Max woke slowly, feeling Alec's arms tight around her. She smiled, and moved closer into his embrace. She felt her shoulder brush up against the bandages on his shoulder, and pulled back slightly, not wanting to hurt him. Alec moaned as she moved away from him. "you awake?" she whispered, running her hand up his arm.

"No" he muttered, pulling her back towards him. Max turned in his arms, wrapping her arms around his back.

"Alec. It's 5am"

"Don't care" he muttered, keeping his eyes firmly closed. Max waited for a moment.

"Yeah, okay. Fine" he told her, opening his eyes, and glaring at her briefly before smiling. "What is so important that it can't wait until a decent hour?" he asked

"We have stuff to do" she pulled away from him, and got out of bed. Alec groaned.

"we really don't." he muttered, only half serious. Max grinned at him, and as he watched, her expression altered. The look in her eyes became more focussed, more serious. Kind of like she looked right before a mission. Alec nodded. He hadn't seen that expression since the Jam Pony incident, definitely hadn't seen it during the recent mission on the hill. Max was reverting back into leader mode.

He could live with that. "Go see Neil, make sure you're okay, then we'll meet in HQ, okay? I have some stuff I want to check out, first."

He nodded, dropping his head back onto the pillow.



"He's not going to like this" Mole told Max, shaking his head. "He'll be okay with it" "Ahh, no. he won't. how can you sleep with the guy and not know that?" Mole took a quick few steps backwards. The distance didn't protect him from the full force of Max's glare.

"Alec will understand" she told him firmly.

"Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?"

"I have no choice"

"I guess. But I do, right? And I choose to be as far away from here as possible when you tell him. okay?"

"Mole, shut up"

he shrugged, and lit a cigar, taking a seat. For all his talk about running away, Mole really wanted to see this particular argument. "Just trying to help" he commented.

She glared at him, then turned her attention to Dix "I need some stuff. Its urgent. Can you arrange a team for an away mission? Three or four guys to hit an electronic supply factory."

"X or Freak?" he asked, thrilled to be asked. "Doesn't matter. As long as they can do the job, and fast."

"Hey, Alec!" Mole interrupted, jumping off his seat and going over to greet his friend. "Morning" he greeted, slightly taken back by the greeting.

"Great to see ya back on your feet" Mole told him, putting his hand on Alec's shoulder"

"thanks, buddy" he replied, confused.

"Mole, SHUT UP" Max interrupted the two of them. Both men looked over to her.

"We didn't have a good night last night, did we?" Mole asked sarcastically, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.

Alec looked from Max to Mole, then back again. He had the strange feeling that he was being kept out of the loop.

"Can we talk?" she asked him, gesturing to the back room. he shrugged, punching Mole, who was finding something really funny, then following Max into the room.

"This is bad, right?" he asked, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms

"What makes you think that?"

"Mole was laughing."

Max ran her hand through her hair. "Okay, here's the thing" he looked at her, inquiringly.

"Since the night of the mission, I've had Dix and some others trying to figure out where the familiars could have taken Shay, Tim and Ray. They've done everything they could, traced calls, watched for troop movement, everything we could think of. Nothing. The setup we have here just isn't good enough."

Alec bit his lip. He had assumed as much. if they had found them, they would have gone after them already.

"We have to find them" she told him.

"Okay, what do we do?"

"Well, I," she paused, not wanting to say this. "I go talk to Logan, get him to help."

"No." Alec replied shortly, unfolding his arms.

"Alec, I have no choice" she took a step towards him, reaching for him.

He shook his head. "Yes, you do. We do. We will find another way, come up with something else."

"Alec, there isn't anything. we don't have the equipment here."

"Then I'll get it" he told her quickly. "Tell me what we need, I'll get it."

She moved so that she was standing right in front of him. reaching out her hand, she touched his shoulder, the injured one, then pushed, sending him back against the wall. He gasped in pain.

"You can't. you're still hurt" she told him

He glared at her, emotional pain flooding over his features. He didn't trust Logan, didn't want her anywhere near him.

"Then, I'll get someone else to do it. I'll bring in a computer expert if that's what it'll take. I have contacts." He fought hard to prevent his voice sound like he was begging.

"it's too great a risk. What if your expert betrays us?"

Alec groaned in frustration and banged his fist against the wall. "Logan betrayed me! He told White where to find me! What makes you think he won't betray us again?"

"Alec, I don't think he did."

"Aaargh!" he screamed, hitting the wall again, putting his fist through it. He turned away from Max, leaning his forehead against the wall. He struggled to slow his breathing down. He couldn't allow this to happen. If Max spent more time with Logan, she would start to believe his crap again. She already was. But, if he yelled at her, told her there was no way she was going to see that bastard again, she would tell him where to go, and do it anyway. He sighed, then turned back to face her.

Max felt her heart drop at the look on his face. He looked devastated, like she had just ripped his heart out. "You can't go alone" he told her. "It's too dangerous to go anywhere alone. There are familiars everywhere."

"He won't help me if you go. He. doesn't like you" Understatement of the century.

"I didn't say me. I said take someone." He told her. Someone of his choosing. Someone who was loyal to him, who would be prepared to severely dismember Logan if he tried anything. Mole, would be a great choice. If only he wasn't green.

"Okay. But someone who doesn't stand out" Alec nodded, accepting her terms. he turned away from her and opened the door.

"Alec, wait" he paused.

"we have to find them. Logan is the one person I know, who may have the contacts to help us do that. That's all"

he shook his head. "I just, I don't like this, okay?" he walked out the door, forcibly preventing himself from slamming the door behind him.

"Hey, Alec." Mole stood up

"Shut up, Mole" he told him, storming out the door.

"Yeah, yeah" he commented, lighting a fresh cigar. "Seems to be the day for it."