Title: Buried ( Destiny part two )
Timeline: Independence Day to Sexual Healing.
Perspective: Michael
Spoilers: Nothing you shouldn't already know.
Rating: PG13 for language.
Disclaimer: All of this belongs to Jason Katims, I just like to borrow it and tweak it to my liking.
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Michael wakes up with the sun, even if it's not shining very brightly. His eyes feel droopy and weak and it's like he hasn't slept all night which isn't right because he went to sleep after four. To him, that's just enough sleep. Maria's laying half on top of him and half off the bed, but he doesn't want to move her in fear of waking her. It's almost unreal that he's here, with her like this because Michael never thought his first time would be with someone he actually loved. Whether he admits it or not, he loves Maria. He loves everything about her, from her psychobabble to her loyalty. He just loves her. It's stupid that he has never said it before last night because all those moments of bickering and not being together could have been spent in other ways. Like this. Because when he's with Maria, it's like the world doesn't exist, even if it does exist, and everything is right. And that's how he wants things from now on.
His eyes are barely open but he can hear Ms. Deluca from the door and she doesn't sound all too pleased. Michael's never had to deal with parents that care before, hell, he's never had to deal with parents at all so he really doesn't understand why Mrs. Deluca is standing in the doorway looking like someone just killed her dog. "Take it easy," he mutters under his breath and sits up, sliding his arm out from under Maria's neck. That's what wakes her up and now she and her loony mom are sharing expressions, both looking back and fourth between each other and him. He doesn't understand the exchange of mother/daughter looks but they must be communicating something because her mom gives her a stern glare and Maria grabs the sheets around her body to leave. It slips off and Michael — doing what he truly thought would be a good thing because what mom wants to see their kid like that? — reaches over and pulls it up for her. Bad move, Guerin. Very, very bad move.
Amy's glare is now directed at him, and he moves his hand and lets Maria stand up with the covers wrapped around her small body. Michael takes it upon himself to stare anywhere but at her mom and pulls the rest of the blanket over his own body. "I want you out of my house!" She continues to stare at him, leading Maria out of he room as she did. Maria, on the other hand, turns back and smiles at him, distracting him from he task at hand — trying to distract her mom from killing the both of them. He stays in Maria's room for a while after getting dressed, and goes over the images she let him see. Red shoes, is what he remembers the most. Her red shoes with blue laces and a Kermit patch on one of them. He saw images of the two of them during the heat wave and he knew what it was like to be hurt by him. And he didn't want to hurt her anymore.
He leaves two notes for her, one under her pillow and one in her drawer both saying "Sorry about this morning, I'll see you at school. If your mom kills you, just know that I love you and I'll always love you. I'll try to avenge your death, love Michael" and heads out the door as quietly as he possibly can. It's enough that he was caught naked holding her daughter but if Amy saw him leave the scene of the crime, she'd probably kill him. He has no idea what the hell Maria and her nut job mother are talking about when he leaves but it's intense and he almost stays so he can break the tension. He'd probably add to the tension.
It's not even eight yet, which is when he usually wakes up, but he's not going to risk going home just yet cause Hank wouldn't have gone to work yet and he sure as hell doesn't want to deal with that. Instead he goes to the park and sits on the only bench in sight and just basks in the sunlight, in the sun which has just come out behind the clouds. He can still feel Maria, still see her smiling, still hear her soft breaths in his ear and taste her lips and her cherry lip gloss, some of which he still has on his neck. Again, he gets that surreal feeling cause nothing like this has ever happened to him before. Sure, He and Maria made out before, things got intense, things got really intense, but never this intense. And this time it wasn't because he wanted to calm her down or because of the heat wave but because he loved her.
And that was another thing. Until he actually started paying attention to Maria as Maria instead of Maria as the friend of the girl Max was obsessed with, he didn't think he could actually feel this way about, well, anyone. So maybe it isn't love. Maybe it's lust, infatuation, a chemical imbalance in the alien part of his brain that only acts up around specific human females. Whatever it is, he feels it and he feels it for Maria and he kind of hopes it is love because if it is somehow alien related then he would feel guilty. Michael doesn't do very well with guilty. He does well with angry and amused and sometimes with jealousy, okay all the time with jealousy, but not with guilty. He hates being guilty.
He sits for a while, just thinking. Thinking about how much his life had changed since September. Back then, it was all about being recluse, keeping to himself, being emotionally detached — even from Max and Isabel. But now... Now it's different. He doesn't want to be recluse or keep to himself or be detached, he wants to parade his relationship with Maria around the whole town and he wants to be out every night doing so. He wants what Max and Liz have, that ability to do whatever it is that they want and not feel like they're ruining lives or altering fate or anything like that even if, maybe, somehow, they really are.
Michael doesn't believe in fate, or destiny or serendipity, none of that stuff. Maria does. Max, Liz, Isabel and Alex do. But Michael just thinks it's another one of the world's ways to help you along the path of loneliness. If you believe in destiny, you'll spend the rest of your life looking for your destiny and you'll waste away and die alone. Cynical? Sure. But closer to the truth than anything else he could even come up with. Maria is adamant that Michael is her destiny, but Michael has this theory that he, Max and Isabel were sent to earth to exterminate the human race and take over so technically, his destiny is to kill her. If destiny exists that is, which it doesn't.
-
He walks through the door and into the place he has come to accept as home — but nowhere could really be home — and is all too relieved that Hank isn't there. It is nearing eight, so Michael reluctantly takes a shower and changes. Part of him wants to get out of the clothes he was in yesterday, and out of the memory of what Hank had done to him, but the rest of him wants to keep the memory of Maria and last night forever. He goes to school hoping to see Maria and avoid Max and Isabel's inquires about last night. He goes the long way to class and narrowly escapes Isabel. He ignores Max in first period, doesn't sit next to him like he usually does, and when a cop shows up in the class asking for him and he has to go down to the office and then the police station, he doesn't do as much as even look at Max even though he can feel him staring. Nope, they royally fucked things up with Hank and now Michael is probably going to be moved across the county to another foster situation that he'll have to adjust to. He'll end up running away and going off to find Nasedo himself. Max and Isabel will be happy in Roswell and even though Michael will miss Maria, it may just be better for him to leave. What the hell was he thinking all this for? There was no way he'd leave Maria.
"Neighbours heard gunshots." If Valenti wants Michael to hate him more than he currently does, all he has to do is interrogate him about random bullshit that really doesn't concern him and really doesn't make sense to interrogate a seventeen year old about. Michael shrugs his shoulders and stares up, plays the oblivious card. "I don't know anything about that." Either Valenti was determined to book Michael for something — he didn't have enough fun holding him for the break in at the UFO centre — or he's always this much of a hard ass. For the briefest of moments, Michael actually feels bad for Kyle, but then it sets in that he doesn't really like Kyle all that much so the sympathy fades.
"But you were there last night?" Yeah, course he was, he used his alien powers to make a whole bunch of stuff fly across the room — he never did have good control over those things. "Went home to get some stuff." Michael's always debating in his head whether he should lie or tell the harsh alien truth; that everything he does is in some way related to him getting home. Home being on another planet whose name and location he doesn't know cause he's never been there since he hatched from this pod like thing ten years ago. He's so sure Valenti would love that story.
When the sheriff asks "What time was that?" Michael just wants to roll his eyes and tell him to fuck off because his questions are really predictable and predictable is just plain boring. "Um...does it matter?" To him it doesn't because what does he care what time he was home? This is the stupidest thing Michael has ever experienced and that includes the time he dressed up and fought for Amy in the Alien Takedown. Valenti leans over the desk and sighs, Michael leans back for a moment cause being this close to the sheriff is a little awkward. "You were the last person to see him."
If life were a soap opera or a crime drama, Michael would know exactly what that statement meant. But life was life and he furrows his eyebrows and looks at the sheriff like he's beyond confused, which he kind of is. "What do you mean, I was 'the last person to see him'?"
He's positive that the sheriff is annoyed of him now, probably wants to just lock him up, throw away the key and not even try to ask anymore questions, and he doesn't, he just sits smugly on the desk and speaks in that condescending 'you can tell me anything' voice. "I called the plant. He never showed up for work." Michael almost lets himself wonder what happened, where did his great foster dad disappear to, but then he remembers that he really doesn't give a damn and just scoffs. "Maybe he's passed out somewhere. I don't keep track of him." He makes the decision to keep his mouth shut about everything. Obviously, there will be no mention of alien activity, nothing about Max and Isabel coming over or flying chairs, malfunctioning guns and nothing about Maria. Roswell was a small town and everyone knew everyone and he wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong impression of her.
"Neighbours also said they heard an argument. And then, later, more sounds. Screaming. Crying. Tortured sounds, like an animal. Almost inhuman, they said." This time, Michael really wants to know. He's not just playing dumb to get Valenti off his back, he really wants to know. Sure he scared Hank a little, maybe he got even more drunk after they left but screaming? Crying? Tortured sounds? Michael wasn't sure he wanted to know what 'inhumane' things were going on because there was that miniscule chance that it had something to do with Nasedo and if Max and Is were right about him, Michael would never be able to forgive himself.
"What are you talking about?" he finally asks, just like that, plain and simple and all in one breath. "Where were you, son?" Not only does he hate it when Valenti calls him son, he hates it when he pretends to care. He doesn't care, that's the most obvious thing Michael has ever seen. He leans back and thinks of Maria dramatically crying as he's taken away in chains and then shakes the thought because Maria would sooner break him out than dramatically cry in public for a cause other than if her mom's car had to get towed again.
"Out." He takes Valenti's silent treatment like a man, takes the disappointed shaking of the head with his head held high. He's got nothing to hide after all. Well, he's got tonnes to hide, but nothing relevant to the current crisis. He takes his pride all the way to his very own jail cell and falls asleep thinking that no matter how beat up he got during the convention, he's not gonna be Amy's favourite wrestler anymore.
-
"Guerin. You've been sprung." Valenti doesn't look all too happy about the arrangement, looks as though he'd rather keep Michael there over night so he can drug him, probe him and find out all about his alien ness. Michael's said it before — adults are the enemy and Valenti is definitely the enemy. He figures Max and Isabel ran to their lawyer daddy and got him to fix it all, Max'll be telling him in a moment how he had to clean up another one of Michael's messes, but when he steps into Valenti's office and sees Maria and her mom, he can't help but smile.
Amy smiles back at him but only for a moment cause she turns to her daughter and instructs her to wait outside. Michael follows Maria out and closes the door behind him, pulling her into a hug as soon as they're a safe distance away from her mom and the sheriff. "I thought you'd be in there forever, Max told us Valenti took you, why did he, what's going on?" As if Maria didn't talk enough in normal circumstances. He presses his lips against hers to shut her up and, surprisingly, it works. "I gotta get out of here before your mom sees us and kills us." He kisses her again and once more and goes to leave but she pulls him back.
"Wait! Last night, when we—" She breaks off blushing and they both make awkward attempts to clear their throats. Michael is biting on his bottom lip to keep from grinning and Maria has decided to distract herself by playing with her hair. "Okay, well, I saw things, Michael. I saw... You." He looks up from his feet and blinks, doesn't speak and sort of squints at her like he sometimes does. "I saw the crash and I think I saw something being buried. It looked important." She reaches into her back pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper, hands it to Michael and waits with this anticipation that can only be described as cute. Michael unfolds it and he knows. He just knows. "This is the radio tower on 42, it's near the—"
"Crash site." They can hear the door to Valenti's office opening and they both scramble around the corner for a last kiss. "Meet me outside my house in half an hour. It's already late so I can just lock my door and pretend to sleep, I'm sure my mom won't even notice I'm gone." Michael is barely listening to her instructions because he's kissing her after every few words, trailing kisses down her neck and running his hands over her body. He whispers "I love you" and kisses her again, leaves the police station in a rush and spends the next half hour pacing back and fourth in the trailer and watching Bewitched.
Michael helps Maria climb out her window and she almost falls into the grass but he catches her and dusts her off and makes her blush. Maria has the bright idea that they should walk because Michael doesn't have access to a car and if they use Amy's she'll hear and then death will follow suit. Neither of them want to die, so they walk to the radio tower with flashlights in hand and holding onto each other tighter than ever every time Maria hears a coyote. "It's here." She looks around intently, searching the ground for some indication that what she's seen in her flashes is real.
-
Michael watches her kneel down and touch the ground and when she stands up again he puts his arms around her tiny waist and can't help but love the way she feels. When he kisses her neck it glows like it did before and she turns around and touches his face. "I can't do it to you." He almost likes her slight pout and the way she whimpers quietly and gives him puppy dog eyes. "I'm glowing everywhere," he kisses her nose, brushes her hair out of her eyes and smirks. "My toes, my heart. You can't see it, it's on the inside." It's enough to make the girl swoon and for a second, Michael doesn't hate Max for destroying everything that made his life normal — excluding Maria, of course — instead he wants to thank him because the romantic stuff really does work.
She kisses him, hands in his hair and his are on her back and he can feel the heat through her skin where she is glowing. The same goes for him cause it's like he's on fire. They both close their eyes and savour the moment and somewhere in the back of his mind, Michael can hear faint beeping. He ignores it, deepens the kiss and holds Maria closer to him, but she breaks away and looks down at their feet. "That's the noise I heard in my vision." They both stare down and Michael holds his hand above the area where they can now clearly hear beeping. His powers have never been as developed as Max or Isabel's but digging a hole? How simple can you get? Maria stands beside him and looks into the small opening he's making and both of them stare into the sky when a bright blue light shoots up.
Michael's sure he's seen that light before, sure it means something important and sure that after this night nothing will ever be the same again. He reaches in and picks up the smooth stone. On it is the symbol from the caves from where the light is coming. It's dimmer now, not shooting into the sky like it did when the earth was first removed from it, and Maria's holding it with him, both of them in awe of what it actually is. He looks over across the distance and a voice that isn't his own speaks quietly even though he didn't make to speak. "Ava." Maria furrows her eyebrows and nudges him. "Who's Ava?" But he doesn't know. Yet.