I'm so depressed I can't even stand thinking about it. No Alec? How am I supposed to go on? No, don't thing about it, don't think about it…

Anyway, go do stuff people. We have to at least try to save it. This is where I've been going for info: http://adinfinit.net/danation or http://www.darkangelfan.com.

In the good news department, I aced that O Chem final and my Genetics final. *big cheesy grin* Now that they're over, hopefully I'll be getting these up faster. Thank you so much to all of you who told me how to do the html, I finally figured it out! Thank you, thank you, thank you, I'm so much happier now that it looks right. I'm sorry though, if it the content isn't up to par, this chapter feels kind of rushed and I'm afraid I didn't do it justice, but I feel bad about going so long without updating.

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Chapter 3 - Revenge

It wasn't until he ran into the foot of the bed that Alec finally let himself do what he'd been dying to do all day. He fell forward, bouncing gently on the soft mattress, and pulled a feather pillow over his head. Not for the first time in the past year, he cursed the day Manticore had re-captured Max and brought her kicking and screaming into his world. She was solely to blame for every bad thing that had happened to him - starting with the burning of the only home he'd ever known and ending with today's humiliation.

Impotent.

Christ.

He adjusted his weight to make the position more comfortable and relaxed as he shifted the pillow to underneath his head.

There was one thing he could say with absolute certainty. Whatever Manticore had done to his DNA, they had failed to remove the primitive male reaction that demanded he grab the nearest female and prove his manhood. He was mostly amused at the reaction in himself - such an exquisitely trained soldier still being prey to such an irrational emotion. It was also a suicidal emotion, being that the nearest female happened to be a dark haired, dark eyed ball of fire that would just as easily shoot him as look at him.

He could hear her moving around in the bathroom, doing whatever it is that girls always do in bathrooms. One of life's eternal mysteries. He wiggled his way up on the bed a little more and wrapped his arm around the other pillow, feeling previously tense muscles start to relax.

Jesus, what a miserable day. And they had more to look forward to tomorrow. Bright and early at seven am was when the tests began. Logan was currently forging medical charts for the four of them, a surprisingly easy task when one had a laptop and modem.

At least they had all made it through the two grueling interviews relatively in-tact. Asha and Logan had emerged from Miller's office with the story that Asha was sterile due to a bad case of measles when she was seven. He snorted into the pillow. He could just picture them, both striving to be the noble martyr in the marriage. No, no dear, it's all my fault we can't have beautiful, self-sacrificing children to follow in our footsteps. He did have to admit though, that he liked their story much better than he liked his and Max's.

Impotent.

Christ.

Then Alec grinned, his eyes still closed. Thinking about that awful moment in Millers office also brought up the beautiful moment in Hansen's. She may have struck first, but he'd gotten his revenge, all right…

"Ben told me about your medical problem." Hansen said quietly. "I'd like to dive right in by talking about how it has affected the two of you and your marriage."

Max and Alec were sitting on opposite ends of a brown leather couch; the doctor was in his desk chair, pulled around so that he was seated between them at a 45 degree angle to both. A yellow legal pad balanced on his knee.

Alec groaned silently and slouched down further into the couch.

"Now Alec, there's no need to look so pained," Hansen said soothingly, "I know this may be a distressing topic, but I really believe that it needs to be addressed. Tell me how you're feeling right now."

I'm feeling like strangling the smirking girl next to me, he thought grimly.

Suddenly he sat up a little straighter, a delicious thought forming in his devious mind.

"How I'm feeling?" He repeated slowly, glancing at Max. "I feel… afraid."

Hansen smiled encouragingly, "That's good. Keep going - what are you afraid of?"

Alec fought to keep the grin from his face. "I'm afraid that…" He took a dramatic breath, "That Max doesn't love me anymore."

The smirk vanished from her face. In fact, he thought with delight, she looked decidedly ill.

"Why wouldn't Max love you?"

He lowered his eyes and added in a Lip Tremble for good measure, "Because. I'm only half a man."

"Oh, for the love of God!" Max yelled.

Alec raised his eyes to her forlornly, noting the furious clench of her jaw and the burning in her eyes. And yet she was utterly incapable of doing anything about it. Oh, this was going to be fun. So much fun.

"I take you think his fears are unfounded, Max?"

"The word I would use is ridiculous." She said bitingly.

"Now let's not start judging anything just yet," Hansen placed a hand on her knee, "Whether or not you agree with him, your husband is having these emotions and they need to be discussed. What are you feeling right now?"

She looked so obviously torn that Alec had to swallow a snicker. "I'm… it's just… I mean… he's…" She trailed off, frustration vibrating off her.

"You see," Alec took a shuddering breath and pressed a hand to his mouth, "She can't even deny it!"

"All right, let's get this answered once and for all." Hansen was taking this all very seriously, "Max, do you still love your husband, despite his medical difficulties?"

He'd heard of the common phrase, "If looks could kill" before, but for the very first time he was understanding just how literal that saying could be taken.

"Of course… I… still… L-L-L" She licked her lips nervously and then rushed through the rest, "Lovehim."

Hansen turned to him, "Alec?"

Alec turned his head away and attempted Dignified Sorrow, complete with his fingertips pressed to his heart, "Then why don't you ever touch me anymore?"

The sound Max made was somewhere between a strangled shriek and a gasp. The look on her face was priceless. Absolutely, utterly beyond monetary value - something Alec never would have thought possible before now.

"What does that mean to you, Max?"

Her fists were clenched at her side, her knuckles turning white with the pain of restraint. "Oh, if he wants me too, I'll touch him all right."

Hansen frowned, "What's really going on here, you two? I'm sensing some very hostile undertones. Why are you so angry, Max?"

Alec smiled sweetly at her, "Yes Maxie-poo, why are you so angry? I'm only being honest with my feelings. The feelings I'm having about my unfortunate condition."

"And we're back at the impotency." Hansen said thoughtfully, "This appears to be a real source of strain between you both."

He was silent for a moment while husband and wife glared poisonous darts at each other. "Max," Hansen said suddenly, "Kiss your husband."

"What!?" They both turned to him, aghast.

"No, that's really not necessary." Alec backpedaled as fast as was possible, "Honest. In fact, I can suddenly feel my self-confidence flooding back. I'm a new man. Doctor, you're amazing."

"It's just a kiss, for Christ's sakes." Hansen replied irritably, "And I want to use it to make a point. Go on, Max."

She looked like he'd just asked her to saw off her own hand and then eat it. "Look-" She began faintly.

"Just kiss him, Max." Hansen put a hand on her knee, "And a real one, not a quick peck. You need to reassure him and yourself that you still have a connection."

"I know we have a connection." Alec babbled, "We're so connected that we finish each others sentences and taste each others food. I definitely don't need to be reassured of a connection. Just sitting here is really enough to cure me of any doubts I may have been having-"

Warm hands closed on either side of his face and he was jerked forward. In the next heartbeat soft lips were under his, pressing almost angrily. His hands instinctively came up and wrapped around her wrists.

Two heartbeats.

Their mouths clung for an endless moment. And his world narrowed.

He could feel her pulse fluttering against his fingertips. The light expulsion of breath against his face. The growing roar in his ears. His own heart speeding up. And most of all those lush, wonderful lips against his.

Three heartbeats.

He wanted to open his mouth. He wanted to open her mouth. He wanted a real taste of her. He wanted to know what she felt like laying on him. He wanted to wrap his hands in her hair and hold her mouth to his and never, ever, ever let her go again-

He jerked away in terror.

The world widened.

Dr. Hansen's jaw had dropped.

Max and Alec stared at each other - their stunned expressions quickly dissolving into their usual masks of annoyance and amusement, respectively.

"Well," Hansen sat back in his chair, a smirk spreading across his face, "I think we can safely say that my little experiment proved successful."

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He was a bed hog.

She was so not surprised.

Max stood in the bathroom door, staring into the room in disgust. Alec lay sprawled across the Queen sized bed, and sometime in the past twenty minutes he'd changed into drawstring sweat pants and a loose T-shirt. She flicked off the bathroom light and walked to the bed. His pillow was bunched under his tousled hair and an arm was curled around her pillow.

"Alec." She hissed, nudging the mattress with her knee. "Alec, we're not sharing this bed."

He mumbled something indecipherable and then sighed, burying his face in the comforter.

"Alec! Dammit." She looked over at one of the recliners and sighed. She really didn't want to curl awkwardly into one of those; wake up with a crick in her neck and a bad mood. As a general rule transgenics didn't need more than two or three hours of sleep a night. But it had been a long, very long, day and she wanted a good nights rest.

Max glared down at the sleeping form in front of her. Well, she was certainly not going to let him of all people drive her out of a bed she had a right too. Sleep on the couch indeed, just who did he think he was? He'd probably planned it this way, he was probably faking sleep right now, expecting her to crawl, defeated, into a corner so he could have the whole damn thing to himself.

She was not quiet while climbing into bed. She bounced the mattress as much as possible, forcibly removed his arm from her pillow, and accidentally kicked the leg that had strayed to her side.

And because his face was turned away from her, she missed the smile that curled his lips.

It was only when she was finally settled, eyes closed and ready for sleep, that The Incident popped to the forefront of her brain.

Max gritted her teeth. She had successfully managed to not think about that afternoon in Hansen's office, all day. It was just a weird fluke, she told herself, shifting uncomfortably in the bed. It had been a while since she'd touched anyone even remotely intimately, her body was just reacting the way it was designed to react. Her hormones didn't care that it was Alec she was kissing, they just knew that it was male. And really, could it even be called a kiss? One brief meeting of lips that, in all comparison, was pretty chaste.

If a chaste kiss can make your insides to what they did honey, imagine what a real kiss could do.

Max rolled onto her stomach violently.

She would do no such thing, dammit.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Instantly her near-perfect memory conjured up the feel of his mouth. Those lips that were softer than any male lips had a right to be.

Max buried her face in her pillow, it was going to be a long night.

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TBC