A/N:  Yet another long chapter here dudes.  I think I've finally got the hang of this writing thing.  Thanks for the reviews.

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Chapter twenty-one: Where The Fear Resides

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Max: What the hell are you doing? Get your ass back here!

Sully: What do you want me to do?  Body's got a mind of its own.  Rover doesn't have a prayer.  I run like the wind, baby.

-Max and Sully (Boo)

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'Why bleeding is breathing

You're hiding, underneath the smoke in the room

Try, bleeding is believing

I used to'

-Natalie Imbruglia (Smoke)

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Erin hid in an alley, leaning against the wall with her hands on her knees and her eyes closed, trying to catch her breath.  What could she do now? She'd only been here a few weeks; would White still be looking for her?  Maybe she should just go stay at Joshua's house.  Yeah, she could keep her head down.  She had to figure this shit out.  Thanks to Logan, her situation was so much worse.  Damn it! Why did he have to do that?! Her breathing sufficiently slower, she straightened up and opened her eyes.  Her breathing stopped.

Alec was stood directly in front of her with his arms crossed, looking extremely pissed off.  With her back pressed against the wall, there was no chance she could escape.  She was in trouble.

"What the hell happened?" he growled low in his throat.  Erin mentally slapped herself for even considering it sexy when she was in trouble.  His eyes that had been quickly taking in her condition looked up into her frightened ones.  "What did he do to you?"

Huh? Erin did a double take.  He wanted to see if she was alright? Erin blinked and Alec ran a hand through his hair.

"I swear if he hurt you I'll kill him!"

Erin shook her head silently and Alec seemed to deflate a little bit.  Why would Alec want to protect her? She didn't mean that much to him did she? 

He dropped his arms and spoke more gently.  "Then why did you do some impressive aerobatics to get away from him? You totally ruined my Poker game." 

He cracked a smile and Erin looked down at the floor.  She really didn't want to go into it.  Alec would think she was pathetic or just plain pity her.  She didn't want to talk about her past.  It still hurt too much to talk about it and he might not believe her.

"Hey" Alec reached down and touched her face, brushing hair from her eyes and lifting her chin up.  It was amazing how hands that could be so strong and used to kill could be so gentle.

"Doesn't matter" Erin mouthed, so badly wanting to talk again but knowing she couldn't.  She pushed away from the wall and from Alec, turning to walk away.  He needed to go back to Terminal City and she needed to get her life sorted out.

She heard Alec sigh behind her as he began to follow her "Erin, we need to talk about this.  If not now, then back at base."

Erin froze, not at his words but because there were two Sector cops walking across the street headed directly for them.  They'd been spotted.

"Shit!" Alec had spotted them too.  Erin instantly turned back to Alec and threw her arms around him.  Her hands went up around his neck, pulling his collar up over his barcode before slipping down around his waist to hug him.

Alec was frozen for a second before catching on and wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on top of hers.  They had to put on a convincing act.  If Alec hurt the cops it would mean more bad exposure for transgenics.

"What's going on here?" one of the cops came to stop at the mouth of the alley.

Alec lifted his head to look at them innocently.  "Nothing Officer" He spoke casually without moving his arms.  Erin wondered if it was for the act or another reason entirely.

"Doesn't look like nothing" the cop folded his arms.

Alec sighed, thinking quickly "Just family problems."  Erin scowled into his jacket.  "My little sister here tried to run away." He gave Erin an annoyed look despite the fact that she couldn't see him.  "She's done it before."

"Really?" Erin could feel their eyes on her.  She could also feel Alec's firm chest against his face and she could hear his steady heartbeat.  She forced herself to focus.  If Alec wanted her to play the upset little sister she'd play the upset little sister.  Just like before, she forced tears onto her eyes and sniffled as she turned to look at the cops.

"Doesn't look like you" they spoke to Alec as if she was an object.

Alec kept his arms around her, pinning her to him.  "She'd my half sister- different fathers." He shrugged calmly as Erin turned to bury her face in his jacket again.

"Is this true kid?" the other cop spoke more gently.  He liked kids.  Erin nodded without turning around.

"Doesn't say much does she?  For someone who's SO upset?" the suspicious cop narrowed his eyes.

Erin couldn't see Alec narrow his eyes in return but she felt his hold on her tighten slightly.  "She doesn't talk.  Hasn't done in years- ever since her dad left us."  Erin sniffled again loudly.

"Let's go Frank" the nice cop spoke "let him talk some sense into her."  Frank grumbled but walked away.

Erin waited until they'd gone around the corner before lifting her head and letting her arms drop.  Alec did the same and Erin felt that little bit colder.  She'd left her jacket back at TC and she only had her thin jumper to cover her arms.

She blinked away the tears and grinned at Alec in triumph.  Damn, she was a good actor. 

Her grin faded when she saw Alec's look.  She turned and walked away, remembering why she was here in the first place.

Logan.  Needle.  Pain.  Memories.  Past.

"We need to talk Erin.  You have to tell me why he scared you."  Alec caught up with her quickly.  Erin shook her head.

"You know you can trust me" Alec spoke quietly as they walked in no particular direction.  Erin said nothing and wrapped her arms around herself.

"C'mon" Alec grabbed her hand and led her through the streets "We'll go someplace warm."

Alec led her to the back of Jam Pony and up the fire escape to the second floor.  The cops were still watching the front of the building.  No doubt familiars were too.

Erin sat in an old chair and looked around her.  The fight with the Phalanx happened here and Normal still hadn't cleaned up the mess.

Alec knelt down in front of her and caught her eyes with is own.  "Tell me" he pleaded softly.

Erin sighed and ran a hand through her hair in frustration.  How could she say no to that face?  Besides, he was one of her best friends here.  He knew who her friends were back home, what she studied at college, when her birthday was, her favourite colour, her favourite food.  He was also pretty good at reading her which was really scary sometimes.

"Promise me you won't tell the others?"  He hesitated and she elaborated "It has nothing to do with White and I'm not the kind of person who likes sympathy."

Alec frowned and nodded, pulling up a chair to sit in front of her.  "I promise."

Erin looked down at her hands.  He wasn't meant to know this.  No one was.  This was one of the very reasons why she chose not to speak- so they wouldn't ask if there was anything unusual about her past.  Damn Logan! She hoped he hurt his back when he hit the concrete.  Because of what he did, she now had to go over a significant part of her life that had changed her.  She'd tried to push it away for years but it never went away.  Never disappeared.

It made her grit her teeth, clench her fists and want to scream her lungs out 'Why me!'

"Erin?" Alec's voice calmed her slightly.

"Tortured" Erin didn't look at him.

"What?" she heard the confusion in his voice.

"I was tortured okay?! It was years ago."

Alec made a noise in his throat but Erin still didn't look at him.  Instead, she stood up "I was only a kid."  She pulled off her jumper, dumped it on a chair.  "It's the reason why my dad's dead and why I hate needles."

She lifted her top up to show him her stomach covered in fine pale scars, one was bigger than the others.  She turned to show him her back was the same.

She pulled her top back down and pulled her jumper back on.  "I could talk then.  They used the needles to stop me screaming.  They also used some kind of drug to stop me moving while they played surgeon.  I can still feel it now- what they did to me."  Erin stopped abruptly and sat back down in the chair heavily.

She took a couple of deep breaths and pushed the memories away again, put them behind a mask just like Alec did.  Erin was strong.  She was always strong, she had to be.  Erin looked back at Alec after a few minutes, wondering why he was so uncharacteristically silent. What she saw shocked her.  He was staring at her intently.  His face bore no sign of pity, sympathy or disbelief.  He believed her.

"Logan wanted a blood sample.  I couldn't give him one.  He grabbed my arm anyway- tried to force me.  I reacted.  I've never told you before but I have brothers.  I'm the oldest and they look up to me.  When they want to learn how to do things, I teach myself so then I can teach them.  My youngest brother Matt wanted to skate- I taught him.  Ryan wanted to learn how to protect himself.  We don't live in the safest area back home and it helped that my Grandparents wanted me to be able to protect myself.  I went to a few self defence classes and taught Ryan.  He now does and course he can get his hands on.  Judo, Karate, Kickboxing… I didn't hurt Logan- just winded him a bit and pissed him off.  He doesn't trust me anyway.  Now, I've just given him a reason."

"I trust you" Alec said quietly.  He sounded slightly amazed that he trusted her, or maybe it was because she trusted him.

Erin simply nodded and stood up looking resigned "I should go."

"What? No!" Alec stood up so fast Erin could have sworn she saw him blur.  "It's not safe; you're coming back with me."  He gave Erin a stubborn look that just made him look cuter.

"I can't!"  Erin threw her hand up in frustration. "The others- they won't trust me!  Logan will tell them what I did and they'll believe I'm hiding something to do with White!"

"They'll believe me" Alec said dangerously "there is no way you're gonna put yourself in danger cause that bastard doesn't like you.  He doesn't have any control over the others and one of these days he'll realise it.  And if we're lucky, Mole'll snap some time soon and kill him."  Both Erin and Alec smiled at the thought.

"C'mon" Alec motioned to the window "Let's get back to base before Max sends out a search party."

Alec rolled his eyes and Erin smirked.  Max was probably gonna kick both their asses.

That was when they heard two sets of footsteps heading up the stairs towards them

"I'm telling you Agent White" Normal's voice reached them, "I have no idea who you're talking about…"  Alec and Erin froze.

Next chapter: Too Close For Comfort…

"She answers to Erin" White sounded irritated "She's approximately 18 years old but she looks younger… If you see her, I'd advise you to call this number immediately and try not to approach her.  Like all freaks- she's extremely dangerous."

A/N: *grins* Wow, erm I take it you guys like the Logan bashing then?  Think I should add some more later on.  Let's see, what could I make Erin do to Logan

Tramps-Like-Us: *sighs and shakes head* This Sketchy thing of yours is getting worse ya know?  I mean, Max would NEVER like Sketchy that way.  It's SKETCHY!!!!

Sara:  Dude, I'd have any form of sun right now.  Rain is bad.  It's wet and soaks into your trainers when you've just washed them.  *smiles* I like to state the obvious.

Elin: Don't worry; back at TC, they aren't exactly happy with him for this incident.

Fallinorange: Wow.  Dude, you sound like me!  Maybe I shouldn't have said that.  Anyway, yep, Erin isn't the only one who's angry with Logan.  I think Alec's gonna get more involved than he should for someone who's just a 'friend'.  Only, he doesn't realise he's doing it!

Messymissy: Hope this chapter answer some of your questions.  More of her past will be revealed later.  Doncha love flashbacks?