Confused too much.
AN: Many many thanks to Flamyz of Ice for being my Beta on this one. Thank you thank you.
Part 1
Asha lay spread eagled over the desk in handcuffs. The Sector cop came towards her grimly with his truncheon raised.
Asha flinched in fear and begged desperately for mercy.
"No mercy for you, you dirty little whore," the cop said in her ear.
A knock on the door made them both jump up. Damn, it was hard for the two lovers to get quality time alone, and Matt's mother had agreed to take the widower's young son for the day.
Matt Sung quickly undid Asha's hand cuffs, adjusted his clothing and opened the door to his home.
"Hey Logan man, shouldn't you be in hiding?" Matt asked him quickly, inviting him in.
Asha stood in Matt's living room fully dressed, rubbing her wrists and smiled at Logan in greeting. "Hey Logan."
"I didn't know you two knew each other?" Logan commented in surprise.
"We met at your place remember? I gave her a ride home two months ago," Matt explained patiently.
"Oh yeah. Huh," Logan remarked absent-mindedly before turning to the Detective.
"Big favour Matt, can I borrow your car," Logan remembered Asha and added hastily, "or yours, and can I get a sector pass out of Seattle this Friday."
"Are you going to Canada?" Asha said puzzled. "How would we get our cars back?"
"It's Eyes Only stuff," was the short reply.
She paused, then snapped her fingers abruptly.
"You're in luck," Asha realised. "My next door neighbour died this morning. Go over and steal her car. It works and she did the single thing, no one'll miss it. That house is on borrowed time before it gets looted."
"Can you get me there now?" Logan asked urgently.
Part 2
Friday
"So much for the eight inches you promised me last night. It was an inch at the most," Max teased Alec, as they waited in the queue to get out of the city.
"Hey I only went on what Normal told me," Alec shot back.
"Well I'm glad it didn't rain much last night anyway," Max commented. "Should be great riding weather."
Max and Alec grinned at each other happily, waiting patiently in the queue to leave Seattle's boundaries. They knew there were serious matters to attend to, but they couldn't help being in a holiday mood.
Alec spotted Logan in the queue behind them. Some prickling sixth sense alerted him someone was watching them. Alec briefly entertained the idea of telling Max, but decided to leave it. She was relaxed, happy and she wasn't attacking him. Why ruin it? Moments like this didn't happen too often these days, what with White on their asses.
"Hold on Max."
Alec reached over and rubbed dirt off her cheek, at the same time checking his bike mirror for Logan's reaction. Yes, Logan was flinching in emotional pain. For the love of God, how masochistic and crazy could an adult man be? Didn't Logan realise the risk he was taking trying to get through the checkpoint?
The line moved forward and Max and Alec had their papers checked. They were good to go. The two transgenics hit the gas hard, for the sheer thrill of driving fast in open spaces.
It was going to take them eight to ten hours to drive to Idaho, where Zack was living on a farm.
Alec and Max planned to stop and have lunch in the first town they came to, at one o'clock. Alec knew he and Max had good bladders, he wondered if Logan had the same control.
Logan felt bad at having put a tracking device on Max's motorcycle, while she was at work yesterday. He couldn't believe the risks he was taking. It was for Max's own good, he assured himself. His ex-girlfriend might need back up with Zack. Who knew how crazy Zack might get when told the truth?
Logan also needed to see just how intimate Max was with Alec. He remembered how ex wife Valerie had accused him once of being a stalker and how she had only married him in the first place because he hung around her like a bad smell. Logan winced at the memory. Val had been a lousy drunk but she'd laugh righteously if she could see him now.
At lunchtime Max and Alec sat in the summer sun, stretching their legs, enjoying their coffee and burgers. Alec glanced at Max and wondered again whether to bring up the fact he knew about the little charade she had going with Logan.
But he realised there were more important matters at hand, namely, how was he, as a good looking transgenic whom Manticore had designed to be genetically compatible with her, going to get Max stop seeing him as her annoying pal? Though to be fair, Pal was a step up from annoying pain in the butt who had ruined her life.
Did she still see Alec as a brother of sorts, with the accompanying squick factor? His sexual fantasies were back in full swing about her. Though far less depraved than back at Manticore, no more forcing her against her will in the shower block. Now he was imagining her consensually going down on him in a rainstorm in a nice field somewhere. Alec knew instinctively that he and Max would be dynamite in the sack together.
An old lady walked past them with her husband.
"Look at that good looking young couple over there," she croaked in that loud voice of the deaf, "I bet their sex life is amazing."
Alec cracked up. It was as if the old girl had read his mind. He laughed so hard he inhaled a piece of his burger and started to choke. Max slapped him on the back to help him dislodge the food. Alec could see she was equally as amused by the old lady's comment. Alec started to fight for breath and looked vaguely panicked. Max whacked him harder on the back, but couldn't shift the piece of meat patty stuck in his throat.
Alec took a big gulp of his coffee but the meat seemed happy cutting off his air supply. Max pushed her choking friend to his feet and performed the Heimlich manoeuvre on him. The lethal patty shot out of Alec's mouth, onto the ground to be seized by a scavenging duck.
"My god Max ya just saved my life," Alec wheezed, his eyes streaming.
Max released her hold on him and sat back down as if nothing had happened.
"I thought I only pulled that shift on Tuesdays?"
Logan parked his car far away, on the other side of the road. He'd just driven past and seen a glimpse of Max hugging Alec round the stomach as they fooled around. He took out his binoculars.
Alec spotted Logan's car, as well the binoculars, immediately. That was too much. Alec decided to push Logan's buttons.
He took Max's hand in his own and subjected it to close scrutiny.
"Yeah I thought so, calluses from the bike gloves, weird huh?" Alec showed her his hand. "I've got them too."
Max examined his hand.
"I can't see any freakin calluses on either my hand or yours," she told him frankly, dropping his hand, "You're paranoid and kinda vain."
"Yeah," Alec added, "I think your fingers are out of proportion huh, from all that bike riding. Compare 'em to mine."
"What? No way," Max protested indignantly, picking up Alec's hand and comparing their digits.
"It's just because you're male and I'm female," she informed him, dropping his hand once more. "Now are you going to come up with another lame excuse to touch my hand or can I finish my lunch?"
Max and Alec went across to the gas station to refill their bikes. Alec was aware of Logan still watching them with his binoculars. Alec brought a single rose from the store and gave it to Max as she came out of the restroom, shaking her hands.
Paper towels were this month's consumer shortage.
"What's that for?" Max drawled, cocking an eyebrow.
"Saving my life, not just this time, but every time" Alec greased smoothly, "Just a little token of my appreciation. Don't worry, I ain't gettin' all mushy on ya."
Max looked pleased but also a bit embarrassed.
"I'll put it in my pack. Maybe my clothes will smell nice."
Logan saw Alec hand Max a rose and his heart sunk. Why hadn't he given Max flowers?
Max and Alec rode off again and Logan sat in his car fuming, till they were out of sight.
Part 3
"Well you have to heat up her up before you put the meat in, Adam," the farmer explained, annoyed at his farm hand's inability to satisfy his wife.
"I didn't know the beef roast would turn out like that," Adam said in apology, "I guess I'm a better farm hand than kitchen hand, Mary. Your oven is not my friend."
The farmer's wife threw potatoes in the roasting pan crossly.
"Oh never mind Adam, it'd just be nice if someone apart from me, could cook around here. Get the phone will you?"
Adam answered the phone. Cooking just wasn't his thing. There wasn't a recipe book in the house either, all the books had been burned in the woodstove for fuel in the great blizzard of 2013.
Adam looked at his boss's wife in amazement.
"It's for me Mary. This girl says she has news about my family and wants to see me out front."
Mary slowly continued to stir cake mixture in a bowl.
"Well I suppose you should go out front and see her then."
Adam shrugged.
"It'll be great I guess, if she does know something about my family. This amnesia has never cleared up."
"No," agreed Mary harshly. Adam could see she was upset and troubled. "Good luck Adam. Go see what she wants."
"Thanks Mary," Adam smiled, "I'll be back in time for that cake I hope."
Adam walked excitedly to the front of the house. Two young people were waiting on motor bikes by the gate.
Adam recognised the Latino woman instantly, he had only seen her once at the hospital but she had featured in so many of his dreams, these weird nightmares he kept having.
The young woman smiled at Adam but looked terrified.
"Zack," she breathed, almost as if not believing he was real, "it's me, Max."
He looked at her, still puzzled; why was she calling him Zack? What was she scared of? Him? The man beside her was looking at Adam sympathetically but warily.
The girl's companion looked familiar too. The stranger pointed to himself and said, "X5 330417291599, I'm X5 331845739494."
The stranger then pointed to Max and said "She's X5 332960073452."
Zack's eyes flickered in recognition.
"That's the number on my neck tattoo."
Zack bit his lip.
"I'm one of those escaped transgenics who've been on the news, aren't I?"
"Yeah," Max answered carefully, "you used to be in my unit."
"I dream about you sometimes," Zack shared hesitantly, "They're never good dreams."
Max, Zack and Alec walked back to Zack's quarters and talked all night. Explaining what had happened and why it had been thought best to send him to the ranch in Idaho.
Zack thought it was the most stupid idea he had ever heard in his life.
"So you're my sister and I died for you and you left me here to farm?"
"Yeah," Alec got in, "About sums it up. I don't go out with her for her brains."
Max glared at Alec. Him suggesting they were a couple to stop Zack wanting to kill Logan had not been her favourite plan of action, but she was so desperate, she was willing to try anything by the time she had reached the ranch.
"I was trying to keep you safe Zack. I didn't want you arrested for Logan's murder," Max explained, trying to justify her actions, "And now I'm going to take you to be with other transgenics in Vancouver."
"Not with you in Seattle," Zack chuckled, bitterly amused, "because this Logan guy is there, right?"
Max nodded ashamedly.
"I keep wondering what apart from your looks, was worth me shooting myself in the head for," Zack mused.
"She was trying to protect you," Alec defended Max reluctantly, "and it worked didn't it?"
Alec looked at Max and smiled affectionately.
"I almost died for her a couple of times. She's worth it once you get to know her."
"It's one in the morning," Zack said tiredly, emotionally exhausted, "Let's get some sleep. You guys take those bunk beds over there?"
The next morning Max awoke at dawn, aware of Zack sitting by her bed and staring at her intently.
"I remember it all now Max," Zack told her, "Don't worry I'm not going to kill Logan."
Max could see he was crying in the morning light.
"The only traitor around here is you," Zack wiped away a tear with an angry hand, "but you're still my sister so I'm not going to kill you either."
"Well that's just swell then," cut in Alec, who had been lying awake listening to them, "I knew this was gonna be a tear jerker X5 family reunion. Promising not to kill Max is real touching," he remarked, getting up and getting dressed.
"So you'll come with us to Vancouver?" Max pleaded with Zack, "I don't know where the others went. But if they turn up at Terminal City I can send them to you."
"Well at least I can make a freaking conscious choice this time," Zack stated flatly.
"Yeah I'll go. It I know Krit and Syl, Canada's probably where they headed anyway. Or did Cale get them papers too, as unpaid garbage sorters in Delaware maybe?"
"They didn't want his help," Max said sadly, "So I don't know where they are."
Part 4
"C'mon stop making a fuss," Alec scolded Max, "you know it's inevitable, just unclench your knees and hop on for the ride of your life sweetheart. You'll appreciate being with someone who knows moves you've never dreamt of, little girl."
Logan looked on from his position in the bushes, as Max gave Zack her bike and got on the back of Alec's.
"You're so full of it Alec," Max scoffed, rolling her eyes, "You okay Zack?"
"Good to go Maxie," Zack nodded. After a talk with Mary this morning, Zack had realised Max had done the best she could for him and while he'd never approve, he had forgiven her.
Alec was aware of Logan in the bushes and had hoped he'd noticed him pat Max's ass as they walked out of the farmhouse this morning. Max thought it was for Zack's benefit but Alec had done it for Logan to have something to chew on.
Alec chuckled to himself as he pulled out of the ranch drive enjoying the feel of Max leaning on him. This was turning out to be too much fun.
