by Rowe
Set: Post Hello, Goodbye.
Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its character belong to Cameron/Eglee and Fox.
Author's note: First attempt so please feel free to give constructive criticism.
Thankyou to those who have reviewed, encouragement is an inspiration in itself.Chapter 3: Like Musical Chairs……
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For the tenth time in the past half-hour the beeper went off. Each time Max had stopped her stalking, looked at the number, and let out an aggravated sigh. Shoving the beeper back on her waistband she would then resume her stride. The pattern was getting a bit repetitious. Not that Alec wasn't appreciating the view he had as he followed along behind her, but her mumbling curses were giving him the impression she was mighty pissed off. Thing was he wasn't sure what he'd done now. "Max, just an observation but could you either talk to the man or turn the damn thing off." At least he could get rid of that irritation.
She knew he was right. "Since when was Alec right about anything." This mental battle was beginning to wear her down. Due to her distraction she missed seeing the pothole in her path and ended up flat on her face. God was this day ever going to end. In an instant Alec was by her side crouched checking that she was alright. He took hold of her arms to help her up. In a fit of pique Max shrugged his hands off her and scrambled up. "Get your goddamn hands off me. I'm not an invalid!." Her mouth spat out, while in counterpoint her mind buzzed away happily thinking "How sweet." That scary little voice whispered, "Just how conflicted am I?" Alec had moved back to a respectful distance. He probably thought of it more as a safe one. " I need food." she stated simply. Turning she resumed their trek, now with the purpose to feed a hungry Max, to the tuneless sound of her beeper again.
Alec popped the coins in and dialled the number. Max was busy pouting her way around the convenience store they had found. She had refused to call Logan, so he was doing the right thing. Maybe it would stop him peppering her damn beeper and give everyone a rest. He watched her as she primped in the mirrored door of the microwave while the food heated. For a trained soldier she could be so girlie at times. "Logan, Alec here." He spoke up as the message on the answering machine finished and the beep to start recording went. "We're fine, Max was laid up for a bit so we were laying low to give her time to recover. We'll be back in the next 12 hours, all things going to plan." Placing the phone down he realised what he had just said. "Damn." he thought, "Wish I hadn't said that last bit, now I've jinxed us for sure."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Sir." The suit clad man turned to his superior to inform him of his update. "A call was just registered from a payphone in the vicinity of the their last known position. The number dialled was one of the ones we have been tracing in regard to those Eyes Only broadcasts." The cruel looking man nodded satisfied and gave the order to converge quickly. Now he needed to tighten the noose around the necks of his not-so-favourite transgenic scum. Why get his hands dirty when he had highly trained killers of his own to work with? He strode to his car to be on-hand. This was what he was bred for, what he lived for. His cell rang and he answered it "Fe'nos tol" assuring the caller that the situation was developing nicely.
It was his personal mission to capture 452 alive at all costs. That stupid transgenic bitch had taken his son away from him, and he wanted Ray back. He was going to enjoy the process of extracting that nugget of information out of her. The Conclave could have the body after he had finish delving through her mind. He would like to test just how high the pain threshold of the Manticore mutants was and torturing 452 might be just the way to find out. Her continued existence alone was damaging his credibility with the Conclave. He was supposed to deal with those sorts of problems: quickly, cleanly and efficiently. From the time her DNA assay results had landed on his desk she had been reeking havoc with his plans. If she and that damn breeding partner of hers hadn't destroyed the satellite uplink they could've dealt with the Manticore mess without it getting so messy. Now that there were politician s publicly involved it just wasn't going to be pleasant.
The Alpha team reported in from the origin of the phonecall; the convenience store. "Positive ID was gained from the attendant, Sir, but they left about 20 minutes ago. They were on foot." White smiled to himself grimly. Ever closer. He wasn't going to get too excited yet. They had been close before. In fact that wily 494 had managed to slip through their fingers and defy death even after he had literally held him like a caged animal. Such slips ups were not allowed. There needed to be no holes in the net that these two lab rats were caught in. He wasn't fooled by 494's flippant remark about a summer fling, these two were a breeding pair of a soon to be instinct line of animals: animals with a keen instinct for survival. Where one was the other was never too far behind. Their DNA would be important in the destruction of the transgenic menace. Manticore weren't the only ones who could play at gene warfare, hell they were babies compared to the breeding program.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sitting against the wall of an abandoned schoolhouse, they consumed the microwaved mush that barely passed as edible. The "food" seemed to have revived Max's spirits. The blood loss was obviously still taking its toll but she wasn't holding up too badly considering. He watched her surreptitiously through his lashes, even now all down and dirty she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He'd be damned if he let her know that. He was a masochist but that was taking things too far. The sound of heavily booted feet snapped Alec out of his revelry. He peered cautiously round the end of the wall and saw what he knew could only be White's goons. "Damn." He muttered and turned to alert Max.
Max signed for him to follow her and they moved around the building looking for an open window. Out of luck on one side they cautiously moved to the next. As long as they weren't seen they had a fighting chance of evading capture. The last window on this side slid open. With a sigh of relief Max climbed through and Alec slithered in after her. Both began instantaneously to scan their surroundings for cover. There wasn't much around and most of it was too obvious if the Familiars came searching. Max looked up and spotted a small man hole cover partially obscured in the corner. "Quick, up there Alec" she indicated the spot and he moved to shove the cover aside so they could seek shelter. None too soon, as the cover dropped back into place they could hear footstep in the room below.
The small area they squeezed into in the ceiling was barely able to accommodate them both. They were lying squeezed together so tightly that Max could hear every beat of Alec strong heart. Feel every breath he took. Smell the smell she knew was uniquely him. Leaning her head against his back she saw no harm inhaling a little deeper and Alec invaded her senses. A small moan escaped her as the rush of sensations overwhelmed her. This was not good. "Focus Max." She reprimanded herself. But then had to remind herself that Alec was not what she should be focusing on.
The small noises coming from Max intrigued Alec. If he didn't know better he would have sworn she was deliberately pushing against him. "Um Max, you okay back there. Do you need more room?" He was actually finding it kind of cramped but he wasn't silly enough to complain if a pretty girl was voluntarily rubbing herself against him. Anyway this was Max and they had been trapped in closets and confined spaces on a regular basis. "At least this way she can't complain about where I am putting my hands." He thought absently and immediately regretted it. This just made him want to do things with his hands, and his mind was happily filling in the blanks for him. He wasn't a monk and this was a real exercise in willpower.
Being stuck here for so long was starting to bite. She was sure it had been at least 6 hours but they could still hear voices in the room below. Trust them to set up a base in the same place that harboured their quarry. Her luck, for some reason, was always bad. Her conscience was also starting to grate on her. Alec was starting to do his normal fidget thing, which meant she was getting elbows in the ribs on an almost constant basis. "Alec can you stop that or at least turn around so you don't keep hitting me." She complained, she already had enough sore spots from the cave-in without him poking them. As he wiggled his way round to face her she realised that it had been safer the other way. At least snuggled against his back she didn't have to face his all too observant eyes. .
"So Max, how are you and Logan going?" Some days he liked to live dangerously and his curiosity was peaked by her avoiding talking to the man. He knew she had been adamant that she wouldn't see him after the latest virus scare, but this was Max and Logan the soap-opera. He had provided Max with an opening so in this intimate moment she needed to share. Whispering at a level that only they would hear Max plunged right in on the topic she knew she could no longer avoid. "Alec don't be angry but Logan thinks you and I are together, that is why he has been treating you strangely." Finally she had gotten it out. She studied his face to gauge his reaction. The look on his face was ominous.
"Just why would he think a thing like that Max. Of course I am always the bad guy." He ground out, he was angry she could see that. "You chose not to enlighten him I take it. I guess it was much too convenient to have me as your housetrained Clayton's boyfriend to keep him at arms' length. Of course, your and his opinion of me as the type of low life scum who would move in on his girlfriend probably helped". Her lack of denial wound him up further she could feel his body vibrating with the agitation. Then all of a sudden calmness seemed to wash over him and a frozen mask drew down over his face.
The coldness emanating from Alec was frightening her. She knew 494 still resided in him. Hell she had less training and had been out longer but she could always still feel X5-452 niggling at her, making some of the tough decisions for her. She had rarely caught glimpses of this hard-eyed stranger but could understand why many would fear facing him battle. Max was getting worried being stuck in such a confined space with him at this moment. She knew she needed to reach out to him, to pull him back out of this automatic soldier mode but self-preservation was making her hesitate.
"Alec, I don't think of you as scum." She whispered.
"No, you'd rather not think of me at all." He countered coldly. Strike one.
"Alec," again she deliberately used her name for him, "I may have said some things I didn't mean but…."
"You think that I am a cold scheming unfeeling bastard who would sell his grandma, if I had one, for a buck." Strike Two. She felt the chill in his voice creating despair in her soul.
"Maybe I am not sure what I think. Why do you think Logan thought we were together? He thinks I am attracted to you!" She shoved out the olive branch and hoped she could pull him back to himself, the lovable and irritating X5 rogue.