Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

Slowly, Max opened her eyes, the early morning light bathing the room in a gentle glow. With her ear pressed against Alec's chest, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, Max reveled in the calm.

Shifting her head to stare up to him, she reflected on him carefully, tracing the contours of his face with her eyes. Up close like this, she could see his freckles well, sprinkled across his nose and cheeks in a random, beautiful array.

Oh, girl, you got it bad, Max self-talked. It was Cindy's voice, a fact which Max found comforting. Boo, when you think something simple as freckles are beautiful and sexy, you in love.

Her eyes traveled to his chin, the one barely-there cleft that showed when he got scruffy or had a beard. She longed to reach out and gently run her fingernails against it.

Longing for him to fix his warm hazel stare on her, she smiled to herself, her gaze casting over his eyelids, his lashes streaking out. She watched his lips – those lips that made her feel so amazing, worthy of their soft impressions and sultry punishment, their seductive nudges and nips against her lips, her skin. She loved how his upper lip looked like a bow and his lower lip stuck out just a little, giving him that delicious pout. The sounds he made when she kissed that lower lip made her lightheaded with lust.

And suddenly, the room felt hot, her skin, constricting. Her center pooled with wet warmth. She followed the gentle slope of his neck over his Adam's apple and down the center of his chest to where her hand rested. Splaying her palm, she rubbed gently at his skin, unable to stop herself from fantasizing.

He stirred, his hand coming up to cradle hers against his chest.

She looked back up to him, a million thoughts running through her head. Would it be so bad if they made love without protection? If Sandeman or the cult or whoever gave them alternate visions of things that hadn't happened, then it was entirely possible that the future was not yet written, and they could still change things. Plus, it wasn't like they had a one hundred percent chance of getting pregnant.

With a start, she realized that it might not be such a terrible thing to have a child. Eyes widening and brows lifting, Max's partial pout dissipated into open-mouthed surprise. A child? With Alec?

She could picture it – their child. Her dark hair and his light eyes. Or his light hair and her dark eyes. Some logical levelheadedness mixed with unruly mischievousness, his easy charm and her careful compassion. Am I crazy?

Alec's intense stare found hers and she blushed. His heart beat rapidly under her palm as she felt him searching her eyes. Could he read her thoughts? Or was he thinking the same things?

Max sprung up on her elbow, facing him, seeing the evidence of his arousal in her peripheral vision, and, smiling like the seductress she envisioned herself to be, leaned down to kiss him, pulling his fuller bottom lip into her mouth and suckling it.

Humming in lustful approval, Alec rolled to his side, deepening their kiss, caressing her tongue until those same sultry noises slipped from her throat. He broke from the kiss and dragged his pucker down her chin, pushed up under it, then tongued the side of her neck up to her ear.

"Alec," she whispered, raspy with need, her voice a little louder right next to his ear. "I want to feel you," she trailed, pulling his earlobe into her mouth and flicking at it in arrhythmic staccato.

Again, her arms circled around him and pulled him on top of her, his knees between hers, the trunk of him pressed against her, his mouth finding hers again as they rubbed against one another.

Max's hands soon found a path, starting with her fingers in his hair, raking back to his barcode. She noticed his shiver as her fingertips ran across its dark lines, and then down and around his chest, rubbing his ribcage through to his naked back, and felt his form pressing eagerly against hers.

A warm, heady sensation flooded through her, her hands suddenly seeming to find a mind of their own, caressing down the slope of his spine and over his ass. She massaged him, simultaneously pulling his hips closer to the cradle of her legs and pelvis. She felt his hardness against her abdomen and stomach and smiled appreciatively, grinding her teeth at the frustration that he wasn't yet inside of her.

Alec grunted, pushing his butt backward and out of her reach, letting his lips leave her skin to look down to her. His fervent impatience made her snicker playfully. "Oh, you're enjoying this, are you?"

She nodded while giggling. "It's torture."

He lowered himself back down to her, his biceps bunching as he settled his elbows on either side of her ribcage and looked up to her, mischief glinting in his eyes.

"What?" Max asked coyly, running her hand through his hair.

He broke eye contact to stare at her toned abdomen, following the lines of her muscles and the columns of runes hungrily. He dragged his lower lip up one of those lines, kept smearing his lower lip up until it dipped under the hem of her shirt, and stopped just below her breast, punctuating the movement with a soft nip.

Max's head rocked back into the pillow and she shut her eyes. Christ, the things he could do with his mouth. She felt the tip of his tongue press into her skin at his bite, and when he pressed it downward, he refused to stop at the waist of her panties, instead, using his curled fingers to strip her panties down. Instinctively, she lifted her hips to assist, and as he backed away from her, his breath tickled the angle of her hip bone, the inside of her thigh, her knee, her shin, until the panties were out of both sight and mind.

In the split second before he came back to her, she decided she wouldn't stop him if he wanted to make love; she wanted to make love. She wanted every part of him and for him to have every part of her, and whatever consequences resulted from it, they'd deal, and they'd survive, and they'd beat the odds. They always did. The revelation drew a calmness and clarity over her and she breathed untamed, ready.

Alec cocked his head to the side as if asking a silent question, his eyes turning wild green and golden like a field on fire, and advanced toward her.

Max blinked slowly, her silence, permission.

He considered it for what felt to her like an eternity, before sweeping a palm up her leg, bending to dab the flat of his tongue along the inside of her thigh, and curling his other arm under her knee.

Desperate for him, Max felt the slight disappointment that he was not settling his hips between her thighs. That thought evacuated her mind the moment she felt his tongue rubbing against her eager center. She arched her hips up to him and felt the pressure deepen.

Standing outside Tony Miller's industrial studio apartment at the fire escape, Alec looked over his shoulder at Max. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold, and her breath came out in foggy plumes like his.

Goddamn, she's beautiful, he thought, feeling like a particularly lucky bastard. He never would have guessed two weeks ago that they'd be where they were today, that he'd feel so strongly about Max.

The woman in question looked down at the ground, possibly trying to figure out what kind of nasty biohazard toxins the mini wave had brought in. She made a disgusted face, her lips twitching up awkwardly as she attempted to wipe the sole of her boot on the grate. "Gross."

Alec chuckled to himself, looked at the window and knocked on the glass. Only a few seconds passed before Tony approached and opened the window. Setting his feet back on solid ground, Alec turned to help Max through the window.

"Hey, Alec," Tony greeted. "This Max?"

Max's lips curved in the hint of a smile and she extended her hand. "Nice to meet you."

He shook her hand firmly and averted his glance to the right. A bright blonde woman with slender legs walked toward them. Max caught her vibrant blue eyes and adopted a quick series of facial expressions. First, bravado-masked fear tilted her eyebrows up, her eyes a clear indication of hurt and pain, then her eyes narrowed and her brows scrunched down in what Alec was certain was the anger that pain caused, and then finally, her demeanor softened. Had she worked through it that quickly? To his pleasant surprise, Max reached her hand out first. "I'm Max," she said confidently.

Liv's worried blue eyes expanded, but her hand crossed the distance to shake Max's anyway. "Liv," she said.

Tony's smile split his face, lightening the mood. "This is my baby mama," he said, excitement threatening to spill over into everything.

Alec looked over to Liv as if to confirm she had told him the good news, but she wouldn't break Max's stare. "Congratulations," Alec said to Tony. He shook one hand and patted his friend on the back.

"Wow, congratulations! How far along are you?" Max asked, a small smile tugging on her lips.

Liv spoke softly. "About two months."

Alec imagined Max being two months pregnant. She'd be partway through the first trimester, hopefully not too nauseated from morning sickness, barely showing anything resembling a baby bump. The crazy thing was, the fictional two-months' pregnant Max in his mind's scenario glowed and smiled at him. She was happy, and fiercely radiant, and amazing. And she was all his. She and their baby.

Christ, he thought, running a hand through his hair. I'm in trouble.

"Come on, take a look at these," Tony interrupted his thoughts and led him toward his desk. He picked up the identification documents Alec had requested and handed them to him.

As he perused the documents, Max and Liv chatted quietly. He was certain Max wouldn't bring up Manticore, just as he was sure Liv would never invade another mind.

Dix's call had interrupted Max and Liv's serious conversation, summoning Alec and Max back to Terminal City, and as they made their way back to headquarters, Max contemplated all that Liv had told her.

Manticore had ordered the Psy-Ops units to infiltrate the minds of its 'failed experiments' and 'deviant soldiers,' and identify the one to which they vaguely referred as 'the one who passes the tests,' and 'the one who develops the marks.'

Liv knew about a few of the tests. She had prepared to delve into the mind one particular X5 who'd been suspended in water in a glass tank, but their location had been compromised and the Psy-Ops units instructed to abort. Max knew instinctively that it was Tinga on which she'd been preparing to wage mental war. It was a test meant for Max, and one she would have passed, but they got Tinga instead, and her sister had paid the ultimate price for it. She wrestled with whether or not to tell Liv about Tinga. Neither of them could change history, but she could keep some of the guilt from piling onto Liv. Max felt it was her fault, after all. It should have been her in the tank; maybe Tinga would have survived if it had been.

She said that when none of the soldiers inside Manticore presented the markings, the Director had assumed it was one of the twelve 2009 escapees who would end up being their alleged 'one,' which is why Manticore had strict capture orders instead of kill orders. She'd even helped create the scenarios meant to lure the twelve soldiers back to Manticore, but Manticore's attempts were futile.

Liv did not know about the snake venom test, though. The snake bite was strictly Cult business, and she did not know much about the Cult. The runes seemed connected to both Manticore and the Cult, but she couldn't read them. Max furrowed her brow, trying to put these puzzle pieces in context.

As their boots continued to trudge through some of the murkier parts of the sullied streets, Alec snuck a peek at Max. "Whatcha thinkin' about?"

Max shook her head and tried to shrug off the feeling of impending doom. "Nothing. Just trying to prepare myself for Athens." Her eyes glazed over as if she could see her future dissipating in the distance. How long would she be caught up in this Manticore/Breeding Cult mess? For the rest of her life?

"You know I got your back, right?"

Max looked to the ground and concentrated on the sound of her boots hitting solid ground. At least she knew what was real.

"And your front," he added, a lustful grin overtaking him.

She met his eyes momentarily. Memories of their morning stirred the feral warmth deep inside of her, and despite the drama of their lives and the upcoming trials through which they were about to put themselves, she couldn't wait to make love to this man. Max pushed him gently with one hand, smiling. "Pervert."

He caught her hand and stopped walking, pulled her close and pushed her palm up his chest. "Max, I gotta tell you something."

With her hand over his heart, she could feel his riotous heartbeat stampeding up and down his chest. It had to be something big if this is what it did to him. She felt her own pulse speed up and fixed him with an even keel stare. She waited, watching his mouth open and close three times before she finally interrupted. "What!?"

Irritated by his false starts and her impatience, Alec took an annoyed breath and blurted out, "I recently discovered I'm in love with you."

A small smile spread on her lips. She nodded mutely, imperceptibly, wondering if she'd heard him right, and stared into his eyes.

"I think I have been for a long time. That day in your cell," he trailed, squeezing her hand, kindling her memory of the day she'd met him. He seemed to be holding his breath as he gave her some time for it to sink in. When she didn't respond, he rephrased. "You do know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know," she said softly. She turned and pulled him by the hand to keep walking.

He followed just two steps before he stopped her again, tugging on her hand. "And?"

Max turned toward him and affected an heir of nonchalance. "And… you were slow."

Alec's brows came together in puzzlement, as if to ask what the hell she meant by that.

Max rose up onto her tiptoes and pushed her lips to his. Wrapping his arms around her waist, Alec bent to deepen the kiss, sliding his tongue through the juncture of their mouths to mingle with hers. Max finished the kiss, slowly backing away.

"Wait, what do you mean I was slow?" Alec asked as Max pulled him by the hand again. He followed in her wake.

She looked back at him as they kept walking, and with a flirtatious smirk, said, "Only took me eight days."

The air field and strip were fairly empty, dark, looking abandoned with the exception of a single hangar in which sat the small plane they'd be using to get to their first stop on the way to Cairo. The fact that the air field was ill-used was the reason Dix had made a deal for a flight so late at night. Not many people around to ask questions or cause trouble.

With their documents and duffels in hand, Alec and Max approached the aircraft. "You ready?" he asked.

He could have meant so many things. Was she ready to go to Greece, to figure out the prophesy, to avert the Cult's big apocalypse? Was she ready for everything? To discover Sandeman's plan, to venture into and explore their new relationship? Was she ready to finish this thing with White?

"Ready," she said, looking from the plane to Alec. "You?"

Alec nodded, grabbing her hand.

"Good."

As they walked toward the plane, they said in unison, "I have a plan."