Name: The Realization That You're In love.
Author: merykey X-5 495
E-Mail: merykey_x5283@yahoo.com
Summary: Alec realizes that he loves someone, but she has a boyfriend. M/A. After HG & DDA and before SAH & LATR.
Disclaimer: The characters of Dark Angel do not belong to me. They belong to a guy named James and I think the other's one name is something like Eglee or something like that.
Author's Note I: Thanks to: Sokeri, Kiki, Jg (Really? Is it sucha sweet torture?? Thanks!), Messymissy (Thank you for all your compliments), AuSSiE AnGeL (The only one who wants Cece to die!), Lady of Manticore (Sure!! You can link my fic if you want, be my guest!!!!), Cloudburst (If I keep Cece alive I will definitely not pair her with Biggs, I have better plans for him... ejem! I think everyone knows what... it involves a pretty little lady and a baby... =0P), Tasha00, Sam-453 (Thank you for reading my stories!!), Hallenee. And of course, as always, Thanks to my dear friends Spooky, Irina and the greatest of all... my Beta pall, Suki (Sorry, I forgot to mention you the last chapter!!) But I have to say that this chapter wouldn't have been possible without her... THANK YOU SUKI!!!! Oh, And I´m sorry I made you all wait so long... Anyway, Enjoy!!

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Chapter 22
They were leaving the shelter Jam Pony had become the last two or three hours. Max, Alec, Cece, Mole, Joshua, another X-5 and a young X-6 were using the bike messengers as shields. The simple mission of Mole and Joshua that had become a hostage situation in nowhere else but Jam Pony.

Max was holding her friend, Cindy, Alec was holding Cece with a gun. The pregnant X-5 and the kid were safely inside the 'circle' of hostages and kidnappers. Everything's gonna be fine, everything's gonna be fine... Max kept repeating to herself like a mantra. All she wanted to do was go back to Terminal City safe.

Then someone shot at them. It all happened so fast, she didn't see Cece go down. She was badly hurt. Everyone was screaming and running back inside Jam Pony. In the second that it took Cece's body to fall to the ground, Max saw how the life of her X-5 friend was gone in a heartbeat.

Then another shot... His hazel eyes looked at her for the last time before his whole body gave in.... He could hardly breath... "Alec??" she yelled at him as she tried to put pressure on his wound, "Oh, God... please, don't! Alec??". But flame that represented his soul had already died. She cried his name one last time. Then... pain. A bullet in her right arm... A bullet in her guts... The pain the bullet gave her as it made its way through her brain was nothing she ever felt before or would ever feel.

Her eyes snapped open. She was breathing hard. Where was she? What had happen? Then she remembered. She was in her apartment... she had fallen asleep on the couch... She touched her forehead, searching for something... a wound. This dream... it had been so real. She had felt everything... Even... Shit!! I'm late!! She thought when she saw the time. Max got up from the couch and after putting on more suitable clothes for tonight's job, she went out of her apartment, though she never knew this was going to be the last time.

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"Sir?"

"Come in."

"We got the results of 452´s blood test."

White looked up from the papers he was reading.

"And?"

"And we found something, sir... apart from the virus Manticore implanted on her."

"What is it?" White was starting to get a little impatient.

"I'm not sure, sir. It is related with her non-junk DNA. I think is a... 'cure', but not sure for what."

"A cure."

"Yes, sir."

"Ok, leave me all the results. I'll send them to the lab first thing in the morning."

"Sir, would you like me to send it?" said the pretty young agent. He was new surely.

"I SAID I'll send them first thing in the morning."

The kid was now very nervous, there was something about his boss, let a side that he was his boss and Kevin, the boy, didn't want to make a fool out of himself in front of him.

"Sir... yes, sir. I'll leave them... here" and left the papers on the desk and left not seeing White's eyes, which were following him with some anger.

White took the papers and read them. Then he took his cell.

"Fe'nos tol."

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Drug dealers don't have a sense of humor when it comes to money. Max thought. She was still thinking ´bout the dream... Cece's dead... Alec's dead... her dead... it had felt so real. She still couldn't place where they were in the dream. Why Joshua was holding a gun or what the hell was going on?!... What now?!

"Get out of here, you freaks!"

"...Local citizens have begun setting up flaming X's, like this one, outside the fence as a warning to the transgenics inside."

"Go back where you came from!"

"Hey! Freakazoids!"

Max stopped her Ninja in the middle of the street gaining the drunk's and the reporter's attention.

"Two million years of human evolution and this is what we get. You morons." She started her Ninja again and, lifting her front wheel, she rode right through a flaming X made of wood. Then she rode over a ramp and jumped over the railing.

"What the hell?!" the reporter said, then in direction to her camera-man, "Did you get that? Tell me you got that!"

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Seattle's train station

White was talking to the older priestess on his cell phone. Apparently, complaining. "You understand that bringing in this team now could compromise my cover at the Agency?"

"Your Agency position has served us well, Ames, but the Conclave feels that..."

White interrupted her, "With all due respect to the Conclave, bringing in outside muscle is not the solution to this problem."

"Hardly outside muscle. The Phalanx are the best we have... the elite of our warrior breeding line, the tip of the spear. They come by direct order of the Conclave, so discussion is pointless."

"I bow to the wisdom" and hung up. Just then, two women and three men got off the train and immediately approached White.

The red-haired woman talked first. "Fe'nos tol. I'm Thula, team leader."

"Fe'nos tol" answered White.

"I've heard a lot about you, Brother White. I'm surprised you couldn't handle one girl on your own" she said.

"Your target's a little more than just a girl."

"You defend your failure by flattering your enemy?"

Not wanting to get into an argument, White handed her a picture of Sam. "452 is a threat to everything we've worked for throughout the generations. Her death is our highest priority."

"Don't worry, brother. We'll clean your mess up for you."

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Alec entered Jam Pony on Monday morning all by himself. All his anger and sadness again buried inside him.

"For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good felloooow...!!" sang Normal the minute Alec entered.

"The man's finally lost it." said Alec surprised of seeing Normal like this... singing... totally weird. But then Normal handed Alec a cake, which he had been hiding behind his back.

"Many happy returns, there, buddy boy."

"It's not my birthday." Alec said. Truth was he didn't even knew when his birthday was.

"Yeah, it's right there in black on white on your application form." answered Normal.

"Oh yeah, yeah. Boy, nothing gets by you, does it, Normal?" Alec said taking the cake.

"Now I made that without eggs and butter, all right? I know you like to look after the ol' physique. Go ahead. Blow it out." For some reason Alec felt this wasn't going to be a very nice birthday. He looked at Cindy and then blew out the candle. Then Normal said to Cindy, "By the way, if you see your shiftless colleague Max, tell her she's fired."

"She's gonna be here like any minute."

"Yeah, right. She´s probably still in bed with her lover boy." Alec said in a very low voice. Cindy didn't understand what he had said but she knew it wasn't good.

"Do you think I buy your tissue of lies for like a nanosecond?"

"The man is like a steel trap." Alec said now in a normal tone of voice, tasting the egg and butterless cake. Just one word: Ugh! Is that a word? It doesn't matter."

"You keep covering up for that reprobate, you're gonna be out of here, miss." Normal warned Cindy.

"Ya promise?" she answere.

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Max was riding her bike back home. She was already late, and she still had to go home, take a shower and a change of clothes. The incident at Logan's kept repeating over and over again in her head. She had totally forgot about the horrible dream. Logan had been taking pictures of her runes and then he had touched her hand in a... lovable kind of way, which made Max feel totally uncomfortable. All that made Max think. Maybe she should go back with Logan. She still loved him... not in the way she used to, or as much as she loved a certain X-5, who she wanted to forget about. But Alec didn't want her and maybe it was time to make that old dream come true... the one where she and Logan were happy and together...

Her cell rang, so she stopped her bike and picked it up.

"Go for Max."

"Little fella, little fella, everything's gone sideways, people screaming, and Gem is trying to keep her legs crossed so the baby won't pop out!" Joshua said almost yelling. He was panicking.

"What? Where are you?"

"I'm at South Market..."

"You're right around the corner from Jam Pony. Find Alec; he'll get you a car. Okay? Joshua?"

"Max? Max? Battery died. She said Jam Pony, then battery died."

"Which way? Come on!" said Mole. They were all panicking.

Joshua took Gem, the pregnant X-5, by the hand, "Come! Come!"

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The group of freaks arrived at Jam Pony, and luckily found Alec, who was just coming out of the place.

"Alec!" Joshua said. Alec was just surprised to see them there, "I'm so glad to see you. This is Gem. She's having a baby."

"Oh, so naturally you thought of stopping by Jam Pony in broad daylight." Alec answered. He was starting to panic too.

"Max said to come see you, and to get a car, and head back..." But Joshua couldn't finish ´cause a couple of police cars were arriving there.

"Don't turn around. Don't turn around. Keep walking. Keep walking." he said to the rest. He took his bike and they all started walking the opposite direction.

One of the cops, "You, in the hood! Drop your weapon!"

Just then another police car arrived and stopped in front of them.

"Drop the weapon now!" said one of the cops of the last car aiming a gun to them, "Put your hands on your head!"

"Don't move!" said another cop.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa!" Alec said dropping his bike and rising his hands not in surrender but in 'Whoa, man, take it easy' gesture, thought he was freaking out. What were they going to do? Yeah, a hell of a great birthday.

Mole shot once into the air and grabbed Alec and pointed the gun to him as if he was a hostage.

"Back! Or he's dead!" Mole yelled.

Joshua grabbed Gem and aimed a gun at the police, but Gem pulled his hand down so that the gun was pointing at her.

"I said, stay back or he's dead!" Mole yelled again to the police. He then said to Alec, "Play along."

"Yeah, no problem." Alec said as Mole pulled him into Jam Pony, Joshua, Gem and the kid, Dalton right behind them.

Normal and the messengers watched the five of them enter.

"Jumpin' George Dubya." Normal said behind the counter, in response of all the noise out side.

Once inside, Alec was still playing the hostage role, "Don't blow my cover." he said slowly to Mole.

"Got a back door?" Mole asked.

"Yeah."

"All right, nobody move!" Mole now said yelling as Joshua closed the front door.

The group of transgenics walked through the messengers to the back door. Alec opened the back door and Mole was following him out when more police cars parked outside. The cops were taking aim.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, go back!" yelled Alec to the rest, not seeing the shoot going on his way.

They went back in to find Normal aiming at them. "Hold it right there, freak show!" He saw then Alec's bloody shoulder. "You're bleeding."

"Yeah," Alec answered touching the blood over his jacket, "bullets will do that to you."

"Okay, you're safe now."

Alec sighed, realizing this would be the last time Normal would look at him like a normal man, the last time anyone would look at him like a normal man. It was him or his freaky friends. This was the beginning of his life as a true transgenic... he was now, for the rest of the world, one more freak, "No..." he said and then with a fast and strong move, Alec twisted Normal's arm over the man's head and took the gun out of his boss´ hand, " ...I'm safe now."

Mole pointed his gun to Normal, but Alec gestured Mole to lower his gun and he did it. Normal was holding his arm and watching Alec in shock when one of the messengers tried to escape, running toward the front door.

"No one leaves!" Alec yelled. Then, a blond messenger stood up and knocked the other messenger down. It was Cece who had been playing along and stayed with the rest of frightened messengers.

"Nobody move!" she yelled.

"Cece's one of them, too. Cool." Sketchy said staring at the girl.

"Cece, call base. Tell 'em we're in trouble. Joshua, take the front. Mole, you got the back?"

"Got it" the lizard guy said watching through the back window.

"Kid, what's your name?" Alec said again.

"Dalton."

"All right, Dalton, why don't you head upstairs and keep an eye on the street for me?"

"My golden boy's a mutant." said Normal still looking at him in shock.

"We prefer 'genetically empowered'." Alec answered in his typically smart-ass tone, though this time he wasn't playing.

"Take me, Jesus."

"Careful what you wish for." said Mole, distracting his assignment, and not seeing what was going on.

Then...

CCCCCRRRAAAAASSSSHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shit!

It was Max. She had managed to break through the window of Jam Pony with a hover drone.

"Hey. Who ordered a pizza?"

Alec was still... whatever he was since he saw her and Biggs leaving to the guy's apartment, but damn! It felt good to know she was here!

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Author's Note II: This continues on Ch. 23. Read and Review!!! Please!!!!!!!