I do not own Dark Angel or its characters if I did it would not have ended.

Her breaths were slow and even across the phone line and did nothing to convey her panic. She knew what she was doing at what it meant but she didn't really have a choice, not really. The choices set before her were go into White's clutches and be caged, poked, tested, and prodded, or watch the man she loved slowly waste away. So no, she didn't have a choice because no amount of Whites torture could hurt her any more than she was hurting right now.

God, why did Alec have to make her fall for him? Why did he have to be so annoying, charming, solid, and sweet? Why couldn't he have just left her with her first opinion about him? That he was a selfish, cocky, asshole transgenic? If she still thought that then she wouldn't be in complete agony and he wouldn't be dying. But if he had left her with that… she wouldn't have learned to feel this way again. She had loved Logan. She had enjoyed his company and had needed him in her life but not the way she needed Alec. She had never been in love with Logan. Logan was practical and calculating, but Alec was mischievous and 'fly by the seat of his pants.' She needed Alec in a way she never needed Logan, in a way she had never needed anyone, and it scared her. But it scared her more to think about him being gone.

She had never noticed the feelings and emotions Alec cause until she could feel them slipping away, draining out of her body and into the cold, hard ground that Alec seemed destined for. It's like this… before Alec she had thought she was whole. Then she slowly fell into a daze with him, and never realized how much she had come to rely on him. On his cocky smiles and snarky comebacks, on his sparkling eyes and reassuring hugs, on all of his annoying habits that made her crazy, because in everything he did, he made her feel like she had never felt before. She had thought she was whole, but only because she didn't ever really know the feeling of whole. And now that she had that feeling, she couldn't go back.

"Well 452, I told you that you would come back begging. I am only surprised it took you this long." The cruel voice on the other end of the phone drawled, causing Max to cringe at her own inability to follow through. But this was for Alec, it was worth it. "Did you go and have a heart to heart with 494? Cry at his bedside?"

"You don't know anything!" She snapped tangling her fingers into her curls and scrunching up her eyes so she could focus on the conversation. "You…you call us monsters, sub human, but you're the real monster White. You and all of your Manticore Goons! Because at least we monstrous creations have souls and feelings, you I'm not so sure."

"Oh you flatter me so 452, but sweet talking isn't going to save your boy toy."

"You can have me White, you can do whatever you want to me, just give the cure to Alec."

"Now 452, why would you think that a deal like that would still be on the table?" Max's heart took an unsteady thud in her chest and her eyes popped open.

"But you said…" She stuttered out, unusually at a loss for words.

"I know what I said 452, said is the primary word, past tense 452. What I am saying now is I want something more."

"We had a deal! You said you would give him the cure if I came to you!" She yelled frantically, even with her eyes open all she saw was Alec. Alec smiling, Alec laughing, Alec crying, Alec saying he loved her, Alec dying… She took a steadying breathe and pictured Alec's bright green eyes staring into hers. His eyes back when they were full of life and mischief. His eyes had held that same spark when he said he loved her. She loved him too, she needed the chance to tell him that. "Wha…whats the new deal White?"

"How much are you really willing to give up for this thing 452?"

"His name is Alec." Max bit her lip in an attempt to keep from objecting further. "I love him alright! Is that what you want to hear White? That you were right? That I would do anything to get him back? What do you want White?"

"I want you both. After all I can't exactly do the required testing with only one transgenic. How am I supposed to keep you in line that way?"

"What? Why would I do all of this to save him and then bring him to you?"

"You don't have a choice 452, not if you want to keep him alive."

"You won't keep him alive White, I would just have to watch him die all over again."

"I give you my word 452, I would not kill him."

"What you do is worse than death!"

"It's your decision 452, I do believe that 494 does not have much time left though, so you choose quickly."

"I'm not giving him to you."

"Then you give him to his grave." He snapped without pause. His voice was filled with malice but hurtfully calm. Max moved the phone from her ear and stared at her lap, she distantly heard White over the distance between her ear and the phone, "Think about it 452."

Click

She could feel herself set that phone on the receiver but had no control over it. In a daze she stood and left her office. She pushed past the transgenics in her way as she moved towards the infirmary. The individuals in her way seemed to part as they saw her. As she got to Alec's room she raised her head for the first time since she put the phone down and stared into the plain room.

He looked peaceful now. She might have believed he was sleeping if it weren't for all of the machines keeping him alive. "I don't want to lose you."

'But are you selfish enough to keep him?' A small voice nagged in the back of her mind. Could she give up his freedom just so she could keep him with her? Did she have that right?

Authors note: I admit I am a little at a crossroads and I really need some help deciding what to do next. Should Max let Alec go or give them both over to White? What do you think? Please put your opinion in the review box. If she does let him go I can't tell you if he will actually die or not, so don't base what you think off that. Thank you!

Supernaturalloverja