could afford a sandwich, so she slid in next to the little girl.
"Guerin." Maria said walking over to the table, "Don't bother her."
"I'm not." He told her then grinned, "I'm fixing her car."
"Seriously if he's bothering you just tell him to go away like a stray dog," Maria told Hanna
"He's fine." Hanna told her, "He drove me into town from his place."
Maria raised her eyebrows which earned a flush from Hanna, "The tow truck brought me and my car there but left us, so Michael offered to drive us home."
"Ahh you do remember my name." he grinned then turned to Maria, "I'll have my usual."
"Beer and a roast beef sandwich for you" she turned to look at Hanna, "What would you two like?"
"Cheese!" the little girl yelled happily jumping up and down.
"Mac and cheese for her." Hanna smiled at the little girl, "And I'll just have a salad."
"I don't think they have those here." Michael teased.
"Sure, we do." Maria frowned, "But they aren't very good."
"That's alright I'm not super hungry anyways." She told Maria.
"Ok," Maria said as she turned and headed for the kitchen.
Michael leaned back in his seat and watched Hanna pull out paper and some crayons from her purse for the little girl, "So what brings you to Roswell." He asked.
Hanna hardly looked at him as she placed the paper and crayons in front of the toddler, but finally answered, "I'm looking for someone."
"And you think you will find them in this sleepy town?" he asked.
"I don't know." Hanna looked at him, "It's complicated."
"Who are you looking for?" he asked.
Hanna glanced down at her finger with the wedding ring only for a second Michael doubted she even realized she had before she sighed, "My husband."
"You don't know where your husband is?"
"We had an argument, and everyone assumes he's gone."
"And came here?" he paused, "everyone assumes?"
"He wouldn't just leave." Her eyes met his, "He loved me."
Michael thought of Alex and the love they once shared, "Sometimes people are good at walking away. Even if they love you."
"He isn't like that." She paused, "He always comes back. Always comes back to me." She looked down, "And even if he did leave me, which he wouldn't I know he would never leave Addie."
"Addie?" Michael asked but then realized that must be the kid's name.
"Our daughter he would never leave her." Hanna shook her head, "Never."
"Men leave kids all the time."
"His parents left him, he would never wish that life on any child, especially his own." Hanna wasn't sure why she was telling him all of this, but not being able to talk to anyone was driving her crazy. None of the girls believed her, no one thought someone was keeping Caleb away. Everyone believed he left, everyone believed because they were arguing more than usual that he finally had enough. While upset on a rainy night his car went off the road and made it so he could never return, but Hanna didn't believe that. Whoever had been in Caleb's car wasn't the car had caught on fire making it nearly impossible to tell who had been driving. Hanna believed someone was controlling her life again and she was getting a text to prove it, but those texts also told her not to show them to the other girls. That she had to follow the instructions they never said if Caleb was alive, but she believed they wouldn't be coming to her making demands if he were really gone.
Alex was supposed to meet Liz and Maria at the Wild Pony for lunch, but when he saw Michael helping a blonde girl out of his truck and then helped her bring a child inside, he found himself putting his car into reverse and sending a quick text message to the girls saying something came up. He didn't want to see Michael flirting with some girl it was easier to see him having one-night stands, but something about getting lunch with a girl and her child seemed like more than just a one night stand. He didn't want to see that, he didn't want to see Michael with someone not like that, not in a way he wanted to be with Michael.
As he drove, he imagined what it could be like if he and Michael actually dated if they did more than have sex. What would happen if he walked in with Michael? Maria knew he had once loved Michael, but he wasn't sure if she understood how much he still loved the other man. Alex perhaps didn't even understand how much he loved Michael because logically it didn't make sense. They had gone to school together for years and never once did Alex think Michael would be interested in him. Sure, in gym class he had found his eyes drifting to Michael a few times, but no more than any other guy he found somewhat attractive. Not until that day in his shed did, he even think he was attracted to Michael and he hadn't thought Michael liked him that way until the museum.
They had a few stolen moments that summer, moments where Alex was truly happy just the two of them, but then It all fell apart.
He had really thought what he and Michael had in high school was all he would ever want, all he would ever need. In short, Alex had truly fallen in love with Michael and even to this day he never understood what they had. How had he fallen so in love with the boy he had grown up with and never thought about until that first night in the shed when he gave Michael the guitar? Perhaps it was just because he had been so young, and the realities of the world hadn't yet chased away the childish notions of true love.
Over the years Alex had been in a few other relationships. He had even lived with a guy once and they had talked about getting married and having a family. But every time he found himself thinking of his future of the family, he wanted his past would flash to his mind and the guy he left behind.
In the past whenever Michael came to his mind he tried to push the images away and told himself over and over again that what he felt was natural for the person you had your first time with. Michael had been the first guy to ever show interest in him in a small town. He would chase away any thoughts of Michael with anything, he threw himself into work he threw himself into whatever relationship he was in at the time. Anything to keep his mind from drifting too long and somehow it worked. He convinced himself that he hadn't been madly in love with Michael Guerin.
Alex drove on and knew no matter how many times he had told himself what he had with Michael was a childish idea of love he knew deep down it wasn't true. Because in fact, it was the image of Michael that kept Alex fighting that day when everyone else in his unit had died, the day that he should have died. He didn't remember that day clearly only parts of it. He remembered walking with his men and then he remembered stopping because out of the corner of his eyes he had seen him. Rather he thought he had seen him the desert played tricks on people's mind, once Alex had realized it was just the heat in the desert, he went to follow the rest of the men, but then all he remembered was intense heat and a flash of light. He woke up in the hospital weeks later. A bomb went off everyone was killed, except him because that image made him stop and hold back just long enough to keep him out of harm's way, or mostly out of harm's way.
That was something he ignored over and over again even after he was transferred to Roswell he didn't think if he saw Michael any of those feelings would come back. He didn't even expect to see Michael in Roswell. He remembered how much Michael dreamed of getting away, following his scholarship and never return, but Michael had never left. Alex still wondered why he didn't go to college with his full ride and he didn't want to ask. A part of him feared it was because of his hand.
And then he saw him or rather he had felt him. Alex had been trying to look into the trailer when someone grabbed his arm and without even looking an electric feeling had washed over him and he had known. When he came face to face with Michael again, he wasn't sure what to do with all the emotions that instantly came right back. It took every inch of will power to not act like he was eighteen again and even harder to act like they hardly knew each other. The look on Michael's face was heartbreaking when he saw Alex had become just like his father. Alex tried to ignore it, but that night when he went home, he had punched the mirror looking at himself ashamed of how Michael had seen him.
Then the reunion happened. When he had been feeling so low remembered how he used to be. Seeing images of his high school self and remembered the hope he had of a future. When all he wanted was to make music and maybe even follow Michael to school. Being a military man hadn't been something he thought he wanted, but he was a Manes and the Manes men were military men. He had drunk some at the reunion and his emotion and snuck up on him, he was still struggling with the effects on his mind that the war brought, and that night of the reunion was no different. When his mind went to that dark place hardly anything would bring him out of it, but then Michael had walked in. Michael had made it better at that moment and Alex hadn't been able to deny what he really wanted, who he really wanted.
That kiss perhaps did more to confuse him because it opened the door to all the feelings, he had connived himself were just feelings of a love-struck teenager. At that moment he realized what he had felt over the past decade was that there was a vital piece of him that was missing, and it had stayed empty until Michael kissed him and his entire universe snapped back into focus. He realized just with that kiss that every man he had kissed in the past ten years had never compared to Michael. That the reason those relationships didn't work out was because he went through the motions of how he thought he should feel, but the true emotion were never there. His heart had always been with Michael longing for him even after all these years.
He tried to allow himself the happiness he knew he could have with Michael he tried to push himself to ignore all the thoughts in his mind, but in the end, he allowed his dad to ruin everything and he had let something stupid come between them. Michael was right Alex always did find a reason to walk away, but if he really thought about it and was honest with himself it had nothing to do with Michael's crimes or even the words his dad spoke. In reality, Alex was scared, scared of what he felt for Michael.
He was also scared of who he had become. Over there fighting in a war he wasn't the same boy he had once been, he wasn't the one Michael had fallen for. Michael had loved the boy who loved to sing, the boy who loved music. Alex had done many things overseas seen many things. Things that still haunted his dreams. He ran from Michael and he knew Michael thought it was because Alex thought Michael wasn't good enough for him, but in fact it was simple. Alex was never and would never be good enough for Michael, not after what he did in that war.
When he was around Michael he didn't act in rational ways and seeing Michael with the blonde girl shouldn't have affected him the way it did. Alex knew Michael was into both guys and girls sometimes it seemed he was more into girls with the numbers of girls he slept with. To be honest, Alex had never really noticed Michael showing any interest in any guy other than himself, but he still didn't want to watch Michael flirt with someone and that was why he drove away. Leaving like he always did.
Hanna sat in the booth with Addie, Michael had gone up to the bar to get himself another drink. Hanna couldn't help but think maybe the cowboy drank a little too much, but who was she to judge as long as he fixed her car? She knew he was only being nice because he wanted to sleep with her, but even so, it was nice to have someone to talk to, someone to eat lunch with. He had the same look she had once seen in Caleb's eyes. It was the look of someone trying to be strong to act like he didn't need anyone, but in fact, just longed for someone to stand by his side. She tried to fight the sadness that filled her whenever she thought of Caleb. Everyone thought he was gone, everyone thought he was never coming back, but that wasn't how their story was supposed to end. After everything they had been through this wasn't what she would accept as the end to their story.
She thought of Caleb many times through the day and it hurt every time especially when Addie looked up at her with his eyes. Every time Addie smiled and looked at her full of love she saw her husband. Her husband who was gone because she had foolishly thought they were all safe.
"You look far away." Came Michael's voice from the other side of the booth, she hadn't even noticed him coming back.
"Sorry." She said quickly as the food was placed in front of them.
"To each their own," Michael said as he began eating his food.
Addie happily munched away on her food, Hanna wished sometimes she could be like a child again. Unaware of the sadness around her, the little girl missed her father, but she didn't understand the true loss of a man like Caleb. There would be no man like him to ever walk into her life again that much she knew. She remembered a time when she believed Caleb was her past, but she didn't believe that anymore. She would know if he was gone forever. She had seen the pictures the cops showed her of his car after the flames took hold. They told her Caleb had been inside and that he was gone, but she didn't believe it she could never believe it. Allison was thought to be dead, Mona was thought to be dead people were known to come back and he would too. She would never let go of him, in fact, she would find him.
Not realizing she reached to her neck and gripped the locket around her neck inside was the image of him.
'I love you Hanna and I'm not gonna just walk away, it's just never going to happen.' His words echoed time and time again in her mind. Her searching had brought her here to Roswell when she began seeing the text again, text that made her move here like some obedient dog. She ignored the calls from the girls, she knew what they would say especially because she couldn't tell them about the messages she got.
They thought she was having a break down after losing Caleb and maybe she was in a way, she felt half mad sometimes running around the country dragging her daughter along. She thought perhaps she should have left her with her mother, but she couldn't bear to be without both Addie and Caleb.
"So, why do you think your husband is here?" Michael asked
"A tip." Hanna told him quickly trying to think of a lie, "I hired someone and they said he might be here."
"What's his name?" Michael asked, "Small town, I might know him if he is."
"Caleb." Hanna said softly, "Caleb Rivers."
"Sorry." He looked down for a moment and Hanna could tell he really was sorry. "Never heard that name."
"So far no one here knows that name." she glanced down at her salad and understood why Maria had said it wasn't very good.
"Maybe he isn't going by his name," Michael suggested
Hanna looked up suddenly she hadn't thought of that, "Maybe." Maybe it was because he reminded her of who Caleb used to be. Someone who put on a strong face and pushed people away, but really had a heart of gold. She smiled at him wondering if maybe this guy could help her find Caleb.
After they had finished eating Michael was surprised that Hanna seemed comfortable enough with him to allow him to drive her home. He told her he would let her know when the part came in and then went his own way. His own way found his way back to the bar after he ordered the battery he needed for Hanna's car.
He sat down and very quickly had a drink in his hand as he thought of the girl, how determined she was that the love of her life hadn't left her. It almost made him sad for her to believe that someone couldn't just walk away, but Michael learned a long time ago that people always left. Especially the ones you loved, the ones you never wanted to walk away.
That was why he spent so much of his energy not to feel anything trying not to let anyone else in. Everyone he ever loved turned from him over time. Alex went off to war after breaking his heart. Max and Isabelle also drifted from him, while they were still around it wasn't how it once was. Max always had his opinions and Michael didn't live the life that Max approved of. Isabelle thought he was a murder and while she helped cover it up he could tell she pulled away from him believing he had killed those girls. After high school graduation, he had felt more alone than ever before.
"You're darker than you usually are." Maria said as she filled his drink back up.
"Darker?" Michael asked as he downed the drink.
"Sadder?" Maria questioned as she looked at him.
Michael sighed, "What do I have to be sad about?" he smirked, "I don't feel remember?"
"Guerin." She sighed, "What I said the other night about Alex."
He chugged the rest of his drink, "Put it on my tab I'll catch up." And he turned to leave not letting Maria continue talking about Alex. He couldn't talk about Alex he had to let go of the only person he had ever loved. He wasn't going to end up like Hanna convinced that someone who left wanted any part of coming back.
AN- So the last episode broke my heart for many reasons. Leave a review and help inspire me, the more reviews the quicker I tend to write.
