A/N: Thank you so much for having so much patience and still reading this. I love your reviews. Thanks a lot.
FEAR AND LOATHING IN SEATTLE
Chapter 7: LOST AND FOUND
Devastated Alec watched his reflection in the mirror the next morning. It took much more time for his body to heal than he had thought. The numerous scratches and cuts hadn't faded enough until now. He tried to hide the bigger ones under his hair and put on a turtle neck and his sunglasses. But he knew that he wouldn't be able to fool Max for long and by the time she discovered where he had been, she would give him hell. Hiding his injuries was only a feeble attempt to throw her of the scent, but it was worth a try. And he was at least prepared for her to go crazy on him.
After another night of death-like sleep he felt a little better. His headaches had ceased and he didn't feel permanently dizzy any longer.
Though his stomach still couldn't handle solid food, he had been able to drink some more water instead.
Still both his hands were swollen and red, but his right forearm was the worst. Instinctively he had held it in front of his face to protect it from the explosion.
Carefully he changed the dressings. The blisters had opened, the skin underneath raw, in some areas the tissue was deeply destroyed. By removing the compress the wound started to bleed heavily again.
Alec sighed. "Alright. Just wonderful."
Carefully he lifted the rest of the compress and tried to clean the he bandaged it that he examined his work in the mirror. Well, for now it had to suffice.
Nevertheless he felt weird, maybe even a little concerned; his genetically improved healing abilities usually worked much faster. He tried to put those thought as far away as he was able to and shrugged. "What the hell!"
Before leaving his apartment, he quickly put on his biking gloves so nobody would notice his swollen hands, then he took his messenger bag and left.
„Hi Boo! You really did quite a job on our lost and found boy, ain't ya?" Smiling OC punched her friend's shoulder.
Max looked at her blankly and closed the door of her locker with a loud thud.
„Well, OC's talking about Alec, you see? So you didn't do this to him?"
Still perplexed Maax asked: „You mean, he's back again?"
OC face lighted up a little more: „Let's sing hallelujah, love, wonders happens sometime. Finally one of our sisters had taken revenge on our playboy appropriately. OC would love to get to know that wonderful girl that represents womankind gracefully like that…"
"Oh I totally believe you. Tell me, where is he? I've got something to teach him, too…" Max eyes blinked aggressively and she clenched her fists.
„Back there with Sketchy and the guys. But…", OC raised her brows and yelled after her friend, who was already hurrying towards back side of the lockers to find the other X-5. "Please, sweety, kill him softly, he really looked beaten…"And more to herself she murmured: "And OC so does have a weakness for those haunted creatures…"
„Look at you there you are, our prodigal son." Full of anger she had jumped around the corner and had immediatly discovered him surrounded by the other guys, showing her his back, absorbed in one of his stories.
"Hi Alec!"
He winced and slowly turned around. Then his trademark smile appeared on his face and he spread his arms.
"Hi Maxie! Hey did you miss me?"
„It's Max!" unnerved she placed her hands on her hips. "Well, are you gonna tell me now, where you have been all the time?
The other guys quickly had noticed that the continuation of Alec's funny stories about his latest squeezes wouldn't continue for a while and had bolted. No one wanted to get in Max's way.
Alec, deprived of his fans, grunted sulkily: "Is this your way of welcoming friends?"
„Is it yours to let them down?" Max retorted harshly. At the same time she had to admit that OC had been right. Alec actually looked terrible. Immediately the knot in her guts was back. Her rage became worry just to change back to anger. She was mad at herself for being manipulated that easily.
He looked pale, so the many little cuts in his face stood out more clearly. A deep one across his left cheek had started to bleed again.
"I can't believe you got yourself into trouble again!" she snorted and clenched her fists. "Have you even treated this?"
Alec was all smiles. „Ahh, Maxie, I knew you missed me!" He had come to her by now and hugged her heartily.
She stiffened and freed herself out of his grasp, what made him silently moan with pain. Promptly he made sure if Max had noticed anything. But she seemed unimpressed.
"You better take care of your pretty face." She turned around, dashing away hastily.
„But I always thought chicks are into scars!" he yelled.
"Oh my god, I swear I kill him!" Max was burning with anger.
After her meeting with Alec she had directly rushed to Logan's apartment, telling him everything to get rid of her anger. And her worries, too, which still troubled her. Now she was pacing up and down in his living room.
Logan just smiled, as always occupied with his computers. „Okay, if that will help you, but before doing so, you really should take a look at that."
Max sceptically looked at the screen Logan had turned towards her, so that she could admire the long lines of numbers.
„What is that?"
"That", Logan answered, "is part of Manticore's data archive. Sadly it's pretty damaged but I'll hopefully be able to reconstruct most of it. Max, those discs are full of Manticore's research, studies, data about it's projects, it's secret experiments and probably I even will find some…"
"Data about the virus…"she ended his sentence. Now she could understand why he was so excited.
"Yes."
Lost in thoughts she looked at the screen. "Where did you get this from?", she asked, frowning.
„Alec."
Questioning Max lifted her eyebrow. "Alec?" she stated puzzled.
„He claimed he got it from a secret source. Most likely this is the reason for his five day absence." Logan smiled while Max's eyes were getting bigger and bigger, slowly figuring out the full meaning of what he had sad..
"He has been to Manticore? Is he completely going crazy right now? White and his watchdogs are observing the area for sure, what if they've followed him, he's endangering all of us!"
Amused Logan shook his head. "Max, Alec's not stupid. Yes, he was taking a risk, but when he believes that he can handle it, we have to trust him. Everything went fine. He's a well trained soldier after all, he can do it. You know, this secret governmental institution creating those superpower soldiers? I'm sure he knows what he's doing. "
"I'm not so sure about that. He seems to be able to forget everything he had learned, switching off his brain completely. He should know better than that."
"All he wanted to do was to help. Make good the damage he had done. Maybe he even has succeeded in doing so. You should be happy. And it seems that he eventually has discovered his conscience. We hopefully have reachedt he end of the "Alec-the bad Manticore soldier" - story."
Max sighed deeply. „I totally hope you're right."
