One part.
It was all the DEO needed to be able to fix a vital piece of equipment in the lab. But of course, the part in question, was not so easily found. It had been discontinued a couple years ago and finding it now was next to impossible. But they were able to track down it's original creator, a man named Roger S. Wallace. Upon further research, they found out that none other than Maxwell Lord was a former classmate of the man in college.
A trip to Lord Technologies to gather more information about Mr. Wallace proved more useful than expected. It turned out that Wallace, according to Max, 'owed him a favor', and after a quick phone call, confirmed he could secure the part. Fortunately for DEO, Max was willing to work with them, under one condition of course. That Alex be his liaison for the deal. Knowing how badly they needed the part, she had no choice but to accept.
Which is how Alex Danvers found herself with Maxwell Lord in a very remote town outside the city, to pick up the item in question.
What was supposed to be simple meeting and exchange, wasn't quite going as smoothly as planned. A little more than halfway from the town, they had received a phone call informing them Wallace wouldn't be able to arrive til the next morning. So instead of trekking all the way back to the city just to have to drive back again the next day, they thought it easier to just spend the night in town and meet with him in the morning. Alex alerted the DEO of the change in plan and had them make preparations accordingly.
The bell on the inn door let out a tiny melodious jingle as they opened it and stepped inside. The place had a very rustic feel about it, much like the rest of the town. An old woman of about seventy sat behind a large desk in the center of the room. She smiled warmly at the sight of the two new faces entering her establishment and greeted them.
"My, don't you two make a handsome couple." She commented as they walked up to the desk.
Maxwell grinned smugly at the comment and started to place his arm around Alex's shoulder, but she pulled away and quickly corrected the woman. "No, no." She waved her hands in front of herself. "We're definitely not a couple. We're just colleagues."
"You don't have to sound that adverse about it." Max mumbled quietly with a slight pout.
Alex ignored him and continued on. "We have a reservations for two rooms, they should under the name Danvers."
The old woman adjusted her glasses and looked down at the large hand written guestbook in front of her, squinting slightly as she scanned over the list of occupants. After a moment, she looked up at them and shook her head.
"There's nothing under that name."
Alex frowned. The DEO had been the one to call, so maybe they had put it under another name. "Try Henshaw, then."
She glanced back down and ran through the list of names again, only to come up empty once more.
"Sorry. Nothing there either. But... lucky for you, we do appear to happen to have one room left. It is a single room however."
Alex and Max exchanged a look with one another over their sudden unideal situation.
"That's the only room available?"
The old woman nodded. "Yes. This is our busy season, after all."
Alex blinked momentarily, and glanced around with a puzzled look on her face. This was their busy season? She'd hate to see what it looked like on a slow day.
"Let me handle this." Max said coming up to the front desk. Alex put her hands up in front of her and shrugged slightly before taking a step back. "I'm Maxwell Lord." He informed her with a winning smile, hoping that his charm paired with his well known name would help clear up the room issue. However the desk clerk just stared at him with a blank expression, which made Max frown. "Of Lord Technologies." He added.
"And I'm Milly of the Old Creek Inn. Your point?" The older woman replied somewhat confused, along with being both unaware of who he was and completely unimpressed by him. The tech billionaire looked utterly dumbfounded by her response, which caused a snort of laughter to escape from Alex's mouth.
"All we have left is that one room." The woman repeated.
The Max and Alex both looked at each other and sighed as they made an unspoken decision. There was nowhere else in this small town to stay, so they really didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
Alex reluctantly nodded and paid the woman using the DEO's expense account. Milly then removed the room key from the key rack and held it out to Alex who took it and headed off in the direction where the woman had pointed, as a dejected Maxwell followed behind her.
"Very smooth back there." Alex teased as they made their way down the hall to their room. Max scowled, "I shouldn't be surprised, given this backwater town." The DEO agent couldn't help be amused by his utter vexation over what had happened. "Well, you'll have plenty of time to nurse that bruised ego of yours." Alex quipped.
"Why did he want to meet in this town exactly?" She asked curiously as they reached the door to their room.
Maxwell gave a slight shrug. "Though rather brilliant, but not as much as me mind you, Roger was always a bit of an... Eccentric, to say the least. He tended to be a bit paranoid about his work, so he likely chose this place because it's off the grid."
Alex made a face, finding it was rather disconcerting that the place even lacked any cell phone towers. A couple of miles before reaching town, she had found that both of their phones had been rendered useless, making her a bit wary if things happened to go south. Hopefully it wouldn't be an issue.
Shaking off the thought, she placed the key in the door. As soon as they opened it up, they were immediately greeted with a cool gust of air, causing them to both involuntarily shiver for a moment. Noticing the window in the back was open, Max walked over to shut it as Alex examined the place.
In the center of the room sat one full size bed, simply adorned with one blanket and two pillows. The rest of the room was fairly basic, with wooden floors, antique wallpaper and a small TV that looked like it was straight out of the 70's.
"The window is stuck." Maxwell announced, looking back at her.
Alex frowned and made her way over to him. "Let me see."
He stepped out of the way and she made her attempt to try to close the window. Much too her disappointment however, it didn't want to budge. But Alex was determined to get it to shut. After a couple of attempts, she then gave one last forceful push down, putting all of her weight behind it, which finally caused the stubborn object to move. Unfortunately, the impact of it hitting the sill caused the glass pane to pop out and tumble to the ground outside, shattering on contact.
"Correction, the window is broken."
The brunette glared at the tech billionaire's attempt at humor and let out a heavy sigh, grimacing at the damage she had done. She swiftly made her way towards the door. "I'm going to talk to the front desk to apologize for the window and see if maybe we can get if fixed." Max made a small wave of acknowledgement as she turned the corner and proceeded down the hallway.
It wasn't long before she was back again and she seemed even less pleased than when she left.
"There's nothing they can do about the window." The brunette announced as she came in. "Apparently, everything in this town closes after 5 PM." It was times like these where she missed the city.
Max chuckled and shook his head. "Oh the charming allure of small towns."
"They don't have any extra blankets either, so where going to have to somehow make do with what's here."
Maxwell walked over to the bed and frowned as he picked up the sheet, rubbing the fabric between his fingers. The minimal thread count and paper thin material would hardly provide much warmth or comfort. "I've seen tissues with more thickness than this." He commented dryly.
Alex was too tired to care at the moment, and flopped down on the bed, mentally exhausted from the day. Max removed his jacket and unbuttoned the cuffs on his shirt, rolling up his sleeves to make himself more comfortable.
"Enjoying our little romantic getaway, Agent Danvers?" Max teased as he leaned his frame against the wall beside him. Alex rolled her eyes and tossed a pillow at his head, but he managed to catch it just before it landed it's blow. An amused smirk played out across his face.
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" She inquired with a raised brow as she sat back up.
Max gave a small chuckle. "I'm simply taking pleasure in the circumstances we've found ourselves in."
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. "This wasn't your doing was it?"
He shook his head dismissively. "As much as I enjoy your company, Alex..." He gestured around the room. "I can not take credit for our current situation."
"Speaking of..." Alex spoke up, finally acknowledging the elephant in the room.
"The sleeping situation." Max finished.
She nodded. "Yeah. That." Letting out a sigh, she continued. "We're both adults here." 'Some of us more than others.' Alex mentally thought.
"So what are you saying?"
"I'm saying... we share the bed."
In spite of their differences, making him sleep on the floor seemed a little cruel, especially given the fact there was only 1 blanket. Not to mention, he was the only reason they could even get the part they needed in the first place. The situation wasn't ideal, but she hoped they could make it work.
"And you're sure about this?" He asked, his tone surprisingly more considerate than she's used to hearing from him.
She nodded.
A freshly showered Alex stepped out of the bathroom, wearing pajamas featuring various cute little smiling pastries on it, very uncharacteristic of her usual tough demeanor.
"Interesting choice of sleepwear." Max remarked with an amused grin, as he gave her the once over.
"Kara bought them for me." She informed him, her cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment. She really hadn't expected anyone to see her in them, let alone that person being Maxwell Lord.
Her eyes swept over Max as he laid in bed. He was wearing a silky grey pair of pajamas with an open collar, which she had to admit, looked rather nice on him.
"No funny business." Alex threatened sternly with her arms crossed over her chest and a sharp look in her eye as she approached the bed. She was hoping she still came across as intimidating, in spite of her cutesy sleep attire.
Max raised his hands up in front of him in mock surrender. "Wouldn't think of it." Pausing a moment, he inclined his head. "But... I might dream of it." He added with a cheeky grin. Alex rolled her eyes and contemplated throwing something at him again, but decided against it. She had already broken the window, last thing she needed was to break anything else. Well... except maybe Max's arm if he decided to try anything.
Taking a deep breath to prepare herself for the inevitable, Alex then reluctantly crawled into the bed and got underneath the covers. She tried to situate herself with as much space as possible between them without accidentally falling off the bed, but given that it was a full sized mattress, the space was minimal at best.
Despite closing the curtains, the room was still freezing. The wind outside had picked up as night fell, causing the drapery fabric to billow noisily throughout the room as the cool air made its way inside. The wooden floors had been exceptionally chilly against her bare feet. She quickly found herself regretting showering so late, as her hair was still damp, making her even more susceptible to the elements.
Her hand brushes up against Max's arm as she tries get into a more comfortable position.
"Alex, you're freezing." He spoke seriously.
"I'm fine." She replied hastily, turning away from him and wrapping hers arms tightly around herself in an effort to get warm. The covers offered very little protection against the cold, and as the wind continued to picked up, it caused her teeth to chatter slightly.
Max frowned and put his hand on her arm to get her attention, her skin felt like ice against his own. She sighed and rolled back over to look at him. "What?"
He hesitated a moment before speaking. "Look, I know you're not going to like this idea, but-"
"Not a chance." She replied immediately shooting down his suggestion before he could even ask it.
Max sighed and shook his head. "Come on, Alex. You can't hate me that much that you'd actually be willing to freeze to death." He argued, and as much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She'd had enough survival training to know you should huddle together for warmth. The temperature would only drop further the later the night went on.
"Fine." Alex reluctantly agreed.
Rolling back over on to her side, she slowly scooted back closer to him. He slipped his arms around her, pulling her close and she let out a reflexive sigh of contentment at the warmth that enveloped her shivering form. They fell into a comfortable silence for a while, until Alex decided to speak up.
"And for the record I… don't hate you." Alex confessed quietly, in response to his earlier statement.
Max's eyebrows shot up in surprise, clearly he must have heard her wrong. "What?"
"I don't hate you." She repeated. "Heaven knows I've tried, but… I can never make it stick. I can't seem to shake the notion that there's still hope for you."
Max gave a small smile. "Is that so?" He murmured thoughtfully.
He felt her shrug slightly against him. "I blame my sister, her optimism in people has rubbed off on me."
"Hm..." Max mused, but said nothing further on the matter.
As she laid there, Alex was a bit caught off guard by how comfortable this all felt. She tries to convince herself it's only because he's warm and she's freezing, but that argument feels rather weak, even to herself. Sometimes she can't help but wonder if things had been different. If Max hadn't of tried to destroy her sister, or the number of other questionable things he's done. Would things have been different between them?
She let out a small sigh and decided not to dwell on it, instead opting for getting some sleep for tomorrow. But before doing so, she informed him of one last thing.
"Oh. And if you tell anyone about this, legal or not, I will throw you back in that cell at the DEO."
Maxwell chuckled quietly at the threat. "Duly noted."
"Goodnight Max."
"Sweet dreams, Alex."