A/N: Only a couple of days late, I'm improving. Sorry for the slight delay anyway, I went on holiday and my muse went too, just it took longer to come back!
CHAPTER SEVEN
Alec jerked awake to the sound of a long, high-pitched scream, emanating from the other person in the room. Earlier he had decided, after some pleading from Max, to stay with her in the room but not to sleep in the same bed. Alec's sudden movement made him lose his balance and he fell off the couch and onto the floor with a thump. He ignored the sharp, stinging pain and rushed over to the bed, whose occupant continued to thrash about, moaning. Alec bent over the bed, and realised that Max was still asleep. 'Nightmare' he thought, 'Of course she'd have nightmares.' He sat on the edge of the bed and captured the brunette's flailing arms to wrap his arms around her.
"You're alright Max," he whispered "You're safe, I won't let anyone hurt you ever again. You're in Terminal City, surrounded by friends who'll do anything for you, don't worry, everything will be fine, don't panic, you're safe..." Alec kept his low monologue going, in a caressing voice, rubbing Max's back to calm her down. Slowly but surely, Max's whimpering and tossing subsided until she lay in Alec's arms, at peace. Gently he placed her back onto the bed and returned to his spot on the couch, only to groan as she started to toss again.
"Fine Max, I can take a hint as well as the next transgenic," he muttered, making his way over the empty pizza boxes to the bed again. He scooted Max over and lay down, wrapping his arms around her once more. Max immediately stopped her restless tossing, and just before Alec shut his eyes and drifted off to sleep, he saw a faint smile grace her features, as if she only felt safe in Alec's strong arms.
Max awoke first the next morning, relaxed and comfortable. She knew before she opened her eyes that it was Alec who was holding her, and she trusted him implicitly. Feeling warm, happy and lazy, she snuggled up to the warm body next to her as the clouds that almost permanently overhung Seattle these days cleared, to let the sun filter down to shine on the two transgenic.
After a few hours, Max became bored with just lying around. Alec was still asleep, so she silently slid out from underneath both his arms and the covers, stretching with a cat-like grace due to her feline DNA. She wandered around the room, gathering some clothes and grabbing a towel and went into the bathroom, desperate for a shower. Max took her time in the shower, relishing in the hot water and cleaning her body that was sticky from sweat, courtesy of her nightmares. Grabbing at the shampoo, she washed her dark tresses, enjoying the feel of pampering herself. She concentrated her thoughts on the here and now, determined not to think of a certain past event that would have her breaking down and crying once more.
Max walked out of the now misty room back into her bedroom, looking at the bed to see if Alec was up yet. He wasn't; he was still lying on the bed but he had sprawled all over it while Max was in the shower, his lips parted. Max grinned, Alec looked so innocent while he slept, as if he had never been trained as a genetically enhanced soldier with several kills under his belt, as if he had never seen his first love badly injured in a car explosion before his eyes and been tortured afterwards for failing to finish the mission. 'Why don't ordinaries understand that our only differences are skin deep? We all bleed, we all care, even though we were taught to be unfeeling killers - we're not animals that only live to kill.' Max shook her head sadly, people would always be scared of what was different. She and the other transgenics had to show the ordinary populace of America that they were human, at least in temperament, and that they could function in a society, that was what Terminal City was partially about. The other part was that they needed a place of their own to defend and live in, to escape from the persecution.
Max went to sit on the couch, stacking up the dirty plates on the table and tossing two pizza boxes into the trash can on her way. Grabbing her hairbrush, she pulled her wet hair over her shoulder and started to brush it. It was quite a job, with the mess and tangles it had got in during ... 'Don't even go there!' she fiercely remonstrated herself, and she hadn't bothered to even try to start untangling it yesterday, she had been too tired. Eventually all the tangles were brushed out and her hair had almost dried. Electricity was too needed in TC to be wasted on appliances like hair dryers or any other convenience appliances. Alec argued that they had to have TV however, it was an essential part of culture and it was easier for all the transgenics to watch the news and know what was happening. The fact that almost no one watched the news seemed to have 'escaped' all of high command and so most transgenics had a TV, if they could scavenge or 'borrow' one.
Max glanced over at the bed again, amazed at the fact that Alec was still sleeping. 'It's not like he did anything strenuous yesterday, how can he be content to just lie in bed all day' she wondered, forgetting how she had just lay in bed next to Alec for an hour, a thing unheard of for Max - she was not content to stay still. Grabbing an old book of Father's that Joshua had lent her, something about a wizard, men, elves, hobbits, dwarves, orcs and a powerful ring, she began to read. The story was captivating, and she could imagine being there on the quest, the descriptions forming pictures in her mind's eyes of incredibly beautiful landscapes, nothing like the dreary sights of Seattle. Max immersed herself in Middle Earth and forgot everything, until a knock at the door startled her out of one of her nine lives, courtesy of her feline DNA.
It wasn't a loud knock, it was rather tentative but Max's sensitive hearing amplified the sound. She looked over at Alec in a panic, only to see him still asleep. "Asshole" she muttered under her breath, only half joking. "What does it take to wake him, an earthquake, apocalypse?" Cautiously she approached the door, trying to ascertain who wanted her. Again the person knocked, a little louder this time. With one last longing and annoyed look at the bed, she said softly, "Who is it?"
"Lil' Fella?" she heard the person reply.
She sighed with relief, it wasn't someone who would ask what happened and spread anything she said quicker than ordinaries gossiped about other people's affairs. "Wait a sec", she told him as she unlocked the door.
Finally the door swung open. "Hey Big Fella," Max stood there shyly, unsure of what to do.
Joshua didn't notice and rushed in, sweeping her off the floor and into a huge hug, almost crushing her rib cage in his tight grip.
"Hey Josh, mindful of the ribs!" Max grinned, happy to see that someone had missed her this much.
Joshua immediately put her down. "Sorry Lil' Fella, I was just happy. You went away."
Max instinctively realised that he had been scared to death about her disappearance. "I'm sorry Joshua, I didn't mean for that to happen. I won't go away again without telling you, I promise." She wrapped her arms around the huge dog-man, who hugged her back.
"I didn't want you to be another Annie," he whispered, and Max squeezed him tighter, knowing how much he had grieved over Annie, the only ordinary who hadn't cared what Joshua had looked like, loving him for his personality.
Finally, Max let go, not used to all this emotional stuff. "So were you just checking up on me Joshua or did you need anything?"
"No, Joshua's fine. Came here to see if you were alright Max, I was worried. Mole told me you were safe but..." Joshua turned away from her to look at Alec sprawled on the bed, "You never came to see me."
As Max tried desperately to think how she could answer Joshua without letting him know exactly what happened, Joshua looked at her again and tilted his head to the side, "Max and Alec, getting busy?"
Max's jaw dropped. "Hell no!" she exclaimed without thinking, realising why he had thought that. At that precise moment, Alec, who had awoke at the first knock but feigned sleep to see how Max handled the situation without his help, decided to join the conversation.
"Maxie, Maxie, Maxie, denial isn't just a river in Egypt. Don't you care about my feelings? It hurts me when you deny our love so casually." Alec rolled over onto his side facing his friends, making puppy dog eyes at Max.
"Fool," she grinned, grabbing a pillow and promptly trying to suffocate him. Alec wrestled his way from under the pillow and a pillow fight immediately began. Shrieks filled the air as well as laughter as the two chased each other round the room.
Joshua was mystified by his friends' strange behaviour. Were they getting busy? He didn't understand why humans didn't just tell the truth, everyone could see that Alec had eyes for no one but Max and that Max was more relaxed in his company than Logan's. Not wanting to interrupt the X5's weird courtship ritual, Joshua decided to sit this one out on the couch. His eyes spotted the book that he had loaned to Max and he picked it up and started reading.
Max and Alec continued to leap around the bed and the rest of the room, forgetting that Joshua was there as they tried to be the victor of the war. However, someone was cheating.
"Max," Alec whined, "Stop cheating. Every time I've got you, you either scream or giggle and ruin my concentration. It's not sporting!"
"Well pretty boy," Max drawled, in an imitation of Mole, "If you wouldn't insist on tickling me or grabbing my ass, then I wouldn't scream or giggle."
"What?" asked Alec, in fake astonishment. "Is Maxie, the bitch with attitude, susceptible to tickling?" He had let his guard down, thinking that he had won.
"Are you?" Max replied, and with an evil grin she started to tickle his sides.
She was startled by the girly squeal that Alec let out immediately and looked at his face to see tears streaming down it.
"Shit Max, stop already... aaah... you win! Stop! Please?" The last part came out in a begging tone, Alec knew that he couldn't stand much more of this.
"Well, well, well," crowed Max triumphantly, relishing in her victory. "Who knew that Alec squealed like a girl? Maybe Normal." A mental image hit her and she shuddered.
"That's cheating Max!" Alec panted out, as soon as he got his breath back.
"Hey, you started it. If you can't take it, don't deal it out. You know..." she continued, in a thoughtful tone, "You woulda thought that Manticore would make their soldiers resistant to tickling, after all, they made us immune to most types of torture."
"Probably thought that the enemies the transgenic were sent against would be big bads, not like the ones in second rate movies that use tickling as their best torture." Alec said, thinking about what Max had said.
"Weird."
Joshua realised that his two best friends had finally calmed down and relayed to Alec the message that Mole had given him, "Alec?"
"Yeah Josh?"
"Mole says he needs you or Max to go over to command, to sort stuff out. Too much is backing up and things are about to go FUBAR."
Max looked apprehensively at Alec and he understood that she still wasn't up to deal with loads of males yet. "I'll go now, probably nothing bad and he just wants to yell at me about those cigars. I'll grab 'em and head out. Stay with Max till I get back, alright Josh?"
"Don't worry Medium Fella, I'll look after Lil Fella." Joshua assured Alec, who smiled and went out of the door, frowning as he tried to remember where exactly he had stashed those cigars that Mole needed so desperately.
Replies to reviews:
acb: Thanks for the review! It made me feel better about that chapter. Here's another lighter one but don't worry, there will be definite angst later! Wow, that's an interesting idea, could be quite cool to work into the story. I'm not sure if I'd be allowed to let White live or not, depends what you guys think about it. Actually, I don't know if he'll live or die and I won't tell you or it'll spoil it!
Ronda the Immortal waitress: I like people with obsessions. Buffy used to be my obsession too, till I discovered Dark Angel. Is this update soon enough? Sorry about the White ass-kicking tho, you'll have to wait till later for that!
TikigirlK16: Thanks for the 'as usual' part, it boosts my ego! My muse left for a while, but it's now back, hope this is soon enough.
flash: What can I say, I must be psychic! Maybe I should go into Psy Ops? Yeah, Max trusts Alec as she sees him as her rescuer, plus she was getting closer to him before this, but not love wise. Other people will find out later about the rape, it'll be fun to write their reactions! A little bit over two weeks, please don't kill me!
Aur: Is this soon enough? Glad you're liking my story and don't worry, they will get together, eventually! They have a lot of issues at the moment!
nelita: Thanks for the review, and I'll try. You do know that you're just feeding my ego when you write things like that, don't you? I'm not complaining though, lol!
Louise: Was that a hint to say get your ass working and hurry up with the updates at all? I'll try and be quicker updating so that you can read more J
Storm: Thanks, how's this chap?
Alcyone: Thanks for the idea, I'll try and out that in, I think most people would cheer if that happened. If you do want to be my beta, it'd only be to check spelling, grammar, no glaring mistakes like making Max a guy or anything. If you don't mind, give me a review (please) or send me an email and I'll email you the next part when I've wrote it for you to check. Thanks, pet!