Note: Thanks again for all of your reviews. This chapter is a bit angsty (with good reason – you'll see why) but I promise there will be more action later on. And if anyone ever feels like offering suggestions, I'm open to them.
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Large, cold drops of water pelted Max as she sat on the edge of the Space Needle. Normally this type of weather would have convinced her to go inside, out of the pouring rain. But she couldn't today; no, not when the last few days had been so full of heartache and grief.
Tears, an idea almost foreign to the transgenic, were flowing down her face, and she shook with each racking sob that hit her. She knew no one would see her like this, and that was why she came to this place. There was only one person that would ever find her up here, and – well, he definitely wouldn't be joining her.
Logan had been a solid source of comfort while she'd been struggling. Max had been forcefully removed from Alec's side because she was nearly in hysterics. And finally, Original Cindy and Logan had taken her home to rest. They didn't leave her side that night or the next morning. She knew this because she hadn't slept. Her emotions were far too raw to risk dreaming. She could only imagine the nightmares this would cause.
Eventually, she had taken the cure. She figured that Alec's sacrifice should at least be worth something. So she took the cure and experienced touching her boyfriend. She gave him a hug, and he gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek. Before anything else could happen, she felt sobs welling up in her chest and she'd left. He was understanding. He always had been.
A few hours later, Max told Logan that she couldn't be with him. Yes, she knew it was pathetic that Alec had given everything so they could be together and she didn't want to be with him. But that was how it was. She wanted, now more than ever, to have her partner-in-crime sit next to her and crack an inappropriate joke, or to see his gold-flecked eyes sparkle as he chattered nonstop about nothing, or to watch him down alcohol in a futile attempt to get himself drunk. And thoughts like these made her permit herself a grin as she reminisced.
Alec's lack of breathing had been handled as efficiently as a bunch of rogue soldiers could handle that type of situation, but in the end it hadn't been enough. And for that, Max would forever blame herself. It was her fault that Manticore burned down. It was her fault that Alec was unleashed on the world. It was her fault they were trying to get the cure. It was her fault he'd jumped off the edge of the roof. And it was her fault that there hadn't been enough medical supplies to help him when he needed it. In the end, it was up to Alec himself as to whether or not he wanted to survive the ordeal.
The beeping of her pager drew Max out of her reverie and she looked at the number, fully expecting it to be Logan, but it wasn't. She got down from her precarious perch and went in search of a phone, finally using a pay phone so she knew the call wouldn't be traced.
"Max?" came the voice on the other end as soon as it was picked up.
"Yeah?" she asked haltingly, knowing it was one of the transgenics in Terminal City.
"We just thought you'd like to know that he looks like he's waking up again."
Max smiled. "Thanks. I'll be right there." She set the phone down and turned to her bike, still smiling.
She counted it a gift from a God she'd never known that Alec was still alive. He had apparently decided that he wanted to live and transgenics were nothing if not stubborn once they made up their minds. They had done everything they could to start his breathing again, but nothing had worked. And just when someone was ready to give up the efforts to keep him alive, Alec took in a very ragged breath on his own. He coughed, and he struggled to continue breathing, but the point was that he lived all on his own. They had given him oxygen and continued to monitor him for the last few days, and he had woken up briefly twice in that time. Max was there both times.
Logan was an amazing man – a caring man, a brilliant man, and a kind man. But Alex was an amazingtransgenic, and while Max never used to think that mattered, she knew now that it did. At some point in their history, he had given up the selfish little boy routine and started acting like a man. No one could pinpoint when this happened. The important thing was that it did. And that, as much as anything else, was what endeared him to Max. He was, in reality, the very thing Logan had always feared him to be – competition. Alec won.
Max entered the quiet room with all the stealth she had so as not to wake him up if he hadn't already joined them again in the world of consciousness. She stood in the doorway for a few seconds, drinking in the sight of him as he lay helpless on the bed. His wounds were already healing from the extra genes that he'd been given, and he looked almost like he was simply sleeping.
"Take a picture," he suddenly mumbled, his voice raspy with disuse.
Max grinned again, walking across the room and sitting down next to him as his hazel eyes blearily opened. "A picture wouldn't talk back to me."
"Is that a bad thing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You always hate it when I open my mouth because you know something is going to come out."
"Yeah, but it also means I have a human punching bag, and I'd hate to have to replace it."
Alec rolled his eyes and smirked. "Good to know I mean something to you."
Silence filled the room, and the two transgenics were lost in their own thoughts. Finally, without letting herself ponder it, Max blurted, "IdumpedLoganforyou" in more of a jumbled mass of words than a sentence.
Her companion looked surprised, pausing to process what he'd just heard and be sure that it really happened, and opened his mouth to say something. However, before he could, the door to the room opened again and Dix was suddenly standing there. He was panting as though he'd been running.
"We've got a serious problem," he announced.
