Title: Coming to Terms-Chapter Ten

A/N: I don't know anymore. Every time I think I'm done with this story, someone says, "Oh I wonder if this will happen…" and then I want to write more. I'm so easily persuaded. Thank you for the excellent reviews. I heart you all.

And now on with the show…

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Pain. Unbelievable amounts of pain. When he woke up the next morning, Alec laid in bed trying to piece together what had happened, what had gone so terribly wrong last night. All he could remember was Max standing over him, yelling at him for something.

Now let's see. What would he have been doing with Max? Lately he had been trying to get her to pull some jobs with him, but as far as he could remember she had been pretty persistent in shooting him down. Unless she had finally caved. That's right! She had wanted something from him, and had begrudgingly agreed to go with him. He had rigged the job. Hey! He had rigged the job! Then why the hell was he injured. That stupid S.O.B. had double crossed him. No where in their little agreement did he now recall asking to be shot.

Opening his eyes, before he was even entirely sure of his surroundings, Alec shot up out of his bed.

"Alec! Watch it will ya!?"

Spinning around on his heel he saw, or rather heard Max. Upon closer inspection he found her sprawled on the floor beside the bed.

"What are you doing on my floor?"

"First of all, this is MY floor. Second of all, I WAS on the bed until about two seconds ago when this jerk decided to jump up out of the bed without even considering there might be someone else on it."

"You slept with me?"

"I slept NEXT to you."

"Close enough."

"Whatever. Where the hell do you think you're going anyways?" Max asked pulling herself up of the floor.

"Out."

"Hey, wait, here's an idea. Maybe we should make sure your bullet wound has healed up some before you go out."

Taking a peak down at his still shirtless upper body, he gave himself a quick once over before turning his gaze back to her. "I'm fine."

"Right, I'm sure you are. Humor me will you?"

"If by humor you, you mean let you use this as a guise to touch me, then by all means go--OW! What the hell was that for!"

A feigned look of innocence plastered across her face, Max shot back. "What was what for?"

"You hit my hole!"

"Hey, you're the one who got shot in the first place. Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask you about something."

"Oh yeah?" 'Oh shit.'

"Yeah, last night when I found you, you mumbled something about how you 'weren't supposed to get shot.' Now, call me crazy, but I don't think anyone ever plans to get shot."

Eyeing his blood-soaked garments with disgust, Alec smiled and turned to face Max. "Max, I was shot. I was probably just rambling on. Most people tend to do so after losing massive quantities of blood. Honestly, I don't remember much about last night." Hoping to change the subject before she could pry any further, he quickly continued, " Hey did we end up making out with any money, or did it get left behind?"

"Rambling on, huh? So then why you were in such a rush this morning?"

"Things to do people to see. Hey do either of you girls have a shirt I could borrow? This ones got blood on it."

"Alec! Quit doing that!"

"Doing what?"

"Changing the subject! I want to know what happened, and I want to know now."

Almost as if he was looking for a quick escape, Max watched as Alec's eyes darted about the room nervously, all the while managing to avoid her wary gaze. He was really nervous, and from what she could tell, it wasn't about what he had done either. The way he was only avoiding looking at her, made it seem like he was nervous about what she would say. Not that she could blame him. All she ever did was over react and chastise when it came to him.

"Alec, I know I never give you a fair chance, so if you tell me what happened, I won't get angry."

When he heard this, his eyes snapped up from where he had been admiring the floor to her eyes. What he saw there was not the pissed off, ready to jump look he had been expecting. Rather, a softer more sincere expression had found a home in her chocolate depths. Still not finding it in himself to trust her, he carefully approached the spot where she sat on her bed. When he got close enough, he took a seat on the edge near her and sighed. She was being honest. She just wanted to know if he would be alright, and here he was ready to give her some bullshit answer that would undoubtedly make her even angrier. Half the time he didn't know why he lied to her. She probably wouldn't be as mad at him if he was upfront with her, but there was a large part of him that just loved seeing her angry. Cause when she got angry, she got violent, and when she was violent, she was hot. He was all transgenic, and nothing turned him on more than a woman who could kick his ass.

He smiled as he thought about this now, and Max saw it.

"What's so funny?"

Still looking down at his hands, he replied. "I don't know Maxie. There's just something about this whole situation that is just really funny."

"Alec, I hardly consider you almost dying funny."

His eyes sliding from his hands to her face, he was almost awestruck as her words reached his ears.

"So, you'd miss me?"

"Of course I'd miss you. But that's not the point. Alec, something went really wrong last night, and I want to know what part you played in it. I'm not stupid, I know something went down last night behind my back. Just tell me what it was. I won't get mad."

His eyes were so hopeful when she spoke those last few words.

"You promise?"

A/N…HA! I actually know what I'm going to do for the last chapter too! Tell me if you liked this one!!