Leash Laws
Summary: Max and Alec learn disturbing news that will affect all of TC. To make matters worse, a Familiar comes looking for help and they can't say no. Sequel to Loose the Hounds.
Chapter Ten
Max paced in front of the door to the lab. She was going to kill him.
She doesn't know. She doesn't need to know.
First she thinks he's been infected by the virus, then she gets word he seems to be doing better than the others, then the doctor answers Alec's phone and asks Max if Alec has any known medical conditions or allergies they should know about, says that he's catatonic, then after she's nearly frantic with worry and her inability to go to him because of the stupid quarantine, he comes out of it, sort of, and mumbles that it's been going on for a while and she doesn't need to know.
The moods, the temper. She'd known something was wrong, but she'd thought it was Alec working through the deprogramming, which forced him to relive his time at Manticore in all of its gory detail. She'd chalked up the occasional standoffishness to the same thing. Because of the programming he'd shot her, and he couldn't forgive himself. Even after the Psy-Ops people had cleared him, he'd been so afraid he might still hurt her.
But there was more to it, and he hadn't told her. He had flat out refused to tell her about any of it. For a guy who talked as much as Alec did, he was impressively closed-mouthed.
Finally, Alec appeared through the tunnel that led straight into Dr. Peterson's building just outside the walls of Terminal City. He was wearing borrowed scrubs and flanked on either side by doctors, both of whom were carefully matching Alec's slow, measured steps.
"Heya, Maxie," Alec drawled.
"How are you feeling?" she asked with what she thought was remarkable restraint.
"Right now? Kinda raw and maybe chemically. They sent me through their carwash and didn't even have the decency to hold my hand."
"I wasn't talking about the decontamination, Alec."
Alec sighed, and finally met her disapproving gaze. Max immediately started forward. She could see there was something horribly wrong. His eyes were almost glazed, like he was there, but not quite.
"You're sure this isn't Cabot's virus?" Max glanced from one to the other of the doctors. She didn't recognize either of them, but then, there were so many lab coats running around right now it was hard to tell.
"We're sure, but we don't know what this is either. He became catatonic again when we began the decontamination. He's just now coming out of it."
Max stopped in front of him and reached up, cradling his face in her hands. "Alec?"
He winced very slightly at the sound of her voice. "Head hurts."
"You been having headaches for a while?" she asked.
"Off and on," he admitted. "Getting worse."
Max sighed. She'd smack him upside the head, but it would only make the problem worse. "Come on. Let's get him to the lab."
"Lab?"
"Dr. Peterson doesn't have everything we need for this. We're going to one of the big labs in town where they can do a full workup on you and figure out why you didn't catch the virus."
"Just lucky." He gave her a lopsided smile.
"The lab is connected to the hospital, so they can do all of the tests they need."
"Sure," Alec replied, but Max could tell something was off about his reply. He'd flinched when she mentioned more tests. Now, the light suddenly left his eyes, and he let out a tiny sound, almost like a wounded animal.
"Alec? Alec, what's going on?" she demanded, but her only answer was her husband's forty yard stare. His muscles were all rigid and she wondered if this was actually a seizure. "Let's get him to the lab."
One of the doctors moved to take Alec, but Max waved the man away. She shifted Alec and put her shoulder against his abdomen, lifting him in a fireman's carry. He let out a pained cry, but she ignored it.
"Do you need help?" the same man asked who'd tried to take Alec.
Max rolled her eyes. She wanted to tell the guy she could probably pick him up too, but she just shook her head and hurried toward the ambulance waiting outside.
A few minutes before they reached the lab, Alec stirred. Max was sitting on the gurney while he was lying flat with his head in her lap. As he woke, he shifted, stretched, realized he wasn't where he expected to be and went stock still.
"It's ok, Alec."
He immediately relaxed at the sound of her voice. "I fall asleep?" he asked warily.
"Something like that." She tried to keep the disapproval out of her voice, but didn't succeed. "You want to tell me what's going on with you?"
"Been a rough couple of days," he answered. "Could use a vacation."
Max watched as he raised a hand to his head rubbing at his temple. She took pity and ran her fingers through his hair, soothing him the way she knew he liked, rubbing in circles, her nails just skimming over his skin. He sighed contentedly, nearly purring.
Max looked down at him. News of the virus had scared her badly. She'd cursed herself that the last time she'd seen Alec, they'd been yelling at each other. What difference would it make to be breeding partners if he was infected? What difference would it make if he was dead?
Her answer had to be, so what if they weren't really breeding partners. So what if the doctors couldn't help them. Looking at Alec now, now that she'd calmed down and some of the shock had passed, now that she knew he wasn't infected, it seemed so much simpler. Alec was alive. They'd just keep going. The two of them. It wasn't settling for less when you had the love of your life.
Granted, that didn't mean she wasn't going to box his ears for keeping her in the dark. When he was better, and he was going to get better, they were going to have a serious talk about quite a few things.
Too soon, they reached the lab. There were people actually waiting at the curb for the ambulance to stop. Almost before she could protest, the door was opened, Alec's gurney was pulled out from under her and he was whisked inside.
Max followed quickly, not about to let him out of her sight now. The people inside must have realized she wasn't going to be deterred, and kept out of her way.
Alec was wheeled into a small room and transferred to a waiting exam table. Max saw that he was still awake, but he was white as a sheet, and wide-eyed, nearly terrified if she had to guess. It was yet another sign of how wrong things were. Alec never showed weakness in front of others. None of them did if they could help it.
"No," Alec said, and the single word came out strangled and desperate.
Max immediately came forward, pushing the medical staff aside. She grasped Alec's hand in hers, and the other she set against his forehead. "Alec, they're here to help you."
"Max?" he said uncertainly.
"It's me, Alec."
"Shouldn't be here." Alec frowned. "Escaped. Shouldn't be here."
It took Max a second, but she was starting to figure out what was setting Alec off. "We're not at Manticore, Alec," she stated firmly. "We both made it out, remember?"
"Not at Manticore." Alec looked at her in confusion, then nodded, visibly trying to pull himself together. "Not at Manticore," he repeated. "We got out. Not Psy-Ops."
"No, Alec. This isn't Psy-Ops."
"What's Psy-Ops?" one of the doctors asked.
Max looked up at the seemingly innocent question. The doctor who'd asked was a pudgy man with glasses and gray hair, in his late fifties. She met the man's gaze and simply said, "You don't want to know."
"If it's part of what's causing this, then yes, we need to know."
"Just run your tests," Max ordered. "If this has something to do with Psy-Ops then Alec is right. You can't help us."
The doctor bristled, stepping in front of her and puffing up to use his superior height, despite the fact that Max could take him down in about two seconds flat. "You are not qualified to tell us what is and what is not important."
Max blinked and the doctor was on the floor, bleeding, with Alec standing over him, his hands still fisted and ready to fight.
"Call security!" the man shouted. "Restrain him!"
The reaction was almost immediate. Alec grabbed Max's hand and began pulling her toward the door. "We have to get out of here!"
"Nobody move!" Max bellowed and all of the medical staff came to a screeching halt. Alec, too, froze. He looked at her and she could tell, he wasn't actually seeing the same room she was. He was back at Manticore, although now he was desperate to defend her as well as keep himself safe.
"Max?" he asked uncertainly.
"Alec, you have to let them do the tests."
"What?" The word was barely a whisper, and the look of betrayal on his face was enough to break her heart. There was so much more riding on the tests, however, and she couldn't cave. The team that was sick, the danger to the rest of them… No matter how wrong it felt, it had to be done.
"You will let them do the tests, Alec," she said, despite how much it hurt to say the words.
"Tests," he murmured. "Always tests. Laser. Psy-Ops. Never free. Never."
Max pushed him back toward the exam table. "Go ahead and take off your shirt, Alec. Pants, too." She expected a quip, some sort of comeback, but there was none of that.
"Yes, ma'am."
Max felt like she'd been sucker-punched. Did he actually think she was Renfro ordering him to report for testing? "Alec?"
Alec paused in untying the drawstring on his scrub pants. "Ma'am?" He raised a hand to his head, his face screwed up in pain. He saw her looking and immediately dropped his hand, fear and pain quickly hidden behind his old Manticore mask. "Sorry, Ma'am. Won't happen again," he apologized and continued to undress. He pulled his shirt off over his head and let it drop to the floor.
Everyone in the room gasped. Alec was a mass of bruises. She could hardly imagine what kind of tests they'd been doing that would cause this kind of damage. There were bruises, small incisions, and puncture marks on his arms, his abdomen, as well as his upper chest. They all looked several days old now, ugly and turning sickly yellow and green. She remembered now the sound Alec had made when she'd thrown him over her shoulder. She'd had no idea how badly she must have been hurting him.
"Alec, are the others all like this too?"
"Negative. Only 662 and 481. They were taken for testing first, ma'am." Max shook her head in disbelief. She never would have thought there were that many doctors on the planet who were so willing to harm other human beings. Yet, time and time again, Manticore and the Familiars produced another who was willing to rip them apart just to see how they ticked.
"Get up on the exam table."
"Ma'am," he said formally, although he wobbled as he turned to do as she asked. She helped steady him as he moved. Once he was lying down, she dared to look at his face again. Even as she watched, the light left his eyes. The Alec she knew, the man she loved, was gone, lost in his own head.
"Son of a-" There was no way she was going to spend a minute longer than necessary of Alec thinking she was Renfro. She looked at the other people in the room, still frozen in disbelief. "I suggest you get to work," she snapped. "Restraining one of us is very difficult. I'd do what you need to do while he's out."
The others seemed to agree and hurried to comply. One of them, not the doctor Alec punched she noticed, rushed to the side opposite her, and turned Alec's arm over. "They've poked him so full of holes, we'll be lucky to find a vein," he observed.
"I thought you took blood already." Alec was already pale and the puncture marks had her thinking he'd already lost too much.
"Enough to test for the virus. We're going to need more to do a full work up. We don't know what we're looking for."
Max nodded and the man gathered his supplies. He began filling vials of blood, while others took hair samples and skin samples and whatever else they needed. Something about Alec had given him immunity and they needed to know what it was, fast.
It took longer than Max would like. She hated seeing Alec on the table, so vulnerable. Her instinct was to cover him up, to comfort him, to keep him from further harm. Instead, she was letting yet another group of people use him as an experiment, when he'd clearly been badly used already.
Finally, the samples were all labeled and taken away for immediate testing. That done, the doctor Alec clocked turned to her and said, "We're going to transfer him over to the hospital. He needs to be properly checked. The headaches as well as the altered mental state are troubling."
"Tell me something I don't know." Max pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed TC.
"What?"
Max ignored that Mole's phone etiquette was getting even worse as time went on. "Get Tipper. Send her to the hospital."
"Got it," Mole replied and started shouting to someone who was unlucky enough to be standing near him in Command.
When he finally wound down, she asked, "How is Alec's team?"
"Worse. Tell the eggheads to hurry." She heard him take his cigar out of his mouth. "What do you need with Tipper?"
"I have a theory and I need to run it by her." Tipper was the head of the ex Psy-Ops crew living in TC. They weren't overly popular with the others and tended to keep to themselves for obvious reasons. "Tell her to bring Cabot with her, too."
"You sure that's a good idea? The eggheads say he's been totally useless. He won't help at all."
"Bring him anyway. I need to know what he did to Alec."
"I'll send him. You should also know that Ingram guy called."
Great. Just what she needed. To deal with the Familiars and their crap. "What did he want?"
"He's pissed that Cabot's not dead." He paused momentarily. "Pissed might not be the right word. Put pissed and crazy together. He says we were told to eliminate the threat."
"Well, he can just suck it up. I need to know what he did to Alec." She sighed. "Anything else?"
"Just one thing. You been outside?"
"What?"
"We've been getting calls from the press."
Max wanted to bang her head against the wall. The day just got better and better. "What do they want?"
"They say there's a rumor going around Transgenics are carrying a virus and it's going to spread to humans and everyone's going to die."
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me."
"Why's everybody always asking me that? No, I ain't kiddin'. And if I were you, I wouldn't go outside the hospital either. Someone already spilled that you guys were there and there's a crowd forming."
Max's heart clenched painfully. He'd said a crowd, but what he meant was a mob. It wouldn't be the first time she been in a building with a group of Ordinaries outside waiting to tear her apart. For a moment, she felt the panic of being rushed by the mob and having the team pulled away who'd been there to protect her. She remembered them dying, giving their own lives to save her. She was quickly distracted, however, when a gurney arrived and they surrounded Alec to transfer him.
"Ok, I gotta go. They're moving Alec to the main hospital."
"Don't let Princess do anything stupid," Mole said. "He still owes me money." It was as close as he could come to telling them to be careful, and that he was worried about them.
Max closed her phone and followed Alec out of the room.
Once they arrived at the hospital, Alec was taken away and Max was pointed toward a waiting room. She didn't like it, but she allowed it. It also gave her a chance to watch the news on the TV in the waiting room.
Mole hadn't been kidding about the crowd. The police had already set up a cordon to keep the people back. No one was being allowed into the hospital except through the ER which had extra security verifying that you needed to be let in before you actually were. Visiting hours had been cancelled.
Reporters were on the scene asking questions that were both useless and asinine. That footage was currently alternating with reporters interviewing members of the gathering lynch mob.
"They need to go. They're gonna kill us all."
"They should never have been allowed to stay here in the first place and now we're all gonna die."
"We've always known they were freaks, and now they've got some freaky disease and we're all gonna pay.
"If they won't leave, we should make 'em leave."
"They're dangerous. The government shoulda put 'em all down in the first place, and now it's too late."
Max wasn't sure how long she sat there watching every bit of the good will the city had felt toward the Transgenics being washed down the toilet. It just went on and on. The worst part was that she needed Alec to fix this. He was their resident PR specialist. Alec was the one who talked to the press. He was the one who convinced the city to give them a chance.
And now they were the monsters again.
The door to the waiting room opened and Dr. Peterson came in. "How are you, Max?"
"Fine. Any news on Alec?"
"Why don't you come and see," he said kindly. "I know how dangerous it is to keep you two apart."
Max practically leapt out of her chair. She followed the doctor down the hall and into one of the private hospital rooms. Looking past it she saw that Fred and Barney were stationed down on one end of the corridor, and if she had to guess there were other guards as well. Mole must have sent them after the news about the impending plague broke.
Inside the room, Alec was lying in the bed, attached to an IV and a heart monitor, but that was the only medical equipment she could see. The doctor Alec hit was actually removing the IV as they entered.
The doctor looked up and Max saw that his mouth was bruised and his lip was split. She had a hard time feeling sorry for him. Insulting people who were a lot stronger than you, or their wives, wasn't his best idea, especially when they were too sick to keep their instincts in check.
Max hurried to the side opposite the doctor and looked down at Alec. He appeared to still be asleep, so she leaned down and placed a kiss against his cheek. "It's safe to wake up now, Alec. The tests are over. I promise."
"Max?" The whispered response was almost immediate, although she didn't know if it was because of what she'd said, or if it was just the sound of her voice.
"I'm right here." She took his hand and squeezed it. "You're ok."
Alec just nodded, so Max turned toward the doctors. "So what's the deal?"
Dr. Peterson smiled kindly. "Actually, Dr. Clifton and I have two things, one good, one… we're not sure."
"Give me the bad news first." Might as well get it over with, she thought. Today was already a lost cause.
"Not bad," Peterson corrected. "We just need more info. We've done quite a few tests on Alec, and as far as we can tell there's nothing physically wrong with him. He's badly bruised, but they're already fading, and there's no interior damage that we can see. The only thing…"
"Yes?"
The other doctor stepped closer. "His scan is showing that a particular part of his brain is overactive and we don't know why. Honestly, it could be normal for one of you. We don't have any baseline to compare it with. Dr. Peterson assures us some other issues we thought might be a problem are the norm. We've also contacted a Dr. Shankar and she concurred. The blackout episodes may, however, be linked to this brain activity. We're still looking into it."
"What's the good news then?"
The door opened and everyone turned to see Tipper waiting on the other side. She had Cabot with her and Fred was sticking close as a bodyguard.
"Get in here, Tipper," she ordered.
The ex-Psy-Ops worker frowned. "Nice to see you, too, Max."
Alec on the other hand had an entirely different reaction. As soon as he saw the group entering, he scrambled off the bed in a panic and backed into the corner farthest from them. Everyone froze in shock, all except Max.
"Whoa, whoa." Max flew to his side, and placed herself between them so Alec's view was blocked. "Alec, look at me." Her voice was soft, but it was firm. It took a few seconds, but he finally looked at her. "Alec, it's ok. You're safe."
"I can't go back," he whispered. "Please, Max. I can't do it again." He grabbed his head as if in agony and began to slip down the wall into a crouch. "I can't," he said again. "Can't. No more." And just like flipping a switch, he was gone again. The lights were on but there was nobody home.
Furious, Max stood and turned toward the other people in the room who were watching the scene unfold, stunned. She glared at the man standing between Fred and Tipper. "You're Cabot?"
The man nodded nervously. He glanced toward Alec, then quickly away, realizing that was not in his best interests.
"What did you do to him?"
"If you're talking about the catatonia, that is not my fault," the man blurted out. "He was taken to our exam room and had an episode very like this one, although without the… hysterics. I hadn't even done anything, just walked into the room. He looked like his head hurt, and then he had a seizure-like episode."
"I've seen the bruising," Max growled.
"Tests," he said, as if it wasn't anything special. "We needed to judge the efficacy of the virus, as well as learn more about your general make-up. We did a complete battery of tests and took samples from all the major organs."
The door behind them opened again. Their little room was getting awfully crowded between doctors, transgenics, and sociopaths. They all turned. Only it wasn't another doctor.
Ingram walked through the door, raised his gun, fired two rounds, one to Cabot's head, the other to his heart. Cabot fell to the floor, and Ingram was out of the room just as quickly as he had entered.
Fred flew after him. Max didn't know if she cared whether they found him or not. She turned back toward the corner where Alec was still crouched, staring at nothing.
Another dead Familiar wouldn't help her with Alec.
More soon…