Loose the Hounds
Summary: A deadly riot is the catalyst for all kinds of change in Terminal City. MA.
Chapter Three
Max woke slowly. She was in her own bed, alone this time. She could hear the TV in the next room, though the volume was turned almost all the way down.
She tried her muscles, tentatively stretching. It was better than the last time she'd been awake. Not even close to good, but better. Her body felt like one giant bruise, but her eye didn't feel like it was going to explode and her collarbone was knitting together. Her ribs were still a bitch, though.
Max slid to the edge of the bed and tried to stand. Doable, but… ouch. She wandered into the bathroom and stood under the shower until she was gasping and her legs would no longer hold her up, which was barely long enough to rinse off the worst of the grime. After that she sat on her bed for a while and took her time pulling on a clean pair of sweats. She just didn't think she could handle anything rougher against her skin at the moment. She thought about brushing her hair the way Alec had to hide what they'd done, but decided to leave it. No way was she going to let them or herself smooth over what had happened.
Max shuffled into the living room, but didn't see anyone. She knew she wasn't alone, however. The apartment didn't feel empty. She rounded the sofa to see Alec stretched out, sound asleep.
Max's eyes traveled to the television and her jaw dropped open. There she was, plain as day. Alec was gathering her up in his arms, murmuring to her when she cried out. The look on his face…
"Hey." Alec's voice was sleep roughened and he rubbed at his eyes as he sat up. "How you feeling?"
"Crappy… but better."
"Good." He stood up from the sofa, running a hand through his hair, using his other hand to motion for her to take the spot he'd vacated. "You feel up to talking?" he asked, his tone casual.
"I guess," Max said, her tone matching his.
He turned, looking her up and down as if to see if he really thought she could handle it. Whatever he saw seemed to reassure him. He nodded his head and asked, "So what happened yesterday?"
"Our talk with the mayor was going along fine." She half-sat, half-fell onto the couch and had to stop for a moment to control her breathing. Her body didn't appreciate her moving around so much. "He'd agreed to allow in some supplies, was going to allow talks for a more permanent solution to this whole crap-fest and then they noticed city hall was surrounded." Max knew her tone was bitter, but she didn't bother to hide it. "They called security and ordered us outside at gunpoint."
"Nice." He ran his hand through his hair again, this time in frustration. "I saw the rest on the news."
Max swallowed past her suddenly closed throat, grateful he hadn't asked about what happened after that. "Yeah," she managed to whisper.
"Bingo still owed me ten bucks," Alec said, but his smile was distant. Escape and evade, Manticore's training for emotional survival.
"How's the interview playing?" The band across the bottom of the screen said Mob Halts Humanitarian Mission. Humanitarian. Somebody had a sense of humor.
"Putty in my hands." He rubbed them together conspiratorially as he turned toward the TV. "They've been digging up archival footage of the four of them on bodyguard duty as well as playing video they managed to catch of the X7s playing out in the yard. They'd have moved too fast playing tag, so I went with hopscotch."
"Hopscotch?" Max asked incredulously.
Alec smirked. "I told them it was agility training and made sure they did it where one of the news crews would see it. What?" he asked when Max kept staring at him like he'd grown an extra head. "You wanted them practicing their hand to hand or… marksmanship or something?"
"You deliberately used the kids to make us look… cute… on TV?"
"Cute and innocent." Alec's face was still a mask of amusement, but she could tell he was anything but. "I'll do whatever I have to do to get them to quit taking potshots at us and let us out of this dump. Do you know how long it's been since I had a decent drink?"
"Because your scotch needs are our most pressing business."
"Actually," Alec sighed, bringing a hand up to the bridge of his nose, "I hate being locked up in here. The rest of us had ten more years of it than you and we don't appreciate the repeat. We're completely circled above ground and they're shutting off our access to the sewers, tunnel by tunnel. Another week and we'll be completely blockaded. That and I'm tired of being so serious. You, the runes, White, having to hole up here, fighting about whether you should go to the mayor…"
"Logan." Max's breath left in a whoosh.
"I didn't hit him yesterday," Alec said more cheerfully, as if she would be proud of his restraint. "Although I did give him the biggest I-told-you-so ever."
"It wasn't his fault."
"Don't defend him, Max," he bit out, suddenly angry. Alec knelt in front of her. "And he's not the only one I owe an I-told-you-so. You listened to him and not me." He set his hands on the sofa on either side of her, his furious gaze locked with hers. "Eyes Only has no training and he has no problem putting you in danger again and again. I just want to keep you safe."
"Alec-"
"No, Max. I get to be mad at you this time," he said, his eyes flashing, impossibly green now that she could see them so closely. "Four good men died yesterday because you didn't listen. They believed in you. They protected you to death. Your altruistic, we-can-win-because-we're-right attitude got them killed. You continue to believe it even though life has done nothing but beat us down again and again."
"I have to believe it," Max answered simply. "There's no reason to go on otherw-"
Alec leaned forward and kissed her. There was nothing tentative about it. Max was so surprised, she didn't even think about pushing him away. He brought one hand up to the side of her face, his thumb brushing across her cheek, his other hand settling on her hip. He pulled back only slightly, leaving her lips still tingling from his kiss, his breath gliding across her suddenly overheated skin. "I thought I lost you," he whispered.
"You didn't."
"I thought you were gone and I… I didn't handle it well."
Alec kissed her again, fiercely, letting her know just how afraid he'd been. Max's lips trailed after his as he pulled away. "I'm glad you're all right." He stood and began walking toward the door. "Logan keeps calling," he said, opening it. "I may or may not have insulted his mother the last time. You should call him. Tell him you're ok."
"Ok," Max answered hoarsely.
"Get some rest. I'll be in Command if you need anything."
Max sat there stunned after Alec closed the door. She involuntarily raised her hand to her lips that felt like they'd been branded. She felt marked.
Alec.
Alec had kissed her.
No uncomfortable will-he-won't-he, no wondering about how he felt, no "we're not like that," no months of uncertain tiptoeing around each other, over-analyzing everything, trying to decide if it would mess up a semi-decent business relationship/friendship.
Yesterday, Alec had been her friend, her partner in crime, and Logan had been her ever-present, but virus-endangered, off-again boyfriend.
Today, Alec had apparently decided that wasn't going to work any more and informed her in the most personal and obvious way possible.
She should have expected as much from him. He was fearless. If he wanted something, he went and got it. If he wanted to do something, he did it. And if Alec thought it, he said it, whether it was socially acceptable or not and whether the listener wanted to hear it or not.
"It is my job. You wanna bust my chops about it, go ahead."
"You made this mess, not me."
"He doesn't act like any brother I've ever seen. Seems to me like he's got the hots for you. Kinda kinky if you ask me."
"I don't want your pity. I want your absence."
"You think the only problem you and Logan have is some genetically engineered virus that'll kill the guy if you touch him?"
Maybe it was because Manticore had appreciated subterfuge in the field, but demanded absolute truth on the base, their version of "real" life. Maybe it was the lack of normal social skills most people developed to get around what they really wanted to say, but couldn't.
In any case, Alec was a creature of the present, no matter how much the past pressed on them. Alec didn't worry about the past, or the future. He just concentrated on the immediate circumstances and kept going.
Before she'd made him laser it off, Alec couldn't be bothered to hide his barcode nine out of ten times. His stage name was Monty Cora, for crying out loud. He just went out and did whatever he needed or wanted to do. If someone figured it out, he'd do something else to get out of trouble. Since the Jam Pony thing he'd been more careful in some ways, even more reckless in others, even more likely to say exactly what was on his mind. The way their lives were going, there might not be another chance.
Logan was all about hiding. Eyes Only was just that - eyes only. He hid what he was doing behind his other persona. She always had the feeling there was more going on in his head than what he was telling her. Worked both ways, she supposed. She and Logan had never really been exactly open about how they felt. They'd spent two years dancing around each other. Or maybe it was her. Maybe she'd spent so long hiding, she just sucked at the baring her soul thing and Logan had been holding back until she was ready.
Max's head was pounding again. Where was Cindy? Max needed to bounce some of this off someone who wasn't terminally damaged to see if it made any sense.
Alec. The guy just never failed to turn her life upside down.
The million dollar question… How did she actually feel about that?
When the crap hit the fan at the mayor's office, all she'd been able to think was, Alec was right. Should have listened to Alec. Had to get back to Alec so he could rub her nose in how wrong it had gone.
Except Alec hadn't. He'd taken care of her and he'd turned disaster into a play for sympathy that for the first time seemed to have the media on their side.
Max felt tears sting her eyes. It had only taken the death of four good men to turn the tide.
She should call Logan. All he would have seen was her near nosedive at the end of the interview and Alec carrying her out. He would be worried. She didn't want to talk to him though. She and Logan were the ones who'd set up the meeting with the mayor despite Alec's warnings. It wasn't their fault it had gone so wrong, but she still felt like they were to blame.
Max's cell phone began to vibrate. It was sitting on the coffee table and she turned it so she could see the screen. Logan. She waited for it to stop then looked at the screen again. Missed calls, voicemail, lots of it. She picked the phone up, cleared the missed calls and started on the voicemail. O.C., Sketchy, a few others, and Logan, becoming more and more frustrated with each call. Finally she got to the most recent.
Max, Alec is stonewalling and no one else will tell me anything. I need to know you're ok. If you get this, I'm on my way to TC.
Max erased all of the voicemail and then looked around the apartment. She couldn't stay here if Logan was coming. She wasn't ready to talk to him yet. Certainly not with her lips still stinging from Alec's kiss and certainly not with how muddled her feelings were about their role in what had happened yesterday.
Max got to her feet and shuffled to the door. Her feet were bare, but she didn't have the energy to find socks. She wasn't going far. Alec's apartment was just across the hall. Logan avoided Alec at all costs and Alec had said he'd be in Command.
Max closed her door and moved painfully across the hall. Alec's door wasn't locked. It wasn't like they had anything worth taking. They'd all just scrounged what they could to make things livable.
Max walked into the apartment and stopped so abruptly she almost lost her balance. Alec's place was trashed, as if someone had walked a circuit around the room breaking anything and everything that could be broken. Glass, furniture, everything.
I thought you were gone and I… I didn't handle it well.
Max padded toward the sofa, mindful of the glass on the floor. She brushed debris off the cushions and sat down.
For a moment, she simply looked around her at the damage. It looked like a tornado had gone through. She'd only known Alec to be so self-destructive one other time. The Berrisford thing. Rachel.
Huh. She'd think about that some more after she'd had some rest.
Max stretched out on the sofa. She wished she had a blanket, but it was too late to look for one now.
Max fell asleep to the sound of someone knocking on the door across the hall.
More soon…