The Calm Before The Storm
Breakfast came and went. Calls were made, plans were sorted and Isabel's usual efficient manner handled everything quickly and smoothly. The former Christmas Nazi decided it would be best to arrange a dinner that evening so everyone could learn of Michael's return simultaneously.
Both Michael and Alex had winced when she announced what she had planned; a distinct churning of foreboding could be felt at the thought of the group reacting to having that dramatic news sprung upon them. There was a lot of anger beneath their amiable smiles and many years of pain etched behind their laughing eyes. The evening would no doubt be as pleasant as a train crash and twice as messy.
Since Isabel had arranged everything so swiftly, Michael had the afternoon free to prepare himself for the worst to come that evening. Full of repressed energy, anxiety and excitement he decided to take a drive to his home, down the black and white memory lane. Home wasn't the trailer park; no he had never considered that a home - that was just where he had lived. Just where Hank had lived.
Home was his old apartment - his first home after so many foster 'situations' and it held his happiest memories of those teenage years. It seemed to symbolise the first time he'd ever had something good in his life and not screwed it up one way or another, it was the first thing he'd ever truly owed off his own back, the first place he could feel completely safe in – no climbing through windows, no hiding under beds...it was all his and when he had left, he had hated leaving it behind.
Small changes had grown and spread while he was away, the building looked even more worn down and there were far more weeds in the unruly grass patch. The paint on the door looked flaky and as if it had suffered from serious abuse for a long time. Technically it was still his home; he had bought it not long before he left but never sold it - he just couldn't bring himself to cut that final tie he had to his home town.
As Michael walked closer to the door he noticed something: the door was half jarred open. Someone was inside. The idea of a complete stranger rummaging around on his personal property made his guts twist in ways that he really didn't like.
"Son of a bitch." He muttered. His hands clenched as he defiantly willed himself to keep control. 'Ahh the old temper is still there writhing beneath the surface eh Mickey boy? You may think you've got control now over those freak powers of yours, but you will slip up sooner or later. Just like you did last night with Maria.' Hank's tauntingly cutting words echoed in Michael's head like a familiar twinge of pain. Since Hank had died Michael had gotten used to the consistent commentary from him and it was now just a part of his every day life.
Gritting his teeth, eyes flashing dangerously, he crept through the open door into his dusky, 'rustic' apartment. The smell of various alcohols and stale cigarette smoke hit him immediately and judging from the mess strewn about, whoever had been squatting there must've had one hell of a party. The light from his windows avoided the corners of the rooms, leaving engulfing black shadows looming at the edges, hiding more chaos. It used to be his home, only now it looked like the broken ruins of a fading memory.
A crash from the kitchen startled Michael out of his reverie. Trying to walk as quietly as he could, he tiptoed through the corridor and silently cracked open the door to his kitchen. All he could see was a silhouette of a small-ish person moving back and forth across the room. It's probably some kid just fucking around, he thought to himself and stepped thought the doorway.
"What do you think you're do-" His bellowing voice cut short, as if someone had pressed the mute button. He stared at the trespasser utterly confounded, his mind blank from shock. A beat of silence passed. His mouth opened and closed, trying to find some words, any words and when he finally spoke his tone had dropped to a softer note, as if he was talking to a frightened animal. "Maria…what are you doing here?"
Maria's face, scorched with shame, dropped downwards to blindly stare at her shoes. Red sneakers. She smiled at the faraway memory. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be here…but after Isabel rang me this morning, I remembered the state of your house and I…well… I didn't want you to see it like this. So I thought I'd come by and clean it up first." Her gaze flickered up to judge how Michael would react; he loathed how nervous she seemed around him. That wasn't the old Maria. The old Maria would have given him an earful for scaring her - not stuttered in humility.
"You just wanted to get back into my bedroom didn't you?" He smirked arrogantly, trying to keep his voice as jovial as possible; he just wanted a rise out of her. He'd say anything to see that fire blaze in her eyes, to get that sad scared look off of her face.
Maria looked up sharply at his comment, for a brief second something he had said just ripped away all of her walls and caged up inside of her he saw more terror and anguish than he had ever seen before - far too much for one person to have borne alone. Michael mentally kicked himself for being so stupid, horror wasn't the intended reaction. Then as quick as the walls were gone, they were back up again and Maria shakily attempted a smirk back. "Yeah, in your dreams pal." She said woodenly.
Michael was more worried about her than he had been before. Making a mental note to make her ex-husband, whoever he was, suffer weeks of torment, he swiftly changed the subject. "So, what happened here then?" He looked around; the kitchen was as bad as the rest of the rooms, there were only a few clear patches of tile where Maria had obviously been cleaning.
Maria chewed her lip and laughed hollowly, "Beats me, guess some people had some party here." Michael gave her a sideways glance and made another mental note to confront her about the constant lies she was automatically feeding him.
He knew when she was hiding something, just as he had always known. She had definitely gotten better at it over the years, compared to that million-year-old day when the Sheriff chose her to interrogate about the truth of him, Max and Isabel. Yeah, she was certainly more adept at it since then. But he knew and he would always know when she was lying, it w as that connection between them that told him, the one that sung when she was near by, the one that uncontrollably, magnetically, pulled him to her. Michael didn't know whether that was because he was alien, human, or if it's just what it feels like when you're in love, but he knew for damn sure he couldn't ignore it.
Without even realising, he moved closer to her. "Maria..."
She stepped back instinctively. "Don't Michael. Just don't." Her voice shook with intensity and he could see her hands were trembling as she rubbed them across her face. With a forced cheeriness that even hurt her own ears, she studiously avoided his worried looks and bent down to pick up the dropped bin bag. "How about we get to work then, yeah? Unless you had somewhere else to be…"
Michael took her cue and started picking up the many beer cans that were tossed around the room. "Nah wouldn't want to bump into anyone I know and ruin the surprise for tonight's evening fun." The sarcastic remark caused a grin to flicker across Maria's face and Michael silently celebrated at being the one who caused it. "I see Alex hasn't managed to completely remove Isabel from her zealous Nazism."
Maria smiled and slipped easily into inane conversation as she worked at the mess around them. "Yeah that's true, she still organises all of the Christmas charity events and I think she's the head of the PTA council for Tammy's school. I heard that Tammy took quite a liking to you. Who would have thought our very own Spaceboy would grow to be such a pushover with kids?"
Michael, relieved at the easy-going attitude they had switched to, chuckled to himself. "Ah she's a good kid; I can see a lot of Alex in her. Besides I didn't have much of a choice, there's enough of Isabel's determination in her as well to make sure of that."
"Too right. Isabel isn't ever too happy about me spending time with Tammy though; she says I'm a bad influence on her. Just because somehow every time I see her she ends up hyper as a loon and the house gets ruined, Isabel automatically assumes it's my fault." Wickedness sparkled in Maria's eyes and Michael's heart skipped several beats.
"Yeah…somehow…I bet you have no idea how she gets like that." He replied smirking, enjoying the familiar banter.
"Who me? Of course not…." An innocent expression was plastered across her face and Michael couldn't help but laugh loudly. Maria grinned back and then looked at him with a vague sense of wonder in her eyes.
"What?"
"It's strange, I just realised I hadn't ever heard you laugh like that before. At least, I can't remember you doing it when you were here."
Michael nodded; he remembered those darker times all too well. "Yeah well the constant threat of exposure, H-Hank and typical teenage angst was the usual cause of it." Michael caught himself from sinking into those stagnant pools of self-pity and smiled a toothy-smile at the blonde beauty before him, quirking up an eyebrow as he did. "I'm a lot less moody now, well… I do have moments now when I'm at least not as moody."
Maria smiled softly. "Good, at least leaving did a lot of good for you then. So what did you leave behind when you came here?" They had stopped cleaning for a good five minutes, too enthralled at having a nice conversation with each other to concentrate on anything else.
Self-consciously, he scratched his eyebrow with his left hand and flashed a self-deprecating grin. "Well I uh…I was, am in college." Maria's eyes glimmered at the information, mentally trying to imagine Michael going to classes and lectures, one piece of the puzzle was put into place, creating a far less blurry image of his life before last night. It was like a constant game, when her life crumbled and fell to shit, Michael had been….what? The game was to fit an answer to that question.
"What were you studying?"
Michael shifted uncomfortably; he had always dreaded answering this question just in case all he'd receive was laughter. He remembered when he'd first ever painted something, that geodesic dome, he hadn't even received a 'well done' or 'that's pretty good' from Isabel and Max. No, they had been too busy freaking out about the attention it could attract. Rather than being proud, they made him feel like he'd just fucked up once again.
"Well you going to tell me? Or can't you remember?" Maria joked as she watched him struggle with some kind of difficult internal decision.
"Oo-kay, well I err…I study art. Well, more of painting and sculpting than like studying artists." Michael closed his eyes and inwardly cringed, expectant of the laughter to come and hit his delicately new-found pride. When there was just silence however, he opened his eyes and looked at Maria. She was crying. Women! He'd never figure them out, not even if he lived to be hundreds of centuries old. They were just as unfathomable as the rest of the supernatural mysteries on this planet. "Are you …um..okay?" He asked tentatively.
Maria laughed and wiped her eyes. "What? Oh yeah I'm fine, I just can't believe how wonderful that is Michael! I always knew you could do it if you wanted to, ever since that geodesic dome thingy. You'll have to show me some of your work someday."
Mentally, Michael was doing a happy-dance right now. Relief spread itself right through every molecule he possessed and he exhaled the breath he had been desperately holding. "Yeah sure, I actually have a certain spot at this gallery thing my friend owns."
"Wow you have friends too? Never would have expected that? Are you sure you're our Spaceboy, or are you just an impostor?" Maria teased.
Michael smirked, "Yeah, really I'm my evil twin, we were separated at birth." Missing Maria's pained expression, Michael started laughing so hard at the mental image of Max having to deal with two teenage Michael's, that his throat ached and his stomach hurt. "Oh…poor...Max…!" he exclaimed gasping for breath. He looked up at Maria who had recovered from the shock and was smiling wryly.
"We better go." She said quietly. They had been there for several hours; the kitchen looked a lot better, even if they hadn't remembered to do any work for the last half an hour. They started walking across the mess, to the front door. His car was parked right out front; he looked around for her car but couldn't see it. It was a long way to walk.
Michael looked at his watch; it was 3pm. Dinner was officially starting in another 3 hours. "Yeah…do you uh, want me to give you a lift back to yours? The car is a little bashed up; I'm guessing Isabel told you about how she found me?"
Maria flashed a smile at him, a real smile, the one that made his brain completely empty of any thoughts. "Yeah I heard about that. Well done on your part, Isabel may have forgotten about it last night but she won't let you off the hook for the financial coverage."
Michael laughed. "Ahh that's alright, I do quite well back hom…um where I live." He stumbled over the 'home' word, a word he had never truly believed while living with Rory and the boys. Maria gave him a sideways glance and that irritatingly wonderful knowing smile.
"You do quite well? As a lowly student painter? You must be good." She grinned and by doing so informed him that she was letting him off the hook about the 'home' problem. His eyes spelled relief as she answered his question. "Best not drive me home, I don't know if my mom is back yet from her work things and I don't think she'd be too happy to see you. She isn't as forgiving as me, as you may remember…"
"Good point. Maybe I shouldn't give you a ride." He said quickly. His eyes had widened in terror as he recalled meeting her mother for the first time and simultaneously meeting her mother's Newspaper of Doom. "In fact, maybe we just don't mention to her that I'm here at all yeah? She'll definitely use something worse than a newspaper," Michael winced at the thought and covered his crotch, "like a Machete…"
Maria giggled; the worried expression on his face was both extremely adorable and extremely comical. He certainly had lightened up over the years. "I'm afraid that won't be possible, she's coming tonight for the dinner. She knows about the alien things and has done for a while and she's married the Sheriff, Jim, who by the way has been a great help over the years of fighting evil aliens and aiding us to achieve universal peace for your home planet."
Michael stared at her in silence and Maria couldn't help but smirk as she continued on,
"Don't worry, you'll hear all about that tonight, I gotta go get ready since I don't think Isabel would be happy about me coming to a 'dinner' in red sneakers. Good luck tonight and hey -" Maria sauntered up to him, licking her lips and invading his personal space. The air was electric and both of them remembered the significance of that action. The motel. The abduction. Maria raised her head and let her lips brush his as she huskily whispered, "if I were you…I'd wear a cup buddy boy." Then with a wicked grin she ran around the side of the house, jumped in her car and left the still immobilised, yet now very horny, alien watching the dust trails.
"Damn. What a woman."
Now he'd have to take a cold shower.
Tbc….
Just a quick note, it's been a while since I've written something this long and detailed. So please any comments/criticisms are all very welcome.
AgathaN: Well I did say it was only a filler, something to keep me from forgetting the fic altogether. This is a much longer part now though, so thank you for the review! I hope you're happy with this! XD
Twylight and Isis: Ahh you guys, you're always so wonderful at reviewing. Glad to hear the anxiety is bubbling there, at least I'm not terribly boring you with my fic. 'Fraid this new part may leave you even more anxious but at least its getting on with the fic some more lol.
Keirah: Thanks for reviewing! Glad you like it.
Hayley: Another truly faithful reviewer - thanks a lot! I promise no more stranger-ness. I shall try and work on this as often as I can in between silly a-levels. Hope you had a great Christmas/new year. I'm glad you're enjoying this.