Rude Awakening:

by Rowe

Set: Post Hello, Goodbye.

Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its character belong to Cameron/Eglee and Fox.

Author's note: First attempt so please feel free to give constructive criticism.

Chapter 1: One step forward…….. Max finds out her heart has been keeping a secret from her.

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Max sat with her head slumped in her hands. For the past three hours she'd been trying to figure it all out. The Space Needle was usually a good place for that- let you rise above the problem, helped you place it all in perspective. Not tonight though. She knew she had a monster headache coming on.

Finally, giving up on the idea of some inner peace, she headed home. She'd avoided the scene at Crash for the night knowing Logan would be there, looking for her, expecting of her. What did he expect? It was simply not going to happen for them. Sometime soon they were going to have to face it. She didn't have the energy left to hope anymore. Funny thing was she wasn't too sure that it mattered that much to her either. The biggest problem was making him see it too. He was making her claustrophobic with his over attention. He seemed to be trying to compensate for the lack of physical connection by demanding a constant mental one- it was getting to be exhausting.

As she pulled up outside her building, she could feel a presence in the shadows. Funny she always knew when he was around. Some strange connection always seemed to send a silent alarm to her brain. Her body always seemed to go on high alert, moving ready for fight or flight. The adrenalin surge was actually pretty heady, and she found her reasoning power always seemed to diminish and the most stupid things came out of her mouth. She chose to deliberately ignore him. So, was he stalking her as well now?

"Max?" He queried as he moved forward out of the shadows. She locked her bike up and slowly turned around. That threatening headache was in full swing now and she wasn't up to his inane chatter.

"I'm tired Alec, what do you want?" As Max looked up, she was startled to see something painful in his eyes that was quickly shuttered away. In its place was the emotionally "I'm always alright" facade that she was used to seeing. She looked at him searchingly. Realising how harsh she had sounded she relented with a sigh and gestured towards her apartment "Look do you want to come up, is something wrong?" He nodded.

As they moved into the building she could feel him tense behind her. What had gotten into him tonight? Something had him seriously spooked and in turn he was making her even more jumpy than usual. He wasn't even his normal yappy self and that was probably the most telling sign. Opening the apartment door she noted that OC wasn't in yet. Probably busy with the honeys again tonight. Busy, busy girl. It was a bit of a relief though. It gave her chance to sort Alec out and with the whole Manticore-not-keen-on-emotions-shit it was going to be the kind of extraction that would be much easier without an audience.

"So where have you been Max?" Alec broke the silence as Max crossed to the kitchen to get them something to drink. "WE missed you at Crash. Logan didn't believe me when I said I didn't know where you were. Seemed to think I was deliberately hiding it from him." Alec moved so he could see her face. "So why am I all of a sudden the Max-keeper?"

Max ducked her head to avoid making eye contact. He didn't know about her little subterfuge. He was her last line of defence against Logan's constant need to keep them together. Damn if she didn't feel twinges of guilt at using him like this. She had rationalised that he owed her for causing the tension to start with. Logan and her would have been fine without this damn virus. "Except you aren't as disappointed as you should be that Logan is untouchable" a small voice at the back of her mind whispered. As always she chose to ignore that and get herself out of the awkward situation by a personal attack. "Like I need a keeper." She snarled. "He probably just thinks you knew where I was as you always seem to be stalking me." She turned to him hands on hips daring him to delve any further.

Instead a scowl crossed his face and he stood abruptly and moved towards the door silently. Max faltered in her stance, as she immediately regretted being a bitch for the millionth time. As his hand grasped the door handle and began to turn it Max got out, "Stop, Alec." The tone of her voice caused him to pivot around. "Wait, I need to tell you the truth, just promise you won't hate me." She dropped her eyes to the ground as she whispered the last bit. He opened his mouth to say something, most likely one of the smart remarks that had earned him his name, but seemed to think better of it and nodded slightly to her. Now she just had to work out how to tell him without losing him as a friend.

He stood patiently by the door, obviously she still had to convince him that she didn't want him to go. "Alec" she started hesitantly looking at his chest to avoid too close scrutiny, "I may have let Logan believe something that isn't true." Contrary to popular belief she wasn't feeling relief at getting this off her chest. It felt more like dread. She hazarded a glimpse at his face, which was far from happy. She took a deep breath and plunged on. "It's just that I don't know why anyone would believe that you and me… well would, hook up. I am always such a bitch to you, and hell you just bring out a rather violent side in me." She stammered to a halt. She didn't want to confess to him just how much he unsettled her. He was angry, she could see that, but then something seemed to click within him and his body seemed to relax a little.

"Well maybe it isn't so far-fetched Max." His lips quirked. "Maybe we could give him something that would really make him leave you alone." The patented Alec smirk now firmly in place. "If I am going to be hung out to dry might as well be for something I have actually done. Max?….." His eyes were sparkling at her now, their color slowly changing from green to hazel and back. It would be so easy to get lost in those eyes. He steadily stalked towards her, looking like the big cat he was, holding her mesmerised by his eyes. His voice sent a shiver down her spine as the growl that passed for her name left his lips, lips her eyes were now fixated on as they headed towards her own.

Her lips parted as his gently caressed them. Her brain shutdown at the sensory overload. Why had she always fought it? This incredible chemistry had been there from the moment he walked into her cell at Manticore. She had been more than a little confused by his looking like Ben, she had never felt like this about her brother. She had tried to cling to her outside life to keep out Manticore. Alec had always been a danger. A danger that at this moment she couldn't remember why she should be avoiding. But Logan had been safe. She knew Logan loved her and before her trip back to Manticore (and ironically to Alec) she had thought she felt the same way. The chemistry between them had been slow developing and it had been more on an intellectual level. This with Alec was blowing her mind; he was very much her equal on so many levels. They could run a power plant on the electricity that was zapping between them. She had been in denial for so long and clinging to a guilt-fired fairytale.

Her mind kicked in and with it her traitorous mouth. "So now you are going to play games with me to get revenge?" she tried to push him back but his arms held her firmly. Her sense of self-preservation meant she had to reject him first. "No Max, maybe this is just the opportunity I have been waiting for so that you would let me in and give me a chance." The look of honesty on his face rocked her leaving her silent. "Have you thought maybe I have wanted an excuse to kiss you? To show you how I knew it could be between us." He smiled wryly at her. He gathered her closer in his arms so they were touching from head to toe and continued, "Can't you feel how strong this is between us- you may curse them but Manticore did something right. They made us for one another."

She moved back a little so she could look at his face again. "Alec, why are you doing this- how can you want me after all the things I've done and the way I have treated you?" He growled softly in the back of his throat and nuzzled her hair. His possessiveness not shown through aggression but through the gentle intimacy of his caress. Somewhere in the course of the last few precious moments she had finally realized that they had always been destined to become lovers, but somewhere along that rocky road they had also become friends. He may have been a genetically engineered soldier but it surprised her that he had managed to perfect being both a lover and a fighter.

"Wake up Max…" his hands on her shoulders gently shook her.

"I have always loved you." He stared intently at her.

"Wake up Max…" his palm caressed her face.

"Why do you think I am always there, I will never let you fall"

"Wake up Max"- his voice was becoming more insistent

"Stop living in the fairytale what is between us has always been the reality."

He moved warily away from her as she finally woke. Field med training had instilled the need to keep the patient calm and quiet. He knew once she woke that she would want to kick his ass, so by moving away he hoped to remove the temptation for the moment. Sparks were always going to fly between them. It was important that they kept moving soon, White and his men were too near for them to relax. This time it really was his fault the mission had gone sideways. It had been a really close call- too close for comfort. Into the bargain she had gotten herself seriously hurt.

As her eyes blinked open, Alec expected to see anger or frustration on her face. Instead there was only confusion, pain and a hint of disappointment. Struggling to raise herself Max croaked out through her dry parched throat" What.., Where.. Why?" then she saw him and answered herself with one whispered word that gave him shivers.

"Alec."