Hi guys! I want to thank everyone taking the time out to read this story and bearing with my plot whims. This one is going to have a doozy of an angsty ending but never fear, I don't abandon l'amour. I also want to thank Emerald, nat452, and Stacey for your reviews, and acb whose review almost made me cry (happy tears sniff sniff). Hope you all enjoy.
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I like to watch him sleep. He holds one hand protectively across my waist and the other one lays convulsively next to his chin making him look like a little boy. The sounds of base filter in around us, Kate arguing with Mole, the hiss, chink, sploosh, and crack of someone using a coconut tree as target practice, people going about their daily lives as though nothing special is happening. When your whole life is made up of spying, and killing its amazing what starts to seem normal and routine.
Alec mutters a little in his sleep and his arm tightens around my stomach. It's still flat now and will be for a few months more. I have to tell him soon, but I'm nervous. Not that he's ever given me a reason to be afraid about it, but I know that before me he liked women du jour and booze, and he's only twenty-two. Then again, he's a kind of orphan like me, like the rest of us, and the idea of a family of my own is scary and thrilling. He's going to make a great dad, and maybe a husband. A small giggle escapes my lips as I realize that only a year ago I hated the guts of the man that I am going to make a life with.
"What are you laughing about my sleeping beauty?" I roll onto my side so that I can face him, and bury my head against his chest. I need to tell him now.
"That I wasn't the one sleeping, prince charming. And that you wrinkle your forehead like a hedgehog when you sleep." His laughter ruffles my hair softly, and he gently outlines the planes of my chin with small kisses. I need to tell him now.
"I think they got our names confused in the beginning Maxie. See, you have a wicked smart mouth, and I have other endowments which would be well described by the term max." Okay, maybe not the right moment, but I should still tell him now, but now his hands are wandering delightfully over my neck and down across my breasts and stomach, and I really am having trouble saying anything at all. Just tell him now.
"Max, Alec, get your asses over here, it's go time." His hands freeze momentarily on my hips.
"If we're really, really quiet do you think they'll forget that we're over here and leave us alone?" He speaks confidentially, sotto voice, but I know that he's joking. The training and instinct to do his duty is too deeply ingrained.
"Stop boinking like rabbits and get your asses over here, this is your project, the rest of us are just along for the recreational fun of it all. Oh dear hell I really do need to get myself a hobby. Something that involves macramé." I groan softly and role on top of Alec so that his body blocks out the late afternoon sun.
"We really have got some great friends you know that? Get our asses in deep trouble and they all come running down here to dig us out." He tilts my chin up so that he can look at my face, and I imagine that I have rarely seen him look so serious.
"You really are a leader Maxie. Not because you're famous, or an 09'er, but because you're something special. People just want to listen to what you have to say, want to protect you. Not that you need protection or anything, because you kick ass. Just because you're this amazing force of nature that needs to be indestructible. Just because we couldn't live without it. Do you have any concept of how amazing you really are?"
Tears run messily down my face, soaking his chest all over again. He gently holds his finger over my lips before I can reply. "Shhh, just accept the compliment my love, you deserve it. Now lets go rescue us some hostages."
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The spice of night on the island fills my nostrils and the salt of the ocean at least a mile away makes my skin damp. Our fingers just barely touch as we weave our way between coconut trees and palm fronds. There is no need for us to speak and with the whole gang listening via earpieces neither of us really feels the urge to converse. My backpack bangs painfully against my shoulder and I reach behind me to readjust it. Transgenic strength or not the canisters are damn heavy.
A click sounds three times in my ear, then twice, and then three more times. In perfect silence, Alec leans over and drops a small kiss on my cheek. Only a small swish of air and a nearly inaudible crunch of boots on soil signal his movement from my position. When I turn back around to smile at him he's already gone.
The unmarked canisters match the length of my forearm as I pull them out and pull the staying pins out. I silently apologize to the trees and forest animals for what I'm about to do, but I know that we've taken all the possible safety precautions.
I start jogging forward to the edge of the clearing and casually fling the canister behind my back. The explosion behind me is nothing compared to the deep rumbling of the earth beneath my feet, the rumble of a dozen other explosions bursting through the air. Mole gives his first ever giggle on the earpiece and lets out a small whoop of joy.
"That's it kiddies, gotta love the smell of napalm in the evening."