Falling for Maggie

Maggie/Ben ship. Rated M. Things will definitely get on the explicit side, even though they never do on the show. I know there are a lot of Maggie/Ben haters, but - like Maggie in my story - Hal never really came back from the eye worm thing for me. The writers did too good of a job portraying him as a bad guy, and he has never really seemed the same since. That being said, I had no issues when they decided to introduce the possibility of a love triangle on the show, and since not many other people have written Maggie/Ben AU's, I am taking on the challenge. I flip perspective back and forth between Ben and Maggie. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan-fiction. The story I tell about Ben and Maggie is my own invention, and it is not purported, or believed, to be part of the Falling Skies story canon. It is for entertainment only, and is not part of the storyline.

Chapter One:

Ben:

Her blond tendrils curled over his arm while she slept and he turned, positioning himself where he could look at her. Sunlight splashed across her naked shoulder. She stirred, and rolled forward a little further into the curve of his arm, revealing the tattoo of the phoenix in flight on her back. He thought she was the most beautiful creature he had ever encountered. She wound her hand around the back of his neck, and nestled her head against his bare chest, mumbling his name. "Ben, Ben, Ben..."

"Ben, wake up." The dream world exploded. He was in his room. He shot up, scooting backward, away from the dark figure in the night. Then he realized it was Maggie standing at the foot of his bed, trying to wake him up.

He took a deep breath and relaxed back against the cardboard box that currently served as his headboard. "What time is it?" He asked, rubbing his eyes. He rarely slept, so when he did it felt disorienting to wake and not know how long he'd been out. Or what had happened while he was sleeping. Stuff was always happening in the 2nd Mass. And more and more often, with his father gone, and Hal out scouting, he was the one being summoned to deal with it.

"About four in the morning," she replied. With his special hearing, he detected exhaustion in her voice, which only took on that low, husky quality when she was especially tired. With her new spikes, she was on a similar schedule to his, sleeping rarely, and he could tell that she hadn't slept in a long time. "I didn't want to wake you, but I thought you should know..."

"What? Is it dad?" He flung his wool blanket aside and got out of bed. He sensed Maggie turn her head away, as he pulled some black cargo pants over his black boxers, and grabbed a grungy dark t-shirt off of his make-shift nightstand. He covered that with his black hoodie.

He was amazed he'd had any sleep at all what with being on high alert for his father, who still hadn't returned from his mission to destroy the power core on earth's moon.

"It's not Tom. He isn't back yet. It's Hal."

Ben froze and turned his head to face her. She was wearing a hoodie, and for the first time he realized she was dressed in full field gear, her white marble handled pistols jutting out from under her arms. "What about him?"

"He was out on a scouting mission with Weaver and Anthony. The scouts just got back. They walked into an Espheni ambush. Anthony carried Weaver out and Hal..." she paused, sniffed, wiping her eyes, and continued. "Hal isn't with them, Ben. And Weaver was seriously injured. Ann's working on him now."

Ben swallowed. "What did Anthony say about Hal? Does he have any idea what happened to him?" He donned the heavy wool jacket, and strapped his modified AK over that.

She sighed. "Skitters," she said, "the skitters took him. Anthony thinks Hal was knocked out, and he saw them carrying him off into the woods."

Ben felt anger boiling up under his skin. He couldn't remember the last full week he'd gone without someone in his family being in danger. "Dad's gone. Now Hal. Whose next," he turned and looked at her, his fingers forming into fists. His next thought filled him with rage, "you?"

She shrugged, "Sometimes I feel like I died a long time ago, Ben. Now come on, we have to leave."

"To save Hal?" he asked already knowing the answer. He took her outstretched hand, and followed her out of the hut.

"To save Hal," she repeated.

####

They made better time running, on foot, than they ever would have made in one of vehicles. And they were a lot quieter. Ben liked to run just behind Maggie, to watch the way her hair whipped up in the air, the way her muscles moved. She caught him looking at her and slowed down. They were deep in the forest. Ben could feel the sun coming up, but the overhead canopy of trees still shrouded them in darkness. "Are you okay?" She asked, staring at him like she could see right through him.

He leaned against a tree and nodded. "I'm fine. Aside from being worried about dad."

"And Hal?"

He shifted a little. "Of course I'm worried about my brother..."

"But.."

He frowned. "Hal's a big boy. If I freaked out every time something happened to one of my brothers, I'd be a complete mess all the time, Maggie."

She smiled a little. "I guess that makes sense. So this isn't about..." Her voice trailed off, and she crossed her arms over her chest, taking a step toward him.

He felt compelled to answer, even though she'd never finished asking him. "About us? About the kiss...or kisses."

She inhaled deeply, still edging toward him one tiny step at a time, "Well? Is it?"

"I can't pretend I'm not thinking about it. But I'm trying Maggie. I really am."

She paused in her forward momentum toward him. Then she started again, taking another step in his direction. She was only a few feet away now. "Trying?"

"Trying not to think about you, not to touch you." Her eyes widened a little and his heart began to race. She was so beautiful, so fragile, yet strong and brave at the same time. She scared him yet, simultaneously, he felt overwhelmingly protective of her. With Maggie, it was always a series of conflicting emotions. Warring passions. An inner battle to either run from her or to kiss her raged constantly within him. Then there was the guilt over having such strong feelings for Hal's girlfriend. Guilt entered the ring on a regular basis. His only defense against the shame, was his growing worry that Hal was becoming more and more like their father, and while Ann seemed ready for the challenge of being married to Tom Mason, Ben didn't think Maggie wanted that life. Always watching the man she loved running off to kill something, eternally second to Hal's growing obsession with winning the war. Ben hated knowing that if he had Maggie's love, he wouldn't squander it, and he would certainly never put her second to anything.

"Well, I guess I should thank you for that."

He raised an eyebrow. "If you say so." She was flirting with him. He swallowed hard. How did she or Hal expect him to resist Maggie flirting. Lately his deepest, darkest fantasies were suddenly coming true, and it was too much for him.

Maggie's next step toward him put her in range for the spikes to connect, and he felt them begin to pulse. Every emotion, every feeling was instantly multiplied by a thousand. He reached out and pulled her into his arms, bending his head slightly so that he could lean in and kiss her. He felt her arms snake up his chest and her small hands intertwine into the back of his hair. The kiss was long, passionate, and left him more breathless than if had been running through the forest the first night. He gently let her feet dangle back to the ground, and - though his arms ached in protest - he let her go and watched her take a step back, her hands sliding back down to his chest. "How do you do it?" She asked, cocking her head to the left and giving him a quizzical smile.

"Do what?" He asked, willing his heart to stop pounding in his ears, and his breaths to come more evenly. No one had ever kissed him like Maggie did. There had been girls. Even Denny had kissed him once, but nothing like this. Ever. Only in the reoccurring dreams about her. Dreams he'd had before and after the spike transplant.

"How do you manage not to think about me, not to touch me? I'm so drawn to you, it's...it's..." she shook her head, putting a hand up on her forehead, "it's something I'm dealing with too...these uncontrollable feelings."

He nodded. And he wished for the thousandth time that he could convince himself that she had felt this way before they shared the same alien DNA in their bodies. If he thought Maggie loved him before, he would find a way for them to be together. He'd find a way to make things right with Hal. He would do all that for her, because to him they had always belonged together. But, no. Maggie had told him, honestly, that she didn't feel this way before the spikes, so it always ended up feeling like he was taking advantage of her. "Truthfully?" He asked, searching her eyes to be sure she was ready to hear how he really felt. He wouldn't lie to her. Since the spikes, and the kissing, they'd never really had a chance to discuss what was happening to them in any detail. If she really wanted to know, he wouldn't lie.

She took a step back, taking her hands off his chest and pulling him down beside her on the mossy floor of the forest, their backs against a large tree trunk. "Lets take a short break. And you can tell me. Better we have this conversation now, before we find Hal. I can't keep having him walking in on us. It's killing him." she said, holding his hand with both of hers, prompting him.

He took a deep breath and leaned back into the tree, all the while totally aware of the electric energy warming up between them. This proximity wasn't going to help him stay strong. "So..anyways," he started out, feeling a slight nervous twinge in his belly.

"Anyways."

"I...Maggie...I'm able to resist the draw I feel to you because you didn't feel this way about me before."

"What do you mean?"

He fidgeted a little, covering her hands with his other one. "Remember when this first started and you told me you were drawn to me because of the spikes."

"Yes."

"Well, it wasn't the same fore me." He took a deep breath, letting the words sink in. Hoping she would understand without him having to elaborate. He needed to move away. He needed to stop having her next to him, their hands intertwined, her eyes twinkling.

"Go on."

Crap, he thought. "Okay, well, I've had...I've been feeling..." he stopped and gave a little growl, trying to wrestle the words out of his mouth. "I've loved you for a long time, Maggie." She froze, and their eyes met. He could tell she was surprised. She hadn't been expecting him to say that. "I'm sorry, it's just you asked me to be honest. I've loved you, secretly, since I first laid eyes on you, I think, but I was too young and you were already with Hal, and then this happened," he gestured to her spikes, lifting his hand to gently brush aside her hair and barely touching one of the spikes. She shivered. "And suddenly you were into me, and I let us get carried away a couple of times, even though I knew it wasn't a genuine feeling for you, just some sort of echo of my own feelings through the spikes and...so..." he paused and took a deep breath, "that's how I resist. I remind myself it isn't real for you. And I won't take advantage of something you can't control, no matter how bad I want you."

"Ben," she whispered, after a full thirty seconds of silence, "What if I want you to take advantage."

He shuddered a bit, the emotion going through him was extremely intense, and it was hard to think straight with her so close, her scent filtering the piney air. He wiggled out from her embrace, stood up, and brushed off his clothing. "Come on," he said, "we're wasting time. Hal could be nearby. We need to get going again." He offered her his hand.

She shook her head, and looked away, gazing somewhere in the distance. Then he saw it. A single tear running down her cheek. "Oh Maggie," he pleaded, dropping down on his knees in front of her. "Please don't cry."

She wiped violently at the tear. "Then please, Ben."

He knew what she wanted. He knew what Maggie was asking him for. And knowing, after what he'd just told her, that she still wantedhim, drained every drop of his willpower. Everything he'd been holding deep down, contained in the core of his being, began to flow out. He leaned forward and pulled her to her knees and into his arms, sliding his hands down her back to the curve of her ass, and squeezed her against his hardness. She gasped and ripped his jacket off, kissing him back, kissing his neck, kissing the exposed skin above his t-shirt, before their lips met again. He was throbbing, throbbing for her. He had to stop, but he didn't think he could. He could never stop touching her. Nor could he ever stop loving her. He couldn't pretend to be something he wasn't anymore. Loving Maggie was a part of who he was. It was an permanent feature of his inherent nature. It was all he had ever known of real love, and he craved it, as much as he craved her smell, her laughter, and each and every precious smile Maggie gave him.

The sound of a branch cracking nearby caused them to freeze. Instantly, they let each other go, stood and drew their guns, aiming in the direction of the sound.

####

Maggie:

They followed the sounds deep into the forest. Just when she thought they'd lost the skitters, they caught up, and Ben signaled for her to stop. They knelt down next to each other, and watched the unaware skitters - who had taken a defensive positions around a small solitary structure, about the size of a shed. "What are they doing?" She whispered.

"I don't know," he said, "but do you feel that?"

Maggie wasn't as in touch with the intensified senses that the spikes gave her in the way Ben was, yet a growing anxiety filled her stomach with heat. "An overlord is nearby."

Ben nodded in agreement. "He's controlling the skitter pod guarding that building. I think Hal might be in there."

"Why would they be holding Hal. Why wouldn't they just kill him or take him to one of those factories to be skitterized, or whatever?"

Ben frowned. "If they know who he is, they may think it will give them a tactical advantage over us. Having Tom Mason's son would be nice leverage for the overlord. He must be desperately trying to keep control over the skitters with the Espheni power source being destroyed."

"How close do you think he is?"

"Anywhere in a five mile radius of the skitters."

"That's a pretty big area, Ben."

"I know."

"How can we be sure Hal's even in there?"

"I can smell him."

"Huh?"

He turned to look at the confused expression on her face. "Once you hone your senses, learn how to pick a sense and isolate it, you'll be able to smell human beings even through walls, Maggie, among many other very cool powers."

"What are we going to do. If he's in there, we have to get him out."

Ben nodded, and picked up a rock, showing it to Maggie and gesturing toward a spot far off to the right of the guarded structure. "Once I throw it most of them will run in that direction. They'll leave one or two behind to guard the building. I'll put myself between the runners and the guards, and distract them, while you rescue Hal."

"Be careful, Ben." She warned, checking her pistols for ammo. She'd never had the chance to tell him how she really felt. She was about to reveal her secret when they'd heard the skitter scout, and now they were about to retrieve Hal, and she would have to put off telling him again.

He threw the rock and they heard it bounce against a tree in the distance. The skitters charged toward the sound, leaving one guard behind. Ben dashed off toward the runners, and Maggie, getting a running start, jumped ten feet in the air and came down right in front of the solo skitter guard. She put the barrel of her pistol in it's sweet spot and fired, feeling it go limp and then fall to the ground at her feet. Maggie wasted no time. She hit the door to the structure at a run, fired a shot at the lock, and kicked it in. "Hal?" She called.

She saw him slumped on the floor in the corner, his hands tied behind his back, eyes closed. "Hal," she whispered louder. She took a step toward him, then heard gun shots from behind her. "Come on Hal," she knelt down beside him and checked his pulse. Slow and steady. She checked him for injuries. After finding no visible damage, she gave his cheek a little slap. "Hal, wake up."

Maggie screamed as a stab of pain shot through her shoulder. "Ben," she yelled, feeling her vision go blurry. She jumped to her feet and ran out of the shed. Ben was several hundred yards away, pinned to the tree by a skitter. She lifted her gun and shot the skitter in the head. The skitter released Ben, who fell to the ground. She was next to him, before he could stand.

"Thanks," he said, wincing when she lifted him up. She could feel the throbbing echo of his pain. "Is he in there?"

"Yeah," she said, her eyes taking in the woods around them, looking for any stray skitters. "But he's out. I can't get him to respond."

"Lets get out of here." Ben suggested, "That overlord could be close by. I can still feel him. He knows we killed his slaves. And he'll try to stop us from saving Hal."

Maggie nodded. They went inside the shed, Ben knelt and picked Hal up, lifting his brothers body around the back of his neck. She gasped. "Your shoulder, Ben." The skitter claw had ripped through the fabric of his heavy coat, his hoodie, t-shirt, and his skin. He was still bleeding.

"It's fine," he said, "It will heal. Come on, Maggie. He's coming."

She felt the same anxiety she had earlier, and this time it was steadily growing, and she was starting to feel the rage in the entity that was now hunting them. "Okay," she said, "but remember, I'm almost as strong as you are now. Maybe I can help you carry him."

Ben lead the way out of the door. "Just cover me."

####

They made good time through the woods, and the farther they got from the place they'd found Hal, the more Maggie felt the overlord's presence diminish. They were losing him. "We're coming up on the perimeter," she warned, "there's a check point in half a mile or so."

Ben nodded wordlessly, and adjusted Hal's weight on his shoulders.

"You haven't said much." In fact, he'd been walking - in total silence - for the last three hours. It was driving her crazy. Especially since she could feel his intensity. Ben's silence didn't match the waves of emotion she kept feeling from him.

He glanced over meeting her eyes. His eyes were brown, with gray highlights, so different than Hals. In fact, if Maggie didn't know for a fact that they were brothers, she wouldn't have believed it. They looked nothing alike. She imagined that both Ben and Matt got their looks from their mother, Rebecca, who she had never met. Hal was the spitting image of Tom. "I'm not sure what else to say, Maggie."

She nodded, pushing a branch out of the way so he could go through. "Then I'll talk, Ben. There's something I have to tell you."

He drew to a stop and cocked his head a little. "Now?"

She could tell he was referring to the fact that he was currently carrying her boyfriend on his back. "Yes, now. Before we get back. Before I lose my courage."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Well, I guess I could use a break. I'm strong, but he's dead weight, and heavy."

Maggie followed Ben over to soft patch of moss, where he gently laid Hal down. "I'm worried about him," Ben muttered, "There's no explanation for him being out this long. Even if the overlord drugged him. It's been hours since the ambush."

She took Ben's hand and pulled him away from Hal. She lead him far enough away to be out of ear shot, but where they could still see the man they both loved. "I'm worried too. Give me five minutes to say what I have to say, and we'll get him to Ann."

Ben nodded, but she could tell his concentration was not fully on her. He was watching Hal, and simultaneously keeping an eye on the perimeter around them. She had never known a more intuitive soldier than Ben, and she had come to trust his instincts almost as much as her own.

"Back when we all got separated," she started, "I was alone until I found Lexi's place. It wasn't a good feeling. For days I thought I might be the only one left. That I'd lost everyone...all of you, and..."

His dark eyes locked on her, and he folded his arms across his chest. She had his attention now. "And?" He asked.

She swallowed hard. "I thought a lot about you." The words made her feel cold and hot at the same time. In part, it was a relief to get it out, but it also meant that he would no longer have a reason to resist pursuing his feelings for her.

She saw the expression of shock cross over his eyes. "You what?"

"I realized I had feelings for you back then. You showed up at Lexi's Sanctuary, and for those few short weeks we had, I felt like everything was as it should be. Like life was finally starting to make sense. I was happy, Ben. Happier than I can ever remember being. I think if we had gone on that way, believing we were the only ones left, that I would have felt the way I do now regardless of the spikes. I just...I don't want you being all straight forward and honest with me, without doing the same back. It's not fair for you to think what I feel isn't real. I don't know where that puts us, but at least neither of us is in the dark anymore."

She inhaled deeply, and couldn't help glancing over at Hal. She had to admit, at least to herself, that things had been going down hill between them since the eye worm. They hadn't been successful at getting back to where they'd been before he did all those things under the Espheni control. Before Hal started meeting Karen. Lately, she knew they had been kidding themselves. At the same time, Hal had tried to do everything he could to fix things, he'd even gone out of his way to keep her and Ben apart, probably hoping the initial physical bond of the spikes would fade between them. But even trying to fix things, keeping them apart had just made it worse. The more Hal kept her from Ben, the more she wanted to go to him. She reached up and touched Ben's cheek. "Say something."

"What about Hal?"

She glanced over at her sleeping boyfriend. "I still love him."

"I love him too. He's my brother."

"I don't think he loves me like he did before the eye worm. Before Karen. I think, deep down, he isn't happy."

"That's no excuse. You can't know that for sure, anyways, without talking to him."

She nodded. "True on both accounts."

He cocked his head to one side, "So, I hear what you're saying, but what are you really saying, Maggie?"

"I'm saying," she kicked a rock around with the tip of her boot, avoiding his dark, intense gaze. When had he gone from being that scrawny unharnessed kid to this intimidating man that stood in front of her. "I'm saying I loved you before the spikes."

He shook his head. "You never let on."

"Think back, Ben. I was with you all the time. There were hundred of people at the sanctuary."

"I'm Hal Mason's brother. That doesn't prove anything."

"Are you saying I'm lying to you?"

His brows creased together. "No. I'm saying the spikes could be implanting false memories."

She shook her head. "I don't believe that."

"It doesn't matter," he said, turning away from her and heading toward Hal. "There's still mountains between us, Maggie."

She couldn't argue with that. The more they talked things out, the more muddied and complicated they got. How could she tell Hal that she was also in love with his brother. That it wasn't just the spikes, wasn't just a physical thing, but something that had been building inside her since the attack that separated them all. She couldn't. The idea of hurting him that bad caused her physical pain. So she didn't argue with Ben. She followed him as he carried Hal back into camp, and they trudged into the dimly lit temporary hospital.

"Oh my god," Ann said, running to prep a table for Ben to put Hal on. "Careful," she said, gesturing for Maggie to help her and Ben get Hal on the table. "Is he..."

"He's alive, he's just in some kind of..."

"Coma..." she supplied, "possibly drug induced. I'll examine him right away. You two look like the walking dead."

"Any word on dad or Weaver?" Ben asked.

"Nothing from Tom, and Dan is stable. He was shot and he had a heart attack, so he's going to be out of the game for a while, but he'll pull through. Now, go on, get some sleep. I'll let you know the minute I know."

She practically shooed them out of the doors, waving over a medical aid coming in for the late night shift.

They strolled through the camp together, side by side, occasionally peeking over at one another. "I should check on Matt." Ben commented after several minutes of silence had passed between them.

"I'll go with you."

"Maggie," he stopped her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "How long has it been since you slept last?"

She frowned. It was hard to remember these days, she slept so little now. "A few days, maybe."

"Liar. It's been almost a week. Trust me, I know it's easy to skip it, but your body still requires rest occasionally."

"I can't sleep." She was avoiding his eyes again. She didn't want to tell him why she couldn't sleep.

"Nightmares." He said.

She glanced up at him, caught off guard. "Sometimes. Why?"

"We're connected, remember?"

She pinched her lips together and turned toward Tom and Ann's room, where Matt was probably sleeping. She sensed him following close behind her. Together, they entered the building and went back to the room. Matt was tucked into bed, sleeping soundly. "There's room on the bed. I'll sit here with you two." Ben offered, nudging her toward the bed.

Maggie tried to resist the wave of exhaustion that washed over her, but Ben's offer to stay nearby made the idea of sleep very tempting. She didn't want to admit it to him, or Hal, but she didn't like sleeping alone anymore. Waking up from the vivid dreams alone scared the crap out of her. She felt hands on her holster, and realized Ben was taking it off of her. She lifted her arms, letting him draw it over them. Next, he helped her remove her hoodie. Then he lifted one side of the wool blanket covering Matt, and she climbed in. He tucked the blanket over her shoulders, and wiped a strand of hair out of her face. Even as tired as she was, she noticed the way his hands trembled when he touched her. He stepped away, and slumped into a recliner - the only other piece of furniture in the room.

Maggie closed her eyes. Usually it was hard for her to get to sleep, but she was vaguely aware of her spikes pulsating, and she imagined a warm, relaxing, liquid blue light traveling through her entire body, cocooning her from harm, and allowing her to relax. At the last moment, somewhere between wakefulness and sleep, she realized it was Ben using the spikes to calm her down, to make her feel safe. She was grateful and pissed off all at the same time, and then she let go, and sleep took over.

####

A/N: Thank you for reading my first chapter of Falling for Maggie. Please let me know if you liked it or hated it, so I will know if I should keep posting more chapters or not. :)