Title: Ambiguous Resolutions
Part: 4
Author: Tammy
Email: tammyathome@earthlink.net
Disclaimer: I Own Nothing
Summary: After high school, Michael leaves town-and comes back with a wife.
Category: Mainly focuses on Michael-M/M; I/A; M/L So i will put this under both General conventional and Character: Michael
Rating: PG
Author's Note:These "" are quotation marks, and these '' are character's thoughts. Takes place in the future, but any episode after Tess, Lies, and Videotape never happened-i.e. 'Destiny' has no role in my story! Who will Michael marry? I'll let you the readers decide-I've already made my choice-can you make me change my mind?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Hey Mara," Liz said. It was Sunday night, and Michael and Samara had been in Roswell for three days. Once finished with the Crashdown's books, she went to go join Samara in one of the booths.

"Hey Liz,"

"Couldn't sleep again?" Liz pried.

"Something like that." Samara stared down at her hands.

Liz felt for her, she really did. Since they had shown up on Friday, the only people who had really made an effort to get to know her were herself and Alex. And even then, Alex hadn't spoken with her since Friday, and Liz hadn't spoken to her since Saturday morning. Obviously staying in the house with her husband-to-be's ex-girlfriend was taking its toll. She looked horrible, she had bags under her eyes, and the depressed look on her face didn't help much. "Must be pre-wedding jitters."

Samara made an attempt to laugh. "I don't think you can get those six months in advance."

"So how are things over there?"

"Honestly?" She paused. "I think I'm losing him."

Liz couldn't help but feel bad. Sure, Maria was her friend and she had even hated Samara when Max first told her Michael was getting married. But since she had met her-well, it had just made her more real. That she wasn't some conniving wench out to hurt her best friend. She was far from it. And when you looked at it from Samara's angle-well, Liz was just glad that Max didn't have an ex-girlfriend. "Hey, don't lose hope. I mean, Michael hasn't said anything, has he?"

"No, it's just a feeling I get. Like, he regrets not ever exploring his relationship with Maria. Every time I look over at him, he's staring at her. And I can just see the wheels turning in his head."

"Well, look at who he's comparing you to."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at Maria-is she moping around? She's going around, acting like she's always been-happy. And now look at you-you've got bags under your eyes and you look as bad as you probably feel. When I saw you when you first got here on Friday, you were smiling and Michael couldn't keep his eyes off of you. If you resign yourself to defeat, that's probably what's going to happen."

Samara brightened at this, "You think?"

"I wouldn't say it, if I didn't mean it."

"Thanks, Liz." Samara stood up and gave Liz a hug.

"No problem," Liz said as she watched Samara walk out the door. 'Oh boy. What did I just do?'

~*~

Isabel watched Michael and Samara with disgust. Samara was lying on the couch, her head in Michael's lap, while he absentmindedly played with her hair. 'Okay, what the hell happened? Yesterday, Michael was staring at Maria all day, and now today he hasn't even paid any attention to her.' The shrill ring of the phone interrupted her thoughts.

"Hi, this is Dr. McInnis. I was told I could reach Samara here."

"Yeah, she's here. Hold on." Isabel poked her head back into the living room, "Samara-phone. It's some doctor."

"Oh, that must be Maggie." Samara quickly hurried into the other room.

Isabel sat down and picked up a magazine. "Maggie?"

"An old friend of ours."

Isabel rolled her eyes. 'Lovely, they already have friends together. Next up she'll have him picking out flower arrangements for their wedding.'

"Hey Is." Maria said as she walked in. "Michael." Michael nodded in reply. Maria started down the hallway.

"Wait, I need to talk to you." He glanced at Isabel. "Alone."

"Okay, okay. I get the message." Isabel got up, grabbing her magazine.

"And can you tell Mara to come back in here too?"

"Sure, no problem." From the serious look on Michael, Isabel knew something was going to go down today. She smiled, 'Maybe he's decided to call the whole thing off.' Isabel saw Samara walking down the hallway with a giddy smile. "Michael wants to talk to you in the living room."

"Okay," Samara smiled. Nothing could bring her down, not even one of Isabel's "looks".

~*~

"Hey, I've got something to tell you." Samara said as she sat down.

"Me too. Why don't you go first?" Michael said.

"No, you first." She smiled.

Michael acquiesced. "Okay, " He didn't know where to begin, so he figured he just blurt it out. "I love you, you know that?" She nodded her head. He looked down at the floor. "But I don't want to marry you." When he looked up, he was surprised at what he saw. Maria looked happy, but Samara… He couldn't even read her face. She didn't look sad, or angry. She looked almost in shock, like a deer in headlights, too scared to think. "I left six years ago under the pretense of finding more about where I came from, but instead I found myself. And you helped me do that. And I'll always be grateful to you for that. But, by finding myself, I realized that a part of me was missing. And until I came back here, I didn't know what it was." He paused and looked over at Maria. "It was you. I've loved you, and I'll always loved you." He glanced over at Samara. "Not that I don't love you. I just, when I see myself in the future, I see myself with her. And I want to be with her."

After a few minutes of silence, he felt Maria squeeze his hand. "Mara, say something."

"Oh." Silence filled the room for another minute. "Excuse me." And with that she left the room.

"Where do you think she's going?" Maria asked him.

"I don't know." He stood up and walked over to the window to see Samara open the door to their car and hop in.

"Where's she going?"

"Nowhere." Michael whispered.

"Nowhere?" Maria repeated.

"Nowhere. She doesn't have the keys. Stay here." He instructed Maria. He grabbed the keys to the car on his way out.

~*~

I don't want to marry you. 'Funny, isn't it? Six words, and then it's over. I don't even remember what he said after that.'

"Mara?" He spoke softly. "What are you doing?"

"Sitting in the car." 'Amazing. I can sit here, calm, right after I find out he's leaving me. I want to yell at him, scream, hit him, throw things at him, and all I can do is sit here.'

He sighed and got into the passenger side. "Talk to me. Tell me what you're feeling."

"I wish I could tell you. I really do."

"Then tell me."

"I feel nothing. For once in my life, I feel absolutely nothing. As if I'm empty inside." She paused. "Can I have the keys?"

"Sure." He handed them to her, and she placed them on the dashboard.

She looked forward, out the windshield, staring at nothing. They sat that way for several minutes. 'Please leave,' she thought. And somehow he must have heard her, because seconds later he opened the door and left. She quickly locked the door behind him.

Michael turned back once, when he was at the front door of the house. And he wished he hadn't. Because he saw her. He saw her crying, and he knew it was for him. For what could have been. For all the what-ifs in the world. 'Like I said before. I was perfectly happy in Santa Clarita. Not completely happy-but at least it wasn't Roswell. Roswell has too many memories. Too many what-ifs.'

TBC