*Christmas,* he thought darkly to himself. *God, what a stupid ass holiday. Just a time for humans to get together, stuff themselves with as much food as possible, and throw presents at each other that no one really wants or needs anyway.*

By now he'd made his way to the entrance of his cave and quickly lowered himself in. "Stupid holiday," he grumbled aloud, kicking the sleeping bag he kept in the corner of the cave until it was unrolled. Then he flopped down on the unrolled bag, lying on his back with his arms folded behind his head.

"'Twas the night before Christmas, ho-ho-ho," he muttered sarcastically to himself as he closed his eyes. Max and Isabelle were with their parents, just like regular kids tonight. They'd invited him to join them, but he knew he would just have felt like an intruder at the Evans'. Liz Parker, Maria De Luca, and Alex Whitman, and their families were all going to be at the Evans,' too. *Yeah, their families,* Michael's inner voice jeered. *You don't belong there, you don't belong with any of them. You'd just have ruined their Christmases anyway. Especially Maria's.*

Maria. Michael felt the familiar ache in his chest start up again at the thought of her. Every time he saw her he just wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her and hold her again. But no, he'd fucked that up big time with his "I'm alone and that's how it's gotta be," garbage. He was tired of being alone. He wanted to be with her, dammit!

He sighed. At this point he knew he was lucky she was even talking to him.

He knew he'd hurt her deeply with his words and actions and he wasn't sure if he could ever really fix things between them.

*God, you just have a knack for fucking things up, don't you?* "Probably have been easier on everyone if I hadn't crashed here with Max and Izzy all those years ago," he muttered aloud. "Then I wouldn't be here to screw up people's lives and bring them down."

The words had just passed Michael's lips when he heard a thump from the entrance of the cave. He quickly jumped to his feet and stared into the darkness, his more than human eyesight letting him see almost as clearly as he would in broad daylight. At the entrance to the cave he could clearly see the form of a man.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want?" Michael growled menacingly.

"Well, there's no need to be so ill tempered about it," the man said pleasantly, an accent that Michael couldn't quite place coloring his words.

"But then, knowing what I do about you, I probably shouldn't be surprised by your attitude," he mused aloud.

Michael had been silently sizing up the man- average height and build, tousled wavy blond hair, glasses that framed kindly grey eyes, clad in jeans and a black leather jacket- and had just deemed him to be pretty non-threatening, when the man's words caught his attention. "What you know about me? Just what do you know about me?" he asked sharply.

"Everything," the man said simply. "I know everything about you and your life, Michael Guerin. And no, I'm not FBI, CIA, and Valenti didn't send me," he said as Michael opened his mouth to question him. "I guess you could say I'm from somewhere "up north," so to speak. And I'm here because you indirectly more or less asked for some help."

"What are you talking about?" Michael asked. "I didn't ask for anyone's help, and certainly not yours. I don't even know who the hell you are."

"Oh, yes, that's entirely my fault, isn't it?" the man said. "Gavin Jude Cole. Please, Gavin will do," he added as he picked up Michael's hand and shook it briskly. "All right, now that we've been properly introduced, we really should be getting along. Time's just flying by, and with your stubborn bull headedness this could take awhile," he said, glancing at the small gold pocketwatch he had pulled from one of his jacket's inner pockets.

Michael stepped back as Gavin stuffed the pocketwatch back into its place of origin. "Listen, buddy," he said. "I don't know what you're doing here or what kind of game you're playing, but I refuse to play along. Now why don't you get the hell outta here and leave me alone!"

Gavin sighed. "I thought you were tired of being alone, Michael. I told you, I know all about you and your life," he said at Michael's look of shock. "I'm here to fix that."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, as I've already stated, I'm here for your non-request for some help," Gavin explained patiently. "You, in your infinite wisdom, decided all of your friends would have much better lives if you had never crashed down on earth. I'm here to show you the repercussions of that wish."

Gavin snapped his fingers. "Okay, there you go. Never happened. Max and Isabelle crashed here, you did not. You never met any of the people that you know here on earth, and they never met you."

Michael stared at him. "Okay, nice try, pal," he said, "but I know this movie. Next thing you're gonna tell me is that you're an angel trying to earn his wings, right?"

"Well, no actually," Gavin said. "I've already told you. I'm here to show you how your friends' lives would have been different without you here to influence them."

Michael rolled his eyes. "Please. This is either a bad movie or a bad dream. And it's not like I've had any kind of huge impact on any of their lives anyway, so nice try but I'm not buying any of it."