When Alec blinked his eyes open, the morning sun landed directly in them
stinging them. He let out a soft moan and rolled over to where the bed was
going cold next to him. Thoughts about the previous night plagued his
memory. He remembered sitting in his lounge patiently listening to the rain
when Max, an upset and crying Max knock on his door and took him to bed.
Alec could feel the mistake swimming inside of him. He took advantage of her, that's why she wasn't there now, because she realized he had used her.
Alec got up and slowly made his way into the kitchen. He scratched his head and reached into the fridge for the carton of milk.
Max entered the room and stopped frozen in her tracks. She stared at him and said, "I was sure that I'd get another five minutes."
"You don't have to go." Alec put the milk on his table and walked toward her.
Max took a step backwards and held up an arm to stop his movement. "No, just don't, not now. We can talk about this later but right now I need to think things through. Don't say anything to anyone. Please."
"If that's what you want." Alec said bitterly, letting Max confirm his initial thought.
"What I think you should do, is put on some pants." Max grabbed her jacket from it's landing spot on Alec's floor and headed out the door.
Alec just stood completely naked in the middle of his own lounge room. He had stood naked in just about every part of his apartment and this one time Max just happened to be using his bathroom and caught him.
~*
Max climbed the stairs to her apartment and quietly opened the door. She wasn't expecting Cindy to already be up and about.
"Hey Max." Cindy said calmly making Max jump.
She whirled around to face Cindy and a face that she hadn't seen in sometime. "Kendra?" Max asked in disbelief at the face of her friend.
"Hello." Kendra embraced Max in a hug. "What have you been doing? Well apart from getting your transgenic ass into trouble?"
Max looked at her quite alarmed. "What?"
"Oh, don't worry." Kendra laughed. "I completely understand."
Max sighed and took a seat with them. "So what ya doing? Last we heard from you was a post card from New York."
"New York is the most fabulous city in this entire country." She informed them. "We can talk all about that later. What have you two been doing? Well I know all about Cindy, we've been talking most of the night."
"Yeah, Boo. Where ya been at?" Cindy took a sip of her coffee and waited for Max to answer.
"I was helping Alec with something." Max came up with a lie that was the closest to the truth as she could get.
"What's with that boy now?" Cindy shook her head.
"Whose Alec?" Kendra expressed great interest.
"Boy's got a crush on our Max here." Cindy told her.
"He's no one." Max threw in. "He wanted me to look at some stuff with him and I couldn't say know because Alec is the kind of person who is likely to get himself killed or caught."
"You people are so naughty." Kendra laughed. "Hey Max, maybe later you and your boy can show me some moves."
Max frowned, "He's not my boy and how did you know that he was a transgenic?"
"I didn't, you just told me." Kendra smiled drawing Max's attention.
"What did your crazy cop boyfriend teach you?" Cindy asked quite intrigued.
"The art of deception." Kendra said mischievously.
The three of them laughed so hard and talked so much that they forgot that Max and Cindy were meant to go to work.
~*
"Bip, bip, bip!" Normal's voice rang. He had white bandages holding his jaw in place and had to drink his food through a straw but still managed to nag everyone.
Cindy and Max walked in unsure of how late they actually were.
"Ah, ah, you're late." Normal looked at his watch and started his interrogation.
"Only by like five minutes." Max tried to reason with him.
Normal looked at his watch again. "Twenty-five minutes and forty-eight seconds.
"What you're timing us now?" Max asked horrified.
"No, just you." He pointed directly at Max. "If you're running late again, you may have to think about getting another job." Normal turned and left them to watch his back in awe.
"What's his dealio?" Max asked confused.
"He's just mad cause Sketchy mangled his face." Cindy suggested.
"Doesn't mean he has to take it out on me." Max said in her matter-o-factly tone.
Both girls shrugged at each other and made their way to the lockers.
~*
"Knock, knock, anybody home?" Alec called entering Logan's apartment.
"Yep." Logan stuck his head out of his office. "To what do I owe this unexpected surprise?"
"Well I was wondering what was up with Max?" Alec asked Logan, leaning against the table in the center of the room.
"Why?" Logan asked, " What do you know?"
"I know nothing, that's why I'm asking you." Alec replied picking up a piece of paper from the table and pretending to read it.
"How is it that, this working day started half an hour ago and you already know that something's up with her." Logan asked suspiciously.
"I haven't spoken to her today." Alec informed him. "She was at my place last night, balling her eyes out saying things like she had no where else to go. Wanna tell me what you guys were fighting about?"
"Why do you assume that I had anything to do with it?" Logan challenged him.
"Cause she came crying to me and not you, that makes you and her fighting." Alec tested his logic.
"I wasn't thinking and I may have said some things that I didn't mean." Logan gave in.
"Care to elaborate?" Alec questioned.
"I don't see how this is any of your business." Logan stated.
"When a friend of mine comes crying to me in the middle of the night, I make it my business." Alec said aiming for calm tone but finding a threatening one instead.
"What are you going to do about it?" Logan challenged him again.
"Why don't you just tell me and save me the trouble of beating your ass?" Alec was now standing inches away from him ready to strike him at any movement.
"What happened." Logan asked backing off and sitting on the couch.
"What?" Alec asked taken by surprise.
"What happened when Max showed up on your door step?" Logan leaned back into the chair already expecting the worse.
"She cried herself to sleep. She was so upset that she couldn't talk properly so I just let her go. She slept on the couch and when I go up this morning she was gone." Alec spoke as quickly as he could get his mind to come up with a lie.
"Right." Logan said not really believing it but taking his word anyway.
"So what happened?" Alec asked again.
"Why don't you ask Max?" Logan suggested.
"Cause, I'm asking you." Alec joined Logan on the couch and waited for an answer.
~*
"Boo, you okay?" Cindy asked munching on a carrot that they managed to pick up on their way through the market.
"Just thinking." Max replied picking up a grapefruit.
*Flashback*
"When is your birthday anyway?" Logan's voice asked.
"I have no clue." She replied. "Manticore wasn't big on that sort of thing. When's yours?"
"November eleven." Logan responded directly.
"I got you an early present." Max smiled and handed him a brown paper bag.
Logan looked at her strangely and rolled the contents of the bag onto his hand. "A grapefruit!" Logan looked shocked and surprised. "Haven't seen one of these in a while."
"They had chicken too." Max said excitedly.
"Wow, we must be in recovery." Logan met her excitement.
*End Flashback*
"Boo! Max!" Cindy was trying to get her attention. "Hello?"
Max shook her head, squeezed her eyes closed and then opened them again and looked at Cindy with a blank expression.
"What on earth are you thinkin bout girl? You are miles away." Cindy took the grapefruit off her and put it back in the pile of other grapefruit.
"I had a fight with Logan." Max said plainly picking the grapefruit up again and paying the man at the stall.
"What about?" Cindy asked sympathetically.
*Flashback*
"If you didn't want to come back then you shouldn't have. It would have been better for everybody if you didn't."
*End Flashback*
Logan's voice rang clear in her head. "He told me that it would have been better for everybody if I hadn't come back from Manticore."
"Are we talking about the same Logan?" Cindy asked wide eye and confused. "Cause if I remember correctly, he wouldn't say something like that."
"Well he did." Max walked calmly yet sadly next to Cindy.
"Oh my." Was all Cindy could say.
~*
"Have you seen Max?" Alec asked Normal.
"No!" Normal mumbled through clenched teeth. "Bip! Bip! Bip!"
"Cindy?" Alec knew that she had heard him ask.
"Ah, ah no!" She said turning on her heel and heading for her locker.
"Come on Cindy." Alec ran after her.
"I don't think she wants to speak to you." Cindy opened her locker and started fiddling inside.
"What do you know?" Alec asked annoyed.
"Oh, I know everything." Cindy waved her hand around, slammed her locker and headed over to Normal for her next run.
"Damn." Alec cursed slapping a locker and leaving Jam Pony.
~*
Alec entered his apartment, it was dark. He had spent the afternoon looking for Max but she had seemed to have disappeared. He went to her place twice, Joshua's, Logan's again, Jam Pony and Crash before her gave up and went home.
He flicked on the light, peeled off his jacket, turned and got the fright of his life. "Max! I've spent the best part of the day looking for you."
"What the evening at Crash hitting on every set of breasts that walked in the door?" Max asked smartly but still remaining quiet. "Why were you looking for me?"
"I wanted to say I'm sorry." Alec crossed the room to her.
"For what?" She smiled slightly, letting him take her hands.
"For everything." He whispered leaning down to kiss her.
She pulled free from him and stood about two meters away. "That's not talking."
"You want to talk?" Alec asked himself rather than her. "I can do that."
"I don't want you to talk, I want you to listen." Max stated knowing that she had him exactly where she wanted him.
"Listening, even better." Alec tried to joke but quickly saw that Max wasn't in the mood. He sat on the couch, got comfortable and made a gesture for her to join him. "I can listen, I'm really good at listening."
"Good!" Max took a seat next to him and looked at him seriously. "Last night was my fault. I wasn't thinking straight. Logan and I had a fight and I needed someone who understood me and where I came from. I, we, came from hell, Logan doesn't understand that and he never will. I'm really sorry for putting you in that position. It won't happen again."
"Max," Alec stopped her as she was getting up to leave, "what if I want it to happen again?"
Max smiled at him, she blinked a couple of times and considered the offer. "Are you serious?"
"Yep." Alec nodded. He reached out and took her hand.
She looked at their tangled fingers and let him pull her into his lap. She sat comfortably straddling his lap.
He ran his fingers tenderly through her hair, kissing her neck.
Thoughts moved too fast through her head to comprehend. She returned his gentle kisses and stroked chest. She could feel his breath on her neck. He somehow made her feel alive inside.
~*
Max woke up the next morning with her head on Alec's bare chest and his hand resting on her shoulder. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked at his sleeping face. She bit her bottom lip, she just couldn't help herself, she smiled and leant forward kissing his lips.
Alec opened his eyes and looked at a beaming Max smiling at him. He ran his fingers through her hair, and kissed her. "Let's call in sick." Alec said sleepily spying the alarm clock with the time printed on it.
"Normal's gonna fire me if I'm late." Max stated but made no effort to get up. She started to draw circles on his chest with her finger.
"I have to ask you something." Alec got serious, he moved her face so he was looking directly into her eyes.
"What is it?" Max asked curiously.
"What was with the 'don't tell anyone' speech yesterday, when you went out and told Cindy?" Alec asked giving her a looked of suspicion.
"Cindy?" Max asked surprised and amused. "I didn't tell her a thing! She has no idea."
"Then how come she said to me that she knew every thing?" Alec asked confused.
"Okay, firstly, she learnt this thing off Kendra that morning to get people to tell you stuff by pretending that you know when you don't really know. Secondly, no one pulls the wool over Original Cindy's eyes!"
Max and Alec laughed at the statement. The both knew that it was true but decided to see how long they could keep their relationship from their friends for.
"This is nasty." Max laughed.
"But so fun!" Alec said with an evil grin. He then got up and proceeded to jump on the bed.
Max laughed as Alec twirled the sheet and jumped up and down. She reached up and grabbed him pulling him close to her and kissing him. "Let's go to work." She said plainly, getting out of the bed and heading for the bathroom.
Alec stopped his excited mood and lay motionless on the bed. "Do we really have to?" He asked whimpering. He looked at Max who was standing in the doorway. She motioned for him to join her. Alec jumped up and ran after her.
Alec could feel the mistake swimming inside of him. He took advantage of her, that's why she wasn't there now, because she realized he had used her.
Alec got up and slowly made his way into the kitchen. He scratched his head and reached into the fridge for the carton of milk.
Max entered the room and stopped frozen in her tracks. She stared at him and said, "I was sure that I'd get another five minutes."
"You don't have to go." Alec put the milk on his table and walked toward her.
Max took a step backwards and held up an arm to stop his movement. "No, just don't, not now. We can talk about this later but right now I need to think things through. Don't say anything to anyone. Please."
"If that's what you want." Alec said bitterly, letting Max confirm his initial thought.
"What I think you should do, is put on some pants." Max grabbed her jacket from it's landing spot on Alec's floor and headed out the door.
Alec just stood completely naked in the middle of his own lounge room. He had stood naked in just about every part of his apartment and this one time Max just happened to be using his bathroom and caught him.
~*
Max climbed the stairs to her apartment and quietly opened the door. She wasn't expecting Cindy to already be up and about.
"Hey Max." Cindy said calmly making Max jump.
She whirled around to face Cindy and a face that she hadn't seen in sometime. "Kendra?" Max asked in disbelief at the face of her friend.
"Hello." Kendra embraced Max in a hug. "What have you been doing? Well apart from getting your transgenic ass into trouble?"
Max looked at her quite alarmed. "What?"
"Oh, don't worry." Kendra laughed. "I completely understand."
Max sighed and took a seat with them. "So what ya doing? Last we heard from you was a post card from New York."
"New York is the most fabulous city in this entire country." She informed them. "We can talk all about that later. What have you two been doing? Well I know all about Cindy, we've been talking most of the night."
"Yeah, Boo. Where ya been at?" Cindy took a sip of her coffee and waited for Max to answer.
"I was helping Alec with something." Max came up with a lie that was the closest to the truth as she could get.
"What's with that boy now?" Cindy shook her head.
"Whose Alec?" Kendra expressed great interest.
"Boy's got a crush on our Max here." Cindy told her.
"He's no one." Max threw in. "He wanted me to look at some stuff with him and I couldn't say know because Alec is the kind of person who is likely to get himself killed or caught."
"You people are so naughty." Kendra laughed. "Hey Max, maybe later you and your boy can show me some moves."
Max frowned, "He's not my boy and how did you know that he was a transgenic?"
"I didn't, you just told me." Kendra smiled drawing Max's attention.
"What did your crazy cop boyfriend teach you?" Cindy asked quite intrigued.
"The art of deception." Kendra said mischievously.
The three of them laughed so hard and talked so much that they forgot that Max and Cindy were meant to go to work.
~*
"Bip, bip, bip!" Normal's voice rang. He had white bandages holding his jaw in place and had to drink his food through a straw but still managed to nag everyone.
Cindy and Max walked in unsure of how late they actually were.
"Ah, ah, you're late." Normal looked at his watch and started his interrogation.
"Only by like five minutes." Max tried to reason with him.
Normal looked at his watch again. "Twenty-five minutes and forty-eight seconds.
"What you're timing us now?" Max asked horrified.
"No, just you." He pointed directly at Max. "If you're running late again, you may have to think about getting another job." Normal turned and left them to watch his back in awe.
"What's his dealio?" Max asked confused.
"He's just mad cause Sketchy mangled his face." Cindy suggested.
"Doesn't mean he has to take it out on me." Max said in her matter-o-factly tone.
Both girls shrugged at each other and made their way to the lockers.
~*
"Knock, knock, anybody home?" Alec called entering Logan's apartment.
"Yep." Logan stuck his head out of his office. "To what do I owe this unexpected surprise?"
"Well I was wondering what was up with Max?" Alec asked Logan, leaning against the table in the center of the room.
"Why?" Logan asked, " What do you know?"
"I know nothing, that's why I'm asking you." Alec replied picking up a piece of paper from the table and pretending to read it.
"How is it that, this working day started half an hour ago and you already know that something's up with her." Logan asked suspiciously.
"I haven't spoken to her today." Alec informed him. "She was at my place last night, balling her eyes out saying things like she had no where else to go. Wanna tell me what you guys were fighting about?"
"Why do you assume that I had anything to do with it?" Logan challenged him.
"Cause she came crying to me and not you, that makes you and her fighting." Alec tested his logic.
"I wasn't thinking and I may have said some things that I didn't mean." Logan gave in.
"Care to elaborate?" Alec questioned.
"I don't see how this is any of your business." Logan stated.
"When a friend of mine comes crying to me in the middle of the night, I make it my business." Alec said aiming for calm tone but finding a threatening one instead.
"What are you going to do about it?" Logan challenged him again.
"Why don't you just tell me and save me the trouble of beating your ass?" Alec was now standing inches away from him ready to strike him at any movement.
"What happened." Logan asked backing off and sitting on the couch.
"What?" Alec asked taken by surprise.
"What happened when Max showed up on your door step?" Logan leaned back into the chair already expecting the worse.
"She cried herself to sleep. She was so upset that she couldn't talk properly so I just let her go. She slept on the couch and when I go up this morning she was gone." Alec spoke as quickly as he could get his mind to come up with a lie.
"Right." Logan said not really believing it but taking his word anyway.
"So what happened?" Alec asked again.
"Why don't you ask Max?" Logan suggested.
"Cause, I'm asking you." Alec joined Logan on the couch and waited for an answer.
~*
"Boo, you okay?" Cindy asked munching on a carrot that they managed to pick up on their way through the market.
"Just thinking." Max replied picking up a grapefruit.
*Flashback*
"When is your birthday anyway?" Logan's voice asked.
"I have no clue." She replied. "Manticore wasn't big on that sort of thing. When's yours?"
"November eleven." Logan responded directly.
"I got you an early present." Max smiled and handed him a brown paper bag.
Logan looked at her strangely and rolled the contents of the bag onto his hand. "A grapefruit!" Logan looked shocked and surprised. "Haven't seen one of these in a while."
"They had chicken too." Max said excitedly.
"Wow, we must be in recovery." Logan met her excitement.
*End Flashback*
"Boo! Max!" Cindy was trying to get her attention. "Hello?"
Max shook her head, squeezed her eyes closed and then opened them again and looked at Cindy with a blank expression.
"What on earth are you thinkin bout girl? You are miles away." Cindy took the grapefruit off her and put it back in the pile of other grapefruit.
"I had a fight with Logan." Max said plainly picking the grapefruit up again and paying the man at the stall.
"What about?" Cindy asked sympathetically.
*Flashback*
"If you didn't want to come back then you shouldn't have. It would have been better for everybody if you didn't."
*End Flashback*
Logan's voice rang clear in her head. "He told me that it would have been better for everybody if I hadn't come back from Manticore."
"Are we talking about the same Logan?" Cindy asked wide eye and confused. "Cause if I remember correctly, he wouldn't say something like that."
"Well he did." Max walked calmly yet sadly next to Cindy.
"Oh my." Was all Cindy could say.
~*
"Have you seen Max?" Alec asked Normal.
"No!" Normal mumbled through clenched teeth. "Bip! Bip! Bip!"
"Cindy?" Alec knew that she had heard him ask.
"Ah, ah no!" She said turning on her heel and heading for her locker.
"Come on Cindy." Alec ran after her.
"I don't think she wants to speak to you." Cindy opened her locker and started fiddling inside.
"What do you know?" Alec asked annoyed.
"Oh, I know everything." Cindy waved her hand around, slammed her locker and headed over to Normal for her next run.
"Damn." Alec cursed slapping a locker and leaving Jam Pony.
~*
Alec entered his apartment, it was dark. He had spent the afternoon looking for Max but she had seemed to have disappeared. He went to her place twice, Joshua's, Logan's again, Jam Pony and Crash before her gave up and went home.
He flicked on the light, peeled off his jacket, turned and got the fright of his life. "Max! I've spent the best part of the day looking for you."
"What the evening at Crash hitting on every set of breasts that walked in the door?" Max asked smartly but still remaining quiet. "Why were you looking for me?"
"I wanted to say I'm sorry." Alec crossed the room to her.
"For what?" She smiled slightly, letting him take her hands.
"For everything." He whispered leaning down to kiss her.
She pulled free from him and stood about two meters away. "That's not talking."
"You want to talk?" Alec asked himself rather than her. "I can do that."
"I don't want you to talk, I want you to listen." Max stated knowing that she had him exactly where she wanted him.
"Listening, even better." Alec tried to joke but quickly saw that Max wasn't in the mood. He sat on the couch, got comfortable and made a gesture for her to join him. "I can listen, I'm really good at listening."
"Good!" Max took a seat next to him and looked at him seriously. "Last night was my fault. I wasn't thinking straight. Logan and I had a fight and I needed someone who understood me and where I came from. I, we, came from hell, Logan doesn't understand that and he never will. I'm really sorry for putting you in that position. It won't happen again."
"Max," Alec stopped her as she was getting up to leave, "what if I want it to happen again?"
Max smiled at him, she blinked a couple of times and considered the offer. "Are you serious?"
"Yep." Alec nodded. He reached out and took her hand.
She looked at their tangled fingers and let him pull her into his lap. She sat comfortably straddling his lap.
He ran his fingers tenderly through her hair, kissing her neck.
Thoughts moved too fast through her head to comprehend. She returned his gentle kisses and stroked chest. She could feel his breath on her neck. He somehow made her feel alive inside.
~*
Max woke up the next morning with her head on Alec's bare chest and his hand resting on her shoulder. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked at his sleeping face. She bit her bottom lip, she just couldn't help herself, she smiled and leant forward kissing his lips.
Alec opened his eyes and looked at a beaming Max smiling at him. He ran his fingers through her hair, and kissed her. "Let's call in sick." Alec said sleepily spying the alarm clock with the time printed on it.
"Normal's gonna fire me if I'm late." Max stated but made no effort to get up. She started to draw circles on his chest with her finger.
"I have to ask you something." Alec got serious, he moved her face so he was looking directly into her eyes.
"What is it?" Max asked curiously.
"What was with the 'don't tell anyone' speech yesterday, when you went out and told Cindy?" Alec asked giving her a looked of suspicion.
"Cindy?" Max asked surprised and amused. "I didn't tell her a thing! She has no idea."
"Then how come she said to me that she knew every thing?" Alec asked confused.
"Okay, firstly, she learnt this thing off Kendra that morning to get people to tell you stuff by pretending that you know when you don't really know. Secondly, no one pulls the wool over Original Cindy's eyes!"
Max and Alec laughed at the statement. The both knew that it was true but decided to see how long they could keep their relationship from their friends for.
"This is nasty." Max laughed.
"But so fun!" Alec said with an evil grin. He then got up and proceeded to jump on the bed.
Max laughed as Alec twirled the sheet and jumped up and down. She reached up and grabbed him pulling him close to her and kissing him. "Let's go to work." She said plainly, getting out of the bed and heading for the bathroom.
Alec stopped his excited mood and lay motionless on the bed. "Do we really have to?" He asked whimpering. He looked at Max who was standing in the doorway. She motioned for him to join her. Alec jumped up and ran after her.
