Title: Grace
Author: Savage Midnight
Email: savage_midnight@hotmail.com
Website:
Disclaimer: The characters, Logan Cale, Max and Alec belong to the creators of Dark Angel. I'm merely borrowing, although I can't promise to give them back when I'm done. Well, you can't expect me to make empty promises, can you?
Summary: After Logan's death, Alec must deal with a grieving Max. But the simple need for comfort becomes something more when the two friends find themselves in an uncompromising situation.
Authors note: This is my first Dark Angel fic, so I apologise for any mistakes that might appear. I have to confess that I haven't seen the entire two seasons of the series (I got hooked a little too late) but I feel I know enough to be able to write this fic. That, and I just couldn't quelch the need to write it. I've even overlooked all my other incomplete projects to work on it. I know, bad girl, bad...

This is only going to be a short fic, maybe two or three chapters long. However, if all goes well, I'm hoping it will be the first in a series. But for now, please enjoy, and don't forget to review :)

---

When Logan Cale was reported dead, the last person Alec ever expected to see was Max.

Soaked to the bone, the X5 stood shivering in his doorway, her eyes bleak, her usually exotic features now a sickening shade of white. She never moved, merely stood, gazing unnervingly at the floorboards of his apartment.

"Max--" he breathed, but her quiet, meek voice interrupted him.

"He's dead, Alec," she whispered blankly. "He's dead."

And then she fell, her body collapsing into a sickening heap upon the harsh surface beneath her. Instinctively he shot forward, scooping her rain-soaked form into his arms, lifting her across the threshold of his apartment as the door flew shut with an echoing slam.

Max moaned low in her throat as Alec pulled her closer to his chest, settling them both down on the rotting cushions of what he loosely called a sofa. He glanced down at her profile, concern evident in his green eyes. They were no longer mocking, no longer sparkling with restrained mischief. Now they were fully trained on the whimpering girl that he held. His friend was in pain and Alec could do nothing but watch, helpless.

Suddenly he didn't feel so smart anymore.

Brushing stray locks of damp hair away from her face, he ran a soothing hand down her clammy cheek. Tears followed his path and he closed his eyes, silently praying for a solution to a problem that was far from solvable.

Logan Cale, formly known as Eyes Only, had been a suspected victim of a drive-by shooting. His face had been splashed generously across the news, his tale ever tragic and his life mournfully grieved. Alec knew, just as Max did, that Logan's death was not a result of a maniac sat behind a wheel. There was a more sinister maniac behind the olders man death and Alec was certain that one day, he'd put his assasination skills to good use, to avenge a man that he himself had tried to kill not so long ago.

Clinging desperately to Alec's shirt, Max's soft keens vibrated against his skin and he pulled her closer still. She buried her head in the crook of his neck, her tears splashing lightly against the soft flesh she found there. Alec remained silent, unsure as to whether he should make an attempt at comfort, well aware that whispering empty reassurances in her ear was the last thing Max needed. Instead he opted for the soft buzz of the silence, cradling her shaking body in his arms, brushing the stray tears from her haunted eyes. He remained there, half slouched against the back of his sofa as Max slowly and agonisingly cried herself to sleep.

It wasn't long into the night before Alex's senses shot into overload; his body suddenly throbbing with adrenaline. Muscles pulled taut, the X5 cracked one eye open, casting a sweeping gaze across his apartment. His nostrils flared and the strong scent of pheromones assailed him. Max's pheromones.

"Shit."

He shot forward and gripped her forearms forcefully, pulling her sleeping form up with him. Like a true X5 she was awake and alert in less than a second, her own gaze scrutinising the darkness around her. Momentarily oblivious as to why she was here, she stared wide-eyed at Alec.

"What?"

He stared down at her in mild surprise. She didn't know. He could smell it, knew it was coming even before she did.

He noticed her blanch suddenly and knew she remembered the reasons for her current situation. Surpressed tears pooled in her darkening eyes but Alec knew she didn't have time to get weepy. Especially now.

"You're in heat," he stated, struggling ungracefully to his foot, pushing her away from him roughly. She stared at him, slightly bewildered, his delcaration not yet making it through the haze of anguish that hung thick in the air.

"What?" she repeated, her brow furrowed in confusion. "I--"

And then she knew. Running a shaking hand across her forehead, Max grimaced at the inevitable sheen of sweat she found there. "No, this can't be happening. Not now. Not--"

"You have to get out of here, Max," he warned, his eyes flickering around the apartment, his body rigid with panic. "Find somewhere safe to hide... anywhere. Just--"

"Alec, what--"

"I said get out of here, Max!" he yelled, cursing himself silently as she cast him a hurt expression. He shouldn't be yelling at her, not now, when her defenses were low, her emotions running high from grief. But he knew if he didn't distance himself from her, he'd do something he'd end up regretting. "If you stay, I can't guarantee your safety."

"Alec... " she begged softly. The seductive lilt of her tone caught him off-guard and stupidly Alec looked up. His gaze travelled to her lips, the blood pounding through her system turning them a soft shade of red. Her eyelids hung heavy, casting dark shadows across her pale skin - the contrast a reminder of the light flush of her cheeks.

The symptoms came hard and fast and only a brief minute had passed before her breath was coming in short, gasping spurts, her breasts heaving with surpressed desire. Alec wrenched his eyes away from the sight, feeling the cool wetness of sweat slip across his heated skin. He ran a shaking hand through his hair, pacing the expanse of his apartment with angered agitation. She couldn't be here, not now... not like this. Male X5's had been designed to respond instinctively to any female of his kind that was in heat. A sure way to guarantee that their line would reproduce, that the risk of extinction would remain low. It was one particular flaw of Manticore's work that Alec couldn't get rid of; one particular flaw he was far from proud of.

"Alec... " She was calling him again and his senses picked up on the faint hint of panic underlining her voice. "I need--"

"I know," he assured, his eyes flickering to glistening river of tears sliding down her cheeks. "I'm tryin' to think. You need somewhere safe to go, somewhere away from me... away from everyone."

"What? Alec, I'm safer here with you--"

"No," he whispered. "You're not." She cast him a bewildered look and he sighed loudly. "Max, you of all people should know that Manticore would have found some way to ensure copulation amoung us. If force wasn't going to work, then genetics would."

Her eyes widened for a split second and Alec noted it with growing concern.

"You're designed to react to my pheromones... " she trailed, eyeing the floorboards to avoid eyeing him.

He nodded, not sure he could trust himself to speak, but Max was too busy fluttering around the apartment to notice. The change in her demeanor was instant. Her eyes were wild, the seriousness of their situation finally settling in. She was heading for the door in blind panic, tears still falling steadily as she went, chest rising and falling rapidly in a fight to regain her senses over her raging hormones.

Alec knew that if he let her leave now, she would fuck the first male she came across. And he knew he couldn't let that happen.

He blurred, slamming his full force against the door - partly to knock some sense into himself, and partly to stop her from leaving. Strange, how only a moment ago he'd been ordering her to do just that.

Momentarily stunned, Max jumped, glaring at him accusingly. Even now, her body pulled taut and radiating pure determination, Alec was aware of the grief and panic that lie beneath her firey gaze; smouldered by the growing pool of tears in her eyes. Her sweat-soaked hands were quivering and his cat-like senses picked up on the barely surpressed sobs vibrating against her chest.

"Alec, what--"

He cut her off sharply, his voice cracking with his own restrained desire. "I can't let you go out there. I can't let you fuck a complete stranger."

"What choice do I have?" she hissed, eyes blazing. They stood like that for a few, fleeting seconds, glaring at each other, each unwilling to back down despite the urgency of their situation. Finally Max let out a breath, sliding a hand down her face in annoyance. "Look, I'll go back to my apartment. Sit on my hands for a few hours." She looked up at him, aware of the fine sheen of sweat coating his body. He was shaking, the muscles in his arms rippling with tension. She knew her scent was affecting him - the strong, heedy smell of her pheromones overriding the logical part of his brain, tempting the animal within himself that Manticore had created and he couldn't erase. The natural instinct that told him to do one thing and one thing only - mate.

She knew because his scent was smoothering her now - a delightful mix of desire, masculinity and Alec - and every fibre of her being, Manticore or otherwise, was screaming... mine.

"... you know that as well as I do--"

Alec's voice cut short her train of thought and she peered up at him, blinking in confusion. What had he been saying? Something about her idea not being a good one... she wasn't sure.

"Wha--"

"--that it isn't going to work. I can't let you go out there and--and copulate with some random guy you find on the street. Not like this, not with Logan gone and--"

"Don't you dare!" she seethed, suddenly alert and suddenly angry. "Don't you dare bring Logan into this! It isn't fair! He has nothing to with this--this situation we're in, do you understand me? Nothing!" Her eyes were narrowed to fine pin-points, her anger and grief driving into him with a force that shook him more than their current closeness did. Her fists were clenched and she pounded them against his chest weakly, loud, anguished sobs escaping her. Alec had never seen her this hysterical before, weeping openly and without shame. But he'd never seen her in heat before either, he realised, and without Logan to keep her stable.

Mindless to their urgent predicament, he gripped her flailing fists at the wrist, pulling them down to rest on his chest. He murmured to her softly, whispering hopeless reassurances and cradled her sob-wracked body against him. He cries grew louder, piercing the silence with her despair and forcing him to close his eyes against the heart-breaking sound. God, it hurt to see her like this. To see her strength and hope fail her in her time of need. It touched that part of him that Manticore had tried to erase; the part that had loved Rachel and had mourned her death with quiet recognition. The part that had fallen in love with the weeping girl in his arms not long ago.

"Oh God," he heard her whisper brokenly. "Oh God... "

Alec clenched his eyes shut, a silent prayer on his lips. Because as Max was grieving for the only man she had ever truly loved, her voice was thick with desire.

---

Comments? Criticism? Questions? Feedback would be adored ;)