TITLE: When Heroes Fall
PART: 1/?
RATING: R
PAIRING: Max/Alec!!! With slight L/A
DISCLAIMER: The characters belong to JC, Fox etc etc etc
AN: This is very loosely based on the Buffy ep. Normal Again which has to be the 2nd or 3rd greatest ep. of all time!!! (The other 2 being Fool 4 Love and Something Blue (guess who's a Spuffy fan lol))
AN2: I'm soooooooo sorry it took so long to update!!! Oh and I'm on a Dashboard kick so losta my fics are gonna have their songs. Thought I'd put a little plug in 4 them cauz thery're a great band.
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Buried deep as you can dig inside yourself
And covered with a perfect shell
Such a charming beautiful exterior
This is one time that you can't fake it hard enough
To please everyone or anyone at all
And the grave that you refuse to leave
The refuge that you've built to flee
The places you have come to fear the most
~The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most~ Dashboard Confessional~
~~~
2 Years Later
"Hey Callie!" an obnoxious nasally voice shouted over the clamor of the restaurant. If you could call it that. Her place of work was only a restaurant in the most energetic reach of the willing imagination. It was more the dysfunctional child of the union between a strip bar and a diner.
"Callie!" the voice shouted again, angry and loud, persistent in it's annoyance, "Table 5! Get your scrawny ass over there a-fucking-sap." ASAP… a word not an acronym in the vocabulary of the fortyish balding man whose name tag bore only the word "BOSS" in large childish scrawl.
Max got up from her seat on the closed lid of a toilet and walked over to the sink staring at her forlorn reflection in the cracked glass of the mirror. Her once silky hair was twisted into hundreds of tiny braids, a tool to hide the fact that it was in dire need of a washing, her large brown eyes were ringed with deep bags which she disguised with heavy eyeliner, her outfit was the shorter than short dress that served as a uniform for the waitresses. A nametag plastered to her chest read HELLO MY NAME IS: in large black letters followed by a name she was still not familiar with.
"Cal-," Boss began but stopped when he caught sight of Max slipping out of the bathroom. While his other employees did all manner of illegal substances in the grimy confines of that room he wasn't exactly sure what she did. She came in drunk on several occasions but she sobered up fairly quickly and she never appeared completely wasted. All and all she was reliable and he didn't need to know her personal life. She was eye-candy for the dirty patrons of his restaurant not a friend.
"Table 5," Max finished waving him away as she headed for the table in question, notepad in hand.
~~~
Alec rounded the corner of a large brick building and pressed himself against the wall, his breath coming in shallow gasps, sweat dripping down his temples. He rested his head on the cool brick taking every advantage of the brief respite. He heard his persuers approaching and rolled his neck listening with satisfaction as it popped loudly, releasing some of the pent up tension in his joints. He had been running for going on two hours now and he was functioning on pure adrenalin.
"There he is!" someone shouted, the pounding of feet came to a confused halt before they skittered around the corner and headed towards him. Alec watched the assorted men and women charge at him with an amused smile. He shook out his legs and made a flying leap up onto the ledge above his head.
"Run run as fast as you can, can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man," Alec taunted, jumping form his current ledge to an adjoining one and disappearing from sight. He crawled up onto the roof of the building and flattened himself against the steel of a chimney.
His apartment had been raided by what seemed like Seattle's entire police force, and being public enemy number one he had been on the run ever since. The anti-transgenic movements had been on the rise for the past two years and all manner of device had been invented to sort out the "freaks." Alec was surprised it had taken them as long as it did to find his apartment. White's group had a huge reward on his head and had every available task force out searching for him yet it was Seattle's PD who smoked him out first. It was only a matter of time before he had to stop running.
~~~
Max returned from her run to table five and hoisted herself onto the bar swinging her legs against the bar in time to the loud music blaring from the speakers. She watched some of her fellow waitresses up on the other end of the bar dancing and encouraging the catcalls of the primarily male audience.
"Cause I wanna be a cowboy baby," someone growled in her ear and Max let out a startled yelp turning to face the speaker.
"Gavin, you ass! Don't do that to me! Almost gave me a heart attack!" she chided, punching her friend lightly on the arm. She had moved out here less than a month after her release from the mental institution. She couldn't take anymore of Emily and Kenneth-don't-call-me-Kenny's parental hovering. She had met Gavin in the first few weeks and moved in with him almost immediately. They were roommates only, nothing sexual. Not because Gavin wasn't extremely gorgeous but because he was openly gay. She insisted to Kenneth that Gavin wasn't merely a replacement for her delusional roommate Cindy but she knew in a way he was.
"Come on let's split Cal," Gavin suggested, tugging at Max's arm leading her to the door.
"My shift's not-," Max began but Gavin interrupted her.
"Look 'Boss' is not going to care or notice. You spend enough time here."
"Lemme get my bag," she said in way of consent.
"Already done," Gavin replied dangling the purse in front of her, the various medicine bottles clattering together as he swung it in front of her face. She had joked about being more drugged up than most of her coworkers but it was obvious the multiple medications bothered her. They made her drowsy, nauseous, and irritable among other things and they were a sign of weakness. They were a reminder that she was not like everyone else and a device that tied her to memories she would rather forget.
"Your too damn organized," she grumbled grabbing the bag and stuffing it under her arm.
"And your too damn forgetful," he retorted, opening the car door for her and circling around to the other side, "You need me Callie and you don't like needing anyone."
~~~
Alec heard the sound of a circling plane and felt every muscle on his body tense and every nerve and synapse halt, paralyzed in fear. He glanced up and relaxed as the plane passed over without incident. It was obviously returning from a run. Lucky for him.
He stood frozen for several more minutes before dropping to his knees and crawling across the rooftop. He peered over the ledge and saw the alley clear of police. He jumped from the roof, landing on the ground with a thud. His limbs had cramped up from his stay on the roof, preventing his normal cat-like landing.
He ran shaky hands through his blonde hair and glanced around helplessly. The sighting of the plane had him rattled and nervousness led to mistakes. The bright red symbol painted on the plane's side was all too familiar to him and every other transgenic in the city of Seattle. It meant death.
A car gunned it's engine nearby and Alec ducked behind a dumpster. He watched the car's occupant slide from behind the wheel and slam the door, walking off into the hazy late afternoon air. Steam rose from the streets giving the entire scene a rather surreal contingency.
He crept up to the car peeking in the windows before reaching the drivers side and picking the lock. He didn't want to drive around with a broken window, it would only arouse suspicion. He opened the door and sank into the seat, briefly admiring the leather interior before cracking the panel beneath the wheel and hotwiring the car. A skill he had learned at Manticore. A skill he still put to use. The car's engine turned over and the car came to a growling start. Alec smiled and stomped on the gas pedal the car leaping forward and speeding down the road.
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TBC! REVIEW! You know u wanna.
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