Chapter 2
Max sat up on the space needle again. Since the siege had begun, Max had had very little time to her self, so she's barely been up here. But the last couple of nights she hadn't been able to stay away. After the conversation with Logan, when she awakened memories of the first night she came up here, she had to return. Max scooted carefully towards to edge, peering down to the ground over five hundred feet below. Max closed her eyes as the scene replayed again.
…The elevators dinged behind her… she looked down into Seth's eyes and they both knew what was coming… a moment later she knew what he was gonna do about it… 'Sorry, Max.' he said as a tear escaped his eye… and he let go… Sterling's screams all the way down…and Max just reached out in vain to her brother who was already gone…
Max opened her eyes slowly, and dimly realised she was reaching out into the nothingness. She lay down, right there, on the very edge, sobbing once more. She knew the slightest movement might tip her over, and to be honest, she wasn't sure that she'd care.
Wrapped up in her own little world of misery, Max didn't hear the footsteps as they approached. The newcomer walked tentatively, eyes wide at the scene before him.
"Max?" he managed. She didn't answer, but this close, he could hear her tear soaked breathing, and a sob now and then. He breathed a sigh of relief- she was alive. "Max." he repeated gently, reaching out carefully. She flinched as he touched her arm, but didn't turn, or fall. "Max, it's me." He said. She rolled away from the edge, where he bundled her into his arms, "It's ok." He whispered against her hair, "It's ok, Max." She leant into his embrace, and cried until she could cry no more.
When Max was capable of speech again, they were sitting side by side, his arm firmly holding her to him. She was fine with that; he was warm, and comforting. She rested her head on his shoulder looked out over her city.
"Thanks." She whispered to him for the second time that day. He shook his head,
"Don't mention it." Max snuggled closer. For once in her life she just wanted to feel cosy and safe. She didn't care about not showing weakness, or holding her 'I need no one' image. This man made her feel safe, he made her realise that the world did still go round. She smiled to herself, he always manages to do that.
"So… you ok?" he asked. Max sniffled,
"Yeah. I will be." She said no more, and he knew it was pointless to pursue it. Max sensed that this was why he didn't ask. Almost a half hour later, she spoke. "It's a very long story. About my past… things that happened before I even met Logan… some of it before I met Cindy. I… I was talking to Logan bout something, and it came up. I haven't been able to get it out of my head since." He said nothing. "Do you know why I come here?" Max asked him.
"To be alone. That's what you told me."
"Yeah." She smiled. "Well, to think, anyway… not long after I first came to Seattle, one of my brother's died here, along with a whole load of other people." He was shocked,
"What happened?" She shifted to look up into his eyes, and saw genuine curiosity. She wasn't going to tell this story again just for the sake of it. She took a deep breath, and recounted the events of that night so long ago. He starred out across Seattle, saying nothing, with a vacant look in his eyes.
"Alec?" she asked.
"I heard about it." He said quietly. "There were rumours going around the base… I think Renfro mighta started them- she hated Lydecker. People said that Lydecker had allowed one X5 to commit suicide, and let another escape. Apparently he ignored a young soldier when he told him that he'd seen a girl up here. I guess that was you."
"Yeah." Still looking at him, Max could tell there was more. Alec could feel her eyes on him.
"The other part of the rumour was that it was the same girl Lydecker had been looking for in LA." Max stiffened. Alec hung his head, so it was her.
"Please tell me you weren't…" she gasped.
"No. God, no, I'd have refused if I had been asked. Screw solitary, ha, screw psy-ops, I wouldn't have helped him do that, Max, I swear." Max drew a sigh of relief. Alec continued, "I didn't hear much about it… after. They killed them all, didn't they?" Max nodded slowly.
"All of them. I wasn't even there!" the tears came again. "I left nearly a month earlier, Alec! They didn't even bother to find out if I was there…" He squeezed her shoulder.
"It wasn't your fault." It both annoyed and comforted Max how he could understand her so easily.
"I still wish I'd been there. I coulda gotten some of them out." Alec shook his head slowly.
"He had so many men there. You'd have been caught, Max. And they would still have died. There was nothing you could have done." He said it so simply, so calmly, so truthfully. Max leant in to him again, wrapping her arms round him too.
"Thank you." She said again. Alec smiled softly. His mind was a jumble of thoughts. He had always presumed that life out here had been so much easier. But Max just kept proving him wrong. They'd had choices, they'd had freedom, but they also had the knowledge of the truth about Manticore, meaning that Manticore was not afraid to show it. Out of the thirteen that had escaped, he now knew that Max had seen at least three of those siblings die. He also knew that Lydecker had killed one a couple of years ago when she resisted capture, and caught another a couple of years before that. Max had told him about Brin and Zack too. He counted it up. Granted that he had no idea what happened to Brin after the escape, he made that four dead, two (including Brin) captured, and Zack just gone. That left six, including Max, still out there, unaffected by Manticore. That did not mean, however, that they were not dead, or captured by someone like the 'Reds' Max had told him of. Then if you add the thirty odd people she'd lost at the Chinese clan… Now and then, Alec had seen Max's periods of sulkiness, or crying, as weakness. Now he knew the truth. Max had seen and felt at least as much pain as he had over the years, and she hadn't had Manticore to brainwash her into the belief it didn't matter. She'd had to deal with it full blast. And on top of that, she had been caught. Some nights Alec had heard her scream. Renfro did not go lightly on the re-programming torture. So now he just held her close as it occurred to him that she was actually probably one of the strongest people he had ever met, and something else… he loved her for it.
Note: despite how that just ended, I don't think this will turn into a Max/Alec story. I don't really know cos I haven't written any more yet. I'll see. I'll put more up as soon as I can. Please review with ur thoughts or any ideas u have!
