By Valjean
Surprise!
"Max," Logan said when they came through the door, "I've been trying to reach you--" And then he saw she wasn't alone. "Alec," he acknowledged, the eyes behind his glasses suddenly wary.
"Hey, Logan," Alec said, nodding in the older man's direction.
"What are you guys doing here?" Logan asked.
"What else?" Alec said. "Hiding."
"We went to a conference with some National Guard major and the sector police chief," Max explained. Things didn't go very well. They wanted to keep Alec as a hostage while I went back to Terminal City with their conditions for surrender." She glanced at Alec, a little smile on her lips. "Bad move on their part."
"You rescued him, I gather?" Logan said, not trying to hide the disapproval in his voice.
"Ahem," Alec said.
"Not this time," she said. "Didn't need to. He got out of it all by himself for once."
"Well, not all by myself," Alec admitted. "Lydecker helped."
"Lydecker!" Logan exclaimed. "You saw Lydecker?"
"We both did," Max said. "He was at the meeting. He wants to recreate Manticore and have all the mutants under his control."
"I gather you turned down the proposition," Logan said dryly.
"Everyone did," Max said with another look at Alec. "So now it's back to where we were before, digging in and waiting. What did you want to see me about?"
Alec knew Logan really wanted to talk to Max alone, but the funny thing was, he got the impression she didn't want that. So, impolite as it was, he dropped into in one of the old armchairs, planted both booted feet on the floor, and waited. Logan glared at him. Max, however, looked kind of relieved.
"I've found someone to cure the retrovirus," Logan said quietly. "That is, if you're still interested in being cured."
"Of course I want to be cured," Max said. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, since you and Alec are really together this time--"
"Whoa!" Alec said, holding up one hand. He narrowed his eyes at Max. "Are we playing this game again?" He shifted his attention to Logan. "Max and I are not together. Not that I didn't offer, but she turned me down. She loves you, and only you. I'm not even a close second."
"I know you slept with her," Logan said, his voice dropping lower.
"Max ..." Alec warned, wondering why on earth she'd told Logan.
"Oh, she didn't inform me in so many words," Logan said, leaning back in his desk chair and propping one foot on a small table. He picked up his glass of Scotch. "But I know it happened. There was something about the way she looked at you, Alec. You can see that in a woman's eyes -- when she's been with another man." He swirled the cubes in his drink, took a sip, and turned to Max. "And remember what you said when I asked you who you really wanted? Me or him?"
"Logan ..." Max said. Alec saw her swallow hard. "I didn't mean to--"
"Lie to me?" Logan said. "Go sneaking around behind my back with him?" He put both feet on the floor. "Max, what I still don't understand is why the deception. First, you tell me you're with Alec, then you tell me you made it up. Then you go off and fuck the guy."
"It was her heat," Alec said, jumping to Max's defense. "She couldn't help it. Neither could I. But it's nothing to base a permanent relationship on. She still only loves you, Cale. Like I said, I'm not in the picture. Never was." Alec glanced at Max while he talked, hoping he was saying what she wanted him to. But she looked stricken at his words, and for just a second he wondered if he wasn't missing something here.
"Her heat?" Logan said, his voice incredulous. "You're telling me that Max went into heat like an animal and you couldn't control yourself around her?"
"That about covers it," Alec said quietly. "No love involved. Just lust."
"Stop it!" Max screamed. "Just, stop it, both of you!" She turned to Logan. "I love you. I always will. And I thought that love would be enough for me. But I found out there's another kind of love. With you, it was based on friendship, and helping one another out. I trusted you, and you trusted me. We were pretty much alone in the world for a year. A good team. But when I came back from Manticore things were different. I didn't want them to be, but they were."
"Because you met Alec," Logan said slowly.
"Maybe so," Max admitted. "I denied it for a long time, that I was developing feelings for someone besides the man I already loved. But the more Alec and I fought, the more of a jerk he was, the more I tried to hate him, the stronger the attraction became."
Alec realized his mouth was hanging open. He closed it and swallowed, wondering if he was going insane like Ben. What he was hearing was just too unbelievable to be real.
"It's just lust, Max," Logan said. "Sex. Not love. You're confused."
"I told myself that for months," Max said. She turned to Alec. "It's not just because you look like Ben that I'm such a bitch to you. It's because I've been trying to keep you at arm's length, so you didn't tempt me. As long as I was angry at you, treating you terribly, it kept you from being too nice to me. I didn't want you to be nice, Alec. I didn't want you to be a good guy." Her voice dropped lower. "But it happened anyway. You are one of the good guys. And somewhere along the way you stopped being such a stupid jerk and turned into a man I began falling in love with."
Alec had suddenly noticed something. "Max--"
But she wasn't finished. "And Logan, somewhere along the way you stopped meaning the world to me and turned into just a friend. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is."
Ouch, Alec thought. Poor Logan. "Uh, Max ... you do realize you just dumped Logan in front of almost everyone we know." He nodded at the computer screen where Dix, Luke, Mole, OC, Sketchy, and Joshua were peering at them with very wide eyes. Logan had re-established the link between Terminal City and his computer. He'd apparently been testing it out when they arrived and had forgotten to clear the connection.
"Oh my God," Max said, covering her mouth with her hand. She looked like she was going to die from embarrassment . Alec got up and put his arm around her waist, drawing her close. "See it through," he said through clenched teeth. "It's the only way now." He glanced at their audience and smiled.
"I'm not sure you want me to see it through," Max said in a low voice. "Not when you hear the rest."
"The rest of what?" Alec said, suddenly not feeling so good any more, and wishing Logan would shut off the connection now.
Max drew herself up to her full height, looked straight into the camera lens, and said, "I'm pregnant."
There was a moment of stunned silence all around, and then their audience cheered.
"A baby!" Alec shouted. "You're havin' a baby!" He stopped in the middle of the street and took her by the shoulders. "Max, of all the times to let this happen. ..."
"I didn't let this happen, Alec!" she shouted right back at him. "We let it happen! Or don't you remember your part of it!"
Alec looked over his shoulder at Joshua's house behind them. "We need to get out of the street," he said. "Find someplace where we can talk."
"We don't need to talk about anything," Max said, pulling away from him. "I know what I'm going to do now, and you don't play any part in it."
"Is this when you tell me you don't love me -- again."
"Alec, we don't have time for love right now. I've got to take care of this."
"What do you mean 'take care of this,'" Alec said ominously. "You're not going to--"
"I haven't decided what I'm going to do about that," Max snapped. "I'm only a week along, at least according to the blood test kit I bought. I have plenty of time to decide whether I want this baby or not. In the meantime, though, I've got something else to do."
Alec grabbed her shoulder again, dragging her once more to a stop. "You're not seriously thinking about going to Thailand, are you?"
"That's where the scientist is who can get rid of this virus in me," Max said stubbornly. "Alec, I want it out of my system. Who knows what problems it could cause in the future? I might even pass it on to the baby -- if there is a baby."
"I'm going with you."
She looked at him suspiciously, obviously expecting more of an argument. He wasn't going to give her one. He knew where she was coming from, and in a way he agreed. Better to get rid of the virus once and for all.
"No," she said. "You're staying here."
"You're not goin' alone. You don't even speak the language."
"And I suppose you speak fluent Thai?"
"As a matter of fact, I do, but that's not the point. You'd be all alone and wide open for White to pick off."
"White won't know where I am."
"We don't know what White knows."
"Alec, I'm going, and you're staying here. The others in Terminal City need one of us to lead them. If something happens to me, you'll have to take over."
"Mole can take over."
"Mole will get them all killed. You won't." The look in her brown eyes was compelling. She put her hand on his arm. "Alec, we can't be together right now. I just told Logan that I was gone from his life for good. And I just told you that I'm probably falling in love with you. But we're going to have to wait. This baby is going to have to wait. I have to get this virus cured, and you have to lead the others while I'm gone. When I come back, we'll figure everything out."
Every instinct Alec had was screaming that this was horribly wrong. But short of knocking Max out, carrying her bodily back to Terminal City, then tying her up, he didn't know how he could stop her. If his pleas weren't enough, then what else did he have to fight her with?
"At least take one of the other X5's with you," he tried. "Mario would go."
"Mario doesn't have a passport," Max pointed out. "I only have a week to see this guy, then he's going to go into hiding again. Logan gave me my papers and my plane ticket. The flight leaves in the morning. I'm going, Alec. I'll be back in a few days," she added more gently. "I promise."
"You don't keep your promises, Max," Alec said, unable to hide the bitterness.
She turned to go.
"It's my child, too!"
He almost let her walk away. She'd reached the end of the street when he blurred. When his arms went around her and his lips took hers, she didn't fight, didn't try to push him away.
Alec knew this wouldn't last. But at least for the rest of tonight he was going to have something real with Max. There was an empty apartment in his old building. It had a bed. They wouldn't be disturbed. And, in the morning when he had to say good-bye to her, perhaps forever, he would at least know she'd truly been his for a few hours.