So when she walked into his bedroom that night, all hell broke loose.

"Michael what is wrong? I'm really getting tired...." she started.

"Save it Maria. And get the hell out." Michael sad refusing to make eye contact.

Maria's mouth dropped open. She stared at him. "What did I do to deserve this?" she asked.

Michael got up off the bed and walked over to her. "I gave all of myself to you Maria. I showed you, and only you things no one else has ever seen. And it's not the sex, I wanted to fuck you as much as you wanted fuck me..."

"Wait just a minute!" she interrupted.

She looked away from him. Not able to bear the things she saw in his eyes. Michael reached out and took her chin in his hand and turned her face towards his, forcing her to look at him.

"No you wait! You jack me around cause you don't know what the hell you want! It's not just about you princess. I am tired of the way you treat me. And the fucked up thing is I don't see why I can't stop loving you. I don't understand how I can let you continue to do this to me. If I could just stop loving you it wouldn't hurt anymore." Michael pushed Maria's face gently away from his hand.

She wasn't expecting this. She wasn't expecting any of it. Michael hadn't pushed hard but it was enough to knock her off balance and send her backwards onto her butt. She looked up at him as he watched her sitting there on the floor. She saw the hurt in his eyes and she say something else. Anger and hate?

Max came into the room then having heard the commotion. He saw Maria on the floor and Michael towering over her. "What the hell is going on Michael?" Max asked.

Michael looked at him and walked past him out the bedroom door.

Max went to Maria and knelt down beside her.

"Are you okay? He didn't hurt you did he?" Max asked her.

Maria shook her head and struggled not to let go of the tiny shred of control she had over her emotions. The front door to the apartment slammed and she jumped. A few seconds later she heard the roar of Michael's motorcycle as he drove it away, from this, from them, from her.

"Can I ask what happened?" Max's voice came out of nowhere. She had forgotten he was there.

Maria pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "He's upset with me." Maria said softly.

"Well that much I gathered. He's been in a mood ever since you guys broke up." Max said. He moved over next to the bed and sat facing Maria.

"Things got a little out of control and well, we were together, we had sex. It was a mistake and I told him that. I told him that it couldn't change anything." Maria said. She felt ashamed looking back on it now. She was the one to blame. She hadn't stopped it from happening.

"Maria why were you with him then? Why did you have sex with him if your feelings about the relationship hadn't changed?" Max asked her gently. He now had a better understanding of where Michael's anger was coming from.

"Because I wanted to. Because I missed him. Because I, I needed him." Maria said. Tears filled her green eyes and slid silently down her cheeks.

"Maria do you love Michael?" Max asked.

Maria nodded brushing the tears away.

"Then I am going to give you some advice you once gave to me. Give him up. You're both miserable. If you don't want to be with him you have got to let him go Maria." Max said.

Maria didn't look at Max. She wrapped her arms tighter around her legs and started rocking.

"I can't. I love him. And it scares me. So I hurt him." she whispered the last part and buried her face in her knees. Sobs wracked her delicate shoulders and Max moved over next to her and gently rubbed her back. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael rode out to the quarry. The ghosts of memories that lingered there were a comfort to his aching heart. Back then she had wanted him and he had been the one in control. Not anymore though. She'd taken that from him.

He raced his bike along the edge of the limestone precipice. The moon was reflected up at him from the water below. All that served as proof that there weren't two moons was the slight ripple on the surface of the water caused by the breeze. He slammed on the brakes and the back tire of the bike skidded taking the bike down with him on it. Dangerously close to falling over the edge, Michael hauled the bike away from the cliff and pulled his left leg from underneath the bike.

The sharp sound of tearing cloth and the white hot sting of metal piercing flesh made Michael forget the pounding in his head. He looked down at the tear in his jeans. The pale flesh of his inner thigh was visible and the gash there was bleeding.

This only served to piss Michael off even more. He stood up and took off walking looking for something to kick or hit. A victim for his pent up anger. An anger that was to human for even the use of his clumsy alien powers to pacify. He needed physical contact. But there was nothing. Only rocks, sharp pieces of limestone that crunched beneath his feet. He dropped to his knees and pounded the ground with his fists. He grabbed handfuls of broken rock and flung it into the water. He felt the rock slicing into his hands, felt the sticky wetness of blood, but he didn't care.

The pain was fresh. Hot and icy at the same time. A definite distraction from the ache that consumed his soul. The only problem was the distraction didn't last. And Michael's heart slammed memories back into his brain with such force his stomach muscles clenched and he was violently sick in the bushes he managed to crawl over to.

Maria. She wouldn't let him be and he couldn't let her go. Michael loved her. But that wasn't enough and he didn't have anything else left to give.

Now he'd resigned himself to the fact that losing her was better than the suffering he'd been going through waiting for her to decide what she wanted. He wasn't waiting anymore. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max truly didn't understand what had happened with Michael and Maria's relationship. The changes he'd seen in Michael had led him to believe all was well. After Billy's arrival, Maria ending or at least semi ending their relationship, and all the confusion in between, who wouldn't be confused.

As Maria sat sobbing on Michael's bedroom floor Max couldn't help but feel sorry for her. It was obvious Maria was hurting. He just wasn't sure why or what to do about it.

"Do you want me to take you home Maria?" Max asked.

Maria shook her head. It was still buried in her arms and knees and she didn;t raise it to look at Max.

"I need to talk to him." she said in a muffled voice.

"Maybe you should just give him some space." Max said.

Maria raised her head to look at him then. Her skin usually flawless was mottled and red.

"Space?! Do you realize what I have been through for him?" Maria said angrily.

"Of course I do. But how long are you guys going to keep beating us down with it? I know that knowing me, knowing us has not made your lives the easiest to live. But I tried and Michael tried from early on to keep you and Liz at a distance. It didn't work! God Maria, we are human too! We feel, we hurt..." Max was visibly upset.

"We fall in love." Michael's voice dull and lifeless filled the room.

Maria and Max looked over to where Michael stood. His face was streaked with dust and the tell tail signs of tears. His hands hanging loosely at his sides were red with blood from the limestone rocks. And his pants were torn and stained black with blood from the gash he'd received when he fell earlier.

Maria's eyes filled with fresh tears as she took in his condition. She started to stand as she whispered his name.

"Michael.."

He immediately stiffened. "No, don't. I don't want to feel you touching me. I don't want to look into your eyes and see you, your concern. Your love that you feel so compelled to deny me of, I know you love me Maria. It's there every time you look at me. What I don't get though is what your fucking motive is? You treat me like shit! And it's worse than my fucking abusive, alcoholic foster father. I didn't love him so there was always that one place deep inside that he couldn't touch. The place that you have succeeded in ripping to shreds."

No one had moved. At the hem of Michael's jeans a pool of blood was forming. Max noticed this and glanced at Michael's face.

"Michael you're bleeding pretty bad..." Max said.

"Not now. Go out Max. I want to talk to Maria alone." Michael said without taking his gaze off the small frightened blonde on his floor.

Max stood up and looked back at Maria. "Are you sure that's..." Max started.

"Get out." Michael said.

Maria looked frantically from Max to Michael suddenly unsure of her desire to talk to Michael.

When Max had left the room Michael raised his hands to his face. He covered his eyes and swallowed hard. Regardless of the fact that he was so angry at Maria, his heart was aching and the sobs he'd tried so hard to keep a firm grip on broke free. His broad strong shoulders rose and fell with the force of them.

Maria backed up as far from Michael as she could. She pushed herself against the wall wrapping her arms around her knees trying to make herself small. Maybe even make herself disappear. The image of Michael standing there, broken down, burned itself on her brain. And for the rest of her life this would be the only memory that would ever bring about thought's of suicide. She had killed a part of him. Why not herself? And eye for an eye.

Once Michael was able to take control and calm down he removed his hands and looked at Maria.

"I'm not a scared, beaten down ten year old little kid. I'm a man and I refuse to let you make me feel less than that. I may be far from perfect, but I'm not the only one. I'm not your problem Maria. You. You're the problem. And you need to figure it out. And you're right about one thing, you need to do it alone. So take your stuff and get outta my room, outta my apartment and outta my life." Michael stumbled over the last part. Because he didn't want her to go, not forever.

"I can't walk away from you." she said standing, but remaining with her back against the wall.

Michael took two steps in her direction. "Do you love me Maria?" he asked gently.

Maria felt tears sting her eyes. She bit down hard on her bottom lip, drawing blood.

"I do Michael." she said.

"Then walk away. Just go." Michael said overwhelmed with how it felt to tell her to go. And to mean it, even though he didn't want to mean it.

Maria let her eyes rest on him for a brief moment and then she simply walked out. Leaving an empty space. One that could never be filled by anyone else but her. And wouldn't be until he was ready to trust her again.

Michael held his breath and went into his small bathroom. He turned on the shower and then the radio. He managed to get out of his soiled clothing and into the shower before his grief overcame him. Over the blaring of the Metallica CD in the radio and his gasps he heard a knock.

"Go away Max!" Michael yelled.

But then the bathroom door opened. Michael cursed under his breath and grabbed a towel. He wrapped it around his waist and yanked back the shower curtain.

"What the fuck do you..." his words were cut short by the sight of Maria standing there in the doorway. A fallen angel begging for absolution.

Her eyes were swollen and red. And her bottom lip had a smear of blood on it. Never taking her eyes from him she let her feet close the distance between them.

"I'm sorry Michael. I will leave, but I won't, I can't not love you." Desperation marred her beautiful features.

She reached out tentatively and let her hand brush his cheek. When he flinched her face fell.

"I'll do whatever it takes to make this right again Michael. I will make sure that you don't ever regret loving me, or I will die trying. I promise."

And then she was gone and Michael stood alone in his shower, beads of water rolling off his skin. He would wait for her. This he knew, had known since before he could even remember. What was his life without her? They were two halves of a whole. He hadn't stayed on Earth simply because he wanted to. He had stayed because she was his soul mate. And it had been this way through to many life times to even recall. She was the siren song that wooed him to the rocks where only devastation could be his fate. She was another man's woman, his seductress tempting him with promises that would never be kept. She was the sharp edge of the knife that his life seemed to connect with all to frequently. But she was also his salvation and he hers. If only they could get it right. This time they had come close. That had to be some sort of sign. Michael stepped out of the shower and walked into his room. He turned out the lights and laid down on the bed without drying his damp skin. He let the towel fall to the floor and the cool night air caressed his skin like a lover.. like Maria. Against his cheek he felt something soft and reached up and picked up a lock of hair. Blonde, tied with a pale lavender satin ribbon and a note attached to it was a piece of Maria. Michael read the note by only the light from the moon shining through his window.

'Michael,

This promise won't be broken.

Maria'

He held the silky hair to his cheek and drifted off to sleep. It was getting easier every time. And maybe this time it would be their turn.