Character/Pairing: Max/Alec
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Series finale
Word Count: 644
Prompt: "So Small" by Carrie Underwood

"Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing / Is just a grain of sand / and what you've been out there searching for forever / Is in your hands"

Written for the round 5 challenge at http://community-livejournal-com/prettystickers/ (replace - with . to enable link)

"Alec, what the hell are we gonna do about this?" Max was pacing back and forth, up and down, from side to side of her tiny apartment in the heart of Terminal City. "What kind of example are we going to lead for these transgenics if we can't even take care of our own lives? Why the hell did you do this to me?"

"Oh, do not even start that with me Max, I am not going to be your scapegoat this time, we both know this was the both of us! I've told you 100 times that males can't help how they react to a female in heat and you still blame me! It's not my fault, and you should be grateful that it was someone you know and trust rather than some creep like Bruno!"

"Yeah, well, at least Bruno or Blaze or even Petey would have done the right thing and forget all about this baby once he found out I was pregnant! Gem's doing it alone and so can I! You don't have to give up your glorious sex-life to spend time with me and a kid you don't want!"

"Max, I'm not going to let you put words into my mouth! This isn't some mountain you can just climb over and that's the end of it, it's a big deal and I won't let you make me feel guilty about wanting you to have my child! Our child!"

It was the first time Alec had acknowledged the fact that Max was going to have his kid, their kid, and it did not calm Max down as much as she thought it would.

"Oh, so you're going to take responsibility now for this, huh? Well, fine. That's great. Us girls will be thrilled to have you stop by and screw our lives up every once in a while." Once they had realized what she said, Max stopped abruptly pacing and Alec removed his hands from his face immediately. It was the first time they had had a peaceful quiet surround them since Max found out she was pregnant.

"She?"

"Yeah." They stood silent for another moment, as Max watched Alec's reaction and Alec reveled in the fact that he's going to be the father of a little girl. The father of Max's little girl.

"We're having a girl? When did you find out? Did you talk to Gem? How did you know? When did you--?"

"I just know. I can feel her."

"Max, it's only been 10 weeks, how can you?"

"I can just tell, okay? She's got your kick already, I'll tell you that, too."

"Hah, no, that's all you, babe. I ain't got nothin' on your kick, Maxie."

"Don't call me that." She starts to walk towards the fridge to get some ketchup and sardines when Alec calls after her.

"You prefer Mommy?"

She wheeled around on him and he was grinning. Grinning like a fool who is about the have a little girl running around his house very soon.

"Actually, Maxie is fine. For now." She smiled coyly at him, and for the first time in 10 weeks she was actually excited and happy that she was having this baby with Alec, and not Logan. The fact that they didn't really love each other (not yet, anyway) and the fact that they had no money, or a crib, or baby food, or a safe environment for their baby girl to grow up in didn't bother them in the slightest. In that moment, with Alec's hand on her stomach and a smile on her face, Max wasn't the least bit worried about any of that--and to think that just a little over an hour before she was ranting and raving to Cindy about how she was never going to get Alec to be this baby girl's father.

fin.

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