Disclaimer: Well, I haven't made any acquisitions lately… so, I guess that means still not mine.
Friction
Chapter 2: Oops, what have I done?
Alec wandered about the little house, bored out of his mind. He'd rummaged through the fridge several times over, and found nothing suitable—hopefully Max would bring something by after work—shuffled through the piles of junk in the basement until he could map out the room by memory, and made several failed attempts to engage Joshua in conversation. And it had only been two hours since Max had left the pair alone.
T.V. was out of the question, since last week's events were still big news, and combined with the general anti-transgenic hype, no program on any channel was safe from regular updates and newsbreaks. Joshua's wounds were already painful enough without the extra salt.
At this point Alec was so desperate, he was actually considering reading one of "Father's" books. Or using them to build a fort. And it was sad just how interesting the latter prospect sounded right now.
Finally, he plopped onto the ratty little couch, dropped his head back, on leg swung over the armrest. Guess it was time for a little more one-sided dialogue. "So I'm wondering how to get my hands on this twenty-five large I'm supposed to pay Max"—he didn't know why he still bothered; it was like talking to a wall—"Usually, I'd just pull a job and get it over with"—maybe if he sat in front of a mirror, he could at least pretend this was an actual conversation—"But what with this whole keeping a low profile thing, I don't think Max would be very happy if I did that."
To his surprise, Alec felt a large hand gently pat his shoulder, and he glanced up to see an upside-down Joshua walking past the back of the couch. "Alec make Max happy."
Alec frowned, unsure of whether that was meant as instruction or observation. If there was a little more zest to the words, he might have guessed warning. Then he suddenly realized that he had just attained his oh-so-elusive goal—a response. Now this was what he was talking about. A little more 'di' in the dialogue, and a little less… whatever the hell that was supposed to come after that. All he knew was that he had discovered what he had once thought impossible was true—even he could get tired of the sound of his own voice eventually.
With far more excitement than should have been possible for the achievement, he leapt to his feet. "Sure thing buddy, whatever you say," he eagerly agreed, slapping Joshua's back. The move would have knocked a normal grown man to the ground, but Joshua took it as easily as Alec had delivered it.
"So," he continued, rubbing his hands together, "What are we going to do now?"
Joshua gave him a look then settled into one of the other vacant seats, pulling a book resting on a nearby table into his hands. "Joshua going to do nothing. Alec do whatever he wants." He raised the book in his hands. "Read book. Stay inside. Lie low and no one gets hurt."
Exasperated, Alec sat down next to him and looked at him pleadingly. "C'mon buddy, don't be like that. Just because of what happened, doesn't mean you have to stop living." His words had no effect and Joshua continued to stare at the tiny black words that covered the page. "Look, I'm sure that Annie—"
"Alec," Joshua interrupted, a warning to his words, his voice almost a growl. "No talk about that."
The finality in his tone was obvious, and Alec put up his hands in surrender. "Alright. If you don't want to, we won't." He shrugged. "Besides, talking things through is more of a Max thing anyway." No response.
Fine, screw this. With a shrug, he got up from his seat and made his way to the cluttered bookcase, and proceeded to gather into his arms as many as he could carry. Then he returned to the center of the room with his stash, securing an empty span of the floor. He could see Joshua, eyes directed at the open pages, trying to pretend he wasn't curious about what he was doing.
One couldn't blame Alec, really. He'd tried everything else to pass the time, and this was a last-resort solution. It was only out of concern for Joshua—and the fact that he'd told Max he would—that he stayed at all, when he could just as easily have made his way to the Crash or somewhere else equally more interesting than here. Besides, he'd never had a chance to do this as a kid.
So, whistling jovially, Alec set about making his fort. At first it was just a matter of building up the walls, which simply required gathering enough books for the job. But as he continued, he found himself confronted with the much more intricate task of trying to incorporate peepholes for lookout posts on each wall, and enough stability to the structure to withstand an outside attack. He subbed in larger, sturdier books for some of the smaller ones he'd initially used for the base.
As he worked, he began to speak knowing that Joshua would at least be listening even if he might not openly acknowledge his words. After all, he'd been reading the same two pages for the past twenty minutes now. "I know Max wouldn't even consider it, but you know, the smartest thing right now would be to try to get out of Seattle. After all, this is where they expect us all to be, with the Manticore base blowing up and all. I bet this whole hysteria's a lot less worse in the rest of the country." He paused as one particularly old book with a weak spine threatened to collapse an entire wall.
"Anyway," he continued, after managing to fortify the weak area with a more reliable unit, "It's White that we really have to worry about. As if it wasn't bad enough when we thought he'd just been hired by the government to kill us… now it turns out he's working for the Familiars, who are also trying to kill us. Or expose us, which is pretty much equivalent to killing us."
"Expose us?" Joshua questioned, no longer looking at his book or trying to keep up the pretense of reading.
"Oh, yeah, I guess you missed that part. Logan got his hands on the hoverdrone video of that sector police run-in from a couple of weeks ago, the one that started this whole thing." Alec faltered, seeing that his stack of books had run out. Standing, he walked to the bookcase, grabbing another armload and bringing it back to his burgeoning creation. "And White was there," he continued, both the conversation and construction. "Watched the whole thing, and looked pretty happy about the way it turned out."
"But White supposed to keep secret," Joshua protested.
"Yeah," Alec agreed. "That's what we all figured. But then, he's working for two sides, so I guess he's putting one's orders above the other's. So, long story short, it looks like he's trying to rile up the public, make them hate us so they'll do his job for him. And," he dropped his head a second, choosing his words carefully, "after last week, he's succeeded pretty well."
There was a moment of silence, then Joshua replied in a quiet voice, "But that not White. That was sector police."
Alec shook his head. "No, the sector police was chasing you, but White was there too. Max saw him. He must have known she was there or something, and gone in there after her."
"Annie," the horrified whisper drifted across the room to Alec's ears. He nodded.
"Yeah. We figure it was probably him. Only explanation that makes any sense. And he certainly fills the requirements with that 'superhuman strength' thing."
There was a long period of silence, then Alec finally sat back to enjoy his efforts. A little empty space remained still, but he had already used up all the books in sight… he turned suddenly and snatched the forgotten book out of Joshua's hands.
"Thanks buddy."
It fit perfectly, and Alec grinned triumphantly as he appraised his work. Not bad for a first try. He glanced over at Joshua, who was watching as well.
"Well," he said, standing and stretching, finding himself a little worn by his exertions. He sat down in the empty armchair, digging himself comfortably into his seat. "I think I'll catch a bit of shuteye, if you don't mind."
"No, don't mind," he heard the absent reply before he drifted off.
*********
He was rudely awoken to the feel of something hitting his foot. No, scratch that, someone kicking his foot, he realized as he opened his eyes to find Max staring down at him. "Where's Joshua?" she demanded.
"What, no kiss good morning, no cup of coffee? Just a kick and a 'where's Joshua'? If I were your dog, it'd be time to call the animal abuse folks by now."
She shrugged. "Well, if you tell me where to find Joshua, I can get him to give you that kiss good morning. Although it isn't exactly morning."
Alec glared at her silently. Then he mimicked her shrug. "He's around here somewhere," he replied with a yawn, causing Max to turn away with a roll of her eyes. Rubbing his face, he managed to take a peak at his watch. "Wow, I can't believe I slept so long." Max glanced at him over her shoulder. "I mean, so late—I can't believe I fell asleep so late. I guess all that fun and conversation with Joshua just passed those hours by."
Ignoring him, she gazed over at the center of the living room floor. "What's that?"
He followed the direction of her eyes. "Um," he answered sheepishly, "that's my fort."
She stared a moment, on eyebrow raised, but then surprised him when she finally gave an appreciative nod and a, "Not bad." Before he could respond, she walked away. "Joshua! Hey big fella, where are you?"
"Maybe he's in the basement," Alec suggested, dragging himself up from the couch.
He heard the door open and footsteps down the stairs. "Joshua?" A minute later, Max returned to the room. "He's not there." Her expression conveyed her deep worry. As if she hadn't been protective enough of the big guy before, the events of the last week had truly brought out the mother hen in her. For a moment, Alec was tempted to ask if she had any chicken DNA in her. Then he rethought it, figuring he'd rather not suffer through the aches and bruises. If ever she might see the humor in the remark—which was still rather unlikely—now was not the time.
He was about to comment, when something on the nearby table caught his eye. He picked up the folded piece of paper and found a somewhat crudely written 'MAX' on the cover. "For you," he informed her, holding out the little sheet. But the gesture was futile, because Max snatched it out of his hand before he could even finish saying the words.
"Little fella," she read aloud. "Don't worry about me. Don't try to follow me. Tired of lying low, tired of people getting hurt. Have to do this alone. Joshua." Max skimmed the note over again before looking toward Alec. "What is he talking about? What does this mean?"
Alec shrugged, equally confused by the cryptic message. "I have no—" He broke off, sudden realization hitting him.
"What?" she demanded. "What's up with the 'oops, what have I done' look?" Her fists were already clenched at her sides, just waiting for the smallest excuse to lay into him.
"Uh," he stammered, trying to find the words that would earn him the least amount of pain. "I might have, kind of, said something to him earlier… about Annie… and how it was White who killed her…"
Max stared back at him incredulously. "You did what?!" she finally exclaimed. Then she did hit him. Just a punch to the arm, but Max not being your average girl, it was quite the punch. Alec took the blow without complaint, only raising a hand to rub the spot instinctively. "What the hell were you thinking?!"
"Well, I wasn't thinking he would go after him," he defended feebly. Hey, he felt awful about it, really, but she couldn't blame him for Joshua's unpredictable reaction, could she?
"And what did you think he would do? Take it with a grin and a 'gee, that's nice'? Why would you even tell him that? How could it possibly make him feel any better?" Apparently, she could.
"It wasn't like that," he tried to explain, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "We were talking—well, I was talking—and it just sorta came up."
"How does something like that just come up?" she demanded, her usually full lips drawn into a rather thin line. Before he could reply—well, before he even had a chance to reply, because he didn't really have an answer anyway—she threw up her hands. "You know what, never mind. We can talk about this later." She gave him a seething glare before heading toward the front door. "Right now, we have to go after him. We have to find him before someone else does and he gets himself killed. Or worse."
Alec grabbed his coat, pulling it on as he followed her out into cool night. "You have to tack on that last little bit as a scare tactic, don't you? As if ending up dead isn't bad enough… 'or worse'."
The next sound that followed was that of Alec "tripping" down the front porch and landing on the very hard sidewalk.