He could tell she was tired. She was always tired these days. At first, he couldn't figure it out. It was December and things around TC were relatively slow, they had a few heists to get some medicine and food and a few new blankets. But other than that, there wasn't much to take care of. And yet Max was staying late at the office practically every day, and every morning she was already there when he woke up.

It took him a week and a visit to Gem's to realize what was going on. Mole asked him to drop something at Gem's for her baby and he was feeling Christmassy already so he obliged. With the way things were going at TC, how they were making a home for themselves and with a barely there signs of the public easing up on them, he was looking forward to the holidays. It would be his first Christmas since he was free of Manticore. And he wanted to make it memorable. He'd already stolen a few bottles of champagne on their last heist and he was hoping he could get one of those artificial Christmas trees for his room. But so far he hadn't had any luck with that or the decorations.

The door at Gem's place was open for a crack and he lifted his hand to knock when he heard Max's voice. He was surprised to find her here. There was also Gem's voice and Dalton's. The kid was constantly at Gem's, Alec suspected he fell in love with the loud, annoying baby.

Dalton was laughing and he could hear some rustling of paper and something else being moved around.

"Perfect," Gem said.

All went quiet then, until he heard Max sigh. "I wish …" She went quiet until Gem said, "What?"

There was another pause before Max spoke again. "I wish I could decorate my place too, but I don't have the time to make the decorations and with the place so untidy it would be impossible to see them anyway."

"You could decorate the HQs. Dalton and a few others could help make the decorations."

Max snorted and Alec could vividly imagine her expression.

"Sure, that would definitely make Alec's day. Or week. He'd tease me because of it forever. No, definitely not."

The last moment he suppressed a sigh. He was again the reason for her problems. Somehow this made him feel even worse because she felt she couldn't enjoy Christmas because of him. It made him pissed that she could think this of him. Before he even really thought about it, he decided to do something to surprise her and make her see he wasn't the jerk she thought him to be.

He tiptoed a few paces away and then walked loudly back to the door and knocked. Gem opened the door further.

"Hey," he greeted her and he saw Max wince when she saw who it was.

He pretended to be surprised at seeing her there. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I was just leaving," she said, but he knew she was lying when he saw her mug was still full of hot tea.

"Mole's sending this," he handed the package to Gem.

"Thanks. Want some tea?" Gem offered when she put the package on the makeshift bed.

"Thanks, I could use something hot," he said and rubbed his hands together. He was wearing a t-shirt, two sweaters and a jacket. Heating was not one of the advantages of TC and he was freezing pretty much 24/7.

He thought he'd heard Max mumble 'wuss'.

"Yeah well, I may be a transgenic, but I'm not a polar bear."

She made a face at him and he flashed her a grin. "What's up, Maxie?"

She obviously didn't think he deserved an answer. Gem returned with another mug and Alec leaned onto the wall by the door. He noticed Gem's place was already decorated for the holidays, albeit with homemade paper decorations and garlands. The room was so small it looked cluttered with all the stuff on the walls and the ceiling. Dalton was just putting up a tree, made of cardboard and paper and painted green. He guessed that was the rustling he'd heard in front of the door.

"Nice," Alec snickered.

Max threw him a nasty look. He shrugged. "What?"

Gem grinned. "He wants to make my baby's first Christmas memorable." Her voice expressed a mixture of amusement and fondness.

"We could decorate the HQ's," Alec said to Max just to tease her. But she averted her eyes and didn't say anything. He noticed Gem's glance towards Max, however.

Max obviously wasn't in the mood to put up with him as she soon got up from the chair and left the place. Alec followed soon after her.

It was on his way home that evening that he decided on what to do. He knew it was better not to tell Max that he knows how she feels. He would surprise her. Women liked surprises and no matter how extraordinary Max was, she was a woman.

-----------------------------------

The next morning Alec got up early. He felt half dead walking towards the HQs but he didn't have a choice if he wanted to get there before Max. He couldn't get a tree so fast, but he managed to convince Mole to sell him some Christmas lights. They were now stuffed in his jacket pocket as he rubbed his hands, climbing the stairs to Max's office. Few people were around at this hour and Max's office was still dark. Thank God, he thought. He opened the door and sneaked in. He turned on the lights and walked to the wall behind Max's desk. He wanted to place the lights on that wall, then he changed his mind. It would be better if she could see them at all times, even when she sat behind her desk. So he stepped to the opposite wall and took off the map of TC that hung there. He rolled it and placed it in a corner.

He pulled the lights and some tacks out of his pocket and started working. When he was done, the lights formed a tree on the wall. He plugged them into the nearest socked and stepped back to admire his work.

"Perfect," he decided. Step one was finished.

He turned around the place to check whether he'd left any traces and then walked out satisfied.

He deliberately waited a few hours before he stopped by in her office to see her reaction to the decoration.

Without knocking he barged in, ignoring the lights in the form of a tree as if he knew nothing about it.

Max was behind her desk, her head low over the papers.

"Hey, Maxie," he said cheerfully.

She lifted her eyes and said, "Hey." Her voice sounded exhausted. She looked exhausted.

"Everything okay?" he asked worried.

"Yeah. Why?" Her brow furrowed.

"Nothing, just asking."

"Hey, Max."

They both looked to the door when they heard Dalton speak.

"Dalton, come on in," Max said and her face lit up.

Alec felt disappointed when he realized her face never lit up when she saw him, if anything she usually became even sadder or more annoyed, or more depressed. It just wasn't fair. Who helped her run TC? Who did all the dirty, difficult jobs around here? Who was her partner in crime? No, it wasn't fair.

"Gem says you can come over when you finish. She made a cake today and she wants you to try it," Dalton said.

"What about me? Can't I try the cake?" Alec asked insulted.

Dalton looked at him perplexed and embarrassed. He shrugged. "Gem only said Max."

"Not fair," Alec grumbled.

"Don't be such a baby," Max rolled her eyes.

Dalton already turned to leave when Max called him back. "Hey, Dalton? Thanks for the Christmas lights. They look nice."

"Huh?" Dalton eyed her befuddled.

Alec snickered but didn't say anything. He noticed Max's surprise when she realized Dalton didn't know what she was talking about. She pointed to the wall. "Didn't you put them up?"

Dalton looked and then shook his head. "No, it wasn't me." His surprise was so genuine she must've known he wasn't pretending.

"Oh."

For a second, Alec thought he should tell her, but then he thought better of it. She wouldn't believe him anyway.

"I'll go then," Dalton said.

"Ok. Thanks for stopping by. I probably won't have time to go to Gem's though."

"She'll be disappointed."

Max smiled. "I'll try my best."

The door closed after the boy and Alec stood watching his commander. She suddenly seemed tiny in that chair of hers, behind the desk full of stacks of paper. He suspected she had deliberately put them there to give the impression of being busy.

She ignored him and returned to her work.

He wanted to find out why this Christmas thing was upsetting her so much she was willing to work extra hours just so she could avoid any holiday activities.

"So, what are you doing for Christmas? Going to Logan's?"

The second she looked at him, he knew he had said the wrong thing. So Logan was the problem, huh?

"No, I'll be staying here. I have tons of paperwork to finish …"

"What paperwork? The whole month's been pretty quiet and we wrote the reports every day, there shouldn't be much work left these few more days till New Year."

"If you don't see it, it doesn't mean there is no work." He knew she was trying to get rid of him by being mean to him.

"Logan going out of town?" he tried again.

She stopped writing and placed her hands on the desk top. She looked straight at him and said, "He's celebrating with Asha and some friends of hers because they have nowhere else to go." He could see she was trying to sound like she was okay with it, like she admired Logan for being such a good friend, but she failed miserably. He'd known her for a while now and he could read her like an open book. She was hurt and disappointed.

"Hm."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she said annoyed.

He shrugged. "Nothing, nothing at all. It just surprised me, that's all. I figured he'd want to be with you."

"Well, he doesn't. Besides, Christmas is a family holiday and we're not exactly family."

He didn't know what else to say. Obviously she wouldn't want any kind of consolation from him.

"By the way, I'll finish the paperwork, you go see Gem," he said as he walked to her desk and grabbed one of the stacks of paper.

"Wha- No, I can do it," she tried to take the papers back.

"No, I insist. Gem will be insulted if you don't come. Save a piece of the cake for me, will ya?" He grinned at her and walked out the door with the heap of papers under his arm. All the way to his office he was wondering what on earth got into him to deliberately take on more work when he didn't feel like working at all.

He sighed. Well, at least Max would get a deserved break. He just hoped she wouldn't find something else to work on as an excuse not to leave her office.

He worked most of the night, finally, close to three he filled in the last form and put it onto the 'finished' pile. He didn't have the energy to walk home, he dosed off in the chair, head propped onto his forearms on the desk.

He woke up when he heard the door open. He was instantly alert, a habit Manticore had hammered too deeply into his head to get rid of it.

"Alec? Did you fall asleep behind your desk?" Max asked incredulously. Everyone at TC knew how he liked his beauty sleep.

He cleared his throat and rubbed his eyes. "Must've dosed off. But I finished your reports," he announced proudly.

She didn't look thrilled as he'd expected her to be.

"Something wrong? Was Gem's cake good?"

"Yeah, yeah, it was fine. I saw Mole on the way here …" Max started. "He said you bought some Christmas lights from him and that he saw you sneaking into my office yesterday morning." She looked at him suspiciously.

Damn Lizard, Alec thought, didn't he know when to keep his trap shut?

"It wasn't Dalton who put the lights onto the wall, was it? It was you," she accused him.

He didn't know whether to admit or deny it. Nothing would make much difference, anyway.

"You didn't have to," she continued unperturbed and none too thankful. "Now I can't even look at the map when I need it and it's such a bother unrolling it on the desk."

He couldn't believe his ears. Couldn't she show at least some appreciation for his effort?

"Gee, Max, don't strain yourself with your gratitude," he grumbled.

For a second he thought she looked contrite, but then her mask of annoyance was back in place. "I'm just saying … it's not very practical for an office to decorate it just because it's Christmas."

"Aren't you a regular Scrooge," he complained. "What's wrong with some Christmas cheer? Do you have to be in such a bad mood all the time?"

"I have no reason not to be," she retorted and was already at the door when Alec said, "What if I give you a reason?"

She stopped but didn't turn to him. For a frantic moment he wondered what he talking about, what he was getting himself into. But when she finally looked at him, his face was again composed and he was grinning.

"If you're thinking some dirty …"

He interrupted her before she could finish. "Nothing dirty, just good old Christmas spirit."

"No!" she insisted. "No Christmas. I don't want anything even remotely like Christmas!"

She left the room and closed the door with a bang.