A/N sorry about the delay… I got sort of Left Behind (G)
14
Alec was glaring at the annoying transgenic as he blustered his way through his report.
"So what you are telling me is that we have a major water crisis and only just now am I being informed of this?"
"Well Max was-" too late the transgenic realised his blunder. No one mentioned Max's name to Alec. Not unless they wanted their commander to lose whatever good mood he had managed to find and his eyes to darken.
"What?" he growled.
"She was handling it before, she had us scouting for places to hook up the supply and had all the leads written down so we could search for places to tap. She even had Eyes Only helping us out on that one. Without her we don't know where the places to drill or dig are. We need that paper-it's probably in her office." The guy- Tris figured he might as well go the whole hog if he was going to upset his commander. Alec glanced up towards the locked office. He couldn't bring himself to go in there.
Max had been missing for a month now and they still hadn't found her.
A whole damn month!!
There had been so many trucks leaving all exits of Seattle that tracking each and every one down, including the stops it made and its destination and cargo was taking so much time and resources. Not that anyone in Terminal City argued with the direction of resources or its objectives. Despite being one of the oh niner escapees Max had managed to integrate herself into everyone's hearts and they all wanted her back almost as desperately as Alec did.
Still he wouldn't give up on her. He would find a way to bring her back.
He got up, ignoring the looks from everyone as he made his way up to her office and pushed open the door, praying that she'd be there sitting in her chair behind the desk. She'd look up at him and her mouth would twist in a half smile and half grimace as if she was pleased to see him but didn't want to show him. Then she'd roll her eyes at his cocky comments and gesture for him to sit down.
The image was so real that it physically hurt when she wasn't there. His eyes closed against the hurt and he stumbled into her office, his eyes searching for the vital paper.
He'd taken for granted exactly how much Max had to do while she was here. Supplies, water, medical, food, shelter, arms and security for over nine hundred transgenics and hundreds more non humans and anomalies was no mean feat for anyone let alone one person and he vowed to himself that when she came back to take over command- and she would be back, because he couldn't allow himself to think anything else- he would get her to delegate more.
"Sir, she might have left it on the board." He turned and Ralph pointed at the cork board that someone had managed to salvage from the junkyard that was Terminal City.
"Right." He said not begrudging the company of the sandy blonde haired girl who had taken to following him around recently.
She was the only one who he'd told about his thing with Max and she didn't judge or tell him he was crazy or anything. She just listened. It was nice.
Thankfully she had gotten over her little crush on him which made him feel better since he wasn't leading a kid on.
She shut the door behind her and cocked her head.
"I know that we haven't been here long but we owe our lives to you and Max and we want to help." She said softly.
Alec nodded as he reached out to untack the vital list from the board, his fingers tracing over Max's handwriting, hands shaking slightly.
"So I put me and Bullet and Zero on perimeter watch."
Alec turned to her "Right."
She blushed "I figured that they would be less likely to shoot at kids."
It was almost enough to crack a smile at. She always hated it when anyone called her a kid.
"So how are things going with you and Zero?" he tried to direct himself from his surroundings and at her disgruntled look he had to hide a smirk.
"Oh he's such a…such a, urgh." She threw her hands up "First he tells me that we should be doing something useful to help out and earn our keep and then he tells me that he doesn't want me to do perimeter watch…or arms maintenance or scouting or missions. It's like he doesn't trust me or something." She pouted.
"Maybe he's watching out for you?" Alec felt better, it was so much more interesting to listen to other peoples problems. Especially when they were so amusing.
He'd cottoned on to the fact that Zero had a huge crush on Ralph when the kid glared at him every time he came close to the girl or asked her to come with him to do certain tasks. Sometimes Zero even got up and moved between the two of them which amused Alec no end. Ralph was way too young for him and besides he liked someone else.
But Zero didn't know that and he perceived Alec as a threat, but he still had enough respect for the chain of command that it didn't affect his working in the place. The funny thing was that Ralph had no idea that Zero was in love with her.
All the things he did to get a rise out of her, which he didn't explain his reasoning's behind, irritated her and caused her to lash out at him calling him arrogant and stupid and unreliable…and this was hitting too close to home.
"He's not my C.O." she maintained with a huff. "He's a jerk. You know I was talking to Bullet and Zero actually ordered me to get back to work and quit flirting!"
Bullet was another one who didn't much like Alec. Bullet had a crush on Max and considered Alec as competition. Had Max been here to see, he would have loved to tease her like crazy about the kid with a crush but he was just a reminder that she was gone.
"Maybe he was jealous?" Alec tried to put in a good word for the kid who reminded him more of him than he would like to admit.
Ralph gave him a sceptical look "Zero? Please! He thinks he's such a ladies man, I swear he flirts with every female transgenic that comes in here. Besides he likes to annoy me. He said that I was a bitch and too aggressive."
"So what did you do when he said that?" Alec said biting back a snigger.
"I hit him." She shrugged.
This time Alec couldn't help the chuckle that escaped.
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I know I'm sorry! I haven't forgotten about this story really- I just got sidetracked by Left Behind and Moving Ahead and yeah okay I had this really bad block with this story and was totally at a loss as to where the hell it was going. Anyway. Here's the next bit. PLEASE REVIEW!!! This one is kicking my ass!
Secretly Beautiful- Thanks pet. I tried to make it less ,Max's world of pain but does suffer some. More perfection now.
Grumpy2348- Thanks, glad you picked up on the upturned triangle thing.
Jade_ph- I have my own flavour! Plus there was nothing actually wrong with the shows plot…just the casting!!!
Ting- who doesn't love Sketchy??
Lyndsay- O.C also rules!
Jen Drake- cute. I like that.
Csiphile- yeah about that slow building… J glad it's going down well.
MirellaM- I'm scared for Max and hot for Alec..uh sorry for Alec…yep you were right. LOL
Cloudburst- Welcome pet, I'll try to make the chapters longer in future.
Katherine Buffy Geller- Fayth is a brandname?? LOL love it! I agree with every word you said, I read so many fics where Max is such an uber bitch to Alec and he is Manticore's finest and overpowers her with his pinky. Yeah ok 10 years more training but NOWHERE in the show do they insinuated that he is top dog. I think that's one reason why my stories are so Maxcentric. I love the girl- she is Dark Angel after all and all the constant putting her down calling her Logan's lapdog and all gets me so damn riled up. S2 Max was a moper but she had damn good reason what with losing most of her sibs and then having to put up with Logan and on top of that the guy that was trying to kill her and incidentally looks like her murdering brother who she had to kill happens to be around…I'd be in a permanent PMS phase. Ok rant over. Normal service will resume in 3…2…1…
Harry and the Potter- Thanks pet, hope you enjoy.
Gamegirl452 – Glad LB inspired you to read this, I'm not too sure who I'll team Biggs up with but I'll keep Jondy in mind.
Natasgi- Will do as soon as White is finished with her- promise!!