It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Well, it was if you were an X-5, which just happened to be what Max was.

On their way to work, Alec hadn't said more than three words. And it was driving her insane! Normally she couldn't stand his incessant talking but she knew something had happened and he wasn't saying a word.

Max stopped him right before they entered Jam Pony. "Alec, what's your deal? You haven't said more than three self-centered words to me this morning."

Making sure no one was around, Alec spoke up. "It's personal."

"Well, care to tell me about it?"

"Knowing you, you'd probably laugh at me."

Max grinned. "Then you definitely have to tell me." Off his stern glare, she sighed. "Fine, I won't laugh."

Again, Alec made sure no one was within earshot. "I spent a lot of time with Satrina this ast week, and I think I'm starting to have feelings for her. There, are you happy? This self-centered, norm hating soldier is having feelings for a human." He kept his voice low so no one heard but that didn't take away the edge in his voice.

Eyes wide, Max shook her head. "That's impossible! You're shallow and-"

"Isn't it possible for people to can change?" he cut her off.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She tried to calm him down. "Just ... tell me what happened."

And he did. He told her every little detail from him blushing to Satrina dropping the mud in his boxers.

It took Max a few moments to process this. "Alec," she said softly. "This is great. You're showing personal growth. And I think she's the perfect person for you."

Leaning against the wall, Alec let out a deep breath. "I don't know what to do. I've never felt this way about anyone."

She leaned against the wall next to him. "You've never had the opportunity to have these feelings before. I think you should tell her." Funny how it took her a year to tell Logan that and she was expecting him to do it in less than a week.

"Can I still tell her that without her knowing what I am?"

"That's up to you."

"Max," he began slowly, "I don't know if I can do that." His breath caught as he noticed Satrina approaching.

Seeing him tense, Max spoke quietly. "Don't worry Alec, just be yourself. Be your overly charming, horny-self."

That seem to put him at ease. A sly grin spread across his face and he joined Satrina.

She looked at him quizzically. "What are you smiling at?"

"An amazing woman." His voice dripped with charisma.

Abruptly stopping, she faced him. "Did all that mud go to your head?"

Alec finally dropped some of the charm. "I'm just kidding. You weren't beginning to think I was being nice, were you?"

"Heaven forbid."

Alec mustered all his charisma, seductiveness and wanting into one perfect look and let it all flow though his voice. "What are you doing tonight?"

With that look, Satrina would have done anything he wanted but she tried desperately to keep her head. "Nothing, why?"

The distance between them shortened as Alec leaned in. "I've got something for us to do, but it's a surprise."

Nearly intoxicated by him now, Satrina could only mutter, "Oh?"

He could smell the desire and want pouring off her now. He smiled and that almost sent Satrina off the edge but she managed to hold onto some sense of reality. "I'll pick you up at your place around nine," his sweet breath tickled her face. Alec thought about kissing her then but there was just too many hormones and pheromones for it to end well. That actually depends on your definition of well.

"Wear something comfortable that you don't mind getting dirty." Casually walking away, Alec left.

Satrina snapped out of her daze. Oh gods, that man was amazing. Something's changed in him. The thought came unbidden. His normal self wouldn't have tried that hard just to get a woman to agree to meet with him. Something was up. Effort was put into his entire conversation.

Satrina smirked. At least tonight would prove to be interesting.


Stealthily, Alec crept around Satrina's apartment. For getting such a poor salary,
she had a descent apartment. Fairly new furniture, carpet worn a little thin and paint just beginning to chip, she had one of the nicest apartments Alec had seen.

He searched for her quietly using his enhanced vision in her nearly dark apartment. Almost losing his concentration from excitement, he narrowly missed hitting a table.

And then he saw her. She looked out a large window miles away in thought. Normally, her long hair was pulled back out of her face. But now it flowed around her shoulders. Dressed simply in her pajamas, a tank top and cotton pants, she was not ready for their night out.

He came up behind her and gently rested his hands on her hips. Mouth next to her ear, he whispered softly to her. "You're not ready."

Startled, she whipped around, her face inches away from his. "Alec! How did ... I didn't even..."

Pressing one finger to her lips, he silenced her. Smiling, he spoke. "I wanted to surprise you."

Carefully, she pulled away from him and faced the window again. "I don't really feel like going out tonight."

Actual shock hit his face. "Why not?"

"When were you planing on telling me?"

"Telling you what?" Alec was thoroughly confused.

A deep shuddering breath left her. "Telling me what you are."

Sensing where this could be going he became very worried. "What do you mean, what I am?"

She never met his eyes but kept staring out the window. "When I first set eyes on you, I thought you were the most attractive man I'd ever seen. I still think that's true. You're amazing, you're... perfect."

Alec remained deathly quiet. He knew what she was going to say, knew that she knew.

"But then I thought some more. How you just magically showed up out of no where. How you fought those goons. And then I saw the tattoo on the back of your neck..."

His mind raced back to the night they had the mud fight. She had pulled lint of the back of his neck. She was looking for the barcode.

"Like everyone, I had heard about the rumors of genetically engineered super soldiers. Some government agency created them in a lab in some remote part of the country. Back in '09, twelve soldiers escaped. But since you've only appeared recently, I've got to believe to believe the recent rumors are true. That some top secret government building had been burnt down and that there were trans-genics running around."

Not knowing what to say, Alec remained silent. Everything that she said was true. What she would do know was a mystery to him.

Facing him, and looking him directly in the eye, tears slicked her cheeks. "What am I to you? You are this perfect soldier, am I a dirty human to you? Someone to sleep with? A good fuck? You must think I'm an idiot. A stupid human to play with." Back to the wall, Satrina slid down to the floor. Knees tucked to her chest, Satrina started to sob. "Go away," she said in between sobs. "You may be perfect with no emotions, but I'm not. I'm just an emotional human." She buried her head in her knees.

His heart broke at her sobs, but his mind flared with anger. That's not how he felt at all and he wanted nothing more than to prove it to her.

"No, Satrina." In one swift move he was kneeling in front of her. "None of that is true."

"Leave me alone!" her voice rose. "I'm sick of being used."

"Satrina, please listen to me. I didn't use you." At her silence, he continued. "At first I did think all norms were dirty. I thought they were only good for sleeping with. But then I met you." He tenderly took hold of her hand. "I was arrogant and thought I could bang you like any other norm. But you proved everything I thought wrong. You are unbelievable. With ever encounter, you made me see norms for what you really are. You are not dirty, and you're not stupid."

Gently, he lifted her head to look at him. "Satrina, I was scared this morning. I've never had feelings for anyone like the ones I have for you. You changed me; made me so much better than I was. You made me care. You gave me depth."

Streaks of tears still covered her cheeks. He wiped them away.

"Really?" She asked meekly.

He nodded. "Yes."

A small laugh escaped her lips as she smiled.

He stood and pulled her with him. "So, are you-"

He was halted by her lips on his. Tender, soft, Satrina made sure he got every feeling from her. She knew he had never had a true kiss before.

Losing himself completely, he slipped his arms around her waist. The feel of her and the kiss was exhilarating. Kisses were always pleasurable but even more so when he cared for the person and respected them. He wouldn't have ended that moment for anything. But, unfortunately, Satrina was only human and had a silly habit of breathing. Satrina forced herself to break the kiss.

His rapid breathing teased her face. So many thoughts tumbled around in Alec's head that not one of them could come front to be spoken.

The emotional turmoil evident in his eyes, Satrina placed a hand gently on the side of his handsome face. "Alec?" Her sweet voice dragged him back to reality. "Are you alright?"

For a brief moment, Alec thought about leaving. It would be so much easier than dealing with all these feelings. But her pouty lips, flushed cheeks, sleek face and, most importantly, her clear eyes showing her concern and her affection, he knew leaving wasn't an option.

His voice was quiet with feeling, a rare occurrence. "I'm fine. I just ... this is all new to me. I'm-"

"Afraid?" He couldn't bring himself to speak it out loud so he only nodded. "It'll be okay, Alec. Feelings like we have can be overwhelming. But I'm not going to hurt you."

Alec smiled at the irony of him, an X-5, scared of a woman.

An unstifled yawn from Satrina broke the serious conversation. She smiled sheepishly, "I couldn't sleep last night. Thoughts of an unbelievably attractive man kept me up."

"Well, we can't have you drifting off, can we? Off to bed with you!" Before she could protest, Alec swiftly picked her up with strong arms and carried her to her bed. Happiness overtook both of them as he set her down and joined her in the bed. They lay with legs intertwined and her head on his chest.

Resting her arm across his stomach, Satrina looked up at Alec. "Can I ask you something?"

"You just did," he pointed out with a grin.

She hit him lightly. "You know what I mean."

"I suppose."

"I know you're genetically engineered and a soldier, but what exactly are you?" Deep inside, Satrina hoped he'd be alright with talking about Manticore.

"I am an X-5," he stated easily.

Her brow furrowed. "What's an X-5?"

"Think of it this way," he began. "There are different generations of soldiers. With each progressing generation, the DNA resequencing and recoding get more specific, more sophisticated."

"So you're from the fifth generation." Satrina's curiosity was running rampant.

He nodded. "Exactly. We're each given a destination based on our generation and the last three numbers of our barcode. My designation was X-5494 until Max changed-" Immediately realizing his mistake, Alec stopped himself.

Surprise took hold of her. "Max? She's an X-5! I never would have guessed."

"Yeah well, apparently she does a lot better job at hiding it than I do." He ran a hand threw is hair in defeat. "She was one of the ones who escaped in '09."

Noticing the anger towards himself, Satrina attempted to make him feel better. "You know, Max has been out for over a decade, you've only been out for a few months. You're not use to having to hide what you are." Acceptance peeked through his defeat. "So explain to me how you know Max. I'm assuming when she was gone those couple months it wasn't for a heart transplant."

"It actually was." And he told her everything. Max, Zach and the rest of them trying to destroy Manticore, being her breading partner and Max burning down Manticore and all the rest in between.

After he finished Max's tale, Satrina was awed into silence. How could she say anything after a story like that? Her eyes fell, gazing intently at his firm chest.

Alec stroked her hair lovingly. "Satrina, you can keep asking me anything you want. I know the curiosity is eating you up."

She smiled mirthfully at him, then pondered what to ask. "What was being in Manticore like?"

"You know, I actually didn't mind Manticore. I had a roof over my head, food, a clean place to sleep. Every now and then I had to go on missions." Pausing, Alec considered telling her what most of the missions consisted of. He didn't know how she'd react to being in the arms of a killer. "Satrina, on a lot of my missions-"

She hushed him with one finger to his lips. "Alec, don't finish that. You're a genetically engineered soldier. I can pretty much guess what you did."

"Are you okay with that?" Worry crept into his voice.

Carefully, Satrina picked her words to answer. "I understand that you had to do things that you probably wouldn't have done had you not been a soldier. I don't think you're a murderer. If I was worried about you hurting me, you wouldn't be here."

Satisfied with her answer, Alec continued answering her questions through the night.