In The End

Written by Fidomom

Title: In The End
Author: Fidomom
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. It is only loosely based on characters from the tv series Roswell as I imagine they could be after the final episode. I am not affiliated with any of the original creations nor creators from the series. Metallica song lyrics quoted under fair usage and no copyright claim on them is intended. I will make no monetary gains from publishing this work of fiction.
Summary/Preview: After thirty hours on the road, a little exaggerated levity reduces tensions for the six member exodus from Roswell.
Category: Michael/Maria (also fits categories Max/Liz and Other)

Author’s Note: I fell in love with the characters on Roswell, last year. First time ever seeing it and got to binge watch it on Netflix. Have since watched it all again seven more times & certain episodes way more than that, lol. Michael & Maria are such an inspiration to me.

Hope my characterisations are at least just close enough for other Roswell/Candy fans to enjoy the story I’ve written. I am not new to writing, but I’m a bit rusty after four years of not writing any fic at all. I am totally new to writing these particular characters, though. If I do it often enough, from now on, hopefully I’ll improve.

FYI this is x-posted to my livejournal and one livejournal community. I’ve made minor edits to the headers and author’s note for the purposes of this submission to crashdown.com, but have made no changes to the fic itself. I’m super late to this party, but I intend to enjoy the stuffing out of it anyway!

~FM :)

Max, Liz, Kyle, Isabel, Michael and Maria drove the van away from Roswell, New Mexico, taking five hour shifts in the driver’s seat. They stopped only for gas-ups, driver shift changes, restroom breaks and meals. Stops were usually only ten minutes except for meals which tended to take about half an hour.

Two of the six typically slept while two planned out the upcoming rest stops, one drove and the final one kept the driver company in the shotgun seat. Driving and planning pairs were Maria and Liz, Max and Michael and Kyle and Isabel. Every fourth night, the plan was to stay in motels on the outskirts of small communities for the purposes of showering, using a laundromat, getting a decent night’s sleep and changing the colour of the van, as well as the license plates.

After thirty hours of driving, since leaving Roswell, they had a short rest stop, for restroom breaks and because it was time for Maria and Liz to take over the next ten hour driver pair shift from Michael and Max. Michael and Maria hadn’t talked to each other much, since most of their time had been spent in a driving pair, planning their rest stops or sleeping. Neither Michael nor Maria were sure where they stood, in terms of their relationship but when they had happened to sleep at the same time, it had been in each others arms, if only for the familiar comfort.

When Maria finished in the restroom, Michael was waiting for her outside. He spoke quietly to her, “Can we talk for a minute?”

Maria was surprised but she agreed, “Sure. About what?”

Michael evaded, “Not here, let’s take a short walk.”, and he held out his hand to her. She ignored it and ducked under his arm, slipping her arm around his waist, and leaning her head against his shoulder, as they walked. Michael tightened his arm around her shoulders and kissed the side of her head.

When they were just far enough away from the others to not be overheard, Michael halted them and finallly answered her, “I want to talk about you and me. I just don’t want to make the same mistake I made before, thinking we were back together, only to find out what I thought was progress was just a one time event. Are we back together, Maria?”

Maria shrugged and shook her head, as she admitted, “I honestly have no idea. I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to ask you the same thing. Three times in my life now you’ve said I love you mere seconds before telling me goodbye. I know I have my ‘boohoo my Daddy left me’ issues but seriously, if a guy tells me goodbye that many times maybe I should just take it at face value and finally accept that he just doesn’t want to be with me, you know?”

Michael was quiet for several seconds and then he suggested, “You decided to come along because Liz is your best friend and you probably just don’t want to ever lose touch with her. I get that. It’s just that, well, you didn’t hug Liz and say that we were doing this together, you hugged me and said that. I just want to know was that just like a group together thing or a you and me together thing?”

Maria shook her head and pulled away from him, refusing to answer, “No, Michael, I’m not doing this again. I can’t. I’m not going to bully you into being with me, again; it never works out well for me. Even if it is a step up from what my Dad did, I don’t need to hear ‘I love you goodbye forever’ from you, for the fourth time. I really don’t. We should just get going.”

She’d gotten about two feet away from him, when he grabbed her hand and pulled her back into his arms. He kissed her passionately, sliding his hand into her hair and fisting it. Maria not only surrendered to it but gave as good as she got. When Michael came up for air, he looked her in the eye, and said , “How about, I love you, hi honey, I’m back and I’m done saying goodbye to you? Would that work for you?”

Maria searched his eyes and warned tentatively, “Michael, think about what you’re saying.”

He smiled his barely perceptible, usual way and then echoed her words from the night they’d left Roswell, “I have. My future is here. This is my choice. This is what I want and whatever that is in the end, that’s what it’ll be, but we’re doing it together. Okay?”

Maria smiled and kissed him gently on the lips. She agreed, “Okay. You win. Welcome back, spaceboy.”

He hugged her tightly and closed his eyes, as he said, “Thank-you. It’s good to be home again. I’ve missed you.”

Maria relaxed against him, with her ear over his heart and she confessed in a voice choked by emotional relief, “I love you, Michael and I’ve really missed you, too.”

Michael physically prompted their return walk to the van, still holding each other and then he leaned closer to whisper in her ear, “So, I get to tell them we’re officially back together, right?”

Maria chuckled and agreed, “Sure, spaceboy. Knock yourself out.”

Kyle and the others were hanging around outside of the van, presumably to enjoy leg circulation to the last possible moment before heading back out on the road. Kyle looked back and forth between Michael and Maria and assessed, “Well, don’t the two of you look all cozy.”

Isabel leaned her elbow on Kyle’s shoulder and concurred, “And … something unnameably weird, besides.”

Liz indicated on her own hair then pointed to Maria as she added, “And, umm, slightly disheveled.”

Maria smoothed her mussed up hair, then Michael took a deep breath, squeezed Maria’s shoulders briefly and announced, “Maria and I are officially back together! For good this time.”

Isabel’s eyes widened and she exclaimed, “Oh dear God! Max, are you a little weirded out, too? What’s happening to Michael’s mouth, right now?”

Max looked deeply concerned and he leaned forward to look a litttle closer, “I’m not sure, Isabel. It could be … no … no, it couldn’t be that. Liz? Kyle? Little help? What is that on Michael’s face where the straight line usually is?”

Kyle shook his head, mouth pursed, eyes wide and disclaimed, “Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like that. I agree with Isabel. I may have nightmares, tonight. It’s just so creepy.”

Liz suddenly gasped, looked around at everyone, and then pointed to Maria, “Wait guys! I think I know what it is! Look at Maria then look at Michael! I see similarities!”

Isabel narrowed her eyes looking back and forth between Michael and Maria and she opined, “Okay Liz, maybe? Nope nevermind, Maria is smiling and Michael is … oh no way! Guys am I hallucinating? Is Michael … smiling, too?”

Max scoffed dismissively, “Don’t be absurd, Isabel, Michael doesn’t smile. He does that weird grimace thing with one corner of his mouth and shows a couple teeth sometimes, but he doesn’t smile.”

Michael smirked and nodded his head. He said wryly, “Ha, ha, ha, yeah, you guys are so hilarious, but nothing can get me down, now. Hey, Jockstrap? Now that I know how to give you nightmares, I’m gonna spend a lot more time with my face like this. Sucks to be you, don’t it?”

Kyle looked horrified and tried to placate Michael, “I was just kidding. Geez. Congratulations, you guys. No, seriously, Michael, please return your face to it’s regularly scheduled programming?,
“Isabel, please make him stop? I’m scared.”

Maria laughed and exclaimed incredulously, “Oh my God, you guys are so brutal!,
“Michael, tell me, again, why you even wanted to tell them?”

Michael winked threateningly at Kyle and said, “Because they’re my crew, now.”

Kyle began shaking his head and then he begged, “No, no, no ,no, no! Isabel, please wake me up? I seem to be stuck in a nightmare of epic proportions. Michael just said I was in his crew. This is the most frightening experience of my life. Help?”

Michael kept his smile and went right up to Kyle, just inches from Kyle’s face and advised, “Sleep with one eye open, Jockstrap. Boo!”

Kyle laughed then and slapped Michael on the shoulder, as he said, “Nice Metallica reference, there, Heckle. But seriously. The smile, man. Way too creepy. For the love of Buddha, please stop.”

Michael shrugged unapologetically, then he turned away from Kyle, to kiss Maria on the lips briefly and he said wearily, “Goodnight, morning or whatever, Maria. Drive safe. I need sleep. See you when I wake up.”

Max concurred, “Same here. Good morning, see you later, Liz. What he said, drive safe. I love you.”, and he kissed his fiancee on the lips, as well.

They all piled back into the van and got back on the road. They drove in relative silence for about twenty minutes and then Michael huffed impatiently and announced, “I can’t sleep. Liz, can I borrow your sidekick for a half hour?”

Maria answered before Liz could, “What? What for, Michael?”

Michael didn’t reveal his intentions in his answer, “Come back here and I’ll tell you.”

Liz glanced at Maria then nodded as she told her quietly, “It’s fine with me. Go see what’s up, if you want to.”

Maria unbelted herself and climbed over Kyle and Isabel in the first row of seats, then Max, who was dead to the world asleep already, in the second row, and finally to Michael all the way back in the third and final row of seats, just before the storage area, which held all of their belongings.

Michael sat up, to make room for Maria to sit beside him. As soon as she was seated, he lay down again, on his side, with his head on her thigh. He reached for her hand furthest away from him and wordlessly guided it to his hair.

She spoke quietly to him, “Okay. I know this drill. Close your eyes and sleep, spaceboy.”, and she stroked his hair with one hand while also rubbing his back and arm with her other hand. He sighed contentedly and rubbed his face against her thigh, trying to get more comfortable. After a few seconds, he mumbled, “The song, too. Have to have the song.”

Maria indulged him in that, as well, and she began to sing softly, “So close no matter how far, couldn’t be much more from the heart, forever trusting who we are, and nothing else matters.”

She didn’t get all the way through the song before Michael began snoring softly. She kissed his temple, gently slipped out from under his head, and returned to the shotgun seat.

Liz looked over at her, briefly and smiled as she said, “That was not even close to a half hour. Does that always work that fast on him?”

Maria nodded and concurred, “Yep. I’m better than a melatonin pill, apparently. I don’t need the dark or any half an hour to knock spaceboy out for eight hours straight. Admittedly, four minutes is a new record, even for me.”

Liz grinned and suggested, “He must have been very, very tired.”

Maria nodded her head and informed Liz, “Oh, yes and he definitely could have fallen asleep on his own but he’s spoiled. It took him twenty minutes of fighting sleep to finally pretend he needed that.”

Liz laughed in disbelief, as she asked, “Wait, so you’re saying he faked insomnia?”

Maria nodded, smiling wryly and confirmed, “Totally. It’s probably my fault. I turned him into a comfort junkie our last go round.”

Liz asked in amusement, “But Maria, if you knew he was faking, then why did you go do what he wanted?”

Maria blushed a little, smiled and admitted, “We just got back together, Liz. I’ve missed touching him, okay?”

Liz grinned and suggested, “Yeah, I get that. Guess it was mutual.”

Maria just stared out the window, at the passing scenery and smiled to herself, in relief and satisfaction.

DONE

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