When Alec had come to her less than an hour ago carrying a badly roughed up Otto, Max had had to do a double take.
When she had later learned that Talia had single handedly taken down 3 of White's trained operatives, rescued two captured transgenics and managed to make it back to Terminal City safe and with not a scratch on her and with White's transgenic hunting lackey Otto, she had been stunned to silence. Knowing that Otto wouldn't live long in Terminal City due to the chemical and radiation leaks, Max, along with Alec and Talia had taken him to Joshua's old place back in town, the one Logan now occupied.
While she was still stunned, Max, unlike Alec was not impressed with Talia at all. And as soon as they had all safely piled into Joshua's she made sure she let her know it.
"Can I talk to you for a minute"? She asked, urging Talia to take a step out into the next room so Otto would not be able to hear.
"If you're going to thank me," said Talia with a smile, clearly misinterpreting Max's intentions.
"Thank you"? Max broke in, voice raised.
"And why the hell would I thank you? Do you have any idea what you've done? What kind of attention you've now drawn to us"?
Talia narrowed her eyes. It was clear that she had not intended to be met with Max's ill temper. Not after what she had done. Max should be grateful, capturing Otto meant so many good things for them all. Why couldn't Max see that?
Before Talia could answer another voice joined the conversation.
"Let me tell you a little about what she's done," said the voice.
"Now, I don't want to fight you on this one Max, but thanks to Talia, what we've got sitting in there…" he swung his arm in the direction of the living room which held Otto.
"That's our golden ticket! Our one chance to get to White"
Hearing Alec's voice infuriated Max even more. This was the second time that he'd stuck up for Talia.
"You can bet he has the answers to a lot of the questions you fall asleep with at night" he added.
"Don't presume to know what goes on inside my head Alec" Max said through gritted teeth. She knew it wouldn't be long before she snapped.
"But Max the guy's bound to know stuff that can help us! Like where white's been keeping the transgenics he's been picking off the streets! What he plans to do with them! You can't say that you wouldn't want to know that!" Alec's voice was raised but he didn't come across as being angry. He was pleading with her. He wanted her to be on side with him on this one that much was obvious.
"Yeah and you can bet information like that will have it's price. Amidst your delusional ramblings I bet you never stopped to think about that did ya?"
"Max's right" said Logan.
He had entered the hall unnoticed and after hearing Alec tear into Max was determined to back her up.
"A man like Otto's bound to be missed. I bet there's a whole search team looking for him right now as we speak" he continued.
Max turned towards Logan and her face wore a look of deep worry.
"What do we do"? She said directing her question to Logan.
This act, innocent as it may have seemed at the time greatly affected Talia and it was almost as though a light was switched on inside her head.
She turns to a human for the answer to our problems…Talia noted silently.
"No" Talia objected before Logan had a chance to get a word in.
"He's not one of us! Why does it matter what he thinks"? She snapped angrily
"It matters because some of us happen to think what he has to say is worth listening to," said Max blatantly
That's more than obvious Talia thought scornfully
"And what others of us think doesn't appear to matter at all" Alec said placing just the right amount of sarcasm in his voice to get his point across.
Logan ignored Alec and started to speak
"Well, I think whatever you do you've got to keep in mind that we're in a very awkward situation right now which means it's crucial that we all keep a head here" Logan directed the first part of his lecture toward Alec which Talia thought extremely unfair.
Why was Alec getting told off? Max had been the one who had misplaced both her reason and judgement when she had started this whole fiasco.
We? Talia thought. Disgusted and offended by Logan's choice of words.
"Secondly I think that we've all gotta realise that every thing we do and every move we make is each gonna come with it's own set of consequences" Logan stopped talking and turned his eyes on Talia.
This is unbelievable. He's expecting me to apologise.
A human is talking down to me. Well this is definitely a low unlooked for.
How dare Max subject me to such humiliation?
Talia fought hard against the sweet temptation of violence. This was so unfair. She didn't have to take this. In less than 5 seconds she could have Logan dead on the floor that was how superior she was to him. He had no right to talk to her like this. But right now she was powerless. A cat that would kill the mouse if only it wasn't in a cage. Logan was the mouse and Max was his cage. Talia could do nothing but harbour her malicious feelings in secrecy and swallow both her anger and pride for the time being.
"I don't regret what I did tonight. But I guess you're right, I was a little rash in making decisions"
Alec was shocked. He had hoped Talia wouldn't fold so easily.
"Now, I know I'm the newbie here and that my methods of doing things may be a little different from all the talking and thinking and…typing…" Talia smiled at her choice of words.
"That you guys usually do to solve your problems. So I apologise"
Talia finished speaking and to everyone's surprise, she walked over and hugged Max.
"No hard feelings then"? She asked with a smile so sweet it could have made a desert out of chilli.