ARCHIVE: No
By Valjean
Seizure
"What happened?" Max said, slightly breathless from running the length of the island's main compound, the dock located nearly half a mile from the their quarters.
And then she saw him, lying on the boardwalk, his head cradled in Joshua's lap.
"Max, you need to get here fast," Mole had said on the radio. "Alec's down."
Alec's down. His mercenary team was just back from a major mission, a raid on a Familiar munitions dump in France set up by Lydecker. He'd been hurt, probably shot, Max thought as she sprinted the distance. Idiot. He was so careless sometimes, not watching, not paying attention, putting his life in danger. A tear formed in the corner of her eye as the thoughts ran through her head. It wouldn't matter except ... she loved him so damn much.
She dropped to her knees beside Joshua, her eyes and hands immediately reaching out to her lover, searching for wounds. The others on the team were standing in a concerned circle around their fallen comrade. "Was he shot?" she asked. But then Max saw the tremors.
"Shit," she whispered, resting her hand lightly on Alec's forearm, feeling the stiffness as the muscles contracted and released uncontrollably. He'd been okay for several weeks, hardly any spasms at all, the tryptophan doing its job. "Alec!" she said, taking hold of his shoulders and giving him a little shake. "Alec, can you hear me?" She turned to Joshua. "How long? How long has he been like this?"
"He suddenly just fell down," Joshua said, his voice low and worried, his blue eyes filled with concern. "He was fine ... joking about how dumb the guards were at the warehouse. Then he grabbed at the railing and ... just fell down.
Alec's head hung limply, his eyes closed, but at the sound of her voice his lids fluttered. "Alec," Max repeated, shaking him a little bit harder. "Come on. Come back to me."
He took a deep shaky breath and then a pair of wide, hazel-green eyes were staring up at her. His pupils were way too dilated, Max thought. But it was the look of fear in those green depths that tore at her very soul. It took a lot to frighten Alec ...
"Max," he got out. And then another spasm wracked his body, forcing his head back into Joshua's lap, the tendons in his neck cording beneath the skin as he fought against the way his body was betraying him. "Not ... again ..."
"Shhh," Max said, brushing sweat soaked strands of hair off his forehead with her fingers, trying to calm him. "It's just another seizure," she said, deliberately keeping her voice level, calm for his sake. "You'll be fine as soon as we get some more tryptophan into you. Bet you skipped a dose or two, didn't you?"
Max then looked up at Mole. "Tell Dr. Makari what's happening then go down to the infirmary and get me a bottle of tryptophan. Also, go to the cafeteria and get a carton of milk. Meet me in our quarters." She turned to Joshua who, without being asked, scooped Alec up in his arms.
"He'll be all right," she said to the others surrounding them. But her voice was trembling as she looked at their worried faces. They all liked Alec, respected him, trusted him. After all, he was basically their leader. Seeing him like this was scaring them as well. "He'll be all right," she repeated even more firmly. Then she followed Joshua.
*****
A seizure again. Alec had recognized the aura, the feeling that suddenly everything around him was unreal, the slight buzzing in the ears, the flickering vision before he'd found himself helpless and twitching on the ground. He hadn't had those sensations since a couple of months ago in Seattle. He'd hoped maybe they'd gone away for good this time. Hoped ...
It felt good to be lying in the bed he shared with Max every night -- safe, warm, protected. She was sitting beside him, her hand resting on his brow, stroking his hair, a small smile on her face that did nothing to dispel the worry in her beautiful brown eyes.
But his muscles were still trembling, cramping with pain, and he found each breath required effort to take. The tremors weren't abating, and Alec knew all too well that his condition was going to get nothing but worse, that this was just the beginning of the cycle.
Mole knocked on the door and came in with a bottle of tryptophan and a carton of milk. Max held his head up while he messily swallowed a handful of the pills, barely able to get them down between spasms. Talking was an effort. Really all he wanted to do was close his eyes and let the world go away. But he knew that would scare Max, if he let himself pass out. So, he tried to stay alert, awake, fighting off the darkness for as long as he could. Besides, Alec told himself. If I go to sleep now I might never wake up.
Mac curled up beside him on the bed, her warmth assuaging some of the chills brought on by the epileptic attack. "It's just a petite mal seizure," she reassured him ... reassured herself. "You're going to be okay. I've had this happen a bunch of times, so have you."
Alec nodded. Then ... "Damn!" He bit the inside of his lip this time. She wrapped her arms around him trying to cushion the pain for him.
"Hold on," she whispered in his ear. "Hold on. The pills should work within twenty minutes. Just don't ... don't throw up or anything."
Alec hadn't thought about that until she mentioned it, but he did feel kind of sick on his stomach. He swallowed hard, tasting blood in his mouth. Then he closed his eyes as another wave of Manticore hell overtook him.
*****
"The pills should have worked by now," Max said worriedly to Joshua as they stood just outside the bedroom door. She glanced at a clock on the wall of their quarters. "It's been over an hour and he's getting worse instead of better." A muffled whimper of pain from Alec signaled the onslaught of yet another spasm. The electrical storm in his brain was increasing in intensity with each seizure round, as if his system was winding itself up, a summer rain gradually growing into a hurricane.
Kids back at Manticore had died from this, their minor tremors increasing in frequency and intensity until they'd turned into grand mal seizures. And then they'd lain there on the floor, twitching grotesquely, their eyes rolled back in their heads, their tongues bitten bloody, choking to death on their own fluids, suffocating because they couldn't breathe, until finally they'd gone rigid one last time before relaxing into a stillness that would last forever.
Alec wasn't there yet, but his body was growing weary, his great strength gradually being depleted. He still responded when she called his name, still squeezed her hand as she held it, but his breathing was erratic, his pulse moreso.
He wouldn't last the night.
Dr. Makari had taken his pulse, checked his blood pressure, then shaken his head. "It's too bad you X5's were designed to resist phenobarbitol," he said. A shot would bring a human out of this, but I'd have to give him such a high dose to overcome his natural immunity to the drug it would kill him before it helped. And I don't have any Rohypnol." He looked Max straight in the eye. "I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do. Alec's either going to get through this by himself, or he's not."
"He needs to go to the hospital," Joshua said.
"I know," Max agreed with a mean look at their pessimistic doctor. "But we can't take him into Wellington. White's got his claws in all the officials over there, keeping an eye on the island. He'd be reported in a minute, then they'd come and kill him."
"Can't anyone help him?" Joshua asked, his gruff voice filled with sadness. "We can't just let him--"
"He's not going to die," Max said fiercely, choking back tears. "He can't die."
"Max! Help me!" The sound of Alec's strangled cry was heart wrenching, and she was at his side in an instant.
This time the onslaught of the seizure was more devastating than before, his back arching on the bed until she literally heard his vertebrae crack. Grabbing a wet washcloth from the nightstand she forced the material between Alec's teeth so he wouldn't break them or bite his tongue. His torture seemed to go on forever as she held his trembling, sweating body in her arms. And this time, when the cruel spasm finally passed, his consciousness went with it.
There was no one other than Dr. Makari to help him on the island. And the doctor had already given up. No one to even call for help, no one to come except--
She grabbed Alec's jacket off of the chair where she'd thrown it after tugging it off of him before tucking him into the bed. His satellite communications phone, as always, was in the inner pocket. Flipping through the stored numbers she came to the one she wanted. She couldn't help smiling when she saw he had it tagged "Devil." But then that's who he was -- to both of them -- even now.
Pressing the button, she waited for the ring, and was actually a little bit surprised when the man himself answered.
"It's Max," she said. "Don't talk. Don't ask questions. Just listen. Alec's in trouble. Your gift from Manticore that won't stop giving is about to kill him. He's caught in a seizure spiral and tryptophan isn't working. Unless you want another X5's life on your hands you need to get here right away with something that can help him, maybe some of that Rohypnol."
She listened a moment.
"All right," she said. "My people will let you through. Oh, and Lydecker. Hurry."
Anyone who wants to read "The Best Laid Plans 2: Death and Life" in its entirety is invited to my website: http://www.michaeleaston.com/DA/DAfanfic.html. I also have a number of other DARK ANGEL M/A fanfiction stories there that I've not made available on ff.net as of yet. I even keep an email list of interested readers whom I notify when I post new work on the site.
Also, I'd like to encourage all M/A DARK ANGEL fans to read Max Collins' official prequel novel BEFORE THE DAWN. True, Alec isn't in the story (yet), but there's lots of canon background material in the book that would be pertinent to Alec later on. Plus, Mr. Collins says that Alec and Joshua will be "centerstage" in the DARK ANGEL sequel novel SKIN GAME coming out next February. -- author's note