Big shout out to the betas -- Kiwichick and BHG.
Max shifted in her seat, resting her head against the cool window as she glanced out at the passing scenery with unseeing eyes. Alec had been driving for the past seven hours, turning down each of her offers to take his place. It was probably for the best anyhow - shark DNA or no shark DNA, she was having a hard time of keeping her thoughts at bay and concentrating on her surroundings. She could only hope that Alec was keeping a diligent eye on their progress, making sure they were indeed not being followed.
The hours were passing by quite mindlessly, the soft music from the radio the only thing breaking the silence. She'd tried sleeping, but her body refused her even that little solace. Then she'd tried pretending to sleep, just so she wouldn't have to keep up any conversation that she was in no condition to handle anyway.
Her thoughts moved in a circle, always eventually returning to Seattle and the life she'd built there over the past two years. The life that she had dropped and run from, just like that. Not even a goodbye to her friends - Kendra, OC, Herbal, Sketchy…what would they think of her leaving abruptly in the middle of the night without a word? Maybe Logan would tell them something, something that would quell their concern, and hopefully soften the inevitable blow to their feelings.
The first few hours, after the initial tension of the "escape" had faded, were quite awkward. Or at least, for Max they were. She'd found that when she wasn't irritated with him - which, admittedly, were moments few and far between - she really had no idea what to say to Alec. She supposed the discomfort stemmed from the fact that she couldn't exactly define what he was to her. And with no neat category in which to place him - i.e. friend, co-worker, lo…um, thorn in her side - she could not, thus, treat him accordingly.
At one point she would have dismissed him as a one-night stand, yet another mistake made in the midst of her heat cycles. Even after their unexpected reunion of sorts during the museum heist, she was perfectly fine with this label. It wasn't as if she'd never run into one of her heat mistakes after the fact. Usually, she had a hard time shaking them after the night of mindless sex.
But present circumstances were making it very difficult to maintain this usual response. As of the moment when she left Logan's apartment - and her life in Seattle behind her - Alec became the only constant from her past to her present. Which was a scary thought indeed, considering how little she knew of his past. Or his motivations. She knew why she'd decided to stay with him; he was one of her 'own'…regardless of the fact that he'd never been a part of her unit. But over the course of the past decade, he was the first X-series she had ever knowingly come across, and that alone was reason enough for her reluctance to part ways with him. Now that she knew he wasn't planning to turn her over to Manticore. After all, the guy had saved her from Lydecker, even though it'd probably be a dry month in Seattle before she'd ever admit that to Alec.
But still, it begged the question of just what he thought he was getting out of this little partnership. After all, it wasn't like he needed her help, what with the years of additional training he had on her. And it wasn't like she'd been all that nice to him in the few days that they'd known each other. And it wasn't like she was lusting after him, waiting for the first opportunity to welcome him into her bed for a repeat performance of the other night.
Okay, maybe that was partially a lie…but she was not going to welcome him into her bed - or any other place that might be deemed suitable for such activities. She had morals, principles, or some other shit like that.
Max squeezed her eyes shut and stifled a sigh as she squirmed in her seat once more.
Alec watched from his peripheral vision as Max readjusted herself for perhaps the thirtieth time in the past five minutes. Part of him wanted to tell her to quit, because it was annoying as hell, and if she really had that much pent-up energy to dispel, he could think of far more interesting ways in which to do it. But another part told him that there was obviously something up, and the decent thing to do was inquire after whatever it was that was so heavily weighing on her mind. The first part snorted, returning with a remark about when had he ever opted to do the decent thing.
Both parts - whom he had mentally dubbed '494' and 'Alec', respectively, to lessen the confusion (as confusion is inevitable when one has warring voices conversing inside one's head); and because 'Alec', like the pseudonym itself, had made his debut only sometime after Max entered his life - were quite astounded when he opened his mouth a few moments later, and this tumbled out: "Are you alright?"
'494' scratched his figurative head in confusion, and then dispelled a sigh at the inevitable lack of forthcoming sex. Of course, he acknowledged, it had been a slim possibility to begin with…but, hey, he was a man! He had to try.
'Alec' then proceeded to do a bit of gloating. Apparently, even he was not without flaw.
Max's eyes snapped open and she turned toward Alec (the physical one), in something akin to surprise. Then suspicion eked its way into her already hyperactive brain as she immediately began to question his motivation in asking that particular question. Her gaze narrowed as she took in his profile, while his remained focused on the road. But his expression, inscrutable as ever, revealed nothing to her probing stare.
"Fine," she replied tersely, consciously straightening in her seat as she crossed her arms over her chest.
She knew it was rather childish, but she couldn't help but feel annoyed that she hadn't done as excellent a job at shielding her misery as she'd thought. She'd always prided herself on her ability to cover her emotions - it was what helped her keep the people in her life a healthy arm's length away. She was supposed to be the human fog bank, wasn't she?
It just wasn't fair that he'd read her so easily, and she could never tell what was going on in that head of his. Hell, most of the time she couldn't tell what was going on in her own head.
As he glanced over in her direction briefly, '494' rolled his eyes. Then he glared at 'Alec'. Happy now? Look what good that did. 'Alec' bowed his head momentarily, before giving his counterpart a plaintiff look. Hey, I'm new! Give me a chance to work the bugs out.
Physical Alec frowned slightly as he realized that the conversation inside his head was getting a whole lot livelier than the one outside of it - and he recognized the sign for what it was: Time to take a break.
When the sound of gravel crunching under tires reached her ears, Max's attention returned to their surroundings. Seeing that they had pulled into a gas station, her gaze flickered to the fuel gage to find the needle currently reading half full.
"Why are we stopping?" she said, twisting in her seat and covering every direction with a thorough perusal.
"We've been on the road all morning; I figured we could both stretch our legs," he explained, turning the car into a patch of gravel that was trying - and rather poorly at that - to disguise itself as a parking stall. Rocks dislodged in the process flew up, leaving small scratches in the shiny black coating of the vehicle. But that was something of more concern to the car's owner than to either Max or Alec…that is, if the poor schmoe - speaking in a strictly figuratively sense here - ever got to see his lovely new Mercedes again. "And maybe you could go fix that wedgie you've been sporting for the last couple of hours."
Alec noted, with some satisfaction, the gaping of Max's mouth as she was momentarily rendered speechless.
"I do not have a wedgie!"
And the moment, all too brief that it was, ended.
"Really?" he returned with mock surprise. "And here I was crediting your bitchy attitude to a physical discomfort - when, actually, it's just a personality flaw." He threw open the door, exiting the car before she could respond, and resigning her to yet another moment of her trout-out-of-water imitation.
When Max caught up to him just outside the door of the convenience store slash gas station, he was a little surprised to see she didn't appear at all angry. In fact, she smiled up sweetly at him - and he felt a rush of satisfaction with the knowledge that whatever her earlier troubling thoughts, they had at least temporarily been forgotten.
"I'll have you know, I don't consider it a flaw."
Before he could consider the depth of meaning behind her words, she skipped ahead of him - yes, he swore she skipped - bounding through the door just in time to slam it shut in his face. Pausing only to stick out her tongue, she laughed and moved off deeper into the store.
Shaking his head slightly, Alec followed her inside. A bell chimed at his entrance, and the other occupants of the store - a bored-looking clerk and a pair of teenaged girls - looked over. The man returned to what was, in most likelihood, the latest edition of Guns & Ammo lying open on the counter in front of him, while the girls proceeded to send none too subtle appreciative glances in his direction. Alec smiled faintly in return, which caused them both to burst into a round of giggles and hushed whispering. Of course, had he been even faintly interested in the content of their conversation - or incapable of surmising it based on their present behavior and everything he knew about the general female populace, Max excluded - he would have had no difficulty listening in. Instead, he bee-lined toward the coffee machine.
"Sweet elixir of the gods," he mumbled under his breath as he hurriedly approached his destination.
While he was watching the brown liquid stream into the pot at an achingly slow pace, the sweet aroma rising up to taunt his sensitive nose, Max materialized at his side. Leaning her hip against the counter, she pulled a cherry red sucker from her mouth and licked her lips, her gaze settled somewhere over Alec's shoulder.
He raised an eyebrow, his attention momentarily diverted from his coffee. "You pay for that?"
The small scowl on Max's face lifted as she looked over at him and her full lips turned up in a smile. "Nope. But I know you're good for it."
"Yeah?" he said, trying not to watch as the lollipop ascended, once again, to her mouth. "And you know that because…?"
"Because, it's the gentlemanly thing to do, to front the bill."
Alec gave a brief laugh. "I hate to break it to you, Max, but Chivalry 101 was not part of Manticore's curriculum."
"No problem," she replied. "I'll give you the abridged version. Lesson Number One: A gentleman always pays for the lady."
"Yeah, when I see a lady, I'll be sure to remember that." The coffee, mercifully finished brewing, beckoned him.
"Very funny." Max barely restrained herself from hitting him as he began to pour the hot liquid into a cup.
With the lapse in the conversation as Alec set about his task, her attention returned to the sight that had been irritating her since the pair had entered the store - Ditzy and Slutty, who were, even throughout the transgenics' entire conversation, sending lustful looks in Alec's direction with absolutely no regard for the concept of discretion.
"That is so pathetic," she muttered.
"What is?" Alec asked, glancing up from his coffee preparation to follow Max's line of sight. "Aw, they're just a couple of teenaged girls," he shrugged dismissively, tossing a couple of empty sugar packets and creamer containers into the garbage. "No harm in that."
When he turned back from his impressively - though unsurprisingly - accurate free-throw shot, he was greeted by a withering chocolate colored glare. She propped her hands up on her hips. "Teenaged girls? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
For a moment, he merely stared back in bewilderment, having absolutely no clue as to why she would have taken offence at the remark. Then, like the proverbial light bulb going off in his head, he realized that Max herself fell within the parameters of this category. Of course, it wasn't as if he, at the ripe old age of twenty, was far off from it either. It was just that with his life's experience he had a hard time equating himself with the ordinaries of his peer group…most of whom, in there sheltered existences, had never even dreamt of some of the things he'd seen and done. Being from Manticore herself, he had unconsciously assumed the same of Max.
Then he looked at her - truly looked at her - and his heavy thoughts disappeared on the spot. She hardly made an intimidating figure with the white stick of the lollipop propped between her lips, and the slight bulge in her cheek where she'd pushed the candy aside to allow her to speak, giving her a mildly squirrel-like appearance.
The coffee balanced in one hand, he leaned forward and gently pulled the sucker from her mouth and slipped it into his own. He gave it a thorough swirl with his tongue, his gaze locked with hers the entire time. Enjoying immensely the almost imperceptible widening of her eyes, he then removed the candy and held it out to her.
Max eyed it a moment, then reached out a hesitant hand and took back the proffered item.
"Don't worry Maxie," he assured her softly. "I hardly consider you a 'girl'." Suppressing a smirk, he turned and headed toward the cash register.
He sent a single surreptitious glance in her direction, watching the deliberation that was apparent on her face as she regarded the candy. After a moment, she reinserted it in her mouth, and the smirk that he had been fighting finally spread out wide over his lips.
He placed his coffee down carefully, his attention going to the pile of items already cluttering the span of the counter.
"I'm just saying, some subtlety would be a little more dignified," Max said, stepping up beside him a second later. "And all this," she told the cashier, waving a hand over the pile, ignoring the slight choking sound that came from Alec's direction. "I mean, how do they know that you and me aren't…together?"
He stared at her incredulously, raising his eyebrows at her words. "You want them to think we're together?"
"No!" she said hastily. Too hastily, she decided, cursing herself mentally. "I just don't like how they automatically assume we're not. I mean, we're obviously traveling together; we sure as hell don't look like we're related…why would they think that we're not - " she completed the sentence with a vague gesture.
"Making it like wild monkeys at every available opportunity?" Alec supplied helpfully, handing over a wad of cash to cover the large bill that Max had managed to ring up with her little shopping spree.
"Involved." She glared at him then turned to watch as the cashier - who hadn't shown even the slightest bit of interest in their conversation - listlessly tossed the items into a bag. She grabbed it from him and headed toward the exit.
"Maybe, because you're walking around without a limp," Alec whispered into her ear, appearing close beside her. "With a stud like me, they just know that couldn't be possible if we were…involved."
Max scoffed, pulling away from him in order to reassert the concept of 'personal space'. "Oh right, I'm sure it's possible that's what they were thinking. It's also possible that they've recently been consuming paint chips - which would, incidentally, explain the first part too."
"Oh come off it, Max," he grinned at her, "are you telling me that after our little 'date', you didn't have just the tiniest bit of difficulty sitting on that bike seat to make all those deliveries?"
The immediate reddening of her cheeks confirmed his suspicion, as well as the fact that it might have been more than just 'the tiniest bit' of difficulty.
Alec laughed as she grumbled obscenities under her breath.
"Wait," Max said, coming to a halt as they reached the car. "My turn to drive."
"No, it's okay; I'm fine. Besides, I've got this," he raised the coffee cup slightly.
"Well I don't need that," she said haughtily. "And you don't have to worry about me falling asleep at the wheel. I have - "
"Shark DNA. I know."
"How…"
Alec gave her a look. "What? You really think Manticore would have sent me after you without giving me a bit of background on you and your unit?" He pulled open the door and slipped into the driver's seat, leaving Max no choice but to get into the passenger side.
"Nice to see you worked that wedgie out," he said after a while, breaking the silence once they'd returned to the road, resuming their previous pace.
Without thought, she smacked him across the shoulder.
"Hey!" he said, barely saving himself from a potentially nasty coffee spilling incident. Double-checking to ensure that the lid was securely in place, he shifted the cup to his other hand - the one farther from Max's reach. "You know, I could be wrong. It could be the fact that you smack me around like a stepchild that gives us away."
She snorted. "Who knows, maybe you like being the bitch in the relationship."
"No, that's your job." He prepared himself for the inevitable hit, but when it didn't come, he glanced over at her. A junior mint bounced off his forehead.
Alec shook his head as she sniggered. "See, I wouldn't take this kind of abuse from anyone I was involved with…no matter how hot she was."
"First of all, I never once smacked you in front of those girls. And second…" she paused, glancing over at him with veiled uncertainty, "you think I'm hot?"
"I'm a heterosexual male with a fully functioning libido - and eyes. Of course I think you're hot."
"Oh yeah, then what about that whole 'I prefer blondes' thing?"
He shrugged. "A man has to make do with what he's got."
This time she did hit him. "You haven't 'got' me."
"Careful Maxie. I told you I don't go for this type of thing. Keep it up and you might just lose your chance with me."
Max rolled her eyes, leaning back in her seat to pop a junior mint into her mouth. "As devastating as that possibility sounds, I think I'd recover."
Alec grinned slyly, "Oh, I'm sure you will. After all, we've both experienced first-hand, your phenomenal healing abilities."