A/N: I have noticed that both pairings, M/L and M/A are very one-sided. They make the other guy a total villain, and neither of the guys are all that bad, no matter who you support. So keep reading to find out what goes on, because the pairing is a little shaky right now..
-Charity
P.S. Chris, I wouldn't read this if I were you.
Max swept into Terminal City, anger and pain in every step.
"Heeey, Max." Alec drawled as he past her.
She spun around. Her hair whipped her in her face and Alec visibly cringed.
"What's with you? Did you take an extra bowl of Bitch Flakes or something?" Alec snapped.
"This is all your fault!" Max screamed. The nearby X Series froze.
"What? What did I do?" Alec got out of the little nook he had been sitting in.
"You brought her here, you found out her DNA and YOU made me feel bad for abandoning a daughter I never knew. Now I feel responsible!" Max screamed. "I know she's the one who cured the Virus and made us friends, but still!"
"You know, you have a conscience, too. You were the one who showed up on my doorstep!" Alec retorted. He was not going to take the blame for Max's self-inflicted melodrama. "What? You can't handle her? That's my girl."
Max bit her lip. "No, I can't. I hate to admit, but you are a much better parent than I am. I mean, she calls you Dad."
Alec looked at her oddly. "She doesn't call you Mom to your face?"
Max shook her head. "She starts to, but then she cuts herself off and calls me Max. Why?"
"She calls you Mom all the time. Rolls off of her tongue like she's been saying it for years." Alec chuckled, looking off. His eyes met hers again. "Go talk to her."
"How did you two meet, anyway?" Matt asked, raising his eyebrows. "Vada never told me."
Max just laughed and kept going.
"Two words, pal. Breeding. Partners." Alec whispered and Matt's eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hair. "And no, I didn't get any."
"I guess you're here because you're still mad at me for walking out on you and Logan." Vada murmured after Max tapped her on the shoulder.
"No, I'm upset because we haven't exactly found a comfort zone." Max slid onto the couch next to her. "There seems to be a lot you haven't told me."
"Daddy doesn't know it either." Vada replied automatically.
"Well, I want to know, because I was running. Your father wouldn't exactly understand, because he didn't grow up running away." Max began, but then she cut herself off. "So tell me. Where did you go after you broke out?"
Vada grinned. "New York. I trained there in dance for a while, but after Manticore was torched, I needed to get out of such a news-oriented city. I moved to Hartford and made myself a foster child. I was taken in by the snooty Castellanos family and I put myself there on purpose. The prep school was the one where Tristan had put himself, and after my fourteenth birthday, we ran away together. They thought I was sixteen, so last year they stopped looking for me."
Max smiled as it got darker and Vada continued with her story. Alec leaned on the doorway and watched his daughter and his unrequited crush. The three transgenics didn't know that each other were smiling so widely. They didn't know what would be their future. All they knew was that moment was warming them up from the inside out.
"Logan, wonderful to see you again." Vada chirped falsely, and Max nudged her.
"What do you want, Logie-Bear?" Alec drawled, his eyes full of a new hatred. A jealousy.
"I need you guys to steal something for me."
"I knew you had an edge!" Vada exclaimed, but then Max nudged her again. "Sorry, Mom."
Max would have been more upset if Vada hadn't called her the M word.
"How much is in it for us?" Alec sneered. Vada and Max both shot him glares.
"Nine grand."
"Nine grand sounds good." Vada whispered.
"Three grand each." Max murmured.
"Logie-Bear, I do realize that you are Max's boyfriend and all, but.. Why are you around so much?" Alec asked loudly.
Vada grinned at her X6 friends, and Max looked at Alec, horrified.
"Well, Alec, I thought Max or Vada would tell you, but Max and I are getting m--"
It went downhill from there.
Alec drove the SUV furiously, not speaking to Max, and barely acknowledging Vada.
"How are you guys doing? You're so quiet." Logan's voice floated through the SUV. Alec looked at the speaker as if he was going to chuck it out the back window.
"We're not very chatty tonight, Logan." Vada answered before Max or Alec could reply.
"I've got the feed of all the cameras, so I'll be your backup. Matt's also your look-out."
Logan sat back and relaxed as he watched the four screens set up at the Norman Rockwell Museum.
He watched the three of them spread out and toss things in the air. They had excellent chemistry. One of them would throw something, and another would pop out of nowhere to catch it, while the other was decoding something. Then they'd switch.
He clicked his mouse several times, taking photos of them at work. They'd probably be the only photos of the transgenics outside of the government.
They gave Logan a thumbs-up as they left with three paintings.
They were only supposed to get one.
Logan moved into the passenger seat as Matt slammed the driver side door behind him. He drove off while Logan viewed screen shots.
There was a particularly pretty one of Vada that he printed out. Max and Alec would love it. A shot of the three of them at work was also good.
But the one when Vada was working on the alarm coding for the cases, and Max was keeping look-out. Alec was staring at Max.
Logan clicked on the zoom button.
It was a look he was familiar with. A look he had had many times himself. The look of the unrequited crush. The look of the pain, the hurt, all of it mixed into one.
Max was oblivious to it.
Come to think of it, Logan had been, too.
"What are you looking at?" Matt asked softly as they pulled into the alley behind the house.
"Oh, just going over my reasoning, making sure I'm doing the right thing." Logan whispered as he printed out the photo.
"Are you?" Matt inquired, pulling the keys out of the ignition.
"Yeah." Logan murmured.
"Here you are, the cash from the Norman Rockwell. You're getting a smaller share from the other two because, well, we swiped them, and her it is, five grand." Alec handed it over in wrinkled, folded bills.
"That's nine grand for me, nine grand for you, and nine grand for Daddy." Vada chirped as she divided the remainder of the cash. "Dad's going to drive me home, okay?"
Max nodded and Vada kissed her mother goodbye.
"Bye, Max." Alec shouted over his shoulder. Logan caught his eye. "Logan."
"That's another job well done." Matt muttered, pocketing his own two thousand dollars. "I'm going back to TC, too, Max."
Max smiled confidently as she watched him go. "We make a wonderful team, the three of us."
Logan nodded. "You guys did a great job. You should see the recaps."
Max's eyes lit up. "Do you have them?"
Logan shook his head. "I deleted the photos and the recaps, but I did print out the really good ones."
Max eyed the stack of eight-by-tens nearby and grabbed them. "Oh, that's a pretty one. She's going to love it. And look at us!"
"Zoom in on Alec's eyes." Logan said as she looked at the next picture.
Max appraised his face. There was a look, oddly familiar and creepily comforting. It was loving, adoring, painful and hurt. The words she had heard and the photo she was seeing confirmed her worst fear. The fear that filled her with girly excitement.
"What about it?" Max asked nonchalantly.
"I know you see it. Anyone could." Logan observed, walking off. "Vada knows it, Matt knows it, and they all make bets about you. You protect him, too."
Max looked up. Her worst fear was no longer the girlish one she had thought it to be. Her worst fear was happening. Logan knew.
"I know you've just realized it. I can't stand here and say I'm going to marry you when I know that in the end, it will be Alec." Logan wasn't cold, he wasn't bitter, he was understanding. "Doesn't matter, anyways. You're happy, you don't hate me, and you didn't leave me for him like you made me think."
Logan reached over and kissed her on the cheek. "Leave when you want, do what you want, and know that you have my blessing."
TBC