I thought about this for a while because I couldn't decide who would be best, it fits everyone so well, but then I remembered something I wrote for another story that's not posted yet and thought this might fit there. So it's pre-series, when Michael leaves Samantha. Not really sure how I feel about it though.

I believe…that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

He had just walked out. It wasn't exactly a puff of smoke like he could have used, but he'd still left without giving her any information. He just said goodbye and left. Now he was sitting in a hotel room across town waiting for Dan to call him. He really wished his handler would hurry up because all this waiting was making him think.

Samantha's heart would be broken, but he didn't love her, not really. That would surely have hurt more in the long run, for both of them. Michael still knew he had to take responsibility for breaking her heart. It didn't matter that he was in love with someone else. Responsibility, though, was a lot easier to take than a lifetime of regret and unhappiness. None of that made it any less painful to know that a woman he at least cared about on some level was in pain.

But he could justify it. She really didn't understand him. She couldn't get inside his head the way Fiona had after only two weeks. Fiona was a nice balance to him, while Samantha was far too much like him. Well, except that she was a thief. Actually, Fiona was a thief, too. What did that say about him? He chuckled to himself in the dark hotel room.

Well, he thought, I'm responsible for leaving Sam, but I'm also responsible for going back to Fi, and that's good enough for me.