Disclaimer: Aaaarrrrgggghhhh . . . I don't own Dark Angel, and the only profit I gain from this
writing is pride.
Chapter: Break Stuff Part 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alec stormed past Logan and Asha, taking a package from his wet, dirt encrusted bag, and
checking the address.
Logan and Asha turned to watch him go.
Alec looked away from the package just in time to see the brick that lay in his path. He jumped
over it, stumbled, and was too concentrated on his footing, of all things, to notice the next brick.
Alec swore as he smacked into the ground, landing on the package, and crushing it. He pushed
himself to his feet, picked up the remains of the package, and stormed off, muttering curses.
"Not the most graceful of exits," Asha commented, tilting her head to the side to watch Alec
leave.
"I have the feeling this is not one of his more graceful days," Logan said, in the exact same
position, arms folded in front of himself, his weight on his left leg, right knee slightly bent, head
tilted to the right.
And there the two of them stood, mimicking each other exactly, staring off into space and
contemplating what they had just witnessed, long after Alec was gone.
***
Alec was too busy concentrating on keeping his cool to notice a thing that was going on around
him.
He didn't feel the slight breeze. He didn't notice the people on the sides of the roads as he
brushed shoulders with them. He didn't notice the constant beeping of horns and roaring of
engines. He didn't notice the more dull roar of the voices around him.
He did, however, notice the pain. His gut ached. His head ached. His leg ached. He was
limping. He was also freezing. Wet, dirty.
Alec was able to notice only the things that caused him discomfort. He noticed nothing good, and
he noticed nothing neutral.
This fact did nothing whatsoever to help his mood.
Frankly, he was having a terrible day.
Every five minutes he either fell flat on his butt or . . . something else unpleasant.
That was the most annoying thing to him at the moment. He currently had the grace and balance
of a clown on one stilt. Or of a giraffe with two broken legs. It was anyone's guess which two.
"Christ," Alec said, pausing in the middle of the street. "This must be hell."
*BEEP BEEP*
Alec jumped back to reality and darted to the sidewalk. The last thing he needed right now was
to get hit by another car.
Alec approached the building in front of him. Finally, after about an hour and a half of trudging
across Seattle, he had reached the crushed package's destination. Alec stepped up to the door
and knocked loudly.
It was really too bad that he was too out of it to notice where he was.
Just too bad.
"Yeah?" said a man, opening the door. He looked at Alec. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Alec's eyes snapped wide open, he still did not look at the man's face. His voice was distinctly
British.
Alec sighed, his shoulders slumping miserably. Of course. Great. Perfect. He should've known.
"Look, I'm just here to deliver a package," he said, holding out said sorry excuse for a package.
"What the hell is this?" British Eddie, leader of the steelheads, asked angrily. "Damn thing's
destroyed!"
Alec looked down. Crushed. Damn. Just his luck. Alec chuckled. What luck?
"Oh, so you think this is funny, do you pretty boy?" British Eddie snarled. He grabbed Alec by
the front of the shirt and dragged him into the building, taking the package from him at the same
time. He pulled Alec in, spinning him around so they were facing each other, shoved him back
and let go. Alec, with his giraffe-like grace, tripped and fell over backward, landing on his ass on
the floor.
Alec flat out laughed.
British Eddie kicked him in the face, nearly breaking his nose. Alec grabbed his face in pain and
rolled onto his back, shaking with laughter.
"What is you goddamn problem?" British Eddie roared. Alec simply lay there laughing. "Boys,"
Eddie called out to his fellow steelheads. "If you're looking to try out your new additions, I've
got the perfect target for you!"
A tall, muscular man, with half of his head covered in long black hair, and the other half in
mechanical implants, stepped out from another room. "Well, what do we have here?" he said,
grinning mischievously. He flipped out what looked like a targeting device from his cheek to his
eye. He held up his arm. Or rather, what used to be his arm, and now was one massive machine
gun.
A little black man, with similar looks, followed him, with the same extension.
Alec decided that that was as good of a time as any to shut the hell up. His eyes grew wide. He
began to crawl, backwards from Eddie and his pals. Eddie grinned. Alec leapt suddenly to his
feet, and blurred to the other end of the building, loud gunfire chasing after him.
Alec ran into the nearest room and slammed the door behind him. He took cover from the gunfire
that penetrated the closed door. He scanned the room quickly. "Dammit!" There were no
windows for him to escape from.
He leapt from his hiding place behind a desk and picked up the metal folding chair which sat next
to him. Not knowing where the hell he was going to end up, he smashed the chair into the wall
behind him repeatedly, trying to break through. He then punched and kicked it with all his
strength. Moments before the steelheads opened the door, he pulled himself through a small hole
he had created, tearing and cutting and splintering his skin on the way, not to mention his clothes.
Alec took in his new surroundings. Bed, guns, Lux, window. He chose option number four,
window. Before Lux even had time to react and jump up to run after him, Alec dove out the
window.
CRASH!
The sound of the window breaking was followed by a more muffled crunch of glass breaking and
a disgusting squishing noise, as Alec landed directly in a dumpster. Garbage. Yay!
As he carefully pulled himself out of the gunk, Alec looked up at the window he had exited from.
And there, of course, stood Lux, pointing a gun at him through the broken glass. "Don't move,"
she hissed.
Alec sighed. "Why not?"
Lux grinned at him seductively. "'Cause if you do, I'll shoot you."
"Come on, what do ya gotta do that for?" Alec asked. "I've already been shot once, I don't need
to try it again."
Lux glared at him. "I think you do."
Alec leapt from the dumpster and ran away from the building. He heard more gunfire, and as he
turned a corner, he felt a sudden burning in his side. After running for another ten minutes, he
looked down, and saw that one of Lux's bullets had grazed him just below his ribs. "Great," he
muttered. "Just great. Should've seen *that* one coming."
He sighed. He was covered in scratches and cuts and fresh blood. He was dirty. He stank. His
clothes were torn. Alec saw a homeless man sleeping against the side of a building. He studied
the man, then he looked down at himself. He looked much worse than the man.
Alec punched the brick wall the man was sleeping against, causing him to wake with a start.
Alec's fist was already raw and bloody from beating his way through a wall.
The homeless man gave him a look of pity.
He held up a piece of bread to Alec, who looked as if he needed it a hell of a lot more.
Alec growled and stormed away, ignoring the offering.
***
Reaching his hands up to his ears, Alec checked to make sure there wasn't steam coming out of
them. He looked at the address on his last package once again, to make sure he wasn't just seeing
things. Of all the places it could go to, the package just *had* to go there.
Alec rubbed his eyes, careful not to spread blood from his hands into them. He sighed. What
wouldn't kill him, would just make him stronger, right? Of course, where he was going right
now, there was a good chance he *would* be killed.
At least he wouldn't have to put up with falling over anymore.
Alec took a deep breath, and headed off to the Berrisford mansion.
***
Please ring buzzer for entry, the sign said. Well what if he didn't want to enter? What then?
Well, he could always toss the package over the fence, but then Normal would be pissed over his
lack of signature, and it wouldn't be a very good thing if Alec got in a fight with Normal and got
even more frustrated and killed the guy.
Or maybe. . . .
No, it wouldn't be a good thing.
Alec pushed the buzzer. "Jam pony messenger," he said into the intercom. There was a buzzing
noise, and he pulled open the gate and walked to the front door. -Here goes a hell of a lot.- Alec
thought.
Robert Berrisford himself answered the door. Alec held out the package, which was a little
bloody, but otherwise unharmed. He pulled out his clipboard and a pen. "I need you to sign
here," Alec said quietly.
"I told you never to come back here," Robert said, making no move to do so.
"Well if you'd just sign here, then I can leave. And you told me never to go back to the
graveyard."
"Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that?" Robert snarled. "It doesn't matter
where you were at that moment, the point was for you to stay away!"
"I'm delivering a goddamn package!" Alec snapped. "Just SIGN so I can LEAVE! I didn't want
to come here in the first place! As you may be able to see, unless you are BLIND, I'm not having
a very good day. This was the LAST place I wanted to be!"
Robert snatched the clipboard and scribbled down a signature. "Get off my property," he
ordered. "Before I have you removed." Two men in black suits stepped up behind him. The men
Alec had taken out to get to Rachel the last time he had been there.
Alec snatched the clipboard back and said, "Fine." He turned to leave. "Besides, they both know
they couldn't take me anyway," he called over his shoulder.
"And you can't take a shower, apparently," Robert muttered.
Alec stopped. He tensed his shoulders trying to keep his anger under control.
"Go!" Robert yelled.
Alec walked stiffly out. Past the driveway, the very place where he dealt Rachel her death blow,
and through the gate.
He slammed the gate behind him, breaking it off its hinges with the force.
Crash.
***
Alec decided to head home, he'd bring the signature in the next morning. Right now, he needed
sleep. And a good shower. And bandages. And disinfectant. And some drugs to help him sleep.
And severe amounts of alcohol. Number one on his list: Enough alcohol to knock him
unconscious. AKA sleep.
Alec entered the nearest liquor store on his way home. He walk right up to the counter and asked
for the strongest drink in stock. "Not second strongest, not the shit you hand out to wusses who
can't hold their liquor. The strongest."
The man behind the counter took one look at him and pulled out a bottle of just that.
Alec took some money from his pocket. He was surprised he actually had any there. He counted
what he had. "Make that three bottles," he said.
The man took out two more bottles and greedily accepted the cash. "Don't drink and drive with
that stuff," he warned. "That'll kill ya in an instant."
"Thanks for the warning," Alec said. He tucked two bottles under his left arm, and pulled out the
cork of the other with his teeth. He spit it behind the counter and took a long, long swig.
"Thanks for the drink too. I desperately need it."
"I can see that," the man commented.
Alec walked out of the store.
***
Alec didn't even have the first bottle half gone, and he wasn't even half way home, when it began
to pouring down rain.
He stopped. "My god," he said. "Someone out there really does HATE ME!"
He stood there, staring up into the sky, doing nothing other than that, for a good ten minutes.
Then he took another long swig and began to walk again.
All of a sudden, he slipped on something on the ground and his feet flew out from under him. He
managed to drop and break all three bottles of alcohol and land on the broken glass.
Water and alcohol soaked through his tattered clothing, and his cuts burned like the devil in hell.
"I know," Alec began, looking up at the sky once again, still on his back on the ground. "I know
I've done a lot of horrible things in my life, but I've been through so much, they kinda balance
out. So, in the name of all the morphine on the damn planet, could someone please tell me
WHAT THE HELL I DID TO DESERVE THIS?!?!?"
Receiving no answer, Alec just lay there, soaking in blood and water, and freezing his very sore
butt off.
***
Asha wrung her hands nervously, picked up her coat, and left to head to her cousin Mac's house.
After dragging her away from a transgenic hunter, when she had been hanging with the
transgenics, he had demanded an explanation.
Asha hadn't been in the mood to explain her entire friendship with Max and Alec and where they
came from, and she needed some time to think about exactly what she would say, so she told him
she'd talk to him and his friend Jake over dinner later.
She walked down the street to Mac's apartment hurriedly. It was cold out, and it was raining
hard. She so did not want to show up soaking wet and catch a cold, but it wasn't like she could
stay dry, walking in the rain.
Asha had two coats on, one pulled up over her head to protect her from the rain. She was having
trouble seeing, as she either had to have the coat almost in her eyes, or have the rain in them.
She scuttled quickly around a corner, and stopped in her tracks.
For the second time that day, she had come upon Alec, lying on the ground, looking quite
miserable. "This really isn't your day, is it?" she asked loudly.
Alec jumped at the sudden sound. Turning his head and seeing who it was, he relaxed again and
looked back up at the sky. "You really have no idea," he told her.
Asha walked over until she was standing directly above him. "Christ, you're bleeding!" she
exclaimed, getting a good look at him, and the glass scattered around his motionless form. "What
the hell happened?"
"Everything," Alec sighed.
"Come on, you're soaking wet, you're gonna die of a cold. Let me help you up," Asha said.
Alec shook his head. "There's no point, really. I've spent more time on the ground today than I
have on my feet. Let's count how many times I fell today alone. I fell out of bed," he said,
checking off fingers, "I tripped on the sheets and fell, I slipped in the shower, Normal threw
packages at me-"
"Okay, I get the picture," Asha interrupted. "But this way, at least you've got the chance to catch
yourself. Down there, you can't do anything if the entire world decides to step on you."
"That's what the world has been doing the entire day," Alec said. He shivered.
"I was wrong," Asha said. Alec gave her a confused look. "You're not gonna die of a cold,
you're gonna die of hypothermia." She held out her hand to him. "Get up."
Alec took her hand. "Fine," he said. With her help, he stood. "Thanks."
Asha looked at her watch. "Shit, I gotta go, I'm incredibly late already!" She turned away.
"Late for what?" Alec asked.
"Dinner!" she called back over her shoulder.
"See ya," Alec mumbled, and turned in the opposite direction to continue home.
Asha heard a bump and a sigh. She turned around quickly, to find Alec on the ground, on his
back. He reached awkwardly down to his shoe, and peeled off the wet piece of garbage he had
slipped on. For the second time.
Asha quickly ran back to him.
"Come on, I gotta go," she said, reaching her hand out again.
"Nope," Alec declined. "It's safer down here."
Asha turned and ran.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will clue up the break stuff section next chapter, I think. And Asha's dinner with Mac will either
be next chapter or the one after.
writing is pride.
Chapter: Break Stuff Part 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alec stormed past Logan and Asha, taking a package from his wet, dirt encrusted bag, and
checking the address.
Logan and Asha turned to watch him go.
Alec looked away from the package just in time to see the brick that lay in his path. He jumped
over it, stumbled, and was too concentrated on his footing, of all things, to notice the next brick.
Alec swore as he smacked into the ground, landing on the package, and crushing it. He pushed
himself to his feet, picked up the remains of the package, and stormed off, muttering curses.
"Not the most graceful of exits," Asha commented, tilting her head to the side to watch Alec
leave.
"I have the feeling this is not one of his more graceful days," Logan said, in the exact same
position, arms folded in front of himself, his weight on his left leg, right knee slightly bent, head
tilted to the right.
And there the two of them stood, mimicking each other exactly, staring off into space and
contemplating what they had just witnessed, long after Alec was gone.
***
Alec was too busy concentrating on keeping his cool to notice a thing that was going on around
him.
He didn't feel the slight breeze. He didn't notice the people on the sides of the roads as he
brushed shoulders with them. He didn't notice the constant beeping of horns and roaring of
engines. He didn't notice the more dull roar of the voices around him.
He did, however, notice the pain. His gut ached. His head ached. His leg ached. He was
limping. He was also freezing. Wet, dirty.
Alec was able to notice only the things that caused him discomfort. He noticed nothing good, and
he noticed nothing neutral.
This fact did nothing whatsoever to help his mood.
Frankly, he was having a terrible day.
Every five minutes he either fell flat on his butt or . . . something else unpleasant.
That was the most annoying thing to him at the moment. He currently had the grace and balance
of a clown on one stilt. Or of a giraffe with two broken legs. It was anyone's guess which two.
"Christ," Alec said, pausing in the middle of the street. "This must be hell."
*BEEP BEEP*
Alec jumped back to reality and darted to the sidewalk. The last thing he needed right now was
to get hit by another car.
Alec approached the building in front of him. Finally, after about an hour and a half of trudging
across Seattle, he had reached the crushed package's destination. Alec stepped up to the door
and knocked loudly.
It was really too bad that he was too out of it to notice where he was.
Just too bad.
"Yeah?" said a man, opening the door. He looked at Alec. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Alec's eyes snapped wide open, he still did not look at the man's face. His voice was distinctly
British.
Alec sighed, his shoulders slumping miserably. Of course. Great. Perfect. He should've known.
"Look, I'm just here to deliver a package," he said, holding out said sorry excuse for a package.
"What the hell is this?" British Eddie, leader of the steelheads, asked angrily. "Damn thing's
destroyed!"
Alec looked down. Crushed. Damn. Just his luck. Alec chuckled. What luck?
"Oh, so you think this is funny, do you pretty boy?" British Eddie snarled. He grabbed Alec by
the front of the shirt and dragged him into the building, taking the package from him at the same
time. He pulled Alec in, spinning him around so they were facing each other, shoved him back
and let go. Alec, with his giraffe-like grace, tripped and fell over backward, landing on his ass on
the floor.
Alec flat out laughed.
British Eddie kicked him in the face, nearly breaking his nose. Alec grabbed his face in pain and
rolled onto his back, shaking with laughter.
"What is you goddamn problem?" British Eddie roared. Alec simply lay there laughing. "Boys,"
Eddie called out to his fellow steelheads. "If you're looking to try out your new additions, I've
got the perfect target for you!"
A tall, muscular man, with half of his head covered in long black hair, and the other half in
mechanical implants, stepped out from another room. "Well, what do we have here?" he said,
grinning mischievously. He flipped out what looked like a targeting device from his cheek to his
eye. He held up his arm. Or rather, what used to be his arm, and now was one massive machine
gun.
A little black man, with similar looks, followed him, with the same extension.
Alec decided that that was as good of a time as any to shut the hell up. His eyes grew wide. He
began to crawl, backwards from Eddie and his pals. Eddie grinned. Alec leapt suddenly to his
feet, and blurred to the other end of the building, loud gunfire chasing after him.
Alec ran into the nearest room and slammed the door behind him. He took cover from the gunfire
that penetrated the closed door. He scanned the room quickly. "Dammit!" There were no
windows for him to escape from.
He leapt from his hiding place behind a desk and picked up the metal folding chair which sat next
to him. Not knowing where the hell he was going to end up, he smashed the chair into the wall
behind him repeatedly, trying to break through. He then punched and kicked it with all his
strength. Moments before the steelheads opened the door, he pulled himself through a small hole
he had created, tearing and cutting and splintering his skin on the way, not to mention his clothes.
Alec took in his new surroundings. Bed, guns, Lux, window. He chose option number four,
window. Before Lux even had time to react and jump up to run after him, Alec dove out the
window.
CRASH!
The sound of the window breaking was followed by a more muffled crunch of glass breaking and
a disgusting squishing noise, as Alec landed directly in a dumpster. Garbage. Yay!
As he carefully pulled himself out of the gunk, Alec looked up at the window he had exited from.
And there, of course, stood Lux, pointing a gun at him through the broken glass. "Don't move,"
she hissed.
Alec sighed. "Why not?"
Lux grinned at him seductively. "'Cause if you do, I'll shoot you."
"Come on, what do ya gotta do that for?" Alec asked. "I've already been shot once, I don't need
to try it again."
Lux glared at him. "I think you do."
Alec leapt from the dumpster and ran away from the building. He heard more gunfire, and as he
turned a corner, he felt a sudden burning in his side. After running for another ten minutes, he
looked down, and saw that one of Lux's bullets had grazed him just below his ribs. "Great," he
muttered. "Just great. Should've seen *that* one coming."
He sighed. He was covered in scratches and cuts and fresh blood. He was dirty. He stank. His
clothes were torn. Alec saw a homeless man sleeping against the side of a building. He studied
the man, then he looked down at himself. He looked much worse than the man.
Alec punched the brick wall the man was sleeping against, causing him to wake with a start.
Alec's fist was already raw and bloody from beating his way through a wall.
The homeless man gave him a look of pity.
He held up a piece of bread to Alec, who looked as if he needed it a hell of a lot more.
Alec growled and stormed away, ignoring the offering.
***
Reaching his hands up to his ears, Alec checked to make sure there wasn't steam coming out of
them. He looked at the address on his last package once again, to make sure he wasn't just seeing
things. Of all the places it could go to, the package just *had* to go there.
Alec rubbed his eyes, careful not to spread blood from his hands into them. He sighed. What
wouldn't kill him, would just make him stronger, right? Of course, where he was going right
now, there was a good chance he *would* be killed.
At least he wouldn't have to put up with falling over anymore.
Alec took a deep breath, and headed off to the Berrisford mansion.
***
Please ring buzzer for entry, the sign said. Well what if he didn't want to enter? What then?
Well, he could always toss the package over the fence, but then Normal would be pissed over his
lack of signature, and it wouldn't be a very good thing if Alec got in a fight with Normal and got
even more frustrated and killed the guy.
Or maybe. . . .
No, it wouldn't be a good thing.
Alec pushed the buzzer. "Jam pony messenger," he said into the intercom. There was a buzzing
noise, and he pulled open the gate and walked to the front door. -Here goes a hell of a lot.- Alec
thought.
Robert Berrisford himself answered the door. Alec held out the package, which was a little
bloody, but otherwise unharmed. He pulled out his clipboard and a pen. "I need you to sign
here," Alec said quietly.
"I told you never to come back here," Robert said, making no move to do so.
"Well if you'd just sign here, then I can leave. And you told me never to go back to the
graveyard."
"Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that?" Robert snarled. "It doesn't matter
where you were at that moment, the point was for you to stay away!"
"I'm delivering a goddamn package!" Alec snapped. "Just SIGN so I can LEAVE! I didn't want
to come here in the first place! As you may be able to see, unless you are BLIND, I'm not having
a very good day. This was the LAST place I wanted to be!"
Robert snatched the clipboard and scribbled down a signature. "Get off my property," he
ordered. "Before I have you removed." Two men in black suits stepped up behind him. The men
Alec had taken out to get to Rachel the last time he had been there.
Alec snatched the clipboard back and said, "Fine." He turned to leave. "Besides, they both know
they couldn't take me anyway," he called over his shoulder.
"And you can't take a shower, apparently," Robert muttered.
Alec stopped. He tensed his shoulders trying to keep his anger under control.
"Go!" Robert yelled.
Alec walked stiffly out. Past the driveway, the very place where he dealt Rachel her death blow,
and through the gate.
He slammed the gate behind him, breaking it off its hinges with the force.
Crash.
***
Alec decided to head home, he'd bring the signature in the next morning. Right now, he needed
sleep. And a good shower. And bandages. And disinfectant. And some drugs to help him sleep.
And severe amounts of alcohol. Number one on his list: Enough alcohol to knock him
unconscious. AKA sleep.
Alec entered the nearest liquor store on his way home. He walk right up to the counter and asked
for the strongest drink in stock. "Not second strongest, not the shit you hand out to wusses who
can't hold their liquor. The strongest."
The man behind the counter took one look at him and pulled out a bottle of just that.
Alec took some money from his pocket. He was surprised he actually had any there. He counted
what he had. "Make that three bottles," he said.
The man took out two more bottles and greedily accepted the cash. "Don't drink and drive with
that stuff," he warned. "That'll kill ya in an instant."
"Thanks for the warning," Alec said. He tucked two bottles under his left arm, and pulled out the
cork of the other with his teeth. He spit it behind the counter and took a long, long swig.
"Thanks for the drink too. I desperately need it."
"I can see that," the man commented.
Alec walked out of the store.
***
Alec didn't even have the first bottle half gone, and he wasn't even half way home, when it began
to pouring down rain.
He stopped. "My god," he said. "Someone out there really does HATE ME!"
He stood there, staring up into the sky, doing nothing other than that, for a good ten minutes.
Then he took another long swig and began to walk again.
All of a sudden, he slipped on something on the ground and his feet flew out from under him. He
managed to drop and break all three bottles of alcohol and land on the broken glass.
Water and alcohol soaked through his tattered clothing, and his cuts burned like the devil in hell.
"I know," Alec began, looking up at the sky once again, still on his back on the ground. "I know
I've done a lot of horrible things in my life, but I've been through so much, they kinda balance
out. So, in the name of all the morphine on the damn planet, could someone please tell me
WHAT THE HELL I DID TO DESERVE THIS?!?!?"
Receiving no answer, Alec just lay there, soaking in blood and water, and freezing his very sore
butt off.
***
Asha wrung her hands nervously, picked up her coat, and left to head to her cousin Mac's house.
After dragging her away from a transgenic hunter, when she had been hanging with the
transgenics, he had demanded an explanation.
Asha hadn't been in the mood to explain her entire friendship with Max and Alec and where they
came from, and she needed some time to think about exactly what she would say, so she told him
she'd talk to him and his friend Jake over dinner later.
She walked down the street to Mac's apartment hurriedly. It was cold out, and it was raining
hard. She so did not want to show up soaking wet and catch a cold, but it wasn't like she could
stay dry, walking in the rain.
Asha had two coats on, one pulled up over her head to protect her from the rain. She was having
trouble seeing, as she either had to have the coat almost in her eyes, or have the rain in them.
She scuttled quickly around a corner, and stopped in her tracks.
For the second time that day, she had come upon Alec, lying on the ground, looking quite
miserable. "This really isn't your day, is it?" she asked loudly.
Alec jumped at the sudden sound. Turning his head and seeing who it was, he relaxed again and
looked back up at the sky. "You really have no idea," he told her.
Asha walked over until she was standing directly above him. "Christ, you're bleeding!" she
exclaimed, getting a good look at him, and the glass scattered around his motionless form. "What
the hell happened?"
"Everything," Alec sighed.
"Come on, you're soaking wet, you're gonna die of a cold. Let me help you up," Asha said.
Alec shook his head. "There's no point, really. I've spent more time on the ground today than I
have on my feet. Let's count how many times I fell today alone. I fell out of bed," he said,
checking off fingers, "I tripped on the sheets and fell, I slipped in the shower, Normal threw
packages at me-"
"Okay, I get the picture," Asha interrupted. "But this way, at least you've got the chance to catch
yourself. Down there, you can't do anything if the entire world decides to step on you."
"That's what the world has been doing the entire day," Alec said. He shivered.
"I was wrong," Asha said. Alec gave her a confused look. "You're not gonna die of a cold,
you're gonna die of hypothermia." She held out her hand to him. "Get up."
Alec took her hand. "Fine," he said. With her help, he stood. "Thanks."
Asha looked at her watch. "Shit, I gotta go, I'm incredibly late already!" She turned away.
"Late for what?" Alec asked.
"Dinner!" she called back over her shoulder.
"See ya," Alec mumbled, and turned in the opposite direction to continue home.
Asha heard a bump and a sigh. She turned around quickly, to find Alec on the ground, on his
back. He reached awkwardly down to his shoe, and peeled off the wet piece of garbage he had
slipped on. For the second time.
Asha quickly ran back to him.
"Come on, I gotta go," she said, reaching her hand out again.
"Nope," Alec declined. "It's safer down here."
Asha turned and ran.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will clue up the break stuff section next chapter, I think. And Asha's dinner with Mac will either
be next chapter or the one after.