"She still sleeping?" Max asked when her and Zack walked through the door about an hour later.
"Dino-babe went all trippin'" Original Cindy responded. Her and Logan had given up cards, and now she was sitting on the couch flipping through a magazine. She was hoping it was Max's magazine. She didn't want to know what Logan was doing with Cosmo. She looked up at Max. "She gets up and starts all actin' like a possible new lickety, then goes trippin' out. She on the roof."
Logan gave a quick summary of what had happened. Max understood immediately. She wanted to laugh, but after reading between the lines of what Zack had told her while they were out, she figured it would be a good idea not too. She didn't think they were lovers, but it was obvious he liked the girl. It should have been a relief, but instead it worried her. He didn't have enough practice with sentimentality to be dealing with Alicia.
"She's been up there alone?" Zack asked. Max felt better. He sounded suspicious, and that was the Zack she knew.
"I've checked on her," he replied. He had cameras everywhere, and all she'd been doing was sitting with a battered green towel she'd gotten from her bag around her shoulders.
"I'll go talk to her, make sure she's OK," Max said casually.
"Hey, Max," Logan called as she turned to leave. Max raised her eyebrows in question as she looked back at him. "She said it was biological, the same as you. You don't get like that, do you?"
Well, she'd kept herself from him when she did. Maybe it was time. Maybe not. She might hurt him. She smiled wide. "I'll tell you all about it later." She noticed Zack was going to follow her, but she stopped him. "I don't think it would be a good idea for you to go up there right now," she said, and then sauntered off.
Alicia was still sitting there when Max went out. She had taken off her boots and was staring at her polished toenails. It was better to distract herself, rather than think about going into that apartment ever again. Why did norms put paint on their toenails? She'd done it before her date because that was supposed to be typical behavior; just like shaving various body hair, but she didn't get it. She had to walk around like a penguin for an hour with foam things between her toes just to put on toe paint. Cole had laughed his ass off till she proved she could still kick him in the ass even with the foam. Norms were stupid.
"You going to live?" she heard Max's voice from behind her. Fuck. No, bad term right now. Shit. That was much better, much less arousing. Max was here. That meant Zack was back too. Keep him away from me, she prayed.
"I have before," she replied dryly. Max knew. She had to.
Max came closer and sat down. "You didn't tell Lydecker this was bad timing in the girl zone?" she asked.
"It was irrelevant to the mission," she replied flatly. She was still soaking wet, and freezing up here. But the cold was very distracting. "It was also way early."
Her eyes were focused on the city skyline, so she didn't see Max blanch. There were certain things that would bring it on early. But that would mean she and Zack, and Max just couldn't see that happening. Zack was, well, Zack. He wasn't into that. Must have happened right before they met up in LA. Yeah, that made sense.
"Well, let me know if you need anything," Max said, standing. Max was being nice to her? She must look pitiful. She felt pitiful.
"I'm just going to freeze for a while before I go back down," Alicia muttered. Where was she? 608 does not act like this while on a mission. Maybe it was knowing there was a traitor she couldn't find yet. Maybe it was being cut off. Maybe it was the fact she couldn't get a certain person out of her head. Maybe it was the fact she couldn't get a certain act with a certain person out of her head. Maybe she should just jump off the roof.
After a long while she realized that there was someone else behind her. Was this going to be a tag-team check the unstable, X-6, lizard-girl, freak game? She put her forehead against her knees. A few more hours and she'd get moving. She had a traitor to find before he could get to any of the others. Most of her problem was physiological right now, but that would pass. Everything else, well, she'd deal with it.
Something wrapped around her shoulders, and she jerked back, getting to her feet in an eye-blink. She then realized she was in an attack stance about to kill a dangerous blanket. Zack was looking amused. She was not.
"Get away from me," she snapped. She didn't want him to go, but she knew she'd kill him if he stayed. She sat back down. It wasn't the cold making her shake now. She was in physical pain at this point, and she didn't need him physically close to make it worse. All she could think of was being with him on the train, touching, tasting…stay away from me she thought, hanging on to her self-control by a thread.
"Were you hitting on Cale?" he asked.
"Zack, right now…it's just…everything is interesting, OK? You want a biology lesson, go talk to Max for a few more hours."
Was she jealous that he'd gone out with Max? "I know what's wrong," he said, crouching down and putting the blanket around her again. "All of my sisters deal with this." He still sounded amused. "I think Cindy thought you were hitting on her too."
He'd been warned. In one motion she spun around, one leg out, knocking Zack off balance. She pushed forward, and her weight pushed him back. In less than a second, Zack found himself flat on his back, and she was on top of him, her nose almost touching his. The motion had been done so gracefully that the blanket had flared out, but not come off of her shoulders.
She had a pretty scathing retort in mind, but it was suddenly not there anymore. She was freezing, and she could feel the heat from his body warming her. This was not a good move. His hand touched her cheek softly.
"Were you really going to leave?" he asked.
"You know I have to," she whispered. She couldn't move away from him if a bulldozer tried to pry them apart. "Doesn't mean I want to."
She leaned down and pressed her mouth to his. His arms tightened around her, refusing to let her go. She never thought she'd get another chance to be with him like this when they'd gotten off of the train, but this felt more like a moment of time stolen. She could feel him pulling her tank top up, and broke loose of the kiss long enough to let him pull it off, her hands pulling at his clothes. The blanket was all around them, and as he kept kissing her, tears crept out of her eyes. In the morning she would leave, and she would never see him again. For now, she just enjoyed this one stolen moment.
*************
Logan snapped off the roof camera with an audible click. He sat alone in the computer room thinking. Cindy had fallen asleep on the couch, and even Max had decided to get some sleep. Things were falling into place in his head. Girl was smart, he thought, smart enough to fool me, all of us. Seduce the leader. Max doesn't just do what he says, but she does trust him. Show comradeship by working to defeat a common enemy. Fake a physical weakness to evoke sympathy. Logan was willing to bet the syringe that she had was nothing more than water and food coloring.
He'd noticed Zack grabbing a blanket out of the spare room when Max had gone to bed. Logan was curious, but knew better than try and get a straight answer out of Zack. He'd used the cameras to follow him. There wasn't any audio on the outside ones, but from the video, it was pretty obvious this wasn't their first time. He sat there quietly waiting for them to finish and come back down.
He waited for a couple of hours, occasionally checking them out on the camera to make sure they were still up there. He felt a little creepy spying on them, but he wanted to know if anything happened. Finally they were lying together talking. Logan cursed himself for not having audio put on the outside cameras. Finally they started to get dressed, and he snapped it off again. He wanted to get Alicia alone. Zack would defend her, and Logan knew he needed to let Alicia know that he knew the truth about her plans when she didn't have any backup.
*************
Alicia didn't want to move. Her body fit with Zack's so well. Yin-Yang, she thought dreamily as they snuggled together. She wasn't cold at all anymore, and she had to admit that physically, she felt much better and more in control of herself. Of course, Zack looked completely exhausted, but hey, he knew the risks when he came up here. He wasn't complaining.
She leaned up and kissed his cheek playfully. "Thank you for bringing the blanket," she said. "I was cold."
He groaned. "Please don't thank me again. I don't want to explain why the stitches have to be redone."
She laughed. Their eyes met, and her laughter faded. It was coming to a close so quickly. She could see the question in his eyes, and realized that he would never ask her to stay with him. He understood her far too well to even ask. She already understood the question, and he already understood her answer. She wasn't sure if she was going to laugh or cry.
Instead he pulled her back down to him. He knew that very soon he was going to let her go. She'd go back to Manticore, and he'd go on with his life. Was is possible that in a matter of less than 48 hours someone could suddenly mean so much to another person?
"Maybe we should get dressed and go back in," Alicia said. She wasn't sure if she wanted him to say yes or no.
"I could use some sleep," he replied. "You probably could use some before morning too," he continued, his invitation obvious.
"Zack…"
"I know what's going to happen at dawn," he interrupted. "In the meantime…"
She smiled, and gave him a quick kiss. "In the meantime," she said softly. She paused and then looked at him seriously. "I'm going to tell you something," she said. "It goes against all my better judgment, but I'm going trust you with it. If you ever need to contact me after tomorrow, post a message on the on-line game to the Knights of the Ruby Chalice. Only Cole and I know that name. It's been reserved for absolute emergencies between me and Cole, when there's something that not even the other sixers can know." She didn't say anything else as she got up.
They got dressed, and once again Alicia found herself hunting for socks. "Go ahead and go to bed," she told Zack. "I'll be there in a few."
Zack looked torn between staying with her, and going to bed. Bed won, he was exhausted. He grabbed the blanket, wondering what Cale was going to say when he saw it, and then dismissed the thought. It wouldn't matter anyways.
Alicia found her things, and went back downstairs. Everything was incredibly quiet. Her stomach rumbled slightly, and she decided to see if there was any pasta left before going to bed. It'd only take a minute, and then she would go to Zack.
As she passed the computer room, there was a slow, mocking clap. She looked in, and saw Logan sitting at the desk sneering at her.
"Brilliantly done," he said. "Absolutely brilliant."