Okey dokey. Max is in trouble…
Chapter Eleven
Alec lurched forward and caught Max before she fell. He eased her to the floor and knelt beside her. "Max? Max, can you hear me?"
"I got stabbed. I'm not… deaf." Her voice faltered though and her eyes weren't making contact with his properly as he leaned over her. Alec wished he could shoot Ming again.
"Great," Alec said. "Your attitude is intact even though nothing else is."
"I…" Her eyelids started to flutter closed. "I don't feel so good."
"Can't imagine why." He tapped her cheek with enough force to get her attention. "You stay with me, you understand?"
Max made a guttural sound that wasn't exactly what Alec had been hoping for. He looked up at the mayor who was staring down at them in horror still looking like he was going to throw up at any moment.
"Call for an ambulance. Now," Alec ordered.
"What?" His paunchy, pasty face suddenly began to flood with color.
"An ambulance! Call for an ambulance!" Alec knew it wasn't just dangerous, it was suicidal, but Max was in deep trouble and he didn't know what else to do. This was everything he'd been afraid of. They'd failed their mission miserably and now Max wasn't just hurt, she was down.
The mayor looked at him and then at Max and finally at Ming. Then he did what Alec supposed was the only sane response to a failed assassination attempt. He ran.
Alec watched the man hightail it out the door and hung his head in frustration. Maybe it was for the best. Max could be killed in the hospital just as easily as anywhere else, maybe easier. He definitely had to get her out though and fast. Most of the security guards were down thanks to Ming, but Alec had to guess there were more, or that the sector police were on the way. The screaming office workers streaming out of the building would have been a bit of a giveaway that something was wrong.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the gunman he'd shot in the knee eyeing Ming's fallen weapon. "Don't even think about it," Alec snapped, aiming his gun between the man's eyes.
The soldier glared back at him, but stopped edging toward the gun. "You won't make it out of the building. I doubt you'll make it off this floor."
"You're lucky I don't shoot unarmed men anymore," Alec replied evenly. "I've been informed it's not sportsmanlike, not that I really agree."
The man paled slightly, but had the good sense not to say anything else. Keeping one eye on the gunman, Alec scuttled over to Ming and unceremoniously ripped his shirt off. He folded it into a flat bandage type pad as he hurried back to Max's side.
"Sorry, Maxie. We're out of options." Normally, Alec would have left the knife in the wound since the blade was acting as a temporary seal for the damage it had done, but that wasn't an option now. He was going to have to move her and move fast.
With only a second's hesitation, Alec pulled the knife out and Max groaned although he didn't think she was even really awake anymore. He immediately used one hand and the makeshift pad to put pressure on the wound. He pressed down hard enough that Max twisted in pain, but Alec refused to let her move too far. He used his other hand to pull his belt off. Alec kept the shirt over the wound and wrapped his belt around her. He pulled it taut to keep the pressure on and prayed it would hold long enough for him to get her to safety.
With a final warning glance at the gunman not to try anything, Alec picked Max up and headed for the door. He wanted to weep at how badly it hurt. He was reinjuring and aggravating his wounds over and over and the sad thing was he kept doing it because the others were more severely hurt than he was. It seemed to be the recurring theme of the past few days, not to mention the next thing he was about to do, which was run and hide.
Alec dodged. He weaved. He scampered. He hid. He hurried, scurried, knocked out a few people, and did every possible undignified thing required of him to get out of the building.
The sector police were streaming inside. Their cars were surrounding City Hall, lights flashing. More sector police were standing by near the exits and the cars and every possible way out of the town square surrounding City Hall.
Thankfully, Alec was more than willing to use unorthodox methods that the sector police didn't think of as an exit. Granted, looking nonchalant while carrying a bloody, half-dead woman who'd just recently been on the news wasn't really his best play, but there was no other choice.
The only choice he did have was where to take Max once he got outside the police cordon and even that wasn't really a choice. He couldn't take her to a hospital and he had to get Max to help quickly. They had exactly one place left in the city they could call safe harbor. He didn't know whether Max would kiss him or kill him for taking her back there.
Logan's.
Alec knelt beside the bed. Max was still deathly pale. A city-wide lockdown had been put in effect after the assassination attempt and it had been impossible to get a doctor to Logan's.
That had been two days ago and Max had yet to wake up. He'd tried to reassure himself by saying Max's body was focused on repairing itself and she'd wake up when the time was right. It didn't help that Logan was still hovering. At the moment, he was standing in the bedroom doorway, leaning against the doorpost. Alec wanted badly to snarl at him and order him to go away, but he couldn't really order the guy out of his own bedroom.
"She looks a little better," Logan said into the quiet. Alec just grunted. He'd given up on talking for the moment. Their people were either gone or scattered to the four corners. They hadn't managed to keep Transgenics from being the bad guys again and they hadn't managed to save Ming or his team members. Max wasn't waking up and Alec just didn't know what to do. He'd already done all he could for her, precious little though it was, and now he felt useless waiting to see if it was enough. His heart felt like it was in a vise, just on the edge of being crushed, waiting along with her.
He could still see Rachel lying in her bed, waiting for death to come and take her. He'd wept for her and the memory of discovering love and kindness for the first time followed by his failure to protect it. Now he was kneeling beside Max, afraid it was happening all over again, but this time the feelings involved were so different. Max knew who he was, after all. She knew what he'd done and still didn't seem to mind having him around.
He liked Max. He liked being around her. He liked talking to her. He liked going out and getting into trouble with her, fighting alongside her, protecting her when it all went wrong. He liked making her crazy and making her smile. Was that love? Just wanting to be with somebody? To be there with them through good and bad? Alec honestly didn't know. He'd never really seen it, never really felt it, except maybe the shadow of what it could have been with Rachel.
Alec was a mess, he knew that, but so was Max. Put them together and the word volatile came to mind, but that was part of the adventure. He had no clue if they could actually make a go of it without killing each other, but it wouldn't matter if Max didn't survive for them to make the attempt.
"You should eat something," Logan tried again.
"I'm good."
"Alec-"
Alec could feel it building low in his belly, a growl that if Logan didn't back off was going to turn into something more. He'd wanted to hit something ever since Max had been hurt and his patience was wearing thinner and thinner the longer she was unconscious.
"Ok…" Logan said evenly. "Got it." He sighed heavily. "I'm going to go keep working on finding information on the mayor to send to the news people. I'll enjoy watching them rip him apart once they know what he did."
Alec didn't bother to respond. The press might ruin the guy, but Alec would prefer a more literal ripping and tearing. He could do it, too. He'd been trained in covert work after all and it certainly wouldn't be the first politician Alec had put down. Ming had been a fool to go at the mayor head on. They'd been better trained than that. He'd had been too crazed though after his wife's death to think clearly and Alec understood that.
One look at Max's still form, however, reminded Alec why the mayor was still breathing. She would never forgive him and Alec could see her reasoning, too, even if it was more goody two shoes than he was trained to be.
"Let me know if you need anything," Logan said. When Alec didn't bother to respond, Logan left the room quietly and Alec finally felt himself relax a bit. Max would probably say he was being a territorial idiot, but so what? He was on watch until she was back on her feet.
Alec took Max's hand and clasped it between both of his. He held it close to his chest, frightened that her skin was still cooler than it should be. He simply had no way of knowing what kind of internal damage had been done, not to mention the blood loss. She'd asked too much of her body and was now paying the price.
The worst part was that it was his fault. He expected Max to make the overly sympathetic, save-everybody kind of choices. It was up to him to make the ugly ones. He hadn't wanted to hurt Ming, but Manticore had taught him to put down threats, no matter what form that threat came in. As soon as he knee-shot the gunman, he should have put Ming down as well. His hesitation had nearly killed Max. It still might if she didn't come around soon.
"I'm sorry, Max," he whispered. "I should have been faster."
He half-expected her to open her eyes and berate him, but as had been the case since he'd brought her back to Logan's, there was no response. He hated seeing her so… lifeless. Max was all carefully controlled fire and balled up hostility. She was like a bright light he couldn't seem to stay away from. To see that extinguished, even temporarily, was more than he could stand.
"Come on, Max," he pleaded. "I need you to wake up and tell me to stop being an idiot. You're supposed to boss me around and I'm supposed to smart off and then we're going to blow this town and never look back. We can't get out of here, though, until you wake up."
For a second, just a second, Alec allowed himself to think what it would be like if Max died. Just that tiny second of doubt was enough to make his heart begin to wither inside him. He hadn't really lived before he'd met her, just survived. What would he do without her? What could he do? His sole skill set was as a thief or killer. She'd never forgive him, but then she wouldn't be around to smack him back into the right path.
"Just stay with me, Max. I need you here," he whispered. He brought her hand up and kissed it gently.
"Did…" Alec started at the sound of Max's voice. "Did I give you… permission… to maul me?"
Alec laughed, although it came out closer to a sob. "Max."
"You… kill… mayor?"
He kissed her hand again. "No."
"Too bad." She smiled weakly. "Probably best, though."
Alec laughed again, too overjoyed for words. The thought of being alone again had been too much. Seattle had emptied of Transgenics and without Max he would've had no one. He doubted he would ever have found the others. Alec really didn't want to be alone anymore, and now that he knew Max was at least interested, he wanted it to be Max.
"Gonna sleep now," Max whispered.
"Rest," Alec whispered in reply. He leaned forward and kissed her lips gently. Max eyes fluttered closed, but her mouth curved into a tiny smile. "Alec?"
"Sleep, Maxie. I'll be here when you wake up."
Alrighty… we're in the home stretch… One more to go.
