TITLE: Coming Decisions – Chapter 17
WRITTEN BY: Heather Ferguson (fergus80)
EMAIL: hmfergie@charter.net
WEBSITE: webpages. charter. net/ fergus80 (Jensen)
RATING: PG-13 (NC-17 where applicable will be separate)
SUMMARY: Set after Freak Nation. A miss understanding turns into some truth telling and decision making for our transgenic pair.
SPOILERS: Everything!
DISCLAIMER: All Dark Angel characters belong to James Cameron, FOX, etc. etc. etc.
FEEDBACK: Always makes me smile! :)
DEDICATION: To all the Nuns at the Church of Jensen, the Blue Lady, and of course Jensen!
RANT: Okay… I did the stupid thing and watched Freak Nation with the commentary. Can I actually say I'm HAPPY that DA was canceled? Seriously what Cameron and/or what the writers wanted to do…. UGH! So, with that annoyance in my head, I just had to correct a few things, or I couldn't live with myself, whatever this will be (obviously, writing this, before I write my fic) is the result of this huge annoyance. SO… let's see how it goes. ;)
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She sighed and nodded slightly and then watched him walk out the door. "Yeah Alec… you're always al'right." And she knew then like she had known when he had said it countless times before that he was far from al'right.
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He watched her pacing. She was walking back and forth fast enough that she was actually starting to make him dizzy. He couldn't take much more and stood up. "Will you just sit down?"
She stopped suddenly and turned towards him about to object when a puff of smoke hit her in the face. She gave an evil look, and waved it away. "I'll sit when you stop smoking those horrible things."
"Well then Miss you're going to be standing a long, long time." He took another puff from the cigar. "What's got you all…" he motioned with his arms not able to accurately describe what she was doing.
She looked back at the clock on the wall. "Shouldn't they be back by now? What if something went wrong?"
He studied her for a minute. "Are you actually concerned about him? Or just the team in general."
Max's shoulders slumped. "UGH." She turned around from him and went to sit on the couch mumbling to herself. "I do actually have a heart even if no one believes it."
Mole watched her go sit down, but her leg kept bouncing as she waited, her eyes on the clock. He sighed, rolled his eyes, put out his cigar and went and sat in the chair by the couch. "They still have two hours before we would send someone in to look for them."
She turned her head quickly towards him.
"They are under radio silence. Like all of our missions now because White and the military are monitoring all radio stations." He watched her head straighten and eyes look at him directly. She was actually listening to him. "There could be a ton of reasons they aren't back yet."
"Like?"
He looked at her eyes, trying to gauge her real reason for the curiosity. She was worried. He almost wanted to laugh. *Humans… X5's… he just didn't understand them.* "They might have had to wait to go in at a later time. The computer virus might have taken longer to work. Heck… traffic on the way back."
Max nodded. She had thought of that, but it felt good to hear those same thoughts from someone else. Strangely even better from Mole. "But what if something did go wrong and we don't know about it?"
"There are two teams. It is unlikely that they would both get in trouble and not be able to communicate. And if one team came back and the other didn't well then we would have cause…"
"The Van's pulling in!" Luke announced to the room, and the two were on their feet and running over to monitors.
Max noticing that Mole moved a little faster than he normally would have as well. "But where's the motorcycle?" she asked her worried eyes looking up at the reptilians.
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It would just be his luck. He shook his head and leaned to the left hard. His bike just barely making the turn as a bullet flew past his head. *Yep. I tell her… I can handle myself. I can do it on my own. I don't need back up. I won't screw up. I can handle myself.*
He growled lightly as he tipped the bike to the other side and made a hard right. His eyes catching the blue and red lights reflecting in the puddle of water he passed. *I can hear her now… 'I TOLD you'… 'You couldn't do it alone'… 'God Alec, you're such a screw up.'* He sighed.
He took another hard right and heard a loud crash behind him as one of the police cars ran into a building not able to make the corner. The others had to slow down to avoid crashing or make the turn. It gave him a little more distance from them and those damn bullets that were getting too close for comfort. His shoulder was already yelling at him to speed up, it really didn't want Dalton bandaging it once again.
Tonight he actually wished Max was going to be away from Terminal City. Because once he got back, she wouldn't know how late he was. She wouldn't be there to ask questions. She wouldn't give him a piece of her mind… thus taking away another piece of his heart. He swallowed the lump in his throat. It just wasn't fair.
He took a fast left and smiled as he hit a huge amount of traffic. He swerved in and out of the vehicles quickly, as his ears heard the hard breaks of the cop cars behind him. He made it through the traffic. After a few twists, turns and the knowledge that no one was following him he hit the accelerator and left marks on the pavement as he speed to the hidden entrance of Terminal City.
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"Where is he?" she snapped as Jed walked in the door handing over some of the equipment to Dix.
The X5 looked from Max to Mole. "I have no idea. He left after us."
"Why?" she demanded.
Mole rolled his eyes, and silently told Jed to humor her. Jed turned back to her, "He was cleaning their system of the virus we put in, and turned their security back on."
She gave a confused look, "Why would he do that?"
Mole smiled and spoke from behind her, "Just because we are… uh… borrowing their lab equipment. It doesn't mean they are a 'bad guy'." She turned towards him shocked. "Hey not my words… his."
She nodded. "But that doesn't explain why he is still not here. It couldn't take more than five minutes to do that, right?"
Jed and Mole looked at each other, both knowing that it would take Alec a lot less than that to do it, but neither wanting to tell Max that. But she saw the look.
"Time yet gentlemen to figure out what happened? Or are we still going to wait here?"
"Luke how about we pull up the satellite feeds of…"
"We got movement… it's him." Luke interrupted. They all went back to the monitors and watched Alec pull up and park in the garage. He turned off the bike, dismounted and grabbed his bag as he started walking.
She watched him, noticing that he looked normal. He wasn't hurt. She let out a breath, balled up her fists, turned around and walked silently into her office.
Mole watched her go as the door shuttered closed behind her. He shook his head, and then turned to the other door that was opening. Hazel eyes moved around the room quickly. Emotions in them turning from instant relief to disappointment, and then back to masked indifference. "Here Luke," he said handing over his bag. Then walked over to Dix, taking out the tiny device from under his shirt. "Have fun with this. Some sensor or something must be malfunctioning." He turned back to Luke, "Oh… and if there is any way to get a new license plate for my bike… that would be a good thing. And trash the old one." The two nodded at him and hurried off.
Alec then walked over to Mole and Jed, "So everything get back here okay?"
Mole didn't even ask what happened. He didn't need to. The story was perfectly clear from what he just said and the X5 looked like he had made it though without a scratch. "Yep."
"How'd the fort do while I was gone?"
"Gone? You were gone?" Alec smiled and shook his head. "Nothing new to report. Everything was fine. Well…" Mole then looked over to her office, and Alec followed his eyes. "Almost everything."
"What do you mean? What did she do?"
Mole tried to figure out what he should tell him. Did he really want to know what she was doing? Was it a good thing to let him know? "Well she…" he pointed at the office again. "uhhh… what can I say…"
"Wait." Alec stopped him, "She's in there?" Mole nodded. "She's here?" He nodded again. Alec closed his eyes, "Great. Just great." He opened them again, "Does she know that I'm here?" Another nod. He rubbed his forehead. "Then why isn't she out here cussing my ass out?" He asked as he walked to her door. Mole was about to answer him but the other man had already opened the door and walked inside the other room.
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She was pacing, again. She was trying to get her aggression out, she was trying to control herself. Her head turned to the door as it opened and he walked in. She looked at him. "No. Not now."
"What?"
Max closed her eyes and turned towards the wall, not looking at him. "Alec. Please. Don't talk to me right now."
Now he was thoroughly confused. "Well I just thought I'd come in here and get the yelling and everything done with now. Then I can go home and get some sleep."
Her fists clenched at her sides, she let out a long breath as she counted to ten. "Just go home. Sleep. We'll talk tomorrow." She didn't want to talk now, she couldn't. Because if she tried she would just yell, and her temper would just be coming out. She wasn't angry with him, but it would seem like she was.
Alec shook his head behind her, walked up to her, and turned her around. "Okay… what's going on?"
Her eyes were closed, "Just… please… go."
He sighed. She was so pissed she didn't even want to look at him or cuss him out. "Fine," he said angrily as he walked towards the door. Turning slightly as he was to walk out, "If you even care what happened. The others know. But what does that matter right?" His hand went back to the knob.
She tightened her eyelids and fists, "Alec… wait."
His hand stopped and he looked back. "What?"
Max swallowed and opened her eyes. "I'm not angry with you." He tilted his head and she continued. "I'm just not in the mindset to talk and not say something I don't mean."
He looked at her. Really looked at her. She stood there in front of him, her back ramrod straight, her small fists clenched, knuckles white, her jaw tense. Her eyes sparkling with fire, her nostrils slightly flared, her right hip sticking out and he had to look away. She looked too… too… *Down boy.* his mind warned.
He took another deep breath turning back to her, trying with a clear mind to read her stance and realized she was trying to rein in her temper. But why? "If you aren't angry with me, then why are you so upset?"
She closed her eyes as she watched him start to walk towards her slowly, as if he was approaching a dangerous animal. "Because you were late coming back."
Alec blinked, "You're mad because I was late?" She nodded. "Well I'm sorry. I kinda had to take a longer detour than I planned." She shook her head, and he sighed. "Ugh… Max… I'm sorry okay? Isn't that enough?"
She opened her eyes, "I'm not asking for you to be sorry!" she blurted out.
He took a small step back at her outburst. "Then what do you want me to say?"
"AHHH!" She finally let out the scream she had been holding in, and moved towards him hitting him in the chest. "I'm not asking you to say anything. I'm not asking for an apology. Damn it! I'm not even blaming you!"
He took her wrists in his hands, stopping the pathetic attempt at hitting him. The swings and punches barely making contact. "Then what the hell is all this about?"
"God why are men so dense!" She looked up at him, "I was worried about you PIG!"
Alec shook his head, "What?" She was seriously not making any sense. "YOU were worried about ME?" She nodded. "Then why are you angry? I'm fine."
"But you were late! We didn't know where you were…" She trailed off looking up at him. And now she was afraid. Afraid that she had said too much.
He caught it, he caught her look. Heard her words, and then it made sense. Well sort of. Her worrying about him made no sense. But the rest did. "You're all upset because you got worried and worked up and then everything was okay." She nodded slightly. "And now… now you need to vent all that adrenaline somewhere." She nodded again and he let out a laugh letting her one arm go, which she immediately felt and pulled it away only to smack him on the shoulder.
She realized what she did afterwards and pulled back. *Damn it MAX! You weren't supposed to do that.* "Sorry," immediately came out of her mouth.
"It's okay… I let you," he said with a small smile.
Her eyes widened, "You let me?" she let out another swing that he blocked with another smile. "YOU let me?" She yelled again, trying to hit him with her now other free arm, which he blocked again.
Alec nodded, "Yep… I LET you." He dodged another swing and another.
"I'll show you LET…" she screamed and moved her leg out for a kick. He quickly sidestepped it, and moved behind her, grabbing both arms. She jumped backwards flipping over him and managing to get one arm free, trying to kick his legs out from under him. But he moved too quickly, and spun her around at the same time pinning her back against his chest. Her legs came out trying to kick, as she found her feet lifted off the floor. She started kicking, trying to free herself.
The small laugh in her ear fueled her on more. She struggled in his hold until she finally gave up, tired and in realization she wasn't going to get anywhere. She took a few deep breaths. "Okay. Okay… I'm calm."
His lips were by her ear… "You sure?"
His breath tingled against her skin, and she swallowed. "Yes," she said softly and felt his grasp loosen and her feet found the floor. She moved quickly away towards her desk and sat on the edge.
"So… you really aren't mad at me?"
Her eyes moved from the floor back up to his and she shook her head no. Now that she was calm. Calm because he… *Because he let you take it out on him again.* She wanted to know… "What happened?"
"Huh?"
"Why were you late?"
He sighed, here it was. He knew, just knew that it was coming. He closed his eyes, "I had a little trouble with sector police."
Max watched him standing there. Waiting. Waiting for her to what? Yell at him? Yeah, more than likely. "So everything went fine with the mission?"
His eyes opened quickly. "Yeah."
"What happened with the police?"
Was she really just curious? Or was this just a setup? Trying to get all the information to use against him? "The thermal device thing I was using… well it malfunctioned." He saw her eyes widen. "Yeah… they got a read on me, and I got to have one nice long high speed chase tonight."
She stood up quickly, taking a look at him, "Are you okay? Did you get shot?"
"Whoah. Calm down. I'm fine." He saw her relax. "I had my helmet on so they wouldn't recognize me. Luke's getting a new plate for the bike. And I took the long route home after I got away." She nodded and sat back on the desk.
"Max?" She looked back up and he walked over and sat next to her. "Seriously… are you okay?"
She gave a small smile. "Yeah. I am now. Why?"
Alec shook his head, "Nothing. Just wanted to make sure."
She nodded, "Why don't you go get some sleep. It's late."
He yawned in agreement and they both smiled. "Yeah, I suppose it is." He stood up and walked to the door, grabbing the handle, he turned back to her. "Night Max."
She gave him a soft smile, "Night Alec."
He returned one, and then exited shutting the door behind him. He looked back at the door and sighed. If he said he knew what had just happened he would have been lying through his teeth. Because he was now more confused than ever. This was not the Max he knew. Well… part of her was exactly the same, but other parts… just weren't making sense.
But then he closed his eyes as he thought about it. Maybe she was different. Maybe she was acting differently towards him and everyone else. Being nice because… because she was happy? He sighed and started to walk away from the door and towards the exit. He was glad she was happy. That's what he wanted her to be. But he sure as hell didn't have to like the reason she was so happy.
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Chapter 18 Coming Soon! – Please Review!!!