A/N: I'm baaaaaaaaacck. Finally, I hear you mutter. I managed to get access to the Internet again and so here's the next installment:

CHAPTER SIX

Alec woke up slowly, enjoying the radiating warmth that was coming from Max's body. He continued to hold her, staring at her sleeping face, which showed a vulnerability in repose that he had only seen once before on Max's face, the previous night. Regarding her peaceful form, he resolved to keep her safe from any other harm. Alec had no idea of how much time he spent looking at Max; all too soon, from his point-of-view anyway, she began to stir.

Max rose from unconsciousness leisurely, relishing in the warmth of her bed, which was welcome in the cold Seattle winter. She snuggled into the covers, wanting to return to sleep and with that action, Max became conscious of the warm, male body beside her and the muscular, masculine arms that were holding her tightly. She tensed instinctively, as memories of the previous night rushed overwhelmingly back. Then, her transgenic senses kicked in and she recognised the smell that surrounded her as Alec. Max's instincts recognised him as safe and finally allowed her body to relax, as she enjoyed the comfort she felt in knowing that he was with her and would protect her.

Alec sighed inwardly as he felt her slight body tense in his arms as she realised that someone was with her. 'It's going to take a while for her to become trusting again after that', he thought 'We transgenic were taught at Manticore to think of ourselves as superior to most other people and its harder for us to adjust to being beaten.' Then he felt Max relax in his arms, and he realised that she had recognised him. A small smile spread across Alec's handsome features as he knew now that Max trusted him and felt safe with him.

"Hey" he whispered softly, not letting go off her. Alec needed to see her reaction to everything, to know how to help her.

Max finally opened her eyes and looked straight into Alec's hazel orbs. With a soft smile at the deep look of concern and worry on the face of the usually carefree transgenic beside her, she replied "Hey," in the same soft whisper.

"How are you feeling?"

"Tired."

"You Maxie?" asked Alec in fake astonishment. "The kick-ass, I've-got-shark-DNA-so-I-never-need-to-sleep, save the world, do everything now transgenic is actually tired?"

Max grinned, enjoying Alec's teasing. To her, that signified normal behaviour between the two of them and she didn't know how to act after what had happened. "Well, what can I say Alec, there's a first time for everything. Right now I feel like I could sleep for a week and still be tired at the end of it."

Alec unwrapped one of his arms from around Max's waist to lay the back of his hand on her forehead, testing her temperature. Max giggled at his nursemaid behaviour, "You must be ill. Hmm, you feel feverish, sure that you're okay?" Alec shot her a fake look of concern, which quickly changed into a wince as she hit him on the shoulder. "Ouch Maxie, that hurt. At least the pressing question has been answered, it is still Max here, not her sleepy clone."

Max just smiled at him and moved closer to Alec, feeling safe while he was there. Alec put his arm around her again, pulling her body close against his as she lay her head on his chest. "Max?" he asked, placing a lot of meanings on that one word.

"I'm alright," she whispered with a small yawn, "Just sleepy." Her words were muffled by Alec's chest but thanks to his transgenic hearing, they were still perfectly audible.

"Go to sleep then Maxie," he whispered to the top of her forehead, kissing her silky hair, "I'll keep you safe. Sleep for as long as you want."

But Max didn't hear his last few words, the last thing she remembered was Alec kissing her hair, just as he had done when comforting her after she had told him about Ben.

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Alec awoke with a start, quickly and instinctively checking on Max while scanning the room for danger. Max was still asleep and there was no sign of a disturbance in the room, so Alec decided to fall asleep again. He settled down on the bed, only to hear the door being knocked loudly.

'Shit' thought Alec, trying to untangle himself from the covers and Max and answer the door without awakening Max, not an easy task due to her shark DNA. Eventually he managed to get out of the bed, when the knocking began again. This time, Max started to stir in response to the noise. Alec yanked the door open to stop the noise from waking her up, after all there was a reason why 'Let sleeping transgenics lie' was one of the unwritten rules of life at Terminal City, but he didn't expect the consequences of this action.

SMACK! The door had been opened so quickly that the knocker didn't have time to react and had brought his clenched fist firmly down on Alec's forehead. "Ow!" yelled Alec, nursing his forehead, "Whatcha do that for?"

A smirk spread across the door-knocker's face and when he began to laugh, his cigar almost fell out of his mouth. "Aren't you used to being hit by now pretty boy? You do hang around with Max all the time."

"She beats me up as an excuse to touch me, Mole and as a sign of affection. The sentiment negates the ouch, but you have no excuse. Or do you just want to touch me too? If so, speak to Normal, you two could start my male fan club." Alec explained while gingerly probing his sore forehead.

"Thanks for the offer, but I've already got a job and so has he. And speaking of my job, could you get Max for me? She's needed at HQ." drawled the lizard transgenic, puffing on his cigar as if to reassure himself that he hadn't dropped it while laughing at Alec.

Alec glanced over at the bed and saw that Max was now awake and looking at him. Silently, she signed to him what to say, 'Tell him I'm asleep and not feeling well, I really can't face them at the moment. And Alec, I'm going to kick you ass for saying that to Mole', she finished with a mock scowl.

Smirking inwardly, Alec turned to Mole, "She's asleep, believe it or not and I'm not gonna wake her, come the USA army or the apocalypse. I'll tell her you came for her when she does wake up, but she wasn't feeling too well last night, she really needs to rest."

"Asleep? Wonders will never cease" joked Mole. "Well we'll carry on with the meeting about supplies but Max can't complain if she doesn't like our plans, I'm warning you now."

"If she disagrees with what you've done, I'm just gonna sit there with some popcorn and let the entertainment commence," Alec grinned, imagining a fight between the leader of Terminal City and one of her deputies.

"Thanks for that vote of confidence," replied Mole sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "I'll catch up with ya later, and I still wanna know where my bloody cigars are!"

Alec shut the door in Mole's face, laughing as he heard the giant lizard-man curse inventively. He looked over towards the subject of the conversation. Max stretched on the bed, yawning lazily. "I'm sorry Alec, I just can't face them now," she whispered apologetically, her eyes downcast.

"It's OK Max, I understand." Alec sat on the bed again, placing a few strands of hair that had fallen across her face behind her ears and continued to stroke her hair. "Take as long as you need, we can cope without you."

"I just feel like I'm slacking," Max admitted ruefully.

"Nah, if you were slacking I'd call Normal to get you working, bip bip bip!" joked Alec, remembering how Max always sassed Normal back, whenever he told her to get moving.

Max started to giggle and then stopped suddenly, startled by the rumbling sound that emerged from her stomach. "Well I've just got my marching orders," getting off the bed and stretching in a fluid motion with a grace that reminded Alec of her feline DNA.

"Tell you what, I'll go and get us some food for breakfast, actually lunch," Alec corrected himself after glancing at his watch, "You can have a shower etc, while I'm gone - just don't use up all the hot water" he warned, wagging a threatening finger at Max.

She pouted at him, "It's my shower!" Max loved how Alec could make her feel carefree and happy, no matter what was happening - it was never like that with Logan, the fate of the world always seemed to depend on every little thing.

"Fair's fair Maxie, haven't you learnt that by now?" asked Alec in a singsong voice, making a hasty getaway. He had just made in time too, no sooner had he closed the door than he heard a WHOOMPH, Max had obviously reverted back to her normal self. Chuckling, he made his way to the building that they had turned into the food hall, swerving past some other transgenic.

Inside the room, Max made her way over to the door to pick up the pillow that she had thrown at Alec's departing form. She quickly made the bed and then wandered round her room, grabbing the stuff for her shower. After a quick wash feeling the better for getting clean, she dressed in sweats and a baggy hooded jumper, ready for a day of lazing about doing nothing. She left the steamy bathroom just as Alec walked in the door of her bedroom, carrying a stack of plates loaded with food. "Good timing!" she greeted him, grabbing a few of the plates and plonking herself on the floor, already starting to eat.

"Thank my spidey sense, heh don't eat all the chips!" Alec swooped down and grabbed the plate, taking some chips and shoving them in his mouth.

"Well I never did learn to share, did I?" replied Max coyly, calmly stealing the plate back. After some more friendly insults, they settled down and began to eat in a companionable silence. Alec was amazed at how much food Max was putting away; though she was a transgenic, he had just thought that she didn't eat much, because of her slight frame.

"Jesus Max, how much do you eat anyway?"

She quickly glanced over at the plates scattered around me, assessing them. "About the same as you do Alec. You managed to finish that lot off sharpish."

"I'm a growing boy." explained Alec as he grabbed the TV control and switched the 'boob-tube' on. Flick, flick, flick - 'no way,' flick "The government still haven't answered the growing threat of the transgenic¼" 'Old news' flick 'ah, heaven.' He settled back, enjoying the vision on the screen in front of him.

"ALEC! No way are we watching this crap!" Max tried to grab the remote from his hands, failing miserably.

"Come on Maxie, this is America's best entertainment! Culture at its finest!" Alec insisted, holding her hands away from the remote.

"Its women in bikinis with their boobs hanging out and screeching that some people claim is music. Come on, lets just watch a movie instead?"

"Fine" Alec sulked and switched the channel till he found a good movie, an old one about cheerleading and two rival teams. 'At least there's eye candy' he thought.

'Lame' thought Max, 'Trust Alec to pick this one.' Nevertheless, she sat beside him watching the film, gradually becoming interested in the action and involved in the movie. So involved that she didn't notice that her head was lying on Alec's chest once more and his arm was around her waist. They watched another movie after that one had ended and spent the rest of the day in front of the TV screen, never moving from each other's side.

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A/N 2: I didn't realise it had been so long since I updated, sorry guys. Thanks for hanging in there! First off no Internet, then Latin Camp (not as dull as it sounds) for 2 weeks and I'll admit it, I was lazy and it took me ages to type this part up. Hastily ducks the items thrown at her. I'll try and be better from now on though, OK? Exam results are on Thursday (Aaaaaaaaah!!) and I'm off on holiday on Friday for a week so I'll post the next part in about 2 weeks time. Hoped you liked this part, I promise it'll get more interesting soon!

Still looking for a beta, so if anyone's interested, please tell me.

REVIEW REPLIES:

acb: Thanks, your review made me feel a happy bunny. Don't feel like I did an amazing job on this chap but I hope the next one will be better. Come on, a few hints please on how to make White pay? I can't think of that many at the moment, and I want something really inventive and nasty to happen to him - he deserves it!

flash: Don't worry, I'm always impatient with stories too! Please don't kill me for updating so late! I told my parents what you said and they laughed - they don't think that I'm any good, pouts.

Ronda the Immortal waitress: Lol, love your pen name. I'm sure a good, hefty kick to White's special place can be arranged, just to make you feel better.

Black Rose9: Thanks for the review and the beta info, sorry about the incredible lateness of this posting, I'll be quicker next time.

Fayth3: Thanks for reviewing, I love your stories. I'm glad you did take a risk and read this story, thanks so much for the review, makes me eager to write if I know people are enjoying the fic.

X5- 467: Don't worry, he will pay. Thanks for the compliment.

nelita: Thanks for the review. I'm not sure how to answer your question, I think that there's a lot more to Alec than the carefree guy that's portrayed most of the time. With the whole Rachel thing, I reckon that he had to be one of the best to get the assignment, so I'm going to include that in the fic, but he also cares about people. You can see that with Rachel and the fact that he doesn't kill that X5 in Proof of Purchase, just cuts the barcode off. I feel as if he's learnt at Manticore to hide these feelings and emotions, but he's gradually letting them out now that he's free. Whew, that was a long answer, wasn't it? But that's what I think anyway, and that's how Alec's going to be in this fic.

Shakrin: Thanks for the info about betas. Glad you like the story. Here's another chappie so you don't kill me or end the world with your Godzilla machine! Lol, I loved you review.

Lotamoxie: Thanks for the review, soz about the wait!

Louise: Don't worry, White will suffer, I promise. Sorry about the wait!

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You guys know what I want; REVIEW! NOW! Please?