Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters. Just borrowing them. :)

Category: Michael and Maria

Rating:PG

Summery: While spending yet another sleepless night in the summer before his junior year, Michael Guerin decides to test out a power he’s never really used before – dreamwalking.

Warning: Spoilers to Destiny.

Roswell, New Mexico -- July 2000

At midnight, the small town of Roswell, New Mexico was eerily quiet. The moon was full overhead as Michael Guerin wandered through the silent streets, his footsteps echoing behind him. Loose wisps of clouds were caught in the circle of glowing white that surrounding the cratered orb. The wind carried a welcome chill, and Michael pulled his jacket tighter around his shoulders as he walked, oblivious to the direction his feet carried him as he was caught up in his thoughts.

It wasn’t just the cool night air that brought him out that night. Ever since school let out, he’d been plagued with insomnia that seemed to get worse as summer wore on. No, that wasn’t true, Michael amended. It got worse the longer he was away from her. It had been a month since Michael had walked away from Maria with no more of an explanation than this: He loved her too much. It had seemed like the right decision at the time, shaken as he was from the experience of killing a man. He’d felt like a ticking bomb that might go off any second. And when he did, he would destroy the people around him. The people close to him. The thought of hurting her actually caused his heart to physically ache. The pain had been culminating over the summer. Because he had done it. He had hurt her. He could see it in her eyes. Sometimes the truth hurt. And the truth was he needed her, more than he ever knew, and that was why he had to stay away from her. He couldn’t need her this much. He couldn’t. He didn’t need her. He didn’t! Maybe if he told himself that enough times one day he would believe it. Michael squeezed his eyes shut, and fought the emotion that made his throat ache and his heart tighten in his chest. And why is that Michael? A voice in his head asked him. Why? He loved her too much. He didn’t know it was possible to love someone that much. And that’s what scared him more than anything else.

He longed to forget what he knew he could not. He’d felt something with her that he’d never known before. Something that endangered him from the intense emotions she had awaken in him, dragging him fighting to a place that he never wanted to leave, a paradise that seemed as though it was balanced on the tip of a pin, captured in the silences of words unspoken. A place that might disappear at any given moment and prove to him once more that such strange and wonderful things as this love just don’t happen to people like him, reckless and scarred orphans who didn’t belong on this earth, who’d never known before what it was like to be held in the arms of someone who loved them.

He should have known better than that, Michael berated himself as he looked at where he now found himself. Of course he would end up right in front of her house. His feet knew where to go, even if the rest of him couldn’t figure it out. He would always find his way back to her, no matter how hard he tried to push her away.

Her green eyes didn’t stare back at him though the curtain of sparkling beads this time, but a dim light, a desk lamp, glowed through the darkness, and Michael saw movement inside. Despite himself, Michael moved closer. Maria was standing with her back to him, fingering something thoughtfully, but her slender body blocked his sight of the object she was staring at. Then she visibly stiffened, picking up the object and moving across to her dresser. She yanked open a top drawer and threw the object inside. She slammed it shut with a resounding thud. But that quick motion was enough for Michael to see what she had been looking at. It had been a napkin holder. Maria threw herself down on her bed, and Michael could swear he saw her shoulders quiver slightly. For a moment he was torn, but the old stonewall and fear of connections made him turn away, however reluctantly.

An hour later found him pacing across the living room floor in his apartment. The sleeplessness and agitation that had caused him to take that walk through the town had not yet left him. In fact, it was made worse by seeing Maria again, and the knowledge that she was unhappy because of him. His eyes fell upon a simple wooden frame that rested on a small table by the door. Beneath the glass was a picture of Max, Izzy and himself some carefree day last summer before all hell broke loose in more ways than one with the firing of a gun in a small café. But the image of his brother and sister weren’t what held his attention. Tucked in the very corner of the frame was a small wallet size picture of Maria. Michael doubted Maria even knew that he had a copy. They weren’t exactly friends the day that school pictures were being exchanged last year. Not that they were really friends now. Michael decided that their relationship was permanently stuck on ‘undefined.’

But still, the small image of Maria stared back at him, grinning broadly, green eyes sparkling. He picked it up. And then an idea came to him. So ridiculous that at first he laughed out loud. Maxwell and Izzy were the ones with all the skills when it came to using their powers, not Michael. Never Michael. He had been practicing with Nasedo and Tess for that last month . . . but that didn’t mean anything, Michael told himself fiercely. A month’s practice isn’t going to make him ready to dream walk, and that wasn’t going to help him with the impossible task of forgetting Maria. He laid the picture down again.

He went to the kitchen and pulled a cherry coke from the refrigerator. He pulled the tab on the can while reaching for a bottle of Tabasco sauce. He shook the bottle a few times over the can and took a small swallow of the drink. He made a face. Still too sweet. He added some more Tabasco sauce, and took another taste. Perfect. Clutching his coke in one hand and the bottle of Tabasco sauce, just in case, in the other, Michael headed back to the living room.

He passed the photo.

Michael took a deep breath. “No,” he told himself sternly, and then felt like an idiot for talking to himself.

He plopped down on the couch and flipped on the television. Soon, he was surfing through the channels on his TV, trying to find something, anything, that would take his mind off Maria. His eyes strayed once more to the framed picture with the small photo in the corner. He shook his head and forced his eyes back on the television. A few seconds later he flipped it off. The small apartment was once more as silent as a tomb, and Michael couldn’t stand it.

A few strides took him to the table with the photograph. Just one try, he promised himself, reaching for Maria’s picture. He took it back to the couch and sat down.

Michael took a few deep breaths as he clutched the picture and stared hard at it. Then, he held his breath, focusing every molecule of his body on Maria’s face and willing himself to get into her dreams. Nothing. With an audible whoosh, Michael let go of the breath he’d been holding.

“Damn it, this isn’t working!” Michael grumbled. How did Isabel do it? He wondered, thinking back on every conversation he’d ever had with Isabel about that power, but his mind wasn’t functioning from the lack of sleep he’d had lately. Michael yawned. How did Izzie do it?

Not one to give up easily, Michael tried again, forgetting his earlier promise to himself. He would do this. He would. Just . . . got to . . . focus. Michael yawned again. He rubbed his eyes, and ran his fingers through his hair. Okay. Maria. Maria sleeping. Maria’s dreams. Me with Maria. Michael squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as Maria’s face came in and out of focus. He stifled yet another yawn. Maria . . . sleeping . . . His eyes felt heavy, and he closed them before he could see the image of Maria rippling beneath his fingers. His head nodded over to the side.

Michael sat at a booth in the Crashdown Café, sipping from a Cherry Coke laced with Tabasco sauce. A half-eaten apple pie with mustard, the perfect alien combination, sat on the table in front of him. A voice drifted his way. “Are they good Czechoslovakians? Are they bad Czechoslovakians? We don’t know! They’re just random Czechoslovakians,” Maria said, emphasizing her last point with a swift jab of a needle into an alien doll that she was carrying. She rounded the corner, Liz in tow, laden with alien-themed food piled high on her tray, her alien doll now hanging lovingly from her apron pocket, a bright red pin sticking from its shoulder in a voodoo doll fashion. Was it his imagination or did that doll bare a distinct resemblance to Michael, despite the green skin and large black eyes?

Maria stopped short when she saw Michael. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Eating pie,” Michael said, holding up his fork as if to prove it. “Apparently,” he mumbled. He gave the pie a distrusting poke before putting his fork back down. When he looked up Maria was gone. A quick scan of the restaurant revealed her to be a few tables down taking an order.

“Now if I order a blood of alien smoothie,” her customer was saying, “do I get to choose which alien it comes from?” He smiled a bewitching smile, his eyes like a snake’s. Maria gave Pierce her brightest customers smile, hoping to make up for the lack of big tippers this afternoon. “Now why would you want to hurt a poor defensless alien?” She asked while leaning on the table. Pierce’s bewitching smile hardened slightly, yet it went unnoticed by Maria.

“Defenseless? Ahh…if you only knew…” he stopped and looked at her name tag, “Maria” he drawled giving her a sexy smile. Maria giggled and played with her hair coyly. He was older but, hey, money is money. And she was in definite lack of it. She looked back at him to find a thoughtful look on his face. “You weren’t here the day that poor girl got shot, were you? The thought of a pretty girl like you in danger…well it just makes me sick.” He said charmingly.

At the mention of the shooting Maria visibly tensed and stood straight up. “Yea I was here….Now would you like fries with your Blast Off Burger?” She said quickly, trying to change the subject. Pierces eyes narrowed and he smiled slightly at her behavior. She knew something. He could feel it. “It’s amazing that girl’s ok. I heard a rumor her boyfriend saved her life or something.” Maria suddenly dropped her order book and looked around nervously. Maria was beginning to panic now. The whole subject of Czechovakians made her uneasy. “What? I-…She-…He-“ Her words were all coming out in a rush now. She took out her vile of cedar oil out of her pocket, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes she looked directly at Pierce. She gave him another DeLuca smile. “Look Mister, you’re new here so let me give you a piece of advice: Don’t take anything you hear around here seriously. Roswell is a small town and there isn’t much to do in a small town so when something big happens people gossip. And that’s what you heard: small town gossip” With another bright smile she turned on her heel and flounced away.

“Yes, Mr. Parker the napkin holders are filled…Yes, the grill is cleaned…No, I’m not trying to skip out on my duties…MR. PARKER!! Its after one in the morning!! The windows can wait until morning!”

Michael smiled as Maria’s exasperated voice echoed through the dark alley. He did this sometimes, walk her home. Only, she didn’t know it. He’d actually started doing this before the shooting. There was just something about her. An innocence that he felt a need to protect.

It began like every other night. She stumbled out the door talking to herself and disturbing the peace that once was held in the alley. She got to her car and began to rifle through her purse for her keys, spilling random girly stuff out all over the ground in the process. “AH HA!” She cried triumphantly as she seized the lost item. Just as she was putting her key in the lock she heard a noise from the darkest part of the alley. She stopped and looked around. “Hello? Is someone there? Alex if that’s you, I’m really not in the mood.” She started walking towards the noise just as a figure jumped out and grabbed her, wrapping his hand around her mouth.

“Ah ah ah, Ms. DeLuca, we wouldn’t want to get more people involved in this little escapade of ours than necessary now would we?” Maria panicked as he said her name and flailed around recklessly. Suddenly, a black car came barreling down the alley, stopping inches before Maria and her assailant.

As Maria was being dragged to the car, Michael saw his chance. He flew out of his hiding spot, knocking into the pair. Suddenly, the three were a tangled mess, kicking and scratching (Michael assumed that was Maria’s work). All of a sudden, a hand came out of nowhere grabbing Michael by the collar. Michael looked up to see a large beefy man who didn’t look particularly happy. Michael looked over to Maria who was struggling with her own beefy brute. Finally Michael looked to Maria’s kidnapper.

Pierce was brushing himself off with a sarcastic smile on his face. “Mr. Guerin, well, well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise. It looks like this promises to be a more informative night than I originally anticipated.” He then looked toward the two refrigerator sized men, his expression becoming blank and cold. “Put them in the car” he said with a hard voice. Michael and Maria were roughly tossed in the car on Pierce’s command.

“LEMME OUT RIGHT NOW YOU STUPID BASTARDS!!” You don’t want to mess with me!! I know Kung-Fu!” She yelled carelessly and angrily.

“Maria, Maria, I’m disappointed. I thought we established a relationship this afternoon.” Pierce said with his smooth drawl. “We didn’t establish jack, you sicko!!” She spat back at him. His snakelike smile became cold. “How disappointing…” Pierce said just before they both fell into darkness.

Michael woke up to whiteness. White everywhere. He tried to move only to discover that he was strapped to a table. He looked over to see Maria strapped to the table next to him. “Maria…Maria!” Michael whispered loudly. She moaned and shook her head. “Hey…” He whispered louder. She shifted again. “Hey…WAKE UP!” he finally yelled. “WHAT?” She burst out. She opened her eyes and looked around. Michael could see the fear in her eyes growing with every second. Her lower lip began to tremble. “Oh god…we’re going to die, aren’t we?” she said shakily. “Hey…No…It’s going to be ok…somehow…it’ll be ok” Michael replied unsure of even himself

Suddenly a wall opened and Pierce walked through wearing a white jumpsuit. “You two are awake. Lovely.” Pierce said with an evil smile. “Michael, I must say, you are the unexpected bonus of the evening. I was planning on extracting some information from Ms. DeLuca here. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have the pleasure of the suspected N.O.T.E.s.” Pierce smiled at Michael’s confused face. “Not of this Earth, in civilian’s terms.” Pierce clapped his hands together and smiled. “Well enough chit chat. Let’s get down to business.” Pierce wheeled over a tray of sharp instruments. “Michael since you were so anxious to accompany us on this expedition, you should have the honors of going first.” Pierce brought out what looked like a small chain saw. “Don’t worry…I won’t kill you…that would defeat your entire purpose for being here. We need to see how alien bodies work…hands on” He smiled and revved up chain saw a few times. “Now for a few questions…where are you from?” Michael screamed the saw hit flesh. He could vaguely hear Maria’s screams in the background.

When Michael awoke again he found that Pierce was gone. He looked over to see tears streaming down Maria’s face. “Did he hurt you?” Michael asked quickly, furious if the man had harmed a hair on her head. She sniffled. “No, but he said he was coming back to talk to me. Oh god Michael. Looked at what he did to you” Michael looked down to see blood staining the white table and floor. The image faded in and out of focus. He knew he would pass out again soon. He looked back to Maria. He repositioned himself so he could touch hold her hand. As he did a thousand images came streaming through his mind.

A man and a woman holding hands at a wedding. The man had the softest spikey hair and the woman…the woman had the most familiar green eyes. Suddenly there were children. Two girls and a boy…all with beautiful green eyes. He felt happiness…love. Finally, a sense of belonging. He belonged with her. These were emotions he had never known… emotions he could have known…with her. But a twist of fate destroyed the life that he could have had. Why was he being tortured with this? The sight of the life he could never know.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. She had tears in her eyes. She saw it too. “Oh god Michael. That was our future wasn’t it?” Maria began to fade out of focus. “Michael? Michael? Please don’t leave me! Michael…?” Her voice faded out as he fell into darkness.

Michael woke up again to see the bed next to him empty and Pierce hovering over him with that evil smile. Michael struggled in his straps. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER? WHERE IS SHE??? I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU HURT HER…,” Michael roared. Pierce smiled again. “You’ll probably be glad to know she died well. Wouldn’t say a thing sadly…that’s why we had to terminate her. But she did call your name while we had practiced our alien autopsy techniques on her” Michael closed his eyes and let out an inhuman cry. Suddenly the pain Pierce had inflicted on him didn’t come close to the pain in his heart. The one woman who could have loved him, who would have made him happy was gone. She died for him. The tears were falling freely down his face. “I left her…” He whispered to himself. “I left her” The last thing he heard was the motor of the chain saw.

“WHAHH!!?” Michael jolted up off the couch. He ran his fingers through his hair. And saw Maria’s picture on the floor. Was it just a dream? But the question was: who’s dream was it? Uncaring Michael grabbed his coat and walked out the door, this time his heart would follow where his feet led him.