Chapter 4- Matchmaking

"Alright" Alec called out in a clear voice 'I want you to pair off and practice the moves I just showed you, and no slacking off. I'll be walking around and correcting your methods."

  The people in TC had felt that it was high time that some sort of formal training took place. So they took over an old gym and cleaned it up, at first some X-5s were in charge of the training but they got nowhere, the others in the X series felt that the 'officers' were of too low a note and did not listen to them. The general populace of TC appealed Alec to take over. He had been a high ranking officer, he took over, glad for a distraction. The officers knew and respected him, they were willing to follow his orders, some still had problems trusting Max. They had been trained to think of her as a traitor. It wasn't easy to just get over all the brainwashing, the torture and the memories.   

  Alec walked around the various mats, observing each pair as they sparred, correcting their methods. It had been three days since Zane got shot; Max had gone back to her daily duties approving rations and overlooking proceedings. She was also trying to see what she could do about setting up a store and some sort of medical facility not to mention organising recon missions for future raids. Just then, the object of his thoughts walked in looking rather confused.

"Maxie!" he called cheerfully

"Alec, what the hell is going on?"

"We're training of course. Why don't you come over here and give us a demonstration?"

"What? Alec I'm not going to…yikes!" she yelped. She'd stepped onto a mat to go over to him; he had just walked over and knocked her feet out beneath her.

"Really swept you off your feet there huh?" he asked, smirking.

Max growled savagely and swept her feet under his; he lost his balance and fell. "Now who's doing the sweeping?"

"Maaax, I didn't know you aspired to be a maid" He jumped up, a feral and playful gleam in his eyes.

"How bad could it be, I will be sweeping the floor with you after all" she dealt him a vicious uppercut.

He blocked her and responded with a jab to the ribs "Both of us? Together? That's sweet Max but I don't think it'll work"

The gleam in her eyes was equally as feral; she twisted away narrowly avoiding the jab. He still had a hold on her arm from her last punch, she used her left arm to punch him but he blocked her, now he held both arms. She banged her head against his causing him to momentarily loosen his grip and allowing her to escape his grasp. They circled each other, evaluating the opponent, waiting for an opening.

On the sidelines

Syl and Jondy watched the match with considerable amusement. "So how do you think we should do it?"

"I don't know" Syl said, frustrated "They're such stubborn oxes".

Krit walked up to them "So who do you think is going to win? I've got tibs on Alec myself"

"You're betting?" Jondy asked incredulously "Men!" the girls chorused.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"Fine" Jondy said "5 bucks says Alec loses"

"C'mon, he's got 10 years of training on her"

"And she has 10 years of mean streets; I'd say they're evenly matched" Syl put in.

"It's your money" said Krit, putting his hands up in surrender. He looked from one sister to the other, they had been exchanging looks all throughout the time that Alec and Max were fighting. "Okay, what's going on?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Jondy asked, they both seemed to have developed an avid interest in the floor.

"Dee…" he said warningly, that was Jondy's nickname they often used to call her that when they were kids. She turned pink and mumbled something.

"What?"

"We're trying to get Max and Alec together" he rocked back on his feet, momentarily shocked.

"And when did you two start playing matchmaker?" Syl glared at him "It's a girl thing, you wouldn't understand"

"Einstein should have made a formula to explain girls instead of wasting his time with meaningless letters" he muttered. Jondy whacked him hard on the head, Krit rolled his eyes and turned back to watch the match.

Back on the mat

 Alec wiped his mouth; he had a little blood coming out of the side, Max was smirking at him, he smiled and attacked. He hooked a left then a right, Max blocked both then he feigned left, she anticipated that, what she didn't anticipate was his left hook. He grabbed her in a headlock before she could recover from the blow, she tried to but couldn't escape his iron grip.

She elbowed him in the solar plexus twice, then used one leg to try to kick his legs out from under him, they almost buckled but they held. He moved his position so that it would be hard for her to try again. She had no way out, well desperate times call for desperate measures. Somehow she managed to move his hand enough to take a good bite out of it, he cried out in surprise and let her go. She quickly caught her breath. He came at her again, this time she backflipped, the heels of her boots catching him on the jaw and knocking him back a few steps. An ordinary man would have been knocked out, but he was an X-5, the best, elite.

She spinned and high kicked him, driving him back even further. Someone yelled "Go Max!" she looked around and suddenly realised that they had collected quite a crowd. She had been so involved in the fight that she had automatically tuned out the whooping and cheering. Max soon payed for her momentary daydreaming, Alec decked her then flipped her over his back so that she landed hard on the mat. She groaned and sat up, glaring at Alec

"C'mon Max" he taunted "Tired already?"

She took a fighting stance "You wish, pretty boy"

She charged him, attacking with a flurry of punches- most of which he blocked, none of which seriously glanced him. She decided her method was useless, Alec was beginning to get in blows so she changed her tactics. She backhanded him, then stepped out of reach. He lashed out, she nimbly stepped out of the way. She continued like that for a couple of minutes then charged again, she kicked upwards this time but he caught her leg. She successfully attempted a backflip from her current position, catching Alec at a glancing blow to his jaw yet again.

"That's gonna bruise you know" Alec commented, working his jaw.

"That's the idea"

Max pressed her attack, she punched him in the stomach (that seemed to be her favorite place for the day) and grabbed him in a headlock identical to the one he had used on her moments before. Then he did something shocking. Alec used the dirtiest, most low down, rotten, lousy gimmick to get out of it, it was even worse than when she'd kicked him in the privates. It threw her completely, went against every moral she stood for. It was horrifying.

He tickled her.

She burst into uncontrollable laughter "Stop it!!" she gasped between fits. "Alec, you stop this right now!"

He straddled her, pinning down her legs with his own and continued his horrifying brand of torture. Max somehow grabbed a hold of him and rolled them; they tumbled over until Max was on top. She used his own method on him, this time it was Alec that was wracked with fits of laughter. She mercilessly tickled him from her position on top of him.

On the Sidelines

"Talk about unresolved sexual tension" Syl muttered, Krit let out a grunted affirmative before he could stop himself. Both girls turned to look at him, it was eerily… female and feline. His eyes widened "No way, you're not roping me into this". Syl slung an arm around his shoulders, as did Jondy from the other side "Aww c'mon bro, you know you want to" Krit gulped, he looked like a cornered animal, then he fled to the other side of the room. Jondy looked at Syl, smirking "We got him" they grinned at each other roguishly.

On the mat

Alec finally got a hold of his wits, if only for a second and rolled them yet again. The evil torture continued, Max weakly batted her arms against his chest as she laughed her head off. Suddenly he noticed that the noise of Max's laughter was the only one in the room, he also heard the whirring of motors and quickly looked up. Apparently Logan had just walked in and was staring at the sight of Alec on top of Max tickling her; the other transgenics had hushed up at the sight of him. Alec hurriedly got off Max and cleared his throat "Logan's here to see you Max".

*He has such a deep, sexy voice* Max reflected dreamily from the floor where she was still in a daze from the recent tickling, she shook it off as she registered what Alec had just said *Oh my God, did I just think that? It's the tickling that must be it*. Max scrambled up off the floor and turned to face Logan, brushing herself off. She felt guilty for some odd reason *Why should I feel guilty? I wasn't doing anything wrong* Max thought.

"Hey" Max shifted uncomfortably

"Hey yourself"

"Is there something you need?"

Logan looked at her strangely "I came to say goodbye" Max just blinked. He sighed and said it slower this time "I'm supposed to leave TC remember?"

Max looked guilt stricken "Oh my God I'm so sorry I forgot! I'll come to see you off" She made as if to follow Logan but abruptly realized that at some point during the fight she had taken off her jacket and shirt, all she had on was a thin cotton vest. No wonder Logan had been looking at them so strangely, she turned pink and quickly looked for her belongings.

"Looking for these Max?" called Alec, waving her jacket and shirt about.

She walked over to him, grabbed them and strode out. "Your welcome" he called after her.

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Max blew on her hands, rubbed them together them stuffed them in her pockets. "So…"

"So…" Logan said. They smiled at each other nervously

"Guess this is goodbye then" he said

"Guess this is".  They were standing outside the gym in the crisp morning air.

"Who's guiding you?"

"Oh, Rhian's dropping me off. She's got a recon mission, so she'll get me past any guards and then she'll sneak back in later"

"Yeah, I heard about that. Security's getting lax, shouldn't be too hard"

"I suppose I could crash at Joshua's again. My equipment is still there"

"Sure. That's a good idea. We could keep up a satellite link."

"Yeah. I guess"

"Max" she was looking at the floor "Max look at me" She slowly looked up, a traitorous tear slipped down her cheek. He smiled reassuringly and wiped it away, he traced the contours of her face with one latex covered finger. "I love you Max. Always have, always will"

She looked at him for a couple of seconds, willing the words to come out but they wouldn't. They were choked up inside. "I can't Logan" she looked up at him, her eyes wide and afraid. The realisation that hit her then was profound, complete and shakening "I can't say that"

He looked crestfallen "Maybe not now, but one day you'll…"

"No" she interrupted him "I can't say it because it's not true. There was a time once when I did love you, not so long ago but I don't anymore. I love you as a friend, a dear and cherished friend but it can't ever be anything more. I'm sorry"

"Is it someone else? Is it Alec?" he asked quickly

Max was contrite, she just shook her head in the negative to indicate that there was no-one else "I'm sorry Logan" Then she ran, leaving a stricken Logan to stare after her.

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She just sat on the rooftop whishing it was the Needle staring down as the transgenics went about their various nocturnal activities; she heard a movement behind her. "What do you want?" she asked bitterly. That could only be one person, always that one person; he was always there when she turned around, hovering. She hated him with a fiery passion, but a memory of OC came into her thoughts unbidden *There's a fine line between love and hate boo*. She shook her head to clear it.

"Well it's not what I want, it's what you want."

"Oh really, and what is that?"

"A friend"

"Tell me when you come across some likely candidates"

"C'mon Max"

"I don't need more friends Alec" she said cuttingly "I have mine"

"Yeah, I can see them surrounding you now"

"I have Syl, Krit, Zane and Jondy"

He came to sit beside her "They're not your friends Max" he corrected, making a fine distinction "They're family" 

"Well maybe that's what I need right now" she moved her hand to shove him away

He caught it and said roughly "You don't know what you need"

"And you do?"

"I'm willing to try to find out"

She looked at him for several moments then she just broke down. She started crying, leaning into Alec. He put his arm around her and made soothing noises "It's okay Maxie, it's okay"

Max's POV- Damn him, damn him, damn him. Damn him to hell! He always does this, breaks down my defenses gets into my head. How? I spent ten years on the outside, damnit it took OC three years before she got inside mine. He hasn't even been out a full year but I can't get inside his. He always knows what I want, hell he knows me better than anyone. He acts like a complete jerk but he knows what I want, what I need. None of my siblings have a clue, how could they? We don't exactly see each other everyday. No matter what, he's there he just won't go away.

Back to normal- She stopped crying abruptly, but she didn't move from her position. In fact, she surprised him by pushing in closer. She was fast asleep in 5 minutes.

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The next morning Alec's back was sore from sleeping against the wall the whole night, when he woke up she was still asleep. He wanted nothing more than to watch her as she rested but he also wanted to get up and stretch his muscles but in doing so he'd wake her up and he was fearful of incurring her wrath. Slowly he tried to move, Max wrinkled her nose mumbled in protest and followed her cushion. He gave it up for a hopeless cause and waited for someone to find them.

Krit walked in on the pair of them. Alec quickly craned his neck to look at him helplessly, "Get her off me!!" He mouthed pleadingly. Krit just grinned "No can do bro, when Max wants to sleep, Max wants to sleep. She'll massacre the both of us if she gets woken up"

Just then Syl came up "Ooh, isn't that sweet?". Alec glared at her, she winked at him roguishly. "Help me, I'm dying here!" Alec pleaded. "C'mon Krit, breakfast's waiting. Tell Max that we'll save some for her" she dragged Krit off. "I'll get you for this!" Alec called in a fierce whisper. Syl winked at him one last time before climbing down the stairs, Krit just shrugged at him helplessly.

Max snuggled closer and in doing so turned a little so that the sun was shining directly in her face, Alec had the sudden devilish urge to tickle her. He picked up a feather that he had found somewhere on the roof and slowly brushed it under her nose, she wrinkled and twitched it then made a curiously rabbit like gesture by putting a hand up to paw away the offending object. Quickly she woke up, "Go away Alec" she mumbled and burrowed down into her pillow. A warm, denim covered pillow. Wait, denim, warm, Alec, sleep, rooftop, crying. For the second time that week, Max squealed and jumped away from her cushion "Ahh!"

"Well good morning to you too, sunshine" he raised his eyebrows at her.

"You! You, you…" she sputtered

"Wonderful, handsome, charming, debonair knight?" he tried.

"You evil, person!" she finally got out

"I must say, not your best" he said shaking his head ruefully.

"Humph" 

"Oh right, before I forget. Syl said she'd save some breakfast for you"

Her eyes brightened at the mention of breakfast, she dashed downstairs before he could get in another word.

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