DISCLAIMER: I do not own Dark Angel, any characters or plot lines.

A/N: this is a sequel to "Does it Count?" - I hope ^_^;;; If you haven't read it you may not fully understand. And hopefully this will be longer and have other people's points of view!

Thank you to all of my reviewers of "Does It Count?":

ringo-gurl07: Thanks for reviewing. I hope you like the sequel

rain: Thanks heaps, I'm glad you liked it.

Rose: Thank-you, I'm glad that it touched you.

ting: thanks for reviewing at NWP as well, I hope you like this sequel.

msredux: thanks. I thought so too. I couldn't leave it with no - um *closure* - not sure if that's the right word ^_^;;;

SecretlyBeautiful: your kind words are appreciated and unfortunately, yes I am one of those people that generally only writes one-shots. I'm making an effort to get better; I hope you enjoy the sequel.

Lyndsay: I hope that you like this, it's basically a continuation of 'Does it Count?".

~*~Sometimes~*~

Max continued along the corridor and slowly trudged down the two flights of rickety stairs. She walked out of the apartment block on Tulson Way and stepped out into the dark deserted night. A chilling wind swept past her. It howled as it raced past the narrowly spaced buildings. She shivered in spite of herself and wrapped her arms around her. She looked up into the heavens and admired the stars. She had started doing that when she first escaped from Manticore, but over the years she had settled into normalcy, she supposed she could call it that. Just recently she had started up again. They were for far away and yet the sparkled so brightly. Their beauty displayed for anyone who took the time to look skyward.

Sometimes she wished that she could be as far away from TC as the stars were. Sometimes things got that bad. She wanted desperately to be free again. It was true that she was out in the 'real' world; she was no longer a prisoner of Manticore's walls. But she recognized that she would always be a prisoner. She was a freak, a transgenic; a mutant. The humans were afraid of her and she'd been out long enough to know that although one person may be intelligent, people on a whole were dim-witted, stupid and mob-like. And a mob of frightened people lashed out - they become violent, and it did not matter who you were or how strong you were, she knew that her kind were no match for an entire world of dense, ignorant people.

So once again she found herself confined, this time to Terminal City, a captive behind its crumbling fences. Oh, they did not hold her and she came and went as she pleased, but it wasn't safe and completely beside the point. She supposed she should count her blessings that she was an X5 series. She blended in; she looked, acted and felt just like a regular human, well she guessed that she did; it was what she was designed for- to blend in. She thought she did, without the blurring and increased strength and of course the barcode. On second thought she wasn't like a human at all, not at all like the ones she knew anyway, of course she didn't actually know what being human felt like because she wasn't one, but you get the drift. She knew that had she been a nomalie like Mole or Joshua, she would have definitely driven herself crazy. She wouldn't have been able to stand in the shadows all of her life. At least with the face of an X5 she could go out in public in broad daylight and not face someone getting a glimpse of her face and run screaming in terror in the opposite direction.

She lived in fear; Logan could never have understood that, neither could OC or Sketchy. The only ones that could possible understand what it was like were Alec and the others like themselves. There he was again. He was always on her mind even when she was occupied with something completely serious, something to do with the good of Freak Nation; he was there, he invaded her thoughts and her senses. She loved him, she knew that now and she was beginning to accept it, but she would be damned before she ever admitted it to him.

To look into his eyes, to offer the only pure thing she had and to be rejected. No way in hell would she ever do that!!!!!!!!! She would rather die or alternatively live a half life as only his friend that to suffer that humiliation.

~*~

A/N: sorry for the shortness of this chapter. I'll try and have more up soon.

If you like it - leave a review ^_~