Title: We Have Each Other

Fandom: Dark Angel

Pairing: M/A

Summary: Set after Freak Nation. Fic number four in my Something Beautiful 'Verse. It had been a few days since Alec gotten injured, and Max was finally getting around to looking at Manticore's database.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel or any of its characters but, I sure as hell wish I owned Alec.

Warning: Sex, but not Graphic.

Max smiled, waving at Gem as she made her way through HQ. It had been a few days since Alec had gotten injured, and Max was finally getting around to looking at Manticore's database. She would have taken a look at it sooner, had Alec not been such a pain in the ass. She, Doc, and Joshua had been having a hell of a time keeping Alec in bed. He was being so goddamn stubborn, insisting that he was alright, that it was okay for him to be up and about. As if any of them were falling for that, the gash in his leg was really deep. While it hadn't been life threatening the sharp rock had torn through muscle and Max knew for a fact that it was extremely painful. She was so not fooled by his "I'm really alright." bullshit. C'mon was he serious, his face was ashen, and he broke out in a cold sweat every time he made his way to the bathroom, and Max wasn't missing the fact that he was constantly clenching his jaw. Which was seriously pissing Max off, what was his problem, why did he feel like he had to hide his pain from her. She'd thought they'd gotten past this quite a while ago. Apparently not.

She was planning on talking to him about it later, but right now she needed to stop thinking about Alec and get back on track. She had a lot of information to sift through. She made her way over to Dix and asked, "Dix can you show me that Manticore database, I've got the time now?"

The strange looking transhuman turned to her with a smile, "Hey Max, I guess that means Alec is finally behaving."

Max returned the smile genuinely, speaking with exasperation, "Yeah, he's behaving now, but only because Doc threatened to sedate him, and Joshua and I threatened to sick Mole on him."

Dix smiled, chuckling a little before saying, "Yeah that sounds like Alec alright. It's funny, but Mole has some strange feeling of over protectiveness concerning Alec. Not that he'd ever admit it, but I'm pretty sure he sees Alec as a little brother, an annoying one at that, but still a little brother."

Max nodded, smiling softly, "Yeah, it's kind of funny how Mole has a soft spot for our resident smart ass. I realized it after Alec and I had a major blowout, I'd said some pretty mean things, and I hurt Alec pretty bad. I guess Mole had noticed he was upset, which is not that hard to believe considering that they spend a lot of time together, and well… he cornered me in front of my apartment. He demanded to know what the hell I'd said to Alec now."

Dix smiled, and spoke softly, "I know that you and Mole don't like each other much, you rub each other the wrong way, but I think he likes you more now. It's obvious to anybody around here that you make Alec happy. Basically everybody here respects Alec, knows that he's been through a hell of a lot, but he doesn't let it ware him down. We all want to see him happy."

Max smiled, and spoke honestly as she tucked a strand of rich brown hair behind her ear, "I want him to be happy, too."

After a moment of silence Max asked, pointing at the computer, "So, what've you got for me?"

"Pretty much everything we'll need. Medical records and the works. I want to get all the medical records over to the med bay, it will help them be more effective when it comes to treating everybody.", Dix said, turning his attention to one of the computers in HQ, pulling something up on the screen.

"You can use this computer to look through it all, I'm sure you'll find everything you'll need in here. And just a suggestion, you might wanna stay out of the Psy Ops and reindoctrination records. You won't like what you find in there.", Dix said, gravely, walking away and over to Luke, who'd been beckoning him for the better half of a minute.

Max turned to the computer and began sifting through the files. Two hours later she had a lot of useful information about how they'd all been made, missions, and weapons training. She'd also learned a lot of individual transgenic's strengths and weaknesses, which would help her make TC run more smoothly. Not that things weren't going smoothly, because they were, but there was always room for improvement. Despite the fact that Dix had warned her not to look at the Psy Ops and reindoctrination records Max could feel her curiosity getting the better of her. Max felt Alec's words from when he'd been remembering the Berissford mission swarming around in her head. "Curiosity killed the cat Max."

So be it, it wasn't like this kind of curiosity could kill her. She had no idea how wrong she was, maybe it couldn't physically kill her, but mentally emotionally was a completely different story. She began scrolling down through the listed designations, when she saw X5-494 she just couldn't help herself. She clicked on the link and began reading. She quickly became nauseated as she read through the files, by the time she'd reached the end she couldn't fight back the impulse to hoark. She ran to the nearest bathroom, and as soon as she reached the toilet she began retching violently. She couldn't believe all of the things he'd been through, he'd gone into to detail about a few things that had happened during his time in Psy Ops, but there were so many things that he hadn't even mentioned. God, she couldn't blame him, the things she'd read, the pictures she'd seen they'd been so horrible. If she were him she wouldn't want to deal with it either. She suddenly had the most intense urge to be with him right now, she needed to know that he was okay.

She walked over to the sink rinsing the foul taste of vomit from her mouth before taking off for the med bay. When she got there she began running straight for Alec's room. Doc came up in front of her, holding his hands up in the universal sign for stop. "Whoa Max, slow down, I can't have you running around in here like that.", the bat-like X4 spoke, disapprovingly.

Max took a couple of deep breaths, running a tired hand through her silky brown tresses, answering sincerely, "I'm sorry, it won't happen again. I just… I really need to talk to Alec."

Doc smiled, speaking softly, "Apology accepted, and uh… Alec's not here.

"What do you mean he's not here? Where did he go?", Max asked, sharply, eyes ablaze, her face screwed up in anger.

"Max calm down, he was going crazy in here, you know that. Joshua took him up to your apartment, so he could watch his precious boob tube. I'll send Lena up to check on him in a little while.", Doc reassured as he patted her shoulder gently.

"Okay, I really appreciate that.", Max spoke, sincerely. She turned on her heal and headed off for their apartment. She was glad Doc was going to send Lena up, Alec had a tendency to listen to her. She'd apparently been in Alec's unit before '09 and he'd gone on a few missions with her.

When Max finally reached their shared apartment she opened the door with a bang, causing a half asleep Alec to shoot up on the couch. His body was tense as his head swiveled around to see who was there. He relaxed when he realized it was Max, shooting her a sleepy smile while he rubbed at his tired hazel-green eyes. "Hey Maxie.", he spoke, softly.

Max just stood there, staring at him, chocolate-brown eyes filled with unshed tears. She had a hard time understanding how he could have been through all of those horrible things and still be the man that he was. It was amazing that he hadn't ended up like Ben, he was damn strong to have not gone crazy. She felt her affection and respect for him growing by the minute. He was just sitting there on the couch hair rumpled adorably, freckles standing out against the pallor of his skin, hazel-green eyes shining bright with concern. She thinks she must be taking to long to respond to him because he was growing more concerned. "Maxie?", he queried, uneasily.

At the concern in his voice Max walked over to him, gently taking his face in her hands, letting her tears fall. He was really concerned now, pulling her closer so that she was sitting edge of the dirty couch cushion. Bringing his hands up to her face, his right hand cupping it as his callused thumb gently rubbed her cheek bone, and his left twining in her hair, stroking softly. "Hey, hey what's the matter?", he questioned, his tone of voice full of gentleness and concern.

She just held him tighter and kissed his forehead with care, her tears dripping onto his pale face. He moved his hands, tenderly wiping her tears away with the pads of his thumbs. "Maxie, talk to me, tell me what's wrong. I'll do my best to make it better.", he pleaded, somewhat desperately, he hated seeing her cry.

She sniffled a little as she composed herself, then nodded. She spoke, softly, "Dix hacked into the Manticore database, and he warned me not to look in the Psy Ops and reindoctrination files and I didn't listen. My curiosity got the best of me, you have the right to be mad at me, I looked at your files. I violated your privacy and it was wrong for me to do it. I'm sorry. God Alec you… all those things they did to you."

She watched as he clenched his jaw and turned his face away from her. After a moment he spoke, "I really wish you hadn't looked at them, but I'm not mad at you."

I'm glad you're not mad, but I'm still sorry. I'm not going to push you to talk about what I found out, but you're eventually going to have to talk about them. It doesn't have to be with me if you don't want it to, but you need to talk about them. You can't keep that stuff bottled up inside, it'll kill you.", she spoke gently, but firmly.

He nodded, eyes shining crystalline green with tears. "I know, but I'm not ready yet. I can't deal with that now, I haven't even let myself think about some of the things they've done to me let alone speaking it out loud."

A few tears leaked out of his eyes, and Max gently wiped them away. "I know baby, and I'll be here when you're ready. How 'bout we go to bed, just spend time together?", she spoke, gently.

Alec nodded, "Yeah I'd like that."

Max smiled, affectionately, gently running her hand through Alec's soft blonde hair. She helped him hobble to the bedroom and get comfortable on the bed before lying down with him. She kissed his nose lovingly, speaking fondly, "I love you so much baby."

His lips curled up in a lazy smile, "I love you, too."

She placed her lips against his, they were so soft, softer than any other man's she'd been with. He parted them slowly, letting her take the lead. She kissed him passionately, their tongues sliding across each other leisurely. After a minute they pulled back, breathing heavily. Max began peppering Alec's face with tender kisses, giving special attention to his cheeks and nose, where his freckles were. She loved his freckles, they were totally endearing. Moving over to a particular spot behind his ear that always made him squirm, she wasn't disappointed. His breathing got heavier as she began kissing the underside of his jaw, down his neck. Then she helped him out of his shirt and began leaving open mouthed kisses on his collarbone and pecs. Slowly making her way down to his abs, licking and nipping at the soft skin over tight muscle. Down his navel and to the waist band of his jeans. She looked up at him, asking softly, Do you wanna do this, your leg must be hurting like a bitch? I don't wanna make it worse."

"It's okay Maxie, I want this, I need this.", he spoke somewhat breathlessly.

Max nodded, unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans. He helped her by lifting his hips so she could pull his pants off. Max stepped back, undressing herself, and climbing back onto the bed. She lowered herself onto him slowly, they quickly found a rhythm.

Not long after they were both curled together in post coital bliss. Alec was completely spent, his head cushioned on her breast, only a sliver green peeking out from heavy eyelids. His left arm flung over her middle, thumb stroking her hip bone. Her right arm was resting on Alec's back, her hand at the nape of his neck, her fingers carding through the curly hair there. She heard his breathing even out as he fell to sleep. She continued playing with his soft hair, smiling lazily as he pressed his face into her chest.

'Maybe everything isn't easy or perfect, but we have each other and that's really all we need.' , Max thought as she joined Alec in slumber.

AN: I hope you enjoyed this, please review. Constructive criticism is always welcome. I know that I didn't reveal what it was that Max found out about Alec, but I will in the sequel to this. Which will be done soon.

Thanks,

Alaina