In the Belly of the Beast

by Denise

This fanfic explores Max and 99's encounter with a vicious KAOS agent and a drug called hypnocaine. There is some violence. Please R&R

In The Belly of the Beast

by Denise Rushton

copyright 2008

The characters and story line of "Get Smart" are not mine—I'm just toying with them.

"Would you believe he was about to light up an entire case of dynamite?"

"No," replied 99, rolling her eyes

"Would you believe a stick of TNT?" Max countered.

At her skeptical look, Max continued sheepishly, "How about a fistful of sparklers?"

99 replied, "Max, please," but her lips turned up in a smile to soften her skepticism in that way that always reassured Max. Though she loved Max, and respected him as a secret agent (though sometimes she didn't quite know why), there were times when he was just too much. However, now was not the time to pursue it, as 99 spied some action at the KAOS safe house they were staking out.

"Max, look!" she whispered, as she grasped his arm in her excitement.

"What is it, 99?" asked Max, his interest in telling the story of his last assignment having distracted him from his current duties, but then he saw what she had indicated, the sight of three known KAOS agents who were leaving the building through the alley and getting into a car.

"What did the Chief say about how many of KAOS' men work out of that building, 99?"

"I think it was between 5 and 10 of them"

"That sounds about fair," Max mused. "Let's see…we'll split up, I'll take out Mr. Beast, and you can handle the rest of them."

"Max!"

"Oh, okay, how about you go in, subdue the others and I'll follow up and get Mr. Beast?"

This time 99's scathing look said it all, and she countered with her own suggestion, "How about if we split up, check out the situation, and call for reinforcements sufficient to take on Mr. Beast and the remaining KAOS agents?"

"Well, 99, we could do it that way, but as you know the Chief put me in charge and it's up to me to make the decision. How about if we split up, check out the situation, and call for reinforcements sufficient to take on Mr. Beast and the remaining KAOS agents?"

"Good thinking," 99 sighed, and the pair left the car. They sidled along an adjoining building until the got to the alley, then they crept down the dark passageway, staying low so as not to be seen by anyone taking a glance out the window. Little did they know that the alley was covered by a camera, and that Mr. Beast and his henchmen were watching their every move.

They got to the side door of the building, and Max moved to pull out his lock picking kit as he asked 99 to shine her pocket flashlight on the lock. As he fumbled through his pockets, his elbow inadvertently hit the door and it slowly swung open.

"Well, that was easy, huh?"

"Max, it seems like this could be a trap."

"Don't be silly, 99, they don't have a clue that we're here."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. If they knew we were here they'd have some gunmen at the door to greet us."

"But suppose their plan is to get us inside for some reason?"

"Oh, 99, that just doesn't make any sense. KAOS doesn't ever want people from CONTROL in their safe houses…it just isn't done."

"Whatever you say, Max," replied 99 as she pulled her small revolver from her pocketbook. Silently conceding that that was not a bad idea, Max followed suit. He put his upraised finger to his lips in an unnecessary warning to 99, and they entered the building.

Max gestured for 99 to check out the ground floor, and he proceeded to the rickety staircase in the hallway. 99 cringed with every creak the stairs made under Max's weight as he cautiously ascended them, and finally she could hear that he was on the floor above her. That was the last she heard of him, because just then a hand came out of the darkness and clamped over her mouth, and an arm encircled her body, took tight hold of her right arm in which she was holding her gun and squeezed her wrist painfully until she was forced to drop it, and held her helpless as she was dragged backwards, further into the darkness. She tried desperately to scream Max's name, but to no avail. Her body struggled against the person holding her, but she could not free herself. All she could do was to let her heels drag along the floor in a pathetic attempt to impede their progress as she was dragged down a hallway into an office. Her assailant pushed her unceremoniously into the room and it was all she could do to keep her balance and not fall at the feet of the man she recognized as Mr. Beast.

"Oh, how rude of you, Cedric. You mustn't manhandle the CONTROL agents. Please, Miss 99, do take a seat," Mr. Beast said in an oily voice, kicking a rolling chair over towards her that she managed to sidestep before it hit her.

"No, thank you," she answered, a note of sarcasm in her voice.

"As you will," Mr. Beast chuckled, "I assume that you know why we lured you here?"

Faced with her silence, Mr. Beast continued, "You are going to be a valuable part of our experiment, the culmination of years of research. After it works on you, then we will finally be able to infiltrate CONTROL and bring it to its knees permanently!"

Curiosity got the better of her, and she grudgingly asked, "What do you mean? There's no way that one of your agents could get into CONTROL."

"One of our agents? That's probably true, but that's not what I mean. I'm going to turn one of your agents into our secret weapon--none other than the man who has been a thorn in our side for years: Maxwell Smart."

99 would have laughed out loud has the situation not been so serious, "You must be joking. You could never turn Max into a KAOS agent."

"Are you so sure, my dear?" Mr. Beast turned to a syringe that lay on his desk, then held it up to to the light. "This, Miss 99, contains a serum we call hypnocaine, a drug so powerful that any person injected with it must do our bidding unquestioningly. It was developed by one of our finest doctors, Dr. Pettifinger." Mr. Beast waved casually to the corner, to a slight, weasel faced man cringing in the corner. "Come now, Pettifinger, come out and take your bows."

Dr. Pettifinger stayed where he was, trying to quell the shaking that has consumed his body. After a few seconds, Mr. Beast dismissingly waved his hand toward the doctor in contemptuous disgust. Once Mr. Beast's attention returned to 99, Pettifinger's shaking stopped a little bit, but he was still very much on edge, and with good reason. For the fiftieth time that morning, the details of an earlier conversation, if you could call it that, reverberated in his mind. Time and time again his mind replayed the threats Mr. Beast issued, in scrupulous detail, about just what tortures Pettifinger would be subjected if the serum failed. By the time Pettifinger returned to his laboratory, he was so shaken that the worst possible thing happened. He dropped the vial of serum as he was going to transfer the contents into the syringe. Desperately, he dropped to his knees and tried to suck the serum off the floor into the syringe, but with little success. Nearly hysterical at this point, Dr. Pettifinger saw no other way to save his hide than to fill up the remainder with distilled water to supplement the few drops he managed to vacuum off the floor with the syringe, and pray that the effects of the small amount of hypnocaine he was able to reclaim would be enough until he could cook up another batch.

99's eyes widened in horror at Mr. Beast's news. Max was CONTROL's most loyal agent, but under the sway of a hypnotic drug he would break. However, 99 was scarcely ready for the immediate details of Beast's plan, which he imparted to her, "You, my dear, are going to be the guinea pig. We know that Maxwell Smart thinks, shall we say, highly of you. But if he complies with our orders and is able to beat you to death, then we know that it will be no problem for him to do the same to all of CONTROL's personnel, from your chief on down.

99 tried to focus herself and not let her knees buckle out from under her. "You can't do that…" she said ineffectually.

"And who is going to stop us, my dear 99." Mr. Beast lay the syringe down, rose from his seat and walked towards 99, taking her chin in his hand and forcing her to look into his eyes. "It's just too bad that you have to be sacrificed like this--I could think of other, much more amusing things we could do together."

"Never!" 99 ejaculated as she snapped her head back to free her chin from his clutches. "Max will find some way to defeat your drug! He won't let it take over his mind! He'll never do what you want!"

She continued to cry out her protests as another KAOS goon took her roughly by the arms and pulled her from the room. Mr. Beast called after them, "Take her into the next room, and then get Smart and bring him to the laboratory."

The goon forced the struggling 99 into the room, pushed her into a chair and took her pocketbook to strip it of any items she could use to escape. He plucked a few suspicious items from it then threw the pocketbook at 99's feet, "I don't know why I'm bothering to give this back to you—you won't need it where you're going." With a sinister laugh, he slammed and locked the door, then pulled out his gun and went in search of Maxwell Smart. For the first time since she had fallen in Mr. Beast's clutches, 99 had some hope of escape—though all self defensive items were removed from the pocketbook, the purse itself was a gun. She cradled it carefully in her lap, hoping she would get a chance to use it on Mr. Beast.

Unfortunately for Max, it was all too easy to find him since he had bumbled into an inadvertent trap; he had pressed a door shut behind him, and snagged a portion of his pants in it. The door had locked and Max had spent the last five minutes trying to extricate himself from it. The KAOS agent had an easy time sneaking up and knocking Max over the head, opened the door to free his clothing and then dragged his prone body down to the lab.

The goon dropped Max's body unceremoniously to the floor, and Mr. Beast and Cedric came closer to study the prone figure. Mr. Beast ordered Cedric to bring Max around, which he did with unnecessary roughness after tying Max's hands behind his back. Once awake, Max was forced to his feet and pushed into a chair.

"So you're Mr. Beast. Not very big on the niceties of polite society, are you," Max commented, while shaking his head to help bring himself to full alertness.

"No, I'm afraid that we have no time for such things, Mr. Smart. We've got important experiments to conduct."

"Well, then, you won't be needing an extra person under foot," Max said as he started to rise to his feet, "so…if you just untie my hands I'll be on my way."

Mr. Beast broke out in mirthless laughter, "Oh, Mr. Smart, I heard you were quite comical. You're also quite necessary…to the experiment, that is. You're not going anywhere quite yet."

Cedric grabbed Max's shoulders and pushed him back into the chair as Mr. Beast continued to speak, "No, Mr. Smart, you're not going anywhere until you receive our little gift. Pettifinger, roll up his sleeve and give him the injection."

"You know, Mr. Beast," Max rambled as he set anxious eyes on the syringe held by Pettifinger, "I was raised to believe that it's better to give than to receive, so if you don't mind I'd just as soon not receive whatever 'gift' you have for me."

"Oh, but we insist," an evil grin spreading across Mr. Beast's face as he watched Pettifinger plunge the syringe into Max's arm and release the serum into his arm. Once Pettifinger was done and removed the needle, Mr. Beast continued, "Now let me tell you about the fun we have in store for you and the rest of the gang at CONTROL. We just injected you with a new drug called hypnocaine, and until it wears off, you will be completely in our control, willing to do anything we order you to."

"That's where you're wrong, Beast! I don't feel any different, and I have full command of all my faculties."

"Yes, for a few minutes more, just long enough for me to tell you of your first assignment. We have your good friend 99 held prisoner in another room. You are going to go into that room and kill Agent 99 with your bare hands in a most violent manner."

"No!" Max protested loudly. A wave of nausea crashed over him, partly because of the effects of the drug as it coursed through his veins but mostly because of the horrific information he had just been given. He fought as best he could against his bonds to effect his escape, but as the seconds went by he slipped further and further under the influence of the drug and his struggles waned until they came to a complete stop, and Max sat quietly, awaiting Mr. Beast's orders.

At the sight, Mr. Beast burst out in a maniacal laughter, reflective of the insanity that ran through his brain. "Mr. Smart?" he queried Max to get his attention.

"Yes, Mr. Beast," Max responded in a dull monotone.

"You are to enter the adjoining room and reassure Agent 99 that the two of you are going to escape from this building. When you get to the door, you are to turn and hit her, and keep hitting her until she is dead at your feet. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Beast."

"Cedric, untie him. Pettifinger, is the recording equipment ready in the next room?"

"No, sir, not completely."

"WHAT!"

Pettifinger cringed and put up his hands in a protective motion to ward off Mr. Beast as he quickly explained, "The microphone is fine, but the camera system has not worked since that leak we had last week."

"I ordered you to get parts for it!"

"We tried, sir, but the KAOS Quartermaster's Corps is running a month behind on shipments."

Beast paced the room furiously, but finally acceded that they would have to make do with listening in with the microphone. He shouted at Pettifinger and Cedric, "Don't you realize how crucial it is that we witness this, that we have to make sure Smart is convincing at gaining his fellow agents' trust so that he can lure them into the trap and kill them."

Mr. Beast wheeled around and, with a dismissive wave of his hand, shouted, "Smart, get in there--you know what to do. Don't come out until she is dead."

Max left the room towards the door that Cedric indicated, and opened it with the key he was given. Once he entered the room, he was hit from behind with a karate chop by 99, who mistakenly took Max for a KAOS goon. "Oh, Max, I'm so sorry!" she cried out as she helped him to his feet and rubbed his neck where she had hit him. It was just by chance that her aim was off and she didn't knock him out totally.

"Max, how did you get here? How did you elude those KAOS agents and find me?"

"Don't worry about that now, we have to get out of here."

"Max, I was so frightened. They said they were going to give you some drug that would take over your mind and force you to kill me."

"Drug? Do I look like I've been drugged? I haven't been given any drug, and even if they did the drug hasn't been invented that could take over my well trained mind. No, I will never be a tool in the hands of KAOS."

"Oh, Max, I'm so glad to hear you say that."

"Come on, we've got to get out of here."

"Right," agreed 99, and she grabbed her jacket and pocketbook and followed Max to the door. As Max's hand touched the doorknob, his body stiffened and he came to a dead halt. "Max, what is it? Do you hear something?" 99 whispered.

In reply, Max turned and backhanded 99 across the face. She had no warning of what he was about to do and was taken totally by surprise. She reeled backwards from the force of the blow and slammed into the adjacent wall, the wind knocked from her slender body by the force of the impact and the pain it caused in her back and head. Max followed in her path with jerky movements, the part of his mind the lesser amount of the drug was incapable of controlling shocked by what he just did, but at that moment powerless to resist pursuing the course of action ordered by Mr. Beast, and he leaned back with his shaking fist upraised and propelled it forward towards 99. Max obeyed the order of Mr. Beast, though he realized what he was doing was wrong, and this conflict in his mind fighting back against the effects of the drug and what it was physically compelling him to do slowed his movements considerably. However, the hypnocaine still had the upper hand in controlling his body and his fist came forward.

This time, fortunately for her, she was able to evade the punch, even though her mind could not accept what Max was doing to her. She gasped, "Max, stop! What are you doing?" as his hand hit the wall behind her. The pain that radiated up his arm from the blow made slowed Max even more and helped to clear the hypnotic fog from his mind, but the drug was still toying with his mind. In a stalking, robot like way, he turned towards 99 again, threw another punch that painfully nicked her rib cage and spun her in such a position that Max was successful in grabbing her arm and he roughly twisted it up behind her back and brought her to her knees.

"Don't kill me, Max, please!" she screamed in panic, hopelessly knowing for a fact that Max was indeed under the evil influence of KAOS's drug, and that he was going to do as Mr. Beast said he would order him: to kill her. The pocketbook gun was lost in the shuffle; she had dropped it when Max first attacked her. However, 99 knew that she could never shoot Max, no matter what he did to her, so it really didn't matter where it was. Instead of proceeding now that she was at his mercy, Max stopped dead in his tracks, though 99's arm was still twisted behind her back.

Her last words reverberated through his brain as he held her helpless at his feet. His body shook violently in reaction to his mental battle and his efforts to stop himself from hurting 99 further. Like an echo, he kept hearing her say "Max, please!" just as she did when…when…oh, yes, just that very day, before they entered the building and fell into the KAOS trap, just when she was teasingly bringing him back to reality, that she knew he was full of it but loved him anyway. That understanding gave Max the strength to fight off most of the remaining effects of the hypnocaine and get back in control of his mind and body, but with that came the realization that he still had to get them out of there. What with the microphone and Mr. Beast listening intently on the other end, there was no way he could explain this to 99. He knew after he had just hurt her so badly, there was nothing he could do at that point to regain her trust. He stared into her petrified gaze, her eyes transfixed in horror on the person she then believed would be her murderer. In desperation, though the last thing on earth he wanted to do was to hurt her further, he did the only thing he could think of to insure her compliance with whatever desperate plan he hoped by some miracle he would be able to cook up--he cold cocked her and, with a whimper, she fell unconscious at his feet. Getting to his feet, he threw a couple of pieces of furniture around the room to make it sound like a real battle, then proclaimed in a loud voice, "That'll fix you, 99, enemies of KAOS must die!" Before he left the room, he checked 99's pulse and looked sadly at her bruised face, at the blood that trickled from her cut lip. He kissed her hair and whispered into her ear, "I'm so sorry, 99, I didn't mean to do this. If it kills me I'll get you out of here." He rose to his feet and left the room.

Cedric was waiting on the other side of the door and took Max back to Mr. Beast.

"It's done." Max stated, zombie like, as he entered the room. The pretense of acting like a zombie was not all fake at that point; Max was still horrified at his violent actions against 99.

"Well, you'll just have to understand if we're loathe to take just your word for it. Pettifinger, go check."

The weaselly little man scurried to the other room. He had listened in on the beating, and saw 99 on the floor. He went to approach her but death had always frightened him, and he did not want to touch a dead body. She looked dead and that was good enough for him. He went back to Beast and reported that 99 was indeed dead. Max blew out a quiet sigh of relief that he had avoided one pitfall in his plan, or complete lack thereof, but he knew that there were going to be many other problems to solve before he could save 99 and make good their escape.

"Smart, sit down," Mr. Beast ordered.

"Yes, Mr. Beast."

Mr. Beast broke out into more of the mirthless laughter that was his trademark as a cold blooded, murderous fiend, "Cedric, I want you to get the champagne and some hors d'oeuvres —we must celebrate our victory. Take Smart with you to help—we might as well make some more use of him while he is under the sway of the hypnocaine."

Cedric obediently left the room, but returned empty handed a few minutes later with Max in tow toting a tray of hors d'oeuvres, still pretending mindless obedience to the directions of Mr. Beast, and Cedric informed Mr. Beast, "This clod dropped the champagne, and we don't have any more. What do you want me to do?"

Mr. Beast blew a fit, "I can't believe this, he is such a clod! He'd better be a damn sight more competent in carrying out my orders! Cedric, you go to a liquor store and get another bottle, and see if they have any that's already chilled. I don't want to wait any longer than necessary to celebrate my victory over CONTROL."

Cedric scurried out of the room, and Max realized that this might be his best, if not only, chance. Pettifinger was clearly a frightened wuss, though Mr. Beast would be a formidable foe. Time was not on his side, either, as he was sure 99 needed medical attention. A shiver of horror wracked his body at that thought, but it also gave him the resolve to carry out his attack.

As soon as he figured Cedric had enough time to leave the building, and Mr. Beast had turned his attention away for a moment, Max grabbed the knife that was on the tray of hors d'oeuvres and leaped towards Mr. Beast, grabbed him in a choke hold and put the knife against his throat. Unfortunately, Mr. Beast was of such a rotund shape that Max's arms were not long enough to reach around to grab his gun from his shoulder holster.

"Now I've got you, Beast! Pettifinger, you stay back and keep your hands where I can see them. We're just going to be leaving the building now."

Mr. Beast, though certainly surprised at this turn of events, managed to regain some semblance of his composure. "Pettifinger! This is all your fault! I'm going to kill Smart first, and then I'm going to tell KAOS all about you! I should have known better than to trust your stupid drug!"

Finally, Pettifinger had had enough of Beast's abuse, "There's nothing wrong with hypnocaine—you just made me so nervous that I dropped the stupid vial and couldn't get enough of it back up into the syringe. If you'd only quit yelling at me I might be able to do something right," Pettifinger ended in a sniveling moan that made Max almost feel sympathetic towards him--almost. He decided to take advantage of that to split the bond between the two KAOS agents.

"Well, you know, Pettifinger, sometimes you have to blow these things off. My chief is always yelling at me, but if I let that get to me I wouldn't be the top agent I am." Unfortunately, in commiserating with Pettifinger, Max let his attention slip from the task at hand and Mr. Beast managed to get his gun out, elbowed Max in the solar plexus and whirl around.

"Now the shoe is on the other foot, Mr. Smart. This time, I'm going to kill you myself." But as the words fell from Mr. Beast's lips, Max saw Pettifinger crown Beast with a heavy book. Apparently, Mr. Beast had quite a thick head, because he did not fall or even drop the gun, but he whirled around to Pettifinger, aimed his gun at the weaselly man, and pressed off a single shot that dropped Pettifinger to the floor. At the same time, Max performed a karate chop to Beast's neck that had about as much effect as did Pettifinger's efforts with the book, that is to say, none.

However, something did have an effect and served to take Mr. Beast out of the picture permanently. Max heard the loud report of a gun and saw Mr. Beast collapse on the floor, a widening circle of red soaking his shirt front, then turned to the sight of 99, leaning unsteadily against the door jamb, her pocketbook gun aimed in shaking hands at the prone KAOS agent.

Max leaped over Mr. Beast's body and ran towards 99, but stopped dead in his tracks as she turned her pocketbook gun on him. She held it in both hands, which were shaking violently, "Don't you take one more step closer!"

He opened his mouth as if to protest, but then remembered that she had no reason to trust him after he had beaten her. Max stopped in his tracks and raised his hands to indicate that he had no weapon and would not harm her.

"99, I'm okay, the drug didn't work properly," Max rambled desperately, unsure how to prove his sincerity, but he knew he couldn't push her at this point. It broke his heart to see her swollen, bruised cheek and the blood that made a crooked path down her chin and dripped on her blouse, but the worst of all was the look of distrust in her eyes. "They mistakenly gave me a weaker dose than they wanted to. 99, I didn't mean it—I would never have hit you if it weren't for that drug."

"Are you really off it?" 99 asked in a querulous voice, frantically wanting to believe him. "Mr. Beast told me that he was going to order you to kill me, but when you acted so normal when you got in the room…" her voice trailed off as she slid down against the door jamb and the pocketbook gun fell from her fingers, and she slipped into unconsciousness.

"99!" He ran towards her and caught her in his arms before she hit the floor. Cursing to himself, he ripped off his jacket and folded it into a pillow that he placed under her head, then jumped up and grabbed the phone to call CONTROL.

"Chief!" Max yelled into the phone, "Get some reinforcements to the KAOS safe house on Wilson Avenue, and we need an ambulance too. 99's been hurt." He didn't dare tell the Chief at that point just who was responsible for her injuries—he didn't have any idea how he would ever be able to explain his actions. Hell, he still couldn't justify to himself his incapability to throw off the effects of the drug; he had no clue how he would to anyone else.

Max then checked Mr. Beast and Pettifinger for a pulse, after he pocketed Beast's gun. He wanted to be ready just in case Cedric or any other KAOS agent came in the room before CONTROL got there. Mr. Beast was dead, but Pettifinger still had a pulse and was writhing on the floor in pain. "Help will be here soon, Pettifinger, even for you," Max said in disgust tinged with pity for the KAOS flunky, but he had much more important things to worry about. He quickly yanked off his tie, secured Pettifinger's hands behind his back and then to a table leg. He then darted over to 99's side, but she was still unconscious. With trembling fingers, he gently touched his handkerchief to the cut on her face to stop the blood. Though he was alert to the possibility of returning KAOS agents, otherwise his attention was fully on 99.

About fifteen minutes later, Max had the first opportunity for what seemed like months to breathe a proper sigh of relief at the sounds of the Chief and his fellow agents entering the building. He called out so they could find him, and momentarily the Chief, Larrabee and others came upon the scene of Max tending to the unconscious 99.

"Chief, is the ambulance coming? 99 needs help…" The Chief was sickened by the sight of 99's injuries, and thought that Max didn't look any too good either, "Don't worry, Max, they are right outside, we wanted to secure the building before we let them in. They'll be right up and take care of both of you. Larrabee, go get the paramedics. 54, 63, take care of Mr. Beast and that other guy"

"Right, Chief"

In the middle of the flurry of activity the Chief's orders triggered, he crouched down by Max's side, "What happened to you both?"

An uncharacteristic look of emotional pain etched Max's face, "I…I did this," Max mumbled so that the Chief could barely hear his pained confession.

"WHAT!?!?" the Chief exclaimed, then stopped himself. He must have misheard Max, there was no way that Max would lay a hurtful finger on 99. However, Max confirmed that he did hear him correctly the first time.

"It was me, Chief, they drugged me and ordered me to beat 99 to death. They wanted to test their drug on me. It was only because they mistakenly gave me a lower dose than they meant to that I didn't murder her. But look what I did to her!" Tears welled up in Max's eyes as he cradled 99 in his arms as the ambulance attendants ran up to where the CONTROL agents were, stretcher in tow.

The Chief helped to pull Max away from 99 so the attendants could get her vitals and move her prone body onto the stretcher. One of the attendants went to look at Max, but he shouted at him, "Don't worry about me! Go help her!"

The Chief put his arm around the shoulders of the inconsolable Max. "She'll never forgive me, never" Max muttered to himself, shaking his head from side to side. "I just can't lose her…not now."

Confused at Max's words, the Chief asked, "Why?"

Max had not realized that he was speaking aloud until he heard the Chief's question.

"Because I love her…" Max replied, the words that fell from his lips were as much a surprise to himself as they were to the Chief. It had taken a dangerous close call like this to clarify this for Max. All these years he had depended on 99's friendship and loyalty, and had, at best, treated her rather thoughtlessly. And now this…being taken for granted was one thing, being beaten up by someone who was supposed to be your friend and fellow agent was something else all together.

One of the ambulance attendants broke into the Chief and Max's conversation when he yelled across, "She's coming around, sir!" The pair looked over and saw 99 begin to stir.

Max froze in place at the words. He would never be able to face 99 again. "Go to her, Max," the Chief encouraged, but Max visibly paled, shook his head and ran from the room through the back exit. Sighing, the Chief walked over to the stretcher on which 99 lay. Her head was moving agitatedly from side to side and she was moaning slightly. The Chief started to take her hand in his, but unfortunately chose the arm that Max had twisted behind her back, and in lifting it a cry of pain was wrenched from her lips.

"Better not touch her, sir. She could have a dislocated shoulder or a break." Dismayed at his words, the Chief replaced her hand at her side as gently as possible, and walked by the side of the stretcher as it was carried out. As they made their way through the hallways, 99 came closer and closer to full consciousness. They loaded the stretcher in the ambulance and the Chief followed it in and sat on a jump seat at 99's side. Though he was extremely concerned about 99's physical injuries, he was much more concerned about emotional damage both she and Max would suffer from the events of this horrifying day. He had always suspected there was more than met the eye in 99 and Max's relationship, more so on 99's end, but today confirmed it.

"Chief?" The Chief was wrenched from his reverie by the sound of 99's voice, barely above a whisper. He leaned forward, an attempt at a reassuring smile on his face, "99, how are you doing? We're getting you to the hospital—we're almost there. There's nothing for you to worry about; you'll be fine. They'll give you something for the pain and get you all fixed up."

"Max? Where is he?"

Gulping, the Chief replied, "Oh, he had some things to wrap up at the safe house." Though he managed to say this in his most reassuring voice, 99 was not having any of it.

"Where is he, Chief? He'd be here unless…" 99 winced as the ambulance went over a pothole, then continued in a sad voice, "I remember what happened…It wasn't his fault. Mr. Beast told me about his diabolical plan before he found Max and gave him the drug. Is he alright? Oh, God, Chief, he must feel awful."

"99, you just rest, and don't worry about Max right now. He's back to himself—the drug apparently didn't leave any lasting effects after it wore off. You have to focus on recovering from your injuries. I don't want you feeling guilty about Max—this was neither Max's nor your fault."

"But, Chief…"

"No, 99, you rest and that's an order. I'll see if I can find Max once I get you squared away at the hospital."

A couple of hours later, once 99 was admitted for x-rays and other necessary tests, the Chief left, after putting a fellow CONTROL agent on guard at 99's door, and went in search of Max. He had put an all points bulletin out for Max on the CONTROL grapevine earlier, but to no avail. The Chief had to conclude that Max would only be found when he wanted to be found, and not before.

Of course, 99 was saddened and stressed out at the news. If only she could leave the hospital to look for him herself—she knew she could find him. Unfortunately, she felt like she had been hit by a truck, and the doctor wanted to keep her overnight for observation just in case she had a concussion. She was extremely weary from the events of the day, and finally fell asleep in spite of herself. The nurses kept waking her every couple of hours with their tests and checks, so she was not allowed to fall into a deep sleep no matter how her body desired it. After the 5:00AM interruption, as she thought of it, she rested in the twilight of the early dawn, reflecting uneasily on the events of the previous day, desperate for a way to convince Max that she knew that he beat her only because of the hypnocaine and Mr. Beast's orders. If only she could take back her regrettable action of pointing her pocketbook gun at Max, but she knew she was right in doing that, no matter how she knew it hurt Max's feelings. She had no way of knowing at that point if Max was going to continue his attack or not, and had been in too much pain to be able to ward him off any other way. Luckily, he had not recalled that the pocketbook gun only held one bullet, which he witnessed her use on Mr. Beast. She squeezed her eyes tight shut, not only against the pain in her head but also the quandary presented by her memories of the horror in the safe house. She was so caught up in her contemplation that she did not notice the figure lurking at the hospital room window, stealthily raising the window.

A chance squeak from the ancient, warped window brought 99 around, and she was about to let out a scream for help until she saw it was Max. He opened the window all the way and jumped lightly into the room. Though he desperately needed a shower and a shave, 99 didn't care; she was just relieved to see him.

"Max, are you okay?"

"Don't worry about me," he replied dismissively, as he pulled a chair close to the bed and wearily sank into it, "You're all that's important. Sorry about the window business, but I thought that they'd have given you a sedative and I could just stand here for a little while and guard you and not bother you or anything…I just really wanted to make sure you were alright."

That sounded a lot more like the Max she knew and loved. "They haven't given me a sedative; they're watching me for a concussion," Max's heart sank at the information, but 99 continued, "The concussion the hypnocaine gave me, not you, Max. I know that this wasn't your fault."

"It's nice of you to be so understanding, 99, but I can't expect you to understand my actions, I can't…" he trailed off and put his head in his hands, unable to continue looking at 99 because of his acute embarrassment. In all his life, he had never done anything so deplorable. He felt 99 reach over with her good arm and gently stroke his hair, which had the ill-timed result of making him feel worse, and he pulled away.

"I can't forgive myself for what my hands did to you—I should have been strong enough to resist that hypnocaine garbage. I still see myself hurting you, and there was a part of me that tried to stop it and I couldn't, not until the end, when you begged me not to kill you. I would never hurt you, 99, never…I lo…" Max stopped abruptly, but 99 caught the syllable he hastily stopped on. Could it be the word she had waited so long to hear him say to her?

"You what, Max?" she enquired in a tremulous voice, "Tell me."

Deciding to go for broke, he said it, "99, I love you. I think I've always loved you and have been to stupid to see it. You're the best thing in my life, and I wouldn't even have a life if it wasn't for you. It was only when I saw you in the room, after I had to knock you out; I knew that I couldn't go on if you died…if I didn't have you in my life."

99 hadn't taken a breath as Max spoke. She had waited so long to hear Max say those three words to her—it made the events of the previous day almost worth it, though she wished the physical result didn't hurt so much.

"I love you too, Max," she didn't trust herself to say much more lest she burst into tears from the happiness that Max's words put in her heart.

"Really?"

"Yes, really," 99 confirmed, and reached out to him again. This time he took her hand in his and leaned in to kiss her. He spied the stitches in her lip and knew he would have to be extra gentle. Moving to the side of her face that was not swollen, he managed to softly press his lips against hers and they finally kissed, not dead on center as they would have liked but they'd have to make do until 99's wounds healed.

When they broke off the kiss, 99 sighed with happiness, and Max took her hand in his and pressed it to his lips. "You need a shave," 99 opined teasingly, as he pressed her palm against his cheek and reached out with his other hand to gently move a strand of hair from 99's brow.

"Yeah, I suppose I do…I should go back to my apartment and get changed and all, but I don't want to leave you, 99."

"I'll be alright, Max, now that I know you're alright…and everything," a blush crossed 99's face. "You really should check in with the Chief, too. He's worried about you."

Max turned green at the mention of the Chief, "Uh…yeah, I'll see him later…maybe the end of the month or sometime."

99 smiled reassuringly at Max's nervousness, "He knows what happened, Max, about the drug and all. He's had all of CONTROL looking for you since you left the safe house. He just wants to make sure you're alright."

"Well, I'll do it for you, 99."

"Just as long as you do it," she caressed Max's cheek as she said it. He pressed his lips to the palm of her hand, and took his leave of the hospital—unfortunately, he did it the same way he came in in the first place, and 99 cringed as she heard him crash to the ground, but then gave a sheepish smile as she heard him call up to her, "I'm alright, 99."

In a lot of ways, she sighed, Max would never change, and that was just fine with her. The most important thing to her was that she finally knew she had his love, and that she had survived their ordeal to keep giving her love to him.