Big thanks to Baloo for doing such a fabulous Beta job. Where would I be without you?
Something to Talk About Chapter Two Moment of Insanity"Why didn't you tell me, man?" Sketchy asked loudly, slapping a friendly hand across Alec's back. Then, hurt feelings aside, he wiggled his eyebrows and shot a suggestive look in Max's direction. "How was the honeymoon?"
Alec's eyes brightened, the inherent mischief all but jumping out and stalking down the street. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said conspiratorially. Then he whipped his gaze around, catching Max's eyes with what he hoped passed as a tender expression. From the stifled laughter – and the murderous glint – that suddenly overtook his blushing bride, he was pretty sure of its success and when he turned back to Sketchy, it was with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
To be perfectly honest, as far as covert operations went, this one promised to be a little more enjoyable than most.
Max was having a hard time keeping a straight face, what with the constant doting looks Alec was assaulting her with – he was trying his damnedest to make her crack and, if he kept it up, she refused to be held responsible for her actions. Said actions would probably include beating the man to a bloody pulp, then depositing him in the clutches of Normal (whom she was sure would probably be more than happy to nurse the poor boy back to health).
The idea showed definite potential.
Pausing in her rather detailed explanation to Original Cindy as to how she'd suddenly become Mrs X5-494, Max shook her head. "I'm gonna kill him if he doesn't quit the hubby act," she murmured quietly, so as to not draw the unwanted attention of the others. Normal had gone all out for his golden boy, uncharacteristically giving everyone the morning off to partake in the consumption of coffee and cake.
How he'd managed to get his hands on quality pre-pulse coffee was a subject Max felt better knowing nothing about.
OC smiled through her coffee. "Sure ya are, suga."
In the spare seconds that they'd had while dragging Logan across the room and depositing the unconscious cyber journalist in front of the lockers (Max keeping her distance the entire way), Max had been quickly explaining the situation, in all its absurdness, to Original Cindy.
Who had, after a brief moment of silence, naturally laughed hysterically at the predicament the two had managed to get themselves into.
"What am I supposed to tell him?" Max asked desperately.
OC looked thoughtfully at Logan for a moment. This was indeed a tricky situation. Grabbing her Boo by the arm, the dark skinned girl dragged Max off to a discreet distance.
"Suga, OC can't tell you what to do. The most I can do is let ya know what I think – and I think it's up to you and hot boy over there," she pointed to where Alec was now being continually congratulated by Normal. "Maybe it would be better for your boy to think that you're married, at least for a while. He already thinks you and Alec been makin it anyway; this is just the next logical step," she paused for a moment, a confused look swimming across her face. "Well, maybe not exactly logical …"
"OC has a point," Alec's opinion, as usual, was highly unwelcome, especially if he was even remotely on target. He came up beside Max and in keeping with the charade, slipped a hesitant arm around her waist, pulling her against his side. "If he knows the real deal, he might not wanna go along with it."
"Shut up," Max said, although rather absently. They both had a point – particularly since it was, effectively, the same one.
Besides, with Alec at her side, both literally and figuratively, she might be able to give Logan the idea that she really wasn't available. After all, the man was a sucker for a wedding ring. Wouldn't dream of hitting on a married woman, would he?
Speaking of married women … Max looked down at the silver band around her ring finger, unconsciously resting her hand over Alec's where it encircled her waist.
She looked with pleading eyes at OC whose gaze remained unwavering – and damn right neutral.
"Fine," Max acquiesced after endless deliberation. "We tell him it's the real deal."
"Right," OC agreed pleasantly.
By now their little group had travelled all the way to Normal's front counter; OC deposited her coffee mug atop the cluttered desktop and eyed the transgenics up and down. "My two best transgenic buds are now married. Now one question remains to be answered – how did this happen?"
"I have been asking myself that very question," Max muttered.
"Not helping, honey," Alec chastised in a sugary sweet voice. He arched his head back as Max raised her fist in silent warning.
OC shot the duelling transgenics a quizzical look. "Since you're officially hitched, so to speak, I think you should consider not trying to kill each other on a regular basis. At least not for a while for the sake of appearances. The homicidal stage of the relationship just don't happen til you're married for at least two weeks."
"Oh, I dunno," Max said dangerously. "I'm in the mood to become a widow."
Alec suddenly smiled his quirky smile and tightened one arm around Max, slipping a single finger under her chin and tilting her face up to his. His eyes bored into hers. "Aw c'mon Maxie," he said softly, drawing her even closer. "You know you don't mean that."
Max meanwhile felt her insides turning into a gooey pile of mush. She found herself returning his intense gaze, for a moment forgetting they'd been arguing, let alone having any sort of a conversation at all. Her gaze flickered for the briefest second, landing on a speechless Original Cindy before spotting the approaching Normal. Seeing the reason for Alec's sudden assault, she brought her face back up to his.
Rising up on her tiptoes, Max moved so her mouth was right at Alec's ear.
"Sure I do," she whispered dangerously before snaking one arm around his neck.
Since her tumble into the wonderful world of transgenics, Original Cindy had seen some pretty unusual things and she'd dealt with them accordingly.
This newest development however, was more than she could even begin to understand, let alone explain. And, upon seeing that Logan was now very much awake and staring at the unsuspecting cosy couple, she realised that there'd be an awful lot to explain.
Happily, it wouldn't fall to her.
It had taken Logan a while to finally realise the irrevocable fact that he wasn't in his apartment. No, instead he found himself sprawled upon one of the very uncomfortable benches at Jam Pony. It took him another long while to finally remember why he was here – to make Max change her mind about the state of things between them.
He looked up, running a hand through his short brown hair.
Then it hit him like the proverbial ton of bricks.
Judging from the looks of things, she wouldn't be changing her mind anytime soon.
From his vantage point at the back of Jam Pony he could see the entire room. Most were huddled in groups chatting and munching on cake and sipping from steaming mugs of coffee. A good many of the girls were glaring in the general direction of Normal's desk. He soon saw the reason behind their glaring and promptly decided to join in.
At first he had entertained the possibility that Max and Alec were undertaking some bizarre plot to make everyone think they were married. Then he'd skimmed across his other, less likely, options: crazy transgenics with unusual mind bending abilities, sudden insanity in the X series upon hitting a certain age, a baby on the way – immaculate conception, of course – and lastly, drugs … lots and lots of drugs.
All possible alternate explanations had then effectively committed suicide and thrown themselves out the window.
Even as he struggled through the seemingly null and void alternate possibilities, he pulled his glasses off, cleaned the lenses to within an inch of their life, replaced the glasses and blinked a couple of times to make sure he wasn't seeing things. But no matter what he did, he still came face to face with the same scene.
Alec, one arm wrapped around Max's waist, looking down at her like he was seconds away from kissing her, Max seemingly not complaining one little bit. He could see her slim fingers playing with the hair at the back of his neck, skimming lightly over the barcode hidden beneath the collar of his jacket. It was then that he saw red – and realised he was now face to face with Sketchy's rather loud shirt. He looked up.
"Yo man, you don't look so good," Sketch commented briefly before wandering away again.
He didn't feel so good either.
Original Cindy never thought she'd see the day when Max and Alec were so wrapped up in each other that they'd miss the arrival of half the messenger service at their side, most of whom were by now basically treading on their transgenic toes. Of course, the employees weren't really paying attention to the happy couple. They were too busy refilling on coffee and getting second helpings of cake.
She could now officially say she'd seen it all.
"Max."
So caught up in her musings was Original Cindy that she jumped about three feet off the ground in surprise. A quick glance at Alec and Max told her that they were otherwise preoccupied. From what she could tell, they were trying to stare each other down – either that or they were two seconds away from a steamy make out session. As it was, she sincerely hoped it was the former as she was already shocked beyond belief and did not need anything that would give her a heart attack.
"Logan honey," OC said perkily. "I really think we should leave the newlyweds to themselves for a while."
After a brief glance – technically a glare really – at the aforementioned couple, Logan looked about ready to throw up the dismal remains of his undoubtedly sickeningly nutritious breakfast. Even as he glared, their faces moved closer together until they were just inches away from each other. At this, his face paled then went on to turn an interesting shade of mauve.
Ignoring OC, he pushed her tentative arm aside and regarded the entranced couple seriously, clearing his throat to get their attention. When that failed to catch anything but flies, he decided on a less subtle approach and slapped his hand on the counter.
Alec and Max pulled away from each other rather abruptly at the loud noise.
It took Max a moment to realise exactly what was going on. When she noted the bespectacled man glaring daggers at her supposed spouse while simultaneously shooting herself undisguised looks of longing and confusion, she snapped back to reality within seconds. She found it somehow amazing that she'd managed to get so lost in Alec's eyes … oh, those eyes …
Realising that she was quickly stepping right back to square one, Max stole a glance at Alec who, despite having pulled away when they'd heard the bang, still held her in his embrace. She felt the gentle pressure of Alec's hands as they unconsciously moved across the small of her back. Studiously ignoring the shivers that raced up and down her spine at the soft touch, she turned her attention back to Logan.
"Max," Logan repeated softly. "We need to talk."
Oh, this is going to be fun.
Looking somewhat like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights, Max turned to Alec and shot him a pleading look. Deciding to explain the bizarre situation to Logan was one thing – doing the aforementioned explaining was an entirely different situation.
Logan blinked at her silence, his eyes owlishly large behind his glasses. He cleared his throat, apparently deciding that he should be the one to kick start the somewhat stilted conversation. "I suppose congratulations are in order."
Max just looked like she was choking on a fur ball. The poor girl was so tense that rigor mortis was only moments away from setting in. She felt Alec's arm tighten around her waist and looked up at him automatically, searching for the right words to explain their predicament. Finally reclaiming her voice, she turned back to Logan.
"We were going to tell you," she said slowly, while hurriedly searching for an explanation. "But then everything happened so fast and we couldn't – it was a last minute thing and …" she broke off, glancing briefly at Original Cindy before continuing, "Even OC didn't know about it til this morning."
Original Cindy nodded her agreement before saying something about her cousin Ralph coming in for an unexpected visit. Both Alec and Max took a moment to stare at her incredulously before turning back to the task at hand. Logan seemed a little too preoccupied to really notice much of anything and didn't give OC or any of her unusually named relations a second thought.
"She was as surprised as anyone else," Max finished lamely.
There, that wasn't so bad, her mind supplied a little too enthusiastically. She caught the glimmer of disbelief in his eyes and her heart leapt into her throat. Now, if you could only get him to believe you …
"We wanted to surprise everyone with the news," Alec explained hastily.
"Well, it worked," Logan commented ironically. "I'm certainly surprised."
An uncomfortable descended over their little pocket of the world. Max was fairly certain that she could hear crickets chirping.
In Jamaica.
The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife and make sandwiches.
Luckily for all, Normal chose that precise moment to whip around Jam Pony, snatching plastic plates and Styrofoam cups from idle hands, muttering insanely about packages needing to be delivered. He bip bip bipped his way across the room, vociferously demanding that they vacate the area near the counter as soon as was humanly possible.
Apparently the celebrations were over.
Thrusting a bunch of packages in the general direction of Alec and Max, Normal gesticulated wildly and hitched a thumb toward the door. "Those packages aren't going to grow legs and deliver themselves," he said loudly. "Honeymoon's over, people. Bip bip bip."
Max had never been so glad to be ushered out of Jam Pony.
"We'll talk later," she promised Logan, moving quickly to follow Alec up the ramp.
She stopped abruptly as Logan stepped in front of her, effectively blocking her escape. His blue eyes bored into hers, glimmering intensely. "You don't have to stay with him," he told her quietly. "You can still get out of whatever arrangement you two have. It's not too late."
Eyebrows raised, Max stepped back tersely. "We've already discussed this," she told him heatedly, looking pointedly over his shoulder to where Alec was standing and watching with an observant eye. "I'll talk to you later."
Something in her face must have given her away because seconds later, Alec had returned, slipping his arms around her waist and pulling her up against him. He nuzzled her neck tenderly. "C'mon baby," he murmured, loud enough for Logan to hear. "The sooner we deliver, the sooner we'll be free to … do other things."
She had to admit the man had excellent timing.
Despite herself, Max flushed at his suggestive tone, ducking her head to hide the laugh that threatened to bubble out. She repressed a shudder as he planted a hot kiss on the side of her neck, butterflies suddenly doing a wild tango in her stomach. Taking control of the situation, she leaned back against Alec's chest and looked up at Logan, who was regarding them silently, fists clenched.
"I have to go," Max's tone was vaguely apologetic as she grabbed Alec's hand and all but dragged him back in the direction he'd come from moments before. "See you later."
Alec smiled widely as he was pulled up the ramp, Normal's incessant bips following him. "Bye Logan!"
Once outside, Max leaned against the wall, resting her chin against her chest. She was emotionally as well as physically exhausted. On top of everything else that was going on, she didn't need another complication. As far as she could figure, this spontaneous pretend marriage was quite possibly the one thing in her life that made the most sense.
And that, in itself, she had to admit was very strange.
"That was fun," Alec said cheerily, hopping onto his bike in one smooth movement. "Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow."
Max's head snapped up and her eyes widened. She'd just realised something – actually she'd just realised quite a few somethings that did nothing to dispel her downward spiralling mood. "Do you realise how complicated this is going to get?"
It took Alec a moment to realise what 'this' was. "What do you mean by that?"
"This," she said, gesturing at their surrounding environs. "This whole marriage thing is just gonna turn into one big complication." At his blank look, she explained, voice steadily rising as she really got into her stride.
"Marriage implies a few things – living together, spending time together, knowing stuff about each other, not dating other people, and a whole lot of other stuff that I can't remember! We have to move in together, live in the same place. I mean we can't even be in the same hemisphere without rehashing the Pulse. You don't even have a house and I share with OC. What's more, we have to spend recreational time together – at Crash even, and work. And I don't even know your last name!"
Taking a moment to dubiously regard the crazy transgenic, Alec arched an eyebrow, wondering if Max had finally gone off the deep end. With her hectic and relatively stressful lifestyle, he supposed it was just a matter of time – how inconvenient was her timing, though?
"Max," he said coolly, cutting through her continued ramblings. He plonked his hands on her shoulders, one finger slipping under her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "Relax."
Max halted her moderately involved soliloquy, jolting back to earth at his unruffled tone. She looked up at him, blinking with wide eyes.
"I am perfectly relaxed," she told him calmly, running a hand through her dark hair nonchalantly.
"Uh huh," Alec retorted dubiously. "Sure you are."
"I'm just a little stressed is all."
"Stressed is not the word," Alec reassured her. "Insane is probably closer."
"Shut up."
He ignored her. "As far as all that stuff you just spouted off, don't worry about it. We're Manticore, we know how to get ourselves out of sticky situations – "
"Which you got us into in the first place," Max reminded him.
"Yes Max, this is all my fault … Lets move on." he continued without difficulty. "Anyway, as I was saying, you don't have to worry about that stuff. The heat should be off me now so we can move into my apartment – that's not a problem. As for the fighting stuff, I dare you to show me a married couple that does not have the occasional spat. And we spend time together anyway, married or not."
Alec took a breath and looked down at Max expectantly. "Have I covered everything?"
Max looked up at him silently and shook her head. "Last name."
Rolling his eyes, Alec smiled bemusedly. "McDowell."
"Max McDowell?" Max cried incredulously, her hands flying to cover her mouth. "Do you mind if I keep my own last name cause I really don't think that works."
"You can keep your own last name if you like," Alec said in a long-suffering tone. "Now, we can –"
He broke off suddenly, a flash of movement at the door flitting across the corner of his eye. From his position in front of Max, he had a good view of anyone entering or exiting, and this was no exception. He recognised the black slacks and caught the familiar sound, a faint mechanical whirr.
Ah crap, he thought. They were having this rather loud conversation right outside Jam Pony – probably not the best place to be discussing things like this considering the circumstances. And especially since the so-called ex-boyfriend was in the vicinity.
Logan still hadn't noticed them since they were somewhat slightly hidden by a nearby pillar of bricks, but he would definitely pass them on his way out.
It really wouldn't do to have him find them in the middle of this discussion.
Being the stunning advocate of quick thinking that he was, Alec did the first thing that came to mind regardless of how suicidal it might seem later. He honestly had no idea what he'd been thinking when he trapped Max between himself and the wall, hands pressed flat against the hard brick surface. It certainly didn't seem like a move that had a high life expectancy for one, especially with Max in the wildly fluctuating mood she was in.
However, Max, still in distress over the surname dilemma, didn't notice a thing.
That is, she noticed nothing until she felt his lips at her ear, then she jolted out of her stupor long enough to bring her hands up to push against his chest. Her mouth formed a startled 'oh' of surprise.
What the hell is he playing at?
"Go with it, Max," he murmured in warning, his lips moving against her ear.
Max started slightly at the soft words and light contact. She didn't move as he dragged his lips across her cheek before brushing his nose slowly back and forth against hers. His gaze flicked toward the door; she followed his subtle hint, eyes widening in realisation.
Then the world slowly dissipated when he lowered his lips to her neck, pressing tiny kisses along the slender column of her throat. His arms dropped down, gripping at her waist as he lavished her neck with hot kisses. Her skin was warm beneath his mouth, her pulse fluttered beneath his touch.
Almost unconsciously, Max slid her hands up his arms and wound her fingers through the soft strands of his hair. "Alec…" she moaned, pushing herself closer into his embrace.
At her soft whisper, Alec forgot why he was doing this. All thoughts of subterfuge and pretend marriages disappeared as he closed his mouth over hers. When he felt the moist softness of her lips against his a shiver raced down his back as his hands drifted to places he'd always longed to touch but hadn't realised until that very moment; one hand resting at her hip, the other moving to entangle in the strands of her hair.
Max was lost in a whirlwind of desire, lost in the gentle pressure of his lips against hers. She didn't even notice that, at some point, she'd started kissing him back. Her fingers skimmed the smooth planes of his face, drawing him closer even as she responded to his tender ministrations.
Every nerve ending sang, every sense she possessed heightened considerably. She was aware of the sunlight, it's warmth on her skin, the brilliant blue of the sky behind her closed eyelids, the feel of his heated skin beneath her fingertips, his fingers moving with surprising gentleness through her hair … she was in heaven and had no intention of leaving any time soon.
Luckily, Alec had the same idea.
When Logan finally did make his way by that particular expanse of wall, he nearly toppled at the sight. It was one thing being told that your ex-girlfriend had run off on one of your missions to marry her X5 counterpart … it was quite another to see them making out against a wall, completely oblivious to the outside world.
In the most interesting of coincidences, Original Cindy and Sketchy happened upon Logan as his jaw slammed against the floor. They took a gander at what had caused such an unusual reaction and promptly followed his example.
Sketchy grinned widely.
"It's nice to see them getting along so well, isn't it?"
NEXT CHAPTER COMING SOON
tell me what you think ...