Someone to watch over me

By Sinful Starlet

Disclaimer: guess what - Dark Angel still doesn't belong to me! I tried to convince them to give it up, but it's not working so far!

Rating: I'm gonna say R but only because all my other ones have been 'R' rated!

Summary: What do piano music, family reunions, gunshot wounds, torture, hospital scenes and big, relatively slushy happy endings have in common? Well they're all in this story for one! Now doesn't that sound like a synopsis?!

Author's note: Chapter 2 - woohoo! And I realise that any Logan fans or M/L shippers are probably not gonna like this, but I needed something fairly drastic here to force a reaction on Max's part. Plus like I said, this is kind of an extended story so characters are going to develop and evolve over the course of the story, so don't think this is going to be the vibe for the rest of the story! Basically all I'm trying to say is that M/L shippers or Logan fans should hear me out before they get too mad! Hope the rest of you like it too! Love *SS* J

Oh yeah - one other thing. I have no idea about the legal system - sentence lengths things like that so if I'm way out you know why!

PART #3

* * *

A couple of nights before...

* * *

"What are you talking about?", Max questioned, not liking where this was going. "I came by your apartment this morning", Logan said, with a smirk that Max didn't like, "I needed to talk you...and I saw him leaving". Max almost choked then, a million feelings assaulting her senses. "I mean if I've got it wrong just say so", Logan said, searching her face, still hoping it was a mistake, "tell me it's not true".

Max couldn't even look him in the face, trying to somehow decide what to do. She could have denied it - told Logan the truth and just left, but her whole body was screaming out a different answer. "I...", she started, still worried that it was the wrong decision, but becoming more and more certain, "...I can't". Logan's face fell. He had seen them together, the one thing that he had been afraid of ever since Alec came back into Max's life, but he still couldn't quite believe it.

"No", he said, shaking his head firmly, those two words doing more to sober him up than any cup of coffee ever could, "no I don't believe you. I know we haven't exactly had an easy ride Max, but we've always been there for each other". "And Alec?", he went on, more to convince himself than her, "You can't be with him! You spend the whole time arguing with him whenever you're together - and now suddenly you're dating?! It doesn't make any sense".

He stepped closer to her, still wary of the virus, but needing to get through to her. "I know you Max", he said, speaking more softly, even going so far as to touch her gloved fingertips, "this isn't you". Max was all but ready to give in then. He clearly wasn't buying it, but something inside her spurred her on, and she stepped away from him, sounding more firm. "You're wrong Logan", she said, "you knew me, but I've changed. I'm not the same person".

She sighed, but was becoming more and more sure of herself as she spoke, "Being back at Manticore?", she started, shaking her head as she tried to make sense of everything, "It reminded me how much I hated it, but that wasn't the only thing". "It made me realise more than ever that it is always going to be a part of me - however much I wished that it wasn't, and I'd be lying to myself and to you if I said that wasn't a problem between us".

"You always said you didn't care where I came from", she went on, not wanting to hurt him, but needing to say this, "but I do. You make me feel like I have to deny Manticore was ever a part of my life and I can't do that anymore. I can't feel ashamed anymore". She could tell he wanted to interrupt her then, but she didn't give him the chance, "But being with Alec? I don't feel like that. I don't feel like I ever have to hide when I'm with him - I can be myself without any pretences or judgements".

But Logan still wouldn't accept it, and he was getting more and more upset in the process. "No!", he said, more insistently, his voice becoming more emotional, "Something happened Max, I know that - you think the virus doesn't scare me too? That can't just be it though. There has to be some other reason!" Max couldn't help it though, seeing Logan that upset was getting to her, tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes.

"What do you want me to say Logan?", she said, though her voice was getting a little ragged from the effort of keeping her tears in, "You won't accept the truth! You won't accept that he just makes me happy in a way that you couldn't...a way you couldn't even understand!" "Is it a sex thing?", Logan said, his voice dangerously quiet and serious then. "What?!", Max gasped, totally unprepared for that. "You heard me!", Logan snapped back, "Is it a sex thing? You can't be with me so you go after someone you can touch? Or is it the X5 thing? I mean you two were supposed to be breeding partners!"

He could tell that his words were stinging Max now, but he couldn't stop. "Is that it?", he said, almost yelling now, "Did Manticore have the edge on training lovers? I mean they taught you to hunt and maim better than any soldier alive - they also teach you to fu--". His sentence fell short as he reeled back from the shock of Max's hand contacting his face. She still had her gloves on, so there was no risk of the virus being passed on, but it stung like hell, and Logan realised in shock that she'd been holding back even then. "You EVER", Max yelled, "say ANYTHING like that to me again, and next time I won't hold back", she paused then, turning round and walking for the door, calling back over her shoulder, "and I won't be wearing gloves!"

Logan practically felt the room shake as she slammed the door, and for a few seconds he couldn't even move. What the hell had just happened? Max had hit him. It was only then that he truly realised what he said to her. God, what had he done? He forced himself to his feet then, running after her. He took the stairs, knowing she was in the elevator with her motorcycle, but he was too late. He reached the lobby and ran out onto the street just in time to see her pulling away and riding off. He yelled at her to come back, crying out for her desperately but she didn't even look back. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing that he had made her cry.

PART #4

She felt a tear coming to her eye as she thought about that night again, but she turned away before she let Alec see it. She had only told OC about what had really happened - there was no way she could say all of that to Alec. She didn't even want to think about it. Logan had called her about fifty times since then - she knew he wanted to apologise, but she was still too hurt to think about it. So now she turned her attention fully back to Alec, praying for him to go along with her plan for the time being.

"That doesn't matter", Max replied in answer to Alec's question about how she explained their constant arguing, "all you need to know for now is that he thinks we're together". Please Alec", she said, "just go along with it for a while - we can do some whole break-up scene then if you like, but just for the moment..." He sighed, but he knew there was something more serious going on than she was saying. She looked so hurt then, just for a second, looking completely lost and pleading with him to help her - there was no way he could refuse her.

She interpreted the sigh the wrong way though. "Oh come on!", she said, sounding a little more desperate, "you can pretend I'm some stripper giving you a lap dance but no - 'girlfriend's too difficult for you to imagine!" Alec just managed to suppress a laugh at that, remembering their little scene in the club all too well. "Alright", he said, turning back to the piano and away from her, "I'll go along with it - but just for now - you've got to tell him the truth eventually".

Max nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank you", she said sincerely. "So are we just pretending in front of Logan or what?", Alec said, "'Cause if we're not he could catch us out if he talked to Josh or OC or something". Max weighed this up in her mind, realising he was right. "Okay", she said, "well why don't we try it out on Joshua - if he doesn't buy it, there's no way it'll convince Logan for long". Alec nodded, feeling a little apprehensive as he followed her back up to the main part of the house. What had he gotten himself into this time?!

* * *

Joshua had gone back to his painting while Max and Alec had been down in the basement talking. He was just putting the finishing touches to his latest portrait of Annie, using sweeping brush strokes to fill in the soft curls of her hair. He smiled in approval as his brush swept across the page, filling in the slightest detail of her face. He felt truly lucky to have her in his life, but he wished things could be a little simpler - and he was really starting to worry about Max.

He turned then, when he heard the footsteps on the stairs and Alec's voice calling out to him. He called back that he was in the living room, which was doubling as his 'studio' for the time being and looked up as Max and Alec walked in together. He didn't realise what was different at first, but then he saw Max slip her hand into Alec's. "We've got something we want to tell you", she said, managing to smile up at him, despite how confused and messed up she was feeling on the inside. Joshua looked at them expectantly and Alec realised that Max was waiting for him to speak.

He had waited for her to start things off, taking his cue from her, though he was still a little surprised when he felt her taking his hand in hers. "Uh yeah", he started, offering her a comforting smile, before he turned back to face Joshua, "Josh - Max and I are together now", he said, indicating their joined hands as proof. Joshua didn't say anything at first, looking more sceptically at Max than anything else.

"It's true", Max said, sounding more and more confident, "I guess neither of us realised at first, but then it just happened a couple days ago". Joshua still didn't look convinced, and then he asked the question Max had been dreading. "What about Logan?" Thankfully, Alec swept in, and answered the question for her, squeezing her hand gently, which Joshua didn't see. "He and Max had a little falling out", Alec said quickly, trying not to add too much painful detail for Max, "they'll work it out eventually, but it'll just take him a little time to get used to the idea of me and Max together".

"And you're happy?", Joshua asked Max, searching her face as she replied. "Yes", she said, sounding surprisingly convincing to Alec, and managing another smile, "I really am!" Alec looked down at Max then, and caught her gaze as she looked back up at him. There was a moment between them, but they were both caught off guard as Joshua bounded over to both of them, encircling them in a huge hug. "Easy buddy!", Alec laughed as Joshua lifted both him and Max off their feet, "Oxygen becoming an issue!"

Joshua put them down then, smiling apologetically, before suddenly seeming to remember something and dashing out of the room, asking them to wait there. "Well I guess you can call that a successful test!", Alec said, coughing a little as he took some air back into his lungs, but Max didn't get a chance to reply as Joshua ran back into the room, triumphantly holding a Polaroid camera.

Max looked a little confused, but then realised what he was doing as Joshua asked the two of them to pose, "Want to paint my little fella a picture of her with her medium fella!", Joshua offered kindly, and Max couldn't help but smile. She was a little confused about the camera though. "I got it for him", Alec explained, smiling, "it's not always safe for him to go wandering around outside so now I go out and take photos of stuff for him to paint". Joshua nodded, producing a stack of polaroids as proof.

Max smiled despite herself then, thinking that was really considerate of Alec, before she shook off the thought, needing to keep things uncomplicated for the time being. "Go on!", Joshua said, gesturing for the two of them to stand together so he could take the picture. Max didn't move, not exactly sure what to do, so Alec took the cue, moving to stand behind Max, wrapping his arms round her waist and making her turn to look up at him. She found herself practically drowning in his eyes as he looked down at her, and she didn't even notice when the camera flashed a couple of times.

"Got it!", Joshua said happily, waving the photos around while they developed, and it was only his voice that broke Max and Alec out of the reverie that they had fallen into. "Right", Max said, starting to pull back, but not quickly enough to dodge the quick kiss that Alec pressed to her lips. She pulled back then, a little startled at the intimate contact before she realised what he was doing. She saw Joshua watching the two of them with an adoring grin on his face, and smiled back at him, making a mental note to talk to Alec about that kiss later.

PART #5

Max left fairly soon after that, hugging Alec before she left, but not kissing him. She was still trying to process the first kiss and until she figured out how she felt about that, she was trying to keep actual contact with Alec down to a minimum. 'This was just her cover story right?', she thought, swearing under her breath, why did everything with Alec have to be so confusing? She reached Jam Pony relatively quickly, avoiding Normal and his jibes while she went to look for Original Cindy to make some sense of her day.

Back at the house, Alec and Joshua talked for a little while about Max and Alec's new 'relationship'. Joshua had a lot of questions about how they got together, and Alec avoided as many of those as he could, but he could see that Joshua was pleased that the two of them were together. "Things for Alec not so dark anymore", he said, quite astutely, reminding Alec of the painting of him that he had done a while ago. "I guess so", Alec said, smiling to himself.

"Max and Alec good for each other", Joshua decided, patting Alec on the shoulder, "but Alec better take good care of my little fella or--" "Don't worry pal!", Alec joked, a little worried what would happen when Joshua found out that they had been lying to him, "I'll look after her". Joshua seemed to accept that and after a little while, Alec left to go back to the basement and finish practicing the music for his audition. Alec relaxed a little as he began to play again, finding the music soothing as it gave him something other than his increasingly confusing relationship with Max to focus on. And he knew she was gonna kick his ass for kissing her.

* * *

It was about an hour later that Logan showed up at the house. He sat outside for about ten minutes before he went in, getting up the 'courage' to do so. That probably wasn't the right word, but he didn't know if he could face Alec's face again today. Just seeing him and knowing that he was with Max was driving him crazy. He still wasn't entirely sure whether it was true, but the memory of Max hitting him was still ringing in his mind. He did eventually get out of the car though, and made his way inside.

He found Joshua immediately, who smiled at him in an attempt to comfort him he guessed. 'So he must know about Max and Alec too', Logan reasoned, accepting the gesture a little awkwardly. He was about to ask where Alec was when he caught a snatch of the piano melody. Joshua just nodded his head in the direction of the basement. "He's down there", he explained and Logan nodded, walking towards the door and taking the stairs down.

The sound of the piano got stronger as he descended, and as much as it galled him to say anything nice about Alec right now - he had to admit that the other man had skills. The melodies soared as the accompaniment rolled along liltingly. It was very impressive. Alec stopped as soon as he heard him though, turning to face him a little awkwardly. Logan figured Max must have said something to him as he smiled weakly at him. "Hey man", he started, standing up from the piano stool and walking over to him, "you checking up on me?", he asked, attempting a joke which fell flat, regardless of his intentions.

"Sounds like you've got a handle on it", Logan said, and Alec understood that was about the closest he was going to get to a compliment right now, and accepted it for what it was, "so no - I just came to check about the plans for tonight". "Right", Alec nodded, crossing his arms across his chest as he listened. "Basically, your audition's at 1:30", Logan explained, "you've got the address right?", Alec nodded. "Okay", Logan said, "well the deal is that Thomas Anderson is supposed to be there tonight - I've been researching his actions for the last few months, looks like this might be the time to catch him out".

Alec frowned, "That local government type?", he asked sceptically - this guy didn't exactly strike him as the major crime-lord type. "Yeah", Logan confirmed, "turns out Mr Anderson's intentions are a little further a field than local office - man's got his eyes on State government, but he's not all he seems". "Word is, he's got involved in some low-level drugs dealings. Nothing major, but enough to make him the kind of guy you don't want running anything bigger than a tennis club!" "Right!", Alec nodded, stopping again to let Logan finish explaining.

"He's supposed to be meeting a contact at the club tonight who's going to set him up with a deal for enough cocaine to keep him in business for the rest of the year. You find out when the deal's going down - eyes-only can make it real public and then it's good bye Thomas Anderson - at least for 5-7!" "Sounds simple enough", Alec reasoned, "shouldn't be a problem". "Good", Logan said, perhaps a little too quickly. Alec sighed under his breath, but he couldn't blame Logan for being pissed off with him - he knew how much he cared about Max.

Logan didn't hang around for long once Alec was clear on the plan (but he went over it like four times first), and the younger man didn't say anything to make him stay. He knew how Logan was feeling so he just agreed to let him know how the audition went and what the rest of the plan was. For a second he was tempted to tell Logan the truth about him and Max. He knew Max would kill him, but he did think it was a little unfair on Logan, leading him on like this. In the end something stopped him though, he wasn't entirely sure what, but he tried very hard to convince himself that it had nothing to do with the kiss.

AN. Can't believe I haven't got to the main story yet! Trust me I am getting there but I didn't want to rush this one! *SS* Reviews/suggestions/criticism always welcome!