The Promise - UC Mi/L TEEN - 1/1 {COMPLETE}

[burningchaos]

The Promise
By burningchaos
Burningchaos@aol.com
This is AU there are no aliens, Max and Liz broke up in high school, and stayed friends, Tess wasn’t evil.
Rated TEEN
Eleven years into marriage and not all is as it should be, can Michael fix it?
No warnings
I own nothing.


“You’re late.”

Michael’s tone was terse and agitated, “You said an hour and you have been over there for five.”

Liz was exhausted. She had just spent the last few hours helping Max clean out Tess’ things, and it hadn’t been easy. She closed her eyes in utter exhaustion.

“Michael, he needed help. He just lost his wife, he’s grieving, and he could use your friendship right now, too.”

“Max is just using this as an excuse to get close to you again Liz, wake up!” Michael had stood up as he started to yell.

Liz was sick of this. It was always the same thing, it never changed, and they fought about Max almost everyday. Liz let out an exasperated sigh and started to walk away.
“Michael, I am sick of fighting with you about this, how can you still believe after ten years of marriage to Tess that Max still wants me? Or for that matter that after eleven years of marriage to you I would want him? We are just friends, I am sick of the lack of trust and I am not listening anymore.”

With that parting shot, Liz walked into their bedroom leaving a stunned Michael behind.

Liz sat down on the bed. She felt broken inside. She loved Michael very much, but he still, even after all this time, couldn’t believe in her love for him. She was so tired of daily trying to fight his insecurities and distrust. She had never wavered in her love for him, never given him reason to doubt her, yet he always did.

Especially when it came to Max.

Max. Her ex from high school. Michael tortured her emotionally over a relationship from high school. It was so silly really; her and Max had broken up at the end of their senior year. They just weren’t working and decided they were better friends then lovers. So friends it was, and she fell in love with Michael hard. She had known him almost as long as she had known Max but until they had broken up she never really saw him. Then one day at lunch she looked up at him and just … fell. There was no rhyme or reason, there was just him filling her heart, and they had been together since. It had been the same for Max when he met Tess, he had called her so excited telling her that Tess was “the one” and a year after her and Michael married Tess married Max. She had been a bride’s maid.

Now Tess was gone, a car accident. It was so senseless and Max was devastated. So was Liz for that matter Tess had been her best friend. And now Michael had started again on his favorite subject with renewed fervor. Liz started to cry. Shattered, heart wrenching sobs that shook her body, she slid to the floor and wrapped her arms around her for comfort, and wondered what she was going to do.

Michael could hear Liz crying and he knew that it was partly his fault, but he couldn’t stop himself. It was a compulsion; he just didn’t understand why Liz would love him. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around it. She was a brilliant scientist and he just ran a bar. Sometime he felt so stupid, he knew that he wasn’t, he had gotten into college but hadn’t wanted to go, it was just he had nothing to offer Liz that she couldn’t get for herself. Hell, it was his fault they couldn’t have kids, that made him feel even more worthless. Max and Tess had three kids, three and he and Liz couldn’t even have one. Why would she want to stay? And now that Max was single again, well… Michael was expecting her to leave any day now.

He could still hear her sobbing. It was killing him, and he loved her so much and had since he first met her. He could still remember that day. The way the sun was shining, her hair and what she was wearing. She had been sitting on Max’s lap and it had been his first day at the school. Another foster family, another new school, it never changed. Then he saw her. She looked like an angel, a goddess and he was sunk right then and there. He became friends with Max, he was an alright guy, but it was Liz who drew him. Then when they broke up he felt like he had been handed a gift, he had been given a chance. Then at lunch one day it happened she saw him, and hadn’t left his side since.

Michael lifted his head at that thought; she hasn’t left my side since, she hasn’t left my side since. It kept tumbling around in his brain. And it finally dawned on him; it finally hit him after eleven years of marriage that his wife truly loved him. He groaned in frustration. He was an idiot, an ass, he was making her cry!

Michael leapt up from the couch and ran to the bedroom; he found Liz huddled on the floor; her sobs had subsided to small hiccups. He knelt down, picked her up and laid her on the bed next to him.

Liz said nothing. Michael hadn’t been this tender to her in years, and she was shocked. She wondered what had come over him. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her like he hadn’t in a long while. She reveled in his touch, the feel of his body next to hers; it had been so long since he had even touched her, weeks, since Tess died. Liz whimpered at the sensations and comfort she felt, she was afraid he would leave her again so she held on to him tightly.

“Aw baby, don’t cry any more please.” Michael’s voice was filled with remorse as he wiped the tears from her face, “I am so sorry I have been such a bastard.”

Liz couldn’t understand what he was saying; she looked at him and saw his eyes were filled with tears too.

“I am sorry I caused you so much pain by doubting you. I know you love me, it is just sometimes I don’t understand why.” Michael was rubbing her back as her spoke, “I know that sometimes—okay, all the time—Max bothers me, but I was sitting out in the living room and it hit me that you have never given me reason to doubt you. I should have trusted you as much as I love you.”

Liz was shaken to the very core; Michael was saying everything she had been longing to hear, maybe she was dreaming, she moved to sit up a little as she spoke.

“Michael, what made you see this, what caused this?” she questioned him curiously, her voice filled with confusion. Michael pulled her close, unwilling to let her move away and tucked her head under his chin. He couldn’t believe all the anguish he had caused her and he was going to spend the rest of his life fixing this if he had too.

“I was sitting out there thinking about how we got together, and I realized that since that day you have never left my side, you have always supported me, loved me and just been here. I saw that I was being an idiot, I can’t promise to change over night, but I do promise to trust you from now on, like I should have all along.”

Liz started to cry again, this time tears of joy. She had started to think their marriage was over. She had given up hope, and now it had been given back. She looked up into Michael’s eyes and saw the love there, but she could also see all the pain and regret too.

“Michael, I love you and I forgive you, as long as we work together everything will be okay, just don’t shut me out anymore, it hurts too much.”

“I won’t,” he vowed. At that promise, Michael leaned down to claim his wife’s lips in a tender searching kiss, where he truly found forgiveness, and the passion he had been missing.