Yeah, I know this must be the shortest chapter I've ever written, but don't worry the next will be right up and rolling. Thanks for those who have reviewed

MigetX: Thanks and I appreciate you for the heads up, I've re-read the last chapter and tried to work out the problems that might have been there and will do the same thing with the rest of the chapters when I'll get time down to it.

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Tennoda: That just means that I've done the job well done, as it was exactly what I was aiming for. Thank you so much.

Disclaimers: Don't sue, I'm broke (and don't own…).

Love is not that simple

Toh could still feel his lower right mandible tingle after the soft kiss. If it hadn't been for the sudden shock He would have stopped Max from running away again, but he didn't. She had been gone long before he even could register her retreat.

-

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." Max didn't notice anything around her as she walked into her and Toh's bedroom and started to curse. They had been so much more intimate than this, she could still remember how good his hands felt upon her body and how it almost made her forget everything around her when he caressed her sensitive skin with his mandibles. Hell they had seen each other naked. But that kiss had been something else, something much more that just pleasure; it had been her sign of feelings that she didn't really knew how to react to. This was her reaction.

"Well, hello to you too." Tina spoke with amusement.

Instantly Max snapped her head toward the bed where Tina and Tanya sat, obvious waiting for her. Not saying anything she just dropped herself onto the bed beside the two women, all unlady like.

"What do you want?" She asked not looking at them.

"Don't act like you don't know why; that outburst just cleared any doubts we might have had out of the way." Tanya said with a firm tone.

"I kissed him." Max blurted, still not looking at the two women, afraid what she would see. The disappointment, humor or simply boredom to her announcement

"I knew it! Thank you, Terry now owes me 20 bucks." Tanya beamed.

A frown tugged on Max's lips. "Nice to hear that you'll get something out of my miseries." She replied. It wasn't that she was angry or disappointed of the twins bet. They had done it all their life that it would be strange if they hadn't but at that moment she just couldn't stop thinking about her dilemma; about if she was ready to start a relationship or if Frank would haunt her for the rest of her life.

"But you love us anyway" Tanya stated and she was right.

"Tell us Maxine." Tina said softly. Though for her 24 years, the woman was the mother of them all. She had a calmness over her that made her not only perfect for the tall, dark and handsome captain but also the one who acted as the peacemaker when things started to get heated between the siblings.

"I don't know if I can." She admitted. Though Max had her trait of keeping her problems to herself she had almost always been honest to Tina and Tanya. They were her best friends, her sisters and her confidants.

"Try us." Tanya urged leaving out all triumphing about her won bet.

"I just… Well I like him but I just can't forget the past and I'm not sure what to do about it all." She tried to explain.

"Have you told him about Frank?" Tina's words gave her a twist in her guts.

"No." She sighed. "I know I should and I have tried to but I just can't get it out, you know?" Max looked over at the two hoping for answers but knew that they neither knew what to do.

"I'm sorry Sis; I just hope he knows what he got." Tanya said with a smile.

"I just don't know if I'm just a potential mating partner or if he really has feelings for me."

"But you care for him." It wasn't a question and Max couldn't find it in her to deny Tina's statement. She knew deep down that she cared for the alien even though she shouldn't. That she should be looking away in repulse but she couldn't. The traits that he had were not only on the outside but the inside as well; he cared for honor and valued his morals just as high as she did. He had his rough edges but that only made him more appealing in her eyes and to comment on his less human features, they didn't even faze her. She couldn't think of Toh any other way and the fact that she had started to think about how she wanted him to push her mentally as he seemed to enjoy so much, made her aware of how serious her crush had become.

"I do care for him." She finally said out loud and with that it felt like a burden was lifted off of her shoulders. Not like every worries she had had just disappeared, but like along with her saying it out loud it became more real and she really became aware how much she meant it.

"So what are you doing here cursing about it?" Tanya asked, throwing a pillow after her. Max let the object hit her, not caring for moving in that moment.

"I can't stop think about Frank." She said barely audible but they heard her and they both knew how serious that was. "I know I should move one, but it seems that every time I try, I just end back to the memories and nightmares. I can't let Toh closer before that part of me is closed." She said with determination. She had been thinking and thinking hard about this; her plan had started to form but it were a plan she dreaded but she needed to do it to leave the past and welcome the future.

Tanya and Tina just lay beside with Max on the bed; all had their feet hanging off of the bed, staring up into the white-painted ceiling.

"So were there any problems with the nanobots inside Terry?" Max asked a couple of minutes later, desperate for a change of subject.

Tanya grin a wide wicked smile. Oh I wouldn't say that, Ian just made him his own lab rat, that's all." She said with humor in her voice.

"It wasn't that bad, he just made sure he could walk, talk, eat and other more personal things without complications." Tina laughed by how comical her husband sometimes could be when he had his eyes for something. "We all go the shot by the way." She added.

"And you can pee without turning blue?" Max asked with a big smile on her lips. It was typical Ian to be too thorough both before and after an experiment.

"Oh yes, it's only radioactive but who cares about that these days." Tina joked back. Yes Max was lucky to have such good friends and family that helped her through her problems.

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