Missed Cues

Summary: Tragedy strikes Terminal City, leaving Alec and Max with no one to fall back on but each other.

Alrighty… let's see if we can't get a bit of plot going…

Chapter Three


As they neared TC and came in through the underground, Alec kept waiting for Max to come out of her stupor. It hadn't happened yet, but he knew it wouldn't take long for the first shock to wear off and, knowing Max, she would go straight from horror and shock to anger. It was how she worked. If anything wasn't working exactly how she liked, she went from zero to raging harpy in 1.2 seconds.

Not that he didn't think she had a valid reason at the moment. This was Logan after all. She loved him, had loved him, in her own screwed up sort of way, which to be fair was about all any of them were capable of. Manticore alum and healthy relationships didn't exactly go together.

How did a person learn to love if they'd never seen it in action or really felt it? Rachel had been throwing herself at him and he'd been such a Manticore robot, he'd barely even realized what was happening. His hormones had been working fine, but he just hadn't had any frame of reference to understand how to care about someone. He'd never seen it happen before. Rachel being kind simply because she was kind had been beyond him, and she'd had to teach him. With all of his training, it had taken a teenage girl to show him what his heart was for. Even more damning, she'd introduced him to his conscience.

Alec supposed that Max had been a little luckier in that department. She'd had her "family". They'd still been royally screwed up, but somehow, the '09ers had banded together, cared about each other, then Max had found others on the outside who'd taught her more, good and bad. After their escape, Manticore had made certain that the mistake would not be repeated. Alec and the others left behind were lucky they weren't all complete sociopaths.

Rachel hadn't been able to accept what Alec was, or at least she'd panicked at just the wrong time, his fault he knew, but once again Max had been luckier. She'd found Logan, someone who hadn't freaked even though he knew what Max was. He hadn't freaked, no matter who showed up at his door, including a smart-mouthed troublemaker or a skyscraper-tall dog-boy who acted more like a frisky puppy than anything else.

Logan had loved her. He'd stayed, persevered even though Max had infected him and nearly killed him. When Max had been the one to freak, Logan had still remained steady, supported her, worried about her, loved her.

In that respect, Alec kind of understood. After all, he'd stayed in Seattle even though Max never did anything but tell him he was a selfish ass and a screw-up. Yet, she kept coming back to him for help and Alec kept helping. Maybe it was like he'd told Logan. It was just because she was hot.

But Logan was gone now and Max was... Alec couldn't describe his feelings as he'd watched her expression crumble. It was so much worse than when she'd told him about Ben. He hadn't expected it, but the sudden desire to protect and comfort her had been overwhelming. Max just... Max was Max. She didn't fall apart. She just didn't.

Alec knew how it felt though. He thought of Rachel and how she had been abruptly ripped away from him, and even now it was almost like a physical blow. It made him want to find a case of scotch, maybe two cases, and a cave to crawl into.

Max stopped at the door to the three bedroom apartment they shared with Joshua. "Alec..."

He held up a hand to stop her. "You don't have to say anything, Max." As a matter of fact, Alec would prefer it. He was a big fan of the strong, silent type when it came to emotional turmoil.

She shook her head. "You were right."

"About what?"

"I killed him. You said we shouldn't be with them, that we're a danger to them." Max's expression was blank, but her eyes... inside he could see that she was screaming. "You were right."

"Max, you didn't-"

Max made a weak gesture, cutting him off. "I killed him, Alec. I can't just ignore that."

Alec winced. Yeah, he'd thought Max being with Logan was dangerous and stupid. Yeah, if Logan hadn't been helping them, this probably wouldn't have happened. And yeah, Logan had died ugly. That didn't mean the blame should fall squarely on Max's shoulders.

"He was a big boy, Max. He knew what he was doing. Eyes Only was a dangerous job long before you showed up."

Max dropped her eyes to the floor. "We did this. I did this. He never should have been caught up in Manticore business."

"Max, stop." Alec grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and forced her to look at him. He knew his grip was bruising, but he needed to be sure she was paying attention to him. "This is White's fault. You didn't do this."

"I might as well have pulled the trigger, Alec. I... Wait... what?" She looked genuinely confused.

"White, Max. I'd know his stink anywhere." He loosened his grip on her, but didn't drop his hands.

"Like... literally?"

"Yes," Alec said. He'd recognized White's scent the second he'd walked into the kitchen. The guy'd had help with him, but White had been there. Max hadn't really been coherent after they'd found the body. Alec wasn't surprised she hadn't noticed.

Fat tears again began to form in her eyes and she angrily wiped them away. "White," she said, like the word itself were a curse. "Why?" she asked incredulously. "Why would he do that?"

Alec blinked. They knew exactly why he'd done it. White was a murderous bastard who wanted them all dead and, to him, Logan was a collaborator. Alec shrugged. "He wants us dead, all of us, and Logan was easier to get to than we are."

The tears spilled over again and this time Max let them fall. Alec turned her and urged her into the apartment. Thankfully, no one else was home. She began to move toward the sofa, but Alec stopped her. "You should change."

"What for?"

They were both covered in blood. People hadn't been able to get away from them fast enough as they'd made their way back to Terminal City. One glance and they'd decided to take a different path after seeing two people caked in blood, one obviously in a state of shock and the other radiating anger and intimidation.

"You need to change your clothes before we go to Command," he insisted. He'd already called ahead to give them a heads up and knew they had a little time. Her shirt where she'd held Logan against her chest and her pants where she'd knelt were soaked through. Her face was smudged from wiping away tears with her bloodstained hands.

Max finally looked down at herself, then her eyes raked him from head to foot. Alec wasn't in much better shape.

He pushed her toward the bathroom and Max complied, so mechanical in her movements that she began to strip before he even had the door closed. A few seconds later he heard the shower start. He went to her room and gathered a fresh set of clothes for her and then set them inside the bathroom. From what he could see through the shower curtain, Max was simply standing beneath the water, not moving.

"You need to wash the blood off, Max," Alec stated the obvious. He saw her nod, and retreated outside the bathroom when he saw her pick up a bar of soap. Then he simply waited. He couldn't sit anywhere without transferring blood and if there was anything he didn't want right now, it was the lingering scent of Logan's blood in their apartment.

That thought pushed him forward and he entered the bathroom once again to gather up her soiled clothes. He found a plastic bag and shoved them inside. He would add his own as soon as he could and make sure they disappeared. It wasn't practical to throw away clothing that might be salvageable, especially when they had so little, but he couldn't risk that the scent might stay, or worse, that Max would have to be reminded whenever she saw what she'd been wearing.

The water stopped and he listened as Max dressed. She came out of the bathroom and looked around, uncertain of what she should do next.

"Sit," he ordered. "I'll just be a minute."

He waited to make sure she was headed for the sofa before he rounded up his own set of clothes and took the fastest, most thorough shower he'd ever had. He felt like he nearly had burns he'd scrubbed so ruthlessly. He came out of the bathroom to see Max sitting on the couch, staring out the window despite the fact that she couldn't see anything other than the dilapidated building next to theirs.

For a moment, Alec felt a huff of annoyance that Max was so out of it, but he quickly stifled the sentiment. He knew what he'd been like after Rachel and the bomb. He knew the hole it left in his gut. Max needed time to deal, so Alec sighed and made a mental note to forego the smart-aleck remarks for a while. No one wanted a comedy act when their world had been destroyed for the millionth time in their life. Max, especially, since she wasn't actually going to get a break to work through what had happened.

"Max?"

"I know," she said distantly. "We need to get to Command."

"I'm sorry," he replied, although he wasn't sure if he was apologizing for Logan's death or for the fact that the world hadn't come to a screeching halt so she could mourn properly, maybe both.

Max stood up and began walking toward the door, her stride more purposeful. Alec simply fell into step beside her and remained quiet as they headed back out of the building. Alec kept his arm around her shoulders, matching his gait to hers as they walked toward Command.

When they neared the door, she shrugged his arm off. He'd been waiting for it to happen, and accepted it with good grace. She might want to run and hide, but he understood she needed to reassert her Queen Bitch status now that they were back where she was The Leader of the Transgenic Nation.

Alec could only admire her strength. He'd been content to stay a zombie for weeks after Rachel's "death". It had been easier, cowardly even, but it had helped him survive psy-ops and form a new 494 that didn't care what happened to him or to anyone else Manticore sent him after.

Max walked into Command, shedding her sorrow as if it had never been there. Her face was like granite as she cast her eyes around the room and finally found Dix who was watching her worriedly. Alec had told Dix that Logan was gone when he'd called earlier, and everyone in the room was just waiting to see how Max was going to handle it before they said anything.

"Logan sent a file?" she asked, her tone clipped.

"Yes," the transhuman answered. "We're working on breaking the encryption now. It's not what he normally uses... used... It's not the same encryption as the normal files we get."

"You don't have it done yet?" she said through gritted teeth.

"We're working on it," Dix assured her. "It shouldn't be long."

Max nodded stiffly and crossed her arms. She tapped her foot impatiently for several seconds before finally giving in to the urge to pace. Alec doubted she really had a middle gear right now. She was either catatonic or she was in overdrive.

Unfortunately, her coping mechanism was making Dix and the others working at the computers very nervous. They were glancing at her anxiously instead of concentrating.

"Anything?" Max snapped, stopping briefly to stare over one of the hacker's shoulders. The poor kid jumped like he'd been shot, then shook his head and started typing again. He messed up whatever he was doing and had to backtrack with Max breathing down his neck all the while.

With a grunt of disgust, Max stood and began pacing again, her path directly behind the computer people, who visibly stiffened every time she drew near or stopped behind them to watch, or more accurately glare at the screens as if she could bend them to her will.

Alec sighed and stepped in front of Max on her circuit of the room. He grabbed her by the arm and quickly pulled her into a side room where there was a sofa and a TV and where she was out of the line of vision of the computer geeks.

"Quit scaring the tech people, Max," Alec admonished. "They're not used to dealing with freaked out field personnel. At least not in person."

"I need to know what Logan sent," she forced out, beginning to pace again, though the area was smaller and she didn't have much room. "He died for it."

"They'll figure it out. Now calm down or we'll take care of this without you," he warned.

She whipped around to face him. "You can't."

"Whatever this is, Logan said it was urgent. Nobody's sending us flowers and candy, so that means we're in danger and, as you said, he died for whatever this is." He couldn't help a smirk, even though it visibly annoyed her. "I like myself too much to let you scare the nerds into screwing up and getting us all killed because you can't keep it together." He knew it was cruel, but it was the truth. Logan was dead. He wanted to make sure Logan was the only casualty.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then nodded, working to calm herself. "You're right," she finally said.

"Wow. Where's a recorder when you need one," Alec quipped.

Max's mouth quirked up just barely on one side, but it quickly slipped and she sagged to the couch. "If only we'd gotten there sooner," she said, desolate.

Alec shifted from one foot to the other. What was he supposed to say to that? It was true. If they'd been there earlier, maybe they could have saved him. And maybe if someone had stopped Manticore back at the beginning, none of this would've happened at all. None of the transgenics would be alive in the first place to cause all this trouble. All the people killed on their "missions" would still be around. Rachel would be alive.

Alec sighed. Well, if this wasn't the most depressing day in a long time, he didn't know what was. He walked to the sofa and fell onto it beside Max, shoulder to shoulder. He had no idea how to help Max grieve. Logan had constantly and vocally reminded Alec of what he really was, a sociopath, and sociopaths just weren't great with this kind of thing.

Kill something, con someone, lie bold-faced… any of that he could manage in his sleep. But this… Max… They'd come to a sort of truce after she'd told him about Ben, but he'd just never quite had the knack of getting along with Max, especially when times were tough. Which meant pretty much all the time.

Alec bumped his shoulder against hers and said the only thing he could think of, useless though it might be. "Logan was a decent guy. I'm sorry, Max."

She didn't respond and Alec assumed she just didn't want to talk to him, but finally she nodded, her lips pursed. "I'm sorry, too." She turned her head toward him. "Thanks... for... you know."

"Sure."

They heard jogging steps coming toward them and they both looked up. Dix appeared in the doorway. "We've got it open. You're gonna want to see this."

Before they had a chance to respond, Dix was gone. Alec stood and held out a hand to help Max to do the same. She just looked at it for a second as if his hand had some sort of meaning, in and of itself. Awkwardly, Alec began to withdraw it, but she suddenly grasped it and pulled herself up. She let him go and headed toward the door, resolute, but moving like she was exhausted. He supposed she was. The adrenaline was definitely gone now and he knew they were both feeling it. They'd already been tired after a day of trying to repair an ancient sewer line. Had that only been a couple of hours ago?

Alec walked into the next room, side by side with Max. This time, no one was paying any attention to her, or the possibility that she might bite their heads off. They were staring at a bank of computer screens.

"What is it?" Max asked.

The screens were showing pictures of something that looked vaguely like a spring-loaded syringe, but not. If Alec had to guess he'd say it was an enlargement of something under an electron microscope and the thing was clearly biological. Several other screens were showing various diagrams, some of which were DNA sequences. Dix was sitting at a keyboard, scrolling through several type-written pages.

"It's a virus," Mole said, appearing at Alec's side.

"Max's virus?" he asked.

"Wouldn'ta called you in here for something that doesn't make a crap of a difference now that Logan's dead, now would we?" Mole growled.

Alec just looked up at the scaly, cigar-chewing transhuman. "You're the soul of comfort you know that?" He shook his head. "Subtle, too."

"The egghead's dead and I gave up on subtle when I turned into a six foot lizard," Mole shot back. "Deal with it."

"What. Is. It?" Max demanded through clenched teeth.

"It's a DNA specific virus," Dix said before anyone else could interrupt.

"Who's it for?" Alec asked.

"Not who," Dix answered. "What. This virus is designed for one thing and one thing only."

"Spit it out," Mole ordered.

"Feline DNA. The virus will kill any of us that have even a hint of cat in our gene sequence."


More soon...