Title: Concern comes in many forms
Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel
A/N: Read, review, and enjoy! God Bless.
Biggs walked into Jam Pony and immediately noticed the difference in the atmosphere. He could practically feel the tension weighing down the room with a strong undercurrent of anxiety and excitement. Something was definitely up. His eyes took a rapid sweep of the room trying to find the cause before he let them settle on Max and Alec.
The two were obviously not fond of each other at the moment. Alec was standing at his full height with his chest puffed out and his green eyes were currently glaring intensely into Max's brown ones. She was also returning the stare whole heartedly. They were both far into the other's personal space and neither seemed keen on being the first to move. They weren't saying a word but their body language screamed anger.
Every eye in the building was resting on them and the confrontation that was taking place. Even Normal shushed his bipping for a moment to watch his golden boy and the slacker.
Max and Alec seemed to be completely oblivious to the attention, however. Biggs edged his way over to Original Cindy to try to figure out what happened.
"What did I miss?" He asked in hushed tones. If Max and Alec were paying attention, they probably could have heard him, but the only ordinary that could was O.C.
"Well Boo came storming in- on time for once too- with Hot boy over there right on her tail. They haven't said a word to each other yet. They're just having this whole silent showdown. Nobody's made a peep since it started. Even Normal shut his mouth for once. You know what's makin' my boo's act so whack?" Original Cindy replied in equally quiet voice.
Biggs thought for a moment. "No idea."
Just then, one of the newer messengers dropped a package. The sound of it hitting the floor was enough to snap Max and Alec out of their trance and realize where they were and the attention they were receiving. Alec quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled Max out of the building and into the alley beside it. It was like the parting of the red sea the way everyone moved to the side to let them pass. Max was obviously not happy to be so unceremoniously removed from Jam Pony but let herself be taken none the less.
Once they were out of sight, it seemed that everyone else woke up too. All the messengers began mulling about, trying to act busy. Normal resumed his bipping and before long, everyone had cleared out and pretended the whole incident never happened. Only Biggs and Original Cindy along with Normal remained. O.C. reached for a package from the dispatch center and headed out to follow the rest leaving Biggs to decide whether it would be worth it to follow Max and Alec out and risk the wrath of two alpha transgenics to hear their conversation or not. Before long, self preservation won the internal debate and Biggs decided it would probably be best to leave the two warring transgenics to duke it out for themselves lest he get caught in the cross fires. He grabbed a package or two for his own run and was out the door just like the rest.
xxxxxx
Once Alec and Max were out of reach of prying eyes and ears, Alec finally spoke. "When are you going to wake up, Max? You got shot…again! How many times are you going to get hurt before you realize that being a transgenic doesn't make you invincible? More importantly, when is Logan going to realize it?" His voice was strained but the undercurrent of concern was still there buried under the pretense of anger.
For a half an hour, they had been having a silent fight but now it had finally found its voice.
"When are you going to realize that it's not your job to protect me? I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself. Besides, it was only a shoulder wound and it's practically better already." She shot back.
"Max," His voice dropped lower to something near a growl, "You. Got. Shot. I am sick and tired of you coming back from these missions injured. From now on, I'm going with you on all of them. I don't care if your precious little Logan thinks it's a one man job. I'm coming. Got that?" He glared while he said the words.
They both knew that there was no malice behind their words at this point.
"Fine…but only to satisfy your mother hen tendencies. I swear you're worse than Zack when it comes to these kinds of things."
He snickered at the mental picture of her macho older brother fussing over every little bruise. He knew he won and was content now to just enjoy the day knowing that Max wasn't going to get hurt again, not if he could help it.
They strolled back into Jam Pony after lunch several hours later where it was once again swarming with its numerous 'employees' like nothing had happened. They were back to their usual banter and violence however Max always seemed to be careful of her left shoulder which no one could quite figure out why. Sketchy sighed and just resigned to not being able to understand what happened between that morning and now but was happy for whatever it was none the less. O.C. and Biggs' curiosities were a touch harder to satiate but after cornering their respective friends at Crash that evening and realizing that Max got shot again, it all fell into place.
Biggs smiled to himself. Transgenics were notoriously awful at expressing their emotions in a normal manner but Max and Alec seemed exceptionally terrible. It was so obvious to everyone that they wanted to be together…at least everyone but them. Maybe one day, they would finally understand what made them have such a big tiff over Max getting injured, but until then, Biggs was just going to enjoy the show.