Disclaimer: All is Cameron's etc.

Authors Note: Anyone who would like a copy of the completed Heated Heart or Ties of Weakness, which I had to delete from ffnet for editing, email me at jinxda@hotmail.com and I'll send you a copy.

DARK TERROR

Chapter 6 - Mending the Mind

"Max talk to me." Alec let his face fall into his hands. It seemed all he had done since he had rescued Max was beg her to speak to him. If he had thought it was hard before, when she couldn't talk to him, it was harder now. Now that she simply wouldn't. It had been a close call in New York. They had barely escaped from White. Two days had passed and they were now holed up in yet another motel dump in Boston. A dark bruise was high on Max's fragile cheek bone, a physical reminder of both their pain.

Alec cursed himself for hitting her. But seeing Max hold that gun to her head, intending to end her own life had shocked him. I should have seen it coming. I should have know better than to throw White in her face like that, especially after she just remembered Logan's death! Jesus I saw what White did to her, no wonder she would rather kill herself than let him take her again!

Despite Max's silence, it was obvious to Alec that Max had not fallen deeper into the darkness that had cacooned her since the trauma's she had suffered. Her rich brown eyes were alert now, no longer dead, glazed stones. She clearly heard and understood him when she chose to but at other times she seemed to voluntarily sink back into the numb escape her mind offered her. Only the night terrors were consistent and that was the only time when Alec felt he could touch her without guilt of shame. Guilt for the last time he touched her, when he struck her so hard that he bruised her delicate skin. Shame for the love and desire he felt which he could no longer bury underneath the duty and responsibility of caring for her.

Now Max was stubbornly refusing to comprehend his words and was staring blankly at the wall. Knowing that Max could now come out of the fugue she had deliberately relapsed into when he had started to try and talk to her after dinner, was more frustrating than the hopeless nights of screaming and the dreadful days of running. Enough is enough! Energised through his anger Alec moved to kneel directly in front of Max.

"Max!" Alec held her by her upper arms and shook her lightly. His grip was careful and he had no wish to hurt her more than he already had. "Max I know you can hear me, snap out of it!" Alec saw her coffee eyes flicker at his words and encouraged he continued. "You gotta talk to me Max, I cant do this alone anymore. Max? Max, come on. Please…" Suddenly drained of all his emotion, Alec ended with his head resting in Max's lap, his fingers trailing down her thin, pale arms to twine with her slender fingers. "Please Max…" He whispered. "I need you…"

Alec felt a slight pressure of his fingers being squeezed and he looked up to see Max staring down at him, tears glazing her large soft eyes. "Max?" He asked tremulously. The tears fell and Alec felt his heart break with the pain they contained. Max pulled her fingers from his and tangled them in his fine brown hair.

"I'm sorry." Brokenly the words fell from Max's mouth as she met Alec's eyes. Alec rose instantly and enveloped Max in his strong arms as she sobbed out her pain and fear and grief. "Oh God… I'm so sorry." Alec found himself crying as well.

"It's okay. We're gonna be okay Max. You just got to stay with me, stop trying to shut everything out." Alec moved to change positions with Max and pulled her onto his lap, cradling her small form. She was so small against his chest, he swore he could feel her tiny bones shift against him.

"Logan's dead." Max wept. As though she had only just heard the news. Alec closed his eyes against the memory of the other mans suffering.

"I know Max. I know."

"He- He-" Max couldn't get the words out past her throat and Alec knew she was thinking of the horrific appearance of Logan when she had held him in her arms that last time. Suffering. Mutilated. Dead. What could Alec say to Max to make the pain less? He couldn't even lie and say that Logan hadn't felt anything, that he had been too far gone to feel the pain of his death. Max had seen him. She knew what had been done to the man she had loved so much.

Alec moved his hand to hold the back of her head firmly and tightened his arms around her, hoping to make her feel his support. Guilt was fresh in his mind. Did Max even remember his part in all this? Did she know that it had been him who had inadvently led White to Logan's apartment on his way to return Bast? Did she realise he had watched Logan being tortured and done nothing? How could Max ever forgive him when he couldn't even forgive himself.

Now was not the time for him though. This was about Max, what she needed and right now she needed him. To comfort her, to watch her back, and whether she wanted it or not - to love her.

"It's okay Max. Shh. Its going to be okay." Helpless words, pointless but all he had to offer her in the way of comfort. "Logan was a good man, Max. He loved you very much." This was the only certainty that Alec knew. He didn't know about Heaven or God or eternal life. But he knew that Logan had loved Max. Alec had seen proof in blood.

Max raised her head to look at Alec and he met her pain head on. "Did he know?" Max asked, her soft voice raw from tears. Alec's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Know what Maxie?" He asked gently, troubled when Max's eyes filled again.

"I cant remember-" Max choked. "Did I tell him- before- did he know I loved him?" The question was desperate and Alec felt his memory slid back to the night Logan had died. He saw him on the floor. Saw Max leaning, wanting to touch him. Heard her tell him he would be fine and that she loved him. Heard the shot that had destroyed Logan's brilliant mind. Heard Max scream. Alec shook the horrific memory from his mind and turned his gaze back to Max. This he could give her. This peace.

"Yeah. You told him Max. He knew." Alec assured her. Tragic relief swam in Max's eyes as she absorbed the thin thread of peace, that knowing Logan had heard her say the words gave her. Even if Logan had died without hearing the technicality of the words what Alec had said was the truth. Logan must have know how Max had felt. She loved too strongly, with too much fire to ever let it be unknown that she loved. "He knew." Alec repeated, once more folding Max into his arms. Alec rocked her gently.

"White- He- He hurt me-" Max spoke like a child now, her voice trembling in fear. Alec winced as he recalled her physical state when he had found her.

"I'm sorry Max." He whispered, guilt and pain underscoring his words. "I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner. I'm sor-" He was cut off as Max pressed her cold fingers against his lips. She instantly pulled them away as though startled by her own action.

"No. Don't, please. Just…Just promise me…You wont let him take me again."

"I wont Maxie, I promise he'll have to kill me to get to you." Alec swore, but Max shook her head violently and pulled herself out of Alec's embrace.

"No. No. I-" Alec watched her with dawning realisation as she walked towards the drawer where he had put his new handgun.

"NO! Max!" Alec leapt to his feet and started to where she stood, the heavy metal gun weighing in her small hand. Max held it up, pointing it away from both of them for now. Alec hesitated, afraid to startle her into acting. "Max. Don't do this."

Max's rich brown eyes pleaded with him to understand. "I wont if you promise me Alec. I cant- I cant let Him take me again. Promise me you'll kill me before you let that happen."

Alec shook his head, knowing even as he did that it was right and that he had known all along that death would be better for Max than what she had been through once already. "Max-" Alec's voice cracked.

"Promise me!" Max cried, pointing the gun at her head and Alec turned his head away from the sight of Max, his eyes closed in defeated supplication.

"I promise." He whispered.

"Promise what?" Max demanded, needing him to say the words.

"I promise that I'll kill you before I let White take you again." He threw at her angrily turning. Furious, not with her, but with fate for forcing him to take such a pledge. And I promise that if I kill you, I'll follow soon after!

TBC.

A/N: Review or I'll stop writing!