Break

Show: Dark Angel

Rating:

Status: WIP

Genre: Drama/Romance

Pairing: M/A

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from anything, nor anything else

Summary: Even supersoldiers have limits. Max unknowingly pushes Alec to breaking point. The newly appointed leader of the Freaks finds he has some unexpected emotional issues to deal with. A story that came to me whilst listening to 'Passive' by A Perfect Circle. Please let me know what you think.

Chapter 1: Passive

Only his training held him together when the call came in.

He had specifically told her that under no circumstances should she go through with the deal. There were kids being held captive and White wanted Max in exchange, but Alec was certain they could come up with a better plan without having to risk her.

Of course she had complained that they didn't have time and Alec had pointed out not too delicately that they didn't know if the kids were even still alive. The bottom line was they couldn't trust White at his word and Alec ordered Max to back down. In a little time Alec had formed a plan but none of it mattered now because Max had gone on alone regardless with her own half-baked plan and now she was in serious trouble. Alec had to put his feelings aside, his rage and what he feared was panic, he was a CO and he had to act like one, there was a rescue to get done.

Once they had got there the problem became painfully clear. White hadn't been behind it at all. Another familiar looking to succeed where his predecessor had failed had set the whole thing up. Max's plan to negotiate using the information she had on White's son, or at least her hope that the same information would ensure her life, had proved useless and she had been shot on sight and left to die.

The kids had been tied up in the pier and left to watch the tide come in and drown them each slowly. The rescue operation got to them in just enough time to save most of them, but Max's life was hanging precariously in the balance. Alec had gone in for her himself leading a small team to keep the path out cleared. Alec emerged carrying her, stoic and shut-off trying to block out the feel of her blood trickling down his arm. Speed ran up to help him put her down carefully in the back of their escape vehicle. Alec gave her one last look then looked up at his former unit mate.

"Do what you can for her on the way back to TC, I'll take her bike."

Speed had to resist the urge to solute hearing the edge in Alec's voice. Instead he just nodded and closed the doors as they drove away.

It didn't take long to find the Ninja and Alec rode hard to catch up with the van to provide backup if necessary. The solitude it offered him was something of a blessing. He needed the time to compose himself to get his fears in check. He was the leader of the Freak Nation for God's sake! Which meant he had to keep his head clear, he had to show them strength. So, with a trick he had developed over the years he let in all in, allowing himself five seconds to feel it all in its full force.

Slowly taking a breath...

One ... he let his blood start to boil

Two ... his eyes began to sting

Three ... he recognised the constricting of his heart as it thudded harshly in his chest

Four ... his knuckles gripped at the handlebars turning white

Five ... and then it was all locked away, gone and he was in complete control again.

As the van pulled into the compound Cindy and Logan appeared jogging out of HQ. Original Cindy had appeared expecting a quiet evening in with her Boo, Logan being Logan never waited for an invitation to come to Terminal City. They had arrived more or less together and found Terminal City in a quietly contained commotion. Eventually it was leaked to them that a rescue op had gone side ways and both Max and Alec were in the field. The call to open the gates for the in-coming retrieval team sent them quickly outside to meet them. They arrived just as Max, unconscious and bloody, was being pulled from the van. The sight immediately stopped them both leaving them paralysed until Alec pulled up along side them.

"Get her to med, they should have the crash room ready by now," Cindy watched as Speed and Falcon carried Max off and quietly followed after them, but Logan wanted answers.

"What happened?" He asked harshly steeping up to Alec as he finished dismissing the rest of the team.

"She went on a rescue mission alone and got shot." Was the clinically abridged version he recieved. Logan grabbed his arm stopping him. Alec glared down at the offending hand incredulously.

"How could you let her go on her own?!"

"I didn't!" Alec snapped. The dangerously fierce look in his eyes was enough to make Logan physically back off. An angry Alec when challenged was a frightening figure. "You hypocrite," he continued "Don't you dare lecture me about putting her in unnecessary danger." Alec shook Logan's hand off his sleeve and took off heading down to the medical facility not caring if Logan chose to follow or not.

There was a flurry of activity when he arrived at the crash room. The medics worked on her moving equipment around the room, calling out instructions to each other, working in the kind of harmony that only people born to perform surgery could possess.

"Another shot of Saline, cut the line, patch quickly..."

Cindy stood anxious and emotional as she watched them work through the glass. Logan came to stand behind her and put what he hoped to be a comforting hand on her shoulder. She glanced over to where Alec stood just far enough away to seem isolated. To anyone he looked almost unaffected, lifeless almost, but OC knew a thing or two about transgenics and she suspected a thing or two about Alec. She saw his tension reverberate around him like an aura. The power he exuded was immense, enough to discourage anyone sensible of it from disturbing him. The slight twitch in the tendons of his forearm drew her eyes down to his balled fists still caked in Max's dried blood. She longed to be able to comfort him but knew how he would not welcome it. He had to just stand there and watch helplessly, and it was killing him.

Suddenly Max flat-lined. The high-pitched squeal of the heart monitor seemed deafening to all present.

"Quick, the defibrillator."

Cindy turned away unable to bare the sight of the electrical charge make her friends lifeless body spasm. Hope was fading fast. As the old defibrillator crackled and died so did the activity. The medics stood inert, unsure whether to continue. For a long moment the only sound in the world was the sound of the heart monitor.

"No!" the sound ripped through the air as did its producer. Alec flew through the double-doors and straight up on the operating table looming over Max as if possessed. "Oh no you don't! don't you dare!" he shouted in a rage.

He brought up his fist he slammed it down on to her chest over her heart. it seemed too violent to be an act of revival, but no one moved, no one spoke. The only sounds were his voice and the beating on her chest.

"You are NOT running this time! Not again! I have had it! don't play games with me Max, don't fucking play games with me! I know you can hear me!! This is unacceptable soldier! You hear? Unacceptable!"

Logan looked about ready to intervene but Cindy stopped him. Alec continued punctuating his words with the pounding of his fist oblivious to everything but his own tempest.

"You screwed up this time, YOU DID! And you are going to face this, you are going to face me! Wake up! I said WAKEUP! Is that it? Is that all you've got? Is there nothing left?! What would you do if I walked away?! What if I walked away? Where is your fight? where is the tough girl act now? Maybe your better off this way! go ahead and play dead, I know you can hear this, so go ahead and play dead, You coward! you disappoint me, do you hear?! YOU FUCKING DISAPPOINT ME!!"

With one last pound the tirade died and was replaced by the comparatively meagre blip on the heart monitor.

Then another blip

and another

and another.

A pulse.

Alec's face cleared and his eye snapped up to the screen of the monitor to see the thin green line flick up and down. Suddenly he jumped off her and backed away finally taking in all the other faces in the room but he couldn't look at them he just stared distractedly at her. No one else in the room breathed just stared in disbelief at what had unfolded over the last thirty seconds.

"Don't just stand there, help her!" Alec growled. Even as the activity resumed in the room he continued to stare a moment longer oblivious to the two pairs of eyes still on him from the other side of the door. Then he turned and left.

Logan and Cindy stared after him terrified and yet somehow in awe of the man who they realised they still comprehended so little about.

A/N: It has been ages since I posted anything. But I found this lurking among my notes and scraps and thought it might be good enough to post. I'm still a bit unsure about it so I could really do with some feedback. Thanks x