Ending Two, Part 9 (or Part 85)
Michael stood in the shadow cast by an idling semi truck, his trained eyes scanning the steady stream of vehicles entering and leaving the parking lot where the fuel pumps were located. The lot was sectioned off with diesel fuel islands on the back side of the large station where the large trucks could fuel up and further back was the expansive gravel lot where they could park. The fuel islands at the front of the station were set up for smaller vehicles that didn't operate on diesel fuel, and off to one side was a paved parking lot for people who were stopping in for a meal or just a break from the road after fueling up.
His eyes narrowed when a blue car pulled into the entrance and he straightened up when he saw that it was the right make and model. He watched as the drivers' side door opened and a man stepped out. Too young. Definitely not the car he was waiting for. Before he and Maria had made their last trip to the Granolith he had hacked into the necessary databases to gather all of the information he could find about the accident. He knew they would be stopping at this truck stop for fuel before continuing on their way and based on the time of the accident they would be arriving soon.
He watched the bustling activity on both sides of the station, observing the more methodical fueling habits of the truck drivers coming in and out. Most of the drivers were stopping out of necessity, fueling their rigs, running into the station for something to eat or to grab a shower before hitting the road again. His gaze returned to the other side of the station, watching as the other travelers took their time milling about, fueling up, browsing the station for something to munch on or sitting down inside at the restaurant to eat before moving on.
He felt an odd tingling sensation at the back of his neck and he straightened up as his shaded gaze swung to the entrance. His eyes dropped to the license plate, noting the mix of numbers and letters imprinted on the yellow background. His target had arrived. He visually followed the car as it pulled into the fuel islands and he watched as a man stepped out of the drivers' side. He recognized Philip Evans from the pictures he had seen in the family's home and as he watched the man opened up the back door and the children escaped the confines of the backseat.
Max was excited to give his dad a hand as he filled the tank, checked the tires, and fiddled around under the hood checking fluid levels. Isabel stuck her nose up when the offer to help was extended to her and she hurried to follow her mother into the station. His eyes narrowed when she paused at the door and turned to look around curiously before her mother called her to come inside. Was it possible that she felt his presence? He didn't know much about their abilities but there was nothing out of the ordinary going on around them, nothing that would capture her attention.
He knew his window for disabling their vehicle was small and there were too many people around to do anything under the hood. That opportunity would only present itself if they pulled over to the parking lot and decided to go inside for something to eat. Unfortunately nothing in the report indicated that they would do that. Over the past couple of days he had taken a couple of practice runs, checking the response time of the local roadside assistance. Response time was sluggish at best but he couldn't risk them choosing today to be at the top of their game.
He waited until father and son had disappeared into the large station and he crossed the lot. He had long ago mastered the art of blending in and going unnoticed and he used that advantage now to move between the islands, pausing next to several cars and using his knife to quickly slice off the valve stems on random tires. He removed two on the Evans' car, not willing to risk it in case Philip decided to just change the tire out with the spare and continue on his way.
He disappeared back into the shadows and waited for the reactions of the customers who were now disabled. A couple of them simply accepted the fact that someone had played a trick on them and changed out their tires. He smirked when one guy went off, throwing a fit and cursing a blue streak when he saw the damage. It only took a moment to realize the guy didn't have a spare and that just heightened his amusement.
Two islands over Philip Evans had stopped in his perusal of the damage to stand up and turn to look at the man his little boy was staring at. Michael wondered if he would say something to the loudmouth cursing loudly. It wasn't like the kid hadn't heard the words before but he could easily see how protective the man was as he placed his hand on his son's shoulder and turned him back to face the car as he spoke to him quietly.
"Philip, honey, maybe I should take the kids inside and we'll just stay here for dinner," Diane Evans said as she glanced at the man who was now kicking his flat tire. "They have a nice restaurant and from what the manager was saying this might take a little time."
He checked his watch and nodded. "Well, I don't suppose we'll be making Dallas at our expected time with this mess," he motioned to the tires. "Let's have dinner and then I'll call the hotel, let them know we'll be checking in late."
Across the parking lot Michael nodded to himself. The family would be stopped at the station for a couple of hours, minimum. He had bought the time necessary to ensure that they wouldn't be involved in the accident that had claimed their lives in his timeline. He would wait to make sure they were safely back on the road before making his own way back to Roswell to finish his mission.
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The factory was humming with activity, the foreman shouting out instructions and the workers running to follow his orders. Raul Calderon had held his position for nearly a dozen years and he took pride in running a smooth operation. He walked along the staging area and narrowed his eyes when he caught two of his guys slacking off, ignoring the truck that was waiting to be unloaded.
"That wall doesn't need any help stayin' upright."
"Just takin' a break, boss," one of them said.
"I didn't hear the break whistle." His pointed gaze bounced between the two of them. "Did you?"
"It's just a five-minute break," the second one grumbled.
"Your shift's over," he barked, waving his clipboard back toward the lockers. "Get your gear and take off." He turned without waiting for them to comply, scanning the workers busily unloading the other trucks backed up to the docks. He glanced over his clipboard and backtracked to dock three.
He stood off to the side and watched the man working to unload the truck. Dependable, talked very little, and worked hard, Mike Lucado kept his nose to the ground and did whatever was asked of him. He had spoken with the one of his second shift supervisors and learned that Lucado's wife had been inquiring about changing shifts. He knew working different shifts could be hell on a couple but he also knew having the two of them working the same shift could be hell on him.
He wondered if Lucado would ask to switch shifts to work third with his wife. He had stayed a few times to observe her working habits, and like her husband she was a hard worker and in the time the couple had been working at the factory they had both been reliable and always done what was required of them. They didn't work in the same area, which would lessen the chance that the two of them working the same shift would become problematic. He watched the man and shook his head. He would see about finding a place for her on second. The majority of his shipments came in on second and he wasn't about to lose one of his hardest workers.
"Lucado," he called loudly to be heard over the noise on the docks.
Michael pulled the pallet down over the dock plate and reached up to pull the earplugs from his ears, letting them dangle from the cord around his neck. "Yeah, boss?"
"Truck on dock 17 needs to be unloaded when you're finished here."
"Dock 17's the shipment from Dallas?" He continued when the foreman nodded. "Want the pallets broken down and the parts shelved when I've got it unloaded?" He nodded in response to the foreman's thumbs-up gesture, put his earplugs back in his ears, and went back to work.
Michael moved the pallet to its designated place and went back to retrieve the next one. He shoved the forks of the pallet jack up under the pallet and jacked it up, growling under his breath when it refused to move. He pulled the lever on the handle, releasing the hydraulics and lowering the forks before pulling the jack backwards a couple of inches and repeating the process.
He unloaded the trucks and set about breaking down the pallets, but his mind was on his run-in with the future version of Maria. For the first couple of days after it had happened he had been more concerned with making sure Maria never had to go through that again. But now, as they were falling back into their normal routine the flashes he had received from her future self were at the forefront of his mind and he couldn't stop thinking about what he had seen. He had tried to keep his thoughts in check because some of the things he had seen were really bothering him.
He grabbed one of the short crowbars from a hook on the wall and used it to pry the top off of the first crate. An image of Maria in that other Michael's arms hit him and he gave the crowbar a violent jerk. So far the only thing he had been able to do to control the jealousy that hit him every time he remembered those images was to shove them aside and focus on something else. He hooked the rounded end of the crowbar in his front pocket and lifted the lid off of the crate, setting it aside before reaching down to lift up the first of the heavy parts that needed to be tagged, entered into the system, and shelved.
Michael spent the next six hours forcing his mind to stay away from the flashes he had gotten from the future version of Maria. He worked without thinking of anything but matching the parts to their designated locations. If he let those memories get away from him he might lose control of his powers and that was something he couldn't risk.
As he drove home he let the thoughts loose, focusing his mind on the man Maria had come into contact with in that other universe. His counterpart had been a major prick and he didn't know how she had put up with such an insufferable bastard for so long. He pulled up in front of their house and sat behind the wheel for several minutes, staring at the darkened windows. The moon was full, casting a bright white light over the landscape and without actively thinking about it he got out of the truck and walked around behind the house.
Normally Maria would be meeting him on his way into the house because she'd be on her way out, heading to the factory to work her shift. But she wasn't on the schedule for tonight and he knew without that God-awful alarm clock going off six inches from her ear she wouldn't wake up. He followed the path around the house and farther out, taking the left fork that led to the riverbed. He veered off to the left when the path forked again and he walked until he reached an area that wasn't too steep to climb down. He made his way down the incline, slipping on loose gravel and regaining his balance as he landed on the floor of the ravine.
He walked along the edge of the riverbed that was already drying up again, the water collected from the heavy rain days earlier already gone. The bottom was muddy with small pools of water collected in the rutted bottom. The weather was beginning to cool, which meant it would take a few days for the ground to completely dry up again. Flashes that he had gotten from the future version of Maria hit him hard as he neared the place that felt so familiar yet so alien at the same time. He stared at the rocky ground beneath his feet and through the flashes he could see himself lying there, could feel the cold seeping into his body as his life bled away. He shook himself to get rid of the images of the devastation ravaging Maria's features, the agony tearing through her as she shook his lifeless body and screamed for him to come back to her.
He leaned back against a boulder and crossed his legs at the ankles as he contemplated the ground. After several minutes he dropped his head back and stared up at the sky. It was clear tonight, not a cloud as far as the eye could see, and he could feel the slight drop in temperature. He reached up to run his hands over his face as more memories of the flashes pushed their way to the surface and he winced at the way his counterpart had spoken to Maria. He could feel the way the man's words and tone had nearly cut her to the bone at times and beneath that he could feel her steely determination to not let it break her. She had fought long and hard to get through to the other man and courtesy of the flashes that he was slowly sorting out he could feel the emotional rollercoaster ride she had been on as she had made progress with him.
Guilt had warred with her burgeoning feelings for a man who both was and wasn't him. After everything she had been through with that other version of him she had come back to him with the knowledge that doing so meant she was forfeiting her own opportunity for happiness. She had been safe in that other universe. No running for her life, being hunted like an animal. A scene in the Granolith chamber where she learned that she had no choice but to return to her universe with no expectation of saving him presented to her. He rubbed his hands over his face and exhaled roughly. She had returned to the Granolith believing she would be returning to him, but the damn thing had taken her hope and crushed it. The feelings of anger, pain, and betrayal had coursed through her at the realization that any real choice had been taken from her.
Yes, she could have remained in that other universe. She could have stayed with his alternate self and had more of a life than she had expected to have upon returning to her original universe but the Granolith had even stripped the choices from her, warning her that not returning to the chamber would not stop her from being returned to her universe. He could feel her resignation as she finally accepted that even though she had no opportunity to save him she did have the ability to save his counterpart. She had known that by saving that other version of him she would be giving him the life they might have had together. She would be giving him a chance to really live and know what it was like to have a family.
His eyes clenched shut as unbidden, the images of her last night with his counterpart flashed before him. She had been torn, loving both of them, and having to give up the one chance she had left at happiness. She could have risked it all, stayed with his other self, and from what he could tell, the man was more than willing to take that risk. But she had known what it meant to his universe for him to do what was necessary to save the others and she had sacrificed what they might have had together in their present for what their counterparts could have in another timeline.
His hands curled into fists at his sides as the images of her making love with that bastard hit him. He had known they weren't far behind the others but this was the first time they had managed to get past his defenses and he couldn't shield them from his mind's eye. His heart pounded, his stomach turned in a nauseating roll, and his hands were clenched so tightly they hurt. It was jealousy and he knew it, but he hated that any other man had touched her, hated that he had intimate knowledge of her that should belong to him alone.
But he wasn't just some other man, his conscience whispered. He was you. Even at the end she had been plagued with warring feelings of love and guilt. Getting involved with his counterpart wasn't something she had done lightly. It had torn her apart on a constant basis; every bit of happiness she had felt had been tainted by the guilt. He had to let it go and he knew it; obsessing over this thing was allowing jealousy to eat him alive.
He forced his eyes open and inhaled deeply, taking in deep lungfuls of the cold desert air. It had happened in a different timeline. Even though he would prefer to have not seen those images he knew what lengths she would go to if it meant there was any possibility that she could save his life. He couldn't really fault her for becoming involved with his counterpart. The man was, in some form at least, him. And even though the man had been a jerk he had protected her and kept her safe in a universe that was unfamiliar to her.
He nodded to himself as the pieces finally fell together for him and he was able to take them and put them away. She had done what was necessary to survive, and in the course of her journey her heart had gotten involved and she had taken solace in the arms of another version of him. All that really mattered was that she had saved him, and in the process, saved both of them. He looked around the rocky ground one last time before retracing his steps and returning to the house.
Once inside he stood in the doorway to their bedroom, watching Maria sleep. She was frowning, her left arm stretching out across the mattress in search of him. He smiled as he sat down on the side of the bed and in less than a heartbeat her hand found his and she sighed contentedly. He would've been content to sit there the rest of the night just watching her as she slept but after a few moments the frown returned to her face and her eyes flickered a couple of times before opening. She blinked and looked around fuzzily before her green eyes landed on him.
"You're freezing, Michael," she mumbled, still half-asleep. "Why didn't you wear your coat?"
The words, meant to be chastising were slurred but filled with concern.
"I will next time," he promised.
She clumsily fumbled with his shirt and he quickly stripped it off and threw it on the floor as he shoved the covers back and let her pull him down into her arms. She pulled at the covers and he reached over her to grab them before tugging her up against him and feeling warmth seep into his body. "Love you," she said, the words muffled against his chest.
He kissed her forehead and rubbed his hands over her arms. "Love you too, Maria." He felt sleep tugging at him and for the first time since he had run into her future self out on the road he felt like he would sleep through the night peacefully. They were finally where they belonged and he knew they would be careful to make sure nothing came between them.