Michael's Return

Part 2

The car ride had been silent as they both tried to gather their thoughts. It hadn't taken long to get into the desert, Michael realised that somehow his 'random' driving had taken him right to the place he used to go to hide when he was a child. It was a small cave, no deeper than 2ft. He used to huddle in the back corner, waiting for the bruises to fade. Shaking himself out of his reverie, he looked at Maria. She was staring out of the window, chewing her lip, obviously in a world of her own; she hadn't even noticed they had stopped. Michael frowned. Even after all of these years, he knew that wasn't a good sign.

"We're here" He murmured, his eyes never moving from Maria's face, greedily drinking in her image. It had been so long. Maria nodded slowly and got out of the car, Michael followed her. They stood uneasily in front of the cave entrance, once again unsure of what to say.

"So, Mari-" He was cut off by a loud, hard, painful slap, sending his head flying to the side. Maria's eyes burned with 8 years of anger and hurt. Michael's cheek throbbed and he closed his eyes, feeling the oncefamiliar sting on his cheek. He waited expectantly for more slaps and hits, or a Maria-rant of how much he had hurt her and what a selfish jerk he was by just leaving her like that. Nothing she could say would be any worse than what he had already told himself.

But no more slaps came, no yelling or screaming or the typical angry Maria-tirade…instead Michael opened his eyes to see Maria crumpled on floor, her body shaking with the violent sobs erupting from her, the raw pain and emotion in each sob sliced through Michael and he realised that there was something worse that she could do. She could cry. Maria never cried, she was a DeLuca woman, Teflon Babe. Teflon Babes didn't break. But this is what he was responsible for, he had broken her.

"Oh I'm so sorry…" She gulped. Michael was confused. Sorry? Sorry for what, slapping him? Surely he deserved more than that. Sorry for crying? Was it a scared sorry? Did she think he'd hit her back? 'Women!' He thought,

For what seemed like an eternity, he stood awkwardly next to her, unsure as to whether he should comfort her. 'Maybe she doesn't want me to touch her. What if it just makes things worse? What exactly am I supposed to do? What if she slaps me again for it? Ahh Mickey-boy, you've really screwed up again haven't you?" He silently ranted to himself,but then when Maria continued to cry, he couldn't take it anymore. Sitting carefully down next to her, he pulled her to him, kissed her forehead and softly rubbed her back, whispering soothing sounds to calm her down.

"It's alright…its okay…" He murmured into her ear. It was heaven being this close to her again; she still smelt of jasmine and cedar, it was a smell he associated with home. He had found his home once more.

Maria looked up at him and softly brushed her hand against the cheek she had hit, a deep red welt was appearing on his cheekbone. "I'm so sorry…" She whispered again, a few tears fell down her face as she steadily gazed at him. "I shouldn't have hit you." The regret in her voice and the pain swimming around in her deep emerald eyes burned through him, waves of long-forgotten emotion erupted and squeezed his chest – making him unable to breathe. Feeling the sting behind his eyes he closed them again, fighting backthe tears that threatened to fall.

Maria watched him worriedly; she knew that had affected him. But on that subject...his childhood...Michael's reactions were always unexpected. Except whenever it was mentioned, she could always count on him to clam up and shut down inside.Building the brick wall higher anddenser so no-one oculd see the torment inside.It had never failed to frustrate her. 'Then again, he might not anymore.' She reminded herself. 'It's been 8 years, I barely know him now. Both of us have changed and grown and have experienced many different things. We're probably quite different from each other now. Not like the old days.' But if that were true, how could she feel the same waves of fear, doubt and pain roll off him? How could she know that if she kissed him, he would still taste like Tabasco sauce and chocolate? How could she know, just instinctively, that he is the one for her? And that without him, she'd always feel incomplete?

"It really hurt you know…you leaving like that, just after…" She said in a small voice, catching Michael's attention. She avoided his eyes. Admitting that was like admittingshe wasn't as tough as she seemed, that he had hurt her, that he had managed to hurt her… in her eyes it was admitting she was weak.

"I know." He murmured. Her eyes darted to his face; he gave a slight smile to show he understood. Maria inwardly sighed. They had always known exactly what the other was saying…and not saying for that matter. Michael sighed as well, shook his head and scratched his eyebrow, a habit he's always had when he's thinking or nervous. Maria bit back a smile at that familiar habit. Maybe some things never change, no matter how long it has been.

"I dunno what to say Maria…for 8 years I've had this speech runnin' around my head of how to explain why I left…but looking at you now…I dunno…to be honest I don't know how I managed to leave." The last part had been said quite gruffly, embarrassed at sounding so mushy. Michael watched for Maria's reaction, scared that he'd pushed it too far. He breathed a sigh of relief when she smirked at him. It was pretty funny though, when he thought about it.There they were a Teflon Babe and an Alien, who had gone against crazed FBI agents, homicidal aliens, they had faced death time over time...and the only thing they were both deathly scared of was admitting their feelings.

She leaned into him, laying her head on his chest andenjoyed finally feeling him there once more. She knew it wouldn't last, that soon she'd have to tell him the truth and then everything would change.. But for now she was happy, she was safe andin Michael's arms under the stars. "So have you seen Max or Isabel yet?" Maria asked. She already knew the answer, but was tired of talking about the past, they could get into that later.

"Not yet. I wasn't planning on seein' anyone tonight but I sorta ended up at yours." He always ended up at hers somehow. The mention of Isabel and Max brought back all of the questions he had after seeing Max in that pub. But before he could ask them, something caught his eye, a gleam from Maria's hand as she played with his shirt…darting quickly he pulled her hand closer before she could hide it,

"Michael! What are y-" Maria protested, but knew it was too late. It was a ring. She was married. Michael shot up onto his feet, and started to pace around. His mind was racing;

She had married someone. She was taken. She wasn't His Maria; she belonged to someone else. All these years he'd wanted her, been craving for her. Yet someone else had been touching his Maria. Someone else has been the one making love to her, pledging his devotion to her, being her family and home, someone else had been her world, who she thought of, who she loved…it was silly to have thought that after all these years she'd feel the same way about him as he does about her. It would be stupid to believe she had been hanging on, waiting for him to return. Maybe this was for the best; at least she has a decent guy, someonewho isn't such a screw up…Michael squeezed his hands into fists and as he paced, each rock he passed blew up, shattering into millions of pieces.

"Michael!" Maria yelled. "Michael please calm down…" Seeing the fear in her eyes, Michael immediately sobered and sat down. He felt like he was being ripped in two. "Michael," Maria said more gently, "let me explain."

"You don't have to explain. I left you, you moved on, got yourself a great guy." Michael's jaw flexed as he spat out the last words, "I couldn't be happier for you."

"We're separated." She said softly. Michael's soft brown eyes searched her own, looking for any hint of a lie or misconception. He couldn't see any. Separated? He wondered to himself, his anger suddenly had evaporatedand all there was left was a hollow feeling of deep confusion. Why separated? Did something go wrong? Did it have anything to do with him? Michael almost hoped it was. Yeah…he wanted to be the bastard that had stolen Maria's heart. Something this guy couldn't have touched, or owned or laid a mark on.

"Why?" He had to ask. Maria closed her eyes; she knew he wasn't going to like this. Sighing, she took a deep breath and said the brief facts.

"I was on the rebound from…well…you. You leaving had really cut me up, and I thought part of it was my fault. I got pretty desperate at the thought of losing someone else again, and so I took whatever shit was thrown at me. But eventually it just didn't work in the end." Michael narrowed his eyes, she wasn't looking at him at all…she was just staring at her hands, twiddling her ring, avoiding his eyes.

His voice got sharper, "What do you mean you 'took a lot of shit'?" He continued to stare at her, something was up. She wasn't telling him something.

"Um…well…" She took a deep breath, her heart was pounding, she knew how he was going to react and it wasn't going to be pretty. She took another deep breath and looked him straight in the eye. "He used to drink and beat me a lot. One night he went too far, he raped me and put me in the hospital for a week."

Within a mile radius, every rock and solid object blew into pieces.

"WHAT!"

tbc...