Part 37

It wasn't until several days later that the database search paid off and Michael stared at it in disbelief. Maria was at work so he couldn't share the information with her, but he printed off everything the database had gathered and grabbed his keys as he walked through the kitchen on his way to the garage.

He didn't recognize or question his decision to take the information to her; he just knew he couldn't wait another six hours for her to get home. The drive that normally took an hour was made in less time and before he realized it he was pulling into the parking lot at the bar. He relinquished his weapons at the door, growling at Raphael when he gave him his locker number and put his gear away for safekeeping.

He made a quick visual sweep of the interior and located Maria without any trouble; she was serving the group he normally hung around with when he came to the bar. He frowned when he noticed that Novak had joined them and he was grinning at Maria and saying something that she only shook her head at before moving on. He moved to the bar to order a beer while he waited for Maria to make her way back from her customers and he looked up when he felt someone settle on the stool next to his.

Stone was leaning on the counter with a teasing grin on her face as she watched him. "I just passed your kill total," she bragged as she downed the shot of whiskey she held in her right hand.

He shook his head as the woman behind the bar placed his beer on the counter in front of him. "Not possible; you were one behind me. So, if you had a kill shot on your last assignment then you only tied with me."

She smirked. "I took out two targets and that puts me one ahead of you."

"Thirty-one confirmed kills?" He took a long drink from his bottle as he thought about that. "Hope you're not plannin' to hold onto that for very long." He turned his head to follow Stone's predatory gaze when she locked onto something across the room and he wasn't surprised to see that she had zeroed in on the man talking to Gabriel.

"Who is that?"

"Detective Lawson," Maria answered, overhearing the question as she stepped back behind the counter. "He came by to see if anyone had heard anything about some break-ins in the neighborhood."

"Well, there you go," Michael said, nudging Stone's shoulder, "he's a cop, you're an agent, you've both got handcuffs… go for it."

Maria could've happily gagged when Stone just smiled at Michael and ruffled his hair affectionately before sliding off of the stool and making her way across the room. She shoved the jealousy aside; she was no longer denying it, she just didn't want to deal with it. "What're you doing here?"

He took another drink from his bottle and leaned forward over the bar. "I found Dupree."

Maria froze, staring at him in disbelief. "Wait, you found him… he's alive?"

"Alive, allegedly crazy, and livin' all alone outside of San Angelo, Texas." He pulled the folded papers out of the inside pocket of his leather jacket and laid them on the counter for her to look at.

Maria glanced through the papers before looking at him. "What're you gonna do now?"

"Go see him and get some answers."

"By yourself?"

This was the tricky part, Michael thought. He wasn't prepared to just ask her if she wanted to go with him because then she'd think he wanted her to go and that was the last thing he needed her to think. "Why? You don't think that's a good idea?"

"Well, what're you gonna say to him? You don't know how he feels about… things, or how receptive he's gonna be to meeting you." She wiped the counter down and shrugged one shoulder, trying to act nonchalant. "I'm just saying that it might be good to get an idea of his actual state of mind before you go barging in there."

"So, you're sayin' you wanna invite yourself along for my trip?" he asked, frowning. That's right, play it cool and make it sound like you're annoyed by the prospect of her presence on your trip. He scratched his chin as he waited for her to speak, acting like he was considering it.

"Why not? I'd like to meet him too, y'know, and I can help you get in to see him."

"How?"

"I can go out to his place, pretend I'm there doing research into alien abductees or something, and that way we'll be able to tell if he's gonna be willing to even listen to what you have to say."

Michael folded the papers over when she handed them back to him, putting them in his pocket and considering what she was saying. "Hmmm, I hadn't really thought about it like that." A complete and utter lie, but she didn't need to know that. "So, you'd just go in and do a little recon… I guess that'd be okay." He nodded. "We can fly out there and then I thought maybe we could rent a motorcycle, drive to Santa Fe, visit with Indigo, and then see if I can con him into bringin' us back to L.A. How's that sound?"

Maria didn't comment on his slip of the tongue, hiding her smile when she realized that he wanted her to go but didn't want her to think it was his idea. "Sounds good. I'm off the next three days, but I can talk to Gabriel after closing if you think it's gonna take any longer than that."

"Nah, we should only be gone a couple days at the most." He finished his beer and stood up. "Okay, well, I'm gonna head home then and make flight reservations for first thing in the mornin'."

Maria shook her head and smiled as she watched him walk out of the bar, stopping near the entrance to talk to Gabriel first. She wondered if the feeling of anticipation had to do with the trip itself, or if it was because she would be with Michael.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Maria followed Michael to the elevator at the hotel in San Angelo, too tired to even bother asking if he had gotten one room or two. As soon as she had gotten home he had insisted that she pack and get ready to go so they could get to the airport in plenty of time for their flight.

They stepped out on the second floor and she leaned against the wall when he stopped at one of the doors and pulled the key card out of his shirt pocket. He swiped the card, reached inside to turn the lights on, and entered the room to look around for anything that seemed out of place. Once he was satisfied that everything was in order he dropped the key card on the dresser and turned to look at Maria. "I've got the room next door, so if you need anything…" He shrugged and moved past her and back out into the hallway, pulling the door closed behind him.

Maria was too exhausted to even be surprised by his unexpected behavior as she sat down on the bed, kicking her shoes off and crawling under the blankets. She was asleep before she had time to formulate a single thought.

When she awoke several hours later it was early afternoon and she was hungry. Shower first, she thought as she rolled over and stretched. She turned the television on to a local news station to check the weather while she got her things together. After a nice long, hot shower she dressed in a comfortable pair of jeans and a colorful blouse, and then went to knock on Michael's door.

He answered the door wearing a pair of cargo pants, the snap undone and causing them to hang low on his hips. The towel in his right hand and the droplets of water dripping from the ends of his wet hair indicated that he had just gotten out of the shower. "I'll be finished in a few minutes," he said as he waved her inside and closed the door behind her before walking back to the bathroom.

Maria moved to the table in the corner, looking over the equipment stretched out across the polished surface. "What's all this?" she asked.

"Wiring equipment," he called, raising his voice to be heard.

"You're wiring something?"

"Yeah, you."

She jumped when he spoke up from right behind her and as she turned to face him she blamed her rapid heartbeat on his unexpected presence. "What're you talking about?"

"I mean you're not goin' in there unless I know what's goin' on at all times, so you're gonna wear a wire."

"Michael, he's like eighty-some years old, what do you think he's gonna do?"

"The point of goin' in prepared is to circumvent anything that he might do; if he's really who you say he is and he was actually abducted by aliens, we have no idea what he's capable of." His hands rested on his hips as he stared at her, trying to read her expression and decide if she was gonna give him a hard time. "You wear the wire or you don't go in."

"What?" Maria shook herself. She was having a difficult time concentrating with him standing so close. Bare-chested, fresh out of the shower… he looked and smelled good enough to eat!

Michael reached around her, intentionally crowding her and bringing his body right up against hers. He wasn't blind to the look in her eyes; his entire body had reacted to that look, and he was more than willing to postpone meeting some old crazy guy if it meant they were finally gonna set the sheets on fire.

Maria cleared her throat and squeezed her eyes shut when he practically plastered the front of his body to hers as he reached for something on the table behind her. God, he was gonna kill her… she could feel every hard inch of him pressed against her, his big body as hot as a branding iron right out of the fire, and it was taking everything she had to keep her hands at her sides.

"Don't you have something smaller?" she rasped when he finally moved back, even though it wasn't enough to create space between them.

"Not a chance," he growled, purposefully misunderstanding and making it a point to make sure she could feel his erection.

"I'm talking about your wiring equipment, you egotistical swine," she snapped, annoyed that her body was heating up in response to his proximity.

"Oh, good, we've already reached the no part of the day." He gathered all of his equipment up and carried it over to the bed, carefully placing it where he could reach everything and motioning for her to join him.

Maria moved, but stopped with more than two feet still between them, wary of being so close to him after reacting so strongly to him just minutes earlier.

"You can get closer; I might bite, but I've had all my shots." He reached out and snagged one of her belt loops and pulled her to stand between his knees.

"I really don't think all of this is necessary." Maria heard the breathless quality in her voice and she hated herself for it. Bastard could get under her skin in less than a second!

"It is if you're plannin' to go into this guy's territory without me at your back. Now," he made a downward motion with his right hand, "unbutton your shirt."

"Excuse me?"

Michael smiled at her incredulous tone. He was making progress with her, he could see it. She was affected to the point of not seeing reason and taking every word he said as a sexual advance. Yep, her mind was definitely going in the right direction as far as he was concerned. "It's gonna look kinda obvious if the wires are on the outside of your clothes." He huffed in irritation. "Look, it's not like I haven't seen it before and you already said no. What the fuck do you think I'm gonna do? Force myself on you?"

Maria shook her head and reached up to unbutton her blouse. It wasn't so much a fear of him as it was a fear of her response to him. She looked down to watch him as he straightened out the wires he intended to use and she forced herself to bring her breathing under control.

Michael kept his gaze focused on the wires he was busy connecting. He could've easily used a wire in the form of a pin she could put on her shirt but unlike her Michael he wasn't a saint and he had no problem lying to see some skin. He could feel the nervous energy running through her body where his knees were pressed against her legs, holding her in place.

He lifted his head and swallowed hard as his gaze slid over the bare skin of her midriff and traveled up over her lace-covered breasts. Why was he doing this again? he asked himself as his heartbeat sped up. He smirked when his fingertips brushed against her skin and she tried to jump back, but his grip on her legs prevented her from moving. That's right, he was proving a point… that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her.

"Don't you dare," Maria warned when he slid two fingers beneath the front clasp that held her bra together.

"Relax, princess, I need to run the wire under your bra." He held the clasp away from her skin and slid the wire beneath it before reaching up to hold it in place so he could slide his fingers free of her bra. He turned to grab a small roll of medical tape off of the bed and tore a strip off, pressing it over the wire where it rested between her breasts. The backs of his fingers brushed against her breasts intentionally before moving down to secure the wire against her body in several more places.

He took the loose end of the wire that was dangling from the last piece of tape he had placed against her skin at her waist and hooked it into a small square, black box. He made a couple of adjustments to it and double checked the connections before his hands settled at her hips.

"I think you're getting way too much enjoyment out of this," she sniped.

"Well, my dick's not complainin'," he said in an agreeable tone as he stood and wrapped his arms around her.

"What the hell are you doing now?"

He grinned, knowing she couldn't see his expression. "Gotta get your box wired."

Maria groaned, blaming it on his choice of words and not the fact that the only thing between them and full skin-on-skin contact above the waist was her bra. She squeezed her eyes shut when his thumbs slid into her waistband and she fisted her own hands to keep from grabbing onto him.

Michael had to bite his bottom lip when his thumbs brushed against her skin and he quickly finished attaching the box that carried the signal for the audio to her waistband and secured it to her belt loop as additional security. His hands were fisted right over her back pockets and he briefly toyed with the idea of behaving, but temptation won out and he uncurled his fingers and slid his hands down, splaying them over her ass. "Y'know, we could always go see the old guy later," he murmured suggestively.

"This was just a cheap tactic to cop a feel," she snarled, finally pulling herself together and shoving him away. "Your behavior is disgusting and I can't believe that after all the time that we've spent together your only interest is pawing me like some… some…"

"Look, it's not a one-way street, baby; you wanna cop a feel…" He took a step back and held his arms open wide, "go for it. Matter of fact, give me a couple of seconds strip down and then you can really feel it all."

"Would you just get ready so we can go?"

Michael had the audacity to smirk at her. "You wanna know why you're pissed? You're pissed because you want me to nail you through the mattress and you're getting tired of always sayin' no."

"I'm pissed because you refuse to respect my feelings, Michael! God, why can't you just be like you've been for the past week? Why do you have to go and turn every little thing into something sexual? Do you honestly think it's easy for me to be around you and not think about what it would be like to just take what you've offered? I'm only human, Michael, and you're not stupid; you have to know what it does to me when you act like this." She ran her hands through her hair as she paced around the room, agitated by his behavior. "You look like my Michael, sometimes you talk like my Michael, and you feel like my Michael, but you'll never be him and you'll never replace him! I don't care what the Granolith thinks, you're not him and you're never gonna be able to replace him!"

"I don't give a fuck about replacin' him." He grabbed a shirt out of the small closet in the dressing area and pulled it on over his head. "You wanna spend the rest of your life alone and not getting laid, go right ahead." He paused in front of her and stared down at her. "You think this is what he would've wanted for you? Hate me all you want, Maria, but you're not the one who died." He didn't even try to stop her open palm from cracking against the side of his face this time.

"He wouldn't have wanted me to fuck you just because you look like him and it'd be convenient all the way around." She braced her fisted hands on her hips and glared at him, taking a step backwards when he advanced on her. "Don't touch me!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake, would you quit actin' like some blushin' virgin for five seconds?" he snapped as he reached out to button her shirt up. "Your argument would be a lot more convincin' if your breasts weren't right there, in my face! It doesn't really matter how much you fight it, Maria; you're gonna end up in my bed, screamin' my name…" He leaned in until he was so close that it was almost impossible to focus on his dark, angry eyes. "My name," he snarled.

Maria glared at him, silently telling him to get away from her. "Let's go talk to Dupree; I'm not interested in anymore of your opinions."

"Whatever." He grabbed his equipment and his key card and followed her out of the room.