Title: Fair Play-Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Thanks to Pai, Dreamer and Baloo for encouraging me to write more. I just need someone to kick my ass sometimes. Also, thanks to everyone else who has been reviewing my stories. I'll update the rest soon, I promise.

He could hear her cries as soon as he rounded the corner of the broken down hallway off of which their apartment was located. The decaying plaster and moldy wallpaper drew his attention as he approached his door. For once, it seemed appropriate that he lived here. He had always thought he deserved better, that he had served his time and paid his dues, and that maybe someone should have cut him a break somewhere along the line, maybe even given him a nice place to come home to at night. Now though, her stifled cries and moans pierced his thoughts, reminding him once again why dreams like his were ridiculous. He didn't have any of these nice things, because he didn't deserve any of them. No matter how much he tried to do the right thing, he always managed to go ahead and screw something up, or hurt someone's feelings. This was exactly what happened with Rachel. He tried to warn her, he tried to tell her the truth, but it had only caused more harm. He just had crappy luck. Now, as he was aiding the fight for mutant freedom, he was still managing to cut people down right and left.

Throwing himself back into the wall, he pounded his fists into the wall, causing bits of dust and plaster to fall down at his feet. Kicking them away with his boots, he tried to reason with himself. Sure, he had upset her, but she had started this whole thing, right? Max was the one who had told Logan they had been together, it was only fair that he be allowed to play along and escalate the situation. If she was going to dump her fake boyfriend so shortly after they had just gotten together, she should have never done it in the first place, or told Logan that it had never happened. He was a man with a reputation, and damnnit, he had rights.

Throwing a hand through his disheveled hair, Alec reached for the knob to the apartment. Gathering up all his will, he stormed into the room with a purpose, all of which dissipated as he saw her. She was curled up into a ball on the bed, clutching a pillow to her mid-section, trying to do her best to muffle her sobs into the sheets thrown haphazardly onto the mattress. He hadn't even uttered a word when she acknowledged his presence. Without so much as lifting her face towards him, she told him to leave her alone.

"Max, look I'm sorry it had to come to that, but you know you set yourself up right?" When she didn't answer back he continued, "I mean, I know we were never actually together, but everyone else thought we were, and I can't just get dumped for no reason max. I mean, I got people to impress and everything, so that's why. It was nothing personal."

After a few more muffled tears, Max finally looked up at him. "You're right."

He was right. That was definitely the last response he had been expecting to get from her. Honestly, he had been expecting some sort of barrage of insults to come flying from her mouth, obscenities that he had maybe even never heard to be hurled at him relentlessly. He was definitely expecting her to fly across the room and kick and punch him until he turned black and blue. And for some reason, he probably would have let her too. 'You're right', had been a shocker. He didn't know how to defend himself against this kind of attack. How do you fight an unknown enemy?

"I'm right? Are you sure you didn't mean shut the hell up Alec? That would make more sense. Do you maybe just not want to get up? Cause I could come over there and let you punch me. Help me out here Max, because I can honestly say I was not expecting that from you."

Pulling herself up to sit on the bed cross-legged, Max brought the pillow to her lap and leaned her elbows upon it. He was becoming more and more nervous under her steady glare, and was thankful when she finally spoke.

"Believe me Alec, I want to hurt you. More than anything right now I want to throw you through a wall and beat you unconscious, but I can't because you're right."

"Yeah, you said that already, thing is, I don't believe you. This has got to be some kind of ploy." With that she gave a small laugh, and he walked over to the bed where she was sitting, and perched himself on the edge., ready to jump if the need arose. "There's no way my Max would let me get away with the crap I just pulled."

"Alec listen to me. You did a good thing for me, and I went and shoved it in your face. You were right to lash out. After you said that stuff, I ran and found Logan. He couldn't even look at me. So I figured, what the hell, might as well get everything out in the open now. He's already pissed. So, I told him about how the whole thing was a set-up from the start. That I had only done it to push him away, and that none of it was your fault. He just kind of looked at me and smiled. Said that he had kind of assumed that's what had happened."

"Wait, so why aren't you out with him right now, saving the world or whatever it is you two do?"

"Because he also said that the way you talked about me back in HQ, that the way you seemed so unwilling to let me get away with this, meant something. That maybe we had all been kidding ourselves for too long. I mean let's face it, this virus isn't going to get cured Alec, and even if it did, me and Logan have drifted apart. I'm not sure that we would ever be able to get back together even if we could touch."

"So, what are you saying? Why did you come back here? I mean none of this really changes anything for us. So, you're not pissed off at me right now, I'm pretty sure that I'll do something to change that shortly. I mean, it just kind of happens."

When he said this, she found herself staring into his deep green eyes. She saw all the questions being left unanswered and let out a heart felt sigh. This was going to take awhile.

TBC…

(you hate me…don't you?)

Please Review?