Title: Discovering Her Destiny : Tempting the Fates
Disclaimer: If I owned Alec, do you think that I'd give him to Max?
Summary: The Fates weave the threads that lead people to their destiny. They've led Max astray before, but perhaps this time she's found her soulmate.
Pairings: Max and Alec. If any two people were destined/designed to be together, it would be them.
Setting: 2022
Spoilers: Anything and Everything from both the show's seasons can pop up somewhere. I have only just begun to watch Season 2 myself - Designate This aired on the 22 March, so if I'm not totally accurate; just know it's because I must've read the transcript wrong or something, and TELL me that it's wrong, so that I can FIX it!
Chapter 10: A nice Normal wedding
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"I can't allow this marriage to take place." began Normal.
"Why is that, my son?" asked the priest.
"Because those two are just wrong for eachother."
The audience groaned. Max and Alec were speechless.
"They think they're in love, but the truth is, Alec's heart belongs to somebody else."
There were gasps all around.
"Alec, I know that you'd never admit it, but I know that you love me just as much as I love you."
There was a stunned silence.
Max didn't know whether to burst into laughter or cry that Normal had upset her wedding day. Alec was having a slightly different predicament. He didn't know whether to laugh or kill the guy.
In the end, neither reaction was required. A great commotion outside broke the silence and diverted everyone's attention. Into the church, barged a very pissed off gentleman who sported a bald head, black leather and tattoos unlimited. Alec groaned as he recognised his buddy 'Asshole' from whom he'd 'borrowed' the bike that morning. Asshole angrily knocked Normal aside and stampeded down the aisle to grab Alec by his tuxedo collar.
"You stole my bike!" he growled. The rage was evident in his voice.
Max was indignant.
"Hey, I'm trying to get married here if you don't mind. Can this wait?"
Asshole turned around to look at Max. He visibly like what he saw.
"Baby, if you want a real man..."
He didn't get any further because Max's fist had greeted his nose. Asshole dropped Alec and howled in agony at the pain inflicted on his heavily bearded face.
"You were saying?" scoffed Max.
"Damned Bitch!" groaned Asshole. He then found himself on the ground - again - as Alec dropped him.
Asshole lay on the floor of the church, breathing heavily as he looked up at the couple. Alec crouched down, and gave him some advice very quietly.
" Your bike's out back. Go, take it and don't come back. If you do, I'll show you what pain really is. Are we clear?"
Asshole nodded and got up as fast as he could - which wasn't fast enough for Alec, who grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet. He hobbled away the way he had come, painfully aware that he'd been humiliated by a guy half his size and a bride.
Alec dusted himself off, and managed a grin at Max, even though he was just as dismayed as she looked. 'So much for the perfect wedding.' he thought.
The candles still glowed. The roses still filled the air with their fragrance, but the atmosphere was tense and nervous, stifling him. He turned towards the guests.
"Ladies; gents. I'm afraid that I'll have to call for a recess. As you've noticed, things aren't going too smoothly today and I need to talk to Max."
He took Max's arm and led her outside to the church's garden. The weather had definitely cleared up since that morning. Alec took a deep breath.
"I needed some air."
He raked his hand through his hair and sighed. He looked at Max and pulled her in for a hug.
"Everything's going wrong today, Alec." her voice was muffled against his shoulder.
"Hey, just because a couple of things went haywire, it doesn't mean that everything's gone wrong. We're almost married, Maxie. All he has to do is pronounce us husband and wife, and it's over. Just hang in there, Mrs Brady."
That got a small smile out of her.
"What are we going to do about Normal?"
Alec whistled.
"I guess I better go and talk with him. Tell him that I'm uhh... not interested."
"Want me to go with you?"
"No, it's okay. I can handle Normal. Coming inside?"
"No, I'll just stay out here for a while."
Ok. Meet me back at the alter in...ten minutes."
"It's a date."
He smiled.
"Am I allowed to kiss the bride yet?"
"Soon!" She smiled back.
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Alec found Normal in the foyer, with Original Cindy giving him a major tongue lashing. Jondy was there too, looking like she wanted to deck him.
"It's okay, OC. I'll take it from here."
"You sure, Boo? 'Coz Loverboy here won't take a hint!" she said, gesturing to a scowling Normal.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Thanks OC."
"Max okay?" asked Jondy.
"Yeah, a little dissapointed, but okay."
"We'll go find her. Sometimes, Sistahs need a little talk." declared OC.
"Knew she shouldn't have worn those darn pearls!"she muttered as they strolled outside.
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Max was wandering around, admiring the architecture of the old church, when a voice called her name. She turned around and to her surprised delight, saw Syl. She hurried forward as best as she could manage with her dress and flashed a radiant smile to her sister. But Syl didn't return it. In fact, she looked downright angry.
"Where's Jondy?"
"Right here." said a voice behind them. Jondy and OC had arrived on the scene.
"Jo..."
"Where the HELL have you been? Where's that idiot, Zane? When I get my hands on him..."
"Will you shut up and let me speak, Jo? We're late because we found Zack."
Both Max's and Jondy's minds froze.
"Zack?" they both whispered.
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"Look, Normal. You're my boss and I respect you..." began Alec.
Normal took Alec's hand and held it gently in his own.
"You don't have to be ashamed, Alec. I've accepted this side of me."
Alec extracted his hand from Normal's carressing.
"That's great, Normal. It really is. But I'M not...like that."
"Don't deny your feelings. I tried, but keeping them all bottled up inside drove me insane."
"So you decided to announce them to an audience on my wedding day?"
"I couldn't hide it anymore. And I couldn't let you go through with it. You can't marry her! You'd be miserable."
"Normal, I love Max."
"I love you."
Alec winced.
"You have to move on, Normal. You have to stop thinking of me as your "Goldenboy". I'm sure that you'll meet somebody else. I'm sure that there's a nice guy out there who's looking for somebody just like you." Normal refused to accept that.
"I'm not interested in anybody else. Your face is the last picture that I see when I go to sleep, and you're the first person I think about when I wake up. That's love."
Alec finally lost his temper.
"No. That's OBSESSION. I don't know how to make this any clearer, but I love Max and I'm going to marry her today, and there's nothing you or anybody else can do about it. I think that you'd better go home."
Normal nodded his head and turned around to walk away. He paused to turn around.
"Tell Max that she's fired."
"Then I quit."
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"What do you mean, 'you found Zack'? He's dead!" ,asked Jondy.
"Maybe you should ask Maxie here. We found him at this ranch where we stopped off to get supplies. Apparently, Max didn't want him pestering her anymore so she wiped out his memory and sent him to live the life of a farm hand."
"That's not how it happened!" insisted Max.
"Max, what's going on? How is Zack alive?" Jondy was torn between the argument of her two sisters.
"Zack was dead, but Manticore brought him back. They replaced his missing organs with cybernetic implants. They also messed with his head, brainwashed him into thinking Logan was out to kill us."
"Logan? Your friend, Logan?"
"Yeah. At the time we were dating..."
"So you exiled your own brother?" Jondy yelled. Her normally rational behaviour totally quelled.
"I was giving him a normal life!"
"How can you say that? We can't ever be normal. We have the damned barcode on the back of our necks to prove it." said Syl.
"Humans are on the look-out for the 'mutants' and you just left Zack to be a sitting duck."
Jondy rubbed her temples to ease the ache that had developed, and then turned to Syl.
"Where is he?"
"He's in the van with Zane and Brin. We've been jogging his memory the entire trip. He remembers most of it."
Jondy left to find the van. Syl turned accusing eyes to a tearful Max.
"I thought that Manticore taught us to never abandon our unit. I always used to think that you and Zack respected that rule above everybody else. Turns out, that I was only half-right."
"Hey, ease up on her. I know that you're angry, but do you think that it was easy for Max to send her boy off when she needed him the most?" piped up OC.
"When SHE needed him the most? Look, lady. I don't know what you know about us, but Zack was our lifeline. He was our common link. It was so hard for us to find eachother after he died. We had to start from scratch to establish what he'd done his entire life. Then it turns out that isn't dead. He had devoted himself to keeping us all safe and just because Maxie here didn't want that, we ALL suffered. You want to be left alone? You wanna live your happy little life here with your friends and your husband? Fine. We'll leave you alone. Goodbye, Max."
"No, Syl! That's not what I want. I spent my entire life looking for all of you. Don't go when I've just found you."
Syl sighed. She hated shouting at her sister, and Max looked so miserable on what should be the happiest day of her life. But Syl had been consumed by such fury, that Max's feelings hadn't mattered. She was still angry, but Syl managed a small smile for Max's benefit.
"Don't you want to see him?"
"I want to see everyone."
Syl took Max's hand.
"Then come on."
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Alec wondered where Max was. She hadn't returned to the aisle. There was no sign of OC or Jondy either. Brittany, the little bridesmaid, had fallen fast asleep on Logan's lap. The guests were becoming antsy and frankly, so was he.
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A/N I enjoyed writing this chapter. I am supposed to be studying for my exam tomorrow, but this is so much more fun! You know what to do. No more chapters until I get at least 15 new reviews! I think that 15 is a fair amount to ask, don't you? Especially since this chapter is so much longer than my last.
Yes, the surname Brady was stolen from Days of our Lives. It just suits him so well!
Disclaimer: If I owned Alec, do you think that I'd give him to Max?
Summary: The Fates weave the threads that lead people to their destiny. They've led Max astray before, but perhaps this time she's found her soulmate.
Pairings: Max and Alec. If any two people were destined/designed to be together, it would be them.
Setting: 2022
Spoilers: Anything and Everything from both the show's seasons can pop up somewhere. I have only just begun to watch Season 2 myself - Designate This aired on the 22 March, so if I'm not totally accurate; just know it's because I must've read the transcript wrong or something, and TELL me that it's wrong, so that I can FIX it!
Chapter 10: A nice Normal wedding
_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*-*-_-*- *-_-*-*-_
"I can't allow this marriage to take place." began Normal.
"Why is that, my son?" asked the priest.
"Because those two are just wrong for eachother."
The audience groaned. Max and Alec were speechless.
"They think they're in love, but the truth is, Alec's heart belongs to somebody else."
There were gasps all around.
"Alec, I know that you'd never admit it, but I know that you love me just as much as I love you."
There was a stunned silence.
Max didn't know whether to burst into laughter or cry that Normal had upset her wedding day. Alec was having a slightly different predicament. He didn't know whether to laugh or kill the guy.
In the end, neither reaction was required. A great commotion outside broke the silence and diverted everyone's attention. Into the church, barged a very pissed off gentleman who sported a bald head, black leather and tattoos unlimited. Alec groaned as he recognised his buddy 'Asshole' from whom he'd 'borrowed' the bike that morning. Asshole angrily knocked Normal aside and stampeded down the aisle to grab Alec by his tuxedo collar.
"You stole my bike!" he growled. The rage was evident in his voice.
Max was indignant.
"Hey, I'm trying to get married here if you don't mind. Can this wait?"
Asshole turned around to look at Max. He visibly like what he saw.
"Baby, if you want a real man..."
He didn't get any further because Max's fist had greeted his nose. Asshole dropped Alec and howled in agony at the pain inflicted on his heavily bearded face.
"You were saying?" scoffed Max.
"Damned Bitch!" groaned Asshole. He then found himself on the ground - again - as Alec dropped him.
Asshole lay on the floor of the church, breathing heavily as he looked up at the couple. Alec crouched down, and gave him some advice very quietly.
" Your bike's out back. Go, take it and don't come back. If you do, I'll show you what pain really is. Are we clear?"
Asshole nodded and got up as fast as he could - which wasn't fast enough for Alec, who grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet. He hobbled away the way he had come, painfully aware that he'd been humiliated by a guy half his size and a bride.
Alec dusted himself off, and managed a grin at Max, even though he was just as dismayed as she looked. 'So much for the perfect wedding.' he thought.
The candles still glowed. The roses still filled the air with their fragrance, but the atmosphere was tense and nervous, stifling him. He turned towards the guests.
"Ladies; gents. I'm afraid that I'll have to call for a recess. As you've noticed, things aren't going too smoothly today and I need to talk to Max."
He took Max's arm and led her outside to the church's garden. The weather had definitely cleared up since that morning. Alec took a deep breath.
"I needed some air."
He raked his hand through his hair and sighed. He looked at Max and pulled her in for a hug.
"Everything's going wrong today, Alec." her voice was muffled against his shoulder.
"Hey, just because a couple of things went haywire, it doesn't mean that everything's gone wrong. We're almost married, Maxie. All he has to do is pronounce us husband and wife, and it's over. Just hang in there, Mrs Brady."
That got a small smile out of her.
"What are we going to do about Normal?"
Alec whistled.
"I guess I better go and talk with him. Tell him that I'm uhh... not interested."
"Want me to go with you?"
"No, it's okay. I can handle Normal. Coming inside?"
"No, I'll just stay out here for a while."
Ok. Meet me back at the alter in...ten minutes."
"It's a date."
He smiled.
"Am I allowed to kiss the bride yet?"
"Soon!" She smiled back.
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Alec found Normal in the foyer, with Original Cindy giving him a major tongue lashing. Jondy was there too, looking like she wanted to deck him.
"It's okay, OC. I'll take it from here."
"You sure, Boo? 'Coz Loverboy here won't take a hint!" she said, gesturing to a scowling Normal.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Thanks OC."
"Max okay?" asked Jondy.
"Yeah, a little dissapointed, but okay."
"We'll go find her. Sometimes, Sistahs need a little talk." declared OC.
"Knew she shouldn't have worn those darn pearls!"she muttered as they strolled outside.
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Max was wandering around, admiring the architecture of the old church, when a voice called her name. She turned around and to her surprised delight, saw Syl. She hurried forward as best as she could manage with her dress and flashed a radiant smile to her sister. But Syl didn't return it. In fact, she looked downright angry.
"Where's Jondy?"
"Right here." said a voice behind them. Jondy and OC had arrived on the scene.
"Jo..."
"Where the HELL have you been? Where's that idiot, Zane? When I get my hands on him..."
"Will you shut up and let me speak, Jo? We're late because we found Zack."
Both Max's and Jondy's minds froze.
"Zack?" they both whispered.
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"Look, Normal. You're my boss and I respect you..." began Alec.
Normal took Alec's hand and held it gently in his own.
"You don't have to be ashamed, Alec. I've accepted this side of me."
Alec extracted his hand from Normal's carressing.
"That's great, Normal. It really is. But I'M not...like that."
"Don't deny your feelings. I tried, but keeping them all bottled up inside drove me insane."
"So you decided to announce them to an audience on my wedding day?"
"I couldn't hide it anymore. And I couldn't let you go through with it. You can't marry her! You'd be miserable."
"Normal, I love Max."
"I love you."
Alec winced.
"You have to move on, Normal. You have to stop thinking of me as your "Goldenboy". I'm sure that you'll meet somebody else. I'm sure that there's a nice guy out there who's looking for somebody just like you." Normal refused to accept that.
"I'm not interested in anybody else. Your face is the last picture that I see when I go to sleep, and you're the first person I think about when I wake up. That's love."
Alec finally lost his temper.
"No. That's OBSESSION. I don't know how to make this any clearer, but I love Max and I'm going to marry her today, and there's nothing you or anybody else can do about it. I think that you'd better go home."
Normal nodded his head and turned around to walk away. He paused to turn around.
"Tell Max that she's fired."
"Then I quit."
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"What do you mean, 'you found Zack'? He's dead!" ,asked Jondy.
"Maybe you should ask Maxie here. We found him at this ranch where we stopped off to get supplies. Apparently, Max didn't want him pestering her anymore so she wiped out his memory and sent him to live the life of a farm hand."
"That's not how it happened!" insisted Max.
"Max, what's going on? How is Zack alive?" Jondy was torn between the argument of her two sisters.
"Zack was dead, but Manticore brought him back. They replaced his missing organs with cybernetic implants. They also messed with his head, brainwashed him into thinking Logan was out to kill us."
"Logan? Your friend, Logan?"
"Yeah. At the time we were dating..."
"So you exiled your own brother?" Jondy yelled. Her normally rational behaviour totally quelled.
"I was giving him a normal life!"
"How can you say that? We can't ever be normal. We have the damned barcode on the back of our necks to prove it." said Syl.
"Humans are on the look-out for the 'mutants' and you just left Zack to be a sitting duck."
Jondy rubbed her temples to ease the ache that had developed, and then turned to Syl.
"Where is he?"
"He's in the van with Zane and Brin. We've been jogging his memory the entire trip. He remembers most of it."
Jondy left to find the van. Syl turned accusing eyes to a tearful Max.
"I thought that Manticore taught us to never abandon our unit. I always used to think that you and Zack respected that rule above everybody else. Turns out, that I was only half-right."
"Hey, ease up on her. I know that you're angry, but do you think that it was easy for Max to send her boy off when she needed him the most?" piped up OC.
"When SHE needed him the most? Look, lady. I don't know what you know about us, but Zack was our lifeline. He was our common link. It was so hard for us to find eachother after he died. We had to start from scratch to establish what he'd done his entire life. Then it turns out that isn't dead. He had devoted himself to keeping us all safe and just because Maxie here didn't want that, we ALL suffered. You want to be left alone? You wanna live your happy little life here with your friends and your husband? Fine. We'll leave you alone. Goodbye, Max."
"No, Syl! That's not what I want. I spent my entire life looking for all of you. Don't go when I've just found you."
Syl sighed. She hated shouting at her sister, and Max looked so miserable on what should be the happiest day of her life. But Syl had been consumed by such fury, that Max's feelings hadn't mattered. She was still angry, but Syl managed a small smile for Max's benefit.
"Don't you want to see him?"
"I want to see everyone."
Syl took Max's hand.
"Then come on."
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Alec wondered where Max was. She hadn't returned to the aisle. There was no sign of OC or Jondy either. Brittany, the little bridesmaid, had fallen fast asleep on Logan's lap. The guests were becoming antsy and frankly, so was he.
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A/N I enjoyed writing this chapter. I am supposed to be studying for my exam tomorrow, but this is so much more fun! You know what to do. No more chapters until I get at least 15 new reviews! I think that 15 is a fair amount to ask, don't you? Especially since this chapter is so much longer than my last.
Yes, the surname Brady was stolen from Days of our Lives. It just suits him so well!
