Chapter 35

Liz glared at him, her hands on her hips, and Michael slowly stood, his hands up as though he was trying to calm a tiger that was looking at him as though he were a meal.

"Your window was unlocked," he started, keeping his voice steady and even, not wanting to provoke her even further. "I was going to wait on the balcony, but I thought it would be safer if your window was locked, so I came in and locked it and waited at your desk…"

She arched an eyebrow at him, not in the least bit reassured.

"The question, Michael, is why, not how. So tell me the damn answer before I throw you out of my room and off the balcony head-first!"

He winced at that, visualizing it all too clearly, and nodded and said, "Fine. I woke up this morning and realized that we need to talk about what happened. The longer we don't talk about it, the worse it's going to get, so we might as well get it over with."

Her gaze, which had been as solid as steel as she stared him down, softened slightly and he could see her slowly understanding his point of view.

This was what made her so different than Maria. Even when she was royally pissed off at him and had every reason to be, she listened to him and heard him even through her own anger.

After a long moment of silence, she finally said, "Yeah, you're right."

He sent a silent prayer of thanks to whatever gods were listening for the fact that he had such an understanding girlfriend. Maria would have told him off by this point and made enough noise to alert her mother, bringing her into the room, and then there would have been an even worse scene, but Liz was logical, even when she was emotional, and for that he was eternally grateful.

He moved back to sit at her desk, where he'd slept uncomfortably through the night, but then Liz motioned to her bed and said, "C'mon, you might as well sit over here."

Michael looked at her, surprised, but she gave him a look and he quickly realized that she wasn't giving him a choice, so he simply gave in to her wishes and sat down on the edge of her bed.

She sat down next to him, and he stared at her for a moment as she attempted to put her hair in some sort of order. It was in that moment that he realized that all she was wearing was a pair of white, flimsy boy-shorts and a blue tank top…and he felt a part of him take interest, especially as they were sitting on her bed and all sorts of ideas started to come into his mind. Quickly, he shut down his train of thought and instead studied her profile, forcing himself to not let his eyes stray.

After a long moment of silence, she said, "So…what we saw when we, you know…it was sort of, uh…"

"Intense?" he supplied and she nodded.

"Yeah. Intense."

Silence fell once more, and the tension that filled the room became unbearable, so Michael spoke up, praying that whatever he said was the right thing.

"Look, I know that knowing that we were married in another life and actually remembering it are two completely different things, so I understand if you want to, you know, cool things off," he said, not quite believing that he was saying what he was saying. "And, if you need to, we can…just be friends for a while…"

What was he saying? God, what the hell was he saying to her? Michael wanted to simply hold onto her with both hands, but now he was suddenly giving her the option to simply push him away, and he didn't know why he was giving it to her…and then he realized it as he looked at her expression. It was because he wanted her to be happy. Whether she was with him or not; so long as she was happy, then he would be fine with her decision. And he felt some relief.

Liz, however, stood up, her eyes flashing once more and said, "Are you…are you breaking up with me? I-I…I can't believe you're doing this…!"

Realizing what she thought he was saying, he stood up as well, wincing when he felt and heard his back pop in protestation at the sudden movement, and said, "No! No, Liz, that's not what I'm saying! I was just doing what I thought that you wanted…you seemed all, you know…" He winced again as he felt a muscle in his back twinge in protest, and then finished with, "You seemed like you wanted to, well, not be around me for a while. I figured you'd…changed your mind about us."

The anger in her eyes receded and she stepped towards him and put a hand on his upper arm, reassuring him as she said, "No. Never, Michael. I want to be with you, trust me on that. I was just…well, I guess the word overwhelmed doesn't quite cover it. I…I didn't know how to react. It's just…it's all so strange, you know? I mean, a week ago I was a normal teenager, albeit with less than normal friends, and now I'm also an alien, and not only that, but I was married to you in a previous life and now I'm supposed to be getting back all of these memories, and I'm just…scared."

He looked at her, still not quite believing that she was his, and said, "I can understand that."

She looked at him for a long moment and then said, "Your back's probably killing you after sleeping in that chair, isn't it?"

He shrugged, trying to hide the pain behind the movement, but Liz seemed to see it anyway, and she suddenly said, "Okay, that's it. On the bed, Guerin." He looked at her in shock at her request, raising an eyebrow, and she rolled her eyes and said, "Not like that, potty brain. It's obvious that your back is still hurting you so I'm simply going to give you a massage. It's the least I could do after yelling at you simply for keeping an eye on me."

Trying to hide a grin, he did as she asked and she slapped him on the arm as he sat down on the edge of the bed once more.

"This is a one-time deal, Michael. Don't expect this all the time."

He simply nodded and said, "Got it, Parker."

She then sat down behind him and began to work her fingers into his shoulders…and he let out a low groan. God, that felt good. He hadn't expected her to have so much force behind her fingers, but it seemed that she did. As she dug into the knotted muscles he let his mind wander…and it soon wandered back to the memories of that night. And what it felt like to have her skin against his. Michael was now suddenly painfully aware of the fact that she was barely dressed behind him and it would be all too easy to simply turn around and press her to mattress, and he found himself clenching his hands into fists to keep from doing just that.

He'd only just gotten some of her trust back and he wasn't going to let his damn hormones wreck that.

Her fingers suddenly stilled, and then she hissed into his ear, "Hide in my bathroom! Now!", and then she was pushing him off the bed, and he looked back at her and she said in a stage whisper, "My dad's coming up and if I kick him out, too, then they'll start to get suspicious and I don't think finding my boyfriend in my bedroom this early on a Sunday morning is going to go over very well…!"

Quickly, he slipped into the bathroom and held his breath as he waited.

And then it occurred to him…how did she know her dad was coming up? He hadn't heard a thing; no sound of footsteps on the stairs or out in the hall, and the door handle hadn't been rattling, so…how did she know? Just as he was about to come out and ask, he heard her father enter the room.

"Hey, Liz. You up?"

"Yeah, dad…sorry about scaring you and mom earlier. I think it was a wolf spider, but I got rid of it."

He heard her dad absently hum in reply and then heard him ask, "Are you okay, Liz? You've been…well, you've been acting odd ever since you and Michael, uh, started dating. Is he treating you okay?"

"Yeah, dad. He's treating me great, actually. Sorry that I've been so distracted lately. I guess I just haven't been sleeping all that well, and it's been throwing me off."

He hummed again.

"Yeah, that'll do it. By the way, I know you had some migraines earlier last week, and I was wondering if you were okay? Your mom and I thought about making you an appointment with Doctor Schwarz. You shouldn't be getting those so often."

Michael tensed, wondering about what she would say, but breathed easy when he heard her reply, "I've been really stressed recently, that's all; even before my new relationship with Michael and with Maria and me not exactly talking, you know? I just think it all got to me when everything else started happening at once."

Michael suddenly felt a wash of guilt for not remembering about Maria and stepped back slightly from the bathroom door. Of course Liz was upset about that. Maria had been her best and closest friend for years, and now, because of him, they weren't even talking to each other, let alone seeing each other. He knew that Maria had quit her job at the diner, but he just only now realized that he hadn't seen her very often at school, either, and he felt even more guilty than before.

He really should be trying to fix that for the two of them since it was sort of his fault.

He leaned into the door and let out a sigh when he heard Liz say, "I guess I sort of miss having her around to talk about boy stuff, but because it's Michael…well, you know how that goes…"

Mr. Parker chuckled.

"Yeah, peanut. Believe it or not, I know how that goes. Actually, it's kind of how your mom and I got together. I had been dating her best friend, but then we broke up…and so I asked her out, instead. I'd always had a thing for her, even before I'd started dating her friend."

"Really?"

"Really."

There was a pause, long enough for Michael to deduce that they were most likely hugging, and then he heard a door close.

He waited a moment longer, and then, suddenly, the door he was leaning against swung open and he nearly fell flat on his face. He managed to catch himself, however, and looked up from his kneeling spot on the floor to see his girlfriend standing over him, one hand on her hip, the other up against the open door, an amused look on her face.

"Really, Michael? Listening at the door?"

He shrugged unrepentantly.

"Hey, I wanted to know what was going on and you're the one who put me in there in the first place, Parker."

She rolled her eyes and said, "C'mon, Guerin. Let's get you back where you belong…"

He stood up and headed over to the bed, waggling his eyebrows at her and she rolled her eyes again and gave him a playful shove on his shoulder, saying, "Mind out of the gutter, Michael," but he just grinned back at her, unrepentantly, as he sat back down on the edge of the bed.

"Too late for that."

She smirked at him, but instead of shoving him off the bed, she continued to give him a shoulder and back massage.

He let himself enjoy it, knowing that Liz showing this kind of affection was rare. Besides, it meant that he got to have some alone time with her, which he knew was going to become a lot harder over the coming weeks because of everything that was going on in their lives. Not a minute later, he felt her hands slowly stop their ministrations, and he knew that she was nervous about something. He could feel the tension in her hands where they now rested on his shoulders. He simply waited, knowing that she most likely wanted to talk about what had happened. About how she had heard her dad coming when he hadn't.

He was right.

"Michael," she started, her tone worried, "I wanted to talk to you about…well, about what just happened. How I heard my dad coming up when you didn't. And, how I heard you and Max the other day through the back wall." She dropped her hands from his shoulders and sat down behind him, so he turned to look her in the eye…and saw that she was scared.

She looked up at him, all the while wringing her fingers into knots in her lap.

"I didn't really want to talk about it before, but now, after finding that journal, I think I have to talk about it." He put his hand on her knee, trying to reassure her, and it seemed to work. "I…I think I have powers like you guys do. Only mine are…different," she said, her voice only slightly shaky. Liz then paused, collecting her thoughts, putting everything together, before saying, "I can hear things, things that I shouldn't be able to. It's only happened the few times that you were with me, but it's happened enough that I know it's real."

He nodded.

She bit her lip, a habit he noticed she did whenever she was nervous. She then said, "In my journal, I called it being a Listener. I still don't know what it means, Michael, but I know that I'm going to need you to try and understand what I'm going through. This is…well, it's weird. And I'm a bit, I don't know…I guess terrified would be a good word?"

Michael saw her slightly scared expression, so he nodded and said, trying to reassure her, "I remember when I found out about my powers. It wasn't exactly easy to deal with and took me a while to get used to them. And I already knew I was an alien, and you had no idea until a couple of days ago. I know what it's like, Liz," he added, leaning in and pressing his lips to her temple, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

She relaxed into his embrace, sliding her arms around his waist, and they stayed that way for a long while, simply trying to find comfort from each other.

After a few brief moments, he whispered into her ear, "I'm here in case you need anything, alright?"

She pulled back to look him in the eye and said, "I know you are, Michael." She stared at him a moment longer and then added, "Okay, the sentimental moment's over. It's Sunday morning and, unlike some people, I was planning to sleep until noon."

He chuckled and replied, "You weren't the only one with those plans. See you at two?"

Liz looked at him, an eyebrow arched.

"I still have those hours to cash in, Parker," he said, reminding her of the night last week where he'd helped with inventory and ended up helping himself to a few hours of alone time with his girlfriend. "I plan on seeing you at my place at two, got it?"

She rolled her eyes, but smiled as she said, "Okay, fine, if I have to…"

He grinned.

"Yeah, you sorta do."

And with that, he slipped out of her room through her window and grinned like an idiot as he descended the ladder. Liz Parker was the best thing to happen to him in a long time, and he was going to make sure that it stayed that way.

Part 35/?

A.N. - I NEED HELP! I have two possible endings for this story, and I'm not sure which one to go for! PM me and I'll total the tallies and go for the one with the most votes. At the end of the story should they...

...go back to Antar and save the Royal families? or …stay on Earth, because they no longer feel any obligation towards their previous lives?