“Wh- what’s going on?” Maria asked sleepily. Then what Michael had said registered. “A building? Like a cabin? Where?” She struggled to sit up in Michael’s arms so she could see better.

“Will you hold still?” he grumbled. “I’m going to drop you if you keep fidgeting around like that.”

Maria was about to make a sharp retort, but stopped when she saw the smile on his face, and instead chose to focus her attention on the small building that stood only a few hundred feet away from them. “It IS a cabin,” she breathed happily. “We’re finally going to get out of this stupid storm.”

From her perch in Michael’s arms, Maria reached up to knock at the door of the cabin. There was no answer and Maria tried again. After a few more moments, however, it became obvious that no one was at home in the cabin. Maria tried the doorknob, but found that the door was locked tight. “Now what?” she asked plaintively. “Doesn’t do us much good if we can’t get in.” Then a thought occurred to her and she perked up. “Can’t you just open it? You know, use your powers to pop the lock or whatever?”

Michael looked uncertain. “I don’t know. I mean, I messed your hand up, didn’t I?”

Maria shook her head and held up her nearly healed palm. “No you didn’t,” she told him. “It’s fine, and it doesn’t hurt anymore or anything.”

“Then how come you freaked out on me before?” He wanted to know.

“I did NOT freak out on you!” At Michael’s look she stopped. “Well, okay, maybe a little, but, you know, that’s not important right now. What’s important is that you open the door to this place so we can get inside. Now come on, you can do this,” she told him seriously, looking up at him. “I know you can.”

Michael stared back down at her for a moment before taking a deep breath and placing his hand over the lock. “Come on, you can do it, Michael,” Maria murmured supportively. Michael concentrated a few moments before he felt the springs in the lock begin to move and then the bolt sliding back. He pulled away as they both heard a click come from the door. “You did it!” Maria exclaimed happily, hugging Michael as best she could from her position in his arms.

After a moment she pulled away, embarrassed. Michael cleared his throat. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s check this place out. See if we can get dry in here.”

Maria reached for the doorknob and this time it turned easily in her hand. Michael stepped across the threshold with Maria in his arms and kicked the door shut behind him. They both looked around in silence for a moment at the tiny cabin. The cabin was made up of one room that contained a small rickety looking cot with a small trunk at the foot of it, a small desk with a microphone and small box on top of it, a cabinet in one corner, and a fireplace against one wall.

“All the comforts of home,” Michael said sarcastically as he gently set Maria down on the cot. He walked over to the desk and saw that the microphone and box were part of a communications radio. “Hey, I think this is some kind of ranger station or something,” he said to Maria. He tested the microphone and speaker a moment. “Unfortunately, I don’t think this stuff works.”

“Too bad,” Maria murmured through chattering teeth.

Michael turned and saw that she was sitting with her back against the wall and her knees drawn up against herself for warmth. He walked over towards the cot and knelt down in front of the trunk. “You need to get out of those clothes now before you get sick,” he told her, digging through the trunk.

“What?! Take off my clothes?” Maria asked in disbelief. “Yeah, right, and put on what, Spaceboy? If you think I’m going to hang around in here with you without-”

“Here, you can cover yourself in this,” Michael said, tossing the shivering girl a blanket from the trunk. Maria opened her mouth to speak, but Michael cut her off again. “Look, you can be smart and get out of those clothes, or you can sit around and freeze to death. But if you don’t take those clothes off now you’re going to get sick and you know it. Now don’t be stupid, just do it.”

Maria’s mouth was set in an angry line, but she didn’t have a comeback – she knew Michael was right. “Fine, but turn around,” she said finally. “I am not doing a strip show for you.”

Michael smirked. “I’m going to build a fire so we can warm up and dry our clothes,” he told her. “Don’t worry, I won’t peek.” He squatted down in front of the fireplace, which, thankfully, had several barely burned logs sitting in it. Using the fireplace matches and month old newspaper he had found on the desk, he set about starting a fire while Maria changed out of her clothing. He could hear her moving about on the bed, trying to remove her wet clothing without jarring her ankle too much, and found himself wishing that being able to see what was going on behind him was one of his powers.

“Okay, you can turn around now,” she said finally. Michael turned and found Maria sitting on the cot with the blanket wrapped under her arms like a towel. Her wet clothing lay on the cot next to her and Michael stepped over to the cot and picked up the clothing. “What are you doing?” she demanded, trying desperately not to blush when Michael picked up her shirt, shorts, bra, and panties.

“I’m putting them by the fire to dry them off,” he explained calmly. “Then I’ll put my clothes with them. Do you need to turn around while I change?” he added with a wicked grin.

Maria shot him a glare and then turned her back on him while he removed his clothing and then wrapped the extra blanket around his waist. “Okay, you can look now,” he said as he returned to the fireplace.

He was so busy trying to hang up Maria’s clothing without appearing to actually look at it, that he didn’t notice Maria hopping across the cabin floor, and was surprised by her presence at his side. “What are you-?”

“I wanted to get closer to the fire,” she told him. “I figure it’s a lot warmer over here and I’ll have a better chance of getting dry.” She had brought a pillow with her from the cot and now leaned back on it, stretching out in front of the fireplace.

Michael stared at her a moment as she lay in front of him bathed in the soft light of the fire. Several of his late night fantasies came to mind at the sight of her and the thought that she was completely naked beneath that blanket, and he worked to quickly shove the thoughts aside as Maria turned to him.

“Are you all right?” she asked him, rising from her reclining position to sit closer to him. “You look flushed.” She put a hand against his forehead. “Well, you’re a little warm, but I guess it’s a little harder to tell with you guys.”

Michael shook his head. “I’m fine,” he managed. “Here, uh, lie back down. I want to take a look at your ankle,” he added when she gave him a searching look.

She shrugged and lay back down. Michael moved the blanket off of her ankle and held it up to better see the injury in the firelight. The warmth of the fire and the gentle touch of Michael’s hands on her ankle were enough to make Maria very drowsy. “Does this hurt?” Michael asked her, gently running his hand up the inside of her ankle.

“Mmmm,” was Maria’s only reply.

“Maria. Maria!” Michael said.

“What?”

“You need to stay awake here, okay?” he told her. “We don’t know how bad that blow to your head was, you could have a concussion. So just stay awake while I do this, okay?”

“Fine,” she told him, not really listening to what he was saying, just knowing that her mind was more than ready for dreamland at the moment.

Michael continued examining her ankle and then came to a decision. “Okay, Maria, if you’ll let me I’m going to try to heal your ankle. I’ve really been working with my powers, so I should be able to do this no problem. Do you want me to try?”

“Okay,” she said tiredly.

“Okay?” he asked, puzzled. “That’s it, just okay?” He’d expected her to have some smart-ass answer about not making her a cripple or something, not the calm, quiet affirmative answer she’d given. “Maria?

“Yes, okay, sure, please just do it,” she said, annoyed. She was tired and just wanted Michael to stop bugging her so she could rest a little.

“Okay,” he said, glancing up at her face once more before he turned his full attention on her ankle. He concentrated and after a moment, as before a glow emanated from his hand that was wrapped loosely around her right ankle as the connection was made.

Michael gasped as images from Maria’s mind suddenly flashed into his. He saw the time he had stolen her car with her in it, and could feel how frightened she was of him at the moment. He felt that fear being replaced by one of understanding when they talked in the nookie motel and she realized that they weren’t really so different from each other after all.

He felt her exhilaration the time he had kissed her for the first time in The Crash Down to “calm her down.” The excitement and sense of happiness and security she’d felt during their makeout sessions during the heatwave. Tears slid down his cheeks as he felt the pain of her heart breaking when he had told her that maybe they never should have started their relationship.

Then he felt her confusion and fear from only hours earlier when he had healed her palm and she had received the pictures and emotions from his own head. He could feel how much the rush of images had overwhelmed her, coming at her so fast and furious, and how the emotions she had felt from him had confused her. He knew now why she had needed to get away from him earlier to work all of that out in her head, and he mentally kicked himself for being so careless in his healing.

He broke the connection and sat a moment, thinking about all he had seen from her mind, as he struggled to get his tears under control. He had had no idea she had felt so strongly about him. He knew he had hurt her when he abruptly ended their relationship, but he had never realized before now just how much she was hurting. “God,” he choked out. “Maria, I, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”