Chapter 3:
A/N: Well, I'm glad you're all liking this thus far. I'm having fun with it, and the burgeoning Max/Alec relationship. Sorry this is taking me so long. Summer is finally here, a time when one is supposed to be relaxing before college, and here I am, working 12 hour days. Oh well. I'll get the chapters up as quickly as I can, promise.
A/N2: Okay question, can anyone tell me the title of a story, or maybe two? (I can't remember, I think they're different stories.) Story 1: Logan gets hooked on transgenic blood and becomes a kind of junkie.
Story2: Set after FN, Zack returns and he's working for Lydecker. Max, Alec and Logan eventually have to go abroad to stop the familiars, and Max sacrifices herself before Alec can get a chance to tell her he loves her. Ring any bells? Anyone?
Disclaimer: Ya'll are dense if you don't get it by now.
~*~
"...Because I don't want to lose you!" Max cried out in frustration. She stopped head in her tracks, eyes wide as she realized what she had just confessed. Her mind raced as she tried to think of a way to make it sound callous, but no ideas came.
Alec's next argument died right there on his lips. His jaw closed with an audible snap, a flash of intense bewilderment passing over his features before the cocky, self-assured grin reappeared. "Say what?" he finally managed.
"Nothing."
"Oh come on Maxie, that was something."
"Shut up Alec," she snapped. She cursed herself silently for the slip.
Alec bit down on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from grinning like an idiot. He was going to enjoy this. "I knew it."
"When have you ever known anything?"
"Oh come on, I can see right through you. Could this possibly mean that the callous ice queen actually does have a beating heart? Aw Max, I'm touched."
"Touched in the head maybe. You're such a jackass. That's not what I meant." She went to pass by him, but Alec blocked the doorway. There was no way he was letting her off this easy. he observed her, the shifting eyes, the clenching palms. He had her.
"You care about me," he stated definitively. "You won't admit it, but you do. You'd miss me."
Max closed her eyes. He'd caught her in her own lie. Okay, so yes, she finally had to admit that she did care, a little, maybe, kind of, in a twisted, masochistic sort of way anyway, but why should he know that? Besides, saying it aloud would give it life, and she didn't want to do that. it would make him a target, and her vulnerable. It was better if Alec could just remain neutral, helpful, but not important.
It was bad enough that her other friends were being dragged into her mess, Logan, Cindy, even Sketch, but they she could at least keep out of harm's way for the most part. They never stood shoulder to shoulder with her in a fight; she wouldn't have let them. Alec she couldn't stop. he was always right there with her, ready to fight the good fight, even before the war was his. She didn't know how to respond, so she reacted the best way she knew how. She punched him.
She punched him, full out and straight in the face. Alec reeled backwards, hand reaching up to clutch his nose. Blood seeped between his fingers. His foot stomped the ground once and he groaned. "What the fuck Max?!!!" She just stood there, watching him, hand resting lightly atop her cocked hip. "God, you're such a bi......"
"Such a what Alec?"
Green eyes flickered over her edgily. "Never mind," he mumbled. He stepped out of her way and plopped down on his couch. "Fine then, go." Max smiled. "Run away, like you always do." Max stopped, her hand falling away from the door handle. He got her, again.
Grumbling incoherently she stomped over into his kitchen and grabbed a roll of paper towels, tossing them in his lap. Keeping one eyes trained on her, Alec began to clean off his face. Max sat heavily next to him with a sigh. "I don't want to lose you," she said again. "Okay, you got me, I'll admit it. I've lost so much, Tinga, Ben, Logan......"
"Logan's not really gone you know."
"May as well be. So you know what? Fucked up as this is, you may very well be the most stable thing in my life right now. I need you around Alec, to annoy the hell out of me if nothing else."
"I think I can manage that."
Max stood and ambled toward the door. "Oh," she shot back over her shoulder, "that I KNOW you can do. But don't you think for a minute this little heart to heart changes anything. You're still not coming with me." She was gone before Alec could say anything.
--
Max descended the stairs of her building quickly the next morning. It was early, and everything lay still and dormant in the city. She hopped down the last three stairs, readjusting her pack and fidgeting with her gloves.
Actually, if truth were told she had actually not gone to sleep at all the night before. After leaving Alec she went to Joshua's to retrieve Logan. It had been after two when she had finally given the hacker the all clear to return to his apartment. Logan had been friendly but, distant, an effect she had been both craving and dreading. He provided her with directions to the farm where he'd placed Zack, and told her that he would call the people in the morning to warn them of her arrival.
After that she'd gone to the space needle for some much needed time to herself. Her thoughts had wandered as she stared out above the city, the breeze lifting the hair off her neck and sending a chill down her spine. She reflected on her relationship with Logan, thought about what made Zack suddenly violent towards Alec. And she thought about Alec. Maybe there were times she didn't give him the credit he deserved.
Max had returned to her place as it neared four, and immediately began to pack for a trip out of the city. OC had woken up, groggy and concerned. Once Max assured her that she would be cautious, and of the fact that she would indeed return later that day, OC had returned to her room, muttering a "Luv ya boo, later."
Max's watch said it was close to five, so she didn't immediately see the person lurking in the shadows where she occasionally stored her bike. "What the hell are you doing here?" She demanded. "What did I tell you?"
"Good morning to you too Max, glad to see you're in such a better mood."
"Shove it Alec, and tell me what I said last night didn't get through that thick skull of yours."
"Oh no, I heard you," he nodded.
"So then what are you doing here?"
"You said you needed me around to annoy you if nothing else."
"Yeah, and...."
He grinned, holding up his hands. "So tell me this doesn't annoy you." Max opened her mouth to bicker, but she kept getting stuck on the words. Finally she sighed and just shrugged. It was really hard to argue with that kind of logic.
--
"This place," Alec said disdainfully as he kicked aside a half eaten bag of potato chips, "is a dump. You know, Zack never struck me as the messy sort of guy." he cocked his head to the left, eyebrows shooting into his hairline. "The homicidal type maybe. The stick up his ass type definitely, but not a slob."
Max gingerly stepped over what she could only guess was a shirt, and tossed a pillow back onto the beat up upholstered couch. "Well maybe that's because Zack isn't a slob."
Alec pursed his lips, eyes darting from left to right. "I don't even want to know the type of squalor you and OC live in if you consider this clean."
"I'm not saying it's clean dumbass."
"So I'm up to dumbass now? Before it was just asshole. See, we're making progress."
Max rolled her eyes and kept talking. "What I'm saying is that Zack didn't make this mess. The people that own this property, they told Logan that they had gone into town a few nights back. It was late, and when they came out the next morning the apartment was like this and Zack was gone. He didn't pack anything, didn't leave a note, just vanished."
"That's it? Nothing else?"
She shrugged. "That's it. They said we could look around all we like, see if there's anything that may lead us to Zack."
"well, I don't think we're going to find anything of value or personal interest amidst the remnants of his garbage can, so why don't we try someplace else, like his room maybe."
The two transgenics moved into one of the two smaller rooms beyond the kitchen/living area. Max kicked aside the mattress of the full sized bed so she and Alec could get in the door. Zack's room, if possible, was actually in even more disarray than the living room. Clothes had been torn out from the closets, the sheets ripped from the bed and strewn about the floor. A desk with a broken leg was perched precariously in one corner.
Max began pulling out and rifling the desk drawers, while Alec searched the rest of the room. He stopped for a moment in from of a large hole in one wall. "What do you think Max, fight?"
"Possible," she said absently, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "Actually better than possible the more I think about it. I suppose being in a fight could account for his state of mind last night, not that I understand why he'd make you the center of his aggression. You didn't do anything to him did you, Alec?" His withering glare made her hold up her hands in mock defense. "Didn't think so, just asking."
She turned back to the drawers and Alec set about picking things up off the floor. There wasn't much else for him to do, considering he'd already checked under the bed and in the closet. A small corner of paper stuck out amongst the ruins, mostly buried under the collapsed bed frame. Alec wedged his fingers beneath the bed and hefted it up off the floor so that he could retrieve the paper.
He turned it over in his hand. There, in grainy black and white, was half of a picture. The girl in the photo seemed oblivious, her back to the camera, so he surmised it was taken without her prior consent or knowledge. The area in which she was standing was rocky and bare. She was dressed casually, in jeans and boots and a work shirt tied off and exposing her mid section. Light hair lifted off her shoulder.
Alec squinted, the clue he might have discovered even hard for his superior transgenic eyes to see. "Hey Max, c'mere I think I found something."
Max trudged over. "What?" She peered over his shoulder at the ripped photo.
He gestured with his finger to the barely visible traces of black lines on the girl's neck. "Does that look like a barcode to you?"
--
Max paced Logan's apartment fretfully later that night, as the hacker scanned and uploaded the picture Alec had found into his computer. Alec sat, dozing on the couch, his head lolled back and mouth hanging loosely open. The look Logan had shot him when he came in was anything but pleasant, but luckily Alec had missed it in route to Logan's well stocked refrigerator.
Logan stepped into his living room, one hand passing over his face. He really needed more sleep. Living on Max's time table always meant little. "Well...," he started.
"Well what?" Alerted by Max's insistent, strident tone, Alec woke and made his way over.
"Let me finish and I might actually tell you." Max bit down on her lower lip to stop herself from retorting. "Unfortunately, there wasn't enough of her barcode exposed for me to be able to get a positive ID on her."
Alec nudged Max with his elbow. "Satisfied Maxie? We tried. We failed. Can we go home now?" She shot him a dirty look.
Logan grinned and held up one finger. "But."
Alec's chin dropped to his chest, his head wagging side to side. "But. Why is there always a but?"
Max merely rolled her eyes and followed Logan to his computers. Alec, for all his complaining was only a few steps behind. Max sat in the chair in front of the monitor. "So what am I looking for exactly?"
Logan drew the keyboard closer to himself and began to type. Suddenly, one section of the picture was enlarged. "You can't even see the girl now though," Max protested.
"It's blurry." Alec stated bluntly.
"I'm getting to that." A few more keystrokes and the pixels condensed, leaving a much clearer image. Logan tapped the screen, grinning widely, obviously impressed with himself. The enhanced section of photo was of a dark wood sign. "See that? Read the name."
"The Circle K? What the heck is the Circle K?"
"I checked it out on the computer. The Circle K is a summer operating Dude ranch on the Western slope of the Colorado Rockies. They let tourists and guests have that real 'Old West' experience. They learn to ride horses and do ranch work, including driving cattle to and from pasture. In the winter it runs on skeleton staff from October until May."
Max glanced over her shoulder at Alec. "Guess I'm going to Colorado."
"Oh come on. What kind of self respecting Manticore trainee would wind up in the back country of the Rocky Mountains, just to play along with some half assed game of cowboy?"
Max knew of only one that Zack would be so eager to find. He'd go for his sister, his brethren. A slow smile appeared on her lips, growing till it reached her eyes. "Jondy."
End Chapter 3
Short I realize, but I'm strapped for time right now. I do hope this explains the origin of the title. Like I said, this really is more Alec/Max centric, though Zack and Jondy will both make their appearances. Do feel free to tell me what you think, just by pressing that little purple button.
A/N: Well, I'm glad you're all liking this thus far. I'm having fun with it, and the burgeoning Max/Alec relationship. Sorry this is taking me so long. Summer is finally here, a time when one is supposed to be relaxing before college, and here I am, working 12 hour days. Oh well. I'll get the chapters up as quickly as I can, promise.
A/N2: Okay question, can anyone tell me the title of a story, or maybe two? (I can't remember, I think they're different stories.) Story 1: Logan gets hooked on transgenic blood and becomes a kind of junkie.
Story2: Set after FN, Zack returns and he's working for Lydecker. Max, Alec and Logan eventually have to go abroad to stop the familiars, and Max sacrifices herself before Alec can get a chance to tell her he loves her. Ring any bells? Anyone?
Disclaimer: Ya'll are dense if you don't get it by now.
~*~
"...Because I don't want to lose you!" Max cried out in frustration. She stopped head in her tracks, eyes wide as she realized what she had just confessed. Her mind raced as she tried to think of a way to make it sound callous, but no ideas came.
Alec's next argument died right there on his lips. His jaw closed with an audible snap, a flash of intense bewilderment passing over his features before the cocky, self-assured grin reappeared. "Say what?" he finally managed.
"Nothing."
"Oh come on Maxie, that was something."
"Shut up Alec," she snapped. She cursed herself silently for the slip.
Alec bit down on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from grinning like an idiot. He was going to enjoy this. "I knew it."
"When have you ever known anything?"
"Oh come on, I can see right through you. Could this possibly mean that the callous ice queen actually does have a beating heart? Aw Max, I'm touched."
"Touched in the head maybe. You're such a jackass. That's not what I meant." She went to pass by him, but Alec blocked the doorway. There was no way he was letting her off this easy. he observed her, the shifting eyes, the clenching palms. He had her.
"You care about me," he stated definitively. "You won't admit it, but you do. You'd miss me."
Max closed her eyes. He'd caught her in her own lie. Okay, so yes, she finally had to admit that she did care, a little, maybe, kind of, in a twisted, masochistic sort of way anyway, but why should he know that? Besides, saying it aloud would give it life, and she didn't want to do that. it would make him a target, and her vulnerable. It was better if Alec could just remain neutral, helpful, but not important.
It was bad enough that her other friends were being dragged into her mess, Logan, Cindy, even Sketch, but they she could at least keep out of harm's way for the most part. They never stood shoulder to shoulder with her in a fight; she wouldn't have let them. Alec she couldn't stop. he was always right there with her, ready to fight the good fight, even before the war was his. She didn't know how to respond, so she reacted the best way she knew how. She punched him.
She punched him, full out and straight in the face. Alec reeled backwards, hand reaching up to clutch his nose. Blood seeped between his fingers. His foot stomped the ground once and he groaned. "What the fuck Max?!!!" She just stood there, watching him, hand resting lightly atop her cocked hip. "God, you're such a bi......"
"Such a what Alec?"
Green eyes flickered over her edgily. "Never mind," he mumbled. He stepped out of her way and plopped down on his couch. "Fine then, go." Max smiled. "Run away, like you always do." Max stopped, her hand falling away from the door handle. He got her, again.
Grumbling incoherently she stomped over into his kitchen and grabbed a roll of paper towels, tossing them in his lap. Keeping one eyes trained on her, Alec began to clean off his face. Max sat heavily next to him with a sigh. "I don't want to lose you," she said again. "Okay, you got me, I'll admit it. I've lost so much, Tinga, Ben, Logan......"
"Logan's not really gone you know."
"May as well be. So you know what? Fucked up as this is, you may very well be the most stable thing in my life right now. I need you around Alec, to annoy the hell out of me if nothing else."
"I think I can manage that."
Max stood and ambled toward the door. "Oh," she shot back over her shoulder, "that I KNOW you can do. But don't you think for a minute this little heart to heart changes anything. You're still not coming with me." She was gone before Alec could say anything.
--
Max descended the stairs of her building quickly the next morning. It was early, and everything lay still and dormant in the city. She hopped down the last three stairs, readjusting her pack and fidgeting with her gloves.
Actually, if truth were told she had actually not gone to sleep at all the night before. After leaving Alec she went to Joshua's to retrieve Logan. It had been after two when she had finally given the hacker the all clear to return to his apartment. Logan had been friendly but, distant, an effect she had been both craving and dreading. He provided her with directions to the farm where he'd placed Zack, and told her that he would call the people in the morning to warn them of her arrival.
After that she'd gone to the space needle for some much needed time to herself. Her thoughts had wandered as she stared out above the city, the breeze lifting the hair off her neck and sending a chill down her spine. She reflected on her relationship with Logan, thought about what made Zack suddenly violent towards Alec. And she thought about Alec. Maybe there were times she didn't give him the credit he deserved.
Max had returned to her place as it neared four, and immediately began to pack for a trip out of the city. OC had woken up, groggy and concerned. Once Max assured her that she would be cautious, and of the fact that she would indeed return later that day, OC had returned to her room, muttering a "Luv ya boo, later."
Max's watch said it was close to five, so she didn't immediately see the person lurking in the shadows where she occasionally stored her bike. "What the hell are you doing here?" She demanded. "What did I tell you?"
"Good morning to you too Max, glad to see you're in such a better mood."
"Shove it Alec, and tell me what I said last night didn't get through that thick skull of yours."
"Oh no, I heard you," he nodded.
"So then what are you doing here?"
"You said you needed me around to annoy you if nothing else."
"Yeah, and...."
He grinned, holding up his hands. "So tell me this doesn't annoy you." Max opened her mouth to bicker, but she kept getting stuck on the words. Finally she sighed and just shrugged. It was really hard to argue with that kind of logic.
--
"This place," Alec said disdainfully as he kicked aside a half eaten bag of potato chips, "is a dump. You know, Zack never struck me as the messy sort of guy." he cocked his head to the left, eyebrows shooting into his hairline. "The homicidal type maybe. The stick up his ass type definitely, but not a slob."
Max gingerly stepped over what she could only guess was a shirt, and tossed a pillow back onto the beat up upholstered couch. "Well maybe that's because Zack isn't a slob."
Alec pursed his lips, eyes darting from left to right. "I don't even want to know the type of squalor you and OC live in if you consider this clean."
"I'm not saying it's clean dumbass."
"So I'm up to dumbass now? Before it was just asshole. See, we're making progress."
Max rolled her eyes and kept talking. "What I'm saying is that Zack didn't make this mess. The people that own this property, they told Logan that they had gone into town a few nights back. It was late, and when they came out the next morning the apartment was like this and Zack was gone. He didn't pack anything, didn't leave a note, just vanished."
"That's it? Nothing else?"
She shrugged. "That's it. They said we could look around all we like, see if there's anything that may lead us to Zack."
"well, I don't think we're going to find anything of value or personal interest amidst the remnants of his garbage can, so why don't we try someplace else, like his room maybe."
The two transgenics moved into one of the two smaller rooms beyond the kitchen/living area. Max kicked aside the mattress of the full sized bed so she and Alec could get in the door. Zack's room, if possible, was actually in even more disarray than the living room. Clothes had been torn out from the closets, the sheets ripped from the bed and strewn about the floor. A desk with a broken leg was perched precariously in one corner.
Max began pulling out and rifling the desk drawers, while Alec searched the rest of the room. He stopped for a moment in from of a large hole in one wall. "What do you think Max, fight?"
"Possible," she said absently, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "Actually better than possible the more I think about it. I suppose being in a fight could account for his state of mind last night, not that I understand why he'd make you the center of his aggression. You didn't do anything to him did you, Alec?" His withering glare made her hold up her hands in mock defense. "Didn't think so, just asking."
She turned back to the drawers and Alec set about picking things up off the floor. There wasn't much else for him to do, considering he'd already checked under the bed and in the closet. A small corner of paper stuck out amongst the ruins, mostly buried under the collapsed bed frame. Alec wedged his fingers beneath the bed and hefted it up off the floor so that he could retrieve the paper.
He turned it over in his hand. There, in grainy black and white, was half of a picture. The girl in the photo seemed oblivious, her back to the camera, so he surmised it was taken without her prior consent or knowledge. The area in which she was standing was rocky and bare. She was dressed casually, in jeans and boots and a work shirt tied off and exposing her mid section. Light hair lifted off her shoulder.
Alec squinted, the clue he might have discovered even hard for his superior transgenic eyes to see. "Hey Max, c'mere I think I found something."
Max trudged over. "What?" She peered over his shoulder at the ripped photo.
He gestured with his finger to the barely visible traces of black lines on the girl's neck. "Does that look like a barcode to you?"
--
Max paced Logan's apartment fretfully later that night, as the hacker scanned and uploaded the picture Alec had found into his computer. Alec sat, dozing on the couch, his head lolled back and mouth hanging loosely open. The look Logan had shot him when he came in was anything but pleasant, but luckily Alec had missed it in route to Logan's well stocked refrigerator.
Logan stepped into his living room, one hand passing over his face. He really needed more sleep. Living on Max's time table always meant little. "Well...," he started.
"Well what?" Alerted by Max's insistent, strident tone, Alec woke and made his way over.
"Let me finish and I might actually tell you." Max bit down on her lower lip to stop herself from retorting. "Unfortunately, there wasn't enough of her barcode exposed for me to be able to get a positive ID on her."
Alec nudged Max with his elbow. "Satisfied Maxie? We tried. We failed. Can we go home now?" She shot him a dirty look.
Logan grinned and held up one finger. "But."
Alec's chin dropped to his chest, his head wagging side to side. "But. Why is there always a but?"
Max merely rolled her eyes and followed Logan to his computers. Alec, for all his complaining was only a few steps behind. Max sat in the chair in front of the monitor. "So what am I looking for exactly?"
Logan drew the keyboard closer to himself and began to type. Suddenly, one section of the picture was enlarged. "You can't even see the girl now though," Max protested.
"It's blurry." Alec stated bluntly.
"I'm getting to that." A few more keystrokes and the pixels condensed, leaving a much clearer image. Logan tapped the screen, grinning widely, obviously impressed with himself. The enhanced section of photo was of a dark wood sign. "See that? Read the name."
"The Circle K? What the heck is the Circle K?"
"I checked it out on the computer. The Circle K is a summer operating Dude ranch on the Western slope of the Colorado Rockies. They let tourists and guests have that real 'Old West' experience. They learn to ride horses and do ranch work, including driving cattle to and from pasture. In the winter it runs on skeleton staff from October until May."
Max glanced over her shoulder at Alec. "Guess I'm going to Colorado."
"Oh come on. What kind of self respecting Manticore trainee would wind up in the back country of the Rocky Mountains, just to play along with some half assed game of cowboy?"
Max knew of only one that Zack would be so eager to find. He'd go for his sister, his brethren. A slow smile appeared on her lips, growing till it reached her eyes. "Jondy."
End Chapter 3
Short I realize, but I'm strapped for time right now. I do hope this explains the origin of the title. Like I said, this really is more Alec/Max centric, though Zack and Jondy will both make their appearances. Do feel free to tell me what you think, just by pressing that little purple button.
